Time to Listen

"Be still and know that I AM God."






The past several months there have many things going in my life that have taught me that I am lacking in areas such as patience and trust and instead full of 'fear of the unknown', that I thought I had overcome. I guess I like to be in 'control' of 'my life' more than I thought. There are so many different things 'up in the air' right now that I often wish a few of them would 'settle'! The other day I much needed my alone time with God, so I packed up my stuff early in the morning and headed out to one of our lakes to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful and peaceful. This past week God has made me aware that I need to spend more time in His Word daily and learning about who He truly is. I thank God that He is always here, never changing and perfectly Holy! As strange as it sounds, I wouldn't change anything about the past several months, or my whole life for that matter, because of the wonderful lessons He has taught me and allowed me to grow through!

As I was sitting that morning, a bunch of birds were enjoying the lake too; splashing around the shore line. They would play for a little while and then move a few feet down the shore... closer and closer to me. They finally got around the curve you see above and saw me sitting there... then they flew away... it was fun watching them enjoy the early morning.

Something I've been thinking about... You never see grumpy birds in the morning... they are always happy to be up so early. I wonder what life would be that way if humans were that way too?! (I think that would make a great children's book, unless it's already out there. In that case, let me know so I can read it! Haha!)

Matthew 6:26-34
"Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? ... For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Citation Golf Outing

October 5-7th Jason's company had an internal conference. On Tuesday afternoon, they all went out and played a round of golf. I thought these pictures were good of Jason and wanted to share!

Practice with Puppies

Okay, so I wasn't sure if I should write about this on our Basset Blog (frenchesbassets.blogspot.com) or on this one, but I thought this might be best to share...

We are currently getting our backyard patio done this week and next (it's looking really good) and so our doggie do's have had to stay inside (concrete and dogs don't mix I guess...). Well I had to work from home on Monday since my work computer crashed on Friday. I got it back on Tuesday so went into the office, but Jason had to stay home on Tuesday b/c he was sick. So the dogs have been inside all week, but haven't been home alone. Well today (Wednesday) we both had to go to work. We know our athletic Basset Noodles jumps over our kiddie gate we use to block both entrances to our kitchen, so we decided to brace it with two high backed chairs behind each gate knowing that he couldn't get through them. So I prepared everything as planned this morning and then, just in case, closed all the doors and put up all things that he could get into in case he got out for some odd reason. Now let me tell you about last time...

We had one puppy left to be picked up (see our Basset blog about Cooper in March) in the kitchen with Mommy (Pickles), but we had people working in the yard that day. So we left the pup in the kiddie pin and left Mom and Dad in the kitchen pinned up while we were at work. When Jason got home, he found Noodles running around the house, remotes chewed up, one puppy running around the house, Pickles in the kitchen and 'white powder' all over the kitchen. So we realize that Noodles jumped up on our glass top kitchen table and knocked off some flour I had in a jar and that landed all in the puppy pin. Noodles must have landed in the puppy pin and knocked it over which let Cooper out and then out into the house. Surprisingly we did not have big 'messes' if you know what I mean. But needless to say, we learned our lesson and so made precautions this time.

So...

I came home today and Noodles greeted me at the door. Ugh, how on earth did he get out? He's not just part goat, but part kangaroo too I guess. So he's so excited and Pickles is freaking out b/c she's still locked in the kitchen. So I run and get their leashes and we go for a walk (visit our Basset Blog for info on our walks). We come home, I work and then I take them to the vet to get Pickles' xrays to find out how many pup's she has (see our Basset Blog... 7-8!!!) So then we come home and I work some more. Then I decide I need to take them out for a potty break. We go walk around for a long time, no major business done. So finally we head back inside. ('Mind you that they can't go in the back yard b/c the concrete is being 'laid'.) So I come back in and work some more. Then I think Pickles tooted... yuck... nothing worse than a dog toot... so I try to get away and I can't get away... then it dawns on me... surely not... YUP... Noodles left me a surprise in the hall way. Yuck. WE JUST WENT OUTSIDE TO GO... Poor guy was so upset though and seemed embarrassed. I couldn't get mad at him b/c his day has been so off... but ugh... we just went outside. Poor guy...

So I say all this b/c I realized that this is probably what potty training kids will be like, but a lot less hairy. I guess it's good practice. I tell you, there is nothing a little Lysol and air freshener can't take care of.

Haha... what a long and silly story, but I had to share! We love our babies and we're about to have 7-8 more!!! (Well, the new pups will have new homes in 8 weeks...)

Third Day Concert

Last Friday night Jason and I attended the Third Day concert here at the Berry Center. We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The entire night was not only very entertaining but God focused...... In addition to the great songs that evening, their message was just what I needed to hear.

A few fun things Third Day did:

• A girl was trying to video tap them and he took it from her trying to take a picture of himself singing. He realized it was a video camera and so walked around the stage video typing the group while he was still performing! I bet she was thrilled!
• In the middle of the evening they went down to the floor of the arena and gathered on a small platform and performed there. It felt like a small 'coffee shop' setting with acoustics and singing only. They did a lot more talking and sharing instead of just entertaining. That's one reason I love Christian concerts so much. You are not going to just to be entertained, but rather worship our Lord!!

It was a fun night and we are both so glad we went!

Layla Grace Fall Festival

I spent Saturday from about 10-4:30 helping with the Layla Grace Fall Festival to help raise money and awareness for Layla's family and the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation. It turned out to be a great success!!

"Layla Grace Marsh is a one year-old girl from Cypress, Texas.
Layla is a sweet little girl that loves to dress up, sing along
with the radio, play kitchen with her two older sisters, and
stickers, stickers, stickers!!
Layla is just one of 700 new cases of Neuroblastoma that
will be discovered this year. Neuroblastoma is a rare cancer
of the sympathetic nervous system; a nerve network that
carries messages from the brain throughout the body.
Layla is 22 months old, and before May 9th was a healthy,
happy baby girl. Now she is fighting for her life, in and out of
the cancer ward at Texas Children’s Hospital. To date, Layla
has undergone 5 rounds of chemotherapy, 5 surgeries,
multiple blood transfusions, and lengthy hospital stays.
Layla’s is currently undergoing radiation to zap this
beast, followed by a bone marrow transplant the first week of November, to replenish
her little bones that have been ravaged with cancer."

Her parents Shanna and Ryan have shown amazing faith during this time. God has answered many prayers. See the below links to learn more about Layla, her family and Neuroblastoma.


http://fightforlayla.weebly.com/fall-fundraiser---oct-24-2009.html


http://laylagrace.org/

Aggie Wrangler 25th Anniversary

This past weekend, Jason and I headed up to College Station for the Aggie Wrangler's 25 Anniversary Reunion. Every year alumni and current team members get together to dance, eat and reminisce. Although very few friends showed up who were on the team when we were, there was still many folks we know and some we only see at reunion. It was so much fun watching everyone try to dance the old routines (even the pregnant women)! There was a lot of 'dancing around in circles' and watching everyone else, until you remembered a certain part of the routine... often people would begin to mix and match the routines. It's all muscle memory though; it's amazing that you remember what you do! Jason and I only danced 1 out of 4 routines b/c we knew we wouldn't come close to remembering the other 3. We did pretty well though I think... although it seems that the songs are a lot faster than they used to be!

For old time's sake, here are a few old pics!!

Newbie c/o '04! WHOOP!!! Here we are in front of Taco C after just finding out we made the team after a full day of tryouts in May 2004.

2004/2005 Team in Germany

Wrangler Tryouts '05. (We all dress silly to help calm down those trying out; they need to realize that we dance for fun... you need the passion and the fun!)

2005/2006 Wrangler girls (I don't have a pic right now of the whole team).

Visit www.aggiewranglers.com for more info on our team!

Surprise! Litter #2 on the way!

On August 29th Pickles started her 2nd heat cycle since she delivered puppies in January. We decided we were going to let them mate this time. We were expecting them to mate sometime after Labor Day weekend, but Noodles never really seemed 'interested'. We just figured her system is still trying to get back to normal after puppies and she never released the 'scent'. So, a week went by and we figured that we weren't going to have puppies this time around.

So... the past couple of weeks we noticed Pickles was getting tubby, but just figured she was becoming a 'mature' basset. She was full of energy, which was nothing like her first pregnancy. The minute she was prego last year she became so lethargic. Well, this past week Jason and I kept looking at her and rubbing her tummy and telling each other, "She has to be pregnant... just has to be." So by Friday we decided that she must be prego, but I wanted to take her to the vet to make sure there wasn't some infection going on instead. I'd hate to think we ignored something and she was hurting.

So I took her to the vet Saturday morning and the vet said her uterus is definitely enlarged and she can feel something in there. We will take her back in a week or two to get x-rays to determine how many pups she has. We didn't do this last time and I was so worried when she 'finished labor' that she still might have another puppy in there.

We expect her to deliver sometime around the week of November 8th, which would allow the puppies to be ready right before Christmas!

Here is a pic of Pickles now, roughly around 5 weeks or so along. We're going to go get her puppy chow today! Noodles will be a lucky duck and get this treat as well. Jason and I can't wait to love on these new precious little cuties soon!!!

Go to our Basset Blog at www.frenchesbassets.blogspot.com to view more pics of the dogs! I'll put all the puppy updates on that blog.

Jason's First Deer for 2009

Jason has been enjoying taking Friday's off from work to go deer hunting this fall at his new lease. He has two feeders and stands set up and he's seen multilple deer at both of them. This past Saturday morning Jason got his first deer of the season! He said it was a very exciting hunt. The mixture of the extra alert deer at his lease and the fact that he is bow hunting makes for a very intense hunt. Jason has decided to process his own meat this year, so that will be a fun adventure for us. Should be cheaper too than taking it to a meat processing place.

Below are some pics to share! If you don't want to see them, stop here...
















Jason's email annoucement he sent out:

"Well, after a two year drought, I finally got a deer on the ground! On my third hunt of the season I had two young bucks come to my feeder Saturday morning and I let this spike have it after a very exciting hunt.

About 7:40 I had a deer come up from behind me and I watched him as he approached my feeder pen and get ready to jump in. I could tell he was a young buck, but it took a couple minutes to tell that he had two forks at the top of his antlers. So he wasn’t going to be a shooter. Just a couple minutes after he came in another deer came from the same spot and looked almost identical as far as head gear goes. After looking at him for a while though I could see that he had one slick antler and decided he was going to get an arrow flung at him this morning. This is where it got stressful. I couldn’t move a muscle without the four pointer staring me down. It took me more than five minutes just to finally get the opportunity to get my bow off my lap and into an upright position to draw. And even then it spooked him so bad he jumped out of the feeder pen, but the spike stayed put. After a couple of minutes the four pointer jumped back in and began to eat again. I had no chance to draw without them noticing me so I just waited longer for the opportunity. They must have stopped eating and looked right at me more than a dozen times. Finally the opportunity came when the four pointer had enough of staring at me and trying to figure me out, so he slowing walked out the way he came in. So the spike ate for a couple more minutes and then turned around to leave himself. So when he turned his back to me I drew my bow. This startled him and he took off and jumped out of the pen. As soon as he hit the ground after jumping out, he stopped to see what had made the sound. He was broadside at about 20 yards and I sent an arrow his direction. I saw that it was a poor shot. It hit him pretty far behind the ribs after he lurched forward at the sound of my bow. I watched him run out the way he came in and I heard him pile up less than 50 yards from where I shot him. It was about 8:05.

I got really lucky on the shot and that he expired so quickly. I thought I had gut shot him and I was going to have a long tracking job. From the looks of him after I gutted him, I put the arrow straight through the liver and just tore it almost in half. There was practically no blood trail but I was able to walk right up to where I heard him kicking as he piled up. His body cavity was just full of blood though.

So far the new lease is turning out really good and the hard work getting everything ready is paying off."

70 Degrees and Sunny

Jason and I headed out to the farm last weekend to dove hunt. The weather was supposed to be in the 70s and sunny; perfect dove hunting weekend! We packed up and head out there with the dogs; it was raining, but it would clear up over the night. Well, it didn't. We woke up at 5am and I asked Jason, what is that noise... he said, 'the wind'. I was like, I'm not going out there in that. So I stayed in and Jason went hunting... hardly anything was flying. It was cloudy and cold all day long and rained off and on. Poor dogs, what a mess!

Needless to say we didn't pack for the rain, but we also didn't pack for the cold!! It was only in the 50s. We decided to try hunting Saturday night so found some old heavy jean jackets in the closet, some old and small head covers and gloves. We looked fabulous in our red-neck, mix-matched outfits! Just wanted to show you our great fashion we sported last weekend! Enjoy!!

My Prayer Today

"Each and every one of us are going through tough times right now, but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that only God can."

Father,

I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and those for whom I care deeply, who are reading this right now. I ask that you bless those I do not know; those who know you and those who do not. That each of us may know you more fully and deeply. Show them a new revelation of your love and power.

Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit at this very moment; You alone know us better than we know ourselves.

Where there is pain, give them your peace and mercy.
Were there is self-doubt, release a renewed confidence through your grace.
Where there is need, I ask You to fulfill their needs.

Bless their homes, families, finances, their goings and their comings.

May each of them know how deep and wide your love is for them; that no one is beyond your grasp. May they experience your joy, peace and hope that only You can provide. Only then can we truly serve You and love those around us.

My love and life is Yours.

In Jesus' Precious Name,
Amen