Cats Overdose on Catnip

I will own one someday...

It's like a train wreck!

I can't... Stop... Watching!!!

"They were like my firstborn..." hahahahaahahha...

Happy Birthday, Bella!

October 1999

She's half my age (well, in 12 days).

Happy Birthday, Bella!

Life

(Yoga followers... They found a perch by the bridge at Deception Pass, when we were there. It was amazing.)


So everyone, (maybe two people.. Maybe) summer was crazy! It was crazy good.

The highlights are:

• Having an amazing job, on which I took a nap.
• Working the 4th of July (not joking...)
• Getting my kittens!
  
• Camping with Kristy and company.
• Hanging out with Sasha.
• Being honest with Mary about hating change.
• Growing in my friendship with Mary.
• Hanging out with Allie.
• Getting contacts.
• Having John home.
• Jeff's goodbye party.
  
• Getting more involved with the youth group.
  

So those all have stories behind them, some have many, many stories, so if you are curious, you can email me. However, I doubt any of you are. ;)

God has been so present this summer. I think the main thing I've learned is that when things aren't going my way, it's alright because they are going God's way. My plans have been relocated and shifted around. I've felt uncomfortable and angry... But I've learned that change has to happen. And those moments when I feel like my plans are being dashed to pieces? Those aren't bad moments. I think those are the moments when I realize that God knows.

Like when I said goodbye to Sasha. That was hard... I don't know if I will ever see her again. But God reminded me that she came to Kristy's family for a reason and He is present in the Ukraine as well. :)

When I was having a problem with my best friend's relationship with her boyfriend... Well, God showed me that things do not have to stay the same. In fact, because I was honest with her about how I hate change, I really feel like that made our friendship stronger. After so much time invested in our friendship, I did not want to lose it. But that was all worked out.

When I felt purposeless and afraid... God answered my doubts in a half hour. He encouraged me so fully that I was even excited for my classes!

After this summer I am throughly convinced that God loves me; His plan for me is most excellent, even when I can't understand why my contact is stuck behind my eyeball... He is doing it all for a purpose.

Uhhh...

Hey! Her shirt looks like my hott sweatshirt! Apparently she likes cats...

Max, Bella and Sasha

This is Max. If you took a teddy bear and turned him into a dog, he would be Max.
This is Bella. She is basically a pig, which makes her adorable. She just walks around snorting. ALL day. I started wondering what a bulldog puppy would look like... It would look like this. So that's why people want them... ;)
This is Sasha. She was abused before her owner rescued her. She still has some issues, but she is getting better.

All three of these dogs were at work today. I found it entertaining that they all had the same names as my Max, Bella and Sasha. So far no Elyse dog.

Quite Possibly the best commercial ever.

Doggie Daycare!

Today was so fantastic. Of course there was a lot of cleaning up to do, but we got the gigantic ball! And Vito the 92 lb Great Dane attacked! This is one of the highlights of my day. The other was when my coworkers called Katie and I out of the big dog room to come see something. So we were just standing there and then the box that held the Jolly Ball burst open and there was Jackie. They said they had been "plotting." hahahah... They must have been bored. I also weighed Vito and as I was doing that I was talking to him. ....I didn't think anyone was listening. However, Katie was. She had this smirk on her face... "You're like the biggest dog in the world...."

"Psh.. Like you don't talk to the dogs..."

Wow...

This is one idea I might have to store away for my own wedding. My favorite part was this: "It was trickier with her future mother-in-law. “To her,” Ms. Berlin said, “I said it as a joke: ‘You should do Botox for the wedding!’ She giggled, and then I said, ‘I’m serious. It’s exactly what you need to freshen up.’ At first she kind of laughed it off, but the more we talked about it and I told her my mom was going to do it, she said ‘O.K.’ ”"

"It's exactly what you need to freshen up." Because you don't look good enough to be in my wedding... What a world. *sigh*

The camping trip summarized

I'll post some other highlights later.

Hm...

Slight resemblance to a certain villain in theaters now?

"You were dead." "What?!"

My blog is quite neglected, poor bloggy. I just spent a week with Kristy. Of course that does not explain my lack of interest in blogging. Sasha is leaving on Thursday. We might never see her again.

I don't cry often. When I do cry it's usually because someone hurt me, so I don't usually cry for reasons that aren't caused by sin. Either my own sin or someone else's. But today I cried. Bella stared at me. Max looked at me and said, "What?" Then he came over and said, "I'm going to give you a big hug." Like he could squeeze the tears away. So he hugged me, three times. Yeah.. He's sweet.

Anyway, so you can all use your imaginations, but saying goodbye to Sasha was really hard. I think it was so hard because I don't know if I will ever see her again. She isn't a Christian, so this really could be the last time I see her. But as I was driving home I thought about how she ended up with Kristy and Rob and our whole family. That was no accident, and I told myself that there was a plan behind that. That little crazy Ukrainian, who beats me at Uno, was meant to be with our family.

It was so interesting to only be able to show love to her. I couldn't talk to her about how Jesus is my best friend or how He is the only one who knows my hurts before I do. How can you talk to a person about Jesus when the person's most used phrase is, "What is this?!"? You can only show love. So we treated her like one of us, but with more hand motions.

Anyhoo, I WILL post pictures of camping, it was intense. So many adventures.

But now back to life? Dogs? School? Running?

Also, the cats are huge. It was shocking. Seriously.

I am kind of lacking words right now. I had a lot of them, but now I just feel sadness. I just watched The Devil Came on Horseback. It's about the genocide in Darfur.

How many of you remember Darfur? I didn't.

I live in this sheltered bubble. My bubble consists of working and doing school. I hang out with my friends, I go to church, I try to live for God. The major concern of my life is doing well in school and paying for school. My minor concerns are the rising fuel prices.

My bubble was just popped. People are being murdered and our government is doing nothing. Its hands are tied. This situation is so complicated... And these horrid things are not just happening in Darfur, they are happening all over the place.

The movie uses a lot of pictures. There are pictures of dead people, all killed in various ways. I didn't cry until this one Sudanese man was interviewed. He told the people about how he and his family had to escape. Then he talked about how he wants the Sudanese government to make peace with the Sudanese people. Then he said he wanted to send his very warm thanks to the American people. He said that all the aid he has received has been from America. Then he said, "We pray for the American people."

I'm crying right now. The main concern of the average American is how horrid the economy is. That man's concern is getting back to his homeland, which was bombed. He has probably lost many friends and family members. And we complain about paying more for milk.

"We pray for the American people." Then he started crying... He had so much gratitude for us. We give so little, but it's so much to them.

These horrid situations that are in the world are a result from our brilliant idea to rebel against God. Can you imagine how horrible it must have been when Noah was alive? God wiped the earth clean because it was so bad. Now we're all just waiting for Jesus to come and get us.

Anyway, all of you should see this movie. It will burst your bubble. We Americans need that.

I opened up the web and the main story on CNN was that someone died in a hospital waiting room and the family was suing for $25 million. People are killing others and some of us are so deluded that we can't see past our own small problems. Also, Matthew McConaughey and his girlfriend just had a baby; I'm so glad that's big news. We all needed to know that so badly.

Kitties!

We need a name for this one.

iNecessito un nombre!

We got a kitten, for those of the uninformed few. We named him Bobola. We got another one and he is a gray tabby. Any name suggestions? I'll post pictures later.

Meet Sasha

This is my Ukrainian niece Sasha. She likes dogs.

And finger nail polish.

She just got here last night and she'll be here for around two months.

Happy Birthday, Don Juan!

God is astounding.

Ask Him to bring you closer and He will.

See how I love Thy precepts; revive me. O Lord, according to Thy lovingkindness.
Thy word all together is truth; every one of Thy righteous ordinances has everlasting vitality.
-Psalm 119:159-160

Everylasting vitality... His words are life giving, eternally.