Running and Listening

When I run I like to listen to music, Christian music to be specific. I think that is a little odd. Most people like to listen to upbeat tunes with a good rhythm to keep them going. I, on the other hand, turn my ipod dial to my Christian music playlist and hit the road. I suppose I find it therapeutic. When I run, I think. (That is when the dogs aren't dragging me off in 5 different directions and Pete isn't peeing on Berkley's head.) Christian music gives me a lot to think about so it keeps me entertained.

Third Day is kind of old school but it remains one of my top favorite Christian bands of all time and I never get tired of hearing their music. They, along with Casting Crowns, pretty much dominate my Christian music play list. I think they have actually recently released a new cd and, clearly, I have not gotten it yet. I'm not exactly a hard core-gotta-have-every-cd-ever-released-must-see-every-concert-will-drive-for-hours-to-get-there fan of anyone. Never have been.

And all of this to say, I wanted to share the lyrics from this Third Day song I listened to after my run today. (Oh, and don't think I'm all athletic and in shape because I didn't run very far and I kept having to stop and fuss at the dogs and get untangled from the leashes so it pretty much doesn't even count that I went running.) Henceforth, the lyrics... for some reason when I was listening to this song, a thought came to me that someone out there might benefit from reading them, so here goes:

Cry Out To Jesus

To everyone who's lost someone they love
Long before it was their time
You feel like the days you had were not enough
when you said goodbye

And to all of the people with burdens and pains
Keeping you back from your life
You believe that there's nothing and there is no one
Who can make it right

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

For the marriage that's struggling just to hang on
They lost all of their faith in love
They've done all they can to make it right again
Still it's not enough

For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains
You try to give up but you come back again
Just remember that you're not alone in your shame
And your suffering

When your lonely
And it feels like the whole world is falling on you
You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus
Cry to Jesus

To the widow who suffers from being alone
Wiping the tears from her eyes
For the children around the world without a home
Say a prayer tonight

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

Lateley

It's a good thing that I've been taking pictures lately, because I wouldn't be able to remember anything otherwise. Life seems like a whirlwind but we are enjoying every day that flies by. Here are a few fun things that Ben and I have enjoyed this past month or so:

Celebrating

The whole family came down to Pike Road for Easter this year. It was my first "holiday" to host everyone and we had a great time! Above is a family photo that we took on Easter with mom and dad cropped out. Sorry mom and dad, we'll get a better family photo soon!

Ben's mom and dad invited my whole family over for dinner with all the Lassiters, complete with an Easter Egg hunt! It was fun watching our nieces and nephew hiding and finding, hiding and finding all the eggs over and over again. After several hunts, Adalyn finally suggested that we just hide the basket instead of each individual egg.

Ben and Neal took the kids for a spin in the cool golf cart that Obama gave Neal and Tori. Thanks Obama.

In the meantime, I enjoyed attempting to capture some cute shots of the kiddos. Here is Cole telling me how many Easter Eggs he found. This is serious business.

I love this one of Cate with her great grandpa.

Baby Sitting!

Russ and Jessi went on a short getaway and Ben and I got to keep Adalyn and Bentley for a little while. We had a good time playing hide and seek with Adalyn, baking a cake, and gaining experience on what it's like to have two kids instead of just two dogs to look after. Needless to say, Berkley and Pete didn't get very much attention that day.

I got to take some pictures of Adalyn and Bentley together and I'm working on editing some of those. I have had a lot of fun taking pictures of things other than dogs and birds. Adalyn is such a good big sister and Bentley was an angel the entire day.

While the cake was baking, we had naptime.

Then we all loaded up, picked up some pizza, and headed to Mimi's house to play with Cole and Cate. While we were in the car waiting on Ben to get the pizza, Adalyn filled me in on how no one in Auburn (where she lives) knew how to drive. I told her that no one in Montgomery knew how to drive either.

Here are the kids at Mimi's after a pizza dinner. After dinner activities included hunting more Easter Eggs, even until it was so dark we could barely see them.

When Ben and I got back in our car to go home that night, Ben looked at me and before he could speak I said, "I know, I'm not ready either." He said, "Good." I admire all of you moms out there! I know it is a full time job and I respect the fact that you can raise kids and still function as a normal person. Maybe one day .....

Cooking

At the end of March, it was our turn to host Life Group. It was also our turn to cook for everyone. Ben decided that he wanted to cook a Boston butt with all the fixins and then that somehow evolved into "Que Dogs" (pictured above). "What is a Que Dog?" Everyone was asking at church when Ben announced that "Que Dogs" was what's for dinner. "You'll just have to come and find out." Was his only reply. "Everyone has to at least taste a Que Dog." I was getting so frustrated because, I for one, do not like hotdogs. A lot of people do not like hotdogs. However, we went to the store and bought 2 packages of hotdogs, one package of sausages, and over 20 hotdog buns. "Why??" I kept asking. "Why, for the love??" "Que Dogs!!!"

I was really trying not to hurt Ben's feelings by doubting because he was just so excited about these "Que Dogs."

However, to my (and everyone's) astonishment, the "Que Dogs" were fantastic! It involved making a hotdog, putting slaw on top (I made homemade slaw for the first time and it wasn't too bad), putting Bar-B-Que on top of that, then topping it off with shredded cheese and, you guessed it, Bar-B-Que sauce. And there you have it, the Que Dog!

I love trying out new coffee drink recipes like "Spiced Mocha Coffee" from myrecipes.com and the one pictured above, Pioneer Woman's Dulce de Leche coffee. It was fantastic and you can find it on her website www.thepioneerwoman.com. If you like coffee house drinks, you will love this one you can make at home. The picture on her website is much better than the one I have pictured here.

Coaching

I have had the pleasure of helping my sister in law, Jessi, coach the Trinity girl's soccer team this season. I had the best time getting to know these girls, spending time with Jessi, and getting to experience soccer again. The varsity girls are still working towards making the play offs and I am excited about getting to go to some of their games as well!

And, I think that about sums up the highlights of the last couple of months with the exception of our garden which I'll be posting about soon!

So Long Dog Snob Suckas

Revisement: I wrote this post when I was really angry and I feel that it may have been a little harsh. I write this blog with the intent to be uplifting, informative, and funny to those who may read it and I apologize if this post was a bit out of character.

First, I have to tell you that I laughed for about 15 minutes when I got home tonight and saw this:

I apologize for the bad and blurry pictures, but I got what I could while Berkley was playing chase with Ben. He won't exactly pose for me. (And have I mentioned that it's really hard to get a good picture of a solid black dog? It is.)

So I took Berkley, the now skinny stick of a dog, to get groomed today. As I have mentioned before, I groom Berkley myself as I learned from a cd that came in the grooming kit I bought at Wally World. I personally feel that I do a decent job, however there are a few things I don't like to do, such as grooming around private areas, shaping up the ears, cutting toe nails, and plucking hair from inside the ears. (More on that to come.) Therefore, I like to take him every now and then to have those things done, plus get him a good, over all professional doo. Thus, I can learn more about how I should be cutting his hair.

Being from out of town, it was really hard to find a place to take Berkley to be groomed. I finally settled on his vet clinic because they had the best price and already had his records on file. Keepin it simple. So, this is the second time I have taken him in for a grooming. The first time, when he was only 6 months old, the high velocity hair dryer they used scared him so badly that he pooped on the table. It wasn't exactly the best experience so I was nervous about dropping him off today. I told the groomer that I wanted him to be cooler because the heat is magnified in his thick black fur. I also told her that his ears needed a LOT of work because, even though I tried to get the hair out of them, it was really hard for me to do so. THAT IS WHY HE IS COMING TO THE GROOMER.

So, when I come home tonight, I find this waiting on me....

And that, my friends, is some hair that came out of Berkley's ears. I guess they thought the voicemail they left on my phone while I was at work about the "horrible" amount of ear hair, or the lecture they gave my husband when he picked Berkley up might not get through to me so they wanted to drive the point home with a visual aid.

SERIOUSLY???? THIS IS WHY WE BRING HIM IN. TO GET HAIR PULLED OUT OF HIS EARS! THIS IS WHY I PAY YOU 61 STINKING DOLLARS TO DO EVERYTHING I COULD DO MYSELF. BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO PULL OUT THE EAR HAIR!!

Did I mention that these same ladies that work at this office are really rude? They have barely even acknowledged my presence any time I have been there and they act like they are doing a favor to check me out after the vet visits. If my vet wasn't a good friend of ours, I would not go back just because of the rudeness of these receptionists. In fact, I might just ask him to change practices so I can stop going there. Rudeness of retail workers is actually a soapbox of mine that I'll talk about later on... now back to Dog Snobs.

REALLY? This dog lives inside my home. He sleeps in my room. On his own bed. In a temperature controlled environment. He gets the best food. He gets treats. He goes on outings to the dog park. He has been to the beach and the mountains and the pond and to Birmingham and Florence. He gets lots of exercise. He ate my 5,000 dollar hearing aids, 8 pairs of my nice shoes, threw up in my car, peed ON MY BED, and is still living to have EAR HAIR that I PAY PEOPLE PULL OUT! Needless to say, I am in the market for new groomer. Any suggestions?

Countryside Ride

Hi Friends! I'm a little behind on the blogging so I am going to backlog a few events from March.

P.s. This is not a serious blog entry.

My sis came to visit me a few weekends ago and we had the pleasure of taking a ride through the countryside of Pike Road to go see some land that is for sale in Bullock County. So Cara, Ben (husband), Ben B. (friend), and I all loaded up in Ben B.'s vehicle.

Cara and I had the pleasure of sharing the back seat with these beautiful eggs. Some people at our church are selling their "home raised" eggs to raise money for their mission trip and Ben B. happened to have just picked some up. Who knew they came in so many different colors? Cara and I had never seen this before so we did a lot of oogling over these eggs.

The ride got a little scary at times since we were on unfamiliar roads which lead to unexpected sharp turns.

When we arrived at the land (Wolf Pit by name which I think is a little scary in itself) we were amazed at its beauty. This land happens to be the highest point in Alabama south of the Alabama River. The view possessed us to immediately break out into a spontaneous yoga class.

We then performed the age old pose we have been doing since we copied it of some show on Nick Jr. back in the early 90's.

The men were greatly impressed and begged us to teach them our ways with the yoga. It was a challenge.

Yet, somehow they managed to nail the pose and performed it with great skill as though they had known it for many years.

See? Aren't you impressed? If this photo were appropriately cropped and edited, you would never know that Ben was actually sitting on the hands and feet of another!

As the day came to an end and the Bens realized they should have been at a Life Group Leader's meeting at five, we decided it was time to leave Bullock County. It was then that we realized the roads left much to be desired as they were all washed out and had large crevices in them. I am a huge scaredy cat when it comes to dangerous situations which could cause accidents such as entire SUV's flipping over so I was not a fan of this part of the day. However, Ben B. navigated the roads with no problem allowing us to make it back home safe and sound.
Notice I had the camera ready in case the car flipped.