Show Us Your Life - PETS

Kelly's Korner blog does a "Show Us Your Life" post every Friday, and they're always fun to look at, but I usually don't participate. Until today! Of course I had to jump on the opportunity to talk about my baby puppies some more. :)



This is Diesel, as many of you know. He was my first baby. Before him, I would've considered myself a dog person, but not as whole-heartedly as I do now. Here's his story.

The year before Adam and I got married, I moved to Wichita from Manhattan, where I'd been attending K-State. I rented a little studio apartment because I wanted to live by myself after I'd just gotten done rooming with 4 other girls in college. It was lonely! I think I had only been living there a few days because it was around my birthday - the end of May, the end of my sophomore year in college. So I had just finished up school for the year and moved to Wichita. I was at my apartment one evening, showering, eating, who knows what, and I got a knock at the front door. I remember having wet hair. Random. Anyway, it wasn't quite my birthday, so I opened the door, and when it was Adam, I was like hey, come in. Well, instead of coming in, he brought his hand (which had been behind his back) out and nestled in his palm was the tiniest little furry dog I'd ever seen.

He was SO soft and SO cute. He weighed less than a pound, so I had to feed him off of flat surfaces and soften his food with warm water. We put some of my old t-shirts in a crate so that he would get used to my smell, but he'd escape through the tiny holes in the crate and I wouldn't be able to find him. He would scream when I would hold him, like he hated me. I lived on the 3rd floor of my apartment building, so I had to carry him downstairs, past the pool, across the parking lot to potty, even in the middle of the night.

He finally warmed up to me, started sleeping in my bed, graduated to a real dog dish, and the day he mastered the stairs was colossal! He's moved with me from that tiny apartment to my and Adam's first house after we were married, and now to our home we live in now. He's the perfect little dog and I love him so much! He's 4 and a half and I keep wishing he would stop aging because I need him to be around forever!

Next up is the big guy, Axl.

Adam got the idea in his head soon after we were married that he wanted a Doberman. I think there had been a parent at the school he was student teaching at that had one and he loved the look of him. My friend Jacque had recently gotten a Doberman, so we got in touch with the breeder she'd used, and it turned out they'd had a litter at the end of May. I believe it was the end of June (we were married in the beginning of June) that we went out to Rose Hill to visit the Doberman puppies. They were SO cute! They were black and had gigantic paws and big floppy ears. We took Diesel with us to see how he would get along with them, I think I had an idea that he would choose one to love and that would be the one we'd take home with us.

Diesel HATED them all. He would freak out when we would force him to be close to them. So that plan failed. The puppies were still too young to be taken from their mama, so we came back a few weeks later to pick out our new puppy. We were playing with the ones that were left, and the one that ended up being our Axl kept putting both his paws around my neck when I would hold him. I knew that was going to be my baby. So we paid, signed the papers, and took our baby home.

He SCREAMED the entire car ride home. We were even stopped by an impossibly long train, and he just wouldn't shut up. Wow, was he annoying. Come to think of it, he still is.

We had a hard time naming Axl. I believe he was Oscar, Mac, and Radar at different times.

Axl was smaller than Diesel for a very, very short amount of time. During that time, Diesel wanted nothing to do with him, and was so mean to him. He would snap at Axl at the drop of a hat. Axl was the most awkward teenager dog ever. He had the longest legs, hugest paws, and floppiest ears. Cropping his ears was the hugest ordeal ever and made me question if I'd ever get another Doberman.


When people are around, Axl is the most annoying dog ever. I'll admit it.

But when it's just us, I couldn't ask for a more cuddly, cute, big hunk o' dog to use as a pillow or to cuddle with when I'm having a bad day. He likes to give kisses on the mouth, and his favorite thing is chasing squirrels. Our life wouldn't be complete without him!

They love each other now. See? :)

Glory Baby

Our little one would've been here in a month. As my due date approaches, it's hard not to struggle with feelings of how unfair it all is. I was supposed to be a mom on December 8. My baby would've been here in such a short time.

But I have to remember how much better off she is right now.

I first heard this song at Cora's funeral, and it was so touching. I was reminded of it today in one of my devotionals and thought I'd share it.

"Glory baby you slipped away as fast as we could say baby…baby..
You were growing, what happened dear?
You disappeared on us baby…baby..
Heaven will hold you before we do
Heaven will keep you safe until we’re home with you…
Until we’re home with you…

Miss you everyday
Miss you in every way
But we know there’s a
day when we will hold you
We will hold you
You’ll kiss our tears away
When we’re home to stay
Can’t wait for the day when we will see you
We will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
‘till mom and dad can hold you…
You’ll just have heaven before we do
You’ll just have heaven before we do

Sweet little babies, it’s hard to
understand it ‘cause we’re hurting
We are hurting
But there is healing
And we know we’re stronger people through the growing
And in knowing-
That all things work together for our good
And God works His purposes just like He said He would…
Just like He said He would…

I can’t imagine heaven’s lullabies
and what they must sound like
But I will rest in knowing, heaven is your home
And it’s all you’ll ever know…all you’ll ever know…"

-"Glory Baby" by Watermark

Adam's Birthday

Adam's birthday was AWESOME. For some reason, he decided to act like it was my birthday. We hadn't made definite plans for the evening other than dinner and maybe a movie. Well, he had meetings all day, so he had an extra long lunch and dropped by the studio to deliver flowers and a card. He said he was in a hurry so he gave me a kiss and left.

I opened the card, and it said something along the lines of "be at the house, ready and dressed up by 5:30. We'll go out to a restaurant of your choice and after that, we'll have a WICKED good time."

I'd been bugging him that I wanted to go see Wicked ever since I heard it was coming to town, but tickets were expensive so he kept saying no. Well guess what? We went!

We started off the evening with dinner at Johnny Carino's, which was amazing. The only time we've ever eaten there was the night we got engaged, so it's extra special. Sadly, the only photo I took during the evening occurred at supper.

Sexy.

Anywhay...(that wasn't a typo, please pronounce as spelled), after dinner we drove to Century II, only to realize we'd left the tickets at home. So we quickly sped home and back to the theatre.

Wicked was so good! I'd definitely see it again. And recommend it to everyone. I hope they come out with a movie soon. It was crazy because our programs said that the role of Elphaba was being played by the understudy, but she sang AMAZINGLY. The special effects were really cool and the songs were so fun. Plus there was humor thrown in and the actress playing Glinda was super funny.

I was exhausted by the time it was over and ready for bed, but it was such a good night. Thanks for being awesome on your birthday, Adam. Love you. :)

26

Happy Birthday to my amazing husband. I love you so much!

Hilarity in the Bedroom

Got your attention with that title, didn't I?

This may have only been funny at the time, but I just had to blog it. Bear with me.

Last night, we were in bed and we had just turned off the lights. Diesel was on my lap because I was getting comfortable before he went and took up the whole bed with his nesting. Axl had just jumped down from our bed to venture over to his own bed for the night.

Suddenly, we hear a CLUNK.

Axl had (in the dark) ran into the open swinging door of Adam's dresser that isn't usually open. He got real sad, so he quickly came back over to my side of the bed to tell me about it and pout. Meanwhile, Adam tries to close the dresser door with his foot, and Diesel, not realizing that Adam was doing that, starts growling at the dresser.

Funny, right? Okay...whatever. :)

Halloween

We had a pretty low-key Halloween this year. Which was nice amidst the bustle of Judgement House. It started on Friday...Ginger brought her stash of wigs to work. Here's Ginger as...not really sure..., Avery being cute in a tutu, Lindsey as Cruella deVille, and me as, um, Jessica Simpson maybe?

Then on Saturday morning, I had breakfast with my girls: Audra, Val, Melinda, and Risa. It was really fun and I ate way too much, but didn't take any pictures. After that, I came home and cleaned for awhile...and this little monkey named Reid showed up at my doorstep demanding candy. I couldn't resist his cuteness.

Reid LOVES our dogs. He was laughing and chasing them, and anytime they would lick his face (which was often), he would open his mouth. A little disgusting. We tried to put a stop to that. He even grabbed a handful of Diesel's fur at one point, and Diesel didn't even react. I was so proud of him. Reid's parents won't ever get a dog (or so they say...), so Reid has to make due playing with ours.

After Reid left, we pulled out the dog's costumes from last year and got them ready to entertain the trick-or-treaters. Diesel was a little pumpkin.

And Axl was a ghost, although his hood wouldn't stay up, so you couldn't really tell.

Here are my two handsome boys, anxiously awaiting the trick-or-treaters.

Axl has, ahem, gained a little weight since last year, so his costume kept falling off. Anyway, Axl LOVES Halloween. He stood like this at the front door for like all 3 hours we were handing out candy. At the beginning, he would bark as they approached, and he has a mean bark, so some of the kids were a little scared. After awhile, he would just get excited and pace when he saw someone coming.

Still watching...

Diesel got tired so he just sat next to his mama on the couch with his toy. "That's all I need..." (name the movie).

When Adam would open the door to hand out candy, Axl would just stick his head out to smell everyone and see what was going on. He didn't try to escape, or even eat any of the little kids.

We ran out of candy after awhile, and turned our porch light off. That didn't deter anyone. So we had to turn all the lights off upstairs and go hide in the basement. But we even got another doorbell ring after our house was completely dark! Those kids are intense!

Judgement House

Judgement House wrapped up this past Sunday evening, and it was an amazing thing to be a part of. As a tour guide, not only was it great to be an integral part of the experience for those who went through, but it was also neat to talk to the kids who would stay out of the intense scenes.

We talked to them about salvation as well as how they treated and spoke to other kids around them. The script this year was about how words can really hurt other people, and I had two little girls talk to me about how they knew that they'd said mean things to other kids at school. It was really cool to see their eyes opened to that.

I'll definitely be a tour guide again when I get the chance, the nights were long, but so worth it! Here's me and my tour buddy Val with our script.

Here's Val, Amy (the most awesomest tour guide coordinator EVER...also a Twi-hard), and Helen - my other tour buddy. We went in groups of three and would switch off who spoke and then the other two would get people moving where they needed to go. Love you girls!