Studying for Senior Comp....

I was studying the vast amounts of Bible knowledge necessary for the Senior Competency Exam, and I kid you not, the dogs came up and kept me company just like you see here. Aww! :)

What happens when I work at home...

Who can get anything done? :)

Happy November!

My extra pictures:

Baylee, the little one.

Abby, who loves to lie on me (have I mentioned she is like 75 lbs.?)

And of course our beloved Samson, who's been a little weary of these new dogs. The girls don't have the manners that he does, and often step on him if he is in their path. Poor kid.

A growing family

Here I am with the newest members of our family, Abby and Baylee. We got them last weekend- they're Great Pyrenees.

Abby, the one on the left, who's very obviously invading my space, does this on a regular basis. My first clue was right before these pictures were taken, when she walked up to me, stared me in the face (about 1/2 an inch or less from touching me) and then literally sat in my lap. LOL...needless to say, I didn't let her stay there, but she still tried to be buddy-buddy with me as you can see here:



The black dog on the far left is Samson, our other dog, a flat-coat retriever. It's interesting if they are all together, because they all want my attention at the same time! Thankfully there are only three of them.. :) I have more pictures but I don't have them accessible at present, so they'll come later. Times have been crazy, so my new furry companions have been a welcome distraction.

Gilbert

My family decided we had a bunny-shaped void in our lives, since we just lost our 6+ year old rabbit friend, so we picked up this cute little guy named Gilbert. He's really small and will stay that size! Even if you don't like pets you have to admit he is precious... :-)

The Fog

As a coastal dweller...fog is most definitely not a stranger here. I see it on my way to work and school; some mornings it is so thick, it's zero visibility.


Sadly, sometimes this is what life can seem at times. Zero visibility. Hard to focus, hard to move. Come to think of it, where am I, where am I going? This is SO not an okay position to be in!


"The fog" represents a form of confusion. Perhaps as a result of a flashback to the old life.


The Lord's been doing a lot of work in my heart. Like the sun burning straight through the fog, so He cuts through the wishy-washiness, the zero visibility.







This figurative "fog" is every bit as dangerous as the real thing. To try to maneuver your way through life when you can't see where you are going is bad, to just sit there because you can't see in order to go anywhere is even worse.

I've heard before from my mom, that in regard to being called to live for Christ,

"stop turning aside to old neighborhoods. You don't live there anymore."

Just when you don't think you need that reminder anymore, you find that you do. Thank God for reminders! May God grant us the grace and the humilty to move on in this new life and serve Him wholeheartedly, without looking back.

(disclaimer: neither of these pictures came from my area...the first looks like it did, but the second is from the UK)

Age approaches...

I realized today that I am almost twenty-four.

This was an interesting realization, because at my age, my mother had three children and was well-established in running her own home. Me, I am a workoholic, I definitely do not run my own home, and to me, kids are usually the whining, screaming, or crying noises I hear at stores. (Okay, while that statement is true, I really don't hate kids! Really.) Life seems to have taken forever to get to this point, yet has still gone by so fast. It feels like yesterday when I was standing in line to get my college ID picture taken, and that was nearly 6 years ago!

This looming agingness of mine seems to have made me pretty contemplative. For example, I was sad the other day, and someone very close to me had reminded me that this attitude can and will affect others, whether I mean it to or not. I thought, what? Let me be sad if I want! In essence, I still was acting like that whiny little kid. Things were not going my way and I figure, well, if I am upset enough, maybe things will? Who knows! Whatever the case it did not work, in fact quite the opposite happened.

I have been learning a great deal about what God requires of me with my attitude and my conduct. It has been a hard lesson to learn; quite humbling. Somehow I find myself trying to justify my thoughts and actions because of pain and heartache, because of fatigue or being over-occupied. I cannot blame other people for my actions, as I am responsible for them. I learn now, that no matter what I think I feel like doing, I must rise up and bless His name. It's not about me.