We have two, one cat, one dog. The cat came first. We got Max just a few months after Chris and I got married. He was my Mother’s Day present to me. I’ve (half) jokingly called Max the spawn of Satan, it’s really kind of true. I’m thinking, regardless of the fact that he’s male, we should have named him Sybil. He can be all lovely and rubbing on you one minute with his motor running as loud as can be, that’s what we call it when he’s purring, then WHAM, your butt is bit. Just out of nowhere he turns on you, bites you hard and takes off like a streak of lightning. Why in the world are cats like that? I love Max, I really do, but sometimes I just want to toss him out the back door - forever. He HATES the dog and occasionally he tells us how much he hates the dog. Jack just loves Max and will run up to him wanting to play, he’s got his head bobbing and his tail waggin and Max will look at one of us and just meow the loudest meanest meow you’ve ever heard, it sounds like maybe he’s being skinned alive, it’s an evil sound! Does this faze Jack in the least? Not for one single second. The little clueless one just keeps on until the cat can’t take any more and gives up and runs to hide. Max is nine years old but he can still jump up to the top on my kitchen cabinets, it’s one of his favorite places to sleep but it also works well for getting away from that darn dog. But having said all of that, you can’t find a better bed buddy! He loves it when one of his people takes a nap, it’s his heaven. He’ll jump up on the bed with you and the minute you find your position he finds his and DO NOT attempt to move him. He will lay there and sleep with you for as long as you stay in the bed, he’s never ready for a nap to end. He snores too, which totally cracks me up.
We’ve had Jack for almost two years. Now, I never once thought that I could love a dog the way I love my Jackie. Oh, I’m an animal lover and I knew I would love him. But I LOVE this dog, I’m a crazy sappy nut over a dog! Who would have ever thought it? Kyle practically came out of the womb begging for a dog and I held firm for 19 years, but in a weak moment I caved. And once I caved Chris was sucked in too. So after signing a 26 point contract (which by the way is totally useless – not even worth the paper it was written on) Kyle bought and brought home our Jackie. I fell in love the minute he walked in the door holding that sweet little puppy. Chris and I walk Jack every day (I’ll copy the contract for you at the bottom of my post so you can see how many of the stupid rules we break.) Lori says that Jack has little man syndrome, which at first was funny to me but I didn’t really believe it. Well Lori is so right. We were walking through our neighborhood last night when out of no where comes this huge great dane. Jack is a sheltie and a small one at that, he only weighs 14 pounds (Max weighs 18). Chris screams at me to pick him up, which I promptly did, and in that very second I’m covered in great dane. Now it sort of seems like this horse, I mean dog, just wants to visit with Jack but since I could look this animal in the eye without bending over, we couldn’t take any chances. Chris and I have little man sandwiched between us trying our best to keep the volkswagen sized head of the great dane away from him, this massive creature could have swallowed Jack in one bite. Chris is screaming at the great dane, I’m screaming at the little man – who at this point sounds like he’s gonna have great dane for a snack – when the big dog’s owner comes running out his front door. “Oh, he won’t hurt you.” I’m looking face to face with a dog that’s as tall as me while holding a dog that thinks he’s some sort of mini cujo and this total stranger is telling me I’m not gonna get hurt. Sure buddy! But obviously great dane sees his dad coming and knows he’s going back inside so he takes off faster than Big Brown did in the Derby. So we keep on going and I finally sat Jack down and he promptly pooped. I guess that big monster scared him more than he was willing to let on.
Animal ownership can be hazardous – your cat could bite you, another dog may eat you up while trying to eat your dog – but we love our guys and we wouldn’t trade them for anything.
Here’s a copy of my worthless contract……………
Rules for dog ownership
A seven day eviction notice will be given to the dog if the following rules are not strictly followed. Finding a new home for the dog will be the responsibility of its owner, Kyle Adams.
The dog shall be the sole responsibility of Kyle.
The dog shall be crate trained and kept in the crate when there are no humans at home.
The dog’s crate shall be kept in Kyle’s bedroom at all times.
Any doggie mess, urine and fecal matter, will be cleaned up by Kyle as soon as possible after said mess has been made. This is to include both indoor and outdoor messes.
Mom and Chris will baby-sit when arrangements are made well in advance, no dropping off of granddog at the spur of a moment.
The dog must attend and graduate obedience school at earliest recommended age.
Kyle is responsible for feeding and watering the dog.
Kyle is responsible for walking the dog. If the dog wants to be walked and Kyle’s lazy butt is in the bed, Kyle WILL get up and walk the dog without complaint.
Financial matters relating to the dog are solely Kyle’s responsibility, including but not limited to veterinarian bills.
During inclement weather the dog’s feet must be cleaned upon re-entering the home.
When the dog stinks, Kyle will bathe the dog as soon as Mom says the dog stinks.
If carpet (or other flooring) is soiled by dog, Kyle will clean, have cleaned, or replace said carpet or flooring.
Kyle is responsible for replacing anything the dog destroys by chewing or scratching.
Dog will be allowed to move from the home with Kyle regardless of how much Mom or Chris cries.
If the dog shows repeated aggressive behavior, dog will be served a seven day eviction notice.
Dog will be taught not to jump on people.
Dog will not be fed from the table!!!!!!!
Dog will only be fed dog food.
The dog will be taught to stay outside for lengthy periods of time.
The dog is NOT allowed on any furniture, the ONLY exception will be Kyle’s bed.
Whenever possible, dog will go with Kyle for overnight visits from home.
During family vacations, or other times the entire family will be away from home, Kyle will make arrangements for dog to stay elsewhere to be cared for.
Dog can not be named after any Star Wars character.
Until yard is fenced, dog will be kept on a chain with a grounded stake while unattended outside.
Every effort will be made to teach dog not to bark while outdoors.
Kyle will keep his room clean to mom’s standards for the life of the dog.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Two New Knees and One Amazing God!
Christy was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of 4, big stuff for such a little girl. She’s been through a lot in the past 24 years, some good, some bad but she has remained hopeful and faithful to her Lord throughout. Now she’s facing surgery once again, this time its new knees. Yes, being the overachiever she is she’s going for both at the same time. It was two new hips at the same time, so why not two new knees at the same time?
Last week, prior to her appointment with her surgeon, I e-mailed a few of my faithful friends and asked them to pray for my baby girl. They get the fact that even though she’s 28 years old and married she will always be my baby girl. And pray they did! Here is the request……..
Hello to all,
As some of you already know, Christy is now facing double knee replacement surgery and in my opinion, the sooner the better. She has missed three days of work this week because one of her knees has, as she said, been about the size of her head. I’m e-mailing to ask you guys to pray for her. Specifically for the following……..
Peace – She is so anxious about this surgery, and not just the normal pre-surgery anxiety. Her hips were replaced just over a year ago and the recovery for that was so intense and she knows that this will be at least as bad and much likely worse.
Timing – Pray that God will bring about His perfect timing for this surgery. There are so many factors weighing in on this, if she waits until she’s been with the college for a year she can withdraw time from the “bank.” Her one year anniversary is in August, the question is can she wait that long. The problem with doing the surgery before August is she has so little PTO that she will be off for most of her recovery without pay and they really can’t afford that. But pray that whatever time God decides, she won’t worry or be anxious over money.
Wisdom – for Christy and Josh but also for Dr. Nichols. She has an appointment with him on Tuesday and they have pretty much decided to go with his recommendation. They have so much confidence in him based on how wonderful he was during her hip surgery and recovery. Just a side note, he is a wonderful doctor. He told Christy prior to her surgery that he wanted to pray with her so that she would know without question to whom he belonged. He said he felt that this was very important considering she was putting her life in his hands.
For her anesthesiologist – I know this may seem premature but most of you will understand the importance of this. Pray that he/she will be gentle and understanding of her issues. Pray that the IV will work the very first time and that she won’t have to face 22 failed attempts again. Pray that he/she is very knowledgeable of fiber optic intubation and that he’s used it so many times that it’s second nature to him.
Josh – I’m sitting here in a pool of tears just thinking about how blessed my daughter is to have such a perfect partner. You know that I’m not saying Josh is a perfect man but he is HER perfect man. I’ve said this before but I have to say it again, God did such an amazing job in His choice of a husband for Christy. Pray that Josh will not grow weary during all of this. He loves her more than anything, pray that God will protect his love for her during this difficult time in their lives.
Thank you my friends. I love each of you dearly.
Where do I begin in sharing how God has answered these requests already?
This week has been revival week at Pleasant Green Baptist. They have had a guest pastor, we were able to attend Sunday morning to hear God’s word through Paul and it was amazing. On Sunday morning Josh announced that the church would be taking up a love offering each day of the revival and at the end of the week (revival week ends on Wednesday) the offering would be given to Paul. This is nothing new, Pleasant Green does this for each of their twice annual revivals and I know that typically they receive in excess of $1000.00, not bad for a church with an active membership of about 60 people.
Last night with about 15 minutes before we found out which David would be crowned our new American Idol, our phone rings. Chris answers and hands me the phone and says, “it’s Josh.” Well Josh really only calls me for a few reasons, it wasn’t my birthday, Christy has just celebrated her birthday – meaning he doesn’t need to bounce gift idea’s off of me, so my thought is “oh no, something has happened to Christy.” Not the case, he starts out the conversation with “I’ve got good news.” (Obviously he knows me well and knew he needed to clarify the reason for his call rather quickly.) It seems as though Paul, the guest revival pastor, had directed the treasurer at Pleasant Green to give his portion of the love offering to Josh and Christy. But pray that whatever time God decides, she won’t worry or be anxious over money. Isn’t our God amazing? He could have waited until the time they actually needed the money to provide them with it, but he didn’t because we asked him not to let her worry or be anxious over money. Can I just tell you that she spend ALL of Wednesday worrying and being anxious over money just for Him to tell her Wednesday evening that He’s got her covered!!!!! How amazing is our God?
And we prayed for God’s perfect timing, this has been my major concern not hers. Last night when she and I were talking she told me that she felt God was telling her that this was his perfect timing for her surgery and that he was taking care of all the details. (Note: she didn’t know of my concerns or my e-mail to my faithful friends.) So after Idol and the newly crowned David I go call Lori, I tell her all about the huge financial blessing that Christy and Josh have received and how God has revealed that this is his perfect timing. I’m all calm and feeling warm and fuzzy inside, thanking Jesus for calming Christy’s fears and throwing in the bonus of the timing discussion just to ease her momma’s worries, when I sit down to do my evening Bible study. I’m currently doing the Beth Moore personal study titled 90 Days with Jesus The One And Only, it’s amazing – thanks Stacy for telling me about it. I’ve been feeling guilty that I haven’t done my study for the previous two nights because I’ve been cleaning out kitchen cabinets like a crazy woman. I open my study to Day 6 and guess what the title is? Yep, “Perfect Timing.” Can you believe it? I just fell into tears thanking my Lord for his perfect timing. If I had done that particular study on Monday night, when I thought I was suppose to, I would have totally missed what He was telling me. I’ve always told God I’m a little hard of hearing so if He wants me to know for sure that he’s answering my prayer he needs to drop a big bolder in front of my car while I’m driving to/from work with the words “I hear you” on it. Thank you Jesus for dropping the bolder!
And we prayed for peace, as you can see by reading this post He has given all of us precious, amazing, wonderful peace.
I want to say a big thank you to each of my friends who answered my e-mail with prayer. I hope you realize what a difference you make in my life and how much you bless me. We don’t tell our friends often enough how much we love them and need them, so let me say right now……… I love you more than my simple words can ever express. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart.
So, it’s new knees on June 25th and answered prayer today! I love you Lord.
Last week, prior to her appointment with her surgeon, I e-mailed a few of my faithful friends and asked them to pray for my baby girl. They get the fact that even though she’s 28 years old and married she will always be my baby girl. And pray they did! Here is the request……..
Hello to all,
As some of you already know, Christy is now facing double knee replacement surgery and in my opinion, the sooner the better. She has missed three days of work this week because one of her knees has, as she said, been about the size of her head. I’m e-mailing to ask you guys to pray for her. Specifically for the following……..
Peace – She is so anxious about this surgery, and not just the normal pre-surgery anxiety. Her hips were replaced just over a year ago and the recovery for that was so intense and she knows that this will be at least as bad and much likely worse.
Timing – Pray that God will bring about His perfect timing for this surgery. There are so many factors weighing in on this, if she waits until she’s been with the college for a year she can withdraw time from the “bank.” Her one year anniversary is in August, the question is can she wait that long. The problem with doing the surgery before August is she has so little PTO that she will be off for most of her recovery without pay and they really can’t afford that. But pray that whatever time God decides, she won’t worry or be anxious over money.
Wisdom – for Christy and Josh but also for Dr. Nichols. She has an appointment with him on Tuesday and they have pretty much decided to go with his recommendation. They have so much confidence in him based on how wonderful he was during her hip surgery and recovery. Just a side note, he is a wonderful doctor. He told Christy prior to her surgery that he wanted to pray with her so that she would know without question to whom he belonged. He said he felt that this was very important considering she was putting her life in his hands.
For her anesthesiologist – I know this may seem premature but most of you will understand the importance of this. Pray that he/she will be gentle and understanding of her issues. Pray that the IV will work the very first time and that she won’t have to face 22 failed attempts again. Pray that he/she is very knowledgeable of fiber optic intubation and that he’s used it so many times that it’s second nature to him.
Josh – I’m sitting here in a pool of tears just thinking about how blessed my daughter is to have such a perfect partner. You know that I’m not saying Josh is a perfect man but he is HER perfect man. I’ve said this before but I have to say it again, God did such an amazing job in His choice of a husband for Christy. Pray that Josh will not grow weary during all of this. He loves her more than anything, pray that God will protect his love for her during this difficult time in their lives.
Thank you my friends. I love each of you dearly.
Where do I begin in sharing how God has answered these requests already?
This week has been revival week at Pleasant Green Baptist. They have had a guest pastor, we were able to attend Sunday morning to hear God’s word through Paul and it was amazing. On Sunday morning Josh announced that the church would be taking up a love offering each day of the revival and at the end of the week (revival week ends on Wednesday) the offering would be given to Paul. This is nothing new, Pleasant Green does this for each of their twice annual revivals and I know that typically they receive in excess of $1000.00, not bad for a church with an active membership of about 60 people.
Last night with about 15 minutes before we found out which David would be crowned our new American Idol, our phone rings. Chris answers and hands me the phone and says, “it’s Josh.” Well Josh really only calls me for a few reasons, it wasn’t my birthday, Christy has just celebrated her birthday – meaning he doesn’t need to bounce gift idea’s off of me, so my thought is “oh no, something has happened to Christy.” Not the case, he starts out the conversation with “I’ve got good news.” (Obviously he knows me well and knew he needed to clarify the reason for his call rather quickly.) It seems as though Paul, the guest revival pastor, had directed the treasurer at Pleasant Green to give his portion of the love offering to Josh and Christy. But pray that whatever time God decides, she won’t worry or be anxious over money. Isn’t our God amazing? He could have waited until the time they actually needed the money to provide them with it, but he didn’t because we asked him not to let her worry or be anxious over money. Can I just tell you that she spend ALL of Wednesday worrying and being anxious over money just for Him to tell her Wednesday evening that He’s got her covered!!!!! How amazing is our God?
And we prayed for God’s perfect timing, this has been my major concern not hers. Last night when she and I were talking she told me that she felt God was telling her that this was his perfect timing for her surgery and that he was taking care of all the details. (Note: she didn’t know of my concerns or my e-mail to my faithful friends.) So after Idol and the newly crowned David I go call Lori, I tell her all about the huge financial blessing that Christy and Josh have received and how God has revealed that this is his perfect timing. I’m all calm and feeling warm and fuzzy inside, thanking Jesus for calming Christy’s fears and throwing in the bonus of the timing discussion just to ease her momma’s worries, when I sit down to do my evening Bible study. I’m currently doing the Beth Moore personal study titled 90 Days with Jesus The One And Only, it’s amazing – thanks Stacy for telling me about it. I’ve been feeling guilty that I haven’t done my study for the previous two nights because I’ve been cleaning out kitchen cabinets like a crazy woman. I open my study to Day 6 and guess what the title is? Yep, “Perfect Timing.” Can you believe it? I just fell into tears thanking my Lord for his perfect timing. If I had done that particular study on Monday night, when I thought I was suppose to, I would have totally missed what He was telling me. I’ve always told God I’m a little hard of hearing so if He wants me to know for sure that he’s answering my prayer he needs to drop a big bolder in front of my car while I’m driving to/from work with the words “I hear you” on it. Thank you Jesus for dropping the bolder!
And we prayed for peace, as you can see by reading this post He has given all of us precious, amazing, wonderful peace.
I want to say a big thank you to each of my friends who answered my e-mail with prayer. I hope you realize what a difference you make in my life and how much you bless me. We don’t tell our friends often enough how much we love them and need them, so let me say right now……… I love you more than my simple words can ever express. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart.
So, it’s new knees on June 25th and answered prayer today! I love you Lord.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
What do I want to be when I grow up?
This is the question Kyle is asking himself. When he was little his answer to this question was always the same, "I don't want to grow up." Well my son, you're all grown up now and it's time to make a decision. So what's it going to be?
So here's the issue - he's come to the point in his college career when he must declare a major and he has no idea what to declare. He never wants my advice on anything and if I try to give it to him he just rolls his eyes and walks away. Now all of the sudden he wants me to make the most important decision of his life, well I'm just not going to do it. I have offered suggestions to no avail. He's brought home a book, with like a thousand pages, listing all of the possible college majors. Chris and I have both read this huge book and we've offered up almost every possibility with no luck at all. The problem is the book doesn't list professional son. I think he wants to spend the rest of his days living with us eating our canned pasta and drinking our powerade!
So, if you have ideas or suggestions on what Kyle can do with his future, please share them with him. He can roll his eyes at you for a while.
So here's the issue - he's come to the point in his college career when he must declare a major and he has no idea what to declare. He never wants my advice on anything and if I try to give it to him he just rolls his eyes and walks away. Now all of the sudden he wants me to make the most important decision of his life, well I'm just not going to do it. I have offered suggestions to no avail. He's brought home a book, with like a thousand pages, listing all of the possible college majors. Chris and I have both read this huge book and we've offered up almost every possibility with no luck at all. The problem is the book doesn't list professional son. I think he wants to spend the rest of his days living with us eating our canned pasta and drinking our powerade!
So, if you have ideas or suggestions on what Kyle can do with his future, please share them with him. He can roll his eyes at you for a while.
Trying this on for size.
Okay, I'm entering the blog world. I know, I can hardly believe it myself! You're probably wondering what the heck I'm thinking, well obviously I'm not.
But seriously folks, sometime ago I was asked to correspond, via e-mail, with a friend of mine regarding the issues of mothering a child with health problems. This was supposed to benefit my friend and hopefully it did, but it also blessed me in ways I never imagined it could. So, here I am starting up this blogging journal. Really, there's no telling what I'm likely to share but you can bet that a lot of it will be about my children and you may even find mention of yourself in my words.
But seriously folks, sometime ago I was asked to correspond, via e-mail, with a friend of mine regarding the issues of mothering a child with health problems. This was supposed to benefit my friend and hopefully it did, but it also blessed me in ways I never imagined it could. So, here I am starting up this blogging journal. Really, there's no telling what I'm likely to share but you can bet that a lot of it will be about my children and you may even find mention of yourself in my words.
I hope this becomes something we can all enjoy!
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