What's Different Here?

So, you know when you go to the doctor and they have the Highlights magazine with the two photos and you're supposed to find out what's different between the two.

I'm not going to post the first picture, because I think you're smart enough to discover what's different here.Can you believe that?? This is what Joe finds as he's heading off to work. Makes me so mad. Of course no note or anything. We are NOT experiencing the best of luck with automobiles this year. I am just trying to remind myself that God always provides and this is just a little, although LARGELY annoying thing in life.

Blah.

It's Here! It's Here! It's Here!

What you may ask? Spring!!

There are signs everywhere. The warmer weather. The flowering trees. Tulips! (love those!) Birds singing. It's here and it's growing steady each day. Oh, shorts weather, how I've missed you so!

You may be skeptical if you've seen the weather forecast for this weekend, but really, IT'S here, and I'll show you!

The pretty blooming Bradford pear trees all around town. I just love the white blossoms, however I would like them even more if they didn't smell so bad.

A sign of new life on Carl the Maple Tree. We're excited to see his progress this year!

Beautiful flowers on the blueberry bush Joe gave me for Valentine's Day. Aren't they neat!

One of our new flower beds and a rose bush, also given to me this Valentine's Day!

And last but not least, the return of the hammock. Oh, how I've missed our sunny afternoons together. Good to see you again, old friend.

Officially Going Crazy

He did it again. We went to have dinner with friends who are family (isn't that fun). And Joe beat me home, and was the first to welcome Ryker on the WRONG side of the fence.

I don't know what to do. I am afraid he'll get hurt or someone will take him. Does anyone know what to do in this instance?

I played down leaving. I left him treats. I took him for a walk right before leaving to 'get some energy out.' But he found a new place to dig out and was waiting for us on the front porch!

AAAHHHH!!! This dog will be the death of me!

The Perfect Pansy

As a relatively new house owner still, I thought I'd try my hand at planting some pansies at the first of this year.

I always love when people have tons of colorful pansies in the midst of a usually gloomy and cold time of year. So, Ryker and I set out to plant our two flats of newly aquired flowers one gorgeous January day. Do you know how LONG it takes to plant those stupid things if you don't have one of those nifty hole diggers...a LONG time! And the silly dog that can dig is NOT helping.

Anyways, I did it and vowed not to buy any more flowers for a while, even though we could have used a few more to make it look fuller.

Now it has been a few months, and my pretty pansies are still bloomin' like no tomorrow. I used all different colors because I thinkit is more fun that way. And yesterday I came across the perfect pansy, so I took his picture. I did a little tweeking on this first image and it made the color muted, so that's why there are two.
And, wouldn't you know it, Ryker was so excited by the fruits of our (my) labor, he decided to do his "Happy Puppy Dance." If you have not witnessed this dance in person, you are in for a treat -- pure puppy joy at its finest!

The Season of Lent

Well, I hope everyone had an enjoyable Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras celebration. Joe and I decided we would enjoy our excess in the form of sour cream enchiladas and an apple fried pie with ice cream. It was good.

But some of you may know, that this time of overindulgence is in preparation for the liturgical season of Lent. As a Baptist growing up, it seems we never really dove into Christian Liturgy too much, but I have enjoyed learning a bit more about this through our church, Irving Bible Church.

Along with the normal teachings, our church has also added a devotional to the season thanks to the writings of Shawn Small (also the guy who married us, I know, cool!)

His book, Via Crucis, follows the journey of not just Christ, but those he met, those who only heard about him, and those who persecuted him. It is a powerful and fresh approach to look at Jesus' journey to the cross. It is a way we can almost see our own selves there some 2,000 years ago. Who would we be? What would we do? Thoughts we can ponder, but with the truly gracious benefit of knowing the hard part is done and our God is great.

If you'd like to walk this "way of the cross" or Via Crucis, during this season of Lent, you can find the book on Amazon, or let me know and I can hook you straight up with the author himself!

I like your style.

So, found this today on the ever-so-fun blog, How About Orange. What is your decorating style?

After taking the test, here, I found my decorating style to be:
56% Arts and Crafts
33% Rustic Revival
11% French Eclectic


Arts & Crafts
You tend to prefer simple to ornate and natural materials over man-made. Warm tones found in wood and brass make you feel comfortable, and good craftsmanship excites you like nothing else. (ha...I guess that's why I have Joe -- good craftsmanship!)

You enjoy patterns that highlight our natural surroundings such as plants and trees. You prefer rectilinear forms and straight lines, however you love to find intricate details (ooooh, stained glass!) where you least expect it.

Sounds good to me! Now, if I could only make it appear in life as I can see it my head.

Take the quiz, find out a bit more about your style and post here if you'd like

He loves me...

So this Valentine's Day, we played it cool.

Joe graciously loaned me out to Lydia for the day for us to have a bit too much fun roaming the streets of Fort Worth taking Random pictures. (See a few below.)




BUT, when I returned, he let me take a nap! AND he made me dinner. He moved our table into the dining room where he made a beautiful table presentation, then proceeded to cook and serve me a greens and apple salad, chicken pasta with broccoli and crustinis, wine, and concluded with a berry medley.



We also had this guy as our waiter. He did not do a good job. We did not tip.

Thanks Joe for a wonderful Valentine' Day treat. I love you!

Life, constant entertainment at it's best.

For those of you who have been on this planet for more than a year or so, you have probably discovered this thing called life can be pretty entertaining.

Entertaining can mean many different things. Just as we see different movies for different entertainment, life can be:
funny
sad
dramatic
romantic
scary
horrific
dull
messy
forgetful
hysterical
...and so on...

With that, here are two things to ponder:

Don't we all wish life held a bit more of this?


And my next question/interlude:

On the latest Top Chef episode, they had the contestants cook some of America's most renowned culinary masters' "Last Meal." There were some things that I, not only didn't know what they were, but would also never ask for them. And others considering...yeah...maybe. But one sad thing is they did NOT have a dessert. With your last meal, how can you not have a dessert???

So, what would YOUR last meal be?

Mine, a no-brainer here:
A cold coke with sonic ice
A strawberry/lime swirl margarhita
Cheese enchiladas, rice and beans from the now-departed El Charro's in Port Arthur
Chip, hot sauce and queso
and a BIG WARM slab of chocolate fudge cake and a glass of cold milk to wash it down.

Oh...I can taste it now. really. and I want it. now.

In Honor of Our National Day of Love

I just might have to do it.

I found this beauty the other day, and I'm thinking I'm just going to have to bake this. I just have to.I am not the world's biggest fan of nuts, but for this, I might even try it! I know...crazy, right!

Well, if I do make said devilishly delicious cake, I will let you know how it goes..and how fast it goes! ;)

Happy Friday the 13th/Valentine's Day -- a great pairing I must say!

You know you love your dog when...

1. You let him take up more of the bed/couch than you.

2. You take him on walks in the freezing cold/rain/fog...

3. You take him to PetsMart and he not only PEEs but also POOPs everywhere! UGH!!!!

4. You give him the freedom of the wind by rolling down the car window.

5. You buy him the premium food so he won't die...or so the lady said in the store.

6. You try to make sure he is well-supervised at all times -- yes, I know he's not a child, but he seems to get into more trouble than a child.

That's all I got right now, but sheesh...having a dog is hard work. But man it sure is worth it.

Thank you!

I just wanted to say thank you so much to all of you who took time out of your busy lives to pray and check in on me and my pupster. Joe and I were and are quite the worried parents, but as we always need to do, all we can do is give it to God.

So far, Ryker has been super dooper A-O-K!, and we're hoping it stays that way! Thank you, thank you!

And yes, here's a picture. Because I can!

so very small

Yesterday, I felt so very small.

My puppy had a seizure or something of the sort.

He was sad, he had no control and he was looking to me.

What could I do?

I held him. I cried. I called Joe. I called the vet. I called the school...that I was now late for.

We took Ryker to the vet and they checked him out, unable to find anything obviously wrong. Said they could run tests, but 80% of the time, they will just never know. It could happen again, it could happen again years from now, or it could be a fluke never to return.

As man's best friend, it is our charge by God to protect these little guys (along with everyone else), and I don't know if I don't feel like I did a very good job. I will pray and I will watch him. And I guess that's all we can do, but it still made me so sad.

So, if you think about it, send up a prayer for my buddy Ryker. He looks like this if you forgot!

A Flashback Tag

Karen listed a tag challenge on her site to go back a year or so to the same day as you're blogging to see how things have changed...this is my post from Feb. 4th, 2008:

We'd been in our new house for about 2 weeks at this point, and still PLENTY of boxes to go through. I still do this when looking for Christmas decorations, a shirt or photo that seems to have disappeared. I'm working (ok, wishing) on being more organized in life, but I feel there will always be boxes. And I guess I hope there will always be sweet moments like these...

Boxes.

Isn't it crazy that when moving your life can be gathered up into a few or plenty boxes. It's always a surprise opening these boxes to find what they hold.
A few dishes... followed by wonderful memories of your wedding.
A diary or journal... ugh..what was I thinking, or perhaps, thank you God for leading me out of those troubled days.
Shirts you haven't seen since three moves before...Goodwill, here you go!
Pictures, oh, sweet pictures - fun times, if only we could step through the image and enjoy that view, taste a piece of cake or hug a loved one we can't hug anymore.
Books of every shape and size... did we really learn anything from that class; I love looking at those pictures; do you remember this part?; and, Half Price Books for you baby!
Letters, postcards, cards and notes...wow, what awesome loved ones we have aquired along the way.

Thanks for the memories boxes, and thanks to those who make our lives and our boxes so full!

So, tag, you're it, if you would like!

My Husband is a Jewish Carpenter. Wait, what?

Ok, it reminded me of those silly bumper stickers that say, "My boss is a Jewish carpenter."

But anyways, I just wanted to show you some of the fantastic stuff Joe is putting together in our garage...aka Rufus' home (but he doesn't know that fact).

He has been commissioned by his folks to build the new conference tables for their office. These puppies are 5' x 4' each for a total length of 10'. It is made out of solid oak and will be stained an interesting blue-ish grey to pick up off of the slate tile in the office (those pictures to come later!)

Go Baylor!

Man, this made our evening. I just laugh and laugh and laugh. (Please don't think bad of us, but it really is funny!)



Sic'em!

We Found It!

That's right! My sister will not be sporting shorts and a tank top at her upcoming August wedding! We found a beautiful wedding dress, as well as pinned down several other wedding day details in a flurry of a weekend!

We may ALL need to take a few days off before we begin on our next wedding task. Man, this stuff is tiring! I'm glad I've already done this and it's not ME that has to answer the nine BILLION questions people want answered.

So, what? You want to see the dress? Ok, Here you go!Don't you just love all the detail!??

A Perfect Day!

Getting old may suck, but birthdays sure don't. (at least in my book!) If you ignore the date and welcome all the love and goodness that comes with birthdays, you really can't go wrong.

And so it was with this year. My wonderful hubby took off a half day of work to treat me to a perfect day.

It started with a lovely lunch at Jason's Deli (complete with a Mavericks player spotting). Then we ventured down to the Dallas World Aquarium. We almost circled the building seven times, but finally found the entrance hidden in all the foliage. GREAT!

We started off our viewing by checking out some fun howler monkeys and birds, when...WAMMMOOOO....right between Joe's and my head. After holding in a few choice words, we noticed it was a birdy that had PLOWED into the glass. He really looked like he wasn't going to get up, so Joe went off in search of a keeper and I guarded the bird from the annoying boy wanting to pet it. When mr. keeper came, the bird had gotten onto its feet finally, so he scoped it up and informed us, "She tried this yesterday too." NEAT! A suicidal bird. So, needless to say, I was on edge for a bit of our exploring. Here are some of our pics from the event.



After the aquarium, we went to Zea's for some good food, complete with a piece of chocolate cake served with a glass of cold milk. Does it get better?

Intermission consisted of Joe giving me a book on photography and informing me that donations have been made for me to get the all new Canon Rebel XSI!!! Wahoo!

The day ended with a 'private showing' (as we were the only ones in the theatre) of the Tale of Despereaux. A noble tale of a noble mouse that saves his kingdom and the princess.

Like I said, a perfect day. If it takes getting older to have more wonderful days with the people I love, I guess I'll go for it!

Thank you all for the special birthday wishes!

The scene of a crime??

I walked outside onto our patio the other morning to find a grizzly site. Were we the scene of a horrendous crime? Here is what I found.
After a bit of sleuthing, I came upon this lone witness.He seemed content to watch the morning sun rise and nothing more. Was this the behavior of the guilty party?

After a few moments of interrogation, let's face it, he's a dog...it's not that hard to crack him with a few milk bones and a belly pat. And, no...that was not badgering or tricking the witness, again, he's a dog.The following is what our sketch artist, Mr. Olympus was able to put together with the witness's testimony.Sadly, after his account, we discovered HE was the perpetrator and we had to take him into custody. So we took him inside and gave him some peanut butter!Good dog! We love you!

They're Engaged!!

Congratulations Jennifer and Jamie!!!
That's right...I got just about everything on my Christmas wish list this year, including 'something shiny' for my sister! Jamie proposed on the 29th of December, 2008! AND SHE SAID YES!!!

Jennifer and Jamie, we are so excited for you both. We love you and we can't wait for all the madness and fun to commence! Look for a wedding coming near you this summer!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11

Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas and time to revel in the Greatest Joy!
-- Leanna, Joe and Ryker!