"May You Believe That God Is Good"

WHAM. Sometimes you need to be hit upside the head with things.
I've been reminded today that God is Good. That God wants to give us the desires of our hearts and does not wish to give His children stones when they ask for fish. It is true, that if God is not answering our prayers with a "yes" it is because He has something far better in mind.
Now we pray for grace. Grace to accept what we cannot change, and to look forward to the better things that we cannot see.

A Year In This Life

I missed our one year anniversary by one day. One year ago yesterday we moved into out house! I was just sitting here going through our pictures when it occurred to me just how much has happened in one short year. Sometimes I think time flies by so fast it seems like there isn't much new to report, other times it drags while I look forward to a special day or event. It's easy to take for granted all the fun...and mundane...things that have happened in the last year. SO, in an effort to give all those little moments their due, here is a summary of the last 12 months:

We bought a house.

Welcome Home!

We Adopted an Interior Decorator

And gave him a bath.

Our First Christmas Tree- And we managed to keep from getting a "Charlie Brown"

We sold this vacuum and got a new one- LOVE IT!

We Made New Friends

Belfast Babes (Buds?) something like that

(Krista, Kristin, Anna, Meghan, Becky at Beth and Jamey's Wedding)

Samson made new friends too.

We celebrated a New Year!

(And I put makeup on Anna:)

We broke in our new bar.

...and learned new skills

Andy did manual labor

And the Kreider girls dressed like princesses

Krista learned new riding techniques

And we went to lots of weddings!

We helped friends say final farewells to being single...

...but still had a good time on the dance floor.

(is she singing "I kissed a girl..and I liked it?")

We learned about "Boater's Safety"

We had some good times :)

...and we're ready for more!

Hide-Don't-Seek-Me

We have a game we play with Samson- it's doggie hide-n-seek. One of us holds onto Sam while the other runs to hide. Once hidden, the hider whistles and Samson is released. He wanders around the house, darting from room to room, until he discovers us and we “throw a party” in his honor. Sam really likes this game and Andy really enjoys watching the dog scamper through the house, slipping and sliding on wood floors while his rear end fishtails into walls and around corners.
I like my floor.
I like my floor scratch-free.
This game is not good for my floor.
But most of the time they can persuade me to partake in the little game- it's hard to resist those two pairs of big blue eyes (ok one pair blue, one mismatched) and the drooling...I try to tell Andy it's not very becoming but he just can't help himself when it comes to hide-n-seek.

So we play, my floors get scratched, and Samson learns new tricks.
One thing Samson doesn't seem to understand is that he does not hide well. Sure, he'll sit still with one of use behind the bar or in a closet...but Samson pants -Samson pant real loud! So Samson is just always the finder. That's the way we play the game.

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Samson also has a penchant for the trash in the bathroom. Doesn't matter what's in there; gobs of hair, plastic shampoo bottles, tissues, he likes to pull the stuff out and spread it around in the room where we keep his cage. Call it a hobby.
Unbeknownst to Samson we've equipped him with an anti-bathroom-trash-digging-device. It hangs around his neck, bears his name and home address, and makes a loud clanging noise when it hits the edge of the trash can. Oblivious to the noise, he continues to snuff around in the trash until one of us comes to stop him but nonetheless the alarm is sounded and we can try to help him break his dirty little habit. Unfortunately for us, Samson doesn't seem to want to be rehabbed.
A few days ago Andy was sitting at the dining room table working on his flight records when the alarm was sounded in the bathroom. He put on his gruff voice and called “Samson, what are you doing?!” The alarm stopped and there was an odd scuffling noise that caused Andy to get up and investigate. He reached the bathroom door and peered inside- no dog. “Samson?” He called again. Silence. “That's weird,” Andy thought to himself as he turned to leave the bathroom. Until he heard panting: “heh...heh...” silence.
He leaned back into the bathroom peered at the shower. Stepping the curtain, he pulled it back...lo and behold! Samson was hiding in the shower! Holding his breath so as not to be heard, and hoping he won't get his little furry butt yelled at!

Needless to say there wasn't a whole lot of chastising that went on since Andy was beside himself laughing at this big hairy dog that had finally learned how to hide.