Rules of Thumb

Three rules I have discovered in the past 3 days:

1) Always use your mirrors when backing out of the garage.

2) Be extremely cautious when setting a glass of orange juice somewhere that your puppy can spill it on your laptop.

3) No matter how late you are running, always put your puppy outside first thing in the morning. Period.

*sigh* It's been an interesting three days...

Puppy Update

Juju is now 4 months old. Her last visit to the vet was last Friday, when she received her final set of vaccinations and her rabies shot. She weighed in at 26 pounds!! The vet says you can estimate their adult weight by doubling it at 4 months, so she will probably grow to twice her size now: 50 pounds or so.

She is doing well with potty-training; in fact, I'd say she's pretty well potty-trained, although you still have to make sure she's let out frequently. But she is fine being left in the kitchen for 4-5 hours at a time (although one of us is usually home after 3-4 hours of "alone time"). We have taken to keeping the garbage can and kitchen towels up on the counter out of reach, though!

She loves water and loves to dump her water bowl all over the kitchen floor...many times a day, if possible! And of course she is in the chewing stage, which they say puppies go through between 4-6 months, growing in their new adult teeth. So she always has to have something in her mouth. And she really craves a good 20-30 minute walk each evening! But I'm glad not to have a "barky" dog, because she generally only barks at me if she wants attention, a walk, food, or when she wants to come inside.

She does really well socially. She loves to play with the neighborhood dogs and kids and loves to run around the yard. She knows sit, stay, down, shake, and speak really well, and is doing pretty well with come.

She has graduated from sleeping in her crate/kennel (which she has incidentally now outgrown and needs a new one before I can confine her in one again) to sleeping in my bedroom with me. Yes, I let her sleep on the bed!

She still has a lot of puppy energy, but I think she doing pretty well for a four-month old dog!

Piles & Piles

Piles, piles of stuff. I have many piles. Usually papers and books. Why do I have piles?? I've been asking that question to myself lately. If I put the books that I've been wanting to read on the bookshelf, I will forget that I haven't read them yet, so therefore they must be in a pile by my bed. Magazines...I probably haven't read the last 10 magazines I've received, thus they are in a pile somewhere to read. A pile of unopened mail that I haven't gotten around to yet. A small pile of bills to pay the first of the month. Piles of music to give to students. Piles of music to put back on the shelf. A pile of music to go through and see what I want to keep. A pile of dishes in the sink to wash (or load into the dishwasher). Piles of folded clothes (or not so folded) to put away.

I have some excuses for these piles, but I don't know if they are really valid reasons to have piles or not. It takes energy to take care of a pile, whether it be reading the material or washing the dishes...many days I don't have much energy when I get home (at least not for that kind of stuff) so a lot of times I wait for a day that I can get up in the morning and have a fresh start on this stuff (i.e., Saturday). Saturdays are great days to sort through piles!

Another excuse is that I tend to be a visual person and will totally forget about something if it has been "stored away" somewhere.

And the last reason to have piles is that there is no place yet designated to store the aforementioned "stuff."

The bad thing about having piles is that you get used to it. And sometimes I let things "pile up" in my spiritual life. Whoops. Forgot to have my devotions for the last 5 days...now I have to read 10 chapters of Deuteronomy in one sitting (as an example). Can I really make it a point/habit to take care of some of these things EVERY day??

There is a whole lot of accomplishment derived from taking care of a pile. Sometimes it is very freeing to get things taken care of in the short term and not have a whole pile of "dishes" or whatever sitting in the sink. So I'm not trying to make excuses, I'm just trying to figure out why I do things the way I do and if they should be done that way or not.

My Piano

Okay, I know I said I had decide what to get this year: a Mac, a dog, or a piano. Well, the Lord provided all three for me this summer in His time! A friend had an acquaintance trying to get rid of a piano, so I decided I would at least look at it. I had been hoping to spend only about $500 or $600, and this piano (once I got there) was quoted to me as $800. But it appeared to be in very good condition, hadn't been moved for a long time...also hadn't been tuned in 3 years, but I did like the feel of it, even though it's only a "Cable" brand. I looked at it on a Thursday, I think, then that Sunday night (we didn't have church) a group of guys from the Career Class jumped into a car from the softball game they had at church and loaded it up onto a lift truck that another man from church had. I didn't have to even lift the bench! Praise the Lord for a great church family! I haven't written about it yet because this all happened the week right BEFORE Sarah came to live with me, so I've been kind of busy since then! We have played the piano, although now it desperately needs tuning, but a co-worker from school has offered his services to come tune it for me, and he's not even going to let me pay him. Jehovah-Jireh!

Heartache

I heard some bad news today. I found out that one of my "favorite" students at school--a Senior!--was expelled from school due to a bad decision he made at the high school retreat. I honestly don't know much more than that as to what exactly the offense was (although a girl was expelled as well)--and I don't need to know--but this just makes me very sad and disappointed. I'm sure this student had no intententions of wrongdoing but just let wrong thinking get in the way. I hope and pray that he doesn't allow this wrong thinking to become a manner of life, but accepts God's forgiveness and allows this to strengthen his resolve to walk with the Lord.

It is so easy to make "stupid" decisions...but our actions do have consequences. It is VERY easy and tempting to think that one little thing won't make a difference, or it won't matter if I do this one wrong thing that lasts but a fleeting moment...but that's a lie. What we do will affect not only the rest of our school year but quite possibly the rest of our lives. (I know I will definitely miss this person around school.) We never even realize sometimes how our actions affect those around us--especially those who look up to us. It is so easy to want to do something "stupid" (I know I am tempted sometimes!) UNLESS we are keeping our focus on God and His marvelous plan for our lives.

I believe Pastor Viars is planning to speak from the life of Jonah soon and how his actions had consequences for those around him. Just think of the men on the ship with Jonah who almost drowned! I need to keep an eternal focus whenever I am tempted to think that what I do will only affect me. That is definitely not true.

This is also a good reminder to me of how important it is to keep being daily renewed in my mind (Rom. 12:1-2, Phil. 4:8) or else it is easy to just get caught up in the worldly things of the moment. By spending time with the Lord EACH DAY (which is a struggle for me) I am helping myself to make right choices and, more importantly (what I need to work on) to think right thoughts.

(BTW, since this is a matter of common knowledge, I don't see this blog as gossip, but rather just sharing my thoughts and what I have learned and been reminded of through this situation in MY life.)

All Moved In

Well, my little sis Sarah is here and all moved in to her red room! She came down on Tuesday night, followed close behind by my parents, who had most of her stuff packed away in their minivan. We spent pretty much ALL day Wednesday, Thursday, and again Friday going through her stuff and my stuff, figuring out where to put things and organizing. Mom and Dad were a HUGE help in buying organizers and getting the garage laid out really nice so we can put both cars in the garage! (Dad even put the finishing touch on my hanging tennis balls from the ceiling right so we know how far in the garage to park!)

Mom and Dad were thinking of leaving Friday but stayed one more day to finish helping get organized. We even spent a few hours at my office getting a few things moved around!

But we did take some breaks to eat out at some of the fine dining establishments in town (Cracker Barrel, IHOP, and Hunan Chinese Cuisine)...thanks Dad!

We were so busy I did NOT take any pictures, but I will have to snag a few soon of some of the new things.

Oh, have I posted about the PIANO yet? I have not...oh, I will have to post about that, too. I got a piano LAST week!!

Okay. Enough for now.

A Speck

Can you find the earth in this photo?
Today in our Teacher In-Service meetings, Dr. Frank Hamrick, our speaker, showed us this pretty cool pic taken from space. This is a picture of the earth taken from a satellite headed out to Pluto; it had been traveling about 140 miles a second for 20 years. Can you find the earth in a sunbeam? We're just SPECKS on THAT speck!!! How great is our GOD!

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Psalm 8:3-4

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

I dedicate this post to my littlest sis, Sarah, who turned 22 yesterday (August 7). She is done with college and is ready to be out on her own, so she is coming to live with ME in Lafayette next week (probably August 15) and find a job. I'm looking forward to having her with me. Her red room is all painted and she is looking forward to furnishing it herself (after I get her a bed.) Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

My sister Rachel got her and her husband tickets to the NASCAR race this Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Allstate 400 at the Brickyard). So they got to come down and stay with me from Friday night (I beat them home by half an hour) until they left this morning (Monday) at 9:30 a.m. They also brough their dog Reeses--so Juju had her "chew toy" again! We drove around and did some shopping here in Lafayette on Saturday. They came to church with me for the 9:30 service Sunday morning, then left at 11:00 to head to Indy to catch the beginning of the 2:30 race. (The dogs and I had a good nap on Sunday afternoon, though.) Matt & Rachel said they were able to still get there an hour before the race and hang around a little afterward. Their backs were a little redder when they got back because of being out in the 90-degree temperatures and the beating sun. But they said they had good seats in the "H" section (by Turn 4 and the entrance to the Pits) and were able to have the Jumbotron in front of them. It sounded like they had a good time, even though Matt's favorite driver is Jeff Gordon and he did NOT win the race. But now Matt has a Jimmie Johnson hat. And I think they bought a Jeff Gordon T-shirt or two. They came home around 9:30 exhausted from all the walking and from being in the sun. Hope you guys had fun! I enjoyed having you stay here!

Pics in Michigan (see post below)

Tim & Kristen

Swimming in Lake Superior at Little Presque Isle

Tim & Kristen at Dead River Falls

Eating a Pasty Supper at Presque Isle

Juju with cousins Tippy & Reeses

I'm Back!

Just wanted to let you know that I arrived back in Lafayette safely after being in Upper Michigan for the last week or so. And, sorry, I am on the computer that I have NOT loaded my pictures on to, but I will try to add pictures from my laptop later today.

I had a fabulous time in Michigan. My friends Jon & Kristie got married. It's hard to believe they are actually married now because I can remember knowing Jon when he was probably about 6 or 7! Their wedding was very nice.

I enjoyed being in my parents' church for Sunday's services. I got to hear my brother preach in the evening service.

But the best thing was just getting to spend time with my family and getting to meet my brother's girlfriend Kristen. It's kind of weird to see him "all grown up" and holding hands with a GIRL...but I survived. And I really like Kristen. She is a very sweet girl. And even though we didn't win all of our games of Rook, she played well. Apples to Apples was very fun too. We played that a LOT! But we never got tired of it. It was also fun to pull out old home videos (especially ones like Tim in the "kissing chair") to show Kristen. I miss those days!

Monday we got to spend that hot day out hiking and swimming. Lake Superior is still cold! But by the time we went swimming it actually felt good. That was the day I got a nice sunburn on my back (which started peeling today) and also jammed a finger. I'm hoping that knuckle will soon be back to normal as it's still sore.

Tuesday and Wednesday nights we spent out at Van Riper National Park in my parents' pop-up camper. (My parents, Tim & Kristen, and myself). Kristen and I shared a bed with Juju, who was helpful in getting us up nice and early in the morning! Otherwise, Juju was very good--most of the time. And she traveled very well in the car for 10 hours each way. Get the air conditioning on her and she goes right to sleep!

My youngest sister Sarah had a Luau (open house party to celebrate her move away from home) Thursday night before Tim & Kristen and myself had to leave Friday morning. She baked probably the whole time we were gone camping! Great food and party, Sarah! Sarah is planning to come move down with me on August 15.

I will plan to add pictures later. But I had a great time in the U.P.

Settlers of Catan

Settlers is a great game, but it is awfully hard to track down if you want to buy it! My brother and his girlfriend Kristen were planning to buy it and bring it up to Michigan with them for this next week when we're all together. I suggested getting it off of ebay since they couldn't find it in any stores. So they shipped it to Kristen's parents' house because they figured it would arrive while they were there. Well, Tim called me today and said it hadn't gotten there yet and they are planning to leave tomorrow (before the mail comes).

So I decided to see if I could find it anywhere. I went to Toys 'R' Us tonight and asked about it. The guy I asked said, "Yeah, other people have asked about that game but I haven't found it yet." (So why don't they stock it by now, I ask myself?) So as I was walking out, one of the cashiers who was just standing around (the place was absolutely deserted) suggested 2 other places I might go: Castle Comics store (sounds kind of scary) and Game Stop at Levee Plaza. Well, to make a long story short, I drove around for a while but didn't find either place. So I decided to go online to ebay and see what I could do about ordering it and sending it up to MY parents' house so we can have it for next week! I just finished ordering it.

So, we'll see if we ever get to play it. I played it at the Duttons a few years ago and it's a very fun game!

On a side note, doesn't this sound as if my brother and his girlfriend are making "family-type" purchases together?? Hmm, I can't wait to meet this Kristen in 2 days!

Scrapbooking

Some of you have asked how my scrapbooking is going. So here's an update!

I'm almost there on the scrapbook project that I'm trying to finish before I leave for Michigan on Thursday!

This morning (after working on this project off and on since Wednesday) I finally put all the pages in their respective albums with no leftover pictures (well, except for the ones I decided not to use). All that's left to do is to LABEL all of these pages now! (That's still quite a project; it's probably going to be at least 4 hours of work, I'm guessing.)

So I counted up all the pages I did because I'm going to need page protectors for them now: 44 pages (well, double-sided I guess that would be 88)!

My living room floor is finally starting to emerge from underneath a covering of paper, pictures, and stencils.

And I only had to chase the puppy around a few times for grabbing paper (she likes chewing on paper), a pencil, or my corner rounder and taking off. Overall she actually did pretty well at not touching all the junk on the ground--of course, she had to be relegated to the kitchen a lot!

1 More Week of Summer

Summer blahs. I feel like my mind is on summer vacation along with my schedule. I'm feeling very unproductive these days, and I'm having a hard time remembering WHAT I'm supposed to do, anyway. For instance, yesterday my big accomplishment was teaching a whopping 4 piano lessons and getting my new debit card activated by using it in at ATM. Other than letting my friends' dogs out 3 times a day, that's about all I got done (off of my "to-do" list--if I had one), and it felt like the day flew by. However, it is nice to be able to have a few hours to relax, take a nap, fix a sandwich, surf the net, or read a few chapters in a book. Oh, I have watched a few movies lately, too: Skeleton Key, Love's Eduring Promise, Two Weeks Notice, The Others--those were over the last few days. Today I spent a couple of hours over at school teaching preschool music and practicing for Sunday, but the rest of my day I'm planning on devoting to scrapbooking. That's my big project to get done by next week.

It's been nice to have some "lazy days" of summer, but those are fast coming to a close. Next Thursday I live for Michigan for a week, and when I come back I start back to "school mode." Aahhhh! Where has the summer gone! There was more stuff I wanted to get done, more books I wanted to read, and some more projects I was going to work on.

But I did accomplish one summer goal: I DID get a puppy! So it's been nice to have time to devote to my little baby. On a side note, it seems as if every time I take my dog for a walk, we meet new neighborhood dogs, but for some reason we never see the same dogs we've already met! I don't see how we can meet 2-3 new dogs a night and never repeat on the old ones! My puppy just got "terrorized" by a loose dog out in the backyard, too--looked kind of like a boxer. She was semi-friendly, but just charged over Juju and really scared her! Don't remember meeting her before, either! Oh well.

BATHTIME!

We survived Juju's first bath today!

She tried to escape, but I was able to hold her in the tub. After a couple of minutes, I think she even started to enjoy the massage. And with all that hair gone, she's bound to feel cooler in this heat wave--today's high was 94 degrees! She wasn't even that hyper afterward; she was ready to go to sleep. On a side note, I think she's going to have shorter fur like either a lab or German shepherd--and it seems very resilient to water.


Worn out!


In the backyard after her bath.

The Dog Thermometer

Today is probably the hottest day of the year so far. Earlier my outside thermometer read 101 degrees, although it tends to read a little hotter than the actual temperature. Praise the Lord for air conditioning!

Juju is a good thermometer of whether it is cooler outside or inside--she will find the coolest place because she hates being hot! Today I tried turning on the box fan in the kitchen to see if that helped her feel cooler. Later I let her have the run of the house and I discovered that the coolest place in my house must be my bathroom floor, because that's her new favorite nap spot!

Today is definitely an INSIDE day!!

Blueberries Blueberries

Japanese beetles--those awful insects that love fruit like blueberries and can be found all over some of the branches and berries of blueberry bushes! (And even on Macintosh apple trees; I know that firsthand.)

I had an opportunity to encounter some of these creatures, because last night after church my friend Marney Rausch invited me (i.e. talked me into) going blueberry picking with her this morning, bright and early at 7 AM! Today was opening day at the Prelock Blueberry Farm. I'd only been out there picking once before a year or two ago--and never on the first day of the season.

Okay, Marney, yes, if you're reading this, I was very glad I went. The berry picking was excellent; there were LOTS of people there (and lots of helpful workers that I knew!); and the weather was perfect--it hadn't warmed up too much yet. There weren't TOO many Japanese beetles (they are pretty lethargic that early in the morning anyway). We (Marney, Amy Shaw, and I) cleaned up quite a few blueberry bushes and decided to call it quits around 8:30. I ended up with 8 pounds (24 cups) of blueberries!

So I came home, and instead of going back to sleep as I had planned, I ended up making 2 dozen blueberry muffins, a blueberry coffeecake, and a blueberry pie. And then I froze the other 16 cups!

Pirates II

I just got back from seeing Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest. This was my first time to see a movie on its Opening Day (well, technically it ended on the next day). I went with my friends Keilah, Joy, and Ashley.

I'll try not to ruin it for any of you who haven't seen it yet, but I really liked it. Of course, I'm a die-hard Pirates fan, so anything with Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow is bound to be good. And Jack is definitely back. One thing I liked was that it seemed as if all of the same actors were playing the same parts, so that really helped with continuity. It is definitely more of a "middle" movie, as in it is definitely a plot kind of buffer, setting up the finale in the third of the series. In fact, sometimes the plot was a little tricky to figure out, but that just makes me want to see it again to see if there's anything I missed the first time around.

Of course, there's the unreal scenarios of getting out of tight places and falling off of high places (and lots of rolling balls or wheels in this one), but the CGI stuff definitely makes up for that! I thought the special effects were tremendous; everything was very real-looking and some of the scenes were just really cool. I have no idea how they made some things look the way they did, but it was really cool. I would tend to rate the graphics somewhere akin to the Lord of the Rings.

I would highly recommend it--especially if you liked the first one (well, probably ONLY if you liked the first one). But nonetheless, a great movie. Can't wait for Number Three!

A Whole New World

I was at PetSmart yesterday. I am gradually getting back into the "Pet World." I had forgotten how overboard some people can go with pets, how many products are out there, how many different kinds of foods, training materials, toys, collars, books, etc., etc. are out there. There must be a lot of spoiled pests--uh, I mean pets--out there. (that was a real typo; I just decided to leave it in) One thing that surprised me was the number of "organic"-type products. I realize there are some people that are really gung-ho about organic stuff for people, but I didn't realize they were into it for pets too!

I've also been reading almost every book in my public library about dogs, housebreaking, and dog training. Wow. There are a lot of ideas there, too. Never play tug-of-war, only play tug-of-war if you win all the time, don't give tennis balls, do give tennis balls, don't give rawhide, don't paper-train, do this, don't do that. Which is actually extremely helpful, but I've been out of the "pet world" for so long, reentry is a little bit of a shock! I haven't had a puppy for 15 years, so it's very fun, but a lot of repetition too. Teaching the same things over and over and over and over. Right now she must be teething because we've been working on NOT BITING!! (Especially people's hands.) Hopefully she'll grow out of it, because she's sure not catching on most of the time from me. And I've tried everything in the books!!!

It's a whole new world, that pet world!

Happy Independence Day!

You will be so tired of me posting about my dog!

Yesterday we had some thunderstorms, and Juju likes playing with the rain gutter--and the mud, too, of course. She doesn't understand the concept of coming in out of the rain yet!

So here's a few more pictures. Juju's almost 11 weeks old now and she's growing! She's over 10 pounds now, but still likes to be carried, as I carried her all the way home from church Sunday afternoon as she was very warm (it was over 90 degrees). She's definitely gotten used to the air conditioning!

It is still rainy this morning, but hopefully it will clear up before the fireworks tonight!