A Dog's Life

Mellon is John's dog, there is no doubt that she belongs to him body and soul. This day John 'helped' her by letting her off her chain in the back so that she could run and play, well she jumped the fence and went on a merry chase through town. She's a big dog, so we stayed close to her and met a few neighbors along the way as she visited every dog, horse, small child, cat and interesting bush she could find. We were rather impressed, she never picked a fight, never got involved with the more aggressive dogs around and never did anything really bad she just wanted to run, and run with glee she did. She eventually ended up out in the country and with the help of a really nice man and his two sweet little girls we rounded her back up and brought her home.

John showed us how she got loose, he took her chain off, just as we suspected but he couldn't tell us until he could show us. So we explained to him that she could have gotten hit, or lost, or killed or taken to doggie jail and that he needed to take care of her by making sure that those things didn't happen to her. The rest of the evening they spent like this.





She could have easily gotten lose, but no she went with him through narrow doorways, long cartoons, and circles through the house. Occasionally she would look at us like we needed to rescue her and of course we didn't because she is John's dog and he wasn't doing anything bad, just annoying, lol, kinda like her earlier in the day.

He continues to drag her around like this and she does slip away when he isn't paying close enough attention but then she always sits and lets him get her again. We couldn't have asked for a better dog for him, we are so thankful to have her.

Crack Me Up

I can't remember what they were watching on my computer, Kick Buttowski, Top Shot, something like that and of course they were enjoying it!

Who are you tonight?

John has watched a good bit of Dr. Who with us and so when Mark came across this little weird looking flashlight he gave it to John and told him that it was his own sonic screwdriver. John was cracking us up this night reading with his sonic screwdriver. Other nights he has out the wand that Mark carved for him and is cursing the dog as Harry Potter and still other nights he is dashing through the house looking for stuff with his sword, he's Link. Gotta love that imagination.

Happy Birthday to My Beloved

In February Mark celebrated his 42 birthday, he gets more amazing each year.



I'm thinking this birthday apron is a little more manly than him wearing mine and I just love it when we cook together. I love you sweetheart, it's been wonderful sharing your birthday with you and we look forward to sharing many many more!

Look No Hands

John's chair was broken for almost 2 weeks. A few days before the chair broke he flat refused to walk in blue (the walker in the picture), but true to his good nature the moment the chair was obviously broken he asked to be taken to blue and when I asked him what he was going to do to get around while his chair was being repaired he told me he'd walk in blue, like duh mom, what else. Each day we saw him get strong and walk further, this was taken a few days before the chair was back and the day before the chair was back he walked further and better than we had to this point ever seen him do.

I was worried that when the chair came back home that he would refuse to walk in blue. I am only willing to choose so many battles and while this is one that I was willing to engage in, I didn't want to have to do that. So we told him that since he was sick, little uti, and wasn't feeling well that he could wait and walk in blue when his fever had broken and he was feeling better. The second day the chair was home, still running a fever he showed me that he could park his chair and put himself in blue if I would hold the back of it so it wouldn't move and gladly walked with it into the living room to nap because after all he is sick. He amazes me constantly.

Snakes on a Pole

In the readings for last Sunday was a passage that used to take me by surprise somewhat, Moses putting a snake on the pole at God's command for the people to look at while they were being bitten by poisonous snakes so that they would live and not die from the snake bite. In the view of the world this is just nuts, first off if there is a snake in the room I am definitely not taking my eyes off of it and secondly if I get bit by said snake my first instinct is to kill the thing and then second is to call 911. Okay so Moses and the Israelites didn't have 911, but still, it's hard to imagine someones dad or mom telling the little kid that just got bit to look at the snake on the pole and it will all be better. It's even harder to imagine the little kid being able to look away from the thing that hurts so bad, it's hard to imagine a mom or dad being able to look away from their child's wound or their own.

Mark's sermon this past Sunday equated the snakes to the problems that go on around us and in the end used a stanza from St. Patrick's Breastplate, in my head these go together perfectly and look like this:

Sometimes this world is scary
Christ be with me,

The thoughts whirl in my head of how much bad can happen
Christ within me,

The things in my past come back to haunt me,
Christ behind me,

The future is uncertain,
Christ before me,

Sometimes I'm lonely,
Christ beside me,

Even those closest to me don't always understand the hurts,
Christ to comfort and restore me,

I'm scared to fall into the pit of despair,
Christ beneath me,

The world is so huge, sometimes I feel lost and insignificant,
Christ above me,

In the still of the night the nagging worries can over take me,
Christ in quiet,

I'm scared,
Christ in danger,

I need to hear from someone that I know and trust that Christ forgiveness is real,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,

I need to know that I'm not alone in this world.
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

Pushing the Cart

With his chair broken John got lots of practice walking, this was the very first time he walked a cart out of the store, Sam's no less, that's a lot of walking, and he did it beautifully. I'm walking with him and never could quite let go of the cart, other than to step over to get the balloon that the service desk ladies wanted him to have, but I wasn't pushing the cart neither was I actually keeping it from running away from him. These little things are the most amazing!