Pets!!

We have very good pets...except for our two cats...and that leaves one dog. So we have a good pet. Anyway, we are going to give away our cats because they won't stop puking. Every time a tiny change happens in our life they puke EVERYWHERE. When we put in the new floors, Ember stood in horror looking at them. She immediately started hurling. However, the dog is wonderful. I thought caring for a dog would be so much harder than caring for cats, but apparently not so...as long as you have a nice big fenced in yard. Anyway, for those of you who have not met our collection of pets, here they are in random order. All are self-explanatory except for the pet standoff in the bigger picture. These are the daily pet issues we deal with (no orange boo-bahs were harmed in the taking of this picture...he was an innocent bystander). We love our dog, Shakespeare. He is a wonderful dog, and we are lucky to have found him.

New Floors!!

Well, we found some laminate flooring dirt cheap on craigslist and decided to take on installing it ourselves in our kitchen and dining room. To say the least, it was difficult at first. We had to cut several "special" pieces to fit in "special" spaces. Ok, so Rod did all the cutting. I couldn't cut in a straight line to save my life. We worked until 5am and finally got the dining room done (and re-done a few times). The next day Rod finished up the kitchen, and we think it looks great!! So here are some pictures. Rod is very proud of his work since he's never laid flooring before. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We don't have any major plans for Thanksgiving; we had Thanksgiving dinner at the church tonight. I worked with Terresa all day making mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, and all kinds of other stuff. It was a lot of fun. See everyone soon!!! (2 weeks)

Ode to My Husband: Knight in Shining Armor

I may not be the romantic "damsel in distress" but I cannot thank God enough for the man He has given me to share my life with. Those of you who know me very well (okay so that's probably everyone reading this blog) know that one of my earliest relationships was disastrous and abusive. This shaped a lot of the way I think about men. Sad to say, my early image of a good man created by the example of my father and my heavenly father were shaken when I experienced a horrible example. Even after all my bad decisions and ugliness inside me that went on for years, God decided to raise me up and show me His glory. He showed me that He only wanted to give good things to his precious daughter. Despite all circumstances and my choices (and my PMDD ha), out of all the men in this world, God chose my Rodney for me. He's intelligent, talented, loving, giving, vulnerable, imperfect as we all are, yet perfect for me. I don't know if this next thought is wrong or what, but sometimes I watch other couples, and I see how they work or don't work together. One couple in our church (who are our good friends, by the way), the wife is beyond submissive and does everything her husband tells her to do, and the husband brags about it openly..."I'm the one in charge; I do whatever I want." Now, maybe that works for them in their relationship, and that's great. But it sure makes me appreciate my beautiful husband who is in complete charge of his family without having to tell everyone or demean me in any way. He cares about what I think and works with me to figure out solutions to problems. He doesn't make arbitrary decisions without talking to me about it. We work as a team. Don't get me wrong, of course we have hardships. Our marriage comes with a little girl who's already hitting her terrible two's way early, 2 step children, an ex-wife, an ex-wife's "life partner," and an ex-father-in-law. I'd take it all any day for the absolute joy of spending the rest of my life with Rodney.

The Amazing Power of Prayer

Well, three weeks ago in youth group I challenged three teenagers to "pray without ceasing." We talked about what that meant, and I told them I would hold them accountable. We didn't make it to youth group for 2 weeks (the first week I had to work, and the second week I was sick as a dog and NOT having the time of my life). Let me tell you what has happened through the power of prayer in the last few weeks. First, a man in our church found out he had cancer about a year ago or 9 months ago. The Sunday he announced that he had bone cancer, we, as a church body, laid hands on him and prayed fervently for healing. He's been undergoing treatment for 9 months, the doctors told him that his type of bone cancer was not usually curable, but the tumors could be minimized and his life could be lengthened by maintenance of treatment. This man is a very intense Christian and sold out for Christ. He is involved in the prison ministry and has a powerful testimony. He told the his primary oncologist that he had lots of people praying for him and that he shouldn't expect this case to go as planned. The doctor just shook his head. Now, 9 months later, he had extensive tests and blood work done, and NO CANCER....at all. Nothing. His doctor was completely confounded...Jim made an opportunity to witness to him.

I've heard miraculous stories like that again and again, but never experienced it with someone I knew and had prayed for myself. Should I really be surprised, though? Other affirmations of answered prayer came in the past weeks. I prayed for our small group partners, who've become pretty close friends. They are dealing with some heavy issues. I asked God to show Himself to them in a real and tangible way. The next day, with no prompting from me at all, the woman pulled me aside at church. She excitedly told me that God had revealed himself to her through a prophetic dream. I asked her what time she had dreamed....go figure....the same time I was praying. When I was sick last week I called and asked my Mom to pray. I knew exactly when she prayed for me because I called her and said that I knew she had prayed, and I was already starting to feel better (although her discussion of fried foods almost sent me back over the edge haha!). But that was the turning point in my illness. Today Rod was stuck on a problem he couldn't fix at work. He didn't want to call his boss and tell him that he couldn't fix the problem because he knew his boss would blow up at him and rip him to shreds. I told him I was going to pray that he would figure it out. I prayed that God would fix the problem in a miraculous or supernatural way. I almost laughed at myself for praying for a miracle over something so seemingly small. I called Rod back an hour later and asked him if he fixed the problem. He told me that he hadn't been able to fix it. I thought to myself...well God had a reason for answering "no" to my prayer. But Rod wasn't done...he said "I couldn't believe it; the problem just miraculously fixed itself. I still don't know how it got fixed." I almost fell off my chair. I didn't tell him that I'd been praying for a miracle. Tonight I went to youth group and followed up with my teens who I challenged to "pray without ceasing." I shared with them my experiences. One of the girls agreed with me...she couldn't believe the results of her "praying without ceasing." She prayed without ceasing for her brother, who recently got in some trouble over having drugs in school and has been out of the youth group for over a year, she prayed for him to come back to the youth group. He's been there for the past two weeks. I am overjoyed at the sweeping reality of Christ's power in our lives.

What am I learning out of all of this? God cares about the biggest heartache and the smallest concern in our lives. Can I challenge everyone else the way I challenged my teens to PRAY WITHOUT CEASING"? I think I just did.