Weekend Getaway!

Well, even though it was a tough week, it came at the perfect time! Last weekend (actually on Thursday), I flew up to Greer (God bless Allegiant Air that allowed me to fly for $120.00!) to go to a Beth Moore Conference with my mom and sister-in-law, Heather! It was a wonderful weekend.

Actually, the conference was just on Friday night and Saturday morning. So Thursday I got to spend some time with my parents at North Greenville (where my dad works) and, of course, at their mountain house. It's almost done, and I regret that I don't have any pictures. It's so beautiful!

The conference was on persevering through trial and it was based on James 1. I've actually never done a Beth Moore Bible Study, so I was overwhelmed by what an amazing teacher she is. The topic was perfect for me. There are lots of blessings in my life, but there are some pretty big trials too (see last posting), so it was a wonderful reminder for me that God is doing great things! It was also so fun to be with my mom and Heather! The picture below is of us at the conference (with the 17,0o0 other women - lots of control issues in one place)

After the conference, I got to go by Newberry to see my best friend, Melanie and her daughters. She was at her parents house for the weekend because she ran a race that morning. I haven't seen her since last May, so it was wonderful to stop by even though it was a very quick visit. Anna was feeling a little tired, so she was not eager to be in the picture!

After that, we headed to Greenville to meet Chris's family for dinner. We ate at Trio, which is so good. I don't think I've eaten there since before I moved down here. Below are pictures of us at dinner. Haegen Lee and Jake are so cute!

What a beautiful niece I have! After all that, I was very ready to get back home to see Dan, who stayed here for the weekend. He and his brother, Dustin, worked hard doing stuff around the house, which made the weekend doubly good! It was amazing to see all the people I got to see this weekend! I sure do miss SC! There's something so special about it!

Very Sad News...

Well, today was a big day because Alli had a vet appointment to get a check-up and also an x-ray to find out how many puppies she's having. The vet did her x-ray and came back in to inform me that she's not pregnant! He said she definitely has some external signs, which of course we have been noticing, but she has something called a false pregnancy. I can't really explain it all here, but the bottom line is, no puppies for now.

That news would be very disappointing in and of itself since it's something we have invested a lot in and have really been looking forward to, but it's even harder on top of our own struggles to have a baby. We've been trying now for about two years. It was a good thing that I had the day off today, because I've definitely been doing a lot of grieving.

I know in the bottom of my heart that God is good and faithful, and he's in control of all this stuff. But it's hard to face this kind of disappointment over and over again. Anyway, I'm sure we'll give it another try with Alli when her next heat comes (in five months). I guess we won't have to do all that work with puppies over the next couple of months, which is one bright side!

So just keeping those of you who read this posted!

It's been a while!

OK, so it's not as easy to keep writing on this blog as I thought it would be! Plus, we've both been so busy lately that I don't even have the energy! This week, I had the most sessions I've ever had: 23 - and that was after two cancellations! Needless to say, I'm very happy to be home, and I'm glad it's the weekend!

Two weekends ago, we got Alli's whelping box built! That was a fun project for us because we've never built anything together before. I would put a picture of it on here, but I'm too tired to get up and do that right now! I'm sure you'll see it when the puppies come! Monday, Alli goes to the vet to get a check up and an x-ray to see how many puppies she having! Hopefully, she will cooperate!

Last Sunday, I made my first big Florida mistake. I've lived here for five years, and I've been really good about using sunscreen! I haven't gotten burned the whole time I've lived here. But Sunday afternoon, I went to Dan's soccer game, and I forgot the sunscreen. My legs got so burned that I really could have stayed home from work the next day! But I didn't! I certainly learned my lesson! Now I'm in the wonderful stage of starting to itch before I peel. I have learned that we need to keep sunscreen in our cars!

This weekend, we'll spend Easter with Dan's family. Our church does a Saturday night service, so we have started going to that, and then we are able to go to his parents' church on Sunday. We're looking forward to a great weekend!

This week...

Well, I was meaning to post earlier, but I went to get some pictures off the camera, and Dan had already downloaded them to his computer. So I had to wait until today to get my hands on it. Dan took his sister, Megan, up to visit UF today.

We had a great weekend with Chris and Sarah last weekend! It was cold, so we didn't get to spend much time on the beach, but it was still fun to be with our friends and very relaxing! They have these automatic storm shutters on the condo, so we could put them down at night and it was sooo dark! Dan was excited because he and Chris got to play golf. I was happy that he was finally using the new driver I got him for Christmas! And we got to eat seafood! Oh, one other thing: we learned that soy burger crumble is actually good!

Alli and Riley had a fun time together. Riley definitely won the energy battle. Alli keeps slowing down a little more each week! But they still played and ran and swam and had lots of fun. You can see from the pictures below. There is also one where she's showing you how she's our 75 pound lap dog! My lap is her favorite place to be!

We've had a good week and I'm glad it's almost the weekend again! Wednesday night I had book club. We read a great book this time called Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris. She's the author who wrote Chocolat. I recommend it to those of you out there who like to read!

We've been leading this bible study called The Truth Project for the past couple of months, and it's really good. Dan could explain it better than I can, but the premise is about whether we really believe what we say we believe and why. It has kind of an apologetic feel, but it examines things like science, the family, the state, etc, how God intended these things to be, and what our world has done with them. It's a lot of information! The only problem is that it's at our house, and it's long, so I'm looking forward to the end to get a little break. I like having people over, but it's a lot when we're both working so much!

This weekend our big project is building a whelping box for our little mama to be! We have to get it ready early so that she will get used to it and hopefully not decide to have her puppies on our bed. By the way, for those of you who wonder about our (or my) obsession with our dog, she's just our surrogate child as we wait (and wait) for God's timing for our children! She's a real blessing in the midst of this time, but we do have perspective! We know she's just a dog!

And Tomorrow...The Weekend!

(This picture doesn't have anything to do with the posting. I just like it. It's from our trip to Europe last September. This is in Berlin!)

I usually feel happy on Thursday nights because the next day starts the weekend (and The Office comes on)! Today has been pretty good anyway, though, because I only worked for about five hours today! I had a very long day at work yesterday, so that was the reward! And our big reward this weekend is spending it at the beach with Chris and Sarah! Sarah was in my counseling class at RTS, and we got really close during the last semester. It's so nice because she and I have a lot in common and Chris and Dan have a lot in common. We never run out of thing to talk about. And they have a golden retriever, Riley, who is Alli's best friend. Riley stayed with us for two weeks back in the fall, and it was very sad for Alli when she had to go home!

One of the quirks about me is that when I find something that I like (food, activities, people, etc), I get kind of obsessed with them. (Maybe I should see someone about that!) Anyway, my new obsession is reading blogs. Every time I find out that someone I know has a blog, I put it into my favorites and check it at least once a day! I think that for me, it's a way to stay connected to close friends who, for the most part, live far away. I'm thankful for them!

Well, that's it for now. Dan's out having dinner with some guys, so I had time write about nothing in particular!

No News is Good News!

I guess what I mean by that title is that there is no news in our lives particularly worthy of a blog posting, but the thing about blogs is that it doesn't really matter. I can write whenever I get that whim!

This week was full even though it was a little shorter since we didn't work on Monday. I work at the Counseling Center at our church, and my client load has grown to the point that I'm going to have to start setting some good boundaries. This is a funny thing because for a long time my big prayer request was that I would get more clients! Anyway, I've started to discover that the more clients I see during the week, the more emotionally raw I am dealing with life in general. For someone who already struggles with anxiety, this can be hard on Dan as well as me! So now we are in the process of praying about what I need to cut back on in my schedule. We do keep it rather full!

Alli is doing well. We don't know yet if she is pregnant, but we don't have any reason to think that she isn't. It's been two weeks now since she bred, so it will still be a few weeks until she starts looking pregnant! It's exciting!

I love the weekend, and it's always kind of sad when another week has to start! But weekends come fast, and we're really excited about next weekend because we're spending it at Amelia Island with our good friends, Chris and Sarah! Yay!

Well, we’ve had a fun and busy weekend! After a week of feeling like there was something big missing in our house, we drove up to Georgia to pick up Alli from her rendezvous with Peyton! It’s an understatement to say that she was excited to see us! We’re hoping that everything went well and that she will be having puppies in late April!

After we picked her up, we drove to Greer, SC to spend the weekend with my parents. It’s always so nice for me to get to spend some time at home, and Dan enjoys it too. On Saturday morning, my Dad, Dan, and I ran the Reedy River 5K in Greenville. There were tons of people there, but it was a lot of fun. Right as it started, my dad said, “If we get separated, jus t meet at the finish line,” and then he left us in the dust! This is a picture of us back at home after the race.

Saturday afternoon, we headed up to my parents’ mountain house, which is only about six weeks away from being completed. Chris, Hae Kyong, and the kids met us up there, and we had a feast of Buck’s Pizza and salad. Then we hung out and played outside. Alli would really like to move up there. It was chilly, but we had a lot of fun. It’s amazing to think that the house should be done the next time I’m up there, and it won’t be long until that will be their home! Dan and I are excited for them!

Now we’re back at home. It was a fun weekend, but it's always good to get home too!