July pic challenge day 19

Thursday was day 19 and this pic was to take a pic of a pet. YAY!!! I love taking pics of Riley & this one I got to take with my new smart phone using Instagram. If you don't have this app yet what are you waiting for?!

Riley James

Yes...my dog has a middle name

He also goes by...

RJ
Stinker dog
Fluffer dog
Good boy dog
and whatever else I come up with on the fly

He's great company, and in his eye (and only his eyes) I can do no wrong. Now who doesn't want a pal like that. I'm so happy that I didn't give up on him when training was challenging and that Nicki found him for me at the shelter. I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world!

He's to clever for his own good

This is the face of a mastermind. Sure he's cute, sure he's a good buddy, but man o man he's a character. The more that he starts to feel comfortable the more he lets his personality start to come out and this week I got to learn a new facet of it.

See Sunday was my graduation from Bible Institute. YAY!!! I'm done...until a new class gets added. But that's another story. However, some of my friends chose to bestow certain gifts upon me to congratulate my efforts and included in one of those gifts were some Hershey Kisses...Yum!

Well Monday night we had a baby shower for Selena and I came home to discover that I am not the only one that likes them. Strewn accross my bedroom floor were about a dozen opened kiss wrappers, which was odd because I thought that I had more in the bag. Now chocolate is not good for dogs, and since Riley is the first dog that has stricly been mine I was concerned about what might happen to him (as a side note I'm happy to report that Riley is doing fine). It was amusing, I thought, that he should have thought to discard the foil from the kisses to get to the good stuff. So that's it right, I thought I'd just keep an eye on him and the next day he was fine. Well at least until Wednesday.

Wednesday afternoon I arrived home after work to see, what I thought were torn up papers on my couch. Torn up papers I thought, until I went over to go & see what exactly it was. Wanna take a guess as to what it was? If you guessed Hershey Kiss wrappers, well then you're right (sorry no prizes on this side). That's right, my clever little guy hid the rest of the kisses (where I don't know), but the thing of it is that he hid them so he would have them for later! Again it wasn't really funny, because who's to know how more chocolate would have affected him (again he's fine), but I had to laugh because he's just too smart for his collar.

So now not only his he a good buddy & a character, but he's also clever, sneaky and has quite a sweet tooth. It's nice to see more of his personality start to show through & that he's letting his fur down as he gets used to his new set up.

Riley gets his groom on

This pic is mostly for Selena since she said she was wanting to see my boy. Since I'm not sure if he'll be coming with me up there is August here is Riley freshly groomed. I can't believe he stayed still enough for me to get it.

I'm happy I found a groomer that is willing to be patient with him as he continue to learn that being touched is OK. The other night I was working on touching his paws (which he hates), but he was humoring me with it, when I found another sign of his old life. Now the same back paw I knew at some point had been broken because it never properly healed & has a dent in it where the bone sort of pokes out, but on the bottom of his paw, one of his peds looks like it had been burned, pretty severely too. I can hardly even tell that that's what it was it was so scared over. I only know it was one of his peds because the bottom of his other paws look all the same except for that one. So sad that people will hurt something that's basically helpless against them.

Even though I liked his hair a little longer, he was getting to many knots in it for me to keep up with brushing them out. Not to mention that all that fluff made him look pudgy (hmmm, to bad I don't look thinner after my haircuts). But a plus with the shorter hair is that he's been sneezing a lot less around the house, as I'm sure that the pollen & grass was sticking to his coat. So I think I'll be keeping it short. Not to mention that for the $35 I spent he got his fur washed & cut, teeth brushed, ears cleaned & a MUCH needed claw trimming. And all the grooming he'll get at the there will hopefully add up to touch therapy for him so he can start to relearn that people are OK. Seriously now, for my $35 hair cut the other day all I got was a trim, of which I had to actually ask the hair dresser to give me a blow dry, and a lot of attitude from the receptionist at the salon, something's wrong with this picture. I think I need to find myself a new groomer too;)

Have I lost my voice?

I pose this question as I've not really found writing at this particular time very engaging lately. I know I have plenty of stories to tell, but when my fingers touch the keys nothing comes of it. Have I lost my voice? I guess I have for now, but since I'm writing here is terribly unclever update as to the goings on in my life.

My days lately since I've moved in have been spent either with my dog or working. Since T's salvation she and I have started working on discipleship studies as well. Which even though we've had to reschedule most of them have been going along fine and lately it seems as though the messages that are preached piggy back our lessons very well. I've been asked to perform a monologue for our Easter cantata. I'll be the woman at the well. I also have a singing solo as well. I'm more memorized up with the song right now then the actual monolgue though. Riley and I have started obedience classes. He's doing OK but refuses to perform the "lay down" command. Except for right now as he's passed out next to me on the couch. TOmorrow he goes to get his claws clipped since he won't let me do it. And tonight he discovered the joy of rifling through the garbage can. I found him with 2 corn cobs early this evening. Greedy little bugger, but he's a fun companion to have right now.

I think that seems to be about it for now. Maybe I can get past this writers block sometime soon and give a better update on Riley and his personality. Because let me just tell you he totally has one, cheeky fellow that he is. Anyway, TTFN.

I'm Still Alive

WOW it's been a long time since I've written anything. A lot has happened, but being tired like I am tonight what I have to share is not very clever, just an update on the things going on for me right now.

I am now officially moved into my new place, and slowly unpacking, not because I like having all my stuff in boxes, because I really hate that. But more because I'm trying to figure out where everything should go. Last week I discovered that the shelves that were left behind for the "pantry" were only cut large enough for them to fit in between the opposing walls, not the actual brackets that they should go between. Argh, it was very agravating. So I went down to Home Depot to see what I could work out. Normally the HD in my town is sub par when it comes to customer service. However, I came accross a helpful guy that was able to have some particle boards cur down for me and they've worker perfectly! I still need to find a way to make room for all the various GF flours I have though. For some reason sticking them on the shelf next to the bathroom just doesn't seem kosher. Other than that things seem to be coming together. I have another couple refurb projects that I'm going to get started as well, but I'll post on those on my other blog.

Riley is trying to get used his new home and we've come up against some issues, but I'm hoping that he starts to get over those as he starts to get more comfortable in his new home. Right now I think I'm more of an food resource for him than anything else, but he loves his walks in the afternoon and his squeeking Kong toy, oh and peanut butter. It's hilarious to watch him lick his chops when he gets going.

Well I hope that can suffice for now. More to come when I can think clearly.

In Every Thing Give Thanks

1 Thessalonians 5:18 -  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

This is where I have found myself over the past couple days, and having a thankful spirit has been harder than normal. It's mostly surrounding work, nothing extra ordinary just feeling like I can't do anything right. I know that's not true, and that any pity I may feel the enemy loves to perpetuate even further in my own mind. This is not a fun place to be. Which is why when I woke up this morning I made it a point to continually thank the Lord for my blessings, like my job, my new home (another source of recent stress), my Riley:), my friends, my Bible, even the recent trip to the Dentist office which had me diagnosed with TMJ (I clench my teeth at night) got a praise because now that I know why my jaw hurts I can fix it (hey, no cracks about how much I talk;)).

See yesterday I made a couple mistakes on some of my write-ups, and with business being slow right now, it didn't make the boss to happy, which bummed me out because they were really ridiculous mistakes (I like my job and I always strive to do my best so I took it really personally, probably more than necessary). Then I found out that my new land lord decided that she wanted to change her mind on me not paying last months rent, although she is giving me a little more time to pay it since I wasn't prepared for it. This was a major disappointment though, because I had planned on using it to make a big payment towards paying down my credit card, especially since my rent is more expensive now and bigger monthly payments will be a bit more challenging. This was my day yesterday. The only pleasant thing about it was that it ended with me sitting in my usual pew at church for mid week service and prayer, boy did I need it. The message didn't relate to my situation at all, but just being where I could hear from the Lord was all I needed to end my night on a peaceful note.

Thank you Lord for my long exhausting day.

Today was better at work, although I was still mad at myself. I accepted my plight with the rent and I got to take Riley on a walk before the rain came.

Thank you Lord for holding back the rain so I could walk my dog and gain some perspective. It may have been gray outside, but it wasn't snowing like it is on my friends & family back east and it was over 40 degrees.

Shortly after the walk I decided to go to H&R Block and ask them a question about my 1098-T from WSU. I only usually file a 1040EZ, but I wasn't sure what to do with the new Tax form from the school. So the lady explained it to me and I basically had to do a 1040A (well really Tax Slayer did it for me online). I inputted my information when I got home, and the outcome was good...at first, but then it turned GREAT!!! Without talking actual numbers lets just say that after using the education credit I'm getting ALL of my $ back from school and that will help me make an even BIGGER payment on my credit card then I had planned, and pay for my last months rent, AND have maybe a little left over for some paint for my room:)

Thank you Lord for exceeding my expectations and for making me patient, even if I was whining a little. I apologize. It may be the IRS doling it out, but no one can out give God!

If you're facing your own set of trials I hope that you remember to take the time to thank the one that gave them to you, you never know where the blessings will come from. 

My new buddy

Many of you know that I have long sought after a canine companion. It has been a long process mostly due to the fact that I haven't lived in a place where I couldn't have one. But with my new place this is no longer an issue.

On Thursday Nicki sent me a link from a local rescue that had a dog named Phoenix available 3yrs old, house trained and good with other dogs and kids. He seemed pretty ideal, but I wasn't wild about the name. However, after Saturday church clean-up Nicki and I went to the shelter to go take a look, and he was just a bundle of cuteness. He was dropped off at the shelter and his fur was in a matted mess, so they had to shave him, and he's not that wild about men right now, but with a little more training and a suitable name he'll be the perfect pet.

I had decided to name him Bo after Boaz in the book of Ruth. But then I realized that the name "Bo" rhymes with "No" and he may get confused if I have to scold him, and I don't want him to get a complex. So if you have any name ideas you want to contribute feel free to do so. I'll let you all know what I come up with/decide on.