All-American Family

Yesterday Chris and I had a beautiful All-American Family moment...

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I was inside cleaning the house from top to bottom and making a dessert for our company that night.  I don't believe in Spring cleaning because Chris and I travel all summer.  I believe in Fall cleaning because then our house is nice and really scrubbed for a new school year.

While I was inside cleaning, my manly hubby was outside fixing a weed-wacker.  Our neighbor gave us an old weed-wacker that didn't work and told us if we got it working, we could have it.  My wonderful hubby got it working no problem.  He was outside fixing tools and wacking-weeds, I was inside spring cleaning...

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And one of Chris' students was outside pulling weeds for us.  He is such a sweet kid and such a great worker.  All I needed was a perfect little baby quietly cooing in her playpen for us to be the perfect family -- Husband and son doing yard-work, Wife cleaning and cooking, Dog outside with the men, Cat inside inspecting the cleaning job.

Chris' student even came in for lunch -- a roast beef sandwich.  :-D

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What a great little picture-perfect, dream-come-true American moment.  :-d

Sometimes and Always

Sometimes and Always with Mackey Madness...



Sometimes: I feel like laundry is never-ending
Always: Until Chris and I join a nudist colony, laundry is never-ending

Sometimes: The best way to get our house in order after we've been traveling is to pretend company is coming
Always: The best way to get our house in order after we've been traveling is to actually have company come -- we have friends spending the night tonight, then different friends over for dinner on Friday -- our house looks GREAT, and we've only been back in town a few days

Sometimes: I am a total sucker for marketing ploys
Always: I support Team USA -- even if I didn't buy the cereal

Sometimes: I feel very grateful for my job and excited to start another school year
Always: I really want to be a full-time homemaker and pray the Lord will call me to that role eventually

Sometimes: My hubby gets annoyed that I freeze bananas in the freezer... and forget about them... and add more to the freezer... and end up with 15 frozen bananas
Always: My hubby enjoys the strawberry-banana muffins I make with the 15 frozen bananas

Sometimes: I realized I don't have all the ingredients for a recipe after I start making the recipe and I make a last minute substitution
Always: It is REALLY rewarding when the substitution creates an even better result -- like when I didn't have blueberries and made strawberry-banana muffins instead of blueberry-banana muffins :-D

Hope you're having a great Wednesday.

Treasuring the Present: Final Days of Vacation

I haven't blogged the past few days mostly because Hubby and I have been savoring our first days back in Rifle and our last days of our summer vacation before we start another school year of work.

I have been exhausted the past few nights so blogging didn't happen, but now I'd like to share how we spent our past few days... treasuring the end of our summer!

Saturday and Sunday, we were pageant parents and we took Lloyd up to the Eagle Canine Days for another Dock Dog competition.  Last weekend, in St. Louis, Lloyd's longest jump was 18'3"... this weekend his longest jump was 22'!!!!  :-D

They measure the jumps where his tail meets his rump... this jump wasn't his best.

This turned out to be a picture of my hubby because Lloyd jumped out of the shot.
Can you see his tail on the left?

Here is a better shot of Lloyd jumping.
Can you see him jumping after the white toy?

We love this pup!

And our little Champ tied for 3rd place in the Masters Finals!
We have high Olympic hopes for him -- Rio 2016 or Bust!  :-D

Doesn't he look proud of himself?

We were so proud and we had a great time.

Here is a video of one of his jumps... not his best jump, but it gives you an idea of what a Dock Dog Competition is.  Lloyd competes in the "Big Wave" Event.


Monday, Chris and I both had long to-do lists... and we totally disregarded them to play hooky together knowing that our days of summer are dwindling away and hooky will not be an option soon.

I started taking these pictures because Hubby was laying with his head on my stomach and then Lloyd brought his head right next to Chris' and I thought it was adorable.

 
But after a few shots, things started to get silly...

Lloyd started licking Chris' ears, neck, head, cheek... we were laughing pretty hard!

After the lick-fest was over, Lloyd relaxed and just looked cute, as usual.

Our kitty-princess always looks restful and adorable!

Chris and I just have so much fun together.  We had an awesome summer traveling, and then we come home and I still get to do everything with my best friend.  Today we played hooky and went to the grocery store.  It almost reminds me of college.  In college I could always find company -- taking a walk, going to the store, watching a movie, joining a club -- there was always someone who wanted to join in the fun.  Marriage is just the most awesome thing in the world.

I love my hubby!  :-D

Olympic Tennis

You what I love?
Watching tennis on television -- US Open, French Open, Australian Open, Wimbledon, and, Oh yes, OLYMPIC Tennis!

You know what I don't love?
Watching an EPIC semi-final Olympic Tennis match between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray... and watching Andy win the first set, stay on serve in the second set until a score of 6-5... and then he goes up 40-0, which means he has 3 MATCH POINTS... and THEN...

It was like a mean joke.

Fortunately, my wonderful husband found the broadcast on the internet and found the exact spot that our recording cut off and I was able to see Murray win and go on to the finals.  I was afraid if I tried to find the internet recording myself, I would see the result of the match.

I am totally pulling for Andy Murray in the Olympic finals, which I think are Sunday (don't hold me to that).  Andy has never won a major grand slam, and a British player has not won a major grand slam in like 79 years.  Andy finished Wimbledon a few weeks ago as second runner-up when he lost to Roger Federer (the same opponent he will be facing for in the Olympic finals).  Murray wants a win for Great Britain SO badly and I want one for him as well.  Here is his touching and very endearing speech that he gave after he finished second at Wimbledon:



Now, he is poised for a Wimbledon re-match against Roger Federer and I am cheering for him wholeheartedly!  Roger Federer is an awesome player, and a really classy competitor, but I want this for Murray.  In addition to the mens' singles finals, he is competing in the doubles tournament with his brother, and in the mixed doubles tournament.  With all of these back-to-back events, Murray is either going to be playing the best tennis of his life, or completely exhausted -- hopefully both.

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You can do it, Murray!  I will be cheering for you, and making sure that my television recording is properly set with PLENTY of time to spare.  :-D

An Attitude of Gratitude

Chris and I have been in Denver the past two days to watch the Colorado Rockies play the St. Louis Cardinals.  Chris and I attended two of the three games decked out in Cardinal gear and we had a blast.

Yesterday, as we were playing with Lloyd in a park, awesome storm clouds started rolling in and I started to ponder an attitude of gratitude.  Please consider yourselves warned, this post, which relays my pondering an attitude of gratitude became a little more rambling than I anticipated.

I have often heard that an attitude of gratitude can really change your perspective in things, and I have tried to focus on being grateful when I'm annoyed with things in the past (mostly when I'm annoyed with my job).

Today, as I watched the storm clouds roll in, I was genuinely grateful for the rain and not at all annoyed that we were planning to see an outdoor baseball game that evening.

The truth is, Chris and I saw quite a bit of rain this summer.  It rained quite a bit while we were traveling on the east coast -- usually when we were driving, it rained when we were at the Nationals Baseball game, it rained the one day we were headed to a Tigers baseball game in Michigan with my parents, it rained the day we needed to load the car when we were in St. Louis, and it rained during the first Rockies v. Cardinals game we saw on Wednesday night.  I should be really annoyed by rain at this point... but I am NOT!

The truth is, WE NEED RAIN!  The entire nation needs rain!  Until we started traveling, Chris and I hadn't seen rain in months... I can't even remember the last rain we had in Rifle before we left for the summer.  We had had snow (a little last winter), but no rain.  Chris and I were SO out of the habit and mindset of rain when we left on our summer travels that we didn't even pack an umbrella for the trip.  :-D

Going without rain for so long and KNOWING how much the nation needs rain, umbrella or not, baseball games or not, getting wet or not, Chris and I are SO grateful for rain every time it arrives.

Yesterday afternoon, watching the clouds roll in, I began to ponder why it was so easy to have an attitude of gratitude for rain, when, occasionally, I really have to work to create in myself an attitude of gratitude for my job.

Then I realized that by the Grace of God, I have never been without a job.  I have been without rain.  When I try to tell myself to be grateful for my job, I'm not able to draw on life experiences when I didn't have one.  I know what this horrible dry summer is doing to our nation and so I welcome the rain.  My gratitude is from a genuine place in my heart that appreciates the rain based on experiences without rain.

I do really love my job... but my heart's desire is to stay home as a homemaker to serve my husband and my animals.  I want to be a full-time homemaker and I hope and pray that the Lord opens that door for me eventually.  I do enjoy my job and I am very grateful to have a job I love... but I've never been without a job.  I've never been living off of my savings and praying for the Lord to miraculously pay my bills each month.  When I'm having a hard day at work, I try to create gratitude, but I'm not drawing on real experience, so the gratitude is more hypothetical and less genuine.  Wow, that last sentence sounds really bad -- what I mean is that I imagine how stressful and horrible it would be to be without a job or to have a job I hate, but I do not have first hand experience of such (knock-on-wood, Praise The Lord).

For me, at least, it just is much easier to manifest genuine gratitude when I've experienced life without that for which I'm grateful.  Is anyone really ever grateful for their good health until they get sick or break a bone?  Maybe hypothetically, but so many people say that they never fully appreciated their healthy, working body until they weren't able to do that which they were always able.

I am genuinely grateful for my husband because I've experienced life without him.
I am genuinely grateful for my animals because I've experienced life without them.
I am genuinely grateful for our little home because I've lived with roommates in many different kinds (and different quality) of apartments.
I am genuinely grateful for the rain because I've experienced life without it.
I am genuinely grateful for a relationship with Jesus Christ because I've spent seasons walking away from Him.

I want to learn how to expand my attitude of gratitude so I'm not "hypothetically" grateful for my job, but things really do mean so much more when I've had seasons in life without them.  Joy became more beautiful once I experienced heartache.

How do you create in yourself an attitude of gratitude?

We Saw Gary Smalley!

When Chris and I were in St. Louis, we attended his old church and were THRILLED to find out that the guest speaker for that Sunday was Gary Smalley.

Well, I should rephrase that -- I didn't know who Gary Smalley was prior to that service, but now, having heard him and looked into his ministry and books, I became THRILLED that we got to hear him preach.  Mr. Smalley has a great ministry especially focused on marriage and parenting.

Mr. Smalley should be a stand-up comedian.  For me, it was kind of an adjustment sitting in church and having everyone ROAR with laughter all around me.  Mr. Smalley said that when you laugh, an endorphin is released in your brain and it makes you want to hug someone around you... if that person is your spouse, so much the better.  He said that your brain cannot tell the difference between a fake laugh and a real laugh -- the same endorphin is released.  So, he encouraged us to laugh, even if its fake.

He said that he and his wife of 48 years are total opposites.  I'm always intrigued when couples who have been married for many years say this about each other because the longer I'm married to my wonderful hubby (a whopping 13 months), I am more and more convinced that we are total opposites.

He talked about daily doses of forgiveness and getting rid of anger every day.  He said he believes that the leading cause of all the American diseases is anger.  On the way home from church I commented to Chris and my in-laws that I think the leading cause of all the American diseases is obesity.  Dad Miller said that if people are coping with their anger through food, they could be one-in-the-same.  Its an interesting thought... they do, after all, call it "Comfort Food" for a reason.

It was wonderful to hear Mr. Smalley talk and I certainly hope to hear more of what he has to say in the future -- both on marriage and parenting.

Sometimes and Always

Sometimes and Always with Mackey Madness



Sometimes: My hubby and I LOVE our summer travels.  Experiencing adventures together, introducing each other to old friends, and seeing our families.
Always: It feels GREAT to come back home!

Any John Denver fans?  I AM!
 

Sometimes: I get really inspired and do two exercise tapes and go for a run or walk in one day
Always: This motivation does not last more than maybe 2 days... after that I'm back to one workout a day

Sometimes: I find myself cheering loudly for the weirdest sports during the Olympics
Always: If Team USA is playing, I don't care about the sport, I am going to CHEER!

Sometimes: The Olympics means my television in on about 20 hours/day (I'm not glued to my chair or anything... the tv is just on)
Always: I feel better about so much television watching when I exercise each day

Sometimes: My hubby convinces me to watch Cardinals Baseball instead of the Olympics
Always: I record the Olympics and try to avoid news and social media so I can watch the events later and be surprised

Sometimes: My hubby and I disagree
Always: The best disagreements are the silly ones -- like whether the Olympic Mens Volleyball Teams hug or huddle in between points... I think the teammates huddle, my hubby thinks the teammates hug.  What do you think?

Sometimes: Commercials make me cry
Always: Olympic commercials make me cry