San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

Our Dog Is Evil

Our dog is evil. He’s family and we love him, against our will. And he’s lucky we do, or I’m sure we’d have given him away by now. He’s been a poop-butt (please pardon my vernacular) ever since we moved to Pittsburgh. Yes, I realize it’s a major transition for a little animal, but it’s getting old.

He barks every time the house creeks or a car drives by or I shut a cabinet door. Our house is so big that things must sound weird to him when he hears them from a distance. And he doesn’t bark once, discover everything is fine and then drop it. He keeps barking and there is nothing we can do to get him to stop.

He also barks randomly in the night. We can’t just ignore him, because he is super loud and one of our youth staff has her apartment right above the part of the basement that his house is in. So we have to run downstairs and tell him to hush. When the sun starts to rise there is nothing we can do to get him to shut up, except let him come upstairs and sleep on the end of our bed. It has become a habit, so every morning we have a dog in bed with us. Very annoying.

But last night, Chester really topped off his annoyingness. I was taking him outside to do his business. I didn’t have my hand through the loop on his leash and he saw a cat in the woods. He took off and the leash slipped right through my fingers. So there was our stupid beagle running through the wooded hills in the middle of the night with rain drizzling down. Obviously I’m helpless in a situation like this, so Chris had to chase him. It took my poor husband forever to get him back. He was only in sandals and had no coat and he was chasing a dog through the freezing woods. He despaired a couple times, but he prayed and finally managed to step on the end of the leash and grab him. Chris had to take a hot shower to get warmed up again.

It’s a good thing Chris was home when this happened. He had taken our youth to a Battle Cry conference in Detroit over the weekend. I’d have died if Chester had taken off while he was gone! But I will say this for Chester; he was sorry. If that makes up for anything. He was kind of mopey all night because he knew he’d been a bad boy.

Chester is young, but I already have plans for when he goes to his final reward. Granted, I’ll probably miss him more than anyone else, but I say our next dog will be a “purse dog.” Something small that I can control and can go on a plane as a carry on. And something that will cuddle. Yes, that would be nice.

Other excitement? Leah rolled from her belly to her back, so now she can go either way! She tried oatmeal and loved it! She’s also eaten banana and that was a big hit too. She’s working on her hand-eye coordination and likes to grab at stuff (like Mommy’s cell phone).

Isaiah is working on his ABC’s. He can sing the song, but some of the letter names don’t sound quite right! We have flash cards that he loves to go through with me. His counting just keeps getting better. We’ve always practiced counting items by me holding his hand and helping him point to each thing while he counts. Last night he pointed to each thing by himself and counted perfectly!

Pastor and Clara took us, and everyone visiting from CA, to a play of Willie Wonka in downtown Pittsburgh. It was done with a cast of only 7 people and very creative. The set was simple, but the props were done artistically so that it worked. The actors played multiple parts and sang and danced really well. Isaiah was a little bored until they got to the part at the factory. Then he was intrigued.

Pittsburgh is quiet on Sunday. It’s a little big city, I think. Parking was only $6, which is much nicer than the $10-$20 that we paid in CA. There were a lot of cool looking areas that we need to take time to explore!

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San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

Life NEAR the Big City

Leah is growing too fast. It’s hard to believe she’s already 6 months old. She tried her first solid food about a couple weeks ago. She was not impressed. But I kept shoving rice cereal in her face every day. Finally, a couple days ago, she decided she liked it! Since then, she’s also tried a little banana. She liked that a lot! She also rolled over from her back to her belly a couple week ago. I actually missed the first time she did it. She was laying on the floor in her room. I had my back to her, putting stuff away in her dresser and when I turned around she was on her belly. So I got the camera and waited for her to do it again. She did, but she was so laid back about it, it didn’t look like the big event it was. Now she rolls over all the time. She’ll roll over in bed and then fuss because she’s still all wrapped up in her blankets.

We are enjoying our new house in PA. We’re only 20 minutes outside of Pittsburgh, and about 5 minutes from a major shopping center, but we also get quite a taste of the country. One night I got up to feed Leah and my half asleep eyes saw something standing in my neighbor’s yard. I did a double take, thinking that it was awfully big to be a dog. It was actually a deer!

We have a couple friends from CA staying with us. One of the girls was looking out my kitchen window and she said calmly, “You have a beaver in your backyard.” I freaked out! I’ve never even seen a real beaver, much less had one wandering around my yard. It was about the size of a big cat and the fattest little guy you can imagine. He was waddling around all cute. I was surprised by his tail. I always thought they had leathery tails, but his was furry. So our theory is that they just look all smooth when they are wet. We saw the beaver again today, so think he’s taken residence in our area, which makes me happy. I hope he’ll build a dam in our creek. That would be exciting! Yes, I am a city girl.

Tonight I was putting Chester outside and he saw a deer in the woods behind our house. She saw him too, and took off running. Chester almost dragged my arm off as he tried to chase her. He did not appreciate having to share his yard with another animal. He’s a city dog, too.

We had a nice Easter! Our church had really pretty services to celebrate. Both our Good Friday service and Easter morning were a delightful blend of traditional and modern, tastefully woven together. Like I said, we have friends visiting from CA, which is a big treat! My children both looked adorable in their Easter clothes. We had a fun little Easter egg hunt with Isaiah. And we ended the day with a fabulous meal over at Pastor and Clara’s house.

Speaking of our church, one of the things that really blesses us is how much Isaiah is learning in his little classes. The other day I heard him making a lot of noise in his room, when he was supposed to be napping. I went in to lay him back down and he defended his actions with “But, I say ‘Jesus!'” And then he demonstrated how he had been jumping on his bed shouting, “Je-sus! Je-sus! Je-sus!” How can you correct him for doing that?

Then, a couple nights ago, I told him he couldn’t have a toy in bed with him. He was unhappy about my decision and then told me, “Jesus help me.” I said, “Jesus helps you?” He responded, “Yeah, Jesus help me when I’m sad.”

We have videos of Isaiah hunting Easter eggs, Leah rolling over, Isaiah singing, and Leah eating. You can view them by clicking here: Videos of our kids!

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