(clear your throat)

Hear ye!  Hear ye!

Let it be known....we are at the half-way point until Jake returns!

Children are still alive...grass has been mowed...lunches packed...dishes done...laundry folded...chickens fed.

Only three more weeks to go!

Oh ye of little faith

I have been up since two o'clock in the morning.  My body has laid in bed, my mind has been racing, trying to go through all that must be accomplished this week.  The cherry on top was the fact that my dogs had a vet appointment today and I only have $90 in the bank as of last night, at midnight.  Let me explain this quandary...

I get paid on the 25th of each month.  Not bad, if you plan and budget.  It usually gets tight towards the last week, not unusual.  These past two months we've been paid on the 20th.  So, one would naturally assume this month we would get paid on the 20th. 

Nope.

So, I've had one extra week of no check.

But Carrie, you remind me, you have a savings. 

Yeah, we DID have one.  Jake took most of it getting ready for officer's school.  (Did you hear that really DEEP sigh I just sighed?)

So, I'm back to no money and a vet appointment.  I decide that I'm gonna have to reschedule.  When?  I have no idea.  So, I get up out of bed, fix some coffee, grab the calendar and phone and look up the vet's number.  Something, rather someone, prompts me to look at my bank again.  I do so knowing how futile this was going to be and I would only further my depression by looking.  But, the feeling would not go away so, I looked up my account online.

HOLY COW!  Where did that money come from?!  The Air Force paid Jake?!  Today?!  But the Air Force only pays Jake on the 15th and 30th of every month.  Unless I'm Rip Van Winkle, it's neither of those days.

I cry.  I praise my God.  I cry some more.

I guess the military does answer to a higher power.

Now, I'm at peace and the dogs will get their shots. 

Thanks Abba.

okay God...lead the way!

So I've been meeting with group of women for over a year now.  I love my small group very much.  However, it's exactly that...small.  For sometime now I've been feeling the tug to talk to my friends and share exactly what is on my heart.  Basically what I said was, "What we have is good, but I think we can be better."

I decided to take the plunge and share with them my thoughts on opening up our small group to women God lays on our hearts.  I can already think of a few.  I felt myself grow nervous as I laid before them my idea on expanding our group.  I held my breath as I looked at them.  What I saw in their eyes and on their faces caused my heart to beat a thousand times faster!  They too agreed that we need to open our hearts and our group to the women of this community.

My dream is a group where people feel safe to wrestle with God.  (Thus my name: Jacob's Twin   Hmmmm....foreshadowing?  Maybe?!)  I want women to know they are welcome and no matter what is going on in their lives, they're not alone.  AND, if they want to change...we are there to walk beside them. 

I have no idea how this is all going to go down.  I know what I WANT it to look like, but I am praying God's hand will direct all of this madness.  I just need to keep pointing to Him and the rest will fall into place.

We have decided to meet on Monday's at six.  The topic of conversation will vary.  We are going to start with "What does the Bible have to say about..." and let the women fill in the blanks.  Then, we'll pick a topic, wrestle with it, ask questions, answer a few and then close with a prayer time.  As I type this is sounds too crazy and unorganized.  Who can work in this mess?!  Hopefully God will choose to!

I'll keep you posted.

The ice cream man

I love fall weather! During this season, I can open my windows and feel the cool breeze as it blows through my house. The downside to opening my house is that you hear every single sound emitted outside.

Everyday around four o'clock a familiar sound fills my house. It starts off as a distant whisper and soon becomes so loud you feel as though whatever is making the noise is there, right beside you, in the house! What is that sound you ask?

The ice cream man!

The music that is blared from his loudspeakers is so horrendous, it cause small animals and children to hide. The screeching, grating "da-dah, dum, dee, dum" that is repeated over and over and over makes the listener wish their ears would fall off! Then as the music takes a pause there is an automated voice that calls out, "Hello!" And then we listeners are off on another round of, for lack of better terms, a musical serenade.

Not only does he play this music, driving 5 miles an hour through our neighborhood, oh no my friend...he stops right in front of my house and sits for 4 or 5 minutes. It's like he knows the torment I experience as he parks himself in front of my house. Honestly, I know he's hoping Emma and Abbie will purchase an ice cream. And as they stop playing (for how can one play with such racket attacking the ears?) to stare at his truck, then glance at me, then back at the truck, then back at me. I know they are wishing and hoping, that today will be the day mom says "yes" to ice cream. I can feel their unified thought as it crosses the yard and encircles me, "Come on mom, it's only $3.00 an ice cream cone! Don't you love us? The other kids are doing it!"

I just shake my head and walk back into the house. Not on your life ice cream man!

Not on your life.

My daughter....the genus

I have two dogs. Tallulah and Tucker. I love my dogs, I really do. However, they both have habits that are a tad irritating. Tallulah is a digger. Tucker is a chewer.

I have the most beautiful flower bed in front of my house. Jake and I worked REALLY hard on it. We found plants we both like. We spent a couple of hours tilling the ground, laying weed paper down and planting flowers. Jake made several trips to the store, bringing bag after bag after bag of mulch. The next day we left Tallulah outside while we went to church. When we came back there were holes everywhere in my little flower garden. I could have ripped her paws off I was so mad!

Tucker, like I said, is my chewer. (Now granted, he is a puppy, so hopefully this too shall pass.) Normally during the day I leave him in my guest bathroom. Over the past week, he has performed several amazing feats. If I have anything on my counter top (that's right counter top) he can leap up, pull it down and eat it. I've never caught him in the act of pulling things down. But unless he is having some unseen help while we're gone, I have no explanation of how he is reaching the items on my counter top. He has also managed to nose his way into the cabinets below and pull out all my towels. Yesterday he pulled them out, peed on them and then rolled around in his pee. Argh!

The last straw was as I was bending down to pick up the trash, he somehow managed to get a hold of (from the top of the toilet), I noticed the bottom of my cabinet had been chewed! CHEWED! That was it!

I can handle the trash, I can wash the towels, I can wipe up pee, I can give him a bath. I don't even mind cleaning the bathroom more than once a week. (okay, I mind but it sounded good didn't it?) But, chewing on the furniture that is really hard to replace...that's the end to happy puppy days in the bathroom.

I found the chewed section of my cabinet this afternoon before soccer practice. I took the girls to practice and thought all practice long what I could do for Tucker. I had elaborate schemes of building Tucker a pen outside. I even debated putting him in the chicken pen (only for like three seconds). I could not figure out what I was going to do. Finally I had a thought! What if I attached a rope to the clothes line with a carabeaner? That way he could run the whole length of the yard and still have the deck to run under.

Yes! It just might work!

Ummm....where would I get the rope?

Dang it!

As I was stomping around the house, looking for the rope, growling because I couldn't find any. Abbie pipped up with her thoughts. This is how the conversation went down.

"Hey mom, what about the rope on the front porch?"

"Not now Abbie! I have to find rope! Quit bothering me and go take your shower!"

She just rolled her eyes and went upstairs.

I continued stomping around for quite a while. (The time will remain a mystery for fear of embarrassing myself in the future.) Finally it hit me! The rope on the front porch...it just might work! And it did!

I walked back into the house and saw her sitting on the couch. "Abbie honey, you're a genus".
She just grinned and said, "I know."

And so humble too.

Six more Mondays

Jake left this morning.

He will be gone for six weeks.

That's 42 days.

Forty-two L...O...N...G days.

I prefer to think of it as six more Mondays.

Seems shorter if I say it that way.

My red bracelet

This is my red bracelet. I love my red bracelet! I love that it's red. I love that it has gold flecks in it. I love that it was hand made by an artist in South Carolina. I love that I'm the only person I know that has one. (I'm sure there are other people out there with the same bracelet, however it is fun to pretend this is a one of a kind). I think the reason I love it the most is because my husband brought it back to me. He thought of me, he bought it and gave it to me.

Happy sigh.

Clingmans dome

Yesterday my family and I went to the highest point in Tennessee. It was a perfect day! The weather was in the 50s (up on the mountain), the sun was out, it wasn't too crowded (for a holiday weekend) and my whole family was together and in good spirits! Here is a picture of the trip.

Jake leaves on one week for officer's boot camp. He will be gone for six whole weeks. I'm glad we got to spend such a perfect day together, on top of a mountain.