Shaving Years Off Of My Life

Harper busted her mouth on a bookshelf last night.

She's a tough kid. She cried for literally 60 seconds and then started singing a song. I, on the other hand, was scared half to death. There was so much blood, I thought she knocked her teeth out.

This kid is single handedly shaving years off of my life. She clearly does not realize how much my sanity hinges on her well being. If she did, she would not put a blanket over her head and run around the living room for fun. Yep, that's how she got hurt. She ran head first into the bookshelf. Three year olds are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Leaving, On A Jet Plane

My friend, Katie, is moving to China on Thursday. You heard me right. China. She is going to be teaching high school history at the prestigious Shanghai American School for at least two years. Her husband, Tie, and their dog, Scout, are moving too. What a wonderful adventure they are about to embark on. But honestly, I'm totally going to miss them and a nano-particle of me wishes they weren't going. Harper's going to miss Katie too. They've been buds for a while now.

Stupid pictures. Uploading them made me sad...

Anyways, if you want to keep up with all of Katie and Tie's adventures, check out their blog. And if you are of the praying persuasion, pleas keep them in your prayers. Especially Scout the dog. It is China after all.

Of Dogs and Snakes

Earlier this week, Rob informed me that our neighbor's dog was bitten by a cottonmouth water moccasin snake and died. The dog was bitten in his back yard. Next to our back yard. Which means the snake was practically IN OUR BACK YARD!

Oh yeah and by the way, Rob has been finding snake skins in our yard.

And (unbeknownst to me) he has seen alive snakes in our yard too!

Not cool. 

Now I'm not going to lie. I didn't really like the dog next door. It barked All. The. Time. Come to think of it, it has been quieter than normal lately...Sorry. That was mean. I guess if i had to pick between the dog and a snake, I'd pick the dog. But just barely. 

Anyway, back to the snake... Needless to say, I'm not venturing out into our yard until winter.

Flashback

This is an old picture, but it's one of my all time favorites. She's got his eyes. 

Suburban S'mores

School Friends

The only thing better than swimming is unexpectedly seeing a friend from school at the pool!

Jesus Needs New PR

I'm hesitant to write this post. When somebody else writes this kind of post, my hypocrite radar goes off when I read it. So let me be clear. This is something I struggle with too. It may manifest itself in more subtle ways, but it's in me too. This post is first and foremost a reminder to me.

As I was driving home yesterday, I noticed that the car in front of me had a cross pendant hanging from the rear view mirror. Suddenly, another car in the adjacent lane merged over in front of the cross car. In my opinion, it wasn't a super dangerous maneuver, but I could see where the lady in the cross car could have felt that she was cut off.

In response to being cut off, the lady in the cross car honked her horn profusely and flipped off the driver of the merging car. She then proceeded to change lanes so she could get right up next to the merging car, roll her window down, yell at the other driver and flip him off again. Nice.

I would roll my eyes at this behavior under any circumstance, but the fact that the lady is openly professing to be a Christian and still chooses to conduct herself in this manner really bothers me. Now I admit that I am making several assumptions here. First, this may not be her car and even if it is, she may not have been the one to hang the cross on the mirror. But, for the sake of conversation, let's just assume that it's her car and she hung the cross.

I realize that this is a relatively insignificant example, but it's no wonder why people have trouble rationalizing Christians with Christ. We preach love and grace and mercy, but are we living it out?

Am I living it out? Can strangers tell that I love Jesus? Can my co-workers? Can my family?

St. Francis of Assisi is credited with saying something along the lines of "Preach the Gospel always. Use words only as a last resort." Easier said than done, but I for one am going to try harder in this area.