Last Day!!!

It was my last day at RR today.  As much as I am going to miss the people there, I don't think I will miss Power Points! I think I've done enough of those for a good long while.

I am pumped for my first day at CtK. I think its going to be a pretty light day, so I'm hoping to get out early and watch movies and make crafts with Audge and Tegan. Whoop!

Timmy left for the men's retreat today. I know I'm gonna miss him, but I'm hoping to make the most out of my alone time. Crafts and Cleaning and Movies oh my!

Twitter.

What's the big deal with Twitter?

How is it any different than updating your status on Facebook?

I don't get it. I think my favorite thing, if any, is the bird graphics.

Yes, ok, I am on it now. This is true. But it doesn't mean I have to like it.

Tim and I are into eating shrimp and rice for dinner. Often. Last night we swapped rice for soba noodles. It was just as good. If not better. Even if soba noodles look like cardboard noodles.

Today Timmy leaves for his mens retreat.

I've got BIG plans for the coming days. If only Audrey would get better - than they'd be HUGE plans.

Health care.

The health care in this country stinks.

And its expensive.

Tim and I are NOT fans of doctors, or their bills. Or their stupid diagnoses and lack thereof.

NEVER again will we go to the doctor unless we are deathly ill.

Fact.

Today is our 2 month anniversary. Feels like 2 years. In a very good way :)

Baking Soda.

So one more anecdote before the day is out.

The other day, I sprinkled baking soda all over the carpet in the living room/dining room because the apartment was starting to stink like dog, and I've always prided myself on how good the apartment smelled before.

So anyways, later that night Tim went to vacuum it up. However, he hadn't noticed that I'd removed the filter and dust guard and the compartment that collects everything you suck up off the floor from the vacuum so that I could rinse it off (as the instructions suggested).

After seeing these rather critical parts sitting on the side of the sink, the pieces all started coming together as to why when he went to vacuum, the baking soda was going in one end of the vacuum and then flying out another all over the place. 

He said he just simply thought the vacuum wasn't a very good one....

Hahahaha, I don't know why I find that so funny.  But it is.

Training.

"Olive is as cute as a button. But she's not exactly the brightest crayon in the box" - Tim, on training Olive.

Last night we were trying to teach Olive some new commands.

And by teach, I mean making completely uneducated attempts at making her listen to us, to the point where she just ran away from me looking worried. Tim then spent the rest of the night trying to reassure me that Olive doesn't hate me. 

I realize now I'd gone about it in the wrong way, so I'm looking forward to starting afresh. 

I was telling Tim that many books say to use "Hurry up" as a command when they're going to the bathroom. "I think its good to tell her that because then she knows to be quick about it and not to take her time"

Tim then had to explain that the words "Hurry up" mean nothing to a dog, since they don't understand English.

Oh. I thought maybe they'd know to go faster.... 

Ah well, before long Tim will be on skates with a thousand well-behaved dogs at his side just like Cesar Milan.

Hot Friday. No Spring.

Don't get me wrong - I do enjoy a nice sunny day.

What I don't enjoy is when winter temperatures turn into summer temperatures without the freshness of spring to break it up. So no...no I am not an advocate for the temperature being 80+ this weekend, because it stole my second favorite season away. 

Tim's beard smelled like angel food cake the other day - though he hadn't eaten any. So I'll add that to the list. I think I should keep a little black book of all these smells so I can show my grandkids.

"Look children! On May 3 of 2010 Grandpa's beard smelled like cheese! Can you guess what it will smell like today?"

Lovely. 

Olive.

So I know I said we were going to wait on a dog. But then we watched Ares for a day, and couldn't help ourselves.... and now we have Olive....

She is precious and lovely, and completely cuddly and just a little ray of sunshine in our lives. 

As you can see, Tim is just thrilled with the Cavs jersey we bought her. The irony is that is Tim was wanting to get a jersey for himself, but we decided it was a bit too expensive. So of course, Olive had to get one instead - only saving us about $10.

The shop where we got it is right down the street from us, called Pet-Tique, and I have a feeling she'll have a number of fun things from there before too long.

Changes are on the horizon for us. Good changes. Much needed changes. God-focused changes.

Changes that are long overdue.

Reconnecting.

About a year ago I was at a church conference in Orlando, listening to a lot of debate about the attractional church model vs. the organic (or home church) model. 

While I find the attractional model exciting, I tend to get more out of the organic model since its based around intimate conversation, group discussion and community based interaction. 

I bring all this up because the same conference is going on now - though I'm not in attendance - and it just brought my mind back to everything I learned, and all the things I wanted to do with my knowledge.

I'm hoping that with this new job I start next week, I'll have a better motivation to put into practice all those values I tend to hold but rarely act on. That is, to reconnect with what my Spirit longs for and the community around me needs. 

Sometimes it can be disheartening to see how little I follow through on important matters, and so much time ends up wasted on trivial things that are certainly not eternal.

Eternity is here and now, and every minute counts when our days are numbered.

Ares.

Meet one of our new friends, Ares (pronounced air-ees)

He's a little Pomeranian that lives upstairs with our friend Kimberley. He's staying with us for the day while she's out and there's never a dull moment when he's around! 

This little guy can run and leap and bound like there's no tomorrow. He's just so cute that even when he misbehaves its hard to stay mad - look at that sweet face!

Ray!!!

Tonight we went to see one of my very favorite artists perform down at the State Theater. Ray LaMontagne is an incredible musician, lyricist...man, myth and truly a living legend (in my opinion anyways). I can't say enough good things about his music and about last nights show.

The theater was packed out and it was one of those concerts where the majority of the people there were hardcore fans (like yours truly) so that a huge roar of applause would go up before almost every song. If you ever get to see this man perform, go! You won't be disappointed. Supposedly, he is an extremely shy, introverted guy who occasionally performs in the dark due to his self-consciousness.  This hermit like nature peeped out every now and then - he shared no anecdotal stories between songs and only uttered a few thank yous and offered a very timid wave and a "thanks for coming out" at the end. It's pretty incredible coming from a guy with a throaty, soulful powerhouse voice that gets standing ovations throughout his entire encore. You can tell he's one artist who hasn't let the fame effect his character.

Whhoo. Ok, I just had to let that all out...the experience was so memorable and I needed to put it down somewhere.

Tim.

Yesterday I learned that Tim can do a really good Arnold Schwarzenegger  impression - at least with lines from Kindergarten Cop. 

I've also learned that Tim's beard takes on the scent of whatever he's eating as well as other interesting smells. Off the top of my head, here is a list of said odors:

Soy Sauce - oddly enough, it was in the morning and he hadn't eaten any soy sauce.

PlayDo

Hay

Gasoline, or some type of industrial lubricant (probably from work)

Antiseptic - most recently...

Butter - this is what it smells like 90% of the time.

Tim - yep, there's even a distinct "Tim" scent. Definitely my favorite.

That's all I can think of for now. Is this weird? I feel like this is creepy...

I don't know, it fascinates me. It's magical facial hair. And my husband has a whole beard of it.

Five days later.....

The past 5 days have been interesting ones... to say the least.

Walter truly is a very sweet natured dog who just needs some love and attention. He's had a hard life - from what we can imagine - and right now he is not happy when left alone for the day. We learned he probably suffers from some anxiety issues and would therefore be happier in a home where he can have constant companionship, at least for the first few months.

Unfortunately.... we can't offer him this, as we both have jobs that cause us to be gone for most of the morning/afternoon. When he is by himself, Walter becomes so stressed out that he can't help but lose control of his bodily functions and barks and barks till the cows (or we) come home. Our neighbors downstairs had had quite enough of that today and were banging on the door - as told to us by our upstairs neighbor, who also diagnosed him with anxiety. So Walter is going back to his foster mom tonight. We feel its best for him, as he will live with other dogs and a stay-at-home mom for a little while until he is re-homed. We are really hoping they find him a good family where he can live out his days feeling happy, safe, and loved.

For now, we are holding off resuming the dog search. It's probably best that we take some more time to just be the two of us, and get accustomed to married life. But we'll hold on to some of the doggie things we bought for Walter just in case that changes in the future....

Walter.

So, we did it. We got our addition to the family. His name is Walter and he is the man. Walter is a one year old wire-haired terrier. The best thing about him though is how insanely calm and relaxed he is. He definitely has an "old soul". We picked him up early this morning and at the lady's house that we got him from, there was three other dogs and they were all barking and going nuts and Walter was just standing there... chillin. We've had him almost all day and I still haven't heard him bark once. The woman we got him from said she had never heard him bark. He just kind of follows us around and LOVES to cuddle up with us and just have us scratch his head and give him hugs. He's a little unsure about walking on the leash, he's a little timid. He likes to walk right behind us. I'm sure he'll get more confident as time goes on. Anyways, he's just a sweet old man in a little dogs body and we are very happy to welcome him to our family :)

-tim

Dogs!

There may be a new addition to the Myers household very soon! Here are the candidates so far (we'll only pick one of course):

Scruffy : Glen of Imaan Terrier 

(he looks a little mean here; we're hoping he's not!)

Sugar : Boston Terrier

Rosebud : Chihuahua/Terrier

Kel : Cairn Terrier

Yesh.

I am typing this on our two week old MacBook. Our very own MacBook. Special.

The other Mac has been on loan from the Plant and it was finally time to turn it over to someone else. It was a sad day, but also a great one because it means we're freed up to use this one whenever, wherever. 

Last night, in early celebration of my mom's birthday, we were invited along to see the United tour with Stephen Curtis Chapman & Michael W. Smith. Tim and I don't listen to them very often, but we enjoyed the great time of worship with hundreds of people from Cleveland. At 3 hours, I think its one of the longest concerts either of us have ever gone to! It was a good night :)

The other day, Tim felt inspired to set up a hair appointment for me at a salon in Lakewood with the master stylist. We both feel its time for my hair to get a make over. I'm a little nervous about it as new hair cuts are a thing of extremes...you either love them or you hate them.

Here's hoping I love it :)