Here are a few pictures of Mike, Cody and I from last month. At this point he was about 8 months old. They are a little blurry because they came from Mike's camera phone. I like to call the one on the bottom "In the Doghouse". We actually added that so that Cody could have a cool place to hang out when we weren't home. The crate we had for him was getting seriously cramped and we both feel better about leaving him home alone if we know he has room to move around and can have his food and water in there with him. It is 4 foot by 4 foot by 6 foot tall. On the right hand side of the doghouse, you can see where Cody has done some creative redecorating of our vertical blinds. That happened during his maniac separation anxiety day when he pointed out to us that we would not be able to leave him home alone loose in the house. Anyway, here is our little guy. He is a good dog and we are thankful for him.

Ahoy Matey!!!

This is my awesome brother-in-law, Mark Dickerson, and my really cool nephew, Mark Dickerson.

They happened to be down in Florida with some youth group kids visiting college. At the same time, my aunt and cousin and family were visiting from Illinois, so we all met up for dinner. Since Mike occasionally drives like a maniac and we left early to account for traffic, we got to the Disney area in time for a quick stop at Downtown Disney (basically a shopping area and best of all FREE). I figured little Mark would love some of the cool things to see. This was our first stop and a great picture. I enjoyed seeing them and look forward to spending time with the rest of the family this summer on vacation.

Slowing Down

Well, Mike and I spent a lot of time this weekend discussing life and the busyness of it. We don't want to get 10 years down the road and wonder why we wasted so much of our life being busy. So, one of our first major changes is that we are closing down the Ebay store for Mouse Memories (my sister's Ebay store that I manage, keep all the inventory in our house, ship packages daily for and make it all work). It has just become too much of a 24/7 job. When I'm home, I'm always thinking of the work that could be done on the computer and Mike and I spend several evenings a week with me in one room working and he and the dog in another room. We just don't want to continue that. The hours pile on top of each other and overwhelm. Even when we work together on it (and he is AWESOME about helping me), it is just too time intensive. So, we discussed it with my sister and her husband and we are going to close it down next week. I'll go back to working in her warehouse 3 days a week from now until August 1, which won't be so bad once I have evenings and weekends free. Once August 1st hits, I'll be full-time into volleyball season followed by basketball season and won't work outside the home at that time. I'm excited about life slowing down and being able to enjoy it as opposed to work the whole time.

Feeling Better

Finally I've overcome the food poisoning episode and the killer cold. The Lord gave me strength when I really needed it and gave me the rest I didn't realize I needed as well. Thanks to all who prayed that I would feel better.