Monday, August 25, 2008

Ms. Sadie Lady







Just wanted to announce the newest member of our family... Ms. Sadie! She is a golden retriever and is 7 weeks and 5 days old today. We bought her from a breeder on Friday night and she is most definitely the cutest thing I have ever seen. Scott and I are absolutely smitten and head over heels in love!! We intended to shop around a bit and go to a couple different breeders but it didn't really work out that way! I fell in love with her adorable little face and wasn't able to leave her at the breeder's house. She has a dark red retriever dad named Tango and a lighter tan retriever mom named Molly making her a beautiful golden brown. The breeder owned both the parents and Molly (her mother) had 15 little golden retriever pups! Sadie is the runt of the liter and also the cutest and the sweetest! She is enjoying adjusting to her new home and her favorite things to do are snuggling and giving kisses. We are having so much fun with her and are very proud new parents!


Thursday, August 14, 2008

Good morning!

We're new to this whole blog thing and I know a lot of our friends/family are new too!  Just wanted to let you know that anyone can post comments below our entries even if you don't have a blog or google account.  You just click on "comments" and then you can write anything your heart desires!  Just a clarification because someone told me that they didn't suggest a puppy name below because they didn't have a blog.  No excuses, people!!!:)

Also wanted to ask... where do you guys get your cool blog templates?  

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Fear of Public Singing?

It seems very common to have a fear of public speaking, but how often do we hear about the fear of public singing?  Not as often... and how much harder is it?  In my opinion, one million times harder!  I actually enjoy public speaking but for some reason public singing is so much harder for me!

As God is my favorite, and music is my fourth favorite, (my second favorite is Scott and my third is my family in case you were wondering) worship music is very much up there in the favorite arena!!!  As I was looking for a way to serve at church, my love for music and worship was a very natural way to be involved.  However... singing "special music" by myself... not as natural!!  When I chose not to sing a song in the senior recital in high school and avoided recitals when possible, a friend once asked me, "Brianne, what good is a gift that God gives you if you hold it back and don't share it with people?"  Ouch....

Sometimes I hold back my actions, thoughts, ideas, and convictions because I'm too afraid of what others might think or too worried that things might not turn out as perfectly as I plan them in my head.  I try too hard to be perfect in everything that I do and don't allow for mess-ups.  I am so loving and forgiving of others' mistakes, but when it comes to my own errors, I am so hard on myself!  I am such a planned out and organized person that I often don't take the leaps that I should because I overanalyze all of the negative outcomes.  Well, guess what?  I'm totally sick of being that way and I quit.  I want to live full out for Christ and trust in him with all that I am which includes public singing!  I have often let my nerves override letting God use me and I am sick of being afraid.

I sang my third "special" on Sunday morning.  As usual, I was completely nervous and anxious about it a few days before.  I prayed so hard that I could just trust Him, that he would be my focus for it all, and that he would just work through me and minister to others through the words of the song.  I repeated over and over "I can do all things through Him who gives me the strength I need."  I got up early on Sunday morning, took a long walk around the block, and focused on finding peace. 

Surprisingly, I felt pretty calm the whole morning, and was not as nervous as I have been in the past.  While I could feel my heart beating faster than usual, there were not as many butterflies and I could feel his presence with me on stage.  It felt great, and I can't wait to do it again.  

Here are a few things God is teaching me (while I already knew these things in my head, it is harder to actually write them out and not only TRULY BELIEVE them but LIVE them out):

-I only need to care about what God thinks (when I am in alignment with him, I'm also typically in alignment with Scott and those from whom I typically seek wisdom from).
-Mistakes are totally acceptable and expected.  God will use them to teach and humble us!!
-When I listen to Him and follow what he asks me to do (one step at a time), he blesses me tremendously in return and I am so filled with his inner joy that I want to step out in faith and do even more for Him! 
-He is faithful and will provide when we place Him as our center.

Friday, August 1, 2008

She's a she...she's a she-she... She’s a he… she’s a he-she!

It’s my opinion that when you look at someone, you should be able to immediately discern what gender that person is. If you can’t tell, there’s a problem there that needs to be rectified. This shouldn’t be a gray area. You shouldn’t have to double take, squint your eyes, and try to figure out whether it’s a man or a woman.

It seems our world is getting more and more confused about gender. We immasculate men, tell them it’s okay to wear eye-liner and girl’s pants. We tell women to toughen up and not be so feminine. And while I’m not going to be too harsh on guys who choose to wear pink shirts, it’s just not my thing. I think men should be men, and women should be women: they should dress and act accordingly. No more women with boy haircuts, no more men wearing make-up.

We used to make movies that made light of things like this, like Tootsie and It’s Pat, and now it’s just ordinary.

And as a side tangent about the whole “World’s First Pregnant Man” story: The headline should read “World’s First Pregnant Woman-Who-Thinks-She-Is-A-Man.” Just because she cut her hair short, takes testosterone, cut off her breasts, grew facial hair and arm pit hair, and changed her name does NOT make her a man. I’m sorry, but the whole story is bogus and unimpressive. And that’s an entirely different can of worms.


*Bonus points to anyone who got the Mrs. Doubtfire reference.

HELP US PICK A NAME!!





To answer your question, NO, we do not have a puppy yet.  Here's the deal... Scott is planting grass tomorrow, and it will take a couple of weeks to grow in.  THEN, we will begin our search for the perfect dog.  But right now, I have this problem.  The problem is that I am having this motherly instinct to have something to care for and I have puppies on the brain.  I can't think about anything else.  So I figure, HEY, why not write a blog about it, right?  And even better... while I have a few weeks to kill, why not figure out the perfect dog name?  So take a gander at these pics.  If you had a little girl puppy that looked like this, WHAT WOULD YOU NAME HER?  You can pick one that I like or create a new one!!  Thanks for your help!!

Sadie
Miley 
Lucy
Molly
Lady
Casey