The Words

It's been on my mind a lot lately. Do we really realize what we're singing? Or have the words just become a sequence of good sounding syllables that we string together. There is one experience that sticks in my mind. I was at a youth conference and the worship was playing some great music, and everyone was getting very excited. Then they played "Take it All" by Hillsong. It's a great song, but do we really mean what we're singing? The chorus goes:

Jesus, we're living for name
We'll never be ashamed of you
Our praise and all we are today
Take, take, take it all

There I was in a room full of teenagers who think they know everything they need to know (hey, I was one of them, so I'm not being that harsh :P), and we're all singing a song telling Jesus to take everything we have and declaring that we are going to be living for His name. There is nothing wrong with the song, and there's nothing wrong with making that declaration. But do we realize that's what we're doing when we sing those songs?

 Personally, I know I would not have handled life well if Jesus HAD taken away everything I had just then. I wasn't mature enough as a person and, more importantly, in my faith. I know that I did not mean those words, and I can only think of a few people in that room that might have meant them. There have been so many beautiful songs written about trusting God and giving everything over to Him. But how often do we truly mean it?

 As we go about our day, singing to the radio or at church, don't let the words just become a habit. Let them ring out with truth in your life. If you aren't at a point where you could honestly sing Take it All, be praying while it's playing. Pray for a growth in faith so that one day you would be able to sing that song. I think we all need to be more careful of the words we're saying and the songs we're singing.

 It makes me think of Peter who said "I'll never betray you!" and then went on to deny Christ three times in a row. We need to be careful what we're saying, 'cuz who knows God will take away because we asked Him to take it all. Just some food for thought. Have you had any of the same experiences? What is your take on this?

Simple Dog

A long time ago, I saw this post about the blogger's attempt to prove her dog was not simple minded by performing some tests. I have always thought the post was hilarious...until we got our own dog. =P So, after many frustrating moments of Thor not listening, we decided to do the same tests for him as Allie did for her simple dog.

What we found is that Thor can manage the tests of getting out from under the blanket, and he always knows how to get his treat. So, we were relatively confident that Thor was not a simple minded dog. That is until we saw him do this.

We have been continually entertained by him chasing his tail! He goes for a good while and then stops only because he is dizzy. So he stumbles around for a minute or two and then starts up again. It is so funny.

It's nice to have something to explain some of the difficulties in training our dog. He is slowly getting it, and he is truly learning. I'm just thankful we didn't have as many issues as Allie did. At least Thor does know how to use stairs. :P

Meet Thor!

We got home from Thanksgiving with my family and the next day I was making the rounds on Craigslist when I saw a posting for a free puppy! Gasp! They gave a short description and told us it was a Chin-Pin mix. I'd never heard of Chin-Pins before, so MMM and I sat down, did some research and had some discussions. About 30 minutes later we decided we'd like to meet the little guy and see how it went.

I emailed the woman who put up the posting and set up to meet him the next day! It took forever to get to 6pm the next day, but it finally arrived and we met our little dog! Everything went well and he came home with us that very night. It was quite an adjustment for him and he ran around our house like a crazy little guy.

We have already had some adventures with Thor (that's what he was already named). The first one was this gem.  -->

We've learned to dog-proof the bathroom completely (including blinds) before leaving him in there alone. Coming home to a mess in the bathroom has happened enough for us to get the picture.

It didn't take long at all to figure out that he truly is a lap dog. If you so much as squat, he will be there jumping into your lap. It doesn't matter how difficult you make it, he will find a way.

Isn't his sweater cute? Unfortunately he's already scratching a hole in it. =(

One of the funnier adventures was when MMM was playing with him using this old blanket and Thor managed to find the hole! He was walking around with his "cape" and it was so adorable!

I'm sure I'll have many more Thor adventures to share later on, but that's all for tonight.

Arizona Honeymoon - Part 3

After the dinner with our friends, we made the drive back down to Tucson where we would stay the rest of the week. Our first day in the little house was very relaxing. We went to the library and walked around and honestly didn't do that much.

The next day was great because I got to go to a spa with my grandma and then we went shopping! It was so much fun! I got some really cute heels and an awesome purse. (Awesome = lots of compartments).

I'm having a hard time remember what happened on each night but I can tell you that we ate supper at my grandma's house twice. One night we played games with them and had just tons of fun!! And the other night there was great because I got to play some of my piano pieces for them, and Grandma played the piano for us! I was so glad to be able to record her playing several pieces, including some of her original songs. What a blessing to get to hear her play.

On another night we joined them for supper at a Mexican restaurant. Oh man oh man, it was soooo tasty! They even had a dessert that was like deep fried tortilla apple pie..I can't remember what it was called, but it was amazing!

Our next adventure began here ^^ where we began our trek up the mountain!

We packed a backpack lunch which included 5 bottles of water!

This view really reminded me of the Black Forest. I wish we would have had our picnic there, but we weren't hungry just yet.

 We found this awesome tree that had the core completely burnt away!

This is where we stopped. It was probably about half way to the peak of the mountain. I was already feeling pretty tired, so down we went. The way up was 4 miles, and so we decided to try taking the steeping and shorter (2.2mi) trail back down. It was shorter in time, but only slightly.

It was so hard on my legs and knees that I was sore for probably three days! We did make it down.

The last thing on the to do list was going out for a fancy dinner. It was so amazingly delicious!! I had a Chicken Chowder soup that was divine. And then the main course was Wienerschnitzel! I had been wanting that for weeks and this restaurant had the best! It simply melted in your mouth. The cheesecake for dessert was also quite great!

Those are all the highlights from our honeymoon!