After my post this morning, I went back and looked at my scrapbook and I was dressed in red more than I remembered!
So, I decided to share. I have already attached them to their pages so I had to take a picture of the pictures. A few didn't make the cut because they were so blurry and I'm still posting a few dispite the blurriness for reasons I will explain!
This is me at a few months old. I'm pretty sure this is a hand-me-down from my brother. Thanks alot, Pete!

Here we are celebrating my moms birthday. At 5 months old, I was already trying to eat cake... now I know I really was born with a sweet tooth!

A red dress for my first Christmas is appropriate. Now lets talk about my brothers bow tie...

Here I am at a cub scout meeting with my brother. My blue and white dress has been paired with red tights. Very patriotic.

The next best thing to red tights: red knee-highs!

Hope you enjoyed the show!

doggone

I am up before noon on a Saturday. I've drunk 1/2 my coffee and finished my english muffin already too! Speaking of english muffins~ we always had BAYS english muffins in the house when I was little. I think my dad received them somehow thru his job... but I don't remember opening the fridge without seeing that red label. Just thought I'd share!
Eric called me at work yesterday (oh... remind me to tell you about work!) because this adorable little dog had escaped from somewhere and found our house! Now, this isn't the first time this has happened. We had one dog that found our house after walking a good 1/4 mile from it's home~ and it had little legs, so that makes the distance that much further! He had tags so we called his owner who came and got him. A week later, the dog came for a visit again! It came directly to our house~ and we called the guy and we all got a kick out of the fact he came back. The owner must've fixed the gate like he said he had to because we haven't seen it since. But the dog yesterday didn't have tags so we took pics and taped a "dog found" poster at the beginning of the neighborhood and a few other places. We left the dog in moms garage and went to dinner. We got a call a few hours after putting up the signs from the owner and he and his kids went to pick the dog up at moms house. Moms dog, Charlie, was so sad! He finds very few dogs that he enjoys but he loved this dog... he played with it and everything!
Okay, so my job. Thanks for the prayers. They had to let someone go about a week or so ago because she was not doing as she was asked and having way too many "unexcused" absences. So, we were down to 3. A few days ago, I was informed that one of the other girls received a job offer she cannot refuse and will be leaving soon... and now there are 2! But, whatever! The atmosphere really changed after that girl was let go and I definately have gained more respect for the people there. I have to remind myself that work's just that... not my life, but it's hard to not let it affect you when you spend most of your days there.
On the home front, Eric's gone techno-funk with his music this week, trax is now getting his teeth brushed on a semi-regular basis with poultry flavored toothpaste and Shasta greets me every morning standing in front of the catnip cupboard with THE MOST ANNOYING MEOW ever. As for me, I am trying to be creative. it's just not working for me and that's frustrating. I was painting for the last year, but want to go back to cards. I have started re-doing my scrapbooks from when I was a kid because the pics were falling out...man, that's a lot more work than I anticipated! and because I'm such a perfectionist, I want everything to be perfect... and hello. I am using girlie colors for my background choices and I was dressed in red. often. I'm pretty sure I have a red outfit on in almost every set of pictures. Not that I have a problem with red. I'm just saying.
Karin

January in pictures

On January 6th Mom called to ask if we could come down to remove a snake. I called a random number from the phone book and the guy let me take and e-mail pictures to him to figure out what it was. Turns out, it's harmless, and I could even get $50-$100 at a petstore... do you think this is how God is going to answer our money prayers?! sending snakes to sell? Well, we left it alone and it slithered away from her house. And now we're more specific with our prayers!

When Shasta is not meowing for cat nip or guarding it with her entire 13+ pound body, we can find her on the counter with her other vise...

That is a bag of Life Savers Pep O mints. I like them too, but the way she hords them... it's really unnatural. I'm pretty sure if she could figure out how to lay on it, she would!

Jazz cat enjoyed helping destroy the leaf piles.


As always, way too many animal pictures! I promise that I will replace most of them with kiddo pictures when that day arises~ until then, enjoy! :)

Bible time with Karin

Last week, one of the titles for my daily reading was: FRETTING IS FUTILE
This just cracks me up~ and so true! It then went on to state that we can't live fully in today if we're thinking about tomorrows problems... hmm.
I have gotten discouraged because it has felt like everything is at a standstill and it's , well, it's annoying. Yesterday I read Luke 18. This is about a widow who wants justice against her adversaries and finally, because she bugs him so much about it, the judge grants her justice. Verse 7 & 8 say, " And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly." In verse 1, it states that the reason that Jesus told this parable about the widow is "to show them that they should always pray and not give up."
ALWAYS PRAY AND DON'T GIVE UP. Words to live by.
Tonight, as someone read Isaiah 54, verse 7 stuck out to me. God says, "with deep compassion I will bring you back."
He has GREAT COMPASSION for us... I can't wrap myself around it fully, but that makes me warm and fuzzy, to tell you the truth!

Sometimes I need to be reminded that there's more to life than this. More than my daily issues. And how can I face each day without a hope? without the love of my God? I can't...

I hope this encourages you~ wherever you're at.

Next step: Intervention

As I type, Lil B is on the back porch searching for his next high. His drug of choice: catnip
Tonight I treated the outside cats to a little after dinner catnip. Lil B decided that he hadn't had enough, so he jumped and swiped the container and knocked it out of my hand. What came next... well, I can't explain it.... it was chaos... and man, does catnip turn my sweet boy into a mean drunk! I was actually going to post about him this morning... about how sweet he is, How his meow sounds more like a "baaa" from a lamb, how he purrs like a motor boat when ever you show him any attention. But now, I will share that he turned into a fiesty, fighter! And he even bit me! Hard! To tell you the truth, my hand still stings a little :)
Anyways, He rolled in the piles many times before I was able to sweep it up!







And when he realized that I had swept his drug away, he started to chew on the bristles of the hand broom!


I should probably go now and make sure that he's not climing the screened in porch or playing on the roof in his state!

little known facts about me

I obviously have too much time on my hands to write this. Here it goes:

*I didn't play with dolls until I was 4. From the time I was about 2 until 4, I payed with:


My mom says I would put a dress on him, take him by the hand and wheel him around the house!


*I walked down the isle to a piano version of Princes "most beautiful girl in the world".
I kept telling my friends when I was single that I would do that when I got married, so I kept my word!


*I hate to touch tin foil.
I have gotten better, and I'm not like one of those people I've seen on the talk show that starts screaming and running in circles if she sees it... I just hate the sound of it rubbing together. Don't even get me started on when it accidentally rubs against my fingernails... aaaggghh...


*I have a gold tooth.
No one can see it since it's in the very back of my mouth, but it's still funny!


*My first car was a plymoth duster '86.
This was the coolest car for me! Yeah, okay, so 1/2 the time I had to climb thru the hatch back because the doors wouldn't open from the outside, but I didn't have to worry about it getting dented or scratched!

*I love to play in Michigan rain.
It rains so hard in Florida that they have flash flood warnings within minutes of the rain starting! In Michigan, it's just enough to splash and jump in! This is my friend Charity and I playing outside the coffee shop we worked in on Mackinac Island during the Summer of 2000.


*My dog is on medication for his hyper activity.
YUP. My dog is Hyperactive. Today, we came home from church to Trax jumping off the walls. I just had to look at his "wild eyes" to see that I fogot to medicate him!

*I play a Nintendo DS game before bed every night.
It's one of those multi-puzzle types, so I limit myself to 5 games on weekdays. I'm all about discipline.

*I walk like a duck.
When I started walking, the doctors said I needed braces. We moved shortly afterward and the doctors in the new state said I would grow out of it. I didn't. When I put my feet straight, my knees turn in to eachother. it's weird.

*I took dance classes for 6 years.
I am not that graceful.

* I took private flute lessons for 5 years.
I gave it up after hearing my "play by ear" husband and his sweet melodies!

I'm sure you guys could add a few quirky things on this list, right?

friends

I had always viewed God with an Iron fist. I believed that If I did not obey and do as (I believed) He wanted, I would be smoted. I'm note sure what being smoted is, I just didn't want it to happen to me. I had this idea of God that if you stayed on the straight and narrow, all would be well. My view of God was one of fear... unhealthy fear. In the last 5 years, God has revealed himself to me in many ways and I really felt friendship, real friendship with Jesus. I could understand his voice most of the time and was able to feel his presence. When Micah died, I saw this as my friend betraying me. This friend, who I spent so much time talking to, pouring out my heart to, let my son die. I put it on God. I felt betrayed by my friend and I pulled away. Yesterday, as I was praying, I realized that I've built this self reliance in the last year because I was so hurt and broken hearted. And Yesterday, as I journaled, I realized that I really miss my friend. I miss my Jesus. so much. I just miss Him. Not because of any fancy reason. I just miss my friend. As with every relationship, rebuilding takes time. I don't know what this will look like... I just know this is where I'm at and I don't want to be here, with a broken relationship with Jesus, anymore. I guess I just write this to let you know that God knows us, where we're at, what we're about. I have become more real not with just God but with most everyone because I am tired of pretending to be okay when I'm not. And God knows when I'm not. And he knows when you're not okay too. I just talk to Jesus and tell him my heart and he listens. I don't always get an answer, but it's good to have him there to hear.
'night...