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Dog hair is driving me crazy!!

Okay you all know how much I love my dog, but seriously I wish she would magically stop shedding.  Today after work I got out the vaccuum for the sofa and I noticed it wasn’t really sucking very forcefully.  Then I saw the red light indicator that shows the bag is full.  I thought to myself “that can’t be right…I just changed it about a month ago.”  But sure enough, I took the old bag out and it was busting at the seams!  Not only that but the hose was clogged full of hair.  Gross!!  So in a previous post about spring cleaning, my friend Betty made a funny comment that it’s okay I’m obssesive about my cleaning as long as I don’t have a vaccuum for my vaccuum.  Well guess what…no I didn’t really vaccuum my own vaccuum… but I wish I could have today!  I could have built a whole new dog with all the hair I got rid of.  Ugggh!

Fireproof

Kevin and I watched the movie Fireproof this Valentine’s weekend.  It has been out for a while but we always wait until we can watch stuff on dvd.  What an amazing movie!  I had heard so many good things about it, and it definitely lived up to its reputation.  If you haven’t seen it here’s the basic plot: a couple Caleb and Catherine have been married for 7 years and they are fighting all the time and on the brink of divorce.  Caleb’s dad challenges him to hold off on signing divorce papers for 40 days so that he can try something called the “Love Dare”.  Each day he has to try doing a new challenge for his spouse- in hopes of restoring their marriage.  I won’t ruin all the details, but the movie definitely gives you a lot to think about.

On top of this, we had a discussion yesterday in community group about the Love passage from 1 Corinthians 13.  Both of these elements put together and all the talk from this weekend have drawn me to one conclusion: God is amazing.  Did I not think this before?  Well yes I did, but it’s so neat to see even more tangible examples of His love.

One of the best scenes in Fireproof is the “salvation scene” where Caleb’s father is explaining to him why it is so important that he keep pressing on and trying to love his wife even in spite of her anger and rejection.  Caleb asks his dad “How can I keep loving someone who constantly rejects me and spits in my face?”  His dad answers “Because that’s how God loves us.”

Now once again, I already knew this to be true about God.  But I have been even more aware of it lately.  So it got me thinking…what if someone had been able to stand up on your wedding day and read you a list or a story of all the things that were going to happen between you and your spouse in the future.  All the mean words that would be spoken, all the difficult situations you woud have to endure, all the surprises you would find out about each other.  And then if you were given the choice, would you still marry that person knowing all those things?  Obviously we can’t have that kind of foreseen knowledge.  But God does.  He knows every move we are ever going to make, both good and bad.  He knows how we are going to reject Him, and how many times we are going to hurt Him.  And He still chooses to love us, even to pursue us!  What an amazing Father we have; thank you Lord for Your love.

Valentine Birthday

Our sweet, crazy little Maggie Magoo is turning one year old today!  It’s amazing to think how much she has changed since we got her last April.  We used to be constantly stressed about her ‘puppy antics’.  Well sometimes we still are but she really is just so much fun and silly and makes us laugh all the time.  (Note: she is not so fun when she’s eating Kevin’s pizza…more on that later)

The best thing about Maggie: she is a major cuddler! I debated on whether or not to post this picture because it’s not exactly flattering of me, but it’s just too cute.

This morning we celebrated by taking her to Petsmart.  She got those long nails cut, and a new squeaky ball!  Her old one has so many holes in it that it no longer makes noise.  She is delighted.

Here’s to many more years of fun, craziness, and love.

A Tale of Two Leann’s

Disclaimer: I promise I am a totally sane person- these are just my random thoughts! =)

So as my husband can probably tell you, I am quite a complex human being.  Not in a bad way- I just seem to have so many different kinds of personality traits.  And lately it has been frustrating to me.

I’m not really talking about mood swings or anything like that.  It’s more like I will have two tendencies that are in sharp contrast to one another going on in my head at the same time.  Let me give you some background: I had to take the Meyers Briggs test in college for one of my education classes to find out what kind of learner/teacher I am.  My results came out as ISFP (stands for Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving).  But none of the categories came out with overwhelming numbers.  I could just as easily have been ESTJ (Extrovert, Intuition, Thinking, Judging).  When I took other kinds of tests to see if I am a left or right brain person (L = analytical, R = creative), guess what!?  I’m whole brained!  Haha I suppose that is a good thing.  But some times it frustrates me at work or in other situations where I need to make a decision and it’s hard because I feel different things.

Okay so here are some of my weird contrasting tendencies:

• Organized/Scatter-brained: In a physical sense I have to have things neat.  But as far as completing tasks, I am somewhat scattered unlike my husband the “list maker”.  I will often start a project all excited and then not be able to finish it.
• Orderly/Spontaneous: most people would probably say that I am orderly in that I like knowing what to expect day to day.  But then again, I love it when things just happen out of the blue!
• Strict/Compassionate: maybe these aren’t opposites.  What I mean is that on one hand I always want things to go my way.  I feel like if I want something done right I have to do it myself.  But then again, I am usually concerned with other people’s feelings and I want everyone to be happy.
• Left/Right: at times I can be totally analytical and I will look into all the options before making a decision.  But I am also a creative, artsy person.

Those are just a few exmaples of my many interesting quirks.  I hate to say that lately they have not been working to my advantage.  But I am hoping I will somehow learn to use my “whole brain” for good! Hehe.

Blue Jeans

(Photo by Jimmy Joe)

I love blue jeans.

Is there ever a pair of pants more comfortable than a pair of well worn in blue jeans? I assert there is certaintly not.

My work environment requires slacks and a button up shirt. Every. Single. Day.

I love blue jeans.

Yes, yes, welcome to the real world. Welcome to corporate America. Welcome to business casual. Welcome to the rest of my working life.

I hate business casual. I love blue jeans.

Correction, I hate business casual when it is 28 degrees outside and the winter wind cuts straight through your pants to freeze you to your very core. Business casual is okay when the summer hits and it is dreadfully hot and humid and I can finally wear a polo shirt to go with my slacks full of tiny, invisible, winter-wind inviting holes. But even then I’d rather wear shorts and sandals than slacks.

Who says corporate America has to wear the same thing every day? I long to work for an organization with the cultural gusto to throw caution to the wind and lets the worker wear whatever makes them most comfortable. Comfort = relaxed = likely better focused on the task at hand.

I really, really love blue jeans.