Disaster Averted - Miracles Do Happen

This is our dog Ellie. 

She is approximately 10 months old,  and she resides in our backyard.  The kids and I love to be outside on the backporch which doubles as Ellie's homeplace.  We eat snacks out there, we read out there, we talk on the phone out there, etc. 


In Ellie's defense, she doesn't know the difference between a chew toy we bought and left on the porch for her on purpose and the book we accidentally left out there. 

This is what Ellie can do to a book:

Gogurt bought this book with some hard-earned money and although he had read it several times, he was upset nonetheless.  Upset with Ellie, with himself, with his sister who for some reason caught the brunt of his frustration.  (It could have been her yelling out the back door, "Be quiet, I can hear you ALL THE WAY in here!) Not quite the sympathy he was looking for I guess. 

Fast forward to late last night. Sarah and I were watching Freaky Friday on ABC Family.  Gogurt didn't want to watch it with us, and he couldn't play the Wii or computer so he decided to go outside with Ellie (maybe to offer forgiveness?) 

He came in looking like he saw a ghost.  "Ellie has puppy!!!" he yelled.  I'm sure we were all imaging what Ellie had done earlier in the day to the book.  Oh, God help us-Ellie has puppy. 

This puppy:

Poptart has slept with puppy every night since she got him from Santa when she was about 18 months old.  Puppy has been a part of our family, and if something ever happened to him I think we would all cry. 

When I heard Ellie had puppy, I imagined the worst - his head ripped off, his 4 legs strewn over the 4 corners of our yard, and that tail that Poptart rubs chewed to bits. 


I got from the couch to the backyard in 0.3 seconds and thankfully was glad to see puppy all in one piece, for now.  We had to get puppy out of Ellie's grips.  And of course, Ellie thought it was all a game so she was running like lightning past Gogurt and me. 

Poptart came to the backdoor but looked like she was going to faint, so I told her to go back inside and Gogurt and I would take care of it.  Please God, let me get this stuffed dog out of this real dog's mouth.  My daughter's mental state depends on it!

It all happened so fast, but Ellie finally dropped puppy and after screaming, "Get it, get it, get it" Gogurt pounced on it like a lion hunting its prey.  I'm not embarassed to say I sat Indian-style on my backporch holding puppy to my chest rocking back and forth chanting, "Thank you, Lord." 

When I entered the house, puppy in tow, Poptart was curled up in the fetal position on the couch crying.  I can't tell you the relief I felt when I was able to hand her puppy, still all in one piece.  A little wet, but in one piece. 

She was so emotionally drained, she declared there was no way she could sleep by herself.  I laid her down beside her daddy and she went sound asleep with puppy right there beside her. 

(We are still unsure how puppy ever got out there in the first place.  Poptart is very careful about not taking puppy outside, so that part is a mystery)

After the rescue, I was still on an adrenaline rush and wasn't quite ready to lie down yet.  That's when the second miracle of the night happened. 

Gogurt and I went back outside and stayed up for the next hour talking, at first about the disaster that almost had happened right before our eyes, and then discussing everything from school to friends to girls.  We talked, laughed, and had the absolute best time together we've had in a very, very long time. 

Are these miracles equal to the water-to-wine or crossing-the-sea-on-dry-land miracles?  Nah, probably not.  But to me and my family, they sure did feel like it. 
  

Another Painful Goodbye

I posted a good while ago about losing our Blockbuster.  Say goodbye to strolling the aisles and renting a movie.

Today there is another painful goodbye.  To our Borders. 

We have a Borders bookstore very close to our house.  Not that long ago I had signed up for their e-mails and enjoyed their online coupons.  Whenever my kids were invited to a birthday party, I watched for a half-off coupon from Borders, printed it, and bought the birthday kid a book.  My own children, especially Gogurt, loved to go into Borders and shop around.  He loves, loves, loves books so to walk into a bookstore was a kind of heaven to him. 

I received an e-mail from Borders CEO the other day about fighting a good fight but having to close up shop anyway.  That very same day, I started seeing the announcements on the news programs, "Borders to Close Their Doors."   

Life as we know it is ending.  No, I'm not just being dramatic about Borders, or Blockbuster either for that matter.  I'm afraid there will come a time where no business is safe from the online competition.  Blockbuster went belly-up because of their Netflix competition.  Borders went the same way.  Kindles, Amazon, etc., is the way of the future. 

Well, I for one, think this STINKS.  

TO HIGH HEAVEN.  

We are headed to Borders later today to cash in on their 40% Closing Sale and to say goodbye yet again to one of our beloved stores. 

I predict that many years down the road, when people are so stuck in their computers, relying on online stores for every single thing, that someone on the other side of the screen will have this wacky, radical idea.  "What if? What if we took our business to the people, you know face-to-face, set up a storefront, and actually interacted with the customers?"  To which he might get this response, "You know, that's the craziest idea I've ever heard, but it just might work." 

Finding This Book

I wanted Brad to post this on his blog, but since he has stopped blogging (for the timebeing only I hope), I will have to do it here.  I'm sure I won't do it justice since this is really Brad's story, but I'll try to tell it anyhow. 

If you've noticed, there has been a new blog added in my list of blogs over there.  If you haven't noticed it, then you need to pay closer attention! 

A few months ago, one of Brad's professors read a quote from a book titled "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller.  Brad's curiosity was piqued and he made a mental note to someday look this book up and read it.  Someday.  Only a few short days later he was sitting in the secretary's office at work and happened to look behind her on the bookshelf.  And there it sat, "Blue Like Jazz."  He inquired about it and she stated she had not even read it.  She just found it lying around the park and picked it up and brought it to her office.  It had been on her bookshelf ever since.  So of course Brad asked if he could take it and read it. 

He ended up using this particular book to fulfill his book review requirement in his class.  And that book review is what I wanted him to post.  But no such luck, yet. 

I have since read the book (any book that makes my hubby want to read it is exceptional).  I was not disappointed.  I do have to say that you have to read this book with an open mind and stick with it...and you will not be disappointed.  This book is, like the subtitle says, "Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality." 

After looking up the website at the back of the book, I realized Donald Miller has written several more books.  In fact, "Blue Like Jazz" is in the process of being made into a movie. 

This is not a deep, theological book.  Or is it?  A couple of chapters drive home a point using cartoons.  There's no "churchy" language, no hard-to-understand theologies.  It's just plain and straightforward. 

Until you put the book down, and then you start to think.......

A Very Unofficial Book Review

Last night I stayed up a little later than usual and finished the book, "In An Instant" by Lee & Bob Woodruff. I thought I would share just a little bit about it.

Many of you probably remember Bob Woodruff. He was the foreign correspondent on ABC News and we would often see him reporting from faraway places, and more often than not, he was reporting from the middle of a war zone.

After Peter Jennings' death, he was given the job of World News Tonight co-anchor with Elizabeth Vargas. But he would only enjoy that job for a few weeks.

On January 29th, 2006, the tank Bob was traveling in through Taji, Iraq, was hit by a roadside bomb. He was critically injured.

This book is about his long recovery (alot of which he does not remember). His wife, Lee, writes most of the book, and I cannot imagine as a wife what it must have been like to see your husband in that grave condition, missing half his skull.

Bob and Lee write an honestly painful account of how their lives were changed, in an instant.

****************
I do not know if the Woodruffs are Christians and after reading this book, I still do not know. And that made me very sad. Prayer was mentioned a few times, but I never got the impression that God was their Rock during this horrible time in their lives. I pray I am wrong.

It Really Is All About Him

I recently read Denise Jackson's book titled, "It's All About Him." If you are not familiar with Denise Jackson, you are surely familiar with her country superstar husband, Alan Jackson.

Even if you do not listen to country music, you most certainly remember the song he wrote and sung titled, "Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)" shortly after September 11th.

This book was written about their life and marriage. The Jacksons were small town folk. He worked at the K-Mart for a time, and Denise was a 2nd grade teacher before becoming a flight attendant. For the sake of time and space, I won't retell their entire story--you'll have to get the book and read it for yourself!

I will tell you this much. This couple has been through the valley. Separation. Affair. More separation. Loneliness. Despair. Hopelessness.

Denise reminds her readers that it is in the valleys of life you realize just how much you need a Savior. Someone who will never leave you nor forsake you.

If you have never experienced a valley of darkness in your marriage, consider yourself blessed. If you have experienced a valley and your marriage survived, you will understand this. It's not about you. And it's not about your spouse. It's all about Jesus. When the two of you become focused on Him and accomplishing His will, nothing can tear you apart.

This lesson is a hard one to learn. And at times it feels impossible. Once it's learned though, it is a beautiful thing.

I will leave you with a quote from the book:

"It's odd: I would never have chosen to go through the pain of those
awful days, but through it, God got my attention. I had been skimming
along on the surface of my fairy-tale life, ignoring the fact that Jesus was
softly and tenderly calling me to come home to Him. I'd closed my eyes to
any warnings that a storm was coming in my marriage."

"Once that storm broke my heart wide open, though, I finally cried out to
God. I heard His voice. I felt His love. And I realized that
Alan was never designed to be the center of my life. No human being could
fill that place. Christ alone could truly be my all-in-all. "

( Denise Jackson, "It's All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life")