Sweet Stuff

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Although I would much rather have a larger gathering with all my family like we used to, I thoroughly enjoyed the amount of time that I was able to spend with just my parents, younger brothers, a dog distracted by L.E.D lighting, a sleeping cat, and two barely 5 week old kittens. I am currently pet sitting for 2 large bloodhound/dane mixes, a tree walker hound, and a cat about 1 1/2 hours away from my home and my parents house so I got up to care for the dogs, and headed on my way as soon as I could (As a side note, my car gets great gas mileage, but man it doesn’t feel like it this week!). I arrived at my parents house, and we hung out as a family, cooked, I worked on my Christmas cards some more, and played with the kittens. We didn’t eat TOO much though. Spent way more time cooking and by the time it was done, none of us really felt like mowing down! We ate like it was a normal dinner (haha), and didn’t do much after.

 

I should mention that all this week while I’m pet sitting over here, and traveling to and fro – Sarah is being the amazing person she is and is watching Fynn and Ravi for me. She’s a trooper! Apparently  Fynn is being a “needy” pup while Momma’s away!

 

Friday morning I met Eva, Anna, and Austin at Michaels and we began our Black Friday shopping! Eva’s Mom graciously offered to watch Chloe girl while we all went out. I’m pretty much done with Christmas present purchasing woohoo! We went to Michaels, the mall, and then went to TGI Friday’s after Jill and Sarah met up with us for lunch. After lunch we all mostly parted ways. Sarah and I went to Petsmart and Target and then I headed back to my parents house, hung out with my family, and celebrated both my parents birthdays. They are on the same day exactly 4 years apart. Dad got Mom a new laptop for her birthday so I was able to snag her old one (muahaha) :) – I still need to get all of my information off from the Houghton laptop though (R.I.P), or get it fixed. Which would be more nifty I would think.

 

Today I am relaxing, perhaps going to my parents house later to help Mom babysit Chloe, mayhaps not. I’m really sick of driving back and forth 1 1/2 hours each way. Makes me appreciate Rochester more :) I can’t imagine living way out here on the Massachusetts border!

I hope everybody else had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and remembered what they are thankful for. People say its the time to BE thankful. I don’t agree. I feel we should be thankful all year round. Thanksgiving is my time to celebrate the things I am thankful for.

 

Peace and Love.

That Sea, The Gambler

Three things that Fynn loves most in this world are 1: Neck scratchies 2: Sitting in somebodies lap! 3: His Momma! I swear I'd be insane without this dog even if I am sometimes insane with him :) He's my baby and so very irreplaceable! I need to remember this when I get up at 5am every morning to give him a walk, and some love time before I head to work. When he steps on my toes or bashes his head into my face, and even when I slip in the kitchen because he just had a drink of water, and there is now drool all over the floor. Thank goodness I haven't broken anything yet :)  This week I'll be pet sitting about 1 1/2 hours away from home throughout the Thanksgiving Holiday. I can bring him for a night or two, but the rest of the time it will be better for him to stay home. I'm just going to miss him. Although I'm going to pet sit the next best thing - Dane mixes :) Not quite the same but close enough.

Yesterday I got to go see Anna who I haven't seen in what seems like forever! It was a good visit, though not nearly long enough. Darn work on a weekend! Sunday evening I kept working on my Christmas cards! I printed off about 60 photos at Walgreens - Unfortunately I forgot to ask for a Matte finish so I only ended up with Glossy photos. Including a gorgeous 8x10 of Fynn. Now I am all ready for the DOL card exchange. I need to finish shopping for the secret santa though. I need Fynn to come with next time and help pick things out :) I haven't dared bring him anywhere with me lately because we get so much attention and I am not always in the mood for the "Is that a dalmatian" remarks so I tend to avoid it. He's a good boy though so maybe next time I go into Pet Paradise He'll come with!

Don't Let Your Soul Get Lonely

Today was the first day in a LONG time that I had off from work WITHOUT going absolutely anywhere. I took Fynn on 3 really nice walks today, and worked on some more therapy training (some desensitizing work! yea!!). However, I did not step foot into a car or a store or somebody elses house, or of course work! It felt so GREAT! I was busy around here for a bit this morning - Sarah and I worked on cleaning up the kitchen and living room. We still have to clean up the dining room after all our painting excursions, but we need to still paint the last coat on the walls so that will be done tomorrow in the AM before I leave for work at 2:30. It was just over all a nice relaxing day, which doesn't happen often. I like keeping busy, and I like visiting people when I am not working - However, not doing anything felt really great too.

I do want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful sister in law Eva! We were going to do something at some point today, but Max is home so she's spending the day with him and Chloe and we'll celebrate some time next weekend if possible.

Sarah and I planned out the dynamics of the living room this afternoon, and FINALLY found some furniture that we like - BUT not sure if we can get it in the right color! So we have to go and check it out and hopefully order it some time soon or start the search all over again if we can't find the color we are looking for (Chocolate Brown). After that we watched FRIENDS and went for another walk with Fynn, ate dinner, and watched Transformers 1 :) Sarah hadn't seen them yet and I love them! lol... I got the 3rd one from Redbox and haven't been able to watch it yet and that was a few days ago (OOPS!) I should probably return it until I do have time to watch it. My Bad.

My friend Sam recently sent some Bandanna's for Fynn that are sold at the groomers where she works. So Fynn is wearing a fun Thanksgiving one right now! You can't really see it in the photos but there are Turkey's all over it. He also got a Halloween one, and a blue one with puppies on it that I'll probably stick on him for Christmas. I would like to try making my own since they are REALLY very easy, and I want one a little more Christmasy for the coming months :)

 All right well I am going to catch up on Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice right now! :) I'll blog more soon, but for now at least I've gotten TWO blogs in one week! Woohoo! Thats quite the record recenetly! :) Gotta love typing!

*muah*

You know that all the ropes untied

Well it's been a long time since I have posted anything on here. Man, I just don't have the time to keep up with it. Unfortunately, I WANT to keep up with it. So balancing the two are difficult. I need to find some new hobbies though so hey, why not get back into blogging.

I have finally brought home my great dane that I waited a very LONG time for. Fynn is one of the lights of my life along with my cat Ravi. They never cease to amuse or cuddle :) We have a good routine, and I have such wonderful landlords that LOVE animals! A plus for Sarah and I :) Libby is going to start walking Fynn in the afternoon for me on Monday and Tuesdays when she is there so that is really exciting for both him and myself!

Lots of things have happened since last Fall. Instead of house sitting with one of my best friends (aka Sarah) I am living/renting with one of my best friends in Rochester, NH (aka Sarah), and we just started painting the apartment. I'll have to post some photos of our progress soon. The dining room and living room are both now a Burnt Almond Color, we'll make the hallway a little bit lighter in color leading to the empty back room and that will also be burnt almond. Then there are plans for the kitchen to be "Crocodile Tears" so on etc. All really nice colors though :) It definitely makes the apartment more toasty warm then the yellow the contractors had painted it all throughout. I am still learning to get used to being in the city. I have met a lot of interesting people, but also a few people I don't care to get to know. The whole point of the Rochester Refurbishing project is to bring in better folks to this area.  Being around a lot of other people and not in a little hideaway in the woods anymore takes some getting used to, but I am learning and enjoying the experiences that I am having here. Not to mention how wonderful it is being so much closer to work! The only down side is now having to drive through 2 tolls on the way to and from work EZpass is on my to do list. I live right across from the Rochester Fairgrounds so Fynn has wide open spaces to run around in. The Rochester Dog Park is quite close so I need to get a membership there so he can be out and about playing with other dogs soon. Hopefully we'll take a trip to Maine soon and he can play with my sister's boxers Ellie and Bree. Other changes may be coming along the apartment front within the next few months, but I won't share that quite yet. There are still a lot of things that need to fall into place before it can really happen! I'm sure I'll be blogging about it within the next month or so :) But we may not be living here as long as we had planned, which if that happens is a great thing, but not from a negative aspect. The apartment has actually suited our needs quite perfectly :)

What a crazy fall we have had! This first snow storm I was able to avoid losing power, and only getting 3 inches of snow instead of the 16 that Concord got! What a great gift! I'm not ready for what winter may actually bring us, and certainly not ready for the continued cold. I guess the good thing is that Fynn LOVED the snow!

Well this is kind of boring, and I have a lot more stuff to write about. I'm going to put it on hold though and go outside and enjoy this day!

Apple Picking

It was such a GORGEOUS day for apple picking :) Sarah and I had a GREAT TIME :D Here are some photos of our adventure!

You caught me on the way down

Another week gone, and another week colder. The weather has been SO beautiful lately! A little windy here and there and we had some rain on Friday. Other then that its been beautiful! Today the sun is especially shiny! Sarah and I are going to venture out into a rather non windy, but airy apple orchard and choose only the best for some yummy apple crisp (Photos to come)! This is what it looks like from our home this morning :)

Nothing but blue skies, and sunshine!

This week I finished up working for Elly, a rather unfortunate thing, but I definitely won't be missing the drive there! I had an interview this past Monday for another long term-full time nanny position with some pretty awesome benefits! I won't know about that for another couple of weeks though, meanwhile I am still hunting for anything that may look interesting! Sarah and I went on our second shopping trip of living together yesterday! :D So fun, and interesting to see the patterns we are getting into with our schedules. We have started watching The Office together, I have seen all the seasons, and Sarah hadn't seen them yet so I am soooo excited to watch them with her :D It's even more fun then watching them alone so it is a new experience for me as well. It's interesting to see the things I missed the first time through as well!

This week has brought along another couple of new things as well! I got some super soft yarn to make another afghan with :) It's pretty crazy how far along I've gotten it in about an hour + 4 Office episodes :D I only got 2 skeins of yarn to start so I'll need to take another trip to Michaels and get some more :)

This is about the length of a full size bed.

Another new thing that has come into my life are some new Van "wannabe Converse" shoes :) I almost got these sweet purple converse, but in the end the Van's won my heart over.

Grey shoes yet again, but they are oh so pretty, and on clearance! :)

I have a rather large list of things I need to be getting done this week, and I won't bore everybody with the details, but its a lot! Plenty of free time to do it in this week, but that just makes me feel guilty haha.

I am going to check out FCBC in Loudon today. This is a church Sarah has been attending and loves, so I am really looking forward to going! After that we are going to visit with her family (which I am super pumped about! :), and then head to Meadowledge Farm to pick us some apples, and hopefully find good pumpkins for carving, I am in the process of creating a sweeeeet TNBC (The Nightmare Before Christmas) stencil for my pumpkin! YES! Sarah and I are hoping lots of little children come to our door this year so we can give out lots of candy, but I don't know how busy it actually gets around here, though there are a TON of houses! Time will tell :)

There is not really anything else interesting to report! I am super pumped for my birthday and the trip that is being taken to Mass to hitup Six Flags! (if anybody wants to go let me know!).

 "My Utmost for His Highest" (the book I am reading for devotions) was pretty awesome this morning. It was on prayer, which is great. I have been trying to work on my prayer life since the beginning of this summer, being more intentional about praying for my brothers, and sisters, but not just asking for things to happen in their lives or just asking for something to happen in my life. I really want to strive to have great communication with my Father. I know that I have all the ability in the world to communicate with people. I am doing it right now through this blog, I do it all the time with my roommate Sarah, and all my other friends, I am pretty open about myself with friends & family, there isn't to much that I don't share with people. It brings me to think what do I share with God. Yes he knows what goes on in my life, my inner most thoughts, my deepest desires to strive to be a better daughter, friend, sister, aunt. However, do I take the time to listen? Truly listen? I'm not so sure of this. Do I view prayer as if IT is the greater work or do I view it as something to prepare me for greater works? How should it be viewed? Anywho, I am going to post the whole devotional here because I think it could spark an interesting conversation, and I love to share things that have been meaningful to me, even if it isn't meaningful to you guys right now ;) hehe....

"And greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father." John 14:12

Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work. We think of prayer as a common-sense exercise of our higher powers in order to prepare us for God's work. In the teaching of Jesus Christ prayer is the working of the miracle of Redemption in me which produces the miracle of Redemption in others by the power of God. The way fruit remains is by prayer, but remember it is prayer based on the agony of Redemption, not on my agony. Only a child gets prayer answered; a wise man does not.
Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray. Never allow the thought - "I am of no use where I am;" because you certainly can be of no use where you are not. Wherever God has dumped you down in circumstances pray, ejaculate to Him all the time. "Whatsoever ye ask in My name, that will I do." We won't pray unless we get thrills, that is the intensest form of spiritual selfishness. We have to labour along the line of God's direction, and He says pray. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest."
There is nothing thrilling about a labouring man's work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the labouring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labour at prayer and results happen all the time from His standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted, the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you had been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

Okey doke :) That is about all for today folks! I'll post photos from apple picking sometime later today :D

Much Lovin
~R

You know exactly what we’ve done wrong and what we need to do...

Crazy weekend? Yupp, for some reason they never cease to leave! Not always a bad thing but very very tiring. Regardless, I have learned some new things this weekend:

1: Never EVER go to work with an empty tank of gas (leaving purse at home) expecting a check that you can cash nearby to fill up your tank. Chances are you'll have to run out of gas OR go in and get a different check that you can cash.

2: Never EVER go jogging with your mouth open when you can help it (which is not that often)... You never know what might happen, having a bee fly into your mouth and getting stung INSIDE the back of your throat is high on the list of risks you will be taking.

3: Never try and cash personal checks at Walmart when you are in a hurry. The lines are long, and once you get to the register you will find that they only cash payroll and government checks.

4: Never believe that families you babysit for will be home on time. When you are staring at the clock and it gets to be an hour past when they said they'd be home, and they haven't called, you know you shouldn't have been "watching the pot boil."

5:  Never try calling realtors on the weekend, they never pick up.

Those are some of the important things I have learned. Gotta love life experiences :D haha... However, through those things come some rewards as well. You find out you don't have to work Saturday evening after all so you do have enough time to go with your AMAZING sister in law to the ER. Oh, and you also don't have to work Monday because of Columbus Day! So you can spend Monday evening having a "dinner interview" with a family that lives only 25 minutes from you, and has a one year old cute baby girl. Saturday mornings are a great way to spend time with your roommate and sister grocery shopping. You may just stumble upon some funny looking gourds, or begin a new way to "go green" by starting to use those blue resuable bags!

Sarah, and I "planned" our meals for the week! Tacos are on the menu for this evening, and Tuesday evening we are going to make Ian's Potato Vegetable Soup ( The recipe & a photo can be found by clicking Here ). The rest of the week we are kind of in and out so nothing toooo big is planned. I did get some chicken to make chicken salad sandwiches which I have been craving for awhile now :D yea yea... I also got some brownie mix and andie's mint chips which brings me back to my stay in Arizona this past summer! I'll toss the mint chips on top of the brownies & it does make for a delicious snack for the week :)

Other then that it has been a relaxing weekend thus far! I got to read outside on the hammock in this glorious weather today :D I love it when its Fall & the sun is shining! Tomorrow is apple picking with Anna & co. so that should be great :D

I hope you all have a grand weekend!