Dogs at Play

Dog Pics

Verdell Puts Tennis Balls in Bucket

Verdell puts tennis balls in the basket! Henry makes a peripheal appearance.

Henry Pics

Henry is now almost 6 months old! He has lost almost all of his teeth and I pray that his chewing will slow down. He is undeniably cute. Henry is a star everywhere he goes.

I got his nautical shirt at Old Navy.

Gross Toilet Seat

I wanted to post something different.

When we moved in, we were blessed with previously urine-stained toilet seats. We finally put our foot down and demanded new toilet seats. So we went to Home Depot and put them on!

Here is the gross toilet seat at its absolute cleanest. Keep us in your prayers.

Verdell and Henry Pics

Check out Verdell's backpack. He gets a great workout!





Cute pic of Verdell.





Peeking over the blanket.



At Lake Johnson.




I love my brother!!!

Summer Reading

I've read a few good books lately and thought I would share their titles:

1) My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Piccoult. An EXCELLENT read. One sister has a rare type of leukemia and a the parents decide to have another child so they can donate her cord blood to the sick daughter. But it doesn't stop at cord blood. At 13, the parents don't ask her if she would like to donate one of her kidneys and the girl gets a lawyer. An emotional book.

2) Prep, Curtis Sittenfield. The book jacket likens it to a male Holden Caulfield. The book will make you laugh and send you back to early highschool days when every decision must be carefully weighed and balanced. I will never allow my kid to go to boarding school now!

3) Memory Keeper's Daughter: Don't remember author's name and too lazy to find it.
A wife has twins, one with down syndrome. The husband tells her the baby died at birth while secretly sending the daughter to a terrible "facility". The story documents what happens to the daughter and the consequences the family never forgets.

Any other good ones?

Economic Principles Explained

Here is a great explanation of basic economic principles.

A Day at Pullen Park

Henry licking Verdell's ear.

Verdell waiting for a treat.

Henry in puppy stride.

Teaching them to run the bases in reverse order.

Teaching sit.

Resting after a long play period.

Hanging out with Julianne. Note: Verdell has on his gentle leader, not a muzzle.

Sleeping together.

Puppy belly.

Sleepy puppy.

Hanging out in the batcave.

We took Verdell and Henry to Pullen Park on NC State's campus. We all had a great time!

7 Traits of a Stress-Free Christian

7 TRAITS OF A STRESS-FREE CHRISTIAN

Summary of sermon by Chad Harvey

Based on Psalm 37 1:9

Don't worry about the wicked
or envy those who do wrong
For like grass, they soon fade away.
Like spring flowers, they soon wither.

Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
Take delight in the Lord,
and e will give you your heart's desires.

Commit everything you do to the Lord.
Trust him, and he will help you.
He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,
and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.

Be still in the presence of the Lord,
and wait patiently for him to act.
Don't worry about evil people who prosper
or fret about their wicked schemes.

Stop being angry!
Turn from your rage!
Do not lose your temper--
it only leads to harm.
For the wicked will be destroyed,
but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land.

This Psalm was written by David and hits on problems which plague a huge percentage of the population: worry, stress, an anxiety.

1) Stress-free Christians TRUST in the Lord (v 3).
Trust is having confidence tat God is in control.

2) Stress-free Christians do GOOD (v3).
If you are feeling stress, worry, or anxiety coming on, speak a word of encouragement to someone else. Do something to make others feel better about their situation and you will find peace with yours.

3) Stress-free Christians keep living their lives (v3).
Be faithful to the life God has given you. You cannot put your spiritual life on hold simply because you are faced with stressful situations. Not attending Church, giving, and praying will only make your problems seem worse. Being in the presence of God can alleviate all worry and stress.

4) Stress-free Christians DELIGHT themselves in the Lord (v4).
Delight means to be soft or dainty towards. Look forward to your time with God. Don't look at it as time spent away from other activities, or as something you have to do. Enjoy it!

5) Stress-Free Christians COMMIT their ways to the Lord (v5).
Commit your problems to God.
"Commit" (Hebrew "Gallal") means to ROLL.
Roll your burden to God. It is no longer yours when you do this. The problem you are facing is now God's, and God takes care of everything.
Look at Peter 5:7.

6) Stress-free Christians REST in God and WAIT on God (v7).
Give it to God and rest and wait patiently. This does not mean give the problem to God for a day and if it has not resolved itself, take it back. Stress-free Christians know from experience that God works in his own time and way, not necessarily ours. I think this is the key to stress-free living. Resting and waiting.
Also look at Isaiah 40:30.

7) Stress-free Christians don't waste their energy getting ANGRY (v7).
Stress leads directly to anger. Stress and anger can destroy our health. Heart disease is the number one killer and its origins can be traced back to stress. A little stress can shade all of life. One stressful moment in a day can affect the rest of your day in the same way. One thing goes wrong, therefore everything else seems worse. It's a vicious cycle that can only be stopped when we roll our problems to God and wait (stress-free) for him to move.
Most of our stress is unfounded. Many people worry about the what-ifs in life. There are a million of these and if we stressed out about all of them, we would not be able to live a single moment.


It is possible to live without being stressed out.