Happy Birthday Gromit!

OK, before I get too far into this post I just want to say yes, I'm a little crazy; yes, I treat my dog much like I would my own child; yes, we may have gone a little overboard. Good, we have that out of the way.

Gromit turned 3 yesterday - and it also marked a year since we adopted him from the Humane Society. We love that little dog soooooo much and we can't remember life without him! We are so happy that he is ours. He loves everyone and everyone loves him. We decided to celebrate the occasion with  party!

I made a dog-friendly Peanut Butter Carrot Cake for Gromit from this recipe I found online. It was so good that Dave and I also had a piece.

We also gave Gromit a couple of gifts. A big bone which he still hasn't finished.

And a bike trailer so that he can come with us on bike rides. (Please remember my statements at the beginning of this post, they should make more sense after reading this)

We had a lot of fun celebrating Gromit's birthday and adoption and we look forward to having him around for many, many years!

Enjoying the sunshine

Updates will be coming soon, I promise. But until then, we've been out enjoying the sunshine...

A real pain in the ___

I have been really stressed out lately. I mean, REALLY stressed. There was a huge fundraiser for work that I was in charge of, my new supervisor started a just a few weeks ago, I am in two weddings this summer where I am planning showers and bachelorette parties, and the list goes on and on with my biggest stresses being work related. So, my wonderful mother, recognizing that I was going a little crazy offered to pay for a massage for me. Hooray!

I went on Thursday to get my massage from a local spa and it was amazing. But there was one weird thing...

When the masseuse got to massaging my butt area I felt a very sharp pain. Ouch! I had never felt anything like this before. I said, "Wow, that hurts! What could I have done to strain my muscle that way?" The masseuse said that that area is a place where some people store stress about money or job performance. Well, I don't know much about how stress is stored but with everything going on at work right now you bet I've been stressed about performance! It made sense to me.

Who knew! I can now officially say that work has caused a literal pain in my @$$. Go figure.

I'm trying...

²³Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, ²⁴since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Colossians 3:23-24

So true, yet so very, very difficult. I have been struggling with this a lot lately. I am a perfectionist. I am controlling. I want to be the best at everything I attempt and I want to attempt everything. I have a need to know about everything going on so that I can contribute what I can to make whatever it is as successful as possible. I am passionate, competitive and take hits personally. I am human, I am a sinner and I am flawed.

But I'm trying to be better.

There's a lot more I could say about this and many an example I could tell you about, but I don't think I will. Maybe this is just something to ponder for a while. Maybe this is something to remember when I get frustrated. All I know is that I need to be better at leaving things to God, not taking things personally and remembering that I serve God, not men.

If anyone out there has found a way to do this without going crazy, let's talk. I'm up for guidance, wisdom, humbleness and learning. Please, God, work through me now - I need it.

Quilting

There's a huge fundraiser (that I am in charge of planning) for the nonprofit I work at on Saturday and one of our board members donated three quilt tops for the silent auction. The quilt tops are very nice, but are just the tops and need to be finished. I thought that auctioning off three essentially unfinished projects might not sell that well so I worked quickly to come up with a solution.

I went to a local quilt shop to purchase the supplies needed to finish the quilts so that they might sell better at the auction. I had met the owner of the quilt shop before and she is such a nice woman. I explained to her my situation and asked what I would need to buy to finish the projects. After some measurements, puzzled looks and more measurements she determined the sizes of the quilts and started in on telling me what was needed to finish them.

Wow! I never knew there was so much involved in quilting! I heard about everything from different types of fabric and patterns to batting, backing fabric and sewing styles. I have since determined that quilting is too intricate and time consuming for me. There are many things I am good at and now I'm pretty certain that quilting will never be one of them. I do, however, have a new appreciation for quilts and the people who are talented enough to make them.

After an hour of learning, picking out backing fabric and admiring the example quilts around the store, I left with everything I needed to finish the quits. Let me just say, those three "quilt making kits" will be great for those creative types to bid on at the silent auction... just not for me!