Embracing Joy

Savior, Please

embracingjoy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:58:12 +0000

These are the lyrics to a song by Josh Wilson that I have been listening to. Its an awesome reminder that Jesus wants to help us through our daily lives and wants to be our everything!!! All we have to do us accept this gift and be filled with His Glorious love!!!

Savior please, take my hand,
I work so hard, I live so fast.
This life begins and then it ends….
and I do the best that I can, but I don’t know how long I’ll last

I try to be so tough, but I’m just not strong enough
I can’t do this alone, God I need you to hold onto me
I try to be good enough, but I’m nothing without your love
Savior please, keep saving me…..

Savior please, help me stand
I fall so hard I fade so fast
Will you begin, right where I am
And be the God of all I am, because You’re all that I have

I try to be so tough, but I’m just not strong enough
I can’t do this alone, God I need you to hold onto me
I try to be good enough, but I’m nothing without Your love
Savior please, keep saving me…..

Hallelujah, Everything You are to me,
Hallelujah, is everything I’ll ever need.
Hallelujah And I am ready to believe,
Hallelujah that I don’t have to prove a thing.
Hallelujah Cuz You’re the one whose saving me.

I try to be so tough, but I’m just not strong enough
I can’t do this alone, God I need you to hold onto me
I try to be good enough, but I’m nothing without Your love
Savior please, keep saving me…..
Savior please, keep saving me…..

More fun in Carmel

embracingjoy — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:21:12 +0000

Today we walked through town again and browsed until lunch. The weather here is so perfect!!! Sunny but cool and breezy. Being outside most of the day has been so nice! The stores just leave their doors open all day!! Many have doggie bowls with water in them outside their doors and several also offer our dogs doggie biscuits even when we are just passing by!! Most restaurants also bring out a doggie bowl with water when you eat there and also give dog biscuits too!! We have seen lots of little lap type dogs but were also surprised to see big dogs out and about too! The people are very friendly and you can feel the dog love beaming from this area!!

Anyhow, on to lunch. We ate at Forge in the Forest, which has a dog menu (I took pictures of it of course!) And a separate dog patio dining area! I attached a few pictures of the dining area and one with Kev and the dogs in it. And of course because I love pictures of food… I took pictures of my burger with garlic fries (oh yum!) And Kevins healthy garden burger and salad!! Thankfully all the walking we did today should have reversed the damage from my garlic fries. Hahah

And the beach… I LOVE the beach. I could just spend hours staring out into the ocean. Anyhow, today I saw some dolphin fins (only because a local lady pointed it out to me) and we also let April go leash free today! She loved it but wasn’t sure about those waves coming in!! We later let Echo free for a bit but only once other dogs were gone since he is unneutered and we don’t want to take any chances!

Tonight we are ordering in and are going to relax and lounge around because tomorrow we head back home! We are so thankful for this trip and the time to just spend together and relax! I hope everyone can take time to get away from the hectic-ness of life from time to time!! Its well worth it!!!

Carmel Day 2

embracingjoy — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:28:13 +0000

Today we went to Carmel Beach!!! I LOVE the ocean and I LOVE dogs so it was a great place for me!! Its an off leash beach but since April and Echo have never been to the beach that we know of, we kept them with us on leash. Here are some pictures from today. I have no idea what order they will be in on this thing (WordPress for my Blackberry…). But the pics are from the beach and from dinner. We ate at the Village Corner. I had chicken piccata which was yummy and Kev had a different chicken which was yummy too. The dogs are very good at restaurants so far and only have issues when other dogs enter the restaurant too. They want to pull and go see that dog or bark at that dog but after a few minutes they settle in again. The picture of all four of us is funny because we took several to try to get all 4 of us in it. Thankfully Kevin has long arms!! We are having a fun time walking all over town and just enjoying spending time together without daily chores, going to work,etc!!

Road trip!

embracingjoy — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:57:21 +0000

Kev and I took a trip to Carmel today and are staying for a few nights! This is our annual anniversary/Kev’s bday trip that we try to take every October together! Instead of the bed and breakfast in San Rafael that we usually stay at, we tried a B&B in Carmel. And since Carmel is one of the dog friendliest areas, we thought we’d try a trip with Echo and April!! Here are a few pics from today! We ate dinner at Club Jalapeno where you can eat outside and have your dogs with you! That was a first for us!!

Joey’s 11th birthday

embracingjoy — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:45:50 +0000

Today the youngest turned 11. He requested his own mint chocolate chip ice cream for his candles. He also asked me to make a smiley face out of the candles. As another year has passed Joey says he doesn’t feel like he’s 11. Haha. However on this momentous day a sad thing has happened. He is now taller than me!!!!!!! I have been dreading this day. I knew it would come and its not that hard to grow taller than me. But he is the youngest!! And now I am the shortest…….
Also in the background you can see how ghetto my couch looks covered in sheets to try to keep Mia and her dirt off of it. Instead of keeping my couch clean it just gives her sheets to rip and chew on when I’m not home.
Today was also the first day Mia could go on a walk. I took her by herself for a short one since it was a busy birthday afternoon. She was so happy to get out and see the world.

Copy “cats”

embracingjoy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:09:41 +0000

I know its getting ridiculous… Me and my pictures of dogs all the time. But I can’t get over how often April and Echo are laying or sitting almost the exact same way. I don’t know who is copying who, but it keeps me busy snapping pics and being entertained by it. Mia is not in these because she is still confined to the kitchen area while she goes through her terrible 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 12 month stages. Haha. She is 5 months now so only 7 more months to go right?!

Cute pics

embracingjoy — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:08:49 +0000

I have this new Blackberry phone (which I got for free after the rebate!!!) And there is an application for wordpress that you can write a blog entry from. So I’m trying it out with some cute pics of the dogs. Mia will be 5 months old this weekend and will get her third parvo shot this weekend. 5 days after that she will finally be able to go out on a walk with us! I can’t wait. Poor thing needs to get out and explore the world!!! As you can see her ears are still huge. I thought they’d look smaller as she got bigger, but they’re just growing with her.

a “key addition”

embracingjoy — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:48:11 +0000

Matt’s name is in the Lodi News Sentinel today! There is an article about a Tokay senior cross country runner. In the article there is a section on the side with a rundown of different High School’s cross country teams. Matt’s coach listed him as one of the Key Additions to the team this year!

Cross country at a glance

Lodi Flames
Coach/year:Jeff Tillett/11th year.
League: San Joaquin Athletic Association.
Last season:Lodi’s girls cruised to an undefeated league championship; Lodi’s boys were co-champions with Lincoln.
Key returning boys:Seniors Dylan Silva, Harnir Dhillon, Chris Gillespie and Hugo Rodriguez; junior Tommy Lomeli.
Key additions (boys): Juniors Brandon Costa and Matt Gilley.
Key returning girls:Seniors Margot Haswell and Aly Whittaker; juniors Emily Highsmith, Brenley Noori and Madison Gritsch.
Key additions (girls):Sophomores Sydney Olagaray and Alyssa Magana; freshman Cassidy Daley.
League favorites:Tillett says Lodi’s girls are favored to continue their title run while Lincoln and Lodi should compete for the boys title.
Noteworthy:Lodi is fielding its largest team ever, with well over 100 runners competing for the Flames. … Tillett says the team also adds a foreign exchange student from Spain. … The Lady Flames have not lost a league meet in six seasons.

Here is the link to the article…

Modesto Midnight Half Marathon

embracingjoy — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:39:36 +0000

On August 8th, 2009, Matthew ran in the Modesto Midnight Half Marathon.

He placed 11th in his division (15-19 year old Men) and placed 42nd (out of 216 men) in the Men’s overall results with a time of 1:40:37! The pic below was from the newspaper at the start line…

I don’t have a picture of him to post…. but found this one from a link on the website! Yay Matt!

10 lbs in 3 weeks!

embracingjoy — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:51:14 +0000

10 lbs in 3 weeks!, originally uploaded by rox130.

Mia visited the vet today for her 2nd parvo shot and weigh in! She gained 10 pounds in 3 weeks! She is 35 pounds! Good thing Kevin brought her to the vet with me because she still cannot be put on the ground outside of our house until after her 3rd parvo shot! She is still so skinny but I guess its because she is growing UP instead of out right now!