Wife. The Paragraph.

First of all... Ryan and Shannon had their baby girl. Abigail Ryan. She was six pounds something with a little bit of strawberry blonde hair. She has Ryan's long second toe and a fabulous nose, not one of those squished nothings. She is tiny and cute. Congratulations to the newest mom and dad who will fiercely protect their little girl. I was unable to snap a picture due to the new family being exhausted. I was adamant that Ryan email some pictures to Ryan and Deb. So Deb, please share with us on your blog if he sends them.

Second, the title... Being a submissive wife is also on the top of my long term goals and will probably stay there the rest of my life. It became apparent to me that I was not being the best wife that I could be. So, I searched out and devoured every wife book that I could find. Anything from Dr. Laura to Stormie O'Martian. Our church has a Sunday School class that is going through the book The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace. I want to leave you with a quote that I read this morning.

The training phase involves plain old practice. Think and act according to the Word of God repeatedly until the gentle and loving responses are your first thoughts instead of afterthoughts. The results will be life-changing if you work long and hard on this training phase.

Wasting Precious Time in Transit

Well, I think that I should post my goals since I challenge you all to make goals and strive toward them. Now you can encourage me to continue to pursue my goals.

Short Term Goals:
-Run Robie Creek and/or Hood to Coast
-Finish My Flannel Quilt
-Have People Over More Often

Long Term Goals:
-Have Children
-Re-learn to Play the Piano
-Become Fluent in Spanish

These are in addition to my daily goals of flossing my teeth and devotions.

Remarkable Happenstance.

After returning from my summer vacation at the beginning of July, I received an email from ALA Headquarters. ALA stands for Association of Legal Administrators. It is a national/international association for managers of law firms. There is one chapter in Idaho and I was nominated to be the President of the Idaho Chapter for this year. The email contained a request to fill out a membership profile for the ALA News magazine that goes out to all the members of ALA (they just hit their 10,000 member last year). I filled out the profile and lo and behold, the magazine came out on Friday and a familiar face showed up inside that magazine...

 
  

Grizz.

Here is Byron's Dad's new puppy dawg. He gets pretty dirty on the farm.

 
 
  

Happy Fifth Year Anniversary Chris and Jayci!

Congratulations on FIVE YEARS! Wahoo! Here's to many, many, many more happy years. Love you both!

Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie.

This is the story of my cleaning day...

First, it started out messy...


Then it got all sparkly and clean. *happy sigh*



On another note. I just finished watching this movie/documentary called Long Way Round. It was made for the BBC channel or something and it has Ewan McGregor in it. He and his friend drive their "motorbikes" around the world. It is interesting, funny, and inspiring. It goes along with my latest theme of following your dreams and doing something tough to accomplish them. However, there is some bad language, so beware if you decide to rent this one.

Intriguing Possibilities.

Going back to the subject matter from this post...

I was reading out of the book Relationships by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott. And these words really struck me enough to write them down in my journal and to post them here.

Self-worth comes from hard work. It is earned. It comes from dreaming to make a difference and then making the sacrifices to make your dreams a reality.

After these words, the book had an exercise to write down three short-term goals (3-4 months) and three long-term goals. Then to write down what immediate gratification to forfeit or what sacrifice must be made to accomplish those goals. Hmm...

Oyster Crackers.

I had to do a post on these delicious edibles that I can't seem to get enough of and according to my sister and college roommate, Jayci, I always have.

I also FINALLY bought myself a digital camera so you don't have to wait for pictures.

Let me also give my brother a hard time for not posting anything on the Bartlow Blog last night. I was disappointed...

Marvy. Fab.

Here's a picture of Byron and Anthony. These shirts were purchased two summers ago on the house boat trip. At least two of the guys had to be taught how to drive the house boat. Therefore, Byron was Captain and Anthony was his First Mate. Byron happened upon these shirts that summer and just couldn't resist. Classic.

Waiting For Inspiration.

Byron. About to leave with Anthony to Bow Hunter's Education. Luckily...they both passed. Whew.

Twelfth Base.

Tonight the guys play their last church league softball tournament game. Today, Byron has been either in bed or at the E.R. getting treated for his migraine. He is doing better and will see the Neurologist on Thursday. As a result and much to his disappointment, he will not play. The game starts at 7:00 p.m. and I believe we might try to go and watch the last part of the game. Here are some pictures of the team from one of the regular season games.