Note:  Before you read this post please note that I have noticed their is some weird script on the side.  I am working on how to get it off.  I can tell it is about Love Week but that was last week!  I'm going to see if my super smart husband can figure it out.  

Monday started the week off with a bang.  Greta had to go for her semi-annual visit to the vet.  She really hates going to the vet.  As usual, she tried to stay in her crate:

Dr. Moses lets Greta stay in her crate for most of the exam but she eventually has to move her to the scale.  Greta likes the scale too.

Greta doesn't look her age....14 next month!  Other than a need to increase her thyroid medicine again....she received a good report from her visit.  The bad news is that she has to go back in 4 weeks for another blood test.  That is especially bad news for my girl as she is a "hard stick" so they have to take blood from her neck.  :-(

Rana's mother & brother, Salim, are visiting with us for the Summer.  On Monday, we celebrated Salim's birthday.  

Daniel saw that I had my phone out so he asked me to take a picture of him.  This was the best smile I could get out of him.

Daniel sure loves his Uncle Salim:

He also loves the camera:

 Rana and her mother made some awesome food:

These are definitely some of my favorite Arabic dishes:

Of course there was cake!

 

It isn't a birthday without a picture of Laura sticking her fingers in her ears while we sing "Happy Birthday". 

The cake was loved by all.  Why I forgot to take a picture of everyone else at the party...I don't know.  We have 2 more birthdays in 2 weeks (Laura & Kevin) so I'll get pictures of everyone then!  

I made sure that the bathroom doors were shut tight last night but I still woke up to this:

 That was after getting out of the shower earlier in the week to find this:

 I realized that I am not crazy.  Blossom is opening the doors herself. 

 

I don't want to leave out my sweet boy.  He's such a huggybear.

In other news, I will be starting a new job on August 6th.  Sort of.  The company I have worked for the past 12 years has decided to make some changes.  They sold the office park that I help manage.  The new owners (as of 8/5) made me an offer to work for them.  While I am happy for this new opportunity it is very bittersweet as not everyone else in my company has been lucky enough to keep their jobs.  I just keep praying for each of them and reminding myself that God has a plan and this could mean bigger and better things for all of them. As my pastor always says, "The best is yet to come". 

Week In Review

It is Love Week at Elevation Church.  Love Week 2013 has been our biggest yet.  We partnered with 150 organizations with over 600 opportunities to serve.  Monday, I helped package food for hungry children around the world with the group Servants With a  Heart.  Thursday, I spent a few hours serving at the Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte.  

Friday night I attended the live recording of the new Elevation Worship CD/DVD with 2 of my favorite people in the whole world, Linda & Laura Mackay.  Elevation Worship releases one CD every year and this one will be out early next year. 

Today is Blossom's Re-Birthday.  One year ago today, we adopted Blossom from the Moore County Animal Shelter.  We celebrated her birthday with a cake from Barbara's Canine Cafe in Charlotte.  Below, Scott is working hard to hold her back so that I can take a photo.  After I snapped the picture, we cut the cake and Blossom reluctantly shared with her brother Balto. 

It started in 2010 as an effort to mobilize volunteers in a blitz of service to bless our neighbors and impact our city with the love of Jesus.  That first year, we encouraged volunteers to serve just one hour.  The movement grew from more than 10,000 hours served that first year to more than 50,000 in 2012.  More than 7,000 volunteers joined in the efforts.  Many of those volunteers took the entire week off to serve.  Building on the momentum of LOVE Week 2012, we will serve more hours, mobilize more volunteers and bless more people. - See more at: http://elevationoutreach.com/loveweek/#sthash.F5gl0Ul5.dpuf

  

And, finally, I have to share Colonel Meow's instagram of today.  Colonel Meow is my favorite cat (outside of Greta, of course).  Here he is saying  "Boots, if you get one drop of slobber on my new satellite, you are in big trouble." 

I almost forgot! I get to pick up this sweet girl from camp every day. 

It started in 2010 as an effort to mobilize volunteers in a blitz of service to bless our neighbors and impact our city with the love of Jesus.  That first year, we encouraged volunteers to serve just one hour.  The movement grew from more than 10,000 hours served that first year to more than 50,000 in 2012.  More than 7,000 volunteers joined in the efforts.  Many of those volunteers took the entire week off to serve.  Building on the momentum of LOVE Week 2012, we will serve more hours, mobilize more volunteers and bless more people. - See more at: http://elevationoutreach.com/loveweek/#sthash.F5gl0Ul5.dpuf

It started in 2010 as an effort to mobilize volunteers in a blitz of service to bless our neighbors and impact our city with the love of Jesus.  That first year, we encouraged volunteers to serve just one hour.  The movement grew from more than 10,000 hours served that first year to more than 50,000 in 2012.  More than 7,000 volunteers joined in the efforts.  Many of those volunteers took the entire week off to serve.  Building on the momentum of LOVE Week 2012, we will serve more hours, mobilize more volunteers and bless more people. - See more at: http://elevationoutreach.com/loveweek/#sthash.F5gl0Ul5.dpuf

It started in 2010 as an effort to mobilize volunteers in a blitz of service to bless our neighbors and impact our city with the love of Jesus.  That first year, we encouraged volunteers to serve just one hour.  The movement grew from more than 10,000 hours served that first year to more than 50,000 in 2012.  More than 7,000 volunteers joined in the efforts.  Many of those volunteers took the entire week off to serve.  Building on the momentum of LOVE Week 2012, we will serve more hours, mobilize more volunteers and bless more people. - See more at: http://elevationoutreach.com/loveweek/#sthash.F5gl0Ul5.dpuf

Renovation

When we built our house, we were the proud guardians of a beautiful Great Pyrenees named Sadie.  Sadie's ginormous size inspired us to have our builder put a dog shower in our house.  While in the process of building, Sadie passed away and we never finished the dog shower.  In the meantime (enter Blossom and Balto), we realized that the shower in our master bathroom was perfect for washing dogs.  Scott decided that we could turn the old laundry room/hall into a much more useful mud room.  

Before:

The unfinished dog shower had turned into a "catch all". 

Ooops, I forgot to take a picture of the utility sink view.  Oh well...you get the point. 

Before I post the "after" pictures, I have to tell you that this project was 100% Scott's idea.  He even designed the entire layout via computer software and gave it to our contractor.  Scott even did a lot of the woodwork himself.  AFTER:

You gotta have a sink!

Scott did all of the beadboard work.  Look, we now have an organized place to put the dogs' leashes.  That's a huge help!

I now have plenty of cabinet space.

 

Another idea of Scott's was to put in a butcher block counter where I could fold clothes.  He even designed it where you can lift either side of the counter so that I can hang dresses for drying. With the help of his uncle Ken, they built this countertop themselves.  

Scott also decided that the ironing board should be hidden in a drawer.  

You can never have too many hooks in a mud room:

Last but not least, since we keep Greta's litter box tucked away in the mud room, we needed a door to keep the dogs out but also didn't want to block all of the natural light from the hallway.  Scott came up with the idea of a pocket door with glass. 

It was the perfect solution.  I know, I know, Blossom is in the picture but I let her in! 

I am really enjoying my new mud room.  After 3 months of renovation mess....it was worth the mess!

Last Week in a Nutshell

Monday:  Root canal.  Thankfully it was a piece of cake.  To my surprise, I never felt any pain.  I watched television throughout the whole procedure and the time flew by.  It is amazing how much easier a dental procedure is when you are wearing headphones and don't have to hear the sounds of the drill or listen to the dentist chit-chatting with the assistant.  I left the office and went straight to Chick-Fil-A! 

Tuesday:  I had a phone interview with the nutrition department for the CDC NHANES test.  It was very boring but at least I made some extra cash.  :-)  

Friday:  My dad had his OTHER shoulder replacement surgery.  He now has two titanium shoulders.  We are thanking God that this surgery went much smoother than the last.  The Dr. said this shoulder was in really bad shape and that he had to clean out a lot of bone fragments and spurs, but it was much better than the first one.  After the first surgery the Dr. told us that it was one of the worst shoulders he had ever seen.  Dad came home from the hospital today and is doing really well.  He was happy to get home in time to watch the end of The Masters tournament.  He can't wait to start playing golf again in about 3 months.  

It has been a while so I wanted to share a couple of photos of the dogs.  I took this picture of Balto several weeks ago: 

 Here's one I took today.  Balto LOVES to sit on the back porch and watch the outside world.  

And...here's Blossom begging for food. 

I Promised

I promised that I would post again this weekend so here goes...

This is going to sound like one of those ads you see on a website or a handwritten sign on the side of the road but, I got paid $190 CASH this weekend to pee in a cup!  It was part of a government study called the NHANES that Scott and I were chosen to take part in.  Volunteers are chosen at random by the goverment through the census.  For some reason, Scott and I received a letter in the mail (that we didn't read) and a knock on our door.  Two weeks ago, we had an employee of the CDC come to our house for a 2 hour interview of our health history and lifestyle.  We were approved.  

So.....last Wednesday I spent several hours having numerous medical tests to help determine the health of Americans.  Each participant represents 50,000 Americans.  Can you believe it?  I, freakish Julie, am representing 50,000 people!  Everyone involved is paid to participate AND receives $5000 worth of medical tests for free.  It was so strange getting paid $170 on Wednesday for "going to the doctor"! I could get used to this!  I am supposed to be wearing a physical activity monitor for 7 days but I gave up on that because the strap was too itchy for me.  So, I won't get paid for that test.  I have two tests left.  One is a urine test and the other is a nutrition interview.  In 2 - 3 months I will receive all of my tests results to take to my doctor. 

In other news I will be having root canal tomorrow (Monday) at 10:45.  My root canal has nothing to do with the NHANES therefore I will not be making any money off of the procedure and will have to pay for it myself.  Hmmm....I guess the NHANES came at a good time. 

So Far Behind

I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted.  I've been lazy.

The animals are all doing well.  Greta is in here with me now.  I can hear Blossom and Balto wrestling in the den (I'm not kidding).

I'm looking through the pictures on my phone (literally) to see what happened since I last posted.  

Here is Greta sunbathing:

Kevin (my brother) and I went to Laura's horse therapy class on Good Friday.  She was awesome! We followed the class on an Easter egg hunt/trail ride and then watched Laura in the horse ring.  I didn't want to distract her so I didn't get any good pictures, but here is one of her sitting on her horse.  

My friend Linda invited me to go to a Checkers' game with her family last Saturday night.  Turns out, we had the "Ice Suite".  I'm spoiled....the seats rocked!

No, Linda isn't a die hard Def Leppard fan, it was 80's night!  Here is a picture of me with Linda, her daughter Laura, and her son David.  Scott, her husband, took the picture.  Scott, my husband, was at church volunteering. 

I was tweeting a "twitter friend" of mine when Linda and I felt a paw on our back.  I turned around and it was Chubby.  I'm so glad we weren't on the jumbotron because I jumped.  Here is a picture of David with Chubby (Checker).  Chubby wore a mullet for 80's night.

Laura was picked to win a prize pack.  They didn't even know that the next day was her birthday!  Here is a picture of Laura on the jumbotron:

 

Laura won some really cool stuff and she even gave me a yearbook and a game used puck autographed by former Checker and current Carolina Hurricane, Drayson Bowman. (Did I tell you she's my favorite?)

I have more to say about the past couple of weeks but I have to go for some government health testing right now.  No joke!  I'll fill you in later. I PROMISE to post again this weekend.