Happy Halloween!

So tonight is the night when little ones dress up in costumes and go door to door trick-or-treating and rake in loads of cavities...oh wait, I mean candy.

Anyway to celebrate the night I headed over to Jen's house to see my niece and nephew (of the feline persuasion that is) all dressed up in their outfits. Yes, Jen did indeed buy Piper and Chloe outfits to wear for the night. Piper was a devil and trust me the costume matched the personality when he had it on and Chloe was a not so little piggy, complete with a little piggy tail.

As you can see, neither of them look totally thrilled to be dressed up. Pipes went sort of crazy and started thrashing around the room a bit until he got his off.

Chloe actually kept hers on for awhile. Maybe she was identifying with the outfit. Who knows?

Anyway, I hope neither of them have too long of a memory about who helped Jen dress them because I'm housesitting this weekend and don't want there to be issues.

Scenes from a Very Needed Vacation!

It's All About Perception

Driving home from church on Sunday night I noticed my car doing a weird shaking thing whenever it was idle at a light or just taking off from being stopped. Having absolutely no idea about cars I prayed that it was just a mere glitch and would work itself out by morning. To my dismay that was not the case. In fact, by the next morning it was acting worse. I actually could have made milkshake in my car if I had the right ingredients. So when I got to work I was considering my options.

1. I could call my dad and try to explain what was going on.
2. I could just take it to the shop and pray that I wouldn't get taken.
3. I could ask one of the men that I work with to check it out.

I chose number three (and actually number one as well later that night...there is just something about having your dad know what is going on with your car and give advice that settles one down) and asked Dan to check it out for me. Over the next hour Dan test drove the car, took me to AutoZone to have a diagnostic check on it for me (luckily it's just the spark plugs...we think), called another gentleman from our church, Dave, who knows lots about cars and had him come and check it out (which he's going to change the spark plugs for me) and also made sure that I bought the correct cleaning fluid that Dave recommended for my gas tank to clean out the fuel line or something like that.

Typically after having an experience like this I might be freaking out and whining about what a pain in the hiney cars are. Not yesterday though. Yesterday my viewpoint changed and instead of looking at the hassle of everything I couldn't help but see how lucky I really am. First, it was just the spark plugs and nothing worse. And second, I am surrounded by some great, great men. Men who didn't make fun of me because I knew nothing about what they were talking about. Men who were willing to take a good amount of time out of their day to help me figure out what was wrong. And men who made sure I was going to get the problem fixed and not let me drive my car if it was dangerous.

So, yeah, while I could choose to look at this from the vantage point of what is going wrong I've chosen to look at it from the point of what is going right. It's amazing how a situation can change just by the perception chosen. I wish I could do that with all of my situations or at least more of them.

What Counselors Really Do Want to Say!

Mad TV Bob Newhart Skit - Mo Collins - Stop it

I cheer for the Indians and whoever is playing the Yankees

which in this case is a double win for me since the Indians are playing the Yankees. Or wait, let me correct myself, have just beaten the Yankees. And in doing so they not only make it back to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 1998 but pretty much guarantee that Joe Torre will be looking for a job in the off season.

I cannot explain to you what being a Cleveland fan is like. The endurance one has to have in cheering for a losing team for so long. To be so close in '95 and '97 only to be denied once again and have hopes dashed. To be the butt of so many jokes that even a major motion picture is made that spoofs the losses. Cleveland doesn't have the infamous "curse" that looms over the Chicago Cubs, but Chicago at least had a basketball team that they could cheer for and watch win. In Cleveland there has been a long drought in all of their professional teams. Now before you jump to conclusions I am definitely not a Browns fan and really don't like professional basketball so not really a Cavs fan either. But all of this is to say it would really be nice to actually win the whole thing sometime soon.

I'm not sure whether that is going to happen this year although I really, really hope it does, but for right now I'm just going to enjoy that the Indians have just beaten one of the most highly paid teams in baseball and that, my friends, is most definitely worthy of a WAHOO!

***For any Yankees fans who might be reading this if I hear one more thing about Game 2 being unfair because of the bugs attacking the Yankees pitcher I might scream. Those same bugs were surrounding the Indians pitcher in the same inning. How is that unfair home field advantage? Take some tips from those who are usually on the short end of the stick and learn to lose gracefully.

Go Tribe!!!

The game just ended and the Indians started the series with a bang! They scored 12 times off of 14 hits including 4 homeruns. Wahoo!!!

The only down side is that again I was thwarted from watching the game. Since when does TBS show anything except Alanta Braves baseball games? This is when I miss cable.

Game 2 - Tomorrow in Cleveland - A. Pettitte vs F. Carmona...and yes still only on TBS.

Change is good...

or so I'm trying to convince myself. Change seems to be occurring at a much faster rate the older I get, or at least I'm noticing it more. Relationships change, locations change, jobs change and while I realize this is a part of life I don't always like it or want to accept it and truthfully I fear it. But to think about what the opposite would be...to live in a world where there was no change at all scares me even more. In a world where there was no change there would be no learning, nothing to strive for, no potential. There would be no developing or growing physically or spiritually. There would be no excitement of finding out something new about the world around you, the people around you, or even about you. There would be no trying to figure out who God really created you to be or what His plan for you is. In essence there would be no hope. So while change isn't always welcome or easy I do believe it is necessary and, yes, even good. Yep, change can bring heartache and pain but it also can bring freedom and possibility. So I'll leave the quality of being the same forever to God ( I mean, really, can He get any better?) and I'll embrace the hope and possibilities that God has given us through change.