Riding Out the Storm

So, this week has been one of the most difficult so far.  Lots of tears but good times too.  I think for this post, I am going to write about some of the funny/crazy things that happened this week to take a break from some of the harder things.

It is crazy that we had an earthquake and a hurricane in the same week in Raleigh, NC.  That doesn't happen.  Thankfully, both of them were just enough to be felt but not bad.  With the earthquake, at first I thought it was the washing machine, but my friend noticed that the whole house was shaking leading us to turn on the news and see that we had an earthquake.  Crazy!  The hurricane brought some crazy winds and periods of heavy rain but it wasn't too scary...well, our puppy Aspen thought it was really scary.  It took everything within me to get her to go outside long enough to go potty.  She was too scared to go outside by herself, so I had to get an umbrella, brave the high winds, and walk around with her.  Yesterday afternoon, after we had been outside for her to go potty, I looked down at her and she was shaking all over.  Absolutely terrified.  She did have a rough night on Friday night though.  Maybe that had something to do with it.  She was outside playing (on Friday night) before the clouds starting rolling in from the hurricane.  All of a sudden, it started pouring down rain, and sure enough, Aspen was out in the middle of it...and she was soaking wet.  We knew we would have to give her a bath before we let her in the house and we knew we couldn't leave her outside b/c we didn't know how bad the storm would become over the night.  So, in the garage, we filled a plastic swimming pool full of water and for some reason, thought this would be a good idea.  We didn't have her doggie shampoo with us, so we had to use our body wash.  We lathered her up really well and were getting ready to rinse her off when she slipped out of her collar and ran out in the front yard.  She thought it would be good to roll in the dirt and somehow she managed to run while having her face on the ground.  (I guess she was trying to get all the soap and water off her face.)  Bless her heart, we had to start the bathing process over again.  After we washed her the second time, she ran to the door and just sat there shaking, terrified.  Anyway, she is now clean...except today, after church, I was outside playing with her and noticed that she had grass stains on her face.  Oh well, I guess grass stains are ok. She is such a sweet dog with a lot of personality.

I know this post didn't have a lot of discussion about how we are doing but I can leave a few things to pray for.  We still have a long road of grief ahead of us, so pray that we will continue to trust God and be open and honest with each other in how we are doing.  We are thankful for the peace of God that has been there all along.  My daddy always reminds me that when I am feeling overwhelmed to remember that I don't have to do everything today.  I just have to do the things of today and not worry about how I will feel tomorrow or in the future (like Christmas, etc.).  Those words have been very helpful right now.  We are so thankful for all the love of family and friends.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers.  We definitely need it now.