Tiny Truth's Thursday...A good thing...

Back in January we got a new dog. He was a rescue and was about 3 years old. He was a full blooded brindle boxer and was just the sweetest dog ever. He fit right in with our family....he loved to play fetch in the yard....he slept in my oldest son's room...he let my youngest son roll all over him....and he even sang when we played the harmonica. He was house trained...just a good 'ol dog. Hogan. Hogan was his name...not my favorite(he had been named previously) but I soon began to love his name. He was such a funny dog...very protective and very playful. He would go get a toy and just bring it over and lay it in your lap. He only had one issue...he liked to run. My neighbor likened him to the dog in the Chevy Chase movie "Funny Farm"....you know, the one that you see running throughout the whole movie but is never actually at their house. Hogan ran away the first time and I was devastated...to the point of my stomach hurting. The next day a lady up the road knocked on our door and said "we have your dog". We were all so elated to have Hogan back home.

We went skiing shortly after we got Hogan back and had to board him. We came home from picking him up at the kennel and I kid you not....he ran away. We were in the back yard throwing the ball and he started walking toward the back hill of our property. I hollered..."no Hogan...come on back"...he looked over his shoulder at me one last time...and gone. I was mad at this point because I had just paid $75 to board this dog and he is gonna run away. What ever!!! We looked for Hogan for weeks...nothing. We got use to him being gone...he was brought up less and less in conversation. We had a "new" normal. Life without Hogan.

Fast forward seven weeks and I get a message on my answering machine from a shelter over an hour away..."we have your dog Hogan"! He is micro chipped so when he was found, they found us. Who finds their dog seven weeks after he runs away??? The Blazi's do! I drove over an hour with my two little ones to get that running dog and bring him on home!! We were so excited to have him home. We took extra care to keep him on a leash while we researched underground fences for crazy running dogs. He began to warm back up to us and before long I made the biggest mistake. I trusted him. He began to get where I could let him out and he wouldn't run off and if he did run off he would come right back. One afternoon we were outside playing in the beautiful spring weather and Hogan was running around with the kids and he took off across the road. Charlie yelled..."Mom he is running away again"...to which I responded...."He'll come back...". Well, he didn't. We haven't seen him since that day about 3 weeks ago. We are sad...mad...and frustrated at running dog.

We got home from school last week and Charlie walks in the garage and sees Hogan's bed still laying on the floor and he said "I miss Hogan Mom....why did he run away when all we did was love him? He didn't know a good thing when he had it." I hugged him and told him I was sorry his dog was gone...that I missed him too...and that Charlie was the best dog owner ever and he loved Hogan the best he could...it wasn't his fault that Hogan didn't love us back!

I thought a lot about Hogan and why he ran. All of the questions that Charlie asked are the same ones that I was asking. We fed him...loved him...gave him shelter..shoot, we even tried to clothe him with a Georgia Bulldog Jersey...but he still left a good thing.

That is how so many of us are when it comes to our relationship with God. He loves us unconditionally...yet we run away from His best. We turn our backs and do things our way...we don't care about all that He has done for us. We run from His love, His protection, His providing hand, His comfort....from His best. We forget all that He has done....how He provided a sacrifice...how He has given us a Shelter...how He has provided a covering...and sometimes we disregard that...and run. It hurts my heart to know that I ran for 20 years of my life. That I lived my life anyway I wanted to with complete disregard to God....and there are so many people, just like me, that do it everyday. I would sense His pulling on my heart....I would run. I would see His love in the people I came across...I would run. I would see how He provided for others...and I kept running....until I couldn't run anymore. He took my feet off the path to hell and placed them on the path to heaven and I am so thankful for that!!

What makes me even more sad is not how I ran when I was lost...but how I sometimes run today. Sometimes I run from something that He wants me to do...I may run from opportunities He has laid out because of fear...I might run because of insecurities...I even run because I'm selfish...I run. My eyes were opened last week....I pray that I would run...but not away from Him. That I would run to Him in everything and always know what a "good" thing I have in HIM!!

I know that if I get a call from someone in the next week...3 months...2 years from now saying they have Hogan....I will go get him(without my husband's knowledge 'cause he's mad at the dog) 'cause I love Hogan....he's my dog, no matter how long he has been gone. I know that my love can't even compare to God's so that tells me this...no matter how long we have run...how far...or if we have never even met Him...that He still loves me and wants me...little old me...'cause I'm His! Hallelujah...what a savior!!!

And Hogan, if your out there big guy.....just come on home...we miss ya! You've still got a good thing here!

Tiny Truths for this Thursday:

~Hogan runs

~So do we...even when we have a good thing...

~We should run toward God just 'cause He loves us so

~God loves way bigger than I could ever love....even when we run!

1 Corinthians 9:24-26 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.

Spring Break '10....

Back in the day...and I mean way back in the day, spring break was a whole 'nother story. My spring breaks these days are filled with lots of good things that the breaks "back in the day" can't even compare to!

We sat on buckets...just 'cause it made a good seat...

We walked along the sand looking for cool sea creatures....

We found lots of cool sea creatures along our journey.....

We acted crazy.....

We went to the park...every single day just 'cause we could.....

We did the monkey bars...nothing new 'cept for the fact that they were ocean side and you could feel the sea breeze all up in your hair....

We laughed really hard......

We spotted big honkin' boats on said playground by the seashore....

Big honkin' boat.....

We climbed rock walls while looking cute.......


And with overprotective mothers(OPM) standing guard....

We rode our boogie boards in sub zero water....


And built drip castles in the sand....


And walked along the rocks....


and we carried our buckets around the house...



Spring Break '10...best ever...and sho 'nuff beats my college spring breaks....any day of the week!



Genesis 1:10 And God called the dry [land] Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that [it was] good.

The Panic Room....

I went to get my hair cut last Thursday at this great little shop up the street from my house. This precious girl named Emily opened her own salon up in an old house and it is just the cutest thing ever. My husband and I call it "Truvey's"...she didn't know why we called it that, so I had to fill her in on the greatest movie ever filmed!

I got a lot of hair cut off....so it took a while! I had both Shelby and Jesse with me....we will leave it at that. Let's just say I will never go back there with my kids...and she may never let me come back period. They were charazzy!!!! Jesse turned the sprayer in her sink on...tried to dry his hair under the dryer...climbed on the bathroom sink to wash his hands and then couldn't get down...tried to get his tan on in her tanning bed......ok, I am exaggerating a tiny bit...but not much!!

Shelby was doing her usual business...trying to keep Jesse in line, all the while irritating the stew out of him. She was taking him to the potty(since he is trying to potty train)...taking him on the carport....pushing him in the stroller. She was being a great big sister(except when she threw my iphone across the room just 'cause she thought it would be funny)! Until......she had to go potty! I am sitting there getting my hair did....Emily was drying my hair and she says to me "do you hear that??" She turns the dryer off....and we hear screaming and crying. She said "I think that is Shelby" and I jump up and run to find her(not that I had to go far...the shop is tiny) and I hear her in the bathroom. She is screaming and jumping up and down "I can't get out....Mommy help me". The door is locked...and she can't figure out how to open it. I lean down to the bathroom door(while Jesse is climbing on something I'm sure) and try to talk her through the process of unlocking the door! She is in panic mode and is not listening to me at all....Emily is searching for a key...I am trying to jimmy the lock with a credit card...hair clip...anything that we can find. NOTHING! Shelbs is still crying...I am at this point mortified that this is going on because now poor Emily is panicking and calling everyone she knows to see if they have a key. We even go outside and try to go through the window. Picture this...Emily is trying to hoist me up so I can see in the window...yes I know it's funny! I could see Shelby screaming and hitting the door but can't get in.

We go back in the salon and I go over to the door and continue to tell her how to open it...I know she is doing something cause I feel the handle moving. I am very specific in my directions..."pinch the thing in the middle and turn it to the side...it should go side to side and not up and down!" She continues to scream and she tells me it won't move. I take a long deep breath and clam down and proceed to tell Miss Thang to calm down and listen to Mommy. I said "Shelby you can't panic...take a deep breath...trust Mommy and turn the lock to the side." She softly said "it won't move Mommy". It then hit me....like a ton of locked doors...."Shelby, turn it the other way" and click and the door was open and there stood my poor pitiful child with snot and tears all over her face! She runs and hugs me so tight....Emily breathes a sigh of relief...Jesse is done highlighting his hair at this point...and all is good in the salon.

As Emily finished up my new do, I thought about that whole process that seriously lasted like 20 minutes...not lying! The whole time she was trying to get the door to open she kept trying to open it the same way...she was too panicked to listen...and she just kept doing the same thing over and over again even though it didn't work the first time. Isn't that just like me....so many times in life I do the same thing over and over again...even when it doesn't work. I try to fix things my own way...do things on my own terms instead of God's. If I would just sit back...listen...take a deep breath and trust God...I would hear Him telling me..."Turn the other way and you will be free"! I pray that I would listen to His Word ...hear His direction...trust Him...and that when I do get out...that I would run to Him...just like Shelby ran to me! Thank the Lord that He is still in the direction giving business...and His directions are always right!

He's 35...and I love him...

Friday was my husband, Ric's, birthday. We were on vacation in St. Simon's Island without any Internet...I know...dreadful...so I was unable to post on his actual birthday....so here is my birthday post for Ric...two days late!

Ric is now 35! Wow...that seems so strange when I look at it...not just 'cause it's "old", but I realize that I have known my husband for 10 years. I have known him a little over a third of my life. It seems just like yesterday that I saw him across the gym at my game. I remember what he was wearing....how handsome he was(and still is)...how nervous we were. Could it really be that we have been together that long??? When I look at his age there is no denying it....but when I look at our lives...it only seems like months.

10 years...4 children...3 homes.....several cars....tons of laughs....lots of tears(including those of our 4 kids)...many animals(both wanted and unwanted)...many LifeTime Movies....and all of that reminds me that what seems like months was really a decade. I have loved every second of these 10 years that I have known my husband....the good...the bad...the ugly...and the moments that fell in between. He is my best friend....my prayer partner...my love...my children's father....my constant...and yes, he had me at hello!

On this birthday...ok...two days after his birthday, I hope Ric knows that he is loved...respected...and needed! You are the best Dad a kid could ever ask for. I respect you so very much and am so thankful that God gave me such a great spiritual leader. You trust God...no matter what happens in our lives and for that I am grateful!

Happy Birthday you big goofball!! I hope this year is grand...that you take new steps that you never thought you would take...that you laugh each day...and that you know that you are loved...a whole bunch by your crazy wife and four crazy kids!

Your best friend of 10 years,

Geebs