My Jericho Progect

So lately, I have been reading through the book of Joshua and about all the many battles that took place in order to take the land of Canaan, the future home of Israel. And as I am reading through this, I am just now realizing, through all my years of Sunday School and Bible class with Mr. Bowman (home school teacher) and all my other Bible teachers, that taking this land did not happen over night after they took Jericho, it took quite some time. However, God was trying to teach them an important lesson beginning with Jericho.

You all know, that at Jericho, the only instructions for war, beside walking around the giant city a millions times (I'm sure it felt like that to them) was to shout, but not to shout a war cry, but a shout of praise to God, for HE had GIVEN them the city. They were crying victory before the war even began!! And then God handed them the city, almost gift wrapped it for them. And as I kept reading throughout Joshua, when the Israelites had to continue to fight to win there inheritance, Joshua reminded them over and over that it was not going to be a battle, God had already PROMISED them the land, the battle was mostly just a test of faith for the people, almost a technicality. What is even more interesting is, as I am reading I am just realizing that the Canaanites were not small villages that were in the beginning steps of forming a more sophisticated government. These were highly militarized, big states (kingdoms, as the Bible calls it). And even though they had such technology as iron chariots, Joshua continued to contend that God can take them, just show up for the battle!

So, through reading this, I am realizing there needs to be some application. We all have Jericho's, you can call them what you want, your "Giant," "Goliath", "Mountain"..etc. But the key is to praise God for the victory no matter what the circumstance and how crazy it is. I like to think of Tim and I's situation as a Jericho because we do have a promised land waiting for us, no more college loans! So as we are coming up through different obstacles, waiting on the Lord, and looking into the future, I am challenging myself to praise God for all the victories that are coming ahead and hope that it will not take us as long as it took Israel to take our promised land by storm, hopefully I can practice more faith in God for victory... to be continued...

Let me muse over this...

So, this week was crazy with so many different stories, and of course, I have a million different thoughts about each different event. First I will start out with my sister, Jennifer, had my nephew, or her son mainly. I am so happy and sad at the same time. This beautiful baby comes (two days after I left town, my theory is that its because he wanted to see me so bad he came four weeks early) and as I am joyous for this blooming family, my heart cries because I miss you all SO much. I don't know if anyone caught on, but when I was visiting last weekend I stopped myself from crying at least 100 times. :) So congrats my lovely sister for popping the little guy out!

My week at work was mainly uneventful besides calling my mom all day on Wed. to check up with Jen, and the weekend had come so quickly. Tim is now back to having Sat. and Sun. off with me which means two things: 1. I am happy again and 2. We will travel. This weekend we went to Wekiwa Springs Park. And we decided that we should do a 1.9 mile hike to a place called Sand Lake, with a five month old (Riley). When we finally reached this "Lake" it was more like a pond. We thought we would be able to swim. No. It had alligators. I will post the pic's of this tiny place and our exhausted dog later. Did I mention the dog was foaming at the mouth because we hiked in the middle of a Florida afternoon in August? Not, quiiiiittte smart, however, my amazing husband did pack water, so we were at least mostly hydrated for our total 4 mile hike.
P.S. I have several mosquito bites the size of softballs (Tim had zero).

So, next weekend, we will do another adventure, maybe to a more dog-friendly place where we can let the poor canine off the leash, I keep you updated on our new adventures. All, in all, the weekend was good and now I'm tired, and I start the week over.

Dear Lord,
I know you are always with me, but let me feel the power of your presence to comfort me when I feel like I can't keep going!

My day in court

So, in my job I occasionally have to go to court. Most days in court are boring. Judge asks me questions, attorneys are asking me questions because they cannot remember the cases, parents are trying to look better than they are, their attorneys are trying to make them look better than they are, and then we all go home. Occasionally though, some parents will ask for a trial as they deny all allegations against them. And that is where all the action happens... ALL of the action, I mean people will go straight Jerry Springer during trials. So, anyway, I had a trial today, and the best part was that mother hired an attorney. Why is that important, you ask? Because most people who are in Dependency court qualify for court appointed attorneys, and they do a really good job. Plus, if the allegations are not true against you, the case will be dismissed based on evidence, not what type of attorney you have. My rule of thumb is, in Dependency, if the parent feels like they need to hire an attorney, they did something wrong.
So, today, we go to court. The State of Florida's attorney is Jill. Jill my kind of person, and by that I mean she is messed up and she knows it. Jill takes a smoke break every time she goes outside. Jill is getting married to make her fiance's rich family happy. She is letting her rich mother-in-law to be plan her wedding. She doesn't see the point in being married, she's in her fifties and already been married twice, but it doesn't make a difference to her, she's pretty laid back like that. When Jill goes up to ask questions she takes her time and reads over her notes. Sometimes her voice shakes when she talks, it makes me wonder if she still gets excited/nervous about being a lawyer. She makes me think she is like me, she probably replays arguments she gets into with people back in her head and thinks of different things to say after the fight.
The CPI is an awesome black lady, creole really, she's around my age. She is thorough, and her hair looks amazing, when I touched it without thinking she didn't slap me, she smiled, which makes me like her more.
The Judge is a female Judge. She has been known to hate DCF, she held one of my former co-workers in contempt of court once. She has been known to chew case managers up and spit them out. She is intimidating, but she smiled at me several times this morning, and that puts me a little at ease.
The mother's private attorney is annoying. He has a high pitch voice and has objected to every question Jill asked this morning. At one point, I thought the judge would just tell him to shut up already, she over-ruled most of his objections, but I mean, if he is getting paid $250 - $500/hr, I would hope he would put up at lead 100 objections no matter how stupid (and most of them were) they are.
The morning went very slow, we only got a few witnesses in, an although I could not get to speak, I had to sit there to be the client for the attorney... Long day..
Jill takes me and the CPI to lunch, you probably do not know how cool that is, but let me just tell you, that is cool. Most attorneys have nothing good to say to you, let alone talk to you outside of court. Jill bought me lunch, it was a business lunch, but in my opinion it counted. At lunch we went over the CPI's testimony. Jill fulfilled my life long dream, she asked me to be her unofficial co-counsel, to make sure she does not skip anything in the CPI's testimony, she says "I'm good". I am more than excited, this has made my day. I make an outline and some notes for myself, Jill likes them so much she takes them to the stand with her... we sit there the whole day and analyze the mother's attorney's witnesses and crack knowing smiles at each other. Mom has not been the best mother, at all. This type of thing has excited me, it had made me breath heavier and makes my fingers tingle, I am loving every second of making argument points and talking between the CPI and attorney. Hoping the Judge sees it as plainly as we are, but there will be no decision made today in regards to the case. Finally, court is dismissed until tomorrow and I am a case manager again, no more co-counsel... Ah, until the next time I get to go to trial...

On the Job...

I was in a trailer park today looking for one of my children that has runaway. (Do not ask me about this case, I don't have anything good to say about it, yet) and as I was trying to locate a residence and talk to the people inside of it, a nice older man approaches me. The man is wearing a wife beater and shorts holding a cup with a "clear liquid" inside of the cup. The "clear liquid" certainly could have been water, but due to the man's lack of inhibitions and slurred speech, I believe it to be something else. The man walks up to me and proceeds to ask how he can help me (as if he the "the man" for the job) and then proceeds to hit on me, two of my favorite lines, as followed:

"Why are you not used to the heat, you are so hott!"...

me: (awkward) thanks... ( mother always said to say thank you whenever someone gives you a compliment)

"You know, if you asked me to marry you, even if I was blind, right now, I would say yes"

me: (awkward) Ok, thank you, I need to go, have a good day...

I. Love. My. Job...

Because I know you've been dying to know...

I will give quick update of our fun summer and its not even half way over yet!

At the end of June, we went to Amelia Island, the highlight of the week for me was sitting around the camp (no camp fire at least for this trip:)) and eating as we go on the many grilles! My sisters, Jen and Emily, did an amazing job of food prep, you girls are awesome, us Turners and Bounds' know how work as a team when it comes to preparing and eating food!

This is my niece, Savannah, I feel sorry for my kids, cause I don't know if they will be as cute as her, honestly!! haha! She's a firecracker of a child, such great personality, knows how to pose for a camera, and calls me LaLa, love her!!

Then comes fourth of July and celebrating our independence. Tim and I joined our amazing LifeGroup at one of our friends house for a home-made fire works show. And yes, there were duds in the bunch, and yes they did explode almost less then ten feet away from where we were standing. This is me and Ginger's (one of my good friends in the LifeGroup) reenactment of what we looked like after the explosion in our faces...

Finally, a couple of weeks ago (maybe two? they are running together so far) Tim called me and told me about some ducks that had been run over by a car. Only one survived, and we owned it for about an hour before an animal place told us they would take the duck. I kind of wish we could have kept it, I like the idea of having a small farm of animals...

And for your entertainment viewing, this it Tim, the ONLY husband that would hold the roman candles as they were supposed to shoot FORWARD, except for the dud he had gotten that shot backward, AT. HIM. I choose my battles wisely, this was one for some reason I chose not to fight, probably because I did not want to get shot by a firecracker...

Puppy Love

So, as it is with all new puppies, we are now having to weigh our options for obedience school. Our adoption place highly recommended so, and now that Riley is getting comfortable with using our apartment as his own personal chew toy, obedience classes look like a good idea.

But the one thing that I am conflicted about, is the beauty that I find in this little guy, NOT being perfect. I kind of think its funny when he plays tug of war with me when he is on a leash and I am taking him for a walk. I like it that he is the only dog at the obedience intro class that barked and whined the entire time because he wanted to play with the other dogs. I just love his little rebelousness, I find it endearing. So, we probably will do obedience school for the dog, but part of me hopes he won't stay obedient all the time...

When two people love each other very much...

And want to start a family, but can't because they want to wait to get a house and can't get a house because they have heinous amounts of college loan debt... They GET A DOG!!!

This is Tim, making sure that the cage we bought for the dog is not too big, and yes he did go all the way inside to check...

The adoption place calls him Mookie, but we will probably rename him, probably with something to do with aviation, because that is how we roll here.

If you have any name suggestions, we are open!!

He already knows to smile for the camera!!

I know he looks bewildered here, but he had a long day, and he is still shocked from leaving his home. And yes, I know he is not a dachshund or a beagle, please try to forgive us for stepping out! But we love him and you should come down to see him, with your puppy (ies)!!