Camping Dog

Greg and I are going backpacking in a couple of weeks and we thought it'd be fun to bring Spartacus this time =) So Sparty is now the proud owner of saddle bags and a doggy tent, haha. It's not quite as spoiled as it sounds, I promise! When you're backpacking, every extra ounce counts so bringing the dog adds weight (mostly his food) so Spartacus will be packing in all of our food and maybe his own tent (we have yet to see how heavy it will all be) to pull his own weight. And since our tent is a 2 man backpacking tent, there is no way that he'd fit inside, thus his own small tent. We hope that camping will be a Ross Family tradition, so this is all an investment for the future!

Here's the dog with his saddle bags . . . he's not too fond of the tent yet . . .

"I'm probably more like a rock . . . "

Last night we had our college ministry's small group meeting . . . the topic was Relationships. Though the questions were primarily geared towards those who are not yet in a relationship, the whole evening was a great reminder for Greg and I that some of the issues of the heart that we dealt with more diligently as we prepared for marriage are still rearing their ugly heads now. The sanctification process is definitely alive and well at the Ross house.

After the discussion time as we all just sat around and chatted I was talking with our CG leader's wife about some of the sin issues that seemed to be magnified in marriage. A lack of self control over my emotions often tops that list for me. She went on to share something that her husband had pointed out to her . . . he's not a journal . . . she can't just unload all of her thoughts, feelings and emotions with no regard to how all those words effect him. It was like a light bulb went on in my head. Periodically I'll unload all of these major emotions and apparent crises on Greg, roll over and have a wonderfully peaceful night of sleep. All the while Greg is waking up constantly, wondering what he did wrong and how he can fix the situation. When we wake up in the morning I feel wonderful, usually can't even remember what brought me to the "end of the world" situation the night before; and my poor man is exhausted and concerned.

Greg happened to join the conversation right then and I turned to him, my eyes newly opened to this large area of needed growth, and I said "I never really thought of it that way . . . sometimes I do treat you like a journal"

"Hmmm . . . I would say I'm probably more like a rock."

We both looked at him with a quizzical look, wondering where this was going (I love my man, but analogies aren't often his strong suit).

"What do you mean, you're more like a rock??"

"Well, I don't really see how I'm like a gerbil . . . "

I didn't hear much after that . . . I was too busy wiping away my tears from laughing too hard =)

Happy Birthday, Leah!!

Happy V-Day

Playing Hooky

This morning Greg played hooky from work for a couple hours . . . ok, ok so us Rosses don't really play hooky (in our combined 8 years of college, we maybe skipped 4 classes total. Maybe.), but this is as close as it gets =) Greg's boss let him go into work late this morning so that we could get some dirt for our new garden. The place we wanted to get it from is only open during the typical work hours and they don't deliver the small amount that we needed. So, Greg, being the wonderful husband that he is, decided to take the morning off rather than send me up to the farm in a borrowed pickup by myself =)

We now have a garden full of dirt, just waiting for vegetable plants, and a pile of concrete pavers that we'll use to extend our patio (we had to borrow a truck to get the dirt, so we decided to get all our heavy towing done at once). By the summer we should have a great place to hang out and enjoy meals in our back yard!

Consider these the before pictures . . .

Coffee House

Last weekend we went to the coffee house hosted by mission 28 (our church's college ministry) and had a blast. We pretty much parked ourselves right in front of the stage and enjoyed the Already Not Yet Band (our good friends Jon and Taylor Brown play guitar and drums). It was a pretty low key evening for us . . . Thanks to everyone who worked so hard and put in so many hours to make it such an enjoyable event!


Jon, during the acoustic set










The Already Not Yet Band













During open mic, Greg got the chance to go up and play the Mission Impossible theme with Jon, Taylor and another friend, Josh . . . it was fun to see my man up there again!

Cheesecake lovers?

Here's a fun link that Kristie sent to me . . . if you come up with a good recipe, let me know!