Justin and Maggie during pictures before the ceremony. It was an amazing wedding!

 

The ringbearers are ready!

 

The boys huddled together in the breezy times at Coffenbury Lake. :-)

 

Griffey, in all his dog glory, with a piece of driftwood.

 

Noah and his shovel. He dug constantly at the campsite!

 

Kaboom! A cannon at Fort Stevens

 

There's nothing like a rip-roaring campfire!

 

 

testing this out

Here are the Sloan boys rockin’ tuxedos at brother-in-law Justin’s wedding three weeks ago.  A great time and an amazing wedding that gave God all the glory!

Puppies, Toddlers, and Middle School Students

Puppies, Toddlers, and Middle School Students.

They all need the same basic things, and my wife has decided to write a book using this premise (just kidding, I think!?).

But, she has a point. Griffey, our new puppy, is really not all that complicated. He just requires a lot of time, attention, and some wise decisions about how to train him so that he becomes a fun, obedient family dog eventually.

Similarly, we "train" our toddlers to do all sorts of things, and we simply call it parenting. Add tons of love that only a parent can give, millions of short prayers, lots of laughs, some fatigue and tiredness due to getting up at night to care for him/her, many little difficulties, and this suddenly doesn't seem all that different from raising a puppy.

Hmmm, curious...

Further, we "train" our middle school students constantly in the classroom. In order for them to become well-rounded citizens and compassionate people who aren't stuck on themselves, we have to give them a lot of individual TLC.

I see the pattern Jessica was talking about!

It reminds me of a verse in Proverbs that I will loosely relate to this whole thing..."Train up a 'child (student, puppy)' in the way he/she should go and when they are older they will not depart from it." (parentheses mine)

The arrival of Griffey

We're getting a dog!

Through some family members of a friend of mine, we are being "blessed" with a little male black lab. I have named him Griffey, after my childhood hero. Here's a picture of the litter of pups; I'm not sure which one is Griffey.

Jessica has been very gracious in this whole thing, and although she is not excited about the housebreaking part, I think this will be a fun thing for us, especially for the boys.

He will arrive later today! I'll post some pictures!