So, last night was the first night of Bible Study. I had been nervous about it all week, but was excited too. The last few weeks I have been trying to be better about cleaning the house and what not, so I had vacuumed like three times this week, the couches had been covered with blankets to avoid re-cleaning those (which I have been doing on the weekends), etc. All in all, headed for a stress-free time of getting some fruits and veggies ready for Bible Study (keep in mind, Jon is still gone in ATL). Throughout the day, I had some people cancel because of sickness, but I wasn’t too concerned because I was still expecting a lot of people.
I came home from work with one hour to prepare everything and hopefully grab supper for myself. I open the door and smell dog poo……Ugh. I go look in the cage, nothing is in there other than Lexi’s chewed up collar and the pups of course….I guess Mocha didn’t like her wearing it. Things are looking up. I let the pups outside and hear Lexi have some not so good diarrhea (gross, but you will understand it’s importance shortly). I think nothing of it. I quickly get their food because I want the monsters fed before the ladies arrive. Lexi will have nothing to do with her food (not a good sign). Mocha eats hers and tries to eat Lexi’s food before I rescue it. As Lexi is walking away, I notice that she has blood coming from her bottom again….she had this issue two weeks ago which prompted the expensive emergency vet visit. I did better this time not to panic. Called the emergency vet and asked if I could push taking her to the vet off until the morning since it would be significantly less expensive. She said yes….as long as she was not vomitting….relieved, I hung up the phone because Lexi had not vomited. Not one minute later, I look in the dining room (yes, the only carpeted room downstairs) to find Lexi heaving all over the carpet (Remember, this was the “stress-free” veggie and fruit prepping time). I call the emergency vet back, and she tells me I really need to bring Lexi in, but timing is all wrong, and I really don’t want to pay the high costs. I hold off.
No time to clean up the mess in the dining room, and I can’t get it out of the carpet….cover it with towels, spray some Glade, and pray the evening starts going better. Ladies start arriving….we had eleven counting me (which looks like we may have 15-20 each evening because a few were out with sickness or meet-the-teacher nights). After we get settled, do some introductions and get going, Mocha starts whimpering that she now needs to go outside. I pass out our memory verse that we will work on over the next two weeks and ask everyone to meditate on it for a few moments and to think of an example of God being good and everything He does is good (Our verse is Psalm 119:68). I told the ladies we would start sharing once I let Mocha in assuming she didn’t jump the fence….look outside….Mocha is in a dead run to the fence body half over…NOOOOOOOOO….So, I quickly run out front to get her which every other time she runs right to me as if she is saying “look mom I did it!!!” This time…she looks at me….and runs the opposite direction. Thankfully, she ran onto our neighbors porch so I quickly corralled her. Back to Bible Study…..
Once I get back in, we get started on talking about the verse……the power goes out! Seriously? It wasn’t raining….no wind, etc. but the power goes out. So, the power stays out the rest of the time we are together. It starts getting hotter in my house because it’s nice and muggy and in the upper 90’s this week. Nothing else can really go wrong, right? Well, my lovely little Mocha decides to get sick….thankfully, she didn’t do anything too horribly embarrassing until everyone left, but she did gas the place up….SO embarrassing. We wrapped up a bit early since we aren’t starting into the book until next time and since the power was out. Some ladies stayed after to chit-chat which was nice. I get some candles to try to see each other, but literally (and I do mean literally) as the last lady left the house the power flickered and turned back on, and about ten minutes later Mocha gets sick all over the dining room carpet, but no she couldn’t be considerate and do it in the same spot as Lexi’s mess. 😉
SO, all in all, it was a great night. 😉 All of the ladies took everything (even the crazy smells and noises coming from Mocha which I had never seen or smelled from her ever before) in stride which was rather encouraging. Some even said they will come back (j/k all said they would see me at the next one). After everyone left, and I had some time to pray, I realized that God had answered my prayer. All week I had been praying that I would be abased. I truly wanted to see God work, and I wanted absolutely no credit or honor for it (this concept and prayer is against my typical nature…I’m still a work in process). With all of those issues tonight, I realized it was God’s way of making sure that no one said “man that Ashleigh girl has it all put together” or whatever. It was an opportunity for us to see God, not my house, not anyone’s outfits, etc, but to see God. While I do pray that we have power and A/C for our next Bible Study (26th), I do pray that we would still only see God and His power during our gatherings.
The Swiss Bliss 