Holy huge croc! ... and raging wildfires

Photo credit: AP Photo found on Toshiba News link

This 21-foot beast was captured Sunday in Agusan del Sur Province (where in the world is that?) in a creek. That's right, a CREEK. Not 100% sure what their defintion of creek is, but the AP used the terminology, so it must be legit. The male crocodile weighed in at 2,370 pounds. Oh. My. Gosh. That's just beyond enormous.
As for the Captain Obvious comment of the day the story reads, "Residents of the farming town of about 37,000 people have been told to avoid venturing into marshy areas alone at night, Elorde said." HA! You think?
To top it off, they think there might be an even bigger one lurking around...
Check out the huge croc story here.
In other news, wildfires are still raging in Texas. It sort of feels like our entire state is burning up. Not sure what we did to piss off the fire gods... (KIDDING. I do not believe in fire gods). Regardless, keep everyone in your prayers. Especially the brave men and women out battling those blazes. As the wife of a firefighter, they tend to stay at the forefront of my mind.

Here are some fire stats (updated yesterday) that I found on the Texas Forest Service website:
· It appears that in the past 48 hours, more than 700 homes have been destroyed. As better assessments come in, we will continue to update the situation report.
· Yesterday (Sept. 5) Texas Forest Service responded to 22 new fires for 7,544 acres, including 10 new large fires.
· In the past seven days Texas Forest Service has responded to 181 fires for 118,413 acres.

Just in those 48 hours more than 700 homes destroyed. 700 folks. That's really hard to wrap your mind around.
On that note, if you have friends, family, or just someone you know who has been somehow affected by the wildfires in Texas or know some brave soul out fighting said fires, please leave a comment below. Let's turn the comment board into a prayer wall how's-a-'bout?

Happy the-week-is-half-over day...

It's personal.

Ok so it's official - I have decided that this blog will be a personal blog. Not to say it won't occasionally incorporate business-ish stuff, but it means I am giving myself explicit permission to talk about everything from the goings-on of my family, to why I had a fantastic day and you should too, to the irresistable adorableness (is that a word? came out of my mouth didn't it? HA!) of my dogs. Basically, I will be blogging about what matters to me.
My life
God has recently been taking me down a new and very exciting path! I have established myself as The getREAL Coach, and am in the process of starting my business. To find out more about what I do, click here, and here, oh and here too. 
One thing after another has started very quickly falling into place, and I can't wait to see where He is taking all this!
So today it feels like fall is coming. And I LOVE IT. Yes, capital letters love it! According to a USA Today poll, only 28% of the adult population's favorite season is fall. Well guess what? I am a part of that 28%! What's your favorite season and why?
Moving on.
I seem to say this everytime a new month rolls around, but seriously people, is anyone else blown away by the fact that it is already September? I mean, holy crow! The year's end is creeping up on us all Ninja style. Sheesh.
The high school volleyball team I coach, Arbor Christian Academy, has already been in season for over a month. A month! Feels like just yesterday we had our first day of two-a-days. Speaking of two-a-days... totally brutal. But I love 'em.
...I digress. Anyway, we ended up having one big varsity team this year. We are calling it our Gideon season. We started with more than 20 girls and are currently at 13. It's sort of our joke that we're like Gideons army. God keeps whittling us to smaller numbers. So no doubt every victory belongs to Him! (Don't know the story of Gideon? Read it here.) So far it has proved true time and time again. We have a very young team and so it's been pretty up and down lately, but they're a great, hard working group of girls.
My family
Chris is now fully certified and can be hired on with the Amarillo Fire Department. They test again sometime during the beginning of 2012, so for now he's working EMS standby and security. That will probably change soon though, because it's totally boring him to death and he can't stand sitting still, so he's applied for a couple different positions. Here's to hoping he gets one of them so he can have the holidays off! He's also still volunteering for the county fire department as well. 
My dogs... you know, I just love to talk about my dogs. You get me going and look out, I will completely forget anything and everything we had formerly been talking about and all of my focus shoots in one direction faster than you can blink. Seriously though, my dogs are like my children. I just love 'em! But I'm not that crazy person who lets their dogs get away with anything they want (up on the furniture, hogging the bed space, eating people food, misbehaving). That, in fact, drives me bonkers. I mean really people, if you can't even train a disciplined dog how in the WORLD do you expect to have well-behaved children? And it is so not cool to go to someone's house who has no control over their dog. I think having a dog is good training for having kids. You know, minus the whole, when your baby cries you can't just put it outside thing. Oh and the learning how to walk part. Oh and talk. And uhm, school and such. Ok whatever. Point is having pets really shows you in a hurry the similarities (and differences, oh my the differences) the two of you have when it comes to training (hello parenting!) styles. Luckily for my husband and I, we've found we're pretty much on the same page. (Hallelujah thank you Jesus.) 
What's your take? Did you and your spouse get a dog before having kids? If so, did it bring to light some fundamental differences you guys had?

I think that will do it for today. Be sure to follow this blog and comment below! Oh and head's up - my business blog will be launching soon!