Silver Lining

You know that saying that says something like, you never know what you had until it's gone. Well, I am living that statement right now. When we first moved in a few months ago, we had no immediate neighbors. Since we live on a corner, we only have a neighbor on one side. That is even more true because there are empty lots behind and on the other side of the street of our house. The one house that we are next to has been vacant since we moved in. That changed last week, though. A nice family of parents and a teenage son and a dog moved in, coming all the way from Pennsylvania. Well, the problem began a couple nights ago, when the dog decided that it hadn't barked enough that day and simply had to catch up. It would not stop barking, and that, in turn, made all of the other neighborhood dogs decide to join in! Stupid! This one dog has ruined the peace of our neighborhood. We never had a problem with any of the other dogs barking at all hours of the night until this new one moved in. Well, last night was no different, except that after we had a very sincere prayer including a plea that we sleep well and soundly, the dog stopped barking for awhile. We were able to get to sleep, and I actually slept well. After prayer this morning and once Ammon had left, I had planned to go back to sleep, but...yes...you guessed it, the dog was at it again. I really couldn't take the constant barking, so I went outside to yell at it! Well, when the dog saw me (and what a sight it must have been, with my crazy morning hair, bags under my tired eyes, squinting through my glasses, and in my rumpled pajamas, with a look of death on my face) he stopped barking and stared at me. I stared back until I was sure I had gotten my point across. Now, almost an hour later, even though all the other dogs are still barking throughout the neighborhood, I haven't heard a peep out of our next door dog. Hallelujah! Hopefully tonight won't be a repeat of previous nights, though. But, since I was awake so early, I was able to go out to our garden and take some pictures of our plants. Here is one of our sunflowers. The tallest one is about 6'.