My brother and sister-in-law had to put their yellow lab, Cooper, to sleep right before Christmas. Cooper was trained to be a seeing eye dog but flunked out of the program (mostly because he had too much "personality) so my sister-in-law got to keep him.

Cooper was top dog in my sister-in-law's life but then she met my brother. "Cooper moves down a step." Then Joshua was born. "Once again, Cooper moves down a step." Then Jonathan came along. "Once more, Cooper." Through all the changes, Cooper remained a gentle, loving dog - letting my nephews fall on him when they learned to walk, pull his tail, ears, paws, hair...he put up with about everything.

When their pastor stopped by a few weeks ago, three year-old Joshua met him at the door and told him the two most important things that were going on in his young life: "My dog died. I have a Christmas tree." Somewhere in doggy heaven I think Cooper gave a little doggy grin when he heard that one!

So...is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? RyJo, you always ask the hard questions!

Here's the only answer I can give at this point: yes, it's worth it. However, if I only ever have the break ups and never the relationship that leads to marriage...well...then I'm not sure. There's just so much pain involved! The only way to find out is to put myself out there, try loving the ones that I feel God has put in my path, and leave the rest to the Lord. Easier said than done! But the heart does heal after time, if you let it! MOST IMPORTANTLY (here I go with the capital letters again!) you have to make sure you are basing your joy on the Lord, not on that special someone. Otherwise...if you put someone else in the place of honor in your heart that only the Lord deserves, a break up can be devastating. Just don't do it! If you can't have a relationship without sustaining your end of your relationship with the Lord - stay away from romantic relationships until you can.

That is all, my friends. All my wisdom about love contained in one paragraph. Should I laugh or cry?

Thanks for the note, RyJo. I really have had some relationships that could be characterized as not crazy but I don't necessarily write about those. But I guess I have had quite a few bizarre ones lately.

For those of you who are wondering where I am and what I am doing (it must be a land full of strange, disappearing men, you're thinking!) I am living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have been here for a little over a year now and I love it. My brother and sister-in-law and my two little nephews live in GR and I love being an aunt and getting to see the little guys on a regular basis. Last Sunday we all went to Meijer Gardens. Joshua, my older nephew, who is two-and-a-half, kept finding these MINISCULE "ouchies" on his knees and making me kiss them to make them better. Mind games with children- aren't they great? Reminds me of camp...

I work at an international ministry as the sponsorship coordinator. It's a great job and I love it! I also have 6 piano students right now so I keep pretty busy. I travel to my students' houses but I just got a piano of my own so I'm hoping some of them will start coming to me!

I attend a Covenant Church in Grand Rapids and, much to my chagrin, this is Portage Lake Bible Camp land. They all think Portage Lake is the only camp in the world and, while I'm sure it's very nice, I have to remind myself that they have never experienced Covenant Harbor and, therefore, speak in ignorance. As I told my father and Jim Steere - "If I dropped dead at Portage Lake you'd have to drag my cold, dead body back to Covenant Harbor to bury me there." I don't usually quote myself nor do I usually bring up possible scenarios of my own death but I'm still pretty proud of that one!

I enjoy keeping up on all of your lives ("your" being plural - I'm not saying any of you have multiple lives except, perhaps, Ryan Green who, I'm convinced is half cat and half Iowaonian) For the definition of Iowaonian, please visit Ryan Green's xanga site. It's hard to explain if you haven't experienced it! But then most of you are Harborites and you know exactly what I mean. A head of lettuce as an "I'm sorry" gift? Pure Iowaonian genius.

So - that's my life right now. No new gentlemen friends this week. No new tales to shock you with. I bid you farewell for now, my friends!

Currently Playing The Muppet Show: Music, Mayhem and More - 25th Anniversary By The Muppets see related

Ryan Green - I love you. And I've figured out a way to get into Lundberg's xanga site to woo you away from her. Do you like the star covering my... I've gotta go! She's coming back and she'll fry me if she finds me on her computer! She's so jealous of moi!

XOXO Piggy