things i love, lately....

*Have you heard of Francis Chan? He is the pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA. He also wrote Crazy Love and Forgotten God. The second one I just finished reading- it was excellent. excellent. For the past 2 months I have taken Francis with me on my morning walks(via the ipod of course). His sermons are all straight Bible teaching and have really spurred me on. He also talks a lot about how living for yourself will get you no where. Put a couple Francis Chan talks on your IPOD- it will encourage your heart to live more boldly for Christ.

*Today is Oct 31st and it's 82 degrees. i love that.

*I love reunions:


I got to spend the evening of my birthday with some very special women. I was so thankful. That same evening I got to spend time with my favorite Japanese couple and their baby:

*Retreating with our staff team. We spent 2 cloudy days at a lake house but it was SO much fun:













*1 Peter Chapter One. So much good stuff just in one chapter. I love it.

*Saturday mornings to read blogs with a latte. Since I love paper products I love this blog: http://parcelpost.wordpress.com/ among many others.

Dog Days of October.

So, about 3 weeks ago I was scanning through a local Va Beach newspaper while waiting for a friend to arrive for our coffee date. To my surprise I saw a small ad that said, "DACHSHUND BEAUTY PAGEANT OCTOBER 17th on 24th ST VA BEACH." WHAT? REALLY? As you can imagine this was amazing news to me. So, I immediately circled the day on the calendar and began the count down.

I just love dachshunds.

Brian and I arrived about an hour before the pageant started(I wasn't sure what to expect so I just wanted to make sure I could get as close to these pups as possible!) When we arrived there were probably 4 dachshunds already there(with their owners, you know). Over the next 40 or so minutes 20 other dachshunds strolled in(most of them wearing cute little outfits). I was in absolute heaven. There was one point that all the cuteness got so intense that I shed a tear.

Here is a glimpse into this blessed day:






















Here are the the pageant judges:


Each dog and owner had to come onto the stage and share the dogs name and show any special tricks that the dog could do:






Here's the dogs waiting to hear who will be the winner!


And, here are the winners: 1st place is the far left. She was fancy! She could jump hoops and twirl!

Needless to say- it was a great afternoon. Oh and about half way through this event Brian leans over to me and says, "did you notice that that we are the only ones here that actually just came to watch- everyone else has a dog involved in this thing!?" ha. good times. just supporting the community events, you know.