poor buddy baby

My preshy dog hurt his tiny back, and he is just more pitiful than words can express. Lance took him to the vet today, so he now has two medications and is not allowed to jump AT ALL for 3 weeks. If you know my dog, you know a few things: 1. He already loves you. 2. He loves to jump. He jumps when he's happy and when he has to potty and when he wants to eat what you have and when you're holding a baby and when you walk in the front door and... well, he just loves to jump. I'm not sure how to keep his paws on terra firma for 3 weeks, but I will definitely try. And just because he's cute:

So say a little prayer for my pup and his back... and hopefully he will back to his old self in a few weeks!

chris lee's wedding

Our dear friend Chris got married at the end of July, and we had a wonderful time. If you want to see their beautiful professional pictures, you can see Erin's fabulous blog. She is incredibly talented. Wow. Here, though, you will just see pictures of Lance and me. So sorry.

Kasey Spain, my sweet freshman year across the hall neighbor (affectionately known as my ATH... and yes, I still call her that). And for some reason, my eyes are overly enthusiastic in this picture.

Sweet Aaron Rector. So glad he's back on our continent!

Awww Luke! Haven't seen this kiddo in forever.


My sweet loves Stefie and Katie. Such beautiful girls. It was just wonderful to see them and catch up with them.

Okay, so Lance, Chris, and I took this picture on the first day that Lance and I met... way back at Kadesh 2002. After that, we took it every six months through school... and on our graduation day and on the day Lance and I got married. Love it. I will have to hunt down some of those pics and post them. They are fabulous.

Um, and I just realized that I don't have a single picture with the bride. She was a beautiful one though! Congratulations to both of you... and thanks for giving me the opportunity to see lots of my friends! It was a wonderful night!

milestone day

Today, I ran a mile. That may not seem like any big deal… and if you’ve been running for years, it’s probably not to you. To me, though, this is huge. I haven’t been able to run a mile since… college? Maybe? I think I ran a mile like twice all the way through college. I am a terrible, terrible runner. And today, I ran a mile.

I’ve been getting up and running in the mornings before work. When I first started about a month ago, I could barely, BARELY finish a quarter of a mile. Yes, it’s sad. I know. Every day I have forced myself to run a bit (sometimes a matter of mere steps) further than the day before. Well, except for the day that Buddy wrapped his leash around a rosebush. I was too cranky to finish that day. Let’s not talk about that. I have a couple of goals in my new-found runningness: 1. I want to run at least a 5k. Maybe a 10k, but I get overwhelmed thinking about it, so I choose to focus on the 5k. 2. I want to run a mile in 8(ish) minutes. I have never, never done that.

I should also mention that my natural running stance is more like Phoebe than anyone else…

Like, it makes people laugh. I have been working very hard to run in a way that will not make people laugh. I guess that’s my third goal. 3. I want to run without anyone laughing at the way I run.

I also feel like I should mention how very, very much I hate mornings. Lance has a video of me attempting to hit him for trying to wake me up on our honeymoon. Youch. Anyway, I have been waking up early, and I have to say, that part is going far better than I’d anticipated. I get to see a sunrise every morning, and I start my day awed by my God and His creativity. It has been a blessing. Every morning, I sing in my head, “Who paints the skies into glorious day? Only the splendor of Jesus!” And this week, I’ve been running with my friend Lorrie and her dog Fudge (who is FAR better behaved than Buddy), and that has been great too! We spend our warm-up and cool-down time just talking about stuff. However, I can’t talk while running. Too hard.

Anyway, today is (quite literally) a milestone for me. Hopefully there are many more to come.

summer = almost over....

It’s hard to stay caught up when life is so busy! I genuinely thought I was going to get a break, but VBS was last week, and it was ridiculous too. I even skipped on Tuesday to go to the grocery store and was still absolutely exhausted. Plus there was a summer youth series at Legacy Thursday night. You know it’s a rough week when Friday is your only day to not do church stuff… And I must admit, my house was a disaster, and we had very few clean clothes. Yes, it’s true. And it wasn’t even bothering me until Thursday morning. I knocked a bunch of things over trying to get ready, and it made me so cranky. Anyway, Lance and I stayed home and just hung out Friday night… and then I spent all day Saturday cleaning while Lance was at a Kids for Christ rally thing. Oh yes… there was a church thing on Saturday too! We were also taking food to some folks who just had a baby and hosting small group at our house Sunday night, so I also made pork in the crockpot and baked 4 dozen cupcakes on Saturday… and then I begged to go swimming, so we went to some friends’ backyard (they weren’t even home!) and swam for awhile.

Since the last time I posted, probably the most exciting thing that’s happened was that my friend Chris Lee got married. (And that happened on July 31st, so obvi not much too terribly exciting has happened since then…) He is the one who introduced Lance and me, and he is very special to us. Chris and I were actually in an MPulse group together the summer between 7th and 8th grade and then were in a Kadesh group together the summer between 11th and 12th grade… and we have stayed friends ever since! The wedding was very sweet, and it was a tremendous blessing to see some college friends again… and I will have to post pictures soon… after I take the time to upload them.

Well, also, we had 18 people at our house for small group last night! I guess that’s exciting too! Holy moly! We were packed into our house, and we started running out of food there at the end… but it was a lot of fun. I am definitely going to have to find some more good recipes for large groups of people. I probably can’t make spaghetti every time!

Can I just tell you how ready I am for summer to be over? There is just too much going on in the summer to try to even breathe. I loved summer when I got to be a part of summer. When I just get to be extra-super-busy and husband-less but still working while it’s uber hot outside, summer loses some of its appeal. Yes, I am now 25, and summer is officially lame.