I hope you have a FABULOUS birthday today Christina!

I enjoyed celebrating Christina's birthday with her and her closest friends last night. Here are some pictures from Christina's Bday celebration at La Salsa...



Stephanie, Christina, and me. I got to know Stephanie a little bit this summer while taking Apologetics and Outreach. I enjoyed catching up with her and getting to know her better last night.

I love this picture...what a sweet friend.

My friend, Hillary, who is an MDiv student and also part time dog trainer! I learn a lot just talking to her about dog training. She has lots of great wisdom for us!

(It was a coincidence that Christina and I wore the same color! We got some cute pics in our blue.)

For some reason I have gotten more into blogging recently probably because I have taken a lot more pictures lately. Usually I am lazy and never download them, but since I have this wonderful 3 day weekend, I thought I would upload some and share them on my blog...

Tonight I am going out with my friend Christina and some other Covenant ladies to celebrate her birthday at La Salsa. I am excited to celebrate with her.



Christina and I met in our Communicating the Gospel class last spring and hit it off right away. She is from D.C. and is one of the few females who is doing the MDiv program here at Covenant (the same program Walter is in). She was a Spanish teacher before moving here and she loves puppies. We always share teacher stories/moments and things about our dogs. Christina was so sad when she found out we had to put Sinclair down. She loves our dogs. She especially loved Sinclair because her family has two Maltipoos. She misses them and understood how we felt when we lost our little pup. Christina is one of the most joyful, compassionate people I know and I am so grateful that our paths crossed here at Covenant.

Tonight we made wheat free sugar cookies with sweet little Mya. We are babysitting her next weekend while her parents go to Chicago to see U2 in concert. We are so excited to get to spend all weekend with little MyMy.

I am going do a separate post for each of my favorite works that I saw and tell a little bit about each artist and their work. (This might take awhile.)

Experiencing Seurat's pointillism up close...

Walter and I went to Chicago for my birthday last weekend. Here are the beginning of many pictures from our fun-filled weekend...

Thank you dear friends for treating me with a yummy dessert and a delicious coffee martini for my 25th birthday. Thank you for lavishing me with sweet gifts, cards, and love. Most of all thank you for making me feel special and loved on my birthday. I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends.

Random side note---if I had the money, I would get a Portugese Water Dog just like the Kennedy's have and like the one they gave the Obama's. They are awesome dogs.

Just check out this guy...he looks like a giant Solomon! Love him!

The Friendship between Ted Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.



Okay, I don't really enjoy discussing politics, but I have always found the Kennedy family very interesting. So when Ted Kennedy died this week I got sucked into all the Kennedy specials. I think what intrigues me most about the family are the horrible tragedies they have suffered. There is a lot of mystery in their history that makes me curious and I always want to learn more about them. Well, tonight I was watching a clip of the Larry King Live special on Ted Kennedy and something Nancy Reagan said really struck me...

LKL: "You and your husband were quite friendly with the Kennedys, were you not?"

Nancy Reagan: "We were very friendly with them. Yes we were. Most people didn't realize the friendship or didn't accept the friendship or didn't know about the friendship. Ya know Ronny was so identified with the Republican party and Teddy obviously with the democrat party, but that doesn't make any difference Larry, really it shouldn't make any difference. I am afraid it does now, but it shouldn't."

Then later in the interview this is what is said:

Nancy Reagan: "They both certainly enjoyed good stories. They both had very definite opinions about things. I mean, it was a wonderful, wonderful friendship."

LKL: "Said a lot about America, didn't it?"

Nancy Reagan: "Yes it did, yes it did. And I wish, I wish Larry that I could say that of now. I just don't get the feeling that that's there now. Do you?"

LKL: "No, no. Respect seems to be gone."

I think we can learn a lot from people who have more life experience because with more experience comes more wisdom. Listening to Nancy Reagan tonight, I realize it is really a shame that people make politics come between them when Reagan and Kennedy were such extreme polar opposites politically, yet still had respect and love for one another. It is truly sad that more people can't be like them today. It breaks my heart when I see people segregate themselves because of politics. Political views should never be held so high that they separate you from a friend or make you speak disrespectful words of your president or a person of opposite political views.

Just because you disagree with someone doesn't mean you should disrespect them.

Yesterday Sharon, Maggie, Abraham and I went to the Citygarden in downtown St. Louis. It is AMAZING! It's an urban oasis in the middle of the city. It's so fun! I can't wait to go back and have a picnic date with Walter.

I will post more pics later, but for right now here is a sneak peek of the fun we had...



Me and Hammy (and Maggie playing in the background)

Everyone remembers the tragic death of Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter Maria. Well, here is what the Chapman family did with the money they were given in honor of Maria...

Maria's Big House of Hope from Show Hope on Vimeo.

God's redemption is so evident in this family's pursuit to love Him during their time of deepest darkness.

I took these pictures of Paige the last day I was in TN before I had to come back to StL.

Oh, I miss this little face...


She loves her Daddy.


...and her Daddy loves her.

I love you Noah Bunn! Today is a special day for me because today would have been my grandmother's 90th birthday. She passed away last May. So Noah's birthday is a sweet reminder in my life of her birthday. I love and miss her so much.

Me and Noah


Noah and his parents, Chris and Nina..we have been friends since high school. Chris and Noah share the same birthday. This picture was taken when Noah was about 1 month.



Five minutes left on August 6th...I better hurry and post this!

Went to the hospital today to see this little beauty...