Cold nose, warm heart

So if you know me at all, you know that I am a dog person.  I was raised with dogs my entire life, at least 2 or 3 at a time.  When I became a “grown-up” I fell in love with a pup of my own, and look at him – could you resist?

He lived with my parents until I moved from my college apartment into the CASA, but a full time job and a rambunctious new Golden Retriever pup didn’t quite mix.  Luckily Maximus Keen already had his grandparents wrapped around his little paw.

So Max moved to Mom and Dad’s and is living happily ever after, taking lots of agility classes and being downright spoiled along with his brother and sister.

Family Photos by Daniel Balboa – Who witnessed firsthand who runs this family now.

But that still leaves me, dog lover at heart, pup-less.  I get home for a fix pretty often, but there is still so much of me that would love to have a dog of my own running around the house and curling up with me on the couch.  Working full-time still I know that a puppy is out of the question, but more and more I’ve been considering adopting an older shelter dog.  Of course looking at the shelter website while I watch 101 Dalmatians right now is not helping.  (Sidenote: The Twilight Bark is pretty much the best thing ever.)

My Favorite

Thanks to all the lovely winter storms we’ve been having, Riverside is absolutely beautiful right now.  I’m pretty sure my growing up in the desert is a direct cause of my serious love for green landscapes and cloudy skies.  The rain pouring outside my open window right now is a special treat too.  It just looks so rich and alive and fresh and abundant to me, ah, I could go on and on but I’ll spare you.  My favorite thing to do is to be out frolicking in the green, and running gives me a great excuse to do so.  Check out the view from last Saturday…

Needless to say, I was quite the happy camper here.  Unfortunately, in the expression of my joy I frolicked a little too much and seemed to have done a number to my foot.  So for now my appreciation is being done cautiously.  Can’t wait to get back out there!

I love technology…

This week I made an awesome discovery, well really Cristine made it for me, but I greatly enjoyed it.  I have heard about Mac people using iChat for video chat and what not, but never really thought it was applicable to me or really thought much about it.  I don’t know why I’ve been in the dark ages for so long! Its amazing. As someone who has had the odd fortune of having most of my closest friends living super far away, (i.e. Washington, Hawaii and NorCal…) this is a welcome treat!

Here’s a fun shot of some of us roommates catching up with Ms. Vo. Right before we gave her a tour of some new additions to our house and gave her her very own “leaping onto Steph’s bed from the hallway” show – a real specialty of ours.

Really looking forward to more of these in the future, so thankful for this little treat!

Giving Thanks

Even though Thanksgiving weekend is going to be over in a few hours, I still think its appropriate to take a moment to share some of the things I have been very thankful for over the past year.

1.  God, His grace, and His ability to continually blow my mind.

Every time I think back on where I’ve come from, whether years or minutes ago, I am so humbled that God loves and desires me.  Its crazy, but I feel as though the more I open myself up to opportunities to learn more about my Creator, the more I realize that I pretty much know nothing and I love it.  I spent some time at the beginning of the year in my first Bible study class (on Romans) and was so overwhelmed by who God reveals himself to be through Christ in that book.  I’ve also been fortunate to be constantly surrounded by people who challenge me to think about things I’ve never thought about before and every time I leave completely blown away by how much there is to know and learn still.

2. My parents.

Seriously. These two people love me so much I can’t even understand it. They are a clear representation of God’s blessings, no way around it.

3. My Riverside family.

I came to Riverside for college (because at the time I wanted to go to med school – ha!) and here I am, 7 years later, living with and sharing my life with people who are so perfect for me. I am surrounded by sisters, brothers, parents and armor bearers who are part of the continuous process of shaping me into the woman I was meant to be.  I feel so at home here and its because of them.

4. Sandals Church

I have this Riverside family because of the church I call home.  I am so blessed to be a part of this place and I can’t wait to see where God is about to take us in 6 months.

5. My Job.

Yes, we’ve had our differences.

Yes, I’ve wanted to throw in the towel.

Yes, I have cried in the parking lot on more than one occasion.

But when it comes down to it, this is where I need to be.  I am not only blessed to be employed, but I am blessed to work somewhere that challenges me to do my best – and accepts nothing less.  I am surrounded by people who work hard and support each other. And I am lead by people I trust.

Yes, I am thankful.

I hope you have had a good Thanksgiving, and have gotten to take a chance to BE THANKFUL.

³I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:3-5

Whoops!

So the great part about my best friend having a blog, is that I get to keep up with her life. Downside? She’s really good about lovingly nagging me to actually use mine.  (Becca also lovingly informed me that she is also quite tired of reading my Coldplay post from July) So here goes…

The nice thing about my life is that for the most part, I can go a good couple months and no major life-changing developments tend to occur. Some may call this boring (and sometimes those “some” include me) but I love it.  I’m in a season of learning who I am and how I work and I’m very thankful that I have an amazing support system and nice home base for that to happen in.  So here’s a quick update of things I have found entertaining over the last couple months, enjoy!

Fun times playing like real grown-ups in the pool…

Seattle with Mom, Caitlin and Doris.

Seriously, love this place.

Fun times with these ladies 🙂

Oak Glen!

Annual cider making. And Tyler doing his best “I’m holding up a beer!” pose. His name for it, not ours…

More awesome Wednesday and Thursday nights learning to be women of God with these ladies.  I am so blessed by them!  Two weeks ago we sent off another D-unit alumnae before her wedding.  Congrats to Stevie and Brady!

Wedding night with Kellie and our date, Mr. Titus “T-Bear” Pardee.  This little guy makes my heart so happy. Thanks for letting us steal him for a dance Lindy!

Now I’m enjoying a great night watching Elf with Mom and the pups.  About to go make some pies. My love for pie has grown exponentially over the last couple of years, thankfully so has my love for running or I’d be in bad shape.