How adorable are these children?

They threw me a surprise birthday party. Such precious, precious students!

Rookie Mistakes in DIY Dog Grooming

Poor, poor PJ.

First of all, please note the following:
1. Professional dog grooming for a beast her size is crazy expensive.
2. Dad gave me an electric shaver to use.
3. She is just a dog.
4. It's already getting into the 80's temperature wise everyday, and no one wants to be wearing a thick fur coat.

Ok, now prepare yourself for what you are about to see and please don't call animal control on me!

HORRORS!

It's really, really hard to buzz an 80 lb. dog who won't be still! And my glasses kept falling off my
nose into the grass... just nothing was going good. PJ basically was going bonkers the entire time, even though I was saying soothing lies such as, "oh you are so beautiful! You are the prettiest dog on the street!" She didn't believe me.

After the buzz nightmare, I attempted to bathe her. That was a disaster all of its own. I got her wet, then she FREAKED out and with her newly buzzed neck, her collar slid right off her head. She dashed into the house, making a total mess. I finally calmed her down, bathed her, then we went on a long walk together in which she had diarrhea in pretty much every yard for three blocks. Traumatized I suppose?

Pre-project visit: St. Louis

Back home now from this year's pre-project PowerPlant visit to St. Louis. The actual project is June 14-19, but we had a site visit with group leaders to see the lodging facility, meet the church planters we'll be working with, and see the ministry sites. It went really great.

Here's where two of the church plants are currently meeting:

W.E.L.D meets in this city park. There's a nearby pavillion for rainy days.

And then of course the dairy barn turned nightclub. Red Tree meets here on Sunday mornings and nights. The pastoral staff arrives early to sweep up broken glass from the night before. I think the barn touret serves as a steeple, haha.

3 signs I've turned into an old lady.

Sign #1: I attended Baker's Prom with a Husband and found the dancing to be shocking.
Sign #2: I proudly bought my first ferns yesterday.
Sign #3: Feel like my house looks infinitely better with said ferns hanging on the porch.

Yep, I'm an old lady!
I also hand-bagged a whole driveway's worth of pollen and dead leaves. As I type this, I can hear our neighbor blowing off their driveway with a handy dandy blower. Must be nice.



I also got some gerbs, a few herbs, and planted the world's smallest vegetable garden:




If this garden works out, I will yield some squash, zucchini, green bell peppers, red bell peppers and a cucumber. If we get ONE vegetable, I will jump for joy.

Even though she's a traitor, we still love her...

I know I gripe about the dog not fetching with me or eating the Bible and such, but deep down, we really love her. She was so very sweet last night I had to snap some pictures. You never know when she might be this sweet again and it's good to have the physical evidence to remind us that sometimes she is, in fact, a good dog.
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sooooooooooo comfortable!

Also, I wanted to post a picture or two of my latest craft! I was in dire need of a bookshelf last summer and had about 30 cents to use toward the purchase of one, so I bought the cheapest thing I could find, which was a really ugly cube thing from Lowes. Whatever- it holds my books, thus it serves the purpose just fine. Ok so this weekend, I decided to modge podge (I'm obsessed with modge podge! Don't let me near your young children! I will modge podge their limbs!) the bookshelf and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

a close up shot for fine viewing....

So it is still a cheap cube thing from Lowes, but I don't cringe every time I look at it now. I also purchased a book of scrapbooking pages (it came with 180 sheets!) so I can modge podge basically anything I want now. I might cover the siding of our house.... syke.

Weekend Update

First of all, a big "He is risen indeed!" and Happy Easter to everyone. Or as the friendly staff at Central China Buffet say, "Happy Easter Day!"

Also, PJ Joey is a big fat traitor. I thought she just wasn't catching on to the idea of "fetch" because day after day she ignores the ball I pummel at her. A few days ago, while I was trying to play fetch with her, Belle our 4-year old neighbor came out into her backyard (we share a fence). Immediately, PJ Joey grabbed a ball in her mouth, ran over to the fence where Belle was, dropped the ball out of her mouth and nudged it with her snout and paw through the fence opening. Belle got it and threw it over to PJ Joey, and they proceeded to play fetch for the next 10 minutes.

SABOTEUR! Why does my dog not like me? I feed her and diligently walk her everyday. I also give her ridiculous amounts of treats. Caleb also picks out her eye boogers every morning.

Sigh.

We've had an awesome Easter weekend and we hope you have too. Our church is so wonderful and we love going there. If you haven't found a church family, we hope you start the search this week!

And last but not least, click here to see new pics on the photography blog.