Lukewarm?

A few months ago, I wrote a little bit about things going on in my life. I referenced a video on YouTube of Francis Chan, author of one of my most favorite books ever, Crazy Love. His chapter on "lukewarm Christians" was deep for me. There's no other way to really express it. He illustrated a very clear picture of what it means to truly be Christian. As I've struggled with church lately, I've been watching Francis Chan videos. I love each of them, but this one is awesome. I've seen it a few times. Check it out. Check him out. I've already pre-ordered his next book. This is the first pre-order I've ever done. (Thanks amazon.com, I love you!)

Here's the video, check it out.

"Say cheese... or kibble!"

A couple months ago Nola, Titan, and Roxy had a photo shoot with Brittany Wright. She's a local photog working on a book that features rescue dogs and she's been collecting stories and photos of dogs in our area. She was SO awesome and we got some great shots of the pups. Nola was super nervous and had her freak-out face on most of the time but towards the end of the afternoon she started to settle. If helped that B-dub brought a bag of kibble treats. I caught sly Belly with her head in the bag a few too many times!!!

Best picture of Roxy.... ever.

Belly's nervous smile, but a smile no less!

Brittany (we call her B-dub to differentiate between the Britts since they spell their names the same way and have the same last name initial) is still in need of rescue dogs for her book project. If you're local -- check out her site, she has a blog too!

If you're not local but are interested in having your dog featured in her book, still contact her! We think she's pretty awesome and D and I have already booked her for engagement pics.... we're hoping she'll be able to shoot the wedding next year too!

Oh! Be sure to ask her about her dog Scarlett, she might sing a song for you! (Tony! Toni! Tone! 'nuff said.)

Also be sure to check out MyleStone Gallery that she and her sister run -- they have some incredibly neat finds that are mostly local and/or handmade. I bought a bracelet and a soy candle when I was last there and feel the need to stop back by and check out the new stuff!

I'm such a sap.

I cry at forwarded emails about sick kids that might possibly not exist. I cry when I watch Wedding Story, Baby Story, and Adoption Story on TLC. I cry just thinking of something happening to Nola, Luka, or Finley. I might possibly cry if you look at me the wrong way on a bad day.

I often cry when I sing, even if it's not a sad song but is just a little slow. Seriously, I could be singing a slow song about twinkies, rabbits, or candy corn and cry about it. I'm just like that. I'm a sap. I'll admit that openly. But only because I know I'm not the only one. ;)

So I'm watching this video today of Naturally 7 on a subway in France. They started singing somewhat randomly and of course, as soon as I saw people realizing what was going on, I teared up. What is wrong with me?! There is nothing sad about it. It's cool. It's fun. It's good times. I think that any positive act of human nature must stir something in my bones. There's potential for me to cry a river. Like when I read Same Kind of Different as Me. Have you read it? You should.

Don't forget to see the not-at-all-sad video of Naturally 7 in France.

I'm missing Africa today...

I was just reading Compassion's blog. At the bottom of the post is a link to a video. While watching it, I remembered when I was in Africa, how much I loved listening to children sing.

I can recall many, many times at church as a child hearing our Sunday School teacher tell us to use our "singing voice" to sing. Thinking back, I can also remember hearing our choir director in elementary school tell us the same thing. We had these little rhymes we sang to get our singing voices warmed up.

African singing is different. There is no such thing as a "singing voice." Singing is just that, song. It is a story. It is innocent. It is joy. I miss it tremendously. It was something I heard on a daily basis. Children sing walking to school, doing chores, playing with friends... nothing is more beautiful.

Fido Bags!

You asked, now shop! :)

If you don't see something you like, let me know!

I'm planning to make child sized bags this weekend along with some laptop sleeves.

25% of ALL sales donated to Hope Aid.

Thanks everyone, for encouraging me to do this...it's been a lot of fun. Many late nights, but fun nonetheless!

[Almost] Wordless Wednesday... Diamonds

I'm not actually participating in the WW blog carnival, but I am in love with this picture and am just a tiny bit obsessed with taking pictures of my new favorite piece of jewelry. I can't promise there won't be more.

While we're on topic, let's have a poll. Before I got this ring, I decided that when I did get it, I wouldn't take it off unless I was doing something super gross, or something that could harm the stones or metal. That being said, because I am a hydration fanatic, I use a lot of lotion. I realize that rings hate lotion so I've been using a brush to clean it after the rub down. I suppose I'll probably clean it every week or so just because I do keep it on all of the time.

Tell me... do you take your rings off? How often do you clean them at home (if you clean them at home)?

I know a lot of people take their rings off at night or when they shower. What makes you take your rings off? I'm curious.

(So much for the wordless post....)

Nature Girl, the Warthog, and the Hyena

My sister and her dogs came for a sleep over this weekend... we had SO much fun! Saturday we decided to take the dogs out for a short hike since the weather was great and we needed some pictures.

Blogger is being difficult tonight so only a few pictures uploaded and for some reason I can't change their order, grr!!!
Titan really didn't die. But he was SO tired! Neither he nor Roxy (aka Fluffy, aka Leigh Ann, aka the Hyena) are used to much exercise so they were completely worn out by the afternoon!

I know it sounds crazy, but Nola really seemed excited to have Titan and Roxy at the park with her. She always gets excited about going but she was super pumped this time!

Is Nature Girl not the cutest? I picked on her the entire morning but we had a fun time. I LOVE this picture of her with Roxy!

...will try to post more pics tomorrow.

Random Friday

If you invite me to your house, and we plan to eat, this is what I'm bringing. YUM....

Aside from sewing 20 or so bags this weekend, I plan to play with this baby! Scott let me borrow one of his monster pro cameras to take some pics of the pups...

...and so of course I had to play around with it tonight. The lighting was awful so 'scuse that, but I'm diggin' the twiga crown. I'm sure there will be LOTS of fun pictures tomorrow!!!

Britt is bringing Titan and Roxy and they're all going to be here for a sleepover tomorrow - it's going to be GOOD times!!!

Best of Craigslist

Please help! After two long years of being on a waiting list for a dog, we have been notified by breed rescue that, at long last, our number has come up and ... WE ARE HAVING A PUPPY!

We must get rid of our children IMMEDIATELY because we just know how time consuming our new little puppy is going to be and it just wouldn't be fair to the children.

Since our little puppy will be arriving on Monday we MUST place the children up for adoption this weekend!

They are described as: One male -- his name is Tommy, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), light blonde hair, blue eyes. Four years old. Excellent disposition. He doesn't bite. Temperament tested. Does have problems with peeing directly in the toilet. Has had chicken Pox and is current on all shots. Tonsils have already been removed. Tommy eats everything, is very clean, house trained and gets along well with others. Does not run with scissors and with a little training he should be able to read soon.

One female -- her name is Lexie, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), strawberry blonde hair, green eyes quite freckled. Two years old. Can be surly at times. Non-biter, thumb sucker. Has been temperament tested but needs a little attitude adjusting occasionally. She is current on all shots, tonsils out, and is very healthy and can be affectionate. Gets along well with other little girls and little boys but does not like to share her toys and therefore would do best in a one child household. She is a very quick learner and is currently working on her house training. Shouldn't take long at all.

We really do LOVE our children so much and want to do what's right for them. That is why we contacted a rescue group. But we simply can no longer keep them. Also, we are afraid that they may hurt our new puppy.

I hope you understand that ours is a UNIQUE situation and we have a real emergency here! They MUST be placed into your rescue by Sunday night at the latest or we will be forced to drop them off at the orphanage or along some dark, country road. Our priority now has to be our new puppy.

ht: Allyson... (Nola's boyfriend's mom)

...It's Tuesday...

Some things...

-Tshirt project is going rocky... I went by today to spread some sparkle news and check in on arrival and they'd not been ordered because I changed the quantity and they forgot what the new number was. Boo. Delay on that for another week. (I will talk to my partner in crime and see if we can reveal the design though!)

-D's interview was cancelled on Thursday b/c one of the interviewers can't make it. He was planning to have a phone interview. When they let him know about the cancellation they said "oh, maybe now you can come in person." Bleh. Ok. So he's flying down to VA on Sunday, has an afternoon interview the following day the will fly back up to Boston Monday evening. What a tiring trip. Poor Chandler.

-My sister is coming to spend the night on Saturday and my friend S from work is going to let us use his awesome camera to take some puppy pics. Can't wait to for that!!! Speaking of... I have cool puppy pics to share, gotta check with our photog to see how to go about doing that. BW-T, if you're reading this, check your email! :)

-Got bunches more fabric in yesterday. I love fabric days! They are all so pretty!!!

-I've finally set up my Etsy shop! Will wait to post the link b/c there's one test picture up right now.... I'm hoping B can help me get some bags made this weekend so I'll have more to post in the shop. (Shop or shoppe?)

I leave you with more from Gerry Straub...

Christ’s Friends
If you are poor or needy,
if you are despised by all,
if you are a sinner,
then Christ considers you to be his friend
and he welcomes you to his banquet table.

If you are looking for Jesus,
you’ll find Him in the midst of those
who are being crucified, rejected, alienated and oppressed.
He is in the dark corners of your neighborhood,
waiting for you to help Him.

Unless we stand shoulder to shoulder
with the poorest of the poor,
we will not find the crucified Christ,
nor experience the richness of His resurrection.

How it happened...

D's flight was cancelled and he arrived a day late (no surprise there...). When he finally got here it was almost lunch time on Friday and the weather was beautiful! He suggested going to the beach, but I mentioned that we were doing that on Saturday... he went on and on about the weather and how great it was while I whined about how the day was half over and we wouldn't have long to hang out down there.... ultimately, I decided to toss the rules out and go. It took another hour to get everyone ready....

The plan was to walk to the pier then go get the towels and just enjoy the beach when most everyone else left around dinner time. Nola had other plans... there were SO many umbrellas, of which, she's [not surprisingly] terrified... and it was high tide, so that left very little sand to walk on... we decided to just get our stuff and stay put rather than walking.

We dug a few holes, chatted, shook off the towel, dug some more holes, shook off the towel...

...as we were watching the waves roll in we saw two tiny ghost crabs running around in front of us. When the water would get close, one would run inside his hole while the other one just crawled around trying to get away from it. D said something about how they needed their shells. I told him those crabs didn't have shells. He kept going on and on (and on and on) about how they needed shells... and I finally snapped that those weren't the type of crabs that had shells (!!!). Then he opened his hand to reveal a few shells he'd picked up and asked which one I thought they should have. Before I could further argue, he flipped one of shells and asked what I thought about it... underneath it, still in his hand, was my ring... Yada, yada, yada... goo, goo... I said yes!

I didn't really think this post through, but since so many people have asked for details, I thought I'd go ahead and post... We have quite a few ideas already ("we" meaning ME!) so I'm sure there will be lots more details to come!

I said yes!

...

I hate Boston weather.

Really. I hate it. Hate, hate, hate. It's too cold. It's too rainy. The subway might as well be hair homicide. It's just bad. Do we remember December??? He finally made it... AFTER Christmas. It was such a nightmare. And yet, it happens AGAIN. :( So sad. It's JULY for pete's sake. Boston weather can bite me. It's been SO long... I was SO excited. By the time he gets here tomorrow (pending whatever delay will inevitably occur), half of the day will be gone and it'll be Saturday by the time we get any quality with one another. Dare I mention he flys back to the dreaded city on Sunday afternoon... Boo. Boo on Boston. I used to like it there. Well that is OVER. I am SO over Boston. Crappy weather. We had such a fun day planned tomorrow. BLAH. I going to go and cry now.

Faith

I haven't had the time to really post a blog about some recent thoughts, and I really don't have the time today since I'm leaving work early to clean the house and run some errands... but I can't not share this, because I think it's depth speaks magnitude.

Do you base your faith on what God does, or who He is?

I so, so wish I had more time to really give this question the attention it deserves, but for now, I'll just share that I'm a bit ashamed to say that because I tend to be human ;), I primarily base my faith on what He does. I'm trying to learn more so that I can be the latter, but until then... it's a struggle.

What about you?

Poem

...by Gerry Straub

The Poverty of God
No force controls God’s action,
which makes God all free.
God does as God wills.

God will give anything and everything for us.
This is the poverty of God,
the self-emptying love of God.

God does not accumulate;
God gives all away.

We are called to be like God,
to empty ourselves of everything
but love
and to share that love with others
and all creation
by becoming more and more merciful,
compassionate, forgiving and understanding.

Bags, bags, bags....

I'm done until Sunday! Two of these are sold and a few are going to MyleStone Gallery -- will make another batch on Sunday. It's almost time to order some new fabrics. Next week is the goal for that! Britt will be coming to spend the night with Titan and Roxy next weekend, so she might have to suffer through a bag party. Although, that could have its benefits for her! ;)
(Girl, I don't have to work on that Saturday!)

D has an interview in VA!!! This is great news! Not as close as we were hoping but it is fantastic and we're excited!

I still need to post pics from the picnic!