Roller Coaster

That's what Maddie calls her scooter.
Girl makes me laugh!

I'm not sure what the face was all about. She was loving riding on the roller coaster. I wonder if I caught her while trying to stop or something. Who knows? Even with the face, I think she is still a super cutie!

Welcome Fall

The first day of fall was yesterday. Yahoo! I absolutely love the fall. Yes, I adore summer with time spent at the pool as a family, playing in the water, reading novels that I consider "mind-candy", and enjoying the sun's rays. But I also love the change from summer to fall. I love the cooler weather and enjoying outdoor activities that don't involve sunscreen and a bathing suit :)

Today it was crisp fall day in the ATL - a cool 79 degrees. So, of course I was in the mood to bake! I decided to fully embrace the fall season and baked a...

homemade pumpkin pie.

It may seem too early in the season for pumpkin pie but this pie is so stinkin yummy. This pie is like "slap your momma" good.

My secret to baking a delicious pumpkin pie?

Find an awesome recipe and follow the instructions to the letter.

Ha! In all seriousness, that is my secret for all of the dishes I cook. This pumpkin pie recipe is from America's Test Kitchen. It's a little bit involved but the results are awesome.

Fall never tasted so good :)

Maddie, do your face!

When she isn't giving me hell, she is making me laugh!

Saying goodbye to the A-Man

Today was a very sad day. Today we said goodbye to our 19 pounds of pure personality...

Austin D. Powers: International Man of Mystery

He was selfish. He would get his dog tags in his mouth as a puppy and growl at you if you tried to touch them.

He was devious. He once brought in a charcoal briquette from outside, hid it under a chair, and then waited for us to leave to get it out and play with it all over our living room.

He was smart. After going through obedience lessons, he behaved like a show dog but only on the black lash we used during the training. On the flexi-lead, he was a complete jackass.

He was like black velvet. After he was groomed, his coat felt just like a piece of velvet. So soft!

He never ran away. Why would he run when home had all the comforts he needed?

He was fickle. He favored the person who was in charge of taking care of his needs.

He was social. He assumed that all visitors were here to see him.

He had a classic Napoleon complex. He was small but mighty. He insisted on always being the alpha-dog.

He was love. For 13.5 years, he unconditionally loved us and thought we were the best people. We were his pack. I wish I was half as awesome as my dog thought I was.

I'm going to miss you A-man. You will be remembered as the best dog ever.

All in a day's work...

This post is for those who wonder what I do for a living. You know I work for a church and you see the status updates about wonderful volunteers, circles, connecting peeps, life change, etc. and you wonder what does that girl do? Well, here is a brief look for those of you remotely interested or extremely bored at this moment ;)

Bottom line - I help people who attend my church connect into small groups. The main way we do this is by holding a two-hour event where people have the opportunity to meet people in their same stage of life, same area of town, and choose which group they would like to join.

We take our auditorium which seats about 3,000 people and clear it out!
(And by "we" I mean our awesome facilities team. They rock!)

We then turn the auditorium into what we call a Starbucks on steroids.
There are cafe tables, living room arrangements, coffee, and desserts.


Here's a picture of the stage.
I include this just because I think our production team is completely AWESOME.

Below is a picture of approximately 700 women forming groups at the event on Friday night. Wow!

Here they are at a photo booth in our lobby taking pictures with their new small group.
How fun!

We form men's groups on Thursday, women's groups of Friday, and the married couples' groups on Saturday night. It takes about 150 trained volunteers and about 8 weeks of planning and working on tasks to pull off the weekend. We work hard to organize all the details of the weekend and then watch as God shows up and connects 1,377 people into small groups. Wow!

Of course, I don't do this by myself. I work with two fabulous women who are very talented and gifted. Here is Amy with our Married Couples' Event Team.

Amy is in the second person from the left in the front row. She is a wiz at logistics, processes, and details. She also loves leading our Event Teams.
Doesn't she look like she having a ton of fun?!

Here is a picture of Jill and I after the last event...


Jill is responsible for connecting the men and women into groups. I'm so grateful for her and her leadership. She is not only awesome to work with but a wonderful friend!

I LOVE MY MINISTRY!!

Dan and I've been involved in small groups since 1996 and love having a community of people who are tracking with us. We love circling up weekly with five other couples and looking at God's word together and talking about what is going on in our lives. It's where we are known. This has been a way of life for us as a married couple even before it was my job.

I feel so blessed to get paid to do something I'm so passionate about and for the privilege to be a VERY small part of what God is doing. I'm ridiculously blessed!

And if you have made it this far into the post, I'm also seriously impressed :)

Pink

Now that's a lot of pink!!