Our beautiful Bella...

As heard in Sunday service...

Last Sunday while giving the message Pastor Art spoke of a childs enthusiasm for what they love as an example for how we should feel about serving others. He explained that his son is currently in graduate school for counseling and as part of his program is conducting research by talking with children. He was here last Wednesday night and was talking to a child and asked her how old she was. She told him she was 4. Then he asked her what she liked to do. She replied, "I LOVE to dance. I dance all the time!" He said, "Wow! And how long have you been dancing?" To which she emphatically replied, "FOR SEVEN YEARS!"

Why do I share this you ask??

Because it was Bella who has been dancing for seven of her 4 years! ;)

The first time I heard the story I didn't know it was her, but when Arts son told me that it was in fact Bella, I just smiled and said, "that sounds just like her!"

Suffering

So I want to try something new on my blog...

I'm going to post a quote and maybe a picture every so often. If it speaks to you in any way I'd love to hear about it!

"Measure your life by loss instead of gain
Not by the wine drunk, but by the wine poured forth
For love's strength standeth in love's sacrafice
And whosoever suffereth the most hath the most to give."
Hudson Taylor

A very Happy Birthday to our good friend Dan!

The big 3-0!

We hope you have a great day and most importantly that this new year (and decade for that matter) brings with it more blessings than you can imagine!

Have fun celebrating...that wife of yours better being doing something darn special! ;)

Andy, Donielle and Bella :)

A great season!

Of softball that is! We started out in mid May with a team of players who had either never played before or hadn't played in a looong time (15 years for me). Needless to say we were all a little rusty but we came together great and ended up placing 2nd in our division. Technically we tied for first but since the team we tied with beat us 1st place went to them. Anyways, after the regular season we were bumped up a division and played in a double elimination tournament. Our first lost was to another team from our church. On Sunday we met up with them again and this time were able to win the game. That win put us in 2nd place and left us with another game to play immediately follwing our first one. We played the only undefeated team left and beat them too! We were pumped by our win. Unfortunatly we had to play a THIRD game 5 minutes after the second and us old folks just couldn't hang for the third game in a row. We were beat and got beat! That loss ended the season for us with the 2nd place trophy and an exhausted Rock Solid team.

I am extremely glad that our season is over, but I had a great time playing. I played 2nd base and did surprisingly well. I come from a very athletic family and it appears that I just might have a little of it in me after all! ;)

Andy was asked to play on an A league team next year (just so you know it goes from A to H -- we were in the H league this year) which is quite a compliment. He said his lolyalties lie with us and that if our team plays again next year he wants to stick with us, but I kind of think it would be fun to watch him play in a division a little more suited for him. We'll see...

Labor Day Fun!

Yesterday we spent the Labor Day Holiday at Lake Tahoe with friends. We wakeboarded, swam, sunbathed and had a great time hanging out and enjoying such a beautiful place. We ended our day in Tahoe by having dinner on the lake which is always a treat!

It was also the last time we will see our friends Jeff and Amanda for a while. We met them less than a year ago, but they quickly became great friends. They are off to their new "home" in Denmark in a couple weeks. It was great to spend one last day with them!

Here are a few pictures...