Boo Dog turns 3!

Our sweet pup was born on Halloween 3 years ago, hence the name "Boo". I took ownership of her in early December 2010, but there is a part of me that feels like she has been with me forever. 

I have always been a "dog person" but if I am being honest I don't think I have always been a "big dog person". We had a shih poo and two shih tzus when I was growing up and aside from my Grandparents black lab, Bear, I never spent much time around a breed bigger than any cat. My parents got a golden retriever when I was home for Christmas break my freshman year of college and I fell in love. Goldens are the cutest puppies (see pictures below), and just the kindest, sweetest, most gentle dogs in the whole world. My [super] senior year of college the two parent dogs of our retriever (Tug) were due to have their last litter. When I was home over Thanksgiving I stopped by to see the 3 dogs that were left from the original litter of 12. What started out as an "I am thinking about buying a dog" visit quickly turned into "I will be back in 3 weeks to pick her up!"  Boo was the blondest and the smallest of her siblings and I got her at a discount because they had to amputate part of her tail [BEST BARGAIN OF MY LIFE]. 

Boo has many great qualities a few of which are:
-she doesn't hold grudges and is almost never in a bad mood.
-loves all people (except those with lawn mowers), everyone is a friend.
-she makes the dishwasher more or less obsolete (I call her my "pre-wash").
-she loves to cuddle.
-she is the most gentle dog I have ever known (which is displayed in her sock obsession- not one of which she has destroyed!)

She loves us and we love her. Happy birthday Boo Dog!!

 Char and Boo Thanksgiving 2010

 The night I picked up Boo in Salina at Joe's basketball game

 Kelsey and Boo at PetCo in Lawrence

 Sleepy puppy

 She used to fit in my bag.. I could take her places and she would just sleep :)

 Thanksgiving 2010

 with a cherished present from Auntie Char

 Boo and her siblings [The Survivors]

 baby Boo dog

 Boo and her best friend (and big brother) Tug

 naps #college

 she loves snow!

 trouble :)

 also love dirt...

 with the kids I babysat in Lawrence, Shea wrote the sweetest book about Boo for school which I still have :)

 Easter Boo

 Christmas Boo (so helpful)

 dramatic photoshoot Boo

Birthday girl took a trip to dad's office

Our little fam at the church's Trunk of Treat night. Boo was loving all the kids and they loved her too! There was a little girl dressed like a tiger that walked right up to her and started kissing her snout. So precious. Trunk or treat will probably be Boo's new birthday tradition. Hope you had a happy Halloween and a wonderful weekend ahead.

High and Lows, part 1

I grew up going to the camp where my youth pastor husband now takes his kids for retreats in the fall, spring, and summer. Had someone told me as a 6th grader that when I "grew up" I would get to go to camp six times a year I think I would have freaked out with excitement. Even at 25 years old I get the excited butterflies in my stomach every time we turn onto the gravel road :)

Boo gets excited when we turn onto the gravel road too :)

At camp we had a tradition that every night we would sit on our porches with all of our cabin mates and go around sharing our "high" and "low" of the day as well as any prayer requests. This is something me and my sibs started doing at dinner table throughout the year. I have heard people call this practice by several different names, some being: "roses and thorns", "peaks and valleys", or as my brother-in-law Mike says- "joys and concerns", ha! 

So therefore I give you my high and low of this past weekend at the middle school retreat...

Low: Saturday morning at breakfast one of the new high school leaders, Paul, came and asked me what time chapel started that morning. I looked in my booklet and saw "chapel 10:45", what I didn't see was "chapel games 9:45". So I told Paul the wrong time by AN HOUR. So chapel got started and Paul and a couple of his kids were missing and I felt pretty bad... But they showed up eventually, so all is well that ends well. 

High (I have a couple): I really enjoyed watching the high school students be leaders for the middle school. Matt and I are blessed to have such an awesome group of students and to see the older group want to pour into the middle schoolers is very heart warming. Second, on Saturday night Mike and Kels (Matt's brother and his wife) drove out to camp and surprised the kids. After being under wraps for a couple months we can finally officially announce that in January Mike will be stepping into the position of Associate Director of Student Ministries where his main role will be working with the middle school students. We hid Mike, Kels, and their pup Alfred in the music closet to the right of the stage and made the kids chant for them to come out. 

After Matt did a brief intro he let the kids ask questions- one of my favorites was "can you twerk?" ... Kids are so weird. 

Matt and I are looking forward to have Mike and Kels in Wichita in a couple months and the starting of a new era in the student ministries at our church. 

It was a great weekend and I am looking forward to the weekend ahead with the high school students. Blessed are we.

Kids playing Braveheart. Involves hitting each other with panty hose filled with flour.

Matt in during chapel. What a babe.

Gaga ball/ basketball court Saturday afternoon

Boo dog hogging the backseat on Me and Kels's drive back to Wichita... Alf was upset. Can't believe that silly dog turns 3 tomorrow!!

To the woods we go!

We are retreat bound and making the oh-so-familiar drive down highway 400. Before we took off I caught Boo trying to read Matt's bible-

she sure loves her some Jesus :)

Aside from our four-legged road warrior, my new favorite travel companions are our husband/ wife 24 oz Tervis tumblers with lids-

I grew up using the smaller Tervis tumblers at my grandma and grandpa's house and now that I have my own kitchen they are my absolute favorite cups! I got both of these on sale at our Bed, Bath, and Beyond this week and my die-hard Vikings fan husband is surprised at how much he loves it. However I did have to point out to him that my home team's tumblers were not on sale- go Chiefs!! :)

I look forward to documenting the highs and lows of our weekend when we have our "bounce day" on Monday.

Bets

pumpkin patchin'

 Last weekend Caroline and I took the group of high school girls that we do discipleship with to Walter's Pumpkin Patch in Burns, KS. Walter's is about 35ish minutes from Wichita and WELL WORTH the drive. Pumpkin patches/ corn mazes are totally up my alley, but I honestly can't remember the last time I went. Matt and I carved pumpkins last year but we picked out pumpkins up from Dillon's. Matt claims it was the first time he had ever carved a pumpkin- I claim he may only have said that as a result of how his turned out. But without further ado, pumpkin patch pictures-

When we walked in this illusionist called us over to play the shell game

... and when Megan figured out how to call his tricks he thanked us for playing and promptly sent us on our way, ha!

they had two of these jumping pillows and they were lots of fun....

I got worn out pretty fast... they make for a great cardio workout!

Abbi [girl in the red scarf] seemed to have endless energy :)

Caroline and I with the group

models

all of the Eastminster girls who came to the pumpkin patch

the underclassmen challenged the upperclassmen to tug-of-war

#outnumbered

possibly my favorite pic of the day- sweet Maddy in the pumpkin field holding her cute little pumpkin... kind of looks like a senior picture gone wrong.

We ended our time at Walter's with pumpkin slushies and some other yummy treats they had at their concession stand. I was a little skeptical about a pumpkin flavored slushie but it had gotten rave reviews from one of the girls in our group. It looked pumpkin but tasted apple-y, it was delish! It was a fun afternoon and I feel blessed to get to spend time with such an awesome group of young women!! We are headed into back-to-back weekends of retreats which means sadly, there will be no time for a repeat trip to Walters and I will have to look forward to dragging taking Matt next year :)

Betsy