Woodard's are back

This last week we had the bitter sweet chance to hang out with Joel, Amy, Abigail, and Elijah Woodard. God has led them to come home after 7 years of serving in Slovenia. I have to admit that we were really looking forward to working with them and learning from their years of experience but it was good to see them even if its here and not over in SLO.



Thanks for serving Woodard's!!!

7 Months Old

Our sweet baby girl turned 7 months on the 20th. So, we had our monthly photo shoot. The wind was blowing like crazy and she has recently found her tongue. . . as you'll see below.

We had a hard time getting her to look at the camera.


















And she often gets this pensive look










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She's so expressive! I think she gets this from her dad! ;-)









She's not looking at the camera, but she often does this look.


















Oh, how I love our expressive baby girl!

SLO chicks BBQ

On Thursday Sharon and I got a call from Christina Stanton, who was a missionary in Slovenia and an old friend from Multnomah Bible College. She wanted to know if we wanted to drive down to Salem to hang out with her, Anna Stepanian, Anna's friend David, and 3 Slovene girls who are in town. They (Barbera, Palona, and Mija) are some girls that Christina got to mentor while in SLO and will probably be in the university ministry we'll be starting soon. They were going to cook a traditional dinner so we didn't have to think very long about accepting their invitation.



















It was a fun evening of hanging out while catching up with old friends and getting to know 3 new friends. Dinner was (of course) amazing as they prepared chivap, which in its essence is a blend of tastiness concealed in a sausage like treat. During dinner we got to hear how each of the girls got to know Jesus. It was powerful to listen to them talk about meeting someone who followed Jesus and how they just knew that person was different and experienced God's love through them. It got Sharon and me all excited and longing for the day when we will be over there in SLO pointing to Christ and loving those we come in contact with.

Champagne Tastes . . .

Any one who knows me well knows that I LOVE a bargain. I'm always looking for creative ways to make each dollar stretch just a little bit farther. (In fact, Matt and I keep a list of "cheap date ideas.")

Anyhow, when our 7 year anniversary came around this month we really wanted to find a special way to celebrate. Staying overnight somewhere was not an option - we needed to find something a LOT less expensive.

I was pretty feeling discouraged about our lack of options until I stumbled across a new website: Restaurant.com They sell a bunch of $25 gift cards for just $10 (with a usual minimum purchase of $35) which meant we could save $15 on a dinner out. Not bad, but I happened to find this website during an 80% off sale they were having which meant our precious coupon was only $2. Yeah, you read that right, our $25 gift card cost us $2!! And there is no waiting for the gift cards to ship or worrying about them coming in the mail. Just pay and print right from your computer. Not bad, eh?

I recently learned they’re doing that promotion again through Aug 31st. Just enter “TASTE” upon checkout to score a $25 restaurant gift card for just two bucks!

Six Months

August 20th Eliana turned six months old.

I've tried taking a photo of her each month to document the changes, but every month the setting was a little different. I stumbled across an idea on Making It Lovely of some creative ways to take the monthly photos. Bob and Anita have a huge stuffed bear that I think I think could make for some cute shots. Here are a few of the photos from our six month photo shoot:

Startin' to work it

























Something just isn't right



















"How you doin'?"




















Finally, the money shot