Penny....

My dog needed a hair cut so I thought to myself I can buy some clippers and do that myself....that was a bad thought to have :o)

So I bought myself some clippers. Penny had a hair cut in the bath tub with the assistance of rachel and Penny shook the whole time.

My sister this weekend gave a quite ironic and funny cartoon to represent penny, the idea was from Finding nemo when the sharks are having their opening of their version of an AA meeting and one fish raises his hand and under this fin is a shaking/scared little fish with his eyes bulging out of its head. This picture kept on popping into my head :o)

She then got a bath.

So in conclusion penny got a hair cut by katie, the next time by a professional and those clippers are getting returned.

:o) joy.

I'm a big girl now???

So I got on a plane yesterday and came to the twin cities in good ole MN.

As I was looking out the window watching my rockies disappear I thought to myself why am I leaving here?

So I can become a forensic interviewer, duh?

I can say that I have never gotten off a plane where someone was not there to greet me or give me a ride to wherever I was going. This was a whole new experience for little ole me.

So I get off the plane, get my luggage and muster up all the boldness I can find within my 5'4" body of mine and head down the escalator to taxis. I get down only to have to go back up another escalator and thought this is stupid, why did I come down just to go back up.

So I walk out the door and decide who looks nicer and am about to go there where a nice woman asked, "ma'am, do you need a taxi?"...... me, "yes" her, "lane #3"

So I walk over the nice man puts my luggage in the trunk and I tell him I need to go here and we go. That's it. We are off and it was SO easy! Now if you know me, you know I am not a big fan of driving. I would much rather be the passenger where I can look at my surroundings. I recently went to Ouray with friends and they were teasing me because all I kept saying was, "that is so pretty, or this is gorgeous."

True. I love being outside and just looking around, I have always been that way. So it was much to my enjoyment that I could just sit in the back, look out the window, breeze in my face and take in my new surroundings.

I felt like Miss Daisy :o)

So I get settled in (in a sweet hotel to boot, by the way) and thought I would take a walk cause I like exploring and I need to feed my belly. Let me first describe my hotel area. I am in a very nice hotel but it seems to be in an odd spot. This area of town seems run down and the city is attempting gentrification, i think? Across the parking lot is a warehouse which seems to be remodeled into condos maybe, and then there is a global market in the first floor.

I walk down one street, turn and the street gets darker and darker and shadier and shadier and I think hmmm katie, maybe tonight is not the best night to venture out by yourself....

So katie turns around, but still no food. The only place that was open, where I felt safe was KFC across the street from my hotel. So KFC it was. I filled my belly with good ole Kernel Sanders' biscuits.

However this was an interesting experience for me because I felt like the minority here, it switches the tables up and that is always good. Scary but good.

More to come about my food dining experience of tonight.

Early Halloween

So I may have bought a lady bug costume for my dog!

She really loved me when I put it on her too ;o)

I laughed so hard when I put it on her too.

Gotta love it!

My brain rambling as I type

(I like the smell of bleach, almost as much as I like the smell of rain. )

Today was the first day in a long time I just got to lay in bed and read
without any interruptions.

It was cold and gloomy outside and my heart was warm and fuzzy inside.

It was glorious to curl up under a blanket when it was cold outside and fall asleep
and take a nap during the day.

I am reading Eat. Love. Pray. right now and here are a few random excerpts that caught my heart today:

OK this is a long one, but worth it, so just keep reading-----)

There's a reason we refer to "leaps of faith" because the decision to consent to any notion of divinity is a mighty jump from the rational over to the unknowable, and I don't care how diligently scholars of every religion will try to sit you down with their stacks of books and prove to you through scripture that their faith is indeed rational; it isn't.

If faith were rational, it wouldn't be-by definition faith. Faith is belief in what you cannot see of prove or touch.

Faith is walking face-first and full speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity, it would just be... a prudent insurance policy.

I'm not interested in the insurance industry. I'm tired of being a skeptic, I'm irritated by spiritual prudence and I feel bored and parched by empirical debate. I don't want to hear it anymore. I couldn't care less about evidence or proof and assurances.

I just want God.

I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water.

- Elizabeth Gilbert.

*I couldn't agree more with her. I think as Christians we get so caught up in the politics and the black and whiteness of it all, and who did what wrong.

This is not God's heart, I believe.

I was conversing with a few friends in the last few days and both women are single and love the Lord and were trying out new churches.

*One went and the church was serving communion and the minster said, will the male head of the household please come up and receive communion for your wife and children (ouch she thought this is not where I am welcome)

*the other was trying out a new church and was trying to attend a sunday school class and she asked the person in front where it was and she told her, so she got into the room a little early and sat down. no big deal right?

Well the woman leading the class said, o honey where is your husband?
She turned red from embarrassment and said I don't have one.

and walked out.

I don't think it is Jesus's heart to have people feeling left out and not included or feel bad because they don't have this or that. I think we as people who love the Lord as missing the mark on loving those who don't know Jesus.

Because the people they know who do love Jesus ask where is your husband?

*At group this week we were watching a nooma by rob bell and in the background was this symphony who were playing this lovely melody and rob was describing how Jesus speaks to people is through a beautiful melodic song.

A song that moves you and you connect with deep down in your soul.

he commented how Jesus's heart was to love people to bring them in, when the pharisees caught a woman committing adultery and dragged her through the town and placed her in front of Jesus's feet for condemnation, ready to stone her as was the law.

Jesus (who was seriously such a radical and sweet guy) bent down and started to write in the ground with his finger, He said " If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her, "

Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground, at this those who heard him began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was with with the woman still standing there.

( as being the woman at this point I would expect to get it from Jesus, the holy prophet, the one who was doing miracles)

But He responds.

I do not condemn you, go now and leave your life of sin.

He nailed it and I am sure this woman walked away feeling free.

This is how we need to respond to people in our world, I wish we did more often.

That beautiful melodic song (as described in the nooma) as being moving and full of emotion and connectness is how God speaks to everyone. The song is full of I love you, you are precious, I created you to be exactly who you are, sit with me and let's talk.

Not judgement and condemnation.

So I have a dog :o)

It is true, I have a dog.

Her name is penny.

She used to be my sister's, but she had a baby so she doesn't have the ability to take care of a new born baby and a dog.

So I volunteered to take her.

It has been about four days now, and she is still a nervous little nellie.

I am hoping to be able to turn her into a hiking dog.

We'll see how that goes :o)

So far she just shakes a lot because there

are a lot of things that are new and make her nervous

She kinda smells, like last night I was laying in my bed and all I could smell was her

Soooo......

I had to kick her out of my bed.

She gives the best sad, pathetic looks.

With all this, I love her.

She is my dog :o)

Would Jesus go Green

Last night I went to a community forum on Jesus and how Evangelical Christains might feel about Jesus Going Green?

One of my friends blogged about the experience and felt the same way I did.

Read here

So tonight during seminar two hopefully the speaker will be easier to follow,

however if not, the beer at the end of the night with friends might

be the highlight ;o)

Sunday drives

Can be quite splendid. My drive this Sunday lead me to my favorite restaurant for breakfast food in the whole world...THE HUNGRY BEAR....hmmm

Then up to Rampart Reservoir, above is Pikes Peak from the backside

Rachel and the Reservoir

It was such a wonderful day cause it was cold and the clouds were rolling in and almost hiding Pikes Peak, but still warm.

On the way down we decided to take the long way down and were amazed with this amazing sight.

It was neat to view the mountains from the other side. I have usually only hiked on the opposite side by the canon. These views were incredible

There is always more I could share, but have realized that being outside truly makes me much more peaceful.

It was a nice break from my fast paced world.