Mark's 30th!

Mark turned 30 on July 3rd, while we were at Oxford.

Mark's closest cohort buddies joined us for dinner at one of C.S. Lewis' favorite restaurants by the river in Oxford, The Trout Inn.

(Left to Right) Rick Melson is Executive Elder at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA. He leads the Campus Network and is launching the Resurgence Training Center; Stan Ward teaches courses in Humanities, Bible, and Logic at The Brook Hill School; Jim Thomas is Associate Pastor at Parkway Hills Baptist Church in Plano, TX.

Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

Oxford

Father's Day with Starrla's Family

Celebrating Daddy Ray's 60th Birthday

Celebrating 6 Years of Marriage

...with a cocktail shrimp feast at Pappadeaux!

China Project '09

Nephew, Slade, Growing at 16 months...

Great Commission Resurgence

Zig Ziglar Servant Leadership Award Dinner

A very special night for us! We were honored to be guests of George and Shirley Shafer, long-time members of the church where we serve, at a dinner honoring Zig Ziglar and Mike Huckabee. It’s always fun to dress up! It was special for us because Zig taught a class for years in Mark’s Open Division at Prestonwood and is still very much involved. He and his wife, Jean, have become good friends, starting when Mark used to teach a Bible study in their home.


We were able to see Dr. Roy Fish, one of Mark’s seminary professors and mentors, who married us.

East Asia Update

In 5 weeks, Mark and I and a team of 16 will embark to East Asia!

Please join us in this venture by praying about this mission with us...

www.eastwest.org/goto/Starrla

Recent Trail Runs

PhD Seminar Weekend

Mark completed another weekend of PhD Seminars.

Altogether, he completed for this weekend over 60 pages typed literature reviews on Globalization. Namely, his works reviewed discourses, articles, and books by Roland Robertson, Thomas Friedman, Samuel Huntington and others, such as The World is Flat.

I proofed them all--go ahead, ask me about Globalization...

Lincoln growing

"Sevyn" Trogdon Baby Shower

Nephew, Slade

Born January 8, 2008

'08 Travels

Mark presented PhD papers at the DBU political institute

in Washington D.C.

5-year Wedding Anniversary in Nuevo Vallarta!

Starrla joins Plano ISD as Family Education & Guidance Services Specialist, where she meets with parents and teaches parenting education classes across the district.

Labor Day weekend with good friends...

...Pastor Johnny & Janet Hunt

Pete & Holly Hixson

in Woodstock, Georgia

Starrla’s book published, Comparison of Christian Children’sGod-concepts and Logical Thinking Ability

Exceeded 2008 goal
of running 1000 miles
at Arbor Hill Nature Preserve

Yet to Come in '09...

PhD Institute in Oxford, England Taking 3rd group to China

Another Semester Closing

I just had to take a picture of Mark's pile of library research for his current paper on the philosopher, Hegel!

New Puppy!

We have fallen in love with a hungarian breed of dog called the Vizsla. After much research and dialogue, Mark brought one home last night!

Meet Lincoln, our new little boy...

More pictures soon to come!

"Georgia on My Mind"

Thank you to good friends, Pete & Holly Hixson, Pastor Johnny & "First Lady" Janet Hunt, for the warm southern hospitality in Atlanta, GA this weekend! Mark and I took some friends, Grant and Micah Janik, with us to the suburbs of Atlanta, Marietta and Woodstock, for a fast and fun weekend.

We got in late on Friday night, so when I got up on Saturday morning at Pete and Holly's home, I crept downstairs where Hope and Addy (Pete and Holly's girls) were playing and asked if they remembered me. After a few nods "no," Hope started to the door in sheer excitement and said, "Where's Mark???" She was clearly glad to see him! They continued their tradition of tea time, since he taught her how to drink tea when she was about 3 years old...

We then went to visit some friends in Atlanta, Kyle and Heather Webb, and then to spend a few nights with Pastor Johnny and Janet. Since Janet was out of town, Pastor, Mark and I went to Stoney River...anyone ever heard of stone puppies? Neither here nor there...

On Sunday, we crammed in two Sunday morning services, one at Vinings Lake, where Pete is pastoring; the other at FBC Woodstock.

After a Sunday lunch with the fam, Mark and I did a BEAUTIFUL 5 mile run in Kennesaw Mountain--oh, the trees--now, why do I live in Texas?

Sunday night, Pastor took us to my favorite Atlanta restaurant, Mary Mac's Tea Room! Of course, Mark and Hope shared another cup of tea together. (She announced he was her boyfriend, too...precious)

Sweet tea...good. Friendships...Priceless!

Slade (nephew) @ 7 months

They say my nephew, Slade, inherited my eyelashes...

and at 6 1/2 months, he's becoming skilled at flirting with the girls!



My Lil' Bub...

New Job!

Over the past year, I (Starrla) have been busy with professional development and training, i.e. serving on the board for the Texas Association of Parent Educators as well as Texas Council for Family Relations, finishing my Master's degree at UNT in Development & Family Studies, becoming a Certified Parent Educator, and educating parents at classes and conferences. I am passionate about parenting, believing that parents don't do better until they know better, and better parents raise better kids. In turn, better kids become better students and eventually better citizens.

So, I am really excited to begin a new job at the beginning of August for Plano Schools as Family Education & Guidance Services Specialist where I will be providing training, awareness, and education to guidance counselors and parents, among other things. I'm really excited about the team I will be working with and the potential for impacting the families of 54,000 Plano students!

College Roomies

Saturday was a mini-reunion for the old college roommates at Kim's baby shower...

Kim (the pregnant one!) & James Pritchard are having a baby boy and will continue to reside in Cash, Oklahoma, where James pastors a church and Kim teaches school.
Courtney (far left) & Daniel Packer are now in Richardson; Daniel manages at Xerox, and Courtney works for Watermark Community Church.
Mindy May (in the middle) is starting her Ph.D at Southwestern this fall.
Elizabeth (next to me) & Cory Gouldman with 7-month old Chloe, are in Waco, where Elizabeth works at MHMR and Cory attends Truett.

Though brief, it was so good to see you girls!

Vacation

Mark and I just returned from a wonderful 7 night vacation in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, where we celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary and Mark's 29th birthday. After a year of his non-stop Ph.D studies, Mark and I were ready for a get-away together! We read books, played tennis, kayaked, boogie boarded, ran on the beach, and played in the waves for an entire week.
Life is good...

Washington D.C.

Welcome home, honey!
It was a long week without Mark, but his trip to D.C. was very productive. Mark presented and defended his paper at Dallas Baptist University's Political Leadership Institute in Washington D.C. with his PhD cohort.

New SBC President!

Congratulations to a dear friend and mentor, Pastor Johnny Hunt from FBC, Woodstock!
We love you!

5 Year Wedding Anniversary

Mark,

The last seven years have been beautiful and exciting! I definitely chose adventure when I chose you. I love you dearly and will for the rest of our lives. This album is a glimpse of our journey thus far. Thank you for choosing me above all others!

Starrbright

East Asia

A Day with Slade

Easter Weekend

Israel Pictures

Our Rockin' Nephew

Camel

Waiting in Jerusalem

I'm the luckiest woman in the world...isn't he charming?

Israel Trip

We just returned from an amazing trip to Israel where we visited places such as Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, the Sea of Galilee, Masada, the Garden of Gethsemane, and so much more...

Everybody needs a camel ride!

The "Dome of the Rock"...Muslim Mosque inside the Temple Mount right next to where the temple would be.

The "Wailing Wall"...the wall of the Temple Mount that is the closest point to where the temple would stand.

This is all I had time to post and jet lag was calling me to bed.

More to come...

Slade's Baby Dedication

Sunday, the 24th, I went to our nephew, Slade's, baby dedication at C-Life, the church plant that Shawn and Jill attend in Forney.

Birthday

Mark, Starrla, and nephew Slade at P.F. Changs on Monday with the Ainsworths for Starrla's birthday. Thank you for the fun evening!

Aunt Starr and Uncle Mark!

Robert "Slade" Ainsworth, our long-awaited nephew, was born on January 8th at 6 lbs. 3 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long to my brother, Shawn, and his wife Jill.

Shawn and Jill are such precious parents. Rough firemen do have tender moments!

Mom and baby are both doing great...

Being an aunt is the most wonderful thing, next to being married of course!

I discovered I'm a tree-hugger

Recently, Mark and I enjoyed a much-needed respite from normal life at the Grand Canyon!
We ran/hiked 3 miles of the South Rim (1000 ft. elevation change) then drove to Lee’s Ferry.
We fly-fished the Colorado River—a first for me, Mark was a pro—

and I caught my first trout!

I held it fearlessly…

Then we drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and stayed in a cabin at Jacob Lake Inn.
On our last day, we ran a 10 mile trail along the North Rim with the beauty of the Grand Canyon canvassed over the rim. Here is Mark on the trail…


My consistent thought in viewing the canyon was that I literally did not have the ability to embrace the fullness of the beauty I was seeing, just as my eyes couldn’t get a grasp of the depth of the canyon.
What a fun trip! I’m glad Mark and I love the outdoors together—to run, hike, fish, hug trees, eat granola…the whole gamut.

Life in the Penick Pad

New and not-so-new news: Mark started a PhD in Leadership at Dallas Baptist University.
Thankfully, I graduated with my Master’s in Child & Family Development in May.

May 2007 Trip:

Mark and I are also running and hoping to run/hike the Grand Canyon in September! Our longest weekly run so far is at 9 miles, but we usually quit after our MP3 players run out of new songs : ) We’re probably running about 20-25 miles a week; it’s something we really enjoy doing together.
Also, my sister-in-law, Jill is pregnant! Little Robert Slade or Kaylee Renee will be here in January.