This is the great adventure!

Now that I've had a couple days (weeks) to catch my breath from the whirlwind of the past couple weeks I thought I'd rewind and review what's been going on:


*Vacation Bible School was two weeks and minus a few glitches, I think was a success. I love VBS. I get that fizzy feeling of excitment knowing that kids are hearing the gospel message and are excited about it! Thursday, the day we focus on Christ and his death and resurrection, is always the most powerful and this year was the same. During closing, we had a big cross that had been wrapped with Christmas lights but were unlit. We talked about how our sins made us like the unlit christmas lights. Then the kids took turns in their crews telling how things they were sorry for. After that, we talked about how Christ offers his forgiveness of all the sins and things we're sorry for because of his death on the cross and had the crew leaders come up and screw in the christmas lights as we sang a song. During the last verse of the song (were you there when they crucified my Lord) we turned on the christmas lights and I started to cry. Big -ugly oprah crying tears. It was pretty powerful, these kids praising God and hearing the message that they'd been forgiven. Have I mentioned that I love VBS?


*Sarah Wright came for the last couple days of VBS before going to KC to celebrate B and Mike's wedding. We went down to the Memorial (no pictures, though, unfortunately), ate good mexican and had a fantastic time on the way to the wedding with Laura. It was also great to see Bethany and Mike tie the knot (finally!) and to see the girls I spent the most time with in school.

It was intesting that even after only a few minutes we all slipped back into our old roles, me the organizer, Sarah the comic, Laura the artsy one, Lindsey the free spirit, and Bethany the academic. It was nice to be back in that place where we talked nerdy about Harry, talked about the music we were listening too, heard about jobs and moves and laughed about college adventures and made new inside jokes and just enjoyed being around each other. It was harder to say goodbye to my friends on Sunday than I had anticipated but I'm so looking forward to August, to Panama and to Vegas.

More soon.

"Are we there yet?"

It's summer and summer means road trips for the various youth in my congregation. This summer, I'm heading to Camp, New Mexico, Orlando and Lake Tenkiller with the various age groups. During these long trips, I often set a limit of how many "Are we there yets", "how long until we stop", and "when do we eat?" type of questions (Two per youth the entire trip). I'm pretty strict on the rule simply because I don't want to answer the same question 90 million times.

However, I didn't anticipate having to set a limit on myself asking the question "Is the gathering over yet?"

I totally underestimated all the details I needed to get done and I consider myself to have been fairly organized so far. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to go, my kids are excited to go, but I think we're nearing critical mass. T-30 days. Yikes.

Vacation Bible School and Nummelpalooza

Wow. There has been a LOT going on these past couple weeks. What, you ask? Here are a few pictures from the last few days. More pictures and stories forthcoming, after I've had some sleep.

The Church Office Pilot Part 2

The Church Office Pilot Part 1

Phone Conundrum

Yesterday after trying to make a couple phone calls, I realized that several buttons on my phone weren't working, denying me access to all texts, phone numbers, my calendar etc. I call Cingular (now AT&T) and 45 minutes later my new phone (thanks to phone insurance) is on it's way. Last night, my phone cut out of 2 or 3 attempts on the phone to Sarah Wright and my 9 key stopped working.

This morning, my new phone arrived and my old phone seems to be in perfect working order.

So, do I wait and see if my phone is actually working correctly and send back the replacement or do I use the replacement and send back my working phone?

Hot Town Summer in the City

*Edit* I realized that my title was wrong. I was combining two songs "Hot Child in the City" and "Hot Town, Summer in the City". It bothered me. Yes, I'm anal. Deal with it.

Happy Summer!

As the next few months are bound to be crazy, I thought I'd leave you with my list of summer goals.

Here they are, in no particular order:
1) Teach Soph the Step-dog to wipe her paws on the welcome mat (right now she just stares up at me in confusion). Also teach step-dog how to lint roll her own doggie hair.
2) Weekly Tennis with Jess.
3) Harry. Potter. Book. Seven. (I'm also contemplating writing a song to the tune of Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me" titled "Talk Harry With Me").
4) 5K in Orlando with the Sister.
6) Learn to make (roll?) sushi.
7) Find Male chaperone to go to Angel Fire, New Mexico with middle schoolers and myself (I think that they've all been scared away by the last youth quake).
8) Vacation Bible School (Can I get a Wa-hoo?)
9) Operation Gravy Boat and the Wedding Circuit Reunion Tour with Nate (We need more stops folks!)
10) Hang out with Sarah before Nummelpalooza and perhaps in Denver in August/September?
11) Guitar lessons from Tim (who has promised to teach me how to fake it "real good").
12) Apply for passport.
13) "Enjoy" 48+ hours of bus time with 31 youth.
14) National Youth Gathering and the Servant Event in Biloxi.
15) Submit articles to Radiant Magazine.
16) Save the World.