Children's Camp

Children's Camp - what a wonderful week we had with these great kids. Where else can you see grown men's shirts being stuffed with water balloons, kids unfolding frozen T-shirts and trying to put them on, a thirty-year old man doing a back handspring, picking up pennies with ONLY your feet out of freezing cold water, carrying water in frisbies above your head, camp leaders blasting kids with silly string and water and singing around a campfire.. all in the same place?

Aside from a few homesick episodes and insect bites, all 71 kids seemed to have had a good time. They were 2nd - 5th graders, mostly from our church. I have to say I learned alot about girls, being in a cabin with five 5th graders heading into middle school and two younger girls. It was so different from my everyday life, but I enjoyed it throroughly.

4th of July

We headed down to Panama City (Water Sound, FL) to stay with Betty (Cork) for the weekend. Nana, Pawk, Holly and Aaron met us there. Thursday we all arrived and went to eat dinner at Reggae J's. We discovered this place last year and had to go back again. This is where Heath found his LOVE of fish tacos. Friday we headed to the beach and pool for the day. That evening we ate at The Club, which is always a treat. At dark, the neighborhood was hosting "Flick & Float" where the kids bring their float to the main pool and watch a movie on the big, inflatable screen. They watched Ratatouille. It was fun, but I was ready to relax afterwards in the A/C. Holly and Aaron's friends (Jessica and Jamie) from Dothan were in town and stopped by for a while. There were lots of laughs, of course. After just a few hours of sleep, we got up bright and early on Saturday, the 4th of July. We were invited to a party and parade. What gracious hosts...they let us hang out, eat and watch the parade. It wasn't exactly the Thanksgiving Macy's Day Parade, but fun and unexpected nonetheless. They threw beads, candy and coupons. It was all over about 9am or so. We headed back to Betty's for a rest. All the guys took a nap, us ladies hit the beach and pool again. Betty made a great dinner for us and we celebrated Dad's birthday. Afterwards we headed to the beach for pictures and then watched fireworks. Betty's two little doggies didn't like the noise much, but survivied. The power went off right before we left to take pictures and wasn't on after the fireworks. Thankfully, it came back on just in time for bed. Sunday morning came too fast and it was time for us to all head home. I hope Betty will allow us to come back..we all had such a great time staying with her. What great conversations we all had, discovering different things about each other... Hopefully, at times like these, we will take the initiative to leave phones, computers and TVs alone and enjoy the people that God surrounded us with.

Poolside Pals

Today was another sticky, humid, and lovely day in the South! The Walden's came over after church for lunch and a dip in the pool. Unfortunately, some thunder ran the kids out of the pool a little sooner than they wanted. We came back inside for some air conditioning and great conversation. It so nice to have such wonderful friends to hang out with that are real, let you be yourself and love you anyway! Thanks to Reese, Lauren and Brooke for coming and keeping Austin company for the afternoon!

Stone Mountain/AtlantaFest

We had such a great family day Saturday. We got to the park around 10:30 am and we left about 10:30 pm. Stone Mtn was great. We bathed in SPF 55 and wre ready to go. We walked alot and sweated alot. We saw a few new shows and experienced SkyHike. That was a new adventure we had never tackled before. Some of the pics may explain this one. AtlantaFest was part of the package we had. It was a several-day event that had different Christian music artists performing throughout the festival. We were able to see Casting Crowns, oh what a treat. They were awesome. It was great to see a couple of thousand people enjoying the same music and worshipping together!

Vacation Bible School

Where do I begin? VBX (Vacation Bible Xtreme) was such a blast. Austin loved it and so did I. I worked on the "Craft Express" where I traveled around to different Preschool and Pre-k classes and did crafts with them. It was so enjoyable meeting a lot of new people and seeing these little ones have such a good time. Count me in for every summer I am able to help. What a great blessing it was for everyone involved! Tonight was our end of VBX celebration, where the kids showed us all of the music they had learned throughout the week. Also Wild Wonders came and shared some cool Australian animals with us. We saw a kangaroo, crocodile, two different pythons, a jackrabbit, kookaburra, and a large lizard. Here are pics of just a few of them.

Loaded and ready...

Austin has been obsessing about guns lately. Playing military games and watching the Military Channel has defintely contributed. Here he is with his new Aerosoft pistol he bought (with Paw Paw's help). He and his friends all seem to have these and love to play together finding targets in the woods, thankfully not near cars, houses or people. I'm not sure what the next toy craze will be, we'll find out soon enough:)

Soccer Party

Soccer is over but we decided to have a little pool party for the soccer team and their families. The guys bonded playing pool and the kids stayed in the pool. Us ladies just hung out and talked. It was fun for us all! We will have a little different team in the Fall since most of our boys are already ten. Three of our players won't be going to the next level yet. We will miss them and know that they will do great on their new team. Congratulations Chelsea Fire on a great season. You all are awesome!

Well, we decided to dive in and tear off our existing "deck" which consisted of a partially rotten walkway and a set of stairs leading out to the backyard. Oh, and by the way, you may can see the non-working grill attached to the corner of the walkway as well. After the walkway was torn off, we found that there had been some water damage on the siding. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad and only had to replace a couple of boards. We are adding a larger walkway and stairs down to a deck. This is the first step of a few that will be done someday down the road. I am excited to have a shaded area to sit and relax. Here are a couple of before and after pictures. I will post more after the deck is stained and underpinned, but it probably be alittle while.

Happy Memorial Day

Heath has been working hard in the yard all weekend, pressure washing, getting rid of limbs, etc. Heath stayed home and got some more work done while Austin and I headed up to see Jason and Leigh Ann. It has been a while since we have seen them and this seemed to be a good day to go. We enjoyed hanging out with them. We gave Taylor his belated birthday gift, a soccer ball and a Curious George book. Austin and Taylor played forever with the soccer ball. We went to the pond to feed the ducks, but ended up feeding the fish instead. After cooling off a bit, we went to the playground. The boys really had a good time playing together today. Taylor is getting so big, I can't believe he is three already!

School's out!!!

It has been an intersting year....changing jobs and schools. Check out Austin in some pics of him as the narrator in his class play, the funny version of Cinderella.

Thanks to Mrs. Kay for letting me come and take pictures. It was such a good time. Good job Austin on your narrator voice!! We are looking forward to a great, relaxing summer. Next year on to 5th grade, I can't believe he is growing up so fast. Hopefully I won't wake up tomorrow and find that he is already in college:)

Congrats to the Grad

Well, it has been over eighteen years since Erin was born. But, in some ways it doesn't seem possible that she is graduating high school. Heath and I met when she was just 7 or 8 weeks old. So as you can imagine this day makes us feel a little old. We are all so proud though!!! Know that your Meme is watching proudly too as you move on to the next chapter of your life. Congratulations, Erin on surviving high school and doing your very best. We love you so much and can't wait to see what God has in store for your future.

Happy Mother's Day!

It has been a good weekend. Austin and I headed to Birmingham Friday evening. We stayed with my dad and Betty. Saturday morning, we stopped by the nursing home where Mom had stayed to wish them Happy Nurses week. We left them some cake and fruit to show we love and appreciate them. We then met Aunt Joan to go to the cemetary where my mom, grandparents and many other family members are buried in Moundville, AL. Unfortunately, my sister Tina couldn't go with us. It was good to be with Joan and we had time to talk on our way. We arrived and put out some spring flowers for my mom and my grandparents. We talked and looked around for a while. I know it has been hard on her to deal with my mom's passing, especially being around hospitals so much since she passed away last summer. Between her mother-in-law and aunt, she has been back and forth to the hospital and staying with them. She is such a jewel. She retired a couple of years ago and I look forward to the time that she and Larry can enjoy themselves and relax. For the time being, she is wholeheartedly serving her family. We stopped back by and saw Tina and her familybefore we headed back to Atlanta. On Sunday, we went to church and had a great service, as always. Sunday afternoon, I was greeted with beautiful cards and a profile portrait of Austin that he had made at school, its precious. I know I don't have many more of these little moments:( But I will treasure them always.

After reading the following statements today, it really makes me re-evaluate what is really important..."According to scripture, only the Word of God and the souls of human beings last forever; No genuine investment in them will spoil, they are the "food that lasts".-Chris Tiegreen

*Don't work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life. John 6:27

Wow, what a great weekend! Inside-Out LAUNCH was our mission partner celebration that took place Wed-Sun of this past week. We had several mission partners that participated. Everything from pregnancy centers to Navajo Nation ministries; And a new start up church here close to home and church plants in the Ukraine. All of the mission partners had booths set up in the church so we could all get a glimpse of each ministry and what it is they do. So many people were involved in putting this event together. It was inspiring to see how excited everyone was to get in and help.

We kicked things off by having dinner and worship service on Wednesday evening with our mission partners. Our Life Group was paired up with Joel and Ira Colon, sweet newlyweds that serve in the Ukraine. Friday night, there was the International Banquet, where the church ate together and all the missionaries involved got to share a little about their ministry with the church. On Saturday evening, our Life Group got to mingle with Joel and Ira. Check out the pic with Eric and Mike..maybe Joel has a second calling as a rock star!!! On Sunday, all the missionaries visited different Life Groups sharing their ministry. What a great opportunity for all involved, to be able to be inspired by all of these missionaries. We all need our place...it may be right here close to home or some far off land. God will let us know if we ask.