Weirdness...

My dear friend H. is so right on here. I can't even add to it, except to say, "You Go, Girl!"

Blogging Slackeritis

I have some guilt over my summer case of Blogging Slackeritis. I have friends and family who have moved and had babies and other ambitious stuff and still managed to keep their blogs somewhat updated. And while I read everyone else's lives on a regular basis, I just haven't managed to update mine. But with my children back in school, and the fact that I am not working a paying job yet, I really have no excuse.

So... a few updates for those of you who actually read this... I am absolutely horrible about remembering to take pictures, but I did find a few.

Summer is church camp season around our house, and this year was no exception.

This was our Vacation Bible School group in the end of June. The front scene was supposed to be an oasis with palm trees (put it together for $4...pretty proud of that). It was a fun week with the kids, and all the adults that helped were really great to work with. Ben is upfront in the yellow (his t-ball shirt); Alex is on the middle-right in the stripes; and Jake is in the middle-back in the light-colored tie-dye.


A couple weeks later was Camp Tenderfoot, which is a 4-day camp for kids ages 8-11. The couple I'm standing with brought this insane 3-D puzzle which we worked on during our down time. Since they did the programming and I did the cooking, I had more down time. I seem to have inhereited my mother's addiction to jigsaw puzzles, becasue I was determined to have it done before the end of the camp. I think we got it done the last night, about 11:30.


And now for the boys...



No, this is not a mugshot, this is the first baby I birthed. It's often hard for me to believe that he is starting to look like such a man. Rob's stats... 6'2" tall, about 190 lbs, size 15 (or 13 EE) shoes. He started out as this... well, this was about 4 months old... isn't he cute!!


Jake is a budding teenager, and I'm sure within a year or so I will be lamenting him growing up (literally). Our friend had a costume party in June right after school got out. Since the boys had their mohawks, we let them be punk rockers.


Jake added our spare dog collar and a chain leash (from when Zeke was a pup and used to chew on the cloth ones). Someone at the party dubbed his costume "Freak On A Leash" whick Jake thought was very cool.

Ben's was different colored on each side. He did wear a shirt.

Alex's photo op actually came on the first day of school. He got home to find this huge toad outside in our carport.
He enjoyed holding it for awhile until he realized it had pee'd all over his hand... and I really mean ALL over (who knew toads had bladders that big?) which I totally laughed at. Is frog pee still considered wart-inducing? Hee Hee

And, of course, because I'm a sap for my puppy... I had to include one of my puppy.


The Babe is my friend's Lovey who incidentally shares Zeke's birthday. Lovey is 1; Zeke is 3. So the Babe and his big sis Flower were hanging out at my house one day. Zeke found a toy of the Babe's that he thought was really fun. The Babe thought Zeke was really fun and he kept following the pup around the living room. Zeke finally retreated to the top of the couch where the Babe could just holler at him, but couldn't reach him to smack him in the face and pull on his ears. It was pretty funny.

I am immensely grateful to Grandma Sandy for the few days respite when she took the kids on a sight-seeing trip to St. Louis and stuff. She came home very ready to give them back; she doesn't miss long car trips with kids (and the constant squabbling that goes on in the back seat).

Will Starve For Food

So I spent the weekend with a group of youth and youth leaders starving for food as part of World Vision's annual 30-Hour Famine. My husband has a long history of youth ministry and has been to many of these, but this was my first year in the mix. I took 5 young people with me, ages 12-14; the total group consisted of about 35 kids and 8-10 adults. We left here about 4:30 p.m. Friday and got home about 10 p.m. on Saturday. Of course, I forgot my camera at home.

For the record... I am officially too old to comfortably sleep on the floor. The 6 hours I had to sleep were spent mostly flipping over every half hour or so because my hip bones were not enjoying the experience. At 5:30, I finally just relented and stayed awake. (Hard to believe I used to enjoy that... hmmm) It made for a long day.

Note to self... It is amazing what you unconsciously filter from media. The movie Pay It Forward was on the schedule for Friday night. I was excited because I love that movie. Granted, I've only seen it once, but it left me with a feeling of do-gooder-ish-ness (yes, I know that's not a word). Aparently, the person who recommended it felt the same, and neither we, nor any of the other adults, remembered all the unsavory aspects of the movie... like the fact that the mom works in a strip club, or that certain characters spew profanity like a soaker hose waters the garden. We had to turn it off part way through.

The rest of the weekend was interspersed with game time, service projects, and worship services. The local pastor put a heavy focus on having the heart of a servant; he emphasized the incredible service that Christ did for all of us. That is what I hope the kids took away from it. They did awesome! Fasting for 30 hours is not easy, and I was very proud of all of them. (Way to go, Bigfoot!!)

And a little note about Footwashing... Growing up, I knew the story of Christ washing the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper. However, my husband was raised in the Church of God, which is where the rest of us are now too. In the COG, Footwashing is an ordinance.

Usually, Footwashing is part of a Maundy Thursday service (I still don't know what "Maundy" means other than the Thursday before Easter, but that's another issue). You wash the feet of another and they, or someone else, wash your feet. It is very humbling to have someone kneel in front of you and wash your feet... especially someone you really respect or admire.

The closing service of the Famine, right before we broke our fast, the pastor incorporated footwashing for the kids, explaining and demonstrating with another pastor while a thrid man read the text from the Bible. For many of them, this was their first experience with it, and it was great to see them serve each other. The service ran a little long, but I didn't hear a single complaint. Then on to pancakes and eggs... YUM!