Prayer Request

Well, we need a teacher here at the preschool. Let me say I realize there are so many people with heavy heavy hearts because of so many difficult situations. I almost feel dumb asking people to say a prayer because I feel like there's so many more people that need it so much more. But if you read this and wouldn't mind, just say a little prayer that God would provide us with a teacher for the preschool. Preferably within the next few weeks. We also have been really low on kids so I've been praying that not only would God send us a teacher, he would also send us kids to fill up our roster. I praise God that we have been registering new kids left and right and I am thankful for each one of those kids. I also keep praying that they would continue to come and we could have a full preschool. Partly for financial reasons and partly because so many kids need to hear about Jesus. I fully trust that God will not leave us hanging- he's not going to answer just 1/2 of our prayer. I also trust that he has a perfect plan that for some reason may include us waiting longer than we would like for a teacher. But my desire is that we don't have to start a new school year without a new teacher. We were planning to start up our curriculum again on August 17. We had a prayer last night as a church and it was really special. So, thanks for your prayers as well. They are much appreciated:)

Mom and Dad

My parents were here this weekend. And while I said I wanted to get a picture with them before they left, it never happened. Out of all the people I have taken pictures with, I've never really taken one with them. Recently anyway. But it was nice to have them down here. I had a list of things to get done and didn't really have anything exciting in mind to do with them so I just decided to put them to work. I got a few shelves hung, some hard to reach lightbulbs changed, a new microwave that works, revised Athens church directories made and the preschool picnic table repainted. We even made Dad try eating Mexican for the first time in his life. Pathetic, I know. But he liked it and even said he would go again!
A few months ago Kerwin, Ryan, Mike and Mark got roped into singing at a benefit. We were all together Friday night and then they got my dad to sing with them. So Saturday we went to a benefit singing to listen. You really just never know what you'll end up doing should you chose to visit me!
Yesterday we played softball and volleyball after church with boogers and brats for supper at Kerwin & Sara's. I was a little sore today from it all:( But I went to they gym anyway because I cannot tell you how badly I need to get back into the habit. It makes me so mad sometimes. When I first moved and joined the gym, I just went. No questions asked, no excuses made. I just went. Then I lost some weight and I guess I got it in my head that I was doing pretty good and could start slacking a little and so that's just what I did. So ever since last summer I've been fighting myself over the issue. I need to quit thinking about it so much and just go again like I used to. I've gained back more than I'd like to admit unfortunately. I don't even know why I'm making that much public. I need to stop before I start telling all my secrets:)
Have a great day!

Zax Attack

Last night while we were at Miss Doris's house swimming, my phone rang. It was my friend Kristi who had been on vacation with some girls a few hours south of here. Three out of four girls had never eaten at Zaxby's and were told it was a must. They were going to be going through Athens about supper time and wondered if I wanted to meet them for supper at Zaxby's. I was very excited for this encounter. The encounter with the girls AND with Zaxby's, as it has delicious food. So, we met, ate, and went out to our cars. I had my camera and wanted a picture with them. But there was nobody around to take it for us. So what did we do?

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Asked "Tez" the drive through worker to take it for us:)

Hooray for friends and doing random things!

Another Great Weekend

Man, this summer is flying by. There's been something noteworthy going on almost every weekend. Before I moved that was normal. Now I look forward to weekends that are months away because there's nothing happening between now and then. But there's been so much going on here lately and I've been loving it!
This particular weekend was Matthew's baptism. Very exciting for a small church! A group of people from Fairbury came down for the weekend. They've made it a habit to visit a few times a year and we love it when they come! It was great to spend some time with them again too. No pictures though:(

Matthew's the one in the blue. We took this picture last weekend at VBS. The other kid is his younger brother Luke who just started repenting a few weeks ago! Matthew's 19 and Luke's 16. Over the past few years they've taken their place as my younger brothers. Sometimes I love em to pieces and sometimes they just like to be pesky. They're fun though:)

After Matthew came out of the water today, this little beauty (Lauren) declared "I want to go swimming." We thought she had the right idea so that's what we're headed to do this afternoon! So, yeah- great fellowship, great friends, a little too much great food-great weekend!

One Year Ago...

Actually this is a little overdue seeing as how Haley's birthday was two weeks ago. But, here we are anyways. I can't hardly believe a whole year has passed since Haley Jo was born. She's one of the main reasons I get homesick. The older she gets and the more her little personality develops, the more I just love her to pieces and miss her. She was born on a Wednesday, I think, and that Friday all of her aunts travelled from afar to go see her at the hospital. We met up in Roanoke and went down to Peoria to meet her and took her first "aunts picture".

Aunt Jenay, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Laura and Aunt Kathy. At her birthday party we tried to recreate the aunts picture but we didn't double check the order we were in so Sarah and Jenay got mixed up. Five aunts, no uncles.....

Oh, I just love those kissable cheeks. I could kiss them and kiss them and kiss them until she gets completely and utterly annoyed with me. And then I could kiss them some more.

I love my Haley Jo! (Kinda like Sarah JO)

:)

VBS

What a weekend. In the past few years Athens church has decided that instead of doing VBS every night for a whole week, it would be easier and more fun to do an overnight thing on a weekend. The last three years we've just gone to the Tennessee Fellowship Center and camped out. This year we found a church camp in Talladega, AL called Shocco Springs went there for the weekend. We were able to rent almost a whole building with a conference room so we could use the camp facilities but also could be alone in the evenings and for our talks. We also decided this year to do our VBS with Atlanta and that turned out to be a great decision. We have a few Athens-Atlanta connections but never really have a chance to all be together. It was so good to be with them and get to know them. They have a really neat group over there. We had a weekend filled with fun, lots of food and some very sweet fellowship. Our theme for the weekend was Noah's Ark. I have to admit I wasn't sure how we were going to be able to spend that much time talking about Noah's Ark but it was really neat. I know you won't really be able to see anyone but here's a group shot. I think we had around 90-100 between the two churches.

Our first free time on Saturday was filled with volleyball. My team won every game! Not because of me though. I just kinda of run around acting like I'm preparing to hit the ball if it comes to me. It usually doesn't come to me and if it does usually what happens is someone ends up hitting it for me or I completely biff. Once in awhile if I'm really lucky I'll get a good hit. But I can take no credit for my team winning.
The dining hall- we had heard rave reports about the food but I'm pretty sure we all liked the homemade treats a whole lot better that we had stashed in our conference room:)

The lake had a lot of fun stuff to do but we found out a little too late that we have to reserve a time slot ahead of time. Oh well- we'll know for next year.

We played lots of games during our free time. A few of us learned a new game called Ticket to Ride. I think it's my new favorite. I just might go out and buy it. I just thought our board looked so fun when it was finished. The green train is mine.

This here is not group prayer time- it's grab the rag. Fun game. Simple enough that anyone can play, but tense enough that it's not boring.

Saturday night we trekked through the woods for singin and s'mores around the campfire. It was hot hot hot. Hot weather mixed with hot fire makes for some hot sweaty people.

Sunday after church we changed, loaded up, ate one more delicious dining hall lunch and took off. Gwen Luethold from Nashville had come down with me and Jena and we decided that on the way back this is what we would do.

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Oh yes. We did. And it was great. I've never really been a NASCAR person but the speedway was really really cool. We all said it made us want to go to a race. I probably never will. But it kinda sounds fun now.

While we were waiting for our tour to start we browsed the gift shop. And ya know, only at at NASCAR museum gift shop in Alabama could you find these. If you can't read it, Jena's mug says Bubba and mine says Bud. We laughed and laughed when we found those!

During the tour we got to stop and take our pictures at Victory Lane, where all the winning drivers get their pictures taken for the press. The tour guide said that's how all the girls pose. Hence the awkward stance. Good thing it's far away and you can't see us very well.

The grandstands.

And the finish line.

So-it was a great weekend. We're all looking forward to next year already. Hopefully we'll all be able to get together again next summer. It was so refreshing! But now I am very very tired. I'm about to eat supper then I'll probably nod off soon after that.

Blueberry Pickin'

This evening after work a few of us made the trek to Toney, Alabama to pick some blueberries. After finally finding the place, we were a little dissapointed in the selection. We decided we came a couple weeks too early, judging by all the unripe ones on the bushes. But we managed to get a few good buckets full and it was fun to go do it. And the ones we picked are pretty delicious.

We took a normal picture too, but I like this one better. If you can't tell, we all have blueberries stuffed up in our lips. They blueberry farm lady took it and didn't zoom in at all so you have to look close. But it made for some good laughs.
Then we finished off the night with a Kreme Delight ice cream cone. Yummy.

I'm Still Here

I do still exist. I just haven't been posting. I came up to Illinois Thursday afternoon for my niece's 1st birthday. I had every intention of going back home yesterday after church but after tragedy struck Roanoke I decided to stick around until today so I could go to the visitation. It's still really hard to comprehend everything that happened. A freak accident like that really makes one think. It so easily could have been my own dad or any one of us for that matter. It's also been another wake up call- reminding us that life is fragile, we aren't promised our next breath and we must always be ready. I'll be heading to the visitation in a few minutes and then hopefully will get on the road by 4:00 or 4:30. It's going to be a late night and tomorrow's not looking very fun but I'm glad I was able to be up here. I'll post later about the good parts of the weekend.