Fall YL has been in full swing for a couple of months now & honestly it has been going great. One of the best parts about YL this fall has been the team that Cody & I are ministering with. Since last spring we have added 3 amazing members to our team. Keith, Jenna, & Jake are all new leaders & they are amazing. They have given our team life & the kids LOVE them. I am so thankful for them.

The first thing we did last week at YL was play a game called, "the tower of pain." We handed each kid a piece of big red gum & they were told to chew the gum, lick the wrapper & stick it on their forehead. I don't know if many of you have ever licked a big red gum wrapper & stuck in on your forehead, but after a few minutes (sometimes even seconds) of it being on there it begins to BURN. Anyway, after they had the wrapper on their foreheads' they had to get in groups of 10 & form a human pyramid. It was hilarious watching them do this b/c just as their group would get the pyramid down every ones' foreheads' would begin to burn, causing them to use their hands to remove the wrapper, causing their groups' pyramid to come tumbling down. For the first 5-10 minutes of club we did this & it was fun, kids' were laughing & taking pictures everywhere.

As the night went on we played a few more games, Cody came out once again as "Buck Norris" (not to be confused with Chuck Norris), & we ended the night with Cody sharing the story of Zacchaeus from Luke 19. He began by talking about hunting, he brought out a few things that are used in hunting to camouflage ourselves. Things such as, fox pee & unscented deodorant (used to cover up the scent of humans), camo masks & jackets, etc. He talked about the great lengths that a hunter will go through just to hide from animals & then asked the question, "what great lengths do we go to to hide ourselves from God & from others?" This led into the story of Zacchaeus & how he tried to hide from Jesus in a tree, but God sought him out & loved him for who he is.

Cody as "Buck Norris"

Sometimes when things are hard or I feel like I am just trying to keep things from crashing I think about why I still continue to do YL & usually when I am thinking about this God shows me many reasons. Lately I have been following the story about the lady who is selling her virginity on ebay. I been thinking about that girl a lot. Does she realize that there is hope? Does she know how much Jesus loves her? Does she know that someone already paid a great price for her? She must not know or she must not believe any of these things or she would not be doing this. What if someone told her about Jesus would she still be selling her body? I think about that & I think about all the kids I know & I pray they will know & believe the love of Christ & be secure in that forever.

Well... long time & no blog - sorry about that. I guess I kind of took a 2 month blogging sabbatical. But, I'm back now. For the past couple of months every time we did something I thought to myself, "I should blog about this" like - our first couple of YL clubs, trip to Abilene, evenings with friends, Cody's football season, etc. I will have to slowly catch-up.

Last weekend my little sister Hannah got married to Drew & it was such a great wedding weekend. I went down a couple days early to help Mom & Hannah do some pre-wedding things. I love weddings & I love helping out with weddings any way possible. We did lots of things for Hannah's wedding & it was so fun doing it all, but I really just loved getting to spend time with family while doing everything.

Here are some pictures from the weekend in totally random order:

The groom, bridesmaids, & flower girl

Bekah, Mom, Hannah, me, & Jane

My brother, Luke, & his wife Jane - it was SO GOOD to see them

We did the bridesmaid lunch at our house & it turned out great. The day before the lunch Aunt Ruth gave us Great Grandmother's china so we used it for the lunch & it was so perfect.

We could not have pulled off the lunch w/o Aunt Marcia, Amy, & Dave - thanks for all the help!

Sisters at the bachelorette party, it was fiesta themed & I made the cake

The family with our newest member, Drew, at rehearsal

The place where the ceremony was held, it was so pretty & the arch looks great thanks to Jane

Beautiful fall flowers were the center pieces for all the tables

Fun picture with Hannah & all her bridesmaids

The wedding was great & we are excited to have Drew a part of the family.

First Day of School

This was the first week back at school for Cody. Summer is officially over & we are launching into another school year. I am a little sad that summer is over, but it was a great summer & I am excited about all the things going on this fall.

While Cody spent his first week back at school, I spent the week at Young Life regional meetings in Fort Worth. Our area joined a new region this year, so this was my first time to be with all the folks from the North Central Texas region & they are great. I walked away from the three days I spent with them encouraged and challenged to do all that I can do this year to better our YL ministry so that kids can meet Christ.

So, 2008-2009 school year - here we come!

Cody decked out in his school colors on the first day

End of Summer, Olympics, & Bus Driver Party

I pretty much think my life has revolved around the Olympics for the past 2 weeks. I have no problem coming home at night & watching 4 straight hours of Olympic coverage. There is just something about watching all of these amazing athletes compete to the very best of their ability while representing their country. I have been really emotional during these Olympics & I don't know why. Anyway, after this weekend I will officially have my life back & can stop rushing home after all of my night time meetings or activities to watch the Olympics.

Probably my favorite thing this year has been these girls:

They are amazing!

There have been some nights that I have been forced to take a break from the Olympics, but they have all been good reasons. We have continued to our Bible study with our high school kids every week & have had a great response. We are also doing Young Life & Wyldlife training a couple nights each week & I am so excited about the potential batch of new leaders that we might have coming in. We need leaders so bad, as almost all of our clubs have more kids than we know what to do with.

We also had a Bus Drivers / Good - bye to Arica Party this week. The Bus Drivers is the YMCA team that Cody plays on. The members of the team are mostly from church & the team & all of the teams fans have become some of our good friends. Arica has been such a good friend to me these past couple of years & she is moving away, I am sad, but excited for her. Arica & I have sat through many bus driver games together so in her honor I attempted to make a school bus out of cup cakes, it turned out OK.

Arica & I & my cup-cake school bus.

Here is some of the team (& their coach) with Arica & I at the party

This weekend is our last weekend before life gets crazy. School starts on Monday & with the start of school comes football season for Cody & lots & lots of Young Life craziness for me. We have had such a great summer & we both feel rested & ready to go into the school year. I am excited for another semester of football, Young Life, retreats, and everything else that comes with the fall. I think the hardest part for me will be going back to really only spending time with Cody on the weekends, but that makes those times all the more special.

Want to be in a movie?

For the past couple of weeks they have been filming a movie at the old fraternity house across the street from our house. The movie is called, "Rosayln" & unfortunately will be on DVD only. The plot is fraternity party gone wrong. Anyway, the whole process has been rather entertaining. They usually film from 7pm - 7am. Tonight they need a bunch of extras for a big scene, so if anyone's interested let me know.

Vacation - "All I ever wanted!"

Last weekend we went to Orange Beach, AL for a week & it was such a fun vacation! It was great to be with family & catch-up with everyone, as well as catching-up on some much needed rest. We definitely found a great vacation place & hopefully we can continue going to more places like it. The beach wasn't crowded at all & had lots of room for laying around or playing games. Our condo was overlooking the beach & had an amazing view during all hours of the day.

We have lots of great pictures, here are just a few to show what a great vacation it was.

All the girls attempting to do a jumping picture

All the boys doing the jumping picture

The sign on the store said, "please pull your pants up before entering the store, thanks" I just thought it was really funny so I had Hannah stand under it for a picture.

Cousins, aunt & uncle + Shannon

My Grandma & her 3 kids

My sisters & cousins, Abby & Megan

One my favorite parts of the week - floating!

The fam without Luke & Jane, we missed them SO MUCH!

Bekah & I doing what we pretty much did everyday - read & lay around

Cody & I on our porch

Our trip was so fun & we were definitely not ready to come home. Family vacations with cousins have kept our family really close for many years now & I am so thankful for all the great memories we have made. Thanks everyone for another great vacation, can't wait til next year!