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| Did you know that horses like mints? You know... like lifesavers but the minty ones? Well, I didn't so when Masha suggested we take a walk and feed some mints to horses I thought she had lost it. But not wanting to deter her, I agreed to come along. And guess what? They do... or at least the ones we visited did.    
So yes, I arrived in London safe and sound late Monday night. Since it was late afternoon my time, I was awake and ready for something decent to eat so we ordered pizza at 11:45. Hey, it was dinner time to me and I like the pizza option there - ham, corn and mushrooms. Really, it's good! Trust me!! Tomorrow we're headed into London (Egham is like a suburb, which is where Masha lives) to see "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". | | |
| I'm leaving for the airport in less than 4 hours. It's 12:30 in the morning; I should be asleep but I can't. Instead I have about a million thoughts running through my mind. "Did I get everything done?" "Do I have everything covered?" "Did I pack everything?" "Am I going to be able to sleep on the plane?" - those are just a few. I love going to London - always a relaxing time with Malikas. Maybe I'll even keep up with my Xanga blog while I'm there. I've not done very well with it lately. We had a guest speaker today. Our Pastor and 2 others from PBC are in Ghana on a vision trip. His name was Duke Duvall. He did an excellent job. I liked his first story... Little boy: Mommy, does every fairy tale start with "Once upon a time..."? Mom: No, son, some start with "If elected, I promise to...". His sermon was entitled AMERICA: Bless God! More often it's said "God Bless America" but will He if we keep breaking His laws. I don't think so. Lizzie turned 2 on October 4. Hard to believe... Sammy was a big help in blowing out the candles. 
Here are a couple of pictures of our dinosaur/dragon and lion...  
We spent a late afternoon at the pumpkin patch:  
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| Well, I see it's been 2 months since my last entry. I have been reminded by my sister but I seem to spend more time on Facebook then I do on Xanga. It's a lot more fun. And it's a great way to keep up with my kids - the reason I started all this - to share pictures with Sara... who has an incredibly slow internet connection. But hey, she's in the middle of Nigeria - what do you expect? And half the time has no power whatsoever. The summer went by so quickly... VBS... Cardinal games... family fun... Sports Crusaders... friends... Upward conference... meetings... Muny... missions... teaching seminars... and it was busy. I'm just gonna include a few pictures of the summer rather than writing about all the different things. I'd love to tell you things were always great this past couple of months but they weren't. There were some heart-wrenching days... some sad days... but with God's grace I've come through it all... having learned more of what being a leader of others and a follower of Christ is about. There was a few days when I felt I had been thrown to the ground and then beat on... spat upon... and kicked. But then God pulled me up and reminded me that I was still His... still doing His work... and His calling on my life had not changed. It was rough but I survived thanks to those who lifted me up in their prayers. I am ever grateful to you. On a much lighter note - we had our first sleepover with Sammy and Lizzie and was it ever fun! They were great - perfect if I might say so myself. They ate their dinner and we played and watched "The Bee Movie". Then when it was time for bed they willingly put their jammies on and only heard a few giggles after putting them down. And when Jason came to pick them up the next morning, it was kind of like... "Oh, hi dad."  I would say I'll try to do better at this blogging thing but there are no guarantees so don't hold me to it. But I'd appreciate your prayers about a few things though... Chris needs a job in Springfield... Masha is living alone in London now and going to school for the next 9 or 10 months... my dad is still having black-outs for a reason that is yet to be determined and having tests done this week at Vanderbilt. Thanks for lifting them up. | | |
| It's been a busy 3 weeks since I last updated my site. Thus the reason for there being nothing new. I'm not a great writer so I have to sit and think and try to compose what I want to say and that takes a lot of time for me... and time is something I haven't had much of lately. Charlie's sisters were in town for their annual sibling reunion the weekend of June 13. It's always wild and crazy when everyone converges on Shirley's home - siblings, kids, kids of kids, cousins, etc. On Saturday, Mary (yes, I know she's Mary Ellen but she's still just Mary to me) treated her siblings to the Cardinal game. There were a couple of extra tickets so Jason and I joined them. Sammy came, too, for his very first Cardinal game.   
Kayla came on Saturday to go to the Cardinal game with Chris. On the way home from the game Chris mentioned that Kayla NEEDED Ted Drewes. Since she had never had the experience and since it's Charlie's favorite, we headed down Hampton for some of the best frozen custard in the world. She left Saturday evening so she could be at her house for Father's Day. Chris stayed around for the same reason and treated us to a nice lunch on Sunday that he grilled.   
The week of June 16 was spent making final preparations for our week of VBS. Do we have enough curriculum? Do all the teachers have what they need? Do we have floaters for absent volunteers? Have all the youth been assigned a spot? Are the teacher "treats" ready? Is their a WET in place? Do the music folks know all the motions to the songs? Are the music camp kids really going to be able to learn all the songs and motions in 4 days so they can present it on the 5th day? What have we forgotten? The week was spent considering all of these questions and more.  On Saturday, we had Sammy and Lizzie for the day! Wow! Now I know why most folks have their kids at a much younger age. Those two can run you ragged... but it was so much fun... and a new appreciation for Jenny's daily routine. You can see in the picture what a good babysitter Poppy is. The highlight of the day was taking the kids to play miniature golf. You can check out a video of that on Facebook.
   
Outrigger Island was our theme for VBS 2008... and it was fantastic! The volunteers were awesome! The students were so helpful this year! We had our highest number since I've had this job... and we had 13 decisions for Christ. The music camp kids did a great job of presenting the musical. It was a memorable week in so many aspects. There are lots of pictures on Facebook so check it out there. Now we'll spend some time evaluating our week and doing some follow-up... wiki, wiki!!  | | |
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