I had to post this picture! Micah had his first haircut (by mom!), although I didn't make it all the way around! Believe it or not, he wouldn't stay still long enough! I actually only got the top and parts of the sides, so he kinda has a mullet. But from the front, with just a little hair product, hey - he looks just like dad!

What a great trip! We got back last night from spending 5 days in AR. It was so great to see friends and family, and friends who feel like family! We went to surprise Todd, Rick's best friend, for his birthday and to be with a friend who's son was having open heart surgery. Praise God, the surgery was cancelled and we had a much better visit with them at church. Todd was very surprised to see us show up at dinner! But the best surprise was when we gave Rick and Todd a guided fishing trip for both of their birthdays! They had to get up at 5:30 the next morning and drive up to the river to meet the guide who was awesome! They caught over 60 fish during the morning, despite dire warnings that this summer had been terrible for trout! Anyway, they had the perfect day and Heather and I managed to get ALL 4 KIDS asleep at the same time, so our day was good too, despite Heather having to climb up in the McDonalds playground to rescue Lainey, which I am still laughing about! That is one of my worst nightmares - a clausterphobic/germophobic has no business going to a McDonalds playground!

South Carolina has been very good to us, but there is something about being "where everybody knows your name." Katie had so much fun catching up with her little friends. The child has a more exciting social life than we do! She went to a kids night out at Downtown Church, had a sleep over with her buddy Anna Kate (details on Anna Kate's moms blog www.thefarleyfamily.blogspot.com ), was invited to a birthday party, etc.! She had so much fun and it was hard to think about what things would be like if she still lived by those friends that we love so much. She has good friends here, but I am still very much attached to the kids she was in the nursery with as a baby! The little girls all had a weeping-fest on Sunday after church! I think it was worse than the Sunday we left to move here!

Rick got to lead worship at Downtown on Sunday morning. What an awesome thing! 900 voices sound really awesome praising the Lord, however, we did miss our church here. We have been so blessed to be a part of both! We also stopped by the jewelry store Rick worked at for a few minutes. Another note of thanksgiving there - the Simpsons blessed us so much by teaching Rick a trade that continues to challenge him and support our family! They are good people and we miss them too.

We ended the trip with a night in Nashville with Rick's parents and his neice that was visiting. It is always good to be there and Katie really enjoyed Hannah, her only girl cousin! But it is good to be home.

A Visit

I had a great experience Friday night. We got together with some friends to sing. At some point in the evening, Micah and Katie were occupied and I got the chance to become wrapped up in the music. We sang a song that we used to do in chorus at Harding - Give Me Jesus. For just a couple minutes, I was transported, back onto creaky risers, with Anita on one side and Debra on the other, and I could see Dr. G's face smiling at us. I truly felt "back in time." It was cool.

However, as much as I enjoyed the visit back to that time, I was just as glad to open my eyes and see the adoring look on Micah's face, as he pulled up on my legs. It was nice to visit my college days, but I sure wouldn't want to live there again! I think the problem that some folks have is that they think that living __________ - back then, ahead when, etc - would be so great. They forget to look around at the blessings of the moment.

I am quite content to be here and now and just glimpse back then or dream ahead to when...

Hope you are having a contented day!

I had to post this picture. Have you ever seen anyone quite so enthusiastic about eating? This kid is loving life with every bite. Might explain why he is over 27 pounds at 10 months old and his first real word (which he says while looking at the actual item) is "cookie!" The kicker is, he is that excited about everything - even broccoli. And his sister orders a salad at a restaurant instead of a burger. Where have we gone wrong? :)

Hope you are having a good weekend!

Uhhh... That would be NO DEAL!

I had a first today. I guess maybe I have been subconciously envious of all of Micah's "firsts" so I had to try one of my own.

I have always loved game shows. When I was little, I was in love with Bob Barker (Price is Right) and wrote off to the show. They sent me an autographed picture of Bob (when he still had dark hair) and it hung in my closet for years. So, when I heard that "Deal or No Deal" was holding auditions in Columbia, I immediately began to think of who I could talk into going with me (because that's not something best done on my own) for my first game show audition!

Long story short, the auditions were today at a mall. The mall specifically advertised that there would be no camping out in the parking lot allowed and that the mall doors would open at 6:30 am. The auditions started at 10 am and as long as you were in line at 1 pm, you would be auditioned. My friend Jeanie was convinced to go and it was her idea to be there by 6 am. (I had planned to shoot for 8:30! Ha.) So I was up before 5 and ready to go. We got to the mall by 6 am and, I promise you, there were at least 1,000 people already in a line that stretched the entire length of the mall and cars steadily filing into the parking lot. Probably another 100 people lined up before we could decide what to do. There were freaks and geeks, normal mini-van driving folks like myself, people with musical instruments and pets and, in general, a ton of folks that looked much more interesting than Jeanie and I. So, we ate fresh, hot, Hardees biscuits, laughed at ourselves and were back in bed before anyone ever missed us!

Unfortunately, I had been planning for the last month how I was going to spend my million dollars. Oh well. It'll have to wait. In the mean time, the Wheel-mobile is supposed to let me know when they are in the area! Maybe I'll hone my game-show auditioning skills and decide to be there by midnight the night before, like the men at the front of the line said they had done!

So, no deal today! Sorry to the folks who were going to Hawaii with me with my first million!

The Land of Perpetual Mowing

I think I live in the land of perpetual mowing - lawn mowing, that is. It is currently 100 billion degrees outside (well, actually 96) and there is someone mowing their lawn. At 9:30 this MONDAY morning (don't normal people work on Monday's?), there was someone cranking it up. At any hour of daylight, it seems like someone is mowing their lawn, not off in the distance mind you, but right beside the window of whichever of my children, or me, happens to be sleeping.

It is not that our neighborhood is the picture of horticultural perfection. Rick manages to keep the weeds below knee level and we look about average. And he only devotes a couple hours every other week to that endeavour. So I ask you, why in the world do I constantly hear lawn mowers? I guess I need to move to Samoa.

Speaking of Samoa, I just figured out how to put a link on the link section, to the right of this post and down a few lines. It is to the blog of our good friends who just moved to American Samoa (an island owned by the US in the south Pacific - just go to Hawaii and turn left, then go straight for about TWO THOUSAND miles! You can't miss it!) They are working as vocational missionaries/adventure seekers! Their experience is fun to read about, and you aren't too far behind if you start now - they've only been there a couple weeks (and I already miss Jaime very much!)

Happy 4th of July and Happy Mowing!