just because

my office is a mess with boxes full of TA retreat supplies. normally a messy office would stress me out. but not this kinda mess...it's a glorious mess... looking around i see - - blessing bags decorated and ready to be filled with encouraging words. - flowers cut out of construction paper - bandannas - funny song titles - balloons - name tags - 4000 note cards waiting to be written on - blank "write your heart out forms" - supplies for relay races, ochos and more. if you just saw the supplies you'd think i was insane and that these items may seem haphazard! but that is not the case. each supply is purposeful. each one will be used by God. i love that promise. He is ever so faithful on these retreats to encourage, discipline, speak life and truth, build relationships and FILL the weekend with His presence. without those things...its not worth doing. and i (we) couldn't do it! sometimes retreat planning can be overwhelming. there are SO.MANY.DETA...

my friends may think i am extremely curious and/or obnoxiously nosy. i cant help it. i just like to know what people are up to, whats going on in their lives and just how they are in general. so i ask my friends, often. family too. so i'm kinda asking myself those questions today and answering for you...who did not ask :) hmm, how am i doing? well, let's see. today i turned my calendar to Aug 1 along with the rest of the world. i turn my page with a million emotions... first - COMPLETE JOY b/c it means we have hit the month of COLLEGE FOOTBALL. y'all. next, i must confess there is a slight tremble in my hand as i turn the page because Aug also means the month of the TA Fall Retreat. it is one of my most favorite things but also the most time consuming, emotion consuming, all-of-me consuming thing i do all year.  well, thats not completely true. it doesn't consume ALL of me b/c i give it to God every hour...sometimes every minute. HE is ultimately in control. i...

last week i ranted a little on FB about dealing with annoying people. i started listing things i'd rather do than deal with annoying people. it was kinda fun. so i thought i'd continue on with that list... so let's start with a review of last week: things i'd rather do than deal with annoying people: eat shards of glass, listen to cheesy christian music (oh lawd), run midday in GA heat in a wool sweater, watch dumb man movies like rocky/rambo, sit in a room full of people eating cereal, eat sour kraut (sp?), hold a roach...i could do a whole blog on this. adding to that list: paint my house with a q tip  do burpees all day, nonstop eat molasses chased by saw dust go snow skiing (in general) and in shorts and a tank top wear an airbrushed anything cheer for the florida gators and/or tennessee (yeah i said it) watch basketball be allergic to peanuts. oh that hurts to even type...i.love.peanut.butter. wear tight jeans. (nothing wor...

on monday jay and i will celebrate 8 years of marriage! that seems wild. 8 years?! that went by so quickly. i am beyond thankful for jay. he is such a good man. lawd knows he can drive me nuts but he has the best heart. i adore that about him. we'll talk more about all the good stuff in a bit. jay and i have a long (LONG) history together! we've known each other for 11 years and been good friends for most of that time. i won't go into too much detail about our relationship before marriage (it's in other posts i think...) but for the single girls out there i want to say some things... (ps - by SINGLE i mean not married. so this goes for girls in dating relationships too!) AS MUCH AS I LOVE JAY AND AM THANKFUL WE ENDED UP TOGETHER - here are some things i wish i'd done differently and/or recommend for single girls... 1. keep GOD FIRST. - it's so easy to say that but not do it. keeping God first means GOD MEANS MORE TO YOU THAN A GUY. what God thinks...

i do not claim to know ANYTHING about parenting. i've only been one 2.5 years and still text/call/email my mom and sister-in-law about everything. i'm pushing 36 so i'm not just out of high school either. but i have spent the last 15 years (between being a Young Life leader and working for Teen Advisors) walking through life with high school students and i've picked up on some things. i've mentioned some of these things before so forgive me if i repeat myself. the most important thing i've learned about teenagers - no matter how nerdy, popular, emo, cool, punkish, quiet, obnoxious, annoying they are - is that they desire CONSISTENCY. yep, they simply want someone to be consistent in their life. i have very little wisdom to share with the TAs i spend my time with. but i show up. i ask questions. i encourage them. sometimes i call them out on their foolishness. but i am THERE. so put your phone down, put away the computer, turn off the TV and spend tim...

oops. i have been in summer mode and haven't slowed down to blog lately. i don't have much to talk about but i will start typing and see what happens :) my child is hilarious. we were both in the kitchen last thursday evening. out of nowhere we heard a noise. i tried not to act scared. G asked "whats that?!" i said i wasnt sure. he said, "i think it was a snake!" i was shocked b/c i thought it sounded like one too! so we huddled up together and argued about who was going to check. i told him it was the mans job and jay wasn't home. neither one of us ever checked. but we laughed. a lot. i do enjoy him so much. but he has his moments. like this morning...he always has things to talk about before he gets out of bed. then he has opinions. here's how this morning went down... hey mom. is that a truck on my shelf? yes, yes its a truck. are those ducks up there too? yes. those ducks go round and round. sure do. would you like to get up? mo...

i am so glad God made laughter. i love to laugh. i also love to sleep and eat. tonight our small group is having potluck supper and playing games. there will be so much laughter! i cannot wait. G is starting to talk more and in almost complete sentences. i can already tell that kid is going to wipe me out. couple things he's said/done lately: - after falling off a bike last week (before i even got on) i had a nasty bruise on my knee. he told me the other day that i needed to "wash my knee." thanks punk. it's not dirt. :) - this morning on the way to school he said "mom, this is a cool stick." what? where'd he learn cool? - i adore that he loves sticks. everywhere we go he looks for them. i do too. i cant even help myself. - he doesnt complain about much. but he despises brushing his teeth and having his diaper/pull up changed. well saturday night he was coming up with every reason possible that he shouldn't go to sleep. he said "mom...