playing catch-up once again

if i blogged every single day i don't think there'd be much to say. so i don't. but then i end up several days down the road and i end up with tons to blog and not enough time to do it all justice. it's been a week since my last entry. it was another week of emotional ups and downs, but i'm pretty sure that's just called LIFE. i think i'll just hit the highlights.

last saturday and today were both really relaxing days, for the most part. blake even had time last week to do one of his favorite things, which is make pancakes. everyone else enjoys that too. he still hasn't totally figured out that cleaning it up is part of the job, though.

we filled our operation Christmas child shoeboxes again this year. this is something we've been doing with our boys for years and we all look forward to it. it's another way to remind them how very blessed we are to have the things that we do. we are not rich by any means, at least not by the world's standards. but we do have much more than many around the world. not sure how happy my own boys would be with a shoebox full of dollar tree goodies, beanie babies, toiletries and socks.

a moment of brotherly love.

a financial peace university victory. what a pretty little pile of plastic.

mom and dad have birthdays this month. dad is now 78 and mom is almost 76. we had a little birthday combo party. always fun. my dad is such a partier. and yes, i know that the cake is half eaten already. they had a little party with my brother and his family before it made it to my house.

for career day at his school, max was supposed to dress as what he wants to be when he grows up. i asked him what he was going to wear and he said "i'm going to dress like a preacher." he came out looking like a little short version of greg. made me giggle. i wanted a picture of them together dressed like that (greg has that very same shirt/pants) but max said no way because greg was going to eat lunch with him at school and he did NOT want to match. i guess greg went to school as a pastor celebrating casual friday.

thursday night we went to dinner with some of our very very best friends and then went to see the casting crowns concert in charleston. what a great evening! time with these people always fills me up. and the concert was a huge blessing. the casting crowns people seem like such down-to-earth, real people, just living life the best they can for Jesus, screwing up on a regular basis like the rest of us. it was especially fun to watch our boys experience their first concert. kim got 1st and 2nd row seats so there my boys were on the front row seeing/hearing a band they love. and hearing it LOUD. and i mean that. we were directly in front of the speakers. our hair was moving. our pants were moving. it was loud. i love that. sarah beth might have been able to go with us had circumstances been different. but since she wasn't able to be there, jeremy called her during the concert so she could hear. (does that make anyone else proud?)

casting crowns is working with world vision (http://www.worldvision.org/) to gather sponsors for needy children around the world. during the whole presentation max would periodically glance back at me with a look that said "are we going to do this?" mark hall (the lead singer) held up the one on top of his stack of information cards and talked about that little boy. he called him "N. T." because he couldn't pronounce his name. N.T. lives in mali, which is in west africa. he's 5 years old. when mark was done, he said something like "who will take care of N.T.?" max shot me one more glance and this glance said "please?" so i told him to go on. how in the world could we say no to them about this? we have taught them since they were tiny boys about how important it is to take care of others and how we need to live out our lives every day as much like Jesus as we can. (we can't be Jesus followers if we only follow him to church, right?) are we supposed to say, "oh, we just talk about caring, we don't really do it..." i don't think so. anyway! max was the first one up to the stage. he got a handshake, a thank you, and a little information card about N.T. so we now have a little son and brother in mali. meet N.T. !

we got a call from kim when we got home from the concert. they were still on their way home. apparently the line out of the parking garage was pretty long. (we got out quickly, don't know how but i'm glad.) kim left bob and the girls to brave the garage and went back in to see if she could get an autograph for sarah beth. she ended up with mark hall's book "lifestories" signed by all of the casting crowns folks. she must've told him sarah beth's story because look what he wrote in there.