Jeff and I were invited to be a part of a couple of youth retreats coming up in February and March. Jeff will be doing a "talk" at the boys retreat in Feb., and I get to do one in March with the girls. We spent a Saturday at training one weekend. The best part is this is taking place in our home town at the church where both of us went when we were younger. Its always fun to go back 'home' and see childhood friends and acquaintances. It may not seem like much, but it is where we grew up and started our lives together.
A week ago, Thursday, my handsome baby boy turned SIX! I'm a little baffled as to how this has happened. Despite his intelligence and large vocabulary, I still tend to think of him as a little guy. I don't have any actual pics of his day. Sadly, I have to admit it was a pretty rough day. Caity was exhausted and we all felt it. Thursdays have turned into our hard days of running too many errands in town. I'm working on getting that fixed. His 'party' turned out great! He chose Shogun's in Fayetteville. When I told him we could only have two friends come, he was cool with that. I was cool with getting sushi and having all their leftovers. Ha! He is really growing into a great boy. He definitely has a love language of physical touch, but I won't complain. I love all his hugs and kisses...even the ones meant to keep him out of trouble. 
The next morning we packed up early and dispersed the kiddos so that Jeff and I could go with the youth to the Arkansas District Youth Convention. I think it was one of the best ones in several years. The speaker was interesting yet challenged the kids to live passionately for God with out being overly emotional. I had some great discussion Friday night with the high school girls. Of course we also had a whole lot of fun. We shopped, ate, shopped, ate, went to service, ate some more, slept a little, ate, went to service, ate, shopped, went to Starbucks and ate again. Seriously, I thought I was going to die from eating. I'm pretty sure that isn't good. Oh well, the weekend was incredible!! I love these teenagers!!
I forgot to mention I was almost carried off by a giant gorilla. It was quite frightening, if you can't tell by the picture.
We found some of our Warren crew while we were there. That seriously made our night. Love them so much!!
Normally Christina helps with worship, but this years she got to be with us the whole time. I'm going to admit to my selfishness and say, that made this trip that much better. I'm not going to lie though. The worship wasn't quite the same. This girl can SING!
This week has been spent enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday. We aren't finished yet. One more meal full of dressing and desserts with our extra "family" tomorrow. Our husbands refer to us as the sisters because so many have mistakenly thought we were. I love these ladies!! Great times will follow.
It may be crazy busy. It may be verging on insanity, but when life is this full I am reminded that its a blessing. None of this busyness is a negative stress...well working the football games can be at times. Ha! Notice I didn't talk about those. Yeah, I'm going to try to put them out of my mind until next August. They are a blessing as well. Otherwise there would be a lot of kids, including mine, who would have a hard time coming up with money for Church camp and other important events.
Now to bring on the Christmas season....also known around here as Bowl Season..... Yippee!!
