S'more What?

A few weeks ago our adopted-college students Chantel and Travis came over to hang out with their little brother and sister (and their mom and dad). Anyway, after dinner we decided it would be fun to roast s'mores in our chiminea (how do you spell that?).

It went very well...at first. We were all having a great time--especially Caleb. We couldn't think of a time when we had let him stay up as late as we did (9ish) and play outside in the dark. At one point Caleb stood on the edge of the patio with his fists clenched and screamed at the top of his lungs in shear delight. He was like a little caveman or maybe a little Tarzan.

Whatever he was, he was overjoyed. A few moments later he threw up everywhere. He wasn't sick at all. We suspect it was a combination of his allergies/snotty nose, the s'mores and the excitement. We all worked together as a family to clean up the mess. I was so proud of my "big kids". Wesley took Caleb in for a bath, I hosed off the patio, Travis held the lantern for me, Chantel was in charge of the water spout (on the other side of the house), and Josie, well, she only walked through the mess once.

Overall, I'd say we all had a great evening! :-)

Baylor Homecoming

Despite the fact that our family is greatly divided by allegiances to different universities, I have come to get into the spirit of Baylor Homecoming. To my fellow Aggies, I apologize.

I wasn't about to pay $30 each for my kids to wear green and gold, so I got t-shirts at Hobby Lobby and painted them some.

They look like they love each other don't they?

It really is pretty fun. This year was the 100th Homecoming parade at Baylor. They have the largest Homecoming Parade in the nation and people come from all over the country for the festivities (but not necessarily the football game).

The floats are pretty elaborate. This float is from the fraternity our adopted college student Travis is in. Sorry, I can't remember which one it is. I get all those Greek letters mixed up. Maybe it's KOT. Anyway, their theme was "Jungle Book".

Paw-paw with the kids

Josie spotted one of her Wednesday night teachers from church. She says he's her boyfriend. (Deep Sigh)....it can't be starting already, can it?

After the parade, we enjoyed some wonderful time catching up with friends who we haven't seen in a long time. These are our friends Mary Margaret and "Big" Caleb. Josie was their flower girl.

These guys are buddies. We have a really sweet picture of "Big" Caleb holding "Little" Caleb on the day he was born.

Cute Kiddos

Here are pictures of the kids on Halloween at the "Trunk or Treat" at our church. The kids had so much fun! This was the first year I tried to make their costumes. I was trying to save some money and satisfy the creative monster in me. Well, I'm satisfied, but it was a lot of work. I think next year I might just buy some. We'll see.

Josie was Tinker Bell. She loved having sparkles on her cheeks and puffs on her shoes!

Caleb was Mack from the movie "Cars". His costume was too big for him to wear like I had envisioned. Thankfully, we had a push car thingy in the back yard and it worked perfectly! Thank you, Lord for providing!

Early Halloween

Ok, so Halloween isn't our favorite "holiday", but I saw this and thought it was too funny. So, happy Halloween (early) I guess!

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Starring our family and my sister Lindsey.

Cousins' Sleep-over

This weekend we took care of our niece while her parents went out of town. Josie LOVED having her cousin spend the night. We decided one fun activity would be to make up a story and then act it out.

Kate and Jo dictated a very creative fair tale while I wrote it down (literally every word). Then we recruited Wesley to join in the fun. He was such a good sport! The following clip is the result of a wonderful effort put forth by the whole family (except for Caleb who was sleeping). Enjoy!

Something Dear to Me

I love podcasts. One of my favs is the one from a college ministry that I was very faithful in attending while in college called Breakaway. When I was a freshman it celebrated 10 years of God's faithfulness. Today it will celebrate its first meeting of its 20th anniversary of reaching the college students at Texas A&M University. It was very special to me then and possibly even more so now. Here is a video of the amazing history of this special ministry.

The History of Breakaway from Breakaway Ministries on Vimeo.

A Conversation I'll Never Forget

The other day it hit me. It's fall(ish) and school is starting. I was all of a sudden reminded of how much I loved my days at Texas A&M and especially the fall semester. I was telling my husband this and he said it was probably because that was when we actually had a decent football team. As much as that might be true, I think there is something more.

I thought those four years were tough on many levels, but the hardest was to be away from the young man I would marry (who was at Baylor). I see now that they were not quite as hard as I made them out to be (well except for A&P I and II) and I now feel deeply how special they were to me. I made amazing friends, had a blast staying up late, hanging out at Sweet Eugene's (even though I didn't like coffee), making Sonic runs with my roomies....I could go on forever.

Like most of us I have some regrets about college. I see how God allowed me to be more independent in my journey with Him while forcing me to make my own choices about where He fit in my life. But thankfully in His grace He never let me go too far.

Probably most of all, I wish now I would have worked harder to make the most of those years. I was lazy and selfish. I spent my free time in front of a television watching "A Wedding Story" on TLC and wishing the years would speed up so I could get married. I would try to finagle my schedule to see how fast I could get out of school while still taking a pretty easy course load. (I really think I was a moron.) With that genius attitude, I made the first "F" of my life in Physiology (in the Vet school).

I wish I would have given more of myself in service and would have starved the desire to be comfortable instead of nurturing it. Although I attended church in college, I waited to get involved in my church until my senior year, and even then it was not as much as I could have been. (And really it was only because my friend Julie was super involved. I relied on her waaaaaaaaay too much--sorry Jules!) I couldn't allow myself to do too much because I wanted to devote weekends to seeing Wesley.

I was in Bible studies and I am thankful He showed me grace and still allowed me to learn from them. I went to the BSM, Breakaway, and even Bible Study Fellowship, and as wonderful as those resources were I was prideful about the knowledge I had.

I will never forget a conversation I had with my friend Amy one day at the bus stop after our volleyball class. She said she was tired of being a "fat Christian". She said all that she had done during her time at A&M was go to church and Bible study expecting to get fed. The problem was, she was well fed, but never exercised her faith. That summer she would go on a life changing mission trip to Turkey where she would meet her future husband. They now serve overseas together--living their lives together teaching others about Christ.

That conversation has never left me, but it didn't quite impact me at the time the way it does today. You would have thought I would have caught on a little more since I was a Kinesiology major. I mean, that's pretty basic fitness education. You take in more calories than you burn=overweight and in spiritual terms that means stagnate.

Since then, I feel like there have been a few seasons in my life where God was trying to make up for the time I lost there. I guess you could say He's been pushing me so He can redeem that time. I know I mustn't dwell in regrets, but learn from them and encourage others not to make the same mistakes. I've shared this with the girls in the college Bible study I used to lead at our church here. I encouraged them to make the most of their time and spend it on what really matters.

I don't know why I felt like I needed to confess all that, but maybe it will encourage you to "exercise" a little from time to time. Here's what I find myself clinging to whenever I start to worry that I've blown it:

Philippians 3:12-14, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."