July 31, 2008 Best Day Ever

Emery is ONE!!!!

What a year it has been. We are so thankful for our Boo. God is so good to us.

The Heart Of Worship

True worship is an attitude of the heart, not a specific genre of music.

A true believer can worship in the African huts, music played with sticks and drums; In the secret Chinese basements, whispering the name of GOD; In American churches in contemporary or traditional services.

There is a difference between personal preference/cultural tradition and GOD's ordinance.

Bryson City Oh Yeah!

We went camping with the high school youth last weekend. It was WAY fun.

I of course had to stay in a cabin, as I have a baby you know...so I roughed it with my own shower and potty....so that Emery could sleep warmly in her pack in play.



Benji workin hard for his money.


The "stanky leg" shows itself again.....


E wondering where her cabin is.


Jocelyn, my BFF lovin my girl!


Benji at the camp fire.


E tired of "ruffin" it... ha ha.

HELLO! Does Benji have the best job or what!?

Community Lavatory

Someone, not sure who, my mom, my friends with kids, my obgyn....whoever, FORGOT to mention that once you have a child you will never, EVER go to the bathroom again by yourself.

So for all my new first time mom friends consider this your warning.

Most days it doesn't bother me. But today. It really got to me. Emery was standing (because she can now) next to me with her hands on the back of the toilet, I'm talking hands on the bowl, not on the lid.....while I was sitting there.

First of all my OCD comes out and I freak out about how unsanitary it is for her to be there. Second of all it is just annoying some days!

This may be TMI, but I'm just trying to help my friends out, because I wish someone had let me know.

I'm thinking of getting a part time job just so I can have some private time to do my business by myself.

Burning Both Ends

It feels like lately I have been burning both ends of the candle. I am worn da slap out!

I have so many updates to post, Emery's birthday party, our beach trip, Emery's second birthday party, our camping trip......and so on. I will get to it one day.

Right now all my spare time, which is none, is spent stressing about the upcoming Wednesday night class I'm teaching on the Protestant Reformation.

Let's just say my theological brain is a tad rusty. I'm excited, terrified, and super anxious about this class. I'm thankful for the opportunity, but afraid my brain has been in mommy mode for too long.

I am also about 15lbs away from my pre Emery weight. I'm excited about being so close, but frustrated that her first birthday passed with me still having these last lbs to lose. My goal was to have it all lost by her birthday.

That is what's going on in summary form....

We Are The Kingdom

Here are some more pictures from The FL!P conference.

First Time For Everything

This past week we took the youth of BCBC to Orange Beach, Alabama for Student Life camp.

We had a BLAST! And the youth (and adults) were challenged to FL!P their lives......

As most of you know we have been back in Greenville for almost a year! This was Benji's first week long camp with BCBC...... Time has flown by.

We are so blessed to work with such an amazing group of highschoolers.

I tell Benji all the time, "I love your job"..... and I do. We are so blessed to get to serve God by loving and serving the youth of BCBC.

Here are some of the few hundred pics taken over the week.

This was also Emery's first time at the beach, so of course I had to include MANY of her experiencing this new world.


Benji was exhausted by the end of the week. ha ha.

He DID win "youth pastor of the day" on the last day, so we figured that meant he was "youth pastor of the year".

He said, "only put sunscreen on my shoulders"....so I did.

She really did love the pool. It was just naptime.



The sand was fun, she just wanted to eat it and mean mommy wouldn't let her.