Upward Year 3

In January Brody started his 3rd year of Upward basketball.  He was so excited for it to start especially since his buddies Bradyn and Jude were going to be on his team.  Jason and Keith, Bradyn's dad, were the coaches which made the boys even more excited.

I think this was one of Brody's favorite times - running out to the court when his name was called - such excitement.

Ava played Upwards this year too and her games were right before Brody's so we would get to watch her game and then she would stay some for Brody's game.  This is how we saw her and Trevor most of the time.

Still my little defensive player.  He was very aggressive this year with his defense - sometimes a little too much - he even got a few fouls.

No way Grady is getting that ball from him.  It was very funny to watch the 2 of them play against each other since they are friends.

Here's to 8 more games!!

A sick household

I mentioned in my earlier post that I started feeling pretty bad during Passion.  Well, when we got home we found out that Brody wasn't feeling so well himself while he stayed with Nana.  Monday was a holiday so I was hoping he would get to feeling better but no chance - he still had a fever so no school for him on Tuesday.  Of course this was the 100th day of school.  I felt so bad for him that he missed this big day of school that I tried to do something cute for him - 100 marshmallows and toothpicks to try and build something.

Our house looked like this for the next couple of weeks since Jason came home on Tuesday with the same stuff and lasted for the next 2 weeks - pretty sure it was the flu!!


Thankfully the kids and I didn't get it and only had something mild.  Lysol became my best friend.

Passion 2014

For the 2nd year, Jason and I took several high school seniors and college students to Atlanta for Passion 2014.  This year over 20,000 college students and high school seniors came together in the Philips Arena for 1 1/2 days of Awesome worship and Dynamic speakers.

We left on Friday and the Tuesday before I had eye surgery on my right eye to "scrape nodules" off my eye.  Yeah, that's not the medical term.  I was in some pain for a couple of days and wasn't sure how I was going to make the trip because I hadn't even been able to be outside without constant tearing and burning.  I felt like a new person Friday morning.  It was definitely a God thing!!

All 8 of us in a Suburban for a drive to Atlanta.

Jason went to college in south Georgia and drives the back roads to Atlanta.  The kids had to stop here to get a picture in this small south Georgia town - not sure the name.

While in Atlanta we had some time to grab dinner before the conference started Friday night and they wanted to try out The Varsity.  Jason and I had never been here but everyone always talks about it.  Well, we weren't that impressed.  The food was ok, but nothing to go out of my way to go back.

Even tried the Frosted Orange - but Tanner, who LOVES this place, even said it wasn't the best.

All ready to worship for the day.  Worship was led by Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill, Crowder, and Christy Nockels and special guest Hillsong United (even though I started getting a little sick Friday night with Hillsong United).  Yeah, pretty good worship, right?

The speakers consisted of Francis Chan, John Piper, Louie Giglio, and Cristine Caine.  Talk about a full 15-17 hours.

Friday night I started to not feel so great while in the Arena, and really wanted to go back to the hotel, but Jason knew it wasn't the safest thing for me to go by myself.  I didn't want him to miss anything so I stuck it out - at least I got to hear Hillsong United.  That night I felt awful and knew I was running a fever.  I prayed and prayed that I would feel better in the morning so I didn't miss out on the conference.  I'm not sure why I was shocked but I woke up Saturday morning and felt great.  But funny thing is that I started feeling bad again come Sunday morning for the drive home.  This would be the start of a very long sick couple of weeks in our house.  However, I was thankful for 1 day of relief so I could enjoy the conference.

Walking through Centennial Park in downtown Atlanta.

These were such a great group of students.  Jason and I enjoyed spending a few days with them and made some great memories with late night chats with all 6 of them piled in our hotel room.  My prayer is that they were able to get something out of Passion that would change their life!!  They are already looking forward to next year.

Roommate visit

It is amazing to look back and see how God brings people into your life that are such a blessing.  My first semester in college (many years ago) I moved into the dorms at Jacksonville University and did not know my roommate.  I struggled through that first semester because let's just say the two of us just weren't compatibile.  During one of our evening hall activities I met a girl that lived down the hall.  She was actually from a nearby city like I was and attended a church in Jacksonville which is where I was planning to visit while I was in college.  Her roommate was planning to join a sorority so she was going to need a roommate - and I definitely needed one.

I moved into her room spring semester and the fun began.  She started out as an education major which was hard seeing her cut out paper while my nose was in an accounting book.  Thankfully she changed her major to English and life was great!!  We got along great and both of us mostly went home every weekend.  So much for finding a boyfriend at school and never going home - Jason and I started dating my 2nd semester in college and he went to college 3 hours from me so we met back in Callahan every weekend. 

We made some great memories while we were in college.  She was my maid of honor in my wedding and I was in her wedding.  Unfortunately she moved out west and we lost contact with each other for a little while but thanks to social media we are able to keep in contact now - great reasons to love social media. 

Her sister now lives about 5 minutes from me and actually teaches at Brody's school so we have more reasons why we should stay in contact.  Back in January she was in town to see her parents and we decided to meet and catch up.  She came out to the house and the kids had a blast playing in the "country" and Trevor and her little Henry are identical - it was crazy!!  They even dressed very similar that day. 

It was so nice for the two of us to be able to catch up and it had definitely been too long for us to be apart. Her kids were so sweet.  The oldest Emma definitely is the mother and Ella was in love with Allye.

Hopefully it won't be so long in between our visits and we will see each other again real soon.