What time is it? Summertime!

(Okay, so probably very few of you understand the joke behind the title, that's okay. It just means your Disney Channel days are over.)

WOW!!! What an awesome summer! It's been a lot of fun, yet extremely exhausting.

JUNE 25-30---MISSION TRIP TO AVA, MO

Our youth group was originally planning to go to Las Vegas, New Mexico for our mission trip (Las Vegas, New Mexico, not Las Vegas, Nevada). Unfortunately (Well, not really, but I'll get to that in a minute.), about three weeks before time to leave we were informed that we would no longer be able to go to New Mexico. After an emergency parent meeting, tons of prayer, a few phone calls and lots of help from our youth minister's mommy and daddy, we ended up in a little town in Missouri called Ava. They were getting ready for their 150th town anniversary, so we helped fix things up around town. We had a great time, met some great people and hopefully shined the light of Christ while we were there. God knew what He was doing, and He did a lot of awesome work during our week in Ava.

JULY 1 (or maybe 2nd, I don't remember)-7---TRIP TO TEXAS

We spent the week at my dad's. During the day while he was working, I went shopping with one of my grandmothers and one of her good friends. Then we spent July 4th at my other grandparents' swimming and eating and swimming and eating...yeah, that's about all we did. :-) The rest of the week we hung out at Dad's and relaxed.

JULY 8-13---VBS AND COUSINS IN TOWN

When we came home from Texas, we brought my cousins back with us. They stayed for the week and helped out at VBS. We had a great time with them, as always; we stayed up really late and then slept really late. Lots of fun. VBS was wonderful; I helped with first graders all week. Let's just say it's a good thing I like first graders. We had 30-something kids every night and, needless to say, won the award for the most kids every single time. I think all the kids really enjoyed themselves; this kid did anyway. :-)

JULY 22-27---CHURCH CAMP

Church camp was awesome. Our theme was "IMPACT", and there were definitely lots of people impacted during the week. God was really moving and working in a lot of us. We had a couple of our teens that made the decision to completely turn their lives around and become who God wants them to be. We all saw a huge change in them overnight, literally. It was amazing. It was also emotional, as it was the last camp for all of our seniors; but we love them, we support them and we can't wait to see what God does in their lives. And, as always, we had the camp talent show. Guess who was in it this year? Believe it or not...yours truly. Taylor and I made up Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings versions of "The Lord's Army" with our cousins when they were here. I really, really didn't want to do it, but I guess I'll do a lot more for Taylor than I thought I would. Though, as I have already informed many people, I'M NEVER DOING IT AGAIN!!! :-) Just because I smiled (well, did that smiley face thing, you know what I mean), doesn't mean I'm joking.

AUGUST 6---FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

There's not a whole lot to tell about this. It was a great first day of school. I think this year is going to be really good. I LOVE CHEMISTRY!!!

AUGUST 19-24---ANOTHER TRIP TO TEXAS

Same song, second verse. We spent the week at my dad's. While he was working one day we went to lunch with my grandmother and great-grandfather. Thursday we went to my other grandparents and swam before we went to the Rangers' game. (For the few of you that might be sports-illiterate, the Texas Rangers are a baseball team. My favorite baseball team, to be exact.) Wednesday night (the night before we went to the game) the Rangers scored 30 runs!!! That hasn't been done since 1897! And the Rangers, one of the worst teams in baseball, did it! Unfortunately, they used up all their runs in that game and lost 9-4 the night we were there. The rest of the week we hung out at Dad's and relaxed.


Well, that about sums it up. Are you bored yet? Somehow it's just not as exciting to read, but it is a pretty good excuse for why it is now August 26th I haven't blogged since July 2nd. Hopefully I'll get back to blogging regularly now...right after we get back from our family vacation next week. :-)

I love summer, but I'm glad school has started so I will eventually (hopefully) get a vacation from my vacation.

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If you have the patience to still be reading this blog and to still be reading this post, then here's a funny younger siblings story:

The other night we taught Jonathan, Stephen and Andrea how to play Pictionary Jr. On Andrea's first attempt she was drawing something from the category "In the Bedroom." She drew a rectangle-ish shape and I started guessing.

Me: A window!
Andrea: No, it's a pillow!

Later in the game, Stephen read the card to Andrea so that the two of them could draw. Recalling her previous slip of the tongue, he said, "Now Andrea, don't tell them what it is." Having cautioned her thus, he prepared to create his masterpiece, saying, "Because I know exactly how to draw an ax."

It's okay kiddos, we all say things we wish we could take back a second after we say them. We refer to that as OMIFS or "open-mouth-insert-foot syndrome." :-)