Those of you who did not attend church where we worship today may not get quite as big of a kick out of this as those who did, but I have to share. We had a visiting children's choir today from South Korea. These kids were adorable and did several numbers with choreography, mostly in English, but one in their native language. At the end of the service, several of the kids came down and hugged members of the congregation and said, "God bless you." It was really sweet.

When they finished, our music minister dismissed the service. Bailey looked up at me and very innocently said, "Mommy, can we get some Chinese for dinner?"

The power of suggestive advertising. I'm still laughing!

On Sunday we had the very fun privilege of attending a tea in honor of Jeff's grandmother, Modena Ogle. She has been officially selling Avon for 50 years, and this was a large reception in honor of her achievement. Jeff's mom and her two sisters, along with their families, did an amazing job of putting something together that she will never forget.

It all started with a ride in a limo, something Grandmother has never done before. All six of her grandchildren arrived at her house to pick her up. When she first came outside, she didn't even notice that it was a limo until she got closer, and had no idea who was waiting inside for her. Jeff said she laughed all the way to the church.The great-grandkids had their turn as well...

Once she arrived inside, she saw a beautiful display of 50 years of memorabilia. This is just one of the tables, and it had many of her awards over the years, as well as some fun things like her early receipt books. Honestly, it was like an Avon museum!Grandmother received several bouquets of roses for the event, including at least two from corporate Avon. I don't know why Blogger keeps turning this picture around sideways, but it is the typed message that came on one of her bouquets. It wasn't meant to be funny, but apparently this florist boasts the best help minimum wage can buy.
It reads, "Dear Modena, We truly appreciate all that you've done for Avon over the past 50 years, and may you always remember the many lives you've touched. Enjoy your celebration tomorrow. We'll be with you in spirit. Tom Kelly, Maria Peninger and your friends at AVON." Then directly underneath that, it reads "Please make them beautiful, as this is an important account for us. Thank you!" It was too funny.

The best part for us, outside of seeing how happy Grandmother was, was getting to see family that we only get to see a couple of times a year. Our kids got to see Poppa G and Mimi again, as well as their cousin Carrie Beth. Actually, B&B went home with Carrie Beth and Aunt Gigi, so they were even more excited.

This is Jeff's Uncle Ray, his dad's brother. I've only been around him a few times in the past, and it was fun to hear him and Jeff's dad talking and realize how much they sound alike. Bryant had to be peeled away from his Poppa G. Once he had him in his sights, there was no letting go!

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Bryant went home with Mimi and Poppa G, and won't be back until Saturday. Which means that this momma is officially childless until I get the older ones back on Friday night. I left my house yesterday at 11 a.m. and shopped ALL DAY. All by myself. It was amazing. I went in and out of dozens of places. I spent an hour and a half in my favorite store. And there was no whining. It was beautiful. I would walk by moms with their kids and just smile the biggest grin. It was a spectacular day. I stayed out until it was time to meet my girlfriends for a birthday celebration (happy birthday, Cheryl!!) and we had a great time.

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Today I've done a little bit of nothing, followed by some more relaxing. As soon as this post is done, I'm off to the pool. Did I mention that I wouldn't be taking any kids with me? I'm actually going to take a book!

Thank you Mimi and Poppa G and Aunt Gigi and Uncle Marc! Hope you are all having as much fun as we are. :)

Summer Camp

My kids spent this week at Deer Run Retreat. They had a blast! I'm so glad that I found out about this place and had the opportunity to send them. Brad and Bailey both got to go from 8:45 to 4:00 each day, and they said the time flew by.

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Today was parent day, so I got to spend the morning doing fun activities like rec, arts and crafts and Bible study. As I was watching the kids do their morning games, I was talking with the lady whose husband is the director of camps, who you see in the center of this picture. She was telling me that she and he had met at a camp many years ago and fallen in love and gotten married, so camp has always had a special place in their hearts.

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I asked her what camp it was, and she said Centrifuge. Through the course of our conversation we realized that I had been a camper at that Centrifuge in Glorietta, New Mexico the same year that they were counselers. How cool is that? I'm sure it made them feel old, but I thought it was awesome.

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Anyway, my Bryant, who completely gravitates towards men, especially big burly ones, became totally attached to Mr. Fred the very first morning. By yesterday, he was calling him "Uncle" as we pulled into the parking lot. Mr. Fred loved it, and it gave Bry something to look forward to when I would tell him it was time to go to camp to get Bubba and Sissy.

They've come home with some fun crafts, like painted rocks and leather crosses. Today they made something called a "God's Eye," which was basically yarn wrapped around a couple of sticks. It was a little hard for Bailey to get the hang of, but it made a pretty cool finished product.

Sadly, Bryant is not the only one of my children who gravitates towards men...

In the afternoons, the kids got to play at the lake, and this was their favorite time. First of all, they had a zip line that went out over the lake and dropped the kids into the water. How fun would that have been as a kid?

The thing they loved the most, though, was getting blobbed. There was this huge trampoline thing out in the middle of the swimming area. There's an arm that extends from the base. One kid will crawl out on the end of the arm and wait, and then one of the counselors would pounce on the back end, causing the camper to go flying through the air into the lake. They LOVED this, even though they admitted it is a little scary. They were so bummed that there was no swimming today, though, because they wanted me to give it a try. Yeah, I was bummed.

Both of my children were crying in the back seat on the way home because they were so sad that camp was over. Literally, big tears and lots of snubbing. I guess it was money well-spent!

Unless you, too, have an older brother, I bet you never thought about wearing them like this...

So, here's a confession. I actually am paying a little bit more attention to politics these days. But it just feels wrong. Election years, particularly presidential election years, are usually so much fun for me. I love to get caught up in the excitement of who's going to be the face of our nation for the next four years. This year, it just makes me sad.

Right now, Obama is ahead in the polls. But this isn't too concerning, considering the margin is around the same as it was for Kerry over Bush in June of '04. His appeal is definitely hitting some roadblocks, and it's good to see. Al Gore endorsed him yesterday, and that's kind of a political kiss of death. Just ask Howard Dean.

But I think overall I just have kindof a fatalist attitude about the whole thing. The truth is that we don't have a good option. I will vote for John McCain because he's not Obama. I will vote for him because I believe that he is fairly strong on national security. But I will not be waking up early with eager anticipation to get to the booth. (Yes, sadly, that does characterize my past involvement in the political process.)

Not to get weird or anything, but I feel like Obama getting elected would fit pretty nicely with the signs of the times. I think things are coming to a head. There is so much I could say here about Iran, but I don't have time right now and very few of you would want to read it anyway. But I believe the stage is being set for the final battle between good and evil. Militant Islam is on the rise. Iran is led by a madman who refuses to be swayed from his pursuit of nuclear proliferation. He is intent on bringing about the return of the Muslim messiah. And he plans to do so with massive bloodshed, namely that of Americans and Israelis.

If you want to have your mind blown, pick up a copy of "Antichrist: Islam's Awaited Messiah," by Joel Richardson. It is an amazing comparison of Islamic and Christian prophecy. If you're like me, you won't be able to put it down. But in a nutshell, this 12th Imam that Muslims are looking for to return is a dead ringer for the Biblical antichrist. I believe that Islam is Satan's counterfeit for Christianity. And I think there will be an ultimate showdown between the two.

Obama wants to go over and make nice with the Iranian psychopath. He believes we just need to give peace a chance. But unless you can convince me that this diplomacy path will magically change Ahmadenijad's crazy little mind and he'll suddenly decide that his life's work isn't really necessary and become a flag-waving Democrat, then I'll have to believe that we are quickly approaching a climax in this historical conflict.

Our President is hinting around that he plans to do something about Iran before leaving office. It will be fascinating to see if he waits until after the election to do so. Because if Obama gets elected, I think the stakes get higher. If McCain sneaks in there, then I could see W passing the baton. But I guess we'll find out in the next few months.

So sorry to be so doom and gloom. Honestly, that's why I've been avoiding writing about this stuff. And besides that, my worldview has been so radically and permanently changed by the time I spent in India that I never again want to be so wrapped up in what's happening in Washington that I miss out on the things happening in the Kingdom.

Bailey and I spent Friday and Saturday at Camp Linden. We were attending a good old-fashioned GA camp. For those of you who didn't grow up Southern Baptist, that stands for Girls in Action, and it's an organization that is part of the Women's Missionary Union (WMU.) I grew up in GAs, and went to GA camp several years. Back then it lasted a whole week, and I went to Camp Carson, which is in East Tennessee. But there were tons of similarities and it brought back a lot of memories for me.

The reason we were there is because the theme for the weekend was "Adventures in Asia." The girls were hopefully there to learn a little bit about missions in Asia. A few weeks ago, Pastor Reverend Kim Cox e-mailed me and asked if I would be willing to go and teach about India. Although I felt a little bit underqualified as a missionary to India, I agreed to go. A couple of days ago, the lady in charge said that Bailey was welcome to come with me if she wanted. I asked her if she'd like to go and she was SO excited. It ended up being a great Mommy/Bailey time together.
Friday night after the opening ceremony type things were complete, there was lots of fun time out on the playground and going to the camp store. We also had a campfire, which wouldn't have been complete without S'mores. Bailey was extremely pleased with this.

She and I slept in the same bed that night, which basically means she slept and I tossed and turned. Bailey is like an octopus when she sleeps. An octopus with really sharp elbows. She was all over the place. I figured since I was there to talk about India, not getting any sleep was a pretty accurate remember of what being there was like for me.

Saturday morning was called "Passport to Asia." The girls rotated around between India, China, The Phillippines and Japan for 20-minute sessions. I didn't have a whole lot of stuff to show, since we spent very little time shopping while I was there, but the outfit was a hit.

After a basic introduction of who I was and why I had the privilege of sharing about India, I asked the girls if they remembered from the night before how many people live in Asia. (4 billion) Out of that 4 billion, I asked them to guess how many of those were in India. (1.1 billion) In order to try and illustrate how many that is, I had three girls get in the square on the right. I told them that they each represented 100 million people, and that they lived in the United States of America. Even though it's summer, most of them were able to do the math and determine that around 300 million people live in this great nation of ours.

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I then had the rest of the girls and enough adult helpers as needed to reach 11 people get into the square on the left. I told them they also represented 100 million people each. They were pretty squished in that square.

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Then I told them there was a problem with my illustration, and the problem was that India and America are not the same size. India is less than half the size of the USA. So I made them all try to squish into one side of the box. It was pretty funny to watch people fall out into the ocean.

Once they had an idea of how crowded India is, I had eleven of them line up across the front of the room. I separated eight of them from the other three and explained that they represent the percent of the population that is Hindu, and we talked a little bit about what they believe.

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Then I took the next two girls and had one of them squat down so they represented about 13 percent of the population that is Muslim. (Which, by the way, seemed much larger than that in Hyderabad, because it has a really high Muslim population.)

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The last girl I told them was confused, because she represented basically everything that was left, including Buddhists, Sikhs and some other native religions. Then I asked her to take off her shoe. Her shoe represented the percent of the population in India that is Christian, which is around 2.3%. It was a really eye-opening way to see how much work remains to be done in India, and I hope that it's something they will remember.

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After that portion of the morning, the girls went to recreation, which ended up being indoors due to some torrential rain we got that morning. Amazing, since we haven't had any rain in about a month!

Bailey had so much fun during the Olympic games. They did all kinds of relay races, and a decathalon of sorts where each group had to get through ten different events. It not only wore them out, it also worked up some huge appetites!

Of course Bailey's favorite times were meal times. She thought she was so big, getting to fill her own lunch tray. I just couldn't resist snapping a quick pic.
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After lunch the girls had craft time, where they put together some baby blankets to be sent to the Philippines. Then it was time for the Missions Fair. Each of us "missionaries" had a booth to display our stuff, and then there were lots of game and craft type booths.

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It completely cracked me up to have so many of the girls come up and ask for my autograph. They were so sweet.

Although that looks like Bailey has a dot on her forehead, it's actually a ladybug from the face painting booth. She was so proud of my missionary status. It warmed my heart to see her want to show me off. I know that won't happen too many times in our future.

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I love that we had the time to spend together, even if she did keep me up all night. We had some really fun talks, and I hope it was something she'll remember. I know I will.

Look what I just found when I was looking for some change...
Where did it all go wrong? :(

This time last year...

I was halfway between here and Tokyo. Jeff was doing the math on the way home from church, figuring out that by tomorrow night we would have finally arrived.

Today I'm thankful that I didn't have to try to fly anywhere near Chicago on anything remotely resembling a United airliner. This is what I wrote exactly a year ago today...

It's 4:35 a.m. Our bags are packed and we are ready to go.

My stomach just fell as News 2 announced that United's 6:50 a.m. flight to Chicago has been cancelled. We are on the 9:23 a.m. flight. Please pray if you see this early that none of us will get bumped due to them trying to get all the 6:50 people on the 9:23 flight. And that our flight will still go through as planned. There's stormy weather between here and there. Please help us pray it out.

I'm not worried. (Well, maybe a little, but I'm really trying not to be.) I know the Lord has this under control. I know we will get there one way or the other. I'd love for things to go as planned. But I'm willing to adapt.

Back in December when it was announced that our church would be hosting the AGM Conference in Thailand in June, I so clearly felt God say to me, "You are going to be there." It was never really even a choice for me. So in a tiny little way, I feel like Paul after God promised him he was going to go to Rome. No matter what happened, he knew he was going to get through it because the Lord told him he was going to be there.

What motivates me is the idea of getting to experience worship with 400 people who only get to do it corporately one week a year. I can't even imagine how amazing this will be. But I know it's going to be a little glimpse of heaven.

It was. :)

I have a great quick story about my mom.

A couple of days ago Mom asked me to pray for her because she was experiencing what she jokingly referred to as a "crisis of belief." She said that she was hearing God tell her to do something that she didn't want to do.

"What?" I asked with wide, curious eyes.

"He's telling me to go to the pool," she said with a grimace. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. For my mom, this is just about as crazy as God asking her to go to Africa. It is WAY out of her comfort zone.

She went on to tell me that she now knew what the bathing suit was for that she said fell in her lap on a recent shopping trip. She certainly wasn't looking for one. But she told me that she knew if she was going to meet her neighbors, this is were they were. She's been wanting to start a small group Bible study in her home, and just didn't know where to begin. So this is what she was praying about when she heard God telling her to go to the pool. I assured her I would pray for her, and did so. I think it's so cool to watch God move in someone's life, and having it be my mom made it that much more special.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from her that had me grinning ear to ear. I'll let her finish the story in her own words:

Okay, After feeling very guilty that I did not go back to the pool last night, I decided to walk up there today and try the key I found. It turned, but the door still wouldn’t open. A lady in the pool saw me and hollered that I had to pull the door really hard. I did and went in and started talking with her. She had just finished her swim and seemed very pleased that I had come. She lives basically behind me, is close to my age and also has not met many neighbors even though she has been here 7 years. We talked about 30 minutes and found a lot in common except the fact that she is from “New Yawk”. She is also interested in finding an occasional walking partner since her husband is working in Clarksville and doesn’t have time to walk anymore. How amazing is that? I did not feel led to bring up church or Bible study yet. I feel that I need to befriend her first. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement to follow through on this. This encounter was definitely a complete affirmation that I did what I was supposed to do.

Love ya,
Mom

Isn't that fantastic? I'm so proud of her for leaping in faith. And who knows, Mom, maybe this is the year you embrace your inner sun goddess! :)

As all good things must come to an end, we are home from our vacation. We all had a ton of fun at our various locations, but it is nice to be home again as a family.

Last Sunday, Jeff, Brad, Bailey and I all flew to Tampa, FL. Bryant stayed here in Nashville with my fabulous sister, brother-in-law and nephew. Jeff's folks live in The Villages, a huge retirement community about an hour north of Orlando. We rented a car once we got to Tampa and drove to the Villages. We stayed there on Monday and Tuesday, and had two great days going to the pool, riding the golf cart everywhere and eating some yummy meals.

Four nights a week they have craft shows at the Town Square. Here's Bradley checking out some windchimes. They also have live music every night, and plenty of dancing. It's really a great place to get to visit your grandparents!

One of our favorite places to go other than Mimi's house is a frozen custard store called Ollie's. There is something intoxicating about this stuff! Bradley had a hot fudge sundae every night. He was in heaven!

Jeff's parents live right on a wildlife reserve, and Tuesday morning I looked out the window to see a family of cranes just leisurely strolling down the street. It was so funny. They really looked like they were just out for a walk, completely unbothered by their human neighbors.

Meanwhile, back in Nashville Bryant was kicking it up with his cousin Cooper, Aunt Krenan and Uncle Bill. She took some great pics for me to keep me from missing him too much.
We weren't the only ones eating ice cream...

Last Wednesday, Jeff and I hopped in our rented convertible and drove a few hours south to the island of Sanibel/Captiva. We stayed in Sanibel 13 years ago on our honeymoon, but this is the first time we had been back. There were some things that we remembered, but we stayed on the opposite end of the island this time, so it was also quite a bit different.

One of the things Captiva is famous for is its amazing sunsets. God puts on an incredible light display every night, and it is mesmerizing to watch the sun sink into the ocean. People are all over the beach watching it each day. It's something you never get tired of, and we loved every single night.
This picture was for the kids. It was a store called Scoops and Slices that was located on the property where we were staying. Pizza, ice cream and candy all in one place. Can it get any better?

On Monday, I spent nine hours lazing around on the beach. It would have been a perfect day, except for the unexpected turn of events that afternoon.

Around 2:00, I looked down the beach about 50 yards to see a large crowd of people assembled around what looked to be a body. I walked over to see if I could find out what was going on, and found out they had pulled a man up out of the water who had been floating face down. There's no telling how long he had been there. People walking by assumed he was just snorkeling. But one man realized something was wrong and pulled him out. 911 was called, and the paramedics came quickly. The worked on this guy for probably 30 minutes before finally declaring him dead. It was horrible.

It turns out that the man had a seizure disorder, having had one as recently as that morning. Apparently he had one while he was in the water and no one was around to notice his distress. His poor wife just looked on while they tried to resuscitate her husband to no avail. I watched from my chair, and it was just pitiful. (By the way, I honestly didn't take pictures of it for my blog. I took a few from my chair far away for Jeff because he wasn't there at the time. I don't want you to think I'm a sicko or anything.)

I've never seen anything like that in person before. It was so disturbing to know that this couple had come to the beach just like Jeff and I had, and now she was going to have to go home without him. I have no idea if there are kids, where they were from or anything. Just that she has suffered a horrible loss.

As I lay in my chair processing all of this, I just kept wondering how many people had seen him floating there without noticing anything was amiss. If you just glanced his direction, snorkeling would have seemed perfectly logical as there were plenty of folks doing it. It made me think about how many people we encounter every day that we don't really pay close attention to. How many of them appear to be just fine, when they are actually drowning?

Lately I've heard God telling me to be less self-absorbed and more aware of the people I encounter every day. He's told me to love them. Not to try and save everyone, but just to love them. We are called to share his love... isn't that how the song goes? People need the Lord.

So I'm trying to look up more, smile more. I used to be really outgoing when I was young, but something has happened over the past 15 years or so and I have become much more introverted. I don't know why that is, but I'm attempting to make a change. Who knows how a smile and kind word might completely change the course of someone's day?

As I was walking this morning, I purposefully waved and smiled at every car that went by. I was surprised at how few waved back. I'm sure they were thinking about what was waiting on them at work and a hundred other things. But the fewer people that waved back, the more I was determined to wave. By the time I got home I was grinning from ear to ear.

I think loving people is going to be kind of fun.

For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. (2 Corinthians 2:15)

Hope your day ended as beautifully as ours did...

Just a quick thought that's been with me today:

This morning for Bible we read Exodus 3, an incredibly familiar tale of a mysterious bush, which although fully enflamed was not consumed. The voice of God came from this bush, and spoke words to Moses that both terrified and intrigued him. His life was never to be the same.

Vs. 3 says, "As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed." And yet God was indwelling that bush. I kept hearing the words over and over, "Our God is a consuming fire." This is from Deuteronomy 4, where the Israelites are warned not to take on any idols or forget their covenant, because God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

I'm not sure why it hit me this way today, but I've just been mulling over the fact that God, a consuming fire, was burning in that bush and yet it was not consumed. Clearly, the Lord is able to keep from consuming when He chooses. And it occurred to me that this is exactly what He is doing now.

How hard must it be to hold back when this world is so full of evil? When there are millions of people starving to death because of the corruption of their government that holds back aid? When women and children are sold into slavery for pennies? When I can't safely change channels on the TV with my children present for fear of what we might be assaulted with that will steal a piece of their innocence that they can never get back?

There must be times when He is so grieved that it is everything He can do to hold back that destructive force. And yet He does. Why? Because of His incredible mercy.

And while His love will endure forever, there will be a time that His mercy for this world runs out. In the meantime, there's work to be done.

I think I've created little monsters. Several months ago, Bailey began asking for coffee. I started letting her have mine when I was finished with it. She loved it so much that she began begging for her own cup most mornings. So I gave in and would make her a small cup. Now, granted, it is half coffee and half flavored creamer, but it is still coffee.
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Not long ago, Brad decided he was brave enough to give it a try. He also fell in love with the rich flavors of java and french vanilla. So now I have successfully, albeit unintentionally, created two new morning caffeine addicts. This is bad.
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Last Sunday we bought a gazebo for our deck. I love it because it has already made a huge difference in keeping the deck from turning into an oven in the hot sun. My kids are enamored with it and have eaten virtually every meal out there since we put it up.
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This morning it was only about 59 degrees, but they were determined to eat breakfast out there. Jeff stuck his head out the door when he saw Brad all bundled up in his hoodie and asked if it was cold out there.
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Brad answered, "I'm freezing... but at least I've got a good hot cup of joe!"

Bryant's school program was yesterday. How hilarious to see a bunch of 1 and 2 year olds up on stage while the teachers dance around and do everything they can to get them to perform. Bryant just stood there. When he saw me over to the side taking a video, he just stared at me. You could tell he was really trying to figure out what to do, why I was off to the side and he was up on stage. Quite funny.

They were running a constant slide show of the kids, and this was the pic they had of Bry. I loved it!
Here's the video of "Five Little Monkeys." Too fun!

Third Child Syndrome

Never in a million years can I imagine my letting Bradley do this at two. But he's seen it done so many times, he figured he was up for the task.

The funniest part is how much he grunts during the whole exercise. It's a pretty tough workout for a little guy!

Happy Mother's Day!

I was able to spend the afternoon with my sister, mom and grandmother today. Considering that 12 years ago this weekend my grandmother had an aneurism that should have killed her, we truly are blessed that she was with us today.

My sweet family gave me a digital photo frame this morning. Isn't technology amazing? We do things and have things that were portrayed on the Jetsons as being way out in some space age. Makes you wonder what life will be like five years from now.

Hope your day was blessed!

This morning Bailey wrote in her journal about what she thinks heaven will look like. I don't know what prompted this, but it was too adorable not to share. (Jane Anne, you will especially get a kick out of this one!) When I realized what the sign to the left said, I asked her if it was what I thought it was. She confirmed with a huge grin.

This is what she dictated to me:

This picture is about Heaven. It is what I think it will look like when I go up to Heaven. God will be standing beside children. He is standing in a hay chair, in a house made of hay. As you can see, I am going to Krispy Kreme. I think there won't be a sign. They'll have hot donuts all the time. The End.

Amen.