Double Date

Saturday night, Stephen and I got a babysitter and headed out for a dinner date.  Our dear friends Rob & Turner joined us for a lovely evening downtown.  We ended up at Bin 33...a fantastic restaurant that I hope to return to soon.  We enjoyed a slow night...drinks, appetizers, dinner & dessert with great company.  Although I didn't get a photo with my hot date, I did get one with my sweet friend!

Mini-Reunion

While working for Passport last summer, I had some really great college & seminary students serving on the team I coordinated.  Timothy was our camp pastor and is truly a gifted guy.  He flew into GSO to attend a WFU Divinity School weekend, so Berkley and I went to pick him up.

Timothy & I grabbed a yummy supper together in Winston and then met up with another staffer, John Mark. We had a lovely mini-reunion of sorts.  I am thankful for these two guys, their hard work, and their dedication to their faith.

Shrove Tuesday

On Shrove Tuesday, I decided our family would have pancakes for all three meals.  
It was a huge success!!


Pancake Meal #1- Herbie's Diner

Pancake Meal #2- West Market Street UMC

Pancake Meal #3- Cooked at home

Giant Blanket Fort

Here are some more views of the giant blanket fort I made for Valentine's Day.  I was originally inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest, but the picture didn't link to anything, so I had to let my imagination run wild.  It took every bit of 3 hours to figure out how to rig this tent, but I was very pleased with my work afterwards, and now refuse to take it down (for a while anyway)!

View from the doorway

View from inside...against the couch.  I had a friend help me get the television down on the floor from on top of a dresser.  While a tv in a fort is certainly not a necessity, it has been so much fun for watching movies together.

Another angle...the lights are being held up by clothespins

A view from the other side of the playroom

I attached the sheets however I could...all involved orange string and clothespins- those were then hung by the fan or to removable hooks on the wall.

While this type of hook was sturdy, it did not work so well on sloped ceilings.  This particular string slid off the hook when touched too hard.  

This type of hook, however is fantastic!!! I would definitely buy a lot more of these next time I try this.  They hang from anywhere and the hooks "dangles" down so that the strings easily stay attached.

A view of the pallet I made on the inside- basically every unused sleeping bag and blanket that we own are stacked on each other.  By the way- the hanging lights make the tent surprisingly warm inside!

Another view of the inside

Valentine's Gifts

Berkley was busy stacking his Valentine stickers, and all of a sudden he appeared beside me, saying "Happy Valentine's Day, Momma" while putting this beautiful stack on my hand.  What a beautiful gift!

Stephen and I decided on a low-key evening in for Valentine's, so we ordered some really yummy sushi!

I made Stephen a chocolate chip cookie cake- his favorite.  He reminded me to take a picture right after he'd eaten a slice or two!

After dinner, I took Berkley & Stephen up to the playroom to present my gift to the two of them....
A huge blanket fort!!  We had so much fun playing all together in the fort, and the only thing I had to purchase were a few extra hooks and the lights I strung around the inside.  The fort was a huge hit and made for a really fantastic Valentine's Day!

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Lauren Visits!

Last week, my sweet friend Lauren came for a quick visit.  This summer she and her family moved to Missouri for her husband to pursue his Ph.D (in theatre!).  Hooray for them...sad for me.
Lauren and her little boy Jeffrey came to NC last week and spent a couple of days with us  We were able to enjoy being together with our boys, and even got an evening to go out to dinner by ourselves...with a bedtime of 10pm (much earlier than our pre-baby days when our evenings ended around 1am)!
What a joy it is to be with good friends.  So many of my closest friends live so far away, so I am always thrilled to spend any amount of time with one of them!  What a gift Lauren is to me.

Friends

Although these photos are all from the fall, I found them on my friends' Facebook pages, and wanted to save them here!  I am so thankful for each of these special folks!


After officiating my oldest friend, Jessica's wedding in New Orleans in September...

My sweet friends Christina & Jamie at our church's fall festival

My dear friend Rhiannon

The leadership team for my MOPS group at our Christmas dinner.

Work Fun

I did get to have a bit of fun during my week of work for Faith in 3D!


Upon arrival at Disney, I had a few hours to myself before any meetings began, so I spent some time at the pool (notice the waterslide behind me).  I seriously love a pool with a waterslide.

I enjoyed a beverage out by the water at the convention center

I got to catch up with Jenny- she directed the camp I coordinated this past summer...what an awesome gal!

I got to visit with Mickey & Minnie

Sunday morning I had some free time, and got to go with a friend to Hollywood Studios where we rode all of the "adult rides" before our families arrived later that day.  We rode the Tower of Terror & the Rockin' Roller Coaster a few times each!

ImagiNations

At Faith in 3D, my primary responsibility was the education portion.  On Saturday morning of the event, our participants entered backstage of Epcot 2 hours before the park opened and participated in ImagiNations.  Church groups were assigned an "itinerary" of 3 countries to visit & they did a different activity in each country.  We partnered with the Disney YES (Youth Education Series) to provide an experience that explored cultural diversity around the world.  


Here's a VERY simplified explanation of what the morning entailed:
Each church group would go to one country pavilion and meet with a YES rep. who would teach a lesson, then they would meet with a missionary who would speak to them about ministry in that country.
Next, they would go to a second country, meet with a YES rep., and do a scavenger hunt in that country pavilion.
Finally, they would go to a third country, meet with a YES rep., and meet with a cultural representative- a person from that country who would talk about the culture of that country.


We ended with a huge lunch for everyone just as the park started to fill with people.  This project took a lot of work, a lot of details, and a lot of volunteers to make it happen.  Thankfully, I can say that it really went well, and I think the youth learned a lot & had fun.  
At the end of the morning, I walked into the lunch, breathed a huge sigh of relief and shed a couple of tears that things had gone so well (and that I had nothing else to stress about!).


We started with a very early morning- while the moon was still shining bright!

I had an amazing group of volunteers (mostly college students) without whom the morning could not have happened.  We rode over to Epcot in the cold, dark morning (on the Florida Gators' team bus!).

Walking out into the American pavilion before anyone else arrived.  So still & quiet.

Looking across the water at an empty Epcot.

The cultural representatives from China, speaking to students about culture and life there.

My amazing "education teammate" Susan & I walking around Epcot, making sure everything was going smoothly.  This woman is seriously amazing and helped me make this all happen.

Students entering the building for lunch while I looked on with relief & a touch of pride after a great morning!

Faith in 3D

Two weeks ago I had the amazing privilege of working for the Faith in 3D event at Disney World.  I've been on the planning team for this event for about 16 months now, and it was so great to see everything come to fruition!  This large ecumenical youth conference required a lot of logistical preparation, and also a lot of prayer.  What a gift to feel God's blessing on this event, and sense God's presence among the 1500 folks who attended.


Although the event officially began on Friday, January 13, I arrived earlier that week (Tuesday) to tend to last minute details, and help prepare for registration.  We worked hard in those few days, but also enjoyed each other's company & the calm before the storm.


Here was the "office" I set up for myself at the convention center.

The first two nights we had opening celebration & worship at Epcot.  We've been wandering around this large blank space for a while now, so it was quite something to see everything in place, and to see it filled with people!

My colleague, Susan (representing the Cumberland Presbyterian Church) helped me with the education piece of Faith in 3D (more on that in another post). I couldn't have done it without this amazing woman!  I am so thankful to now have her in my life!

My fantastic friends, the Fisher-Ingrams worshiping with their sweet daughter.

Our final morning of worship (MLK Jr. Day) was held back at the conference center with Rev. Jerry Cannon (pictured below) bringing the message, and concluding with communion.

This week was truly one of my favorite weeks of work of all time.  I am so grateful to Passport & CBF for entrusting me with such an incredible professional opportunity.

Art

Recently I've tried my hand at painting a couple of canvases...both ideas I found on Pinterest.  


The first was scripture to hang above Berkley's bed- Micah 6:8.  We sing this song to him every night before bed, and it's such a fantastic scripture to live by.  For my first canvas, this was a huge undertaking, but I learned a lot from it, and ended up liking the result.

The second canvas was a Christmas gift for my mother (who loves football more than any other woman in the world).  I thought it turned out well & I will probably give more canvas paintings a try soon!

Christmas Card Secret

Each year I've gotten a little bit more sneaky (and a lot more cheap) about the Christmas cards we send.  However, I'm going to give away my secret to getting 150 (amazing quality) Christmas cards for about $20.
I've discovered that the trick is to use the same picture, but to buy cards from multiple companies.  I use coupons and Groupons to get 20 cards for free here, and 30 cards for $5 there.  As long as you're okay sending out different cards, and have the picture ready fairly early (prices are often better before December) it's simple to get lots of cards for not a lot of money.
So, if you received a card from us, you are probably one of 20 or so folks who got that card style!  When I tell people about my method, they think it's a bit strange, but to me it's all worth it.  I don't mind folks getting different styles of cards, since they are all great quality, all have the same picture, and we save a ton of money in the process!