Quick Post

We made it back safe and sound from Arizona.

Highlights:
Going to a Spring Training game.
Austin going 4 for 4 in his first game.
Everyone surviving the 6 hour drive in the car.

Lowlights:
Austin's team losing 2 out of three games to what amounted to JV teams from out of state.
Billy getting sick.
Finding poop in the sink at the rest stop. GAG!

I'll post more (happier) thoughts later.

Laurel

Easter at First

I have placed a new slide show on the blog. These are some of the images of Easter 2008. Thanks to Laurel and to Brian Johnson for taking these great pictures. If you double click on the slide show you can see a larger version of the slide show.

The weekend went great. It all came together in a powerful way. It is a pleasure to serve with so many talented and gifted volunteers and staff members. As always it was a lot of work, but well worth it.

We are off in about five hours for Arizona, so I am off to bed.

American Idol and My Kid Pee'd his Pants

So Laurel and I were watching the last few minutes of American Idol on Tuesday night. The kids have been in bed for about twenty minutes. They are all awake except for Travis who has been asleep for about an hour. All of sudden Travis starts crying inconsolably. Austin picks him up and tries to calm him down to no avail, so I walk down the hall and bring him back to the couch. I wrap him in a blanket and hold him on my lap, but he will not stop crying. I sit with him for about one minute and he relaxes his muscles and I think "he is about to go back to sleep."

No sooner than I have this thought, I feel a warm, flowing sensation spreading across my lower stomach, lap and legs. All I can shout is "He's peeing on me!"

This, of course brings the kids out from their bedrooms. I laugh as hard as I am capable of. Austin, Tamila and Travis can't stop laughing either. It lasts forever. How large of a bladder does a three year old have anyway?

Travis is now not crying, half awake and smiling as if he had planned the whole thing. Laurel did not think it was all that funny until she saw the second picture below. Enjoy, but please do not blackmail me with the following images.

Shout out to Heidi

Hey....

Is this just a coincidence or what?

TMZ ran this picture today. Click the link to read their witty note.

Sorry Heidi...I couldn't help myself!

Zee Creeping Crud...Part 3

Okay. Seriously. I'm getting tired of all these sequels!

Travis is home today with a small cold. Hopefully, it will stay that way--especially with Easter coming up. And to those who were wondering: so far he's actually let all of his sneezes out this time. No "Splat" moments to talk about. Yet.

Arrivederci for now....

Laurel

Still Alive

Hola to my friends and family.

Yes, I'm still alive.

I haven't posted much this week because posts about writing policy for church, folding Mt. Laundry and cleaning up after Travis aren't too thrilling to read. (Sorry...you're reading one right now I guess.)

My eldest won't let me post what I wanted to post about all week. (His lovely eye.) He's still moping around because the Dr. won't let him play till Monday due to excess fluid from the injury. If you want to know more, I'll tell you in person because I've been forbidden to blog about it. Or even take pictures of the lovely sight of it. Bummer.

Tamila got a 4 point again of which I'm very proud. She's loving the "in your face" feeling for the 4th grade teacher who told her she couldn't hack it in Jr. High G.A.T.E. Kudos to my "T". She rocks.

Aaron is exemplary once again. I had his conference on Monday and the teacher practically teared up talking about the honor it is to teach him. She mentioned that he's very self motivated. Self motivated? He should try that at home sometime it would be helpful especially in the mornings before school.

Travis spent Thursday afternoon drowning action figures in the sink. He complained when I made him bail some of the water out due to the fact that there wouldn't be enough water to drown Luke Skywalker anymore. He solved that problem by moving Luke up to the next "level" (his words.) He put the action figure on top of the faucet and made it take a suicide dive from that height. Should I be scared?

Billy has been working hard at church and doing freelance gigs for Trace. He does a great job in taking care of his crazy family. Good man.

And me...I keep plugging along going from appointment to appointment, kids to baseball, kids to church, me to work and home, cleaning the house multiple times a day and finding myself hoping that these days don't fly by too fast. They'll be gone too soon.

Ciao!
Laurel

A New Mix Position

I haven't blogged for almost two weeks, so I am typing these few sentences to ensure that my presence on the blog is not forgotten. A quick shout out to Mark G., Mike M., Brian J. and Jordan for helping me for about 5 hours tonight moving the sound board back to the main floor in Cornerstone hall tonight. We also moved the subs and swamped an amp creating a much better bass response in the room. Another couple of hours to clean up tomorrow and we will be done. Who am I kidding, by the time Mike and I finish making some cables and connecting the patch bay, it will probably be more like four hours before we get done. All time well spent.

Brandon also helped me make a great stand for the equipment the last few days. We learned a few tricks and actually laminated it without messing it up.

Billy

"Eggie Party"

Travis decided to throw a party last night. Apparently, he only invited Billy and I to the soiree. He woke up a little before midnight and was wide awake until 2 am. YAWN! It was all due to him falling asleep at 6 pm earlier that evening. I knew there was a reason why we dropped naps along time ago.

The kid was eating "eggies" at midnight and having a grand ol'time. Meanwhile Billy and I were nodding off occasionally ready to call it a night. When we finally called it a night at 2 am he wasn't happy with us...he was ready to go for a couple more hours. Either he's going to do really well in college or be a big partier. Let's hope for the former.

Brazen

This afternoon Billy and I were running an errand to Ralph's. As we drove up to the front of the store we were slowed down by a small truck in front of us. We watched in amazement as a teenage boy nonchalantly stepped out of the truck, walked over to a huge stack of Aquafina water cases, grabbed one and tossed it into the back of the vehicle. He then just casually got back into the vehicle which then drove away.

Billy and I couldn't believe we had just seen some idiot lift a case of water without even batting an eye. He was so calm and sly it was if he wasn't doing any thing wrong. Hello??? What kind of guts does it take to brazenly thieve like that in front of at least 15 people? Apparently alot.

-Laurel

The West Wing Predicts 2008

Billy and Austin loved to watch The West Wing when it was on the air. When I was perusing my usual celeb-u-trash site, TMZ today I was surprised to see they actually had a decent news item. Who woulda thunk? They posted a video that shows the parallels of the last two seasons of The West Wing with the current election. It's pretty interesting. Follow this link to the page, but ignore all the other paparazzi stuff...unless of course you really want to know what Britney and Paris are up to these days.