Come Home

My dear friend Ellie Holcomb was on women's weekend doing special music and performed this song "Magnolia" that I have to be honest...not one of my favorites.

Until...she told the story behind writing it. (Isn't that the way it is?)
She said that "Magnolia" is a name that she uses for herself in songs. And the song is written from the perspective of God and how he longs to be with her. And how she busy's herself with a million other things all day long and the price that she pays for missing out on that relationship.

This is a love song from God to Ellie/Magnolia/You/Me.

(clearly sound quality is not super awesome cause I ain't no freakin' professional. Don't blame Ellie. Listen to the words and fill in the gaps. Or better yet-go listen to it on itunes after this!)

Now?
My new favorite song.
Seriously.

I haven't really stopped listening to Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors all summer long.
We really really love them and their music.

Go download A Million Miles TODAY. You won't regret it.
Especially Magnolia, The Valley, Love Will Bring You Home and from a different album Fire and Dynamite.

Two Jans

Buffy and Martha did these two characters "The Two Jans" and sang songs about things that women care about-it was hilarious. They wore pearls, Lily Pullizter dresses, visors and had sweaters draped over their shoulders. It was enough to make you want to kiss them.

I only captured two of the three songs on the Flip and I am really sad about that. The first song had me laughing so hard.

Anyways, here they are!

One Last Brag

This is a video from Windy Gap last week...Matt and Asher did a little program for the summer staff and work crew. 

Pretty much adorable. My favorite part? That he tries to breakdance with Matt.

Home!

We have landed back at our house today! Hooray! Of course, both kids have lost it crying for half the day. Asher has some kind of virus deal happening in his mouth that makes eating impossible and so he is not a happy camper. I am trying to unpack us and still have the house look like it did while we were gone. Not an easy feat...

But I have managed to upload a video from the month that shows you Matt and Brian Hancock as Rob and Gib blending rhymes about toppings for ice cream. The song is called "Oreo" to the tune of "Low" by T-Pain. 

Enjoy!

Christmas Come Early

We took our assigned team picture today and so all of the mom's got our kids dressed up for the occasion. 

And then we had four hours to kill with kids in nice clothes at camp. So Matt and I took the kids out to take some pictures and I am pretty sure we managed to get our Christmas card picture taken. Sorry if you get to see this again in December!

Also, Asher and I went on the giant swing together this week. Now he is excited about doing the zip line and the climbing wall this week. Is my child nearly three or 13? 

Pictures of the Week

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We are busy wrapping up week 2 right now. Our kids have been having the time of their lives and are exhausted. Asher has been staying up until 9 every night and one night even 10:30!
He is a little drunk on the freedom of life at camp and from being bleary eyed at not getting enough sleep. Lucy is adjusting to meals in the dining hall (finally) and so we are all settling in.

We had an especially adorable week on County Fair night and the kids were able to take a horsey ride yesterday morning. Asher got right on, rode around the corral and then holding on with one hand, took his hat off of his head and yelled, "Yeehaw!!" Who is this kid?




We were very proud.

We have had a blast swimming during most of the day. Lucy has discovered that she likes to jump into the bottom of the pool when no one is watching. So we have to always be watching. One of the other moms helped me to discover the joy of innertube with Lucy. At first, she wanted nothing to do with a tube around her waist. But now, she is swimming like a fish with that thing on. She just jumps off the side of the pool right into the water with it on. She is spinning in circles, kicking, everything. It is pretty amazing. And it has helped me to not have a heart attack around the water. My life guarding skills were getting quite a workout.

So here are the pictures. Enjoy!

And the Award Goes to...

Jill Rutland and family for sending me an awesome package during the first week of camp!
Thank you Jill! Matt and the program team are enjoying the five-count 'em five boxes of Mike and Ikes that Jill sent. I, for one; am grateful for the four rolls of real toilet paper and the yummy smelling body wash and lotion. The kids love all of the toys and the fun ice cube trays. You are the best!

Honorable Mention goes to Luke Davis in Texas for sending me a book to read at camp that arrived the day we got to camp. If you haven't read or heard of Same Kind of Different As Me...well you might want to head over to Amazon.com right now and pick that book up. It is simply amazing. Really.
Many thanks to Luke for thinking of us!

We are smack in the middle of Week 2 and we are all holding up well. Mood swings are starting to occur and I am sure that it is due to a lack of sleep for the adults! The team is getting along so well that we are all hanging out until 1am most nights. It is really fun to go on assignment with people that you love and are good friends with.

The surprise of the assignment is that Kelly and Ogden Tabb from Augusta, GA are on the team with us. Kelly and Ogden went to college with Matt and I and we were leaders together. I didn't know them super well because they got married in college and well...were grown-ups before all of us! But we have had many laughs remembering things and people from college. It has been a really good time.

Who wants to come visit? We have adult guest spots open and we can have visitors. If you would like to come up for the day or the week...please let me know!

sorry about the lack of posting. We are really busy and the internet service is terrible. So this is as good as it gets!

Week 1...Almost Done

This is the view from the front porch of our amazing housing at WG!

Here we are at the end of Week 1 and I have hardly kept you updated.
That is either a sign of things going really well or REALLY BAD.
Thankfully it is that we are having such a good time that I am not slowing down enough to keep my adoring public updated. I will try to do better in the future.
One of the main problems is that the internet service to our cabin is pretty spotty. And by pretty spotty I mean, non-existent. So, I have to work a little harder to get to the ole blog.

I don't have anything major to update you on except that this has been awesome so far. We are doing well, the kids are doing well except for Lucy hitting all of the other little girls in camp and Asher having a major case of the hot poops. But if that is as bad as it gets...well shave my dog and call it "Baldy".

So here are some pictures from this week. My kids are pretty dang cute if I do say so myself...

We're moving Out

No, that is not just a title of a really bad Billy Joel song, it is now my life.

We are moving up to Windy Gap tomorrow to begin our month at Young Life camp. Thank God we are staying on the east coast and I can just drive all of us into camp, 15 minutes from where we live. I feel no pressure to pack right or well. I will just pack what we need for the next few days and as morale drops at camp, ta-da! We at home where whatever it is that we need and are missing from our lives resides and we can pick it up and take it back to camp!

I am very excited.
I am also excited because it means I can stop working on my freaking house.
We are listing it for sale tomorrow morning, so we have been maniacs here. On Monday, I had Cindy McCandless come over and help stage our house. For those of you who have never done this, do it. Not because you need to stage your house, but if I had her come over when we first moved in, I might have liked my house a bit better.
She rearranged furniture, gave me design ideas and told us we had to paint our kitchen. Before Thursday.
I was the sane one and said, "No way. It's not even possible." Matt said, "Let's do it!"
So we did it. I had a minor panic attack selecting paint at Home Depot. It normally takes me several days and several test coat of paint before committing. I took 10 minutes.
After we left Home Depot, I took the kids to Target and spent a minor fortune on "home accessories". I know that some of you might find this hard to believe; but I suck at this sort of thing. I don't really do "chachke" I like clean surfaces, minimal wall hangings, etc. So to go and buy little tables, lamps, vases and pictures for my walls was a big deal. The bigger deal was telling Matt just how much money was spent. Yikes.

"but sweetheat, it is just a small investment to be able to sell our house." Does this line work? Cause I don't think so.

But he does love all of the changes and seriously yall, this woman knows what she is doing. In 10 minutes, she rearranged my living room, rehung pictures in my bedroom and got me to paint my kitchen. Whaaaaat?

I wish we had her come over when we moved in because then I would have loved my house for the last three years instead of the last 15 hours.

I will post before and after pictures tomorrow. Yay for tomorrow!!!

Looking forward to taking our kids to camp

We went to Windy Gap tonight for our End of the Year Leadership Celebration. Asher had quite a time once people left the barn. Take a look:



Hmmm, anybody looking for talented kids around 3 years old? I have quite a ham on my hands. Oh, and a 18-month old who is not far behind? Look out world! Here we come!

Sorry for the bad follow-up

I guess that the last post took so much work, I haven't had much energy to put towards the blog. Not really. I have had a major project for work that has taken up all my free time...and that pays the bills if you know what I mean. Also, Matt was out of town all last week. Both kids got ear infections while he was gone (of course) and so I was a little busier than usual.

This past weekend was women's weekend at Windy Gap and my favorite YL women were all here: Dana Martin, Brandi Kellett, Shelly Kaiser, Lindsay Hancock and of course, my sister-in-law Buffy. I pretty much want to be around these women at all times. How can I get an invite to be on the planning committee for next year. Anybody???

It was a great weekend and I loved getting to be around these fun ladies. But what I loved even more than a great weekend with girlfriends was that the Gamecocks beat that slovenly team known as Georgia. AT GEORGIA. Between the freakin' hedges. And USC Women's Soccer is off to the best start in school history at 4-0 and are ranked in the top 25. Incredible.

Oh! And I got my haircut! I took six inches off and I am having a few regrets. I really liked my longer hair, but it was looking ratty and I made a spur of the moment decision to chop it off and I think that I have a mom haircut now. Thoughts?

Windy Gap Today

This afternoon, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went out to Windy Gap. I am so glad that I took my camera because these are some of the shots that I got:

You can barely see the head injuries that Asher sustained this week. I swear, that kid falls headfirst into everything. I've actually considered asking for an MRI on several occasions because of how hard he falls. We have had an exceptionally hard week!
It's the daddy jungle gym!


Asher is a stagecoach driver. I really love the pots on the side of the wagon!

Sweet Pic of the Day

For those of you who miss Windy Gap: