Catching Up

It's always hard to come back home from camp, and the beach and camp cause your house looks like crap, you have a million things to do, people want to hear about it all and really all you want to do is sleep.

But the truth is; with two kids, a dog, kitchen renovation stalled out, high school kids leaving for college, college kids leaving for home, friends that are moving out of town...our life just never stops moving.

This week is a great example. Our dear friends Greg and Lucy got to take their sweet baby boy Wesley home from the hospital at last on Friday. Amazing! After three months in the NICU, he's free from tubes and home!

Counter that with Matt's boss Lynn whose husband unexpectedly died of a heart attack on Saturday evening after she hasn't seen him in three weeks while she has been on assignment with YL at Frontier Ranch. We have his funeral on Thursday to attend.
By the way, I think I can say this without being glib, his services while being devastatingly sad will also be what I am sure to remember as a "FUN-er-ALL" meaning, every person that we have ever known on YL staff will be there remembering how crazy and fun Paul was. It was will be the saddest party that I will ever have the pleasure of attending. I am so sad that Paul won't be there.

Just when I think things slow down, the speed seems to pick up. How does that happen?
We spent the whole day today preparing to work on the kitchen. Not actually working on it. Just preparing. Buying stuff. Throwing stuff away. Calling people. Buying more stuff.

We can't seem to gain traction. But throwing stuff away was big. Like the dishwasher that has been sitting in our yard for two months.

The crackhouse is starting to return to normal.

Four Years Since We Met

Four years ago our little Asher was born.

Here we are at Saranac missing his sweet little birthday.
I know that we will celebrate when we get home, but I am not going to lie...I definitely welled up several times today knowing that I wouldn't get to kiss or hug him today.

AND...the hits keep on coming.
My mom called this morning to let me know that she had to take him to ER last night to get stitches in his forehead after Asher fell off the playground.

So that was awesome for her. And me. And Asher.
Happy Birthday to you!

I love him like crazy. Since my last post about him making me insane, we really had a large turnaround in his behavior and I could not have been happier with him. He really turned into such a big boy over the past month and I love him so much.

I can't wait to see both kids on Sunday when we get back home. It has been quite a few days since we have seen them.

Four years. Four years ago, I had no idea how my heart would burst over hearing my son talk to his dad on the phone. I can't wait to see what the next few years brings.

What I've Learned About My Cabin

These girls that are going to be driving this year...
are 15 and were born in 1993...
were in the second grade when 9/11 happened...
were in kindergarten when Britney Spears came on the music scene...
will be graduating from college seven years from now. In 2016.
When I will be 38.

When my kids will be 11 and 9.
ummm.

Nothing like finding these things out to make you feel a bit old.

Saranac and the living is FINE

We are heading into Night 3 here at Saranac and it has been amazing so far. I can't really catch you up except via pictures, but it we have had a lot of fun.

My cabin is filled with very fun-very silly freshman girls. It has been a challenge-more so than I imagined before getting here. And that has caught me off-guard. I am missing my old cabins and old friendships that were developed here simply because they have the benefit of age on them. New friendships are hard and take time and it is always hard to start over!

But it is really exciting that we have 75 kids here with ZERO second-time campers. That is almost unheard of in YL camping and it is really amazing. These kids are seeing this place for the very first time and experiencing Young Life for the very first time. What a privilege to be along for this ride.


One again, I see ghosts of high school past around every corner. I feel like a nut because I seriously remember nearly every minute of camp from when I was in high school.
I remember sitting on the boat dock, laughing, skiing and having the time of my life. I spent so much time RIGHT HERE when I was here as a high school kid.

It is awesome to be here. I love getting to be with girls as they experience real life.

What I Love About Weddings

That last walk with your dad. So sweet.

A first kiss as a married couple.

Brides that couldn't be happier to be married.

Lusting after shoes that I would never be brave enough to wear.

Girlfriends that all look like me and I look like them, in cute dresses with fun necklaces.

Cute dating couples that make you remember what it was like to say goodbye to each other at the end of the night.

Pretty flowers that make me wish I had more fresh flowers around my house. If my kitchen wasn't destroyed.

Wedding dresses.
Do wedding dresses EVER get old to look at?

Seersucker and bowties on boys.

My incredibly handsome husband who is incredibly way too large of a person to wear seersucker without looking like he a clown at a wedding.
Since it is not a 4-year olds birthday party, he chooses to stick with the classic button-down and khakis look that the GAP invented.

Beautiful country fences at sunset with all their imperfections that make you think that you could be pretty too with all your imperfections. And that a house in the county might not be a bad idea.

Oh yeah. We live here. We love it. Thanks for having a wedding to remind us.

Fantasy Town

On my drive to Panama City and back, I have to drive through a small town in Alabama called Eufaula.
I have no idea how to even pronounce this town name. But I love it.

One day, I want to live there.
Not now.
Cause, we really really love Asheville and the weather is fantastic.

But one day, we could live in Eufaula.
There is a huge lake, the cutest downtown and all of these AMAZING homes that I fall in love with every time we drive through.




One day.
One day I could live here.
Maybe they need Young Life in Eufaula?

Lamb Siblings

The beach trip was the first time since my sister got married TEN years ago that my brother, sister and I have all been together without spouses.

It was great to have time with just my siblings again and to laugh at growing up together and to get to enjoy life together as grown-ups and not so grown-up moments.

Check out how we look nothing alike straight on, but on the profile-we all have the same noses.



I'm a crazy genetic scientist to have seen that one.

Lamb Family Reunion

We had a great time at the beach and the kids did what kids do at the beach:

They swam in the ocean!
They played in the sand!
We took pictures of it!

Then they cried cause sand got in their eyes!
And the ocean is salty and it stings!
And the wind blows!
And the sun shines!
And I'm breathing!
And you're breathing!

Then they wanted to do it all over again after lunch.

Isn't a beach vacation fun?

We should all live at the beach.

Asheville

I have more pictures from the beach trip, but truthfully...I exhausted from uploading pictures to blogger this summer. So I am going to take a break for a post or two. :)

Since we have gotten home, the weather here in Asheville has been MARVELOUS.

For example?
We have not had the air conditioning on, no fans in the windows, no attic fan going and yet it is 72 degrees INSIDE our house. While it is still 78-80 degrees outside.

I have no idea how that happens. But I love it.
We are still sleeping under the comforter, feeling very cool and comfy at night since it is getting into the 50's. It is amazing.

Why live ANYWHERE else?
I love being home.

Pirate's Cruise

While in Panama City, we took the kids on a MAJOR excursion: a PIRATE SHIP on the ocean.

Of course, the only cruise we could schedule was right in the middle of our typical nap time; 3pm, so we were in for some tired kids. But it was totally worth pushing through.

I just want to tell you before I get started that this 2 hour cruise was amazing AND I could totally see Matt retiring someday and running a company like this for the rest of our lives.

My nephew looking like we all felt after the ship was rocking and rolling in the ocean.
We recovered, but the water's were a little rough that day!

We boarded the pirate ship and they took us out of the harbor, where they shot off a real life cannon scaring the crap out of my kids. All four kids (my niece and nephew) were crying and we thought for sure that this could be the longest two hours of our lives.

After they had a water fight with another tourist cruise (that was really cool but the kids were crying too hard to notice), they painted the kids faces. While the girls were being painted, the boys got to "swab the deck." I am going to incorporate "swabbing the deck" into our house as soon as possible.



Then they moved onto to an all boat sword fight! Asher got really into this one and then he was off and RUNNING!

After the sword fight, the kids got to shoot a cannon into a basket which was fun and really just killed a lot of time. We also got to see some dolphins around this time out in the ocean which made the trip for the adults.


Asher had the best time. He was very into EVERYTHING. They took us downstairs into the dungeon and told about the buried treasure in the sea and how we had to look for an orange buoy with a large "x" on it and if we saw it we had to yell, "Thar she blows Cap'n!!!" Then they threw a large grappling hook like from Deadliest Catch into the water, all the kids got to grab the line and pull the treasure up from the bottom of the sea.

Then they took a look into the treasure chest and did a little program about it that was really silly and got the kids giggling, but then the kids got to come forward and select the treasure; the littlest kids first.



After this, they had a huge dance party (ala YL dance through the ages) which of course all the kids loved (but my kids went crazy for), handed out tambourines, and danced all over the ship. After this they put pirate tatoos on all the kids, gave out pirate treasure necklaces and we were back in the harbor.


It was a packed-out two hours and they did a FANTASTIC job. No doubt this will become our family tradition every time we go to Panama City. And, I think that Matt will have to look into this a future business endeavour. No kidding.


If you ever wanna check it out, click here: Pirate Cruise