end of summer trips...

I barely have two weeks left before going back to work, but the past two weeks have been very busy. I went to the beach with family for July 4th and it was a lot of fun. I left a few days early so that I could come home and pack for a mission trip to West Virginia.

Alex and I decided to go on the trip with our new church, Milestones. We love the church but since it is somewhat big it is very easy to go and never really get to know people. However, it is also easy to get involved and really make some great friends. We went on the trip only knowing about 5 out of the 60 people. It was an awesome trip. Alex was on the construction crew and worked about 14 hour days working on a lady's home that had been damaged by flood.

I was on the food crew and helped cook dinner four nights for 60 people - just a small challenge!! The rest of the group did two bible schools the way that Milestones does it - by some traditional activities and then lots of wet and fun games outside. The kids absolutely love it. There were 40 kids between the two bible schools that accepted Christ, which was such a blessing. There was also a teenager within our group that became a Christian on the trip.

I made a lot of new friends that I believe will become close friends that I can really count on. Several things have been laid on my heart as a result of this trip. One is that I'm contemplating resigning from the Junior League at the end of this year. I joined it 3 years ago to meet people and get to know other women in Spartanburg. I have definitely done that, but after being on this trip, I realized that things are handled much differently when it is a group of Christian women (and men) doing things for God. If I decide not to do the JL anymore then I would like to devote the time I spent to volunteering with the church or some other organization.

As this was going through my mind on the trip, I learned that one of the ladies is starting a ministry called Wellspring Living that will help women who have suffered childhood trauma such as sexual abuse. They are in the very beginning stages of getting this started and I have not been able to stop thinking about how I might could get involved with this since she first told me about it.

So, anyone reading this I ask that you say a prayer for all of this. I don't think it's a coincidence that I find out about a new volunteer opportunity just as I was looking for something to get more involved in. I am going to pray about it and see what will come of it. I know it will be something good!

birthdays, wedding, and corn picking

Last week was busy but a lot of fun. Whit turned SEVEN! I spent part of one day with him just hanging out and losing a lot of Mario games on the Wii. I also met them at Chuck E Cheese on his actual birthday since I would miss the family birthday meal. He is such an awesome kid and I love being around him. He makes me smile and can be quite an entertainer.

Over this past weekend we had lot of things to do. Things started on Friday night with a surprise 30th birthday party for our friend Wes. Now if you don't know him, he looks a lot like Woody off of Toy Story. He almost always wears a flannel shirt, with sleeves rolled just above the elbows, and jeans. The guys thought it would be great to dress like Wes for the party...and they all happened to wear a red flannel shirt, and so did Wes!!! (and remember he had no idea about the party). Below is a picture of all the guys, Wes, and his girlfriend Jenny.

Saturday my cousin Meredith got married. She looked beautiful and the wedding was gorgeous. I hate that there is always a glare from my glasses, but hopefully that won't be true much longer! It was great getting to spend some time with family and especially with it being outside of a funeral home!!

The weekend ended with George's second birthday party! I can not believe he is TWO! He was so excited about his party, and it was great seeing his face light up when we said his name in the Happy Birthday song.

Today, Alex, his aunt and uncle, and myself picked lots and lots of corn. We picked, shucked, silked, cleaned, cut, cooked, and stored about 450 ears of corn!! We ate some for lunch and it tasted wonderful... but that's a lot of corn. Alex feels the need to supersize his garden, so there is still a lot more corn to go, but plenty to last us for at least a few days! :)

The next few weeks are going to be busy. I leave Sunday for Charleston with my family. I will come home early so that I can go on a mission trip with our new church to West Virginia. We will be there for 8 days. Then I have my eye surgery about a week after that trip... and then back to work. BUT, I am not going to think about work yet... too much fun stuff ahead to look forward to instead of that.