a year ago today...

i can't believe how quickly a year has passed. there are things in life that we wish away, things about which the only positive, the only thing that keeps us going is knowing that it is going to end; and then there are things that we wish we could pause, that we would give anything to stop time for just so we can enjoy them a little bit longer. and i mean enjoy them just the way they are; savor each moment, and yet as each moment comes you think that it is infinitely more amazing than the last and you are sure that there is nothing that can top the one you are currently in...


happy birthday sweet bailey!

before i go any further, i have to confess that i did not, no way, not even a little bit-want to have a girl (piper of course, did). i come from a family of three boys and i thought for sure that the trend would continue in my own, however, i have come to realize that there were too many people praying against me-my wife, for one. i came to find out too that there were tons of my youth, tons of our friends, and even some of our family that was praying for a girl for us...a sneak attack for sure.

i can say now that i cannot imagine my life without this precious little girl in it. she has captured my heart, for sure. in fact, i am a bit frightened about being faced with having to tell her 'no' as she gets older, because it is going to be a terribly difficult thing to do. she is such a special part of this family. we are blessed to have one of the happiest, and most adorable little ones that anyone could ask for. she lights up any room she happens to be in (which is all of them now because is crawling like crazy); her brothers adore her, and piper and i can't get enough of her.

happy birthday bailey. we cannot imagine this family without you being a part of it. i pray daily for your sweet heart, i pray that we are doing the best we can in loving you, nurturing you, teaching you, and raising you up in the understanding of who your jesus is. we love you sweet girl!

again...long overdue

while the summer has been amazing in so many ways, i will say that it has not been amazing for keeping on top of updating all that we've been up to...i suppose once we get back in to the school year up here, i will find myself in more of a routine making this easier to get to. that is my hope, anyway. so, here is the rundown:

JOB PERKS:

one of the things i love about what i do is getting to introduce kids to some of the things that have been a huge part of my own life for the past several years; one of the things i love more than that is that the nature of my job is such that my family is a welcome part of it. so this is the 'stay tuned' from the last post. i took some of my youth on a climbing trip up to ship rock (located on the BRP) back in june...by the way, taking kids up there brings back all sorts of memories from the summers spent at camp timberlake; what a wonderful place and wonderful memories. anyway, gresham never wants to miss out on a climbing adventure and a chance to hang out with his 'youth group friends' as he calls them...



it is a proud thing for me to watch gresham as he learns to love the outdoors (the way his dad does).

A SPECIAL DAY FOR BAILEY:

we are thankful everyday for out children. we love them and love that the Lord has blessed us with them. while there certainly are times that we fall short, we do our best to try and raise them up in an understanding of who Jesus is, how he loves us, and what it looks like to live with him on a daily basis...one of the things that piper and i agreed upon when gresham was born was that rather than having our children baptized, we wanted to 'dedicate' them in front of our friends and family, leaving the decision of baptism up to them as they grow to understand the fullness of what it means. one of the continued blessings about still being able to call boone home is that we are still able to spend time and be blessed by people like carl clawson (pastor of banner elk christian fellowship and friend and mentor to so many of us who have called boone home at one time or another). carl has done the dedication for both of our boys, and in fact baptized me in the watauga river (in one of our favorite fishing holes, actually) on the same day that we did gresham's dedication. we tried to choose a special place for each of our children; one that we hope will be virtually untouched and one we will be able to take them to one day and explain to them how we dedicated them to the Lord, trusting that He will continue the process of drawing them to Himself. for bailey's dedication, we were blessed with a beautiful day at valle crucis park...

this has been a wonderful summer, and of course it has not been without the craziness that comes with being a part of the circus of three...days at tweetsie, superheros, lazing around in the sun, cowboy boots, lots of cousins and all of the other amazing things that make each day an adventure!

Long Overdue

i figured since we are already half way through the summer it was probably time for an update. the summer thus far has been pretty crazy and unfortunately has not allowed time for updates (okay, i probably could have made time, but i didn't-stop yelling at me).

i have alluded to this before in "a journey", but in my ministry i used to live in this dream world in which i thought if i could make it through (say) the end of a school year then things would let up for the summer...i just laugh about that now. at some point soon (i hope) i'll update "a journey" with some ministry related stuff, but for now just know that this has been and will continue to be a busy summer for us; amazing, but busy!

in the midst of the craziness, we were able to squeeze in a family vacation to one of the most special places i have ever been...THE CABIN. that's it, just THE CABIN. to mention that in the circle of any of my immediate or extended family requires no further explanation or designation. i realize, however, that many of you who are reading may not be familiar with THE CABIN and what makes it so special...first of all, my grandmother has been going to the cabin since she was like 17 so it has been in the family for a little while. when my mom was younger, she and her siblings (as well as tons of cousins) used to basically spend summers there. it is located in this little place called Ware Neck, Virginia which is right outside of Glouchester and not too far from historic Jamestown and Yorktown. it is located at the mouth of the north river (which isn't like a river at all-it looks more like a lake, but it is saltwater and tidal). the north river empties into the mobjack bay which eventually empties into the chesapeake bay. have you seen the tom cruise movie "minority report"? there is a scene near the end of the movie where they end up in this little (lake) house...it's actually not a lake house, rather it is a north river house and is about 200 yards from our cabin. we were there the summer they were shooting and got to watch all of the helicopters and what-not flying around the house while they were filming. pretty cool. all that to say it is a pretty incredible place and i am so thankful that my family gets to enjoy something that has always meant so much to me.

the time with family was wonderful, the weather was beautiful, the kids loved the water...especially gresham. we could not ever get him out. he began to pick up a love of "crabbing" while we were there and spent much of the low tides wading around, net in hand. bailey was able to get out and play as well...and man did it wear her out! we fished, we explored in sea kayaks, of course we had to get our thomas the train time in as well (thank you thomas for making the trip)... we ate amazing meals surrounded by ridiculous numbers of family members, we went to sleep too late and woke up entirely early...the average "first peep" in our room was, say 5:45 or so (we were all crammed into the same room, so when one was up we were all up).

this did mean that we were able to have breakfasts together on the porch (just us) and watch some beautiful cabin sunrises.

while we had to cut the trip a few days short so i could get home and get ready for our first youth trip of the summer, it was so worth the effort it takes to pack up the circus and make the drive...i look forward to (and pray for) many more summers at the cabin.

check back soon for another "at work with dad" post...let me just say for now i could not be more proud of my gresham!

At Work With Dad, a Man Down (again), and Thank You JT[P]!

there are so many things i love about what i do (the flexibility of my schedule, not being simply tied to a desk for 8-9 hours a day, loving on kids and sharing jesus with them, and getting to make my family such a huge part of what i do). the past couple of weeks have been insanely busy, which i have come to expect this time of year. i will say that when i first started (almost 10 years ago now-crazy), i lived in this delusion that if i could just make it through one 'season' or semester, then the one that followed would 'let up' a bit. i just have to laugh about that now for part of the work for the season i may currently find myself in is getting ready for the one that will follow. all that to say (again) that the past couple of weeks have been insanely busy: wrapping up the semester while at the same time getting ready for the summer, hosting the high school baccalaureate, celebrating our graduating seniors, and putting on our annual "spring brunch" fundraiser...

so poor brayden has been battling something lately...he seems to be the one that is always battling something, and when he does it is one of the most heartbreaking things to see. he held on to a fever for about 3 days, which finally broke the other night (praise the Lord). as a help to piper i took gresham to work with me early on sunday morning (we left the house at about 7:15-gresham is a trooper) to put the final touches on getting ready for our annual youth ministry spring brunch. let me just say here how proud i am of our students. they did an amazing job on sunday morning, prepping, serving, and cleaning for about 5 hours. you guys are a blast to work with!

well we celebrated the end of the brunch (and the end of our semester) by having a 20 foot banana split (we've done as many as 60 ft before-thank you timberlake). if you ever have the occasion to either put on such a dessert, or partake in one-then i highly recommend doing so for you have not truly lived until you have eaten a banana split from a rain gutter (and really the only way to do it is 'no utensils/no hands').

and gresham has truly lived.

good times indeed! and following that crazy day, it was such a treat to get to have memorial day off. we trekked out to valle crucis park (can you tell it is a favorite of ours?) with some friends and spent many hours eating, playing, riding big wheels, fishing, and just enjoying a day of sunshine. it was one of those days that make surviving the cold grey of winter here more than worth it. another thing that makes it worth it is to watch our rhododendron bust out each spring (it is the benefit of having hybrids rather than natives-they bloom every spring). they are really breathtaking and are the only thing about the front of our house right now that makes it bearable (thank you puppies).

and i will close by saying that it was such a beautiful day that our little girl decided it would be a PERFECT day to finally model one of the two new HANDMADE outfits that she got from her friend JT[P]. so, JT, on behalf of miss bailey-thank you so much for your gift...you're amazing for thinking of bailey and for taking the time to create such wonderful outfits for her to wear. we love you.

oh and speaking of JT-not [P]. we are heading to charlotte tomorrow night to see the one and only james taylor in concert and we could not be more excited! i've been fortunate enough to see him like 3 other times (twice while in college-i think it was twice) and once when piper and i were still just dating. call it a late birthday present for piper (or just an excuse for us to justify buying the tickets). i'll try and put some pictures up from the show sometime this weekend and i've been working on some video of the kids so check back.

A Weekend of Celeration

as you know, saturday was piper's birthday and what a great day it was to celebrate a birthday! it was a beautiful, warm, sunny after-winter day (we don't really have spring here...we kind of just jump from winter to summer). piper got to spend some time running (which she loves to do) and out doing some birthday shopping w/ her mom (which she also loves to do). from the men in her life she got a pretty sweet (if i do say so myself) cowboy (or cowgirl) hat. she looks pretty dang tough in it; okay it's hot, but i didn't know if you really wanted to hear that. we spent the afternoon (after the boys got up from their nap) out at valle crucis park-again, one of the most beautiful pieces of land up here-with piper's family and my dad and step-mom. the kids (our boys and all of the cousins) played in the river. it is usually pretty tough for me to stand next to a river and not throw a line in it, but watching those kids splash around and skip rocks made me forget about the number of fish there must be within casting distance from where we were (it just gives me an excuse to head back out another day).

the day really made me so thankful for all the ways in which i have been blessed. i have a beautiful bride, 3 children who amaze me on a daily basis (there was a time when i used to try and work from home every now and then, but i have come to realize that it is impossible because my kids are so captivating), live in a place where people come every day to vacation, have a wonderful family beyond my immediate one, and an amazing job that inspires and challenges me more than i deserve.

mother's day was a nice change of pace from our typical sundays. sundays are usually like 14 hour workdays for me, but yesterday we did not have our sunday night youth stuff (mother's day and all), and so when we left church yesterday at lunch time, i was finished for the day...what a blessing. i was able to go home and relax for an afternoon while the boys slept and piper took bailey over to her folks to work on her scrapbooking stuff. what a great day it was.

and now it is monday in every sense of the word...it is like 40 and rainy; VERY windy; and i'm pretty sure that kids know when it is going to be a day of being cooped-up inside b/c they are extra crazy on days like this one. it is like they know that they are going to have to release that energy somehow, so they do so by bouncing off of everything in our house. i just called piper a minute ago to make sure she (well, and our children) was still alive...enough with the winter weather. honestly.

Birthday Wishes...(and a new fence!)

happy birthday piper! i was thinking the other day about the first birthday card i got you (really just a friendly gesture at that point) and how much has changed in the *years since then. each day i am thankful for you; for your strength, for your compassion, for your support of me and this ministry we have been called to, for the way you challenge me, for the way you love our children and the people around us. i am thankful for your patience with me as i continue to stumble through being a husband and a father-you are quite gracious!

*i am not really allowed to say how many years, but i will say piper's years > my years :)

i pray that this year you are more blessed than ever; that you discover even more clearly the purpose the Lord has in who he has created you to be.

happy birthday (and an early happy mother's day).

while it is by no means a professional job (nor do i think it warrants quitting my 'day job' to become a chain link fence installer), i'm pretty proud of what i did accomplish...not without help, mind you. gresham is always a great help (on any project). a note here: the benefit of having an underground fence for the dogs is that i only have to put a length of fence from each back corner of the house to the underground fence line...much better than having to fence-in the entire back yard. we're doing all of this in order to allow the front yard to recover from the dog-trampling it has taken over the past year or so; we're trying to regain a bit of 'curb appeal'

Long overdue...

the past weeks have been pretty busy (between sick, cooped-up children, and getting ready to start one of my busiest months of each year), it has been hard to take the time to sit down and put together an update. i will say that i have been able to update a journey in the meantime as well.

i have a few minutes right now because i am waiting for piper to get back from some errands so i can go and get some tools from the church. my new project is fencing in our backyard (actually just putting one length of fence from each back corner of the house to the line where our underground fence is buried). this will allow us to keep the dogs in the backyard long enough for our front yard to recover. we love them, but they have certainly done a number on the front yard.

while there haven't been any real milestones in the past couple of weeks, i can say that we are all doing well. i think my being able to boast about going all winter without getting even a cold is about to come to and end...i kind of feel like i am writing this from somewhere near the bottom of a well; not enjoyable. a cold is certainly better than the flu though and i am thankful for having escaped without having to fight that fight.

we have seen some more spring-like weather this week and that has allowed us to be outside which we all LOVE. our new thursday afternoon ritual looks like it is shaping up to be this: gresham and i heading out to valle crucis park (if you are in the high country w/ your family and want to spend an afternoon at one of the most beautiful parks in the world, please make it a point to visit) to do a little fishing before piper and the rest of the kids come out (we usually include friends and/or family in this new tradition) to cookout and enjoy a spring evening in the high country. i'm trying to land some pictures from adam from our most recent trip out there and gresham's fish caught from the pond.

speaking of playing...some college friends of ours, chelsea and kelsey (who keep the boys at church on sunday mornings, sunday nights, and wednesday mornings-we're over there a good bit), bought gresham one of the greatest play-things we have ever seen. we refer to it as the 'jumpy-thing.' it is essentially a blow-up raft on steroids and the boys love it. i will say that it was a bear to inflate and it takes up most of bailey's room (we put it in there because she doesn't really 'use' her room right now), but it is so worth having...hours of entertainment! it is so fun watching the boys turn into 'buddies.' on the mornings that gresham goes to preschool while brayden stays home, piper says brayden goes to the door every 30 minutes or so, shrugs his shoulders and asks, 'where gresham?' pals.

on the bailey front, she continues to be such a delight. her brothers absolutely adore

her (of course, she isn't really a 'threat' to their stuff or their space yet). she is such a happy baby, and is always smiling and laughing. we are certainly blessed by her. and speaking of blessed, we were blessed recently by our friend jennifer perry (JT) who just sent us two very amazing little outfits for ms. bailey. she made them, by the way. what a gift. thank you jt. we'll put some pictures up soon of bailey modeling her new digs.

if you think about, pray for us in this month of may. work for me in may is crazy as we move from one end-of-the-year thing to another (all while trying to wrap of the school year and get ready for summer).

Snow in April, another Birthday, and a man down...

every winter, piper threatens to move. well, not really at the start of every winter, but say, more like the middle of march...by that time she has had entirely too many cold, gray, not quite cold enough for snow, but plenty cold for a nasty rain-kind of days; too many days where she feels like she is confined to the house with our three small children. don't get me wrong, she loves our children (they are all quite amazing), but our house at just shy of 1200 square feet fills up VERY quickly when every possible inside toy and activity has been exhausted and it is only 11:30 in the morning. so when it started to snow on sunday afternoon (that would be on sunday APRIL 13th), and then continued to snow off and on into monday, i fully expected to see my wife headed for the door w/ packed bags. all of us are over winter at this point and have had enough of the 'spring teaser' days...we're just plain ready for spring (though that is a very short-lived season here), and eventually summer. i think the circus starts to feel it too...they need some outside time as well...

not to mention the few things in our yard that the puppies haven't destroyed...they do not handle snow in april so well either.

the bright spot in the past couple of days has been that uncle adam has been here all the way from colorado. his plans are to be here for the summer (he is photographing a couple of weddings this summer and has a couple of other things he wants to do on the east coast, so he's planning on staying a while). by the way, if you or someone you know needs a wedding photographer, he's your man. check out his stuff here. at any rate, gresham and brayden both loved having adam here and loved being able to celebrate his birthday with him (as did the rest of us). i also got to take adam out to the river for a bit for his first fly fishing experience. it turned out to be a beautiful day...see spring, that's what i'm talking about. adam came close enough to catching a couple of nice trout to make him begin to fall in love w/ the sport (i told him to wait until he's actually caught one). it was a good day for a birthday.

and now brayden is waaaay under the weather. having sick kids sucks, i'm not going to lie. i don't tend to handle it that well, either. i'm not talking about puke or anything (although i definately don't handle that well AT ALL, but that's an entirely different story), but he's been running a fever and has had a pretty bad cough and is terribly congested. i just can't stand to see him so miserable. i tend to get a little angry about it actually. not at him, just angry b/c he's suffering. like i said, i don't deal w/ my kids being sick that well. it breaks my heart. your prayers are appreciated (for piper as well, she is amazing in all of this, but it certainly tends to wear her out).

Come on Spring...

While the first signs of spring are starting to arrive in the High Country (robins digging for worms, 'Blue Sky' days-see post on 'a journey of [epic] proportions), it is struggling to make itself known in our little yard up on the hill...

the azalea and the daffodils are the only thing that have (as of yet) not suffered under the feet of our wonderful dogs...

So, if i were telling you this face to face, then you would have been able to detect the sarcasm in my voice; it is hard to convey sarcasm in writing. okay, they really are wonderful dogs. we got them labor day weekend of 2006 when they were like 6 weeks old. a litter of lab-mix puppies came in to the pound and we went to pick out one, and left there with two...they have been so great with our little ones and they are great companions to have out in the woods (i'm also trying to teach them how to hang out quietly by the river while i fish, but they are having a hard time grasping this concept). the drawback, of course, has been that they have destroyed our yard. i found some pictures of the house right when we moved in and had totally forgotten that we at one time had grass in it rather than just dirt. so the project this spring will be to confine them to the backyard and try and regain some of our former 'curb appeal.'

as for spring-yesterday was a wonderful day outside; sunny and around 70 degrees. we took the kids to the tot-lot (thank you town of boone), and they played so hard...it was great to watch. during nap-time i got to sneak away for a little bit to do some fishing. it was a great afternoon on the river.

so the forecast for monday and tuesday is SNOW. what?! we used to laugh about this when i was in college...i remember driving back from seeing vertical horizon at ziggy's in winston-salem on my brother's birthday (april 15th) and about the time we got to wilkesboro we were in blizzard-like snow conditions. it was funny then...now it just makes us depressed...so, come on spring-take a stand!

it's 6:30am...

the coffee pot just went off and gresham is sleeping on the couch. we've been up with him since about 4-something. there is perhaps nothing more heartbreaking than watching your child suffer under sickness. each time we find ourselves in such a situation, each time i am wrecked over one of these little ones having an upset stomach or something, i wonder just how much we are loved that the Father would allow Jesus to suffer the way he did...i can't even handle watching one of mine deal with a runny nose. thanks for your prayers.

sleep well buddy.

Party "De-construction" and Bailey update...

a note before i begin: i have come to refer to my children (gresham-newly turned 4, brayden-a monster of a 2 year old, and bailey-a sweet 6 months), as "The Circus;" hence the title of our blog. So if I am talking about a day in our life and I say, "after we put the circus to bed...," you know i am referring (lovingly) to my wonderful children.

as i mentioned in the last post turning 4 has been a huge deal for gresham...i do, however think that he has finally settled into the idea that he is, in fact, 4 now-whether he feels like he is or not. while his birthday was on tuesday we prolonged the celebration (i like for my birthday celebration to last about a week as well) by having the party this past saturday. i would like to take this opportunity to 'publicly' apologize to my wife for being a doubter and a nay-sayer to pulling off such an elaborate shindig. gresham wanted a 'construction' themed party, and that's all piper needed to know...it was on. i would also like to say that she did an amazing job, and a good time was had by all! one of the blessings of working at the church is that we got to host his party there...the space was awesome, although i don't know if the room will ever recover.

in bailey world things are pretty amazing. i know that it was no real secret that was kind of pulling for a 3rd boy, and was actually terrified at the thought of having a girl. i would say that almost EVERYONE i talked to about it said something to the effect of, "she'll have you wrapped around her little finger in no time." okay, dang it. if you were one of the wise sages who said this then you were right. she is amazing! i cannot imagine the collins family without her. the boys love her as well (they have become real pals in the midst of all of this too-really fun to watch). she is perhaps the happiest baby i have ever seen...almost always smiling (which can truly wreck you), and praise the Lord is healthy as well. she is a tad on the small side though (20th percentile as of her most recent appointment). so, she'll be a 'small fry'-we're okay with that.

thanks for keeping up with us.

by the way, i've 'resurrected' an old blog of mine...more about my own thoughts and happenings that i didn't want to subject you to here when you come expecting to read about what is happening in our family. could be life stuff in general, could be ministry related, faith related, fishing related...give it a look if you like.