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.