Bunny Mania

Cliff and I will soon be the proud owners of a bunny rabbit! For over a year now I have been begging Cliff for a bunny. It has taken him that long to come around to the idea and actually let us have one. :) It really makes me laugh just thinking about it because I honestly didn't think he'd say yes. A family in our church brought a basket of 6 baby bunnies to one of our children's events several weeks ago. They were so cute and tiny! Those bunnies are now about 5 weeks old and will be ready to find homes in a week or two. The owners actually brought three of them up to see me at the church last week. Cliff and I have been catching quite a bit of flack about this bunny stuff from the church staff. It has definitely been the running joke around here. Out pastor has researched rabbits and their care for the past couple of weeks. I think he called Cliff four times yesterday about the construction of a cage!

I'll definitely post pictures when the bunny arrives. Cliff has bravely committed to building a rabbit cage...it'll be an outside bunny so we've got to make it work for both summer and winter. I've got everyone on board on this bunny venture! One of Cliff's interns brought me a Guide to The Rabbit from her personal library...Haha! I am sure it is driving Cliff crazy!

In other news-

• Cliff is gearing up for GA Camp next week-Day camp on Monday and Overnight camp Tuesday through Thursday for the older girls. He is the camp pastor so he'll be speaking each night.
• Debbie and Kimberly are coming!!! They will be staying with us over the 4th of July weekend and we'll get to celebrate Kimberly's birthday together. :)
• I finish my internship hours this week and I am taking a vacation from work. I'll be off Thursday, Friday and Monday. Woohoo!

July will be a busy month with lots of Children's activities. I am looking forward to the fun days ahead!

Family Fun Night FBC Amarillo

Tonight we had Family Fun Night. It is a big carnival type thing for the community and everyone involved in VBS this week. We had a huge turn out! Cliff spent some time in the dunking booth and all of the kids loved getting him soaked! :) Everything was shut down about 8:30 at which time a huge storm started blowing in. We rushed to get everything torn down and about 9 it started pouring. We rushed to the car and got home. The poor company who supplied all of the games were left to finish up in the rain.

We had over 1000 kids and workers this week at VBS. Everyone has raved at how organized and well done everything was. I am so proud of Cliff! The kids have had a blast and 10 kids accepted Jesus today! Below are some pics of the event from tonight.

Below is our pastor in his cart. He uses this to check out the construction that is happening all around our building! Howie is such a fun pastor.

Below is Cliff with our music minister Dan Baker. Dan was about to take over in the dunking booth.

Below is Abbey on the left. Abbey is Cliff's intern this summer and Robbie has worked with Cliff this past year. They are so fun to be around!

And I just had to get a picture of these kids enjoying their snow cones and hot dogs. The three kids on the right are some of our staff kids. The little girl in the pink is Callie, then Hudson with his tongue out and Miles on the right.

Dad and His New Hip

My Dad had hip replacement surgery yesterday. If you follow me on facebook I updated several times yesterday to let everyone know how he's doing. The surgery went great. The doctor told Mom that he couldn't believe that Dad had still been walking. His hip had awful deterioration! Bart McDonald, pastor of my home church, took the pic of Dad before he was taken in to surgery. I'm so thankful he had a roomful of people to make him laugh before going under.

God is so good and got Dad through the operation. Please continue to pray for Mom and Dad the next several weeks. Dad has had physical therapy this morning and this afternoon. He was up and walking on his hip today. It sounds like it was very painful for him and made him nauseaus! I don't think he or Mom slept much last night. I bet he'll be worn out after today though! Mom sounded really tired this morning, but when I talked to her around lunch time she sounded better. She had been home, excercised and showered!

Dad has quite the painful road ahead of him, but he'll be a different man before too long! I can't wait to give him a hug this weekend and see him walking. Please say a prayer for him if you think about it!

Lorin and Phil's wedding weekend

This weekend Cliff and I got to spend lots of time with wonderful friends! Andy, Jennifer and Olivia stayed two nights with us. Then at Phil and Lorin's wedding we were able to see lots of college friends it was awesome!

Below are Kristen and Jamie. Sweet, sweet girls!

Me and Kalie!

Carol and Audrey Boren

Brandi, Ashley and Lindsay

Joe, Cliff and Hannah

Cliff and Andy...good times

Beautiful Lorin throwing bouquet.

Jennifer and Cliff

Kalie and Crystal Moreno

Cliff and his Brownwood girls! Audrey and Olivia

It was such a refreshing time to be with friends!

DAY 1 VBS

DAY 1 of VBS is about half way over. Cliff got up this morning around 5:30 and was out of the house some time after 6. I've seen him once this morning. He said it is all going well so far. He was definitely in Children's Minister mode at the time with his walky talky blaring! :) I hope he's having fun. Thankfully he'll get the afternoons to recoup and be ready again for tomorrow morning.

I'm here manning the receptionist desk. I'm bummed to be missing out on the fun of the day! All of those sweet kids and sweaty hugs! I'm going to try to get down to the opening session on Wednesday to see the masses of kids and leaders. Next year, whatever I'm doing...I'm taking off and will be at VBS all day every day! 2010 here I come!

I'm remembering this week last year and missing Grandmama! My heart is heavy with the remembering, but I am so thankful to know that she is with Jesus rejoicing and watching over us all! She has never been happier than she is now being loved completely by Jesus.

I'll try to get some pictures of the week to post here later.

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby!

Today is Dakota's 1st birthday! It is a bittersweet day for me because I want to be there giving her kisses so badly! She is having her birthday party tomorrow. Aaron and Trish will enjoy having friends and family over to celebrate and Dakota will get to have some cake!

Cliff and I rushed to Arlington on June 5th last year after hearing news that Dakota was on her way via c-section. We were barely out of town when Aaron called to say he was looking at his gorgeous baby girl! That night storms were sweeping across the panhandle from Amarillo towards Arlington...our route to welcome Dakota. We did not arrive in Arlington until 3:30AM! Three hours were spent on the highway that had become a parking lot after power lines were blown down by the storm. I will never forget that night. So many emotions for me and also one really full bladder sitting on that highway! I was so excited that God had brought Dakota safely in to this world and that Trish was doing fine. I remember looking at a photo of her that Aaron texted me just minutes after her birth. I was so proud of my big brother who had become a Daddy!

We got up early that next morning and headed to the hospital where Cliff and I got to hold her for the first time. Those were fun times in the hospital!

Here is Dakota the morning after her birht. She had the most perfect skin and the sweetest lips!

Trish and Dakota surprised Cliff and I when Dakota was one year old by hopping in with Mom and Dad when they came to visit. I remember opening my front door and there stood Trish and Dakota! That was truly the best surprise ever. I am so grateful for those few days spent loving on them.

And then in February of this year we all got to be together for a whole week skiing in Steamboat. Dakota was so fun to travel with! Below she and Na-Na are hanging out making a mess while everyone else is sledding!

We are also celebrating Ruby's birthday this week! She turns one on the 9th. Aaron and Churck were born 20 days apart and their first daughters were born only four days apart. Such a fun time! Below is sweet Ruby enjoying her birthday party they had this week!

Dakota and Ruby, Uncle Cliff and Aunt Jess love you very much! We are celebrating your lives today and are praying blessings for the years to come.

Bored

I was going to wait to post until I got pictures from the wedding last weekend, but I am soooo BORED right now at work I have to do something. I read through all of the blogs I read already this morning...I've worn facebook out...and I've checked the few newspapers I read online.....I'm back from lunch and wondering what I'm going to do the rest of the day here at the desk. The phone isn't ringing that much so here I sit.

I wish I had a book!! Does anyone know of a place to find free books online to read???

I had a blast this weekend in Georgia. It was so good to be with friends...and not just any type of friend...but the kind that will be friends forever. I saw three friends that I grew up with since the nursery. Murph, Laura Fillingim and of course Emily! We also got to see the Hankins family, Larry and Ann Fillingim and Kim Andrews! Woohoo!

Emily's wedding was beautiful. She was absolutely gorgeous and I pray that God protects her and that she will follow him for her future.

Cliff is knee deep (maybe neck deep) in VBS right now. I am realizing more and more that summers around here will be extremely busy. It is not the restful time that it is for most. Cliff is in work mode and nothing can deter him. It sure pays off though because yesterday the children's staff took 75 kids to see a movie in Canyon. They definitley weren't expecting that many! Robbie Byrd (Cliff's prescious side kick whom I love) planned the whole event and did great.

June 15-19 is VBS. Then after that it'll be a busy time of other summer stuff. There are several fun days, camp is in July, a sports camp and then Cliff leaves for Kenya the first of August.

I'll be watching most of this from the sidelines of my desk job/internship. :) I will get to be at camp and I am really excited about it! I know it'll be awesome.

That's all for now...I guess I could type and type, but really...who wants to read all of that! I'm off to find some other interesting web sites.