thoughts from the deep recesses

Highlight(s) of the week: hosting small group at our house Sunday night... it was a classic example of why we do group... sharing life, struggles, joys, pain. And delicious food too. This is a new group for us, so it all feels a little awkward as we begin to open up to each other, but it's good. I am learning to embrace the awkward for the reward of true community. Ministry update: The internship is great... loving our weekly meetings and getting to know the other interns better. What a great group of kids. (I'm the oldy on the team by about 16 years... there's one other adult-ish person on the team - and the pastor who oversees us is in his 30's. But for sure I'm the senior member. So weird.) I'm diving head first into new ministry opportunities - everything from designing and publishing the children's ministry newsletter to deep cleaning and organizing the church kitchen - a MUCH needed and WAY overdue job. When I signed up for the internship I really had

Ethan's Halloween costume... the babe magnet. Kyler - ready to give out candy to little trick-or-treaters. My freshman letterman... now if only he had the cash for the $300 lettermans jacket to put that lovely letter on... anyone need a babysitter? Savannah and her friends scrapbooking at her birthday party... Savannah's haul of LittleMismatched socks, undies and cammies... SO cute! Ice cream sundaes... too bad I didn't manage to clear off the kitchen counters before I took this shot! Don'tcha love her hat? Another b'day present... My favorite shot from her birthday photo shoot... 13 going on 20... She's such a great kid.

Savannah's birthday was yesterday... Lucky girl NEVER has to go to school on her birthday, since November 11th is always Veteran's Day. So we had a sleepover Tuesday night with four of her best friends. The next morning, the girls got up, had birthday donuts, then I took them all down to Riverfront Park and we took oodles of pictures to later come home and scrapbook (after a couple of hours of bowling with Asia while I got the pictures developed...) Each girl went home with a 6 x 6 album filled with their favorite shots of the day. I can't go on enough about what a great group of girls this is... they spent the whole day together with no catty girl stuff... quite an accomplishment for junior high girls... but not unusual at all for this group. They're so fun. I had a blast with them. Can't believe she's thirteen...