The beginning of fall

We're into the new schedule now. I am only working outside our home two (can you believe it???) days a week and spending the rest of the time at home w/the kiddos. Carrie Tucker and Jane are our new nannies (really Jane does quite a bit of the kid wrangling from what I hear) and they are doing a WONDERFUL job. Our previous nanny got married (yay Miss Jenn!) I am so thankful for them both, not only providing consistent care for my kids, but also loving, fun people for them to be around. It's good for them also to learn to get along with other kids.Cass has been doing a lot with his music lately, mixing the 50th reunion jam w/Chris Moore, which sounds remarkably well for being recorded live outdoors when it was oh, about 150 degrees out (Ben? where are you when we need you, exaggeration coordinator?). Especially the Let Love take. I can't wait for you guys to hear it. Maybe he can get it up on his site soon. It is really exciting to see the Lord developing Cass's talents and building his confidence to the point of being able to share more w/others. I am very excited to see what He will bring next.
I am loving my counseling job. I meet the most incredible people. Sure they have their problems (like we all do) but they are humble enough to deal with them and exhibit incredible strength despite their plights. Really amazing. Most days (not all) I come home so full of hope for both them and myself in my own struggles.

Lately I have been missing my bro and sis a ton over there in S. Korea. I know they followed the Lord there, but it is a killer not to experience just the little everyday things with them, like laughing at the kids' dancing or drinking Cass's incredible sweet tea on the front porch. I am so glad they only have a few more months left.

We are heading off on vacation with our best friends soon, to Twin Lakes, CO, in little bear lodge for a time of rest, relaxation, and hopefully some incredible road biking and hiking. We can't wait and we are sure the kids will have the time of their lives with the MiMi, Papa, Nanny and Pops.

India also starts preschool this week. I can hardly believe it. I think I might actually be sad when she goes, but I'm going to do my best not to let her see it. When I visited her classroom I couldn't stop thinking about how hard it is going to be to get her to want to come home at the end of the day. The fun and toys lined up for her look incredible.

Oh, and Cass and I did our very first bike race together, 25 miles of the the Hotter'n'Hell Hundred, in Wichita Falls, TX. (like my race-car helmet?) The temp wasn't really too bad and we had a lot of fun. Cass only wrecked once, and it was during the nation anthem before we even started, but I think he was just trying to make the 8-yr-old next to him feel better for doing the same thing. We were both really impressed w/our other friends who did the 100 mile race. Luke and Geoff were right around 5 hrs and although it took Ben around 9 hrs, he showed some incredible tenacity in finishing.

3 Weeks and Counting

3 weeks till the NLR 50th reunion. 3 weeks till I'm done coaching. 3 weeks until we get to relax.

Every week we lead off with an MSM that seems pretty normal. No big bumps, a few busy nights, maybe a weekend adventure. But by Thursday half our hairs have been plucked out and we lay melting into the coach well before 10. Are we old already?

But we're in this for the long haul, so here's how we're going to make it... wake up, pray for a moment before leaping out of bed and stumbling bleary eyed off to work with a quick wink at the babysitter and a sly sneak out the back door to avoid elephant tears and break-your-heart goodbyes. Then a whirlwind of activities and bust-your-eardrums mealtimes in the dining hall, with entertainment to spare, to a quick dip in the quickly-becoming-bathwater feeling NLR pool and a chilly rinse in the outdoor shower before sliding between the sheets dog tired to rest up for the next day. And if you're lucky we'll have a moment or two of complete silence while we stare each other in the eye and marvel at how in the heck we got this far (almost 7 years now!) with so many blessings.

The Lord is good. Before we know it, the 50th will be here and Cass and his beautiful patchwork band will be playing their hearts out and the rest of us will be standing there, swaying in awe of all that God is and all that he has been for us and all that he has brought us through, knowing that there is so much more grace to come.

Omaha...somewhere in middle America

So we just got back from the USA Swimming Olympic Trials in Omaha. Never been to Omaha, but I won't dread a return trip; it actually wasn't too bad of a town. They had a big storm blow through the night before with 100 mph winds that caused a lot of damage, so it looked a little like a warzone when we first rolled in.
We attended the 2nd day of the trials. If you aren't familiar with the trials it's pretty easy to understand: if you want to swim in the Olympics for USA, you have to swim and place in the trials. All the big names were there. It was really cool. We saw 2 world records beaten which was awesome. The place went crazy. Brandi took some cool pictures of some of the athletes from our nose-bleed seats. I was impressed with the zoom on our camera.

Above is a shot of Michael Phelps getting ready to take the block
Below is Katie Hoff

Water

It's either falling at great rates from the sky, or disappearing from our holding tanks. How can you have too much and not enough of the same thing? On Wednesday morning, I got a call that there was no running water in half of the camp. Not good. I checked one of our tanks which holds approx 22,000 gallons and it was empty. Not good. After spending much of the day looking for a leak, we figured out that the pump 360 feet in the ground that fed that holding tank wasn't pumping the volume of water it normally did. The pump had finally wore out. It was good to find the source of the problem but pulling and replacing pumps is expensive. The bright side of this is that because of the rain we've had, our underground aquifers were providing plenty of water to our other tanks to keep up with the demand at camp. Thank the Lord for providing. Today I'm enjoying a day off at home.

Camp has begun

It's official...237 campers showed up on Sunday and we kicked off another summer season! It started out a little rocky on Sunday morning. Right after I signed off, it began raining harder than it has in a long time and it flooded two of our basements. We have an incredible staff here that all pulled together to get stuff cleaned up. By the time the campers arrived, it was hard to notice it had rained so hard here. Praise God he spared us from any worse flooding! Please pray for us as we enter into this season. Every area of our ministry is affected in some way with this much going on. Kevin, our food service coordinator said they fed 467 people at lunch yesterday! Whoa!

1st day of camp

It's Sunday morning and we're hanging out with the kids while they act like monkeys. I was going to mow, but it's raining, and I'd rather be doing this anyway.
Today is the first day of camp. It's an awesome time around here. Anticipation is high. Jude is playing the harmonica. India is strumming a guitar that plays metal music while she sings Jesus Loves Me at the top of her lungs. It's a good day
OK, back to the madness!