Tribe ROCKS!

Last night we got to do the coolest thing... we got to walk the warning track at Progressive Field before the Tribe game!! I bet you're wondering how we got to do this. Well, we bought tickets through my friend Jeff's baseball league. Anyone who bought tickets through them got to walk the warning track. We had to get there really early, but it was worth it!! We even got to wave to my dad in the stands. Me & Jeff split blue cotton candy. Yum! They sold over 40,000 hot dogs that night because it was $1 hot dogs. That's crazy! --O

Hello/Goodbye

We got to spend a little time with some of our favorite people in the whole wide world this weekend, people we hardly ever get to see. First, Jessica & Jackson came for the day on Friday. For a brief moment, it was as though they had never left.... O & Jack picked up right where they'd left off last summer, playing happily all day, and Jess & I got to do what we do best, which is to talk. It was such a treat! Then P & I got to see them (and Deacon) again on Saturday night, when Jess & her brother Tim appeared in concert as "You're Not My Mom" at Prelude Coffeehouse. They are both fabulous singers but realized recently that they had never performed together. So Tim assembled an awesome band, they collaborated on a set list, and a truly beautiful night of music was created! When they get it on YouTube, I'll post a link so you can see/hear for yourselves. Saying goodbye after the show was, I think, harder than saying goodbye when they left for Texas last year. Having them here made me profoundly aware of the hole it left in our lives when they moved. We miss them. A LOT.

Then on Sunday, we got to reconnect with the Silliman/Pickerill family. This is my BFF from high school, Julia. She and her family are leaving this week on a great adventure to Amsterdam to do a church plant for Vineyard, where Eric has been on staff for more than a decade. We had not seen each other since O was a baby, although we'd communicated in bits & spurts over the years. But when we walked into the clubhouse where her folks were having a little going-away party for them, it was just like old times. We had a wonderful afternoon, catching up, swapping stories, watching the kids play, and saying goodbye. Hello, goodbye.... just like that. I was left wondering how it happens that these beautiful friends who you love so intensely come & go from your life without you really recognizing that it's happening until you've moved on to the next stage. Suddenly, they're "old friends." When did that happen?!? What a blessing that we get to have them in our lives at all, I suppose. Although the awareness I had this weekend of them coming & going brought lots of tears. These two friends in particular--Jessica & Julia--have been two of the most obvious examples of God's hand in my life. There's a quote I love from Anne Lamott's book Traveling Mercies that sums up quite well who they are for me...

"My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt & fear. When I look back at some of these early resting places… I can see how flimsy and indirect a path they made. Yet each step brought me closer to the verdant pad of faith on which I somehow stay afloat today. "

They are two of the biggest, strongest lilypads on the pond of my life. How great is our God for growing them there.

All-Time Greats

Last night was one of those all-time great nights... we wrapped up a fabulous rainless week of VBS with a church-family campout in God's Big Backyard. About 55 people spent the night in our little FCC tent city. Some others stuck around for a special showing of "Good Boy" on the home-made Jumbotron (which I forgot to take a picture of, but boy was that a contraption to behold!!) and then went home to their own beds. The kids ran amok, full of hotdogs & s'mores, the grown-ups hung out 'round the fire, and a great time was had by all. It was one of those nights full of moments when you just know you're right where you're supposed to be.



There's our cozy little tent, which had serious tent envy of the big, giant multi-room tents that the serious campers brought, but for now we fit in it quite fine. Believe it or not, it was P's first-ever night in a tent. The verdict is that there will be more tent nights to come! In fact, this morning over donuts a plan was hatched for a church-family weekend camping trip in the fall. Can't wait for that!

VBS Day 2

Here we are... ketchup & mustard!

You may be wondering, "Why???" Best answer is that we're freaks for VBS. But I'll try to explain... The day's overall theme was "Serve Friends." We extrapolated that to "Friends, like condiments, spice up your life. Serve them often!" Yes, it's a stretch, but it's FUN!!!

Oh, and we may be in the local paper in our ketchup & mustard costumes!!! A reporter was out taking pictures of the kids painting our Tent of Hope, and the tent happened to be set up next to our games area. The reporter decided that the games looked like so much fun that he took some pics of kids playing Squirt Tag and chatted with us awhile, too.

FYI, Tents of Hope is a very cool program that our Missions Coordiator is heading up with a few other local churches. Check it out: http://www.tentsofhope.org/index.html

VBS = Very Busy Schedule

We are having fun in God's Big Backyard every night this week at Vacation Bible School. My friend Jill & I are in charge of games again and having a ball as usual. We know from experience that we will be brain-fried by mid-week and that we will accomplish nothing but VBS this week, but it is so worth it. On the left here is Jill-Bug giving game instructions last night. She was a ladybug & I was a bee. On the right are some kids playing "Exterminator" and trying to get plastic bugs out of the pool using their monkey-toes. FUN!!

VBS Spoiler Alert: tonight we are going to be ketchup & mustard :) I'll try to remember to get someone to take our picture, as I was disappointed that I forgot to get one last night.

Art Week Fun

It's Art Week here, which means that at noon every day there's a kid-and-art-centered event on the square, and every evening there's a concert. Not being ones to pass on the free fun, we took in a magic show on Tuesday! We went with neighbors and also ran into some church friends, and a good time was had by all. After the show, Nate the Great made balloon animals for about 100 kids, which was an amazing display of lung capacity on his part & of patience on the part of the kids. I had to laugh at the fact that our neighbor friends (both girls) got cute little balloon animals, while O (and most of the other boys in attendance), got big giant balloon swords.

Other entries from the Fun Journal this week.... seeing Night at the Museum at the Regal Free Movies, having a friend over to play Legos, playing two baseball games, meeting baby Kate (our newest neighbor), splashing with friends at the Splash Pad, and spending a long afternoon at the pool.

How to leave a comment...

I really wish more people would leave us comments on the blog. So, here are some directions:

1. Click on where it says # comments at the end of a posting.
2. Leave your comment.
3. Enter the secret word in the "word verification" box.
4. Choose an identity. If you choose "name/URL" you can just type in whatever name you want to use.
5. Click on "publish your comment."

Now go leave us a comment!!!

--O

Three glorious days in Corolla!

And I also got the Corolla pics on Smugmug...
http://spando.smugmug.com/gallery/5377301_od4Jb/1/329366720_jdVss

Enjoy!
--S

McCoy Fest 2008--Hertford, NC

Finally got the Hertford pics on Smugmug! Here ya go...

http://spando.smugmug.com/gallery/5374944_ffvCK/1/329206552_9mPsr

WHAM-O Fun!

Few people have more fun than Aunt Patty & Uncle Chris do. And when they have a new slip & slide to play with, well, there's no stopping them. Throw in Patty's sister Kathy, her husband Rick, SPandO and neighbor friend Langston, and it's WHAM-O Fun for everyone!!!

Because of the broken toe, P could not join the fun. So instead he took (no exaggeration) 500 pictures of the hijinx. It took me a long time to sort through them because I was laughing hysterically, but these are a select few for your enjoyment!

http://spando.smugmug.com/gallery/5364824_JxJQ8/1/328381671_EDRE3

Fun, Fun, Fun

In no particular order, here is a list of all the things we loved about our vacation....

• Riding in Frank's boat
• Tubing behind Frank's boat
• Playing in the ocean, pools & lazy river in Corolla
• Slip & sliding in Woodbridge
• Going off the diving board in Woodbridge (and the underwater dupa viewing, too!)
• Woodard's Pharmacy 60 cent ice cream cones
• The Lost Colony play
• Fort Raleigh
• NC Aquarium at Manteo (finding shark teeth in the fossil pit)
• Wright Brothers Memorial in Kill Devil Hills
• Adding to our crushed penny collection and getting stamps in our National Parks Passport
• Going to see WALL-E
• Fishing
• Kayaking
• Swimming in the Perquimans River
• Boogie boarding
• Fireworks in Hertford
• Celebrating Sophie's first birthday
• Listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the car
• Food! Frank's ribs, Duck Deli, Auntie E's cupcakes, crab cakes, sweet tea, hush puppies.... Mmmm....
• Looking for bears, red wolves and alligators (oh, my!) along Hwy 64
• Watching the river & hanging out with family on the back porch
• "EVERYTHING!!!"--O

You'll notice "coming home" did not make the list. We are very, very slowly adjusting. We'll post some more vacation pics soon.... there are literally 1,000 to sort through, so it may take awhile! If you were on vacation with us, leave a comment with some of your favorites!!!

--SPandO