Separation Makes the Heart Grow Fonder...

I figured that can be the only explanation for me not blogging in nearly TWO months. I haven't taken the time to check the archive to see if I've had a longer absence, but I gotta assume it's close.

Erin tends to fill you all in on things in a much more timely fashion, so I won't bore you with a lot of redundancy. I will say though...

Gathering. Amazing. What a blessing for our church to give its youth this opportunity to worship, fellowship, experience, and display God's amazing love for us! I am hoping to make it an opportunity that our students whose churches are not going are able to experience.

Jana and Mike's Wedding. Golf was so, so. (I was horrible on the back nine.) We did get Mike to rehearsal "in time." Or, at least the ceremony still took place the next day. God has truly blessed me with awesome brothers-in-law, no matter WHO they root for! And as for the reception, all I gotta say is..."UP ALL NIGHT! SLEEP ALL DAY!"

School. I missed the first two days of meetings while we were in Wisconsin. Darn. (Teachers: Note the sarcasm.) I have been moved into my third office in four years. I was behind from the get go. (Hence the lack of blog production.) We have "survived" the first three weeks, including Senior Retreat (we tied them together at the wrists for dinner...very entertaining), numerous new policies to enforce (Student: "What's with all you actually enforcing the rules? This school used to be cool." Teacher: "Kinda the point my friend."), and just finished this afternoon...Freshmen Retreat (92 junior high types trying to figure out how they fit in to this strange new world). Of course, you might expect this to mean that I can now relax, catch myself up, and enjoy the rest of the fall. Oh, my silly, silly friend, you are obviously NOT a teacher. Baseball planning will be in full swing, and...oh yeah, I have the chapel message on Wednesday, any ideas?

(I almost forgot to mention! We started a new small group ministry at CLHS. It is "C.L.I.C.s", Crusaders Living in Christ. Any advice on small groups is appreciated! I am very excited about it, as are my small group leaders. We will see where the Lord takes it!)

We missed Luke's birthday party but got the 411 from his mom. Sounds like it was a great time! Maybe next year we can have the party here!

We continue to hold out hope that either of our beloved teams will not have taken us on a wild goose chase this summer and there will be actual playoff games with meaning in our household.

If that doesn't transpire, I can take comfort in the fact that the Dish Network gods have heeded my cries and we have the "Big Ten Network" in our package. (Nanner, nanner those of you in the midwest who continue to reap the sad results of cable haggling!)

Hopefully it doesn't take two months to update this thing...but just in case...

Happy Halloween, Reformation Day, All Saint's Day...

Speaking of "Up All Night", one of my favorite seniors tries to cheer me up after the freshmen kept me up until 4:30 a.m. Despite my reaction, I appreciated the gesture.

Maddie "Sleeps All Night" in the lower half of the bunk bed her and Emma will share. Of course Mom decided she needed to put it together while Dad was away at retreat. What an over acheiver!