Week 47

I missed a couple days this week for pictures and the days I did do seem to be very Rocco focused.  He is just so darn cute!  Everything he does seems picture worthy.

Monday, Nov. 15th

I mentioned last week how gentle and tolerant Woody is of Rocco.

They are great buds.

Dad and Christina picked us up for a Costco run.  And....Five Guys, of course!

Rocco was smoochin' Maddy on the way home.

Wednesday, Nov. 16th
The kids spent some time cleaning up leaves and sticks.  Rocco was hilarious singing away as he worked.

Thursday, Nov. 17th
I found this note on my desk.  A little explanation is needed.  Trevor had spilled his water on my desk which then ran down onto my keyboard tray, thankfully not ruining anything.  However, I discovered the mess a long time later.  So Trevor got in some trouble.  Not for spilling water; accidents happen, but the rule in our house is if you make a mess you need to tell someone right away so it can get cleaned up properly and immediately.   He didn't do that.  The next time I went to use the computer this is what I found:

Friday, Nov. 18th

My 35th birthday.  A weekend birthday...love those!  The day started bright and early.  Lisa picked me up at 6:00am so that we could go to the gym together and then she took me to breakfast.  Certainly not the best picture of us.  Remember, just finished at the gym.

I walked into the house and the kids jumped out from behind the fridge, yelled surprise, and sang happy birthday to me.  Rocco was totally enamored by it all.  He loved the hiding and singing part.

Madison got me started on a treasure hunt with several clues that finally led to this beautiful basket in her room.  The kids had done it all on their own!  The cards, the wrapping- it was really something!

Rocco had the camera.  Remember...just home from the gym.

This is Rocco aiming the camera at ME.

By 9:30am I felt so special and honored.  I didn't need anything else for the day!  But the phone calls, emails, texts, cards, Facebook messages, and even a cookie drop-off from Lil were all very nice.

I'd had a big breakfast and knew that Colombo was taking me out to dinner, so all I really wanted for lunch was ice cream at D.Q.  I thought it would be a nice treat for the kids, too, to celebrate with me.  They ate a little something at the house, then we went to D.Q. for ice cream together.

I had a little snooze with Rocco in the afternoon.  So far, the perfect day!

At 5:00 Colombo headed out to take the kids to his parents for the night.  He handed me this and told me to pick one item for each category of his "Build-A-Date" creation:

We had a lovely date night together- dinner out, a little shopping, and more D.Q.  I came back home to flowers Jules had left on the counter.  It was a very special day.  I feel very blessed to have my health, my family, and my friends.

Week 46

Tuesday, Nov. 9th

Wednesday, Nov. 10th
These two are the best of buds.  They enjoy each other's companionship and love playing together.

Saturday, Nov. 12th
Up from the basement, he came tearing into the kitchen just as proud as could be.  I think he had a little help in the dress-up bin from Maddy.

Sunday, Nov. 14th
We walked / biked / scootered to the park for a bit.  Woody loved running around with the kids.  He really wanted to try the slide, but only made it down the twisty one once with a little shove from the kids.

Rocco took this one:

Woody's been a really great puppy.  He has great instincts.  He's great with all the kids, but especially patient, tolerant, and gentle with Rocco.

One day Trevor was across the street and down the sidewalk just a bit when he took a digger on the scooter and started wailing.  I started my walk over to him to console him.  Woody sat right next to him.  Nathanael had since rode off and Rocco had come running toward me, but Woody sat vigilant right by his side til I got to him.

"Lost In Vegas" Hits the Road

We took Lost in Vegas on the road to Woodbridge, Virginia Nov. 4-6.  It was an incredible trip!  We laughed a lot; we learned a lot!  Twenty-seven cast members, 8 crew, and 15 family members, rounding out a total of 50 people finding their way down to do 2 shows and minister to 1500 people.

There is so much I could write, but I'm gonna let the pictures do the work.  Since Lisa was there, we all have great pictures to remember the trip.  I'm glad that Madison and C4 have these memories.

I drove down with Amy M., Jenn, Abby, Tori, and Madison.  We left at 4:30am hoping to beat the worst of the traffic, but we lost 2 hours at a dead stop behind an accident in Greenwich!  Darn.  But we still got there in time for a little snooze before dress rehearsal. 

And where would we be without our littlest director, Amanda, sporting Amy's heels?

And our fabulous crew...

The hotel was great!  It was small and we were just about the only ones there.  The open courtyard lent itself to lots of time together as a group talking, eating, playing cards, and laughing.

So we performed Saturday night and Sunday night.  We also sang 2 songs during their 2 Sunday morning services.  The fire alarm was pulled during the 2nd so we all had to evacuate.  Our group is very used to fire alarms!

The rest of these are just some of my favorites, most of them are either taken from Facebook or from Lisa.  Not really in any order.

At the Silver Diner after Saturday's show.  Favorite diner memory?  "bring change like a Texas Rayyyainnnn"  David and Stephen had us dying we were laughing so hard.

Born To Be Loved

 After the Saturday night performance, Amy, Jenn, and Abby were trying to take a picture of their heads and Amy's bobby pins caught on Jenn's wig.  They were totally stuck.  They laughed til they cried.  Hilarious.

Maddy doing her thing.  She is just amazing!

LOVE this one!

Playin' cards.

Why we do what we do...Brent makes a plea with the crowd to choose the Love of Christ.  A Divine Romance with the God of the Universe who desires an intimate relationship with every single one of us.

The church was very hospitable providing snacks before and lots of roses at the close.

Teardown was a big job, but we had the most help to date helping, it was our 3rd time, and we had a couple of smart guys, Shaun and Kevin, behind the planning of it.  It went smoothly and quickly.

 I left tear down at midnight.  #1 it was only heavy lifting stuff to do.  #2 I wanted to get a good night sleep to drive home Monday.  Both the kids chose to stay with Amy.  They went to Denny's after they were done and got back to the hotel at 3am!!!

Lots and lots of happy memories for us all.  I'm so thankful to God, of course, but also to Brent for this avenue of ministry to participate in; to regularly present the gospel to hundreds and even thousands of people who would not otherwise walk through the doors of a church.  It is a joy and honor to work with him, as well as the entire cast of volunteers who collaborate so well together.  Really, really good times!