i know its been a while, but it seems like we hit the ground running here in montgomery. the blessing of living closer to family is that we have seen my family a total of 5 times in two months and bret's family 3 times. that in itself is amazing. so much has happend in the last two months of living here. a new friend and i put together a little summer schedule of free and very inexpensive things to do this simmer to keep us accountable and not on the couch in a new place. its very easy to just retreat in a new environment, so with our little summer fun schedule (that is completely tentative, but our kids usually hold us to it) we are having lots of fun and making some really great friends along the way. in the last few months my family came to visit us. bret's mom and youngest sister with her family came to visit us. i kept two of their children for about four days and had 5 children. they were so good and we had such a fun time. i had my thirtieth birthday and once again was reminded of the amazing husband i have. he helped orchestrate quite a suprise and completely got me. i got to see my best buds from my days in tx for a girls weekend in nashville. it was without a doubt one of my most treasured times ever! i enjoyed a great date night alone with my husband. first one in almost two years. we had burgers and saw get smart, which was hillarious! my mom and sisters completely had me fooled about my suprise party down to the moment we pulled into the drive and noticed relatives from illinois walking into the fellowship hall. i cried at the sweetness of everyone!! we came back home and had VBS all week with our new church. it was a lot of fun. bret and i lead the kids worship time at the beginning and end. it reminded us both of the great gift of teamwork god gave us as a couple. i would love it if i could work with him everyday, and i don't think he would mind it either. we really like each other and that is such a sweet blessing. we spent last week in nashville for the barbershop internaional convention. it was quite fun. my family took care of my kids which was so nice and my kids had a blast form start to finish. bret' quartet did not place as high as they wished but they did amazing amid the steep competition they were up against. i am very proud of them. one night as we were leaving the convention at about 11:45 pm, a couple in their late 80's was struggling up the hill to their car. i asked the lady if she would like to take my arm and before the words were completely out of my mouth, she was hanging on for dear life. as i asked where their car was, the little old man laughed and said, "well, that's our problem. we don't know where it is." we then embarked on an hour long journey of driving them around downtown nashville looking for their car. finally around 1 am, they found it. we don't know what happened with them from that point on. we looked for them all week and never saw them. all i kept seeing was bret and me in about 50 years and i kept praying, "God, if this is ever us, please let someone stop and help us! " bret's mom ended up getting lost one night, and we lost the the garage door opener to the house we were staying at, too. we did finally find it and nancy did finally find her way to her daughter's apartment, but i think maybe we experinced our our modern day lost parables : the lost garage door opener (coin), the lost sheep (elderly couple) and the lost mother in law (son). i am confident there is something God is or was trying to teach us during it all, but at this moment i have yet to see it fully. i also really enjoyed getting to know bret's quartet guys and the wives. it was so much fun. we stayed out until 5:30 am sunday morning hanging out after the convention with all kids of people talking and singing tags and such. it was quite a site to see, but i really had so much fun. bret and i stipped at krystal for an early morning snack and watch the sun come up on our way back to the house we were staying in. it really was the kind of night memories are made and cherished. while we were in nashville we also got to join our praise team in leading worship for the early morning session at the lipscomb lectures. they were incredible and everyone complimented them so much. i am so glad they got to have such a great experience for their first time leading worship for someone other than vaughn park. they are such a blast to be around. and i experience the best pizza ever with them at maffiazos on granny white in nashville. if your are ever in the neighborhood, try it!!! we also got to meet katie's husband who has been in iraq for 9 months at the airport while he is in for an 18 day r and r time. it is amazing that we were able to cram so much into 6 days, but i was oh so fun!!!
finally, micah turned 7 yesterday. we have been celebrating since saturday with a family party at the park. monday we played games all day and yesterday we went to see a free movie and had free lunch at chick fil a. ( i had coupons to cover our entire meal and there was still leftovers!!!) we invited his newest best buddines to come over for dinner and then their parents left and the spent the night. the played bowling all night and then we go t up this morning and went to do the real thing at a bowling alley here that has wednesday buck and bowl. now they are resting soundly upstairs and i am taking the first break i have had the chance to take in a few weeks. i will post some pictures soon! but for now, i will go join my children in a nap before we leave for church this evening.