merry christmas!!

i freakin' love christmas, the whole season. i love the smell of christmas trees, i love christmas music (which is a point of contention in our household, by the way- dave doesnt like my christmas music...can you imagine?), i love christmas lights, i love the colors red and green, i love christmas candles, i love christmas ornaments, i love christmas gift wrap (is that weird?) and i LOVE getting christmas cards in the mail. so, if any of you havent sent one over, its not too late. or if you werent even planning to send us a christmas card, but you have extra, theyre all welcome. our address is 231o elliott ave. #506 nashville 37204. please feel the freedom (and the urge)...

we're about to head to knoxville for the holiday...just cant wait. the barnes family spells F-U-N. (we actually verbally spell it out before we open christmas gifts...its strange, but awesome.) although, i must admit, it doesnt get any easier to spend christmas away from my fam. does that happen to everyone??

ill finish my posting about africa after the holidays...im still in the processing phase. yesterday was the first day that i didnt cry...im slowly getting back to normal. here are some things to look forward to:

1. barrett ward on a camel. (that will always be #1, by the way)

2. baby elephant orphanage

3. really, really small planes

4. and the little girl who stole my heart, abuk.

merry christmas yall. hope you have wonderful family time...and i pray that we will all remember what we are celebrating and how blessed we are!!

italy part II

although a handful of pictures and a few words could never do our time in italy justice, im making an honorable attempt.


this first picture is of us outside our hotel in florence. we stayed in one of the most well known piazzas in all of italy, piazza della signoria. its in the center of florence- our hotel was next door to the uffizi, 2 blocks from the ponte veccchio, 4 blocks from the duomo...it was awesome. they even had tons of individually wrapped, extra large tic tacs...yes, they were free and believe me, i took the liberty of stocking up.





the next picture is in lucca. we had to document the view from our tiny little rental car as we (dave actually) were driving through the streets. lucca was one of my favorites. we got there as the sun was setting, and it was exactly what you would imagine as a little romantic italian town during christmas time. there were lights strung all around the city, there were string quartets playing in the squares...it was perfect :)



the next pic was in sienna, the heart of tuscany. although we look immensly happy and carefree,
at this point we were totally lost and we had no
idea where we had parked our car. hmm...how do you lose a car?i dont know, but it happened to us in 2 different towns, so it must be easier that you would think.
it really wasnt so bad because i mean, we were in italy.






i had to include at least one picture of a duomo
(cathedral,) even if its not the most entertaining
thing to look at...every town has a duomo. they are just so beautiful.
most of them have very elaborate artwork oftentimes portraying specific scenes from the bible. dave and i would have competitions to see who could figure out the stories first. this particular one is in orvieto. the inside is all black and white marble...loved it.








this last picture is also of orvieto...i had to show yall what these towns looked like with the christmas lights everywhere. it was awesome. all the little streets had lights strung from one side to the other and it definitely got us in the spirit (although i was missing my christmas music!)


well, there it is...a rough summary of our wonderful week in italy :) it was definitely one of the best weeks we have ever had. wouldnt trade it for anything...

after the week was over, we flew from rome to nairobi thus beginning the africa leg of our 3 week world tour...more to come...

we're home!

man, this particular post is so daunting...i dont even know where to begin.

our trip? incredible. unbelievable. life-changing. it couldnt have been better.

as you can imagine, i have a LOT to share. too much, really. at least too much for this format. i still havent even processed most of it. in fact, every time i look at pictures from our time in the sudan, tears come to my eyes. im sure that will fade away, but i pray that the reason behind it never will.

ive decided to blog about our trip piece by piece. that will be easier for all of us. plus, it will give me time to figure out how to possibly convey into words what i saw, learned, felt, and experienced in africa.



so we start with italy. we were there for a week, and i cant remember ever having more fun with dave. we had a blast. im so thankful for that time. sometimes you just need to get away and be together. we learned new stuff about eachother, we laughed (a LOT), we cried...we made memories. it was an adventure!

these are some pics from our first few days...im going to try to spare you the 350 pictures we took of the things you see in textbooks and just show you some of the either cool, artsy pics (courtesy of dave) or ones with people (mostly just dave and me) in them.

the first picture is of 2 statues with the moon between them (im afraid you are going to be robbed of the chance to appreciate the full value of this shot due to the fact that it has to be sized down so much for this blog.)

the second pic is of this random church off the beaten path. we happened to walk in as the sun was going down and we got some really awesome pictures. thats what i love about rome- there's
cool stuff everywhere you look, even if its not even mentioned in the "let's go italy" book.

then we have a picture of us with toy (o'ferrall) and doug harmon- we met up with them for a night of dinner, gelato, and lots of wonderful conversation. they live in a church steeple overlooking a famous piazza in rome.
that night was awesome. we didnt want it to end.

and lastly, a picture of the famous leaning tower
in pisa. the most memorable thing for us about pisa was getting stuck driving on tiny one way streets in the middle of the city. people were having to move out of our way...it was crazy. i thought dave was going to have a heart attack.

just realized that this post could go on and on just about italy...so, italy part II is coming you way soon...stay tuned :)

off we go...

in just a few short hours, we will be boarding a plane to italy...wow. its hard to believe considering that still have SO much to do and i wanted to go to sleep 45 minutes ago. i should know by now that my plans dont typically work out. for some reason (?) the Lord usually sees it differently. hmm...

anyways, we are headed overseas. before i say anything else, let me make one request. please pray for us over the next few weeks. theres a lot in store for our hearts, eyes, and emotions...

we are spending a week in italy- a couple of days in rome, the we are renting a car and driving around tuscany. (should be interesting...) we are going to stop in pisa, lucca, florence, san gimignano, siena, assisi, orvieto, gubio, perugia, cortona, and who knows where else.

then we are leaving rome, stopping in addis ababa, ethiopia to pick up our friends barrett and rachel, then going to nairobi, kenya. i think we will be there a day to go see some of our friends in kibera. then from there we are going with another group (the persecution project) up to sudan for almost a week, i think. dont really know those details...sounds safe, doesnt it? we will be traveling with them to see some of their projects and then they will take us to see mocha club projects. dave raises money for mocha club (a part of african leadership) and they build wells, orphanages, homes for abused women, etc...so, we are excited about getting to see the things we've heard about and prayed for! it will be a pretty amazing experience, but not easy, im assuming.

from sudan, we are flying back through nairobi, then rachel will leave us :( and dave, barrett, and i are going to fly to cairo for a few days. we will spend a couple days there and then travel to alexandria, egypt for a couple days...you know, ride some camels, check out the pyramids, see the ancient tombs, and maybe swim in the nile (can you do that??) then from there we are headed back to nashville just in time for dave to play a show and then celebrate christmas! yay.

speaking of christmas...our thanksgiving was wonderful. we had a combined family thanksgiving and it couldnt have been more fun. we are so blessed to have 2 amazing families and it was just perfect to spend time with both at the same time :) we played a lot of nertz...and for those of you who know nertz, you know that nertz=fun.

so back to this trip. we leave in the morning. i have so many emotions going on right now...im so excited but at the same time, im freaking out. packing always sends me into a frenzy, and this trip is especially hard. 2 opposing seasons, 4 different countries, so many different environments...im going crazy. but we'll make it there. and hopefully ill make it home to tell you all about it :) (of course im kidding about the "hopefully" part...right?)

ok, love you guys!

happy anniversary to us!

we got married 3 years ago today...i feel so blessed to be in such an edifying, encouraging, and challenging marriage. i truly am better because of it. i cant imagine my life without dave. he just makes life so much more fun, more joyous, and definitely more humorous :) im constantly thankful...

just the 2 of us

our good friend skip took some pictures of us this weekend. it was fun. he did a great job...his email address is skip.hopkins@gmail.com if anyone is interested in hiring a photographer :)
here are some pics...the last picture was dave's idea. hmm...

human pincushion

so, dave and i are going back to africa! we are leaving in 2 weeks- we're flying to rome to spend a week in italy, then we are going to kenya, sudan, and egypt. we will pretty much be gone from after thanksgiving to right before christmas. so, please put us on your prayer list until then :) im getting really excited and also a little nervous.

well, being the good pharmacist that i am, i decided that today would be the day for preventative medicine...gross. most of you probably know how much i absolutely HATE shots, so this was quite a monumental occasion for me. we each got 3. and they hurt. i can barely type right now because my arms are so sore...unfortanately for me, i know it will be much worse tomorrow and i will be at work for 12 hours!

here's an after picture. i got hit up with yellow fever, tetanus, the flu and i have to take an oral typhoid vaccine. ugh. dave got meningitis, hep a, hep b, and the flu. it all put quite a dent in our health savings account...vaccines are expensive!
this is the best part...i did a bunch of research and found a place where they only charge you for the vaccine, not the "office visit"...here it is. yes, its called Shots, etc. and its in a strip mall in bellevue. when we pulled up, dave immediately wanted to turn around. i had to assure him that this place is totally legit and recommended by the cdc...just looks a little ghetto...

home again home again...

my last post didnt include any pictures of the hanson guys, so i thought i would post some so you can see them all grown up :)
isaac ( "ike", the oldest) is on the left then zac (the youngest), and taylor (the middle)...i really cant tell you how much fun and easy-going they are. we had a blast hangin.
this is rebecca ("bex") who is pretty much the mind behind hanson. she does everything and i still dont know how she does it. we got to be good friends while i was out on the road...shes great.

so, get ready for this...i have to tell you about one of the most random nights of my life. dave had a show on friday night in dallas after an ex-professional tennis tournament. it was a pretty big deal. lots of tennis pros who arent competing anymore come together once a year and play- people from all over the place. dave and justin played literally overlooking the tennis court after the last game ended. the main tennis star, jim courier, is a huge music fan and loves dave's music. we hung out with him for a while at the tennis thing, then he insisted on taking us to the bar at the ritz because he had some people for us to meet...hmm...

turns out, we go with him. once we got there, we talked with him for a while, met owen wilson (who has surprisingly clear skin) and dave met dion sanders. then he took us back to the "vip wine cellar" to hang out with the guys from r.e.m. who had played a show in dallas that night. ok, so we walk into this private room with a huge banquet table that seats about 20. i must admit, at this point, i wanted to leave because i knew we were getting in over our heads...i mean, who knows how expensive this was!?! (not me, thank goodness.) we all file in, take a seat, get introduced to everyone, then the chef comes in. he thanks us for coming and then proceeds to serve us this gourmet mexican food and really, really expensive wine. (note: its about 1:30 am at this point.) dave and i keep looking at eachother like "what is going on?" meanwhile making conversation with people whose lives i cannot begin to comprehend. occasionally one of the managers would come in and ask the guys to go meet someone standing outside. it was crazy. we stuck out like a sore thumb...apparently we missed the memo to wear big funky plastic rim glasses and bright colored western wear...but everyone was SUPER nice and easy to talk to...i even met someone who grew up in mississippi- instant connection.

this is a picture of us with Jim trying to be...im not sure...serious? seductive? we were being stupid, clearly. i wish i could have gotten pics of the wine cellar and the rem guys, but it definitely would have been inappropriate for me to whip out my camera...i had to play it cool.

after the crazy night out, i spent the rest of the weekend with longtime best friends, caroline "ridg" and reed hogan, and their two precious little girls dendy and millie.
we had a BLAST hanging out. it was so encouraging to see what a great mom and wife ridg is- she is amazing. i am so inspired and impressed by her.

of course we watched the saints and the rebs win (YAY!) over the weekend. reed and caroline were dressed in their saints paraphenalia-
reed even had on gold and black saints shoes. o yes. we cheered them on to victory...

then reed stayed with the girls and let me and ridg go on a date last night...SO fun. thanks for that reed. you rock.

and look how adorable those little babies are...dendy says "a-yay" for annie. its really cute. i think we are best friends.

i wish i had gotten more pictures of the girls- these are when dendy was all dressed up in her fairy halloween costume...dress rehearsal.

on the road...

im traveling it up right now...started in providence last thursday. not much there. then we went to boston. i love boston. we got to walk a bit of the freedom trail, which is SO fun. then we went to this adorable little italian restaurant in littly italy. very quaint. great pasta. good times.
the guys stayed in boston for the weekend, but i headed to new york city. and i took the greyhound to get there. yes. officially my 2nd trip on the greyhound. not quite as eventful as the first, but interesting nonetheless.
i was in nyc until this afternoon. the first couple of days i spent with amber and caroline mitchell-
they do it right. ive realized that one thing i value a lot in a friend is a shared love for good FOOD. and thats what we had. it was fabulous. and of course when you hang out with 2 LSU fans, you have to go watch the tigers play and make friends with all the people in the bar. this one guy tried to convince us that amber looks just like reba mcEntire. what?? he was either really drunk or he has really really bad eyes...maybe both. but he did provide some entertainment (at least for me.)
sunday i got to hang out with sb all day- SO fun! went to redeemer, then dinner at moustache (pronounced moo-stahsh). very good and very fitting because we got hummus and for some reason i sortof equate sb with hummus.
then the guys played the show in ny on monday night at the nokia theatre in times square. the show was really great. then we got a couple of extra days to hang out in the city- shopped, ate, walked alot, and hung out.
sara beth was sweet enough to move out of her bedroom for a few nights and let us stay there...her place is awesome. everyone should go visit. but i might suggest waiting until april or may. its already really cold up here and i dont particularly love being cold. otherwise, its great.
last night dave and i went to dinner with our friend andy young. we ate at my FAVORITE place in manhatten, westville. its SO good. highlights were definitely the mac n'cheese and the blueberry pie a la mode. mmmm...
we took off this afternoon to hartford where i am right now. im sitting in a crappy green room with a space heater blowing on my legs while im typing this update. o, and i have 4 layers
of clothing on right now including my down booties. im still cold.
there is one more thing id like to mention. i have become quite the hanson fan while ive been out with these guys. not only are they the greatest guys- we've gotten to spend a good bit of time with them and i have been really impressed. they are so down-to-earth and they love jesus. that makes for a really great atmosphere and sense of community. its awesome.
not only do i really love them as people, but im becoming very fond of their music. they are REALLY good. so i am officially calling myself a fan. but i feel compelled to differentiate myself from the majority of hanson's fans. this picture to the right, for instance, was taken as we were drving up to the venue this afternoon. im certain that, although now a fan, i will never go to these lengths. these guys have some very committed, slightly crazy fans.

here's some songs i love...you should download them:

Been there Before
Penny and Me
This time Around

stay tuned for more pics soon.

10 things i cant (or dont want to) live without...

10. hazelnut coffeemate- my morning best friend...

9. a good ball point pen- a necessity for life in the pharmacy. i especially like the ones made by pharmaceutical companies...they figured it out.

8. danskos- speaking of life in the pharmacy, my legs would not survive without my trusty danskos...and compression socks (but they dont get their own number)...did i just say compression socks? no, im not 85 and post-stroke.

7. peanut butter- ever since i went on a "peanut butter diet" for a college project, i pretty much still eat a teaspoon a day :)

6. surf spray- bumble and bumble deserves some major props for this stuff. i love it. and so does my hair.

5. puffy down slipper boots- just think heaven on your feet. need i say more?

4. tinted chapstick from aveda- its perfect. i dont go anywhere without it.

3. my journal- it keeps me sane and helps me love jesus better.

2. a really wonderful candle- this will instantly lift my spirits. my favorites right now? archipelago soy candle in eucalyptus, carreras plum, votivo red currant, and anything lavender for my bedroom...

1. drumroll please...green extra. some things never change. well, actually, speaking of change, extra did try to change the flavor of their green gum. it was awful. i hated it and switched to orbitz wintermint. after buying 40 or so packs of that from sam's, andy brashier came up to me after an ultimate game and delivered some couldnt-have-been-more-wonderful news...extra realized their grave mistake and went back to the original flavor! now extra and i are back on good terms. in fact, i think my mom is in the running for the person who has spent the most on extra gum. thanks, mom. thanks for enabling my habit. couldnt have done it without you.


honorable mentions:

-jack black chapstick when i dont want the tint
-my black toms- i love africa, what can i say?
-lancome self-tanner for the face...that time of year is quickly approaching...
-my long gray cardigan- its my favorite article of clothing

fern gully

this is my escape.

our small 20'x25'ish patio has been quite the haven for me. i have spent lots of time out here and these plants are my little ongoing project. i love it. sometimes i wish i could go back to school and be a landscape architect. (dont worry, dave, i wont say it out loud.) but wouldnt that be fun?? i think i could be good at it.

i sit out here usually at least some point every day. how could you not? all the flowers and birds and butterflies...it will instantly cure a bad mood. and i love flowers. dave nicknamed the patio "fern gully" which, i must admit, seems very appropriate.

it didnt make the picture, but we hung a hummingbird feeder out here and we had little hummingbirds visit us for several weeks. they are gone now, but it was so fun to sit out there in the morning and watch them swarm.

so, its getting that time of year when im about to cut back most of these flowers and replant fall stuff. so stay tuned for some pics of our "winterized" garden...

cinderella

so, saturday night was emily chapman's wedding...it was SO beautiful. definitely one of the nicest weddings we've been to. they had the ceremony in her front yard as the sun was setting. and then the reception was in their barn...they completely transformed it from a barn/gym to an amazing reception hall...it was so fancy. and, fyi, the food was INCREDIBLE.

2 major things that stood out about the crowd:
1. it was a who's who of the christian music industry...SO funny to see all the faces
2. there was a plethora of cute little chinese girls...and by plethora, i mean a LOT.

the (steven curtis) chapman's have started an organization called Shohannah's Hope that helps christian families adopt orphans, primarily girls from china (who have to be the cutest things in the world!) obviously their friends have all jumped on the bandwagon and adopted their own chinese kids because they were everywhere! we had a blast just watching them run around and laugh :)

as some of you might know, the chapman's tragically lost their youngest daughter, maria, a few months ago...needless to say, the wedding was bittersweet and definitely emotional. these pictures are of emily and her dad dancing. caleb, emily's brother, sang a song that their dad wrote about maria and stevey joy (the 2nd youngest daughter) called "cinderella"....this is the chorus:

"So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone..."

as you can imagine, it was a powerful moment. there were a lot of teary eyes in that barn by the time the song ended. the whole night was so special and i feel privileged that we got to share it with emily and tanner.

josh hoge

last night was our friend, josh hoge's cd release show at 12th and porter. the show was great- josh is amazing. his voice is pretty much unbeatable. dave co-wrote a few songs on his record and josh had him come up on stage to sing one of them. it was one of the first times ive seen dave squirmy and nervous on stage...it was because he didnt have a guitar around his neck and he didnt know what to do with his hands. ha.

check out his stuff (think justin timberlake-ish) here. he freakin rocks.
fyi- dave wrote "addicted", "keeps getting better" and my personal fave "space"

hotty toddy

dave had some guy friends over this past saturday to watch football. this was a picture of them watching the ole miss game....look how excited they are that the rebs won!! its amazing that we have so many friends who are such big ole miss fans (espcially matt lehman, who is married to a former LSU bat girl...)

a great nashville weekend

our friends andy and sally young from australia (but they are currently living in nyc) came to visit us this weekend! it was a packed couple of days- i tried to fit in as much of nashville as i could, including some great southern staples.
they flew in friday just in time for dave's last show with the los lonely boys. it was at the wildhorse - so not only did they get to see dave play, but they got a good taste of downtown nashville night life, honky tonks and all...after the show, we met up with brooke and justin at the germantown cafe. great food, great view, and great company...

we went to the loveless cafe on saturday for brunch- enjoyed some authentic southern breakfast food family style, including homeade biscuits (REAL biscuits...they dont have those in australia,) eggs, bacon, sausage, etc...the whole nine yards.

stuffed, we headed to hillsboro village to buy some toms, then went to sevier park to play some tennis. good times. we took a stroll over to las paletas for some mexican popsicles, played a bit of frisbee, and headed to the y where andy and sal managed to swim laps. (they were on their own for that.)
they met up with some friends for dinner saturday night meanwhile, rusty, sarah, brooke, and brad came over to our place. i think we laughed for 4 hours- enough to burn off all the calories from dinner and brunch combined :)

sunday after church, we went to a tn titans game. had to fit in some american football! the titans played (and beat) the texans which brings their record up to 3-0 for the season- not too shabby. we only got to see about 45 minutes of the game, but it was ample time to see a couple of touchdowns and get drenched from head to toe in sweat...yummy.
and just to top off a fabulous weekend, two of my favorites are back in town! dave came home on sunday for 2 whole weeks, and...presh came back from belize on sunday!!! yay! my heart is feeling full...

more birthday fun...

barrett with a few of his best guys friends- from left- pat, barrett, jesse, and allen

this is what i do when dave is out of town...

so, barrett and rachel head back to ethiopia tomorrow...so sad. these pictures were from barrett's 54th birthday celebration...wait, he's only 37. haha. man, im a young buck around here. anyways, the party was great. the birthday cake was the definite highlight of the night. thank you, mary elizabeth. you have a gift.
id also like to give a little shout out to my friend joey (on the right in the above pic.) he is quite the catch...so if any of you single girls out there need some lovin, shoot me an email. and i might add, he is the proud owner of the bike also shown above. joey, you rock.

for all my longtime friends...

those of you who have known me for a long time, you will appreciate this.

i ordered something off of ebay several days ago and my ebay name is my old email address. (yes, the one from way back in the day...)

well, when i saw how the package was addressed when it arrived, it made me laugh. (and, sadly, it took a few minutes to figure it out. ha.)

ah, the memories :)

one amazing weekend :)

i just got back from a long weekend on the road. it was EXACTLY what i needed...really good time with dave and some unexpected fun with friends :)

i flew into new jersey, where i met up with the guys for the night. we were planning on driving to delaware the next day and staying there until the following night because we had saturday night off. well, we got up in new jersey and made a last minute decision to go to manhatten for the day...i mean, why not? seemed like a good idea. so, dave and i hopped out of the van at bryant park (because it was the start of fashion week and i thought maybe we could figure out who's left in project runway...not really.) we wandered around for a bit, then remembered that our friends, andy and sally young from australia are currently living in nyc. so we ended up taking the subway down to their apartment and when we walked in, lo and behold, there was steve baird (another friend from down under) and john hocutt and jen white, our friends from atlanta. what in the world?? we had no idea! we decided to go grab lunch, then head to chelsea pier to get into some friendly sports competition. we each took turns at the batting cages, then we headed over to the driving range. ok, this was one of those driving ranges out of the movies- where there are several different levels but everyone is hitting on the same range...it was pretty cool. (at least jen and i thought we were pretty special.)

o, and about this time, hannah the hurricane hit, so it was all of a sudden POURING outside. but whats a little rain going to spoil? absolutely nothing. bring it.

once we accepted the fact that we weren't going to get to jump into the foam pit and do some flips on the trampoline, we took off back to the apt to catch the end of the ole miss/wake game...man. that one hurt. but im still hopeful for the rebs. i think we're going to have a good season. i hope we beat auburn.

mckittrick, another friend from atlanta who flew in for the weekend, met up with us and we went to a fabulous dinner. it couldnt have worked out more perfectly. i think sometimes God gives us nights like that to fill up our hearts and remind us that He is faithful and DOES take care of us. these are friends that we 1. NEVER see, and 2. especially never see all together. it would have been like waking up in panama city one morning, deciding to drive to seaside on a whim to just see it and kill some time, and then finding out that ridg, chad, cas, cannada, and emg all just "happened" to be in seaside...or maybe a last minute trip to oxford when ej, whit, sb, mls, trish, stoner, and clare were all there just for the heck of it. thats how random this was! and, as you can imagine, we drove to delaware at midnight after dinner with smiles on our faces and warm fuzzies all over.

on to delaware...wilmington, to be exact. we woke up sunday morning starving and decided to go find somewhere to have a nice, relaxing brunch. hmm...well, you wouldve thought we were in the bible belt because EVERYWHERE was closed! i thought that only places in the south closed on sundays. needless to say, we settled for the only open eating establishment...dunkin donuts. yes. what a treat to add half a dozen donut holes onto your order of coffee and an eggwhite flatbread!

the guys played that night...right now they are opening for the los lonely boys. it was a great show. mango even taught me how to juggle during the intermission. (lets just say there were some VERY rotten apples in the green room by the end of the night.)

after the show, i asked the lonely boys tour manager if i could meet the guys and get their picture (for the blog of course!)...well, he told me that i could go hop on their bus and meet them as long as i was comfortable with a lot of pot smoke in my face. comfortable? hmm...he obviously didnt know me. sorry, but dont have a personal pic of the los lonely boys to share. i do, however, have one of them on stage (apparently the ONLY time they wont be found in their tour bus smoking it up).
the next morning, we woke up and i taught the guys some piloga. im not kidding. we did an hour of yoga/pilates in the hotel workout room. too bad i dont have a pic to document that. they would have killed me. we then headed from wilmington to baltimore and met up with wertz and his boys for a very intimate sushi lunch (we had the whole upstairs to ourselves.) fun times. we wandered around, got some coffee, got some homeade ice cream (oreo peanut butter...it was too good to be true,) and just hung out. it was great to see them. below from left is josh, mango, and lucas from the davebarnes camp, then wertz, hecht, and nathan with wertzie.so...you just got the play by play. it couldnt have been a better weekend. its those fun times that make the distance and the being-at-home-alone thing a little more bearable. i really think im in a season right now of just watching the Lord provide. its a good place to be...

happy birthday to presh :)

its another birthday!! unfortunately, i cant join in the celebration because presh is in BELIZE!! all of you either you know presh, or you've heard me talk about presh...shes amazing. i miss her a LOT.

i wanted to give all you blogstalkers another blog to stalk...one that i pass on with the highest commendation: preshkillebrewbelize.blogspot.com. this is presh's blog about her life in belize and its so inspiring. she is living a life right now that few of us have ever experienced- one of rest and genuine reliance on the Lord. im often jealous of what the Lord is teaching her down there- He is revealing himself to her in ways that i dont think ive ever known or experienced. her friendship is a testimony to what i believe the Lord intended in a friend, a person who is consistent and one through whom you learn more about the Lord because you truly share life with eachother, you learn through eachother, you are iron sharpening iron (although i sometimes question whether i really am "iron") anyway, she's a blessing.

presh, happy birthday. you couldnt be a better friend to me and i am SO thankful for you!!!