Quite the title... Huh? I know you guys are wondering and cringing about the "Bathroom Blessings" part... Let me share... You see, I've rarely gone to the bathroom alone in almost 20 years. At least once a day one of the girls either follow me into the bathroom or I hear a little knock on the door while I'm in there. When they were little it was because they actually needed the potty or because they just wanted to be with me... I admit it used to annoy me, but as they have grown up these stolen moments of alone time in our busy lives have become something I've grown to treasure. And I do treasure these moments far above the lack of privacy. It was in the bathroom I first got a hint that Cate might be having issues at school and it was in that same room I first grew to suspect that her and Jackson were becoming serious. I was flipping through a magazine in the lav when I first found out that Sparky boyfriend was talking to Paul about moving to courting from dating. (Dating= getting to know each other... Courting= dating towards the goal of eventual marriage.) Perhaps it has to do with the intimate nature of the room, but I have to admit I do not look forward to the day I find myself all alone in the loo...

As for the headaches part... I get migraine headaches. I don't get them all the time but when I do get them I seem to get them for several days in a row and they are incapacitating. I have had one four out of the last six mornings. Most days if I take the medicine soon enough, by noon or 1:00 I am able to function... That is half the day lost! I am currently falling behind in all of my housework and just about everything else... I do hope this cluster of headaches is almost over!!

Now the big new... Cate has a dress!! Oh, excuse me... A Gown... Can I get a woot-woot?? I didn't ask her yet if I can reveal it on here, but I imagine the big reveal will be soon! We have a wedding party, location, photographer, menu planned, decor chosen and the dress... I really think we are getting there!

Thanks for listening,

Super Cool...

Thanks for listening,

Any Youth Event I Survive...

Is a good event...

Youth events (fun nights, game nights, movie nights, lock in, etc) are a very small part of what we do as youth leaders but they do seem to be the "epic" moments the kids are talking about for weeks to come. The format we inherited with the youth group was the weekly Wednesday two hour youth group and one monthly event. I don't think I can handle more then one a month, but some months we do push it to two. We have discovered that we grow by one person for each one we hold. From the seven-ten kids we inherited we are up to about twenty kids, with an average attendance of fourteen at our weekly youth groups.
Frankly this stymies me... Paul and I are chronically uncool... I am not saying this for you to reassure me differently... It is a fact. He tends towards cranky and I am dorky... I have little idea who half the singers are they talk about and most of them are Christian bands! We do genuinely enjoy their company and make it clear that all of them are welcome in our home pretty much anytime. We also truly love each of them and spend time praying for each of them. They are all unique and it is neat seeing their gifts develop... We are truly honored to be able to come beside them during these transitional years...
That being said this post is about youth events... Also known as "What doesn't kill you, will most certainly leave a big mess for you to clean up!" Lets discuss the one that almost did kill me first... The (infamous) Lock-In... If you are a parent of teens who have been to a lock-in or if you went to one as I teen, close you computer right now and write them a little thank you note... Seriously, Why are you still here... Go on, I'll wait... Oh your done, great... Now why did I make you do that? Because I can tell you from experience that planning and living through a lock-in is a herculean task.... We did ours back in October, during our second month with the youth and while we were still in our trial period... Are we nuts, I think so... But all summer while the teens were pestering us to take this role their desire for a lock-in came up again and again, so we just did it...
Here is a peek at the schedule I did up for our 12 hours of non-stop frivolity...


7:00-7:15 Arrival

7:15-7:45 Welcome Prayer, Welcome, go over rules, opening “guess my line” skit,

7:45-8:15 Food:  Pizza, soda, chips, veggies

8:30-9:00 Ice Breaker Games: Aardvark Relay, Order in Chaos, sticky buns, Brain Freeze
9:00-9:30 Food Ice Cream Sundaes
9:30-10:00 Worship/Prayer

10:00-10:20 Group Devotion

10:20-10:45 Male/Female Devotions/Prayer

10:45-11:00 Free Time/food/game “I Never”, Fly swatter soccer

11:00-1:00 Movie (To Save a Life), Discussion & Popcorn
1:00-2:00 Games: Post It's Obstacle Course, Whatever It Takes, Train Wreck, Covered,
2:00-3:00 Skits (skits printed up)

3:00-4:00 Worship / Prayer

4:00-4:30 Youth Mad Libs (Mad lib sheets)

4:30-6:00 Board/Card Games Apples to Apples/ Cards/ (catch phrase) cards

6:00-7:00 (Wake up) Breakfast Cereal, milk, oj, fruit

7:00 GO HOME ALREADY!

Are you exhausted just reading it? Well take a look at some shots from our night...

First up... Sticky Buns...

Then the Aardvark relay..

Then "Brain Freeze" The premise of it is teams race to build Ice Cream sundaes in their team member's mouth... Good, not so clean (hence the tarp) fun...

(Yes, that's a banana stuck to his head!)

Prayer and worship...

And some random early morning shots...

Nothing like melted ice-cream sundaes at 4 AM...

I took a lot of pictures early in the night but as it went on I took fewer and fewer... We did have quiet rooms set up for each gender and of the nineteen youths we had only six who stayed up all night... But Paul and I did the full twelve hours... From there we dragged ourselves home (I don't remember the ride...) and I woke up around 2 PM. Being Maine, things are pretty spread out, and about seven of the kiddos had thirty or more minutes to drive home, so we arranged to have someone with a mini van pick them up at the church and transport them to our house (about 8 minutes from the church) so we were wall to wall sleeping bags and blankets in the living room... It didn't stop me from crawling into my bed and not waking up until after the van came back at noon to transport them back to their cars in the church parking lot.

Tonight was just a "Fun Night" at our house... Games, snacks and general frivolity... In the grand scheme of things it was no lock-in, but twelve teens in my living room always feels like a big event. So that's what I've been up to...

Thanks for listening,

Family Photo Shoot...

First of all... My blog seems to be having some technical difficulties... I will try to get to the bottom of them but if you are having trouble leaving a comment I am sorry... It started yesterday as far as I could tell, and I thought it had to do with the "Boycott the Web" thing... Now I'm not sure, but I will look into it.

So... We had planned for Cate and Jackson to get their engagement photos taken last fall before their engagement party, but it was one of the many things that did not happen. Every few weeks or so the photographer friend of ours and I would chat on facebook and try to make a plan, but to no avail. Finally I got this hair brained scheme... Since we needed a family photo taken for our Christmas card and they still needed engagement photos taken, let's combine them into one shoot... This decision was made in mid October, while there were still leaves on the trees. It was also decided that we'd need to do it on a Saturday since that is the only day conceivably we'd all be free during daylight hours. Unfortunately we didn't have a free Saturday until the first weekend in December... Actually I forced everyone to be free so I could order the Christmas cards before... Well Christmas! The only problem with an outdoor photo shoot in December in Maine... Yep, you guessed it... It was COLD! Our poor photographer River (of River Radley Photography) is like a size 0 and was truly the coldest one out there, but as you view the following pictures keep in mind, for each shot we had to remove our winter coats and pile them behind River then pose for a few shots trying to pretend it wasn't 22 degrees out then run back to our no longer warm coats for a few minutes as we moved to a new spot... (Ironically we were not the only family out at this particular spot getting our photos done on this particular day... And the other family had small children.) As if the cold wasn't enough, it was also windy down by the water... How windy you ask... Take a look...

Yes, Hair was a constant problem...

Ok, here's what we came up with...

 These ones on the beach were so cold and windy it was hard to take the ridiculous nature of what we were doing seriously...

 So we goofed off...

A lot...

I wanted one of the girls and I...

Sisters... And the one we actually used on our card...

Sparky!

And finally...

The engagement shots...

I love this one... It is framed in our living-room!

Oh, and a rare shot of Paul smiling...

PS. I think it is time for a custom blog design... I welcome your recommendations for designers... If you are able to leave a comment that is...

Thanks for listening,