Deana and I had a night to ourselves last night. So, what did we do with it? Not what you might expect. We went through closets, drawers and shelves getting ready for our yard sale today. Then we got up this morning before any sensible person should and set up all our quality used things and sold most of it. Thank goodness it's all over. We should have more nights without our children.

Speaking of children, we love our little Jenna. However, she is quite different than Julia. We could have never had this garage sale with Jenna around. Here is just a samping of what I affectionately refer to as the Jenna Way.

1. Last weekend at our hotel in Dallas, Jenna was at the other end of a long hall and spotted a cup. She promptly picked it up and drank out of it.

2. She has discovered how to open the refrigerator and likes to play with the carton of eggs.

3. She loves to remove every last VHS, DVD and CD from the entertainment center. Then as we clean that up, she unfolds any piece of folded laundry within her reach.

4. She likes to walk over to the trash can and look inside. If she sees something she likes she helps herself to it and eats it.

5. She loves to run back and forth between mom and dad giving each of us hugs.

6. As my friend Lynn put it so well, "Jenna is a one person party."

Julia Sandwiches

Julia sandwiches are getting much harder to make as she gets older. I'm not even sure how they began, but they've become her favorite sandwich. A Julia sandwich consists of me picking her up and mommy and I hugging with her between us.

Another one of our favorites is bed time prayers. I really hope God likes a good laugh because these often end up in good laughs. Let's just say we get a little distracted. Like last night... All three of us bowed our heads and I closed my eyes to hear Deana pray "Dear God... are you cold?" To which Julia replied, "Mommy, what are you going to do? Fly up there and give him a blanket?"

Anyways, if you're in Baytown stop by our yard sale tomorrow morning and buy our junk, I mean our quality lightly used equipment.

I'm currently shifting ministries. As I've been preparing to move to Little Rock I've spent a great deal of time reflecting, evaluating and praying. While I look back on 6 years of ministry (my one and only ministry position to this point) I've been considering Jesus' words about fruits and fig trees. I don't think it's a coincidence that I'm also being asked to develop small group material based on the fruits of the spirit as well. I've been working through Philip Kennison's Life on the Vine once again. As a result I'm saturated in images of vines, fruit, cultivation, growth and pruning. Several questions have emerged as I've engaged in reflection and planning during these past few weeks:
1. When all is said and done, what fruits have come from my life?
2. How can I continue to remain in him?
3. Does my life genuinely reflect what I profess?
4. In what ways am I being pruned to be more fruitful? Have I allowed God to do those things necessary to make me more fruitful?

Saturday morning Jenna decided to wake up at 6 AM. So rather than wake up the rest of the family I moved Julia to our room in the suite we were staying and hung out with Jenna on the hide-a-bed. She fell asleep across my stomach like this around 8 AM. That girl can sleep in any position when she decides to sleep.

I tried to wake her about 20 minutes later because I needed to get up. She simply rolled over across my legs and stayed like this for about 10 minutes.

My cousin's wedding was great. We all had an amazing time. I have the coolest cousins. They rocked making Julia feel like she was one of them. It was so awesome to watch. The bride even took Julia along for a pedicure. Julia wore her over-sized flip flops until they came apart this morning.

A lot has been going on this week. We've had VBS at MoSt since Sunday night, I've been boxing up a few things and working towards our move to Little Rock, and today we leave for Dallas to attend my cousin, Kimberly's, wedding.

Kimberly is 9 years younger than me and shares the same birthday as Julia. Growing up in Alaska, I never spent much time with my cousins. I have three on my dad's side of the family, and they're all girls. Kimberly's the oldest. I remember playing basketball with this dark haired freckled little girl. I also remember trips to Six Flags with her and Kelly (Chaney was too young at the time). I've also got a picture of her as a junior bridesmaid in my wedding 13 years ago. Now Julia is in her wedding. I'm getting old.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. My aunt and uncle are amazing people and I get to spend a little time with my cousins and grandmother, so I'm excited.

I spent the last week in Abilene at Kadesh and it was a great experience as usual. Each year, Deana and I get to spend a week with a group of 10 recent high school graduates and we love it. This year was no exception as we explored the theme of freedom -- freedom from sin, dying to self, and surrendering to God. I love the week because we dive deeply into the word of God, allow it to transform lives and get real as we gain a better picture of our Lord.

Of course there are the random moments. During a time of blessing and affirmation one group member decides to inform us that he doesn't like the way the word ointment sounds. Since then I've been thinking of words I don't like. My list would include
propitiation
ignoramus

It's not the words themselves, but how they roll off the tongue.

Anyways, we have a busy week. Originally, I was supposed to go to Little Rock for 2 days today to find a place to live, but we did that. We're moving into a townhouse for 6 months or so. so, now I don't have to go which is a good thing since I've been home all of 10 days this whole summer. We leave Thursday afternoon to go to my cousin Kimberly's wedding. She gets married on Saturday. I'll also spend a little time with my grandmother, Imo, who was recently put under hospice's care.

Through all this, I see how good God is and how I'm growing in my trust and love for him. Now if I could just get that Scottish accent down as I yell "Sons of Scotland..."

Some guy is suing Michael Jordan and his publicist for $832 million all because this man has been "mistaken" for Michael Jordan all the time and he's tired of it. If he wins, I think I'll sue Arnold Schwarzenneger because a bunch of 5 year olds once told me I look like him.

I spent last weekend in Chalmette, LA with a group of people demucking a house. I must say it was rather eerie working there. 10 months later, most the town of Chalmette is uninhabitable. With the exception of a few FEMA trailers parked in front of homes the majority of the neighborhood I was in was vacated. 10 months later over half of the houses on the street we worked still had not been touched. I thought about how this must seem like too much to bear for some of these families. I thought about how a group of strangers could enter a home and throw away every personal belonging of that family. Occasionally we would come across a disintegrated photo album or marred pictured on a refrigerator that reminded us that we were standing on holy ground. We were basically entering the lives of these people and helping them make a new beginning. I think that might be exactly what Jesus has done for me.