well hello there, august!

we've had a fabulous summer here in the alley household...so much so that we've had no time to blog and now i'm going to attempt to recap all of the fabulousness in one post.

june

hubs birthday: we celebrated with his family, my family, and then just the two of us. it still makes me chuckle just a bit that when we met he didn't want anyone to acknowledge his birthday (so much so that he even refused to list his birthday in our church database...something i learned when i called him from work--our church--when we were engaged to tell him that i updated his information to include his birthday. i assumed it had been an error...not so much :-) but he married someone who LOVES birthdays. i don't just love my birthday but i love celebrating the birthdays of those i love. i've learned to scale the celebrations back (unless it's something he wants to do) and he has learned to let me celebrate him by enjoying our "birthday week" or "birthday weekend" celebrations. this year as part of our "birthday week" celebration, we rented a boat and spent the day on the lake. (we also spent 2 days without air conditioning and working to get it fixed but that was a slight pause in the celebration.) we had such an incredible day and plan to make it an annual tradition for his birthday. (i can't believe i don't have ANY pictures of any birthday celebrations...we were having too much fun to remember to take pictures!


marissa's going away party: i hope marissa felt like her party was fabulous! i wanted to use bright, fun colors in the theme so i picked a lemon/lime/orange theme and decorated with fruit in glass cylinders and really was able to carry the color scheme through every last detail of the party. it was my prayer that marissa would feel loved and celebrated by those who are closest to her and i think she did. we had a wonderful time chatting and being together and then ended the night lifting her up in prayer.


vbs:marissa's party was the 18th and vbs started on the 20th. yeah, it's safe to say we were quite tired in the alley house during this particular week! part of my responsibilities this year with vbs included leading the preschool worship rally. we had SO MUCH fun every night and by friday night, my little preschoolers were ready to perform the theme song to big apple adventure! they did such a great job. it's such a catchy tune. btw, hubs and i will deny it, of course, but you might just catch a glimpse of us driving around town doing the motions and singing along to the bi-bi-bi, bi-bi-bi, big apple adventure!

july

vacation!!: after such a crazy busy schedule in june, hubs and i were definitely so relieved when our annual summer vacation with my family rolled around. my family has a tradition where we all go on vacation together every summer and i love it. it's not always just my parents and my sister's family...in years past we've vacationed with aunts, uncles, and cousins, too. honestly, i just assumed all families vacationed together like this until several years ago when i realized that we're more of an exception to the rule but i love it. we are a super close family and we enjoy being together. i've been waay blessed that my hubs loves and adores my family and has just as much fun on these vacations as i've ever had. my mom and dad were blessed with two amazing sons-in-law! (and i'd argue that my hubs and bro-in-law were blessed with some pretty amazing parents-in-law!) anyway, off that rabbit trail and back to vacation! i can truly say that this beach trip was one of the best that i can remember. we rented an ah-mazing house on emerald isle and we truly spent the week resting, relaxing, and having fun being together. emerald isle isn't as commercialized (it isn't really at all) as some beaches so there's really not a lot to do but that did not bother us! we all practically lived in our bathing suits by the pool or in the house in our pj's. i think we went out in the evening twice. we actually all decided to go ahead and reserve the same house for next year because we loved it so much! needless to say, we were sad when vacation ended and it was time to head back home.


new job: yes, that's for me...not hubs! a job opportunity presented itself to me during vbs and i was super excited to accept it! i'm the new preschool resources coordinator for our church. it's a part time position and i absolutely love it! the week i returned from vacation, i spent time learning the ropes and the next week, it was all mine! i plan for and prep all the supplies for the preschool ministry on sunday mornings (and will also do this for special events...teacher training, vbs, camp), coordinate Cut Ups (a group of volunteers who meet together every week to help prep the supplies for Sunday school...cutting, counting, sorting, etc) with the elementary resource coordinator, and write the lesson plans for the preschool Sunday school classes. oh. my. word. i love it!! (oh and in case you were wondering....this means no more substitute teaching for me!)


girl time: my dear friend, stephanie, visited for a week and we had such an amazing time together! we met while we were in seminary and i actually lived with stephanie and her parents on the weekends and during the summer while we both worked at prestonwood. we had such a blast hanging out, shopping, eating, and talking! i'm lucky that all of my close friends love my hubs so we all enjoy hanging out together. i was sad to see steph leave (she started a campaign trying to convince hubs to transfer to his company's dallas office but i don't think she was completely successful) but hubs and i are already planning a trip to the big d in december.


beth moore: steph and i were fortunate enough to get to spend the weekend with beth (well, and 9400 of our closest friends ;-) while she was here. i don't say this lightly but the weekend was truly amazing. i don't mean that it was all rainbows and butterflies but it was good...in the God was all up in my business sort of way. you know where you're uncomfortable but it's a good type of uncomfortable because you know the Lord is speaking and working in your life. we also had such a fun friday night. we rented a hotel room in downtown charlotte and my sister joined us. we laughed and had room service and went to bed waaay too late for the early hour that we had to get up. it was worth it, though. i was also so excited for my sister (she served as one of the city coordinators who worked an entire year here in charlotte to help make the conference happen) because she got to meet beth and have her picture taken with her and the rest of the committee. she worked hard helping to make the conference a success and looked super cute (and good hair to boot!) in her picture with beth.


well, that about wraps up the highlights from the last two months. for the most part, we've had a good summer. even though it's been a good summer is anyone else wishing fall would arrive....pronto???