All over the place

This post is going to be a little erratic. I tried to find a witty title or some way to tie it all together but I'm not clever enough. So here is a little of what happened over the weekend at my house.

First and foremost, may I present the completed Wall of Wood:

Big shout out to all those who were forced by Handiman to "volunteer" their time in making this project a reality: Papa Gator, Uncle Drew, Stevie C., P.J., Rob (the mailbox murderer), Cousin Brian and of course, The Little Ocho.

Molly was finally released into the freedom of the backyard without a leash on Saturday night and discovered a whole new world exists beyond her pillow bed and food bowl. She's rolled around in the grass, chased a bird and found that she is the exact same shade as the mounds of dirt that are still piled up around the posts, therefore she can lay on them completely camouflaged and watch us run around like idiots yelling her name because we think she's escaped.

While Handiman was busy completing the fence Saturday morning, The Ocho & I went to volunteer our time at church. Sunday was the first day back in our main building since the big flood and they needed lots of help cleaning and moving furniture to get ready for our Sunday School classes. We spent a couple of hours there and I thought it best to document it to prove that she can, in fact, do manual labor when forced.
Saturday night was spent with my Peeps celebrating Tracey's upcoming 40th birthday. For those of you expecting funny costumes, a dance video or a pyramid picture I'm sorry to disappoint. We went an unusual route with this party. Since Tracey recently returned from a mission trip in Africa and her family has decided to pursue the adoption of 2 boys who live in the trash dumps in Ethiopia, per her request we made this party more mission-minded.

It just so happened that Amazima Ministries (the organization run by Katie Davis that allows us to sponsor Mary in Uganda) was having a fundraiser in Franklin and Katie herself was speaking. Once Tracey proposed the idea as her birthday party we were on it and our group bought a table. What a blessing it was to hear Katie speak and see with our own eyes her heart for what she is doing over there. It was overwhelming to look around a room of over 500 people knowing that the event was not publicized at all. Everyone was there strictly by word of mouth. Truly a God thing.

At the end of the dinner we had a picture made with Katie. She's a tiny young woman but a giant for the kingdom of God. (Thanks for the pic Ash!)


Sunday morning was our first time teaching Ocho's Sunday school class. We have the sweetest group of kids imaginable and the best co-teachers known to man (Serious shout-out to Jon & Tonya! You rock!) I guess it went OK. Nobody's spiritual walk was seriously derailed and I think they'll all come back next week so I'll count it a success.

And now it's time for Conversations with The Ocho. Which I suppose is a little like Silly Songs with Larry. Only in blog form.

Sunday afternoon we were traveling to RubyDooby's for lunch when we noticed 2 helicopters circling over Cool Springs Galleria. Here is the conversation that followed:

Handiman: Hey look at those helicopters Ocho! Wonder what they're doing?

Ocho: I don't know. Maybe somebody needs a Lifeway.

Me: (snickering sarcastically) A Lifeway? Do you think they're having some sort of Christian Book emergency? I think you mean Lifeflight.

Ocho: (realizing her mistake) Oh! Right! ....... (then, with equaled sarcasm) Or maybe somebody just really needs Jesus.

Ladies and gentleman, I believe I may have met my match.

Which brings me to why this post is so random and disjointed. You see, it's taken me about an hour to put this post together. And that's an hour that I wasn't thinking about this morning when I put the sweetest, funniest, best part of my life on a bus and sent her to Cross Camp for an entire week with 200 other kids.

When I got home I actually dusted and mopped just to keep from worrying and wondering what's she's doing. That's how desperate I am for a distraction! Of course, I have every expectation that she'll lose half her belongings and she'll forget to put sunscreen on the tops of her feet or spray insect repellent on at all. I never saw myself as a control freak until the past 2 days, but I am. I really, really am.

That's why as much as I know this week is about her drawing closer to Jesus and become a little more responsible, it's also about me learning to let go.


I suddenly feel the urge to wash windows.