A Weekend of Extreme Relaxtion...

S and O's family bought a "Mountain House" 3 hours west from here. For Christmas they gave me a weekend at the house which I took last weekend. Five of my friends and I packed up and headed west. The weather wasn't that great, but it aided in the extreme relaxation. We didn't have any plans for the weekend, so we just hung out, read books, played games, slept, and soaked in the hot tub!!! I honestly cannot think of anything that could've made the weekend better.

Here are a few pics:

Mike and I stopped at a "scenic overlook" on the way. After he pulled the car over and started driving the WRONG WAY until I decided what we were going to do for dinner. 

 

The living room while standing in the kitchen

The dining room

The kitchen

The HOT TUB!

This was the GLORIOUS bed I slept in. Mike made sure that I kept the "Princess room" (Master Bedroom) instead of giving it to one of the married couples. 

S and O have built a tee pee in the backyard. Its soooo cool!!! Complete with moss carpeting! 

 

The boys playing Golf Putters Pool

 

The house is at the top of the double black diamond ski slope. We decided to check out the slopes!

 The boys threw an airplane off the Mountain...

  

Wolf helping Mary and Rex up the mountain

Everyone joined in! 

We came back to relax...and the snuggies helps that!

This was the best weekend! I'm so thankful for my friends!

Pics in the Park...

We have had some summer like weather recently...which is a big tease! O and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and play at the park. I also loved having an excuse to act like a kid again!! We ran around and played hide and seek...though he wanted to be the all time seeker. It was a lot of fun...and he is a great seeker! Then O wanted to take pictures. He would do something and I would take his picture, then he wanted me to do the same thing and take my picture.

 

My favorite picture from the day!

The real us!

Standing in the walkway

Climbing through the tunnel

Catching our breath after O chased me for a long time!

One last trip down the slide before we left...and a final picture together! 

Still slacking...

So here are my resolution updates...

Spiritual Health - I think I have given up with reading through the Bible this year. When I get behind I get stressed out, and instead of just trying to catch up a little each day I get so overwhelmed that I just give up. With that said, I think I'm done with the Bible in a year. April was not so great spiritually. I did buy two new devotionals that I'm excited about. I started one, its Experiencing Words of Jesus by Max Lucado. Its a workbook that gets you into scripture. I'm hoping that this will help me get back on track!!

Physical Health - I'm getting much better with this. The first half of the month I was slacking, but I'm getting back on track. Mary and I text each other Monday-Thursday at 6:30 to make sure we're up to workout. This past week I worked out 4 out of 5 days! Woo hoo! My goal is to get back to working out 5-6 days a week.

Healthy Schedule - Getting up early each morning is helping me go to bed earlier. So let's hope that this will continue!

Eating Healthy - I've been ok at this. I could definitely take it up a notch. A lot of my friends are also trying to eat healthier which is a good incentive for me to stay on track. Having friends trying to be healthier is definitely encouraging.

So now that I'm building momentum I'm hoping May will be a much better month! I've written a bunch of posts already...so hopefully you'll hear from me a lot more now that I'm caught up with all the back logs!

Opening Day...

I was invited to go to Opening Day of the Orioles this year. I'm not a huge baseball fan...but going to games is always fun...and it was free!! It was a rainy day...but luckily it cleared up in time of the game. We had club level tickets, so when the skies decided to open up right before the game we could run for cover. It was a great game...the O's beat the Yankees!! Woo hoo! Here are some pics...

 

The view from our seats...pretty nice!

 

  

Here come the O's! 

 

  

This is Birdland!!

 

Joe Biden threw the first pitch! The crowd booed him...I was surprised. 

SOCKS!

This past month has been insane! Between preparing for mission trips, outreaches, Easter, and the play the kids have done I'm exhausted!!!

My boss and some others wrote a production called Socks. Its about 3 groups of people you see in the high schools, the bullies, the bullied and the by standers. Its all about standing up and not being bystanders anymore, and realizing that we all have the same feelings and are very similar. Its a musical and all the music is Coldplay songs...which is really cool. Here are a few pics from the show:

 

John being a momma wildebeast...birthing a baby! hahaha

 

Ryan was very passionate about Greenland (I love John's face!)

 

Typical classroom setting where someone is getting picked on

 

The bullied

 

  

  

Ryan crying over the death of his girlfriend

 

  

The cast! 

Sleepovers!

So I've had 2 sleepovers with the boys that I haven't posted about.

The first one was way back in the beginning of February. We had dinner at our usual place...Qdoba. We headed back to my place to play Wii Fit. Here is a video of the boys hula hooping:



I love S's cheering in the background!!!

Once we were exhausted from Wii fitting it we got into our PJs, curled up on my bed and watched Horton Hears a Who on my laptop. I only watched a little bit of the movie, because I was having Girls night with some friends. We were celebrating Christmas in February together! You can read more about that on Amy's blog.







A few weeks ago we had a Birthday sleepover with the boys. Instead of birthday presents they wanted a fun sleepover with their Miss Erin! I loved that!

First we played laser tag. It was a lot of fun! 

We had dinner at our "usual" place...and home for some more Wii

 

Whats a birthday celebration without blowing out the candles!  

The boys packed their own bags and forgot their PJs. So I gave them each a t-shirt of mine to wear.  They are only a little big :)

They wanted to sleep in my bed...so I let them sleep there until I was ready for bed. I didn't realize what I was getting myself into! When I was ready to go to sleep I scooped one of the boys up and put them in their sleeping bag on the floor and left the other one in bed with me. I fell right asleep, but was woken about an hour later...wet. It took me a minute to figure out why I was warm and wet...
I stripped the bed and put him in the shower. I soaked up the pee as best I could with a towel and poured baking soda all over it. I laid 2 towels over it and put clean sheets on the bed. I got him settled in his sleeping bag on the floor and went back to sleep. The baking soda worked, but there was still a stain on my mattress. My mattress is a little over a year old so I went to the pet store and found some amazing cleaner! My mattress is like new!! Anyway...I guess its another lesson to get me ready for being a mom...whenever that happens.

I love having sleepovers with the boys! Lots of fun had by all!

Spring Retreat (Terry this is for you)

One of my favorite parts of my job is going away on the retreats. Now, the week before the retreat is chaotic and stressful...but Friday afternoon when the buses all pull away my stress is gone and excitement takes it place. We have always called the Spring Retreat our outreach retreat, encouraging the kids to invite their friends that don't normally come to church. In the recent years we haven't had many friends, if any, come.
This year Scott, my boss, and I were brainstorming how to make it an outreach again. We came up with the unchurched friends go free!!! That's right! If a kid comes on the retreat who doesn't come to our church the church would pay for their weekend!!We had 30 unchurched friends come on the weekend!!! It was amazing!
The theme was of the weekend was all about Freedom. We talked about how we need to be forgiving and honest, and be able to admit when we're wrong. God moved mountains over the weekend. Twenty of the 30 unchurched friends that came accepted Christ into their life!!! Unbelievable!!!
By the end of the weekend I was absolutley exhausted...but I would do it again in a heartbeat! I can't wait for the next retreat!!