Sara Groves: Fireflies and Songs

We stayed with Sara and Troy when we were home for Papa's funeral. Man do I love family sleepovers. This might be the biggest perk of moving out of state. I miss my family so much, but coming home and getting to stay at one of their houses is the greatest. Eating cereal together in pajama's is just one of the lovely perks of family sleepovers...that sweet time when everyone is still yawning and rubbing eyes and talking through the day ahead.

All this to say, we soaked up our niece and nephew time, played hard and were very, very sad to have to leave. Sara and Troy live their life so fully, and have taught us so much about marriage and the gift of following God as a married couple. They are so honest and open and teach quite vulnerably through their personal experiences. This new album is fantastic...a less produced sounding album, a bit more like what you hear in concert. The songs are, as always, thoughtful and so fearless leaving me to wonder quite a few times on the first listen, "did she just say that?!! I hope she just said that!!!" The following pictures are from their website. They're doing a prerelease sale right now, and I would recommend getting in on it.

Ivar Anton Frick

When I was home for the reunion, I got to stop in to see Rory's grandpa, Papa. He died the next day and I am so thankful to have had this last visit with him. Papa loved me so well, and so much. I love that I knew that. Papa was a great preacher, ministering all over the world and presiding over the Assemblies of God churches in Michigan. He had a great booming voice that spoke with conviction and belief, whether he was talking about his love for Jesus or his love of Perkins. He had a big sense of humor and stories to tell that seemed larger than life. His funeral was fantastic. And I really mean that. His life was so well lived, so full of friends and purpose, and so obviously concluded with a "well done good and faithful one." The funeral left me inspired more than anything... to live big and bold, to believe with my whole heart and to love with all my might. I am going to miss this man...and the way he so clearly loved his family and his savior.

high school reunion

So this is Heidi and I, right before we drove in to Minneapolis to find our friends of years gone by. We had a blast, laughed hard all night long...but hardest as we got ready for the reunion. There is a fine line of how one should appear at a reunion. You've got to look nice, but you can't look like you're trying too hard. But you want to look more put together than you did 10 years ago. Heidi and I far surpassed our high school look, simply by showering and not wearing sweatpants. Honestly, I don't know what planet we were on our last two years of high school, but when the world around us was caught up in social status and looking good, we actually would compliment the other if one had taken a shower and put on chap stick.

There were a few girls that came to this reunion looking like they really thought through their outfits. (Heidi and I thought through our outfits, but just didn't look so obviously like we had.) There was a very slinky sexy outfit in the room that didn't quite fit in, complete with very shiny thigh high boots with a very short black skirt. There was another girl who was exposing much of her breasts, so much so that I had trouble holding conversations when she was in eye shot because it was just that much boob. But obviously, their trying hard worked...since I'm still talking about them.

Overall, I wouldn't miss another reunion. I had a blast, loved catching up with friends (especially the ones I went to elementary school with) and really enjoyed hearing what people are up to and what makes them happy.

Two thousand zero, zero party over oops out of time...

...so tonight we're going to party like it 1999.

I'm driving to Minnesota tonight so I can attend Rosemount High School's ten year reuion this weekend. I can't wait. Seriously. My bff Heidi has her kiddos with her folks this weekend and we're going to go live it up highschool style. Which for Heidi and I simply means doing odd things like taping our noses up with scotch tape and driving around Apple Valley, staring at other drivers, acting like there is nothing odd about our pig noses. It also means lots of laughing until I'm crying. That's just what we do when we're together. There are sure to be stories that come from the next 48 hours...

A retreat recap

I have had a few friends email me wondering how the retreat went. And I can happily report that it was fantastic. The sixteen men and women who came were delightful and built community so quickly. I love this age group...no one has anything to prove, people actually act like themselves and are excited to learn, enjoy conversation and are enthused about whatever activity you throw at them.

My dad came and led three sessions on the Parables. He knocked it out of the park and everyone enjoyed him, mentioning many times they would like him to teach at the Spring adult retreat. I think we'll try to rotate our speakers and teachers a bit, but I did think that this was the greatest compliment.

My sessions went really, really well and I loved every minute of it. I forget how much I LOVE teaching. This was my undergrad degree and it felt so good to exercise those muscles of taking a larger issue and breaking it down into teaching points, discussion starters and ways to act regarding what was just learned. I love public speaking and storytelling, so to get to share in this sort of way was just a joy. I hope there are more of these events in my future.