Celebration Funeral

Sounds weird, huh? Last night our family attended a celebration service for our dear friend, Joe Bennett and I was amazed at the love, the laughter, and the intimacy of the service. So profound!

First of all, if you don't know Joe, he was amazing man. I've known Joe and his family since I was "knee high to a grasshopper" (I've always wanted to use that phrase!) and Joe's greatness, his size, his uncanny resemblance to some grizzly frontier man, would make any girl of five, six, seven and eight uneasy. But Joe had these amazing kind eyes and he smiled often. He had this deep, rumbly laughter that echoed around you. I can see him wearing his SEEKERS t-shirt, jeans, sporting his dark beard and twinking eyes. Joe always reminded me of a pioneer Santa Claus. We spent lots of time at the Bennett house. In fact, while Mom and Dad were away at Epworth, Val and I spent some nights at the Bennett house. Joann made us drink goat milk (I don't think I've ever recovered from that) and we swam in their pool for hours and hours.

Joe and Joann's son, Shane was Todd's closest friend. Joel, the middle son was one of Chad's closest friends. We all kind of grew up together. I was four years younger than Jenny (their youngest daughter) but I can remember vividly that one time when we stayed at their house, Jenny had this hand-held kissing/apple/boy/girl game (Jenny, forgive me. I can't remember the details of the actual game.) But I can remember playing and playing that game and seeing how many times the boys "kissed" the girls. Jenny, do you remember this? Help me out! Oh man...Val and I would fight over that game...it was crazy!

We have great memories of this family. A group of men from our church went on a fishing trip. My dad went along. Chad's dad, Cris was there too as well as Joe. They came back with amazing pictures of their stay, the fish they caught, as well as stories of their fellowship, the things they studied and learned, as well as the fun they had.

Joe passed away the other day. His service was last night. It was wonderful. The praise service was fantastic. The memories that Shane shared were delightful and gave us another peek into Joe's incredible life. Mark Beeson, who made one of the biggest impressions on Chad and my's spiritual walk,(he also shared in officiating our wedding) was there to speak as well. Mark spoke about things that I had always wondered about and again gave me new insight on which I will need to ponder and pray about. I will have to blog sometime soon about Mark and the amazing man/father/pastor he is.

We were able to see and catch up with many dear friends that we don't get to see often. It was wonderful.

Joe, I'm sure is a very proud man. Not only is he in heaven with his heavenly father but I'm positive he looked down and was pleased with how his family chose to honor his life.

To my friends, the Bennetts; You are such wonderful people. I'm so glad that you are a part of Chad and I's life. Thank you for sharing Joe with us last evening. We will be praying for you over the coming weeks and months.

Winnin' Big at the Track!

We had such a fun weekend! Saturday, we headed to Hoosier Park in Anderson to watch some horse racing. A teacher at school works at a horse track in Shelbyville during the summer. She knows many of the jockeys and so she arranged a "fun staff day" at the racetrack. It was a blast!

Chad and I brought the kids along. It is a beautiful place and if you haven't ever been there, you should definitely check it out. The flowers are lovely, the atmosphere is clean and family friendly and the horses are amazing!

Chad and I know NOTHING about betting or gambling (heck...we only played penny slots in Vegas!) but we did want to try our luck at wagering on some horses. I picked my horse (Horse #1 is Musical Laughter) and we placed a $6 win/place/show bet. OH MY GOSH...it was so exciting and what's more we WON! I can't remember exactly how much we won but it was around $15. So fun! So with some of our winnings, we placed another $6 win/place/show bet on Moutainside (this was Noah's pick) and won again! This time we won about $20! We won nothing on the third race but on the fourth race, we took some of our winnings and place one $6 win/place/show bet on #1A Cousin Bill and won about $40!

We stood outside right at the finish line so we could watch our horses cross (which was SO exciting) and then we were able to take pictures of them when the winners came into the winner's circle. Below are our winning horses. Boy...can I pick 'em or what?!?!?!?!

#1 is Musical Laughter
#3 Mountainside
#1A Cousin Bill

Talk about exciting! We took our winnings and put gas in our truck and then bought a pizza. What a fun time!

Thanks to Morgan Jones for arranging the day! And to Morgan, Matt, and Julia.... let's do it again sometime! P.S. Next time, could you please introduce me to Jose? I'm dying to meet him....

Too Funny!

I saw this on my friend's blogsite and had to copy it to share with you. Linda (you can visit her blog at www.2nd-cup-of-coffee.blogspot.com) hates musicals and posted this video because (as she says) she can relate to the spectators at a food court in this mall. I however, love musicals. My favorite is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Sydney loves White Christmas. Elijah loves Newsies. It's hard for me to relate to a person who doesn't love musicals. I just don't get it. While I love my friend, Linda...I just don't get it.

I am posting this video because it is hysterical and while Linda can relate to people in the crowd, I however, see genius at work and think whoever came up with this idea has great imagination not to mention the sheer gall of the people performing. It is a hoot.

Take a peek and see what you think!

It's been awhile!

I know, I haven't been on here much lately but it's always the same story around here.... Once school starts our lives spin out of control. We just get so busy! It seems like our next few weekends are already booked and I'm not even sure how that happened!

School is going great! This year is going much smoother for me. Most of it I'm sure, is because I know what I'm doing and have a plan of action on how to get there. Our annual book fair is in about three weeks which means I will be CONSUMED with all things books! Last year was pretty overwhelming for me because A) I had NO idea what I was doing and B) I had virtually NO help. It was all "fly by the seat of your pants and hope you do a decent job" sort of thing. This year I'm more comfortable because I know what to expect which makes all the difference in the world.

Another thing that is in our near future is that this is a Nationals year for Elijah in dance which means (for all you non-dance folk out there) Elijah will be competing out of state this year. We are hoping for Gatlinburg but we won't find out for a few more days. We'll see! It is a week long ordeal and while I know he is VERY excited about it, all I can see is the $$$ that is involved! I'm sure my anxiety will subside and I hate fundraising but I think we might need to do some of that to help with the costs.

On top of allllll this, I am amazed at how much my kids have changed over the last four years. We were looking through some pics and I thought I would share these with you. For those of you with little ones, cherish every moment of your little ones' lives. They grow up SO unbelievably fast!

Update!

I thought it might be time for an overhaul. Instead of the traditional pink background I usually go with I decided to go with a more subtle and soothing background. Hope you like it!

Oh...and about my banner at the top...well normally I am NOT a foot person. I've never gotten a pedicure (the thought of someone I don't know touching my feet completely creeps me out) and I don't think feet are AT ALL cute. However, Chad took this picture while sitting on the beach and watching the kids playing in the sand. It just looks so darn relaxing that I had to include it. With summer quickly coming to a close, I thought it might be appropriate. I will change it eventually so for those of you that (like me) can't stand the look of feet, just grin a bear it and scroll down quickly!

Today was a crazy day. Everything was going like it normally does until 10:30 when we were informed that a water main had broken in town and we had to close the school and send all the kids home. It was pretty exciting stuff...no water...no drinking fountains or toilets...solution....SEND THE KIDS HOME! Yahoo! Sydney and I made it home by 1:00 which made my week SO much better.

Everyone here is great. Elijah is dancing competitively again this year. He is dancing tap and hip hop and will be in junior company tap and teen hip hop. He's pretty darn excited.

Noah joined the Peacemakers group at school this year and is loving that. He had his first meeting last week and has a field trip on Friday dealing with Peacemakers. He's really enjoying this so far.

Sydney is loving fifth grade, which is so awesome since she was having quite a bit of anxiety about it this summer. She loves her teacher and is doing very well. Sydney is very active in choir and is learning to play the recorder this year. (Just a sidenote for those of your that are wondering....No, Sydney will not be joining band in middle school. She has decided that playing the recorder is not her cup of tea!)

School is good, jobs are good, kids are great, and Fall is coming up fast! Now if we could only get some much needed rain, September would be off to a slammin' start! Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!