A Thorn Among Roses

each year, we as the mc-fam, come together for a reunion, the second sunday in august. it's the original mc fam...4 sisters and a brother...all who have since passed on. but those of us that still remain, come together and eat and chat and well, a few other things. only one of the original generation remains...my grandma...who married into the mc fam way back when...she's the sole matriarch now. did you notice the red shirts? well, we have such a huge fam {just my grandparents have 8 kids, 27 grandkids and 34+ great-grandkids.} the only way we can know who belongs to who is by color...we're red. and poor aunt mary {my dad's little sis}, took care of the shirts for this year. {i took this picture over an hour into the reunion...poor aunt mary...still dealing with shirts!} but the biggest part of the reunion is family...hugs. ...and many many tickles and smiles ...and kisses too! ...and squirt guns...there's always squirt guns! there's games...some are made up a...

remember that boy in 3rd grade who use to tease you endlessly and pull your pony tail? well, high school kids are like that a little...when you are in ministry, at least in my experience. they rarely tell you how much they love you {although admittedly, i have some super awesome kids that do tell me} but they more so SHOW you. not with yard signs or hugs, but by tp'ing your house. so, i'm totally feeling the love...ryan, not so much! and they did a pretty good job, at least at the bottom. and they left me a little clue...the kids from big stuf def did the tp'ing. the orange bandana...hmmm. and i ponder a little more. i wore an exact replica of this bandana on our panama city trip... the orange was symbolic for us leaders as molding the church {yellow} and the family {red}...orange! get it? it's awesome...read more HERE . and look at the joy on jada's face...she loved running through it. brooke, on the other hand, is more of the panic button. she's runnin...

when we were on vacation  years  two weeks ago, i came across some very serious belly busters... one of the things about hubs is he's super cute and sexy and a great hubs, and def "flighty"...he prefers not to be called a.d.d., but we got him this shirt anyway {he was not thrilled, btw} don't like to poo in public or only at home?  get some good old fashioned poo-pouri.  the bottle says spray a little dash before you go and "no one will ever know". this might be my new life sentence, but i'm not sure yet! and this, well, it's def the way i feel most days. and bc i am washing my mouth out with chocolate, this will def apply... it's sad, but true...i am an 80's teen, that is recovered, but still loves to poke fun at mullets...and i never dated a guy with one even then!!! i'm not even sure about this today, bc i'm sporting a black hoodie with i i keep threatening the kids with making them wear these teeth for our fam christmas shot this ...

"faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we can not see." hebrews 11:1 i took this picture at st. george island, florida this last summer on a vacation with my fam. one thing you all may or may not know about me is I LOVE THE BEACH...and i hate the snow! the beach is full of peace. i love the sound of the waves and the feel of the sand between my toes. i love the feel of the warm sun on my face. i love to hear my kiddos building sand castles and chasing hermit crabs. i love seeing my awesome hubs under his little umbrella {red head} enjoying time with the fam at the beach. the last few weeks here in blogland have shown the true face of the life we live here on earth. it's not forever. it's full of pain. there's loss. there's sudden loss. and there's loss that takes every ounce of energy you have to make it through days and weeks and years of painful treaments with no understanding of what all of it holds. Tuesday Whitt touched me....

I noticed yesterday as B and JK were outside playing...they seemed to find a lot of treasure. Most of what they 'discovered' and gifted to me were the things outside we rake or blow away or put chemicals on to kill. So I got to thinking...I know, not now...it's Friday. But I did. Why is it that I don't see the beauty in the dandelion...that I see a weed and that I need to call the lawn application guy and talk to him about the fact that we pay good money to get rid of those darn things and they are coming back. You know what I mean, I'm sure. Anyway, I decided to take a different look at what the girls brought to me yesterday, and I decided there was great beauty in the simple things. Leaves...fascinating. How in the world did the Lord create all of those ideas with the veins and colors and well, everything. Dandelions...what a beautiful color of yellow. It's bright like sunshine and really, when there's a lot of them in one place, (like a field, not...