what i've been up to.

to my, ahem, roaring crowd of 2... a little update. this may be a long post about a lot of little nothings.

march brought a lot of busy weekends. the first weekend brought reverb. i've been working with the high school youth quite a bit -- mainly just going to prime time, the sunday night worship and group study. kim, do you remember spiritfest at graceview? that was pretty much what reverb was. the students stayed in homes of tbc families in small groups. they were divided by their age/grade levels (junior high through high school) and each group had two college students (that drove home from their college lives to spend the entire weekend doing reverb). on friday night, we had a concert with gatlin elms. throughout the weekend, our speaker brandon, led 4 sessions with the kids. the rest of the weekend, gatlin elms led worship. the in between time was filled with food, bowling, and hanging out. we had about 60 kids, i think. it was a huge success all around. tons of work went into and the kids had a blast.

i did a lot of group driving, working in the kitchen, and trying to catch the sessions and worship time. my group to drive had cassidy as their college leader. it was neat to hang out with her a bit and watch her interact with her girls. she's a pretty amazing girl.

a few photos (click on them to make them larger)...

shaun kicking off friday night.

gatlin elms concert.

the speaker, brandon.

a few of the 7th and 8th grade girls i drove around
with cassidy and samantha.

worship with gatlin elms.

the group.

the college students, our leaders.

the, ahem, adults...

all the photos from reverb are courtesy of dee. i wish i was half the photographer she is!

the next week was spring break. pretty uneventful, since it rained for over half of the week. sigh. klein isd took a week earlier for spring break than most of the area school districts. the following week was, of course, beautiful weather... on monday, before the rain started, i got to head downtown and hang out with jamie and her boys for the whole day! we had a fun day eating at lupe tortilla (yum!!) and a quick target trip. i also got to hit up old town spring with a friend on tuesday. i hadn't been there in years, so it was fun to wander around and do a little shopping... and of course, eat at the infamous wunsche bros cafe.

the bell boys.

jamie and i.

i went camping the third weekend in march at inks lake state park. amanda invited me to go with a group that her cousin had pulled together. it was a fun weekend. but, wow, was it cold friday night. and the ground was hard. i think i got my fill of camping for awhile! ;) we visited longhorn caverns on saturday afternoon. i hadn't gone on a cavern tour since years ago, when my family went to meramac caverns when we lived in missouri. so, it was a lot of fun to walk through them and hear the history behind the caverns. sunday afternoon, amanda and i stopped to take pictures in the bluebonnets near chappell hill. that was fun... i'd never really done that before!

a partial photo of the field we stopped in.
oh, alright... the ditch on the side of the highway.

indian paintbrushes and bluebonnets.
shhhhh... i actually like the indian paintbrushes better.
but don't tell my texas friends...

finally, march wrapped up with the tbc ladies retreat. i had been working on the planning committee since january, so it was nice for it to finally be here and see our work come to fruition. it was a fun weekend, with lots of laughing, eating, and bit of shopping. and of course a speaker and worship. our retreat has been at round top for the past few years. we schedule it during round top weekend (which has turned into round top week or more, i think), so we get to head out for antique and junk shopping on saturday afternoon. there are tents upon tents upon tents of junk and vintage and antiques. i love sifting through that stuff. no good buys, this year though. i go with the wrong group to do the real digging for good stuff. i swore last year and i'm swearing again this year -- and i mean it this time ;) -- i'm switching shopping groups. :)

whew. march was busy! april is uneventful, so far. or so says my calendar. right now, the event to look forward to is flying to omaha in july to visit teri rae and her family for two weeks!! :) of course, that's after vbs in june... i'm directing again this year with my friend, kim. i'm sure things are about to pick up in that planning area real soon. we've been doing a little planning and recruiting... but it's time to hit the ground running on that!