Happy Birthday Houston!

There isn’t an easy way to honor Houston. Who is Houston you might ask, if you are a cousin of mine living in Florida and have no grounds for reference? Well, Houston:

• and I went to Irving Park Elementary Together
• Did a small group Bible study together from 6th-12th grade
• was my roommate in college, all 4 years if you count next-door apartments for 1 year
• Was the best man at my wedding
• Is the most loyal person anyone could imagine
• Lives his faith
• Does something important with a non profit here in town that is a Christian based halfway house for mothers and their children; I think he is the CEO?

Here is a fun collection of images from Houston over the years:

Houston turned 40 and managed to rent a beach house for some of us guys to go to for a long weekend. The first night Charles, Houston and I went camping and the weather could not have been more perfect:

We just talked, uninterrupted from our kiddos, and enjoyed the evening. Then, in typical Houston fashion, he made the fire way too big for what was appropriate, and we had a great night overall.

But that wasn’t enough: next, we got a few days in Topsail Island to play beach games, drink really good Bourbon, eat great seafood, play games on the beach and just enjoy the days; not gonna lie, when getting this group together, we are quick to revert to our college mindset, but our 40 year old bodies just arent as resilient as they once were:

We managed to get one great pic of the group. Houston, Im glad you are in my life. You are a great man, and I am proud of the man you have become, and the way you depend on the Lord in mighty ways, and I believe He has honored that in your life. Thank you for being the friend that you have been, often when I haven’t been great in return. May the next 10 years be even better!

Also Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. There isn’t too much to say about it, most of the fun is tied up in the pictures, so here you go:

Mercy has a friend

The second (or middle, or younger child as it applies to some families) doesn’t get the same experience that the first born child does. What I mean is, we set the bar pretty high for Rosie in terms of keeping her busy, scheduling play dates, getting her involved in activities, etcetera.

For Mercy, I think it’s safe to say that we haven’t gotten her as involved with social events like play dates, birthday parties, etc. with other little kids her age. However, she has this awesome friend at school: Marin.

When I pick up Mercy from school, her class is on the playground and she is ALWAYS playing with Marin. They are really, really cute together, and Mercy won’t get in the car without finding her friend and giving her a hug good bye. And this happens every day.

So we had her friend over for the day, and it was sweet. They played, and the sometimes WILD little kid inside of Mercy remained pretty calm: there were no fits, she listened well for those few hours, and she was just beaming with so much joy from having her friend over.

Tragedy Struck

After getting home from Houston’s birthday a few weeks ago, Taylor and I took the family to the church Fall Harvest Festival. We go to Church of the Redeemer, an Anglican church, and what is special about it (among other things) is that they have a farm, and every year they do a Harvest Festival where they prepare some of the vegetables grown on the property, along with a potluck, and we just have a good old fashioned church meal.

It has grown every year- there might have been 200+ people this year, with bouncy houses, face painting, music, and tons of fun.

This year, there was an accident on one of the small rides, and a seven year old kid got pretty hurt. Taylor and I were about 40 feet away when it happened, and it was aweful. I don’t want to go into details here, but it was something significant for both Taylor and I to witness.
The little kid, who is 7 years old, is ok- there has been a lot of prayer to cover him and his family, and I truly believe these prayers helped save this situation from going in a different direction.

I have never seen such an accident for a little kid firsthand before; I share this because it is significant, and the image in my head is something I can’t easily shake. It has been 2 weeks now and time will heal, but it makes me want to hold on to my fun little kiddos a little tighter and spend time this month being thankful for the good fortune and health our family enjoys.

But time to celebrate!

In the morning we mourn (as we did in Church, praying for that little boy), but in the evening we celebrate the wedding of Kate May and Thomas Law!

Taylor was Kate’s mentor while she went through the Greensboro Fellow’s program, and Kate’s family is a gigantic one here in town: Her dad is one of 9 siblings, most who still live in town, and their family has always been around in one way or another.

The wedding was great: we danced our butts off, and still kept up with the younger people. Taylor and I were both feeling a bit old: her knee hurt, and we didnt know many of the songs being played, but Tay is an awesome date and we both enjoyed going to a wedding (a GIGANTIC wedding) full of people we care about around town.