VBS, Volleyball, Cowen and Broadway!

It's only been two weeks since my last post so many fun things have happened.

First of all, we held VBS at our church, The Great Global Advebture. It was Becca's last year of VBS which made me feel a bit nostalgic. Next year as a middle schooler, she wants to be a helper. Garrett helped this year by leading songs during the opening. My role was registation/whatever the director wants. There's just something about Vacation Bible School- bible stories mixed with popsicles and crafts makes my heart flutter!

Hannah wasn't able to help in VBS because she spent the week ay Cedarville University at volleyball camp. Picking her up on Friday, she and the other girls were tired and sore- but had a great time.

Just two days later, Garrett and Hannah and I went to the WV Baptist Camp at Cowen, WV for Senior High Camp for a week. Becca spent the week with Louie's parents and I left Louie home alone. It was strange having Becca in one city, Louie at home and the three of us at camp but we survived. The first day, they asked all the counselors to introduce themselves and I realized that it was 24 summers ago that I came to senior high camp for the first time- and I met Louie that week. Now here I am with our kids. Who would have thought?

Garrett, Hannah and I had a good week. There are a few things you can always count on at Cowen... it will rain at least once, because of the humidity your towel will never completly dry, you'll be sleep deprived by Thursday and you'll leave a changed person. Here are some pictures from our week:

"Get to know you" games

Four Square is a Cowen Classic. Garrett and I aren't players- not aggressive enough. But Hannah? Brutal! They've introduced a new game that's really fun called "Ga-Ga" which is a little like dodge ball.

One night, we played an epic game called "Bedlam Ball". Basically, it's a free-for-all with all sizes of balls that each have diffrent point values. Each of four teams has to get as many balls in the opponent's goals as possible. It's four quarters of chaos. Garrett got an elbow to the eye- nothing like starting camp with a black eye!

In the mornings, we had a great Praise and Worship time followed by Bible study and small group discussion. Our theme scripture was Hebrews 10:19-25. The scripture contained five "Let us..." statements and so the week contained a lot of games and things dealing with "Lettuce". In the evenings, we met outside in the Vesper area and heard a lesson about a person'e life from scripture.

We got home from camp on Saturday afternoon and Becca had another performance of Huntington Outdoor Theater that evening. Since I hadn't seen her in a week, I took her to the park. As soon as the show was about to begin, the heavens opened up and it started to pour the rain.

Apparently in the theater, the show always goes on, so after a short "rain delay", they swept the water and she took the stage. Every weekend, the show gets better! My parents came this evening to see her sing. All in all, it was a good show... even though I really wanted to go home and sleep. It may take me a week to catch up!

One more weekend of performances and then we'll turn our attention to school starting in just 4 weeks. Where has the summer gone? Speaking of school, we got Garrett's ACT scores last week- he got a 32 ! That's a really high score and we were pleasantly surprised.

Four more weeks of summer...

Our 19th Wedding Anniversary

July 6, 1991.

Now that I think about it, we were sooo young. I was 20 and Louie was 21 years old. Still in college. (Only 3 years older than Garrett- oh, my goodness!) But after two years of dating, we were certain that God intended for us to commit our lives to each other. Words can't express how thankful I am that he guided us and protected us even from our own ignorance at times as we set out into life as husband and wife.

They say your wedding day if often a blur and you're lucky to remember it. But its funny what I do remember. Here are some highlights for your sheer enjoyment!

*I'll never forget the look on Louie's face and how he was acting all through the ceremony. I couldn't stop smiling- I was sooo happy that the day had finally arrived. Louie, who normally was great in front of a crowd of people, was stone-faced, pale and sweating. It was priceless. I'm still not exactly sure what he was so scared of... that I would say NO at the last minute? He finally was able to relax a little and smile at me during the singing.

*Louie's former pastor, Ron Stoner, and our pastor (at the time) and college ministry leader, Roger Adams, performed the ceremony. Now, Roger was notorious for editorializing during weddings. I wrote every word and asked him not to. But... of course he did anyway. That's when I thought Louie just may pass out and hit the floor.

*When he finally pronounced us man and wife, Louie got his second wind and did something that was very "Louie-ish". When he went to kiss me, he grabbed me and dipped me at the waist dramatically. He had threatened to do it, but when he did it at the rehearsal, I thought it was out of his system. Apparently not! Everyone laughed and clapped.

*You always have a few 'glitches' that make the story of your wedding day fun. After all the wedding party exited the sanctuary, someone forgot to turn off Louie's father's microphone- he had sung The Lord's Prayer. So as the organ music played, you hear Ed talking saying something about his shoes hurting his feet. On the wedding video, you can see Carol Adams, our pastor's wife hop up from her seat and tear out of the room after him.

*We had a great reception at Guyan Country Club. We had a buffet, a band, and a lot of dancing. Some of my favorite moments on are wedding video are watching couples from our church who have been married for many, many years slow dancing together. We even got Betty Crouch out on the dance floor!

I told you a little about that day, but our 19 years of marriage is about so much more than a single day. If you compared marriage to running a marathon, that's simply the day we walked to the starting line together. Every day since then has been the real expression of our love for each other. Some days and some years, we've done very well. Other days and other years, we've failed each other. We've even renewed our vows to make sure we were still running in the right direction. But I'm happy to tell you that after exactly 19 years, we still love each other. Although it's not always been pure bliss, it's absolutely true what they say- we love each other more today than we did when we committed our lives to each other. And I hope that God gives us many, many more years!

A Series of "Firsts"

Wow! What a crazy, fun busy summer its shaping up to be! I would have written a post for this blog last week but I accidentaly deleted all my pictures from my camera and had to have help from a friend to retrieve them. (Thanks, Jake) Over the last few weeks, we've experienced a lot of "firsts" around here.

Garrett is in a band with some guys from church called Torn in Two. They've played at a few youth events and for the First time, they played for an outside group. They played for a small church that was having a revival. They played for an hour and Garrett, who sings lead, led a devotion. I think they're really talented and I hope they get to play a lot. They'll play again on July 23rd in Huntington at The Focus. They're the opening band that evening.

Then, I took Garrett to Jackson's Mill in Weston, WV for the First time. He was selected to attend Mountaineer Boy's State because of his good grades and leadership skills. The week long camp is run like a mock state government. Garrett ran for a seat on the Supreme Court and took the Boys State version of the Bar Exam. He was defeated in the election but ended up as a Circuit Judge. They had mock trials and he said it was cool being called "The Honorable Garrett Gaunch." He learned a lot about government and said he has a new sense of patriotism.

For the First time, Rebecca got a role in a Huntington Outdoor Theater production and Hannah and Garrett aren't in it. Her part is in the pre-show that is a 45 minute performance before the actual play. The pre-show this year is a celebration of Broadway and the play is Annie. One night, she was running across the stage and turning a cartwheel when she slipped and fell on her head and hand. Her head swelled but she was ok. The next day, her finger swelled and we had it x-rayed but it seemed fine...

The next day, we had another First. All three kids went to church camp. They're all been to camp many times, but never at the same time. Becca was a camper at junior camp for 9-11 year olds and Garrett and Hannah were junior counselors. Yep, Louie and I were going to be alone in the house for a week. Another First. We've been away on trips and left the kids at home but they've never all gone away and left US at home.

The week started out great. I had a long to-do list while Louie was at work. But... we got a call Monday that Becca's x-ray had been read. She had broken her right index finger. Well, at first I thought it wouldn't be a big deal. After all, what do you do for a broken finger besides tape them together? But when the pediatrician called with the full report, the right index finger was broken near a joint and in a growth plate... tape wasn't going to cut it. **Seventeen years of parenthood and this is our very First child with a broken bone! So our quiet week without kids was interrupted with a drive to camp, a trip to the orthopedist and back to camp again which totaled 11 hours of driving in less than 24 hours. The good news was, with 3 weeks in a firm splint, she should be good as new. And I even managed to end the week with one of my goals accomplished- another First- a clean and organized garage. It's something I've wanted to do since we moved into the house 6 summers ago!

That just about sums up what's going on around here. But I just had to mention that Becca came home from camp with a new favorite candy- Pretzel M&Ms. (I thought it was ironic that there is a picture of an x-ray on the package!) To make her happy (for no other reason of course) I tried them. While I admit that you can hardly go wrong when you mix salty with sweet, I can't say its my favorite. Hannah like the new coconut M&Ms, Garrett likes any M&Ms, Louie likes peanut butter M&Ms and I'd have to go with good old peanut M&Ms- although if they made a 'dark chocolate peanut M&Ms' it would be perfect!