Fellowship, The Mouse, and Tasty Power Cords

I've been absent for a bit. I honestly haven't had time. See, church kids are busy during the summer. Crazy busy. Allison has been to more camps than I can count. I only volunteered for one - Glorybound. Glorybound is the huge gathering of all Texas LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) youth. They do it every 3 years.

We traveled to Houston, and spent 3 days/4 nights in fellowship, listening to varrious speakers, doing small group studies, listening to some pretty amazing bands, and there was even a magician. We also spent a day doing a mission project. Knowing this, and knowing that I have approximately a bazillion things wrong with my stomach, I chose not to wear anything constricting. Usually, this involves a peasant skirt. Not appropriate for messy labor. Then I remembered that I had some pretty amazing overalls. FYI - even in Texas, you will get funny looks wearing overalls. Ha! Apparently, this made me the subject of many a photo opportunity.

All in all, it was a good experience. Maybe a little (a lot) complaining from teenagers (and *ahem* one particular adult), but much was learned, and lots of fun was had in the end.

We drove from Houston back to DFW on Sunday, and left Monday morning for Orlando. Phew! One lesson learned - Make sure your given name is on your ticket. In the eyes of many a TSA agent, Henry and Hank are not synonymous. Other than that, travel was pretty painless (except for one mom's stress, exhaustion, and immense fear of flying).

The resort was beautiful. I could've stayed there all week, and I would've been a-ok. But we had 4 days worth of Disney tickets.

Instead of describing our time, I will just give you a boatload of pictures and a shot, sweet summary. Lots of fun. Major exhaustion. Walt Disney was a genius. I am simultaneously amazed and freaked out by animatronic characters. And digital puppetry is the neatest thing ever.

Okay, pictures will be at the end. This brings me to another subject. While we were gone, one of our cats decided my laptop's power cord would be a tasty lunch. It's a good thing I love her. (Really, it's her only flaw.) So, I am phone posting for now. This is why I cannot figure out how to place pictures in this post. Well, other than the end.

But, I wanted to blog badly enough, I posted anyway. Okay, and I was bored and interested in seeing how easy it would be to post by phone. There ya go.

So Busy.

I feel like I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but still. Busy.

I've been trying to work out, and I'm successful most days. Not today, because I spent 10.5 hours on my feet at the coffee shop. Though, I was reading that a 165lb person could burn 1200 calories working as a barista for 8 hours on a slow day. It was an average (not slow, not super busy) day and *ahem* I may be more than 165 pounds, so I can count that, right?

The kids are either playing Minecraft...

Watching weird Littlest Pet Shop YouTube videos (seriously. Weird.)... But weird, and cute, and not vulgar. Okay, so these girls putting these videos out are pretty creative. I will give them that. Anna has some serious aspirations of making her own LPS movie, too. I love that kid.

When they aren't doing those things, we are usually at the pool...

One kid was off doing mission work in El Paso, and I'm going along with her to Houston (The Woodlands, actually) for the Texas LCMS (Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod) gathering - Glorybound.

Oh, and then when I have decided that I actually have a few spare hours in the day, I sign up to work at the coffeeshop. It's really a cute little place. Once owned by a fabulous friend of mine, she sold it to some other awesome folks. I still think of my aforementioned fabulous friend whenever I go in. She has been through so much, and is so very strong in spite of (maybe because of) it all.

Oh, and in less than two weeks, the entire family gets to go to DisneyWorld! Including my super awesome stepson. His only flaw is being too busy, and living too far away. How dare he!?!?! I love him anyway. Even if I do have to look up to yell at him. Wait. I don't really yell at him. But if I did, I'd have to look up, because he decided to be over 6" tall. Kids, these days.

Hopefully, I'll have lots of pictures after that. We're busy bees this year.