Quatro de Julio

So we had a very nice past few days at the river. It was very much needed after working 43 hours at the daycare last week. I dont mind working that many hours...it was just the shifts I had to work sucked! I had to work from 6:30am to 12:00 then 2:30-5:30 everyday. By the time I got home I was exhausted and ready to go to bed so I could get up at the crack of dawn the next morning. Fortunately, I should only have to work my regular 15 hours from here on out.

Friday night me and Jason headed to Birmingham so we would be ready Saturday morning to pick Lauren up in Oxford, AL. We got her Saturday morning and headed straight to the river. All kinds of people came out to play throughout the four days we were there: Jason, Amy J, Allison Hall, Leigh, Sarah, Naomi, Crystal, Kim, Caleb. We had lots of fun! Dad let us take the boat out by ourselves and everything. I guess he figures since we've been doing it the past 22 years, he could trust us to do it by ourselves. On the fourth, ALL of the family came out. I loved it. I love our family so much, they are crazy and completely retarded. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I think I have the cutest little (well most of them are not so little anymore) cousins around!! We had our firework show Tuesday night. It wasn't as much as usual, but atleast the guys didn't waste their money on crappy bottle rockets and roman candles. They only bought the big stuff this year. So it was still good! It was really sad to leave, we are hardly around Mom, Dad, and Kala for more than a day or two at a time anymore. So being with them for four days was really nice. I just love being at the river too. It's so nice to have absolutely nothing to do, no school work to be done weighing in the back of my mind. I could just lay out on a float or in the hammock all day! We used to take being out there for granted so much when we were younger. We just saw it as a place we HAD to go to every weekend, and as time away from hanging out with our friends in Huntsville. It's so nice to have that place to go to now, and get away from everything else. There's just something about the water. I have to live near water for the rest of my life I think. Whether it be a river, or the ocean (that'd be sweet!) or just a town with a river running through it would be good enough. Oh well, this is incredibly boring for everyone I'm sure, so I will end it with that!

Put Your Mind To It, Go For It, Get Down and Break a Sweat...

Rumor has it that Nick is here visiting Gary Baker. I am going to the Helen Keller Festival to find him!!

Nick baby, I'm right here, you don't have to look any further..I'll take what's left of you! ;)

In other news, the infamous caffeine pill episode of Saved By the Bell came on today!
"I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so..so.. scared!"
So now I am definately feeling a music video remake of their song by the end of the summer! Who is down for it?

Home Sweet Home

Yay! We are home now. It was so sad leaving, but it definately feels good to be home. Well 4 of my kids accepted Christ during camp!! Woohoo! It definately made all the preparation worth it. In all of camp, I think there was a total of 31 decisions made to follow Christ. Good Stuff! That was the highlight of the last week I guess. Kayla Sanders stopped by Friday night cause her and her family were down there! It was nice to see our other mom for a little while. I cant really think of anything else extremely exciting to write about. I definately left part of my heart down there though. It's so crazy how out of all the places, God sends us to serve him at a location that's already so close to my heart and full of so many memories. It's a place where we've taken family vacations, trips with friends, and my first visit to the emergency room! I wouldn't have had it any other way. I love it down there. I think the part I enjoyed the most was getting to know the people in the church. They are mostly all retired, but they each have so many interesting stories about their lives and experiences. It's been cool to hear alot of them. It makes me feel better about getting old. I'm going to be cool like them! Well I guess I will post just a few pictures from camp.

This is my baby daddy Derrick, me, and our baby D.J.:

This is my third grade class and my helper Meagan:

This is the closest to a group picture we took. There's still alot of people missing though:

Me and Abby. She was the sweetest!!

Me, Amber, and Lauren on the beach one night:

I guess that's enough pictures for now. As soon as we got back to Florence, we went to Beef and Shelley's wedding. It was so pretty. Very much them. Her dress was perfect! I cried through all 15 minutes of the ceremony. (It was really short)! I really dont think I have ever been more genuinely happy for a couple, as I am for them. I'm so happy for them!! Then on Sunday we went to Huntsville to see dad for Father's Day. Oh and Mom had her surgery last Thursday. So keep her in your prayers. The recovery will be a long one!

This could be a long one...

Well there are 3 more days of camp left. So far, so good. My third grade class is great, and I've been having no problem filling the 85 minutes up. My track time has been cool too. Every kid comes through so I get to know every kid at camp. I think it's safe to say that we now have the task of making sugar cookies down to a fine art. This week on the menu for our cafe is: snowflake tortillas (kinda like sophapillas), and snow cream! Last week was lots of fun. We went tubing with the coolest 73 year old man in the world!! He threw me off the tube twice. We went in the bay so that was cool and scary. We got to see sooooo many dolphins. One of the girls here, Maegan, got to touch one! Then he took us out to eat at DeSotos. We ran into one of our other partners (Stephanie) from last year at Wal-mart. It was so random but very exciting! She's the only one that didn't get to come back down this summer, except for Amy Yopp (she is in India). Heath Butler was in town for a few days. He went out to eat with all of us one night, and we got some hot-tubbing and some pool time in at his condo. So that was great! Saturday the music minister, Bro. Paul, had us all over for some awesome food and more boating. I got to show out a little on the kneeboard and ride in quite possibly the nicest pontoon boat I've ever been on (it had a little room that pops up in the back that you could change clothes in!). Jeremiah Castille preached at church on Sunday. He played football for Alabama under Bear Bryant and then played professionally, and is now the chaplain for Alabama's football team. Wow, he was amazing, and so hilarious! Megan you would have loved him, he talks just like Brian Fellows!! I could not quit laughing! Last night a man from the church took all 25 of us out to eat at the Shrimp Basket. This church is so welcoming and encouraging. I love it here. I've never felt so much a part of a church body. There is constantly someone offering their pool, boat, food, etc. to us. I get like a million thank yous a day for being here. So many people have offered to find me accounting jobs so I can move down here when I graduate. That would rock so hard! Oh and Bro. Eddy is down here vacationing too. We got a second to go by and see him today. I love that man, oh how I will miss him and his crazy self. This whole post is totally stream of conciousness, so I apoligize if it doesn't make sense. I am in a hurry. You see, today we were informed that we will have no free time until Saturday (the day we are leaving!). Me, Lauren, Laura and Stephanie are now in charge of cooking for 300 people for family night tomorrow night!! We are just boiling hot dogs, so its not a huge deal. But we have to cook, serve and be available in our classrooms to meet all the families, all at the same time. I haven't figured out how that's going to work yet. So today during our few moments of free time we had to go shopping for all the food we have to prepare tomorrow. Then we had dinner, right now all the summer missionaries are in a meeting, then we have bible studay at 9, and then we have a new curfew (as of today) that is 10:45. It kinda sucks that this is how our last few days are going to be spent. There's so much we haven't gotten to do yet!! We are not even going to be able to go to the beach again. I haven't eaten at the Oyster House yet either. Oh but be sure to keep two of my kids in your prayers. Their names are Breanna and Bonner. Both of them decided they wanted to accept Christ this week. I'm still talking with them and making sure they realize what they are doing, and that it's the right time. I want to make sure the spirit is calling them, and they aren't just doing it because it's a good idea, or because their other friends are doing it. I dont want it to be a decision that they question the validity of on down the road. I know that there is so much more that I'm forgetting. I will probably update soon with everything I forgot to mention, but that's all I got time for now. Hope this one didn't bore everyone too much! :)

That's What's Up!

Well I know my admiring fans (mom) have been waiting on an update, so they will know what I have been doing this past week. It's been crazy. We worked way too late everynight. But we did get Friday and Saturday off, so of course it was spent at the beach and shopping at the outlets!! We did manage to squeeze in a movie though. We went and saw "Over The Hedge" at the new Rave theater. It was really funny. It pretty much just joked on Americans and suburbia. It was so cute, and the soundtrack was good cause every song was done by Ben Folds. That was kind of surprising. This week I also became a wife and mother, to Mr. Derrick Fields, a 330 lb football player from Mississippi College! To some, our son D.J. (Derrick Junior) might appear to be a forgotten about VBS room with some crooked logs and a crappy decorating job...But he is our baby and our pride of joy! Well O.B. Outfitters starts tomorrow, and I must say I'm getting nervous. I still have a lot of work to do tonight to make sure everything is set to go at 8:00 am. Try shopping for ingredients to make sugar cookies from scratch for 100 kids at a Wal-mart full of vacationers. Not fun!! This last week has been frustrating, I dont think we all agree on the importance of decorations. I'm all for decorations, dont get me wrong. But sometimes it just seems too big of an emphasis has been put on that. I guess it's just discouraging that we have been here for two full weeks yet, and haven't ministered to any kids. Which is the real reason we are here! But hey, we knew what we were getting ourselves into (sort of). Plus, we are building relationships with alot of awesome college students! The Illinois group got here today and their youth minister is going to be leading a bible discussion every night for all of the college kids that are here. That should be a good time and a good way to get to know everyone better and everyone's opinions on different topics. All 3 of you who read this, be sure to keep camp in your prayers for the next two weeks. Pray that we all keep our spirits high and that the kids will be able to see Christ in us. I'll end with the motto for OB Outfitters this year.

Joshua 1:9 - Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.