First of all, in July we were blessed to have Josh's parents make the trip from Virginia to Illinois to visit us in our new home. Now that they made the trip I'm not sure that they'll be making it again any time soon - at least not by car. It is a long drive. We loved having them here though. We were fortunate to live just an hour and a half away from them for the last seven years so we've been able to spend a great deal of time together. Because of that whenever they visit they just fit naturally into our life. We enjoyed showing them around our new town, our new church and just spending time together. The Parsons are early risers and one of the kindest things they always do for us is get up with the boys so that Josh and I can sleep in. We very rarely get to sleep in - the boys are our alarm clock every morning - so we love this little luxury. I was especially grateful as I got sick once again - my Southern lungs are having a hard time out here in the Midwest.
While the Parsons were here we celebrated Lance's third birthday party. He chose to have a Power Rangers Dino Charge themed party and we were grateful to our friends from church who took the time to come and celebrate with us. For all of the boys' birthdays up until now we have celebrated with our family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins have all been there along with some close friends. Birthdays will be different now that we are farther away and we were grateful that the Parsons could be here and that we had friends to love on Lance with us. He had a wonderful time and was spoiled with some wonderful presents.
Our church hosted a Backyard Bible Club at the end of July. Josh and I both helped with the event and the boys loved participating. We had about fifteen kids who came and enjoyed the activities, crafts, games, and learning important lessons from God's word. Clark and Lance are still listening to the songs on CD and doing the motions that they learned. I am grateful for the volunteers who helped make BBC possible. Serving alongside them was a great way to get to know them all better, and as a mom I appreciate other people taking the time to pour into my children. Funny story - I helped by leading music (even though I had completely lost my voice and mainly had to teach the kids to dance to the songs!). Lance is a dancing fool at home but of course at BBC he refused to move. One day he stood up front next to me wearing his black sunglasses, completely stoic as the rest of us danced and sang along to the fun songs. I felt like I had my own Secret Service detail.
About a week after BBC ended Josh's birthday rolled around. The day itself was rather routine, grocery shopping and such, but the boys and I did have a gift for him and we enjoyed eating out and checking out a new local restaurant (which we loved!). The next day, however, Josh had a disc golf game planned with some of the guys from church and the boys and I planned a surprise party for him. When they finished playing the other families and I were waiting with cupcakes and water to celebrate Josh. It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we could celebrate Josh in a special way. He is a special guy and certainly deserved it.
The last bit of excitement we experienced was not the good kind. This past Thursday Clark went running toward the hall while looking behind him and ran straight into a corner, busting his head open. Many of you will remember that he has already had staples in his head once after flipping a chair over backwards. I couldn't believe we were doing it again. Thankfully this time a doctor friend was able to come over and tend to Clark's injury without requiring more staples or stitches. He essentially taped it back together which meant we had to shave a big circle out of the hair on the side of Clark's head. So Clark has been fine ever since, he's just rocking an awesome hairdo.
I think that pretty much sums up our life over the last few weeks. It is a full life we are leading. Things are going well for Josh at church as he plans for some new and exciting things in the Fall. I am currently leading a women's book study on The Envy of Eve by Melissa Kruger. I highly recommend the book if you have not read it before, we are really enjoying discussing it each week. God continues to bless our family as we settle into this new life that He called us to.
