Lost Generation

Sunday, our pastor was talking about the huge increase our church has experienced over the last several months, specifically in the 20's and 30's. The increase in that age group is impressive as our generation is known as the Lost Generation. It seems many of us grew up in the church, but fell away.

I thought it was interesting how a whole generation can share the same mindset, or variations thereof. While I may not be an all out generation x'er who bucks the system in every way, I can definitely feel the restlessness and wistfulness of our age. Is it because so much was given to us in such a short amount of time? The explosion of technology, which connects us in so many ways, but in some ways leaves us without tangible relationships.

We fight the rigidness of past generations, but then we are left floundering without any boundaries.

I Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.


I think though, once we get it together, our generation will be great. We will be real. We will be bold.

The Many Faces of Shey

We gave Shey our old digital camera and he's learned to do more with it than I could. The next three pics are self portraits (he is sooo his mother) and then a video of him swimming. He took five lessons last week and now he's a little fish.









I know it's a little dark, but I think you can still see it.

Whatcha Been Up To?

Well, thanks for asking. Larry and I have been crazy busy lately and I'm not even sure with what. It just seems like I haven't had time to stop and breathe in the last few weeks and now March is almost over. Our cruise is in a week and a half (!!!) and there is still so much to be done.

Sunday, we worked on the backyard. A month or so ago, we pulled up the old wood tie rails surrounding our screen enclosure (I would link to those pictures, but I can't even access my own blog at work) and then laid the edgers. We also had added a traveler's palm to the back corner and we going to try and create a sitting area. We finished that up this weekend and added a hedge to the area around the pool.



There are all kinds of plants in the corner that should hopefully grow and fill in the area. Plus, I planted lavender, which I hope will smell up the area and attract butterflies. As you can see, Shey is enjoying it already.



I couldn't get a good shot of the hedge because the sun was going down, but here is the overall backyard from our back door.



We also bought the two palms in the planters. Our own little get away. I love looking out there. It calms my soul.

Our bottle brush tree is also in full bloom and the boys discovered that it's a pretty good climbing tree.





It's their Giving Tree.

Greetings from Alabama

The boys and I made it to Alabama safely on Thursday with little incident. Thankfully, the flights were both on time and even a little early and the boys were for the most part well behaved. My bestest bud,Tamara, was kind enough to pick us up from the airport, so we were able to spend a few hours together before my dad picked us up from her house.

We were just hanging in the living room when Shey came out of her son's bedroom and told me he had put some lipstick on. I looked at his lips and they did seem to have a whitish haze on them.

"Lipstick?" I asked. Not freaking too much because I know Tamara's kids don't have cooties or anything.

"Yes."

"Where did you get this lipstick?"

"Back there. It's purple!"

"Ohhhh, why don't you bring me this purple lipstick."

Shey sashayed back to the bedroom and walked back out with a tube of "lipstick" and handed it to me.

I started laughing and held it up for Tamara to see.

It was a glue stick.

Between chuckles, I said, "Don't put your lips together!"

I wish I could have taken a picture of him standing there trying not to close his mouth. It was priceless.

Now we're just hanging out at my parents' house. It's kinda nasty and rainy. We went to the zoo yesterday, which was fun, but my legs are worn out. A few friends and I took one of those bootcamp workout classes on Tuesday night and I am still paying for it.

All right, gotta go, the kids are trying to kill each other.

And . . .I made it

Aside from the cold, pelting rain and the 26 mile an hour gusts, the run was ok. The first few miles were rough because my stomach was bothering me and I had a stitch in my ribs, but once that calmed down, I felt pretty good. Then miles 8 through 11, the rain came and went and the wind took my breath away, but it kinda added an element of entertainment and helped get me through. Overall, even though I feel like I've been beat by a stick an ran over by a semi, I'm glad I did it.

There was a van on the side of the road playing Christian music and the guy was dancing around cheering us on. It was very uplifting and I was choked up for a bit. On the flip side, there was a man also standing on the side of the road with a microphone shouting at us on the horrors of hell that had the exact opposite affect. I just question the man with the microphone's thinking and how he believes that scaring someone will bring them to God.

On another note, I was on about mile 9 when the marathon winner was on about 25. ha ha But honesty, I was on one side of the road as he ran towards me and it was truly amazing. The speed of which this man was pushing his legs was crazy! and that's after 20 something miles.

A little bit after that, the female leader was running by and she was going super fast as well. A guy near me kept pace with her for about 100 yards, but then he was done. Imagine running that way for 26 miles. Amazing.

Even though I feel kinda beat up today, I am still excited about running in the races and I'm going to look for some shorter ones to do since the season seems to be over for Florida as its going to start getting hot in the near future.