Please pray....

It was this past Sunday morning when I woke up and decided to check on e-mails before getting the kids up for church. I was not prepared to see so many e-mails from college buddies and my husband (who was already at church). It is NEVER a good feeling, in the pit of your stomach, to see "BAD NEWS" as the subject title.

My dearest friend, college roommate, maid of honor - Allie - had lost her husband, Sat. afternoon, in a plane crash. Mark has been a pilot all of his adult life. He took his first solo flight at the age of 18. He had spent the past 19 years as an air traffic controller. His love and passion, outside of his dear family, was flying.

Saturday he had taken off and very soon after told his air traffic controller buddies that he needed to head back to the airport. One minute later he crashed near a busy highway. From the investigation it showed that he had spent that last minute very level headed, preparing him and his co-pilot for a crash landing. It showed that he had shut off the fuel supply to help avoid a fire if the plane crashed. He had also opened up the canopy to the 2 seater plane so he and his passenger wouldn't be trapped if there was a fire. These are all established procedures to prepare for a crash landing.

Friday morning, at 10a.m., will be Mark's funeral. Outside of a large number of family and friends, there are also pilots coming in -from all over the country (as Mark has guided them safely in his job and they are coming to pay their respects) and his air traffic controller friends will be attending the funeral.

I just ask people to pray for the funeral. For those coming who do not know the Lord. For my dear friend Allie and their three young children who have lost their father. I know my heart is grieving right along with her and will continue to lift Allie up long after the funeral is over when everyone else has gone back to their lives and this new reality has set in.

I know Allie would tell everyone to hug your spouses and tell them how much you love them - for you just never know. Hug your kids and be grateful for every moment you have to love on them...

Thank you for praying!

Our Lord is a "father to the fatherless, a defender of widows...." Psalm 68

Love a 3 day weekend!

We are usually gone during the July 4th celebrations so we weren't quite sure what to plan. We'd been spoiled by Iowa's big fireworks display and awesome parades. The first year we were here we did go to the NC fairgrounds and quickly learned that it just didn't compare.

This year we decided to check out the Wake Forest Fireworks and we struck gold. It was an awesome evening. We planted ourselves at the local high school and our kids took off running to play Frisbee with other children on the hill. Here are pics of Reece going after the Frisbee. We needed to explain to him that this wasn't 'tackle football'.
Lindsey got there and said: "I think this would be a great time to make new friends." Here she is running with the Frisbee.
The weather was gorgeous, all week, in the 80's and I actually got just a tad cold when the sun went down.
We were thrilled to spend the fireworks evening with the Phillips. Here's Martha snapping some pictures of the kids.
I have FINALLY learned to just smile when Brian snaps pictures of me. If I don't he'll just keep snapping away to get every facial expression I have to give him.
Gorgeous night to catch up with each other...
This evening came complete with skydiving, bands, etc.


I don't know if we'd ever been so close to the fireworks before. I had to assure Lindsey that they wouldn't fall on us. It was really awesome!!
Brian had Monday off so we were thrilled to extend the "party weekend" and have a cookout at the Miller's. Here is Lindsey and Melody playing in their pool.

Dads are WAY more fun in the pool than us Moms. Suzanne and I chatted away as Brian and Andy gave the kids flips in the water. Here's Brian flipping Melody.

If Brian was doing the flipping, he was surrounded by kids. If Andy was doing the flipping, he was surrounded by kids. Finally the Dads started playing minnows and sharks and all the children just played and played until the pool closed. Love a three day weekend as of course it lengthens your weekend and shortens the next work week. Love it!!

And it's great to know where there are some great fireworks in NC.

Red, White, and Blue..

Happy July 4th, 2010!!! **Thanks Aunt Nar for the awesome patriotic clothes!!**