Free at Last! :) :) :)

Well, here's the pics of proof to show the crazy, but fun times of the past week. So, without further ado...introducing SOCC's VBX: International Treasure: Book of Truth (the Bible). Our church always does a knock-off theme of some new movie coming out (and adds the twist of making it Bible-related)...this year it was in conjunction with National Treasure 2 (a semi-Indiana Jones movie)....here we are above...me and my kiddos...on our way to the Friday night program/carnival. You can see our matching t-shirts (volunteers are always a diff. color than the kids)...this year the shirts were lovely "blah" colors...but the backs of the shirts were cool...there was a secret message in the writing. Oh, the creativity of our church staff! :) Do you see my hefty swollen ankles...they are gonna be donut-sized by Aug...fun stuff!
Here's Hailey lost in the yardage of fleece. This was last Monday afternoon when our 100 yards of additional fleece arrived in the mail. Yes, I was overwhelmed at this point...and had to call in back up (daddy Kev) to help my cut and measure....
Here is how we cut fleece in our home...me make it extra challenging by asking our children to jump over us while we try to avoid cutting them with sharp objects :)
The fleece is all cut into blankets to be doled out to wonderful, helpful neighbors/family! (thanks, Jill, Angie and Aunt Kim!). The remnants are being used as new scarfs for Shelba :)
Hailey's 2nd grade group hard at work on their 3rd tie blanket during craft time...we found out later that the first group made tying the blankets a race...not cool, as we volunteers ended up having to re-tie most of their 30 blankets...ugh! The next groups were encouraged to take it slower with NO racing allowed!
Here's my cutie-patooties on their first day of VBX! :) And look...I haven't yet killed my new flowers out front...I am so proud!
Hailey and her best bud, Julia, during craft time!
Thursday's craft time...mosaic frames...you can see my cohort in crafts (Erin) in the pic...she's preggers too! :)
Hailey with her new Bible and the Bible cover she decorated during craft time! :)
Isn't this an adorable pic of two of my sweeties...Dylan desperately wanted to be in the picture and look at his sweet, smiley face :)
Hailey showing off "day 2" craft...beaded fish keychain :)
Day 4 craft made by Hailey: Mosaic Picture Frame with the VBX theme verse inside
VBX program on Friday night...this is Shelby's group (preschool/or half of them...I couldn't get them all in the pic)...can you find her?? I didn't post Hailey's group cuz it was so big and too hard to find her....
VBX backdrop...also very cool...with a movable fireplace...and here is our funny stage crew :) Below is Shelby at one of the carnival games on Friday...it was a funny one...something about "wacking a lizard"..she was lucky to wack the lizard at all :) And this was all before our big flood/storm of the weekend...don't worry...we are not under water, but Bloomy is still in a state of emergency and much of our downtown got flooded...even our major highway was shut down for over a day....lucky for me I ended up with a stomach bug and couldn't get out of bed to go anywhere anyway....

Well, what a week it's been for us....and more specifically for me! I feel like I've been thrown back into the world of working full-time this week (without the benefit of being paid :)). For those of you who don't know, this was VBX week for us. For most churches it's VBS (Vacation Bible School), but for us at SOCC that changed a few years ago when they decided to change it from the normal, humdrum name to Vacation Bible X-perience (I have to admit I like this "cool" name better...cuz who wants to go back to school right at the beginning of summer...having an x-perience is much better :)). Thus, the name.....

All that to say that I have never felt so exhausted....well, since I was either working full-time back in the days of the year 2000....or maybe during all the first trimesters of my pregnancies. This craft leader stuff has been hard work. And I can't even take all the credit. I had a cohort in crime (who is also halfway through her pregnancy) who did half the work too so I can only imagine how it all would have gone if I was the only one doing all the planning/prep work. I would be flat on my back in bed now (as I have been half the week after VBX).

I won't go into all the details of the week, but I will say it truly was a wonderful time and I don't regret volunteering for this job at all...it was rewarding as all get-out and even though I have fat, chubby swollen feet, blisters on my hands from cutting over a 100 yards of fleece and a backache that won't let up, I know it was all for a good cause and I pray that some kids and families came to know the Lord through the whole x-perience. Cuz, that's why we volunteers do it...not for us...but for the kids, especially the kids who don't know Jesus. And every year I am amazed at how many kid flock through our church for this event. This week it was about 618 kids. Is that not insane???!!! And we (Erin and I) planned the crafts for about450 of those (K-5th). It was just a monumental task. I'm not looking for pats on the back, but I don't think I ever really thought about the mass amounts of work it would be and just like that it was all upon us...and thankfully now ALL done!

And can I just say that our staff and volunteers have got to be the most talented around (present party NOT included!)...I'm talking about all the great minds behind our VBX...cuz truly...it is an awesome experience for the kids. The acting that's involved, the musics (they put out CD's every year for all the kids in VBX), the t-shirts (we have our own t-shirts every year too)...and just the talent that goes on behind the scenes. It's just hard to put into words how awesome it is. God has really given our church so many gifted individuals who just love the Lord and do all this because they love Him and love His kids. It's just such a blessing to be a part of such a wonderful x-perience and an amazing church family. I am so thankful our kids get to share in all this and that God put us here in Bloomy.......I know that's a little off the subject, but that thought has passed my mind a few times and I just had to say how I love to watch God's plan unfold....

But, the week went great. Erin and I had never planned crafts before, but we've been "craft fairies" for our retired craft leader for years, so we kind of knew the old ropes. And we had some wonderful helpers this year and that made all the difference. To change things up this year we did half of the crafts for the kids and half for charities. Thus the kids only took home a few crafts (beaded fish keychains, mosaic picture frames, decorated canvas Bible covers for their new Bibles...the church gave each child (all 618) a new child-appropriate Bible...awesome!)....and they made 81 fleece tie blankets for our homeless shelter, 26 collection boxes for many charities and 450 wordless gospel/picture books for kids in Mexico and Guatemala. It was a wonderful week of teaching the kids the joy of giving to others. Of course not all the kids were in the giving spirit and some moaned and groaned cuz they didn't get to keep the crafts, but I think it was great how we gave to our community and to those out of the country and how we are being an example to our kids that it's not "all about us", but about being servants in this world...isn't that what God wants us to do!?

Anyway...so the craziness has passed. Actually VBX isn't officially done for about 5 more hours. We have our program tonight and then our carnival (food/games) after...and that is always a good time (if the rain stays away). But, I am free and clear of my craft duties and I'm thrilled to pieces about that. I will admit this week has been rough on this pg ol' body of mine. Not only are my feet and legs and face swollen to capacity, but my poor legs have funny little spider veins popping out from standing on my feet for so many hours each day. And my tummy has just been in knots all week. I'm a big planner so I wanted to make sure everything was perfect each day so I'd be either thinking or writing stuff down constantly. My mind never got a rest and between that and our horrible, stormy week I didn't get much sleep. I can't wait for Monday to be here and to have a more free schedule. I am exhausted. And somehow I feel that my belly got 10x's bigger this week. I had to sit up for awhile last night until "baby girl" moved to a better position and I could breath. Have I mentioned it's gonna be a loooong summer! And yesterday I believe it was 98 degrees out...what is up with that? Hotter here than in FL...just not right! :(

So, as you can see it's been a crazy week of planning and prep, but all in all it was a good, fun time. Yes, it was crazy and I'm worn out and ready for down time...but God gave me the strength to make it through. I think the worst part of the whole week was speaking on the microphone. I hate that kind of stuff. I don't mind the public speaking, but I hate my voice being magnified over speakers. That was not my cup of tea. So, aside from that it was fine. And now our summer is mostly free, free, free! :) YAY, YAY, YAY! :)

Hope you all are doing well and having a great "summer" so far. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the rain to go away for good (if you don't live in IN, you might not know all the crazy storms we've had recently) We had so much rain this week that when I went to the grocery store earlier this week I could not get home cuz our creek was racing over all our major roads. It was slightly scary. Not to mention it was not exactly fun for 600 kids to have to hide under church pews when the tornado siren went off during VBX. It's been a crazy, stormy week. I actually like storms, but this was a little too much water/thunderstorms for me! So, hope you all are safe!

Adios...I'm off to put my puffy feet up! Pics to come later of VBX fun :)

Oh...and on a side note...I do believe today (or soon) might just be Kev's parents big anniversary! So, here's to two people that I'm glad got hitched many, many years ago. They are a beautiful couple with a beautiful family and if it wasn't for them and their undying love for each other I might not have my wonderful Kev by my side to keep me sane every day :) Congrats on so many years of wedding bliss, Mom and Dad S.! :)