full

The past week has been so FULL. Not necessarily busy, just full of people. And I LOVE it. It fills me up so much. 

Wednesday, Shawna came to Morgantown from Pittsburgh and Jaclyn visited all the way from Georgia. Actually, her husband is in Ranger School and she's spent an extended time in WV after the holidays. We had lunch together at Black Bear and talked at my house while Sophie napped. I am blessed beyond belief to hear them talk about following hard after Jesus, learning and growing in their marriages, serving in Young Life and their churches, and living life hard in school and work. We spent an hour and a half at Black Bear for lunch and Soph was a total champ. She will definitely be invited back to girls' lunches.

Aren't they all beautiful?

Sophie took this picture. She always makes us laugh when she uses the camera.

John spent the afternoon with Ben. Ted got to shoot some hoops
with him after school at Ben's office.

Earlier in the week we had attended Sid Murphy's funeral. His son, Ryan (in the red shirt below) was one of Ben's UHS Young Life guys when he was in college. To say that everyone loves Murph is an understatement. As I sat at the funeral and looked at the people there, I was reminded of one of my favorite things about the Lord: the way He intertwines people's lives. The way we weave in and out of people's lives and some stay for a long, long time. The wide variety of people there, yet the connection everyone shares floors me everytime. 

All the men and their wives got together Thursday night for a bit.
We just snapped a picture of the men.
Dirk, Trey, Curtis, Randon & Tim
Ben & Ryan

 Friday evening these lovely women stopped by Morgantown on their way from Charleston to a MOPS planning weekend. I met them at Cheddar's for dinner and had a great time. Love these ladies!

BJ, Angela & Laura
Katie, Steffanie, Stacy & Lori

Saturday morning I had breakfast with Carrie, Shawna, Lauren and Clare at Cracker Barrell.  We doubled it as a little shower for Carrie. She's adopting her second son from China and is just waiting for the date to be set. My sweet friends even blessed me with some birthday cards and gifts. We had a great breakfast really sharing about what the Lord has been teaching us lately and where we hope this year to go.  It was for sure one of my favorite times with them. (And I totally forgot to take a picture!)

I picked the kids up from the sitter and met Ben at Ted's basketball game. (He had been at a worship meting for church in Fairmont). Ted had a fun game and Sophie was less than happy to be there.
 

Bethany and Josh offered us tickets to WVU basketball game. They had sick kiddos (bummer!) but shared with us. So, on a total whim, we went straight from Ted's basketball game to the men's basketball game. In the middle of naptime none-the-less. They kids had fun and the hotdogs were a definite high point in the afternoon.

Ben was trying to explain the 3 point line to Ted using a diagram on his phone.

Walking back to the car. It was COLD. We ran into Curtis at the game, too!

Our babysitter ended up cancelling b/c she was sick, so Ben and I didn't get to go out to our planned early dinner. Which would've added even more chaos to the day! We had take out chinese (I LOVE chinese food) in the 2 hours we were home. I put Sophie down for an hour nap, and then we went separate directions. The guys (from picture above and then some) went out for wings, and the girls (and kids) got together for some food and good conversation. 

They even got me a cake! How sweet are they?

Laura, Shawna, Clare, Cole, Lindsey & Laura

All in all, it was a fun and busy weekend. Although, I've decided that keeping your kids out too late is equivalent to drinking too much. It's fun that night, but the next morning is brutal!