Friday.

These weeks are running by so fast. It's hard to believe that next week is my last full week off before faculty work days begin, and then back to class the last week of August. Then, in the first week of September, my daughter will be a second grader and my son (gulp) in kindergarten. While I am excited to see how they will learn and grow, it will be a whole new world for our family as both kids are in school.

Today, I'm just going to do a little catch-up post because in all the hubbub of birthdays, vacations, etc., I have overlooked a few things that I want to highlight here.

1. Our good friends, the Smith family, are headed for a 3-week trip to Africa. We are so thrilled to see what God will do in and through them while they are there, and we are inspired by this family's faith in God through every step of this journey.

Marcy, the mom of the bunch and an amazing friend, is keeping a blog of their adventure, so if you are interested, please check it out HERE and especially be praying for this special family.

2. Happy Birthday to my Mom, Gail, who turned 58 yesterday. We are celebrating tonight with a Mexican dinner, so we will be leaving this afternoon to head north. Happy Birthday, Mom and Grandma. We love you very much!

3. Happy Belated Birthday to my sister-in-law, Meegan. Her birthday was July 5th, but given all the vacation craze, I never posted here. We love you Meegan, and love seeing you and Mitch raise little Samantha. PS--And I just realized that I don't have a recent photo of you, so next time we see you, bring your biggest smile! :)

4. Tomorrow, we are celebrating my Grandma's 90th Birthday with a party/open house. I will post more about her and what she has meant to us this weekend.

5. I am typing on a new laptop. One of the benefits of working at the university is that every 2 years, they trade my old laptop for a brand new model. I am definitly enjoying the faster processing speed and higher memory capabilities. That means that I can take more photos!

6. Just a cute tidbit from Hayden. We were sitting in the living room next to each other. All of a sudden I hear: "Dear God." I look at him, but he continues. "Dear God, please help Daddy to build me a big Mach 6 race car so that I can win all the races. Ok, God? Thanks God. Amen." I was chuckling, but oh, if only all of us could come so innocently and transparently before our Savior!

7. And a few of Kennedy's words. "Mom, do you mean that some people actually have to WORK in the summer?" With both myself and Matt being in the field of education, we have nearly 4 months off in the summer. She was amazed that some people (most people) actually have to continue working in the summer. And when she found out that we still get paid all summer, she thought that that was a pretty good deal!

8. This week, I discovered COSTCO photo processing and LOVE IT! I especially love their collage feature, where I got an 11x14 collage for only $2.99! They also print 12x12 photos for scrapbooks (great for layouts where you use a photo as your background paper-I ordered a couple of those to play with) as well as stretched canvas and any size you could need. The best thing: They offer a finish called "lustre" which is a bit more satiny than matte but not glossy. I am not a big fan of glossy finish, so I like the lustre finish a lot. Mainly, I print my 4x6 photos as I scrap with my little Epson PictureMate, but I will definitely be using the Costco service for large projects and enlargaments. If you're looking for a good service, check it out. They offer one-hour service where you upload to their site and then pick it up at Costco one hour later. Perfect! HERE is their site if you want to check it out.

Happy Friday!