Sabbatical

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Do you hear that?  It's the sound of life being AWESOME.

Gary is in week 2 of his 12-week Sabbatical.  Our church is generous in giving its pastors a Sabbatical every 6 years, and we are enjoying Gary's second Sabbatical this spring/summer.  We're so grateful for this gift.  And so are our kids; they are unbelievably glad to have Daddy around all the time for the next three months.

And I have a confession:  when he went on Sabbatical six years ago, I was nervous about having him around all. the. time.  But it turned out to be incredible, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for our family this time around.

The purpose of the Sabbatical is to offer rest and rejuvenation for pastors, and to get healthy in all areas of life while seeking the Lord.  During this time, he won't be going to work (although he will be planning and praying along the way), and so we won't be attending our church on a weekly basis.  Instead, we'll get to see how other churches do things and he'll get to learn from other leaders in his position.  Exciting!

What Sabbatical doesn't mean:  We are NOT in solitary confinement!  Are you reading this, friends and family?  We love our church family so much and it's actually difficult to think about not being intimately involved in your lives over the next few months!  We're still "allowed" to hang out with you, so don't be surprised when you see us and hear from us.  :)

We just got back from an amazing week-long kick off to Gary's Sabbatical in California.  Here's just a glimpse of some of the fun we had...

We celebrated Gary's Granny's 90th birthday.

We had a blast at Legoland...

Gary and I spent two days away (sans kids!) in Laguna Beach and Dana Point for silence and solitude, and during that time we saw WHALES just 40 yards from shore.  Amazing!

We had several days of fun family time at the beach, complete with sand burials and dolphins.

And a couple of other SUPER FUN things that I'll blog about later this week...

We don't intend to keep up this kind of pace for the next 11 weeks, but what a joy to launch into Sabbatical in this way.  Gary's posting a picture a day on his Facebook page to track his Sabbatical, and I told him that the pictures might start getting dull now that we're home.  A picture of him helping with the laundry... a picture of him taking the girls to school... but that sounds pretty awesome to me!

Our Most Expensive Toy

Any guesses how much this little yo-yo costs?  Maybe this will help you:  it's the first thing Emma ever bought with her very own money.

Here's another clue:

The plumber was here this afternoon, fixing the toilet that's been clogged since yesterday.  We immediately interrogated Brody, who denied that he or his toys had any part of the cloggeration.  We plunged that thing to death with no luck, so we had to call the big guns.  Brody waited by the door, so excited to see all his tools.

After draining it, he showed me on his magical plumber camera, that indeed, a toy was clogging the toilet.  I sort of thought that might be the case.  He put on some gloves and reached up there to try to get it.  After having no luck, I suggested that I could try, since my hands are smaller.  He looked at me incredulously and said that if I was serious he could give me gloves, but that it was up there pretty far.

Was I serious?  


Heck yes, I was serious!  Nothing grosses me out.  Little did he know I'd removed a floater from the toilet just minutes before his arrival.  Little does he know how many bottoms I wipe every day. Little does he know about those aquadumps that seem to happen every Sunday morning during bathtime.  He either thinks I'm totally disgusting or totally rad now.

But I decided that if he said it was up there pretty far, I probably couldn't get it either, no matter how petite and delicate my hands are.

A little more work later...

...and out came Emma's beloved yo-yo.  Brody said he didn't do it.  He said Chloe did it.... but admitted that he flushed it.  Hooray for teamwork.

As he pulled the yo-yo out, the plumber laughed and said, "I doubt you want this anymore..." but just as he was about to toss it, I lunged forward exclaiming, "ACTUALLY...!"

His wife must not be a blogger.

Anyway, that yo-yo?  $328.46.

To put that in perspective, that would buy about 90 pints of Ben & Jerry's.  And thus begins my diet.  *sigh*