we had a surprise birthday party for jessica drennon at my house last night. :) it was great fun. i got to be sneaky...good thing i have arika in my life as THE ultimate example of sneakiness, or i'd be at a loss. anyway...meredith and jessica stroup and i took her out to bruster's for ice cream, and she thought that was the end of it...but little did she know that meredith and i had other plans up our sleeves. unfortunately, however, we finished our ice cream way too early and had some MAJOR stalling to do. i literally was like, "let's go for a drive! i feel like a drive!!" to save some time. but everything worked out in the end. jessica was VERY surprised and very happy. :) we watched "the butterfly effect" - i highly recommend it. it's very disturbing and very creepy but it REALLY makes you think. haha after everyone went home, i had to walk downstairs in the dark to get something to drink, and i was totally psyching myself out. what a nerd i am. but anyway. happy birthday jessica. :) man...i love that girl. she is sunshine in my life. i love her enthusiasm for the lord, her voice, her sense of humor, and...well just everything about her. what a blessing. she deserved way more than we could give her.

i babysat again the other day for a 5 year old and a 3 year old. they decided that i was the "lava monster." so i proceeded to chase them around their backyard, roaring and waving a plastic gun. but pretty soon i was informed that plastic guns are actually the lava monster's great weakness...and so i began to die. in the process i tripped over the edge of their sandbox and fell flat on my face. AND ripped half my toenail off (sorry for that gross image). as you can imagine, this amused them greatly. but hey, i got $20 out of it!!! no...i really did have fun though. they're precious kids. :)

please be praying that i find a way to make some money during the rest of this summer!! i'd really appreciate your prayers. and pray that i allow God to continually teach me new things - right now he's showing me that i need to make myself vulnerable sometimes and avoid being isolated in my sin. hard lesson to learn! just keep me in your prayers. :) thanks ya'll.