Catching up

Okay, I received borderline harassment comments this weekend regarding my pure laziness at updating my blog. So, here I am, yet again, trying to make a valiant attempt at being a consistent blogger.

I am winding down after a wonderful whirlwind of a weekend. I must admit that I started my weekend by working a 16 hour day on Friday and getting pulled over on my drive home. Yes, for the first time since Jeff has become a police officer. As I calmly pulled over and listened to the officer tell me something about driving to fast blah blah, I was muling over in my mind how I was going to pull the "my husband's a cop" card. Never fear the, "I'm a nurse getting off a 16 hour shift card" worked just fine. ; )

Saturday morning I was thrilled to find out that Dan and Annette (finally) got to welcome their youngest boy, Aaron James, into their growing family!!!!! I could not wait to meet the little guy and squeeze him! He is a beautiful boy! I'm excited to be a part of his life and watch him grow! Dan, Annette are great friends of ours and Aaron is so very blessed to have them as parents! And, I'm sure Tommy is going to be a great big brother!

The weekend was full of surprises for my father-in-law. On Saturday Smoak families came from Valencia, Fairfield and Willits to converge on Merril and surprise him for Fathers Day, which of course was a ploy to cover the real surprise on Sunday. Today Merril was recognized for serving as a pastor at Trinity for 30 years. Hard for me to imagine since I'm not even thirty years old. I have an over abundance of love, respect and admiration for him. You see, being that Merril is my father-in-law he will always be in my life. However, not only will he always be a constant in my life because I married Jeff; but, he always had been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember. I was about 6 years old when my family began attending Trinity regularly. Merril's presence is calm and comforting to me. I love hearing him sing- his voice has been the voice leading worship for me throughout my childhood, during trials, times of joy, and times of sadness. A vivid memory that I have of Merril is of him down on his knees on stage teaching us "my God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God can not do". As a youth we performed musicals that had a profound impact on me. He married Jeff and I and since then has been a constant supporter and encourage of Jeff and I. I love him very much and am so grateful that he is in my life as a father-in-law and as a pastor.

Because of the special events I got to spend the weekend loving on, playing with and all around enjoying my nieces and nephew. It's such a rarity to have Chandler and all of his cousins in one place simply because of distance and the chaos of life. Chandler loves playing with his cousins and I love seeing him play hard and unknowingly build the foundation of the relationships that they will have for life.

What a great weekend!