Where have all the cowboys gone...

That song really had nothing to do with this post, its just in my head and I didn't have a good title anyway! Its been a week since I last wrote and we have been quite busy. We had VBS at church on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. I had been feeling a little apprehensive earlier about the group from Oklahoma, but it turns out they they were amazing! They did so much and were so wonderful the entire time. Jackson had a great time at VBS and it was great to really be able to do the type of ministry we feel called to do. We had a concert each night with 2 friends of ours (Titus and Json) giving hip-hop concerts Thursday and Saturday. I wish I had gotten video of my little white boy trying to dance to it! Saturday mrning Jackson had a t-ball game and he did great. It's a team of all kindergarteners and they have a rule that after the last person bats they just all run home. Well, Jackson figured that out and made sure he was the last person every time. After the game he started bragging about all the home runs he had made! We went to teh Science Center after the ball game to see the Monster exhibit. I wasn't 100% impressed, but at the end of the exhibit they have this art area where you can take monster drawing classes and they give everyone a package of Crayola clay and a bunch of art supplies to make your own monster; so Jackson was happy. After we left the monster exhibit we toured around the science center for a while. Baby Brooklyn spent the night with us Saturday night which always makes Jackson happy, even if it doens't amuse dad! It was a good weekend, and now my baby is gone. He went to Campmeeting with my mom in Fredericktown for the week. I miss him a bunch!!!! Here are some pictures from our fun weekend...







Coming into home...Dad doesn't enjoy nap time so much!

So....

...there's not really much new going on right now. Jackson and I started summer school today, and it is always exhausting the first day back. Due to the flood and various construction projects at work our day was constantly changing ("Plans have changed, Barbie!"), so I was constantly on my toes. Jackson enjoyed it and is looking forward to the hands-on-science class with Ms. Mac tomorrow as well.
On a personal note, I've been dealing with some humbling issues lately. As some of you know we are part of a church plant here in St. Louis. We are loving it, but it is definately different being on this side of it. I've always been part of well established churches, and I have always taken part in outreach projects to other churches and organizations. I have alays been part of the groups that went and helped and now it is the other way around. This week there is a youth group from Oklahoma here to work with us, and I must say that it has been weird accepting their help. It is odd to be on the receiving end of the mission. It has been humbling to see others come in and do work, when this church has been such a labor of love for us. We will be doing Vacation Bible School for the next 3 evenings and I am SO excited to see the people that we have been able to connect with in our community; to see the people we have humbly reached out to after accepting the help of others.

So, that's whats on my heart this week. I don't really have any pictures to go along with it, so I will just post a few old ones for fun...












On the train on the way to Chicago, eating salami and watching a movie

High Dive

Today was a big day for mom and Jackson. It was a significant event that had two very different meanings. Let me explain...

We went to Springdale pool today with Josh's family, and Jackson, being the natural born fish that he is was excited as usual. Now, you wouldn't think a trip to the pool would be that exciting since we have a pool membership at another pool, but whatever. From the moment we walked in Jackson was mesmorized with the diving boards. Jackson hasn't yet been able to take the diving test at our pool, which has been quite a sore spot with him, so today at Springdale he walked straight up to the lifeguard and asked what he had to do to go off the diving boards. The lifeguard motioned for my baby boy to jump into the 12 foot water and swim half way down and back. Now, let me jump in and tell you that Jackson has taken swimming lessons for the past 2 summers and up until this summer has had a swimming pool in his backyard, so swimming is something he is quite fond of, anyway back to my story...Jackson jumps in and starts swimming across the pool. He gets out and the lifeguard says, "good job, you can go off any diving board you want". These are words that put me into a panic!!!!!! This lifeguard was giving my baby boy permission to jump off the diving board into 12 foot water and I couldn't be there waiting to catch him. Jackson was SO proud of himself though, that there was no way I could say no to him, so I let him go off the low dive a few times, which kept him happy for about 5 minutes. When he started asking to go off the high dive I started worrying. My husband though, pulled me aside as I was starting to ramble on about how "my baby boy couldn't possibly jump off of that high dive 10 or so feet in the air into a 12 foot deep pool of water", looked me in the eye and said, "Kym...he's not a baby anymore, he's a big boy now. I know he's your baby boy, but if he passed the test, then he's big enough to jump". In shock, I reluctantly agreed to let Jackson jump off the board, and watched in terror as my son began the climb to the top. A few moments later, there he stood, my baby on top of the high dive. I know it sounds so cliche, but as he started walking I could have sworn it was my swim diapered, bowl cut, chubby legged toddler walking toward the edge, not my mohawked, ready to be in 1st grade, boy. He jumped, popped right up, swam to the side, and did it over and over for the next few hours.

I just can't believe how big my boy is. I look at him and I truly can't believe how blessed I am to be his mama. I can't believe that my "little man" is truly that, growing into a little man. So, it was a big day for us, a wonderful big day...

Fun with baby

My friend Grace brought her daughter Brooklyn over for a while last night and Jackson had a blast with her. He is so interested in everythings she does and he constantly wanted to be with her. He just sat in the floor and played with her for about an hour, it was great. Here are some pics...
You may need to turn your volume up for the video, but it is worth it!

Tornado Party

So, the last day of school was yesterday (yippee!) and the afternoon turned out to be a little more eventful then we had imagined. After lunch, the bad weather they had been promising started to roll through. While we were still there packing things up the tornado sirens started going off and some people from the school office came through and said that the path of the tornado seemed to be coming straight down highway 44. We didn't have much else to do, so we threw ourselves a little tornado party. We grabbed some carpet squares and some leftover goodies from the 5th grade BBQ and we just camped out for a while. It was actually kind of a fun way to end the day..

My amazing team (of the year), who I am incredibly blessed to work with! Sorry we're green, I think its the shirts!

Our Tornado Party...

JUNE 6TH AT LAST!!!

So we made it to June! That means Jackson and I are both done with school, yeah! I'm going back to teach summer school in a few weeks, but at this moment in time we are just going to think about being done for now. I haven't posted in a while because my camera was being geeky. I think it is fixed now though, yeah! Here are some pics from the last day of school...

First day of kindergarten....Last day of kindergarten!



















Part of the fun of kindergarten is going on to 1st grade, so here is a picture of Jackson getting his Kindergarten diploma. Sorry it's blurry...

YEAH JACKSON!