This past weekend was totally busy. Friday night, I watched my little cousins from 6 p.m. - 3 a.m. We played with Instant-Snow, freeze dance, random fun things, and I even got to teach and play Trouble and Kerplunk with my cousin. She got them for Christmas, and it's just so sad to me that she hasn't got to play them yet.

Saturday morning, bright and early at 10 a.m I went over to Jonathan's. I watched him until 4 p.m. and then I went to the twins from 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. During the course of the two days, I babysat for 20 hours. Let's remind you nice folks that that is outside of my time working at Insight on Friday. Between everything, I worked 27 1/2 hours between the two days.

Saturday afternoon, Mandy called and told me that I got to teach this weekend's lesson to the kids at Amadeo. She told me that the lesson was on helping the poor, and I got so excited. I think most people would see it as a sure fit for me because of everything at CdE, but that's not why. Most people would think that being around a 9 yr. old boy that has autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and a seizure disorder and feeding him processed food would make me hit my "low" point for the weekend, yet it wasn't. It was spending time with my rich little cousin on Friday night. I got there, and I saw her sitting on the minicouch in her play room watching Sponge Bob with her back perfectly straight, her legs at 90 degree angles, and with her arms crossed in her lap. This is her life, this is how she has become. It broke my heart. She is so grown up, that she barely enjoys being a kid. Seeing her a few hours later (under my immature influence), playing with the fake snow, realizing it was okay for her 1 1/2 year old sister to spill on the counter and play with the snow outside of the bowl.... to putting it in her hair and having a great time was more than I could have ever wanted or dreamed. She was a kid. For at least 40 minutes. And she's only 5 1/2 years old.

Sunday morning at Amadeo was awesome. The lesson went really well. I didn't really have to teach at all, the kids did all of that for me. I remember learning in bible college how to do "small group discussions" and that was the approach I took. I asked lots of questions, and I was amazed at their answers. I couldn't believe that Derek thought about how being sad could be a type of poor or that Noah would think of the lost as a type of poor. Teaching on the financially poor, poor in heart, and poor in spirit was amazing to see how the kids responded. They had so many great ideas of how to help these 3 distinctively different types of people. They thought of everything from giving them bibles, having them over, giving them a home (if you have 5), giving them more money than is comfortable, making them food, and praying for them.

The next part of my day was to go to the going away party for my cousin. I am so proud of this kid. He is 22 years old. He was a star quarterback in high school football, played for NAU, and now he wants to be an Army Ranger like Pat Tillman. I'm not completely gung ho, but I will support him in anything he does because he's my cousin and I love him. He leaves Wednesday, and he'll be gone for 22 weeks and 4 days for boot camp for then he is then home for a month. After that, he'll be gone for another 7 months in Army Ranger training, and so it will be over a year before he can get deployed. This is how I'm trying to cope. I can't imagine what Beka is going through. This is the first time that it is really hitting home for me. On top of that, his younger brother wants to go into the Air Force, and he's in the process of joining as well. He is just waiting for his ticket to clear up. If you could please lift up my cousin Eric in your prayers, I would greatly appreciate it. He is not a Christian.

Immediately after leaving there, I checked my voicemail, and sure enough, after being dilated to 5 for over a week, my friend Jen had her 4th child yesterday at 3 a.m. She had a beautiful little girl named Brooklyn Madeline on her birthday. They will now get to share it together forever. It was a much needed uplift after my cousins party and seeing my family trashed. It was funny at parts, don't get me wrong, but having my niece go to her first kegger at age 3 isn't exactly a proud moment for me or my family.

Well, I love you all... That's all for now.