Family Brinner

We did a breakfast-for-dinner theme last night (pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit - yay!) and celebrated Triston's Graduation and Kyndal Faith's Christian Citizenship Award!  This = a fun grad-themed canvas I made for Triston (thanks to the LiveCollage app and Walgreens same-day pickup photo gifts!).  We're laughing about Mom's photo-taking skills, and it's such a real smile from him that makes me happy!! ❤

Closer view of the collage!  The extended fam, the Parrishes, his best friend Reece Barnes, Mrs. King, the speech, Wendy and JoBug, Mrs. Talley, Brooke's side of the fam, and a pic with Reese Kufahl and Kate Smiley (the girls he is closest to in his class).

A fun cookiecake... (his name got messed up when Jace was carrying it in, but I was able to restore it with iPhone's markup feature). lol

Rach bought this book back in 2011 and had every CHA teacher sign it over the past 14 years!  It has some great notes in it, then she added a few Bible verses and photos, so it's a really meaningful gift!

Pic of T and Rach with the book!

Kyndal Faith made up a trivia game for us to play, asking things like her favorite color, movie, song, season, Thunder player, etc. lol

It also included what she wants to be when she grows up, which was definitely the first time I'd heard about the Senator Parrish plan (inspired by their DC trip), but I'm 100% on board for that! =)

Then she and I played a few rounds of Speed while Jace played basketball and Rach made a McDonald's run, then they played a couple rounds of that and another fun card game when Rach got back!

"She tried to cheat, but I still won!!" ~K telling Grandpa all about it

(P.S. Dad's had a tooth pulled and we're all used to it, but I felt like I should explain that here)

Another family dinner to remember - the sun being out longer is my favorite, and I feel like the niece and nephews are all at fun ages with interesting lives and thoughts I love to hear right now.  I made extended slideshows for K-Faith and T-man, which prompted a "Bro, where's MY slideshow!?" from Jace, so I hastily made him one while he was swimming!  We all watched all three of them together on Mom and Dad's huge living room TV, and that was fun times hearing the kids thoughts and commentary!

Here's Mrs. Garner and Tman on his very first day at CHA! ❤

And on his final day at CHA - here's Mrs. Garner with the 8 Senior students who had been there since Pre-K!

❤ ❤ ❤

Not Alone

About the new doors God is opening, I have the opportunity to lead the women's LifeGroup through the summer ahead, which feels exciting and rich with meaning right now.  The group is fittingly called "Heal Out Loud," and there are women grieving the loss of a parent, grieving the loss of a spouse to suicide, navigating single parenthood after abuse and abandonment, navigating major health challenges and/or complex family dynamics, grieving an abruptly broken engagement, sending kids to college, parenting young children with cancer, and more.  Their stories are layered and complex, with real pain and fear and the need for consistent prayer and support, and I want to step into that in a bigger way across the board!  (This pic is from last fall - I'll be sure we take a new one soon.)

Chet has pointed out that this is God fulfilling my desire to counsel and work with adult women... which feels true, just not in the way I'd expected to see it.  I have another friend who is facing the ambiguous grief of a friendship fallout in a long-term best friendship, and I am grateful to at least be "a witness" who can help validate the extreme pain of that loss and help her process the situation and move forward in a healthy way.

So I'm opening my heart again to the idea that motherhood and Christian counsel may not look the way I anticipated, but may still be part of God's calling on my life!  Be fruitful and multiply can mean a lot of different things.  My relationships with my niece and nephews and mini-BFFs and Compassion child matter more than I sometimes believe - I'm playing an important role there, and I'm thankful for it!  I want a God-honoring legacy and deep relationships, and I want to help care for hurting people and point them to Jesus as their healer, and a Bible study or podcast are typically safer environments for being direct about that than a counseling room.

Another thing I'm considering is starting a podcast with the theme of Kingdom Hope.  Largely because I need constant reminders to stay anchored in that myself, and I believe it is vitally important and often overlooked for most Christians.  We forget about everything here being partial and incomplete, so we expect too much from it.  And we forget that everything there will be whole and healed and right, so we place too little value and real hope in it.

In the meantime, I'm using this post to remind myself that I am not alone.  I am certainly not the only one struggling with self-doubt or quiet loss or confusion about the path ahead, which is a good thing to remember to push my focus back outward and take action where I can to help others!  And I am not alone or without support as I move forward in life... I have good friends and family who love me, and several people who could use my support, love, and kindness.  We carry the light of Christ inside us, and it matters!!

So today, I am grateful for exceptional friends who check in here and really see me and care about the details and offer good counsel when I need it!

I'm grateful for fun podcasts that get surprisingly deep and philosophical sometimes!

I'm thankful for walks with Kristin and being Aunt Lindsey and the godmother to her boys!

I'm thankful for the fam and our regular dinners and the character progress I'm seeing in my niece and nephews!

I'm thankful for God-ordained connections with two of the women in my neighborhood (on my same street) and praying those continue to grow and strengthen!

Thankful for being a trusted supportive adult to help Triston navigate moving to Colorado this summer!

And I'm thankful for God's Word and the foundational truths that ground our faith and hope...

Thanks for stopping by for this plethora of new posts!  (I have a seventh post started, but I have two audiobooks to finish up before I can post it.)

Happy Memorial Day - thankful for those who gave their lives defending our freedom!

And I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!!

❤ ❤ ❤

The Graduate!

Mrs. King presented Triston at CHA's Graduation ceremony last Friday (5-22-26):

Very proud to be his Aunt!

The Fam, minus Jaceman who was very busy chatting with someone!

I asked ChatGPT to add him in and make him a little taller than me... so it made him 7-foot! lol  Naturally, he loves this pic and assures me he'll be that height someday soon! lol

This = me telling mom to raise her phone camera... higher angle is always better! lol

Rach with all four Parrish kids (whilst Jace borrows T's grad cap)!

Parrish Siblings!

Wendy, Triston, and JoBug

Mamaw, Tman, and Grandpa

The passing of the green jacket as Josh Bullard handed over the Headmaster role to Mr. Schapansky

J&K are fans of him, so I hope that continues as he steps into the leadership role!

Reese Kufahl, Kyndal (who wore her best OSU colors in honor of Reese and Laynie, both future Cowboys), and Tman!

Brook's side of the family:  Shauna, Maggie, Mason, Pat (Nana), Shirley, Carter, and Carter's friend who likely didn't know he was signing up for a 2-hour ceremony! lol

I had a good talk with Megan Elizabeth just before the ceremony!  Her oldest nephew was also graduating... her dad (Hudson's grandad) got to present him, and he was the first third-generation student to graduate from CHA (his mom and dad and maternal grandma all graduated there, and his parents and grandad are all currently on staff)!

JB complimenting Jaceman on how tall he's getting!

❤

In a fascinating turn of events, I could tell that Mrs. King (who presented Triston at the ceremony) seemed to know me, and she looked very familiar..... she's one of Triston's favorites on the CHA staff, and she's a mom with a daughter in Kyndal's class who's one of K's good friends.  

She is ALSO a 1997 CHA grad who was part of the 2006 faculty trip to Boston...

I would never have joined their entire class trip, but my four favorite seniors from that class missed their scheduled class trip due to competing in Mock Trial Nationals... so they joined the CHA faculty for a summer trip to Boston, and I was OVERJOYED to join them for that!

This = me, the famous JoshuaMichaelMartin, Sarah Bliss, Evan, and Ms. Audra Wolfley (who later married and became Mrs. King) outside before the Boston Pops Sound of Music sing-along!  Bottom pic is her joining "the Fab 5" (Evan, Josh, Me, Zana, and Sarah) for dinner at the Wayside Inn!  She was friendly and fun and the youngest member of the faculty 20 years back, so she hung out with our group a lot and knew a very-JMM-obsessed version of me! 

Her (after taking our photo repeatedly):  "You two make such a cute couple!"

Josh:  "Oh, we're not together, just best friends."

Me:  "Not yet, and THANKS!"

Hot. Mess.

Here's hoping that's all filtered right out of her memory. lolol

Anyway, she's really kind, and yay for finally making that connection exactly 20 years down the road!!

❤ ❤ ❤

Block Party #7!!

Chet's 7th Annual Client Appreciation Block Party was a vibrant success!!

Just look how fun and colorful! ❤

Debbie manning the Check-In table, handing out the new swag bags and drink tickets, both improving a bit on last year's party plan!  (Karli Marie made the awesome balloon arch and I made the fun check-in poster - my strong guess is that not everyone officially checked in, but there were over 100 people on the list that did!!)

Prepping for the flower bouquet bar - and yes, I did stop and smell the roses - I do that literally every time I see them anywhere! lol

Yay for my chalkboard sign from yesteryear still going strong! lol

Parker and I were very happy to be in matching pink shirts! ❤

Balloon columns by Chet and Karli... they added a lot to this year's photos!!

Tate and his friend playing with anything they found in the garage! lol

My very-quickly-made water and not water signs! lol

Yay, Kristin Renee and the Foster fam!

Pink Ladies! ;-)  A stair-steppy height pic of me, Lindsay, and Kelly Marie!

Yolanda and Cody, a "Wilson fam" reunion! lol

Friend group pic by the balloon arch!

Sarah comforting Parker when she was deeply distraught about her sparkly balloon popping. Presh!

Ellie, Margot, Kelly, and Elizabeth

Steve complimenting Parker's hair flower (which he put in for her)! lol

Kate holding Paige Evelyn! ❤

The indoor crew - me, Teresa, and Laura! (It was very hot and windy, and I needed Vivian to stay intact!)

Parker was back in a happy mood with her new balloon collection!

Pic with Laura Allison by the fun balloon column!

Shane showing Tate the kettle corn process!

Tate drew this for him and gave it to him at dinner - he couldn't find a yellow marker so he wrote yellow with an arrow to the popcorn. lol  Love it!

New patriotic bows from Mom for the Wilsons and for me! ❤

Friend trio pic from the last three block parties!

I adore the Wilsons, and I love being in the group that comes early to help and stays late to hang out - we did Whataburger dinner then Andy's custard, also becoming a tradition at this point!  In other news, I need us all to wear colorful shirts more often - these pics spark joy for me! =)

That's my third and final post for today - I'm all caught up on photos!  I've been reading an exceptional book and may share some deeper thoughts in the next day or two!

Happy Monday, gang!  And in case no one else reminds you, Jesus loves you and believes in you, and He is with you and for you today!!

❤ ❤ ❤