encouraged

friday was timmy's 25th birthday.  we went out friday night to this pizza place called the crew, we ran into our new friends gabe and cori there and they invited us over to hang out at their house. we just watched tv and talked, but it was really fun!

mom and dad and brother parker sent us a package, it had timmy's bday present and a sweater my mom's been working on for me in it.  we were really excited.  i was late to small group because we HAD to open it right then.  very exciting.  my sweater smells like my momma.  i miss her.

saturday some of our dear friends were in iowa visiting family and they called us to come over.  it was sooo good to be around them!  we played games (blokus, which timmy and i bought yesterday...) and caught up and i felt like i talked a lot.  it was awesome to see their kids and how much they're growing!  i should have taken pictures.  it was amazing.  ellie and emilie are the best moms ever, they're so sweet!  i love seeing their kids be cousins too, it made me miss my cousins.  

sunday we surprised timmy in sunday school.  we combined our jr high and high school and ate some cake and i taught a lesson over psalm 22 and easter (we've been going through psalms in our sunday school class.)  church was good.  and after we visited a little, we hit the road and went to indiana to visit the stoners.

indiana was so good.  we ate a LOT of food and easter candy.  we got to eat at chipotle (i think that's timmy's new favorite restaurant.) we got our starbucks.  we got new shoes (thanks dad stoner!) we went to the aquarium in chicago (soooo fun!) and played a little settlers of catan.  we didn't get to see mom very much on this trip, but we got to have lunch with dad and he bought us shoes at the mall, and we got to have some pretty good talks.  i love going to indiana for a lot of reasons, but one of my favorites is watching timmy talk with his brother and brother in law about ministry.  they're both pastors of churches in nw indiana, and they just get to vent and encourage each other. it's good stuff.  i love talking with timmy's sisters.  i still feel like im getting to know everyone, but this visit was sooo restful.  it was great to visit with the nieces and nephews too, and i caught the very end of high school musical 3.  

it was a great weekend, an awesome trip, a happy birthday for timmy and a joyful easter!

love.