It has been WAY too long since we blogged, so here goes: What have we been up to?

1. Prayer team- when Casey and I first got plugged into our church as Mr. & Mrs., we took some good marriage advice we'd heard to serve together at least for the first year. I think we are both people who are motivated by need, and there was a need in the kids' ministry, so we went to our volunteer meeting, got our Summit Kids t-shirts and nametags, filled out our volunteer app, and jumped in. When I say we jumped in, I mean we told the people in charge that we had very little kid experience, and we wouldn't mind being the "security", which meant we sat in the corners each week during one of the services making sure no one sketch was lurking around the kiddies. The most action that usually occurred was us directing someone to the bathroom, or making sure teachers taking kids to the bathroom had passed the criminal background check.

So...fast forward to sometime early this year---Casey had been wanting to be involved in prayer at our campus (northraleigh.summitrdu.com) and what do you know, a prayer team got started. He immediately got involved. I was still sitting in the corner for security, kind of hoping I could serve somewhere else soon, but not sure prayer team was the place. Well, about a week into prayer team existing, the leader of the prayer team was asked to be a campus pastor at a new campus of our church...hm...so, long story short, Casey is now leading the team with a group of guys and girls, including me (I finally gave in because I decided fear of praying with other people is not a legitimate excuse for not praying with other people---God, help me). It's been pretty exciting to see the prayers God is already answering for revival in our church. There's some cool stuff happening in this little group of faithful pray-ers.

2. Coupons- I bought $36.00 worth of groceries last week for $0.52 of sales tax. My favorite free thing was Honey Bunches of Oats Raisin Medley. I've decided that free cereal tastes at least twice as good as cereal you pay for.

3. March Sadness- Casey is in mourning over the Tarheels losing Sunday. I'm still excited 'cause I'm pulling for VCU all the way! (in spite of the fact that their mascot is a ram, which I'm not too fond of) Added bonus* I hear their coach has been contacted as a possible State coach option. So far, I'm pretty happy with that idea.

4. Pollen- we kept waking up with headaches, and constantly being thirsty and snotty and congested and whatever other symptoms you can have with allergies. I broke down and bought two different kinds of allergy medicine to cover every phase of allergy season. Our apartment is surrounded by pine trees full of those that nasty yellowness. It's a scary time.

5. Small group- our church is, one, pretty big numbers-wise, and two, pretty emphatic on really being part of a community, so we have small groups. Casey and I were in one for a few months, but we were all heading in different directions, so we amicably parted ways at the end of the year. Since then, we've tried out a couple new groups, and we think we have found the one. We'd been wanting an intergenerational group with couples and singles, and this fits the bill. Plus, we are really enjoying getting to know the people in the group. It's really sweet to be part of group that loves God, spends time in the word together seeking to know Jesus more, and is about praying for and serving each other. We're excited to see where we go from here.