Switchfoot, our BFF's and other friendship thoughts...

This is our "professional" picture with the Switchfoot dudes, taken by their manager, Ike. Notice Chad holding our gift to them...the Switchfoot symbol mosaic. See the blueish green card in Jon's pocket, right next to me? yeh, let's hope they read it.
L to R: Drew Shirley (guitar) awesome guy! Jerome Fontamillas (keyboard, guitar, pretty much anything) super talented! Tim Foreman (bass, little keyboard thingy, vocals) Jon's lil bro and all around super nice guy! David, Levi, and Me, Jon Foreman (lead vocals, guitar, harmonica) super cool, talented dude! Chad Butler (drums) love watching that guy on his drums!

we refer to Tim as Timmy. it's a little brother kind of endearment.

Jon (all of them) put on such an incredible LIVE show! 

here's where they sang their "oldie" called Golden. pretty cool. Chad and Jerome got to come out front...it was nice to watch them all together!

Hoping for an after show (we didn't get one but we did get to chat with them again)
Here's Drew...apparently, he doesn't like to be cold. Molly was here because we'd let E take the van back to the hotel with Molly and they came to get us. Molly's hair was wet from swimming and she only had PJ's on. Drew was precious...you could tell he misses his girls (he has four)...he leaned down to Moo and said "Hi baby!!" and signed her paper. awww. sniff.

Jerome! whatta fun guy! 

This was right after I told Tim that we called him Timmy. Mel was sorta horrified. he told me it was endearing. haha, Mel.

sadly outta order....but this was the next day, after we ditched Spring Arbor for the dunes.

The dudes at show's end. boo hoo. these guys are precious! We are so thankful for their testimonies and music!
Thanks Switchfoot.

I seriously wish I could post a YouTube video here.
And since I can't/don't know how, maybe you could go to YouTube yourself and put in Kermit and Robin sing about Friendship...

it takes me back to way simpler days...
My Mom bought a VHS video for Will and Ethan in the days before I had Melanie. It was a Muppets Greatest Hits of sorts and it was so adorable...Kermit and his nephew, Robin, sing a cute little ditty about friendship....when I hear it, I am practically transported back in time to those days...David and I with our little family of (almost) 5, no rent, even less money than now, no social media (remember those days????), and few friends. In some ways, I long for those simple days...don't get me wrong, I totally appreciate blogging, Facebooking, instagramming, friendship and the busyness of our life but sometimes, like today, I pine for less activity, stress and such.

I am at such a weird place with friendships...as I've posted in the past, having lost important friendships, struggling to maintain friendships that have "stayed", and cultivating new friendships is pretty challenging to me right now. Why is this? Isn't stuff like this supposed to get easier as I get older and "wiser"???

friendship is not easy. it's a lot of work. is it ok to pare down the list of people you consider friends? who is a good friend and who is an acquaintance? is it ok to not pursue certain friendships? what would the Lord have me to do here? I am at kind of a loss, wishing I had more time and energy to put into friendships because I know that some day, when my kids are out and about, having lives of their own, I will have more time to spend on friendship. and I will want friendship. (I mean, I do right now but....)

Besides that, our family is pretty spontaneous...we can do things at times that other people can't...and all 7 of us sincerely enjoy being together (I do feel the stirrings of a kid or two, wanting to start some adventures of their own....) We also participate in later evening events and get up later in the day.

then you add differing hobbies and opinions, priorities and the like....

See what I mean? learning and knowing how to be a friend in the windstorm of life is proving to be very challenging to this girl...

More often than not, I tend toward being introverted...very disconcerting because I used to be more extroverted....


oh, Lord, please help me to know what You'd like me to pursue in the area of friendship.

I continue to pray that understanding this area of life called FRIENDSHIP would unfold in front of my eyes....

In other news:

My friend, Shellee, her husband, Duane and their 10 kids welcomed their 11th baby, 2nd daughter a few weeks ago. Please pray for their family as they welcome this new bundle, Faith, into their nest and as Shellee begins treatment for her thyroid cancer. We love you, Wilhite family and continue to pray for your health, protection and adjustments.

Our 12th Annual Harvest Bash is this coming Saturday (10/25). Please know that anyone is welcome. We don't send out invites, I create an event on Facebook. Also, we host it every year on the last Saturday of October! Hope to see you here, dressed to kill in your creative costume (minus scary)...

Hope this mumbly jumbly post makes some sense....argh. Happy Tuesday evening!