Ch-ch-changes

There's a saying here in Arkansas....If you don't like the weather, stick around it will change. Sometimes, I think that it also describes our lives!! This has been an interesting year for us here in the Bennett house.

A year ago, Ellie was heading off to school for the first time. She was terrified and excited all at the same time. She struggled for several weeks before finding her groove. A year later, she began K5 and is the picture of confidence. Now today, we had a slight issue. However, it was resolved without a huge fit; and life went on. WOW! What a difference a year makes. A year ago, Brian was an Alltel employee. Today, he is a Verizon Wireless employee. He is loving his job for the first time in a long time. He is happy!! A year ago, he was our interim youth pastor. Today, he has passed that responsibility on to Jay Jacobs and is just a volunteer. A year ago, we didn't know about Annie yet. Look at how much our lives have changed! She is just over three months old and growing so fast.

Then, there are the changes that tend to happen every year. For the past 14 years, someone in my family has been heading off to college. Well, it's that time of year again.

Caleb is home for a few days before heading back to Texas A&M. He will be finishing up the final year of his graduate work at the Bush School of Public Service. He loves his studies there and is doing great. He wasn't home much this summer. Instead, he was working in DC at Prison Fellowship as an intern. We are used to having him home for the summer. Although that didn't happen, we've enjoyed the few days that we have had. This was his list summer at home because he's getting married in January!

Micah and Kelsey will be heading off to Fayetteville tomorrow morning. I am so very sad. You see Kelsey has been helping me all summer. She's been here with me since Annie was born, and now she's leaving. I'm sure she's ready though. Bless her heart, Gidget ate her lunch today, Annie urped on her yesterday and Mollie peed on her this weekend. Poor Kelsey! She is such a sweetie! I'm not quite sure what we are going to do when Mollie figures out that Dunna is gone. It's not going to be pretty. We'll miss Micah too. Mama & Dad's house is always way too quiet without him.


Then, there's there's the exciting news. Micah and Kelsey are getting married! We are so excited! Sometimes I have to remind myself that Kelsey is not "officially" a family member. We're just so used to having her around. They got engaged on July 31st. They'll be getting married on July 31, 2010. We are so excited. (yes, this is two weddings within 7 months!) We had a little celebration the weekend after they got engaged.



It's been kind of funny for me to think about my baby brother getting married! Micah was born almost 2 months before I turned 12. We are super close. He was always with me when I was in high school. I can remember taking him with everywhere I went. Whenever I'd take him to Wal-Mart, I used to get the ugliest looks from people. I know they thought he was my kid. I graduated from AB on a Tuesday night. Micah graduated from Kindergarten the following Thursday. I'll never forget a conversation I had with my mom right after I left for OBU. She told me that Micah had been acting out since I left. He thought that my parents MADE me leave. I can still remember making him look at me while I told him that mama and dad didn't make me leave. That I had chosen to leave him. I can still see the look on his face. It still makes me cry. After that whenever I got back to school from a weekend at home, I would find small toys in my bags. (I still have them!) He thought if he sent a toy with me it would mean I had to come back home. I used to make sure that I got home on Friday afternoons in time to go with my mama to pick Micah up from school. It was a big deal.

I can remember being so sad whenever Micah entered a new phase of his life. My mama told me that I had to remember that it just meant that he was growing up and that if he wasn't doing whatever the new thing was then that would mean that something was wrong with him. Now, he's getting married! It's unbelievable. I am excited that I now have all my sisters-in-law in place, and they are all fabulous! But, it also means by baby brother is all grown up.