I’m so excited! I moderated! Amanda will be so proud! Believe me when I tell you that moderation has never been my strong suit. Keith and I always say there’s a reason why our last name is Moore. Maybe I’ve finally found a moderation I can actually do! I think I accidentally lost a few posts in my learning process but most of them made it! If yours didn’t, please forgive your well-meaning, much lacking Siesta.

Newest update: Today the executive director of Camp Bigs took every single camper she had (registration: one) on a field trip to a mall that has a preschool play-yard. We had the most fun! Most of the kids were older than Camper so he tried to act extra big in order to fit in. He ran as fast as his little legs would carry him and climbed as high as Camp Director would let him and talked in his own toddler-speak as loud as he could as if everyone could understand him. (I could use the granny gift of interpretation this week.) He was so darling, I could have eaten him for lunch but he and I both were too full of Sonic. He was so worn out when the Camp Bigs bus pulled out of the parking lot that I couldn’t keep him awake. Since Camper never takes a nap if he’s had the least wink in the car, his afternoon nap consisted of twelve minutes. It’s liable to be a long evening. Grin. Then again, that’s what grandparents are for.

It’s just about time for camp swim time so I better get going. (That means the temperature in Houston has dropped below 120 degrees in the shade.) Now I wish I’d had time to get a new spray-on tan yesterday. Last week’s is fading a bit but have no fear. Tomorrow’s a new day and a new tan. By this time, I bet Camper’s mommy is getting a real live one on the beach! Thanks for doing life with us, Siestas! I so enjoyed your comments. I love loving Jesus with you! More from Camp Bigs tomorrow!

The summer session of Camp Bigs (the official name of Camp Granny) 2007 is off to a great start. Just a few of our camp activities are as follows: Hide and seek with lots of squealing when we find each other, chase around the kitchen and the den, swimming in the baby pool (or the dog water depending on whether or not the Camp Director remembers to pick it up quickly enough), singing songs (my latest was a rousing rendition of “That Jackson Has Some Dirty Pants” to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round”). Camp Counselor Melissa put in a full day with us yesterday and we expect her sometime soon today. Camp Cook Keith is sure to do a great job as soon as he returns from his fishing trip tonight. He dropped by the Kroger and got a kitchen full of groceries on the way home from his golf tournament last night.

We only heard from Camper’s mother five times from the airport. They’ve done much better since they reached the resort. Apparently a lot of parents had their little campers with them at the airport inadvertently causing some temporary emotional flair ups.

Some have asked about how much it costs to go to Camp Bigs. This is how Camp Bigs is paid:
1. In as many slobbery kisses as the executive director can talk out of her camper.
2. In cackling laughter because the camper thinks his grandparents are so funny.
3. In happy mornings because the executive director thinks nothing on earth is cuter than a toddler in his jammies.
4. In oodles of cuddles when the camper accidentally falls asleep in the executive director’s arms with his blanket.

Yep. The first annual session of Camp Bigs is off to a tremendous start. The executive director is going to try to keep you posted if her camper will let her. They are busy bees but they will hopefully occasionally come in for a landing.

PS. I have never moderated comments before but I’m going to try as often as I can this week. Camper’s mom left me written instructions and Camp Counselor Melissa is going to help me on break time. I was very amused by the addendum to Amanda’s instructions: “Mom, don’t post critical or ugly comments. That’s not what we’re doing on this blog.” Critical or ugly comments from my very own Siestas???? Surely NOT! Those could only come from Siesta posers! Real Siestas encourage one another and laugh and cry together – even when they don’t see eye to eye – because they know all the while that the other is very imperfect and weak in her natural self but that she gets beaten up a plenty by this world. This blogspot is a great spot for taking a Siesta from the ways of this mean world and finding a little happy shelter in the storm. Thank you for being that for me so many times. You have made me laugh and think and smile and tear up over and over again. I’m absolutely crazy about you. Well, Camper got up a tad early this morning and may need a little time in his bunk. Oh, man. I am so in love with the little dude I can hardly stand it.

Hi ladies! I’m back from camp. We had the best time! I wanted to tell you that when I checked the blog comments yesterday there were over 400 of them. It will take me a while to read them all, so if you don’t see yours right away don’t be concerned. Thanks for your patience. I’m disabling comments for this post so that I can catch up. Have a great Monday!

I do not have time to be writing on this blog this morning. I have five – count them FIVE – lessons to finish for my taping for Life Today this weekend. But I am also out of Midol and I’m hoping that blurting a few things out there in Siesta land will make me feel better. Keith and I had a perfectly wonderful morning until 11 seconds before I was pulling out of the driveway when he teased me about something and hurt my feelings. No, made me MAD. As mad as a hornet. A hornet with PMS. I knew I had to stop by the Walgreens on my way to work to get women’s personal supplies so, after waiting on the world’s longest stop light, I wheeled into the parking lot with considerable expression. (I’m not one given to road rage but I am on occasion given to husband rage.) I made a bee-line to the feminine supply aisle, looked through 47 different kinds (for crying out loud, I want choices at Starbucks. Not on the feminine aisle! What ever happened to two simple categories??? Next thing you know they’ll have supplies for women with highlights and without, with stay at home jobs or corporate careers. Oh, I am in such a bad mood).

THEN, TO TOP IT OFF, after I finally make my choice and am standing there balancing two jumbo size economy boxes, a man (did you hear me say A MAN?????) came right up to me and said, “I just wanted you to know that I just finished ‘Get Out of That Pit’ last night and it meant so much to me.” I nearly sent him back to the pit. OK, not really. He was so sweet. Now you’ve made me feel guilty. I nearly sent myself to the pit. There I was trying to act normal, with two (did I emphasize HUGE?) boxes of feminine supplies under my arm like a man would hold two footballs. It was the longest short conversation of my life.

I don’t know if I was just humiliated or having my first hot flash but then I started to sweat. I am in the worst mood. On my way to work I made my usual stop at Starbucks and after I made the order, I felt the first real stir of the Holy Spirit that I’d felt in a half hour and, under divine influence alone, blurted out, “You better make that a decaf today.”

To top it off, Keith hasn’t tried to call me yet. I’ve been dying for him to call so that I can let it ring and not answer it.

And here’s why I’m telling you all this. Because I am in the middle of researching the Book of Esther for the next study God is leading me to write and a good while back I chose the subtitle: “It’s Tough Being a Woman.” I just want to tell you in advance that, because I’m going to have to be proper in my approach, when I get to the end of that Bible Study, there won’t be a soul on the earth but a full grown woman who will know the HALF OF HOW TOUGH IT IS TO BE A WOMAN.

Sniff.

I love you, my fellow Siestas. And if you’re not a siesta, you might want to wait until tomorrow to talk to me. I’m in no mood today.

View it here on GodTube.

Beth and Travis are serving at the Living Proof Live event in Boone, North Carolina, this weekend. What makes this event so special is that Boone is Travis’ hometown! In honor of this big weekend, many friends and family members, the LifeWay team, the Living Proof Live team, and Beth put together this Tribute to Travis Cottrell. I’m so excited and so thankful to be able to share it with you all. Travis is such a huge part of Living Proof Ministries. I can’t tell you how much all of us LPM girls love him, Angela, Jack, Lily Kate, and Levi. I hope you will enjoy this video as much as I did. And if you’re like me you might need to have a tissue handy.

Many thanks to Rich and Stephen for helping us get this on the blog!