My great weekend.

Alright, so.... I've had this away message up this week about marrying Pat Hughes if he was a youth pastor and it made people really confused.

Note to all: Pat Hughes is the WGN radio announcer for the Cubs.

Which doesn't mean I wouldn't marry him -- I mean, he does have a great voice and (according to Cubs legend Ron Santo) is a great dresser -- but the reality of who he is makes it altogether less likely. What I mean to say is, he lives in Chicago. I'm not into the long distance thing.

Aaaaanyway, today capped off a great weekend. Saturday was beautiful and I got to play catch and football with Doug. And Bear (Doug's dog) and I splashed through streams and mud at Starved Rock. Aaaand I got to shoot guns at Mark's house with some of the Steadfast folk. Aaaand I have a sweet bruise to show for it. Aaaand Tommy was in town aaaand we ate steak. Aaaand I saw John and James.

And I'm so done with the extra a's. Suffice it to say -- it was good times.

Church was good this morning. We had it outside and it was great. Cold and windy and a hazard for a tomgirl wearing a skirt, but still great. Mr. Mudge talked about losing Mike, which -- I'm convinced -- will forever be hard. But it was a neat service and it was cool to spend Easter at my new church. It really feels like home there. I mean, sure, my parents wouldn't dream of joining me there, but it's like I have a family there anyway.

And they're so set on getting me to Africa. A few weeks ago, I got to go to for church and found out -- through an announcement! -- that some of the donations they're getting through the missions conference this coming weekend is going toward my trip. I was a little dumbfounded. ;)

To cap off my Easter, we had our family deal here at the house, complete with an egg hunt. And I don't just mean an egg hunt for the kids. Two years ago, my mom decided it'd be great fun to make fools out of us "big kids" by putting money in eggs and making us hunt for them after the wee 'uns got done with their (not as financially focused) one. We were all quite poor at the time -- Bran and Amy just had Allie and Kev and Ris were recently married and I was just... me-- so that made it extra special. Mom brought it back this year for Brandon, Amy and I. Sadly, she knocked down the monetary amounts, but I still made out with 27 Easter dollars, which I will gladly put toward my new Reformation Study Bible which I'm buying... right... now.

In other news, I wish I were in Africa. Today.