Pomp and Circumstance....

"Joshua Stephen Freer"

They called his name and across the stage he went. It didn't even seem real. My little brother, a high school graduate. He looked as handsome as ever in his bright pink tie he wore in honor of his girlfriend who couldn't be there. I could not have been more proud of him at that moment. My brother...all grown up.



It was a family affair. It began with a graduation party on saturday. Denis and I arrived fashionably late due to a tire malfuncion on the way there. The yard was full of friends and family. It was thrilling to see so many family memebers there. Family I hadn't seen in years. We ate, told stories, laughed and played games... mostly bocce ball...thanks to my brother in law!...he is a whole other story. He said he wanted to spend his weekend making sure he had the position of our family clown. Mission accomplished. Don't believe me, come over sometime, i will show you the "graduation video" aka "The Mike Shipman Extravaganza!" Hysterical.



Some might say i am a TAD bit overprotective. I have spend years attempting to chase girls away from josh, hanging up the phone on them. Putting on my tough girl face to scare them away. I must say though, i do LOVE his current companion. She is awesome. I would like to keep her around. BUT, I still enjoy being the over protective big sis. I love him to death. Don't believe me...check my wallet...case in point.



It isn't often that i get to make the trip home with Denis. I am pretty sure this weekend was the first time he was in Allegany on a sunday morning. Of course we put him to work. Rach, mike, denis and I all sang together for the first time, just the 4 of us, at good old Allegany Baptist Church. Practice was no fun, but the real deal came out just fine....but according to rach i was a microphone hog. Sorry rach...



Here is one final picture of the Handsome Graduate. So long allegany-limestone. The freers have left the building. Try not to miss us too much! :)



Josh, if you are reading this. I am so proud of you. I love you so much and that will never change.

Alive and Kickin'

Hello out there!!! I must begin (once again) by begging for your forgiveness in the area of keeping up with this blog. I guess I just don't find that I have anything interesting to say!! But I want to be true to my fans (no autographs please) and give you an update.

It is sad, but true that my good pal john is retiring from the blog business... let us pause for a moment of silence....


Ok...enough of that. But anyway, he has written his final blog, or so he says, and john, you will be missed. I will miss our Fridays when you call me into your office to read your blog as you watch me practically cry with laughter each week. (He knows that I think he is so funny. and he gets an ego boost when he watches me read it). But to keep a long explanation short, I am saying farewell to my good friend’s blog. BUT in honor of John, I am going to steal his format for this blog...in honor of him of course, not just cause I wanna be like him, cause that is just nonsense!
So here we go...

Apology of the week:I think that I already did that in the beginning, but I will once again apologize for not keeping up with this blog as I should. There is just no excuse for it! I guess I figure writing no blog at all is better than writing a dull one. I will try my best to keep up with it in the future. Try is the key word there...

Embarrassing story of the week...well actually month:The other day after a Wednesday evening church service at The Father's House, Denis and I went out to dinner with our good friends Matt and Andrea. We had a great time catching up and we were out far past my bed time, and I just can't be held accountable for what I say or do after about 10 at night. So anyway, I am not quite sure HOW we got on the subject of albino's, but we did and Denis made a comment about this black woman he knew that was an albino, to which I quickly corrected him saying that if you are black then you can't be albino. In my head that just made no sense. How can you be black and albino at the same time? (Even though I am black and white at the same time....hehehe) Denis just gave me this look, that said "wow, I can't believe you just said that you ignorant boob." I know he wanted to say it out loud, but his look said it all for him. You would think that most people would just stop talking, but oh no, it was 12:30 and I just kept going insisting that I was right and he was wrong. Well, that got me nowhere, as usual, and by the end of the conversation Denis, Andrea and matt were begging me to just stop talking cause I was just making myself look like a fool... Looking back, that is exactly how I feel.

Quote of the month: This came from one of my students during their graduation. To preface this, what happens is my students were all up on stage at their graduation ceremony and they were getting ready to receive their diploma. I call their name and they come down and get their diploma from me, pose for a picture and then go sit with their parents. This story is about a little boy, let’s call him bobby.

Me: Bobby Jo Johnson (not his real name OF COURSE)...This is his cue to come down...well he just stood there
Me (again): Bobby Jo Johnson (he then proceeded to shake his head at me)
Me (holding the microphone away from my mouth) come on, you have to come down.
Bobby: No
Me: Bobby, come on, lets go
Bobby: Ok (and he makes his way down)
Me: Congratulations! Here is your diploma
Bobby: I don’t want it
Me: Huh
Bobby: I don’t want it, you keep it (and then he proceeded to walk away from me to sit with his mom, leaving me standing like a dweeb in front of a few hundred people.)
I guess I can’t expect a graduation with 3,4 and 5 year olds to go perfect.

Congrats of the week:First I would like to congratulate John. John is being ordained as a Free Methodist Pastor this weekend!!! He has worked so hard in seminary, believe me folks, he is a verse memorizing CHAMP! But really, I am so proud of you. You are going to be a wonderful pastor!
Second, a congrats goes out to Larry, Andrea, Heather, and myself for graduating from The Summit this week. The Summit was a 6 month program to teach us about leadership in ministry. I must admit, I wanted to quit a few times since it took the place of my date night, but I stuck through it and I am so glad I did. I really did learn a lot. So congrats to ME!

Jealous moment of the week:I actually don’t think I am quite over this yet, but I am doing better then I was at first. Let me take you back a few weeks where our story really begins. My friends John and Amy have been planning for a while to go down to Pittsburg and visit Rachel and Mike. Way back in March I asked if I could go with them when they picked a weekend. John was hesitant cause he didn’t want to spend 4 hours in a car with me. That and he has this complex where he thinks Amy is mean to him when I am around, which is just crazy talk in my opinion. Well a few weeks ago, John and I are having lunch, and he says to me:

John: So we picked a weekend to go and see Rach and Mike
Me: REALLY!!!! WHEN!?!?!?!
John: May 26th through the 29th
Me: oh…I can’t go
John: really? Why?
Me: I have a concert
John: Oh, in Springville, with Christopher on Friday night?
Me: (suddenly very confused cause I NEVER mentioned it before to him) yeah… how did you….
John: (who suddenly has a smug grin across his face) so you can’t go huh
Me: (now yelling) YOU PICKED A WEEKEND I COULDN’T GO ON PURPOSE!!!!
John: it was just the best weekend for us. And you just happen to have plans too. Sorry bec….

SORRY! WHATEVER YOU WEREN’T SORRY! But…like I said, I am getting over it. I am over the fact that you had a great time. I am over the fact that you saw their new house before I did. I am over the fact that you like Rachel better… I am over it…almost

Also, I am having a really hard time with the fact that EVERYONE is having babies. I can count about 6 off the top of my head that are due within the year. I have baby fever. I want a baby and I want one NOW! I guess I will just wait until John and Amy are married and then Amy and I can have a baby together. Right Amy… 

Well I guess that is all folks. I had a great time visiting my parents for an ENTIRE week. It was so nice to be back in Allegany. I was tempted to use a quote from my dad and a quote from Rachel as my quote of the week, but I found it inappropriate for all viewing audiences. I am pretty sure my dad would disown me if I put his quote up for all to see. But lets just say, it was a side of my father I had never seen before, and don’t care to see again anytime soon!

Until next time

Stay Classy San Diego