last night i went out to okc with the mcilroys to see ashley smith. she and her dad were at oklahoma christian for a few days. it was so great to see her. i'm very blessed to have her as a friend. i'll get to see her in nashville in a few weeks and that should be great fun! it was fun to talk with her dad, too. one of my best friends and her husband just moved to nashville to work at chris' church.

today i went with mandii and her mom to bert mccutchan's funeral. for those of you who didn't know bert, he was a great and kind man. he owned a local guitar shop that mandii worked in. he was a great supporter of mandii as a musician and as a person. i definitely wish i had spent more time at the store hanging out and i wish i had told him thanks more often for all the ways he blessed mandii's life. i hope mandii will remember how much he loved her and believed in her.

recently i've reconnected with a few old friends from the southeast through blogs. it's crazy how much networking happens through these things. anyway, it has been cool to get comments from matt, jon, and greg and to keep up with them through their blogs. i know all three of these guys from my days back in alabama. i think i have known greg since i was 12 or 13, maybe earlier than that - he and his family are those kind of people i feel like i have just always known and i can't really put my finger on when i first knew them. greg used to direct our chorus at church. those are funny memories - i think we were probably really horrible. thanks for your patience greg! anyway, it is good to reconnect.

so, tomorrow night i have my first parent meeting as the interim student minister and my first parent meeting without brad. i'm a little nervous about it because i don't think running meetings and public speaking are my strengths. also, in the past, brad and i would work on this stuff together, so i could at least get a cheese factor check on anything i was going to say or ask if what i was saying made sense. i know it will all be ok and i have a great team working with me so i shouldn't worry, i'm just a little anxious about it. and i think it makes it sink in that the voss fam is really gone. i miss them a lot!

peace.