Spring Sing: Feb 29-March 2

We traveled to Oklahoma City for the annual Oklahoma Christian Spring Sing. Each year the clubs (aka fraternities/sororities) put together song and dance routines and perform them over the course of 3 shows Friday and Saturday. Our niece, Halie, was selected to be a 'hostess.' She sang with the other hosts between the club shows and performed a solo. It is quite an honor to be selected to do this but she deserved it - she's very talented.

Tickets are often hard to come by so we ended up at different shows. No worries though. We managed to spend plenty of time together eating - which is usually the case. Saturday morning we met at IHOP. Most people would not try and get a party of 27 into IHOP on Saturday morning. The Corleys are not most people. We all showed up and in what was most likely an act of God, we ended up all together.

The two booths on the right are empty here but they were filled soonafter the picture was taken. You will see Shanna on the left of the photo. Immediately behind her was a table for two. There was a couple sitting there who were not part of our invasion. They quickly finished their meal and left - without any glaring looks or rude remarks. Obviously very nice people.

The show was great. Some of the clubs go to great lengths to have an impressive performance. My former club, Sigma Chi Sigma, did not although this was not a surprise. We never were into singing and dancing. We were much better at sports and getting into trouble. We were able to see several kids from church and I got photos of most all of them. But I'm only going to share with you one other picture from the show:

Another niece, Whitnie (Halie's sister) is in this picture somewhere.

Actually she's not. I was certain that I was getting some great shots of her until I showed them to Shanna. She informed me that none of these girls was the right one.

Hey, you try taking a picture of a blonde wearing a pig nose when she's surronded by sixty other blondes wearing pig noses. Anyway, she looked a lot like the one in the middle of the front row - and the middle of the back row. So I thought.

Saturday night, that's right - we ate. Abuelo's for dinner. Thanks to Dillon for being willing to eat Mexican food. He tells us over and over that he just doesn't like it. He will eat fajitas, nachos, tacos, bean burritos, quesadillas, tortillas and chips/hot sauce. Just don't tell him it's Mexican food.

Here's the invasion of Abuelo's:

Our nephew, Connor, came with his family from Spearman, TX. There's not enough room to tell about all the challenges, surgeries and tests this not so little guy's gone through. He used to be fed through a button in his stomach. Now he tears up a plate of enchilidas with the best of them.

We stayed with our very good friends, Ron and Su Crawford. They are truly special people who left a comfortable life to go and minister to inner city kids in Oklahoma City. They walked away from a normal paycheck and stepped out on faith to do what God called them to do. Now they help run a successful mission that touches kids lives. It's very eye opening to see where they work and hear their stories. Homeless, drug addicted, alcohol addicted, gangs, prostitutes - you name it, they've seen it. And they embrace it. Not the sin, but the person. Sounds exactly like what we're all supposed to do. They're a great example. I want to be more like them.

Anyway, they've got three kids of their own. Put their three with our four and it's a house of fun. And the fun usually revolved around some sort of computer or technology. It's a far cry from the GI Joes I used to play with.

It was a full house but it was great. Next time it will be...fuller? Ron and Su are taking custody of one of the girls from their downtown mission. She's a very sweet girl. She's 16 and like too many her age from that environment, she's pregnant. Her mother is a drug addict and CPS told her that they would take her baby from her if she choose to live with her. So, Ron and Su were able to get custody. She was moving in right after we left. So in a matter of weeks they went from parents of three to parents of four. Soon they'll be grandparents. Can't wait to meet their new additions!

All in all it was another fun, action packed weekend in Oklahoma. They always are.