Landa Park Day Trip

We try to get to Landa Park one time each summer. We got to the Aquatics Center which has a huge, icey cold, Comal river fed swimming pool with docks out in the middle, rope swings, an enormous water slide. You can take ice chests and blankets and whatever you want to take in with you so you really don't end up spending much money while there. We love to stop at Schlotsky's for dinner before heading home. I sure wish we had one of those here!

We got to go this past Monday and it was a blast as usual. Tori and Jakeb each took a friend, Peter came with Tori and Kyle came with Jakeb. Anna will most likely get to take a friend the next time we get to go. I was so proud of her for doing everything. This was her first year to be tall enough for the big stuff. She went to the little blue slide in the kiddie area just to try it out and didn't even go on it cause it looked boring. She's growing up!

We left at 8am and got home around 9:30pm. A long day but for as much fun as we have it was worth it.

Here are some pics and short video clips from the day. There's alot of them but it's my post so I can do what I want and you can look at them - or not. I keep waiting for blogger to tell me I've reached my maximum server space limit. Do they even have a limit? Hope not...

Anna on the dock. We had the place almost to ourselves when we got there. It got more crowded as the day went on but it wasn't as bad as we expected for the opening, holiday weekend.

This is Tori going down the big slide. You have to be able to really hold your breath good to not get water all up in your brain. The girls all plug their noses and that's okay! The guys are too macho for that.

You can't tell but this is Peter.

At Landa Park, even siblings have fun playing together! (sounds like a commercial, huh?)


Kyle - upside down. He did hit the water and not the concrete!




Jakeb in mid flip formation off of the rope swing. The guys were all sore the next day, I think.

Tommy chillin'. No pics of me, I did do stuff but someone had to document the day.

The kids chillin'. Time for a snack.

Peter in mid rotation flying through the air.

Anna flyin' off of the rope swing. I've only done this once or twice in all the times we've ever gone. It's painful on your arms and I have zero upper body strength!





Tommy's flippin'! I don't know too many 41 year old men that can do that and with such great form! What a man!! Inevitably he does that on the swing, everyone cheers and the next one or two behind him in line try it and belly or back flop and then it's over. It's funny - what happens, I mean, not Tommy's flip.

Anna jumping off of the rope swing.

Not sure who that is coming down. I think it's Kyle or Peter. You have to look hard to see all the spinning going on.

Jakeb coming down on his belly. He didn't plug his nose!

Anna coming down the slide. I think the slide is still her favorite - the big one, not the lame kiddie one. Good job, Anna!

I'm impressed that you read all the way to the end! This post took me over an hour to do. I sure hope someone appreciates it!

For the LAST time... #2

For the LAST time... #1 (You can read this post to find out what this is all about.)

Yesterday, Tommy and I had our LAST "Friday date day". He's been off on Friday's so we've usually gone out of town somewhere, usually to different parts of Houston to eat, play and just get away. We're not sure what his new work schedule will look like so we will need to be a little more creative about scheduling our dates.

Yesterday was the LAST big pancake breakfast for this school year. We only have three more 07-08 school breakfast's to go. Here's a pic.










Thursday was Tori's LAST Buccaneer Band concert - Bandorama. Since she's graduating early, she can't fit in the marching season band schedule and get all of her academics in too.

Here's a pic of Tori and a couple of her friends who play the cymbals. I got some other pics of her and her friends during the concert but they just didn't turn out good.

Her band director, Brian Casey (aka Indiana Jones in this video), is the best and she will miss him alot! Jim Koch is also incredible and was actually my band director when I was there. It's so cool that she had the same band director that I did. Mr. Casey always make their music fun. Here's a video of their Indiana Jones performance.

This is the LAST Brazoswood Buccaneer fight song I will most likely get on video. She'll probably play it one more time at graduation but I probably won't video it. Tommy and I went to B'wood too so this was also our fight song. I played it in the Buc band when I was there so it was strangely emotional for me to hear it knowing I wouldn't be connected to it this way again.

This is the LAST time I will get to video Tori playing with the drumline. She plays the oboe in band but gets to play cymbals with the drumline during marching season and for drumline gigs. They played after the concert on Thursday for about 30 minutes (the video's not that long, though). Eric Harper, aka "Harper", is an extremely talented percussion director and has also made that part of Tori's band experience a blast. It's been a fun ride!!

There may be a couple of posts that break up this little series but this isn't the last of the LAST's.

For the LAST time...

The next few posts from me (Andrea) are going to be about things we are experiencing for the last time. I’m feeling a little sentimental so I thought I’d post about them. Some I will have photos and/or videos of and some I won’t.

Here's a few to start with:

This week is the LAST full week of this school year - Anna’s last full week of school at her elementary school and Tori’s last full year of high school.

My sister turned 39 this week, the LAST of her 30’s, unless she decides to stay 39 forever. I’ve just never seen that work for anyone… She might be able to pull it off, though.

Tommy had his LAST day at his job yesterday. He starts his new job with Mustang Engineering on Tuesday.

We saw our old, beat up, piece of junk, 240K+ miles, '94 Ford Explorer for the LAST time this past Sunday. We wrote "FOR SALE" on the window and within 5 hours or so some guy came and paid cash and took it away. YEAH!!

More to come… I know you’re hanging on the edge of your seat!

Chapman Family Tragedy

What a horrible time for the Chapman family. My prayers go out especially for the son/brother driving the car. Pray that he gets the counsel, love and support he needs to make it through this.

It brings back memories of our own family tragedy with my sister's kids. Recovery is a struggle, even almost 7 years later.

Please pray for Steven Curtis Chapman's family.

Update: Here is a link to a blog set up by the Chapman family called "In Memory of Maria".

Saturday in Hong Kong

Tommy and I got to go to Houston on Saturday with a side trip to Iran and Hong Kong. We love experiencing new things, flavors, smells, sounds, etc. It's an adventure and we found one just around the corner in Houston.

We went to the Saffron Persian Cafe on Hillcroft for lunch and “enjoyed” the music of the Middle East. It was our second time there and we enjoyed it as much if not more than the first time. (We even went back on Sunday evening with some friends for more.) They are probably Iranian but it was just a cool experience and really great food. We really hated we missed the belly dancers on Friday night, though.

After lunch, we went to the Hong Kong Mall. There's a whole area off of Bellaire and the Beltway that is like stepping into Asia. We walked into this mall and definitely felt like we were in their world. It was cool. We were the minority and it just made us feel a vulnerability that we don't have to experience every day in "our" world. Here are some pics that I took even though after taking the first one a oriental lady screamed at me and told me not to. I was just taking a picture of bamboo! Man!!! Maybe it was some kind of secretly grown or spiritual bamboo or something. Who knows…


We went to a bakery and bought two cookies (we threw one out cause it was not good, the other one was okay) Anyway, I asked the clerk what something was and pointed to it and he said some kind of bread but I couldn't understand him. I asked him if it had something inside of it. Well, that just blew his mind and he just told me, "It's nothing". I'm supposing that was his standard answer when he couldn't communicate with these touristy people who come in and don't know anything. It was funny.


There was another store that could best be described as our Candy Craze. It had plastic bins filled with dried anchoves, all types of fish jerky and other jerky meats, fruits, etc. Some of it probably would have been good but the smell in there just made it all not seem appetizing at all. We stayed for a while, though, and looked at everything.

We will definitely be taking our kids there soon. Good times…




The "special" bamboo.










Jack Fruit - they were huge! Look at them compared to the tomotoes and the guy sweeping in the back ground.










Durian Fruit - in the Jack fruit family. This one is very stinky and very expensive! It's the size of a large melon but about 1 quarter of it at one place cost $13! We didn't try it. We'll save that adventure for another day.










Fish on a rope!!! How cool is that?










Pho Dung, yum, sounds appetizing, huh? Fake what? We didn't eat there but we got a good chuckle out of the name.










Starbucks anyone? Tommy got tapioca in his green tea creamy thing. It was slimy and disgusting. She had asked me if I wanted tapioca in mine and I asked her why I would. She asked if I wanted to chew my drink. :) I thought that was hilarious. Tommy threw his out and we ended up sharing mine - a slime free passion fruit slushy.










They seem to embrace it all. Christianity, Hindu, Buddha were all represented. These posters were all over with scripture verses written in English and then in Chinese, I guess. This one is of John 3:16.

School was.......

School was educational, interesting, fun, hilarious, time consuming, hard, easy, dumb, friendly, unfriendly, dislikeful, well teached, flexible, strict, free, and if anything else... weirdly the most bitter sweet school year ever. My teachers were awesome. My friends were awesome. My family was supporting. But man was the freshman year incredibly difficult. There were times when I wanted to stop and just let this one paper be a zero. Boy did I pay for those. I learned that procrastination can kill you and that even though your throat hurts, you need to come to school. I learned that at the end (now) for exemptions. From now on, even if I broke my neck, take me in my bed to my classroom because I won't miss and have to do an insane amount of make-up work. Hahaha I learned that if you say one bad thing to a coach, it takes a while to regane loyalty and trust from him and that you have to work hard to do that. Being a freshman was fun................... that's it.

" A man is determined by if he has the power to get the job done." Words of Coach McCormick... Freshman Brazoswood Basketball.

The perfect water bottle search is over!

If you don't care to read all of my water bottle search woes just scroll down to view the picture and get your own at Starbucks for $10! That's it in a nutshell. If you've got nothing better to do and want the full story, read on...

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For weeks now, I have been searching for the perfect reusable water bottle. I wanted to quit purchasing cases of bottled water and get each of us a bottle that we could refill. I'm not trying to go completely green, maybe just a light shade of green. We try to do what we can to be environmentally conscious without going overboard with the whole idea.

What I've been doing for quite some time now is using one regular plastic water bottle and refilling it throughout the day. I heard recently, though, that these disposable bottles are supposed to be a "one time use" bottle and when reused will leak toxins into your water and into your body. Well, that just bothered me a little. Although it came from a trustworthy source, Julia Roberts on Oprah, I didn't research it and it may not even be true but I was already at the point of not wanting to keep spending the money on those cases of water anyway so this just clinched my decision.

So... my search was on.

Tommy and I saw some at Academy first and we went ahead and bought 5 of them in different colors. They were less than $3 each. I guess this is one of those things that you get what you pay for. You pretty much had to suck out of it like a baby. None of us liked them. I think Tommy was willing to tolerate it but he was willing to unscrew the lid each time he wanted a drink. What a pain!

Then we bought two at Target. One is a Rubbermaid bottle with a yellow pop-out lid so Anna could take it to school. She doesn't drink milk so she takes water every day and since we're not buying bottles she needed something to take. Do you know they won't let her "have" water in a cup? She won't drink the juice or milk so they would actually let her go thirsty for lunch if she didn't take water. Crazy! Anyway, that one works for her but it's not cute! The other one was a higher end, lovely lavender, Eddie Bauer water bottle. It has its issues but it was okay. Still not perfect, though. It was a little too big and not easy enough to drink out of. I want the water to pour into my mouth. I don't think that drinking water should take such effort.

So, Tommy & I were in Starbucks on Tuesday, you can already tell this is going to be good, huh? Starbucks is synonymous with good! They had a water bottle that looked like it might be just what I was searching for. It cost $10 so I really looked long and hard. I decided to give it a go. It meets all of my perfect water bottle requirements. It’s small enough to fit in my purse, it doesn’t leak, it has a real hole for the water spout not a sucker thing, and it looks good!!! Here's a picture.

I know you're completely relieved and will rest better the next time you lay your head on your pillow knowing that this ordeal is finally over. Now, at $10 a pop, we're going to have to save up if we're going to get some for the rest of the family.

Jumpin' in the River - Part 2

Today I turned in my resignation with my current employer and on May 27 I start a new job. Really the whole family is starting a new job even though I will be the only one that goes there … for now.

For the last month we have been praying about and talking through what it would be like for me to take a job that has a chance of sending us to Singapore to live. Andrea and I sat the kids down and told them about it and asked them their opinions about living in a foreign place. They told us their fears and their excitement. Tori talked about the possibility of going to college while we are far away.

The whole process of making the decision to change jobs seemed like it took forever but I think it was good for us all to be able to process our thoughts with each other out loud while we were waiting. I have to say though that waiting stinks.

The first project I am on will keep me close to home. Then the second project will take me to the office in Katy. We will continue to live here and I will commute. There is still a chance that we will not go overseas but if it does happen it will be around the fall of 2009.

There are so many fears and unknowns but we like adventure. We know we are taking some chances by making changes but the fun part of change is the expectation of the potential good that could come. So once again we jump into the river where we do not control the speed or direction of the flow but have high expectations for the things we will see and experience as we float in its current.

BTW - Now you know what the "Uncertainty" post was all about.

I love being a mom!!

Next to being a wife, the most favorite thing I am is a mom. From the time I was a little child I knew I wanted to be a mom. Later in life I figured out that to do things right I should get married first. :) Thankfully, God provided the best husband in the world and a wonderful parenting partner.

Our first Mother's Day when Tori was a baby ended up being a pretty bad day due to unspoken expectations on my part and Tommy just not having any idea what was this day was supposed to be like. We had very different upbringings when it came to holidays and special days. We got over that bad Mother's Day and have had some really good ones over the last 20 years. (Yes, we've been married almost 20 years! I know we don't look that old!)

Yesterday, we went to church and then to Mendoza's for lunch. We've been there before on Sunday's and it's usually super crowded. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. I guess not too many mom's pick Mendoza's for their Mother's Day lunch. Oh well, we've never been accused of being conformists.

I got to lay around and watch tv with Tori for a while, Tommy helped me clean out our bookshelf in our room, yes I enjoyed that, and they gave me some accent pieces to my new dishes that I got for my birthday last year and some really great cards.

I have three awesome kids and I love being their mom!!!

The state of our kitchen is...

Last weekend I put a sidebar addition with the title, "The State of Our Kitchen Is...". In our home, what our kitchen looks like says alot about where we are in life. If it's messy, that's because we probably have too much going on or are just worn out. If it's clean, that means we probably didn't cook that night and had time to clean or we have to get it clean so we can cook something for dinner cause all the pots are dirty! :) And sometimes it's just decent with a few dishes here and there.

I try to cook a healthy breakfast for my kids most mornings before school so it gets messy in the morning and I head to work, usually without cleaning the kitchen. Then I come home and start fixing dinner, most days, and the state of our kitchen just goes down hill from there. Some of the time, I just don't care because there are way more important things to do than to clean the kitchen. Sorry, Mom, this goes against everything you taught me.

About once a week it gets good and clean but usually it's just "messy but manageable". That's kind of the way our life is most days. We go through seasons in our family life and this one just happens to be mostly "messy but manageable". I have OCD tendancies in the neat freak/organizational area and I would keep my house clean at all costs. But I ask myself daily and sometimes hourly if Jesus showed up at my door, knowing all that's going on in our day, would He care?

Anyway, that's why that sidebar is there. You can pretty much tell where we are in our life by the state of our kitchen. The bittersweet day will come when the kids are grown and they have their own dirty kitchen to clean and mine will stay clean and the sidebar addition will need to be removed. I'm sure if I miss cleaning the kitchen they'll be happy for me to come clean theirs. :)

Update 6/12: I removed the sidebar. Since I'm no longer working outside of the home I figure I should be able to keep it clean so I really have no excuses for it to be dirty. I'm pretty sure I'll be lazy at times, though.

The Best Blog Header In The Land!

Jenny put our new blog header photo together. Isn't it cool? Tommy told her she should consider doing this for a living. :) Thanks, Jenny!! You do incredible work!

Jumpin' In The River

Tommy preached this past Sunday at our church. It was a message titled “Wonderfully Made” in a series called “Amazing”.

Anyway… Tommy talked about how sometimes we think God is like a Blackberry or a PDA that we can take out of our pocket whenever we decide we need help or find ourselves in a crisis or we might think of Him as a genie in a bottle where we can rub the bottle and He comes out and says, “I’m here to grant your wish.”

Tommy went on to say, though, that God is not like those things at all. He is more like a river that flows and we are but to jump in and let Him have control of where we go. Novel idea, huh? Kind of like floating down the Guadalupe or Comal River, it just kind of takes you where it flows and you let it (until it’s time to get out and this is where that illustration breaks down.)

On that note, we have “jumped in the river”. Several weeks ago we let God guide us to the decision to home school Anna next year for her 4th grade year. I'm leaving my job at our church in order to do this right so it is a pretty big jump in a potentially deep river. We home schooled Tori and Jakeb for a year, Tori’s 4th and Jakeb’s 2nd. I had a great year with the two of them and I am very much looking forward to having the next year with Anna and having the time to give her focused attention.

Anna is excited too. I think she might be a little disillusioned in thinking that she’s going to get to sleep in and watch tv most of the day and maybe finish school in an hour or so, but she’ll find out that’s not the case pretty quick. I do think she’ll find, though, that learning stuff can be fun and hanging out with her mom all day can too. I’m pretty sure we can arrange some grandma time so I can have some mom time occasionally. Maybe I’ll make that into a field trip. :)

So, just a few more weeks of regular school for her. We’ll take this one year at a time and see where the river takes us next.

Don’t read ahead!!!!

It is out of comical frustration that I write this post!

I was reading My Utmost for His Highest yesterday for April 29th. It is titled “Gracious Uncertainty” and it was very inspirational to me. Tommy and I were going to return some movies so I decided to bring the little book with me and read it to him while he drove to Hastings. I pulled it out, all pumped up to share this incredibly fitting message God had given me because it went so perfectly with his previous post titled “Uncertainty”.

So… here goes… the moment I’ve been waiting for… I’m about to share with Tommy this profound, divinely timed word that God gave to me through today’s devotion that was written so many years ago.

I begin reading and glanced at him all excited about this morsel God has given us for today and with a grin, he tells me that he read that already and that’s where he got the idea for his post in the first place.

I was shocked, horrified and mad! I think I hit him (lightly) and told him, “You can’t read ahead!!! That’s just wrong! The date clearly said April 29th and you used it on April 26th!!!"

Come to find out, he does that often. He says he reads this devotional book in spurts so when he reads it, he reads several days at a time. Oh well… what’s done is done. He read ahead and I think that’s cheating. That’s like cheating God out of what he was going to give you in His timing. That’s like reading the end of the book or jumping to end of the movie. We have to take these things in order and not mess up the intended plan.

I am joking about most of this. If you know me, you know I’m an organizational freak and like to take things in order and Tommy is not. We had a good laugh about this one.

If you have time, go and read My Utmost For His Highest for April 29th. It’s really good for most of our days when we find ourselves in the middle of the uncertainty ahead. I do think it’s okay to go read previous days to catch up on what God wanted us to know but didn’t take the time to read - just don’t read ahead!!

May You...

Over the past four or five years, Tommy and I have gone to a church in Houston in a shady part of town on an occasional Sunday night when we don't have our church Small Group meeting. They have always offered a benediction or what we sometimes call a "may you" at the end of each service. Someone writes it on their own and presents it to everyone usually with their right hand held in the air as a blessing or a prayer for everyone as we leave. It's really cool!

We talked about living in today last night at our Small Group meeting as opposed to living in the past or living for the future. If we live in only the past or for the future we miss so much of today. Here's a "May you" from Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill in Michigan from a video we watched at our Small Group last night. (If this were Tommy, he'd be linking all the stuff that needs to be linked but I'm not Tommy and I guess a much lazier blogger. Oh well... you can "google" it if you want.)


"May you accept the past for what it is. May you celebrate what needs to be celebrated and grieve what needs to be grieved and then, may you receive from God a new spirit, one for here, now, today."


May we start out our week accepting a new spirit and notice all that God has created and entrusted us to care for today.

Uncertainty

I have been learning a lot about how to tolerate mystery and uncertainty lately. Life cannot be controlled or made to happen in any specific way. When it comes at me I can only react appropriately. I am not saying that I should be passive and lack initiative or the ability to be proactive. I am saying that even being proactive does not guarantee any certain outcome. I am being vague but if I listed the situations this applies to it would sound narcissistic and boring. That is why people blog though isn’t it?

Anyway here are some quotes I found this week:

As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task he has placed closest to us, he begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we become simply a promoter or defender of a certain belief something within us dies. This is not believing God, it is only believing in our belief about him.
- Oswalt Chambers

It is necessary to run risks,
We only properly understand the miracle of life
when we allow the unexpected to happen.
- Paulo Coelho

Update: (Another One)

When the mysteries we believe in
Aren’t dreamed enough to be true
Some side with the leaves
Some side with the seeds
- Wilco, Side With The Seeds

Update 2: (Another one again)

Everybody will ask what became of you
Because your heart was dying fast
And you didn't know what to do
- Death Cab for Cutie, Cath

The Way To Africa

Our daughter, Tori, will be headed to Kenya in July with about 30 other students and adults. They are going with 410 Bridge to help provide people with clean water. They may be doing other projects besides water projects but the goal is to ultimately show Jesus to them in the short time they will be there and meet some basic needs that we take for granted.

Tori began saving her money about two years ago when she felt called to go to Africa before this trip was even planned. She asked for money for her birthdays and Christmas and has saved other money she has earned as well. About a year after she began saving, this trip to Kenya began to come together. The cost would be around $3000 and then some extra for the other things she’ll need.

One of the coolest things out of all of this is the generosity of people we know. Several generous people have given her money to help her go on this trip. Other things have been very confirming like gifts that she has received that she planned to spend her own money on and didn’t have to so that money could go towards her trip. Thanks to all of you for believing in her and trusting that your resources will not be wasted.

This Sunday, our Student Ministry is hosting a silent auction for 2008 summer foreign mission trips. The money raised will be divided between the students going on the Africa trip and another trip to Bolivia. There are lots of cool items and services being donated to the auction -just another example of generosity. We made a marbles game board with an African theme. I think it turned out pretty cool! We love this game and love making them to share!

Tori’s way to Africa has been undeniably, divinely paved, and for now, the road is crystal clear. I’m fairly positive that this trip and the people of Kenya will change her forever. Pray for this trip and also for the people of Kenya that Tori will be with - that they would be forever changed as well.

Prom 2008

Here are just a few of Tori & Peter's Prom pics. I took about 150, Jenny took probably that same amount. I weeded mine down to about half and I'm showing you only these. If you want to see more, you'll just have to ask... :)

The guy with Tori is Peter, her boyfriend. The girl with Tori is Katie, one of her close friends. The couple with Tori are her mom and dad, believe it or not, they look look sooo young!!! :) Her hair was gorgeous, don't ya' think?

I must say, we have a beautiful daughter - inside & out!!! We have two beautiful daughters but this post is all about Tori. Sorry, Anna. Your prom time will be here sooner than we think!

Oh, Tori & I and Debbie & Micaela (Peter's mom and sis) made their flowers. I think we did pretty good!

When Tori took her hair down, there were 60 bobby pins!!!

All this smiling hurts!

Pictures As Promised

Here are the photos and a couple of short video clips that I said I'd put up in my last post. We're getting the windows tinted on the car tomorrow so I'll take some pics and put those up later. Jakeb wanted us to put flames on the car too but I think we'll pass on that this time. Enjoy the pictures. Tori's Prom is this weekend so those pictures will be coming soon.

Gator Gallop at Brazosport College

The Littler Kids - too cute!

Anna is in the middle getting ready to take off!

Off to the races!! Look at the focus on some of these kiddos.

Anna coming in for the finish so fast she's a blur!

A.P. Beutel Annual Bluebonnet Festival Fundraiser

Hair painting...

Hair painting with a friend.

This is the first portion of the 3rd grade performance.

This is the finale part of the same performance.

How much can we fit in 4 days?

I think we made the most of our time over the last four days. It's long but here’s the rundown:

Friday – car shopped all day – literally! (That’s for you, Phillip) We began at 8:00am, drove to Houston and ALL OVER Houston and came home at 10:30pm with a ’07 Toyota Camry with just under 12K miles. White and a little sporty. I think we’ll enjoy it. I know we’ll enjoy the better gas mileage! We managed to squeeze in an excellent lunch at a Persian café close to Harwin area. We will definitely go back there. And we ate Vietnamese food for dinner. It was a very long day but Tommy and I enjoyed the day together. We got home around 10:30 and Tommy and Jakeb took off almost immediately for Houston to sleep in a hotel for a few hours before running their race in Huntsville. You can read about it on Tommy’s running blog and Jakeb’s post below. All in all, we figure car shopping went much quicker than furniture shopping. It took us about 3 months and many trips to Houston to find living room furniture. How odd is that???

Saturday – got Anna up at 6:30am and got her ready for the Gator Gallop Kids Run. She did good and we had fun. Someone had given us tickets for a fundraiser pancake breakfast so we went and got three to go plates. Anna’s school was having their annual Bluebonnet Festival with games, rides, food, etc. so we spent several hours there. Brought home some tattoos and a lemon cake from the cakewalk. Oh And a bear from the animal walk. Tommy and Jakeb got home around 1:00 and at around 2:00 we were off to Houston again to finish up car stuff that we couldn’t take care of Friday night because everything was closed and the lady helping us was completely incompetent! That’s a whole other story but suffice it to say that when I came back from getting dinner, the employee was sitting to the side and Tommy was typing all of the information in their computer! It was ridiculous and funny! We at Japanese food in Pearland and then went and spent almost as much on ice cream at Marble Slab as we did on dinner. Oh well… we had a good time and Anna, Jakeb and I all tried sushi! I’m not sure we’re fans of sushi but Anna is sold on Japanese food. She loved the other stuff we got.

Sunday – Tommy filled in for a good pastor friend of ours in Tomball. Danny is in Rwanda on a mission trip. So, yet another trip to Houston. Good thing we got a car with good gas mileage! We had a good time with friends and then got to eat at Chipotle for lunch. Another of our favorites! We came home and got to rest a little and then we had our weekly Small Group meeting. That’s always a highlight for us cause we get to spend time with friends, dig into and question God’s word together and we usually laugh a lot!

Monday – We all went to the courthouse at 9am to witness the legal adoption proceedings of some good friends. This was the best thing of all four days as far as I’m concerned! It was a huge check mark off of a list of things to pray about. Not that we'll stop praying for them, we just don't have to pray the way we've been praying. We’ve been on this journey with Phillip and Jenny (Jenny's blog) for several years now and it was just such a blessing to be a part of seeing it all become final and officially being able to welcome Mikey to the family. The kids went to school, Tommy went to work and I went and ran errands all day and got a lot accomplished and a lot of much more meaningless things checked off of my list. We began painting a really cool marbles board for a silent auction at church. The auction is to raise money for the students that are going on the Kenya mission trip in July. It has an African theme to it. I’ll put a picture of it up when we’re done with it.

It was a great weekend with friends, great food, and family fun. I’ve got some pictures from the weekend that I’ll put up soon. Just don’t have the time right now. Time to go to work and get cram two days of work into one since I didn't go in yesterday. Enjoy your day!

If you came up to me and asked if I had a favorite race I would say Hog's Hunt. Me and dad ran the 25k yesterday and through many self-malfunctions at around mile 3 to mile 6 or so (for which some of you may not want to know), we finished in an amazing time of 2:30:50 which we were both proud of.

Well we started the race at a reasonable pace and probably kept up with one group from about mile 5. We eventually passed them at the end. Once the finish line was in sight we heard someone say," Hey 226( my #), beat 227( dad's #)." So there we went off to the races and I must say I beat dad by a long shot.... of maybe 2 or 3 inches. And that's all I wanted to say. He beat me in Bayou City and I beat him in Hog's Hunt. But none the less he was the one who got me up all these mornings to train and it was a Christmas present from him to run this race, so winning or losing wasn't really what it was about.

With that said, we went to Pei Wei and ate China.... literally. Then was the traditional Starbucks and then home.

Once we got home we immediately left for Houston again where which we ate Japanese food and I just might let someone else blog about that little experience.

Funny Bella Movie

Haven't tried a video before but here goes... Bella loves playing in the water and we love watching her. She is one crazy dog!

Funny Dogs!!

Here is a picture story for you. I think you can figure it out. Feel free to make up your own captions. Bella is the "white" dog and Carrot is the other one.

Huntsville State Park

Huntsville State Park is one of my favorite places on the earth.

When I was a kid I was a part of a church group kind of like Boy Scouts and we used to go camping there. As soon as the van came to a stop at our camping spot we would bail out and start setting up tents under the tall pine trees. I remember catching fish from Lake Raven. If I think about it hard enough I can almost taste the over-seasoned greasy hamburgers we cooked over an open flame. We hiked the trails and killed water moccasins which I am sure we would have gotten kicked out of the park for. And we swam at the swim beach that is mostly unchanged some 25 to 30 years later.

Andrea and I took our first camping trip alone as a married couple with a new child to Huntsville State Park. We packed a tent, a play pen, a baby and some food in our Buick Regal and roughed it for a night. It was the first of many camping trips we would take with our kids.

The five of us in the Stunz family took some good friends from another country camping for the first time at Huntsville State Park. He was from Scotland, she was from England and they had two girls. His dad was visiting from Scotland and it was a great trip where we mostly swam and played horse shoes.

Jakeb and I went to Huntsville State Park a couple of summers ago for what would become an annual tradition of spending a couple of days alone as a dad and son. We hiked, swam, ate camp food and talked about guy stuff while the girls stayed at home.

I ran my first race longer than a marathon last year at Huntsville State Park. I ran the Sunmart 50k in a little under 6 hours.

This weekend Jakeb and I are going to Huntsville State Park to run Hog’s Hunt 25k. The plan is to make another good memory in a pretty cool place.

Nobody Didit Stunz - new family member

Since this is the Stunz Family Blog, I thought it fitting that this be the place where we officially induct “Nobody Didit Stunz” into our family.

I think every family probably has a "Nobody Didit". You know who I’m talking about, right?

Mom: “Who did this?”

Kids: “Nobody!”

“Nobody” seems to do “everything” around here so it’s only proper that “Nobody” get the credit for doing “nothing”!!!

I would also like to take this opportunity to instruct “Nobody” as to how actually doing something (see picture) should work. When the bag is full and the lid can still be removed without plastic bottles and jugs flying everywhere, then:

Step 1 – Remove the lid
Step 2 – Take the full bag out
Step 3 – Put a new bag in (notice there are extras right beside the can!)
Step 4 – Replace the lid
Step 5 – Repeat when the bag is full but not overflowing into the rest of the house!

"Nobody" is one family member that I would actually enjoy booting out the door one day. Maybe “Nobody” will leave and will be replaced with “Somebody” who actually did it! :)

Tooth #11 is out!!!

Anna lost her 11th tooth yesterday (she's counting, not me). It was a "big" tooth and she was excited.

She put it in a decorated ziploc under her pillow with a picture of her and her Mimi. The "tooth fairy" brought $2. "She" left the money, the tooth and the picture. Why in the world would "she" want to keep that nasty tooth???

Anna stated that she only got $2 and the last tooth she lost at Mimi's brought her $5. Perhaps the picture of her and her Mimi was placed strategically for a hopeful good fortune. The tooth fairy probably should have given her more for taking the time to decorate the bag. Bet she doesn't see many of those!

I remember only getting a quarter, maybe .50 if I was lucky!

Good Things In Life

There are a few good things in my life right now.

My husband and three kids, a few friends who "love me anyway", good health, I just got a new look for the master bedroom and last but not least, our own personal photographer.

Go check out J. Hintze Photography. Jenny is an excellent photographer!!! She has a wonderful ability to capture personality. She also happens to be one of those "few friends who loves me anyway". http://www.jhintze.com/ or http://www.jhintzephotography.blogspot.com/

It really is a good thing to know that I never have to search again for a photographer for our family pictures, senior graduation pictures, weddings to come, babies to come (grandbabies, of course, and in the waaaayyy far distant future!), etc.

I say that tongue and cheek because I know there are more important things in life but it really is nice to have something settled. I like for things to be settled and having one thing to count on brings me some element of peace in the chaos of my life. So, thanks, Jenny! I'm sure you had no idea you were an element of peace. :)

If you haven't clicked on the link yet, go now!!!

New guitar...

I happened to get a new guitar this Spring Break with my birthday money. It is called a Gretsch and is quite the most amazing thing I've seen even though I haven't even seen it yet( it comes on Friday). My only problem is the name brand... Gretsch. Doesn't it remind you of like one of them old maids they show in an Irish fantasy movie? " Ey Gretsch fetch me a bucket o' watur wuld ya?" Maybe that's more of a Gretch. Take out the "s". But hey.... the name brand of the guitar can't be changed. I might name it something else. Give me time and I will think of something good.

Jakeb

It's not about the bunny!

Lately, I've been conflicted with knowing and acknowledging Christ's suffering in my life. This past week was the week that we set aside to remember the suffering Jesus went through on his journey to the cross. I'm ashamed at how difficult it is for me to sacrifice the luxuries I'm so accustomed to. I fail miserably at loving Him. I'm amazed that His love for me never fails.

It's increasingly more difficult for me to stomach the selfish materialism we partake of on Easter and other Christ centered holidays. I'm not sure if it's just cause my kids are older or maybe I'm older and wiser or perhaps I'm just being a judgemental pharisee, who knows. I just know that I don't much care for it anymore. I want my kids to understand why we celebrate Easter and that it's not about candy and Easter baskets. It's not about the bunny.

No, I'm not an Easter grinch. We did dye Easter eggs and had some peeps and Easter bunny cookies. I just think as our culture dives in head first into the pool of consumerism and away from Christ, as parents, we've got to work harder at finding a balance.

If you have a few minutes, watch this video. I'm not particularly fond of the music style but the message is powerful and timeless.

I pray I never lose sight of what Jesus did and that today is the celebration of the new life we can all have in Him! Not about having a "hoppy" Easter.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever believes in Him should not parish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Nepal

I went to Pokhara Nepal in May of 2006. On the way to and from Pokhara I spent a couple of days in Katmandu. Where Pokhara is a resort town that is fairly clean with restaurants around Phewa Lake and Mountain Views, Katmandu is a busy urban place with dirty narrow streets.

I spent only two weeks in Nepal but I miss it. I miss the culture that is so heavily influenced by both Hindu and Buddhist religions. I miss the landscapes and have a picture of Gandruk on my computer as wallpaper to remind me of one of the places where I trekked. I have good memories of walking through the mountains with a backpack on my back and my feet as my only transportation. I miss the city too with little shops that sold steamed momo (a dumpling) with spicy sauce for twenty-five cents US for half a dozen. I miss the milk tea and green tea from the tea shops and homes in the villages.

During my stay in Katmandu on the way out of Nepal I went into a book store across from our hotel. I love book stores and this place was mostly for Westerners and held lots of English titles. I stayed in there for a couple of hours. I remember how they were playing 70’s music, burning incense and it had a very hippie feel to it. This story on NPR flooded my brain with memories of Nepal … link.

St. Patrick's Day Prayer

I'm not an avid St. Patrick's Day observer although I did choose to wear green today (mostly to keep my 9 yr. old from pinching me) and I do have some Irish blood in me.

Thought this St. Patrick's Day Prayer was interesting, maybe you will too. It really could be a prayer for any day so much like my other blogs, it will be archived here and that way I can refer back to it when I want to.

Sour Cream, Soup, and Funny Words

The other night we went to eat dinner at El Toro's with my parents and my nephew. My parents treated us to dinner to celebrate the almost 2 month gift that keeps on giving. We gave them a tile floor redo in their bathroom for a Christmas gift and it turned in to more of a remodel. We're still not quite done, just some trim painting and tile sealing to do but it's been fun.

Anyway... Jakeb, our son, ordered tortilla soup. It's not Papasitto's but it'll due for this small town. He didn't want sour cream to come on his soup. We told him that if it did, he could just scrape it off. Apparently, according to Jakeb, you cannot scrape sour cream off of soup. Thus, the funny word -

"unscrapeoffable" It is a verb and used in Jakeb's sentence, went something like this: "Sour cream on soup is unscrapeoffable."

How's that? Jakeb has messed around with words since he was little. Saying weird words with weird combinations and just finding humor in words that others of us just don't pay any attention to.

Here's another sentence: "Laughter is good medicine and can cause a family to have unscrapeoffable memories." I made that one up all by myself! :)

Here we go...

Ok, so I'm going to see how blogging goes for me. I always have thoughts, ideas, photos, etc. that I think are worth sharing so this will give me the forum to do that with anyone who happens to stumble by. If nothing else, it will help us as a family to archive some of our memorable moments.

We hope to be adding our kids as contributors soon, too. So maybe they will be able to enlighten your day as well.

Happy reading...