Site Title

My Dad and Christy recently got back from a mission trip to Uganda, Africa.  My dad taught for several days at a pastor's conference, while others played with and loved on children, and met with pastor's wives.  I was enthralled by the stories, and moved and captivated by the pictures.  It's not my experience – but I had to share some of the pictures here.  What an amazing opportunity!  Proud of you guys.

I love this picture of my dad studying – the hand on the head pose is very typical of him.

 

That's my dad in the foreground of the above picture.

Look at these faces…

This next picture should be in a magazine somewhere – so beautiful.

I love these two shots…

And this one too…

 

WOW!

Every year I buy a water camera for us to throw in the swim bag.  I love to get pics of the kids underwater.  It started when Jacob was a toddler and was starting to go under – it was so fun to capture his sweet expression as he floated in trusting us to scoop him back out.  I did the same with Caleb, and this summer I tried to capture that with Samuel.  He LOVES to swim and we would have to be careful not to mention the "s" word outloud otherwise you would have a 2-year old asking "swimmie?" a dozen times. 

He would fall in, arms out, holding his breath, with a smile on, waiting to be captured and brought up for air.  And even if you weren't watching, he just knew someone would bring him up.  SO trusting.  SO completely oblivious to any danger or fear.  SO delighted with himself.  It was so fun to watch. 

The pictures are fun - and the memories are perfect.

Pictures taken at the neighborhood pool.

Look at that smile!

one of these very cute bikes, just by linking to them on my site.  Can't you see Samuel in that big ol' bucket?!

This is my second year serving as the PTA Membership Chair for our school.  Last year, my friends on the PTA Board begged recruited me to do it after the year had already started (the first day of school) which is a little late to have any control over the outcome.  We do NOT have a great record when it comes to PTA membership – we're not bad, just a little lower than average.  But with 750+ students, we should be better.  So this year I've set out to do just that – recruit more people to join the PTA. 

"They need to be able to walk away with something when they join" I thought.  Something little (budget is small), but something nonetheless.  The librarian also happens to be our PTA secretary because she has a daughter who attends the school.  She suggested I make buttons because the library was kicking off a program where each month if you complete a reading log you get a button.  If you wear your button on a hat, you can wear your hat to school on Friday.  I quickly jumped on the idea – it would be the kick-off to her program and a way to get the kids excited. 

So Derek and I worked to design buttons.  Sometimes late at night – which made for some funny buttons.  LIke this one from Derek…

Get it – "tank ewe" (thank you) – yeah, it was late.

Anyway – we came up with three designs.  And what has ensued is me making buttons ALL.the.TIME.  I'm a button-making queen.  And making buttons is not easy – it's a 14-step process for each one.  And I'm pushin' 300 buttons at this point.  (How do I get myself into these things?!).

But the buttons are a hit.  The kids were wearing them on their hats on Friday.  And membership is up.

Mission accomplished.

Here are the designs (the "Rocks" one is by far the most popular and I have to make double quantities of those):

   

I'm not much of a celeb fan-club kind of person.  I refuse to be ga-ga over people that I don't even know.  They're just PEOPLE – like you and me.  And I'm way too practical for that kind of stuff.  Although there are a few that I would love to sit down with over lunch.

But I have to say that there is one that I have loved since I was very young.  In fact I had her poster on my walls for years.  I danced to her songs (still do) and knew every word.

And today she releases her newest album – the first in a long time. 

Admittedly, her life is a train wreck.  I don't envy her that.  But that voice - I still love it. 

 

In August of 2005 I started this here blog.

Since then, there have been 45,012 page views or hits.

I've published 834 posts.

I've received 1096 comments.

And I've documented the details and dailies of our lives.

It is an outlet for me…a wonderful way to record my life.

This is what I said on my first post…"I call it "Count Your Blessings" because it's exactly what I hope to do with it…find time everyday (or maybe every other) to express gratitude and remember how blessed I am."

Here's to four more years…!

Thanks for reading.

The boys, once again this summer, begged me to let them set up a lemonade stand.  We put it off, and put it off, and decided it was now or never last week.  I told them I would only pay for half of the lemonade this year (2 of the $4). 

They went out in the 100 degree heat for 3 hours and sold like thieves ($.50 a cup).  Since Jacob was injured (a sprained elbow from a skateboard ramp fall – he coaxed us with his tears to take him to the ER the day after the fall – then coincidentally he was healed in time for kneeboarding two days later!) he manned the booth.  Caleb would ride his bike from door to door (to the neighbors we know which is most on our street) and would politely ask them if they were thirsty! 

Then the neighborhood boys came out and tried to rally support for the stand for only minimal payment – free lemonade!  My boys were flabbergasted and so tickled that their friends would work for free!

All in all it was a successful venture – $22 made – after payment to the lemonade maker, they each made $10.  And after paying 10% for tithing, mission, college and long-term savings, they had $6 to put in their wallets.  Not bad for 3 hours of play work.  We have VERY generous and thoughtful neighbors. 

They sure are cute! 

Because our first day at the lake wasn't enough 🙂 we decided to head down to the "beach" at Lake Ray Roberts with lots of moms from church.  It was a large group of friends and TONS of kids.  My neighbor, Lyn, went with me and I enjoyed getting to visit with her and all the other ladies too.  I barely saw the big boys who spent most of their time out in the water.  And Samuel was content to dig and play in the sand all day (with a little lunch and candy as his fuel).  Very fun and relaxing…we'll definitely be going back there next summer!

Every year our neighbors and friends schedule a weekday at the lake with rented "toys".  This year it was jet skis at Lake Lavon last Tuesday, Aug 18th.  And as always it was loads of fun!!  Jacob spends ALL of his time fishing with his buddy Jake.  I sometimes wish he would come play with us on the jet skis more, but he SO loves to fish, so I can't feel too bad about it because these full days at the lake make him happy.  Jacob, Caleb, Derek and I all got to knee board.  And Samuel got to eat whatever he wanted (thankfully the selection wasn't all bad) and dig in the sand.  Fun was had by everyone…it was a great day!

Attendees this year:  Brookes, Kovachs, Lees and Millers

In an effort to "refine" us a little I scheduled a field trip to the Nasher Sculpture Center downtown.  The first Saturday of every month is free (sponsored by Target) and they have lots of great activities for kids on those days (ex: they got to make their own visors).  We invited Nana to join us since she is the epitomy of refinement, of course.

It was a little slower paced than I usually like things – see post below about seeing the whole zoo in an afternoon.  But it was fun nonetheless and definitely an exercise in culture.  My favorite part was lunch – the Center's Cafe is a Wolfgang Puck restaurant – yippee!