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One of the cutest little girls ever! Anyway...I was tagged just like everyone else…thanks Monica.
Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. the Gap
2. youth ministry intern
3. gift shop in Lubbock
4. youth minister
Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Pride & Prejudice
2. LOTR
3. Harry Potters
4. Count of Monte Cristo
Four places you have lived:
1. Ft. Worth, TX
2. Lubbock, TX
3. Atlanta, GA
4. Dallas, TX (the only four places)
Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Gilmore Girls
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Lost
4. ?
Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Playa de Carmen, Mexico
2. London, England
3. Edinburgh, Scotland
4. Paris, France
Four websites you visit often:
1. facebook
2. prestonroad youth (I have to check my work)
3. jeep.com (we are looking for a new car)
4. blogspot
Four of your favorite foods:
1. hamburger & fries
2. shrimp fried rice
3. steak (Salt Grass…mmmm)
4. Chick-fil-A kids meal with sweet tea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Four places you would rather be right now:
1. on a cruise
2. Wilderness Trek
3. Italy
4. Dallas Arboretum
Four people who are tagged to do this:
1. Summer2.Lesli3. Bret
Well, you do like me! For the past couple of weeks I thought I had lost all of my friends, or that everyone was just really busy. I mean it couldn’t be my posts, how often do you hear about being flooded out the office. But low and behold I had messed up my comments box to where I had to approve all of the comments I had…silly me.
Otherwise things have gone great, our staff continues to share an office out a classroom, its oh so cozy, it looks like it might be a week or two before we get back into our normal offices. Although in the mean time we are enjoying the change of light (i.e. the windows we have now) because we are basically in a cave usually.
Some of my great week was because of the meeting our elders, deacons, and staff had yesterday evening. It was the meeting to unite our leaders of the church before we tell the congregation that we are adding on to the church building. And I was so relieved afterwards, because I spoke for the youth ministry on reasons we need this new addition…which would include a new youth facility. I received several compliments on my little two cents. So whoop for a new building, the announcement and fundraising for the building begin April 9th, the architecture plans are already done. The picture up is where we currently meet with our youth, the youth area is downstairs and John & I live in an apartment upstairs. It is located right behind the church.
Well if you don’t live in the DFW area let me tell you about our flood that came in on Sunday. From what I know the Highland Park area was one the hardest hit areas, the street became small rivers, cars were under water, and the city drains were so full they were pumping water out. Coincidently, the church’s (my office) drains are connected to the city’s drains, so…while the heavens opened and poured down, the overflow went into our offices which are in the church basement. You will see in the pictures that in my and John’s office there is a window to the drain (I know a window that looks in the drain, yes we have a great view) well when the drain started pumping water back the widow began to fill and we had a fantastic fish tank for a few minutes, until the glass broke and put the fish tank in our office. Well, all will be fixed and nothing of great value was lost, thanks to those of us staff that were running from office to office grabbing everything off the floor…what a wonderful bonding time. And until the office is done being drained and re-carpeted we will continue to bond while we make office all together in a classroom.Oh, and all of this happened right after lunch on Sunday, that is why I am in my church clothes and John is in the baptismal waiters so his suit would not be ruined.
Here are some pictures from our trip, luckly I was taking all of the pictures so I'm not in any of them. We worked three days and did insulation, sheetrocking, and mudding...I could be a pro at this stuff by now but don't worry I'm not quiting my day job.John hard at work, doesn't he look lovely.
They cooked us amazing Cajun feasts everyday, this day was fresh crawfish
.
And here is the whole group!
I am so excited, John just left with 13 others headed for New Orleans; I leave tomorrow morning (Saturday) with a second team of 10. We are headed to New Orleans to help with some rebuilding for our Spring Break Mission Trip with our youth group. I am not sure if you remember but during the aftermath of Katrina our church housed some families in the apartments we own nextdoor and now the families have moved back to New Orleans. Although, one family did not have home owners’ insurance and so we are going to help her with things that need to be done at her home. Keep our team in your prayers as we are gone and I hope to post some great pictures when we return.
I survived a night alone at our apartment. Now I know what you must be thinking, so what, no big deal. Well, it is an accomplishment for me. This past weekend John was in Seattle doing a retreat for our friend Anthony, so that left me here by myself… the reason that this is an accomplishment is because I am completely FREAKED out at night in our apartment alone…it is not that I am alone it is our apartment, I promise. In case you have never had the pleasure of visiting us allow me to set the seen for you.
Our apartment was a quadra-plex (4 apartments in one house), it was built in the 1920’s (old things creep me out), and the downstairs has been renovated into the youth house (where our youth have class & chill). We live upstairs and we do have neighbors but that really doesn’t help me much. Just imagine it, and 80 year old apartment (you think your place makes noises) all wood floors, windows everywhere, all the doors creek, and there are 3 doors that all lead to our bedroom…3! Who designed this place? One door from the bathroom which also goes to the dinning room, one door from a long narrow hallway from the dinning room, and the last from the kitchen right beside our front door, so take your pick on how you want sneak in on me, I mean really. And then the whole downstairs is empty b/c it is the youth house. But I guess it just comes down to me being a scaredy cat, but I did it and no monster got me from under the bed (of course the dust bunnies might have helped scare them from being under there J), and no ghost showed up behind me or popped out from behind a door (like John likes to do to me) so maybe someday I could do it again but not yet. And the picture is just to help you set the seen, it is not really my house.
Is anyone participating in lent? I am giving up sweet tea…in my whole life I don’t think I ever gone two weeks without sweet tea so this will be a big challenge for me. And John is giving up all cokes…which really he should be ok with. What are you giving up?
You love me, you really love me…lol. Ok, did ya’ll give some GREAT suggestions or what!?! Here are the choices I was given to choose from: Omar, Scooter, something that starts with the letter “T”, Landry, Jaws, Joe (but I know a Joe and he isn’t as cool as my fishJ) Hush Puppy, Bait, Guppy, Flounder, Pookie (but then John wouldn’t know if I was talking to him or the fish, no I’m just kidding, no really I am), Big Blue, Moby, Bruce Wayne ( I wonder who gave that one), Chris (to add some confusion btwn me and my bro-in-law), John (to confuse him and get some built up anger out, but I don’t want to traumatize the poor fish). Rusty, 728b (sorry Scott but I don’t get the joke), or Briet Hewitt Gibbons Carr (thanks for giving up your first child’s name, what a true friend you are).
After much deliberation I have chosen a name…drum roll please….Moby. I talked to my sister about it, and even read a synopsis of the book so that I could better understand the real Moby Dick. And after reading that it was a violent whale I thought it might be fitting, I mean the fish cannot be put with another beta and he does enjoy dive bombing the rocks and air bubbles. So there it is…Moby.Though this name is not permanent and is subject to change upon my choice.
Well, I am not going to start off this paragraph with “its been forever since I have written,” because that is what everyone says and you should just expect it now that I am never going to be on schedule all the time for updating my blog. But anyway I have a new challenge for all of my friends. Are you ready?
I have a new beta fish for my office (picture above) but I have no name for it. I am told that every fish needs a name, and besides I have so many kids come in my office and that is one of the first questions they ask me. So lets see who is the best at naming fish, something short and catchy and of course cool.
Well thank you to the few of you who lent me some ideas. Josh we must be thinking alike b/c after I had finished writing the lesson for it I looked at your answer and it was pretty much the same.
We started off the class with questions about what POWER is and who is powerful…of course at first they gave “church” answers but then we got them started on their favorite super heroes…batman, superman, spiderman. And then we asked them about being scared, what they were scared of, why they were scared, and who helped them. That is how we introduced the story, and then we had some students act it out…a 6th grade girl play Jesus, a 8th grader being the man that was possessed by the evil spirit, and a 6th grade boy played the evil spirit that was attached by piggy back and evil by beating him while on piggy back. The kids’ favorite part was when the evil spirit fell dramatically to the floor. And we concluded that Jesus is more powerful then anyone, even batman, and we don’t have to be scared because he is powerful.
Thanks for your suggestions, Chris I would have gone with puppets next. And here is the closest thing I could find to a picture of a person possessed by an evil spirit, it is John after I cast the evil spirit out of him.
Ok, I know you can't believe that I am updating my blog for the 2nd time this week, its a phenomenon, but I need a little help, any suggestions will be great. Except from Chris (my self proclaimed comedian brother-in-law)…I only expect clever laughs from your responses so don’t let me down now.
So every time there is a fifth Sunday in a month it is the youth group’s responsibility to present the children’s story lesson to them…are you still with me. So what it really seems like is that every time the children get to a difficult lesson to present they think oh lets just hand it off to the youth…for example past lessons we have had to present include the Beatitudes and 1 Corinthians 13…to 4yrs-10yrs old. So this time it is actually a story which is great, but it is the story of Jesus driving out an evil spirit from a man (Mark 1:21-28). Hello, all of the little kids are going to running out of class either acting like demon possessed kids or their parents are going to be tucking them into bed and they are going to start crying from fear of being possessed by the demon under their bed.
So, this is where you come in, any suggestions on how to present this lesson and take up 15 minutes of time with out scaring these precious children of God. I mean really, I am interested to hear from you…so if you read this I want to hear from you…lets see how creative you are…I expect at least like 10 comments this time guys.
Another crazy busy week, the day after we returned from the youth ski trip John and I flew LaVondrick into Dallas to celebrate a late Christmas with him. If you don’t know who LaVondrick is, he is John’s little brother from the Big Brother program. John and LaVondrick were matched four years ago while John and I were in college in Lubbock; LaVondrick is now 12 years old. They even have won Big Brother of Texas together in 2003. We usually try and bring LaVondrick out here 2 or 3 times a year, which means for one week 2 or 3 times a year John and I become responsible for this kid completely. What a scary thought, I can honestly say I am not ready to have a 12 year old, good thing they start younger.
Although it is a difficult adjustment for John and I, I believe that it is far more difficult for LaVondrick. To imagine the life style change from his home to ours is crazy. You see in Lubbock he lives with both parents (this month) as well as 2 sisters, a grandmother, a cousin, sometimes an uncle or who ever else in the family needs housing at the moment…all in a two bedroom duplex. He said he doesn’t like to share a room with his cousin b/c he isn’t nice so LaVondrick sleeps on the couch. In his daily routine there really are not any rules, any set times to eat, or anyone that he really has to answer to. As well as he cannot trust his own family in his house with his belongings b/c they end up “missing.”
And then John & I fly him to one of the wealthiest areas of Dallas, where all he has been taught is to want more, & think of what he could do with more money if it was his. In one week we try and teach him as much as we can, about Christ-like values, education, social skills, poor grammar, and manners. I am not saying we do any good by doing this, we may even be doing damage, I don’t know. It is just so sad because there is so much that we wish we could give and opportunities to prepare him for but everything we hope for him seems to disappear once he goes home, even the things we have bought for him. Our only hope, our only impact…the love that Christ overflows from us to him. No matter how we burden him and overwhelm him, he continually asks when he can come back, and cries every time he leaves. Praise Jesus for His perfect love. Do you have any stories or thoughts?
I am so sorry to have kept all of my fans waiting for so long. John and I just got back at the beginning of this week from our youth ski trip. It was awesome; we had 17 out of 23 in ski school and still no one was injured… talk about God’s intervention. And yours truly learned how to snowboard! I know I was amazed to. John thought I would give up, but I have the bruises to prove I did it for a whole three day. John also thought that I wouldn’t like snowboarding, he said “all you do on skis is snow plow the whole way down; you can’t do that on a snowboard.” Well did I prove him wrong! Leave it to me to find the hardest but slowest way down on a snowboard…backwards or as us pros call it, a toe wedge. That’s right, everyone else goes straight down or even goes down forward (a heel wedge) but not me, the easiest way I found was going down backwards. Just another thing John can add to his list of strange things about me. Sorry I don’t have any good pictures of the miracle of me snowboarding, but here is the whole gang. I am in the yellow sweater and light blue jacket... and no I am not that fat it is all of the layering. For more picture you can look at our youth ministry site.
So I am being a very creative adult this year; creative because (are you ready for this...) I am MAKING all of my Christmas cards, can you believe it. I am pretty proud. And an adult because I am actually sending Christmas cards, though not as many as we could be sending out, but we are completely grown up yet either. We had one of our friends who is a gifted photographer (you can pay me later Ryan) to take some pictures of me and John for our cards so here are a couple of the pictures just for you.
We had our first lock-in, but it wasn’t for the youth group. We practiced this time on the 4th-6th graders; they were great and even went to sleep! It was great fun, including relays in the worship center, a race under the pews and sardines in the whole church. I can’t believe no one was hurt or went home crying, no one even broke any of the rules! Talk about success. But the pictures you are looking at are from our youth Polar Bear Party, thats right, but this pool was heated! It was so much fun, the pool was 80 degrees and the hot tub was 100 degrees, while outside it was in the 40’s. One of the pictures you are looking at is my amazing husband who could fit 9 marshmallows in his mouth and still say “chubby bunny” I know, not everyone is as blessed as me. Although John says he was disappointed in himself, he swears could fit 11 last time.
Have you ever done the “Day after Thanksgiving” shopping? You know when every crazy person wakes up at an ungodly hour to get the store that has all of the great deals. Well, I never had, I always thought those people are beyond madness. But my mom and sister were going so I thought well why not, I have never been and they (my mom and sister) are so much fun. So I got up at the crack of dawn in Dallas (which is 5:30) to meet my sister in Grand Prairie at 6 am, so that we could ride together to our mom’s house in Fort Worth and then go shopping. Well to put it politely my Thanksgiving feast did not exactly set well with my digestive system, or it sat a little too well. Anyway, my stomach started cramping after we had been at Target for like 30 minutes, but we trucked on, then mom decided I needed to take more medicine…oh my gosh…the worst taste I have ever had in MY LIFE! That is what the picture is from, my sister couldn't pass up the chance to take that picture. But I sucked it up and finished the stuff. Well by then we were just walking into Old Navy, and BOOM it hit. To spare you all the details, I saw nothing in Old Navy other then the bathroom, and was in there for an hour. And the line was so long for even the bathroom that I got sick in the trash can in front of everyone waiting. Oh it was so miserable. Will I ever try shopping the day after Thanksgiving again? Um maybe, but I will never take that medicine again…no way mom.
Happy Thanksgiving, for all you who love turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and all of that you must really be getting worked up for this Thursday! Me on the other hand I just need a little snack of the ham, yeah that’s right ham not turkey, and I am good for the year. However with some much family naturally we have more then one Thanksgiving gorge, I mean feast. This past weekend was the Sims’ Thanksgiving, my dad’s side it was a great weekend including staying up ‘til 4am playing chicken foot and phase 10 (I know don’t you wish you could be this cool), snacking all day up until the feast, my sister and I ending up by each other on the big leather couch, and a new treat this year…after spending the night at my dad’s house and putting on the only clothes I brought, Cyndy (my sister) thought it would be funny if we wore the same thing, so went home and put on the exact same sweater, undershirt, jeans, and even necklace I was already wearing. Oh, she is a hoot. Needless to say we were asked uncountable times “why exactly are you dressed alike?” Which just helped fuel our already popular nickname in our family, the giggle girls, clever uh? Anyway, it was a great weekend with good food, great family, and fun games. Did I mention that playing games is my favorite thing EVER!?! Well that made my weekend better. Sorry I don't have a picture of us dressed alike, I know you are all disapointed.
Isn’t it just amazing how God works through us! This past weekend was the West Texas Girls Conference, and even though our church is not in west Texas I still take our youth group to it. We had a really great weekend and it is wonderful to watch God grow and nurture the relationships between the girls.
But what I am simply amazed about is how God can take a fear and turn it into a passion. You see I taught a class at the retreat this past weekend, and yes there were like 50 other women that also taught classes, but what is so extraordinary to me is that at one point in college I questioned my desire to go into youth ministry because I had a huge fear of teaching in front of people! Even when I was hired here at Preston Road I still had that fear, but I knew I would have to face it. Not that I am all of a sudden an amazing teacher, but it is an amazing transformation to me to not only be able to get up in front of a class of 40 girls and teach, but to have the passion to want to teach them and be excited about it. It has not come easily or by my choice alone, I praise God and Christ above all else, but I also have to give kudos to my incredible husband that is not only an example of a stupendous teacher but has really challenged me and in love pushed me forward. Have you felt this same victory in Christ? What fears has God transformed in your lives? I would love to celebrate them with you too.
Have you ever heard of or played whirlyball? It has to be one of the best games ever. It is basically a cross between basketball and lacrosse played in bumper cars, and not just bumper cars that you drive with a steering wheel but one that is driven by a stick. If you want to go left you turn it right, if you want to go right you turn it left, and if you want to reverse then you turn the stick 360 degrees…but don’t keep turning it because then you just don’t move at all, no really believe me. So we took the youth group to play this fantastic game on Sunday, it was great. I can’t say the pictures turned out that great, the color is funky, but I hope you get the idea. And I would have an awesome story about how I scored the winning point of the final game, by launching the ball from the opposite end of the court, but really you people know me way better then that. And me being the Christ-like servant I am, I only played twice and let the students play more. I know I know, I'm so nice. Love you guys.
It’s been a crazy busy week, sorry to let down all 2 of my weekly fans. This past weekend John and I went to our Newly Married’s Class party, it was an 80’s Party and contest. We were excited to go but were hurried after a youth service project on Saturday morning and so we didn’t dress up for it, so didn't really expect anything out of it other then hanging out with some friends. Although I have to throw props out to all the other couples that wore leg warmers, two layers of colored socks, their shirts tied on hip, and their hair in side pony tails..oh the greatness of the 80's. But anyway,the first event was Putt Putt which John and I tied for with another couple so it came down to the wives’ scores, needless to say we ended up third place. Well it is without doubt that John and I bombed the 80’s trivia test, since we were only 9 when the 80’s were over. But we still had the craft contest to aim high for, and thanks to all of my elementary teachers for free time inside on rainy days and my parents for giving me the chance to watch Punky Brewster! For the craft contest each couple had 30 min to make the most creative thing that represented our childhood, so out of pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, feathers and glue we made Punky Brewster’s tree house…and won first place! Which over all put us on top, we couldn’t believe it! The first place prize… (Drum roll please)…4 Dallas Stars tickets on the fifth row!!!! How awesome is that? But don’t everyone call at once; we have already picked the lucky couple that will go with us, my sister Cyndy and her husband Chris. Chris is a true Stars fan, we wanted to take someone that would really appreciate the hockey game...well at least that is how I convinced John to take my sister. But before John agreed to it Cyndy had to name at least 5 NHL teams, way to go Cyndy for pulling through.
One of the cutest little girls ever! Anyway...
