Recreation?

I almost had a "Meet the Parents" moment tonight in our last volleyball game when this guy spiked the ball with all his manly muscles directly at my head.

Church league volleyball is of the devil.

If only...

Clay and I just finished season 4 of Smallville on DVD, so I couldn't help but think last night that if the Astros had Clark Kent on their team they would have won that game.

Name Dropper, Part Deux

If I were a braggart :-), I might tell you that our friend who had the tickets for last night couldn't get the Diamond Club seats this time (yawn). It seems that he's a partner with EY and the team he oversees handles the Astros account. As such, he sits in the Diamond Club with Drayton from time to time. But sadly, they were forced to sit 21 rows up down the third base line. Still, Clay had a great time...everything except for the losing part, that is.

However, since I'm not really all that into boring you with such blatant and arrogant pretension, I'll tell you some other stories:
* Clay and D.N. found themselves across the aisle (same row, one section over) from my little bro and his wife. how cool is that?
* Brandon's 5th grade program at school is Thursday night. I thought I'd stir up some dinnertime conversation and asked him Monday night, "If your program were on Tuesday night instead of Thursday night, what do you think your dad would choose: the World Series or your impersonation of Ed Sullivan in "ROCK: The History of Rock 'n Roll". Hmmmmm?" He immediately and confidently explained that surely Clay would choose the program, because "Family is more important than sports." Good thing for Clay that Brandon still doesn't know any differently. But when I asked Brandon, "What if your dad was going to preach and your friends invited you to a Rockets/Mavs game that meant you'd have to miss church? What would you choose?" Brandon: "Well, I'm a kid. Of course I'd go to the game." And there ya' have it.
* The staff at church enjoys at least a weekly prank. So after hearing about our dinnertime conversation, they called Brandon's elementary school and asked LsS to have the principal send a bogus email, explaining that a District event has conflicted with Thursday night's program, which has now been rescheduled for Tuesday night. That was some funny stuff.

Gamer

Clay is going to game 3!

short version: guy from church calls and says, "I hear you're a big Astros fan. I have two tickets . Wanna go with me?" So being the great guy that he is, he called me (with what sounded a bit like trepidation--maybe a tiny fear that we'd have irreversible plans that he knew nothing about) and asked if it was ok with me. Of course, after asking the only question that really mattered: "How much?" and getting the answer that every wife loves to hear ("free"), I shared in his joy and gave my blessings upon his long-awaited mecca.

I think he might be more excited than he was on the day we married. :-)

You see, since he was but a wee lad, he has reserved a portion of his brain for the storage of thousands of useless Astros facts. He has since filled that part of his brain to overflowing. Yes, in 30-something years, he has loved his Astros, even when they would have been more aptly known as "Dis"astros. He has even chastised friends who were less than devout, climbing aboard and then down again this 43 year (or whatever) wagon.

Thanks to Nana, he's even already got the proper fan apparel - a League Champion t-shirt, hot off the racks. So, go Roy O. and the rest of the boys - Clay Hopkins will be in the stands!

lyrical thoughts

yea, Astros!

so i was driving this morning and thinking about your responses to the foresight vs. hindsight question. then this song came on the radio and it made me think about my own hindsight. so i thought i'd share because even though it's not where i am currently, it's where i have been before. It's by Mark Schultz and it's called "He Will Carry Me". Hindsight tells me that it is true. Foresight tells me that it will be true again.


And even though I’m walking
Through the valley of the shadow
I will hold tight to the hand of Him
Who’s love will comfort me
And when my hope is gone
And I’ve been wounded in the battle
He is all the strength that I will ever need
He will carry me

p.s. i love that i can go home, click a few buttons after hearing a song on the radio and have it on my computer for just $1, without having to buy the whole cd!

late night ramblings

Pujols. even though his name makes me laugh, i don't really like him...not one little bit.

birch.net - who ARE you? inquiring minds want to know.

p.s. everyone - feel free to comment on previous posts this time since i've gotten somewhat ahead of us all today.

game 5

GO 'STROS!

Name Dropper

An interesting little tidbit...while visiting with old friends in Orlando we found out that one of our youth workers from SOBC (who then worked as a stunt man at Universal) is now in California working on the set of Alias! (which, as you know, just so happens to be one of our fave shows.) Dave and his wife were (back in the day) very involved with the youth at our church and lived down the street from us. As we were leaving Orlando, Dave was headed overseas to work on The New Adventures of Robin Hood.
http://www.us.imdb.com/name/nm0605815/
Now, DM is the fight coordinator or stunt director or something for Alias and has won awards for his work on the show. I just found a picture of him with Michael Vartan on the web. very cool.

So besides all our theme park escapades, we spent some good time catching up with AK and her girls at the House of Blues. It was great to see them after so long! And thanks to TH (former youth) who set us up with tasty appetizers. Plus, we went out to our former pastor's ranch...L Bar J. You see, he married L Candler, as in Asa Candler who invented Coca-Cola. He was her great granddaddy, so they have lots and lots of land in FL. They've sold most of it to Disney for a wildlife preserve, but J and L still have 500 acres right off the preserve. Abby got to ride a horse and both kids got to drive a jeep. That was both encouraging and frightening, because Brandon drove it very well and responsibly and Abby drove like a bat out of Miami.

I couldn't help but notice, though, how different I am now than I was when I lived there. and this fact reminds me of a question that I'm thinking of including in some adult curriculum I'm working on. let's try it out on you- Which is better: foresight or hindsight? Why?

Roots

This has been perhaps my most distracted week ever. I don't know why I thought I might be able to have a productive writing week between Hi-Def and the rapidly approaching departure to Orlando; silly, silly girl.

We leave in 2 days for a week-long vacation. yea! Abby (poor girl) has had to endure 6 years of knowledge that her brother has embraced the Mouse (and has pictures to prove it) while she has not. So you can look for that picture of redemption next week, if I can spare a few moments for the Internet cafe' at the very cool place we're staying. Brandon, though, is looking foward to getting back to his roots, his Orlando birthplace being an interesting and unique fact amongst his friends. We'll worship with old friends Sunday morning at SOBC, then spend the rest of our days hitting the parks: Epcot, Magic Kingdom, MGM, Animal Kingdom and Universal Studios. thank goodness my kindly physician on the 2nd floor fitted me with some shoe inserts that I might not endure week-long pain and suffering.

so now i'm going to try and salvage one whole day for writing purposes. have a fabulous week yourselves: live, laugh, love, and all that other stuff...

Life in Hi Def

So this weekend I was a small group leader for 11-12 grade girls during our D'Now thingy that we call Hi Def. It was great. I didn't get my required amounts of sleep, but no matter...it was good to get to know some girls I'd only really been acquaintanced with previously. Plus, I still love youthy speakers and worship peeps, for myself, that is. And then on top of that, Nathan, Josh, Sharon, Aaron, and Rowdy all came in to help lead and it's a blast to see former students serving God like that and being all leadery and stuff. With so many students, mostly you don't get to see long-term results. So you can see why the weekend was particularly sweet.

plus, I'm pretty good at matchmaking. i think that i could probably make a living at it. but I think that's all I can say about that.

I don't think that I can do another fireworks show now that I've experienced the one the Rangers put on 3 times this year. It's just the longest, bestest, coolest show ever. And it was especially fun to watch SA clap like a toddler each time they surprised us with those six simulataneous blasts off to each side of the main show. Oh yeah, Aaron's whole family, including Lolly and her chicken?, came for the game. Good times.

This morning I finished up one-fifth of an assignment and so I'm resting in the momentary satisfaction. Mainly because with one sentence left to write, my computer went NUTS on me and it took me a good 30 minutes to rectify. It wouldn't let me type lowercase and I had one of those "throw it out the window" moments that I've only heard about before now. but now it's ok because I finished (in lower case, yea!) and I learned a whole lot about all the stuff it says in Hebrews 11 - 12:2 in high definition.

In 5 days we'll be in Orlando with all our Wooldridges. wouldn't it be great if i could walk normally by then?