Merry Christmas!

The Hs have had a fun-filled week leading up to now...it's good to be finished w/ all your shopping and work so early! We've had lots of fam time (due in part to a certain child's extended grounding :-) and made an overnight trip to Waco to share gifts w/ family. Two movies: Alvin and the Chipmunks (***) and National Treasure 2 (*****). A is sitting here beside me and she'd like to dispute the 3 star rating I'm giving to Alvin. However, I'm going to stand by my 3 stars for several reasons - she's 8 (A would like me to say "almost 9" right now), finds chipmunks humorous, and did not see National Treasure.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everybody~ Hope your worship this Christmas is especially joyful!

yay for me!

woooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooo!


in case you were wondering, today i finished my writing assignment (the one for YOU, the African-American piece). also, c mailed out our Christmas cards. oh, and all my Christmas shopping is done. it's footloose and fancy free i am!

my life and stuff

you beg for a miley report and then you comment not. sheesh. you ppl are hard to please.

tonight i went to fbc waxahachie to get their youth workers fired up about the curriculum they're about to use. i got two 11th grade boys to go with me, bc when the youth min. told me he wanted my talk to be "high energy", I didn't know if I was up to the task. But i think it went well and the boys were just happy to get a free meal out of the deal (the youth workers were also having an appreciation banquet). ANd as I sat watching them wolf down their 2nd dinner of the evening (they had both already eaten at their homes an hour earlier), I began to realize that when B is a teenager I'm going to have to get a 3rd job (in addition to writing and tutoring) bc 16 year old boys eat a LOT. It's not even like it was a light meal...they were serving spaghetti. and they both cleaned their plates

B's bball team played a team from mansfield Monday night and got beat 78-15. ouch. but B scored 2 of those 15 on a nice little drive in the lane and ball fake. That one moment almost made it completely worthwhile for c and me to sit through that otherwise dismal game. They get to play another Mansfield team next week...woohoo!

mileyfan@blogger.com

The Hannah Montana concert did NOT disappoint. I think the only other pop concert I've ever been to in my entire life was Rick Springfield in about 1985. And though Rick was everything I'd hoped for and more :-), there's just no comparison. Concerts have come a looooooooooooooong way. And when I was explaining to C that sometimes the stage looked like the set of High School Musical or something with all the dancers and choreography, he pointed out to me that Disney backs her and they don't do anything 1/2 way. AFter the Jonas Brothers opened (btw, i think that one guy is more in love w/ himself than all the little screaming girls combined...."I'm Joe Jonas!" [pause for dramatic effect]) Hannah Montana descended on the stage (literally...she was in some kind of big cage-like box that came down from the ceiling) in dramatic fashion. Several times between songs she went into an on-stage dressing room and changed clothes as the band/others played intros to whatever song was coming next. In the middle of the concert, the J brothers sang 2 more songs while HM transformed into Miley Cyrus, and this is how she performed the remainder of the concert. It was like 2 concerts in one. Oh, and a few times she disappeared or reappeared through the stage floor. There were fireworks (of some sort), streamers exploding into the air, video, and lots of flashing lights. (I was worried that someone in the audience might seize.)There were 5 tour buses outside, just to let you know what a big operation this thing is. Anyway, fun was had by all and A was happy to receive such a cool Christmas present early. so there ya' have it. My 2nd pop concert in 38 years of living. At this rate, I'll see another one in the year 2025 at the age of 56. ROCK ON!

scary stuff

it's a little bit scary how techno savvy kids are these days. Last weekend when we had family here, A and I had gone out for a bit. When we got back, my laptop had been sabotaged...screensaver, wallpaper, homepage and more was all t.u.'d up. Later, when I realized it, A said, "I can fix it, mom." Within minutes, she had me all fixed up, even with improvements made to my previous settings - she'd put a pic of Kyle Field on as wallpaper for me. She's EIGHT.

and speaking of scary, C and B got to go to the Cowboys/Packers game Thurs. night, courtesy of friends who ended up not being able to go. C said it was INSANE...people acting like complete "morons" from start to finish. But they had a good time still, despite the drunken stupor of tens of thousands of crazed fans.

and speaking again of scary, A and I are going w/ some friends up to OK City tomorrow to see Hannah Montana in concert. I wonder how many miniature, wigged Hannah fans will be there. I'm thinking that's probably where it starts...Hannah wig at age 8, married to drunken man who paints himself blue and gray (or wears a block of cheese on his head) at age 35. We'll be going as ourselves. :-)

Justice, fairness, and all that, but please just do it quickly

I don't know a whole lot about the writers' strike, but since the public cry here on "because i can" demands some ponderings, I'll give it a shot.

My M.O. on such issues could be described as open-minded and generally unopinionated because I figure people have reasons for what they do. Sometimes they might even be good ones, or at the very least they probably have a legitimate complaint or two. So you'll not read any angry "BRING DOWN THE ESTABLISHMENT" or "JUST DO YOUR JOB AND STOP COMPLAINING" here. That said, I'm a writer, so I might be a wee bit skewed. And I'm not complaining --if you think so you're misreading-- it is a job that is largely underappreciated (unless, of course, your writing is for the edification of the church, in which case your rewards are really cool and shiny :-). I mean seriously, can you name a writer of one of your favorite shows? But that's where the real creativity and excellence is found. Sure, there are some great actors-- Hugh Laurie of House, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton of Friday Night Lights head my list--but without the story, who would care?

That said, they better get this worked out before long. In case you were wondering, the last strike (1988 Writers Guild of America strike) lasted 22 weeks, costing the American entertainment industry an estimated 500 million dollars. I don't want to go 22 weeks without good TV. that's what the summer is for! Gas prices are high so it's not like we can go places for entertainment. Nope, we're stuck inside. Thank goodness for Netflix and all those tv shows on dvd that we haven't watched yet. Otherwise, I might have to go old school and read something at bedtime.

p.s. Chick fil A has some really good writers. Everyone should go get a kids meal. They have these little question packs that we've been using at dinnertime. They're very fun...we've fielded such questions as: If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
If you could move in with one extended family member, who would it be, and why?
What was your favorite vacation?

The kids love 'em.

Boo

Upon review of my last several posts and your lack of response, I have gleaned that you are more interested and involved in reality tv shows than you are in my actual life.

Me, too. :-)

Game ON

B had his first ever "tryouts" last week. Thursday and Friday after school were basketball tryouts for 55 7th grade boys at his school. On Friday afternoon he came out of the school grinning from ear to ear and holding up his newly acquired practice jersey! We don't know if he's A team or B team yet, but it doesn't matter one bit. He's flying high and loving it so far. In fact, he got home today at 5:15 after his daily 2 hour practice, dropped his backpack in the garage and shot baskets til dinner. And right now, at 8:33 PM, he's upstairs shooting baskets on the little wall-hoop. AH, and it brings back fond memories...I once owed my big bro 100 packs of Hubba Bubba from our gambling on games of "Horse". good times...

Um, I don't think that hotel evaluator job is all that great. in fact, I don't think i want to do it again...EVER. It is perhaps the most tedious, brain-cramping job known to man. Just fyi, bc I don't want to leave you with a false impression that it is really cool and fun. bc it's not.

But TAKS math tutoring, on the other hand is VERY fun (after 1 day on the job). It's only 2 hours twice a week and it's MATH, which is a nice little diversion from writing. I think that's why the hotel thing wasn't so fun for me. I write all the time, and so the tediousness of that highly technical writing was just piling on my already tired writer-brain. I have 4 groups of 5 kids 30 minutes each, back to back to back to back. This week I tutored them on place value and used the salaries/contracts/net worth of Tony Romo, Dirk Nowitzki, Bill Gates, and Daniel Radcliffe to do so. More tuting tomorrow...

yee-haw and stuff

so i'm here in n'ville and it's pretty festive. i didn't know it til i got here, but it's CMA week. this means that even MORE guitars are out on the streets than usual. i've been keeping an eye out for billy ray and miley, since they're the only ppl i think i could recognize. sadly, though, they're not hanging out at lifeway. but kinda cool is that my new editor for the previously mentioned african american curriculum is mandisa's bff. really. and a girl who sings backup for mandisa and melinda doolittle sang for me tonight. actually, she was singing for all of us writers, but i do tend to be a little egocentric.

Schwank, part deux

C and I enjoyed a 2-night stay in the Highland Park area of Dallas this week. I don't know how many of these hotel evaluations i'm going to do, though, bc it's A LOT of work. I think there were 23 checklists, to be exact, and each one requires a detailed narrative, complete with quotes, time stamps, and a play-by-play account of the events. IT's a whole different experience staying at a hotel when you're evaluating, bc the instructions were to perform specific tests that required us to be (in my opinion, at least) quite high maintenance. Here are a few for instances: the first night we were to order room service right before they closed for the night. The next morning, we were to call Engineering and tell 'em we needed to leave soon, but had locked something in the safe and couldn't get it open. On the way out that same morning, i had to ask the concierge for some dinner suggestions in another nearby city (i chose Addison) with a "lively atmosphere and good menu." I was to tell her that I had to leave, but "could you have a list of suggestions for me when I return?" And my favorite was that while I was having this conversation, C had to strike up a conversation with the valet about how "green" (eco-friendly) this hotel group is. this was fun for me bc i think C was growing an ulcer thinking about how he would carry on this conversation, seeing as how that topic is such a natural one for him and all. he did great, though, and when we weren't causing the staff to earn their pay, writing about it, or taking pictures, we hung out at Northpark Mall and ate some good food.

I DID get that massage...about 25 minutes in two different chairs at Brookstone. :-) Turns out it wasn't a required part of the evaluation after all. :-( But this was nice because while I was getting a great chair massage, I learned so much. Did you know that in Asian cultures, skipping a 15 minute daily massage is as bad as leaving the house w/out brushing your teeth? Also, the cost of such a chair really isn't that bad ($5,000) if you consider the cost of a weekly one hour massage. Over a year, you come out pretty even and, with the chair, you can have 2 massages a day if you want. In that case, we'll take 2. we're gonna need them for our private island, don't you think?

Food Challenge

I'm changing my list of fave shows. Now it goes like this:
1. 24 and Friday Night Lights (I can't choose bc 24 isn't on right now, but that FNL is a GREAT show.)
2. 24 and Friday Night Lights
3. The Closer
4. House
5. Kid Nation

So last week on Survivor, they had the season's disgusting food challenge. They're in China, so they were having to eat some Chinese delicacies that were WAY over the top, in my opinion. Let's see, there were the little baby turtles, chicken hearts, eels, 1,000 year old eggs, and the worst of all...chicken fetuses, complete with feathers and all.

Watching this got me wondering, if another country was doing their own episode of Survivor, and the setting was America, what would be the food challenge that would make the foreigners gag and the show's watchers dry heave in their living rooms? At first I was hard pressed to come up with comparable food items, but then maybe not:

Spam
beets
Pork rinds
fruitcake
raw oysters
grits
chitlins
rattlesnake

and C wants me to add boiled eggs (but i like those)

maybe you'd like to help me with my list?

new stuff

I got myself a new little job this week. I'm gonna be a math tutor at A's school for 4th and 5th graders who need extra help getting ready for the TAKS. It's just 2 afternoons and only 4 hours a week, but I'm excited about it. I've been wanting to get back in the classroom, but only a little bit...not much! Mainly, I'm missing human interaction every day between 8-3. So this seems perfect for me. Plus the pay is really good, so of course, that's an added bonus.

Also, I'm going to be working on a brand new curriculum piece for LifeWay. Its for African-Americans. I know, I know...this brings up all kinds of questions. I'm not African-American, so why am I working on the piece? And why is there a need for a separate piece for African-Americans? I don't know all the details, so I can't really answer these questions adequately just yet. But I will learn them very soon, and so we shall discuss it further then.

name dropper

tonight i was sitting around doing nothing much so i decided to try out the new show, "Chuck." And in the first few minutes of the episode, I saw an old friend of ours playing the part of a chauffer. But then he got shot like 30 seconds into his scene, so that was sad, because as soon as I said, "HEY! There's DAVE!" he was dead. Still, it was pretty cool. Usually Dave isn't ON the shows he works...he is a stunt guy and directs fight scenes. When we lived in Orlando, Dave was a stuntman on the Wild West Show at Universal Studios. Anyway, I know how you've come to expect some name-dropping here on because you can, and i haven't done that for awhile, so there ya' go.

hey here's a different kind of name-dropping....C won the new ipod touch at the Texas Youth Minister's Conclave a couple of weeks ago. it's very neato, but we're selling it on ebay. cha-ching.

and i was a good little reviewer at that restaurant, so now i get to evaluate a fancy hotel. And i'm not positive yet, because i don't have the details quite yet, but i think i might HAVE to evaluate the hotel's spa services. :-) more to come on that...

Curious

Well now I just want to know what I have to do to get a "PG" or "PG-13" rating. After all, those generally do better at the box office, so it makes sense that you might come back more often if "because i can" gets a little edgy. Let's try a new approach to journaling today, shall we?

Friday night we drove over to Corsicana to watch our Panthers play football. We drove right past the Texas Youth Commission facility where juveniles are taken for doing dumb and stupid stuff like stealing cars, selling and doing drugs, and engaging in violence. Sometimes in such cases of violent behavior, there is even blood. And sometimes I think that nudity is probably involved, like when the delinquents streak around town when they are high on marijuana and crack cocaine. This kind of behavior, much like drunkenness, can only get you in trouble.

Anyway, our football team played with a lot of guts. It was an exciting game, but the stupid clock ran out before we could score another touchdown to tie it. Dad-gum. Also, it was very cold to me because I ignorantly wore shorts. C was comfy, though, in his XL panther football t-shirt. He wore this because his other panther shirt is a medium, and i thought that when he wore it last week, he was a little too sexy.

if you, also, are curious, just click on the G-rated button in the previous post and put in my blog address to find out the new rating.

Rated G...All Ages Admitted

from JustSayHi

A concerned blog-reader pointed me to this website that rates your blogs. Turns out mine gets a "G" rating, with the following explanation:

"This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

death (1x)"

WHEW~ that fish mishap almost got me in more trouble than I originally thought...not just with A, but with the blog police, too!

Columbus Day

I don't believe we've ever had a more eventful Columbus Day. There was the year we were at Disney World, but even that was like an afternoon siesta when compared to yesterday. First, B got braces. Then thought we'd taunt B at the State Fair with corny dogs and all things fried. The kids had free tickets from school and we had lots of friends who were going. But it seems that everyone in the entire Metroplex had the same plan, and so just getting to the fairgrounds and then into the park was a special challenge. We were not among the 200 who were treated for heat exhaustion, thanks to bottled water, the air-conditioned car show buildings, and the last Watermelon Chill in the Midway vendor's lil freezer chest. We avoided the 20,000 "future Mrs. Jonas" hopefuls who were packed in like sardines at the Jonas Brothers concert. A and her friend had kind of wanted to hear them, but after realizing they were too short to see anything and it was too hot to stand still, they decided it would be better to enjoy other things that Big Tex had planned for them.

All in all, it was a good time...maybe sort of. The heat and crowds were way overwhelming, and A and her friend were done with the whole experience after just a couple of hours. But we did get to hear one of our youth sing on the big stage; her girls' group opened for the Jonas brothers. The dog show was entertaining and B enjoyed the pig races because he stayed into the evening w/ a friend of his. And there's so much education to be had at the fair. Really, where else are you gonna see a 1,000 pound sow? You don't see that kind of magnificence every day, i tell ya'.

I guess our last conversation last night as our weary heads hit the pillows sums up the experience best:

Cy - I love you.
Cl - I love you, too......hey, let's don't ever do that again. OK?
Cy - OK. [drifts off to sleep and dreams of parking-lot traffic and fried lattes]

I Don't Like Your Poll

this post is simply to offer you a place to comment if you can't fully embrace the current poll. maybe you aren't as committed to your DVR as we are. Maybe you don't have a DVR (i'm sorry). Or maybe your favorite premier was Desperate Housewives or something, and so you feel that you wouldn't be true to yourself by voting. whatever. but if you'd like to choose "other", do so by commenting below. i'm all about equal opportunity.

Questions? Contact our webmistress at...

C and I spent a large part of the weekend creating the student ministry pages on our church's website. Before this weekend, I knew practically nothing about web design, but now C calls me his "webmistress", I guess because webmaster is so common. Anyway, we made a lot of pages and some of the images we created ourselves. So I thought you might like to enjoy our handiwork. Besides that, it will keep you informed about what's going on here in the hub of Texas. Keep in mind that we're planning to add several more pages, so you might want to check back in later this week. Also keep in mind that there are a couple of kinks we'd like to work out:
* we wanna change the pics on the banners. i don't know about you, but we just don't think the single mom and grandpa images are really all that youthy.
* and we're having issues with centering.
i think that's all we don't like.

For starters, look at the page and then start clicking on all the buttons you can, because we're especially proud of those little linky things. And it's purty durn fancy because when you click on one page, you might get to click somewhere else on the next page. It's like a fun little surprise. And when you're finished, you might want to comment me about your favorite student ministry page.

Just to show you that I'm worthy of the title "webmistress", I'm gonna give you one of those cute lil buttons right now. so to get to the website, click HERE

Mandatory Participation

Because I can, I decided to add the poll feature to the blog. The way I envision it, I will now have a simple tool to use on days, much like today, when I am feeling pressured to blog but have very little to say. Also, it will allow the 20 or so of you (yes, i'm watching you with another nifty little tool called "sitemeter"), who refuse to comment for various reasons, to participate without actually forming your own sentence. I've given you several from which to choose. So let's have 100% participation in the poll, people.

Schwank

In preparation for the day we all get our $ together and rent our own island, I've become a mystery shopper for high-end restaurants and hotels. :-) OK, that's not actually the reason, but I'm still pushing for the island thing.

I used to mystery shop in college, but that was only for one nice restaurant in College Station (that's nice, like I used to think of nice...not nice like the places I'm evaluating now) called Cafe Eccel and Church's Chicken. This is not at all the same experience. But I digress. Last night, C and I got to go eat at a hoity-toity (C wants me to use the term "Schwank") place in Dallas. This was fun for many reasons, the first of which is the fact that we were allowed up to $145 on the meal. that's right, $145 on a meal. So we had to dress up a bit in order to appear that we might actually be able to afford such a meal. And I guess I did ok on that, bc when B saw me he said, "Mom, you look rich."

Another fun-ity of the evening was that we were to arrive separately so that I could, alone, evaluate the bar. Now our instructions were to get there between 8-9:30 and meet up at the bar. I'm wondering, how many married couples have circumstances forcing them to arrive separately at a place like that at that time on a Saturday night? I guessed that anyone noticing might think we were having a clandestine meeting. So there I was, sitting at the bar and waiting for my secret tryst to begin. At this point, I was both rich and sinful.

My job was to inquire the bartender about an "interesting summer drink." This was, in particular, a challenge for me, because I could not know LESS about the subject of alcohol. I guess I pulled that off, too, though, because the bartender was all ready to fix me "The Perfect Summer" when I told him that on second thought, I'd just have tea instead.

After Clay finished with the valet service and perused the grounds for a bit, he came in to find me and had trouble. This was another fun part for me, because I believe he may have begun to panic, thinking that I had left with some strange man who hypnotized me with his worldly charms in my 10 minutes alone in the bar. :-) After all, I DID look rich....and alone. But we found each other and went on to enjoy items from each course, as if we had not a care that there are, in fact, starving children in Africa. The food was simply delish, as I imagine the two men who were holding hands in a quiet corner booth would describe it to you. Here's to me doing a good job on my report so that we can evaluate a schwank hotel next time, as I am certain that will provide us more bloggable fun.

Maybe Her Parents Were Artsy, Too...

A has a friend over right now who is writing the music to go with one of A's songs. They're upstairs on the keyboard. And I just have to say that it is awesome. I'm not really referring to the quality of what's going on up there, but the very process of it. I wish you could be here to "overhear" them with me. They're FOCUSED. But I must say that I didn't know that A could be so bossy. Tempermental artists....

C is busy selling our group's unused tix for this girls' conference in Dallas next weekend. They're posted on the women of faith website. (who cares...i know...but i have to tell you this in order to share the real gem>>) Today he got a call from a woman named Kissie Mouse. Now I've heard of some crazy names in my day, but folks, now we have a winner.

My Own Private Island!

So I was doing a little research tonight, and I found what I want for my next birthday. It's the perfect gift!

http://www.4beachnuts.com/vacationrentals/Bahamas/lodge2022.html

I figure if all of us pitch in together, we could all stay there for at least 30 minutes or so.

Sanjaya Returns

Tragedy was narrowly, nay, miraculously, averted this week. Since 2 of us are allergic to all things furry pet, we have fish. B has a beta in a little beta tank in his room and A has a beta in a little beta tank in her room. (Flash, the bearded dragon, returned to the earth a month ago while we were on vacation.) You might recall that A loves her fish, and that she named him Sanjaya.
Tuesday morning as the kids were getting ready to leave the house, I noticed that Sanjaya's tank was looking sad, so I decided to change the water. His tank has a little plug at the bottom in order that you might slowly drain the nasty water and replace it without actually removing the fish. I might note here that this is a very small tank, certainly no larger than a goldfish bowl. I took the tank to the laundry room, pulled the plug, and set it in the sink. This is, I believe, the moment when Sanjaya and his draining tank left my mind completely. (Did I mention that it's early when everyone is leaving the house? 7:05, to be exact.)
A got home from school at 3:20. We were talking over the day and I was putting up clean clothes in B's room. I saw his beta, Sally, swimming happily along and asked A if she had remembered to feed Sanjaya that morning. From her room, she inquired, "Where is my fish?" This is the moment when said draining (er, drained) tank reentered my mind. In a panic, I shouted, "OH SHOOT!!!!" and sprinted through the house to the laundry room sink, where I found a completely drained tank, as you might imagine. It was, after all, a full 8.5 hours later. I came out of the laundry room, where A stood, perplexed, and said, "I killed your fish. I'm soooooo sorry!" and then began to recount the events exactly as they had happened. She cried. I cried. We hugged. Then, I don't know why unless it was the Spirit of God, I felt inclined to make sure that Sanjaya had indeed, met his untimely death. I reentered the room of certain death and turned the water faucet on over the tank. It filled, and a couple of seconds passed, but then....up from the pebbles he arose! and began swimming about with seemingly no ill effects from my attempt at fishslaughter. I don't think that his tiny little fish brain even knows that anything bad had happened. A and I began to laugh joyously and she exclaimed, with tear-streaked face, "I bet a neon would have died."

small electric appliance

Today began cross country mornings for B. He has to be at the athletic complex at 7:30 in the a.m.s to run before school. And that's about when school starts for A, so the quiet of the house is happening early these days. This means that I will eat breakfast earlier, which means that I will begin looking forward to lunch earlier. (Don't mock me...my very world revolves around food.) Anyway, I made a brilliant purchase just weeks ago, making lunchtime even more anticipated than before. I bought a Panini Presse' (look at Target trying to be all fancy) and I researched my favorite panini sandwiches from such eateries as Panera and Corner Bakery. I'm making a mean Chicken Pomodori and even have kettle chips for a side. It's tasty, I tell ya'. And as a responsible blogger, I just wanted to inform you because you might not even know that such an incredible' appliance' exists.

off the hook...er, couch

clay's phone has been ringing all night. it's pretty funny, because the phone # for Dallas Cowboys season tickets is only one number off from his cell phone. I'm not kidding. He's fielded at least 12 calls tonight alone. And I'm not judging, Cowboy fans, but every caller has sounded much like this: "Uh, yeah (add strong Texas twang here) Ah was callin' 'bout thu Cowboy tickets." (or so I've been told.) Clay has strong suspicion that none of these callers could actually afford the tickets, so maybe it's a good thing they're writing down that tricky number wrong. We're wishing we had a credit card machine right about now. Or I wonder if we could talk people into using our paypal account??? (note: these evil thoughts were put into my head by my minister-husband. tsk.)

i must make some life changes. it's time. i am now ready to admit that i cannot drink Coca-Cola (regular variety), eat chicken biscuits, and Oreos willy nilly. Also, I'm going to have to go to bed before 11:30 in the p.m. The first week of school is kicking my posterior. And what's up with starting, then having a holiday the very next week? Just when we're starting to get used to the early mornings, we'll undoubtedly succomb to the temptation of sleeping in (in honor of Labor Day, of course), and then the whole sick cycle will start again. For the love of Pete (i don't actually KNOW Pete...)

Welcome, CJS to the blog...maybe you could show TC proper commenting etiquette! :-)

twelve.

Yesterday was B's 12th bday. And in a little over a week he'll begin the 7th grade. Bday celebrations are entirely different at this age and I kinda like it. low key, just a few guys hanging out playing pool & ping pong, eating pizza. There was no theme or favor bags. Really, they didn't even need me at all and even better...little parental cash is required for such a gathering. OH, and I didn't have to wrestle with one toy to get it unwrapped or buy D-batteries or anything like that.

I remember his Toy Story party, his Tonka Trucks party, and his Tarzan party. ANd then there was the time we loaded up his friends and went to the Lamesa drive-in...45 min. away...to see Spy Kids 3D. And the time we loaded up his friends and went to the Ennis drive-in...25 min. away. I don't even remember what we saw that time because it was kind of a pain to unload all those chairs and order everyone food. The parties are definitely easier now. Still, thinking about those days makes me a little bit sad....

it doesn't get any better than this

today i fell asleep at about 2:00 and had a dream that i was taking a nap. :-)

Alto!

i just had shrimp and crab dip and grilled shrimp enbrochette at the aquarium restaurant in kemah. don't hate me. :-)

this morning we went to the san jacinto monument and battleship texas. the ship was very cool and educational but the monument was only so-so because the elevator was closed for maintenance.

we rode the boardwalk beast at kemah today. that's a big speedboat that goes pretty durn fast. upon boarding, the kids asked the crew, "where do you sit to get the wettest?" and so we did. and i'm not talking about a little bit of wet. i'm talking like we might as well have taken a shower with our clothes on. that's how wet we were at the end of the 25 min. ride. makin' memories.

so i know i haven't shared any mission trip stories yet. and i'm sorry about that. but we had a great trip. and there's way too much to write about on here, so you'll just have to pick up the stinking phone if you really want to know. but i will say that on the first day in matamoras, clay was distracted by a man stepping out into the road in front of us. clay ran a red light and (we had been in mexico a total of 2 minutes at this point) a non-english speaking officer of the "law" pulled us over. i say "law" loosely bc apparently there are no laws about jaywalking or standing in the street breathing fire or accosting passersby with your spit rag to clean their windshields. but there are laws about running red lights. anyway, it was exciting there for a bit bc there was very little communication happening but we did understand it when the man took clay's drivers' license from him. i know, i know...a mexican prison would have been a better story, but still, it was a little scary since his license was gone. a few of our students were about to wet their proverbial pants at this point. but in the end, all clay had to do was go to the transit authority a couple of hours later (with 2 spanish speaking friends, wisely) to pay his $14 fine and get his license back. hey, this ending kind of reminds me of the gas station story from earlier this summer.

Meh-hee-co

Generally you blog about events that have already happened. It's nice to share anecdotes and tales of adventure and all, but this time I've decided to go in reverse blog order. It's revolutionary, I know.

All 4 of us are heading down to Mexico Saturday morning on a mission trip. We're going with about 30 other people and 30 more are taking a different mission trip to New Orleans. We'll be staying in Brownsville and driving over into Matamoras each day. Half our group will do construction on a church that we've partnered with for the last few years and the other half will do VBS type stuff with kids. I'm really excited about going and am glad the kids get to experience serving in that kind of way. So if you could pray for us that'd be bueno.

Gracias and Adios!

Good Times

B loved Matt Bullard basketball camp. Here's a pic of him with the former Rocket and 2-time NBA champ. They're tight. They dress alike and everything. And 6' 10" is taller than you might think.

Before that, we hosted 5 nieces & nephews here at the house for 2 weeks. 2 for one week and 3 for the next. It rained a lot those weeks, but there were some non-rainy moments and all of those were spent on this:

our friends left town for a week and we got to use their home waterslide on steroids. I'm saying the waterslide is so big it's on steroids. Not us. Except for Brandon because he's always on steroids for his asthma, but that's a different story altogether. anyway, the thing was a lifesaver.

we also got to go out on Lake LBJ w/ other cousins earlier this week, because we went there after leaving The Woodlands last weekend. They have a really nice boat and fun tube and wakeboard. B & A loved the tube and couldn't seem to go fast enough or get flipped out violently enough. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of that bc I left my camera on land. Nor do I have a pic from our visit to thesharester's casa. Also very sad. But we had a great time there enjoying some tasty burgers on the deck while misters and a fan kept us pleasantly cool.

The blog is acting squirrely and not letting me type a title. But if I could, it would say:
My first and probably last book review

The rain was good for at least one thing. I finished my summer writing a full month ahead of schedule. So now I am officially on vacation, time which I plan to use reading and swimming, reading and swimming. And speaking of reading, I finally started to read Blue Like Jazz a couple of days ago. I say "finally", because it's been the thing to read lately. I generally don't pick up books that are the thing to read, in part because I am stubborn to follow intellectual trendiness. Also, I have not read any non-fiction book except for my Bible in at least a year. You might think this is spiritual; however, it is simply a product of laziness. While I am writing I do not like to source other materials...it slows me down. So I just bypass the temptation altogether by not reading anyone else's thoughts, except for a couple of commentary writers. But back to Blue...I am now about 1/2 way through the book and I'm still not certain what I think about it. The only thing I know for sure is that it is thoroughly thought-provoking.
Have you read it? What did you think? Probably because I read it right after doing a study on Acts, I have felt several times like putting it back on the shelf. I feel sometimes like it's supposed to be extra spiritual and relevant to hold the view that people who want to be obedient to Christ's commands are out of touch and behind the curve...like the strict Jews in Acts with their view of circumcision. But then I read something that might be brilliantly insightful after I think on it for awhile and so I do not put it on the shelf. And it seems like Donald understood my struggle when he wrote this: "I wish I were the sort of person who liked everybody and everything. I feel so negative sometimes. I have friends who can listen to any song, watch any movie, or read any book, and they think everything is just great." So now I have to finish the thing.

Impressive

I can't even imagine how Noah's wife must have felt with the kids cooped up inside for 40 days and nights. After the 16th straight day of rain here, we were about to go nuts. And we even have malls and movie theaters and such. But on Thursday I woke up from a lil afternoon nap and saw a brightness that was unfamiliar in previous days. When I realized this was the sun shining through the windows, I yelled to the girls (A & A) : GET YOUR SWIMSUITS ON! We enjoyed an hour of swimming before the rains began to pour yet again.

B is back from camp and had a splendid time, despite said rain. The missions offering they collected was huge, the camp pastor was great, the Bible study leader was his favorite ever (no offense, none taken), the games and parties were so fun, and the food was great ("Mom, they used REAL MEAT"). He even made it back with $7 in his wallet, which is quite impressive if you know B.

Aunt Cynthia

Summer Update:
C got back from youth camp this past Friday. They went to Pineywoods...my old preteen/youth camp stompin' grounds. This is the place where my stuffed dog, Odie, of Garfield fame, was sent up the flag pole and where, as a counselor at preteen camp I was serenaded by the staffers while I was eating. They, all down on one knee, sang "You Lost That Lovin' Feelin" in the cafeteria the year I had apparently lost interest, since I had started dating C. But back to the here and now...C and his youth campers had a great time and 7 kids that went with our church became Christians! Next stop...Hardin Simmons for Super Summer in July.

B left yesterday morning for Crosspoint Camp. I haven't heard from him yet, but I do know that he scored the back row on the charter bus yesterday, so I guess it got off to a great start. He's rooming w/ his cousin, Brent, who I have discovered is a highly organized (he packed and repacked 3x) , money-saving lad---neither of which are descriptors of my B--so I'm feeling better about all our possessions getting back home on Friday.

A is enjoying the week here at the house with her cousin Alyssa. These two are the most easily entertained individuals...they play together quietly for hours, needing nothing but the occasional snack. Our plan was to swim, swim, swim this week, but it looks more like rain, rain, rain. So we're going to see Surf's Up later today.

I have written 9/14 sessions of my summer writing assignment. If A and A continue their self-sufficiency, I hope to have 11/14 finished by the end of the week! Who knows? Maybe I'll have half the summer left and NO WORK to do. woohoo!

because he can

Anecdotes from the week formerly known as Vacation Bible School

At Summer Blast, all the kids were directed to choose from cheerleading, soccer, basketball, and football as their chosen sport of the week. This serves as their recreation time and they receive instruction in that sport...kind of like a mini-camp. Anyway, the very same trash-talking boy who made fun of Hannah Montana earlier in the year, told A last week that girls can't play football. He scoffed at the very idea. So guess what sport A chose for the week? you got it...she's playin' football. i love that girl.

At least 1 of you will really enjoy this story (I'm picturing a young SJ w/pantyhose over her head)...part of Welcome Week for B and the other incoming 7th graders is to partcipate in some wild and crazy games. For example. 3 lucky contestants were chosen for a game of Human Darts, where their heads were covered with whipped cream and their teammates threw puffed cheetos at them. The team with the most cheetos stuck to the head at the end of the time limit wins. that one was pretty funny. But even more enjoyable? was watching B in the pantyhose olympics. He (and several others) was challenged to eat a banana, put pantyhose over his head and then spit the mushy stuff through the hose. Whoever gets the most out wins. Now if you know B, you know about his wildly passionate competitive streak. He shoved the banana in so fast that he immediately started gagging. But he overcame that problem and yanked the hose down over his head and started blowing with all his might. The catch is that you can't actually spit the banana through the hose. In fact, the harder you blow and work at it, the more the nasty mushy banana-substance spreads all over your face...even up into your hair if you're really determined, which he was. Ah, in the youth group just one week and he's already makin' memories that will last a lifetime...

Summer...it turns me upside-down

Well week 1 of Midlothian summer has finally arrived, though most of the state has already been in celebratory mode for a couple of weeks now. Thursday was the last day. Which is nice, since it has seemed for weeks now that we were, actually, out of school for summer but were dropping the kids off for some sort of day camp each morning. Now I don't have to feel guilty about letting them stay up past school-year bedtimes.

Week 1 starts off w/ a bang...B & A have Panther basketball camps put on by the High School, and for the evenings we have Summer Blast for A (the week formerly known as Vacation Bible School) and Welcome Week for B. Today some friends from Midland came to church and lunch w/ us and then we had A's piano recital. The recital was nice, and we got a laugh while reading the program...each child played 2 pieces. The girl before A played "How Great Thou Art". A followed that up with "Rubber Duckie". :-) The pieces were probably pretty close in difficulty, but, obviously, an ocean-like depth of subject matter lie between them. And the husband of the piano teacher talked a bit at the beginning about how much he's enjoyed hearing about all the kids and what they're learning. His examples of pillow talk included: "Did you know that Abby is pretty headstrong?" huh. who knew???

I don't know if I can keep up this pace AND blog, but i promise to give it a whirl. Also, I'm writing this summer. This is a first for me, as I have previously committed myself to absolutely zero work responsibilities while the kids are out of school. It's for next summer's QuickSource that is a companion piece to Explore the Bible for Adults (i knew some of you were wondering). I'm writing the whole quarter and it's on Acts, which I find fascinating.

The little girls are calling the house w/ increasing regularity. Even 5 times in one day. This is a challenge for us since C is youth minister and his job requires that he be nice to middle schoolers. But as long as we don't help B w/ his phone manners, I think the situation will resolve itself. It goes something like this: (while walking to the phone) "How did SHE get my number?" (i have a sneaking suspicion...) and,
(after answering phone) "What do you want?"

:-)

Life in the Big City

Yesterday C, B, and I pulled into a Race Trac in Grand Prairie to get some petrol (whose cost is, in itself, another blog entirely). C got out to fill 'r up and I noticed 2 policemen to my immediate right. They proceeded to walk up WITH GUNS DRAWN to another car that was parked on the curb about 10 feet from the front of our van. (I'm serious and I don't even have to embellish this tale.) Having seen such things only on TV and in the movies, I began to panic somewhat and banged on the window at C. He didn't hear me, so I had to roll down the window to say, "GET IN THE CAR." Naturally, he wanted to know why, so I said in bigger caps, "THEIR GUNS ARE DRAWN. GET IN THE CAR NOW." That got him moving. So we kind of hunched down a little bit and watched them sneak up behind the car just like Jack Bauer would do it, except that they were wearing those cool uniforms. Sadly for you, this is the end of the story because no one was in the car. The policemen retreated and went into the store. I never said the ending was exciting.

photo blog

we've been to exactly 3 weddings this spring for former students. and there's another one out in midland this weekend that we won't be able to attend. but it's been way fun even though it makes me feel way old. and how's this for feeling old - last weekend B was trusted with FIRE to light the candles and A was a jr. bridesmaid. here are my fave photos from the day

p.s.

and did i mention that brandon (or B-Hop as his teammates call him) made an unassisted double play recently? he was at 3rd base and caught a line drive to his left then dove head first onto 3rd base with the ball out in front of him to beat the runner who had taken a couple of steps toward home.

and abby is fun to watch playing softball. she plays pitcher mostly even though it's coach pitch. which means she gets to field most of theballs bc they usually hit it to her.

and i miss my family right now!

Making up for lost time

Texas is the hub of the universe. At the very least, it's the hub of all things southern baptist, proven once again to me yesterday and today here in Nashville. Normally when you're in another state and you introduce yourself, you don't bother with the name of your lil town and just sum it up by saying you live "near Dallas". But here at LifeWay, "near Dallas" isn't good enough bc virtually every Southern Baptist ministerial-type has lived in Texas at some time. So I'm pressed to say "Midlothian" and am surprised because 97% of the time the word is met with things like "I know EXACTLY where that is" or "7606-something" or "I know someone who lived there" or "Oh yeah...just up the road from Waxahachie". Get this...I'm conferencing with one writer who retired a year ago from LifeWay to Waxahachie and who attended the same Ellis County Baptist Association conference for which I led some youth leader sessions. I'm also conferencing with a woman who worked on staff with my longtime friend and current pastor, Bruce Prindle. I'm also conferencing with another writer whose dad is buddies with the minister at another church in Midlothian. it's the HUB, I tell you.

sidenote: it's funny what Tennesseeans (i guess the 3% that HAVEN'T been to Texas) think is good Mexican food. [Cynthia scoffs]

Here's hoping for a better flight experience tomorrow than the one I had on Monday.

i may have even hurdled an old lady

this is the coolest hotel room i've ever stayed in and it's just a shame that no one is here to enjoy it with me. i'm in nashville and tired from a long, crazy day...but we'll get to that in a minute. because back to the hotel - i've stayed here at the wyndham union station quite a few times, but they've done some remodeling. it was a neat hotel before the remodeling, full o' history bc al capone stayed here back in the day. but now my room is great, too. it's all very contemporary and i feel, at this very moment, like a rich person as I sit here on this funky-cool bed w/ funky-cool carpet, furniture, and a big ole flat planel tv all to myself. also, my bathroom has marble tile on the floors and other neato furniture in there.

too bad i have to be down at LifeWay at 7:20 a.m. and I can't enjoy this setup again until after dinner tomorrow night.

so i was on my way to the airport this morning and hit awful traffic. sat still for 1/2 an hour and then putted along for another 1/2 hour, it seemed. i was, for the first time in my life, actually worried that i might miss my flight. which would be bad bc i was presenting first thing today. so even though i needed a restroom facility in a bad way, i kept on going. by the time the express parking driver dropped me off at the first A-terminal gate i could get out at, i headed to the restroom and was ready to do my oj simpson thing through the airport. problem was, they don't let you check your luggage w/in 40 min. of takeoff. so i had to carry on my suitcase and that meant a search at security. they confiscated my hairspray and BRAND NEW tube of gel. but i was off. i raced through the airport and made it to the gate as they were boarding. by this time i was feeling much better bc i had endured a trying situation and emerged the victor. however, about 2 nanoseconds after i sat down in my assigned seat the guy in front of me reclined his chair so far back that i had to put on my reading glasses to read the words on the seatback in front of me: "Please secure seatbelt when seated." i'm telling you, he was THAT close.

i think that's all i have to say at this moment. more later.

the blog is in a lil slump

but i did get an email from a friend that i think will tide us over for a bit...

enjoy.

Jack Bauer Appreciation Day
2007/05/09
Apparently Jack Bauer has been having a rough time of it.
In the last 21 hours, he: Has been released from Chinese custody where he was tortured for months on end, learned that not only was his brother evil but he's now dead (after he tortured him), learned that his father is evil, learned that his beloved girlfriend was also tortured in China after being abducted while on the hunt for him, blew a plan that wound up giving his Chinese captors Russian defense technology and had to violate direct presidential orders, thus getting himself arrested.
And, to top it all off, 24's critics and fans have been dumping on him.
So the folks at Blogs4Bauer decided to soothe Jack's battered soul and declare today Jack Bauer Appreciation Day.

They suggest that, in honor of the intrepid terrorist hunter, his fans should:

1. Give someone your word that you'll do something.
2. Commandeer a vehicle.
3. Whisper (you know, in that husky, menacing Jack way, unless, of course he's speaking to a member of the fairer sex who's not a terrorist, then his whisper is on the softer side).
4. Scream, although your outburst must start with, "D****t!"
5. Boycott Chinese food today.

However I think they're missing a few items. I'd add, 1) Look lovestruck as you gently caress someone's cheek 2) Demand that someone "patch" you through to someone and 3) Angrily shut off your cell phone.
That about covers it.

all is well with The Hopkins. Have a nice day!

pics for mi madre, padre, and anyone else who cares

So we found a landscaper to come through. Here are the pics so you can see our new and improved front yard. And just so ya' know...since Dr. Chapman doesn't mention the Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit in his book, The Five Love Languages, I'm pretty sure my love language is "words of affirmation." So go ahead and comment. :-)

and so it begins

that whole "preacher's kid" thing...we heard that tonight Brandon carried a cardboard box full of Jello Pudding through the children's area at church shouting, "Co-old Beer! Get your Co-old Beer!" i'm swelling with pride. :-/

and Ab had a hard time falling to sleep tonight for the tears she felt necessary to shed on behalf of her sweet Sanjaya. 30 minutes, i tell ya'. That girl is loyal to the bone...you should definitely try to be her friend. After dancing around the room victoriously when S was voted off, B felt bad enough to pray for his lil sis at bedtime. It started off nice, but ended with, "And God, just please help her get on with her life."

:-)

"Junior Sponsor" - I've been living a lie

just when i lose hope in the jack-ness of 24, those writers do something extraordinary to keep the show atop my list of faves. that was some good stuff, you have to admit.

So B is no longer an egg-hunter at Easter time. He is now an egg-hider. This makes me sad, as it is just another reminder that I am getting old. It is actually right for people to call me, "Ma'am", though I never wanted to be one of those. It did bring me great joy, however, to see him heading over to a water sprinkler cover at the end of the hunt on Sunday. He had stashed some eggs in a special hiding place with the intent of securing them for himself after the unsuspecting little children walked right by it. It seems it's not that he doesn't WANT the eggs; it's simply that he doesn't want other people to know that he wants them. 11 years old is greatness. And, as we discuss the "go or don't go" of his final preteen camp, I am reminded of my own entry into the youth group. My mom convinced me that I would be attending preteen camp that year as a junior sponsor. That was the only way I would agree to attend such a juvenile event. In fact, it never even occurred to me - until just now- that I had not actually reached sponsor status that year. It was all a ruse.

Anyway, we're about to enter uncharted waters...dad is dad AND youth minister to son. Which is great for you, as I'm certain the next 6 years will provide much bloggable material.

I Don't Even Really Look Forward to Monday Nights Anymore...

Monday night's episode of "24" was, hands-down, my least favorite episode in 6 seasons. Come to think of it, this is my least favorite season, so it makes sense that the worst episode ever would be in it. And to prove it, I think I'll give you a list of reasons (SO IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT YET, DON'T READ PAST THIS SENTENCE!)
* Where is Chloe? And when we do get a glimpse, where is that personality that we've come to know and expect?
* Jack was only on the show for about 10 minutes Monday night. What's up with that?
* Storylines that don't make sense:
- are we to believe that the President can be removed from office just...willy-nilly? He gets 1 minute to state his case, the VP gets one minute to make his and, "OK, everybody. We'll get back together in 10 minutes to decide who is King of the Sr. Prom...er, I mean President of the United States."
- That guy chopped his ARM OFF and I don't think he thought that all the way through. Because then he tattled on the terrorist and went out on the beach to die in the sand. Alrighty.
- Nadia, Silver Spoons, and Milo....WHAT????
* We need a mole! We need a mole!

So baseball has started, sort of. If it will stop raining maybe the kids can play in a game. Last night B had a game that didn't count because they had to call it off in the 2nd inning when that monsoon blew in. Good thing about that one, too, because B had just given up his first ever opposite field, over-the-fence monster homerun. So it's like it never even happened.

A got Honorable Mention at Math Pentathlon, which is great since it was her first year to go. The Gold Medalist had 15 points, she had 11. And she had a great time and is already planning to do it again next year.

That Stinks!

So Sanjaya's hair dampened A's enthusiasm for him, but sadly, Chris was her #2 fave. So last night when I went by her room I saw her on her bed pouting. She, quite seriously, said "I am angry with everyone in America right now."

B overheard her and asked, "Is it your least favorite country now?" To which she answered, "No, that's Asia."

Of course, that threw B into all kinds of fit, shocked and disgusted that she doesn't know the difference between a continent and a country. It's always an adventure...


the case for trucks: C took out the seats of my van and went and bought mulch for the flower beds. That was three days ago and my van STILL smells like manure. nice.

a weak attempt to hold your attention

ok, so after the faux-hawk, even A is wavering in her devotion to young, strange Sanjaya Malakar.

and speaking of Thunder, she and C are off to Austin this weekend for Math Pentathlon.

it seems i have nothing else to say about that, so that wasn't a very good story at all, was it?

but this one is informative...I saw a news story about a study on the cleanliness of people's offices. Apparently, your office very well might have more bacteria than the toilet of a public restroom. So I picked up a little prize at Target for Clay yesterday....it's called disinfectant wipes. because ewwwww. wipe down those keyboards, people.

note to self---wednesday blogs are uninformative and boring...

AAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY.....

on "24": I wonder what happened to li'l Ricky Schroeder to make him so mean? I guess it just goes to show that money can't buy happiness.

on "Thunder": now the band has 2 security guards. I think if I were 8, I'd want to be one of "The Poppin' Girlfriends" and would take whatever they could give me, too...Marketing Staff, Accounting, Refreshments, whatever it takes to get a foot in the door...

on spelling: now we play "PelEton" instead of "HORSE" in the driveway, just for grins.

on landscapers: why do people make appointments and then not keep them or have the courtesy to even call? hmmmm? Two weeks into the process of getting someone to put in some beds and still no luck...

on the FIGHTIN' TEXAS AGGIE BASKETBALL TEAM: Gig 'em and WHOOP!

Weird, but Cool

B & A pooled their money and bought American Idol for PS2. It took me a couple of days before I decided to venture upstairs and check it out; mostly I was just enjoying regular chuckles to myself as I listened to them sing. It comes w/ a microphone and works kind of like karaoke. But it also works kind of like guitar hero in that it gives you points for hitting the right notes...it actually detects if you're sharp or flat, and whether or not you hold the notes for the right amount of time. Anyway, I've never been a singer. Check that...I sing all the time. Loudly, mostly in the car. I've even thought that I should probably tone it down because the kids might think that's normal and begin to annoy their friends with loud car-singing when I'm not around. But I can only copycat other singers, really. And mostly only MALE singers. But, I've now played American Idol twice--and been crowned THE American Idol...twice. Once I beat Taylor Hicks and the 2nd time I beat all the other Hopkins.

The coolest part, though, is that the time I was on my way to defeating Taylor Hicks, B was upstairs with me. I was singing unashamedly and was making my voice do some funny things to match the songs I was singing, like on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (perfect score!). Anyway, B said this: "You're so weird. But even though you're a weird mom, you're somehow a cool mom at the same time. Some other kids' moms are just weird."

I think that's the nicest thing he's ever said to me. :-)

And A...well, she's going to be a writer like her mom. In all her band preparations, you know she's been writing songs. And they're a little rough, but they have some REALLY deep stuff. She wrote this: "Down in the sea where the ocean goes by I feel the breeze of friendship down in me. Friendship...oooh kindness....oooohhh friendship Yeah..."

Tour de Spelling Bee

Well I learned that when Lance Armstrong breaks away from the pack of bikers, he's actually breaking away from the "peloton", not the "P-E-L-E-T-O-N" as B spelled it. He was pretty upset when he got out in the 3rd round bc he'd spelled that word right before. I didn't even have it circled in his book bc every time I'd called it out he'd gotten it right. But maybe I called it a "Pel-oh-tawn" instead of "Pel-eh-tawn"...i can't really remember. Regardless, I think he learned to go a little slower and think more next time. And he IS planning on a next time. The 1st place winner was also last year's winner and she's done now, because she's an 8th grader. But I'm just going to go ahead and say something that maybe I shouldn't...it seems to me that he'll never crack the top 3 unless he suddenly begins to enjoy words more than the field of athletic competition. The words those top 2 had to spell were ridiculously hard and he wouldn't know them unless he started to pore over the dictionary or read grad school text books. But no matter, the whole experience was really neat, and he can now say that he's been a part of a live television production, in the newspaper, and on TV. That's more than I can say, because the cameraman apparently didn't notice how nice I looked.

I have more to say, so check back later this week.

Gladiator

I was trying so hard to change it up a bit, but here we are again on Monday night...me posting a blog. sigh. it's hard to get out of a rut sometimes. Actually, I'm just killing time waiting on C and B to get home from baseball practice so we can watch "24". Don't worry London, I'm not saying anything else about that. ;-)

If I were just now posting my list called "been there, done that" (april, 2005) i'd add "danced w/ Clay on a yacht in Galveston Bay."

I'd also be compelled to add some other very important things like "Worked in a Wienie Wagon", "Slept in the TAMU VP's house", "Had a Philly Cheesesteak in...Philly", "Dined with Disney Princesses", and "drank a Starbucks White Mocha in downtown Chicago". But all of that is old news by now, except for that yacht part. The weekend was much fun. In fact, we were starting to think about a St. Louis trip this summer since the ski trip thing didn't work, but now the fam has landed on a few days in Kemah followed by an Astros game. good times.

Band Update: Just found out a little while ago that each of the members in Abby's band has a "band name". Are you ready for this? She's "Thunder". Then there's "Lightening" (obviously), "Laser", "Clone", and "K-Slayer". And that's good, because now if that whole Disney audition falls through, they can try to bring back that show "American Gladiators." lim (laughing inside myself)

what does one WEAR to a wedding on a yacht?

I have this little website that details the number of hits my blog gets each day, and I noticed that Tuesdays are big for "because i can". I suppose I've set that expectation the last few weeks, but who wants to be so predictable? Besides that, London Josefys have publicly reprimanded me now twice for my lack of concern over their inability to keep up with America & "24". So what have we to talk about?

I could tell you that I've finished youth VBS '08 materials and am now working on an empty-nester unit called "Living 3:16 in a 9/11 World", but that might bore you.

I could tell ya' that I bought C a Cingular Blackjack for Vday, so he can check my blog from Wal Mart and such ;-) but that might cause you to covet. (You can get GREAT deals at www.wirefly.com if you're interested.)

I could tell you that I found out last night that A and 3 of her friends are in a band. That's right. "The Poppin' Girlfriends" and she and the other "lead singer/dancer" have already written 6 songs. And just the fact that A is a lead singer/dancer is entertaining enough bc...I've heard her sing, and, well, it's not her gift. They got together after school today to rehearse, but 2 of the members were distracted by other things. A said they just played, but "that's OK, because we have 5 years." Their end game is to audition for Disney when they reach the age of 12. Hey, that turned out to be a pretty good anecdote.

I could also tell you that our Sharon is getting married this Saturday on a yacht in Galveston Bay and that we get to be a part of it. But again...covetousness....

The ski trip is off for the kids and me. It got to be too much cost and too big of a hassle to make it work for only 2 days of skiing after it was cut short. The kids are fine with that, though, and C is going to fly back early so he can be at the bee. Did I mention that kids at school have offered him cold-hard cash to cough their names during the televised event...right before he spells a word. those 6th graders....M-I-S-C-H-I-E-V-O-U-S, i tell ya'.

I'm sorry I can't hear you. I'm deaf in my left ear.

Jack's dad puts the "fun" in dysfunctional, don't you think? Clay and I decided last night that he's even more villainous than Nina was. It's up for debate, I'm sure, but definitely...BAD DAD. And who would expect Chad Lowe to be such a conniving evil-doer? I don't think they cast that part well, bc - in my opinion - he doesn't really have the face for it.

Abby and I have been watching the "Little House on the Prairie" dvds from season 1. It's a little less heart-pounding, but it did shake her up last night to see Mr. Ingall's quarry worker friend blown to bits in an unfortunate accident involving dynamite. Graphic violence is everywhere, I tell ya'.

You might be wondering why I'm blogging instead of working, as I should be, right now. It's because the security guy is here to fix us up since we switched our phone over to Vonage. He's in the office (where I wish to be) working; this prevents me from doing the same. But my handy-dandy lap-top at least provides me with the diversion of web sudoku, email, and this here blog.

No big news on the kid-front...Brandon continues to enjoy his new celeb-status at school, saying "I got popular." And Abby, well she's just happy to have Heelys and a brother who can spell it.

I'm going to go now because I think I just went deaf in my left ear. I was walking right under the alarm-sounder-thingy when mr. security guy tested it. Burglars beware...

Bzzzzzzz....

Here's the Ellis County Spelling Bee '07 Champ! Among the words he had to spell were "sitzmark" (i don't know what that means, but he ripped it out like its a word he uses every day) and "magnanimous" and the winning words were "omnipotent" and "credenza". And, in the end, it was down to him and an 8th grader from Ennis. She knew omnipotent, but jumped out there with "o-m-i" and then backed up to respell it correctly. but you can't change letters. So if you're in the Dallas area on March 17, you can watch B on TV for the Dallas Morning News Regional Spelling Bee. He and I will have to come back early from our spring break ski trip to be there.

p.s. thank you to the "24" writers who obviously read my blog and made the necessary changes to give us what we've come to love and expect. the power of print...

:-)

FLIPPIN' SWEET

I think my favorite part of the marriage retreat was Saturday morning, before we left the house. Because Clay came into the kitchen and said, "You ready to go?" with cherry red lips. In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, his lips "hurt real bad." So he had grabbed some of A's Napoleon Dynamite "Flippin' Sweet Cherry" chapstick. Turns out, the stuff goes on more like lipstick, because he looked really, um...transvestite-ish. But I didn't know he had put on chapstick, so in my horror and confusion, I asked, "WHY are you wearing lipstick??" whew. that was a close one. Always, and I do mean ALWAYS look at your spouse before heading out to lead a conference. Because that could have been embarassing. He wiped it off (and kept on wiping, I might add, for at least an hour) and we all had a good laugh. Because, naturally, I shared that story with the whole group.

THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS REGARDING THE TELEVISION DRAMA, "24". READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
I've been somewhat disappointed in this season. Until now, Jack has balanced violence with the utmost integrity. :-) That sounds funny, but you know what I mean. All of a sudden, just 30 min. after saying "I can't do this anymore" he suffocated his brother with a plastic bag for no apparent good reason. Sure, with hindsight we now know that it was for a good reason, but at that point, Jack had no clue whether or not his dad or brother had any information at all about the nuclear explosion. And here we are 2 whole hours later still waiting for something 24-worthy to happen. I'm just not feeling as involved yet this season. Chloe's character has lost her chloe-ness, and although I am a fan of Morris, the goings on at CTU are mostly irrelevant so far. sigh. But in fairness, I guess that's why the show isn't called "6".

i'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

I just clicked on here today bc it's still in my favorites folder and enjoyed reading about myself. And I realized how much fun this page was for me and what a great diversion from real writing it had been. So I'm not promising anything, but you can check back from time to time if you want. Because I might have had something to say that you might find interesting. To get the blog rolling again, let's start with a list. because those are always a crowd-pleaser:

Things That Have Changed Since I Last Blogged:
* I no longer like to mow. But that's ok bc it's winter now.
* Middle school has been good. Except for one mean little bully, B is having the time of his life. He even won the middle school spelling bee and is heading to the county bee on the 13th. tapestried, if that's even a word, will NOT trip him up this year.
* A had a "boyfriend", but she broke up with him bc he made fun of Hannah Montana. the NERVE.
* Cl is the assistant coach of B's basketball team. It's very fun to watch this year bc they're pretty good. And last game Cl got a tech for saying "He pushed him in the back" about a boy on the other team who was trying to play rugby out there. The ref said, "no, he didn't" and Cl said "Yes, he did." TECHNICAL. so that's kind of a fun story.
* We're, along with the other staff couples, speaking at our marriage retreat this weekend. Cl and I have the topic, "Partnering Together in Ministry". bc we're pretty good pahdnuhs.
* For spring break we're all 4 going on the sr. ski trip to winter park, co. both kids are going to ski, so that should be fun to watch. that, along with a mission trip to Mexico, will be our family trips for '07.
* Cl actually got paid for his own writing assignment. The BGCT asked him to write a Super Summer session. He did. And it was very good!
* This morning, it snowed the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen in all my live-long days. They even made a big splat when they hit the ground. oh, and it's very cold and i'm ready for summertime.

ok, well i guess that's it. i'm going to click on my favorites folder again and see what other interesting things I can find before I get to work. Have a splendid day!