The Love Shack

Remember that restaurant/hotel evaluator thing I did? Well I was surfing the net not too long ago and I decided to see what sort of treasures were waiting for some sucker who thought...hey, free hotel? free food? SIGN ME UP! Anyway, I noticed a new restaurant posting in Ft Worth for a place called The Love Shack by the Stockyards. Curiosity got me far enough to the restaurant's website, and I thought that it sounded like a very fun place. Not at all the usual evaluator spot...burgers, dogs, shakes, live music, movies, and all kinds of seemingly family-friendly type stuff. So I passed on the info to some friends with an open invitation to whoever wanted to go check it out. no evaluating this time; only fun.

And we did. Saturday night C and I went w/ some friends from church out to Ft. Worth and The Love Shack. The name should have been my first clue, and "Saturday night at the Stockyards" should have been my 2nd. But I'm all about makin' memories and having fun experiences, so I ignored reason. We got to the Stockyard area and I'm telling you, there were not many people there who would probably be in worship the next morning. Bikers and drunk cowboys everywhere. But we had come so far, so naturally, we forged ahead. Through the thick cloud of cigarette smoke we marched up to the counter at The Love Shack and ordered our burgers. C ordered the "Dirty Love Burger" and I had the "Love Meal," which included a drink and fries. We scored a table upstairs, which was a little bit of help, because down below (it was an open-air eating establishment) was the stage where some guy was singing country music and all sorts of raucous behavior was taking place. We could NOT have been more out of place. The guy singing was pretty good. I liked it when he sang that song, "You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille..." but most of his other lyrics were just plain embarrassing. And, it's never attractive for people to be drunk and dancing about with various partners, hoopin' and hollerin' (as they say in the wild west), but it is especially disturbing to see that sort of behavior from people who are in their 40's, 50's, and 60's. I hope I never have to see any of you acting that way.

All in all, though, I'd have to say it was a good time. Like I said, it's all about makin' memories. and exploring other cultures. :-) It did take me a little extra time to wash off all that culture, but hey...
"If you see a faded sign by the side of the road that says
15 miles to the... Love Shack! Love Shack yeah"

bizarro

Not too long ago I read an article about bizarre sports injuries, like a baseball player who was inactive for several games bc he sprained his hand by playing too much guitar hero. This morning, I had my own bizarre injury incident when I was having my quiet time. I was on my left side and leaning up on my left elbow in bed when I had to sneeze violently. The sneeze in that position apparently put undue strain on my back. Since then, I have had an awful pain under my left shoulder blade. Hope I'll be able to write tomorrow...or do you think LifeWay has an inactive list of their own???

from A

got this email from A today and thought you'd enjoy it too..happy Easter!



This is your Easter gift. Have a good time reading this.

Jesus is the reason we have Easter. He is the reason we celebrate. Without him where would we be? Try to think about how GOD died on the cross for our sins, and you'll know why we celebrate Easter. It is supposed to be fun, so have a good time, but while you hunt for eggs, think about GOD. Easter can make you more Happy. This is a great time to celebrate GOD and why he made our sins go away. He died on the cross, and rose again three days later. Just like Jonah and the whale. He got swallowed by a whale and got shot out three days later.I love thinking about it and you should too. It's fun to think about everything GOD does for us. He is the only thing you should put first in your life. So, if you like Easter than you should think about this FIRST. And you will have a great Easter. Happy Easter!

Love, A---

day 2

skiing today was WAY more fun than yesterday. maybe it was that whole first day thing and starting off so harried that made yesterday a pain in the backside. today we skied together as a family and had a blast. and let me just say that A HAULS down the mountain. I can't keep up w/ her and C, who is a really good skier, had to really go to keep up w/ her. she just points em straight and goes. she did crash and burn once...at the end of the run at the base. she was going so fast that she ran straight into the net and pole. it drew a crowd, but she was alright. tomorrow we're going to work on control and skiing side to side with her! B did great, too, but he is far more cautious & never ever out of control. he stayed on the mountain all day long and doesn't want to leave on friday. he looks like a ski bum, too. that's all for now!

money well spent?

so i'm in winter park, colorado right now. are you jealous? maybe not, if you're like me and feel that skiing is a most trying sport. seriously, yesterday we flew in and then drove a couple of hours to winter park. then we had to go get fitted for skis. this was aggravating bc b and a couldn't get their feet in the boots. we got that taken care of and went to eat dinner. but then this morning we had to eat and be all bundled up, lathered in sunscreen and chapstick, and ready to roll by 7:30 in the a.m. (that's mountain time.)we got our group situated with lift tickets, etc and then had to boogie the kids over to ski school. once again, couldn't get b's feet in the stinkin' boots bc they were pretty much frozen solid. after almost breaking his ankle, we did it though. got them properly enrolled and in place, and then got our own boots and skis on...o yeah wait...clay couldn't find his skis bc someone had apparently taken/moved them. found 'em 20 minutes later, and then we were standing in the terribly long lift line for at least 25 mins more. Now riding up the lift is, actually, wonderfully relaxing and beautiful, except for the part where i had to wonder if i would remember how to get off the thing w/out falling and getting clunked in the back of the head with the chair. i did remember, and had a nice time skiing down the mountain a couple of times before i was ready to call it a day. i'm a wimp. skiing is fun; i'm just saying it's way too much work. not sure the benefits outweigh the pain of the crowds and walking around in those dad-burned boots. the kids LOVED ski school and their trip down the mountain w/ dad after ski school, though. looking forward to more family fun tomorrow. :-/

one other fun thing...waiting forever for our luggage at baggage claim i tried a lil sociology experiment. there were people standing all around the oval conveyer belt thingy so i dropped a dollar on it and watched with interest. it made it half way around before some lady picked it up and handed it to a kid. many people looked at it pass and commented to their travel partners whether or not they should take it, but did not. next time i'm going to write "Thou shall not steal" on it or something clever like that. anyway, it was a dollar well spent. we all got a big kick out of the whole thing, and so did some other travelers who figured out that it was planted there by our group.

frittering away valuable time...

i don't like falling into a predictable pattern, but list-writing sure is a nice and easy way to blog. so you might wanna just get used to it :-)

*My fantasy basketball team was called, "Yaoza!" but now I've changed it to "Stress Fracture." No worries, though. 16 wins in a row & most of them blowouts makes basketball watching and my daily reading of the houston chronicle online very very fun!

*last night we had a true love waits ceremony at church. there were about 150 ppl there and i loved, loved, loved it. it's a double blessing ministering to youth and parenting one at the same time.

*the TAKS day was as boring as i had imagined it. 5 A.D.D. kids spiced it up a little for me, though. i got to read a book while i also ACTIVELY MONITORED the room. this monitoring was especially needed for one poor girl who literally could not focus for more than 10 minutes at a time. (raises hand and whispers after I walk over to her desk) "What time is it?" (raises hand again)"Can I go to the bathroom?" (raises hand again) "Are we going to have recess?" (raises hand again) "What happens if we don't finish?" (rha)"Can I go to the bathroom?" (rha)"How long til lunch?" ....you get the picture.

*it's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow. brrrrr.

*a couple of nights ago the electricity went out and it was very cold and WAY dark. it was fun to watch b's man-side leap into action as he began to gather and light candles. we played a board game bc the kids didn't want to tell ghost stories. :-) go figure.

* Have you heard the song, "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman? If not, you should go listen to it on i-tunes or something bc OH MY GOSH.

*i'm almost finished with a writing assignment. so why am i procrastinating here on this blog?

10

1.it is disconcerting when you look down and notice that the lady giving you your pedicure has a nasty toenail fungus.

2. family movie night last night...Karate Kid. Wax on, wax off!

3. B got 1st place in UIL spelling.

4. had to go to TAKS training last week bc i'm administering the test to 5 5th graders this Wednesday. I had no idea what SERIOUS business it is. I have a whole book full of rules I must promise to follow, twice. seriously, by the looks of these instructions, some teacher somewhere in Texas must have gone to great lengths to cheat.

5. i love warmth.

6. A has replaced her Sanjaya wallpaper (computer variety, that is) with David Archuleta. This, I think, is a much better choice. I had imagined, though, that the reason he didn't sing the first verse of "Imagine" was because he is a Christian. Sadly, I was wrong. Just read that sweet David is Mormon.

7. baseball season is upon us.

8. do you think our neighbors are getting tired of toilet paper blowing in their yards each weekend? tonight i'm going to station b outside in the shadows with the hose ready.

9. winter park, co in 2 weeks!

10. comment me.

catching up

1)I had a really good time at our annual ladies' retreat last weekend. My friend, whose identity I have sworn to protect from communists, taught me some important truths about grace. Another 3 friends led worship, and it was delightful. Also, I'm pretty sure our staff wives skit was fantastic. :-)

2)There has been much made about whether the show "24" or the show "Lost" is better. I am loyal, so I have not watched "Lost" in the past, scoffing at the notion that it could even come close. However, due to the writers' strike (yay, it's over!) C and I felt pressure to rent seasons 1-3 of "Lost," or go to bed tv-less. Anyway, I have grown to love "Lost" over the past couple of months, but it's Alias-weird. Which makes sense, since the same guy created both shows. So I must still cast my vote for "24," because I still think it's the best even though its long absence may cause my memory to deceive me.

3)A's basketball season is winding down, and we're thankful. She LOVES it, but it is difficult to sit in the stands. Her team's high point game is 7 and they are winless. A has been scoring, though, so at least we get to cheer a couple of times each game.

4)C and our personnel committee are getting ever-close to hiring a middle-school minister. this is exciting news.

5)I'm getting old. Have noticed gray hairs and am playing bunko once a month.

I think "Babe" is the operative word here

So did that last blog creep you out or are you just sitting there dumbfounded, feeling sorry for me? It's ok. If you ascribe to the literal account of creation (which I do), we're all related anyway.

Yesterday, it was hard to get B's head in the car to go to church. Our house had been toilet-papered, and not in the usual way. (Aside - Our house has been wrapped NUMEROUS times, but w/ increasing regularity since B got to middle school. The toilet paper is now more often a result of his social life than it is of C being a minister to youth.) Anyway, I noticed it out the window, and tried to open the front door to inspect the damage. But the door was tied shut with Valentine-hearted red string. I had to get scissors to cut my way out. There at the front door were gifts...a cute little Valentiney prickly mammal of some sort and a box of heart cookies. So we investigated further. The mailbox was similarly wrapped in red heart string. But the driveway was the most telling part. The entire thing was covered in chalk-writing...heart after heart and messages like, "I love you" and "Sexy Babe"??? WHAT??? It was signed, "Secret Admirer". Since C and I are married, and to each other, we figured the messages weren't for us. And A, well her friends go to bed before midnight, so we can cross them off the list. What we were left with is that someone went to great lengths to get the attention of our 12 year old son. And, in typical B fashion, he got in the car for church with a big grin and said, "I hate being this good-looking." :-0 Pray for me, people.

Inbred Mutant

i've been called a lot of things, but...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327070,00.html

Can I have a different spice, please?

There was no repeat champion of the Frank Seale Spelling Bee this year. B was ready to go. This morning he woke up and said in Nacho Libre voice, "I want to weiin!" He had studied, but sometimes it just doesn't go your way. He made it easily down to the final 10 of 35, and was smelling certain victory, right up until the point when the caller said to him, "cinnamon." My immediate thought was, "He knows this," since I had called that word out to him before and he spelled it correctly. But then my very next thought was, "OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" when he paused with uncertainty and then asked for...a definition? And then a sentence? With B, if the spelling isn't out there in 2.3 seconds, it's probably not coming out right. I think he froze. And as he was standing there frozen, in my head I was begging for there to be a great disturbance in which they would feel led to give him a new word. A new spice, even....oregano, cilantro, cumin. But there was no great disturbance, and out came an unsteady, "C-I-N-A-MMON." His dream of a rematch with Amy Cho and somebody named Patel will not come to fruition, until maybe next year!

josie...

email me. i need your current email address!

cchopkins@gmail.com

I don't even have to embellish this story

This weekend we had our annual Hi Def event for our students (your church probably calls this same event Disciple Now). Anyway, we did things differently this year, taking the whole crew out to Mt. Lebanon for the whole thing. This might have been brilliant if 1) it weren't painfully cold and 2) the cabin's heater worked better in the wee hours of the night and 3) the juniper trees weren't doing whatever they do to cause massive swelling of the sinus cavities, sneezing, sniffling, itchy & watery eyes, and even swelling of the FACE in one unfortunate middle-schooler's case. I brought B home Sat. evening in hopes that he might be able to breathe. Sadly for him, and me since he slept with me Sat. night, it didn't work.

Actually, we did have a great weekend overall. We had about 90 students and another 15-20 adults. We had some really good worship leaders and C taught the large group sessions based on Bill Hybel's Living Beyond Myself, and of course, the B-I-B-L-E. We were all challenged to serve one another. I'm not sure it took w/ B, though. In our post Hi-Def lunchtime conversation, his focus on the whole experience seemed to be late-night cabin activities such as mattress surfing and wrestling (the boys had made their own wrestling ring with about 10-15 mattresses. He is just in the 7th grade, though, so I guess that's pretty normal. I heard that he shared in the large group time this morning that he learned that God will call him to serve in ways that he'll like..."but if He calls me to serve in a beauty salon or something, I won't do that. I'll just wait for Him to call me to serve somewhere else." he may be small in stature, but he is a spiritual GIANT. :-)

But back to coldness. I'm watching the NYG/GB football game where it is -4 degrees. and there are people there who don't even have to play in the game. I can't fathom that, because it was 20-something degrees at Mt. Lebanon this weekend and I thought my ears might break right off.

Tutorial

It's funny how just 4 hours a week can seem so huge. I usually try to write a session of LifeWay curriculum each week, but I'm having trouble getting that done now that I'm tutoring 4-5th graders in math every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. I'm sure I'll get it down eventually...hopefully before the end of April, which is when my tutelage ends.

Every Monday and Wednesday I sail through the first 3 groups thinking, "I could do this again...I could go back to the classroom full time." Here's a for instance: my precious 4th graders somehow got on the topic of church as they entered the room yesterday. One boy asked another, "Have you been bath-tized?" And the next group follows them up each time with equal endearment. We're working on memorizing multiplication facts. I have discovered that none of them have bothered to do this in the past, causing much angst over math and certain failure on the TAKS. So we take timed tests. They're given a page of 25 problems covering one set of facts (they all started with the 3s) and 90 seconds (this is quite generous on my part) in which they must complete them all with 100% accuracy. When they pass that test, they get to move on to the 4s, and so on. I had given each of the kids their appropriate test and was about to start the stopwatch when one little girl said, "WAIT! I have one more important thing to do first, and it's called prayer." I smiled and said ok and the others and I watched as she bowed her head and spent a few moments asking God to help her pass the 6s. See what I mean? precious.

But then in walks my 4th and final group where I'm reminded loud and clear that this is not so much fun after all. It's a shame that this group must come last, leaving me greatly annoyed and even mean at the end of the day. Perhaps this is God's way of telling me that I'm doing exactly what He wants me to do right now. On the other hand, it could just be that there is no perfect job!

Gifting by the H's

We got ourselves some super cool Christmas gifts this year. Check out the awesomeness:

C got me a massage table and a hoodie (completely unrelated, in case you were wondering)
I got him a book called "Massage Basics" :-). That was mostly for grins, his real gift was a Home Depot gift card, with which he has since purchased -
one garage door keypad
one cooling system (like the misters at Six Flags) to go over the garage for more comfortable basketball playing and back porch for more comfortable summer sitting.

B got the Weider Total Body Works 5000, which is a neato resistance-based workout system thingy that the whole fam has already used

A got some good stuff, too, but hers are pretty much only to be enjoyed by herself. Unless you count the iPod she got, which has so far ended all car pestering and complaints.

now you comment me about your most favorite Christmas gift this year!

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. :-)