Summer 2011

We made it to Memphis on July 8 and celebrated the fourth of July on the 9th of July with my parents.  Better late than never right?  We left on Tuesday the 12th.  While we enjoyed visiting my parents, we did manage to find a little time to take the kids to Beale St. and shop at a crazy five and dime store and even met the Godfather of Blues, Clyde Hopkins.  We always buy a new blues CD when we go to Beale St. and when we walked into our favorite music store on Beale St, Clyde Hopkins was sitting there singing along with his CD.  We bought it, and he autographed it and I did have my picture made with him but on my camera phone.  We stopped by Dyers to have a coke and then decided to go back to my parents house where it was much cooler.

Since we have been home, I have been busy organizing, cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning.  I have also been tweaking our dinner menu for back to school.  I will miss sleeping in to at least 8:30 each morning.  5:30 is just too early!

We went over to our preacher's house for dinner the other night and they had baby kittens for the kids to see.  Anna fell in love with a female blond kitten.  She walked into the house holding it like a baby looking at  her daddy and me with her big brown eyes.  That is one of those moments that it is hard to be a parent.  I just reminded myself that I am allergic and kittens grow up.  Anna also attended cheer leading camp last week.  She had a good time and came home everyday teaching me the moves, cheers and the jumps (which really hurt......funny it didn't use to hurt when I did those jumps).  She received the Diamond award for having the best attitude all week and always doing what she was told.

Andrew has been working on his multiplication flash cards, creating things with his Legos, swimming, and playing  PAC man which his Uncle Matthew gave him.  He says he is ready for third grade but not for school to start.  He is past my shoulders now and his foot is almost as big as mine.  He had his two front baby teeth pulled at the dentist last Wednesday.  His adult teeth came in behind and his baby teeth were not budging.  When they were taken out, the root was still on both.  He did so good through the whole thing except for when he got sick on the way home.  Not fun.........poor kid.  He enjoyed the milk shakes, puddings, apple sauce and all the attention he got for the next 24 hours.  He took his tooth fairy money, along with the money he had left over from our trip and bought two beta's and a fish aquarium.  He loves having a pet again.

Alan was getting ready for football but canceled the season because he only had six players................and I will leave the rest to your imagination.

While the summer is drawing to a close, I reflect on all that I have seen and my family have seen, places we have been, movies we have watched, family time together.  These are sweet memories we are making.  It is time to go and learn more things, and make a difference in the lives of those we are in contact with everyday. May God's light shine through all of us this school year.

The cousins in their matching fourth of July dresses!

Anna and her Diamond award for cheer leading!

Trip South Day 4, 5........and So On!

I am not going to go into details as to why we are still in Alabama but I will say God decided our plans were not His.  We have helped Matthew and Andrea move into their really nice huge house.  Andrew and Anna have enjoyed getting acquainted with their new cousin Kate and playing with their cousin Rachel.  I have read, rehearsed and memorized songs for the Weatherford Peach Festival on Saturday if I am suppose to be back for that.  We have watched movies and I spend the mornings outside eating breakfast reading and listening to my MP3 player.  I have enjoyed holding my niece Kate and being with Rachel.

It is definitely a different culture than we are use to in Texas.  I have learned that some stereotypes are actually true about a place.  I just figured movies exaggerate things about places such as Alabama, and New York City but in some cases, they really do not exaggerate.

At some point we will go home......until then, we will just enjoy the laid back lifestyle of Alabama.

A Trip South Day 3

On Saturday, we were shown the school where Matthew and Andrea work and Rachel goes to school.  They took us to Craze where you get a flavor of frozen yogart in a cup and put what ever toppings you would like.  We also saw the parsonage house that Andrea and Matthew are moving into and then went over to the Frifth's new house for a cook out.  Andrew enjoyed playing with Rachel and Kate's cousins Nicholas and Grant and Anna just adored Allison.

Alan and Kate wearing her OU shirt.....Alan is covering up the OU.

Rachel and Anna having a fashion show at the Frith's house

The four cousins!

A Trip South Day 2

We drove down with the Johnson's to Panama City Beach for half a day.  This was Andrew and Anna's first time to any beach.  They loved every minute of it.  They stayed in the water forever catching the waves, laying in the shallow part to feel the sand leave their bodies under them, finding seashells and Anna and Rachel pretended to be mermaids.  There was a really nice outdoor shopping mall right there by the beach that we ate lunch at and the kids found souvenirs there as well. 

A Trip South Day 1

The past few years we make a summer trip to Memphis TN to see my parents.  My brother and family moved to Dothan, AL last summer so we extended our trip south to see them.  We left Weatherford about 8 am and got to Houston for lunch with Alan's Cousin and his wife at noon.  We then left there around 3:30 and got to Lake Charles to spend the night.  We ate sandwiches and the kids jumped in the pool with Alan and I went to work out in the exercise room at the hotel. 

We left the hotel at 5:30 AM the next morning and headed to Alabama.  We arrived at the Johnsons at 4.  That was a long drive.  Here is a recap of our day.

Summer Fun

I won a weekend for two in Dallas at a dinner I went to that was put on by the travel company we used for the New York City trip.  So we sent the Kids to Midland and Alan and I stayed two nights in Dallas.  We had a free dinner at Dallas Fish Market, our bill was $103.  I am so glad it was covered.  We also had tickets to the 6th Floor museum.  Alan and I love history and we really enjoy learning more about the JFK Assination.  After lunch we went to the Dallas Museum of Art and then Medieval Times.  All of their food is gluten free except for the bread and the pastry.  They brought me an Italian Ice for dessert.  It was a nice get away and a great way to celebrate our 14th Wedding Anniversary for practically nothing.  I left for New York the following Wednesday and the kids came home to Alan on the same day.

The kids have gone to "It's a Kings Thing" at our church on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have gone swimming everyday, and gone to the library and even spent some times with friends.

Garage Sale!

A Trip to New York

I had the amazing opportunity to go to New York City with the Mineral Wells High School choir where I work.  We saw many things, Union Station, Empire State building, Macy's, Time Square (and I had a gluten free cheese cake from Juniors! YUM) Museum of Natural History, Central Park, West Side, Statue of Liberty, China Town, World Trade Center Site (New Yorkers do not like it called ground zero) Saint Paul's Church, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Intrepid Space Museum (where we had our first concert), The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine (our formal concert), Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, Rockefeller Center, NBC Studios, Radio City Music Hall, FAO Schwarts, Trump Tower, and more.

Many people have asked me what my favorite thing in New York was.........I truly enjoyed everything except China Town.  I tell those who ask, I have a couple of  favorite moments.  My first favorite moment was when we were at our first Broadway show "Wicked," and I noticed the look on our students' faces.........it was priceless.  Most of our students would not get an opportunity like this and just the fact that some were actually on this trip and experiencing everything we had made me tear up.  The other moment was when I was directing the High School choir at the largest Gothic cathedral church in the world.  The acoustics were amazing.  We performed the song Festival Gloria.  Very fast in places and very slow and majestic in other places.  The last page of the song crescendos to a fortissimo (very loud) and is fast and when they held the last note and ended, the sound of their last note continued for 7 seconds, the kids and I just stared at each other in astonishment and we even smiled and enjoyed that moment as long as we could.  The rest of the concert was great but nothing will top that song.