30 October 2008

Juicy Hand

We did our duty today and headed to Granbury to vote!  We missed a big crowd by minutes!  I’m so glad.  All in all it took us about 5 minutes.  Not too bad!!  I’m glad I could avoid the big voting day crowds!!
On the way home Brennan wanted to hold Karis’ hand.  I was shocked by this because they seem to always fight like cats and dogs, those two!  I thought he was asking me to hold his hand, but I look back and was reaching for Karis.  It just happened to be the hand that his sucking finger is on!! =)  She gives in (after a little persuading) took hold Brennan’s hand, he wipes his finger off and reaches for Karis.  She grabs his hands and then says “Mennan (that’s Karis’ way of saying Brennan) your hand is juicy!!
I had a good giggle over that one which only caused Karis to do it over and over and over again!!  Ha!  Silly girl!
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Posted by at October 30, 2008 No comments:
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29 October 2008

Love or Something More?


Brennan is quite the car enthusiast.  It’s actually getting a little ridiculous!!
He received a new car this weekend (thanks Mr. Tom) while in San Antonio.  We had put it in the back of the van and forgotten about it until last night.  I pulled it out and gave it to Brennan RIGHT before bed time....can you say “big mistake!”
He asked for it first thing this morning and has wanted to eat, sleep and play all while holding this car!!  We had a little go around at nap time because he wanted the car to go to bed with him.  I did not give in and he was quite angry.  I just have visions of him rolling over on top of it and poking his eye out or something!!
I’m assuming, hoping, wishing, anticipating that the newness will wear off.  We shall see if that actually happens!!  I don’t know if I can take much more whining, grumbling and bellyaching!  Ha!
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Posted by at October 29, 2008 No comments:
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27 October 2008

Sea World

Such a magical place!!  I've only been to SeaWorld once before, but every Summer I enjoyed my very own sea world when we went fishing in Homer, Alaska (In case you didn't know, I grew up in Alaska).  I have such fond memories of going halibut fishing.  We would get up early in the morning and get out on the water.  It might take us an hour to boat to where we were going to fish.  We would drop our lines and wait for the halibut to bite.  Some days we brought those things up left and right.  Other days, we might sit there for hours with hardly a nibble on the line.  In those minutes I would enjoy the beauty around me.  I still remember one instance when I was sitting on the front of the boat, all by myself (everyone else was in the back of the boat) with my line in the water.  I was looking out over the water and enjoying the view when all of the sudden a whale burst up out of the water and landed with a big splash!  It happened so fast that I didn't even have a chance to tell anyone.  I have carried that memory with me.  Since early on in those years of fishing I have always had a love for wildlife and sea life in particular.



I've been mentally planning this trip for months.  Our good friends, the Bolanders that have been good friends with my parents since before I was born, live there and the plan was to go with my parents and spend some time with them and take the kids to SeaWorld.  Then this Summer Jerry's brother and his wife, Kenny & De moved down there and looked forward to spending that time with them as well.  We had a fast and furious trip and enjoyed some great time with family and friends.

Because of the time of the shows the first one we went to was "Believe" the Shamu Show.  




Karis.....cried through the whole thing.  She was freaked out!!  But, I had Brennan & Reegan on my lap and they had a great time!!!  Can I just admit....I actually cried through almost the whole performance!  I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, but like I said...I just LOVE these gentle creatures.  If I had a chance, I would LOVE to work with sea life!!  Whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, whatever.  I'd do it in a heartbeat!!  Ok, maybe not sharks or stingrays.  I leave those for someone else!  Ha!

The other two shows that we saw were the dolphin show....a lot of divers and acrobatics and not so much dolphins.  I was a little disappointed in that show.  The diving and acrobatics were great, but that is not what I went to see.  I went to watch the dolphins!!!  


The last was the sea lion show.  Good, but still not as great as the "Believe" show, but still had a lot more of the sea lions involved in the show!!


It was a great trip and if we lived close by I would be going ALL the time!!
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Posted by at October 27, 2008 No comments:
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18 October 2008

Mama, She's Prayin'."

 We have the “The Beginner Bible” that we read each night before going to bed.  Throughout the day they will grab it off the table and flip through the pages and look at the pictures.
This morning Brennan sat down next to me, opened it up and saw a little girl and says “Mama, she prayin’.”
To know that at 2 years old my son already recognizes the act of prayer is very special to my heart!!
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Posted by at October 18, 2008 No comments:
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15 October 2008

FrAzZlEd FeMaLe

 Last summer at our annual meeting in Greece for the colleagues in our region of Central and Eastern Europe we had a Lifeway representative come with a variety of books, studies and Bibles.  I was perusing the selection when a particular study jumped out at me. “The Frazzled Female” by Cyndi Wood.  It took me a few months to open the cover and finally get started on the study....umm, like 10 months!!!  Oh how I wish I had opened it sooner!!!  Once I did I KNEW I had found an incredible study.  Every time I opened it up God spoke to my heart!  Check out Cyndi’s site.  It’s really neat! 
There is even Frazzled Gear!!  I’m liking those “Frazzled?” t-shirts!!  I need to get me one!!
I think I will be doing this study again as well as reading every other book and study that she has done!!
I even told a friend the other day that this is the first time I had even considered sending a note to an author to tell them how much their book encouraged and challenged me in my walk with Christ.  I’ve done some great studies, but this sure stirred something in me!!

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Posted by at October 15, 2008 No comments:
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14 October 2008

"Hokin' and a Pokin' "

Think back to 1997. That’s the year that the movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding” came out!!!  I remember watching it on video and right as you think the movie is about to begin comes on the song Wishing and Hopingwith a bride and 3 bridesmaids singing this song as they prepare for the wedding.  When I first saw it I kept thinking “What IS this?”  And I cracked up through the whole thing.  It is absolutely silly and I just love it!! 
A while back I got the song off ITunes and put it on my IPod.  As I was getting ready this morning and listening to one of my playlists the song came on.  As we are getting out of the van to go to church I hear Karis start singing “Hokin’ and a Pokin’.” right to the tune.  She just kept singing that over and over all day long.  It just cracked me up.  So, it is no longer called “Wishing and Hoping” in our house, but “Hokin’ and Pokin’!”  Ha!
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Posted by at October 14, 2008 No comments:
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13 October 2008

"YOU are the maker!"


 At the end of dinner, a conversation with Karis went like this.

“Mama, you are the maker.” (I guess she was talking about dinner?)
I laughed a little and said “Well really, God is the maker.”

Again she says “Mama, YOU are the maker.”

I said “God is the maker, but He does help me to make things.”

Karis finishes by saying “Mama, you so silly.  You can be the maker too!”

Silly girl!
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Posted by at October 13, 2008 No comments:
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12 October 2008

Home

It’s always fun to go to these missions conferences.  We always have a great time, meet great people and make some new friends (look at our ministry blog for more).  But it’s always nice to come home too.  Especially when there are 3 littles that run to the door and knock you over with their hugs and kisses!!

We have had a lot of discussions about “home” with Karis.  Since we have returned to the States, she has continued to ask when we are going home....to Prague.  We would talk about it and ask why she wanted to go home.  It always came to her wanting to play with a blue ball she has in Prague, of all things!! =)

Recently we have switched to saying that wherever we are as a family is home and that our true home is in heaven.  Makes for some great discussions!!  But isn’t it so true?!  Prague is where some of our things are, but we also have some things in Fort Worth too.  Really, we don’t have a home on this earth and as a family I find it important to continue in talking about heaven as our true home and not making a home on earth.  With our type of ministry we never know where we may end up!  Our organization is in the middle of a reorg which may take us somewhere else, and although we do not know where that may be, and are very anxious to find out, we have a peace that God will put us right where He wants us!!

We’ve been trying to prepare Karis for the possibility of a new location (temporary home on earth) and I think she is ok with the idea, especially since we’ve been talking about our home being our family is together and our forever home in heaven.  Prayers for what lie ahead for our organization and specifically our family would be greatly appreciated!!
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Posted by at October 12, 2008 No comments:
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11 October 2008

Skene Festival

 We wanted to give you a little glimpse of what we do at Southwestern Seminary.  This week the Seminary is having a focus on East Asia.  Each semester they feature an area of the world.  They bring in colleagues that work in that part of the world, they set up booths, speak in classes and chapel, have tea for the seminary ladies, and to kick off the week they had the Skene Festival....which was a camp out on the lawn.  There were about 30 people that slept on the lawn on Friday evening.  We went out for the evening festivities, but came back home to sleep away from the bugs and humidity!! =)

We have really enjoyed the last 9 months talking to students about our lives overseas and getting to know some of those headed to our area of the world.  We’ve made some good friends while we have been here!!  What a blessing!!
We’ll be writing more in the very near future as we have some big changes coming our way when we head back to the field.  We will save that for another post though!

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Posted by at October 11, 2008 No comments:

10 October 2008

Louisiana Conference

Saturday Jerry & I left the kids behind with the grandparents and made our way to West Monroe, LA for a conference put on by Mt Vernon BC, Cedar Crest BC, FBC Calhoun & FBC Bastrop.  There were about 10-12 units (a unit is a couple or a single person) that participated.
We started out speaking on Sunday morning at Mt Vernon BC.  We spoke in the children’s, youth & one of the adult Bible Study classes and then split the service time with another unit telling about what God is doing in our areas of ministry.
Sunday - Wednesday we were at one of the four churches where each unit set up a table to share about our work.  It allows people to walk by and get a visual of what we do and have a chance to talk to us personally about our work.
We always seem to come away from these trips having made some great contacts and new friends in the process.  We spent a lot of time over meals and bus rides talking about our work and just life in general.  It was a great time!!
We are now back in Fort Worth and getting into the groove of every day life and spending time at the seminary campus.
We still have not heard anything firm about our position with our organization.  We will be sure to update as we receive details.
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Posted by at October 10, 2008 No comments:

04 October 2008

Three years ago....

....on this day, we brought home a beautiful, five and a half month old baby girl from an orphanage in As, Czech Republic.  We met her just 4 days prior to bringing her home and our lives have never been the same since.
It’s amazing to think back on that day 3 years ago and to see how our lives have changed in the course of that time.
Happy Gotcha Day our sweet girl!!  We thank the Lord for giving us you!!

Outside the orphanage in As, Czech Republic on our Gotcha Day!
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03 October 2008

Dallas Arboretum



 I had to look up the word “arboretum,” because all I knew of it was the name used in Dallas.  An arboretum is a collection of trees. More commonly today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of primarily woody plants. 
So there ya go in case you were wondering what an arboretum was!
As I have talked before I have been so excited for Fall to begin!  I just LOVE the atmosphere that comes with Fall.  I’ve been researching local pumpkin patches and in my searching found that the Dallas Arboretum has this pumpkin house (pictured above), a hay maze, and pumpkin lined pathways.  It was fun!!  We met up with our friends & colleagues, Julie and her boys who are also in the States right now.
We took SO many pictures and I got so frustrated because I wanted that perfect picture!!  I just knew I didn’t get one good one.  Well, if you take a look we got some really good pictures.  I am much more happy with them than I ever thought I would be.

 





So, one Fall activity down and a few more to go!!
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Posted by at October 03, 2008 No comments:
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02 October 2008

Fortunes


The other day I had my last check up for my lasik eye surgery that I had in June.  So glad that drive is over, except Jerry had to have his eyes done at two different times, so he has a few more drives over to Plano from Fort Worth (over an hours drive one way, longer in traffic).  I digress..
On my way home I thought I would have lunch on my own at Panda Express.  It’s quite the exciting thing to eat on your own and eat WHILE IT’S HOT!!!  Ha!
They were selling containers of 8 fortune cookies, so I got one and thought it would be fun for the kids.  Above are the fortunes that were in each of the kid’s first cookies.  I about cracked up!! Brennan & Karis’ are dead on to their personalities!!  Reegan isn’t using words much yet to express herself, so maybe that does say something about her fortune.  Ha!
Just one of those fun things to do, not that I put much stock in fortune cookies!! =)
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Posted by at October 02, 2008 No comments:
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Deeper

  Deeper - adj. 1. extending or situated relatively far down from a surface: a deep pool. It's been a long time since I've ...