Summer Tour of 2010

For my 25th birthday I asked my parents for luggage as my gift. I’ve never had my own set and it’s more difficult to borrow theirs when you no longer live under their roof. Plus, it felt very adult-like and let’s face it, I’m a legit adult now.

Another factor was that in the summer I tend to travel. Like a lot. And since the summer was quickly approaching, I knew there was no better time than now!

My parents hopped on it and shortly after my birthday, my mom and I found ourselves perusing the aisles of multiple suitcases late one Monday evening. We scored and came out with not one, but two sets of suitcases. I’ve never felt more accomplished.

I took one set home as our Florida trip was right around the corner and even though I wait until the last minute to pack, I thought staring at a suitcase sitting in my room would motivate me to press forward and not procrastinate. Unfortunately, that was not the case and I found myself scurrying around packing as usual, but thankfully, I work well under pressure. It’s the thought that a counts anyway, is it not? And hey, I wouldn’t be a true sanguine if I didn’t wait until the last minute to pack.

Florida was my first excursion of the summer. It was wonderful. As wonderful as camp can be.

But since this is the summer tour of 2010, I thought we’d chat about where exactly my pretty new suitcases will accompany me.

A week after Florida, I hopped in the car and headed to New Braunfels for a Girls Weekend to celebrate Raven’s 25th birthday. We hit up the Gristmill, Gruene Hall, and of course, the Guadalupe River. I was reminded why I hit up the river maybe once every ten years! It’s rough, it’s abnormally fast after a flood, and the water is freezing. We all came home with at least one battle wound. But, anything for that Raven girl. Love her!




This is what the river looks like on a daily basis. Crazy!


A week from today I’ll leave on a jet plane headed for Colorado. I couldn’t hide my excitement if you wanted me to! Originally, our summer vacation was going to be in Los Angeles mainly because I won tickets back in October to an LPL of my choice. Naturally I chose the one in California, but then when a few things didn’t work out, we re-routed to Colorado. Since our roots are there, it’s kind of habit. We’ll spend the first half of the week at a time share up in Breckenridge, then spend the rest of our time floating to see our family. And relaxing. We did this last year and it was heavenly. To say I’m looking forward to this vacation would be an understatement.

The resort we stay at. Ahhhh.

I'm so looking forward to some hiking again. How could you not when it's this gorgeous?



When I get back from Colorado I’ll be home a little over a week before heading to Galveston with our Middle School students. We normally take them to Student Life or Centrifuge, but this year we’ve decided to do a mission trip instead with them and are hooking up with Galveston Bible Church to be a part of Rebuilding Galveston. Our church has been doing this for about 2 years and it’s really neat. It’s amazing how much there is still left to do down there. Since I don’t get to spend much time with our middle school folks, I always look forward to this week with them. They may have a crazy side, but they’re fun and entertaining.



I literally come home for one day and then depart on yet another jet to Belize with our high school students. And although you may be thinking how awful it is that I’m having to suffer for the Lord in the Caribbean, think twice. While we would love to enjoy the white sandy beaches, we’ll be serving at a camp in the jungle with howler monkeys. Lord, help me! This trip is one I always look forward to as well, simply because of the unity that takes place, but it’s also a joy to see our students serve and grow. Don’t feel too sorry for me, though, because our last day is a free day and if I’m understanding correctly, we’re using it to go snorkeling.

This may be the picture you have of Belize. And while this is Belize...

This is more my view of it while I'm there. The jungle! Quite literally!


And that, my friends, concludes my summer tour of 2010. Now do you understand why luggage was of utmost importance? No gentle initiation, just full throttle travel, but that’s what luggage is for.

In all seriousness, though, I’ll obviously be sparse around blog world this summer, but if you think of me, a prayer would not be wasted on sustained energy and much more. There is no possible way I can do this in my own strength without getting burned. I so appreciate you peeps.

Over and out!

My Week In Review

Hello friends.

I should be packing a small weekend bag right now as I type since I'm headed out of town, yet again, tomorrow morning, but I've chosen to procrastinate and instead, document my week.

Time out.

Okay, back again. My BFF Joanna just called from Montana and we needed to finish chatting! Today is her 25th birthday and I want to state the obvious by saying that homechick lives TOO FAR AWAY from me. I miss her more than I miss Diet Coke and I'm going to need us to celebrate our birthdays again together ASAP! I think the world of that dear girl. She is beautiful, compassionate, hilarious, hard working, loving and a great prayer warrior. We're growing old together and we love it. We just chatted for about 20 minutes on how turning 25 is weird. Does anyone else feel that way? We can't pin it down on why, it just is. Happy Birthday, Joanna Montana! I love you!

For real now, back to my fun week.

It's started out Monday when I checked myself into a hotel. Oh yes, yes I most certainly did. I woke up Monday morning feeling the urge to retreat and followed through with myself! I'll have you know up front that I have never done that before. I'm not one who thrives on alone time. I am sanguine, after all. But I needed a mental break from life and quite honestly, needed to recharge. I love camp, but by the time I get back I've poured out so much, I have nothing left to give. Not even a friendly good morning. I was really looking forward to laying by a pool and reading, but when I pulled up to my hotel to find that it was more like a "motel" I quickly re-routed. (Meaning, the doors were all outside. There were no hallways. Nope, not wise for a girl who would be staying there alone!) I reserved another room at a different hotel, and then was so disappointed when, upon arrival, there was only an inside pool. Huge bummer!

Anyway, I ended up getting a mani and pedi, tooting around town, picking up Subway for dinner, watching The Bachelorette, working out, and then I got serious. After that I had some great reading, journaling and scripture time and that did not disappoint. Definitely necessary for my tired mind! I honestly didn't sleep to good that night, but I'm still glad I did it. I knew the Lord wanted me to get away with just Him and so I did. Believe me, more often than not I was tempted to call some of my besties up to have a slumber party, but I refrained. Next time I do this (and there will be a next time) I'll know better what to expect! And I'll definitely be getting an outside pool. I think that's one thing I love about singleness. I don't have to worry about a family or husband or dinner or babysitters! I can just go! Enjoy it, single ladies, who knows how much time we have left in this season!

Tuesday I headed straight to work and right into meetings! It was a busy day but flew by, which thrilled me because Tuesday night I started our Siesta Summer Ruth Bible study! I'm so excited to be doing this study for many, many reasons. Some include just my season in life, and the fact that it will keep me accountable during the busy summer. But, the Lord has blessed me with a really sweet and fun group of girls to do it with! I am the only single girl out of about 15 of us, but I feel like the Lord has dropped 14 mentors in my lap. Truly. I don't take one of them for granted! I woke up with such joy on Wednesday morning. I'm excited to see where this summer leads and what the Lord has in store!

Wednesday was by far the most fun! That morning I headed to the theater to see Toy Story 3 in 3D with the middle school students. They normally do their activities in the evening, but we went to the matinee since it's cheaper. It was so fun and the movie was adorable! I'm a fan of Toy Story in general so my happy meter was high! I worked after the movie then after work, we loaded our high school peeps in multiple cars and caravanned down to Minute Maid park to cheer on our Astros! We go every summer and it's one of my favorite nights, not really because I just love watching sports, but because I love being social. But, if I had to choose a sport, it would easily be baseball. I actually understand what's going on. Jen and I have a special saying for this sport that I don't feel would be appropriate to share on this here blog. Just know that it rhymes. ;)

This year we got the "all you can eat" tickets and pigged out. The boys were in ballpark heaven! I, however, was done after one hot dog and a box of popcorn. We had such a blast! And to top it off, we won! That alone was a miracle!

Here I am loving the baseball. Did you know as many times as I've been to a game, I've always wanted to take a picture on one of these and never have? It made my night. Well, that and the rest of our crazy fun pictures.

I love me some Mary! She's leaving me next year for Mary-Hardin Baylor. Isn't that so appropriate?

Michaela and Bethany!

Future roommies!

Craig Biggio and I. We go way back. Best buds.

We either just had a heart to heart, or I look like I'm about to plant one on him.

Real baseball men don't smile.

Bethany loves the boys!

Seriously, they were so sweet to chat it up with us!

I almost had the ball!

Some super cute freshman girls!

Some of our crew!

Cute girls! So fun!

We scored and got to sit behind Hunter Pence all night. He's nice looking. ;) And I'll have you know that as I was taking this picture, they were all making fun of me.

After the game I went home and crashed! It's exhausting working in student ministries during the summer. Especially attending all the fun activities! Ha! I hope you hear the sarcasm. I was pooped, and although it is exhausting, days like this are more just plain fun! To call my job fun is a blessing!

Today has been more normal! Back to work like a mad woman and then Bible study this evening. I really enjoyed the worship tonight. It was just what I needed! I enjoy days like this because it reminds me that there is a normal!

I hope you've all had a great week! Can you believe next week is already July? I'm in awe. Where is this summer going? Slow down!

As I said, I'm out for the weekend! Going to celebrate Raven's birthday and I couldn't be more thrilled to spend a weekend with some of my favorite girls.

Peace out, yo!

A Father's Day Letter from my Dad

*A Father's Day note from my dad. I loved it enough to post it! We had a great, relaxing Father's Day and hope you did, too. I'm blessed to have a dad that's in the details of my life. I love you, Dad!

I started this blog note for Lindsee last week anticipating Father’s day. I started writing this before I told her I was doing so for Father’s day and not knowing if she would even post it. So if you are reading this she decided to post it. It is Lindsee’s blog and I thought that maybe a bit of me would be interesting or semi-insightful as to how Lindsee has been affected based on a few thoughts about being her father.

1) Actually I am a father to three wonderful children. Lindsee has brothers on either side of her. That explains a bunch about Lindsee. (hopefully she will insert a picture showing her brothers) I love being a Dad. It is the hardest job I have ever had. You don’t get an operators manual with children. You figure it out as you go with the help of others. But still each child is unique. I don’t think I understood that completely until Lindsee’s younger brother arrived. Up until then I thought that children were all placed along a straight line. Then Kev came and all of a sudden there was more than one line. And the lines moved. Wait a minute, what is going on here? Fatherhood. I am still figuring it out with Lindsee’s mother (my wife), Kristy.

2) As a father, I don’t get girls. I am a boy so I get boys. My sister was eight years younger than me so I wasn’t very aware of her growing up because I was a boy and she couldn’t make sandwiches for me. I must now admit that I didn’t really get girls when I was dating. I thought I did but in hindsight I was a dork. They knew it but were kind. I have been happily married for 31 years. I have been hard to live with but my wife is kind. I still have to work at understanding because I am a boy. I don’t get the thing about clothes. Once I took Lindsee shopping for running shoes. We bought shoes, left the store and six months later I found the shoes in her closet in the box they were purchased in. When I asked why I was told that she would not wear them because they were ugly. Why did we buy them I asked? Because you just wanted to hurry and leave I was told. That would be a true statement because I don’t get why you would want to spend any more time than necessary buying shoes. This is something girls do. Please see the first sentence.

3) Having sons and daughters is a wild ride. Parts of it works as I understand it to and some does not (see previous paragraph). As I reflect I can see that I have raised my boys to be the ones that take care of things. I have raised Lindsee to take care of people. This was not that intentional an effort but it seems that it works out that way. I used to tell the boys that Lindsee was to be taken care of. She is my only daughter (which she reminds me of from time to time). But as I have watched them grow into adults I see things more completely. She is wonderful at caring for others and about others. She gives thoughtful gifts. She says thoughtful things. She is a teacher at heart. She will be a great mother. My boys are responsible men who own up and work hard. They work harder and more diligently than I. They understand what needs to be done and they do it. They will be good fathers someday. I say this because it allows me to rest better at night.

4) But, being a father doesn’t mean you sleep better as your children get older. Again, this is somewhere in the manual that I never got or doesn’t exist. When the kids were little we had little problems. Bumps, bruises, hurt feelings about not being able to stay at Jenny’s house overnight, needing to study more and so on. And I am the first one to acknowledge the blessings we have had in this area as others have suffered more with their children. I will often say that I am defined by my faith, my family and my friends. That’s 99% of who I am. As I have aged into my 50’s I find that those three items occupy a huge part of my free thought time. Obviously I have to work and do that as diligently as I am able. But that does not define who I am (although I get a kick out of the fact that the first thing that I ask someone I have met is “what do you do?”). My prayers are still for their safety, health and general well being but, the more important ones are how they live their lives, who they live with, how they impact those around them, how they make decisions, how they handle the decisions that they make and the list could go on. But it’s the big stuff that I won’t always be able to help with.

5) I always hope that they know that I love them unconditionally. There have been times when I have not liked something they have done (reference the running shoe paragraph). I had to correct them, chastise them, and spank them on occasion. But I have never stopped loving them. They have had me wrapped around their little fingers before they were born. There will not be a time on this Earth that I will not. I will understand love completely on the other side but on this side of eternity, I think it is as close as I can get.

I love being a dad. I recently wrote a song about being a dad and getting older. It’s called “This Old House”. I will try to get a recording up so you can hear it. I wrote it because it helps me understand where I am going and what I want to be. A man of Faith, a husband, a father and a friend. That would be a pretty good thing to be known as.

And on this Father’s day I want to simply say thank you to Kristy (who had the biggest part in making me a dad), Brien, Lindsee and Kevyn. I love you and always will.



On Father's Day this year at Red Fish Grill.

We miss you, Kev!



Love,
My Dad

"There's no such thing as perfect people..."

I never quite know how to jump back into blogging after a big trip, but I'm just going to add a few pictures, take a stab at it, and then put it out of my mind. Because the problem is, if I never blog about it, it's constantly whirling around in my head! So here's my stab at trying to sum up my incredible week in Florida.

Last week we had our annual Beach Week for our high school students. Every year we travel to Panama City Beach and this year did not disappoint. On top of an awesome trip, we did not see one lick of oil. Can I get an amen? Apparently they were seeing some tar balls roll in today, but the Lord spared us of that until we got back. Give Him some praise!

Our theme of the week was Biggest Loser and was based off of Matthew 10:39. Losing your life for His sake is so hard, but so sweet once you grasp it. And I think a lot of our students "got it" this week. We really honed in on pride versus humility which was challenging, yet so needed for our group as a whole. There are so many areas of pride that need to be broken down in each of our lives, so we just took it night by night. Humility isn't thinking less about yourself, but thinking about yourself less. Good stuff!

Because of finances, we had to choose between either bringing in a worship leader or speaker, and when a few of our speakers didn't work out, we decided to bring in one of our favorite worship leaders, Tom Edwards, leaving JJ and I as the speakers.

Y'all, I was so anxious for many, many reasons, but all I can say is the Lord is good! I don't know who prayed Tuesday evening when I taught, but they were FELT and so appreciated. The minute I got up to teach, all anxiety left and I just shared my heart which was losing your sin and leaving your fear of man behind, because that in itself is pride. I'm not saying it was the best ever, or that I'll do that the rest of my life, but He was so faithful. He certainly blessed my studies and obedience to share and He was exalted, glorified, and hearts were moved. Praise God and God alone! So, I can't say thank you enough to those of you who prayed. I'm forever grateful. JJ hit a few home runs himself and the students were focused and attentive, which is exactly what we prayed for!

Every minute of the week was perfect. This was truly my last hurrah with my senior girls and we ended with a bang! Not only was our time hanging out absolutely, side-splitting laughter hilarious, but our small group times topped any small group time we've ever had. The girls wanted to purge pride in the worst way, and the Lord showed up. We invited Him in condo 1710 and He so faithfully, like He always does, came.

We also enjoyed a little senioritis iron chef competition, laying on the beach, wading in the water, dancing (or at least attempting to), singing, balcony time (we spent more time there than anywhere else), Waffle House at 2 a.m., long smelly bus rides, tears and so much more.

As tiring as ministry can be sometimes, as much as I have to lean on the Lord for strength I don't have, as much as I come back completely drained in many ways, and as much as I have to die to myself to serve these sweet things (which is far from easy since I'm such a selfish human being), I always come back in awe that the Lord allows me to do this for a living. I'm truly not worthy or qualified, but I'm willing! Nope, not even the littlest bit perfect, but there's no such thing as a perfect person, and I think that we all learned that this week. Praise the Lord we're each being changed and sanctified by a perfect God!

I'm not a fan of heights! The 17th floor is beyond intimidating. Hence why my picture taking skills with my phone leave me looking like this. Pictures don't lie! I'm a scaredy cat!


Typical boys.

Matchy, matchy! Not planned, but cute.

Party time in the condo! Good, hilarious times.

Mmmmm...Ice Cream!

Basically one of my girls stole my camera for the evening leaving me with some very interesting shots. I think I was in the middle of dancing here. Or maybe throwing out my back.

A very pensive shot. But it totally fools you into thinking we were being all serious this night, when in fact we were being the complete opposite.

These girls constantly torture me. I'm going to assume it's out of love. ;)

I love this picture because something was apparently funny! I think we were actually preparing to scare the next group that came to our room. Sweet memories.

Beauty.

My girls. Plus Mark, who totally photo bombed our picture.

So we took another! I love them to pieces.

At this point the wind was getting out of control! Which means I need to warn you that these last pictures could potentially scare you. Let's just say the wind is not a friend to hair.

All of the Seniors plus their fearless leaders.

Some sweet sophomore girls!

Michaela and Dana!

What treasure these ladies are, and what faithful servants! Love them!

I love this woman. But I don not love my hair.

The annual leader picture.

We're a mess. And completely fail at taking jumping pictures!

High five mid air! Love it!

Smile, girls!

All in all, it was a wonderful week. One I will forever cherish and carry in my heart. I absolutely love camp! And quite frankly, this blog post didn't even scratch the surface of how amazing the week was! Thank you, Jesus!