Two of the same

Before we went to Canada, I drug my family all around the mall looking for a new watch. The watch I wore before just quit and the glass was so scratched up that it wasn't worth putting a new battery in and replacing the glass. I couldn't find a watch I really liked enough to spend alot of money on, so I settled for a cheap $7 watch from Wal-Mart just to have one for our trip. Well, for my birthday Kelsie and Wayne gave me a present - a Fossil Watch box. I opened it knowing that it was a watch and since we had all been shopping together, I had a feeling they had a good idea about my "requirements" - numbers not dashes, a watch with the date, something with silver AND gold, easily adjustable, etc. When I opened it, I realized it is EXACTLY the same as the old one. They didn't realize it when they bought it. Once they got home and saw the old one, they knew it was the same but still decided to give it to me anyway. I was excited about the new watch - it's shiny, unscratched, and most importantly it's working. Also, I had to smile at the fact that my family knows me so well. I am spoiled! Here is the pic of the 2 watches side by side....

Mercy Me and Rangers

Saturday night, Mercy Me had a concert before the Texas Rangers game and so a group of us went to the concert and game. It was HOT but okay with a breeze - we had some cloud cover during the concert which made it bearable. The concert was good, they did their best songs. I wish I could say the same for the game - the Rangers were losing and we left a little early with the game tied. As we were walking out of the ballpark, we heard alot of cheering and were chastised by our daughter that we were missing the BEST part of the game. The Rangers did end up winning. Here are some pics to share. We had a great Sunday - be sure to read the Wedgworship Blog to get a neat story - you can get there from the ministry link Wedgworship Blog.

Ashton, Connor, Hailey, Morgan and Kelsie and Luke (he looks happy doesn't he?)
The other part of our group that didn't sit with us - they chose a shady spot away from our sunny spot - our priority was the view.Shauna and Craig.
Mercy Me on stage.
Hailey, Kelsie and Morgan. We were on the 3rd upper deck and Kelsie was a little freaked out about how high we were so they stood with her. She got over that once she got use to it.

Kelsie's First Day Pics

Here are our pics of Kelsie from the first day of school. Notice the pink rolling backpack. She was very precise in picking it out - thinking through taking her things back and forth to school. More later - exhausted tonight.

Quick Update

Kelsie did indeed start school on Tuesday. I took pics but haven't loaded them on my computer yet so maybe this weekend I will get them posted here - she is cute! Her first day of school was good, she loves her teacher which is a good sign of having a successful year. For those of you that don't know, Kelsie is going to a University Model School this year which means that she attends class on Tues. and Thurs. and works at home the other days. She gets all of her assignments and instruction from her teacher and we are just co-teachers to guide her through her work and reinforce what is being taught at school. She is taking Math, English, History, Science and Computers at school and will take Bible at home. Her first day at home was yesterday - we did okay. I was not as organized as I wanted to be so when she brought home all her parent packets on Tuesday, I was a little unprepared. Totally my fault and I will be spending some of my weekend making the front office a "base" for school. Container Store, here I come. Wayne takes care of doing the math before he goes to work and I take care of the other subjects. I would say for a first day, we did pretty well - it is definitely going to take some time to get into a routine that works for everyone but I think that is to be expected.

Finger update - Kelsie's finger is getting better with the meds the doc gave us Monday. It looks bad and I felt sorry for her last night b/c at church there was a back to school splash party and she couldn't go b/c the doc said no water, dirt, sand until after Friday. So, we both stayed home and I think she hated to miss it.

On a side note, I was happy that Yankee candle has Harvest candles for sale now (an annual Fall scent that I LOVE!). The Hallmark store at Hulen Mall had buy one and get one 1/2 off - how could I resist, it's my favorite!!! My house smelled so good last night - I LOVE FALL, can't wait!

Chef Boyardee in the Microwave

Chef Boyardee can be very dangerous just out of the microwave. Kelsie made some in the micro on Friday for lunch as she has done many times - she even took them to school last year and used the microwave at school. Anyway, as she was taking hers out of the micro some of it spilled out onto her finger and burned it. It was pink, swollen and very painful all of Friday. We called the docs office and did what they said with water, burn cream, neosporin and finally cold packs. By Saturday, it was blistered and still pink. By today it was purple and looked horrible so we went to the doctor. She has second degree burns and he said it would likely scar and/or tattoo. He gave us some antibiotic cream to prevent infection and said no swimming or getting it dirty (in other words, no playing outside) until at least Friday. Considering how bad it was, she has kept going - she wasn't about to miss Choir Camp this weekend or her slumber party. You will notice in the pictures that she has a yellow rag on her hand.....she pretty much stayed like that all weekend, I think it's the only way she could stand it. She has a few moments of "drama" but who could blame her? I can handle giving her a little extra attention and pampering after what her finger looks like. Well, first day in a new school tomorrow. Hope to post pictures tomorrow night so check back.

Two for One

You will get two postings in one today as I have 2 things to share but they are very separate things and I couldn't figure out a clever way to weave the two stories together.

Post #1:
A Musical Weekend
This weekend was filled with MUSIC. Kelsie had Choir Camp at Wedgwood to get a jump start on the Christmas Musical they are learning called "Christmas in Reverse." It was kind of a mini camp starting on Friday night and then meeting again on Saturday from 10 to 3. But, the conflict was that "High School Musical 2" premiered on the Disney Channel Friday night at 7 (while Choir Camp was going on). Thankfully we have the technology of a DVR and we recorded it to be played back a little later. Kelsie invited a few girlfriends to come over to watch and spend the night. So, we packed up 5 little girls after choir and headed to the house for a night of snacks, music, commentary about the movie, singing, dancing, screaming and pillow fights. The girls were hilarious and graciously let the old people (Wayne and me) watch the movie with them. They were good and went to sleep around 12:30 or 1 b/c they had to get up the next morning for the second day of choir camp. A fun filled weekend of music - Fabulous!

All 5 girls - sleeping bags? check, p.j.'s? check, snacks? check, drinks? check, friends? check - okay, ready to watch the MUCH anticipated High School Musical 2.

Kelsie, Christa and Brynn

Morgan and Lauren

Troy and Gabriella KISSED! The girls LOVED that and stood up, screamed which led to someone starting a pillow fight .....funny.

What have I gotten into here?

Finally settled down after watching HSM2, this is the NEW Hannah Montana episode. We agreed to record that and let them watch this short show to get quiet and ready to sleep. They all agreed to go to sleep afterward and they did....good girls.

Saturday morning...after a yummy breakfast of pancakes, the girls watched the musical parts and the kissing part of HSM2 again (as if last night wasn't enough). They are such posers.

Aren't they all adorable?

Pretending to be asleep on Saturday morning.....convincing?

Post #2:
Neighbors
On Saturday morning I noticed that instead of staying cool in the house, it kept getting warmer but the A/C was blowing air. Around 11, we figured out that it was definately not keeping the house cool as the temp was around 81 degrees even though it was set to 75. So, I called a well known company and they said they could be here between 3 and 6. That was good enough for me - did I really have a choice? So, even though my intention was to clean house, I got a little done and then left when the house got up to 86 degrees. Thankfully, we did not have a 100 degree day today so it never got warmer than 87 - but when you are vacuuming and cleaning, that is warm. So, the repairman came around 4 and explained after about 5 minutes of diagnostics that the compressor was out - the good news was that it's covered under warranty, the bad news - the labor is not covered and it would cost $843 AND they wouldn't be able to get a compressor until Monday. After he left, Wayne went down to our neighbor's house to ask his opinion. He is the service manager at J & S Air. He walked down and confirmed that the compressor was not working, he thought to check the plug and it ended up being faulty. He had a spare in his truck and within 30 minutes, our A/C was blowing cold air! We were so grateful - we had to ask him what the part would cost and what their normal service call would be - he finally told us so we could pay him - a minimal fee - especially compared to labor for a new compressor. We did call the other company back and ask them to refund the service call fee we paid since it was a VERY WRONG diagnosis - they agreed to do that so we were thankful for that as well. So, we thank God for His provision in our neighbor and that he was willing to come over and help us out on a Saturday evening. So, if you ever need anything - CALL THEM!!

Congratulations, Chris

Chris Shirley, our Christian Development Minister at Wedgwood, is changing jobs. He got a full-time job teaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Even with his new job, he will still be working part-time at Wedgwood doing staff development so we are happy that he and Isabel (and the rest of their family) aren't going anywhere. You know what they say - once a wedgie, always a wedgie. So since he isn't officially leaving, there was no need for a good bye reception. Instead, a few of his friends got together for a quaint dinner to honor his ministry and congratulate him on his new job. It was a surprise to him, he had no clue! We cooked dinner at the McLelland's house, a 4 course meal (china and crystal) complete with appetizer, salad, sorbet, steak with roasted potatoes, green beans and rolls. Of course, what kind of meal would it be without several desserts to choose from - DELICIOUS! It was a nice evening - we all had a great time visiting and laughing with each other and toasting Chris and Isabel for the great friends they are. We love you guys!!!

Me, Deana and Shauna doing last minute food prep.

Chris looking at Andrew - when we all yelled surprise, he thought it was a party for Andrew b/c he is leaving for college this week.

Totally surprised......for me?

DeGray State Park - Last Days of Vacation

As you can guess, the week at DeGray State Park in Arkansas flew by - on Thursday we got up and drove to Diamond Crater State Park. We thought it would be about a 30 minute drive and an hour later we arrived. We got there, rented the necessary equipment to dig for diamonds and watched a short demo from a Park Ranger telling us the proper procedures to look for diamonds in the dirt - literally. We found out a few things pretty quickly - #1. If you want to find a diamond, you have to be committed enough to stay for more than an hour - maybe even days. #2. There is a reason why there is a water playground on site - it's HOT!!!!! #3. I don't mind digging for diamonds but not sweating profusely for them - YUK! Seriously, it was a good/fun experience and Wayne and Rob did find us a spot in the shade, but it was just flat hot and about an hour of digging is all we could take. We found some jasper rocks and calcite (that looks like uncut diamond) but not diamonds. People evidentally do find diamonds, there had been several found the previous day and there was a guy we met that had dug such a huge hole - it took him 2 days to do it. WOW! Then, he had to look through all that dirt. It was pretty neat to have the rangers i.d. the pretty rocks we did find and Kelsie got even more for her collection. We decided to skip the water park and just spend our time driving back to lake to swim there. So, we made it back to the lake and found a beach place where we cooked out hotdogs for dinner - it was windy so it was an adventure getting the fire lit but we finally got it and it was a great evening outside, the kids playing. After that, we fished until it was way after dark. On Friday, we got up early and went out to the lake for the last morning- we had to check out by 11. Friday morning was so cool b/c we spotted a bald eagle. We tracked it in the boat and watched in for a long time - got pretty close to it as it was perched in a tree and we got pretty close to the shore to get a good look. Unfortunately, noone had a camera - bummer. It was really cool for the kids to see. We packed up and headed home - our vacation was so fun, I don't think any of us really wanted it to end but it did give us some refreshing to come back with renewed energy for a busy Fall.

One of the better "landscape" pictures taken on one of our morning walks.
Kelsie is ready to dig for diamonds.
The kids out in the field - will we ever find a diamond in all this dirt?
Kelsie and Wayne digging up our little shaded plot of dirt.
Kelsie using the water method to sort through all the gravel and dirt - once you shift it a certain way, the larger and heavier stones (hopefully a diamond) go to the bottom and the middle. You turn it over like a cake pan and sort through the stones in the middle.

Wayne kneeboarding - he did great and impressed the kids and the adults with his tricks.
We dropped all of our dinner fixins off so we could go out in the boat and have more space. Once we got back to our picnic spot, we had a visitor squirrel who was very interested in our hot dog buns. Luckily, he only ate 2 but he stalked us for a while knowing we had food.
Kelsie and Brock decided to set up a little camp of their own for the squirrel so he would leave our food alone. It was complete with Cheese Nips, bowls of water and club cracker snack sticks.
Tori enjoying some quiet time fishing at dusk.

The Robster manning the dogs.
Brock and Tori trying to take pics at sunset - Brock was so funny - this was the cute one.
Our last sunset cruise.

Brock and Kelsie dug this fish swimming pool on our beach for the fish we caught to be able to swim and then make their way through the canal to the lake. They had fun making it while Wayne, Rob and Tori fished and Donna and me sat in the boat listening to tunes and visiting. Such a peaceful and quiet night.

DeGray State Park - Vacation Days 2 & 3

Tuesday we started the day with Kelsie and Wayne going to breakfast early and then to go get the boat. I got a little later start but after a short walk on a close by trail, I met them at the dock to go out in the boat for the day. The Watsons joined us after their breakfast and we had a fun filled day of tubing, knee boarding, swimming and fishing. We found a little beach spot that was perfect for some to fish while others snorkeled and swam. After a full day on the water, we decided to go into town to eat at Cracker Barrel. Next door was Miller's Rock Shop and we all had fun shopping there - Kelsie bought a few rocks for her collection and the Watson girls picked up some pretty garnet necklaces. After dinner and a trip to Wal-Mart for some needed supplies, we headed back out to the marina for a sunset cruise around the lake. The water in our cove was so still, it really did look like glass. We headed back to the hotel for the kids to take a promised late night dip in the pool. They had a great time swimming and playing and we just relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the evening. Wednesday we started our day with a short trail hike and then a horseback ride. It was Kelsie's first time to ride a horse by herself - his name was Peanut and she LOVED it. After lunch, we went out on the lake a little longer and then back to the lodge for water balloon volleyball and some pool time for the kids. We decided since it was my birthday (35), we would go into Hot Springs for dinner and we ended up at the Fisherman's Wharf on the water - we ate outside, the food was delicious and we had a great time! What a good birthday spent with my family and good friends....God is good.

Kelsie in front of a flower bed on Wednesday morning before horseback riding.

Kelsie, the dragon slayer - this log was laying down and Kelsie thought the front of it looked like a dragon face and the back has sticks that made it look like a spikey tail. So, she sat on it pretending to be the dragon slayer. Good imagination..

Wednesdays horseback riding trail.

Kelsie and Peanut.

Tori on the tube - she was funny and did great.
Brock on the tube - he loved it except when he had to hold his breath b/c the water sprayed his face from the rope. He was just out there in his own world, singing and laughing. Cute.

Brock on the beach.
Wayne and Rob snorkeling to look at perch and other fishies that we couldn't catch.
Brock with his catch of the day.

Kelsie and one of her perch, she caught about 3 or 4 that day.

Our family before going to dinner on Wed. night.
Key Lime Pie Birthday "cake"
All of us after dinner.