Mission Trip

I could not be more proud of my girl, Hannah. She has chosen to spend her spring break on a mission trip to Knoxville, TN. At this writing, she didn't have best friends going on the trip, but was still brave enough to sign up anyway. I have a feeling she will come home with some best friends, though.

Saturday morning I loaded her in one of two church vans headed for Tennessee. I have to tell you what an unnerving feeling this is. I don't have a problem with her being away from home. She has been going to summer camp since 1st grade. This is the first time I have put her in a vehicle and sent her across the country. At camp, I take her, get her bunk all set up and know exactly where she is. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in prayer on Saturday!

Luckily, the kids were allowed to have their phones and electronics for the car ride. I heard from Hannah Sunday morning. Due to traffic and construction they did not arrive in Nashville, their first destination, until after midnight only to find out the hotel had given away their rooms. They finally settled into another hotel across town at 1:45 a.m. I'm equally thankful that I was not the adult driving that van as I am grateful that they arrived safely.

Today is the first day on the job site. I'm told they are working on houses: light repairs, painting, yard work, etc. I can't wait to hear all about this trip from Hannah's perspective. These types of mission trips weren't made available to me when i was growing up.

Hannah told me this wasn't a "real mission trip" because they were only working on houses and not walking around telling people about Jesus. I didn't argue this point with her, but I am excited for her to connect the dots this week. Those kids and workers are the face of Jesus this week giving their time and resources to help others. And, I suspect, some Jesus conversations will take place.

Bullet Blogging

It has been so long since I have blogged that I wasn't sure how I could ever possible get caught up. Until I read a friend's blog and she did bullet blogging! Sounds good to me!

• Today is Ellie Grace's 9th birthday! I keep telling her not to grow and she keeps disobeying me! How is this possible that my baby is 9??!!
• Abby is a munchkin in Union High School's Wizard of Oz. It has been keeping us more than busy, but the debut performance is tomorrow night. I'm so proud of her!
• Hannah has not only adjusted to Cascia Hall, she is thriving and loving it. So glad we made the decision to move her.
• Daniel has been a traveling fool with his job, but is enjoying his work.
• All three girls are taking guitar. Ellie Grace got drums for Christmas.
• It's not very quiet at my house.
• Santa brought Abby a Westie puppy for Christmas. I feel like I have a newborn again. It's exhausting.
• Ellie Grace is playing basketball. It's so fun to watch this shy little girl come to life when she holds the ball. It's crazy how aggressive she can be. She loves it.
• I ran the Disney World Half Marathon in January, benefiting The Scott Carter Foundation.

I think these are most of the main highlights in my life lately. Hopefully I can get back to regular blogging. That is...if anyone is still reading.

Life Is Sweet in Sugar Land

This past weekend we went for a quick trip to Sugar Land. It was the first time all of us had gone back together since the move. Our first stop: Lupe Tortilla, our favorite Mexican restaurant. We have MISSED this place!!!

Next we drove by our old house and visited our friends Pam and Tyler. Tyler didn't want me to take a picture, but I tried.

Abby spent 2 nights with her dear friend Megan. Megan's Mom was so sweet to include another friend, Kyla, in the playdates. Abby had such a wonderful time.

Ellie Grace stayed with us at the hotel, but got two very special play dates with Brooke and Sophie.

Hannah stayed with her very best friend, Katherine.

These two were inseparable when we lived here. It just so happens that Katherine's Mom grew up in Tulsa and her parents still live here. It's a lucky coincidence that we get to see them at least once a year! Alice was so sweet and had a cookout/swim party so we were able to see some more people. The kids had a great time.

I hung out mostly with Lazy Mom Leslie,

but we did manage to meet up with some friends for lunch.This is me with my friend, Melanie.

A funny story here. When I was uploading my pictures on my new Apple computer it had me label faces. Those of you with Apples know what I'm talking about. You label people's faces so that you can sort by say, pictures with Hannah or pictures with Abby. Well, it starts to recognize faces and ask you, "is this Hannah?" When I was tagging this picture it asked if Melanie was Hannah. A little while later I went to workout with my trainer. She said she had just seen my pictures on facebook. She said, "there's one picture of you with a girl that looks like she could be your sister." We pulled up the pics and she was referring to Melanie. Too funny!!

I also got to sneak in a lunch with my Aunt Raini and crew. Of course we ate at yet ANOTHER Mexican restaurant. They were afraid I might be getting tired of Mexican food, but seriously??? NO WAY!!!

Ever Wonder What God Is Trying To Teach You??

I do! I definitely think this year my family's health has either been under attack (i.e. Job) or God is trying to teach me something.

This actually started the week of Christmas. I received one of those phone calls that will stop you in your tracks. My mammogram came back abnormal. For some you, this might not be shocking, but we have NO history of breast cancer in my family. None. Zilch. Neither of my sisters or Mom have ever even been called back on a mammogram.

I had an appointment at the hospital the day before Christmas Eve. Not a very fun start to the holiday. After another bad mammogram there, they performed an ultrasound. All I was told was, "looks benign. Come back in 6 months to re-check."

Well, this didn't settle real well with me, my mom, or my doctor. My doctor made me an appointment with a breast surgeon, just to be safe. We were leaving for a ski trip the day after Christmas so the appointment would be when we returned. As much fun as we had on our trip, it seemed as if a big cloud loomed over the week. But, it was finally determined by the breast surgeon to, in fact, be benign. Whew!

The same day I was called about the bad mammogram, I must have been a nervous wreck because I sliced my finger opening a can of soup. Thanks to a good friend for stitching me up. That little finger caused me some havoc for several weeks.

Three weeks ago I woke hope with a horrible case of hives. I mean horrible I'm not going to post a picture of my face, but my lips were swollen, eyelids swollen over, etc. I looked like I had bad plastic surgery. I have never had an allergic reaction to anything! Ever! My friend, Gayle, drove me to the urgent care and I'm so glad she did. They gave me a steroid shot. When I got to the parking lot I started feeling lightheaded and before Gayle could get to me I fainted. Are you believing this story? Crazy! And of course Daniel was out of town. We never really figured out what was causing the hives, but the best guess was an allergic reaction to an antibiotic I was

taking. I probably need to go for allergy testing because every so often, like this morning, they reappear very mildly.

As if all of this isn't enough, I received a phone call from a mom on Hannah's gymnastics team. "Amanda, I don't want to alarm you, but Hannah has fallen. They have her stabilized and I can see that she is wiggling her toes." This is not a phone call any mom wants to receive. Ever! Hannah had fallen on her back. They wanted to call an ambulance, but I knew that would scare her so I raced out to get her. (yep, Daniel out of town for this one too!) Luckily, her x-rays came back perfect. I am so so thankful for that, but a few weeks later and she is still hurting so we are headed to an orthopedist this morning to have her checked out.

And finally, last night at her gymnastics class, Ellie Grace hurt her wrist. Honestly, I almost didn't even take her to the doctor. It was swollen, but she could move it so I didn't think it was broken. (Mother of the year here) But, I decided better safe than sorry, and sure enough, broken wrist. It is so swollen that they were not able to put a hard cast on it yet. Instead she has a soft cast. The doctor asked if I had an orthopedist. Well, conveniently I do and I will be there tomorrow. She sent me with the x-rays and I will talk to him this morning while I am there with Hannah.

Again, I'm not sure if I'm under attack or being pruned for His glory. But, evidently I'm a slow learner! Whether or not this is the point, I have learned not to take good health for granted. I have learned that life can change with one heart stopping phone call. And, I have learned that even though we think we are in control, we really have none.

Gymnastics Regionals

I had a GREAT weekend LAST weekend with Hannah in Fort Worth at her gymnastics regionals. Her big goal for the weekend was to make the Top Ten in at least one event. She has only been to regionals once and the closest she got was number 11. The Top Ten get awards on stage at the end of each session and so this was the ultimate goal.

She brought her friend, Morgan, from school. We had a great weekend. It started with waking up at 3 a.m. to watch the Royal Wedding. Oh yes we did!!! And after a 2 hour gymnastics practice you would think we would be ready for a nap, but instead we headed to Six Flags. I was exhausted, but the girls had a great time.

Hannah did great in 2 of her events. In her best event, trampoline, she had a major error at the very end of her routine. We calculated what her score would have been without the deduction, and she would have gotten 3rd place overall. (there were 5 states represented at this meet!) Amazingly, Hannah still got 10th place overall. This tells you how good she is on tramp that she can mess up and still make Top Ten. She was disappointed, but overall very happy with the whole weekend. She not only made the Top Ten in tramp, but in her other 2 events as well. (one 6th place and one 3rd place!)

It was a GREAT weekend!

Moving Up

Today is 6th grade orientation at the 6th and 7th grade center. Hannah was so stinking excited she could hardly sleep! She got to ride the bus and everything!! I wish I was a fly on the wall. She will be there all day and experience Locker 101, Cafeteria Drills and tour the school. Big times for my big girl!

Lunch With My Girls

I've asked every day this week to have lunch with the girls. Every day it's a no. I'm dying to be a fly on the wall in their new school, so I "surprised" them! I figured if I came with fast food it was ease the embarrassment!

There's a special table for parents and the kids can invite 2 friends to join them at this special table. Here is EG and her friends:

Here is Abby with her friends:

I didn't dare press my luck by taking a picture of Hannah!

Doesn't Slumber Mean Sleep?

We are on the final countdown of our time in Sugar Land. We have exactly one week left. Things are starting to happen. Pictures are off the wall, drapes are down and folded and it's starting to look bare.

Tonight I let the girls each pick one friend to have sleepover for the last time. Aren't they all so cute???

We had pizza and ice cream sundaes and I even bought The Princess and The Frog in hopes that will keep them quiet. Do you think we will get any sleep tonight? We are totally outnumbered!!!

The Boy Next Door

Tonight after dinner we took a trip to the bookstore. The girls wanted to spend their allowance on books, which was fine by me. Hannah was looking for a certain "tween" series. When she found what she was looking for, the book she picked was "The Boy Next Door"! (don't worry, it was age appropriate!)

When did my little girl start reading books about boys? I feel like she was just in diapers and pigtails. But, now, she cares about how her hair looks for school, wants to wear certain brands of clothing, and doesn't want me to kiss her goodbye at school.

Get me off this crazy thing!!!

Honor Choir

Tonight I was a proud Mom! Hannah performed in the FBISD Honor Choir at Clements High School. In early December she came home and told me that she wanted to try out for this choir. She would have to sing A Capella in front of the whole 5th grade and also sing in a round with the music teacher. The music teacher would then choose the 5 best singers. Hannah was chosen! She was so thrilled!! I am so proud of her for even trying.

Each elementary school in the district chose 5 singers and they all came together for a concert tonight. Unfortunately, Big D had to miss it because EG has had a stomach bug today! Yuck!

Here is Hannah's group from her school with her music teacher:

Here is the whole choir performing:

Here is the cool t-shirt she received with her name on the back:

Next stop: American Idol!

Xanadu

Our roller skating adventures continued today when we hit the roller rink for President's Day! My kids have been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks, and, I have to admit it, I was kinda looking forward to it myself.

I was flooded with memories the moment we stepped inside the rink. I mean, seriously, they have the same carpet and decorations that they had way back when (come to think of it...it probably is the SAME carpet). All of us had to rent skates except for Tootie, I mean Ellie Grace. She brought her own cool light up skates. That girl skated so hard and so long that she eventually lost her stopper. It just fell off!

Abby had a little more difficult time. That girl probably fell down no less than 50 times. I probably need to give her Tylenol at bedtime tonight.

Hannah brought her friend Grace with her and they seemed to have a great time. Hannah ended up trading her skates in for roller blades.

All three of my kids were literally taken aback when they realized I could skate. Hannah kept saying, "you're good!" Why are my kids always so surprised when I can do something?? I know I am their Mom, but I did have a life way back when.

The day was complete with races, but no Hokey Pokey. I was looking forward to that! If only Big D had gone with us. I could have finally gotten that couple's skate that I never got as a child.

What I Was Doing While You Were Watching the Super Bowl...

While most of you were at parties, eating chips & dip, watching expensive commercials and cheering on your favorite team, I was with my 2 older girls at The Secret Keeper Girl Live Tour.

What's The Secret Keeper Girl, you ask? The Secret Keepers are a series of Christian fictional novels geared towards girls 8 thru 12. We watched a fashion show on how girls can be fashionable, yet modest. We talked about boys (giggle giggle), we sang songs (even YMCA) and had a great time together as Mom and daughters.

They each came away with age appropriate devotional books and a reminder that as daughter's of the King, we are Princesses!! What a fun night! I wouldn't change it for the world!

Ski Trip

We surprised the girls with a ski trip to Copper Mountain, Colorado. We didn't tell them until Christmas Eve and it was so fun to see how excited they were. They have never been skiing and have been asking to go.


We were not planning on leaving until the 27th, but due to the blizzard of '09 we thought we better head out on the 26th. What a mess trying to get out of Tulsa. For the first 3 hours we couldn't go faster than 35 mph. It was absolutely awful. I thought we would never get there, but once we got past Stillwater, it was smooth sailing. Kansas and Colorado sure know how to take care of their roads!


I'm getting ahead of myself. Hannah woke up that morning with a sinus infection and a fever. And we are headed into high altitude. We tried to find an after hours clinic Saturday morning, but because of the snow and ice nothing was open. So, I had the brilliant idea of calling her doctor in Sugar Land and having the doctor call in the prescription to a Walgreens in Wichita. We picked her meds up on the way! She would have two days of antibiotics in her system before she started ski school.


We drove and we drove and we drove and drove. And if you have ever driven that loooong stretch of Highway 70 across Kansas you know what I am talking about. We finally made it to Denver and crashed in a hotel. The next morning when we woke up and looked out of our window we could see the mountains. What a sight!


It was just about an hour drive to Copper Mountain and we were so thankful we split the drive up. I hadn't been skiing since high school. Two things were drastically different. For starters, I don't remember the mountains being so breathtaking. In fact, I'm not even sure if I looked at the mountains as a teenager. Sure, I skied them, but I don't think I actually looked at them. Secondly, it was much more physical on this middle aged woman than on a teenager. I couldn't believe how sore I was.


Daniel was impressed that I could actually remember how to ski. My claim to fame on the trip is that I didn't fall once. Granted, I wasn't a daredevil, but it was like riding a bike. It all came back to me.

The kids did great in ski school. This picture is of the girls on the bunny slope. They rode this little conveyor belt up the hill and then snow-plowed (these days they call it "the wedge") down. Hannah got to go up on the mountain her first day of school. The second day she was skiing blues. Simply amazing! And all without poles. She got her poles the third day which was a big deal to her.


The other two were stuck on that bunny slope so we pulled them out the second afternoon and took them up with us. All they needed was a little prodding. They did great. We were so impressed.


The third day we skied together as a family. I was a little nervous about it, but everyone did great. It is such a surreal feeling to see your 8 year old fly by you on the slopes. Crazy!


It was negative 2 degrees the morning we got up to leave. We stopped back in Tulsa where it was 15 degrees with more snow. As much as I loved being with family, it's nice to be back to 50 degree weather! The kids played outside on their new spark scooters and skateboards and roller skates. One more day of vacation and then back to reality on Tuesday.


It was a great two weeks of family time. My heart is full and happy!

Designer Shoes

Hannah used the remainder of her birthday money to purchase these Coach Tennis Shoes. When did my baby get so big that she knows about designer labels?? She is so proud of them! She even wiped down the white leather toe with a Clorox Bleach Wipe after school! She has better looking tennis shoes than I do!

Happy Birthday Sweet Hannah

I cannot believe that Hannah turns 11 years old tomorrow. It seems like just yesterday that I was holding her in my arms, tears streaming down my cheeks, so excited to be a Mom. Hannah is becoming such a delightful young lady. She is a hard worker, she is sweet, helpful, respectful and a great friend!

This year for her birthday we actually had friends in Sugar Land! HOORAY! Last year we celebrated in the summer before we moved and then just had a family party here. This year, she wanted to have a bit more of a grown-up party. She invited her 3 best friends to Benihana (Japanese Show Cooking). It was really fun!!! Big D and I thought we looked like a reality show walking in with 6 girls. Someone asked us if they were all ours!

After dinner we came home and the girls went for a swim. Yes, Tulsans. They went for a swim in an unheated pool. That's how warm it has been here!!

She wanted an ice-cream cake this year and it was yummy! After we sang to her she got to add up all of her loot! (all she asked for from everyone was money.) This afternoon she and Dad are off to spend it on an I-pod Touch.

Camp Wrap-Up

I can't believe I haven't blogged about camp. Where have the days gone? The girls had a fabulous time at camp. I think Abby might have even had more fun than her big sister! She said she missed me at night in her bed when it was quiet (aaawww). Hannah came running to us when she saw us. Abby just waved! We took Ellie Grace with us. We wanted her to check it out to see if she had any interest in going next summer. The verdict: she's in! Believe it or not we are already enrolled in Kanakuk K-Kountry for next summer and our term is almost completely full. That should tell you what an awesome camp it is! I feel blessed to be able to be able to send our kids.

Here are some snapshots of us picking them up from camp.

Reunited with Dad after 2 weeks!

Hannah and her cabin mates.

Abby and her cabin. Abby made a friend named Kate. I think she's the girl in the blue shorts. I said, "Kate, you are very cute!" and she said, "I hear that all the time!" (She did not say it snobbily, just honestly...very cute!)

Hannah and her counselors. Hannah received the "faith on fire" award. Could a Mom be any more proud of an award?? This girl has a good head on her shoulders and a great walk with the Lord. She spent her own money on a devotional book that she will complete daily. She mails in a form with her parent's signature each month saying she completed that month and she will get a little prize. I hope she can keep it up!

Abby and her counselors. Abby received the "gentle in spirit" award. This is so perfectly fitting for Abby. She has such a sweet spirit and is very tenderhearted towards her friends.

What a great week, but glad to have my family back together again!!!