Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I love about my dad…

13. I know that I can just be me and he is good with that.
12. He taught us everyday the same way.
11. He taught us to always leave things better than we found it.
10. He taught us the importance of love and family.
9. He taught us to value material things (diamonds) but not to love them.
8. He put/puts up with four women and didn’t/hasn’t kill(ed) any of us.
7. He expects us to be good, tax-paying, Christian women that love what they do.
6. Because, “we do it three times” so that no one is left out and we all three have a chance to excel at everything.
5. He is well respected by everyone.
4. He never pushes when I make bad decisions but always lends a hand to help mend the problem and make things better.
3. He always encourages me to do what is right.
2. He holds his tongue and listens very carefully.
1. He leads a Christ like life.

My mom and dad are awesome. Thanks Neil for the idea! I can’t wait to get to replicate these things.

Random Thoughts

We are right in the middle of VBS and the kids are having so much fun. We are teaching about some different Kings in the Bible. The youth do a skit every evening and the parents seem to be having more fun with it more so than the young kids. Karl and I are teaching them Aggie Skits and we are having a blast. Last night we did my favorite two (Contagious Office and Sin Box). Karl was the preacher for Sin Box and did it justice all the way down to “L”. The youth seem to be having a blast and that is important for all of us. We have had a solid number of just over 50, which is great for us.

Karl has been down in his back since Sunday. I am not real sure what he did but he is hurting pretty bad. If you all could say a prayer for him, I know that he would appreciate it. I could use one too. I’m not real sympathetic and I need to be, more so with him!

Karl has a scheduled interview with John Deere for June 19. He will fly up this coming Sunday and interview on Monday. We have an offer on our house and we pray that this buyer will be able to pull through for us.

Not a lot going on, but enough to keep us going! I am so ready to see everyone. I feel like it has been months.

Updates!

All the good intentions in the world sometimes just aren’t enough. I noticed that I am getting some bad calls in the blogging game and wanted to update so that no technical fouls will be thrown.

I had every intention of getting the updates (with pictures) done this weekend. However, our desktop computer is packed and our laptop went on the fritz. So, instead of fighting with it I went over and helped Bec clean screens. Some friends of ours from church own a t-shirt printing company (on the side). Their garage (aka: the sweatshop) has a rather large automatic press in it and Bec is a mean machine on turning out some t-shirts. I took two days off this last week to stay at home and help her get done with some orders. Saturday I spent my day from 10 am until 3pm outside in her back yard cleaning screens (for the press) while Karl stayed home and cleaned the house. I have such the amazing and wonderful husband. I have red arms to prove my work outside and Karl has a clean house to prove his work inside. We had planned to go and tube down the river but it was just too hot. We checked it out at 10 am and it was already in the high 90’s and we decided that another weekend would be better. I am so glad. My arms are sooo red (with sun screen) and I don’t want to even think about what my legs would look like…yuk. Good decision on our part!

Karl and I have started SYS (Summer Youth Series). Every Thursday we take the youth to a different surrounding church and we have a devo, worship and then supper. It really is fun and the singing is worth the long drive every time. We consistently have about 9 kids that come with us and we are growing. Our girls and boys are getting along better and that is truly a blessing in itself.

We had a Board Meeting last night and it was stressful. Please pray for our congregation. We are at the time without elders and therefore we have to have monthly meetings to make all of the decisions. It is not easy and it is not the way that God intended it to be. We are working toward that place and we have had some new “elder material” brothers and sisters place membership! That is very POSITIVE. The in between is just hard and I pray for all of those that wear their emotions on their sleeves. (We had a split last year at this time and some are still not emotionally over some of the things that happened). Please just pray for your brothers and sisters in San Antonio at Ventura Church.

Our house is packed up and on the market! We have moved everything into another house and we are just paying him storage for his garage. Our furnishings consist of two chairs, a tv, our mattress, a futon and all of our clothing. All of my kitchen stuff is packed and in boxes somewhere. I am ready to either go or get unpacked.

So, here is an update in a nutshell. When we are not at church or with the youth, we are usually in the sweatshop. Hope that I didn’t over load or bore you. I will try and do better with my updates….may be once a month rather than once every two!

Pirates Board

Here are some pictures of the newest Pirate Board that Karl has made. Now he is working on a speaker box for some kids from church.

Enjoy...

Lamb for memories...

I was in a cooking mood this weekend and went to the freezer to find some meat. I had been talking to Karl about cooking some lamb. He doesn't get real excited about it, but he says that he will try anything. Karl likes lamb; I think he is scared of my cooking sometimes. Anyway, I called Amy and asked her how long she cooked her lamb and what temperature she cooked it on. Karl apparently had it one time at her house and loved it...As if competing with his mom isn't enough; now I have my own blood to come up against! I seasoned it like Amy told me and then we put it in the oven before we walked out of the door for class on Sunday morning.

When church was over and we came home; we walked in the door and the smell brought back so many memories of waking up at mom's house on Thanksgiving morning and smelling lamb cooking. Memories of knowing that dad would be in the kitchen cutting the leg of lamb and mom would be running around in her housecoat getting things in order, being with my sisters and mom, sharing a bathroom with two girls and now three other boys, knowing the parade would be on even though none of us had time to sit and watch it (except when the bands performed), calling Aunt Betty’s house and reaffirming what time we were supposed to be late (I mean there), working out who was going to go with whom so that there would be two people getting ice, one picking up Mama Denton and Sue and the other to take the food, being worried what we looked like when no one else cared, and knowing that there would be some serious game playing and leaf raking that afternoon. My house smelled like mom's and I had to just sit and tear up for a few moments.

Some days I miss Mama Denton and Aunt Betty like crazy. There have been so many times I wanted to pick up the phone and call and give Aunt Betty a hard time or hear Mama Denton's sweet voice. I am so grateful we have my momma; who couldn't be any more like them.

Anyway, the lamb was GREAT and I became an equal with Amy's cooking for lunch!

Paris

Just wanted to give a quick update. This last weekend Karl and I went to Paris and we had a blast. I think more than most, we enjoyed being with one another on the road. It has been a while since we have been able to get out of town much less go together. It was great seeing Neil and Braxton and Amy and Jorge. We never can spend enough time with everyone. I feel like I didn't really get to see them at all. That is how it is when your are just a little bitty lamb and everyone wants a piece of you....he he.

Karl and I are getting ready for our trip this weekend. We have both taken off Friday and we will head north to New Braunsfels. I will be able to update with some pictures later!

Toot-a-loo!

Pirates, Mi Matey!

I know that you are just beside yourself wondering about this game board that Karl has been building. Well, here it is. This is the one that he has sold two of. It is 30" X 50" (unfolded) and folds up so that it can be stored. We don't have any more of these this size but he has an order for one to be built. At this moment he is working on a Pirates Board that is going to 36" X 48" and will be flat. There will be no good storage place except for the top of a table. A vetran has special orderd this one and there may be two more requests for it. Karl is having fun building these. He enjoys building the bigger one that he is working on now much more because he is having to rethink everything. He should have it completed by the end of this week. I will see if I can get more pictures of it after completion.
This board game is for Pirates. I really don't know tons about the game. I know that some of the youth at church hooked Karl's infatuation and he didn't like the fact that the game did not have a "board" of some kind. One weekend he built the one that is pictured up top. Pirates is a very strategic and slow game. But people all over are willing to pay $300 per board. Shipping these bad boys is another story. Good thing I still have friends at FedEx Kinko's!
I am way to energetic and busy to sit and enjoy this game but aparently it is a pretty hot topic right now. For me it takes way too much thought to be fun! I thought since I didn't have any fun pictures of kids, I would put some pictures of the things that we are concentrating on!
Here are more detailed pictures of the ships and a close up of the game!













I have to give my husband a big 10 for a job well done and an "A" for all of his creativity. All of the islands that you can see are made of styrofoam. He painted everything, even the material (that he found to resemble water) and he also put grass and trees on the islands. There is one volcano and one waterfall. I guess that I just needed to brag and show off my love of my life.
Until next time...