Too much...

I recently was listening to a conversation between two of my girlfriends. No, I wasn't being nosy. We were at the Rangers game and one friend was sitting on one side of me and the other friend was sitting on the other side of me.

These two girlfriends and their families live in Flower Mound which is a city right north of Grapevine. Flower Mound recently added a new aquatics area to their Community Activites Center. Here is a definition from their website..

http://www.flower-mound.com/cac/aquatics.php
The Community Activity Center features several aquatic elements designed to serve a variety of residents of all ages. The indoor natatorium features a competition sized pool, splash pad, 150 foot slide, and one meter diving board.

The outdoor aquatics area features a zero-depth entry pool, large shallow area, and play structures for small children. For older and more adventurous guests, the pool also includes lap lanes, a lazy river, and two water slides.

I haven't been there, but it sounds awesome! Which leads me back to their conversation as one friend said to the other, "Well, I don't know if it has enough. I heard that if their older than 10 years old they'd be bored easily."

I've never been there myself.. but I thought, Bored.. who could be bored.

Our children have WAY too much stuff (as do their parents, myself included). When I was a child, my friend Cheryl and I would PAY to go up and down ONE slide all day long. Water parks had not been invented... we would either go to one pool with two diving boards or to the lone slide which we would go up and down. I never recall us even getting bored going up and down the same slide all afternoon long. We are privileged beyond measure!

Stuff!

How do two people accumulate so much stuff?
I am in the process of organizing a garage sale.. which is a real job in itself. So on Saturday, Wade and I worked all day in the garage. Cleaning, Sorting, Organzing.
Wade is now a mobile employee so he no longer has an office. Therefore, all of his memorabilia,papers, files that he has used for the past 17 years are in our garage.
I am no longer teaching elementary school so my files and boxes of teaching are also piled in the garage along with sports equipment, lawn equipment, tools, painting supplies, coolers, trash cans and numerous other miscellaneous items.
Wade and I made a lot of progress as you can see by the picture above. The trash men will love us on Monday.

Vacation Bible School

Vacation- a relaxing get away
Bible- God's Holy Word
School-a place where you learn.

VBS- A relaxing place where you learn about God's word.

Well, I don't know if VBS was relaxing this year, but it was definitely a blast! At my church,First Baptist Grapevine, we had over 700 children each day. We actually had 842 different children. Our theme this year was Outrigger Island.


Each day begins with an assembly time of worship and a competition between girls and boys of who can bring the most offering and who can bring the most shoes. Shoes?? Well, we brought shoes for the organization Shoes for Orphan Souls. Click here to read more http://www.shoesfororphansouls.org/

Then it was back to our classrooms for Centers, Crafts, Bible Story, Recreation, Music, and Snack. It is a fun filled three hours. Here's Cara and her friend, Madeline learning about The Good Samaritan.


The best part of the whole week though was that forty children made a decision for Christ! Praise God!

It was at Vacation Bible School in 1977 that I made a decision to follow Christ.
It is so easy.. just like learning the ABC's.
A- Admit that you are a sinner
B- Believe in Jesus Christ as God's son and receive Jesus' gift of forgiveness from sin
C-Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Even Caleb attended VBS, he had a great time.


However, today (Saturday) he took a 3 and 1/2 hour nap... you could say that VBS wore him out!!!

Cheryl 5 of 365 (40 x 365)

BEST FRIEND. If you looked up this word in the dictionary you could place my friend, Cheryl's picture right beside it. Cheryl is 9 days older than me and grew up across the street from me. She has been faithful, loyal, a listener, and a sister to me for all of my life. I can't remember a time before Cheryl. She has always been in my life as long as I can remember although I think it was in Kindergarten that we actually became close. As you can see in this picture, she has carried me through difficult times. This picture was actually taken on Choir Tour in 1986 in Vancouver, British Columbia. We have both walked some hard roads, but we've done it together.
Thank you, CC for being there for me and as long as I am here on this earth.. I will be here for you.

Let's Swim!!

Last week, we all hit the pool for swim time. Caleb and I enjoyed a Mommy and Me class of fun water play. Caleb loves the water. He enjoyed just playing and splashing!




Cara made her own splash herself. She has taken some kind of lesson each summer since she took the Mommy and Me class ten years ago! The past three or four years, I have put her in private classes. The lessons only last one week and she gets individualized attention. Cara is an incredible swimmer so she is just perfecting her strokes and diving technique. This was her first year in private lessons to have a male instructor. She didn't quite know what to think of him at first. His name is Shawn. She quickly warmed up to him. Cara informed me that he was the Assistant Manager of the pool so that he might be able to cut us a deal to come swimming! As you can see by the smile on her face, she enjoyed her week as well!

Things to come....

Monday was our first day of Outrigger Island Vacation Bible School. It is always extremely hectic the first day. I am the director of kids entering Kindergarten.
One of our many activities of the day was playing and experimenting with water in the water table. Our first group of 20 entered the room, five children quickly went to the water table. The teacher for that activity turned her back to get more seashells. KABOOM! Water was flowing everywhere. One of the children experimented a little too much and pulled the plug on the table. Water was flowing everywhere.

Fast forward about five hours....

I was giving Caleb a bath. The night before Wade had told me that he really didn't think Caleb needed the seat as he loves to splash in the water. So I thought I'd see for myself, I plopped Caleb in the tub and kept my eye on him. The first thing he went for was not the 50 bath toys, but the plug! The water quickly draining from the tub.

Made me wonder... will he pull the plug on the water table in the future?

No more Chips and Salsa! (for now)

It happened this Spring.. when Cara's cousin, Cole came to lunch with us. You see he is a picky eater, but he loves Panda Express. I have never been a big fan of any kind of oriental food. Give me Chips and Salsa any day, but I always passed on anything Chinese, Japanese etc. (You can ask my roomies from college because they loved it.)
Anyway, so Cole requested to eat at Panda Express. So I thought, let's venture out of our comfort zone so we did. Two days later, Cara asked to eat there so we did.. soon she was addicted. She began asking to go there weekly. Twice she ate Panda Express and later became quite ill. (no details necessary) However, she kept wanting to go back.so we reached out of our comfort zone of chips and salsa! I think I need to get out of my comfort zone more often.. I might find out a lot more about the world that way!