It could happen . . .

Finally, yesterday afternoon arrived not a minute to soon. We bounded out of the house, literally screaming on the inside from excitement. Reaching downtown Houston, we frantically tried to find a parking lot. Nervous and jumpy, we couldn't wait to get to the front doors of the stadium. With Scott dragging behind me, I practically ran to the doors. Tickets in hand, quickly I flashed them to the attendant at the door and with a deep breath stepped inside the beloved Minute Maid Park. At last, the moment I waited for for over 24 hours. Home Opener. The 43,000 plus buzzed in wonderment of a new season, and a new, fresh chance to make it to the play-offs. The atmosphere was amazing. Much better than any regular season game. I have been to my share of Astros games, but this my friend was 10x better. Maybe even more than 10! I was like a child in a candy store, or better yet, Christmas morning. Yes, like Christmas morning. Having to wait paitently for a time that you know will provide fabulous amounts of emotion. The closer and closer you get to the moment, the more antsy you get on the inside. It's almost like your insides are jumping. When reaching the much awaited moment, your emotions just go crazy. Then the home team plays their hearts out. Not a lot of drama until the top of the ninth inning when you think they just might lose the game. Then in the bottom of the ninth, a 2 run walk-off homer to send the crowd into an uproar. It doesn't get much better than that. A win for the home opener is great, but a walk-off home run . . . wow, sweet action! So continue the good work 'stros, and we will see you in October!

Go ASTROS!

I am so excited! Never in my life have i been to a season opener, or home opener. This afternoon, Scott and I are going to the Astros home opener at Minute Maid Park. Woohoo!

Thank you to some people from our church,(who i would like to think love me) who offered me their two extra tickets yesterday. I was so excited, i said "heck yes" without even thinking. Good thing Scott and I both have great bosses that let us off. I was giddy most of the day sunday, and I am stoked today. I can't wait to don my shorts and bright orange astros shirt(old school colors), grab my glove and head to the ballpark. This day can't go fast enough. I doesn't get much better than the beginning of baseball season. Grant it, we are 2-5 at this point, but I am a die-hard. I love my 'stros whether they are winning or losing. And right now it doesn't matter so much as long as we are in it come October.

duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh, dunna dun na na na . . . . . Charge!

Camping

Well, I'll tell ya! There is nothing more relaxing in this world than going camping by the rivers in the hill country of Texas. This past weekend, Ginger and I enjoyed a quiet getaway with our friends Chris and Susan to a camp site near New Braunfels, TX. The water was really cold, so we didn't do any tubing like we had planned, however just being outside in the nice weather was good enough for me. On Thursday night we went to the River Walk in San Antonio to eat some Mexican. We walked out of one of the restaraunts because it was horrible, unfortunately the next restaraunt wasn't much better to say the least. But we made the best of the night. Friday we went to Gruene, TX and shopped some. There is a bar there that is in some movies like "Michael." I thought that was cool. Chris and I shared a Ruban Sandwich... it was tasty.
That night some drunk college kids kept us up all night cussing and partying. I was going to run them over in my Ford Explorer the next morning, but Ginger advised me that that was not a Christian thing to do.
Saturday, Chris and Susan left. Ginger and I traveled to Luekenback, TX and then to Fredericksberg, TX. Luekenback, home to Willie and Waylon and the boys, was a small, small town. We passed it twice before actually realizing we were there. The only thing good about the town is that I can say I've been there.
After that we went over to Fredericksburg to visit the craft stores. That was fun for about 10 minutes, but, like a good husband, I acted like I enjoyed looking at southern crafts.
On Sunday we headed back to Houston, back to our jobs, back to normal life. But I will never forget those good ole' days camping in Texas. --Scott

Ahhh . . .teenagers!

This is just a little peek into the craziness of our life, that is teenagers!


We had a high school girls retreat a few weekends ago, call ed SET APART! I was blessed to hang out with these senoritas and partake in some of their wisdom. These girls really are amazing! And a whole lot better than any girls you have in your youth group.

Ketchup!

Wow, things have been really crazy since Dec. 1st. To catch everyone up on the custead happenings, I will try to quickly hit the high points of the last month and a half.

Dec. 6th we got to go on a Cruise to Cozumel! Scott's boss rewarded him for a great year with a free cruise. Oh, yeah . . . I got to go too! This was the first cruise either of us had been on. It was fantastic. We ate a ton! went Rock Climbing and Scube diving in Cozumel. And best of all relaxed!
Dec. 22nd Kathy came down for Christmas! Scott's mom got the chance to come visit us and see the house for the first time. It was great. She got to stay for 10 days.

New Years Eve -- our youth participated in the Ball Drop Bash(a new years eve party between several churches in the area). Since Scott and I work with the youth band we were especially excited. The Youth Praise Band got to play as part of the concert that night. They were the best band of the evening and sounded great!

Push Ups

In a country where we expect things to happen 'now' instead of waiting patiently, I am often discouraged if I don't see personal change over night. Being somewhat on the heavy side, I look in the mirror and remember the days when I was in a great physical shape. I remember being able to run three miles and not be out of breath. I remember not getting tired walking up stairs. But aside from expensive surgery, getting back in shape is something that is going to take me awhile to regain.

Then I started to think rationally. If I just lose one pound a month, I would be 12 pounds lighter by next January. If I did the unthinkable and lost two pounds a month, I would be a remarkable 24 pounds less by next January. Most weight gimmicks promise losing 10 pounds in a month. That aint going to happen here boys and girls.

So therefore, I have decided that in my life, I am going to stop trying to eat the whole elephant at once and start taking one bite at a time. I decided eight days ago to start doing pushups. I could hardly do 20. And they weren't pretty! I was discouraged because I used to be able to do a lot. But keeping with my 'one bite at a time' scheme, I decided to just add 1 push up a day. Last night I did 28 pushups! Look out Arnold! Also, I started running. When I run, I don't get discouraged if I have to walk or stop and rest or fall on the ground and puke; I just think to myself, 'at least I'm exercising.' It will pay off.

Anyhow, imagine if we did the same thing with reading or devotional time or praying. If I spent 5 minutes in scripture every day (which sounds pathetic on the Christian scale) I would ready 30 hours a year. That's like over a day! Sounds dumb, but I bet that is more than many of us read or pray every year outside of church and Sunday school. Imagine if we worked on one struggle of our life a year. There are only so many sins that we deal with. In time we could be almost perfect :). In 10 year we could have bettered ourselves in 10 different ways.

Will you mosey through life with me?

Fire

An article on www.drudgereport.com entitled Jews urged to light one less candle for Hanukkah to help environment... sparked some creative thoughts in my mind today. I didn't bother to read the article, for that would take away from judging a book by it's cover, but I agree that lighting one less candle by all the Jews in the world would definitely decrease global warming. Candles create fire. Fire is hot. Heat makes the globe warm. It's my opinion that everything the liberals do is because of global warming. Global warming is their god, so they must serve it. Simple as that. Liberals want to ban smoking everywhere. Not because of the huge health risk and medical costs, but because of the heat that cigarettes put off… not to mention the lighters, which create fire. Thousands of years ago, intelligent man created fire. Now liberals want to do away with it. Join me as I take a stance against these fire haters. Become Pro-Fire.