Rebecca's Debut...

Tonight was the JAM Kidz perfomance of "King of the Jungle" at church.



Rebecca and Kathryn have been practicing with the children's choir for two months. I had been trying to encourage Rebecca to audition for weeks, but she was too afraid. Last week, they were still short a few soloists. So Rebecca, on her own, decided to audition. I was so proud of her for auditioning. I was even more proud of her tonight when she sang. I had several people come up to me and compliment her singing. Here is a short video of her singing debut.

The Big 4-0!

Hill?! What hill? I don't see no stinking hill. That is my motto for today. Might as well embrace it, because I am not getting any younger...

40 years ago today, in Little Rock, Arkansas, I was born. My older sister, Pam, tells the story of my arrival like this: Pam was at a choir concert in Hot Springs, Arkansas. She badly wanted a little sister, and was so excited when our Granny called her and let her know she got her wish. Granny also told Pam that "There is no mistaking she is Bob Ritchie's daughter. She looks just like him." ;-) I guess I've been a Daddy's girl ever since...

I had lunch at Red Robin with Allen & my girls to celebrate my big day today. We all wore black, and I wore a necklace that said "Behold the Ageless Wonder" and a feather boa. Like I said, you can't change it, might as well embrace it.



As I reflect on the past 40 years, I am thankful for my life. I grew up in a loving family, and I married a wonderful man and started my own family. We have been blessed with two beautiful daughters. I thank God for my life, and know that I am often undeserving. I thank God for my family, my children, and my friends. I thank God for my church family - my extended family.

I know that God has a plan for me. A plan to prosper me and not to harm me, a plan for a hope and a future. I may not always understand the plan, but I hang on for the ride with complete faith in my Heavenly Father.

The Ten Commandments...

At Kathryn's school, First Baptist Academy, the kids have chapel on Wednesdays. Ms. Kowalik, their chapel teacher, is really great, and creative, too. She taught the kids a really cool way to remember the 10 commandments. Here is a video of Kathryn reciting them.



Ms. Kowalik also taught them a couple of chants about God. Here is Kathryn doing "He's Awesome."



And here is Kathryn doing the chant, "Be a Blessing!"

Hi-ya!

Recently Allen took Rebecca to visit the local ATA Martial Arts school here in the Woodlands. She had expressed an interest in taking karate. The Woodlands school has a program called Karate for Kids that helps children learn the basics of taekwando and self defense.

Allen signed Rebecca up for a month of classes to see if she was really interested in it. They do the intro classes because they do not take quitters at the school. If you decide to take lessons, it is a one year contract/commitment.

After her initial excitement, she soon became scared and didn't want to go. We tried to attend class a few times over the past couple of weeks, but finally made it there today. After some tears and whimpering about not wanting to go, she put on her uniform and we headed over to the ATA school.

When we got there, Rebecca was one of three new students. Of course, she was very nervous, but went out on the floor with the other kids. One of the other teachers stood near her and helped her with some of the basic hand positions. The class ranged in ages from 5 to 14, all in various states of beginners. Rebecca was tenative at first, but she soon began to enjoy herself.

At one point Master Berry asked the parents to come out and hold a kick bag for teir child so they could practice kicking. Rebecca seems to have gotten the knack of that pretty fast, she nearly knocked me over a couple of times. I even saw a smile on her face. ;-) After class, we thanked Master Berry, and he complemented Rebecca on her kicks. He said she did very good for her first time. Often new students are very nervous and scared, and don't try too hard. But he was pleased with how Rebecca pushed herself. I was very proud, too.

New Look...

Welcome to the new look for our blog. I had been using a "The Cutest Little Blog on the Block" background, which I liked, but I was ready for a change. I decided to try my hand at designing my own background with a little help from TCBOTB's Blog Secrets and "How to Design Your Own Background" article that walks you through the process step by step. I used Microsoft Publisher to build the background. I uploaded digital scrapbook designs and papers from a several sites (Shabby Princess, Scrap Girls, Scrapbook-Elements to name a few). There are several places you can do this for free, but I also found a few sights that were reasonably priced. After I was through designing the background, I used Photbucket to store my picture, then imported it into my blog using the editing features.

After three days of much frustration, figuring out how the programs worked, and tweaking of several different designs (at least 5 different ones, maybe more), I finally finshed. It was fun to actually do something artistic again. I hope you like the new design. If you don't, so what. I like it. ;-)

Easter & Bluebonnets...

Recently we celebrated Easter at our church, Stonebridge. The service was awesome. It took a lot of volunteers to pull it off, and it was amazing. We had over 2000 people come through StoneBridge that day. The worship was energetic and uplifting and Steve gave a great sermon. I love being a part of the StoneBridge family.

Along with my singing on praise team once a month, Allen & I also serve on the media team once month. Easter weekend it was our rotation. I run the power point with the lyrics for the praise team and Allen works back stage and runs the Pro Presenter that shows the lyrics for the congregation. I love being a part of the media team, or the "nerd herd" as I fondly refer to it. Here is a picture of my view of the stage from where I sit during a service.

Besides our usual worship team and praise band, we also had a group of the preschool kids come and lead us in worship for one song. The preschool kids often watch videos of worship songs with hand movements on Sunday mornings during Adventure Church. This is one of their favorites. I was unable to record it during the service, but I was able to record Kathryn and her friend Emily during rehearsal on Saturday. Sunday morning all the kids were so precious, but I was so proud of Kathryn & Emily getting up on stage to practice by themselves.

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On Good Friday, we made one of our (almost) annual trips to Brenham to get pictures in the Bluebonnets. They were just at peak, and beautiful. While in Brenham we stopped at A Piece of Heaven for some Blue Bell ice cream.

There was also an "egg walk" around the town square with lots of painted eggs, kind of along the lines of the Cow Parade they had in Houston back 2001. We didn't see all of the eggs, but this was one of the girls favorite ones.

While driving the country roads surrounding the Brenham, Independence, and Chappel Hill area, the seas of blue were spectacular! Some of the best fields I've seen in years. We had a hard time finding the perfect spot to stop and take pictures though, because most of them were unacessable or on private property. While we were there we looked for, but never found, the perfect field where we took pictures in 2007. We did eventually find a great place to stop. It was also a very popular stop because there were a lot of other people there, too. We did get some great pictures that day, though.

One afternoon the week after Easter, I took the girls and the dogs out to get a few pictures here in The Woodlands before the bluebonnets were completely gone.

I also took some pictures of other wildflowers. Spring has definately arrived. What a great way to celebrate the Easter season. He is Risen! He is risen indeed!