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!

Living Museum: Christa McAulifffe

Yesterday Rebecca had her Living Museum presentation at school. The students each chose a person from history that had a significant impact on America. Rebecca chose Christa McAuliffe.

Most of us remember exactly where we were when the space shuttle Challenger tragically exploded. I was in 11th grade english, listening to "The Crucible" and reading along with the tape (yes, a cassette tape). My teacher, Mrs. Taylor, entered the room and said, "We should all be glad that Mrs. Greenway* was not on the shuttle. It just exploded." Then she left. We sat there in stunned silence. I remember later in the day calling my associate pastor of my church and just crying. It was a very sad time for our nation.

(*Mrs. Greenway was my 12th grade English teacher, and one of the two Teacher in Space finalists from Arkansas that went to Space Camp.)

Anyway, back to Rebecca. She did a wonderful presentation as Christa McAuliffe, despite being a little nervous. In class, all of the children were speaking at once. It was quite noisy. Luckily, I recorded her practicing that morning before her presentation at school. We were so proud of her.

(The audio is a little quiet, so turn up your volume.)

Rebecca's new bike...

In January, Rebecca decided she was finally ready to learn how to ride a bike. After shopping around, we found a nice one that she liked. She used her Christmas money she had been saving to pay for half of it, and we paid the rest.

Knowing this would be her first time to ride a bike, and not wanting her to bang up her new one, Allen decided to buy an old bike for her to learn on. Allen found one for $5 (yes, $5) on Woodlands Online, a local message board/classifieds.

He picked it up the day he found it, then took Rebecca up to the church parking lot to teach her how to ride. Within 30 minutes she was riding by herself. We are so proud of her!

Kathryn's New Scooter...

Santa brought Kathryn a scooter for Christmas. Here is a video of her riding it. She is very proud of herself. So am I. :-)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

It's been awhile since I have been on here. I started a shutterfly share site, and I have been posting most of my pictures there. But I wanted to share some videos with you all. The holiday season was busy for us.

We spent Thanksgiving with Allen's parents in Clarksville, AR. While were in town, we took a day and drove up to Eureka Springs, AR, to kick off our Christmas season. It was a chilly day, but we had fun enjoying the Christmas decorations, visiting the Susan Morrison Signature Gallery, and listening to the musicians in Basin Springs Park.

In December, Robin's parents, sister and niece spent Christmas here in The Woodlands. We went to the Christmas Eve Service at StoneBridge, where Rebecca & Kathryn sang in the children's choir. At the end of "Happy Birthday, Jesus", Kathryn got to say "I love you, Jesus," on microphone. I was a very proud mama.

(getting in the Christmas mood on Christmas morning)

For the New Year, we took the girls to see the Radio City Rockettes down at the Toyota Center. That evening we went to the Waterway Square Park here in the Woodlands and let the girls watch the fountain choreographed to lights and music. We all had a fun day.

(Winter Wonderland with Kathryn dancing)

(Frosty the Snowman)

We hope that your holidays were filled with special memories, too.

May God bless you this New Year!