Soccer Superstars

Today Luke had his second soccer game of the season. He rocked the soccer field- scoring 4 goals!!! I am so proud of how far he has come since starting two and a half seasons ago. He went from being so shy the coach had to go out on the field with him to breaking away and taking the ball all the way down the field and scoring. It is so fun to watch all the kids on the team. The picture below is of his good buddy, Cooper. They made up the superstar team today- Cooper on defense and Luke on offense. They passed the ball to each other and really played well together. I'm so proud of them!!! (BTW, these pics are not from today- they are from last season.)

Easter 2008

Payt and his cousin, Alex. Aren't they sweet?!?

Luke's looking very dapper.

Payt's Easter basket was so full of eggs at the church Easter Egg Hunt that eggs were literally spilling out of his basket. Here his cousin, Ryan, is helping him put them back in. Payt was quite the sight sprinting around picking up eggs!

Here's my two sweet boys getting ready for the big hunt. Aren't they cute?!?

Payt's chillin' after a busy day of egg hunting. He's too cool.

Hope you had a great Easter!

MEXICO!!!

Check out the awesome place we stayed in Mexico... this is the building where our room was. can I just say- AWESOME! The whole place was beautiful and very big. We had a great time with our friends Jeremy & Charlotte and James & Tracy (no kids!!!). All-inclusive is the way to go- free drinks, free food, free everything!!!
Here's a little glimpse of the beach. There was a long stretch of beach- we had to choose our spot wisely, though, to stay away from all the high schoolers on their Senior Trip (boo).
Awww. Todd and I at dinner the first night.
Brazilian restaurant. Meat. Lots of meat. Big fat swords of meat. 8 different kinds. I ate crocodile! This dinner was a lot of fun- our server was awesome and at the end they made these coffee drinks on FIRE for us. Unbelievable! Lots of laughter at this place.
This is the ocean the last day we were there. It was so windy and choppy that we weren't able to go parasailing. It was a red flag day, which means "no swimming." We weren't good at obeying as we all swam out to the buoyes (with the exception of Tracy). We weren't the only people in the water, but we were the only ones that brave. I was so tired at the end I was afraid I might not make it back! Todd and I were the only ones swimming without fins, so it was considerably more work for us. Also- this is a picure of a rocky section of beach- we were in a better spot and it wasn't quite as choppy there. Oh, but the rocks, let's just say that one day while swimming in the ocean, I ended up in a patch of rocks, getting slammed by the waves. My ankle and hands got scratched up, but then Charlotte got sucked into the same place where she scratched up her leg, hands, and broke her toe! Ouch! She was a real trooper, though, and hardly complained the whole rest of the trip!

Lots of good stories I may share later, but here's the crazy part... while we were off enjoying a well-deserved vacation our world at home fell apart! When our plane landed in Dallas, I turned my phone on and checked voice mail. This is when I learned that my good friend, Jenny L. was rushed to the hospital and eventually had emergency surgery (read about it here). I also learned that my niece, Katelyn, was in the hospital. She is just one year old. She had a seizure and they did a spinal tap and thought she might have meningitis- turns out they don't think that she does have it, but they're not really sure what's going on. At any rate, she got to go home yesterday. And alas, my youngest, Payt, had to go to the doctor on Wednesday because he hurt his toe in the McDonald's playland on Sunday when he was with my in-laws. A few days later, his toe was still bleeding and infected. He is now on heavy-duty antibiotics and ointment. His poor big toe is all wrapped in gauze and he can't even wear his shoes! What a week!

The Frenzy

Life never seems to slow down. Every night the past couple of weeks has been filled with something. I'm gone a lot, then I get home and try to wind down from whatever I was just doing, then before I know it, it's after midnight before I get to bed. And I'm up early again the next morning getting kids off to school and either working or running errands.

The past two weeks we've been involved with the interview process of trying to select a new campus minister at our church. Todd and I are a part of the Campus Support Team, so we have been involved with the campus quite a bit over the last year especially. I've really enjoyed getting to know two candidates and I'm excited about meeting another in a few weeks. I have to say, though, it's a very stressful process. Here we're taking 3 wonderful guys and picking them apart to decide who will be the best fit. Ultimately what matters the most is not how wonderful they are personally, but how wonderful they are for this particular ministry. Sometimes it's a hard thing to differentiate and I know we've got a tough decision ahead of us.

At any rate, I know you won't feel too sorry for me with my busy life as I am getting ready to head off to Mexico. Todd's parents will be here tomorrow because they will be staying with the kiddos while we go on our vacation. Meanwhile, it's 10:30 and I'm typing this instead of cleaning my filfthy house because I'm just too tired to get up. Plus, my feet hurt because I wore some new shoes today, which were totally cute, by the way, but since it's the first time I wore them, they made my feet hurt a little. I guess that's the price I pay for good fashion. :)

Sassy Pants

That's my new nickname for Payt. Last night we were at the church and I was standing with a large group of people and I was explaining something when Payt walks up and crosses his arms and stands like I am. Next, he starts repeating me word for word. I manage to quiet him for about 1 second before he starts up again. Of course, he's smiling the whole time, showing off his stinkin' cute dimples and mischevious face. The rest of the room was cracking up. I'm pretty sure I have lost ALL control of this child. I think this is divine retribution for my own sarcastic and mischevious ways. The next 14 years or so are gonna whip me. What have I done???

Texas Sucks, Kansas Blows...

...So the weather here stinks. I'm tired of sunny 75 degrees one day, snowy 30 degrees the next and all the stuff in between. Can't we just stick with the nice, sunny days?

Last night I made a trip to Wal-Mart after Life Group to get much needed groceries. When I got to Wal-Mart it was a nice 68 degrees. During my one-hour trip it dropped to 40 degrees and starting raining... hard... and the wind was unreal! I checked out with my basket FULL of groceries and headed out to the car in the monsoon. As I was literally throwing grocery bags into the trunk, a particularly hard gust of wind came through and slammed the trunk lid onto my head. It didn't feel good.

When I finally made it home, I trudged in literally soaking wet. I went straight to the bathroom to make sure my head wasn't bleeding (not sure my head could take any more trauma after a childhood full of emergeny room trips... gee I wonder where my boys get it...). Poor Todd asked what was wrong and I responded by making him unload all the groceries so I could take a nice, hot bath. Needless to say, I had a nice headache for the rest of the night. It was a lot of fun. Really, I love Oklahoma weather.

Mexico, here I come!