On Friday, my wonderful mother drove down to Ft. Worth to pick me up so we could take a girls road trip to Houston to go to Jenny's(a friend from high school)wedding. Before we left Ft. Worth we grabbed lunch at Olive Garden(our favorite place)! We had their salad, bread, and soup-yummy! Then, we hopped in the car and our three and a half hour road trip began! We actually stayed with an old, neighbor friend Nelda who lives in the Woodlands(really beautiful with all the trees). Growing up she lived across the street from us. Then, once I got into high school they moved to Texas. I have wonderful memories of Nelda baking cookies and cakes for us and my sister and I were always running back and forth from our house to hers. She has two daughters, Brandi(4 yrs. older than me) and Amber(6 yrs. older than me). Brandi is married to Jimmie and has a six year old daughter Jayden(such a beautiful little girl). Amber is married to Chris and they have twin girls(Carly and Kate)that are 4 years old and full of tons of energy! My mom and I had such a great time catching up on life with Nelda and her girls and remembering funny memories from the past!! Here's a couple of funny memories: Nelda would hold me down on her couch and pop my toes(when I was little)and I would be screaming and she would be laughing at me! Another story is that I was terrified of her older daughter Amber and thought she was mean because she would always scream at me for ringing the doorbell and not just walking on in! Those where the good ol' days!!
Saturday night was Jenny's wedding. She got married at the Burkeshire Plantation. It was a beautiful outside wedding and Jenny was a beautiful bride! The food and dancing were great, too! A couple of Duncan girls that I went to high school with were there and my mom had a couple of ladies her age from Duncan that were there, too. It was fun to catch up on things with them! The coolest part was dancing with my mom and all her friends!! Congrats Jenny and Michael as you start a new chapter in your lives! May God bring many wonderful blessings your way!!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Some Where Over The Rainbow!
Earlier this evening, Mother Nature, decides to bring a little shower to Ft. Worth. Which was nice because it cooled everything off and after the rain we got to witness one of God's beautiful creations and covenant with man-the rainbow. It was a beautiful, full rainbow. I haven't seen a full rainbow in ages. I went outside and set on my porch and stared at it's beauty for a while! I took a picture of it, but it was soo big that I couldn't even get all of the rainbow in the picture! The down fall to the rain this evening was an hour prior to that I got my car detailed. Should have known that would bring the rain-I hadn't washed my car in like 3 months!! Oh well, I got the beautiful blessing of seeing a rainbow tonight! I'm still waiting on my pot of gold!!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Girly Afternoon with the Thompson Girls!
On Tuesday afternoon, I had a date with Claire and Gayle Thompson. It was Claire's idea to go get pedicures at a place called Pearl Nails in Burleson. On the way we stopped to get the best Cherry Limeades at a place called Diary Twins(by the way it was right next door to Diary Queen). I was all for some pampering until the Asian guy giving me my pedi decided to perform toe surgery(on my left big toe)to take out some ingrown toe nails(which, by the way, didn't even know I had-which means they were probably ok staying right in my toe)! This was the Asian guys exact words, "You have ingrown toe nails. I take out. I make feel better." He didn't make me feel better! In fact, he was bringing me a lot of pain in my toe, so I asked him nicely not to dig on my big right toe. I was very thankful when he didn't! After he finished my toe surgery, the rest of my pedi was relaxing(not painful)and he did a wonderful job! Claire's pedi went fine(they didn't dig at her toes) and she got pretty flowers painted on her toes! Gayle told me she didn't care to much for pedi's(didn't know why), so she didn't get one. Now I know why she doesn't care to much for them! I told her she needs to try my place-they don't dig at your toes!
After that we had the best pizza for dinner! Gayle ordered pizza from this place(forgot the name) where they put fresh toppings on your pizza and then you take it home and cook it. We had a veggie pizza that was to die for!! While our dinner was cooking we played Wii(an interactive video game)Bowling and Tennis. This was too much fun!! I'm sure we were a sight to see(ha,ha,ha) because we were bowling and playing tennis right there in the living room!
I had soo much fun hanging out with the Thompson girls!! We need to do it again soon!!
After that we had the best pizza for dinner! Gayle ordered pizza from this place(forgot the name) where they put fresh toppings on your pizza and then you take it home and cook it. We had a veggie pizza that was to die for!! While our dinner was cooking we played Wii(an interactive video game)Bowling and Tennis. This was too much fun!! I'm sure we were a sight to see(ha,ha,ha) because we were bowling and playing tennis right there in the living room!
I had soo much fun hanging out with the Thompson girls!! We need to do it again soon!!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Busy, Busy, Busy Me!!
I apologize now for the late up date on what's been going on in the life of ADB, but I've been sooo busy that I haven't even had time to type a new post(how sad is that). So, here's an update on my crazy(but good), busy life!
For those of you who don't know, I'm learning a second language-espanol. Me llamo Amanda.(My name is Amanda.) Estoy un poco cansada.(I am a little tired.) Mi favorito de color es morado.(My favorite color is purple.) Muy me gusta el helado!(I really like ice cream!) Today, I had my first exam-I feel pretty confident that I did muy bueno! I should, lately I feel like my life is espanol!
Also, last week I had Upward Basketball Camp. I coached a Kindergarten-1st grade team. We had camp every night from 6:00-9:00, this made for a long day, but was well worth it! I had 9 enthusiastic, eager, little ones! I coached two of them last summer, so it was fun to have them on my team for a second time. As far as b-ball goes my kiddos came a long way as the week went on in their skills of the game. I had a couple of all-stars(Samantha and Maggie) on my team! The rest were doing good to run down the court, dribble the ball, shoot the ball in the right goal, and get back down the court and find their person to guard(they had great defensive stands-looked so cute)! I was so proud of my team when it came to our scrimmage times-they out scored the other team every time(no one kept the official score-but I kept one in my head)! Also, I was impressed with my kiddos knowledge of the Bible. The majority of my kids had already accepted Jesus into their hearts and attended church some where-Praise the Lord! Our devotional times were so good and the kids did an AWESOME job at learning their memory verse(they all knew it by the end of the week-hand motions and all, too cute)! The highlight of the week happened on Friday night when two of my little boys(Daniel and David) accepted Jesus into their hearts! That right there makes camp worth it and is what it is all about!! Here's a funny story from camp: I had the cutest, little, Asian boy on my team and one night he looked up at me and asked "are you Asian"? I looked at him and couldn't help but laugh and said "no, why do you think I'm Asian? I'm Native American". He said, "you look Asian in your face". For the rest of the week every time he saw me he would always tell me I'm Asian, but I would always tell him no, I'm Native American. Kids are sooo funny!!
I had a great week at camp and God truly used these little ones to bless my life!
For those of you who don't know, I'm learning a second language-espanol. Me llamo Amanda.(My name is Amanda.) Estoy un poco cansada.(I am a little tired.) Mi favorito de color es morado.(My favorite color is purple.) Muy me gusta el helado!(I really like ice cream!) Today, I had my first exam-I feel pretty confident that I did muy bueno! I should, lately I feel like my life is espanol!
Also, last week I had Upward Basketball Camp. I coached a Kindergarten-1st grade team. We had camp every night from 6:00-9:00, this made for a long day, but was well worth it! I had 9 enthusiastic, eager, little ones! I coached two of them last summer, so it was fun to have them on my team for a second time. As far as b-ball goes my kiddos came a long way as the week went on in their skills of the game. I had a couple of all-stars(Samantha and Maggie) on my team! The rest were doing good to run down the court, dribble the ball, shoot the ball in the right goal, and get back down the court and find their person to guard(they had great defensive stands-looked so cute)! I was so proud of my team when it came to our scrimmage times-they out scored the other team every time(no one kept the official score-but I kept one in my head)! Also, I was impressed with my kiddos knowledge of the Bible. The majority of my kids had already accepted Jesus into their hearts and attended church some where-Praise the Lord! Our devotional times were so good and the kids did an AWESOME job at learning their memory verse(they all knew it by the end of the week-hand motions and all, too cute)! The highlight of the week happened on Friday night when two of my little boys(Daniel and David) accepted Jesus into their hearts! That right there makes camp worth it and is what it is all about!! Here's a funny story from camp: I had the cutest, little, Asian boy on my team and one night he looked up at me and asked "are you Asian"? I looked at him and couldn't help but laugh and said "no, why do you think I'm Asian? I'm Native American". He said, "you look Asian in your face". For the rest of the week every time he saw me he would always tell me I'm Asian, but I would always tell him no, I'm Native American. Kids are sooo funny!!
I had a great week at camp and God truly used these little ones to bless my life!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
My Trip to Cali...Elizabeth(Liz)You are the BEST!!!
Elizabeth, thanks soo much for being the hostess with the mostess!! Thanks for picking me up and taking me back to the airport! Thanks for cooking for me! Thanks for letting me crash at your casa for a week! Thanks for planning a different adventure daily! Most of all thanks for being the sweet friend that you are! I had soo much fun hanging out with you and your adorable daughter,Carly, for a week and miss the both of you like crazy!!!
So, here's the short version of my trip to CA-see Elizabeth's blog:www.fischpond.blogspot.com for an in depth daily report of all the fun we had!
I left for Cali on July 1. It was a very long day of travel. My flight was to depart at 2:30; however, due to a storm that decided to come through, I had to sit on the plane for an hour before we actually took off. It wasn't that bad because I got to watch a movie. As a result of my flight not leaving on time, it made me miss my connecting flight in SLC, so I had to wait in the airport for 2 hrs. Very long day of travel-did I mention the fact that I was already extremely tired because I had just gotten back from a mission trip the day before! Anyway, I got to San Diego around 8:30 that night. Pretty much all day Monday was a rest day-it was so nice. I got to go on a nice run around the base-perfect running weather! Then, Tuesday all our crazy adventures began. We took the kiddos to Old Town, the Aquarium, and the beach to see the sea lions. Wednesday we went to the Outlet Mall(I think that I bought out the GAP store), went to a 4th of July barbecue and tried to watch fireworks that night(this was hard due to a HUGE CLOUD). Thursday, we took the kiddos to Sea World and what a day that was!!! Friday, we went to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park-way cool. Later, that night we got a baby sitter for Carly, and Elizabeth and I went to the San Diego Symphony Summer Pops for an outdoor concert along the bay. We had such a good time!!! Saturday, we went and ate breakfast at one of Elizabeth's favorite places-Pannikan. It was the cutest place and the food was yummy! Then, we walked along the bay and looked at all the really BIG BOATS. My trip finally came to an end when Elizabeth dropped me off at the airport. So sad! I had such a great time! I can't say the same thing about my flight home. About 30 mins. before my flight landed in SLC we ran into some bad weather and I got really sick on the plane!! I was so glad for that plane to finally land. Luckily, I had time to grab something to eat and feel better before I departed for DFW. I arrived back in Ft. Worth(my home sweet home)on July 7th around 8:30 p.m. I need to send a BIG THANKS OUT to my dearest friend Yates who took me to the airport and picked me up-THANKS SOO MUCH!!! It's soo good to be back!
So, here's the short version of my trip to CA-see Elizabeth's blog:www.fischpond.blogspot.com for an in depth daily report of all the fun we had!
I left for Cali on July 1. It was a very long day of travel. My flight was to depart at 2:30; however, due to a storm that decided to come through, I had to sit on the plane for an hour before we actually took off. It wasn't that bad because I got to watch a movie. As a result of my flight not leaving on time, it made me miss my connecting flight in SLC, so I had to wait in the airport for 2 hrs. Very long day of travel-did I mention the fact that I was already extremely tired because I had just gotten back from a mission trip the day before! Anyway, I got to San Diego around 8:30 that night. Pretty much all day Monday was a rest day-it was so nice. I got to go on a nice run around the base-perfect running weather! Then, Tuesday all our crazy adventures began. We took the kiddos to Old Town, the Aquarium, and the beach to see the sea lions. Wednesday we went to the Outlet Mall(I think that I bought out the GAP store), went to a 4th of July barbecue and tried to watch fireworks that night(this was hard due to a HUGE CLOUD). Thursday, we took the kiddos to Sea World and what a day that was!!! Friday, we went to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park-way cool. Later, that night we got a baby sitter for Carly, and Elizabeth and I went to the San Diego Symphony Summer Pops for an outdoor concert along the bay. We had such a good time!!! Saturday, we went and ate breakfast at one of Elizabeth's favorite places-Pannikan. It was the cutest place and the food was yummy! Then, we walked along the bay and looked at all the really BIG BOATS. My trip finally came to an end when Elizabeth dropped me off at the airport. So sad! I had such a great time! I can't say the same thing about my flight home. About 30 mins. before my flight landed in SLC we ran into some bad weather and I got really sick on the plane!! I was so glad for that plane to finally land. Luckily, I had time to grab something to eat and feel better before I departed for DFW. I arrived back in Ft. Worth(my home sweet home)on July 7th around 8:30 p.m. I need to send a BIG THANKS OUT to my dearest friend Yates who took me to the airport and picked me up-THANKS SOO MUCH!!! It's soo good to be back!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
L.I.T. Mission Trip to San Marcos!
Two weeks ago on June 23-30 Travis Avenue along with Wedgwood and Godly churches took their 5th and 6th grade L.I.T.'s(Leadership In Training)on a Mission Trip to San Marcos, TX. I started L.I.T. this past January and was a small group Bible study leader-4 out of my 5 girls went on the trip. It was really amazing to see my girls in action and to see how God was working in their lives and using them to minister to the children of San Marcos!
The trip kinda started off on a bad note-it took us forever to get there! So here's the story: We left Wedgwood around 1:30 on Sat. Kevin(L.I.T. Director)drove a church van full of boys while I got the privilege(wasn't too thrilled-made me extremely nervous to drive a big, long van around)of driving the other van full of girls. We weren't even to Waco yet, when Kevin gives me a call and informs me of how to handle the scary situation of getting a flat tire! My heart immediately starts beating faster!! He informs me not to slam on the breaks, but to gradually slow down and pull over. I think him for this nerve racking peace of information! Here comes the kinda funny part now: 5 sec. later the tread off one of his tires comes off and his van totally gets a flat! I told him that he totally jinkst himself! The neat part is this guy pulled over to help us and his parents go to Travis and he used to go to church there, too. Then, once we got to Waco, his van totally all together stops working and we have to leave it there to get fixed. We pick it back up on our way home Sat. So, a 4 hr. trip takes us about 5 or 6 hrs!
Back to the mission trip part: The week was totally amazing! This was a typical day: I woke at 6 a.m. and I got the girls up at 7. We had our daily devotions and went to breakfast at 8. Then, we were off to morning worship and mission preparation at 9. Around 10:30 we headed off to our apartment sites. Each church had a different site and our site was Champions Crossing. Each day we had between 15-20 kiddos from the apartments. Basically our L.I.T.'s were in charge of doing everything-the adults had to just sit back and watch, this was harder than one might think! The L.I.T.'s started off with recreation and games outside to draw all the kiddos in, then we moved inside the main offices to have Praise and Worship, a Bible Study, a counseling time, craft time, and a memory verse time. God was truly at work here, because the lady who was the manager was doing all she could to help us out and wanted us to be able to use the inside facilities! She told us that she used to go to Calvary(the church we were working with)and drive a bus for them. She even had tables set up so we could feed the kiddos lunch before they went back home. The L.I.T.'s did an amazing job! It was amazing to see them in action!! At our site 12 kiddos came to know the Lord-praise God!!! It was so neat to see how God used our 5th and 6th graders to minister and share the good news to their peers. We had debriefing from 1-1:30 and rest time from 1:30-2. Then, from 2-5:30 we had afternoon activities which included: swimming at the public pool and river, going to Wonder World(the activity I planned that was a huge success-thank goodness!), and going to Austin to a game place that had race cars, bumper boats, Lazar tag, etc. Dinner was at 6 p.m. and praise and worship started around 7 and followed by a prayer time that lasted until 11 or 11:30 most nights. The praise and worship and prayer time each night was truly amazing!!! Each night the Holy Spirit filled this room and the hearts of children and adults were being brokened and humbled. This time truly touched my heart! Lights were out after this time of prayer and then everything started over the next day. Sounds exhausting(it was), but soo much fun! Friday night was our Kidz Blitz at the church. All the apartment kids came to the church for a time of puppet ministry, praise and worship, drama and skits, and a Bible story time. The L.I.T.'s from all 3 churches were in charge of everything. They did a SUPPER job!! All together 50 decisions were made throughout the week-God is truly AMAZING AND WAS AT WORK IN SAN MARCOS, TX!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!! We headed back to Ft. Worth Sat. morning. I was really sad to be leaving, but at the same time was so tired and worn out. This trip really spoke to my heart and challenged me to get out of my comfort zone. If God can use 5th and 6th graders to share the gospel then with His strength and boldness I should be able to do the same thing! I look forward to going back next summer and I already miss seeing my girls every day! They are truly a blessing from God in my life!!
The trip kinda started off on a bad note-it took us forever to get there! So here's the story: We left Wedgwood around 1:30 on Sat. Kevin(L.I.T. Director)drove a church van full of boys while I got the privilege(wasn't too thrilled-made me extremely nervous to drive a big, long van around)of driving the other van full of girls. We weren't even to Waco yet, when Kevin gives me a call and informs me of how to handle the scary situation of getting a flat tire! My heart immediately starts beating faster!! He informs me not to slam on the breaks, but to gradually slow down and pull over. I think him for this nerve racking peace of information! Here comes the kinda funny part now: 5 sec. later the tread off one of his tires comes off and his van totally gets a flat! I told him that he totally jinkst himself! The neat part is this guy pulled over to help us and his parents go to Travis and he used to go to church there, too. Then, once we got to Waco, his van totally all together stops working and we have to leave it there to get fixed. We pick it back up on our way home Sat. So, a 4 hr. trip takes us about 5 or 6 hrs!
Back to the mission trip part: The week was totally amazing! This was a typical day: I woke at 6 a.m. and I got the girls up at 7. We had our daily devotions and went to breakfast at 8. Then, we were off to morning worship and mission preparation at 9. Around 10:30 we headed off to our apartment sites. Each church had a different site and our site was Champions Crossing. Each day we had between 15-20 kiddos from the apartments. Basically our L.I.T.'s were in charge of doing everything-the adults had to just sit back and watch, this was harder than one might think! The L.I.T.'s started off with recreation and games outside to draw all the kiddos in, then we moved inside the main offices to have Praise and Worship, a Bible Study, a counseling time, craft time, and a memory verse time. God was truly at work here, because the lady who was the manager was doing all she could to help us out and wanted us to be able to use the inside facilities! She told us that she used to go to Calvary(the church we were working with)and drive a bus for them. She even had tables set up so we could feed the kiddos lunch before they went back home. The L.I.T.'s did an amazing job! It was amazing to see them in action!! At our site 12 kiddos came to know the Lord-praise God!!! It was so neat to see how God used our 5th and 6th graders to minister and share the good news to their peers. We had debriefing from 1-1:30 and rest time from 1:30-2. Then, from 2-5:30 we had afternoon activities which included: swimming at the public pool and river, going to Wonder World(the activity I planned that was a huge success-thank goodness!), and going to Austin to a game place that had race cars, bumper boats, Lazar tag, etc. Dinner was at 6 p.m. and praise and worship started around 7 and followed by a prayer time that lasted until 11 or 11:30 most nights. The praise and worship and prayer time each night was truly amazing!!! Each night the Holy Spirit filled this room and the hearts of children and adults were being brokened and humbled. This time truly touched my heart! Lights were out after this time of prayer and then everything started over the next day. Sounds exhausting(it was), but soo much fun! Friday night was our Kidz Blitz at the church. All the apartment kids came to the church for a time of puppet ministry, praise and worship, drama and skits, and a Bible story time. The L.I.T.'s from all 3 churches were in charge of everything. They did a SUPPER job!! All together 50 decisions were made throughout the week-God is truly AMAZING AND WAS AT WORK IN SAN MARCOS, TX!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!! We headed back to Ft. Worth Sat. morning. I was really sad to be leaving, but at the same time was so tired and worn out. This trip really spoke to my heart and challenged me to get out of my comfort zone. If God can use 5th and 6th graders to share the gospel then with His strength and boldness I should be able to do the same thing! I look forward to going back next summer and I already miss seeing my girls every day! They are truly a blessing from God in my life!!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Wives and Daughters
Yesterday I got to visit with my wonderful friend Mindy! A few girls met at her friend Jennifer's apartment to watch an English film called Wives and Daughters. We missed you Ames and hope that you are feeling better, but OMG you have to watch this one-you will love it! Of course to go along with our 5 hr. marathon movie we had yummy finger snacks and beverages! This made English film #2 that we've all gotten together to watch, previously we watched Our Mutual Friend(also 5 hrs.-but good). Hopefully, in the future we will get together and watch many more English films-I can't think of any better way to spend time with friends, eat yummy snacks, and waste 5 hrs. of my time(not a total waste)!
It was sooo good to see you Mindy and spend time with girl friends! Thanks Jennifer for hosting-your place is too cute!
It was sooo good to see you Mindy and spend time with girl friends! Thanks Jennifer for hosting-your place is too cute!
HOME SWEET HOME!
It's soo good to be back in Cow Town-minus the hot and humid weather!! It's also great to have slept in my bed for longer than one night in the past two weeks!! I have been out of town on a mission trip and then I was visiting my wonderful, full of all kinds of energy friend(Elizabeth)and her cute daughter Carly in beautiful San Diego CA. I'll post another blog about those events later when I have all kinds of time to go into great and lengthy detail. It's good to be back in Ft. Worth, though and back to a regular schedule and routine-whatever that means-I'm a teacher and it's summer vacation time for me!
However, today was my first day of Spanish class. I'm taking Spanish 1 from TCC this summer. My class is a Monday-Thursday class from 11:20-1:20 plus 20 hrs. of lab. I think that I'm going to really enjoy this class and hopefully with this class plus many more classes I will become a fluent speaker of espanol! So, if you see me out and about or hear from me ask me to tell you what I'm learning in Spanish bc I need all the practice I can get. Hola! Como estas? Me llamo, Amanda. Como te llamas? Muy bien!
However, today was my first day of Spanish class. I'm taking Spanish 1 from TCC this summer. My class is a Monday-Thursday class from 11:20-1:20 plus 20 hrs. of lab. I think that I'm going to really enjoy this class and hopefully with this class plus many more classes I will become a fluent speaker of espanol! So, if you see me out and about or hear from me ask me to tell you what I'm learning in Spanish bc I need all the practice I can get. Hola! Como estas? Me llamo, Amanda. Como te llamas? Muy bien!
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