Gators, Grandmas and a “Stay-cation”

Have you ever heard of a “stay-cation?” They are actually becoming quite popular these days as the recession is taking its toll on people’s discretionary income. As I’m sure it is not too difficult to figure out, a “stay-cation” is basically a vacation at home.

We are currently enjoying our own “stay-cation” with a little mid-day blogging, DVR watching, walking, talking and seminary. It’s so nice to both be home!

In all actuality, I guess we may not qualify for complete “stay-cation” status, as we have been out of town half of the week. Too bad, I’m still claiming it… We actually settled back into our house yesterday after spending a long weekend in Baton Rouge. Micah headed to Louisiana as planned Thursday night, but I had to stay behind for a last minute appointment on Friday afternoon. Riding in two cars was not ideal, but it was worth it. The torrential downpour that stuck with me throughout the entire five hour lonely car ride was also not ideal, but I made it safe and sound.

Good thing I did, too, because I arrived in Baton Rouge to discover that some amazing friends had offered us a couple of LSU vs. Florida tickets!! I think Micah about soiled his shorts when he found out. These tickets were going for hundreds of dollars on the Internet, but they offered them to us at no charge. The generosity of some people astounds me!

As I’m sure you all know by now, the outcome of the game did not go as hoped, but we still had a blast. The record Tiger Stadium crowd of 93,129 was electric. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there were half a million people on campus that day tailgating! In all my years as a Tiger fan, this was the worst traffic and the most people I have ever seen at LSU. There was also an incredible energy in the air! We got to enjoy some gator jambalaya, run into old friends and watch Tiger Band march down the hill. If only the Tigers had an offense…

After gameday, we had the opportunity for some family time. We visited with my parents, brother and grandmother. Then Monday we caught up with Micah’s grandma and aunt at Coffee Call.

We fit in a little time with Istrouma folks too, spending our first Sunday at our home church in over a year. It was nice to catch up with people, and then to celebrate with some students at Madeline’s birthday party that night. Good times, good times!

Now we’re back at home with the windows shuttered enjoying our little “trip.” I guess I better return to avoiding outside contact with the world…

-Laura

A crew we will never forget

A couple of weekends ago, we got a big treat as some of our Istrouma girls came to visit! I taught these girls in a Sunday small group for several years while they were in middle school. I even coached some of them in 6^th and 7^th grade basketball at St. Luke’s. And now, they’re all grown up! Seriously, we can’t believe they are in 10^th grade now. The best part is that over the years, we’ve watched them grow even closer together as a group – a built-in support system of life-long friends.

 

 

It was wonderful to hear where these girls are now in life, and what all God is doing in them.

We filled the weekend with talking and shopping. Friday, we went to Katy Mills Mall for dinner and store browsing before spending hours playing Catchphrase. Of course, Catchphrase always leaves you with a few memorable outbursts…

Rebekah:  “An ugly cupcake! An ugly cupcake!”

(loooong pause)

Somebody:  “A muffin?”

Rebekah:  “YES!”

 

One of the girls:  “SHE played the wife of that guy on Cheaper By the Dozen!”

Natalie (I think):  “Ashton Kutcher??”

 

Rebekah:  “The opposite of ALLOWED (a loud) fruit!”

Me:  “A quiet fruit?”

(buzzer)

Me:  “Wait, what was the answer?”

Rebekah:  “Forbidden fruit!”

There were lots of others. All credit goes to my sister and brother in law for introducing us to that game. We’ve had a ton of fun playing with adults and students alike!

Saturday we headed to the teenage Mecca of Houston – the Galleria. After a number of hours shopping, we checked out the ice rink and found it a little too crowded. Determined to still have our fun, we headed to Memorial City Mall to enjoy some skating.

Then Micah, Randy and Jessica headed to an Astros game while we girls headed to a dinner theatre. We saw Julie and Julia at Studio Movie Grill where they serve you dinner while you watch.

After the movie, we hung out in our youth building for awhile. It was an odd phenomenon for us to see our students from Baton Rouge enjoying our Houston student building!

We wrapped up the night with some Guitar Hero and more talking.

The girls joined us for church the next morning and then we devoured some Pappasito’s for lunch.

It was extremely hard to say good-bye to these girls who mean so much to me. I have watched them grow up and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them in the years to come. God has blessed them with beauty, brains and dynamic personalities. Although I’m sad not to be able to watch them grow day to day, it thrills me to hear how well they are doing and how close knit they are staying.

Other people we respect in ministry have told us repeatedly that your first crew of students will be ones you never forget. They will be life-long friends and people you keep up with as they grow into adults. I pray hard that this will come true with these girls.  Love you all (even the ones who didn’t get to come to H-Town)!!!

-Laura

On the road again…

We’re back in Tejas now, passing through Beaumont on our way back to Houston.

Today we had a true taste of the Louisiana experience! Fresh boiled crawfish, corn, potatoes, boudin balls, chicken and sausage gumbo, fried catfish and crawfish etouffee. Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is, just thinking about it all again! We picked up this feast with my Dad at Tony’s Seafood, and even managed to walk out with some frozen goodies. That means we’ll get to enjoy a few more Cajun treats sometime down the road. Tony’s has their seafood down to an art form!

Hard to say good-bye to my fam, but we really had a great weekend with them. Walking with Mom, LSU sports, great food, shopping, watching Mike the Tiger, seeing IBC folks, crawfish – a complete weekend!

More about the trip and some fun pictures to come!

-Laura

Syncing up with BR and IBC

A few weeks ago we headed off to the homeland to participate in Istrouma’s Disciple Now Weekend.

Micah spent the weekend with the senior boys. These are actually guys he taught for a few of their middle school DNow weekends. Plus, several of them were in the ISM worship band that Micah led. I know he loved spending time with them!!

 

I spent the weekend with the 6^th grade girls. I didn’t know any of them prior to the weekend, but we had a lot of fun!

 

I also had the chance to catch up with some of my favorite ladies (and meet my new friend Barianne)!

 

Neither of us can believe that these girls are in 9th grade and these guys are about to graduate from high school. I can’t tell you how much it means to us that we get to stay in touch with these awesome students! Watching them grow up has been a lot of fun and getting to minister to them is a privilege. And, of course, through the wonders of modern technology we can keep up with them (and cyber-stalk them!) through Facebook and text messages (which they usually send secretly during school…). We heart our Istrouma students!!!!

Even though it wasn’t for long, we also got to spend a little time with my family. It was great to see everybody!

-Laura

Not much time…

Just a quick post to make sure we don’t bore all of our loyal blog followers. The last couple of weeks have been busy with a trip to Baton Rouge for Istrouma’s Disciple Now weekend, followed by the TBC golf tournament raising money for the mission trip and then a fun trip to Dallas to see friends and see the city.

Pictures from all these things are coming soon, promise! Hopefully I can post before this weekend gets here. Between the 9th graders coming over, another mission meeting and the Final Four, we’ll be busy again! 

Speaking of the Final Four, I’m really excited about the women’s bracket this year. Although LSU’s young team lost in the second round, (and despite the fact that our Texas cable company showed the Baylor and Oklahoma games instead of LSU!!!) the tournament has still held my attention. I’m rooting for Oklahoma in the finals, but they’ll have a tough time against an undefeated and completely amazing UConn. Ugh, sometimes you really have to hate Geno Auriemma!

More to come soon!

-Laura

A little narcissism

There is a trend going around on Facebook right now of people posting their “25 Things About Me.” I have been tagged in a number of these and I’ve actually enjoyed reading several of them, so I figured I would give it a shot.

I actually started this about two weeks ago and then forgot about it, so maybe the first thing on my list should be that I have a short attention span… Even though I technically finished it a few days ago, I decided to add some pictures before posting. Enjoy!

25 Things About Laura

1. I am secretly a “tween” simply posing as a mid-20’s gal. I guess that’s why I get along so well with 6^th, 7^th and 8^th graders!

2. I love all things Hannah Montana/ Miley Cyrus. Yes, I’ve even seen her in concert! My newest “tween” fixation – Selena Gomez. She’s adorable!

 3. I love middle school students. Not in a creepy stalker way, but in a “you’re so cool because you’re so awkward, but awesome and you don’t even know it” kind of way. Working with these students and helping them find their identity in Christ excites me!

 4. Micah and I have known each other since I was in 7^thgrade! We grew up in the same church youth group, but didn’t start dating until college. I always remind our students that they never know who they could fall in love with one day. (The usual response to that is a collective “EWWWWW!”)

 5. Two years ago I was a horrible “texter,” but my text messaging skills have evolved. My girls in Baton Rouge supplied me with a list of “text translations,” so I now know what “g2g,” “BTW” and “OMG” mean (got to go, by the way, omigosh). This form of communication has forced me to loosen up on my obsession with grammar and punctuation, allowing me to write “casual” text messages and blog posts with plenty of ellipses…

 6. I am usually a grammar nazi (code name: Grammar Girl), and often quote AP (Associate Press) Style rules as I’m reading or writing. For instance, I just double checked myself on the use of CapitAl vs. CapitOl (only an “o” when referring to the building!) for #8. So I guess that really makes me an AP Style nazi (that’s what journalists and PR people use).

 7. I can tell you the history of the city of Baton Rouge in detail off the top of my head. It comes from years of writing and re-writing the story for press kits, magazines, web sites, etc.

 8. I worked for the Baton Rouge CVB (travel and tourism) for 3 years, making me passionate about all things in the Capital City. It has also turned me into a well-informed traveler, reading tour books and web reviews before we go anywhere.

 9. I am completely passionate about all things LSU!

 10. I almost didn’t attend LSU… I was VERY close to choosing Auburn University (gasp!). Can you believe I was almost a Plainsman/War Eagle/Tiger??

 11. I can’t wait for LSU football season to start again!

 12. I know more than the average female bear about college football. I credit this to my love for LSU, my “College Gameday” watching husband and my roommate freshman year of college, Kerri.

 13. I pretty much hate watching baseball on TV. Watching live is fun, but a 4-hour game on TV where each team only scores 2 to 6 runs? No thanks. I also chalk this one up to Kerri, who made me watch EVERY Atlanta Braves game on our 13-inch TV in the dorm years ago.

 14. I love epic hour-long TV shows, such as LOST, Heroes and 24. Thank God for DVR, since two of these air at the same time, and the other airs Wednesday nights during youth activities!

 15. DVR is probably the greatest invention of my lifetime! Other shows scheduled to record: Top Chef, The Hills, The Rachel Zoe Project, The City, Divine Design, Smallville, Ugly Betty, Ace of Cakes, The Office, Hannah Montana, Project Runway, How I Met Your Mother and The Biggest Loser. Oh, and any sports show that could have SEC football “season previews!” Many of these shows aren’t airing new episodes right now, but we’re set to record whenever they do!

 16. I love to write (can’t you tell?).

 17. I lived in Jamaica for 2.5 years of my life… but I don’t remember anything because it was the first2.5 years of my life. However, I have been back to JA with my family and on a mission trip. I have great memories from these trips!

 18. I hope to one day live in a place that actually has hills…And houses that have basements.

 19. I loved American Girl dolls as a kid, but was never allowed to have one. I think it’s because I ripped the heads off all my Barbies… I still read all the books, though, and I still secretly pine for a Samantha doll!  

 20. My biggest fear is not being able to have children.

 21. My second biggest fear is actually giving birth to a child!

 22. I love oldies music with a passion! At any given moment, I might just belt out a little diddy by the Temptations, Four Seasons, Peter, Paul & Mary, Diana Ross, etc.

 23. I have always loved Billy Joel music. It reminds me of my Dad whistling along with the songs on long road trips in our Ford Aerostar “minivan.” (I’m not too sure if that thing would still qualify as a minivan, though. It was roughly the size of today’s Ford Excursions or GMC Envoy XL!)  

 24. I can’t help but love pop music. Currently, I am singing Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.” I have even seen the ultimate 90’s pop group, N*SYNC, in concert.

 25. I once bit into a metal ball on a cookie. It messed up my tooth and cost us a lot of money in dental bills. Why was that metal ball on a cookie? I still can’t answer that…

Hotel Cating

Lately our humble abode has turned into a hotel of sorts for visiting friends. We have hosted (and almost hosted) quite a few people in the last couple of months. It’s been great to spend so much time with great friends, and to change up the routine around here a bit.

Some of our favorite visitors have been the Taylors. They are getting ready to move to Katy for the next 6 months or so to work at Bear Creek Baptist, while finishing up the long preparations to go abroad with the IMB.

Doug, Kat, Kylie, Karis and Caleb visited this past weekend along with Kaitlin and Stephanie. It was a great little taste of home and Istrouma!

We adults kept ourselves entertained with crawfish ettouffe and a Texas Dominoes game, “Spinners,” but the kids had more creative ideas for entertainment. 

 

As his sisters struck their modeling poses, Caleb decided to show us his own version of Derrick Zoolander’s “Blue Steel.”

 

 Even in the Spiderman pajamas, doesn’t he look ready for the catwalk?

The Hotel Cating is open for business, so book your stay early if you want in!

-Laura

Back in the Big BR

The blog has been quiet lately, but Christmas time has been busy for us, as I’m sure it has been for all of you!

We are in Baton Rouge this weekend, visiting my family and seeing friends. We had a good Christmas here and in Houston. Soon I’ll have to post pictures from our NEW CAMERA of all our Christmas celebrations.

Tonight is the “Istrouma Reunion,” where all of us “old folks” from the IBC youth group get together and catch up. It’s always great to see people we grew up with, and even some who Micah taught as a youth intern in college. I’m sure we’ll chat about Ricky Young, Steve Masters, Bro. Wayne, Forrest Pollock, Jay Fletcher, Mark Roberts, Steve Spence, Sherry Spillman, Clay Holcomb, etc. Always a good time to get together and reminisce!

-Laura

Sneauxing in the South!

Last night as we let the students out of Refuel, our Wednesday night middle school Bible study, we heard cries of “SNOW!!!!!!” Sure enough, we walked outside and were immediately hit with snowballs in the parking lot.

Micah getting attacked by some of our 6th and 7th grade girls.

Alicia and Paige pull snow for snowballs off Micah’s car.

Micah’s Blazer

Snow falling by the street lamp

Micah helping Kate stay warm – our students weren’t dressed for snow!

While we had gotten a little taste of the snow earlier in the day, this was the real deal.

Of course, while we got just a little bit of snow, our family and friends in Baton Rouge got a pretty good amount this morning.

Tiger Stadium and “Victory Hill” in the snow

The Oaks and Arches of LSU’s quad covered in snow!

The Mass Comm school (my college) at LSU

Mike the Tiger playing in the snow!

My girl Madeline and the snow in her neighborhood

Nick and Garrett Ellison and their snowman

This doesn’t happen too often down here, so we’re happy that we got to experience a little “White Christmas!”

-Laura

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ugh. Being sick sucks! I’m home alone tonight fighting off a fever and sore throat. So, I’m sacked out on the couch with the cat curled up next to me (I wish I could sleep as easily as he does!), watching Top Chef and eating chicken noodle soup.

Anyway, lots to catch up on! First of all, Micah already posted about our weekend in Baton Rouge; but I have to add that we really had such an AWESOME time! I can’t tell you how much I love these girls -

 

Seeing them and catching up with all that’s going on in their lives was great. By the way, girls, I’m still waiting on those Homecoming pictures!!! Ok, I just had to get that off my chest. All in all, seeing family, IBC folks, Acy & Christian, Lindsey & Austin, Brian & Chipley, Katie, etc. – it was great!

Some exciting news to report – the Taylors are coming to Houston/ Katy! Doug has taken a job as an interim youth minister at a great church in Katy just down the road from us. We’re excited that Doug, Kat and the kids will be so close to us soon while they complete the lengthy application process for the IMB to go abroad as missionaries.

Alright, back to a new episode of Top Chef! More to come…

-Laura