Zack Attack

Are you a child of the 80’s or 90’s? If so, I can guarantee you’ll appreciate this!

Mark Paul Gosselaar has not changed a BIT in 20 years! (Thanks for sending this to me Katie!)

-Laura

HSM at Tallowood

Schools in our area are wrapping up their year this week. In fact, I think many of our Tallowood students are having their last day of school today. It’s an exciting time of year for students and teachers as they look forward to a little relaxation, some welcomed boredom and some extra sunshine.

In youth ministry, however, this is the busiest time of the year! Micah has been swamped with preparations for camp, mission trips, JAM Days, etc. and I’ve been following right along doing what I can to help. It’s so exciting to think that we’ll be heading to Israel in a month and 10 days! And it’s hard to believe that we will be at camp in just over a WEEK! (Or at least Micah will be. We’re still not quite sure if everything will work out for me…)

Each year, as part of his camp preparation, Micah orchestrates a “Camp Rules” video. The rules are pretty simple (no weapons, no cell phone, no iPods, no changing tribes, etc), but Micah finds a new way to communicate the same old message each year. The theme of this year’s video? High School Musical!

Some of our seniors and the youth interns did a great job portraying the main characters. They even did some “spontaneously” choreographed dances! And, both Micah and I had some cameos. All I can show you for now is these pictures because Micah is still putting the actual video together…

 Peter and Joel as “Chad” and “Zeke”

Allyson and JT as “Sharpay” and “Ryan”

Katy as “Kelsey”

Jeff as “Troy Bolton”

Katherine, JT and Claire as “Taylor,” “Ryan” and “Gabriella.”

Allyson as “Sharpay” again

…but, here’s a link to the rules video from last year to give you an idea!

-Laura

The Big D

A couple of weeks ago we drove up to Dallas for a weekend away. We needed a break and the Big D was appealing for a few reasons.

Yes, we are a bit nerdy and our main reason for heading to Dallas was to see a museum exhibit. Not just any exhibit, though. It was the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. For those of you who don’t know, Micah was a world history teacher for four years and became completely obsessed with all things Egypt. Of course, any lessons on the ancient world gave Micah the opportunity to teach a little Biblical history at his public school, but he also just always loved Egypt.

So, we journeyed to Dallas late on Thursday night after a church event. We checked into our hotel and rested up for a big day. On Friday, we met up with Jacob and Charis – our newly-relocated friends from Tallowood and one of our other main reasons for choosing Dallas - for lunch before the two of us headed off to dive into the world of Tutankhamen.

Micah dwarfed by the giant Anubis statue outside the museum

Although we couldn’t take pictures inside the exhibit, let’s just say that we thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes, we stayed about an hour and a half past closing time – much to the chagrin of all the employees.

My eyes right next to Tut’s (Micah was being artsy…)

The bust of King Tut, which we saw on display!

 Tut’s burial mask unfortunately doesn’t travel with the exhibit anymore. But the look-alike canopic jar (where they put his brain, kidneys, intestines, etc.) was incredibly intricate!

Micah with a fake sarcophagus in the gift shop (as the employees were waiting to escort us out!)

That night, we met back up with Charis and Jacob to enjoy our third major reason for heading to Dallas – a Mavericks game. We were thrilled to watch Dirk Nowitzki, LSU alum Brandon Bass, and Jason Terry ball… even though they were taken down in the end by a pretty dominate Carmello Anthony and the Denver Nuggets.

Victory Plaza outside the American Airlines Center (packed with fans on game night, but this was actually the day after)

Saturday we enjoyed exploring downtown Dallas and took our own little mini-tour of the city. We later decided that there was one more museum we just couldn’t miss (we’re such tourists!). So, we headed to the older side of downtown to the Texas School Book Depository… otherwise known as the Sixth Floor Museum… otherwise known as the place where President John F. Kennedy was assasinated.

The Texas School Book Depository.  The arrow marks the window that Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK from.  That entire floor is now the musuem.

This museum has been highly touted and it certainly met our expecations. The place was packed and we took about three and a half hours to tour the whole place. We’re nerds, we know, but we loved it!

Outside on the road, two X’s mark the spots where Kennedy was shot.  Crazy people stand in the middle of the street to have their picture taken despite the oncoming traffic…

Micah was one of them!

Laura on the Grassy Knoll.

After a long two days with lots of walking and sightseeing, we headed back to Houston on Saturday night. It was a short vacation, but getaways are rare for us, so we take what we can get!!

-Laura

Get in Shape Girl!

Does anybody remember this great little toy from the 80’s?

 

 

Well, I do. I used to dress up in my leotard, tights, legwarmers and sweat band, and impress everyone with my amazing ability to dance in rhythm with my ribbon-on-a-stick. I honestly thought I would wind up in the next Olympics doing some ribbon dancing and lots of twirling.

 

 Over the last few decades, we have moved on as a society. Newer versions of many classic 80’s toys have emerged. The latest and greatest version of the “Get in Shape Girl” must be the Wii Fit.

Thanks to my wonderful husband, I now own this great new toy! We are now hula hooping, skiing, snowboarding and aerobicizing with the best of them.

-Laura

Weathering the Storm

Well, today was a great day.  Friday is normally a day off for me and Laura and today was no different except that everyone else had it off too in order to prepare for Ike.  We decided to spend the day cleaning out our garage which was half full of junk from when we moved in.  There were boxes of our Christmas stuff, my lawn equipment (which I don’t use here thanks to our mowing guys!), some typical outdoor things, and lots of broken down boxes from when we moved in that I just stacked against the wall.  Lazy, I know!  Anyway, I have been putting this off for two main reasons: (1) it is hot outside. (2) there are a few roaches in our garage.  Gross!  And unfortunately these roaches had made their home in those boxes stacked against the wall.  So this morning, I got up and headed outside to face my fear.  I got the roach spray, some gloves, and a lot of courage and began grabbing boxes and moving them out of the way.  As I did this, those little suckers came running out and I am proud to say that they were met with a blast of roach spray and a firm stomp from me.  Anyway, I killed one BIG roach and about 12 baby roaches today.  And now our garage is roach free!  I know… I’m a man!

 (Raid… it saved my life today!)

After the roaches were gone, Laura came out and helped me organize the garage so that we could fit both of our cars in it.  Crazy idea, huh?  It seems everyone in Katy thinks a garage is for storing your junk and not for housing your cars.  Luckily, Laura and I are now no longer among those folks and our cars are safe from Ike!

Now, we’re just waiting for Ike.  There are already some major winds outside and our feline friend, Dusty, is very nervous.  It is supposed to really hit us here around 1 am, but until then we have played some MarioKart on the Wii and been entertained by the local news coverage, not to mention some quick checks on FoxNews to see if Geraldo is making a fool of himself.  He got knocked down by waves earlier today.  It was classic!  Take a look…

Well, that’s all for now.  We’ll keep you posted.

-Micah