The Rodgers Family

Trip to San Antonio and other stuff

2009-09-21T20:09:00.003-05:00

This past weekend we made a quick trip to San Antonio. Things didn't go very well.

Our plans were to pick up the RV from Scott's parents and bring it home, but that didn't work out. The outlets, air conditioner, and refrigerator weren't working. We didn't know if it was something little like a switch turned off that we couldn't find, or if it was something major. So we decided not to bring it back with us. We were all pretty disappointed. Then last night we received a call from Scott's mom saying she thinks they found out what the problem was and plan to bring it to us October 5th! So who knows, maybe we'll still get the RV afterall. I hope so b/c we've planned a big camping trip in October with some friends.

Another bad thing that happened is my good friend ended up in the hospital due to a miscarriage. :( We took her oldest daughter, who is Kimberly's best friend, to dinner and ice cream that night. I have to say that night was the one good thing about our trip. My other good friend and her family met us for dinner and ice cream. We were going to try to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, but the 3D version was way too expensive for us. The regular version was playing too late. We ended up having a good time though.

We came back home Saturday night. Sunday our Church voted to build a family life building. So that's going to be real exciting.

Scott left today to head to Waco to meet a couple of his buddies to see the David Crowder band for their CD release party. He was so excited. He'll be back tomorrow.

Today we watched old home video's. That was kind of fun. Now we're watching Dancing With the Stars.

Our house stinks. We've got to have someone come clean our carpet.

That's the latest update. :)

Pam

Surprise! It's me! :)

2009-09-15T22:03:00.002-05:00

I hadn't posted in awhile b/c I admit, I had become a Facebook junky. However, I was reminded the other day by a friend that not all of my friends are on Facebook and some people have actually missed reading my blog posts. (Thank you Emily for pointing that out;)

Instead of telling you everything that we've been up to the past couple of months, I'm just going to start from right now. If you have any questions about the past couple of months then you can ask me and I'll answer them. :)

Today we did school, chores, then took Kirsten to dance. She is REALLY enjoying her dance class. Then we went to Wal-Mart and Whataburger. When we got home we watched 2 LOST episodes. We've been watching it again, this time with the girls since we have clearplay. It's fun watching it with them.

It's 10:13 pm and I'm wide awake. I didn't have any caffeine free Dr.Pepper so I had a regular one not too long ago.

There is one piece of big news that I wanted to share. We bought a car the other day. It's a 2004 Ford Expedition. It's really nice.

So there's the update for today. I'm going to try to update regularly again. Sorry for my little hiatus.

Pam

The Summer time craziness continues

2009-07-23T15:26:00.002-05:00

I'm SO sorry I haven't updated the blog in awhile. I have been crazy busy.

A couple of weeks ago me, Scott and Kimberly went with the youth to Kentucky for a World Changers mission trip. It was ALOT of work, but SO MUCH fun!! My crew resided a house. Scott's crew built a deck and helped us. Kimberly's crew painted and built a deck. It was great being out there helping others. I posted alot of pictures on Facebook so check them out.

Meanwhile here at home maw maw took care of the rest of the Rodgers gang. They about did her in, but everyone had a great time and she survived. LOL

Tomorrow me and Kirsten leave for Children's Camp in Lone Star. We're taking 56 kids to camp this year! Kirsten is so excited to go. I, on the other hand, am sick! I have a terrible cold. I'm not looking forward to dealing with this and camp life at the same time. Hopefully I will get over it soon so I can enjoy camp. Pray for me. :)

Youth Camp/5K walk/birthday parties

2009-06-27T16:57:00.010-05:00

This past week Kimberly and I went to the Piney Woods youth camp. We had so much fun! I posted a bunch of camp pictures on Facebook.

This morning there was a 5K walk It Challenge. Alot of the Weight Watcher members got together to do it. I had planned on running, but it was way too hot.

After the walk we came back home and got ready for Katherine and Kyrie's birthday party. They had a swim party over at Ronnie and Sue Jones's house.

It's been a busy day full of alot of fun activities.

Day 2 of reunion

2009-06-20T22:55:00.002-05:00

We began the day by going to Wal-Mart and getting new tires for the van and shopping for lunch supplies. Then we got to my friend’s house where we all met back up. The first thing we did was we all sat down and one by one told what we had been doing since college. Where we’d lived, our jobs, our kids, then a funny road trip we’d had. It was so neat to hear what all has happened in everyone’s lives over the past 17 years. Then we ate lunch and visited some more. About 3:00 we went to the neighborhood pool and swam. That was fun. Then we came back to the house for a group picture then we had to head out so we said our final goodbye’s.

Today was so much fun!! I enjoyed it more than I can put into words. I was sad to see it come to an end. Scott and I were talking about it was like being in Heaven sitting around for hours talking with good Christian friends who meant so much to us and had such an important part in our college lives. I thank God for them and can’t wait to see them again someday.

I have several pictures posted on Facebook of the weekend.

BSU reunion

2009-06-19T22:41:00.003-05:00

We are in Denton right now for a BSU reunion. We got in town around 4:00. My mom met us at the hotel to pick up the 4 younger kids. She is taking them for the week since Kimberly and I will be going to youth camp Monday and Scott has to work all week.

After we got ready to go to our friends house we walked out to the van and noticed our back tire was really low. Thankfully there was a convience store right next to the hotel so we were able to air up the tire a bit and buy some Fix a Flat. We still weren't sure if there was a hole in the tire or if it just low so we drove to our friends house without putting the Fix a Flat in. Well when we got there we got out of the car only to hear a loud hissing coming from the tire and watched as it slowly became flat.

We went ahead and went inside to our friends house and visited with everyone for awhile. Then we went out and put the Fix a Flat in the tire and drove to another convience store to put more air in the tire. Two of our friends drove along with us this time in case we needed any help.

When we got to this place we realized real quick we definetly had a big hole in the tire and the Fix a Flat wasn't going to work. We figured we could make it to the restaurant though before it went totally flat. So we took off and made it just in time.

We went inside and had a wonderful time visiting with everyone and talking about old times. When we left the restaurant Scott went ahead and changed the tire and put on our donut. Tomorrow we'll go to Wal-Mart and get a new tire before we head back over to our friends house.

So it's been a fun, exciting trip so far. :)

Surprise birthday party for Scott

2009-06-18T12:04:00.004-05:00

Tuesday is Scott's birthday. Since me and Kimberly will be at youth camp and the other kids will be at my moms we decided to surprise him with a little party.

This morning we got up and went into town to pick up the cake, decorations, and presents. Then we made it home and got everything ready with 15 minutes to spare before Scott came home for lunch.

The kids each picked out what they wanted to give him. (I have a feeling they were picking what they would want instead of what he would want. LOL) The present I got him was a bunch of old Justice League comic books. He used to love reading comic books when he was a kid. I thought this would be a fun gift for him.

Happy Birthday honeybaby!!

Vacation Bible School

2009-06-16T20:56:00.008-05:00

Last week we had our VBS. It went really well. I worked with the 3rd-4th graders. My job was to do the Bible Study time then just take them to the different activities which included music, missions, recreation, snacks and crafts. The theme was the Australian Outback. Here were some pictures of our week.

It began with us decorating our room. We tried to make our room look like the outside of a sheep shack.

Here are before and during pictures of the decorating process.

Each morning the kids would line up outside then march in for the worship rally.

Worhsip Rally

Craft time

My class

I actually had a bunch more pictures I wanted to post, but I'm having trouble with the computer so I'll just stop for now.

Prayer Garden Phase 1 Complete!

2009-05-23T18:54:00.007-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we decided we wanted to create a prayer garden in our backyard. We wanted to have a nice place where we could go to sit and have quiet times or just relax and read a book.

We have alot of plans on how we want the finished garden to look, but today we completed Phase 1. :)

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago when we first began the big task of clearing out all the brush.

Then this is what we did today.

Sunday School Fellowship

2009-05-22T22:11:00.004-05:00

Tonight we had a Sunday School fellowship over at our friends Sean and Kelly's house. Sean cooked everyone a wonderful meal, then we played the game spouseology. It's a game kinda like the newlywed game where it asks questions to see how well you know your spouse. You can also do things for extra credit. Like at one point Chris had to put lipstick on Lacy with socks on his hands. It was alot of fun.

Homeschool Camp

2009-05-17T13:45:00.025-05:00

This past week we went to a Homeschool Camp in Arkansas. It was alot of fun. Even though it was a little bit different then we were expecting, we still had a good time. It got us excited to plan a homeschool camp here in Texas next year! :)

So the first day we left it was raining really, really, really hard on the way. I was worried it was going to be like that the whole trip, but it wasn't. :)

When we arrived we sat around and got to visit with our friends The Jablonski's. We also spent time playing with the kids on the swingset and playground area and checked out our dorms.

We had a worship service, then played a fun scavenger hunt game so everyone could get to know each other.

Then afterwards it was time to call it a night at the dorms. Kimberly brought our devotional for that night.

The next morning we got up and had a morning devotional. Then ate breakfast and went to our Bible Study classes.

Here is Kyrie and Christopher's class. I felt kind of bad for Kyrie though since she was the only girl.

This was Kirsten and Katherine's class.

Here was Kimberly's class. I couldn't believe how many youth were there.

After classes they had a putt putt tournament. Katherine and Taylor Jablonski were on a team. They won first place!!!!!! Our little Kit Kat beat all the adults and teens! We were soooooooooooo proud of her!!
Christopher LOVED playing putt putt. After every meal he would grab a putter and ball and go play.
I don't have any pictures of the actual tournament, but I took pictures at other times of them playing. The monkey's were the first place prize for the tournament.

Later that day they had a kickball tournament. Scott, Kimberly, and Kirsten were on the winning team. :)

At one point we went hiking. It was sooooooooooo beautiful! There were actual caves there! We didn't dare go into them, but it was cool to look at the outside of them.

We had services again that night, then had a movie night. We watched Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was fun watching it with everybody.

The next day was filled with alot of fun. After the morning classes we went to the lake. We hiked, had lunch out there, then stuck our feet in the water. Some people acutally swam but the water was like ice! I thought they were crazy!!

On our way back to the camp we stopped at an overlook at Greers Ferry Dam. It was a beautiful site.

Once we got back to the camp. We rested a bit then got ready for worship services. After the service they had a ping pong tournament and a volleyball game. Scott made it to the final round in the tourny but he lost. :(

Me, Scott and Chris took some time to play a few games of foose ball during the tourny.

Good friends were made. Katherine met a little girl named Sarah. She's from Mississippi. They were inseperable. It was so sad seeing them say goodbye to each other. Kyrie had fun with her buddy Chelsea. Kimberly met a girl named Melanie that was real sweet.

We had a great time, but were ready to come home. :)

Katherine and Kyrie's Dance Recital

2009-05-17T08:10:00.005-05:00

Last night was the moment the girls have been working toward all year. They had their big dance recital! They did so well. I was very proud of them. It was at the Marshall Civic Center. That place was PACKED!!!! I thought for sure they would nervous, but they weren't. Not at all! It was amazing!

I was so impressed with JazzLine Dance studio. I've never seen anything this big, with kids involved, run so smoothly!

Here are pictures of the girls on Friday night before the dress rehearsal.

Here they are after their performances.

Here's Kyrie with her best friend Natalie.

Ladies Night Out

2009-05-03T14:43:00.003-05:00

Last night I attended our monthly ladies night out with some of the ladies at my Church. It was sooooooo much fun! We went to eat at Jalapeno Tree. While we were there we revealed who was our secret sister this year. (We were each given a name in the Fall and have been praying for that person and sending them gifts once a month annonymously.) It was so much fun listening to all the stories of how some had figured out who their sister was and what some did with the gifts they received. Our poor waiter was having the hardest time getting our attention to take our orders b/c we were laughing and talking so loud.

Then we went back to the Church for some delicious dessert one of the ladies made. While we were there we did the final exchange of gifts. It was the perfect ending to the perfect night.

I'm so thankful for the ladies who attend ladies night out. I have gotten to know them in a way that I never would have had they not been coming, since several of us travel in different circles. I look forward to hearing all their stories each month and catching up with them.

I love these ladies and can't wait until we start back up in August!

Slumber Party

2009-05-02T15:13:00.009-05:00

Last night I had Kimberly's friends from our homeschool group over to celebrate the end of the year. We had pizza and did our nails. Then we did something fun where we blindfolded someone, then they had to put make up on someone else. It was hilarious!

After that they had a High School Musical movie marathon. They watched part 1,2 and 3 last night!! I think they finally got to sleep around 4:00 this morning. LOL

Here's pics from the party.

Girls Weekend Getaway

2009-04-26T16:35:00.005-05:00

Friday me and my friends Donna and Laura all took off to Dallas for a weekend of fun and relaxation.

Donna and I left Friday and met Laura there. After we got settled into our hotel room we went out to dinner at Chilli's. Then we went and saw the movie 17 Again. It was sooooooooooooooo good!!!!!

Then we headed back to the hotel for a girls slumber party and acted like we were 17 again. LOL

Saturday morning we got up, got ready and headed out the door by 9:00am. Our first stop Sam Moon! It was me and Donna's first time to ever go to a Sam Moon. Oh my Goodness!! That store is every woman's dream!!!! It was a bit overwhelming at first, but we soon found our way through it all and found a bunch of stuff to buy. :) Thankfully we had an appt to get massages at 12:15 or else we would have been there all day. LOL

So we left there and headed to the Body and Sole spa. We each got a 1 hour Swedish Massage. I'd like to say it was very relaxing and enjoyable, which is how some of it was. However, alot of it was us getting beaten and bruised. They were so rough at times! Donna literally has bruises on her back where they pushed her so hard. It was definetly an experience. LOL

Then we headed to Grapevine Mills Mall. We shopped there until dinner time. We left and ate dinner at Olive Garden then headed back to the hotel. We arrived at 9:00pm. We were exhausted from the big day of shopping. However, we were up to night two of a girls slumber party. :)

We left Dallas around 11:00 and headed home. But first we decided to make a quick stop in Terrell for one last shopping spree at the Tanger Outlet mall. Then we headed home.

We had a great time. Thank you Lord for good friends and a wonderful husband who let me go away with them. I'm rested and rejuvinated and ready to be a mom to my kids and wife again to my husband. :)

Evidence of our shopping spree.

Then it was time to relax with some chocolate.

Yes, I fell off of the wagon this weekend. I couldn't find any caffeine free Dr.Peppers so I had no choice but to drink the hard stuff.

So then the craziness began.

Sci Port

2009-04-16T14:43:00.012-05:00

Yesterday we went to Sci Port in Shreveport. It's a big Discovery type museum that has all kinds of eduational things for the kids to do and learn. The CHEC group had organized for us to go to a demonstration by a Palentologist for the kids to learn about fossils and how they find them. Before that though we were able to go through the whole place and experience all the museum had to offer. I took tons of pictures! So beware this post will be picture heavy. :)

Easter

2009-04-16T13:40:00.007-05:00

I'm finally getting around to posting more of what we did this past Saturday and Sunday. Saturday after the community egg hunt we came home and decorated our eggs to be hid Sunday morning.

Sunday morning the kids woke up to see their presents.

Then it was time to hunt the eggs! Since it was raining outside we had to do it inside.

Then it was time to go to Church and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!!

We had a great Easter!

Community Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-11T12:30:00.009-05:00

Today was the community wide Easter egg hunt put on by our Church. It was alot of fun for the kids. They had different game booths, a blow up thing, a band playing, then a big egg hunt after Scott shared the gospel. I hung out with Chris so most of my pictures are of him. Kirsten took care of Kyrie and Katherine, while Kimberly worked the cupcake walk.

Fishing Game

Duck Pond

Ring Toss

Getting a tattoo

Cupcake walk

Kimberly's job during the cupcake walk was to play music for it. So she sat in a car and turned the music on and off. She had fun getting to sit down the whole time listening to Toby Mac. LOL

Everyone enjoying the booths

Rock climbing up the blow up thingy....

...then sliding down.

The most touching thing happened. There was a girl who had special needs who had been trying to get up the wall. However, even with the help from her mom she just couldn't do it. Well some people from our Church stepped up and all worked together to help her up. I was fighting back the tears as I was watching it. Then when I got home to tell Scott what happened I just couldn't hold them back anymore. It was the most beautiful thing I witnessed seeing everyone work together so this girl could have some fun.

Then it was time to hear Scott give the gospel presentation.

Then came time to hunt the eggs! Kyrie found a prize egg! She won a sand bucket with shovels in it. Perfect for when we go to the lake this summer!!

Now it's candy eating time! :) The perfect end to a great time!

ETHF Easter Party

2009-04-09T15:06:00.009-05:00

Today was the Easter party with the East Texas Homeschool Friends homeschool group. We had such a good time!!

We started out at Kilgore park playing a couple of egg games. I had everyone break up into 4 divisions. There were the adults, 6th grade on up, Kinder-5th grade, then 0-4yrs.

The first game was a relay race where the teams had to run with a spoon in their mouth carrying a hard boiled egg. I won out of the adults. :)

Then we played the classic egg toss game with raw eggs. It was funny b/c one of the youth had his egg bust all over his face!

We were just about to play an egg clue relay race when two school buses pulled up. The lady with the school came up to us and said they had reserved that pavillion. I felt bad that I didn't even think about reserving it or seeing if it had been reserved. We've always met at this park every Thursday for the past couple of months and never had a problem. Anyway, everyone in ETHF was so wonderful. They all pitched in and gathered everything up in about 5 minutes. We then headed to a different park in Kilgore to continue the party.

Once there we played the egg clue relay race.

Next came cookie decorating time. The kids did that while the adults hid eggs for them to find.

Before we ended the day I wanted to say a few words about what Easter is all about. The egg games and all are fun, but it was Christ dieing on the cross for our sins and being raised from the dead that makes Easter so special. I shared how our family plans on celebrating Good Friday tomorrow and issued a challenge for them to do the same. At 6:00am Jesus was being tried. Then he began the walk to Golgatha. So we're going to take a short walk as a reminder of what he did. At 9:00 he was nailed to the cross. People mocked him and called him names. So we're going to think of all the wonderful names to call him. Then sing a praise song. At noon scripture says everything became dark. So we're going to turn off all the lights in the house and close the blinds and try to make it was dark as we can. At 3:00 Jesus died. We're going to read Psalm 22 at that time.

I told them all this, then closed us in a word of prayer.

It was a wonderful day! I'm so thankful for this group. :)

Quick letterboxing trip

2009-04-05T22:10:00.002-05:00

I got a notice that Blue Butterfly planted some boxes in Longview. I couldn't wait to go find them so I loaded the kids up in the car and headed out to the trail. I only had about an hour before Kimberly's Bible Study started so it was a fast trip. The kids were real troopers though and humored their mom as she partook in her obsession. LOL

We found 2 boxes. There was a creek nearby. The kids went and played by it while I was stamping in. Pretty soon I heard "Oh NO!" Kirsten had been trying to kick a rock into the creek, but instead kicked her whole shoe in there!! It was drenched! LOL

We had a good time.

I feel like such a trader

2009-04-04T20:38:00.002-05:00

We did something desperate today. Since we've found just about all the letterboxes around our house we tried something I didn't think I would ever do. I checked out the geocaching website. I was shocked to discover there are close to 100 caches within a 15 mile radius of our house!! So today we set out and found our first geocache. We attempted 2 other's but couldn't find them. I still like letterboxing better, but at least I was able to get a taste of the "high" I get from letterboxing. :)

In case anyone reading doesn't know what geocaching is, it's like letterboxing, however you use a GPS to find the cache. Once you find it there is a little "treasure" of sorts in it. You can take the treasure if you want, but then you have to replace it with a treasure of your own. The one we found today we got a little flashlight out of. We replaced it with a bracelet.

Pam

FA

2009-04-04T08:39:00.007-05:00

Last night Kimberly and Kirsten celebrated their 2 year friendship anniversary with their best friends Kimberly and Taylor Jablonski. :) They came over around 4:00. They exchanged gifts. Kimberly and Kirsten got them best friend necklaces. Kimberly and Taylor gave my girls chocolate. Yum! Then Scott took them to Shogun's for dinner. Kimberly and Taylor had never been there before.

Meanwhile at home, Katherine did her own celebrating with her best friends Emma and Haylea who also came over. We had pizza for our dinner. They had so much fun dancing and playing dress up.

When the older girls got back they played for awhile, ate some smores, then had a movie marathon. They watched High School Musical 3, Beverly Hills Chi Wa Wa, then Bolt. The younger girls made it half way through Chi Wa Wa before falling asleep. The older one's made it half way through Bolt. :)

Scott and I had our own movie watching experience. He watched the chick flick "Must Love Dogs" with me in our room. :)

It was a great night for all of us. It's now 8:50am. Just about 1 more hour until the parents begin to arrive to pick up their girls and take them home. My girls will be sad to see it come to an end.

Best Friends

Picnic then dress up time

This is when Christopher decided to do his own thing. Thank goodness he didn't want to play dress up. :)

What's a slumber party without a good pillow fight?

Dancing

Getting ready for the movie marathon!

Nursing Home

2009-04-02T21:09:00.005-05:00

Today we went with a few families from our homeschool group to a nursing home in Kilgore. The kids all did a little presentation for them. Some of them sang songs, other's read scripture and poems. Kimberly played the piano. It was a real special time. Cathy, the leader of our group sang a very beautiful song and dedicated it to one of the husband's of a lady who is in our group. He is a resident there in the nursing home now since he's had a stroke. It was very touching. It made me cry.

This was the first time my kids have ever been to a nursing home. It was an eye opening experience for them and very special. I know it meant alot to the residents too b/c several of them were crying during the presentation too. :)

Kirsten sang "Come Thy Fount of Every Blessing"

Katherine sang "Twinkle, twinkle Little Star"

Kimberly played "I am Bound for the Promised Land"

William, Cathy's son, read a few verses from the Bible.

Here Cathy was singing that song. I don't remember the title of it but it was talking about how your never alone b/c God is always right there with you through the good times and bad.

After the presentation the kids passed out cards they had made and visited with some of the residents.

When we left the nursing home we went to McDonalds for lunch. Here are some of the girls hanging out.

Letterboxing in Henderson

2009-03-21T20:56:00.005-05:00

Today we had a wonderul day of letterboxing! We first went to the Depot Museum. It was a neat little museum that had alot of things from the 1800's and showed how people lived back then. There were 3 boxes hidden inside the museum!

After that we went to Forest Park. It was such a beautiful day to be at a park. We had a picnic, then the kids played and played and played while I stamped in to the 2 boxes that we found at the park. :) Kyrie made a little friend almost immediately. It was so cute watching them walk around the park holding hands.

After the park we made a quick stop at a roadside park where we got another box.

Then it was off to another park. Unfortunetly the crepe myrtles the box was hidden in had been cut down. So the box was gone. :( We still had fun there at that park though. :)

Then we headed to Zion Hill Cemetery about 11 miles outside of Henderson. That is where Scott's Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers' are buried. We decided to hide a box there in their honor. It is such a peaceful cemetery. Scott and I decided today that this is where we want to be buried when it's our time. :)

By this time we had been gone boxing almost 7 hours. We decided a good way to end this day was to go to Ci Ci's pizza! It was kind of funny b/c the kids were filthy, but we didn't care. :)

It was a great day!

Day 4 of the trip

2009-03-13T09:32:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we came home. We got up at 5:00am. We turned in the rental car and made it to the airport with no problems. It was raining, but the flight was really smooth. In fact, it was so cool! Underneath the clouds it was all grey and yucky, however above the clouds the sun was really shinning and the clouds were white. It was beautiful! Like a totally different world.

When we landed in Dallas we only had like 10 minutes to get to our connecting flight gate. I felt like we were on the amazing race running through the airport. It was kind of fun. :)

We made it back to Longview by 10:15. It was nice being home.

Tomorrow night will officially be the last step to our special trip. Scott is going to take Kirsten out on a date where she will sign a purity contract promising to wait until she's married to have sex. At that time he will be presenting her with a purity ring that she will wear until her wedding day when she will hand it to her husband on their wedding night. :)

Pam

Day 3 of the special trip

2009-03-11T21:52:00.002-05:00

Today Kirsten and I went to Sea World. We had a good time, but it was FREEZING!!! Thankfully my bff Abbie came to the rescue and let us borrow some jackets since we didn't pack any.

When we left Sea World we came back to the hotel and took some hot baths to freshen up. Then we went over to Abbie's house for a nice home cooked meal. It tasted so good! Especially after all the eating out we've been having to do. It was nice to have some real food for a change. :)

After dinner Kirsten and I went to see a movie. We saw Hotel for Dogs. It was a cute movie.

Now we are about to call it a night. We have to get up EARLY in the morning to catch our first flight home. That plane leaves at 7:30am! Which means I have to get the rental car turned in and get us checked in in time to catch that plane. Our connecting flight in Dallas leaves at 9:20.

It's going to be a wild, crazy, busy morning, but at least I'll be back home by 10:30 and I can rest a few hours before having to go to work. :(

I'm sad to see our trip come to an end. It is one Kirsten and I will never forget. :)

Pam

Day 2 of Pam and Kirsten's trip

2009-03-10T20:44:00.015-05:00

What a wonderful, fun filled day!

It began with us waking up and eating some breakfast at the hotel. Then we went back up to the room to begin our sessions for the day.

Session 1 of today was when the big secret was revealed. I asked her before we began what she thought sex was. She said she thought it was when someone really loved somebody else alot and they kiss. I told her there was a bit more to it than that. LOL Here is a picture of her before she heard what sex was:

Here she is at the exact moment she found out what it was:

It was so funny. Here are her exact words. "That is so gross! That is so gross! That is so gross! Why did God have to do it like that? I don't want to have a baby now if I have to do that. I don't want to hear about this anymore. I can't believe you and daddy do that!" LOL

I plan on showing this picture at her bridal shower along with her exact words. :)

After we had the talk we did an activity called "Burned Up." I had her light a match, then try to light it again. Of course, it wouldn't work. That was showing it's like once you've lost your virginity there's no going back. You can only lose it once. Then I had her try to light a match that was in a cup in some water. Of course she was unable to light it. The water was protecting the unlit match. Like the water, if we reach out to God he will give us the strength we need to protect us from the flame of temptation when it comes at us.

The next session focused on staying pure. We did an exercise with a balloon where she would poke small holes in it. Each time a little stream of water would come out. Pretty soon the balloon was totally empty and broken. This exercise represented how if you go out with a boy and you give him just a little kiss then your giving a small part of yourself away. If ya'll break up then you do that with another boy then you've given even more of yourself. This goes on and on until finally you'd have nothing left to give your husband on your wedding night.

I got drenched with a busted balloon.

After this project we went to La Cantera shopping center. That is such a cool place!!

Then it was time to get our nails done! It was Kirsten's first time! It was my first time to get my finger nails done. It was neat.

Here's Kirsten's toes and fingers.

My toes and fingers.

Then it was off to Cool Cuts for Kids. Kirsten wanted to get her hair cut.

Here is the before picture:

And the after:

Behind picture:

After the haircut we went shopping to try to find her some clothes, but we struck out. Then we ate dinner at Chili's, and headed back to the hotel for our final session.

This session talked about dating. We did an exercise where we had two different pieces of paper. You could rub then together and nothing bad happened to them. If you put some glue on them and put them together then tried to peal them apart they didn't tear but they were messy. Then I had her pull apart some pieces that I had glued together earlier in the night. They tore when being pulled apart. This was symbolic of how it's ok to be friends with boys and hang out. However when you date and start becoming attached to a boy it can begin to get messy when things don't go well with the relationship. If you get REAL attached to a guy, then you break up, it can hurt you really bad and make you a broken person. That's why it's important to only try to show an interest in a boy that you think you could marry someday.

We talked about how we're going to handle all that when the time comes. She signed a contract saying that she promises not to date until we say she can. :)

The last thing we did for the evening was completed the puzzles we started yesterday. :)

Now it's 10:16pm and we're about to go to bed. We are going to Sea World tomorrow in the rain. Woo Hoo! LOL

Pam

Day 1 of Pam and Kirsten's special trip

2009-03-09T20:52:00.013-05:00

This morning Scott and the kids took me and Kirsten to the Longview airport for us to begin our special time away with each other. I did this with Kimberly when she was Kirsten's age, now it was Kirsten's turn. During this trip we will have "the talk." I'm using a kit put out by Family Life called Passport to Purity. It is awesome! It's the same one I used with Kimberly. I like using the kit and going away one on one and planning fun things so that the girls will never forget the time they first learned about God's special gift for husbands and wives. Scott and I want them to hear it from us instead of from other kids. We want to make sure they hear it the way God intended it and not some messed up way that the world says.

So anyway, getting back to how the day started. This was Kirsten's first time on a plane. She was soooooooooo excited!!! I was so nervous b/c I hate flying. However, my fear quickly subsided when I saw how excited she was. We had a great flight. In Dallas we had about 30 minutes to wait before catching the next plane to San Antonio. Unfortunetly it wasn't enough time for us to eat lunch. We were hoping we would get some peanuts on the plane, but they didn't give us any! I've never been on a plane that didn't give you peanuts. I was so upset. LOL

When we arrived in San Antonio my mother in law picked us up at the airport and took us to the car rental place. That's where we had our one and only snag of the trip. They wouldn't take my debit card! They said I had to have a credit card! Thankfully my mother in law came to the rescue and let us use hers.

So we got the car then headed to the hotel. We freshened up for a bit then headed out for dinner. By this time it was 4:30pm. We hadn't eaten anything since 7:30am! We were starving! So we headed out and ate at Hu Hot's Mangolian Grill! It was so good! That was the first time Kirsten had ever eaten there. She liked it too.

After dinner we came back to the hotel and we began our talk.

Session 1 was the intro session. It explained what sort of things we'd be doing and stuff. Then it went on to explain how important the Bible is for us to use as our roadmap so to speak of how we should live our life. We did an activity where I gave her a puzzle in a ziplock bag. She couldn't see the box so had no idea what the picture on the puzzle was supposed to be. I on the other hand, had a puzzle that was in the box so I knew exactly what my picture was supposed to look like. We were given a few minutes to try to put our puzzle together. When time was up I had done alot better than she had. It helped prove the point that we need the Bible to know what God says to guide us in our life so we know how to live our lives and how to handle certain situations that we're faced with.

Session 2 was about peer pressure. She learned how to stand up to it and what happens when you have friends who are bad influences. I had her pour some clean water into a pitcher. That represented her. Then she poured 2 other clean water cups into the pitcher. That represented a couple of good friends that are following Christ and trying to be good. Then I had her pour some "polluted" water into the pitcher. That represented friends who are bad influences that try to get you to do things that aren't pleasing to the Lord. She was able to see how it takes a clean person and really messes them up when they don't resist bad peer pressure.

So after we did those sessions it was time to relax. We took baths and made some popcorn and watched some TV. It's now 9:34pm and we're exhausted. I bet we sleep well tonight. :)

Here we are about to leave for the airport.

Here we are waiting for our connecting flight at DFW airport.

This is the car we rented. It's a cute little car. :)

This is our home for the next 3 days. We're staying at a Super 8. It's pretty small, but it will do.

Hu Hots!

Session 1

Session 2

Popcorn/Rest time

Limo Ride

2009-03-02T21:03:00.004-06:00

Kirsten, along with a few of the other AWANA kids won the commanders challenge. Their prize was to ride in a stretch hummer limo that would take them to Shogun's Japanese Steakhouse! The limo first picked up the other kids from school, then came to our house to pick up Kirsten. She was so excited!

She had a great time!

Here the limo was arriving at our house.

Pulling up to our front door.

I was so upset. The only picture I got of her getting into the limo with the chauffer and it was blurry. :(

Here were just a few of the kids that were inside. There was 18 total in there!!

Friendship Bags

2009-02-27T22:03:00.008-06:00

Thursday the kids and I made Friendship Bags with our homeschool group. The purpose of the bags are for us to be able to pass them out to any homeless person we see at an intersection or on the side of the road. Alot of times we don't have any money with us to give or honestly we're concerned about how they may spend it. With the bags we don't have to worry about that. We've given them practical things and helped them.

Each family in the homeschool group brought something to put in the bags. These were the things we put in.

Vienna Sausages

Fruit cups

juice

wipes

kleenex

fork/spoon

napkins

cheese crakers

change for a phone call

a card with emergency numbers and shelters

a tract with the gospel presentation

Tears were coming to my eyes as I watched all the kids work so hard putting the bags together. It was awesome. Each family took 5 bags with them to keep in their cars at all times, ready to help someone in need. I can't wait now until we see a homeless person.

Here are pictures from the day:

After we were done with the bags then it was playtime!

Full House

2009-02-16T20:26:00.006-06:00

This past weekend we offered to watch my best friends kids while she and her husband had a weekend getaway to a marriage conference. We were a little nervous wondering if we would be able to handle things ok seeing as how it would be me and Scott alone with 10 kids! However, they were all wonderful and we had a great time!!

Friday night when they got here Kimberly and Emily went to a God's Girls event. The rest of the gang just stayed here at the house and played games. Fantastic contraption was a HUGE hit with the guys. They also played the Wii.

That night they watched College Road trip and ate some smores.

On Saturday we went to Centennial Park for a picnic. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there. The kids had a great time playing and exploring.

Since there were so many of us some road in the van while the other's road bikes to the park.

There was a tree that had a vine hanging from it. Everyone had fun swinging on it.

After the park we came home and started taking baths to get ready to go to the Church for the Valentines Banquet that was being put on by the youth as a fund raiser for camp and mission trip.

Afterwards it was time to get ready for bed. Miracle and Smeagol really liked Zack.

The whole gang!

I was really sad to see them all go on Sunday. They are a great bunch of kids. :)

Valentines 2009 continued

2009-02-12T22:18:00.009-06:00

After I got back from my letterboxing adventure. I took the kids to Marshall for the ETHF Valentine party at Ci Ci's, then to a field trip at the Humane Society. We had such a good time! The past month or so all of us in ETHF had been collecting money to donate to the humane society since they are run strictly off of donations. Our goal was to raise $50. We raised $111.28!! The lady at the humane society said they know EXACTLY how they were going to spend the money. They said just that morning they were talking about a dog named Emily that was there that had heart worms but they didn't have any money to treat her. Now they have the money to make her well. This made the kids VERY happy!!

Since there were so many of us they divided the group into two. Kids 6-under went in one group while the older one's went with the other. So all the pictures I got at the humane society were just of the younger three.

Here are pictures of the party and the field trip:

This was at the Human Society when we gave the cards with the money we collected.

Here the kids were getting ready to watch a video about how to act around dogs they don't know.

Then they taught them how to lay if a dog did start to bite them.

Next we went to the room where they did the surgery's.

Then it was time to play with some of the animals.

Valentines 2009!

2009-02-12T20:56:00.006-06:00

Today was the best day ever! It started out with us celebrating Valentines early b/c we are going to have the Beck kids with us on Valentines day. So the kids woke up to their presents laid out on the table. After we did school Scott gave me my present. It was the most romantic, wonderful, exciting Valentines present I've ever gotten!!!

(Warning: if your a letterboxer you may not want to read the following information. I have to give details and pictures of where this box was hidden b/c it's part of the surprise Scott did for me. It's just too cool to keep inside. :)

He told me to get in the car and find a radio station that was playing our song. (Our song is Chasing Cars by the Snow Patrol.) I scanned through all the channels until I got to 107.7 which was playing our song! Turns out Scott had rigged up his MP3 player some how to where it made our song come over the radio!

My next set of instructions was to take our GPS and scroll through the favorites until I found a location that was titled 107.7. Once I found it I hit Go and had to follow the directions to a location where Scott had hidden a letterbox for me!!

It led me to Lake O the Pines. Once there I was told to reach under the passenger seat to get my next set of clues. There it told me to park where we did the last time we were there and go to the picnic table we sat at the last time. Then I was to look toward the right and see a shape of our signature stamp. The box was hidden behind there.

When I found the box and saw the stamp he had carved I started crying. It said Scott and Pam forever and always 1992 on it. (That's the date we got married.)

The front journal page had 5 pieces of paper bound together by hearts to represent our 5 children.

This was the sweetest, most thoughtful present he's ever given me for Valentines Day. I told him I always thought Valentines you were supposed to get flowers and chocolate, but now my favorite is letterboxing and chocolate. (I forgot to mention he gave me a big bag of M&M's also. :)

Here are the kids presents along with my bag of M&M's.

Finding our song

Driving to location using "Sophia" our GPS.

Final Clue

Tree shaped like our signature stamp

Getting box

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

2009-02-11T18:38:00.005-06:00

Today the kids got a surpise in the mail. It was a box of chocolate covered strawberries from maw maw and paw paw for Valentines Day. They were SO good!!!!!! The kids loved them!

Here they are enjoying them:

Hot Hearts

2009-02-07T18:18:00.005-06:00

We took the youth to Hot Hearts this weekend. Hot Hearts is like a youth evangelism conference. There was close to 3000 youth there. The David Crowder band performed. He was awesome! He is a very "interesting" looking individual. LOL His voice just doesn't match his looks.

One of the highlights of the trip was when one of the youth taught me a secret to texting faster. It was so cool. Now I'll be texting even more! :)

Here are a few pictures from this weekend.

Lake O The Pines

2009-01-31T22:44:00.006-06:00

Today was such a beautiful day that we decided to go to the lake for a picnic. While we were there we planted 3 boxes too! :)

Before we went though the kids wanted to decorate their bags for their Valentines parties they will be attending in the next couple of weeks.

It was a wonderful day!

Moving of the White House

2009-01-19T16:01:00.005-06:00

Phase 1 of the building of the Family Life Center for our Church was completed today. They moved our youth ministers house to a different location. The plan is to use part of the lot where the house used to be to build the new center.

It was pretty amazing. I had never seen anything like that before. Now it's so weird looking out our window and seeing an empty lot where a house used to be.

Fun time with friends

2009-01-16T22:19:00.004-06:00

Tonight our friends Carl, Donna, Laura and Marty came over for dinner and to play a game of Spouse-ology. We grilled some fajitta's on the grill even though it was about 30 degrees outside. Then we played the game. Scott and I won. :)

These next pictures were on a different night. I had forgotten to post them earlier. It's of Christopher shaving with Scott. He was so cute trying to be like his daddy. :)

Christopher's 3rd birthday!!

2009-01-10T14:44:00.007-06:00

Three years ago today our one and only son was born. He has brought so much joy to our lives. I love him more than I could ever put into words.

Today we celebrated by inviting 4 of his little friends over for a party. He had such a good time.

We opened presents, ate cake and ice cream, then did a pinata.

Here are some pictures of the party.

First he opened his presents.

Then it was time for cake and ice cream.

Next it was pinata time!

Devil's Tower

2009-01-05T20:45:00.003-06:00

We did something crazy tonight. Ever since we went and saw Devil's Tower in Wyoming this past summer we've wanted the kids to see the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." We decided to rent it on Netflix and was going to watch it tonight. However, we told them they couldn't see the movie until they played with their mashed potatoes and made Devil's Tower in honor of the movie. They thought we were crazy and thought we had totally lost it, but they weren't going to argue with a chance to play with their food. LOL It was fun.

Here was my tower. (And yes, I burned my sausage on purpose. That's the way I like it. :)

Ladies Night Out

2009-01-03T22:43:00.004-06:00

Tonight the ladies from my Church went out to The Butcher Shop. We had a nice time. While we were there Scott and Carl took the kids out to eat at Applebees. So they had fun too. After dinner I dropped the ladies off at the Church. Donna and I met up with the guys at their house and watched Tim Hawkins while we ate popcorn. I could watch that guy a million times and still laugh my head off. He's hilarious!!

Here are some pictures from the restaurant.

New Years Eve 2008

2008-12-31T23:24:00.005-06:00

Scott and Kimberly went to a youth event. They played Capture the Flag. Scott takes this game very seriously as you can see by this picture. LOL

While they were gone I stayed home with the other's and we just hung out and watched TV. Kimberly came home just in time to see the ball drop. We counted down, then threw confetti in the air. I always go by Eastern Time on New Years Eve.

It's 11:30 right now and I can barely keep my eyes open. The kids are about to go over to the open field by the Church to watch Scott and Adam shoot off fire works for the youth. Meanwhile, I'm going to bed.

Happy New Year Everybody!!

Scott did it again

2008-12-29T19:30:00.006-06:00

Ya'll will never guess what my wonderful husband did tonight.

We went out on a date and ate at Outback Steakhouse. I told him I had to use the ladies room before we left. He told me that he was going to go outside while I was in there, but to sit on the bench out front when I was done and not come to the car. Well, I went out there and didn't see him anywhere. So I peaked around the building to find him decorating our car with shoe polish!! He then pulls out this string of Dr.Pepper and Coke cans that were attached to the back of the van, then came and picked me up.

We had fun driving through town with our car decorated like this. We went to Wright Brothers where one of the EMT guys saw what he had done and gave us a big thumbs up. It was neat! :)

It was one of the sweetest, most romantic things he's ever done. :)

Christmas Day

2008-12-25T18:14:00.007-06:00

This morning the kids came in our room at 6:30 to wake us up. We all went into the living room together to see what Santa had brought. He filled our stockings and gave Kimberly a MP3 player, Kirsten and Katherine a Nintendo DS, Kyrie a life sized Barbie doll, and Christopher a spider man chair. They loved their presents!!

Then they all picked an area to sit while we passed out their presents from us and grandma/grandpa Rodgers. Then we told them they could begin opening them. We all got alot of neat presents. My big present was a GPS. I can't wait to use it! Scott's big present was this cool indoor/outdoor temperature thingy.

After we opened presents and played with all of our toys the girls watched College Road Trip that Kimberly had gotten while Scott and I watched 3 episodes of LOST. :)

Now we're watching A Christmas Carol.

It has been a great Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2008

2008-12-24T21:21:00.008-06:00

We've had a great Christmas Eve. This afternoon we went with my friend Donna and her kids to see the movie Bolt. It was a really good movie.

Then we came home and got ready for the candlelight service at Church. I love that service.

After Church we all opened one present.

Then we started making cookies for Santa Claus. Every year we always put flour on our faces to show how hard we've slaved over the cookies. LOL

After that we sang Christmas carols while Kimberly played the piano for us.

Right now we're watching "It's a Wonderful Life." Then Scott will read the Christmas story from Luke and we'll go to bed. Actually we'll put the kids to bed, then Scott and I will watch LOST. :)

My best friend's visit!

2008-12-24T21:02:00.003-06:00

This past weekend my best friend from San Antonio came up to see me. Her step dad has a plane. He flew her up Friday. Friday night we worked on our plans to do some major letterboxing in Tyler.

Then on Saturday the two of us headed out to get the boxes. We found 8 boxes and a hitchhiker. Traffic was really bad so we weren't able to get to all the boxes we wanted too.

On Sunday I took Abbie around Harleton to get the boxes I had hid there. I found out that one of them was missing though. :( It was so cold on Sunday. We really are crazy. LOL

Then on Monday she had to go home. :( The weather wasn't cooperating so her step dad couldn't fly back to get her. So I took her to Waco where we met her step dad halfway.

We had a really good time. I miss you Abbie and I love you. :)

The Rockettes!

2008-12-16T20:57:00.002-06:00

Last night we went and saw the The Rockettes perform in Bossier City. It was beyond awesome! I can't describe how good it was. We had a great time!

Here we are getting ready to leave for the big night.

Kimberly's recital and Gingerbread house

2008-12-14T21:20:00.005-06:00

Today was Kimberly's piano recital. She did so well. I was very proud of her.

This evening we made our very first ever Gingerbread House! It looks pretty sloppy, but we're proud of it. :)

Day 2 of fun with my mom!

2008-12-14T08:04:00.004-06:00

This morning shortly after we woke up, Maw Maw had a little tea party with Katherine, Kyrie and Chris.

Then we got ready to see the big Harleton Christmas parade! I always love seeing this parade. It's a simple, small town parade. The kids get alot of candy from it, so they love it too. :)

Then mom and I went shopping. I almost got all of my shopping done. We ran out of time b/c we had to meet Scott and the kids to go to Santa Land! We had never been before. It's near Tyler off of I20. It opened at 6:00. We got there at 6:20 and the line was about 2 miles long to get in!! It was crazy! However, the wait was well worth it. It was spectacular. I've never seen anything like it! The kids said they now want to come every year. I only got 1 picture of Santa Land that I can share and it didn't turn out very well. Kyrie got onto me b/c there was a sign saying no cameras allowed. I kept trying to sneak and picture though but Kyrie kept getting upset with me. So I put it up. I guess I taught her too well to follow directions. LOL

Mom's retirement!!

2008-12-12T19:46:00.006-06:00

We headed up to Wichita Falls to see my mom's retirement ceremony at the base. She retired after working 28 years there. It was really neat witnessing a military ceremony like this. I was so proud of my mom hearing all of her accomplishments over the years and how much everyone respected her and looked up to her. It was nice and really touching.

For her present we got her a going a way getaway surprise. We told her to pack her bags b/c she was coming home with us. Tomorrow she's going to watch the Harleton Christmas parade with us, then go shopping with me, then we're all going to Santa Land. Then on Sunday after Church she gets to watch Kimberly have her piano recital. Then for the main event on Monday we are taking her to Shreveport to see the Radio City Rockettes perform. We're going to have a great time! Here are some pictures when she saw her gift. We gave her a picture frame so she can record everything we do this weekend with pictures and put it in there. We had a "brochure" in the frame that described all that would be happening. So these pictures show her reading it and crying. :)

Other things we did on this trip was celebrated Kirsten's birthday some more, and rode a "train" that one of paw paw's friends' made. It was alot of fun for the kids.

Kirsten's 9th Birthday

2008-12-07T08:28:00.004-06:00

We had a slumber party to celebrate Kirsten's 9th birthday Friday night. The girls had a great time. They stayed up ALL night!!!! We had the usual of pizza, cake, presents, then smores. After all that Scott and I went back into the bedroom and watched 4 episodes of LOST while we just let the kids hang out. We really enjoyed that.

Kirsten is a HUGE, HUGE High School Musical fan. So when she realized she got alot of high school musical presents she was on cloud 9. :)

I love this first picture because poor Christopher has this look on his face of "Oh my goodness, I'm surrounded by girls!" LOL

These are the presents Kirsten received.

Then it was cake time.

Christmas tree

2008-12-01T20:01:00.005-06:00

Today we went to Danville Farms and got our Christmas tree!! We LOVE going there to get our tree. It's such a neat experience.

They take you on a hay ride out to the trees. Then you walk around and pick your tree. Once you've found the one you want you cut it down yourself. Kyrie picked out our tree this year. She did a great job b/c it's perfect! :)

After we cut down the tree the workers hooked it up to a machine thingy that shook all the loose needles off of it, then tied it up in a net for us. While they did this we stood around the fire and stayed warm. We drove home singing Christmas carols. It was alot of fun.

Rest of the vacation

2008-11-29T21:00:00.012-06:00

November 24, 2008-Monday

100th find!!!!

We did it!! We found our 100th box today!! It was in Floresville at Pecan Park. It was kind of neat that this one ended up being our 100th find because I got to spend extra time at this box. See, as we were approaching the tree where it was supposed to be hidden in, Scott looked down and said “Uh oh!” There on the ground was the box all smooshed. He picked it up and could see little bitty teeth marks all over it. It looked like a squirrel had gotten a hold of it, then laid it down in the path of a truck. Thankfully though the logbook and stamp were not too far from the box. I pulled out my “Dr.” kit and got to work on a repair job. I had an extra box and logbook in my backpack so I was able to save the box.

Then we headed to my best friend Abbie’s house. Scott and her husband Gregg kept the littles while me, Abbie, Kimberly, Kirsten and her daughter Emily all went letterboxing. We had such a good time. We found 8 boxes and 2 hitchhikers!! We also met another letterboxer out on the trail. We were getting back into our car from just stamping in when I saw this lady walking in the direction we just came with a backpack on her back and a white piece of paper in her hand. I told Abbie “That looks like a letterboxer.” So Abbie got out of the car and asked her if she knew which way was north? (That is the “secret” code you ask someone else to see if they are a letterboxer. If they point up to the sky then you know they are a boxer, if they look at you weird then you know they aren’t.) Well sure enough she pointed up. Her name was Mosaic Butterfly. She was from San Antonio. We exchanged stamps with her then said our goodbyes. Before we left though we told her which boxes we were going to get next. She had just left that location and told us to be sure to check out the neat rock formation on the left side as we leave the park. Abbie and I thought that was a secret clue that she was telling us she had just planted a box there. So once we got to the park, after we found the boxes we knew were there, we began searching all through these rocks for a mystery box. By this time it was almost dark though, so we stopped and called it a night. Later on I emailed her and told her what we did, but couldn’t find a box. She then wrote me back and said there was no box. She just wanted us to be sure to see the neat rock formations. LOL
You have to be careful what you say to letterboxers. We tend to read too much into innocent comments. LOL

November 25th-Tuesday

Today I met up with my good friend Emily for lunch. It was nice to get to catch up with her and see her boys. Meanwhile, Scott was having lunch with two of his friends. It’s been so nice catching up with everybody. I thank God for friends. They are such a treasure.
Then we went over to Scott’s brother’s house for dinner. It was nice seeing my nephews again and watching the cousins play together.

November 26th-Wednesday

It was a relaxing day today. The girls helped Vickie make 4 pecan pies for Thanksgiving. They had fun cooking with their grandmother. Meanwhile Scott went hunting with his brother. I couldn’t believe the report I received when he got back. They saw about 30 hogs and 7 wild turkeys, yet the only thing he got was a raccoon! LOL Apparently Keith wouldn’t let Scott shoot anything b/c he was afraid it would scare the deer off. They are going to try to go hunting again either tomorrow or Friday.

November 27th

Today was Thanksgiving!! We went over to Scott’s brother’s house for the meal. His aunts, uncles and cousins were all there. There was 25 of us total. We had a good time. They have a bunch of cows that stay in the pasture behind their house. The kids enjoyed feeding them. After lunch we played this game called Spouseology. It was so much fun. It was a nice Thanksgiving.

November 28th-Black Friday!

Scott and I braved the stores once again. Our plan was to get up at 4am, however Scott accidently set his alarm for 4pm so we overslept. We got up at 5:00 and headed out. First we went to HEB plus but when we got there we found out the sale prices we saw in the ad weren’t good until the 29th! We were so frustrated! So then we headed over to Target. The line was all the way behind the building. We found a few things there and were standing in the LONG line to check out only to realize that everything we got was regular priced items! So we were joking how we woke up at the crack of dawn, waited in hour long lines only to get regular priced items. LOL Then we headed over to Office Depot and Wal-Mart for a few things. We got back to the house around 9:00.
After lunch Scott went hunting with Keith again. I just hung out at the house and rested. by the way, Scott finally got a hog!

November 29th

Vacation is over. We are now home. We had a great time and have alot of wonderful new memories to last a lifetime. :)

Weekend to Remember 2

2008-11-22T17:57:00.002-06:00

Today we went to eat lunch at Hu Hots which is a Mongolian Grill. I had never had mongolian food before. It was really, really good! Then we went letterboxing. We found 7 boxes. There were 2 more in the series we were working on, but we had to stop b/c we had hit 99. We need to be with the kids to find #100. :)

So we're back in the hotel now. I'm about to take another Calgon bath. Scott is going to get my popcorn ready, then we're going to watch Hancock the movie here in the room.

I have enjoyed today so much. It's been perfect!

Weekend to Remember

2008-11-22T12:58:00.004-06:00

Scott and I are in the middle of enjoying a WONDERFUL time away with just the two of us. We arrived in San Antonio Thursday evening. On Friday we left the kids with his parents for the weekend to stay at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa for the Family Life Marriage Conference. This is our 4th time to go to this conference.

When we arrived at the Resort we were in awe of it's beauty and the special treatment we got. A bell hop took our bags and put it on a roller. He watched our bags as we checked in then brought our luggage to our room. That was a first for us. Then we headed to the conference. There are over 1000 married couples here at the conference.

We left the conference a little bit early to head back to our room. I had been given an assignment. I forgot to mention a few days ago I received a text message from a secret "agent" saying that there was a very important mission to be accomplished this weekend and wanted to know if I would help out. I accepted. Well, during the conference I received another text from this agent telling me to go to the room, get my camera, then go take pictures of some of the things I saw in the hotel then return. Once I returned I found a note outside the room door that said the following:

"Enjoy a hot bubble bath. I'll get your popcorn ready while you soak. All of our sessions have been canceled for tomorrow. After your bath we can watch LOST. We'll sleep in and have breakfast in bed sent by room service. Then letterbox when you are ready."

I walked in and Scott had prepared a hot calgon bath for me. It was sooooooooo wonderful!!!!!

So far I have followed the directions to a tee and enjoyed every minute of this mission. :)

We slept in until 8:15. We had breakfast in bed sent up by room service. Then we did our "homework" from the conference so we're not totally skipping out. LOL (By the way, tomorrow we do plan to attend the conference again. :) Now we're about to go eat lunch and do some letterboxing. Then we're going to come back to the room and watch a movie.

I'm having a great time with my wonderful husband. :)

This first picture is in the lobby where they are in the middle of building a REAL candy land type thing. I watched as the men were putting real icing on the gingerbread house! It's amazing!!

This tree is down the hallway from our room.

The hotel had robes for us!! This is me after my nice, hot bubble bath.

Here I am enjoying my popcorn getting ready to watch LOST.

Day 3 of Houston trip

2008-11-11T20:23:00.008-06:00

The day started out with us taking Scott to the conference. Then we attempted to do some letterboxing before the rain began. We went to Memorial park where there were like 45 boxes!! I had wanted to try to find 9 boxes so we could reach 100, however I figured out real fast that was NOT going to happen. So then my goal was just to find 1 so I could hide the hitchhiker we had found. The mosquitos were HORRIBLE!!! They were eating us up alive!! We tried to find one box but it wasn't there. So we tried the next one and it was there. After I stamped in we began back to the car. It began to rain at that point. So we found the box just in time.

Then we picked up Scott for lunch. He was able to be here long enough to see Connie and meet her kids!

I took Scott and Katherine back to the conference. (She wanted to go with him instead of hanging out with us.) We met back up with Connie and her kids and went to the Museum of Natural Science. It was pretty neat. We tried to find a box that was hidden by the museum, but we couldn't find it. As we were driving away we realized we had been looking in the wrong place! ARGH!

Then came the big headache of driving back. Traffic is unreal here!

I went to the Church and picked up Katherine and Scott. He drove us back to the hotel so he could have the van. I took the kids swimming for about an hour and am now relaxing watching Dancing with the Stars.

Tomorrow we head home. I can't wait to get back.

Day 2 of Houston trip

2008-11-10T20:01:00.004-06:00

This morning we woke up and went to the convention. I was able to enjoy the singing part and got to hear about 10 minutes of some famous Christian baseball player before I had to leave with Christopher and Kyrie. I was able to look at all the different booths there and got some info for our women's ministry.

At lunch my friend Connie who I haven't seen in about 15 years met me at the convention. We went with the kids to eat at Whataburger. Then we came back to the hotel to let the kids swim in the indoor pool.

After that I went and picked Scott up from the conference since he had a 3 hour break. He swam with the kids, then we all went to dinner. Now I'm sitting here in the hotel room while the littles are destroying the room and being wild. LOL I'll be glad when Scott gets back.

Day one of Houston trip!!

2008-11-09T20:36:00.005-06:00

We left for Houston today to go to the Southern Baptist Convention of Texas. We headed out around 2:30.

We stopped in Lufkin for lunch.

We made it to Houston at about 7:30. We are staying at a really nice hotel! Because of the convention we got a really good deal! Here are some pics of our suite.

If you go down the hallway from our room just a little bit you'll see this view.

Pumpkin Patch and Letterboxing

2008-11-07T16:51:00.008-06:00

I took the kids to Pittsburg today to go to a pumpkin patch there with our homeschool group. The kids had fun.

First we had to begin by taking some pictures of my little pumpkins. :)

Then they went through a hay maze.....

had a potato sack race...

climbed a big hay mountain, then went on a hay ride.

We ended our time here by decorating some pumpkins.

Then we got in the car and went to McDonalds to eat. After that we headed out to go do some letterboxing!! There were 4 boxes there in Pittsburg. The first two we found at a cemetary. The other one at a museum. Then the last box was at the World Headquarters for Pilgrims Pride. We got the biggest surprise at that box. There was a hitchhiker in there!!! Our very first hitchhiker find!! I was soooooooooooooo excited!!!! This hitchhiker started in New Hampshire, then went to Montana, Colorado, then Texas. I'm going to plant it this weekend when we go to Houston. I only have a couple of pictures of our letterboxing adventures today. I forgot to take pictures at the first 3 stops.

This first picture was a cool car we saw. I just had to get a picture of it. LOL Then the other picture is in front of the Pilgrims Pride Distribution Center.

We went letterboxing today!!

2008-11-02T19:15:00.005-06:00

Letterboxing season is back in full swing! Since it was our homecoming at Church today the evening services were cancelled. So we went to Kilgore to get some of the boxes that were planted since the last time we went there.

I tell you what, I love the adrenalin rush I get when I find a box. It's so much fun!! We found 3 boxes in different parts of the town. Attempted 1 other, but it wasn't there.

Then we headed over to Synergy park where there is a little lake and another box. :) After we found that box we had a picnic dinner.

It was such a nice day. The changing colors on the leaves were absolutly beautiful! I LOVE being outdoors with my family in the fall.

7th Annual Hallowasn't party

2008-10-31T21:24:00.013-05:00

We had alot of fun tonight. We began the night with pizza. Then we started in on the games. We played this sock game where you had to try to take off the other person's socks. Whoever was
the last one with a sock on then they were the winner. Kirsten won that game.

Then we played a gross game called Marshmellow launch. I had everyone blow their nose real good before we began. Then they had to stick a small marshmellow in their nose. Whoever could blow it out the farthest won. Kimberly won once and Scott won once.

Next came "Honey Do You Love Me?" We had to sit in a circle and someone said to a person "Honey, do you love me?" Then they had to respond "Honey, I love you but I just can't smile." However the catch was you couldn't smile or laugh when you said it. Kyrie never lasted very long before she was out. LOL

Then we played the old classic musical chairs.

Then we had an obstacle course and played a couple of games of capture the flag.

Then we ended the night with a little bonfire in our backyard and roasted marshmellows and made smores.

Foo Fee was worn out by the end of the night.

This was the perfect ending to the perfect night.

HSM 3

2008-10-25T16:11:00.002-05:00

Last night I took Kimberly, Kirsten and Katherine to see High School Musical 3 with my friend Donna and her girls. We had so much fun. We went to eat at Taco Bell first, then saw the movie which was awesome!!! I thought it was better than the first 2! We're already making plans to see it again. :)
Afterward we went to get ice cream, then came home.

It was a fun night. :)

Pam

Pep Rally

2008-10-23T16:20:00.005-05:00

Today my kids got to go to their very first pep rally. The Jr High was having a pep rally for their football team. The school wanted all the cheerleaders to perform. Since Katherine cheers for the kinder-2nd grade flag football team, that meant her too. So Scott and I loaded up the kids and went to watch her perform. She was scared to death!!!!! She was so nervous. I was so proud of her though b/c she didn't give up. She stuck with it and survived. LOL When it was over though she came up to me with her voice shaking on the verge of tears and said "I don't want to do that again." LOL

Meanwhile Kimberly, Kirsten, Kyrie and Chris kept saying over and over again "It's so loud! It's so loud!" I think they were all pretty overwhelmed by the whole experience. LOL

Here are a few pictures and if I can get it to work, a video, of the dance Katherine did.

Day 5 of praying for a miracle

2008-10-19T21:03:00.002-05:00

I don't know that I've written about this yet.
Me, Scott and the girls have been so thankful to our Church for supplying us with a house to live in the past 3 years. However, we would really like to have a house of our own. One where we can paint the walls whatever color we want, tear down walls if we want, just live in knowing it's all ours. I don't know if anyone can understand that. I've mentioned it to a couple of friends of mine and they are like "Are you crazy? You don't have to worry about house payments or paying for stuff to get fixed if it breaks. You can walk to Church, etc, etc." I agree, those are all the plus's of living where we are, but we still can't help but feel a longing for a place to call our own.

Now here is where the tough part comes in. We don't have ANY money for a downpayment on a house. We've re-worked the budget and it would be tight to pay for a halfway decent house.

So we have made a commitment as a family to pray for 40 days about this and see what God does. At the end of the 40 days hopefully we'll know if he has provided a way or if his answer is no. We are also praying that if his answer is no, then he will help us to be content in the parsonage.

I feel kind of bad asking for finances for a house when we already have a great place to live. However, God tells us to come to him with the desires of our heart and that we have not b/c we've asked not. So we're asking. :)

As the title of this blog stated, we are now on day 5 of our 40 days of prayer over this situation. I'll keep you updated and let you know how God answer's us. Until then if you'd like to throw up a prayer for us for this situation it would be greatly appreciated. ;)

Pam

As You Wish

2008-10-18T17:23:00.004-05:00

Scott and I are doing the Simply Romantic Night cards put out by FamilyLife.

http://store.familylife.com/detail.asp?id=6354

The card he picked for this month told him he had to do anything I asked and say "As You Wish" when I asked him to do it. :) It has been incredible!

He started out the day though with a surprise for me. He sat me down and told me that today he was going to do anything I wished. He said he was doing it because he loves me. He then reminded me how much Jesus loves me and what he did for me on the cross. Scott said that he wants to be like Jesus and show his love for me in a way that he can. As a reminder of Jesus and Scott's love for me he pulled out a jewelry box. Inside was a beautiful cross necklace. I started crying so hard. His wonderful words of love, then that beautiful necklace was more than I could bare. I couldn't hold back my tears. It was a very special time. Now when I wear this necklace I will always remember not only what Christ did for me, but what Scott did for me to show me his love.

He then asked me to list anything I wanted him to do for the day. I listed like 10 things that I hadn't wanted to do or things that have been bugging me.

I asked him to do the following:

-scrub the baseboards in both bathrooms and dinning room.

-Clean the backdoor and back screen door.

-Clean the window to the kitchen and it's screen.

-Clean out trash under the air conditioner unit

-Clean up the old boxes and trash that had been laying by the fence in our backyard for forever

-Carve a stamp for me for one of my letterboxes

-Go to the store for me

-Go to the laundry mat and do all the laundry. (I had gotten so far behind it would take me forever to catch up if I had to do it all with just our 1 washer and 1 dryer.)

He has done them all! Plus, he's had a wonderful attitude the whole time!! Even when I started feeling bad for asking him to do all this, he said "No I want to do everything b/c I love you."

I can say with 100% certainty that my man really loves me. :)

Here he is scrubing the bathroom floor.

Thank you God for blessing me with such an awesome, romantic, caring, hard working man.

I love you honeybaby. :)

Day 2 of my cleaning frenzy

2008-10-16T22:43:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I attacked Christopher's room. LOL I took some before pictures but it was so bad my camera apparently couldn't handle it b/c the pictures didn't come out. LOL So all I have to show is my after pics. :)

Here is what got put in our give away/garage sale pile.

And here is how much junk I threw away.

Now for the after pictures.

And the proof that I didn't just shove everything into the closet. :)

Today I took a break from cleaning. I'm not quite sure which room will be next. We shall see. :)

Pam

I went off the deep end today!

2008-10-14T17:08:00.006-05:00

I got so tired of the house being messy that I took it out on Katherine and Kyrie's room. I ended up with about 5 bags of toys, clothes, a dresser, junk, etc to give away and about 6 bags of trash!

Now that I'm on a roll I plan on doing the whole house like this! Muhahaha!

Christmas better get here quick b/c Katherine and Kyrie don't have very many toys now. LOL

I wish I would have thought to get a before picture. However here are the after pictures of my out of control cleaning frenzy. LOL

The Give away piles:

The trash pile:

Katherine and Kyrie's room now. I took a picture of the inside of the closet to show proof that I didn't just shove everything in there like I usually do. :)

Last night and tonight

2008-10-11T21:32:00.005-05:00

Last night we had our second God's Girls get together. Kimberly and her friends went to one of the mom's house for a night of scrapbooking. They had a great time.

Then today we went to Katherine's football game, then I went out for ladies night out at Chilli's with some women from our Church.

Kimberly and Kirsten are at a slumber party and the littles are asleep, so all is quiet right now. :)

Pam

Smeagol's 2nd birthday!!

2008-10-04T21:27:00.011-05:00

Today Smeagol turned 2 years old! He has brought so much joy to our lives. He's my little shadow. He always follows me everywhere. I've really grown to love this little Pug. We got him a little bed he can lay on when he's at my feet at the computer. :)

After we gave Smeagol his birthday spanken's me, Kimberly and Kirsten went to Katherine's game. I FINALLY got to see her cheer at a game. She was so cute. They did a really good job. Our little football players did good too. They won 20-0. So far our team is undefeated ! :)

My little cheerleader

2008-09-29T16:43:00.005-05:00

Saturday was Katherine's first football game! She cheers for the k-2nd grade flag football team here in Harleton. I was so sad b/c I had to miss it. I had a mandatory Weight Watcher's staff meeting that I had to go to. Scott videotaped the whole thing for me though and took pictures. She was so cute. :) She had a blast!!!!!

Later that night we went out with some friends from our Sunday School class to eat at Chilli's, then go bowling. I bowled the lowest score of my life!! I was so embarressed!! We had fun though.

Reunion

2008-09-21T14:36:00.011-05:00

We went to Burk this weekend for my 20th high school reunion. It was really neat to see everyone again. It's funny how much some people have changed and other's look exactly the same even after all these years.

We arrived Friday around 3:00pm. One of my best friends from my childhood, Gina Lederer (now Gina Butler) came to my mom's house at 6:00 so we could follow each other to the homecoming game. That was the first time I had seen her in probably about 12 years. We just held on to each other crying. It was the best moment of the whole weekend!!

After that me, Scott, Kimberly and Kirsten followed Gina to the game. Gina and I were having fun trying to figure out who was who among our old classmates.

We ended up leaving at half time though. Scott and I took the girls to get ice cream at Braums. While Gina took her daughter over to a friends house.

Saturday afternoon we went to the family picnic for about an hour. We left there early b/c my mom and Bill were going to take the kids to the fair. Plus Scott and I wanted to take advantage of having a babysitter. :) So we went and saw The Dark Knight again. This was Scott's 3rd time to see it! LOL After the movie we went shopping at Kohl's. Then we met Gina and her husband Troy for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. That was my second favorite moment of the whole weekend. Gina and I laughed so hard. It was just like old times.

I'm so glad I found my best friend again. I'm never gonna lose contact with her again!

Meanwhile, the kids had a blast at the fair. Kyrie finally got her tea party with maw maw that she's been waiting for since June!

We left Wichita around 7:30 Saturday night and got home at 12:15am.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Getting ready for my reunion!

2008-09-16T21:40:00.002-05:00

Our plans have changed so much over the past week as to whether or not we were going to my 20th high school reunion and if so, how long would we stay. I think we've finally made our decision on what we're going to do. The plan is to leave Friday morning and head to Wichita. Friday night we will go to the football game. Saturday afternoon there is a family picnic, then Saturday night is a get together just for the adults. We're going to leave there about 10:00pm and start heading home. We're going to stop on the other side of Dallas. We got some hotel rooms reserved for the night. Then Sunday morning we'll head out early to get home just in time for Scott to preach. :)
I feel bad b/c Katherine is going to miss her first football game, however I think she'll get over it. She'll still get to cheer in about 12 other games. :)

I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again. However I'm nervous I won't recognize everyone. I'll definetly post pics and give an update when we get back!

Pam

Sorry I've been so bad lately

2008-09-14T15:22:00.002-05:00

I've had the hardest time getting back into the habit of updating my blog. I'm going to try to do better.

Boy, the last few hours have been exciting. Hurricane Ike finally arrived here about 3:00pm. He had actually become a Tropical Storm by then. The winds were really blowing hard. It was actually kind of scary at times. I can't imagine what the people in Houston must have experienced. Our power went out about 5:30pm and didn't come back on until this morning at 9:30am. Scott made it fun for the kids though. He had anticipated us losing our power so he had bought them some glow sticks. You should have seen them jumping around playing with them. They were having so much fun. Then we all played a game of scrabble by candlelight. It was actually really nice. :)
For bedtime we put mattresses on our floor for all the kids. They didn't want to sleep in their rooms b/c it was too dark. Scott hung their glowsticks up on the ceiling. It was actually kind of pretty in there. LOL We didn't get any sleep though b/c it was so hot!

Everything is back to normal though now. I love electricity. :)

Pam

School and sickness

2008-08-27T17:14:00.003-05:00

Monday-August 25th

I began school with Kirsten, Katherine and Kyrie. Everything went real smoothly. I had started last week with Kimberly since she's doing the Abeka DVD's now. It has been a real adjustment for us. She watches the video's from 8:00-2:00. (With a lunch break thrown in there.) Then has about 3 hours worth of homework each night! The teachers are good. We especially like her Bible and World History teacher. I'm not real crazy about her math teacher b/c she's all business and very impersonal. However I know she's going to learn alot this year. I admit, it's nice having the pressure taken off of me to teach her. :) All my job is now is to get her homework assignments written down for her and grade her papers. That's nice.

As a review, I'm now doing school with a child in 7th, 3rd, 1st, prek, and Chris. :)

Wednesday-August 27th

About midnight last night I started having all the symptoms of a stomach virus. I'm sure I don't have to go into details b/c you probably know what all kinds of things I'm talking about. Anyway, it has continued all day today! I've been laying in bed b/c if I get up I lose it. (If you know what I mean.)
Everyone longs for a day when you can just stay in bed and rest, however I'd take a day of craziness and running then be stuck in bed with the stomach virus. :(
Pray for me please.

Pam

Fireproof

2008-08-14T22:22:00.002-05:00

Scott and I went and saw a special screening of the new movie Fireproof that is coming out September 26th. I HIGHLY,HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this movie!!! Get a babysitter and go with your spouse. It will help those who are having problems in their marriage and make stronger those who have great marriages. It's funny, sad, (you'll definetly need a box of tissues) and has action. Everything that makes a good movie. Here is the link to the site to see a trailor and get other information about the movie.http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/
Or you can scroll down to the bottom of my blog to get more info about the movie.
Scott is going to do a 6 week Bible Study for couples after the movie comes out that is designed by the makers of the movie. It will show clips of the movie during the study. It's going to be really neat.

Pam

Canton

2008-08-02T20:33:00.002-05:00

I FINALLY got to go to the Canton First Monday trade days! Donna and Kandace went with me. We had alot of fun. I bought a Pug T-shirt and a bag for Katherine and Kyrie's dance shoes. Donna and Kandace found some goodies too. It was about 105 degrees out, but that didn't stop us. LOL
The best part about today was I got to snuggle with a teeny, tiny 8 week old Pug!! I wanted her sooooooooooooooo bad!!! She only cost $275! I called Scott and asked if I could get her. He said he would think about it. So if he says yes then I'm heading back up there to get her!!

Pam

Welcome home Mr.Leonard!!!!

2008-07-31T22:13:00.002-05:00

After 18 months, Mr. Leonard Wright got to come home today!!! He had a stroke back in November of '07. The Dr's said he would never make it through the night. Yet here he is. :) He is a living, breathing miracle.

It was so neat today. About 50 people lined up outside his house to welcome him home. It was the most touching thing I ever saw. We all clapped when we saw him. He and Mrs. Reba and the rest of the Wright family were overcome with emotions. It was such a special day.

We Praise you God for bringing Leonard home!!

Children's Camp Fun

2008-07-29T14:12:00.006-05:00

Kimberly and I had a blast at children's camp!! So much fun stuff happened it would take me too long to write it all. God did some amazing things. We had 7 kids accept Christ!!

One kind of bad thing that happened though is when Kimberly was going down the zipline they forgot to move the ladder so she slammed into it with her back! She was ok, just bruised up a bit and sore, but it was still kind of scary. I felt bad for her b/c she had been looking forward to doing the zipline for the last 2 years, then that happened. :( She still had a good time overall though.

Here is the article that I wrote for the Harleton Happenings about it:

Harleton Baptist Church took 38, 3rd-6th grade students, to the Lakeview Baptist Encampment in Lonestar. It was 4 days/3 nights of a time of fun, food, fellowship and worship. Through Bible studies they learned more about the 10 commandments. Camp Pastor Gene "Bubba" Wright brought his message alive with memorable illustrations, such as making fire disappear into thin air, eating fire, doing a card trick, and other cool special effects. One of the neatest things he did was put 28 kids in a balloon! The worship leaders were Dan Carson and the Honey Grove Ball Team. They led the kids in some fun songs and other more serious songs that really lifted up the name of Jesus. Camper Kimberly Rodgers had this to say, "Camp this year was really fun. I'm glad I came. I had a fun time worshiping God. It was a great experience that I know I'll always remember."The adults had just as much fun as the kids. "I got as much out of camp, if not more than, they did. It was so neat seeing the kids respond to what they were being taught and watching the special bonds develop between the kids. I can't wait for next year!" said Pam Rodgers. "I really enjoyed going. It was a good experience for me to get to watch the kids worship through music and just having a great time." commented Beth Slone. The Adult Sponsors were Pam Rodgers, Beth Slone, Donna Wright, Terri Bullock, Sandra Hostettler, Rusty Wright, Michael Suggs, and Wade Warner.

I'm only going to post a few pictures here on the blog, but if you want to see more pics then you can go to myspace at http://www.myspace.com/perkyp99

Children's Camp

2008-07-24T21:57:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the day we leave for Children's Camp! We're taking 42 kids and 8 sponsors. I've really enjoyed putting this whole thing together. I hope it goes well. We'll be back Monday afternoon. Pray for us!

Pam

I had so much fun today!!

2008-07-19T20:48:00.003-05:00

Me, Kandace, Donna, and Laura (all the mom's that went on the mission trip) treated ourselves to a nice, relaxing ladies day out as a celebration for surviving the mission trip. First we went out to eat at Chilli's, then we did something big. We went and had a PEDICURE. Me, Donna and Laura had never had one before. It was so neat. They sat us in this chair that massaged our bodies while they worked on our feet. They did all kinds of neat things to our feet and massaged our legs. We all got french pedicures so our feet looked so good when they were done. I definetly could get used to that kind of treatment. LOL

When it was done we got some ice cream then came home.

It was a great day!

Pam

Day 10 & 11

2008-07-14T17:31:00.002-05:00

WE'RE HOME!!! I didn't get a chance to update my blog yesterday so I'll give you that update. Then I'll tell you how we ended up getting home a day early.

First of all, Day 10:

We got up and loaded everything into the trailor and van. Ronnie and Sue made us a WONDERFUL breakfast of pancakes and bacon for our trip home. The Wrights left about 8:00, we left about 9:00. Ronnie, Sue, Bill, and Linda decided to stay there at the camp one more night before heading to Fun Valley to spend the next 2 weeks camping.

So us and the Bates headed to our first stop of Fort Collins, Co. We got there around 4:00pm. We checked into our hotel then left to go to Estes Park to check out the sites. We did some shopping, ate dinner then went back to the hotel. One thing that happened while at Estes Park that was kind of neat. We were getting gas when this car pulled up along side us. They backed up a bit, then came forward again. They got out of the car and walked over to us. They said they saw on the side of the van that it said Harleton Baptist Church. They said surely it's not Harleton Baptist Church in Texas?! They backed up to see our tags said Texas. They couldn't believe it. See, they were from Hallsville!! For those who don't know that's a little town about 10-15 minutes from Harleton! What are the odds that we would drive to Estes Park, Co and meet someone from our area? It was pretty cool.

We got back to the hotel late and went to bed.

Day 11:

This is the day we finally lost our minds. LOL We woke up in the morning and headed back to Estes Park. This time we went up the tram to feed the chipmunks. It was soooooooooooooooooooo stressful!!!!! Everytime a chipmunk would get close Christopher would get all excited and start yelling so he would scare them away. It was the most frustrating thing ever! Then he had a meltdown in the giftshop b/c he wanted a toy car. We were so embarressed!!!

After lunch we headed out of town. Our goal was to make it to Raton, New Mexico where we
would stay at a Church there. We had stopped at Pueblo, Co for dinner. We were getting everyone in the car again and becoming more and more frustrated by having to deal with all the kids. We did NOT want to spend another 2 days on the road!! (Our plan was to stay in Raton, then Wichita the next night, then home) So this is where Scott made the crazy suggested. He suggested we just drive and don't stop until we got home! So that's what we did. LOL We put all the kids in their jammies, got out their pillows and sleeping bags and told them we were having a big slumber party in the van. Within about 30 minutes they were all sound asleep. The 4 of us adults took turns driving. Christopher woke up a few times crying, however he went back to sleep soon after. Other than that and a few whimpers from Kyrie the kids slept until Wichita Falls! By that time it was 8:00am so we stopped for breakfast. Then we headed the rest of the way home and arrived around 3:00!

It is soooooooooooo good to be home!! We had alot of fun, but it was alot of work. The final count was 177 people heard the gospel. 7 of those where individual encounters, while the rest were there at the block parties. We think 1 person actually received Christ. Plus there were several other's who we prayed for along the trail and passed out water too. There were things we would do differently next time, but all in all I'd say this mission trip was a complete success.

Thank you for following along and praying for us while we were gone.

Pam

(By the way, I'll have pictures to add to this later. The batteries in my camera went dead so I can't download them right now. I'll try to get batteries tomorrow and do it then. So be sure to check back. :)

Day 9

2008-07-11T22:36:00.007-05:00

This morning we got up and moved out of the RV into our cabin. The cabin is actually pretty cute. It has a loft, satellite TV, refrigerator, microwave, etc. In this blog entry I'll include a picture of the RV since I forgot to do it earlier, then I'll show you some pictures of the cabin.

The guys were going to go out this morning and ride part of the trail, however the plans got changed. I started talking to some campers that had just pulled in and invited them to lunch. So we put a big lunch together and they didn't show up. :( I was pretty bummed. However it all turned out good in the end b/c the guys really didn't want to ride anyway. LOL Plus, we were able to celebrate Mrs Linda's birthday. Sue had gotten her a cake. I was bringing it out and I dropped it!! I felt soooooo bad! We were still able to eat most of it though.

After lunch Mr. Bill took the older kids back to the pool so they could go down the slide again. I don't remember if I mentioned that in my last blog entry, but this camp has a really neat slide. (We all went swimming yesterday.)

After they went swimming we all left for Edgemont for the block party there. This one went much better than the last one. There were alot more people and alot more help. In fact, 1/3 of the town showed up!! Plus the college team was able to come and sing for us.

One awesome update is remember that guy I mentioned in my last entry that said he wanted to know more about Jesus and why we are here? Well, last night Scott talked to him for 3 hours in his RV!!! He didn't get in until 1:45 in the morning. He, his wife and his brother in law were asking some very, deep probing questions. Scott said they were thinkers so he new they were going to need some time to digest everything he had told them, so when he left he didn't know of any personal decisions that had been made. However this morning, before they left, the guy told Laura that he had a "life-changing experience" last night! Those were his exact words. Scott hadn't mentioned those words to him at all when he was talking to him. So we're thinking that there is a chance he accepted Christ when he was alone. So that was real exciting.

We were going to have another dessert fellowship tonight, but it got real cold out. Plus we're all packing up to leave in the morning. We're all going our seperate ways. I'm kind of sad. I've gotten real close to the team and will miss traveling with them.

Here are the pics for today:

Day 8

2008-07-11T00:26:00.003-05:00

We got up today and hit the trail again. So far we have ridden about 45 miles. We have handed out a bunch of water bottles and talked to several different people. One of the things that has been special about our rides is sometimes we'll see a house and we'll stop and pray for the people living there.

The first part of the ride was pretty hard. However after we got up the hill we stopped under a bridge that was like a tunnel and ate lunch. Then the rest was "all down hill." (The reason I put that in quotes is that has become the big saying around here. Scott would always tell us the trail would be "all down hill" but it never failed, we always ended up having hills. LOL)

During the trail ride we supposedly passed right by a heard of like 50 buffalo yet Scott and I completely missed it!!! We were too busy fussing with Chris. He has had enough of being in that cart. He hates it now.

Once we got done with the ride we took the kids swimming at the pool here that has this huge slide. They had alot of fun.

After that Scott had a divine appointment with a camper a couple RV's down from us. He got to talking with the man who actually LIVES there with his sister. Scott went through the complete gospel presentation with him. He didn't make a decision, however a major seed was planted today. So be praying for this man. I can't remember his name off hand, but God knows who he is.

Then we went out to a nice restaurant to celebrate Donna and Carl's 15 year wedding anniversary.

Once we got back we had word from Sue that one of the new campers talked to her today and wanted to know more about Jesus and why we are here. They were about to leave to a light show so Sue invited them over for dessert when they got back. At 10:00 they still weren't back so I had to go put the kids in bed. However now the time is 11:39 and Scott still isn't back so I don't know if they are talking to the man or not. If they aren't talking to him tonight then pray for an opportunity tomorrow.

We were able to stay in this RV for two nights, but tomorrow we'll have to move to a small cabin. :( So we'll need to pack everything up in the morning and move it over before the guys head out on the trail. I think the ladies are staying behind with the kids this time to do laundry and other "household" type things before we leave on Saturday to head home.

Tomorrow night we'll have another block party at Edgemont this time. So be praying for that one. I'll update when I can.

Day 7

2008-07-11T00:20:00.004-05:00

Today was a fun day. We had to be out of the Mystic Hills camp at 11:00, but couldn’t check in to Beaver Lake camp until 2:00, so we decided to go see Mount Rushmore! It was so neat. I couldn’t believe I was actually there. I mean, after seeing all kinds of pictures of it, and seeing it in movies, it was neat to finally get to see it in person!! We got to Beaver Lake camp at 3:00. Scott and I are in an RV for tonight and possibly tomorrow night, but then we’ll have to move to a small cabin. Kandis and Charlie though had a very big surprise. Their “cabin” was about the size of a walk in closet!! There was one set of bunk beds and a small table in there. That’s it! They had no running water or bathroom. They felt they just couldn’t stay there with their 3 kids so they decided to get a hotel room in town.

Anyway, we got here at 3:00, then at 3:30 we left to the park where we had to set up for the block party we were doing for First Baptist Church Custer. They had moon bounces, hot dogs, popcorn, snow cones, door prizes, etc all for free for the community. It went from 5:00-9:00. It went really well. There was about 67 people who turned out for the party. Scott shared the gospel with a lot of people several different times! No one made a decision, but there were definetly a lot of seeds planted tonight.

In one of the pictures you'll be able to see that even the kids helped out. They all passed out flyers around the nearby neighborhood inviting people to come. :)

Day 6

2008-07-10T19:17:00.002-05:00

Day 6

We got up and headed out to the trail. We got there around 9:45am. The first part of the ride was wonderful. It was very beautiful and very nice. At one point we came to a tunnel. There was a man working there on the trail. Scott began talking to him. He then asked if there was a way that we could pray for him. He shared with us that his sister has cancer and is going through chemotherapy again. So we gathered around him and prayed for him. It was a really special time. I could tell that the man was deeply touched.

After the 10 mile mark Scott wanted me, Charlie and Kandis to stay back with the smaller kiddo’s so they could try to go faster b/c Scott had to be at Camp Kinship at 2:00 to lead a session. That turned out to be a bad idea. He thought it would only take them about 30 minutes to finish the trail. It was 2 hours later when they came to pick us up!! You can imagine what it was like for Kandis, Charlie and I to hang out with 5 tired, hungry kids with nothing to do for 2 hours!! It was not fun. L

We came back to the cabins and had about an hour or so to rest before we headed over to Camp Kinship where the college team is leading a youth camp. We met them for dinner, then attended their worship service with them. It was neat seeing the college team lead in worship. They did a great job!

We got back to the cabin around 8:45 then had a brief meeting to discuss tomorrow’s plans. All of the families are really beginning to feel worn out. If your reading this please pray for us to continue on. We’ve ridden 33 miles so far! Some of us are hurting in places we’ve never hurt before. LOL

Day 4 and 5

2008-07-10T17:19:00.010-05:00

As you probably guessed I didn't have internet connection until today. I will post one long blog entry covering day 4-5, then I'll post day 6-7 later on.

Day 4

We woke up this morning and headed out at around 8:15. We drove for a couple of hours then stopped at a McDonalds to have a potty break and do lunch. We originally were going to go to a park to have a worship service, however we decided instead of loading everyone up just to have them unload again minutes later we would just have the service right there in the McDonalds parking lot! It was so neat. The college team led us in some singing, then Scott shared a short devotion. It was a really neat experience.

After that we headed back on the road. We had one minor injury while traveling. Kandis tried to cut Charlie’s ear hair with a pair of nail clippers but missed and got his ear instead. It kept bleeding and bleeding. Poor Charlie, we couldn’t help but laugh.

We made a couple of potty breaks along the way then we came to Gillette, Wyoming where we saw the Devil’s Tower. All I could think about was the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The Devil’s Tower is the volcano that was in that movie. That was a lot of fun. It was interesting reading about how the Indians think of it as sacred, holy land. They have prayer rituals there and tie these pieces of cloth around the tree branches. At one point we saw this man hugging one of the rocks praying. It just broke my heart b/c I knew he wasn’t praying to God the Father, but instead he was praying to “Mother Earth.”

The next stop would be our cabin! We arrived in Spearfish just in time to be greeted by a severe thunderstorm. I admit I was pretty scared even though I tried to hide it. I haven’t seen lightening like that in a long time. There was one funny part though b/c we kept taking a wrong turn to get to the camp, so we kept going round and round in circles in the middle of the storm. We were laughing so hard pretending like we were driving the drag in the middle of a storm. We really are beginning to loose our minds. LOL

Now it’s late at night. All is quiet. I’m writing this even though we don’t have internet connection in the cabin. I’m going to try to drive into town tomorrow to see if I can find an internet connection and upload this update.

Day 5

We began the morning with Scott meeting a couple who were camping next to us. We found out they were going to Yellowstone today. Scott asked if he could pray for them and they said yes. It was neat seeing the 3 of them praying together.

Then we had a planning meeting of how we were going to handle the day. We decided all the women would go into town to Wal-Mart to get food supplies and the guys would stay back and get the bikes ready. We got back around noon and had lunch then loaded up to head out on the trail.

Everything was going great when all of a sudden the clouds started turning darker, then before we knew it we were stuck in a thunderstorm with pouring down rain. We even had a little bit of hail! We were drenched!!! Then since the trail had gotten wet our bikes were kicking dirt up off the ground onto our backs. We were filthy!

We talked to about 10 people on the trail and gave out 2 water bottles. (Most people already had water with them.) Mr. Bill spoke to several people also while he waited for us at the finish. We prayed along the way too.

After 3 hours and riding 10 ½ miles we came back to the camp ground. We ate dinner together, made smores, then had a short devotional.