Field Day...

There's less than a week left of school, so today was our Field Day. Being new to Encino Park, I didn't know what to expect, except that it was an all day event, which meant I got to be involved.

It was an Olympic theme, so it began with kids bringing in the torch while music played in the background. Then the classes divided up to compete in the events.

Some of the events were held outside on the playground and others were held in one of the gyms. The weather was warm, in the 90's, although there was a nice breeze blowing so it really wasn't too bad.

Maybe it's my love of horses, but my favorite part were the "Equestrian Events"! It was so cute...the kids had to complete an obstacle course "on horseback" (stick horses)...so funny to watch, especially with the bigger kids.

The thing that really impressed me were the dads that ran all the games. Encino Park has a new program called "Watch Dads"...each day at least two fathers come to spend the day at the school. They have various responsiblities which they seem to enjoy and their kids are so proud to have "Dad" there. They are given a special shirt to wear and then they have their pictures displayed on the wall with their kids. Today, we had almost 50 dads come to participate in Field Day...two news stations came out to film and interview the dads "at play"!

Larry's New Toy!

Well, Larry's a happy guy today...he got something he's been wanting for a long time! He's been looking on the internet and talking to people, but everything he looked at was way out of our price range. Friday evening we drove up to New Braunfels to look at a bike that he saw on "Craig's List". It was a beautiful bike for being eleven years old and only had 40,000 miles on it. It was a little out of our price range so he told the guy we would go home and pray about it. Personally, I was glad that it didn't work out because I'm kind of scared of riding a bike in all this traffic, but then this morning the guy called and told Larry he would take less. Larry told him we still didn't have that much money, and the guy told him that when we said we'd pray about it, he decided he wanted us to have it, so he let us have it for less!

Here's Larry with his new Kawasaki Voyager 1500 cc. The nice thing about this bike is that it looks like it was built for Larrry's short legs. It also came with two matching helmets with stereo/voice override communication system, a dustcover and a gel seat for me! I think Larry may be more willing to take me for rides up in the Hill Country now, and I'm going to start praying for God to give me peace about him riding it to work!

What a Week!

Wow, I have been so busy, I haven't posted in a while, so I'll try to catch up on all that's been going on.

Just a few minutes ago, we got home from our mid-week church service, where we had a guest speaker. Dan Cathy, who is the president and owner of Chick-fil-A, spoke about his background, growing up in a very Godly family and how Christ has influenced his life and his ideas about business. He showed a training film for all his employees, set in Bible times, which shows a Jewish follower of Christ choosing to carry a Roman soldiers pack an extra mile. He closed by playing "How Great Thou Art" on his dad's trumpet. His dad, the founder of "Chick-fil-A, is now 87 and still teaches a middle school Sunday School class. He had quite a message, and I was impressed with his committment to conduct business "God's way"!

This week has been "Talent Show Week" at school, and I've been astounded by the talent our kids have! This was not just typical kids stuff...we had big and little kids perform skits and dances and routines that could compete with things I've seen on TV! One little 6 year old boy did a dance he made up himself that was INCREDIBLE! This picture is of two girls who danced to the song "Dance Like David Danced"...they were awesome, too.

My mom had knee surgery last Friday, and I had a difficult time not being there for her. Thankfully, Stacey has been there to see to her every need, even taking time off work the day of the surgery. There really wasn't much I could do being so far away, except pray of course, but I was so glad to hear it went well. Stacey tells me she's doing so well, that she's even walking without her walker already...my amazing mother!


Last weekend, we headed up into the Hill Country, to go to the Lavendar Fest with some friends. It was a nice cool day in the low 80's, and we stopped along the way at some small towns that were having local festivals. We finally got to the Lavendar Fest, which was held at a beautiful farm where they had music, crafts and food available. It was fun to spend a relaxing day in the country.

Mother's Day

This was a day I was not looking forward to...my first Mother's Day without any of my family (except Larry of course!). It was not only my girls that I was missing, but it was also the first year I hadn't been with my own mom...ever! At any rate, it turned out to be a much better day than I expected...

I had planned a really special Mother's Day activity for my Sunday School class. In addition to our Bible story about Hannah and Samuel, the children made cards for their mothers and put together vases of artificial flowers in colored sand and then tied them with ribbon for gifts. The moms loved them!

Then, at church, because Max was at his daughter's college graduation, we had a special speaker. David Robinson, an ex-Spurs player, who is also a three time Olympic medal winner as well as an Allstar MVP, presented the message. Since I'm not exactly a basketball fanatic, I wasn't really all that excited about it...boy was I surprised! I guess he's quite a man of faith, teaching the men's Bible study at church each week as well as working with our youth and many other methods of sharing his faith in the San Antonio area. His message was very inspiring.


Then we headed up to the Hill Country where we ate brunch at a restaurant seated outside next to a little pond. It was wonderful.

After an afternoon walking through antique shops and visiting a small craft fair, we headed home on a back road in the country. I had just shut my eyes when I heard Larry yell "That's a zebra!" He pulled over to the side of the road and sure enough, there was a ranch with zebra grazing! I took my camera and walked through the open gate (yes, there were cattle guards to keep the zebra from escaping) so I could take a picture. The zebra didn't seem to mind me so I wasn't scared...I stopped several times to give him time to get used to me. Anyway, it was the best part of my day!

April Showers Brought May Flowers!

In some ways it seems amazing to me that we have already lived here for ten months, and in other ways it seems like it's been longer. We've made so many new friends here that I feel like the ties go deeper than just ten months, but when I think about the people back in Illinois, I find it hard to believe that I've been away so long.

Last weekend, we had our friends, Doug and Patty Gilbert over for dinner. It was a beautiful evening so we ate out on the patio. After dinner we played "Train Dominoes" until almost midnight. It was a lot of fun!

Tonight was the Choir Musical at school...they did a really cute performance called "Music Man Jr.". I love watching kids perform and it brought back memories of when Shannon was a fifth grader and had a solo at Summit Elementary. It reminded me a lot of that...in fact there was a little girl that had the solo and her voice even reminded me of what Shannon sounded like at that age.

Our music teacher, a new friend of mine, is retiring this year and she's really going to be missed...it was kind of an emotional evening for everyone. It'll be interesting to see how things are next year...changes are so hard!