Emma and the Toad!

We were in the family room tonight when we heard Emma barking up a storm! We went out to see what was wrong and she had cornered a toad but everytime it jumped, she got scared...it was hysterical!

Firsts and Lasts...

Sunday was a big day since we had the first official Northeast church service which we've been praying and working towards for the last few months. It was an especially big day since Lee Strobel, author of "The Case for Christ", was our speaker on Sunday. He was awesome and very down to earth as we met him after church. Eventually we will be meeting near our home, but until we've found the building God wants us to buy, we're going to be meeting right on the Oak Hills campus. There were about 60 people in attendance...not bad for the first service. We met in the youth center and heard the message via satellite, but were still able to go over to the main building for book signings. I'm looking forward to August when we make the official announcement to the community during our service with Michael W. Smith at the ATT Center.

Then tonight was a going away party for Cindy Smallen, my neighbor and good friend who lives just a couple of houses away. I'm really sad to see her go, as she was the very first friend I had when I moved here. God provided her when I was feeling so alone here in San Antonio, and what a blessing she has been! She's only going to Houston, so maybe Larry and I can go explore that part of the country sometime soon...

Exploring the Texas Coast...

We've now lived in Texas for nearly two years and had not yet taken a trip to see the beach. Most people had told us that after seeing California beaches we would be disappointed with the beaches here, but in spite of the differences in the terrain, I loved the beach here!

The biggest surprise was how warm the water was...I'm guessing it was close to 80 degrees! I assume this is because it's the gulf of Mexico, and although the sand is coarser and there was a different variety of sea weed, it still brought back wonderful memories of summer vacations at the beach when my girls were younger. I even collected seashells wishing that Lydia could be with me to share the experience.



This last picture is of a vehicle we saw parked next to a motor home and Larry specifically said he hoped to get one for Father's Day...in his dreams maybe!

School's Out For the Summer...

Well, it's the last week of school here in San Antonio and I've been REALLY busy not only teaching, but packing up my classroom to move to a new room next fall. While I'm excited to have the summer to travel up north to see everyone, a part of me is sad to say goodbye to all my little friends at Encino Park.

There's a lot of special end of the year activities that are really fun. One of them is of course, "Brainy Baseball", which I've been doing for several years, however, I seem to add to it each year. This is a picture of some of my youngest students, but the ones that really get competitive are the third through fifth graders! I do it for the kids, but I have as much fun as they do.

The other special thing we did today was "Read Around the School", where the older kids take their Reading Buddies to hear stories that are being read all around the school by several of the teachers. I was reading a book called "Dear Fish" about a boy who throws bottle with a note into the ocean and is visited by all of the sea life...I read to three large groups and all 180 of them left with a small gift to help them remember this last story of the year.

Time Passes Much Too Quickly!

Can you believe it's been over a month since my last post? It seems like May just got here and now it's almost June. This last month has been so busy with winding down the school year, that blogging just got put on the back burner for a while. Now there's only four more days of school and I thought I'd try to catch up a bit...

The weather here has been beautiful...hot but not yet the scorching heat we get in the summer time. Larry and I have taken several motorcycle rides because we're aware that it's going to soon be much too hot for that. Two weeks ago we rode up into the hill country to a party at the home of a friend from school. Peggy Matthews and her husband built a beautiful home in the woods up north and had a small group from school up for food and fellowship...it was a lot of fun.

Next month will be the "unofficial kick-off" of the new satellite chuch we're launching, so a group of us from Oak Hills has been meeting on Sunday evenings to pray for God's vision to be revealed. It's kind of exciting, however it's been hard to say goodbye for now to our Oak Hills family. Last week we had a barbeque at our house as the official "finale" for our Life Group...those are the people we're going to have the hardest time separating from.

Then tonight we went over to Dennis and Cindy Mean's beautiful home for a dinner with friends from our Adult Bible Fellowship. It was so much fun I didn't want it to end. They have a gorgeous yard with a pool and the guys had a great time hitting golf balls off the putting mat on the patio...it was pretty amazing to see the balls fly over the trees and land down on the green. As the evening grew later, we watched deer roam the course, then ended up back on the patio where we shared testimonies and prayed together...what wonderful friends God has provided us with these past two years! It only makes me wonder what surprises He has in store for us in the future...

A Day in Old Fredericksburg...

Sunday was Joan and John's last day in San Antonio and I decided to "give 'em a taste of the ol' west"! We travelled about ninety minutes north of us to a little German village called Fredericksburg. Our first stop was a famous nursery near LBJ's ranch where we found all the Texas bluebonnets to be in bloom...it was beautiful!

While we were walking through the shops, we saw a sight I'd never seen before...a pet rooster in the store greeting customers like he owned the place...well, I guess he did!

My Sister Arrives...

My sister, Joan, arrived with her husband late Thursday evening and spent three days with us. During that time we fit in about ten days worth of activities and left our husbands feeling absolutely exhausted...the good thing was that they had each other and therefore moved at a slower pace than us.

Friday we started out with breakfast at The Magnolia House and then took John home while we drove up to San Marcos for a day of shopping. Later that evening our husbands met us in Gruene for dinner at The Gristmill...what a fun day!

Saturday was our "Fiesta" day, so we all started out downtown at The Guenther House for breakfast. Then Larry and John went over to the HEB arsenal while Joan and I went to the King William Festival. The crowds didn't bother Joan or me, but the guys decided it was a bit much for them.

Later we all had dinner at the Riverwalk where we spent a couple of hours visiting and had a very relaxing dinner.

Fiesta Arts Fair

Our first Fiesta event was the Arts and Crafts festival at the Southwest School of the Arts downtown by the Riverwalk. In addition to the fact that I've always loved craft fairs, this particular one had some fabulous artists because it's a juried show This year though, I found I was more interested in technique than I have been in the past...maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm now teaching art. Anyway, one of the most interesting areas I found was the children's art area where artists were teaching children to do all kinds of art. I took pictures of several things they were doing that I hope I can replicate and do with my kids at school.

Busy Week...

One of the reasons this has been such a busy week is because of all that's going on at Encino Park. Last night was the "Hollywood Hoedown" which was for the third through fifth graders. They've been learning line dancing and this was an opportunity to dress up as their favorite Hollywood star and show off all they had learned. The funny thing was that the teachers only had one practice and we all tried to keep up with the kids...impossible! Kids and parents alike loved it so it may become a new tradition. (I don't have pictures, but if you're wondering what I wore, I was Julie Andrews from "The Sound of Music"...and yes, believe it or not, I did dance!)

Today was the official kick-off of Fiesta, the big annual celebration in San Antonio. We started with a parade of floats made by the first graders and then partied all afternoon. The reason I don't have pictures of the parade, is because I was leading the parade in the EP Eagle costume...what I wouldn't do for these kids!

After I recovered from heat stroke, I visited classrooms and tried to get my strength back by sampling the delicious food parents had brought...it was a fun day and a great start to Fiesta!

Easter Weekend...

I can't believe a whole week has passed since Easter, but I kept meaning to post pictures and this is the first chance I've gotten. Last Saturday was a beautiful spring day so we took the bike up to Fredericksburg. The ride up there was fun and we were surprised by all the wildflowers which were in bloom.

Although we went to the Easter service on Friday evening to make room for guests at the other five services, we both went on Sunday morning to serve. I of course was teaching Sunday School, and Larry was driving the cart in the parking lot. The crowds were incredible and Max preached an awesome message from The Story that just happened to be on the risen Lord...good timing, huh? This next picture is a presentation done by our fifth graders that was done in all six services and then I was able to take a picture when they performed it for our children at the last service on Sunday. It was a "musical video" about the death and ressurection of Jesus and had been written by a teen in our church who also led the fifth graders.

After church on Easter, we had made reservations for brunch at a hotel downtown, but that was a huge disappointment...bad service, unappealing food and surroundings...we won't be going there again! That evening, Larry and I took off again on the bike and rode up to Canyon Lake. It was beautiful and kind of restored the day for us. We ended the day at The Gristmill, one of our favorite restaurants in Gruene.

Diving Into New Roles...

I'm really enjoying my job and now that I've been teaching art for awhile, I'm beginning to wonder if there's anything I wouldn't love teaching. Last year, I was teaching everything from health to handwriting, and although I was happy, this year is so much more fun! I've also seen progess in my students this year which is exciting for me because that means I can take them further next year because I can build on what they've done already. The funny thing is that this last quarter, I'm supposed to be teaching about painting self-portraits, and that scared me because I knew the kids would find out I have no artistic ability, but when I began doing what I was teaching, I surprised myself and I'm really learning to sketch!

This last picture is something I did today that was a little strange...

My school had just gotten a mascot costume because we're the "Encino Eagles" and just as we were preparing for an assembly, the principal asked if I would be the Eagle. I had to run out and put this strange costume on with tights and everything and fly into the room (rather difficult with giant bird feet) and surprise the kids. Actually, I really enjoyed it, other than the fact that it was so hot I was dripping wet when I finally took it off...

Race for the Cure

I did something today that I have never done before and I really had a good time. My school formed a team to represent Encino Park in the "Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure" and I joined not really knowing what was involved. We had two groups...the walkers and the runners, and I started with the runners, but finished the race walking. It was downtown and what I was NOT prepared for was the crowds! It was held at the Alamadome and by the time I arrived at 7 am, there was already no parking anywhere! I ended up parking a mile away and running to make it to where we were having pictures taken before the race.


It was a beautiful day and not too hot, and the streets were all blocked off for the runners. I stopped several times to take pictures, but other than that I kept up a pretty good pace. I certainly didn't come in first, but it was fun being involved anyway.