3 Weeks Worth of Texas...

It's been a few weeks since I took time to post. Things have been going well. But I don't have as much time to play around online and on blogger with all that has been going on. Matt has been taking the computer with him to work most days, because his computer there is still having problems. So the time I do find to get online is dedicated to looking for a job, looking up driving directions, researching car insurance/etc., and even looking at houses for sale. I get on facebook a bit each day, but just to keep up with birthdays and wall posts I get on my phone.

Noah has been doing well, but we are no where near getting him settled into this new routine. I have taken him to the Mother's Day Out daycare program at the church probably 4 or 5 times now, but I had to pick him up early today because he refused to calm down and lay down for his nap. It is not easy to move his nap time (and therefore bedtime up/wake up time) 2 whole hours! They lay the kids down at noon, and before we left FL he had gotten used to taking his nap around 2 or even 3 sometimes. I don't disagree that an earlier bedtime would be nice for Matt and I, but that means we have to wake up earlier in the a.m. with him. We are trying to get used to it, but it's a slow process! In order to be able to take advantage of the daycare program tho, every day will have to be on THEIR schedule. It's a good program though, so I want to use it. Here's Noah last week on during "western" week with a hat they helped him "make".

Speaking of western...We have now been in TX for 3 whole weeks (Noah and I came in on a Thurs). The first week was spent unpacking and taking stuff to storage, lunches and dinners with church people. The second week was mostly preparing FOR the following weekend, and this week has been recovering FROM that weekend and getting ready for this next one!

We had a great Winter Retreat with the teens from our church. There were right at 65 teens and probably 25 adults! So about 90 total. (8 identical white vans driving down the highway!) About 15 of that # joined us from another small church here in Houston. It was a great group of people, both junior and senior high students. I stayed in the cabin and spent most of my time with the junior high girls, but I got to ride in a van and hang out with some of the Sr. highers during games and meals, which I really enjoyed. It is pretty crazy to say this, but I actually learned everyone's names by the first night...including the other church. That is what I would call a direct answer to prayer, because I have been praying that God would enable me to learn names quickly and not have to be embarrassed that I knew I'd "met" someone, but not recall their name...that's especially hard with youth...I hate to make them feel insecure in any way. It was soo cool to spend the weekend calling people by name!

The campground we went to is about 5 hours away, but with 90 people that easily stretched out to 7ish hours. It's northwest of San Antonio, out in the "hills" of Texas. It really was a cool campground--you have to literally drive thru a river to get there, and I don't mean drive across...I mean drive about a mile IN the river (of course it's shallow) to the campsite. The campsite we used had around 8 or 9 cabins with a big kitchen and meeting room....a large ampitheater, a big flat field for sports, and then another whole big area we didn't even use with a gigantic field and a full court bball court with lights.

And we get to use the entire campground for FREE! No cost at all. The area is like a big canyon, so you can go hiking around on trails on all sides of the campground. The weekend was basically like a mini camp schedule, with 3 meals a day, 2 services, morning games, afternoon games, and free time. Matt spoke 5 times, another youth pastor did music, and we introduced Infiltration for the last night game---with a pretty good response. Overall, I wouldn't say anything was just spectacular, except for the food--yum--but it was a great weekend for us to get to spend time getting to know the teens and the adult sponsors alike. No major injuries, no major discipline probs, not as cold as expected, 3 hour adult/student football game, strong worship time, good time in solitude & nature=good weekend.

My mom came down to stay with Noah, and she says he did pretty good as well. Fussed a bit each morning and a few times during the day, but nothing like it could have been or like she expected. It was nice to spend a few hours with her on Thurs. morning while Noah was at the daycare, and then we took him to the Children's Museum for the Free Family Night. PACKED, not something I would choose to do again, but a neat experience I guess.

I look forward to taking him again, on NON free nights, he'll really enjoy it. Tues. of this week, when we got home, we watched the whole Inauguration stuff most of the day and then took the afternoon out while Matt stayed with Noah. We first headed to Ikea, where we quickly got nearly lost and realized that one hour was no where near enough time to even begin looking through that place! We left with only a few small purchases--I'll have to return with Matt to use our big gift card.

From there we headed to Houston's First Baptist, where we got a double dose of Beth Moore Ladies Bible Study--first the 5:00 video showing of LAST week's lesson, then at 6:30 a praise and worship service followed by the study for the evening. Even though it ended up being very similar to a video session from the Patriarch's study that we just did this fall (coincidence, because it is on the subject of Inheritance, which basically starts with the story of Abraham) I still really enjoyed it and I think Mom did too. She doesn't get this kind of thing there in Ainsworth. I am really really really excited about being able to go to this Bible Study in Houston each week, even if I have to go alone sometimes--I don't have anyone to go with me yet, because they do a Wed. a.m. study here at the church for ladies, and I don't take that anyone fights the traffic to go downtown. I think twice a month I may go for the double dose thing!

Well, I took mom to the airport yesterday morning and spent most of the day with Noah and working on a current resume. Today I tried to take him to Mom's Day Out, but that just turned into a nightmare...he is now playing in his room by himself after refusing to secumb to sleep after 3 hours of trying. I am at my end. Matt left about an hour ago to go to SNU for ANOTHER weekend with the teens--I couldn't leave Noah again, so it's just him and another fellow and 4 or so students. THANKFULLY, ther's a Girls' Night Out thing tonight I got invited to...not sure what we're going to exactly but I heard it involved dinner out, a few lady speakers/musicians and Kate from the TLC show Jon and Kate Plus Eight. I'm ALL IN for that! One or two of the dads are watching the kiddos. In fact it doesn't appear Noah is going to get a nap at all until I put him in the car to go out there---glad I'M not staying at home with him tonight!

Well, that's it, I gotta go get ready for my evening out and figure out what to do with a sleepy boy who is not staying down for his nap. Thanks for checking in on us. If you read this, leave me a comment! I know you're out there, because you tell me you read our blog, but only Carrie and Sherrie leave me comments! Just say hi! It's real easy.