Spring Showcase '08

Tonight was the high school's Spring Showcase in which the Dance Team, Drill Team, Cheerleaders, and Winterguard perform their competition routines for the parents and community. The "Weesteppers" also performed. Weesteppers are the children in the community who spent a recent Saturday morning learning dance routines from the Starsteppers dance team. The little girls were then able to perform tonight with the "big girls" for all the parents. One of the little girls Heather has been working with even brought her a bouquet of flowers tonight!









Our friends Bill and Denise's middle daughter Maggie loves to dance and performed tonight with the Weesteppers. Heather was one of the teachers for her clinic Saturday.









Many of Heather's former dance team mates are now cheerleaders so I saw a lot of moms I knew from my dance mom days at the local studio. One of those dancers, Chelsea, and Heather used to be very close friends and looked so much alike people got them confused (even the parents a time or two when not looking close!). We used to call them the "twins" of the dance studio. Chelsea's mom Cassie sat not far from us tonight and when I called her name she said she didn't even recognize me and thought I was just one of the teenagers! I laughed and thanked her and teased Denise that we look like teenagers. What 30-something year old woman wouldn't love to be mistaken for a teenager?! :0)





For most of the evening, the lighting in the gym was terrible but I did the best I could with attempting to get good photos.

After reviewing the photos, I recognize this dance as being one Heather has told me so much about. She loves how this one starts because these 4 pictured here have been dancing together for 7 years, since we moved here. From left to right: Brooke, Shelby, Heather and Ashley. Gosh 7 years ago these were the little girls at the dance studio and now look at them!!!

Heather.

Jenalee and Heather. They sure enjoyed this number and laughed all the way through it.

Heather and the dance team's modern dance number.

Shelby and Heather.

The winterguard performed their routine and it was fabulous! Everything from the costumes to the choreography was just beautiful!!!

Weestepper Maggie. She's having a ball!

Weesteppers

Marty drove home from his out of town job site as fast as he could in hopes of arriving in time to see the performances. He missed most of Heather's and he missed Maggie's dance, but he did arrive in time to see 2 of Heather's dances and a few other performances. Of course it didn't take long after his arrival for Katie to climb into his lap! She loves her Mr. Marty!!!

Bethany and me watching the dances.

"He's the One"

At church this morning, our Kids Klub sang special music called "He's the One." The did such a great job and I'm proud of every one of them! None of the kids are mine, but I'm still proud to take pictures of their special events and post them as if they are. Most of them have been "mine" at one time in the nursery, and these that are 5th and 6th graders are "mine" as they are my Sunday School students. The photos I take aren't great as the lighting isn't the best for photography and I have to take the photos from way up in the sound room where I sit at a computer during worship services.

Here are all the Kids Klub Kids who sang this morning along with their "Kids Klub Khoir" director Mrs. Janice.

In the back row, the first 4 kids (from the left) are my Sunday School students. One other student of mine also sang this morning but is not in this photo.

Here are Riley and Katie. Riley is my friend Erica's daughter. Riley always has such a sweet expression on her face when she sings! In front of her is "my" Katie. I've posted blogs of Katie before. I'm very thankful for the many times her parents have shared Katie with me. We've always shared a special bond and she almost always has a big hug for me whenever I see her. I love how you can tell she's really singing out in this photo. She and her buddy Terryn did very well and did as they were supposed to this time. (I've posted before when Kids Klub presented a musical and the two youngest really hammed it up!)

Here's Terryn, Cheney and Mason. Cheney, I absolutely love your tie!

Many of the people from our church are involved in the upcoming Easter musical. After church today the youth provided a spaghetti lunch to raise funds for summer activities, then everyone involved in the musical had an all day practice until time for church tonight. I came home to take a nap because I'm sure Heather has shared her cold with me and I wasn't feeling well. (Gee thanks, Heather!) :0) Marty is in charge of the sound at church so he stayed at church all day, and Heather sings in the choir so she stayed too. Here is a photo Erica took of Heather during practice today. Heather has a solo she sings and I can't wait to hear it. (Thanks for the pic, Erica!!!)

Ny Nephew Chris

Friday my nephew Chris graduated from boot camp. He has joined the Air Force! Congratulations, Chris we are so proud of you!!!





Marty and I were unable to attend his gradutation so my sister in law Debbie texted this picture to us Friday morning and I sent it to Erica so she could email it to me. Thanks Debbie and Erica!

It has been wonderful having Marty's brother and his family living so much closer to us the past few years. Marty hasn't lived near his twin Mike since they were in high school. Right after high school Mike joined the military and for the first time since then, they live close enough they can get together every few weekends or so. Sometimes we'd see Mike and his family when we'd all be in Wyoming for a family reunion. One summer when Mike was between posts and Marty and I lived in Arizona, Mike drove his family to visit us. Heather was just a baby and I think Chris and Tony were 4 and 2, but I'm not sure. My first glimpse of who Chris is came during that visit. We decided to drive them out to the Verde River where we'd go camping with all our friends. As we approached the edge of the water, Chris was at a dead run and right into the deep water he went and no one could catch him. Mike jumped in after him and all was well. That is still our Chris: adventuresome, headstrong and fearless.

Chris, may you have a life of abundant blessings! We love you!!!

Snow Days

BRRRR! It was cold today! I know, I know those of you up north and those of you back home in Missouri aren't even going to feel sorry for us on our day of 40's and 50's, but for us in South Texas this is COLD! It was gray, and rainy, and windy all day. It probably felt sooo cold because we've had days in the 70's and 80's already and even one record-breaking day of 92 degrees. So, to go back to cold winter weather today was hard.



2 days ago my sister Lacey texted me snow pictures taken outside the company where she works. That day areas around her got 8-10 inches of snow. Today she called to tell me it was snowing again! She made me glad I'm not there anymore!



I've posted before of the walks I used to take with my mom and even of the walks we'd take in the snow to take pictures. I found one of the pictures taken on one of those walks several years ago when we had a big snowfall. This is of the creek that runs through Mom's property. In the summer we'd all catch tadpoles in the creek or play in the field next to it. I've always liked this photo, especially of the snow still sitting on the wire of the fence across the creek. It looks so peaceful.

I can still hear the soft crunch of our footsteps in the snow, the bubbling sound of the water as it slowly moved, and feel the stillness of the air. There's nothing quite like the silence of a day blanketed in snow. The animals aren't moving about, there are no birds singing or chirping. The world becomes a very quiet place when you're in the country and it's snowed.

Updated Poem from Nana

Nana has updated the poem she wrote "Pop." Click here to read the revised edition.

Wordless Wednesday (Remember the Alamo)

More Meandering in the Backyard

These are more of the photos I took in the backyard yesterday. Soon I'll go see what's blooming a little farther than the backyard. My mother in law has given me some places she's seen some flowers in bloom and I'll have to stop and check those out soon too. It looks like I have about a week break from painting projects (except for the boulder I need to paint for a prop for the church's Easter musical). Hopefully during that time I can get busy with some photography.

And this is what Missy was doing the entire time I was in the backyard with my camera lens stuck in the flowers. She begged me to come play with her and her stick.

Can I Say the "S" Word???

No, not THAT word! The word to which I'm referring is SPRING!!!! Is it Spring yet? Because it sure looks like it around here!!! See for yourself what my backyard looks like today. It's a gorgeous sunny day and 81 degrees! South Texas in the Spring goes a long way toward making up for the lack of fall colors I miss in Missouri.

I counted at least 5 bugs on this plant at the same time! A bee, a butterfly, a red lady bug, a yellow lady bug and a teeny black spider (I did not photograph the spider!)

Fast and Furious

Today I started and finished my 2nd painting project for my customer who hired me to do some work in her children's bedrooms. This room is for her little boy and you can certainly tell from looking at his room that he loves race cars and sports cars. Even his lamp has Corvettes all over it and his clock is a Harley Davidson clock with a different Harley for every hour. What little boy wouldn't LOVE a room such as his?

There is a small alcove in this room where the head of the bed goes. The alcove has black on the upper portion of the walls, a funky geometric border and the lower walls are covered in wallpaper that looks like the silver metal that pickup toolboxes are made of. The remaining walls carry the same border but the bottom wallpaper is silver and red stripes and gray upper walls. It really is very cool!

Can you tell which "Fast and Furious" movie this boy is a big fan of?

He wanted the initials DK on one wall to stand for "Drift King."

When the little boy first showed me his room he advised me not to look too long at the border because it might hurt my eyes. So, consider yourself forewarned!

For the little boy's room all I had to do was paint some words in silver on a black wall. I have one more project to do for this family, but won't post any pictures of that project until it is complete. My customer wants the next project to be a surprise for her family and I don't know if anyone who knows them reads here. That project will be underway soon!

To see how Marty and Heather spent their morning, check out Erica's blog.