Drive-in Movie!

Last night we went to the Brazos Drive-in Movie Theatre in Granbury with Kimi & Rob to see the new Indiana Jones movie! We got there in plenty of time to eat our picnics & hang out before the movie started around dark. While some of us may have slept more than others during the movie (mainly Lake & me!), it was a great night!

First Swim of the Summer!

Dad and Dave took the first swim of the summer on Sunday afternoon! They spent most of the time sitting on the edge, talking about construction and reading the Wall Street Journal...but eventually they both got wet! We are looking forward to lots of great times in the pool this summer!
P.S. Now Dave and Dad have another obvious thing in common: the same farmer's tan, as Emily pointed out! ;)

The Roof Has Risen!

Dave and Nate worked on the roof all day on Saturday. We are hosting our friend Joel's graduation party in the gazebo on May 31, so the pressure is on to get it done!

Inn on the River

Knowing what a difficult time Mother's Day is for me, my sweet husband planned a special getaway this weekend. We started our time on Saturday morning at the Fort Worth Zoo, which was a lot of fun!

We laughed really hard while watching the huge elephants swim in their pool, and Dave had a great time walking through the Parrot Paradise. I tried going into the Parrot Paradise, too, but after 10 parakeets tried to "dive-bomb" me, I ran out! I was also very proud of myself for walking through the entire "herpatarium" (the snake house), though I was very glad to get out!




After our adventure at the zoo, we made a quick stop at the DQ for emergency ice cream cones before driving to Glen Rose, where we stayed at the Inn on the River. This truly was a lovely and restful little hotel, and we enjoyed reading by the edge of the river for hours.

Last night we got a taste of authentic Texas BBQ at the "Ranch House Barbeque" which we both agreed was delicious, though one thing we saw describes the entire atmosphere: the deerhead on the wall was wearing a feed cap. There were also 2 full coyote skins on either side of the door to the restrooms.

After a great breakfast in the inn's dining room, we spent more time down by the river before heading back to Ft. Worth. I am so thankful for special times like this weekend to spend together.

Bridge Demolition!

Last week, I had the incredibly fun experience of destroying completely one of the Texas Dept. of Transportation's bridges. (Don't worry, we built a new one!). Here are some of the photos...
The "Hammer" on the end of this excavator can put a hole into almost two feet of reinforced concrete. It doesn't take long for a whole span of the bridge to hit the ground.
Knocking a bridge down is pretty exciting and everybody likes to stop what they're doing for a few minutes to take a look. Even after completely hammering through the concrete of one of the columns, the bridge still holds up. The resillience of these things is a good thing!... Part of the over-engineering for safety.
When this span came down, it sent a tidal wave from the creek up the slopes of the creekbed. You can feel the ground shake from a good way off. The weight of this span coming down impaled itself on one of the columns that used to help support it!

Mother's Day

Since my mom and Grandma Dolores both love Scrabble so much, we had a lot of fun creating their Mother's Day cards!

Yes, my mom's card does say "Wal-Mart," but we like to tease her that it's her favorite store, since she's there at least 2 times a week! Also, we weren't so sure that she would like that we put "Texas" on her card, but we figured it was a good way to use an "x," one of the highest scoring letters in Scrabble. ;)


And, since Susie doesn't like Scrabble too much, we made hers more related to one of her favorite things--cooking! :)

Roof Raising

We had a “roof raising party” for our gazebo on Saturday! Dad, Kym, Grandpa, Nate, Brian, and Alan all came to help! Thankfully, a different inspector has been assigned to our gazebo, and he has been much more flexible in working with Dave about the easement issue. We are so thankful that after our inspection last week he said we didn’t have to tear out any of the concrete! (We attribute this to my mom’s continual prayer!)

So, with an “all-clear” from the inspector, Dave and the guys spent all day on Saturday putting up the roof. When I came home from the retreat on Saturday, I couldn't believe how tall the roof was! We couldn't do this without all the help from our family & friends!, and we can’t wait to have everyone over for barbeques in it this summer!

Women's Retreat

This weekend our church held their first-ever women’s retreat, “Sharing the Journey.” It was truly an amazing two days of worship, Biblical teaching, and fun girl time. Here’s Sandy, Kelli, and me working at the registration table.

The dinner on Friday night was delicious, and I was impressed by all the extra touches the planning committee had done to make this event so special, such as the beautiful table decorations and the bags full of fun goodies (like coupons for free Starbucks coffee!) that were at every place setting. These are some of the sweet girls in our community group at dinner—Erin, Stephanie, & Annika.


A wonderful lady from our church, Jan Franke, spoke on Friday night about her life journey. She has been through so much—infertility, breast cancer, parenting challenges—but through it all, she spoke of how God has been faithful. "Whether the tide of your life is in & all is going well, or whether the tide is out & you are on the rocks, God is faithful." Her story was so encouraging!

Three ladies from our church spent hours getting different businesses to donate amazing door prizes; all together, they had over 60 prizes, such as $100 gift certificates to a spa in Southlake and Mary Kay & Arbonne gift baskets! They had a fun game where they would call out random items that might be in your purse, such as a calculator, floss (which, of course, I had!), etc., and then the first girl to jump up and show the item from her purse won one of the door prizes! It was hilarious! I won a $50 gift certificate for custom framing for being the first to show a pack of Trident gum!

There was also a fun fashion show, and I was a model for it! A lady who sells CAbi clothing brought tons of clothes, handbags, and jewelry, and on Friday night after the session, we all went to her hotel room and tried on different outfits to see which we would model. The next morning, after breakfast, we walked through the banquet hall modeling the clothes, & she spoke to all the ladies about the new fashion trends. It was so fun! (I wish you could see the dress that I was modeling better in this picture—it was beautiful!)

On Saturday morning, we also had small group Bible studies, and I led one on the topic of God’s grace. It was such a sweet time of sharing God’s word with a small group of women. This verse in particular from our study spoke to me: “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. This is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (II Corinthians 12:9-10)

We ended the retreat with a beautiful time of worship. I am so thankful for a church that designs incredible opportunities where we can experience the Lord in such a sweet way.