Ten Days in Texas - Part One

We just returned from our Texas trip! Here are the highlights...

Welcome to Texas!
This sign hangs on the fence of my father-in-laws neighbor. Funny thing is this house isn't the only one that has it!

Wednesday, 12/17
When we arrived in Dallas, Nathan and I dropped Greg off at his office, then we headed over to Grandma Sun's house where Nathan discovered that Grandma has some very cool grown up toys to play with!




A while ago, a coworker showed me a hysterical YouTube video of Ellen in a Hawaii Chair (click the link here if you would like to see it). I told her it wasn't the first time I've see this chair, my mom has one. She did not believe me, so here's the proof, this video is of Nathan in the Hula Chair...

Friday, 12/19
On Friday it warmed up enough for us to go to the park with Grandpa David & Grandma Jacque.



Saturday, 12/20
It was supposed to be another pretty day so we went to the park with Grandma Sun. The weather was not nearly as nice as the day before, typical Texas weather, and Nathan fell, busting his mouth, so our play time was cut short!




Saturday Night
We went to the Horvaths house. It was wonderful to see the Horvaths again and it made me miss them so much. We hung out, ate pizza and tried our best to play 2 rounds of Dominos! If Nathan had best friends at his age, Seth and Caleb would be his. Nathan played all night long with them and the highlight of the night was Seth & Nathan 'singing' together as seen below.



Sunday, 12/21




Ironically enough, Steve wanted to play with Greg on Sunday morning at New Hope again, so Greg was added to the schedule! Here's a video of Greg playing at New Hope, however, the new drum cage makes it very difficult to see Greg.


Wednesday, 12/24
The day started out with finding activities to tire Nathan out for a good afternoon nap before our long evening at Uncle Gerald's & Aunt Marilyne's house.

Bathtime



Willow Bend Mall Play Area




To be continued....

Scissor Happy...Hair Conundrum

This is how my hair makes me feel.

This is where I drive to make it better.

This is the guy who can fix it, Nick Addison, 'The One' Magic Man Hair Extraordinaire.

This is what my hair looks like now. It's significantly shorter and lighter.
I asked Nick to take a minimum of 2 lb's out of my hair and so he did.
Admittedly, I'm self conscious.
I think I just went a record time with the same hairstyle of 2 years.
I used to change hairstyles practically every 9 months.
While it 'feels' good to take the hair shawl off my head, it doesn't look as feminine.
Thankfully, my hair grows in record time, similar to Gremlins.

Unfortunate for me, Nick is moving to Austin, Texas.
I will no longer be able to sneak a visit to see him while I'm in Dallas.
A while ago I affectionately dubbed Nick as 'The One' because after years of seeing hairstylists who didn't know how to lighten the weight in my unusually thick mane,
NICK became 'The One' who could do it! I shall miss him terribly.

Best Wishes Nick!

Poll Time!

Well I've been itching to get a haircut and change my hairstyle but I haven't gotten the 'go ahead' nod from Greg yet, so I changed the blog colors. It's not really the same but since I've been itching for a change it will have to do for now. Tell me what you think!

RockPoint Service on the Land!

Our church, Rock Point Church, started 7 years ago meeting in a clubhouse, they graduated to meeting in a school and now meets in the auditorium of performing arts center. In the last couple of years they have been working towards buying land and are now in the process of beginning to build. This weekend, our services were on the land and it was a great experience filled with anticipation of what's to come.

They marked out where each building would be by signs, for example this is where the nursery will be and etc.
Here was someone who attended the service on horseback. Sorry, Uncle Jimmy once the building is done, that will no longer be an option!
While it was cold by Arizona standards (low 50's) everyone was in good spirits. Here's our Worship leader, Shawn and his wife, Sara, who sings amazingly. Just fyi, you've seen both of them in videos I've posted of Greg playing drums.
I bundled Nathan up in layers but I didn't have a hat or gloves for him so I threw one of Greg's knitted hats on him hoping it would fit and it worked. Hook 'em Horns!
Well it wasn't cold to everyone, Brian is from Boston and seems to actually LIKE it cold. Notice, no jacket, no gloves, no hat.
That was our weekend. We are now watching the Cowboys/Giants game, 4th Qtr, 20-8 Cowboys. When Cowboys are 9-5, we can officially declare it a good weekend!

Looking at Christmas Lights...

This weekend we went looking at Christmas lights with the Nortons and Staffeldts...it went down like this:

• Plan A: We planned to eat at home before meeting at the Nortons house at 6:30 Saturday night. Go to McDonalds for Eggnog shakes. However, Nathan was so tired from the earlier birthday party that he slept until 6:00 when we woke him up to leave the house. The Staffledts met at our house and they had not eaten dinner yet either, so....
  
• Plan B: Stop at McDonalds on our way, pick up an Eggnog shake for Gary and then pick up the Norton's.
• Plan C: Greg's driving tactics were confusing and we didn't stop at Mickey D's. Instead we picked up Gary & Elaine first, THEN went to McDonalds. Gary's Eggnog shake tasted like Vanilla and Lynn's chicken nuggets never made it in the bag. That's our car at the drive through window.
  

Elaine suggested we play a game while we look at lights. Decide on an object that you would like to count and then look for that object at each house. At the end of the night whoever has the highest count wins!

• Lynn counted Stars: Score = too many to count
• I counted baby Jesus': Score = 7
  
• Greg counted blow up Homer Simpsons: Score = 1

Some highlights from the night....every single house on this particular street was decorated and was by far the most festive street we landed on....
I liked how the homeowners would pull firepits out in the driveways and gather 'round the fire while the light lookers drove or walked by...
This particular house was paying homage to Oklahoma State....
I can't say that I've seen a business building go to this level to decorate for Christmas but apparently Pollack investments does it every year....
This house was by far the coolest of them all. Their lights were synchronized to the music playing on a local radio station. So when you drive up to this house, they have a sign in the yard for which radio station to turn to and before you know it, your watching a light show. The other neat thing about this was Santa in the window, it was a looped projection of a Santa. Watch the video I made at the end of this post.
Here's our car load watching the show....Even Nathan was mesmerized by the light show as he watched from his car seat....

Here's the video...sorry about audio quality and content. You'll hear the music that the lights are synchronized to but you'll also hear Greg's Tim Tebow commentary to Gary in the background and a little bit of wind.