Vloggin It Up

I think I am going to do one big post about all of our adventures cause I can't seem to organize my thoughts just yet. For now, I direct you to HisGirl's posting of our vlogs.

S4J & His Girl- Caught in the Act Edition

Find the VLOG here

No Time!

Lordy! Busy day! I have only time to put up some pics from today. I will try to do more as we go, but geesh. I just don't know. Maybe Whimzie or Hisgirl will have a better story about today with more details...


These are what fun look like. What a wonderful day and I have made a stack of memories that will touch my heart and make me smile in the future.



I am blessed to know these women. And look how sweet they are to me....

No Good Title.

I have this friend. She loves me. Exactly me. In the world of understanding me, she is only second to God. ALL of me. And loving me. ALL of me. She doesn't ask me to put down who I am, or to stop being who I am or to change who I am (or any parts thereof) because she loves who I am and she loves to be with the me who is who I am. In her love, she joins me in my muck, but never lets me stay there. She points me to the Cross when I look to the flesh. She is that person who would drop her life upon one simple request to come to my side (and has), and she is THAT person that you would WANT to drop their life to come to your side because you know she will make things better for having been there rather than be another person you have to care for and she will never make you feel burdened or guilty for the great sacrifice it takes.

She is on her way here. I will have her full-time for a week. A week of merriment, MIRL's, festivities and a whole lot of being ME.

I heard an interesting theory about Paul the Apostle in Bible study yesterday...the basic point that I took away from it was that Paul was looking for just the right way to describe what he wanted to describe and had to keep trying different words because they didn't quite give the full depth of understanding that he was trying to convey. Hence - his writings are rather wordy.

That is what I will have to say here. There are no good words that can describe to you who HisGirl is to me. There is no good title.

Bestie Adventures ~ MySpace Style

Meet my very angelic BFF

I got the pleasure of an entire day with her. I present to you:
Bestie Adventures ~ MySpace Style


Okay. Just kidding. THIS is my very angelic BFF!

Got up in time to make it to second service at church. As is the tradition - everything was different than normal. Happens every.single.time I visit. Or, almost every.single.time.

Breakfast at Jack-In-The-Box. Cause ~hello~ I'm in California.

We stopped at Brandy's House. It's not really Brandy's house.
But we want it to be Brandy's house.

Lunch at PF Chang's. Be thankful we took our shot at this end of the horse. The other end is heart-shaped. Not making that up.

Here we found a reflective door and became obsessed with ourselves as one is wont to do when looking at such beauty.

Dinner at The Spaghetti Factory. It's not really a factory.

I took this picture especially for my sweet Mother-In-Law. This statue is for sale in the biggest indoor flea-market I've ever visited. See him holding his own pricetag? You're welcome.

Adventures In Letterboxing

Guess what??!!?? I finally had that good Mommy day! The twins had their first letterboxing adventure and it was a great success. (If you do not know what letterboxing is, read on. If you DO know, you can skip down to the row of # signs; Letterboxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art and puzzle solving. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks) and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs, on one of several web sites, or by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes usually contain a notebook and a rubber stamp. Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp, either on their personal notebook or on a postcard, and leave an impression of their personal stamp on the letterbox's "visitors' book" or "logbook" — as proof of having found the box and letting subsequent letterboxers see who have visited. )

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We also took my friend A on her maiden voyage with letterboxing. Our clues led us to a bird sanctuary in Texas. I didn't see any birds, but I did see a rabbit. And children. Children on a field trip. I made it out okay.

Our adventure took us over bridges and paths



to this tree stump




we were instructed by our thoughtful cluegiver to remember to poke the area with a stick and to even wear gloves before searching around with our hands to find the box in the event that there were snakes or spiders also searching for the treasure.



It was looking a little bleak until A saved the day and found the box! The red areas look to be attempts at entry by wild animals..





Then my son removed the lid to inspect the contents and bunches of bugs proceeded out the top. What happened next is a bit of a blur, but I am certain there was a high-pitched scream coming out of my son. Then I saw this...


Did you notice my daughter wielding the 'sword' at the docile container on the ground?? The notebook and stamp were safely in its water-tight bag. No harm no foul. We all happily stamped in the notebook and used the stamp provided to stamp in our journals, made certain that the container was devoid of all life forms, and then A stealthily and successfully returned the box to its hiding place to be found and treasured another day. All agreed it was an enjoyable activity and would like to do another in the future. *sigh*

Yahoo! A New Sisterchicks Book!

I LOVE this series. I highly recommend you buying and reading them all. Or I suppose you could check your local library. But seriously, these books are fun and encouraging - a totally clean read. The author has several other series as well - one of them being the Christy Miller Series which is great youth fiction and a real favorite in our house. We nearly fell out waiting for the College Years!!





That's right! Robin Jones Gunn (whom I have met in person! Remember Robin? That time in Shreveport? I'm sure you do.) has penned another Sisterchicks novel, and right here I have the chance to win a copy!!

Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes! by Robin Jones Gunn, in stores May 5, 2009.

"Summer and Noelle, two pen pals since 4th grade, meet for the first time in the land of tulips and windmills. An abnormal mammogram sends Summer on a quest to fulfill her lifelong wish before she begins the same struggle her mother fought against breast cancer. The story of these two Sisterchicks is brimming with hope and cheer and will bring encouragement for any woman who has faced a fearful future."

Can't wait!!

See? I TOLD you I met her!
(Those are some of my Chicas! - we were on a girlfriend's vacation!!)

The Quick Turn Around

Isn't it ironic that my whole trip to see HisGirl took less time than it has taken for me to post about why it was so quick?! Okay so here's the deal....
I found out quite a while back that she was going to be heading closer to my world and we immediately started pondering whether it were even plausible for me to meet up with her. Seeing as how she was going to be in town for work and by in town I mean 6-7 hours of driving away. We had decided that through the magic of airplines and online booking, we would be able to meet up for one night in Houston(which is a mere 3 1/2 hours of driving for me). Then the news came.

There was a snafu with the tickets and she would not be able to go through Houston on her way to Dallas at all but would have to go straight there and have no rendezvous with the BFF of all BFF's. That was really disappointing!

Anyway, life was moving on. Appointments were getting scheduled. I kept wishing in the back of my mind that there was some way that I could see her but there was always, "It's too far. There's not enough time for that kind of trip. There's no extra money in the budget for that." and we came to about a week or two before her trip and I just started wishing out loud. My husband responded to my ponderings with, "You could probably do it." HUH? REAlly?? "Yeah. You could probably do it as long as you're back in time for my surgery." Well ya don't have to tell ME twice buddy!!

SO - HisGirl was flying into Dallas on Wednesday afternoon at 1:18pm. My husband had to be to the hospital for surgery on his torn meniscus on Thursday morning at 6:15am. I had to be present to drive him there, drive him home and care for him after surgery. I also could not leave before Tuesday because I had to be home on Monday to attend his pre-op appointments. So that left me Tuesday afternoon(gotta go to PWOC don't ya know) through Wednesday night to drive to Dallas, pick up HisGirl and Jtothe2nd at the airport on Wednesday, visit and drive all the way back home.

Crazy. Insane. Maniacal. Apparently that's me.

Here are some wonderful blessings in my life that helped me make that possible.

• My wonderful Mother-in-law and Father-in-law live a really reasonable distance from the Dallas area and they are always kind to share their home with me.
• They were holding for us a used-but-new-to-us television that we have been trying to figure out how we were going to get down here.
• My wonderful and gracious husband allowed the risk of me not being home for his surgery to spend just a wee bit of time with someone who means a great deal to me.
  
• So, I drove up on Tuesday night after PWOC and picking up my car from the shop and stayed the night with hubby's parents. I got a good night's rest and on Wednesday with the help of a crew we loaded up the tv into the van and I headed down to Dallas to pick up the girls at the airport.
  

Also - it was HisGirl's birthday. HELLO. Can there be a better birthday present. I think not.

So there you go. I'll fully inform you on my husband's ailments and what we have been doing to help him pass the time while on convalescent leave in the days to come.

PS - Hubby and I got the TV unloaded from the van when I got home in the middle of the night, but it sat on the wagon for several days until the kids and I figured out how to get it up onto the tv stand without the help of the strongest person in the house.

Where In The World Is S4J? - Day 2 Continued

11:57am Heading South from here to the airport...



1:19pm Arrived at my destination! You guys are way too hip to me. You had me figured out right away!




1:29pm Picked up these...

HisGirl and Jtothe2nd

1:57pm Arrived at their swanky hotel and I spent some time taking pictures of the lovely lobby while they worked out the details of checking in...



3:10pm Time to eat and shop. Lunch at Rainforest Cafe...

3:15pm and because you people are harassing me about faces...



4:33pm After lunch we went around the Grapevine Mills Mall. We stopped in here...



Can you SEE the prices of these items? Jtothe2nd really loved that bowl sink AND those sunglasses.

5:09pm A little more fun back at the hotel before I had to be on my way home...


5:40pm I didn't get a picture of this because I was literally standing at the door when we heard a key in it. It was my Chica Wen who had just arrived from California!! I got to say, "Hello" and hug her before heading out for the 6 1/2 hour drive home.

8:19pm YAHOO! J-in-the-B for dinner!!
Arrived home around 12:30am

More later on the reason for the quick turn around.....

Where In The World Is S4J? - Day 2

Hey! Glad you came back to the South~ do you know that I blew right past my 300th post? This one marks number 302!
Anyway, Silly me, I went out without my camera this morning so you don't get any pics yet, but I will tell you these clues.

I stayed the night with family but this is not my final destination.

9:50am
I went to Target to buy some DVD+Rs (and can't we all just get along and not be (-) or (+) but just DVDR? Please? This is way more complicated than the simple folks like me can handle. I just want lots of space to store my pictures. I don't want to be out eighty bucks because my drive is a (+) but I bought (-) DVDs and already opened them before I even knew how wrong I was!
Anyway - so Target is your first clue. (You can deduce that I am not still at home)
After I left Target I went to Sonic for a breakfast sandwich and diet cherry Coke. I really like to eat at certain restaurants when I am away from home that I don't normally have the option of. Failing that, I will always go for what is familiar. I haven't had an opportunity yet to try either of my top 2. Which are Jack-in-the-Box and Del Taco.
Anyway, I need to get back to reloading the car and reprogramming the GPS and some other things before I am on my way. I will try to remember to drag out my camera soon.

Where In The World Is S4J?

Oohhh yeah! It's that time again! Time for an adventure. Here are some clues.....

Started out here with a full tank of gas and fresh transmission fluid.

2:04pm playlist: Eminem
(the service department was kind enough to leave my radio tuned to this choice music)

Stopped here to rest for a few minutes and play some more with the remote control I got for my camera as a gift for Christmas....

4:40pm iPod playlist - Take Us To The River (Robin Mark)

Time to fill up.....

7:11pm iPod playlist - Slowly (Avalon)

Getting late - but what a view.....

8:03pm iPod playlist Come Now Is The Time To Worship (Brian Doerksen)

Stopped for the night.....

8:48pm iPod Playlist - I Stand Amazed (Candi Pearson-Shelton)

Any guesses?

WOF - Quotes Of The Day

"K Was tapping me with chips."

"Yesterday there were snafu's out the wazoo."

"I might have to soap up before I move in."

"To raise responsive children you just let them die."

"The nursing mother's room is located at the Bacardi Bar."

"That is a successful peep!"

"What I need is a little red motorscooter."

"Just lippin' off."

"Adjust to changing times by clinging to unchanging principles."

"When 8-10 thousand women tell you to do something, you just might oughtta pay attention."

"Wonder is the basis for worship."