sisters

A few weeks ago I mentioned that my sisters and I were getting our pictures taken by AlexMPhotography. You can see the post on his blog here. Here are some of the shots he got. We haven't taken professional pictures together since I was...12 probably. So these are long overdue, but I am so glad we were able to work it around our busy schedules to get some again, 10 years later! I love my sisters very very much.

Becca "borrowed" (STOLE!) these glasses from a 3D movie.

We went to the carnival in the mall parking lot. I honestly don't think I had ever been to a mall parking lot carnival before.

Becca was obviously disappointed her sack was "broken".

You can see how both of them felt about this ride. :)

This was a surf tunnel and it really moved. We had an impossible time all three posing for the picture!

My wonderful family. :)

help end child slavery and win a TV!!

Aja is helping to free kids who are in slavery in Ghana, Africa. Aja and her husband are giving away a Sony LCD HDTV to raise awareness for the Mercy Project. You can enter by reading her blog and following the instructions. This is all about freeing slaves, winning a TV draws attention to the Mercy Project so others will get involved.

Here’s the bad news: Right now, in Ghana, West Africa, there are an estimated 7,000 children in slavery. Some of these children have been sold for as little as $20. Many of them are as young as 5 or 6 years old. The kids often work as many as 100 hours a week as fishermen. They fish, mend nets, and scoop water out of leaking boats. They rarely smile or laugh. Their childhoods have been stolen.

Here’s the good news: We can do something about it. Yes, you and I. It doesn’t matter if you are not rich or famous. In fact, the Mercy Project was started by a guy who is far from rich and certainly not famous, and he started the project for people just like me. People who want to make a difference in the world but don’t know where to start. People who wish there was something they could do to help but feel overwhelmed. People who want to help make the world a better place.

home owners!!

Chris and I now own a home!!! We are so excited, but honestly so glad to get the closing behind us. The loan process was anything but exciting. But all that is over now and we bought our first house last week! :)

The previous owners are renting it back from us for a few more weeks. So we'll get in it around the end of May. We are planning on replacing some or all of the carpet (thankfully it's only in the bedrooms) and repainting at least the master bedroom, maybe more! Our lease isn't up until July 31, so we aren't in a huge hurry. We've been packing up some things here and there. We did the entire guest room last night. Of course it was a competition, and I think Chris packed 6 or 7 boxes in the time I packed TWO! Here's one of our kitchen walls now...

On Saturday, we went to an Astros game in Houston for Chris' birthday last week. Chris' sisters were able to come and it was so great to see them! Our older nephew Kaden was able to come and it was his first baseball game to attend! He's such a cutie.

This weekend Chris is headed to Oklahoma City for the NCAA Softball Big 12 Tournament to support the Ags. There is a chance my parents and I might get to go also...not sure yet. But I know Chris is excited and would LOOVE if the girls came home as Big 12 Champions!

I turned in an application today to substitute for the school nurse at College Station ISD. I was told they would for sure need me for the fall, and they may have a field trip or two before the end of this school year that they could use me for. I just have to get fingerprinted, background check and I should be good to go. I'm very excited about this!!

My Turn

Well I sadly don't have any cool pictures to share with you. But I thought I would make my wife happy and take a minute to "Blog"

This semester has been one for the record books to say the least. Leisha has already chronicled my adventures so there is no need to recap. But needless to say it has been a BUSY semester. As things are finally winding down, final projects are coming up, classes are ending, I have had a few minutes over the last several days to consider how incredibly blessed I am.

I have a WONDERFUL wife that is the greatest gift God has ever blessed me with outside of salvation. We are so blessed to both have jobs. Well Leisha has a career and I am working on getting a piece of paper so someone will let me start a career too!! But anyway, we are buying a house! (We think we might actually get to close on the 3rd of May)

Though the semester has been oevrwhelming at times, and down right mean at others, in the end we are so lucky to be in the position God has placed us in.

Enough of the mushy stuff.

This summer is sure to look different. I am actually planning to stay stateside this summer. I say planning because God has a funny way of changing my geographical location, sometimes at the last moment. I will be working and teaching at Texas A&M. I am actually teaching a course for the first summer session. So I am pretty excited about that. I will also be devoting alot of time toward my thesis and data collection. Should be great fun.

As you know I am now the voice of Aggie Softball. It has been one of the best things I have ever done. Truly has been an honor. I look forward to doing that while we remain in College Station. Out of that I actually got a job offer for the summer to do some announcing for the local Texas College League summer baseball team. But after much thought, discussion and prayer I decided that wasn't where I needed to be investing my time.

Well that is enough for now. Only things on the horizon are the house closing, and maybe another long bike ride sometime in July. Still trying to convince Leisha she should hop on a bike and join me!

roll over

Scout is staying with my parents right now as we prepare to move into our new house next month, so while I was in this weekend we worked on a new trick. He picked it up in about 15 minutes!

ms150 pictures

I was able to drop Chris off at the start of the ride in Houston. We got there about 6am and he finally got started about 7am. It was drizzly and HUMID!! But thankfully the weather cleared up and it ended up being a beautiful day. I was also able to meet Chris for lunch and then in LaGrange at the end of Day 1.

Lunch pit stop in Bellville, Day 1

After lunch on day 1, ready to finish the route.

I was glad that I got to meet him and see some of what the MS150 is. Maaaybe I'll even do it someday!! (with extensive training, of course!)