Staycation: Part 2

After experiencing a very difficult evening with the loss of our beloved dog, we knew we had to stay distracted and keep our spirits lifted. Thankfully, we had a fun day planned for Wednesday.

Craig and I didn't tell the kids what we were going to do. We wanted to keep everything a surprise. We drove to Dallas for an early dinner and ate at the famous Hard Rock Cafe. The last time Craig and I went to one of these restaurants was on our honeymoon in San Diego in 1999!!!

When we pulled up, the kids loved the guitar on the outside of the building.


Unfortunately, the air was out in the building but it was still somewhat cooler than being outside. Here are the sliders that I ordered. Yummy!

We walked around the restaurant after we ate to look at all the memorabilia. Here's Tom Petty's guitar.

This is Billy Gibbon's guitar from ZZ Top. Yes, it's really fuzzy.

This is a guitar from the Christian rock group Pantera.

And my favorite, Elvis memorabilia. The hat was worn when Elvis played in Houston. The outfit is from one of his movies.

Just down the street was the American Airlines Center where we were taking the kids to see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus!!! They still had no clue what we were doing until we went inside the building.

The Ringling Bros. was one of the most exciting shows we've seen in a really long time. It was over 2 hours long but kept our attention the entire time! There was even a 1 hour pre-show where you could meet some of the circus stars.

It's hard to tell, but those are 3 ladies folded on top of each other. They were the contortionists of the show.

Preston loved this part. All those flashes you see in the cage are actually motorcycles. At one point, there were 7 motorcycles in there at the same time.

Motorcyclist on a high wire with a girl sitting underneath him. Pretty cool.

The tigers were in this cage with their tamer. Some of the tigers seemed very unhappy to be there.

The hit of the show was the elephants. They were pretty awesome.

Has anyone seen the movie or read the book Water for Elephants? Yeah, that story was in the back of my mind the entire time we were at the circus! lol

We got home late that night but so enjoyed our day!

Thursday, was pretty low key again except I had a great lunch with one of my closest friends. Love times like that!

Friday, we had another movie to watch as part of our Summer Movie Camp at Harkins Theaters. Cats & Dogs was playing, and well, we thought it was a boring movie. :/

We took the kids to lunch, I had a voice lesson, and then on to my in-laws house for dinner. Our niece was visiting from California and we usually only get to see her once a year. It was nice to see her outside our annual Kelley holiday "Thanks-Christmas-giving."

Saturday was super busy. I had a long rehearsal all morning and then some of my family came in town. We went to one of the bigger malls in the area (I now remember why I like to avoid malls) and spent all afternoon there and then had dinner. We got home about 8 pm and were so tired! But our weekend wasn't over.

Sunday was back to church. We started a campaign called "iServe" to try to recruit volunteers to serve in different ministries in our church. Our first focus was the preschool area since I needed 5 volunteers. The campaign was mentioned during announcements and then our wonderful evangelist that was visiting just happened to mention our "vibrant Children's Ministries" as well. As a result, we immediately had 4 people sign up to help! God is good and I know we will still get one more person.

We ate a very quick lunch with my family and friends and then off to see Laurie Berkner!!! If you have a preschooler, then you more than likely know Laurie Berkner. She sings such catchy preschool songs that even adults sing with her. She also appears on Jack's Big Music Show on Disney. I play A LOT of her songs in my music classes and every age loves it! Even my elementary classes were requesting her songs!

One of my sweet friends was able to get us free tickets and parking passes to a suite at the concert. Here is a picture of the suite. It was all pink!

We also had snacks in the suite.

Laurie Berkner and her band are singing "Rocketship Run".

Kaitlyn is posing with her friend that came with us.

Preston's being silly with his friend.

It was a fabulous concert and such a blessing that we were able to get free tickets.

So, even though we stayed home, it was a very eventful week, but still relaxing. We are already back to reality and hopefully planning a big family vacation next year.

Staycation: Part 1

After a very long couple of weeks, we were ready for a much needed vacation. However, we did manage to stay so busy every day, that our Staycation requires 2 posts!





Saturday morning, we headed to Abilene by 9 am for my niece and nephew's joint bday party. Yes, we were completely exhausted from VBS, but we didn't want to miss the festivities.





As soon as we arrived, Craig and the kids changed into swimsuits and joined the fun on the water slide.








The other guys chilled in the pool.

My mom and sister made this cute Hello Kitty cookies.

The kids sat around the coffee table to eat lunch.

First, my niece blew out her candles on her Hello Kitty cake. Then, my nephew blew out the candles on his Green Lantern cake. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get his picture blowing out the candles.

The next morning, we went with my family to the Salvation Army church that they are currently attending. My sister led Praise and Worship and somehow I got coerced into playing piano as well. We had a big brisket lunch, played games, then headed back home.

Monday was our designated "Pajama Day". We took it easy and just enjoyed relaxing. Preston was so tired that he voluntarily laid down on the couch around 11 am and took a 30 minute nap!

On Tuesday, we made a trip to the Planetarium. The kids had never been and it's very inexpensive, so we thought we'd try it. We arrived a little early before our showing so we went into the gift shop. The Planetarium is connected to the large Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History and IMAX theater. Inside the gift shop was a gigantic dinosaur with a slide going through it. It was pretty cool!

Here comes Preston!

And here comes Kaitlyn!

Finally, it was time to go see our show "The Texas Night Sky". These props were hanging in the lobby.

The kids wanted to pose with the dinosaur statues on the way out.

Of course, later that day was when things turned very somber and we made the decision to put our dog to sleep. You can read that blog post here.

As sad as we were, we knew we had a busy week ahead to keep our spirits lifted. Stay tuned...

She Was A Lady

Sometimes you go through life, everything seems just right, and you are so thankful for all the wonderful blessings. Then, you come to a complete stop and have to make a life-changing decision before you can journey any further. That's when life is hard. That's when you wish you could be a child again without the adult responsibilities. That's when you cry out to God the loudest.

Craig and I had to decide if now was the time for our dog to go or selfishly keep her around. Nobody wants to plan a death, whether a human or an animal. It's not something you want to make an appointment for and put it in your daily calendar after gym time and before lunch with a friend. You don't want to wake up and think "Oh yeah, today is the day my furry best friend is going to pass away." You just can't plan ahead for something like that.

July 2001, I was working as an office assistant in a veterinary clinic in Santa Fe, NM. Craig and I had only been married 1 1/2 yrs. We had seriously been talking about getting a dog. I was working in the right place to see which breed would fit us best. A lady came in with a beautiful black and white Sheltie. She said she was in Alamogordo, south of Santa Fe, at a gas station close to the highway. An RV pulls up, throws the Sheltie out into traffic, and pulls away. Who does that? What kind of person just gets rid of an animal, a pet nonetheless, in the middle of nowhere and leaves it?

Thankfully, there are caring individuals out there. The dog was scooped up, rode back to Santa Fe with complete strangers, and was brought to the vet clinic where I worked for a thorough examination. One of the vets guessed her to be about 4 yrs old and had a least one litter of puppies. The lady that brought the dog also informed the office that she was looking for a home for the dog, but would gladly keep her until someone wanted her. She also named the dog Lady.

Timing could not be more perfect. I immediately called Craig and by the next day, Lady was ours! There were obvious signs of abuse. She flinched very easily. She never licked and rarely barked. She was absolutely afraid of cars. She didn't want to get anywhere near them and would not even get inside of one. Gradually, she began to trust us. Lady became more playful and soon loved to go on car rides in the beautiful mountains of New Mexico.

Working at the vet clinic had some great perks. I was allowed to bring Lady with me to work. And I did. A lot! It was great having her with me like that and she soon became very attached to me.

Lady never caused problems. She was very mild mannered and very well-behaved. We got a playmate for her in 2003, a sable-colored Sheltie we named Princess. They got along very well. Kaitlyn was born later that year and Preston was born in 2006. Lady never had any issues with either of them.

Then, she started getting old and her health started to decline. Lady lost her hearing a couple years ago. I don't know if it was caused by old age or from her previous abusive life. There were times she simply couldn't stand. Her little legs would try so hard and she would just fall back down. She started urinating blood in the house in March. Accidents were no longer uncommon for her, but I knew this was something different. A visit to the vet told us she was in kidney failure, liver failure, had arthritis, cataracts, and a severe ear infection. We were told she only had a few months to maybe a couple years left in her little doggy life. Definitely not anything you want to hear.

We brought her home knowing that our time with her was very limited. She continued to have accidents, was losing weight, and not eating nearly as much as she used to. Then Monday I noticed what looked like a blood clot in her eye. She also had no more vision in that eye. I told Craig we need to take her to the vet and get it checked out. I won't do medicine or surgery, but I just knew it was something that Lady needed to be seen for.

Craig came home from the appointment, with Lady in tow, and with tears in his eyes told me we had to decide. The vet thought she had cancer and now had a heart murmur. There was nothing more we could do for her and even though we don't see it, she's in a lot of pain. We knew we had to stop being selfish and let her be at peace. We all very tearfully said good-bye to her and Craig took her on one more car ride.

Lady was 14 years old and we had her for 10 great years. Having written an entire post about our dog may seem very silly to some, but she was a member of this family. She was our first "child" and we will never ever forget the wonderful memories we all had with her. People that came over to our house always saw Lady walking around or simply sleeping. It will take some getting use to not seeing her sleep in her usual spot or carrying her up the stairs, but we know it's for the better.

Good-bye Lady.

A Wild Week Indeed

VBS 2011 is over! It was a great success with very few mishaps. Our theme this year was PandaMania. We've known for over a year that this would be our theme. In January 2010, the Children's Pastor, his wife, and I were invited to be part of a focus group from Group Publishing. The asked for input and ideas regarding this theme. We got to pick what fonts, characters, etc we liked best. It's so cool to see how this theme evolved into the final product.

I received the big tin full of curriculum in March and immediately got to work. Yes, I've been working on this project for 4 months. No, I do not get paid a single penny for any of it. I do it because I love this outreach and know what an impact it has on children's lives. I see how much my kids, who have grown up in church, love this week of fun, games, Bible stories, etc. I can only imagine how exciting it is to a child that has never experienced something like this before.

We spent 3 days transforming the church. The children's pastor, John Cruz, heads up the decorating and always has phenomenal ideas! This is a corner of the children's building.


Here is the check-in desk in the children's building. I absolutely love the panda taking a bite out of the sign. We did the same thing in the main foyer over the Welcome Center.

Here is part of the foyer. Pastor John networks with other churches in the area to share set decorations and supplies. This large canvas came from another church. We are passing it on to another VBS when we are done. It saves us lots of money to be able to share. It's also a very smart idea!

I had over 70 amazing volunteers this year. I am always so humbled when people are willing to take a week out of their lives to minister to children. I had group leaders, station leaders, childcare, registration, worship team...and the list goes on. I started a tradition 4 years ago when I first began directing VBS. I love to give all the volunteers a VBS Survival Kit. I fill it with goodies that fit the theme and pass them out during our big volunteer meeting. This year, all volunteers received a Chinese take out box (donated from a Chinese restaurant) and it contained Panda cookies, a fortune cookie, Spearmint gum, Hugs chocolates (because they are black/white), and Hershey miniatures. Everyone also got a set of Panda ears. We like to spoil our volunteers as much as we can. We also give them a Thank You luncheon on the Monday after VBS. We had yummy Chinese food this year.

Pastor John is on stage doing a pre-assembly warm up.

During assembly, our worship team launched shirts into the crowd of kids. They LOVED it!!!

We rented this Panda costume from another church. He made appearances all week long!

Preston enjoyed the costume as well!

Day 1: God Made You

The kids decorated faces as their craft. This is Kaitlyn's craft.

Day 2: God Listens To You

We have different themes Tues-Fri and gives the chance to dress up. Tuesday's theme was Mania Day. Preston and Kaitlyn loved dressing up for this day.

The Panda Kazoo was the craft. Like I told my volunteers, I didn't hear any complaints about this craft. A lot of parents told me "Thanks a lot for giving this to my child!" (wink, wink)

Day 3: God Watches Over You

I have amazing leaders for the Bible station. This day was about Jonah and the Whale. They constructed a whale's mouth out of PVC pipes (PVC was borrowed from another church). The kids had to walk through this as if they were going into the belly of a whale.

The glasses were the not-quite-as-noisy craft.

Wednesday was also Bring A Panda Pal (bring a friend) and dress in black/white. The Chick-Fil-A cow also came out and handed out stuffed cow toys and coupons.

The absolutely best part of the day happened when VBS was over. Pastor John and his wife Christi celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. As a complete surprise to everybody, including Christi, John asked the youth pastor to officiate as they renewed their vows. Their 4 kids stood up with them and the witnesses were some of the VBS volunteers. It was pretty awesome to witness! The funniest part was how the looked. They were both dressed for Black/White Day and still had their Panda ears on their heads!

Day 4: God Loves You, No Matter What

It was also Orient Day. My friend brought me some slippers from Singapore. I wore them all day and then the bottom of my feet turned pink!

Thursday is always the day we talk about Jesus and accepting Him into your heart. The kids loved the scratch-off ornaments as the craft!

During closing assembly, things get pretty serious as Pastor John shares the most important message that kids will ever hear. We had almost 60 kids go up to the altar to accept Jesus! That's the whole reason I dedicate myself to such an important week!

Day 5: God Gives Good Gifts

By Friday, everyone is exhausted and pretty much runs on adrenaline for the day. The youth leaders decided to have an impromptu 80's day and had a quick dance party before opening assembly.

These are the awesome Bible station leaders. Two of the youth are dressed up for the story about Hannah.

The kids made pretty cool panda masks.

Friday night we have one more big event. It's our Family Fun Night aka Bamboo Bash where the entire family comes out for concessions, games, prizes, etc. The kids get to go up front and show parents some of the songs they've learned. Kaitlyn is on the top row looking right at the camera.


Throughout the week, we collected offering each day to go to BGMC.

Our female youth leader, Caitlin, collected more offering in her bucket than our male youth leader, Chris. So Chris became a human sundae during our Bamboo Bash!

What a great sport!

We also had volunteers for our dunk tank. Craig was one of them.

Down he goes!

This is just a small handful of the volunteers. Thank you all again for an awesome week! We could not have done it without you!!!

Now time for a much needed vacation!