Dinner for three.

The boy had his own plans on this particular Friday night, so it was just the three of us at our traditional end-of-the-week dinner. How strange to drop Ryan off at school for the middle school "activity night"! Stranger still to drop him off at the curb, a safe distance from his friends. (Wouldn't want those guys to know he has a mother, you know!)

Excuse me, but has anyone seen my baby boy? He was just in diapers a minute ago...

Proud to be an American.

Our sub-courthouse is not by any stretch a pretty building, but when elections roll around, I love, love, LOVE going there to vote! It's hard to find a parking place and the room allotted for the voting machines is cramped, but it's just too awesome to be able to have a say in who should run our county, state or country.

Today I was extra proud when I voted because on the sign-in sheet, I noticed that one of my former students had voted before me. This student was editor of our student newspaper my second or third year of teaching, a good 15 or so years ago. She's now a grown-up, and she voted! That probably shouldn't make me proud, but it did!

For whom did I vote? I try to keep my leanings hidden from my students so they can't accuse me of bias, but maybe this will give you a hint:

Just kidding!

Weeknight wonder.

Pulling into our driveway, I saw this sunset over our neighbor's tree. How nice to see beauty at the end of another stressful day at work! And oh, how good it is to be home.

March 2nd is right around the corner...

In honor of Texas Independence Day coming up Sunday, here's a quiz about our great state!

Texas Quiz

Try it out! See if you can beat my measly score:

Thank you for participating, your score is 73%!

Perhaps you should consider an audition on "Jeopardy!" You have a fantastic knowledge of Texas Trivia and it's likely you would make a great game show contestant.

The new & improved Texas Trivia
Take More Quizzes

CCP update.

Yes, we're still the CCP!

Spooning sisters

Playful KitKat

Pensive KitKat

Most mornings, after she's had her breakfast, KitKat will make her way to this chair in the sunroom. She loves this spot, her nice, warm window on the world!

Path to inner peace.

At Heritage, we've just wrapped up a sermon series on the Lord's Prayer. One of several highlights was the Sunday before last when our kids led the congregation in reciting the prayer.

First service

First service: Sunday school kids

Second service masses

Second service: Power Zone kids joined the younger ones

What cuties!

Hello, Gorgeous!

(The eight-week series is available for download from the HCC website. Jim and Brock's sermons have certainly changed the way I pray the Lord's Prayer!)

Whew!

The last 149 yearbook pages. Done.

I drove the last set of spreads to Dallas Friday afternoon. Once my staffers proof those final pages, the 2008 yearbook will be finished—and we FINALLY can resume our lives!

Geekitude.

You know you're a geek when you take pictures of your computers!

Over the last few weeks, these guys have been my best buddies—if you go by waking hours spent with them, at least. It's cool to see pictures of old computers we used to have, so maybe we'll get nostalgic over these shots someday.

My school iMac is a far cry from the Apple II or even the Mac Classic we used back in the day!

And then there's my personal Mac, my pride and joy. My MacBook is already "old" and "fat" now that the MacBook Air has been released. (Somehow, those two adjectives help me relate to my laptop!)

Our Dell is pretty much Brett's computer now. This is the birthplace of his book and most of his published articles. Brett's kind enough to share the PC with me so I can "Shout," though! We use MediaShout for our church presentation software, but so far, it's not available for Macs. At this desk is where you'll find me most Saturday afternoons.

While I'm at it, I'll use the PC for Powerpoint now and then, too...

And then there's the booth PC, my pal on Wednesday nights and every third Sunday morning! It's so sweet to run dual monitors, including the supersized widescreen on the left.

Now my techno-time capsule is complete for February 2008! Wonder how long it'll be before these machines look as out of date as our Commodore 64?

Obama meets some "great kids."

Quan called him a "natural athlete," and Colt said he has "an all right arm."

He might need to work on his "hook 'em," though! If Obama's the next president, he'll be inviting the Horns over to his new house—you know, after they win another national championship?

(Video from Obama's visit is here. More pictures from the Statesman are here.)

Marvelous night for a moon dance...

Did you see the lunar eclipse tonight?

If you happen to wander into a GameStop...

...you should take a gander at the chain's in-house mag:
If you take a looky-loo inside, you'll find THIS:
Woo-hoo! Yet another great review!

Why are there so many songs about rainbows?

Speaking of, have you seen this video?

Giant steps are what you take.

We spent our Friday night walking on the moon—at Lunar Golf, at least! We were celebrating J's birthday, so we headed up to Denton for miniature golf and an out-of-this-world good time.


What made this party extra-cool? The whole Lunar Golf place was glowing in the dark, and soon, the party guests and the birthday boy were, too.


One of the moms sent along some glow-in-the-dark makeup that was hilarious! At first the kids started off with just a little color here or there, but by the end of the night, most of their faces were covered with glowing pink, yellow, blue and orange.



Happy birthday, J! Thanks for inviting Ryan and Katie!

Happy Hearts Day!

From Pac-Man boxers to cards to carbs, we enjoyed our Valentine's Day!

V.E. Day.

Happy Valentine's Eve! I was surprised when I got home from work Wednesday to find flowers and valentines from my sweeties.

Brett gave me the gorgeous roses and a wonderful card, and Ryan and Katie gave me valentines, candy, a "kiss me" button, a snow globe and a dollar (for Sonic!). Too sweet!

I had planned to save the valentines for Thursday, but with that welcome home, I just had to let R&K get their presents a little early:

Even though the kids are getting older, I just can't resist getting them animated stuffed animals for Valentine's Day! The toys crack me up, and seeing the kids with them makes me laugh even harder.

After the gift exchange, we headed to HCC for a delicious (and CHEAP!) Valentine's dinner followed by Wednesday class: What a great sneak preview of Valentine's!

One more for the road.

Did I mention what the road-weary world travelers found to eat on their way to Huntsville? Actually, my mom and I managed to stop at TWO different Dairy Queens during our day trip! We miss having a DQ nearby, so we just HAD to take advantage of this old staple! "That's what I like about Texas..."

Scenes from the road.

Sunset on the farm where the reception was held

The old Pine Prairie church building
(which made me nostalgic for other country churches
from back in the day)

And the new one across the street (where the wedding was held)

All in the family.

There's nothing like a wedding to bring a family together! It'd been WAY too long since we'd spent time with my side of the family, but Saturday we finally got to see them. My cousin's daughter got married in Huntsville, so my mom and I made a quick trip down 45 for the big day. It had been at least a couple of years since we'd seen this branch of our family tree.

My dad's sisters, my Aunt Berniece and Aunt Lois
(and Lois's husband, my Uncle Don, right behind them)

The wedding party

The bride's parents

The happy couple


The next generation: Some of my cousins' kids
(who in my mind, at least, should be about 5 years old!)

Then there's the generation after that: one of my cousins' grandkids!


And my cousin-in-law Linda with her youngest granddaughter

With my cousins Susan, Donna and Jill

The matriarchs: my dad's sisters with my mom

We stayed at the reception past dark, but our day trip eventually had to come to a close. My mom and I had to say goodbye and hit the road, but we surely hope it won't be so long before the next family reunion!

So for the second Saturday in a row, I got to spend time with people I love but rarely get to see. For the second time in eight days, I just tried to relish every word, every moment with people I hadn't seen in years. Maybe it's my age, but I can't help but get sentimental when I think about how important these people are to me. Even if I don't see them as much as I'd like, I'm just so thankful for these occasions when we can reconnect.