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Hallelujah Party 2008

all picturesTonight was the annual Grace Church "Hallelujah Party." We have it every year to give the kids a place to go and get some candy and not have to go door to door wandering around in the dark. This way they get to dress up, there's no danger, they're in a well-lit area, there are lots of fun things to do, it's not scary for the little ones, and there's no doubt that they're going to get TONS of candy! Hannah is still too little to be able to do very much, but as always, she just enjoys watching the world go by. Next year she'll be all OVER that action! We got to see some friends that we don't get to see often: Mardy and Jamie Lange, Jeremy and Samantha Conn... and lots of friends that we sometimes miss just because it's an awfully big church and often we are up on the stage singing in choir and just don't get to see people. Anyway, it was lots of fun... and we have pictures to prove it!

Guest post by Mikey

It is me, Mikey! Daddy let me do a blog post today! But I had some trouble with school Friday. It was really hard. But I am doing work on Bible! It is about Joseph right now. And I am in soccer! I have practice tomorrow.

Gamer Grab
Here are some fun things on the 'Net.

Woogi World is a really fun club on the 'Net. You should try it; it is really fun! You can buy stuff. Club Penguin does not let you unless you pay. You unlock more dance moves and get three floors for your wigwam! Plus you get 10,000 watts!

Another club that is really fun is called Club Penguin. It is a fun place! You have a penguin and you can do more and more the more days you have a free membership. But if you have a membership that you pay for you get to buy things and much more!

BFW (Big Fun Weekend)

Wow... what an unexpectedly full weekend!

Saturday after building a Mr. Potatohead-style pumpkinhead with Papaw Jones at Lowe's and going to Mikey's soccer game (which his team won 3-0... no shootout this week!), he and I went home and had a little downtime with Hannah while Mama made a grocery run, and then we all went out to a pumpkin patch. Out there Cathy picked out a couple of little pumpkins for the kids to have for I don't know, Pumpkin Season or something (hey, aren't those supposed to rise out of the pumpkin patch on their own?). Mikey got to slide down the giant blowup slide they had out there, while Hannah and I discovered a ride of her own... leaning the stroller aaaaaaaalllllll the way back until Hannah's head is almost on the ground WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! and then tilting back forward WOOOOOOOOOO! hehehehehe. (That last hehe was Hannah giggling when the stroller is back level.) After that we had dinner at the revived-again Casa Bonita on 21st & Sheridan and then went over to Papaw Angel's house for a bit and Mikey got to hang out with his little black dog Skipper. Mikey is sometimes nervous around dogs that are excitable, and Skipper is one of those super-friendly dogs that just wants to be all up in your business. Papaw has been in the habit of locking Skip up in his carrier whenever Mikey comes over, but this time Mikey and Skipper got to have some quality time together and I don't think Mikey's scared at all now.

Sunday we actually skipped out on the second service (BOOOO ON US!!!) to blow out of town to OKC to visit the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Mikey has been studying cowboys in his schoolwork, and the museum was actually mentioned in the curriculum. I had mentioned it to Cathy as a good location for a "field trip" quite some time ago, but it didn't sink in until it actually came up in the curriculum. Anyway, we went on out and had a great time! Mikey especially liked the "Children's Corral" area and the huge beautiful garden out back (the weather could hardly have been more perfect, although it was kind of windy... it was sunny and warm enough to be comfortable but not sweaty), and he particularly got a charge out of throwing twigs into the little strem they have running through the garden area and watching it go over the mini waterfalls. Not that cowboy-ish, but definitely kid-ish! His other favorite part is the little Western town, "Prosperity Junction", that is actually inside the museum. You can go inside most of the buildings and see antiques from the Old West, and kind of get a flavor of how it might have been back then. I've been to something similar at the East Texas Oil Museum, which we hope to get to visit as well once he gets to the unit on energy. Hannah enjoyed Prosperity Junction because she discovered that there was a pretty pronounced echo in the room. She kept going "AH!" and then listening for the echo. By the time we got done in Prosperity Junction she had gotten to where she would make an echo and then applaud herself... clapping her hands is a new thing she's picked up recently. We also went through the areas about old-time and modern cowboy life, Western heroes in entertainment, rodeo, the army, and more. Oh... did I mention the several HUMONGOUS statues that they have in the place? I kept seeing pictures of the statue of a cowboy on a horse in the entrance atrium (it's called "End of the Trail") but didn't realize how HUGE the thing is until I saw a picture of it with people next to it! It's amazing, as are the other beautiful statues in the place.


Anyway, we had the perfect amount of time to take in the museum, and then we stopped by Cracker Barrel on the way home (to kind of maintain the cowboy theme a little!) and then came on home and went to bed. It was a great family time! We're going to research some of the other museums, in Tulsa as well as in OKC, and try and do a Saturday like this every month.

Caturday 10/25/2008

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More Wishes And Love For Elizabeth

About a month ago I told you about our family friend and former worship leader, Elizabeth Sheehan, and how she has left that position and is pursuing other interests. This week we found out that her appendix had ruptured and she had been taken to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy! The operation was Wednesday, and last night (Thursday) we went over to the hospital and visited with her for a bit. It was funny... we went into SouthCrest Hospital where she is, and Cathy said her name to the receptionist, and she knew the room number off the top of her head. Apparently it had been non-stop partying in Elizabeth's room that day! Anyway, she was her usual sweet self, and I think she really was glad to see Mikey and Hannah. Her friend Jen picked up Hannah and didn't give her back until we had to leave.

So we just want to extend our good wishes to Elizabeth again. We know that tons of prayer has gone up for her quick recovery, and we also know she's strong and depends on the Lord and she'll be back on her feet before you know it. To update the previous post a bit, Elizabeth has now completely left her duties at Grace, including volunteer duties in the Worship Arts Ministry; we'd like to say again that we have nothing but confidence that her future is brighter than ever, and we are so excited to see what God is going to use her for next!

Christmas Prodigal: My First Rehearsal

This year I tried out to be in the Grace Church Christmas production, an original play called "The Christmas Prodigal". I've been familiar with the script for several months, since the initial idea was for the WIT songwriting team to write original music for it (I actually wrote a ton of somgs for it, but with the shakeup in leadership in the fine arts area I think maybe original music may have fallen through the cracks). We did some read-throughs at the WIT meetings, and I had so much fun reading the script out loud that I decided to go ahead and try out. I'm playing The Annoyed Yet Henpecked Innkeeper ("NO! THIS IS A STABLE! YOU CAN'T STAY IN THERE!") It's a rather small part, with only nine lines in one single scene, but it will be fun to just be part of the whole thing. Besides, I have more lines than Mary, who only gets to be hustled in by Joseph while saying "Joseph! Help me! The baby's coming!"

So last night was the first rehearsal I've been to. I've been working on my lines, so I pretty much have them memorized, but I forgot to work on which lines they come after (it's good to be able to say your lines, but it's even better to say them at the right time!!) so I was still a little bit shaky all rehearsal, but it was still fun. Maybe I'm wacky in the head, but it's so fun to pretend that you're someone else for a while. Or maybe it's the feeling that you know exactly what's going to happen (okay, you know exactly what's supposed to happen) and the appropriate way for you to respond to the situation. It's all planned out ahead of time! It's a lot easier than the improv that each of us does all day every day!

Oktoberfest 2008

all picturesSaturday we went to Oktoberfest. We always do, for various reasons. For example: Cathy loves the food, and since I won't eat sauerkraut it's like her one chance all year to eat a cabbage-based dish. The main thing I look forward to is a family tradition of ours: every year since we've been married, Cathy and I have found a way to get out there and buy a Christmas ornament from the one exhibitor who actually has ornaments imported from Germany (a few of the other exhibitors have ornaments, but if you look closely you find they are from Poland or China, or I even saw some this year from Wisconsin. The ornament was a kid with a big cheese wheel, and the cheese wheel actually said Wisconsin on it!) So we've slowly accumulated this collection of ornaments... this year Mikey even bought one with some of his own money, so there's a bonus ornament this year!

And of course, there's just the general atmosphere of fun and German-ness out there. I've actually been to Germany once (one day hopefully I'll get to take Cathy with me and go again!) and it's my favorite country I've been to since the U.S. (it's a short list anyway... Germany, Austria and Switzerland... Switzerland is right up there in the running, too... and then Mexico and Canada, and Paris France) so it's fun to kind of get a taste again once a year. Mikey said he just likes to go and have fun!

This year there was a special treat for us... a friend of ours was performing in one of the tents and we got to go see it and kind of support her. I can't tell you who or what because my wife was sworn to secrecy, but our friend did a beautiful job and we thoroughly enjoyed the performance. And we did eat some German food, and we did get our annual ornament(s), and we did have a great time! Mikey even rode a ride! (The rides were incredily expensive this year... $2.50/$3.00 for a little kiddie ride. Outrageous!) Want to see all the pictures? Here's the whole batch!

3 & 2

No win today - Mikey's soccer team held them to a tie at zero again, but this team beat them in the shootout at the end. The kids played a good game, all of them including Mikey, but since it was Fall Break this week they didn't have practice Thursday, and I think maybe they were a tiny bit rusty. Good thing is that there's always another chance to play even better the next week!

Caturday 10/18/2008

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Mid-October Update

Mikey's soccer team won their third game in a row Saturday! It was a tough game that ended in a tie, 0-0, and Mikey's team won in the shootout (the second time this year they've gone to a shootout). Mama and Hannah were even there this week!

Speaking of Hannah... I just realized I haven't really given the "how's the baby doing?" update in a while. Hannah is doing GREAT. She doesn't crawl, although she can and has... someone suggested to me today that she doesn't like the way the floor feels on her knees. That may be the case. If she's on the floor and has somewhere to go, she rolls! She can stand, but she needs support. She babbles a lot lately, and every once in a while she'll come out with a real word, or what sounds like one... but we can never get her to say them again! But if you say something like "Where's the elephant?" when the toy Beanie elephant is by her, she'll look at it... she understands any number of words. My guess is that within a month or two, she'll stand up without support, walk across the room to where Mama is, and tell her exactly what happens in Mikey's favorite Spongebob episode, word for word.

Caturday 10/11/2008

You have to admit... if there actually WERE any cats in this guest post from Mikey, it would be a lot of them!


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By the way... Mikey got the line from this:



I don't think he's ever seen this:

Soccer: Week 3

Saturday Mikey's team won their third soccer game of the season, bringing their win-loss record to 2-1! Mikey had some awesome plays on defense. I get so proud when I see him chasing down the ball and turning it around and sending it back down the field where it came from!

After that we went to Home Depot and he made a fire truck with a whistle on top of it.

Also, it was Renaissance Fair day at the library. All four of us went and had a great time. I made a bead bracelet with Mikey; Mikey's came out great, but I dropped all my beads off trying to tie a knot at the end. Sigh. hehe Cathy got to have a long discussion with a lady who loves to do research on family coats of arms; Cathy loves genealogy research. I think she got a few news flashes about where in the world her ancestors may have come from!

Caturday 10/4/2008

Another guest "cat" (sort of) from Mikey...


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Healthy Walking

I was just wondering. You hear how walking is a healthy thing to do; in fact, I just took a little walk to clear my head. But I wonder: does it still count as healthy if you walk down to the candy machine for a Pay Day bar and a Coke?

Playing Catch-Up (again)

Wow... talk about not having time to get caught up on what's going on. Here goes, starting last Friday and ending right now (midnight Thursday night!):

All last week Cathy was on antibiotics for a possible case of walking pneumonia. By Friday she had aaaaaalmost shaken it, but she didn't want to go to WIT (Grace music department monthly songwriters' meeting) because she didn't know if she was done being contagious or not, so I left her at home with Hannah and Mikey and went by myself. I hadn't been there too terribly long when I got a call on a friend's cell phone: Cathy had been trying to pick up Hannah, and apparently because her body was so tired from being sick for several weeks, she felt something weird happen in her back and suddenly was in terrible pain. She had managed somehow to get into the glide rocker and get Hannah into her lap, but she wanted me to come home. In the WIT meeting we were talking about music we had written that could be used in the upcoming Grace production of an original play called The Christmas Prodigal which we will be staging this December, and I've written almost a dozen songs for consideration, but family is more important so I left my lyrics with Cheray and came on home to take care of Hannah. So the immediate plan was to let Cathy's back rest as much as possible.

This wasn't going to be easy: Saturday was Lowe's Build and Grow day, and Mikey wanted to go make the fire truck. My dad took him so I could stay home with Cathy and Hannah, but later in the day Mikey had a soccer game to play in and I didn't want to miss it. I wound up taking Mikey to the game while Hannah hung out with Meme and Papaw for a little bit.

It was a late game (3pm scheduled start time); when the game was over we were the last two teams to leave the fields. It was pretty warm, approaching hot... my car thermometer said it was 88 degrees. We started late, but the kids on Mikey's team played really well... the ball only came to Mikey in his defensive position once, but I was so proud to see it pop back up out of the pack and head back the way it had come from! But the other team had a tall, crack goalie, and at the end of the game the score was tied, 1-1. Time for a shootout!

What is a shootout, you ask? The only reason I knew what was going to happen in the shootout was because one of the kids on our team was explaining it to Mikey and I overheard. yes, I am pathetic. In this shootout, each team chose five players to kick one goal apiece against the opposing team's goalie from about ten feet or so away from the goal. Each scored goal would count as 2 points instead of the usual 1 point during the game. When each team had taken five shots, the scores would be final.

The other team kicked one goal. Mikey's team kicked two! For the first time, Mikey was on the team who won a soccer game!!!

We picked up Hannah and came on home, after I dropped off a DVD at the library. The game had lasted almost until 5pm (it was supposed to be 3-4 but they're chronically late in that league). The DVD was due that day, which meant that if I didn't get it in by 5 it was overdue, and they charge pretty stiff fines on DVDs. Fortunately, I put it in the night slot and the next day they checked it in without fine and without comment. Yay for the Tulsa Libraries!!

I contemplated whether to stay with Cathy at home Sunday, or go to church. I had volunteered to play a bit part in a little skit Sunday morning, but I could have gotten someone to fill in; it was a pretty easy part! But I decided that it made better sense to bring Mikey and Hannah to church, sing in the choir and be in my skit, let someone else take care of Hannah for a few hours and let Cathy really get some rest. So that's what we did. It was the first time I'd been involved in drama at Grace (the skit was pretty funny, BTW, and went over well with the congregation!) and it was a lot of fun. I'm glad I liked it... I'm scheduled to play the Agitated Innkeeper in The Christmas Prodigal!

Sunday night I stayed up really late (kind of like tonight!) recording a CD of me singing all of those songs I wrote for the play to give to Cheray and Elizabeth. The CD turned out kind of stream-of-consciousness and a little wacky... I mean, this is me we're talking about, singing songs at 10pm. I don't know if Cheray has listened to it yet; I feel certain it will crack her totally up. Elizabeth too. Those two seem to find me endlessly entertaining. What could be causing that? As you know, I'm a very serious person.

Cathy was feeling better and better as her back got rest, but she certainly wasn't ready for me to go in to the office and leave her alone with Hannah; Mikey can only lift her so far (she's 25+ pounds) and Cathy was still in a bad state. So I called my boss Matt to get permission to work from home, and set up our old computer so I could work while Mikey did school on the family computer. As it turns out, working from home went pretty well; I simply remote-controlled my work computer from my kitchen table and saw on my screen exactly what I would be seeing if I were sitting there at work. It was a little tricky to block out the family sounds, though, and a few times I felt like all I was doing was getting up to help Hannah, sitting back down, and repeating steps 1 and 2. But it worked out. I did that Monday and Tuesday.

Monday night a big question was looming. For months and months we had known that Newsboys were going to play at the Tulsa State Fair, and none of us, including Cathy, wanted to miss it! Those guys always put on an awesome show. At first Cathy was going to go hang out at Robert & Sandra's house with Hannah while Mikey and I went, but Cathy wanted to go so badly that eventually we decided to rent her a wheelchair to ride around in at the fair so she wouldn't overexert herself. Which ultimately didn't make much of a difference, because the stage was right next to where we came in, and she stood up for most of the concert anyway! Her back was fatigued afterward, but she actually did fairly well. (Ha! Ha! That was like a pun, wasn't it?? )

Newsboys have done this double drum solo thing for years and years, and at the end they have a drum platform that actually rises into the air, turns vertical, and then rotates while the drummer continues to play. I had told Mikey that the drums were going to go up into the air, but I hadn't told him they were going to turn on their side. You should have seen his mouth hanging open! hehe!



We actually had to miss Mikey's first pack meeting with his new Cub Scout pack, but he and I discussed it beforehand and he decided it would be worth it. Newsboys don't come to town very often!

Tuesday I stayed home again, but Wednesday I went back into the office. Cathy was still in a little bit of pain, but she could handle lifting the baby, and working from home is very difficult when you don't have a separate work space. Wednesday night Cathy went back to church for the first time in two weeks, what with the pneumonia and the back ache. She was hurting all during the service and all through choir practice. We were just about to go out into the auditorium for our run-throughs with the band, and we had a prayer time. Several people laid hands on Cathy and prayed for her, and instantly all pain left her back! She could bend at the waist pain-free for the first time since Friday! Thursday she could feel a little bit of stiffness back there, but nothing like the pain she had been feeling before we prayed. Praise God!

I guess I could go ahead and mention some stuff today... Mikey had a great soccer practice. I had a very fulfilling day at work, accomplishing some big things that I've been anticipating for some time. Tonight we went over to Cathy's dad's house and watched the V.P. debates. We came home and everybody went to bed but me. I stupidly stayed up blogging! And unfortunately, my poor wife just got up to see what I was doing... I may be keeping her awake. I'd better go to bed!