B’s blog

Avery’s Social Studies project due on Friday is to make a poster board called, “All About Me.” We worked together and came up with this very fun, creative outcome. I hope you can see it upclose because he told me things he wanted on their and I helped him find them.

This weekend we went to the Museum of Natural Science and to the Lord of the Rings exhibit they were having there through August. The exhibit itself was fantastic! They didn’t allow photography so I couldn’t show you any of those photos but to give you an idea of what was in the exhibit…the actual costume of the LOTR actors and actresses. The actual RING!, Treebeard and other monsters. Weapons used in the movie, a display of extra “parts” like the plastic/rubber feet, hobbit ears, etc (that was sort of gross). It was really cool!

We did take photos of the rest of the museum and the kids had a ball!

Avery standing in front of a display in the main hallway where people were re-inacting the time period that the LOTR was depicting

Avery got to try on a helmit

Avery also got to try on the chain link armor heargear and hold the 8 lb sword. HEAVY!

Both Jaelyn and Avery listened closely as one of the men explained the type of weapons that were popular back then.

After going into a cool makeshift oil driller, Jaelyn studied the equipment used to drill for oil.

Even Braden tried to turn the gears to help lower gas prices. As you can see that didn’t work!

Look out Avery! (One floor of the museum had stuffed animals in action. )

Mom and the kids in front of the LOTR exhibit

Jaelyn about to get eaten by an alligator! (Just kidding!)

Braden and Erik trying to get away from the sharks

Check out the size of the shell compared to Braden!

Overlooking the cool dinosaur exhibit

Avery and Jaelyn outside the museum on our way back home

Here are few photos from last week that I took while the kids were cooling off on a hot afternoon.

I made it through downtown traffic without white-knuckling it the whole way! I met up with Erik at his office and we we walked down main street about 5-6 blocks to a restaurant called Sambuca. His boss reserved the top floor VIP room for all of us and served appetizers and drinks. I got to meet most of the people in the company (about 14) and some of their signifant others. All were very nice and after a few drinks, very open and funny people! I enjoyed myself and so did Erik.

Coming back to the parking ramp, we walked with 2 gals from his office and they took us a different way back. As they put it, walking down Fannin is better than Main because of the smell of urine. Guess I was too busy looking around to notice it on the way to the restaurant. But there are quite a few homeless out there pan-handling. It’s sad to see our own humankind in that state. Erik’s work isn’t too far from the jail either and it must have been family night tonight because as we were leaving there were a ton of moms and kids leaving the jail. I’m glad my husband is on the straight and narrow because I can’t imagine what it would be like having to raise my kids alone while he was in jail. Now, missing garbage day doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to complain about when it could be much worse. Being short on cash for the week and having to try to come up with something appetizing with the bare minimum left in the pantry doesn’t seem so bad when you see people begging for food and urinating on themselves. It’s not just in the movies, it’s real life, and it’s right here. I was thinking the other day that when I used to watch shows like COPS and they showed people getting arrested in Houston, I never thought twice about it. Now it’s right here where I live. (Granted I’m in a suburb but it’s still close enough.)

Erik and I joined Atascocita Community Church this past Sunday. We both feel like this is a great place to be, not big at all, so we can meet others. There mission is all about reaching out to the unchurched. They have so many areas where we can get involved in and WANT to get involved in. I’m looking at starting a women’s ministry focused around scrapbooking! How cool is that to be able to go what I love to do within a place I’m loving to be! Our pastor is married with 4 kids. He’s about half the size of Erik! It’s sort of funny to see them talk to one another! He’s down to earth and we feel we can talk to him which is great. His new 5 week sermons are focused around the theme, “Desperate Households”, a take off of the new show, “Desperate Housewives”. I think it’s been really interesting and can’t wait until the next Sunday to hear the next part of the series. The church has about 500-700 people that attend in a given month. When you walk in the door, everyone is talking to you and smiling. You really feel like a part of the church community. We are going to get involved with a LIFE group (a small group) as a couple but just haven’t found one yet. I can see myself spending more and more time at the church because I want to, not because I have to. They have an incredible kids ministry and I have to say, I’ve toyed with helping with that. I’ve volunteered to help in the nursery with Braden and am just waiting for them to ask me to help now.

The whole church basically runs thanks to volunteers in the congregation. It’s so cool to see how faithful these people are to the church. We aren’t really any specific denomination but we are affiliated with the Southern Baptists. Ok, people think of Southern Baptists and they may think, ‘oh they goto an all black church where everyone dances around and faints and speaks in tongues’. It’s not like that at all. In fact, the congregation is mostly white and although there are a few hands that raise there is no seizure like spirit filled activity that I’ve witnessed. HA HA!! It’s a Christian church with it’s own governing body and identity.

Here’s the website if you care to browse and see why we love it!