Singing through Matthew

With my new job has come a huge desire to read and learn more about the Word of God. This in itself has been a big answer to prayer, since I've been asking for the motivation to read The Bible more! What better motivation than the NEED to know because I'll be teaching it?

Since the Gospels have always interested me, I've been switching from the Old Testament to the New Testament alternately so it'll keep me interested and wanting more rather than struggling through the long lists of "who begot who" and so on.

The best part of my hard core reading the past few weeks? The fact that I recognize SO MANY passages from the Bible in hymns I've memorized because I love them so much! It makes sense that the hymns I love, I enjoy because they are meaningful and exciting, and even more fun put to music. I really appreciate those who created a new way to praise by learning scripture by allowing us to sing scripture.

Today I was supposed to read a couple of passages from Matthew, but I got a little carried away and read more than I meant to mostly because I wanted to see what happens next - and what song I would recognize next :)

Do these make you think of any hymns you might know and love?:

Matthew 4:6 "He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone"

Matthew 4:19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."

How about The Beatitudes? Matthew 5:3-10
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs in the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth."

Any of these ringing any bells!?

Now I'm humming "You are salt for the earth, O people: salt for the reign of God! Share the flavor of life, O people: life in the City of God!"

You are too, now, aren't you? :) Admit it!

I didn't really realize until today that my ability to memorize lyrics and remember songs would come in handy with memorizing scripture. The lyrics aren't totally accurate to any one version of the Bible - but what can it hurt?

Plus ... I absolutely love to sing! And now I'm enjoying The Bible even more, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that!

Grandma turns 75!

Our big weekend didn't stop once the happy couple left for their honeymoon. In fact, everyone went home, slept, and got up nice and early to have a little mini Cunningham reunion also called Grandma's 75th Birthday Party! It also happened to be my Mom & Dad's 29th Wedding Anniversary, but wouldn't you know - I don't know if we got a single picture of the two of them! Can you believe it? Plus the party was held at their house, so they worked very hard keeping everyone comfortable and happy instead of relaxing. We all really appreciated your hard work - thank you for hosting.

Almost everyone turned out, which is amazing!! A major thank you to everyone who came!

There was, of course, tons of swimming happening. The kids adored the pool, and the "big kids" (aka moms and dads) loved launching water balls at each other. It was a wonderfully fun and yet relaxing way to have a chance to visit with family. Plus it was HOT, so the water felt amazing.



Around noon everyone dried off just enough to be able to get their fajitas and fixin's and chow down. The food was delicious (way to go Mom & Dad! thanks Uncle Scot & Bryan for helping) and if the pace it disappeared was any indication, I think everyone loved it.

After the adults finished eating, everyone got back in the pool, and Dad started taking everyone on jet-ski rides which was a HUGE hit! Who doesn't like flying over the water like that?



He eventually hooked up the big water tube to the back of the jet ski (the water level is so low we can't get the boat out safely) and folks started taking turns being thrown off :)



There were lots of squeals coming from the lake :)

Later in the afternoon we had cupcakes, ice cream and LEMON cake, specially requested by Grandma, sang Happy Birthday to her, and ate some more.





Unfortunately the cake & cupcakes started out yummy, but because I had to make them Friday morning and leave them in the refrigerator until the party, they dried out a bit. I'm sorry. If anyone knows a trick to stop that from happening, let me know.

Dessert was followed by the best birthday gift anyone could give Grandma - a group picture with almost everyone in it AND smiling.



We love you so much Grandma, and hope you had a great weekend with your family. Here's to many, many, many more birthdays to come!!

Grady & Marissa's Wedding

7.23.11

The day around our house was pure chaos. We had cereal for the kids and made breakfast tacos for the adults. We played, watched cartoons, and Maverick was terrorized :) The kids got to swim and splash in our neighborhood pool, and then we had a lunch of sandwiches, grapes, chips & queso. Then all 16 of us had to rotate through baths and showers and get ready for the wedding for that night.

My cousin Brynn was a genius and decided that since they only got to stay maybe 45 minutes at my wedding because the kids were running around and ready for bed, that they would bring sitters with them for the weekend and have them watch their kids at our house so they could stay for all of Grady's wedding. So Megan & Callie kept the kids upstairs at our house watching movies and eating pizza, and all of the adults went to the wedding.

The ceremony was really nice and meaningful. Marissa looked beautiful and Grady was clearly very pleased with the whole thing. I took pictures with Mom's camera so I don't have any of the ones I took, but Dean sent me a few of the one's he took and you can see how lovely and happy everyone looked and felt:



It was really nice to be able to visit with so many family and friends. I really couldn't believe how many people I managed to talk to. Dinner was BBQ and really yummy, and then the dancing got started off with the first dance, father/daughter, mother/son, and then a surprise birthday dance for Grandma with Grady who was celebrating her 75th birthday on the same day! I think that was the perfect birthday present to her from the newly weds. There was also a very cool anniversary dance - I've rarely seen that many couples that have been married so long all together! It's pretty special and encouraging to those of us who haven't been married very long. Meemaw & Papaw Meloy tied for 1st place with a couple I don't remember their names - sorry - both having been married 53 years! Each couple gave a few words of wisdom to the newly weds, which was really fun. Their best man, Ryan Stawaisz, gave a great toast, the cakes were cut, and lots of people boot-scooted, line danced, hip hopped, and two-stepped for hours. I'm actually really proud of myself for keeping those heels on for all but the last 30 minutes!







Around 11pm, Grady & Marissa danced to the last song, and everyone wished them farewell with bubbles and cheers. They are currently in Belize for their honeymoon.

Best wishes to the newly weds! We are excited to have Marissa and her sister and parents as part of our family now!

Cowboy Chic

This past weekend was insane because we had not only Bryan, Maverick & I at the house, we also had Brynn, Justin, Kellen, Greyson, Amy, Riley, Avery, Travis, Erin, Bailey, Will, Lily, Megan & Callie staying with us! For a little while we also had Barry, Cody & Grandma too. It was a full house!! They stayed Friday and Saturday nights.

On Friday night Mom & Dad hosted Grady & Marissa's Rehearsal Dinner. It was at a place called Rio Ranch, and was really very, very nice. Bryan & I left our new house guests shortly after they arrived to head downtown so Bryan could set up the projector for the slideshow and I could tie cute little plaid bows on around the napkins while the wedding party did their rehearsal.




Shortly after we finished, the wedding party started showing up. Mom & Dad did a really wonderful job of hosting and getting the party started. The food was excellent, and the slideshow Mom put together was a hit. The food was fantastic - check out the menu:



What do you do when ALL 4 entrees sound delicious? Pick the shrimp, of course :)

All of the other pictures that were taken are on Mom or Jan's cameras. I think it's probably more important that they have the pictures than me, given that it's their children that were getting married and all.

There were toasts, margaritas and lots of visiting going on. In fact, I heard that the bride, groom & attendants stayed quite late, so it must've been a good time! Everyone was gearing up for the big festivities going on the next day...

Temporary Peace

The day after we returned from San Diego, Bryan & I loaded Maverick up in the CRV and drove to McKinney, TX to pick up what we thought would be Goose, our second and final puppy for a long time. The name she already had was Peace.

She was basically a tiny cotton ball with loads of personality! She was easy to love from the very beginning because she wasn't scared of us, wanted to explore, play, climb, roll around, swim in the baby pool, you name it ... in fact, she was already more mischievous in that first 24hrs than Maverick has been the last 4 months! That evening after we got home (side note: the 5hr car ride back home was insanely hot because my car's A/C went out - yuck) my parents stopped by to meet her as well as our neighbors. I think just about everyone loved her!





She did really well that night, only crying about 20 minutes before going to sleep in the crate (jaw-dropping, I know!) and then she cried for about an hour the second time we put her up after a 2am potty break. We were super impressed. We were even more impressed when she ate right away.

The problem was that we already thought she was going to have to go back that evening, and were even more sure that morning. Although Peace was non-to-low shedding, she still had dander, and it's dander more than fur that bothers my allergies. Every time I held her or played with her my eyes started tearing and I started sneezing. This is a big problem when you're signing up for it for the next ~12-17yrs! I also knew we'd never be able to give her up if she stayed a week or longer with us - it's just way too easy to get attached.



Therefore, on Sunday Bryan, Maverick, Peace & I drove back up to McKinney (this time in Bryan's car with A/C!) to make the 10 hour round trip the second day in a row to leave Peace at her original home. Maverick was pretty bummed out because he really enjoyed having a playmate, even one as tiny and squeaky as Peace was at first :) We were pretty bummed out too.



We are still thinking we'd prefer to have 2 dogs, even if this one wasn't it. The people that raise the Goldendoodles are going to let us know when they have non-shedding & dander free puppies again, and we'll see about it then. Until then, Mav's still an "only child."

We did have a wonderful time with Peace the short time we had her!! We're going to keep her as "Peace" to us and leave the name Goose for when we have the one that will stay.

San Diahhhgo

I won't even say I'm behind, because we all already know it :) And I got a couple of reminders recently, haha. Sorry!! I'd say I'll be better, but who knows what else will put me behind?

San Diego!!

Bryan attended a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) conference in San Diego with several of his co-workers at Anadarko from July 11-15, and I tagged along :) We stayed at a really nice hotel called the Hilton Bay Front, and thankfully we didn't have to pay a thing for the room. It had a wonderful pool with the perfect view of the bay where, honestly, I spent the majority of my time hanging out, swimming laps and working on lesson plans for the upcoming school year. PERFECT CLIMATE. Great view. A week away with my hubby. Lovely.



Since Bryan spent most of the day in sessions learning something, I was mostly on my own. I did a lot of looking around the city and, like I said, casually working in a cushy chair by the water. I think Bryan really enjoyed the conference, and since he's still pretty new to the industry and his particular area I think he found it educational. I did meet him and most of his co-workers for lunch every day and I always hung out with him for dinner and in the evenings.

I won't hit every by-blow, but I'll mention the highlights:

Sunday we left our favorite little buddy with some friends that live on our street. He LOVES to play with their two dogs, so he had a pretty good time that week too!



After dropping him off we flew in on an incredibly packed plane, taxied over to our hotel, met with his co-workers for appetizers and then got to see a friend of ours who lives in New York but was also visiting San Diego that same weekend! (How crazy and amazing is that?) He was there with his girlfriend - and she was great. We'd never met her before, so it was even more awesome that we got to see them on their vacation instead of one of his visits to Texas without her.

On Monday Bryan attended the conference and I did some lesson plans by the pool. That evening we took a long walk down the bay front to a itty bitty teeny tiny place called Seaport Village. It was SO cute and had the sweetest little old-timey bookstore where we spent quite a while browsing and looking at all of their funny nick-knacks. They also had a delicious little cookie stand where the cookies basically tasted like cookie dough flattened out and warmed up (yummm!?), and the best meal we had all week was there too in this out of the way Hawaiian grill called Buster's Beach Grill. Should you find yourself in San Diego, this place is a must!! The village was also full of other cute little shops that are fun enough to look around in even if you aren't going to get anything - especially this little shop full of handmade wooden toys that could be personalized for your kids. Oh my gosh. I guess it's a really good thing we don't have kids yet or I would have spent a fortune!!




Tuesday during the day was basically the same thing, but that night we attended a "mixer" or "cocktail evening" or whatever you want to call it for the PETE GIS people. Technically I wasn't supposed to attend because I'm not either PETE or GIS, but the gentleman who was checking tickets and all that let me in anyway :) A smile and short conversation can go a long way! Especially when asking nicely :) Bryan actually thought it was awesome because he's by nature not very good at "mingling," so I would just smile and catch someone's eye and they would come over to talk to me about PETE or GIS or whatever, and I'd explain that I didn't have a clue what they were talking about but it sounded really interesting and I bet my husband would love discussing it .... haha. Turns out Bryan got to meet a lot of really interesting people that evening - and I DID learn quite a bit! I learned that I need to go WITH Bryan when he goes to get drinks because otherwise you're more vulnerable to having older gentleman hit on you until your husband returns to rescue you. Too much free beer!

Wednesday I did a lot of walking around the city while Bryan attended the Conference. I even met several Aggies doing the same thing on vacation!



That evening we were too pooped from the really late nights previously to do anything, so we had a quiet dinner by ourselves at the hotel and retired early, which was really nice.

Bryan took Thursday afternoon off since there weren't many relevant sessions for him to attend and we took the ferry across to Coronado Island. They have a really pretty beach and another little "village" that was fun to look around. I can't even imagine how much the homes on that island cost... yikes.



Once we got back to San Diego we attended the big shindig that the conference put on for all the attendees. I think there were probably upwards of 4000 people attending and it was pure chaos. They set up these little "cultural areas" around a large park square for people to walk around and snack and pay big $$ for a soda or bottled water. I bet the company spent a fortune on it, but most people weren't very impressed because of how crowded it was and that it was advertised as being a "free dinner & drinks" event, but to get even a small snack you had to wait in line quite a while, and you had to walk around and wait in line at each area to get the rest of your dinner, which was a little weird. And like I said, the drinks were definitely not free. But it was interesting to see so I'm glad we went.

Friday we got up, had lunch at a California style Mexican restaurant (with the BEST salsa I've ever had!!), caught our plane, and flew back to hot-and-steamy Houston, we picked up our precious puppy from our neighbor's house and got some much needed sleep!



I didn't do very good with taking pictures because although I remembered my camera, I forgot my memory card!! Sorry about that. We did have a fun week away, but were also glad to get back and get into our regular routine.

I sincerely hope this post makes sense because I'm exhausted, it's past my bedtime and we had an insane weekend. More about that tomorrow!

Tyler!

As always, I'm behind on my posting - but I have a valid excuse! I was out of town from Sunday, July 10 through yesterday. Bryan calculated how many miles we've traveled this past week+, something like 4,500 miles. Crazy.

Before I get into everything we've been up to, I've got to start with Tyler coming to town!! He didn't technically come to see us (shucks), he came to see his aunt, uncle and cousins who have officially moved back to the United States after living in Napal for the last 20+ years! Thankfully we did get to see him a couple of times though.

Bryan & I saw him the first night he was here, plus Steven (and his dog, Miko), and Stephanie (with her 2 psuedo-step sons, Colton & Evan). We mostly talked, ate pizza, and had some (many?) margaritas! Colton and Evan said ... "grown ups are boring! they talk too much."

Question: when did WE become the boring grown ups!?!?

And then at the end of the week right before Tyler had to fly back to Colorado Springs, he came over to our house once more, as did Steven. This time we enjoyed some delicious Freebirds (no yummy burritos in Colorado...) and watched comedians on the projector. So much fun! We REALLY wish he would move to Houston!

Check out some pictures from Bryan & Tyler rescuing a bird that Maverick tried to eat:





It sounds random until you realize that our backyard is basically a dumping ground for either dead or injured birds. Why? We have absolutely no idea.

Aggieland Thursday

Today (after running errands and getting a new tire) I road tripped with two amazing women - Julie & Katie - to Texas A&M! Katie just graduated from high school and will be the proudest member of the fightin' texas aggie class of 2015! Katie's mom, Julie, is a friend of mine, an angel, and pretty much helped keep me sane my months at Nitsch.

Spending time with such strong and devoted Christian women really reminded me and encouraged me to be stronger and work harder with my faith. They are true examples of what it's like to be a light for Christ - thank you girls!

I am so excited for Katie as a new freshman, and love remembering what it was like to be going to New Student Conferences, Fish Camp, taking tours around campus, not knowing where to go, being nervous about making friends, and excited about starting classes. She's going to do great - and I'm looking forward to attending a game with her one of these days : )

I sure do miss you, College Station! But, hey, Tomball's been pretty awesome too.

Happy Birthday, Blog!

I've been semi-faithfully blogging since July 6, 2010! This may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but it makes me happy. I really love looking back and seeing all of the craziness that just 12 months can cause - TWO moves, FOUR new jobs, ONE (soon to be two) puppy(s), lots of fun, some frustration, many events with friends and family ... just a whole lot of different stuff.

On a different note, 2 things of interest happened today.

One, Maverick got a major hair cut! Check out the before and after pictures:





Notice that his adult hair is growing in a much darker color. We could catch glimpses of it, but it was so covered up by the 4-5 inches of hair covering it, it's no wonder we didn't see it all the time! It's a really gorgeous deep red color - I love it! Although I definitely miss the awesome and adorable apricot curls he had. He's still my baby though!

Second, I had a crazy blow-out on HW249 today. The truck in front of me spit out a piece of steel from it's bed and it hit the front of my car (thankfully no damage) and then went under my car and my back tire hit it - causing a huge gash, naturally causing ALL the air in the tire to immediately leave, making a huge "boom!" noise, scaring the you-know-what out of me, and causing my car to slow wayyy down suddenly, meaning all the cars behind me had to swerve to avoid rear-ending me. I (thankfully) made it to the side of the highway, but couldn't get my tire off because the nuts were screwed so dang tight. When I get my new tire, they will MANUALLY screw them in, NOT use the stinking machine! I shouldn't have to be Super Woman to change my tire! Thank goodness Paw came to my rescue!! I was hot and scared and emotional (pathetic, I know) from the suddenness of it, and then was terrified of the cars speeding by at 70mph a foot or so away from my car while I tried to change it. Paw, however, was in a much more stable frame of mind than me, and told me to back my car up into the little field area a couple of yards back to get us a little further off the road. My car didn't appreciate it, but it sure made it a whole lot safer for us. He had a "cheater bar" - a pipe that fits over the tire iron that gave us just enough leverage to get the nuts off. THANK YOU PAW!!! I owe you!!



Anyway, that's today.
Happy birthday, Blog!!

July 4th!

This will mostly be a picture post, because pictures can tell the story a lot better than I can! Basically we had a HUGE block party! The blow up water slides were up and running for the kids, ladder golf, ping pong, and bean-bag toss were played by the adults, everyone brought tons of food for the grill, as well as dips, sides & desserts. It was awesome.

Bryan and I brought hamburger patties, buns & fixings, as well as chips & a dessert (crumbled angel cake, with whipped cream & fresh fruit - great idea by Leah!).



Maverick was styling with his red, white & blue festive bandana : ) He didn't like it for about 10 seconds and then got over it ... especially since we kept getting it wet and putting it back on him. I think he liked how cool it felt.









In case you were thinking there are a ridiculous number of photos of this puppy ... he can't help it if he's adorable enough to have us keep taking them : )

We (of course) had to take some patriotic family photos too!!!







And then the party got started!













Since there was a burn ban, we stuck to little poppers & confetti "guns". The kids didn't care - they enjoyed them just as much!!

The party was a success, and seeing how set up started around 11, and we didn't pack up until around 9 .... I'd say people were enjoying themselves if they were willing to hang out in the crazy heat all day.

Happy 235th birthday, America!!