speeding through the summer

my last post was june 24th just before my sisters came. they came and we had so much fun--the three of us and 5 kids. we rested, went to chuck e cheese, ate, watched movies, talked, laughed and had a really cool photo session. it was so much fun and i am so honored that they came to see me! i have great sisters who i'd like even if they weren't my sisters!! ;-)
they left on the 1st and we did too, right after morning worship for denver, colorado. i still think my absolute favorite part of the trip was the drive through west texas, new mexico, and up into the rockies. i had never seen landscape like that in person. at one point bret was playing aaron copelands "rodeo" on his ipod as we passed mesas and transcontinental trains. i felt like all i was missing was a horse. it was great. the kids were great during the trip. we stopped on our way up in clayton, new mexico and stayed at a days inn that had only on room left. it was neat just driving until we were ready to stop and on a whim get a hotel room. nothing was planned and it was kinda cool. we finished the trip into denver the next morning and arrived just after lunch. we settled into our super posh hotel with plasma tv and super modern decor and then headed to the 16th street mall. i have to say that denver has done the best job of any city i have seen at revitalizing its downtown. an entire street (about 10-12 blocks) was an outdoor mall complete with familiar shopping, restaurants, movie theaters and much more. all of this only a block away from our hotel. the really neat thing about this out door mall was that it had a free transit that ran continuously up and down the street, taking you to your desired destination without having to walk the entire length of the street.the kids loved riding the "mall ride." it was super nice. we enjoyed einstien bagels most every morning and ate at chili's too more than once for Lupper. that's what you do on vacation--you sleep in so that breackfast is almost lunch and lunch and supper combine for one good meal. i have to say, it was nice to get home and have real home cooked food after eating out for 8 straight days.
bret and his quartet did very well and placed 34th out of about 50. that's not bad to be a quartet whose only been together for a bout 6 months and be 34th in the world! it was fun, to see barbershop in all its grandeur and glory. it was actually very cool there.
we visited the aquarium where micah got to feed a stingray and the children's museum. tuesday night was a free night for the museum so we decided to check it out. it was awesome, but there were almost too many people to truly enjoy it on the free night. we also took a very unscenic trolley ride that if we could go back, we would have saved our $6, but it was a ride.
we began our journey home sunday, which was micah's birthday. we had each restaurant on the way home celebrate with him. he also received a prized gift upon waking up that i can't believe we gave him. a texas longhorn hat. he loves the longhorns and was VERY excited about that gift.
on the way home we decided to stop in vernon, tx to spend the night. we stopped first at a holiday inn express, but at midnight they would not budge on the $90 room, so stubborn bret went down the road looking for a cheaper hotel. we found one, the roach...i mean...super 8 motel. we slept in our clothes and after pulling back all the covers to check for bugs and killing a few, we went to sleep...dreaming weird dreams about camping... it was a good memory. the kids loved it and didn't even notice the bugs. we arrived home around lunch time, and unloaded, put away, started laundry (of which i'm still not caught up on), mowed our rainforest of a lawn, had a great home cooked meal, got micah's birthday bicycle and caught up on all our dvr recorded stuff. it was nice to be home.
tuesday was back to the old routine at the ark (preschool). wednesday i cleaned and cleaned. the weekend...friday we went to see harry 5...it was great...and met our new dog, cooper. he is a yellow lab and very friendly. he is about a year and a half and has always been an outdoor dog, so he should fit in perfectly here. everyone in our family is so desparate for a dog. i pray this works out. i am not ready to have my heartstings tugged on again. we will get him either sunday or monday.
saturday was a fun day...i joined our neighborhood for a yard sale from 8-1 purging our home again of unnecessary stuff. it always feels good to simplify and it is really neat to provide things for people to buy. my favorite people to sell to are women who work really hard doing things like cleaning houses and landscaping to provide for thier families through purchases at yardsales. they have dignity, because they saved up money, and paid for their goods. it is in this way that yard sales are a bit different in texas than in kentucky. people mainly just swap junk in KY. thats ok too. :-)
sunday was sunday. i taught the middle school again. they were really good. we talked about titus 3--doing good, respecting authority, and relying on grace rather than our own good deeds.
monday, we had a funeral and spent some time with the family. i had a sore throat all weekend so we mainly chilled after we came home. i did have to go to the grocery finally.
tuesday i woke and prepared for a school day only to be haulted by a dead battery in our van. someone from school came to jump my van off so i could work. we celebrated micah's birthday at school with pizza, cupcakes and capri suns. they really enjoyed them and micah did too. once someone jumped my van off so i could leave school, we went straight to auto zone for a new battery. they changed it for free!! i went home after that and rested a bit before making dinner. we went swimming after dinner with our new really great neighbors down the street.
today we went in to work with bret to save money. he worked and we went with some folks from church to see a free movie at the theater. afterwards we picked up bret for lunch. we took him back to church along with a napping rebekah while the older two and i went to target to finish getting activity supplies for sunday school. i found rebekahs' christmas gift and officially started christmas shopping to day!!! we returned to church and got all activity supplies ready and we all went to ennis, tx. we had dinner with some old friends and wonderful conversation. bret preached (a really great sermon on the power of praise) and we came home. tomorrow is the last day for the ark summer session. no more school until august 28th!!! the church office is closed next week for construction, so we hope to get to do alot of painting next week when bret is available. we have an all church retreat aug. 10-12 and we go to destin august 17-23. we are excited, but with all that is going on...we will welcome school and a routine. summer is fun but exhausting!!!!