Yes! Movie night.

Today Hannah bought her first shoes with "heels", well they're actually boots, but if you know my daughter you know how huge a milestone this is. :) They're cute little mini  boots, apparently that's in. I have no clue anymore.. She's our fashionista.

Missing our firstborn.

Is it just me or does anyone else have 20 talking heads, in their head? Like there are 20 different channels on and they are all blaring something different 24 hours a day, with no way to turn them off. It's maddeningly loud. Trying to be quiet is nearly impossible. I can ususlly make out what one or two are saying at a time, but mostly it's just noise. One of the channels is usually me talking to someone. One is usually the running dialogue/commentary about my surroundings. But the really funny thing is, is that I'm not a woman of alot of words. I don't talk a lot. I can go whole days without saying ten words until Josh gets home. Josh can talk for days about anything. I can't do that.

Hannah had to go to teen court tonight for a ticket she got. It was a lot of fun. Well, not for her, as she had to go up and testify and all that. But I had fun talking it up with the cops and the judge while the jury was out deliberating. We were having too much fun making fun of this stealth picture the cop took of Hannah and I while he was writing the ticket. She looked like a hoodlum, it was great. It was the end of the night and Hannah was the last docket, so everyone was looser and ready to go home. I was impressed with the teen lawyers and stuff, it's a neat program.

There were some great conversations that took place in Chicago. Over one particular lunch we debated the action of waiting for God's open doors while being content where you are and not finding your identity in where your area of ministry is VS making a 5 year plan for where you want to be and working backwards from there making small steps to get where you believe you're supposed to be. There are the classic arguments like.. God's not interested in your plans.. or Don't open doors that God wants closed.. VS God can only steer a moving ship. All valid points, and I've been on both sides of this philosophy at some point. The reason it came up is because I was talking with Matt about how I don't ever want to do photography anymore and I've even "taken time off" from the media team. I'm not really pursuing any goals or ministries right now because last time I did I ended up in the pit of hell. As for photos, I actually HATE doing paid photo gigs at the moment because I'm not one of these "trendy" photographers that want to edit the photos the way everyone else is doing them this year. Then we got onto the whole thing about compromising your passion when it's a job thing, and whether you shouldn't do that for your job, etc.. (he's on the 5 year plan side of the argument) Their argument really didn't convince me to make any plans. I guess I'm just too trigger shy now. I just really don't want to do something that God hasn't ordained for me. But I also don't want to fall into the trap of not doing something out of fear of failing, and end up doing nothing with the rest of my life when I should have been doing something. So then we get back to the conference and the guy who invented Veggie Tales is speaking about how he let go of everything and now waits on God to open doors. I thought that was pretty funny and timely. Matt says it's not an either/or thing. I'm just confused.

God has seemingly opened the door a very small crack into helping out in a very small way in missions. So I said yes. That may be the end of it, or the beginning of it. I don't know. But I will remain steadfast in my statement that I will be content if I never get to serve in that way again. It is enough to just be a child of God, a wife and mom, in my home, serving wherever He opens a door.

Story conference itself was good, but not great. We all agreed that this year it was a bit too philosophical and not very practical. Although we each took away some very useful things to ponder.
The highlight for me was Chicago, the city. After spending the previous day walking everywhere, I convinced the guys to take us to the Sears tower, and oh wow, it was amazing. They had a skywalk where you could step out on the glass floor past the building and see straight down. The first step was kinda scary, but then it was just pure awesome. After this we decided to hit Chinatown for dinner. Another crazy experience. Our waitress didn't speak good english and got our order wrong and then went home. Our second waitress said we ordered"too much food" so she didn't serve us what we ordered. A couple of us actually left hungry so we wanted to stop for ice cream, however since dinner took like 3 hours everything was closed, except a gas station. The ice cream there was amazing.

Chef Isaac in Chinatown, serving up "hotpot"

alone in a dark rainy city looking for the train to the airport

the Story stage

I am so glad I went. The whirlwind tour of the city with friends was so much fun, and I haven't laughed like that in a very long time. When you get 9 creative minds in one minivan (very tight) you are bound to laugh until you hurt. So thankful for this opportunity.
Friday night, when it was time to go, Audra and Laura headed to Midland, but my flight was out of O'Hare several hours later, and the guys flight wasn't until the next morning. So I rode with the guys down to the pier to do some shooting. However it started to rain and it was getting dark by the time we got there and at this point I was an hour and a half away from my airport on public transport so I said goodbye and went and waited for a bus. In the rain, and cold wind, for 25 minutes. It never came. So I picked a different route (Thank God for Google maps that has transit info) and hopped on a different bus. 15 stops later and it tells me to get off and walk a block to the train. So I did. No train. Another block, couldn't find the train. For the past 3 days we've ridden elevated trains. This one happened to be a subway, so a nice old man pointed out the hole in the ground to me. An hour later I finally arrived, and I rode in first class all the way home :)
My need for great adventures was satisfied.. for the time being..

Chicago

Finally made it today after our first plane never making it off the ground because of multiple problems. I was eventually put on a different airline all together and arrived 4 hours late. But I met up with the girls and we got in a lot of sightseeing this evening.

 

Stole this pic from Milan :)

So I spent the last 2 days scrubbing tile grout. Yep, that's my ever exciting life right now. Two days of back breaking labor and it's not even finished yet. We have alot of tile. To be honest I don't know that I've done that in the last decade. I've mopped, but not gotten down on my hands and knees with a grout brush and scrubbed. Obviously it wasn't exactly 48 hours of labor or I wouldn't have half still remaining. It's more like scrub until you can't stand the pain, then have a snack, get distracted online, change out the laundry, then scrub again. :)
In happier news, Chase and Krista came over last night. They are engaged but haven't set a date yet because her parents don't approve and are doing everything they can to stop the wedding. They are 25 years old, both with good jobs and have known each other for years. We encouraged them to set a date and stick to it, the parents will come around.
We have missed them so much since they left Celebration.
Speaking of... I have been "hand selected"(along with 15 others) to volunteer at our missions fair the next two weekends. The catch? I have to dress like a flight attendant and stand at my assigned "gate". Yeah, I said yes, only because I'll do just about anything to be involved again. I was very happy to be asked.
One of their trips is to Greece to work with the A21 campaign. I am VERY interested in that one.

I miss my first born.

I GET TO GO TO CHICAGO NEXT WEEK!!
I'm so excited, in case you can't tell. I'm going with some of the media people from church to a creative conference. We helped with their promo photo shoot earlier this year. (the cool one with the grave yard and stuff) It's called the STORY conference. I'm hoping it will inspire me to get back into the creative zone. They gave us free tickets for helping them and I'm using frequent flier miles for the flight. I'm traveling alone to Chicago and alone on the trains and bus system to meet up with my roommate at the hotel. It will be an adventure.    :)

We had a great weekend with Jordan. Made her her favorite home made tortilla soup, did a whole lot of talking and she got to tell us all the stories of the first two weeks. Saturday we got to take her shopping for some boat shoes (she joined the sailing club) some new sunglasses and a mosquito bug zapper. She's all set for another few weeks. It went by too fast, and even she said she's not ready to go back.

Hannah got past yet another fear this week. Today she had to do offering in youth. (This involves 2 minutes of public speaking) She said she was freaking out, but was told it went well. So proud of my not so little girl. Here's a pic one of our adult band members took this morning of her and her youth band.

Jimmy Hernandez ‏@jimmyahernandez
The next generation of @txcelebration Musicians and Worship Leaders! unlimited potential!!

So Hannah does not like playing keys solo during altar calls in youth. She's the only one on the stage and all the kids stare at her. It makes her nervous to be in the spotlight and she's had a couple of bad experiences before that give her reason to be afraid. Well tonight her straw was drawn and she had to do it. Apparently, it went really well. I think that it has built her confidence. Not only was she complimented by Pastor Lori who had snuck in, but when she got off the stage her new male friend gave her a hug and said she did great. :)  I'm so glad for her, she is growing by leaps and bounds.
Jordan had her first class trip out into the bay during her marine bio class, they went out trolling for critters on the bottom of the ocean. Much to her delight, all they found today was dolphins.


This weekend is gonna be awesome.
1. The high temperature is only going to be 90!!
2. JORDAN IS COMING HOME!!!!
She's riding with her suitemates to College station, but instead of going to the game, she's coming home for the weekend. :)   We are soo excited to see her.

Please excuse me while I take a commercial break. Someone was asking me today how current travel agencies work. Many are surprised to learn that I don't charge any fees for my service. We don't have to because the hotel/resort, cruise ship or tour operator pays us commission for bringing you there. So if you want a quick getaway to Mexico, a family vacation to Hawaii, a weekend in Vegas, Disney, or a long dreamed of European adventure, shoot me an email and I can get you some quotes. However, if you need just an airline ticket, we aren't the place for you. We don't get discounts on air anymore, nor do we make commission on them. We use the same websites as you do to book just air. So we only do this as a complimentary service to our clients who are also booking hotels or packages with us.
Did you know also, that alot of companies let you pay things out over time, requiring only a small deposit? This makes early booking even smarter. And if the prices go down before your trip, we can get you the lower price. We monitor this stuff for you. Cruises are a great example of companies that let you pay over time, and also an example of prices fluctuating. We do a monthly price check on all our cruise customers and about 20 percent of our customers end up with a lower price than what they originally booked! Some people also didn't know that if you cruise out of Galveston you don't need a passport, even though you go to Mexico or the Bahamas or other Caribbean stops. Cruise lines have a special loophole in the new law. They are also a great deal in the fall for a fun getaway. Since it's hurricane season and school season, the prices are lower. You and your spouse can actually cruise together for less than $1000. This includes all your food, board, and entertainment. It really is a great deal.
We have customers booked already through 2013, it's never to early to start planning your next vacation.

Ok, so if you or anyone you know needs a getaway have them contact me, please :)
shileen(at) 3dcruiseandtravel.com