The latest from Texas....

[Just posted some photos below...]

Sometimes Texas feels like a foreign country, for some reason. The landscape is so unlike what I’m used to—but it’s usually quite gorgeous. The people are friendly, though some have been very….unique. A man passed me at church the other day and said, “Howdy.” I didn’t know people actually did that!? Also, the houses are vastly different from the East coast. I love staying in a variety of homes….I’ve learned that many Texan homes are one story (more land here, so they can build out rather than up…) Anyway, it’s been quite an experience living in TX for several weeks. We’ll be heading back to Oklahoma in several days.

I spent the past two days staying with an older couple along with two of our boys: Gift and Lincoln. It was relaxing and enjoyable, and yesterday I made a trip to a used bookstore where I hit gold: I bought 9 books for $20! Five of which are Nicholas Sparks novels….everyone has a guilty pleasure, right? : )

Random, humorous story from this morning: I was peacefully sleeping when all of a sudden I woke up, half scared to death as I heard music BLARING in my room across the intercom system. Not just any music…..that might have been bearable. But this was heinous music similar to the Gaithers. (Sorry if I just offended anyone.) And after a few minutes of music, I heard the husband’s voice come across the intercom system and say, “Wake up everyone….it’s 7 o’clock. Wake up!” I stumbled out of bed quite quickly, for fear of what may happen next if I didn’t get out of bed ;) Then we got ready quickly and headed out the door to meet the team at the church. (Tuesdays are travel days.) //End of story

This past weekend was oh-so-lovely. I had my first day off in 5 weeks—needless to say, it was much needed. Knowing I would have some time off, I had planned to find a Target and a Border’s Bookstore. Well, let’s just say when we pulled into this Texan town, I knew that wouldn’t be happening. It was a town in the middle of nowhere---they didn’t even have a Walmart or a Blockbuster. We made our own fun Friday night though: Alan, Kory, Prava, and I stayed at a hotel and we set up our projector and watched a movie.
Saturday, Taylor and Jay met up with us and we all ate breakfast at the Blue Bonnet café, which is apparently world-famous especially for their delicious pies. The café has been featured in many magazines, and famous people have come there including presidents, Willy Nelson, etc.

That night, I went to see High School Musical 3 with Taylor and Prava. I will admit that I loved it….sure, it was cheesy, but I smiled practically the whole way through as I watched the energetic dancing and enjoyed the songs. We’re taking the kids to see it in the near future, and they will LOVE it! It was fun spending some time with just the staff and getting to know them better.

Last week, I experienced downtown Ft Worth, Texas, with Gift, Lincoln, and our gracious host family. We stopped at “Central Market” which is a Texan thing---a huge, unique grocery store with a huge variety of specialty foods. I ate the best ice cream I’ve ever had (technically it was Italian gelati). The flavor was chocolate hazelnut, and it tasted JUST like Nutella. Yum!

That's the general re-cap of the last week and a half, since I last updated the blog. Thanks for stopping by. Miss you all! And I'd love to hear from you, whether that's email or phone.

Now on to some photos....