Blessed beyond measure.: I need a Starbucks barista by my side.

If only it were that simple.

Right now I’m sitting in my favorite Starbucks in Houston (Doug, you know the one). It’s 7:50am, and I don’t have to take the kids to school today! HOORAY!!! What a nice gift once in a while! You know…get up, only have to worry about getting yourself up and going for once. The kids have the day off from school for Columbus Day, and B has the day off to watch them, so my morning was carefree and awesome, even though when I pulled away I saw Braden crying in the front window as he watched me leave. Breaks my heart, but Lord willing, I’ll see him again and squeeze the crap out of him when I walk in the door. I decided I’d get up a little early, then head to Starbucks, enjoy a triple grande pumpkin spice latte. While I didn’t get up early like I wanted, I still have about a half hour I can sit and enjoy the coffee, the time alone, some coffee house music, my pc I’m writing my new post with, and then the anonymous people I can watch. I’m not a people watcher, but people who come into Starbucks definitely are a different breed. While I never thought in a million years I’d be an Sbux fan, it’s funny to see how much getting an Sbux drink is a status symbol now. I was in line last week for a drink and saw behind me a bunch of high schoolers, and I thought “wow…we’re seeing high school kids drink this stuff now? Don’t they know it’ll stunt their growth?” HA! Seriously though…I tried coffee when I was a kid, but hated it. Why are more and more kids coming here for coffee? I could see the frapucino’s or something, but the coffees? Tastes they are a changing. I wonder if coffee is the new “beer” for the youth? They hate the taste, although they’ll get accustomed to it sooner or later, but they’re only doing it because their friends are and because there is no age limit restriction on coffee purchases?

Saturday

The mark of the beginning of the kids new soccer season. I was dreading it a little, since B worked and I’d have to get the car ready for a mini-parade before each of the kid’s games, and having to watch two games at different times, and keep an eye on Braden at the same time (he likes to play at the playground that is close). Belinda and I, and the shorties decided to do the window paint on the van the day before, so that took that stress off my shoulders, but I still figured it would be a way more stressful day than it was. J played the first game, and A said he’d watch Braden while he played on the playground equipment. I was hesitant, but decided to see how well he’d do. Checking over my shoulder every few moments proved A is growing up, as he was doing a good job of watching him. Not perfect, because he got hurt a couple times, but nothing major. When J’s team had their first practice earlier in the week, I thought to myself that it would be a long season for them, because none of them seemed to have touched a soccer ball their entire life. Was I ever wrong. Their team KILLED the other team. We have two or three ringers on our team. They don’t keep score, and there is no winner/loser, but if there was, we would have won something like 10-1. Jaelyn absolutely GLOWED when she played, which was awesome to see. We told her she had to play, and to just see how she did, and if she didn’t like it then she wouldn’t have to play another season. She started slowly and cautiously, but by the end of the game had came out of her shell a bit and was starting to get into the mix of all the kids kicking the ball. She didn’t score any goals, but she had a blast and even loved playing goalie!

A’s team was the opposite. I thought they’d be way better than they were, but we “lost” (since they don’t keep score in his league either) something like 3-1. Can you guess who got the one goal? YEAH…MY BOY!!! GO A! He got the first goal just minutes into the game! So, he’ll forever be in the history books as the teammate who scored the first goal of the Jayhawks 2006 soccer team! HA! He had a good time as well…heck if it’s a sport and he’s playing, he’s having a great time. He played goalie as well and blocked all the shots that came his way, but there was this one girl on the other team that really surprised me. On our team we have this one kid who looks a couple years older than the rest of the kids, and you can tell he’s been playing soccer for a while. On this one play though, he busted past one kid, knocked over this other HUGE kid on the other team, then was all alone going down the field to the goal. He kicked this MONSTER shot at the goal and it hit the little girl goalie right in the stomach. She caught it, and threw it out to a teammate like it was nothing. I couldn’t believe my eyes, and thought it to be a fluke until the exact same thing happened on the next play! I think everyone there was excited to see her first of all survive a monster shot like it was, but then also to catch it and throw it to get a drive going the other way. She was a brick wall. We also knew that if she could stop those shots, we’d have a long day ahead of us!

We left that morning around 9am and didn’t get home until around 3:30pm. It was a long day. And I also saw that I need to turn and get sun on both sides of my face when I’m out in the sun like that. I’ll leave the pictures to your imagination on that one. HA!

Sunday

Another day where I’d be away from home most of the day. I hate when I have two back to back days like that, because I hate Sprinkles being inside her kennel so much. On Sunday, Luis Palau’s “City Fest” was in town, so I was to head there with the shorties, mom and Steve. We ended up going without mom, since her dog Sara had some medical issues pop up and had to be taken to the emergency room. After our usual Sunday morning routine of kolaches and church, we stopped home to grab a few things, then picked up Steve and headed downtown. I felt as if I had been gone all weekend and in that van or on the go, and I still had all day left to do it. Not a good sign. Once downtown, we found the parking and then had to walk the ¾ mile to the event. It had a “fair-like” feeling to it all, with thousands of people in one area walking to all the booths, games, events, concerts. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, even though I saw the layout and it looked small. I just thought it would be bigger. The “Livin’ It” tour with Stephen Baldwin was there. We watched the skaters/bikers/motocross people do their tricks and that was alright, even though only two of the six skaters actually could do any decent tricks. The bikers were really good, and one of them was from Des Moines! REPPIN’ THE I-A! The motocross were sick as usual, but we had to leave before they got done, because Steve and I’s butts/backs were killin’ us from sitting on the very sloped hill we were using as seats. The event was free, but the food/drinks cost money, so you just knew it’d be overpriced. The drinks were the normal $3 for any 20oz bottle, but when Steve came back and told me what he paid for his food, I was glad I had the kids eat before we came. His philly-like sandwich, onion rings, and lemonade came to $18!!! Besides the food, and since everything else was free, you definitely got what you paid for. I would have liked to stay for the concerts, because that’s where it would seem to be worth being in the heat and crowd. They had some great bands playing! The list included…Barlow Girl, Kirk Franklin, and Chris Tomlin to name a few. We were there while some Spanish-speaking group was playing. I’d equate them to a more rock-focused Linkin Park. They were rocking, but I wish I could have understood what they were saying…HA! We left around 5:30pm and not a moment too soon. It’s in those situations where I realize my limitations and need to get out of there before my stress level boils over. And it’s in those situations only, that I feel it’s hard to not have Belinda to help me with the children. I couldn’t live without her at all, but would have an even harder time in those times. We are the perfect match when we are together and out and about with the kids. Once home, I was pooped from being in the sun and on the run for two days, that I decided I had too much housework/clothes I wanted to get done, so I ordered us even more junk food from Pizza Hut for dinner, and set the kids to pick up while I folded clothes and did laundry and other things. I don’t need a super clean house all the time, but I like to come home to, and like Belinda to come home to a “clean” and picked up house most of the time. I feel it just sets a mood. I know it makes me happier when I come home to a clean house. And I attribute that to my mom who always made me clean.

I’m so glad City Fest is gone, because now things can settle down a bit and get back to normal at work. I’m going to try and learn how to run a remote broadcast, so I can help out on weekends and make some extra moolah and have more stuff for my resume if nothing else. Other than that, we’re trying to continually improve our www.faithhouston.com site. Check it out when you can. It’s a Christian MySpace site basically! Pretty sweet!

Tuesday, Skillet will be at Grapevine Christian Store promoting their new cd “Comatose”. Besides A and I, the rest of the fam is really liking their new cd and can’t wait to hear them play a few songs tomorrow! It will be an acoustic set, so I have to remember to bring my Zen so I can record them! Avery’s ecstatic to be able to meet them, shake their hands, and get their autographs. The other day when I told him he said “I have the best dad in the world!” Even though I knew the reason he said that was because he’d get to meet his favorite band, it still made me glow from hearing him say it.

Well, this post has gone on WAY too long, so I’ll stop for now. I hope you all have a blessed week! God bless! Below are some pics from when Jim and Shelly were in town. Check B's blog for soccer pics later!

HOLLA AT YOUR BOY!

Braden isn't sure about the ocean yet, and doesn't like to get into the water unless he's right by daddy's side.