Thursday, January 29, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Sweet Chloe and her adoration of DJ
The funniest thing happened today... I laughed so hard that I was snorting in Sam's. Although, I may not be able to do it justice with words. In order to give you the full picture, I have to back up a little... This summer DJ and I MCed Vaction Bible School. I should actually say that DJ was the MC because I was more like a sidekick as it turned out. He's a huge ham and loves performing for a crowd and ALL the little girls love him! I am not kidding! Anytime we see the under 8 crowd of little girls at church, they all swoon! There is a precious little girl at church named Chloe and she is apparently a member of the adoring DJ club. We saw her the other day and she got SO excited to see him. Well this morning, I helped out in the 2 year olds "Sunday School" class, which Chloe is a part of. I said something to her about "Mr. Gililland" but she apparently did not realize that it was DJ I was talking about. So after church today we ran by Sam's and ran into Chloe and her family. I am not kidding, we must have been 100 feet away and she got completely excited to see us (or DJ I should say). "Daddy, Daddy, LOOK!" We stood and talked to her family for a while and she was completely beside herself. She said, "You are with him?" I explained that he was my husband and she just couldn't get over it. I wish that I could show you a video because I was right, words do not do it justice! Just imagine DJ and I laughing so hard that I was crying.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tour of Texas
Wow, what a week! Last week I went on a tour of Texas, literally! I went to San Antonio on Sunday, then back to Abilene late Monday night, then Dallas on Thursday, College Station on Friday, and Houston on Friday and back to A-town on Sunday. Are you tired just reading about it? :)
Well here is a synopsis of some fun times:
My grandmother turned 80 on Monday, so I went to San Antonio for the birthday party. I stayed with my Dad and step-mom while in SA, so as we drove to the party, 2 funny things happened:1. I had put lotion on my hands before we left the house, so as I drove to the party, I looked down and I was missing my diamond ring! I had my wedding band, but not the engagement ring. Of course, I panicked a little. When we stopped, I got out to look on the floor board of the car, just in case it had fallen off my lotion-y hands. As I bent, I put my right hand on the console and I hear from the back seat, "Is that your ring?" I look down at my right hand to find that my ring was on my right hand, on the same finger as my Aggie ring! OH! How embarrassing! My dad spent the rest of the evening laughing hysterically about how I was getting senile.
2. The other thing that happened as we drove was that I asked my family if they thought we had dressed up enough for the birthday party. (I could tell from the invitation that it was going to be a dressy event.) My Dad's response is, "I think it's only going to be immediate family." My response to that was, "Dad, if it is immediate family, then you would not be invited." (This party is for my mom's mom, and my parents have been divorced since I was about 10.)
So we drive up to my grandmother's house and literally blocks before we get there are cars lining the street! We walk into my grandmother's house to find that this was definitely a black tie affair and there are OVER 200 people mingling inside! What a surprise! There were men with trays of food walking around... there was someone at the door to take our coats... etc. The party had a Dairy Queen theme. This may sound strange, but it was actually really neat. My grandparents had been in the Dairy Queen business for many years, so my aunt went with this theme. There were vintage Dairy Queen Posters hanging around the house... the cake was literally a 2 feet long (at least) banana split. 2 ginormous bananas lined either side of the cake, with three huge scoops of "ice cream" in the center, and on the side was the DQ logo. It was really neat. There was even a vintage ice cream machine that made teeny tiny soft serve ice cream cones. The cones were about 2 inches tall. It was really cute.
However, the best part of the whole party was hearing everyone's kind words about my grandmother. She is literally the matriarch of our family and everyone had really nice things to say to me about her. It inspired me to desire to impact peoples' lives in the same way that my grandmother has impacted lives.
So after the party, I headed back to Abilene because I had to work the next day. My sweet husband talked me through most of the drive and was waiting anxiously for my safe return home.
Thursday brought another trip... DJ had a conference he needed to attend in Houston, so we took the scenic route through Dallas. It is not that our geography skills are bad; we wanted to see a new baby. Rusty is DJ's best friend from growing up, so we had to make a quick stop in Dallas (actually Little Elm) to see them and watch the National Championship game. Then we stayed with some other good friends, Lisa and Andrew (who are also expecting a child in the next few weeks.)
Friday morning we headed towards Houston, with a stop in one of our favorite places, College Station! The best part of Friday was going with DJ to get his TEXAS A&M STUDENT ID!!! This has been a dream of his since he was a kid and he is finally getting to realize this dream. He begins his doctorate in curriculum and instruction next week! (It is all online, so we are not moving.)
Later that day, we headed to Houston. Saturday morning DJ headed to his recruiting conference at Cinco Ranch High School in Katy and I headed to Richmond, just outside Sugarland. My best friend from first grade through high school is Meredyth and her parents moved to Houston after we graduated from high school. Around that same time, her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she has battled for the past 10+ years. I spent Saturday morning with her mom, Kristi and we had a great 2 hour conversation. Meredyth had told me that they were not sure if she would make it to Christmas, so when she did and I found out we would be in the area, I had to stop and see her. She is down to about 80 pounds and spends most of her day in a wheel chair, but she was still the same great Kristi. We had such wonderful conversations and I was so blessed to see her one last time. I was able to share with her how special it was to me that she and her family had traveled from Houston for my mom's memorial service last year. She said, "of course, we would be there!" but it meant the world to me considering her health and how that makes traveling much more difficult for her.
On Saturday night, we went with some friends to see a play by the A.D. Players. This is a Christian Theatrical company in Houston. The play was called The Apostle, and was really amazing. One man did a monologue of Romans 1-10. It really brought the book to life and provided a nice synopsis of these chapters. It was amazing to see this man recite all of this from memory.
Finally, Sunday was also a FABULOUS day that left me smiling from ear to ear as we drove home. While I was in school at A&M, I was deeply involved with a ministry called Breakaway. Breakaway is a college Bible Study that meets in the Basketball arena on the A&M campus. It has now grown to about 5,000 students each Tuesday evening. While I was there, I served as a volunteer and team leader. I was the leader of the Compass Team which purpose was to help students get plugged in. Breakaway made a huge point of letting students know that it was NOT a church and that students needed to be involved in the local church. My team provided lots of information to students to help them get plugged in at church. In addition, we also helped students connect with missions opportunities, as well as Christian organizations on campus. Breakaway was a HUGE part of how the Lord drew me back into relationship with him. I had never been surrounded by so many believers that were my age and on fire for the Lord. For me, my time in College Station was a sweet, sweet time.
...ok, so I told you that because on Sunday I was able to go to church and see some people from my college years and it was so good to see them.
Gregg Matte was one of the founders of Breakaway. In fact, Breakaway began years before when he was a college student in his apartment. It started out with about 10 students and just continued to grow and grow so that now they have to meet in the Basketball arena so that everyone fits! In the past few years, God called Gregg to pastor a church in Houston, Houston's First Baptist. This is also the church where Beth Moore teaches women's Sunday school and weekly Bible studies.
It was a lot of fun getting to see Gregg and introduce him to my DJ as my husband, for the first time. I also got to see my sweet friend Jalen, Deanna, and Jenn. Jalen and I served at Breakaway together and Deanna and Jenn were office managers for Breakaway for a time. Jenn discipled me while was I in college and then when she moved to Houston, Deanna took over as office manager. It was like a big reunion to see them all again.
What a fun day, weekend, and week as we took a tour of Texas!
Well here is a synopsis of some fun times:
My grandmother turned 80 on Monday, so I went to San Antonio for the birthday party. I stayed with my Dad and step-mom while in SA, so as we drove to the party, 2 funny things happened:1. I had put lotion on my hands before we left the house, so as I drove to the party, I looked down and I was missing my diamond ring! I had my wedding band, but not the engagement ring. Of course, I panicked a little. When we stopped, I got out to look on the floor board of the car, just in case it had fallen off my lotion-y hands. As I bent, I put my right hand on the console and I hear from the back seat, "Is that your ring?" I look down at my right hand to find that my ring was on my right hand, on the same finger as my Aggie ring! OH! How embarrassing! My dad spent the rest of the evening laughing hysterically about how I was getting senile.
2. The other thing that happened as we drove was that I asked my family if they thought we had dressed up enough for the birthday party. (I could tell from the invitation that it was going to be a dressy event.) My Dad's response is, "I think it's only going to be immediate family." My response to that was, "Dad, if it is immediate family, then you would not be invited." (This party is for my mom's mom, and my parents have been divorced since I was about 10.)
So we drive up to my grandmother's house and literally blocks before we get there are cars lining the street! We walk into my grandmother's house to find that this was definitely a black tie affair and there are OVER 200 people mingling inside! What a surprise! There were men with trays of food walking around... there was someone at the door to take our coats... etc. The party had a Dairy Queen theme. This may sound strange, but it was actually really neat. My grandparents had been in the Dairy Queen business for many years, so my aunt went with this theme. There were vintage Dairy Queen Posters hanging around the house... the cake was literally a 2 feet long (at least) banana split. 2 ginormous bananas lined either side of the cake, with three huge scoops of "ice cream" in the center, and on the side was the DQ logo. It was really neat. There was even a vintage ice cream machine that made teeny tiny soft serve ice cream cones. The cones were about 2 inches tall. It was really cute.
However, the best part of the whole party was hearing everyone's kind words about my grandmother. She is literally the matriarch of our family and everyone had really nice things to say to me about her. It inspired me to desire to impact peoples' lives in the same way that my grandmother has impacted lives.
So after the party, I headed back to Abilene because I had to work the next day. My sweet husband talked me through most of the drive and was waiting anxiously for my safe return home.
Thursday brought another trip... DJ had a conference he needed to attend in Houston, so we took the scenic route through Dallas. It is not that our geography skills are bad; we wanted to see a new baby. Rusty is DJ's best friend from growing up, so we had to make a quick stop in Dallas (actually Little Elm) to see them and watch the National Championship game. Then we stayed with some other good friends, Lisa and Andrew (who are also expecting a child in the next few weeks.)
Friday morning we headed towards Houston, with a stop in one of our favorite places, College Station! The best part of Friday was going with DJ to get his TEXAS A&M STUDENT ID!!! This has been a dream of his since he was a kid and he is finally getting to realize this dream. He begins his doctorate in curriculum and instruction next week! (It is all online, so we are not moving.)
Later that day, we headed to Houston. Saturday morning DJ headed to his recruiting conference at Cinco Ranch High School in Katy and I headed to Richmond, just outside Sugarland. My best friend from first grade through high school is Meredyth and her parents moved to Houston after we graduated from high school. Around that same time, her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she has battled for the past 10+ years. I spent Saturday morning with her mom, Kristi and we had a great 2 hour conversation. Meredyth had told me that they were not sure if she would make it to Christmas, so when she did and I found out we would be in the area, I had to stop and see her. She is down to about 80 pounds and spends most of her day in a wheel chair, but she was still the same great Kristi. We had such wonderful conversations and I was so blessed to see her one last time. I was able to share with her how special it was to me that she and her family had traveled from Houston for my mom's memorial service last year. She said, "of course, we would be there!" but it meant the world to me considering her health and how that makes traveling much more difficult for her.
On Saturday night, we went with some friends to see a play by the A.D. Players. This is a Christian Theatrical company in Houston. The play was called The Apostle, and was really amazing. One man did a monologue of Romans 1-10. It really brought the book to life and provided a nice synopsis of these chapters. It was amazing to see this man recite all of this from memory.
Finally, Sunday was also a FABULOUS day that left me smiling from ear to ear as we drove home. While I was in school at A&M, I was deeply involved with a ministry called Breakaway. Breakaway is a college Bible Study that meets in the Basketball arena on the A&M campus. It has now grown to about 5,000 students each Tuesday evening. While I was there, I served as a volunteer and team leader. I was the leader of the Compass Team which purpose was to help students get plugged in. Breakaway made a huge point of letting students know that it was NOT a church and that students needed to be involved in the local church. My team provided lots of information to students to help them get plugged in at church. In addition, we also helped students connect with missions opportunities, as well as Christian organizations on campus. Breakaway was a HUGE part of how the Lord drew me back into relationship with him. I had never been surrounded by so many believers that were my age and on fire for the Lord. For me, my time in College Station was a sweet, sweet time.
...ok, so I told you that because on Sunday I was able to go to church and see some people from my college years and it was so good to see them.
Gregg Matte was one of the founders of Breakaway. In fact, Breakaway began years before when he was a college student in his apartment. It started out with about 10 students and just continued to grow and grow so that now they have to meet in the Basketball arena so that everyone fits! In the past few years, God called Gregg to pastor a church in Houston, Houston's First Baptist. This is also the church where Beth Moore teaches women's Sunday school and weekly Bible studies.
It was a lot of fun getting to see Gregg and introduce him to my DJ as my husband, for the first time. I also got to see my sweet friend Jalen, Deanna, and Jenn. Jalen and I served at Breakaway together and Deanna and Jenn were office managers for Breakaway for a time. Jenn discipled me while was I in college and then when she moved to Houston, Deanna took over as office manager. It was like a big reunion to see them all again.
What a fun day, weekend, and week as we took a tour of Texas!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)