We're soakin' up what's left of summer...

I only have a few more free days of summer so we're trying to do as much as we can. We've gone out on the boat a lot lately and are trying to find some more days for that again soon.

Tomorrow we have plans to go to 6 Flags if it doesn't get rained out. We'll see how that goes. I have a free ticket from a reading challenge some of my students did. They got a free a ticket and I got a free ticket! Fun!

Next weekend we're going with Casey's family (his mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, & nephew) to a cabin in Oklahoma! We did this last summer, too, and it was a lot of fun! We relaxed and took lots of naps, made lots of yummy food, read on the balcony, fished in the river, played games, and did a little bit of hiking. This time we're going for 4 days instead of 3. Fun stuff!

After we get back from that I only have one free week before I go back to school for staff development. I hate to think about it :( I really love teaching and feel passionate about it during the school year, but goodness, I love summer break!!

Here are some pictures of our recent outing with Charlie & Ginni!

Charlie pulled Casey on the tube like a mad man! One time Casey was shaking his head back and forth like he was scared for his life! It was pretty funny :)

Me & Ginni.

We're on the boat more for leisure purposes, haha.

Casey on the tube again.

He and Charlie tried to have fights on the tube to see who could knock the other off the fastest. They both kept falling off though because I'm such a good driver ;)
Ginni & I on the tube relaxing :)

This happens a lot. Usually it's her trying to pull me up though. That thing is impossible to get on if you are just sitting in the water!!

ha ha, this one makes me laugh....look at her leg on the side...we have some interesting techniques for getting on the tube!Charlie skiing before we realized the skiis were messed up

(we took them back and got some better ones :)

Casey & I at the end of the day! Much fun! :)

Last week we went on the boat with Jeremiah and Laura. I forgot my pictures so I had Laura let me download hers to my computer yesterday. Today I got on the computer to put them on the blog and....GONE! They are nowhere to be found :( Super sad day. So here are a couple I stole from her blog:

Casey pulling Jeremiah on the tube.

I thought this was a pretty artsy one that Laura took!

Laura & I going really fast on the tube. It was great fun!

The guys knocked us off several times, and we're pretty sure they tried to drown us a couple of times. Needless to say, Laura & I both left that day with some crazy tube burn on our elbows and knees.

Well, I'm sure there will be some 6 Flags and cabin pictures up before the summer is over!

Enjoy the last few weeks of freedom my teacher friends!

I'll be there for you...will you be there for me, too?

Does anyone else feel about a show how I feel about Friends?

There is perhaps no other show that I could watch over and over and over again like I can with Friends.

I probably started watching Friends 5 or so years after it started because my mom wouldn't let me for a really long time. I was 8 when it started in 1994 and I graduated from high school the week of the last episode. It felt like the end of an era and I cried. I sometimes still cry when I watch the last episode.

These days Friends is my default show. I like to have it on when I do stuff around the house, scrapbook, or get on the computer because I know what's going on without having to look up. I know each episode like the back of my hand. I own all ten season in a cute little red box (thanks to Casey! He gave them to me as a wedding present:).

I'll challenge anyone to the Friends game or Friends Scene It ;)

Lindsay's Wedding

This past Saturday we went to Lindsay Brimer & Joe Paris' wedding. Lindsay went to Mimosa Lane with Casey & I. Casey has known her since she was a little kid, and I have known her since 10th grade. We were in the youth group together, and Casey use to basically babysit her and her sister at the pool in the summers when they were little. Because of this, he thinks of her as a little girl even though she is only a year younger than me. Casey and I have drawn the conclusion that if he had known me when I was that age we would never have dated (even though 3 years is really not a big age difference at all!).

Anyway, their wedding was at the Texas Discovery Gardens at Fair Park in Dallas. I have never been to a wedding there so I was really looking forward to it! We were also excited to see all of our old Mimosa friends! It was basically a big Mimosa reunion! Even Chris DuPree was there (one of the old youth ministers at Mimosa who now lives in McAllen, TX several hours away) with his wife and 2 cutie kids! He is one of Casey's good friends, so he thoroughly enjoyed getting to talk with him.

Here are some pictures from the wedding!

Casey & I after the ceremony waiting on the reception to begin!

One more!
the back of Lindsay's pretty dress!

Doing the Dollar Dance with little Joshua McDill (Paul & Jill's son)! :)

Lindsay & I

Mr. & Mrs. Joe Paris!!

It was a fun night and a beautiful wedding! We wish them a happy and Christ-centered marriage!!

Birthdays, Birthdays, & More Birthdays!!

Summer is full of birthdays for us.

First we have Casey's mom, Beverly. Her birthday is on June 4.

Next is Caleb, our nephew. He turned 3 on June 20th.

Casey's dad, Mitch has his birthday on July 2.

My Great-grandpa, Pappa Tapp, turned 90 on July 12th.

And finally my Uncle Russell turned 46 on July 19th.

Those are the birthdays so far, but we still have my dad who turns 50 August 2nd, followed by my grandpa, Papa Donnie, turning 70 on August 6th!

A lot of those are some real milestones. 90, 70, and 50 are the doozies if you ask me.

Anyway, 7 family birthdays in the summer equals lots of parties!!

Here are just a few of our birthday pictures from June and July. Enjoy!

Mitch & Beverly with their presents. We were really bad about getting them to them on time this year, so they got them together ;) Mitch got a cool UT shirt from our trip to Austin and a funny shirt for Father's Day and Beverly got a new purse and some wedding pictures that she's been asking for for a while!

Caleb got his present late as well because we were in Cali on his birthday. He turned 3 this year and is getting so big and smart!

Lots of Veggie Tales!

My Pappa Tapp (great grandpa) turned 90!! He is still strong and doing well!!

Blowing out his candles. Would've been crazy if there had actually been 90 on the cake. Lol.

His first great grandchild (and probably his favorite) :)

4 generations. Pappa Tapp, his daughter (Momma Sheila), her daughter (my mom), and me!

Uncle Russell (my mom's brother) turned 46!

Opening presents!

Casey & I at Uncle Russell's party!

Well, those are 5 out of our 7 summer birthdays. I'll update with the other 2 later this summer! Hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of summer. I feel like it is slipping away from me quickly! I only have 3 free Mondays left!! Ahh!!

Mission Trip '09: Plague of the Flies

It's been a couple weeks since our mission trip, but I don't want to go without telling everyone what an excellent time it was! We left at 5:30am on Sunday morning (July 5) and arrived in Chaparral, New Mexico at around 5pm NM time (they are an hour behind us). One of the men Casey met on his trip to nail things down graciously allowed 45 people-10 adults and 35 students-to stay in his home. That in itself is a miracle. Who in their right mind would let 35 teenagers stay in their home for 5 nights?

Side note: you might be wondering about the title to this post. Flies where everywhere in New Mexico!!! None of us had seen that many flies in one place in our lives. They were crazy. They were in the poor parts of town and the nice parts of town. They didn't discriminate, so don't get it in your head that it was because it was dirty. They were EVERYWHERE. We also learned that they love to land on humans!!! Ugh. It was bad. It made us think of the plagues in Egypt in Moses' day. I've got more respect for that now.

Anyway, back to the meat of the trip....

Each morning of the trip we went into a neighborhood in Vado, NM and the students picked up trash, paint mobile homes, and other odd jobs. One group put a floor into one of the mobile homes as well as counter tops. The service project usually lasted from 9-12. We had free time from about 1-4 each day, and then we headed back out to the same neighborhood for kids clubs!! They started at 6:30, but the kids always showed up early. We had fun games, songs, Bible stories, and crafts for them. Much fun for them and us!

The house we stayed at was trashed by the end so on Friday morning we got up at 5:30am and cleaned his home for an hour. Spic and span! After cleaning on Friday we made our long trek back into to Texas to San Marcos where we shopped at the outlet malls and had dinner. That night we stayed in a cheap motel and woke up early the next morning to tube the river in New Braunfels! Very fun!

Overall the trip was a great success with 45 people putting their faith in Christ--43 kiddos and 2 adults!! I think you can definitely say that was a success. One person saved for every person we brought on the trip. God loves the people in Vado, New Mexico, and He is not done with those He brought to know Him!! Here are some (a lot, really) of the pictures from mission trip. These are all from the last night because the other nights I was too busy playing with those precious kids! They are so cute and fun!

The boys being tough :)
Matt and Yonedi - this boy didn't speak any English, but it was obvious that he understood it! He was soooo sweet and smart -- he was only 4!

Yonedi and I pretending to make bows out of our hula hoops!
Sweet boy and I! He was funny. We had water gun fights :)
Casey & Ashley talking to a kid -- she looks like me doesn't she?? She is a senior in our group. Everyone thinks we look like sisters and when I first saw this picture I thought it was me, too!

Some of the boys about to race! They were so funny.

This is Edgwin. One night he got hit in the head with a plastic baseball bat and made the funniest cartoon faces and noises. Casey couldn't stop laughing about it even though it was sad!!

Some of the kids being silly

Jorge the cowboy!! Soooo cute!

Jorge up to bat!

All the boys lined up for Casey to pitch to them. They really enjoyed it, and I liked watching and talking to them while they were in line.

Casey & I with my water gun enemy :)

Look at his braid! I put it on his shoulder for the picture, heehee.

A beautiful sunset on our last night at the kids' clubs!

God was good at showing us His awesome power while we were in New Mexico. Language barriers didn't matter anymore and lives were changed for eternity.

Mission trip is by far my favorite youth event - it was when I was a teenager and it continues to be as an adult.

Lake Love

Well, this summer has been filled with some great boating fun. We have been able to go out on many different beautiful days!! A couple firsts...I have learned to ski, Casey has learned to slalom (skiing on one foot), and Maddie has learned that she loves the water! :) Here are a few pictures from our lake days!

Yay! My first time to ski!

Maddie enjoying the lake in her doggy life vest :)
Our little family (minus Ella...but cats don't like to swim:)
Casey skiing on one foot!

Casey & I on the tube...looks like I'm just barely hanging on!!

That would be my leg hanging off on the right!

Hope you're all having a great summer!!

Pass It On

A couple days ago, I was the lucky winner of a sercy from one of my blogger friends, Andrea Stewart (some of you may remember her as Andrea Gay from GCA & CCA). You may wonder, "what is a sercy?" I'm so glad you asked.

• first of all, it can be spelled "sercy", "searcy", or "cerci"
• it is a little unexpected gift given out of friendship, love, or thoughtfulness
• if you're from the South, some call it "a happy"
• comes from the French word, surprise

Although it's a sweet little gift that is not intended to be reciprocated, it is fun to pass on the gesture to other friends...and keep it going. That's the idea and the rules of the exchange. So, be one of the first 3 people (blog owners only) to comment to this post and I'll make a sercy for you. When I have received 3 comments, I'll email you so that I can get your shipping address. Then, wait patiently for your little sercy/searcy/cerci. :)

If you are a winner, you have to to post this on your blog and pass along a sercy, too, to your blogging friends. For a little inspiration and motivation, here is the super cute sercy gift I received from Andrea. Thanks girl!

It's actually a magnet, but the refrigerator kept giving me a glare, so I took it down for picture purposes :)

Ps. This is a picture of Casey & I on our last boat day. We took Maddie out on the boat for the first time and she had a blast. She wore a doggy life jacket, haha :)

Also, here is the sercy that Andrea's friend sent her.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

I had intended to blog about each of our San Francisco days one at a time, but I have gotten extremely behind on blogging as it is, so I am going to blog about our entire San Fran vaca right now! :) I'll just caption the pictures to make it a little shorter -- you can find all of the pictures on facebook if you are interested.

This is when we arrived at 7am in the morning!

Our hotel was awesome, and I was stoked :)

Casey & I on the cable car on the first day!

That was my favorite way to get around town!

At Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39 where the sea lions reside! We went there alot... :)

Day 2 - we took a vintage car tour around the city!

Me inside the Rambler! This was a GREAT tour!

My first time to have clam chowder & it was amazing!!

Us on Alcatraz Island with San Francisco in the background!

Casey inside a cell at Alcatraz! I loved this tour!
Day 3: Casey and I in front of Lombard Street - the curviest street in the world!
On another cable car! :)

That night we went to a baseball game! The San Fran Giants were playing the Texas Rangers! How weird is that?
The view from our seats was amazing.

Day 4: We went to Muir Woods and saw massive Redwoods.

This was just a cool lighting picture that we took!In between 2 huge trees!

Day 5: In front of the Palace of Fine Arts - beautiful building!
In front of the Golden Gate Bridge!

Driving over the bridge in a double decker bus - it was extremely windy & cold!!!

Feeding birds again :) Hee hee.

That night we took a sunset dinner cruise!! This is in front of the Golden Gate Bridge!Looking at the city

Another picture in front of the bridge

The city at night from the cable car!

Day 6: the view of the city from our hotel elevator!

So sad to leave! But at least I'm on my way to buy an iPhone! :)

We bought it while we were in San Fran because that's when the new one came out!

We had a great time!!! San Francisco is a great city.

We're already talking about what vacation we want to take next year! We'll see!