"step out of the car ms..."

This weekend James and I motored on down to the Woodlands. His dad, BJ, and step-mom, Beverly, live down there. James lead a training for his company, BJ was on his way back from a bike ride in Colorado- so Saturday it was just Beverly and me. It was a fun day. We sat around in the morning sipping coffee and just talking. Then it was scooter time! Beverly lives very close to her work so she drives a scooter to save gas- SMART! I think it would be great to have one. :-) So anyway, we took it to Market Street, a shopping center similar to the new one in Highland Village by the church. I am a finicky passenger so at first I was quite nervous about this motorcycle ride. hehe. Upon arriving at Market Street, our first stop was Anthropology. This is such a wonderful store. It was my first time in one- they are very proud of their stuff ($$$) but it is SOOO cute! I hit the sales room and found this fabulous white dress with POCKETS (this always brings a smile to my face). I officially made my first purchase in the store and signed up for a discount card thing that came in this cute little pouch I can use for other stuff. It was seriously the best find- and James loves it so that makes it all the better. :-) Beverly was looking for new bedding for the guest bedroom. Something taulie (spelling?!?) like in black and whitish. She found 2 things- one at Anthropology and the other at Pottery Barn. When I signed my credit card slip, my hand was shaking... at first I was kind of like whoa- my body must be reacting to the fact that I am spending $40 (sale price) on a dress and I was like my cheapness is getting BAD! Then I realized I'm not a freak, I am super hungry. So we ventured on to PF Changs- spring rolls and moo moo gu pan! yummy. About 2/3 through lunch- we hear this loud BOOM! It's pouring rain and thundering outside- great... we rode a stinking scooter out there, what now?!? lol. It's Houston though- so typical 10 minute pour and it was all over and steamy humid. :-) We looked at the time and had just enough to check out pottery barn and Dillard's for a return. Back to the scooter to drive across the street to the movie theater. The road was all wet and of course my nervousness came right back and I tried to pay it off though. We waited at the light and it turned yellow just as we actually got up to it- split decision- stop and chance sliding and falling? or gun and go for it- we're Davis's, of course we went for it. haha... the cop at the light didn't much care for that idea though. haha. He pulled in behind us and followed us around without his lights or motioning us to pull over somewhere at all. So we thought "maybe he is just cruising the shopping center!?!" Nope, Beverly pulls up to the movies to let me out to get the tickets and there he is "License and registration please." Keep in mind, this is my first time to just hang out with my mother-in-law by myself. So, I am so nervous for her and us and the whole situation. So, after scuffling away quickly and attempting to get tickets numerous times and different kiosk (who needs people when you can get a machine to do their job...) wondering why in the world the dang things won't take my American Express, I see the sign that says "AMERICAN EXPRESS USERS MUST PURCHASE TICKETS AT THE BOX OFFICE" Horrid- I have to talk to somebody. lol. So, I do it and am sitting and text James as little info as I can, just enough to make him interested and feel shocked, and Beverly walks up and says we have to return the tickets and the officer is going to give us a ride home... WHAT?!?! So, basically my mother-in-law and I were taken home in the back of a cop car... how embarrassing for all of us getting in and getting out. lol. The ride home was interesting, the situation was uncomfortable enough in itself so I thought I would make small talk with the sheriff. "Do you always have to that when you radio in?" "What are those blue things on your laptop?" "You're not from here are you? I can tell." "Can you pull up my information on your computer? Office: I have to have a reason. My response in my head: Well, aren't I an accomplice?" <--my filter kicked in on that one! "How long have you been in Texas" And so many more... And we were home before we knew it. He said he loved people from Dallas when they visit the Woodlands. They like people there. haha. Kind of awkward! lol. But now I know you are on the edge of your seat (or falling asleep lol) wondering why in the world we couldn't stay for our movie and had to be taken home by the police! Well, Beverly never got her motorcycle license and we weren't wearing helmets. He could have given like 2 or 3 different tickets but was nice enough not to because his daughter is a teacher and so he liked the fact that Bev and I were as well. We were so frazzled when we got home we each got out a beer and laughed! By the way, the movie we were going to see: Sex in the City. I've seen it once but Beverly had not and didn't want to suggest it in the beginning because it might be "too much." But I asked if she'd seen it and she said no, and so of course in true form I insisted we go see and it wouldn't be weird! lol. Since we didn't get to see the movie we got out season 1 of her 6 complete seasons (a wonderful gift from BJ!) and started watching! James came home asking all kinds of questions and we all went to load the scooter in the back of his truck and brought it home. :-) What a fun day! I had an absolute blast hanging out and getting to know Beverly! What a crazy story to tell our kids! "Remember the time the cops had to bring us home...." LOL. That was my 3rd ride in the back of a police cruiser.
If only we had pictures to prove it...

"Clean up on ISLE 7"

As many of you know James and I go to The Village Church and are part of a young marrieds group that meets on Wednesday nights. It was a rocky start for US in the beginning of the group. I think we had our expectations set too high- especially for a totally new group- not just new to us. So we sucked for a while, not going, going with a negative attitude, blah blah blah... James and the husband leader went to breakfast one day the Lord broke James' heart for the group. He came home with a whole new attitude... a good one. It took me a day or so to get on board with this idea of being positive- this was a new one for James and I- I am the positive one and he's the it's going to be bad one... again, it took me a while to swallow it down. :-) But I did and it taste good. I woke up and the Lord had just flipped my heart and I have it in me to pursue these women and men. There are 8 couples in our group and I look forward to getting to know so much! Our group is diligently working to do things to bring us closer together and getting to know one another on many different levels. People are trying to get together throughout the weeks, we are playing on an indoor soccer team, Isle 7 (I will speak of this in a minute), we will float the river in August, people are opening up their homes, ect... I am excited!!!

ISLE 7... this is the name we decided on last night to call or soccer team. Side note- I don't play soccer and never have a day in my life but I will now! We all sat around last night after eating, talking, and helping a couple prepare for their mission trip, and we tried to come up with a team name. Of course being true villagers, we started with The Village People, Villagites and so on... then animal names- Sea Cows, Octopuses, ect... Transformers, Dinosaurs, some Monty Python reference I didn't get but I laughed anyway, The Princess Brides things... you name it. Mason declared that NO ONE WAS LEAVING TILL WE CAME UP WITH A NAME... so we decided on The Toiletries! haha and on the back of our shirts we were going to put toiletries instead of our names... Cotton Balls, Q-Tips, Veet, Super Absorbent, Hair Spray, Depends, ect... Then we thought we should change it up just a little because these things were not really "toiletries"... The Medicine Cabinet? No... we came up with ISLE 7. Like in a grocery store. hehe. James is depends and I am E.P.T. and instead of a number on my back I'll just be a - sign (negative). There are some good names- I don't remember them all bc we threw out so many but it's funny and people are going to laugh- we sure did. I am curious to plug in my body bugg and see if all the laughing burned some extra calories... or if it's even enough to show up. Anyway, we'll be playing indoor soccer on Friday nights wearing black shirts with white writing... clean up on ISLE 7 please! ....wait- James says it's okay- he's wearing his depends.

Strawberry Cupcakes, Stadium Carrot Cake, Wii Boxing and such...

I made them wash their hands before decorating but you know what happens when little kids get frosting on their hands... the same thing as when an adult gets frosting on their hands.. hehe :-P I feel everything is safe to eat! :-) (Sara H.!)Theboys working on decorating! Carrot Cake for James- his favorite!

I made the ones with letters! One for all the girls.

Boys love playing on the WIi!

Jacob's Fictional Blogging:

(age 6)
Suinging on a chralin. Slids are piple. Piple are slids. Are we bugs? Do we have tvs?
(translation: Swinging on a trampoling. Slides are people. People are slides. Are we bugs? Do we have TVs?)


Andrew's Dictated Blogging:
(age 5)
I am going to sleep. I am driving a car. I am talking on the phone. I am typing something that I am going to school next year. I went to Jacob's house and I went to school.

Random Thoughts

Summer is a great time. Being a teacher I getting to take full advantage of the weather and summer time activites. For summer, I have agreed to take on a babysitting/nanny position working for my best friend Sara. So far, so good. She has a really flexible schedule so my schedule has become quite flexible as well. There are days I watch Andrew 10 hours and others I have him for 2 hours and some- none! :-) There are also a couple of weeks where I am watching a student that was in my class. Of all my students, this is the one that I came really close to approaching his mom to see if she needed summer care for him. I think there are only 2 weeks though that she does. So, life this summer has been fun. I nannied for a family last summer and it just wasn't what I felt like a summer should be and I just didn't enjoy my work.

Watching Andrew has some benefits. He's a really good, smart kid and can be taken pretty much anywhere. He is respectful and he knows his place a child and not an adult. Sara has taken really good care of him and taught him well. So, with him, I can make plans with other people- friends, co-workers, family, ect... It's nice. I would never take advantage and fully just do that but once a week or so it's awesome.

Marriage- nice.... difficult. Two becoming one... two very different, stubborn people becoming one... that's a concept. lol. James and I have had our ups and downs. I know all is for the glory of God. But man, some days it's like WHAT ARE WE THINKING?!?! lol. We are both crap at times. We love (I mean we hate but we do it all the time!) to jab at one another. I am horrible at forgivness and I don't apoligze the way that works for him and vise versa. I bought a book, The Five Languages of Apology: How to Experience Healing in All Your Relationships by Gary Chapman. I've read a whole part of a chapter so far but I think it will be good for me. :-) I also bought a Song of Songs devo for James and I. I like it because it's not like a daily thing where you feel guilty if you didn't do it- it's just whenever but do it as much as you can kind of thing. :-) I've been reading The Time Traveler's Wife. This is an execellent book to ready for pure enjoyment. I am almost finished with it. There is a movie coming out in December and I am excited to see what they do with it. Yea! Now if only they would make a movie from Redeeming Love! :-)
This summer James and I are going on a light, week long vacation to Arkansas. His mom has a timeshare that she is not using this year so she has offerred it to us. It will be nice to get out of town right before I go back to work. We don't have to pay for the lodging- just our food and anything we do or rent. James and I have become such penny pinchers that we don't want to go on any vacation or go do some things because "it just cost so much." lol. I guess we'll just have lots of money when it comes time to retire. hehe. But I think we are going to rent a boat one day (the palce is on Lake Hamilton), get a massage/go to bathhouse row, eat some good food and look at some pottery James likes a lot. We can have up to 4 others there with us- we just don't know who to ask to go with us?!? I know one couple we would love to have there can't go.. dumb internships get in the way! hehe ;-)
Our apartment has come a long way. I have sucked it up at getting pictures posted- sorry- guess you'll just have to come over and hang out some time! hehe. :-)
Anyway- back to watching Iron Man (the cartoon) with Jacob! Hope you're having a blessed week!

The Many Faces of Sabra

Hi all!
I know all 3 of you have been waiting on toes for my latest blog. I don't have much to say right now but I did create a kind of funny blog about a good friend of mine from back home! Her name is Sabra! She's a good and loyal friend and I am blessed to have her in my life. :-)