"AUDI" THIS WORLD

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Tour de Cafe

Catholic Charities held its annual "Tour de Cafe" last night at the YWCA in downtown Fort Worth. The Tour de Cafe is a celebration of our refugees...and wow, are they truly people to celebrate. I know I can't imagine what their lives are like - some have left behind family that they will never see again and probably didn't even know where they were when they left their country. Many of them have seen lots of blood, lots of guns, lots of death. And those who did not see war in their own countries and grew up in a refugee camp have seen life at its worst - very little food,

extremely poor living conditions with many, many people living in a tent-like situation. Awful! And now they have found safety and somewhat of a better life here in America. "Somewhat?" you may ask. Well, imagine if you moved to a new country, didn't know the language, never received education in your own language so learning is difficult because you've never been formally taught how to learn. Imagine that you had little skills in your home country and therefore finding a job with little English education and almost no skills is what you have to offer anyone who might hire you. This is not all of their situations, but it definitely is the situation of the majority of the refugees that I teach from Somalia. Other refugees come from Burma, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Congo, Liberia, Pakistan, Iraq, Cuba.

At the Tour de Cafe we have teas and coffees from around the world and snacks from around the world as well. Some of our refugees perform music from their native country or dances. A family of Sudanese children sang and danced for us last night and they were a HIT!

If you're in the DFW area, maybe you can make it out to the Tour de Cafe next year!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

one more egg hunt.

We celebrated Easter with my mom's side of the family on Sunday. Last year Daniel and I began what we'd like to be a tradition - dying Easter eggs together. So, we thought we'd do it together Friday night in Ruston, but didn't. Then thought maybe at Mamaw and Papaw's on Saturday night with our 3 yr. old cousin, Abby, but didn't.

So, we were determined to do it Sunday...and we did!<

Annie, our 2 year old cousin, helped us dye Easter eggs. Then, we hid them for her in Granny's front yard. It was super cute to watch her find the eggs! And oh, the excitement when she found them all....

Monday, April 09, 2007

79

My Papaw turns 79 on Tuesday, April 9. We celebrated his birthday together with barbecue, peach cobbler, chocolate cake, and ice cream. After dinner we sat around and listened to Mamaw and Papaw tell stories about their lives and sing songs/tell jokes that we've heard from the time we were kids until now. Sweet memories with my grandparents....here's my Papaw telling jokes/singing songs. Yep, we grew up enjoying the country life out in Dubach with cousins and Mamaw and Papaw!

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my best friend. her husband. their daughter

We got to see Heather, Chad, and Hannah on Saturday afternoon for a short time. Hannah is 19 months old and has LOTS of energy! We could hardly keep up with her, but had fun being entertained by her and visiting with Chad and Heather!

Jesus is Risen!

We went to Ruston this weekend for Easter and had sweet time with family! On the Hood side, we have an annual Easter picnic at my great-great Uncle Sidney's place - his "place" being acres and acres of pasture, complete with cows, cow patties, barns,

creeks, and open field! Uncle Sidney has been a hero in our family for years. A few years ago he went to be with the Lord after having lived 99 years here on this side of heaven...99 years!! This was taken probably 20+ years ago with

Uncle Sidney, Aunt Alvis, my sister, and my cousins, Will and Garson.

Anyhow, the picnic consists of a softball game, picnic, and an Easter egg hunt. Abby, my cousins' little girl who is 3 and another little boy,

9 months, found Easter eggs in the backyard. Abby totaled over 20 eggs by far!!

It was Daniel's first picnic with us. And here we are - the gents and the ladies!

Monday, March 26, 2007

Beth Moore and the North Central Louisiana Reunion

So, I've been doing Beth Moore's The Patriarch bible study with 4 girlfriends from work. Mom called a while back telling me that Beth Moore was coming to Shreveport and asked if I'd like to go. Then I thought the girls would like to go as well...and they were stoked! So, last Friday afternoon we set off for a road trip to Shreveport. Beth was great. Possibly more on that later, as I debrief more and more. However, what I thought would be of interest to you North Central Louisiana readers were the random people I saw at the conference. Here's the run-down:

Allison (Reaves) Granger - Temple
Becky Shirley - LA Tech, dorms - sophomore year
Michelle Winter - Temple
Elizabeth Harries - LA Tech, BSU
Erin Melton - LA Tech, sorority
Emily Beck - LA Tech, Sigma Kappa
Taffy Reader - LA Tech, my best friend's sister-in-law
Katie Cannon - LA Tech, Temple (but I actually knew she would be there)
Shannon (Stanley) Shoalmire - Shreveport, from childhood
Lesha Apponey - LA Tech, Sigma Kappa
Andrea Phillips - FBC Ruston

I'm feeling like there may have been a couple more, but my brain is foggy at the moment. Anyhow...who knew that in a room of 14,000 people - yes! I said 14,000 women gathered to hear a powerful word from the Lord through His servant, Beth Moore - that I would run in to so many people! I was in awe the first night of all of those women of faith...in one room! And just thinking, "Wow...and this is only a MINISCULE population of heaven!" Too much to comprehend!!!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Happy Birthday, Mama!

Mama, Daddy, Jenny, Meredith, and Brian came to Fort Worth last weekend for March Madness with Brian's friends/Mom's birthday. It was fun having everyone out here. We surprised Mom with new everyday dishes.

She loved them! And we were proud of our (Jenny's) gift idea.

Of course the weekend was mostly about Meredith and doting over her. What's not to dote over?

I wrote in an earlier post that Chloe, Jenny's yorkshire terrior, was my first threat to no longer being the "baby" of the family. Well, here are my 2 "baby" understudies snoozin' away together...

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Between a Rock...and the Air on our Backs

We tackled DYNO-ROCK last night. And at times, DYNO-ROCK tackled us! For Valentine's Day I had given Daniel an "I owe you" to go rock climbing (it didn't seem like the appropriate thing to do FOR Valentine's Day itself, so I thought an "I owe you" would be just fine).

We're trying to re-establish a weekly date night and I suggested going to DYNO-ROCK last night.

Both of us have climbed before, but we are no experts by ANY means! We caught on quickly and have plans to go again - but not before our bodies heal from this past time - who knew that grabbing on to those pegs in the walls would call for such strong fingers and that the tips of our fingers would sting afterwards from the constant contact?!!

And those shoes you have to wear!! Neither of us could feel the tips of our toes toward the end of our climbing. The shoes hug your feet so incredibly tightly - maybe we needed bigger sizes.

For us beginners, there's probably lots to still learn! But we made it to the top, almost every climb! VICTORIOUS!!!

Saturday, March 10, 2007

BANTU BIRTHDAY BONANZA

Weekend #2 of my birthday festivities:

Today I had the biggest birthday party ever! Every week I spend 4 days a week with Somali Bantu kids, teens, and adults. And when Daniel and I talked about how I wanted to celebrate my birthday this year, I thought, "I'd LOVE to celebrate with these people who are so precious in my life." The party planning began there. And today we celebrated big!!
Imagine...

18 balloons
11 2-liter sodas
9 bags of popcorn
8 Americas
6 jars for face painting
5 cakes
3 bags of pretzels
3 cartons of juice
2 pinatas
2 painters
2 paint brushes
and

50+ Somali Bantu kids