Happy Birthday to Me - belated posts...

I turned 29 on March 2 and we've been going full throttle since about February 2, so this is my first chance to post anything. We've either been out of town or had company in our home for the past 6 weekends, with one weekend in the middle that we had a breather. So, I'll try to catch you up in the next few blogs.

bowling, childhood camp games, and snow

The day after my birthday several friends got together at Main Event for a night of bowling. We had reports that day that there could be snow in the air that evening.

And snow there was. Small white flakes fell from the sky and landed on my black coat as we walked into Main Event. And when we walked out 2 hours later, we saw this:





Meanwhile in the bowling alley, 11 of us played a mean hour of bowling. I was the winner on my team with a big score of 89 points!!

Josh, me, Elizabeth, Callie, and Daniel.


And Brendon led on his team with a grand total of 117 points. Nikki came in 2nd with 99. Needless to say, I ended up on a good team - afterall, aren't you supposed to win on your own birthday!?!?!!? I couldn't have hung with this team!

Jen, Nikki, Charity, Brendon, Sandy, and Amanda.


Following bowling was birthday cake. My sweet husband got a cake made for me with Arabic written on it, literally saying, "Every year and you are kind," which is the Arabic saying for birthdays and holidays alike.




Then we played a few rounds of "Down by the banks of the hanky-panky where the bullfrog jumps from bank-to-banky singing A, E, I, O, U bam-boooom!" (If you don't know this song, then just don't ask...I learned it at a camp somewhere and thankfully I wasn't the only one who had heard of it!)





And our last game of the night was "gossip" or "telephone" or whatever you choose to call it. Daniel started a round with a Turkish phrase and I started a round with an Arabic phrase, and of course there were a few English phrases. Needless to say, we were rolling with laughter during both games as we all enjoyed a bit of immaturity! :-)





Thanks, friends, for a fun birthday night at Main Event!

sunday at granny's

Four generations...



We were in Ruston the weekend of my birthday. We had a scavenger hunt on Saturday and all of us were at Granny's for lunch on Sunday - the weather was so nice so we enjoyed some time in the backyard - cousins and the 3 babies, swings, & the trampoline!


Meredith was ecstatic about the trampoline!


Annie and Allie didn't have quite the same expressiveness.

birthday for two

Mom and I celebrate our birthdays in March, and for the first time ever, we had a joint birthday celebrations!

If you remember, last year we had a scavenger hunt with my family for my birthday (see archived blog here)Well, since we had a small turnout last year, we decided to have 'take two' this year, complete with new clues, new teams, and new winners! It was actually quite amusing to watch my parents, grandparents, sister, brother-in-law, cousins, and friends compete for first place! The clues were hidden inside and outside both my parents' house and my granny's house. We live on about 100+ acres of land between the 2 families, so people were driving cars back and forth between houses and clues. Some ways the competition got a bit 'heated' was

-by hiding clues a little harder than they originally found them
-stealing keys from a running car
-locking the door to granny's house behind them to make sure the next person had to use the key to get inside!


Laura and Annie running to find the next clue:

the grandfather clock clue:


Heather, Hannah, and Jenny looking in granny's mailbox for a clue:



And the winners are... Laura, Mamaw, Annie, and Mom:

After the scavenger hunt we had birthday cake and ice cream. Mom turns 56 on March 14 and I turned 29 on March 2, so we had a joint birthday weekend - complete with blowing out candles together!


Annie and Hannah enjoyed dessert the most I think!



And after dessert, we made dinner for everyone - well, mostly Brian made dinner for everyone. He and Jenny brought ready-made kabobs, both chicken and steak, to grill for dinner. And they were mmm...mmmm....good!

Rachie's visit, part trois

And here we are, after church, and after our speed re-match of Settlers on Sunday afternoon.


Rachie, we had a great weekend with you! We're so glad you came down to visit!

We love you!

interruption in "Rachie's visit" series

We interrupt this broadcast for a very important "thank you."

Brendon moved to Fort Worth back in September and began working as a case manager with Catholic Charities. He has become one of our really good friends. After the game Saturday night, Brendon ran out to his car and came back inside with this - a recipe book of Turkish meals!


How great!!!

Thanks, Brendon, for your thoughtfulness! We love you!

Rachie's visit, part deux

Saturday night we played Settlers of Catan with Rachel, Elizabeth, Josh, and Brendon. Ever played? You may remember it from our New Years blog. Our family is very much a fan of it! We had a great night of playing - pretty close game. Congrats to Josh and Elizabeth, the winners!

Rachie's visit, part un

Daniel's sister Rachel came to visit us from Maryland this past weekend. Since I'm on this "lower-my-cholesterol-in-6 months-by-eating-a-strictly-healthy-diet" plan, and since Rachel is a vegetarian, we chose to eat at the Spiral Diner for lunch on Saturday - nice little vegan place in the strip of restaurants on Magnolia Avenue in the hospital district of Fort Worth.

Little did we know that the picture we were readying ourselves for after lunch was being shot so many times! Here are Daniel's photography skills:

remembering days of old

Want a glimpse into our pasts?

little Daniel - He was checking me out, even back then. See how he's looking down at me and smiling?!??! He thought I was hot. And, I thought he was pretty hot too, riding his "HOT WHEELS." Did you have one of those?

little Kimberly - my mouth was always open...even then! Well, except for the times my pacifier was in it - I was quite the fan of the pacifier and didn't give it up 'til my 3rd birthday.

refugee on MTV

One of the refugee families we work with was featured on MTV this past Saturday. MTV is doing a series called "True Life." The series features young people in real life situations. They decided to do one on "Coming to America" and flew out to Thailand in search of a refugee with decent English who would be resettled in America. The MTV crew followed the family from their refugee camp in Thailand to Fort Worth. I'm not sure how to digitally show you the entire show, but we found a couple of deleted scenes on the internet. I currently am tutoring this guy's brothers and formerly taught ESL to his parents. They are a sweet, sweet family. One thing you won't hear on these deleted scenes is Thimonthy's desire to go to school. However, America isn't quite the dream he thought it would be. As the oldest sibling in a family of 7, Thimonthy needs to help financially support his family. Strides are being made to help him begin school at a community college. Click on this link to see pictures of the family and read a bit about their family's story.