Jesus and Chill - Ruidoso, New Mexico

 We joined a new church when we repatriated because we were looking for something smaller. That's exactly what we found. One of the great things about it is that middle school and high school are together for student ministry. That's great because this way Eli isn't left out. 

That's also great because I was able to send all three kids to church camp at the same time. That is also great because that meant that Abe and I were able to take a vacation with just the two of us! (More on that in a different post.)

We sent the kids off with a group of about 20 to Ruidoso, New Mexico. It's about an eight hour drive. They were at a rest stop in this pic.

Zeke and Eli are sawing logs in the back seat.

It was a pretty chill church camp; definitely not what comes to mind when you think 'church camp.' The group stayed at a mountain house. Don't get me wrong. There was some Jesus. They had bible study time and quiet time. Daisy and Zeke were captured during a quiet time.

The kids got to feed the wild deer in the front yard.

One day they drove about an hour to Roswell to check out the aliens.

Disc golf was on the docket a couple afternoons.

Even my anti-sport boys gave it a try.

One set of parents tagged along to be the official chefs. I think even my picky kids gave them a thumbs-up.

One day the group went to a nearby lake. The water was so clear they could see their feet.

White Sands was a highlight of the trip.

💚💙💛

The group had chapel on the sand, with the sunset. Can't beat that view!

There was a lot of silly time throughout the week.

A successful trip! Our new church is treating us well.

Ellie, Sophie, Ethan, Charlotte, Daisy, Hailey, Jeri, Lijee, Zeke
front: Joseph, Rowan

[June 11-16]

Riff Ram Bah Zoo, Go TCU!

 Texas Christian University began over 150 years ago when the Clark brothers dreamed of creating a college where men and women could acquire a classical education and develop character.

The original site of TCU was on the open prairie of Thorp Spring, because the minister-teacher brothers wanted to distance their uni from Fort Worth's "Hell's Half Acre" where the reputation of the cattle industry and the railroad did not align with the values of their college. 

The just 13 students, they opened the doors of AddRan Male and Female College, one of the first co-ed institutions west of the Mississippi, in 1873. Addison and Randolph Clark later forged an affiliation with the Christian Church to 'adopt' their school, i.e. donate money, giving it a new name of AddRan Christian University.

The university moved to Waco until it burned, at which time the city of Fort Worth wooed it back because they city officials felt a university would help soften the edges of Cowtown and Hell's Half Acre. It was then that the name Texas Christian University was adopted. Over 10,000 students now call TCU home.

The color purple was chosen for royalty, and white for a clean game. The horned frog is the mascot. Horned frogs are actually lizards, squirting blood from their eyes when threatened. It is believed to bring good luck when you rub the nose of this particular horned frog statue. Yes, Zeke rubbed it because good luck never hurts.

Frog Fountain symbolizes a different class of students with the shortest lotus flower representing first-year students and the tallest representing the senior class. The water flowing between represents the sharing of knowledge from class to class.

The cross at the top of Robert Carr Chapel is the tallest point on campus at 678 feet above sea level. When the stadium was recently renovated, part of the construction started underground so the cross would continue to be the highest point on campus. It proudly stands 2 inches taller than the stadium.

Riff ram bah zoo, go TCU!

[June 2]

Fifteen, Feisty And Fabulous

🅓🅐🅘🅢🅨 is ⓯

After a morning birthday treat and a gift,

we grabbed some Chick-fil-A for birthday lunch.

Our day was a big adventure in search of free birthday treats. Unfortunately she didn't download the apps until that morning and most places needed you to have the app for at least a few days before. However, we scored a few tasty treats!

After a couple trips home for the proper identification, we went to the tattoo shop to get her ears pierced.

Daisy is not a fan of pain (and I use the word 'pain' lightly, because her threshold is pretty low). But she did it without any tears.

All smiles after it was done.

Zekers was supposed to get his hair colored for the 11th day of 11th grade but never got done. He has been wanting to get his ears pierced for a long time, so we drug him along and got his 11th day of 11th grade gift after 11th grade was finished.  I told Zeke to make the same face that Daisy did.

Tah Dah!

Kendra Scott in Clearfork was our next destination. Daisy let me take some bday pics only because it was closing time for a lot of the stores and there were not many people around. 

We did not forget her free birthday cookie from Crumbl!

At 5'2", she has passed mommy. Hooray!

After Crumbl we hit Target, which pushed our arrival time home past Daddy's bedtime. Then we still had to make birthday cake. 

It was worth the wait.

This girl of ours is spunky, witty, smart, feisty and fabulous, and we love her so much!

[May 30]

11-9-6 -> Slayed

This particular school year was uniquely challenging. To begin with, we repatriated when we really weren't ready to leave. Eli started middle school, which, it's middle school so enough said, right? He attended the same school that Zeke did in 6th grade, but the campus changed while we were gone, so nothing was familiar; Eli is a child that embraces familiarity. He left a class with three other classmates to jump into a campus of about 350 where he knew no one.

Daisy was entering high school as a freshman. Enough said, right? That in itself is intimidating. But she was coming from a class with three other classmates and 65 kids in the entire school of K-12 and transitioning to a high school enrollment of 900. Only one middle school feeds into the high school, so most of the freshman knew each other from previous years and she was one of the few new kids.

Zekers is also a child who does not like change. In SoKo he was very close with his 7 classmates. Although he had finished 9th and 10th grades at GIFS, it hardly counted as 'high school.' He was really the new kid at his new high school. Bless his heart, although he was a junior, it felt like his freshman year because everything was so foreign.

Despite all of those intimidating circumstances, these three slayed it.

I'm not saying it was simple. I'm not saying there were no tears. We definitely had some rough times. But they jumped in, made friends, tried new things, found their people, and absolutely killed it on their report cards. 

After three years we were able to do our 12th annual 'last day of school ice cream' with Grannie in person vs over FaceTime.

They slayed this school year and I couldn't be more proud of them.

[May 25]