we won the SILVER!

we had quite the exciting day on wednesday. last month, makenna won the right to represent the 1st grade from cypress christian school (among several other christian schools) at the ACSI regional speech meet held here in houston. well, she won the silver! i got to sit in on her competition and she did soooo well - she had to recite a poem (not really a speech) called "the ice cream man". it was so cute! the girl who won was freakishly good - in fact, i think they should have carded her at the door - she may have been 14. :) anyway, after the awards ceremony, makenna and i congratulated the winner and told her she did a great job. she told makenna she did too - it was so sweet! i told her that there are times when you feel great about your performance and know it was the best you could do and the judges don't necessarily agree with you... and then there will be times when you think you did just terrible and aren't happy with your performance and the judges think it's just the best thing they've ever heard. you never can tell! all you can do is your best and pray that God will use the outcome to His glory! and i believe that's what He did! humility is a lesson best learned young. as far as i know, there aren't any further competitions (as far as the speech meet is concerned!) and makenna got to wear her silver medal to school today to show her friends that she represented them well :) i love that kid!

on the road again

david left this morning for the country of qatar - don't ask me how to say it because i have a hard enough time spelling it without a "u" after the "q" :) the girls and i are down at my parents' house in clear lake - we went to kemah this evening for dinner and a quick stroll around the boardwalk and then came back to their house. this is a short trip for david - he should be home by monday night... piece of cake :)

we are looking forward to getting back to maine again - and i can't believe how quickly the time is approaching! david has decided to take makenna with him when he drives up this year - i think that will be such a fun trip for both of them. a great bonding time, for sure. david leaves for "swim school" (a month long rescue swim course in maryland) mid-april and will return around may 19th or so - he and makenna will take off soon after that. when we drove up two years ago it took us a full 3 days to make it to maine - i'm sure they'll make a couple stops along the way! delaney and i will be flying up to join them on may 26th. we're staying in a new place this year - it's a little smaller but MUCH nicer and updated. our last condo hadn't been renovated (or dusted) since 1972 - and that's a generous estimate. we were looking into getting into a different house all together but a few of the other tenants of the condominium complex (mostly older, retired folks) encouraged us to stay. seems they like us. who knew. :) plus it's right on the water, walking distance from "dock square" (downtown kennebunkport) and has lots of grass and room for the girls to run around, ride bikes, etc. should be fun. we'll be gone through june, july and most of august since school starts later this year. we thank God for good neighbors in katy who keep the grass alive and house intact. the first summer we went up there i was so crazy nervous and not really wanting to leave my house, etc. last summer was much easier because i was familiar with everything, knew my way around, found the nearest target store, etc. this year i am just itching to go! the phone hardly ever rings, we have no obligations (well, david has to work obviously), lovely surroundings, everyone speaks english, it's just fabulous. :) there's definitely a reason why the bushes choose to live there 6 mos. out of the year!

Spring Break 2007

woo hoo! our first official family vacation! we left last monday for san antonio in our brand new (used) mini-van!! we arrived late afternoon, checked in to the hyatt on the riverwalk and the girls went swimming in the rooftop pool with views of downtown san antonio - fun fun! we had dinner at rita's with a few hungry and confident pigeons retrieving chips from under our table :) tuesday promised rain but we ventured off to sea world anyway - however, midway through the seal/walrus/otter show (which was GREAT by the way...) they made an announcement that lightning had struck in the vicinity and they were postponing the show for a few minutes. so, there we were, sitting on metal bleachers in puddles of water and we decided that we should probably get going too. :) thankfully they offered us a "rain day pass" good for free admission the next day so we took advantage of that. wednesday was drizzly until about lunch time and then the sun came out and it was gorgeous! laney rode her first roller coaster and loved it - and kenna got drenched on the "rio loco" with david. (i opted out on that one, thanks) we had a great time playing, eating and laughing... i recommend it to anyone as a great family vacation - save those pennies though cause it is not cheap. which reminds me why this is our first family vacation! it's taken us this long to save up for it! :) but the girls LOVED it and to see the joy on their faces is worth every last penny. i've attached some pictures for your amusement. we love shamuuuuuuuuuuu!!

blogintro...

so i've thought about starting a blog for a while now - but thought it fairly narcissistic to carry on and on about yourself simply for the review of others. besides, who the heck would want to read this anyway? but then i thought it would be the perfect response to those people who ask "so what have you been doing lately?" and i can't think of one single, useful thing i've done in the past few months - i can say "here, read my blog." plus, i really quite enjoy the word "blogosphere" and i'd like to be a part of one :)

so to my friends who have recently forwarded me their own family blogs, you get the thanks for the inspiration - and i hope all kinds of eventful things happen to us in the next few months so you have something fairly exciting to read. (okay God, i said "fairly" exciting - not "new baby" exciting or "sudden relocation" exciting)

yikes... :)