Out to Sea...

This has been a CRAZY couple of weeks. After we got back from LA, my amazing friend Whitney and her daughter, Hannah, and her mom and dad, Robbo and Ben, made the 5 hour drive from West Texas and brought us tons of stuff (yay for Macaroni and Cheese!!) to take to Zambia. Goodbyes are no fun. :(
Me and Whit

My mom, and Whitney's mom Robbo - best friends!

Then, on Monday, our 40 foot container arrived!!

We had 3 days to pack it completely airtight so that nothing inside the container can shift! We added a flatbed trailer and tons of sinks and faucets at the end, but amazingly we were able to fill it all up!! Thankfully we had Mama Dee and my Jessica there to help!


And of course, we put Caedmon and Cambree to work too! :)


Uncle Shade came over to help so the kids enjoyed some quality time with their cousin Andie as well!

So now our container is gone, headed to the port of Houston, Texas. It will be loaded onto a boat where it will sail to Beira, Mozambique. It will then be put on a truck and travel through South Africa, Botswana, and then up to Lusaka, Zambia. Once it arrives there, it will be put on another truck to Mapanza, Zambia, where it should find us in May or June! Whew!

A Day to Remember....

January 6th...In 2001 that was our wedding day! Happy 9th Anniversary to us! Today was another day that we will always remember!

It started with a trip to Santa Monica. We hopped on a bus and finally (about 1 1/2 hours later) got to the Santa Monica pier. It was such a neat place to walk around and the beach was gorgeous. My favorite part was the amusement park on the pier! Blu is SO scared of heights, but I made him buy us unlimited ride wristbands so we rode all the rides at least once! It was a blast!!

The view of the Pacific from the top of the ferris wheel!



We had the big awards show tonight, so I wanted to make sure we got back to the hotel in plenty of time to get ready--3pm at the ABSOLUTE latest!! We left Santa Monica at 12:15pm, and we got to the hotel at 3:15!!! We had to leave at 3:45! we had to wait an hour for the bus, then someone sideswiped our bus so we had to wait for another bus--it was crazy! I shaved my legs, blow dried my hair, makeup, threw my dress on, all in record time as the cab waited outside for us!

We got to see the limos all pulling up to drop off the stars, but we could just see the top of their heads on the red carpet. We made our way inside and started to head up to the highest level. Someone stopped us and told us we needed to go see someone else to change our ticket. So we did and they moved us down to the orchestra level!! The seats were great and we were so excited to be closer! So the show started and I was in heaven!!

During the first commercial break, one of the security guards ran by and our eyes met and he said "can you see the stage? How are your seats? Want me to get you closer?" He ran off but looked back at me and I said YES!! He said "I'll be right back." The next commercial break he came to our row and took 6 of us and said "Follow me." We made our way down to the front of the entire auditorium and I was about to pass out. We walked right in front of Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, and Carrie Underwood on the front row. He sat us on their same row on the other side--front row seats!!! We were seat fillers for people who had left the show. (Most of the stars just come to get their award and then leave.) I was completely shaking!!! We were SO close to everything and all the celebs!!
LL Cool J

Johnny Depp

Carrie Underwood

Sandra Bullock

LL Cool J and Queen Latifah

Then, Taylor Swift came and sat down about 2 feet from us!!! I thought I was going to pass out. When I thought it couldn't get any better, a security guy came and moved the girl next to me so that ASHTON KUTCHER could sit down!!!! Right beside me!!!! We got a pic and my knees were shaking so much!! Then it dawned on me that he must have just stepped in to get his award... which meant I was going to be on tv when he got it!! It was at this point that I leaned over and said "Hey Ashton, if you win and you need someone to hug or give a kiss on the cheek, I'm here for you." He laughed and said "yeah I'm here solo tonight!" Anyway, he won and I didn't get a hug or a kiss, but I WAS on tv!!! Our phones were going crazy because people saw us!! It was awesome....so wonderfully amazingly awesome. What a night!!!

Day Two in LA

We spent today at Universal Studios Hollywood!! There were hardly any lines and we were able to ride every ride and see every show in the park! It was so fun, and our favorite thing was definitely the show of Waterworld!

This is Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives! They were actually filming so we had to be quiet when our tram went past!

Our kids are going to LOVE this picture!




We spent the evening having dinner with Ashley and Cole. Ashley is on the New Day Orphanage Board of Directors and they treated us to a VERY nice meal at Pane e Vino. We couldn't pronounce anything but it was delicious. (and the whole time we were talking I had my eyes peeled for celebrities ;)

Hollywood/LA Vacation!

We flew out of Austin this morning at 6:30am for a 3 day trip to LA!! I'll blog it with pictures so you (and especially our families) can see what we're up to!!

We arrived at LAX and finally figured out how to take a shuttle to catch the subway. It was an interesting experience!! We were in the Compton/Long Beach area of LA and it was kinda scary!! There was a guy on the subway who opened his Bible and started preaching and reading Scripture on the subway. It was really amazing--I don't think I would have the courage to do that in front of all those people!! But then a guy sitting by us said "I haven't been to church because I just got out of prison." I was ready to get to our hotel!!

We were going to see the sights ourselves, but at the last minute we decided to take a 4 hour Grand City tour, so that we could really see everything here. It was so neat--we got to see where tons of things were filmed, and lots of things we would have never known about without the tour!
Us with the view of downtown LA behind us

Palm trees lining Beverly Blvd in Beverly Hills

Blu saw someone famous!! (does it look real?!)



Blu's feet are huge compared to John Wayne's!

Each letter is 50 feet tall!

No, we did NOT come to LA to see UT play!





We had a great day but are so exhausted due to getting up early and the time difference. So we ordered Thai food and had it delivered to our room! More tomorrow!

Book of the Year

Most of you have probably noticed my reading list for the year 2009 over on the left of my page. So now that 2009 is over, I thought I would look back and see what my favorite book of the year was!!

First of all, I read the entire Bible in 2009. Blu and I started out reading together and it was a neat experience to share. I got in the habit of reading his seminary books to him, so when he graduated, we decided that we would try to read the Bible in 2009. It was an amazing experience and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who has not done it. It's hard to keep thinking the way you think when you are pouring God's Word into your body.

Apart from the Bible, let me take a look at my 2009 reading list. I'm going to have to go with White Chocolate Moments by Lori Wick. I LOVED that book!!! A close second is Shades of Blue by Karen Kingsbury, which deals with post-abortion syndrome in men.

So I'm going to copy and paste my reading list and start a new one for 2010!! Yes, I've already finished a book in 2010 :)

Merry Christmas!

I'm sitting here in bed on my laptop, listening to praise music on my new mp3 player. :) Blu loaded a bunch of songs on it and he put a lot of old hymns--my favorites!! Anyway, I digress...

We got snow for Christmas!!!! On the 23rd, I was in a tshirt and shorts playing tennis with Blu...not 12 hours later we had 2 inches of snow!! We built the biggest snowman in the history of Bangs, Texas, in my opinion. :) The funny thing was, the kids were inside out of the cold and me and Blu were so excited outside building the snowman!


My sweet Mom and Dad. This was a tough Christmas for us after losing my Grandma just one week ago today. And my Jessica is celebrating Christmas without her mom for the first time. This year opened my eyes to the grief people experience at Christmas.

I got new dishes! Sadly, they will stay in the boxes and arrive in April or May in Zambia for me to use!

Blu used a miniature nativity to share the Christmas story with the kids.

Cason really enjoyed the wrapping paper this year. And he has one ornament on the tree that he loves, so he kept going for that ornament! He was like, forget the presents!! Give me my ornament!!

Cambree got her favorite book from Uncle Blake and Aunt Dawni in Zambia. She left her first one out in the rain and it got ruined, but it's her favorite!

Caedmon got his own Bible!

Blu, my stud of a man, got some camo boots and a shirt after killing his first deer on Wednesday!


It's Christmas night and my decorations are all put away and boxes are starting to pile up. We have just 27 days before we leave for Zambia, and only 20 days until our container leaves! It will be a busy few days but I'm glad we were able to relax and celebrate the birth of Jesus!

Children's Museum

This past Friday, we were in the DFW area, so we took the kids to the Children's Museum at the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. We had heard good things about it online, but no description could do it justice!! The upstairs had really neat exhibits that kids and adults of all ages would love and learn so much from, but the DOWNSTAIRS was a museum designed for kids ages 0-6!!!! That's like heaven for us!!! It was all about role-playing, so there was a complete farm where kids got to grow a garden, gather eggs, milk a cow, ride tractors, check on crops, harvest, etc. There was a fire station, an insect/spider room, a theater with dress up costumes, a house with all of the toys necessary to "play house", etc. It was incredible. We could have stayed there for hours and hours and it was well worth a 3 hour drive!!!
Cambree getting on her "tractor" to go check on the corn growing in the field

Me trying to make it through the spider web!

Look at Caedmon go!

Me and Caedmon working on the puzzle in the fire station

Practicing for Zambia.. :)

The Girls

Driving the firetruck (which had slides going down the back!)

They even had a play area for 0-2 year olds! Cason loved it!

The boys