This Ain't NorthPark, Y'all

It's not Southlake. It's not even Knox-Henderson.

It's University Park Village in Cowtown, home of the largest Apple store in Texas, according to the Apple Genius who was helping me yesterday. And of course he said it with a bit of pride in his voice.

It is quite palatial. To be quite honest, it makes NorthPark's Apple look like a closet. And you know I love me some NorthPark.

I am considering taking on a part time job so at least I will make some money being there. I can't get enough.

Now we need Anthropologie in that shopping center, and 5--nay, SIX of my favorites will be in one place.

Baptists, Children, and the Arky

I must pause for a moment to address a concern circulated to me via e-mail regarding an earlier blog post about Baptist children and gratuitous dancing and gyrating.

When I found that video on YouTube, I noticed that they were almost--to borrow a phrase from back when Pluto was a planet--"gettin' jiggy with it"--however I assure you, Readers, in my Baptist church the "motions" (not dancing) were very watered down from this. My own mother simply would not have had it any other way.

Any foreign Baptist missionaries disturbed by the state of Baptist children in Texas in the 80s should rest assured there was no baptecostal movement among kids in the Lone Star State.

I do feel the need to inform my readers though, that some of the great kiddie songs you know like the "Arky, Arky" song, Seek Ye First, In His Time, etc. were made popular by the Psalty musicals. Embrace the Singing Songbook, folks.

And to clarify, the "Arky, Arky" song was not written about Arkansas.

Four Day Weekend

I had a lovely not two, not three, but four day weekend. It was so nice. We purposely made no plans except for dinner with friends on Friday night, so otherwise we slept in, shopped, ate, cleaned the house, and played with the dog. (Thankfully, she has stopped honking.)

Today we celebrated Labor Day by taking in some sales at Southlake Town Square (re-named Women's Town Square by Brad, who says there are no men's stores there. And that might be true, for even J. Crew has taken their men's section out and has only women's clothing.)

But Brad was excited to see that a Five Guys Hamburgers and Fries had opened up there. I had eaten there before in DC, and of course he wanted to try it out. It did not disappoint!

Someone's gonna wish they had smiled for this pic.


Have a great week!

Baptist Children of the 80s

If you know Psalty, raise your hand. Raise it higher if you've been in one of his musicals. I can't begin to list the memories I have of doing these at my church. But I distinctly remember that they involved wearing jams. I know someone else reading this had to have worn jams too.

50 points if you know Psalty's wife and children's names.

I love the blue lycra.

The Incredible Honking Dog

So there we were going to bed last Wednesday night. We had lovingly lured little Penny Lane into her crate with a puppy treat, and she complied with minimal crying. We went to bed. She'd been waking us up every night around the middle of the night crying to go outside. That was cool--she's a puppy so we were dealing with it. It comes with the territory, or so we've been told.

All of a sudden, about the time I drifted off to sleep, I heard a "HONK, HONK, HONK" noise from the crate, like the sound a goose makes. Then it got quiet again. We decided maybe she was coughing.

About 45 minutes later (and about every 5 minutes after that for the REST OF THE NIGHT, or so it seemed) I kept hearing the honking. "HONK, HONK, HONK!"

We got up about midnight with her because it sounded so horrible (and we had had enough.) I googled "kennel cough symptoms" since our vet had mentioned that she might get it (apparently pretty common in pound puppies), and sure enough, HONKING was mentioned as a symptom. So after we decided that the all-night emergency vet clinic might be a little drastic for our dog's sore throat, we gave her a drink of water and put her back to bed.

Immediately the next morning I made Penny Lane an appointment to see the vet that afternoon. I could not take another night of interrupted sleep on top of the fact that she sounded quite pitiful.

All that to say: our dog has been to the doc more times in the past 2 weeks than I have been in all of 2008 so far, and she is currently on an antibiotic and a cough suppressant. Yes. I have a dog that is taking a cough suppressant.

High maintenance, perhaps?

That would be my dog.

Celebrate Good Times, Come On.

Friday morning started very early--like 3 am early because I had to work from 3-5:30. Yikes! I went back to bed for about 30 more minutes, then got up to get ready for work and pack for a girls' trip to San Antonio.

After noon, I hopped a flight to San Antonio and caught a cab to our hotel on the Riverwalk to start my weekend off with a NAP. It was wonderful and got me totally prepared for the night's festivities--the opening session of Living Proof Live (a Beth Moore conference) and fajitas at one of my favorite Mexican food restaurants, Mi Tierra, at almost midnight.

I met up with these ladies! They are some dear college friends of mine. I actually did my very first Beth Moore Bible study with them back in the day. It was A Heart Like His, about the life of David.



Amber, Mikalah, and Sherry
I'm still going over my notes from the conference. Beth has such an anointing from the Lord to teach the Bible. The conference was a time of refreshing. She spoke on the inheritance we have as daughters of the King. I have to post more on that later.



Here we are eating Mexican food again on Saturday. What else do you do in San Antonio?

Saturday night after I got home, I hung out with a couple of my absolute favorites, Brad and my brother Drew. We ate at Mellow Mushroom and watched the finished of the Olympic Marathon.

I have had a fantastic weekend. I am so blessed! Thanks so much to everyone who sent cards, texted, and called. I especially love it when people sing on my voicemail. It makes my year!

AARP Membership

AARP Membership, originally uploaded by emgentry02.

This week alone I have received 3 offers via e-mail inviting me to join AARP. The first time it was funny.

This surprise came for me this morning. They have completely brightened up a gray and dreary day!