Must see goal my cousin made...

Two in one day! This is a 32 second clip. What you see is my cousin, Mo Isom, kicking a goal. She plays for LSU and is ranked as one of the top 6 goalies in the nation. Geaux Meaux!

Victoria and Kelsey Singing at MCT Camp

I picked Victoria up from the airport yesterday after she spent two weeks in Montana at drama camp. She had a blast and didn't want to come home. LOL! Each year, they have talent night where the kids can get together and perform whatever they want to just for fun. Here is Victoria and Kelsey performing "Taylor the Latte Boy" during talent night. (Victoria is the one on the right.) Kelsey is the young lady whom Victoria flew to Seattle to spend some time with before camp. Her parents took care of Victoria for us since we couldn't be there this year. Enjoy!

Watch these fabulous videos!

Wowee!!! Thanks to Jennifer for sending me this awesome video. I LOVE it! I think it would be really easy to incorporate into ANY church. It looks like all they use are white gloves, black lights, and black clothes.

Then, I found the second video. Take the time out to watch these. You won't be disappointed.

Many blessings,

Laura

Homeschooling

I am so ready to begin homeschooling again. We normally would have started by now, but our books are in Texas. And, Victoria is in Montana. :O) Oh well! Once we move to Texas and get unpacked, school will begin again. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the rest of the Olympics.

There are several reasons why I homeschool. The main reason is I want Victoria to have a Christ-centered education...an education you can't get in public schools since God isn't allowed there. I now have more reasons for homeschooling. I read one article this morning that saddened me and one that scared me. The first article is found here: 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080818/ap_on_re_us/schools_hard_times

It talks about all of the cutbacks needed for some schools to survive the economic slump we are in. Field trips are being cut. Some schools are going to four day school weeks. Electives are being cut. (I wonder if they will cut their sports programs? Nothing about sports was mentioned. Hmmmm....) It is so sad to see so much stuff cut out of these kids' lives.

The second article I read is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080815/us_nm/texas_guns_dc

A Houston, TX, district is allowing teachers to take guns to school! I realize there have been more school shootings. I realize it might be pretty scary in schools these days. But, the "what ifs" of teachers bringing a gun to school are too frightening to mention. And, it is in TEXAS! How many districts will follow this landmark decision? For us, this rings too close to our future home. Other schools across the nation might follow their lead, and there might soon be guns in schools across the nation. What a horrible thought. 

I am praising God for leading us to homeschool. I am praising God for allowing us to live in a country where we have the freedom to homeschool, and we have good people out there defending that freedom...the HSLDA and our nation's military. Praise God I can teach my daughter at home without the fear of drugs in the schoolroom, a kid coming to school with a gun, bullying, etc. The list goes on and on. 

Until next time, may God bless you this week. 

Laura

We got the house!

Praise God! He is so good and faithful. We didn't know what to do about housing. On-post housing is rather small at Fort Hood, so we considered renting off-post. We have been praying about where to live. 

Michael met another chaplain here who is being moved to Germany for three years. He just so happens to have a house near Fort Hood that he needs to rent. Like we always say, there are no coincidences. God is in complete control. The chaplain called the rental company he is working with and basically told him he wanted us to rent it. The company's policy, though, is they won't even start the application process until you've walked through the house in person. Ummmm...we're here and they are halfway across the country. The owner asked them to take pictures of the house and rooms so we could "see" it. We saw the pictures, filled out the application, and got the house. It is almost the same size as the parsonage...it's only missing the sunroom. That's the best way to explain it. We can handle that! Woo hoo!

Until next time, God bless!

Laura

Riverbanks Zoo, Columbia, SC

For those of you who know me well, you know I LOVE zoos. I bought our family a zoo membership to the zoo in Waco, TX, so that we could visit the Riverbanks Zoo as often as we wanted for FREE! What a deal! In fact, I am going tomorrow all by myself and enjoy the animals, flora and fauna.

The three of us got to go to Riverbanks Zoo on August 2. It was a beautiful day, and the animals were extremely active. Here are some of our pictures. 

  

A llama and a cow from the farm section.

   

Elephants are my favorites. They are lovely! They were throwing water and mud on their backs trying to keep cool as well as flapping their ears.

Chillin' bear...

    

We fed the cute lorakeets. They were so sweet and very hungry.

A roaming tiger!

The koalas were wide away and running all over the place. We watched them for quite a while.

             

The flamingos hadn't quite waked up yet.

Baby flamingos!!! They were so vocal and adorable.

Frilled Dragon sunning himself...

Gould's Monitor...one of Victoria's favorites!

That's it for now. Thanks for your encouraging e-mails. 

We have a few prayer requests to make. 

Michael has his final PT test tomorrow. Please pray that he does well and meets his goals. 

Victoria is in MT for camp. We pray she is kept safe and has a great time.

We have 3 weeks and 2 days left here. Michael begins Phase 3 of the chaplaincy school tomorrow. We pray his homework load is lessoned.

Please pray for our soldiers who are deployed and those preparing for deployment.

Until next time, God bless!

Laura

Checking out South Carolina

I have to say that we have enjoyed seeing new things in South Carolina. On July 5, we went to Congaree National Park. It was so beautiful with a very nice walking trail. Michael has the pictures on his computer, so when I see him again, I'll try to post a few. 

Victoria and I went to the Riverbanks Zoo on July 14. It is one of my favorite zoos in the U.S. It is so beautiful. I have always loved going to this zoo. 

The three of us got to go to Cypress Gardens and Charleston on July 26. I drove while Michael did homework on the way there and the way home. Yes, he has that much homework. I'm just glad he was able to take the time out to go with us. I DO have pictures of these places!

       

Cypress Gardens is a lowcountry scenic treasure. The blackwater swamp offers breathtaking views of mirrored reflections of tall cypress and tupelo trees. There were lily pads everywhere, and they were in bloom and lovely.

We took a boat out and paddled around the swamp. It was gorgeous, and we were the only ones out. We paddled under two bridges. This is the second bridge.

I turned around real quick to get a picture of my two favorite people in the boat.

Finally, we ran across an alligator sunning himself on a log. We paddled our way close to him, and he slithered off of the log and swam away. It was very cool to see an alligator in his own habitat.

There were benches and swings located all along the nature trails. This swing overlooked the swamp, and my two favorite people took a little rest.

  
We got to see two more gators. The first was completely hidden except for his head. He never moved. The second is a baby alligator. It was so cute. I got too close, and he wiggled a little bit, but other than that, he stayed pretty still, too.

There was a lot of flora and fauna at Cypress Gardens including this pineapple plant.

If you ever have a chance to go, I highly recommend it. There are 4.5 miles of walking trails, gardens, the boat ride through the swamp, an aquarium, and a butterfly garden and house. You can check out their website at www.cypressgardens.info.

We left Cypress Gardens and headed to Charleston. This was our first trip to Charleston, and I'm so glad we finally made it to the historic city. Since it was a quick trip, we didn't get to do a whole lot of deep exploring, but we saw enough to know it would be nice to go back and spend some quality time there. So, a few pictures...

          
Once we found a parking place, we walked directly for Joseph's Restaurant for lunch. (www.josephsofcharleston.com) We were all pretty hungry. Joseph's was recommended to us by a friend of mine who lived in Charleston. (Thanks, Carrie!) Victoria had penne pasta sauteed in olive oil, oven dried Roma tomatoes, spinach and grilled chicken. Michael had the turkey club on French bread. And, I had the Cranberry Bog ~ grilled chicken wrapped in a sun-dried tomato tortilla with warm spinach, feta cheese, toasted pecans, dried cranberries and balsamic vinaigrette. FABULOUS!!!


This is a church...I think St. Matthew's. There were a ton of beautiful churches in Charleston.

          

After lunch, it was time to do some exploring. We drove to the Battery which is on the Charleston Harbor. There is a beautiful park with monuments, cannons, cannonballs, and lovely trees.

    

On East Bay Street, there are some of the most beautiful homes. The soft yellow house is the Edmonston-Alston House. I don't know the name of the pink one, but it is gorgeous! There are a lot of horse-drawn carriage tours throughout the historic district of Charleston.



    
Two more lovely homes on East Bay Street.

    
We walked along East Bay Street and Charleston Harbor. Here is the view of the lovely homes and then the Charleston Harbor.

There are beautiful trees in the park on the Battery. Michael put Victoria on this lovely bough.

   

It was time to head home. Michael still had so much homework to do. As we drove down East Bay Street, I knew to look for Rainbow Row. This is it! The colorful buildings are known as Rainbow Row. Cute!

We came across the U.S. Custom House. So beautiful. I snapped this picture at a stop light.

Since I have written a novel, I will stop. Next up...our visit to the Riverbanks Zoo!

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you!