Happy Birthday, Amy!

Saturday was Amy's birthday. We celebrated by going to Austin Friday night to see Tapestry, a 7 person Tap Dancing group. Remember, Amy owns a dance studio and I love her as a friend. That's why I went. :) I was pleasently surprised! The show was very entertaining especially after 2 margarita's from Matt's. Also, I had Jo sitting next to me imitating the dancers "jazz arms". It's so funny to me. I don't know why. Margarita's or not- the show was really great. This tap company incorporates video clips from old movies with Shirley Temple, Fred Astere, Gene Kelly and many other great stars from the past. They also had a jazz trio and they were phenominal. A pianist (Berklee), a bass player and a drummer. After the show we went to 6th street for dessert at Katz's. Holy Cow. All you need to know is "BROWNIE BOAT". Nothing else matters.

We spent the night in Austin that night. Me, Amy, her mom, her sister, Jo and Becki. If I get pictures I'll post later. I didn't have my camera on me that night.

Saturday we came back home and stopped at the outlet malls. White House/ Black Market had great sales. I went to Lacey's birthday party in the afternoon at Clay Casa. Her 9th birthday was on Wednesday. Happy Birthday, sweet Lacey! After her fun party, I went back to Amy's for dinner. It was a great weekend.

Amy is doing alright. She's in the middle of chemo/ radiation right now to treat the lymphoma in her brain. We're praying for God to heal her again. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

STARS 2008

This weekend was Concordia's Stars Women's Retreat. It's the Lutheran version of the ACTS retreat the Catholic church does. We had a wonderful weekend. I went on this retreat in 2006 and for the past two years I've been serving on the team. I've made so many great new friendships thanks to this retreat. Women of all ages and stages in their lives come together and serve God and one another. I'm so thankful to be a part of this. It was beautiful and so meaningful as always.
We got back to San Antonio Sunday morning for 11 o'clock church. It was a difficult day. After being on a "spiritual high" for 3 days we had to come back to a sobering truth. A very sweet and popular 16 year old boy in our congregation died earlier in the week and his funeral was on Sunday at 3. The sanctuary was packed. Students from Reagan and Johnson came by the hundreds, literally. Ian Fincke passed away last Sunday the 5th from a severe skateboarding accident. His father gave the eulogy and did an outstanding job! I can't imagine the pain you feel when you have to give your own son's eulogy. Ian was the kid that everyone loved. He was full of life and called everyone "friend". He served at VBS for many years and was known as a kid magnet. Prayers for the Fincke family and for all the high school friends of Ian that are mourning this great loss. It was nice to hear so many of his friends say that they'd see him in heaven one day.

Air Force One

This morning President and Laura Bush were in San Antonio for a private fundraiser for the Republican National Committee's Congressional Trust and also to honor Sonja McDonald (San Antonio) for raising half a million dollars for the Center for the Intrepid's Fisher House. The center's main purpose is to support military families in their time of need.

Since we live pretty close to the airport Nathan and I decided to drive by there to see if we could see Air Force One. Guess what? We did! It took off right after 11:00. Here's my best picture taken from highway 281...

Interrupted Prayer

Last night I went to dinner with Sara to El Mirasol. We both were wanting a margarita and where do you go in San Antonio for a good one? Well, according to me you go to either El Mirasol or La Fogata.

It was a beautiful evening. We sat out on the patio and just talked and enjoyed our drinks. The poor waiter kept coming over to our table to see if we were ready to order. We were not. We hadn't even looked at the menus. Finally 25 minutes later and 6 attempts to take our order we decided to pause the talking and make a decision.

We finished our drinks right when our food came out. Sara contemplated ordering another one, wondering out loud if they would let her order 1/2 a margarita. I told her that I could share one with her. I mean, that's what real friends do, right?

We ordered one more margarita for us to share and the waiter said, "ok...be right back". We bowed our heads and I started to say the blessing. Toward the end of my prayer, the waiter, who obviously saw that we were praying but didn't care blurted out loud, "Frozen or on the rocks?" I slowly looked up at him and said, " 'on the rocks'. -- ....and thank you, Lord for this time with Sara and this meal. Amen."

Wow, I've never ever said "on the rocks" in a prayer. First time for everything. Thank you, God for Margaritas!

Heartsong in Sugarland

Last weekend Heartsong (group I sing with at church) went to Sugarland to help lead worship at Fisher's of Men Lutheran Church. It was a wonderful weekend. We were able to see some of the destruction IKE left behind. Some of the families we met still didn't have power that Sunday morning. Fences were down everywhere. Windows were blown out all over town. Every street had an abundance of limbs lying in the middle of yards, roads and sidewalks.In spite of the devastating week we had a very uplifting morning of worship. We sang songs from our CD with Adam's band. They learned the music in under 2 weeks. They sounded awesome.

Alyssa and Adam

Carol and Royce

Mary Beth, Linda and Leslie

The gang at Papasito's

Carol, Linda, Me and Leslie


Mary Beth and Me

Dancing with the Stars

I'm so glad this is "National Stay At Home Week". I think that's what they've been calling it on NBC. So many good shows to watch-so little time! I'm most excited about "The Office" starting tomorrow night. Happy TV watching to everyone!

Jayla Ashlyn Hamann

This morning started off early for Joy and Brad. They had to be at the hospital at 5 am so Joy could be enduced. Her due date was Tuesday. About 8 am I got the call to head over to the hospital. Joy and Brad are both from Iowa and their families still live there. Since you can have 2 people in the L&D room they asked if I would be with them. I was so honored! Joy works with me at church and she's a big picture person. She's very talented with photography, videography and filming. She put together our wedding slideshow. Since pictures are such a big part of her life she asked if I would video tape (what they allow these days) and take pictures of baby's first few moments. I say "baby" b/c they decided to not find out what the sex of the baby was. They wanted to be surprised! I got to the hospital around 8:30. She was in labor and was about 5 cm. She was doing great and felt wonderful. Her contractions weren't too bad. She got her epidural at 6 cm and then was feeling super duper! Here's what the 3 of us were doing once the drugs kicked in.....
She reached 9 cm pretty quickly and started pushing at 3pm. At 3:12 the baby was laying on her chest! Wow, 10 minutes of pushing? Not bad, Joy! Way to go!!! She was 8lbs and almost 21 inches. I was sooooo thinking it was a boy! Joy was too.

She's beautiful and sweet. Really alert and so happy.




This last picture is a little prank that Greg, our boss, wanted to pull. It was my idea but he really saw to it that it was carried out. When we told Greg that the hospital allowed 2 people in the room with you and that I was going to be one of them he jumped right in and said, "YES! I accept. I'll be the 2nd if Nicole is the 1st person." So, we printed off a giant picture of his face so he could 'be in the room with us'. The hospital staff thought it was hilarious!

Congratulations, Brad and Joy!