The other fun thing is that CJ’s good friend Mark will be staying with us later in June. He’s on a mission team headed for Lima, Peru. He has spent the last 9 months learning Spanish in Costa Rica, and is now enjoying a mini-furlough before moving at last to Lima. His team also plans to stay 5-10 years. Sadly, I’ll be gone for his visit, but he and CJ will have a BLAST together.

We love you Haley and Mark!! Blessings on your work for the Lord!

All three books are about Afghanistan (and Pakistan). The first one is non-fiction and the last two are fiction, and all three offer great insight into Afghani culture. It just so happened that I read them one right after the other. I didn’t realize they would be so closely related. However, reading them in this order was definitely enlightening.

Mortenson’s book will be especially interesting to those of you who are interested in education, particularly of women, and social justice. It is also a good read for those of you who — like me — love culture. It is an inspiring story about how one person made a huge difference in the lives of the Afghani people, particularly those in remote regions of Afganistan. There is also a youth version and a children’s version that would be fabulous for planting seeds in young minds about helping, loving, and serving others…no matter how different they are from you.

Hosseini’s books, though fiction, walk the reader through the lives of select characters during times of peace and of war in Afghanistan. Through Hosseini’s wonderful writing style, you feel what they feel and experience what they experience. Both are books of redemption and sacrifice. However, know that these are definitely adult books. Not adult as in romance novels, but adult as in mature audience for the violence and evil that’s in the book. The two books are not a series but are certainly a good read together.

Happy Reading!!

Our original dinner destination was Saltgrass Steakhouse, one of our favorites for steak. But the lady at the info booth couldn’t find Saltgrass on the River, so we went to Texas Land & Cattle instead. It was good, but not quite as good as Saltgrass. I had the smoked sirloin, one of their signature steaks. Since it was smoked, it had the texture of BBQ but with a steak taste. My brain had a hard time wrapping around it. CJ had the ribeye and it was delish!

After stuffing ourselves, we decided a leisurely walk around the River would be good. The weather was great, a little stuffy but not too bad. There were so many people on the River Walk and the boat tours floated by often, so we had plenty to watch as we meandered down the walkway. Turns out, there IS a Saltgrass on the Riverwalk! We found it as we turned down the river curve. Oh well, at least we know for next time.

The next day was our “fun in the sun” day…Schlitterbahn!!! In fact, the waterpark was our original idea when planning the weekend. CJ can get discounted tickets through work, so we capitalized on the offer. We played and played and played. Since it was an overcast day, there weren’t too many people in the park. We were able to get on most rides within 5 or so minutes. I think our longest wait was maybe 30 min. We packed a cooler of sandwich makings and snacks, so we were set!

[Note: Not be the best pic of us, all shiny from the sunscreen. and what's that stuffed in my right cheek? gum? oh well, this is the only pic we got. we were having too much fun to take more!!]

We ended the day by going by our good friend’s (Kate and Lane) new house. Old and cute, and just their style. My favorite part of the whole house is their front door. It’s rounded on top and has a round window near the top. It reminds me of a hobbit house door, and we all know how much I love hobbit things. I didn’t think to take pictures, so you’ll just have to take my word for its cuteness. We enjoyed dinner with K&L before driving back to CS.

Aaaah, a great weekend o’ fun!

Going to Meme and Papaw Dave’s house is always a blast from the past for CJ. He talks about remembering when they road the tractor around, eating Meme’s delicious food, and swinging on the barn swing. He has lots of memories of going to N. Louisiana.

This past weekend we took a little trip up to see them. The last time we were there was on our whirlwind Five State Christmas Tour back in 2006, after we were engaged the Sept before. Yeah, definitely a visit was long overdue!

We got in late Friday night so we slept in a little Sat morning. Then I helped Meme cook chicken spaghetti for lunch while CJ, Creighton and Papaw Dave drove the tractor around (sound familiar) and checked on various things on their land. After a delicious lunch, Creighton (CJ’s dad) looked at me and said, ‘have you ever swung on a tree swing?’ Well, yes, I mean, I guess so, I said. He replied, no a REAL tree swing. So off we went into town looking for rope and other materials for a tree swing. Here are a few pics:

We had a blast playing on the tree swing until it was time to wash up for dinner. We joined the rest of the fam at Aunt Freida’s house for BBQ sandwiches. YUMOLA! It was great seeing CJ’s cousins and checking out Uncle Randy’s big garden (which reminds me of the one we had in our backyard growing up).

On Sunday, we went to church with Papaw Dave while Meme stayed and cooked a wonderful Sunday Lunch, a rival to any in the South, I’m sure! And then we hit the road home. It was a great weekend with family. AND, we brought back canned green beans and homemade Mayhaw Jelly from Meme’s pantry!!

Also, just this past Monday, our AFC-Bangkok team left for Thailand. They landed in Bangkok earlier this morning, which is this evening for them in Thailand (we’re behind them hour-wise). Each team is responsible for their own blog, and as you’ll find out if you follow their link, they have decided to log their time in Thailand via short videos posted on youtube.

I’ll be joining the Brazil team — whoop! We leave July 6, but our blog is updated every now and again by various team members.

We have one more team, AFC-Kranuan, who will travel to Thailand in July. I’ll post more when their blog is up and running.

Enjoy!

Are we cute, or what?

This photo was taken in May 2006 on an iHouse tubing trip on the Comal River. CJ and I had just gone on our first date — May 6: Jason’s Deli picnic dinner in Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater to hear a no-name honky-tonk country singer in the Starlight Music Series and afterwards went to Shakes for ice cream — and were still unsure about “us”, if “us” even existed. In fact, I still wasn’t sure if our first date was a ‘date’ or just ‘the old Ags hanging out’. HA! Anyway, there we were on the river, and our group decided to connect so we wouldn’t float apart. I propped my little feet on his inner tube — a minute gesture that did not go unnoticed. Someone snapped this picture along the river somewhere, unaware of the story that was beginning. I learned later that he loved this photo (since it was one of our first) and put it as the background on his computer while I was away in Romania and Ukraine! Is that sweet, or is that sweet? Aaah, memories are fun.

I came across this photo as I was looking through a few photo files on my computer. It seemed very appropriate because I’m trying to get another iHouse group together to go tubing next week. I feel it’s my personal responsibility to expose my int’l friends to leisurely summer pastimes in Texas. : ) It’s sort of a May tradition for us…if the river isn’t too high like last year. This year’s destination is the Guadalupe River, and our entry point will be in Canyon Lake, TX. We’ll be going in the middle of next week (hopefully), so sadly, CJ won’t be able to go. But the river is where part of our story began…