Our Thursday evening....

Tonight we wanted our girls to make us a traditional Chinese dinner that they would have at their homes in China, so I picked them up from their classes at the church and we were off to H.E.B!! I was so impressed because Sophie had her menu all planned out and had a grocery list already made and she had translated with her Chinese/English electronic dictionary, all the items she needed to make dinner! So cute!! They were so excited but were quickly overwhelmed at how huge the store was and how large in size all of our food items were. They are use to shopping at the market each day for fresh food.

That was an interesting experience to say the least! :)

When it was all said & done, Sophie & Kelly did a GREAT job!! Dinner was FANTASTIC! Props to them... I told them their mothers would be very proud!

Here are a few pictures from the evening....

Working hard...

Sophie

Kelly & Sophie cleaning the celery

The finished product!! Sorry the table isn't set with the proper things, we were good to keep the kids somewhat calm, since we didn't sit down to eat until 7:20p.m.! Parker goes to bed at 7:30! So you can imagine how he was behaving!! Dinner took a little longer than I expected! :)

Kelly, helping me clean up the kitchen.

After dinner "playtime" (a.k.a- "McKenna & Parker go crazy time")

Kelly & Parker

McKenna... the pic says enough! :)

Tomorrow they have a busy day...they are taking a tour of NASA and Johnson's Space Center, and then tomorrow night, we're off to take the girls to the Mercy Me concert in The Woodlands with some of my other girlfriends and their girls that they are also hosting.

Lots of exciting times in the Mills household!

My 27th birthday!

Well, yesterday was my 27th b-day and it started great with breakfast at Cracker Barrel!! YUM! The girls thought "it is SO much food".... :)

Here is a pic.
However, the rest of my day would turn out to not be the greatest day!

(Get ready for my ramblings...)

Not to be "Debbie Downer" (which I feel like I can be sometimes)... but it was a rough day, once again, with my son! Parker will be turning two next Friday and let's just say he is TESTING his boundaries! It is very wearing on me as a stay-at-home mom and with everything else being chaotic & busy - it took it's toll on me yesterday. I stopped by a playgroup with some of my friends to do an "activity bag swap" that we were doing together... we were already showing up late because of gymnastics for McKenna, and we were not there 5 minutes and Parker pushes my friends little boy down the stairs (just the bottom 2-BUT STILL!)...THEN, not 2 minutes later clocks another friend upside the head with a car!!! I just lost it at that point! (This unusual behavior has been going on for the past 3 weeks both at home & when we're out!! I feel like my day EVERY day is timeout/spanking/timeout/spanking.... you get my drift!)
So, I decided at that point we weren't staying for lunch - we were going HOME! As I was buckling him in his carseat 3 of my friends came out and offered to keep my kids while another girlfriend was going to take me out to lunch for my birthday! I was thinking to myself, "Oh yeah, it is my b-day!" But with their offer, came my tears! I just LOST it!!
Just to have such precious friends who care so much about you is such a special thing!! I just felt so loved, but yet at the same time I was still FUMING mad at my son's behavior! To make a LONG story, short... it turned out to be an okay day. It DEFINITELY had it's UPS & DOWNS!! haha...
Looking back, all I can do is laugh... but last night - it wasn't a funny topic as I ran through the details of my day with Brian! Because after some other events that occured during the rest of the day - it ended by my son being brought to be in the youth area while the youth service was going on for hitting other kids!! Yes - it's true! MY SON GOT KICKED OUT OF THE NURSERY AT CHURCH!!! How much more humiliating can it get!?!?! ;)
Needless to say, I was EXHAUSTED by 10:00 last night! I crashed!!
My birthday present, the new I-PHONE, that I've been waiting on to come in since last Tuesday...is still on backorder!! So I'm still battling my broken cellphone with the blank screen! I can't see my #'s, read my text's, see when I've missed a call, or see my caller ID!!!
That would have made my day if I would have received that phone call from AT&T yesterday... but I'm still waiting! :)

All in all, it was a pretty good birthday! I have been blessed with a great family & friends and another year of life! How much more blessed can you get?!?! :)

"Blink"

Tonight, I was sitting here doing my weekly "blog surfing" - where I catch myself up on the blogs of women that I love to read their posts... as I was browsing through, I clicked on Angie Smith's blog, "Bring the Rain". I absolutely LOVE reading her blog because she has such an AMAZING story... another just GOD story....
The Lord ALWAYS uses her blog to speak to me and challenge me!!

I just had to share her post she wrote last Friday, called "Blink". Click here to read it.... it is long but is SO worth reading....

"Oh Lord how I need to pause in those moments of life and "Blink" to capture Your sweet moments you send my way...through my sweet husband, my amazing kids, my family, and my sweet new friends you've sent my way....help me to not be so caught up with the "stuff" of life, that I forget to capture life's moments where You are there....."

"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. " ~Philippians 4:8-9

A few pic's from Kelly's camera

Kelly & Sophie w/ our worship band! Their "crush" Matt! :)

Preparing dinner Saturday night.

Kelly took this pic of my earring....They are fasinated by my earrings each day. :)

They loved the cheeseburgers & oven potatoes!!

She took a picture of our framed wedding picture..haha....

Dinner again from Saturday night.

Helping to water the flowers one night...

Them on our front porch.

Dinner tonight.... we had several "takes" with the timer on her digital camera...

they were quite comical!

Such fun memories with our sweet Chinese family! :)

Astro's Game last night!

Last night our church (some staff & host families took all 255 Chinese students to a Houston Astros game! Brian and I got a sitter for our kiddos, so we all had such a good time hanging out with Sophie & Kelly. Here are some pictures from the evening the "Photographer Brian" took:

Brian & I with our girls...

Kelly & Sophie with our great babysitter, Brittney!

Sophie & Kelly enjoying the baseball game... ;-)

The view from the 4th deck seats!! Ah!

Some other girls from the group...

Michael Head & his 4 "sons" for the week! LoL!!

Another view of Minute Maid park from our seats!

Parker's hair?!?!

I just came across this picture of Parker from March when my parents were here visiting from Arkansas. Everyone has told me lately how different Parker looks, but because I see him every day, I really didn't notice the DRAMATIC effect that the sun has had on bleaching out Parker's hair this summer....

Before summer - March 2008:

Mid-summer/July 2008:

WOW!! What a difference 4 months makes -

he does look completely different except for those amazing baby blues!! :)

He will be turning 2 in just 14 days!

This weeks update on our "family" of 6...

This week has been so crazy! But what else is new in this "season" of our life... with 2 preschoolers, a Student Pastor for a husband, and 2 foreign exchange students living with us for 3 weeks!! :)

McKenna and Parker are still IN LOVE with Kelly & Sophie while they are staying with us! Parker wakes up every morning asking, "Girls? Girls?" And McKenna just can't wait for them to get up every morning and then for them to come home from their classes at school every day! Last night we had a fun night of playing games with them. They taught us a few Chinese games, a game similar to American checkers, and then a card game that was really fun! Then Brian and I taught them a card game & then Mexican train (dominoes).... We had so much fun & laughed a ton!!! It really is neat to get to know them and hear about their families and their lives back in China.



After our Wednesday night youth service, I was a little nervous about what they thought of Brian's message!! It was pretty straight forward as he presented the beginning of the gospel message to them, but it was simply the TRUTH! It was so interesting to witness their response to his comment about God/Jesus/Christianity being the ONLY WAY... I am so proud of my husband for the stand he made, as that was an extremely difficult message to deliver!! However, on the way home from church, Brian & I were asking the girls what they thought of the service/message and then if they agreed or disagreed w/ Brian's statement about Faith in God.... they then shared with us that they go to a "home church" in China and that they believe in our God! How awesome!! Kelly shared "that it just might take a while for some others to figure some things out on their own in order to believe in our God". The spiritual attacks that we and other host homes have been facing since the arrival of our students has been exactly that... attacks from the enemy!



God is working in the hearts of these students and my prayer is that His will be done in the hearts of these students & teachers while they are here in Houston!
Join me in praying for them, as well as for all of our church staff & their families and for all of the host families involved in this outreach opportunity!



On a funny note: Last night I was cleaning up from dinner and Kelly wanted to play with an ice cube that I had just dumped into the sink. As it was melting in her hand, she decided that her hand was numb and that my silk, fake ivy topiary plant needed to be "watered"... so she put the melting icecube in my silk topiary!! I just laughed inside and after she walked away, removed it from the pot! :o)

They are so funny!!!

Some pic's from Wednesday night after the service:


Deacon playing on the stage.

My kids playing on the keyboard!

Once again, McKenna took this pic of Deacon, Dusty & I...pretty good!

Words from other Host Families!

In addition to the blog our church is doing during the next 3 weeks with our Chinese students in town we also have several friends who are also keeping up with a blog who are posting some cute updates about their daily adventures with our new International friends!

Check them out:
The Chapman's
The Stanfield's
Michael Head

Lots of cute pictures & funny stories! :o) Enjoy!!
Okay, I'm done posting for now!

Tonight, we are having a swimming night at the CincoRanch WaterPark and grilling out with all of our students! I'm sure I will have more pic's after tonight!















Water Park at Cinco Ranch

Good ole' Texas BBQ & HoeDown!!

Last night our church welcomed our new friends from China with a traditional Texas HoeDown & BBQ in our Worship Center! It was so much fun! The kids had a blast and the Chinese students love to dance!! It was a blast for everyone involved! Again, props to our church for always hosting excellent events!!!

Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62PF2pO3-k

**McKenna is towards the middle of the video dancing in the center of everyone, wearing a cowboy hat, dancing w/ her little friend Reagan! :)

Too cute!!

For more videos from last night go to http://www.youtube.com/user/secondbaptistchurch

Friends visit from Tulsa!

This Saturday & Sunday we also had our sweet friends Angie B & Charlotte in town to visit from Tulsa! They were at our church in Broken Arrow when we were there 3 years ago! They are such sweet friends. Angie & I taught a community group together with 9/10th grade girls and Charlotte was one of the girls in that group - she is now 20! Wow. I feel so old!

We had a great day of shopping at the mall with our Chinese girls on Saturday followed by a GREAT meal at our FAVORITE mexican restaurant Lupe Tortilla!! :) YUM!!!

Lupes!! YUMMY!!

Angie & Charlotte

My kids!

The lost puppy that came to our house Saturday afternoon!

Daddy & Parker being silly!

~

Sunday:

At lunch after church Sunday, before they left to catch their flight back to Tulsa!

Parkerman!! (So Sleepy!!)

Charlotte & McKenna Grace

~

Thanks for coming to visit you two! It was fun! :)

Tonight hangin' at church

The following pictures were taken by Miss McKenna Grace Mills!! She is quite the lil' photographer!

Parker playing ball!

Miss "Jennifer"- she is an English teacher from China! SO sweet!

Me... taken by McKenna - we were bored! Can ya tell?!! :) Hangin' out at church from 6:00 until almost 9:00pm!! Wow!

I am off to bed now!

VBS wrap-up!

Well it's finally FRIDAY!!! This has been a long and tiring week with VBS going on, getting ready for Kelly & Sophie to stay with us for 3-weeks, and then we have two of our sweet friends from Tulsa visiting tomorrow & Sunday...phew.... I am in some serious need of some R&R!!

But what fun we've had... Here are some pictures from today at VBS.

We had a blast today as our last day of VBS concluded, all we long the "theme" has been "POW!" (super hero theme). We've talked about the miracles that Jesus performed while on earth and how God gives us the "power" that we need in our life. That He is always with us and that He LOVES us!! So much fun... our church really did an AMAZING job in EVERY age group, Nursery, Preschool & Elementary all had different "programming" going on and everyone involved had a blast! For the craft each day we made different parts to a superhero "costume" that we put all pieces together today & did a parade to our VBS music!! The kids had a blast modeling their pieces of their superhero outfit (their cape, mask, belt, and shield!). Here are some pictures of my class on parade & in the room getting ready!