Great Day

The kids did great today on their first day at a new school. Good teachers... made friends... Great day.

School today

Em and Alex are in public school today. Em was a little nervous. Alex was slightly nervous but excited. I think they'll both do great. Em got the teacher we hoped for and Alex's teacher seemed great too.

It's weird, after homeschooling, to have them gone from home for 7 hours a day.

Palm Sunday

Scott Hodge has a great blog. Here is a great post on Palm Sunday.

Sick Kiddo

Emmaleigh is sick today. She hardly ever gets sick. I hate to see her suffer. I guess she and Deb will stay home from church tomorrow. I think my parents, sister and her kids will be coming to Mosaic tomorrow... so I'll go with them.

Hopefully she'll be OK for starting school on Monday!

Back to work

After days of packing, moving, and unpacking I'm back to the office (a.k.a. the nearest coffee shop) working on video. The nearest coffee shop with free internet that I've found so far is 5 miles from my house. Too far.. but at least there is one... and the coffee is better than my nearest "office" was back in Texas.

New house funnies

I told our three year old to put her dishes away after breakfast. With glass in hand, walking puzzled across the kitchen she asked, "Where's the counter?"

Moving Pictures

Things are going well.... Just unpacking the many boxes.

Here are some pix from the move.

New update on our move

We're in Little Rock. The trip was easy and our stuff is all in our new rental house. Thanks Mosaic guys for helping us unload the truck!!!

Our house sale in Texas funded today... so that's a done deal.

Everything is great! Thanks for you prayers.

More soon... with pix.

Quick update on our move

Finished packing the truck last night. We were planning to drive out to Arkansas today, but we didn't hardly sleep at all last night. We were too wound up and stressed.

So today we were EXHAUSTED. We signed our closing papers on our house today, but decided to stay with our friends Richie and Sarah another night and we'll head out Tuesday at 7:30am after some rest.

PRAYER!!
There's a small delay in the funding of the house from the buyer. Please pray that it's no big deal.
Please pray for our safe travel and that this huge truck isn't TOO much of a beast to drive.
Pray for Debbie... she doesn't like to drive and she'll be driving the minivan Tuesday.

Thanks!

Off for a play day

We're just about done packing inside the house. The bunk beds are even apart and downstairs. Just a few more boxes to pack, some cleaning to do, and a truck to load Saturday and Sunday. So... we're taking a break and heading out for a last play day in Dallas with the kids.

Where to live?

After much research by my wonderful wife looking at schools, areas, prices, etc, we had really two options on where to live in Little Rock.

Option 1 - A nice but affordable rental town home in a fancy mostly white neighborhood just down the street from Fulbright, the 90% white best school in Little Rock. We were shown around the school by a volunteering grandmother. We asked her... "We hear this is the best school in town... what do you think?" She snootily answered, "Why do you think my grandson is here?"

Option 2 - A comfortable, affordable rental house near my parents in Otter Creek with a backyard that backs up to the playground of Otter Creek Elementary. Otter Creek's school test scores are pretty low compared to that of Fulbright. The school and surrounding area are increasingly diverse.

As much as we liked Fulbright from a pure education standpoint, it just wasn't us. It's not that we don't want to give our kids every opportunity to succeed. We just don't think a fancy, uni-racial, educational powerhouse approach is needed to foster the version of success we desire for our kids.

When we told our 8 year old daughter that Fulbright is 90% white, she said quickly and with her own conviction, "That's not good." We don't want to force the work of multi-ethnic ministry on our kids. But, I think they are already catching the dream anyway.

Another meaningful moment on our house-hunting day was at Popeye's Chicken near the fancy Fulbright school area. Thankfully, some have the ministry of reaching and helping the well-dressed businessman who was eating there. Our hearts, though, are to encourage, raise up, and minister to the girl behind the counter who probably drove in a ways to make 6 dollars an hour ringing up chicken orders.

We picked Otter Creek. It's the place we belong. It's not intense diversity culture shock, but enough diversity to stretch us. It seems to us personally that we have to immerse increasingly with all people in both life and school to feel like we are doing what we are called to do with multi-ethnic ministry.

How to download photos from Flickr

Every once in a while, I need to tell someone the best way to download photos from my Flickr account. So here is a little how-to:

First, take a minute to sign up for a free flickr account if you don't have one www.flickr.com. Sign in to your Flickr account.

Navigate to the picture you want:



Click on "ALL SIZES" just above the photo:


Click on what size you want. For printing photos or viewing full screen, I would pick the biggest size. For putting on a blog or website, you can get away with grabbing the smaller versions. Then click download.

Snapshots on your desktop

My friend Steve sent me this cool little app called Photo Desktop to put snapshots on your mac desktop. The shapshots stay even when the desktop background changes.

Weekends in Texas

Since we only have one more weekend living in Texas, I thought I'd remember some things we did on weekends here...

Bethany Lakes Park:




IKEA


Dallas Zoo


Dallas Arboretum




Plano Balloon Festival




MLK Parades




Trips to Escape


A little gardening




Dallas Heritage Park


Flying airplanes at the American Airlines Museum

Beautiful Collision

Please visit www.thearnnfive.com to learn more about what we are about to do. We've got a long way to go in ending racial and economic segregation and discrimination. Will you help us?

Not a waste of time

Guy: "I don't know why I blah, blah, blah I haven't really thought about it that much I guess it's because blah blah"

Dr. Laura (interrupting): "Sir... Instead of talking about how you don't know the answer, take a minute and think... I'll wait for you."

Guy: "I don't want to waste your time"

Dr. Laura: "You won't be wasting my time if you are thinking"

Countdown to our move

With everything coming together for our move to Little Rock, it is only 26 days until we head out. LOTS to do in that time frame but we're really excited. It's pretty weird leaving the place we've lived for over 9 years, leaving lots of great friends, leaving the place where all three of our kids were born.

But... Hills, trees, lakes, rivers, hiking trails, waterfalls, beautiful fall leaves, and wonderful people of Mosaic Church... here we come!

Reunion Church

I've blogged about them before but I have to blog again. We went there yesterday and I was again blown away by their authenticity, honesty, passion. You can check out messages, etc at their website but if you are in the Dallas area you really need to attend a few times to understand what I mean.

Interesting Apologies This Week

Jet Blue Apology

Virginia Apologizes for Role in Slavery

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Today

Today we have an inspection of our house because we've accepted an offer after less than two weeks on the market!

We're also finishing up the shooting of our short film for our work.

More later...

How have a done without a mighty mouse?

I know I'm waaayy behind, but I'm using a mighty mouse (for the first time) on my parents new mac. Gotta get one!

In Arkansas for the weekend

We are in Arkansas for the weekend to have Christmas in February with some family from Virginia who couldn't make it to Christmas in December.

We're also going to shoot Sunday and Monday for a short film about our work that I'm producing. Should be fun and cool.

Susie has got a bad cold and isn't feeling well... please pray for her!

Pix from the Cruise

Our first look at the Disney Wonder


Preparing for the lifeboat drill


The "Sail Away Party"








On our verandah...





Nassau, Bahamas














Mickey and Minnie!!




Alex and Susannah brought some costumes to dress up for the "Pirates IN the Caribbean" party (or as Susie says "Carabeena")


Susannah sleeping on the deck through mega music and fireworks at the Pirates In the Carabeena party.


Some tired kiddos


On Castaway Cay - Disney's Private Island












These little yellow oompa loompas come out every chance they get to clean or work on the ship.


One of those many Disney "wows" when the waiter took time to squirt Susie's ketchup into the shape of Mickey.


Disney is truly amazing. I've felt this at the parks before, but on a cruise you are totally in their care. Their operations and customer service are virtually flawless. Food was great. Kids activities were excellent. Really great time... highly recommend!!

Back from our Disney Cruise

The last three days I've been shooting video for a CiCi's Pizza company celebration on the Disney Wonder. It was amazing. Yesterday riding bikes on Disney's private island in the Bahamas... today back to overcast 47 degree Texas. Debbie or I will have pictures up soon.

Creepy

Yesterday had the stupidest news stories, but here is the creepiest news story! I don't like snakes.