Mission: Houston

Madden just returned from a  five day mission trip to Houston with our church middle school youth group. They served in inner-city Houston at a variety of locations and in a variety of capacities. The trip was organized by CSM, Center for Student Missions, and based on her feedback, seems to have been impactful. The group had the opportunity to prep and serve a meal in a soup kitchen, to assist clients with English language skills and math skills in a literacy program, serve and play with children in a community learning center, deliver lunches via Kid's Meals on Wheels, help at Houston Food Bank and engage in an urban scavenger hunt. In addition, they ate at Mediterranean, Vietnamese and Mexican restaurants in order to experience a variety of ethnic foods representative of the urban setting of downtown Houston. I hear a few Sonic slushes made it into their itinerary as well. So grateful to the group of staff and volunteers that contributed to this experience.

 

 

Happy Birthday to Me!

We went to a wedding in Temple on my birthday. It was nice to be with family for the day.

 

Scenes from Madden's Summer

1st babysitting gig

summer selfie

fierce?

thrift shoppin'

Ronald McDonald House

swim!

beached mermaid

Jane's 13th

Quick Trip to Athens

Our Vacation Bible School "traveled" to Athens, Greece to study the story of Paul's second journey. It was once again a family affair as Callie was a participant (her last year), Madden volunteered as a youth helper, Porter starred as Paul with the preschool set, and I helped chair the event. Blessings abounded. It is so great to be surrounded by all the love.

Celebrations

Our annual 4th of July celebration in Corpus Christi was unusually busy. In addition to the national holiday, we are lucky enough to celebrate Wendy's Independence Day birthday. This year, we also had a Celebration of Life in memory of my Uncle Bud, mom's brother. And to top it off, on July 5th, we witnessed the nuptials of John Robert Bugay, dad's grandson. To say it was busy is quite an understatement, however, it was such a blessing to gather together with this large group of family. Here are some scenes from the weekend.

 

A Tribute to my Uncle Bud

Hip Hop

Could our girls be any less alike? Callie dances only hip hop, and Madden dances anything but. This is Callie's dress rehearsal performance for today's recital. She is the youngest in the class, dancing with girls that are Madden's age. I think she holds her own.

The (5th grade) Graduate

 

The graduate received one more round of awards on Wednesday: Citizenship award, Choir award, Voracious Reader award including the Genre Challenge (they had to read a certain number of specific types of books), The President's Award, and Enthusiastic Learner in Math, Science, Language Arts and Social Studies. We are all sad to say goodbye to Doss Elementary School.

Uncle Bub-Bub

Let it be.