Bryan, Tx

This past weekend we got to spend some time with our friends the Swansons while we visited our friends the Crawfords in Bryan, Tx. We had a fun weekend, although it was still a little hot, we managed to spend a little time outside. Saturday morning started out with a great breakfast of breakfast tacos prepared by Aaron Crawford. Please forgive the ladies in this photo, we had not done our hair or make-up! Aaron and Kevin played a little one-on-one in the backyard, it didn't last too long because even at 9am it was pretty hot and humid. The boys went golfing in the afternoon...from what I hear it was way too hot and no one really had a good golfing day, but they still had fun. The ladies drove around to a few places, Kay Ellen is decorating a 1 million dollar home so we got to take a tour. I apologize for not taking pictures, it was pretty amazing! We also visited the Messina Hof Winery in Bryan, it was a neat place. Then it was back to the Crawfords for some homemade burgers and a game of darts. We did a lot of relaxing, which is what most of us needed anyway. Rest was especially needed for Kay Ellen who is now 10 weeks pregnant!!! Congrats Kay Ellen and Aaron, God has proven His faithfulness yet again!

Our Texas Anniversary

On July 20, 2001 Kevin, Jason and I moved into our apartments in Texas. It's hard to believe we have already been here for 5 years. We decided to have a small party and enjoyed some of our Texas favorites.

THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT TEXAS:

BBQ Ribs

Shiner Bock Beer

Southern Cooking

Everything Fried

Texas Sheet Cake

Blue Bell Ice Cream

THINGS WE DON'T LOVE ABOUT TEXAS:

"Fresh" fruit

Hot Sauce vs. Salsa (everyone in Texas calls Salsa hot sauce...it's very strange!)

We had the Swanson's, Sewell's, Lopai (we think that's plural for Lopez), Jason and Brian over for some yummy Texas food! We had BBQ ribs, corn casserole, fried zuchinni, fruit salad, and chips and salsa. To drink we had Shiner Bock beer, Dr Pepper and sweet tea. Then we enjoyed some Texas sheet cake and vanilla Blue Bell ice cream for dessert. Here's Jason and his cool car. WAIT! He is driving a mustang!

Jordan, Lauren and Ethan enjoyed the little pool while dinner was being prepared. Then after dinner we played a game of Texas Trivia, to see just how much people knew about their home state. People did pretty well, but it was Crystal who won because she knew the Texas state pledge! "Honor the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one and indivisible." Way to go Crystal! The evening was finished off with a pinata! The kids really didn't know what to do with it, but they did take a few swings at it. I think Ramiro finally punched a hole in it and Kevin ripped it apart, then the kids were able to enjoy the candy!

Sisters make life worth it!

For 5 days I got to hang out with my little sister, YIPPEE! She took a short vacation to come out to Texas and hang out with me...I'm so lucky! Unfortunately, she came during the hottest time of year, and just like the rest of the country we have set some record highs. She was here on the hottest day that we have ever experienced in Texas. On Tuesday the official high was 107, but it felt like 111. In the city we live in it was 108, but felt like 112. In the city where Kevin works it was 110 and felt like 117!

We took Megan to Southern Junction on Saturday which is one of our favorite places to go eat. It is really a night club (actually a honky tonk) but we usually just go eat - you actually cook your own steaks!

Sunday morning Megan and I left Kevin in Garland and drove to San Marcos. There is this wonderful thing we do in Texas called Tubing (or Toobing). I remember doing it in Fresno once, you just get in a tube and float down the river. The river we went to was just less than a 2 hour float, but there are places that you can go and float for 7 hours. This is serious, we found out very quickly that you have to know what you are doing when you go tubing. We made about 6 trips back and forth to the car before we actually got in the water, but once we did it was so fun. You pack an ice chest, put it in a tube, put your own booty in a tube, grab on to each other and float. VERY FUN! Monday, after staying in San Marcos, we went to a fabulous outlet mall. You can never do too much shopping, but after 4 hours we had enough and headed back to Dallas. We made a pit stop in Austin for a Marie Callender's pie. Now, you Californians reading this know how good a Marie Callender's pie is, well the closest one to Dallas is in Austin - 3 hours away. So, we stopped in and picked up a Razzleberry pie and headed home!

What a fun few days! Some of you know that there is nothing quite like hanging out with your sister. I'm blessed to have three! Love ya'll!!!

***Due to some technical difficulties this post will be without pictures temporarily!

NYC

I just got back from spending 6 days with 3 adults and 17 teenagers on a trip to NYC. Lake Pointe Church has a partnership with Manhattan Christian Church (you can visit the pastor's blog here) so we took a group to go work for them. We arrived on Wednesday and began our first "job" on Thursday. We were able to paint one of the public schools in the neighborhood (PS 158) that MCC was targeting, this also happened to be the school that the pastor's daughter attends. We spent two days prepping and painting for an organization called Paint The Town.Just to give you an idea of how hard these kids worked, we were expected to finish 1 maybe 2 rooms, and prep about 3 or 4. We were only there for 2 days and there were 21 people in our group and we were able to completely finish 3 rooms, get 2 rooms half way finished and prep 7 additional rooms. We had a HARD working crew and we were very proud.

We also were able to pass out some pocket-size subway maps with an invitation to the church on the back. We were blessed to speak with one man on Sunday morning who came because we gave him a map. The story is actually much better than that, he told our kids that he only took a map because he felt bad because 15 people had passed by without taking one, so he thought he'd just be nice. He looked on the other side and decided he would attend the church service because he hadn't been to church in a while. It was great for the kids to see how God worked in the lives of the people who walked by us on the street.
We were also able to do a lot of prayer walking through the city, that is always very powerful. Then we did something I have never done, we stood on street corners and read the Word of God out loud! Incredible! I was horrified that I would look like one of the wackos that preaches on the corner and people (even myself) turn and walk away. Instead, I was able to read out loud and completely focus on the God's Word and ignore all fears of what people would think. That could only happen with strength from the Lord.
After attending the service at MCC we witnessed the churches first baptism service at the public pool in Central Park. We were unable to take pictures, by request from the pool security, because they were afraid that we would put pictures of people on the internet (Hm, what would make him think I would do that!). Anyway, we stood outside the pool fence with about 40 people from the church and watched as the pastor baptized three members of his church in from of the hundreds in the pool. It was very moving! I realize Jesus did not baptize people in a public pool, but He did take them to a very public place, which was where we were.

The last day we were there we were very close to the building explosion that took place on Monday. We were able to get very close to the sight and pray for those involved. We really had no idea what was going on, only that people needed prayer. It wasn't until we spoke with family members back at home that we knew what actually happened. The best story of God's provision and protection was from that morning. We were late getting out of the hotel, and of course most of us were irritated by it. The subway train that the kids were going to be on was headed toward the sight where the explosion was going to take place. We got the on the train at about 8:45am (instead of 8:30am), the ride would typically have taken about 30 min. The explosion happened just before 9am. Had we left when we wanted to our train would have been under the explosion. But instead, God protected us and allowed us to be late. Each day was filled with new struggles and new triumphs.

Trips like this fill me with joy because I know these kids are the future, and they are AWESOME!

Celebrating at the Ranch

We did end up going to Sabine Creek Ranch last night for a picnic and fireworks. There was actually supposed to be a blue grass band there as well, but due to the storm that came through they had to clean up their stuff and we all had to sit under the patio for a while. We did eventually get to go back outside. We were there with our friends Aaron and Priscilla and their son Ethan, Lance and Jennifer and their daughter Jordan, and Ramiro and Crystal and their daughter Lauren. We ate chicken, pasta salad, corn on the cob (which was Ethan's favorite) and home made apple pie. Then we played until it was time for the fireworks show. It is very hard to take pictures of fireworks, so I won't torture you with the terrible pictures. We had a wonderful time, and believe it or not the weather was awesome. Due to the storm that came through the temperature was only about 80 or so, that's a big deal in July in Texas.

God Bless America! Happy 4th!!!

Happy July!

It is definitely a happy July for me (Allison), yesterday was my last day at my current job! I have decided to go back to work at Rockwall High School as the assistant athletic trainer. I truly believe that God has equipped me to work with high school students on a daily basis and has given me the desire to do so. So, I took the month of July off to finish some stuff around the house, go on a mission trip and spend some time with my sister. August 3rd will be my first day back at RHS.

Ok, enough about that. It is July 4th weekend, and Kevin got Monday and Tuesday off! As I just explained I have the whole month off, we waited too long to plan a short trip but we chose to make the best of our weekend by participating in many of the local events. Today's event was a street fair and car show in downtown Garland. Let me remind you that our blog title gives you and idea of what Garland is like, we did not have very high expectations, and we were correct in our judgment.

There were about six food booths, one had corny dogs, which was our choice of course. If you haven't had a corny dog in Texas you haven't had a corny dog, we specialize in fried foods, you know. Which leads me to the other food choice of ours, fried cheesecake. I know that sounds terrible (or good, depending on who you ask) but it is really like a cheesecake burrito, it has a crispy shell with cheesecake in it. However, our other choice of fried foods are fried twinkies, fried oreos and fried Snickers. And those are just like you think, dipped in batter and deep fried! MMM, I can feel the weight going straight to my hips just talking about it.

Well, the car show was pretty puny. We have been spoiled by big car shows in California, but as any good McNeely would, we looked at every single car. I liked the Amphicar, you know the kind of car that can drive on the street and float in the water, Kevin liked the BelAire. We could hardly believe that there was not one Mustang, which made Kevin very sad. He is convinced that he needs to get his Mustang (which is being "stored" in Ross's backyard) and put it in a car show. He thinks people would be very impressed.

Tomorrow Garland is hosting a picnic at the park a block away form our house. There will be slip'n'slides for the kids, free watermelon, wheelbarrow races and a band. We will probably go there for a little while before we head out to Sabine Creek Ranch. We will celebrating with the members of Cross Creek Cowboy Church. Yes, you read that right. In Texas there are Cowboy Churches where people show up in there wranglers and boots and sometimes (I'm not lying) ride their horses to church. So, we'll let you know how that goes tomorrow!