First Post

Well, I have heard about blogs for a while now and at the recommendation of a friend, am ready to give it a try. So where do you begin. Let's start by introducing the stars of this blog. There are the wee "little" stars, Nicole (age 10) and Ryan (age 7). I say "little" because they have grown so quickly it is hard to say they are little anymore. Then, there is our distant star, Tela (age 18). Distant because she lives in Oklahoma and will soon be moving off to college in far west Texas. Then, there is my loving star, Terry. Finally, there is me, Michelle, the mom star that holds us all together (or at least tries to).


We are in the midst of a busy month of activities ranging from various sporting events to Girl Scout activities and, of course, some good ol' family time. Let's start with Sunday's activities. After doing some research on the subject, we tried our hand at letterboxing for the first time. We drove to Washington on the Brazos in hopes of finding our first "treasure". During the 30-minute drive we picked our letterboxing name, Treasure Hawks, and our individual letterboxing "handles". We have Hawk Daddy, (Mad) Hawk Boy, (Princess) Hawk Girl, and Hawk Momma. The name comes from our families infatuation with finding coins everywhere we go combined with the feeling of treasure hunting inspired by letterboxing itself.

For those that may not know, letterboxing is very much like a treasure hunt. Various people have put effort into placing boxes discreetly hidden in public locations such as parks. They give the box (or boxes) a name. They then post clues to find the letterbox. Sometime you need a compass to find the box, sometime just good eyes are all that are needed. Inside the box, you find a notebook of some sort and a stamp. You use your stamp to stamp the box's notebook and then you stamp your journal with the stamp from the box. In my readings, I have learned that many people hand carve their stamps. We are not to that point yet so we us a store bought stamp.

Our first letterboxing try sent us out to find a set of four letterboxes called the "The Legend of the Bluebonnet" in Washington on the Brazos State Park. We started in the visitor center and made our way to the nature trail. This particular trip was to serve two purposes: 1) to find the letterboxes and 2) to take some bluebonnet pictures of the kids. All four boxes were located on the nature trail and we successfully found all four. I was very pleased with the enthusiasm the family showed by the new adventure. Of course, both kids wanted to find the box or open the box or stamp the journals. Terry even seemed to enjoy the new adventure. After our long hike and successful hunt, we returned to the car just in time to head home for the next activities for the day.

Nicole was scheduled to be at Mrs. Kathy's at 1:30 so she could go to a badge workshop at the Kappa Delta House. Mrs. Kathy is my wonderful assistant leader for our Girl Scout Troop (9080). Her daughter, Rachel, and Nicole are very good friends and enjoy spending time together. We made it to Mrs. Kathy's by 1:40, which gave us just enough time to get to the soccer field where Terry and I would be playing a game at 2:00.

We were playing the soccer moms, which is always a fun game. They are what division 5 soccer is all about: having fun, learning the game and having fun. The guys on our team took very few shots at the goal and mostly tried to set up Lena and me for shots. We each scored 2 in the game and we ended up winning 4-1. It was an enjoyable game. Did I mention that we did not have any subs? So while it was enjoyable, we were quite tired by the end.

We returned home to clean up and wait for Nicole to return. She had a wonderful time at the program and earned the Kappa Delta badge. It sounded like they worked a little on manners as she informed me of the proper way to set a table last night. We then set out for dinner. Our plan was to have pizza and snow cones at Shivers, but we were derailed when we found out that Shivers no longer serves pizza (bummer). We went ahead and got snow cones then trotted down the strip mall to Subway for some sandwiches. The only reason to go on with this is to say that we set out to find another letterbox after dinner. This one was in Veteran's Park (where we play soccer and softball). While we have been there many times, we have never really looked at the statues and monuments that are indeed dedicated to veterans. They are really nice pieces of work and serve well as memorials to those fallen in battle. We found the letterbox with no problem. As we set out to find a second, box in the park, we found an 11-man soccer game in progress. The letterboxer requested that this box be left alone if there were games being played because it is so close to the soccer field. So we will save it for another day.