Vancouver-4
Dallas-1

Besides being one of the worst officiated hockey games I have ever seen, it was just sad. Hopefully the Mavs can pull it together and take it all the way…

RIP Dallas Stars 2006/2007

at about 7 pm last night, i got a text message from my friend los who lives in riverside, california. it says, “so, are you hunkered down in some hole?” i had no idea what he was talking about, but knowing there was a chance of thunderstorms approaching, i flipped on the television and all our local channels were lit up in reds and yellows (the colors of impending weather doom) as sirens began to blare all around the dallas/fort worth area.

fortunately, nothing too severe came through the small, middle-of-nowhere town where chris and i currently reside (top white house on the map), but as we watched the news, tornado after tornado kept touching down along the interstate 30 corridor…and lake pointe church is right on i-30 (bottom white house on the map).

after assuring los, and his friend brian that we were okay (you know your friends are cool when they sit around watching the weather channel on a friday night and worry about you) we began to get a little nervous as we saw the rotation markers appear literally right over the spot on the map where lake pointe’s rockwall campus nests. soon, they confirm a funnel cloud is spinning right over heath, which is maybe 60 seconds south of the church. fortunately, nothing too crazy went down in rockwall county, despite what the maps and weather guys said.

most of the damage stayed to the west of us. this photo is from haltom city, which is more on the fort worth side of the metro area. two people died from this storm and they are still trying to figure out how much damage was caused. there are tons of photos at WFAA.com.

i’ve always been a big fan of tornadoes and maybe one day i’ll get to chase them down. someone asked how many tornadoes i have seen in my life and i researched some records online today. i’ve experienced first-hand 28 tornado touchdowns since my birth. the most vivid ones are:

1) my first (when i was five)

2) one which hit our house and church when i was twelve (we made the front page of the san angelo standard-times the day after!)

3) the march 2000 tornado that ripped a three-mile path through downtown fort worth (cool video footage of it hitting downtown) and tore up the arlington neighborhood i lived in during my junior year of high school (my parents had moved, so they were safe)

4) the kansas city tornado outbreak of 2003 (only a few miles north of my former church)

5) the last one in kansas which i blogged about that happened only a few weeks before we moved to texas.

what about you? ever been in a twister?

this guy starts working in the office next to me.

he has a blue belt.

texas is happy to have him back.

i mean that literally. our friends wes and christy hartley (wes is the media pastor at lake pointe) have a little plane. little as in four seats, one prop, and tires no larger than a bowling ball. anyway, wes is a pilot and together, we plotted to surprise my dear husband chris with a little christmas light sight-seeing, via means of aforementioned plane. so, last night we headed to rockwall airport (who knew rockwall has an airport?!) and took off for an hour and a half flight over the entire dallas/fort worth metroplex. it was absolutely beautiful, and with chris being on the media team, the event had to be video taped. i hope you enjoy the little movie we made of it. also, a very special thanks to christina miller, also on the media team, for watching wes & christy’s kids while we were out on our little adventure! pardon the shakiness - it was a little windy!

tomorrow evening is going to be one of the craziest nights of my life! big stuff happening, big stuff! photos to come as soon as possible. you will NOT want to miss it!!!!!! (for the small amount of people who knows the events of tomorrow evening, hush hush!!  i’m just trying to build some suspense!!!

although it is a grand 85 degrees outside today, i have been in the christmas spirit this week.  i’ve had a record three peppermint mochas (two of which were free), we are starting to get christmas stuff ready up at work, and the twinkle of christmas lights has been slowly but steadily filling the night sky.

i am so excited to be back in dallas this christmas.  one, it’s warm.  two, there are a million ways to get your fill of the holidays.  besides the obvious things, like more time with family and friends, below is a list of some of my favorite christmas past-times which i’m looking forward to this season.

-Volunteering at the Neiman Marcus Children’s Parade
-Caroling at Hotel Adolphus (We listen, The Church of the Incarnation performs)
-Peppermint Mochas
-Christmas lights in Highland Park & Interlochen

What are yours?