Team Cross:

Looky! Our house!

Well kinda...but it's a start!

Posted at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, last Wednesday, we headed up to our church for a special event. It was SO MUCH FUN and turned out so awesome! In a nutshell, this is how this all came about. About a month ago, our pastor (John-in the orange 'Crush' shirt with baseball cap) and his assistant Mark, noticed parts of our fence at the church was getting kicked in. They would go out there with a hammer and nails and nail it back, and a few days later, it would happen again. So they decided to to watch and see what the heck was going on. Turns out, some kids from the apartments behind the church were kicking the fence in to get to our church parking lot, where a basketball goal is set up. So, the next day, John and Mark hopped the fence, and went and talked to the manager of the apartments. The guy was nervous because he thought they came to complain, but that's not what they were there for. With his cooperation, they built a fence so the kids could come and shoot baskets whenever they wanted. The apartment manager told John and Mark that these kids, from Kindergartners to high school, are locked out of their apartments nearly everyday when they get home from school. Evidently, their parents/parent don't care about them running around with no food or water for several hours while they wait for them to get home from their jobs. Long story short, these kids have been coming and playing basketball a lot, and John and Mark stay late and play with them often, and have struck up a friendship with this group. Pastor John spoke about this a few Sundays ago, and the message was pretty much this: all of these churches send their congregations to places like Africa and Mexico on these huge mission trips, and what he realized was that we have hundreds of apartments right behind our fence that house tons of kids who need help too...right next door and under our noses. Our church is located smack dab in the middle of a HUGE cluster of apartments that have been the subject of debate in the city of Arlington for the past few years. It's not a good area. So, our church figured we would start paying attention to what is directly surrounding us. Pastor John called up Scott for help, and they planned a little get together that turned out really awesome and fun! Here is the update from a newsletter that Pastor John sends out weekly!

Shepherd of Life Lutheran Church

Behold, I stand at the "gate" and knock!

Along the back of our church is a wooden fence with a gate and through that gate there are hundreds upon hundreds of apartments filled with kids who have few opportunities and not much to do, especially in the summer.

And so we recently decided to invite them over for a neighborhood cookout. We said: "We'll grill some hot dogs and have some chips and drinks and things like that.

And then we said: By the way, the head basketball coach for UTA is a member of our congregation and Coach Scott Cross said that he would get the guys from the team to come if any of you would like to play some parking lot basketball.

And that's when the magic happened!

And even when the rain came everyone was having such a great time,

we continued to play!

I don't think it's because we did anything particularly special, looking back now I think God just wanted to remind us of something important.

I sought my God but my God I could not see

I sought my soul but my soul eluded me.

I sought my brother, and I found all three.

"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20

Maybe there is something in your own life right now that has gotten you down, or maybe this is one of those times when you just feel like throwing your hands up in the air!

If so then maybe this would a good time to open a few gates in your own life, and though there's no telling what might happen, don't be surprised if you find yourself experiencing the wonderful words to this song....

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

Posted at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

UTA Basketball Camp 2012...week 1

The first week of Scott's basketball camp started Monday. The little guys are from 9-12 so that is what we have done every morning. The boys are loving every minute of it. It's Tyler's first year to do it and he is HYPED. As long as he has his little ball, he can make shots on the 8 ft goals just fine. It is so cute! Cody has done really well too and can make shots with a regular ball now. Austin is becoming more and more competitive, and won every single competition station in his age group this week. Scott is moving him up with older kids next week.

In between, we have been playing...Austin stayed with Scott one afternoon and I took the little guys swimming because they needed to PLAY!

Here is Tyler crying at camp in the middle of a game because he didn't like his jersey because it was too big...let's just say that he has been on the team that is not wearing jerseys the rest of the week...

Video of Tyler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5NaqBIzT7g&feature=youtu.be):

Video of Cody (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IR5iuC5RwQ&feature=youtu.be):

Video of Austin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAigxB8mKe0&feature=youtu.be):

Posted at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Father's Day Weekend

We left on Friday to head down to Austin to spend some time with my parents and sister. My mom and dad got a ranch house out in the hill country, complete with pool, playground, creek, firepit, and a great house with a screened in porch and ping pong table! We got there at dinner time Friday and my sister had prepared tons of food for the weekend. The first thing the boys wanted to do was see the creek. We could see the fish swimming in it, including a HUGE catfish. After that the boys went swimming and we sat in the shade and munched on Michelle's homemade salsa. We played ping pong, had spaghetti casserole for dinner, and even though we couldn't build a fire because of the lack of rain, my dad fired up the BBQ grill and we had smores on the patio dangit! The boys loved roasting the marshmellows. It was their first time! YUMMO. We stayed up late playing more ping pong and chatting. The next morning we had breakfast burritos, and the boys went swimming again. They played on the playground, played soccer and threw the football, played more ping pong, watched some TV, and swam again. We had burgers and homemade ice cream for dessert and it was all AWESOME. My sister even made homemade ranch dressing! AND chocolate syrup! We all took showers and put the boys in their pjs for the drive home. We left at 7:30 or so Saturday night and drove back home. I was sad to leave and really wanted to stay a few more days. I was so relaxed and happy after chilling with family.

On Sunday we woke up and went to church. The boys got Scott an iCade.

This thing is pretty dang cool. You put an iPad in it, and I downloaded all the old Atari games. We headed out to Scott's parent's house later and the kids played and then we went to an early dinner and headed home.

Here are pics from the house on Friday and Saturday!

If you look closely, you will see a shark fin on Tyler's head...he was being a pool shark...

This was THE COOLEST and prettiest tree. I just kept looking at it because it was so unique. We all kept saying that it must be old, so my mom asked the owner, and found out that this tree is 500 years old. Awesome!

And this was something I thought I would never see again. The room we stayed in had a queen bed, a daybed with a trundle underneath, and a crib. And by golly Tyler wanted to sleep in that crib! My mom made it out to be really cool, and he fell for it and begged to sleep in it. All sorts of weird feelings rushed back after checking on him and seeing him sleeping in it. I never thought I would see any of my boys sleeping in a crib again! So sweet!

Tyler was so tired from all the fun on Saturday that he fell asleep sitting up at dinner!

Bar-b-que smores!

And as I posted on Facebook for Scott:

I could not have asked for a better father for my sons. They will learn what a respectful, kind, strong, dedicated, and patient man should act like, simply by watching their own dad. It is the greatest gift they could have as boys, and I am so grateful for that. Thank you for being such a great father Scott Cross.
"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Posted at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Blue Raider Basketball Camp

Austin was invited to attend the LD Bell High School Blue Raider basketball camp. Coach Willie Henderson is kind of a DFW basketball legend, and he and Scott have struck up a friendship. Coach Henderson is the head coach at LD Bell HS, and that is the high school we would've fed into IF we had stayed at the house. Scott didn't mention to Coach Henderson that we had moved, and we still wanted to take Austin to the camp, so off we went, every morning from 9-12. Cody and Tyler were a little upset that they weren't old enough to go yet, but they sure enjoyed watching! And Coach Henderson was just a little upset that we had moved. HA! Austin had a ball at this camp, and Scott came and talked to the campers on Wednesday. The boys were broken up into groups by grade, and Austin won 1st place in the free throw competition, 1st place in the Spot Shot competition, 3rd place in the 1-on-1 competition, and received a medal for the "Blue Raider Award". It was awarded to him for being a hard worker, having a good attitude, and never giving up. He was BEAMING!

Austin, with his group coach, Coach Baylor: