Be My Escape

I remember walking into that Christian bookstore, nine years ago, clutching my $15 giftcard. I already knew what item I would buy. I had heard Relient K via Elena, and I was finally purchasing their Anatomy Of The Tongue In Cheek album.

Pretty close to the front!

Caro, Joseph and I

Ever since that fateful day I've been a huge fan. Until August, I had never seen them in concert! My good friend, Joseph (pictured above), invited me to their concert. They are definitely still one of my favorite bands and I was so excited to be at their concert. 

In Christ,
~Micaela Marques

Mountains, Painting walls, and Counting Stars

                    If that didn't sound random, I don't what does.

Amusingly enough, they're all part of a chain of events that happened within a week.

 A couple Friday's ago in May, we drove to Katy to go see -you guessed it- Andrew Peterson's concert " Counting Stars", and yes, it was excellent! The concert was filled with a host of stories and songs! After the concert, and a tornado watch, we drove to my Grandma's house in Burnet, and got there at 2:30a! I was so sleepy, I don't think I was in full control of my brain. In the morning we drove the last leg of the journey, making it to El Paso by 4:00p (El Paso time).  As we drove in, memories of past trips started coming back. Sadly, I had this streak of getting sick with fevers as a kid, so most of my memories were not too happy, just memorable.

He didn't sing the whole album, instead he sang a few here, and there, and some he sang from his new album that's coming out.

A tornado had touched down in the area, so you could hear the thunder and see the lightning out of the windows. It was a great touch to the concert!

After settling in to our quarter's at a friend's house, we went for a quick, cool, walk around the block. Despite the heat during the day, it is nice a chilly in the evening.

The Anaya Family. Mom and Dad first knew the Anaya's when they had three kids under five -my does time fly!

Back when I was a twinkle in my mother's eye, before we moved to Austin, my family had become good friends with the Anaya's, when both couples had three kids. On Sunday we had the great pleasure to go to church with them and eat lunch at their house. When we told them that we planned to stay in a hotel the rest of the week, they insisted that we stay with them. We spent a much, much more enjoyable week staying up till midnight, talking on the porch, and eating good food with friends. Even though we hadn't seen them in many years, we still talked like there was no tomorrow.

The clear skies, dry but pretty mountains, and the electric line, basically sums up El Paso. :)

After working hard on my Grandpa's house, we took a scenic drive thru the mountains and had to stop at Trans Mountain for a quick photo shoot.

So the youngest person who is afraid of heights and shaky ladders got the job to paint the top of the wall on a shaky ladder. Maybe it's just my lot in life.

Carrying out a bed frame for some willing Mexicans

We cleaned out a lot of my Grandpa's stuff in his shed and dragged it to the curb. within the hour, several (not just one or two people) stopped and picked some things up. We have this joke/saying, "Only Mexicans would do [fill in the blank]". I think this saying applies, cause only Mexicans would stop by the curb to pick something up.

Mica and I planted some flowers. We were very proud gardeners!

On our last day in El Paso we filled up on some fine Mexican food with Grandpa before kicking out of town we made a lunch-stop at "Delicious".

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you real fruit drinks.

We got a wee taste of Mexican market at this fiesta-like grocery with loud music, lots of people, and lots of food.

Mr and Mrs Anaya and, of course, Mom and Dad.

The school that my Grandma and Grandpa went to!

Right behind the tall buildings, where the majority of lights are, is Juarez

Going to Juarez as a kid, I don't remember it being so close, I was shocked at realizing how close it is!

New and sweet friend Chrissy!

The wife of a friend, of a family that we grew up with in Austin. A rather distant connection, but it didn't matter, we chatted away. 

I'm not at all partial to where I see a sunrise or sunset -off the beach, in a plane, on the mountains- I can always count on it being beautiful!

Love,

              Caro :)

Behold the Lamb of God 2011

So, quite a few weeks ago, Dad, Mom, Lizzie (again), and myself, paid an overnight trip to Austin, for Andrew Peterson's concert, "Behold the Lamb of God". We left decently early on Sunday morning, and drove to the Webb's house, where we caravaned to church. I confess, that by the end of the sermon, my stomach was speaking louder than my attentive face [embarrassed smile].
After church, we relaxed at my Aunt's house, while the kids napped. For dinner, Nicole brought over some leftovers, and we had a crazy, but fun, time eating, after which we (Mom, Lizzie, Sophia, and I) had to scramble over to the concert. The church where the concert was held is our old stomping ground in Austin. We used to have many people (and still have a few) that we knew who attended that church; Elena and Mica used to do AWANA there--do I see any former AWANA kids?-- when we lived in Austin.
Okay, I thought that because Andrew Peterson wasn't incredibly well known that there wouldn't be a lot of people there....well, there was. Quite a bit of people. We even ran into some old friends, which were great to see again.
While we were waiting for the concert to begin, I had the same feeling of anticipation as I do when I go to certain midnight showings of movies, but this was better. :)
The first half of the concert, all the people that toured with AP--which were Jason Gray, Andrew Osenga, Andy Gullahorn, Jill Phillips, and Ben Shive--took turns singing two songs from their own albums. Without having ever heard any of the singers --except Jason Gray-- I really appreciated and enjoyed them thoroughly!
They were all very witty and relaxed on stage and weren't showy, like other singers.
A few of them played songs from albums that have not been released yet, including Andrew Osenga and Andrew Peterson. We had the privilege to hear one of AP's songs that he had literally finished an hour and a half before the concert!
After everyone finished singing their songs there was an intermission, then they all sang the actual album, "Behold the Lamb of God". But before, while everyone was still coming, AP got everyone already in the sanctuary to sing It Is Well With My Soul, which was neat. All the songs that they played I wouldn't have necessarily liked, if I had not heard them live or heard the back stories to them. Then at the end, they had everyone singing part of O Come, O Come Emmanuel and they left the stage with everyone singing the Doxology! Thus they put the focus away from themselves and on Christ!
It wasn't like a rock concert, neither was it like a praise-and-worship band; it was different. A refreshing different.

But now, I think I've talked too much.

[These are really all the pictures that came out, all the other ones were blurry]

Lizzie and I, after the concert.

:)


Now if I could say anything to make up for my "overly-giddiness", it would be this:

Dear Mr. Andrew Peterson,
Thanks for indulging two very nerdy and ecstatic girls with your time and pen.
If you ever come back to Texas, I'll do my best to--instead of bringing a pile of books--bring friends and family!
Your books are fantastic!
Continue on with your publishing and recording.
Sincerely,
Caro

P.S Is there any way I can entice you

to come back to Texas and come visit the small

group of fans in Houston?

Afterward, Lizzie and I rushed to buy CD for me and a book for her. Then, with quaking stomach and giddy head, we went to get our books signed (I already had some books with me). I blubbered words that were supposed to be sentences, as I handed my books for him to sign. I said "books" because...well, I had more than one book...I had four. :). So I got three books of the series signed and an extra one especially for my friends, the Hood girls, to whom I had read the books.
So, all in all I enjoyed the concert and especially going with a friend.




:)

Dear Traveling Girls

{yes, believe it or not, this was taken at Galveston}

Dear traveling girls,

I would have posted sooner, but I kinda misplaced the camera, and since there was no maid--sister-- to keep track of it for me, I forgot it. But I got it back, don't worry, would I be writing to you if I hadn't?

All this to say, that some of the pictures will be blurry since they were taken with Dad's blackberry.
SO, last Friday, we went to Galveston for the day, and we brought Lizzie with us!
We started off going to a subsea drilling & oil museum...yeah, only people who work for the companies involved in that stuff, go there. But there were actually some interesting parts. After that we had lunch at Starbucks, and then went shopping/sight seeing downtown. We visited a candy shop, surf shops, boutique shops, and ( my favorite) antique shops.
Even though we don't have any pictures, the antique shops were fantastic, however, expensive! One of the antique shops had-- what I call-- a dream land of dress ups!! Beautiful dress ups, scarves, gloves, hats, etc. It was literally like a dream come true! And there were also some Lucky Indian Buffalo Head Nickel coins from the 20s that the lady showed us, plus marvel comic books which I would have bought ( if I knew what to buy), and old, old children toys. For example, mom recognized one of the old aluminum doll houses, the kind she used to play with...yeah, that kind of old. :P
The shopping extended to other parts of the building which as it turns out was an original late 1800's hotel with all the rooms in their original state!
All this to say that I was proven wrong, there is actually some neat places in Galveston.

These are just few of many pelicans that were resting on the rocks.
Lizzie and I could think of only one quote:
Dory:DUCK.
Marlin:[looks up] That's not a duck, it's a... PELICAN.
-Finding Nemo

Exclude the odd eyes, this shop was really nice.

FREE SAMPLES!
Not really, but that's what I thought.

A recycled-paper dress!

I thought of our dear friend the Naquins, when I saw that. :)

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It was pretty windy!

First thing I thought when I saw this thing, was, " Look! A huge shadowbox!"

Though I have not obtained the photos yet, I'll be posting soon about a certain concert we went to on December 11th!

Love,
Caro :)