The Love Dare

We joined a new Life Group at church and met for the first time on Sunday evening. For those of you asking yourself, "What is Life Group?"...it is a small group of people from our church who meet a few times a month for fellowship and Bible study. We were in a Life Group a while back, but it slowly dissolved. On Saturday, I mentioned to a friend that we needed to find a new Life Group. The next thing I knew, we had a group. It is great how God works out all of the details for us when we are following his plan.

Like I said, we met for the first time on Sunday evening. After our next meeting we will begin to work through the Love Dare workbook. If you have not heard of the Love Dare, then you haven't seen the movie Fire Proof. Fire Proof was produced by the same church who produced Facing the Giants. While I did not feel that it was as strong or powerful a movie as Facing the Giants, it was great, and the life changing impact of its message ... just as great!

We live in a world that attacks, devalues, and redefines relationships every day. Through this study, we will learn more about rescuing and protecting our marriages from the firestorm. Just as they do in the movie, I challenge you to join me and to take The Love Dare and to FIREPROOF your relationship.
The Love Dare from Mike Stecker on Vimeo.

Daddy-Daughter Dance 2009

Make a Smilebox photobook

The Daddy-Daughter Dance is a big event in Frisco and one that Blake and Megan have attended for the past several years. This year's dance was extra special because it was their final Daddy-Daughter Dance.

Preparations started just after Christmas with the purchase of Megan's dress. This year, Megan wore a strapless black bubble dress with bow topped ballet flats. In true "princess" fashion, she topped off her outfit with a rhinestone tiara. The tiara, or crown, as she calls it, is her own Daddy-Daughter Dance tradition.

Megan and I began the day shopping with Christie & Hannah. After finding a dress for Hannah, we enjoyed a terrific lunch at Texas Land & Cattle before heading to Serenity Day Spa for our manicures and pedicures. As soon as our nails were dry, we headed home to wash and style Megan's hair and to get her dressed for her big evening.

Everyone met at our house for pre-dance pictures. After posing for individual, group, and dad and daughter pictures, the girls and dads were off to dinner at Jinbeh before their final Daddy-Daughter Dance. A great time was had by all - dad's and girls alike - at dinner and the dance.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

An Icy Day!

Today was our second snow, or should I say "ice" day, of the year. Most years we never use our snow days, so we get an extra day off in April or May when we REALLY need it. This year, however, we have used both of our snow days. So, instead of getting a long weekend for Easter and for Memorial Day, we will be going back to school.

I did, however, get some extra sleep today, managed to get the kitchen cleaned up, washed a load of laundry and put away a little laundry, relaxed a bit, and saw a movie with the kids, my sister, and nephews, so ... it was a good day. But, we will all be wishing we had gone to school today in April.

Back to work and school tomorrow, so I had better get the kids and myself to bed!

Deeper

Tonight, I attended the Deeper Service at church. The Deeper service is a themed service that we have every so often. It is for the regular attendees/members of our church - a chance for us to worship, partake in communion, deepen our relationship with Christ, focus on Him, deepen our experiences and worship as a body of believers. It was a beautiful evening of praise and worship, artistic expression, and Baptism. During the service, we were encouraged to write a fear on a broken tile, and then to find a scripture on the wall, a verse from God's word, that puts our fear to rest. As the service continued, a group of members placed the tiles onto a large canvas. The tiles, each of which contained a fear, were placed upon the letters that spelled out the word "trust". The end result was a beautiful expression of faith; the mass of fears covered by the collective faith in God, his word, his promises. I was such a blessing to take part in this amazing service, and I look forward to the next one.

Great Start to a New Year ... 2009

The New Year has started off well for the Richardson family. We are settling back into school and work and into some positive routines. We've gotten the house back to normal and back together after the holiday festivities and decorations, we are keeping up with the dishes and laundry, the kids are helping out with the household chores, we've been cooking and eating at home, and things are running rather smoothly. Now, if we can just keep this up for 349 more days it will be a great year! I know that things will slip here and there and that "life" will get in the way of keeping everything in order, but ... I am going to keep trying to do my best to keep a positive attitude about it all and to not let "not getting everything done all of the time" get me down.

Blake and I have also been watching what we eat, have been drinking our shakes again (and more often), and are cutting out soft drinks. Next, we have to tackle the gym and get into a routine of working out. Prayers and encouragement welcome!

Blake's Eyes ... 20/20

Blake went to the eye doctor today, and his eyes are 20/20! It has taken a while for his eyes to heal, but they are great! He is so happy to be without the contact and seeing 20/20.

We celebrated with a night out together. We went to a small pizza place, Durkins, and had a great pepperoni pizza together, and then headed to the movies. We saw Seven Pounds, which was good, very thought provoking, but left you a bit down at the end. Blake really wanted to see Gran Torino, so we looked it up on the iphone, and headed to another theatre about 20 minute away to catch the 9:30pm showing. The theatre was crowded and the movie had already started, so we just had to get seated. We ended up sitting separately because there were no two seats together. Blake had the pleasure of sitting by a man with really bad breathe, while I enjoyed the movie next to a rather stinky woman. I don't think these late night movies are for us. Too many "stinky" people! But, the movie was great.

It's been a long time since Blake and I saw two movies in one night. In fact, until this week, it has been a while since I had seen a movie in the theatre. This week, however, I have seen four movies - both times, double features. First, Bedtime Stories and Marly and Me, then Seven Pounds and Gran Torino. It's been a big movie week for us.

Updates

Things have been rather busy, and I have not had a chance to blog recently, so I wanted to try to catch everyone up a bit.

Blake's eyes are improving. The left eye is finally starting to heal and his sight is getting better. Progress is slow, but we are seeing progress, so that is great! He goes back to the doctor tomorrow for another check-up.

Christmas was fabulous! We spent Christmas Eve at the Richardson's where we had a fabulous dinner along with our annual Chinese Christmas exchange, followed by service at the 8pm candle light service at our church. We then headed home to prepare for Santa's visit and Christmas morning.

Christmas Day was terrific! Megan and Connor woke up early and were excited to see what Santa had left for them and to open their many other presents. We enjoyed some time as a family Christmas morning, opening presents and spending time together. We had a fantastic Christmas brunch and then the boys took off for 9 holes of golf while the girls dressed and prepared for the Christmas afternoon/evening activities. Stephanie, Colton, Carson, Aunt Carol, Flip & Sharolyn joined Blake, Connor, Megan, my parents, and I for a wonderful Christmas dinner. I cooked my very first turkey, and it turned out great! It was moist and delicious! It was a terrific day with family and friends!