Barnyard Praise TONIGHT!

Tonight is the closing program for the WAM Jr. program at Second Baptist Church. This is Avery's second year to be involved. Since February, Piper has been involved and I joined as a "helper".

Avery has the opening line of the program ... too cute. I'm hoping he doesn't clam up, although he's becoming less shy. I'm sure he'll be fine. The Kindergarten kids are dressing as farmers.

Piper will be on the front row. (A definite advantage to being short!) Her class will be costumed as horses. I may just die at the "preciousness". She'll think she's the coolest horse that's ever lived.

Videos and pictures will be posted! Wish us luck :)

Spring 2009 Garage Sale

Last Saturday, April 25, was the designated Garage Sale day for our neighborhood. If you live in a Master Planned Community, then you are probably familiar with the fact that everyone has to have their sale on the same day regardless of whether or not you’re finished going through all of your closets!

With that said, it’s probably better for me that they just tell us what day to drag things out and sell them to the lowest bidder (what it seems like anyway!)

This year, I warned my husband that this was an “everything must go sale”. I warned the kids that if they got too far out on the driveway and someone offered a price - they might go too! I was serious about this garage sale.

This comes from the fact that twice a year since we moved to Houston in May of 2006, I have dragged - what seems like - the same stuff out everytime. And, my husband has put back most of this same stuff … every.single.time.

I was done with the dragging back in part. I was done with hearing the gasps of disbelief when the neighbors see our garage door open. I wondered if we would EVER know how it feels to park a small car in the garage - much less the Traverse.

At 6:00 AM, we opened the “Click Family Garage Sale”. It was a slow start, but it picked up around 9:00 AM. I sold things marked at $60 for $20 just to get rid of it. I sold bags of childrens clothes marked at $2 for 50-cents. I put FREE on an old couch that was still there when we were ready to be done.

We finished the day well, but we still had a lot of stuff left.

Around 11:30, Don and I looked at what was left and decided that there was nothing left on our driveway that we were emotionally attached too. With that, we put down the second and third rows on the Traverse and started loading EVERYTHING into the vehicle.

We had that thing full to the brim. What would have taken us at least three or four trips in our regular cars was an absolute breeze in the Traverse. One trip.

We took our things to Katy Christian Ministries in Katy. (If you are in Sugar Land, let me recommend Second Mile Ministries.) My husband said that the man unloading our things took several of our boxes right to the sale table, and before Don left - a box full of pots and pans was already sold.

I’m glad that someone else can get use out of our things. I hope that our things all find happy homes and make life easier for another family.

Rain Rain Go Away

It has rained ... and rained .... and rained some more. We have begun work on the arc but we aren't quite done yet.

Seriously ... I'm thinking that I'll need to take back the Traverse and ask for a speedboat.

With the reverse camera, please.

My friend, Katy, and I got caught in the rain on Friday night. We had big plans for a girls night on the town. No husbands and no kids. We should have known that it wasn't meant to be.

We started off at the Olive Garden. As we were leaving, the heavens opened up and it rained like I've never seen it rain - until again today!

Katy and I ran to the car, even though a passerby who was noticibly more dry than us told us that you get less-wet if you walk. We ran as fast as we could. After we got in the car, we noticed that no one else was as wet as us. We didn't have a dry thread on us. The more we looked at each other, the harder we laughed. We were a mess.

However, instead of spending 1:40 looking at Zac Efron, we spent 1:40 shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond and Kirklands. It was a fair trade.

And, we didn't see anyone we knew. Thank goodness.

Prayers for Compassion

Four bloggers that I follow faithfully online are headed to India at this moment. I began reading their blogs all at different times, so I thought it was very cool that they were chosen to travel on this trip together.

Angie Smith, Pete Wilson, Anne Jackson, and Melissa Fitzpatrick are the four that I feel like I know ... They are traveling on behalf of Compassion International.

Please pray for their safety and that they are able to tell the amazing story of Christ to the people in the areas where they will be serving.

Visit this page to read more about their trip and find links to their individual blogs.

Driving Downtown Houston

Driving to Downtown Houston - Stephanie Click - MommyMadnessHouston.com from Stephanie Click on Vimeo.

My New Ride ... for now.

Several weeks ago, I received an email from a lady saying that she had come across my blog and was interested in me doing a promotion for her. Assuming it was spam, I nearly deleted it. I decided to respond with my phone number and asked her to please call me if this was a legitimate offer. Within minutes, I received another response asking for my number.

And, I guess you could say, the rest is history.

Today, I picked up a 2009 Chevy Traverse. I am part of a promotion between Chevy and CBS Radio. They picked three markets - Houston, Dallas, and Kansas City, and chose 5 Mom-Bloggers in each city. (In the Houston market, they reviewed over 200 blogs! I'm completely honored to have been chosen.) For the next 8 weeks, we each will drive a brand new Traverse with only the obligation being that we blog about our experiences with the vehicle - good and bad.

We have a website that will serve as our "home base" - Mommy Madness. You can read my bio and find out about the other gals chosen here.

Bookmark this page as we'll each be adding cool things every day.

You'll also get to vote for your favorite mom! You can vote as many times as you want! Each vote will enter you into a drawing for a girl’s getaway weekend (the winner - or the female of their choice -and three friends) to the Barton Creek Resort in Austin, TX.

If you are in the Houston, you can get a free massage from Massage Envy by test driving the Traverse! All you do is go to your Houston Chevy dealer and ask to test drive the car. Once you're done, you get a gift certificate. It's a no-pressure deal. Promise.

So, that's the situation with the car. It should be an interesting ride - no pun intended! The car had 44 miles on it when I picked it up today. It's heavenly.

Watch for videos and cool feature segments about the Traverse. It's really a cool vehicle and I can't wait to tell you more about it.

Music City Mystique? WGI?

This afternoon, I'm leaving to spend the next four days with some of the best kids on the planet. These kids (kids to me anyway) are the members of Music City Mystique, a non-profit music organization that my husband and his friend, Chris Finen, began in 1994.

To put it very simply, the approximately 40 members - girls and boys with an average age of 20 - put together an 8 minute percussion theatrical performance set in a gymnasium. This weekend is the World Championship competition where they will compete with teams from all over the US and the world.

This little Tennessee group is no stranger to this contest. They've won the World Championship more than any other team - 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2004 and again in 2006. They know what they're doing. I was honored to be part of the staff from 2002-2006.

I've was married while teaching this group, I had two babies while teaching this group, I had to tell these kids that I loved as my own that my family was moving 15 hours away. Needless to say - we've experienced a lot of life together and I can't wait to see them this weekend.

If you have a Twitter account, please consider following them @MusCtyMystique. I'll be doing updates many times throughout the day.

Here is a video clip from a 2007 rehearsal ... it will give you a sneak peak at this activity if you've never seen it before!

Crazy Pants Day

I got Avery all the way to the bus this morning and was giving him a hug before I realized that his pants were on backwards.

Seriously. Backwards.

Buttoned. Zipped. The whole nine yards.

I'm still not sure how he did it. He had to have just pulled them all the way up without taking the time to mess with noticing that there SHOULD BE a button and zipper to do.

The worst part is that not only did he wear them backwards from home to daycare, but he went to the potty when he got to daycare. (His second chance to notice something was wrong!) It was when he came out of the bathroom and I was hugging him good-bye that I noticed that I was patting on a button and not his little bottom!

Luckily, the assistant daycare director was there and she held the bus until I could take him back to the restroom and get him straightened out. All the way back to the restroom, he kept saying "What's wrong, Mom? What's wrong?" He had no clue.

Bless his heart.

Such a typical male.

Dancing in Wal-Mart

Sometimes we have a little bit too much fun with the music sampling station :)

My Big (Little) Girl

We're so proud of little Piper - this is her first time on the Honor Roll. (It's her first opportunity to be on the Honor Roll. Hate to make it sound like she's been 'underachieving'.)

Yesterday was a little bit bittersweet. We were so excited about her Honor Roll certificate, but also found out that she'll be promoting to a new class on Monday. Her new teachers will be the same ones that Avery had this time last year. They are great teachers, and more than prepared him for Kindergarten.

But, I LOVE LOVE LOVE her current teachers. They have been so good to Piper. They have loved and nurtured her, and have had patience ten-fold with my little girl. More importantly, she loves them. There have been many days that she's called me by one of their names. Normally, that would send me into some kind of guilty tailspin, but instead - I know - that it's a good thing. I'm glad that I can walk out the door of her classroom and know that she will be loved on all day long.


... Did I mention that Piper's boyfriend is already in the new class? Oh the drama. They're like an old married couple. Fight. Make-up. Hug. Fight. Make-up. Hug. Stay tuned for more on this one.

Britney Concert Review

I'm still excited about this concert. I'd see it again and again and again ... It was amazing.

Here are a couple of basic observations:

(1) The Pussycat Dolls were great live. They was no lip-syncing at all and those girls can move! I knew a lot more of their songs than I thought I did. They are not your typical opening act.

(2) I had on more clothes than anyone else in the entire Toyota Center. I live by the philosophy that "If you ain't 'got it,' don't flaunt it!" Several others should have followed my lead.

(3) Britney is still the Princess of Pop.

Lots of people are all up in arms about her lip-syncing all or part of the concert. I couldn't tell whether she was or not, and really - it didn't matter. The tour is a SHOW ... The girl moved and danced the entire two hours she was on stage. If she isn't singing every song live - I can completely understand why. More importantly, it wasn't obvious when she came in and out of live singing, so my experience wasn't affected.

One of the most incredible parts of the concert was the opening act with Perez Hilton. I found a couple of videos on YouTube, but none could capture the "coolness" and quality of the video. It was incredible.

The set list was really good. Lots of my favorites from the Circus album, a couple from Blackout, several from In the Zone. A good selection and good mixes of all the songs.

Finally, the choreography was OUT OF CONTROL. Britney always has great dancers, but this time it was off the chain. Lots of style changes and even a chance for each dancer to showcase their own talent in a special "feature" segment. Pussycat Dolls had some great choreography too. I was amazed at how much they were able to do in those TALL-heeled boots!

Overall, we got our money's worth from this concert and more! I'd see it again in a heartbeat. Even if you aren't a fan of Britney's music, the show itself was well worth the price of the ticket. If you are a Britney fan, and you haven't see the show yet, buy your ticket TODAY.

Special shout-out to my sweet husband. What a trooper going with me, although he had an equally good time. It was fun to be together for a night out!