Fires - Graffiti - Church... what a combo!

What a fun weekend! The 2 things that Linda and I were absolutely certain we would do this weekend, we ended up not doing... oh well... we had a blast in the meantime!

On Friday night, we decided to get stuff for smores, some firewood, a few girly movies and put on the sweatpants! Our friend, Emily, came over and we had a fun night!! Next time you have smores, you HAVE to try them with Cookies 'n Cream Hersey's bar instead of the normal chocolate. Sooooo good :) At any rate, we were super hyped to have our first fire at 731... it was successful and no one was injured!

Saturday, we got a late start but ended up over at the East Austin Studio Tour (E.A.S.T.). There are over 100 art studios in East Austin... so this was the designated weekend that they opened their doors and invited all of Austin in! I really, really wish I was able to take pictures of some of this "art"... interesting to say the least. I think our favorite discovery was this block-long wall of graffiti on East 4th Street (in between San Marcos and Medina). This wall was incredible! Awesome photo ops... which we certainly took our fair share of pics! We then went to Uncorked over on the East Side... and sat out on the patio. It was chilly, but they had heaters AND blankets for us to wrap up in... nice. The patio has an AMAZING view of downtown... you have to check it out! We decided to get a flight (roughly 1 full glass of wine combined) of 3 different kinds of wines. I learned that I'm not a fan of wines from Chile... too bitter I say! Mom and Dad are going to have a little mini trip to Uncorked when they get into town this week.

We ended our Saturday at Dominican Joe's (www.dominicanjoe.com) for a fundraiser for Makarios (makariosinternational.org). Makarios is a faith based non-profit that focuses on education development in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Dominican Joe buys all of their coffee beans from Makarios, who gets them from the Dominican. So... it's a really cool way to support an incredible mission by buying a cup of coffee!

I guess I'll end with Sunday... a day of cleaning, watching movies and Church. I absolutely LOVE my church, the Austin Stone (www.austinstone.org). Literally every single week I am challenged and grow more in love with Christ. I love the vision of our church... that we are missional in the city of Austin... we want to be a church FOR the city. I truly couldn't feel more blessed to have been led to this church!

I hope that all of you have an incredible Thanksgiving... filled with family, laughter and being thankful for the many blessings in our lives. Be safe and love to you all!

grace & peace,
skd

Don't talk smack when you're 4-7...

I've been trying to think of something totally random to blog about... and I was just reading an article in the Statesman that gave me all the reason to just announce my opinion on some comments made by 2 Aggie football players about UT's Colt McCoy.

Now... I am an Aggie. I love my school and I always want my team to win. Always. We have upset Texas for the last 2 years... and who knows, we may actually show up and attempt to play a game on Thanksgiving night. Anything can happen... anything.

So, I'm reading this article about the 2006 game when Michael Bennett sacked McCoy in the last minutes of the game and McCoy was carted off of the field. Apparently Bennett still receives hateful emails from UT fans... ok whatever... it's football. But, to my point of this blog...

Maybe it's because I don't like conflict or maybe it's because I dated a former baseball player or maybe it's because I just love sports... but I've learned that you NEVER EVER say anything that your competitors can hang up in their locker! NEVER! It only gives them ammo to go out and absolutely CRUSH you. For example, at the Olympics a few months ago when Michael Phelps had quotes from his French competition that totally just motivated him to go out and make him eat the water from his path. (Ok, lame attempt to make "eat his dust" into a swimming analogy...) And Phelps certainly made that happen. At any rate, Aggie football players, Michael Bennett and Matt Featherston, have opened their mouths and given ol' Colt something to put up in his locker...

Bennett: "I think he [McCoy] gets a little spooked sometimes"
Featherston: "I wish him all the best for the Heisman, but I hope he has his worst game against us."

This is my message to Bennett and Featherston... shut your mouths and actually ATTEMPT to play defense next week. If you say anything to anyone, it needs to be to your fellow teammates to get them pumped up and motivated for the game! Arg... I'm rolling my eyes right now...

This one will be interesting, kids... very interesting.

Happy Friday all... hope you have a great weekend! :)

The Deckers invade Mother Frances... get ready!

So 1 am on a Tuesday morning... not the typical time slot to see Sarah Decker blogging about anything. But, the truth of the matter is that the Decker clan is setting up shop in the hospital to be with my Granny in her final hours. It's been a long, hard week on all of us, but we are all at peace in knowing that she will soon be among the angels singing! I, for one, am personally very excited for her... to the point where I just want to give her a little pep talk in her ear! (That's not weird is it??) She is sleeping right now and that feisty red-head we all call Granny is just refusing to give up... I can tell you that I admire her strength! I would have been plum worn out by now...

Ok, so to the point of the blog. During our past 6 days here at Mother Frances, us Deckers have certainly provided some laughs. I can thank my PawPaw for passing down the "when things get rough, you just say stupid things to make people laugh" gene. So, here are the top 10 things that have come out of our mouths over the past few days...

** Disclaimer... we are all going without sleep, therefore we are dillusional. Please don't take offense at anything I'm about to type. We dearly LOVE this woman, we're just trying to make a hard time a little easier...**

10 - Dad to the family in the room with Granny: "Dang Kristal, was that you?!" When the oxygen mask on Granny fluttered to make a farting sound.

9 - Kristal, when telling me about the #10 situation, said "flagellated" instead of "fluttered".

8 - I was trying to look-up how to spell "flagellated" decided to look up "fart" in the thesaurus... "Fart isn't in the Thesaurus."

7 - The night Security Guard at the front desk, checking me in... "Dang! How many of ya'll are there? Is it sad that I already know all of your grandmother's information by heart?" Me: "Why no, we are that annoying..."

6 - My cousin, Kristal: "Man, I shouldn't have just eaten that Honey Bun. I have acid reflux and that pregnant nurse with the TUMS isn't here tonight..."

5 - Not necessarily a quote, but just the story repeated to EVERY single new nurse that came into the room... that my dad was told, by his 2 older brothers, from a very young age that he was adopted and that they gave him power of attorney to make him feel like he was really apart of the family.

4b - Dad talking about my diabetic PawPaw "I just bought him a dozen donuts... He's gonna 'ride with top down', but I told him that if he pulls a fast one I'm gonna kick his butt."

4a - PawPaw has manipulated everyone in the family for a donut for the past 5 days. We finally all figured him out and put our foot down. So when Sister Irene asked him if he needed anything today, he said "well, I'd like a donut..." and she brought him TWO... and he didn't even say "God bless you"...

3 - When sharing old stories, my dad decided to bring up the Pin-Up picture that my Granny took for my PawPaw when he was in WWII... offering to make copies for anyone who wanted one...

2 - My PawPaw, a Navy Veteran who has something against the Army, looks at my cousin, Gary, who is IN the Army, and begins to read Gary's shirt. And I quote, "What does that say?? Army... Dipstick???" I laughed out loud, Gary did not.

1 - When Sister Irene came into the room on Thursday to offer prayer and comfort, my PawPaw proceeds to say, "I have a cousin that's a nun in California... you wouldn't happen to have a list, would you?" Really PawPaw, a list of nuns?? Oh my...

Well... none of those things may be funny to any of you. But, the laughs have certainly been helping us through this tough time. My Granny is such a wonderful wife, mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend... and she will truly be missed by all that know her. I love her dearly and pray that she feels the love in this place... because it's here... in the BIG Decker kinda way.

grace & peace,

skd