I know it's late but...Christmas

I have been hoping to blog about our December for a few weeks now but have just been really busy...just like our Christmas was!

It started out by us hosting three "adult" parties at our house besides the usual youth group party. We enjoyed the company of my amazing staff, followed by Bobby's co-workers, and then a Pastor's Open House where our church was invited to stop by for wassail and goodies. This was all in one weekend intentionally so I only had to clean my house once with a few "maintenance" clean ups in between.

The studio had really successful Christmas performances this year that really worked for us. Our preschool students were divided up in groups and performed at to local retirement homes. They are always so sweet to watch and the residence just love it. That evening the rest of our students performed at Friendswood's Christmas in the Park following the Lighted Christmas Parade. This was a great venue for us as the park was able to hold all the families that came to watch and the community got to see what we are all about. I was really proud of my teachers for such a great job on their choreographer and preparing their girls. I hope we can do this event for years to come.





The next VERY big event in my families life was the much anticipated, much celebrated, much deserved graduation of my beautiful sister Halie from Texas Tech. My family road tripped it all the way to the LBK for the weekend for a whirlwind trip and to move her out. I am so proud of her dedication, strength and independence. She is such a great example of a strong, Godly young women. Young girls take note!

This was a fun bonding trip for my family as it has been a while since we have had this big of an adventure.






Going back to the beginning of the month we had Kirsten's show Holiday Follies which included the Kingwood Park dance, theater and choir department. It was really special as KP and I choreographed our fourth solo for her to perform, Silent Night. She turned into a ballerina in a 4 hour rehearsal, I was so proud of her! It was a fun performance. She also had the Kid's Krazy Christmas Show (which I like to call Kid's Krazy Kirsten Show). She has been in JUMP for all four years and this was her last year for the show. It always gets me in the Christmas spirit. I think I will have to go next year even if she isn't in it. :)





After all this, we finally had three days of Christmas with our families. Christmas Eve service was pretty special with Bobby's family singing Reliant K's "I Celebrate the Day". Bobby on bass, his dad on drums, his mom on the piano, and Allen singing and playing the guitar. Christmas Day us, my mom and sisters (since my dad had to work)went to the Kirkpatrick's and the next day we celebrated in Kingwood with our family included my cousin's which was a special treat.


As usual, our December is topped off with Friends Student Conference which was in Wichita this year. We took 40 students and chaperones and had a great time. I really enjoyed having my sister there to help us too. The kids were great and we really enjoyed the snow.

Active Mind Lately

Sooooo, funny how I haven't blogged in TWO MONTHS since I vowed to be more open with my blogging hu? Ha! Oh Shanna.

The good thing is that in the past two months my mind has been racing thinking about all sorts of things and pondering. This is not typical for Shanna Hartman Kirkpatrick. The usual Shanna does not "ponder", she "knows". Just ask Bobby, he will tell you that if you ever pose a question to me my response will NEVER be "let me think on that a while". Instead it will be "WELL, I feel that.....". It is not typical for me to have my heart softened to things by thinking. I am just not wired that way. I am wired to get down to business.

However, the past two months the Lord has been softening me to all sorts of things.

1. I have been feeling so much compassion lately. I cared about people before but now I am thinking about different people groups more than just when I am presented with them on the news or something. These "people groups" include animals too. :) In particular God has really made me aware of couples that are unable to have children. I have known quite a few personally who have either lost babies or who are unable to conceive and my defenses have come up when I hear comments to me or others like "how come you don't have any kids yet? Don't you want children?" or more recently I have heard "oh, don't worry about dropping him, babies are easy to come by. HAHA". These comments may be said with pure intentions or jokingly but I have just really been sensitive when I hear people say things like this. You never know who you are talking to for one thing and two, you don't know their personal situations. It has taught me to be aware of my surroundings and sensitive to the personal situations of others.

2. I have strangely been relaxing a lot lately and surprise, my job has actually not been suffering! This started when my computer died and I couldn't be on it all the time. Now I don't rush to check my email every morning and don't spend my whole day that the computer working. I have been keeping my house cleaner, spending more time with Bobby and brainstorming more about work than doing busywork. I love it!

3. A big development is that my sister Katherine and I are going to Rwanda on a mission trip in July. This is sooo not like me. I have greatly enjoyed our yearly mission trips to Mexico but it is not like me to jump into a three week trip like this. I am a homebody and I especially love being home in the summer. Usually Bobby is the one gallivanting around the globe. We have quite a few missionaries in Rwanda from our church and I have really felt connected to what they are doing since one of them was a girl who grew up in our church and the other is a couple who stayed with Bobby and I for a week last year. I have always told myself that I wanted to go to Rwanda either before I had kids or when they were older, I just didn't expect it this summer. However Katherine and I dove in when we heard about our churches trip. Diving in for me is a good thing. That way I don't talk myself out of it. :) I am nervous about being away for that long but am excited to have this experience, see what God is doing there, and to be a part of these missionaries lives for a few weeks. I am also excited to go dance with the Africans. It is on my bucket list. :)

Currently, we have been busy with various Christmas things. Bobby and I went to Kingwood to watch Kirsten in the theater, dance and choir department's "Holiday Follies" for which Kirsten and I choreographed her solo. This weekend we have three Christmas parties at our house that I am getting ready for, Bobby's staff party, my staff party and a church wide pastors open house. Yikes! Saturday the studio has their Christmas ministry performances. The preschoolers will be dancing at various nursing homes and the older kids will be dancing at Friendswood's Christmas in the Park! I am looking forward to it, I think it will be a big statement for our studio in front of so many people in the community for the first time. I really hope that people see that we are different and why. And NEXT weekend all the Hartman's will be road tripping it to Lubbock to see Halie graduate! I would Whoop but she is a Tech-y. :)

Embracing Imperfection

I haven't blogged in a month and I have been pondering my reasons why I hesitate to do so. Most of the time I feel like I don't have anything of significance to talk about and other times I am just nervous or embarrassed to share what I am feeling and how things are going in our lives. My goal is to not only blog when "perfect" things are going on but also the imperfect.

The imperfect has been happening a lot lately. However, I know that this is when I see God the most in my life however and so I am trying not to run from it but to work through it and embrace it. I have no problem doing this inwardly while outwardly I put on the face that everything is fine. Anyone who knows me well knows that I don't like admitting when things are hard or that I am struggling.

I am thankful thought that when these un-ideal things happen I have almost been taking pride in it. I know that this is life and I am happy to be living life with its many ups and with its many downs. So I vow not to just blog the "Kodak" moments but all the "real" moments as well.

Go Panthers and Gig 'em Aggies!

We just had a great weekend full of football and friends. Kirsten's first home game was this weekend and the Panther's are now 2 for 2! I am looking forward to going to all of her home games this year. Don't worry Halie, I will post all the videos for you. ;)Saturday we had a full day with Brittany and Drue who came in from San Francisco for the game! We hit all of their favorite eating spots along the way. We started our day at Freebirds in The Woodlands before taking a ride in the boat at Brittany's parents. When we got to College Station we went to the amazing CC Creations tent sale, ate nachos at Zappato's, and then headed to the game. Both of us meet up with friends we hadn't seen in a while while we were there which was great. Once the game was over we headed to Layne's for Drue and then I HAD to have a Java Shake before heading back to Houston. It was great to hang out with them all day. We really miss our college friends sometimes, especially the ones who now live out of state.

Happy Birthday Halie!

Last night we celebrated my 26th and Halie's 24th birthdays. We are birthday twins. Halie's birthday is actually today and I am so thankful for her life and the joy and laughter (and drama) she brings to my life. I think I have expressed here before how much I love my sisters so I won't got into it again but I am really proud of Halie and thankful for the strong, Godly women she has become. I have to tell ya...I was a bit worried about her a long time ago but she has turned out pretty cool. :)

I was so thankful for the special gifts they each gave me. Halie, who just recently learned of my passion for hydrangea, gave me one to plant. Hopefully I won't kill it! Kirsten got me a Kingwood Park shirt to sport at all the games I will be going to this year but added one special touch, "Team Kirsten" on the back. Katherine, our resident Barista, gave me a cute tea shaker complete with four cups, stirrers and straws so now I can make my very own Passion Ice Tea Lemonade she taught me to make in style!

It was so great to see my family. I think I miss them more the longer I live away from them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAY HAY!

Rice-a-roni: The San Francisco Treat

I have put off blogging for a while because I knew this would be a big blog. It has been almost a month but we had a great summer vacation visiting our friends Brittany and Drue in San Francisco in late July. Brittany and I danced together in college and she is now a former drill teamer who is loving teaching dance at a high school outside San Fran.

She also has a great future as a professional tour guide. She took us EVERYWHERE! The San Francisco Piers, Ghiredelli Square (best ice cream ever!), Muir Woods, Golden Gate Bridge, Santa Cruz Boardwalk, The Mystery Spot, Lombard Street, Market Street, Alcatraz, the church where Marilyn Monroe got married, and much much more! We had a good 4 days of being tourist and then I attended a studio owners conference over the weekend as Bobby when to visit his friend Tim in Seattle. San Francisco is a quirky city I decided being built on what seems like a cliff and being 60 degrees in July! (I refused to wear jeans). I was obsessed with all the flowers, especially all the hydrangea's that seams to grow everywhere. We have some great pics of us by the Golden Gate Bridge but they are one Bobby's computer so I will post them later.

Bobby was out of town over 50 days this entire summer. We both got home from our last trips of the summer last Saturday and are happy to be home. We are also thankful that we get to travel a bit with our jobs even though it is tiring. Between the two of us our summer consisted of:

- 2.5 weeks of jr high and high school camp
- 3 weeks in Mexico
- one weekend in Dallas
- one weekend in College Station
- 1 week in San Francisco/Seattle
- one weekend in Galveston
- 4 days at children's camp

:)