The Christianville Spirit: The Texas Country Reporter Festival

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that touches lives
October 29, 2008-TCS # 123
In Texas, there is a show on TV called “Texas Country Reporter”. Texas Country Reporter is hosted by a man named Bob Phillips. This show is about this guy that travels all over Texas, spotlighting the unique people of Small-Town Texas. So, every year now he has a festival about it in Waxahachie, Texas, a town about an hour south of Dallas and last weekend, that is where My Mom and I went. It was a lot of fun and they had some of the people they spotlighted on the show. Some of the things we saw were of course, the Texas Country Reporter himself, Bob Phillips although I wanted his autograph he wasn’t doing it when I was there but, however I did get to see him. Also, they had a Texan who makes New York Hotdogs which I didn’t try because it had sauerkraut on it and I don’t like that. However, I did try what they called “Natchitoches Fried Meat Pie” courtesy of Mama’s Fried Pies which was really good; I tried both the meat pie and a fruit pie. After that, we saw what I wanted to see which was a lady who makes houses with miniature things in it and I thought that was really cool. Next to her was another lady who is completely blind and makes quilts which I found very amazing that she could do that. Finally, they had a family of mariachis who called themselves “Mariachi “L”. All in all, it has a fun time at the Texas Country Reporter Festival

Thanks for reading The Christianville Spirit. Be Grateful for Everyone you come into contact with, whether they deserve it or not!

The Christianville Spirit: A Fun Sunday in Dallas

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that touches lives
October 22, 2008- TCS # 122

So, My Mom and I were on the computer trying to decide what to do on this past Sunday so, we tried looking up DART(which is the Light Rail System name in Dallas) and we checked to see what the hours for the TRE(A train that goes between Downtown Dallas to Fort Worth). So, we found out it doesn’t run on Sundays. Then, I looked at the DART website I saw something that caught my attention; it was an another rail line that runs in Dallas that I always wanted to go on; it is called the “M-Line Trolley” which runs up and down a historic street named McKinney Ave. so, we figured out how to get there and we headed out. So, we took DART’s Red Line from Downtown Plano and took it a station called Cityplace Station. After that, we up long escalators because Cityplace Station is deep underground and went up to meet to M-Line Trolley. The M-Line Trolley was really cool. The way the M-Line Trolley ran was on a single wire above the ground which was the way light rail was in the old days and our conductor was very insightful and funny. After that, we got back on the DART and headed toward Downtown Dallas to see the West End. When we got there we found out that the “West End Marketplace” which used to be a famous mall with chocolate makers that when they made chocolate it was a show to watch. Also, they used to have Laser Tag and a Movie Theater. After we walked by that, we ended the day by eating dinner at Sonny Bryans Barbeque; All in all, though it was a really fun-packed day.

Thanks for the reading The Christianville Spirit. Make a good mark on someone’s heart or mind and chances are they’ll NEVER Forget You.

The Christianville Spirit: My Childhood

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that touches lives
October 15, 2008-TCS # 121
So, My Mom and I decided to take our dog, Mandy for a walk as we do every Sunday because we had to put Sophie to sleep and Mandy has been depressed because of that so, we walk her each week. But, I decided to walk down one of the trails in Plano. And, we walked to the park down the street from Mr. Jeff’s House; just because I wanted to see if it had changed or not and to relive a little bit of history. You see, at that park and in that neighborhood held a lot of history, mainly history of my childhood. The way I grew up isn’t like the normal stay-behind-the-fence or play in the street kind of childhood to the average planoan. Mr. Jeff’s yard was a big yard without fences between our neighbors and it was along a creek. Not only that but, it had a trampoline that we’d jump on practically all day. And, all the neighborhood kids would jump with me and wanting me to bounce them or do what we called “Butt Busters”. All the kids loved that about me. Even my brother wanted me to do a “Butt Buster”. Also, in our neighborhood, we were free to run through the yards we were connected to and down to street to our friend Hunter and Ashley Hooper’s House. On some days, we would go down to the Hooper’s House because they had a pool and a fort that we play on or go swimming in the pool. Also, next door to our long-time friend’s family, The Herrick’s; The Herrick’s move in a little while after we moved from our townhouse we moved to when we first moved to Dallas. Anyway, The Herrick’s were made 3 Girls, The Mom, and The Dad. The 3 girls were Meredith, Whitney, and Brooke (later the 4th child Katherine was born) The Mom, I referred to as Mrs. Judy and the dad was Mr. Dave. Back then, we used to hang out a lot with them. Michael would hang out with Meredith a lot and I would hangout with Brooke a lot. There were many fun things we did. One thing, Brooke and I made up a name for our cul-de-sac; we named it “Idyllwild Village”. For the holiday events we had 2 major traditions for 2 holidays. On Halloween, we would have a Halloween Block Party where we have a party on the cul-de-sac and one or adults would take us trick or treating. On New Years, we would gather together at Mr. Jeff’s House and would celebrate the New Years. Finally, the thing that follows me today that I haven’t forgotten about was a rule at Mr. Jeff’s House that we had to take our shoes off when entering the house and I still do it today. There are many stories in my childhood I could tell but, all in all I had a great childhood and I have Mr. Jeff to thank for that.

Thanks for the reading The Christianville Spirit. If you had an awesome childhood, embrace it!

The Christianville Spirit: You're Beautiful

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that touches lives
October 8, 2008- TCS # 120
Wow! I’ve written 120 newsletters of The Christianville Spirit which have been filled with life changes and things that affect me. And, what I’m going to tell you this week is no different. So, My Mom and I were grocery shopping at Wal-Mart earlier this week and while we were looking for makeup for My Mom I glanced over to this family with a girl who looked like she was in her tween years and she did something that really disturbed me. She decided to grab a tube of lipstick, and I thought, “why should she have to do that to look and feel beautiful.” But, that is a sad fact of today’s world. Little girls have to sneak to get lipstick behind their parents back so they can look pretty because they’re under pressure to look pretty and because of all the extremely pretty girls they see on TV, as well as in the media. In fact, the company “Dove” has commercials about how little girls are under pressure because of that and how they have Self-Esteem Workshops so, they’ll no longer feel under pressure and actually feel pretty. Now, the cause isn’t only the media, there’s also their Self-Esteem is low because of the way others have treated them, and just the fact that Girls are wired to want to look pretty and nice. But, most of you are wondering “Christian, how do we fix this, because I would hate to have my daughter feel that way?” well, the way girls are wired; that you can’t fix, however, just a simple compliment of “You’re Pretty” or even “You’re pretty just the way you are” and of course that’ll help boost their Self-Esteem so, they can feel pretty. But, the most important thing to know is that no one is perfect and there’s no such thing as perfecality (my own word I made).

Thanks for the Reading The Christianville Spirit. Tell someone that they are beautiful to help their self-esteem. YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL!(as my mom sings all the time.)

The Christianville Spirit: Sophie, The Greatest Dog in History

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that touches lives
October 1, 2008-TCS # 119
As some of you know or are soon to find out that unfortunately one of our dogs passed away a week ago today. It happened to our dog that was the most famous and loved dog, Sophie. Sophie was getting really old and having health issues. So, we decided to put her down. Amazingly, she passed at 15 Years Old (which is about 104 Years Young Dog Years) but, aside from her passing away. She was an awesome dog to our family. The Story of Sophie has a sad beginning, months before we found her and she just hoped in Mr. Jeff’s Van; she was beaten by her old owner who lived across the street from My Mom’s friend Barb and Terrell’s House in Canyon Lake, TX (which is north of San Antonio). And, Barb told us about her crawling up to the dog bowl Barb put out for her because she would always come over to their house. So, one time we went down to visit Barb and Terrell. And, up comes Sophie crawling up to us and just hops in the van we had and sat on my brother’s lap. So, we decided “well, I guess we’re taking her home with us” so, from then on she just stuck to our family. Now, there are some funny stories about Sophie; like a couple times before our bedtime when we lived at the guy my mom dated named Mr. Jeff’s House. My brother’s bed was on one side of the room and mine was on the other. And, Mr. Jeff would have Sophie jump off my bed, to the floor, and on my brother’s bed. And, she would do it several times before we would go to bed. Also, Sophie had a thing about barking at cows. So, whenever drove to Mr. Jeff’s Lake house there would be cows in the farms on the side of the road so, we would say “Hey Sophie, Cows!” and she would bark like crazy. Another thing she would bark at was a huge giraffe standing in front of The Dallas Zoo. We would say “ Sophie, Look there’s the Giraffe” and she would bark. And, finally, my funniest thing she would do. There was one time, we were at the gas station that we would wait for My Dad, Sophie would get in the front seat and bark and her paws would be on the horn and when she barked, the horn honked. All in all, Sophie’s life has been quite an awesome one and she has been a GREAT dog to us.
Thanks for reading The Christianville Spirit. Think Positive on everything and everything will be ok.
This edition of The Christianville Spirit is dedicated in memory of Sophie