My Bucket List

This is a first for me, to actually put something up on a blog! Even though that's not on my bucket list (ha, ha).

Maybe this will actually inspire others to post on this thing and resurrect it!

1. Visit every state in the US. So far, I figure I've been to 31 of them.
2. Go on a cruise (Disney, of course!).
3. Go to Israel.
4. Learn to ballroom dance.
5. Visit parts of Europe (British Isles, Germany, maybe Scandinavia).

That's about it for now. I may think of some things later, but I've been pretty fortunate in my life to have seen and done a lot of things!

Still Dead?

Yep.

Hah.

I just thought of something really funny. The blog died before it even got to make a bucket list. It's kinda not as funny anymore because making a post just raised it from the dead so that kinda ruins the whole point of this post...So...yeah...Nevermind then


-David

My Bucket List

I decided to follow the masses into creating my bucket list. At first, I had a bit of trouble getting it started, but after reading through your entries and others online, I fear that I have too much! I did repeat some from your lists, but just think, CARPOOL! Also, who better to do these activities with than friends/family? Here goes (in no particular order):

1. Ride IN a hot air balloon
2. Eat a pizza in Italy
   
3. Be a wife and a mommy
4. Race someone with a beautiful and fast car
5. Be debt free
6. Make a remarkable impact on someone's life
7. Meet a favorite author
8. Help build a habitat for humanity house
9. Visit 10 different countries (not counting the U.S.)
10. Have a role (small or not) in a musical or movie
11. Learn something new in depth (such as photography, languages, countries, etc)
12. Learn to ballroom dance (even if its just the waltz...)
13. Go white water rafting
14. See a solar eclipse
15. Be in Time Square for New Year's
    
16. Go to a Broadway show while in New York
17. Visit 7 wonders of the world (new or old)
18. See the Northern Lights (yes some of you have this too, that just means we can carpool)
19. Go to Hawaii with one and only
20. Water ski and sailing
21. Count my blessings each day (sounds easy but..... sometimes we forget!)
22. Go on a Disney Cruise with as many family members (or friends if my family is lame) as possible! It can be the cool package to go to Walt Disney World first then cruise or vice versa!

Hope you enjoyed my bucket list...

Not a Bucket List

My Bucket list will come after my return home, I'm saving the thought for the 24 hour trip home. Tonight's post is spontaneous, and is coming in spite of the fact that I ought to be studying.

I talked to a guy named Moritz tonight along with my buddy James for an hour and a half. He's about my age, German, studying in London for the year, and traveling to North Carolina this summer to work with the Challenge camp to teach football to kids. (soccer). Such a cool guy, really seemed receptive, really was actually interested in what we had to say. Asked a lot of questions that we could answer, and really seemed to think about it. He said he had a really hard time believing that people went to hell, and in the end I told him that the beautiful thing is that God loves HIM. Uniquely, individually, him, and that if tonight he took the time to go before God honestly, and told this relational, ultimate, beautifully perfect God that he was having trouble believing, God could help him out. I told him the Bible said "if you seek, you shall find" and he could come before God as he was and help him. We pleaded with him earnestly not to put it off, and told him the realities of sin, and he seemed to really take it to heart. Long story short, he didn't accept God into his heart at Leicester Square tonight, but for the first time this semester, I am so incredibly hopeful that he will.

How good is God. He loves us. Uniquely, individually, perfectly us. We fall short. Every day, every hour even, we fail to follow his law. And even if we aren't busy breaking his law, are we really doing what we should be? Even in the off chance that we've made it through the day without breaking his law, have we loved him as we should? Can we even grasp how holy, righteous, and perfect he is? Are we even capable? It's completely blowing my mind right now that I sin all the time, I don't trust him even though he has given me everything, and yet, he loves me anyway. This God of all Gods, holier than holy, created us and loves us in spite of our imperfections.

I'm stunned.

Clint's Bucket List

In truth, my Heavenly Father has already blessed me with so many opportunities I never thought I'd have. He's given me an amazing family, great friends, and above all a wonderful Savior! Way more than I deserve to experience. "If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise", these are a few of the things I'd like to do before I leave this land....

• go on a mission trip to a 3rd world country (because my Father said to)
  

• street preach (and not just once....I want it to become a lifetime activity)
  

• para sailing (looks like flying without wings)
  

• have a book published (has always been a dream..haven't told many folks that)
  

• finish a cancer run (that's right I said run not walk)
  

• go to Hawaii with my sweetheart (can't wait to see the smile on her face!!!)
  

• adopt a child (or two!)
  

• jump off a cliff into the ocean (Cannonball!!!!Look out below!!!!!!)
  

• own a music venue/restaurant (The Sound Kitchen morphs)
  

• write a weekly column for newspaper/magazine (or daily....I'm not picky)
  

• become mayor of Benbrook (leave town while you have the chance)
  

• go deep sea fishing (don't worry, I'll throw 'em back!)
  

• go whitewater rafting (the perfect sport for the directionally challenged)
  

• have a real Italian meal with my sweetheart in Italy (mmmmm....meatballs...)
  

• invent something (double stuffed Oreos, the light bulb, it doesn't really matter)
  

• ride atop an elephant (I actually did this when I was really young but I'd love to do it again as an adult)

Stephanie's Bucket List

I was excited about doing this, because I actually started a list of things I wanted to do a few years ago, AND I feel really blessed because in the past year I have crossed five things off that list! I wonder what God will open the doors for me to do throughout this next year... :)

Here are some of the things I want to do before I die in no particular order...

1. Start a ministry for younger girls.
2. Be COMPLETELY free of my student debt!
3. Get married and start a family.
4. Be a part of building up the church - I don't know yet if that is being a part of building or starting a ministry with a group of people, starting my own, or even just being faithful in a certain place, but I want to help build up the body of Christ.
5. Learn more about photography/ take a photography class
6. Have a piece of my writing published
7. Go skiing/ snowboarding
8. Vacation in Tahiti
9. Go Sailing
10. Take swing, salsa, or ballroom dance lessons
11. Go to Greece
12. Go camping
13. Have a nightime picnic under the stars
14. See the Northern Lights
15. Learn to surf
16. Go to NYC during Christmas
- and while there have frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity
17. Take a cooking class
18. Do something life changing for someone - preferably anonymously

The things I crossed off this year are:
-visit London
-visit Italy
-Go on a mission trip
-Travel somewhere by myself (I didn't know if I would ever be brave enough to do it!)
-Start a Bible Study

Matts Bucket List

This was fun couldn't stop at 15
**double asterisks are sub goals or notes

1. Debt Free
**Once achieved never again
2. Go through the English Channel Tunnel
** Travel Europe
3. Skydive (need more bravery first)
4. Parasail
5. Scuba dive with my one and only
6. Ride a hot air balloon
7. Learn a new language proficiently
8. Visit every state at least once including DC
**Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico,
**Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, and California DONE
**9 out of 50 DONE
9. Bungee jump something scary
**Six Flags, or Hurricane Harbor, and similar don’t count
10. Manage my weight
**Never weight more than 250
**Very high because I weight 235 now
11. Stand in the four corners
12. Ride a Gondola in Venice
13. Witness a Total Solar Eclipse
**Closest in Kentucky on Aug 21 2017
14. Ski a double black diamond mountain slope
15. Go Zorbing
**You tube it it's awesome
16. See the Northern lights
17. Visit the Grand Canyon
18. Times Square New Years Day
19. Enter the Statue of Liberty
20. Shake hands with The President of the United States
**Current or former

The Bucket Lists

Larissa and I were recently having dinner with a dear friend of mine who owns a few horses and we talked about the possibility of going out to her house and riding horses this coming summer. Rissa hasn't ridden a horse in her adult life so I know it will be a bunch of fun for her! That got me to thinkin'! There's several things in my life that I've always wanted to do but have yet to. As my 30th birthday approaches I've started to reflect a bit on my life thus far and to set dreams and goals for my life henceforth.

So with this in mind, I thought it might be fun for everyone to make their own bucket list and post it on the blog. If you're unaware, a bucket list is basically a list of things you hope to do or accomplish before you "kick the bucket". Let's make a list of 15 things. Please create a new post to display your bucket list marked, for example, as "Clint's Bucket List". Sound fun?

Hello~upate on family schedule

Just wanted to remind everyone.......

This Friday- good friday services 7:00, be there! We will (with Maylee,wink, wink!)

Sunday- 10:30 service/ lunch at 1:00

Any questions????

Will that work?

Also maybe we should color Easter eggs on Saturday?

Let me know!

*this was a friendly reminder from me and Maylee*

P.s. Everyone be praising the Lord today for keeping Katie safe while in Europe! He is so GOOD! Amen!

Blog....

Blog facts:
1. You poke the blog with a stick and it takes two days for someone to come up with a longer post..
2. The blog is lonely!
3. The last blog (besides david's poking) is about house and happened 2 weeks ago (approximately).
4. The whole Gaston family has not written a post on here.
5. The most recent posters were David, Katie, and Steph, followed by me. Where are the rest of you?
6. Pictures can be uploaded when you don't have time to write...
7. People write more with comments from the peanut gallery
8. David is the one to have posted the most in the past two months. That's shameful for the rest of you but awesome for David.
9. If you write it, they will read!
10. I am procrastinating homework and this is a useful way for the blog to help in my life, lol.

So I've posted something.. now it's your turn??!! I love you all and don't want this blog to die!! SO help me as we save the blog and please don't make me come up with a charity and/or support walk to save our blog!

~Ashleigh

Is...

Is it dead??? Someone poke it with a stick...

HOUSE

So, attempt # 3,456,890 (slight exaggeration) at reviving the Gaston Blog, even in competition with other blogs...

Tonight I was watching HOUSE as a chance to relax before midterms start coming again, and House said some strikingly wise words:

“Do it all, do nothing, or option C you’re a liar and a hypocrite.”
-House

It was in reference to Cutty's decision to hold a Jewish religious ceremony for the baby, even though she never kept any other Jewish aspect in her life, like kosher. It just got me thinking about how we need to make sure that we are going all or nothing, in every aspect in our lives, but especially in our relationships with God. When the world looks at our lives, are they going to see liars and hypocrites, or people sold out and absolutely in love with Christ?

Just something to think about...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUCKAROO!!!!!!!

This day marks the 15th year of the day that Mr. David Gary Gaston was born into this world! The earth trembled a bit that day as a fiery red head with energy to burn took his place in history. We are so thankful to call him brother, son, friend, "David!" or, as some new folks might - "Duncle". Whatever you call him I know that this kid has left an indelible mark on our lives. So to honor that sentiment, let's give a few of the highlights of the past 15 years of freckled goodness. I'll toss a few out there and please, for blog's sake, please add some of your own personal gems. Oh and by the way, Happy Birthday David! We love you so much and are so proud of the young man your turning into. Now go puck those chin hairs and have a great day!

• the time I tooted and blamed it on you (thanks for covering for me)
  
• the time we came in the house and you were hanging from the banister holding on for dear life
• doing the "dolphin dive" in the pool with ya
• walking along the Trinity Trail and seeing an Ewok in the bushes
  
• assassinating our own teammates on online gaming
• the time you shaved your legs at Gerald and Brendas

Ok so I've got the ball rolling here......keep 'em comin'!

Where..

...Should we eat tomorrow?

Tough Crowd

You guys are a TOUGH crowd. I thought all the picking on me was going to just be a family gathering thing, but evidently it's going to cross over into the blogging world also! ;)

Anyways, I think most of you want to hear all the details on London, so here it goes!

I left on a Thursday morning. Larissa was fabulous and came to pick me up in her adorable new SUV. We got there without hitting any traffic, and then I zipped right through security leaving me with about two hours to wait before my plane took off. To be entirely honest with you guys, I wasn't thrilled about the idea of sitting alone with nothing to do for two hours, but it turned out great! A friend I hadn't talked to in ages randomly called me and we wound up talking for almost the entire wait, and then my plane began boarding early!

I wound up landed my favorite seat on the plane - emergency exit window seat. I was so excited! AND to make it even better the plane was pretty empty so I ended up with just one other person sharing my row, and God is so cool becuase he sat a very cool believer named Carolyn next to me! Carolyn and her husband are involved with church planting and ministry in Boston - where we are sending a team to help with the opening of a new church planting connected with NETS this Fall. She had been in the DFW area for a conference that dealt with different aspects of church planting, ministry development, church connectivity, etc... She also has a daughter who is about my age who is involved in ministering to the homeless and inner city youth in Boston. We wound up talking for nearly the entire plane ride which was very fun and I learned a TON about what God is doing up in the Boston/ New England area!

We landed in North Carolina about forty minutes ahead of schedule, which left me with a nearly SIX hour layover! The time actually went by a lot faster than I thought it would which was really great! I went and found the gate I was supposed to be flying out of, and then popped over to the Starbucks where I wound up chatting with the barista (baristo?) for a little while - this was the first of MANY times people would try to guess where I was from - he guessed Canada, which definitely wasn't the strangest guess I had during my trip! He then taught me about the Americano, the "skinny", and a few other drinks and gave me a little phamplet that explains a TON about the million different ways you can create your "personal Starbucks beverage". I knew there were a lot of ways you could make Starbucks coffee, but I had no idea there were as many ways as there are, and I would guess that the phamplet only covers part of them! We wound up chatting about work, school, life... for a while and then after that I just settled in, talked to a few people on the phone, and then had a really great quiet time. Since I've been so busy lately it was really nice to have time to really study what I was (Esther) for more than half an hour and just have time to think about everything that has been going on in my life! Then for some reason the area my gate was in was completely dead! I felt like I was in the Terminal for a while which was a little creepy for a few minutes, because I was completely alone in this HUGE space, but on the bright side I was really able to spread out and not feel like I had to have my luggage and purse glued to me the entire time like I did when tons of people were around.

My plane to London also didn't fill up the entire way, so I had another trip where I got the window seat and only one other person on my row. This time the lady who shared my row with me was there on a girls weekend with her two best friends, and they were going to visit her daughter who was studying abroad. These girls were hillarious and kept telling me I made them feel incredibly cool for talking to them which cracked me up because I really think anyone would chat with them! They were so excited about their trip and were possibly the most organized group I have ever seen. They had every minute of their trip scheduled down to the minute. I felt SO bad for them on Monday when it began snowing like crazy, because I'm sure that threw their schedule off a LOT!

Since I ended up with my own row after we all reorganized and moved around, I was able to get a little sleep on the plane which was really great since I normally can't sleep on planes at all. We landed early in London where the sun was just rising and a beautiful day was there to greet us!

More on Day One in London to come...

Worth the wait

I think a lot of things that are worthwhile in life are worth waiting for, BUT I do apologize for making you guys wait THIS long for a post. Although you do all know that I'm just a phone call away (or just around the corner!) so you don't have to wait for a blog post to hear about things! ;O)

London was fabulous! It was an adventure from the very beginning and I still can't believe how much we managed to see and do while I was there! I just finished my last Twisted bar today and feel like I may need to go back to get some more before too long... :) I still can't believe I was there and am back already, but it was very fun and I decided it is going to take either a REALLY long post, or multiple posts to write about it all, so get excited about more to come soon...!

Question?

Why has our blog become a base for abunch of cheap spin offs to spin off from (Katie, Ashliegh, Lizzie, Katie, Stephanie) It's not like our original blog is overflowing or anything. Post here and let your own blogs die and long painfull death like the original is (Or was, sorda) suffering itself.

EPIC WIN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur0LENvY5TE

Something to blog about...

SOOO today I was at dance and fell out of this partner flippy thingy and I think I might have broken my nose. It hurts and is kind of purple and blue, but dad thinks it will be okay. it is just very painful! but luckly no work tonight!

and now no one can complain about not hearing about it. I blogged. =)

and now im going to go find ice and be lazy since I have found a good excuse!
I love you all! and I am fabulous besides the whole nose issue. but hopefully it will not stay weird colored for long and everything will be alright!

-Lizzy

PROBABLY

I thought I'd throw a post onto this blog since it's the new hip thing to do...everyone fell prey to the threat of not getting to babysit Maylee- now Clint has us wrapped around his little finger- although we all know who's finger he's wrapped around...

Steph came to visit this weekend, and I was so exhausted after all of the super long fun days we had that I fell asleep at 8:30 the day she left and slept until 9 the next morning. We definitely touristed the town up until we dropped. Monday the entire city of London shut down because of three inches of snow (a laughable concept in New York). It was really pretty though- and pretty fun to watch stephanie attempt to walk in it...Okay that's a little mean, but you all know you might have at least smiled at it...

Classes are about to get into the thick of it- we have midterms in two weeks and essays and projects are abounding, but all the same London is turning out to be one of the best experiences I've ever had! I absolutely love the class sizes, and while it demands more work from me, I'm actually learning the material. Getting out of my soccer bubble in New York has really forced me to meet new people around here in London, and that has been really great too! I haven't met too many people from London, but I have met a lot of people from NYU that I would probably never have met had I not come here.

Collin facebook chatted me last night and he brought up something entirely novel to me (although I guess I should have seen it earlier...) It was like he said it and I was like Oh, wow. Yeah...that's definitely true. He said when he came to the UK it seemed very dark spritually- in addittion to being dark in the weather sense. As soon as he said it I kind of laughed (though I had to admit that it was entirely true..) But isn't it funny that God took me from being a stubborn kid in Texas where being a Christian is normal, and I didn't really want it, to London where it is about the weirdest thing these people can think of, and now I am more on fire about it than ever before? Who said God doesn't have a sense of humor.

I brought this up because I wanted people to pray for this city- and me in it. Literally the buses declare that there is no God. "There probably is no God, so stop worrying and enjoy your life." When I read it, I laughed, because it said probably. It was as if God would not allow them to declare that he didn't exist...I read an article abuot it and they said they put the probably in there so that they didn't sound dogmatic, I beg to differ.

This city is fun, people are nice, but Collin is right- it's dark...so, I guess it shouldn't be all that hard to be a light right? The candles always do shine brightest on christmas eve when Ken shuts the lights off.

I'm cooking tacos on Saturday when Raquel is coming in from Oxford- should bea fun weekend :-D

Hope everything is going well in Cowtown, and you're all adjusting the cold...Bundle miss Maylee up and give her a hug for me!

Katie

first things first...HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARISSA AND ASHLEIGH!!!!!!!!!!

also steph is home safely so thats very good too. im still waiting for my detailed stories but I must wait for her friend to leave first before I can hound her for every little detail...
for my life....
Dance=Stress. LOTS of things to learn before march 25 and 26. LOTS!!!
so my time is consumed with homework/studying, work, and rehearsals. in my free time I try to just sit and be lazy so my body has a break from the maddness...or I am rehearsing everything so I am ready for ACDFA...and of course March 25/26 performances.
along with that ive been getting sick lately...so I ended up skipping some of my dance classes today, so now i'll be even more behind...but thats okay.
Greatfully my teachers are very nice people and understand everthing. so mark your calanders...MARCH 25 and 26...they are the same show on 2 different days so hopefully ya'll can make one or both! =)
also....
I think I deserved to be raised on the babysitting list. 1st I posted the day of, and apologize for neglecting this! and 2nd I would do anything for that sweet little girl. that's gotta count for something! =) not to mention I was the first babysitter for Maylee...so Larissa obviously believes in me more than clint! but I still do LOVE YOU both very much!

now I am going to sleep...
I love you all.

-Lizzy

My turn

Ok

Oh the craziness!!

So upon reading Clint's post, I had three thoughts: one, Clint is crazy!! Also, two, I can't lose babysitting privileges before I've gotten them!!! Three, why do I find out things so late? AKA Steph leaving for London and Katie's letter that didn't go to my e-mail (funny enough it said that I am out of the loop =p)
Clint said post about your sorority, so I will do that. Our sorority started the semester with a BANG. Our first day of school was also first day of rush (rush= meeting potential pledges while having fun events such as a scavenger hunt or worship night, and giving both sides a chance to get to know each other and see if it's something they'd want to be a part of). After rush, we had meetings to decide how many pledges we wished to take and if we should take a lot or a little. Typically, a spring class is small (mine was 5 girls) and this time around we have 11 pledges. I also got assigned the role of big sister to one of the pledges, whose name is Anne McHattie. She's really sweet and hopefully I can help her through this stressful time known as pledging.
Matt's car issue is another topic I want to bring up. He finally got the call that the mechanic in Waco will not be able to fix his car. They are towing the car up and the mechanic will mail a check for a refund on what Matt already paid. The mechanics in Fort Worth said it would be an estimated 8,000 dollars to repair it!! So Matt and his Dad determined they would either sell it for scraps or whatever they can do, and split the remaining car payments between the two of them. Matt will be buying hopefully this Thursday or Saturday. It's bad but it's good too because this could have been resolved a long time ago, but he will have less to pay off overall. There's always a silver linning, well at least if you look long enough for it.
Tomorrow is my birthday and next week is promising to be a bit stressful because I will start working in the school's preschool for one class and tutoring for another class. My monday's have increased from 9:30-5:30 for school to 8:00-5:30, and Wednesday will become 8 to 8:30pm with approximately 3 hour gap overall in the day... so please pray that the transition is easy and I don't get overwhelmed because this is all neccessary in order to graduate with my teaching degree...
Love, love, love you all and I especially enjoyed opening my e-mail and receiving a beautiful picture of Larissa and Maylee. Hopefully my babysitting privileges have now been reinstated.
~Ashleigh

UPDATING = LOVE

So the Gastons are dropping the ball and it's making me and Lil Miss crosseyed! We all have very busy lives but come on! I have two jobs, a newborn, a wife who I smother, two dogs (ok, one dog and a rat) and still I find time to blog and share my life. Ashleigh is finding out that Stephie is leaving for London a day before she leaves. C'mon folks! Share your lives! I've seen all of you type and its ridiculous how fast you all are. It looks like you're swatting ants on the keyboard. Use your gift of type.

What's the most recent paintball excursion David? What's the scoop with your sorority Ash? London Steph? Who's this Jason character? Matt, what's with the car situation (that could be a novel)? Liz, what's going on with school? Try posting a list of recitals for your college dance group! So we can attend. And oh Mr. Gary, completely snubbing the blog? Being a spectator? That's not setting a good blog example for your kiddos. Ha!

So let's get this thang moving! People want to know what's up with you! I'm planning to teach Miss Maylee to read using this blog.

IN EFFECT: ALL BABYSITTING WILL BE DENIED PENDING SOMEONE POSTS ON THE GASTON BLOG!!!! (I realize this doesn't really effect Lizzo because she's so far down on the list but your rank will go up Liz if you do post)

In brotherly love,

Clintagious

First Lessons from London

I started another blog just for the London Posts, @ http://londonlessons.blogspot.com/2009/01/first-lessons-from-london.html, but i'll copy the most interesting ones over here, so no worries...

So, I'll be spending the next four months in London, soaking up the culture, attempting to not go broke, maybe picking up an English accent, and at the very least watching some great football. I have been here a little over two days now, and I have already learned so much that I thought I would share a few of my recently learned lessons...

1. Brits LOVE BEER. They love it. Can't get enough of it. They're not drunks-but they drink ALL the time. It's crazy-I'm walking on the way to lunch, and sure enough the pubs are full of people eating and drinking their beers. I make it to the student union, yep, more beer. At the pub quiz that night, whats offered? Beer. Brits love beer.

2. ALWAYS look both ways before crossing the street. This is an old lesson, re-learned. I haven't personally almost died, but I have seen many near death encounters for those who ignore this simple rule. It's even written on the streets- LOOK LEFT, LOOK RIGHT. Forget that, look both ways, then cross. It's the way to go.

3. British places close early. WAY early. Most offices are closed by five, restaurants around nine, pubs around midnight. A bit like Texas, but definitely a change from New York.

4. Just because we both speak English, doesn't mean we can understand each other. Case in point: My friend Katie ordered a Vanilla milkshake. The shake came to the table, we all tasted it and felt as though it tasted like a pina colada. We thought the Brits were simply bad at making Vanilla milkshakes. Check comes, turns out it was a banana milkshake. Looking back, it was really good considering it was a banana milkshake. A few other things- adding money to a card means topping up, a flashmobber is a silent rave, chips are French fries, crisps are chips, a pound IS NOT a dollar, and cheers is goodbye.

5. British people are very polite. No one yells at one another, no cars honk their horns. It is so peaceful here- far different from New York. Our orientation leader- Nigel, with a great accent- told us that if a British person ever yells at us, we have done something SEVERELY wrong. They always say cheers when you leave. Very nice sort.

6. You have to ask for the bill at a restaurant. We waited for so long once, until Anthony finally remembered it is considered impolite for the server to put the bill on the table. Oh, and the British rarely tip. At restaurants they tip about 10%, if the service is good, but no where else.

7. British people love students. I have been given more discounts here than I did the entirety of my college life in New York. I could definitely get used to that.

8. Tea is fantastic. End of story.


Thats it for now-
Cheers
Katie

Maylee is soooooooo sweet!




-- Post From My iPhone

URGENT!!! Prayer Request

I love the idea of a White Christmas, but not Katie being stranded in an airport instead of meeting her sweet niece and hanging out with us! Let's all pray she gets home safely and quickly tomorrow and doesn't get stuck in the blizzard!! :)

Forewarning- a little random!

A little bird told me that this blog was being neglected after all the hard work put into it, so I've decided to blog about what I can.
First, it was not that little of a bird (Sorry Clint!).
Second, I got 3 A's and 2 B's this semester (I could have sworn one of those would have been a C...).
Third, American Eagle is where the cool kids go to shop (you know who you are).
Fourth, Cracker Barrel is the devil reincarnated... but sometimes the money is good...
Fifth, I get 50% profit of Matt's (Go see his blog Things that M@tter!)
Sixth, hopefully Matt's car will be back on Saturday tho he might be sucked into the Hut longer than expected (by a month)
Seventh, that's it for now.. HEROES is on!!

~Ashleigh~

p.s. (Do you use p.s. in a blog?) Don't bite your tongue off!

Making Things Friendlier

I've sent out invites to your emails to become blog authors here at The Gaston Story blog. This way you don't have to log in as thegastongang@gmail.com. You can simply use your own gmail account or whatever. If you have trouble give me a shout. I've also made it to where when you publish a blog it will send it to your email. Hopefully all this will make it much friendlier to post and keep track of everyone's busy buys lives.

I've also done some design updates to the blog. Hope you guys like them! Love ya!
-Clint

New Member Added to Blog

After a lengthy application process that lasted more than 9 months, we have officially decided to honor the nomination for membership of Ms. Maylee Gail Simpson (please see pic to the right under Larissa Simpson). She comes to us from Benbrook, TX. At the time of induction, Maylee is 4 days old. She is related to all of the current members (besides Matt).

Her interests include eating, sleeping, and pooping, though not always in that order. Maylee had no comment at the time of the induction ceremony. Mainly because she doesn't know how to speak English yet though I might mention she is fluid in sheep screams, burps, and wittle bird noises. We are very excited to have Maylee join the prestigious Gaston Gang! As soon as she discovers that she has fingers I'm certain she'll be blogging away.

Please feel free to leave comments congratulating Maylee on this special honor.

Maylee sends Katie a video!!!!

This message goes out to one Katie Gaston from one Maylee Simpson. She can't wait to meet you! Enjoy the video - check it out to the right. Everyone's a critic.

Maylee Gail!!

Maylee Gail Simpson has arrived!! She is a beautiful baby weighing 9 pounds 4 ounces and is 21 inches. She has gorgeous strawberry blond hair and was very content with her numerous visitors. This little girl made her appearance at 11:26pm on December the 3rd in a c-section. To say that I am overwhelmed with love, happiness, and extreme joy would be an understatement! What a long day, and Larissa made it look easy to the rest of her admirers! I can't even begin to describe the love I have witnessed and feel from this amazing event! This girl is God's miracle to us and I can't wait to see her again!! If you even feel a slight bit of love from hearing this news, then wait until you see her. She is so perfect and amazing that you will fall in love with her the moment you see her. Pictures and videos will soon come from her "paparazzi" as there were many of us in there all with cameras and phones. This is a momentous occasion, and I felt that our blog needed to know about it!! God is so good to us for sending this sweet girl!!

From an extremely proud and overjoyed aunt~ Ashleigh

=)

MAYLEE COMES TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
=)
GET EXCITED!!!!

our lives are about to be consumed by the sweetest little girl.
I cant wait!

-Lizzy

My 6th picture...

I don't have six files of pictures on my computer yet, but here is my sixth picture on my computer of my beautiful niece! :)

- S

post your 6th pic on the 6th file........... Sorry it took so long..... This is me, Emily, Lizzy, and Jenna at Joe T's on Emily's last night before heading to Chicago.

Tagged

So I was tagged by Kristin to post the 6th picture in my 6th file.

Liz and Darian at the dcc competition last Ocotober. Don't you love those red lips?!?

Okay now its all your guys turn to post your 6th pic on the 6th file...........

fun times : )
Riss

Oh and I just looked at the baby ticker on the side and that baby is getting awful close to the nest!!!! Crazy! less then 8 weeks, Wow!

August Adventures

As promised- I'll post now that I have something to say.
I left Texas almost two weeks ago and every day has been filled with something new. The trip started out with one crazy day in the car filled with bickering and fast food, but the days to follow were spent in DC eating fine cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory and riding my bike all the way to Alexandria-earning a really wicked sunburn. Then the weekend finished out with the amazing and truly gifted group-coldplay. The concert was awesome. We headed to NY on Sunday, and as much as I wanted to show everyone the entire Island, some sore feet led to a minimal tour...We managed to see the rock, 59th street, time square, battery park, ground zero, and Washington square park. We ate some great food- even managing to pick up some hot dogs at central park on the way...and eating the best cupcakes in the world from Tonnie's.
After the crazy three day stay, I was dropped off in Long Island at my friend Lex's house.
The adventure continued.
We headed to the Hamptons on Friday to spend some time with my friend Laura. Grant ended up meeting us there so it was Lex, Laura, Ian- Laura's boyfriend and fellow resident in the Hamptons, and Grant. We cruised around in a convertible and spent some time on the beach. It really was a FANTASTIC weekend- and pending that the melting ice cap doesn't suck up the eastern part of the island- I promise to buy a house there and take you all there one day.
We returned on sunday and went to the apple store where I decided I realyl want an Iphone, and Lex bought the Itouch for her birthday.
Monday we went to Costco and bought a few things for the dorm and then Breck, Lex's little brother and I, went to the club and went swimming.
Today we went to the Outlets where I bought my very first Coach anything for 40 dollars and a nice Puma bag for school for 20. Nice bargains.
So the trip has been fun so far, and Thursday I finally get to move back to the city- not to my dorm yet- but i'll be there soon enough.
Hope everything is going well in funky town!
-Katie

I'm Falling In Love....Again!

About seven years ago, I fell in love with a beautiful young lady named Larissa. Not a day goes by that I don't praise God for her. I never thought the day would come so soon but I must confess I'm falling in love with another little lady. When I first laid eyes upon her my heart sang! It was definitely love at first sight. It's a bit hard to describe how lovely she is. I can tell you she's pretty short, she's a bit bald right now and her English isn't so good, but she does have all of her fingers and toes. She takes my breath away!!! Sometimes at work I'll sit and stare at her picture and imagine my life with her. I'd like to introduce you....

Her name is MAYLEE GAIL SIMPSON! Her first name, Maylee, means "sweet" in Tongan and "jasmine flower" in Tai. Her middle name means "lively". I can't wait to spend the rest of my life loving my sweet and lively little girl. Seven years ago I fell in love with a beautiful young lady...and now I can say I'm so thankful to God that it's happening all over again. She's a bit shy so she's not quite ready to meet everyone. Larissa says she's in extensive training to be a black belt in karate or perhaps a World Cup soccer star (that's for you Kato!), but she has promised me that come December she'll be elated to meet all of you! I think you're gonna fall in love with Miss Maylee too.

-Clint

p.s. I've included the most recent picture we have of her...it's nice to finally put a name with a face!

(pictured within)
Maylee Gail Simpson...
I just like typing it

New Office

The new office is finally done!!!!!!

Thank you to all who helped clean out the old guest room and a special thanks to Katie for her awesome painting skills(please still be in town when its time to do the nursery).

So I now will present you pic's of the fun new office, where hopefully much work and not to much play will go on!

Okay now I'm off to work on the next project, the old office. Its alittle scary right now but hopefully by the end of the week it will be all cleaned out. I hope!

Hope everyone has a beautiful and blessed week!

Love, Riss

"...go on, film the world before it happens"

tomorrow is a big day...
10:30 a.m- no more hair!!! AH
8:00 p.m.-Death Cab For Cutie concert!!!

oh and the past month highlights that were not included are......
I'm 18!
I'm no longer in highschool! =)
and i'll add more depending on below question...

is the blog family only? or open???

today consisted of counting rhinestones and working alot. im exhausted and will try to update more when I can...but beware I might start to ramble on here...=)


-Lizzy

Busy Lives...Try to Keep Up!

Poor blog.....how you are so neglected. No more! No more! Ok so here's a bit of catch up...or is it catsup...maybe ketchup..mmmm....burgers...I'll be brief to get you up to speed. Life is fast.

Went to Boerne for Uncle Gerald's surprise party. Surprise! Steph was in San Fran (see below) so we took Darian as her redhead replacement. She made weird noises in the car (sort of a whale being harpooned sound). Stayed in Gerald and Brenda's new hotel/saloon/free lodging for the Gastons when they visit place. Too cool! They made it with their own four hands. I have trouble reinstalling my rearview mirror so to say the least I was very impressed.

Got back from the trip and realized it was time to lose some weight. The air mattress that Riss and I slept on in Boerne only seemed to deflate on my side. So I hopped online, like any good fatty does and joined The Biggest Loser Club based on the TV show. I figured 'if it's on tv then it must be true', so I joined. In the past two weeks I've lost 15 pounds thus far. My goal is 40 by the time 'Baby' gets here. I've taken pictures of my beautiful belly (sarcasm) and will eventually post them alongside Larissa's beautiful belly pics (not sarcastic this time) as hers grows and hopefully mine shrinks. It will be hilarious! (and a bit shocking..definitely PG-13 stuff)

Stephanie just left for Italy on a mission trip. She was extremely excited to go and we were all proud of her. She was nervous about getting busted for being a pecan mule, but we reassured her that after a quick strip search and debriefing by security it wouldn't be a problem. We are praying for her and her crew as they go to campuses and tell of God's great news of Jesus Christ.

Rissa is past her first trimester, the most dangerous of all the mesters. Everything is going as planned. At the last sonogram, the nurse used the terms "beautiful" and "perfect". All of the sisters seem to be nesting with Rissa which is really sweet and I appreciate it.

So that's pretty much it. Lots of life in between the paragraphs. Lots of blessings. Lots of love. The blog will not die. It cannot die.
-Clint

Dead?

Should we pronounce the time of death? Or can we resuscitate?
-Ashleigh

California... here we come! :)

My week in California was fabulous... I didn't realize how much I needed a vacation until I was halfway through the trip... I'll post more later, but here's some highlights in pictures!

We ate...

We cooked...

We destroyed...

We relaxed...

We made new friends...

Reconnected and spent time with cherished old friends...

We climbed a mountain...

We played...

And we basked in God's Glory...

And on our last day found out what "thrifty" means in California...

More to come later...

Brother Matt

Clint forgot a member of the family.
Brother Matt must be added.
Revolt.

A Tale of Two Taters...

After looking over all the other amazing posts, I felt it just might be time to put something up for me. This is a post that will talk about baseball, potatoes, and messy rooms... hope you enjoy it?

First let's start with some baseball. Last Sunday, a group of friends and I ventured out to the great Ballpark in Arlington, and watched the Rangers vs the Kansas City Royals (Sorry I meant Minnesota Twins!). The Rangers were not only victorious over the Twins with a 10-0 win! AMAZING! Here are some pics... the rest will be on facebook!

My favorite player, second baseman, Ian Kinsler!




And an awesome looking pitch! He's the pitcher with the shut out!





Here comes the Potatoes! As some of you know... I already owned a Mr. Potato Head who looks like R2-D2 from Star Wars...
R2-D2









But after a great afternoon at TARGET... here came the latest addition...
Indiana Jones! or Idaho Spuds as the box said!
The best part is.... His hat plays the theme song!!
So if you ever happen to find a cool looking Mr. Potato Head... just think of me!





I know this blog didn't have a lot of text in it... but they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I just posted 4 pictures, so I just wrote 4,000+ words. More pictures and words to come as I clean out my room and move from Denton back to Ft. Worth. The pictures might be too gruesome for some....
I hope ya'll are having a great week and I'm excited for Baby Simpson!!

~Ashleigh

TOMs-Shoes for Tomorrow.

I met one of the most inspiring people i've ever met tonight and at the same time saw God tell a funny story to mankind. Who do you know that can cure a disease with a shoe? Tonight I met a guy that God enabled to do just that.

His name is Blake Mycoskie and tonight a documentary about his company debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival which Grant (via a friend of the family who knows Blake-Blake actually made a guest appearance at Grant's 13th birthday party, he was on the Amazing Race) got us tickets to. Anyway, Blake created a company called TOMs. TOMs is a company that makes shoes, but for each pair of shoes it sells it donate a pair to a child in need.

Now, the story in itself is interesting. A guy who really didn't know much about business went on the Amazing Race and saw a lot of people without shoes and wanted to change that. In fact, he even took the shoes off of his feet and gave it to a man he met along the way, running the rest of his day without them. This ordinary guy started a company that sold 10,000 shoes its first year, 50,000 in the next, and 200,000 in its third year. He has donated 260,000 pairs of shoes to children in need. Next year they head to Ethiopia where they are attempting to eradicate a disease. With some profits from the shoes, they will buy antibiotics. Shoes themselves will remove the leading cause of the disease. I don't know the exact name of the disease, i'll google it later, but I have yet to get to the best part of the story.

So to recap, thus far we have an ordinary man who went on a reality t.v. show and was inspired to give shoes to the world. This man with no prior experience was able to start a huge company. As his documentary debuted at the film festival I watched as he modestly talked about his company. Thus far I think he's a pretty cool guy and i'm inspired by his work, but it wasn't until afterward that I really decided I liked him. There was a Q and A session with the directors after the films. Someone asked him what the key to success. was He answered that we would have to ask God. Afterward I heard him talking to two people from Texas (not us) who had asked him if he was religious. He is one of the most friendly men I have ever met and I feel like I gained something out of just meeting him for a few moments-maybe its inspiration?

So there you have it. God took an ordinary guy, inspired him, blessed his business, and used a documentary to spread his word. He's using shoes to cure a disease. Not only that, but he's helping thousands of his children along the way. I thought you all might be interested. I am fully endorsing this company having personally met the man and am going to try and go on a shoe drop sometime next fall.

The website is http://www.tomsshoes.com/. I will be buying baby some.

-Kato

Family Resemblance

So we couldn't resist putting up the first baby pictures. There's text on one of them that the lab tech wrote to tell us where the head is and where the rump is. In the actual pics you can clearly see the eyes and an arm. Amazing! At this point, I think the baby looks more like me than Larissa. I mean come on! You can clearly see two eyes and one arm...that's totally me! Well hopefully as it develops it will look more like Rissa but for now this baby is definitely a chip off the old block. The pic to the right side is the baby's heartbeat. The doc said it was a good heart. I think it definitely got that from Rissa.

From here on out we won't post everyday about the baby on 'How to Tell a Gaston Story'. We don't want to flood this blog with baby, baby, baby 24/7 so we'll be posting constantly on clintand larissa.blogspot.com. I'll put a link to it on the sidebar to the right. Enjoy!
-Clint and Rissa

A Picture Documentary of Me

I'm hesitant to post after baby...it's a hard act to follow, but I don't want to study anymore so I thought I would give a picture documentary of my first year in New York. My view from my room is nice and the park is/was amazing- they're tearing it apart but is promised to be finished by the time I graduate...we'll see about that.

The first few months were spent on the soccer field. You think I kid, but literally every moment I wasn't in class was either spent on the field or eating. Then I got pneumonia and they were just spent in bed...Luckily there are NO pictures from that time period...

I had a birthday in between all of that. I didn't do anything too special, but I DID find Mexican food in NYC which is quite a treat :-D. Halloween in NYC was a new experience. It is a HUGE deal. After almost getting mobbed, we just chilled in a dorm and ate more candy than I have ever eaten in my life (of course, eating...) So soccer season ended and I came home for break...and when I went back I took my first adventure to New Hampshire and snow. It is NOT white and fluffy. Okay, its white, but it is definately not soft and cut my ankes :-( BUT I had a great time with the Navigators and am sad to say that soccer has kept me from going for a while now. But I cleared my schedule for next semester so I will definately be there! We try to fit in as many New Yorky type things as we can into our schedule without going broke...so we mostly go to Central Park. It is quite possibly one of the most beautiful places I've ever been and is definately one of the top three places to be in NYC. We also go out to as many MLB games as we possibly can. (Baby will be a Yankees fan.) Sometimes we get bored and play on the macs instead of doing our homework...but we usually get pretty good grades somehow.

Go figure.

We've also taken a few trips to SNL, and of course went ice-skating OUTDOORS which was a little trippy...but I think all of these pictures should be a start to describing the amazing year at NYU. Okay, well its almost one here and i've wasted entirely too much time posting pictures...

Perhaps some more another time...

Kato