His Grace is Enough

Jefferson's favorite song on KLOVE is Your Grace is Enough. During this Thanksgiving time the words of this song have been flooding my spirit. I'm really trying to cling to the fact God is all I need. I am so guilty of relying on Him only when I need something instead of a daily friendship with a God who always has my best interest in mind. Since we moved a year and a half ago I've really struggled with lonliness. I know this sounds silly because I could make a huge list of friends that I have. For some reason it's different. For those of you who have known me for any length of time know that I'm a people pleaser. I want people to like me. I love doing things for people. I love for people to need me. The problem is I try too hard. That's when I get hurt. It's hard to come to terms with the fact that some friends are only in your life for a season. When we moved relationships changed and I don't like that. But me being me tries to hold on and keep things the same and just get hurt over and over. So I come back to the lyrics of that song, "God I see your grace is enough, I'm covered in your love, Your grace is enough for me." I have to learn to let go. I'm not in control, but I'm covered in His love and that's enough.

Is it really the middle of November?.....

....what happened to all that we did in October??!

How time flies. I can't believe Thanksgiving is less that 2 weeks away. I haven't even finished processing all that we did in October! The fall is always busy for us. Brett's weekends are filled with symphony rehearsals, All-Region and All-State auditions and All-Region Clinics and Concerts. In between all that we celebrated Jarrett's 2nd birthday twice and had a fun Halloween.

It is hard to believe that Jarrett turned 2 on October 25. He is such a charmer and truly a blessing to our family. We first celebrated his birthday with a family party in Odessa. Aunt Erin ordered a Thomas the Train cake. Jarrett got a lot of fun Thomas toys. He loves playing with his trains. It was fun to have all of Brett's family together. Pretty crazy with all 7 grandkids. We also took that weeked to have Erin take our pictures for our Christmas cards. She also took pictures of all the grandkids. On that particular day they were ages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7! How fun is that!

On Friday, October 24 we drove to my parents house in Plano. On the way there we stopped in Denton to have dinner with Clint and Kerry and Cooper. On Saturday (Jarrett's actual birthday), we drove to Rusk, Texas to ride Thomas the Train. We had a blast. It was the most beautiful fall day. The kids played games, jumped in the jump house, stamped pictures. The train was so fun. It moved extremely slow, but the kids loved it. They made a "train" of kids to walk and sing up and down the aisles. Jarrett jumped right in the line with the big kids. When all the other kids sat down, Jarrett continued to entertain everyone by walking and dancing up the aisles. It was a wonderful time to celebrate another year of our sweet boy's life.

The next week was filled with Halloween festivities. First, Brett had his annual Hauntcert with his feeder middle schools. It was a huge success. The turnout was great and all the kids played wonderfully. Brett's students played the Overture to Barber of Seville. Brett adapted the arrangement so that it became the "Rabbit of Seville". The students played while the Bugs Bunny cartoon played on the big screen. Before the kids could put their instruments down after the final cut-off, the audience was on their feet. One of Brett's students looked at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Mr. Berridge, no one has ever done that for us before!" Brett has made such an impact on that program in such a short time. I am so proud of him and the students. The students are proud to be in orchestra. The administration is proud of the orchestra and enjoy coming to the concerts. Brett's parents were able to come up for the concert. I think they enjoyed seeing the boys in their costumes as much (if not more :)) than seeing Brett's concert!

On Friday, we went to our church's Fall Festival. The boys had a great time playing games and collecting candy. Because of Brett's concert, Brett and I had costumes this year. We were Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. The boys were Spiderman and Superman.

Well, I guess our novel of October is long enough. I'll be back soon with the beginning of November!

Painting Pumpkins

Jason, Erin, Grant, Hagan and Evyn came to visit today! Jason was given 2 tickets to the Tech game, so he called the biggest Texas Tech fan around...Brett! They had great seats on the 50 yard line, 6 rows from the field. Jason said you could almost read Coach Leach's playbook from their seats!
After lunch the guys split for the game, leaving Erin and I with our 5 children! Needless to say, it was LOUD!! Erin had the great idea (as always) to paint craft pumpkins. After spending at least an hour at Michael's, we got home, stripped the kids down, and let them paint. They had a great time.
After the kids finished, we sent them outside to play and we started our own pumpkins. Erin is so creative. I really hate her for it, but, secretly, I'm glad so she can help me!! :) I even made one for my friend, Aubin, who turns 30 tomorrow! (Happy Birthday, Aubin!)
It was a great day with (some of) our cousins. We're looking forward to going to Odessa next weekend to be with the rest of the Berridge clan to celebrate Jarrett's 2nd birthday! I'm sure I'll have more to say about my baby being 2 in a later post!

Evyn Joy

Grant Man!

"Bubba" (Hagan)

Jefferson

Jarrett (He only ate a little paint!)

Erin helping Grant with his finishing touches.

Jarrett and Evyn (I wonder what they are plotting?)

Mine! Aren't you proud of me? Okay, Erin painted the zebra stripes and made the bow!

Erin's! See, don't you just hate her?! :)

Race for the Cure 2008

On September 20, 1988 my grandmother, Janice Walker Wrotenbery,
lost her battle with breast cancer. She was an amazing woman.
Unfortunately, I will never know her the way my mom knew her.
They were best friends.




As a way to celebrate her life as well as to raise awareness about
this disease my mom and I walked the Race for the Cure today.
We had a great time. We flew to Lubbock on Friday after being
together in Plano for my grandpa's funeral (my dad's dad) this week.
This morning the boys dropped us off and went to the finish line to
meet us. After we finished the walk we went out to breakfast! Yummy!






This was a great way for us to remember Grandmother.
I think we have started a tradition. I think even the boys
want to walk with us next year!


To all of you ladies whom I love: Please do a monthly self-exam
and have a mammogram every year. I'm going to talk to my doctor
about having my baseline film done this year! I know it's earlier than
what they recommend, but I think my family history justifies it.
I turned 30 this year, so it's something I want to do for myself!

That's My Boy!

Apparently, Jarrett thinks he's ready for potty-training..... we're not so sure!



He pulled the undies out of Tracen's drawer when he was at Melissa's last week. He pulled them on about half-way and then Melissa helped him with the rest. He was very disappointed to have to take them off!

What a Week!

Like most of you Brett started back to school this week. His 2nd year at Monterey looks very promising. His orchestra grew 100%! We are very excited about that. The boys start PDO and preschool next week. Last night we met their teachers. We are very fortunate again this year to have great teachers. Jefferson will be in Pre-K 4 with Mrs. Cude (like Dude)! He's growing up so fast and I can't wait to see all that he learns this year! Jarrett is in the big boy class this year! He gets to sleep on a napmat and sit at a table for lunch! Hard to believe he'll be 2 in October.

As for me, well, I'm crazy! I am teaching 5 different places this year! On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I am helping with the Hutch MS Choir. My friend, Daniel, is the choir director and he was desperate for some help this year. On Monday and Thursday I will be teaching music at Jefferson's preschool. On Tuesday and Thursday afternoon I will teach K-4 music at Bozeman Elementary. This school has not had music in several years, so the 4 hours a week I'm there is exciting for them. On Tuesday evenings I work with the West Texas Children's Chorus. Last year the performed at TMEA. This spring we're looking to take them to NYC to perform at Carnegie Hall. And finally, on Wednesday morning and Thursday evening I teach Mommy and Me music classes for birth-5 years.
Check out www.freewebs.com/firststepsinmusiclubbock for more info on that!

Luckily, the boys are at school Tuesday and Thursday 9:00-2:45 and Friday 9:00-12:00 when I do the majority of my teaching. Monday they will be with Melissa (thank you friend!) and Wednesday they can be with me! I think it will be a good year. The boys and I are ready to be out of the house more. They both love school.

Brett will continue to play with the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Jefferson is still taking violin lessons!

Tonight we will support the Monterey Plainsmen in their 1st football game of the year. Tomorrow we will wear our Red and Black and cheer for our #12 Red Raiders! GO TECH!!

We speak Spanish?

Apparently, Brett and I have been taking Spanish lessons in all of our spare time! The other day I decided that we were getting a little stir crazy and needed to get out of the house. So, we all load up in the Berridge Limousine (as my dad calls it) and Brett and I begin to discuss where we can go. I told Brett, "Well, we could go to T-A-R-G-E-T, but then we'd have to buy P-O-P-C-O-R-N." (They have a cheap popcorn/drink deal if you don't know!) Jefferson then asks, "Daddy, Why are you and Mommy talking Spanish!" Of course, Brett and I cracked up! Jefferson asked what was so funny? I said, "You are!"

I love the funny things kids say!

Six Flags

On Saturday we took Jefferson and Jarrett to Six Flags. I know what you're thinking and yes, we are crazy! It was so hot, but we had a great time! There were plenty of things for Jefferson and Jarrett to ride. Jefferson liked the rides that made his tummy feel funny! I think he'll love the roller coasters when he gets tall enough. We rode the Mini Mine Train twice. He thought it was great.

The Carousel


Jefferson's 1st ride


Jefferson Driving!


Riding the Antique Cars


The Boot-Scootin Ride with Daddy


Jarrett even slept for and hour in that heat!



Jefferson and Mommy on the Mini Mine Train - Take 2!

Jefferson Riding the Tea Cups

Last Day in Paris

{Sorry it's taken so long to post the last full day of our European trip... we are yet again out of town!}

July 13

Today was our last day in Paris, so we made the most of it! Our first stop was the Louvre where we saw untold millions of dollars (euros) worth of paintings and sculptures. At this point in our vacation, we were so tired that we ended up just doing the touristy stuff at the Louvre - Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo, Napoleon's Coronation painting, the crown jewels of one of the Louis's... you know, the usual. The only other art that we got to see was the art between Point A and Point B. I almost felt bad that of all of the other priceless pieces of art at this museum, only a handful of pieces get the most attention.

I found interesting (possibly even more so than the art) was the museum building itself. It was the former palace to King Louis XIV before he moved everything and everyone in it to Versailles. The buildings that housed these precious works of art was, in my estimation, the overlooked crown jewel of the entire museum. I was unable to find very much history on it, but it was fantastic!

One thing that you always hear about the Louvre is the sheer size of it... I will tell you that it is so large that there is no way you would be able to see everything there is to see in several days' time, much less one day... or as in our case, a couple of hours. Our "tour guide" Rick Steves (http://www.ricksteves.com/) said in his book on Paris that you could spend all day every day for several weeks and still not see everything there is to see at the Louvre. After spending a few hours there, we barely scratched the surface!

We then headed over to St. Chappelle Chapel. This chapel is famous for the unbelievable stained glass. As most stained glass does in any church, this stained glass depicts biblical stories. What makes this most interesting is that this little chapel (it is quite a bit smaller than the cathedrals we have been seeing) chronicles some 1,000 Bible stories. We were unable to shoot any good pictures of the inside of this chapel, but it was absolutely breathtaking. It's worth making a little detour to see.

Our original plan from this point was to head over to the Orsay Museum, but Beth and I had agreed that we were pretty much museum-ed out... we were totally exhausted. The last thing we needed was some soothing Impressionistic Art.... I'm sure we would have fallen asleep standing up! We instead decided to go over to a little lesser known attraction - one of the original Statues of Liberty. A rough draft, if you will, to ours in the US. We got the idea to go by watching National Treasure II in the airplane on the way over. This statue is significantly smaller than our Statue of Liberty that sits in New York Harbor. This instead sits on an island in the Seine River facing east, and BTW - it is nowhere near as busy as it is depicted in the movie. In fact, we and only one other American family were the only people even there. Still, it was good to see.

From that point, we hopped back on the train to Dustin and Amanda's house in The Netherlands, as we fly home tomorrow from Amsterdam. We are indebted to them for their gracious hospitality and opening their home to us. They not only made our trip less expensive by giving us free room and board for several nights, but they were superb tour guides while taking us on our daily excursions to Belgium, Germany, and touring The Netherlands... sights that they have seen many times over! We thank them dearly from the bottom of our hearts, and hope that someday soon we can return the favor!

We hope you have enjoyed reading about our journeys as much as we have enjoyed chronicling them for you! Keep checking back to see what we are up to!

Brett and Beth


The entrance to the Louvre


Good ol' Mona


St. Chappelle's Chapel


The "Impostor" Statue of Liberty :)


Our phenominal hosts: (L-R) Dustin, Amanda, Jacob with us in a picture before we left for the airport

Back to Paris

July 12

This morning, we headed to the train station at around 8:30 bound for Versailles. Having only heard about how big and opulent it is, I was excited about seeing this palace for Kings Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI. The only thing I knew about it was the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.... and even at that, I didn't know any of the details!

I was totally astonished by the level of luxury exhibited that I could not help but to gawk at all of it. We were told on our tour that this palace was so big and so exorbitant that entire industries were created just to build and furnish it. All of the floors and pillars, etc. were marble. The lavish art work that adorned the walls and ceilings (and sometimes actually were the walls and ceilings) was astounding. It was a profound example of human-worship.

King Louis XIV built Versailles on many thousands of acres - only a fraction of the original parcel is still used today (almost 2,000 acres) for this palace and grounds - as a getaway from the stresses of palace life in Paris. It eventually became the only palace for the King and all of his ministers. He moved his entire governing cabinet here and held them captive with luxury. That allowed him to run the government the way he wanted to with all of the other ministers distracted by anything and everything they could ever desire. Interestingly enough, as I understand it, Louis XIV began a serious art collection at his old palace. This old palace kept the art as a start to a new museum - The Louvre!

As crazy-big and luxurious the palace is, the palace gardens are probably what Versailles is most famous for. Louis XIV harnessed the power of the Seine River to power some 1200 fountains (only 300 are still around today) across the length and breadth of the grounds. It was something like holding your finger over a water hose to make the water come shooting out. The water would come out of the fountains by using steadily shrinking pipe, thus increasing pressure... at least that's how I understood it. He was also very well known for keeping a grove of orange trees in chilly France... he did this just to show off mostly, but it was to also prove that he was the "Sun King." He is the only one who could have done this. He was extremely full of himself, but he had the charisma and that "it" factor that truly endeared him to the people. He was also known for being available to the masses.

Also on these grounds, Marie Antoinette built her little getaway from the getaway many years later... a working village so she could experience "common life." Of course, her village had all the trappings of a real village, but she didn't have to do any of the work... she could just delegate. I guess it made her feel a little more at home since she was from a small Austrian village before she married Louis XVI.

After Versailles, we toured the Military Museum which is attached to Napoleon's tomb. We went through the newly opened WWI and WWII portions of the museum. It was a bit insulting from an American's standpoint to hear the French version of WWII. It was almost as if there was some big, huge war going on, and, oh yeah, the Americans helped out. When it was all said and done and the Allied troops liberated Paris, they called Charles Degaulle the great liberator! Arrgh!

From the Military Museum we went over to Napoleon's tomb. Can you say, "Little-Man Syndrome?" The tomb itself was HUGE! The hall in which it is housed was gilded with 24 pounds of solid gold directly above the gargantuan sarcophagus housing several coffins in which lie Napoleon Bonaparte. It was surreal! Surrounding his gloriously dead body were all of his gloriously dead military big-wigs. It was a little much... but it was interesting.

From there we trekked on over to the Arc du Triomph via the legendary Champs Elysees (See yesterday's blog about driving the rent car). I assure you, it was much more enjoyable to walk this than to drive it. The Champs Elysees houses many different very expensive shops, as well as car dealers displaying the best of what they have to offer - including concept cars on display. I even saw a Tour de France store... turns out, the Tour de France ends on the Champs Elysees.

We finally get to the Arc, and we get ready to take the stairs to the top. Bear in mind our legs are pretty much jello from all of the stairs we have been climbing over the last week, not to mention all of the walking we have been doing. It took some convincing, but we finally decided to just do it. I mean, how many times are we going to have the opportunity to climb to the top of the Arc du Triomph?!

Tomorrow finishes our time in Paris. We still have several things to do, and time is dwindling, so I'm sure we'll get yet another early start for another big day!

Brett and Beth

The organ in King Louis XIV's personal cathedral. This cathedral was the ONLY example of any kind of worship of God and not of man.



The stunning Hall of Mirrors



Marie Antionette's village estate on the premises of Versailles



A look across a miniscule portion of the grounds to the back side of the palace



The man-made canal inspired by Venice, Italy. King Louis XIV thought, "Why go to Venice? Let's bring Venice here."



Napoleon's tomb. It's hard to see just how big it really is... to give you an idea, those white statues surrounding it are about 10 feet tall.



Napoleon's frock coat and his famous hat



By taking my life into my own hands, I stood in the middle of the Champs Elysees to get this picture!



Beth in front of the Arc du Triomph



France's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI under the Arc du Triomph.