MK Chick

Second Hearing for Little Man

2011-10-18T18:03:00.000-05:00

We went back to court today to finish what we started a couple weeks ago. We still have Little Man (henceforth referred to as LM) with us. Our next court date is late January so we will have LM with us at least until then.

Google is a very interesting thing for finding out all kinds of info you wished you didn't have to know about someone. I've been able to find out quite a bit on most of the players in this situation and it's not been pretty or comforting. It's made me very sad, to be quite honest. I'm very much the "play by the rules" kind of gal and don't get it at all when people totally go against what is right. This is a situation where I'm feeling very torn on exactly how I'm supposed to feel. On one hand, I'm super glad we finally have a child in our home and that we're able to make a difference to him for whatever time we're allowed to have him. On the other hand, I'm so sad about what all has gone on in this family for YEARS! It is generational sin on display. I'm praying the cycle will be broken with LM!

As for how LM is doing and how we're doing - oh my GRANNY it's a challenge having a 9 month old at my age!! Especially since I've been thrust straight into it! I'm right now taking about 15 times longer to type this than normal because I'm having to check on LM every 2 seconds to make sure he's not into something he shouldn't be in to. And the diapers. God helps us all - the diapers. Wow. This kid can POOP! And he's not sleeping through the night every night. I like sleeping through the night. Once I'm out, I'm out. And I don't like to be getting up during the night. Not so with LM. Oh no. He likes to be up at, oh, say 1am or 2am. Oh yes. I think he's doing it just to torture me sometimes. But last night he slept long and hard and I was so grateful! He's cutting some teeth, which any mother knows is never a super fun venture for eating, sleeping, or pooping. :) But over all, he's doing fantastic! He's such a good little kid! He loves to explore, to eat, to play peek-a-boo, and to snuggle and give "kisses".

I'm excited to know for sure that we'll have him for his first Halloween, his first Thanksgiving, his first Christmas, and his first birthday! I'm a planner. I like to know things way in advance. I buy clothes at the end of one season preparing for the next year. That's just how I roll. The last couple of weeks with LM have been a challenge for me simply because of the uncertainty of the future of it all. For now, I know I can prepare for the next 3 months. It's not a lot, but it's something. And several fun somethings to plan for in the next 3 months! And for those of you who haven't seen this GORGEOUS little dude, I will be happy to email pictures, because those of you who HAVE seen him can testify - he is FABULOUS!! :)

Our Foster Child

2011-10-05T23:11:00.000-05:00

Yeah, eons since my last post, I know. Been a bit busy. :)

To make a super long story as short as possible... with more details to come later....

We have our first foster placement as of Friday, September 30. It's a little 9 month old boy. He is honest to Pete one of the cutest things I've ever seen! We're already completely in love with this little one!

Mike is out of town this week on a business trip, so I've been a single mom for a few days. **And let me just interject here that if you are a single mom with more than one child, GOD BLESS YOU and I have no idea how you do it!! I can handle one for sure. Two is a bit more demanding, but still doable. THREE, with that 3rd being an infant, and doing it without my husband.... shoot me now!! My hat's off to any single mom. Those are brave souls there, folks!! ** Trying to learn a baby who I just got has been more challenging than I was prepared for. When you are pregnant, you have 9 months to prepare for a baby to arrive. Once the baby is here, at least a woman gets some maternity leave. Not so with foster care. Nope. I had less than 18 hours notice that I was getting an infant and was back to work in 48 hours. And thank the good LORD that this kid has decent sleep habits! He's gotten even better over the past couple of nights. That is a blessing for SURE! You would think after doing this twice with my own that I would have some sort of memory of what to do with a 9 month old. Yeah - I didn't. It's been a learning process for sure, but we're doing well.

Today was the first court hearing. We didn't get to go full out into the adjudication hearing today. They had to reschedule for a couple weeks from now. I'm here to tell you, this straight and narrow girl doesn't do well in those sorts of situations. I have been a nervous wreck since I found out just yesterday that I had to be there with our little guy. I have been an emotional basketcase since the hearing. So many thoughts have run through my brain, I can't even articulate any of them well enough to do them justice here. I know after today how I will specifically pray over the next couple of weeks. I can't go into a lot of detail, but if you're reading this, please pray that the judge presiding today would remain the judge over the whole deal. There's a chance another one will be requested, but I'm praying heaven down that this one stays. Pray our little guy will get to stay with us. I know I need to pray that whatever God's will is, that is what will come to pass and ultimately I know that's what needs to happen. However right now, I can't get past my selfishness of wanting to keep our baby. Pray that I can see these people involved how Jesus sees them and not how my flesh wants to see them, because after today, I need the eyes and the heart of Jesus more than ever before. Pray that someone will be able to reach this family with the Gospel. It breaks my heart to see people so far away from the Lord. I don't understand it at all. Today just reaffirmed all the more that Jesus is the ONLY way to have any hope or joy in this life.

I hope to update this blog a bit more now. I need an outlet to get out some of this info, and some of you may want to follow along on out journey, so I will do my best.

Pray for our family. We will have our baby at least until October 18th. We have a long road ahead of us. None of the steps are easy. We will need Jesus to walk very closely by us all in the days ahead. Any time you think of foster families, adoption, the justice system, anything like that, pray for us. We are desperate for the Lord to show Himself might in our family.

Old Testament Thoughts & Questions

2011-01-08T08:19:00.000-06:00

I'm reading through my One Year Bible. I've tried doing this for the past few years and other studies have come in from time to time and the poor little One Year Bible has been laid on the shelf and the other, bigger one has been brought out for my quiet time or bible study stuff. I really want to make it my goal this year to read through the entire Bible. I've never done it. I'm pretty sure at some point I've read every verse in the Bible, but not straight through, knowing for certain I've read every single verse. So this year I'm going to try again.

However, I must say, as I'm reading through the Old Testament, I have about 17,000 questions so far. You talk about not going into detail (or at least the detail I want)! Wow! Take for instance today's reading about Lot leaving Sodom. Hello! Why in the world did Lot offer his daughters to the creeps at his door?! Seriously?! And then there's like one sentence about Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt. ONE SENTENCE!!! What was Lot's wife thinking? What did Lot and his daughters think or do when they saw here as a pillar of SALT!! Really? There could have been a whole chapter about just that one incident. But it got once sentence. I find myself thinking, "And then what happened?" every time I open this book. I guess maybe I'm supposed to think that? Maybe I'm supposed to search more on my own. Maybe I'm not supposed to know any of this until I get to heaven. Who knows. All I know is that if the Bible had all the info I wanted, that dude would have been about 12 times thicker than it is now!

Sometimes it makes me a bit sad, too, when I get to stuff like this where I have several questions about the Bible and want to go deeper, I think "I could ask Rich..." (my stepdad). Oh how I wish I could. He always knew the answer to whatever question I had. He lived in his Bible and I think he knew that thing backwards and forwards. I loved talking to him about anything to do with the Bible. He went to be with Jesus 3 years ago and now he REALLY has all the answers.

Jesus Calling

2010-12-30T08:26:00.000-06:00

My sweet friend Marita gave me a little daily devotional book for my birthday called Jesus Calling. I love it because the daily readings are as if Jesus is talking straight to the reader, then it gives you scripture that coordinates with that days reading.

Today's was especially good and I have a feeling several of these things are going to hit me right when I need them. I thought I would share today's devo with you.

"I am leading you along a way that is uniquely right for you. The closer to Me you grow, the more fully you become your true self - the one I designed you to be. Because you are one of a kind, the path you are traveling with Me diverges increasingly from that of other people. However, in My mysterious wisdom and ways, I enable you to follow this solitary path while staying in close contact with others. In fact, the more completely you devote yourself to Me, the more freely you can love people.
Marvel at the beauty of a life intertwined with My Presence. Rejoice as we journey together in intimate communion. Enjoy the adventure of finding yourself through losing yourself in Me."
2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
Ephesians 2:10 - For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.
1John 4:7-8 - Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
John 15:4 - Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.

Mid Thirties

2010-12-28T23:08:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow, I will officially be 35 - mid thirties. Not that I haven't been in the "mid" stage for a while, but...

I remember growing up, I used to think that someone that was 35 was really, truly a grown up.

So according to my child-self, tomorrow I will really, truly be a grown up.

And I have to renew my driver's license. I know. Jealous, aren't you?

A New Job

2010-12-11T08:39:00.000-06:00

It's been a sweet forever since I blogged. However, I have a pretty good excuse... sort of.

I have a new full time job. I'm the Director of Preschool Ministries at Cross Church Fayetteville. Now, our campus hasn't opened yet. We're still in the building stages, but there is so much prep involved - it's crazy! Plus, I'm still working Kids Day Out as well as Friday Night Out until the end of this next week. It's been a wee bit stressful, but it's also been super exciting!

To back up a bit, I interviewed for the job in September. September 21st, to be exact, was my first interview. I remember because I was praying for God to give me some sort of confirmation on what I needed to do for sure. I was torn in so many ways over this opportunity. I had some time before I was to meet for the interview, so I grabbed my Bible and sat down to read. Not having anything in particular that I needed to read, I just went to Proverbs as is my habit if I don't have a reading plan that I'm following - cause, you know, there's wisdom in that there book. :) I usually go to the chapter that corresponds to the day of the month. Which was my intention that day. But all morning long, I kept thinking it was the 22nd.... which is what chapter I turned to. I began to read and got to verse 6. I read it and it was, like my sweet friend Marita described to me, like a neon light blazing off the page at me. It reads, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it." I just wept. Literally. It still brings tears to my eyes to think about it. I was so humbled and so overwhelmed that the God who created the universe chose that moment to speak to me. He cares enough about me, about the details of my life, to lead me to that verse... on the "wrong" day... that was exactly the scripture I needed to read. That was to be my job - to help in training a child in the way he should go...and to help build truths in the hearts of these precious tiny humans that would be with them forever. I stayed on that verse and couldn't move past it for a long time. Then Satan started talking to me again, as he has a habit of doing. How in the world was I going to pull this off? Wasn't "so and so" better for the job? I would probably get in trouble a bunch for just not doing a good enough job (which I hate, nay LOATHE being in trouble). How was I ever going to be successful in this? Oh, but then. But then.... I was able to get past verse 6 and read on through that chapter. And God did it again. He spoke loud and clear through verse 19 and said straight to my heart, "I have instructed you today - even you - so that your confidence my be in the Lord." He instructed me that day - EVEN ME - that I shouldn't worry about what I could do on my own and that my confidence didn't need to be in my abilities, or lack thereof. My confidence that I would do a good job in the position that God was leading me to should be in the Lord. If He would choose to put me in that place, He surely would equip me to do the job and if I do a good job, it's only because of Christ and the gifts He has given me - certainly not of myself and of anything coming from me. By the end of that day of my first interview, I realized that I'd read the "wrong" chapter and was even more overwhelmed that God didn't let me read chapter 21, as was according to the date. He led me to the perfect thing I was to read. And God led me to be hired in that position.

And then Satan went to work IMMEDIATELY. I got the job. I was on such a spiritual high. A couple things happened that just completely made my week. And then BAM!! Satan was on the attack in a hurry! Less than 24 hours after it became public info that I was the person for this job, I got slammed to my knees. For three days, I was in hell. I literally felt like I was doing battle with the devil. I felt stripped of anything good in me. I was miserable. But God used that time to draw me so close to him. I remember at one point just closing my eyes, putting my head in my hands, and imagining crawling up into the arms of God and letting His wings cover me with His peace. Occasionally Rachel will do that with Mike - just crawl up in his arms and let him hold her. What a sense of peace and belonging to be a small child, covered and protected in your daddy's arms. That's what my God did for me during those days. He let me be covered and protected in my Daddy's arms. Satan was eventually defeated in that battle (to which I totally stuck my tongue out at him over it!) and things went forward from there. But the whole experience reminded me that the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He is good. All the time. Regardless of our circumstances.

soooo much!! My prayer daily is that God will use me. However I need to be used. That He will lead the right people to come alongside and help teach and lead these tiny humans. I can't wait to see lives changed and people come to know Jesus! I'm so excited!!

"But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14

Keep Up With Me...

2010-10-13T14:28:00.000-05:00

On the right side of this blog is my Twitter timeline. Follow me on Twitter, username is miss_jilly_bean, or become my friend on facebook - or just read the timeline on this blog to keep up with me. I can spend 2 seconds updating Twitter more than I can find time to sit down at my computer, log in to blogger, type out a big message with pictures, etc, etc, etc.

Hopefully this weekend, there may be time to update the blog and get all of you who still might be interested a picture or two from our trip to Las Vegas. It was fabulous!!

On the adoption front, we have some inquiries in on a few kids from Arkansas and some other states. All I can say at this point is, this is a frustrating process dealing with the state! There is not one single person that seems to be an advocate for US. If we left it up to someone contacting us about available kids that might fit in our family, we would wait for years and maybe still never hear anything. It's really maddening sometimes to think that there are families like us that are ready and willing to take these kids who need families and yet no one is helping us! We are doing all the leg work. There's not one soul that has said, "Hey, it looks like we have a possible match for you" or "what about these kids, would you be interested?" Nothing. But we're not quitting. We're calling. We're emailing. We KNOW there are kids out there and we have a place for them and we WANT them! I know it's all just a matter of God's timing. His timing is perfect. His plan is perfect. There is a child or children out there that God has designed to be a part of our family. I'm constantly reminding myself that God is in total control, even when I think these people working for the state are all crazy.

So Little Time...

2010-09-22T19:01:00.000-05:00

I told Mike last night, I think my brain is about to explode. I have right now only about 3 minutes til I have to get my kids and get home so that I can continue working on getting things ready to go out of town on Friday. Thankfully Mamaw and Grandma Lynn will be here and my kids will be in incredibly capable hands, but it's still hard to leave and make sure everything is under control. I thought 7 weeks ago that it was a bit early to start getting things together and that I could wait. I wish I could go back 7 weeks and tell myself that I was a fool and I needed then to actually START getting stuff together. Oh well. The time is quickly approaching and I'm excited!!

So many things to update and this poor blog just doesn't get very much attention. Maybe when I get back home, I will be able to keep up a bit better - and post some pretty fabulous pictures from my trip!! I'm most excited about the FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAHHHH!!!! I get all giddy just thinking about it! :)

Vegas Baby!!

2010-08-09T17:40:00.000-05:00

Now, since I haven't posted in like, a hundred years, I figured I would break the dry spell with a little fun! I'm going to VEGAS!!! I've never been before and I'm so excited to go, I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas most days! I've researched the crud out of this trip and want to be totally prepared when I get there.

Last week, Mike called me and said he had something he wanted to ask me but he seemed very hesitant to really say it. I got a little nervous to begin with and just told him to spit it out. He said he was going to the TIA convention (something to do with tortillas), which is in Las Vegas this year, and wondered if I wanted to go with him. Uh - HELLO!! Of COURSE I want to go!! But wait. We're less than loaded so how would we pay for such a venture? And thus comes the good part! We have extra Frequent Flier Miles that have been "sitting there" for a while on another airline that Mike rarely flies now and happen to have plenty for me to fly to and from Vegas. PLUS, this little gem, he got me bumped to first class flying out of Vegas when I come home! WOOT! Don't know how he did it. Didn't ask. Just grateful. We'll be flying different airlines, but that's cool. So, travel there and back is free. Mike's room will be paid for by work and is based on double occupancy, so it won't cost an additional dime for me to stay there as well. Room - Paid. If I travel anywhere while I'm there, I'll either be walking or it will be with Mike, which he'll be paying for with his budget through work. Travel in Vegas - Paid. I'm thinking that granola bars or fruit of some sort will be my morning snack friend and I plan on taking full advantage of the enormous amounts of buffets all over the place there and will use that for my "brunch" most days. So, my breakfast/lunch will be on us. Dinner one or two nights that we're there will likely be with vendors. Dinner one or two nights - Paid. Dinner the other night or two will be Mike and me. Mike's food will be paid for by work. My food will be on us. Of course, I'll "need" to do some shopping while I'm there, so there will be that. But other than my part of some of the food and a little shopping money, this trip is mostly taken care of just because I get to tag along with my husband on a business trip!!! WOOHOO!! I'm literally so excited, I can barely contain myself! And the food! Oh my sweet Lord, the FOOD!!! I fully intend on gaining at LEAST 5lbs while I'm there because I will eat everything in sight and gorge myself to death at the buffets and not care a bit about it! There are tons of fun things to do there as well. We LOVE roller coasters, so that might be something we do. We're looking at going to a show, but my word, those things can get super pricey, so we may stick to the free Treasure Island show and the Bellagio Fountains... or heck, the best thing to do, in my opinion, is people watch and that is totally free. And you KNOW there are going to be some interesting people to watch in Las Vegas! Otherwise, I'll be going to as many of the hotels as I can and will take in as many of the sights as I can! So many of those resorts are a vacation in themselves with all the stuff they have in there! The one I'm most excited about is the Venetian. I have the gondola ride set as my screen saver right now.

AAAHHHHH!!!! We're still about 6 weeks out from leaving, but I know those 6 weeks will fly like crazy with the kids going back to school, KDO starting back, all the fall programs at church starting back - it will FLY! But I couldn't be more excited! I can't wait to spend 5 days away with my hubby! We haven't done anything like this since we were married. We've gone on overnight stuff, but nothing like this! It will be like the honeymoon we never had - except that Mike will have to be at a boring convention some of the time. Poor thing. But while he's gone, I get to do whatever I want!! HEHEHEHEHE!! It's the best of both worlds!

In preparation for our trip, I've started running. I downloaded the Couch to 5K app and have been following that for a couple weeks. I've dropped a few pounds so far, but I want to loose a few more before we leave. Partly because I want to get in good shape to walk a thousand miles while I'm there, partly because I want to look thinner than I am now, and partly because I intend to EAT LIKE CRAZY when I'm there and I want to be able to not feel guilty about that. Hopefully by the time we leave, I'll be able to do the full 5K. I'm not planning on running in a race - there's not one in particular that I'm training for. I just want to be able to say I can do it.

So the countdown has begun. I cannot wait!! I love having stuff like this to look forward to! And if any of you that might still read this blog have any suggestions, recommendations, or tips, feel free to share!

Updating

2010-06-24T17:09:00.001-05:00

It's been a month since I posted last. Wow. Life is just happening faster than I can type sometimes.

We don't have a child in our home yet. Our adoption home study was completed and filed and we're on the list. I just saw an email today about a 2 year old boy that's in need of a home. Maybe soon. I know God's timing is perfect and I'm perfectly content to wait at this point.

We still have 2 puppies. They are nearing 12 weeks old. I don't want to have puppies in my house anymore. I want them GONE. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy puppies, but not for this long. I've got too much other stuff going on to be cleaning up after puppies and they need way more attention than I can give them right now.

We just got back from our family reunion. We went to Grand Lake in Oklahoma and stayed from Sunday until Wednesday. It was lovely to be able to sit, read, play cards, hang out with the fam, watch the kids play, and not have one bit of responsibility except to feed my family for 3 days. I loved that I could sit and read all afternoon and not feel guilty about sitting and reading and not doing my domestic duties. When I'm at home, I feel like I need to be doing something most of the time. That I'm being lazy if I just take an hour or two to read. Which is why I put off reading until I get into bed and usually fall asleep before I've gotten through 5 pages - hence the reason it takes a sweet forever for me to finish a book. I love to read. LOVE it. But it's one of those things that I feel is a luxury and don't give myself permission to do very often. Over the past few days, however, I've sat down to read whenever I got ready and it was lovely. I also enjoyed catching up with Mike's dad and brothers that we don't get to see too often. We enjoy their company and enjoying hanging out together. Over all, it was a fun, relaxing time. I didn't take one picture with my "good" camera, though, and very few from my phone. Mike took a few of the kids fishing, but I don't have them yet. One of our first vacations that I didn't get a lot of pics. I'm ok with that, though. I wanted to be lazy on my vacation and I accomplished that! :)

In case you've been under a rock, Eclipse is coming out next week. Tanner and I are super excited about it! We have plans to go opening day. I can't wait to see it. I'm sure I'll venture out to the theater on more than one occasion to view it while it's out. It's only fair - you know, since I did see each of the previous movies at least 3 times in the theater. As for other movies lately that I've loved, Letters to Juliet was wonderful! I saw it twice and would go see it again. I will own that one when it comes out on DVD. Precious romantic movie.

I'm pretty excited about the 4th of July. I get to sing on the praise team during our Summer Freedom Celebration! I first got to sing at Christmas and then on Easter Sunday and now for the 4th! I enjoy singing soooo much and feel incredibly blessed that I get to do this! It's just so much stinkin' fun!!!

That's all for now. I'm off to take my son to the potty for the 493rd time today. Oh yeah, we're in the midst of potty training. I HATE doing this! HATE. IT. If he weren't so darn cute....

Another Call

2010-05-24T23:14:00.001-05:00

This is going to end up being so hard. It's already hard. I can tell you right now that I'm going to need to be prayed up every minute in order to have the wisdom and discernment we need in order to know which child to take.

I can't help but think of these kids they called about tonight. I heard the one year old little girl in the background crying for her daddy. I'm in tears right now just thinking about it! I wanted to go grab that child and just rock her to sleep. And her 3 year old big brother too. They cannot help what's going on with their parents or what they may have seen already in their little lives. I just think about Porter and how scared he would be if he was taken from our home. He would be crying for me and for his daddy. He would be so confused as to why he wasn't in his house, in his bed.

There are so many things going through my mind right now. Way too many and way to fast for me to even get them out. I'm so very thankful that the Holy Spirit can understand my thoughts and my groanings because I can't get many of these things into words. I'm just so broken for these kids.

God, meet their needs tonight. Bring them someone that will take care of them tonight and love on them. Give wisdom to the caseworkers and those trying to place these kids. They have such a hard job - give them patience and love for these kids.

Our First Call

2010-05-14T22:35:00.000-05:00

We just got our first call tonight for a little boy, but we had to say no. That was excrutiating. It's a very real thing now that there are kids right now that are being taken from their homes. And I can't help but wonder what that little boy is going through tonight. I wonder if he's scared. I wonder if he'll be able to sleep. I wonder if the family that's caring for him will take good care of him and hold him when he cries. My heart is just aching tonight... But I know God has got just the right child for us - and we'll be able to make a difference...

Open For Business

2010-05-10T17:10:00.000-05:00

After the busiest week in all of creation, we found out today that we are officially open as a foster home.

That's a very exciting and a very scary thing! If I knew who I was getting, I could feel a little more prepared. But we don't know. And we don't know how long we'll get to keep this first kid, if and when we get them.

We're also going to have an adoption home study done. Not sure when that will take place, but should be soon. That way if there are any kids that meet our criteria anywhere in AR, we can have an option to adopt them. Right now, we're limited to the kids in the four northwestern counties in AR.

We're praying for wisdom and discernment. I'm praying for an open heart for whoever comes into my home - and at the same time praying for open hands if I'm called to give them back to their bio parents.

This process is not for the faint of heart.... and we're just beginning.....

Life is K-R-A-Z-Y!!!

2010-04-28T08:47:00.000-05:00

For the next couple of weeks for sure, my life is on a non-stop crazy train! Next Tuesday, Mike's mom is having surgery. That is possibly the least convenient time in all of the world for me, but hey - what's a girl to do. All next week, Rachel has rehearsals for her dance recital, we've got Mike's mom's surgery, Mike has his first aid class, Tanner has softball, and I have meetings and work all week AND company coming. And let's not forget I have NINE PUPPIES who are about to start on solid food this weekend and will need to start potty training. God help me get through the week. If I can make it til a week from Saturday night with my sanity, it will be a miracle.

As for our adoption stuff, we still just lack Mike's first aid training then we're done and can be licensed for foster care. We're also going to do an adoption home study. They've done the foster home study already. Why are there two, you ask? As Michelle so eloquently put it, it's a government program and therefore is inefficient. But if we're going to play the government's game, we have to play by their rules. Therefore, we are going to do an additional home study. The foster home study will allow us to be licensed as foster parents with the option of adopting if and when the parents rights are terminated. This, however, limits us to our area of Arkansas. They try their best to place foster children in their original county. It makes sense because of travel issues that might arise with court dates or visitation that will inevitably come. However, if we do the adoption home study, we would be opened to the possibility of going directly to adoption with a child anywhere in Arkansas that met our criteria and were ready to be adopted. It might take a little longer with that, but it might be a shorter process in the long run. We're now just praying for God's wisdom in exactly what we need to do.

For today - I just want to bury my head in the sand with all the stuff we have going on in the next 10 days! Once May 9th gets here, it should be smooth sailing for a while.... knock on wood!!!! :)

Tomorrow

2010-04-20T08:30:00.000-05:00

Our County Lady comes out to visit tomorrow. She will do the final inspection of our home, make sure we've done everything we've been required to do, and let us know if there's anything else to do before opening our home. I'm cleaning today and tomorrow - mostly because the house needs it, not just because she's coming. Mike still has to do his first aid class and that won't be until the first part of May. I'm not sure how strict they are on stuff like that and if he will for sure have to finish it before we can have our home open. It makes me very nervous, but excited, to know that we could have a child in our home very, very soon! Yikes!!

The Puppies Have Arrived

2010-04-13T09:35:00.000-05:00

Life has been so busy that I haven't taken the time to sit down to my computer to update this poor little blog.

The puppies arrived on Saturday, April 3rd. There were 9. That's right. I said NINE. That was from ONE rendezvous. All the puppies survivied. That's the first time in the three litters that she's had that all them have survived. They are all doing well. There's not really much for us to do with them right now except look at them and hold them every once in a while. Copper pretty much takes care of their every need..... for a couple more weeks anyway. Then it will be up to us. So spread the word - if anyone needs a wonderful family dog, we have 9! In our previous litters, we've had dogs go to several of our family members and friends and have been able to keep up with them. If it wasn't so hard on Copper, we'd continue to have puppies to provide awesome pets for people. Our puppies have turned out to be fantastic dogs! I'm really proud of them! I'll post pics of the little darlings soon. They are on my camera, but not on my computer yet. That's for another time...

Mike is going to complete his CPR this week and the County Lady will come out next week to open our home... I think. She'll do the final inspection and other than Mike having the First Aid course, we're done. It's a little crazy to think that we could have a child in our home so soon! It's exciting, but at the same time, it makes me a little nervous.

I'm cleaning house today. Well, not actually right now since I'm typing on my blog, but that's what I have been doing and will continue to do. I don't have anywhere to be today and I have to say, it's GLORIOUS! I love days at home like this when I can get a bunch of stuff done and don't have to get "ready" for anything. I've got on my grubby cleaning clothes and my do-rag. My eyes are all allergy shot and I don't have a stitch of makeup on. You talk about looking HOT! Woohoo. But who cares, really? I'm busting tail today and am getting my clean on with my windows wide open to bring in some of that fresh spring air. I love spring!!!

Waiting on the Puppies and Adoption Stuff

2010-03-27T10:31:00.000-05:00

Copper is due any minute. Today is Day 63, if my calculations are correct. Puppies are usually born between day 62 and day 64 gestation. We should have puppies today or tomorrow. Or we could have them at the most inconvenient time ever, on Monday. She's getting pretty restless today, so we may see puppies later on this weekend. I'll be sure to post pictures once they're here.

Our 9th anniversary was Wednesday. Mike took off work that day and we all went to the health department to get TB skin tests and then took Rachel and Porter, along with Mike, to get physicals. We had to get all that done to finish up some paperwork items. That afternoon, I told Mike we needed to get some stuff taken care of in the back yard, including taking the swings down from the swingset because they had been chewed by the dogs and couldn't be used. He heard, "take the swingset down." So we spent a good hour taking down the swingset. It's amazing how much faster you can get that stuff down than it takes to set it up! We'd been planning on taking it down anyway. The wood was not good and the kids got lots of splinters nearly every time they played on it. It wasn't horrible and didn't need to totally come down before our home study, but it did. :) Oh well. Then the kids and I cleaned up sticks, various little trash pieces, and dog poo out of the back yard. What a lovely, romantic way to spend our anniversary! :) Then Thursday was our home study. It went great, I think. The lady that did it was the one who did our training these past several weeks and she also goes to our church, so I was not nervous at all for her to come over. I feel very comfortable with her. We have to do a couple more things before we're finished with licensing, including getting Mike in for CPR and first aid training, but once we've got all that stuff done, we're good to go.

At first, we thought we would want a boy that was younger than Rachel - preschool age for sure. The more we've been in our classes and the further we've gotten in this process, our age has progressively increased. We really feel like God is not calling us to foster an infant. He may not even be calling us to foster a preschooler. We look online at some of these kids who are ready to be adopted now and our hearts are stirred by the elementary age kids. Those kids who have so much of their lives in front of them, but are so unlikely to be adopted, simply because they aren't babies. Because we're more open to older kids, there's a chance that we could be able to go directly to adoption rather than having to foster-only first. With the way the states go, the children have to be in our home for at least 6 months before we can legally adopt them - even if their parents' rights have already been terminated. If we take a child who's parents' rights have not yet been terminated, we risk having that child go back to their bio parents. That's pretty much going to be the case if we wait for a preschool age child. If we choose a child who's on one of the Heart Galleries in Arkansas or anywhere in America, one who is a bit older, the parents rights have been terminated already and therefore negates the risk of them going back to their bio parents. That in itself is a strong pull for us to consider adopting an older child. We are looking constantly at all the kids who are ready to be adopted. We wish we had enough space and financial means to take a hundred kids! Our hearts break for all these kids!! We are just in prayer right now that God will show us the plan that He has already laid out for us and that we'll have eyes to see and ears to hear what He has in store for us. We want to be wise. We want to be obedient. And we can't wait to meet the child God has already chose for our family!

This. Is. Not. Good.

2010-03-22T11:15:00.000-05:00

Copper is pregnant. Again. By accident. And I'm not one bit happy about it.

She went into heat in January when all the snow and sub-zero temps were going on. We were diligent to keep her and Kramer away from each other and had strict instructions that when anyone ever let them out to go potty, they were NEVER to be out together at the same time.... Weeeeeellllllll....... there was one day when I realized after about 30 or 45 minutes that they'd been outside - together. Suckola!!!!!! I didn't see any deeds being done, but then again, they'd had plenty of time to...you know...and apparently they did.

I've noticed that Copper had begun to look as though she was gaining weight. I didn't think much of it due to the colder weather and not as much exercise, but then it just kept increasing and a little nagging voice said "she's got puppies in there." I've been in denail for about 2 weeks. I've felt of her tummy and haven't really been able to feel anything. Until last night. I felt a dad gum puppy move. GRRRRR!!!! Given that movement and the undeniable fact that she's showing the obvious signs of being preggers, I can't live in denial anymore. We're going to have a littler of puppies sometime within the next few days, if my calculations are correct.

This is so not the time I wanted to have puppies! At least it won't be a hundred degrees outside and we won't have that to worry about. We don't have any major plans to be gone any time soon. And we're on spring break this week which is good for me to watch her and be right here when she goes into labor. But we're about to start fostering a child! I mean, for the love of Pete! And I've apologized to Copper profusely. I feel horrible for putting her through this again so quickly. We sure didn't have that planned for her. She WILL be getting an appointment made to get fixed as soon as this episode of puppies passes.

So, if you or anyone you know is remotely interested in a boxer puppy, let me know. Apparently we'll have some soon.

CPR Saturday

2010-03-13T07:47:00.000-06:00

I have several items to write about, but lately there hasn't been a lot of time to sit down at the comptuer and get it done. As is the case this morning as I right this. I'm just finishing a bowl of raisin bran and about to get ready to head to CPR class today.... by myself..... which is part of the rest of the story that I want to right about.

So - off I go to pretend to save a life.....

Foster/Adopt Blogs

2010-03-07T16:48:00.000-06:00

I'm on the hunt for other bloggers who are fostering to adopt. I've found a few. I've got them listed on a blog roll on the right side of my blog. But I want to have some more.

If you know of anyone that's fostering or is adopting through foster care and has a blog, please let me know. I'd love to have more resources!!

Another Day, Another Class

2010-03-06T06:59:00.002-06:00

We have another training class today. Thursday night was about visitations that foster kids have with birth parents. I've got to be honest and say that the idea of that does not thrill me in the least. I could write a whole post just about that notion. But I lack the time today. Because...

We have another six hours worth of training to sit through today. The first session is on discipline. I've heard a little bit about what we can and cannot do, so I'm interested to see what they say today. The second session will be on adoption, which I'm a little more pumped about. There will be an adoption specialist there, so I'm sure we'll have plenty of questions for her. That's the part that I'm really looking forward to today.

Oh, and I'm also looking forward to getting some lunch 'to go' and having a picnic of sorts with my hubby on the Fayetteville Square! That will be my favorite part of the day, I'm sure. I hope the weather holds out and is as nice today as it was yesterday. I'm so ready for spring, it's ridiculous.

Lastly, I'm SOOOO excited for my friends The Maners!! They passed court in Ethiopia and will be leaving to go get their son on March 27th... FINALLY!!! Woohoo!! Congrats Robyn and Ryan! You know we're overjoyed for you right now and can't wait until you get home with that precious boy!

Training Classes

2010-02-26T19:24:00.001-06:00

So, we’ve been going to “parenting classes” as my husband likes to call them. :) Actually, in order to foster/adopt through DCFS, a couple must attend 27 hours worth of training as part of the preliminary process. We just finished session 4 of 9 last night. All the other stuff was basically review of info that we already had or things that we just knew. Last night was brutal. It was about loss. Our instructor, Laura – who I really like – went over the various stages of loss and grief and we talked about what some of the kids that come into our home might feel. I have an idea of what we’ll be dealing with, but I’ll freely admit, I don’t fully get it. It’s hard to imagine where these kids come from because I have NEVER been in any kind of situations like these kids come from. It will just tear your heart right out!

One of the first things she did was she had all of us get three sticky notes and on one we wrote a person we loved. On another, we wrote our most prized possession. On the third, we wrote an aspect of our health that we were thankful for. At first, I thought it was a little silly, but being the rule follower that I am, I did exactly as she said. Then, she came around to each one of us and began pulling a post-it from the table in front of us. She took one person’s loved one post-it. Another one she took was their prized possession. And so on. She then asked how that made us feel that she just came and took our stuff. Of course they were just post-its but still. Then she came around for the second round and some people had both their other post-its taken and some people just had one. Some people didn’t have any. She asked if that was fair. Was everyone treated the same? Did everyone end up with the same stuff? And THEN, she came around and gave us a post-it back, but it was someone else’s post-it. Not ours.

Some of these kids going into foster care have everything taken away from them in one fell swoop. They are taken away from their loved ones. Even if mom and dad have treated them like absolute crap, they are still THEIR mom and dad and the kids still love them. They may have been taken with just the clothes on their back. They may have had to leave their favorite stuffed animal or their pet – their most prized possession. Laura reminded us that as she gave us the sticky notes back, we might have gotten a pet or someone’s PS3 or a loved one….but it wasn’t OUR stuff. Put yourself in the place of these kids. They might be coming into our home and having a ton more stuff than what they had back at mom and dad’s, but it’s our stuff – not THEIRS. It’s not what makes them comfortable. WE are not mom and dad to them. We can love them with all that’s in us, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t going to experience the stages of grief over the loss of what they have left.

Then. Oh then. At the end of class, she played a video for us. All it was was words scrolling across the screen and occasionally we would hear a kid reading these words. It was taken from a psychiatrists observations from things kids have said and things he’s witnessed kids experience. Oh. My. Gosh. I was literally crying. It was so heartbreaking. I mean, I had an idea, but some of the things shocked me. And most of it is bringing me to my knees. It makes my heart break. It makes Mike really angry. HOW can parents treat kids this way?! HOW?!?! How can ANYONE treat a kid that way?!

We found out last night that the newest statistic shows that the number one reason a child in NWA is taken out of his/her home and put into foster care is neglect. NEGLECT!! I would have guessed drugs in a minute. But no. It’s neglect. Drugs was second, but still. Overpowered by neglect. I could just shake some people for that.

And to make matters even worse, I watched a DVR’d episode of Oprah today about child molesters. I hesitated for weeks about watching it, but especially last night after some of the stuff we heard, I knew I needed to watch it. I was crying by the end of it. Because there are kids even around here having to deal with stuff like that. It makes me SICK!! I’m nearly to tears even now as I write this. One of the guys on there put it perfectly when he said by what he was doing, he was killing who that little girl could have been. I just want to bury my head and pretend that stuff doesn’t happen, but I can’t anymore. And it breaks my heart for those kids.

I just know, more than ever, we have GOT to help some of these kids. Mike and I are so passionate about this. Whatever kind of abuse these kids have come from, we may not be totally equipped, but we have willing arms to hold these babies that need someone to love them. And open hearts, which may be the most important thing of all.

Heart to Heart Luncheon

2010-02-24T09:35:00.001-06:00

Our Bible study group had a luncheon scheduled for yesterday called the Heart To Heart Luncheon. We were to decide, as our individual groups, what we wanted to do for lunch. At first, I thought maybe a potluck at my house since I’m close to the church, or maybe we could go out somewhere. Well, Miss Diane spoke up and invited us to her home for lunch. I was instantly excited!

My group is several girls that are close to my age and mostly girls in my season of life – we have young children. Diane is my mom’s age. And a southern belle if ever I saw one! Diane prays before each Bible study term begins to see which group God is calling her to be in and for this term, she chose our group…and what a BLESSING! I didn’t know really who she was before that first Tuesday meeting, but after about a minute and a half, I knew I would come to love this lady! And boy, have I!! Imagine a softer version of Paula Deen that just loves Jesus to pieces, and there you have Diane. Contagious, people! Seriously. Love her to pieces.

So when Diane said she would like to have us over to her house for lunch, I was excited. Then she started talking about what she would serve. Y’all, I just nearly fell out right there at that table when she was talking. Now, mind you, it wasn’t anything over the top fancy, but just the way she was describing everything gave me major warm fuzzies. Diane is a hostess extraordinaire! I’ve seen her pictures on facebook, so I knew it was going to be fun and special! I didn’t realize just how special until we got there.

I knew what neighborhood Diane lived in, so I figured we were going to a nice house. Yeah. That’s the understatement of the century. Her front porch alone was decorated way cuter than my whole house! Diane of course greeted us at the door and was so excited we were there. She took us on a tour of her house, and let me just go ahead and say, I could have looked around in there for another 2 hours at all the detail she has put into her home. One of my favorite things was when she was showing us pictures in her grandson’s room of her husband and father. There were only 4 or 5 pictures, but each one was very special and had a story behind it. THAT is my favorite. I love pictures with special meaning like that and I love to know the history behind the picture. We all loved looking around and as we came down her staircase, she had us all stop for a picture. Aren’t we cute?! :)

We came downstairs and Diane showed us to the table, which she had set so beautifully. She had special places for each of us with little heart gifts at each place setting! Oh my word!! How precious! We had goblets for our tea or water, gold silverware that was just gorgeous, round pink placemats, and our plates were already filled with fabulous food! Let me tell you what was on our plate: chicken salad on a lettuce leaf (precious…and DELICIOUS!!), mini raisin bread sandwiches with a cream cheese filling, a fruit and marshmallow salad with pecans, and chocolate covered strawberries. Was that not a little tea room menu right there?! Heaven, I tell you! H.E.A.V.E.N. Our dessert was a cake that Aimee made with her daughters that Diane served on these tiny little plates that were just absolutely adorable!! LOVED THAT!! We also had a little tray at the top of our plate with three small pastel colored mint candies. Oh my word. I mean, really. Could you get any sweeter?! It’s like that trip to Brighton I had at Christmas where they wrapped up my small little purchase like it was a glorious special treasure and how special I felt at that store. That’s the way it was at Diane’s house. I felt SOOO special!! I still get goose bumps thinking of it!

The most special part of the whole thing, though, was the sweet conversation we all had. We had two ladies from our group that couldn’t join us and there was another group that only had two ladies in it that day, so Diane invited them to come and fill the spaces we would have. It was such a sweet time of conversation and it made me want to get to know those ladies even more! I just love visiting with godly ladies and enjoying times of sweet fellowship.

Overall, it was one of the coolest lunches I’ve ever attended. I am still not over how special I felt. And let me just state that I didn’t feel special because all of the “stuff”, or how nice Diane’s house is, or because of the food, or any of that. It was because of the time that Diane took to make things special, and her attitude about it. It was just so very thoughtful. And the thoughtfulness is what makes all the difference in the world, gold silverware or plastic. If it’s thoughtful, it’s special!!

And Diane, if you’re reading this, I love you, my sweet Southern Belle!! Thank you soooooo much for having us over, for treating us like royalty, and for being such a genuine godly example to all of us! I thank God daily that He directed you to our group. What a BLESSING!!!

Today's Goals

2010-02-09T10:06:00.000-06:00

We have another snow day here in NWA. Lovely. I'm not sure how I'm feeling about these. I am one that likes to go-and-do. But I also enjoy a good day at home. So today, I'm a bit torn. There's nothing I can do to change the fact that the schools are out today (and will likely be tomorrow as well), so I'm going to make the most of my day at home.

Tomorrow is Rachel's 6th birthday and Saturday is her party. There is a massive amount of cleaning that needs to be done at this house before we have company this weekend. So today, I will be beginning that process. My goals today are as follows:

Wash every article of clothing in this house save those on our bodies. I'm so over laundry. I feel like it's all I do sometimes. But when you have 5 people who wear clothes, what's a mother to do?
Put up the party decorations. Since Rachel's birthday is tomorrow, we might as well go ahead and celebrate, right?!
Clean most of, if not all of, my house. I know there are some touch up things that will have to be done last minute, but if I can get the majority done today, that will relieve some of my stress.
Clip and organize my coupons from the past couple of weeks and plan out a menu for next week. I've got my menu done for the rest of this week and it's such a stress reliever to be able to look at my list and know what I'm cooking tonight and not have to wonder or worry. I want to be able to plan a menu for a month and just get groceries each week, or every other week, for the month. We'll see if that actually comes to pass...
Read for at least 1 hour. There is a book that I've been trying to read for about the past 2 weeks that I just can't get through. That's one thing that frustrates the daylights out of me about myself is my lack of speed in reading. I love to read, but I can't seem to read very fast. If anyone has any speed-reading tips they'd like to share, I'm all for it. There are so many books on my list of ones that I'd like to read, but at the rate I'm going, I'll be 80 before I can get to all of them.

Now, if I can get all of that stuff done before Hollywood Week on American Idol tonight at 7pm on FOX... (I'm just a teensy bit excited about that), then I will feel like I've accomplished something for the day. I've got my first load of laundry folded on my bed ready to be put away and the next load is almost ready to come out of the dryer. One load at a time. Wonder how many I'll have today? My guess is about 7. Of course, there could be more...

One last blessing of the day - my sweet Copper is finally finished being in heat. Lord help us all, that was the worst timing of all the world for her to have been in heat for the past couple of weeks! She and Kramer are now allowed to be in the same area with each other without fear of...well....you know. There was one time about a week ago when Rachel let them outside together without thinking. I didn't see anything, but I suspect they....well....you know. I'm praying that they didn't really....well...you know.... and even if they did that nothing 'took' and we won't have puppies in about 55 more days. And if we do, I guess it's God's way of telling us we needed an extra couple hundred dollars. :)

Postponed

2010-02-04T18:43:00.000-06:00

Our first foster parent training class was scheduled for tonight, but they called this afternoon and cancelled it due to weather scares. I think it would have been fine, but I'm not the one in charge. I was going to have to go by myself since Mike is out of town and he would have had to make up the first night of class later, so actually I guess it turned out to be a good thing. We'll start next Thursday and just go a week later, I suppose. Instead of class tonight, I got to fix my kids dinner, eat my leftover lunch from Mama Tang's (holy cow, that was good stuff!!!), will give the kiddos a bath, put them to bed myself, and then cuddle up under a blanket to enjoy some Grey's and Private Practice while I'm enjoying some hot chai tea that my lovely Secret Sweetie at work gave me today. I might also have a plan for eating a piece of peanut butter pie with that tea. Maybe... :)

Blessed

2010-02-02T18:12:00.001-06:00

Today has been one of those days where I have just felt so blessed. I know that EVERY day I am blessed, but some days, don't you just feel it more than others?

Bible study today was awesome! One of the other leaders graciously shared with me her guide that she uses for her class and I think I'm going to continue that trend. We didn't get through everything (what's new), but it was focused, I felt, and very good. I love, love, love the ladies that are at my table. I have mad love for them. We missed a couple girls today and I hate it when we're all not there, but hopefully we can meet all together next week. Today in the video we watched of Beth Moore, that chick was FIRED UP!! I just love it! I mean, the last couple weeks, I have just wanted to jump up and yell "HALLELUJAH!!" a couple of times during the program. Of course, we are among a bunch of Baptist women and I might get a few crazy looks - but really, who cares?! It might free one or two of them up to do the same thing! :)

While we're on the topic of jumping up and yelling "HALLELUJAH!!", I literally did that in my kitchen today when I received an oh-so-special email!! One that I'd been waiting to see for weeks! I can't wait until I can share more about it, but oh my GOSH!!! If you could have seen me when I read that email, you would have died laughing at me! I'm totally not kidding when I say I was jumping up and down in my kitchen and screaming "Thank you JESUS!!!" I'm really surprised I didn't wake Porter from his nap, I was yelling that loud! ***UPDATE - THIS JUST IN!! It's not on the DL anymore!! Go HERE to ready about why I'm so excited! I'll let their post speak for itself...

That email made me think of a song that the choir did Sunday called, "When I Think About The Lord" and I couldn't get that out of my mind, so I got online and listened to it and had a bit of church by myself at my desk. The chorus of it says:
"It makes me wanna shout!
Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus!
Lord, you're worthy of all the glory,
and all the honor, and all the praise."
Oh my granny, did I ever have church. There is just something about songs like that sung by a choir that just take me to the presence of God in a hurry. Can you even imagine what heaven will be like?! There are times when I sing that my eyes are closed, I'm thinking about the words to that song, making them my own, and I seriously think if I opened my eyes I would see Jesus sitting right there with me. Today was like that. I'm listening to it again as I write this and I'm about to have church again right NOW!!! Woohoo!!

Then I got a sweet email from my husband. The Lord is doing an amazing work in his life and I just love watching it! Things that you get a word from God about may not happen right when you get that word, but to see God work in the mean time and to see HIS perfect timing is just so sweet.

And then I got an email that I get to sing on the praise team again this Sunday. To say that I love doing that is such an understatement that it just doesn't even come close to doing it justice. I know that I'm nowhere near as talented as some of the other ladies that sing in our choir, but then I realize it's not about me. It's not about my talent (or lack of talent). It's about my obedience to praise. And by being obedient, God let's me get a little blessing out of it by doing something that I looooove! And to the powers that be, I say it again, thank you for allowing me that blessing in my week!!

I've also been texting my friend April about some decor for my bedroom. I just wish I had all the money in the world to let her "go to town" on my room (my whole house for that matter) and decorate it exactly how she would do her house because I love her taste. But sadly, we don't have a money tree, so I'm limited. But she was telling me about some cute things that she found at Hobby Lobby today that would look good in my room. I don't think I can adequately convey how much that just blesses me to death when someone helps me decorate or cleans my house. I mean, it's beyond joy. Warm fuzzies to the uttermost. Last year, I had some friends that I bartered with to come in and do a little 'redesign' in my house. They didn't buy anything new, really, but just sort of arranged my own stuff for me. I knew they were at my house one day while I was away and I was a giddy little fool all day because I was so excited someone else was doing something like that for me! I couldn't wait to get home to see what they'd done! A couple years ago, Mike asked what I wanted for Mother's Day and I said I wanted to hire someone to clean my house. I did and a lady came in while I was at work one day and cleaned my house. Oh. My. Gosh. That was one of the best days of my life! It's not that I can't clean my own house or that I even have a messy house, because it's usually pretty clean. But the fact that someone else was coming in to do something that is SOOOO in my love language just almost was more than I could take - I was so blessed. GIDDY! There have been a couple times we've had girls come in to babysit for us and when I've gotten home, I've seen the dishes have been washed and put in the dish drainer. I'm almost getting verklempt just thinking of it! I mean, am I even coming close to getting my point across of how much that sort of stuff is just so special to me?! So when April was telling me that while she was out doing HER stuff, she was thinking of MY stuff and what would look good for my room....oh bestill my heart! It just makes me happy.

So, over all, it has been such a good day of God's blessings.... one right after the other. I don't know how in the world a wretch like me can deserve His goodness, but I say "Keep the blessings comin', Lord Jesus. Keep 'em comin'!"

The Pioneer Woman

2010-01-29T17:58:00.000-06:00

Why has no one told me about this woman? Why have I never overheard her name in conversation? Where has she been all my life? Will I live long enough to make every single last recipe that's on her website, because they all look to-die-for delish?! These are questions with no real answers?

I can tell you one thing - I have found a new love!

http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/

Glory be to God in the Highest!!!!

2010-01-28T22:35:00.000-06:00

We got our notification Tuesday that we passed our background check and will be starting our training classes for foster care next Thursday! We're supposed to get some sort of "invitation" from the training center letting us know when and where and all those important details. I may be attending this first class by myself, though. Mike is out of town next week on Thursday, but can make up the class the following week, they say. I'm really looking forward to getting started on the classes. It just makes it seem a bit more real.

We've been looking at the possibilities of adopting through foster care from other states as well. In Arkansas, there aren't many children under the age of 10 even that are ready for adoption from the foster system, but that's not always the case in other states. Most of the time, when a young child (infant/toddler/etc) goes into foster care, typically their foster parents have the first option of adoption if/when that child is able to be adopted. Therefore, most of the little kids are adopted by foster parents. We're interested to see, though, what other states options are. Some states you have to be a resident for a particular period of time before being able to be a foster parent, so we're trying to figure out what our boundaries are where that's concerned. We're just praying for wisdom right now in our decision.

I'm loving reading through the Old Testament. Now, I'm sure my tune will change a bit once I hit Numbers and all that mess with the geneologies and the begats, but for now, I'm enjoying my reading. My questions have just increased by about a thousand percent, though. Gina, I'm coming after your OT knowledge sometime soon!!

Speaking of Bible reading, Mike and I had a GREAT, long converstaion with Tanner tonight about the Bible, church, and just God in general. I love when we have talks like that! It's SO awesome to see her grow not only physically, but also spiritually and intellectually. She has such a sweet and tender heart and I just know God is going to use her big time.

And let me just go ahead and say that there is not much more that makes my husband more attractive to me than when he's "into God". Since the fast, I can tell God has done a MAJOR change in Mike's attitude about several things. It's just awesome to see how God's working in his life... and how Mike is LETTING God work! He's just being so...open. He's been in the Word a ton. He's switched some podcast listening from sports stuff and general talk radio things to a couple different pastors - that he's begging me to listen to as well. And we even had a quite lengthy conversation last night about the stuff God was teaching us in our quiet times. Not that we never talked about that sort of stuff, but it's just different. There's an excitement there for both of us individually that hasn't been there like this before. I am going to be in daily prayer that we keep this going and that it only gets better.

On the prayer front, I got a book that I started today called "Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference" by Phillip Yancy. It was recommended by my friend Jennifer the other day at Bible study after our discussion. I'm really looking forward to getting into it and reading what he has to say. That is part of my "quest" to be a Godly woman is to have a more effective and meaningful prayer life. And girls, if you're reading this, your comments really stuck with me and I appreciate them so much!

There are some matters that I'm in deep prayer about lately. I'm looking forward to being able to share some of those things at a later time and especially when I see how God answers those prayers. On a couple things, it seems like the answer is "wait". I do believe that is my least favorite thing about what God says to me. I can handle a "no" much better than I can deal with "yes, but you have to wait." Nope. Don't like that one at all. But, God is developing perserverance during our wait, which is a certain testing of MY faith, making us mature and complete, lacking nothing.

An ice store is upon us tonight. School is cancelled tomorrow. The kids and I will be chillin at the hizzay! But Lord Jesus, please oh please, spare our power and keep it going!!

Y'all stay warm and cozy!

So Much To Say, So Little Time

2010-01-27T08:52:00.000-06:00

I have much to blog about, but little time in which to get it accomplished. This afternoon, maybe? We'll see.

Porter and I are off to a play date today with some friends from MOPS before the Epic Storm '10 hits (so named by my friend Superchikk). I hope it's not as bad as people are saying. I do NOT need another storm like we had last year!!!

More updates on my life coming soon. I know you are on the edge of your chairs... :)

A Good Day

2010-01-19T14:22:00.000-06:00

Today has been a good day so far. Knock on wood.

I was able to have a good time with the Lord this morning before any of my family was out of bed. I do love some Old Testament, but still, there are questions. And let me just go ahead and put it out there that Moses is totally a man when he's writing this.... He just skimmed over the whole lot of the stories! Not NEAR enough details!! Now, if God had chosen a woman to write it, it would have been about a thousand times longer....which is probably why only men authored the books of the Bible. Hmmm.... Did I just say that? :) Although, I must say, I'm not sure about Ruth. That's a much more chick-flick type book than the other books. If Ruth was a movie, I'm sure my husband would find an excuse not to go see it because it would be a girl movie. I'm just sayin'.

I did have to rush a bit before school because I didn't have as much time to get myself ready as I would have liked because Rachel and Porter couldn't wear PJ's to school - that would have just been a teensy bit inappropriate. Thank God they were having something at school that Rachel would eat - school lunch it is today, baby girl! Woohoo!! Thank you, Walker Elementary, for serving spaghetti today! You saved me from a breakdown!

I got to go to our first session of our Bible study today at church. We're doing Believing God by Beth Moore. It is going to be AWESOME!! All of Beth's studies are just incredible and I know this one is going to follow suit, so I'm excited! And I have a table full of awesome ladies with me through this journey! I know God has placed each of them at my table for a reason and I'm anxious to see that played out over the next several weeks.

After Bible study, one of our precious ladies offered to take us all to lunch at Mad Pizza in Rogers. Um, let me just say - YUM-O and a huge THANK YOU to Diane for allowing us all to enjoy that time together and that yummy pizza!! For this girl who was headed home to a PB&J and also pinching the life out of every penny these days, that was a blessing!! And I loved visiting with everyone there. It was a sweet time of fellowship.

Now I'm sitting here typing away, listening to a bit of music and am about to do a little cleaning while I can get it in during Porter's nap. We are eating out of our pantry and freezer for the next couple of week and are going to try to go to the store as little as possible, so I've got to get all creative for dinner tonight. I'm about to do what my friend Jennifer did and make and freeze several meals so that we'll have them for the week. LOVE THAT! I'm totally going to copy you, girl!

And for those who may not know, I'm a major huge fan of American Idol! I mean, major huge like I voted for Kris Allen over 300 times for the finale last year. With my votes and Mike's put together, we voted over 600 times for dear Kris. And OBVIOUSLY, it paid off - cause who's the American Idol?! Yep. Exactly. So I will be watching tonight. And we can only hope there is another good laugh or two in there like we got last week with the dude singing something about pants on the ground. Yeah, if you haven't seen that yet, you must youtube it!! It will bless you, I promise.

I'm off to get a few things doen before Porter wakes up and Rachel gets home from school. Gotta make hay while the sun's still shinin'.

Old Testament Confusion

2010-01-18T10:42:00.001-06:00

The Old Testament is fun to read, don’t get me wrong. But it confuses me! I’m a novel reader. I love the details in the stories I’m reading. I love to know the whys of a situation. And I do not feel I’m getting that while I’m reading in Genesis. I told someone the other day, it really will take me literally forever to sit down and chat with all these people in heaven trying to figure out what they were thinking or what possessed them to do whatever they did.

I’ll give you some examples of the things that are confusing to me or that I have additions questions about:

Why in the world did Eve give that apple to Adam? Seriously. What was that girl thinking?!
Why was it not until Adam’s grandson, Enosh, that people began to worship the Lord? Obviously God had some sort of communication with Adam and Eve and even Cain and Able, but it says that it wasn’t until Enosh’s lifetime that people began to worship the Lord.
How did people live so long – and was it really THAT long? Are their years number the same as ours? And if so, what in the world did they look like at 200, 500, and even 900 years old? I mean, Seth wasn’t born to Adam until he was 130. But when did they start counting Adam’s age?
Genesis 6:4 REALLY makes me wonder: “In those days, and even afterward, giants lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with human women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes mentioned in legends of old.” (NLT) There are so many questions in just that one verse, it’s ridiculous!
Why did the men think it was ok, as in Abram’s situation with Sarai, to tell the kings or whoever that their wives were their sisters and give them up to the kings’ harems?
And what in the world was Sarai thinking to give her maidservant to her husband to sleep with? Why did ANY of the women do that? I mean, I realize these ladies had a desire for children, but what in the world?
What about Lot offering his two daughters to these creeps in place of the two complete strangers that he’d just taken in? Are you kidding me?! I do not get that AT ALL! I was looking in my study bible at the commentary for that situation and it says “ Lot’s offering his daughters is explained (though not justified) by the demands of hospitality, which obligated a host to protect his guests at all cost.” Even if that “all costs” meant giving his daughters to these dudes to do only God knows what to them? That, in my opinion, is seriously messed up!
And what’s with Lot’s daughters getting him drunk and sleeping with him to get pregnant? That’s just gross, my friends. G-R-O-S-S. And we think that what some of the kids these days do is crazy. They’ve got nothing on some of these Old Testament people. I mean, really.
What was Isaac thinking when his dad was about to kill him? I’m sure a thought something like, “That dude has lost his ever lovin’ mind!!!” would have rolled through my head. And what all happened in that scenario? Did Isaac put up any kind of fight against Abraham? Did he willingly get up on the altar? I get what the whole point was behind it, sort of, but still – I’d like to know more details, especially from Isaac’s point of view.
The whole deal of Jacob and Esau gets me too. What is the difference between a blessing and a birthright and what was the big deal with either of them? Why couldn’t Isaac bless both of them? Why just one? I’m sure if I knew Jewish history a bit more, I’d understand. But I don’t know the history, therefore, I’m still confused. :)
I totally don’t get the whole deal with Laban giving Leah to Jacob instead of Rachel and then making Jacob work for forever to “earn” Rachel. And then it seems like those girls just go back and forth having babies and it’s like a competition or something.
Why was it ok for these men of God to have concubines or to sleep with their wife’s/wives’ maidservants? Was it always ok for them to sleep with more than one woman?

And all these questions are just a few I have and Genesis isn’t even over yet. If any of you Old Testament gurus have an insight to any of these, feel free to put your two cents in. I’d love to know more about all this stuff. And I’m sure I will have many more questions as I read on through the OT. Like I said, I enjoy it – it fascinates me – but it brings up so many questions for me. Guess that just means I need to study more… Or Google it. :)

God, Change Me

2010-01-12T21:59:00.001-06:00

One of my prayers through this time of corporate fasting and prayer has been that God would form me into a godly woman. I don’t want to be a casual Christian. I want to be the kind of woman that when people think of me, the first thing they would think is that “she really is a godly woman”. When I grow up, I want to be like some of these older ladies that I see, ladies like Mike’s granny where it can be said that there is no doubt from anyone that ever knew her or knew of her that she was for SURE going to be in heaven!

The first thing that’s hard for me to grasp in that request is the “woman” part. There are times that I have to remind myself that I’m 34 years old. For anyone else, 34 is for sure an adult. There are other times I have to remind myself that I’m a parent to three children. For anyone else, having three kids must mean that you’re an adult. I’ve been married for almost 9 years. For anyone else, that’s a good amount of time and surely, if you’ve been married that long, you’re an adult. But most of the time, it’s hard to put it into words… I just don’t feel like I’ve achieved adulthood. Not that I feel like I’m still a kid or that I’m not mature, but that being an adult or being considered a “woman” is something for people older than me… or younger than me… or just other people than me. I guess it’s a feeling of inadequacy. I sometimes don’t feel like I’ve “earned” adulthood yet. I don’t know what would need to happen in order for me to feel that I had earned it or achieved it. I guess I feel like I haven’t arrived yet.

The other part is the godly part. This stems from part of the “woman” part. I’ve been asked to be one of the leaders of a Bible study at church. I saw a list of all the group leaders of that study. My name is on that list. And I am humbled. For one thing, I’m the youngest one of the bunch – hence the apprehension on the “woman” part. Am I old enough to be a leader? Or a better question is am I mature enough to be a leader? Then to broach the “godly” aspect of it… what in the world is my name doing on the list with all these awesome, godly women?! I don’t feel like I’m nearly adequate enough to lead with these ladies. Satan is wrestling with me on that and causing me to wonder why in the world would any other female want to be in my group when they’ve got all these other ladies to choose from? I certainly wouldn’t choose me… but then that makes me want to be the kind of woman that I would choose. If that makes any kind of sense at all. I would love to be someone that people gravitate toward, not because of who I am, but because of the Christ they see in me. There are a few people that come to mind when I think of those that I gravitate toward. There is just something about being around genuinely, godly people. You come away energized. That’s the kind of person that I want to be.

As we start this new Bible study, I have a feeling God is really going to change my life through it. He’s already changing me through our fast. There’s more of a yearning for Him than there was before. There’s more of a hunger for His word. I want to have a clearer discernment of God’s will in my life. I want to be so in tune with Him that I can be in a loud, crowded place, but still be able to hear the still, small voice of my Father.

Follow Me?

2010-01-10T19:44:00.000-06:00

Are you one of my "followers"? Do you follow my blog? If so, I'd love to know! Leave me a comment or click over to the side where it says "follow".

And can I just say that I don't know when I've ever been this ready for a Monday?! I'm really looking forward to getting back into the routine of everything. I feel like I've been dormant for weeks! When it's summer, it seems like it goes in a flash. This Christmas break, though infinitely shorter than the summer break, seems like it's been two years long! I'll probably be kicking myself by the time this week's over with and the me at the end of the week will probably want to come back in time and slap the now me in the noggin and say, "What the heck were you thinking?!" :) But for now, bring on a new week and some routine.

The New Noblitts

2010-01-09T20:55:00.001-06:00

Tanner and I went to the wedding of Brad Noblitt and Caitlin Emert today. That. Was. Precious! I enjoy going to weddings, but they are really special when it’s a sweet couple like Brad and Caitlin and both of their families.

One of my favorite parts of any wedding is watching the groom’s reaction when the bride enters the room. Today, that was absolutely priceless! Brad’s reaction was one of the sweetest things ever. He was giving it his best effort not to cry, but with little success. He later said when I talked to him that he was just so humbled. Now that is an awesome thing for a groom to say when he sees his bride for the first time on their wedding day.

I loved that my friend Rachel was taking pictures. She has more talent in her pinky finger than I could ever hope to have. I told her that with every picture she took, I just kept thinking, I can’t wait to see that one – I can’t wait to see that one – I can’t wait to see that one! If I could go back and do it again, I’d totally have her take my wedding pictures! :)

There were several things that I could count as my favorite parts of the experience:

* Hearing Alana Damron sing. Got to LOVE hearing that girl. WOW!

* Seeing Brad’s reaction when Caitlin came in.

* Seeing how proud Caitlin’s daddy looked.

* Getting to see Kim and Suzanne Noblitt again and give each of them hugs. Made me miss them more.

* Seeing both sets of parents join Brad and Caitlin on stage for prayer after they took communion together and lit the unity candle. That made me teary for sure!

* Watching/Listening to Brad sing to Caitlin. Oh my word.

* Seeing Brad and Caitlin OUTSIDE IN THE FREEZING COLD with Rachel taking their picture right after the ceremony as we were driving to the reception. Caitlin said she kept thinking “These better be GOOD!!” Heck yes, they better be good! That girl was in a strapless wedding gown and Rachel was wearing short sleeves? Crazy people. They’ll probably be the best pictures of the bunch. :)

* Watching Brad and Suzanne in the mother/son dance while they sang Celine Dion’s “I’m Your Angel” to each other. SO SWEET!

Over all, it was a super sweet wedding. I’m really glad we got to be there to experience that with them. Congrats, Brad and Caitlin!

Some Thoughts on Adoption

2010-01-07T12:41:00.001-06:00

There’s a show on the Discovery Health Channel that I catch every now and then called “Adoption Stories”. I found one today that was about a family adopting a 4 year old foster child from California. Watching that made me want to go do a little more hunting on the internet, so off to the computer I went.

There are some sites that you can go to and view pictures of some kids in the foster system waiting to be adopted. Do NOT do it unless you are prepared to be broken hearted. We’ve looked at those sites before and just cried over all those kids who don’t have families. Mike has said more than once, “We need a bigger house.” I’m so tender-hearted when it comes to kids that if I could, I would take them all. If I see or hear of a baby or toddler, especially, that isn’t being cared for or is being mistreated, I just want to snatch them right up and bring them home with me and just love them to pieces. That’s one reason I haven’t pursued some of the mission trips where you just go and hold babies at an orphanage. I either wouldn’t be able to leave or I’d want to bring them all home with me. I don’t know that my heart would be able to handle it.

There’s a particular site I looked at this morning that had a listing by state of all the kids waiting to be adopted… then a listing beside it of all the churches in that state. Staggering. The poll was done in 2006 so you have to factor that in, but to give you an example, Arkansas had 937 children waiting to be adopted and 5,843 churches. In every state except one, there were WAY more churches than children. WAY MORE. I feel very convicted over that. And just the simple fact that there are sooooo many kids in this world that don’t have parents, or don’t have parents that will/can care for them, regardless of what state or country they are from absolutely breaks my heart.

It’s been so amazing to watch several of our friends answer God’s call on their lives to adopt, be in international, domestic, or through foster care. I’m excited that our journey has started and I can’t wait to see what God will do in our lives and in the life of the child He is preparing for our home.

A Husband's Quotes

2010-01-06T22:20:00.001-06:00

So my husband is in Minnesota and he said it's not THAT cold. "You could probably stand outside a good half hour in shorts and a T-Shirt before you fell over dead. Actually, you probably wouldn't FALL over because you'd be frozen to the ground."

And then there was a bit of silence so I asked him what he was doing, to which he answered, "I was just waiting until the car warmed up so I could touch the steering wheel without getting frost bite."

It's cold people. REALLY cold. I've never known it to be this cold in AR and I haven't ever been as far north as MN where the high tomorrow is supposed to be -3 I think he said. Freakin burr.

Thank God for shelter and for luxuries like a fireplace insert with a blower and a husband who took the time to cut wood several months ago and then stack a bunch of it in our sunroom so I could keep a fire going continually. I am NOT taking that for granted for sure! I'm counting my many blessings...

Resolutions

2010-01-05T13:25:00.001-06:00

I’m debating on whether or not to say that I actually have New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t know that they are resolutions, per say, but I do have a few things that I would like to accomplish this year.

I would like to read the Bible through in a year. I have never done that. I’m sure that at some point or another in my life, I’ve probably read every verse in the Bible, but I want to know for sure. I want to say that I accomplished that. I have a One Year Bible that I’ve started on, so we’ll see how it goes. So far, so good – but we’re only on day 5.

I want to read at least 2 books a month. Now to some (ahem, Michelle), that might seem like child’s play. But I’m a really slow reader and I might get one book a month read. I love to read and there are many books that are on my list of must-reads. So I want to accomplish at least 2 books a month.

I want to clear off at least one of my Mary Kay shelves. I have ~~three~~ two shelves in my laundry room right now that have Mary Kay products on them. I’m not currently doing parties or facials and therefore don’t have a major need for a ton of product. I’m currently having a 50%-75% off sale to get rid of some of the stuff that’s been sitting on my shelves for a long time in order to house the stuff that I sell on a regular basis. If you’re reading this and need some makeup, please let me know! My credit card company would appreciate any sales I could make! HA!

Will we have another snow day tomorrow? The rest of this week? It remains to be seen. It might end up being a full 3 weeks out of school. I told someone earlier today that I love my kids, but I think I might love them more if I wasn’t with them 24/7. Mama needs a day…

The Langham Christmas ‘09

2009-12-31T16:20:00.001-06:00

It was a fun Christmas at the Langham house this year. We had Grandma Lynn and Mamaw here with us again this year, which the kids loved (and so did the grandmas). We had our big dinner Christmas Eve so that we wouldn’t have to cook any on Christmas Day and could just enjoy our toys and our leftovers. We woke up Christmas morning, as did the rest of NWA, to a white Christmas and it was beautiful! What a blessing!

Ok, prepare yourselves – there are a lot of pictures ahead. I know! You’re in total shock right now, aren’t you? :)

The bird… “before”…

The Christmas Tree

The stockings – hung by the chimney with care…

…and three stinkers that could barely hold it together for one good picture out of about 175 tries.

See what I mean?!

Reading the Christmas story out of Luke 2. Didn’t Daddy do a good job being all creative in his picture taking? :)

Getting Santa’s cookies ready.

Rachel leaving the reindeer a little snack of oats.

Busting through the paper tapped over the door on Christmas morning – rushing to see what Santa brought.

See!! I got tools!!!

One of the many looks Tanner had while saying “OH YEAH!”

Rachel was excited about her purple lounge clothes.

Porter loved his drum… he plays it a lot. I’m so excited.

Opening his guitar. The last time he wanted to play an instrument, he got a starter set for the bagpipes. BAGPIPES, people!!! I don’t think so… We’ll see where this takes him.

Mike was very excited that he got peanut M&M’s from Granny rather than the lotion he expected was in that bag. He HATES lotion! :) Good job, Gran.

Over all is was a wonderful Christmas. We’re all looking forward now to what the new year is going to bring!

Drumroll Please.....

2009-12-21T08:50:00.003-06:00

We are officially able to be public with our news.....

WE'VE DECIDED TO ADOPT!!!

Adoption is something that Mike and I have talked about since before we were married. I think it's something we always knew we would do "in the future". Well, friends, the future is now. We have 3 healthy children that we totally adore and yet, our family doesn't feel complete. I knew I wouldn't be birthing any more babies - I'm soooo over that. So, obviously, adoption was a very definite option for us.

Sunday, November 8th, was Orphan Sunday and we had a big program that night at our church centered around Esther's House Orphanage and the Kennedy's trip to Malawi. That morning started off not so great. You know how the devil always tries to get his foot in the door on Sunday mornings? Yeah, he'd pretty much invaded our house that day. We were late for church and I ended up not singing in the choir, which is very unusual. Pastor talked that morning about how there's no clearer picture of the gospel than when adoption takes place. We are 'adopted' into God's family through our acceptance of Jesus, and what a beautiful picture of that when a family adopts a child. Adoption was very much in front of us as several of our friends have adopted and are currently in the process of adoption. I think subconsciously, it was something we knew was getting closer and closer for us, we just hadn't really talked that much about it and certainly hadn't made any decisions yet. Once the invitation was given on that Sunday morning, part of what Pastor called the people to pray for was whether or not it was in God's plan for them to adopt. Mike grabbed my hand and off to the altar we went to pray. It was a special time of us asking forgiveness of each other because of our attitudes that morning, but even through that, we felt God's stirring in us regarding adoption. We came home that afternoon and began to discuss what we felt like God was telling us and then had our Esther's House program that night, which just helped to solidify things even more. That week, we knew for sure that we were supposed to adopt.

But where were we supposed to start?

We pretty much knew international adoption was out of the question, purely for financial reasons. My heart has been tied to Africa since I was there in 1999, so if we were to adopt internationally, it would be from there. However, we really didn't feel like that's the direction we were supposed to go, financially restricted or not. We began looking into all of our options on what we could do. Like I said, several of our friends have gone before us in this process, so we had lots of resources for our questions. We looked at an agency that some friends have used and is a trusted agency. We looked at another local agency that does domestic adoptions. We researched just about everything and talked to just about everyone trying to decipher where we felt like God was leading us. We were blessed that some friends at church put together an Adoption Q&A meeting shortly after our decision to adopt. It was a very helpful resource for us as well. We contacted the AR Department of Human Services and requested some info from them as well. We learned they were having an informational meeting on December 3rd regarding foster care, fostering to adopt, and adoption through the state of AR. We went to that meeting as well. Once we left that meeting, I think both of us were very clear on what we were supposed to do.

We will foster to adopt.

The information we received in that meeting just about brought me to tears. In fact, it did the more I thought about it later. There are so many children, just in Arkansas, waiting for a Forever Family. And the statistics on what happens to these children if they are not adopted - it's devastating. The more we thought about it, the more we were certain to our bones that this is what God was directing us to do.

We are in no way assuming this will be an easy process. We know there will be challenges along the way and that there will be difficult times ahead. But regardless, we will not back down. We know that this is what God has called us to do, this is His will for OUR lives, and where He leads us, He alone will give us the strength to endure what He has purposed for us to do. And we know that in the end, we will have another member of our family, which will be worth it all.

So for now, we are just about finished with all of our initial paperwork and have a visit scheduled with a case worker on New Year's Eve. She will come to our home to "inspect" it and make sure that it's an appropriate place for a child. She will pick up our paperwork and then we will start some training classes. We have to go through about 6 weeks or so of classes and then proceed from there. I'm not sure yet of all the details, but of course, I'll be posting on things as they come up.

Our desire, and what would work in our home at this time, is to have another boy that's under 5 years old. We know that God has the perfect child ready for us. Please begin to pray that whatever child that comes into our lives will feel loved and accepted and that the transition would be smooth.

I will keep you updated on things as they occur. As for now, thanks for reading and for praying.

Most of My December - Cliff Notes Version

2009-12-18T10:55:00.005-06:00

It has been entirely too long since my last post. To say we have been busy is a HUGE, I mean MASSIVE, understatement!

Since I last wrote, we traveled to Oklahoma for Mike's granny's funeral. It was a very bitter sweet time, but like one of the ministers said, there is no doubt whatsoever that Granny is in heaven with Jesus. It was nice to see all the family and get to visit with them for a few hours that day.

That same day, I learned that our music minister and his wife, Kim & Suzanne Noblitt, are leaving our church to go to a church in Florida. I cried more when I got that email than I did the whole day of the funeral. I love, love, love our music minister! I can't even think how to put into words how much I love Kim and Suzanne. When someone is as involved in the music ministry as I am, it means a lot to have a minister that you really enjoy, and I truly have enjoyed Kim. He has allowed me to grow as a person and a singer and has been such an encourager to me, and to so many others. I can't imagine someone replacing that position, but I know for a fact, no one will replace HIM. He is one of a kind and I'm beyond blessed to have gotten to know him and Suzanne in the time they've been with us.

Through all of that, we've had lots of rehearsals for our annual Christmas program, "Repeat The Sounding Joy". Even though we knew Kim was leaving, we still had to press on and put on our performances. It was a GREAT program this year and we all really enjoyed it. It was the first time EVER that I've gotten a chance to sing on the praise team during a performance like that. I was nervous about it, but SOOO honored that I'd been asked to do that. I was also able to do a smidge of acting in a video that the awesome Zach Kennedy put together. That boy has more talent in his pinky finger, I swear. He and his team put together a video to the song "A Baby Changes Everything" by Faith Hill and it was amazing. I loved being a part of that as well. In fact, you can click HERE to watch the video on Zach's blog. Rachel was also able to be a part of the program for the first time. She was a marshmallow in the song "Hot Chocolate" from the Polar Express that the kids performed. She was pretty excited about being able to be in the program and then during the first performance, she was a bit upset because she wasn't able to be the "main marshmallow" that got to go up in this gigantic mug of hot chocolate. Oh, my child. She loves to be in the big middle of everything. Wonder where she could possibly have gotten that?

This week, we also had our first ever Kids Day Out Christmas program that I directed and our little kiddos performed for their families. It went SO well!!! I'm so over the top proud of all my kids! We'd been working on Christmas songs since October with all of the classes from the older 2 year olds through the Pre-K class. The oldest class was our cast of biblical characters and everyone else got to wear their Christmas PJ's. It was super cute and all the parents that I talked to were extremely pleased with it and thought their kids were all rock stars, which of course they were!

Last night was our very first "Merry Christmas Springdale" program in which we honored all the city employees of Springdale. We were able to have a dinner for them and then our choir and orchestra performed a few songs, along with some pretty adorable kids. As Kim said, it was a dream come true for him that we were able to get outside the walls of our church, as a choir, and do ministry in the community. It was a really neat night and it seemed like everyone there really enjoyed themselves. Hopefully it'll be a tradition that continues each year.

We're heading over to my dad's tomorrow for our Christmas time with him and my stepmom and then we'll be finished traveling for the holidays. I don't have anything on my calendar for the next couple of weeks and I'm ecstatic about it!! I'm excited about sleeping in (or not setting an alarm), not having to BE anywhere, and just having time to hang with my family. I'm so excited about Christmas and getting to see the reactions of my family when they open their gifts. That's always more fun for me than opening presents for myself. I know I've done a good job when they are excited.

Some exciting news is coming up in the next couple of days, so stay tuned. I promise it won't be that long until I post again.... for those 3 of you that actually read my blog. :)

Holy Werewolf, Batman!!

2009-11-25T12:00:00.003-06:00

For those of you that know me, you know that I am a lover of the Twilight Saga. Loved the books. Loved the first movie. LOVE New Moon!!

Tanner and I went to see it Saturday in KC and I was beyond excited to see it. I couldn't wait until I had another opportunity to see it in the theater. Today, I get that opportunity... with some of my mom friends! When we saw it in KC, the theater had a pretty even mix of young girls and older moms. I, in no way, felt out of place. In fact, I may have been one of the younger moms there.

I loved the movie. It had been such a long time since I'd read the book that I'd forgotten several of the details of the story, which was probably a good thing, that way I wasn't too critical of the things they did differently for the movie. I loved Mike and Jessica in the movie. They had some really cute, funny lines. Mike's character was a hoot and I loved the banter between him and Jacob. But let me say, throughout the book series, I was wholeheartedly on Team Edward. No swaying over to Team Jacob whatsoever. Even after Twilight came out in the theater, still my loyalty was for the vampire. Then I sat in the theater and watched Taylor Lautner portray Jacob... I do have to admit that my loyalty was swayed for a good hour and a half. Mercy. But then.... there was the last 30 seconds of the movie. Oh. My. Gosh. If ever there was a scene in a movie that screamed there would be more to follow, that, my friends, was it! I'm pretty sure my mouth hung open for a good 5 seconds before I realized where I was and that I was not Bella and Edward was not..... Well, you'll just have to watch it to really get it.

I'm off to see the love triangle on the big screen again. Can. Not. Wait!

Actually Writing... with a pen

2009-11-06T09:09:00.002-06:00

I'm a way faster typer than I am a writer. I kind of gave up on "traditional" journaling because it just takes so darn long to do it. Blogging is a much faster way to keep up with stuff. And Twitter/Facebook is just lightning fast compared to actually getting a pen and paper.

However, I'm going back to the traditional paper and pen journaling for a while. I haven't actually started, but I'm going to. I really am. Not everything will be sent to the paper journal, but I'm starting it for a specific subject. I'll eventually put it all online, but for now, I have to actually pick up a pen and write. Should be fun. :)

All is well in the Langham house. We had a great Halloween. We went to a few houses to Trick-or-Treat, but not many people were home. Somehow, even though we didn't get to as many houses as last year, we ended up with WAY more candy. I'm still rather perplexed about that. It could be that I bought four bags of chocolate at Target the day before Halloween. Because I wanted it. That could be the reason for all the candy. But I'm not totally sure. Rachel and Katie were cheerleaders and Porter recycled his lion costume from last year. Tanner stayed at our house and passed out candy with her tie-dyed hair. The kids ended the night by going to Grandma Lynn's to spend the night. G'ma did it up something special with her costume. I'm not sure how I didn't get a picture of that, but she had on a metallic green mullet wig, freckels painted on her cheeks, and a set of those rotten looking teeth. Real nice, my friends. Real nice. Porter was a little bit leary of her at first, but got past it pretty quickly.

I will update with pictures soon. The little picture uploader thing doesn't like me this morning and I have to move on with other items on my to do list before I feel completely unproductive for the day.

Our Big Weekend

2009-10-21T11:44:00.004-05:00

So I know this is coming a couple weeks late, but I wanted to update about our trip that Mike and I took with our friends earlier this month. And prepare yourselves... there will be pictures!! I know!! You're gasping in shock right now, aren't you.

**and just on a side note - does anyone else besides me ever find themselves spelling words that they've known for years in a totally wrong way? For instance, just now, I started spelling the word pictures like this... picksures. REALLY?! Does this mean I'm getting some sort of brain disease? Because I never really think about how to spell stuff when I'm typing. I think of the word and it just hammers out without too much effort. But picksures?! I'm worried! But I digress...

Our weekend:

My mom and granny came over to stay at the house with the kids and Mom and Mike's mom, Grandma Lynn, were in charge of babysitting for the weekend. The kids were excited about getting to spend time with the grandmas. I think the grandmas were even more excited to spend time with the grandkids.

Mike and I headed out Friday afternoon with our friends Darrell and Heather and were on our way to Tulsa for the Dave Matthews Band concert. For those of you that don't know, my husband LOVES the Dave Matthews Band! We've had these concert tickets since the minute they went on sale. We got to Tulsa and checked in to our hotel and headed out to dinner. We wanted to eat at sort of a dive type place, and boy did we find it. It was this little Mexican place and when we walked in, there was not a soul there that we could see. And they served organic foods that were mostly locally grown. Mike's not big into "organic" type stuff and actually asked to have non-organic items. He's just annoying like that. But the food actually turned out to be amazing! And before we left, the place was packed and there was a line! There's something to be said for going to the Early Bird dinner. :) These old people have a good idea! We did find out right before we left the place that there was apparently a whole extra section in the back that was full of people. We had to pass all those people to get to the weirdest, most odd excuse for a bathroom I've ever seen! I seriously should have taken a picture. You talk about a "hole in the wall". Yep. That pretty much described it.

We then headed for the BOK Center and got there as Willie Nelson was beginning his opening act. He was... well... Willie. I can tolerate his recorded music, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if I never heard him sing in person again. I can't stand it. But it was kinda funny when he started singing "On The Road Again", which is one hilarious song to watch my husband play on Guitar Hero. I literally cry laughing. He did redeem himself by singing "I'll Fly Away" as his closing song. It was actually not horrible.

Here's a pic of the stage when good ol' Willie was out there. You can sort of tell just how far away from the stage we were.

Here's a picture of me and Mike as we were enjoying DMB. There was no flash on my camera phone, so the best I got was when they brought a little more light onto the stage and even then, I got my arm shadow in the shot. Oh well.

Dave on the stage. My husband was just a wee bit more than excited to be there.

It was a fantastic concert! I enjoy DMB, but they aren't a band that I will go out of my way to get on my iPod. However, I would go to another one of their concerts in a heartbeat. I seriously sat there and bobbed my head the whole time. It's just that kind of music. You can't help but move. However, there was this one couple sitting in front of us that didn't move an inch the whole time we were there. Didn't even remotely come close to breaking out any kind of even a head-bob type move. Nothing. They sat like lumps on a log. HOW do you do that?! Especially with Dave?! I loved it and would go again. I hope we get to soon.

The next day was the K-State/Iowa State game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Last year, we went to this same game in Manhattan and got to tailgate with Heather's family. Her dad is the ULTIMATE tailgater. I mean, I have never seen anything quite like it in my life. His name is Walter and this is a picture of his trailer, "Walt's Wildcat Wagon". That man has everything down to a science! He would be ready to take that thing out anywhere anytime. Any other tailgating will seem like it's in vain after experiencing Walt's type of tailgating! In this pic is Mike, Heather, and Darrell enjoying some award winning baked beans. DELISH!!!

Our seats at the game were awesome! We were on the 5 yard line and so close to the field! It was crazy fun! Here is a picture of a guy going in for a touchdown. I have no idea how I captured this on my phone, but I was excited about it!

And just in case you couldn't see it in the picture above, I zoomed in a little for ya...

Quite cool, right?! That game was so fun! K-State ended up winning 24 to 23 because of a blocked extra point in the last minute of the game. My husband literally turned to me, picked me up, and started jumping up and down with me when the guy blocked Iowa State's kick! It was so funny! It was a GREAT game to have been at this year. It was exciting til the end. I love those... but only when the team I'm rooting for wins. :)

That night, we met up with Mike's brother Andy for a late night dinner and stayed there in KC. We came home that Sunday and were zapped, but had such a wonderful weekend. I loved just spending time with my hubby. We don't get to do that too often, so we certainly cherish it when the opportunity presents itself.

So, there you go. Pictures and everything. Don't get your hopes up for that to come again soon. It's taken me all day to get this one done. :)

And Then There Were Three...

2009-10-17T22:45:00.002-05:00

My white chunky boy puppy just left this evening. And I'm sort of sad about it. I'm glad he's going to the home he went to because they have a boxer already and seem like they will really love our puppy. Some friends of ours adopted another one of the girls today, too. I'm so glad she went with people we know. That's what we want. We want good homes for our babies with people that will really take care of them as members of their families. But I really sort of hoped no one would take my big white chunk. He's been my favorite since he was born. We bonded. :( And I'm sad he's gone.

Now there are three remaining puppies. They are having to snuggle a bit closer tonight since they are two less tonight than they were last night. I'm almost to the point of considering letting the remaining ones come in the house to sleep. We have a heater out there with them in our sunroom, but I just hate for them to be cold at all. They're just still so little.

I'm praying for the other three families to come quickly to adopt these three that are left. Not because I want them to leave (although I will NOT miss the poop smell), but because I know they will be so happy and so spoiled in their new homes with the families that will care for them.

Check out www.langhamboxerbabies.blogspot.com to see pictures of our babies and to see which ones we have left. There's one boy and two girls.

Wonder how long after these are gone that we'll be itching to have more babies? There will have to be another mama for that to happen though. Don't tell my husband, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings to get another female to breed. I will be super picky with the next dog we get though. Now that I really know more about boxers, I know more of what I'm looking for and what will be a good dog. But that's down the road a bit. We still have Zoe and as long as our sweet little mutt is a part of our family, there will be no more big dogs at the Langham house!!

Blue's Clues

2009-09-23T09:11:00.003-05:00

My son is obsessed with Blue's Clues. He LOVES Blue. He gets really, really upset if we have to turn off one of our dvr'd episodes before it's over. Any time he sees any sort of paw print, he yells, "A CLUE! A CLUE!" It really is pretty cute. He sleeps with a stuffed Blue and asks to watch it every day. And let me take this opportunity to give a big shout out to Noggin for playing that show so many times so I can have a variety on my dvr. Whew.

But I've got a dilemma. I've got all kinds of "Cars" stuff for his birthday this year. I found it on clearance last year and thought I would just steer him toward "Cars" for this year. I never figured on him loving Blue as much as he does. So now I'm torn. Do I use the stuff I have or do I try and find Blue's Clues stuff, which I'll have to find online because there is nary a store that carries that stuff anymore.... believe me. I've looked.

Let me also say that my son, who will not be two for another 3 weeks, pooped on the potty last night. That's right, folks. He POOPED on the potty! WOOHOO! He was standing in the kitchen and I had JUST put a new diaper on him. He said, "Poop?" so I immediately grabbed his hand and said, "Let's go poop in the potty!!" He was ok with it at first and then he wanted down. I let him sit there for about 6 or 7 minutes and then all of the sudden, there it came. Of course I hooped and hollered and he got excited because I was excited. Although I'm sure he didn't know what I was excited about. He was just glad to have an opportunity to clap and squeal for something. I'm pretty sure this will be a one time thing because he doesn't quite get the concept yet of "if you do this, I'll give you this" yet. And until that point, you just can't bribe a kid to go sit on the potty. But by golly, if he says poop again, don't think I won't be grabbing him up and heading to the potty!

Lastly, check out our puppy blog. I'm posting some new pics of our puppies. If you know of anyone that is interested, please send them our way. We're in the process of looking for good homes for our babies. We have 10 to place - 6 girls and 4 boys.

www.langhamboxerbabies.blogspot.com

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

2009-09-04T19:23:00.002-05:00

Dinner conversation tonight:

Rachel, out of the blue: "I broke up with my boyfriend today." she said, totally nonchalant like it was part of every day conversation.

Daddy snapped his head over toward her and I know I did a double take!

Me and Daddy: "WHAT?!"

Rachel: "I broke up with Jonathan today."

Me, as Daddy stares at her like she's just grown three horns out of her head: "What do you mean you 'broke up' with your boyfriend?"

Rachel: "I broke up with Jonathan because he wasn't listening to me when I was talking to him."

Me: "What does a boyfriend or girlfriend mean?"

Rachel: "You know. You play on the playground together and you do your stuff together."

Mike, steam coming out of his ears: "What STUFF?!" he said, with nary a crack of a smile on his face.

Me: "Do you mean like stuff in class together?"

Rachel: "Yeah, like homework and centers and stuff. But, actually, he was talking to another girl and not talking to me, so I broke up with him."

Me - TOTALLY DYING trying not to laugh: "Well, you can be friends with boys but you're not to have a "boyfriend" or to be anyone's "girlfriend". That's just for big people, ok? But you can still be friends with boys and that's ok."

Rachel: "Ok."

Lord, help us. My mom says I'm paying for my raising. I'm pretty sure it was in Kindergarten when I had my first crush and I had that same crush all the way through 6th grade. Then I went to prom with him my 10th grade year. He was a senior. Dream come true, right? It was the yuckiest night EVER. Gross!! What in the heck was I thinking when I was in Kindergarten?! :)

When a Mom Isn't Watching...

2009-08-27T22:24:00.002-05:00

Earlier tonight, I was on the phone with my friend Angela getting some English homework help for Tanner. Angela is an English major, so I figure she's the perfect person to ask... and I was right! Thanks, Ang! Anyway, while I was on the phone with her, I hear her daughter yelling, "Jeb Alert!! Come quick! Jeb Alert!" and then I hear her husband yell something like "Oh NO!" and then Angela... bless her sweet heart... relays a story to me of what she has just witnessed. I can't even explain it and do it any kind of justice, so you just need to go to her post here and watch for yourself. I have seen the video at least 5 times and I'm still laughing about it! It's too funny!!

Noises

2009-08-25T17:30:00.002-05:00

Currently, my son is pushing a plastic kids chair back and forth across our kitchen floor. It makes a completely annoying noise. And he keeps. doing. it. He also enjoys pushing it on the concrete floor in the sunroom. That's even worse. But again - he keeps on.... and on.... and on.

Why do boys just love to make noise? And the more irritating, the better, it seems.

Now he's carring said chair over his head, sort of bent behind his back. Yeah, I don't see anything that could go wrong with that!

A Whole New World

2009-08-19T22:15:00.005-05:00

My baby is in Kindergarten! And yes, I'm one of the moms that cried. I heard today about a teacher that gave each of her Kindergarten parents a package of tissues and a tea bag! Now that is too cute! Could have used those today for sure!

Isn't she a doll?! She was super excited this morning. Even up to the time when we walked into her classroom. Then she got a little nervous and clung to my leg. But a friend from church came up and talked to her and she went right on in the class and never looked back. I, on the other hand, lost it when I walked away from her room. It was a bittersweet moment for me. On the one hand I'm so extremely excited about her being in kingergarten and knowing that she'll learn SOOO much this year. On the other hand, my baby girl is entering a new stage in her life. The baby stage is gone. Not that it wasn't gone about 3 1/2 years ago when she started talking in full sentences and letting her opinions be known with a bit of attitude, but still. We've entered the "school age". We're in a new era with her. It just hit me the other day that the only days she'll be home with me are on school breaks. BOOHOOO!!! But she's going to have so much fun and her teachers will soon be falling in love with her, I'm sure!

This has been a day of tears. I shed some at Rachel's school this morning and then once I got over that, I thought I was done. That is, until I got to choir. Holy cow. First thing when I sat down, I got some sickening news about a friend. That put me in a funk. Then, we had a prayer time for the Kennedys who are leaving for Africa Sunday. It's so exciting what they are doing, but sad at the same time that they will be away for so long. I gave them each big hugs before they left from choir, but heavens. That was a tear jerker. THEN, Kathy Ferguson spoke to our choir... there isn't even space or time to relay what all she talked about, but it was so good and so sweet and I was crying again! And then at the end, that stinkin' Kim Noblitt talked about meeting Katie Rowe out today and how she gave him a big hug and said how much she appreciated her church during this difficult time after they've lost their baby girl. Tears again. I don't remember the last time I've cried this much in a day. It's been a while.

I think it's time to go to bed and shut down this emotional day!!

Memory Lane

2009-08-03T15:27:00.003-05:00

You know how with just a word, you can take a trip down memory lane? Yeah, that was me today. I found out that my boss (and dear friend) is really good friends with an ex-boyfriend's wife! I hesitate to even say "ex-boyfriend" because I don't know that we ever really declared that we were boyfriend/girlfriend - but we were more than friends. He was that "bad boy" that I didn't need to like but couldn't help myself from loving. And like I told my friend today, since we were never really boyfriend/girlfriend, there was never really a breakup, so to speak. So that finality, that closed chapter, didn't really exist for us - at least not that I remember.

The last time I saw him was after I had Rachel. We were in Kohl's and I came around the corner pushing Rachel in the stroller and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw him, his wife, and a baby in a stroller with them also. His wife was so, so nice. I remember she sort of went about her shopping and left us to chat for just a second. That takes a good woman to do that. And it was VERY weird to know he had a child. It was one of those meetings where you almost didn't need to say anything. And what was there to be said. He was married. I was married. We both had kids. We were in the spots we were supposed to be. It's not like we wished things were any different, I'm sure. But it WAS weird...and good all at the same time.

I hear now that he's going to church with his family and is a "good family man". Honest to God, I prayed for him so much to be saved and to be a church-going, God-fearing man - and told him that on lots of occassions. And I was glad today to hear that my prayers had been answered.

It's funny how God works sometimes. I shared about Christ with him several times, bought him a Bible, and brought him to church for some events I was in (since it was the only time he would come). Maybe I was just supposed to be that breath in his life for a short time to nudge him in the direction of finding the Lord. I hope I was able to do that - even just a little...

Africa Bound

2009-07-28T23:28:00.002-05:00

My friends, the Kennedys, are moving to Africa for two months to be interim directors for Esther's House orphanage and to film a reality show while doing that. I'm so excited for them about this opportunity, even though I'm sick that they won't be here for two months. They just adopted a precious, beautiful baby boy from Ethiopia last year and he's about the same age as Porter. They are buddies and have fun playing together in the nursery.

Their heart for Africa tugs at MY heartstrings because of the ties I have from my mission trip to Zimbabwe 10 years ago. So many times I've wanted to go back, but at the times our church was sending people, it just hasn't worked out due to pregnancies, nursing, etc. There are some times coming in the next several months that teams are going back to Malawi to work with the orphanage that our church has started there and my heart has been gripped. I'm praying about a time when I could join one of our teams to go. The only "fear" I have is that I'll get there and be with those babies and kids at that orphanage and either won't want to leave or want to bring every one of them back with me.

Take a minute to read the Kennedys' blog post about their upcoming travels. It's exciting stuff!

Moving To Africa

So Many Thoughts...

2009-07-24T08:15:00.002-05:00

There are so many thoughts running through my head as I sit here typing. There are some things I wish I could wright about in this venue, but I cannot. I think I may come up with a pen name and just write a bunch of stuff, just to get it out, but no one would know it's me. I wouldn't even care if anyone read it. It would just be nice to "say" it without worry. I'm thinking about it...

New Candidate...

2009-07-11T14:26:00.002-05:00

I just finished reading the website for Mark Darr. He and his wife are friends of mine and I sing with them at church in choir and on the praise team. Mark has decided to run for Lieutenant Governer or Arkansas. I know Mark and when I first heard he was going to run, I thought he would do a great job. After reading his website, I'm even more inthused. Take a minute to look at his site. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future brings for Mark and his family as they campaign.

http://markdarr.com/

Too Much To Say...

2009-07-09T08:04:00.003-05:00

Gosh, I have been so lazy about updating this thing! I make sure to keep up with everyone else's stuff, but haven't been so good about keeping up with my own blog.

There's so much to update about that I'm almost overwhelmed. So, I'm not going to do it right now. At least this little post will make me feel better that it hasn't been a hundred years since I posted something, bare though it may be.

Let me just say that as posted in my last update, Mike and I are still going to the gym. We are on week three and I have been to the gym 5 days a week each of those weeks! Go me!! Sadly, I haven't lost hardly any weight. That's a bummer considering how much sweating I'm doing on that darn treadmill at 6am every day! And let me just put it out there that I HATE the elliptical machine! HATE. IT. But my shins were hurting so badly this morning that I only did a mile on the treadmill and thought I'd suck it up and give my shins a break on the elliptical. Good. Lord. First of all, that sucker is a beat! I get winded in a hurry on that darn thing. However, I did learn that I burned a crap load of calories quick! Woohoo! Maybe I should do that more often. Then again, maybe not. I do need to get back to Body Pump. I know that will help with the calorie burn and with my muscle tone, because Lord knows I definitely need that! I tried on a bathing suit a couple weeks ago and let me just say, that was not a pleasant experience. I got a suit that had a little skirt covering the booty, because let's face it - no one needs to be exposed to this booty in the shape it's in! That's what I keep reminding myself when I'm doing my short little sprints in between walking - cottage cheese booty!! Keep moving!!

Oh - I'm reading Angels & Demons. I've already seen the movie, so I'm not totally surprised with the turns in the book like I would have been had I not already seen it, but it's really pretty good. It took me forever to get in to the darn thing, but now it's hard to put it down. It's as long as I don't know what, so it's taking a long time for me to read. But it's really good.

Porter is sitting in his high chair watching "Icky" and "Onald" (Micky Mouse Clubhouse) and I just sneezed - he said "Bess You!" four times. So precious! I love how he's learning so much! Gosh, that kid is cute!!!

And here I said I wasn't really going to post anything. I know some of you want pictures, though. Those are coming. Sometime.

Mini Update - Bullet Point Style

2009-06-22T15:23:00.004-05:00

*Tanner is on her way to Beach Camp in Florida. She didn't fare well when they were leaving, but once they were on the road, I think she was fine. I'm so anxious to see what this week brings. If only my Twitter people would update more! :) And all I have to say is thank the Good Lord for unlimited texting!

*Rachel had her first T-ball game on Saturday and did really well. Daddy's coaching is paying off. She was SUPER cute and loved being out there! I've got tons of pics and will try posting some of those tonight or tomorrow.

*We had a good Father's Day here at the Langham house. Mike got a new charcoal grill and is anxious for the weekend.... because apparently, that's when you use charcoal grills. Whatever will he choose to cook first for me?! Mmmmm!!!

*Mike and I are starting a 40 day challenge at the gym. There are prizes we can get if we go 40 times to the gym from today until August 22nd. Wonder what my body would look like if I actually stick to that? We shall see. Zumba tonight and I might get REAL crazy and go to Body Pump in the early am. HA! Yeah - don't hold your breath.

Bears - A Tutorial. By Rachel.

2009-06-02T20:33:00.005-05:00

Out of nowhere, Rachel started telling me what you have to do if you meet a bear in the woods. Here's how her story went:

Rachel - "Ok, Mommy, you have to remember - bears are very simple. First thing, do not play the clarinet. Do not wear big red shoes. Do not wear a pink skirt. And never, ever wear a sombrero. And the last thing is, don't wave your flashlight back and forth really fast. That's really true. It was on Sponge Bob. And then draw a circle around yourself cause the perimeter makes the sea bear go away because they stay away from circles. Don't draw an oval or a diamond or anything like that. Only a circle. And that will get into it's conscious - that's what's inside the bear's heart."

Me - "Hmmm. I never knew that. Let me write that down so I don't forget it."

And then I came to the computer to publish that little jewel for all the world to see and for me to embarrass my daughter with in a few years. :) So I wrote down all that I remembered and then had her tell me again, just to be sure. Gosh, I love that child's imagination.

Flowery Surprise

2009-05-27T08:35:00.003-05:00

Mike came in from work yesterday carrying these. Needless to say, I had a big smile on my face. It was very unexpected!! I hadn't gotten flowers from him like that..... maybe ever. He used to have it on his calendar to get me flowers every so often. I told him I didn't want to be a part of his to-do list. Those would always be shipped. And they were nice. But still. I felt like it was just another thing checked off his list. Yesterday was an exception. He came in the house carrying nothing but the flowers. I LOVED IT!!

Thank you, Honey!! You're the best! And yes, I do like those more than roses!!

Let the Moving Continue...

2009-05-25T08:33:00.002-05:00

We're getting "Mom" all moved in. Mike's mom got here on Wednesday, her stuff arrived on Thursday, and we've been hitting it pretty hard ever since. It's beginning to look like someone actually lives there now, which is good. There are so many little things to do around the house that, when they are done, are going to make it look GREAT! She's got lots of good ideas about things she wants to do. Number one on the "handyman" list is to get rid of the BROWN, poop colored toilet in the master bathroom. It's really just scary. Now mind you, this house was built in the 70's. She has the same yellow sink that we have, which is livable. But that master toilet, and the BLUE one that's in the hall - yeah, they have GOT to go! Just a little updating on the rest of the place and we're in business.

And the fact that she's just literally around the corner from us is GREAT!! We've seen her every day since she's been here, but that's to be expected since we're helping her get settled. And she's already been able to babysit for me once for a couple hours!! How great is that?! The kids LOVE that Grandma is here! And we do too!!

To Feel Scared or Safe, That Is The Question

2009-05-12T11:14:00.007-05:00

Two nights ago, at a little after midnight, I was awakened to my husband barreling out of bed.

Now let me step back a little and say that he has bad dreams every so often. His bad dreams are of his biggest fears, which usually include either me cheating on him or someone trying to attack his family. Most of the time when he has these bad dreams, it's no big deal. He'll make noises or bolt up in bed, but most of us have done that at one time or another.

Well, Sunday night was an exception. A little after midnight, apparently my dear, sweet husband was dreaming that someone was standing in the corner by our bedroom door, waiting for him to fall totally asleep, and I guess then was going to attack us. Instead of continuing in his sleep, Mike decided he was NOT going to let this dream-induced stranger attack us and he was going to nip it in the bud, attack this stranger first, and apparently kill him... right there in our bedroom. So, Mike barreled out of bed and headed for this imagined stranger and didn't wake up until his head ricocheted out of our sheet rock and onto the door frame, or our dresser, I'm not sure which. Once he landed on his butt, I saw the wall in the dark and was convinced that we were going to have to either call 911 or rush him to the ER because, in the dark, I thought what I saw was a big splash of blood on the wall. I quickly turned the light on, jumped out of bed, and went racing over to Mike on the floor and grabbed his face to see where the blood was coming from. Thank GOD there was no blood on his face, which actually left me a bit confused. I looked back up at the wall to find this:

This, my friends, is a 2 1/2 foot long, 1 1/2 foot wide HOLE in my bedroom wall! Mike tackled the WALL.

Should I be terrified or should I feel completely safe that even in his sleep, my hubby can produce a hole in my wall with his head? I'm not sure I've decided which.

I wanted to repaint my bedroom anyway. This gives me a good excuse.

FREE KFC Dinner

2009-05-05T18:16:00.002-05:00

Go to www.oprah.com/kfc and print a coupon for a free chicken dinner with 2 sides and a biscuit! YUM!! We're about to head there now with coupons in hand! WOOHOO!! :)

***But you can only print them through tomorrow!! They're good through 5/19, but can only be printed before tomorrow at about 5pm or something like that. So hurry!!

Wish Come True

2009-05-05T07:56:00.002-05:00

So in my last post, I decided I needed a wife and nanny. Well, my husband has decided to be both as my Mother's Day present!

Last year, I told him I wanted to have my house professionally cleaned and my van cleaned (by him or whoever he wanted to get to do it). That was GREAT to have my house cleaned! I loved it!!! So, I was thinking of doing the same thing again this year.

However, I've been "complaining" about how I haven't had time to do any of the appointments that I'd like/need to do, i.e. dentist, eye doctor, hair stylist, etc. If I do any of those, I have to arrange for someone to keep my kids. I can't just go on my lunch hour or leave "work" early to get those things done like my hubby could do. And to take kids to those types of appointments??? Yeah. Not a good idea at ALL.

So for Mother's Day, my husband told me he is going to take a vacation day, stay home with the kids, and clean my WHOLE house while I leave that morning to go run all my errands, have lunch with friends (any takers?) and just enjoy a whole day to myself to do anything I want/need to do!! Can I just tell you that I'm about to BURST with excitement over that deal?!! I cannot WAIT!! I'm going to start scheduling appointments today!

Is it pretty messed up of me to be so excited to be getting to go to the dentist? I'm sure Wade doesn't think so. :) HA!

2009-04-29T19:42:00.002-05:00

Still haven't gotten the pics off my camera. Maybe soon. Why is it that there are always a hundred more things to do than I ever have time for? I need a wife. That's what I've decided. That and a nanny. Oh wait - if I had a wife, she'd be a maid AND a nanny. Yep. That's what I need.

House Hunting

2009-04-28T08:22:00.002-05:00

Grandma Lynn is coming back down tomorrow to do some more house hunting. She has to be out of her place in less than a month, so there's no time to waste. I know she's getting anxious and a little nervous about getting something that she loves in time, but I also know it will all work out. And if we have to have a live-in babysitter for a little while before she finds a place, then so be it. :) Heck, I might even get to go get a hair cut!!

It is on my list to download pics from my camera today, so hopefully I will have some time to post some pics from Rachel's dance recital last Friday. She did great!!

We're also doing a little landscape action in our back yard. The rain and yuckiness have hindered our work a bit, but at least we got our landscape bricks around what is to become our flower beds... or as Mike likes to call them, dog borders. Pictures to follow.

I'm off to do some organizing today. I may be calling Superchikk to help!

The Week From.....

2009-04-23T21:50:00.002-05:00

This has been one of the craziest, busiest, most irritating weeks of the world. Sunday morning, I had praise team which meant being at church by 7:30 am. Sunday night was the children's musical and my choir kids (including Rachel) singing in "big church". Monday was work and then a 2 hour dance practice. Tuesday was babysitting and then a 3 hour dance practice. I thought I was going to get the evening sans children, but plans changed at the last minute and that didn't work out. Wednesday was Grandma Lynn's arrival. She's looking for a house here, so she came into town to do a little home shopping. Wednesday night was our last night for children's choir and our pizza party. Today was work and immediately after that was getting the girls ready for the 2 hour dance dress rehearsal. Let's not forget all the prep I've had to do for Friday Night Out since I'm not going to be there tomorrow night. Tomorrow is house hunting all morning and then the afternoon will be getting things ready for the recital tomorrow night, and we have to be there an hour and a half before starting time. Saturday morning will be more house hunting and I'm not sure what the evening plans are now, as they have changed in the last 24 hours. Sunday morning is serving in preschool. Sunday afternoon, I might crawl in a hole and not come out until Monday morning.

The sad thing is, there seems to be extra stuff that just keeps popping into my week - this week of all weeks. Today, I was about to explode but refrained, somewhat, from throwing a few choice words around. I haven't been able to get to my exercise class for over a week and haven't had time to myself AT ALL in about 2 weeks. I'm just so tired that it makes me want to cry sitting here thinking about it. And yet, there are still demands for my attention and action that won't quit and I have to keep going. Oh what I wouldn't give to not have anything more pressing to do, anyone to be responsible for, or anyone else to think about but myself for even a couple hours. That, my dear friends, would just be bliss. Unfortunately, I do not currently have that luxury. What if I had a lunch hour to go out for a while by myself? What if I had a drive to or from work where there were no children in my car? Even that would be wonderful.

I told Lynn that when she moves here, I have one request - that she babysit my kids for a day so that I can go get a hair cut, my eyes checked, and my teeth cleaned. Because to do any of that stuff that most people would consider easy/manditory things, I have to get a babysitter. I haven't had a hair cut since October. I haven't been to have my eyes checked in about a year and a half. And we'll not even discuss how long it's been since I've been to the dentist. Let's just say I've been on Tyson's insurance for over 8 years and they've never paid a dental bill for me.

Do you feel sorry for me yet? I certainly feel sorry for myself after writing all that. Is there a bright side to things? I'm trying really hard to see it, but not having much luck.

Movies and "Zac Outrun"

2009-04-19T21:36:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Tanner and I went to see "17 Again". It was super cute and hilarious. We laughed a ton. And yes, I thought Zac Efron was a cutie! Today, Rachel and I went to see "Monsters vs. Aliens". I'd never seen a movie in a theater that was in 3D, so that was a treat for Rachel and me getting to wear our "super cool" 3D glasses. It was a cute movie and as Melissa said, I had to snicker a few times at the sci-fi movie references that were in there. Went right over Rachel's head, but whatever. And one of the funnist things that I still snicker over was when the pres said he was going to change the threat level to brown...cause he had to go change his pants. HEHE! THAT was funny.

But the funniest part of the day was when Rachel was talking about Tanner and I going to see the movie yesterday and she said, "I really like Zac Outrun." I'm pretty sure I snorted from laughing so hard when she said that! Zac Outrun. Yep. Still giggling from that.

Well, I Thought I'd Cried My Last Tear... for a while...

2009-04-13T22:38:00.003-05:00

...but I hadn't apparently. I was told about this blog, so I had to go check it out. I'm literally in tears as I write this. It's by Angie Smith of the group Selah. They lost a baby last year and had a post from April 7th, what would have been the baby's first birthday. Go read it when you have a chance, but bring a tissue. Mercy.
http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

And I just found this video on their site. Literally - I am WEEPING!! I think I'm crying harder now than I did all three performances of playing Mary Magdelene. Can you even imagine? It tears my heart out of me to think of losing one of my children. That must be the MOST horrible pain any mother could ever face. God, bless that woman right now and give her an enormous portion of your peace today.
I'm totally serious - if you have any sort of a tender heart, do NOT try and watch this without a kleenex. I'm not even kidding!! It will rip your heart to shreds!
http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/2008/04/slideshow.html

Alone Time

2009-04-09T14:53:00.002-05:00

.... if I don't get some soon, I think I might scream at anything that walks near me! I usually am a pretty good people person and I enjoy being around people. But I think I've been around people (and by people I'm including my children) and I haven't given myself enough time just by myself. I love my children and even as I type this they are doing some really cute things, but sometimes I just need to have some time where I'm not thinking about anything and I'm not around anyone.

Porter is as cute as can be but oh. my. gosh!!! He's into EVERYTHING!!!! Before I sat down to type this, he found the box of Alphabits that I just put by the trashcan and took it to the living room and thought he'd see how much of a mess he could make on the living room carpet. I had to get the vacuum cleaner out and suck up all the crumbs. It wasn't even that it was crumbs so much as it was that powder that's in the bottom of the cereal bags. This morning, it was an empty milk jug and a banana peel that he pulled out of the trash and was taking through the kitchen. He also loves to get the pens out of the drawer at my desk, as well as all the lotions, hair products, band aids and medicines we have in the bathroom cabinets. And Lord help me if I leave a book or magazine within his reach. Rachel was NEVER in to stuff like Porter is. I feel like I would have to keep him caged most of the time to keep him out of things! It's enough to wear a woman OUT!

And Rachel.... apparently that child has a problem with not being obedient in her class when it comes to talking. They have a discipline system to where they have little clips they move to green when they have a warning, to yellow if they are told again, and to red when it's really bad. When I came to get her today, her clip was the lone clip on the RED!!! I still don't have the full story, but her teacher told me that it wasn't as bad as it looked and that she didn't realize her clip was already on yellow or she wouldn't have had to move it again. I don't know exactly what happened there, but apparently she wasn't "red clip" bad even though that's where her clip was. Last time she moved her clip to yellow, she got a spanking from Daddy when she got home. It doesn't look good for her today.

Can you get a feel for why I need a smidge of alone time?

Oh Dear Computer

2009-04-08T08:28:00.002-05:00

We have our computer back!! Glory Hallelujah!! All the files are there. We're still having email issues. It'll be fixed soon, I'm sure. I'm just glad to have a screen bigger than an inch to look at! That phone is fabulous and I'm glad to have had it this past week for keeping up with stuff, but my goodness, it was beginning to be an "eye sore".

I've been challenged to a baking competition by Angela. You know, I usually can't let a challenge go past me. I'm going to try and not let this one get past me either. I'm not sure how it's going to fit into my schedule this week, but I'm going to give it a shot at some point.

Porter has been very snugly this week. He was just standing beside me and laid his head over on my lap and was saying, "aawwww". How precious is that?! He's been very into giving me and his sisters hugs, too. I'm going to try and savor every moment of this because, as we all know, it won't last.

MOPS is calling and my hair needs to be washed before I step foot out of this house!

Later...

Slacker

2009-03-31T11:58:00.003-05:00

So I haven't posted anything in a week! I'm either a slacker or just busy. Maybe both.

Just a few points of catching up:

The Duggar laundry soap has been working like a dream! So far, it's gotten everything clean. Even smelly pits aren't smelly after they've been laundered. And Porter's shirts that usually are caked with food have come out totally clean. I do use Snuggle fabric softener (cause it's my favorite scent). At the rate I'm going, I'll probably be spending about $1.50 a year now on laundry soap!! Can I get a WOOHOO!!!!

I think the spring cleaning bug has hit me. I'm ready to get rid of stuff again. I feel that need to have everything clean and fresh. I wish today was warmer so I could open my windows and let the breeze in.

I'm going to a Twilight party on Friday night! I can't wait!! Some of my other mom friends and I who are crazy about Twilight are getting together to watch the movie, play a little trivia and just enjoy a night together. We're all excited about it! I can't wait!!! I need to watch the movie again and brush up a little on my trivia because I WILL WIN!!!!!

We went up to KC this past weekend to help Mike's mom clean out her garage. Her house is up for sale and we've already helped get the inside clean and ready for show. This time we had to tackle the garage. There was stuff we found that had been kept for literally decades! There was a box of income tax returns dating back to 1971!!!!!!! I mean, really?! The funniest thing we found was a box that had mine and Mike's name on it and was sealed in packing tape. Mike's mom started snickering when she saw it and had me open it. It was a wedding gift she'd gotten us EIGHT YEARS AGO that she'd put away and had forgotten about. Oh my granny! We just decided it would be an anniversary present instead of a wedding gift. And the fun thing is that I think I'll still be able to use it!

Speaking of our anniversary, last Tuesday was our 8th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long already. Time has sure flown by. While we were in KC, we went out on a date on Friday and went to Dave & Busters for dinner and some games. We had a choice of waiting who knows how long on a table in the main seating area or we could sit at the bar right then. We chose the bar. It's always fun watching those guys throw those bottles of liquor and make some pretty little drink. We sat by a couple that was out on a date as well and the grandparents were babysitting for them also. They were a fun couple and we were all enjoying our time just chilling. Alas, I do think I'm getting old because by 11pm, I was yawning and thinking about how good it was going to feel to go to bed. How sad is that?! However, it was a great evening and we really did enjoy having that time together. Since I'm working every Friday night, we don't have a lot of opportunity to go out, so it was a nice treat.

Now it's off to cleaning. I have a bunch of things I want/need to get done and with trying to keep Porter out of the stuff he shouldn't be getting in to, it's taking WAY longer than necessary to get stuff done. Such is the life of a mom of a 1 1/2 year old, right?

The Duggar's Laundry Soap

2009-03-24T10:30:00.003-05:00

So I have tested Michelle Duggar's recipe for laundry soap. I must say, it was VERY easy to make and VERY, VERY cheap!!

Here is the bucket I used...

And here is what the laundry soap looks like...

It's sort of like watery jello. I made it yesterday and let it sit overnight. I just stired it this morning and mushed the gelled parts (which the kids helped me with for a minute until they thought it was too gross) and then took a big mixing bowl with a spout and dunked it in the soap. I filled an empty laundry soap container half full with my new laundry soap and the rest of the way with water. You're supposed to shake the contents before each use as it gells after sitting for a while. So far, I've washed one load of towels with the soap. They smelled great when I pulled them out of the wash. We'll see how it does with some of the more "smelly" clothes later.

Let's just say that if this stuff works like it looks like it will, I will have cut my laundry budget by a TON!! Literally, I spent less than $10 on all the ingredients and then spent about $4 buying the bucket and lid at Lowe's. The ingredients make 5 gallons worth of detergent, but then you dilute that mix (1 part mix to 1 part water), so it actually makes 10 gallons worth of detergent that will be used.... out of that one batch!!! And you just use a little over 1/2 a cup of stuff in each load of laundry!! Holy CRAP!!!!!! I mean, seriously - this is SOOOO cheap! I'm so excited!! Can't you tell?!

Michelle Duggar and Friday Night Out

2009-03-13T07:49:00.003-05:00

Thursday night, the ladies from our Sunday school class (and some extra girls) got together to visit with Michelle Duggar. We were all so excited, as Michelle is, you know, a TV star and all! :)

She is very gracious and has such wisdom. She was the same last night as I've seen her on TV and when I had the opportunity to be at her house a couple years ago. Just a very down-to-earth lady who loves to share about her family. And I tell ya, she absolutely breathes the Bible! I mean, she's able to incorporate scripture into just about every sentence she says, but in a good way - not a "preachy" way.

Most people think they are crazy for having 18 kids. And rightly so. That is incredibly unusual for a family in our day to do that. And they'll be the first to admit they didn't start out with the plan to have this many kids. However, something that Michelle said about that made it click a little bit more for me. She said that she was so humbled that God had chosen to use them, because of their unusually large family, as vessels to share Christ. Hmmm. I'd heard her say before they wanted as many children as God would give them, but didn't really consider the perspective that this is the situation God has allowed them to be in so that He can be acknowledged and He can be seen. The media is so interested in their family, as are all of us viewers, and like I said, Michelle absolutely breathes God and His Word. Anytime anyone hears her speak, they'll hear the Word and they'll be able to see Jesus through her. God uses people in different ways. Looks like he choose to use the Duggars, with their enormous family, to get people interested enough, to listen long enough, that they might hear Him.

Changing gears, tonight is our first Friday Night Out. I'm a little nervous about it, but excited! I think it will be good. We have over 130 kids signed up to come!!! YIKES!! I think I'm prepared for the most part. I'll just be glad when 10:00 comes and we see that everyone has come through it safe and sound. :)

Yay Melissa!!!

2009-03-09T21:57:00.002-05:00

Melissa is on Dancing With The Stars!!!! I voted for her as many times as I could. Not only do I just love her, she did a GREAT job!! I hope she stays on there for the duration.

Blood Draw and Screaming

2009-03-02T16:59:00.004-06:00

After 8 straight days with a fever, we took Rachel to see the doctor today, only to find out she's a medical mystery. The doc examined her from head to toe, literally, and couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, besides a runny nose. She got to pee in a cup and have her blood drawn, which let's just get it out there right now, my child does NOT like needles in her arm!!! She's had that done once before a couple years ago and it traumatized her so much that she tells the exact story verbatim every time we pass the doctor's office. She knew what was going on as soon as I told her they would need to get just a little bit of blood from her arm. Oh boy. You'd think they had a hack saw to her arm the way she was acting. It was so hard to sit there and not get teary while she was literally screaming her head off. Then, she said, "I want my grandma!!!!" and Mike and I both started getting tickled. She followed that up with "I DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS!!!!" After the blood draw and the screaming, we're still waiting to see what her blood tells us. The urine was fine, so we'll see if there's anything going on with her blood. I certainly hope there's not. Because she had such a tough time, she got 3 stickers AND a coupon for a free kids dinner at TGI Fridays. So, the moral of the story is that if you have to go to the doctor, tell your kids to scream bloody murder and you might get a coupon! :)

And for your picture viewing enjoyment, here are a couple pics of the kids taken by our KDO photographer, Mr. Michael Drager. He's so great! I love when he comes to take pics of all our kids.

Rachel, of course is always super photogenic and knows when to crack that smile.

Porter did great as well. He's usually pretty good with the camera. Could be the ten thousand pictures I've taken of him in his 16 months of life so far... I'm just sayin'.

Except when it came to a group pictures, I think my little tyke was a bit disturbed that he was NOT the center of attention anymore...

Sick and Tired

2009-02-21T22:11:00.002-06:00

You know that saying that our mothers used to say to us... "I'm sick and tired of...." and just fill in the blank with the quote of the day. Well, that's kinda how it is around the Langham house right now.

Porter was sick last week and has been doing much better. However... that little bugger decided to empty the contents of his stomach at about 1am this morning.... all over his bed. I heard him crying and I said a quick prayer that he would go back to sleep. No such luck. The cry turned in to one of those that a mother can tell means more than just "I lost my passy." So I got up, went into his room, and was immediately assaulted with the foul scent of what my son had been doing. I all but yelled in to my snoozing hubby and apparently, it just took one "HONEY!!" to wake the man from the dead because he came running in Porter's room and we were then both immediately on the clean up crew. I took Porter to the bath tub and Mike took care of cleaning up the bed. What a mess that all was. Even after washing Porter's hair, the smell was still there. He threw up a few more times and after about 3 hours and a conversation with the on-call nurse at the hospital, my little munchkin fell asleep and slept until nearly 9am! Which is more than I can say for Mommy and Daddy. We got a 3 hour chunk taken out of our night, but thankfully got to sleep until about 8am. He's done much better today. He had a bit of "spit up" this afternoon, but nothing like last night and he's kept down everything he's eaten and drank today... can I get an AMEN?!

Rachel has been fighting a cold for a few days. We figured she was getting the leftovers of the croup that baby brother had. She hasn't felt super great the last couple of days and this morning, she was acting very tired. She had a smidge of a fever this morning, but ibuprofen kicked that in a hurry. She had a great visit with Grandpa and Nana, who were down today, but wasn't her bouncy lively self. Then tonight, she felt a bit warm again and when we checked her temp, it was back up to 100.2. So low grade, but still enough to keep her home from church tomorrow. She's been taking some "grape" medicine (Dimetap) and some "yucky" medicine (Mucinex) to try and ward off her cold symptoms. And now we have Tylenol and ibuprofen in the mix. God help me if that child wakes up and starts throwing up. I might have to scream.

So, needless to say, I'm a bit tired. I feel like I've gone non-stop this week. It's been a drain for me. And my nerves are fairing better than they were at the end of last week, but I'm still not "normal", whatever that is. Tomorrow is going to be busy and it doesn't look like next week is going to give me a break. I would just about pay someone to take care of my children so I could get a good night's sleep and wake up at my leisure... no electronic alarms.... no human alarms.... no K-9 alarms.... just to be able to go to bed without having to get up at any certain time the next morning. Without having to be somewhere. Just to be. Gosh. I love my kids and by no means am I wishing the time away, but man am I ever looking forward to the days when they can all fend for themselves and can take care of things so Mommy can rest.

I feel like I have so much more to blog about, lots more pictures to post, but like I said... I'm tired. I will try to be more diligent about posting and getting all my stories and pics up here. For now, I think I'm going to bed.

A topic for another day - Redbox. I love it!!

So the doctor says....

2009-02-10T22:36:00.002-06:00

Double ear infection and croup. That's what Porter has. Which is what we found out after waiting over an hour in the waiting room of the doctor's office and then another 20 minutes in the room before the doctor actually came in.

He took 14 teaspoons of steriods (yes, you read that right) for the croup and some antibiotics for the ear infection.

I think it might be because he drank all that toilet water.

2009-02-05T17:26:00.002-06:00

So, in the time it took me to fix dinner tonight, several things happened:

* My son spit up on himself. At least that's what we're going to say. He drank his juice too fast. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

* My son spilled an entire sippy cup of juice on my kitchen floor because the lid came off.

* In trying to keep my son contained for a few minutes, I let a pot of water and milk boil over on my stove. And you know that makes a lovely spot on the burners...

* While I was getting meatloaf in the oven, my son found the cup we use in the bathtub to rinse hair and came out of the bathroom, coughing, spewing water from his mouth from the FULL CUP OF WATER..... It took me all of about 1.2 seconds to realize that water came OUT OF THE TOILET!!!!!!!!!! AND MY SON WAS DRINKING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I told that to Mike and of course, he was laughing his head off and was talking about how impressed he was that Porter was able to figure out how to dip water out of the toilet. Yeah, impressed isn't exaclty how I was feeling about the situation.

* My son is now contained in his high chair and both the girls and my husband have been told that they MUST put the lid down on the toilet after they've used the bathroom or they will be grounded!!! All of them!!!

Rachel was never like this. EVER. She just didn't get in to stuff. We tried to put latches on our cabinets (that didn't end up working) because we thought that's what you were supposed to do with a baby, not because she was in to everything. Now, I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up needing to cage my son if I want to do anything that causes me not to have at least one eye on him at all times.

My gosh, Porter is precious, but heaven's to betsy, that kid's wearing me OUT!!!

The Power Has Returned...

2009-02-03T21:45:00.002-06:00

...and Rachel is NOT happy about it!!

The Thompsons have been staying with us the past 6 nights because of their lasting power outage. I've really enjoyed having them here (contrary to what Jeremy would tell you that I supposedly said...) and Rachel has really loved having a slumber party with Katie every night. It's been like a vacation for those girls. They've been best buddies since they were babies. So, although I KNOW Michelle is very glad to be back in her own home, my baby girl was absolutely weeping tonight when I put her to bed because she missed Katie so much. She was trying to say her prayers and when she asked God to bless Katie, she just broke into tears. I almost couldn't pray then because that choked me up.

I'm sure the Thompsons will be sleeping MUCH better tonight in their own beds, but Rachel sure does miss sharing her room with Katie.

Before and After at Mom's and Granny's

2009-02-02T13:31:00.001-06:00

As most everyone knows, a big ol' bunch of ice came through these parts... and it didn't stop in Springdale. It kept going right on over to Harrison (where my mom and granny live). This was the view from my mom's porch down in my granny's yard before we got started. I imagined it was bad, but I didn't realize they had limbs as big as trees that were downed.

This was after we finished our work for the day. Needless to say we didn't get nearly all of it done, but I think we made a pretty good dent. My granny couldn't even get to her mailbox without going through the maze of limbs and sticks, but now she can get out to her newspaper and mail and up to Mom's without climbing over trees in the yard.

There's lots more to be done, but Mike and I wore ourselves out doing just this much. Man, this stuff is such a huge mess. It's going to be months before it's all back to normal. And then, I'm afraid, it still won't be quite normal.

Ancestors

2009-01-24T22:43:00.002-06:00

My dad sent me an email today with some information on my ancestors.
My grandpa is Wayne.
My great grandpa is Ross.
My great great grandpa is John.
My great great great grandpa is - yeah, get this - Orange Peel Tucker.
Now if that doesn't make an Arkansas girl feel like a hick, I don't know what will.

The info that was in the email was fascinating. Orange was full blood Cherokee and was adopted by a "well to do white man" and didn't know his original last name. According to records, he killed his Captain in the military during the Civil War because they cut off his pigtail (or ponytail), which had been an Indian sign of manhood. He was tried and convicted, but before he could be executed, his adoptive father intervened and saved him. He went on to live until he was an old man and had a ton of kids and it was noted that he was a farmer that couldn't read or write.

Interesting.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2009-01-20T19:42:00.002-06:00

I have been watching inauguration coverage pretty much since I got up this morning. Regardless of how you feel about the incoming or outgoing president, each inauguration is historic. It's something that will, without question, be in our history books and will be regarded and studied and remembered. This one is especially unique in that, obviously, we have our first African American president. That, in itself, is a subject for another time.

There have been many moments today that have choked me up. I'm not the biggest Obama fan. I didn't vote for him, but he is our president, so I'm at least praying for him and will support him as much as I can. However today, just because it was so "big" - a new is man taking over the most important office of leadership in the world, and a man who has served in that job for the last 8 years is leaving what has been not only his office, but his home. I can't imagine what the Bushes must been feeling. The sense of nostalgia, as well as possibly some relief that the time is finally at an end. And what are the Obamas feeling today? I'm sure there's a wide range of emotions. What must that be like to have your lives totally changed in a day? To now be known by every single person pretty much in the world. And Obama, who's likely been used to being called Barak, Obama, Senator, etc, is now almost exclusively going to be referred to as Mr. President. And Michelle. I mean, my gosh. To be the wife of the president? Overwhelming. But somehow, that woman strikes me as a lady that can handle that job and handle it well.

I haven't really said much to Rachel about my opinion of Obama. I told her as the election process was going on that we were in favor of John McCain and not Obama (though at first that really disturbed her becasue she really liked Obama - mostly because I think she liked saying his name). That's all I've said. I've watched the news and she's asked me nearly daily if Senetor Obama is going to be President Obama yet. Today, she asked and I told her that yes, he would be President Obama today. As we were watching the Inaugural Ball tonight and Barak and Michelle were dancing their first dance as President and First Lady, as Beyonce was singing "At Last" (which by the way is one of my favorite songs ever and she did an AWESOME job!), I was enjoying the moment, almost getting choked up yet again, espeically seeing Mary J. Blige with tears streaming down her face. But my sweet, innocent daughter, who was sitting in the chair with me, leaned over and whispered, "President Obama tells lies and steals money, right?" I thought I was going to fall out of my chair! WHAT?!?! I was convinced that her daddy had told her that at some point today. I asked her if Daddy said that to her tonight and she looked at me, very honestly, and said no. I asked Mike if he'd said anything to Rachel at all today about Obama and he swore he didn't. I told her to repeat to Daddy what she'd told me. Daddy heard it and immediately asked Rachel if she'd like some ice cream. In fact, how would she like 3 scoops of ice cream? And chocolate syrup? Sure, she could pour it on herself. Go ahead and get as much as you like, Daddy told her. She didn't realize she was getting ice cream for making a statement that her Daddy emphatically agreed with.... thank goodness.

It Once Was Lost, But Now It's Found

2009-01-19T16:03:00.003-06:00

I had a panic attack earlier today. A genuine, nearly hyperventilating panic attack. I was putting Porter in his car seat and snagged my wedding ring on the straps. I looked down, mostly out of habit, to make sure everything was ok. IT WAS NOT! My diamond was gone. GONE I SAY!! I started to flip out! I had already been having one heck of a hormonal day and this just was the proverbial straw. I had to take Rachel to dance, so I got her to church and of course she was telling her teachers about it. Miss Kelly, bless her heart, said that she would be praying that Jesus would just bring that diamond to the surface and that it would be easy to find. I tell you, as soon as I realized it was missing, I think the first words out of my mouth were, "Oh sweet Jesus, help me find my diamond!!!" I was in constant prayer. I called Mike and thankfully, he was just down the street at the corporate office and said he could come help me look for it. I looked everywhere I could think of. I know I had it at lunch because I'd taken my rings off to put on lotion. So, it had to have been lost somewhere in the house. Mike and I retraced my steps from the time I put lotion on my hands until I walked out to get in the car for dance. I mean, I looked EVERYWHERE I possibly thought that little thing could go. We looked under the couch, under the recliner, in the bathroom where I'd been wallpapering all day, in the laundry room, in the garage... everywhere. Then I went to get Porter up to go get Rachel from dance and low and behold, there that diamond lay, shining on his changing table. Jesus had really brought it to the surface, just as Miss Kelly had prayed. It was not in a drain somewhere, not in a nook or cranny, never to be found. No. It was right there in plain sight. Two of the prongs had broken which caused the diamond to fall out. Thank you Jesus that it came out someplace very obvious and that I was able to find it and get it put safely away, ready for repair.

Here's a sad little picture of the damage. The sweet diamond isn't very big, but I love it. I would have been devastated if I hadn't found it. Again, hallelujah and praise the Lord!!

Where does she come up with this stuff???

2009-01-06T14:35:00.003-06:00

Just overheard Rachel talking to herself...

Rachel: "I am in love with you. It's an emergency!"
Me: What did you just say?
Rachel: "I am in love with you. It's an emergency!"
Me: "Where did you hear that?"
Rachel: "From my boyfriend..." (she said boyfriend like that was the dumbest question she'd had to answer in her life)
Me: "Who's your boyfriend?"
Rachel: "I do NOT know."

The end.

Saturday Stuff

2009-01-03T15:32:00.002-06:00

I've started writing. I'm terrified and exhilarated all at the same time. We'll see how it comes along.

We've determined to keep a better check on our budget this year and really stick to a spending plan. I went to the grocery store today after checking my recipes, making a menu for the week, and determining what we already have on hand that I can use. I only spent about $45 on food and that includes meals for Tanner's birthday tomorrow AND two gallons of milk, which we usually go through in a week's time. Not bad, I think. And we even avoided getting lunch out somewhere and waited until we got home to eat, which we normally wouldn't have done. I was pretty proud of myself. Baby steps, my friends.

Bath and Body Works is having their Semi-Annual sale now. I've discovered my new favorite scent there - Sensual Amber, courtesy of a gift from my friend Megan. I got some bubble bath in that flavor on my birthday and have used nearly half the bottle already! And I'm not one to take baths very often, but I've taken one nearly every night since I first used that stuff because it smells so delish! So, I had to go get more. :)

I've got to get pictures of Christmas up on here. I promise to do that soon.

Rachel just came up to me with a big grin on her face and said, "Goodbye, Mama." and then just stood there. I looked at her, puzzled, and said "Goodbye?" She said, "Yeah, this is opposite day. Goodbye!" and then she came over and hugged me and lingered a while. I guess that was really a "hello".

To Write?

2009-01-01T22:46:00.003-06:00

After reading everything I can get my eyes on Twilight related, I've almost come to the conclusion that I want to write something. I want to discover some characters of my own and go on a journey with them. I can't seem to get enough of Bella and Edward and all that's going on with those two characters and am itching to know more about them and their story. That's usually the case with most books I read. I just want to know MORE and I get extremely impatient waiting on the author to tell more of what's in her imagination. So while reading all things Twilight, I thought, "why not make my own characters and my own adventures?" I love a good story. I love becoming a character in a book, escaping the real world, and living - if only for a little piece of my day - vicariously through someone else's journey. I love the feelings that my imagination stirs as I read about a couple in the beginning of falling in love, of the love a dad has for his daughter, of the secrets shared between best friends, of the things that sometimes we might think ordinary but, when seen through someone else's eyes, they become extraordinary. And since I do love a story and can't seem to be patient enough for someone else's imagination, maybe I should use my own imagination and come up with my own characters and my own story. If only for myself.

But what do I write about? And then there are the thousand questions and concerns that come after that question.....

You Say It's Your Birthday

2008-12-30T22:49:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I was totally spoiled. Mike was off work so I didn't have to do anything I really didn't want to. He and Rachel made me "Breakfast in Chair" since I was already awake and out of bed... you know, cause I couldn't have "breakfast in bed".... since I was already out of bed. You get the picture. I sat in the chair in the living room, Rachel draped me with my blanket, she and Daddy brought me the breakfast tray complete with Strawberry Mini Wheats and coffee. Apparently Daddy needs another lesson in how to make coffee.... WOW. And I got to watch GMA, as is my morning ritual. It was very nice. Michelle came over and brought Katie and they brought me a birthday basket. My two favorite things in the basket (which held LOTS of fun goodies) were pickled okra from her granny's garden and a travel sized Trivial Pursuit game! I was so excited!! I love baskets of things - or bags of things - just lots of little things. Those are my favorite gifts. My big birthday present from Mike and the kids was a bicycle!! I got a mountain bike! I'm so excited! It's just a plain Jane deal from Wal-Mart, but it gets me around the neighborhood. My legs, on the other hand, had a very difficult time getting me around the neighborhood. Holy Lord, I'm out of shape. Hopefully this new bike will help in that. My quads aren't very happy about it, but they'll get used to it eventually - if they don't decide to go on strike. Other than that, I was pampered all day and had a great time. Tanner came over yesterday as well and got to open her Christmas gifts from us. Santa brought her Guitar Hero and I'll need to post some pictures of the hilarity that little treasure has given us.

Just so Annie won't kill me, here is a teaser picture from Christmas morning. I'll post more on that later.

I have no idea what Porter was trying to say here, but it just cracks me up to see this picture. He's such a stinkin' doll!!!

I Didn't Win...

2008-12-23T12:02:00.002-06:00

I didn't win tickets to see the production of the Wizard of Oz at the Walton Arts Center. :( I'm bummed. I want to take Rachel to see it. We'll see. I guess I should go ahead and buy my tickets now, though, huh? Just wish I'd have won those things...

A Tacky Christmas

2008-12-16T20:18:00.002-06:00

Our Sunday school group from church at our Christmas party....
Mike was dressed as Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation and I was in an 80's style sweater with a side ponytail....

Oh yes. We did. And it was TACKY!!!

Twilight

2008-12-08T21:34:00.002-06:00

I'm officially reverting back to my teenage years by reading these books, but Oh My GOSH, they are good! I'm completely hooked. I started to say, "they've sucked me in", but that would be a little pun-ish, considering their theme and all.

I've finished Twilight and now I'm in the beginnings of New Moon. I've heard this one might take a while to get through some not-so-engaging moments, but I'm willing to perservere. I gotta find out if Bella will ever get what she really wants and if Edward will somehow give in and make Bella a vampire. I cannot even believe I'm reading these. I roll my eyes at my husband every time he brings any kind of vampire movie or book into this house and now it's ME bringing the stuff in here! Ridiculous, I know. But I can't help it...

Team Edward Rocks!! :)

Double Coupons

2008-12-05T14:59:00.002-06:00

K-Mart is doubling manufacturers coupons up to and including $2 coupons. This is the haul I got today, each item only being purchased if I had a coupon. I got all this stuff for $34.02, including tax. Oh yeah! Let me say it again.... OH YEAH!!!

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby

2008-12-04T07:01:00.002-06:00

Today is Mike's birthday. He's still out of town. :( Regardless, I love you Babe and hope you have a good birthday! We'll celebrate this weekend, ok? :) Mmmmwwaaaa!

A Rock and a Hard Place

2008-12-01T14:51:00.002-06:00

Do you ever feel like, no matter what you do, someone always thinks your wrong? Doesn't matter what you do, how you act, or what you say, regardless of how right it is, you're still failing? Yeah. Me too.

Redeeming Love

2008-11-29T17:58:00.002-06:00

If you haven't read this book by Francine Rivers, run - don't walk - and get it right now! Holy cow, I dare say that was one of the best books I've read EVER. There are those certain ones that just grab me and this was definitely one of them. I don't typically read books more than once because it takes me so long to read one and there are so many I want to read that I just can't justify taking the time to read one twice. I might just have to nullify that little rule because of this book, though. No kidding, I'm thinking of opening to chapter one and starting that little gem all over again. Man, that was good!

EARLY is for the birds....

2008-11-28T15:03:00.002-06:00

Yes, I'm one of those nuts who was at the stores when they opened. I got most of my Christmas shopping done before 6:30am today. I was at Kohl's at 3:30 and the first to get my hands on the item we choose for Rachel's big Christmas gift. Then Michelle and I got all our other deals and headed for the already ridiculously long check out line. We were out of the store within 30 minutes of arriving. We decided to head to Wal-Mart. I'm usually a Target girl, but we'd have had to wait an hour and a half... no thanks. So we headed to WM. Holy mother, that was crazy! I have never been to Wal-Mart when they first ripped the packaging off the palates of Black Friday merchandise and Michelle and I just stood there wide eyed, shaking our heads at some of these people. We're all for getting our groove on and getting to business, but these people were crazy. Then, once we'd made our WM purchases, we headed on over to Toys R Us, because at this point, Target still wasn't opened. TRU has a CRAZY policy where they only allow so many people in the store at a time. So, we stood in line, though the store was opened, for a good 20 minutes in hopes that the items I wanted were still in stock. THEN, we stood for another 30 in the check out line. They were extremely inefficient, I felt, but had great customer service, I must say. I left TRU and headed to Target thinking I might get a thing or two. Um, NO! The lines were a hundred miles long and I was not about to stand in those just for a couple DVDs - so I came and got my family and we headed back... hehehe. We actually did really well this morning and I shopped in total for over 9 hours. My feet are sore. I'm so sleepy. But by golly, I will get this Christmas tree up in my house and get in the Christmas spirit if it kills me!

A Message From My Mom

2008-11-18T08:45:00.002-06:00

I received this email from my mom last week. It made me cry. Thought I would share...

Friday would have been Rich and my 16th wedding anniversary. Little did we know last year that it would be the last one.
Kids, I just want to say to all of you, please don’t take each other for granted. Don’t neglect spending time with each other just the two of you. And Jill I don’t mean after the kids are in bed. Jamin and Kim, you need to take a weekend together just the two of you.

Don’t get so busy with the kids, jobs and other things and forget about quality time with each other. God forbid that your marriage will be cut short like ours was. Stephen and Susan I know you have to be away from each other a lot. Make the most of the time you are together. Steven and Vicki, just don’t take each other for granted.

You never know when your health or life could be taken. Do everything you can so that you don’t have regrets. Rich spent the last year of his life in very bad health and I spent it taking care of him and I don’t regret one minute. I just wish it could have been different for him.

I love all of you and want the best for you.

Sara, Stephen, Jamin, Jill, Steven; you all have great spouses. Treasure them and take care of them.

Don’t get too busy.

Love to all.

The Difference A Day Can Make

2008-11-12T14:02:00.002-06:00

I feel much better than what I did when I posted my last post. It's amazing what a difference a day can make. Today is sunny outside and that's kinda my mood today.

We had MOPS today at church and the founder of Kingdom Kidz Club, Kim Norton, was our speaker. I've been using her music for Miss Jilly Bean time at Kids Day Out and teaching her songs to our little ones. It was very exciting to meet her again (I'd met her very briefly back in April) and get to visit with her about all that God is doing through her songs in our program. It's so amazing and wonderful to see all these little children learning God's word through song and so fantastic to know that these are things they will keep with them for the rest of their lives. I'm praying that as these kids learn these songs that the scriptures from which they come will emblazen themselves on their little hearts. They are learning songs that have taught them to Trust in the Lord with all their hearts, God's Telephone Number which is Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know", John 3:16, the Disciples, the Ten Commandments, and others. When you ask any of my older kids in the program what God's telephone number is, I'm pretty sure they can whip out a loud "Jeremiah 33:3!!" And to get to visit with Kim, who wrote all these songs, was such a blessing! She is one of those people that just make you feel good after you've been in her presence. Oh to be that way to other people.

Now I'm heading to choir practice. THAT is always a blessing. No matter what kind of day I've had, being in choir rehearsal and singing praises has a way of melting away everything else. Plus, our worship leader, Kim Noblitt, is just gifted beyond words. Not only is he a fantastic leader and director, not to mention he can sing better than most people can speak, he's got such a heart for Jesus and you can't be around him very long before you just feel closer to the Lord. His desire is that we meet with Jesus each Sunday morning (and Wednesday night rehearsals), regardless of if we sing 5 songs or one - as long as God has met with us. Thank you Lord for a leader like that!

Off to sing some Christmas songs at choir... It's the most wonderful time of the year, you know!

2008-11-10T14:44:00.001-06:00

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Nope. Still didn't help.

help....

2008-11-04T16:31:00.002-06:00

I need someone to watch Rachel and Porter on Friday afternoon from about 2pm until sometime around 3 or 3:30. I have a doctor's appointment and my husband was going to watch the kids, but had something come up at work that prevents him from being able to be home. I called to try and reschedule only the next available appointment they have is for the 3rd week of December! Not happening. So, I know most everyone is picking up kids right at that glorious time, but if anyone isn't and could watch my two for a couple hours, I would be incredibly gratful!!!

New Blog Name...

2008-11-02T20:26:00.003-06:00

I'm trying to think of a new name for my blog. I'm never creative at this sort of stuff, so when I started the blog, I just did something quite unoriginal. Now I want something new, something creative.

Mikes suggestions so far are:
Living with Awesomeness
Thank Goodness I'm Not French

I'm thinking neither of those really fit what I'm trying to convey with this blog, thus I will not be renaming my blog either of those options. However, if any of you out there in the blogging world have suggestions for me, please feel free to comment and let me know.... keeping in mind (Jeremy) that I will not be titling my blog with anything having to do with the awesomeness of my husband.

Pumpkin Patch 08

2008-11-01T21:24:00.002-05:00

Mike and Rachel being crazy at the pumpkin patch.

Porter just being cute.

Porter and Rachel

Posing in front of the photo site

One of my faves from the pumpking patch. I feel like such a model in this picture... ha!

Could a kid get any cuter?

Tis the season for snot...

2008-10-31T08:45:00.002-05:00

Lord have mercy... If I sneeze one more time, so help me...

If anyone has any tips on getting rid of the congestion, nasal pressure, and all that good stuff, please pass it along. I've about had it! I can't breath, my head is splitting, and I've sneezed a bazillion times in the past 24 hours. I do NOT have time for this!! CALGON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!