Do I Hear an Amen!!!!

I have such GREAT news!!!! My son AJ got SAVED last night at Vacation Bible School! Wow! Please keep him in your prayers! We have had such a great VBS this year. I guess there were 5 other churches in the area having their VBS the same week. So even though the numbers are down....it is OK! God is still doing His work and so are we!!! Do I hear an AMEN to that????

Thursday Blessings

Here are a few Blessings that I am counting today......

• My God
• My Hubby ;-)
• My Kids
• My Christian Friends
• VBS to reach out to the kids
• My Health
• Being Saved (that is a biggie :-) )
• My Relationship with God
• My Religious Freedom
• My Christian Family!

Please keep some of my family members in your prayers. There are many who are not saved. They probably don't know what "saved" means! They obviously will not be going to Heaven after life on Earth. Many say they are Christians but don't walk with God. Our society is an evil society...and we all want what we want. We all should want what God wants us to have. I have a hard time putting God first in my life...but when I don't, there are so many consequences. Satan is always lurking around the corner waiting to get his glory. Even with us Christians, we are hit even harder! We need to embrace each other so satan can get no foothold!!!

I really want a COKE!

Well it has been a week and a half since I have had a coke! I woke up on June 9th and said I have to do this. I am tired of feeling so bad. Water is suppose to be the magical cure...right? Wrong...it is God...and this has to be a God thing! I don't think I could do it without HIM! Water use to be so hard to drink for me. As each day goes on, it gets easier. I had a migraine Monday, and unfortunately it was the first day of VBS. But after a couple Aleve and a small prayer, it went away before the children came into the church. Please keep me in your prayers, because this is sooo hard! I really love drinking Coke...not diet Coke...but the real stuff! I especially love McDonald's cokes! I don't know what it is about them, but they are awesome!

Monday when I was experiencing my headache....I thought to myself, I am going to go to McDonalds and get me the largest coke they have. I pulled right up to the drive-thru, and I ordered my kids their food. I drove to Speedway gas station, and purchased the largest water they had! LOL...Praise God for being there when I need Him the most!!!

Just to let you all know...I am drinking water! Not tea, Not kool-aid, Not any other soda....but Water. I do drink a little milk here and there...but I think that one is OK! ;-)

The Next Survivor Series

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of 'pretend' bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.

Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time--no emailing.

Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment.

He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care.

He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.

Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.

The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himself with jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed.

During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties.

They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.

They will need to read a book to the kids each night and in the morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair by 7:00 am.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name.

Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice.

If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right To be called Mother!

(Note: This story came to me by email, it is not my own...however, I really enjoyed it!)

Padres Baseball...the Final Day!

Well...all's well that ends well....at least for some people! My son's baseball season has finally came to an end. With all of the rain, the drama poured in as well during the final games. Since we had so many rainy days, the tournament games kept being pushed back. Last Thursday, we played our first game in the tournament and won. We were so pumped! We were suppose to have a game Friday evening at 7:15 pm, but storms rolled into Greencastle about 30 minutes before and all games were cancelled. They called us and said to be ready to play that next morning at 8:30. Unfortunately, it rained all morning and games were called. That evening the coach called us and told us that since it has rained so much, we were going to play Sunday. Our first game was at 1pm. We had such a rough game. The ump kept making bad calls, our coach was getting upset and the other coach started to taunt our coach, and the parents started to yell! Wow...drama!

Well part of that whole drama...the other team's coach made a comment that I didn't hear. And it was a good thing I didn't hear it because it was about AJ! OK...I will set the play for you. The other team was up to bat. AJ was catching. There was a runner on second and third base. .....OK...now here is the drama....The batter hit the ball to the outfield, they threw the ball in to the short stop....the runner on third is running into home and the runner from second base is coming into third....the short stop threw the ball to third...the third baseman was throwing the ball into home...AJ is there to catch the ball and get the runner out...but first runner stopped in front of AJ to pick up the bat....AJ misses the ball because of interference. Our coach runs out of the dugout and is yelling interference. The parents are all screaming interference. The kid should have been called out and the ump calls safe. Everyone is screaming...the other coach starts taunting our coach. One of the parents yelled at the coach telling him to teach their kids about interference...I turned around and started to laugh. This is what I didn't hear..."Well the kid wouldn't have caught the ball anyways!"

I don't care who you are...you are an adult and you are suppose to set an example for our kids! Yes I would be mad if I heard the coach say it about any other player! But it wasn't...it was mine!!! The more I think about it, the more I get sick over it.

Well....we lost that game...so we had to play a third game at 6:30 pm that night.

The second game went very well. All the kids were rested from the 2 hour break. We won that game. But it was very hot and humid. We had a half hour before the next game and they gave the kids popsicles.

Well the third game didn't end well. The other team didn't have a game since their first game at 1pm...so they were pretty rested. Well...the boys put their heart into it....and was ahead until the 4th inning. The other team seemed to get their energy and our boys lost theirs.

Well it was a good season...and we look forward to next year! AJ found his niche as being catcher...and we now know what to work on for next season!

Padres Baseball

Two years ago, AJ played little league baseball at age 5. We played in Danville and I really thought we would have a great experience for AJ's first year. Boy was I wrong! They won the first game and lost every game after that. The coach was new and didn't really know how to be a coach. I think there was not many who wanted to be coach and those who volunteered to be assistants took over the coach spot. They didn't have any assistants to go around. You could tell the spirit of the little leaguers was dwindling after each game. After the games were over, there was suppose to be an all-league pitch in cookout on the next Saturday. Well we all know what spring weather brings....Rain...Yes...and lots of it. Saturday activities were canceled! We never seen the coach again, and AJ never got his participation trophy. What a huge let down for AJ!

The next year, I decided not to sign AJ for little league. I am glad that I didn't. Since we moved to Greencastle, I would have been hesitant to sign him up for Greencastle's Little League. I probably would have drove him back and forth to Danville since we probably would have been on the same team as year's past and that team would have been awesome. The team would have been together for at least 3 years and most of them are the same age. They would have figured out how to play together as a team and won every game.

Well here we are in Greencastle, and since AJ didn't play last year, I went ahead and signed him up here. Wow...I am so glad I did! His self confidence changed almost over night one evening. For the first half of the season, AJ had to play outfield. He seemed really bummed about it and didn't want to play. Whenever the coach had too many players, AJ volunteered every time to sit the bench. UGH! Well the day came and coach made him the catcher for a game! Wow...the coach was really on him that game. Come on AJ...you gotta be quick...you can throw that ball better....come on...go get the ball! When AJ got to bat though, wow...what a difference! AJ was up to bat 3 times....AJ hit the ball 3 times....AJ got on base 3 times.....and AJ was batted in 3 times! We won that game by a 20 run lead default! AJ was ecstatic at the end of the game. Every parent complimented him on a job well done!

Now each game after, AJ has been the catcher! He loves it so much! He now is excited to go play his games. He is the first one in the car yelling at us to hurry up! That is a first! Papaw gave him a tin of old baseball cards. AJ picked out all of the catchers and put them in a special baggy that he keeps looking at.

Today was the first game of the tournament. We won 16-1! It was very hot and humid...more than 90 degrees...and AJ never complained! Tomorrow we will play at 7:15 pm so hopefully it won't be as humid, but you never know.

I am so glad that I made the decision to sign AJ up with Greencastle Youth Baseball. His team has won every game except 2. Even if we lose the tournament tomorrow...I think AJ will still be a winner! The Padres has turned a little 7 year old into a confident 7 year old! I couldn't be any prouder!

Fears....and more Fears!!!

Well, here it is June 4th and we have lived in our new home for almost 9 months now. It is taking me awhile to get used to the fact the kids sleep upstairs and I sleep downstairs! They are not in arm's reach let alone on the same floor as me...and that really scares me!

Since giving birth to my my first baby, I do nothing but worry! I would go into AJ's room and just stare at him until I seen his little chest go up and down. I would make sure he was ok when he would miss a feeding. I would get out of my just-drawn bath because I think I hear him crying only to find him sound asleep.

Then here comes my daughter Gabby. She wasn't as active in my belly as AJ was and I started to really worry about her before she was born. Last July she had her first asthma attack. Now I not only worry about her having another attack, but over-medicating her with albuterol. The doctors tell me she will be fine if I give her 2 or 3 treatments together.

Since the old house, I have carried a tradition of mine over to the new house. About once a month, at least, I wake up smelling and seeing smoke! The house is on fire!!! I get up and go check on the kids and by the time I get up there, the smell is gone and my eyes have cleared up.
This has been going on for years now!

One of my biggest fears at the old house was a tree falling on the house. We lived right up against some woods and there were quite a few tall dead trees. My husband worked nights part of the time and it seemed every night he was gone, we would have a severe thunderstorm. It would take me hours to get to sleep for fear that a tree would fall on our bedroom and trap me or kill me and nobody would know and save the kids.

Now in our new house we don't have any trees next to us. We live up on a hill and the houses aren't as close to us. We have 2 acres to ourselves. We live in the country. When we were house hunting, we looked at all houses with basements. To no avail, we settled on a brand new beautiful two-story home right outside the city with no basement!

January of this year, we had straightline winds. That is what they are saying, but I really do believe we had a small tornado come through. It was a very scary night for the kids and me. When we awoke the next morning, there was sheet metal scattered all over our yard as well as the neighbors yard on the left of us. Their barn lost it's roof, and it was torn to pieces and scattered everywhere. The neighbor on the right side of us had a big playground that was picked up and tossed over their fence. Pieces of their roof was also scattered about. The neighbor across the road had their front porch taken completely off. Their detached garage was lifted off of its foundation and tossed into the treeline about a thousand feet behind their home. I don't know if it was because our home is fairly new or if it was all about the kids praying to our Lord Jesus to keep us safe, but we had very minimal damage done. It was almost like it came to our home and split around us and headed for the other houses!

Last night I got little to no sleep. I stayed upstairs on the couch keeping my eyes glued to the tv. You can be sure that my heart was racing due to the storms that were going over the house. Tornado damage was all over the news. I am scared for me and my family. My husband is sound asleep downstairs, nothing is going to wake him up! About 3am, another storm comes. I start to fall asleep shortly after it passes only for another one to wake me up at 5am. About this time, I am soooo groggy I can't keep my eyes open. So I finally turned the tv off and went to sleep!

At 8:30am I awaken to my son crying that the toothfairy forgot to come. Uh-oh, my son's worst fear at age 7 came true! I jumped up and saved the day. I have been fearing that would happen since the day he lost his first tooth!

What a Blessing!

I have read a few other blogs and some of them list their 'BLESSINGS'...so I am going to start listing mine as well. These are all the first things I think of when I think about Blessings!

• Jesus
• John 3:16
• Church Family
• Small Group Family
• VBS
• Marvin's on Thursdays (when I have the money)
• Kim Duell and Her Family who take me in at Marvin's!
• Relay for Life
• American Cancer Society
• Going Shopping with my Niece Ashlie
• AJ and Gabby
• Best Friend KIM!!!

MY...MY...MY!!!

No my house is NOT clean all the time! No my house is NOT clean most of the time!
I may make mistakes....I may make wrong decisions....I may not be perfect!

But I am me! It is MY house...they are MY mistakes...they are MY decisions...and I am perfect in MY own perfect way!

These are MY kids....these are MY parenting choices....these are MY parenting skills!

I do not do anything to glorify you! I do it all to Glorify God! He knows ME....He loves ME...He even loves me for me!

I do not have to have a clean house for Jesus to love me....

I do not have to make all the right choices for Jesus to love me.....

I do not have to make all the right decisions for Jesus to love me.....

I do not have to be perfect for Jesus to love me.....

But for me and my household....we will serve the Lord!