For These Things I am Thankful......

Jesus who saves us
God who loves us
Holy Spirit who convicts us

husbands who smell good (Obesssion -Yum!)
daughters who love me
parents who let me make mistakes
bosses who trust me
mother-in-laws who help me

laughing
crying
laughing til you cry

chocolate
Diet Pepsi
dumplins
diet dinners

health
my job
insurance

spell check
good books
music (especially the kind sung by my daughters)

doctors
teachers
preachers

freedom
grace
love

my life. simple and wonderful.

Wednesday

My friend Beverly's seizures have still not stopped. All the tests that the dr.'s have done are all within normal limits so they are chalking the seizures up to her family history of seizures. All the Dr. can do now is just control them with the right medications. She will hate the idea of taking medicine for the rest of her life possibly. She is very independent and headstrong and will not be thrilled at the additional fact that she will not be able to drive for a long time.

I see now that it was a blessing that she was here when she had the initial seizure. God was handling the situation....what if she had been home a lone or even worse, driving! The results would have been catastrophic. Thank you Lord for you hand in the situation.

We went to visit her last night and she was a little "drunk" from the medications. She kept us laughing the whole time but has no recollection of the visit today. I guess it's ok to laugh at the situation. (Hey it's better than crying!)

Went to lunch with a friend today.....and just didn't have enough time. Why is it that no matter how fast we talk we always have something left to say when it is time to go back to work?:)

Well I am supposed to be working so I guess I will put on a good show for the last hour. :) haha

To all who read this, Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Scare at work

Today my friend Beverly had seizures at work and scared us to death. We had to end up calling EMS to come and get her to take her to the hospital.

It was a very strange ordeal and I will be curious to see what the dr.'s think is causing her problems. My layman's theory is that the fact that she has been not eating over the last three or four weeks has something to do with it. Your body will do all kinds of strange things when it is starved. I know she is not literally starving herself, but she is not eating near the amount that will keep her going. She has lost about 15 or so pounds lately. Some of it is due to stress about some other medical problems but the biggest part of her stress is lack of attention from her husband.

She passed out at home last night and cut her hand and she had to have stitches this morning. She is allergic to all the 'caines' used to numb wounds for repair so she had to get Benedryl into her wound to numb it. I believe it was the medication partnered with her out-of-balance system. Just my opinion.......

When she was in the midst of the seizures all the dr's in the clinic were with her and I felt so out of place. I just put my hand on her and cried out to God on her behalf. I wanted to literally cry out but I just prayed silently and earnestly. What do you do when you are physically helpless to assist?

Please keep her and her family in your prayers fellow believers. She is a good friend and I hate to see her go through this. I pray that God will teach her a lesson from this and that her husband's heart will be softened and he will yield to her cries for his attention.

Husbands love your wives!!!

PMS

PMS really sucks.

What I am really afraid of is that there is no such thing and this is really just the way I am. (I saw that on a plaque at CoachHouse Gifts)

Today I felt on edge and like everyone was pulling me in different directions and everyone was breathing just to annoy me. Why do hormones have such an effect on us?

I really try to keep it in because I know what I am feeling is unreasonable and crazy but sometimes it slips out!

Birthday

Today is my first born daughter's birthday. This time 11 years ago I was in the hospital in labor wondering when she was going to arrive. Would it hurt? What will it feel like? What will she look like? ( and I actually remember worrying that she would be ugly and people would still say "Aww what a pretty baby" and I would know they were lying!! She was so beautiful! The nurses even said she was prettier than most babies because she had eyelashes....big long eye lashes.)

In the blink of an eye I passed through the veil to parenthood, a lifelong journey I am taking with my husband and daughters. It is exhilerating and exasperating. It is exhausting and invigorating. It is wonderful and heartbreaking.

My daughter is so beautiful. Fair skin, dark hair, beautiful, deep eyes with long full lashes and lips to be jealous of. She is creative and full of emotion. She is hornery and thoughtful. She is growing so fast...not a teen not a little girl.

I am a she-lion and she is my cub. I would fight to the death for her.

Happy Birthday Carly

Things I love about my Hubby

I love how we met.... at a friend's house by chance. He had the feeling there was someone there he should meet.

I love it that we liked the same things when we met the first time.

I love it that I KNEW he was the one the first time we kissed.

I love it that he proposed at Christmas.

I love it that he can save money better than me.

I love it that he wanted to be a "girl dad" (We have two)

I love his lips.

I love his chocolate brown eyes. I especially like how they light up when he smiles.

I love his beard. ( I love men with beards!)

I love it that when he plays the piano he plays loudly! (At least I know he is at home with me)

I love it that he loves to play music with his friends.

I love it that he is a good story teller. The girls love his bed-time stories.

I love it that he will take time to color with our 5 year old.

I love it that his voice calms me down.

I love it that he can deal with our 10 year old with tenderness.

I love it that he takes/picks the girls up from school every day.

I love it when he comes to visit me at work.

I love it when he calls me and teases me.

I love it that he knows my bad habits and he loves me anyway.

I love it that he can read me like a book.

I love it that he is creative and sensitive.

I love it that he is funny!

I love it that he loves his mother.

I love it that we go to church together.

I love it that we like a lot of the same movies.

I love it that he cooks for us.

I love it that his hands are very soft now.

I love the way he whispers French in my ears and drives me mad.

I love it that he knows my secret pleasures.

I love it that he notices me and things about me.

I love that he sings Frank Sinatra tunes in the shower.

I love it that I know his secret pleasures.

I love it that he is mine.

I love it that God lead him to me.


I love my Hubby.

Party Day

Today my husband and his mother are sponsoring a party for our Sunday School Class. They had originally planned to have it at her house outside and call it The Carport Jazz Festival. (Very cute name I think) The weather is not cooperating and the alternative at their house was in the garage. That is all fine and good for adults, but with all the children we have we thought having it in the Fellowship Hall at church would be a better idea. It will be a little louder because it is so big and there is no carpet but everyone will feel more comfortable inside.

They also planned a "Feed the Band" supper so that will be fun. Hubby's Aunt Lil who owns a barbecue joint is catering. Aunt Dodo is coming to help G-mom get everything ready.

I love to be around the sisters when they are together. They laugh and sing ALL the time. They make you feel special and you know they love you and each other.

I look forward to this evening and hope everything goes well. I think all this planning and decision making has worn Hubby out. Since he has been sick he is not the most decisive person and this has really tried him.

We have two singers and two bands, a couple of people who are going to play guitar. It should be fun fellowship anyway.

Gotta run. Breakfast is ready!

Busy Monday

Wow Mondays are hard. I felt like I had to DRAG myself out of bed this morning. Hubby actually beat me up and he is rarely first-one-up these days. I was only 2 minutes late, so that was good. Good thing I live a mile away from work! haha

We have the opportunity to move back to my home town to life in Nan's house. I am torn about it.....I would love to have a newer home, be near my family, and be in a nicer neighborhood, and have a lower house payment. There are lots of pro's and con's...we have to talk more in depth about it later. I prayed hard about it today, begging God to help me and lead me and be very clear. Friend "C" plz pray for us. I want to do what is best for my family without taking advantage of the situation but I want a good deal on the house if we buy it. That's not wrong is it? I hate change sometimes.

Well I just got home at 8:15 from work/girlscouts/shopping for dance paraphenalia for Daughter #2 who is starting dance class tomorrow. (She looked so cute in her stuff!) Had to go to three stores including Super Walmart which I hate to get everything.....should have just started there in the first place.

I must go now I have something very important to do......

Lazy Sunday

This day was anything but lazy! Got up early to get Hubby and Daughter #1 ready to get going. Hubby had to be at church at 8am and Daughter had to be ready for a road trip by 8am.

I took advantage of the time and got lunch ready...totally ready by 9:30! Woohoo! (Don't get too excited, it was only potato soup.) We were having company over for lunch and I didn't want to spend all my time preparing when there was good visiting to do.

Hubby filled-in for a musician at a local church for a drama/musical they were having. It was really good. At the end they played a very dramatic song with sign-language interpretation and also played a couple of scenes from "passion of the Christ".

When I really take time to think about what Jesus actually did for us it just puts me in awe. He left Heaven to come to earth to try and show us how to live and how to love God and our neighbors. Why? Love. In the end isn't it love that really matters?

It sure isn't the worldly JUNK that fills this house. It isn't the junk we fill our minds with on TV. It isn't the clothes we wear, the friends we have or even the car we drive.

It is the things with eternal value that matter. Am I spending my time investing in things with eternal value? Not as much as I want to and not as much as I know I need to. Why? The world gets in the way. The world says I deserve a break today so I take it camped out in front of the TV or doing housework.

~Oh God please help me. Mold me and use me. Fill me up with your love so that when some one is near me they will see you shine through me. Help me to keep my eyes on you, my heart tender to your Holy Spirit, and my will conformed to yours. Help me to see the world for what it is: a temporary home. Thank you for my eternal home in Heaven. Thank you for my ticket in Jesus. ~

Yesterday we were at Nan's house cleaning out closets...actually my mother and my aunt were doing it, Cassi and I just happened to show up. We found a picture of my great great grandfather and it looked EXACTLY like my middle brother Tom. It was eerie! Exactly like him...facial expression, body type, everything! May have been a fluke because another picture doesn't look like him but how neat to see how his look passed on through generations.......Look at the picture attached; he is the one in the apron on the right of the photo.

It was neat to see all Nan's pictures. I had never seen them. I am going to thump her when I get to Heaven for not showing me them. They really were neat. There were very few of her. She was the third child and her father left them shortly after she was born, so they were very very poor during her up-bringing. I hope we get the chance to look at all her stuff and learn more about her. ( I hate it that we didn't take time to talk to her more about it. Anyone reading this please take the time to talk to your grandparents about what they know...you will cherish it when they are gone!)

Well this lazy Sunday is really a wonderful day. I am going to go enjoy it now!

Dad's Birthday

Today is my fathers birthday. He still has not made a public decision regarding rededication of his life to Jesus. I was encouraged however that he went to church Sunday to see my mother and her twin sister get baptized. The preacher's message was right on and very convicting, to me anyway, so I hope it made a dent in his heart.

I heard Adrian Rogers quote D.L. Moody yesterday: The world specializes in hardening hearts and God specializes in softening them. (Paraphrased)

Boy isn't that the truth. My dad and brother have really bought into what the world thinks they should be. They seem to me to be too afraid/proud to ask Jesus to meet them where they are and help them.

I hope and pray that I am soft enough to be molded. I know my righteousness is a filthy rag. Jesus plz cover me today. Strengthen and encourage me. Please let me know you love me today.

And now for something completely different: Our Drug Screens on Demand venture is off and running. We are official now, with a tax id#, accountant and checking account even!!! Lord please bless this venture. We have submitted it to your will and give you glory for all that will happen. Please watch over us, keep us alert and in tune with what is going on and and direct us.

I was up early because Cassidy was thrashing around and coughing all night. It was a long night.

Wow what a post. Wonder who reads this stuff besides me? And if anyone does read it doesn't it BORE you to tears? My life is pretty calm really. I love my life and I really love my husband and family. Thanks God.

Good morning, now let the stress begin. haha :)

Sweet November

Man, wasn't that a bad movie in the 90's?? Just awful.

I can't believe it is November already. I have not done any birthday shopping yet. One daughter's b-day is Nov 16th and the other is Dec 11th, so we have an expensive 2 months ahead of us!!

My almost 11 yr old is wanting to have a party so bad....and I am trying to encourage her to just have a regular party and not a slumber party. She really has a hard time at slumber parties. If the guests don't pay attention to her the whole time she gets upset and starts acting badly and that stresses me out. I want her to just have a party, eat cake, play and go home!

My 5 yr old is still little enough that a skate party will make her happy. She is finally big enough to do that so that is the tentative plan for her. I really like those parties....show up w/a cake and a birthday kid and you're done! They do all the rest. :)