Timothy's Baptism, Bible, Exercise and Prayer

Well, when you think about the fact that I haven't been "here" in a long time, I have a lot to say, but I will try to make these posts "short & sweet".

Timothy was baptized this past Sunday. He was saved a while back, but we wanted to make sure he knew what baptism meant before he was actually baptized. He was beside himself once he found out that his Daddy would be doing the baptism. Maybe I'll get around to posting pictures soon!

As a gift for him, Carlton got him a new bible, a really nice bible, an actual leather bound study bible. Timothy loves this bible. He spent most of "nap time" reading it yesterday and has started reading it this morning already. He just said to me, "I wish we had some kind of 'quiet room' so I could go read this without getting distracted." (I'll tell you all in another post his interpretation of Romans 3:23-31 the other day....wow) My prayer for him is that he continues to hunger after the word like he is right now!

Pray for me! This job thing has really got me stressed. I am feeling all the heartburn and chest pain I felt back when I had the ulcers. I do not want to go through that again. I decided yesterday that some exercise would help, never mind the fact that I NEED to loose some weight! BUT yesterday, I did nothing! (imagine that!) This morning the kids and I headed to the track. We got there a little after 8 this morning to "beat the heat", made three laps and a group of boys from the high school and their coaches showed up. They took up 1/2 the track, so I loaded up the kids and left. UGH! I don't need excuses to not exercise, I have plenty in my arsenal already!! :)

Keep us in your prayers! The buyers for the house are still looking for insurance. They need the insurance before the Lender will start processing their loan. We did get someone to write us a "vacancy policy". So we are covered now. I praise God for that blessing and removing that piece of stress! Now if He'd just take that house off our hands and find me a job! I know He will!

Thank you all for your prayers!

I think I'm Back!?!

Let me say, this has been a CRAZY 3 months! It has been a very trying time. My patience, endurance, faith and health have all been tested.

From March til the first weekend of June, I was in Nederland and the rest of the family was in Blanco. I continued to work there so that we would have my salary through the summer in case we still had the house in Nederland to sell. Carlton and the kids came to Blanco so he could get started at the church. We made the decision for him to bring both kids because we knew there would be help for him here and we wanted them to stay together for their emotional well being. At the same time, it was very hard on them for me to be gone. It broke my heart each time I had to leave. All but the time I got sick, I came back each weekend. The drive was terrible at times, but it was worth it when I got here.

I am a "worrier" (I know we aren't suppose to worry). I worried about the kids, about Carlton, about my family....

Later I could really see the hand of God in our decision. I had some really hard things to go through that neither of us would have ever foreseen. I know I mentioned a while back that I was asked to take on the task of starting a class for students with Autism at my school. As soon as I got back from moving the family to Blanco, I was informed that one of the parents had given a list of complaints to a supervisor. Only 2 of the complaints had anything to do with the classroom and were things that were fixable, but there were many more against the district. Because of these complaints, the parent didn't want me left alone with her child. This really hurt me on a personal level since I had spent a lot of time with this parent and felt a "bond" of sorts. BUT I went on with teaching and making the suggested changes.

The student's behavior was a difficult one. One that was very trying everyday, and MANY times throughout the day. Behaviors escalated, rumors were started, the aides in my classroom were not supportive, and all this led to a suit against the district. Not against me personally, but against the district.

In all my years of teaching I have NEVER been in such a situation. I have had trouble with aides before, but never malicious, backbiting, hateful aides. FORTUNATELY I had a very supportive administration and several co teachers who knew the truth. But through it all, the driving back and forth, the worrying about the family, the mess at school, I ended up in the ER one night to find out that I had developed an ulcer. I was very sick for several weeks.

I am now in Blanco with the FAM and I am loving Blanco. I am still looking for a job and we are still trying to sell the house. We do have an offer on the house right now, but due to some insurance issues, we are having a difficult time getting it sold. As well as, because of these issues, our insurance company dropped us in January, I thought another one picked us up in March, but they didn't and now the mortgage company has slapped their own insurance on the house and our payment went up $600.

God has got to intervene here! We can't afford that increase and the stress of it is killing me! I have been so ugly to my kids over the past couple of days and this is NOT me!!

OK....I am rambling now...I have SO much on my mind and this is really turning into a book! SO, I think I will stop for now. Please pray for us...those of you who haven't given up on me ever posting again! :)

Praise God!

What a crazy few weeks this has been! Now I feel I can share more of the details with you about what God has been doing. I have been pretty silent here because;


1. I have been using this time to pray.

2. I just didn't feel I should share too many details.

3. I was waiting to see what God was going to do.

Well, He is showing Himself to us in so many ways! As of this past Sunday, Carlton is the new youth minister at FBC Blanco. If you don't know where that it is...you can google it, but it's in the Texas Hill Country....beautiful! I still don't have a job there so things are going to be a bit strange for a little while.

Two days after C was asked to resign, a friend of his sent him an email. That email read something like,

"hey man, I don't know if this is something that will work out or not, but
my home church in Blanco is looking for a youth guy. I called the chairman
of the committee and shared a little of your situation with him. He is a
Godly man and I think you will enjoy talking to him. I will send them
your resume. Not sure if this will work out or not, but I think it would be
a good fit."

That was back on Jan. 13th or 14th and now we are here. God has really blessed us through all this. We spent some time one day in our living room with the chairman of that committee. We had a really good visit. About a week later he called and asked if we could come there for an interview with the committee. So we packed up the kids and headed that direction. It was a BUSY weekend (of which they teased the chairman about for a while...we had something scheduled for every waking moment of the day!) :) Then in about a week, he called again to see if we would come back "in view of a call". So, once again, we packed up the kids and headed to Blanco.

That weekend we met with a few more people, Carlton shared his testimony and his philosophy of ministry, we had lunch with some of the youth, then headed home. The church waited a week (because that's what their bylaws say to do) (good ole' church bylaws!) then they voted. The vote was 106 for and 4 against (you almost always have a few against...those that always vote that way... :) ) That vote took place this past Sunday!

During all this, God has allowed us to grow closer as a family. He has allowed us to teach our children about faith, His provision and His protection all at a personal and up close level.

Movers will be at our house TOMORROW to pack us up and move us out and we are excited. Well, there are some glitches.....I still don't have a job there. SO, I will go to Blanco this weekend to help unpack (the kids rooms and the kitchen are my MAIN goal), then I will go to church, have lunch with my family, then get in my car and make the 5 hour trip back to Nederland.

I am getting a lot of advice/opinions on this right now. "How can you be that far from the kids?" "I think you should just quit your job and go." "You can make it on his salary alone." "How are you going to do this?" "What about the kids?"

Trust me, those are all things we thought about. But the truth is, we have always been a 2 income family, and you can't just go from 2 to 1 within a couple of weeks. The sell of our house is going to almost delete our debt, with the exception of one vehicle, and possibly part of the other one (but not much of it), and after that, we could possibly surrvive that way, but to be honest, if I have a job, I want that job.

I struggled with that for a very long time. (being a SAHM) (over a couple of years) Did I want to stay home with my babies? ABSOLUTELY....but as they got older, they loved the daycare. They loved playing with the other kids, and doing all the things they did there. Did I love some of the behaviors they picked up while they were there? NO, but we used those things as teaching tools. I don't want to get into the whole "working mom vs SAHM" thing....I admire those women who do stay at home. I use to envy them! But after my summers at home, I need to get back to work. My work, at school. Its what I feel called to do. How many people do you know feel CALLED to work with Special Ed. kiddos; kids that kick at you, yell at you, hit you, bite you, curse at you, call you evil(even though you are far from it), jr. high and high school kids that need help going to the bathroom, that have a tracheotomy or a feeding tube, that seize 15 to 20 times a day. Not many people feel CALLED to do those things, but I do! I love these kids and they deserve to have some to love them.

Please don't get me wrong....MY FAMILY COMES BEFORE THEM, and if God opens something up there for me, these kids will quickly become a memory to me, but until then, I will serve them.

OK, that's enough of that.

God is working so fast. We put a sign in the yard on Monday evening. The realtor took pictures Wednesday morning. We had one person look at it yesterday and 3 are scheduled for this afternoon. God is so good! His timing is perfect! I just know that this house will be sold in no time. SO, now I need to pray for a place to stay in the meantime!

Through all this I will say that God has allowed at least one of us (Carlton and myself) to remain calm. In his moments of panic, I am calm. In my moments of insanity and near breakdown, he is calm.

God is good! I can't say that enough!

We are human!

"We are human!"

This is one phrase that I feel we all use WAY too often. One that when I hear it, I often think..."SO, what's your point!" Don't we have the Spirit living in us? I know we are NOT God and will never be as perfect as Jesus, but why do we use this phrase so unconcernedly. Please know that I am not saying that I have never or will never use this phrase, nor do I condem others who do, it just something I have struggled with in the past couple weeks when I've heard it. This is a phrase my hubby and I could have chose to use just a few weeks ago, but instead, chose to tell the truth and own up to our mistake, confess our sin, seek forgivness and repent.

My friends, the past three weeks have been very

shocking......trying......testing.....emotional.....sad..... confusing.....tiring.....

and full of

searching....seeking....listening....praying.....hoping....healing.....repenting....

I have wanted to post about all this since it started on Jan. 11th, but God
has not allowed me to until now.

On January 11th, the kids and I stayed home from church because they were both a bit under the weather. My dear hubby went to the morning services, came home, then left around 4:00 to prepare for a meeting he had that evening. But before his meeting he was asked to attend a deacon's meeting around 5:00 or so. Anyway, right around 6:00 that evening he walked into the house. The kids had not napped, so as soon as he came in, I automatically started telling him,

"They are about to get up, eat dinner, then go to bed!"

Then it hit me.....what was he doing home???????

I looked at him and said, "What's wrong?"

He looked down, and said, "I need to talk to you." Then pointed to our bedroom. Immediately my heart began to pound in my chest for I saw the tears in his eyes. I know my husband, so I knew this couldn't have anything to do with infidelity or anything like that, but I couldn't imagine what would have him so upset, and home early from church.....Did someone die? Is someone seriously hurt?.....WHAT was going on???

I sat on our bed and he started talking.....

"I was asked to come to the deacons meeting." (me shaking head) "When I got there, there were only 5 of them (I am leaving out names) so I knew this was not good." (me asking "WHAT? Did they fire you??" not thinking they would've) "Yes, they did. (insert tears and loud crying)" (Me asking all the who, what, when, where, why, how soon questions....) Then the explanation came...

Hubby told me that when he entered the room they told him that our tithing record had been brought to their attention and that we had not tithed in the past year. Then they asked hubby if that was true, and why. He told them it was and shared with them a few reasons why things had been difficult, the house, medical stuff for the family (all the while knowing it didn't really matter ...). Then one of them pulled out a piece of paper with a resignation letter already written and told him that since this was true, they were asking for his resignation, effective immediately. He asked them if any grace could be given and one of them told him, "I am sure God will show you grace, it just won't be here." (those words still ring in my ear....but God is working on that!) They proceeded to tell him that with this resignation there would be 3 months severance, but if he decided to push the issue, they would be forced to fire him and he would loose the severance. Not wanting to risk loosing the severance, he signed the letter, handed them his keys and walked out.

He came home, we talked and sat in shock...................

There were many moments of my dear hubby and I asking God questions and saying things like, "How could we be so stupid? How could we let this happen to our family? How could we do this to You? God, please forgive us!"

Then there were questions and statements from both of us like, "What are we going to do with this house? We can't live here past March. What are we going to do? The foundation and plumbing are still NOT fixed, we can't sell it like this. What are people going to think? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to tell everyone? How do we tell them? When do we tell them?

We were not given the option of going before the church to explain, or give reason for leaving. So hubby and I decided that the only thing we could do is wait until we were asked by others, then tell the TRUTH. "We were asked to resign because we had not tithed in 2008." That was the truth, and that is what we told others when we were asked.

The phone calls started that evening and hubby left his comments to what I stated above. He kept all his personal feelings about how things were held to himself. The others vented about it all, and everyone that called found it absurd that they would ask for his resignation so quickly.

Many of them asked us questions like, had anyone brought this to your attention before now? Had anyone asked you before now if things were ok, if you needed any help getting back "on track"? Did they tell you to take a couple months to get "caught up" then we will revisit this issue with you?

Our answer to those questions...."No, they didn't. Ultimately, we sinned, we are in the wrong. Do we like this, no, but what they accused is true."

When some told us, "we met with______ and gave them/him a piece of our mind....." I was very proud of how hubby responded....he simply told them, "I know you did what you felt like you needed to do, but I must be honest with you and tell you I find no joy in that." We know that ultimately this is a consequence of our sin. Do we like how it all came about, or how it was handled......no we don't, but does God like the fact that we have robbed from Him.....no He doesn't........

Through all this, GOD is teaching us SO much. HE is blessing us! I will share more about that in the next couple of days.

I ask one thing from you all.....Please pray for our house. We are finally getting everyone lined up to do all the work. Then it will go immediately on the market where our realtor really thinks it could have a contract on it in 30 days if not sooner! SO PRAY!!!

More in a day or two!

Christmas Tour of Homes

Welcome to my home! (a day late!)

hope you enjoy.

This was the first year that we were able to set up our village since we started the collection about 7 years ago! I know that seems like a long time, but we are a little funny in that we wanted to have EVERY piece before we sat it all up! Well, now we do SO....I give you.....Little Town Of Bethlehem, by Department 56.....you should be able to click on the pictures to see the details! We are amazed at the detail of this village!

There is actually more to the desert scene, I guess I just didn't get it all loaded!

Now on to the living room.....

Our tree....although I am allergic to every tree known to man, we always have a real tree! I just pop the antihistamines! :)

This is the same angel we have had on our tree since our first Christmas together. This will be her 12th Christmas on top of our tree!

Just a few ornaments....we have a wide variety!

The kids fought over who would put this one up....they both miss our dear Pongo!

This tree is a small fake one I had at school. I put it up in the breakfast area and let the kids decorate it!

These two hang under the base of their little tree. They each made these little trees in Mission Friends at church a few weeks ago. They glued Hersey Kisses to the dots, and have taken off one each night, counting down the days to Christmas. I will use it again next year....maybe with a more spiritual meaning though!

And my tour ends with a visit from Santa. He stopped by this past Sunday. The kids were in total shock. The girl just stared at him and played with his beard, and the boy talked nonstop! Reminding Santa that he REALLY wants a Red Rider BB Gun! Santa played along and told him that he would "shoot his eye out!" LOL The great thing about this Santa was that he reminded the kids that the TRUE meaning of Christmas is in Christ, not him and the presents we get. It was really nice to have that come from him and we didn't ask him to say it at all!

And that ends my tour...

Hope you enjoyed.....

Go visit the other 700 + homes over at BooMama's!

The Storm (Timothy's 2nd year of Soccer)

Ok, so FINALLY the time has come for me to get back to "regular posting" LOL Anyway, this weekend was the first game of our soccer season. We actually should have started 3 weeks ago, but due to some friends (Gustave and Ike) we were a little delayed!

Carlton has decided to take on coaching this year! He says, "I know nothing about soccer, but at this age you are just teaching them to hustle, how to kick, and to go in the right direction." So, he figured while it's still simple, he'd give it a try!

So here is a few pictures from Saturday. Our game was at 2:00, so it was HOT!

I am thinking..."why buy that package of pictures....this one would suffice for me!" (thanks dear hubby for the shot!)

Or maybe this one.....lol......I don't know what he is doing here! This seems to be his and Rachel's new "thing" when I grab the camera!

Rachel was hiding from the sun!

A little pre-game talk.

Timothy didn't make this goal, but he got very excited for his friend!

A little foot work going on here!

There was A LOT of this going on...

and A LOT of this!

I love this!

and this! The end!

The team's name is STORM....and obviously you can see our color is BLACK! So, needless to say, we were burning up @ 2:00!

My Summer Thus Far (part 1)

Well, I tried to load some pictures to go with this post but for some reason I am having a tuff time with Blogger here at my parents house. I wanted to catch you all up to date on what's been going on so far this summer. I know that my cousin Melissa checked my blog everyday before school was out so I told my mother she is probably having "withdrawals"! LOL

Well, where do I start......I SO wish I had pictures....

Let's see......Ok...the first thing that happened after school let out....a TUBING TRIP! Carlton took a group of youth on an overnight trip to New Braunsfels (sp) and I actually got to go without the kids! It was a much needed trip for me. We had a blast.

The next couple of days I spent getting Rachel's costume ready for her first recital. Did I mention I wish I could have loaded some pictures! Well, this was an interesting 1st recital to say the least. The dress rehearsal was extremely long! The dads were told to be there for the Daddy/Daughter dance part of the rehearsal @ 6:30 so they could be on stage by 7:00. Well, they were all there, many of them against their will, however they didn't go on stage until 10:00!!No, I am not kidding. So you can guess that the daddy of this house was very frustrated! At this point he had been the only staff member in town since two staff resigned and our pastor was on a trip in the Holy Land! He had spent the day with a family that he was preparing his first adult funeral for that day and was suppose to meet with them the following morning! He was one pooped Daddy!

The next day, Saturday, was the recital. We hung around the house as much as we could, the leisurely got ready. I took Rachel and left the house at 5:45 to arrive at the theater by 6:00 for what I thought was a 7:00 recital. BUT I was ALL wrong! The recital started at 6:00! As I was pulling down the street to the theater, the line mother called me and said "panically"...."Angie, where are you!!! We are lining up!"

Me... "No way, are you kidding me....I thought it started at 7!"
Line Mom.."No, it starts in 5 minutes!"
Me..."Oh MY GOSH!!! I am outside, be in there in a minute...."

Then I frantically get on the phone and call Carlton to tell him to get there NOW! So, after me explaining to him that I had gotten the times wrong, we hung up and he got himself and Timothy dressed.

In the mean time I realized as we were getting out of the car that I had left Rachel's costume ON THE BACK OF THE CHAIR AT THE HOUSE!! I got on the phone and called Carlton....

C - "What...where is it???"
M - "On the chair......hurry....they are on after production!"

As I am running in, the other mother's start asking "where is Rachel's costume?" Personally, I am about to have a nervous breakdown. Then my phone rings.......

Okay, this has gotten long, and my kids are giving me fits right now, so I will have to finish this later.....hopefully tonight, but if not, then tomorrow....come back, and hang tight, it gets CRAZY.....broken glass...cracked walls......OH YEAH.....it gets CRAZY.....

Cinderella

That is a picture of my little princess. I posted pictures like this not long ago from a tea party that Rachel was invited to attend. There were so many little princess's at that party and Cinderella made an appearance as well. It was a very exciting time for all those precious little girls.

With all that has happened in the life of the Chapmans I wanted to repost this picture as a reminder for myself as well as you to hug your little prince and princess.

Here is a link to Steven Curtis Chapman's site. If you go to this page there should be a little box to the left that says "play video". By clicking that little box you will be able to watch the video to the song "Cinderella". Immediately following the video Steven discusses how the song came about. Carlton and I heard him tell this story back in February at the Valentines concert in Houston. It will really make you stop and think about the time you spend with your children.

Hope you have the time to check it out!

Need $1000??

Need $1000 dollars? I thought so! If you'd like a chance to win, write a haiku poem about your mom and enter it at Rocks In My Dryer. Hurry!!!!! She's closing the comments tonight!

**Just a note** A Haiku is a poem consisting of 3 lines. It has 5 syllables in the 1st line, 7 in the 2nd one and 5 in the last one.

Here is mine about my mom:

Momma, or MeeMee,

loved, missed, admired and adored,

you're all these and more.

3 of the LONGEST days of my life! (Part 2)

If you didn't catch yesterday's post with Part 1 to this story, then either click here or scroll down.

Ok, so where did I leave off.......oh yeah, we had just gotten the stitches. Well, after the stitches were in and Timothy felt "well enough" to move his mouth around he said to me....."Momma, my tooth is crooked."

WHAT???? Crooked tooth.......so I looked in his mouth the best I could (that he would let me) and noticed that the gums above the front teeth were very bruised and above one tooth their was some blood. I got the doctor's attention and he came in to examine Timothy's mouth, and sure enough there were 2 teeth loose, one more so than the other. Luckily these are still baby teeth and they would eventually fall out anyway. But the doctor in the ER told us that we should get him to our dentist as soon as we got back home. In the mean time we were told to feed him soft foods.

We eventually left the ER and Timothy wanted to go to the Kiddie Holy Land.....you know McDonalds....... Remember, the doctor told us to feed him soft foods, but Timothy was determined. So, Carlton said we would go, get a happy meal, and if he couldn't eat it, then oh well, we tried. We had to go to Walmart anyway (there was a McD's in there) to get some supplies for bandaging, and some Motrin, so off we went. Not to mention we had a prescription for an antibiotic that we needed to get filled as well.

Wait........what pharmacy is going to be open on Sunday....well, usually WalMart or HEB would be, but today is a special Sunday.......it's EASTER......There were no pharmacies open!!!!!!!!!!! So after resolving to the fact that we would be making another trip into town in the morning, we decided to head to Mickie D's.

We attempted cutting a cheese burger into tiny bites and breaking up french fries, but as we expected, it didn't work. So Carlton took Timothy to pick out some soups. They came out with Cream of Chicken, Tomato, and Chicken Noodle along with some Hostess Blueberry Mini Muffins.

We got back to the camper and Timothy wanted to try to eat some muffins. He couldn't open his mouth to get them in, so Carlton broke them into smaller pieces then rolled them up for him. Timothy would take one of the pieces and stick it in his mouth way to the left side and far back. Then I couldn't tell if he was actually chewing it or not so I asked him and he said, "Not really!"
I asked him if he wanted some soup and he chose the Chicken Noodle soup. But once again he couldn't eat it.........

This got me to wondering if something was wrong with his jaw??? I cooked the Cream of Chicken and he finally drank it through a straw.

The next morning we got up and his chin looked terrible......NASTY.....and the more we thought about it, and his jaw, we decided that since I had to go back to town to get the antibiotic, I would take him back to the ER to have them x-ray his jaw.....they should have done this in the first place. Right??

Anyway, after several hours we finally find out that the jaw is fine and that the muscles and gums were just too sore and causing the extra pain.

While I was getting the prescription filled Carlton and I made the decision to just head home. We were scheduled to stay another 3 days, but we really wanted to get him back to see the dentist and just felt like it would be best for the care of the stitches too. So we talked to the kids and explained our thoughts and Timothy was fine with us leaving so we packed up and left.

He did fine on the trip back, not much pain and not much complaining. Honestly I was quite shocked. Rachel slept for about 3 1/2 hours of the trip back. We had all eaten so when she woke up we stopped and got her something to eat. She only ate about 1/2 of her cheeseburger and only about 3 of her fries......that's not right.......what's wrong with her......

Me= "Rachel do you feel okay?"
Rachel = "Uh huh, I not hungy now"
Me = "Ok....." (But thinking.....'somethings wrong!')

We got about another hour down the road and all of a sudden Rachel started complaining of her FEET hurting......weird.....I looked and sure enough her shoes were on the wrong feet! (Daddy put them on in a hurry!) I leaned back to help her get them off and that's when my fears came true.......SHE THREW UP!!!!!!!

She threw up all over herself, her baby, her blankets, her pillow...........

Carlton finally got to an exit and pulled over in front of a car dealership. I got out, took her out of her seat and stood her between me and the truck. I got all her clothes off except her panties and had her standing on a towel that just happened to be in the floor of the truck. Not a bit of it got on the truck, just on my baby girl and all her belongings. The bag that had all our clothes in it was packed way up in the back of the truck and to get to it we would have had to unpack most of the back end. (Carlton has an Avalanche and the top was on.) But there was one of Timothy's long sleeve t-shirts in the back with the kids.....don't remember how it got there, but Carlton handed it to me and I put it on her. She rode like that for the remaining 45 minutes of the trip home!

WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about a trip......it was the longest short trip of my life!


Here are the kids after we got back to the camper. Timothy still had a ton of stickers on his pants from the hospital. They were both worn out!

After a short rest, and finding the right soup and being able to drink it with a straw, my boy was happy.

I didn't post any of the yucky pictures, besides most of those are on my phone. I wish I had gone back and taken a picture of THE HILL! But we just wanted to get home! Do you blame us?

3 of the LONGEST days of my life!!! (Part 1)

I know this is quite lengthy, but it involves a blown out tire, bike wreck, trip to the ER and stitches!!!

Ok, to begin with, I can't believe I forgot my camera at home today!!!! Of all days, a pretty easy one at work, I forget my camera. SO, tomorrow I will post a few pictures from our week. Unfortunately there are not many from the camping trip.......and here is why......

Friday afternoon Carlton came in and told me that someone from our church had offered to let us stay in their camper that was already there at the park. So after talking about it some and making sure with the kids that it was okay with them, we decided to take them up on the offer. They had told us that the nights there had been very cold, and we just thought with it being our 1st camping trip it might be best.

Friday night Carlton and I got everything packed up that we had been collecting and ready to go. (I had called my mother and another friend to tell them to pray for us.....that if we could just get through the packing up, then we would be okay because Carlton and I DO NOT pack well together!!!)

LOL.....little did I know!!!!!

Saturday morning......we got up earlier than we had planned because my bike was messed up and we had to go to Walmart on our way out. The rim on the front tire was bent. We had only had the bike for about 2 months and I have only ridden it a few times, so we knew it had to have been that way when we bought it. Walmart was gracious and allowed us to return the bike without a hassel!

The trip to Garner was fine....the kids were civil to each other in the car, we stopped in San Antonio for lunch and Carlton's Dad and uncle Philip met us there. After lunch we headed to Concan. We stopped in a town about 45 miles from the park to get our groceries. I spent MORE than I had planned to spend, because Carlton and the kids were with me! You know how that goes!!!

We got to Garner, the kids were excited. Carlton said he had to unload all the bikes so that he could go get the camper and move it to our spot. SO, we got busy. This is where our trouble started............Timothy's tire had blown out on the way. HOW...not sure....but it did......so Carlton told him that we would go BACK into town in the morning to get the tire. We needed to get the camp set up and get dinner going. Timothy was fine with that (he usually is....).

We got everything up and running. We got dinner going, ate, took baths and got settled in for the evening.

Then morning came....EASTER morning..... We all woke up, had a small devotional, talked about Christ on the cross, in the tomb and His resurrection. Carlton allowed Timothy to tell us this story in his own words and I wish I had pulled out the video camera. It was SO sweet.

After our time in the word, we loaded up and went to Uvalde (31 miles away) to get a tube for Timothy's tire. We got the tube, came back to camp and Carlton realized that he should have bought a wrench or something to take the tire off the bike. I looked around the camper and couldn't find one, so I just walked around to a couple different camp spots and asked some total strangers if they had a wrench my dear hubby could borrow. And I found one. SO he got the tire fixed and we all started off on our bikes.

We came to this hill (this is where ALL the trouble really starts!!!!!!) Carlton stopped at the top of the hill (not a terribly steep one...but steep enough) Rachel looked at us like we were crazy thinking that she was going to attempt that hill and pulled one of her stubborn moments refusing to budge. Timothy on the other hand was determined to go down that hill, because at the bottom of that hill was the river and his main goal was to see the water.

So Carlton decided after talking to Timothy and reminding him that he would have to use his brakes a lot, that the two of them would go down the hill, and Rachel and I would take another route. I stayed at the top of the hill to watch him go down. Carlton headed down a little in front of him. As soon as he got started down this hill we (Carlton, me, and the campers around us) could see that it was NOT going to be pretty. You could hear me and Carlton yelling.....

"(USE YOUR BRAKES....USE YOUR BRAKES!!!!!!!)

But it was not happening!!!!! All of a sudden you could see his handle bars moving back and forth and then the inevitable happened........HE CRASHED.......

I screamed......I didn't see him actually hit the ground......but I heard Carlton yell, "OH MY GOSH....OH MY GOSH....." The campers that were there grabbed Rachel and I took off running toward them. Carlton had picked him up at this point and was yelling up the hill to me....."GO GET MY TRUCK......GO GET MY TRUCK!!!!" All I could see was blood!!!

One of the campers there rushed me back to our camper and I got the keys and drove back to where they were. I quickly got out, opened the door and jumped into the back seat. As Carlton was handing him to me he said we had to get him to the emergency room, that he would need stitches. Timothy lost it again screaming...."I don't want to get stitches!" One of the campers was trying to make him feel better and said, "Maybe you won't have to!" But I looked at Carlton and his eyes were as big as salad plates and he shook his head (out of Timothy's sight) to let me know that he WOULD be needing stitches. Carlton had ripped Timothy's shirt off and used it to apply pressure to his chin and the camper had brought down a bag of ice, so I had not seen the chin at this point.

The camper's family walked Rachel down the hill to the truck and helped to get her strapped in. Then they took our bikes and told us that they would get them to the front office for us since they were leaving the park.

And we were off.....it took us about half the time to get to Uvalde than it took us that morning to get there.....Once we got there they put us directly back to a room. This is where I first saw the chin.......OH MY GOSH.....my baby boy looked as if he had another mouth below the one that God created! It was terrible!! You could literally see the boy's jaw bone!!! It was terrible!!!

Carlton came in and I looked at him with the..."I just saw the chin and you were right!" look. He jsut shook his head and closed his eyes! He felt so BAD about the whole thing....he kept saying, "I saw the whole thing...I thought I could stop it but I couldn't!" I told him he would be okay, and to not blame himself!

The doctor and nurse that worked with him were incredibly kind. The nurse brought Rachel stickers and colors and color pages and would check on Timothy then play with Rachel. She was an angel in desguise for sure!

They gave Timothy a dose of Benadryl and a dose of Tylenol with codine. We waited about two hours and the kid was still wide awake and still very much against getting stitches. SO about 30 minutes later they gave him another dose of the Tylenol with codine and an hour later he was still very much alert. However, he was becomming more open to the idea of stitches.

They told me to take a picture of the chin with my cell phone and let him see it! At first I thought, ARE YOU CRAZY...as soon as he sees it he will freak out!!!!! But I talked to him about it and he told me he would like to see it. SO I got out the phone took the picture and reminded him that it looked very bad....and very nasty!!! He giggled a little bit and said "OKAY! Can I see it now..." SO I showed it too him.....His first response was...."Yuk!" then it was, "Yeah, maybe it does need stitches!"On the phone it just looked like a huge hole in his chin....but later, after they had given him some deadening shots, he needed to go to the batroom. Of course he had to look in the mirror and when he did, he said, "ooooo, it lookes like I have another mouf" I laughed and told him I thought the same thing!

This whole ordeal, the bike wreck and ER thing started around 10 that morning.....by 6:30 that evening we were finally back at the camper, 8 1/2 hours and 8 stitches (two on the inside and six on the outside across the chin) later.

I am tired of typing and you are probably tired of reading.....More to come tomorrow!

YES there is more!!!!!!!!

CAMPING!!!!

We are going TENT camping for the first time as a family. We are all going! Does anyone have any tips ??????????????? We leave Saturday morning sometime and come back late Tuesday. We are going to Garner State Park in south Texas. Pray for us!!! :)

BLAH!

Why is it that the weather just can't stay in a happy spot for a few days??? The weather here has kind of reflected my mood lately! I guess I still haven't recovered fully from the trip and strep! Anyhoo....I am tired of feeling tired!

Really I guess there is quite a bit going on lately that has me kind of blah!!!! My Great-Uncle Jim passed away on the Saturday before we left for our ski trip. He was 94 years old. He was very dear to me, yet I hadn't made any time lately to go see him. He was a kind, sweet, and funny man. There was just a graveside service for him on Monday. I was on the road to Colorado.

Then while we were there my mother called about my Pappy (my Dad's step-father). He had become nonresponsive at the nursing home on Monday (of the trip) and they took him to the hospital. Come to find out he had been about 3 days without his medicines and was dehydrated. He is in a nursing home......aren't they suppose to make sure these things are taken care of!!! Anyway, he was taken to the hospital and never returned. He passed away on Friday. There was a family viewing for him on Monday and a graveside service for him on Tuesday. I couldn't attend either one. The drive from here to there is only 5 hours or so, but I had been so sick from the trip that I wasn't sure if I could make it or not. Turns out that the shot I got in the ER on Sunday really helped and I started feeling much better by Monday evening.

I just feel that there is so much going on that I have allowed myself to get under this nasty cloud. I haven't really talked to my father in almost 5 months. I talked to him briefly on Thanksgiving and on Christmas, and then the other day with the passing of Pappy I called him. Everytime I talked to him there was really nothing of significance discussed. Everything was very much on the surface, nothing too personal.

I want it to get personal with him! I am so tired of him hiding behind the alcohol and drugs! I want some answers from him. And on top of all this, I haven't followed through with the whole Bible/Book Study thing. It has been weeks since a post on that and for some reason I pick it up then put it down.

Please pray for me! I really need some lifting up lately!

My "Boy" and 11 Years!

This is "My Boy". That is what I have called him since I can remember. We met my freshman year in college (Fall of 1992). I remember the weekend my mother helped me move in to the dorm. She was thrilled when she overheard someone say that the ratio of girls to guys was 4:1. She looked at her friend and said, "Well hopefully that means I won't have to hear about a boyfriend any time soon!" Little did she know. HeeHee!

With in the next couple of months I met My Boy. He was leading the worship team for the BSM (BSU for those of you who were in college around the same time!) and I was on the worship team. (leaving out many details) One day he asked me to go with him to get some drinks from Sonic. So off we went. On that day he said to me, "Wouldn't it be nice if God told you who you were going to marry?" I said, "Sure it would make things a lot easier." Then he said, "What would you say if I asked you to marry me right now?" (totally thinking he was joking) I said, "You don't even have a ring!" (Years later I found out from him that his thought that night was...."You greedy Grinch!") HeeHee! I didn't think he was serious or anything!

Weeks later I remember walking from the Student Center to my dorm and seeing My Boy sitting on a swing. He was wearing jeans and a red long sleeved t-shirt and he was reading his Bible. I stopped and looked at him for a few minutes before he recognized me there. On that day I knew this was the MAN I would marry! (I get teary now just remembering that sweet moment!)

On December 16, 1993, My Boy asked me to marry him at the top of the Tower of America's in San Antonio. It was one of the greatest nights of my life. I loved him so much that I could hardly stand it! I was so excited! Little did we know the ceremony wouldn't come for 3 more years!!! Yes I said 3! Talk about a long wait. But I will tell you it was worth waiting!

We were married on January 4, 1997. The happiest day of my life. (I don't have a scanner or I would show you some pictures!) He sang to me that day, of which I thought he might but there had not been any talk about it so it was a surprise.

From that day on we have had our ups and downs like any married couple. There have been many times that I have let him down, and many times that he has let me down, but through it all our love for each other and God has kept us together. He loves me and I love him and that is all that really matters. That love has been tested many a time, but God saw to it that we were reminded of that love.

We have had two beautiful children together. (once again, I don't have a scanner to put older pictures on here) He is a wonderful Father to them. He will play with them, allow them to climb all over him, let them "help him", scare them, teach them, pray with them, sing with them, correct them, love on them, and he'll even paint Rachel's nails! He's a good Daddy!

I love My Boy and I am so thankful that God put us together. I hope and pray that our next 11 years are sweeter than the first!

Here are just a few older pictures of him and the kids that I could round up:

Rachel's Appointment

Yesterday was our appointment at Texas Children's Hospital with Dr. G. We headed out at 5:30 in the morning, and other than the usual flopping around when trying to get dressed, Rachel did really well. Carlton and Timothy went with us and he did really well too. They both fell asleep on the way there of which I was glad.

I was so glad when we got there that Carlton had decided to come with me. Fannin Street, which runs in front of the hospitals, was blocked off with fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars! We needed to go down that street to get to another street that would take us to parking garage #16. Now, if you knew me really well you would know that this would normally set me in a panic! Carlton had the navigation on his new phone turned on so it recalculated the route, but everywhere it told us to go to get to the address we were given was blocked off. SO, we had to park several blocks away in a garage down in front of Methodist Hospital. Now, if I had been by myself and this had happened..........it would have gotten ugly...........but I had my "boy" there to help me!

Anyway, we found our way to one of the buildings marked as Texas Children's and I immediately found a receptionist and got directions to where we needed to be and we were there within a couple minutes! :) Then the next "disaster" happened! I had left my little thingy that holds all my credit cards and insurance cards and everything like that AT HOME!!!!! But at this time it was not really a BIG deal...I just turned to my man and asked him for his.........That is when it became a big deal!!!!!!!! (honetly this time it was only a big deal to me and not him....suprisingly!)

He looked at me and told me that his was in the truck. I looked at the receptionist and asked if we could just send in the payment and she said that they would not see us if we didn't pay first! SO, Carlton looked at me and asked me what the name of the garage was that we parked in and I told him. Then he quietly headed toward the elevators grinning and shaking his head. I knew what he was thinking....."if I hadn't come this whole situation would have just gotten ugly!" AND he was RIGHT. I just don't handle that kind of stress very well! Then when my man came back he was carrying....STARBUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it!! You don't understand.....he thinks that place is nothing but a rip off. He just smiled and said, "Just remember who takes care of you!"

Anyway, for the part you all were really wondering about.....we finally got in to see the doctor. We sat and talked to him for about an hour....no kidding....we talked to him for about an hour about Rachel's diet, eating habits, exercise, behaviors....everything. Then he told us that he does not believe that it is an acid problem and told me to stop giving her the Previcid. He said that he believes that it is a bowel issue related to the consumption of sugar. We had already told him that we don't let them have a lot of sugary foods on a regular basis. Then he pointed out that with all the "holiday" foods that she has had in the past several months, since around Halloween, that she has had more sugar in her diet than usual for her. Therefore, causing much more discomfort.

We talked about how when she was about 18 months old we had a similar discussion about her. When he saw her then he basically cut out her apple juice and told me to giver her white grape juice if she wanted juice since it has less sugar, and then I had to put her on Lactaid milk. We did what he said then and the problem we were having (a severly distended belly) went away. But at that time, she was still on a pretty "parent guided" diet. Now she can pick and choose what she wants, in a lot of cases (church, daycare....). He stressed the importance of making sure she eats ALL the vegetables on her plate. He said we didn't have to make her eat everything else, but we needed to make sure she eats all her veggies........makes sense doesn't it! He said that he wants me to monitor the foods she eats, keep a log, to see how much sugar she is actually taking in daily.

Then he wants me to watch her poop! Yes her poop! He wants me to feed her something like corn, since it is not digestable, and see how long it takes it to come out. He said the normal passage of corn would be no longer than 24 hours. This would help him to determine more about her bowels. He said that a person could poop everyday and still be constipated. He told us about a patient he had one time that he diagnosed as being constipated and the parents acted as if he was crazy. He told them to feed her some corn and to let him know when it passed. So they did and 9 days later they called very concerned since the corn had NOT passed! They had to do some procedures on the poor child and now things are fine he says. He did not think this was the case with my little princess, but wants us to monitor that a few times to make sure.

Well, that's about it! Monitor her sugar intake and her poop and we will see if this makes a difference. IF it doesn't then we will make another appointment to discuss what's next. But if he believes this is the problem, then so do I. I have seen this man's "work" on some of my severly handicapped students in the past, and I trust him fully because of it!

Just keep her and us in your prayers. We are about to make some big changes in our diets at home. It will probably bother the little people in our house the most, but it might be an inconvience for the big people every now and then. But living healthier trumps a little inconvience!

Pictures

I finally brought my camera to work....and I have spent the day off and on uploading a few pictures to share with you all. This is definitely a mixture of pictures. The first one is my favorite. We took a few last night at the house before the Christmas program.


Look....they love each other!

Oh, how sweet! This one will be used to show them that they DID love each other one day!

I knew my boy was "big" for his age, but this is him standing among the other 4 and 5 year olds. I guess having a Daddy that is 6'3" pretty much sets you up for being the "bigger" kid of the class.

When he is in children's choir, the back seat of the car, at the house or the day care, he sings loud and with NO hesitation, but this time, he got quiet! Hmmmm....

Me and "My Boy" before the Cowboys game. It was COLD...so cold that I put that dorky headband around my head to keep the ears warm! Carlton had fun laughing at me, but I could have cared less, I was freezing!

This one is very random I know, but I thought it was cute. Before we left to go to Irving for the game, Rachel just wanted me to take a picture of her "stwabeddy". Too Funny!

Timothy's first BLACK EYE!!! Not from anyone, just a bike wreck in the driveway! He was pretty banged up. This was day 2 after the accident.

Finally, this was the night all the soccer boys got their trophy's. Timothy was SO excited he slept with it that night....wish I had gotten that picture!

Well, hope you enjoyed! I will put the next lesson on the Lord I Want to Be Whole study tomorrow. Hope you come back!

Bummed!

The majority of you do not know that I have a brother that has been in prison for the past 3 years. Back in 1997 or maybe 1998 he stole some Rolex watches from a house that he was exterminating. The value of the watches made his offense a felony. To make a LONG story short, he had spent some time in jail and had some probation to carry out. Well...he didn't do all he was suppose to do, and left the state with out permission, and then still didn't carry out his probation. Therefore, he was sentenced to prison to "pay" for his crime. The first year was really tough on him. Despite his blatant disobedience he does have a soft, tender heart and is one of the most compassionate people I know.

He spent a lot of that 1st year in an out of depression and a lot of it on suicide watch. At some point things started to click with him. I know that if you are still reading this you will probably think (like many) that this is a typical "prison conversion" story. My brother knew the Lord before all his trouble. He knew the power of prayer and had experienced it many times. BUT he failed to acknowledge that God could help him through EVERYTHING, until this time in his life.

He started reading his Bible and attending the church services at the various prisons he was moved to and even recognized bad theology a time or two and withdrew from some of those services. I TRULY believe with all my heart that he has changed. I BELIEVE that he has a relationship with the Lord that saved him.

Why am I bummed???? Well, let me tell you. He gets out of prison TOMORROW!!!!! So why should that bum me so much. The reason it does is because I can not be there to greet him. My mother and my aunt will be there to pick him up, but that is it! I would love to be there. So why can't I go? Well, to be completely honest.....I made some very bad mistakes in our finances. Carlton has so graciously taken over the paying of the bills and such so that we can get this all straightened out. It was so bad that I can't even tell you because of the embarrassment. And because it was so bad, I don't have the gas money to go to Huntsville. I am sure it would take at least a tank of gas and to fill up my car would be a good $55 to $60 these days. Not to mention I would need a little extra for gas when I got back to get me to the 10th of the month.

Why did I have to be so careless!!! He loves me and I know he will not think ill of me for not being there, but it would have been great to show him that support!

Thanks for "listening" today!

Angela