Does anyone know if u can send a picture message to blogger from your cell??

Email Posting

Just wanted to check out the email posting option on Blogger.

checking out the "posting from phone" devise on blogger...

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!

Prayer Requests!

First of all....I need you all to pray for my little man. He has been sick since Saturday. He has run fever, thrown up, had headaches and blown out so much snot it's unbelievable! But all tests at the doctor's office say it's not the flu, strep, bronchitis or pneumonia. We are waiting on some blood results to see if they tell us much.

Now my other request.....we have been asked to go to a church in view of a call as the Youth Minister. We have been in MUCH prayer over this since about 3 days after everything happened. God has really been working fast around here as far as that is concerned. I do have to tell you all though that we were also contacted by 2 other churches this week and by the local college (they want hubby to interview for an Assistant Director of Student Activities position). We haven't actually talked through anything with the other churches yet, because we just have some "hang ups" with talking to more than one church at a time. (feel free to comment on that if you feel led) But the one we have been talking to called hubby today to let him know that when we come down next weekend it will be in view of a call.

Here is our prayer....that God show us that this IS the place He wants us. And that we not just go here because it was the first place that contacted us. They are a very sweet congregation from what we have been told and from what we have seen, (we've been to the town once already, not the to church, but to the town to meet with the committee.) And that IF this is not the place, that He slam those doors shut and open these other ones. There are many pros and cons to this place, but we are really trying NOT to look at all that, and instead to LISTEN to His voice! So please help us....lift us up and listen along with us!

***UPDATE**** Just after I posted all this above, the doctor's office called. All the test results came back fine....so he is putting him on ANOTHER antibiotic and if he is still running fever on Monday, they will admit him into the hospital....SO please pray for Timothy!

God's Bigger Picture and Some Faith

So, do I know what's in His bigger picture yet? Not exactly....but do I know that He is faithful and that He is our provider and protector....Yes I do.

God is doing so much in our lives right now. He has changed our hearts on so many different things. He keeps reminding me that He is in control and we are not.

Today I visited a couple blogs I had not been to in a long time, and one of those was Rachel Anne's, and this is the post she had today. The verse she posted about was one that I have read many times over the past couple weeks.

Psalm 31:14-15 "But I trust in you O, Lord; I say, "You are my God." My times are in Your hands."

What a comforting verse. Has fully trusting Him been easy? No, because honestly I haven't fully trusted Him in a long time. I have trusted Him in the little things, in the things that I still felt I had some kind of control over, but to be quite honest I haven't had anything happen in my life that I had to FULLY trust in Him for, or at least that I realized anyway.

I have learned even more so that His ways are higher, and that they are definitely NOT mine. Would I have chosen for us to leave this church so abruptly? No. Would I choose to have 3 months to repair the house and get it sold? No. Would I choose to watch my 6 year old cry when he finally realizes that moving doesn't mean to another house, but instead it means far away? No.

There are many other things I will share about this experience God is allowing us to go through once I feel it is appropriate, but for now I will say that God is teaching us a lot about dependence on Him, a lot about faith, a lot about His provision and hearing His voice.

God is blessing us! We give Him the glory for all He has done so far and once a little time has passed I will share those blessings with you all.

Now, for the FAITH part...

Once more I ask you all to pray for the house. The work started today. We were given money from a friend to pay for the plumbing, but we still need money for the foundation and the repairs to the inside of the house.....and we need it NOW. This is one of those things we have been having faith about. We don't know where it is coming from yet, but we know God will provide. To be exact, we will need about $2500 within the next week and a half.....and we have no idea where it is coming from.....only God does!!!!

Faith is sometimes scary.....but "without faith it is impossible to please God..." Hebrews 11:6.

"I kicked off my flip flops off...it's a Texas thang!"

I know this is not the post some of you were waiting to read, but I saw this tonight on MSNBC and I just had to post it somehow. I tried to post it on my Facebook page but couldn't because I don't know how to yet....so I hope it works here...

If it does....get to the last 50 seconds....there is a woman that comes in to help and what she says cracked me up!!!! Hubby and I laughed so hard....however, it's just one more stereotype for us Texans!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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!