Wordless Wednesday....... which way to the mall??

Random Picture Challenge

Okay, so I guess I need to play, I have stalked for awhile now check out this blog and have some fun...........



While I wait to go for a uncomfortable talk I need a little light fun.....join in if you dare..... enjoy those archived pictures.

27th folder
or December 2007
27th picture


One of the things around here that usually makes me smile!

Keep those prayers going...........

Tears that flow like a river.............

Reaching out over the miles to give extra shoulders to some families that have touched my heart. I pray you can lean on Jesus and release your tension and grief.... My heart breaks for all of you, no Mom should have to watch day after day as her child struggles and the medical community can't seem to make them better..... No Mom should have to take their new baby girl from the hospital to the morgue.....
The strength and love that a young Mom & Dad have for their tiny son, as she charts new waters taking home her son with fragile skin....
The fear of a Mom as she is told there is a lump in her breast just days after bringing home one of her sweet daughters from the hospital after a surgery......
Praying for a sweet baby that finally may get to go home after 9 long months in the hospital....
The joy mixed with apprehension of sending your child in for surgery on her heart...

Life in a balance..... view from a fish bowl

I am so thankful that God holds us in his arms and loves us.

Tonight I pray to take a portion of the pain.... to allow it to be shouldered by me. The pain from all of your words is so raw, the tears continually fall as I cry out for you.

Praying for your sweet families... praying for miracles and peace...for smiles and laughter...

Would you pray too?????

These families are at the top of my lists right now......


This sweet baby girl Carleigh that has flown to Jesus and her family. http://carleighmckenna.blogspot.com/

Sweet Stellan and his family, especially his Mom as she endures mounting hours of stress and frustration. http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

Little Jonah as his family has the prospect of getting to take their sweet boy home. http://patriceandmattwilliams.blogspot.com/

This Mom as she waits in fear.... fear of a lump in her breast. She is a Mom of three little girls that need her. http://livinglifewithlaney.blogspot.com/

For little Kayleigh who is inching ever closer to getting to go home, for the first time ever. Her 9 month birthday has past, but she is finally almost ready. Her button is on the sidebar.

For my sweet long distance friend Karina, this week her baby almost teenager is going to have a heart procedure that will help her to live a fuller healthier life.
http://11thhourrebel.blogspot.com/

On my dirty prayer knees..............

Need some advice.........................

We are in the middle of a semi-crisis here at home. Tiffany has been in the LPN program now for about 15 months. This last term she said from the beginning that there was a professor, new to the school, that was really making things hard for the kids. She used her own "style" of teaching and the kids were failing right and left on the tests and exams. She had to add 25 points one time and 2-7 another just to have some kids pass. She taught over the kids heads and used a different book for her information than was supplied to the kids. Several of the kids contacted someone at the school and they were told they were aware of the problem and to "just hold tight". Now it seems nothing was done. There was a couple occasions that Tiffany questioned in class her grading and showed her the passages in the book to support the answer the kids gave. The teacher still would not count the answers stating that was not the correct protocol. At the end of the term grades were so bad she gave an extra take home test for them and told them they could work on them together. When they got their grades Tiffany got 5 points less than the girl she worked with even thought their papers were the same. Tiffany made an appointment and went to talk to the professor about the grades and was pretty much just degraded by the professor. This deduction in points put her .08 below passing. She spoke to the student advocate and he went to the school on her behalf but the grade was still not changed. Yesterday he e-mailed Tiffany and told her she would not be graduating. Tiffany is supposed to graduate from the LPN tomorrow! Nice timing huh?

So now we have to file an appeal and I am not sure what we need to add to it or what the process is. At this point failing by .08 puts Tiffany out of the program, no credit for the other classes, all A's by the way, she is out......not allowed to retake the class or even the quarter. So far Tiffany has 18,000.00 in student loans to the school and 15 months time. I am finding it very hard not to be MAD about this. It just defies all logic to me that failing a class can throw you out with no credit given for all the work she did.

Sorry this is so long or rambly............... I would love to hear any ideas I feel pretty helpless right now. She has not taken school lightly and works for her grades. At this point my plan is to be a the school with Tiffany first thing Monday morning and have a talk with the Dean or anyone else that will listen....

Wordless Wednesday

Just a moment of weightlessness............... keep praying for Stellan......

Pray pray pray

The news today has not been an average Monday. I posted and then pulled my Not Me Monday. My head said ....... it will be all fine..... kind of a ostrich with its head in the sand attitude. The news today has gone from sketchy to absent. Little Stellan is very ill. His heart is experiencing the same problems it did in utero. The trigger seems to have been a nebulizer treatment. The result none the less is BAD.

Please, get on your knees and pray for this little guy and his special family. His Mom is such a wonderful Jesus-loving Mom, she knows that God's plan will be the path for Stellan. She is all knowing that God will lovingly take care of her son whether here or in heaven. Like most Moms she longs for many more days with him here.

pray, pray, pray..........................

I'm SO confused

I started to "blog" in August of 2008 so I haven't been at this for a long time. I wanted to chronicle our crazy lives so that there would be a bit of proof you may call it about what happens here day to day. Well, my blog has turned out to be more and my connections have sent me far and wide. I have "met" some of the sweetest families and God has touched my life with their stories over and over again.

Many times I will comment and let them know my feelings and if necessary the prayers I will be sending their way. Simple enough right?? People lifting people, I occasionally will read other comments, many times to keep up with twittering. I didn't have twitter and now still am not completely comfortable with the process...ie. still have no picture I can't figure out how to do it. You get the idea... So..... most of the time I watch the sidebar on the blogs and keep up with comments.

Today I was once again shoked and disappointed to read through comments and find nasty, mean, and judgmental comments amoung the bunch of a favorite blog of mine. I just don't get it....... if you don't like a blog why spend your time there? Why try to beat someone down? Why be so judgmental when you are reading someone's blog? Kind of like the nosey neighbor who bursts in your house only to complain it isn't decorated or clean enough for them...... I completely get that some of these people ...need Jesus in their heart... yadda yadda yadda, but I guess I don't have a lot of patience for blantant nastiness when a family is in crisis.

I say keep those negative comments to yourself! I have personally not had this problem... I don't get many comments and those I do get are very sweet and appreciated. BUT.... many of my "bloggy" friends are getting beat on and I don't like it! Didn't your Mother ever teach you "If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all". Don't kick a guy when he is down.... you get the idea.

***** Stellan update*****
The news today for me anyway was even more disturbing for little Stellan. His SVT's are getting scary and his poor Mom is just pulled to the ends. I understand completely her feeling of just grabbing up that little guy and running away. The whole experience is proving overwhelming. Please won't you join us here and get down on your knees to pray for peace........ just pray for peace and strength for Jennifer (MckMama). She is in a battle and evil just longs for a foothold right now. Help her to cling to the cross and God's love. Please pray for little Stellan that his tiny body can continue to hold tight and stay strong during this time. Help the Drs. and nurses understand that this tiny baby is not a patient, he is a son, a brother, a grandson, a child of God. Give them wisdom as they move forward with his care.

I have added a button to remind us to pray for little Stellan, grab it if you can or want to.

praying on my dirty knees....................

Wordless Wednesday....

hmmmmmmmmmm....... I think it is growing on me. I might just leave it up!

Too much TV?? You be the judge......

We have a little ritual at our house since I am not the jump out of bed at the crack of dawn kind of girl. We start the day in my bed watching a bit of TV. The boys love I Love Lucy show. You know the old reruns, we are pretty strict about what the kids watch but the really like the show. If you look deep in your memory banks you should remember the classic episode of "Job Switch"... or better known as the Candy Episode.
Lucy and Ethel get to work in a candy factory while Ricky and Fred stay home and take care of the house. The girls last chance to keep their job is to be candy wrappers. They are told that if one piece of candy gets passed them they are fired. so..... the candy starts to roll and go faster and faster. Not being able to keep up they start dumping the candy down their dresses..... you get the idea. A real belly laugh at our house.
So ...... to my surprise look at what Kendall has done with her Cheerios at breakfast the day we watched the episode.... can you see them????? At first I couldn't figure out what she was doing but then I realized she was mimicking the show!









What a funny girl!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

What a week..... what a week!! There are real advantages to all being sick at one time but when your in the middle of it it is NOT the ugliest thing!!! We did NOT all stay sick until mid-week, then the boys were feeling better. Kendall's fever broke and she seemed to just "deal" with being under the weather. My husband did NOT end up being sick the longest.... hmmmmm..... really...... sounds like he might NOT be the biggest baby in the house. How about your house is your husband a HORRIBLE sick person?? Mine is NOT the worst, we didn't all just seem to be exhausted even when we were feeling better.

We did NOT speed through part of the week in school so that we could have the end of the week open. I did NOT loose my temper just a few times with all the nose blowing and scratchy throats and whinning about not wanting to do school. I did NOT use bribery to get them to comply.... I wouldn't do that, what self-respecting Mom would!??!

Kendall has NOT seemed to explode during the last week in the "big" girl department. She is talking a lot and loves to sing! She also has started playing by herself very well. Sesame Street is her favorite TV show and she jumps up and dances whenever there is music.


I did NOT feel pretty embarrassed about still having Christmas things out last week and put all (most) of them away. I do NOT have a Christmas tree still sitting in front of the window..... lit. Well, it is still pretty right??

The kids and I did NOT pack up the van and head North on Thursday last week. I did NOT worry a bit that this trip might interrupt our Thursday night TV line up. Nope I would never put TV viewing before family.

We did NOT plan to spend a few days in the woods working on a family tradition. When I was a child our family started to make Maple Syrup in March every year. We tapped the trees in a family owned woods and then collect the sweet water that came from the trees. This is then cooked down and bottled......... yummy! When I was a kid there are 2 memories about Maple Syrup that come to mind first. Sitting in the "sugar shack" and getting poison sumac so bad that both my Mom and I ended up in the ER covered with poison inside and out from the smoke, and the other thing was being allowed to drive the truck when I wasn't old enough yet. Slow and on the back roads.... but on the way home Dad would hand me the keys and let me drive. One time when we got home I confused the gas for the brake and just missed hitting the house when I turned into the driveway.... So of course I wanted my kids to experience this childhood memory right??? Well, they aren't near old enough to try the driving and we carefully check the woods for vines now. It truely is one of the big memories as a kid, running from tree to tree and occaisionally just tipping up the bucket and drinking it. So after driving to the sight and bundling up we trekked the mile from the road to the woods, fully Carharted, gloves and hats. The first morning it was still so cold that the sugar water was frozen in the buckets. By the last day though we didn't need gloves or hats.... good thing we forgot them when we went to the woods.



It was NOT so muddy that Logan lost his boots the second day. He did NOT just about drive himself crazy because when he emptied the buckets "they are still dripping!!!" He ran from tree to tree through the woods trying to keep up with the dripping. We did NOT gather, boil, gather, boil, and then get the tractor stuck in the mud for 3 days. Taylor did NOT after the first couple times around the woods decide that it is much more fun to play with the cousins and their 4-wheelers. We did NOT also get to spend time with my brother, his kids, and my daughter Courtney who was on spring break. I did NOT see a BIG smile on my quiet Dad's face seeing all but 2 of his Grandkids making new memories in the woods. Next time we need to get Tiffany and Kendall there. Tiffany did NOT pass the multiple exams she took during the time we were gone and little Kendall just got one on one snuggle time with Granny.



Just for a bit of reference 50 gallons of sugar water makes 1 gallon of sweet yummy syrup! That is NOT a lot of work..... running from tree to tree gathering, then boiling boiling skimming skimming ....... in the end it is SO worth it. But the next time you pour some syrup on your pancakes just think about all the gathering gathering boiling boiling ........



We did NOT stay home from church today again this week. Kendall coughed a lot last night and woke with one of those YUCKY noses that MUST be harboring germs. All the cheek pinching that she gets at church may just get people sick. The boys were wiped out from the days in the woods so we stayed home and had our own little church.
God is SO good!

We did NOT have a great time visiting with my parents! I hadn't been home to see them since January 1st. This trip was long overdue......... we did NOT let too much time go by without seeing each other. Family is TOO important!!!



How about you???????? Leave a comment and let me know your there............

What kind of world do we live in.........

This is a post from a friend on a Mom board that I thought was so incredible and unfortunately true in our soiety today. Nancy, thanks for bringing this to my attention......

Don't know whether you heard about this but Denzel Washington and his family visited the troops at Brook Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, Texas(BAMC)the other day. This is where soldiers who have been evacuated from Germany come to be hospitalized in the United States, especially burn victims There are some buildings there called Fisher Houses. The Fisher House is a Hotel where soldiers' families can stay, for little or no charge, while their soldier is staying on base, but as you can imagine, they are almost filled most of the time.

While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how much one of them would cost to build. He took his check book out and wrote a check for the full amount right there on the spot.

The soldiers were amazed to hear this story and want to get the word out to the American public, because it warmed their hearts to hear it The question is - why do: mis-fits like Britney Spears, Madonna, Tom Cruise and others make front page news with their ridiculous antics? Denzel Washington's charity doesn't even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper except the local newspaper in San Antonio.

Isn't it a about time to put the real heroes in the spot light and stop glamorizing fast, loose, irresponsible living.......

Wordless Wednesday....

Oh my, what big feet you have!!!!

Sure signs.....

I am feeling so much better over the last few days. Not only has the cold started to take a cue and leave our home for somewhere else but it is something else completely. where I live.... aka the old capital of the mid west, we have some pretty distinct seasons. It is bad enough that many of us actually suffer from Vitamin D deficenies in the winter. We just don't have enough sun shining through the clouds. It is cold,windy, and cloudy most of the time. That seems to cause many of us to go into a depression type state.

I have been so down lately. This is pretty normal for me each year. I think that I am just about at the end of my sanity. Life starts to seem darker and darker. Well, for the past 2 days we have had sun...... lots of sun and warm temperatures. Warm for us lately anyway. It was 65 degrees!! While this is maybe not egg-on-the-sidewalk-cooking weather it is a huge change! The barn doors are open, the llamas out and about. When your outside you can feel the warm on your skin.

For me it almost is like a new birth...... or maybe a great sale. ha ha You know the feeling, just warms you from the inside out. I looked out the window and over the last 4 days the ground is popping with spring bulbs. Yes, life is good. We still have trials and we are still praying and broken for families we know. This little bit of light just seems to make it all a bit easier.

So as I start to flip the wardrobes from warm winter clothes to bright light weight summer clothes I am smiling!!

On another note I must just say I am so proud of the hard work I have seen out of Logan this winter! He is our very professor-ish 8 year old and he has really worked hard in school. He just got the results of the Scantron and he just blew it out of the park. He scored 98% in Math and 97% in Reading Comprehension, he has also ask for more responsibility at the barn. He wants to earn a llama of his own, part of that comes when you are ready to be responsible for barn chores. He does about 1/2 of all the barn chores now. That includes clean-up, watering, and feeding for 12 llamas and 20 cats...... (spayed and neutered, I promise!) That is a post for another day and a pet peeve of mine with people and disposable pets! Anyway back on track.....Good job buddy, you are growing into an incredibly responsible guy!!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


Off we go but don't mind me if I pause to cough, clear my throat, or blow my nose. Yep, It's just one of those weeks at our house. It is afterall NOT my own fault, just last week I did NOT mention to someone that we hadn't been sick in over a year except for a few asthma issues with Logan..... Well, three days later I come down with a major bug. Day by day the whole family did NOT fall into a pile of sickness....

Our family did NOT go through 3 jumbo boxes of Puffs in 2 days...... We have NOT spent the last 3 days hanging on the couch, we did pretty good till my dear husband got sick on the weekend. Things did NOT gets amazingly worse when he also got sick. He is NOT the worst sick person on the planet.

I did NOT talk to one of my dear friends and mention that I would need to take down the CHRISTMAS tree soon. She automatically wondered why that wasn't a part of my NOT ME MONDAY. What?!?!?! Could it be that most people do NOT have at least one Christmas tree still up in MARCH?????? Afterall I took the main tree down January 3.....I was shocked!!! hmmmmm and as I looked around the house I noticed that this year I may have missed a few things..... Do NOT notice the dust please.....














Over the past week I did NOT have to do the Spring and Summer shopping for Kendall. My favorite store is going out of business and everything is at least 40% off. So I really had no choice right???? Poor little thing has nothing to wear as you can see in her 12 ft. long closet.



I did NOT do a happy dance all the way to the car with some of my great bargains!! OH wait, maybe part of that was because I got to shop alone!!! No small children tugging, begging, or trying to hide while I carefully shop on a budget. These are not my two favorite dresses.



I also got her Easter dress and it did NOT cost me just $4.19. In the end she got a wardrobe of 9 dresses, 5 capri sets, 9 short sets, 3 long pants outfits, 3 t-shirts, 2 pr of shoes, and 4 hats. The grand total was NOT under 100.00...... Wa Hoooo!!!!!!

After hunting for bows daily I did NOT decide to hang the bows, box the barrettes and headbands...... After hanging them I thought maybe it looked like we had less of them when they were in a box.....



I did NOT spend 2 hours changing the background of my blog last night. I did NOT at one point just scream and wish I had the $$$$ to have a creative blog designer fix me up with something adorable and memorable. Soooooo...... leave a comment and let me know what you think. If I were at all technical I would have some lovely christian music playing in the background but alas...... a techy I am not. I can barely say I pod, let alone figure out how to get music on one.

Another One Bites The Dust

Well, that kind of sums things up at our house. Early this morning ....... about 5 a.m. Kendall woke up screaming. She sounded miserable, I just knew it was bound to happen. So I got up and went to her room, and she was as hot as a firecracker. She was also soaked through so I went to the bathroom and started the tub. When I opened her jammies for some reason her diaper had exploded sort of. Little white junk everywhere!!! So I plunked her in the tub and sat down.

You see Kendall is the last of the crew here to be sick except for Tiffany and that lucky girl isn't home enough to touch germs. Logan got sick earlier is the week from me I guess. Either the Wee Church room last weekend or the grocery is where I got it.
For me a searing throat, headache, a cough and no voice...........great! Now they have an excuse for not listening to me. Logan got a straight cold, lots of snot. Taylor came out Thursday night after being in bed for about 3 hours and threw up on the floor. Friday morning he was tired but that seemed to be it.

Yesterday Tim said he didn't feel well and that exploded into life or death within minutes. Today he is home from work, to sick to do anything including help. I have to bless God for his humor in life. Men are bigger babies than real babies. As for me well it is life as usual. Someone has to keep the boat afloat, but if one more person says "huh? what did you say?" I might just smack them................

God either has a sense of humor or he wants us to all go through it together rather than be sick all spring.

Wordless Wednesday..... Musical Genius at work

Oh my ................ Jack and Lilly

I think I have made a few new friends! It is absolutely no secret that my little girl is a girly girl. It is also no suprise that I do everything in my power to dress her in style..... all on a budget. While blogging on a commenters blog,(a really ool blog by the way...... check it out for yourself.... http://nateandjakeandme.blogspot.com),I came across the Jack and Lilly shoe website. I was mesmerized as I scanned the page....... cut-outs, colors,straps, lordy........ I LOVE these shoes! We will be adding a couple pair to out collection. Our HUGE collection....... My little one well she has about 5 times the number of shoes I do. I love to get her the perfect shoe to top off an outfit. She is MUCH better dressed than her Mom!

Go see for yourself....... http://www.jackandlily.com/