Friday, June 29, 2007

Here we go again...

I thought everyone in the house was on the mend but it was not to be. This afternoon I was getting ready to go to the Hamilton's for Bri's birthday party when Noah came into the bathroom and just curled up into a little ball and laid at my feet. Thinking this strange I picked him up and found that he was burning with fever so here we go again. I checked his temperature and asked him where it hurt. He only pointed to his bottom which was directly related to the taking of the temperature if you get my drift, but didn't give me any other hint as to what may be the problem. I was thinking throat like his dad but he is still eating and drinking fine so I'm kind of stumped. I guess I'll try to call Dr. Coleman tomorrow to see if I can get him to call me in something to give the poor little guy. Oh well, at least it's never dull around here!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

A fun day


Today was a really fun day. We had scheduled a youth trip today to Carter Caves. We were really concerned last night because it didn't look like the weather was going to cooperate but we got up this morning to a pretty, sunny day. So at 10:00 a.m. this morning eighteen kids and five adults from New Life packed onto the bus together with extra clothing and all the fixin's for a good picnic lunch and headed for Carter County. We arrived at about 11:30, ate lunch, and headed for the self-guided caves with flashlights in-hand and a sense of adventure in the air.


I was concerned about taking Noah through the caves but it went fine. You see, I was having flashbacks of a similar trip with a group from Blue Licks and a two year old Jacob. Jacob screamed and had to be carried on someone's back all the way through the caves. It was really not much fun. But Noah was so brave....a master explorer. He trudged right through the freezing murky water in the dark and never missed a beat. Of course, his courage was bolstered by the "lashlight" he carried in his hand for moral support. I say it was for moral support because he never really caught on that he should be shining it in front of his feet so he could see where he was going. Instead he spent the day illuminating the cave ceiling for us.


We explored two different caves and checked out a waterfall with no mishaps (except James cut the top of his poor bald head on the low ceiling about five steps into the first cave). We had a really fun day. The weather held until the exact time we boarded the bus to return home. No sooner than the last person was loaded the raindrops began to fall and the thunder began to roll.


We got home at 4:30 p.m., came home and cleaned up a little and then headed over to the Jeffersons for HBF at 6:00 p.m. for more fun and fellowship (oh, and food). Life is good. It just doesn't get any better than this!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Just another day

Today was a pretty normal day. I did some laundry, picked Jacob up from camp (goodbye peaceful, whine-free home), lounged around in the pool for a while, fixed supper, went to church and then to the grocery.

Nothing exciting or profound happened today except that God gave me another beautiful day full of His blessings which to me is the most profound thing of all. As I laid in the pool I pondered all the things that God has done for me and given me. As I compiled the long list in my head I couldn't help but think how unworthy I am. Thank God that He loves me in spite of myself. What an awesome God we serve!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Three kids and a lost iPod


Well, I made it through the day and it wasn't that bad really (yeah, right!). My alarm went off at 4:55 a.m. (which nearly scared me to death) and Davy and Tab dropped Bri and Kaela off at 5:15. Fortunately for me they weren't any more ready to get up for the day than I was and both went back down on the couch for some more shuteye. I tossed and turned in the recliner for a while but finally went back to sleep until about 8:30 a.m. when Noah woke up and joined the party.


We had breakfast, the three kids played (began the destruction of my house), we played outside, had a picnic, came back in for awhile (home demolition continued), went swimming in the pool, played in the water hose, came in and took baths, played inside some more (destruction completed) and then finally cleaned up a little before Davy and Tab arrived at 4:45.

I fixed supper after everyone left and then planned on crashing on the couch for a while but that was short lived. Jarrod came and asked where his iPod was. Now, I know this doesn't sound like a bad thing but you would have to understand that he gave me his iPod to keep while we were at Relay for Life on Friday night. I stuck it in my camera bag (which I left unzipped) and that's what I told him. He checked the camera bag but no iPod. Darren became involved and yelled at both of us and then a mad search of the house, Durango and all its contents ensued. After about an hour of searching and a trip up to the Industrial Park (as if it would still be there) I was ready to give up. I was literally sick to my stomach to think that we had lost a $350 iPod. And then Jarrod decided to go look in his room. Lo and behold what do you think he found? Yep, you guessed it. The long lost iPod. Part of me wanted to kill him but the rest of me was just so relieved that I burst into tears.

So now, I've nurtured the children, fed the family, restored some semblance of order to my house, located the iPod and I am wiped out. Early to bed for me tonight!

Monday, June 25, 2007

The Blahs & Yucks

Today has just been the most incredibly nasty day. I went to bed last night with the intention of having a mega house cleaning party today. But oh how things change. Darren has been sick since we came back from camp complaining of sore throat and fever. Now, like most men, he is the absolute biggest baby when it comes to being sick. He's done nothing but whine since Friday night. The other thing he does is...SNORE! Not just a little cute breathy kind of snore but a raise the roof, bring the house down, curl your toes kinds of snore! So, I got almost no sleep last night and was just dragging when I got up this morning. Still, after a late start, I was planning on enlisting Jarrod's help to do some major house cleaning. I started cleaning in the dining room (where the vehicle threw up all the camp supplies) and sent Jarrod outside to pick up the garbage that the neighbors dogs scattered all over the yard (aaarrrggghhh!). Everything was going well until Jarrod came back in and announced that he didn't feel well. He then proceeded to start yacking and has been doing so all day. I finished cleaning the dining room up and put everything from camp away, took out the trash and got the dishwasher loaded and then I just threw up my hands and gave in to the temptation to lay around on a nasty, rainy, dreary day. Now I am really upset with myself for not getting anything more done but it just didn't seem fair that Darren and Jarrod were both going to spend the day lying around while I worked. Oh well, there's always tomorrow....when I have to get up at 5 a.m. because I'm babysitting for the Hamilton girls....oh yeah, there will be a lot of cleaning going down tomorrow. NOT!

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Something I never thought about


My brother-in-law, Seargent First Class Rob Hughes, was recently deployed for active duty in Iraq. He and my sister had known for a little over a year that it was possible that his National Guard Unit would be deployed to the Gulf. Rob began his 397 day deployment on June 5th. He is currently at Camp Shelby, Mississippi for training prior to being sent overseas sometime the first part of August. He and my sister are the proud parents of two boys, Eli who is 2-1/2 and Jay who was born on May 20th. All this time I've thought about how hard all of this was going to be for my sister with a new baby and all. I've worried, stressed and prayed over her situation and I never once considered Rob's feelings.


This morning my mom called to say that my nephew, Eli, had been admitted to the hospital because he had a very bad asthma attack early this morning. My mom is staying with Jay while my sister, Alicia, stays at the hospital with Eli. I went over to see him this afternoon and he is doing some better. Alicia said that everything just seemed to be going wrong....Eli is sick, their cows were out, someone destroyed her mailbox, etc. etc. and again I felt sorry for her because of everything she is having to deal with on her own. But then she began talking about Rob and it struck me that I had just totally not given any thought to how hard this is on him. He is having a really hard time. He is, of course, proud to be serving his country but he is really missing his family and feels bad that he isn't around to help Alicia. She said that he had emailed her and told her how much he missed her and the boys. He said that he couldn't look at Eli's picture without crying and that he felt so bad for Jay because he would miss the first year of his life. She went on to say that Rob had called to talk to Eli and that Eli had really carried on a big conversation with his daddy. He wanted to know if he was still in Mississippi and if he was far away and then he asked Rob if he could take him for a ride. Rob told him that he would take him for a ride when he could and Eli told him to wait and he would go get his shoes so they could go now. She said Rob broke down and started crying and was so emotional that he had to hang up. My heart simply broke as she told the story and even now as I type this I want to cry. How could I have been so unthinking? Why did I never even think about Rob's feelings in all this?


Please, God, watch over Rob and keep him safe. I pray that you will hold him in the palm of your hand and help him during this time. I pray that you will be his strength and encouragement during the dark days and that you will bring him home safely to his family. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

I'm still here....

Okay, so I managed to make one post and then disappeared. I know what you're thinking..."What's up with that?" But, I've got a good excuse. I, along with the rest of my family, just spent an entire week at Sugarloaf Christian Camp with a group of 61 seventh and eighth graders! We had a good week all in all. The campers were very well behaved and the staff was (for the most part) responsible and hard working. James, our new youth minister (and old friend), was the camp dean for the week. He did a great job and the kids loved him. We had four baptisms over the course of the week. Praise God! It's amazing to me that God allowed me to witness the birth of four new creations this week. God is so good!

Anyway, we got back from camp at about 1:30 yesterday afternoon, unloaded the vehicles (which translated means we took everything out of the cars and threw it in the middle of the dining room floor), and crashed for a couple of hours before joining our church team at Relay for Life last night at 6 p.m. We didn't make it the whole night this year. After a week of church camp, our hearts just weren't in it so we packed it all up and came home at about 2 a.m.

Needless to say I'm not worth much today. I tried to sleep in but Noah, my 2 year old, kept coming to stand by the side of my bed and saying, "It's time to wake up, Mom." So now I'm trying to talk myself into starting on the daunting pile of laundry that was created by 5 people during 6 days of camp! My goal for today is to finish the laundry for Jacob, my 8 year old, since he is heading back to camp tomorrow and for some reason is insisting that he doesn't want to go naked all week. LOL! Hopefully life (and my wreck of a house) will get back to normal next week...if there really is such a thing!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

First Timer

Well, after much hesitation I have decided to try my hand at blogging. I've been thinking about it for some time now but wasn't really sure what I would blog about. But, I figure life (with three kids) will provide enough blog material with very little help from me.

One of my best friends is a blogger and I really love reading her blog so I guess you could say that she was my inspiration. Her blog is one of the pages I check just about every time I am on the net. She is getting ready to move a couple hours away so I'm glad I'll still be able to keep up with her and her family via her blog.

So, here's to a (hopefully) long and fruitful blogging experience.