Gospel Man & Bible Boy Ride Again!

Our five minute nightly spots with Gospel Man and Bible Boy were so popular last year that we've expanded this year. This year our entire VBS program will revolve around our two heroes. Our theme for the week will be "Gospel Man & Bible Boy and the Lost Treasure." There will be a 10-15 minute video each night this year. We're really excited about it and looking forward to breaking the records we set last year.

We began filming our video productions today. Wow! What a job. Everything has to be filmed in small segments from several different angles and it is very time consuming....and that's before the editing process even starts. We expect it will take all week to film five episodes and from now until VBS in July to edit the final cuts.

I laughed so hard tonight that I almost wet my pants. These guys are just hilarious together. Davy Hamilton is an absolute natural and James, well I can't imagine anyone else as Bible Boy. I can't wait to see the finished project!

The Pox

Poor Jarrod has been laid low. A couple of weeks ago he complained about a bump behind his ear hurting. I felt it and dismissed it as a zit, after all he is fourteen. Then,this past Thursday night he had me feel and there were four bumps behind one ear and one behind the other ear. I then realized that they must be swollen lymph glands which is something we get really excited about around here because Darren's dad and grandfather both died of Hodgkins disease. I told Darren I would get him an appointment with the doctor on Friday. Friday morning, which was the last day of school, he woke up with what looked like a fine rash on his arms. He had mowed the day before so I just assumed he had gotten into something. I took him to the doctor and they did some blood work and said they thought he had a virus but wanted to see him back in a week to recheck his counts. The doc said the rash was "contact dermatitis" and told us to use cortisone cream on it. So all was well, or so we thought. He went out to his grandmother's house and mowed after school and then came home. I noticed that he had broken out a little more but didn't think anything more of it. I went to church for a jewelry show and when I came home he was burning with fever and the rash was getting much worse and blistering. Then it hit me....I've seen this before. This is chicken pox.

I feel like such a bad mother. The other two boys were vaccinated for chicken pox but that was not one of the vaccinations they were giving when Jarrod was little. I could have taken him to the doctor to get it later but never did. Now he is paying the price for my procrastination. He looks absolutely awful and doesn't feel much better. He stayed home from church today and laid around all day. He got up and came to the recliner and sometime along about 7:30 p.m. he moved to the couch and that was pretty much all he did all day. Hopefully he'll feel better in a few days. What a way to start summer vacation!

A Formal Affair

Last Friday night was 8th Grade Party at Simons Middle School. I had never heard of this event until coming to Fleming County but it is a very big deal around here. It's basically a middle school prom type thing. They don't crown a king and queen but the whole 8th grade votes on about 8 boys and 8 girls to be on the "court." Sunday dress is acceptable but most of the kids wear formal attire. Jarrod, being an eighth grader this year, went to the party. Hannah Pollitt from church was his date for the evening.

In the interest of saving money, or at least getting something for my money, I tried to talk Jarrod into letting me buy him a nice Sunday dress outfit to wear so he would have something he could wear again but nothin' doin'! He HAD to have a tux. Darren agreed that he should have one if he wanted one so we told him we would pay $70 toward renting the tux and the rest would be his responsibility.

He had been mowing and babysitting so he had managed to save up some money and decided that he was responsible enough to open his own checking account so I took him to the bank and he became a depositor. Our next stop after the bank was the bridal shop. By the time we left there he was looking for a bankruptcy attorney! Are you aware of what it costs to rent a tux these days? About the cheapest thing he could get was $149.00! In the end he managed to drum up some work and had enought to pay the balance of his tux rental with some left over.

When Friday night arrived he got all dressed up and ready to go. He was so handsome! I couldn't believe how grown up he looked. We met Hannah and her family to take photos. Hannah looked gorgeous and they made a very cute couple. They rode to the party with a couple of their friends (with a parent driver, of course) after going to Pizza Hut to eat out. Many of the parents and family members hang around the school to watch the kids walk in and watch the announcement of the court. Darren and I needed to go to Maysville so we skipped the spectator opportunity. But now I wish I'd stayed. Jarrod was chosen to be on the court. He was so excited when I picked him up at 11:00 p.m. that night and he had a great time. It was a perfect ending to his eighth grade year and of course we are very proud of him.

Wow! I can't believe my baby will be a freshman in high school next year. Parents, hug your babies because before you know it they'll be all grown up!

Twenty Years and Counting

Darren and I celebrated our twenty year anniversary this week. Well, I'm not exactly sure that "celebrated" is the right word. We had Financial Peace University at church and went to Dairy Queen for ice cream afterwards. After we ate the ice cream (and ditched the evidence so the kids wouldn't find out) we went home and watched tv for a while and then I went to bed while Darren played with his cell phone. Very exciting stuff!

We're hoping to be able to go out this weekend but it's not looking real promising. Jarrod has 8th Grade Party on Friday night and then my nephew's 1st birthday party is Saturday. Oh well, what's twenty years anyway.

I can't believe that we've been married 20 years. We are now older than my parents were when we started dating. Yikes! They just seemed so much older at the time. It has been a good 20 years. Of course we've had our share of ups and downs just like everybody else but I love him more today than the day we were married and I wouldn't change a thing about our lives together. There's no one else I'd rather spend the rest of my life with. Happy 20th Anniversary, Darren. I love you!

Prayer Request

We got a call after revival last night saying that Darren's cousin, Stephanie Grimes, had passed away unexpectedly. She was only 40 and leaves behind a 13 year old son, her husband, and her father. They think she had a heart attack caused by an allergic reaction to some medicine. Please keep this family in your prayers, especially her son, Tyler. In the space of the last couple of years he has lost an uncle, two great-grandmothers (one of whom lived with them), his grandfather and now his mom.

Also keep my brother-in-law, Rob Hughes, and the rest of the Carlisle Guard Unit in your prayers. They should be on their way out of Iraq soon. They are supposed to be home on May 1st.

Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

We've been in revival here at New Life all week. It has been a great week with some great messages but a long week nonetheless. It has been especially hard on Noah. He is not used to having to sit still through a church service and it has been a real struggle. Tuesday night I had to take him out and spank him about five minutes into the service. He was pretty good for a while after we came back in but then he started getting loud and rowdy again so I looked at him and told him if he didn't behave I was going to take him back to the bathroom. He looked at me just as serious, cocked his head to one side and said, "Mommy, if you're gonna' spank me again you need to spank me slowly and carefully." I couldn't help be get tickled. Of course, I couldn't spank him after that.

I Survived

Well, April 15th has come and gone and I survived. I only ended up filing three extensions and, hold on to your seat, one of them was not my own. For only like the second or third time since we've been married I filed my return before the April 15th deadline. I decided I didn't want any surprises in the form of unexpected checks to write come October this year. We still owed but we had the money saved to pay it and it's done! I must admit that it felt pretty good to be that "on top of it" this year.

I got a few days to catch my breath and then we started revival yesterday so this week will be very busy. I'm planning on cutting back to three days a week at work once school is out so I'm looking forward to that. At least I think I am anyway. I may change my mind after being home with the kids a couple of weeks.

Hope everyone is having a great Spring! I just love this time of year. Everything is so green and starting to bud and bloom. It's times like these I look around and wonder how anyone could ever question God's existence. It is so easy to see His hand in everything around us. Personally, I'm so grateful that He is part of the tapestry of my life! Love to all!