Swim Lessons

For the first few years Sallie was horrified of water. After they did the radical mastoidectomy on her ears we were told that she would more than likely not be able to tolerate going under water because it would make her really dizzy and sick. We thought well it is not like she will go near water anyway. The very first time she was near it after we were told that she was completely fearless which obviousely really upset us. So, she accidently put her head under water and we realized that it has no affect on her. Medically it should, but it doesn't! God has made it possible for Sallie to be able to enjoy water!!! A has worked with her some but she mostly just wants to play with him. Of course communication is an issue so it is not like we can put her in a regular swim class. Our babysitter Amy teaches swim classes at the Y and is well trained through that and is wonderful with Sallie so we decided that maybe Sallie would do well if Amy worked with her and Lizzie. They had their first lesson this week and they did really well for the first week. Pray that it continues to go well because she is fearless and we do want her to know how to swim.

Sallie so proud of herself (and her swimsuit!) Amy practicing kicking with Lizzie. A and Millie in the background. We had not intended for Millie to learn right now but she listens to Amy and does everything she tells her sisters to do so we'll see. She will do anything to be big like them!


Millie says, "I can kick too!"

Hopefully in about 5 weeks we will have some real results!

My GREASY GREASY girls!

Yes, they have had a bath in the past year! They decided to grease down in Vasoline today! What a mess! They had it caked in their hair among the many places they had it. This picture was taken hours after their bath. It did not wash out and it does not dry. I guess I will try a stronger shampoo or maybe dish detergent. As you can see, they are quite happy with themselves!

I forgot to add that they at some point snuck it into the playroom and were in the corner with it while I thought they were playing!

Whirlwind

We had a great weekend but it was a whirlwind!

On Saturday, our church here hosted the MOPS leadership summit which is a conference for MOPS leaders. Several months ago I really felt that the Lord was calling me to be on the Steering Committee for MOPS next year. However, I thought I can't do that and I don't have time and all the other excuses I could think of. So, the day that it was announced in our meeting to begin praying about those positions the Lord told me that I WAS going to do it. I did not know in what position but I knew He was calling me to do it. I talked with our coordinator Amy and just asked her to pray about it and she told me that she had felt the same thing about me. GREAT! Actually, it was music to my ears because it was confirmation. So, through prayer we decided that I will be the registration and finance coordinator for next year. I am very excited. I think we have a great Steering Committee and I look forward to growing in the Lord through this experience! I am very thankful for a husband who supports me in this and despite all he has going on thinks this is important for me. The topic of summit was on being authentic. It was really good and opened my eyes to a lot.

While I was there Elleigh traveled with the LIT's to do a Kids Blitz a couple of hours away in the town where one of her former Sunday School teachers is now the pastor. They had one decision for salvation!!! I am so thankful for the many opportunities she has to see others come to Christ.

A and the girls hung out at home on Saturday and we left for Red Springs Sat. night after Elleigh got back.

A had his first baptism there yesterday. I was in the nursery but Elleigh stood in as my photographer. I am very thankful also for the opportunity we have to serve at Red Springs. We are blessed over and over and it is wonderful experience. I packed everything (or so I thought) so that if for some reason the weighters did not work he would be able to change. There were no problems so everything was good but afterwards A said he was glad he did not get wet because we hadn't packed him a towel. I remembered everything but a towel! I am in training!

The water heater had stopped working in the baptismal so they said it was quite cold. Here they are laughing because Thomas was saying out loud, "It is cold!" Cute!

Thomas' dad and I were discussing yesterday the relief that comes with knowing your child has accepted Christ. What a wonderul feeling!

I know this picture is blurry but this sight gives me chill bumps EVERY time I see it.

We had a terrible windstorm yesterday afternoon. The wind is always blowing hard out there but this was crazy! I was trying to take Elleigh's picture! A said we better hold Millie because it might knock her down. Seriously-I think it could have. Notice that there is finally some shades of green (as opposed to our Easter pics). They are finally getting a little MUCH needed rain. Only in a small town does the sign at the telephone company say, "Pray for rain!" I love it!

Tumbleweeds are everywhere out that way and they were really tumbling yesterday!

Driving home in that was not easy but it summed up our weekend-a WHIRLWIND!

Oh, and how could I forget. Last night on our way home Elleigh asked Lizzie what she wanted to do when she grew up and she said, "PARTY!" HELP!!!

Those 3 little words...

On Wednesday Sallie got new hearing aids. They are more advanced and more high powered than the ones she had. We have a good bit of testing in our near future to determine the full benefit she will receive from these aids. She does seem to be responding really well. Because they are so high powered the feedback is really loud so that is going to take some getting used to for us. Please be in prayer for her testing-that the results will be accurate and that we will have clear direction as to what to do with those results.

This is after she got back from her fitting. She is showing them off! She should show them off-she has some REALLY expensive "earrings"!

Since she has had them on and is responding so well I just can't stop telling her "I LOVE YOU". This morning I said it to her and Lizzie looked at her and said, "I LOVE YOU too Sallie!" Sweet, sweet words to their mama! Hearing those 3 little words really is something we take for granted.

More random Monday thoughts

My mom came home today! She can't put any weight on her leg for about another 5 weeks so right now the key is using the walker some and a wheel chair the rest of the time. Home health will be coming in a few times a week. All the prayers have been very evident in this situation. God is great!

Sallie has been sick for 6 days now. She has something similar to what A and Ell had a few weeks ago. It has come and gone the last few days so hopefully it is about over.

Now we are having an issue with the drain on the washing machine. A has rigged it for now. Our laundry gets so backed up if I don't wash 6 days a week. So, I have much washing to catch up on tomorrow while it is rigged!

We are having a difficult time staying focused to get finished with this school year. The weather is beautiful and we are ready for summer! It will be here soon so we must push through to the 7th grade. THE 7th GRADE!

My camera is not working properly!!! As much as I would LOVE a new camera that is not going to happen any time soon so I am really hoping there is not a major issue with my camera! I know it is a camera and not a necessity but...

We got to church yesterday and they had torn down a wall to expand the nursery-what a wonderful thing! Wonderful that it is now larger and wonderful that it had to be expanded!!!

We have forgotten what small town life is like. About a month ago we stopped by Sonic on Sun. nt after church to get drinks and we were there for 30 min. No one gets in a hurry! So, while we were gone Spring Break A was wanting an ice cream cone on his way home from church on Sun nt. Long story short he stops at 2 DQ's both of which told him they were out of ice cream! Only in a small town! How is DQ out of ice cream???

Lizzie is just a hoot. Yesterday at breakfast she looks at me and says, "mom, I love sausage, mom." Today she saw Elleigh on the front porch and she said, "I see a Ell Bell". Her daddy's personal favorite-today she was pretending to read to Millie and she would say, "the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says" over and over. She wants to change clothes a lot! Each time when she is attempting to change she will say, "I don't like this!" A GIRL!!! Oh, and she is obsessed with Taylor Swift. OBSESSED! Every time we get in the car she says, "Taylor Swifffff on!" During the pauses on the CD she demands "Taylor Swifffff on!" I guess thats what happens when you have an almost 12 year old sister.

Millie repeats everything Lizzie says. Scary! She says "what's that?" no less than a million times a day! It is so fun to watch them try and figure this world out. However, I do get a little tired sometimes of "what's that?" She was attempting to climb out of her baby bed tonight so I am thinking different sleeping arrangements are on the horizon. Let me warn you that I will may need therapy when the baby bed comes down. I am serious! I will digress from thinking that I will no longer need a baby bed!

Elleigh gets more excited about Africa every day! Mrs. Abbey sent her a passport holder last week so now she is ready to go. I mean she HAD to have a cute passport holder. Thanks Mrs. Abbey-you are so good to us! She is not looking forward to her immunizations. She is a baby about needles (just like her mama!)

A is winding down this semester. He has a lot of work left to finish and of course finals so the next few weeks will be busier than normal. He now has 2 more semesters left! Exciting and scary. We are anxious to see what the Lord has in store for us next.

Have a great rest of the week!

The last of the Easter pics

This was the best family pic we got. The wind was terrible, it was cool, and it is next to impossible to get everyone looking and smiling (oh and my camera battery was dying)! A and his girls! You can tell how bad the wind was!
Millie and Lizzie hunting eggs after church

A giving instructions to the kids before the egg hunt. He loves his job!

The hunt... I thought this was a neat picture of the sky

Mill Mill doing what she does best!
I just love this picture!

Mr. Toby helping Millie. Of course she doesn't think she needs any help!

I would like to have some good pictures of the girls in their dresses. We will see if I get brave enough to take that on one day!

Easter Weekend Part 2

This slideshow includes painting Easter eggs (I bought egg paint on-line this year to try something new-they had a lot of fun with it), making our traditional bunny cake, making the empty tomb cookies, and Easter baskets.

Update on my mom: She is currently being moved from the hospital to Healthsouth for rehab. Thank you so much for praying. Please pray now that she does well in rehab. We are unsure as to how long she will be there. Thanks!

Easter Weekend Part 1

Yes, I said Part 1! On Friday, we had a great day as a family. We woke up and took our time getting out of the house and then headed over to the Dallas Arboretum. The girls had a good time running around and we were able to keep them out of the flowers (for the most part!). We ended our day back in downtown Fort Worth at Uno Pizza. You will see pics of Sallie and Lizzie making their own pizza. They really enjoyed that. Then we completely finished the day with ice cream! It was a great day!

Stay tuned for the rest of our weekend in review!

A change of focus

I am sure you are expecting today's post to be filled with all the fun details of our Easter weekend and tons of pictures. That will come (as soon as I can sort through the hundreds of pics!) but first I have something I want/need to share. Our Easter weekend was somewhat different than normal. I have to be reminded quite often that my plans are not always His plans.

I had everything all together for the girls-their dresses, matching bows, new shoes. I had A a new shirt and tie to wear with his new suit. I had looked for something for myself and never found anything so it was my agenda Saturday morning to go shopping and hopefully find me something. However, the events of the day made that much less important to me. At 7 am my phone rang which was my indication that something was going on. It was my sister Rhonda telling me that my mama had fallen during the night and had broken both the tibia and fibula and that she had been transported to Montgomery and they were waiting on the surgeon. Within a couple of hours she was in surgery having a rod placed in her leg. Once they got in they discovered there was some significant damage to the ankle as well so they placed pins and screws in that area. Mother has osteoporosis so broken bones are nothing new for her but up until this point she has not had a fall that would cause such significant damage. What I would be wearing on Sunday suddenly meant nothing to me. It was easy for me to pull something out of the closet and not worry about how many times I had worn it before. It did coordinate with the rest of my crew because I am still me. Mother came through the surgery fine but she has a long long road of recovery ahead of her and she is not doing well at all right now. There are other medical conditions that are weighing against her in recovery. Her other leg is the one that she has had so many problems with because of charcot foot which is related to diabetes so her having to depend solely on that foot is not a good thing. We are uncertain as to how long she will be in the hospital and what will happen from there. Our family appreciates your continued prayers.

So, what I was going to wear on Sunday suddenly meant nothing to me. It was easy for me to pull something out of the closet and not worry about how many times I had worn it before. It did coordinate with the rest of my crew because I am still me but my focus had changed. I was not really in to all the fun traditional things we do as a family but I went through the motions. The perfect pictures on Easter morning were not as important. I did still do all those things and as I said before I am still me and I do think those things are good because they are our families memories but they just were not as important. I kept thinking on Saturday that I just was not in the mood to celebrate Easter. It is times like this that are the hardest to be away from family. Holidays are hard without any additional factors but I have a really tough time when I can't do my part. I feel for my dad and my sisters who are doing it all and who have so much more to do. I felt bad that I was with my kids on Easter and my sisters were not. I felt bad that they couldn't have an Easter meal together. I just want to be with them. However, because I am not there and can't be "doing" I have to rely that much more on the Lord. So Saturday as I pondered over and over how I didn't even want to celebrate Easter the Lord really used this time to change my focus. My focus was on Him. I prayed a lot and of course I would think why I am here and not there and I was reminded over and over that I am here and not there because this is where God has me for now. Family and friends were calling to check on everything and I was reminded how blessed we are to have that and to have so many people praying. I say all of this to get to the point that God was my focus and not all the other things that we do at Easter. I could not help but focus on God sending His Son to die for us and that is where my hope is. No matter how hard this is for my mom, or my family, or me we know WHO is in control. I realized that I was in the mindset to celebrate the true meaning of Easter.

Will I continue to do all the other events surrounding Easter-yes, will we all still match on Easter-probably so, and will I take a million pictures to document it all-YES but I am thankful that God used this time to humble me and force me to focus on what Easter is really about. Yes, I have always known what it is all about and yes I have always celebrated that, but it was never as REAL to me as yesterday.

Yesterday our choir recited the words to the chorus of my favorite hymn. I really wanted to stand up and sing it. Although, since Sallie was born I have never been able to sing it without crying. This song took on a whole new meaning to me after I faced the biggest trial I have ever been through. God's timing was of course perfect for me to be reminded of these words. Oh how I love these words and oh how true they are-everyday!

God sent His son, they called Him, Jesus;He came to love, heal and forgive;He lived and died to buy my pardon,An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,Because He lives, all fear is gone;Because I know He holds the future,And life is worth the living,Just because He lives!

How sweet to hold a newborn baby,And feel the pride and joy he gives;But greater still the calm assurance:This child can face uncertain days because He Lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,Because He lives, all fear is gone;Because I know He holds the future,And life is worth the living,Just because He lives!

And then one day, I'll cross the river,I'll fight life's final war with pain;And then, as death gives way to vict'ry,I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know He lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,Because He lives, all fear is gone;Because I know He holds the future,And life is worth the living,Just because He lives!

GOOD Friday

"And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." 2 Corinthians 5:15