Meow!

Guess what we have at home -
Shhhh! It's a secret!

Horses v. Sheep

I was looking at some pictures on Confessions of a Pioneer Woman's website over the weekend. There were pictures of the ranch she lives on and pictures of her kids. But the ones I liked the best were the pictures of her husband.

Wait a minute - I think that statement needs some clarification.

I liked the pictures she posted of her husband because it showed him working the ranch, being with his kids - showing all the things that she loves about him.

Her comments under these pictures were very real. It was obvious that she knows her husband well and loves him immensely.

It made me think of Brian and the things I love about him. Unlike Confession's husband, Brian doesn't ride horses or lasso cattle - but he does tend sheep.

If I had a camera with me on Sundays, this is a picture I would take.

- The way he rubs his eyes and forehead while his head is bowed praying before he gets up to preach. It's a pained look and one that used to worry me immensely. It used to worry me because I thought he was having chest pain or something. I finally asked him one Sunday what in the world was wrong. He just looked at me and said, "I'm praying."

I've seen that pained look before - on different people. I've seen it on my dad as he looked over cattle grazing on a dry pasture. I've seen that look on the face of doctors as they flip through the chart of a cancer patient while the anxious patient and spouse wait to hear the prognosis. I've seen that look reflected back at me from a monitor screen as I watched a fetal heart rate decel too deep and too long too many times.

There's something about the gravity of being responsible for lives - whether patients, cattle, or sheep - that weighs heavy at times.

The responsibility of tending sheep (and eating pizza after 9pm when you are post-40) has been known to effect his sleep.

Brian e-mailed me this this morning -

I had very disturbing dreams this morning.

The house was flooding, and we had water damage everywhere.
The wood on the house was rotting before my eyes.

Then we had to carry heavy stuff up a rotten, rickety deck,
and I was having to reassure you.

Then the neighbor came and was stealing things out of his foreclosed house and putting these things on our crumbling deck.

About this time, I was slammed into the side of a building by a
river boat (I don't know where it came from) and the tornado
that had hurled it against me drug me and the boat 15 miles the rescue people said.

After falling out of the tornado's grip I had lain unconscious for
some time and had internal injuries.

After paramedics had triaged me, you found me and were taking me home.

Then I woke up.

Maybe riding horses and lassoing cattle would be easier than tending sheep?

What's next?

Getting ready to do it all over again!
Levi - Senior 2009

But first - Scooby's 3rd birthday!!!!

Baccalaureate and Graduation!!!!

TCM Ensemble 2007-2008

I had never attended a baccalaureate ceremony before and didn't really know what to expect. Now I know. I guess I should have looked it up in the dictionary.

Baccalaureate - noun. A solemn ceremony which takes place the evening before graduation. Purpose of baccalaureate is to allow the parents of said graduate to cry like a baby in a setting slightly more private than commencement.

Capped and gowned . . .

on the front row . . .

I spoke and managed to somewhat
keep my composure . . .

Ensemble sang . . .

the night ended with a charge to the graduates to
live lives honoring to the Lord.

GRADUATION!!!


The diploma!


"Glocks locked and ready to rock!"
Commencement speaker -Lance Cpl. Klay South
(I like the look on Megan's face -she was afraid
he was going to back up and land in her lap.)


All That I Am
sung by the senior girls


Tassel now on the right!


Megan's display table -


Class of 2008!

Looking back at March and April *Updated with video

I started this blog a little over a year ago as an attempt to sort out my thoughts during this ever changing time in my life while also chronicling the whirlwind of events that happen every week. The last few months have been hectic, and blogging didn't make to the top of my priority list. Fortunately, it has been a good sort of hectic.

One of my first posts dealt with Megan's upcoming graduation - which is now past. I survived and thankfully things have slowed down enough for me to sit with a cup of coffee and reflect a little.

End of a season - March brought the end of basketball season, another senior moment to check off (Senior Night), Senior High Competition, Joel's 14th birthday, and Spring Break.

Joel during a time-out in a Jr. High game


Levi and Hope before the
Pastors v. Players game


Emily - Megan - Emily
Senior Night Spaghetti Supper



Megan and Emily singing their song
"The Flower Duet" or "Sous le dome epais"at state competition.
First place - small vocal ensemble!

Joel - my number one page turner!

Levi and Daniel being goofy at Steak-n-Shake
on the way home from competition.


Bed-head Joel with a birthday cupcake
shaped like a dog that Cierra got him.
Happy 14th birthday Joel!


Joel and Brian started a super hero mural in Joel's room over Spring Break.


Levi worked on his muscles over Spring Break!

Nationals at Bob Jones University, South Carolina!!!!!!!!
Brian and I chaperoned the trip to Nationals in April.
Megan and Emily performed beautifully but unfortunately came home empty handed.
I think Brian was more upset than the girls were!

It was a great trip. Brian roomed with two college guys in the dorms - at the end of the week one of his roommates told him he wished Brian could stay the rest of the year!

I stayed in the dorms too. There were a total of 7 of us in a 10x10 room. Our BJU roommates were awesome - even when I fell off the top bunk and landed on one of them in the middle of the night! Yeah, I think I broke my leg - seriously, I still have a knot, pain, and some distal numbness 6 weeks later!

Megan and Emily performing - they were amazing!


You bet we're proud!


LOTS of talent in this room!


We left the boys at home - a little nerve wracking to be
so far away! But they were good about checking in.


The injury - I slept on the couch the rest of the week. lol

April and May Formals - hair, make-up, nails, dress shopping, suit buying, test-drives to the "city," up all night waiting for them to get home . . . let's just say I'm glad they're over!

Megan and Levi at home before Jr/Sr


$2,400 in orthodontics paid off!


Hope and Levi
a/k/a Cinderella and Prince Charming


Cinderella and Belle


Megan and Emily - all grown up!


Justin and Megan
(I am exercising the rule - "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all!")

May!!!!!!
Civic duty, Senior trip, Open House, Baccalaureate, and GRADUATION!!!

The sticker says it all!

Stephanie, Megan, and Emily

Some of the Class of 2008
Senior trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee

All decorated in yell0w - the wind, unfortunately, kept us mostly inside.

Her big day!

Sandwiches, sandwiches, sandwiches . . .
We will eat sandwiches the rest of the month. lol

Customer Service

Megan filled out a job application for our local Starbucks.
I think she should get the job based on her answer to this question.

Question: Describe a specific situation where you have provided excellent customer service in your most recent position. Why was this effective?

Megan's Answer: My previous job was as a lifeguard, and this past summer I had the privilege of making a successful rescue. I saved that person’s life, so I consider that fairly excellent customer service.

Welcome to Starbucks. My name's Megan.
Can I save your life today?

Odds and Ends

Between basketball games, work, church . . . there hasn't been time to blog. But if I had time, here are a few things I could have blogged about since my last post.

Bible Quizzing takes a road trip!- Our trip to Downer's Grove, Illinois, was pretty much a whirlwind event. Our quiz teams didn't make it into the finals, but the kids can consider it good practice for their upcoming competition in March. It was freezing cold there, and I had hopes that Brian and I could sneak off and go to some quaint coffee shop - didn't happen. But thanks Andrea Jennine for the tip on where to go should we have had time. The best part of the trip was probably the way home - we had a van full of choir/ensemble members who blessed us with music the entire way home!

I'm tired of winter! - The older I get the more I can't stand the winter. When we home schooled, I loved winter. I had the kids to help me keep the upstairs fire place and the basement wood stove puffing out cozy warmth. There was nothing better than being snug in the house with the kids curled up on the couch or chair reading - all the while snow was falling outside. Winter is great when you can stay at home! Scraping cars, worrying about icy roads, hauling wood in myself . . . I am really ready for spring!

Levi's bad day. - Levi wrecked the Jeep twice in one day! Joel told him driving a car wasn't like riding dirt bikes where you wreck and then just get back on only to wreck again - a fact of which Levi was only all to aware. To Levi's credit, the roads were horribly icy that fateful Saturday morning. Had Brian and I ANY idea that the roads were that slick and icy, we would have never let him leave that morning. Praise God for His protection in keeping Levi from physical harm. The Jeep, on the other hand, now has two cracked turn signals and the front says EEP instead of JEEP!

Levi and Hope

I love Scooby! - Nothing new - just always something good to post about.

What a trip to a children's oncology clinic will teach you. - I went with Bridget to Lauren and Meagon's appointment with the hematologist. Sitting in that pediatric hematology/oncology clinic waiting room was a sobering experience. We watched child after child go through those doors - some looking obviously ill, others looking perfectly healthy. My heart ached for the children and their parents, and as I sat there and waited I prayed for each one of them. If evolution were true, we should be getting better, stronger, healthier as a people - with each generation our children should be better, stronger, and healthier. But evolution is a lie from Satan himself. We live in a fallen world, and Adam's sin started creation on a downward spiral of decay and destruction. Our bodies and our children's bodies are experiencing the effects of the Fall.

Counting their blessings with them. - Friends of ours lost their home to a house fire. As I stood beside my friend looking at her destroyed home just hours after the fire department left, I was at a loss as to what to say. Blessings to count with them - it happened during the day when everyone was gone and not in the middle of the night, the neighbor ran over and unleashed the dog who was tied on the deck, the fire department got there quickly - allowing them to salvage a few things, and they have insurance.

The pain of letting your kids reap what they sow. - I love having teenagers. I loved having little kids, but I have to say I really, really love my teenagers. I love seeing them grow independent and into adulthood. What makes this so easy is the fact that I like who my kids are - they are truly enjoyable people to be around. What is hard is seeing them pay the price for bad decisions or watching them go through struggles. As a mom, it is hard to step back and not fix everything - to let them "bail their own boat out." But I know in the end, they will be better off for it. Thank you Peggy for my pep talk the other night!

Joel's amazing game! -The JH season ended last Thursday. Joel dresses up to JV, but because our JV team has several really good players as an 8th grader Joel doesn't usually get much, if any, playing time. This past Friday, however, was an exception. There is a wicked stomach virus going around the school and two of the JV starters missed the game because of it. This gave Joel his opportunity. From the minute the coach put him in, Joel played his heart out. It was amazing! I am so proud of him - way to go Joel!

Megan and Joel

Thank you Mrs. Parker. - Megan has taken voice lessons from Mrs. Parker since 7th grade. Mrs. Parker has always been so much more than just a voice teacher though - she has been a mentor and a friend. She is always there to help Megan sort things out - friends, future plans, love. Mrs. Parker epitomizes these verses - The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. That they teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Titus 2:3-5.

Megan and Hope

There's much more on which to think and reflect, but Scooby just buried himself under a blanket which most likely means the fire has died out and he would appreciate me fixing that problem!

Joel just called and said the basketball games are canceled tonight because of icy roads - yeah! A night at home instead of on the run - I'll take it!