My Sister

See this darling young woman?? She looks a little scared in this pictures doesn't she? Well she should...she is a kindergarten teacher!! She works with five year old kids, all day, and because she teaches at an extended year school she is with them all the time. You know what the really scary thing is though?? SHE LOVES IT! You see, this doesn't surprise me much. I remember when she was a little girl and would spend hours playing with her "My Little Pony's" and I would just look at my Mom and say, "Mom, Christina is really weird". When she got older she used to sleep like the dead. It took forever to get her up and awake. My favorite past time when I was a teenager was to wake my darling little sister up in the middle of the night and set her in front of the TV (which was NOT on) and give her and empty bowl and a spoon and tell her to eat her breakfast. You know what she would do? She would set there for hours, just staring at the blank TV and spooning nothing into her mouth, spoon after spoon. The next morning I would tell my Mom, "Mom, Christina IS weird". So, it's really not too big of a surprise to me that she enjoys spending her days with a bunch of wild five year old punks! because I've always know that deep down inside, my darling little sister, is WEIRD!!



Weirdness aside, we actually have a really close relationship. My perfectly calm personality, offsets her weirdness.... No, really, it does. I'm not joking here. I'm NOT!

So, here I set in my weird sisters house, in her spare bed room, sleeping on a hard as rock old college dorm room Futon. Why? Well because as weird as she is, I absolutely ADORE my baby sister, and I wouldn't be any where else right now.



Tomorrow morning at 7:15am, my baby sister will have a complete hysterectomy. She has really battled with endometriosis, and when the doctor said that she had exhausted all ways of treating her she suggested a hysterectomy. It took quite a while for Christina to let the information sink in, but now I think she is just ready for some relief. I don't know if any of you, or any one you know, has had endometriosis, but it's a nasty horribly painful thing that just depletes all of your energy. As much as I hate to see my baby sister have to go through this, I will be so glad when it's all said and done and I can have my weird sister back. She's weird, but so am I and I suppose I've gotten used to her now, so I'll just keep her, thanks!!



Here is a family picture of my sister, her husband, and her fur baby, Dusty. They will be looking into adoption soon and I'm sure that God has a perfect baby in mind for them, when He is ready. If you think of it, please pray for Christina. She's weird, but totally wonderful, just like her big sis!!

Like Father, Like Son?

I'm pretty sure that it's the desire of every man when he gets married to one day have a son. A son that he can take fishing, a son that he can teach to burp, a son that he can pass on all of the manly traits that he received from his own father. When our son was born, B and I were just in amazement over every little thing that he did. It wasn't long after our son was born that he began to want to be just like his Daddy. Every thing that Daddy did, he wanted to do.

The other night at revival B went forward to pray. After a few seconds E went up to the altar and knelt right beside his Dad. Nothing was said. No words were spoken between them, and when they came back to sit down, B had his arm around E's shoulders. Yesterday I asked E about it. I wanted to make sure that he was OK and didn't need any extra help understanding things. He told me that he was fine, he just wanted to go and pray with his Dad and ask God to help his Dad with whatever he was praying about. I tell ya, I had a hard time keeping back the tears. It's hard sometimes watching my kids grow up. As a Mom I just want to protect them from all of the horrible things in the world. I want them to stay young and innocent. It hit me yesterday though, after my conversation with E. It's going to be OK. I'm not saying that B and I have it all together by any means, but somewhere we must have done something right. By keeping our eyes on our Heavenly "Dad" we have shown our kids how to follow Him, by first having them follow us. Not a bad deal if you ask me. And besides, with a role model like B, E is sure to grow into a smashing young man.

Right?!?

Good Ole' Fashioned Revival

Our church is holding revival this week. It's been on schedule for months and lots of prayers have been said. It seems like ages since we've had a clear direction for our church and that is our quest with this revival. Our evangelist is not an old fellow, but he sure preaches like one. When he stepped into the pulpit last night he was very quiet and monotone. I was a little worried about how he would keep our interest. It didn't take long to realize that my worries were in vain. He preached on the scripture in Genesis about Isaac having to re-dig the well that his father had dug because their enemies had filled them in. He related it to us having to throw out some of the "new" ways that we try to live as Christians and get back to the ways that we were taught. It was really good stuff. E and K set very still and quiet and listened the whole time. I am really looking forward to the rest of the week.

I wonder though if this type of service would work outside of this area. It sometime seems that we are so far buried in the "bible belt" that we can not see the real world. The sign outside of my home church reads, "We do not change the message....the message changes us". I totally agree with this statement. In a time when it is just politically incorrect to speak God's truth we need to hold true to the gospel message and NOT compromise. That being said, I think we have to change the way the message is presented. Most people will not listen to old school preaching like we have this week at our church. To them it seems trite and non-relateable. Instead we have to find ways to live our lives that show the truth.

Whatever the answer, I am anxious to see what the results of this week are.

Weekend FUN!

Doesn't this look fun?? After weeks of planning our trip to Busch Gardens it was a complete success!! YEA! For weeks E planned every aspect of our tip. Where we would go first, what shows we would see, where we would eat...the kid was a planning machine! He even went to Busch Gardens online and took virtual rides on all of the coasters so he would know what to expect. Sure looks like he knew what to expect in that picture, huh?? Poor kid...he was completely terrified. Not just a little scared, but completely terrified. He was shaking so badly when we got off this ride that he had an asthma attack and had to use his inhaler. Fun huh??

Now, K on the other hand, while being as completely terrified as her brother was thrilled with her first roller coaster ride. She loved being scared, go figure?! She was all set to ride another one and loved it more than the first. Poor E, being out done by his little sister. It was a typical day for E though. He walked around all day talking about "G" forces and speed rates. He simply HAS to analyze everything, it's just how he deals.

All in all it was a wonderful day...