Hurricane Gustav

We are in the cross-hairs of Hurricane Gustav. Within the past 30 minutes or so, we have started to get some rain and some wind. God willing, we will come out of this without too much damage.

If you don't mind ... please, PLEASE say some extra prayers for everyone in South Louisiana. We could use them right about now. I'll update when I'm able to.

To all of my friends that live here... I will be praying for you and for your families. Take all of the necessary precautions and stay safe. I pray too for all of the families that have had to evacuate from their homes, for the officials that are making the decisions that impact our safety, for anyone and everyone involved with this situation in any way at all with this storm.

Pastor Dino prayed this with us this morning at church and I found it very comforting, so I thought I would share it here.

Psalm 23
A psalm of David.

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Huh???

Is this a little odd??

Our across the street neighbor seems a bit anal about his grass. He pays someone to come out weekly and cut their yard... and the people who cut it do a great job!

So, I noticed yesterday that the grass cutting people were out there cutting our neighbors yard. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Today, as I am sitting here typing, I look out of the window and there is our neighbor...cutting his grass... AGAIN!!!

Now. I know with all the rain we have been having lately the grass is growing pretty fast... but not literally overnight!!!!!!

For some reason that is just cracking me up!! Why pay someone to cut the grass, if you are just going to go outside, sweat like a pig and cut it again the very next day?!?!?!?!? LOL!!!!

Crazy Kid... Part 1

Soooooooooooo what do you think this is???

Give up yet???? You have? Ok then, I'll tell you!

Ryan LOVES his pacifer... or as we call it around here, his "noonie." Lots of kids do, right? Well, Ryan is just a bit different from the average kid. Not only does he have a noonie to suck on... he also has one that he carries around in his hand. He affectionately calls it his "ah-wah noonie." When he was learning to talk, he was trying to say "other" noonie, and it came out sounding like "ah-wah."

As if that isn't strange enough, he likes his "ah-wah" to be sticky and yucky, LOL!! The older and more torn up it is... the better he likes it. Gross, I know!!

Anyway, Wednesday we were getting to go out and about ... I was in my room putting on my makeup when all of a sudden Ryan comes tearing in my room, hysterical!! He said he had torn a piece of his "ah-wah noonie" and stuck it up his nose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I kinda freaked out. I looked up his nose, thinking if I could see it at all, I would get my tweezers and pull it out. WRONG!! It was so far up his nose, there was nothing showing at all... not even a little edge of it.

He was so scared and was saying he couldn't breathe!! We were about to head to the doctor's office for help... when I got some tissue and told him to blow his nose as hard as he could. He did as I asked. Nothing. I told him to do it again... but to do it even harder.

He blew and blew... FINALLY the darn thing came out.

We were both so relieved. Once I knew he was ok, I fussed him good!!! I said I was going to throw his "ah-wah" away... which only brought on more hysterics. So, I took it from him and put it high up in a cabinet where he will never be able to get to it.

So, yep you guessed it! That odd looking thing in the above picture is the piece of his "ah-wah" noonie that went nose diving!

Good lord, what was the child thinking?!?!?!! He has never been one to put things in his mouth... much less his nose!! Kids... geeezzzzzzzzzzzzz!! No wonder my hair is turning gray!!!

Better Late Than Never, Right?!!?

My sweet Lane is now officially a 4th grader!!!!!!! How did that happen?? Where did the past 9 1/2 years go???

Lane went back to school on Aug. 8th!! His first day back at school went really well. Notice the booksack in the picture... it has wheels!! The school board policy states that starting in 4th grade, the kids can use booksacks with wheels, so Lane had to get one! He is pretty excited about it :-) Cute huh?

Lane is going to a new school this year. Thankfully lots of kids from his old school were moved to the new one too, so he knows a lot of kids already. Our parish is busting at the seams so the school board had to have a couple more schools built.

I'm not too sure what I think about the new school... as of now they don't have a playground, they have a library that is still being "worked" on and it has no books in it, they don't have an intercom system or a bell system. Seems to me like they built a big building and stuck a bunch of kids in it!

Anyway... Lane seems to like his teachers. His favorite teacher is Mrs. Teepell, his homeroom teacher and his science teacher, which is awesome because science is his favorite class. She really does seem nice!! This year, since he is in the 4th grade, he has three different teachers and switches classes a couple of times a day. Of course he has homework Monday-Thursday nights but they are nice and don't assign homework to them on Fridays! Thanks teachers :-)

It really doesn't seem possible for Lane to be in 4th grade and it makes me sad. My baby is growing up!

Let's See If This Works For Me!!

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! It worked!!! I can post pictures!!

My friend, Dawn, came over today to see what was going on with me not being able to post pictures on my blog. Unlike me, she is really good at computer stuff! Apparently, the problem seems to be simple. For some reason, the pictures are just taking wayyyyyy longer than they used to to upload. We think... ok, Dawn thinks, that it would help to resize my pictures before I try to upload them... so I'll try to try that (LOL!) and see if it helps!!

So, for today... the lesson that Dawn taught me was to be patient!! We have been friends for around 12 years or so... I wish she would have taught me patience sooner... LOL!!! Thank you Sista Dawn for your help!! As always, you were a HUGE help!!!!!!!!!

Help!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, as some of you know... I really, REALLY stink when it comes to fixing problems with our computer or trying to figure out and fix what is wrong with a computer program.

So, I am asking... begging... for help. I am STILL not able to post pictures on my blog. It is making me extremely cranky, to say the least. However, when I try to use the "blogger help" thingie to try to get help with this problem... I have no luck, AT ALL. Does anyone know how to report a problem to Blogger? Or to find out if a problem has already been reported and when it should be fixed????

Getting REALLY Cranky ...

I am STILL not able to post pictures. According to "Blogger," this is a known issue and they are working on it. Geeezzzzzzzzzz how long could it possibly take?? I read lots of other peoples blogs and they are posting pictures constantly.

Uggghhhhhhhhhh just my luck...

Problems with Blogger?

I've been trying to post pictures tonight, and it doesn't seem to be working!! Gggrrrrrrrr it's frustrating me.

Anyway, check back tomorrow for pictures and to hear about Lane's first day of school... it was TODAY!!

The Chapman Family

As some of you know, back on May 21st tragedy struck the family of Christian musician, Steven Curtis Chapman. Maria Chapman, the youngest of their 6 children was killed in a horrible automobile accident. She was a tender 5 years old. What a beautiful little girl and she was such a light in this wonderful family...

Tonight on CNN's Larry King Show... Steven, MaryBeth and their three oldest children (William Franklin, Caleb, and Emily) appreared on the hour long show. They were asked some really tough, heart-wrenching questions during the show. I sat in utter amazement watching the interview unfold. The complete love, honesty, courage, strength and faith of the entire family was amazing to see and hear. There was also intense pain, but the overwhelming feeling you got from watching them was their faith in our Lord and love for each other. Do they understand why this happened to them? Of course not. But they do know that God has been there with them the entire time and that He has held them through every step of this tragedy. And, the three oldest children are wise beyond their years.

It would have been so easy, and completely understandable, for them to hide away from the rest of the world and not speak publicly about what happened to their family. But, they truly feel like that is not what God wanted for their family...they feel like this tragedy is a way to bring more people closer to God. If they pulled the covers over their heads and never spoke about it, we would never have witnessed such faith in the middle of such a deep, dark valley in all of their lives. In the midst of their grief, they are all still holding on strong to the love of God and to their faith in Him.

I pray that if, God forbid, I ever am in such a horrible, devestating valley, I am able to be half as courageous and faithful as they have been. Thank you Chapman family for sharing yourselves with us. You and your story are completely humbling and inspiring. This family and this tragedy have made a huge impact on me and have touched my heart deeply. They will remain in my prayers for a long, long time...

New Week!

This week has gotten off to a much better start than the week I had last week... thank goodness!!

This is the last week of summer vacation here. Our kids start back to school this Friday. The school board in all of it's infinite wisdom decided last year to re-district the school zones because of over crowding. Lane has been going to the same school from Kindergarten through 3rd grade. Now this year, thanks to the re-districting, Lane will be attending a brand new school. Which in itself is ok. The only problem I have with it is that his old school was literally, at most, one mile from our house. His new school is at least 5 miles from our house. Not that big of a deal compared to some places, I know. Plus, it's not only Lane that has to go to a new school. Approximately half of the old school's children will be going to the new one, so at least Lane will already have some friends there.

This week has been really nice so far. ALL of the kids that I babysit are on vacations with their families, so it's just me and my boys... which is awesome! Not that we are doing anything really fun or exciting, but its nice for us to be together without the extra kids around. Yesterday we (we= me, Ryan, Lauren, Baby James, and Brandon) went to WalMart to get some last minute things for school and today the same "we" went to the Dollar General for some odds and ends. Lane decided to stay home with his sissy, and Spencer has been at all day band camp at the high school.

Mike is really enjoying his new job. He has been working in the Computer/IT field for over 20 years, so this is WAY different for him... but he seems to really like it!! I've been sitting here tonight making a new bill paying schedule since his paydays will be different now than they were at his old job.

We had a nice weekend... Lane had worship team practice Saturday morning, then we dropped Blondie (aka Jennifer) off at work, then the boys got haircuts, did some stuff around the house, etc. Sunday we got up, went to church (which was awesome!), got home, I put a pot roast on to have for supper, then went shopping with my mom, she was looking for just the right sheets for her bed. I never knew there were so many rules about sheets!! LOL!! We really had fun! Usually she is a basket of nerves in that crazy store, but I managed to keep her laughing and we both had a good time :-)

Hope everyone is having a great week!!!

T.G.I.F

Yeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! It's FRIDAY!! We made it through another week, lol!!

My wonderful hubby started his new job today! He was a bit nervous but excited at the same time. Turns out, he isn't going to start off making the amount of money he thought he would be. It's still a little more than he was making at his previous job, and better but more affordable insurance. After the first 60 days at the new job there will be a salary increase... and then there are supposed to be two more increases coming within the first year. Sooooo... here we go on another of life's adventures :-) We live in South Louisiana and there are lots and lots of plants in this area, but it is hard - almost impossible- for people without "connections" to get hired at one of them. So, we know this is a HUGE blessing and we will be patient while we follow God's time-table and not our own.

Next up... my frustration. This is a sticky situation and I am going to try to not be mean about anyone in my post. Soooooooooo here goes! As you may know, I babysit a "friend" (her name is Michele) of mines daughter, Claire (plus another friends 3 kids) each day while she works. Anyway....... she gives me a hard time if for some reason I can't "work" on any given day for any reason. Like the time my son had to get a root canal or when my sister had her baby. Uggghhhhhhhhhh don't get me started! Anyway... she usually gets here around 6:45 am each morning. So I get up at around 6:30am, yuck!!! Well, she took off work today to help a friend get ready for a party and supposedly I was still going to babysit her daughter. It's 8:10 am and they STILL haven't gotten here... neither have the other three kids. No phone call... just nothing. The mom of the three kids is the one having the party.

Why is it that someone couldn't have had the decency to tell me yesterday that they would be late getting here so that I wouldn't have gotten up at the crack of dawn?????????? (Sorry about that Sista Dawn, lol) With every minute that ticks by, the more cranky I am getting. I can handle a lot of things, but plain old rudenss isn't one of them. Normally, since we are supposed to be friends, I try really hard to keep my mouth shut and just roll with stuff as it happens. But this is just ridiculous to me. Looks like I may have to speak up this time.

Ok, I'm done venting. Well, for now anyway! Thanks for listening!