Thurs, Fri, Sat May 25-27

Thursday--- the last day of school!!  Yahoo!  Everyone ended the year with good grades & a lot of joy!  Backpacks came home laden with leftover school supplies & sweet notes from teachers.  This was also my last day of work for the summer, so I'm out now, too!  The kids & I are looking forward to a full, fun summer!  I celebrated by getting together with a girlfriend & sitting at Whataburger talking til the wee hours of the night/morning.  :::Yawn:::  I love ya, Amber!

Friday--- Andrew's last art class of the year.  He came home with all sorts of neat things he's drawn, painted, etc over the course of the past few months.  Thank you Miss Jan!  We love you!  Art class has been such a sweet blessing!

Friday night was a movie night at church.  We all wore our PJ's & took blankets & pillows and watched Lady & the Tramp.  The kids were well-entertained & enjoyed getting to eat popcorn for supper.  (They did have a "side dish" of spaghetti & meatballs to commemorate the famous scene from the movie.)

Good news----a friend of Larry's (from his old job at Smith Co.) just finished some remodeling of their house.  They had about 300 sq. ft. of laminate wood flooring leftover, still in the box, unopened.   Guess what?  They're GIVING it to us to use in the new bathroom!  I am beyond elated.  We didn't even consider looking at it b/c we figured it would be too pricey.  What an enormous gift!  Thank you Cleo!!!

Saturday--- Today was Andrew's birthday party at the bowling alley.  I have pictures!  Email me to see them!  Between our 5 kids, 2 cousins & 2 friends plus all the adults that came with them, we filled up 2 lanes and took an hour + 15min. to bowl ONE game.  LOL!  Of course, the kids lost interest after about 40 minutes & the adults ended up finishing their game for them.  I did a little gymnastics move when I stepped on the slippery lane flooring at one point, but aside from that, there were no crazy moments & no injuries.  ha ha!  Andrew got a lot of goodies when he opened his gifts & enjoyed having a crowd of people there to clap & giggle when he blew out his candles.  We had a lot of fun.

Sadly, we came home & located one of our pet hermit crabs that has been missing for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, she was already dead.  Savannah & Andrew are in the back yard for a burial & cross-building at this moment.  Savannah's really sad about it.  Poor baby.  We will miss you, Lucy.  In her memory, I'm putting her picture at the top of this entry.

Larry is preaching a wedding this afternoon at 4:00 for some friends.  Congratulations Dustin & Jessica!  I am sorry that we can't all make it to the wedding, but I know it will be a beautiful day.  You are a sweet couple & I look forward to seeing you together for many years to come.

Wed May 24 #2

Today was Andrew's birthday.  The morning began with singing & chocolate cake with candles for breakfast.  Andrew was acting goofy, but I figured it was just that he was excited about it being his birthday, so I didn't think too much of it.  When he got done getting ready, he ran over & grabbed the 2 sacks that contained the boxes of cupcakes for his class today.  Of course, he didn't take into account that they needed to remain horizontal to keep the icing from getting stuck all over the top of the boxes.  :::sigh:::  I opened them up & sat the cupcakes back up but knew it was too late to fix them.  So we get into the car & drive to school, only to have him get out of the van & almost trip holding the boxes of cupcakes.  Thank goodness the PE coach was there & caught the boxes before they crashed to the ground!  I drove off laughing, thinking that we'd be lucky if ANY of those cupcakes made it to the classroom in one piece.

 

When I got home, I checked my email for about 5 minutes before Savannah called my cell phone to tell me she had forgotten something & needed me to bring it.  Knowing that I needed to go to the bank & post office too, I went ahead & grabbed those things before I left.  Got the things Savannah needed delivered, went to the bank drive thru and to the post office before I headed back home.  (oh, I also stopped at the donut shop for a pig in a blanket ....that chocolate cake breakfast was already wearing thin & I was feeling shaky....nothing like a good blood sugar drop to round out the morning!)  So anyway, I did all that & headed home.  Two blocks from our house, a cat ran out in front of me.... I hit it....and killed it.  I felt just AWFUL but there was no way I could've stopped in time when it darted out in front of me.  I went 2 houses down, turned around & went back to see the owner (a teenaged boy!) walking out toward the street.  I think he saw the whole thing, so I HOPE that he realizes I tried to stop.  I told him how sorry I was & drove home feeling like a horrible pet murderer.

 

I had several things waiting on me at home so I got started on the dishes when the phone rang.  A girlfriend from church was calling.  I am her accountability partner & last night she was going to take care of some things we've been talkingabout, so I was expecting that she'd call this morning to tell me how it went.  She was driving though & her phone kept cutting out, so we had to hang up & call back several times before we finally gave up.  While I was talking to her I found Andrew's Concerta {his ADHD medicine} on the kitchen table where he had been sitting this morning.  (which explains the goofy way he was acting this morning....I should've known better!!)  So off I go again, getting back into the car to take him his medicine at school.  By the time I got done with that, it was 11:40.  My kids usually eat lunch around 11:00, so they were getting whiney.  It hit me that we are out of lunch meat & only one of them likes PB&J....we're out of fish sticks & chicken nuggets.....no soup in the house....ugh, so Burger King it is.  I grabbed them some chicken strips & a salad for me and headed back home.

 

We ate quickly & I hopped into the shower.  Before I got in, I made sure to reenforce to the girls how they did NOT need to answer the phone or the door if someone called/knocked........and apparently they actually heard me this time!  By the time I stepped out of the shower, the cell phone was ringing---and it was Larry calling to tell me that the electrician would be arriving in 5 minutes to look at the wiring for the new bathroom.  EEEEEKKKK!  I was still wrapped in a towel with dripping hair at that point!  I quickly threw on some clothes & combed my wet hair before he arrived-----but during that 2 minutes, the phone rang 3 (yes, count 'em---THREE) times!

 

The electrician came & did his thing (INSIDE the house might I add...where it looks like a tornado has hit 2 or 3 times).  He left & I went back to return all the phone calls that came during that 5 minute span while I was trying to get dressed & dried off.  I have finally finished that now...and I've got an hour til time to go get the kids from school.   

 

Phew......a mother's job is never done!  LOL!

 

When I picked them up after school, we went straight over to Toys R Us for Andrew to pick out a new bike (his birthday present) & then had to stop at Walgreen's for some stuff to put on Samuel's hand.  {By the way, he's had some weird "thing" on his hand for about a week.  Please pray that it goes away soon!}  By then it was supper time, so we had to get fast food (yuck...twice in one day!) & head on to church.

 

Boy, I CRASHED when I finally slowed down for bed.

Wed May 24

Happy Birthday Andrew!!!!!!!!!!

Today, Andrew is 8 years old!  I don't know every detail of his birth or for that matter even his birth time & weight/length......but I know him now & am honored to have that privelege.

If you'd like to send him an e-card to my email address, feel free!  I know he'd love to get one.  I've already got 3 sitting in my inbox waiting for him.  Will show those to him tonight before church.  :)

My email address is:  Lizreeves2@aol.com

Legal Update from Larry

Hello Yawl,

This is from Larry.  Just wanted to give an update on the legal stuff as far as it relates to the kids.  As you know, (or know now) G had a Attorney General Child Support Case.  This was filled while they lived in Coryell County, Texas.  At the time of the wreck they lived in Anderson County, Texas.  She died legally in Smith County, Texas.  We took custody of the kids and moved them to Smith County where we live.  Because of the prior involvement of the Attorney General in the kids lives, they now have legal standing to say where the kids go.    We have to involve them and "do it right" with them or they could make our lives heck.  The could step in and take them.  Our attorney says that we are doing things right.  they may want a home study at some point.  They have more standing than I have as an Uncle. 
Because of all of this, we had to do two different things.  We had to file a case in Coryell Count requesting the AG to move their case to Smith Count where the kids live now.  G consented to this because he does have some say in how this plays out.  He is cooperating with us and helping us out.  The judge in Coryell County was about to sign the transfer papers when some assistant attorney general walked in and filled a bunch of enforcement, G's case was one of them.  that stopped our transfer.  it took about 3 weeks for us to track that guy down and get him dismiss the case.  it took him a few more days to think about it.  he then agreed as long as we signed a statement that the enforcement would be handled in Smith County.  We all agreed.  Had this not happened I would have had to pay our attorney to travel down there for a hearing.  for him and his assistant to travel is 300.00 per hour plus I pay his expenses.  Argue!!!  thank you Lord for fixing this one as well.  so now we are waiting on the file from Coryell County to be mailed here and filled in.  our case will be handled in the 321 District Court - the Hon. Carol Clark.  Once the case is filled in it should only take a month or more to get on the docket.
thanks to everyone for reading along,
Larry

PS - Write a will.  Get life insurance.  Tell someone where your stuff is.

Thursday May 18

Since A&K moved in, our biggest "issue" has been between Andrew & Savannah.  They are both very strong-willed, independant, hard-headed firstborns who want to be in CONTROL.  Of course, we all know that can't work.  Two people trying to steer the car doesn't work well.  I have had people praying for the 2 of them to get along, become friends & establish a relationship.  I've prayed & prayed myself, but haven't felt like we were getting anywhere.

Last night, on the way to church, we were listening to the CD of Savannah's choir music (for a performance she has on Sunday night).  One of the songs is about Romans 16:19-20.  It says "Be excellent at what is good, be innocent of evil.  And the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet."

While we listened to that, God spoke to me saying that He was going to soon crush Satan (this horrible spirit of defensiveness & arguing in my house!!!) under my feet!  I was crying by the time I reached the church & the kids were wondering what the heck was up with mom.  LOL!  I realize the verse is speaking to a much BIGGER crushing of Satan, but for now, in my household, I know that it's purely spiritual warfare going on & once we can defeat Satan entirely, the wars will end!  Sure, they're still siblings who will fight now & then, but this constant sense of "one-upmanship" & nit-picking won't be such an issue.  What a mighty God we serve.  He's active in even the little victories around here!

Speaking of victories...... we got the bathroom framed up today!  About 7 hours into it, a board that was propped against the house fell over, knocking the faucet off the wall to the house exterior, broke the pipe & water started spraying everywhere!!!  Luckily, our builder was still here & knew how to fix it!  He wasn't sure if the way he did it would work, but PRAISE GOD, it held!  If it had not, we would've had to cap off the line & spend the next several weeks in a laundrymat as the washer & that faucet were on the same line!  Yikes!

Once that was fixed, they finished up the framework & called it a day!  Thank you Don, Daddy & Larry for building me a new bathroom!!!  I can't wait to see it finished!!

I'm attempting to include a picture with this entry.  If it doesn't work, you'll know it b/c the picture will be missing!!  If it does work, well then....voila!  It's a pic I took of Kourtney & I yesterday.  Enjoy!

 

Tuesday May 16

We had a fun evening!

The girls were all invited to a birthday party for a little girl from church.  They went to Piddlin' Pottery & were able to paint their own piece of pottery (All 3 girls chose a piggy bank of some kind---2 dog-shaped ones & 1 pig).  Since that was for the girls (& really....can you picture my 2 bull in a china shop boys in this nice little pottery place??  HA HA), we dropped the boys off at McDonald's with some friends & took off.  The girls had a ball painting & playing with a bunch of silly, giggly, squealing little girls.  When we got finished, we went back to McD's, picked up the boys & headed home.  The boys had a little over an hour to run & play like wild monkeys so they had fun, too!

This morning I called & scheduled Andrew's birthday party.  He's been talking about a bowling party ever since he moved in.  (Tomorrow will be 3 months that they've been here---and he's talked about a bowling party the whole time!)  We've told him all along that we'd check into the price & see if we could do it, but we haven't made any promises.  Although it's a hair more pricey than the parties we've done in the past, it'll be worth it.  He'll be sooo tickled when I tell him this afternoon that he can definately have a bowling party.  It'll be Saturday the 27th at 10:00am.

Still running that around in my mind..... 3 months already.  Wow.... the time has flown by.  I guess when you stay crazy nutso busy, time really does fly by.  :)

Monday May 15

This weekend, I bought the new Mercy Me CD called "Coming Up to Breathe".  So far, I really like it.  There is one song in particular that I've fallen in love with.  It's sooooo  exactly where my heart is, so I wanted to share the lyrics here.

Bring the Rain

I can count a million times/People asking me how I can praise You with all that I've gone through/ The question just amazes me.  Can circumstances possibly/Change who I forever am in You?  Maybe since my life was changed long before these rainy days, it never really ever crossed my mind/To turn my back on You on Lord./  My only shelter from the storm.  But instead I draw closer through these times/So I pray

Chorus:  Bring me joy, bring me peace.  Bring the chance to be free.  Bring me anything that brings You glory.  And I know there'll be days, When this life brings me pain, But if that's what it takes to praise You, Jesus bring the rain!

I am Yours regardless of the dark clouds that may loom above./Because You are much greater than my pain./You who made a way for me, by suffering Your destiny.  So tell me what's a little rain?  So I pray   (repeat chorus)

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty!