God Loves Me the Way I Am!

We recently bought an 8-passenger van for our family. It is not new, but "new" to us. We used to have a 15-passenger van but we are downsizing due to kids growing up and moving out. We have 12 children, but only 6 live at home now. It is definitely different! In addition to buying a new van, I recently bought a new camera with some money that I had been saving for 1 1/2 years from cleaning houses. When I brought the van home from the dealership all the kids were excited to see it and I wanted to take a picture of it so that I could share it with the rest of the family. The kids are exploring the van and I am walking out to the van with my camera. I hear one of my kids say, "Why does she always have to take pictures of everything?" I don't think he realizes that I am old but I still have really good ears! I told him that his comment really discouraged me, that I just enjoyed taking pictures. I told him that I loved my family, I love nature, flowers, clouds, sunsets, and that is why I like to take pictures. That is just the way God made me. So I told him that when he makes a comment like that is just takes the joy out of what I like doing. I don't think my little speech made any kind of a profound impression on him but maybe he will think about it in the future. Well, here is one of the pictures that I took with my somewhat reluctant children!

That night as I was reading a devotional before I went to bed, I came across a verse that really encouraged me. It was Zechariah 3:17: "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." I read that last part and it made me so happy to see that God rejoices over me with singing. He knows all about me, he created me with a love for taking pictures and somehow I can use that love for glorifying God. Now if I can just be patient for the glory of God as people keep interrupting me while I am trying to write this. I have not written anything in my blog for over 2 years and I have missed it, but don't know if it will happen very often at this pace! I probably need to work more on patience or writing in the morning before anyone gets up.

My mom's having heart surgery!

Well, I decided to journal about my trip to AZ and to write something while I was there as well. I found out that my mom was having surgery at 10 p.m. on 1-24-2012. So, when she called and told me that her surgery would be the next day at 1 p.m. I started looking at flights with Southwest. I looked at Priceline, but none of their deals could get me there in time to see my mom before her surgery and I really wanted to be there before her surgery. It's very hard not to entertain the idea that this might be the last time I see my mom if she doesn't make it throught he surgery. So, I booked a flight with Southwest for $466 round trip, coming home February 15th. I don't think that's too bad of a price for practically the same day flight. Priceline was $320.

Spent a lot of time sending e-mails and updating facebook with the details of mom's surgery the next day. Doing laundry, packing, checkbook stuff, and making sure I can access our accounts while I'm in AZ. Said goodbye to Paul when he got up at 2 a.m. to go to work at FedEx. Slept from 3-4 p.m. Got up. Jim switched to the couch so I could turn the lights on in the bedrooma and finish packing for the trip. Our little puppy is howling. He just got taken out to the bathroom (I think he peed on the porch because it is raining really hard and Daniel probably didn't want to walk out in the yard with him) and he doesn't want to be put back in his kennel, but it is raining really hard, along with the thunder and lightning, so he is probably scared too. But he finally quiets down when he sees no one is going to rescue him. I am packing and I realize that I took Cindy Casper's labcoat home with me and I have not sewed the hem or switched her buttons around like I said I would. She needed it for class that day. Around 4:30 a.m. I got out my sewing machine and sewed the hem and the did the buttons. It only took about 15 minutes. I was going to wash it since it had a definite "dissection" smell. But I can't do everything. :o)

I woke Jim up at 5 a.m. and then I noticed that we had a leak by the entertainment center. I got a towel to soak up what was on the floor and then I got two buckets, one to put on top of the entertainment center and one to catch the drops right beside it on the floor. It must really be raining hard! I don't know if we are still classified as being in a drought situation, but we haven't got that much rain in a long time! (I heard later that we got over 6 inches of rain at our house!)

We left the house at around 5:30 a.m. to head to the airport.

There are some stories that you just have to write about before you forget about them, and this is one of them.

We just got a new puppy on Thursday, January 19th, and of course, we are working on potty training him. He's doing really well and I have learned that he does a lot of his business after he eats. So, I fed him, and I am outside waiting for him. He went pee and I am waiting for the poop part. Sorry to be so graphic but it pertains to the story! Well, Tom brings me the phone in the backyard to talk to my mom who is in the hospital, but he forgets to shut the back door. While I am engrossed in a conversation with my mom, the puppy went in the house and pooped right inside the door on the tile. I finished talking to my mom, went to find the puppy, and see that he has pooped in the house. So, I clean that up and take the puppy in the backyard, and discover John is in the backyard, has taken his pants and underwear off, and he is pooping in the backyard!

"Wait a minute," I am thinking, "something is messed up here! My dog is pooping in the house, and my 3 yos is pooping in the yard!" And I thought I was DONE potty training, but not quite. I started potty training John on 5-21-2011 (I don't know why that date is so engrained in my mind!) and this day is 1-23-1012. Up until a few weeks ago, we were still setting an alarm and taking him to the bathroom, so at least he is finally taking the initiative to go to the bathroom on his own. I just never invisioned this scenario!

A few more snow pictures!

I have a few other snow pictures to post that are worth posting. Hope you enjoy them!



This is Mark's dog, Trooper, in the snow. He was so frisky that day and he ate a lot of snow that day too! After he ate some snow, he was shivering so hard that we felt sorry for him and let him come inside until he warmed up.





These are some pictures I took of a cardinal in our yard. Not as pretty as the cardinals in Grandma's snowy yard in IL, but it was still pretty!



This was a block of ice that had frozen in a bucket. We turned it upside down to get the ice out and it looked like a trash can made out of ice!



A snowball to the head!

Snow in Texas?

February 4th, 2011 was an amazing day! We woke up to snow covering our land with a blanket of white! The most fun thing to me is seeing how the kids react to it. Sarah ran to get the camera so she could take pictures of it before anyone stepped in it.



They were all upset when our neighbor drove his truck up the road and messed up the road with his tire tracks.



Mark walked up the hill in the tire tracks so as not to mess the snow up anymore than was necessary. They were just enjoying it and soaking it all in. Later in the day I saw Ben walking around and he told me, "I just feel like I have to walk everywhere and see it all before it melts." I just thought that was so sweet to see him enjoying it.



Our other neighbor tried going up the hill a few times but didn't make it out until later in the day, so everyone had fun watching various people drive up the hill. Our neighbor said he was going to the store to get kitty litter and we thought that was pretty unusual.

In the morning it was too powdery for it to stick together to make snowballs. Mark and I walked up to the top of the hill to see how much snow was there and then we went back to the house. We were analyzing all the animal tracks as we walked on the road. Mark even "made" his own mysterious tracks. Very funny! Can you guess who made the following tracks?











Everyone went back up the hill, but this time we brought some big tree buckets to try sliding down in. They were big enough for Jim and I to get in too. It was fun, but someone had to pretty much push you all the way down the hill or you would stop pretty soon once they stopped pushing. But I think the kids had a lot of fun anyway! Jim went with us but you could tell he was cold!







Tom and I made a snowman, but it was mostly me. Tom made the middle of the snowman and I made the top and the bottom part. He came out and I told him if he wanted to help me, then he needed to put on some shoes because he had been walking around everywhere without his shoes and no mittens. So, he told me, "Well, I guess I'm going inside then." So off he went into the house. I guess he cared more about being barefoot than about being with me. Oh well! At that moment it was Tom's way or the highway! Some of the kids came out and helped me decorate the snowman. Notice he is making the longhorn symbol!



I was planning on taking some pictures of the kids with the snowman, but after I took 2 pictures of the snowman he unexpectedly fell forward and that was the end of him! He had a clean snow veneer that I had put on the front because underneath he was really a mixture of snow, dirt, grass and leaves! So, when he fell over, he lost his clean veneer for the pictures! LOL (Oh, and I gave up on Tom with his shoes and mittens because he walked around all day like that. It was go outside and get cold to the point of red hands and feet, then come inside by the fire and get warm, outside, inside, etc.) But later, Tom and I made a tiny snowman and decorated him with cedar tree berries, a little piece of pointy carrot that I carved, a wreath made from morning glory vines, a little feathery grass top, and some twigs with berries on them. It turned out really cute. He helped me walk around and collect stuff for it and he made it from clean snow that he had collected. So we still made a snowman together, just a small one!





The kids had fun throwing snowballs at each other.









Regressing back to the morning, the kids took John outside in his footy pajamas. I don't think it was a good experience because he got really cold and started crying. I told them to take him inside and we would get him officially dressed, along with shoes and his coat. So, we get him dressed and I try to put on his mittens and he just starts crying like he realizes that he is going outside and he doesn't want to. It was so funny! I just wanted to take some pictures of him outside in the snow and he is mad and doesn't even want to look at me!







We are definitely not outfitted for snow. No wool socks, no good snow mittens, etc. So, I got my pictures and we went inside. He seemed to enjoy looking outside at it from the inside though.



He calls it "snowf" so it sounds really cute. Even today he is saying "snowf gone". He is starting to put two words together at a time. My little baby is growing up! Sniff, sniff!

I forgot to tell you that they saved all the snow on the trampoline and then they jumped on it at one time. By the time they got done, they were just covered with snow! Looks like fun. I kept thinking someone was going to hit their head or something like that, but everyone survived! I tried to upload the trampoline video but it does not want to load, so I will have to try some other way for you to see it. It is 2 1/2 minutes, so maybe it is too long to load. Frustrating! I might add a few more random pictures at some point that are pretty interesting.

Love all of you,

Darlene

Unnatural Fear?

Sarah and I spent some time together today running errands. We went out to Miss Carol's mother's place to get some peacock feathers for Lacey Medina's wedding album. But we had to vote on the way there, go to the post office, drop something off for Celeste at the BPRC. We were laughing, because if it wasn't on my list of things to do, I had to write it on the paper and then cross it off. Well, Sarah mentioned that we should go out for lunch before I headed to AZ. I said, "Yeah, we should spend some time together before I die in a plane crash!" Of course, I'm half joking and the other half is seriously how I feel. As I have gotten older, I seem to think more about all the catastrophic scenarios that can happen along the way. I said, "I wonder what would happen if I got on the plane with a parachute on my back?" I mean I don't think anything will happen on this flight, but just in case. I would probably be arrested as a terrorist instead of the worried passenger that I am! But I learned that Rebekah and I are kindred spirits in the worrying department. I remember when we lived in FL, there was a particular bridge that we always had to cross over and I would always practice in my mind what I would do if the bridge were to collapse. I would unlock my seatbelt as the car was falling, then decide which one I would get out first. Of course, at THAT time I had 4 children under the age of 5.

Well back to our errands. After we got our peacock feathers and worrying about what if a mouthy horse would bite Sarah or if Red Cloud would somehow kick her as she steps into the stall, we went to Subway to eat. We met a cute older man that didn't go out to eat very much and he had one tooth on the top in the middle of his mouth. The lady was waiting on 4 of us at a time and she slopped the mayo and mustard in mostly just one place because she was in such a hurry. As she is wrapping it up, I see the mayo and mustard slopping out of the middle and towards the front of the sandwich. Then it was off to Wal-mart to buy butter, lettuce and gum (Although I ended up getting mints!). Then to BCOC to pick up the backpack that Benjamin and Elisabeth had forgotten there the day before. Then to the junkyard to get bolts for our van window that had fallen out. So, Sarah and I got a tour of the junkyard and got to walk all the way to the back of the junkyard to where the vans were where we found a very close model of our club wagon. I refrained from picking up every nut, bolt, screw, and washer that I saw like Jim has taught me. I did pick up one bolt! We went back to the shop and waited for our parts. He told me they would be $10, but I said how about $5, and he said that would be fine. Jim told me I did good when we got home, that I had brains and beauty all wrapped up into one! Sarah and I had a good time while we were out and then it was on to the packing for my trip.

I did realize one thing just now - I don't really worry about John being carried off by a coyote! But I don't know why?

Miscommunication Comedy

This is on the subject of John knowing how to unlock the doors by himself and get outside. Jim and I are concerned about the fact that he might get outside without our knowledge and get hurt. So, one day last week we were discussing what kind of lock we were going to put on the door to keep him from opening it and going outside by himself. There were several different opinions and then Daniel said, "I have an idea." So Jim says, "See, Daniel probably has a different idea." Then, Daniel says sarcastically, "I think we should have no lock on the door." So then Jim starts telling us a story about a little boy that gets carried off by a coyote and how we are doing this for John's safety - I don't remember the whole story correctly. Well, then several of us start smiling and kind of chuckling which sets Jim off on a spiel about how he doesn't think it is funny that John could get carried off by a coyote. Well, when he started saying this again, I just couldn't hold it in anymore and went from a smile to a full burst of laughter! Poor Jim! I told him I could explain why I was laughing and he said he would really like to hear it because he would like to know why I thought it was funny that John could get carried off by a coyote. Hearing that again just started me off again into this unstoppable burst of laughter and I couldn't even talk anymore about it. I actually asked him if I could go spend the day with Rebekah, so I went and did that, all the while trying to think about how I could explain why I was laughing and how I still loved my little son! :o) I left the house around 1:30 and I got home around 8 p.m. So, when I got home I was able to explain to him why I was laughing. It was obviously not the fact that I didn't love my son or that I thought the lock was a bad idea, in fact, I was on board with putting the lock on the door. I told him that when I think of something happening to John, him getting carried off by a coyote is probably way down on the list of possibilities and it seemed so unlikely, that that was why I was laughing. Plus, when he kept saying this thing that seemed unlikely to happen, it just set off my funny bone. I told him that when I thought of the dangers, I thought of him wandering off and getting lost, going down the driveway and into the road and getting hit by a car, stepping into an ant pile. getting stung by bees, climbing up the steep stairs and falling out of the tree house, finding a snake, etc. But I never really thought of John being carried off by a coyote. I guess I was thinking of the things that could happen during the day. Not that it couldn't happen, it just wasn't on my radar. But I guess it would be more likely to happen if he got out at night. So, he said he understood and we had a good laugh about it! But for the first few days, every time I thought about him saying that statement, I would just start laughing out loud!

We have affectionately named it the "coyote lock"!



There could be a coyote on the other side of that thar door!