An A and an M and a big T

Yesterday Rebecca wanted to wear her Aggie shirt and black leggings to school with her pink crocs and who knows what in her hair. I vetoed the shoes and hair decor, but allowed the "outfit." As I was brushing her hair she said, "I wanna wear this shirt 'cause this is my football shirt and I love football! I watch football with Daddy. See, it has an A and an M and a big T, and that spells football!"
Today she may be right.
You definitely don't spell it A-r-k-a-n-s-a-s.
Sigh.
At least half our household is happy.

Reflections on the Journey

Doesn't that sound poetic? Actually I just have some thoughts that have been rattling around in my head since last week's "Journey," which is what Mike calls their weekly campus worship time. Since this week's Journey starts in 45 minutes, I thought it was now or never.
First of all, our new worship band rocks. I love them. And our bass guitarist lost his mother in a motorcycle accident last Saturday, which breaks my heart. So the band wasn't there last week, and we used Youtube videos for backup instead. We were singing Revelation Song, which I learned of through Margo, and here's what I wondered. I've often liked to think that when a group of Christians are honestly singing praises to God, the angels just might be singing along. This time, I was thinking about how those are the actual words recorded in Scripture as being sung around the throne, and I thought, "What if all of heaven is singing along with us? My Dad, and Mike's Dad, and Sydney, our baby, and Mandy, our grandparents, even Laura Ingalls Wilder? (and yes I think she was a Christian)" It made me happy to imagine that.
Mike spoke on priorities that night, and told the students that the way they can know what their number one priority is, is to look at how they spend their time. He told how many hours there are in a week, and asked, "How many of those are set aside for God?" Now I've heard that question dozens of times, at least. As a high school student, college student, single and married school teacher and mom. I looked around at those students and thought what I always think, "Yeah, but they have to go to class, so of course that's going to have the most time..." And that's when it hit me, the big revelation of the obvious: God gets those hours, too! You take Him with you to class, work, errands, etc. It's like I finally meshed the "don't compartmentalize" sermons with the "God is your #1 priority" sermons, and it all made sense. Luke 10:21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure."

Fair Week!

We had another crazy-busy week, this time because in addition to home-school and BCM and AWANA, we had the County Fair! We had so much fun with it, even though it was pretty small compared to others we've been to.
It started off on Monday, with baking and baking and baking. That night we went to the parade, which was 2 bands (the local high school and the local college), fire trucks (we all hoped the small towns around us didn't have any fires between 5 & 6 on Monday night, 'cause all the firemen & trucks were in the parade!), and a whole lot of beauty queens on cars. We had a great time, mostly because we went with friends! Here are the girls waiting for the parade to start.
And here they are yelling and waving at one of the beauty queens.

On Tuesday we entered Jessica's famous chocolate chip muffins, and she won first prize! That night before BCM we ran over to enter some cookies in another contest, but didn't get any prizes in that one.

On Wednesday we entered Mikayla's apple cake, and she won first prize, too!

On Friday we took a family field trip to see the animals and exhibits. It took us one whole hour! ;) It was great being there without the crowds, and getting to handle so many of the animals. Even during the day, with most people at work or school, we still saw people we knew, and saw entries from people we knew. So different from a year ago, when we didn't know a soul, and came home feeling a little lost! Jessica got to help this guy move the ducklings from their cage to their water. And we got to hold a chick,
and pet a cow,
and a pig!

Friday night Jessica spent the night with friends and Mikayla had 2 friends sleep over, but we traded back around 2 and took the girls to ride rides. It was only about 85 degrees, but felt SO HOT! We had a lot of fun, though. I love seeing them have fun.


We treated ourselves to sno-cones to cool off.
It was a fast and furious week, but a good one. I have other things to write about floating around in my head, but blogger was giving me so much trouble this weekend, they may have to wait. I couldn't even leave any comments, so I've got some catching up to do!

I remember Sydney

I can't help thinking about Sydney on the day of her death homegoing. For details about how she died, go here.
I think it's important to remember, but I want to remember her, today, not that horrible day. Because that day makes me cry, but my memories of Syd make me smile--and even laugh.
I remember sharing music with her in the choir, and the way she bobbed up and down on her toes when she sang. And how frustrated we used to make our music minister by talking in choir practice!
I remember the 70's party at her house.
I remember the way her eyes lit up her face when she was teasing somebody or laughing...which was often.
I remember the mission trip to Bland, West Virginia, and how she kept singing "dueling banjos," and teasing Ken Woods ("where's my rag?").
I remember telling her and Jaynanne that Mike had proposed, and how they squealed for me. During choir practice. :)
I remember listening to her sing.
I tried to find a picture of her online, but couldn't, and I don't have a scanner. This Wedgwood memorial is the closest I could find.

See you soon, Syd!

Weekend Update

Well, Ike has come and gone! It was pretty windy, but the only "damage" we had was some door decorations. Oh, and we have a white board leaning against our fireplace, and a big gust of wind blew it onto the floor and made us all jump! We hardly got any rain--much less than Gustav. We even let the girls play in it, see?

Mike's sister called and said they lost several trees--one fell right on the power lines going to the house, and one tore some siding off, but none fell on the house. She said they were pretty scared overnight, and they don't know when the power will be fixed, but they're all okay. We haven't heard from Mike's brother who lives in Beaumont, but he probaby hasn't been back to see his house yet, anyway.
We had tragic BCM news. One of our students--bass player in our praise band--lost his mother in a motorcycle accident yesterday. It just breaks my heart. Pray for Austin.
My friend Margo's healthful habits are rubbing off on me a little. Yesterday the girls and I made these "homemade Cheezits"!
(Click here for a cheddar cracker recipe. *hint* If they're too dry to roll, add water 1 Tbsp. at a time.) They're not shaped like fish, but they're delicious, and they don't have a smidge of high fructose corn syrup or MSG! ;) Oh, and Margo, have you seen the Great Value cream soups labeled "Healthy 4 You"? They don't have any MSG either!
One more thing...our sweet kitty is missing. Mike hasn't seen Griz since Wednesday, and we all miss him.

You know it's bad when they postpone the Arkansas/Texas game!

Weellll...we didn't go to Houston. My Aggie husband would say, "I'm not a smart man, but I know what a hurricane is." We decided Wednesday night not to go, so I stayed an extra night with my Mom, and came home today after lunch. Her friends are bringing her supper and a movie tonight, and one of them will sleep over, so I think she's going to be fine, and I thought I'd better get home while I still could! Last night Mike called at 10:30 from Magnolia and said he was on his way to buy gas, because prices were supposed to jump and Camden (~30 minutes away) was completely out. He said the Walmart gas station was happenin'. Well, I wasn't about to drive into town by myself after dark to get gas, so I promised him I would get up and go first thing this morning. And I did, even before I washed my hair! And I pulled right up to the pump and paid $3.49, same as it had been the day before. I chuckled at my silly husband. Then, after lunch, we passed a gas station on our way out of town: $4.69!!!!! In 5 hours!!! Crazy. The drive home was great, except for the last 30 minutes, when we had our first tiny little taste of Ike. It was pouring down driving rain, with pretty scary wind gusts whipping the trees around, and small debris all over the road. I was glad to get home! And now it's cloudy, but calm.
Mike's brother Jeff and his family have evacuated from Beaumont; please pray for protection for their house, which did receive some damage from Rita.
Mike's mom and sister Jeannie and her family are not evacuating from where they live, which is actually north of Houston and not under evac. orders. They're going to ride it out, so please pray for their safety!
Ike's forecasted route used to go right over us, but the last one I saw had moved it north a bit. But our weather guy Ed just said it could still be a hurricane when it reaches southwest Arkansas. That's crazy. That's us. SAU family day was scheduled for tomorrow, but that and their football game have been cancelled. As far north as we are, that's pretty sobering.

By the way, when we were in Conway I got to see my nephew Shorty Mark Philip. He was on his way from Navy basic training in Chicago to his first duty station in San Diego, USS Nimitz. He came over Wednesday night with Mark, Sally, Whitney, Kennedi, Sarah, Jason, and Kelli. It was so good to see him! I still called him Shorty, even though he's 6 1/2 feet tall now! And he calls me Aunt Squirt. :)

Where were you?

9/11/01--We were in Moscow, Idaho, which is on Pacific Time, 3 hours different from Eastern. Mike and I have never turned the TV on in the morning, so we had no idea what was going on in the world. Mike called a friend at the IMB in Richmond, Virginia, to ask a question. He cheerfully asked, "Hey, how are you doing?" and the friend replied, "Well, we're all still in shock, and trying to locate all our personnel, make sure everyone is okay." Mike asked what he was talking about, and he told him what had happened. When Mike hung up, he turned to me with a face full of emotion and said, "Our country is under attack." My first thought was that he must be exaggerating, our country could never be under attack. Then he told me the details, and we turned on the TV with the rest of the nation. Where were you?

Toe surgery, again

Well, after a busy week of school, and first BCM "Journey," and first night of AWANA (I, who have never helped in AWANA before, am the new Cubbies director-yikes), and a home school co-op skating party, and church movie night (Hidden Secrets--if you click the title you can watch the trailer. It's pretty good!), I am now in Conway helping my Mom recover from toe surgery. She had it this afternoon, and it took twice as long as they expected because there was more to fix than the dr. thought. Does that sound familiar? I didn't bring my camera, so you won't get to compare pictures to Mike's. (ha) She's doing pretty good so far. I don't think the anesthetic has worn off quite yet. As long as she can sit still, we're fine! Mike stayed in Magnolia; the girls and I will stay here until Thursday then drive home and get up Friday and drive to Houston to take care of Mike's mom for the weekend. UNLESS, of course, Hurricane Ike changes our plans. We're keeping an eye on him!

Gustav

Well, this is a first for me! I've been through earthquakes in San Diego, tornado warnings in Arkansas, and fire season in Idaho, but I've never been under a hurricane advisory before. Thankfully, Gustav has weakened more than "they" expected, and all but 10,000 people evacuated New Orleans and the coast. Many of them up here to our neck of the woods! The last thing I read said they may be able to go home in 24 hours. Much, much better than Katrina! Sounds like a miracle of answered prayers to me! For the next few days we're supposed to get lots of wind and rain and possibly tornadoes. I bought some necessities and batteries for our flashlights this morning, and Mike was, I think, laughing at me on the inside. He grew up on the Gulf coast, and this is nothing new to him. But even if it's just heavy rain, at least I won't have to get out in it to buy toilet paper now!