Happy Birthday, Rebecca!

Look how you've grown...

I'm sad and tired

This morning at the end of a very emotional worship service in Conway Bro. Dave said that their children's minister, Stacee, who has been fighting kidney cancer, would probably not live past today.
I got home around 5:30 this evening, and at 7:30 Mom called and said that Stacee had just passed away. Gone home. Died.
I hate death.
Stacee has 2 kids, young teenagers. Hudson may only be 12. She was just a few years older than me. I always picture her with a smile on her face and a lilt in her voice. She cared about my children.
I was praying for her to be healed, even today. I know she's "healed" now, and out of pain, and way better than I can even imagine. I know that.
But.
That's not what I meant.

Fun times with those crazy Stuarts

We celebrated Rebecca's birthday early again last night! This time we went to Larry's Pizza with my Mom and brother and his family. Larry's Pizza has a buffet, and on Friday nights they also have a "pizza parade." They walk around with the fresh pizza announcing what kind it is and you holler if you want some. I had loaded baked potato, chicken ranch, chicken alfredo, chocolate peanut butter, and chocolate chip. Mmm-mmm-mmm! They also had a game room so the girls got to play some arcade games.
After that we all came back to Mom's house for cake and ice cream--as if we had any room left! So first Rebecca opened some presents, and then we sang to her and those who wanted cake got it.

(I wish you could hear the singing...if you can call it that. When we finished, Mikayla said, "Whitney, you were a little off." So funny)

Then Kelli got out her "Dance Off the Inches" hip hop video and she and the girls tried it out. I tried a little, but I felt so clumsy! I had a hard time doing the moves. They were very entertaining, however!

Somehow after that we started playing with hair, and look at the crazy results:

Can you believe how brave Sally was?!


Mikayla did Whitney's, and wanted to do Tyler's (W's boyfriend) with the curling iron, but I didn't think that was such a good idea...

I didn't do anything to mine...

What a frustrating day

Yesterday I took my Mom (and the 3 girls) to buy a new oven, microwave, and refrigerator. We picked out what she wanted, but had to go home and re-measure the hole for the fridge to make sure it would fit. It wouldn't. So she called and asked for the smaller one. All good. Delivery was set up for today, after her eye dr. appt. But the fridge won't be in until next week, and an electrician had to come do the microwave, and the oven has a weird cord thing going on, so the electrician has to come back again tomorrow. In the middle of all that I got a text from Mike's brother that he was on his way to help their sister Jeannie move their mom into a kind of assisted living home. She told me the name, but I can't remember. It's kind of in-between nursing home and assisted living. And it was necessary. So I called Jeannie and talked a while, and she's okay. But it's really hard. Please pray for the Sandusky family. I also tried to copy my mini-DV video tapes from when Rebecca was a baby onto regular-sized video tapes, so we can actually watch them, because it wouldn't work at our house, and it wouldn't work here either. Sigh. And I kept dropping carrots making salad for supper. And my chin got hit with a car door.
Okay, I'll stop whining now.

Walk in the woods

After spending the morning at the air force base renewing Mom's I.D. card, the girls and I went for a walk in the woods. Now, Mike and my dad always laughed and rolled their eyes at how Mom and I "hike," because we stop and oooh and aaah over every little pretty thing God created. Since they weren't here and Mom can't really participate anymore, I brought my camera along and took pictures of every little thing that made me oooh and aaah.


I love seeing the grape vines wrapping around all the trees.

Jessica and Mikayla built "dams" in Pickle's Gap Creek.
Until Mikayla became terrified by the bumblebee.
The native Canadians built these little rock men to mark trails and good hunting spots. I built this one by the creek. :)

This is called a "maypop". The green bud will be a white flower, then a green ball seed pod thingy. You throw it on the ground and it may pop and it may not!


All the green in the picture below is ivy growing on a fallen tree.

I can't describe or take a decent picture of the carpet of wildflowers spring brings to my Mom's land. I love, love, love it every time I see it!

God was in my Sunday School class this morning!

The girls and my Mom and I went to Woodland Heights this morning. I just love that church, and especially our Sunday School class. They're family. There were some serious prayer requests this morning. The children's minister, Stacee, has stage 4 cancer and was put on a ventilator this weekend. (They're hoping to be able to take it out the next day or so.) Her sister is in that class. Another family in town has a son who's a freshman in college. He's been deaf since he was a child, and is now losing his sight. The doctors told him he needed to go home and learn braille. Everyone was emotional talking about it, and how his parents must feel. Then Richard started the lesson, which focused on Isaiah 28-30. He said he hardly needed to ask the first question he had planned: what are some difficult situations or decisions in our lives in which we were searching for God's will. We went on to read and discuss these verses:
These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder,
the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.
Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD,
who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?"
You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? (made me think of evolution/creation, but that's another story)
Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
That's where we were "supposed" to stop. But my eyes wandered down to verse 18, and my eyes got teary. I thought, 'We really need to read this verse.' A few minutes later someone brought up the young man losing his sight, and Kevin said, "Have you read verse 18?" This is what it says:
In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
Wow.

Houston story

We had something funny happen at the pet store at the Woodlands Mall...I wish I had a video of it. It was very crowded--probably 30 or more people in there. We looked at the kittens, puppies, guinea pigs, and had moved on to little white mice and frogs (lovely) when all of a sudden Mikayla screamed bloody murder. Everyone froze and stared at us. She buried her head in me and said, "I thought it was real." Someone had thrown a furry ball, and it landed at her feet, scaring her to death. It was a little embarrassing, but made me laugh.

Trip to Houston

(The flu put me soooo behind on blog reading/commenting. I'll try to catch up over Spring Break!)
On our way to Houston last weekend to visit Mike's family, we detoured through Dallas and celebrated Rebecca's 5th birthday a little early...at the American Girl Store! Jessica and Mikayla, who'd been saving their birthday money for this, brought their dolls, who received "neck massages" (head tightening), skin treatments, and new hair-do's at the doll salon, along with a few new outfits. Rebecca used her birthday money to buy a Bitty Twin (yes, just one--you can do that at the store, and she couldn't afford both!) and the Bitty Twin stroller. Which is huge. She named her new doll Rosie, and has played with her almost constantly since she got her. It's been fun for all of us! After all the shopping was done, we got desserts at the Bistro, where the dolls have seats and menus just like the people, and Rebecca got a candle in her milkshake. The girls were so happy. And poor Mike, who was very patient with his women, was not the only dad there. :)
Before:
(We expected to have to send Elizabeth and Samantha to the doll hospital for an extended visit, which is why they're naked. They were both bought on ebay, and Samantha really needed this spa visit. Really. We were glad they could do it all on site.)

Meet Rebecca's new baby, Rosie!
Here we are at the Bistro.


After:





It rained all the way to Houston. We were surprised to see bluebonnets already blooming, and hoped to be able to get pictures eventually, but it never stopped raining. It was good to see Mike's mom and sister and her family. Mike's mom keeps declining, mentally, but she LOVED seeing the girls, and actually moved to the couch from her recliner to try to talk to them, and whispered, "Your dad's silly" to Jessica when Mike was teasing. He is silly. She just eats Rebecca up. It's easy to do--she's chapped under her lip (don't you hate when kids do that??) and made us all laugh when she asked for gasoline to put on it. We went shopping at the Woodlands Mall and got Easter dresses on Saturday, but mostly we just hung out. And ate a lot.


(Jessica took the above picture and I told her it would make the blog.)