July 08: A Month In Pictures

4th of July
Cutie
Up the "slide"

Down the "slide"
Reading the paper

Wearing the baby carrier

Handsome men

Rolling around in swimsuit fabric

Cheese!

"Working" Mothers

Trash to Treasure: Under $20

I have been looking for a while for something to put the boys' clothes in. Up until now we have used a plastic storage container in the closet for Tyler's things, which has worked really well. But we don't have room for another one in the closet so I decided to be on the lookout for something a little more permanent. I found this little treasure at the thrift store for $15. It was pretty banged up, but in good overall condition. My sweet hubby sanded and painted it for me using leftover paint we had from the previous owners. All I had to do was spray paint the existing hardware black and also we bought 8 new knobs for the bottom drawer for 67 cents each. I think it turned out great.

Before:

After:

An update on my step-dad

From my mom:

Hi everyone,
Sam has continued to worsen since he was admitted to the
hospital 10 days ago.
Yesterday he began to vomit blood and was moved
to ICU. he had a scope, but
there was so much in his stomach they
could not find the source of the blood.
His diabetes has damaged his
stomach so it takes hours or days to digest a meal. (this is not new).
I
don't know what the CT abdomen showed yesterday.

After the
scope they could not take him off the ventilator because his breathing got much
worse
over the weekend. He is still at Memorial , now in room
CCU-10.
He was stable after the scope, and was finally resting
after fighting to breath for a while.
He is sedated, but can possibly
hear me, according to the icu staff.

He is expected to be
able to recover from this episode. I will let you know
how things
progress.

As always, your prayers are appreciated.

Sickness All Around

Our family is enduring its fair share of sickness right now. If you think of it, could you please remember these 3 specific requests when you pray.

1. My step-dad, Sam. This is an exert from the email my mom sent yesterday:

Dear friends and family,
this will be news to some of you and repeat for others. but, Sam has been quite sick for about 3 weeks.
he has prostate cancer, but his doctors says that is under control for now. he has a 2 low back discs
protruding, compressing nerves and causing leg pain and weakness. He has a rare abdominal lining disease
causing the severe pelvic pain. there is no treatment for it, except to take pain meds for it. He also has a
large area on his lower right leg that is infected, getting worse, and making his leg swell to double.
He has been in memorial hospital since Saturday.

2. My Aunt, Retta. I just heard that the doctors found a lump in her breast and I believe they will be doing a biopsy next week.

3. Tyler is also very sick right now. Last night we almost went to the ER. His temperature ran in the 100-101.5 range until last night. I thought maybe it was just his teeth coming in, but when his fever got up to 104 and stayed I got worried and called the doctor. She told us to keep him on a Tylenol/Motrin rotation to try to get it down. That worked, but only temporarily. I took him to the doctor this morning and she said there is a very nasty virus going around right now and that is likely what he has. She said it lasts 1-5 days and is accompanied by a fever of up to 105. Eek! At this point Tyler is not sleeping more than 20 minutes at a time and that is only if he is being held. He also isn't eating and only drinking about a sip an hour. As I'm sure you can guess, that makes for one tired and worried little momma.

About the Poll

You may or may not have noticed that I added a "Do you like the name Piper for a girl" poll to my blog. The reason behind it is, whether due to crazy hormones or something else, I keep having a feeling that this baby is going to come out a girl rather than a boy. I felt the same way with Tyler too. So, I decided to try to think of a girl name just in case.

Why Piper? Well, Tyler and I were at McDonald's the other day and there was a little girl named Piper there. She was cute, and I thought the name was kinda cute too. Plus it works with our name criteria, which is: 1st name from the Bible, middle name that ends in "er". Weird, I know. There aren't a lot of girl names out there that end in "er". I think I like Abigail or Hannah for a first name. Keith doesn't like Hannah though, because he said people will think we named her after Hannah M*ntana. I would hope not!

By the way, there's two hints for you about what the name will be if it's a boy. Anybody care to guess? I'll send you a prize if you're right. (It doesn't count if I've already told you the name)

Trust and Obey

The music for this song was composed by D. B. Towner, the first director of music at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
The inspiration for the hymn’s writing came in 1886 during and occasion when Towner was leading singing for D. L. Moody in Brockton, Massachusetts. In a testimony service, he heard a young man say, “I am not quite sure – but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.”
Towner jotted down the words and sent them to his friend J. H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister, who developed the idea into a full hymn.
The refrain came first – it is a capsule version of the entire song – and the verse later.
D. L. Moody said in one occasion: “The blood (of Christ) alone makes us safe. The Word (of God) alone makes us sure. Obedience (to God) makes us happy.”
—Cliff Barrows

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trust and Obey
1 When we walk with the Lord
In the light of his Word,
What a glory be sheds on our way!
While we do his good will,
He abides with as still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Chorus Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey.
2 Not a shadow can rise,
Not a cloud in the skies,
But his smile quickly drives it away,-
Not a doubt nor a fear,
Not a sigh nor a tear
Can abide while we trust and obey.
3 Not a burden we bear,
Not a sorrow we share,
But our toil he doth richly repay;
Not a grief nor a loss,
Not a frown nor a cross,
But is blest if we trust and obey.
4 But we never can prove
The delights of his love
Until all on the altar we lay,
For the favor he shows,
And the joy be bestows
Are for all who will trust and obey.
5 Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at his feet,
Or we’ll walk by his side in the way;
What be says we will do,
Where be Sends we will go,
Never fear, only trust and obey.


For more inspiring stories about hymns, click here.

And it only took a year

This past Monday marked a year of us living in our house. I ordinarily wouldn't remember the date, but it was 7/7/07. Monday also happened to be the day that my sweet hubby finished our kitchen project. Thanks honey!

Here are some before, during, and after photos. We were in the "during" stage for 11 months. I'm so glad that's over with.

Before:

During:

After:



It's hard to tell in the pictures, but it is a really pretty medium sage green color. I love it!

Maybe I Should Just Call Dave and Ask Him Myself

Do y'all listen to Dave Ramsey? I do when I happen to catch him on. I think he is right on with his financial advice and have learned a lot from listening to him. Our church is offering the Financial Peace University starting in August. We would really like to participate, but I'm just not sure if it would be best for us right now. Ordinarily I would be signed up already, but the class is 13 weeks long and I would probably only get to go to maybe 5 or 6 of the classes before the little one is born. So, I'm wondering if it would be worth it ($100) to go to probably less than half of the classes. What do you think? Should I just call Dave??

Larry, Mo, and No Longer Curly

Yesterday my little boy turned 21 months old. Yesterday was also his 1st haircut. I don't know who was more traumatized by that, me or him. I'm pretty sure it was me, though. I'm just not ready for my baby to be a big boy. It was time though. I believe that boys should look like boys, and girls should look like girls. It was getting pretty long and falling in his eyes, so I shed a few tears and cut off his beautiful little baby curls.

Before:

After:

I dare say he looks even cuter now!