04/17/07

The past day or so with everything that happened at Virginia Tech causes one to think. I am saddened by what continues to go on in the world around me, yet I know it is all because of sin. I thank the Lord that He IS in control and I am safe within His arms. He will never leave me nor forsake me.

I have thought about and prayed for the students and faculty left to deal with the horror of yesterday. I can only imagine what they are feeling. I prayed this morning that God would cause good to come out of this and people would be brought to Christ. Thoughts of what happened yesterday could lead someone to want to shut the doors and never go outside. However, God doesn't want us to live our lives in fear. He said that to His disciples after He rose from the grave and visited them as they were in hiding... scared for their lives. One of His first words to them was"Peace".. These are times when faith continues to be put into action. The verse I am teaching my students this week is II Timothy 1:7 - For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

On another note, we found out this past weekend that our Youth Pastor, Mike, has had his brain tumor double from what it was in the last MRI at the beginning of March. This was a surprise tothe family (as well as all of us!) as the doctors had said he should make a complete recovery. I have often wondered if we got too comfortable with that diagnosis then and slacked off in praying? I don't know, but I know God knows and, again, IS in control. The doctors are going to start him on a different type of medication that was just released this past February. Apparently, it cuts off the blood supply to the tumor. Throughout all of this we knew Mike was in God's hands and he still is. God doesn't want us to give up just because of this new news. I keep remembering "BUT GOD"... the statement Mike repeated over and over the last time he preached right before they found out he had the tumor. He told me last week that he loves red roses so I am posting the photo of the red roses I photographed in Hershey Gardens last summer. Keep praying for Mike, Lora and his parents... and little Gracie. My hearts desire is for her to be able to grow up knowing her Daddy.

It has been a good week back from Spring Break so far. I know I can make it to the end with the break I had. :)

Hold on tight to those you love and thank the Lord for what He has blessed you with. Always remember that we are nothing without Him. Off to grade papers and work on journaling in scrapbooks for the kids birthday party this weekend....

04/13/07

Spring Break..... aaaaahhhhhhhh..... I realize I have been off for a week now and haven't done anything with the blog but I just had other things to do that I haven't been able to do in a long time.

Let's see... since I blogged last a lot has happened. The kids celebrated their 7th birthday on April 1. I cannot believe how quickly time is flying. It is when I see babies or kids younger than they are do I realize just how fast they are growing up. They had a good birthday. We are having their "big" birthday next Saturday, the 21st. We all are looking forward to a fun time. The theme this year is Cinderella/Cars and should be a lot of fun. Speaking of that, I need to call and order their cake!!

I have now lost around 15 pounds...give or take a few ounces. I am finding I am becoming paranoid about what I eat and I need to stop that. lol I just don't want to be what I was anymore. I have to be careful because it surely does come back on you faster than it does to take it off!!

This week has been so wonderful.

Last Thursday I took photos of my best friends daughter for her Junior/Senior banquet. I thought they turned out beautiful and they did too. :) I was happy I could do that for them. I also took those photos of her daughter to give to her for her birthday. I gave them to her on Monday when they came over for her birthday supper and she LOVED them. (in fact, she teared up a bit) That made me SO happy because I was nervous and wondered if she would like them.

Wesley got sick last Thursday with a fever and kept it all day Friday and into Saturday. I took him to the doctor on Saturday and he had double ear infections. It seems he has seasonal allergies and the gunk stays in his head and leads to this mess. That seems to be the reason he has had such a sick winter. We are now starting him on some preventitive allergy medication. I hope it makes things better for him.

This past Monday we went with my Daddy to Siler City to the Stockyard. He took some cows to sell for someone and then we got to eat cheeseburgers. They make THE BEST cheeseburgers. We all had one and then Daddy went and got another one for us to split. I figured I could cut my calories elsewhere that day... this was a treat. It was great to be with Daddy and Mom and the kids loved it, too.

On Tuesday I went to our Youth Pastor's house (the one that was diagnosed with the brain tumor but the Lord is healing) and took photos of his almost 9 month old daughter. I have been wanting to do that for some time for them, but between his radiation treatments and other medical needs and then school and my kids being sick, I didn't want to interfere. Since I was on break I was able to go and it was wonderful. That baby is the sweetest thing and I had a blast taking photos of her. She is just precious. I took over 200 and liked about 40. Many were repeats of the same thing but you have to do that because you may think one looks great and get it back home and it is actually blurry. The one I am showing is one of my favorites of her. I also turned this one to a black and white. I am learning... I am also learning how to work things in PhotoShop. I ran all of her pictures through PS to make sure they looked like I wanted. I sent them an email with a few of my favorites in them. They were tickled and couldn't wait to get the CD with all of them on it. I gave that to them on Wednesday night at church and I am also going to help them order the ones they want. It made me feel good to know they loved them.

Tuesday night the kiddos spent the night with Mom and Dad and stayed most of the day Wednesday. That enabled me to get their scrapbooks "caught up" and ready for the party. I worked on them most of the day. I haven't gotten the family scrapbook caught up to right now, but it is at the first of this year which I feel is good. I am now in the process of journaling. I worked on that most of the day yesterday and got about halfway done. I am now on Christmas which is a lot. I feel much better about it.

Today we have been cleaning. I cleaned up the dining room some....vacuumed it and mopped it, too!! It looks the best it has in a year!! Of course, my scrapping stuff is still all over the table, but I can't let that bother me. I have to leave it out in order to get it done. I just feel better knowing this house is cleaner.

It is amazing how much less stress I have felt this week. It has been nice to take things slowly and not be on the "go" so much. We have slept in late, but not too late, and I have enjoyed just being around home. I have papers to grade but haven't touched them yet. I have just gotten so burnt out that I didn't want to even think about using a red pen...

Well, I am off to fix some lunch for us. My house is cleaner and I am needing to take a shower and wash some clothes, too. Enjoy this day the Lord has given!!