04/13/08

It has been a few days! Sorry about that... it has been so busy this past week. With doing Achievement Testing and marblizing at school, along with my extra school responsibilities I have been working on, my week has been a bit different. I have also been trying to still re-coup from last weekend's busyness.

Warning... lots of thoughts are fit into this post so it is kind of long!!! ha!

My pictures for today I took on Friday at school. My students were in their special class and I wandered around campus. I saw these pansies and I knew they would be pulled up soon. I figured I would take a few of them because my other ones didn't turn out as well because of the wind. Let's just say with this new lens I am so noticing the wind more! ha!! Anyway, when I got close to them I noticed the dew was still on them! I was tickled because these are smaller drops than the rain. I love them all, some look a bit alike, but the yellow ones were my absolute favorite for this set.

As I got closer to them to photograph them, I was taken aback, once again, by their detailed beauty. Parts of this flower, it seems, I have always taken for granted and never fully appreciated the intricate designs. I am not a botanist by any means, but to look inside the middle of the flower and see those white "hair" like parts near the center were amazing. Upon further inspection on the computer they look like little tubes more than hairs. They are a bit clear but also white. Click on any picture to see that a bit larger. To think, my God made all of this as He spoke. All of the things we see in our world are all different but they were nothing too big for God. If for nothing else, this new lens was worth it just so I could appreciate what God has done for me more.

Friday night Steve worked late so I went over to one of my student's homes and photographed her Mom's wysteria tree. (Hey Sherry!) I also photographed a few of their bushes. Our stay became quite long, unintentionally, because Wesley and Mikayla had the BEST time playing with their two girls. We actually stayed so long they asked us to eat with them!! lol (Which was not my intention, but it was surely nice!) It really was great to spend time with them and have something done a bit spur of the moment. It seems I plan so much that it is nice to "wing" it once in a while. It was also nice since Steve worked late to let the kids enjoy a fun night and me have some "grown up" talk. The kids were outside finding all kinds of critters (Wesley really enjoyed that) and then they just plain old PLAYED. It is such fun watching my kids play and get dirty. That is when you know they have had a blast. Wesley was having so much fun, though, that when he was running inside to show us something, he ran right smack dab into their front glass door!! He hadn't even paid attention that it was the glass door and not that the door was open!! Thankfully, he was fine and the door was fine. We had a good laugh once we knew he was alright. We left there late and the kids were asleep by the time got to the main highway. That is when you know they had a blast.

Steve had to work at some music festival. I had fallen asleep right before he got home so I didn't get to talk to him until morning. Apparently, they had to move a grand piano off a stage. The people who brought it didn't leave the lift so nine of the guys worked together to get it off the stage. Unfortunately for Steve, he was on the wrong end at the wrong time. When he tried to work his end, the guy helping him shifted over too far and the piano came down on Steve's right shoulder/arm!! He said he felt much of the weight of the piano and even felt it in his back. He truly was concerned he would have to go to Urgent Care or something! Once he slept on it he said it was feeling better but terribly sore. When he showed it to me yesterday it was already turning black. Today it is black, yellow, green, purple... you get the picture. I am just thankful he wasn't seriously hurt because he truly could have. God was good and protected him.

Yesterday we cleaned this bomb explosion looking house. Of course, it is cleaner but the areas still aren't picked up like I would like. That will come in summer. LOL Mikayla was in charge of the office this week and she cleaned off my desk. I'll be the first to admit my desk is the catch all so it has its moments. Well, this is what she wrote after she cleaned it (spelling and all): Mom, I cleaned this cus I love you and It needed It Rember I wil allwais love you Is that not too sweet!?? Too funny about it needing it....

I also helped out with the yard yesterday. I know that is shocking seeing as most of you know I am SUCH an inside person. I do cut the grass, though, so that is what I did. It allowed Steve more time to work on the beds and stuff to get ready for the kid's birthday party in a couple of weeks. I mowed our front forty. Those of you that have been here know how big it is. I had to dodge the fire ant hills. I accidentally ran over a few of them and you could tell I had made them quite mad. I was tickled with myself that I drove that zero turn mower with ease. I guess it is kind of like riding a bike. The weather was not cooperating, though. I did manage to finish the front yard and started the side yard before it began raining. I had hoped it was just a passing shower but the more I continued to mow, the more rain began to fall. Finally, when the bottom fell out, I decided it was time to quit. lol I was soaked. It was pretty.

Wesley finally had a baseball practice on Saturday. This was his first one since all of his others had been rained out. This one was almost rained out, too, because it was at the same time as my mowing adventure I just wrote about. He is really enjoying it and that makes me smile. I'm moving past my anxiety over it. lol He always wants to tell me about it before and after he gets home. He made a point to walk out to me in the middle of the front yard just to tell me he was leaving. That boy melts my heart so much.

Mikayla went to his practice but, I believe, she was a bit bored. lol She wants to cheer him on and I think that is so sweet. She lets people know that Wesley plays baseball but she has "nothing." I have something in my mind I think she'll do well with... piano. I just have to figure out how we're going to fit a piano in this house. Maybe she could use my Mom and Dad's until we know for sure she would love it. I have been trying to hint around and ask questions before I tell her. We'll see what happens with that, though. She is definitely gifted in the music area. She loves it and wants to hear music as much as possible. She has a gift that I never had. People have always thought since the day she was born that she had piano fingers. :) We'll see...

Last night we went out and bought a new washer and dryer. Ours are 14 years old and I am finding the clothes just aren't getting as clean and they aren't as fresh as they once were. I have been thinking about it for a year but in the last few months I have been thinking on it more. Y'all know I usually don't do things without thinking on them a while. I talked to Steve about it and we decided to go look. We were only going to get a new washer since our dryer still worked normally. Once we got to Lowe's, though, we saw "last years" dryer model on sale and it would match the washer we wanted. Steve suggested we go ahead and buy both together so we can keep up with the years more easily. We got the Whirlpool Cabrio set. The one we got is a "front loading" machine but I load it from the top. Our laundry room has a mud sink in it so it would not work for me to have the front loading kind. I am excited, though, because I have heard so many good things about the kinds without the agitator in the middle. (Sal and I even had a lovely phone conversation about them a few months back!! lol) We will get them on Tuesday. After I washed the kids clothes today we went ahead and took them out. Let's just say I was glad to be able to clean underneath them before the new ones arrive! I'll be so excited to do laundry... at least until the "new" wears off, huh? lol Laundry just never ends...

Today at church and in my devotions, it seems the Lord has driven home the fact of trusting in Him. All that I read or heard were different but yet the same. Our Sunday School teacher asked us this question: "If you could change something in your life, what would it be?" Then, he went on to say that he hoped it would be to trust God more with your life and everything else falls into place. Then, during church my pastor spoke on the nobleman in John that went to Jesus for Him to heal his son. He wanted Jesus to come to his home to heal his son. Jesus had just been to Galilee where the people SAW what He did and then believed so Jesus told him that unless he saw signs and wonders the nobleman wouldn't believe. When the nobleman continued to beg Him, Jesus said to go back home because the man's son lived. The man had a choice right there, TRUST God that his son was healed or keep doubting and begging. The man chose to trust God and on his way home his servants met him and told him his son was fine! When asked what time the son began to improve, the servants said it was at the hour that the man knew he had been speaking to Jesus. It wasn't a gradual change, either, it was instant that the little boy went from being near death to being whole again. Jesus wanted to show that He didn't have to BE there for the healing to occur. All He had to do was speak. He is the Creator, is He not? It put a new perspective on a story I have often heard. Again, God's Word, although read or heard many times, will never return void. There is always something new to learn.

We were reading out of Psalm 91 in Sunday School and that is such a wonderful Psalm. I thought I would share a few verses from it as I close tonight. Tomorrow is a day off of school and the kids are spending the night with Mom and Dad. Enjoy your evening and these verses. God is Who gives us the protection and safety. We just have to continue to TRUST in HIM. This trust does not mean difficult things will not come in our lives. It just means that He is there to lift us up and shelter us as we go through them. The more we trust Him, the more we become LIKE Him.

Psalm 91: 1-4

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the flower, and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.