This really 'BUGS' me!

Creepy crawlies...man I hate'em! I don't care whether they are the kind that are helpful to the environment or not. A bug is a bug! Oh and live and learn...never squash a spider with your shoe. Did that once. Was a mama spider with hundreds of eggs inside her tum tum and when the shoe went "SPLAT", the eggs all scattered. ALL OVER MY KITCHEN FLOOR! But apparently bug hatred is NOT in the DNA cause I have 2 little bug lovin girls. So a few days ago, Lexi found this half dead beetle outside the store. She picked it up and insisted on keeping it as her pet. We tried to convince her to let him go back to his mommy and she said, "I don't think his mommy should see him like this. He's almost dead!" Wisdom from a 4 year old! So, it "slept" on the coffee table that night and she ran right to it the next morning to make sure kitty didn't eat it over night (since he also sleeps on the coffee table). We assured her he didn't eat the bug, he just bug sat all night. So she carried it around DEAD all day and then FINALLY let him become one with the earth. And today, I have another bug story. We have an ant problem lately. Not sure why. I mean it's not like juice and crumbs never land on my floor. My children would NEVER do such a thing. Are you smoking crack??? Anyways, back to the bugs. So today when I turned on the hair dryer to dry Lexi's hair, ants, tons of them, blew out of the dryer all into her hair. I know it must have looked like I was doing some tribal war dance trying to get them all out of her hair and brush them off her skin and then squash them with my feet all at the same time. Now, I ask you wise folks, why in the sam hill would ants be in the hair dryer? My pea sized aggie brain can't figure that one out. Feel free to impart wisdom on me. I'm not makin this stuff up! I couldn't make this up. I'm not that creative! Does this kind of thing happen to anyone else or am I all alone here?


So here's my little bug lovers showing off their find. Actually Ashton didn't have a bug, but she just really wanted to be in the picture.

Here's the little fella dead as road kill. Oh, did I tell you his name? Ringo Starr! Get it...the beatle...beetle bug...teeheehee.

Lexi Loves Florida

This week is vacation Bible school week at church and Lexi has had a blast. I think she gets a big kick outta seeing 130 kids laugh at her Daddy on stage. Ofcourse there's plenty to laugh at. We all know he's a natural goofball, the biggest kid there! Tonight his head was painted like a basketball for the "Where's Pastor Cary" skit. Long story and I will SPARE you the details. (Although he did just come into the living room and ask me if I wanted to fool around with "basketball man" before he washes off the paint. To which I responsed "Put on your pajamas baby, cause you're dreamin!" ) Anyways, back to the story...tonight after it was all over, we all flopped our pooped out bodies in the fellowship hall to chow down on the leftover sandwhiches. And out of nowhere came this little angelic voice from my sweet Lexi. She said, "Thank you God for sending us to Florida and thank you that you made us this house to live in. Jesus, I love Florida!" We're not sure where it came from but it sure was sweet, and I know it melted the heart of our Heavenly Father, just as it melted ours. I immediately thought of Matthew 12:34, "Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." I LOVE LOVE LOVE that verse and it's so true. What's in your heart is what comes out of your mouth. This ain't no rocket science! If you have a bitter heart, you will produce negative angry words. If you have a peaceful heart, you will speak loving, gentle words. Now don't ask me to pretend to know why 30 minutes earlier she was hitting her sister and givin' me a tude! But for that split second in our day, her heart was thankful and that made me SMILE!

Dear Lexi & Ashton:

My sweet baby girls: Just in case I ever forget what life was like when you were two and four years old, I can come back and read this letter. Let me start with the best parts of my day: waking up to your sweet faces in the mornings with your bed head and saggy diapers, watching the two of you play together WITHOUT fighting (it does happen occassionally), holding you in my lap with your sippy cups of WARM milk (which I think is disgusting by the way, but that's the way you like it), holding your teeny tiny hands in mine, hearing you both giggle hysterically when I wash the bottom of your feet, oh I could go on and on. I love the fact that you both adore animals and all of God's creatures, that you sing praises to Jesus at the top of your lungs, that you BELIEVE me when I say you will both be FIGHTIN' TEXAS AGGIES one day, and that you miss each other terribly when you're apart. Oh, but not every part of our day is blissful paradise. Ashton, why do insist on crawling on all 4's and meowing like a kitty cat in the isles of Walmart (after your bath)? Girls, when do you think I might be able to have just 10 minutes a day of privacy on the potty? Lexi, by the time you're old enough to read this, I pray you will have FINALLY gotten over your fear of pooping on the potty, and will you ever learn the meaning of the word "HURRY"? At what age will you girls start sleeping late and begging for naps? Will the day come that I can serve spaghetti for dinner WITHOUT having to strip you both down to your panties to eat? I know that time flies and in the blink of an eye, you will be driving, dating, attending TEXAS A&M, getting married, and blessing me with grandchildren. As nutty as you make my days, I don't think a night goes by that I don't go to your rooms to kiss your sweet faces and thank God for my two sweet angels (with tiltled halo's...teeheehee).

Amen...

"Where two or more are gathered in my name"...teehee. Sorry, couldn't resist. Don't even know these little fellas but they're DARN cute! Oh my stars, can you look at this photo and NOT crack up?

Honduras Trip

Cary is going on a mission trip to Honduras next month for an entire week with a group from our church. Last night, the group that went to Bolivia a few weeks ago shared about their experiences at our Wednesday night service. Let's get one thing straight...I'm not missionary material and I think I would just DIE without a/c, clean bathrooms, and my internet. But Cary is all about "roughin it". He's so excited and I pray it will be life changing not only for him, but the people he encounters in Honduras. What an incredible opportunity. Just think about how awesome it would be to CHANGE SOMEONE'S FOREVER! This is their eternity we're talking about!!! And not all of us can or want to travel across the world to do mission work, but we're ALL called to be fishers of men. There are so many ways you can help Cary "fish" in Honduras. If you'd like to send a financial contribution to help pay for his trip, that would be AWESOME as it is a very costly journey. The church has offered to pay for his portion, but we're trying to still pay for it ourselves or at least as much as we can. But even if you can't contribute financially, can you commit to pray for his safety and the safety of the entire group? Also, pray that God will use them to change lives. And here's another way you can help...The group from Bolivia shared with us last night that the pastors in that area only have maybe one Spanish Bible, most of which were falling apart. They didn't have any type of Bible concordence or Bible reference books. Many in their congregation don't even have Bibles. So our church is collecting money to buy not only Bible reference books and Spanish Bibles for the pastors, but also these really cool little electronic devices that read the Bible out loud in Spanish, because many people there are illiterate. So having a Bible wouldn't even help necessarily but it's still imperative that they hear God's word. Our group said the pastors in Bolivia wanted to know all about what the Bible had to say about relationships...relationships between husbands and wives, friends, neighbors, enemies, etc. I know I would be lost without my concordence books and my Life Application Bible that explains each verse in detail. Anyways, think of how you can help change someone's forever. Maybe you can donate monetarily (is that a word) or maybe you can be a prayer warrior for our group. If you'd like to make a donation either towards Cary's trip or towards the purchase of Bible resources, email me and I'll send you the church's address.

FREAKS LIVE HERE

So we have these lovely little critters in our house called TERMITES! The picture above is of termite swarmers, which is what is visible in our home. Do you have goosebumps just looking at them or what? Okay ya'll, so who knew I'd move to Florida and become an ENTOMOLOGIST (for those of you who graduated from the University of Texas, an entomologist is one who studies bugs). Teeheeheee...anyways, back to the bugs. So now for a quick lesson in termite lingo cause I'm WAY more of an expert now than I ever wanted to be. There are subterranean termites which you never see that eat the wood under your house if you have wood, and there are dry wood termites which can live anywhere there is wood, in any part of your home. We have the drywood kind. By the time you see the swarmers (the picture above) you've had a colony for 5-7 FREAKIN YEARS....ooooooo, yucky! So this is swarming season (May and June) and the swarmers leave the colony to establish new colonies. And by the way, they don't just eat WOOD, they eat cellulose. So like furniture, mattresses, PAPER TOWELS (which is their food of choice in my kitchen!) Anyways, so Terminex came out and the guy immediately said we had to tent the house and have the Vikane gas, which kills EVERYTHING, lizards, roaches, plants, any living thing in or touching your home. Quite expensive, but it's the only guarantee. I don't know why, but when I see a termite treated house that's tented, all I can think of is that scene from E.T. where the guys are searching the house in gas masks and there's a plastic covering over the outside of the house. Does anyone else remember that or am I totally dating myself? You might as well just put up a sign in the yard that says, "FREAKS LIVE HERE!" Now, I want the critters dead, but the gas thing scares the beegeebees outta me. When a state inspector has to come to your house in a gas mask and test each room with a Geiger counter, that's scary! The process takes 3 days and all pets, food, meds, spices, plants, and baby mattresses must be removed from the house. Anyways, I just didn't feel at peace with the whole gas thing, so I started researching its effects and it was quite alarming. The gas will still be released from wool fibers (like furniture) for up to 40 days in your home, though not necessarily at a toxic level. But still! So then the Orkin man came and said, "You don't need gas, we can do the liquid treatment. It's safe, quick, and you can stay in the house while we do it!" GREAT, I thought! No freaky tent or men in gas masks. And then I had one final company come out for an estimate and he also said we really needed to tent the place and do the gas. Apparently the liquid form is a "spot treatment" and it doesn't necessarily get every colony. It's impossible because they are hidden in places that liquids can't go but the gas permeates everything. So we're now left with a big decision to make. Do we use very expensive toxic gas that will dissipate quickly or do we use less expensive lethal chemicals that stay in our house forever?!!!? The church is paying for this...THANK HEAVENS because it's VERY expensive. So you see our dilemma?

Father's Day Crepes

Cary LOVES LOVES LOVES crepes. He buys them at this little crepe stand in the mall. Now let's get one thing straight about my cooking abilities, or lack of, I should say. I am very culinary challenged. Never would the names Emeril Lagosse, Rachel Ray, Betty Crocker, and MY NAME come up in the same sentence never ever ever. But at my mentor class at church, the mentors did a cooking demonstration with crepes. And I thought, "Okay, I can do that without blowing up the kitchen!" So I made some for Cary today...his favorite food on his favorite day of the year! They were a big hit!!! Here's the recipe for the strawberry ones I made, but we also changed out the filling on one and used bananas with hot fudge, topped with powder sugar...YUM!!! Very simple and very scrumptuous! Happy Father's Day Honey Bun...YOU'RE THE BEST!!! And now I must go sip on my mango milk shake Cary just made for me with the mangos from our mango tree. Yum yum in the tum tum!

STRAWBERRY CREPES
Ingredients:
1 cup Bisquick Mix
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs

1 cup dairy sour cream
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 cups sliced, fresh strawberries

Grease a 6 or 7 inch skillet lightly; heat until hot. Beat baking mix, milk, and eggs with whip until smooth. For each crepe, pour 2 large tablespoons batter into skillet until batter covers bottom. Cook until golden brown (bubbly all over). Gently loosen edge with spatula; turn and cook other side until golden brown.

Stack crepes in warm oven, placing waxed paper between each; keep covered to prevent them from drying out. Mix sour cream and brown sugar. Place a heaping tablespoon on each crepe and spread across center; add sliced berries across center and roll up.

This recipe said it makes 12 crepes, but it only made 6 for me.

Our Humble Abode

Here are some pics of the inside of our house in Florida. It's super tiny, but housing is SO expensive here. We are very fortunate to live in this house owned by the church. It's the only way we can afford for me to stay home with the girls. This little 50 year old 1500 sq ft house in its current state would sell for about $180k-$200k. We've done SO much work to this place. Now we need to paint the outside and do some landscaping, but not before it gets treated for termites in a few weeks. YES, we have TERMITES! ICKY!!!! Dry wood termites, so that means in a few weeks while we're gone for a week, there will be a HUGE tent draped over the house and men in gas masks and body suites. ET PHONE HOME!

Article in the Orlando Sentinel

Hot Diggity Ya'll...my Aggies made the Orlando news! Check it out at #6:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/local/orl-collegeinsider107jun10,0,612005.column?coll=orl-sports-headlines

Gig'Em Aggies! Beat the HECK outta Miami! (Well, in Aggieland, we don't say "heck" but being a pastor's wife gives me a certain amount of accountability ,ya know.)

Love & Play

Sisterly love...yeah right. This was 2 seconds before a brawl!


Like mother, like daughter...

"I gotcha where I wantcha and now I'm gonna eatcha!"

MRI Results

Got the results today and everything was normal, as expected. She's a miracle, that's for sure! We've had a neurologist, 3 pediatricians, several nurses, an occupational therapist, an audiologist, an optomotrist, and a special education teacher all tell us what a miracle it is that she does not have moderate to severe brain damage because of the virus. God has shielded her and protected her for a reason. We can't wait to see what He has in store for her. Thank you for your prayers!!!

Faux Father's Day and TIMBER...

Okay, so I don't pretend to be on top of things when it comes to remembering important dates and keeping up with a calendar. I'm more of a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of girl and I'm totally okay with that. So last week when all of the Father's Day ads started running on t.v and in the paper, I just assumed that this past Sunday (yesterday) must be Father's Day. NEVER did it occur to me to consult with a calendar! Cary happened to be preaching on Sunday as our pastor is out of town. So when he was trying to decide what his message would be about, I suggested why not a Father's Day message, I mean DUH... I even took the girls shopping on Tuesday of last week for Daddy's gift and made sure to do the ritualistic nagging to get Cary to mail his dad's gift by Thursday so it would get there in time. It wasn't until Friday when Pastor Steve called Cary to see how his message was coming along that we got set straight on our dates. So Cary had to start all over planning out a new message and even worse, I had to keep his Father's Day gift a surprise for ANOTHER WHOLE WEEK! Are you kidding me???

And now a follow up to Cary and Lexi's camping trip last weekend. That story was part of my first blog post, scroll down if you missed it. Okay, so it rained like monsoonal rains for like 24 hours straight. We had been in a serious drought with tons of wildfires all around and then the weekend of the camp-out, IT POURS! Cary was miserable and soaking wet all night Friday night so they got up really early Saturday morning and headed for home. Several fellow campers in the group informed Cary last week that after he and Lexi left that morning, a HUGE branch broke off of a tree and landed RIGHT WHERE THEIR TENT WAS!!!! Now I don't believe in luck or coincidence. That right there my friends is what I call a "GODcidence".

Beautiful Girls

Here are some recent pictures I had made of the girls in their birthday dresses.

3...2...1...BLASTOFF

We had the privilege of seeing the Space Shuttle Atlantis launch on Friday evening. This was one of those "Top 10 Things We HAD To Do Before We Die" kind of things. It was pretty cool! The closest you can get to the launch without a press badge or family pass is about 2 miles and that's about how far away we were. So we couldn't see that much other than a big streak of smoke heading upward. But still, something you gotta do at least once in your life!

Lexi & Ashton's Birthday Party

A Cruella DeVil in the Making???

I thought this was the funniest picture. Check out those eyes. Watcha up to Lexi Lou? I think she was devising a plan to dognap the dog next door. His name is Parker, and he and Lexi have a mutual admiration let's just say.

MRI Update

Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts. Today was a huge success! God's hand was in every part of this day for sure! For starters, Ashton slept till 9:30 this morning which she NEVER does! She's usually up by 7:30. That kept the amount of time she wandered around the house begging for food and milk to a minimal as we had to leave at 10. After she woke up, Daddy kept her occupied by trimming her nails, giving her a quick bath, and getting her dressed. And during that time, we bended the rules a litte by giving her some water/juice mixed. She wasn't supposed to have any liquids past 8 a.m. She was so good all morning. They allowed me to go back with her while they gave her the gas to make her fall asleep. She was out in 15 seconds. Then I said my goodbyes and they took her back to put the IV in and do the MRI. About an hour later she was ready to go. They told me to only give her liquids and jello or soupy foods for the rest of the day since the anesthesia might cause her to be nausious. So I took her to Boston Market and got her a bowl of soup and some mashed potatoes. She ate every bite and even 1/2 of my turkey! She was STARVING! She's been totally normal the rest of the day, no grumpiness, no vomiting, which they had warned me about. (And NO NAP unfortunately!) I won't have any results until tomorrow.

While walking through the recovery wing, there were so many children in there who had just come out of surgery, some appeared to be cancer patients. I couldn't help but to give thanks to God that I was only there for a piddly MRI for my very healthy daughter. I don't know how those parents watch their children suffer, knowing that some won't live to see their next birthday. And I certainly don't know how any of them endure that without a relationship with God and a hope of eternal life. Only He can provide us with the peace and courage to face such situations.

Ashton's Virus Update

Many of you know I was diagnosed with CMV during my first trimester of pregnancy. Ashton was born with the virus, which can cause many mild to severe complications such as blindness, deafness, cerebral palsey, mental retardation, learning disabilities, seizure disorders, neurological issues, etc etc...the list goes on and on! But God has shielded her and protected her so faithfully from this virus. She is doing great and has shown no signs of the virus other than her small head and small body size. That is one of the symptoms. I often think people must be wondering how a person of my large frame produced such a teeny tiny girl, but it's all part of the virus, not genetics. Lord knows, we don't even have small dogs in our family! She has endured lots of tests lately at the request of a neurologist. She passed her speech therapy and Occupational Therapy Evaluations with flying colors, as well as an EEG of her brain and vision and hearing screenings. This Thursday, she will have her final test of the year, an MRI, which can detect whether or not there has been brain damage and if so, in what parts of the brain. Please keep her in your prayers on Thursday morning. She won't go in until 11 a.m. for a noon appointment and she can't have food or milk 8 hours prior to the test. She can have clear liquids only up till 3 hours before. But for those of you who have kids, you know this will be a MAJOR ordeal...no morning milk or cereal, no juice in the car, this could be bad. So please pray for her compliance...and my tolerance...teehee! She will have an IV with anesthesia. They will come and take her from me to do all of this, so I will not be with her during the IV or the MRI. I can't imagine how frightening that will be for her, so please pray for her to be as comfortable and relaxed as possible. I don't anticipate any bad results from this test, it's really just standard procedure. I think I'm dreading the actual events of the day much more than I am getting the results. But this too shall pass, and will only serve to remind us further down the road what an AWESOME God we serve! He has an amazing plan for this little girl and what an incredible testimony she will have one day. We give Him all the glory!

YEEEEEEHAW!

You can take the girl outta Texas, but you can't take Texas outta the girl!

Fun In The Sun

After a full day of housework yesterday and all morning today, I was about to eat the children. Not because I was hungry but because they were making messes as fast as I was cleaning them up. So I decided it was time for an outing. We loaded up the car and went to Sonic then spent the rest of the day at the pool. Here are some pictures of our fun in the sun.

My First Post

This is the first of MANY posts to come! Pleae bookmark this page and check it frequently. I will use this site to post pictures of the girls as often as I can.

This weekend, Lexi and Daddy are spending quality time together on a church campout. I'm SO excited for them! Camping is right up her alley. To be such a girly girl who loves to dress up, wear make-up, and play baby dolls, she loves to catch lizards and other bugs, and collect leaves and rocks too. I guess you can say she's well rounded. They have a 3 hour drive ahead of them so before they left, I told Lexi to tell Daddy frequently, "Daddy, slow down. You're driving too fast!" Because he ALWAYS drives too fast. We practiced saying it and I really want her drive him crazy with this comment so he'll remember to keep his speed in check. So as they were walking out the door she went up to him and said, "Daddy, you have to drive really fast so I can tell you to slow down." Let's just say I was happy to let this be a daddy/daughter weekend as I'm not so much a nature girl. I know...shocking!