Plug for reality tv & updates on family

I am tired today. But it's completely my fault. I have come across this show called "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and I absolutely love it!! I have stayed up until 1 or 2am watching all the back to back episodes. For those that don't know about this family, Jon and Kate were married (obviously) and realized that they were having trouble getting pregnant due to Kate have POS, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, so they decided to use invitro. She became pregnant with their first set of twin girls and loved them so much that they decided to try for one more. Well, one more turned into 6 (yes I said 6) more. They had 3 girls and 3 boys. Anyway, the show is talking about their life and showing what all they go through. It's funny to watch Jon and Kate interact during the show. Sometimes it reminds me of D & me. It's neat to watch her go through all the same things I go through, but the difference is that she has 6 that are all the same age. I can't even begin to imagine going through what moms go through throughout the day and it being x6 or x8..whichever way you want to look at it. I'm sure the stress level in that house is tremendous but they seem to really rely on God and in His faithfulness to help them get through it all. They are an inspiration to watch so if you haven't seen their show yet tune into TLC on Monday nights.

Update on Boogs. He saw at OT a few weeks ago and she said that he was having no issues in regards to his mouth. It was suggested that he see an OT in case he was having some type of oral issues and maybe that was causing him to not be able to talk, but she said he was fine. He has also seen both speech therapists this week and both seem encouraged. He is starting to pick up on more words but they are only like 3 letter words; yay,nah,yea,Mi-Mi(what he calls Meggy) and a few others and he is using his sign language that he has learned very well. I did teach him to say 'movie' but for him it comes out as 'oobie'(sounds like ewbie). It really is cute to hear him say that. I was given more sign language to teach him and really we are only teaching him the sign language to keep our frustration levels down from us not being able to understand what he wants. He is very smart and catches on quickly so that is good. I know that some people have asked if maybe he could be autistic. I spoke in detail today with the special instruction therapist and she said based on what she knows and sees in him, he is not autistic. Autistic children generally have little or no socialization skills, won't look you in the eye, won't just come up and give you a hug, will wave their hands around or watch the ceiling fan go around and around and Boogs is nothing like that. He has very good reception of things going on around him but has a problem with the expressive part of it. He just has a speech delay. But thank you to those who have been concerned because it has made me more aware of the things that he does or doesn't do and has made me ask questions that I might not otherwise have asked. He is such a sweet little boy and I am so blessed to have him in my life. *tear*

Also, please keep my dad in your prayers. He had thyroid cancer a few years ago and has been dealing with cancer in his lymph nodes since then. He has had surgery and radiation to deal with it but now it's back. His Dr's here in town sent him to a cancer center in New York to get their opinion on it and they have basically told him that he can't do anymore radiation because he has maxed out on it and they don't want to do surgery on his neck again unless the cancer grows. He will have to go get re-checked in 4 to 6 months to see if it has grown and if it has then they will decide what to do then..maybe another surgery but they are weary on that because it involves cutting into neck muscles and all that surrounding stuff(easiest way to put it). I have had several people ask about chemo and because of the type of cancer that it is, chemo is not an option because it wouldn't do anything for it. So, please pray that it doesn't grow any..at all!

Prayer for the California Homeschooling Case

**As I am about to embark on this journey myself I am keeping up with this information. For those that don't know, HSLDA stands for Homeschool Legal Defense Association**

On Monday, June 23, 2008, HSLDA founder Mike Farris argued in defense of homeschooling in the California Court of Appeal in the now-infamous Rachel L. case. In February, this same court had ruled that homeschooling is illegal in California. The court later vacated its own decision in response to a request for rehearing filed by attorney for the father, Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation, with substantial assistance by Farris and other attorneys at HSLDA. Farris argued as a friend of the court on behalf of HSLDA's 15,000 member families in California, as well as Focus on the Family, and Private and Home Educators of California.

Farris was joined in his defense of homeschooling by lawyers representing the Attorney General and Governor of California, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, California’s three largest homeschooling groups (California Homeschool Network, Homeschool Association of California and Christian Home Educators of California), Pacific Justice Institute on behalf of Sunland Christian School, and Alliance Defense Fund lawyer Jeff Shafer, on behalf of the family.

“The weight of legal and scholarly authority presented to this court in defense of homeschooling is unprecedented,” said Farris, who has argued dozens of similar cases since founding HSLDA 25 years ago.

In addition to those who presented oral argument, friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the right of parents to homeschool were submitted by Pacific Legal Foundation, National Legal Foundation, Sutherland Institute, Liberty Counsel on behalf of 13 members of Congress, Gifted Homeschoolers Forum, et al, Seventh Day Adventist Church State Council, Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence (prepared by noted law professors David Llewellyn, John Eastman, and Erwin Chemerinsky), American Center for Law and Justice and The Western Center for Law and Policy.

Farris is guardedly optimistic that the three-judge panel will not repeat its earlier error, but he covets your prayers. “The homeschooling movement has been successful not because of the work of lawyers but because the Lord has blessed it,” noted Farris. “We must always remember Proverbs 21:1—‘The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever he wishes.’ ”

A decision is expected within a few weeks.

Washin' & Watchin'

This past weekend Dee-deed and I decided to clean out and wash our cars. Mine wasn't too bad but hadn't been vacuumed out since the beach so I was ready to get it cleaned out. The kids helped us.......they were so sweet to help.




Later that night we went to a Barons baseball game. We really went to see the fireworks afterwards, but the game was still fun. Except that I was having to go up and down the stairs about a million times to get food or drinks or take someone to the bathroom. I'm still not quite sure who won the game..LOL!


Some mutual friends, Scott & Monika


They just HAD to have their ice-cream in the little hats...



And then the fireworks....

This is how Boogs watched...

Bud was in Dee-deeds lap while she covered his ears.

A picnic at the park

Yesterday and today the weather has been beautiful here. It is between 84 and 89 degrees with very low humidity. It's almost like a day during the Spring or Fall time. I had some errands to run and so I decided to surprise the kids with a picnic at the park when I got done with the errands. I stopped by McDonalds (it has been a while since we ate there) and got each of them happy meals and we headed to the park. It was so nice. We ate lunch at one of the picnic tables under a pavilion and enjoyed the nice breeze and just being with each other. We then went on the playground for a little bit and then the kids decided they wanted to go on a walk around the track. I was up for it since I had just scarfed down my lunch and while we were walking we were looking for different types of bugs or animals..whichever we might see. The kids were so excited because we saw 4 rabbits. One was pretty big and the others were kinda small. Bud was being the brave one today so he decided to get a closer look all the while I am scurrying to get my camera out of the little case to get a picture of the rabbits. I was so hoping the rabbit we hit on the way to the beach (go back to Beach Trip story) was not a relative because I would sure hate for one of those rabbits to attack my son in retaliation. Of course I'm just kidding. I mean about the rabbit being a relative and attacking Bud....ok I'm not making any sense here and I was just trying to take a stab at telling a joke, so I'm just gonna go on with the story. Anyway, his braveness(which I am not putting down by any means) cost me the picture because they hopped away as I was getting it out. I guess I was just too slow. Anyway, they were very excited to see the rabbits and they just had to tell daddy when he called. We also had a discussion about why we weren't going to capture the rabbits or go to the pet store and buy any. We saw some baby butterflies and a bright green spider too. They had fun but were definitely tired by the time we got back around the mini-track so we just went back to the playground for a little while longer.

More Beach Trip pics

These were taken by my sister. I took some too on my 35mm camera, but we'll have to wait and see those when I get them developed. :)








I took these two pics of Dee-deed.




One more...to make you chuckle a bit! Bud was pitching a fit because it was so hot outside..I think it's hilarious! Hmmm, does that make me a bad mom? LOL! :)

Beach Trip

We had a fun time last week. We got up at 2:30a..well, technically I never went to bed that night, and was pulling out of the driveway at 3:30a. We love leaving that early! Anyway, first thing somewhere between our house and Clanton we hit a rabbit. I know, sad, but the little critter was just sitting in our lane on the interstate and just as we got up to it, it started to dart away and well....it met it's fate with our tire. Oh it was horrible! A little ways into the trip, D & Dee-deed (my sister)needed some coffee. We went to 3 or 4 McDonald's and all of them were closed. Even the one that said the drive-thru was open 24 hours...go figure. So we stopped off in Greenville and their McDonald's was closed too so we headed on down the interstate a little ways and found another one. It was about 5:30a so we decided to wait until they opened (at 6am?). We parked in a spot and rolled down the windows because it was cool outside and sorta drifted in and out of sleepiness. Another car pulled up and we realized that it was about 6:15a. We saw them get out and the lady said.."What? They don't open until 7:00a". We were shocked. A McDonald's not opening until 7:00a???? Why had we not thought about checking the times on the door? We basically had just wasted 45m to an hour sitting in their parking lot. Of course we left and eventually found another one somewhere else down the interstate and I was able to get one of their iced coffee's. That's the only way I like 'em.

We decided to go through Mobile instead of taking the Gulf Shores Parkway exit. Dee-deed and I used to live in Mobile when we were little and she hadn't been down that way in years. So we drove on through to see those bridgey things (I don't know what else to call them) and was also able to drive over the bay and see the U.S.S. Alabama which the kids enjoyed seeing also. We finally made it to Gulf Shores and went straight to Alabama Point. We always head there first which makes us believe we are actually there. We then changed clothes and headed to the beach for a few hours b/c we couldn't check into our condo until 3:00p. The kids had fun even though the surf was really rough and Dee-deed did get stung by a jellyfish. It was surprising to us that we saw so many jellyfish. They usually aren't bad until August. The kids couldn't play in the ocean because there were so many. We spent more time at the Oasis then we did the beach.

We also rode the Farris Wheel at the Wharf (which is where we stayed) and took Meghan to Build-A-Bear because that is what she wanted to do for her birthday. We relaxed alot and enjoyed our time there. Wish it could have been longer. D & I have decided that we are going to try and take the kids back sometime this summer. Hopefully the jellyfish won't be too bad.

Funny thing: On the way back we stopped in Greenville again to go to the McDonalds and they were tearing it down. We couldn't believe it..that we had just been there a few days earlier and now it was demolished. Oh well!!

Father's Day

I just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to my Heavenly Father, to David and to my dad! I love you!!

Excited :)

We are going on vacation tomorrow and I'm talking EARLY tomorrow morning. We are the ones that you know that like to get up at like 2:00a or shortly thereafter and get ready and hit the road. We like to utilize every second we have on vacation. We are headed to the beach and we all need this vacation so bad. Our Dee-deed (my twin sister)is going with us and we know that we are going to have sooo much. So please say a pray for traveling mercies and that we will enjoy every minute of this vacation. Please pray a hedge of protection around us that the evil one will stay away and not try to ruin our vacation in any way. We have been looking forward to this vacation for so long. I will definitely post pictures and blog about our beach adventures when we get back.

Love ya'll,

Amanda :)

Validated

This has been a sweet week for me. I had the opportunity to be a teacher at VBS and went into it thinking "Oh Lord, please help me through this week" but I have ended up saying "Thank you Lord for allowing me to be apart of these sweet little lives" and I'm actually sad that it is ending. Of course it was challenging at times, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that God was with me every step of the way. My time at VBS has ended short because Bud starting running a fever today and they came and got me during Worship Rally. Bless his heart, he had chills sitting in my lap and he looked so pitiful. Since we got home I have since realized that he has the same virus that we had two weeks ago. I was really hoping he would have skipped out on it, but.... So I won't be there for the last day at VBS and today when we were waiting for the other kids parents to come pick them up, I said to my students "Thank you for allowing me to be your teacher this week and I have really enjoyed having each of you in my class" and when I said that each of them ran up to me and gave me a big hug. It made me feel so special! It made me think that I really did have some impact on their life this week. I sure hope so! But most importantly I hope that seeds were planted.

Please say a prayer for our little Bud that this will pass quickly and that we don't get reinfected with this horrible virus. Also, we are supposed to leave Sunday for our family vacation and it would be really nice to have everyone well. My mom told me that satan knows how much we are looking forward to this vacation and is throwing all kinds of stuff at us to get us down and irritated at each other and she reminded me to not let him have that stronghold. So, I am going to thank God for this virus anyway and not let the evil one have the victory.

Little Lambs

Well, yesterday started VBS week and let me tell you, I crashed yesterday when I got home. I don't know what it was, but I was so pooped. Maybe it was because I'm not used to handling 18 ,just recently graduated, kindergartner's practically by myself or what, but anyway, it's been interesting. We had a lot more than we expected and about seven of the kids in my class are from daycare's in this area and it seemed like all I heard was, "What are we doing next?", "Where are we going next?'", "Do we have music?" , "Where's music at?", "Will anybody be dressed up in music?","Are we going outside?", "I don't want to go outside" or I got this from some of the students "I don't want to do that", " I don't want to eat that", "I don't want to paint" and so on and so on. But I prayed before this week started that God would help me get through it. The teachers and workers at VBS may be the only Jesus that some of these sweet little kids see, so I want to make sure that my attitude is in tune with God's. My purpose it to try and further His kingdom and give Him all the glory. In the k5 area, we are short of workers so it's been a strain on all of us to get this week ready, but God has definitely been with us. I prayed that He would help my attitude this week and to help me be able to do what He wanted me to do when I don't have the resources. He has filled my heart with joy that only comes from Him. He brought an extra worker today to our class, who I later found out was specifically skilled in painting children's hands and feet, and she was a huge help in getting our craft done today. Who would have thought that you would need to be skilled and creative in painting a child's hands & feet, but let me tell you, you do. I also have a youth worker who has been such a gem and done other things that I haven't had the time to do.

Honestly I really wasn't looking forward to the stress of this week, but God has truly been there and helped me physically when I have been really tired. We have been really busy here at home and so adding VBS week to the mix has been challenging but we are making it. I think my three chillies have all enjoyed their time so far at vacation Bible school too. They are just too cute! It really is so sweet to see their precious faces singing songs about Jesus and learning the sign language that goes along with it. I can just imagine God's face as He sees these little lambs worshiping Him.
~Jesus loves the little children,
all the children of the world,
red and yellow, black and white,
they are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.