CRAFT SHOW!!!!!

Working on statement rings for next weeks craft show at the robinson comunity center

Miracle Birthday!!!

Today our baby girl turned 15!  wow!  I can't believe it either.  She was the baby that the Doc said I couldn't conceive, but I did.  The baby that beat all the odds against her, the baby that made me fight the fight of my life.  She was born on July 28th , a baby born 12 weeks early to a mommy fighting Cervical cancer and stage 4 endometriosis.  During delivery I passed out when I saw her heart rate drop, and the look on the nurses face.  When I finally came to about 40 hours after her delivery (I had been whisked away to surgery, blood transfusion, a tubal litigation, biopsy, 17 cysts removed, multiple other tests and procedures done in a heroic effort to save my life.)  I looked at Kev and he says, "you did good, she is beautiful!  She is really healthy, the baby doc says we have one tough little girl, just like her mommy."  I asked what did you name her?  (we never picked out a name, I wanted him to name her, I didn't know if I would be around.)  He says "Shania" I thought I would lose my mind are you kidding me?  what was he thinking?  Our kids have names w/ meaning, w/ a story.  knowing me and what was racing through my mind before I could say what I was thinking he says "Shania in indian means I am on my way."  I gave her the middle names of Jo after you and Lynn after your baby sister"  (baby sister helped take care of me and the older 2 kids during the pregnancy so Kevin could work and provide for us)  I just cried!  He really had thought it out, her name had meaning, it had a story, but best of all it had a happy story.  The doc got all of the cancer, I was gonna be fine!  Praise God for the miracle of life, for the miracle of a micro premie that fought the odds and won, and continues to amaze us daily.  To look at her now you would never know the fight she fought, or how for 7 months we fought it together.  If ever you question there is a God, or if He is still in the Miracle business let me assure you he is just look at this Miracle, the answer to many prayers.  





ok so she is way more precious these days when she is sleeping.....lol She is my angel baby!   My sunshine on a cloudy day!  Our Rainbow bright, and her daddy's girl!   


Here is a pic of her at dinner after 8th grade graduation back in May.  I have Birthday pics to post but will do that tomorrow!!





Thank you Jesus for answering all of my prayers for her, even when I didn't deserve your attention.  Thank you for blessed assurance that you were always with me in those dark days carrying both of us  in your loving arms.  Thank you for entrusting me to care for her, love her and teach her about you Lord.  Thank you for making her in your image!  and May she always know how amazing we think she is and that our love for her is with out end just as your love for us is.  Amen  


Have a great day!!!  

Summer busy = Good busy

I have been really busy.  Just the way a summer should be I think.  So let me recap for you the last couple weeks.

T was asked by our youth pastor several months ago to go and participate in a leadership camp called Super Summer.  We talked about it and since T thinks that maybe someday he wants to be a Youth Minister and the camp was being held at a Baptist College we thought that T would benefit.  So off to camp for 5 days he went and learned a lot and he is still interested in Youth Ministry.  T left on a Tuesday Morning and S was leaving on Thursday morning for Colorado w/ her BFF Erika and Erika’s Dad for a family reunion vacation in Colorado.  She went to Denver and Estes Park and lots of other places.  She was able to do some white water rafting, serious hiking(5 hour trips), went to the Wizard of Oz Museum in Kansas and since she just got home last night I am sure we will hear more about all that she got to do.  We are forever thankful to Ron and Erika for taking her along for a trip of a lifetime.  She called to check in when she first got into the “mountains” I asked her if they were pretty?  And she replied “Pretty doesn’t even begin, God out did himself on this painting!  You should see how many pictures I have taken”    I would totally insert Pic here but she lost her camera.  Hopefully it is in “family’s car” and will be mailed back to us soon!  T came home from Super Summer very pumped up and excited about all he had learned.  He was really excited when his Grandpa Mike asked him to help roof his house.  (I am so proud of him for the giving and loving heart he has.)  Not many 16 yr olds would want to go and help let alone do it alone in the heat but he did and he is really proud of the work they were able to get done.  Unfortunately GM got sick on Saturday and went down w/ a double inner ear infection.  Roofing has stopped for the time being.  T came home from GM’s and said his ear hurt too.  (I am thinking yeah right, GM has an ear infection and you want an excuse to not clean your room)  Then I look and the boy has crap oooooooozing out of his ear, GASP!!!   I know I know what a terrible parent I am but really the boy looked fine other than the grossness coming out of the ear.  So off to the ER we went.  So embarrassing to go to the ER on a Saturday w/ a 16 yr old for an EAR INFECTION I mean really what kind of mom doesn’t notice this stuff?   But nobody laughed and he not only had inner ear but outer and ruptured eardrum.  Now I get WORST PARENT of the year award.  Prayers for both are appreciated, and a little something for the guilt gut that I now have would be great! 

T and S are both leaving on Monday morning to go on a youth mission trip to the Baptist Children’s Home here in Illinois.  So there is much packing and preparation going on for that.  We may or may not let Taylor go depending on how well he does today w/ the ear infection. 

Since S was out of town, would be home for a couple of days and then off again I decided that it would be a good time to redo her room.  Well Since I don’t go upstairs often (teenagers live up there and it always causes a month long cleansing to get over my trips upstairs)  Her room was a mess!  So we got it all cleaned up and picked some paint (pale Sunshine which is according to everyone but me is just white paint).  Her room is in the upstairs, has these really cool angled walls and ceiling that are a real pain to paint and would cost a fortune to have dry walled so we decided that painting the ugly mismatched paneled walls would be much much easier and a lot cheaper.   YES YOU CAN PAINT THAT AWFUL STUFF and make it look AHHHmazing!!!!  I had done it before several times and have learned in my many adventures some tricks to make it a bit easier.  I will share those tips w/ all in another post/tutorial.  We had been thinking about doing her room for sometime so we had been buying, gathering, and searching for stuff for a while.  Her favorite color is yellow somewhere in the canary to neon range, and that was not going on the walls.  So we compromised and are painting her furniture Thai Silk which is that color between canary and neon we think.  I hope to finish it entirely this week while she is gone and will post pics then.   I hope that all is well w/ you all and you are working on your happy place!  Have a good day for this is the day the Lord has made!   

Kitchen frustration

So the kitchen is not finished but ....
I do have a new Great nephew!!!  at 8:16pm yesterday Jaeden Lee was born!  and weighed 5 lbs 11 oz -- 19 inches long He and his mommy are both doing wonderful!  Praise God!!!  
Considering he was a month early we are all very thankful that our heavenly Father was in control!  This has been really really hard on me, watching my beautiful sweet super intelligent niece go through all of this.  I love her like she is my own cause you see I helped raise her for many years.  When she lived with us we treated her just like we did our kids and although it was hard really hard at times to have the extra kids here to feed and care for we wouldn't change one second of the time we spent with them!  We won't get to see this beautiful baby or his mommy till August  :( But I know we will spoil them both when we do.  
now this whole kitchen nightmare has to get finished off today!  I need to get it done and go look at a washer and dryer....used cause Dave Ramsey says I need to be frugal and I normally am but man it is hard when these new washers and dryers do sooooo much more than the old ones did, or will do when I buy used.  Ok back to the kitchen! yeehaw! 

Day 3 of the Kitchen nightmare

I will upload pics eventually.....today the kids think they should sleep all day and I am really not in the mood to fight with them.  I did however make it to Wal-mart last night (my least favorite place)  I got some cabinet organizer thingy's and new rubbermaid to hopefully make the reorganization of my kitchen a bit easier.  I decided that I would get rid of a set of dishes and the slotted plates.  Ok for those of you that know me and how I don't like my food to touch..this is a big deal!!!!  C will fight me on the slotted plates, but my theory is we manage everywhere else to not use a slotted plate we can manage at home.  Besides C is only home at best 4 months out of the year, and then she only eats a couple meals a week at home with us.  getting rid of the other set of dishes freed up an entire cabinet and if you have been in my teeny tiny kitchen you know that is a HUGE deal!  so I am a bit excited and feel the cleansing power of purging my kitchen will make me feel better about losing the bakers rack.  The kitchen is really dirty....well not dirty just white so everything shows up which really really annoys me.  I am seeing every single greasy fingerprint as I go, and now I am thinking paint....hmmm  it sounds exciting until I actually start.  I know I can't do it right now but possibly in a couple weeks gotta finish these other projects first.  Church this evening, and then I have a bunch of sewing to do, and I need to get busy on that washer and dryer hunt!  I will run out of clean clothes soon!

Update on my niece she is still in labor.....over 24 hours now thank God she isn't in a lot of pain.  I am secretly praying that her labor stops.  She is only 15 and her actual due date is one month from today.....Prayers for her and her baby are greatly appreciated.  God is in control and has a plan I just wish my  sister would keep her mouth shut and let the doctors do their job.  Sorry ya'll I disabled the comments cause these are my opinions, my relationship with my sister has always been tough and I always bite my tongue when it comes to her.  But with my nieces and nephews whom I spent the better part of 10 years raising I want what is best for them and I assure you this is not what is best, nor is it what the good Lord wants for them either!  

work in progress and a bit of chaos

So I have been a huge huge fan of some dear friends blogs for months, so today I decided that the time was right for me to start my own.  It is a work in progress and it will be for a while.....the perfectionist in me says it will never be as good as I want it to be.  Today is a busy day, my niece is in Labor I fully expect to be a great aunt by the end of the day.  My other boys are here hanging out.  I replaced the old fridge, w/ a new bigger fridge and I love it except for the fact that my kitchen is tiny and now I have a ton of stuff that has no home in my kitchen because the bakers rack that used to fit perfectly next to the fridge will no longer fit.  I have way to many things going on and need to finish several projects.  I have a goldfish pond in the back that I recently moved, and seriously need to finish the landscaping around it and fix the waterfall, filter and pump stuff. It also needs a guard put on it so the little neighbor guy doesn't sneak over to look at the fishy and accidentally get hurt.  I need to finish stripping and redoing the buffet I bought 2 years ago....it will be a TV stand with an electric sun heater fireplace when we finish it.    Then there is a kitchen that seriously needs my attention.  Did I mention the appliances at our house held a meeting and decided to all go to the graveyard together, so I need to look for a new washer and dryer too.  New Hebron Christian school has their fundraiser auction this friday and I serously need to get my items for that ready!  (I really think I may have adult ADD, with a tad bit of OCD, but you will learn all about that as this blog grows.  As life would have it I am now feeling a bit overwhelmed at all I need to be doing so here I go to get it done.