Welcome to Heaven, Grandma!

Heaven just welcomed one of the most beautiful angels they've ever seen. My grandmothers struggle with life just ended a few moments ago. To say I'm heartbroken would be an understatement. However, the silver lining to this cloud of death is that she is no longer a stranger in her own body. She's no longer struggling to feel better. She's at home. She's with her love once again.

My precious mother made sure she was looking beautiful before she went to meet my grandfather. Mom helped the nurse bathed her this morning, put a pretty gown on her, and fixed her hair and all so nice. Oh, if you could have seen her...the picture my mom sent with her hair fixed all pretty...oh...now to just process through all the hurts and tears that death leaves to those of us still here on earth.

As sad as I am, I wouldn't call her back for one moment. If I could see her now, I probably would wipe these tears away and be smiling. I have a sneeky feeling there will be some 'dancing' in heaven tonight. My heart tells me to smile because her and grandpa are finally together again. But, my eyes don't always listen to my heart. I just wished I could see them waltzing across the heavens while that band of angels played for them!


What a legacy she has left...Landon is the 137th grandchild (there are 5 generations) and he's not the last one. :-)

Say a prayer for my husband...my moms brothers and sisters have asked him to do the service. It's such an honor for him, yet his heart is as broken as ours. He's loved her like his own grandmother for the 21 years we've been married. She made the statement several times that he was just like her own.

My husband and Grandma last month when we went home for a few days to spend some time with her.


Myself, Landon, Anthony and Grandma


Grandma with my Uncle Carlos who was so much more than a son-n-law to her. This is my moms baby sister's husband. My grandmother lived with them since my grandfather passed and they took care of her so well! It was perfect for my grandmother because she lived three houses down from her own house, so she could still feel like she was close to home. Thanks, Uncle Carlos for always taking such good care of her!


We celebrated her 82nd birthday just a couple of weeks ago...and now she's received the best birthday gift...Heaven!

HMMMMM....

I absolutely love the way my little boy's mind works. I just love it! We have started Children's Church on Wednesday nights at church and the kids are loving it. It's great to see them excited about the Bible being taught on their level. Landon always comes out of children's church bouncing up to me and telling me all about what he learned. Last night he was NOT happy at all about his lesson. I couldn't for the life of me understand why he was not jumping up and telling me all the things he learned and showing me his craft.

When we got in the car to come home, I asked him what his lesson was about and his reply was, "I just don't want to talk about it."

You can imagine the questions that went through my mind. I knew that the literature I had bought for them was taking a walk through the Ten Commandments. I also knew that the lady teaching the class is SUPER with her explanations and very good at getting the points across. So, being the ever questioning mom that I am, I done some digging and called his teacher and asked her what the lesson was on and if Landon had acted funny in class. I should have known everything was okay when she started laughing.

The lesson was on the commandment, Children Obey Your Parents. I was still a little confused at why Landon was not wanting to talk to me about it, so his dad and I sat down and talked to him today and asked him again, 'Landon, what was your lesson about last night?'

Again, he replied, "I just don't want to talk about that."

I asked him if it was on children obeying his parents, and I wish I would have had a camera rolling to catch his response. He looked at me really serious and asked, "You know about that one?" "Does dad know about it?"

I promise you, I almost lost it. We can only assume that he thought if we didn't know about it and if he didn't tell us about it, then it wasn't so and it wouldn't be enforced at home. I love that kid so much! I love his honesty, I love the way his mind thinks, I love that sad little look he got on his face when I told him 'YES' that his dad and I knew about that commandment and that he had to do what the Bible said and he had to obey us when we told him to do something.

And, I love his response to my answer! He looked at me with the saddest look on his face and simply walked away saying, "HMMMMMM..."


I love you Landon...you make your mommy smile! You have brought so much joy and laughter into our home...whatever would me and daddy do without you?? I never want to know.

He's a BIG BOY...

Well, Landon survived his first trip to the ER to get stitches! We were having a Valentine's Dinner at our church Friday night and he was playing with some other children in the church nursery, when I heard a scream and cry saying, 'MOMMA! It hurts bad!'

I knew from the moment I looked at him that we were going to be taking a trip to the ER. When I took a rag and wiped his mouth to see the actual cut, my fears were confirmed. I could see where he had cut completely through his lip.



When we arrived at the hospital, my husband carried him in and the nurse gave us a bigger ice pack to put on Landon's mouth, and called a pediatrician in to stitch his lip. The cut is in the corner of his mouth where it's going to be hard to heal because you constantly move your mouth.

Before the doctor gave Landon the shot to deaden the area, he had my husband hold his hands down and me to hold his head and chin, while the nurse held his feet. Landon looked at the doctor and said, 'I'm not gonna cry or hit you, I'm a big boy and big boys don't cry.' I don't think the doctor trusted him, and told us to continue holding him. When he put the needle in and Landon didn't move a muscle, he smiled and asked him if he felt that. Landon told him he did feel it, and that it hurt a little, but he was a big boy and big boys don't cry when they get shots.



The doctor told us to let him go, and he continued to deaden the area and stitch him up. We stood and looked on amazed. My only fear is that he hasn't learned a lesson in all this because his words as we were leaving were..."If I have to come here again, I know it don't hurt too bad, Mom!"

The doctor told us that he wished he could say 'It was nice to meet you' but instead decided to say, 'See you guys later' because he had a feeling we'd be back with this one. Oh, the joys of raising a little boy...

Friends & Laughter

I couldn't ask for better friends. I might could ask for more normal friends...but definitely not better friends than these girls!



We celebrated Tiffany's birthday by getting together and going to eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel, then off to the mall to shop. I'm not much of a shopper, but this wasn't your normal shopping trip so I was good.

Tiffany is a photographer who ROCKS at what she does. To say she's awesome at photography is an understatement! So, what do you buy someone like her? She has every piece of photography equipment you could imagine, but we found a few she didn't have.

We made our own version of Photography for Dummies...my friend who has amazing computer skills helped us out.


Here's a close up...





And I found an awesome camera...(PLASTIC! FROM DOLLAR TREE!) and we made it into a Nikon camera because she is a Nikon user.





And we couldn't forget a flash for her new camera! Yep...it was a book of matches with our own cover on it. Told you my friend has amazing computer skills!




Along with the camera and flash, we got her a 'picture cd'...not your normal kind that you store pictures on. Nope, ours was a cd with pictures of her friends taped to it. You just can't beat friends like us that know how to buy these kinds of gifts!


Then it was off to the mall for many more laughs. When you're with these nuts you just gotta have a camera ready. You never know what they are going to get into. That's just how they roll.













I love you guys! You're the greatest. I can't wait till our day out next month. Our husbands say they can't turn us loose in public together but once a month! It's a small town, and they can't handle all of us together that often.

Church In A Day...FINISHED!

Well, the church is finished but I don't have pictures of the finished product. We had to leave early because my husband became very ill. I think it had a lot to do with working in the cold and wet conditions. He tried to stick it out till it was completed, but just couldn't. Several of the men were sick or not feeling well from being out in the weather.

Here's some pictures that I have of the church being finished on Saturday. I'll have pics of the finished and decorated inside in a few days since we're going to visit them in a couple of weeks. They did have a wonderful service in their new building Sunday at 2pm. We're so happy for our friends! I really love that the building process made the front page news...a WHOLE page dedicated to it, with full color pictures.

This particular 'Church In A Day' was special to us because it was for one of my husband's friends. They work together on Foreign and Home Missions for the Louisiana District.






Landon was there for a couple of hours Saturday...And OF COURSE, he found the mud to be exciting!






He wasn't the only one...all the kiddos found the mud to be the playground of choice.



As soon as we go see our friends and get some pictures of the finished building, I'll post some pictures. It's amazing that on Friday morning they started with a slab and by midnight Friday the structure was complete, and the inside work was being started. Then to be able to have their first service on Sunday in a completed building, fully decorated, (curtains and all!) just amazes me every time! I think this is one of the greatest things to be a part of that our organization does. I'm just thankful that we have almost eight months to rest before the next one is started.

Church In A Day...Part 2

Well, here's a few pictures of the progress of the church as of about 10pm last night. My husband and the crew from our church stayed till almost 3am this morning because they were so far behind due to weather related conditions. Work resumed this morning at 7am, but we won't be going till noon. I'm excited about seeing the finished product, and I know that all the workers will be excited to see things finished.

When I tell you it was muddy, that's an understatement! We've had rain for the last week here in Louisiana, so you can imagine how bad it was.



Told you it was muddy...



So many workers doing so many different things at the same time!



The inside coming together...






One of my husband's preacher friends and I were in a camera war and just got shots of each other taking pictures of the other.



But...I caught him off guard and WON!!!



We called this our People Aquarium...I think the A/C guys were as amused by it as we were because they kept posing for us! LOL



This was the popular footwear for the day...



I love that our District Supertendent, Rev. Kevin Cox, even came to help!



There was quite a bit of fun mixed in with all the work...






But there was always someone with a bullhorn to get everyone back on track!


My husband, and a couple of the guys from our church were TIRED...they didn't stop working till almost 3am and are headed back to work till it's completed today.



So, hopefully when I get home this evening I'll have pictures of a completed and fully decorated church building. After the guys finish all their painting and carpet laying and finishing touches today, us ladies get to go in and make the place beautiful! To say I'm excited about the decorating part is an understatement. That's like the icing on a warm cake!