Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life
So my 30 days of no secular radio and no Grey’s Anatomy is over. I’m currently downloading a Grey’s episode that for whatever reason is not posted on abc.com. But believe me, I have no issues whatsoever spending $2 on catching up.
Listening to the radio today was a bit disappointing. I thought I would be SO glad to hear it but I wasn’t. Not saying I didn’t listen or won’t but I think I could definitely live without it for much longer if required.
Last night I was supposed to go to a Pampered Chef party and Emma was going to go with me. Scott had to go visit someone so I was going to have Heather watch Lexi at the house for about an hour. Well, Mom calls an hour before I needed to leave and said she and Heather were coming to pick up Lexi. So of course Emma cried when she realized Lexi was going off without her and Mom ended up taking both of them. I went to the party at S’s house and then met Mom at her house with the girls. Apparently she took them up to Clt to shop and didn’t get back to her house until after 9. So the girls didn’t get to bed until after 10 last night. And they slept in until 9 this morning. I’m supposed to go in the office at lunch today. Mom was supposed to get the girls but it looks like she has errands to run so Scott will have them himself this afternoon. Which I think is ok. He’s been doing pretty good as long as he keeps his sling on. But it is a very rainy day today and I’m thinking I’d rather not go in. But I don’t want to attempt the meeting I have on a conference call.
Yesterday we took the girls to their Fall Festival at their school. They both loved their costume. Lexi even wore her big fluffy Snow White costume onthe way there and the whole time she was there. She looked so cute. And Emma even wore her wig the whole time. Unbelievable. Lexi was into the games and candy. I was surprised.
I talked to their teachers and apparently Emma is the “idea maker” in the class. She tells everyone what they’re going to play and everyone goes along with it. There is another Emma that is in the class that is her best friend. Lexi’s teachers thought she was very smart and really has “matured” the past couple of weeks. Which I have seen that too. They said she is now handing over her paci and blankie when she walks in the door and never asks for it. They believe she is talking more because she doesn’t have that in her mouth. We really need to get rid of it. Maybe after we get back from Maryland next week and Scott is still out of work we can attack that. Ugh, I’m cringing just saying that.
This week has been SLOW. I don’t think I’ve gotten showers until lunch or after. Work is slow. We’ve done barely anything really since the lock-in last Thursday. Last night just the four of us went to get Japanese which was a half-pleasant experience. I only say half-pleasant because Lexi was wanting to get out of the seat until the food got there and then I spent the whole time telling Emma to eat or asking Lexi to eat, etc. And then, to top it off, I went to the restroom at the end and dropped my keys in the toilet. It was clean water and I hadn’t gone yet. I stared down at the keys and I was like, that’s $250 sitting down there, I’ve got to get it out. So yes, I reached IN the water to get them out and rinsed them as best as I could. Oh well. But the girls ate pretty good while they ate and I was able to finish my meal. So that’s good.
Scott and I have been playing Scrabble almost nightly the past few days. I LOVE Scrabble although I usually lose. However, I managed a 100 point win last night over him. Usually my sister gets in on our games if she’s here but it’s just been us this week. Which is kind of nice. Because we actually are doing something together that is not required and it’s just for fun. And it’s at home. Well, I can think of one more thing like that we do, but hey, this isn’t THAT type of blog. LOL.
In other news, Lexi has thrown up a couple times in the past 5 days. Saturday morning was random but I think it was due to a bunch of Sprite she drank Friday night which she has never done and then yogurt on top of that. She was fine all weekend and then threw up a good bit Monday night. And of course that was red kool-aid. And then she had some more of that kool-aid Tuesday morning and threw up a little more. And then she was fine. So I think that was due to the stir-in red kool-aid stuff she’s never had. Anyway, she’s eaten chicken, fruit, crackers, pop-tarts and stuff since then so she seems fine and it doesn’t seem like a virus.
Next Wednesday we have decided to go to Maryland until the next Sunday. Whoo Hoo! I’m technically out of vacation except for a few hours I intend to take at Christmas when we go up so I will be working from up there. Bummer, but what else can I do? At least it will be different and I will be able to see family.
Lexi’s birthday is next Friday so we’re having a double-party for them while we’re up there. My [extended] family never gets to see them on their birthdays so I think it’s pretty cool. Although my ILs didn’t seem to like the idea. But I never apologize when it comes to that because they get to see them like 3 times a year and if they situations were reversed, it would be the same for them.
Monday I am taking snacks to Lexi’s class for her birthday. Hopefully this won’t be one of those things that stresses me. I was thinking about getting Emma to decorate some cookies and maybe taking all the kids some bubbles or something. I mean, what do 18mo-2 yr olds really want?? Half of them will not even realize what is going on. I’m hesitant to go in her room. I’m afraid she’ll have a fit when I leave if I go into her classroom. But I would really like to see how things work around there so I’m going to try to go. Not sure how that will work with my work but I’m going to try. Especially since usually drop her off at 8:45 and they don’t eat snack until 9:40. Maybe I’ll just take in the snacks. Who knows.
I was REALLY not looking forward to bible study last night. I think I mentioned that last week. Anyway, I was almost sick to my stomach before the lesson last night. I stared at that lesson all day yesterday and could not get in my head how I wanted to teach it. I even talked to Scott about it, researched on the Internet, printed this and that. Finally, an hour before I had an idea. It was very simple, very pared down from what I originally planned. And it turned out well I think. Only one week left. And maybe some type of group fun thing. Actually we went to Starbucks with a couple of them last night. That was fun.
Oh, and “the girl” in my bible study showed up basically high on half a bottle of NyQuil–on purpose. She could barely walk and her talk was slurred and she kept saying she couldn’t think straight. I didn’t know what to do except I told her I didn’t think it was funny and she was seriously going to end up hurting herself. I talked to the youth pastor today and Scott said I should have called the police. Ugh.
Gr, I hate when I lose a post. Basically I was going to comment on the fact that we did the second session with the girl (D) from our bible study and Dr. B along with one of D’s friends this weekend. So we’re supposedly halfway through sessions with him and I’m a little disappointed that I haven’t really seen any progress. He seems to be listening a lot and gathering a lot of info about all of us but hasn’t really begun to dole out any advice. I am encouraged by the fact that he has a very similar background to D and it’s obvious God put them together for a reason. I just really want a lot for D and am unfortunately being impatient. That being said, I can say D does seem to trust this guy and has opened up to him so I’m just going to wait it out and see what happens.
So this weekend is Fall Festival at church. I really would rather go to the band competition in Atlanta with D this weekend. But I doubt that will happen. We officially have their costumes for this weekend though. Emma is Stephanie from Lazy Town. Pink wig and everything. Lexi will be Snow White. But I don’t know if she’ll actually wear the dress for very long. She can be kind of picky about fluffy stuff. Sometimes she’ll wear it for a long time and sometimes she has it on for a minute and wants it off. Hopefully it will work out. I also have our 3rd meeting with the girl from my bible study and a counselor. So my weekend is already getting full.
So the lock-in. We showed up around 4:30-5 just to drop some stuff off and ended up never leaving. The printer to print the pictures of the kids gave us troubles. Not really troubles, but the second one that someone brought of theirs was like two-three times as slow as the new one we had and we were printing pictures all the way up until 11 that night, right before he needed them during the service. There was about 115 youth there which is about twice as many as we have on a normal Wednesday night. Everything went really well. The service was awesome. He had a tough time getting started because of technical difficulties but once he got into it, it was very powerful. I think 16 youth got saved and many more made other decisions.
We left around 12:15 for Zuma (place with video games/go-carts/batting cages/putt-putt). I could not decide whether to go or not. I even said to S that I wasn’t sure I’d be safe driving by myself that late at night. But I reasoned it was 99% interstate on the way home and I’d be fine. Not a lot of oncoming traffic. Everyone was having such a good time and I didn’t want to disappear and the girls were spending the night at Mom’s so I wanted to make the most of it. Anyway, I only stayed until about 1:45am and decided I had had enough and was going to go get some sleep. I remember being on top of one of our interstates and I think I might have even prayed out loud that God would keep me safe on the way home. Not two minutes later, I was in Lane 2 of 4 and the left front of my mom’s SUV struck a car in Lane 1. The left front swiped the car and it damaged the side mirror. I stopped about half a mile down the road. There were two other 18 wheelers pulled off the side of the road and I parked in between them. I didn’t attempt to get back up where that car was. I immediately called *HP and then Scott. I saw that another trooper was north bound “across the street” and was heading our way. So I stayed put in my car. Scott talked to one of the sergeants and he said he’d come talk to me. Another truck hit this car right after me and his tire went flat and air bag came out. Neither of us were hurt. A security guard from the welcome center came to talk to me. He said there was a car that had wrecked and was sitting in the lane and that’s what I hit. I later found out that it was unoccupied. The security guard ended up going back up there and sitting his car behind the car with lights because the wrecked car had none. There was not good lighting on that stretch of the interstate and I didn’t see a thing. I also saw a third car jerk very hard to not hit the car. I called Mom and let her know I had wrecked the car. She of course was just happy that I was ok and ended up staying on the phone with me until I got home. The wreck report shows that the other guy was at fault for the wreck but Mom’s insurance seems to think they may argue and basically say I hit a parked car. Um, no, I hit a wrecked car that was in the middle of the interstate unmanned. Not good. Anyway. that was my first wreck ever. Hopefully I won’t lose any insurance points, discounts or whatever. I´m just going to get young drivers car insurance to make sure I´m covered.
Surprisingly I learned something from this wreck. I knew in my heart that I shouldn’t have gone to Zuma with the rest of the youth group. I NEVER worry about driving at night or any time. But I paused and knew I shouldn’t have. I really felt God telling me that if I don’t learn to obey his voice, it’s just as well that I never heard it to begin with. Learning to hear the Holy Spirit speak is one thing but it’s a whole other ballgame to try to obey what He says. But if you don’t obey, He may as well not speak to you. It doesn’t do you any good not to do what He says. I could have avoided that accident had I not gone but I certainly believed He protected me from any further harm. I was literally inches away from head-on collision at 70 mph that could have killed me and taken me from my family. I’m just thankful that even though I didn’t obey that God’s mercy was big enough to protect me.
Lexi has really opened up with her words lately. In the past few weeks, we have all caught her saying or trying to say new words. She is now saying PawPaw very clearly. Daddy is Dah-he. She says Sissy and maw for Grandma. She says “mine”. “Where’s [fill in the blank with my baby, my socks, my shoes]” Everything starts with “my”. When we are in a store and I’m pointing to things and tell her the word, she tries to imitate me. And although her words are still not spoken correctly, she is saying more of them and even in little sentences. I think one day in the van she said, “Emma, look, there’s Belle.” She knows Belle, Cinderella, Arial and all of the Dora characters (hmm, wonder why). When she wants to leave, she says “keys” which she says pretty clearly actually. She waves and blows kisses and says bye. MawMaw is teaching her to say I love you by pointing to her eye, crossing her arms and throwing out her arms for you. It’s really cute. She loves dancing and gets excited when she sees people dancing on Dancing with the Stars. She laughs at a commercial that has lots of puppies in it. She still sleeps (usually 8:30/9pm-7:30/8am) and eats well. Normally takes a nap from 1-4 or 2-4:30, something like that. I can’t believe she’ll be 2 in just a couple weeks. I think she is bigger than Emma was at this age. Some of Emma’s clothes from two years ago are already fitting or getting too small. Last night was so cute. Lexi usually goes to sleep before Emma but Emma was really tired last night and Lexi was not. So I took Emma back to her room and Lexi was peeking in the room. I told Lexi to come in and tell Emma good night. So she came in laid on Emma and patted her to try to give her a hug. Then she waved bye to her. I told her to go back in the living room with Daddy and she trotted right out. It was so cute. The girls are really good together. Emma hugs Lexi any time she cries and if Emma cries, Lexi always wants to pat her on the back. Lexi yells at Mattie, go! go! if she gets to close to her food. I don’t know why I’m thinking of all this random stuff. Sometimes it seems I will forget all the little things.