Happy Birthday, Morgan!!!

Our Morgan turned 15 years old this past Friday, August 29th. She wasn't interested in having a party this year. Yippee!! So, the plan was to treat her to a very nice dinner. She was allowed to pick one friend to go with us. She picked Todd (her boyfriend), of course. Anyhow, we treated her to the famous "III Forks".

The service was phenomenal. The environment was totally relaxing. The food was exceptional.

Morgan was the ONLY one who made it to a dessert. It wasn't a big one, but it got quite the attention when the waitress brought it out.

This was truly a great experience for all of us (especially for the birthday girl).

Utterly Amazed

My father-in-law had quintuple heart bypass surgery today. Everything went as the doctors had planned (very well) and after a few months of recovery, he’s going to be just fine. Praise God!

As we were all patiently waiting for the doctor to come out and deliver the news of how surgery went, I found myself looking at all the people that were there today in support of my mother/father-in-law. I was utterly amazed by all the friends they had there. I would guess that there were probably 30-35 people in the waiting room. Most of the immediate family members were able to be there, but the majority of the people who were waiting with us were, the senior and associate pastor of the church they attend, along with many of their church “family” friends.

I am somewhat biased when I make this next statement, but I think that I have the best mother and father-in-law in the world. Seeing a number of their friends who had taken time out of their busy day to come and sit at the hospital for more than five hours really impacted my heart in way that I can’t seem to explain.

As I was thinking about this more and how it really impacted me to where I shed tears of joy earlier today (and now as I type this), I was reminded of how wonderful it is for us to not only be part of the body of Christ, but equally as important and wonderful it is for us not be a Lone Ranger Christian.

Earlier tonight, I shared this same story with our Bible study class and I know that it touched their hearts as well. What a blessing not only for my in-laws to have such wonderful and dear friends, but also the impact that my in-laws must have had on all of these people in order for them care enough to be there.

I called my mother-in-law later tonight to encourage her with this story and to also remind her of what a wonderful wife she is.

I pray that Dirk and I are making an impact on the people that God puts in our pathway and that the people we come in contact would not only be a blessing to us but that we would, more importantly, be a blessing to them.

First Day of School

So, today was the big day of another school year!

As I was helping the girls get ready last night, both of them kept saying over and over, "Mom, tomorrow is the first day of school!" As if I wasn't aware of this already. They were really excited about starting back today. I was enjoying their excitement as I knew that after the first six weeks ended, they wouldn't be as excited as they were last night.

Fast forward to today...

The girls were eager to wake up and put on a new outfit. They looked adorable! Morgan so dislikes when I use this word (adorable). In fact, she has requested that I never say this word in front of her friends because it sounds old lady like????

Anyhow, they really did look hip. LOL

I mentioned to them that I would be taking them to school on the first day. Well, I take Jae (the youngest) everyday. Morgan normally rides the bus.

Being that Jae's school is only two minutes from our home and also the fact that Jae still operates by my schedule....it was a piece of cake taking her to school. I even got there before the long lines started. It was such a blessing to me to see all the kiddos walking in and being so happy to be there. Well, not exactly all the kiddos. I saw a few tears from parents and their kindergarteners. Anyhow, Jae was ready to get to her classroom to see where she would be sitting and if she would be sitting by anyone she knew. Before she found her desk, one of her friends from last year walked in and I was then forgotten about. I kneeled down to give her a kiss and to tell her to have a good day, she said, "Okay Mom." Meaning, "You can go now." As I was walking out the door to get in the car and come back home to pick up Morgan, I was reminded that it was also 2nd grade when Morgan no longer wanted to openly give me a kiss goodbye at school either (and especially in front of her little friends). It was really okay, though. This is part of what we must endure, right?

I took several pics of Jaelyn this morning and couldn't decide which one to share. So, I posted my two favorite ones.

Yep, she's going toothless at her age right now! I still thought this was a good picture though.

Jae is sitting at her desk for the first time!

I must admit that getting Morgan out the door was a little more complicated. The fact that she took a thirty minutes shower put her and me wayyyyyyyyy behind. She was not even close to being ready by the time I made it back home from taking Jae. I didn't want to get upset with her on the first day so I pretty much bit my tongue.

My next sentence is not a joke. During the course of trying to get Morgan to school, we had to turn around three times (before getting to her school) because she had forgotten different things. Had I not thought they all three times were important, I wouldn't have done it. Anyhow, we finally got her to school and because I was not allowed in her school, I took several pictures of her outside the building (in the back of the building that is). Okay...so, I'll be honest. The back of the building is the only place we are allowed to drop them off at this year.

I too remember being her age and how EVERYTHING had to be in "perfect" order.

Anyhow, here's a picture of Morgan on her first day back to school (in the back of the building).

...and here's a picture that I was allowed to take with her in our front yard.


All in all, they both had a great first day!

Worth Every Penny

Lately it seems like we've constantly had to stay on our girls about keeping their rooms clean and neat.

Jae likes to pull out every toy she owns and leave them out on the floor, on her bed, on her dresser, or in the pathway walking into her room. In fact, any place other than her toy box seems to be suitable for her.

Morgan, being the normal teenager she is, likes to pull out every piece of clothing she owns and leave them wherever they fall.

Needless to say, we recently had a family meeting. Before sitting down with the girls, Dirk and I were trying to figure out a more peaceful way for us to handle this.

Sooooooooooo, we started a contest!

Whoever keeps their room the cleanest ALL week will be rewarded with a trip (treat) to Baskin Robbins. The girls love this place!!!!

Okay, so you may be thinking how foolish it is to make this kind of deal and that their rooms should stay clean out of mere obedience, right? Well, we figured since we are the parents and they are the kids we could demand, push and shove them into cleaning their rooms. However, we wanted to take a different approach at this.

So today was our first trial day of this and I would have paid for any of you to see them. They were both rushing to make their bed, putting away toys, hanging up clothes, on their knees picking up whatever they could find on the floor. Dirk and I were loving this!

The best part about this is that they have no idea what time of the day we will be checking. We may check first thing in the morning or it maybe late at night, or not at all some days. I kid you not, this is G-R-E-A-T!!!

We also have the understanding that this will not be a family outting each week to Baskins. It's only for the one who wins.

We figure $3-$5 for us to do this each week. And for those who know how frugal (read "cheap") I am when it comes to spending money on ice cream, I believe I can truly endure this!

Trust me...and to keep the peace in this area, it will be well worth it.

We'll see how it goes.

...And Guess What I Got in the Mail Today???

So, I walked out to get the mail from the mailbox and to my surprise, I was greeted by a friendly, energetic, creepy-crawly gecko hidden in my mail! Unfortunately for me, the mail was already in my hands when I saw this creature!

Okay, for those of you who know me and are probably already hysterically laughing at me, this was not a good thing!!!

I freaked completely out!!! I threw the mail, along with the gecko, up in the air and screamed as loud as I could. As I stood there staring at the mail on the driveway, I was almost afraid to even look to my left, right or behind me to see if the neighbors had seen this episode.

As I watched the stupid gecko quickly crawl away, I carefully picked up the mail and rushed in the house to ask Dirk if he’d seen me. He hadn’t.

HOWEVER… as I was sharing this with him, he started laughing and then proceeded to tell me that HE KNEW about the gecko living in our mailbox!!! He had seen it several times. “What!?!” “Are you kidding me?!?” “How long have you known about this?” “Why didn’t you tell me?!?” I asked without stopping to take a breath. He could hardly answer my questions for laughing so hard. Needless to say, I did not think that this was funny at all.

Okay, my mind tends to work in overload most of the time and I started thinking about this…

Dirk has taken the gecko out of the mailbox several times, right?

Okay, is the same one crawling back into the mailbox or are there different ones making their way in? I recently had to complain about the postman mis-delivering our neighbors' mail to our box (like all the time). Okay, did I tick the postman off to where he’s carrying around a jar of geckos and unleashing one in my box each day in hopes of giving me a heart attack?

Now I feel that I will have to ask Dirk on a daily basis if he made sure to check the mail carefully before bringing it into the house.

Yep, I know….let it go, huh?

I’ll try!

One thing I know for sure, I won’t be checking the mailbox for awhile.

Until We Meet Again...

So, today we attended my friend Wanda's memorial in Mabank.

There's no such thing as a great furneral. I was not looking forward to this at all.

Not only did I have a very difficult time with this over the weekend, I had a restless night last night and didn't think that I would be able to hold myself together when the time came to see Wanda for the last time today.

As I was looking at her, I felt a total peace come over me that I can't quite put into words. It was the kind of peace that only the Lord can give one during a time like this. I know that my friend is alright now and that she is completely healed in heaven.

I would like to also share with you words on a plaque that Wanda gave me a few years ago;

Sisters by Heart:

"We've shared so much laughter, so many tears. We've a spiritual bond that grows stronger each year. We're not sisters by birth, but we knew from the start, God put us together to be sisters by heart."

This plaque has always meant so much to me and from the time she gave it to me, I've had it displayed in my office (at home). I will cherish it always!

Goodbye,Wanda.

Until we meet again...

My Heart Is Heavy

I have several things going on right now that I wanted to share about today, but I will post about them at a later time. Up until earlier tonight, I actually had a great day. I took the day off so my girls and I could have a mom and daughter day. We finished all of their school shopping and ended the afternoon with pedicures.

Shortly after we got home, I received a phone call telling me that one of my dearest and most precious friends had passed away last night. Wanda and I have been friends for almost sixteen years. And though she never married or had children of her own, she told me at one time that because of her getting to experience my pregnancy with Morgan along with me, she actually felt like she was a mom to Morgan, too. In fact, up until Morgan was nine years old, she attended every one of Morgan's birthday parties.

At the beginning of this year, her health started to fail her. Unforunately at the relatively young age of 60, she was put into a nursing home. After getting the call tonight, there were so many thoughts and memories that started flashing through my mind. I thought of the countless happy times that she and I shared together. I thought about the day not so long ago when Dirk, the girls, and I went to visit her and about the big smile that she gave us as we walked into her room. I thought about the last conversation that I had with her about a month ago and how she felt that she was getting better and would be leaving the nursing home soon. I thought about how difficult it will be for me on Monday when I attend her memorial and seeing her for the last time here on earth. I thought of the verse that I (just a couple of days ago) encouraged another friend with. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted". Matthew5:4

And though the tears flow down my face as I type this out and as I reflect back on the memories of Wanda that I will cherish forever, I am happy for her. She's in a better place and she's not suffering anymore. She's been healed in heaven and I know that I will get to see her again. We were always there for each other no matter what. She was one of those friends that are hard to find and I will miss her dearly.

God of this City - Chris Tomlin

I heard this song a few weeks ago.
I can't seem to get it off of my mind.
It has ranked to #1 on my list of favorite songs!
Turn your speakers on and LISTEN to the words in this
song and tell me if they don't affect you in such a way.

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15

No News IS Good News

I had an interesting conversation with my sister-in-law, Katie, last night regarding the news.

Just when she thought that I couldn't get any weirder (in her mind, of course), I surprised her with something new.

During the course of our conversation, Katie learned that I don't watch the news and haven't in about 7 years. I am sure that your reaction to this statement is somewhat similiar to Katie's;
"What do you mean you don't watch the news!?!?! How could you not watch the news? How do you stay informed and up-to-date? What if there was something on the news that you really need to know about? How do you know what the weather is going to be each day?"

Okay............ there's not ONE section in the news that brings me joy. Therefore, I don't care to watch it. I make it just fine without turning it on. Our girls are not allowed to watch it either.

I stay very well informed by people who MUST see the news several times a day and who feel that they cannot live without watching the news. Sorry if I am stepping on a few toes. Anyhow, by the time that I hear the news from family and friends, it's watered down so much that it doesn't disturb me to the extreme as it does if I had made the choice to watch it for myself. I don't feel that there's anything on the news that I really need to know about. As for the weather, I access Yahoo! weather each morning and it's worked wonderfully for years.

Sounds strange, huh? I know!!

Katie and I actually had a lot of laughs about this. I am sure that she thinks that I am totally and completely weird and perhaps from another planet by now. LOL

It's quite okay though.

For those of you reading this and can suggest TV news channel with positive and uplifting things going on in the world, please feel free to let me know.

Creepy!

Before I start…let me apologize to all of my friends who have and love their MySpace page.

Okay, I have a MySpace page, but I hardly ever use it. Our only reason for me getting one in the first place was to be able to view what Morgan is up to. However, I must admit that a handful of my classmates have been able to reach me through MySpace. So, for that much, it’s been great. Other than that, I don’t like MySpace.

So, what’s on my mind?

Tonight I logged onto MySpace and found that I had received an email from this man. Yes, a man and he was not an old classmate. As I began reading his email I called Dirk in the room and started re-reading it to him.

See for yourself;

“Good afternoon Queen, my name is DeJuan. I'm just passing through to say hello and I must let you know how much I appreciated your profile. Now, just by looking at you the whole entire world know's that you're a very-very beautiful woman and you come (2-2-0). Which means, second to none, if you were wondering..

The appreciation that I speak of are the words/chioce of words that's upon your profile page. I can honestly say that most of the time I do not get pass a profiles name. But in your case, I enjoyed every single word and i'm in-need of more education about you. That's if you have a little room in your circle for a complete gentleman, that you'd accept me as your friend. Once I qualify of-course. And YES, I am aware of your status as a married woman. That's also why my approach is one asking for a friendship and not dinner and a movie. On-line is fine with me beautiful. At this time in my life, my time is not my own..LOL”

AND THIS WAS OUR RESPONSE BACK TO HIM:

“My husband and I enjoyed your message. It was very nice and we appreciate your offer, but we must decline at this time.” We’re being sarcastic of course!

I didn’t want to respond at all, but at the same time, we wanted to let him know that even an “on-line friendship” (as he states it) with a man that I don’t even know is not welcomed and will not be entertained at all.

The nerve of this guy! Okay, I must also admit that I was a little freaked out by this too.
I started telling Dirk that I wanted to delete my photos from MySpace and then I started thinking about my BlogSpot page. I started saying that maybe I should take out my last name so weirdos like this don’t have too much information about me. Yes, my mind was racing with all these thoughts. Dirk listened to me go on and on for about three minutes and then said, “Daphine, it’s not like this guy is coming after you or something.” My instant resply was, “Well, our response to him could tick him off and he might come after me.” I’m telling you, people are freaks and if they are offended in the slightest bit, they will come at you. Okay friends, I do realize that I am going wayyyy too far with my thinking about this.

I just hope he doesn’t have the nerve to email me back!

This Really Irks Me!

So the new Miley Cyrus movie recently released on the Disney Channel.

My little Jae was very anxious and reminded us quite often for 2 weeks not to forget to buy the 3D glasses.

Okay, so you had to purchase a magazine that has the 3D glasses in it!

My first issue was that I had no idea which magazine had them. Soooooooooo, I started looking in every teen magazine that was on the shelf. Unfortunately, I was getting more irritated by the minute. My second issue....there were about 8-10 magazines that had Miley Cyrus on the front cover, but none of them had the 3D glasses inside.

After about 20 mintues of re-looking at what I'd already looked at, I decided that I would go ask for some assistance. As I was approaching a store clerk, there was another parent walking away who overheard me asking about the Miley Cyrus 3D glasses. She answered for the store clerk and asked me to follow her.

Okay, so the 3D glasses.....They were inside the TV Guide. Go figure!

Anyhow, I grabbed one of the TV Guides and made the comment that it was ridiculous for me to buy this silly magazine that I would not use in order to get the 3D glasses.

So, here's what irked me.....
The other mom that I had followed (who also had her teenage daughter with her) overheard me talking to myself and asked, "Who said that we had to pay for them? I just plan on tearing them out of the back of the TV Guide."

I guess the look on my face was obvious before the words came out of my mouth. I said, "Well, being that the glasses are inside of the book, Wal-mart says that we have to buy them."
She said, "Yeah, you're right. I wouldn't feel right in just taking them." Okay, so we all know that she was totally okay with stealing the glassses from the store if I hadn't opened my big mouth.

I am not a perfect parent by any means, but why would a parent think that it would be okay to steal a pair of silly glasses and especially in front of their child? I just didn't get this.

Let me also say that I was a bit peeved to have to spend $4.00 on a TV Guide that I wasn't going to use, but the thought never crossed my mind to rip the glasses out of the back and leave the used TV Guide on the magazine shelf either!

What gives???

Jae's Ultrasound

I can really appreciate that Jae's doctor wants to be extra precautious about Jae's limping this week, but another trip to the hospital??

I made a point of not telling Jae that we were going to the hospital until we were on the way. She wasn't happy. Don't worry. We didn't have the same experience as last time. She still wouldn't sit in the chairs in the waiting room, but she didn't say too much this time.

In any case, to save the words on all the prep time once there....we'll just skip to the actual ultrasound.

It was the same kind of ultrasound that they do on pregnant women. I was trying to help Jae stay relaxed. At first the tech was very talkative to us. Then she became very quiet. The room was totally silent for about two minutes, but it seemed more like ten. I made the mistake (for my comfort) of asking her if everything looked okay. She said that she was not supposed to discuss anything with the patient and that a Radiologist would look at it and call Jae's doctor. Okay, I was already thinking the worst.

The tech not only took an ultrasound of the side of Jae's right leg that was hurting a few days ago, but she also said that she wanted to go ahead and take a look at the left leg as well. First of all, they (the hospital) don't just decide to casually throw you a bone for free. So, I was thinking that she wanted make comparison of what may have been wrong. She's still wasn't saying a word. She left us in the room for about ten minutes. I was trying to stay calm and collected in front of Jae and Morgan. I literally had to mumble, "God please let nothing be wrong with my Jae Belle." Unfortunately, Morgan did sense my fear and tried to comfort me.

The door opened and the tech came in and informed us that eveything was fine. Before I could ask, she said that they had to call the doctor with the results before telling the patient. Why all the weirdness though, right? Who knows? I'm just glad it's over and my Jae Belle is just fine!

I also shared this last part with a friend tonight and would like to share with you all as well;

As we were waiting in the ultrasound room, I remember thinking of a couple of times in my life where I had ultrasounds performed and experienced this same kind of silence and sick feeling. It was the times that I had miscarried my two babies (carried at different times) and hearing the words that my babies had no heartbeat. It's been over a decade and God has completely healed my heart from the pain and the hurt, and from the loss. I am freely able to talk about this and encourage others as I know I should. I'm just not quite sure yet of why I was reminded of this today.

And....no I am not pregnant!

But, I trust God to reveal His reasons for all of this at a later time.