Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "One year ago today... Olivia officially became ou...": How sweet! A mere child smiling as he kneels alongside a slaughtered animal ~ What a parent you are to teach and instill in your child that ending the life of an innocent animal is sport!

Listen, I love a spirited conversation as much as the next person, but if you're going to leave a sarcastic comment on my blog, you should at least have the guts to leave your name with it. (You could also leave your comment with the correct blog post.)

Also, unless you are a strict vegetarian who owns no animal skin products (that doesn't just include fur, but also leather watch bands, jackets, boots, shoes and leather covered BIBLES to name a few) you really have no right to say anything about hunting. I assure you that hunting animals in the wild is far more humane than raising animals up simply to be slaughtered, pumping them full of chemicals, and then carting them around numerous times from auction to auction then to the slaughter house in huge trailers with no room to move around and NO food or water.

And just for the record, we don't hunt simply for sport, although we do get a lot of enjoyment from carrying on our ancestors' tradition of hunting. We hunt for FOOD. 90% - that's NINTY percent - of the meat my family eats in a year comes from deer, turkey and ducks we kill. Unless you want to start paying our family's food bill so I can buy some of your steroid filled cows from the grocery store, I suggest you keep your sarcastic comments to yourself.

For that matter, if you don't like the content on my blog, why are you reading it in the first place?

And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

Acts 5:41,42

I rejoice, I rejoice, I rejoice! I will never cease to teach and preach Jesus Christ! I can't imagine the suffering the apostles endured, but I gladly suffer shame today and everyday of my life in the name of my Lord. I will always speak His truths boldly and be thankful that I am His child.

Happy 5th Birthday, Jake!!!!

(we love you more than dirt!)

Jake's 1st time to go "duck huncking" with his Daddy!

December 2007

October 2007

Yellowstone 2006

Pensacola Beach 2006

Christmas 2005

Halloween 2005

Choosy moms choose Jif and so do their kids! 2004

Fall 2004

Snuggling in the warm laundry 2003

My sweet baby February 2003

NEW PICTURES!!!

I understand some of you would like to see new pictures of my sweet babies!! Sorry about that :<) I am mostly a MySpacer these days and I have lots of new pictures of us on my page. Just go to http://myspace.com/caseymunn and you can look at my slideshows or click on "my pics" and it will take you to my albums. You don't have to sign up to look at the page, but you ought to sign up anyway!! It's lots of fun and I've found lots of old friends on MySpace.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season so far! I've been decorating for three days and I'm still not done! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas!!! 25 days till Jesus' birthday!!!

One year ago today...

Olivia officially became our daughter! As anyone who knows me well or frequents this blog knows, I am not generally an "emotional" person. I tell you what though, today has been more emotional than I thought it would be. I think most people are in awe of their children whether adopted or not, just as I am, but mostly today I'm in awe of our situation. I just feel incredibly blessed to have this beautiful family made just as God intended. It wasn't in the usual way, but man, I think that makes it even better. I look at Olivia now and I can't believe how far she's come. I could rehash what she was like when we first adopted her, but you can go back in the archives and read about it. For that matter, you probably remember. She wasn't fond of us to say the least and we had a really tough time for many months. Now she's just one of the gang and I not only forget that she's adopted, I forget she's Vietnamese. She's just Livi. I see her only as my daughter. I don't see a little girl who was an orphan a year ago. I just see my very silly and strong willed Olivia. She's a handful but I sure do love her. Loving Olivia as a daughter didn't come naturally to me as it does to some who adopt, but God has over time blessed me with a very special love for her. The last year's ups and downs I've mostly kept private, because that's what they are - private. I will say that I couldn't love a biological daughter more than I love Olivia. She and Jake are absolutely precious to me and I would fight to the death for them. Do I love them the same? No I don't, and I hope I never do. They are separate people who I love differently. The important thing is that I love them both more than anything in the world. Actually, they are third on my list after Jesus and Mike :<) So today we didn't do anything particularly special for our Forever Family Day. We ate at The Fried Pie with Bro. Jack Daniels, who has been here preaching our AWESOME revival, took naps, went to Camden, then went to church tonight where 5 people's souls were saved!!!! I'd say that's a pretty good way to spend our day! I think we ended up with 15 salvations this week - PRAISE GOD!!! It's been amazing watching God work! Tonight in church Olivia yelled out "amen!" It was such a sweet moment. My babies are so precious! Bro. Jack asked for all of the ministers in the church to raise their hands and Jake raised his. Even at the age of 4 he says he's going to be a preacher. He's said it since he first started talking. I couldn't be more proud of these two amazing kids. They both love the Lord and they love to pray and sing. Oh my, I could go on and on about my blessings! I tell you what, I sure have plenty to be thankful for!! Mostly I'm thankful that my family of 4 is finally spending it's first Thanksgiving ALL together!!! I love Vietnam, but I'm super thankful that I'm spending Thanksgiving this year in ARKANSAS!!!

So I've told Olivia several times throughout the day about how she's been with us for a year now and she gets all excited and her little eyes sparkle. Mandy, you should be proud of me telling her about her "story" all day! I don't think of it as her day though as much as I do OUR day. It's the day our little Munn family finally became complete. So Happy Forever Family day to us!

Also, a very special Happy Forever Family day to our great friends The Mulliez's!!! We can't imagine what life in Vietnam would have been like without you guys and little Miss Anna! We love you so much and are glad to have you also as part of our forever family!

One more cute picture of Jake with my deer! You get a better view of the rack and well, let's face it, Jake's so adorable that I could post a million pictures of him!

I killed this ten point the first day of deer season last weekend!!! It's the biggest deer I've ever killed, so I was excited to say the least. Until TODAY, Mike hadn't killed one bigger this season so I was winning our personal big buck competition. We are both HIGHLY competitive and I'm unhappy that I'm now behind him. He killed an 11 point this morning. I still have a buck tag though, so it's not over yet :<) Olivia was actually with me when I killed this buck, but she wasn't as cooperative with pictures as Jake, so you get to see his smiling face! He gets SO excited when his Mommy (or his turkey Daddy) kill a deer. Olivia was not as impressed, but she likes deer hunting. It was really neat spending so much time with the kids one on one this week in the deer stand. We switched out who took J & O over the week so we each had time with them and it was really nice. We all had a good time. I would post a picture of Mike's, but I'm still stewing over the fact that he's winning so it will have to wait for another day!

By the way, HAPPY (almost) TURKEY DAY!!! Don't forget to thank God for all of the blessings in your life!!

It turns out that supporters of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are the most likely to be happy. Huckabee has a relatively high proportion of support among evangelicals, who tend to be happier than most people.

- from a Yahoo! news report today at http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-11202007

I just thought it was interesting that evangelicals tend to be happier than most people. Hmmm. Wonder why that is...

By the way, if you haven't chosen a Presidential candidate to support, you should definitely check out Mike Huckabee. He's BY FAR the best one in the bunch!

The hardest job you'll ever love...

That's what the Army says, right? It's the hardest job you'll ever love? I'd have to disagree. I think the job of pastor is the hardest job you'll ever love. The second hardest job?? PASTOR'S WIFE. Right now though, I'm not loving it. In fact I'm not liking it at all. I think there must be some unspoken thing between pastor's wives that they don't tell the wives of men who are feeling led to the ministry. Those women out there who are already pastor's wives don't tell those women how hard it's going to be because if they did we might possibly do everything we could to talk our husbands out of surrendering. (For the record, I wouldn't have done that even if I HAD known how hard it was going to be.) The fact is that I'm SO PROUD of my husband. I sit in church 3 times a week and listen to my husband from the pulpit in amazement. He is God called, God ordained and God FILLED. He is an incredible blessing to me and I can't imagine him not preaching. I just didn't know what my role would be in this. I had no idea what life would be like as "The Pastor's Wife." I feel like that should be written in blood on black velvet. It's very daunting.

For whatever reason, a pastor and his wife (and their children, God help them) are held to a higher standard. We live in our little fish bowl and everyone feels they have the right to peer in anytime they want to see what we're up to. They rarely feed us though. Does anyone honestly think I would intentionally hurt them or offend them? Does anyone honestly think that I would say something to hurt their feelings ON PURPOSE???? I have never in my life had every word I say critiqued in such a manner. Everything I do and say goes under the microscope for inspection. I'm FAR from perfect. I have never claimed to be. I also don't understand why it's easy to forgive a regular person for their imperfections, but so difficult to forgive a pastor or his wife. Why in the world are we put into solitary confinement for saying the wrong thing when normal people simply get a slap on the hand? I'm perplexed. I'm frustrated. I'm tired.

I was told this week - not very nicely (and along with LOTS of other things) - that I'm not a "cookie cutter pastor's wife." (My first thought on that of course is why would I want to be?) Anyway, I read something today that was written by another pastor's wife about the same sort of thing. I'll stick her words in here for you to read for yourself.

I am a pastor’s wife of 37 years and early in our ministry I realized that everyone in the
pew had their own philosophy of what they deemed a “Pastor’s Wife” should be. If we went to a church that had 500 parishioners, there were 500 philosophies. Then I realized even my husband had his own philosophy. Then there was mine. I was raised in church and had a few different pastor’s wives so I had developed one, also. One day in prayer I told the Lord that He was going to have to give me the philosophy that would work for me because I would never measure up to all those different ideologies. This is what He spoke to my heart and said. Your philosophy should be as the pastor’s wife -- YOU TAKE CARE OF THE PASTOR!

Oh man!! I can't tell you how that spoke to my heart today. I'm freaking out trying to figure out how to be the perfect "pastor's wife" and do all that goes along with that, when all I really needed to be doing is taking care of the pastor! PRAISE GOD!!!!!! I'm not in charge of the universe! I have been thrilled to be called as my husband's helper. This is a role I have cherished for nearly 6 years. God called me to be a wife and mother. These are the sacred roles God entrusted me with. My job isn't to take care of the flock. That's the shepherd's job. My only job is to take care of the shepherd. Is anyone else amazed when God gives them EXACTLY what they need to hear? I have opened the Bible so many many times and turned to exactly what God wanted me to read to get out of any and every situation I've ever been in. On the occasions when I actually paid attention of course it all worked according to His plan. Well today I'm listening. God told me (via the internet of all things) that my job is to simply take care of my husband. He'll take care of the rest.

He also gave me this verse. At first it made absolutely no sense to me as to what it had to do with my situation but after reading it the third time it finally struck me.

Endure harship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs - he wants to please his commanding officer. 2 Timothy 2:3,4

I want to serve in my church. I want to get along with people and make friends. I want to fellowship and enjoy time with my sisters in Christ. God said to me - That's all great, but you are a soldier. It's your job to please your commanding officer. We often get confused about our reason for going to church. I want to make people happy. I want to teach my Sunday School class. I want to sing well. I want to look nice. I want to make other people feel good about themselves. I want to make people smile and laugh. These are all things I WANT. Sometimes they are also things God wants, but what God wants (and I know this because it's in HIS WORD) is to please my commanding officer. The only reason I should go to church is to worship God and to serve God. Often that entails the things I want to do, and sometimes it doesn't, but regardless - those wants should never overshadow what GOD wants.

Having said all of this, I'm personally feeling a little bit better about my "pastor's wife" situation. Now we just have to pray that the others around me will receive word from God about the same thing! I also will keep praying for God to discipline my tongue and allow me to say only that which will be taken the right way. With God all things are possible. I've just got to keep reminding myself of that.

This wife and mommy are hoping that you have a blessed day and that you'll keep her (and her husband and children) in your prayers :<)

These are my very favorite pictures of Olivia. I took them by the big pond at our old house. I have them on my MySpace page and lots of my friends have mentioned them to me, so I thought I'd share them with those of you who refuse to join the world of MySpace (Mandy - I'm talking to you.) For those of you who may not know, I'm an aspiring photographer so I'm proud of these pictures. Aspiring was the key word in that last sentence. :<)

Weirdest comment about Olivia so far

So we're in Wal-Mart the other day and we're rolling down the aisle like normal people do. Jake is helping me push the cart, Mike is beside us and Livi is sitting in the front of the cart. So, this middle aged man in one of the Wally World power wheelchairs rides up to us and says something about Olivia being cute. This is normal. Happens all the time. No big deal. Then he asks if she's Chinese. Another normal question. We say she's Vietnamese. He says, "Ah, I spent some time there years back." Normal response from men his age. We get that a lot. So then he says, "Well, she could be mine, well her Mama anyway. I sure had my share of fun while we were over there. Lots of women. No telling how many kids I got over there." HOLY FREAKING COW! I was nearly ill right there in the store. He said this in front of my children! I was not pleased. I looked at him like he was a lunatic and walked away. For those of you who know me, that was actually pretty nice considering. It's a 1000 wonders I didn't clock him. Apparently being a pastor's wife has been good for me :<)

Happy 60th Birthday Daddy Don

we miss you & we love you

This is the very last picture I ever took of Daddy Don. Jake was shooting him with Silly String. It was taken only a few hours before he died in January. He should be in Colorado right now bow hunting for elk. I'm writing through tears. I can't believe he's not camping in the mountains right now. I can't believe that he won't be home in a couple of weeks with hilarious stories about bears and flat tires and stuff Cecil said. I can't believe that I'll never argue with him again. I can't believe he's not here to help me practice shooting my bow. As impatient as he was, he was the best hunting teacher in the world. He was a pain in the butt and I loved him so much more than he ever knew. Even 9 months later, our hearts are broken. We are still so broken, but we're blessed to see so much of him in Jake. Say a prayer for JuJu, Rhonda and Mike today if you will.

Happy Birthday Daddy Don. We'll see you soon.

Sometimes I still feel him,
Little heart within my own.
I’m lost without memories.
A child within me,
But never seen by my eyes,
Never felt by my fingertips,
Never kissed by my lips.
A mother’s love unknown.
Lost for years with a love
I can’t give and can’t receive.
Lost, lost, lost…

missing you today more than usual my sweet love

MANDY!!!!

Since you (for some unknown reason) still check my blog everyday, I thought I'd write a post just for you!!! Hope you're having a peachy day!!

A new post!!! Shocked??

To say that I have received numerous complaints from friends about my lack of posting would be a HUGE understatement!! I'm sorry!!! We spent all last week moving and the weeks before that were spent working our rear ends off on the house. The house actually still isn't done, but we moved in anyway and we'll keeping working on the last of it. I'm never going to finish unpacking. NEVER. The boxes never end. I'm completely overwhelmed and everytime I start to unpack again, I end up making piles and then having nowhere to put them, so they get pushed to the side. So essentially we have lots of stuff sitting on the floor in piles. Did I mention that I'm completely overwhelmed???

To be perfectly honest though, I haven't completely been away from my computer. I have found a new love of myspace. I never thought it would happen but low and behold it has. So, if you're on myspace too come find me! If you're not, then you should be. Hint hint Erin & Mandy. Erin, I miss you bunches and we had so much fun while you guys were here. Jake is still talking about Sam and Silas and Livi's face lights up when she sees Selah's picture. Give them all a kiss for us. Mandy - come home already!! Good grief.

The all American Munn Family

(with a whole lot of Vietnam in our hearts!)

Olivia's 3rd birthday party!!!

As you can see from the pictures, Olivia had a great 1st/3rd birthday party! It's peculiar that she's 3 but just celebrating with her first birthday party. It was a strange day for me. I was filled with thoughts about Olivia's first 2 1/2 years in the orphanage, thoughts about her birth and her birth parents, thoughts about how I had spent those 2 1/2 years while we waited for her... lots and lots of thoughts. It's a very strange feeling to finally be able to give this sweet angel everything she has always deserved. Mind you, she isn't getting EVERYTHING a 3 year old might like to have, but she's got the main stuff - Jesus Christ, Mommy, Daddy, big brother, huge extended family, great church and lots of friends. On top of all that, she was the center of attention at her 1st of many fun birthday parties to come. I don't usually dwell too much on what Olivia hasn't had for the last couple of years, but I sure did on her birthday.

I'm not an overly emotional person. I don't tend to cry about sentimental things or get all worked up about events. I was too busy cooking all day for Livi's party to be terribly sentimental anyway. At the party one of my new friends from our new church asked me if I had cried yet. "About what?" I asked, confused. "About everything!" she said. Meaning of course the party, Olivia's 1st birthday with us, etc. No, I hadn't cried and I would be surprised if I did. After the party was over and most of the guests were gone, I came in the door and saw Olivia standing on a chair looking over the table with all of her gifts and I was absolutely overcome with emotion. Here stood this precious child who never owned a single solitary thing - not even the clothes on her back - and she had a table full of brand new things just for HER! She and I were both a bit overwhelmed. On her 2nd birthday she was no doubt moved from the safety of the baby area of the orphanage to the big kid section placed in a room with 10+ other children that were all older than her except for one other little girl named Kennedy who was Olivia's best friend. There was no party, no gifts, no singing, and no kisses from Mommy. Here she was though just one year later, standing on a chair looking at a pile of gifts that she could never have imagined while her Mommy looked on. I'm not sure I could have imagined the happiness I would feel watching Olivia on her birthday before that moment. I have tears in my eyes right now thinking about how she looked that night. I can't believe I get to be a part of her life. God must really love me a lot to let me be Olivia's Mommy. She is such a precious child. I love her more than I ever dreamed I could. I am the luckiest Mommy in the world to have these two precious children. Thank you God for Jake and Olivia. Their Daddy and I can't imagine life without them.

I can't pass by this opportunity to ask you to remember all of those children left behind. There are 1000's of little children still in orphanages in Vietnam and across the world that may never have a birthday party with a Mommy and Daddy. It is not just a request from me, but a commandment from God to PRAY for these children. It is our responsibility to take care of orphans. Please remember to pray for them and if you have an extra dollar or two (or two hundred) it would be an amazing gift to honor Olivia by making a donation in her name to Dillon International's orphanCare International program that helps take care of the children left behind. You can go to http://www.dillonadopt.com/ to find out how to make a donation. If you want to help Olivia's friends, make the donation for the Ninh Thuan orphanage where Olivia spent the first 2 1/2 years of her life.

Happy 3rd Birthday Olivia!!!

It's hard to believe that my precious girl is 3 years old today! She is having a Dora the Explorer party and she is SUPER excited!! I think Olivia's Dora fascination is pretty amusing because Olivia thinks she IS Dora. If you think about it, they actually look just alike! Olivia hasn't started saying vamanos constantly yet, but she does love to sing the Dora's backpack song. She only has one Dora video so we don't have much to go on, but she likes that there are lots of dolls and things at Wal-Mart that look just like her.

It's really surreal to be planning this huge party for Olivia. I dreamed of her for so long that part of me thought our adoption dream would never come to fruition. This day is bringing up lots of emotions for me. It would be impossible not to think of her birth mom today. I know she is on the other side of the world today thinking about the little girl she gave birth to 3 years ago. She must wonder what she looks like, where she is and whether or not she's happy. I pray for God to give her peace about Olivia. I pray especially for salvation for Olivia's birthparents. I hope that one day he'll give us the opportunity to find them again in Vietnam. I can't imagine a more perfect way for her birth mom and dad to hear about the love of Jesus Christ than from Olivia herself. Of course, I hope they're saved long before Olivia is old enough to witness to them, but if not, I pray that our family will have a chance to share that love with them.

As you think of my baby girl today please send up a prayer that she will always put God first in her life and that she will lead a life that brings Him great honor and glory. Pray also for a mommy and daddy across the world that are no doubt hurting today and wondering about the most beautiful little girl ever born. I can tell you that my prayers today will be filled with thanks to God for one of the greatest blessings of my life - my sweet Olivia. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday pictures will be coming soon!

popsicle lips

and the prettiest blue eyes in the whole wide world

Wasn't I posting about dieting???

I meant to post about dieting but lost myself in a post about sort of bad words. Good grief! So, I've decided that I need to lose a little bit of weight. My jeans don't fit anymore. I can get them on, but can't breath. Breathing is sort of mandatory for life, so I it's either lose a few pounds or buy a new wardrobe. I can't afford the latter, so I suppose I'll have to show the door to the fat cells hanging around my hips (and belly button.) I'm a happy eater. I'm in the routing of eating all day long and into the night. Since I'm a night owl, I'm often eating something at midnight then going to bed at 1 a.m. Apparently this isn't good for you!

So, I like to eat. I eat when I'm happy, so apprarently I've been pretty happy lately! How much I weight is actually completely irrelevent to me. I just want my clothes to fit. I'm not interested in looking hot in a bikini anymore. I just want to look nice in the clothes I presently own. So I bought some Slim Fast shakes a week ago and started having a shake for breakfast. To lose weight you should have two a day, good snacks and one meal. I can't just cut two meals a day cold turkey. My poor body that's used to eating 24 hours a day would go into shock!! So, yesterday I cut the second meal. So I'm having a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch and then a sensible meal. HA! That sounds like a commercial. Honestly though that's what I'm doing. Those shakes really are quite filling. Not filling like a huge plate of cheese fries with ranch dressing, but filling nonetheless. I'm also eating fruit between shakes and my meal, but no food after supper. NONE. Ugh. This is the hard part. I love to sit at my computer at night and eat raw almonds or strawberries. These foods are of course good for me, but not in the amounts I'm used to eating. So two shakes a day, one meal, fruit and I'm allowing myself 24 raw almonds per day. Those are good for you.

How do I feel? I'm hungry. Not REALLY hungry, but still hungry. It's all in my head though. My eating had become an addiction and I didn't realize it until I tried to quit eating. It sounds like I'm reading a self help book and getting all this grand information from it, but I'm coming up with it all by my little self. My eating is habitual. I enjoy eating my snacks at night. I wasn't hungry, I was just eating to be eating. Why was I doing that? After I don't do it for a few weeks will the desire to do it go away? I sure hope so.

I have another post coming about why my daughter is so incredibly MESSY. Dear me.

Dieting sucks (can a pastor's wife say that word??)

The pastor at the church we were members of when Mike surrendered to preach wasn't fond of me saying that something "sucks." Apparently the word had a different connotation when he was growing up than it does for us gen-xers. To me it just means that something isn't good. I LOVED (still love) Bro. Danny, who coincidentally is the father to my very good friend Jennifer living in Beirut, Lebanon who often leaves comments on this blog. He of course loves me, too, but he wasn't crazy about some of the words I used. Along with sucks, I also had an affinity for using such words as flippin', freaking, and crap. I think there were others, but apparently I've quit using them to the point that now I don't even remember them! It's amazing how God can start working on those sorts of things. To be honest, I still don't think sucks is a bad word but I don't use it very often anymore. I try not to use words that I wouldn't allow my children to use and I can say with some certainty that I wouldn't be happy to hear "sucks" coming out of Jake's or Olivia's mouths. So, what about freaking or flippin'? Freaking doesn't sound very nice so I'm going to have to leave it back in the late 90's where it belongs. Flippin' should probably be left there as well along with sucks. Ok. CRAP. That's the word I have a problem with. I know lots of people who say the word crap but they don't allow their children to say it. I tend to say it somewhat often since I've banished the rest of my extensive repertoire of "sort of bad" words into 90's exile. I don't have anything left! I'm NOT going to be one of those women who say gee whiz. I'm really not a gee whiz kind of woman. Pastor's wife or not, I don't want to say ANY words that God doesn't like. I really can't picture God sitting up in heaven worrying about me saying the word crap though. Surely that word is ok? If it is though, why don't people let their children say it? Would I let my children say it?? Hmmm...

I can't believe that anyone still reads this blog since I only write once in a blue moon, but I know lots of you still do. I vow to do better about posting. What words are "bad" at your house and what words are borderline? What's a good word to replace my ever present - crap - with? I also say flibberdagibbit. That's a favorite and I'm quite sure God is ok with it. It's also really super cute when Jake and Livi say it :<)

Pulling my hair out

It’s been one of those days. I could literally pull my hair out of course, but I have instead chosen to eat chocolate despite the fact that I’m on a diet. (Chocolate is much less painful and so much sweeter.) In my defense, I ate one of those Hershey sticks that’s only 60 calories. Surely I can be forgiven that.

Where have I been?

Well, our computer was full. How does that happen you ask? 20,000+ pictures is how that happens. Goodness gracious. It was past time for an upgrade anyway and our wonderful friend Cory (aka - the Computer Dr.) built us a brand new one that's very spiffy and has gobs of space for all of my pictures and anything else I might like to keep around. We also now have Wild Blue internet so I'm finally not a slave to evil dial up!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That means I can finally post pictures regularly! Perhaps even a video! Oh happy day!

In other news, Jake has had a very interesting week. He was bitten on the arm Wednesday morning by another child at preschool. It broke the skin. They called me and said there had been a "little incident at school." These are never words a Mommy wants to hear. I definitely didn't want to hear that he had been BITTEN. I raced to the school and he was of course perfectly fine. He didn't even cry when he was bitten. They told me that it was completely unprovoked and that the other child had a history of biting. Great. They called his Mom to come get him and they showed her pictures of Jake's arm. They wouldn't tell me who the child was. Probably for the best. I was pretty upset when it all happened, but of course now that I'm calm I realize that sometimes children bite, hit, push, etc. I feel really bad for the other Mom. I'm sure it's tough having a child who bites. I'm blessed that neither of my children do (so far at least.) They also haven't been known to push or hit either. Well, Olivia has hit Jake a few times, but she also spent the first 2 1/2 years of her life defending herself at an orphanage. She's since learned that it's not okay to hit.

The worst part of the biting incident was that Jake had to have a tetnus shot. He should have had one at his four year checkup, but apparently in the insanity of coming home in December, then having his birthday party and us all coming down with the stomach flu, oh and then Christmas - I forgot to take him for his checkup. There was a LOT going on. So we spent an hour at the health clinic getting a tetnus shot. Again, he didn't cry. He's so tough! I'm so proud of him. We had a long talk about how even though sometimes other children bite, hit, push, etc. that it's not okay and that we're proud of him for not doing those things. I can't believe how lucky I am. God truly blessed me with two awesome kids. They are just amazing!

Not much else is going on around here. We, along with other members of the church, have been busy busy on the parsonage so we're hopeful that we'll be able to move in by the end of the summer, early fall. I'm so excited now!!!! It's neat picking out paint, floors, etc. I've painted three rooms in this house and needed to paint all of them, but just never have. I'm not one of those people who can paint a room in one day. It takes me like two months. It's an ordeal. I want to be handy with a paintbrush, but it's just not my thing. I'm too much of a perfectionist and it ends up taking me forever because I want to look perfect. Luckily, several of the women in our church love to paint so I'll at least have some help in that department. It's very exciting!

I'll try to get some pictures up soon! Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone!!!!!!!!!

The REAL Napster, big move, our fabulous new church & an update on my angelic children

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. I am absolutely amazed that there are people who are able to blog every single day. Some even several times a day. Apparently I'm not much of a time planner. This is not much of a shock to those who know me. Speaking of time and not doing anything useful with mine, are there any other nappers out there?

Taking a nap isn't a luxury for me. It's a requirement. Even Mike requires that I take an afternoon nap. Apparently, not unlike my beautiful children, I'm a bit grumpy if I don't get my nap in. It makes me feel lazy, but I truly am useless and unpleasant if I don't at least get a little sleep after lunch. Although taking a daily nap may appear lazy, I am actually much more productive after my nap. I've always been this way. I remember being a senior in high school and coming home every afternoon and sleeping for an hour or so after school. When I worked in the real world, I had a tough time getting anything done in the afternoons. There are countries in this world that encourage napping. Why aren't we one of them? If there are other nappers out there, let's see what we can do to change this insane way of living! We nappers must unite!

While I'm actually taking the time to blog, I'm also going to take the time to explain about us moving. For those of you who are good friends of mine in "real life," please forgive me for letting you know via that blog that we're leaving the great piece of the world that is McNeil, Arkansas. We're actually not moving for several months so it's not like I'll be gone anytime soon. I have to stay with my garden for goodness sake! I can't very well leave my beautiful tomatoes to dry in the sun. I can't believe that I finally planted 4 fruit trees and 2 dogwood trees this spring and now we're moving!! I'm definitely going to have to get my head wrapped around this whole pastor's wife thing. I thought we would live in this same general area for our entire lives. As it's been said, if you really want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. He laughs at me incessantly, I'm sure.

Anyway, we're going to move to Sparkman, AR eventually. Our new church has a parsonage next door and we want to be closer to our church home and new church family. They are currently completely remodeling the house and adding a master bedroom and bath and a carport. I also heard just last week that since the preacher's wife asked for it (that' me!!), I'm getting a front porch! I asked for it in jest, but I'm thrilled that they are building it! I am definitely a front porch sitting kind of girl. Now if only I can talk them into an in ground pool...
I'm joking. Only joking.

So, once the renovations have been made we can figure out when we'll be moving. At the earliest it will be fall before we move an hour north. Of course deer season is always a factor as well. It would be senseless to move in October when rifle season starts in November. Mike is excited about living closer to the Ouachita River. Duck hunting will be much closer now! We'll only live about 10 minutes from the river. It's really beautiful over in that part of God's country.

Things are going really great at Ouachita Baptist Church (I'll probably just refer to it as OBC from now on.) Attendance is up and we're making all sorts of plans. Mike is starting a new Sunday school class for couples this Sunday. I'm very happy about that. We're going to study the Bible as it pertains to our lives today and issues we deal with - marriage, parenting, finances, etc. There are lots of couples around our age and they are all just wonderful. We love our new church and already feel very at home there.

As far as my gorgeous children, they are doing great. I can't say enough about how wonderful it is having them so close in age. 18 months apart seems to be perfect. They play together SO well! They are all about baseball right now because of Emma and Amy playing. They LOVE to go to their games. Olivia is absolutely adorable telling about them. I wish all of you could see her in person. She's amazing! It's wild how well she's talking! We've mostly been spending our time having picnics, riding fourwheelers, fishing, and swimming in the kiddie pool. Our lives are all about playing outside. Soon enough it will be too hot. I can't believe summer is already here.

I really do need to blog more often. I've got a million things I want to say! We drove out to Dallas a couple of weekends ago and spent the night with our good friends Arnaud & Mandy and their sweet babies, Louis and Anna. We had such a great time. I'll have to post pictures soon of our kids together. It's weird how much they favor Jake and Olivia. After we left our friends, we traveled onto Canton for lots of shopping. I managed to only spend $23. That's a miracle. I love Canton. The next time I go I'm taking a girlfriend instead of my husband. I'll no doubt manage to spend more. We went to Dillon Zoo Day in Little Rock this past weekend. It was lots of fun seeing old friends and meeting friends I've only met via the internet. I can't wait for the big Dillon Vietnam reunion in Tulsa this summer. If you're a fellow Dillon family, I can't wait to meet you!!

I have more to say, but I suppose it will have to wait for another day. My wonderful husband is telling me it's bedtime. Everynight I plan to go to bed early (that means around 11) but it's always after midnight. We have such good intentions. Here I am still typing and not going to bed. Oh good grief!

Cow Pokes

This is probably my favorite picture I've taken of Jake & Olivia. We own 10 acres near the town where I grew up and they are standing on the fence checking out the cows. There is an ancient barn there that was beyond repair, but we went down a couple of months ago and salvaged most of the weathered barn wood. We planned on using part of it in our house, but now that we're moving (yes, we're moving) we'll use it for other purposes including a lovely frame for this picture. (My husband is so handy! He can build anything.) Mike also uses some of it for his taxidermy mounts.

For some unknown reason I have a thing for old chains, locks, barbed wire - essentially anything old and rusty - so I really love this picture of Olivia with the old rusted chain. I also started collecting antique glass doorknobs when I was a teenager and poor Mike will have to transfer them off the doors in this house to the new house. I'll no doubt be turning these same beautiful door knobs in countless houses through my lifetime. They go where I go.

Here's Miss Olivia climbing the fence and looking pretty cute doing it!

Jake climbed onto a cypress tree we cut down when we were clearing the land to build a house. I can't believe that just over a year ago we thought we would move onto this property and live there forever. Our plans weren't working out the way we had hoped and I wasn't sure why at the time. I had no idea just 15 months later, I'd be a pastor's wife and moving into a parsonage an hour and a half from this property! God works in mysterious and wonderful ways! I guess we can always retire here one day! We'll just have to wait and see what God has planned :<)

Happy Birthday Uncle Joby!!!!!!!!

I'm sleepy so I won't write much, but I wanted to take this opportunity to say a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful big brother Joe, also known as Joseph, but best known (at least at our house) as Uncle Joby. I started calling him Joby when I was little. He's 10 years older than me, but he doesn't look a day older than I do. We have good genes. :<)

Joby, I love you SO MUCH!!! You have always been and will always be one of my very best friends in the world. I couldn't get through this life without you. You mean the world to me and of course Jake thinks you're the coolest guy in the world next to his Daddy. Happy Birthday from your biggest fans - Mike, Casey, Jake & Olivia. WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easter Pictures

better late than never!

Now these are four gorgeous children! Here are Jake and Livi with their most favorite cousins, Amy and Emma. (They are Rhonda and Lance's daughters - Mike's sister and brother-in-law)

Trying to get these two monkeys to both look at the camera and smile at the same time is IMPOSSIBLE! They still look cute making silly faces at each other though. The hand holding is the most precious thing in this picture and it's not staged at all. Those two are great buddies. They are such sweet kids!!!

Here's Livi before church. She thought her rubber boots (or bubber roots as we call them) would be just fine for Easter Sunday. I personally think they look awfully cute with her dress. We decided we better go with sandals though.

Turkey Tales

I'm finally getting around to telling our turkey tales and posting pictures! I killed my very first turkey last Saturday - the first day of the season! It was unbelievable! Jake and Olivia spent the night at JuJu's and they did great! Jake of course loves staying at JuJu's but it was Olivia's first time and she did really well. I was super proud of her and so grateful to my wonderful mother-in-law for taking such good care of my babies. I am BEYOND LUCKY to have such an awesome MIL. She's fantastic in every way. I love her to death.

Back to my hunting story... Mike and I got up at 5:30 that morning and headed for the woods. I should mention that the weeks leading up to turkey season have been both exciting and emotional for all of us, but especially for Mike. He and Daddy Don always went hunting together during turkey season and it was the favorite season for both of them. I love their turkey hunting stories the best. So because of this Mike was missing his Dad even more than usual. We knew from the get go it was going to be a tough season. Anyway, we get up and head for Munn Hill which is about a mile from our house. We were driving Daddy Don's truck. This is completely coincidental. We've only had it a week or so while JuJu uses Papaw's black truck to haul gumballs from her yard. It was definitely emotional driving to Munn Hill that morning in Daddy Don's truck. That was the beginning of what would become a VERY emotional day. So we get on a bird really early and head in his direction. There is nothing in the world like hearing a turkey gobble. Nothing. It sends chills up your spine. If you're not a hunter this means nothing to you, but if you are, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's an amazing feeling. So we get out into the woods off the highline and set up by a tree to wait for him to fly down. The goofy turkey flew down into the highline instead of to us, so after calling to him with the sweetest hen purr my husband could muster (he's incredibly good at calling turkeys - and all animals for that matter) the gobbler still wouldn't budge. At some point I realize that Mike's shotgun has a scope on it and mine doesn't. I always hunt with Mike's Benelli, but we borrowed one of Daddy Don's Benelli's so that we could both hunt with our favorite shotgun. I ask Mike about this and he reluctantly offers to trade with me. I said no, that it was fine - which is was of course. No big deal. After a moment it occurs to me what my husband had going on in his head. So I said to him, "you want me to kill the first bird of the season with Daddy Don's gun don't you?" He said yes. Holy cow. NO PRESSURE here people. I was already emotional and here I was with this new weight sitting on my shoulders to kill a turkey on opening day with DD's gun. Oh dear me.

We start slithering on our bellies towards the highline. We end up getting about 45 yards from the bird. I think this is too far. Mike is sitting next to me and we're not leaning up against a tree or anything. I'm up on my knees waiting for - heck I don't know what. The gobbler comes around a tree and all of a sudden he's just - THERE. He sees us. Mike says shoot. Shoot. Shoot. I froze. I was completely frozen. I thought he was too far. PRESSURE. He was already moving because he had seen us. His head was going back and forth. He started to run. Shoot!

I shot. I missed. The turkey flew away.

Mike stood up and he was irritated. That's actually putting it mildly. He was mad at me for not shooting the first time he said shoot. I had ruined it. I had this perfect turkey on this perfect day and I ruined it. I didn't kill the turkey. I ruined the idea Mike had in his head of this kill in memory of Daddy Don. In all actuality, I probably had this way too built up in my own head by this point. I am not an overly emotional person. I don't generally cry. I am proud of the fact that I'm not one of these girly girls who worries about their nails and how their hair looks. I'm just one of the guys. I was NOT myself that day. I started balling. Not crying - balling my eyes out. I couldn't fix this! I screwed up the entire "moment" and there was nothing I could do to fix it. Mike thought I had lost my mind. For those of you who know me in real life, this is completely out of character for me. I was SO upset. Mike told me it was ok and all of that nice stuff that he's required to say as my husband. I still felt terrible about the whole thing. I wanted to go home. Unfortunately this is not an option. You don't go hunting with a Munn and leave because things don't go just as you'd planned. JuJu would back me up on this point. No matter how irritated you may become with the Munn man in your life, you're still hunting and that takes priority over pretty much anything else. Mike wouldn't have taken me home even if I had REALLY wanted to (which I didn't.) So I blew my nose and we hiked on.

We try to get another bird a couple of hills away to come visit us, but he wasn't budging. We continued on and heard a bird in a cutover not far in front of us. We set out out a hen decoy and found a nice tree to sit against. Mike called and he gobbled. This went on for a few minutes but he wasn't moving closer. I suggested that we gobble at him. Mike gobbles and that's all that was needed. The next few minutes seemed like 15 seconds. It all happened SO quickly. I'm excited even typing about it. It was so amazing! So the turkey comes around the corner and Mike asks me if I was on him. I said I was. He said shoot. I shot. Down he went. Mike jumped up this time absolutely yelping. He was as excited as I have ever seen him! It was hysterical. We were like two little kids. It was one of the neatest moments of my life. The first thing I wanted to do was take it home to Jake. He was SO EXCITED to see my turkey. Jake is obsessed with turkey hunting (all hunting actually - I wonder why.) Olivia was excited too despite the look on her face in this picture.

So we hunted a bit longer after I killed my gobbler, but I was so anxious to get home to show Jake that Mike had to wait a couple of days to get a turkey for himself. He killed this one Monday morning. He then tagged out on a limb hanger he killed this past Saturday morning. I haven't downloaded those pictures yet though. He's rightfully proud of it with a 9 3/4" beard and 1" spurs. That's pretty good for an Arkansas bird.

I love that this is something we can do together. Mike and I love each other so much and it's really neat to be able to share his love of hunting with him. I'm glad that we can also share this with our children and pass on our love of hunting that we've inherited from both his side of the family and mine.

I sure hope I made Daddy Don proud.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!

ANNOUNCING:

Ouachita Baptist Church
Pastor - Bro. Mike Munn

I am SO EXCITED to announce that my most wonderful husband is now the PASTOR of Ouachita Baptist Church near Sparkman! It's about 25 miles south of Arkadelphia. Their pulpit committee came to hear him preach last month at New Hope where Mike has been the interim preacher since October. We went to lunch with them and had a really great time. They were "very impressed" with him and invited him to preach for their congregation. He preached a.m. and p.m. last week and they invited him back this Sunday in view of a call. He preached this morning and then this evening we answered questions from the congregation. We then left the sanctuary and in private ballots, they voted UNANIMOUSLY to call him as their pastor! We have been praying about this for several weeks now and Mike felt called to Ouachita so he very happily accepted their offer! We are SO EXCITED!!!!

For any of you who have known me forever, the idea that I am now a PASTOR'S WIFE is absolutely insane! I am completely amazed at how God can use the least of us to do His work. Mike and I both feel like Paul. I guess we are co-chiefs of the sinners. God can see things in us that we can't even see ourselves - and isn't that an amazing blessing?!?!

I am so unbelievably PROUD of my husband. He is an awesome, Godly man and he is a fantastic preacher. I am very proud to be the pastor's wife! I can't wait to see how God uses him, and us, at Ouachita. Please pray for us! Pray for Ouachita, too. They don't know what they've gotten themselves into! :<)

Empty Nest

We picked Jake up at noon today from preschool so we could all go to Texas to purchase our new pets. He goes to preschool two days a week and absolutely loves it, but he was elated to go on what I call a "mini-vacation." I love day trips. I also love week long trips. I love all trips actually - as long as we're ALL together. I could live in Vietnam as long as the four of us were there. We absolutely love Vietnam and I really would have loved that trip so much more if Jake had been with us, but I digress. Jake has been bugging Mike for the last couple of weeks about going camping and canoeing. It's slightly possible that I may have put him up to it, but Jake loves camping too so I think it's alright. This goofy cold weather we're having is not making me want to camp right now though. I can't believe some of you out there have had snow! I am beyond ready for spring to come and actually stay, but I would always welcome snow. All of our vegetable plants were killed in the frost last week. We had to buy new plants, but I'm going to wait a couple of weeks to plant them. Mike's corn is looking great but essentially everything else is going to have to be replanted.

Let's see... what will we have have growing out in the garden? TONS of tomatoes for sure. I am not Rachael Ray by any stretch of the imagination. I don't really like to cook, despite the fact that I cook at least 2 and sometimes 3 meals a day. I am a southern girl though, so I learned to cook early in life. If it's edible, I can fry it. Teeheehee. There is one thing that I'm particularly proud of though. I make the best fresh salsa this side of Mexico. I drove myself crazy for at least 2 weeks a couple of years ago trying to come up with a perfect salsa recipe and I finally succeeded. I can pretty much cook anything, but I'm known for my salsa, my homemade Chinese food and my fudge. I asked Mike if there was anything else I'm known for. He said my green bean casserole. I use the recipe from the side of the fried onion can, so I don't think I can claim that one. He's so sweet though! Back to the vegetable garden - we'll also have sweet corn, field corn, okra, cherry tomatoes, squash, peppers, cucumbers, radishes, turnips, sunflowers, and potatoes. I think that's it. It keeps getting bigger every year. We love to garden.

As for the empty next title, our children are NOT HERE!!! Very bizarre. JuJu picked them up about 45 minutes ago and they're spending the night with her. This will be Livi's first time to spend the night away from home and we're all very nervous about that. I pray she'll be fine, but there's always the possibility that I'll be going to pick her up at 2 in the morning. We'll see how it goes. Tomorrow is the first day of turkey season, and we have to be in the woods before sunrise, so we can't very well wake the kids up and take them over to JuJu's at 5 a.m. while she's still fast asleep. Well, I guess we could, but I don't think any of them would be very happy! Livi loves JuJu and JuJu is the most wonderful, amazing grandmother in the world, so I feel certain Olivia will be fine. This is Jake's first time to spend the night since we've been home from Vietnam, so it will be really strange not having anyone to tuck in tonight. I don't look forward to getting up at 5:30 a.m., but I'm very excited about turkey hunting tomorrow! This is without a doubt Mike's favorite hunting season. It will be hard this year without Daddy Don though. It's bringing up lots and lots of memories. He has on one of Daddy Don's camo shirts today and he smells just like him. It's strange to have his scent around again - but calming all at the same time. We sure do miss him.

We're going to watch the new James Bond movie tonight so I should probably be popping some popcorn. Oh! We have two very smelly pet turkeys now and 4 baby ducklings. They are so cute!

Sad news

Our sweet little puppy, Lightning, got out into the road early Tuesday morning and was killed. At this point I'm mostly wondering how much God thinks Jake really needs to learn about death at the ripe old age of 4. I know God knows what He's doing and to many of you losing a puppy may not seem like a big deal, but my animals are my family and I'm unhappy. It's difficult explaining to Jake about death again so soon. I'm worried that he'll start thinking that he may die too since Daddy Don recently died and now his puppy. I should also mention that Monday afternoon Phideaux managed somehow to catch our greenhead (that's a mallard drake duck for those of you who may not know) and kill it and brought it to the front yard for me to find. Good grief. Olivia seems to be oblivious to animals coming and going but Jake is very aware and I really am concerned that he may start thinking he's next, or me or Mike or Olivia. Explaining death to a 4 year old may be the very hardest thing in the world to do. I explained of course that Lightning is in heaven and that we'll see him again just like we'll see Daddy Don again one day. (Yes, I most certainly do believe that animals go to heaven, too!) I used the opportunity to talk to Jake about salvation and how to get to heaven. I also used the opportunity to reiterate how dangerous the road is and how he and Livi should always stay away from it.

We're driving to New Boston, TX tomorrow to get some baby turkeys and ducklings. Perhaps that will cheer us all up. I'll post pictures of our new babies next week.

SCATTERGORIES
(an interesting game sent to me by my friend Rebecca and I hope to see it on my other friends' blogs next!)

Rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...They MUST be real places, names, things...NOTHING made up!

My Name: Casey

1. Famous singer/band: C.C. Deville (from Poison - telling my age again! I had a poster of him in my locker in 7th grade!)
2. 4 letter word: call
3. Street name: Chinquepin (my mother-in-law lives on that road)
4. Color: Cadmium Red (Mike assures me this is a color - this game is harder than it looks! Mike has since come up with cobalt blue but I like his original answer, so I'll leave it. As a side note, I used to collect cobalt blue depression glass, but I don't anymore.)
5. Gifts/presents: CHOCOLATE!!!!!!
6. Vehicle: Cabrera (as in Porche)
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Coloring books (Can you tell I have children?)
8. Boy Name: Chase (my nephew!)
9. Girl Name: Carolina (my niece!)
10. Movie Title: Cool Hand Luke (I have never seen this movie, but Mike thinks it's great. It's also mentioned in the movie Serendipity with John Cusack - another great movie.)
11. Drink: Coke (This was my Mama's very favorite drink)
12. Occupation: Caricaturist
13. Flower: Carnation (I hate carnations)
14. Celebrity: Carrot Top!
15. Magazine: We can't think of a single magazine that starts with a "C"
16. U.S. City: Chicago (I had a layover there on my way to DC when I was 17. I went to DC for Clinton's inauguration. Wow. That was a long time ago. I've since gained a few brain cells. Vote Mike Huckabee for President!)
17. Pro Sports Team: Colts (I have no idea what sport they play, but I know they're a team)
18. Fruit: Cherry (I LOVE fresh cherries! I also love cantaloupe and clementines. We ate lots of those in Vietnam. Actually - I love nearly all fruit.)
19. Reason for Being Late for Work: Car broke down (This never happened to me, but I was always late for work when I worked outside of home.)
20. Something You Throw Away: Celery (I absolutely, positively DESPISE celery)
21. Things You Shout: Cheers!!
22. Cartoon Character: Chicken Little (I was not impressed with this goofy movie at all, but while I'm talking about movies again, I would like to recommend The Illusionist with Edward Norton. It's one of the best movies I've seen in a long, long time.)

MIKE is sitting over there on the couch helping me think of stuff for a "C" so we'll do his name now.

1. Famous singer/band: Metallica (how old are we anyway?)
2. 4 letter word: milk (Jake's favorite drink - and the one Olivia won't touch with a 10 foot pole)
3. Street name: Main St. (something we used to drive up and down listening to Metallica)
4. Color: Magenta
5. Gifts/presents: Money
6. Vehicle: Mercedes (I suspect Mike has never sat in a Mercedes.)
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Map (something my husband would never look at because he's a MAN)
8. Boy Name: Miguel (this is what Mike calls himself when he tells me stories in his Spanish accent about Miguel & Casena (what he calls me in the story.) These are very funny, ridiculously exaggerated, off the wall stories that he's been telling me since we first started dating that are all about us.)
9. Girl Name: Michelle
10. Movie Title: Men in Black
11. Drink: Mt. Dew (we drink the diet version)
12. Occupation: Male stripper (Isn't my husband a preacher? Ok. I came up with that one. Mike actually said machinist, but I didn't think that was nearly as interesting.)
13. Flower: Mum (good grief)
14. Celebrity: Meredith Viera (Mike has a little crush on her.)
15. Magazine: Men's Health (Mike would never read this magazine.)
16. U.S. City: Magnolia (where Mike is from!)
17 Pro Sports Team: Magic (Mike thinks this may be a basketball team. (I happen to know it is. I used to love the NBA.) We don't watch sports unless it's rodeo.)
18. Fruit: Melon (I love watermelon. Mike likes it with salt. Yuck.)
19. Reason for Being Late for Work: Making out with my wife. (Oh! What a sweetie he is and a very good kisser, as well!)
20. Something You Throw Away: moldy cheese (so that's where that smell is coming from...)
21. Things You Shout: MOMMY!!!! (we hear this ALL DAY LONG)
22. Cartoon Character: Mickey Mouse

This was actually a lot of fun! We've had a good time laughing about our answers. I expect to see these on your blogs in the coming days! If you do play along, leave a comment so we can get to your blog and check it out!

A few pictures of my sweet babies!

Daddy's boots are awfully big shoes to fill, but I think he's up to the task.

Is that Olivia or Debbie Gibson?

Jake and Olivia with their cousins, Emma and Amy. When these four are together, it's wild!

Jake and Olivia on a VERY windy day at Lake DeGray a few weeks ago.

and now a little something to lighten things up...

I have a very good friend who I would love to cheer up right now in person but she lives too flipping far away! These ridiculously corny jokes are for you my beautiful friend!

* WHY DON'T BLIND PEOPLE BUNGEE JUMP?
It scares the crap out of their dog

* WHY DOESN'T SMOKEY THE BEAR HAVE ANY CHILDREN?
Because whenever his wife gets hot he beats her with a shovel

* WHY DO THEY CALL IT PMS?
Because "Mad Cow Disease" was already taken

That last one is Mike's favorite. Can't imagine why. I hope you're smiling!!!

For the rest of you in the universe, I ask that you pray for my friend and her family. You may not know her name, but God does and He'll know who you're talking about.

War & Peace (& everything in between)

I would like to believe that no one is actually FOR this war or any war for that matter, but I am most certainly FOR my fellow Americans fighting in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am incredibly proud to be an American and all of the rights and privileges that entails. I am also incredibly proud of the men and women who have fought all these many years throughout every war to give me the freedoms I enjoy - and generally take for granted.

Whether you are opposed to this war or not isn't really the issue. The issue is whether or not you support our brothers and sisters who are fighting. Our family supports them and prays for them daily. I had a really interesting thing happen to me while we were in VIETNAM. On one of our last days in Saigon, Mike, Olivia and I went to the War Remnants Museum. I should mention that it used to be named the American War Crimes Museum. I have obviously seen pictures and footage of the Vietnam war, but to be in that country and feel so much love and respect for it's people and THEN see the pictures and actual guns and clothes of the soldiers and the remains of the innocents caught in the middle of it, is a very different - and sobering - thing. There were actually two babies in large jars that had been born and consequently died (or were born dead) due to the affects of Agent Orange. I'm not going to pretend to understand anything about Agent Orange and or how it was truly used, but I can't ignore having seen those two little babies forever frozen in time - one with two heads and another so grossly disfigured that it was hard to distinguish it's parts. I'm also not going to pretend to understand anything about the Vietnam war in general. I was born in 1975 when the war was ending. No one in my close family was in the war, so I don't even know any war stories. I know that the US made mistakes, but they also did a great service there and we never felt anything but love and respect from the Vietnamese people while we were there adopting Olivia.

One of the things at that museum that struck me the most was the award winning picture of the little girl running naked down the middle of the street because her clothes had literally been burned off of her. To me that little girl was Olivia. All of those children are Olivia. They were all innocents trapped in a country at war. I can't help but think of all the little children in Iraq that have lost their lives. There are thousands of children who live in fear of death every single day while my children run and play with their endless supply of toys believing that everything in the world is good.

My life changed when we visited the Navy museum in Pensacola last September. There was a room set up to look like the cells where our troops were held at the "Hanoi Hilton" prison during the war. We visited the real Hanoi Hilton while we were in Vietnam. John McCain is the most well know soldier who was held there. It was in that moment last September, when I was first surrounded by these images from my daughter's birth country, that I realized that without the sacrifices of those thousands and thousands and thousands of soldiers who lost their lives fighting in Vietnam, I may not have been allowed to adopt from there. Because of the course history took there many years ago, doors were opened that allowed me to bring my beautiful daughter home in 2006. I am not usually a publicly emotional person, but I openly cried that day in Pensacola with strangers all around me as I thought about the men and women who died to make it possible for me to have a daughter from Vietnam. I have been to the Vietnam memorial in D.C. and I know how far the names stretch. I had no idea when I was there at 17 years of age that one day those names would mean so very much to me. They are to be partially credited for helping us bring our precious Olivia home. I thank the soldiers who fought in my daughter's country and their families. I thank my government for standing up for what is right. I thank GOD most of all for peace in a place that many thought would never be peaceful. I love VIETNAM and I love AMERICA and I'm so grateful that Olivia gets to be Vietnamese American. Just for the record, we now consider ourselves to be Vietnamese Americans as well. Her flesh may not be my flesh nor her blood my blood, but she is in my heart and she courses through my veins.

I believe that peace can be found in Iraq as well. I have faith in my GOD to heal that country. Pray with me and support our troops. Who knows. One day you might have a child or grandchild adopted from Iraq. If you are in the military - there isn't a big enough font for the THANK YOU that you deserve.

Lightning McMunn

Despite the fact that my good friend Jennifer voted for Riblet all the way from Lebanon, my puppy name wasn't the winner. We had to take the puppy to the vet on Tuesday because he had a large, infected area on his left shoulder. Luckily it wasn't a big deal and we're treating it. Apparently he had been bitten by something but he's doing much better now that he's been on medication for the last three days. He's also not looking much like a Riblet anymore! He's packing on muscles! He's so cute!!! Anyway, Jake finally decided to name him Lightning. SHOCKING I know! So his name is Lightning McMunn of course.

Redneck Recreation

In case you've ever wondered what people who live in the country do to keep themselves occupied, here's your answer! We participate in REDNECK RECREATION! Jake came up with this little gem all by himself. It's amazing what you can do to entertain yourself when you put your mind to it! Jake attached a ratchet strap to a creeper and started pulling Olivia all over the drive way. Of course she had to return the favor. This was good for at least 20 minutes of hysterical laughter on my part. The kids had a pretty good time too!!!

PUPPY LOVE!

We were driving on a dirt road near our house this past Saturday when I spotted this sweet little puppy in the ditch. You can literally see every bone in his poor little body. I spent 10 minutes climbing through briars to get to the little fellow when I finally had to enlist Mike's help. Of course it took him all of 20 seconds to catch him. Good grief! My inability to pass by a stranded dog is not one of my better qualities in Mike's eyes, but even he couldn't argue with the fact that we had to bring this puppy home. It irritates the heck out of me that people throw puppies and dogs out that they don't want. We have an animal humane society in our county for goodness sake! Regardless, God allowed our paths to cross and we now have a new - yet to be named - doggy at our house. We've been discussing names. For now the kids are just calling him Puppy. Our friend Robby thought we should name him Spuds McKenzie for obvious reasons. I want to name him Riblet, simply because you can see all of his little ribs, but so far I'm not winning the name contest. Perhaps Jake will come up with something soon so our new pet can have a much deserved name. In the meantime, Jake and Olivia are having lots of fun playing with their new friend and even Phideaux likes him! He's a sweet little guy and we're happy to add him to our family.

Puppy cuddling!

Olivia isn't usually all that fond of dogs (especially Deacon since he outweighs her by about 75 pounds) but she loves our little puppy. Perhaps it's because she's actually bigger than he is!

How cute is he?!?!?!?!

Yep, this definitely looks like puppy love!

Olivia as Buzz Lightyear and Jake as Spiderman!

Where in the heck is Nemo?

Nemo was all the rage in our house just two years ago. We've loved Elmo, Bob the Builder, The Wiggles (Mike has since exiled our 4 colorful friends from our house completely), Barney... you get the idea. Now all of a sudden our house is filled with Spiderman, Batman and Superman (are you seeing a trend here?) Then two or three weeks ago, completely out of the blue, the Power Rangers took over my 4 year old son's interest and it's all I hear about. Lightning McQueen is about the only animated character that is surviving at our house these days. So again I ask, where in the heck is Nemo? Where is lovable old Barney or ticklish little Elmo????

My point: my baby is growing up, but let's not go crazy yet. I'm very pleased to say that Jake is still a Mama's boy. I can see him growing though right before my eyes. If he's given the chance to go out and work in the shop with his Daddy, he's out the door faster than you can say, "to the Batmobile!" For the last week or so he's been working on his "web throwing." Olivia doesn't have a favorite character. Although she looks awfully cute in a Buzz Lightyear costume as you can see! She can generally be seen with her Barbie cell phone though. It's rarely out of her hand for long.

My children aren't even in school yet and already I'm mourning the passing of their childhood. They are just growing up too quickly!!!