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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!