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.