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!