Are you ready for some football????

This will get you fired up for college football We got 9 out of 11! How did you do?

I am so weak

There was a car wreck in Little Rock this week. Some have said it was the worst one ever. The way the accident happened as best as I can gather is that someone in a van, heading south, changed lanes and cut off another car, said car was forced into the traffic heading north. This was on an Interstate. The speeds were high. One car was split in two, one burst into flames. One lady was killed and several injured.

Marisa came upon the wreck just after it happened. She saw things that we are still praying she can get over.

The person in the van drove away. Someone got the license number from the van and soon they were apprehended. The van driver said that they knew what they had done.

As I pray for Marisa and what all came in her eyegate, I am also praying for the van driver. I can so see myself driving away. I can see myself doing something so stupid and then trying to cover it up and hoping it will go away. The van driver has to pay the price for maybe texting or being late to work or whatever was going on that led to such a quick lane change.

I am praying that today you and I will have the courage to own up to the sinful things we have done and will be on the course of setting things right.

WAR EAGLE

If you love AUBURN Read this. It is fun

There were lots of tears!

One Event that happened over the Graduation/Shower weekend was the Georgia vs Arkansas Racketball tournament. Here are the participants- Robert and John Austin representing Arkansas and John David and Andrew representing Georgia.

Much taunting went on before the participants even arrived!









Andrew is joined here by our friend, Grant, who was playing basketball during our tournament.Georgia won the tourny but lots of smack talk was heard. I think we will have a rematch in December.

Graduation Part II

Here are some random pictures that were taken during the weekend. They are in no particular order.

I really never know what will happen when I take pictures of these three. Andrew's eyes are somewhat scary!
Poor Kaitlin is sandwiched between her brothers
Do we have a good looking group or what?
John, Marisa, Kaelyn and Robert
The three sillies again
Us cheering for John's graduation!
Uncle John and Aunt Elaine
These two never take a bad picture!
Love seeing Papa smiling
The man of the hour!

Graduation Part I

Here is the first smattering of pictures from John's graduation. KimT dropped off a salad for us to enjoy and jumped in a picture with the graduate! She recanted the time she saved John's life. I was about to kill him for dropping an entire plate of desserts at the Wednesday meal and KimT laughed. That made me stop and think before I acted. John was thankful.
Here is part of our group
Kaitlin and Andrew moved over to get different pictures of John. They sat with a family that cheered for John when he graduated and Andrew and Kaitlin cheered for their graduate.
The star of the evening
The crowd.
Most of our crowd
Uncle Sherrell, Aunt Marian and Grandma
Uncle John and Aunt Elaine joined us too.

Grandma with her 8th college graduate grandchild
On Sunday this is who we saw at a local restaurant. How fun was that!

4 months

Can you believe it is just 4 months til the wedding? Here is one of Marisa's flower girls, Haven, in her flower girl dress. She loved wearing it around the house. Isn't she darling? I told her she'll need dentures soon if she keeps losing teeth. She just laughed.

Showers of Blessings

Marisa was showered with lots of love from her church family this past weekend. Several out of town family joined us too. We gathered at Clare's and had a laughing good time. AnnN gave a wonderful devotion on Godly love.
Aunt Elaine, Taylor and Kaelyn joined us.
Aunt Marian and Grandmother were there.
Me and my girls.
Jennifer joined us too.
beautiful flowers by Betty.
wonderful Clare
fabulous quilt from KathyB
Marisa and all her bridesmaids!She and John were very blest. She and John are very blest!

Shhh! Don't tell Cara!

When Cara moved in with us for the World Cup we decided she needed a vuvuzella. Carl got on ebay and ordered her one. He ordered it the first day of the World Cup and every day we checked the front door to see if a package had been delivered. It never came while Cara was here.

It arrived two weeks ago. We had a great time with it. It came while Carl was at The National Jamboree. We showed it to him one evening, after he got home, about 9.

Now Robert goes to bed about 8:30 because he leaves for his construction job at 5:15 AM. Are you getting the time thing here. Robert was just good asleep while Carl tried out the vuvuzella. Now, Carl can blow the vuvuzella well! Just ask Robert. Poor Robert had no idea what the noise was, he, at first, thought it was an injured animal. After Carl blew it then Kaitlin had to have a try. There was just enough time between the blows for Robert to get back asleep. Kaitlin's attempt was as loud but sounded more distressing, so by now, Robert was convinced it was a dying animal and it was close.

When I took the vuvuzella to be mailed the man who was going to mail had no idea what it was and the more Kaitlin and I described it the more he didn't know what it was.

Here is Kaitlin blowing it. Her attempts require her whole body and lots of movement, hence the blur.

I tried to get the postage stamps on the package. It came from Israel!
This is the package we got in the mail.
Here it is. We got red because Cara was cheering for the Furious Red, aka Spain. They won it all! What an exciting World Cup!Cara, if you are reading this. Know you are loved and enjoy the vuvuzella. Don't blow it when folks are sleeping.

What were you doing 10 years ago?

10 years!

10 years ago this month I turned my calendar to August and this is what I saw. It was like a sign. In August 2000, we were getting ready to take Andrew to college. I knew in my heart, that when a mama does her job, her children can stand on their own. I knew that Andrew going to AUBURN was a wonderful thing but it didn't make it any easier.

I had to keep going 'ever forward, but slowly'.

One thing my mama always did when I left her for an extended period of time and we were going to be in a public place for the final good, she told me goodbye at our home. I knew that I needed to do that with Andrew. I remember the morning we left for AUBURN like it was yesterday. We had our family prayer time, put the last suitcase in the van and then came the goodbye. Andrew was ready to go and I wanted to hug him for just a little bit longer. Where had the time gone? I wanted to stop time just for a little while, but no, it was marching forward. I kissed him with our special kiss that I had been kissing him since he was little and then we were off.

The ride to Birmingham was a little quieter than usual but when we met with Aunt Marian, Uncle Sherrell, and Alan the party began. In AUBURN, Uncle John, Aunt Elaine, Uncle Charles and Aunt Frances joined us. As did Meredith, who had moved in a few weeks earlier for band camp. We got Andrew moved into his dorm, went to Walmart about 7 times, visited lots of bookstores, ate at some fun restaurants and had some wonderful family time. Before I knew it, it was time to leave him. We ate breakfast with him on our last morning together and then we dropped him off at his dorm. It was quick goodbye because we had already had our real one at home.

The van was really quiet as we drove down the road toward home.

Andrew is the only 1st born in our family. He is the mover and the shaker. With him gone, we had to find out what 'new normal' was for our family. It took awhile.

Andrew is now married, several other children have come and gone in our home, and 'new normal' changes all the time now. I sometimes harken back to when my children were all at home but I so enjoy what all they are teaching me as we all grow up.

Gladys will have no more crummy days

God is Amazing!

My friend, Gladys, fell in Sunday and broke her hip. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Several church members met her daughter, Barbara, in the emergency room.

Her surgery was set for Monday EARLY. Several of us were at the hospital to sit with Barb during the surgery. When her heart did a flip-flop and she was moved from regular recover to coronary care we helped Barbara move all her things and set up shop in this new area. It was decided that Kaitlin would spend Monday night with Barb, JanR Tuesday night and KimT Wednesday night.

Tuesday we got the news that Gladys had had a heart attack and that it was not her first and it didn't look good. The heart doctor said that she could last 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 years. Gladys was very lucid and talked to every one that day. She wanted to know who all was at the hospital to visit her and was ready to come out to the waiting room to see everyone. She was not in much pain. She made us laugh. My favorite thing she said was once when she had to take out her teeth, "Now don't be shocked, I am going to look like a grandma." We all laughed. I was thinking that at 95 she still doesn't think of her self as looking like a grandma! (I want to be that way)

Wednesday morning Kaitlin and I both woke up earlier than planned and we made it to the hospital at 5:45AM. We expected to help Barb and Jan fold up their blankets and sit with their stuff while they got ready for the day. Jan and Barbara were already up and visiting with nurse, Sarah. They were somber looking. The nurse told them that Gladys had had some problems in the night and it didn't look good. She took them back at 6am. Because we were there, we could sit with all their stuff. Gladys talked to them and they told her they loved her. She had some discomfort but responded to them. They came back to us at 6:25. At 6:45 the nurse came back out and said that she was unconscious. They went back and were with her when she slipped peaceable away to heaven.

Now to the rest of the story...

JanR is a nurse and an instructor and nurse Sarah is a student of JanR's. When you are in Coronary Care you are assigned A nurse not a team. What are the chances that Gladys' nurse would be a student of JanR's???

Gladys died when JanR, the nurse and friend, was with Barb, not Kaitlin or KimT. JanR had to go to a funeral on Wednesday morning. Gladys died so early that JanR could do all she needed to do, give us some suggestions on other things that needed to be done and even make the funeral.

Nurse Sarah let Barb and JanR stay with Gladys and she came out to tell Kaitlin and me that Gladys died. She even brought us a box of tissues. Barb asked her if she could tell us so that we could start calling folks because Barbara didn't think she could.

As draining as grief is I felt like we had seen God. All of us involved agreed that the details could not have worked out so well without His hand directing everything.

Kaitlin tweeted on Wednesday that she was having a crummy day. Andrew read that and then sent her a text. He said that Gladys wasn't having a crummy day. We all needed to hear that.

To God Be the Glory

My Friend Gladys

I don't ever remember meeting Gladys, I feel like I have known her my 20 or so years in Arkansas. I really got to know Gladys in the last 10 years working in the kitchen at church. Then the kitchen crew consisted of Gladys, her daughter, Barbara, KimT and me and my family.

Gladys loved to cook and her chicken and dumplings have no equal in my mind. People loved her rum cakes but my favorite was her cheese ball. She also loved to sew. The work she and her husband did was to upholster furniture. Once she even brought a chair up to church one Wednesday to show us how. Gladys was sharp and loved to laugh. They was no story you could not tell her. We loved giving and getting her birthday cards because the funnier the better was her motto. Once someone joined our birthday lunch for Gladys that didn't know her that well. As we were passing around her birthday cards, said new person blushed at one card, Gladys just roared with laughter.

She met her husband when she was 15. She was riding on top of a load in a wagon and her long dark tresses was blowing in the breeze. (her exact words) Her husband, in fact, was running away from home but came back to have a second look at that girl and her hair. They were married when Gladys was 16.

Gladys was a democrat because she remembers when FDR improved wages such that they received 35 cents an hour instead of the 20 cents they were getting. She would argue you down if you spoke against the democrats because that 15 cents an hour saved their lives!

Gladys loved my children. She once told Andrew, when he was about 16, that he was very short but he was good with children. We all hooted. She loved for Kaitlin to escort her into church from the car. They would talk about shoes, the weather and what clothes they happen to have on that day. She thought some of John's antics, when he was about 15, were so funny that even I have to laugh and that helped everyone out, especially John.

My friend Gladys is reeking havoc in heaven today and we are broken hearted. Gladys was 95 when she died, her birthday would have been next month. I met Gladys when she was 75 and really got to know her when she was 85! What an example she was to me to always live, always learn, always be aware.

I think I'll go make her cheese ball.