Football

The boys are all playing football this year. They are doing so well. Brenden and Randall plaf flag football and Mikel plays tackle football. They are all so cute out there that I have to post pictures.

Busy lives

It has been a long time since I have been on here. There has been a lot going on lately. I have been busy chasing the boys all over the country side while they play football. They are so cute out there on the football feild. We have been having so much fun. I can not believe how fast they grow up. Mikel is in the fourth grade this year. It won't be long before he is in Jr. High. They are all doing good in school. Brenden and Mikel are Honor Roll Students and Randall does very well in school also. We are all really enjoying it here at our new job. Everyone is adjusting very well. And although I really miss my friends I really love the new friends that we have.

School Starts Today

What a glorious yet sad day it is today. As the kids go off to school it is so exciting to know that I am going to have the house all to myself and that the peace and quiet will be so wonderful, however with this new found freedom comes the saddness of knowing that my baby is now in school and that it will not be long before he is all grown up. Randall was so excited about the prospect of starting school this morning that he did not even want to give me the satisfaction of taking him to class on his first day of school. I have always loved the fact that I got to take Brenden and Mikel to school on thier first day of Kindergarten as well as the first day of school every year since, and then there was Randall. He tried to jump on the bus this moring with the girls so that he could be a big boy and go to school, If he had his way about it then he would have gone to school on his own and loved every minute of it. He is so grown up. It is funny how children do not know how important it is to us as parents to get to do these things with them, however I know that mommys can often cramp the styles of our young ones when they think that they are big. So as I look forward to my day of quiet, I have to also remember that my boys are all growing up and I have to take advantage of the little things while they are here because they do not last forever.

Is he getting older or am I

Okay as I sit here trying to filter through the tears of joy and tear of sadness at the same time I can not help but feel like a blubbering idiot. But how can the time go by so fast. My baby, Brenden turned 7 years old today and I can not believe how fast they grow up. It still feels like yesterday that I brought him home from the hospital and now he is 7 years old and fixing to start 1st grade. Wow, how the time flies. I hope I am not the only mother in the world that cries these tears. I know that the freedom that his age brings to my freedom also brings the sadness of him no longer needing me for everything. I know that it is good for him to have his freedom, however I am not ready to let him go either. So I will continue to sit here and wonder how they can grow up so fast, and enjoy it at the same time. Thank you for listening, and I will be posting updates soon seeing as the boys start football soon.

Allergic reactions

My poor Brenden has inherited my allergic reaction to bees so we found out on vacation. He insisted on playing with a wasps nest and knocked it down and as you can tell he is very allergic. He got stung over his right eye and as you can tell from the picture (keep in mind that it is 2 days old) it was not a very exciting time. However we have healed very nicely. But it has been a very good learning experience for our little bug catcher. You have to love boys. It is amazing the things that kids will do to have fun. Everyone told him not to mess with the nest, yet he could not help himself he just had to do it. The funny thing is that when he got stung he was embarrised enough to not want to tell anyone what had happened. He tried to tell every one that he fell on the chair. It is a good thing for him that he has a little brother that looks after him (LOL). Randall made sure that we knew that he got stung which is a good thing since he is allergic.

Six flags

We took the kids to Six Flags in San Antonio las month and they had a blast. We had so much fund that we went to Six Flags in Arlington this weekend. The kids loved it and wouldn't you know it Brenden is a rollercoster junkie. He rode the Shock wave 2 times in a roll. Actually he rode evey rollercoaste at least 2 times some of them even more. However Randall is not a fan of rollercoasters. It is so great to be able to share these wonderful experiences with our children. We are looking forward to taking them to Sea World as well as to all of the other wonderful things we plan on doing with them this summer.

Hope everyone has a wonderful summer. I will be trying to get caught up soon with some pictures from Mikel's talent show as well as pictures and info on the boys.

Time Flies

Isn't it funny how time flies when you have 11 kids. I did not realize how fast time flies by until you get really busy and then you look up and a whole month has gone by and you can not figure out where the month has gone. okay so it has not been exactly a month since I last posted but it has been a while. Now I am sitting here with one room of girls quarantined because they are sick and I am trying to keep the rest of the house from catching the illness. Oh yea did I mention that I just finished my first week back to school. And I wonder why my time has all disappeared. But I have to admit that We are loving our new job. It has been a blast so far. And I thank God everyday that he has presented us with this opportunity.

ONLINE

We are finally back online. It has been a while since we have been able to get on the internet. So I have not gotten to talk with you all in a while. Well we are officially moved into the Cherokee Home for Children. We have been here for almost three weeks. And we are loving it. This Saturday May 3rd is Cherokee Day and everyone is invited out to take a look at the campus. We are excited and cannot wait for everything that God has in Store for us. I can not help but think about one of my favorite verses in the Bible everyday while we are here. Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on our own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your paths straight. For those of you who know me know that my life has not always been this way, but I am so glad that I have my Lord working for me in my life today. Thank you to every who tries to keep up with our family and hopefully now I can keep everyone up to date better.

Changes

It is official! Our Family is moving. We have been accepted to become house parents at Cherokee Home for Children. We are due to move Thursday or Friday. We are so excited about this opportunity. We have been waiting for months and months on this call and now it is happening. This is going to be a wonderful opportunity for our whole family and I am looking forward to being able to let our family grow. I will keep everyone posted on the blog. Although we are going to miss all of our family and friends here in Brownwood. We are really liiking forward to our new lives with our new family.

Vacation

Can I just say that boy will I be glad when this vacation is over. I feel like I have lived in the car for the last 5 days. and we are not even home yet. But it has been a lot of fun we drove down to Nashoba OK on Friday. we stayed there until Sunday when me and Clint left the kids with his mom so that we could go spend a couple of days alone together kind of for an anniversary present and congratulations for graduation. Then we went back on Tuesday we picked up the kids and left today to come home. right now we are in Granbury visiting Ma and Pa then tomorrow we head out to Cherokee to visit some of our real good friends. I will let you know how things go in a couple of days. Thank you to everyone that takes the time to check in on our family. We love you all. See you in a few days

Soccer Mom

The definition of a Soccer mom has generally been the mom who drives her kids to soccer in the little Minivan, then stands on the side lines and cheers their kids on while they play. For me I am a Soccer Mom/ Coach. I am coaching Randy's soccer team and boy let me just say that this is a challange. Boy did God know what he was doing when he sent me these kids. They are wonderful kids however they can really lose focus very fast. This can be a very trying time sometimes. I have to remember what Paul wrote in Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction , faithful in prayer". Man does this explain how I feel when out on the soccer field but I must say that I LOOOOVE being out there on the soccer field with these boys. It is so much fun.

DIPLOMA

I am so exicited. I recived my college Diploma on Saturday. I was so overcome with joy that I was in tears. This is such an accomplishment for me. I did not think that I would every get to go to college more or less have a diploma. I now have an Associates of Arts in Health Administration. I just had to share this news with everyone that reads our Blog. Thank you for all of the support.

Five year olds on the Subject of School

Randall has decided that School is not fair. He says thhat it cuts into his play time with mommy and he does not think that they should be required to go to school. While I was laying in bed with him this morning trying to talk hiim into getting up and getting ready for school he informed me that he should get to just stay home with me seeing as I am the smartest person he knows. However after much discussion we did agree that he would miss his friends if he did not go to school so off he went. Isn't it funny how at such a young age our children feel that we as their parents are the smartest people in the world, then they grow up and they think that they are the much smarter than us as parents. Funny how that changes so quickly.

Children are such a blessing from God. I could not imagine my life with out my children. I think that being a mom is the most rewarding things in life. Even though they some days they drive you crazy when they walk out the door as you are telling them what they should be doing. To just have to remember that you too were once their age and like them you too probably walked away from your parents as they were telling you what you should be doing. So you just have to stop step back and think about how you would have handled the situationi if you were them. Then procede to handle the situation the way that you have to in order to get them to do what they are supposed to be doing.

LONG DAY

You know that you have had a long day when you try to send your kids to bed an hour early. I will tell you what I have had a very long day today. And only after I upset the kids and tried to send them to bed crying and then had to admit to them that I was wrong and that I looked at the clock wrong, and they got to go play. Of course when you have a five year old in the house you can only imagine what they have to say about the situation. I found this out first hand as Randy made sure and ran outside and told his dad and grandpa how "SILLLLLLY" his mom was for sending him to bed early. Anyways I guess I am the one that needs to go to bed. HAHA.

Finished

I have finished school and I am soon to be a college graduate. I am so excited that I have finally got do what I knew that I could do. I have been dreaming of going to college ever since I was a little girl but since I became a mother first I thought that I would never get to go to college. Now that I have done it and I did it with a 3.62 GPA. I know that this is probably surprising to anyone that knew me in High School But I knew that I could do it So I just wanted to share my excitement with everyone out there. So thank you to everyone that was pulling for me and encouraging me along the way you were a tremendous help. I will be trying to get my Bachelors Degree in April. SO I am still on my way to furthering my ambitions to get to the life that we all know that I can have so just keep me in your prayers and I will keep everyone informed on how that goes when I begin. Thank you for all of the support and I love everyone.

We are now bloggers

I have now created a blog site so that hopefully I can keep our family and friends up to date with what is going on with our family. I am so excited about this. I hope that everyone else enjoys it as well.