Need a Laugh? This Is One Of Our Favorites.....

I Corinthians 12:26

-UPDATE-

Alicia's husband passed away early this morning.  Please continue to pray for her, Bill's daughter, and their entire family. 


Since I consider my blog readers like an "extended family," I feel I should tell you when one of our "family members" is hurting.

For the last two weeks, my friend Alicia has been sitting in an ICU waiting room here at a local hospital.  Her husband of 9 months is critically ill.  The decision was made to transfer him to UT-Memphis for a liver transplant.  Today my friend is sitting in an ICU waiting room in Memphis.  

Things are not looking good, but as she reminded us in church Sunday, the doctors are not the ones who have the last say, God is.  He is still in control. 

Many of you know Alicia and Bill, many of you do not.  But most importantly, the Father knows them, and we are trusting in His will. 

Would you speak their names in prayer today?

A Day For Dads

Here's a quick shout out to all the fathers on this Father's Day!

A special "Happy Father's Day" to my dad (even though he can't read this-he's not illiterate, but they don't have internet access).  Also to my father-in-law, Pop, and last but not least to my hubby Brad.  You're a great dad, and I look forward to what the future holds for you and our family.

I Must Be An Old Dog

As I mentioned a few posts ago, we (the transcription company I work for) have been undergoing some changes.  I probably also mentioned that I don't deal well with change.  Just ask my husband. 

This new "system" (I'm not even sure what to call it?) is, well, kicking my rear.  I get nervous about doing it wrong and then sometimes even though I'm sure I've got it all in order, do it wrong anyhow. 

I'm just hoping they (meaning my bosses) are practicing patience with us old dogs who are having to learn new tricks. 

Flyin' High

Saturday we went to a light flyers Fly-In.  There were tiny little planes there, the biggest one I saw could accomodate 4 people.  Kids 8-17 could go up for free in association with the EAA Young Eagles program.  This was a great opportunity, and since Brad has always had a love for flying, he really wanted to go.  For my husband to want to do anything outside during the summer is, well, a miracle.  So I didn't hesitate to load up the family and enjoy the day outside (which, by the way, was hotter than I can even begin to explain).  If you live in Mississippi, and I know most of you do, then I don't have to explain it.  You know......But regardless, we had a great time.  I had never seen anything quite like it.  Not that I'm an avid flyer, I've flown on two trips my entire life, but there's nothing like watching a small plane take off and land in a pasture! 

My kids and hubby wanted to all go up.  I on the other hand did not.  I was told many times that these small planes are just as safe if not safer than the big ones and that the pilots were just as good if not better than commercial pilots.  I don't doubt any of that, but God created gravity for a reason, and my feet just wanted to stay on the ground yesterday.  Anyway, someone had to take pictures.  I don't know why I didn't send the camera up with Brad to take aerial shots.  Neither one of us thought about it....maybe next time!

When we got there, we saw a couple of other men from our church!  The one Poptart is sitting with went up in a glider.  You know, the kind of plane that has to get towed up into the sky and then just glides with no motor or anything?  He says it was peaceful and could be habit-forming....I'll take his word for it!

That's Brad and his pilot waiting for take-off.  Brad even got to play pilot for a few minutes!

There he goes!

Because there were such nice people there and because the lady making the flight lists is a member of the same church as us, she asked the pilot to take Poptart up even though she did not meet the age requirements.  The pilot didn't hesitate, and Brad didn't mind getting to go up again either!

Poptart with her headset on.  I don't think she needed it though.  Brad said she didn't utter a sound the entire flight, which lasted about half-an-hour.  When she got on the ground however, she didn't have a problem letting us know how fun it was and how she wanted to go again. 

Up, up, and away!

Okay, finally Gogurt's turn.  Bless his heart, he had to wait the longest of anyone.  But finally it was his turn and was he ever ready!  That's Mr. John, the pilot, directing his steps to get into the plane. 

Once he was in the plane, still more waiting!  Two more planes were coming in to land. 

Still waiting, but taking in the cockpit.

Finally!  Gogurt is off the ground!

Back on the ground with Pilot John.

I was glad to get all my family members back on the ground.  To tell you I wasn't slightly nervous while they were gone flyin' would be a lie.  But to see the smiles on their faces made it worth it all.  Thanks to the Club for opening up your planes, hangars, etc. to the general public, and a special thanks to the Prices who made this a day my family will never, ever forget!

Pictures from Alaska

The Karate Kid, the 1984 Version

We've gone Karate Kid crazy.....

I can't tell you how many times I've seen Karate Kid, and am I the only one who gets chill bumps every time I watch Daniel-son gear up to do the crane and win the All-Valley Karate Tournament???  It gets me every single time.  

The other day we caught the very end of Karate Kid III on TV, and it gave me the Ralph Macchio fever.  I had to see more.  Just so happened that one of Gogurt's neighborhood friends' family owns the box set, all three Karate Kid movies plus "The Next Karate Kid" with Hilary Swank.  He let us borrow it and to date we've watched three out of the four.

Mr. Miyagi has some of the best lines in the movies, "Don't know, never been 'tacked by twee." "Wax on, wax off." "Go, find balance."  These are just a few, there are many more, and you have to read these aloud with a Okinawan accent to get the full effect by the way. 

I am probably going to check out the remake of The Karate Kid, the one with Will Smith's son and Jackie Chan.  I'm a little wary though I have to admit.  I don't know how they could ever top the original. 

An Old Lady and Her Piano

Back in April I attended the Extraordinary Women Conference.  Just the other day the Lord brought back to mind a conversation I had with two nice women I sat beside. 

The two women were sisters, and they were around my mom's age.  They both had out their cell phones and were receiving texts, etc. on them during the conference.  I have to admit, I thought to myself, "Hmmm, it's not just the younger generation addicted to these things, huh?" 

But later on during one of the breaks, we were talking, and they explained why they felt the need to stay in touch. 

Their mother was still alive - I can't remember exactly how old they said she was, but it was upper 90s.  She had fallen and broken her hip that past week and they were concerned about her.  I could tell these sisters really loved their mother because their face lit up as they told me stories about her.  One of their stories is what I want to share with you. 

Their mother was the church pianist in her younger days, and apparently after all these years she could still sit down and play hymns. 

The daughters were laughing and telling me they would request a hymn, any hymn, and she would start playing it.  Amazing!  But then they told me no matter what hymn she started playing, the tune always ended up being "Mansion Over The Hilltop."  

Now, as a pianist, this is impressive to me.  She could play any song by memory, then fit "Mansion Over The Hilltop" in that song no matter what key.  Wow!

As Christians, shouldn't we be the same way?  No matter what we start off doing, saying, or singing, we should always end up telling others about what Jesus is preparing for us on the other side.  That should be our goal - through any conversation, particularly with those who do not know the Lord, to tell them about Heaven and how to get there. 

I pray that my life and my words will do just that.  But if I'm honest, I'm not great at it.  I'm not even kinda good at it.  I tend to let life bog me down into thinking about the here and now more than the hereafter. 

When I'm 90-something, I wonder if I'll still be pecking out hymns on my old piano.  I sure hope so. 

My Little Decision Maker

Poptart must take after me.  She always wants to know the schedule, the plan, what's first, next, and last on our day's agenda. 

On the way home from church last night, Poptart was planning the rest of our night.  First we'll do this, then we'll do that, and after we finish that we'll do this, right Momma?

I answered in a somewhat tired-momma voice, "Poptart, all I know is that I'm going home, changing clothes, making dinner, and then we are all sitting down to eat.  After that, I'm not making any more decisions, k?"

After a few seconds of silence, Poptart answered in her most sincerest 5-year-old-voice, "Then just let me make all the decisions."

My Not-So-Stressful Job Had Me Stressed Out Last Night

Funny, in my last post I mentioned how I only have one job to stress about in the summer and how that is so much easier on me.  Well, it is, but last night you couldn't have convinced me of that. 

In the medical transcription world, everything, and I mean everything is dependent upon technology.  Granted, I am very thankful I do not work back in the "old days" when the doctor's dictation was put on tapes and mailed to you or worse yet when you would have to go pick up the tapes, bring them home, transcribe them, then deliver the finished product.  I do see how that would get very time consuming, and well, I just can't imagine doing my job that way. 

So I am thankful I am doing this job in a technologically-forward era.  However, with that said, technology is always changing, evolving, updating, progressing, whatever you want to call it. 

Starting June 1st, all transcriptionists were required to change our work delivery program.  We had used our old one ever since I started this job (about 7 or 8 years ago) so I knew it was coming one day. 

I did okay with the new program until last night.  I was "experimenting", and after realizing I had uploaded things I never meant to upload, was sure I had crashed the entire program.  Delete, delete, how do I delete?  Then I heard a voice in my ear from a previous phone call, "Once you send a file, you cannot delete it."  "Just send a note explaining the error."  No! No! No! There was no way to fix my mistake.  I panicked, but Brad assured me everything was going to be alright and that I had not totally ruined the company's brand new program nor had I crashed the entire server.  I did send the note stating I was the dodo who had sent in the weird files, and also e-mailed the office just to reiterate it was me and that I was sorry for any inconvenience.  Looking back, I was probably being overdramatic, but I couldn't help it. 

I guess the problem wasn't as big as I made it out to be.  When I got up and checked this morning, the files sent in error had all been deleted, and I haven't gotten a what-the-heck-were-you-doing phone call today.  I would like to thank my hubby for talking me down out of my frenzy.  I'm sure it was hard not to laugh at me honey, but you took me serious, and I appreciate it. 

I'm thinking, instead of working in the summer, wouldn't it be nice to sit by the pool and sip lemonade all day?  But oh yeah, I don't have a pool. 

Oh well, back to typing. 

A Few Summer Activities

Gogurt is finishing up football camp today.  He has really enjoyed it and has learned some of the basics of playing football.  It was held at the local middle school for children 1st through 6th grades.  He told me he was one of the tallest kids there, and definitely the tallest in his age group.  It's good to be tall, but it takes a while to "grow into" your body when you are so tall at such a young age.  But fortunately the only injury he sustained at football camp was a bloody nose.  A football to the nose will do it every time....

Poptart starts gymnastics Saturday.  She will be taking four classes over the month of June.  She is so excited!  I can't wait to see how she does....

This is the first summer I've enrolled my kids in any sort of summer activity.  Usually we just hang out at home and find things to occupy ourselves.  I'm not sure what motivated me to do it differently this summer, but we'll still have plenty of days to be bored creative at home.  (How many times have my kids heard me say, "Only boring people get bored?")  (They despise that saying, by the way!)

I, for one, love summertime.  Preschool's out so I have more time to devote to typing during the day.  It makes for a much less stressful day!  I'm not saying I never get stressed out, but during the summer I only have one job to stress about, not two.  And thankfully the one job I do have during the summer is the one I can do in my pajamas!

Until next time......

Welcome Home!

Yay! My hubby is home! (and I get my blog back!)

We picked Brad up at the airport around 9 am yesterday morning.  To say they looked tired would be an understatement.  I don't think either one of them had slept much on the airplane from Anchorage home.  I
don't think I could sleep on a packed-full airplane either. Brad said he thought he slept about 4 hours total. 

He didn't get much rest when he got home either.  Life was waiting.  His wife ( I couldn't wait to hear all the stories from Alaska and fill him in on everything that has happened here), his kids (Poptart immediately started asking him to go to her room and play), a car that needed to be taken in for repairs--welcome back to your life! 

I absolutely love to see and hear Brad once he's come home from this trip to Kodiak.  He is on a spiritual high!  The question he and I have is how do you sustain this momentum?  How do you not let life creep in and suck all the breath out of you?  How do you not end up right back where you were before you left?

We don't have the answers to those questions.  If you do, please share.  Brad and I both feel God is leading us......somewhere.  To do ........something.   For now though we are trying to live life as God would have us live it and let Him work out all the details.  My prayer is that we (especially me) will be ready when he says go, whether near or far.  

Return to the Nest

After a long and restless night of flying, Don and I arrived home this morning safe and sound.  To God be the honor, glory and thanks.  All in all a wonderful trip physically, spiritually, and emotionally.  Thanks for praying for us and the people of Kodiak.  But don't stop now, Kodiak and Frontier Baptist need you now more than ever.  Lift them to the Father.  Lift up the people for salvation.  Lift high a prayer for the Holy Spirit to move on Kodiak like on the Day of Pentecost! 

Thanks again for sharing this time with us, until next time.  Brad