Happy Birthday Jake and Ginny

I am not sure if I can ever fully express how grateful I am that the Lord saw fit to give me Jake. He is my rock and best friend.  Happy Birthday to my forever chips & salsa date. The world is better with him in it. He touches lives for good and strives to be the man the Lord needs him to be. His wife and kids are crazy for him, even though he makes front of us.

Ginny was able to visit the week before her birthday on Spring Break. She and her dad went to their annual birthday movie and we just enjoyed having her around.  While she will not do my annual birthday questionnaire, I know the answer to a few. We feel so fortunate she is in our family. 21 years, 21 years…that’s how long I’ve been a mama. Ginny had the privilege of helping me learn to be a mom and is still teaching me. She’s patient, strong, and loves the Lord. She has always been our obedient one (until she left home) and makes her dad and I proud. Continue to grow Bug and rely on the Savior. We love you and hope your birthday has been wonderful. Here’s to adulting

 

Family time

 The weekend before Ginny's birthday, we went to Paris to see Elijah ordained.  While I enjoyed visiting with my family, I do not feel pretty around my sisters these days.  I feel like I do not belong and am the chubby sister. 

Spring Break

 We are mid-Spring break this week and it has been somewhat relaxing and in other aspects busy.  Jake went the week before to Washington DC with his dad and brothers for about five days and had an enjoyable time.  When they planned the trip, initially he thought it was his Spring Break when he looked on the calendar but did not note it had Aubree's name beside it, which I am good with because that means he is here with me this week. Still no progress on our house. We have Ginny here this week too so we are enjoying that.

 

 

More mercies from above

 There is an old saying that when it rains, it pours and that is how we feel about the blessings from above. Since our last update, another miracle was that Will was spared his foot and toe.  We were having Sunday dinner at a friend's house a few weeks ago and the Will and his friend decided to chop a few logs for s'mores after dinner.  However, before dinner was served, Will managed to miss the wood and hit his foot instead. While I would have preferred it not have happened, there were several mercies we saw besides his foot was safe and the tow sewn back together.  First, Jake was accompanied by the husband to the Emergency Room and they took Will straight back to control the bleeding. While Mark (the man that accompanied Jake) was in the waiting room, a member of the congregation was brought in from having a stroke, so Jake and Mark were able to give a blessing. 

Ginny was scheduled to have a bilateral TMJ procedure done on 8/22, removing some fluid and adding a steroid.  Originally, she was under the understanding that the anesthesia was not covered by insurance but a peer to peer review was completed and it was deemed necessary, so insurance approved it.  I left after work on Tuesday 8/21to drive to Knoxville.  We were at the hospital by 6:00am for the procedure, only to find out the facility itself was not covered. Due to the time difference, insurance was unable to be verified and too much time had passed to self-pay as the doctor did not have time to perform.  While I do not know the reasoning the Lord had, I trust for some reason it was not to happen that day.  I was able to spend the morning with my daughter and sister, Charity before I headed back to Memphis. We are also house-sitting and dog sitting for Rebekah and Adam from 8/22 to 3/3, so I wanted to get back and help. We have enjoyed sitting on a couch in the evening and having a kitchen again.

Still in hotel......

It has now been almost six weeks in a hotel, and we have adjusted fine.  One of the most challenging parts for me is not being able to  multi-task, especially doing laundry while I am doing other things. This past week, school was out for three days due to ice. We learned a new game with the boys to play and played it several times.  We have seen many blessings during this time and know the Lord is mindful of us.  Jake came home from church a few weeks ago and said he knew everything was going to be okay with the house, so I too feel the same. I trust Jake and I trust God. The boys broke the television in their hotel room, which costs us $500 to replace. Initially they told us it broke with them playing with a nerf basketball but a few days later, Christopher came to us and said that they were actually playing a game and Will through the remote at the television (which makes much more sense), Will later told the truth.  We explained it is always best to be honest to begin with and not compromise your integrity. I have began applying for some jobs here and there outside of the classroom to see what opportunities may be out there. 

Here is a quick cute story. The other day we were having lunch and I told Will that he had my hair line and Christopher that he he had his dads. The next thing we know Christopher is eating his hamburger crying because he is scared he will now be bald one day.  We had a good chuckle. 

Welcome 2023

 We rang in the new year in a hotel room but were together and that is all that is important to me.  Aubree headed back to school on Tuesday, break ended all too quickly for me with that.  We helped her get another car for Christmas, so it needed to be driven out to Utah. Ginny was kind enough to drive out with her and fly back home. We were concerned with the snowy weather, so had them go the southern route and break it up. They drove to Abilene TX the first day, spent the night with Tommie and Karen, the second day to Cloud croft, spending the night with Grammy and Papa, and the third day on into Logan. We were worried but that is typical and so grateful they made it safely there.  

We are now in our second hotel room from the water damage to our home.  People have been so gracious to invite our family for dinner a few times.  We are making the best of the situation and trying to stay positive. I am a little concerned about the amount of money we may be spending and want to try to be more frugal.  We are enjoying still having Ginny around a few more days.  

A very merry flooded Christmas

 This Christmas was very different four our family.  The week started wonderfully and ended good but not as jolly as it could have been.  On Thursday 12/22, Jake created reindeer games for the family where we competed for various prizes from snacks to gift cards to a $100 bill.  We spent about 2-3 hours laughung at each other, competing, and looking like crazies. One of the highlights was when Aubree spewed all over Ginny and when we were asked to see who could stand outside the longest with a wind chill of -14.  

 

My brother Michael and part of his family came in for a few days and we met them for lunch on Friday (12/23). Temperatures had been in the single digits with wind chills in the negative numbers. We came back from lunch and the downstairs of our home was flooded with about a half inch of standing water.  Immediately we worked as a family to get as much of it as we could up. After about ten solid hours of work, we had family prayer -expressing how grateful we were that it was not worse, and decided to head to bed for the night. As Christopher and Aubree were in the hall placing a put to catch dripping water, the ceiling collapsed on them. Fortunately no one was hurt but it added another couple hours of cleaning. We did open gifts that evening as many were wet and we needed to see if ruined and get out of wet boxes. 

 

 

 

Christmas Eve, we spent more time cleaning during the day and went to Rebekah and Adams to shower that evening and for dinner.  We visited a bit then headed home to proceed with some of our traditions. That night to read "The Other Wiseman: and sing carols together. We were a little disappointed that there would be no obstacle course this year but I did awake early and placed clues around the house for the boys to find their stockings.

Jake shared in his 5 minute message on Sunday (Christmas Day) that we have truly learned the past couple of days that happiness is not determined by our circumstances. Our home was chaotic but music filled the air and we spoke of the Savior.