The Sun Will Come Out.....

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood here! The sun is shinning, the birds are singing. Mama got a new outfit! Life is good! Thanks to those of you who left the encouraging comments on the last post. I appreciate your kind words. I participated in some retail therapy (yes, I went shopping) today and I think just getting out of the house helped.

I decided "what's done is done" there is no going back and no use crying over what might have been. I will make sure my daughter has the information she needs and trust the Lord to keep her safe when I cannot be there. I am thankful that she came to us and told us what was going on instead of just keeping it inside.

Innocence Lost

Today was a sad day for us. It was the day we found out that our 9 year old will never be the carefree innocent babe she was just a few hours ago. She let us know that the neighbor child (only a year older than her) had showed her games on the internet that her older brother liked to play. S*x games, with graphic pictures and live models. So my innocent little girl who still likes to play with baby dolls was asking why girls should perform oral s*x on boys.

I had already started introducing her to literature and other information to help her understand the changes that are starting to take place with her body but I thought I had more time to prepare for the facts of life speech. Instead we were thrown into the discussion with no warning and no preparation.

We have always been very careful about what she is allowed to watch on TV and never let her on the computer unless someone is monitoring it with her. I am super careful about who she plays with and where she goes. I feel I have failed her by not protecting her better. I hate, hate, hate that her first introduction to s*x was something dirty and nasty as porn games on the computer.

There is no going back now, all we can do is make sure she has accurate, healthing information and somehow make her understand that what she saw on that computer was not what God intended for it to be. That it is a beautiful thing between two people who love each other and the world has turned it into something nasty and distasteful on the computer.

Please pray for us as we deal with this situation. Pray that God gives us the words to help her understand. Pray that He helps me forgive myself for not protecting her from this.

Maggie Moo does Granny and Papa's

Here's a picture of Maggie taken in my parents back yard at Easter! She had a very good time with Granny and Papa while the rest of us were at LTC. Granny says she managed to wrap Papa around her little finger...err....paw?

REAL TEXAN? FUR SURE!!

I got this off my friend, Jennifer's blog. I should have scored even higher as I have lived here all of my 43 years except for 7 (in Northern Va) in my 30's. There were some strange questions on this quiz but it was fun. My hubby gave me some help (those are probably the questions I missed!)

You are 87% REAL Texan!!

High five, you're a complete Texan. People from other states should tremble in your presence because they're simply not worthy. Let them bow before you and convey their undying adoration to you while they announce their true desire to be Texan.

How Texan Are You?

Happy Monday Everyone!

Thanks to those of you who prayed for me this weekend, it must have worked because the sinus problems were limited to Thursday and although it made getting ready to leave difficult, it did not effect our weekend.

We have some awesome kids at our church and they did a great job at LTC this weekend. We went to the convention center in Houston and stayed with about 55 kids at the Hilton (which is connected by a walkway to the George Brown Convention Center) I guess there were about 80 of us (kids and adults) from our congregation there.

Let me tell you it takes a lot of teamwork to get that many kids into all the different events--on time and with all the props they need. Hubby and I had a full weekend and we definitely did our part to make things run smoothly but so did a lot of other people. We got up early Friday, packed the car, dropped off darling daughter at the church with a friend at 8:30 (they were going to catch the chartered bus to Houston at 11 and come with all the kids) and we headed out to Baytown (other side of Houston) to meet up with my parents who drove over (90 miles or so) to pick up Maggie. In past years, they have babysat the darling daughter, this year they got to keep the darling puppy!

We met the parents at the mall in Baytown and they took the puppy home with them. By the way, we have found out that three out of four members of this family suffer from carsickness! The poor puppy heaved most of the way there and back, I will have to ask the vet if there is anything we can give her before our next trip. Otherwise, I think Maggie is going to have to be boarded. She would sleep a little while and then cry and heave (no food to throw up). Very nerve wracking when you are driving in bad Houston traffic!

We got to the Hotel about 2 and spent the next hour or two getting the rooms ready for the kids. We have to check each room to make sure the keys work (one year almost every key did not work!) and put up the $5.50 a bottle of water so the kids would not drink it up. Then we have to assign rooms to the groups of kids and adults. By the time, we do all that the bus is pulling up with the kids and the food for snacks and breakfast on Sat. So all that has to be sorted out.

Competition starts at 4:30 on Friday, so the kids have to change clothes and get to the right room wih whatever props they need. The Adults judge the competitions, so they have to be sure they are in the right place at the right time also.

Friday night they had a devotional at 9 pm. It was really uplifting. Special props go to my Hubby and also my friend Jackie, for jumping in and interpreting for me on Friday night. They usually have an interpreter for the devo but forgot to schedule one this year. Friday night is wrapped up with Pizza back in the hotel rooms.

Sat. morning we have to get everyone packed, fed and out of the rooms before the competitions start at 8:30. Our competition (Signing) always runs from 8:30 in the morning until about 3 pm. So we are either moving our kids through, or judging during that time. This year I judged at the 10:30 to 12:00 competition and then from 1:00-2:30. Darling daughter signed at 8:30 and then performed at 10:30 with the chorus group. So as you can tell it was a full full day for us.

I am just so proud of my kids, they all worked so hard and poured their hearts into it. I think they all deserve a gold medal. We will find out on Weds. night how they did. But they are all winners to me! This is getting long so I will wrap it up for now and maybe post about it again later this week.

It was a great, God glorifying weekend. I am glad I went, I am glad that we worked our tails off and I am glad it is OVER!

Ahhh, Spring is In the Air!

Make that Ahhhh Choo! Spring is in the air!

My daughter had a dentist appt today and I thought I was just being over sympathetic with her when my teeth started hurting. Then my head started pounding, when I bend over it feels like my head is swelling up! (Ha Ha I know I've got a big head!)
Progressively through the afternoon, my eyes have gotten watery and my nose burns. All these are recognizable symptoms that Spring has Sprung and my allergies have begun. (I am a poet!)

However, there is a new symptom this year that has caught me off guard.....it feels like the cochlear implant is unscrewing itself from my head. I actually feel like the little metal wires that run down into the cochlea are being slowly unscrewed from my head!

So.....either I am losing my mind completely or I have got a head full of sinus problems going on. Either way I am going to take advantage of my daughter playing at a friends house and go lay down.

I have got an incredibly busy weekend planned with a lot of people depending on me, so if it's not too much trouble----Say a little prayer for me! Thanks!

This and That!

This has been a busy week for us, the LTC program is wrapping up soon so there has been a whirlwind of stuff going on with that, Easter Celebrations at Church, etc....

I enjoy participating as a coach with LTC, it is great to see the kids learn something new and practice it until they are almost perfect. I am also glad to see it come to a close as it is a lot of time and work preparing for it. I guess that is how some teachers feel when summer break rolls around.

Need to post some new pictures of Maggie Moo, she is up to 6 1/2 lbs as of last week's vet visit. The vet gave her a cortisone shot along with the other shots and she did not keep us up all night! Yahoo! She also had her first grooming appt. last week and she looks much better, they cut off her shaggy baby hair that was going all over the place. She still looks like she has perpetual "bedhair" but in a more "controlled" sense!

Things that make you realize your "bad" day is manageable:

One one of the blogs I was reading a few days ago,(sorry I honestly can't remember which one it was...) this woman was writing about her friend. I had to check the date on this one to make sure it wasn't just an April Fool's Joke but it was actually written a month or so ago. Seems her friend is going through a difficult time and is suffering from "panic attacks". This friend is also very claustaphobic, to the point that riding in a car can be a problem sometimes. Well, her friend was going through an automated carwash, when she experienced a panic attack. Friend jumped out of car in middle of carwash, leaving car door ajar. So friend is standing in carwash getting wet, soapy and bumped around by automated wash, when the car door gets ripped off the hinges. So friend, jumps back into car which is getting a good soaping both inside and out now and tries to exit the carwash by driving backwards. Friend gets to call husband, explain what happened and Husband gets to drive car to dealer minus drivers door. My very bad, no good, rotten day just doesn't seem so bad anymore!

Lastly, please take a moment and pray for our Deaf Ministry program. We found out Sunday that one of our interpreters is leaving (immediately). Her husband has taken a youth minister position. Please pray that God sends us someone who can help us continue this ministry, as we will be working with three interpreters (instead of four) and two people who are learning but do not have the experience to fully interpret yet.