Jon and Kate plus 8

It all just makes me so sad!

Praying For Stellan

Baby Stellan is back in the hospital with SVT, they are trying a new combination of drugs to stop it. MckMama could sure use your prayers right now, as I know this is super hard on her. So please pray for Stellan and his family!

Is it really too much to ask?

I don't think anyone even reads my blog anymore so I am going to take this opportunity to RANT! Is it really too much to ask that service people treat you honestly and fairly? We recently replaced both our A/C units in our house with top of the line equipment. We spent a LOT of money on these units. Think 5 figures, nice new car-- now you are in the ballpark with me on how much money we spent!

We did not have to buy these units, we could have had the old one fixed (only one was having a problem) for about 1/10th of what the new ones cost us. But we liked the A/C company, we felt the guy was treating us fairly and we decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and replace both units.

Part of the reason we bought the more expensive units is because of the rebates being offered by the A/C company. They offered us enough back to make it worth it to wade off into this and buy the upgraded equipment! Yep, you guessed it.... now they don't want to pay and the guy is saying he never promised us the money. Even though we have it in writing. They want to give us substantially less than they promised us.

We have been fair with this company, always pay our bills. We have paid them a service fee every month for the last 3 or 4 years to have a service contract with them on our A/C units. They already have payment in full for these A/C units and are now lying to keep from giving us the rebates they promised us (in writing)

I feel like everytime I have a service person into my home I must be holding up a big sign that says....."Please take advantage of me, please overcharge me, please do a shody job, please call me a liar when I expect you to honor your agreements"
Even the companies that advertise they are "Christians" have done this to us!

We need to have our carpet replaced and some tile work done but I am so afraid of being taken advantage of that I don't want to have it done!

Dirty Dog

Whenever we board our dog, she reverts to a wild dog. She channels her canine heritage back to a time when dogs roamed the land freely and gave themselves over to their natural passions for rolling in the dirt and other canine pursuits. Within seconds of arriving at the boarding kennel, our little princess goes from being white to: These pictures came out kind of dark but she is almost the color of the sofa which is a cocoa color, or a mocha (a deep tan color) She has a great time at the kennel, running with the other dogs rolling in the dirt but once she comes home, Mama insists that she revert back to the city dog that we know and love.



Several baths and a trip to the groomer and we have the white princess back:

Swine Flu?

(pig courtesy of freeclipartisland.com)

I am not trying to make light of a serious subject but I read that Swine flu is actually a combination of a Bird flu and a Swine flu. As my hubby pointed out....I guess that means that Pigs really can Fly!

Today is a gift....

Yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is a mystery
Today is a gift....that is why it is called the present!

There is some arguements as to who actually wrote this and I think Joan Rivers did a version of it but it dates way back. You can read more about it here

Facebook Addiction!

You know you might have a Facebook Addiction when the error message that "your account is unavailable, try again in a few hours" sends you into a panic. Suddenly you start to breath a little faster, and your heart begins to pound and your imagination runs away from you! What if little Miss Jane Doe does something cute and I am not there to see the pictures during the first 30 seconds after they are posted? What if the youth minister posts one of his corny jokes that I never laugh at anyway? What if one of the teens posts "I am soooooo bored" for the 1000X this month and I miss it!

Facebook is a great tool for staying in touch with your friends but sometimes I need to remind myself that it is a tool. I control the tool, it does not control me. So I think I will use this time to get some stuff done around the house, the laundry is piling up, the floors need to be vacuummed. Yes, I will put this time to good use!

BUT FIRST LET ME CHECK FACEBOOK JUST ONE MORE TIME!!!!!!!

God Provides!

I don't know why I doubt and worry because He always provides! Not always in the way I would prefer or expect but he always provides. I sat down to pay the bills yesterday and I was pondering what was the least amount I could take out of our savings and still pay all the bills. We are finally at a point where the only debt we have is our car and house note and we want to keep it that way and keep our savings growing too.

The first thing I do when I pay the bill is check out our bank statement on line, make sure there have been no surprises in our direct deposit. Well, yesterday I got a good surprise, the IRS refund had been deposited the day before. I had plenty of money to pay our unexpected replacement of two water heaters and the other unexpected bills we had received. I was even able to put some extra into the savings! It had only been a few weeks since we sent in the taxes and usually it takes about 6 weeks to get the money back.

So once again GOD delivered just what I needed just when I needed it!

One of those weeks!

I wrote a post for yesterday entitled "One of those days" but it soon became apparent that it is going to be one of those weeks.

It seems to be that way for almost everyone I know. Everyone is struggling with health problems, financial problems, relationship problems. It seems like we are all being picked on.

I am trying to keep it all in perspective. We are facing a lot of house repairs right now as our hot water heaters went out. There was some water damage that will have to be repaired. We have already been hit with several other unexpected bills this year but.....it is only money!

Hubby is blessed with a good job and we have been able to save some money for situations just like this. It hurts to take money out of our savings but that is exactly what it is there for.

I remind myself that all these things are temporary. Poor health, financial hardships, problems......they are all temporary. There is a great Day coming and all of this will seem as nothing!

So today, I say a special blessing for all my friends and my own family as we struggle through these things. I am thankful for all the Lord has given us and give him all the Praise and Glory!

Rain, Rain

Rain, Rain come today
We can not wait another day!
If the flowers are to play,
We really need some rain today!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Finally!

"Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com"

Baby girl is feeling much better and was able to get out today! So we only lost one day of Spring Break! We have some catching up to do, so ta-ta for now! See you next week!

Pneumonia!

Poor baby girl has pneumonia! We took her to the doctor again last night and she ordered x-ray and lab work for today. Before I even got home from having the test done, they had called my husband and said she has pneumonia.

Good news is we can treat it at home, although she says she wants to go to the hospital. They took about a gallon of blood from her this morning. We will see if anything come up from that.

Please pray that the antibiotics will work quickly, she has been sick a long time and we are all ready for her to be well again!

FLU!

We are on day 4 of the Flu with my daughter being the star player. Every night about 3 am she comes downstairs and throws up for an hour. We thought maybe she was getting over it today, as she had no fever in the morning but by afternoon she was back up there to 102, so I guess we are not done yet. Now she has developed a cough and a huge fever blister, so she is a very unhappy camper.

Pray for us!

UPDAIE- We are now on day 6 of the flu! 6 days of vomiting, fever and crankiness! We are taking her back to the doctor this evening, this has gone on too long!

One Year

It went by quickly and yet it seems so long ago. One year ago today, I lost my Mama. I still dream of her, I still wonder if we did the right things, I still miss her daily and yet I know we did the best we could, I know she knew how much we loved her and I know she is in a much better place!

Hello, My name is.....

Aggiema and I am addicted to the Internet! I have just spent two miserable days without my internet service and I have realized just how addicted I am to the internet. I was able to see my Facebook using my PDA phone but could only get part of it and could not access my email at all. I felt so lost and alone. I could not read any of my blogs.

What have I learned from all this....I seriously need to get a LIFE!

Common Sense

Updated: One of my friends left a comment that Lori Borgman was the author of the following piece. http://loriborgman.blogspot.com/2005/07/death-of-common-sense.html
Her blog has the original article as the the one below has been changed a little bit. I apologize to Ms. Borgman for not giving her credit originally, I should have research it better before using it.


Obituary for Common Sense

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend by the name of Common Sense who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such value lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, and that life isn't always fair.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not kids, are in charge).
His health began to rapidly deteriorate when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student, but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Finally, Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense finally gave up the ghost after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, she spilled a bit on her lap, and was awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.
He is survived by two stepbrothers, My Rights and Ima Whiner. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still know him pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

- Author Unknown

The Rest of the Story......

Back in Nov. I wrote about a little girl who was the subject of an Amber alert. This little 7 year old girl, lived with her grandmother in a remote area of town. Her drug addict Mom beat the grandmother leaving her for dead and kidnapped the little girl.

They found the little girl a few days later in a drug house in Austin and the grandmother was in critical condition in the hospital. It made the national news so many of you probably heard about it when it happened (right before Thanksgiving!)

Today I had the opportunity to talk to the grandmother for the first time since all these things happened and I want to share a little of what she told me. I am not asking that you believe everything she said just that you keep an open mind.

First of all, she looks good, she is an older lady in her 60's but she was walking well and talking well to me. I stopped her after first services and told her how happy I was to see her and that I had been praying for her and her little granddaughter.

She said "you know I died" I told her that I did not know that but knew she had been hurt really badly. She said she had a fractured skull, broken nose and bones in her face, she had a heart attack and pneumonia twice. The doctors told her family that she would not survive and yet she did. The doctors underestimated the power of prayer and the power of God!

She said that she remembers nothing from the time her daughter beat her until she was in the hospital except that a woman dressed all in white, came to her and told her "you must get up, you must get up right now!" She does not remember walking to the neighbors house 1/4 of a mile away, she doesn't remember the children being afraid of her because she was covered in blood and unrecognizable.

She said that people all over the country were praying for her and even friends in different countries heard about the situation and were praying for her. This sweet little lady (she is probably less than 5 feet tall) is a walking, breathing testament to the power of prayer and the almighty hand of God.

The little girl is back with her grandmother and they are thriving together. That is the rest of the story......don't you just love a happy ending!

This is so Maggie!

Picture courtesy of http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/marvin.asp

Need A Laugh?

My Monday is off to a pretty bad start: My Dad is in ICU with pneumonia (300 miles away) He is responding to treatment thought! And I am sick, waiting to go to the doctor at 2:30 (earliest appt I could get even though I called 2 minutes after the office opened this morning!)

I needed a good laugh today! Don't know the author of this but it's been making its rounds through email. Enjoy!


A first grade girl handed in the drawing below for a homework assignment.

Why parents should always check their children’s homework before they hand it in:




After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms. Davis,
I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This photo is of me selling a shovel.
Mrs. Harrington