He started out so tiny.

18 years and a week or so ago, under a cloud of morphine during an emergency C-Section, I brought this little guy into the world. He was 5 pounds, 4 ounces, and born a few weeks early. His heart had stopped beating, and he wasn't breathing, but the medical team was able to resuscitate him, and he has been thriving ever since.

That little scrap of a person wound himself completely around my heart. I was actually worried about having more kids because I didn't think it was possible to love another child as much as I loved him.

He started pulling his little naked self up to standing at about 7 months.

For two months I followed him with a Polaroid camera to make sure I could get this picture; his first steps at 9 months.


Then he turned a year old, and I really got that obnoxious taste of time flying by.

He was such an imp. He kept us busy, never slowing down for a second, and he spent a good amount of time in time-out. It didn't really faze him, though, as you can tell.

He grew, and started making his mark in this world. He has his struggles, but I marvel at just how good he really is. I am so proud of him in so many ways.

Last week he turned 18. His best friend, Zack, came out for the weekend, as well as my mom, and we celebrated all weekend long.


So welcome to adulthood, Matthew. I hope it is everything you want it to be, and more than you ever expected.
And by the way, you're still wrapped around my heart. I love you!

Somebody is turning 18.

It's hard to believe, but Matt is turning 18 in a few weeks. We are having a party, and all of our friends and family are invited! There is an incredible deal on airfare that weekend through allegiantair.com from Las Vegas. If you are one of Matt's buddies, or just a friend of the family who would love to come help him celebrate this milestone, give me a call or drop me a line for more info on the airfare deal and dates!

Football Season IV

It has all begun again. The sweat. The practices. The smell of week-old practice uniforms.... blech.

Matt's team kicked off the new football season with a Jamboree game on Tuesday, and Matt had a lot of playing time. He has a new number this year because he has a new position. Instead of tight-end, he is now a tackle. He was the only one who wore his black underarmor for this game,which was great for me. It made it lots easier to pick him out of the crowd.


There he is in the middle.

There were tons of action pictures to take.


About halfway through the game, Matt had a great moment. One of his teammates fumbled the ball, and Matt recovered it. Of course, during the most important shot of the game for me, my camera focused on the kid behind him and left Matt blurry. Here is falling on the fumbled ball, though.

And here he is getting tackled by the opposing team player who was going for it too.

Smoosh. (I am sure he loves it when I sum up his shining moments in manly one-word statements like "smoosh.)

I liked this shot. I took it right after the play was called and they were starting to unpile.


This was my favorite moment, though, because after he stood up he looked at me with that "Did you get pictures of that?" look, and this time I could say, "YES! I did!" Last year I missed getting shots of all his good moves.
There were some more plays made by all the kids and the game stayed pretty close.





Matt likes this shot the best.







In the end, Elkins made a last minute touchdown that gave them the game. This Friday is the first regular game of the season for the senior team. I probably won't get to be at this game, but even if I am not there in person I will be cheering them on. Go Red!

My favorite kind of Sunday

Sunday was all about the kids. The majority of the kids who came all week for VBS were there for both services, where they got to share their scriptures and sing their songs. They were, in a word, awesome. Awesome. They sang, they danced, they ate donuts, and then they sang and danced again. I was so incredibly proud of them. It is THIS Sunday that makes being a VBS director worth it. I love seeing kids enjoying worship through music. Next week we are taking them on a day mission trip to perform their VBS program for the senior center. This is the first time we have taken them on a mission trip, and I am so excited about it.

Our VBS week itself was really great too. The kids had fun, we had wonderful volunteer leaders and workers, and we had about 20 of our youth come out just to help out. I am so grateful for everybody who pitched in to make it all work well!


After the VBS program, the youth group reported on their mission trip to Texas last month. Matt was the first teen to share his testimony and talk a bit about what they did. My favorite parts were, "We built a rock wall and then we had the girls finish it." and "We built a porch for a lady who..... needed a porch." (The lady is terminally ill with cancer and wanted to be able to spend her mornings on a porch for her daily devotionals.) Matt, however, was not alone in brief reviews. Another boy turned 16 on this trip and said, "On my 16th birthday I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning, and then scooped water out of a big hole with buckets, but that night we got to go to a Texas Rangers game and that made up for all the crap I had to do." I don't think I have ever heard "crap I had to do" preached from the pulpit before...hehehe.

But as much as he cracks me up, and even he is laughing about the talk he gave, I am extremely proud of Matt, and all of our youth. They did a good job down there in Texas, and I know Matt came home with a deeper testimony and an appreciation for performing acts of service. After he came home, he went on a Chrysalis Flight. On Sunday all of us who are local members of the Emmaus community stood up to welcome him to the group. Between the mission trip and the Chrysalis weekend, Matt has had a very busy spirit-growing summer!

After the youth presentation, we closed our service with prayer and the hymn "Here I am, Lord." This is one of my favorite hymns, which was a perfect way to end my favorite kind of service. I wish you all could have been there with us to see it!

Spring has officially arrived!

Some people think spring is all about daffodils bursting forth, birds singing merrily, animals getting frisky, and vegetation turning green. I know some consider spring a time of rebirth, a return to warmer temperatures, and longer days thanks to Daylight Savings Time.


But some of us moms know better. Some of us know that spring is about new cleats because last year's are worn out. Some of us know spring smells like popcorn and hotdogs. Some of us know spring means laundering red dirt out of white pants. Some of us know spring isn't spring until baseball starts. Spring has truly sprung in the Ozarks.







Go Red!

Soulja Boys

I sent Matt and Chet in to clean their room last night. I heard things being moved around and thought some progress was being made. Then I heard Soulja Boy playing, and heard the tell-tale sounds of dancing. The sounds I mistook for cleaning were actually the boys moving things to the walls so they could dance.

Chet is going to the Valentine's Dance tonight at school. It is his first dance. His friends are meeting him there. I am going as a mamarazzi.... I mean chaperone. A chaperone with a camera.
Matt was worried about Chet not knowing any dances, so he was teaching Chet the Soulja Boy.

When I cracked the door to see why they were dancing instead of cleaning, I knew I needed my camera. Because even though they are blurry pictures, and the room was still messy, I knew the boys wouldn't do it again for me just because I wanted pictures.
And something as cool as brothers bonding to Soulja Boy just needed to be captured in some format, even if the camcorder battery was dead.

Matt's Birthday

Matt wanted to be able to eat sushi for his birthday. He also wanted to go to Game Stop to get some xbox 360 headphones. He wanted to get his driver's permit. And he wanted to be able to spend the day with me. We did the best wecould to make it all happen.

To be able to get his permit, the state of Arkansas requires a document from the school stating he has a C average. The grade average isn't a problem. He makes A's and B's. However, the school won't have the papers until next week. We will have to try then for the permit.

But he did get to spend the morning at work with me anyway, and then Jack and I, and Beth and Faith (who had stayed home because of a headache that began the night before) took him to a Chinese restaraunt in Harrison that also happens to serve sushi. In a couple of weeks when we make a run to Branson I will take him with me to eat at Wasabi.

Sushi is one of his favorite foods.
We took him to the Game Stop in Harrison, which had about 15 game items and shelves and shelves of discount make-up, scrapbook stickers from 12years ago (no kidding), old lotions, etc. It looks like they are opening a discount bent and dent type of place. He left disappointed, so we took him to Walmart to try to find theheadphones. No luck there either. However, after we dropped Chet off at pottery that evening, I ran him over to the Berryville Walmart where he found the headphones. Whew.

After we got home again he disappeared into his room with his headphones, and wasn't heard from again until this morning. Apparently he really liked his gift!

He wants a homemade pumpkin cake, which we will bake tomorrow - after I go back to the store and buy cream cheese for the frosting.

Seventeen.....

I can't believe that Matt is 17 today. He is growing up in so many ways. This year has seen him mature in several areas. I am so proud of this kid. He has goals that he is working towards. Good goals. He has values he lives by. He has a huge heart is very empathetic to kids who are struggling. He deals with his share of teen angst issues, but overall he is a great person. We love you, Matt! Happy birthday! I know you want me to get your sushi pics up, and I will do it tomorrow when I get home!

Change of Plans

I have been looking forward to this week. My mom was coming out to visit for the week, and I had plans to take her places and introduce her to my friends here. On Sunday I drove up to Springfield to get her, and that was the last thing to go as planned.
On Monday she came to work with me, but was not feeling well. I brought her home, and she tried to shake it off.

On Tuesday, we were supposed to get the Tuesday Night Dinners put together and then take the boys for their Scout banquet. Instead, just as I was getting ready to head to the church, I got a phone call from the school nurse. Matt attempted to catch a fly ball with his nose, and it was broken. I rushed down to the school to get him, making arrangements with my friend Debbie to get dinner taken care of, while Jack got the other kids and brought them home.

I took Matt to the ER, where we spent a couple of hours making sure he was only as insane as he was before the baseball attacked him. With his wild mane and the newly crooked nose, as well as the hilariously (now) entertaining method he used to get it broken, the doctor couldn't help but laugh when he was taking care of him. We were all three laughing actually. Fortunately, he isn't in much pain at all, and although the nose is broken, all of the surrounding facial bones are still intact. I don't think Kyle is ever going to let Matt live this down. "Dude... why did you try to catch it that way????"
They did perform a CT on him, but wouldn't let me take pictures of the screen this time. If you have never seen scans of your child's body parts, let me tell you... it is weird. It is like seeing a digital dissection taking place.
Then we waited, and waited, and waited a bit longer for the results. Matt was bored so he started taking pictures of me. I was chewing on a cough drop in this one, thus the weird expression. I have had a really nasty bronchial infection I have been fighting this last week, which is throwing another monkey wrench in my plans.
Then he wanted some of both of us. The other night I dyed my hair dark red again to cover up the grey, but my family seems intent on finding ways to grey it even faster.
When I got home from the ER with Matt, my mom showed me her leg, which has become quite red and swollen alarmingly quickly. I would like to say she is just trying to get attention, but unfortunately it is getting fairly serious. So today I called and made her an appointment at the only doctor who was available right before Thanksgiving.
He drew lines on her leg (they go all the way up her leg) to see where the red is. He wanted to hospitalize her today to get an intravaneous antibiotic going, but she convinced them to give her a shot and start some oral ABs until Friday. I will take her back in on Friday, and hopefully the infection will be clearing up. If not, we will be spending the day I took off to spend with her in the hospital together. Not what we had planned at all! But Iwant her well, so if that is what we must do, then that is what we will do.
Now, if you think that red skin on her leg was scary, you should have seen this dog as we were coming home. I have never seen a naked pink dog before. And while it looks quite sad, it is incredibly ugly as well. I did try to call him over, but he was tucked his tail (I think it has a tail) between his naked legs and ran. I kid you not, I got parked at Walmart and the guy who was driving behind me pulled up to ask me what that ugly thing was. I couldn't tell him. All I knew was it was a dog, but is he supposed to be so naked and pink??
You know, I am tired. I have spent too much time in the truck and medical facilities in the last 24 hours. I am going to do something tomorrow I never get to do anymore. I am sleeping until at least 7:30. 7:45 if I am feeling really rebellious. Then I am going to make sure Matt is propped in his chair, and Mom has her leg propped on her couch, and I am going to the church to cook a really big community Thanksgiving dinner. But I am not setting that into stone too much since we all know now what happens if I really try to make plans. God laughs. A lot.

PS... Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!