A Fantastic Reunion

I love the nearly annual trek to Siloam Springs....my home of 4 years in NW Arkansas. The JBU campus was as beautiful as ever. The fall leaves, bright mums, and familiar faces are a welcome site....though I am taken back by the students on their cell phones texting as they stroll down the walkways. I guess we were "old fashioned" and actually had to say hello as we passed someone. Maybe they just text hello these days....darn technology.

Things are looking up in the ole homestead. There is a Hampton Inn!!! Suites, granite countertops, jetted tubs and quite possibly the most comfortable bed in the world. After a wonderful nights rest in that most wonderful bed, we went to the car to head to my reunion. What did my ears hear?? Meow, meow, meow, MEEEEOOOWWWW, meow, meow, MMMMMMEEEEEEOOOOOOWWWWWWW. There was a cat, no, a kitten somewhere in our tank of a truck. The kitty was somewhere under the hood near the engine, but neither Rick or I or the entire hotel staff could find it. Rick somehow scared the cat toward the fuel tank....so we turned the car on a started to drive very slowly around the parking lot. It was quite a scene--to say the least. I'm figuring we'll be on youtube someday--as there was a little girl capturing the whole thing. Ty Herndan's tour bus was parked directly behind us. His band members were getting quite a chuckle out of us driving in circles with an insanely loud MEOW coming from the car. We decided to drive up to JBU because the stinkin' cat was not coming out. Corbin was in the backseat praying, "Dear God, please help our daddy not to be mean and turn the car on and kill the cat...." We get to school, call animal contol--who couldn't lure the cat out either. Finally, after lunch, Rick popped the hood again and there stood a little gray, fuzzy, scared to death kitten whom we lovingly named "John Brown." No, we're not nice parents. We didn't keep the kitty. Rick held him as we drove to the animal control. All the while, he was sweetly saying...."Nice kitty. I know you're giving me all sorts of gross diseases, aren't you?"

We enjoyed Barnett's hamburgers, going to the soccer game, seeing and talking with old friends, going to hear the Cathedral choir sing (A Mighty Fortress is my favorite!), and quite possibly the best thing of the weekend was holding my precious neice, Halle Joy. We had a wonderful trip.

My "Top Gun"

Had to post a pic of my little miniature Tom Cruise. Well, I think Hudson's a bit cuter....but I'm biased. He wants to be an Air Force pilot for Halloween--like father, like son?!? He looked 20 years old to me when he slipped into his costume. How, oh, how do mother's send their cute little pilots into war? I don't know, but oh how grateful we should be that they do.

Time marches on..

Yea! It's October--one of my very favorite months. Cooler weather is hopefully on the way (still upper 80's here, ugh!). The pumpkins are coming out from the attic after a year-long hiatus. We made pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies the other day. One of our trees is starting to turn bright red. It's just a great time of year.

Rick and I took the kids to go see the new Kirk Cameron movie, Fireproof. For those of you who have not yet seen it...GO! It was not created on a Hollywood budget, and that's somewhat evident, but it's still really good. You can see the preview at http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/ . It's a movie about marriage--great date movie. (Even though you'll probably feel guilty the whole drive home-trust me on this one.)

During our recovery time at home, the kids' built their own "Noah's ark"...thus the picture with the 10 million stuffed animals. Those are only a small fraction of the actual # of stuffed animals at our house. I'm starting to feel very sorry for Noah and his family--animals everywhere!

I'm starting to feel a little bit OLD. I will be joining my classmates from John Brown Univ. to celebrate our 10 year reunion. Can it really be 10 years??? It's time to start studying names in the old, dusty yearbook. Hope to see many of you at JBU soon.

Perfection

We were able to snag a few shots of our new little neice Halle Joy. She is beautiful! Her only fault is that she lives too far away. I'll have to take that up with her mommy, I guess.

We've enjoyed the laziest of weekends around our household. The kids' have sinus infections so there have been lots of naps, doses of medicine poured, temperatures taken, and LOTS of scoops of icecream. Yea! for lazy weekends.

Our t.v. has been tuned to golf and football all day (not by my choice, but I'm ok with that) I saw the funniest t-shirt on the news this week. It said "We interrupt this happy marriage to bring you another football season." Yep, that's the world I live in. Go Cowboys!

Hallelujah!!

Hallelujah!!! My oldest sister and her family just added #4, Hallelujah (Halle) Joy to their family. I'm now the proud aunt of 2 neices and 4 bruisin' nephews. Congrats to the Jaeger family...we love you!

The girls started school last week, my dear sweet Piper turned 5, and we've started swimming, dance, baseball, and guitar this week--not to mention the piles of homework/paperwork. So, for all 2 of you that read this blog every once in a while, sorry for being such a BAD blogger and taking forever to update.

Back to School

The boys started back to school. It's so hard for me to let them go. I hate not seeing them for 7 hour stretches of time, but it sure makes it special when I pick them up from school and they can't stop loving on me. Hudson is in 2nd grade this year, Corbin is in 1st. The girls will start pre-school next week (2 days a week). Oh! How quiet the house will be. Things are beginning to return to normal. I finally have unpacked our suitcases from Austin. The talk of Papa, though still prevalent, is not the only talk of the day. Dance, horse lessons, guitar, swimming, and baseball are all about to begin. All of the signs of fall are here, except, of course, for the cooler weather.

Blessed Assurance

It's hard to believe that only one week ago, we were returning from a wonderful trip to Austin. This week has held a lot. So much so that I have no idea how a family with no belief in assurance of salvation, or no belief in God could make it thru a week like this.

As our family gathered around "Papa" at 10 pm on Thursday night, we watched as they unhooked the ventilator, the medicines, everything. Although it was difficult to watch, as he struggled to breathe, we sang hymns, laughed at the fact that he was snoring, remembered our favorite "Papa" memories. When he took his last breath, I nearly collapsed to the floor in tears. The room was filled with emmence sorrow, but also with the greatest joy I've experience in many years. The words of the hymns "The Joy of the Lord will be my strength," "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine," "A Mighty Fortress is our God,"....all of them....they all have new meaning to me. I watched my father-in-law depart this world and enter into eternity. Praise the Lord that I can KNOW exactly where Papa is today. He wasn't trusting in his church or good works to get him to Heaven. He was trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ....Blessed Assurance!!

On to Sunday afternoon....We had most of the family to our house for a time of fellowship and food before the visitation. To make a short story short, and to keep from saying things I shouldn't, Baylor was whacked in the head with a metal bat by an 11 year old cousin. So, my dad and I had to rush Baylor to the hospital while the rest of the family went to the visitation. (I told you all I have the greatest parents!! Thanks dad) Baylor got her head glued back together...I figured the glue would look prettier in pictures than stitches.

The kid's were mesmerized with Papa that evening. Baylor kept waiting for him to "quit resting." Piper wanted to hold his hand. Hudson and Corbin whispered to him--surely it was something to do with sports. They kept telling him that they couldn't wait to be with him, and Corbin let him know that "you don't look like yourself when you're not in your body, Papa." It was a sweet night, and I hope it created sweet memories for them.

He was buried at the D/FW national cemetary.....the sight of the cemetary, alone, will bring tears to ones eyes. The bagpiper was there, the rifle men....the full military honors. It was beautiful. As we sat through the following memorial service, we sang "I can only imagine." I've never been so at peace with death. Why it's taken me 30+ years to get here, I don't know.

Thank you all for your prayers and kind emails. They were greatly appreciated.