We Have a New Baby!!!

It all started with a trip to drop off one of our youth to meet his family at the Humane Society. They were there to adopt a dog.

I knew as soon as we got out of the car there that we would not be leaving without a dog. I thought we were in the clear after walking through the entire place until right before we were going to leave. The lady said "Oh, you like Boxers?! We have 2puppies in the back!" I knew we were in trouble.

The two puppies had been rescued from Tropical storm Faye and both the mother and father had drowned. The two puppies were found floating near their dog house.

THAT WAS ALL IT TOOK.

Papers were signed, and we were on our way home with the newest addition to our family.

Brice immediately took to the puppy and vice versa. They quickly became buddies.

So, without further ado, please meet "EVANDER"

Yearbook

There are so many posts I have to catch up on, but I thought this was hilarious today. I saw this website on Facebook and just had to try it. It is www.yearbookyourself.com. Here's some of my "would be" yearbook pics :)











It's funny and scary all at the same time!

On the Fence . . .

Here's what I saw yesterday as I was letting the dogs our for some sun and fresh air. This fence is right beside our house. It's not very clear because this was as close as I was getting and I wasn't really concerned with the zoom or flash!


OH - but the good news is we saw CRUSH, the turtle again for the first time in quite a while and guess who was with him - SQUIRT! We have a new baby turtle that's roaming our yard now. He's a cutie and fast too :)

Consecration Begins

Yesterday (Sunday) began the consecration for our worship team and the worship choir kicked it off with a retreat on Saturday. It was a great time and I have such a fantastic group of people. We are becoming a close knit team, but more importantly - a family!

For our consecration we all have decided to abstain from certain things in our lives for a period of 4 weeks. We also have accountability/encouragment teams to help each other along the way and pray for one another.

I prayed on this consecration and decided in the area of "diet" to give up SUGAR, SODAS and FRIED FOODS. This will help my clarity of mind and body to focus more on my relationship with the Lord and be effective as a leader.

Already I can feel my body detoxing and it is just day 2. It's like breaking free all over again! Sometimes we don't realize just how much our physical habits are tied to the spiritual.

So I am posting this to ask for prayers not just for me, but for our entire team. Please pray that we would use this time to truly seek the heart of God and grow closer to Him.

"I don't scared, Mama. I don't scared."

That was the joyful exclamation from Brice yesterday when he finally let go of the death clutch around my (and Billy's) neck in the pool. The swimming lessons he had earlier in the summer didn't help him like I thought they would and he has since had this "fear" of the pool.
So yesterday, Billy and I were wanting to do something special since we had a whole day to ourselves as a family and we decided to take Brice swimming for the afternoon and work with him a little. Billy really has a knack for these things and I am just there for support, really. I am not the best swimmer (I have a lot to keep afloat, lol) but I am comfortable in the water.
After the first 30-45 minutes of "no! no! don't let go!", we finally got Brice to let go (he was wearing a Batman life vest) and he was so proud when he did! He swam over to me and the first thing he said was "I don't scared, Mama. I don't scared!" I laughed and clapped and we all celebrated the fact that he "don't scared."
All in all it was a great family day - no more fear of the water for Brice, Daddy got some sun and mommy got some much needed exercise :)