Schizophrenic weather and swimming at the park

This past weekend my Momma came down to visit with my dear husband and me. It was wonderful! We lounged around the house. We explored the boutiques downtown, visited with my husband's parents, and dined out at amazing restaurants. In short, everyone agreed that it was a much needed visit and that we all had a wonderful time, the furry babies (Rachel, Shayne and Abby) included.

However, toward the end of my Momma's visit the nice spring like warm weather decided it was time for a major set of storms. And so, when the wind began to pick up on Sunday afternoon at our local Sunday dinner diner my in-laws, husband, Momma and I decided it was time to head for higher grounds (so to speak) and check the weather channel.

Upon examining the weather channel, we discovered that a major storm front was headed our way. Therefore, we all agreed that it was time for Momma to pack up and head home, pronto unless she planned to batten down the hatches with us until the following day.

After some discussion, she decided that the best thing for her to do was to leave immediately. This was her only way to attempt to beat the approaching storm through Atlanta so that she could safely return home without weather delays.

Yet, as well all know, even the best laid plans of mice and men do sometimes go astray especially when Mother Nature is intervening...and a few short hours after my Momma departed from my house I found myself on the phone with her instructing her to NOT go into Atlanta until the storm had passed.

Thankfully, this worked out well and a little over an hour later she was on the road toward home again...minus the danger of tornadoes passing through Atlanta and it's surrounding locations.

However, by the time that she made it into Atlanta, the storm had begun here. And what a STORM it was!! My dear husband even commented to me that if school had been scheduled for night time rather than the morning, I would have had to swim to school.

And honestly, living where we do (that is beside a LARGE drainage ditch) I often wonder if we shouldn't have a ark or at least a canoe on hand for special flooding moments like last night. I truly wondered if we'd be able to drive to our proper work locations this morning because the rain was literally coming down that quickly.

Thankfully, though, the storm did pass on over leaving only ten tornado warnings for our part of the state. And even with these tornadoes there was little to no damage in our town or in the towns where we work. Even more impressively after such a torrential storm skies were clear by mid-day and the weather remained nice and warm.

So upon arriving home this afternoon, I decided it was time to take the dear puppies to the park! When we got to the park we began our usual game. I was throwing the ball for Shayne. Rachel was bouncing around own her own and checking out all of the glorious sights and smells. Yes, we were having a wonderful time.

And then it got better! After Shayne and I had played ball for a few minutes I indicated to my furry children that it was time to walk around the park a bit...so we began. When we approached the far side of the park I discovered that a particularly deep hole was now filled with water. In fact, the hole was so full that it truly became its own little mini pond.

Rachel and Shayne were beside themselves with excitement upon discovering this new pond. Rachel began jumping up and down literally and body slamming herself into Shayne all in an attempt to get him to play with her in the water. It was wonderful! Shayne bounced and pranced as well. And yes, he bound into the water as well. Before I knew it, I had two bouncing and swimming puppies playing in their own private pond.

They had a blast. We actually ended up staying at the park longer than usual. It was more than worth the extended stay simply to watch my totally soaked little ones having the time of their lives. And you know...even though there's not a cloud in the sky tonight...and even though the temperature has fallen more than 30 degrees since our afternoon outing...I still find myself looking forward to the next torrential downpour that we have.

Why? It's simple. I can't imagine an afternoon filled with more love or fun than to watch my little ones laugh and play in their own private naturally made lake.

Mardi Gras (a bit late)

I am so sorry that I've not blogged like I have wanted to lately. I have so much to tell all of you, as is obvious by my three new posts tonight, but nonetheless...it's nice to have the time to sit down and share.

A few Tuesdays ago, on February 5th (Mardi gras) began one of my favorite seasons of the liturgical year or church year, namely Lent. I'm not sure when I began to look forward to this particular portion of the year.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't simply look forward to Mardi gras, a.k.a. Fat Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday. Yes, I do enjoy that particular day. I love the creativity and the freedom that Mardi gras brings. I savor creating new and different pancakes, such as blueberry, or chocolate chip. And it's the one time of the year that I actually find myself longing for pancakes, at night. Any other day of the year, I don't particularly find breakfast food terribly appealing except at breakfast time.

But I think my savoring of this particular season does begin with Mardi gras (so just before Lent begins. I think of it as a day of preparation for a season of preparation. :) Obviously Mardi gras is followed my Ash Wednesday, the day that we are all reminded from whence we came and to where we shall return. And as odd as it sounds, I find that not so subtle reminder of our mortality (through prayers, scripture and ash traced crosses upon countless foreheads) ever refreshing of the circle of life. God created us from simple dust, and when we die we shall return to it. And before you begin to suspect, that it's simply Ash Wednesday that appeals to me about Lent. Please let me state clearly that it's not! I do enjoy Ash Wednesday, but it's only a small piece of the puzzle. To state it more clearly, borrowing and paraphrasing words from Dr. Seuss it's the whole Lenten season that appeals to me.

I do know that many people believe this season is dark drudgery, but it's not for me. I think of it as internal spring cleaning. I enjoy the reflective nature of Lent. I find it liberating to search the recesses of my soul and to loosen any bonds of sin that I've shoved into a corner and tried to ignore. This is the time of year that all of that gets re-examined and the less desirable parts are discarded. It's also when I find myself pondering our obligation to hold no grudge against anyone, and all those that I hold I try my best to release. Finally, in this introspective time, I find myself embracing new habits in an effort to walk more closely to God. Sometimes this occurs through self-denial, others years it occurs through a daily discipline of taking on something more. But during no time of year do I feel more closely renewed and connected to Christ than I do from Mardi gras through the 50 days of Easter.

As I deny myself a luxury or take on a new discipline I annually discover that not only do I grow exponentially as a person, but that my faith does as well. And it is in this spirit of faith that I find my spirit growing more excited each year as we approach the anniversary of the miraculous occurrence, our Savior's resurrection.
So now, during these 40 days of soulful reflection I hope that those around me and I will continue to meditate on the miracle in our lives. And in so doing, I pray we will continue to recognize that this should not be season of sorrow. It is one of denial, it is one of prayer and discipline, but it is a season of miracles too. For it is during this transformational season that Jesus transcends space and time, through this crucifixion, resurrection and glorious appearing. And it is also during this time that our eyes continue to be opened to the miracles occurring every moment within our souls and throughout the world around us.

If it were not for this season, I wonder, could the miracle appearing inside and around us receive the attention they deserve. Would we even attempt to continue to deny ourselves to draw closer to God? My thought is that we'd continue to be caught up in the hustle and bustle of life overlooking the small, quiet miracles taking place all around us.

So thank God today and every day for this purportedly harsh and dark season of spiritual reflection and cleaning. Thank God for Lent!

Valentine's day

This Valentine's day was the first Valentine's day that my dear husband and I were able to celebrate together as husband and wife. I do believe it will be one that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Honestly, it was the first Valentine's day that we've celebrated together. Last year my dear husband was busy with work on the spring musical for the local high school. However, I couldn't have been more proud of him if I'd tried. The lights for that particular show were the equivalent of something that you would have seen at the Fox Theater in Atlanta or even on Broadway.

But this year, neither of us had obligations on Valentine's day. The musical at the local high school was completed. And so I decided to try to pamper my dear husband. I fixed beer cheese fondue along with aparagus, green beans and marinated portabellas. For dessert, I fixed chocolate covered strawberries. Finally, Rachel, Shayne, Abby and I had gotten Josh a little something special too. He absolutely loves caramel apples so we found a gourmet one for him for this special day.

Needless to say that my dear husband was pleased. So pleased, in fact, that he decided to open the bottle of champagne that we'd been saving for a special occasion. And he definitely spoiled me too. When I arrived home, there were a dozen white roses waiting for me. Followed by some love songs on a CD that he'd purchased for me. And as if that wasn't enough, he gave me a complete season of Charmed. :)

Honestly, I do believe this was the best Valentine's day ever. And I'm looking so forward to many more Valentine's days like this in our future. After all, I can't imagine a bad one now that my wonderful husband is in my life. He's my best friend and makes me a better person every day that I spend by his side.

Here's to hoping that your Valentine's day was even slightly as wonderful as ours.

Doggie Bankers

What an interesting week it has been. I’ve gone back to work/school as of Tuesday and am steadily feeling more into the normal beat of life. I experienced a very, very powerful healing service last night at my church that I’ll tell you about another day (today is my dogs' day).

But I do believe that one of the most exciting moments occurred for Rachel, Shayne, and me as we headed out to the bank.


Well, let me back up. After school on Fridays, a friend and I often sit and visit...which we did. So I was rather late leaving work this afternoon. Once I did leave and had managed to plant myself in my car ,I decided to check my voice mail on my cell phone only to discover my wonderful husband had left two checks in my car to be deposited in the bank. Before 6 PM!!!! Our bank is closed on Saturdays. :(

He'd then called and informed me so that I would notice them....which I promptly did, right AFTER I heard his message.

So it was off to the races for me. I had a lot to accomplish and not much time. I needed to check in with my husband to let him know I'd discovered the checks. I wanted to call my Momma and check on the flowers I'd sent to a very special person today, who needed a pick-me-up.

I looked at my gas-o-meter and realized that I had to get gas before heading to the bank. I thought about the deposits and realized I had to run home first and get my old checkbook so that I could deposit my pay check into our joint account as well AND I needed to call back some friends about our dinner plans for tomorrow night. Finally, I still had my date at the park scheduled with my puppies. Whew!

So heading into my hectic afternoon, I rushed on home from school and began the mad dash. Upon arriving home, I decided for time's sake I would simply load the puppies into the car. They would visit the bank with me, and then we'd head for the park.

Little did I know...that I would have doggie bankers in the car with me!! When we reached the drive through window the nice lady inside inquired about the dogs. She began to gush over the wonderfulness of dogs. I agreed whole heartedly and then she asked, "Can I give them treats??"

What?!?!? At first, honestly I expected candy suckers to be enclosed in my deposit envelope for the puppies, but what the heck? So I agreed. Little did I know that our bank stocks doggie treats!!!!!

The teller,then began to tell me that they are no longer allowed to pass out candy to children, but they can give dogs treats if their "Mom's and Dad's" let the bank do so. WOW! And sure enough when the bank deposit confirmation slip came through the tube, inside the envelope were two doggie treats!


Needless to say both Rachel and Shayne have decided that they want to be bankers when they grow up! And who could blame them? Doggie treats at your disposal all day long!!!!



However, it wasn't terribly difficult to tear them away from the bank so that we could go on to the park, but they did inform me that they want to go on ALL the bank outings from here on out. And of course, they will.

So the next time you visit your bank, you just may want to see if your own dog would like to make a deposit. Because, you never know, there just may be doggie bankers in your town too.

Thank you!

We just want to thank all of our family and friends for the kindnesses that they've shown us this last week. I don't know how we could have made it through this week without your support. We've received so many loving phone calls, visits, notes and flowers. And I hope that everyone knows how much we appreciate them.

This last week has been one of the hardest of our lives and I have no doubt that the next few months will continue to be difficult, but likewise I'm sure Josh and I will make it through together. And we both have no doubt that our little angels are in heaven with their older cousins, Tara, Deric (my nephew and godchild) as well as my other unnamed God child. We also know that Granddaddy, Grandmomma Betty Ann, MamMaw, and PapPaw are looking out for our two little ones already celebrating in God's glory with all of them. As are Pumpkin, Mattie, Calico, Baby, Thorndyke, and Mendelson, Betsy, Camille and all of our beloved animals there in heaven. After all what would heave be like without our four legged family members present.

As for those of us carrying on down here...every day is making things a bit easier, although we are a long way from being normal again. I'm fairly certain normal will never be what it was before, but we will get to a new normal and I'm sure that it will be a good normal. We are going to go to the healing service at my church on the 31st of January and just yesterday a friend gave us information on centering prayer. I for one know that I plan to spend part of my day perusing it. I may not know much about centering prayer, but it intrigues me and it may help us to continue to heal which is important.

I also find myself dreaming of travel plans and upcoming trips. I'm going to spend at least a week with my great-Aunt this summer. It will be good for both of us. I want to record her stories and be able to write them down so that our family can continue to share them for generations to come.

You know, Josh and I have received kindness from some of the most unexpected places, including from my Department chair who took the time to call and reassure me. She had been through a similar situation twice, just as we are, and now has two lovely daughters. I'm sure if God is willing we will be in the same place that she and her husband are some day. If not...then I'm sure we'll grow into whatever plans God has for us as well.

In the meantime, I've found a mosaic class that I'd really like to take here at the County Arts center. I've been elected Senior Warden and have so much to do with that including taking a trip to Savannah this next month. I also know that I have plans to go see Beth Moore with a good friend in March. Momma and Annie and I have our annual Spring Break trip planned in early April. And of course I have my AP workshop week in Athens this summer. :) So travel plans are abundant and there's no shortage of activities to keep me busy.

Josh always has a busy spring, and spring has sprung early here. He's currently spending plenty of time getting ready for the Spring Musical with the local high school. He does the lights and sound for it as well as the stage design. WOW! Recital season will be coming up soon for all those ballet and tap and jazz students and Josh definitely enjoys setting up for and doing the lights and sound for those as well. So we will have a busy few months and I believe that's good, all things considered.

And to be honest as of this morning, I've begun toying with the idea of using the money we'd planned to set aside for August for the maternity leave to save instead for a trip to France with Annie this summer. I just know that Annie, Josh and I would enjoy it and we will still have plenty of time to save for maternity leave. :)

God will guide us with the help our of our friends and family. And in the meantime Josh and I continue to thank you all for your prayers and support.

Much love from our home to yours,

Betty, Josh, Abby, Rachel, & Shayne

Yesterday

Yesterday, our little one ceased to be with us. I began miscarrying yesterday morning about 8:30. By noon, we knew that there was no longer a heart beat.

The picture to the right shows the developmental stage of our child when we lost him/her. It is a picture of a 10 week old fetus.

I'll go for a follow up appointment some time this week. I'm having a really hard time right now and so I may not be posting for a while. I'm taking some time off work.

I appreciate your prayers. I'm sure our little one is happy to be with his/her cousins, god-sisters and brothers (my two godchildren that are there) and his/her uncle. I'm also sure that our late four legged children are watching over our little one, namely : Mattie, Levi, Pumpkin, Babe, BC and Thorndyke. And there's no doubt his/her great-grandparents are as well.

I've contacted the school. The assistant principal is taking care things for me. I'm just going to take the time off and ty to get myself to a point that I can return to school soon.

Please pray for Josh and me....this is a hard time for us both. He's holding out for the follow up appointment. I think we are both holding our breaths and hoping that somewhere, somehow they misdiagnosed us yesterday. But I think we both also know the odds of that are slim.

I don't know when I'll be back to post again, but know that I will.

In the meantime...please pray!

Betty

Houston, we have a heart beat!

What an exciting week this has been! My dear husband and I went for our first OB appointment. During this appointment the midwife did and ultrasound and we saw our baby for the very first time. Talk about a miracle!

Our little one is measuring on the smaller side of the normal range and we are quite pleased with that. She/he also has quite a strong heart. Not only did we hear it, but we could see the sound waves flickering as we watched her/his heart beat.

I never in a million years imagined we'd experience something so amazing. Hopefully, sometime soon I will post our little one's first photo and you can enjoy this experience with us too.

The second set of photos will be occurring when I'm about 20 weeks pregnant, so we have around 11 more weeks to wait until we discover whether or not our new family member is a boy or a girl. :) Considering the nursery is currently my office and is painted pink, it's vital that we know otherwise I suppose the nursery will become yellow or green, and it may anyway.

My dear family has donated a baby scale, lots of books and a sack full of baby toys to our little one. I can hardly wait to start setting things up for him/her...but for now they still stay in the guestroom. I think one of the coolest parts about these books and toys is that a lot of the books were mine as a child. I am ecstatic about sharing these exact books with our new miracle. Who would have thought that would be possible one day.

Obviously, there's no doubt our child will love to read! :) With parents like us, how could she/he not?

(I'm sitting in my room reading when I'm about three years old).

The other major bits of news are that I recently attended my first Advanced Placement (AP) workshop and had a blast. I begin my online class for teaching gifted students tomorrow. I can hardly wait.

Finally, I returned yesterday from Lincolnton. This was one of the two debate tournaments that I'd attended this year. I'm so happy that I did. I do believe this particular tournament is almost like a homecoming tournament for debaters. I saw people that I'd not seen for at least 5 months, if not a year. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, judged some great debates and became enlivened with the political discussions that ensued. In short, I couldn't have had a better trip. Plus, the food was excellent as always. I look forward to attending this tournament next year with our little one in tow.

Despite the busy activities of the last few weeks, I do find myself becoming more tired lately. Naps and I have become well acquainted friends. In fact, I suspect that I will be enjoying one of those this afternoon as well. In fact, I think we all should.

Enjoy your nap!