Creepers!

So ya'll know how much I love critters.  Evidently this little, tiny, HUGE snake decided to make a visit at my house yesterday.  I was about to walk outside when I seen it slither across my front step.  I did what any mother would do to protect their children, themselves.  I locked the screen door.  I look back and laugh.  Why did I lock the door?  Did I really think it was gonna try to open the door and come in? I calmly, panickly, screamed to my kids that they never could play outside again.  We watched it from the window because I really needed to know where it was going.  I was hoping it would mosey over to the neighbor's house for a visit.  It went from our front yard to the side yard.  We switched windows and continued to watch.  Then it went near Jack's doghouse and dissappeared behind Titus's soccer ball.  I'm guessing there is a hole there and maybe he crawled in it.  I'm too scared to go near the ball to see if there is a hole there.  I vowed to never leave my house again, but unfortunately it was a church night.  Maynard had been out of town working and he was not home to save the family.  When we were ready to leave for church me and the kids stood at the door and counted to 3.  Then we ran to the car and jumped in. The whole time in my mind I was wondering how it was going to be when we came home in the dark.  {SHUDDER}

Comments from my instagram post indicate that this is a garter snake, but my brother says it's a cow snake.  So I looked up cow snakes before I went to bed. (Not a good idea, really.  I felt snakes crawling around my feet all night.)  Anyways, from what I gathered, a cow snake is pretty harmless.  It will try to get away from humans as fast as we want to get away from it.  However, it will bite you if it feels attacked, it just isn't posionous.  And if that is supposed to make me feel better, well, it doesn't.  I'm still scared out of my gourd and Titus really wants me to go get his soccer ball for him. Ha!

Oh, I also learned that cow snakes are really good climbers and like to hang out in trees.  Lord Jesus!  Now I have this fear of walking in my yard and a snake will fall on my head.  I have been enjoying this pretty weather, but now I've decided to enjoy it from my front window!  And to think I had a really nice tan going on!

Chocolate only, Doctor's orders!

This is not a very good picture, but this is a picture of Amelia's face last Halloween when she was given Skittles by her brother.  We had noticed her breaking out when she ate candy.  Sometimes, worse than others.  This particular day was the breaking point for me.  She was broke out all over her face and if you can tell, her cheek even swelled.  I had mentioned this time and time again to her pediatrician, but he wasn't concerned and said she would grow out of it.  She had even begun to dig at her tongue and I was scared for her whether or not her doctor was.  I finally insisted on him referring her to an allergist.  Against his judgement, he huffed and finally agreed to refer her to one.

At the allergist, they numbered her back and began doing the prick test.  She was not happy, but done so good.  I had my pastor's wife with me and she was a Godsend.  As soon as the dr came in Amelia began backing up between the seats so he couldn't get to her.  We made lots of promises to try to get her to cooperate.  We pretended the nurse was painting Sleeping Beauty on her back and the pricks was the paint.  So when they started the pricking and it was itching, we had to hold her hands because she didn't want to smear the paint.  Ha Ha  A white lie, perhaps, but hey, it worked!  I also had packed Josiah's DS in my purse and she was happy playing with that for the 15 mins we had to wait for the results.

When the dr came back in the first thing he said was that there is no testing for dye allergies, which obviously she was allergic too.  I was kinda aggravated because I was hoping to find out which dye it was that she was allergic too.  He said no dyes at all for a whole year.  Which means, no candy for a year.  A whole lot of other stuff too being that dyes are in everything.  I have cut way down on the dye intake she is eating.  I can't control it all, but we have it narrowed down to zero candy.  Besides what she sneaks, of course.  He said to only allow her to eat Chocolate.  So now she is a choco-holic!  We also found out that she is allergic to apples, banannas, tree nuts, beef, green beans, peaches, and tomatoes.  Tomatoes was a pretty bad allergy so she had to completely cut it out of her diet for a month until her new medicine took effect.  A whole month without ketchup, pizza, and spaghetti was not easy.  Probably harder than her giving up candy for a year.  We went back for more testing and that's when we found out she was allergic to green beans.  This was the straw that broke the camel's back.  She cried all the way back home because she said she loved green beans.  It was funny because she never cried when they said she couldn't have anymore candy, but when they said no green beans for a month, she cried big ole tears.  I think she was just tired of the whole thing and didn't want anyone to say she couldn't have anymore types of food.  I mean green beans?  Seriously?

She has become quite sneaky lately and has been sneaking candy when I'm not looking.  At first she would ask, "My dr say I can have this?"

A lady at church made a jelly bean cake for Easter and I was told that everytime Amelia walked by that cake she would pop a jelly bean in her mouth.  Crazy kid!

I also think that it is so sweet that the people at our church went out and bought tootsie rolls to keep on them for her on church nights.  They have always given her candy and when they found out she wasn't allowed to have any at all they bought her what she could have.  Isn't that sweet?

I'm hoping her dr is right and she eventually grows out of these food allergies, but until then, Chocolate it is!!!!

Easter 2013

Easter Sunday morning I woke up and it seemed I could just feel the presence of the Lord.  I went to the kitchen to prepare a few things for our dinner at church.  We quickly got the kids ready and I still didn't know what I was gonna wear.  The kids never let me go shopping while we were gone and I kinda hoped I would have found me something there.  Somehow in 5 minutes I pulled out an outfit that I had never worn together and it matched my kids.  Now, how cool is that?  I have no pictures of me though.  We didn't even take a family picture.  I barely got one of the kids together.  They were not cooperative at all.

We went to church and had a great crowd and a wonderful service.  Then we had a great dinner.  After eating out and eating quick meals for over a week, all that home cooked food tasted really good. 

Then we had an egg hunt for the kids which is always a lot of fun.

Waiting on the word, "GO".

 

 

 

Maynard found a special egg, but it smelled a lot like dog poo. Ha!

 

So much candy should be outlawed!  We tried our best to exchange all the candy for chocolate with Amelia.  I thought we were doing good until I was told that everytime she walked by a jellybean cake someone made, she would pop a jellybean in her mouth.  She was off all her meds because she was going back for more testing and I really had to watch her.  She is such a sneak though!!!

 

We had another awesome service again that night.  After a much needed vacation and a spiritual refreshing, I just can't help, but smile this week.

 

Hope everyone had a great Easter.

 

Gulf Shores Vacation

Hi,everybody! I had intentions of getting caught up on my blog, but decided to just start from here. Too hard to get caught up now. My last post I was pretty much in tears because me and the kids were sick and fixing to head to the beach. I had a lot of response through to my blog, texts, emails, and instagram. A lot of people were praying for us to have a safe trip and a healthy one. I am very thankful for all the prayers because I have such good news. Lets start out by our travel day on Saturday. We woke up early and loaded the van. Amelia was pale as could be, but smiling ear to ear. She was burnt up with fever. I kept checking her at every pit stop and would give her more medicine. I was so proud of the kids on how they handled the long 10 hr rd trip. They were so well behaved and didn't ask to stop every few minutes like I thought they would. We arrived at our condo and quickly unpacked and headed out to the beach. It was dark and cool so we didn't stay long. I loved seeing my kids take it all in. I couldn't get Amelia off the boardwalk because she was playing in the sand on the sides. I kept saying, "Come on, there's plenty more sand out here." We went to bed and crashed. The next morning we had to go get some groceries so we made a quick trip to walmart and came right back. We put on our beach clothes and headed out to the beach. It was a beautiful day, but the red flag was up warning everyone of rough water. Maynard and the boys still played in it a little bit. Titus has no sense of fear and was scaring us to death. Amelia played in the sand and I just chilled in my beach chair. Oh, I forgot to add that this was the first day Amelia was fever free. She started feeling better and I was so thankful. Me and Maynard took a sore throat and sneezing and coughing, but we are better now too. We went to eat at Lamberts Sunday night for suppper and it was a lot of fun. Our waitress kept playing tricks on Josiah. They were amazed at how they were throwing rolls around to people. Titus mentioned that this place has bad manners. Ha Ha! Titus hasn't been eating real well when we go out. He compares all our food to London's and it is never fixed right. The only way he will eat is what I fix in our room. He is so odd, but he just don't do good with change. Monday it was soooooooo cold. We decided to go sightseeing instead of going out to the beach. We drove to Mobile, Al and toured the USS Alabama battleship. They boys loved this. There was a lot of levels and steep stairs and I was wigging out. I kinda have a stair phobia thing too. We stayed there a couple hours and had lunch at Longhorns. We came back to our room and let the kids swim in the indoor pool. Its so funny because Amelia stays in the hot tub most of the time with the older people. She loves hot water and the boys are like, eww eww, that's too hot. Tuesday, we went to the beach and me and Amelia layed around with jackets on and watched Maynard and the boys metal detect. We finally got to shed our jackets and it was feeling pretty good. We stayed out for most the afternoon. After lunch in our condo, we headed to the hot tubs where we pretty much had it to ourselves mostly. Then we went back to the indoor pool so the kids could play. When we got back and dried off, we had plans of going out for supper. Our kids threw such a fit because they didn't want to leave. They cry everytime we want to go somewhere. They are content just to be in the resort whether its in our room, beach, or pool. I decided to fix breakfast for supper and we all went to bed early. My kids are sleeping soooo good here. Wednesday, we got up early and headed out to a gift shop. And because I'm a tightwad, we left empty handed. I wanted to get the kids airbrushed T-shirts and wouldn't dare pay $30 each for one. Not going to happen!!!! We made a fast reservation to go on a dolphin cruise and 30 mins later we were on a boat out in the bay. We got to see about 20 dolphins jumping and playing in the water. Amelia absolutely loved the dolphins more than I can explain. She would get so mad when they were done playing and she couldn't see them anymore. Today is also mine and Maynard's 14th wedding anniversary. Isn't it neat that we got to be on vacation the same week as our anniversary? I think so!!!! We went back out to the beach. Maynard and the boys got out in the ocean. Titus loved it more than Josiah did. Whatever Maynard did, that's what Titus wanted to do. Me and Amelia played in the sand. After awhile Josiah was wanting to go swimming. So I took the kids down to the indoor pool, but it was closed for the day for repair. Josiah was wiping away tears of dissappointment so I said, go jump in the outside pool if you think you can stand it. It was really cold out and windy. Titus and Josiah jumped in and and loved it. They swam for about 45 mins and then decided they couldn't handle it anymore.
By Wednesday evening, Amelia got homesick.  She sat on the couch and boo hooed.  She wanted to go home.  She missed her bed and Fatty Patty.  She missed our dog Jack and she missed her friends at church.  She got in a bad way.  I texted my friend Michelle to have her daughter call her.  Amelia got to talk to them a few minutes and then she settled down and went to sleep.  She was ok by in the morning.
Thursday and Friday was nice sunny days and we headed to the beach about 10:30 and stayed until about 5 pm every evening.  The yellow flags were finally up and the beach was filling up.  Titus and Maynard played in the gulf quite a bit.  Josiah did too, but he didn't like it as much as Titus did.  Amelia would let me hold her and carry her out, but she thought it was too cold and she did not like it at all!  We kept applying sunblock, but we still came back tan with a few sunburns.  Maynard's feet got burned to a crisp.  He never goes barefoot and he didn't think about putting sunblock on his feet.  So funny!  Amelia loved the sand and me and her made quite a few sand castles.  I even made an awesome sea turtle.  So what if it started out to be a cake. Ha Ha
Our last day on the beach they had an egg hunt.  The Easter bunny was there and they had an area marked off in the sand for the egg hunt.  I just think that was pretty cool because how often to you get to have an egg hunt on the beach?  Titus came out like a bandit.  He won 2 prizes which included a water ball and an easter basket full of sand toys.  He also won 3 free drinks from the cafe.  Josiah won candy and a candy bar from the cafe.  Amelia won candy and a drink from the cafe.  I had a hard time getting her candy away from her.  She has to to go a year without candy because of her food allergies, and it is not going so well.
After the egg hunt, they wanted to go swimming.  It was too pretty outside to go swimming indoors, even though the pool water was still freezing.  One of the 6 pools at the condo was a huge pool that started at 1 1/2 ft and ended in 5 ft.  The kids had lots of pool to play in and not be in any danger.  I loved it!  Of course, I didn't get in, but they all did.  People actually thought the pool was heated because they were in it.  They would jump in and scream and want to know how my kids could handle it.  Hilarious!
We went out for supper again and then headed back to our condo.  I started cleaning and packing up.  Titus walked around with his lip out and his chin quivering.  He said, "Tomorow is a sad day, ain't it?"  He absolutely loved everything about our beach trip.  He loves the outdoors anyways and here for 7 days he got to stay outside and play from morning until night.  I'll have to admit, I didn't want to leave either.  Most of our trips end in disaster, but this time it started that way with the strep and flu.  So many people were praying for us and we ended up having a great vacation.  We were all rested up and ready to come home afresh.
Our trip home was a little bit more hairy than on the way there, but we made it finally.  Somehow a burst of energy shot through me and I completely unpacked all our suitcases and put everything away.  I even had done 2 loads of laundry and put them away.  I am so shocked at myself.  That is so unlike me if ya'll know me at all.

I'm gonna try to add a few random pictures.  There were so many to choose from so I just picked a few and pray that they will upload this time!!!

Thanks for ya'lls prayers for a safe and healthy trip.

 Amelia on the beginning of our road trip.  She was so pale and a very sick little girl.

Boardwalk looking at the beach.

Boardwalk looking at our condo.

 

Kitchen and dining room

The kid's bedroom

Maynard chillin' in our living room for the week.

 

Grocery delivery on Monday morning.  Great service. Ha

 

Amelia loving the sand.

My beach bum. (We got to shed the jacket and socks a little later.)

Josiah a little fearful of the gulf at first.

Burying Daddy in the sand.

Whatever Maynard did, Titus was sure to follow.

No caption needed.

 

Toured USS Alabama battleship

My boys love anything to do with soldiers and battle.

 

 

Lamberts Cafe.  They actually told us to put our phones away because more than likely, we were gonna have some spills.  Sounds fun already, right? Ha

 

Dolphin Cruise.  Look at her face.  She loved it!

Our only group picture the whole trip.

 

Souvenier Shop

 

 

Freezing pool.  I didn't get any indoor pool pics.

 

Not sure what he was trying to prove here.  Not cold, maybe?

 

Egg hunt on the beach.

I love this picture.

 

That's it.  I gotta stop somewhere even though I have tons more!

 

 

 

 

Taking the plunge and going on vacation.

Maynard is in transition of beginning a new job. He had a week off between jobs and decided we needed a real vacation. He has only been off for major holidays in 3 yrs. Never got a vacation or sick day, so he is ready for some well deserved relaxation. We leave in the morning for Gulf Shores, Alabama. We have a nice condo reserved with a private beach. My kids have never been to the beach and they have been begging to go for awhile now. So now is our chance. But........if ya'll have been reading my blog for awhile now then you know that all trips usually end up in somewhat a disaster. There are 365 days and 52 weeks in a year. It never fails that we choose the week or day to go on a trip that one of our kids will be sick. Well, how's this for starters? Ya'll know how sick my kids have been all winter, right? They have had every virus and sickness going around it seems. I figured they would all be well for awhile, but things took a dreadful turn when I realized my kids came in contact with the flu in our church. I didn't freak out because we done been down that road. Well, lo and behold! Did you know that there are more than one strain of the flu and you can catch them all? Yeah, well I didn't. Just in a blink of an eye Amelia got real sick and started a fever. I started her on an antibiotic because I figured she might have strep from the boys 10 days prior. She got worse and lethargic so I took her to the dr. I was right. She had strep. But she also has strand B flu. I explained to her Dr that it wasn't possible because she already had the flu and I was fixing to leave for the beach. I was in shock. The dr gave me tamaflu for her and the boys as precaution. She has had her fever spike to over 104 two different times. She is one sick little girl. Then I look over at Titus and he is pale and shivering. Now he has a temp. All night I chilled and ached all over. I know we all laugh at my crazy family adventures, but this time will ya'll please pray that this flu will be mild and we will be able to enjoy our much needed vacation? Maybe eventually we can laugh together about this, but right now I am so disappointed. We still plan on going, being that our room is non-refundable. I will try to get my blog updated before I get back.

Stupid update and a random act of kindess.

So ya'll know that I don't have internet at my house. I just have it on my smartphone. We used to smuggle WIFI off of the neighbors, but they moved. I do my blogging from my phone. I quit for awhile because it wouldn't let me post any pictures. Then I finally outsmarted it and got it working again. Only now, it won't post anymore pics. WHY? I will tell you why!!! I kept getting notifications that my phone needed to be updated. I ignored it for a month. It kept driving me crazy. So after my February blog challenge was over, I finally caved and pushed the stupid install button. Well guess what? I'm back to square one. No more pics. I mean blogs get boring after awhile without pictures to back up your story. So, until I figure something else out, it will be a hit and miss. I've got stuff I want to blog, but I have pictures I want to go with it. So until then....... Oh and for the fun of it, Today's blogger challenge was what was the last random act of kindness. Totally random, right? I guess it would be that I told the cashier at Speedway that the women's bathroom was out of toilet paper. You may take that lightly, but what if it was you that had to wipe with a paper towel textured like sandpaper. You can thank me later!

What every Mom longs to hear.

So if you follow me on Instagram then you already know this, but some of you don't. On Sunday night, February 3, 2013 Josiah got saved. I am so happy he finally claimed salvation. He has been trying so hard to get saved and he never would claim it. (Well, there was the one time he jumped up and testified in the microphone 3 yrs ago that he got saved that night. I'm pretty sure he never even prayed that night. As matter of fact, he slept through church until testimony time, evidently. Lol) I guess he didn't know what to expect. I felt like he has been saved for awhile, but that has to be something they have to tell you for themselves. I spoke with Josiah's teacher and even she tried to pray with him and lead him to salvation, but he wouldn't claim it. I have watched Josiah worship the Lord in church with tears streaming down his face. Sure, sometimes it was dramatized and I would have to hide a grin. But the worship just kept growing until I would literally see the Power of God on him. I talked casually to a brother in our church about kidding that Josiah was gonna get the Holyghost before he claimed salvation. I'll never forget what he said. He said, "Wouldn't you much rather see the effects of him being saved than just his own words saying, I'm saved?" Wow! How true was that to this Momma's heart. I mean what if I pushed him to claim being saved, but then I never seen any changes or spiritual growth. On Feb 3rd, 2013 we had an annointed filled service. The kind of service where you can feel his presence from the first song. God moved so strong during our congregational singing. We were singing "When we all get to Heaven." Just a normal hymnal we've sung hundreds of times, but the Glory of the Lord filled that place. I looked over to see Josiah worshipping God and his lips stammering. I quit praying "save him", but baptize him in the Holyghost. That night Josiah told me he felt like he got saved! I was so happy to hear it from his own lips! I love how God is moving on him and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for his life. On a funny note, Titus was so aggravated that he didn't get saved. He said he tried and tried to make himself cry like everybody else, but he just couldn't do it. He is so funny.