Africa

I cannot seem to get the hang of posting regularly. I have so many things to write about which makes me delay posting even longer. Tonight, we went to a prayer meeting for my mom and her friend Terri. They will be leaving to go to Cameroon on Thursday and will be there for almost 3 weeks. Terri and her husband have been going back and forth to Africa for some time now and they are overseeing a school and church being built there. She showed us the movie that they made throughout their trips. You could not watch them without getting a sense of urgency for the people of Africa. Mom and Terri will be teaching at their school and leading Bible clubs and Bible studies as well as taking them some much needed supplies. I think that they said that 40 dollars would supply a family of 12 food for 3 months. Wow! I am so proud of my Mom. She has been through so much yet she continues to draw strength from the Lord. She hates to fly and here she goes flying to Africa. God told her to go and she's going despite all of her fears. But she is so excited to go. She's never been able to go on a mission trip.(She said that we were her mission field) The last time that Terri went was at Christmas time this year. Over 169 people gave their lives to the Lord. I just cannot imagine! How awesome to see! I cannot wait to hear of what God is doing and will do in Africa. I have only been on 2 mission trips, both to Mexico. What a wake up call it was to us teenagers to see the people of Mexico who had so little but willing to give whatever they had. I will never forget that experience and the burden that God put in my heart for those people.

The Games We Play

I love to play games. Ever since I was little, our family has always played games together. I have so many great memories of all of the times we sat around talking and playing games. Every one in our family is pretty competitive. That's what makes it fun! On Thanksgivings, my grandpa would always set up Bingo for us to play while we cleaned up after the meal. Then, when everything was cleaned up, we would all grab a piece of dessert and a coke and gather around the table. This was not a small group either. There were times when we would have over 40 people playing the game. We often had our friends join us,too. Papa would be the one to call out the numbers and if any one had a Bingo, they would get one dollar. He sometimes would keep going to let several people Bingo and then yell, "Don't clear your card!" Then, inevitably the little ones always accidentally do it. They would miss out on the cover all for $5.00. Our family is so weird though. We had so many odd things that we did during this game that is still a tradition to this day. For instance, when someone has a Bingo, every one yells,"Check their card!" saying this really grouchy. We also lick our Bingo chips and stick one on our forehead for good luck. Yes, it works!!! When Papa calls O-75, every one yells, "The Big Boy!" On O-66, we always say that with a lisp. Yes, that's so dumb, I know! On I-22, every one yells,"tu-tu!"And we have a dear great aunt that can never hear what was called out. She always makes Papa stop and repeat everything.. We always get a kick out of that. Now that all of the cousins have gotten older, our own kids have picked up on all of these and the dumb little things that we did are being continued. We also always have some sort of card tournament on Christmas Day. This is so much more fun than the presents. We play poker and it is serious. No messing around! I'll have to admit that I'm pretty good at it. Well, I'm more than pretty good at it, I'm pretty much unbeatable=). I just love to play games with family and friends. It is such a great way to get everyone to talk and enjoy each other's company. My favorite games to play are spades, poker, and Scrabble. The games I play the most are Disney Yahtzee, Disney Bingo,slap jack, gold fish, Curious George Uno, and Dora Memory. My kids love to play games, too. Susanna has that same competitive streak in her and Luke is developing it very quickly. We can't even ride bikes without them fighting about who is winning. I have tried to explain that when we ride bikes, it is not a race. We are working on that.

I'm always looking for a new game to play. What is your favorite game to play with family and friends? Any recommendations?

Diets

Today is the official day of the beginning of the diet. I have had many of these days after Eli, but this is the official,official day. After Eli, it has been so hard to lose the weight. It is so hard to diet when you have kids. I don't know if it is because of the cookies, fruitsnacks, and all of the other things that they eat that I always have to sample. Or the trouble it is to drag the kids to the Y. We can walk at home since we have a triple stroller, but Susanna always gets tired in the middle of the walk . Sam also makes it hard because we try to feed him anything that he likes that is fattening. For a long time, Jeff would bring him home a double cheeseburger from McDonalds almost every night. This approach is not only not working but backfiring on the rest of us. So, I am making it official by blogging about it. I can't go back on it now or all my hundreds of blog readers will wonder why I'm not losing weight.=)So, once again my family and I will be frequent viewers of this website and not this one. Not that we ever viewed that one before. What would be the purpose of that? Well, got to go and run a mile, or at least think about running, or at least what to wear if I were to go running.=)

Random Thoughts

Ever since our vacation I cannot seem to get it together with blogging. I have so many things to write about that I cannot narrow it down. So, I'll just list them out. Other wise, it would be a mess of a paragraph.
1.We have a crazy weekend ahead of us. The Egg Drop is tomorrow morning. This is a huge event put on by our church with a helicopter dropping all of the eggs. It is so much fun for all of the kids. This is top secret but I'm going to leak it: Jeff is going to be in costume. I don't know if he'll be Winnie the Pooh or Dora, but I'm kind of hoping that he gets Dora. That'll be a hoot.
2.Then on Sunday, our church is kicking off the satellite campus in Union county with my brother in law, Chris, as the campus director. We're hoping for 600 the first Sunday. We'll see........ Please join us in prayer that many people will be saved.
3.The kids are doing great. Well, Susanna had a seizure last week which I think was due to a high fever, but the doctor insisted that we do a sleep-deprived EEG on her. That was not fun. By about 5:00 in the morning, she was very cranky and could not keep her eyes open. Her test was not until 9am. We are still waiting for the results.
4. Eli is taking his first steps. If he walks this month, he will be our earliest walker. I know that eleven months is not necessarily early, but all of mine seem to walk late. I choose to think that it is because they are so extremely brilliant. I have no scientific basis for this whatsoever.
5. Susanna is number 14 on the waiting list for the school that we are trying to get her in. Last year, up to number 15 on the waiting list got in,so we're praying that she does.
6. Now, I have unloaded some updates, so I can get back to blogging more regularly.

Trip to Charleston Pictures