Let's see how far I get with this post. It's 1:30 in the afternoon, not an opportune time to be blogging. However, our pc is on the blink and so I got the laptop out and set it on the kitchen counter, this is where we seem to get the best reception. Our new next door neighbors have high speed so we can use high speed too, as long as they're on line, that is. Hee hee. I saw the yellow light on at the bottom of the computer screen so I'm grabbing a couple of minutes to check mail and write down some thoughts.

The school called me this morning saying Grace had a temp. Don't we all? Well, Grace's temp was 100 so I had to go get her. We have the Women's Seminar tonight and I'm doing a monologue. I feel pretty confident but I need to keep practicing when I get the chance this afternoon. Bobby will be on his way home in an hour. He'll get home around 4 and I'm ordering pizza for dinner at that time. I've got my third load of laundry in and have just spent the last hour and a half feeding ALL of the kids.

Faith has slept in her own bed every night this week. And that's not all! She has gone to sleep between 9:00 and 10:00 every night! No more night owl junk! And that's not all! She has slept until the sun came up (never before 5:30) every night! Isn't that great?

I've gotta run. They'll probably shut me down next door any minute.

I welcome Mondays. I love the weekend but I don't dread Monday like I used to when I was in school or when I had a job. Monday morning means it time to sort the laundry and get a load in, empty out all the backpacks, diaper bags and purses from the weekend and start thinking about Wednesday night and what bags we'll need and what food needs to be prepared for the week.

Landis had a great time with his Daddy on the road this past weekend. Of course he played with Jason's son, Kade and THAT was fun! I'm happy to report that he did not have Pink Eye. My dad had taken him to get a hair cut on Wednesday and remembered him rubbing his eye and he even mentioned something about getting a hair in his eye. I called Bobby on Friday morning to check on Landis' eye and Bobby said his eye was perfectly normal! It was on Saturday morning after speaking with my dad on the phone that I put it all together and realized the problem was a hair and not an illness. You know I'll enjoy telling the Mother's Day Out director tomorrow that she was wrong with her diagnosis of Pink Eye. :)

The guys got home yesterday afternoon and after he had a nap I asked Bobby when we might see him again. He mentioned possibly Wednesday but later said he had been thinking about coming home on Tuesday. GOOD! I know it shaves off a couple of hours of work when he comes home but we really would like to see him more than just a few minutes on Wednesday night and then a little here and there on the weekend.

This weekend we'll all be at the church for the Women's Seminar. I'm doing a skit, and of course I'd like to attend the different classes offered and Bobby is running sound. The kids will be hanging out in the nursery.

Grace went to Speech Therapy at Vanderbilt again today, second visit. Last week I took her alone because Dad was here to keep the other children at the house. That was pretty nice. Today we all went down there and it really wasn't too bad. The therapist said she thought Landis and Hope's presence was good because of the stimulation it gives Grace. The therapist had a boom box hooked up to a big button that Grace activated fairly easily. When Grace turned the music on, Landis & Hope danced. When she turned the music off, they froze. Of course she was giggling and really enjoyed her "power" over them. She also used a head switch to work a computer. She did great with that.

Part of me hates to resort to all these artificial means of communication. It's called SPEECH therapy and I'd really like to see them working with her mouth. But I know there are statistics out there and the therapist is trained to believe them and work accordingly. She knows that at 7 years of age, if Grace hasn't spoken by now the odds are not in her favor to begin now. I don't know what the statistics are and I'm not asking. I just know that I'm supposed to "call those things that be not as though they were" and it will be counted to me for righteousness. So tonight when I prayed with the kids I kicked the devil in the teeth by speaking the Word over Grace. I spoke Psalm 107:20, Isaiah 53:5, Jer. 29:11 and Jer. 30:17. And then declared Grace IS a walking, talking testimony of God's goodness, and then Landis, Hope and I listed all the things we call Grace doing...riding a horse, swimming, riding a bike, dancing, etc.

God is faithful.

The house is quiet except for the occasional "coo" coming from the swing. Faith can be so difficult to keep awake in the evening hours but the later it gets, the wider her eyes get. She's not collicky, just ALERT. I sat down to feed her at 9:00 and she ate a little and started to doze off. I held her for a bit and then laid her in her crib. That was her wake-up call. I let her cry for a while until I knew she was good and sweaty. Now she's swinging. I'm not speaking to her - I'm ignoring her. She's got to learn this is not social hour. At least this gives me opportunity to blog. I just felt someone staring at me. I turned around and she's glaring, expressionless, at my backside.

Grace & Hope are sleeping. Landis is probably sleeping too but I can't see him. He's in Cincinnati with Bobby for the weekend. Landis often asks Bobby if he can go along and it seems there's never a perfect time but Jason was taking his family along this time and I thought it would be fun for Kade and Landis to have a reunion. I also thought it would be fun for Becky to not have to deal with Landis and Hope tattling on each other all weekend. Of course the week we leave town (Michigan trip) would be the week that Bobby for various reasons ended up sleeping at home every night instead of his hotel room in Waverly. And, of course, this week when we're back home, he was back in the hotel room this week. He slept here Wednesday night but didn't get home from church until 10:00 because of a sound check he had to stay for. He spent just a few minutes with the kids before we all went to bed. He worked a half day today, came home to shower and pack and was off by 5:15 to meet Jason and his family. He'll be back Sunday afternoon. What I'm trying to say is, the kids and I haven't seen much of him the past few weeks since he's working out of town coupled with the fact that he sings on the weekend every now and then. So I'm really glad Landis got to go with his Daddy.

Landis stayed home today because his right eye was red. We still don't know if it's pink eye or an allergy. However, knowing Landis like I do, I strongly believe it's allergic. He wasn't touching it all day so that helped in my decision to let him go with Bobby. If it WERE Pink Eye he'd be giving it to everyone because of rubbing his eye. Besides, he's taking a natural antibiotic for it just to be safe.

Grace lost her 4th tooth! Her two bottom teeth are growing in very nicely but there's still no teeth to be seen on the top. I teased her about not being able to bite me now. She got a kick out of that.

I realized this morning that it's only a little over 4 months until Landis gets on the school bus for the first time. Wow. I know he's ready but we have a little fine tuning to do yet.

Our trip to Michigan was a good one. We stopped in Louisville on the way up to visit our old friend, Nelson Martin, son of Landis Martin, my pastor when I was growing up. Yes, it's who my son is named after. Nelson lost his wife one year ago and we were pleased to hear that he is marrying a lovely lady, Margaret, on April 8th. They are excited. Needless to say with the stop in L'ville and having 4 kids in the van, it took us nearly 10 hours to get to our destination. But I shudder to think of how long it would have taken me if Dad hadn't been with me.

We visited my grandmother, Reubmommy, a couple of times and came home with 2 small quilts she had made.

We enjoyed an "afternoon tea" at my cousin, Roxie's. Roxie is pregnant with her 8th child, due in August and I don't have to say that with her 7 children, Gina's 2 boys and my 4 there was a lot of action and fun in the house. My sister, Kathy was there as well as my mother's sisters, Esther and Ony. Two more aunts, Sandy and Marilyn were there as well as Sandy's daughter-in-law, Erin. We had a really nice time sitting around Roxie's oversized kitchen island in her grand new house. With 8 kids, one of whom is in a power-wheelchair, a grand house is needed. Roxie called me before I drove to her house and invited Grace to bring extra clothes so she could try out Jeffery's shower. The shower is used by all the children but they probably wouldn't have had such a large walk-in shower put in when they had their house built had Jeffery not needed it. We laid Grace on the raised bath seat and rolled her into the shower. She loved it. I only got a little wet as I went in also and scrubbed her down. It was pretty handy to bathe her that way and then use a large built-in changing table just outside the shower.

When we left, Roxie invited us to come back this summer and stay at their home. She has done this before and she always encourages me to leave my kids with them so that Bobby and I can go out alone. Not that Bobby goes to go Michigan with me very often but when he does it IS nice to be able to go out 1 evening. At first I told Roxie she was crazy for thinking she wanted my kids to stay there with her 7. But last Tuesday it was fun watching the kids as they all played together and entertained one another. They're already used to loving on their brother Jeffery so to have Grace is just another gift. And they have a hamster!!! Oh, Landis and Hope fussed and fussed over (and nearly killed) that hamster.

There was a great snapshot taken of all 11 kids, mine and Roxie's but do you think I thought to get a copy of that pic? Of course not. Some other day. I will include some pics from the benefit Friday night. Grace is pictured with her favorite person in the world, Mr. Pat. His wife, Mary is hiding on the other side of him. The second photo shows our singers, l-r, Bobby, Jimmy Fortune, Kent Humphrey and Jason Humphrey.

Seems like there's never really a GOOD time to write in a blog. The oldest and the youngest are both crying as soon I clicked on "create a new post". Grace is just mad about...something and Faith is feeling a little lonesome now that everyone left the kitchen. Landis and Hope just finished emptying all the trash cans and went outside to play. There's been a lot of action in the kitchen for the past couple of hours and all of a sudden it's quiet...well, not quiet. Faith is getting louder. (pause while I go and tend to children) Now then. I changed Grace's diaper and am balancing Faith on my lap. Checked on Landis' bathroom habits while I was up too. He did everything like he's supposed to. He came in to use the bathroom and I stuck my head in there to make sure everything was happening as it was supposed to. He often times will try imitating the sound of running water before coming out of the bathroom. It's not that I'm really listening but that sound suddenly gets my attention and I know right away what he's doing. He thinks he can fool me into thinking that he's washing his hands when he's actually just standing there making that sound. Why bother? Why not just wash your hands? He's done it so much that as I was getting a clean diaper from Grace's room, I heard him make that sound and I stopped and watched for him to walk out. Then I saw the light go back on and heard the water actually running from the tap. Yea! He changed his mind and did the right thing.

I watch Landis and Hope out in the back yard trying to sneak up on robins and yellow butterflies. He tiptoes and she tiptoes in step right behind him. He runs another direction and she runs in his footsteps. It's quite cute as far as I'm concerned. I want so badly for Grace to get outside more than she does. As soon as Bobby gets back from his errands he's going to play ball with the kids and I'll suggest that he get Grace out in her wheelchair so she can get some Vitamin D action.

We had a fun time last night at the benefit concert for Grace that Bobby and Brad Smith put on. Somewhere around $3000 was raised for Grace to have more therapy. Bobby's group, Heritage Road along with Three Bridges sang and we had a surprise guest. Former tenor with the Statler Brothers, Jimmy Fortune sang a few songs. What a voice! I remember watching the Statler Brother's show as a little girl and I clearly remember thinking when Jimmy Fortune joined the group, "that sounds better." Well, he sounds even better now. He sang "Elizabeth" and boy, the higher he goes, the prettier it sounds. What a clear smooth voice. He briefly shared his own personal story of one of his 7 children (yes, 7 - he used to say, "I'm gonna go broke making Fortunes") being born with Spina Bifida. They were told he wouldn't live more than a couple of days as it was the worst case they had ever seen. His son is now 33 years old and doing well. I introduced myself to Jimmy afterward and thanked him. He said he had known the Lord since he was a child but hadn't really committed himself wholly to God until 1993. He was so genuine as he squeezed my hand and told me if we ever need anything to please call him.

The whole "benefit" thing really makes me uncomfortable. I don't know if it's ok to feel that way but I do. That's why I didn't take part in any of the planning. I just showed up for the concert. It wasn't that I was upset about it, it just made me uncomfortable to plan it or talk to people about it. It isn't just the fact that you're asking people to give you money, but it's the fact that you're believing in a healing that you don't see yet but you're asking people to give you money to go after something that isn't her healing. It will help her, though, so that's why I go along.

I'll post about my trip to Michigan next time.

It has been a very emotional week. It's like I just had a baby or something. By Wednesday I was wondering if perhaps I'm experiencing the ever-popular "post-partum depression". Bobby's been gone so much. He's been working in Waverly (90 miles west of us) so he stays in a hotel out there Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights. So the kids say goodbye to him on Sunday evening and don't see him until Wednesday evening at church. It's a little rough but we're gonna make it. He should be finished in another month to 6 weeks...hopefully.

Today, I'm getting ready to go to Michigan. There's always soooo much to do to pack when you have kids yes, but Grace requires more packing as well. After 7 years I'm still packing bibs for her and her own food. I got smart and purchased a little $10 food chopper and left one at Dad's house and a second one at my in-laws in Arkansas. So that's one bulky thing I don't have to pack anymore. I know people wonder why I would put myself through the riggors of driving these 4 little ones alone all the way to Michigan but I had it planned where I would stop in Louisville and Bluffton, IN where I have friends, to make my pit stops. When Faith gets older it won't be a big deal. However, Dad decided to drive to TN in his van today, park it here, ride back with us in our van to MI tomorrow. He'll have his little car to get around up there and then he'll ride back to TN with us next Thursday and drive home in his van a few days later. It's a rather round-a-bout way to do it but it helps me with a second driver to speed the trip up and all.

Landis has been making up songs about driving to MI. He's so excited. It was July that we drove up there last.

There were 2 lines of thunderstorms last evening and it was very, very windy all day yesterday. I wasn't looking forward to the storms coming with Bobby gone. He left yesterday afternoon with Jason to sing in PA this weekend. They flew from Louisville to Baltimore and rented a vehicle from there. I thought about the possibility of having to get all the kids over to the neighbor's basement if need be. We had a tornado warning here in November and I carried Grace to the van while the other 2 ran (to the van) and we drove to the neighbor's basement to wait out the storm. Bobby joined us there when he got home from work. Now, with Faith here, I have to make 2 trips to the van carrying children. I figured surely the power would go out with all the wind and it would slow me down with laundry, etc. I want you to know the Lord is so good. It didn't storm at our house last night! It rained and blew a little and that's it! I was so GLAD.

It's a beautiful pre-spring day today.

I was going to take Grace (and Faith) to Lexington, KY today to the Shriner's Hospital for Children but because of a stupid cold (me) and not being able to sleep last night I opted to stay home today and just reschedule. Oh, so many things wrong with this but the one right thing is that Mary had agreed to watch my other two kids and it's her birthday. She didn't know until Sunday afternoon that Kris was planning a surprise for her by not going in to work and taking her and the boys to the zoo in Louisville. They really like zoos. When I called Mary at 6:00 this morning she was pretty glad to be able to go to the zoo with Kris and the boys afterall.

When I called the school to ask if it was ok for Grace to come to school (they weren't planning on her and were going to be a little understaffed) I apologized to Mrs. Mary, Grace's special ed. teacher, because it was an inconvenience that I threw on her the last minute. Her reply was, "That's ok. We can't control these things." Oh, that remark hit me like a slap in the face. My thought was, "Yes, we can. We can CHOOSE to be sick or we can CHOOSE to be healed." Shame on me for walking under the curse. Shame on me for bowing down to sickness. I had a sinus infection 4 years ago, the first that I know of, and I fought it with the Word. I could barely hold my head up and I really didn't know what was wrong with me. With everything in me I declared the Word over and over. I'd get tired and lay my head down and then I'd lift my head and declare the Word again. That sinus infection lasted 1 day. I've been messing around with this nonsense for 2 weeks. It's time to straighten up and fly right. By the way, I learned that I had a sinus infection because the next day I had a reflexology appointment and the reflexologist told me what it was because the relexes to my sinuses were still tender.

I have been keeping Faith awake in the evenings (pretty difficult) and she's been settling down much earlier for me. Yea!

No, this isn't the same picture as the last post.

Happy birthday today to Mary and Tisra!

My baby is still sleeping after putting her to bed 8 hours ago. That's great, but I'm not pleased. I'm not pleased because she didn't go to sleep until midnight. I guess it's really no different than my other babies did but what's different is I have to get up so much earlier to get Grace ready for the school bus.

Speaking of Grace, her notes from the teacher said that she worked harder Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week than she's worked all year. I love to get notes like that! Matter of fact, on Tuesday the teacher wrote that she did better holding her head up than she's ever seen her do.

Speaking of Tuesday, Bobby took me out to dinner for my birthday because Mr. Pat and his wife, Mary offered to keep the children. We even left Faith at home. When we got home, I had a gift waiting from the kids (and Mr. Pat.) He had several little video clips of them singing Happy Birthday and then put it on a disc for me to keep. There were solos as well as group singing. He had them all sign the disc to label it and then he also put snapshots on a second disc. How thoughtful was that? He and Mary said they'd watch the kids every now and then for us.

Well, I've got to get busy. I ordered an Oreck to try out for 30 days. They were offering a Verilux reading lamp to keep if you tried the vacuum. I took them up on that offer. My 30 day trial is half over and I haven't started the spring cleaning I promised myself I'd do.