McDonald's with a Friend and a Clean Rudy=A Great Day for my 'Boys'

Today, Rudy had his appointment to get his shampoo and a blow out. He was so excited when I asked him "Rudy, do you want to go see Ms. Connie?" He loves that woman! He got to ride to Blayne's school with me and that was a real treat for him too. After school, I took Blayne and his buddy, Xavier to McDonald's to eat and play. His mom and I trade off having the boys come play each week. They were born on the same day and they are A LOT alike which is really enjoyable. They both LOVE video games and enjoy playing the video game that is at McDonald's. When I asked them to say "cheese" for the picture, they both said "I can't, I am playing the game"!!! Reagan enjoyed McDonald's too! She thinks that she is big stuff now that she gets to run around there. There was a toddler with a Mohawk haircut today and she kept staring at him. We got an ice-cream treat before we left. Reagan preferred to eat "ab-bowls" (apples) instead of the ice-cream. They all three played outside when we got home. They had a great time. I hope that you enjoy the pictures!

Christian Birthdays!

This is the shirt that she wore yesterday. (the verse is John 14:6)



Yesterday was both Savannah and Whitney's "Christian Birthdays". Yesterday marks one year since Whitney accepted Christ and two years for Savannah. Whitney woke up with excitement yesterday. I had laid out an outfit for her to wear and she insisted to wear her "Sola Kids" shirt. She said "it is my Christian birthday and I need to wear this shirt with this verse on it so I can tell my friends all about it. I told her that a lot of her friends will not understand what "being saved" means. She replied "oh, that is okay, I will tell them!" She is just so confident...it is awesome! So I gave her a 5 minute pep talk about maybe being criticized at school...blah..blah...I just didn't want her to be surprised if someone made fun of her. I talk to my girls often about how, as Christians, we are different. We watch different tv shows, we read different books, we don't do some of the things that some of their friends do because we know that God's word, the Bible, tells us not to. I dropped her off as she waved and smiled back at me, I prayed that God would protect her from ridicule at school. I got home and got a call from her teacher letting me know that she was not going to be at school. I was to bring her lunch yesterday for Teacher Appreciation day. My heart sank as I thought of the SUB that would be dealing with Whitney possibly witnessing to her friends!!! I went and had lunch with Whitney yesterday at school and saw her substitute. I had NEVER seen her before. She was young, and seemed to be doing really well with the class. So, when Whitney got home after playing at the Packwoods house, I asked her how her day went and if she liked her substitute teacher. She smiled and said yes. She said "Momma, I told her that it was my Christian birthday and she told me she liked my shirt and that she works at a church as a 'something' and she told me that she liked the verse on my shirt and then she told me that verse in Chinese!!! Momma she knew Chinese and she told me two other verses in Chinese...isn't that cool?" I was all filled up thinking about what a blessing it was to have THIS teacher in HER class yesterday and what a neat way for Whitney to be received on a day that she was so excited about. I so many times put limits on God. All I wanted was for her to be protected and not embarrassed or hurt at school about what she believes, and look what God did!
And, Savannah told me that she told two of her friends that yesterday was her "Christian" birthday. I was so proud of her. That is a big deal for 4th grade!!!! I am so proud of my girls for being salt and light in the world!

John's Burned Hands

Here are pictures of John's hands from this morning. They are a purplish color. He has blistering on his middle finger and one of his blisters has ruptured, so he has a Band-Aid on it. Thought some of you might be interested to see what they look like.

I might attempt to post the video from yesterday's singing. I have never posted a video by myself, but when I see some of these videos on You-Tube and see the people who have posted, I think to myself SURLY I can do that!!! We will see. Right now, Blayne is waiting patiently to use this computer to play a LEGO game that he has fallen in love with!!!

Interesting Day

Well, this was an abnormally non-busy Saturday for us. We actually had NOTHING on our calendar. It was nice to wake up to a non-scheduled day. John usually makes pancakes on Saturdays, but today was a special treat as he went and got donuts (a real treat for the kids!!!) He also worked on our shower that has been out of commission since the fall. He pour the concrete floor today and gave it a nice slope. He cleaned up all of his tools and decided to burn some branches in our burn pit. He had the three big kids outside with him. It rained last night, so he decided to pour gasoline on his pile...he used the hand lighter to light the fire (you probably know where I am going with this...) there was a HUGE booming flame (as told to me by Blayne) and POOF John got singed. Savannah came running in to tell me..."Daddy got burned!!!" She later told me that Blayne yelled for her to come tell me. When John came in, he smelled AWFUL. It reminded me of when I had a wart burned off...YUCK! His hair is gone from his hands and lower arms and he had orange singed hair at the tips of his hair on his head. It feels like an African American's hair when you touch it. The tip of his nose is burned too. He called the doctor and they called in a prescription for a cream for him. He has been soaking his hands all afternoon and evening. He is now blistering. Gracie came over and looked at the burns and said that they are 1st and 2nd degree. He says that they look sunburned, I say that they look like sweaty feet...you know, like after you have played a basketball game or something and you take your shoes off and your feet are pruned and wet looking. So, we will see what happens. He is really hurting tonight. I don't think that he will be able to go to bed anytime soon. He is taking pain killers, so hopefully, that will comfort him soon.

AND.....Whitney and Blayne's little choirs are singing in the services tomorrow. Today, Whitney said "oh, and Momma, I am singing a solo tomorrow" What??? I had no idea. She said, "oh, I didn't want to tell you, I was just gonna let you hear it tomorrow". So, sorry to you relatives that read this...I DIDN'T know!!!! I will be taping it, and I will post it here as soon as I can. Blayne told me that he doesn't know ANY of the songs that he is singing!!!! Great!!!! I hope that he is kidding.

Well, I am off to bed. My "BIG" baby might be keeping me up tonight!

Fellowship with TRUE Friends

Yum! I got to go to dinner tonight with two of my longtime friends. It is always so good to get together with friends. We enjoyed a yummy dinner and catching up with each other's lives. We never seem to have enough time to get to everything when we are together. No matter how long it has been since we have seen each other, we seem to pick right up like no time has passed. These are times that I realize how special my friends are to me. John had a great night here with the kids and of course they were ALL perfect.

Milky the Cow

Yesterday at my Bible Study, as part of the lesson, we had to tell our favorite childhood toy. When I shared mine, they all laughed!!!! They had never heard of Milky the Cow. They figured that it must have been an "East Texas" thing. Well, today, I found a video on-line to prove that Milky DID exist!!!

Chasing My Tail

This week has been busy with activity as we get back into the swing of things with school and just following up on a busy week from last week. The girls adjusted quickly to having to get up and go to school. I, on the other hand, have found it painful every morning when the alarm goes off. Fortunately, the Lord has blessed me with children who are morning people and they wake up with smiles on their faces and joy in their heart!
I feel like I am a dog chasing my tail with all that I have needed to do this week. Whitney has a field trip to the zoo tomorrow. I am not going as a chaperon, but had hoped to go and hang out with her for a couple of hours. I can't take Reagan, and I don't have anyone to keep her, so I had to break the news to Whitney that I just couldn't come. I expected it to not be a big deal to her, but it was. I feel badly about it. These are the times that I realize that there is just not enough of me to go around! She will be fine, and she is quite independent, so once she is there and with her friends, she will be fine. She just liked the thought of having her Momma there!
Well, Reagan is yelling to me "All-Dee" (her words for ALL DONE), so I had better head back into the kitchen.
Happy Wednesday!