The Great Mouse Hunter

Once upon a time there was a lovely couple who lived in a small apartment in Texas. Their place was warm and friendly. One day while the wife was preparing lunch she discovered some food boxes who had been chewed into by a mouse. "Eeck!" she said. "Looks like we have a mouse in the house."

The husband was determined to catch the mouse and save the day. He went to the land of Walmart, where a not-so-all-knowing employee told him there were no mouse traps sold there. He searched and searched the isles until he found some and brought them home to bait. Peanut butter, bacon pieces and cheese he placed on the trap and put them in two locations.

Overnight the couple slept. As cold and darkness arrived in the wee hours, the nasty little mouse made his way around the house, searching for food he might steal from them. Sniffing the air he knew he had hit the jackpot. "Ha, ha ha, my favorite!" he exclaimed. "I love peanut butter, bacon pieces and cheese." He crept across the room and into the cabinet where the lovely smell was wafting to his nose. He climbed in and took a bite ... SNAP!

The next morning the man woke up to victory and will forever be known as The Great Mouse Hunter.

Expectations

Our Thanksgiving Break was awesome and we enjoyed seeing everyone. Christmas is upon us and so is the birth of our little baby. Only 4 more weeks until the due date and we have so much to do.

Please pray for us as Kevin continues to look for a full-time job. Thank you so much for your love and care for us.

Thanksgiving Plans

Kevin and I are getting more excited everyday about our plans for Thanksgiving. We didn't get to go to Missouri last year, but we had a great time with our friends Tim & Jill. This year we decided to take a long vacation and spend 1 week and 2 days with our family. We found out early that Kevin will not be having any classes that week and I have enough vacation time built up that we can make it.

We'll be leaving Fort Worth as soon as Kevin gets out of class on Friday, November 21st, which is around 10:40am. It usually takes us about 9 hours to get to Lebanon, but I'm sure we'll have to stretch it to more like 10 since I'll probably be needing to use the restroom a little more often. So we expect to roll into the driveway somewhere around 10pm or so.

We already have a lot of plans to see friends and family. We'll see Nate during the first weekend. Saturday we'll be heading to Springfield to see some of our friends. Then on Sunday after church it's off to the Jones' family Thanksgiving in Lockwood. I think we'll rest and not plan anything for Monday and then see my brother Justin and his family on Tuesday. Wednesday evening Kevin's brother and sister and their families will be coming to Lebanon as well. Of course, Thursday is Thanksgiving, so we'll be driving around to see more family. Friday looks like another rest day and then Saturday we're having a baby shower. Then we'll head back to Texas on Sunday. Now that I think about it, we're gonna be pretty busy all week. But it will be worth it.

If you're planning on being around the Lebanon/Springfield area during that week let us know. We'd love to see you!

A Costume Party to Remember

Our Sunday school class was invited by 3 older couples to a costume party last Saturday night. Kevin had a great idea for a costume. Let's see if you can figure out who he is...

I, on the other hand, had a difficult time trying to figure out what to be. I finally decided to go with an easy choice, a peanut M&M - the baby being my peanut.

We had a lot of fun and everyone loved Kevin's costume. It took a lot of work and thought, but we pulled it off.

An Exhausting Weekend

This type of weekend would have made me tired without being pregnant, but being pregnant only magnifies the tired to complete exhaustion. Needless to say I had a really good sleep last night, but I could use a few more hours!

Friday, Oct. 17

Yard Sale Day 1 - Our friends Aaron and Kristin are about to leave Texas to go live overseas. They had a huge yard sale, and since we needed to make some room for baby, we decided to put some items in it as well. We got up early in the morning and Kevin helped get the big stuff out on the lawn. I spent almost all day out there helping with customers and organizing the tables to make them more presentable. I still had to work a few hours on Friday, so I had to go take care of that responsibility. Then after work Kevin helped get the big stuff back inside for the night. Then we went to McAlister's Deli for a date night. Whew! End Day 1.

Saturday, Oct. 18

Yard Sale Day 2 - Again, another early morning, only this time I stayed there until almost 4:00pm. This day I tried to spend less time on my feet since they were swelling. But I still had moments to get up and help customers and straighten. We had a dinner party for Aaron & Kristin at our house, so at 4:00pm I went home to clean a little and get dinner started. At 6:00pm guests started coming and we entertained (sort of - if you can call the Mizzou football game entertainment) until about 9:30pm. Kevin and I were so tired we could hardly move. End Day 2.

Sunday, Oct. 19

We got the spare room ready for the furniture. We cleaned the baseboards and mopped the entire floor. Then our friend Tim helped us, along with his truck, to move the baby furniture from Aaron & Kristin's to our house. Yay! We have our baby furniture. We can now check that off our list of things to do. Then afterward we went back to Aaron & Kristin's so Kevin could help them take apart their bed. Then we went home and did some cleaning since our apartment was a wreck after this long and tiring weekend.

From the yard sale we made about $110 from our stuff. Woohoo! That was really more then I thought we would make, so we're pretty excited. Maybe now we can get the glider rocker for the baby's room. Here's some pictures of our new furniture. We don't have it set up like we want yet since Kevin still needs the room to study. His desk is still in there for the rest of the semester, then over Christmas we will move that into the living room and put the furniture in place. So fun!

My First Ever Baby Shower

On Saturday some of my friends here at seminary threw me a baby shower - my first one ever! It was very fun and very humbling. Kristin, Jill and Chenille did a great job with all the food, games and invitations. (Jill's beautiful handiwork on the invitations can be seen on the post below.) They made awesome food: pinwheels, fruit, crackers & cheese, punch, trifle and cake.


I have a few pictures from my shower posted here. Thanks to everyone who came and who game me such generous gifts. And especially to Jill, Chenille and Kristin for blessing me with the shower. I love you guys!

Here is the beautiful cake, trifle and polka dot plates and napkins.

Here's the awesome food.

This is me holding Chenille's son Ethan.

Here's one of the cute outfits.

Kristin made a really cute diaper cake. It's so cute I don't want to use the diapers. I just want to put it in her room for decoration. But they're a size 2, so she won't be able to use them right away, so I'll be able to enjoy it for a little while. So cute!

Click on the picture to see it a little closer.

He felt the baby kick!

Last night as Kevin and I were laying on our bed talking about the Word, our little girl was kicking me a lot through our entire conversation. Finally toward the end I said something about it. Kevin put his hand on my tummy to see if he could feel her. After a few moments she kicked really hard just below where his hand was. He looked at me with surprise. He didn't feel it but he could see it. So he moved his hand to that area and finally she kicked again. He had the coolest smile on his face in feeling his daughter move for the first time. I've been feeling her move for quite some time, but each time he put his hand on my tummy to feel her, she would stop kicking. It was also cool that we could see it, too.

My friends here in Fort Worth are throwing me a baby shower on Saturday. Since one of my friends is moving soon, she wanted to have one before she left. I'm really excited about it - not just about getting presents for our baby, but to celebrate with my friends the wonderful gift we have been blessed with. I'm very thankful for my friends who want to do this for me.

Next weekend we should be getting our baby furniture. We've been slowly cleaning out the 2nd bedroom in preparation for the new items. I just hope I can find some pink curtains to hang in the room to brighten up the white walls. I'll try to post some pictures as soon as we get it set up.

Trip to the Doctor and Another Ultrasound / Hurricane Ike

Ok, so we had a dr. appt. Wednesday, just another routine checkup. But since I hadn't been feeling the baby move very much, I asked about the possibility of taking a look inside to see if there are any problems. They said sure and we marched right into the room. I'm so glad I did because it really made me feel better and gave me more information about the baby. It took him a little bit to find her because she's sitting really low. Her little feet are right at my bladder and her head is below my bellow button. Once he got in a good position to see her, we could see she wasn't moving. What we could see is that she had the hiccups. Every few seconds her body would jerk and the doctor said that was a hiccup. SO CUTE! He pointed out to us exactly where she was sitting. We could see her legs were tucked underneath her, the knees wide apart and the feet together. He poked around at her to get her to move. She moved her feet once. I think I felt it, but am not for sure. He poked at her some more and she finally turned her head away from us like she was annoyed we were disrupting her sleep. It was so fun! The doctor said everything looks fine.

Later that night, now that I know exactly where she is in my belly, I could feel her moving down low. I think she may have been kicking hard enough for someone else to feel her, but when Kevin put his hand on her, she stopped moving. But I did feel her quite a bit last night. Even now as I'm typing this post I feel her moving around down there again. I'm really glad I asked about it because I can feel her now that I know where she is. I feel so much better and she was acting really cute for us to see. Yay!

Ok, so for hurricane Ike. They were predicting the Dallas-Fort Worth area would get hit with some high winds and a lot of rain. We definitely got the rain, but no high winds. The storm did bring in some cooler weather, though. 75 degrees is not normal Texas weather for September. That should come in November. But hey, this pregnant body was ready for some relief from the heat. No complaints from me. The rain on Saturday did make for some interesting intramural football games. Kevin is playing on a team with some friends. They won by a long shot. Me, yes I went. I took my rain jacket and an umbrella. It was actually really humid that day, just really rainy. This season is going to be a fun one to watch. We'll keep you updated on the status.

Baby "Booties"

Kevin's grandma Moots sent us the cutest little gift today. She wrote us a letter and even included a poem to go along with the gift. Here's the poem:

If you're gonna live in Texas

Ya' gotta have cowboy boots!

For if you don't then folks will say,

"You just don't give a hoot."

So, promenade and do-si-do

As you go down the hall.

I'll bet folks say as you go by,

"That's the cutest one of all!"

We also thought we'd post a picture of me as I'm progressing along:

Moving In

So, you know when you or someone you know is about to get married - they start packing up all their things and taking them to a new location. I remember when Kevin and I got our first apartment together. We got it a little over a month before our wedding and started moving a few of our things in. I had just graduated from college and had moved all those things into the apartment and started living there while I looked for a job in Springfield. Kevin still had his place close to campus where he stayed, but started moving some stuff over as well. We had boxes and gifts from showers just piled all over. During the day we worked and at night would get the place in shape, looking forward to the coming day when we could both stay there together.

Now it's 6 years later and we are starting a similar ritual. If you were to step into our tiny apartment, in the back room you would see transition - boxes of items, a couple pieces of furniture and small little baby items piled all over. We are awaiting the day when our little precious girl will come home to her new room. During the day we work and go to school, but at night we prepare our room. So far we have sold our desk, a bookcase and the blue rug. We still need to sell a little bench and a big futon, but I know those items will go easily. We have boxed up some of Kevin's books and are still working on other items on our list of things to do. Although it's hard work moving things around and trying to find where it all will fit, I'm enjoying this time of simplifying our lives to add more joy than we could ever imagine. Yesterday I purchased her baby quilt. It should arrive in the mail on Saturday and I'm so excited to see it!

Not only are we preparing physical things in our lives, we are preparing other things as well. Pr is such an important part of life and I know I do not bring enough to the Father - something I am working on. From day one we started pring for our baby and continued to do so when we thought we might lose her. We want to build up our faith in Him so that we can be effective parents who raise our children to know Him and to follow Him. Please join us as we pr for her and as we pr for us to be her leaders in this world.

It's a GIRL!

On Thursday, Kevin and I went to see the doctor and we knew this was our time to hopefully, finally find out the gender of our baby. The sonographer showed us different parts of our child on the screen, measuring it's head, belly, thigh and looking at it's internal systems and vertebrae. We also got to see her heartbeat and listen to it...a beautiful 157 bpm. Then finally the moment came...it's a girl! We were so excited and I cried so much. We made sugar cookies with pink frosting and took them to work to share the news with our co-workers.

Friday evening we went to Barnes & Noble and grabbed a couple baby name books to try to find a name for our little girl. That took a while. When you have 100,000 names to look at (well, maybe cut that in half since the book is for boy and girl names), it takes a while. We jotted down a few ideas to ponder in the coming weeks.

Now we're in the process of getting the baby room ready. I know, it's sounds really early. But trust me, with all the junk we've collected over the past two years, we need to start now. We're going to buy the furniture set from our friends, which includes a crib, changing table and armoire. They're getting ready to leave the country and will be leaving at the end of October, so we'll be getting the set then. So that gives us about 2 1/2 months to get this room ready, which means we have to sell our huge desk and get a smaller desk, sell a large bookcase, a huge futon and move another bookcase into the living room.

If you know Kevin very well, you know he loves books. Getting rid of a bookcase is a huge sacrifice, so we're having to box up un-needed books and store them in our closets. Then we have to go through the other closets to get rid of other things we don't need to make room for those boxes of books, and so on and so forth. It's gonna be a big job, but I'm glad we have the time to do it. We did find a beautiful smaller desk to replace the gigantic one. We found it at a thrift store that benefits a battered women's shelter here in Tarrant County, Texas. So we're glad our money for the desk is going to a good cause.

Anyway, please pr that we can sell these items we need to get rid of and use that money toward the baby furniture. But most of all, pray for the health and safety of our little girl as the next 5 months she will continue to grow healthy and perfectly.

Babies 'R Expensive

Recently, Kevin and I have been looking into all the stuff we have to do to get ready for baby. Doctor bills, baby furniture, strollers, safety gear, etc. It all adds up. No wonder the baby department is a multi-million dollar-a-year industry. They charge an arm and a leg for everything in site. Even maternity clothes cost 10-20% more than regular clothes. But when you HAVE to have a safe carseat for baby and a crib where it's head can't get stuck between the bars, I guess they can charge $200+ for it. We've been looking for ways to cut costs, but not cut safety. It's difficult, but I think we can do it.

We've...well, when I say we, I usually mean me...narrowed it down to two bedding sets for baby. One for a boy and one for a girl. I think. I tend to change my mind from time to time, so even this post will come as news to Kevin when he reads it. Here are the pictures:

I really like both sets and they will both look good with the furniture we might purchase from our friends who are getting ready to move out of the country (one way we are cutting costs). I wanted to make all these decisions by the time we find out what we're having so we can go ahead and register for gifts. (Gifts...another good way to cut costs.) And a big thank you to my friend Kristin for helping me to complete my baby needs list. Experienced moms know best.

So, if you have any good tips on how to cut costs, without cutting safety, please send them our way. We love the advice of experience.

Our baby is the size of a G.I Joe action figure

Kevin has really been getting into the facts about how big our baby is growing and how much it weighs. We got to hear the heartbeat again last Monday in the doctor's office and of course that's what we tend to talk about for the next day or two. We often talk about how big the baby is getting. So this is in honor of daddy:

Week 14: Average size: 3.4 in, 1.5 oz

(aprox. the size of a G.I. Joe action figure)

A Whole New Wardrobe

It's time to start shopping. My clothes are starting to fit tight enough to put them away for the next 6-8 months and start wearing those with more room in the belly. When you have to safety pin your pants, it's time to go shopping. But I'm finding it's hard to find cute maternity pants. They're mostly so plain looking. Old Navy's pants are TERRIBLE and don't fit correctly. GAP's pants are way too expensive. Motherhood Maternity's pants are high too, but not as bad as the GAP. I don't really know anyone who has maternity clothes to borrow in my size - Short. I guess I'll just have to break down and buy a couple of pants and just wear those over and over and over. If you know of any good deals, and I mean good deals for short people - Target just doesn't work - then pass the info my way.

From My Vantage Point

Yesterday Kevin finished the first half of his grueling summer semester of Turbo Hebrew. He's done really well and it helps that he took 4 semesters of Hebrew in his undergrad. We celebrated the event by going to Chili's with Tim & Jill (Tim's in the class as well) and watching the movie Vantage Point. If you haven't seen the movie yet, watch it - you can rent it at the Redbox for only $1.

This weekend will be July 4th and our 6th anniversary. We can't really go away anywhere since we're saving $$ for the baby, so we're going to take advantage of some of the fun things to do around Fort Worth and hang out with good friends. There are plenty of places to go park and watch fireworks. Tim & Jill have access to a private pool from their friends and sleeping in is a priority. So the extended weekend is looking really good right now.

Also this weekend, I will have to start shopping for maternity clothes - mostly pants. I know it will still be a few more weeks before I really need to start wearing them, but there are several sales going on this weekend and then they'll be bringing out their fall wardrobe. So I need to take advantage of getting discounts now rather than wait until I have to pay full price. I did stop by the Gap last Friday to check out what they had in stock. I tried on a few pairs of pants with some shirts. They had the cute pregnancy belly to try on with the clothes and it was really fun to see what I would look like a few months from now.

Happy Independence Day from Fort Worth, Texas. Hope you have a fun weekend!

Fun-filled weekends make it hard to go to work on Monday

We had a really fun weekend with our friends last Friday and Saturday and it makes it so hard to go to work the next week. Friday night Tim & Jill had us over for dinner and it was so good. We are so thankful they live by us. The next day on Saturday Kevin played softball with some friends and then we went swimming with Tim & Jill. We got a lot of sun and the water felt so good. We had such a great time just relaxing and forgetting about other stresses in our lives that we didn't want to return to life as usual. But we did.

Right now I am 11 weeks along in this pregnancy. I still feel pretty sick at times and still tired, but I can tell it's starting to diminish....very slowly. *knock on wood* No, I'm not showing yet, but I've gained some weight and my pants don't button anymore. I have to use safety pins and rubber bands to hold them up. Thankfully I already had purchased some maternity shirts on clearance and I've also been wearing those, along with some of my looser shirts. Once I do start showing I will take some pictures of my protruding bump and post them on this site for all to see. In the meantime, keep enjoying the pictures of how big the baby is growing in my belly.

Our Little Circus Peanut

After visiting the doctor last Monday we were discussing the visit with our friends Tim & Jill. Kevin was talking about how big the baby is right now and he described it like a circus peanut. So instead of the weekly picture I submit about how big our baby is right now, I thought it appropriate to include the following:

Week 10: Average Size 1.2 in., .14 oz.

I'd like to add that it's very difficult to find a good picture of a circus peanut on the web. Thank you!

Woosh, Woosh, Woosh, Woosh

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon to check and see how the baby is doing. We knew we'd get to hear the heartbeat through doppler, but we didn't expect to get an ultrasound. But we got into the room and the doctor came in and turned on the machine, put the thingy on my belly and instantly we saw our baby. It was so very cool. The doctor said everything looked good. He showed us where the heart was beating and it actually looked like a real heart. He maginified the sound and we could hear the little heart wooshing away. The doctor said it sounded really strong and that the baby must be sleeping because sometimes you can see them moving around, but ours was still. I didn't think to ask for a picture. We haven't got one yet, but there's not much to really look at yet. It still looks really small and blob-like. Once it gets it's features we will get a picture. We prayed and thanked Him for our wonderful gift.

9 weeks and counting...

When does the morning sickness leave?

I'm so tired of being sick. My tummy turns and has barely any relief. I'm also SO tired. Just wanted to complain for a minute.

Kevin and I got to practice our parenting skills last Friday night. We babysat our friend's little 9-month-old girl while they went out for their anniversary. She is so adorable! Her name is Rachel. We got there Friday around 6pm and she played for a long time. We liked playing with her. She did have one really dirty diaper and her face was hilarious while she was filling it. And guess who got to change it - yep, me. I had Kevin change her into her pj's - quite a challenge. OK, I had to eventually put them on her. But Kevin gave her the bottle and she feel asleep in his arms and snuggled up to him. It was SO cute. We put her to bed and she slept soundly until mom and dad got back. We had so much fun!

8 Weeks

This little one just keeps growing and growing. My morning sickness is driving me crazy and I have to get more sleep each day since I'm so exhausted all the time. But I'm sure looking forward to the rewards. I had a dream the other night that our baby was here and sleeping soundly. S/he was so beautiful! I remember being so happy in that dream. Then I woke up and felt sick again.

Kevin has been a huge support to me. He makes sure I get the rest I need and doesn't expect me to overdo it. He's been taking care of things around the house, which has helped me so much. He started Turbo Hebrew on Monday, so he's also really busy with that. It's kinda like Hebrew boot camp, in a sense. It's pretty intense, but he already did really good on his first quiz.

Didn't really have much more to say than this. Just wanted to show off the little raspberry.

7 Weeks...and boy, am I feeling it!

I am now 7 weeks along and the baby is now about the size of a blueberry. By now most of our friends and family know about the little blessing to come. Since last week spilled the beans, we figured we better go ahead and tell people so they can be praying for us...also, we didn't want anyone close to us to find out by way of the grapevine.

As of last week I hadn't had any tiredness or morning sickness, but it is in full bloom now. It's kinda weird, actually. The day after I visit the hospital is about when everything kicked in. Now I'm really tired, especially in the mornings, and get nauseous now and then. It's so hard to get ready for work, and work, every day. I never realized how hard it was to be pregnant until now. Of course, everything I'm feeling all scares me a little and I over-analyze everything. But this is my first baby and I want to make sure and do everything I can to keep it safe and healthy. Added onto the tired and sick feelings, I'm constantly hungry. I'll eat something and then 2-3 hours later I'm starving again. It never ends. And it's sure taking every ounce of energy I have to write this blog entry. So I think I will stop and rest for a while. Maybe put my feet up and take a little nap.

We're Having a Baby!!!

Well, the news is out. We are expecting our first child. Mandy is only 6 weeks along, so it's a little early to start telling people about, but she had a bit of a scare the other day which kinda spilled the beans.

Tuesday morning I (Mandy) had some bleeding and I thought I might be having a miscarriage. Thankfully there was another lady co-worker who was down in my office at the time and took me to the hospital. They did an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok and I got to see the heartbeat! It was so cool! They took my blood and gave me a few explainations as to why this happened. They seemed to think I was ok, but there is still a risk of miscarriage. They also told me to see my doctor within day, which I already had an appointment scheduled for the next day.

At the doctor, he saw my ultrasound results and my blood test results and seemed to think everything looked fine. He said my levels were exactly where they needed to be and the ultrasound looked good. He had me go in this morning (Thursday) to have some more bloodwork done to make sure my levels were duplicating as they should. But according to him he seemed to think I was ok. Of course, there is still some risk, as it is still early in the pregnancy and in the first trimester is when most of the danger lies. So we're just praying that God protects this baby and that in January we will be able to welcome a new face into the Moots family.

My due date in January 15. Yeah! Right now our baby is about the size of a sweet pea.

Kittens Found

Last week my friend Jill found some kittens while she was walking on the seminary campus. They are so cute and litter box trained. She picked them up and took them home. Our neighbor's sister is going to keep them. It was so funny becuase just the other day I was saying how I wanted to hold some kittens. It's been a really long time since I've been around them since we can't have pets in our apartment. I don't think Kevin would want indoor cats anyway. I really don't either, but I love kittens! See how cute they are.

I Saw A Fox!

Last night while I was walking in our neighborhood I saw a fox. I couldn't tell if it was red or brown, but I could definitely tell it was a fox. It was a beautiful sight for this country girl to see.

Kevin and I have been doing well. Kevin's spring semester ended and he had all last week with no classes. Today he started a 2-week class to earn some quick credits for the summer. Then he starts Turbo Hebrew in June. My job is going really well...busy. They have assembled a search committee for the music position, so I'm hoping they will hire someone by the end of the summer so that things can have more normalcy. It's hard to do this job with an intirim who's just here for a couple hours 2 days a week.

Bass Hall

A couple weeks ago Kevin and I got to go to the Bass Hall to see the Fort Worth Symphany Orchestra. A friend has season tickets and couldn't go one night, so she gave us the tix. We were pretty excited. We got all dressed up and took off for the show. Parking on Friday nights is scary downtown because there are so many people out and about, especially since the weather is warmer. We were a little late for the first movement, but soon settled into our nosebleed section seats and enjoyed the music. It's really amazing how much talent people have. To have the endurance to be able to play for over an hour without stopping.

http://basshall.com/

We had never been to the Bass Hall and didn't really imagine we'd have the chance because of the expense of the tickets, so we were thankful for this cultural opportunity. We took a few pictures of the performance hall. The bottom picture is of the beautiful dome ceiling.

Golf Season

Since the weather has been nice lately, Kevin has been in the mood to swing the golf clubs. He bought some practice balls and takes them outside our apartment to hit them at our friend's apartment across the parking lot. He's also been teaching me the fundamentals of hitting. I've been doing ok for a starter. I can actually hit them across the lot. Woohoo!

2 Weeks of Craziness!

The last two weeks for us have been crazy. So much happening and a lot to report about. Thank you to everyone who has been pring for us. We really appreciate it.

Week 1: March 17-23

On Monday, I (Mandy) found out my grandfather passed away. This was expected, he had been sick for quite a long time, but still sad because he was a wonderful person. Kevin and I were planning to go back to Missouri to visit my brother anyway, so we just decided to leave a day early to go to the funeral. So I got everything done at work that I possibly could and we headed out of Fort Worth on Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday morning was the funeral and I'm so glad we went. I saw all my family (on my mom's side) and we celebrated grandpa's life. After lunch we went back to my aunt Diana's house and sang some of grandpa's favorite hymns. Our family is very musical and we love to sing. Friday Kevin and I went to see Justin and Christie, along with my two little nieces, Anna and Chloe. They're so cute.

Saturday afternoon we met Kevin's brother Scott and his family in Springfield to eat at McAlister's. Teresa and Chris had come to Lebanon and we got to spend some time with them over the past couple of days and they came, too. Then we all said goodbye and we headed back to see Justin again. This time my other brother was there, and my mom, and another one of my nieces Macy was there. The two girls Anna and Macy are about 1 1/2 months apart and they have a lot of fun together. They even decorated cookies for Easter - such a mess!

Sunday we went to sunrise service at Hillcrest and then decided to start our trip back to Texas, with a stop in Springfield to go to service at Broadway where Kevin and I were members when we were first married. It was such an awesome service. They have grown tremendously and are looking to purchase land to build on because their building can just not hold all the people anymore. What a great problem to have! After visiting with a few friends, we headed back to warmer weather.

Week 2: March 24-30

This week actually started off pretty good. (Monday I took this picture of a tree in our front yard with the leaves all green. There weren't any green anything in Missouri.)

I was hoping it would be a more normal week, but I quickly found out otherwise. Tuesday my boss called me into his office because he had to talk to me about something. Of course, my thoughts were wondering what I had done wrong. But he actually told me he was leaving. He was contacted by a membership north of Dallas to be their music leader and he believed He was calling him there. So Wednesday evening he announced it to the choir here. I'm going to have a lot more responsibility now. I'm looking forward to the challenge, but it's just sad. He's a great boss. Everyone here loves him and people cried a lot. Kevin came and met him for the first time, kinda strange. So the rest of the week has been trying to think of everything we need to do to prepare, and thinking of everything I need to learn about before he leaves.

Thankfully the weekend came and we went to dinner with our friends Tim & Jill. Jill's birthday was last week. She went to Mexico with her work (she works for Habitat for Humanity) and her husband went to Wyoming (an article about him is below). So they didn't get to celebrate her birthday yet. They invited us to go to Saltgrass Steakhouse with them because they had some gift certificates and then we went to see the movie "Horton Hears a Who". It was pretty good. There are some really funny parts about it.

Saturday we helped our friends Greg and Chenille move next door. And then we all had a BBQ together. The first BBQ of the warm season! Fun! Kevin brought his golf clubs and they hit those yellow practice balls across the street. I might be biased, but Kevin hit them the best. :-) Sunday Kevin took some Cuban leaders to Chuck Swindoll's membership in Plano. He had a really good time with them. When he got back he had me meet them and they wanted to take pictures with us. So fun! The rest of the day we relaxed after our exciting week.

Thank You for Pring

On Tuesday, February 19, I (Mandy) got a call from my brother Andy. Our other brother Justin had a car accident on his way to work that morning. He was traveling on Hwy 60 from Marshfield to Springfield (in Missouri) when he had a diabetic blackout and ran the car into a semi truck. The Jaws of Life had to be used on both front car doors to get him out of the car and he was air-lifted to the Cox South Hospital. At first the doctors just thought he had a broken hip bone, but the next day they learned he had lost 3/4 of his colon and needed to surgically remove it on Wednesday.

Kevin called American Airlines and found they have a great discounted rate for emergency situations. He scheduled me on a flight for Thursday morning. Unlucky for me there was an ice storm in Springfield and I had to wait 11 hours in the airport before finally boarding the plane to Missouri. When I arrived at the hospital I learned Justin was having difficulty breathing, had a bruise on his heart and was in ICU. He also had a colostomy bag which would need to be there for 4-6 months until they could reattach the remaining parts of his surviving colon. He was scheduled for surgery on Monday for his hip.

The next few days in the hospital were long, but good. He took care of him everyday and we saw many improvements. His breathing, day by day, got better and better. The bruise on his heart, we learned, would heal on its own without long term effects and he was given a medication on aid in the healing. He was in a lot of pain from surgery and from his hip. Morphine was a word we heard often, but it also helped him to rest at night. I saw many visitors, friends and relatives, whom I had not seen in a long time, each person saying, "It's good to see you again. Just wish it were in better circumstances." I spent a lot of time with Justin's daughters, my nieces, Anna (2-years-old) and Chloe (4 months). They are so cute and Anna loved to be with me all the time.

On Sunday Justin had to have the incision from his surgery opened back up because there was some infection from the staples. The doctor thought this would help it heal faster. He did have one surgery on his hip, to put a plate in his pelvic bone on the right side from the break. They weren't able to do the second part, which is to put a pin in his tailbone from another break. The doctor is hoping to be able to complete that stage of his recovery later this week. I flew back to Texas on Tuesday evening, saying goodbye to my brother who had his first physical therapy session, was finally drinking clear liquids and sitting up in a recliner for the first time. Things were looking good.

On Wednesday morning I get a call from Christie, Justin's wife and my sister-in-law, saying they were taking him back into surgery because he was having a fowl smell come from his abdomen. She was very upset (and who wouldn't be) driving by herself to the hospital. I tried to help her calm down and then tell me again what was wrong, because I could not understand her the first time. After she told me I knew I couldn't do anything but pr. So I pleaded with the Father to help him. I found out later that he had more infection in his abdomen and they needed to clean it out. Whew!

How can the Father be praised in all this? Justin does not remember putting on his seat belt that morning before leaving for work, but the EMT remembers cutting it off, his abdomen tissue resembles much bruising across his stomach and Christie's dad took pictures of the cut seat belt. The first person on the scene was an emergency room doctor from another hospital. Each day he has been getting better and better. Many people are generously giving money to them to help with expenses, especially since Justin is the sole provider for their family. Also, Justin is talking about finally finishing his degree. He is good, all the time. All the time, He is good.

Kevin is all better!

Kevin went for a checkup at CareNow for his back this afternoon and he's all better! He's been released from all his restrictions and he doesn't have to go back to the doctor anymore. That's such a blessing. We're so thankful to the Father for watching over him and us as he's been going through this trial. Now he's going to play intramural basketball at the seminary. His first game is Thursday night. Yeah! + The weather is absolutely gorgeous right now. Yesterday and today have been in the upper 70's! I've been able to take walks in the afternoons in shorts and a t-shirt. I'm lovin' it!

Visiting Family

Kevin's brother Scott was able to come to Fort Worth for a music conference on campus the beginning of this week. He flew in Monday afternoon, so we had dinner with him and then we met him for breakfast the next morning, then he flew back Tuesday evening. It was really good to get to talk with him.

It made me think about my family and so I went to look at some of the pictures of my cute little nieces. We took these when we visited just before Thanksgiving after Teresa's wedding. I thought I would share some of those with you. Enjoy!

Busy or Just Lazy?

Well, as you can tell it's been about a month since we've updated our blog. December has been a busy and trying month for us. With the end of another semester to Christmas, New Years and money issues, we've just not been thinking about updating this page. So we apologize. Hopefully in a few days we will be able to inform you of how our holidays have been and upload a few pics of our memories. Until then, we hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.