It's The Little Things...

So you've probably read my melancholy posts the last few days. I have been in a funk, unable to snap myself out of it. This morning when I woke up, I sat there in my bed, hugging my pillow, and asking God to give me a boost today. It didn't have to be anything big, just a little something to brighten my day.

My God is a God who cares about little things like that. He is a God who delights in details. He is a God who answers the desperate prayers of a moderately depressed, sun-deprived, energy-deficient woman in Arkansas.

You may remember the frantic despair that slammed me a few months back when the ever-so-charming Geek Squad at Best Buy deleted photos off of my hard drive AND my backup drive. I resigned myself to accepting that I had lost all my photos from March-July of this year. I cried for a few days every time I thought about those precious pictures. Then I let it go. What is done is done.

This morning I decided to edit a few more of my childhood photos that I scanned on my California trip. I popped in my thumb drive and THERE WERE MY PICTURES!!! All the pictures I lost back in July!!! I jumped up and did the happy dance. Then I cried. Then I danced some more! Of course I updated my status on Facebook.

It never occurred to me to thank God for brightening my day by recovering those pictures for me. Until now.

It has been 2 hours since I found those pictures, and I just realized that I bought that thumb drive brand-new in August. It was purchased expressly for my California trip. Every single one of my lost pictures was lost off my backup drive in JULY. How did they end up on a thumb drive I bought AFTER the photos were lost? How did they end up on a thumb drive that I have only opened 3 times since I got home from California?

Thank you, God. I can't think of any other explanation for how those photos are on that drive! It has to be You. Wow!

I'm still trying to claw out of my funk. It is still gray outside, and I still have no energy. But my day is brighter because my amazing God clearly answered my prayer this morning.

And I got a really cute picture of Pepper this morning! Hafta share it with you.

Gray

The last few weeks I have learend again never to take for granted:
1. My health
2. Sunshine

I have definitely been under the weather--circumstantially, physically, emotionally. I'm just a fat blob of gray sitting on a couch in Central Arkansas.

I think we have had 4 sunny days in the last month. I have long struggled with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but have had it well under control, thanks to the glorious existence of Welbutrin! But I think it is time to talk to the doc and raise my dosage, because it isn't working! Sunshine is in the forecast for the next few days. Oh wow, am I ever looking forward to soaking up some rays!

Sickness has been tracking me like a bloodhound this last month, too. Laryngitis and bronchitis took me out in Round 1. There was never Round 2...just a complete knockout. I'm still not convinced I didn't have H1N1 in there...no official diagnosis, but my symptoms exactly follow descriptions of the virus. And here I am a week of fever-free, and still dragging all day. No energy. Zip. Nada. My family is lucky to have gotten to eat the last week!

All that plays on the emotions, too. Add a traveling husband, challenging circumstances at home, and the cancellation of a planned family trip, and I'm just kind of a mess. Oh. And financial woes, too. It's that time of year.

Sorry to host a little sob-fest here, but I journal the down times as well as the up times. Lay it all out there, because I'm far from perfect. No use being delusional, right?

Ha ha!

On the bright side, Snapper's swim team is going great! She swims in her first meet next weekend! Pepper is fully potty trained at night! Woot! I have bought my last package of Pull-Ups, at least for a time! The trees are changing colors! I have a beautiful maple tree that I enjoy all year. I purposely modify my travel route when driving to see my friend Karon, in order to drive by that spectacular tree! Be watching for pictures, coming soon. The tree needs another week or two before it will peak. Finally, I was healthy enough on Monday to go photograph my friend Jodie's new baby, Ashten. He is 3 weeks old, and a total cutie pie! Here's my favorite pics from the shoot.

Alrighty then, grumpfest is over. I'm going to make an apple cake and an egg casserole to feed my Bible study ladies for breakfast tomorrow. And I also need to pack Snapper's lunch. Then I am going to bed. Night night, bloggy friends! I am thankful for you.

Camera Buffet

Fall weather is perfect for pictures! The temp is just right out, and everyone is happy. Fall foliage spices up photos, too. Add some soft clouds, and the lighting is perfect! All the conditions were perfect for my photo session with my friends Ross and Taya yesterday. Their son, E, turned 1 last week. I got to do a shoot with him when he was 6 months old. It was such fun to follow up and do his first birthday portraits, too! He is a regular buffet for my camera...it just ate him right up!

Little E at 6 months old, my favorite shot from that day

Little E at 1 year, my favorite shot from this session

First birthday collage

A Little Catching Up

Have I mentioned recently that I love my kids? They are so cute and so wonderful. A lot has been happening in their little lives recently. This post will be mainly for me, so I don't forget.

Snapper is not the world's most graceful or coordinated child. I think her large head and ginormous feet prevent her from excelling in dance and most sports. Seriously, she's a capital L standing there, with a melon for a head! Hee hee! I have often wondered what activities she would enjoy and have a chance to be good at. This summer we found the answer. When we enrolled Snapper in our community pool's swim team, we realized for the first time that swimming comes naturally to her. She's a fish...clumsy on land but brilliant in the water. FINALLY we found something that she absolutely loves and has natural ability for. Last week we took the plunge and Snapper tried out for the year-round, competitive swim team in our town. She made the team, and started swimming with the beginning level group on Tuesday! I'm excited to watch her grow in her ability, and gain some discipline and endurance.

On the way to swim team practice yesterday, I got a call from the opthamologist informing me that Snapper's glasses were in! The doctor put a rush on them, and we got them only one day after ordering them! After swimming, we went down to pick up the glasses. I caught myself holding my breath as Snapper put on the glasses for the first time. Her eyes about popped out of her head, and she started giggling. She just sat there and giggled for a good 3 minutes, until the tears were rolling down her cheeks! Once she gained control of herself, she said, "I NEVER want to take these glasses off EVER! I will wear them forever!" On the way home from school today, she told me how she never knew how beautiful the clouds were. She has never noticed that trees had individual leaves! And she was able to read the board at school, and see the pictures in the book her teacher read, all while sitting at her desk! This is one thankful mommy!

Pepper has become completely obssessed with Spiderman. Oops, pardon me, it's "Piderman." It definitely would not have been my first choice to show Spiderman to my 3-year-old, but Matt watched it with him when I was in California in August. And now Pepper lives and breathes Spiderman. Last week I caught him spraying Shout all over the kitchen with a fierce look on his face. When I asked him what he was doing he replied, "I'm throwing my webs!" They are very clean webs.

Today I went up to the office to take Matt to lunch. When I pulled into the parking lot, I called him to let him know we had arrived. When I hung up, Pepper said, "Who was that, Mommy?" I said, "It was your Daddy." He said, "No it wasn't my Daddy! It was your sweetheart!"

CUTE!

My birthmom visited us from Arizona last week. We had a wonderful week together. Her Christmas gift to her family is going to be family pictures of all of us together. We had planned on doing a photo shoot at one of the parks in town, but it rained all week. We ended up going down to church and using the portable puppet stage as a backdrop. Nice black curtains! I made a collage of all the favorite pictures for Nana to take home with her, and I also printed 8x10's of the family photo for the Christmas gifts. I have found Walmart to be the best quality photo lab around, and the prices are great. I uploaded the pics to Walmart's website and placed my order. A few hours later, I got a call from the general manager. He was refusing to print the pictures because they were professional studio portraits! Ha ha ha! I was so tickled! Seriously, it made my day! I explained that I was the photographer. He asked me for proof. I told him I could bring down the memory card with the whole session on it. When I arrived at the store, he met me there, and made me look him in the eye and tell him I was really the photographer. Then I had to sign a copyright release! So without further ado, here are my "professional studio portraits!" Ha ha ha!

Vroom Vroom!

So my 30th birthday was mostly not great on the day itself. But as a total event, it has to be the best birthday EVER! Why? Because way back in February, this redneck, NASCAR junkie bought herself a pair of tickets to the Labor Day NASCAR race in Atlanta. Seven months of anticipation reached a glittering, star-struck peak one week ago.

On Friday we picked up Snapper at school at lunch and drove to stay with out friends Brian and Carol in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. They moved there in January, and we haven't had any time with them since then. It was so great to see them! Snapper was elated to see S and V. Baby A has grown like a weed. We ate good food, played at 2 different parks, and spent quality time catching up.

Then came Sunday. How do I begin to describe Sunday? While we sat in traffic, I very carefully painted a big 48 on my cheek.

For those of you who don't already know, I am a fan of Jimmie Johnson, who drives the 48 Lowes car. Matt says I put the fan in fanatic...I wouldn't say I'm quite that bad, but I do love my Jimmie Johnson. I showed some restraint at the race. Even though I did my nails blue with a gold 48 on each thumb, even though I put blue, yellow, and white ribbons in my hair, even though I wore my Jimmie shirt and painted my face, I left the Jimmie Johnson lounge pants in my suitcase and wore jeans instead. Ha ha! When the race track came into sight after 3 hours in traffic, I was more than ready for the race!

We walked around checking out the driver merchandise trailers and the Sprint Fan Zone. I even won a cool hat, which I later saw for sale at the whopping price of $20!

As soon as we were able, we headed into the speedway and found our seats. Because I paid top dollar for the best seats I could get, we ended up sitting up high with a perfect view of the whole track. It also seemed that the expensive seats filter out a lot of the fans who use the race as an excuse to get drunk. We saw very little of that, and were surrounded by nice people.

I soaked up every minute of the pre-race festivities, watching the pit road action through my zoom lens on my camera.

Driver introductions were awesome, and I got a good close-up view of Jimmie! Dr. Dobson gave the invocation, and a country group sang the national anthem. I got all goosebumpy when the Air Force jets did their fly-over.

Then came the famous command: Gentlemen, start your engines! The cars roared to life. They circled the track following the pace car for a few laps, and then the green flag waved and my ear drums flapped all over the place in my head as all 43 cars hit the throttle at once and came screaming by. I swear, every hair on my body stood on end! The stands vibrated so hard that I almost lost my balance just standing there! That moment ranks in the top 5 most exhillerating moments of my life!

The rest of the race was fantastic. We rented scanners and headsets, and got to listen to the communications between the drivers and their crew chiefs. Much to Matt's disappointment, there were no big wrecks. To my almost devastation, Jimmie Johnson broke an axel and spent several laps in the garage getting it fixed. However, it was still a good race with a great finish. Kasey Kahne won. I can live with that, because he is a good driver and a great guy.

Did I enjoy every minute? Absolutely! Was it worth the $270 I spent on 2 tickets? Heck yes it was! Will I go again? Just as soon as I can save up enough money to buy more tickets!

Yesterday I watched this week's race on tv. No matter how loud I turned up my surround sound, I could not feel the vibration of those incredible cars. Nor could I soak up the intense energy and excitement of the other fans. I still love watching the race on tv, but I can hardly wait to go to the next race. Happy birthday to me! It was the best birthday present ever!

Back to School Traditions, Part 5

Okay, so we began a new tradition this year, one that we'll be sure to keep as long as we live in a town with a Sonic. As most of you know, Sonic has Happy Hour from 2-4. All drinks and slushes are half-price! I called my friend Karon, whose kids C, J, and H are Snapper's best friends. In fact, Snapper and J are pretty much engaged...at least they say so. Ha ha! Karon's kids get out at the same time as Snapper, so we surprised the kids and met at Sonic for drinks. I let them pick whatever they wanted. Of course, Snapper asked for a Route 44 Dr. Pepper. I gave in to the Dr. Pepper, but got a medium instead. The kids were thrilled to see each other, and had fun being very silly while they enjoyed their drinks. Yup, definitely a tradition to keep!

Sonic surprise for the kiddos!

Puppy lovebirds. Aren't they adorable?



Snapper was telling the boys a secret. I love how all you can see of her is her hairbow!
Sweet secrets

And the sugar sets in. At this point we say our goodbyes and head for home.

Back to School Traditions, Part 4

Okay, so this tradition is so unoriginal. It seems like most people do it, and for good reason. How fun is it to have a first day of school picture of your child...taken each year in the same place? This is the fourth year I have photographed Snapper on our front porch. You can use the porch post as kind of a marker for her growth from year to year. I think the maturing of her face is really significant, too. This was the first year Pepper got his picture taken, and the first year I photographed them together.

K-4...so tiny and adorable!

K-5...still so little!

1st Grade...our homeschooling year

2nd Grade...how she has grown!

Little Man, K-3

2nd grade and K-3

Back to School Traditions, Part 2

Okay, so no pictures for Pepper yesterday, either. But as I predicted, he was super excited this morning and cooperated pretty well. When I picked him up from school, he was peaceful and happy. So when we got home, I asked him if he wanted to go out front and take some fun pictures. I learned something today: when Snapper's away, Pepper will play. The little turkey hammed it up from the camera. I think he was so relaxed because there was no big sister pressuring him! So even though the pics were taken today, they'll count as his before school pictures for this year. It's the first year of school for him, so I don't have any older pictures to share.

Of Butterflies and Rodents

I began my phone call to Matt yesterday with this question: "Which do you want first--the good news or the bad news?" Like me, he always prefers to hear bad news first, then chase it with the good news. But not yesterday. Yesterday I gave him the good news first. Here is what I said.

The good news is that our annual termite inspection turned up no evidence of termites.
The bad news is that the termite inspector found a really bad rat infestation in the crawl space under our house. There was evidence of possums there, too.
The good news is that we don't have to pay Terminix $1200 to clean out the crawl space, and that it will only cost us $30.
The bad news is that to get the $30 rate, you will have to clean it out yourself.
The good news is that insulation is easy to remove.
The bad news is that the insulation is so full of rat urine and crap that you'll need to wear a protective body suit, gloves, mask, and goggles in order to clean it all out. Thus, the $30.
The good news is that once the crawl space is cleaned out, we should all be much healthier.
The bad news is that all the respiratory illnesses we've had in our family in the last few months have been caused by bacteria from the rat-crapped crawl space seeping into our air system. It could even be the main, contributing factor in Pepper's chronic croup. (at this point commence the gagging...)

I finished my announcement with a piece of good news: "Guess what Honey? There's nothing on our calendar for this weekend so you can clean out the crawl space tomorrow!" Oh goodie...

When we woke up this morning, we were not yet ready to tackle the rat room. We figured the likelihood of encountering rats was higher during the morning, so we opted to wait for afternoon. Instead, we headed out to the Little Rock Farmer's Market for one more summer morning before school starts. I love the colors, smells, and sounds of the Farmer's Market. I didn't buy anything today because frankly, my spending money has grown wings and flown away. But my camera ate up the fresh produce and flowers just fine for free. We also paid a visit to the park by the Farmer's Market, which has a wonderful fountain for kids to play in. Snapper and Pepper love this park. It was one last splash of summer before school starts on Wednesday. Here are a few pictures from my morning.







This afternoon Matt and I tackled the rat toilet. Lucky Matt got to wear the protective gear and go under the house to rip out the offending insulation. He's my own, personal superhero...Rat Matt to the rescue!



I tied a bandana around my face, wore the oldest clothes I could find, and pulled all the insulation into a pile in the yard as Matt shoved it out from under the house. I can't even begin to describe how GROSS, YUCKY, DISGUSTING, REVOLTING, HORRID, NASTY, and EWWWWWWWW that job was! When all the insulation was out, it made a pile 15 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 6 feet high. It then took us an hour to stuff all that insulation into black trash bags...17 of them, to be exact. I can't tell you the last time my shower was so inviting and wonderful!

The next step will be to put ammonia under the house to drive out any remaining rats. Then we'll seal the pipe they're using as a door, and hope none have stayed behind to die under the house. If that happens, Terminix will come and remove the dead rat. Thank God for Terminix!

Because this post has been so nasty, I'd better leave you with something lovely to dwell on, something that won't give you the heebie-jeebies, but will fill your mind with visions of rainbows, flowers, and butterflies. Here's my favorite photo of the weekend, taken in my neighbor's zinnia bed. It might even be my favorite nature photo I have ever taken! Have I mentioned I love my camera?

The Many Travels

Well hello there, strangers! That's how I feel. It has been so long since I had the time to sit down and write. There has been much going on and many miles covered. Thanks to those of you who emailed to check on me. Yes, I am fine. All is well now that I'm sleeping in my own bed again.

In the last two weeks Matt and I covered a lot of miles in our trusty, teal minivan. I'll let this photo collage I made give you an idea of how many miles!



Every other year our sending agency holds a staff conference in Colorado. We gathered for 9 days with the many other U.S. staff for a wonderful schedule of speakers, worship, prayer, and seminars on practical topics. Matt and I had many quiet hours together. We took advantage of the kid-free time to re-evaluate where we are as a married couple, as parents, and in our ministry. We did a lot of laughing, plenty of crying, and even more dreaming. We asked God to show up and reveal His plan for our family, and He did just that. I have some exciting things to tell you, but that will have to wait for another week or two. I don't have the time to do justice to what I want to say. Anyway, the conference was absolutely fantastic. We have come home refreshed in every way, and ready to tackle life again. The kids had a great time at home with the friend who stayed with them. They did lots of fun things together, and didn't even want to talk to us on the phone until the last few days of our trip!

Two weeks ago I blogged about all the food we ate along the road, and I promised some pictures. Here are a few.

Chicken fried steak in Oklahoma


Steak in Texas


Waffle...obviously in Texas!


Sushi with friends Gary and Michelle in Colorado






Every Christmas I make a photo calendar for the people who support us. In the past it has all been Arkansas scenery. This year it will include some photos from our travels. Here are a few favorites, a sneak peek for those who will get that calendar!

Wyoming


Wyoming


Nebraska


Arkansas


Arkansas


Arkansas


Arkansas


Arkansas


Well, that pretty much sums it up for now. I leave on Thursday for California. I'm going to spend 6 days there with my sister going through photo albums and scanning pictures of my childhood. I'm looking forward to some time with my dad and step-mom, and my auntie, uncle, and cousins, too! Matt and the kids are staying home this time. I'll try to blog from CA, but I doubt I'll get to it. So until I return, adios!