A New Beginning.

I haven't blogged in awhile. This could be a long one, so I'm just gonna jump right into it.

I can't sleep tonight. I've got a lot on my mind, but, surprisingly, it's good things. I think I'm going to take this blog in a new direction. I'll (try) to update with what my family and I are doing, but really, we are pretty boring. Honestly, I'm not sure where I'll take this blog or where it will take me, but we're both willing participants. Okay, so much for just jumping right in. I'm going to start out with my testimony.

I gave my life to Jesus on October 18,2009. I was shocked! Let me back up and give a little background info. I was born in Hot Springs, AR. I've pretty much been in church (on and off) all of my life. We started out Presbyterian, then switched to Baptist, when I was around 6 or 7. At the age of 8, during vacation Bible school, I repeated a prayer that our preacher said and got saved. I was baptized the following Sunday. Now, at the age of 8, I really didn't know what I was doing. I knew it was the right thing to do but had no understanding of what being saved really was.

When I was 11, we moved to Alabama. Hated it but that's another story and lifetime ago. My parents found us a warm and loving church here. I was about 12 or 13 and like most Sundays, the preacher asked "if you were to die today, do you know where you would go?". I panicked. I didn't want to go to hell. At this point, I realized that I didn't understand much at 8 and that I need to go up and get saved. So I went, I got baptized again.

Skip ahead 14 years or so, and we have October 2009. I'm at the same church, although I'd been to a couple different ones between then and now. (You always find your way back home.) The preacher who baptized me for the second time is back as our temporary preacher, until we call a new one. He is preaching a series on what every Christian should know. One thing every Christian should know is if he or she is TRULY saved. That sermon knocked the wind out of me like no other. I was shocked! That still, small voice they talk about was moving and thunderous. I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I was shaking, sweating and tears were filling my eyes. When the invitation was given, I didn't really know what to do. I'd been baptized twice, surely it stuck one of those times. I went to go down the alter but another family had gone up to join the church. This, unfortunately, gave me the opportunity to change my mind about going up and gave my pride a chance to sink in.

I fought this for two weeks. It never left my mind and it felt like I had a knot the size of Texas in my stomach. I tried to justify my salvation and convince myself that I was indeed saved. I even went up to rededicate my life. I thought that would give me peace... it didn't. That night, I was lying in bed and it felt like a boulder fell on me. I knew that I was lost. I'd never truly given my life to the Lord. I went up, again, the next Sunday and I gave it all to Him. I was also baptized for a third time. :) Y'all, I couldn't ignore him any longer and I am so thankful he didn't give up on me! He WILL get your attention. He got mine!

My wish and HOPE is that everyone I know can feel the joy, love and peace that I feel. I've always believed in Jesus, that he is our Savior and that he loved us, but there is a big difference in believing with your head and with your heart. For whatever reason, that connection was broken, until recently. Now, my eyes have been opened to His love and to so many amazing things and I haven't even scratched the surface, which is truly exciting!

Does this mean that I don't have bad days? Of course not! I had one today but knowing that the Lord is right there with me and that He truly cares for me and loves me, makes things not seem so bad. I recover much easier. Does this mean I don't sin? Definitely not! I'm still going to sin and on a daily, if not hourly, basis. But, I should keep a short account of my sins. I'm learning, and I'll share more about this on a later post, that when we are saved, we have two natures. One being our old nature and the new being Jesus. It is an everyday decision to let Jesus lead you and not your old nature. It's a constant battle but I'm sure I'll write more about that later (this is getting super long). God's love, grace and mercy is so amazing. I'm not sure we will fully understand just how amazing until he comes back for us (which I believe is very soon)!

I hope that whoever reads this continues to read this and follows my journey. We all need love and support. If you aren't saved or aren't sure, I hope you will search your heart and consider all that Jesus sacrificed for us. It's a precious gift and the best that you could ever receive. And what better time, then when our Savior was born.

Romans 5:8-9 (New International Version)

8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!

Gravity Wave

This is a video of a gravity wave. We had it happen in our area and it caused lots of wind and there were numerous trees knocked down. I seriously thought that our big pine tree was gonna come down but thankfully there was no damage here. I think the video is pretty amazing.

Bedtime Prayer, Storms

Tonight, I was lying in bed with Dylan and we were saying our prayers. I always say mine first, just so he can get an idea of what to say. This is what he prayed tonight:

"Dear heavenly father, thank you for letting momma lay with me, forget us our sins and bad things are bad things. Amen."

I thought is was funny and cute, maybe because I'm his mom.

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Today, we had some pretty bad storms come through. My babies were at my mom's and Casey, Cory and I were at Smokey's. We heard on the radio that there was a tornado on the ground just a few miles outside of town, headed our way. We had been kinda slow up until this point. As soon as the tornado sirens went off, we got super busy. Now, I'm usually not the kind to turn away business, but it was hailing (sp?) and the wind was a-blowin'. It was not pretty outside. I couldn't believe people were out in that mess. Of course, I guess it could be said that our food is just that good. People will brave a tornado for our food.

A new perspective

You must be thinking "oh my gosh, she blogged", or maybe not but that's okay. This weekend, I went to a funeral for a young man that was taken way before his time. His family is very dear to me and my family. We used to live down the street from them, went to church with them and one summer I babysat him. It's just so heartbreaking. There were a lot of things said this weekend that has really stuck with me and I can't seem to get them out of my head. I am a Christian, though not the kind I should be, and I don't often talk about my beliefs, at least not on here. I suppose it hasn't really come up, but something a preacher said this weekend keeps playing over and over again in my head. For some reason, I feel it's important to share. It's a simple truth but I think it's pretty powerful. I hope I haven't built it up too much. So before I do, here it is:

"For Christians, this world is as close to hell as they will ever get. For the lost, it is as close to heaven as they will ever get."

Just something to think about.

Baby Deacon Part 1

Ok, so this is way late but I thought I'd try to get some blogging done and tell y'all about baby Deacon. So let's start with the day he was born.

I had to be at the hospital at 5 am and was told to shower before I came, so I was up at 3 am. I was pretty calm and not really nervous or even excited (I kinda felt bad about that) but that would soon change. At 4:15, Casey and I headed out for the hospital. When we were about five minutes from our destination, Faith Hill's new Christmas song, "A Child Changes Everything" came on. I thought it was pretty appropriate and, of course, teared up.

We arrive at the hospital on time and sit in the waiting room until almost 6:00. I didn't think I was ever going to be taken to my room. We get back there and they start preparing me. I had my main nurse and there was another one helping her. They both looked younger than me, which kinda felt weird. Anyway, the helper nurse was doing my IV and I don't have luck with those and didn't on this day either. She had to remove her first attempt and moved it to my hand. I couldn't help but cry. I hate needles as it is and it really did hurt but you could tell she felt bad. Once she had it in, she left and I never saw her again.

Soon, my doctor was coming in and we had our little chat. He asked me one question though that kind of threw me off. He asked (in a very serious tone) "What are we here for this morning?". Ummm... "to get this baby out" I said, unsure of what exactly he wanted. I felt like this was some kind of test. It was as if he was making sure I was psychologically ready to have this baby. I was and even if I wasn't, he was going to anyway!

Long story short, the surgery went just fine. It was a little scarier this time since I wasn't drugged up like I was with Dylan. I was scheduled to have surgery at 7 am and Deacon was born 7:04. I can't believe how fast it was. Once they reached the baby, all I heard was "wow, what a big head" over and over. Guess it was a good thing I had a c-section. He weighed 8 lbs 9 oz and was 20 1/2 inches. He was a big boy. He was perfect and beautiful. I (of course) fell instantly in love.

DT's big boy room

With the coming of a new baby brother, we thought it would be a good time to give DT his own big boy room. He, of course, wanted it painted red. We've been working hard this weekend to get it ready for him by his birthday and we were able to finish it today. Here are some before and after pictures.

Before:










This was once the man room...










even though it had this awful wallpaper on the walls.

In progress:










Notice how the crappy wallpaper is bubbling up. This was quite a disappointment. Why didn't we take the wallpaper down, you might ask. Well, I'll give you the shortest version I can. As we were taking down even uglier wallpaper in our bedroom and bathroom, we realized the idiots that put it on didn't prepare the walls or size them or whatever the term is. They just slapped the stuff up on the sheet rock. When you take wallpaper off of sheet rock, it takes chunks of sheet rock with it it. It took a lot of mud and sanding to get our walls to look half way decent, and I mean half way. We didn't want to go through that again, so we thought the best thing would be to paint of the stuff... and it bubbled. By this point, we don't care. There is nothing we can do and we'll just cover it good and let the next owners deal with it. :)

After:











The red turned out a little different than I thought it would but still looks good and my boy loves it. That's all that matters.

Spasms, Baby, Smokey C's

Spasm is such a funny word. It looks funny and sounds funny but I'm here to tell you it doesn't feel funny! Monday morning, I was getting ready in the bathroom, so I could take DT to school and all of the sudden I had a sharp pain in the lower, middle part of my back. It took me by surprise b/c I was just standing there rubbing lotion on my belly. I was still in pain but went ahead and took DT to school. Getting into the car was no fun but I made it in. Unfortunately I adjusted when I got in there and the pain worsened. I, of course, started to cry like a baby b/c it hurt like hell and I knew I was going to have a very hard time getting out of my car. Once I got to the school and out of the car, I stiffly walked Dylan to class. His teacher and another 4 year old teacher were in the hall talking and knew something was wrong. I told them what happened, still crying, and DT's teacher said she wouldn't let me drive and took me to mom's house.
Long story short (it could be a lot longer)... I had to go to my doctor and he said I was having back spasms. I was thinking 'That's it?! Back spasms?' b/c it felt way more serious than that. These things felt like they were breaking my body in half. I've never felt so much pain in my life. The doc wrote me a prescription, which he told me would be Darvocet (spelling?) and I was almost giddy b/c I thought I'd be in la-la land while getting to rest on the couch for a few days. Let's just say the medicine has most definitely helped but it wasn't anything thing like I thought it would be. It made me a little drowsy, that's it. Dang!
The doc also went ahead and checked to make sure I wasn't in labor and I haven't softened or thinned AT ALL but the baby's head is real low. Doesn't matter anyway... you know, with the whole c-section thing and all.

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Speaking of baby :), I had another doc's appt. today to get an ultrasound and test. They couldn't do everything Monday . Deacon looks like he is going to be a big boy. They say, as far a weight goes, that he is about a week ahead of time. He measured about 6 lbs and 14 oz. This is at 36 weeks. When Dylan was born, which was at about 40 weeks, he weighed 7 lbs and 4oz. Babies gain about a 1/2 an ounce each week from 36 weeks on. SO, since he his already almost 7 lbs now, he could weigh over 8 lbs at birth. Again, doesn't matter much anyway b/c of the whole c-section thing. I weighed 8 lbs and 15 oz when I was born. He must get it from his momma.

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I haven't said much about Smokey's lately. We have been blessed once again. Smokey's has done pretty good, especially since we opened in such a crappy economic time, but there have been slow times. Well, now things are really picking up. We had and have several big catering jobs and we've had a lot of orders to cook people's turkeys for Thanksgiving. We are seeing lots of new customers and still seeing lots of our repeat customers. We have a lot to be thankful for this year!