Off to Haiti I go!

Well I am packing now as we speak! I am blown away and should not be, of God's faithfulness! I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. I would love more than anything prayer while I am there! I am departing from Atlanta this Sunday at 6pm, and will stay the night in Miami. We will get up early Monday morning and fly into Haiti. I will be home very late on the evening of the 21st. I hope to goodness that I will find a spot to get online and write about my trip. If not, I will make sure to share all of the details when I am back =)

Here's my wish list of prayers:

1. Most importantly, that God will be glorified by all of the work we do in Haiti. Pray for healing of all kinds too!

2. The flight... I am anxious about the little plane... Eeek.

3. Dave! He is super dad but 6 days with 3 little ones isn't easy for me to do and I am pretty used to it haha. 

4. Pray that I stay healthy while I am gone.

5. Pray that when I am missing my family I will find comfort in God, who is the God of comfort! 

6. Pray I remember that! 

Thanks y'all!! I know I will never come back the same. Earlier this week I was sickly and not feeling well...i think it was just anticipating Christmas, and getting it all taken care of before I leave and now that it's pretty much done my heart is about to explode with thankfulness. I am so, so overwhelmed with gratitude for my sweet family and friends who have supported me in this trip in so many ways. 

Ps. No better feeling than to be able to be the deliverer of this medicine!! How awesome is that. Bringing 1000s of antibiotics, tylenol, and children's multivitamins, as well as many other things! Pray that customs is in a super wonderful mood Monday morning!! :)))

You can't make this stuff up!

No, you aren't seeing things, she's back to a full arm cast! Purple is her color of choice this time. We have had 5 now. That's terrible I know..The past couple of days have been a action packed. Thanks to my family and friends to help me laugh through it. Lots have asked if I get the special look at the hospital??? Well, thankfully, no! I am sure it's hard not to see my posts and not to judge me, but I am totally ok with that..HAHA.   I am fine with the transparency of motherhood. I could write and pretend that I am awesome, but then who would that be helping? =))) SO..... here's how yesterday went... We skipped a friends birthday party because it was at the skating rink, and we thought it wouldn't be a good idea to bring our non skaters to the rink. One already has a broken arm, and the other two have tried to skate so many times and it's sad how ungifted they are in this area. So, I think I am doing my family a favor, and staying home and trying to replace the day with something fun. The girls LOVE making Christmas cookies so I decided that would get them excited. We made the dough and I needed to put it in the fridge for a little bit to get hard. As little girls do, they were hanging on my legs waiting on the dough to be ready and I said, " Go upstairs for 5 minutes and just find something fun to do!!" So, Katie and her friend and Kyndall went up there and put on gymnastics leotards and got out the beam and the cheese mat and decided to perform =)) In one second I heard "the cry". I didn't even need the girls to come get me. She was doing a cartwheel on the beam and fell off! For the love of Pete!!!!!!!!!! She has one good arm! She immediately passed out in my arms (which always happens when she breaks a bone because that is the way her body protects itself from severe pain).....I called Kitta and Jon to come save the day and finish making cookies and Dave and I took her to the ER.  I will spare the details of our evening at the hospital but long story short, they sent us home telling me she was in pain because she already had a broken arm and that she was fine =( No matter my arguing, the lady just thought I was nuts basically.  So I called her orthopedic doctor this morning and tried to fit her in at the same time as Kylie's appointment we already had at the ENT.  I got to the orthopedic and everyone in there greeted us with hugs and asked Kyndall what in the world she has done now. She proudly tells the Dr. that she was doing a cartwheel. He said I thought I told you, "no running, no jumping, no showers and no gymnastics!" And she just smiled a big cute smile. The Dr examined her elbow and told me immediately she had fractured it. So, off with the Christmas cast and on with a new purple one.

I might add, that during this time and my trip to Atlanta for the ortho, Kyndall was nervous as could be and even had diarrhea on the way. We had to stop in a terrible area and run into a mcdonalds to let her poop. As I was waiting to turn right out of there, a homeless lady started knocking on my passenger window. God Bless her. She just needed some money but told her whole life story in a minute and asked for prayer and Kylie was able to chat with her for a bit. I loved how God used that little diarrhea moment for us to run into her and help her out. So anyways that was a little side note. My poor girl with her nervous stomach... It got worse later in the day..... But more about that later........ We get to the ENT where we are 2 hours late because the ortho took forever... I am sitting in the waiting room with the girls who are both crying because they are hungry and tired and my little monthly friend appeared. So as awesome as my day was... I had to scoop up both girls and walk over to the hospital store to buy my "goodies" and then walk back to the ENT oh and then explain to the ladies up front that I wasn't trying to be rude but had a woman emergency LOL. I could have scratched this appointment, but I just knew it would be a few months before I would be squeezed back in and something in me felt like I needed to go. Kylie needed a hearing test because she had ruptured her ear drum a couple months ago. So fast forward a little, and the Dr and I are talking to Kylie and explaining her hearing test. I tell her, "You have to pay good attention to the lady and what is on the screen so that your test will be accurate." And her reply is, "Well mommy, I will read the screen really good out of this eye, because I can't see out of the other one!' I mean.... REALLY!!!!???? The Dr looked at her and said, "Kylie, are you serious?" And Kylie said, "Yea. I can't see out of it," as calm as she could be. We covered her eye and asked her what she could see out of on one side, and it was fine and the other side she said, " I don't see anything but blurry." Awesome!!! So, I guess the good out of the ENT was that her hearing is fine, and we discovered she can only see out of one eye! Otherwise, I don't know how long she would have waited to tell us!?? So tomorrow we will make a visit to the eye doctor =)  As we were leaving,  Kyndall said, "mommy, I am gonna throw up." I looked at her for a minute, thinking surely this is not real life. someone pinch me and wake me up??????? But she was white and I ran down to the bathroom and barely made it with her in my arms as she barfed in the toilet.    And that ended our day. I got home and took a shower and am sitting here reflecting on the fun. We will start over tomorrow and be thankful for a new day!! And to be honest, this one is over and I don't think it was that bad =))

BUT......... just in case....Tuesdays are my day to work at the pharmacy, and I think I will go =))  I think it's sounding pretty good right now, to let Dave handle the school, the eye doctor, the one armed child (who still has diarrhea??) and the gymnastics and cheerleading run =)

Disclaimer: I didn't even want to share with anyone that Kyndall broke her darn elbow because I can envision anyone's gut reaction thinking "geeez can that woman just watch her children????" But it's ok, it is what it is, and I have a busy little girl on my hands. She will grow up and not let anything stop her. I envision her being a leader, or just someone that has their mind on what they want, and will go after it.   I have learned that having a child like this, is a bit of a challenge to parent, but honestly it's the way God made her. I pray we parent her in a way that doesn't break her spirit, but also in a way that she always respects authority. So for now, I will consistently tell her that she may not do flips in a cast, and consistently discipline her when she does, and just love on her.  xoxo

Keepin Up with KYNDALL....not possible!

Well, we decided on pink this time. Kyndall is a mess! There are just no words. I was supposed to be at home getting ready to host a baby shower. The girls had a friend over and they were all sitting on Katie's bed, and then Kyndall decided that she should do a forward roll =) While this was happening, I was downstairs. Well, she fell off the bed. I heard her cry and knew that it was something bad and saw her arm =(  She has only had her cast off for 2 weeks! Thank goodness, Nakitta had come over to help me get ready for the shower and she drove us to the hospital. I remembered the procedure well since we had just done it 6 weeks ago. (Dave is out of town helping a friend with Hurricane Sandy relief). We got to the hospital around 945 and didn't get home till 4am today. She has to stay in bed for a few days with it elevated and our prayer is that the bones stay aligned or this time she will need surgery. The break was an ugly one. How can this sweet little girlie girl be so busy and crazy all at the same time???!! Boy, she has made us many memories at such a young age LOL. You should have seen her attire for the hospital. She was wearing one of Katie's old dance recital costumes and no shoes. Little honey boo boo doesn't have nothin on us! HAHA. I had a hard time not cracking a smile when the nurse said, "Maam we have to ask everyone this, BUT should we be concerned for Kyndall's safety at your house?" It's not funny, but at the same time.. It just is. What do you do when you have a child that is this busy though!!?? I can't stand over her all day. She already knows she is not allowed to run, do gymnastics, jump on the bed, or play on the monkey bars. I thought I was doing good eliminating those things for a few more months while her bones healed. Clearly, she has a mind of her own at 3 years old and I am going to need to be covered in prayer that either she survives me or I survive her through the next 15 years =))

PS. Wanted to show off my girls in their Halloween costumes. I have the best friends ever who have helped take the big girls and entertain them and keep them busy while I stay at home with miss priss. AKA: Dennis the Menace.

Keeping up with what God's doing in our lives!

Happy Fall! Keeping up with the williams family is tough sometimes, but keeping up with what God is doing in our family is pretty darn hard these days..I honestly just can't keep up!

Today was a day where all day I felt like gosh..I have GOt to write this down. Maybe I should keep my lap top and every time something comes to my mind, write it down. I woke up with my mind going 90 mph and by noon it was going  175.  I always get these thoughts and think, gee could someone benefit from hearing that? would it make their day?? or geee is that TMI?? HAHA.  Dave is home now and it's allowed me to take showers, and, well, do the things I love again. lol. I feel like when he was gone, I was stripped of that, but believing Romans 8:28 I knew not to worry. God has been working so much in my life though, that what I used to love is not exactly the same as what I do now.  Anyways, turns out it was a pretty awesome time to just be forced to slow down and stay home a WEE bit more. God reveals so much to us, we only need to be STILL!We still missed the head honcho terribly, but a lot was accomplished spiritually in his absence. On both of our ends! So praise God. Now he's home and already has my shoes all lined up in a row. (not kidding) We do not operate well when we are without each other. We just miss each other so much, we are functioning at 50%.  I don't mean to sound cheesy, but just stating the facts. We both are committed to our marriage, children and what God has called our family to do, so it gets us through the rough times where I am stressed and have to eat chickfila every day and gain 10 lbs a week. HAHA.  I am always good at writing about and sharing what God is doing in Dave's life or sometimes my kids.. but if I talk about myself then that's like bragging. Braggers get on my nerves. But when I brag... I am bragging on what God is doing because trust me, it is NOT me!!! I can take no credit. Just a little disclaimer for the future haha.   It's kind of a long story but I think I will put it into words because it's pretty cool how God answers prayers. Even sometimes YEARS later. Here are a couple things from this month =))

Prayer #1:
I am begging Dave for more kids.
Answer to the prayer--Dave thinks we should buy Kyndall a gerbil. Lesson-- keep praying.. Dave will change his mind. =) or maybe God will decide that a gerbil is just what our family needs... last I checked it does not say anywhere in Psalms 127, "Behold, gerbils are a heritage of the Lord"

prayer #2: have prayed that God would use Katie's heart for His glory. (she is my little evangelist).  If you do not want your child to be asked if they know Jesus, do not let them hang out with her. LOL. She blows me away with her courage to just blatantly ask her friends if they know Christ. answered prayer---She's informed me that she has witnessed to 3 girls on the gymnastics team and they have all asked Christ into their hearts. I know they are young, but that seed has been planted. Apparently she gave them a pretty good spill on His awesomeness =))) Praise God for this and I pray that she will always remain humble in her evangelistic measures. =)) Humility is a character trait that is a requirement of our family. If you don't have it, you are in deep doo doo. Obviously, we all fall short, but we will die trying to teach them that.

Answered prayer #3: This is a lengthy one. I will try and give the cliff notes version. While in pharmacy school, God really began to shape my heart for missions. There were times that I thought I should apply to medical school and become a physician. I just began praying my first year in pharmacy school about this. What kept me from doing it, was a few things. Dave was playing in the Major Leagues and I wanted to have kids and have a house full. I knew that even if I only planned on going to medical school to become a medical missionary it wouldn't fit so great into our lives. How would I be a mom, how would I homeschool my kids?? Medical school would have taken me 8 more years. I mean, Dave was seriously living out his dream and he needed me there alongside him. If I had kids, they would need me there AND they would need to see their Dad too. So I couldn't really be in two places at once! (Although I often try that and fail miserably.)  God soon revealed to me that He could still use me and He knew the desires of my heart! Being a pharmacist is the ultimate "mom job" if you love medicine and serving people (of allllllllllll walks of life!) and want to work a little or a lot. I never dreamed anyone would put up with me to only work in the off season, but it has always worked out beautifully. I am not saying that physicians can't be GREAT moms too, because I am blessed to know a few! But, just with our life and situation I knew that wasn't a possibility.  So, fast forward a few years..  3 kids later,  I tell Dave that my life isn't complete and that I HAVE to help people that have no access to medicine.  It's just eating at me. If he doesn't help make this possible I may be forced to fly to a third world country with our 3 children =) He's always been so apprehensive about me leaving the country without him, but I tell him it's too expensive for him to join me! haha. True Story. It just is. Well, this winter I finally have a chance to go to Haiti for medical missions AND have something brewing in my own backyard.  HOW cool is that. SO.. planning on Haiti in December. If the children of Haiti have a special place in your heart, and you feel led to give to this mission. Just say the word. I hope to be there for a week, and God willing.. I really would love to bring Dave with me. I am thinking he would be pretty good at just loving on those kids...playing baseball and being my wingman.

My lesson--always know that God knows the desires of your heart....be careful what you ask God for, because in His time He will show up big time.

OK, I feel like I need a drum roll before I tell you the exciting news thats happening in our town..................so just imagine those periods are a drum roll. A family has donated a 3 story brick medical building to our church. We are BEYOND excited about this. I am on the organizational team for this project and if I get on your nerves bragging about what God is doing, sorry in advance! But please make no mistake, this is all to further God's kingdom here on Earth and has nothing to do with me. I am just a warm body with a pulse, being led by the Holy Spirit. I want to make that clear. I am not doing anything fancy, just what God asks. This is going to provide FREE health care to those who meet the certain income requirements, are residents of Douglas County and are working and have no insurance or are underinsured. You will show up at this clinic and you can bet on being shown the love of Christ and receiving wonderful health care. I joined the team kind of late but when I did, I had to be willing to help fundraise for it. I am going to be honest, at the beginning it made me queezy just to think about having to ask. I was worried that people would just wonder why I didn't pay for it myself HAHA. Which is totally not possible. I really just trusted that God would intercede for me and help me to spread the word and that others would be equally as excited as me. It also dawned on me that if I didn't ask anyone or spread the word, just think of all of the people that would miss out on God's blessings.  In our community there is a GREAT need for this clinic. This will help keep people with no insurance out of the emergency room as well. Wellstar has donated $600,000 in equipment already, and we have a building with no mortgage. how awesome is that!

SO... long story short..... I am living my dream right now being a part of this. If you see me you will notice that I am GLOWING. I have to pinch myself that God seriously just placed in my life a project that I had hoped to be a part of. God is allowing me to somehow juggle homeschooling the girls, working some, and being a wife to Dave (full time job alone LOL). My house is messy and I may appear a tad more scattered than normal, but being able to do God's work has is SO much better than a clean house and appearing as if I have it all together. which I am pretty sure that I have never appeared to have it all together! LOL.
I am spending the next two days out just meeting with people about The Care Place. If you would like to be a part of this, please contact me. There is a great need for local businesses to sponsor this project. There are several levels of giving and each donor will have their families name or business name on a special wall listed under founders. I would like to go to everyone I know personally and invite them, but I waited to do this until Dave was home =( I didn't think that most would enjoy my 3 year old climbing on top of their desk and eating out of their candy bowls while I shared! (Can you tell this has happened already?  So now my mission begins.. We are having a fundraising dinner at our church (Church at Chapel Hill) on Thursday, November 15th. If you would like to host a table, filled with people who love to serve that would be awesome. You will be responsible for inviting 3-4 other couples to come along with you that you think would love to be a part of this ministry.. If you want to come to this dinner, but are not able to host a table that is great too. I have to have all RSVPs by next Wednesday, October 31st.  You can email me directly at chelleyw@mac.com or call me!

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." 1Peter 4:10

Mom shame

I get asked a lot how I do it when Dave is gone. (Now trust me, I think it's pales in comparison to some of my sweet friends who have husbands overseas so trust me, I know it could be even longer! and I could be worried about his life daily.. ) 
So I thought for fun I would answer that!  I feel like I should be a little more transparent. Maybe it will help someone. I am just barely keeping my head above water! I think Kyndall has asked me for something at least 30 times since I sat down to write. Katie keeps crying that the open blister on her hand needs preparation H before bed and Kylie just came back from her room due to an enormous fit she just threw. UGH. Just pure craziness. The girls don't have clean laundry. Today they wore Matilda Jane clothes that were in my trunk from my shows this week. On Thursday I had to take a dirty uniform shirt out of the laundry and fluff  it so that she could wear it to preschool. The girls just said "mommy, we are so lucky you cooked us dinner tonight." (It was mac n cheese and it was 8:30). My house looks like it could be on an episode of hoarders. My yard needs cut, my hair needs to be highlighted, my bathrooms need to be cleaned, and I really need to go to the grocery store. You are probably wondering why I am sitting at the computer and not actually doing some of these things but it's a stress reliever to just sit down and write about the craziness. I just video taped Kyndall telling me that her and Katie decided to paint their nails in my bathroom while I was slaving over the mac n cheese. HAHA. Of course remover was spilt all over my bathroom and they cleaned it up with toilet paper. Now we are all 3 going to bed without baths today. We are going to watch Barbie movies in my bed and all sleep together and cross yet one more day off the calendar that we survived another day. I really wouldn't trade this for anything.. I have an amazing friend that I know would come over here right now and help me clean, and take my kids but honestly I am just OK with it like this. One day my house will be clean, and one day I will have time for hair dos and the gym.. till then I will just keep going. I seriously don't think there is one aspect of my life that I would change or subtract from it. Not even having a clean house. After all, I love when people come over to my house and tell me it's so comfortable. I'd rather have a house full of people and us having fun then be uptight about the laundry and the messes. Dave will be home soon enough and all of my shoes will be lined up perfectly in my closet. If you know him well, you know he is a cleaning maniac. We have a deal..whatever bothers me in the house, I take care of with a smile. Whatever bothers him, he takes care of with a smile =) and so far, it works. xoxo

I am sitting in bed waiting like a kid at Christmas for Dave to get home. The baseball season is so long! You would think after so many years, I would probably be used to this, but it never gets easier being apart. I actually think it's super fun for about a week or so, but then it gets hard. That's where God kicks in to give me supernatural powers to keep my head above water. If you are without your hubby, I am sure you can relate if you still have little people in the house! It's mayhem! I should seriously be doing so many other things, but my brain is just so full I wanted to sit down and write!  I love writing and putting my thoughts onto paper(well a computer screen), it really causes me to stop for however long it takes me to type on a computer (with a missing o no less) and relive each little thought and blessing in my life here in the now! The past few weeks have been so crazy I haven't been able to stop and breathe. I have worked at the pharmacy a little more than normal, been working on Matilda Jane orders in my sleep,  my sister had a baby, and started homeschooling the girls again. I thought I hated homeschooling for awhile, but it was the devil haha. I keep telling myself that anyways. When we found out last year how long Dave would be gone into the fall, we tried to withdraw the girls from school and we had already signed a years contract, so that was a little complicated. We sent them to school and that lasted a whole 2 days. I knew it wasn't what God wanted for my family. I never had a peace about it.  We talked to the school and were able to withdraw them after all... So, in perfect timing both girls came to me and said, "mom, we really miss being home schooled, and seeing daddy.." and I said, well perfect because today was your last day of school. It was easy as that. I thought they would be so sad, but I swear I have some pretty awesome kids. People say that kids need stability. There is a fine line there... Kids do need structure and stability, but where their family is there home is. I love the flexibility of homeschooling and being able to go back and forth where ever Dave is. This week was our first week and they started a homeschool program called Veritas Academy. They go on Mondays from 9-12 for math and science, and then Thursdays 9-2 for history, Bible, Latin, and phonics. I have the curriculum at home and the teachers let me know what has to be accomplished for the week. It's easy peasy. Now all we have to do, is do it! The girls have many friends in the program so they are happy as can be! This will work great so we can go down to Florida when we want to see Dave, and when it's the off season, he will actually have 6 months or so of time with them, every day, all day. Since I will have a husband all winter, school for us will kick into full gear and we will stay busy. We are known to slack while he's away. It's hard to balance it all. So when you see us out doing stuff while kids should be at school, rest assured, we get it all in, some way or another! =) and really, every day is a teachable day in some way or another for us. Today, I think we seriously could take off the rest of the year because they learned so much! =))) We have a food pantry in our town where you can volunteer to come in, help get the food bagged, and call the people out by name and walk them to their car with a weeks worth of groceries. This presents an awesome 10 minutes or so of one on one time to hear others struggles. I had all 3 girls with me and it was AMAZING. I seriously thought there was no way I would survive with Kyndall, but it was easy. She carried the bread and was the one to actually put all of their food in the car. Katie and Kylie took turns asking them if there was anything we could pray for them about, and then my sweet Katie insisted on leading us in prayer each time. Now if that doesn't make a mama happy then I don't know what will!! I cried every time hearing her pray for these people's requests and I know it had to be equally as touching to these sweet people who have fallen on hard times. It was the absolute highlight of my 8 years of being a mother. My dream for my kids is definitely that they will see that there is more to this little world we live in and be able to go outside of our bubble and serve others, and do it with great joy. If this is all I ever teach them, I think I am ok with that.

Ok one last thing..

 Can you tell we were slightly excited?

 Addison Claire Wilson Born August 21 at 11 something am. 6lbs 12 oz

She has the biggest hairbows, and the longest toes you have seen on a tiny 6 lb baby! I am in love all over again. I held her tonight and I swear, I wanted to nurse her. I felt like she was mine! I know that's probably kind of gross, but my sister and I are really close =) I kept telling my sister, I think my milk is coming in! HAHAHA. She is just precious! Keep my sis in your prayers as she learns to navigate through sleepless nights with a toddler in the house, and also that her c-section incision will heal well!! If you want to bring them dinner any time in the next coming weeks let me know. I am trying to arrange a little dinner schedule to help her out in these next few weeks!

who gets shingles when they are 32?

ME! What the heck. I knew there was a reason I felt like I had the flu..then it got worse. For about 4 days straight I had chest pain and a throbbing headache and this burning/itching on my left side. Dave kept telling me that I was working out too much and shouldn't be doing oblique exercises that they were irritating me. haha. Then, the rash/blisters appeared. Between the ridiculous amount of itching and the deep chest pain, I decided it was time to go to the Dr. Oh, and not being able to sleep for 2 nights was another indication I might need some medical attention.  Being a pharmacist, I just like to diagnose myself and I my husband thinks I am nuts=)  So I went to the doctor for like the 3rd time in my adult life and sure enough, I have shingles.  The adult form of chicken pox. FUN stuff! I probably waited too long since I have blisters on my sides already, but since the Dr. insisted I take an anti-viral I didn't argue =) I wanted to tell him so badly that studies show that if 72 hours has lapsed from the time  of the rash appearing, antivirals don't really work well. But he didn't ask, so I just kept that little tid bit of info to myself.  After all, I did make a deal with husband that I would actually go to the doctor and not diagnose myself for once. If it so happens it shortens this itching by a day then that is one less day of torture!  


So, my mom and Jill asked me... UM, don't only old people get that?? I would have normally thought the same thing, but Dave had shingles LAST summer. (That means we really are soul mates!) hahaha. 


This is what happens in case you are curious how a 30 year old gets shingles.  Skip to the bottom where it says love chelley if you don't care about the details! =)  After a person recovers from chickenpox, the virus that caused the illness does not completely go away; it lies dormant in the nerve cells that run parallel to the spine. For reasons not fully understood, maybe stress... but who doesn't have some kind of stress??  the virus can become reactivated after a long period, sometimes decades. When this happens, you've got shingles, also called herpes zoster.  The biggest risk factors for reactivation are increasing age and a weakened immune system, which explains why the disease is most commonly seen in older people. However, plenty of younger people come down with shingles when -- for sometimes no apparent reason -- their immunity is low, or they are under extreme stress. I also wonder if the chicken pox vaccine is causing a higher incidence in younger adults now. I have read that it can benefit a person to be exposed to the virus throughout their life to be immune to getting this as an adult, but since no one ever has chicken pox anymore, thus the increase in young people getting it. Obviously, that's a guess on my part, but it's just a something to think about =)  Anyways, when the virus reactivates, it damages nerve cells (which is what creates the pain), then travels to the skin's surface and produces a rash and lovely blisters that itch and burn like crrrrraaazzy.  Please know, while I am kidding about how miserable I am right now, I could have something much more horrible!!! I do realize how blessed I am, with just shingles. 

I am SO lucky that Nana and Grandaddy took Kyndall to grandparent camp and it just so happens that the big girls have gymnastics camp this weekend from 9-330. So I spent the day ironing , I mean relaxing mom =) Tomorrow I will do the same, and since Dave is off I will make sure that I play up my sickness big time and take advantage of him waiting on me and helping me clean up the house. I mean, what are the chances of this ever happening again? I might as well milk it! I think God allows mom's to get sick every once in awhile because they never stop to take time to rest and sometimes it has to be a forced thing! If you get a second though, please pray this clears up quick. I am way too busy to be slowed down! Going to Indiana next week for my first Matilda Jane conference and Nakitta is coming down to watch the girls for me while I am gone, followed by Don & Sue (Gram & Pop Pop) and then... on July 28th the girls and I head back to Georgia for school. This summer has flown by.

Well, I finally have a blog that doesn't make you dizzy. The last one gave me a headache looking at it and I just couldn't figure out how to make it look all cute for the life of me! So, I enlisted a super sweet girl at Designer Blogs and she hooked me up! Now if only I had a recent family photo, it would be even better. I am not sure that is a possibility until this off season! I came up with the name of my blog through my friend Jill. It's hard to keep up with us if you don't talk to me everyday....or more like every second haha. When Dave "retired" from playing we just had no idea what was in store for our family. I wanted to work and run my own pharmacy, but the Lord quickly showed me that was not His plan! I knew deep down that Dave's heart was in baseball and that was the Lord's purpose for him. Before we knew it, he had an interview with the Toronto Blue Jays and he was offered a job as the rookie league pitching coach. We do not love the distance that separates us from one another, but we sure do feel like we are doing what we are meant to do! He absolutely loves the position he is in, and his happiness and seeing him do what he's meant to do, is very fulfilling for me if that makes sense.  When I made the tagline for my blog "joyfully living for His glory" it was very intentional. I have to remind myself to consider life and the trials pure joy.  Although happiness and joy can be present at the same time, happiness is based on material things or events, and joy, on the other hand, is from God and runs deeper.  If I teach my kids anything in life, it's to be joyful in all circumstances. The ONLY way I can teach them this is by example, so I have to be on my best behavior =))  So for now, if you are keeping up with us, the girls and I are in Florida with Dave and will be back at the beginning of August for school and work. I am going to continue working a tiny bit at Thomas Drugs and working a lot as a Matilda Jane trunk keeper!! So excited to be a trunk keeper this year for such an adorable company!!! =))) Not to mention at the end of the month I am going to be an aunt again to a sweet little girl I cannot wait to meet named Addie!! (note..I don't screen my blog for grammatical errors.. I just think and write haha.). I can't wait to love on her and of course, dress her up in some obnoxious hair bows and matilda jane.