Howdy from Texas

I've been in Texas for the past couple of days spending some time with my mom and dad. Kevin stayed home with the kids so that I could come check on my parents and help them in getting some things done around the house. Not totally a vacation, but still a break from the normal day to day. First, a praise report! My dad's diagnosis on the tumor came back benign! Hallelujah! The roots are there of course, but we are claiming a complete healing. And my mom is doing better, although still in recovery. I was able to help her get her house cleaned and get some stuff unpacked. The kids really wanted to come, but it was just better they didn't this time. When I was telling the kids that I would be flying to TX, Denae looked at me with her big blue eyes and said, "I come too?" It was so sweet. Then she spent the whole day before I left running around the house in excitement saying, "I go fwy!(fly)" The girls gave me a little letter before I left saying that they wished they could come and that they were praying for me and grandma and grandpa. They also drew a picture of an airplane on it. When I talked to Dallas the other night, he wanted to know when I was coming home. He also wanted to know why he couldn't hear my mom and dad when I was talking on the phone. I guess he thought they should be as loud as the kids are when mommy is on the phone! The kids are being really good while I am gone, or so I have been told. Kevin's mom and dad came down to help him while I was gone. I guess Denae's potty training wasn't going as well as it had been, but with her mommy gone, I guess that's to be expected. Anyway, I'll post more when I get home, but I have really enjoyed my visit 'home.' As Kim said, "Home is where the mom is!" I think that is true no matter how old we get! Hopefully I'll get to bring all the kids and Kevin back for a visit, maybe next Christmas. I can always dream, right?

Denae's 'Up-do'

All fixed up for church, just like her big Sisters!

Prayer Request

For those of you who don't know (and even those who do), my mom and dad have really been through it the last couple of months with my mom being in and out of the hospital with surgery, etc. She is doing a lot better and is at home, but still needs prayer to continue getting better. However, recently it has come to light that my dad has lumps in his right hand. It turned out that the dr thought they were most likely benign tumors and he had surgery to remove them on Thursday. During surgery, the doctor discovered that it was actually one very large tumor that had grown extremely fast and did not look good. He wasn't able to remove all of the roots as they went to far into the muscle, etc. and to do so would have cost my dad use of his hand, especially his thumb. This is very important to his livelihood as a millright. Anyways, the surgeon called a pathologist to come in to look because even though they originally thought the tumors would be benign, he no longer was certain of this due to the speed of growth and the look of the tumor. Now we have to wait 5 days to find out the results of the labs to know if it is malignent. If so, the dr will have to go back in and remove the rest of the roots, which will mean Dad won't be able to use his hand like he needs to. And of course, cancer treatment. Please pray for my dad and my mom, that God will intervene in this situation for my dad and continue to heal my mom (and for me, because I am going crazy worrying about them but am not able to be there).

First Day of School

For those of you who do not know, my girls are in year round school, track D. Their track, as well as tracks B and C, started back to school on July 21, two weeks ago. So, they are already hard at work in school, even though summer's only half over. And for those who might feel bad for them, we actually like it, especially when October and February get here and we get 3 and 4 weeks off. Anyways, this year Delaney is in 2nd grade and Darilyn is in first. Darilyn has her same teacher from her 1st/kindy combo class last year, Ms. Askins. We really like her, so I know Darilyn will do well this year. And Delaney has Ms. Gaskins. She really likes her so far this year too, especially since Ms. Gaskins gives her students 'smart sticks' aka red licorice, for being smart and doing well. I think Delaney has gotten at least one everyday for things such as asking if stories can be past down 'from generation to generation' to coming up with 24 ideas for a story during a brain storming session (the page only had 14 lines, so she turned the page over and continued writing on the back) So far both of the girls have brought home great work, but as Delaney told Darilyn, "This is all review from last year, so it should be easy!" I think they are doing more than just review, but I am very happy with their work so far. And as to how Dallas and Denae are doing without the girls, well that is stuff for another post. In fact, a few more posts, probably!

Finally - BQ Finals Post

Okay, I finally sat down and did it. I made a slideshow of the pics I took at Finals 2 weeks ago. Wow, I am really slow! Anyways, finals was a lot of fun. Friday night we went to John's Incredible Pizza with everyone after orientation. We had a blast. I don't have any pics of that on my slide show because the pics all turned out too dark. But, the beginner girls all had matching outfits from Children's Place (Thank you Sis Horton for picking those up for us!) Everywhere I looked it was pink shirts and headbands! Then after a late night of partying (and even later night of Denae crying because it was very hot in our room and she was over exhausted), we got up for a big day of quizzing. Our church junior and beginner quizzers all wore navy, white, and yellow this year. Everyone looked really nice. After a long day of great quizzing by all of the quizzers, Delaney and Darilyn took 2nd in the beginner division. First place went to another Sacramento team, Karly, Oriana, Katrina, and Kayla. They were a tough team and quizzed very well. Delaney was highest scorer on the all tournament team with 99 pts per quiz. Darilyn was 5th. And this tournament, the juniors and beginners were able to participate in the Ultamate Challenge competition, normally just a senior thing. Delaney and Darilyn both did really well in this too. In the charting competition (locate as many 1 time words as your can correctly in 30 seconds) Delaney was 2nd and Darilyn was 4th. In the quoting competion (horizontal quote as many vs 1's as you can in 30 seconds -horizontal is quoting all of the same vs numbers through the material Gal 1:1, Gal 4:1, Gal 5:1, Gal 6:1, Eph 2:1, Eph 4:1, Eph 5:1, and Eph 6:1) Delaney took 1st and Darilyn took 3rd. Delaney actually quoted all 8 of the beginner verse 1's in 30 seconds. Juniors and Seniors, of course, have more verse 1's to quote. But, if I can brag a little more, according to Danny Barba, our Ultimate Challenge coordinator, Delaney did the best of all the divisions! And, Bro and Sis Horton, our beginner program directors, received coach of the year! In the junior division, my nephews Christian and Austin, took first place, with Austin being 1st on the all tournament team and Christian being 5th (that looks familiar). Faith and Caleb, our 'adopted' niece and nephew took 2nd, and Faith was the junior Quizzer of the Year. And Carlos and Denise, received Junior Coach of the Year. Everyone did such a great job and worked very hard. Of course, juniors and seniors are still working hard getting ready for Nationals just 2 weeks away, but Delaney and Darilyn are done for the year and this Mom is ready for the break. Kevin is working dillegently from the official side of things making sure everything will be ready for the National tournament and tonight is actually at Kathy and Craigs helping Christian and Austin study. So for all those still working hard, rememeber EVED (every verse every day!)