Jesus...most might think i'm a crazy mother but i really enjoy driving on trips with my family. the kids read, draw, sing and ask
a lot of questions. on a recent trip home from phoenix, the usual happened, my younger two children fell asleep, and clay stayed awake and talked for an hour! at first the conversation was about weather (sleet vs rain vs snow, etc) and andy turned it into a great science lesson as he always does! then, clay told me of a dream he had the other night. he was very sincere and remembered a lot of details about this dream. he preceded to tell me that in this dream he had to choose for me to die or to die himself. he said that he chose to die because he did not want anything bad to happen to anyone in his family. lastly, and very calmly, he said that he wished that the police had been able to get there in time but they did not. as he told me this story i was brought to tears at how fast my baby is growing up. he didn't hesitate to die for me, it was a simple choice. i told him that if i had the choice, i would die for him. he said shockingly, "you would?". he knows that i love him and would do anything for him but in this situation he just couldn't imagine allowing anything bad to happen to his mother. although we have talked about Jesus dying on the cross many different times, i explained to my son that this is exactly how Jesus felt when He died for clay--He loved him so much that it was a simple choice and although He prayed that there was another way, He died because He loved him.
the next day, damon, who was sleeping during the previous told story, told his dad, "did you know that Jesus died on a little t?" (meaning a lower case t) i love the way kids think-it is so simple and yet brillant.
in the news...i do not have the flu but i am severly allergic to the antibiotic i was taking for a UTI! my mom is continuing with chemotherapy treatments and will have a scan in a few weeks to determine if the chemotherapy has been effective in diminishing the cancer in her body. at the end of december i had a colonoscopy and did not have any problems. i am starting a "voices of colon cancer" chapter in my town with the non-profit organization, Colon Cancer Alliance. i'm not exactly sure what it will look like yet, could be a support group or more awareness efforts. we started going to a marriage study about communication at a friend's house. there are 12 families that attend different churches in the area. we are meeting people all the time that went to the same small private high school in phoenix that andy and i both went to--small town, huh? we have been hanging out a lot with three other families (non-church attenders) that live in our neighborhood, having bbq's, going out to dinner, etc. two of these families are not always easy to hang out with as the husbands and wives don't appear to like each other very much but i feel that God has placed us here to love them, and that is easy. soon it will all be about baseball around here--this town really gets into the spring baseball fever and our boys are excited too!
las vegas...this blog
should have been about our recent trip to las vegas to surprise our friend gene. i
should be telling you about the families we spent time with, the good food, the countless hours of laughter. i
should be sharing with you about clay and serenity and how much fun they had together. or i
could be telling you about damon getting to spend the weekend with his first love, hayden, who is moving to virginia tomorrow! i
would love to tell you all of the details of ella's weekend with my sister's family in surprise but since my only souvenir from las vegas was the
STOMACH FLU, i really just don't have the energy to tell you about our great weekend!
for sale by owner...eight months ago we made a very difficult decision to leave our community in las vegas and we headed on a new journey. our life has changed drastically; we bought and moved into a new house in a small town, we do not receive a paycheck, andy a.k.a. dad has been home and with our family a lot, the kids get go to the job site with dad sometimes, we started our own business (Drewco Homes) building homes, we moved closer to both our families, my mother-in-law moved closer to us, my kids have closer relationships with their extended family, one of my sisters moved her family to atlanta, my mother was diagnosed with colon cancer and started chemotherapy, i had breast reduction surgery and we have joined a new home school group. some said i was crazy, but i encouraged my husband to follow his dreams to build in spite of the great financial risk to our family. this move has been a breath of fresh air for us, literally and figuratively speaking. the clean cool mountain air is great and seeing my husband love every minute of building this house is priceless! in the beginning, he was full of fear as the responsibility of making money at this new venture rested solely on his shoulders. i am proud of my husband for many reasons but the greatest testimony to his integrity is the neighbor who peeked over the fence just to let a potential buyer know that andy has been a hard worker and is always so courteous to the neighbors who are living in the area. currently the house is about 6 weeks from being finished and just days before the "for sale" sign went up, the house sold for full asking price! our journey continues...
