Saying good bye is hard....

Baby Matthew lost is fight Friday evening. He was a precious little boy. I still remember the few visits that he was able to make at church. I remember seeing him in his carrier on the floor and just sleeping. He would wake up and look all around and smile and go back to sleep. He impacted so many people during his short life. God had a purpose for him.

I pray today for his parents and sisters. I pray that they can be strong and hold onto the sweet memories that they have of him. At the visitation last night they had pictures showing of Matthew up on the screen while we waited. As I watched the pictures go by I could tell that he was very well loved by his family. I was amazed at the amount of people that were at the visitation. We arrived around 6:05 and waited in line for an hour and half last night.

If you have the time today, please say an extra prayer for this special family.

Special prayer requests

For those of you that read my blog, we have a special friend that is in need of lots of prayers. His name is Matthew and he will be 6 months old on June 23rd. He is currently fighting for his little life in a hospital in another town. He was born with a heart defect and has had one heart surgery. His parents know he was sick before he was born. He went for a check up a few weeks ago and the doctor's determined he needed to have the heart surgery again and it would be more difficult this time. Matthew had his surgery on Thurs and keeps bleeding out so he keeps having to go back into surgery to try to stop the bleeding. I'm not sure how much more his little body can take but he sure is a fighter! Please remember Matthew and his family in your prayers. Matthew's dad's mom and my mom are cousins and Matthew's mom and I were cheerleaders together in junior high. I hadn't seen Matthew's dad in about 20 years and his mom works for my doctor's office so I would run into her every now in then. We ran back into each other when they visited our church almost a year ago.

Jesus Gives Us the Power to....

Be thankful! Aha!! Help others! Aha!! Be brave! Aha!! Live forever! Aha!! Tell others about Jesus! Aha!!

What a fun and tiring week this has been! This is Emily's second VBS but I think she enjoyed this one more than last year. It was so much fun watching the little children be wowed by what God can do. Our theme was Power Lab and I was in charge of the preschool Chadder. Chadder is the little chipmunk in the video that they see each night to help them learn different lessons each night. In addition to seeing Chadder every night, the children also got to listen to "Professor Wilbur", Scientists CC and MJ. The children loved CC and MJ the best! I wasn't really sure if Emily was paying much attention during VBS but I guess she was. She's been telling me all week that Jesus lives in her heart and in my heart and we have to be kind to others. Riding around town I'll hear her say softly "Chadder, sit down before my mommy sees you!" Guess she likes Chadder! Tonight is the closing program and she will get to stand on the stage with the rest of the children and sing a few songs that they learned this week. After that, the children's director is going to have slim dumped over her head since she raised the most money for the mission project this year.

Introducing our newest addition to the family....

Monkey Girl! Yes, you read that right, her name is Monkey girl. Emily named her. Last week the 4th Build A Bear in Alabama opened in a neighboring town. Emily went to one last year when we went to Nashville with Mike for a conference and she made a new bunny named Fluffy. We thought she would give up Mr. Bunny who is literally hanging on by a thread and is now being mended. Fluffy lasted all of 2 days before she gave her loyalty back to Mr. Bunny.

When Build A Bear opened last week I told Emily about it and she wanted to go. She said she wanted to put Mr. Bunny up on the shelf and build a new one. I thought she really meant it so off we went. She found an adorable pink and white bear that she wanted right off the bat. We waited our turn in the longest line on earth. It was Emily's turn and I just knew that when it came time to add the "fluff" she would bail and go put the bear back just like she did last year. Emily does not like any loud noises of any sort. The lady at BAB told Emily to step on the peddle to bring her bear to life. Emily gave a look of "not on your sweet life am I doing that". I told her it would be fine and that it would be loud. With alot of hesitation she finally did it.

After adding the right amount of fluff, it was time to give the bear a heart. Emily chose a heart for her bear and before the heart could be put in she had to do some special things to it. First she had to rub the heart on her ear so the bear could hear, rub it on her funny bone so he can tell funny jokes, rub it on her eyes so the bunny can see, and rub it on her heart so the bear will always have a warm heart and be loved. Next came the stitching and the bear was finished. Next step was to give the bear a "bath". She wanted absolutely NO part of this process. The bath area made a loud noise and she declined. We had taken some friends with us so Cooper washed the bear for Emily and finally got her to scrub him some. On to making the bear officially hers by giving her a name and creating the birth certificate.

As we were checking out, Emily told me to take Mr. Bunny and wrap him up to give to another girl. I was in shock and couldn't believe she suggested it. After shopping a little more and supper we got home and got ready for bed. I put Mr. Bunny up and when it was time for bed, she grabbed Monkey Girl and Mr. Bunny and off to bed she went. I guess I have "sucker" written all over my face because I fell for it. At least she is carrying Monkey Girl around but Mr. Bunny will always have Emily's heart.

Just add a little water...

Last year we were faced with a serious drought here as many know. The drought was so bad that the lakes were unable to reach full pool for the summer. In fact, by Memorial Day last year instead of being at full pool we were 485.6 feet. This year for Memorial Day we were 489.7 feet. An agreement was made in the late fall/early winter to not release as much water from Martin Dam so the lakes could fill back up. Here are two pictures from last year and two pictures from this year around the same time and the same place.

And of the lake cabin. I thought I had one from Memorial Day last year but I don't. This is from October 2007 (476.6 feet) and Memorial Day weekend 2008.

Only time will tell what this summer will be like. From the looks of it so far, I'm willing to bet that we will be looking at another drought this year. I hope not.