This is what greeted me, this morning

Got a phone call, last night, from our friends across the street.  I was snuggling up to Big Daddy, we (all of us) were having a movie night and enjoying "The Adventures in Babysitting" (with the assistance of our lovely clearplay machine).  Well, Brian is not the quietest person on the face of the planet and his voice BOOMS when he talks and the earth shakes with is incredible laugh.  Love to hear him laugh.

Anyway, I heard the words "lost" and "pig" in the same sentence.  I looked at Big Daddy and I asked him if he said that he lost a pig and if he did....when, on earth, did he get a pig?  Her name is Petunia and she was a runaway. So, all 5 kids excitedly get on their shoes, turn on all the outside lights and head out to search for the lost pig.  To no avail.  Petunia was no where to be found.  Sadness.

I thought little else of it, last night.  Went onto bed and this morning, got up to take the 3 youngers to school.  I'm not a typical "get em to school" mom where every hair is in place.  I'm a throw on your pants, pull your Tina Turner hair in a ponytail, giant zit shining on my chin and no bra kind of mom.  We jump in the car, pull out and I slow down thinking..."did I just see a giant pig?"  Why, yes I did...so the kids and I try to flank said pig.  She is HUGE and I "assumed" she would be slow.  I was severely mistaken.  Just cause your fat, doesn't mean you can't move like lightening. A woman, looking like i do, with no "support" because just running the kids to school doesn't require putting support on....it is not a pretty sight.  Not.At.All.

Let's just say............pig 1, Brandi and kids 0.

Get the kids to school and what do I see, on the way home, but the pig, in the neighbor's driveway being flanked by 2 dogs.  Easy as pie.  I stop, gather the "girls" up for another run at the pig and off we go.

Pig 2, Brandi 0

I stop at my friend's house and she is just as disheveled as I am.  I'm greeted at the door by Precious Child #1.  I could simply eat that little girl up.  I love it when someone is *so* happy to see me that her whole face lights up.  She lets me in, mommy has just rolled out of bed, holding Precious Child #2.  I'm in Heaven...sheer heaven.  Rocking one baby, sitting with the other, watching Tarzan and being in the company of a friend.  I tell her of my "issue" with the pig.  She doesn't seem concerned, so I just sit and rock.

Soon, I realize that I have to be ready for a visitor at 9:00 and I'm looking, not appropriate.  Big Daddy's only request was that I brush my hair, teeth and wear a bra.  I passed on my girls to their sweet mama and head out.  As I'm getting in the car, I look up in the distance to see that stupid pig running down the road at full speed. 

I knock on friend's window, tell her where the pig is headed and she flies out the door with infant in hand, toddler trailing behind her.  I pick up Precious #1 cause she doesnt' have shoes and as we are standing in the front yard, we are both squinting down the road to see the black speck that is Petunia.  She hands me Precious #2 and flies in the house to get her shoes on.  I take both girls to my house to feed #1 breakfast and just to smell #2.  In the process, I get Peach out the front door, with her bike and she heads out to help corral the pig.

Later......

Pig 3, friend & kid 0

It.Is.ON.

Let the games begin.

Another Monday

Today is day 5 of my fast (but according to sweet Pauletta at the bookstore, I'm not supposed to let anyone *know* I'm fasting....OOPS).  I expressed to her that I didn't "feel" any different since my fast began.  That I was thankful for no headaches, which I was afraid would plague me and that only one day I was grouchy.....I wanted my fast to last for 7 days.  It began last Thursday and I wanted to go until this coming Thursday.  That is what my mind was set on....yet, I obviously don't add well because my seven days is up on Wednesday, according to my mathematician husband, who informed me of this fact last night.  All is well, though, I still feel like Thursday is the day for me, so I guess it is an 8 day fast.  Whatever.  Still, I'm on day 5 no matter what day I end on.


Anyway, when I expressed my feelings about my fast, why I'm doing it and that I didn't feel any different, she began to ask me if I was praying.  Yes, I'm praying, probably not as much as I should be, but I am praying.  I told her, however, about this morning as I was driving into work (a mere 40 min of driving).  I either pray, sit in silence or listen to K-Love.


Now I'm not an overly emotional person.  I can keep my tears in check, I fight hard to keep emotion out of the question...really, who has time for that.  I certainly don't.  Sometimes I feel, in a certain situation that I should cry, yet it doesn't come.


The first song I heard was Chris Tomlin's .... I was praising with my hands held high, in my Kia Rio :)  I felt a rush of emotion as I sang this song out, but I stiffled it in.


"I Lift My Hands:"


Be still, there is a healer
His love is deeper than the sea
His mercy is unfailing
His arms, a fortress for the weak
Let faith arise
Let faith arise
I lift my hands to believe again
You are my refuge, you are my strength
As I pour out my heart, these things I remember
That you are faithful God, forever

Be still
There is a river
That flows from Calvary's tree
A fountain
For the thirsty
Your grace that washes over me
Let faith arise (Let faith arise)
Let faith arise (Let faith arise)
I lift my hands to believe again
You are my refuge, you are my strength
As I pour out my heart, these things I remember
You are faithful God, forever.

I lift my hands to believe again
You are my refuge, you are my strength
As I pour out my heart, these things I remember
You are faithful God, forever.

Let faith arise,
Let faith arise.
Open my eyes,
Open my eyes.

I lift my hands to believe again
You are my refuge, you are my strength
As I pour out my heart, these things I remember
You are faithful God, forever. 


Then, there was Laura Story's "Blessings"...this one I can barely get through without being completely hysterical....when I say completely hysterical, it is an ugly ugly cry.


"Blessings" 


We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home
This is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy

What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

and next was Newsboys "I Am Free".  I had semi held it together for the first 2 songs and then the one song that is upbeat, positive and exciting...I CRY LIKE A LITTLE SCHOOL GIRL!  Oh.My.Goodness.....it was pathetic...embarrassing, ran my make up.


"I am Free"


Through you the blind will see
Through you the mute will sing
Through you the dead will rise
Through you all hearts will praise
Through you the darkness flees
Through you my heart screams
I am free

I AM FREE TO RUN
I AM FREE TO DANCE
I AM FREE TO LIVE FOR YOU
I AM FREE

Through you the kingdom comes
Through you the battle's won
Through you the price is paid
Through you I'm not afraid
Through you there's victory
Because of you my soul sings
I am free

WHO THE SON SETS FREE-IS FREE INDEEDNOW

 
As I'm describing this scene to Ms. Pauletta, she told me that I am, indeed, beginning to feel and things are happening and moving in my life.  I was excited to hear that, yet fearful, in a way of what to expect.  I know what I'm praying, but I'm scared to death that what I pray for isn't in His Will.  


I must choose not to fear, I must continue to choose to believe and I must keep running the race, without looking for rain and I must prepare for rain, because I believe, with all that I am that my son will be home this month.  Finally..............I will finally hold my son, again and my family will be complete.

Worship

I can honestly say that I woke up to a Shania Twain song...the one that plays at work over and over and over and over again.........hate that song.


On a better note, service was centered around the events of 9/11 and it was a moving time.  I am proud to be an American and I thank, from the bottom of my heart those who serve our country so my family can sleep at night, safely.  Also, the families of those who serve.  That part never really affected me until I met a friend who was the wife of a soldier.  I saw, firsthand, the sacrifices that she and her children made while her husband was serving our country.  Kids, today, need to learn to say THANK YOU to those they see, out in public, who have on a hat/shirt/sign on their vehicle, any symbolism that they fought for us.

Wake up song

This is the song that I woke up too......it played over and over in my head.

My Mantra

If you didn't notice my new heading on blogger...please take a moment to scroll up and see what I've put.  I have decided, since my last post (in July *gasp*) that I'm going to save the world. 


My therapist always told me (yes, I was therapized in my life) that I'm like a mother hen, I get my wings spread out and I gather all my little chicks under me to keep them safe.  I don't like the unknown, I don't like change and I certainly don't like being thrown into the fires of hell with nothing but a water pistol.


That's okay, though, because come Monday, when I have to go back to work, I'm going to stop by Charming Charlie (if you have never been to this store....be prepared to stand in awe of all the things that sparkle.  I believe I salivated a bit when I first stepped through the doors).  At Charming Charlie, there is a back area...I believe that it is a secret place where the only people who belong are those who have made friends with the "friends" in their mind (that'd be me).  Well, they have tiaras!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They are so stinking cute. 


I want one to remind me that I may be walking through the fires of hell with my water pistol, but I'm also a princess of the KING and He is standing in front of me, beside me and behind me.  He is letting me use said water pistol, because of my incessant need to control....once the fire begins to consume me, though, I yield to His presence and He takes over and stomps that fire out without even breaking a sweat.


As for the "cape" in my new mantra....well, I've always wanted my life to be like a musical (ie The Phantom of the Opera or The Sound of Music)...the cool people *always* had capes, therefore I sense that I need one for posterity.  I tend to make songs up and sing randomly throughout my house, when I'm driving (who needs a radio) and at work.  The kids, who I work with, love it when I work nights because come about 8:30, I begin singing show tunes......


It has been a long long long long road since my last post.  Things are still up in the air with my son and when we can bring him home.  He remembers us, though, so that gives us comfort.  He is loved, he is fed, he plays hard...that gives me comfort.  I still want to be the one that comforts him.  I want to kiss his booboos when he falls, I want to fix his supper, I want to tuck him in at night, I want him to hear his mommy and daddy tell him how much he is loved and treasured.  How much we've prayed for him and for this whole situation to be rectified.  


I have devoted this week to do my first fast....can we say....UGH.  The things that steal the most time or that I love the most, is to be given up.  I decided on giving up facebook and coke...COKE.  Do you *know* how much I love coke.  I drink it out of the can, hot; I drink it in a giant mug with crushed ice; out of a wine glass; out of the fridge; anyway I can get it is how I drink it.  I.LOVE.COKE.  I love everything about coke.  I love that way the fizz goes up my nose, the way it burns when it goes down my throat....love love love......coke.


During this week, I'm focusing on prayer and prayer of *very* specific things.  
-for approval
-quick embassy date
-to travel before the end of the month
-B's job situation
-healing within our family
-for Gigi to be completely healed


It is a big list, but I have a big God and I'm choosing to pray believing that giant miracles are headed our way.


So.....here I go, with my tiara and cape in hand (more like Bible and scarf) and I'm going to conquer the world :)


Blessings.

Thirty One Exciting Happenings!!!!

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Well, I stink

Blogging is not my strength.  I barely have time to use the bathroom, much less sit here and blog.  It is an outlet, I do enjoy it, I get excited about it....then there is the whole 'time' thing that I have an issue with.

So, here is my lame attempt of blogging, my lame attempt to finish my 101 things in 1001 one days.....let's see if new beginnings will help.

So, I've made BIG decisions, we are one step closer to my precious boy coming home, I got a job offer (although I can't take it *sadness*), there will be no garden this year, I haven't mowed the grass once...I'm remembering to breathe in and out, everyday.