Happy Birthday to Morgan Anne

Morgan's Birthday is Friday, May 2 - she will be 11 years old.

Ten Things I Love About Morgan Anne Taylor:

1. She is very selfless. She did not get this quality from me! She is (almost) always thinking of others before herself (Haleigh would be the one to disagree).

2. She loves God. Every night before bed, Morgan can be found on her bed reading her Bible and taking notes from what she is reading. We didn't tell her to start doing this, she just does it!

3. She is very smart. She didn't get this from me either! She works very hard at school, and her grades and TAKS scores reflect this. She is really committed to being a great student. Maybe someday it will translate into an academic scholarship for those rising college costs!

4. She is beautiful - both inside and out. She has that tall, skinny, and blonde thing going on, but her heart is what makes her really beautiful. Her heart is caring, compassionate, loving, and giving.

5. She changed my life - she made me a mommy - the best job ever. 11 years ago I gave birth to my first child. Things were never the same for me after that! She brought a different meaning to my life. I was now responsible for anther human being. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, so I sure am glad she has turned out as well as she has!

6. She is a great friend - her friends know that she is one that they can rely on. She is there for her friends to laugh with, cry with, talk to, etc. They can always depend on her! She just had a call the other night from a friend who needed a shoulder to cry on - and she just listens. She is so sweet!

7. Her laugh - it is goofy as can be, but it is contagious and sincere. She laughs at Haleigh and Jacob all the time. And, once you get her laughing, it is hard to make her stop. When she was younger, like up to 2 years ago, she would pee her pants if you got her laughing hard enough:)

8. Her questions - she asks questions that make me think differntly. She has always been curious about EVERYTHING - some things sooner than I would like, but curioius none the less. I decided a long time ago that whatever she asked I would try my best to answer (age appropriately, if you know what I mean). She never has stopped asking, and I hope she never does.

9. Her maturity - she seems so mature for her age (in her thinking). She doesn't really get into all of the things that other girls her age do...at least not for now, but I really don't see her being like those other girls anyway. She has been asked out by a boy three times now, and she just replies with the "My parents don't let me until I am 16" comment. Our goal for Morgan is that people see her as different from the world since that is what God calls us to be.

10. She is the best part of Mark - I often say that her and Mark are exactly alike. I guess that's why I like her so much...she reminds me of him. All the things I love the most about her are the same things I love about him. In fact, the things I listed in this blog are all things I love about Mark. It is nice to have a big part of him alive in her.

Happy birthday to my beautiful daughter Morgan - she brings joy to my life, and I am proud to be her mom.

Club Lake

Mark's dad is a member of the country club in Sherman called Club Lake. It is a place of fond memories for Mark as a kid (and as an adult). Mark's family has been associated with the club ever since it opened 100 years ago, and they have several ponds that you can fish from. On Friday, Mark, Jacob, and Popop went fishing together! They had a great time, and here are the pictures of Jacob's 2 fish. Mark caught some too, but he is holding Jacob's fish because Jacob wanted to take a picture!

Jacob - my silly blue eyed boy

Just some funny pictures of Jacob from this weekends camping trip. These pictures were from our return trip to the lake to fish (on level ground)! I didn't get a good picture of his injuries to his legs/arms - sorry Erica. I really don't have any other pictures from the trip. I didn't take any of the camper or anything. I meant to take the girls back down by the lake where the bluebonnets were, but I forgot. Oh well. Since I mentioned his blue eyes - click on the picture where he is side ways by the bluebonnets - he has great eyes!

True Fear

I have had many fears over the years - spiders, snakes, etc. You know...the typical fears. The older that I have gotten I have had a few more fears emerge such as my teeth falling out, big waves, being alone, mice...I know, I am weird. I really do have dreams/nightmares about the teeth and the waves! I have, what I like to call, an unrealistic fear of mice. I know that a mouse cannot harm me, but I am deathly afraid of them. It doesn't help that the rental we are living in is on a big field and we have at least one mouse a week show up on a sticky trap:) As real as those fears are to me, I have experienced "TRUE FEAR" twice in my adult life, and they both involved my children. When Haleigh was about 6 weeks old, she fell out of her car seat from a shopping cart onto the ground in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I will never forget that day for the rest of my life. Her and Mark were ahead of me in the parking lot, and she looked like a rag doll falling to the ground. We were terrified. We took her to the ER immediately, and I just knew that they were going to take her away from us for child endangerment. They didn't, and she was just fine, but it was one of the most terrifying days in my life. All of my children have been securely fastened in their baby carrier while in the grocery cart ever since, by the way. Well, this last weekend, I had another one of those truly scary moments in my life. While we were camping at Ft. Richardson, Jacob took a fall into the lake. Mark, Craig and Jacob were fishing from the ledge of an old quarry that has been turned into a lake. Well, Jacob was casting pretty forcefully I guess, and he cast himself right off the ledge. He fell about 8-10 feet down into the lake. I heard Mark and Craig make a gasp, I guess, and I look up to see Mark taking a flying leap below into the lake. I was a little ways down the lake watching the girls. Well, I just knew that the worst case scenario must have happened - that's how I am - such a pessimist. I had a feeling that Jacob hit his head on the rocks below and was sinking to the bottom of the lake and Mark wouldn't get to him on time. By the time I ran to them, Mark had pushed Jacob to the rocks and Craig was waiting to pull him up. He had popped up to the surface and was kicking his arms and legs. He was unharmed except for a badly scraped arm (that no doubt protected his head from hitting the rocks). He was really scared, but he handled himself really well. Mark was fine too, but it made for a really scary morning. The fear I felt at those moments was nothing like the fear I have of mice - and I hope that I don't feel that kind of fear again! He went back to the lake later in the day - with much resistance and crying, but we needed him to get back on that horse! We stayed on flat ground on the opposite side of the lake though!

What can we live without?

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with Oprah. I have been a devoted watcher of her show for many years - I record it every day and try to watch them all on the weekend while I am doing laundry and ironing. There are a lot of shows that I don't even watch because I think she has some weird shows and I don't always agree with her thinking and her beliefs. I don't watch the "I married a gay man" or "transgendered teens" shows. She does talk about some good things, and those are the times that I really enjoy watching her show. She had a show on a couple weeks ago about freegans - people who get their food out of dumpsters (perfectly good food that people throw away - mainly restaurants) and buy their clothes from re-sale shops, etc. Well, Thursdays show was about wasting things - money, time, food....all the things my family seems to do. The show was really eye opening. She was challenging families for 7 days to eat all of their meals at home (no eating out or take out), and the families had to eat their leftovers. They were only allowed to watch 1 hour of tv , 1 hour of computer, or 1 hour playing video games a day(not 1 hour of each but 1 hour total). Extra computer use was limited to homework purposes. The thermostat had to be set higher/lower (depending on the time of year). They had to get rid of their bottled water habit and use a refillable cup and filtered water (a big issue with me). No more disposable plates, cups, silverware, etc. They could only wash clothing that was truly dirty, and showers were limited to 5-8 minutes. They couldn't buy anything other than food (at the grocery store), and the mall was off limits! Well, needless to say, in our ways of living, this was quite a challenge for the families. One little boy (5 yrs. old) actually seemed to be suffering video game withdrawal - similar to those of drug addicts. It was wild. It was really sweet though to see him not playing games but reading books with his sister! Anyway, I think we will try some of their ideas and see how it goes. They were all talking about how it made them a closer family because less time in front of the tv meant more family time! There was also a huge relief on the pocket book - we tend to eat out a lot and throw away all of our left overs. So, this could really help us in many ways. I think we are going to try it this week and see what happens. If you want to use the challenge for your family, go to this link:
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200804/tows_past_20080417_b.jhtml

American Idol and other random thoughts...

I am going to try and be better about blogging - not always with pictures though (unless I have some on my camera)! It took Mark a LONG TIME to convince me to get DVR on our tv, but now I cannot imagine life without it. In fact, I want it on the tv in my room too. That way, Mark could watch his endless hours of fishing shows while I watch my endless hours of reality tv. I remember when my dad was telling me about the concept of Survivor and how weird I thought a show like that would be. I never did watch Survivor, but I am a reality tv junkie. Anyway, I record so many reality shows that sometimes they overlap. The drawback to DVR - if you are recording two things at one time, you have to have your tv on one of those channels in order for it to record two things at one time. I guess I didn't do that last night, and American Idol didn't record - oh no. I understand that Mariah Carey was the "mentor" last night. I don't care for her a great deal, but I did want to see the contestants sing. I missed it. I don't even know who did well or who messed up. I did see who got kicked off of Dancing With the Stars though and According to Jim. I need to go back and reset my prioritizer so that AI gets recorded first.

I joined Weight Watchers 11.4 pounds ago. I have many pounds to lose, but it is just hard to change old habits. I have hit a period in my "walk" that I have become frustrated. I sure like the old junkie foods that I once ate (and sometimes still do). I am lacking motivation. I would sure like to gain some self control - why is that so hard? It's good that I am not a drug addict - I can't even beat a food habit!

Beverly Ross

Last night we attended a fundraiser for Wise County Christian Counseling. This program is amazing, and it is run by the most amazing woman in the world, Beverly Ross. Beverly is our preachers wife, and she is a marriage and family therapist here in Decatur. She is probably the only person I know that speaks faster than me! If you know Beverly, you know that she is so passionate about the Lord, about children, about marriages, and about helping families. We heard some amazing stories from two families that she has helped in the past year. I cannot even begin to explain the impact that Beverly has had on families in Wise County since she began here almost two years ago. She is truly a blessing to our church and to the community. If you live within an hour of Decatur and ever need some counseling, please call her - she is awesome. You can find a link to her web site from my blog under "Sites of Interest". Check it out. Think about supporting her ministry. Think about using it! She is phenomenal at what she does.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

I got word today from Randy (the missionary in Brazil) that the Secretary of Education in Brazil authorized us doing VBS at the school buildings. This is huge for us because of the possibility of so many kids! So, now let's pray that it is a huge success! Now I can start to feel overwhelmed by the idea!!!

To answer my sister's question...

No...I didn't forget about my blog. Just busy. I hate life being busy. I never thought that I would get to that point in my life...too busy. I like keeping busy, but too busy isn't good. Morgan's volleyball season is finally over. They had their tournament this weekend. Morgan played awesome on Friday night. They won their first game but lost their second one. They were supposed to play on Saturday morning but they were going to be short two of their players and another had a badly sprained ankle. They were still going to play with only 5 but Morgan ended up getting sick. She woke up Saturday morning with a stomach bug, so they had to forfeit their game and they were out of the tournament. Bummer, but we are glad to be done. When I say "WE" I mean me and Mark! It is hard doing sports every weekend. Anyway, here are the few pictures I had on my camera to share for right now. Haleigh took a few pictures with my camera, and these are the pictures that I found. She is OBSESSED with Webkinz right now. Here is her close up of her kangaroo Webkin.

Here is Haleigh and Lynzee (a friend of ours). This was their self portrait at church 2 weeks ago.

Every 5th Sunday of the year (I think there are 4 of them a year), our church has morning service, a potluck, and then young men's worship in the afternoon instead of evening worship. Jacob has started participating in the young men's service, and these are a few pictures of his song leading. He wanted to do it all by himself, but once he was up there he got a little nervous. He brought up his book, set it down on the podium, and then he went to announce the song number. He pulled the microphone down to his mouth to say the number and it was really loud. He got embarrassed so then he tried to say it letting go of the microphone - then it was too quiet. He looked to Mark for what to do, and I thought he was going to run! Mark had to go up and help him. He led Jesus Loves Me, and he did so good. He looked so big.

The pictures didn't turn out too well - the lighting wasn't great for taking pictures. We were so proud of him though. He is growing up so fast, and he will be a great song leader some day!

Some of you have been asking about my special little kindergarten student. We have been spending our time in the "quiet room" or permanent in school suspension. He has been doing really well. We were progressing and he was even about to go back to his regular classroom, but he had a "relapse". The school psychologist thought that he self sabotaged because he was anxious about going back. Anyway, we are working our levels again, and hopefully by Friday he can return to his classroom. It is no fun with me! I had another boy from 2nd grade join us for 2 days while he was serving ISS, and I had him crying by 8:15 the first day! He also made himself throw up, but we came to terms with our arrangement, and now he is back in his class! They tell me I'm mean :) I like it. This week I will be talking to the assistant principal about a teaching job that is open for next year, so please pray for me! Other than all of that, there is not a whole lot more interesting things going on. We are going to be taking our new (new to us) camper out this weekend, so hopefully all will go well there!