Life with my sister

"Daddy plant corn?" or "Marmie sick?" is all that I have heard in the past week out of this little precious love. My heart aches for him. His daddy is in the thick of planting all over the delta and his phone-a- friend( Marmie) is not able to communicate with him. He is so confused and has seen me cry way more than he should have. Julie told me to stop crying in front of him because he was going to be jacked up...so I have bucked up and kept dry eyes for the last few days. He has talked to Juju in place of Marmie this week and I think Juju has really liked that...I know Henry has! When he talks to his daddy every morning by phone he says "plant corn good daddy!" This week has been a challenge to work and be mama without distraction. Playing outside with him after work has been therapeutic for me. I committed the cardinal sin and allowed him to sleep with me. I needed it and so did he. Sometimes we have to break the rules. I am back with Mama now and relie...

Mama has a long road ahead of her. She is still in ICU and will be for a few more days. She is expected to be in the hospital for 3 weeks once she gets out of ICU. Your prayers of strength for all of us, especially mama, are very much felt and appreciated. Thank you for loving us enough to lift our family up often to our healer and merciful savior. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my father There is no shadow of turning with Thee Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not As Thou hast been, Thou for ever will be Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me Great is thy faithfulness Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest Join with all nature in manifold witness To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfu...

Today our dear mama is having a portion of her colon removed. Julie and I have made the pilgrimage home to care for her. Before you read any further, please pray for our mama. Her name is Kathy and she is a jewel. Pray for her to have peace, the surgeon to have a steady hand and sharp mind, pray for her to have rest and a stress-free recovery. March is Colon Cancer Awareness month. I find it an ironic blessing that all this came about this month. Mama had never had a colonoscopy and her doctor had been on her about it for a while. She finally scheduled one. She hated every minute of the prep and the waiting on the procedure proved to be a bear also. She had to wait for hours. We got updates from our Aunt J, who had taken her, and it went from comical to maddening, real quick!( My favorite part was when Aunt J told her she would take her anywhere she wanted to eat afterwards and she told Aunt J she just wanted to go home and eat scrambled eggs. I still laugh about that.) After the proce...

Henry loves a bath. He goes bonkers when he hears "bath" so we have to spell it when talking about it unless it is time. He will sprint to the back of the house when he hears "bath" while laughing, squealing and yelling "Baftub...I want baftub!" Have I ever told you how much I love this little fella?! I love this baby boy to pieces. He can be so ornery at times and push all my mama buttons, but I love him for it. These past few days it has been just the two of us. His Daddy went on a hunting trip and I was home with a stomach bug. Julie's dynamic duo shared the germ with ole Aunt Abby. Thanks, guys! Henry was so sweet and cooperative with his sick little mama. He has not gotten sick and I am so thankful.... and still crossing my fingers! He was sweet to sit still with me while I felt so bad. At one point he looked at me, patted me on the arm and said, "Mama a good boy!"and leaned in and kissed my cheek. Melt.my.heart! I don't care how bad...

A couple of days before we went on vacation (a month ago) David began complaining about his ears hurting. I promptly called the doctor and got him some ear drops. I'm such a good mom! Daniel had an ear infection a couple of weeks prior and I figured something must be going around in their bedroom! I gave David all of his 7 days worth of ear drops . I'm such a good mom! The next couple of weeks he would complain off and on about his ear but he didn't run a fever and it wasn't an everyday complaint so I did nothing. I'm such a good mom! Monday David really started to complain about his ear. He cried a couple of times so I called the doctor Tuesday and couldn't get in. I called on Wednesday and they didn't even answer the phone. (This doctor's office is the WORST ! I love the kids doctor but I wish she would move to another office!) Thursday I had to be in Arkadelphia to help lead a conference for ministry wives, but I called the doctor's office while ...

Sunday morning Anna woke up with a nasty cough and it went away. Monday morning Anna woke up with a nasty cough and it went away. And then she mentioned that she didn't feel good. But since I'm the mom of four kids and am with them quite a bit of the time, which means I hear them complain about the slightest of ills, I told her she would feel better soon. We went to the boys ballgame, and they won! The first game they have won this season! Oh, we were so excited!!! They were excited, and I was pumped for the coaches. Neither of the guys coaching have kids on the team, or kids period. They are just young guys that offered their time. They deserved a win! After the game Anna leaned against me and she was HOT! 100.5 hot! Tuesday she continued to run a fever. Stephen told me to make an appointment for her, but thinking it was a cold I told him no. Wednesday she continued to run a fever. Stephen told me to make an appointment for her, and I did. And she has the flu. THE FLU! I have...

This is my Croupy Cutie. Bless his little congested heart! I took him to the doctor yesterday morning after he barked like a seal all in the night. This is our third time to have it since early fall. I really hate to hear the barking cough because I know steroids are required. Our sweet Henry gets the roid rage and becomes a little bear. I took this of him running around the dining room like a wild man. He took a great nap soon after. There is an upside, I reckon! It is nothing Mama can't fix though. I love holding him, kissing him, and singing to him when he feels yucky. He is pretty fond of his Mama too! It makes him more clingy and there is nothing wrong with that...unless you are his Daddy and he is clinging to Mama! So, we are making our Henry Patton comfy and nursing him back to health. He is watching lots of his Baby Einstein and Praise Baby DVDs in front of the fire and taking long naps. I do hope the Croup moves out for the winter, I am so tired of seeing it rear its u...

My sweet Mama came to see us this weekend. I was so glad. Henry was so happy to have his Marmie at his house to play with him, despite his Croup. She and Henry have a special little bond. Marmie and Henry became fast buddies the night he came home from the hospital. I promise you that child remembers! He had not seen Mama in two months and it was a sight to see how he melted right into her. He is not normally that way with people he does not have constant contact with. I love it! I also have to say that "Nana" is one of his few words. Nana is in-love with it, of course. He is making the sound and not actually calling her name. We will pretend though....we will pretend, Nana! :) Henry is a blessed little boy to have such sweet Godly women in his life who make a point to bond with him. It makes his Mama smile. Henry has been giving his Mama a time this weekend! He is SO Croupy, still! We had to go back to the doctor today and have a chest x-ray and get blood work done. He also...

Yesterday while I was cooking lunch Daniel decided to scale the wing back chair in the dining room. Before you ask, I don't know why! His arm looked awful when he got up off the floor. He looked at me and said "call 911, call 911, call 911." He was pitiful. He was scared and hurting. (If you want to see what his arm looked like go here . I hurried and put up lunch, put shorts on Daniel, because he still had his pajama pants on. After all he does have mono! Grabbed my phone, which was dying, and hurried Anna and David out to the truck. Samuel was on a puppet ministry trip with the church. He was due home soon, but I couldn't wait. Stephen was in Ft. Smith helping with the funeral of a friend. I began praying immediately. We are 30 minutes from any hospital, and I was unsure of where to take him. God gave me the names of people to call and ask advice from and I ended up going to Baptist in Little Rock. Daniel was so quiet. He wasn't crying or talking. We put the fla...

Tommy Atchley was a great man. He was a christian and a lover of the Lord. He was a powerful testimony to the love of Christ. He was honest, nice, caring, giving, and funny! His family and Stephen's family vacationed together at the beach for many years. The families were close and he was Stephen's first "boss". Stephen spent a couple of summers working at Tommy's heating and air business. Stephen learned a lot those summers. Somethings not worth repeating. But he also learned how Tommy conducted himself in his business. Stephen has preached many a sermon on the kind of man Tommy was. On how a christian man should conduct himself in business and in his personal life. Tommy made a great impact on Stephen and so many others. Tuesday night Tommy went to be with the Lord. It is such a sad time for his family and friends. He had such a great spirit and personality about him. Stephen is going to Ft. Smith for the funeral. He and two other preachers that are all about t...

If you read the post following this one you know that Daniel is sick now. I took him to the doctor this morning and he also has mono. 2 down, 2 to go! Stephen had to be in Pine Bluff for a couple of meetings today, so in between the meetings he was able to take David to the dentist for me while I was at the doctor. David did good at the dentist and I felt better that he wasn't alone. Not that he would have known he was alone. But I would have known and it would have made me a wee bit sad. Thanks for your prayers and sweet comments. I'm hoping that Daniel begins feeling better and can be fever free by Saturday so that he can go to church camp on Monday. Pray with us please. Julie

As you may recall David was diagnosed with mono on July 1. He had a terribly high fever, sore throat, headache, and no energy. After a little over a week he began to feel better and he was his normal self again. Fast forward to July 18. Daniel comes home from swimming all day and says he doesn't feel good. I take his temperature and its 101.8. He has a low body temperature so 101.8 was really high for him. He has since been complaining of a sore throat, headache and lack of energy. Fast forward to July 19. Anna is running a low grade fever and has diarrhea . REALLY???!!!! Samuel is away for a couple of days with Stephen's parents. I'm praying he misses all the sickness. We are all supposed to leave for church camp on Monday. We'll see! I'll let you know what the doctor says about Daniel. I take him in the morning. I'm going to go ahead and have them see Anna too. All while David is at the dentist. Oh yes, the joys of mothering!! But don't bother asking if...

What a comfort: "There's a bigger picture you can't see. You don't have to change the world, just trust in me. I am your creator I am working out my plan and through you I will show them I Am." If you have read our blog from the first post until now, you know I love Ginny Owens. Her songs speak my heart. I love it. I started singing (belting it out, actually. Poor Rand.) this song in the shower tonight. I have no idea where it came from...it was totally out of the blue. I love that about my God and this quirky personality He blessed me with. It makes me laugh. Our family is going through a challenge right now (I will post about it more in the days to come) and this song hit my heart's cry tonight and gave me assurance that it is not up to me to make it better. I just need to simply be . Through me He will show them who HE is... I love that! Seriously, how do people go through trials without Jesus? Amazing. Abby

I now have a sinus infection, ear infection and a little vomiting issue. I think the vomiting is from the headache pain. Oh me, what a fun Spring Break for me! Between cleaning out closets, scrubbing baseboards, polishing cabinets (all for the move of course and not for my pleasure) and then being sick....heck, I would rather be at work! A helpful tidbit: When nauseated, don't drink a large freshly squeezed diet lemonade from Chick-fil-A....it is not something you want coming back up. Trust me! Abby

Hey again! This is our third post in one day. It is a record for us. Sometimes we don't get 3 posts in one week! Just wanted to let you all know that I took Anna to the doctor today. She was running a fever of about 101.5, runny nose, and over-all not feeling good. She only complained that her throat hurt. I took her, they looked at her and did the strep test. When the doctor came in to tell me that she did in fact have strep she also said that she was going to do a flu test on her, because some children were coming in with strep and flu. I told the doctor that they probably needed to give the mothers something for having to take those children home and keep them happy! HA! She came back and told me that I was one of those mothers! YES! Anna has strep and the flu! So all the kids are on tamiflu and Anna is in the house for 5 days. I think I'm not feeling very good myself! HA! Julie