Something I saw today...

David was in Florida all this week, until today. The girls and I went to LR airport to pick him up. As we were waiting for the luggage...which we found out later was the wrong carousel....there was a woman with her five month old baby boy in a front pack. This baby was so tickled by the luggage coming out of the "luggage hole" that he could hardly contain himself. Everytime another piece of luggage came shooting out he would laugh harder. He would laugh so hard he wouldn't breathe. His laughter made everyone around giggle....and my girls cackle. It might have been pretty much the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.

No room in the Inn.....or bed.

Since the tornado, the girls have been really scared to sleep in thier own rooms. (Thier rooms are at the other end of the house and they are afraid that a tornado will blow away that end of the house without us knowing.) At first they were sleeping in the floor of our room and David and I would be in the bed....well a week and a half ago our heater went out and they graduated to the bed...where it was warmer. This pushed David out of bed and into the living room on the couch next to the fireplace. The heat was fixed today, but David has been out of town for three nights and this is usually a treat for when a parent is out of town...they get to fill the void in our bed! David comes home tomorrow and the heat is fixed, and there aren't any signs of a tornado.....I hope, just hope, that they make it back into thier rooms without a problem. I am ususally a stickler for the "in your own bed" thing. They didn't even sleep with us as babies! Please say a prayer that they will transition right back into their own beds tomorrow night and that all the fear they have will vanish.

Family Day!

After 27 straight days of David working 12 hour days....we are finally getting a family day! All the happenings around here have kept him jumping and then the tornado didn't help things at all. But I am stealing him all to myself (well, the girls too) this glorious day! I have no idea what we are going to do but we are getting out of town for awhile so he CAN'T help people. (Is that bad of me?) :)

Wish us fun as we are off to explore Arkansas!

A Peace that Passes Understanding.

A family I am accquainted with lost everything in the tornados two weeks ago. Kim and her husband sat on what was left of thier front porch and looked over the mess they had in thier yard. They talked about how they didn't know where to start or how they would even get it done. Instead of complaining they just held hands and prayed for strength. NO sooner did they open thier eyes and a caravan of cars pulled up as far as they could to the house and got out. All of them had Harding shirts and work gloves on. They introduced themselves, surrounded the area in a circle , prayed with and for the family, and then sang a song to them. This act of love touched this family so much. This family got a giant hug from God, thier prayers were answered. This mob of students (about 70 in all) cleaned up the ENTIRE yard and had all the debris close to the road ready for pick-up. My heart overflows!!!

Hundreds of these kinds of stories are popping up everyday. And for a community that has lost about 40% of thier building stuctures, we are awfully cheerful. I think it's because God has shined down on us and sent the "Lord's Army" to come and help relieve some of the stress.

I am appreciative of all those who have sacrificed time, energy and money to help give our little town some peace from such a big blow. (Pun intended!)

Home Sweet Home?

Hummm.....home. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well not for us.

As many of you know we sold our house unexpectedly this past November. (It wasn't even on the market.) We moved into a friends house that they have had on the market....and empty...for two and a half years, to help them out while we looked for, or built, a home of our own. The tornados that occured two weeks ago have sped that little process up a tad. Since this "rent house" is still on the market we have had a few people look at it but no bites. This morning was different. A young couple came by to look at the house first thing today...I was still in PJ's!!! When I got home this afternoon, I recieved another call from the realtor that they had a contractor coming by to make sure it would pass an inspection....WHOA!!!! Now what?

Luckily we found a chunk of dirt we would like to call home ...but there isn't even a tent on it yet! :) But unfortunatly the supply of homes available to rent or even buy for that matter have dwindled conciderably because of all the displaced people from the tornados. We have had several people offer thier extra rooms, but I don't think that they want a family of 4 for MONTHS at a time until our house is built.

Say a little prayer that God will continue to blow our minds! He has been doing that for the last few weeks for sure. And I know that he can continue to make things fall into place.

P.S. This picture is the house we are planning on building! Beautiful huh?!!!!! It's my favorite!!

Aye Aye Aye....Valentines Day.

Okay, most people love Valentine's Day. Ususally I do too. However, yesterday stunk. It started out with us rushing around because we slept in. Eventually, David got the girls off to school so I could shower and get ready for their parties. (Did I mention they were at the same time and in different rooms?) Anyway, I was supposed to stop at the balloon store and pick up a dozen balloons for Eden's teacher, Ms. Sally. However, as I was backing out of the garage door (that WAS open) the release handle got stuck in my luggage rack on the roof of my car. This in turn released the garage door onto the back of my car. And since I was already in a moving motion....I took the door with me....I was NOT a happy camper. I called David who just laughed at me. He got there just in time for me to steal his car (b/c mine was now stuck in the garage door) so I could go get those precious balloons. (David stayed behind so he could take the door off the track.) I did make it to school ...late. But I don't think either of the girls noticed. Whew.

The day did redeem itself as it went on. David sent me flowers and Eden did the funniest thing.

The girls got valentine's from David's mom. In it was a $10 bill for each of them. Well, we have been trying to teach the importance of giving money to God and saving money. Well Eden was all proud of her decision to save and give to God. She walked in and said "Mommy, I am going to give half to church and half to the bank." There she stands with half of a $10 bill in each hand and a HUGE smile. I just hugged her...today we will go by the bank and see if they will trade with us...maybe if I tell them the story they will have pity on us. :) I am so proud of her selfless spirit! (Tatum on the other hand wants to go straight to WalMart and spend hers...and probably some of mine too! :)) I love my kids.

What a week!!!!

I am proud to say that after a crazy clean up week...... we are all still standing. Barely, but standing none the less. It is still so hard to see all the mess that this storm left behind..not just the physical mess of houses and debris, but the emotional mess that it left behind in those that lost. Please pray for my friends.

Updates:
*This week we cleaned out what was left of the shop. Now it's all in a friends shed....pray that
we don't get a huge rain storm! :)
*We have had several friends that found out their insurance company isn't covering the
damages. Pray that things turn out alright.
* We are waiting on our insurance check so we can surly be free from Palazzo debt....cross your
fingers.
*David is working his booty off trying to get the outskirts of town some aid.
*Harding students....LOTS of them....came Sunday to help with the clean up effort. I can't
even tell you how much they impacted our little town. Services were very emotional for all
of us. Even Tatum was overwhelmed and shed a tear or two. A million thanks to
everyone.


I am sorry if this seems a little disjointed, but I am so exhausted from working and lack of sleep! Please continue to pray for our little town and more specifically for those who have lost loved ones and thier homes.

Tornado Update

This is our sign....laying down of course!

After looking at my last blog post this one seems so much more digestable. As many of you have heard, an F4 tornado tore through Clinton last night. We are all okay, but many in our little town aren't. We have several members and friends who have lost everything. The entire skyline of Clinton has changed forever. In the midst of this storm, I lost my store. The path of the tornado went through the parking lot of the KFC next door and wiped out the strip mall behind us all while dumping a tree on the back of our building. There are several salvageable things in the store but if we get any bad weather before the insurance people get there, it may all be gone. It is just stuff, and we are alright, so we consider ourselves truly blessed. God was watching over us yesterday because we decided to close up shop early so that we could run to Walmart before cheerleading practice at 5:30. We found out 15 minutes before the tornado hit that it was coming.

This is a picture of the back of our shop

and the UHaul that flipped over behind it.

As far as clean up goes...the yard is already cleared out and a GIANT pile of 75 year old trees is ready to be chipped and hauled off. It's always amazing how people come out of the woodworks to help. I love and appreciate all those who have helped not just me but all those in our town. I have added several pictures so you all can see just a little glimpse of what we are looking at...and all I say is, it's MUCH worse than these pictures show.

Wow.

I was catching up on some friends blogs...and you know how that gets you deeper and deeper in the "web".....I ran across this blog post and I just stopped and thought for awhile that this was so much bigger than anything I could wrap my head around. And yet comforting at the same time.

Enjoy...and bask in the knowledge that God is really in control of everything.

Here is goes: From "rocks in the dryer" blog

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. "
Colossians 1:15-20

We recite that verse in our church every Sunday morning. It's a hefty theological treatise about who Christ is, with lots of nice, churchy words scattered throughout.
But did you see that little phrase tucked in verse 17? Every Sunday morning I read it and sigh a very deep sigh:

...and in him all things hold together.

All things hold together. Yes. They do.

I'm sure a scholar of Scripture could expound on the theology of that verse for you in ways I cannot. Maybe "all things hold together" is speaking on the cosmic level, or the molecular one, about Christ's place as holder-together of the very fabric of the universe.

But it isn't theology I'm thinking when my child comes home from school broken-hearted or my daughter pours my moisturizer on the bed. Or my friend's husband leaves. Or one son tells me he hates his brother, or the dog throws up on the carpet. Or I feel like I'm standing at the outskirts of my own sanity, ready to walk away. Or Hubs is late for dinner or the garage door won't open or another young soldier dies in the desert. Or I've blown it, big-time, bigger than ever before, and I'm not sure where to go from here.

In him all things hold together.

When I'm holding on by a thread, or not even holding on at all, in Him there's rhyme for the reason, and footing on the slipperiest slope. I can't tell you how, or why, but it's right there in my heart--right there where all the pieces feel ready to fly apart.
Where things are spinning.
Where they hurt.
Right there at there very core of it all, something--some-One--holds me together and gently whispers the things a Father says.
Yes, He holds together the cosmos and the Church and the vast arc of human history, but He also holds together the heart of His messed-up child.

No wonder I sigh.

Not a Birdie.

I ran across a blog that I put on my myspace page about Eden a few months ago. I laughed out loud for a few minutes thinking about it...I though that you all would enjoy it too!

Ahh, my wonderful daughter Eden. She is always with me at my shop b/c she is lazy. Yes, lazy. If she could, she would sit in her PJ's and watch television all day! Anyhoo- the other day I was helping a customer and as we were finishing up, I hear this huge thud on the floor coming from the back room. When the customer left the store, I run back there only to hear...."Owwwwwww. Owwwwwwww. I hurt myself. Owwwwwww" Very curious, I asked her what she was doing to hurt herself. She then told me she was trying to fly. When I looked at her hands, she had two turkey feathers (that I use for flower arrangements) and she had tried to flap them while jumping off the bed. I asked her how that worked out for her....
Her response? Just as serious as could be she said.....
"Well, I'm not a birdie!"
I got really tickeled and could hardly keep it together enough to love on her boo boos!

Just another adventure in parenting! It's exausting but worth it for the stories you get!

Flower Girl Wishes

Our friends Kip and Penny Stringer just got married today. The wedding was great and everything went smoothly. Well everything but the flower girl. :) The funny thing is they didn't plan on having one.
Tatum has asked Penny numerous times if she could be the flower girl. Penny told her everytime that they weren't going to have one. But still everytime Penny came around, Tatum would ask. Persistance.
Today when the wedding party was in the recieving line Tatum was standing there in her blue plaid skirt and matching shirt shaking hands with all the friends and family. She was so serious about it too.
I guess she got the recognition without all the work. It's hard b/c Mommy and Daddy are always invovlved with the weddings that we go to, so she thinks that she should be in them too. Humph.