Harding chapel.

I know TWO posts in one day! Feeling froggy I guess!

The whole time we were in college at Harding, David talked about speaking in chapel. But it never happened. Well....6 years later...he finally got to!

If you remember, after the tornado Harding sent over 800 students to help in relief efforts to our little town of Clinton. The next week David was asked if he would be willing to come and speak during the "Struggles of the Faith" week. Of course he said "YES!!!"

This past Friday was the day. We sat in the second row right in front of podium so he could see us. I am a little parital to my wonderful husbands speaking ability, but I think he WONDERFUL! But in usual preacher fashion, he went over time! Oh well.

So after 10 years of talking chapel....it happened! He got to say ...." You are dismissed."
Congrats, David....

The Cook Adventure Continues.........

Well, if you have been following us the last 4 months...you will know that we are on house number three since November. :) We are now house sitting for several families from our church this summer. We are just getting started on building our home...which I am VERY excited about. What I am NOT excited about is living other people's lives in the meantime. After the tornado, rental properties are non-existant. So we either comute an hour or live in someone's house. We chose not to drive.

Please send a prayer up for us....more specifically my children. They like to have stability and lately....between the tornado and us moving around.... the only stability they know is our love. Thank goodness that counts for a whole lot more than a house! Right?

Stay tuned for the next chapter in "David and Bethany's Big Adventure!"

Horton Hears a Who!!!!

As I mentioned in my last post we went to go see Horton Hears a Who. It was a pretty cute movie. The girls enjoyed it...that is, between the bathroom visits and the visits to the snack bar. (Luckily, David was on the outside! hehehe!) When we were leaving the theatre, and getting the girls all buckled up, Eden started chanting....." We are Here!!! We are Here!!! We are Here!!!" I just laughed. She's too funny.

Oh what a Night.....

This is our drive way and main entrance to our house.

Well, we've had a tornado, two snow storms, two hail storms, several thunderstorms.....and now....TSUNAMI! And that's just in the last 5 weeks. I don't know who in our town is the "sinner" that God is trying to punish, but I wish that person would repent....and quickly! :) (Just kidding. I know that God doesn't do that to people.) But, one would start to question after so many MAJOR storms.

Last night our family went to the movie to go see Horton Hears a Who. (More on that to come!) When we left the theatre, David checked his phone and had like a million missed calls from various friends. He called our friend Dale back first. Dale told him that the "chicken plant" was being evacuated and that we should be really careful going home. (FYI: Chicken plant is 1/4 mile away from us, and actually on higher ground than us!) By the time we got to our road, the river that runs parallel to it had already started to rise. We decided that we were going to stay somewhere else for the night, so I started to pack up a few days clothes...just in case. You see, this house flooded in 1982...13 feet to be exact. And I want no part of a repeat performance. So...the girls and I head over to Dale (yes, same Dale) and Amanda James' house for the night. David and Dale decided to stay at the house and move things to counters and high spots in the case of a minor flood....if there was a major flood... it's all gone, so who cares!

At 11:30 pm I was finally able to get my now traumatized children to sleep. And I was exhausted. I dozed off to sleep very shortly after. I woke up suddenly at 3:30am to check on my kiddos. As I got up of the mattress, I stepped into 3 inches of ice cold water. At first I thought maybe a glass of water tipped over, or the toilet overflowed.....nope. Yes folks, their basement flooded. So, up I go to Dale and Amanda's room to tell them the glorious news. From then on we had a "bucket brigade" to get the water out of the crawl space and soak up as much as we could. Dale and David were outside trying to dig out the French drain from under the house (that was the culprit)......all while pouring down rain! After 3 hours, the drain was unclogged and we were wet and tired. As of now, things are calm at the James house and our house. The water are receding and the rain is slowing down. And Wet Vacs are a wonderful thing.

But, now I am even more tired than I was before. Oh well. I can always sleep tonight.

Pillow Talk with God

Last night Tatum was messing around at bedtime and I told her she had one chance to say her prayers with me. ( She ususally tries to talk and ask me a gazillion questions to avoid sleeping!) Well, I said my prayer with her...and as ususal she began to jump around. So I told her she was on her own and I left the room. I hung around a minute to make sure she settled down. Not only did she lay down, she said her OWN prayer. It went a little like this....

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the day and the rain.
Thank you for Eden Grace, and Daddy. Thank you for letting me
have Upward and next year I want to cheerleading again so make sure the First
"Baftish" doesn't go down in a tornado. Thank you for my mama and letting me be
her kid. Help me to be good and not go to hell. Please let mama have a baby. Amen.

I thought it was the sweetest prayer....and funny all at the same time. I especially like the "help me to be good and not go to hell" part. It's always a little shocking when she uses the word "hell" in it's right context. But I am glad that she (and Eden both) knows how serious hell is, and that they want to avoid it! Makes one part of my job a little easier.

I love to hear my children pray. I especially love that the majority of thier prayers consist of THANKS to God. Can we say the same?

PS: Oh yeah, There will NO more babies!!!! :) (Sorry Kid!)

Car for Sale!!!

While shopping in Conway, we ran across this car for sale. I just busted out laughing because ....well.....Why would anyone spray paint a car with "FOR SALE?" Duhhh!!!

MOM CONFESSIONS!!!

I was reading a friends blog today and a comment made me laugh. I decided to make a whole post dedicated to this comment.

The comment was from a mom who said that she painted her son's toenails just so he would leave her alone so she could finish hers. My friend responded with a mention of "Mom Confessions." That is what made me laugh....how many of us have those confessions?

Here's where this post needs group participation.....I need your Confessions!

I will start:

I have on several occations, gone to the Wal Mart deli and bought "chicken balls" (aka: popcorn Chix) and a blue slushy drink for the girls....then driven through Taco Bell for me. All because I didn't feel like "fixin" lunch that day.

Your turn.

Snow Day....Again!

This is across from our house!!! Isn't it beautiful?

Sunday it was about 71 degrees and everyone was talking snow. After the weather we have had the last few months, I would believe it. Last night I prayed for snow, mainly for selfish reasons....I really didn't want to do anything today. Before I even stepped one foot out of bed I prayed that I wouldn't have to get up this early. I looked out the window....SNOW, LOTS OF IT!!! I crawled back into bed and turned the tv on to double check the school closings. Sure enough, we were closed. God answered my selfish prayers! :)

Games Rednecks Play....with thier neighbors!

When we got up and moving....about an hour late, I trudged my way to Walmart to buy rainboots and gloves for us all. When I got home the girls were running amuck. They were so anxious to get outside.that they had thier faces plastered to the windows. Finally we all went outside and started rolling in the snow. We started to build a snowman, but we didn't have much luck with it. (The snow wasn't packing very well.) Our across the street neighbors had better luck. After the snowman failed the same across the street neighbors pulled out the 4-wheeler and sled. THAT WAS FUN! For probably 3 hours we went round and round and round the vacant lot. We only got thrown off a few times. About the time we were all chilled to the bone, we decided to go in for lunch and a nap. Hopefully the snow will still be there after our naps.

Warming up by the fire!!!

I was tagged....enjoy!

"Five Things" Tag
Five things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Finding out I was preggers with Eden
2. Fretting b/c David was still looking for work...and now we were going to have another
mouth to feed.
3. Spending every Monday with 3 of my closest friends-laughing, crying, praying, etc...
(And I do miss that by the way!)
4. Finishing up my last semester at Harding.
5. Doing my best to balance Tatum, new pregnancy, school, job hunting, and church!!! Whew!

Five things on my to-do list today:
1. Pick-up the girls- and Cameron (not mine)- from school, and deliver Cameron to his house.
2. Sew a LOT of bags that need to get done this week.
3. Get sub-contractors in order so we can finally begin this house building process.
4. Cook supper for tonight.
5. Vacuum the house.

Five things I will do when I am a millionaire:
1. Pay off the rest of our student loans....then everyone else in my family's.
2. Pay off this house we are getting ready to build.
3. Give some to those who need it....that would be so fun to do!
4. Buy David a new truck...his car is REALLY bad. :)
5. Secure all the kids in my family a college education.

Five things I will never wear again:
1. A bikini !!!
2. Spandex pants....as a fashion statement (Okay if it is for working out!)
3. Anything in a size "0".....I have decided that size is for invisable people! :)
4. Stilletto heels...they hurt.
5. Tight rolled pants or crimped hair....both really need to stay dead.

Five of my favorite toys:
1. My phone
2. My new sewing machine....lots of buttons.
3. My computer...I love to surf on it!
4. Paint..sounds wierd but I love to paint.
5. Eden's Disney Cash register....it is really fun to play with!!!

Five banes of my existence:
1. Whining of any sort....just keep it to yourself or get over it.
2. When one side of your nose is plugged up and the other isn't....then they switch.
3. When I can't turn my brain off at night b/c I am too busy thinking of what I can do to the
room to improve it's appeal. Ugh.
4. People at Walmart that wear PJ's and slippers and walk around half dead.
5. When people drove up and down Hwy 65 after the tornado blocking traffic of those who
were trying to help b/c they had to get just the right shot on the camera. ( I was the
crazy one on the horn behind you! :))

Prayers for Kanin

I have a prayer request for all my Prayer Warrior friends out there. A close friend of mine, Carly, called today to tell me that her 1 month old nephew, Kanin Charles Lassiter (pronounced Cannan), was having emergancy surgery today. Aparently, he has been having some reflux problems, or so they thought. It turns out his stomach muscle is too big for his little body and hasn't been letting food pass through. This little guy has lost a lot of weight in the last week or so. The only option was surgery to reduce the size of the muscle.

Please keep the Lassiter family in your prayers the next few weeks, as I am sure the recovery is going to be hard too.

Thanks!