What's New Here

*Jack is eating slices of ham, turkey, macaroni, lots of cheerios, and cheese. We have an appointment on Wednesday for oral feeding therapy for some further help. He just started all of this last week, so I have debated canceling it, but I think I will go anyway to get help with other kids of food that he still spits out.

*I joined the choir at church a month ago and am going to try out for ensemble next week. It has been a LONG time since I have been part of a choir and it has been quite enjoyable. I have to break out my skills in reading music and remembering the notes on the page...so it is a good challenge. My heart has been so full to be able to sing again.

*My roommate from college, Kristin, just had her twin babies Miles and Sam. They are so adorable and I can not wait to meet those two! Check out the shirt that her husband Todd made her for Halloween (2 days before the babies came). It is cracking me up!

*We have a new neighbors two doors down. I went and introduced myself and found out that the husband graduated two years before me at Mansfield High School. Small world!

*We have a couple of women in my neighborhood that have strollers for their dogs. Does anyone else find this strange? They made a comment to us something like, "This is the only way to walk a dog." I am dumbfounded.


*So I am addicted to a show on MTV called "The Hills". I think I have been watching these kids grow up for 4 years now since Laguna Beach. If anyone watches it out there.."How about Spencer being put in place by Heidi's boss?"

*Keegan has made an exit out of his 5 o'clock wake up call. Thank you time change...even though it was supposed to get him to wake up earlier...it went the opposite way.

*I was looking at houses in this one particular neighborhood on HAR, and saw this picture.


*I host a table group on Tuesday nights once a month for "Women's Life" with author Chandra Peele as our speaker. She has written girls ministry books and I actually used a couple at HFBC for girls. So cool. What I love about this night, it is a melting pot of ages. I had some older women at my table last night. One of them before leaving said, "Can I sit at your table next month?" It made my heart happy.

Happy Fall Festival!

Last Friday did have a good ending. Keegan and I had a date at our churches fall festival while Jonathan and Jack stayed home sick. It took a good while to get his costume on (he hated it) but he allowed us to scribble on his face. Go figure. He made a cute little scarecrow! As soon as we entered into the parking lot he saw the Firetruck and he could not run fast enough to check it out. Then he saw the "choo-choo" and folks...he could die a happy scarecrow! We rode it around and the excitement that was built up in his body all came out in shrieks! Then the happiness ended when we had to get off the train and then we had a life lesson in waiting in the line to ride it again.

We walked around and nibbled on a extra fried funnel cake and then his attention landed on the band playing. (like mother like son) We made our way to the dance floor and he was a dancing fool. (Yall...this is a BAPTIST church...someone say AMEN!) We soon found our friends the Stengles, and their little twin girls, Kyla and Kyrsten (who were butterflies minus the wings...cause they only lasted a few minutes). The greatest moment is when Keegan ran onto the dance floor and took Kyrsten's hands to dance. (hmmmmmm.....) It was oh so fun for the soul.

Keegan and his bestie, Cade...the fireman



"Keegan and Kyrsten sitting in a tree"....oh sorry... getting a little ahead of myself!


Saturday, Jack felt up to putting on his costume and unfortunately there was no way...no how...that Keegan was going to put his scarecrow outfit back on. So, just imagine the scarecrow and pumpkin all smiles together in a picture...cause there's not one. Look how irresistibly cute he is. (Thanks Stacie for lending us this costume!)

(check out my new teeth!!)

Herpa-What?

Friday morning I woke up all pumped up for the fall festival at our church. I got Keegan out of bed and then Jack, but when I reached in to get him he had a fever. Ahhhhhh! Seriously? He had a slight temp before going to bed but I thought it was because he was getting teeth. So, I thought optimistically and gave him motrin right away. He was quite the fuss budget, so I gave him a long nap hoping it would cure all. Nope. When he woke up he was burning up and had the chills. So, I sat on our couch with him wrapped up while Keegan ran around the house like a mad man. I could not give him any tylenol for another hour. Poor guy.

I get an important phone call and while I have a sick baby in my arms, I also have to write down lots of info. At the same time, Keegan is running around the house like a mad man. (still) No structure...means CRAZY! While I am on the phone I see in the corner of my eye Keegan taking off his pajamas, undoing his diaper and jumping in his tent with all his stuffed animals. I hear, "TEE-TEE in TENT". Oh no! I finish with the phone call and look inside the tent to find everything wet and Keegan naked. He has this grin and said, "Funny". He did not think it was too funny a few seconds later.

I buzz the doctor because an hour after the tylenol, Jack has 103.5 temp. I took him in that afternoon only to find that his temp was 97.1 and he was waving at everyone in the sitting room. The nurse kind of looked at me like..."Sure!". I looked at her like..."Do you think it is fun to wake my kids up to bring my two kids here?" The doc comes in the room, checks him over and says, "I know what he has." Herpangina." HERPA-what? (Then a bell rings in my head because an old student had it.) In fact, the doctor slurs the word a little because it sound that awful. (Of course, this is the same doc that calls the boy part not what it is really called but an alternative word.) This is a virus that causes an ulcer outbreak in the throat. Whoever labels these viruses need to get more creative or at least think twice about what it sounds like. Jack..I am so sorry!

Bad news is Jack could not go to the fall festival but Good news is Keegan and mommy got to go and we had a blast.
Pics to come. :)

Women of Faith Conference

This past weekend, I joined other ladies from our church at went to the Women of Faith conference. It was so fun to load up in a car and be free with no responsibilities! Thank you Jonathan for sacrificing your weekend so I could go. I did not know much about who were going to be there as far as speakers and singers, but I did know that my childhood favorite artist was one. Sandi Patty. Okay...I know some of you are laughing hysterically right now, but seriously...I LOVE HER! It was so nostalgic and I literally was 5 feet away from her at one point. I felt like I could have walked up to her, hugged her, and start talking to her like we were long lost friends. I learned to sing and harmonize listening to her. My mom has an old song book of hers and we used to pull it out, and as she played on the piano, I would sing sing sing to her greatest hits. Sandi has a humugo range, so I did not sound so good on some of her songs, but I sure tried. Two friends that came along, Stacie and Heather, are huge fans of her, so I was glad to have someone to share it with.

The other artists were Nicole C. Mullen, and Mandisa. A-MAZING! I think I am addicted to Mandisa now, and need to attend every concert in Houston when she comes. How incredible how God can use a show like American Idol to bring glory to himself! Ha...I love our GOD!

On Saturday, I spotted Lisa Pierre a few rows down from us, so I visited with her during a break and was blessed. A long time ago (7 years I think..wow time flies) we were in the Gathering Band together and now she leads worshio for Beth Moore on Tuesday nights. She is amazing. She has two awesome kiddos that I was blessed to know in our student ministry and her daughter Kamri, is a joy. Lisa also taught aerobics to our girls at First...and I TOTALLY COULD NOT HANG!! But none the less, I saw how really out of shape I am! I forgot totally that she previously was on the Women of Faith praise team, and was sad that she was not on it this year to hear her!

Anyhow, I got my fill of good music this past weekend and need to get on i-tunes to purchase some new songs. Don't laugh..but I am for sure going to rock out to Sandi!

A Heavy Heart....

Within this past week, we have been hearing grim news for a fellow sister, Kristi Walkers. I barely know her but she was the girl intern that served on the student ministry staff a couple years before I did at HFBC.

Last week she went into the doctor with high blood pressure and jaundice and was rushed into a an emergency c-section. She was diagnosed with HELLPS disease because her platelets were low. Normally, the platelets go back to the normal level, but hers never did. Within the past week, they learned that she had stage 4 cancer. In a e-mail I received this morning, the latest findings are this... "The result of the bone marrow biopsy was not good; the doctors have said the cancer is diffused throughout her entire body – around the brain, all bones, bone marrow, liver and possibly the GI track and chest. The doctors said tonight that even with aggressive treatment, she probably has less than a year to live."

What I do know of Kristi is that she is a 30 year old woman that has dedicate her life wholeheartedly to the Lord. When working at HFBC I heard stories and stories about her and her faithfulness to studying the Word, her intense walk with Him, and a great impact on those she was around. She has children that are 4 1/2 (Cade), 2 (Mason), and of course a newborn (Zane). I know that for now she wants to walk right out of that hospital and be the mother she was called to be.

If you will join me in praying for Kristi as he fights this battle. Chuck, as he supports his wife but at the same time bonding with his newest son, Zane and explaining things to his older boys. For Cade and Mason, that there will be peace in their hearts as things are explained to them in time. Pray for the Kristi's parents, sister Amy, and husband Daniel who I am sure are feeling a great loss on exactly how to feel.

I know that God has done tremendous miracles in the past and He can do it again. At the same time, we know that He has a perfect plan for our lives even if it means suffering. "God, we believe in you and trust you. We can hardly fathom how quickly this cancer has spread. Lord, we cry out on Kristi's behalf who so desperately wants to be home and rock her baby and be a mother to her boys. God, we know GOOD comes out of every trial, so let this sweet family hold on to that. We pray that you will bring an incredible peace to this family and that they will be a light and witness of your greatness!

If you would like to send her an e-mail of encouragement....please send it to michellersanders@gmail.com and I will forward it on.

One of THOSE weeks...

I can officially label last week as a "BLUR". It is one of those inevitable weeks where everything will hit at once and when it is over you sigh in relief. My car was in the shop for six days so I was stuck at home. Jack cut 3 teeth last week and is currently getting the fourth one now. Keegan is still keeping on with the 5:15-5:30 wake-up call. This leads to lots of whining, crying and tantrums before naptime. It also leads to very tired, emotional mother who tries to keep it together. At the end of the week I took Jack to the doctor for his check up to find that he is wheezing from his cold and needs breathing treatments. Well...note to self...baby who has teeth coming in does not want a mask on their face. The doctor is also sending Jack to an oral specialist to check out how everything functions in his mouth to see if that is the reason why is he is not eating. I claimed it as "one of those weeks".

SO....this week gave me a few lemons...I had to make lemonade....

Since I could not make the pumpkin patch playdate, because my car was in the shop, my friend Stacie and I loaded up the kids on Friday and went to nearby church that had lots of pumpkins. We had a great time chasing after our kids. Jack gets the star for the best picture and Keegan gets half of one since he never smiled for me.








On Saturday, Jonathan went to the A&M game and I loaded up the boys and headed out for the day to hang out with Christine and Zach or "I-Teen and Mac". (who knows) Our first stop was at Corey's garage sale. I heard she has some really great stuff so I rushed to get there only to find out that a woman bought all the good stuff 5 minutes before I came. However, she had a shabby chic desk that was perfect for my entry way, sugar and flour jars, a toy for Keegan and a hair straightener! Yeah! It was very much worth it. The rest of the day we hung out at I-Teens and Mac's house for naps and such. Before we left, we spent some time with the Altic family enjoying one of their last Saturday's before Judah comes. Oh Bayou Woods...I miss you dearly.
(don't pay attention to everything on it...i am still working on it!!)

This Picture Makes Me Smile

This picture was taken at Aunt Fitine's 30th birthday party and I just felt like posting it tonight. (a little late...but better late than never). For the last 8 plus years, each one of you hold different a meaning in my life and I am grateful for our friendships. I wish time could stand still and we could all be at camp again for one final year. Sweet memories. Love you all.