I'm a New Foster Mom

We have just become the proud foster parents to a new calf I thought it might be nice for every one to see. He really is kind of cute. If you click on it you can get a closer look. Don't cows have the prettiest eyes? If only I had those lashes.

We are also the new foster parents to three kittens. They belong to our outside cat. She lost one and was in the midst of having the others when we rescued them and her and brought them all into the house. She's not a house cat and doesn't quite know what to make of sharing the house with us, but she is tolerating us nicely for the time being.

Lastly my son has hear from his new roommate. His last one ended up going to Mo. State at Rolla. This one could be nice too. He's a freshman and a history ed. major. Oh and his mom nags as much as I do. That's about all I know. Pray that it works out.

I Think My Youngest is Ment For the Stage

Today was the last day of VBS. We had our program for the adults and my kids (5th and 6th grade) made me cry. Well in a good way they made me cry. They had a signed song and they did a beautiful job. Even the young man who had me on my knees a fair part of the week made me proud.

I really took the class with trepidation. I had always taken the 3rd and 4th grade. I had let it be know that if I was needed elsewhere I would go, but I always seemed to end up back at the 3rd and 4th grade. Last year the woman who had the 5th and 6th grade had a very difficult time. This year she decided that she should take a different class and asked for mine. So I was asked to take hers. I agreed if they would get a man to take the class with me. They did and things went really well. I was surprised because I expected to have the same problems that there had been over the past few years but things went as smoothly as they normally do.

For some reason the Lord tends to send me pretty good kids. I guess He figures that if He's going to get me to teach He's going to have to help me as much as possible. Also, while that age tends to be one in which they boys especially start to act out, have a man in the class room really helps. While the boys may not be willing to listen to me, they will still listen to a man to a certain degree. That helps to waylay the problems somewhat. Any way the class went well and we even ended up with a new member for our youth group when it was done. All of which has nothing to do with my title. That comes from the final program.

My youngest was in the 1st and 2nd grade class when they got up to do their part of the program he was ready. He was on the top row of the risers and when their songs started he sang out and really got into the motions that went with them. He had everyone rolling in the isles when he was done. He was so funny.

He's really impressing his piano teacher too. She tends to be on the nervous side but he isn't bothering her at all anymore. Now when he plunks around on the piano trying out different cords she encourages him. When he plays a song by ear that he has figured out she shows him the cords that go with it. This week while the two of us where talking she noticed that in his boredom he started playing a five finger C scale exercise. The thing is that he was playing it with both hands in contrary motion. so she taught to do the whole C scale that way. He's as squirmy as he ever was but she thinks he's wonderful. With my being gone to Stillwater for two day and having VBS he hasn't been able to practice the way he should. He only missed one day but the rest of the time when I've practiced with him we pushed to get through it as fast as possible and when my husband practices with our son he never corrects him. I explained all this to his teacher and apologized but she thought he was doing superbly.

Once a month my husband takes him to his practices. The last time he did she asked if our son was tired of it yet. My husband said no that he really enjoyed it. She got really excited to hear that. We started this because he wanted to play. We didn't know how long it would last, still don't as a matter of fact but thought we would take it as far as we could. I don't want to push him till he hates it but I did want him to learn properly. She thinks he has talent though and is working to develop it. I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't a talent the Lord intends to use. He loves preforming. Not in a show offy kind of a way, but rather in a isn't this a blast kind of way. He loves getting on the piano and trying out new cords and runs. He enjoys showing others the new stuff he has come up with. He wants people to listen to his practices. It is so strange. On the other hand while it sounds concieted I think I see the Lords hand at work in it. Only time will tell. We'll just have to wait and see.

What A Week

Have you ever had one of those weeks where just one thing after another gets piled on top of you? This week I've had New Student Orientation with my son at OSU. Business stuff for the church that in ignorance I messed up and now have to get straightened out. And last but not least VBS. I am tired in a major way.

This was the first year that OSU had new student orientation for it's transfer students and my son was grumbling about it. His thinking was I've been doing this for several years now why should I go to new student orientation. But they had set this up for specifically transfer students, so it wasn't on a freshman level. They talked to them about how OSU did things and why classes did or didn't transfer and what available and expected of them at this level. It really worked out well and when they were done we were both glad we came.

I know that in this day and age, at this level, education is a money making business. On the other hand OSU is really trying hard to provide a good product. They want to be known, at least on the engineering side of the house, for providing the students who are eagerly snatched up by the business community due to their abilities. They advised the students coming into the engineering college that "Most students think that they should work on their resumes in their senior year but we want you to work on them now. You will use them not just to get jobs, but to get internships as well. We want you to leave here with not just one internship but rather two to three. This will help make you valuable to the job market."

Not only that but they also have a co-operative program with certain companies where you maintain your status as a full time student while you do three semesters working full time over a two year period. This is important to us because he could use the money but he needs to be a full time student for health and car insurance purposes. Not only that but it gives him a leg up in the job market. Most companies want to hire their co-op students after they finish school and will start their benefit package out as if they have been an employee for a year. If for some reason you choose not to go to work for them then on your resume you get to list not only your education and internships but a years employment as an engineer. Plus, as long as you turn your paper work in to your instructor on time, it's an easy A. As Martha Stewart would say "A's, their a good thing."

VBS is a mad house. I have had one student for three years in my 3rd and 4th grade VBS class. He must have fluncked some where along the way because Belle, our VBS director said that he and another boy actually still belonged in the 3rd and 4th grad class but that she took one look at some of the other boys in that class and decided to let the two of them go to mine, (5th and 6th.) One boy is a little slow and so struggles with the work but he is a good kid. The other though is very ADHD and is desperatly craving attention. I wish in a certain way that I just had him, I think it would help him to have one on one attention. The reality though is that I have a class full of students, slow ones, bright one, and others who craving the attention they don't get at home as well. It's hard to meet the needs of them all. He needs the attention desperately though. When he doesn't get as much as he wants he begins acting out and becomes very disruptive. Pray for him, and for me that I can find a way to meet his need.

Finally, Pray for my husband. Not much gets done around here during VBS. The house doesn't get cleaned, meals are catch as catch can. My husband is a good guy though and puts up with it in good nature. The last couple of years he has been as involved as I am. I guess it's an if you can't beat 'em, join 'em attitude. Still he diserves better than bologna or scranbled eggs for dinner.

Well I've got to go. In truth I really didn't have the time to sit and write this but I didn't want people worrying about me for being gone too long. Friday is the last day of VBS, hopefully I have more time after that. Wishfull thinking I know, but still.....

It Never Rains, But it Pours

Some times life is so hard. It seems for a little while as if you are making progress in your walk and then "BAMM" out of no where the awful things of life just seem to slam their way in. You get so swamped by everything coming at you at once. You struggle to swim but the waves get so high and you end up failing miserably. That's where I'm at now.

I know that the Lord doesn't expect perfection. If we could achieve perfection we would have no need for a Savior. All He expects is faith. Still I hate it when I fail. I have this image in my head of reaching heaven and the Lord just sighing and shaking His head as He motions for me to come in. I want Him to smile when He sees me. It hurts to think I let Him down.

The College Tranfer Blues

For the past few weeks we have been trying to get our son transferred over to OSU. He wanted to wait until he had finished this last semester and got his grades in because he was trying to get a merit transfer scholarship. He did in fact get one but not the one he wanted. He missed it by 0.03 points. That is kind of eating at him because he was so close and the extra money would be nice, but the truth is that he did the best he could do and you can't ask for more than that. But he's a lot like me in that he can be a bit of a perfectionist and tends to get into the if onlys if I don't watch him.

We have been filling out paper work (fun times in the big city,) writing essays, choosing dorms and trying to figure out how to pay for it all. I went through a bad patch where I had my stomach tied up in knots of the last of the list. With two boys in college we are pushing ourselves to the limit financially. Still, I finally got smart and took it to the Lord and things got better. Not that the facts have changed but I'm taking it one day at a time and trusting that the Lord will do what is best for my son.

It's a good thing too because right about the time I got my head clear, I got a midnight call from my son who was having a major melt down about all the things I was worried about plus a few that I wasn't. I told him that he didn't have to worry about them not transferring classes because they had already accepted his transcript and said which classes they would accept. As far as how much it was going to cost, all we could worry about without going crazy was this semester and this semester we had the money. Next semester we would worry about next semester. We would either have the money or we wouldn't. If we didn't we would decide what to do then. If we did then we wouldn't need to worry. The truth is we don't know what the future will bring. He could get sick and not be able to attend classes for all we know. There is no since in worrying about the what ifs until they happen.

I'm getting nervous about sending my son off because, while he has been very level headed thus far, this will be the first time that he has been off on his own. He asked me to ask our pastors wife about churches in the area, (she graduated from OSU.) She named off a couple that were close; one within walking distance. I figure if I get him involved in the BCM and a good church that will help a lot. He has also asked to be put in an all male engineering dorm. Hopefully that will get him away from the partying crowd and get him more studious friends. No guarantee, but I'm hoping. Mike wants him to get involved in any engineering groups that are available because he says it will help him get a job. My parent's neighbor, who did the Mars Lander project for NASA told him to be sure to try to get an internship during his senior year. Their neighbor said that if he can swing one with NASA it will give him an in after he graduates.

But today we work on getting in, making it to his new student orientation, getting the right classes, getting a dorm, finding a good church, and making good grades. The rest we rest we leave for later. Half the things we worry about never happen and most of the other half aren't as bad as we think they will be. We'll take care of them as they come up.

What a Week End!

It has been two or three months since I have been able to go up to see my mother. That doesn't mean I've had no contact with her, we've talked on the phone and over the Internet, we met them at Grove and spent a day with them, They have even come down here once. But, because I have three nearly adult boys to coordinate live with, we haven't been able to get up to their house. And she was starting to do the, "You never come to see me no more" thing.

I finally arranged to get it done though we hit a few snags along the way. So we get there and after only one day away from home I get a call from a friend to tell me that two of our older friends had died during the night and a third had shot and killed an intruder that had broken into his home during the night. My first thought was I have only been gone a day, how could this happen?

I couldn't leave my mother's in time to get back so I missed one of the funerals. I hate that because his family was so good to us when my father was in Viet Nam. If my mother needed anything, he and his wife where there. The night my mother got news that my father had been wounded he and Mary came and stayed all night. He was just a simple, old fashioned country boy, but he was good people and I liked him.

I guess he liked me pretty well too because one day he came to my father when I was about 14 or 15 and tried to arrange a marriage between one of his sons and me. My father recover fairly quickly and said "Wayne, I don't even let her date yet. Don't you think this is a little soon?" When my husband retired from the Army and came back to look for a place for us, Wayne couldn't help but brag about how I had nearly married his son. I couldn't understand where he had gotten that from until my father enlightened me about Wayne's attempted marriage arrangement. Wayne could be a little territorial. I guess that was his way of telling my husband that I belonged to them before I belonged to him and that he had better take care of me. I'm going to miss him.

The other friend who died was Edward. He was older and had been sick for a long time. He was a good, strong Christian and was ready to go. His biggest worry was his church. He had been the pastor there for years, even when he felt that some one else should take over the responsibility. He had gotten someone to help preach every other Sunday, but it was a little bitty church and it's so hard to get pastors for small churches. A few years ago his grandson, who had been a bit wild during his high school days, got saved and a couple of years ago he felt called to the ministry. So for the past year he has been leading the church. Now the church which was graying and dieing has started to grow. I'm glad Edward got to see that before he died. I know it was a blessing to him.

The last incident involves an older gentleman who was a friend of my husband. He had been robbed two nights in a row and on the third night they came back to do it again. I don't know if they had gotten braver or for some reason just didn't know that he was there this time. Anyway he was home when they broke in and he shot and killed one of them.

He had been selling fireworks to help raise money for the Senior Center. That was what they had taken the first two nights. Everyone thinks that that was what they were after on the third night but he really didn't have much left. Maybe they thought he would replace the fireworks but he really couldn't afford to. The kids were in high school; the boy who died was a junior. There are no winners in this situation; not the boys who were so foolish, not family of the boy who died, not even the man who shot boy. He only wanted to frighten them and now he will have to live with that boy's death the rest of his life.

That's an awful lot of sadness for one 24 hour period, especially in a town our size. Pray for these families, they will need it.