UPDATE on MY LiFe

Has been a very long time since I have even been in the mood to post.  Since I am at my new job, I hope to post more.  I quit the Director of Nursing job (on my bucket list) and moved to another job that was on my bucket list... I work in Trauma/Surgical ICU. I have been here since March- 10 months, and I will have to be honest, I don't like it like I thought I would.  I work night shift, so it is kinda slow and at times, absolutely boring.  I don't usually get excited about coming to work, like I did at the Assisted Living.  So, I love to get a new admit in who has been in a car wreck or other trauma... don't like the medical ICU as much yet, as I feel inadequate- it's a whole new world... Tonight I am pulled to the Medical stepdown unit due to staffing shortage.  I have 3 pts.
Have a little Alzheimer's Dementia lady... she's got some sundowning going on and is right now agitated and anxious/angry.. so cute cause she used the words- "what in the thunder"-- I hadn't heard that phrase in a long time.  She also had passed out and was brought to the hospital and now she can't remember it.. she keeps asking me why she didn't know about it-- I said, honey, you were sick... she said- in a very hateful voice- " I didn't know one THANG about it!!" So cute!!! Makes me miss my little dementia unit at the assisted living. 
Tom is pastoring at a church in Rogersville.  Bethel Baptist. We love it and love the people.  He has been there 2 years...
Morgan is in college at ETSU-
Luke is a Junior and is courting hot and heavy... well, he will tell you he isn't...
That's my boring life in a nut shell!!!

A new word for Webster...

Morgan was talking to me the other day and said "Momma, she was just spilling her guts to me and talking so fast...it was like WORD VOMIT"

Needless to say, I burst out laughing...Word and Vomit together are hilarious to me!
yeah, she's crazy! Here is a pic of her on her 14th birthday! She took some friends bowling...here me and her and her and her daddy are also...

The Comet Trail...

So, Haley's Comet passed by Earth between the year 1211 and 911 BC. Its tail is just now being seen on earth...which is way too cool....so last night was the night that Earth was closest to it and able to view it the best. (or this morning, actually...) so we set our clocks for 6am, dragged a blanket, pillow and sleeping bag out on the porch, and laid down to watch the show...yes, it was around 30 degrees outside...but...the sky was so clear...it was the coolest thing to be lying there watching the sky...we actually saw between 7-10 streaks across the sky in the 40 minutes that we laid there...the only thing that got cold was my ears and Morgan's nose...LOL Lukas could not be still...kept wanting to raise up at every sound...I said..."Son, we are not worried about Monsters right now, please BE STILL!!!!!" LOL I think he ended up seeing only about 3 cause of his twisty turny butt!!!!! But overall, it was another memory made for them to remember...the morning we watched the sky in our warm sleeping bags on the porch....

so here is what I found on a website...look up Haley's Comet for more info...

The annual Orionid shower, so-called because it appears from the direction of the constellation Orion, is created when earth passes through trails of debris floating through space.

Prayer request...

Please pray for my children..they are having a very hard time...The devil is trying to get to Morgan in so many different ways...she is such a strong person and strong in her faith. On Sunday night, on the way home, she was crying and telling me about some thoughts she was having and God intervened with a phone call, even as we spoke...it was totally awesome....and to know that he cares for her that much....it was so precious.....
Lukas is all of a sudden having a valley too...not sure what is up with him, but there have been some disturbing actions on his part that have me concerned....but I know it is just the devil trying to get him to fall apart too...
Please just pray for me that I can be the Christian mother that I need to be..I fall short so many times...I really couldn't raise them right without God's help.

Hourglass Figure

Wanna hear another Lukas story..? Well, we are in Sears shopping for school clothes and I see one of those long halter like sundresses that are so popular right now...I am looking at them and saw one that was my size and say to Lukas, "Oh, Lukas, here is a pretty one and it is my size..." Not really expecting a response, he piped up and said..."Mom, those dresses are for women who have hourglass figures................yours is kinda a pumpkin figure...
Trust him to tell me the truth...needless to say, the dress never left the rack.

We were talking about girls on the way home last night from church and I commented that "she was a little wild thing"...he said...yeah, Mom, I like them kinda wild....!!!!!!

Raising a son is gonna absolutely kill me!!!!! I don't know which is worse, a son or a daughter...

The Lover is at it again...

Lukas all of a sudden told me and Morgan that he had a girlfriend...
"Already?" I said...
"Yeah," he replied..."I work fast."
Need I say more??? Then later, he proceeds to tell me that a girl who moved away last year and came back this year told her girlfriend that she was gonna "get Lukas, no matter what!!!"
Wow...maybe I shouldn't be worried about Morgan, and start worrying about Lukas....
Kids are so funny...

the Whole Armor

I am so blessed to have a daughter like Morgan... As she was getting ready for school yesterday morning, (her first day) she came downstairs and said, "Momma, I have on my helmet of salvation, my breastplate of righteousness, my loins girt about with truth, my sword is in my backpack, and my feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel...." I mean, wow...what a better way to send her off to the first day of 8th grade...I totally don't deserve to have her as a daughter.

Catching up...

Been a while since I posted...too warm and pretty outside for me to stay inside...but wanted to take a moment to brag on my children...yes, they are most precious and I can't even thank God enough for giving them to me. I know everyone thinks their children are the most special, but I really can't imagine how they can be as special as mine...
I always said I could never be a single Mom..and I still believe that if my children were younger, that I couldn't do...maybe that is because Tom was a active Father in their life and did help me with any issue with them... My children are older and able to take care of themself, basically, so I believe that is what God knew before putting me thru this situation. I am working at the Nursing Home this summer and my shifts are varying...day shift, evenings, nights, etc...so often, I am not home to be able to do everything a Mom should...Morgan has done a wonderful job at keeping that house clean...now, mind you, she is hormonal, which brings out the "cleaner" in her, but she did deep clean and took curtains down and washed them, washed the shower curtain, dusted baseboards, etc...see...I told you she was awesome...but that is not the half of it...
She decided she wanted to cook too...so I had to work graveyard on Tues. I went to bed about 2pm until 6:00pm...when I awoke, she had baked chicken with a special sauce, garlic bread and smashed red potatoes...WOW....very good food!!!!!! She and Lukas had cooked the food while I was asleep and the best part, it was coming out of the oven just at 6pm...I really am bursting with pride....
Lukas has been helping me mow and weedeat the yard...he loves to mow and since I have about 1/2 acre to mow, this helps tremendously....I'm just so blessed to have them.
I am doing better with my injuries...still like to stand alot to rest my coccyx...wearing my figure 8 brace totally makes my collar bone feel better..can lift my purse with my left arm now...
There is a nurse at work who wrecked last week and flipped her vehicle 3 times...She was still in ICU after 4 days with a chest tube...I got cold chills and the hairs stood up on my arms when I was told this...That really shoudl have been me...I am still feeling trememdously blessed...

My Mother's Day card...

Morgan got me a funny card...it said somethign to the effect of, "Mom, remember all the times when I was a child and asked for___" (I can't remember the word it said here...) but inside it said, "I don't either"...LOL
Lukas handmade his card and to me, it was beautiful....it said Happy Mother's Day on the front and inside was the sweetest writing.....

Thank you for everything you have done. I know it is a hard time right now. so hang in there. I pray for you.

Isn't that just so sweet???

Daily Praying for my Children...Justice

Today, the character trait that I want to pray for my children is Justice...I want God to help my children love justice as HE does and to act justly in all they do...
Psalms 11:7 says For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright
Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Psalms 82:3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Proverbs 21:3 To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
What is justice exactly? The "quality of being fair" is the simplest it can be put...I try to teach them to show kindness to the poor and treat them fairly as everyone else. If our kids see us as grown ups do things unfairly, they are the first ones to point it out to us. I like to explain to my children the reasons why a certain decision was made, that way, they understand and don't come up with their own concoctions in their head...To get somewhere in this world's work force, most often things are not fair...I see a woman frequently who has made it to the top of a company, but she has hurt tons of people to get there. Yet, she claims to be a Christian...
Alot of us adults want to be at the top...but can we get there the Christian way?

Compassion...(20th)

Today, I want to pray for my children to have compassion... Compassion for the lost, compassion for the sad, compassion for the lonely, the sick, the poor, the rich...

Compassion is described as being deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.

Colossians 3;12 says Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering...

The words "put on" reminds me of "to clothe" ...So I like to think that as God's elect, we need to put on mercy, kindness, meekness...humbleness of mind is important here too...so many people let satan build them up in their own mind and it causes all kinds of trouble...

Lord, I pray that my children will be able to put on compassion...to be deeply aware of others suffering and wish to relieve it..

I sometimes think my personality make people think I am hard-hearted...I don't like to let my feelings show and I know it comes across as being non-caring...I blame that on the Richards part of my heritage..they were solomn people...LOL

Humility...(19th)

So today is the 19th...my calendar says to pray for my children's Humility...
Humility definition is accepting our selves as we really are or in other words not prideful...

Titus 3:2 says To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men...

I want my children to be proud of being a child of God, but not proud in a boastful way...I can remember being young and in a class with a little girl who really had major hygiene issues. This wasn't her fault and the other kids shunned her...I tried to include her, but she was still an outcast...nothing that I done, but I just can't stand to see someone left out...I have tried to tell my children to treat others better than they would want to be treated...This is hard for even us, as adults...I try to remind them to help others who are having a hard time...Lukas kept being bullied by a little guy who sat beside him...I just kept saying, Lukas, this little boy acts this way for some reason...please try to understand that this is his way of letting it out...then later I found out that he doesn't live with his Mom or Dad...he lives with his aunt...so obviously there is a problem at home...Finally, Lukas did complain and the teacher saw this as a problem and she moved Lukas...Poor little Morgan acts too much like me...I am saying an extra prayer for her!!! LOL
God, help my children to have the love of God in their hearts so strong that they will show meekness to everyone of their friends and people they meet. Help them not to act like me...

Hope...the 17th

I found a prayer calendar to use when you pray for your children...I want to utilize it on the days when I can think of it...:) Today is the 17th...
So for today, Let's look at Romans 15:13
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

May the God of Hope grant that my children may overflow with hope and hopefulness by the power of the Holy Spirit...

I know that Morgan and Lukas both hope that things in our family life will get better..as a matter of fact, Lukas told me the other day that if he had to wait 6 months till Daddy came home, he would be glad to wait...this broke my heart, but we serve a God of hope...This verse says the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace...This is awesome scripture....I want my children to trust in the God of hope...Hope that will fill them with joy and peace...Hope that will help them make it thru each day, even though things may not be perfect...
Abound in hope...this means to be perfectly supplied or filled...so I want them to be perfectly supplied and filled with the Hope of God...
Thanks God for giving them hope...and me too, God...

OMG! LUKAS!!!!

Okay, so you really want to know what kind of children I have??? Well, go read Crystal's blog...she met the kids Sat. for brunch at Panera and they went to the Alzheimer's Center for interaction with the residents...well, needless to say, I am totally embarrassed and when reading Crystal's blog, my mouth fell open so fast, my jaws are still hurting!!!!!!
Her link is ... http://onerosesbeauty.blogspot.com/2009/03/stepping-out.html
Please don't hold it against me...I guess I can blame it on his father, right??!!!!

Interview with kids

My kids answered these...Morgan age 12, Lukas age 9

1. What is something mom always says to you?
M-maybe one day...
L-I love you


2.What makes mom happy?
M-gettng good grades
L-having a clean house

3. What makes mom sad?
M-Dad
L-Dad

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
M-Well...all my friends say that you are cool and that is really funny...
L-she doesn't..and put an exclamtion point after that..

5. What was your mom like as a child?
M-Just like me
L-violent

6. How old is your mom?
M-35 but thinks she's 20
L-35

7. How tall is your mom?
M-5.1
L-5.2

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
M-get on my nerves
L-Photography
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
M-Blog and talk about gossip
L-on the computer

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
M-Killing Tom (most tortorous death ever)
L-photography

11. What is your mom really good at?
M-gettin on my nerves
L-scrapbooking


12. What is your mom not very good at?
M-Keeping the house clean
L-Cooking

13. What does your mom do for a job?
M-Nurse
L-Nurse

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
M-Pizza
L-krout

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
M-all my friends say that you are cool
L-giving us allowance

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
M-the bad guy
L-Tom off of Tom and Jerry

17. What do you and your mom do together?
M-photography
L-Play the wii

18. How are you and your mom about the same?
M-There is no "about" about it...
L-no clue...she doesn't fart

19. How are you and your mom different?
M-I'm not a packrat
L-you can't burp the ABC's

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
M-She gets on my nerves and uh...she punishes me...
L-Xand O's

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
M-His eyes
L-everything


22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
M&L-Disney World

A Morgan BLurB

I have to tell you a little thing about Morgan...and of course me being the mother who has always worried how I was portayed by the public, this was funny...
So I am at school doing height, weight, blood pressures for 5 grades for the State requirements to check overall health of children. I have to ask these kids to take off thier shoes to get an accurate height. It is pitiful at what I notice...kids with immensly dirty feet and socks...kids with no socks on at all with tennis shoes...kids with socks with holes in them...and kids with mismatched socks...I wonder where these parents are when these children are getting ready for school!!!But alot of these kids were old enough to know to wear clean sox or matched sox...so anyway, I guess I was just stunned...
Well, I didn't think anymore about it and went on throughout the day...that evening, we were going to visit a Dr. friend of mine who had recently had surgery...we walked in the foyer, (Me and the kids) and pulled off our shoes...well, LOW AND BEHOLD...my daughter....MORGAN...had on MISMATCHED sox!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you imagine my horror!!!!!!! so anyway, just go ahead and laugh,I won't judge again about sox, I promise!!!!!!

I am doing ok...

Just wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and say that I am so undeserving of the Grace of God!!! I am doing "ok"... I am looking at it as starting afresh and trying to anticipate my new future. I am still not sure what God's plan is, but as long as he helps me on a minute by minute basis, I think I can make it...Thanks again for all your prayers. I will never forget all the kind words. I don't know why I had to go thru this, but if it is to help other people, then I want to suffer it for the glory of God. I have become so much closer to Christ thru all this. I don't think I have ever experienced His grace like I have thru this time.
Me and Morgan was standing in the kitchen last night talking about the situation and how she would get embarrassed when someone mentioned it...I think several of her teachers have asked her and she said she feels her face turning red and it is all she can do to not cry. I am so glad she is starting to open up and talk about this...at one point I was very worried about her and her bitterness. She did tear up several times as we talked. Last night, Lukas had already went to bed and she and I were standing in the kitchen crying together. She is growing up and understanding so much. She is such an encouragement to me. She said that everytime she feels like crying she thinks of the song that says..."cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine, we'll understand it all by and by..." God is so good!!!!

Lukas is in trouble...

I grounded him...he called me at work to ask me where a ruler was that he needed for Math...I instructed him to go ahead and finish the rest of his homework, but he didn't...when I got home he had 28 math problems that weren't hard, but still, he should have gotten it done!!!! So, I grounded him...No phone, no Wii, no TV, no computer...till Friday. Oh, bless his heart, now I want to pet him...LOL I'll leave that up to you all!

The Little Lover...

I think of the little rascals and can see Alfalfa saying "I'm a lover, not a fighter" when I think about Lukas and his actions this past weekend...
First off, you should know that he spends more time in front of the mirror than Morgan does... his clothes has to be "stylin" and he takes great pride in how he looks in the mornings...so...with that said, at the football game Friday night, he and Tom went to the Cherokee ballgame... he let Lukas go a couple of risers down to sit with friends. The next thing you know, Lukas has one girl sitting at his side and ONE ON HIS LAP!!!!!!!! WHAT!!!??? Tom says he just kept watching them....but never said anything to him...
He says he is dating a girl at school also. I noted on his homework that he had a little booklet that asked about what he liked most about school. He put "all my friends, and that I am dating one of them."
Then, last night, we were talking about his day and he is speaking of the girl that was sitting on his lap and he says, "every time I looked at her, she was just smiling this little smile...she was cracking me up."
The boy acts just like his DADDY!!!!!!!

A Classic Lukas Quote!!!!

Okay, so Morgan got her tonsils taken out in the last month. Well, her Dad and I have talked several times of how her uvula was so swollen...so one day, Lukas was in the kitchen and said, "Mom, my uvula is hurting"...I said "Son, what is your uvula, anyway?"

Are you ready for this???



"You know, Mom, it is the ball sack at the back of your throat!!!!"