It's my Mother's 67th Birthday!

Wow! I remember when she turned thirty. I was ten. It seems like

it was just two days ago.

Well, I have committed to listing 10 great things about
Mother, just as I did for my father.
I have been mulling these over since I posted my dad's.

These are wonderful things that I love about my mom:

1) When I was little she took me to church.
2) She always juggled having 4 kids so very well. She always made it look easy.
That gave me the courage to have a large family.
3) She is an excellent seamstress. She sews beautifully.
4) She is always game to try a new recipe. Coca Cola Cake is still one of my favs.
5) Her fruit salad is the best in the whole wide world!
6)She has always loved my daddy. He has been dead for 35 years. I think she still misses him.
7)She taught me to not gossip.
8)She allowed us to have pets in the house when I was growing up. Yay!
9)When my daddy worked graveyard shift, she would always have his meal prepared for him and waiting when he got home. That was after cleaning, sweeping and mopping the whole house every single night.
10)She braved single parenthood and survived it. All of her children are productive members of society.

Great job Mom!
Happy Birthday.
I miss you.
I love you.
An

The 4 Phases of a Skill

Phase One: Uncertainty. You know that you know nothing.

Phase Two: Brashness. You know enough to wrongly believe that you know everything.

Phase Three: Uncertainty. You know enough to know very well that you don't know everything.

Phase Four: True Confidence. You know everything - this level is unattainable by humans.

My twinkies are 16 years old!

I remember being speechless on the drive home from Greenville, after the doctor told us we were having twins. Twin boys that is!

I kept thinking, "God, do you know what you are doing?"...If it were twin girls I wouldn't have questioned Him one bit, but B-O-Y-S??????? I was so fearful of having little boys, so afraid that I would hurt them and not know how to mother them. I was starting out with two sons, not one to build up to the next one, but TWO at the same time! Fear was all that I could think or feel, it consumed me. I don't know if I slept that night or not, but I do know that fear had began to lead me around by the nose.

I always knew I was going to have twins. I can't remember not planning for twins. When I was in 3rd grade I had twin names picked out. They would be Patrick and Patricia. Back to the story...

The next day after receiving the news I remember being up under my covers hiding from the world and praying, I don't know what I was praying about other than questioning God's wisdome. When I finally quit talking, I heard a voice in my spirit, "Angela, I have given you two sons, because that is how much I have healed you and I want you to know that I can trust you with them." What!?!?!? God, you trust me with 2 boys???? As much as I had mistrusted the male gender my whole life(with the exception of my grandfather and great uncle)??? Wes was the 1st man that I did not fear in some way or another. He stood by me as I went through emotional and spiritual healing from the abuse of my childhood. He loved me through the hardest times in my life. He never left me or judged me for my calloused heart. I had learned that not all men were mean horrible creatures.


Micah is on the top. Jordy is on the bottom.

I began to ponder this word I heard from the Lord. He was right, He had healed me. I wasn't the hurt little girl that married Wes. I had become a strong woman and one that wanted my children raised differently than I was.

After the initial shock wore off, I began to anticipate these little fellas. My heart fell totally head over heals in love with them! I knew they were fraternal, so I wasn't expecting them to be alike. I am not sure what I expected, but I always thought of them as their own little selves and never thought of them as one. Micah was my 1st born. He had a wonderful almost bald head. He was such a happy little fella whose smile brings sunshine. Jordy, he was my baby...my last born, wonderful little curls covered his head. He was very intense and demanding.

Through the years they have both given me different gifts of love. They have brought out parts of me that I never knew existed. They have chased me with frogs and lizards to make me run and scream so that they could squeal with delight! The have hugged my heart with their gentle words of love and encouragement more times than I can count. They have both in their own ways wrapped this mamma's heart around their little fingers. They have brought me countless bouquets of dandelions. They smooshed so many loaves of bread because they wanted to help me carry in the groceries that we always had half size sandwiches instead of full sandwiches until they were 5.

I never thought that I wanted little boys, but my fellas had proved me so wrong. I could not have gotten a more wonderful surprise in my life!

Though we celebrated their birthday about a week ago, I am the one that got the most wonderful gifts of all. My twinkies! Thank You Lord!

Sweet Memory

This is one of my favorite memories

of my darling Kara when she was young.

We were driving home one night from somewhere...

can't remember the occasion, but the stars were

out and oh so shiny! Kara started singing Twinkle

twinkle little star. I listened to her sweet sweet

voice reciting the often sung song. My heart was

felt full. Then I noticed she had stopped singing.

I glanced back at her to see what was going on. She was staring out the window...her

eyes fixed on the heavens...and she said,"Mom, I wonder which one is Twinkle."

What a sweet memory I had today as I was driving to school. What a

precious gift I have in that memory.

Thank you Lord.

Good Things!

Today would be my dad's 71st birthday. Wow...

That seems so unreal to me. He died at age 42. He will always be

forty-two in my mind.

Today I was listening to Christian radio on my way to school. The topic

was unhealed hurts from fathers. I know that God has healed me from

those things, but the speaker was giving steps to move positively away

from the hurt for those whose fathers had died and there was no choice

in resolution...

One of the things recommended was to make two lists. One was for good

thingsthat could be said about the fathers and the other was the other

things that could be said about the fathers... Since my other list has been

dealt with, I thought that I would honor my daddy and list things that I

admire and/or appreciate about him.

So, here I go, listing 10 things....

1. He worked so hard so that his family would not be raised in the poverty that he was.

2. He always paid his bills on time.

3. We always had nice dependable cars.

4. We never ever had our utilities cut off.

5. He worked well with his hands was able to do alot of things around the house and with our cars.

6. He was always neatly dressed and well behaved in public.

7. He managed to get a college degree after dropping out of school when he was in 5th grade.

8. He dropped out of school in 5th grade to help his mom make money to raise the younger kids.

9. He served in the U.S. military proudly.

10.He had a determination in him. He was suppose to die before I was born of blood clots on/in his brain. He lived for 18 additional years.

I don't have a picture right now. I will get one posted once I can get one of him.

Happy Birthday Daddy.

I love you.