Light of the Village at the Art Museum

What a great time we had today taking the Light of the Village kids to see "Illuminating the Word" art display at the Mobile Museum of Art. The kids, for the most part, really seemed to enjoy the exhibit. We took a DVD out to the school last week which explained what they were seeing. I think this really helped them to enjoy what they were seeing. Afterwards, we brought everyone back to Dayspring so that they could watch some of the inauguration of President Obama. We actully missed the actual inauguration, but we saw some of the interviews that were done afterwards. After we served them lunch, we took them to the Shack where they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They especially enjoyed the rock climbing wall and playing pool. Everyone was so appreciative and so well behaved. I was so proud of them. These kids have to overcome so many difficult situations in their lives and do not get to enjoy a lot of things. It was such a blessing to be able to share a little of what God has given Dayspring with them.

I will be getting off tomorrow at 12:00 and then be off on Thursday as well. We plan to go to Bladon Springs on Thursday morning and get in some hunting on Thurs., Fri., & Sat. Tomorrow afternoon, we plan to go downtown to get our passports for our cruise that we will be going on in May.

January 1-14, 2009

14 days to catch up on! Man, was it tough to go back to work after having been off so long for the holidays! I can't remember a Christmas season that I enjoyed more than this one. We had such a great Christmas with Carter and Ryleigh getting so excited about all that was going on and then our New Year's was one to be remembered spending it with great friends.

Things are still a little slow around the office while we wait for God to send us a senior pastor. Sometimes it seems like we are just treading water while we wait. I know I need to be thankful for a little down time right now because I am sure that when the new pastor comes, it will be full steam ahead!

Last weekend, Randall and I went hunting. On Friday, I saw a big buck that had a weird rack of 2 on one side and a short cow horn on the other. After the buck left the patch, 6 doe entered throughout the rest of the afternoon and were still in the patch when I got ready to leave. Mike shot at a 6 point on #5, but evidently missed him. We looked for blood for a long time on Friday night and then went back the next morning to look some more and never found any. Mike was sick! Randall sat in a tree stand on Friday, but saw nothing at all.

With all the activity on Friday, we went to the fields on Saturday afternoon with high expectations. We saw absolutely NOTHING!...NOTHING! You can never figure it out! Randall, Ryan, and Carter are going hunting this weekend. It is supposed to be record breaking cold, so the deer should certainly be up and moving around. I hope they get something. I have a women's ministry retreat at the Gulf this weekend so I will not be able to go:(

These next three weekends are the best all year for hunting. Now Is The Time!!!!

New Year's 2009 with Friends in Bladon

Some of our dearest friends brought the 2009 New Year in with us by coming to our camp in Bladon Springs on New Years Day. They stayed with us Thursday night, Friday night and we all went home Saturday afternoon. We throughly enjoyed the time that we all spent together. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends. The slideshow on my blog is also pictures of this wonderful weekend. Tom and Linda Peak, Wayne and Valerie Boatman, Doug Baggett, and Morris and Julie were all there. It was a great start to 2009!

Christmas Weekend in Bladon-A Great Success!

What a great time we had as we spent the rest of the Christmas weekend with our sweet family. We hunted and best of all, Brandon who has been living with a "hunting curse" for many many years, finally killed a nice 7 point on Friday! It was very warm this day and was not at all a likely day to even see does, much less a buck. But this was Brandon's day. Everyone was so glad that Brandon finally had success.

Christmas Night 2008

Christmas night was spent at Randall's parents where all of our family had Christmas with Granny, Pop, Mike, Deborah, Kyle and Lauren, Drew and a friend, Debbie. We will spend the next few days here in Bladon Springs and hopefully someone will kill a deer!

Christmas Morning 2008

We began our morning with Carter at 7:00 A.M. Elizabeth said that he had been so excited about Santa coming all week that he had gotten up early every morning that week, except of course the morning that Santa did actually came. It took Carter just a little while to wake up. But once he was awake good, he loved everything. His famous saying when he would open gifts was, "That's what I'm talking about!" He has been so much fun this Christmas. Elizabeth made a delicious breakfast casserole that we ate before we headed out for our next Santa stop at Miss Ryleigh's home! We arrived there a little after 8:00. She was wide awake and was absolutely thrilled with all that Santa brought to her.

We all went to mother's and daddy's for our traditional Christmas lunch. We have eaten so much over this Christmas season. It really is unreal. After lunch, we all headed to Bladon Springs for Christmas with Granny and Pop.

Christmas Eve 2008

We had our family Christmas Eve get together at Morris and Julie's. So much food was brought, I don't think we even ate a third of it! The children were so excited and loved everything they got. The weather has been the pits this year. This night it was hot and muggy! Not very Christmasy on the outside, but it certainly was on the inside. We had a very special family night together!