Spring Break

I am so thankful for Spring Break. Last year I spent all spring break cleaning and rearranging my house and regretted it, so this year I set off for Arkansas. My bestest college friend lives in Eureka Springs and works at a motel. We go stay in the motel. They have a wonderful pool/hot tub and have a Dive In Movie every night. There is a big screen above the pool and they show a movie while you swim. The lights go off and the pool has colored lights that make it look so pretty. We swam and watched Underdog Tuesday night. There were so many people in the pool that you couldn't do much more than bob up and down. No real swimming. That had to happen in the morning while the elderly did their water aerobics. I took my scrapbooking and finished a couple of pages, but didn't get enough time to do what I had planned. Why??? Well, I always plan too much and it took 27 hours to get there. Why did it take 27 hours to get there??? Well, I had to stop by Pep Boys and get new shoes for my car. Then I got tired and spent the night with my cousin. As my step-mom says - Always Something!!!

I remember when I was little and my mom and I went to Red River, NM every year for a week of vacation and all she did was lay in the motel room and read books. Now I have turned into my mom and understand why she wanted to do that. I just wanted to get in that motel room and scrapbook. I did take Ciara to the Promised Land Zoo. It is a wildlife drive through park with a petting zoo. We saw all kinds of deer, buffalo, zebra, goats (twin babies that were soooo precious), pigs, rabbits and a umbrella cockatoo named Chico that told me he loved me.

Wednesday night we saw the Hoedown. It was so funny. Those people are really talented. Thursday night, I took the elevator up and down so much doing laundry on the second floor, room on the third, and Ciara in the pool on the first, that I got motion sickness and felt horrid for most of the night.

Friday morning, I drove to Branson to take Ciara to Splash Mountain. It is an indoor water park. My uncle and my cousin's husband graciously volunteered to keep the kids for the day. Five cousins ranging in age from 3 to 11 got to spend the day together. They played at splash mountain, had a carnic - a picnic in the car- and then drove from Branson to Muskogee to a demolition derby, then drove to Mannford to spend the night. Ciara had a great time. My aunt, two cousins and I drove to Tulsa to the Extraordinary Women Conference. Friday night Chonda Pierce spoke about her battle with depression and then Mandisa sang and made a live music video of her new single. It was great seeing how she is living for Christ and what she has done since being a finalist on American Idol. Saturday morning Stormie Omartian spoke about forgiveness and then Angela Thomas spoke about the glory of the Lord. She was an inspiration to us all. Then Kathy Triccoli sang and I fell in love with her all over again. That woman has some pipes. She continued to lead praise and worship for the rest of the day when the worship team had to leave. I was able to speak to her after the conference. She is such a beautiful woman. Karen Kingsbury had us laughing so hard, that I was trying to get out of the middle of the row of seats to go to the bathroom and my cousin was in pain from laughing so hard. It ended with Michelle encouraging us to be virtuous women and take care of our homes and families. It was such a refreshing conference. But the part that got to me the most was a girl who spoke from the compassion project. She was from Uganda and had been a compassion sponsored child. She was beautiful and eloquent, but the horrors she spoke of in her childhood were things that I can't even begin to imagine. My child is screaming and mad and acting out because she wants a NEW cell phone. She has no clue how fortunate she is to be an AMERICAN or to be a HARBIN. God has blessed us so much. This woman told how she went to live with her grandparents when she was a baby. They were christians and taught her about the power of God. When the Rebels would come to her village, they would have to hide so they wouldn't get caught. Once when she was six, she was told to take her blanket and hide in the jungle. She ran to the jungle and in the darkness she felt a python come and wrap itself around her. She remembered the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den and prayed that God would make the snake go away. It uncurled it's body and went off. Later, she went into the city to live with her mother. At that point she was able to become a child that was sponsored through compassion. She said that her mother and aunt died and her 16 year old cousin had to take care of her and both of their siblings which included 8 kids all together. Because she was sponsored by compassion, they would come every day and bring food for all the children in her family to eat. When she got older, she caught tb, but because she was sponsored by compassion, she was able to get the medical care she needed. It was truly an amazing story. Do any of our kids realize how amazing it is to live right here in Childress, Tx? I know some families aren't the best, and some should be removed from those families. But most kids are like mine, living blessed existences, and never knowing the horrors that exist in this world. My prayer for them is that they always live these blessed lives, and someday come to appreciate them.

Ciara and I met up again Saturday night at my cousin's house in Yukon. They have a new home that is beautiful. I even have my own room there. It was so nice to throw all my stuff in that room and get some rest. Her wonderful husband had made fish sticks for Ciara and she liked them. He had also cleaned my van and put gas in it for me. That was a tremendous blessing. We went to my cousin's church on Sunday morning. Her pastor is great! He always teaches me something new when I go there. You can go to www.trinityyukon.com and hear his sermons. Now he is preaching a series about I don't have enough faith to be an athiest. He showed pictures taken by the hubble telescope of galaxies far away and near ours to show how big the glory of God was.

I took a very long nap and came home. I hope I get another very long nap today. I am glad I did, because I almost hit a deer on the way home. I was swerving, pressing on the brakes and screaming and that little deer just looked up at my car and ducked his little head. I honestly do not know how I missed it. Some things, only God knows. We are back to school and it was good news on this Monday morning. We have to gear up for a couple of more Taks tests at the end of next month, but I think things are looking really good. I am looking forward to planting flowers and more scrapbooking.