Another Hailey Update

Some of Hailey's test results have come back and they aren't good. The infection they tested is full of the worst bad bacteria you can have. It's slow growing so it's been there for a while and finally manifested itself. It is very hard to treat and Hailey's immune system is very weak so it offers no help. This type of bacteria is highly dangerous and can cause death if not gotten rid of. It is very scary for vanessa and Jacob and also for Aunt Kathy. We would greatly appreciate your continued prayers on little Hailey's behalf. Thank You.

Hailey Update

I thought I'd give everyone the latest news on Hailey. The mass on her neck kept getting bigger and bigger. They tried to aspirate it Thursday and again yesterday with no success. So this morning they went in and surgically removed it. They only took the infection out. The size of the infection was the size of the end of a man's thumb from the tip to just past the joint. They left the incision open with a tube for it to drain. They want it to collapse from the inside so it won't leave hole. They are sending samples to the lab and pathology to do tests on. In about two weeks they are going to go back in and remove the affected lymph nodes. She came through it ok and is in pain but is sleeping right now. Please keep Hailey in your prayers. Also remember Vanessa, her mother, she is exhausted she hasn't gotten more than ten hours sleep since the baby's been born between Hailey and Addyson. My uncle Wendy goes in for a major back surgery Thursday. It can cause paralysis if something goes wrong. Uncle Wendy is not serving the Lord and we would appreciate your prayers for his soul and his safety. Thank You for your prayers.

Baby is Here!

This is just a quick post to let everyone know, baby is here! Addyson Claire Ward was born yesterday evening at 7:27 pm. She weighs in at 6 pounds 10 ounces and is adorable. She is a quiet baby not at all fussy. She is welcomed by her parents, Jacob and Vanessa Ward, and three older siblings, Carter, Emily, and Hailey. She is also welcomed by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was a little funny. Vanessa's best friend Meredeth was expecting her 2nd and she was admitted into the hospital in the room next to Vanessa's. She went into labor yesterday as well and delivered a 9 pound baby girl, Ava Grace, exactly 2 hours and 27 minutes before Addyson was born. How many ladies get to have their best friends be pregnant at the same time they are and have their daughters born on the same day? I thought that was cool.

Prayer Request

I just wanted to ask everyone to please keep little Hailey in your prayers. When they got the results back from the bloodwork they took it wasn't good. Her blood sed rate was 8 times higher than it should ever be. That is usually a sign of cancer or some other serious disease. She had another appointment with her specialist last Tuesday. They did different tests and the results are that the bump on her neck is a tumor. She has another appointment Wednesday and they are going to do some more tests and probably set the date for a biopsy. She is 2 years old and a real sweetheart. Her mother is still in the hospital. They did another amnio test today and if it's positive they are going to induce her today. I'm back with the kids now. I came back last night. I had a break from Wednesday evening untill last night. It was nice to spend some time with my family. We went to a Greater Vision concert Friday evening. That was great we really enjoyed it. Some of the young people from Midway went with us and then we went out for pizza afterwards. We had our family Thanksgiving on Wednesday with all my moms family. Then Thursday we went to visit my uncle and we played some games there. Friday dad and Zach went to some of the sales at 4 in the morning. (Crazy nuts!) Then that evening we went to the concert. Saturday we hung out at papa's and went and visited my Aunt Boots. Sunday we went to church at Midway then back to papa's for lunch and then back to Vanessa and Jacob's for me. Beth stayed with us last night. The kids loved it. She is still here now. Mom will come by and get her later. Anyway i'd better go Hailey doesn't eat much when she is sick and I need to give her a bolus. Please pray for her! Update - Vanessa just went into labor they didn't have to induce her!

Hello Blogland!

Hey everyone. It's me again. I've been fairly busy but if I really wanted to I could have found time to blog. (I know, I know I am such a slacker...) You see I believe that for a blog to be interesting the blogger must actually WANT to blog and to put it simply I haven't really wanted to blog. I am in South Carolina at the moment and actually have a free moment. (miraculously!) I'm taking care of my cousin Vanessa's 3 kids. She is STILL in the hospital. This is the end of her third week. To start with they were originally going to induce her last Friday. Then the doctors decided to do it this past Monday. Last Sunday they did an Amnio test to see if the baby's lungs were developed enough. They aren't. The baby is 36 weeks along and they are positive that it's a girl and it's lungs aren't developed. They had given it a couple lung treatments early on to help it's lungs develop but they still aren't developed. They want her to stay in the hospital another week to see if the baby's lungs develop more. In the mean time the two year old, Hailey, has an abscessed lymph node in her neck that is swollen up. She has had it since last Friday. She has been running a 101/102 degree fever and is absolutely miserable. Jacob took her to the doctor last Friday and they put her on an antibiotic. She didn't do anything but get worse. So they took her back Monday and put her on high power antibiotic. She hasn't got any better. So then Jacob's Mom took her Thursday morning to see Hailey's specialist and they took some blood work and now we are waiting for test results. Hailey has been staying with Elaine, Jacob's mom, since Monday night. She really need one and one attention and I can't give her that and take care of Carter and Emily too. So it's been just me and the older kids this week. Carter's pretty good about getting his school done before lunch. So pretty much it's been get up, feed the kids breakfast, help Carter with his school, check on Emily, give her something to do, clean up breakfast dishes, straighten up, check on the kids again, have a quick shower, make lunch, clean up after lunch, let the kids play outside while I do heavier cleaning, feed the animals, (chickens, rabbits, dog, and goats) and fix dinner. Then of course give the kids baths and get them into bed. That is the struggle. Carter has been giving me a rough time about going to bed this week. To top that off we've been stuck inside because there is a coyote hanging around the house and animals and it's not scared of humans! The two rabbits have disappeared. Jacob and I think the coyote got them. Vanessa is really getting tired of the hospital. She hates being stuck in bed and not being with her kids. Despite all the work I am still enjoying the kids. There is something very fulfilling about taing care of kids. I feel useful and have a sense of accomplishment. The kids are so fun to be with and they make me laugh every day. I can't remember half the things Emily does but Hailey is a different matter. Last week before she got sick she was playing with one of those stick horses. You know what i mean. Anyway she's running from one end of the house to the other. All of a sudden she starts running really fast and screaming, "Stop horsey stop! Aunt Charity make it stop it won't stop!" She finally stops when she runs into the door. She was terrified and she was the one making the horsey run! It was hilarious. Carter, Emmy, and I were laughing really hard. I went over and picked her up and she wouldn't let go of me she said, " The horsey wouldn't stop." Later I was changing her diaper and she said, "your my best friend!" I said, "Did you know that I'm your cousin too?" She replied, "Yes and you're my family too." Emily tells me all the time, "I want you, I want you!" and then she climbs up into my lap. Carter does other things like say, "I'm sorry that Mommy doesn't get to have the baby yet but I'm glad too because you get to stay longer." Things like that are the best reward you can get for all the love and work you give and do. Anyway, this week the kids have been watching a movie when they get done with their work. So that's what they are doing right now. Normally they spend more time outside than watching movies but with coyote on the prowl we've been watching movies this week. Anyway I need to go fix lunch. We ate a late breakfast so we're going to eat a late lunch too. Goodbye

Hey

Hey Everybody! I've been pretty busy lately and I haven't really felt like blogging lately. Where to start... Since August I have been from Virginia to Tennessee (for the Assembly) then through Georgia to Florida (where I stayed with the Cox family for a good long while) then back to Georgia for 1 night and day (visiting Sis. Betsy's parents) then on to South Carolina for a few days then through North Carolina going back home and now I'm getting ready to head back through North Carolina to South Carolina to help my cousin out with her kids while she's in the hospital on bed rest with a high risk pregnancy. (Don't you love my really long run on sentences?) But first things first, back to the Assembly. The Assembly was wonderful. The Lord was there in a mighty way. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We had a good time in the Lord and a good time of fellowship too. You can't help but have a good time when you join together in worship or fellowship with God's people. It seems so sad to just leave such a wonderful Assembly and all those great stories with just that so I'll share two stories and then move on. One night during service Abby had a really wet diaper and she was fussing about it so I took her to the bathroom to change her diaper. I sat her on the changing table and put the diaper next to her. A lady comes in with a little boy and lays him down next to Abby. I'm struggling with Abby's bloomers trying to get them off and I kid you not the lady is talking away and proceeds to take Abby's diaper and put it on her son and walk away leaving me with no diaper. So I put Abby's old diaper back on her (she was not happy with that!) and go back in to our seats and get another diaper from Sister Betsy, go back to the bathroom and put it on her. It was during the healing service and when I went through the line I saw the lady and she came up to me and told me she was sorry. She said she didn't even think about it till she got back to her seat and was fixing her little boys pants when she realized that he wasn't wearing one of his diapers. Then she was like Oh no I took that lady's diaper! That was story number 1 story 2 is shorter and is a Tonya story. One evening after the Assembly Tonya, Steele, TJ, Sis. Gayle, and Bro. Tony invited Zach, Daniel, Micah, Bethany, Josh, Nate, Mike, John, Beau, and I to join them at Steak and Shake. Justin Lott and another guy from GA went also. So anyway Justin finds out that we are all staying at the same place and asks Tonya where it is. So Tonya looks right at the hotel turns around and looks at the Home Depot or whatever it is across the street and says right there and points at the Home Depot! She really did. Steele was like I don't remember picking you up from there, what do you do wait till after I leave and sneak over there? Everyone was laughing including Tonya. Anyway there were no tearful goodbyes this time at least not on my part. I went back to Florida with the Cox's and Beau went home with my family. I helped out with the kids and potty trained (to a certain extent) Abby. I had a good time with the kids. They had me wound around their little fingers. We survived the Tropical storm that came that direction without even a power outage. We all watched the Republican Convention and were really kept up with politics. So it was no surprise that some of the kids formed their own opinions about the presidential candidates. Noah was saying he wanted to vote for Obama and Caleb and Nathan straightened him out. Then a few days later we were talking about the presidential race when Caleb piped up and said I wouldn't ever vote for that Obama guy. Sis. Betsy wanting to hear his reasons asked him why not. He replied "because he wants to kill all the babies, and he wants to take away all the money from the soldiers, and this one is kind of funny but it's one of my main reasons, he said he wants to put lipstick on all the pigs and I don't think that would taste very good." How's that for a 10 year olds take on politics? He came up with that himself from listening to the news and debates. We went to the beach a couple of times while I was there one time with just all of us and one time with Danielle and Sis. Deel. We had a good time both times. We all got completely soaked both times. Josh, Nate, and I like to go out deeper in the water and jump the breakers. The kids like to go digging in the sand. Caleb found a little sea animal and brought it back to the house. Unfortunately, someone dumped the salt water out and put fresh water in there and the next morning the little thing was dead. Caleb was showing it to his dad and Ruthanne when Ruthie exclaimed, "Look it's a girl one cause it's got it's mouth open!" Bro. Jerry said, "that's right Ruthanne and look it's pointed toward the shopping mall too! t was pretty funny. Oh one night Noah w hatas moderating share time during the VLB service and Nathan played "Softly and Tenderly" on his lap steel when he finished Noah got up and said when I first heard that song I thought, "that's some good sleeping music." That got a real good laugh. One day we all went into Jacksonville to get some school stuff. We went to Sam's Club and got some pizza while we were there. Anyway, Sis. Betsy ran to the bathroom and I was sitting at a table with ruthie and Francie on either side of me and Abby on my lap. The boys were sitting at the table right next to us and Noah had just come over and asked me if we were going to get a drink. I told him yes look there's your dad getting them right now. Then he went back to his seat. As soon as he left this lady comes up behind me and leans over and says to me you have such a lovely family. I was stunned for a moment and before I could say anything she was gone. Josh came over and was laughing at me then he realized that she meant he was my son too and he didn't like it too much. Anyway I've been home almost a month now and Friday I will be heading back out. Youth retreat starts Friday evening and ends on Sunday afternoon. I will be leaving from youth retreat and heading down to Vanessa and Jacob's where I will be taking care of the kids and helping Vanessa out with the new baby.

Quick Update

Sorry everyone! I've been really busy and have barely had time to check my mail much less blog. Camp was wonderful! The Lord was there in a mighty way. The North Carolina Convention was pretty good. Some good messages were preached. Tonya and I made an unplanned trip to NC for their family camp. That was awesome, the Lord is really doing a work in our young people. Mom and I have been really busy getting ready for the Assembly. We are leaving for Cleveland tomorrow morning. I really have some things I need to finish up but I needed to catch everyone up. I probably won't have a chance to blog after the Assembly until the end of September because.... BEAU AND I ARE SWITCHING PLACES! Until the end of September that is. I'm going to be helping out with the little ones getting some experience with that and Beau will be going with Pappaw. Pappaw is a pastor and is always out visiting and working as a chaplain in the hospital and stuff like that. Beau will learn a lot from him. Anyway I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth.

Chicken Pox and Regional Convention

Yes, Chicken Pox but not in my family, the Cox kids are all down with the chicken pox! Even Beau and Joshy have it. They have bad cases where the little ones had light cases! I keep telling Beau it's better for him to get it now than for him to not get it until he's an old man with grandkids. I've come up with this great mental image of him as a stooped over old man and his grandkids smacking his hand and telling him, "Don't scratch pappaw!" Oh well, as terrific as that sight would be it's better that he has them now because they can be seriously dangerous when your way older. I think it's great fun that Beau has them because when Abby, Francie, Noah, and Joshy got them he said, "I'm not going to get the chicken pox." I told him that most probably he would and Sis. Betsy told him, "The only one who can say that is God and the last time I checked you weren't God!" The next day he got the chicken pox! Isn't that great fun! Once again I am right! Usually when we disagree I'm wrong but this time I was right! I'm right so few times I count. I think I've hit four times now! Yay! Beau sent pics of him and Josh because there wasn't any of the little ones. Oh well, these ones of the big boys make up for it! They look awful! Beau hasn't shaved in a while and he looks terrible! (Sorry buddy but that's the honest truth, and the scruffy beard really adds to the terrible look!) I halfway feel sorry for them but then I think of all the teasing I get from them and I can't feel but too bad for them! (Josh is the big tease, Beau's pretty good about not being too bad but there was one time with this rubber glove....) Our regional Convention was great! We had a wonderful Spirit there! We had a wonderful time in the Lord. If you are reading this you need to go to the Assembly so you can hear Sister Connie's message "God's Vortex." Everyone should hear that message it was wonderful! Friday night Bro. Smith preached the first part of a two part message on the nation of Israel going into the promised land and the different things that happened to them and what they represented. Saturday morning Bro. Byers preached a powerful and convicting message on loving the Lord and what it takes to really have revival. Saturday evening Bro. Smith preached the second part of his message. We had wonderful altar services. Then Sunday morning Sis. Connie preached about God's Vortex and I won't say anything about that but you need to hear that message! I love Sister Connie's preaching I always learn something. God took over during her message and a message and interpretation was given and we all ended up in the altar before going on with the schedule. Our youth group had to do our racing skit on the youth program Saturday afternoon. I was so nervous I forgot a few things and I wasn't the only one! So it was a little shorter than originally planned but over all it went fairly well. As soon as the skit was finished I had to rush back and teach Kid's Konvention. We did a few songs and then the story about Jehoshaphat and the singing army. Then we made maroccas out of water bottles. It went well. The kids enjoyed it, or so some of them told their parents. Sunday morning our family did the preliminary music. We sang hymns and Zach, Micah, and I played an instrumental. Anyway dad is wanting the computer so I'll have to go now!

Florida!

Caleb, Noah, Nate, and Micah goofing around Micah and Nate team mates

Zach and Josh consulting about their definition Nate and Daniel
Mary-Fran, Dad, and Mike
Beau and Mom (you notice who's doing the work and who's hiding from the camera)
Caleb, Noah, and Bethany
Sister Betsy and I

Sister Betsy giving instructions about Lion Country Safari
Bro. Jerry playing Mini golf at Lion Country Safari
Nate the Hula-hoop King!
Beau actually smiling for a picture (It took about 5 tries!)
Abby, Ruthie, and Francie

I'm home and exhausted. We had a wonderful, fantastic, awesome time in Florida. We got there Wednesday night just after church let out. Then Friday morning bright and early the whole gang (all 17 of us) headed down toward Miami. We went to Lion Country safari for a field trip and after a lot of fun and sunburn we headed to a hotel about half an hour out of Miami for the night. The next morning we went to Miami and had service, conducted any business that needed to be done, and had communion and feet washing. Bro. Jerry did a great job. Then we travelled back up to Palatka. The next morning we had a good service at church and enjoyed seeing some of the folks in Palatka again. The first full week we were there we had a Basic Seminar. Talk about busy we were really busy! Trying to squeeze everything in according to peoples work schedules and taking turns on babysitting duty. Taking care of all the kids is fine when you can spread out through the whole house but when they realize they are stuck in one room or outside they can get cantankerous! On the whole they did pretty well. By the end of the visit Abby had gotten to the point where she would leave "her Beau" to come to me. My only regret is that she will probably have forgotten me by the Assembly. One night I was laying the girls down for bed and Francie and Ruthie started asking Abby questions. First they asked her, "Do you love Beau?" She nodded her head and said, "Beau!" Then they said, "Do you love Mommy?" Abby nodded her head yes. Next it was, "Do you love Daddy?" she nodded her head yes. They asked her about "Sister Juwee" and "Brother Dawwell" and Francie and Ruthie and each time Abby nodded her head." Then they asked her, "Do you love Charity?" I was laying next to her and she rolled around and gave me a hug and tried to say, "I wove Charity!" The I came out good and you could tell she was saying love and you could tell she was trying to say my name. That was so sweet. That little 23 month year old can flat out steal your heart! The little ones are so adorable. I have it from a very reliable resource that several of them cried themselves to sleep after we left! The second week we had the VBS. That was a lot of work but it was also a lot of fun. The four oldest Muse kids (Little Aaron, Brittany, Jordan, and Gideon.) came up Tuesday evening and stayed through Sunday evening. Bro. Aaron, Sis. Wendy, and Elijah came Friday night and left after church sunday evening. So from Tuesday till Friday we had 17 kids and four adults staying at the Cox's and from Friday through Sunday there were 18 kids and 6 adults. That's not counting Jade who comes every day for school or Adriana (Bro. Mike McDonald's daughter) who came several days to play with all the kids. It was a lot of fun. It was like camp or something. The kids kept doing washable marker strikes on each other. Of course us older ones were right in there too. Someone (I'm not saying anything except it wasn't me) wrote, "I have problems" on Bethany's leg. You know who you are and so does God and so do I! HA!! Great times! Sunday Morning was Father's Day and we had our VBS presentation. It went well. Afterwards we had a dinner and some folks from an independent pentecostal holiness church came over. They were real nice people and so close to the Truth, some more of those other sheep that are going to come. We were supposed to leave Monday morning but mom hadn't been feeling the best Sunday so we stayed over and left on Tuesday instead. Sunday night everyone from Daniel down to Ruthie played spotlight. (Except for Josh) Dad, Bro. Jerry, Sis. Betsy, Bro. Mike, Zach, Josh, and I played Balderdash. (Beau was sick in bed and so was mom) We played partners. Dad and Mike, Bro. Jerry and Josh, Sis. Betsy and I, and it was supposed to be Zach and Beau, but Beau felt so bad he went to bed instead. Nate and Micah ended up helping Zach when they came in. We had so much fun Sis. Betsy and I do really well together. We left everyone in the dust! Even when we goofed off we did good. Monday we got everything packed up as much as possible for the next day. Then Beau, ( who is almost as bad as Tim at letting anyone touch his truck much less drive it) Dad, Zach, and I went out and Beau taught me how to drive a stick shift (to some extent) and actually let me drive his truck! (So, we were in a parking lot, and he would only let me go in first and reverse, and he never even let me touch the gas, the point is he let me drive it!) He taught me how and when to shift last summer and he lets me shift for him, but this time he actually let me get behind the wheel and drive! ( I only stalled it once! I'm so proud of myself!) Then we went to Wal-Mart and got what we needed and headed home. We played Balderdash again that night. Same teams except Bro. Jerry wasn't there so Zach and Josh teamed up, and Mom and Beau were partners, and Caleb and Beth, and Micah and Nate. We didn't finish the game this time but Dad and Mike and Sis. Betsy and I were neck and neck. Then Zach, Josh, Beau, and I pulled another succesful all-nighter. We stayed up untill 6:30 and headed for bed and slept till 9:00. We didn't get away untill about 2:00 or 2:30 Tuesday. It is so hard to say goodbye. So instead we are counting the days untill we see each other again. Josh came up with the idea. In 46 days I'll be hanging out with my best friends again! Yay!

BTI

Brother Walters wearing my bonnet!
First Term: Samantha, Charity (Me!), Kandy, and Katlin
Tests are over and everybody's having a good time at Cracker Barrel!
Playing Volleyball Friday afternoon
Brother Smith teaching Pastoral Class

We had an absolutely wonderful BTI! I have been stressing the importance of sending our young people to BTI ever since I got home Saturday evening. BTI is a wonderful asset for teaching and training our young people and not just our young people but our older ones too! I think it should be mandatory for every member to go to BTI for at least one term. Because after they go one term they would have a desire to go until they finished! The Lord was with us in a wonderful way at BTI this year. Many of the instructors and staff agreed that this was the best BTI since the first one after BTI was reinstated. There was such a spirit of unity there. We had a small group this year but as the old song goes, "It doesn't take very many it can be just two or three." The services were awesome. The Spirit of the Lord was with us in a mighty way in our services. Three services God took over and the minister did not get to preach. We had several miraculous healings. One of which I will relate here. Bro. Buford Cox Sr. from VA was one of the first term instructors this year. One day he came up the steps and he didn't sound to good. We of course were busy quizzing each other on the tests and didn't really notice. He told us, "I'll be right back," then he turned and went back downstairs. A moment later the prayer bell rang out and immediately voices were raised in supplication to God. We stayed up in our classroom as we were unaware of what was happening. Bro. Cox was having severe chest pain. He was in such pain that he was being doubled over by it. The general thought, is that he was having a heart attack. But the saints started praying and continued earnestly in prayer for several minutes until the power of God fell mightily and when it did Bro. Cox was instantly healed and felt better than he had for quite a while! Praise the Lord!!! Bro. Cox came back upstairs and told us what had just happened and then proceeded to teach our lesson. Praise God for divine healing! No recovery time needed! God still heals His people today! There were four in first term this year, all ladies. It was the smallest first term ever. For being the smallest first term ever we made quite a stir. We were the first term to ever have all their classes recorded live. We were the first term to ever be linked live to the internet while in class. And we were the first term to ever be entirely made up of ladies. I don't know if this is a record or not but when we started BTI only half of us had the Holy Ghost. When we left all of us were baptized in the Holy Ghost and ready to go home and work! Samantha received the Holy Ghost the first Friday night when third term was in charge of the service. I was filled with the Holy Ghost the next Friday night when we had our commencement service! Let me make a statement real quick. If you left before service Friday night you missed out on a wonderful blessing! That was such a powerful service! The Spirit of the Lord was there in a mighty way! I was so blessed to be able to attend BTI this year and I am already looking forward to next year! Anybody reading this if you have not attended BTI you need to go!!! Not only is BTI spiritually rewarding it is also a lot of fun. We have a great time fellowshipping and getting to know other godly young people. BTI gives you hands on training on how to work for the Lord and for the Church. Tomorrow I am leaving for FL. Our family is doing a seminar and a VBS for the Palatka church. We are really excited about it and looking forward to it. Like I said last year we get to spend time with our best friends and minister to others at the same time. Friday we are going down to the Miami area and having a field trip and the next day Bro. Jerry has to conduct a business meeting for the Miami church. We are excited about meeting more of our church folk in FL and we hope to be a blessing to them. We are planning to be back in Palatka in time for church Sunday morning. The seminar will start Monday evening and will end Saturday. Then the VBS will begin Wednesday evening and will conclude Sunday morning with our VBS program. We should be arriving home sometime that week. Then Sunday the 22nd we will be having my graduation. It will be held at The Church of God at Farmville, Va and will begin at 3:00 in the afternoon. Everyone is invited to attend. So if anyone happens to be in the area feel free to drop by. Anyway I'd better go.

Not Much Happening

Yeah Right! We are going to be really busy until the middle of July. This weekend is our Regional Youth Convention. Sister Sharon Griffin will be the guest speaker. She will be speaking Friday night and Saturday. Our young people at Farmville will be on program Saturday morning. Please PRAY FOR US!!! We are working on a skit and a song. We want to be a blessing and not just entertainment. We want to let the Spirit of God work through us. Nine of our young people are going this year. Hopefully. Tonya and TJ will only be able to be there Friday night. Dawn and JJ are hopefully coming Saturday. Unless Dawn isn't able to get off work Saturday. Then of course all of our family is going. If it is just our family we will have to make some changes in our skit. We are going to the Shenandoah valley for a week and Daniel will get his school testing done while we are that close. Then we will be home for one week then I'll be heading out to Cleveland and BTI! Yay! I'm excited about BTI! Think of all the learning you can cram into two weeks! I'll probably have pics to share from our trip and from BTI. Then I'll be home one week after BTI and that Thursday or Friday we will be heading out to SC for a family reunion that Saturday. Then Sunday bright and early we'll be leaving for Palatka, FL. Hopefully we'll make it for Sunday evening service maybe. We'll be there for two weeks give or take a few days. The first week we'll be facillitating a Basic Seminar. The second week we will be doing a VBS. I'm still trying to get things organized for that. We'll be having my graduation either the Sunday I get back from BTI or the Sunday after we get home from FL. The last weekend of June we will be heading out to Roanoke for the Regional Convention. Bro. Smith will be the guest speaker. Then the first week of July the first grandchild in the Baldwin family will be getting married. By first I don't mean oldest I mean first to get married. So there is definitely excitement about that. The next week is VA/WV Youth Camp. Anyway just thinking about all that makes me excited and worn out! I have to be going now. ~Goodbye~

Pics

Zachary Playing Engineer at the railroad museum Micah taking a turn Micah, BJ, Adam, Me, Bethany, Zach, Nate, and Beau seeing how many we could fit on the couch during Tim, Critter, and Adam's visit Saturday.
Beau giving Zach a haircut on Saturday morning
Beau Preaching
Nathan just after arriving in Virginia
Brother Mike McDonald from Palatka Florida
Beau, Zach, Micah, and I at Crewe Railroad Museum
Beau playing engineer
Zach, Micah, Beau, and I sitting on the side of one of the engines

I have some pics from when Beau, Mike, and Nate were down for the youth revival at the beginning of the month. I figured I'd go ahead and try to put a few of the on here. It worked! Yay! The guys arrived on that Thursday afternoon. The pics of Nathan and Bro. Mike are from just after they arrived. On Friday Zach, Micah, and I showed Beau around town and then we went to the Crewe Railroad Museum (big name for little place). There are railroad cars there that you can climb all over and take pics of and on. We had a lot of fun and got a little camera happy there. On Saturday Tim, Critter, and Adam came over and we played football. We went to the Church after a late lunch and played basketball then we all got cleaned up and ready for church that night. After service we had supper and said goodbye to our Roanoke and Catawba visitors. The next day was Sunday. Some of our young people came home from church with us and we hung around until we left for service that night. My aunt and cousin drove over from the coast to surprise my mammaw. We had snacks after church and then we went to my Pappaw and Mammaw's to play a little bit of Rook before heading back to the house. Beau, Mike, and Nathan left to go home to Florida around five the next morning. We really enjoyed our visit with them and the revival that Brother Beau preached for us. I hadn't really said much about the revival earlier so I thought I'd talk about it some now that I had pics! Anyway I need to go. ~Goodbye~

Senior Pictures

Guess What! I got my senior pictures done today! Yay! Have I mentioned how excited I am about graduating? I am really excited!!! Like really really really excited! Not that I don't like school ( I mean how many other high schoolers dream about Trigonometry) but I will feel like I have accomplished something big when I graduate. I wanted to try and put a couple on here I'm going to try. It worked I can't believe it worked! I got some done dressed up and some done in a cap and gown and some done casual. This is two of them. I like the casual ones better than the dress ones. Mom likes the first one. She says my personality shows through. I'm hoping to be able to go to BTI this year. Everything looks good right now. I'm really excited about that too. Anyway Zach and Daniel bought that movie "Amazing Grace" while we were in Richmond today and they are watching it so I'm going to go. ~ Bye ~

A great revival!

I have been so busy lately. Two weekends ago we had our VA/WV Ladies retreat. It was wonderful. Sister Betsy Cox was our evangelist. She flew into Richmond airport so mom and I got to pick her up and take her to retreat and then take her to the airport after the retreat ended. We really enjoyed the extra fellowship time! My Aunt Kathy was able to come to the retreat this year and she had a good time. Mom, Sister Betsy, and Aunt Kathy roomed together and had a great time. I mainly hung out with them. They are so much fun for a bunch of OLD ladies!!! ;-p I love Ladies retreat because you can get away from everything and just concentrate on you and the Lord. My favorite time every year is probably hide-away time. The only thing is I have a favorite spot I go every year and it was wet so I had to find a new spot. This past weekend was our youth revival. We had ours a little early to kick off youth emphasis week. Beau Cox, or should I say Brother Buford Cox the third, was our evangelist. It was his first revival and he was really nervous but with God's help he did a wonderful job. Our young people liked him because he was a young person and our older folk liked him because they like just about everybody. Nathan and Brother Mike McDonald from the Palatka FL church drove up with him. Tim, Adam, and Critter came over on saturday and spent the whole day with us. We had a good time of fun and fellowship with them. I had to moderate the revival and you want to talk about nervous I think I was just as nervous as Beau was! God is good though and he helped both of us. Tomorrow we are going to Roanoke church for their youth revival. Brother Hawkins is the evangelist. I'm really working on the VBS stuff I want to have evrything done by the beginning of May so maybe I can go to BTI this year. We are praying about it. Anyway I probably need to go now. Later......

Hello Everyone!

Dopey title I know. Anyway how is everyone doing? I've been super busy lately. Mom fell and twisted her back and couldn't really do anything so I did a lot of extra cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Then we had District Convention. It was really good. The Lord was with us in the service. You could feel the Spirit in the singing, preaching, testifying, and boosting. Daniel and Bethany both had their birthdays. Daniel is 16 and Bethany is now 12. That means we now have one more VLB at Farmville. The weekend after the Convention the VLB's had a Brunswick Stew Fundraiser. We spent friday night cutting up potatoes and onions and cooking and cutting chicken. Saturday morning early we cooked and stirred the stew then we delivered it that afternoon. All this month we have been making candy eggs to sell. We got a late start this year and only made 700 and some. Our church has been doing it for years so it's kind of a tradition. We make peanutbutter and coconut eggs. They are 4 oz. eggs and then we dip them in chocolate and decorate them. We get $2.50 for each egg. It's a good fundraiser. Anyway it takes a lot of time and energy. Between everything that's going on I haven't had time to even check my e-mail much less blog! Anyway i know this is short but I do need to go. G'bye

I Hate Coming up with a Title!

I really do! I rack my brain for a title and come up with some dopey thing like, "I'm Posting again." How silly is that? Why is a title neccesary anyway. It's not like this is a book or something. It's a blog! If I wanted to write a book I'd write something more interesting than what I'm working on in school or how I'm doing in Piano! Actually nothing has really happened to inspire me to blog about it. I'm just trying to keep my rather late New Year's Resolution to be a better blogger. I'll even try to upload a picture this time! Keyword Try. Never mind once again I meet with failure. Does anybody know how to compress a picture so that it will actually upload? Anyway I have to go now. But at least I blogged even if I didn't have anything to say!!!

Hey!

I'm back again. Sorry I know I havn't posted in a while but I've been busy! I know that's no excuse but what can I say? Mom and Dad went to the VA/WV couples retreat that is gradually turning into everybody's couple retreat last week-end. They really enjoyed it. They ditched all of us kids at home alone for 3 whole days. No adult supervision! (I don't really count.) I guess they figured Zach and I are old enough to handle it. It wasn't bad at all. That Sunday morning Sister Betty Bowlin went home to be with Jesus. We will miss her greatly but we couldn't be too sad when we thought of all the pain and suffering she was in. Church was pretty much a memorial service for her that morning. After church a bunch of us young people went out for pizza. We had terrific winds that day and when we were ordering a guy and his son came to open the door. The little boy was trying to open the door for his dad but was having a lot of trouble pulling agaisnt the wind as he was. He finally managed to get the door opened when the wind switched directions and ripped the door out of his hand. The wind slammed the door into this flower pot sitting in front of the outside of the building. All the glass in the door was busted out then the wind caught the frame of the door and swung it around and tore it off it's hinges. It was Amazing I'd never seen anything like it in my life! The only thing connecting the door to the doorway was the hydraulic thingie on the top of the door! The kid who opened the door had this priceless expression on his face. When the door was ripped from his hand the force of the door cut his hand. I had my trust First aid stuff with me so I helped him bandage up his hand. He was pretty shook up. Monday and tuesday of last week were busy with the family night and funeral for sister Betty. Wednesday was VLB service and I did something on true love. Then my Uncle Donnie and his wife came up and spent a few days with my Grandparents. Dad and I went over friday night and we played ROOK. I love that game. I've been told I'm getting half-way decent at it too. Yesterday was our Valentine's dinner at church. We did Spaghetti which is becoming a tradition at our church for the Valentine's dinner anyway. Oh yeah Hey Alaena I saw your comments. I hadn't checked my blog in a while cause i figured no one really reads it. You and Beau are the only ones who really comment anymore and Beau hardly ever has the time. I'll have to be better at keeping on top of things. New Years Resolution (kind of late but who cares, if you do don't say so) To be a better blogger. (yeah right.) Anyway I have to go. I'll blog more later.

Happy Belated New Year!

Hey everyone Happy New Year! We really really enjoyed our day with the Cox's. We had a ton of fun. Tim decided to come over with them and he seemed to enjoy the fun almost as much as we did. Dad, Bro. Jerry, Tim, Zach, Daniel, Micah, Beau, Josh, Nate, and I played a lot of football. It was a blast. Beau, Josh, Zach, and I attempted to teach Tim how to play Dutch Blitz but Josh kept going too fast for Tim to catch on enough to actually enjoy it. Nevertheless I did enjoy playing. The next day we had our Baldwin family dinner. It was kind of sad this year. Aunt Diane had been gone just a month. We did a lot of laughing and a lot of crying. We had a small watch night service at church New Years Eve. A lot of our church folks were sick with that upper respiratory infection that was going around and could not come this year. This weekend was Men's Retreat all the boys and dad went this year. Bethany went and spent the week-end with Jenny Joyner from church. So it was just Mom and I this week-end it was nice and quiet. We went out to dinner with Mammom and Aunt Debbie last night. It was nice we went to a mexican restaurant in Blackstone. We had a good time. It's been really quiet though. I like quiet every now and then it's restful. Next Sunday night, not tomorrow, Tim is coming to Farmville for a special surprise for a certain person turning 36 and leaving the VLB's. That's all I'm saying except I'll tell everyone about it after it's over. Anyway I need to go. Goodbye.