It Is Official, I Am An Olympic Junkie

Maybe I need some rehab because I am addicted to watching these crazy Olympic Games. Those of you that know the crazy routine I keep know how little sleep I already get, now just add some more sleep deprivation to that. I really cannot help myself, I love the excitement of it all.

I know it all started with the Winter Olympics of 1980 when the American Hockey team won over Russia. I was sitting in my grandmothers living room in Goree, Tx watching that game. It was so awesome. With every Olympics since then, I am watching.

This Olympics has been so entertaining. Michael Phelps has been a one man wrecking crew,the men's and women's gymnastics have offered some excitement and the Redeem Team seems to be taking care of business on the hard wood (Go Coach K), but I really enjoy getting to see sports that only get air time during the Olympics. Who knew that Ping Pong could be so entertaining or the lighting of the heads of the fencing team could be so bizarre.

The setting being in China has been intriguing all its own. That reminds me, we have a team leaving Aug 30th to go to China to spread the gospel. These 2 men and 2 women are setting out on their own form of the Olympics. Please keep them in your prayers and hope they can bring the message to those whom are ready to receive.

Go USA and Team Heights. Conquer all you can in China.

Hayboy Turns 8!!!!!

Hayden turned 8 on Friday, Aug 15th. He has been so excited about his birthday for the past couple of weeks. Even though I worked Thursday night he really wanted to go to the movies on Friday. With Zach going to the lake with the youth group, that left Hayden and I to the movies all by ourselves. We decided on Journey To The Center of The Earth-3D. I am happy to say it was really, really good.

On Saturday we were busy with baseball as usual. Two games in 1 day but Hayden even got a gift from one of Zach's teammates mom. Lots of candy and alot of little play things. (Thanks Liz).

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for company for Hayden's party on Sunday.

Sunday started as usual with church when we received a call from Shawn's dad. They had had a fender binder in Tye and decided not to come and Nanny Sue was unable to come due to flooded road conditions. That left us and aunt Christy to celebrate but we had a really good time. Hayden had another little party with Granny today due to her work schedule and now will have another on Sunday with Shawn's dad. He is really cleaning up on the birthday parties.

Hayden is such a fun kid. I think he gets his strong will from Shawn but he has a free spirit that he gets from my older sister, Melinda. I think these two would be two peas in a pod. Wish he could have known her. I know how much they would have gotten along. Happy Birthday Hayboy. We all love you so much.

Battle Scars of Youth: lessons learned

Beware of the microwavable raviolis. We found that out late this past Saturday night. Zach had his first baseball game of this second season and we didn't get home until late. I put some hotdogs on to cook and we went outside to sit, unwind and discuss the first win of the season (check out Lubbock Grays blog). Unbeknownst to us our very independent, hard-headed, soon to be 8-yr-old decided that he didn't want to wait on the hotdogs and opted to cook the raviolis.

Shawn happened to walk in the house shortly after the "accident" occurred. It appears that Hayden had decided to get the raviolis out of the microwave himself and spilt them on himself. Immediately we had his hand under the running water when I realized he had spilt it on his feet as well. Off to the bathtub we went. In the end I realized his feet were ok. The part that took the brunt of it all was the left thumb. It was really red with no blisters, so being a nurse I covered it in aloe and dressed it in gauze for the night.

The next morning before church the thumb appeared the same, no blisters. It was not until late Sunday evening that the blisters appeared. I took him in to one of our pediatricians partners the next day. I have know her since she was a lowly medical student back in the day. She told me many years ago that burns to kids on their hands and feet were an automatic admission to the burn unit. She said silvadine cream should do the trick and told Hayden his masterpiece of microwavable raviolis was no more.

Thank God that it turned out to be a minor thing that could have been major. Watch out for the raviolis.

Red Box to Red Letter

I have to tell you about my newest, favorite thing--Red Box. Know what Red Box is? It is the newest way to rent movies. They are located here in Lubbock @ the entrances of Wal-Mart and United Supermarkets. For a dollar a day you can rent recent releases from the big red vending machine. I love the convenience it offers.

The convenience of it makes me think of the convenience of Christ's love. Like Red Box, Christ is standing there waiting for us to turn to him and accept him as our Savior. Why is it that so many of us choose to walk right past Him. Or, for those of us who do believe, we sometimes choose to walk past Him in order to do things our way rather than his. I know I still catch myself doing that, not setting aside quite time, being distracted by daily life, thinking, doing or saying things I shouldn't.

I have tried to make it a point to let the Red Box remind me of the Red Letters. I spend enough time in Wal-Mart that I should be reminded often of the convenience and readiness of His love and to allow myself to fall into the arms of His grace.

"Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because he always lives to intercede for them." Hebrews 7:25

Notre Dame to Ratatoullie

I have good news in the house. Shawn finally got his steroid injections for his back on Thursday. He feels that his back is much better. He had taken all of last week off before his procedure to paint Zach's room.

I guess I am the one to blame for Zach's love of Notre Dame. I became a big fan in the 80's and even though they have had some rough years of late, I still love this team. I know alot of it is the tradition of the school and part of it is living in Texas, it drives people crazy that I like them. It is what makes college sports so much fun. Zach has the dream of playing for the Fightin' Irish someday. I hope his dream comes true. We plan to send him to football camp there in a couple of years.

Now to the rat. I promise yesterday we did not have a plan of purchasing a rat. We took Hayden to PetsMart to see the kittens. He wants one soooooo bad. He wants something he can hold but we explained to him that kittens are not that way and then they turn into big cats. We were looking at hamsters when the lady working there started telling us about rats. They don't bite, they learn their name, they use a litter box, and you can train them to do tricks. Well, meet Pyxie. She is a hoot. I never thought I would like a rat but she already responds to her name and see makes noises back to you when you speak to her. We will keep you informed on the Pyxie adventure.

Hope U Had A Great 4th

Hope everyone's 4th of July was good. I work the night before so my family let me sleep until 3:45 that afternoon. I'm am not used to getting that much sleep and woke up with a headache. Pretty much had it the rest of the day. Zach spent the evening and night with his youth group, the THF Outfitters. I took Hayden to get a few fireworks. We let him do them in the backyard. Shame on us. Here are some fun photos of Hayden. I was on the couch by 10 waiting for Zach to call so I could go get him. I dozed until MN when he finally called. He had fun so that was good.

Yesterday we did some cleaning around the house, baseball practice and then we went to the Southwest-Western championship Little League game. Winner was to take all. As some of you may remember, Western Little League went to the Little League World Series to end up third so you can only imagine the excitement of this game and never mind it is a very big rivalry. We know alot of the kids that play on Southwest so we were pulling for them a little and the end result, Southwest-13 and Western-4. Looks like Lubbock will have a new representative from Lubbock for the first time in a long time. Good Luck Southwest.

Call Me Crazy

Call me crazy, call me insane but I have taken on the task of posting on yet a new blog. Zach has made the move to big boy baseball. Not quiet the major league size field but much bigger than he has been used to. He has joined a newly formed Jr league team called The Grays. In my insanity I have decided to start a blog for this team to record their journey. I have added the link on the side so you guys can keep up with them. Wish us luck on this new adventure.