OHHHHHklahoma...Where the 197th Tornado Almost Came

For starters, I really could be one of those people who blog every day. I think of so many things to talk about, probably because I'm a talker, and just never have the time/take the time to do it. I am also not sure I really want to be a daily blogger. Too much pressure, too much time, too much of me yakking about nothing. I also start to do what I just did, like think, "Does yakking really have 2 ks? One k would mean a long vowel sound, so 2 is phonetically correct, but is it really correct? Maybe I should open a new tab and look it up to make sure..." You get the picture. Thus daily blogging is not in my best interest for now.

Back to Ohhhhhhhhklahoma! (Are you singing yet?)

WE GOT TO GO SEE THE STRAPS IN EDMOND! After 4 years of many tries on each of our parts, we finally found a weekend and went. For those of you who don't know, John and Wanda Strappazon were our college ministers while we were at Tech and beyond. Did I mention we pretty much live here to minister to college students because they taught us to love God, love others, live biblically, and equip others? John has been a mentor to both of us, and Wanda discipled/still disciples me continually. We learn so much just from being with them, are challenged spiritually, and always come away completely encouraged. They are just sweet heart friends. John also married us on May 31, 1997...yes, that is a 7 at the end of that. Almost 12 years! Crazy! For the record books, especially all those Baptist record keepers, John danced at our wedding, too. Ha! I love how you can love Jesus and be a dancin' fool! Ok, I am completely getting off topic. We left the kiddos with Ashley, whom we could never live without so stop trying to move and just stay here or wherever we are forever, and they had a blast. Here are some pics and highlights of our trip, for all of you who really care and just want me to shut up and get to the picture section of the entry. (Tyson, sweetheart, I know you, buddy.)

Look at how cute Wanda is! This is what we walked into her house and saw:


Here is Sophie...looks like Toto, huh? Appropriately so since she lives in Tornado Alley...or maybe on Tornado Street.


"Jesus Wept" statue entering the Oklahoma City bombing memorial area. I am not sure about the fact that he is turning his back on it all. My Jesus did weep, but I have not known him to turn his back on anything. Another post?


Entrance to the memorial site. Another wall says 9:01, the pond is when it happened at 9:02, and the final wall says 9:03.


Each chair represents a person that was killed that day. See the smaller chair? Those are for the children that were killed. They each have their name on it and the glass box underneath lights up at night.


How amazing is our God! Right when we walked in we saw B.J. and Stephanie! We had not seen them in forever. They used to live in Lubbock, were in Challenge and Life Group with us, and then moved to Dallas. They were there for B.J. to run the Oklahoma City Marathon the next morning. That is definitely not on my goal list in life. We loved seeing you guys! Did you find a hotel? :)


John, Wanda, me, and Tyson under the Tree of Life...left standing after the bombing.


Eating at Pops! They have a million different kinds of soda to choose from.



We almost got the shot! Pregnant lady crouching down trying to take this pic would have been a better pic...just kidding.


We got to visit Auntie Wanda, who is basically my Nanny's sister who also lives in Edmond. As you can see, I continually am getting puffier and puffier this trip. Humidity and Melissa pregnant with girls does not mix. She is such a sweet lady, and we are so grateful we got to see her!


Last, but oh so not least, the famous Texas Tech helmet. Which by the way weighs like 50 pounds! Ladies, try on a football helmet one day and you will be blown away. No wonder those guys have ginormous necks! I could not even get up off the couch. I am wearing this so Strap can laugh at me, and also to honor the evening of tornado warnings and watches. It is serious in Oklahoma, people! You have to wear some type of helmet and have one of those weather radios to even live here. Wanda has sat in her hall bathroom or pantry many times wearing this extremely heavy helmet through a tornado. A few that have even destroyed houses just down the street. And yes, the weather radio man announced the 197th tornado watch/warning of the year in our honor.


We love you sweet friends! I would brave a tornado anytime just to see you guys!

Our Easter Was Grass-Tastic!

 

Lead Me to the Cross

This is where it all began...the fall of man. My cousin, Joel Smith, molded Adam out of clay, the tree is pierced through his torso, and one shiny, tempting, red apple depicts the forbidden fruit. I wish my camera could have fit under his face. Joel even molded complete angst upon the face. Can you see the anguish and depth of devastation in this one picture? Joel is amazingly talented and his work has been in many places that blow us all away. Yet what blew me away as I looked at this piece was not only the beauty of it, but the depths from which we have come. This taste that separated us from our Creator also sent us hurtling towards reconcilliation to our Father. It is as if the entire Word flashed before my eyes and kept going, on until He comes back for us. Can you see it? Adam's anguish is my anguish. His one taste is very fresh upon my own lips. He is crying out for reconcilliation to his Father, and so am I. Jesus is alive, but let's not forget He is coming to rip that tree of life out of our hearts and replace it with Him alone. Completely and totally reconciled. The blood red apple to the red blood of Jesus. Come quickly, Lord.

Lovin' the Land

We had so much fun today at "The Land" with the family. Of course it was cool...really it was cold...but it was beautiful out there. We love being able to breathe the air with no dust and just play together outside. Make some wonderful memories with your families this weekend! Jesus is alive and coming back for his Bride!

Frustrating Frustrations

Alright. As a disclaimer, I just need to get some things off my chest. Once they are off, I am better, so don't go freaking out on me thinking I am freaking out permanently.
Today we had yet ANOTHER ultrasound. Have I mentioned this was our 4th? Does anyone remember we are SELF PAY?? Obviously not. I swear I am making a t-shirt that I wear to every appointment saying we do not have maternity insurance. (This all goes back to the owning your own business, never do it, thing.) We completely understand that we have to pay butt-loads of money for certain required tests, etc. This ultrasound was deemed neccessary by the last sonographer/sono dr to measure my scar from the c-section with Tracen. So, I reluctantly went. After all the measurements with various instrumentation that I will not name, though Stephanie has a hilarious nickname for one of them...you should ask her, the sono dr comes in. He explains all sorts of things which are all great, so we breathe a sigh of relief and get ready to go. At this point he informs us that, oh, by the way, the best and only time to really determine scar length and thickness is 2 weeks before I am due. SO WHAT HE SAID IS THAT THIS $1000.00 PROCEDURE MUST ALL BE REPEATED AGAIN. 5th time's a charm, anyone? Just do the math, and you might have some things to get off your chest, too. Feels all better now...grrrrr.

It's Not Tough Being a Woman with Ladies Like These!

I just had to share what my wonderful group of Bible Study ladies did for me on Wednesday night. I have always gone to the Tuesday morning study with some of my friends and many ladies that I know. Most of us started back in 2001 and have loved it since. Because I was working on Tuesday mornings this year, I decided to change to the study on Wednesday nights. I really did not know many at all, and I was a bit nervous about coming. Of course it has been so wonderful! Last semester it was amazing to see how many...pretty much all...of our prayer requests were answered. If these ladies start praying, things start happening! They had all prayed that if God wanted me to, I would be able to get pregnant after the miscarriage and all the months after. It was just wonderful to be able to tell them that I was pregnant! We were all just crying and happy. There have been many stories just like that through the year. This semester we did Esther by Beth Moore. The theme of each week was, "It's tough being a woman......" and listed various reasons why. (Man, we can come up with a million reasons, huh?) The study was great, we all learned so much, but it was over two weeks ago. This past Wednesday we were all planning on meeting at Gardski's for dinner. I come in and there are balloons on my chair that say, "It's a Girl!" I thought that was too cute of them. So I sat down and sweet Mary beside me asks if it really was a surprise for me. I thought she was talking about the balloons, so I said yes, you silly ladies did not have to do that! She said that the surprise was that it was my baby shower. WHAT? I was just blown away by their kindness and love! They had brought presents and even had cake. Wow, God. I have no pictures of their sweet faces since I didn't know i would be needing a camera, but here are the wonderful gifts they gave me. I love all of them and am forever grateful for their sweet surprise!

Most of you are, but if you are not...

Keep praying for this little boy! I know most of you are in the "blog world," which is so much bigger than I ever knew about until the past year. I know most of you also read www.mycharmingkids.net, but if you don't, please check it out. It is a mom with a gigantic following on her blog, I think it is about to reach 6 million if it has not already. She is a very natural, organic, cloth diapering, fun to read girl named Jennifer. We prayed over the summer and this year for her little baby in utero, Stellan, because the doctors said he would die from SVT, which is a heart condition. I think it is called supraventricular tachychardia or something along those lines. Well, Stellan was born fine, which is why they now call him MckMiracle! Now he has been in the hospital a week with SVT and sometimes even V-tach. He got sick, had one nebulizer treatment at the ER, then the doctor did another before he left just to help a little more, and it sent his heart into SVT again. They cannot get it down, and pretty much the world has been praying for him. I haven't posted anything, but have had a burden and have been praying all week. Here is the link to her blog, but on the sidebar she does Twitter updates much more often than blog posts since she is in the hospital with him. You can read about the last 7 or so posts to get much more info, but just pray for him!