Which two do you think she'll pick?

Corey, over here:

http://watchingthewaters.wordpress.com/

is having a fundraiser to try to help Heartline Ministries raise the up to ten thousand dollar donation offered her by an Aggie soon to be graduate...Whoop!...(I think I'm allowed to write that even though I'm a bulldog, grrrrrr) has generously offered towards the purchase of an ambulance.

http://heartlineministries.org/default.aspx
(Thanks Annie and Mary for the linking info)
Hi Heartline Team,

I want to offer a $10,000 match towards the Heartline ambulance. I am so excited about what y’all are doing in the women’s program. Thank you for being the hands and feet of Jesus to these women. I love y’all’s unique approach and the way you love the women and serve them. And more than anything I love the women of Haiti and agree that they deserve the best care that can be provided to them!

I graduate from Texas A&M University on December 18th and my Dad offered to get me a car as a grad gift. I have a perfectly good and actually really nice car so I asked instead if I could have the equivalent amount of money to donate to the causes of my choice. My Dad said yes but only if I took time to really pray about where God wanted that money to go and where it would most glorify Him. I have prayed about donating to the purchase of the ambulance for a few weeks now and after reading the last few posts I know this is exactly where God wants this money to go to glorify Him.

I am so excited for all that Heartline is doing right now and can’t wait to continue to follow the journey on the blogs! So, I will match up to $10,000 raised by my graduation date of December 18th when I receive the money. I mean honestly I want to send the check no matter what but I want to motivate others to give also! I so badly want y’all to reach that goal!!! The ambulance is such a necessity and I know God will provide!

love in Him,
Anonymous Graduate from Texas

So, I offered up two prints (8 X 10, matted) of her choice. Maybe someone will like them enough to pay a few bucks. It's all for a worthy cause. So, which two would YOU like the most?

You're not watching without me!

Brenda over at Living With Rad posted a RADdy Hoot
http://reactiveattachmentdisorderlife.blogspot.com/ and Annie at http://onemothersday.blogspot.com/ talked about the funny things our kids say or do. As a regular ol' mama, I decided to share an Alex story. Pardon me if I've already posted this...oldtimers comes early in these parts. It goes like this:

He was about five and a half and it'd been something like eighteen months that we'd had him. Long enough for his new big sister to be "so over him" and not want him to bug her and her cousin Kaley. We had taken our little t.v. with the built in VCR to my parents house so we could put it in one of the extra bedrooms for the kids. Seems Alex really wanted to watch too (or, more likely....really wanted proximity to bug the girls) but they pushed him out of the room. Not fast enough though.

My older brother Billy came around the house laughing so hard he was clutching his stomach. This is the same brother who made my sister Becky and I play roller derby every Friday night when my parents went out...two dinette chairs back to back and let the beating commence....but I digress. Seems little Alex didn't take too kindly to not being included and was at that moment standing outside the window with the remote...turning it on...turning it off...turning it on.... as I peeked in the window, I saw the 6.5 year old and her 7.5 year old cousin banging the side of the t.v., checking the plug, pushing buttons,etc. Seems my son had figured out a logical consequence to administer all on his own. Like I said...smart, scary smart.



And if someone wants to risk some brain cells of their own and try to tutor me on how to put links into the post for other blogs, etc. let me know. PS Caught the black and white kitten too...both at the vets. Gray one hasn't been around in a few days but caught a huge tom cat in the trap...had to let him go as he was thrashing about so much I was afraid he'd hurt himself on the cage. Will try again during the day tho.

Trapped!

Caught the mama! She's the one looking at the camera in the bottom photo....more white than black versus her kid, more black than white. The other two are not full grown but since she is so small, they look like it.
Now, for the babies....oh,she is spitting mad but willingly with lots of growling and a little hissing, ate canned food off of a fork for me. Hopefully, her kids will come up today and be off with her to the vet in the morning for spaying/neutering and ear notching plus shots. Hopefully, she'll trust me again some day.


Got my H1N1 shot...saw this cartoon and thought I'd share the laugh.

Musings after family therapy and therapy for me...

Yesterday, we started our family therapy. This was to set up individual counseling for Hannah and couple's counseling for us, as my husband is not a woman and therefore, doesn't need any therapy. Hmmmmmm, he's got such a huge feminine side that prefers reading to sports (armchair or otherwise), music to hunting (okay, outside of Miss "there's plenty of room for all the animals in Alaska...right next to the mashed potatoes..yuck,yuck" Sarah Palin, and some women all over but the majority of women are not hunters). I believe he and I have some hashin' out to do concerning the boy. Let me rephrase that, I have some anger in me over the fact that he only in the last year or so made any effort. This man, this gentle, gentle, good man, the best daddy on Earth for our three daughters, simply could not connect with our son. He had no basis of connection for a wild child that was out of control. In his world, you do what you're supposed to do except when you are an experimenting teenager (unless, of course, you're his daughter). I resent that he was the adult and made so little effort to learn...to try...to connect. That anger and resentment is kept neatly packaged though and I will go with the guidance of the therapist as to when to let it dribble out. I'm sure my husband has some things to let leak himself. But, we're now married 33 years and have gone to hell in a handbasket repeatedly, this will not wreck us either. I love him more than anyone on Earth.
The hard part is that the therapist's comments went with what the attorney ad litum and the CASA worker and the therapist at the current RTC are all saying, and it's basically that my son is psychotic and they see little to no hope of him ever living outside a facility in the future. That breaks my heart.




Now, for my own brand of therapy...we live in a picturesque village in the hill country of Texas. There's a river that goes through town and creeks. Every weekend except maybe in the dead of winter, the tourists descend and we stay away from town if at all possible. But, it is beautiful and unlike some of the oldtimers here that want to shut the gates and let no one else in, I say share,people,share.






I named the photo above No Trespassin' because,sorry people from Houston (most of our weekenders or summer folks or retirees are from there) you don't own the creek bank and I am going to go on your property along the creek to get close to God's creation. Nanny Nanny Boo BOO!




I am drawn in cemeteries to the graves of children. Having buried one of my own, I feel a catch of the sadness of the mamas (and of course the papas) of these little ones. Oddly though, they used to list them like this: Infant son of L.M. Hunnington, and give the date. This baby lived only six days. 1918-1919 Further down the row, another child listed as the grandchild of this man. Wow, why weren't the mothers recognized? Strange.

Of a missing limb...

Ignore the drunken lookin' lady next to tha boy....for some reason, most days I squint in pictures....I actually look a lot loopier IRL.

It is surreal to go through my days feeling like I'm missing a limb. That limb often throbbed in pain,there were many days I wished I could just set it down somewhere and have someone else take care of it, but it was part of me, and I was used to it. I am honoring my little limb's message that he doesn't want to talk to me. It is a guilty relief....guilt because I so want to assure him of my love and support but relief that I don't have to hear from him about how wild he's behaving or what inappropriate things he's telling staff.

In some ways, this is sort of like after our daughter died....I feel like I'm grieving while the body is still living! So very strange.

On a positive note....had my sister's bday party. Enjoyed visiting with family so much that I ended up taking only one picture...


My sister has the same disease I have....the i'm not comfortable with all of ya'll watching me and singing to me. Our older daughter,Heather, and her husband Brad are in the background as is my sister in law,Kim, whose hair has come back in after chemo soft and curly, it looks awesome!


Guess what? We were T.P.'d last night. I have a very good idea of one of the culprits....I just broke up laughing. On closer inspection, I saw our nighttime friends were a bit more creative than I remember being...unused tampons were stuck in the for sale sign, a pad was unwrapped and stuck to the mailbox...and for the piez de resistance....three pair of our neighbors' underwear were thrown in the trees. Somebody's mama might not be so happy though...we pulled seven almost full rolls of paper out of the trees. Glad to see that some things never change or if they change a little, the basic idea of adrenaline-pumping, "shhhh, they'll wake up and catch us!" fun continues on....

Cake Boss? I think not...

I think the cupcake skulls may very well be my culinary pinnacle. Tomorrow, I'm throwing my oldest sister a birthday party. She is sixty...that used to seem really old and to some of you, maybe it still does. For some reason, I've chosen to go with a music theme...downloaded lots of music from the 60's (get it?) and some from the 70's when she was in her early twenties. Well, in case you can't tell....her cake is a record. So, Buddy at Cake Boss, have no fear...your business is safe from me.



This is definitely more my speed. Leftover cake...leftover icing....mmmmmm


Well, I guess I'm going to have to start paying her for her image. Waddaya goin to do with a teenager?



Some sunsets are more red, some more orange and these....mo pink and purple.





We don't have any cats. We feed cats (and one possum, one armadillo, the occasional fox, the rare raccoon) and we try to trap cats. Now, I have a resource to turn to...she's going to loan me her cat trap. I've tried before but now I've had the "training in the correct way to trap feral cats" so I'm hopeful. The cat in the middle is the mama, we call her CC...she is tiny. The other two are her babies. Trying to cut off the cat family tree in its paws. After months, I can get within about twenty feet of these guys before they run off. It's killing me! They're meant to be petted and to purr while hanging out in my lap.


There are overachievers even in nature...triple bloom!

I'm going to follow his lead

When I called yesterday afternoon, I was told that my son did not want to speak to me. He was mad about me cutting our visit short due to him hitting me because "I know how he behaves". So, I simply told the supervisor to please share with him that I love him and that I understand. I will now wait for him to contact me when he's ready. Fortunately, I am giving my oldest sister a birthday party Saturday so there's plenty to do.