Casting Crumbs

A couple weeks ago we did our annual swimming lessons with my good friend Julie’s girls. This is always something we look forward to each Summer and I marveled this year at the changes we have seen over the years. Every year we have had a couple of babies that would cry on the sidelines longing to get into the pool, or we were pregnant and sweating it out while looking at the inviting pool a few feet away.

This year ALL the kiddos were enrolled and ready to go.

They are quite a bunch! Even one of the lifeguards seemed pretty dumbfounded that all these kids belonged to just two very young and beautiful women. (wink)

Of course a silly pic!

So they all went off to their classes depending on their level. Evely joined the beginners group and went and sat in the circle. She was the littlest one there and I think the youngest. I watched for a few minutes as they went around and told their name and their favorite water animal. After everyone went around commenting on their favorite whale, porpoise or turtle. She quietly said “I’m Evely and my favorite is a cat”. (Girl after my own heart! I liked to put cats in water from the time I was small. I felt they needed to be baptized.)

She was doing great for about 1/2 of the class and then I heard that cry from afar…the one you know is your child’s. So out she came and that was the end of swimming lessons for Evely this year. She wouldn’t have anything more to do with it. She said it was because she was afraid of the “big boy” in her class. There was a 16 year old kid that was lifeguarding and she was afraid of him. We’ll try again next year.

The big event of the year is always on the last day – going off the diving boards! All week long Julian and Jaden discussed how they were both going to go off the high dive. So the time came and Julian went off the board.

Jaden went off the low dive and then Julian went over and put Jaden in line for the high dive. There was quite a commotion from the life guards. They weren’t sure if such a little guy should be allowed to go off the board. Finally Jaden’s teacher said she thought it would be okay and a lifeguard followed behind him up the board. Another got at the bottom and all eyes turned on Jaden. There was quite a cheer going up for him to jump. He stood there for several minutes and you could see that he wanted to soooo bad.

He would start to jump and then back up and laugh nervously. Finally, he took the big plunge!

He was so proud of himself! Mama was too….

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Another update on Mom’s progress with Chemo…

She received her updated tumor marker count last week. It went down to 25. That’s not a big drop from where it was – just a couple points, but it did drop! That is good. It is also still “normal”. Praise God.

The Dr. wants her to do one more treatment. Pray for her as she endures one more of these and that God will continue to bring healing and rid the cancer from her body. Thank you all for your steadfastness in prayer, encouragement and faith!

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I see skies of blue….

Clouds of white…..

Bright blessed days….

Dark sacred nights….

and I think to myself….

What a Wonderful World. ~Louie Armstrong

All these beautiful sights I was privileged to see in only one day of my life. I love Summer.

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So the other night there is this huge storm brewing and we are all outside watching the dark ominous clouds get closer and closer. It was one of those Summer evenings that you really enjoy a good storm. We were out on the front porch and I have these horribly ugly bushes right there by the steps. We had been talking about pulling them out but never had gotten to it. So I mention to my very handy-with-a-rope-and-a-truck husband if we should pull them out. He was game and we got the rope and the truck and all the kids, of course. The family affair ensued as we watched the shrubs get yanked out of the ground with ease. We then threw all the shrubs in the back of the truck, hauled all the kids onto the tailgate for a ride across the yard to our burn pile.

Upon arriving at the pile we all hopped of the tailgate and started toward the pile. I saw some sticks laying over a little ways that had blown off the pile and started over to pick them up and toss them back where they belonged when I almost stepped on a SNAKE! The thing was laying there with the front of it’s body raised and as I had stepped closer to it, it struck at my leg barely missing me. I screamed a bloody murder-I’m gonna wet my pants type of scream and stumbled back and toppled over my two little ones that were right behind me.

Tom came running and we watched the thing high tail it over to our little barn and disappear under it. It was shaking it’s tail like a rattlesnake but with no rattle. Later we couldn’t figure out why we had a shovel with us and didn’t bother to kill the thang. Yes, it needs to die, it tried to bite me!

After some research, thanks to the internet, we have found that it is a rat snake. They come out in the cool of the evening to hunt mice and bats. If startled they will bite but they are not poisonous (thank goodness!). They also shake their tail like a rattler.

We have been making some frequent snake patrols around our brush pile in the evenings looking for this little devil. I really want him dead. I had the willies for a couple of days. I kept replaying in my mind that snake striking at me. I think my adrenaline was so high that it made my whole body and muscles hurt for a couple of days.

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