Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Our December Birthday Girl!

Our babiest daughter turned two this year! Where does the time go? We were hanging out at Grannie and Pawpaw's for her birthday and threw a fun birthday bash ... what could be better than Elmo cake, lots of balloons and zoo animals?

Surprise!


"Happy Birthday" to me! :)


The balloons are a complete hit (with the big sisters, too)!



Little People Zoo!


We love you precious Brianne! So thankful you (and your sweet sisters) are ours!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Perspective ...


By Eddie Ogan

I'll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money.

By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.

When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1.We made $20 on pot holders. That month was one of the best of our lives.

Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we'd sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change.

We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before.That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn't care that we wouldn't have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering.

We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn't own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn't seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet.

But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20.

As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills.

Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn't talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn't have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night.

We had two knifes that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn't have a lot of things that other people had, but I'd never thought we were poor.

That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn't like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed—I didn't even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!

I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn't know. We'd never known we were poor. We didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn't talk on the way.

Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can't we all sacrifice to help these poor people?" We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.

Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn't expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, "You must have some rich people in this church."

Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that "little over $100."

We were the rich family in the church! Hadn't the missionary said so? From that day on I've never been poor again. I've always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!

Monday, October 17, 2011

We are ...

... creating ...

... dramatic ...

... hungry and eating ...


... resting and growing ...


... playing and learning ...



... laughing ...



... golfing ...





... embracing joy ...


... smiling ...



... loving (love this man!) ...



... driving and exploring ...



... happy!


Saturday, October 15, 2011

The Biker





We are so proud of the man of our house! Brian rode in his first MS150 Bike Ride in Louisiana as a part of the BP team. They rode 75 miles on Saturday and 75 miles again on Sunday. Crazy! He did so well and even beat his time by 45 minutes on Sunday! Woo-hoo! It was a beautiful weekend, thank you Lord! And, we have a new family activity to enjoy together! :)

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Hello Friends! :)







It's me, popping back in with a new resolve to start blogging. It's an activity that feeds my need for creativity, unlike other activities that take away from my life (like, oh Facebook, but that's another post). So, on the brink of my 47th birthday, I'm recommitting to the things in this life which are best and letting go of the things in this life that steal and/or may be good, but aren't in line with what is most important. I'll be short today and leave you with a couple photo's of our littlest from the summer. Such joy our girls are ... all three of them! Wow! God is good!

* Thanks to my sweet friend, Kimberli, who is an amazing photographer and an even more amazing friend! Check out her website here.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Hoopla 2011

Every year for 10 years now, my mother's side of the family has gotten together on Memorial Weekend to hang out and have LOTS of fun. This year was no different! It was filled with lots of food, games, double dutch, water wars, picking up bugs, cousin sleep-overs, swimming, laughing, eating, hugging, cooking, hoola-hoop, indoor s'mores and much, much, more. Here are some of the photographic highlights ... of course, the best part was my 93-year old Grannie still joining in all the craziness! Blessed!



Cousins cooking together ... Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls ... yum!



My sweet Momma and my sweet sister!



"Big Grannie" and Madison.




Entertaining the baby girl :)




Love these sweet faces!




Double Dutch


Works lots better with big people at the ropes.


My Momma and her Momma!


More chefs and more cinnamon rolls! Bring them on!


Me and my Paw-Paw!


The "Fabulous Five" ... these all belong to my sister and I.

Eating ...


Jump! Jump!


"Big Grannie" and my wooly cousin, Tre' and I. I am the oldest and he is the youngest of the first cousins. How did we get so big! :) And, speaking of big, love his big old beard!



Preparing for water wars!










Tether-ball!



Swinging!




Love this beautiful face! :) So thankful God gave her to us!



Me and my sweet Momma!


Hoola-hoop train! Whose the leader?


Swimming with my Aunt T!


All the "big girl" cousins swimming!


I LOVE this picture of my Grannie and my babiest laughing with each other ... it is pure joy!


And, love this beautiful face! :) So thankful God gave her to us!


My sister and I and our Grannie ... she's rocking!


I love this picture of my mom and her sister (my aunt) laughing together. That's what they do and I have heard many a story of their mischevious growing up. They love each other!