This is Hard to Write...

So I've decided it's time to blog about this... Some of my friends and family already know that we have been taking Hailey to a phsycologist since the end of January. I've been to about 4 sessions and Hailey went to the big evaluation/testing. Well this past Thursday we got the official diagnosis. At first the Dr. was leaning towards Asberger's Syndrome (medium level Autism), but she decided to change that and now Hailey has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified) = Mild Autism. She also diagnosed her with ADHD...which I really saw coming since Darren has that too. But the major thing that causes Hailey's outbursts and need for routine and noise aversion is the PDD. She has many other quirks but that would make this post really long :-) She did however test very well on her motor skills and grade level and her IQ was in the 81% (high average), her audible IQ (anything she took in by listening) was in the 91% (high superior) so I'm very hopeful that because she is so smart.....which we've always known that....she will be able to learn overtime better coping skills and ways to feel more comfortable in her surroundings. I'm happy to know that we have a reason for the behavior and it's not just that I don't know how to handle her, but I'm sad that for the past four years I've been trying so hard to discipline her and make her do things that she was maybe not ready for and I thought she was just trying to be manipulative or hardheaded. When really I just didn't understand her....I hope she doesn't remember what we've been through up to this point, because I'd like to forget a lot of it :-) Please pray that her doctor's will help lead us down the right path to help her. She starts "real" pre-K next year and I'm already starting to get anxious....Thanks for listening....

My Sweet Baby Girl!!

Field Trip!

Hailey's class went on an awesome field trip to The Rock Ranch this past Wednesday! She rode the bus for the 1 hour trip, I drove and met her there.
First stop...the jolly jump!We didn't think the kids were going to get off of this...it was so cool and tons of fun!It was a beautiful day to be out on this farm...it is a 1250 acre working cattle farm, owned by S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A. After we got out all our jumping beans we heading over to Joe the compost guy. He taught the kids all about the importance of worms! And then the best part was touching them :-)Hailey did so good listening at all the little stations...Here we learned all about seeds.They planted a green bean seed!Next was this 80+ year old Pecan tree...they learned all about what trees give us and how to tell how old they are. Hailey had fun sitting on the little tree stumps!See how she's holding her other eye closed?!? So funny :-) Then we went to Farmland...this is what the kids were really waiting for...the animals!
First we saw a big pig.Then this cute little pony...Hailey got to pet it!
This donkey was named Lucy. We learned that donkeys can hear 5 miles away and have the marking of a cross down their back! You can see the side of it in this picture running down her shoulder, the rest of it runs down her back. Then we got to feed the goats! They were super friendly!!These babies had just been born that morning!! So cute! Another cute pair...there are possums, their mom had been hit by a car the day before and the ranch rescued them from her pouch along with four other babies. Then we got to ride on this HUGE tractor ride!! It took us all over the ranch.
This is Mr. Tom, our tractor driver! Here's the cows! We even had to stop to let a few pass! It was lots of fun!! We will definatly go back!!

The Rock Ranch

S.W.A.T.

Some of you know that Darren is on the SWAT team. Well yesterday we had a big event and SWAT got acctivated! Some guy was getting a notice for a code violation (he had some run down cars in his yard and had been given notices before) Well he SHOT the code officer, who is a police officer!! Hello...how stupid?? Then he of course baricaded himself in his house for 10 hours or so and SWAT, GBI, Sherrif Dept., and a Bomb Squad all came in. I said they should have just flash bomed the house and gotten it over with in like 30 minutes (I mean he shot a cop!) but I'm not in charge. Anyway....it is all over now and no one else got hurt. The code officer is in stable condition but I believe he will have to have surgery. I attached link to a good news video. You can see the SWAT team in most of the shots. They are the guys wearing the helments and green vests. I'll have to ask Darren where he is...they all look the same to me :-) CLICK HERE! and then click on "watch video"

Thursday's Thoughts

My week has been filled with studying every night for the first time in a LONG time. It has been great! I really look forward to the quiet time, alone. I decided to pick a book of the New Testament and read through it. (I did not read through in one week!) It will probably take me a while :-) I chose Luke. No particular reason, just wanted to start there.

Luke 6:20-23 "Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God,

Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh.

Blessed are you when men hate you. And when they exclude you. And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man's sake.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets."

The Beatitudes are a beautiful sermon that Jesus gave early in His ministry. In these verses Jesus reveals an example of how Christians are to live their lives to receive spiritual prosperity. These standards are the exact opposite of what the world believes.

Luke 6:24-26 "But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation.

Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets."

In the secular world who would believe that the poor, hungry, sad, and hated are going to end up having a blessed life?!? That just sounds ridiculous... Yet Jesus says that we are to be careful if we don't live a humble life. We may feel blessed in a worldly manner but so did the FALSE prophets. Jesus says that if we live as he wants us too, as servants with humble and right hearts we will not only be blessed in Heaven but also here on earth. He wants nonbelievers to actually see our blessings as a way to be drawn to Christianity. Not only will He take care of you spiritually, but also materially. So when things are hard just remember that we are hardly enduring what the early Christians went through and our ultimate reward is in Heaven. As long as we look to God for everything he will bless us and get us through whatever trials we face. In times of sorrow, hunger, lack of funds.... He always takes care of us in the end. We just might have to hit some rough patches to get there.

P.S. I made a little header for my Thursday's Thoughts...Any of you are welcome to use it too. Just right click on it and save in your documents and load it like a regular picture.

New Shutters!

Darren got frisky today and decided to put up our shutters! We've had them in their boxes for about three weeks :-) I was really excited so I dropped everything and we went outside to help. Here is an "in process picture"

Here was our first window....

And then the other two...I really like how it turned out! And here is a quick picture of Darren's new car! Sarah got some good one's last night of all our kids playing in the back seat of it!! It is really cool inside with all the computer stuff and video...You may think that's nothing, but for us that is a HUGE upgrade...I mean we just got tazers last summer :-)
I went to our Secret Pal reveal tonight. My secret pal was Crystal :-) (Cole's mommy) She was a great S.P. and I never caught on. We had lots of fun revealing ourselves to each other and we had quite a few new ladies join. There was of course lots of good food and then we drew new names for our next 6 month round. Mine's going to be fun :-)

I just want to let everyone know that Aric had a great doctor's apt. and he will have surgery on May 8th. Please visit there blog to get all the details (there are a lot!) and keep them and their doctor in your prayers!

We've gone to the birds....

Yes...it's true. We've offically gone to the birds and we're loving it! Jack is the proud owner of a baby bird!! His bird house in the backyard has been occupied by a nest for a while but a few days ago we realized there is a tiny baby in there. So cute!! He named him Lighting McQueen! We tried to get a good picture of the mommy bird but she kept flying back and forth so much bring little bugs to feed it. This was the best I got...just her back end while feeding...
Here's Miss Priss. She said it was too sunny while we were watching the birdy so she ran in the house and this is what she came out looking like :-}
My Memaw turned 85 this past Sunday and since we were out of town we celebrated a little later. I made her this strawberry cake that she loves. (I made it once before and she talks about it all the time) I decided to wait and make it for her birthday so it would be special.
Here is Hailey with Memaw. She is my dad's mom (she lives with them). Hailey gave her those marigolds, she planted them at preschool. Jack didn't want to get in the picture...he was to focused on getting a piece of "berry cupcake"!! Oh yeah...Darren got a new police car!! It is so cool! I can't wait to take pictures of it! I'll try to get some this week. He got a new one a couple of months ago (an old supervisors car) and we were thrilled with that one compared to his old one, but yesterday they gave him a brand spankin' new one!! It's a beauty!!

Hope everyone has a good rest of the week!

We found 3 catapillers on our mailbox!!

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Update....

I posted a few days ago about our friends Aric & Amber..... (see post) . Aric had his biopsy Tuesday and they found out today that it is defiantly Cancer. His next apt. has been moved up to this Monday. I thought I was prepared for this result, but now that it is absolutely positive...I'm just sick over it....so I can't imagine what he and his family are going through. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.

Romans 5:3-5

"We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Thursdays Thoughts

So this week I kept thinking about what I wanted to study...and I kept having a hard time coming up with a particular topic. It has been a long time since I was studying on a regular basis so I'd come up with one and not know how to start. Then think no I'll do something else but not know where to begin. Then it hit me.... I need to ask God for help to guide me in my new endeavor in studying the Bible more. It takes time and help from Him to get you in the right mindset. That's what I think was wrong...I wasn't in the right mind frame. I looked up HELP in the concordance and this was the first verse I found.

John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."

I remembered a book that was given to me for my high school graduation from the church back in 2000. I had been studying it while I was pregnant with Hailey but as most things happen, once the kids came along Bible study got put on the back burner. It is called Halley's Bible Handbook. I really enjoyed studying it so I'm looking forward to using it again to assist me and getting farther along in it this time :-)

Part of the first chapter is called the Habit of Bible Reading. I reread the chapter and it meant so much more this time. Again....asking for help...you receive it. I learned that individual, direct contact with God's Word is the principal means of Christian growth. Me going to church 3x a week is not direct contact with his Word. I barely hear the sermon! How am I growing as a Christian then? I may be an "active" Christian and participate in many things with our congregation, I have many wonderful Christian relationships, and yes that does help me grow. But that is not going to be the MAIN way I grow. I have to open the BOOK!! I have to READ it myself, not just tell the kids Bible stories either :-) One part of the chapter hit me hard. It said..."if we love someone we love to read about them (and I thought yes...I love reading about all my friends that I love on their blogs...) If only we could bring ourselves to think of our Bible reading as an act of devotion to Christ, we might be inclined to treat the matter less lightly."

A lot of Christian say they don't study because the Bible is too hard to understand, but really the main teachings of the Bible are so unmistakable and simple that a child can understand them. We just have to accept the Bible as it is. It's simplicity will stand the test of time. We also have to read with an open mind. We can't read too far into the passages and ideas that are not there. We need to read the Bible thoughtfully. We need to watch ourselves and make sure our thoughts don't wander and our reading doesn't become meaningless. This is probably the hardest thing for me. I tend to have 20 things going through my head at one time and one sentence can get me thinking about something totally different. I really have to focus and get in a quite place. I'm also going to pray before and after each study to ask for HELP to clear my mind of unnecessary clutter! We need to set aside a certain time each day to read. Otherwise we are likely to neglect or forget to read the Bible. I think my time will be at night once the kids go to bed. It's very quite since Darren is at work and I think I'll be able to have the most time to devote to my study.

I also found some other scriptures on asking for HELP....

Ephesians 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation n the knowledge of Him,

Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law.

Luke 11:13 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

Weekend Getaway...

First of all...before I post about our fun weekend roadtrip I need to ask prayers for my Aunt Jackie. She's my dad's #2 older sister :-) She had a heartattack Saturday evening and had to have a stint put in. She is doing pretty good right now...out of ICU and not much damage was done to her heart. She is going to start on a new medication (I believe it's Plavix) and she told us that once you start it you can not miss a dose or it can be fatal....I guess you body starts relying on it to help clear the arteries....I'm not really sure but that sounds kind of scary in itself. She also needs to quit smoking and that is going to be hard and hopefully won't cause her a ton of stress :-) Just add her to your prayer list for a while...Thanks in advance.

Okay....on to our weekend getaway!! This was Darren's weekend off so we decided to take a road trip up to Clayton, GA where my grandparents live in the mountains. It was a fun four hour road trip with the kids. Our DVD player broke on the way...don't know what is up with that!! That made for lots of crying and fussing and not understanding why we couldn't watch all the movies we brought with us!!! But once we all got over it things got better :-0 I decided to try out the slide show thing for a change....enjoy...there is even music so turn on your speakers!! The song is really fitting... If you click on the slide show you can view the pictures individually and with captions.

A big THANK YOU to my grandparents for letting us come see you guys. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to come back. The kids are already asking when is the next time?!?!

Prayer Request!

I need to ask prayers for some of my very best friends. Aric and Amber have a blog and you can visit it to get more info, but basically Aric just found out from the doctor today that the lump in his thyroid is more than likely cancer and they will need to remove that side and possibly the other side too depending on biopsy results. This is very devisating news and Amber is early in her third pregnancy so added stress is not needed. Please keep them in your prayers.

We love you guys!! Everybody here is praying really hard!

Toy Giveaway @ 5 Min. for Mom!

There is a two week toy giveaway at 5 minutes for mom! Click the button on my sidebar to enter. They are giving away multiple toys each day!! Check it out!!

You Are Dr. Pepper

You're very unique and funky, yet you still have a bit of traditionalism to you. People who like you think they have great taste... and they usually do. Your best soda match: Root Beer Stay away from: 7 Up

What Kind of Soda Are You?

You Are Apple Pie

You're the perfect combo of comforting and traditional. You prefer things the way you've always known them. You'll admit that you're old fashioned, and you don't see anything wrong with that. Your tastes and preferences are classic. And classic never goes out of style. Those who like you crave security. People can rely on you to be true to yourself - and true to them. You're loyal, trustworthy, and comfortable in your own skin. And because of these qualities, you've definitely earned a lot of respect.

What Kind of Pie Are You?

I was tagged by Tabby...who happend to have the same answers as me :-) I tag Shannon, Grandma, & Vader's Mom !! I do love Dr. Pepper and Apple Pie and I would even have them at the same time :-) Although...Diet Dr. Pepper is what I try to drink more often!

All Aboard!!

This weekend was a lot of fun! Grandma-Great and Grandaddy-Great came down from north GA to see us and we all went on a train ride! Our church reserves a car on the train and we go as a group. This was our second year (me and the kids first!) It is an all day event so we had to get up bright and early Saturday morning and be ready to drive to Cordele (1hr.) at 7am :-D If you live in Middle GA the SAM Shortline is a great thing to do with the family!! They even have Thomas the Train come every October! We went last year and had a blast!! Here's Hailey, Jack and Grandaddy-Great right after we arrived! "Where's the train?" I loved all the buildings...so southern and old...

We got a quick picture with "Sam" the engineer before we boarded. (As you can see, we're missing Daddy...he had to work this weekend)
"All Aboard!" We got to get on first since we were the "special group" That's the conductor that Hailey is walking with...there's a special story there...I'll tell more later :-) Jack was driving his train as everyone got seated. The boys sat together. Papa, Jack and Grandaddy-Great. And the girls sat on the other side. Me and Grandma-Great!
Grandma (my mom) and Hailey-B. I made goody bags for the kids to keep them busy. I filled it with things they picked out at WalMart the day before. It held them over pretty good.

Tom and Auntie-Joyce came and so did Sarah and Larry (with the boys) I didn't get any pictures of them :-(


So here you can see the boys side! The conductor is sitting with them. He is my Grandma's 1st cousin!! His name is Ernest. He has been volunteering on the train for about 5 years. We saw him when we rode on Thomas too. It was so much fun to have him there. We weren't sure if he'd be working that day or not so it was a big surprise when we saw him get off the train!!This is Lake Blackshear it is an 8,000-acre lake in the GA Veteran's Memorial State Park. The picture wasn't that great because 1. the train was moving and 2. it rained the whole day ;-)Here is a map of our trip. We started at the right in Cordele and went all the way to Archery and back. It was a 9hr. trip!! Our first official stop was in Americus. We got to get off for about and hour and 1/2. You could ride a little bus downtown and see the sights and eat lunch. We however had an insider! Our conductor called his wife and my Grandma's other cousin and her husband and they met us and we all went to lunch at a little hole in the wall restaurant! We knew all the main ones would be busy so this was nice! It was called Granny's Kitchen.
This was my plate!! I had fried chicken, green beans, cornbread casserole, and a biscuit!! YUMMY!! Talk about filling your tummy :-) And it was all home cookin'
This is my Grandma's other cousin Joyce.
Here she is with Ernest (he is Joyce's brother)

While we were waiting to get back on I took some pics of the train. Here are my little wet ducks!! They had so much fun playing in the rain :-D Now this lady was our car hostess. Her name was Ms. Anne and she was a riot!! She was there to help you with whatever you needed and remind you of all the safety things. The train had a little gift shop and food court. It was really nice. And when they would pop fresh popcorn is was so hard to resist!! Not sure where this was but I thought the trees looked cool out in the water like that.
We made it to Plains, GA next. I grew up going to Plains. We used to have our Gattis family reunion here every Mother's day weekend. My Grandma's Grandma was from here and had a big house where we would all come together. Now that house has been sold and we have our reunions all over the place...where ever someone wants to host one. Plains was a cute little town. It's the home of Jimmy Carter....another story there...that cousin Joyce that was in the picture above...her husband Julian is 1st cousins with Ms. Rosalyn Carter (the First Lady). I guess everybody is related to everybody down here :-) She was there that day eating lunch. I didn't get her picture but my Grandma did.
We stopped here and got a taste of the famous fried peanuts. They were very good. But the best thing was the peanut icecream!! I didn't think I would like it but it was delicious!! So worth the rain to get the icecream!!

We went "nuts" in Plains Georgia!!

Then we got back on the train and headed on down to Archery. That's where Jimmy Carter's boyhood home was. There is a big farm there too.

This is a picture of the house that I took from the train door. We didn't want to get off and walk around because it was raining so much and you couldn't go in the house at that time because Jimmy Carter was there giving a little speech of some sort!! He waved to us as he got back in his SUV with his secret service guy :-)

This is what we did on the way back :-) They turned down the lights and we took a little snooze! The kids cuddled with Grandma. It was a wonderful day even though we got wet. We slept so good that night :-D