Meet my new best friend Elrod!

We're BACK and we had a GREAT time! I had the best birthday! We stayed 3 nights in San Antonio at a Marriott suite resort. Our room (mini apartment) was amazing! We pricelined it and got a superb deal.. the rooms start at about $120 a night and we got it for $45/night. We spent all day Sunday at the Alamo, the River Walk and The Natural Bridge Wildlife drive-thru. Still need to upload and post those pics... the highlight of the trip for me occurred Monday morning on my 33rd birthday.... I got to hang out with Elrod, the Sea Lion. What a TREAT! Here are a few pics of me and my new best friend;). Oh AND... I'm planning for a career change... I'm working on holding my breath underwater so I'll be able to apply at SeaWorld for the 2010 season;).

We're off...

well, not just yet but soon... Cam and I are heading to San Antonio for a few days. The kids will be staying one night with his mom and two nights with mine... I'll miss them dearly, I'm already missing them and they're just in the next room in bed. BUT we're so looking forward to some time away. This is our first real vacation alone since our honeymoon. Please keep us in your prayers. We're praying for safety for us and the kids and some relaxation.

Happy Father's Day... Daddy!

The kids seem to think they've got the best daddy in the WORLD and I seem to agree;) We love you daddy and always have SO much fun with you! Thank you for letting us stay up really late last night and camp out. It will be a night we'll never forget! We all love you!

Once a Red Devil, always a Red Devil!

I REALLY miss my students at Jacksonville! Jacksonville High, home of the Red Devils, was my first teaching job. I'll never forget that interview.. my mom rode down there with me and she said, "maybe you'll get a different school;)" I said, "nope, this is where I'm suppose to BE!" I knew it immediately.
Today I had the privilege of attending Lamar's wedding. Lamar is definitely the student who has made the most impact on me as a teacher. He was at-risk. He was not motivated to succeed at all and I was DETERMINED to change him! He really was like a son to me. Even after he graduated, he called all the time to let me know how he was... and then we moved. He didn't have our new number and I didn't have his. I have wondered about him constantly over the past several years.... a few months ago he found my number! I wept our whole conversation. We've kept in touch often since. He called me on Mother's day... He called me this morning to tell me how nervous he was about the wedding... He helped me find a couple other students!! Tonight as we were eating at restaurant in J-ville... I cried and cried thinking about my students there and how I longed to be back! I miss them SO much. To them I will always be Ms. Glover, they know I got married but I'm still Ms. Glover. I'm sad that Jacksonville High doesn't have Ms. Glover... I know that sounds boastful but I literally poured myself into each of them and that's exactly what they needed. There may be someone like Ms. Glover, but I'm sad it's not me! I love the students I work with now but my draw to Jacksonville is the need! There is such a need for someone positive in their lives.
update** Lamar and Astra just called on the way to their honeymoon... thanking us for coming today to share their day! I wouldn't have missed it for the WORLD!

Welcome Sawyer..

I took some pictures today of our nephew Sawyer. He's such a cute baby and oh SO sweet!

Just the little things...

I just wanted to jot down a few little things about Piper Jane that we have fallen in love with.
Piper LOVES to eat! You have to bribe her away from the table with food... REALLY! She's such a good girl, except when she's eating... she turns into a monster of some sort..... she can be chewing on food and screaming for more all at the same time:).. it's hilarious and rather annoying but oh so sweet.
She's pretty trashy! She loves throwing things in the trash can. She doesn't discriminate... it could be mine, Cam's, the boys or even hers and she'll casually walk over to the big white thing, open the lid and chunk it in! She also LOVES to play with the recycle box. She'll take everything out and put it all back in, piece by piece.
She has very quickly learned how to shake her head NO. If someone like... mmm.. let's say, daddy.. tries to take her from mommy, she is ready with a good firm NO head shake. ;)
She must have monkey or hippo in order to sleep but if she's not ready for bed and she sees you bring monkey or hippo she begins to shake her head violently.. hehehehe... it's SO funny! She'll grab them and throw them on the ground. She gives up quickly BUT it is a sweet little protest!
She loves to be tickled.. she loves to dance! She LOVES to get dirty and eat mud on occasion. She is a little fish when it comes to the water.
Oh how we love her! As I rocked her and prayed over her tonight I prayed that the God of the Universe would see fit to open her eyes to who He is. That He would be glorified in her life. I thanked Him for placing her in our home for the time being!

Wild child...

Maybe I'm a little biased but I declare... Parker Isaac is a DOLL! Isn't he a cutie pie? Here are some pics from the park this morning. He had sweaty hair so I decided to make a mohawk;)... Andrew kept calling him a chicken. I also added a sweet picture of him and Andrew I took the other day. They are definitely BEST buds!

7 years ago today....

Happy Anniversary Cameron! It has been a wonderful 7 years filled with lots of adventure, mainly as parents:). I'm so thankful that you are my husband. I pray that God will continue to protect our marriage and that we will totally rely on Him for strength. I pray that He will give us wisdom as we raise our family. I love you!

Shirt inspired trip...

This morning as I was dressing Piper Jane... I thought now that shirt would be the PERFECT zoo shirt... so I got online to check out the weather and loaded the kids in the car for the ZOO! Yes, all by myself. We had a BLAST! The kids really enjoyed the Winged Wonders, a live bird show! The weather was perfect, the animals were all out and we only got lost ( in the zoo ) about 3 times;). What? ... Cameron usually navigates us!

Dirty feet...

Soooo, I saw a picture kind of like this somewhere and wanted to try to get a Wallace "feet" shot. Tonight I made the fam go out barefoot to the fence while I set the automatic timer... SOOOoooo... guess whose feet are dirty in the picture... yep, those would be mine! ;) I still like it, though. It's kind of true to life... momma's always working the hardest;)!

This is good...

Some friends of mine are going through some trials right now. The man was actually arrested during a sex sting at a local park. This didn't involve kids at all, just a weakness this man has been struggling with for a while. This is a good man and a good family. Here's part of a note she wrote on facebook letting everyone know how she was doing. If this doesn't encourage you that there are people who "get it" that their sole purpose is to honor and glorify Him, I don't know what will....

To me marriage is one of the most beautiful covenants that God created. Many of you are wondering why I would continually forgive and stay. God is not showing me how ugly B’s sin is…He is showing me the ugliness of my sin. Sin destroys and grieves the Holy Spirit, but it is also been conquered and forgiven. Christ satisfied the wrath of God for my sin. It is like the servant in the parable of the unforgiving servant found in Matthew 18:21-35. The servant that owed 10,000 talents was forgiven and released from his debt…that same servant had a fellow servant who owed him only 100 denarii. The forgiven servant went to the fellow servant and began choking him saying “pay what you owe.” The master found out and said “I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had on you? And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” Seventy times seven. I do not want be the unforgiving servant. God is showing me the lifetime of debt that I have been forgiven…to look at my husband...the one that I have been made one with…and choke him and saying “pay what you owe” would make me that servant. Many have said adultery is reason to get a divorce. Jesus said in Matthew 18:8 that is was because of the hardness of our hearts that Moses allowed divorce but from the beginning it was no so. That is not God’s intent for marriage. What God has joined together let no man put asunder! There is nothing that we can do to remove us from the work of Jesus Christ…we have been made one with Him. I want my marriage to glorify Christ! Please do not look at me and praise anything I am doing…all of this is a gift from God. Forgiveness, grace, mercy, truth, repentance…all are gifts from God.

B and I will be separated for awhile…it is not because I am mad at him and want him to suffer. It is the way that I can hold him to truth. And truth is that his sin will cause him to lose his family. He has to work at killing it and working through all the consequences…I cannot do it for him. I am his wife and will be for the rest of my life…I signed on for life B’s sin has not negated my responsibility as a wife…1 Peter 3:1 says wives be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives. Please continue to pray for him as God works in his heart. Please pray for me as I seek to obey God is this situation.

Let no one go there unwarned or unprayed for...

"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for." - Charles Spurgeon

This quote has been on my heart over the past week. What a powerful quote it is... I think God placed it on my heart to prepare me for yesterday. Yesterday was a normal day, the kids and I played outside for a couple of hours, we had lunch, we played with the neighbor dog, Piper played peek-a-boo, etc. While our "normal" day was happening, I was involved in a conversation via a facebook status. I knew before I commented I was getting myself into something, but knew I should comment. A little history behind the guy who wrote the status. He was a student at a school I taught at 7 years ago. I teach special ed, but this was NO special ed student. He was honors student. My classroom was by the library and one day he asked if he could come in to do some work/study. We had kind of developed a love/hate relationship (I loved him/he pretended to hate me;). He knew I was a christian and he was a proclaimed atheist. God gave me so many opportunities to really share with him and to be a "different" christian than he was use to. Well yesterday he posted a status update about the Westboro Bapt. Church guys protested the funeral of a service man in our area. This is the church that is protesting military funerals with hate speech, claiming to represent God. It's really sad, which is pretty much what I commented on his status update... it was embarrassing, sad and disrespectful. He commented back "Be proud of your Bible"... and it began. I was very careful to never argue, to never be rude or in your face but to explain, the best I could, my faith. My old student was never really disrespectful, I mean unless you consider calling me psychotic for claiming to have a relationship with an invisible god. But there were others who commented that were. Some of the comments were attacking and inappropriate, to those I did not reply. In the end, I only really replied to direct questions, sometimes I replied to them by "I don't know... there are things I don't understand, none of us do". At the end of the "debate" I left them with Sprugeon's quote from above. I told them, you can call me many things but the reason I've even discussed this with you is because I DO believe there is an eternity and it concerns me that you don't...
Did I accomplish anything? There are a couple of ways to look at it.. do these guys and whoever ends up reading those 75 comments on that status think differently? probably not.... was there anything profound that I said? probably not... Did I skirt my responsibility in this wartime (spiritual) that we live in? NO... Were seeds of doubt planted? I would bet so. Even though I was picked on, verbally attacked, did I get harmed really in anyway? No... just heartsick over the situation. Did this experience grow my faith? YES... Are we called to share Christ with others? ALWAYS!
I would encourage christians to be a "different" christian! Don't be SO judgmental! Don't slandar..... don't send out hate-mail about nonbelievers who happen to be in power... we are turning off so many people. Our duty is to glorify God... PERIOD! How are our judgmental attitudes doing that? It's NOT... it has to stop!

Picture Game :)

I was tagged by Nic to do the picture game. You open your pictures go to the first folder and the 10th picture and then tell about it.... Ahhhhhhh.... sweet little Andrew when he was just a baby. This picture always cracked me up because he was in the PLAYpen and was NOT having fun. I always called the TERRORpen because he did not appreciate going there;)
I can't believe how fast time flies. My little Andrew is going to be 6 in a few months. Hard to believe :(. I LOVE HIM!!


I tag Lanna, Amy, Shannon, Autumn and Jana... ;)
Side note: If you haven't visited Nic's blog, you should... she's always got great nuggets of truth that I SO need and appreciate!

What you've been waiting for... UdDaTeD!!!

Oooops, these videos are now set to public... for some reason my new mac sets everything to private when I upload;)
Okay, not really but they are cute videos;)
The first video is of the boys singing their nighttime routine. Every night while Cam brushes their teeth, they hum the scales up and down. Andrew has started closing his eyes and moving his hands, it's so sweet. When we asked him why he does this he said, "an angel came into his window and sang to him and that's how she sang".. hmm... okay...


Now for the 2nd video...
The other night Andrew was in the tub and decided to learn how to play the water whistles. It was so cute! He did a good job reading the music... I'm thinking he'll be a musician for sure;)


Finally... Sweet Piper Jane...
The last video is of Piper walking like Frankenstein and giggling;)... come on, you know you wanna watch it..

Branson Fun....

Here are some pics from our recent trip to Branson and Silver Dollar City (just now uploading them to the computer;). We stayed at the Welk Resort and Splashatorium... it was AWESOME! The kids loved it! There's a picture of Piper's ring. While we were at SDC a jewelry maker asked if he could make her a ring for free. It was so sweet. He also asked if he could pray for her while he made it. She loved the ring. She kept moving her hand around and looking at it. Of course, me being the paranoid mom took it off b/c it is of course a choking hazard;)