My sweet Amanda~

So Ummmm where do I start at? Ummmm, I know Amanda, I dont know if you all know the store that she worked up closed it doors after years of bussiness, some people got transfered to another store, unfornitanly Amanda was one that did not, she paid her dues to the Union so I took her down to the Union hall cause we had guestions we wanted answers too, and one of mine was " If she paid her dues why isnt it that shes not protected?" well come to find out baggers where not, not for this kind of stuff, now if they had a complaint she would of, " So basically it was all for management? Always for management, for the people that bagged and took out groceries in 102 + heat or the freezing cold, rain, and wind and brought in carts, while management stayed cool, warm and dry" I was IRRATE!! I told Amanda GOD didnt want to transfer for a reason and one day we'll know why, so times goes on she applys for unemployment and she got an idea " Why dont I just go back to school" so we checked into all these tech schools, she found one she liked and filled out loan and grants and got approved for quite a few and so wall la, she's in school for medical coding and billing and is top of her class right now and has seatled down in her social life, had a boyfriend for a few months but he had problems he needed to take care of in his life and she just couldnt handle that, so they broke up and at one time they stayed friends but he hurt her and she has pushed him away, I told her she needs to pray for him, have tried to explaine to her that people come into our lives because GOD has allowed to them cross our paths for a very special reason, so in we'll see in time what happens with that whole thing, she is done with her DUI classes but is still paying on her fines, something her Dad and I refuse to help her with!! In a short amount of time my baby girl has grown up and is acting like an adult, O she still goes out but nothing like before, after all she has no extra funds for that...so our relationship is getting so much better and I have to say I love it, love having her home, love having someone to talk too when Larry is at work, love hearing her laugh I'm just loving her!!!

Just thinking back...

So this morning I got to thinking how much I miss blogging, I think face book has taken over, maybe because its so much easier to chit down a quick little something than to dig deep into the soul and write, but I confess I have fallen to the face book world too, I have so much exciting things that will be taken place in my life, No I am not going to be grandma....but things that will be happening with my children, you know the ones that I have blogged about before, the ones that make me want to pull my hair out and scream at the top of my lungs, yes them, Amanda & Johnanthon....they both are finally excelling in adult the world and what a wonderful feeling that is, and my best friend, Mom, that some times I have to be the adult with her world is about to take a train ride that's going to derail, my step dad has the early signs of Alzheimer's, a sad, sad thing to see happen to a man who use to golf 3 times a week and bowl once a week is now not doing much of nothing any more....so yea I have so much to write about and blogging is like a journal to me, I have now found an awesome church that I go to as much as I can, I go with a dear friend of mine who fell back into the world but managed to find GOD and its the neatest thing ever to be with her in a place she loves, so yip lots to talk about and I want to with all of you, my blog family~

O my

O my goodness!! It has been so long since I have been on here & I am sorry, with facebook I have neglected this blog and I have noticed no one has even read my last post which is 5 months old, so why should I...I will post this and sees who really comes by. I still love you all

2 years ago today he went to go live in HIS mansion....

This very handsome man that I had the very special honors to call my brother, my BEST friend, my buddy, my mentor, Joe Joe, Joey left this world 2 years ago today, and there isnt a day or night that does not go by that I dont tell him I love him & miss him...I can now look at this picture and talk him about him with out crying, there are time's I do. Our Mom still has not gone out to his final resting place and maybe might not ever, she said he's not there, it's just a shell of his body and I have to say I understand that, but for me I so enjoy going out to his final resting place it's " MY " alone time with him, all my life I had this handsome man in my life, he was the one man who never walked out of life at sometime!! I sit here and think of some of the stuff we did to our mom and smile, some of the things we said to her and giggle, remember some of the things we did to mom before she went into surgery for heart surgery while mom was high on meds to relax her and laugh it's those kind of memories that I will cherish the rest of my life, here's an example of one thing HE put me up to and denied when Mom and Bill came home from a 2 week cruz in Europe...Him and I where talking and I told him how much I missed mom...he ( with out much encouraging ) told me to call their home phone and leave a conversation on it as if I was talking to her, so I did!! and when the answering machine hung me up I called it back and said " Why did you hang up on me Mom I wasnt done talking" and continued to talk, well when they came home my step dad played the answering machine and heard my one sided conversation and told our mom " I think Annette might be doing drugs " when I told Joey this he laughed so hard, and the one time he told me to put fluorescent sticky notes all over their slider when they where gone for a week saying random stuff, I had to call him and ask things to write cause I ran out of things to write, I wrote things like the temperature out side was....the color of flowers, what ever I could think of, their slider was covered in fluorescent colored sticky notes...and he denied having anything to do with any of this!!!



I miss him so much but I no for a fact one day I will see him again....



I love you Joey~








My brother drove one of these, in fact this

is what my brother just got doing the

the night he left....

They are all HIS .....

Yes, I am playing with my blog design AGAIN !! I get bored so easy any more...hahaha.

Well my John is back at Fort Benning and has his good days and not so good days, I'm so afraid he's going to get bored and just drop out, he's not in a company yet due to him getting physical therapy for those stress fractures, I've told him time and time again to try and stick that out, but he's got to stay busy, they do have him in a group of late starters, but at one time they had him with the " quieter's " and he HATED that, he told they " Mooom, they are just d@mn depressing " I told him " Son, you would be too if you had to stay there for 3 1/2 months and do nothing but crap stuff and get no privileges at all." these are boys & girls who in the very get go realized this Army stuff just wasnt for them or they just couldnt handle the boot camp part, military isnt for everyone I told him, still praying for my baby, I will ALWAYS & continue to pray for him....

Amanda has been spending a little more time with me and I have to say it's been nice having someone to watch t.v. with even if it is her shows and to have someone to eat dinner with, eating with John's pup at my side just isnt cutting it....Sunday in church Pastor said " If there is something in your life you have been trying to take care of and just cant handle it any more, come down and give it ALL, all of it to the LORD, so there I went, with tears just rolling down my face, make up smearing, nose running, I mean the works and I gave it every bit back to him for HIS help and I felt so much better, I thought I had given her back to JESUS but I guess some of me still kept her in MY arms, so with my eyes closed I laid her in HIS lap with HIS arms embracing her, she now is HIS.....

John, Amanda, & me

By golly George it's been a long time since I have posted, so much has happened since the last post, for starters..my John is home but will go fly back to boot camp Oct. 3 to finish, he came home cause he had stress fractures in both calves and usually they dont let them come home in his company, they usually are made to stay there or quit, I talked to John one night on the phone for a long time and he just wanted to give up, he was fed up, disappointed, in pain, the enemy had him right where he wanted him, I tried and tried and tried to give him words of encouragement and it just wanst working, the enemy had him good, I told him " Son, go talk to your Sr. Srgt, they all know whats going on and they're watching you too see how long it's gonna take you to buckle, just give your best shot honey" that night I laid in his bed and prayed that his Srgt. would have a merciful heart and see my Johns heart and desire, I told my heavenly father, " Father, I give my son back to you, he's all your's, from every hair strand in his beautiful head to the last toe nail on his strong feet, he's your's" the next day I got a phone call from my son, on his Srgt. phone telling me he's coming home and only for 3 weeks, and that he's going back and will get to go back where he left off at,PRAISE THE LORD!!!! he doesnt get to graduate with his new friends he made but they are letting come back, which is unusual, LORD heard my prayers, I'm still praying for his calves which have gotten so much better, no more pain, no more iburphoen being taken, no more swelling, but I do know LORD is still healing him!!!!! So graduation will be at later date, I'm thinking the middle of Nov. or the very latest the middle of Dec.

Now for Amanda, O this daughter of mine.....she got herself in LOTS of trouble, I thought I would never repeat this but here it goes, she got herself a DUI back in July, she kept from us for 3 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well mom found out and I didnt yell, didnt threaten, didnt throw up against the wall, I was very calm when I told her I found out, see the enemy wanted me to do all those things then some, I wanted to but couldnt, I could feel JESUS had control of my emotions, well she's looking at some HUGE fines, community service, she picked that instead of doing 5 days in jail, classes for 4 months that she HAS to pay for for, she's on her own on this one, I did threaten Larry and told him if he helped his little DUI princess out that would be the straw the breaks the camels back, she has to learn something on her own, I prayed for LORD to have his way with her and her partying, I told him " LORD, do what ever you need to do with her, no matter what it is you put her through, I know she will be OK cause you've allowed her to be there and I know you would never allow her to be hurt, so AGAIN I gave her back to her heavenly father, 100 % of her.....so there you have it....

Me: Awww me...I have loss 20 lbs since my gall bladder surgery, have to cause of this nasty liver of mine, went down 2 pants sizes...yep I am happy and proud of my self, been going to church every Sunday I have off and loving it, my grown babies are home, loss weight, mom is doing great, John's pup is getting under control and GOD loves me, life is good, the enemy is trying with all his might to tear me down but I will NOT buckle......

Just a few minutes before going to church....

I have a few minutes before going to church and thought I'd post a little something....Got a letter from my John and after graduation he will be stationed in New York at Fort Drum for more learning, out of 210 boys the drill Sargent told him he's their best shooter and they are now doing qualifications for their weapons, I am getting very excited about going to his graduation in October and seeing him and hugging him, I was watching a video on a face book page they have and the boys where jumping from what they call the " Eagles Nest " it's a tower about 7 stories high and some of these boys where scared out of their minds, they are harnessed in, they had to scale down and one of the drill Sargent told a boy this " The enemy has no fear and so we should not have fear" that has stuck in my mind, when I first heard that I thought " The devil is our enemy so there for we should not fear him" like the soldiers in training, their drill Sargent's are their protector right now, like GOD is ours, they trust their drill Sargent's and we should trust " our drill Sargent JESUS" like the drill Sargent's in the boot camp they are not gonna let these boys get hurt, they are making our future, just like GOD, he's not gonna let us get hurt for we are the future, does any of this make sense?






My mom and step dad are not gonna be able to make it to Johns graduation, which is a good thing I'm thinking, mom would have a terrible time there breathing and the heat, so it's just gonna be the 3 of us, a nice memorable family vacation, havent done that in years, seems like once the kids got older they didnt want to go any where with us, " Too boring " .....






Please keep Oklahoma and the other states that are much need of rain in your prayers, my cousins in Oklahoma that have pig farms, have had to have their grain shipped in from other places, no rain to water their crops, a huge expense on them.






I will leave you a couple of pictures of my John I found, keep these future soldiers in your prayers, I've been asking GOD to keep them cool and to carry them when they feel they cant go on any more, and to have the angels gently flap their wings with a cool breeze on them on these hot days there, the other night on the news the heat where Fort Benning is was 101, thats pretty dang hot....

John is the one in the middle writting, this a bible study they have for the boys....