updates all around!

I’ve been holding in a lot of thoughts over the last few months, but I have not blogged about them for 2 reasons.

1) I have not had time to blog…seriously…life if crazy right now. And if I am at home, I am so tired or have so many chores to catch up on, that there is no time for fun.

2) This is the tricky reason…it’s hard being a pastor’s wife because you can’t rant and rave when someone wrongs you. Most of the time you can’t call someone out, or address the issue, or even present the facts. You often have to bite your tongue, turn the other cheek, and smile while you are doing it.

Up until this point, I have avoided blogging about these types of situations. Nothing has really changed on my end, except for the fact I realize that there are other people, in the ministry, who are going through the same sort of stuff that Josh and I do. So, from now on, whenever I can, I will blog about the challenges we face. I will just change the names of the perps, and be vague when needed.

Hopefully I will have some time this weekend to catch up on some journaling/blogging. We are taking all of the pastors’ kids to a PK retreat in Maypearl. this will be my 1st experience at the campgrounds, so I am not sure what to expect. Owen is coming with us and so this will certainly be an interesting experience.

On another note, Bob & Kathy bought a townhome in McKinney/Frisco. They are so excited about their new place, and they are moving in October. I am happy they will have their own home up here, but I am bummed that it’s not as close as they currently are. The new house isn’t too far from my office, but it’s about 45 minutes from our house.

Last but not least, I have pictures to post of my newest photography subject, Abby Watson. You need to check out abbeythephotographer.com to see her pictures! Enjoy!

4 babies in 16 days

A while back I announced that several of our close friends were expecting babies. Little did I know what the month of August would have in store for me…in 16 days we welcomed 4 new babies. I’d like to introduce them to you now. Here they are in order…

Eric Lee Rinas was born on August 11th to our friends Craig and Tiffany. He weighed about 7lbs plus pounds and he looks a lot like his daddy.

Madisyn Jade Karkoski arrived early via emergency c-section. She is my newest niece born to Stephanie Mings. She weighed in at about 5lbs and was able to go home with her mommy about 4 days after she was born. She also looks like her daddy.

Next we have Hannah Elisabeth Chapell, who arrived 6 weeks early on August 18th. She was healthy at 5lbs 11 oz, but was kept at the hospital about a week to gain some weight before going home. Her proud parents, Josh and Megan Chapell are so happy to have her home now.

And last, but certainly not least…we welcomed little Abigail (Abby) Emory Watson on August 27th. Her mom labored for 34.5 hours and was certainly happy when Abby arrived weighing in at 8lbs 11oz. Lindsey and Stephen Watson now have a beautiful baby girl who appears to look like her mommy.

I just did a newborn shoot with baby Abby, and will be shooting Eric soon as well. Stay turned for  professional shots of these little bundles of joy.

Special or Average?

Click on the link below to watch Owen on you tube.

Owen on YouTube

We are constantly being told to give Owen drum lessons, or a drum set, and to video it and post to you tube. Owen is drumming pretty much non stop. He’ll use straws, tooth picks, chop sticks, pens, and even toy cars to drum with. If he has nothing, then he will drum pretending to hold drum sticks. I will say that it’s not the random banging that I would expect from most 2 year olds. He does have rhythm, and he drums to the beat when a song is being played. He even adds in a tap on the symbol every 3rd beat. There is a talent there, but I am not sure to what degree.

To me, it seems ridiculous to get lessons of any sort for a 2 year old. His ability to understand complex music instruction could not be worth $110 a month. On the other hand, drummers have stopped to talk to us at restaurants and in the grocery store just to tell us that there is a legitimate talent there, and the are shocked when we tell them that he is two. It’s hard to know if there is really something there or not. I don’t want to ignore a special talent, and I don’t want to jump to child prodigy quite yet either.

It’s hard to know what to do. Part of me thinks that if it was an interest in someing like piano or math, that I would be more willing to seek early instruction for him. Know what I mean? I’m at a loss as to what to do.

a need for prayer

This is not going to be a fun, up beat post to read. It is going to be a glimpse of reality.As I have mentioned before, my mom onset with bipolar disorder when she was about 31. I was about 7. For the last 20 something years my mom, dad, and I have been battling the ugliness of this disease. It wreaked havoc on my family while I was living at home, and about 8 years ago life got a tiny bit easier. There were still bad days, weeks, and months, but not as many as before. Her doctors had somewhat stabilized her. It seemed like the extreme cases of suicidal bouts and rage filled conversations had finally passed… until last weekend.

Here is the story:

The doctor in Temple had her stabilized with almost no medication (only treating her thyroid and sleep disorder issues). When she moved here, she was still working with her doc in Temple. After a while, that started getting complicated due to the distance. So she found a doc up here named Todd Clements. She’s been seeing him for only about 3 weeks when he sent her manic with an extreme overdose of medicine. For those of you who don’t know what it means to be “manic” just think of Robin Williams. It’s an ugly combination of high energy, bad judgment,  paranoia, agitation,and the mouth to back it up.

Even if a healthy person was given the medication that she was given, they would react the same way. When we notified her doc in Temple of what medications the new doc had put her on, he told her to stop taking everything that the new doctor, Todd Clements, prescribed; and to hire a lawyer. Walgreens also made a mistake and did not catch the fact that the new doctor had put her on the same medication under two names (one generic name and one brand name). That is what caused all of this. Then there was a 3rd medication which is known to cause bad reactions (even deadly reactions) when taken with the medication that was over-prescribed.

For the past 6 days my mom has been verbally attacking everyone she comes in contact with, and even a few via facebook. She is suicidal, and making threats to kill herself and blame me. “…happy mother’s day, this is your legacy.” she tags on. As you can imagine, this is very hard for me, my dad, and my family. We are trying so hard to protect her from this illness and she is taking all of her frustration out on us. I am at a loss as to what to do. I am asking for prayer right now. I will be specific in my requests so you can be specific in your prayers.

1) Pray that this manic swing will pass immediately, and without harm to my mother.

2) Pray that the people she is hurting will be able to forgive and forget when she is back to herself again.

3) Pray that Dr Todd Clements will not continue to make mistakes like this.

Part of the tragedy of this illness is that people are not capable of separating my mom’s true nature, from her in a sick state of mind. It’s difficult to forget hurtful things like this, and most people would never forgive her. It’s sad because if she had cancer, and was on radiation that caused her to throw up on someone’s carpet, they probably wouldn’t hold it against her. But when someone is sick with a disorder like this, and a medication causes someone to act out and say something destructive, the baby often gets thrown out with the bath water. Unfortunately that makes my mom a victim too. It’s a lot easier for me and my dad to get over stuff like this because we see the ups and downs caused by the illness and the medication, and we are around my mom enough to know her true sweet nurturing nature.

Thanks for your prayers, we need them more than ever.

Should we be worried?

Owen is staying with a family who has a 4 year old little girl on Mondays and Wednesday. Holly sent me this picture today while I was at work. She said Owen and her daughter came downstairs today all dressed up. She said he was so proud of the way he looked. What do you think?

Now we are not actually worried. If he was 8, and wearing this outfit, THEN we would be worried. For now, it’s just funny.

Owen’s 1st Love…

So yesterday I got a report that the teachers at mother’s day out were taking pictures of Owen and his little girlfriend. Anabelle and Owen seem to have taken a special interest in each other recently. Yesterday they were apparently hugging a lot and even snuck in a kiss. The teachers couldn’t resist snapping some pictures of them. This is the only picture that has been passed along to me so far. It was “yellow day” at MDO thus the matching yellow…

Vacationing with Dolphins

It was a fun trip, with a lot of unexpected ups and downs. If you want all of the details, just ask, and I’ll tell you the story in person. It really was an unbelievable weekend.

Here are some pictures of us swimming with the dolphins. The pictures from my underwater camera are being developed and I will post them tomorrow or so…

not quite sure

I’m not sure what to blog about these days. The things that are on my mind are not the types of things you write about in a blog. It’s either too personal to someone else, or stuff that is not yet common knowledge, or stuff that’s just not something to share on the web… so with that said…what do I blog about?

I guess I could blog about the things I am thankful for.

1) Josh and Owen

2) Loving parents

3) God provides

4) Good friends

5) Overall Health for my family

6) Hope

Owen

Owen is growing so fast. When I see pictures of him, I realize how big he really is. I thought I would post some pictures from last week. So, here are recent images of Owen at age 2 1/2

figures…

Well, my mom had a set back yesterday, and she is not well enough to go on our mini-vacation this weekend. I am bummed beyond belief. I needed this so bad. To top things off, I’ve got to deal with the hassle of tring to reschedule the whole thing…not what I needed. Sometimes I wish I could just snap my fingers and make all stress go away. I am so tired.