A good start to a bad day...

We start off on our road trip to meet my Mom and kiddos in Goldthwaite...we're all in a good mood...see, even Karter is smiling...


Isn't this a cute little house?

These flowers belong to this house...




Texas Pride...


The Monarch Butterflies were out...I guess it's either mating season or they're on the move!!!


Dead 'Dillo...
(Corbin said "that's a bug!!"...then a few seconds later "that's an alligator!"...bug, alligator, armadillo...take your pic...either way, it's looks like road kill to me...)


I got lots of practice taking pictures of tractors....








And even managed to see a few silos...


Here's a cool 'ole truck...




This little store in Rising Star let me practice with their plants and fruits...


















Wouldn't be west Texas without an oil rig...


Hay!!!
(my friend, Holly Weckwerth would get this one!)


Managed to see a few cows...they participated by pooping, swatting flies and even moo'ing on cue...


This is what I call "Peek-a-Boo Cow"


They were very curious...





White cow: "Hey, mooove out of the way...this is my only shot at being famous..."
Black cow: "Dude, you're so lame...can't you see it's all about me..."


Now he's turned in to "Peek-a-Boo-Through-My-Ear Cow"


This little tank caught my eye...


And when I got closer, I realized there was a little memorial to someone...


I just love windmills...even the big white ones they've put out in West Texas...there's something calming about

So, this was the 1st part of what I thought was going to be an uneventful trip to meet my Mom half way between Round Rock and Abilene so that I could get the boys from her... Shortly after passing Rising Star, my Mom calls and says "the car's broke down...we barely made it to the side of the road...the windows won't even roll down..." For those of you who don't know, my Mother has Muscular Dystrophy and while she is not in a wheelchair, she's definitely not able to chase kiddos on the side of a busy highway (they were on 183), it was very hot, there was no shade in sight, she had to keep the kiddos in the car so that they wouldn't run in the street (and you know how hot it can get inside a car--luckily the windows ended up rolling down after about 10 minutes), the sun was blazing through the windows blanketing one half of the car (so the 3 of them were huddled on the other half), my Dad wouldn't be able to get to them for about 2 hours and at the time I thought I was just about as far away...sooooo...two hours--no big deal, right???....maybe if you're by yourself...but imagine it with a 2 year old and 4 year old...who are crying the whole time b/c they're hot...and you're covered in sweat......... Well, there's hope to the story...a man stopped by to help my Mom, but couldn't help her get the car started so he tried to leave...unfortunately for him, the ground was still pretty wet and he was towing a trailer full of granite (white is VERY heavy stuff)...so he got stuck... In the meantime, my Mom called the police who dispatched a tow truck and I'd called Highland (our church) and they gave me the number to a church in Lampasas (which was close to where my Mom was...oh yeah...I forgot to mention that part of the story...she knew she'd passed Briggs, but had no idea how far out of Lampasas she was...could be one mile, could be twenty...) The church sent their janitor to pick up my mom... So the tow truck shows up 1st...and it gets stuck, too!!!! So they had to send another tow truck...and about the time that that truck shows up, the man from the church shows up...and he's so intrigued about the tow truck getting stuck that he's not even worried about my mom or the kids...according to my Mom, the hot wait in the sun would've been cut down by about 35-40 minutes if the guy from the church would've arrived, loaded them up, and headed back into town...but he didn't...so by the time I arrived in Lampasas at the (about 1.5 hours or so after the call--it should've taken 2...I won't say how fast I was driving but let's just say it's VERY ticketable), my Mom and kiddos still hadn't showed up!!! They did pull in a few minutes later... My Mom and the kiddos faces were beet red--no joke--I'd never seen anyone so red-faced...I felt bad for all three of them. We switched everything over to my van and eventually went home...it was such an exhausting day...I, myself, had been in the car since 930am (and it was almost 8pm when we got home)...I can definitely say that I am sooooooo glad we are through with that day!!!

Oh yeah, before I forget...I had to return my defective camera and got a Canon Rebel XT...and I LOVE IT!!! It is easy to use and takes great pictures!!! I can't wait to take crazy pictures of the boys doing wild things like flips on the trampoline or jumping on the beds, flying off of rocks--you name it, my kiddos are little acrobats (especially B)...so be watching the blog!!!
Candace

Little update...that's all...

One of my friends and mentors, Karen Rich, had sent me an email asking me how I'm doing and so I wrote her back a lengthy explanation about some things...and since I figured I worked so hard at doing that, I'd just copy & paste it here on the blog so that yall can see some of the latest on me...

Here it is (sorry if parts of it I'm speaking to Karen...just insert your name wherever it says "Karen" and it'll work itself out...I know, I know, I'm being lazy...but would you rather me not post at all??????)


kelly deployed almost 3 weeks ago...he'll be gone for 6 months. it hasn't been easy, in fact, i've gotten VERY sick again...i had to send the kiddos away so that we could prevent hospitalization again. the kids left on tues and weren't supposed to come home until sunday, but my mom just called and said brendan's been crying the whole time...he's REALLY had a VERY hard time with daddy being gone and i knew it would be hard to be away from mommy, too, but thought that maybe it'd be ok b/c he loves my parent so much. it's been so hard on us all. kelly, bless his heart, is feeling sooo incredibly guilty...not b/c i'm saying things to make him feel guilty, but b/c he's away from us during such a hard time. anywho, looks like i'm going to be picking the kiddos up tomorrow...my mom is coming back here which will not be fun...you know, she has md and has a very hard time doing pretty much everything....i feel for her....and for there's always the risk that she'll fall and hurt herself or the kids and i just am not able to pick her up b/c of my fibromyalgia...like i said, it's not been good and we still have a very tough road ahead of us. my mom is having a hard time dealing with my mental illness...she's trying to be supportive, but like kelly, is very frustrated--it's amazing how when you're as depressed and anxiety-filled as i am right now how skewed the world looks and seems...and you can't just say "don't believe that--it's satan's lies...or don't feel that way b/c it's not the truth..."...well, it's MY TRUTH as I SEE IT...i try to change my perception and awareness, but there's only so much that i'm able to do. we're trying new meds and in the meantime god and i are having some serious discussions...i HAVE to have some healing, otherwise the kiddos won't have a mother and kelly won't have a wife...you know, i'm getting a lot out right now...thanks, karen!!!...i may copy this and put it on my blog...i've told people if they want to know how i'm doing, check the blog...

the boys will both be in school full time starting here pretty quick and so that'll bring some relief...i'm planning on having brendan in woodson's pre-k program...but i don't find out until august 20th whether or not he got in...and school starts on the 28th!...nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh??? i have a back-up plan, though...until aisd starts, i'll be sending them both full-time to rainbow bible school...i just love their program so i figure it's win-win either way....i am a little nervous about changing schools for b since there's so many other changes with daddy being gone, but he LOVES to ride the school bus and takes a lot of joy and pride in it and if he goes to woodson, he gets to ride the school bus...plus, there will be changes regardless b/c he'll be getting a new teacher at rbs...

a few elders are coming over here tonight to annoint me with oil...i'm looking foward to it--to see how and if any healing comes and to see what doors the lord opens for me that maybe i was so blinded by the depression that i perceived them as closed...

well, i've rambled on long enough...gonna get this sent off and write in my blog and try to do anything else i feel i just need to get done before tomorrow morning.

take care...i love you...hugs & blessings,
candace

My 1st day with my new camera...

Ok... Kelly let me go ahead and have our anniversary (Sept 15th), birthday (Oct 28th), and Christmas (you SHOULD KNOW THE DATE!!) gift early since he'll be gone anyway...I had bought a new smaller camera so I could send my older camera with him to Qatar...the new one, well, let's just say that it didn't work so great... So I used my a, b & c (get it??) money to get a nice fancier camera...well, i took over 120 pics and of those, these few are the ones that turned out...the other 100+ were blurry---I couldn't get this camera figured out!! I tried EVERYTHING!!! So, after speaking with the sales associate at Circuit City (his name is Korey--I've always liked that name, maybe b/c I had a good "growing up" friend named Corey who was such a nice guy...but switching it to a "K" is really cool...I'll have to put it on my list of favorite names--not b/c we're trying or going to have any more kiddos, but b/c I'm a girl and girls just do things like that)...anywho, Korey suggested I bring it back and so I am... UGH!!! I'm sooo frustrated!!! Anywho, Karter (our dog) was a very good subject, so was our rocking chair and one of my plants--the pictures that did turn out turned out very clear, but 16 pics out of over 100 isn't very good at all...oh yeah...my foot also did an AMAZING job at being still and smiling when asked..... :) I then played with them in Picassa and this is what I came up with...enjoy!!!! Candace

P.S....I majorly shrunk these pics down so that it wouldn't take forever to upload...the quality printed out is MUCH better...