Maw's Response

Maw and Pappy called me tonight and gave me the best news... They are saved! Praise God! I now have peace and encouragement that I will see my beloved grandparents after they are gone!!!!

Maw's Letter

Here is a copy of a letter that I sent to my grandmother, Maw. She is battling lung cancer and will most likely not make it through the year. My grandfather's health is also doing poorly, and he, as well, may not live to see another year. The letter is pretty self explanatory, they are both unsaved based on previous conversations that I have had with them.

Dearest Maw,

         I am writing this letter because it is the best way to communicate with you while I am so far away. I love you and am concerned about your spiritual life. Based on conversations we have had before, I pray that you read this letter and really think on things that I want to tell you.

         Aunt Marsha mentioned to me that you are taking the news of your cancer very well. I am glad for that. She said that you did not fear because you knew you were going to be going to heaven when you died. I want to know how do you know that you are going to heaven when you die? There are many who think that they are going to heaven when they die, but I fear that they do not go there when the time actually comes. What makes you so sure?

         There is a way to know if you will go to heaven when you die. It’s called assurance through the grace of God. If you have your Bible handy, you should look these verses up yourself, although I will put them in this letter as well.

         First of all, Romans 3:10 says, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” This tells me that ALL people are not righteous and are sinners.

         So, what does the Bible say about sin? Romans 6:23a says, “For the wages of sin is death;” James 1:15 says, “Then when lust conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death.” So, sin = death.

         What does death mean? It is a spiritual death, a separation from God. Mark 16:15b says, “but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Matthew 13:42, “And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”  Hell is a place that I believe people are yelling and trying to “die” to rid their bodies of the burning from the everlasting fire in hell. I think gnashing of teeth depicts people trying to “bite” the flames off of themselves. Revelation 9:6, “And in those days shall man seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”

         So what happens next? God created man, man sinned, sin equals death which leads to an eternity of hell. Pretty grim, huh? John 2:3 says, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:17, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

Romans 5:8-9, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

Romans 6:23b, “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 10:9, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

It’s pretty simple, really. God loved you so much that He didn’t want you to spend eternity away from Him. He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for you, to take away your sin and punishment that you deserved. By taking that leap of faith and believing that all these things are true, that His Word is true, you can be saved and know that you have assurance of going to heaven when you die!

Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lort.”

What a wonderful love that is! Please let me know what you think about this letter, and let Pappy read it too!

Your loving granddaughter,

Breyten's New Game

Breyten has a new game. It's called, "I'm going to put the blanket over my head and freak my mommy out cause she thinks for a split second that I have suffocated..." Yeah, it's really not a fun game, even though he thinks it is. So, he is no longer allowed to sleep with a blanket...

Getting Organized

I have a stack of unread magazines underneath one of my living room end tables. My nieces frequently organize them for me when they come over (not really :). Anyway, they are there for me when I get times to read them. Like today while I was eating my lunch. One of my favorite magazines is Family Circle because I can always find something in there such as advice or recipes that I would actually use. So, today I read an article on getting organized, and it had some great ideas! First of all, it said recycle the plastic containers (which I do not like to keep but Trenten always insists for "just incase", but he is not here...) and only keep the absolute ones that you use. So, I did. I prefer recycling to throwing stuff away (I know that plastic containers really don't matter, but it makes me feel better). Also, Va Beach has an excellent recycle program in which they give each house a garbage can (but it's blue) to be filled with recycled items and the city picks it up every 2 weeks. So, it's really easy to do. Next, it suggested to organize the linen closet by putting the matching flat sheet, linen sheet, and one pillow case into the second pillow case. I never would have thought to do that, but it worked and it freed up an entire shelf in my linen closet. A miracle! Now, I have an organized linen closet. Yay! It also said to get rid of the countless insurance and credit offers go to optoutprescreen.com and sign up for the opt out for 5 years option (towards the bottom of the page). We shall see if it works! It had about 30 different organizing ideas, but these are the ones I actually did. Yes, Kendal, you should be proud of me, I'm organizing :)

Back to the daily grind...

Well, we are home for a stretch of more than 2 weeks. I can't believe it! Since October, I have been going out of town, being home for about 2 weeks, and then leaving yet again. So, today, I got caught up on some things including cleaning the bathrooms and moving out all of Brey's 3 month clothes and washing and putting away 6 months clothes. The bathrooms hadn't been cleaned in a month, but that's not really gross due to the fact that (1) we weren't even home for more than 2 weeks of the last month and (2) Breyten's and my bathrooms stay relatively clean since there is no Breyten's daddy to mess them up (but I'm not naming names...). I'm sad about moving the 3 month clothes out, just another reminder that Breyten is growing up so quickly. I'm happy that he is a healthy, growing boy, but sad that it is going by so quickly and really sad that Trenten is missing everything. Well, tomorrow Emma comes over, which, by the way, is going really well with the whole 2 baby thing. Maybe God is preparing me to have twins one day, we shall see!

My brother Austin, a United States Marine

Words cannot express the emotion, pride, gratitude, joy, and the list goes on... about how I feel about MY brother finishing one of the hardest, if not the hardest, boot camp known to man. Just some of his stories where they got "destroyed" over anything and everything would make some just really want to die. He is such an inspiration to me, and I am so proud of him! I am so glad that Breyten and I were able to go to his graduation at Parris Island. It was so surreal actually being able to see the place where so many Marines started. The barracks, infamous yellow footprints, and the small Iwo Jima Statue where at the end of the Crucible march (which happens the week before graduation) the drill instructors shake the hands of the recruits and call them Marines for the first time. We were able to witness part of this march the last day we were there. My mom, Austin, Breyten, and I were leaving before dawn to go back home. There was a group of recruits who were marching and yelling. You could feel the energy that exuberated from what they were yelling. They were excited to become official Marines after going through the most challenging test ever. The Crucible consists of several days of no sleep, going through war, bullets flying, carrying a "dead" Marine over many miles, etc. I'm sure it is very physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually draining. But, worth it in the end to have the one who was yelling at you for so long finally welcome you into the brotherhood of being a Marine. Congratulations to my little brother, Austin, who isn't so little anymore, but is now a United States Marine. OORAH!

1-11-11

My baby boy is 5 months old today! I can't believe it. What was my life like without him? I can't remember... I know that traveling is more interesting due to the amount of items that this one little boy needs! I am sad that his dad hasn't seen him in the past 4 and 1/2 months. But, one day he will... 

We leave tomorrow for Parris Island for my brother, Austin, Marine graduation from boot camp. I'm so proud of him! OOORAH!

4 month check up...

Today we went for Breyten's 4 month check-up. He will actually be 5 months next week, but there was a long waiting list. I do have to say that so far Tri-care has been fantastic, and all the doctors, nurses, and even secretaries have been so great. We showed up at the clinic almost 2 hours before our actual appointment (due to the fact that (a) I was out doing errands, (b) an extremely weird snow storm hit (only lasted maybe 20 minutes, but I didn't know it was going to go away so quickly) and since I was already out I just decided to get to the doctors..., and (c) Breyten was sleeping in the car. Well, they didn't make us wait! I checked in and was called within 5 minutes. Breyten is doing very well, thanks to me (and God, of course!) He has hit all major milestones for his age (rolling over, reaching for objects, laughing out loud, etc.) And, he is now 15 pounds 2 ounces (40th percentile) and 26 1/4 inches long (80th percentile). Wow! What a difference from his 2 month checkup where he was underweight. Definitely a huge relief to me that he is doing so well. Also, a big difference taking a 2 month old (who will just lie there and smile occasionally) to a doctor's office than an almost 5 month old (who will try to roll off the table and eat the paper they are lying on and ripping up). The pediatrician was so nice and understanding. She was very encouraging to me (she knew that his dad had been deployed since he was 16 days old). She kept saying what a great job I was doing and what a great baby Breyten is. It was very nice to hear! Then, he had to get 5 vaccines... My reaction to these sets of shots was a lot different than the last time. I cried last time. This time, I had to stop myself from laughing out loud (I know, I'm the world's "best" mother...) His little face got so scrunched up and turned so red AFTER the shots were already over with (took a little bit for him to register what had happened :( Then, the crying began. All the way to pharmacy and during our wait in the pharmacy. It was really packed, and it was a long wait (tri-care pharmacies are usually in the same building as the clinics). So, I tried to rock Breyten, stand and walk around, bounce with him. Nothing worked. I knew what would, but unfortunately, both passies had fallen to the clinic's floor and I was not putting those germs into his mouth even after rinsing/wiping off. Finally, an older woman came up to me and asked if she could help me with anything. It was so nice! I needed to put my coat on which was in Breyten's car seat. I asked her to hold Breyten (don't worry, I could have out run her if she tried to take the screaming-bloody-murder baby which she wouldn't have). The very SECOND she held him, he stopped crying! What an angel that woman was (maybe literally?!?) She held him (right by my side of course) the whole rest of the wait and while I was getting the meds (right by me again). I told her how thankful I was for her help (I'm sure everyone else in the waiting room was thankful too.) Then, we came home and I got to talk to Trenten :) Breyten and I snuggled on the couch until he fell asleep. A very much needed relaxing evening for me :)

Rite Aid

So, I recently started shopping at Rite Aid with a wellness card. And, I thought that I would share with you (whoever you are) what I found this week. I got 2 packages of Huggies diapers ($19.99 regular) for about $27 (that's $13.50 off in coupons, the break down: $3 manufacturers coupon off for buying 2, $4 rite aid "up" rewards (basically rite aid gift card), $2.50 off manufacturers coupons, $2 off for rite aid coupon for watching a video ad (adperk.com), then (the cashier wasn't suppose to take these, they were expired and she was really only suppose to take a total of 2 manufacturer's coupons and 2 rite aid coupons, but she did anyway :) 2 $1 off coupons for each box.  Also, since Breyten is exclusively bottle feeding, I needed more bottles. They are having a buy one get one free for philips avent bottles this week. So, I bought 2 boxes of 2 9 oz bottles ($14.99 each regular, but I paid for only one :) 
I tried to tell Trenten how much money I saved him, but he was not really into it like I was. 
Anyway, Breyten rode in a shopping cart like a big boy today: (I bought the shopping cart blanket thing at Ross for $15 the other day...) We were at Babies R Us getting baby food (about to start on veggies in the next week), nursery water (3 for $3 this week), and enfamil (buy 2 refill boxes, get $10 gift card through today only). 

Getting used to being home...

So, we have been home almost a week since all of our holiday travels. I feel rested, finally! I did not do ANYTHING on New Years' Day, not even get dressed. Apparently, that's what my body needed, because on Sunday, I woke up for church feeling very refreshed. Breyten "slept in" until 4:30 this morning. This is major progress for us! Way better than getting up at midnight, then 1:30, then 3, you get the picture. He isn't hungry when he wakes up at those times, he just can't fall back to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night. 


On another note, I was glad to find out that resuming my exercising on the treadmill was not difficult after a 2 week absence from travels. I can now run one mile in 10 minutes (that's going 6.0 mph!) I've never been into running or exercising, so that is really good for me! 


On another, another note, my brother-in-law left for his deployment this morning. He leaves his wife and two little girls behind. Please pray for them, deployments are not fun for anyone...  especially on the day that you have to say goodbye, that is the worst! My sister-in-law is stopping by this morning to hang out and let Breyten borrow a few toys. He is now too "grown up" for his swing and floor mat (he isn't even 5 months!) So, she is bringing an exersaucer and jumperoo. Yay! Breyten is going to be her best friend!