Britt,

Sorry that it has been so long since I have updated the prayer request.


To my knowledge, Hailey Gowens and Nate Ferrel are both doing well, and have no major problems right now. I do know that Nathan is going to be seeing a Mito specialist, and that they are working with the doctors and insurance company in order to try to get somethings that Nathan needs, but that Insurance doesn't want to cover.

Charles Carlton is still in the hospital, and has been for over 2 months now. Currently he has grown less and less responsive, and the doctors aren't completely sure why, or what to do next. They have compared his condition to someone with cabin fever, in that it has been so long since he has been able to get out and move around that it is beginning to affect him. Please continue to remember his family as well, as they care for him.

Little James Mizel is doing really well, he is still wearing his brace, but he is walking better and better even when he isn't wearing it.

Melissa Green is under going radiation again. Thankfully, she seems to have very little of the side effects associated with it, and hopefully this will take care of all of the breast cancer.

Please be in prayer for this country, as things continue to decline at such a rapid rate.

So we love to hang out with the Taylors. They are so good about coming to all of our special meetings, and other events too, so last time they were here we decided that some of us would plan a trip over to see them. Several of the folks hadn't seen the Atlantic Ocean so we decided a beach trip was in order. Unfortunately several folks were unable to go with us on Saturday, but those of us that went still had a great time.

I don't normal post this kind of stuff, but this is too funny to pass up. I think I'm going to go make some kool-aid now.

It's sad to see that this is the direction our country is going in. Enjoy the laugh, because if you don't you'd have to cry.

... now has a blog. She plans to chronicle all of her most happy thoughts and happenings. I encourage you to all go and read.

Doesn't my child know that he's a baby? I mean come on! It's one thing to want your own cup at 6 and 1/2 months. It's totally different to start trying to walk! His is pushing up much better, and crawling a little bit Mogli style, but only enough to get over to something to pull up on. Infact, he pulls up and tries to take steps way more than he tries crawling.

So last week Britt started insisting that we let him drink out of our cup. We've let him have a little water and sweet tea. It was cute you would hold the cup up and he would put his little hands on top of yours and lap the drink like a puppy. So I decided it was time to pull out his own cup. I let him play with it a few times. Immediately he seemed to know what to do. He picked it up and turned it up and chewed on the spout. So I gave him some watered down juice on Monday. He drank very little, but liked to hold his cup. On Tuesday we had better luck taking the top off and letting him drink out of it like a normal cup. On Wednesday, we got him to drink through the lid, but I had to take the sippy part out. Then Thursday, he figured out that if he sucked on it liquid came out. He has been happy with it ever since, and I like that he isn't spilling juice all the time. He still prefers me to hold the cup up for him, but he is drinking out of the cup now.

It's a fact that I often ignore. I like to pretend that he has some culture. I like to pretend that he's a bit refined, that since he did get some book learning that means he appreciates some of the nicer things in life. However, after today I can no longer pretend that he is anything but a good ol' Southern boy, who has no shame. What happened today you ask?
SO, in other words the front yard and side that it took me 2 hours to mow on Wednesday... ...and the back yard that it took me two and half hours to mow today with our PUSH non-self propelled mower, was kinda pointless. The grass that was 2 ft high because it hadn't been mowed in 2 weeks cause the old mower needed a new part, that I thought I was going to have a heart attack trying to push, could have just waited. Here I was feeling like an eye sore because we were living in a jungle. I told Gary that if I was Bro. Chris and Sis. Renee that I would have Troy cut the yard by now, and tack the fee onto our rent. His reply, "Let's not buy the part to fix the lawn mower, but let's put a car up on blocks instead!" All that hard work on my part was made to look like nothing. Since Gary was able to do the remaining 1/2 or 1/3 of the yard (depending on which one of us is doing the measuring) in an hour.Yeah, so I'm lamenting a little over the fact that I slaved in the yard today and fought with the demon possessed thing that is our push mower. But in truth I can't wait till he teaches me how to use the thing, this is going to make the yard way easier.

So Britt has been eatting for about a month now. We tried him out on Grits on our way to Alabama if you will recall. We really didn't plan to start him out till we got back home or later, but just past 5 months the boy would wait any longer, he was eager to dive into our plates, grab our spoons, and just would be left in the car seat while everyone else ate. So, at my mother's we feed him a little creamed corn. I didn't find out till later that babies aren't suppose to get corn till a year, opps. Not to mention all the butter, salt, sugar, and milk in them, lets say that he really loved it. Then when we went up to Grandmaw Bea's she feed him the juice from beans and some bannana pudding. However, she wouldn't go fast enough for him, and he let her know it. Just like his daddy, the boy has no patience when it comes to food. When we got back home we fed him some rice cerral for a few days and man did he hate that bland stuff after getting good stuff while we were gone. Since then he's tried alot of stuff green beans, carrots, mashed potatoes, peas, and squash for veggies. Then for fruits he's had bannanas, applesauce, and pears. By far green beans and bannanas are his favorites. Though squash runs a close second to the green beans.


Every day I tell him if you'll just crawl today then you can have some apple juice in a sippy cup. However, that's not motivated him so far. He plays with his cup and chews on the spout and holds it up over his head, but I'm not planning to start him on it yet. When he decides to crawl then he can have that with some finger foods for a snack. He's growing so fast!

Sunday, Britt went to his very first Rays Game. Sometimes in the evening Britt and Daddy sit in their chair together and watch baseball. This is usually when I'm working on my farm on Facebook or something else far more interesting that baseball. Don't get me wrong I grew up watching baseball, but there was a strike this one summer the entire summer and it kinda made major league ball way less interesting to me. However, I love playing ball, and watching a game in person is awesome.

So, we left out from Church and met Mom and Dad, and James and Heather for the game. It was great. You get in your seats and you get to hear the crowd, and see older gentleman keeping score, and eat free food. See Dad got the tickets free through work, and we all got free food vouchers too. Britt got even more free things though. He got a free pin that said, "My first Rays Game," and a free Scott Kasmir Bobblehead doll, and lots of free smile from otherwise grumpy looking people.

For the first couple of innings, Britt was leaned forward very intently watching the fielders moving about after balls. Then he started getting sleepy and leaned back in my lap and eventual dozed off. Of course then there was a play where BJ Upton almost got home, but got out, and everyone jumped up and yelled. Of course that was the end of Britt's shortest nap on record. He seemed to have a good time, and the rest of us did too, even if the Rays did lose.

Last Thursday, I pulled a box out of the closet. A box that contained a toy that Uncle Benji bought for Britt when he came down right after he was born. I wasn't sure how much Britt could do with it as it was a basketball goal, but it said 6 to 12 months. Hannah managed to get it put together for him while I was washing dishes. To start with she showed him how it worked and he just sat there looking at her like she was crazy, and didn't play with it, but the next day he did play with it. He can't manage the balls yet, but when you dunk on the hoop it makes noise and cheers, and he does that over and over, and looks around at me like he's very proud of himself. Looks like he's grinning and saying "Thank you, Uncle Benji for my totally awesome new toy!" Trust me, I speak Britt-anesse, I'm sure that's exactly what he's saying.

Britt,

You are 6th months old today. It is amazing to look back and see how tiny you were. I forget just how much you have grown. You are so tall now, and gaining weight. You can still wear your 3 to 6 onesies, but the sleepers have been too short for a couple of weeks now. You are stronger each day, so it seems, you can sit up by yourself with no trouble, and are leapfrogging to get around, perhaps you will be crawling proper soon. You babble at me all the time, just in a language I don't understand. You have started saying "mamamamamama" when you cry to get my attention, what a stinker. You said, "dadadadada" last Friday as well, but Daddy wasn't hear to see it, he's been working hard to try to convince you to say it when he is hear.

Daddy says your a vain child. We hold you up to your mirror in the bedroom, and you immediately start grinning and talking to yourself. I think you just like to talk to the "other baby." You are a people pleaser. Everyone seems to delight in your smily presence and you seem just as thrilled with everyone you meet. There are no strangers for you, just friends who haven't seen you smile yet. Sometimes I find it hard to believe what a good natured child you are. You still have your moments though, like refusing to share glow worm with anyone, and whining to be held on Monday after being passed around at Church on Sunday.

You are eating solids twice a day now. We did some ceral a week or so, and started you on baby food, you seem to prefer anything I make here, to what we buy in the store. You hate the store bought green beans, and find the store bought carrots to be just ok, but you love creamed corn, my green beans, my carrots, and bananas either way. In a few days we'll try some applesauce, Uncle Benji always liked that, and squash.

You are the light of my life and even on the worst days, I can't help but grin back at your little smile, and you never fail to melt my heart with your snuggly hugs. Happy 6th month birthday!

I love you,
Momma

One of the things I use to really love doing was once or twice during the summer taking a weekend to go down to my aunt's and uncle's and go out on the boat with my bestest cousin "Mag-wen." We go to Smith Lake which is got to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. There is over 500 mile of shoreline and over 21,000 acres of water. It's on land from three different counties and when they flooded the land to make it in the early 60s, they didn't finish logging it all first, so there are areas that are over 500 ft deep, with pine trees standing at the bottom. Holding all the water back is the largest earthen dam east of the Mississippi River. Back a few years ago, we made it the weekend after singing school was over since, I already had that whole week off of work. Since getting married we haven't been able to go, but this year we did.



They are so much fun to be around. Uncle Clint is the kind of guy that knows everybody! It doesn't matter where we go he runs into someone he knows. Everyone likes him. Aunt Melanie is really easy to talk to and always knows what's going on with everyone we know family or church or whoever. So, I got to catch up on the happenings. Then of course there is Maghen, who is basically like a long distance sister. The Lord cursed... I mean blessed me with three wonderful brothers, but no sisters. Maghen doesn't have any siblings, so we talk about all kinds of stuff, like sisters do I guess. So we went out on the boat and Nicholas and Benji tagged along too. I got some great footage of all of us flying around on the intertubes and swimming. Part of the advantage to U. Clint knowing everyone is that he knows people that live on the lake, so we get to jump off their two story docks, go swimming around their place, and borrow their intertubes. Way too much fun for one day.

Today Britt spent some time playing in the floor in the house, while I mowed half of the yard. We will probably repeat again tomorrow so that I can finish mowing if it doesn't rain. He is sitting pretty well now, he started that the Friday night after singing school. Sometimes he falls forward, and it's starting to look intentional, not just accidental so that he can get on all fours. He's doing what I'm told is leap frogging. A form of crawling where he straightens up his back legs and then nose dives forward, and starts all over again in order to move around. If he keeps it up when he learns how to move his hands it's called bear crawling instead of regular crawling because his legs are straight. I think he looks like a track sprinter about to take off from the blocks. Gary says if he does that he'll look like Mowgli off of the Jungle Book.

While we were in Alabama we mentioned Bro. Charles Carlton to several of you. Most everyone here in Florida has heard about the situation I'm sure. On Saturday, June 13, Bro. Charles was on the bush hog out in the pasture around the house mowing when he ran over a propane tank. He has 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his face, arms, stomach, and part of his legs. They were able to get him stabilized but his case was still critical. They had to go in and do several different kinds of skin graphs from his own skin, cadaver skin, and synthetics. Some of it didn't take right away, and they had to go back in twice more. There has been alot of concern that he might lose his fingers, but so far that hasn't been the case. To begin with he had such swelling that they were concerned that his esophagus was collapsing, and while we were away they had to do a tracheotomy. In addition to the burns he has lost a significant amount of blood that they are continuously replacing. Bro. Charles has a heart defect that he has to have cumedin, a blood thinner, for. This has meant that he has needed more blood. The most recent scare was due to bleeding. Last week they discovered that the burns were deep enough that they had caused some damage to the internal organs particular his stomach and that he was bleeding out somewhere in there. He was losing blood faster than they could replace it and it seemed like it was a matter of time. But the Lord answered prayer in such a way that no one could doubt that it was His doing. Bro. Charles has improved in the last week, and is right now not needing any blood transfusions. Please continue to pray for him.

Little James Mizel is still having therapy for Cerebral Palsy. He is now wearing a brace to help correct the hypertension in his foot/calf. The therapist things that he will be well adjusted to it in 2 weeks, and from then will see how it goes.

Jim Spezzano is still looking for a new job, they have had to close their business. I'm sure that Jim, Kelly, and little Joshua would beg an interest in your prayers.

I've added my brother back to the prayer list this week, and I'm not sure what to say other than we would appreciate prayers on his behalf.

Melissa Green, Elder Tom Green's wife, who has breast cancer had surgery while we were away. They originally did chemo to shrink the tumor. She had a double mastectomy. She was at a surgery center through Moffit and was monitored by a nurse throughout the night at a local hotel. Everything went well, but they are going to have to have one smaller less invasive surgery sometime soon, to finish getting the rest out. We were relieved to hear that she is doing well.

One last request, if you will be in prayer for us as we are going to have to be making some more decisions regarding health insurance. The last few companies that we have tried have told us one thing over the phone, taken our money and when the policy comes in has been something different. We are considering putting our money in a savings account instead to put toward health bills as they come along.

My Dearest Gary Britt,


So we've been married for 2 years now, and I can't say that I've passed the point of saying to myself "Oh my goodness, I am really married to this man!" I still can't imagine living life without you, and though I'm fond of reminding you that if anything happens I am high tailing it off to Alabama I don't want to be anywhere but by your side.


I thought last year was something - going from single to married and pregnant, but this year has been even more changing. Just when I thought I couldn't love you more, we became parents. I have to say watching you with Britt the way you babble to him and make up ridiculous stories about how mean Momma is, the way you make silly faces to make him laugh, and bend over backwards to keep him from crying; all of these things make me love you even more. It's like that song that's just come out on the radio "And I Thought I Loved You Then."


Even when so many things have changed, I hope some things never change. There are the every day things. You always want a kiss before you leave for work, and as soon as you come in the door at night. You still want to come home for lunch. There are the big things. You try to send me home to see my family as much as possible. You take time to take me out once a week. There are the little surprises. Like when you bring home Reese's Cups and a Dr. Pepper after a rotten day. The way you help by washing dishes when they start piling up.

I really appreciate how even when life is going crazy and with the new challenge of a little one, that you still make going to Church meetings a priority. We don't go to as many or stay all weekend often times now, but even though it's hard to all get ready on time, and when we get there we may miss half the sermon - despite all of this, you make the effort, and I am so appreciative that even when it would be easier to just not go, that you put the Lord first.

There is so much about you that I love and respect, and even though we tease one another and for the most part don't act mushy in front of people I know that you love me too. And I would be perfectly happy to spend another 73 years with you, even though you think living to be 103 is way too long to be on this earth. I love you!


~Your dani~

Today the 4th of July is the day in which we celebrate our Independence from Britain. We thank God for the blessings of a free country where each person is free to lead their own life. There are many things that I am thankful for, but top of my list today is a thankful heart for the Amazing Grace of our Heavenly Father and the freedom that we have here in this country to worship Him for that Amazing Grace that He has shown us.

At singing school this year we had 252 in attendance and to close out services together we all sang Amazing Grace. The preschool class sang the first verse soprano only, the second verse the middle schoolers came in and sang alto also, the third verse the high school students came in and added the tenor, then the adult class came in singing all four parts on the 6th verse, and finally the entire congregation sung the unwritten verse. The final song is Mungo Ni Pendo, a Swahili song that Bro. Obey first taught some of the brethren. This song remind me that there are other Primitive Baptist just like us in Tanzania who have not been blessed materially like we have and we should be more grateful. There are three verses: 1) God is love, He loves His people, and He loves me too! 2) Jesus came to set me free that's why I serve Him! 3) I will serve Him for all my life because He set me free! Chorus) Now listen carefully to me, God is love, He loves His people.

One of the things that amazes me each year at singing school, is how much the preschool class is able to learn. This year there was the preschool class of 1 to 4 year olds, and there was a second class with the 5 to 7 year olds. Most of these kids can't read, but they have learned in the course of a week how to read the shape notes. They also learn several simple songs some from our hymn books and some relating Bible stories. Some learn these songs very young and they stay with them for years. Even us "big kids" enjoy singing them.

We stopped at Cracker Barrell on our way up to Alabama to have lunch with the Abernathys and Taylors. While we were there Britt kept grabbing at and putting his hands in my grits. So we decided to let him have a taste. Needless to say he's not tried going for my grits since.