Please Pray for My Friends!

This post is a little different than most. I would like to request from all of you who read, follow or get emailed about my blog to please pray for some very special friends of ours! We met Cameron and Aaron while at seminary (Southwestern Baptist, in Fort Worth, TX). Cameron and I became fast friends while working together in the Business Office there. She is from the Troy area of Alabama (specifically a small town named Brantley), so we had quite a bit in common right from the start!:) Texas is very much like being in a foreign country sometimes and the experience can be a little scary and disconcerting for sure! So it is GOOD to find friends that you can reminisce with about "home" (for us specifically, Alabama!) and find so much in common! We talk alike, so we could "translate" for our other non-Alabama friends - LOL! And, we share a love for everything "Southern!"...food, family, Gulf Coast, Alabama/Auburn football...and the list goes on! Of course, we also have Jesus in common and the calling of the Lord on our husband's lives! After we had worked together for sometime, Richard had the opportunity to work with Aaron, Cameron's husband, on campus as well in the warehouse, (Aaron is the Supervisor over the warehouse as he is a seminary student, too). So, they hit it off, too, again with just so much in common. They are a precious family and have 4 BEAUTIFUL daughters, as you will see in the pics below!

After we moved to Hamilton, our friendship with them has continued and even grown as Cameron is a blogger (See her blog link - 4 Hall Girls on the side of my blog) and we keep up most days on the computer. Richard has been able to call upon Aaron to preach in his absence here when we have made trips home. We had the wonderful experience of spending Thanksgiving with them in their home this past year and we've gotten together a couple of other times, too! We just REALLY LOVE them!!!

So, with all this said, I want to ask you all to be praying for this precious family over the next couple of weeks,(really all of this week and next!). Aaron is the interim pastor at a church out in a small town west of Fort Worth, called Red Springs. He and their oldest daughter, Elleigh, just left yesterday with a mission team from their Baptist Association to go to Namibia, Africa! So, please pray for Aaron and Elleigh as they travel, as they share the gospel and minister in Jesus name to these people, for their health & physical strength, for their own spiritual growth and for their team! Please pray for the people of Namibia to be receptive to the gospel and that the kingdom of God will be furthered there! Please pray for Cameron as she is home with the girls, very far from family, that she will have strength - physically and spiritually to take care of her girls and that they will have a hedge of protection around them at all times! Please also pray for their health and well being and that Cameron's heart and mind will have peace & not worry!(Please pray especially at night, when the busy-ness slows and she needs her REST!)

I SO GREATLY appreciate ALL of your prayers!!! I know that you WILL pray for them and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ Who is Sovereign in ALL things, Who is GREATLY to be praised, Who pours out His love and grace on His own will BLESS you and them through this!!! THANK YOU!!!

Shannon

Elleigh, Sallie, Lizzie & Millie


Cameron and her girls - ALL of them Beautiful!


Aaron & Elleigh at the DFW airport about to leave for Africa!

Summer Has Arrived!!!

With our temperatures flirting with triple digits today and really for the next few days, I thought I would go ahead and post some pics of our summer fun. Some of these are also from late spring, which I have to say has been extremely nice. Usually here in our part of Texas we will see our first 100 degree reading in May. But this year we've had a very pleasant May and even had a morning low in the upper 50's the first week of June. (OK that is just plain crazy!)

We couldn't survive our hot temps without a blowup pool and we had to break down and buy a new one this year...the last one survived 2 years which I think is really good! We got one that is bigger and holds more water since the boys are bigger themselves. Also, it is really easy to empty & deflate...you just pull two plugs and the water flows out along with the air. (This is the part Richard likes best!)

One other tidbit about our weather...we have seen more rain this year, which is really nice, but now with the hot temps we are coming under the gun more with severe weather! A monster of a storm just missed us yesterday evening. We got the rain and lightning, but we missed the high winds and the BASEBALL sized hail went just south of us! (Thank You, Lord!)

Here are the pics. Enjoy!

Silly, Serious & Interesting

I decided to post a menagerie of photos from this past month. The first ones are of my VERY silly little boys! There is not a day that goes by that we don't experience "silliness" in some form or fashion. I love it! They keep us in stitches!

The photos of Justus close to the bottom are of his athletic awards banquet. I have got to figure out how to take pictures in low light with my camera. If I use the low light feature they turn out very grainy and some even turned out blurry. So the two you see are the only ones I got that were redeemable. Sorry! He received a certificate for his participation in J.V. football, J.V. track and Varsity baseball. He will also receive a letter (for a jacket) for Varsity baseball.

Lastly, the bottom pics are of a baby bluejay who decided one evening about a week ago to perch on my outdoors chair. The sun had already gone down and I walked out on the porch for something and there he was. He let me get within a yard of him and never flinched. I took all kinds of pics and he never flew away. I don't know when he did leave, but he stayed there a long while...very strange and interesting!

Wesley is laughing as Richard is playing "tickle" with him!

Wesley always gives me a "silly" face!

Even his smile face has a sense of "silliness"!

The boys wearing Grandaddy's hats (when he visited us) and sharing some popcorn, their favorite treat!

Graham wearing Granny Stringer's jacket (on our brief visit to AL). He saw it and asked her if he could wear it because he wanted to be an American! I told him he already is even without donning the flag! :) She got a real kick out of him!!!

Wesley making a silly face while playing in the pool on our first "official" day of summer...the Saturday after the last day of school!

This is Graham on the same day enjoying a milkshake from Storms (our favorite hamburger place in Hamilton!).

Wesley decided he needed to make a silly face since Graham had one painted on him. This was right after school on Tuesday of his last week. They had a carnival at school.

Graham's painted "silly" face!

OK, Cameron, this is for you! Wesley, Lizzie and Sallie could definitely form a group and sing rap songs! LOL "PEACE OUT!"

This is Justus receiving his certificate and shaking hands with all his coaches.

The Hamilton Bulldogs Stage!

Our special visitor...baby bluejay! At first I thought he was in the little basket/cup holder, but then I realized he was just perched there on the end of the arm.