Disney World Magic Kingdom

Today we went to Disney World Magic Kingdom, 4 hours of torrential rainfall, 12 hours of walking, a bunch of soggy feet and butts, but still a wonderful day. It was Nana's birthday so they gave her a pin that let everyone know it was and all over the park everyone kept wishing her a happy bithday and singing to her. The good that came from all the rain is that the lines for the rides were much shorter than usual, rides that would normally be 30-45 min only took about 5, and some we could walk up and get right on.

My Brother Greg

Some of you may already be aware but I wanted to mention this for anyone that I may not have spoken with. My brother Greg went into the hospital last weekend and has now been diagnosed with leukemia. As you can imagine this has been quite a shock for our family, it just seems like it came out of nowhere and happened so fast. Even saying the word leukemia seems so foreign to me, and I still can’t get use to saying it, and I refuse to get use to saying it.

I know that things happen in this life and I know that everyday there are others in the same situation, I also know in whom I believe. I’m not saying others do not know in whom they believe, but what I am saying is that when Gods word says to lay hands on the sick and they will recover and that by His stripes we ARE healed, I believe Him. I take Him at His word.

Too many times I have said “Lord let your will be done” and not have any understanding of what His will is. If His word is His will, then I will stand on that and trust that He is faithful to fulfill it. I know that God did not cause this, but I fully believe that God will use this for His purpose and His glory.

So I ask that you join me in lifting up my brother in this time of healing, for his body, mind and spirit. Here is the website that Greg’s wife Elyse setup and will be updating regularly with his progress:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gregwilson611

To help keep the site private, visitors need to have a CaringBridge profile to visit. Your profile allows you to read the Journal, see photos and leave messages for Greg in the guest book. You can also sign up to receive Journal update notifications by e-mail each time Greg’s Journal is updated.


If you have a CaringBridge Profile:
1. Visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gregwilson611
2. Sign in to your CaringBridge profile


If you DO NOT have a CaringBridge Profile:
1. Visit http://www.caringbridge.org/vi sit/gregwilson611
2. Create your CaringBridge profile



Thank you for your thoughts and prayers
-Laura

Fwd: LYNDSEE IS AMAZING!!!!!! Put an L at the bottem of the screen if u agree and send to everyone you know lol!!

:LL


The above text is what happens when you let your kids play with your cell phone and they send a text to everyone in your contact list, thats what I get for making it so my phone can text into my blog.
-Cameron

Our Mothers

Something our pastor said today stuck in my mind. It was a comment about mothers. He said "next to Jesus, mothers are the ones that believe in you, root for you, tell you how much you are loved and would do absolutely anything in the world for you". This statement is so true for me and I know for Cameron as well.

For instance, when there was a play that I would try out for in school, mom would say "Laura, you will do great!" (She would often say it with so much enthusiasm that I started to believe it myself). Mom would sacrifice her own desires for something I "just had to have" or "had to do". I look back and remember the physical labor mom did too. She worked very hard (and still does, I might add).

Cameron's mom is very much the same, in that, she gave completely of herself to provide for things that were needed as well as "wanted", Most of the time working several jobs just to get by.

These traits, I'm sure are common to mothers everywhere. But we just wanted to take this opportunity to tell our mothers thank you for all that you have done and continue to do in our lives. We love you so much!

Free Comic Book Day

On May 2 the Hobby Shop in the Wilson Mall had a free comic book day, if you came into the store you could get a free comic book, if you had a library card you could get a second comic, if you brought in a can of food for the food bank you could get a third comic, and if you dressed up like a super hero you could get a fourth comic for free. They had Batman, Supergirl and Catwoman available for taking pictures with, and they also had some writers and artists for some of the different comics to talk with and get autographs. Charlie had been talking about going to this for about a month, and when the day finally came his friend Benjamin was visiting and wanted to go as well. So we went up and let the boys get there comic books, and of course you know they dressed up, Charlie was kind of like a ninja with a cape, Benjamin was a masked super hero, and Levi was a police officer.

This event seems to be one that is in comic book stores all over the country, and is on the first Saturday in May. Here is the website for the event

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

And here are the pictures of the kids.

Quest for a green lawn

When we moved into our house in 2002 we had a lawn that only had grass for about 8-10 feet from the road, and the rest of the yard was made “maintenance free” by the previous owners keeping the leaves and pine straw that fell from the trees in the yard. It was literally about 6 inches of leaves compacted solid from a couple of years of not being picked up, and this was very successful at killing everything in the yard that was under it. After about a month of raking up leaves we at last had a clean yard, or rather a strip of grass and solid compacted hard dirt for a yard. During the first few years we tried a few things to get the grass growing and had the beginnings of a lawn, still with many areas that were just so hard that nothing would grow, then came two years of drought and we put the yard on hold until there was somewhat regular rain. That brings us to where we are today, we are attempting again to convert our little patch of dirt into a lush green carpet of grass (would really be happy if the yard just looks green when you drive by our house). This time we are leaving nothing to chance, we had a friend of ours (Carl) bring over his tiller and we plowed up almost our entire yard, we seeded, fertilized and seeded some more. All those rock hard places that nothing would grow are now loose soft soil, if grass doesn’t grow now I think we might just look into astro turf or something.

here is Carl hard at work


and Cameron doing his part


time for some seed

testing my tech
this is the first test for using my cell phone and texting into my blog, I cant begin to think why I need to be able to do this.

Cameron's office fun and games

Cameron works in the Raleigh branch of Siemens Building Technologies and each year the office does a fund raiser for the March of Dimes and as part of the fund raiser the office has an obstacle course competition between the different departments in the office. This year Ops, Service, Sales and Energy participated (Cameron is in the Ops department). Even though Cameron’s team didn’t win they all had fun and raised over $1400 for the March of Dimes.

Lindsey tests for Yellow Belt and Charlie tests for Bodan Belt

Charlie and Lindsey are now both taking tae kwon do, and in April Lindsey took her first test and received her Yellow Belt, and Charlie tested and received his Bodan Belt, this is the last belt for Charlie before Black Belt. Charlie has 6 months to train and then must go to Virginia to test for his Black Belt with Grand Master Dong ( a 9th degree black belt) the founder of Dong’s Martial Arts. Lindsey just started taking tae kwon do in February of this year while Charlie has been taking it for over two years. Below are some pictures and a video of each demonstrating their mad skills.

Lindsey Turns 13!!!

Next to Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift is one of Lindsey's favorite singers. She likes the song "Change" on our song playlist....

Click the PLAY button on the slide show to see Lindsey through the years


On April 11 our little baby girl became a teenager. It’s hard to believe that it has been 13 years since we brought her home as a bald, chubby little bundle of joy, by the way she didn’t really get much hair until she was nearly a year old, and we called her our little Sumo wrestler until she was about 5 years old (she had more rolls than Subway). She was born in Ft Myers Florida, and at the time we lived in Cape Coral, just across the river. For Lindsey’s birthday we were in Maryland visiting with family for Easter, and we did celebrate her birthday along with her cousins who also have birthdays in April (Kyle on the 16th, and Alexandra on the 7th). The following weekend we had another birthday party at home, Lindsey invited five friends over for a birthday party and sleep over (that’s right 6 girls spending the night, not quite the 16 she had for her 6th birthday but definitely a tall order to fill, not really the older she gets the easier the sleepovers are, they just go hang out upstairs). She is growing up so fast. She is a wonderful daughter and sister to her brothers, and is the best friend that you could ask for. Her favorite scripture is "a friend loves at all times, Proverbs 17:17" and it is evedent in the way she treats those around her.
We love you baby girl
Happy Birthday Lindsey!

Here she is a her Uncle Brad's house playing pool


and here she is with her friends at her sleepover

50's Party, LFC Volunteers Banquet

At church we had our annual volunteers banquet and this year the theme was a 50’s style party. Guys with their hair slicked back, girls with their poodle skirts. Everyone should know by now that we are always ready for a costume or theme party. We had food and fun, some song and dance, played some games, and lots of fun, enjoy the photos below and see them all in the slideshow

School in Kapoeta, Sudan

Here is something that we have felt lead to share about. Our former pastor and continued friend, David List, called us the other day to make us aware of and to seek support for a project that he has been a part of. He and his family are part of an organization that is building a school in Kapoeta, Sudan an area that did not have any schools for more than twenty years due to civil war. The school is almost finished and recently started having classes for the children. They have been having over 200 children a day come to classes, but as I said, the school is not completely finished. The school needs $7,000 to finish the last two rooms. So our hope by putting this on our blog is that as you read this and see the pictures of the children in school that you might consider helping in any way you can. Any donations are tax deductable and can be sent to:

"International Support Ministries"
(and specify clearly for the "Sudan School Project")

and you can mail it to:

15318 Hutchison Rd
Tampa, FL 33625

Below are some pictures of the school and the children, not only are they learning to read and write but they are learning God's love through the people He has put there to help them in such a practical way. Thanks for taking the time to read this and know that any gift, no matter how small it may seem, will be a blessing. Feel free to pass this blog address to anyone that might have an interest, and if you have any questions please email us and if we can’t answer them we can get someone who can.

Happy Birthday Cameron!

Cameron is 38 today!

38 things we love about him...

1. Levi says he likes when daddy plays "Midnight Club" with him and "Speed Racer"
2. Charlie says "he helps me do stuff like putting things together and figuring things out"
3. Lindsey says "he makes me laugh when he just bursts out in random song"
4. Lindsey's friend Heather says " Mr C. makes her laugh"
5. Laura says he makes me laugh,
6. he is thoughtful,
8. he is a gentleman,
9. he is a great kisser!
10.he is a great daddy,
11.he is super patient
12.he is a wonderful provider
13.I love how his eyes are squinty when he laughs or smiles
14.he has kind eyes
15.he loves his Momma
16.he honors his father
17.he can fix almost anything
18.he is slow to anger
19.he is smart
20.he loves Jesus and acts like Him most times
21.I love how I am the only one that sees certain silly things he does
22.he is generous
23.he shows compassion
24.he's calm
25.he has a gift for peacemaking
26.he's a great kisser!
27.he would give me the last bite of his dessert if I wanted it
28.he walks the walk more then talks the talk
29.he's cuddly
30.most babies fall asleep when he holds them, they must sense his gentle spirit
31.he is trustworthy
32.he gets along with mostly everybody
33.he takes great pictures and LOTS of them
34.I like who I am around him
35.he knows me and still loves me
36.he is unconditional
37.he is more handsome to me now than the day we first met
38.he is self-less, today on his b-day he took me to the dentist to get my tooth fixed...see what I mean, he's my love. We love you Cameron. You are the best.

Cam's b-day cake that Lindsey made



A friend sent this survey thingy to me so I thought I would share it on the blog. The answers next to the questions are mine and Cameron's answers are below. I missed a few but it was fun...


Here's a chance to see how well you really know your husband. Cut, paste and fill in the answers, then forward . . . shoot, you know what to do. The real challenge is to send it to your husband to see how right you really are.

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? A Miami football game or a "shoot 'em up" movie
2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Ranch
3. What's one food he doesn't like? onions
4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order? Thick burger and sweet tea
5. Where did he go to high school? Shaw in Columbus Ga.
6. What size shoe does he wear? 10 1/2
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? He collects a lot of stuff. Die cast cars mostly 911 Porches, comic books, pens haha
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Turkey with cheese and lettuce and a little bit of mustard no mayo
9. What would this person eat every day if he could? m-n-m's
10. What is his favorite cereal? Apple Jacks
11. What would he never wear? Shirts with pockets in the front
12. What is his favorite sports team? hmmm let me think, oh yea, MIAMI!
13. Who did he vote for? McCain
14. Who is his best friend? Jesus and me
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? fuss
16. What is his heritage? Secretly he would love to be Scottish, but I think he is mostly German and English.
17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? Strawberry with Strawberry icing.
18. Did he play sports in high school? no
19. What could he spend hours doing? putzing on the computer (checking on our stocks, searching for a 911, touching base with old friends on Facebook)
20. What is one unique talent he has? He has become quite the photographer.

HIS ANSWERS:
1. Something sports
2. Ranch
3. Onions
4. Hamburger and tea
5. Shaw
6.10 1/2
7. EVERYTHING, I collect collections of collections
8. Turkey
9. Candy
10. fruit loops apple jacks, any type like that he says
11. short sleeve button up shirt with pockets and also a white shirt with white pants or black shirt with black pants he says he needs a contrast.
12. Miami Hurricanes
13. McCain
14. Jesus and Laura
15. Laura tries to force food on me
16. American
17. cheesecake
18. No
19. playing on the computer and watching tv
20. fixing stuff that's broke

Cameron and his Momma

Happy Birthday Levi

Today our baby boy, Levi turns five years old. For those not familiar with Levi and his personality, he is very high energy and is wide open. He likes fast loud cars, guns, anything having to do with firefighters or the police. He is quick to shoot you, then arrest you, then try to rescue you from danger all in a few moments time, and he expects the same treatment in return. With that being said, his presents consisted of firefighter and police uniforms, fire rescue truck, and plenty of Speed Racer toys (the boy loves him some speed racer, almost as much as Starsky and Hutch).



Five things we love about our five year old.

1. We love the way he truly desires to help people, his desires to rescue and heal people is a God given gift that we believe he will use all throughout his life.

2. His imagination and playfulness, he will play out his desires, when he plays “cops” he calls Cameron “Starsky” or “Starsk” and Cameron has to call him “Hutch” or they call each other “partner”, and this has been the regular thing for months. When they play “Speed” Levi calls Cameron “Rex” or “Racer-X” and of course Levi is “Speed Racer”, and Laura is “Huggy Bear”

3. His love, he is always coming up to one of us and hugging us and telling us that he loves us.

4. His energy, we really wish we had the energy to keep up with him, he has an over abundance without question.

5. His persistence, we would all do well to learn from how he goes after what he wants and doesn’t stop.

Levi we love you for all of these things and more, Happy Birthday.


For Levi’s birthday we all went to Raleigh to a place called Adventure Landing and played video games and drove the go carts. Here is a video clip of some of our fun.

Forever in Our Hearts

My great-aunt Bibs passed away....she was 91 years old. I love you Aunt Bibs.

The other day while I was talking with my brother Greg and reminiscing about Aunt Bibs, we both just shared sweet memories of how we remembered her. Greg told me of a time when he had first gotten his drivers license he and dad and Aunt Bibs were driving to cousin Kathy's wedding. Dad let him drive. I expect Greg was driving like a "16" year old and dad continued to remind him to slow down. Greg said that after a few chides from dad, Aunt bibs looked over at him and sort of gave him a knowing look and said "it's ok Greg hoooney". Ahhhhh, the wisdom. So sweet. It's no wonder he remembered that moment in time.

One sweet memory I have of Aunt Bibs is when she was living at dads apartment and she asked me if I wanted to go to Washington DC with her, on the subway!!! Well, of course I did! The night before, she put pin-curls in my hair so that I would be all fancy for our trip. One lady on the bus said "my, don't you look just like Shirley Temple". I will never forget that...

Dad was a dental technician so while Aunt Bibs was up to visit, dad had fixed her teeth for her. However,I remember Aunt Bibs without her teeth. I spent quite a bit of time with her during her visit, so I learned how to talk like she did....without her teeth. Lord forgive me for being such a simpleton, but to this day, my sister and brothers always request that I "talk like Aunt Bibs". I know Aunt Bibs would laugh right along with us.
We love you Aunt Bibs. We remember you with such loving, fond, sweet and genuine memories that can never be taken from our hearts. Thank you for always being so kind and understanding. You will be missed by so many. I can't wait to see you again!

Also, I wanted to honor the memory of a dear man that went to our church, Mr. Jerry Toler. Cameron and I didn't know him very well but from what we did know he was a wonderful husband, father, friend, and Grandpa. Thank you Lord for his life and for all of the people he had touched. At his service last night he requested two songs to be played. The first that you are hearing is by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton "When I Get Where I'm Going" and the other "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" by Barbara Mandrelle and George Jones. In listening to these songs you can can hear Jerry's heart. Real and beautiful.

Aunt Bibs and Mr. Jerry you both will be forever in our hearts....

Mrs. Amanda

Yesterday we celebrated a wonderful teacher, awesome servant and my sweet friend Amanda. She has been serving faithfully for over 3 years in the 4's, 5's and 6 year old class at our church. The kids are going to miss her and all of her spritual insight and wisdom. We had a little celebration with cake and goodies and lots of hugs from all the kids that will miss her smiling face over in the "Kidz Zone". She is moving into different areas of ministry and worship, and we know she will be a blessing in all that she does.

We had Amber go get her out of church, she told her that her dauughter (Anna G) needed her, and when she came in all the kids jumped out and yelled SUPRISE!!