Here is a new picture of Ben, He is really growing up! 

Ben in his Sunrise Buffaloes Uniform

Bens football pictures for 2007

The church gang that came to cheer the Sunrise Buffaloes on!!! 

Our weekend in Denver

We found out we could go to Dove Field in Denver and watch the Broncos practice, so the Fergusons, the Smiths, and Bens friend Sid hit the road. We decided to tour the playing field while we were there, didn't look near as big as it does on T.V. Pictures are the invesco Field sign, the Broncos locker room, the Broncos practicing and of course, the fridge where they store all the beer for the game!

 

Denver Weekend

A picture of us when we visited Invesco Field in Denver. Found out we could go and watch the Broncos practice and took a tour of their playing field while we were there. 

Here is a picture of my mom on her 74th birthday,













one of my mother in law Erma and my mom when I dumped them out of the car after spending way too much time traveling with them,























one of me in jail after spending way too much time with them,








and one of Ben in his Tuxedo in the Sound of Music. 

Ben is now 14!!!

My pictures are coming out blurry for some reason, here is one of Ben after we got back from eating African food at Seringeti's, none of us had room for cake! 

some kitchen pictures

Here are some before and afters of our kitchen, I haven't figured out how to post more than 4 at a time yet, I think you can click on them and make them bigger to see.

Some new pictures of the house

Here are some before and after pictures of our (ok, Randy's and Ben's) Den, it's really starting to feel like home.

The Move is ON!

It's already January 16th, My Mom always said that we wish our lives away until we are 21 and then the years fly by!!! How true that is!!! We are about 2 weeks from moving into our house!!! The carpet is going to be installed on Thursday!!!! Not everybody gets new carpet for their birthday!!!Whooppee!!!! Maybe life will get back to what ever normal is!!! Ben has a part in the school musical "The sound of music", he's glad he's a Nazi and not a little boy wearing shorts and suspenders!!! It should be fun for him, they have an awful practice schedule though. It will be a good excuse to get more pictures of him to post, I hope!

New picture of Ben

 
Ben needed a picture of himself to use when he is auditioning for a play today, so I took this one. He doesn't give me many chances to take pictures of him. 

DECEMBER 11th ALREADY!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!

Ok, did this year go by as fast for all of you as it did me? What in the world happened to August???? Hope you have all gotten your Christmas shopping done and are relaxing by the fire with the family. We are getting closer to moving. Looks like it will be sometime in early January, that is if we decide on carpet, tile, wood, linoleum, peel and stick, laminate, or whatever else there is to put under our feet....and then there is the countertops....formica, granite, Laminate, wood, stainless,soapstone, marble, concrete...and I don't even like to cook!!!! Don't get me wrong...I feel totally blessed to have these kinds of "problems", but those of you that have bought a "fixer upper", know exactly what I'm dealing with!!! lol We're having fun with the project though...today we sat outside of Home Depot for an hour waiting for the store to find the shower stall that we purchased and in the beautiful 1963 heirloom Ferguson family pick up that we were in, people kept walking past us I'm sure thinking we were homeless and I kept hoping they would toss change into the cab to us....but we used the much needed "family" time to do some bonding and get a few laughs.....you get it where you can!!!! We are really enjoying being a part of our church family and found out today that we have a potential buyer for our theatre turned church in the 50's and we will be building a new one within 2 years....wooo hooo!!! That will be exciting!!! It's been in the works for around ten years....We have a great new pastor that makes it fun and exciting to be there!!! Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!!! And the happiest of New Years!!!!

New pics of Ben

Here is a couple pictures of Ben playing football (he's the one crouched down in the middle in the maroon)and after his Junior/Senior Vocal Concert. I think he found out that if you want to get the girls, you have to be where they are....life for Mom just keeps taking interesting turns....

A Sign of Renewal

Isn't this a beautiful picture? It is the first sign of hope for the beach in Biloxi. It's been 2 months since the waters receded back into the ocean to show what wasn't left of Biloxi and the rest of the Mississippi coast.

oh boy....Here we go again !!!!

We have taken the dive again and bought another fixer upper, this one we are going to call home! It is going to be hard to leave the house that Randy has called home for so long, but the nice thing about it is that it is 1 1/2 blocks from Ben's school and about 10 minutes from Randy's work. But....does it need work!!!! In my imagination it's a comfy ranch style home with everything on one level (yeeeah, no more falling down the basement stairs for me!!! Yes, I am a clutz!!!!) It has the original 1960's look to it and the floors are all nasty!!! I will post some photos of it now, and then post some of the after...I wish this was the was the show "While you were out" and I could be out, but we get to do the work ourselves, with the knowledge and energy of my wonderful father-in-law Wilber!!! He's the brains behind the operation!

The newish Dump Truck!!!

I am soooo excited!!! I met my brother Don and sister-in-law Toni from Biloxi in Missouri yesterday, and it's so good to see them alive after hurricane Katrina! They went to pick up a dump truck that he is going to use to start a hauling business. It's a mixed blessing that his house was spared the wrath of Katrina, because after losing his job along with 170,000 other people, the job market is a little tight at the moment. After his fall from a ladder, Thursday they find out if he has cracked his hip, if so he's looking at surgery and traction, please pray that whatever it is, is fixed by thursday.
I hope he can get into business helping with the clean up efforts on the coast and be able to make a living. Please keep them in your prayers.

What a year this month has been!

The only thing on my mind for the past almost 4 weeks has been the destruction in Biloxi from Katrina. It's really a shame that the southern look of Biloxi will be forever gone, I was sad when the city allowed the casinos come in and take away the coastline of the old canneries. Now, they are considering letting the casinos open on both sides of the highway, not just the coastal side. Opens up the use of Eminent Domain where if someone wants to keep their property and rebuild, the city can force them to sell out. Who were the idiots that passed that law??? I think we should put putt putt golf courses where their houses are,but, I fully understand that this will allow the people of Biloxi and Gulfport to put their lives back together. I am attaching a link to The Eye of Katrina blogsite that two guys in Biloxi (Mike Keller and Josh Norman) put together that kept me breathing for the 3 days that I didn't hear from my brother and his wife. These guys holed up somewhere and would venture out and take pictures of the devastation and go back and post them on their blog. I know they didn't sleep for at least 3 days and nights, cause I was watching their blog constantly. They work for the Herald Newspaper in Biloxi, but went above and beyond the call of duty. There should be a special award for these two. I will be forever grateful.

Jamaica 2005

Some of the happy faces that just keep calling you back.

Hi, it's been awhile since my last blog, we just returned from our 3rd mission trip to Jamaica. This was the best trip we have had!!! We arrived in Montego Bay July 15th, and on the morning of the 16th, hurricane Emily decided to rear her ugly head. Fortunately, she didn't hit the island head on as was anticipated, she went south of the island (hmmm, an answered prayer?) and we got to enjoy the wind and rain, but none of the damage. Also, because of all the rain, we were afraid of flooded roads up the mountain, so we decided to stay in the Villa another night. We headed up the mountian early the morning of the 17th, and still had to have some help in crossing a flooded road, we had two boys that waded back and forth across the flood showing cars where the shallow areas were. I have a feeling there were two wealthy feeling boys at the end of the day!

Ben's 7th grade picture

Enjoying Jamaica