Good morning people! I finally feel as though I have crawled up out of the hole!! It still amazes me each and every time the difference a day makes. Wednesday, I was still feeling very blah. I still got up, did what I needed to do, but just wasn't "feeling it". Thursday, yesterday, was totally different. I knew when I woke up, something was different!! I had some energy! I didn't feel "blah"! Thank you Lord!!

I have been dealing with some family issues this week, so I was talking to the Lord, asking Him to give me some verse of scripture, some chapter, some passage, anything to help me deal with the emotions of all this. I grabbed my study bible, and began to flip through it. I have several books, listen to several radio preacher/teachers, but when I am wanting something fresh, something NOW, I always grab my Bible, and flip and flip and flip, until the Lord talks to me! And once the Lord gave me the verse, of course, it was perfect for the situation, and the peace just flooded my soul. Thank you Lord. The particular study bible I was flipping through was the perfect one I needed at the time. The King James version reads "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations." That was not the one I was flipping through when I needed something that applied to this situation. My study bible that I was flipping through read, "Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions." Yea, that applies, and yea, that caught my attention. Because that is what we were dealing with this week, "opinions". And, more importantly, "opinions of someone who is weak in faith"! So, the peace came flooding in. I love those God moments in my life. That of course, led me to opportunities to share the verse as well as the God moment with others. This past couple of weeks I have had several opportunities to discuss with other Christian mothers about the "expectations" we have for our children. We make all the sacrifices, our free time, (?), our money, our energy, whatever, making sure our children are involved in this or that activity, because in our mind, it will be good for them. And yet, as they grow up, become young adults, leave our jurisdiction, they are not making good choices, not living Godly lives. As we look at them, and get all analytical, we can see slight hand prints of our teachings, our moldings. But, over all, they are mostly spreading their wings, exercising their new found "freedom to do whatever I want, no rules, no authority!" It is hard for us as parents to watch, but necessary in their growth, as well as their character development. Our own faith is what it is, because of that fiery furnace of life, is it not? I have told my kids time and time again, the difference between wisdom and experience. Most kids want the experience. They want to do it themselves, whatever the consequences. I have also reminded them, the consequences are not their choices. They may get to make the decisions, but the consequences are not their choice. They just are. Which is why it is so important to make good choices. Sometimes the consequences will follow you the rest of your life. That is where the wisdom comes into play. When you watch others, see the bad choices, and see the bad consequences that were the result of the choices, you should pay attention. Usually these consequences now play a big part in their daily lives. If you learn from their mistakes, and it helps you make better choices......that is WISDOM. But most often, young adults don't use wisdom. They use experiences and consequences. That is painful for parents to watch. But with much prayer, and pleading, we are able to turn it all over to God, and let God be God in their lives. We, as parents, cannot be the holy spirit for them. I claim the verse, the promise, train them up in the way they should go, when they are old, they will not depart from it. I tell myself daily, they are not old!! But, what I see alot, is what we do pass on to our children. It seems that we do it without even thinking about it. Whatever is our "passion", our kids seem to pick up on. As I have been listening to my daddy's dvds this week, he called it what it was, our god. Whatever it is that we devote all our our energy, time, talents to. That is what is god in our life. That is what our kids pick up on more than what we are trying to teach. You have all heard the "it's caught more than taught" saying. If we love shopping, our girls grow up love shopping. If we love football, volleyball, etc., our kids grow up loving sports, and watching sports, and playing sports. If we love hunting, our kids grow up loving hunting. Why is that so easy to pass on, yet Godly, christian values, are hard. Teaching them to be honest is hard? Teaching them to manage money wisely is hard? Teaching them to work hard, as unto the Lord is hard. It sure makes you think, don't it? I heard a man say once, that he wanted his son to go to a certain college. Yet he never said so. He just raised his son, took him to all the games that college had. Always watched that college play on tv. Always wore that college logo on all his stuff. When his son got ready to go to college. Guess where his son wanted to go? Yea, that's the point. His dad "shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deuteronomy 6:7). What are the parents that are producing strong kids, able to live the Christian life, even in this un-godly world doing different from us???? I am thinking, they are showing them their passion is not sports, hunting, shopping, palm trees, the beach, rodeo, volleyball, college, education, money, etc. They are slowly, diligently, living a Christlike life, daily leaning and trusting God to provide their needs, showing contentment in the life God has given them. Living their faith. Not buying into the fear that everyone else out there is sharing. This economy, that bank closing, this company laying off another 5000. Yes, times are tough. But, our faith is not in Wall Street. Our faith is not, ok, should not, be affected by any of that. That is what our kids "catch". What stresses us. What makes us happy. When they told me I had cancer, I knew how my kids would react, or at least how I thought they would. But then, God touched my heart. Your kids will react to this news, based on how you react to this news. And, you know what? My kids have been wonderful. They are so supportive. They are helping. But they are not moping, crying, telling others, "my mom is dying of cancer". One lady from my church told me, "I asked your daughter how you were doing, and she said, she's doing great!! She looks great in her wig! She is just being mom!! You wouldn't even know she has cancer, except for the week or so that she is laying in her room!" It made me smile, it did. Thank you God for allowing me to be "normal" to my kids. That this has not put this whole gloom and doom curtain over my family. We are continuing to walk this path, even though it is hard, it is still the path before us. All of us are walking a path that God has given us. We are all at different places on the path. Every now and then, look around. Smile at the others that are trying just as hard as you, to walk the path God has before them. You don't know what is in their heart. You don't know what they are dealing with. You don't even know how long they have been on the path. Just share the path, and encourage, lift each other up, and lets all show the world, that we as Christians can do this without stressing out daily, having a melt down daily, or believing the media when they try and scare us. Keith says, when I look down the road, and start thinking, "what is it going to be like in March?", I get depressed and scared. But if I stay focused on today, this is the day the Lord has given me, I do better!!! So there you have it folks....wisdom from my husband!! Stay focused!! Keep it focused on the Lord, because He is watching you, even when you don't feel it.

This morning, I got up, showered, and went downstairs and turned on my radio....my normal routine. Every day, I am trying to re-claim my energy. Keith says he has noticed that with each new treatment, it doesn't hit me as hard, but it does seem to "linger" longer. I think I agree with him. Usually, when I have my treatment on Wednesday, by Monday, I am up to driving a car. Yesterday, no way was I up to driving a car. My monthly home school support group meeting was last nite. And normally, I would have driven up there and joined my girlfriends for my monthly night out. But yesterday, I could just tell, my energy level was not there. My "energy bank" was low. This morning, I was trying to push the envelope so to speak. I have read on-line that you have more energy if you get up and force yourself to walk or be active. So, I was doing just that. I was downstairs, delegating the kiddos through their morning routine chores of feeding and breakfast clean up chores. And of course, was listening to my regular preachers in the background. Around, say 10 o'clock, Keith called to see how my day was going. I told him I was doing ok, and felt better today. He said, "good, because I need you to do something for me, if you are up to it." He had blown the hydraulic line on his skid steer, and needed some specific tools to fix it. So, after listening to what he needed and where they were, I again delegated that info to the boys to go load in my burb. And, ready or not, got in my car and drove 42 miles to his job site. Once there, he unloaded the tools, thanked me, and I then drove to mom's to hang with her for the day. Of course, by then, it was lunch time, so I called her and asked her what her lunch plans were. She said, she would put a pizza in, come on by. I stopped at the bottom of the hill and picked up some drinks and a salad for us to split, to add to the pizza. After lunch, we popped in a dvd of daddy and began to watch it. Mom did great, as she commented on the crowd at the church "back then", and the different people she saw in the crowd. As we were enjoying those moments, Janet Goodwin knocked on the back door. She came in and joined our "church service". Then, within 15 minutes or so, my daughter, Kelly, came walking in the door as well. We all sat and visited for a good 2 hours or so. It was a good afternoon. Around 3 or so, Janet said she had to go pick up her grandson, so she left. Kelly followed her out, at the same time. I started getting my stuff together to leave as well, and mom gave me several things to "take to the farm animals". On the way home, I was pondering the afternoon. It never fails to amaze me how good God is. I enjoyed watching mom tell Janet about her drive over to House Springs on Sunday, "all by myself". She then went in to telling her how she felt she was beginning to accept this path the Lord had her on, and if she was going to go anywhere and do anything, she was going to have to be willing to do it herself, even if it was hard to do. My momma does have early stages Alzheimer's, yes, she has memory issues, but for the most part, she is still a very strong woman, with a very strong will. We sat there this afternoon, and she was telling us how Martha had called and invited her down there to stay for 2 weeks, and that Thelma had called and basically put this road trip together. Then she turned to me and said, "we are taking your car, right?" I laughed out loud!! I'll let you know how that turns out. But the plan, today, is to take mom to Portageville, pick up Thelma, and drive them both down to Little Rock on March 2nd. I will spend the night, and then on the 3rd, I will leave them both there and drive back home. On March 4th, is my next treatment of chemo. It is also my last treatment of these particular drugs, FEC. Twenty one days after that, March 25th, I start my weekly treatments with two different drugs, Paclitaxol and Herceptin. I do that weekly for 12 weeks. Everything I read on line says those two drugs together have a whole different set of side effects. So, folks, I am praying now, and would like very much for all you to as well. I don't mind side effects, but just want them to be "doable". But, I am willing to take whatever it has to offer. (Like I have a choice....) So far, the nausea has been controlled by the drugs. The most annoying thing, as I have shared before is this extreme fatigue. The general overall feeling of "blaaaahhhh". But, the silver lining to this cloud, is the patience I have with the kids. I find myself taking more time to explain things, the "heart of the matter" so to speak. Today, we had another of our heart to heart talks about how God looks at your heart, not just your actions. God cares as much if not more about the WHY you are doing what you are doing, than He does the fact that you are doing it. So don't camp out and dwell on the fact that "at least I am doing it". We need to have joy. Emotions are a misleading thing. We can't let our emotions decide how we respond to external influences. A favorite quote around here is "be a thermostat, not a thermometer!" But, I am extremely grateful that I have the opportunity to spend the time with my kids that I do. Some days I appreciate that opportunity more than others. I pray that I do not take that for granted anymore, and that God will continue to help me lead these kids towards a life of loving and serving Jesus. But more importantly, God will continue to use me, and help me to understand that the results are in HIS very capable hands. I actually pulled a book off of my bookshelf this evening that I had not read in a very long time. But, the Lord put it on my heart, and I went looking for it this evening. It was a bible study I did many many years ago. I had written inside the front cover, the date we actually did that Bible Study....1990! Yea, folks, that's going back a few years. But the name of the book is called, "Lord, Change Me". It is by Evelyn Christenson. It was a very very good bible study. The Lord used it way back then, to teach me to stop praying the Lord would change my husband, or my kids, or my situation, or whatever, and change ME! It was a powerful study. It helped me to see that my joy was directly related to how much time I spent in the word. And if I had no joy in my daily life, I wasn't very pleasant to be around. People just don't want to be around negative people. If we are to be Christ to those around us, we need to have joy!! Otherwise, why would they want what we have? So, the challenge here is, get in the WORD!! The more time spent reading God's word, the more it shows up in our attitude, our spirit, our daily lives. The Bible says, "they will know we are Christians by our love." Lord, help me to make these choices, daily......LOVE, JOY, PEACE, CONTENTMENT. Help me to be a thermostat, not a thermometer!!

The words to this song, has touched me many times, and always seems to remind me who gets me through life. Since my strength is not up to par, and neither is my mind these days, I decided to just share the words of this song today. As I was listening to it again this morning, it touched me yet again. Enjoy. "The Anchor Holds"
"I have journeyed Through the long dark night
Out on the open sea By faith alone Sight unknown
And yet His eyes were watching me,
The anchor holds, Though the ship is battered, The anchor holds
Though the sails are torn
I have fallen on my knees, As I faced the raging seas
The anchor holds, In spite of the storm
I’ve had visions, I’ve had dreams
I’ve even held them in my hand
But I never knew They would slip right through
Like they were only grains of sand
The anchor holds Though the ship is battered The anchor holds
Though the sails are torn I have fallen on my knees
As I faced the raging seas The anchor holds In spite of the storm
I have been young But I am older now
And there has been beauty these eyes have seen
But it was in the night Through the storms of my life
Oh, that’s where God provedHis love to me
The anchor holds Though the ship is battered
The anchor holds Though the sails are torn
I have fallen on my knees As I faced the raging seas
The anchor holds ...In spite of the storm

Hello there folks! I am finally getting to sit up a bit more everyday. Today, I have spent most of the day downstairs. On the couch, but still, NOT IN THE BED!! My daughter, Jenna, was home for the weekend, along with her roomie's daughter, Jill. Jill is 10, and so is my daughter Kim, so they get along great, and Jill is no trouble at all. Kelly was here most of the day as well. We had worked on her resume Friday, and emailed it out to a couple sites on Craigslist. She got a hit on one, and she has an interview tomorrow!! So, folks, pray that the interview goes well, and Kell lands this job. It is working for an AT&T store in Manchester. She is good at that, and makes good money working for them, and it is full time, which is what she needs.

When I talked to mom last nite, she mentioned she wanted to drive to House Springs to go to church. I talked to her this morning, and she was backing out, so I didn't push it. I have learned not to push if she is not comfortable. I just encouraged her to get out of the house today and go to church, anywhere!! This evening, when I called her, I asked her where she went to church today. Her response was, "I drove over to House Springs, and back home, all by myself!! And not only that, I went to lunch at the bbq place your daddy and I used to go to with the Doria's!!" I said, "So you have had a good day!?" She said, "A very good day!" I love to hear mom so up beat. I got a call from her friend Mrs. Thelma yesterday. She is putting together another road trip for her and mom. She was calling to check my schedule for chemo, to see if it was doable. We are trying to get the details worked out to take mom and Thelma down to Little Rock the first week of March. I'll let you know if I can get it all worked out. My next treatment is March 4th. So, it is going to take some maneuvering. But, this week, I am still working on getting my energy back. I am not having any nausea, but this weakness is just annoying. But, this too shall pass..........

Have you ever noticed that when you are dealing with something in your life, everywhere you turn, somebody is talking about that particular thing? I refer to that as the "God moments" in my life. My routine, of sorts, is to come downstairs, and turn on my radio. Then, I make the coffee. My radio is set to a Christian radio station that plays one radio preacher/teacher after another. My life is busy, so I rarely get to actually sit down and listen to one from start to finish. But the Lord always seems to make sure I am in the room at the appropriate time to hear what it is HE wants me to hear, LOL!! And believe me, it always gets my attention. I will usually say, out loud, "I hear you, Lord!". The beauty of that, too, is that my kids hear me talking to the Lord. The little ones will ask what I am talking about, or what I am hearing, but the older ones, well, they are used to their mom talking out loud to God. But seriously, it always seems to be that one of them, if not ALL of them, will be preaching/teaching on whatever is going on in my life. Beth Moore was teaching on the passage in John 2 for two days in a row. Ok, so it was not two days in a row, since she is only on once a week, but I missed it, so I was listening on www.oneplace.com . For those of you who need a little reminder of what the second chapter of John talks about, it is the passage that so many people fall back on, when validating why they drink alcohol. Now, calm down folks. I know all the verses that go along with that whole discussion. I know the "drinking to drunkenness" verse. I know the "causing a brother to stumble" verse. I know the "eat meat or not eat meat" verse. I have teenagers, and I have adult kids, teehee. So, yes, I have had to endure this conversation many times. "Why is it ok for so and so to drink, and they go to church, and yet we don't believe it is ok to drink?" Once our kids move out, and are no longer under our supervision or protection or jurisdiction, I can no longer "tell them what to do". But, by George, as long as I have the opportunity, I will continue to tell them why we believe what we do. I was raised by a daddy and mom that, every time I walked out the door to go on a date, or whatever, I heard..."Remember who you are, and what you are!" I am Debra Faye Adams, I am the daughter of Richard and Ann Adams, I am a child of the King! Behave accordingly. Everything you do, reflects on me, and not only that, everything you do, reflects on God. I was a teenager, I went to college, I fell to temptation way too many times. I am a sinner, saved by grace. But I don't want to camp out there. I know I am covered by God's grace. I know I am "free from the Law". I know that I am not strong enough to live a perfect life, without sin. But I also love my Lord, and will always strive to attain the goal to live a life that is above reproach. I don't want to ever be referred to as a "carnal" Christian. My daddy preached on that many times. He preached "shun the very appearance of evil" many times. I feel very very blessed to have been able to sit under my daddy's preaching for so many years. We, as the Govero family, do not drink alcohol. We choose to abstain. For very personal reasons, that some people may or may not know. My husband was raised Catholic. When we married, he drank. He didn't just drink, he would be the first to start the party, and the last one to leave the party. Needless to say, that was a hard pill to swallow for a preacher's daughter, living in the same town as her daddy, Dr. Richard Adams, having listened to "everything you do reflects on me" all her life. I jokingly tell people, our first two years of marriage was hell. My husband drank heavily, came in drunk way too many times. We had some tough times, folks. But, we came through it, and God saved him. There was a time during that time, that as I was constantly "nagging", LOL, my husband about his "sins", God showed me that what was coming out of my mouth, was worse than what was going into his. God got a hold of me, and convicted me of my nasty attitude towards my husband. My daddy told me that marriage was so important to God, that if I didn't work on my relationship with my husband, he didn't believe my prayers were going past the ceiling. He showed me the verses of how a godly woman could win her husband by her actions. I knew those verses were there, but had neglected to apply them to me, go figure. So, it took some time, but I changed my attitude towards my husband, changed my behavior towards my husband. I began to love him. Truly, unconditionally, love my husband. And yes, God is good. He saved my husband! He walked away from alcohol, and my marriage was saved. Keith will tell you, he was not strong enough to do it in moderation. He liked the way it made him feel, even in moderation. He was the "pound/ton" guy. Whatever is good by the pound, is better by the ton!! That is the way it is with some people. I freely admit, I am one of those people. Most everything I do, I go all out! If I have to moderate it, I don't want to do it!! Now don't go giving me the "excess is sin" speech. I know that phrase is over used as well. If I did drink, I'd be sloppy drunk within no time, I am sure. Because I do like to "feel good", and if the drink makes me feel good, then yea, if one makes me feel this good, lets have another!! The next think you know, I would be asking my kids to not be so loud, and don't let the gate slam. So, I don't drink because I am weak. I don't drink because I have seen the pain that it causes to so many marriages. I can have fun without drinking. Keith and I have been known to attend a party that we know there will be alcohol. We go, we visit with our friends, but we have noticed that the later it gets, the more people begin to act differently. And, that is the point that we make our exit. That is when the moderation line has been passed, in my opinion, in our friends. The funny thing about the story of my husband, and his friends, back when we first got married. They noticed when he went to play cards, he didn't drink. He didn't preach at them, he just didn't join them in the drinking. He just played cards with them. It wasn't long, before they quit calling him. He was hurt by that. I remember him saying, "what, we can't be friends if I don't drink with you?" Yes, it was a hard lesson to learn for my newly saved husband. Who his true friends were. Who still wanted to be his friend, even if he wasn't the "party animal" anymore. I have seen it hurt people and destroy lives. No thank you. I'll have a glass of water, with lemon.

Hello people! Let me start out by thanking my friends that are stepping up to the plate to help me with my mom. Thanks Terry, for calling mom and inviting her to join you and Jim for dinner last week. And, thank you Paula for your continued willingness to take mom to lunch weekly. I do feel extremely blessed that my friends are "standing in the gap" for me. My daughter, Kelly, arrived back home Saturday. She has been living and working in Stephenville Texas. But, when she came home for Christmas, she made the decision to go back and give her notice and move back home. I tried to encourage her NOT to do that, I was going to be fine and besides, I had lots of help. She wouldn't hear any of it. She says she does not want to be 11 hours away while I am going through all this. She had a good job there, working for a Christian couple. They were very understanding about her decision and even encouraged her, if she changed her mind, that she could come back. They even tried to entice her to stay, by offering if anything happened with me, at any time, and she needed to fly back home quickly, they could pay for the plane ticket! They would get her home quickly, if she wanted to stay. I am grateful that she worked for such wonderful, understanding people. So, today, she is unemployed. We worked on her resume today, though, and she is making plans to go to St. Louis this week and put in her applications in a few places. Pray for her, as she attempts to find a job in this struggling economy, where jobs are hard to come by. For those of you that have forgotten, I go again for my third round of chemo this Wednesday, the 11th. I have had such a good week this week, and am not looking forward to Wednesday. I got to go to church yesterday!! I have been getting so many cards and letters from all my church family. All filled with something hand written, encouraging me and letting me know they are praying for me. My mom didn't get out and go to church yesterday. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shinning, so her reason for staying home and watching the TV preachers, was not the weather. But, it does help to set her days in order if she gets out on Sundays. She admits, that she counts backwards, when trying to decide what day it is, and does something like, "I went to church on Sunday, so this must be, let's see, Monday!" So, if she doesn't get out, she tends to lose track of her days of the week. There is nothing to set any one day apart from the other. I do still call her everyday, twice a day. She has joked, "that you need to call me everyday just to tell me what day it is!" So, yea, most days I call her and when she answers, I say, "Good morning, Mrs. Adams, today is Monday, do you have any plans for today?" This week is her "double dip" week. Two of the churches she has connections with, FBC-Festus and FBC-Herky, have senior luncheons once a month. They are both this week! Monday, today, was FBC-Festus. This Wednesday (my chemo day), will be FBC-Herky. She goes to Bible Study that Bob Vittoe teaches at FBC-Festus every Wednesday. But this week, because of the senior luncheon at Herky on Wednesday, she will skip the bible study, because she says it is too hectic, and she has to leave Herky before the luncheon is over, and hurry over to the bible study, and ends up being late for the bible study. So, she will just stay and fellowship with the Herky people this Wednesday. This morning, when I called her and asked her what her plans were for today, she informed me she was planning on going down to FBC-Festus to their senior luncheon! I didn't even have to remind her! (Thanks, Pam, for calling her to remind her!) Mom also told me that Janet Goodwin had called her and offered to take her to lunch this week, as well! So, between her luncheons at the churches, and Janet and Paula taking her out, she is going to have a full week this week!! Thanks girls!! Which is good, because this is going to be my week of "becoming one with the bed/couch". I will sleep alot, beginning Thursday. And, I will probably lose my voice, if the last two times are anything like this round. I am beginning to recognize the pattern. I sleep for a week, then I begin to get my strength back about the time I have no infection fighting white blood cells. That is when they tell me to stay home, and if I can't stay home, at least stay away from anyone that has been sick in the last two weeks, and stay away from crowds!! So, I miss two out of three Sundays. Today was another beautiful day, here in Missouri. We sat outside, and enjoyed the sunshine. My son, Nick, brought my grandson, Ruger, over and we all had a family day. When we all came back inside for lunch, we stayed inside after we cleaned up the mess, and did a little school. Today was a good day. I am trying to stay busy so I don't think/dread what I know is coming. As my daddy used to say, I am processing.........

“Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands” (Prov.
14:1).

I have been spending some time lately, pondering what it means to be a "wise woman", and what it means to be a "Godly woman". I also have been spending some time praying, and talking to the Lord. I ran across this on the web page of Nancy Leigh DeMoss. She has a print out entitled "Becoming A Woman of Virtue". These are just a few of the questions we are supposed to ask ourselves. If you want to answer all of them, and test yourself, then I suggest you go to her website, http://www.reviveourheartsradio.com/ and see how you are doing.

Am I building up my house or tearing it down?
Am I investing in my marriage?
Am I nurturing the heart of my marriage?
Do I frequently express admiration and gratitude to my husband?
Am I reserving the best of my physical and emotional energy for my family?
Am I creating a climate (through words, actions, and attitudes) that makes my husband want
to be at home?
Am I content to be “at home”?
Am I finding my “fulfillment” through reverencing and serving my husband and family?
Would my husband, as well as other men and women who know me, say that I am a woman of moral virtue and purity?
Have I purposed in my heart to be morally pure?
Am I making myself accountable to my husband and to another godly woman for my walk with God and others?

I am just going to share some verses with you. I do realize that interpretation of these scriptures, as well as how we should apply them to our lives, should be left up to the holy spirit. I am not trying to be the holy spirit here, but I am going to try and challenge the women who read this to examine their hearts, examine their actions and examine their Christian witness to others.


“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable
for him’” (Genesis 2:18).

“For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created
for woman, but woman for man” (1 Corinthians 11:8–9).

I will finish or follow up on these scriptures and this thought later, since this is a busy day as well. But I do know that I need to write something on here, people have been calling asking if I am sick again, and why am I not writing something, anything, nothing at all!! I have not written on here in almost a week. Let me say, it is not because I have been sick. I have been busy!! Keith took me up to mom's house on Monday morning, and by 9:30am, mom and I were heading south, on our way to Collierville, TN. For those of you who don't know, Collierville is just south of Memphis. That is where a very dear friend of ours lives, and she happens to be a hairdresser. So, you guessed it, mom got a haircut and perm while we were there!! It was a great road trip. We stopped in Portageville on the way down, which is where I graduated high school. We had lunch with a couple of ladies that have been family friends for many many years. During the recent ice storm, Portageville was one of the towns in the boot heel of Missouri that totally lost power. One of the national guard guys said that this was the worst town they had ever seen, there was not one house or business in that town that had power for several days. Of course, when we got there on Monday, McDonalds was one of the two restaurants in town that had electric. So, yea, it was packed. But our friends had gotten there before the lunch rush, and had us a table!! We enjoyed visiting with them for over an hour, then got back on the road. We finally arrived at Janice's house just a little past 3. We sat and visited for a few minutes, and then she took mom into her little shop and began the make over. I sat out there with them for a little bit, then went inside to call my husband, and a friend that lived in Memphis. I talked to my friend, Debi Darnell Martin, for nearly an hour!! We went to high school together. Later that evening, we then went out to enjoy some Memphis style BBQ ribs at a very famous BBQ place. It had pictures all over the walls of all the celebrities that had dined there. We left there, and then Janice gave us a tour of Collierville City Square. Once we arrived back at Janice's house, she served us desert of home made pecan pie!! Thanks, Janice for a wonderful evening! After visiting for a while, mom went up stairs to bed. Janice and I stayed up until nearly midnight talking. The next morning, we had breakfast, and sat around visiting. We then moved to the piano room, where Janice played the piano, while we sang some very old hymns. It was such fun. After lunch, mom and I loaded up and headed north. On the way home, we stopped in Caruthersville, and toured the church where daddy used to pastor many years ago. We also went by the home of a very dear friend, and visited with her for awhile. We then got back into the car, and headed towards home. We didn't stop in Portageville on the way back, mom was ready to be home, so we passed that exit up, and just called Mrs. Thelma and told her we would send her a picture of mom's new perm. We arrived at mom's around 6:30. I fixed supper for us both, and then we both sat in the recliner's, and watched some TV. Before long, we were both dozing off in the chairs. Being the tired people we were, we both agreed that 8:30pm was not too early to go to bed!! So, we turned off the lights and moved to the bed. The next thing I remember, mom was getting dressed. She had already been up, and in the shower, and I never even heard a thing!! Wow, I was one tired puppy. After breakfast, Keith showed up to pick me up, and we both gave mom hugs and kisses, and left. She had Bible Study to go to at 1 down at FBC Festus. Keith and I did some running around in town, then got home that afternoon. I hugged all my kiddos, then settled into routine things of getting supper together, cooked, served, and cleaned up. It was a fun road trip, but I do so enjoy coming back to my home and my family. Mom was the same way. She kept saying, "it was good to visit with all my friends, but it is so good to come home to my home." I know the feeling...