May 4 – “Babies are coming”

Sounds like we'll have one of the babies this week.  It's not Christina, though.  She texted Chris from Houston that all was fine and they were going to the zoo.  Maybe the walking will trigger something.    Corey texted me to let us know that Janell had some high blood pressure issues and they were at the hospital for tests.  Then he sent another one to say that they were going to induce and they were in it for the long haul now.  The doctor indicated that the baby should be here sometime tomorrow.  One of you little dudes needs to get on out here.   I got copied in on some emails about the big rummage sale we're having up at the church on May 15th.  Sounds like we will also be doing a bake sale.  And one of the emails even said that they could ask Pastor Kelley to shamelessly advertise on his blog.  Well, they didn't use those exact words, but here it is, anyway.  Start cooking stuff to sell.  Or wait until the day before so it tastes fresh.  Call Rita or Lavon for details.  Or wait until I see another email about me doing an update.   We had a family birthday dinner for April yesterday.  Her birthday was back in April, but we just now coordinated schedules.  The idea was to make two big batches of shrimp gumbo.  One had fried turkey in it.  The other was strictly chicken – certified approved for Jachin and his nut-allergy consumption.  Everybody got here – well, except for Josh and Christi and Zak and Caleb – and Chris announced that it was ready.  And then she realized that we had forgotten the shrimp.  It was still in the freezer, waiting to be thawed out and peeled and de-veined.  We had turkey and chicken gumbo with rice.  It was still good.   After the meal we went out in the back yard so the kids could play.  Nathan got out the chainsaw and was ready to cut up the magnolia tree.  And we discovered the chain was too dull.  Wouldn't do anything but smoke like crazy.  So I had to head to the store for a new one.  Chris said I should just forget about it, but hey, we had manpower.  I couldn't find one at WalMart.  Of course I couldn't find anyone to help me, either.  So I went to Home Depot.  Took awhile to get help there, too, but I found one that would work.  It cut like it was going through butter.  The hardest part then was carrying the pieces of tree out of the yard.  Sure was a good thing Nathan was there.  I couldn't lift anything with my left arm.  The elbow was killing me.    We even cleared out some of the stepping stones that made up our patio while we had help.  Jachin put his muscle into that one.  We're hoping that when we can get some grass back there, the yard will look bigger and more kid-friendly.   Hebrews 13:1-2 says, "Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it."   Father, thanks for the angels you have sent to live at our house over the years.  Amen.