I have such a wonderful husband. I know that God looks down and smiles upon his servant heart. He takes every opportunity to teach our teens about service and he tries to get them out of their comfort zone. He would give the shirt off his back to a complete stranger and he is as gentle as a mouse.

My heart breaks for him when someone tries to tear him down with petty complaints about issues that won't matter in 5 hours(I stole that from Jim...thanks). Maybe this is why youth minister turnover is at about 18 months. This brings me to the National Conference on Youth Ministries in Atlanta! We are looking forward to fellowship with our fellow youth ministers! This is a time of renewal, a time to vent, and a time to talk with other people who know EXACTLY what you are talking about!

I am grateful to our shepherds who send us to the conference each year!

Well, it's offical: I'm 30! I wasn't looking forward to turning 30, but I had a wonderful birthday! I was reminded of how much I am loved by my friends and family!

Travis and Meredith bought me a cake with trick candles on it, so after they were all extinguished(literally with water) the cake looked and tasted a little waxy!

Fischer was in his preschool's Christmas program tonight. It is so fun to be a proud parent and watch him get up on stage. I will have some pics of him on stage soon, but for now I just have some pictures that I took before he went up on stage. I also have some pics of me with my wax cake...haha.

I feel bad because I haven't blogged in such a long time. I don't really have that much to say! Fischer's lead test came back as a false positive...that was a huge blessing!

Getting extremely excited about Florida...I am ready to thaw out! It's not even winter yet and we have had two straight weeks of ice, snow and COLD!!

I turn the BIG 30 tomorrow. I have 7 lours left to be in my twenties. Remember that show on TV called "The Thirty Somethings." I think that was the name of it. Anyway, I remember when that show came on, how OLD I thought those people were.

I added some pics of Fischer at Thanksgiving. The second one is Fischer with his great grandparents.

Well, it has been a stressful weekend. Fischer was tested for lead poisoning at his 2 year visit, and it came back positive. So, we went to Children's Hospital yesterday and had a second blood test. I know in my heart that he will be fine, but as a mother I was a little crazy. It is hard when your child's health is at risk and there is nothing you can do but sit and wait for the results to come back. I thought about all of the children who have leukemia or some other childhood illness. I can't even imagine how those parents watch their children suffer day after day.

This morning at church, several people(including a doctor) reassured me that many of those lead screenings come back as false positives. So, until then pray that this is the case. I don't handle health problems very well. It makes me feel very out of control. It's something that I need to work on.

Anyway, here is a pic of Fischer. I told him to go to his bed and start reading his LeapFrog Pad and that I would be there ina minute. This is where I found him:

So, not only am I going to the Natalie Grant concert, I won a Meet and Greet with her before the concert! YEAH! When I told my mom, she said, "Man, you are a lucky person, you seem to win a lot of things."



It's true...in the past three years I have won:



A $150 set of professional chef knives


A video IPOD(which at the time was worth $300 and I didn't really know what it was)


An $80 CD that has the entire Bible on it(like an audio book).


And now a meet and greet with Natalie Grant...the female vocalist of the year for two years now!

ANYWAY, here are some new pics of Fischer:

Random thoughts for today:

1) I have encounterd three sales people today...every one of them was rude, aloof and apathetic.
I guess customer service does not exist anymore.

2) Why is getting pregnant so difficult? I guess I will have to resort to drinking, smoking, drugs, and welfare...then I am assured a child or two.

3) Natalie Grant is having a FREE concert in Omaha next Thursday. I am SO excited! I am going to get there 2-3 hours early to make sure I get a seat!

4) When I arrived home tonight, my son was asleep on the hard, cold floor. What is his aversion to his new bed? Every morning at 4am something tells him to get out of his bed, turn on his light and come crawl in bed with us...grrr. I am fast forwarding to when he is 21....will it really matter that he woke me up every morning for months or possibly years? I will look back and wish he would still cuddle with me.

I wish that 2 year olds came with very detailed manuals.

This conversation took place in the car tonight on the way to the building:

Tracy: Hey Fischer, let's sing a song.

Fischer: Otay

Tracy: Let's sing Jesus Loves the Little Children!

Tracy: "Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the.."

Fischer: "Weorld(Fischer puts an e in it)"

Tracy: "Red and Yellow, Black and ..."

Fischer: "Green"

Well, he has been learning about colors, I think he just got confused!

Everyday Fischer seems to get smarter, sneakier and more mischevious! This is how I found him yesterday when he didn't want to take his nap. I thought he was asleep so I went and got my camera. When I pulled the book away he looked at me and said, "Hi Mama."

Then this morning he declared that he was having chocolate for breakfast. He went to the freezer and grabbed the chocolate chips. Unfortunately he has a sweet tooth like me. Everyday he amazes us with what he knows. Last night Franklin took him to the mall and he walked by a Santa Claus and said, "HO, HO, HO!" We haven't talked about Santa since last Christmas, so we were amazed how he remembered that.

Fischer's first attempt at fingerpainting!

Fischer got his face painted today for the first time. He just kept saying, "Wow!"

When we got home he stared at his face for about 1/2 hour!

Tonight is a very sad night for many. Three very sweet ladies were taken from this earth in a horrific crime. Tammy K. Link, 52; Sheila S. Ellis, 56; and Letannah Bishop, 87. We knew Tammy and Letannah when we lived in Ponca City. Brent Link, Tammy's husband is a blind retired Navy Seal and was home when his wife, mother and sister-in-law were all murdered by his wife's brother. They were such a sweet family. Tammy made Fischer a blanket when he was born...he has slept with that blanket every night! It was the only blanket that I would ever let Fischer sleep with because it was breathable! I used to go visit Letannah...she is the sweetest lady I have ever met. From the day I met her something about her struck me. She was a very poised and elegant lady. I remember one time she had us over for lunch. She served us chili dogs on very nice dishes! Sheila is Tammy's sister. I wish there was something I could do. I feel so helpless in this situation. Please pray for Brent, as he has suffered a tremendous loss. Please pray that the media quickly decides to get the story right. I know they are just doing their job, but they want to try and make Brent a suspect. Brent heard the gun shots and ran to attack his brother-in-law. I think I am in shock right now, and I guess writing about it makes me feel better. I attached a picture of Tammy and Letannah.

This skit is amazing! It's weird at first...but stick with it. It gets really good.

Kristina: Did you know that I have a shunt in my brain?

Tracy: No, honey I didn't.

Kristina: I wasn't born like this you know!

Tracy: Really? What happened sweetie?

Kristina: I was hit by a car when I was three and a half.

Tracy: Speechless

Kristina was just one of the many kids that melted my heart at Wheelchair camp this week. The therapeutic recreation staff was responsible for the swimming part of the camp, so we swam for 1.5 hours each day with them. I met so many amazing kids who have a perspective on life we are unable to have. I still can't believe I get paid to play and swim with the most interesting and sweet people on the earth.

Well, we did it. We finished our very first triathlon! Thank you Laura for committing to do the triathlon with me! Have you ever heard the expression, "I feel like I've been hit by a mack truck"? Well, that's how I feel right now! The swimming was SO much harder than I ever imagined. People were kicking lake water right in my mouth. A few times I had to stop and cough, gag and everything else to get the water out. The biking was hard too. There were some pretty big hills on the course. Then came the running...running is not my thing. I hooked up with this girl named Kristi and we were buds for pretty much the whole 3 miles. We finished together! It was a great experience and accomplishment but I don't see any triathlons in my near future.

Me and Papa on the "tractor"
VBS Backyard Bible School Dexter Church of Christ

Swimmin at Grandma's house

Last night we went to the Luis Palau Heartland Festival! It was extremely hot but we had a great time! The best part was seeing Mandisa, TobyMac, Building 429, Salvador and KJ-52 all for free!! Fischer did not like Larry the Cucumber! Luis was a good speaker too, very straightforward with the young people. The Omaha Police said there was 40-50,000 people and they were only expecting 20-30,000.

We went to a cookout last night and Fischer had a blast! Here are some pics of him swimming with his friends.

It's hard to see, but above is a picture of someone who could not afford a boat!

Ok, so my aunt Sheree convinced us to go out to this crazy neighborhood and watch fireworks! I know I said this last year, but these people in Nebraska are crazy about their fireworks! I didn't want to go because last year I was so scared, however Franklin really enjoys it and so I went. I was a nervous wreck the entire time...watching 6 teenage boys with brains that haven't fully developed(sorry but it's a fact) light fireworks was more than I could handle. I am not looking forward to the day when Fischer wants to light fireworks! Anyway, here are a few pics from the evening.

Ok, so I am just really curious who visits my site from Reston, Virginia. Reveal yourself! When I check to see who has looked I can pretty much figure out who everyone is..except you!

Root Canals are painful! Floss your teeth!

I have given Fischer several home grown haircuts, but he finally got his first "real" haircut. I can't believe how much older it makes him look!

I started my new job this week and I love it! For those of you who don't know, I am teaching low impact and water fitness on Monday and Tuesday nights to adults and teens who have disabilities. This job is so fun it doesn't even feel like work. Working with people who have disabilities has always been a passion of mine and I am thrilled to be doing it again. They are such sweet people that can teach us such great lessons about life and happiness. As I was assisting an older gentleman out of the pool tonight I said, "You have a great week." He replied by saying, "You have a great week as well, all 10,080 minutes of it." I was curious when I got home if there were actually this many minutes in a week, so I calculated it. He was right! They are such great examples to us about enjoying the small pleasures in life.
I am thankful to God that He has led me to this job!

Here is a picture of Fischer with his 5th cousins!!!

Here's a picture of my grandpa and the cousins

This is the Sewell family tree. It got destroyed in a tornado. In the background is the Oak Grove Church of Christ and the cemetary where all of the relatives are buried.

Fischer fell asleep on the way home from a playdate so I put him in bed when we got home. He's not real great about staying asleep after a short nap in the car. So, after about an hour of listening to him say, "No" and "Mine"(Definitely re-living moments at the playdate) I went in to find him like this:

I don't know why he does this but he loves to be in the dark! He will just sit under a blanket, hide in the dark closet and go into the dark bathroom and shut the door!

Fischer is petrified of snakes! Of course he does have good reason, considering he witnessed his grandpa hesitantly catching a snake in our backyard(It was quite a sight)! We have a slight snake problem in our neighborhood. They are just harmless snakes, however they are black and ugly and seem to be getting bigger and bigger. Last night Fischer was playing in his sandbox when he said to me, "Mama...SSSSSSSS.....SSSSSSSS.....Mama.....SSSSSSSS....SSSSSSSSS." Of course I knew that he was trying to tell me there was a snake in his sandbox. So, I went over and investigated and this is what I found:

A small piece of grass that was curled up like a snake!I have tried hard to teach him the difference between real and pretend, but I just don't think he gets it yet. If I even draw a snake on a piece of paper he will cry and run the other way!

Then Franklin went outside this morning and a BIG snake came out from underneath the deck! He called the neighbor boy over and he caught it. We tell him to take them to the field, but I think they are finding there way back here.

So, if anyone needs a pet snake please come over and get one out of our backyard!!!