I say it's a cuss word.

I know. Strange title. But Michael and I have a differing opinion on something. And, I know other Christians who feel the way that Michael does. So, I thought I'd bring it to the masses.

I was brought up where p*** or p***** (as in "p'd off") is a cuss word. Michael says it's not. Now don't get me wrong. Michael doesn't say it because he knows how I feel about it. 

I started thinking about this word. If it wasn't a "bad" word, then Lucy would have said it on I Love Lucy. Or we might have heard it come out of Andy Griffith's mouth. Why didn't we? The first time I ever remember hearing it on tv was on the show Friends. And this was only after the networks realized they could get away with d***, h***, a**, and b****. Now they are getting away with p***. 

If it isn't a cuss word, then why did George Carlin list it as one of the seven dirty words you can't say on television? You can read the wikipedia article yourself, but be warned, the words he lists are HORRIBLE! You can trust me on this one, or read it for yourself. (And yet, p*** is one of them....makes you wonder, doesn't it?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words

God's Word says, "But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips." (Colossians 3:8) And, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." (Luke 6:45)

Personally, I want positive, uplifting language coming out of my mouth, not a word that George Carlin lists as a dirty word. (And he would know.) So, I still think it's a cuss word. Now, I can't wait for Michael to get home from CA so I can share with him what I found. :D In the meantime, what do you think?

You know you're in Texas when...

1. Everything is written in English AND Spanish.
2. You don’t know what half of the menu is at the Mexican restaurant.
3. It is 98 degrees in October.
4. What’s a sweater?
5. Everything is brown with a touch of green.
6. The leaves don’t change color. They just fall off.
7. Geckos come in your house, and you don’t mind because they will eat the roaches. (Which we     haven’t seen yet. Thank you, God!)
8. If your name is Laura Dawson, you don’t have any allergies. (Another thank you, God!)
9. It never rains.
10. And the piece de resistance, you can buy a Cactus Pear at Wal Mart. Allow me to elaborate.

Victoria and I went to Wal Mart today to get some salad. In the produce section, I notice the strangest thing I have ever seen. We looked at it, picked it up, and I started trying to figure out what it was. Avocado? No. Artichoke? No. Then I saw the tiny little tag above it...Cactus Pear. I started picking them up wondering about them. A lady came up to buy a few. I asked, “Are you buying these?”

She said, “Yes.”

I said, “What are these?”

She said, “These are pears from a cactus.”

I said, “How do you eat them?”

She told me what to do. She said there were seeds inside. No biggie. There are seeds in watermelons, strawberries, cherries, kiwi, etc. I can handle seeds. I asked her how to know which is a good one to buy to try today. She picked out a cactus pear for me. I thanked her and went to get a baggie for it. Good grief! I noticed my pinkie had started to itch. When I looked, I had teeny, tiny, almost invisible hair-like stickers in my pinkie! Oh my gosh! I’d been prickled! I didn’t follow Baloo’s advice and handle the prickly pear by the claw! Victoria had stickers in her hand, too, but she didn’t itch because she isn’t allergic to things like I am. Needless to say, I was ready to get out of Wal Mart with my prickly pear and go home and wash my hands.

I got home, washed my hands and worked on getting the stickers out of my hand. Victoria did the same. It was time to try it!



To eat a cactus pear, you cut off both ends,
  


then slice the skin down the middle

and peel the skin away.

It is ready to be eaten. I cut the pear in slices for us. The result...
  

  
The taste itself was okay. It didn’t really have a taste. I did not like the seeds AT ALL. They were like small pebbles, and there were a ton of them. It was very difficult to get to the fruit. Victoria’s opinion...  

“Yuck!”

There you have it. Now you know how to eat a cactus pear next time you pick one up at your local Wal Mart!

By the way, I found two more stickers in my hand a few minutes ago. Good grief! These tiny things are practically invisible and make me itch like crazy!

Happy hunting for prickly pears!

Laura

The Fort Hood Area

I started this blog forever ago, but we just got Internet on Friday, September 19, and we have been so busy unpacking our boxes. So, here is what I started. It is a little about the area around Fort Hood...

Wow! I have never seen so many strip clubs, pawn shops, tattoo and piercing parlors, title loan shops, etc., in one place in my life. It is so sad to see how the secular world "caters" to these young, naive soldiers who are earning a nice income and don't know what to do with their newfound "wealth." It is so disappointing to see.

There are a lot of U-turns to make around here, and we couldn't figure out how to get back on the main road we wanted and we ended up taking a back road that was SCARY! I have never seen so many strip clubs. We know to never go down that road again, especially at night.

It is also very flat here and very brown. We do have some squatty "trees" in our yard, and I can't wait to see if the leaves will fall off or not. I don't know what kind of trees they are. I will hopefully post some pics soon.

We had our first taste of authentic Mexican food the other day. Now, I have always been one who knows Mexican food. Afterall, I waited tables at a Mexican restaurant when I was in college. Michael and Victoria always ask me what things are because I know my Mexican food. When I looked at the menu at the restaurant last week, I didn't know what things were. I had never heard of some of the items. I actually had to ask the waitress questions!! Victoria asked me how I knew that this was authentic. I told her because I didn't know what everything was on the menu.

I ordered the chicken fajita nachos. Victoria ordered two beef fajita soft tacos, and Michael ordered something I can't remember. My nachos were so different. We are used to melted cheese poured over the nachos. It was definitely shredded cheese melted over chips the size of half a flour tortilla. They were HUGE! Victoria's tacos looked fabulous. Beef with lettuce, tomato and cheese. She could only eat one. Michael's meal was interesting. It was two corn "tortillas." But the tortilla's were about 3/4 inch thick! Between the tortillas was ground beef, cheese and a type of pica de gallo. It was interesting. I think next time we will try the fajita beef, not the ground beef. We will definitely go back.

Well, I have to get back to my unpacking. I think we will be unpacking for the rest of the week.

Until next time, have a blessed week!

Laura

Car Trouble, Yucky Houses, and Hurricanes...Oh My! PART 2

Car trouble overcome, we move on to yucky houses...

We were blessed to rent a house from another chaplain who has moved to Germany. When we got to Texas on Sunday, we drove by the house to check it out. Oh no! The chaplain told us the master bedroom was larger than ours was at the parsonage. This bedroom was definitely smaller! We couldn't have smaller! Our bedroom suite is way too big for smaller. And, the other three bedrooms were cracker jack boxes. The gate on the fence was hanging off its hinges. And, this was just from walking around the outside of the house. We were very nervous now and were beginning to regret signing the lease after only seeing pictures of the house. Michael and I decided we would be at the rental agency first thing in the morning. I started praying and didn't stop...

By the way, Victoria was so sick. She was coughing and sniffling and blowing her nose like crazy. I got her Nyquil...for the first time. She slept all night.

Monday morning, we left Victoria at the hotel and went to the rental agency and told them we were not pleased with the outside of the house and the discrepancy in the size of the master bedroom. We asked to see the inside. We met the locksmith with new keys at the house. Oh. My. Gosh! No way was this house going to work. The rooms had old, peeling wallpaper that looked dingy. We thought they were all painted walls. The refrigerator was moldy and mildewed on the inside. Ewwwwww! We knew it would not work for us. We went back to the rental agency and told them so. We asked if we could get out of the contract. They e-mailed the owner. We would have to wait. Until then, we looked at two more houses and found one we loved. LLLOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGG story short.......after 54 hours of tortuous waiting, we were let out of the contract since the owner never responded to a single e-mail the rental agency sent to him. We were tickled! Now, the agency told us that they had told the owner that there were things he needed to do in order to rent the house, and he wouldn't do it. We figured that maybe God used us to show the owner what needs to be done so that the house is in condition enough to rent out. We are just grateful and give the praise to God for getting us out of the contract and into a lovely home that we can't wait to live in.

We learned a great lesson: Never sign anything sight unseen. Victoria saw the anguish it caused us and said that she would remember this lesson so she doesn't repeat it herself in her adulthood. Good girl!

And about Hurricane Ike, we got maybe 30 minutes of light rain, and that's it. It has been extremely windy, but that is all. So, we missed the hurricane.

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. We cherish those prayers. By the way, Victoria is STILL sick. But what a constitution! That child can take Nyquil and stay up ALL DAY LONG!!! I don't know how her little body can handle it. I take 1/2 a dose, and it knocks me out for two days. What's up with that? It's crazy!

Until next time, have a very blessed week!

Laura

Car Trouble, Yucky Houses, and Hurricanes...Oh My!

We had the Graduation Banquet on Wednesday night, September 3. We got to dress up again. We had a very nice time.
  


Graduation was moved to Thursday. Here are a few pictures from graduation.     

Michael graduated with the largest class ever to go through CH-BOLC. It was a wonderful ceremony, and we were fortunate enough to hear the Chief of Chaplains speak again. We have heard him speak twice previously. He is such a godly man, and we, as a nation, are blessed to have him over our chaplains in the military.

We spent Thursday evening loading our cars and headed out Friday morning at 8 a.m. Unfortunately, we encountered car trouble within minutes of pulling out of the hotel parking lot. Michael’s car was not doing well. So, we found a auto store, Michael got what he needed and put it in the fuel tank. He said he was still having problems as we drove. We made it to Augusta, GA, where our dear friends live. We couldn’t reach them by phone, so we stopped by there house. :O) That’s a sign of a good friend...just stop in without phoning first. (We tried!) Holly let us in her house of refuge and called Doug, her hubby. Doug thought it sounded like something else, so Michael worked on the car some more and fixed that. It didn’t work. Michael went to Doug’s work so Doug could hear it firsthand. Michael tried something else; it didn’t work either. The car was good enough to continue on. So, after lunch with Holly and the girls, we headed out again. On the way to Birmingham, my car hit 200,000 miles. I LOVE my car. :O)


We made it to Birmingham, our next stop for the night. We went out to dinner with our friends Grace and Alan at Mudtown. It is excellent if you ever get the chance to dine there. Of course, we have to take our bird with us now since we are moving. She seemed to being doing pretty well through all of the traveling.


Michael and Alan golfed on Saturday and for lunch, we ordered a Chicago Pan Pizza from Tortuga’s. OMGosh! Fabulous! Soon after lunch, we said farewell to our friends and were off.

I followed Michael the entire way because we were concerned about his little car.

We stopped at a rest area in Mississippi, and as I pulled into my parking space, I saw friends of ours from the chaplain’s school! I couldn’t believe it! It was Michael’s battle buddy, Paige, his wife, Ashley, and their beautiful daughter, Caris. They were on their way back home to New Orleans. We were so happy to see them and spent a few minutes chatting before we all got back on the road. God is so good.
Paige and Ashley at the graduation banquet.



We made it to our final stop of the day, Ruston, LA. Friends from the chaplain’s school offered their home for us to stay in on our way to TX. We met up with Jeff and Libby and went out to dinner. I can’t remember where we went, but it was very good. I know Michael and I crashed that night. We were so tired. We went to an early church service with Jeff and Libby on Sunday, and then, once again, we were back on the road.

Michael’s car continued to cooperate, and we made it to Killeen, TX, within about six hours. Here are shots of our first moments in TX.
  

We were going to check into the Holiday Inn Express because they allow pets, and we have our little cockatiel with us. Unfortunately, only smoking rooms were left. Thankfully, more friends from chaplain’s school were staying there with their dog and cat. They said they could watch our little bird, and we got a room down the road at another Holiday Inn. So we left Grace with them and checked into our own room. It seems like things are running together and I can’t remember what we did for the rest of the day. Oh well. I know we ate something somewhere. LOL!

I have written a novel. But, tomorrow, I will tell you a little about the “yucky house!”

Until next time, have a blessed week!

Laura

Graduation Update....

It's official! Prayer works. You heard it hear! (As if we didn't already know.) :o)

Michael's graduation WILL be held in the original place, the Solomon Center. Praise God! AND, the chaplains will wear their Class A uniforms (their nice green ones, not the cammos). Yay! God has worked it all out. It has still been moved up to Thursday instead of Friday, but that's okay. No problem. 

We made other changes to our own schedule. We are going to load up the cars tomorrow after graduation and stay one more night here. We will head out early Friday morning. Phew! We have too much stuff to load and would be so tired if we tried to leave Thursday.

Thank you so much for your prayers. It means so much to hear from you and know you are praying for us. I hope that none of you are affected by Hanna, Ike, and Josephine. 

Have a wonderfully blessed week.

Laura

Egad and Gadzooks!!!!!

Well, the Army has thrown us a curveball. Michael was supposed to graduate on Friday at 2:30. There are many chaplains who have friends and family flying in for the big day. Due to Hurricane Hanna headed our way, the Army has moved the graduation to TOMORROW at 2:30. It has thrown everything into a tailspin. Our friends and family who were coming are no longer coming. And, instead of us heading out on Friday, we are leaving tomorrow. The Army wants to be able to have housing for people being evacuated from the coast. 

On one hand, I'm happy that we get to leave a day early. On the other hand, I am so sad because graduation may not take place in the really big Solomon Center and may take place in their classroom. We went to a friend's graduation last year and loved the structure and formality. It was so nice. It will be so cramped and crowded in their small classroom. Please pray that it will be in the Solomon Center. Also, please pray for all of the people being evacuated.

Until next time (which may be in Texas), have a BLESSED week and stay safe.

Laura

We're Almost Done Here

Can you believe our time in SC is almost over? Time really has gone by quicker than we expected it to. Michael is just about done with all of his classes. My classes begin tomorrow. I'm looking forward to my Officer's Wives Classes. I'm sure I will learn a ton of stuff. We are also headed to another formal banquet on Wednesday evening, so be on the look out for Michael and me dressed to the nines again. How fun!

We will leave Friday after Michael's graduation to head to TX. Please pray for us as it looks like we will be driving through Gustav, Hannah, Ike, and/or Josephine! Good grief! Of course, pray for the people who may lose everything they have. How sad. I hope it isn't as devastating as people are expecting it to be. 

Hopefully, the rain won't be at Fort Hood when we get there. We really don't want to have to unload in the rain.  

Please pray, too, that none of our furniture or things were hurt in the move and that we get everything moved in safely. 

Thanks for your prayers, love and support. 

Until next time...God bless!!

Laura

Must see goal my cousin made...

Two in one day! This is a 32 second clip. What you see is my cousin, Mo Isom, kicking a goal. She plays for LSU and is ranked as one of the top 6 goalies in the nation. Geaux Meaux!

Victoria and Kelsey Singing at MCT Camp

I picked Victoria up from the airport yesterday after she spent two weeks in Montana at drama camp. She had a blast and didn't want to come home. LOL! Each year, they have talent night where the kids can get together and perform whatever they want to just for fun. Here is Victoria and Kelsey performing "Taylor the Latte Boy" during talent night. (Victoria is the one on the right.) Kelsey is the young lady whom Victoria flew to Seattle to spend some time with before camp. Her parents took care of Victoria for us since we couldn't be there this year. Enjoy!

Watch these fabulous videos!

Wowee!!! Thanks to Jennifer for sending me this awesome video. I LOVE it! I think it would be really easy to incorporate into ANY church. It looks like all they use are white gloves, black lights, and black clothes.

Then, I found the second video. Take the time out to watch these. You won't be disappointed.

Many blessings,

Laura

Homeschooling

I am so ready to begin homeschooling again. We normally would have started by now, but our books are in Texas. And, Victoria is in Montana. :O) Oh well! Once we move to Texas and get unpacked, school will begin again. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the rest of the Olympics.

There are several reasons why I homeschool. The main reason is I want Victoria to have a Christ-centered education...an education you can't get in public schools since God isn't allowed there. I now have more reasons for homeschooling. I read one article this morning that saddened me and one that scared me. The first article is found here: 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080818/ap_on_re_us/schools_hard_times

It talks about all of the cutbacks needed for some schools to survive the economic slump we are in. Field trips are being cut. Some schools are going to four day school weeks. Electives are being cut. (I wonder if they will cut their sports programs? Nothing about sports was mentioned. Hmmmm....) It is so sad to see so much stuff cut out of these kids' lives.

The second article I read is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080815/us_nm/texas_guns_dc

A Houston, TX, district is allowing teachers to take guns to school! I realize there have been more school shootings. I realize it might be pretty scary in schools these days. But, the "what ifs" of teachers bringing a gun to school are too frightening to mention. And, it is in TEXAS! How many districts will follow this landmark decision? For us, this rings too close to our future home. Other schools across the nation might follow their lead, and there might soon be guns in schools across the nation. What a horrible thought. 

I am praising God for leading us to homeschool. I am praising God for allowing us to live in a country where we have the freedom to homeschool, and we have good people out there defending that freedom...the HSLDA and our nation's military. Praise God I can teach my daughter at home without the fear of drugs in the schoolroom, a kid coming to school with a gun, bullying, etc. The list goes on and on. 

Until next time, may God bless you this week. 

Laura

We got the house!

Praise God! He is so good and faithful. We didn't know what to do about housing. On-post housing is rather small at Fort Hood, so we considered renting off-post. We have been praying about where to live. 

Michael met another chaplain here who is being moved to Germany for three years. He just so happens to have a house near Fort Hood that he needs to rent. Like we always say, there are no coincidences. God is in complete control. The chaplain called the rental company he is working with and basically told him he wanted us to rent it. The company's policy, though, is they won't even start the application process until you've walked through the house in person. Ummmm...we're here and they are halfway across the country. The owner asked them to take pictures of the house and rooms so we could "see" it. We saw the pictures, filled out the application, and got the house. It is almost the same size as the parsonage...it's only missing the sunroom. That's the best way to explain it. We can handle that! Woo hoo!

Until next time, God bless!

Laura

Riverbanks Zoo, Columbia, SC

For those of you who know me well, you know I LOVE zoos. I bought our family a zoo membership to the zoo in Waco, TX, so that we could visit the Riverbanks Zoo as often as we wanted for FREE! What a deal! In fact, I am going tomorrow all by myself and enjoy the animals, flora and fauna.

The three of us got to go to Riverbanks Zoo on August 2. It was a beautiful day, and the animals were extremely active. Here are some of our pictures. 

  

A llama and a cow from the farm section.

   

Elephants are my favorites. They are lovely! They were throwing water and mud on their backs trying to keep cool as well as flapping their ears.

Chillin' bear...

    

We fed the cute lorakeets. They were so sweet and very hungry.

A roaming tiger!

The koalas were wide away and running all over the place. We watched them for quite a while.

             

The flamingos hadn't quite waked up yet.

Baby flamingos!!! They were so vocal and adorable.

Frilled Dragon sunning himself...

Gould's Monitor...one of Victoria's favorites!

That's it for now. Thanks for your encouraging e-mails. 

We have a few prayer requests to make. 

Michael has his final PT test tomorrow. Please pray that he does well and meets his goals. 

Victoria is in MT for camp. We pray she is kept safe and has a great time.

We have 3 weeks and 2 days left here. Michael begins Phase 3 of the chaplaincy school tomorrow. We pray his homework load is lessoned.

Please pray for our soldiers who are deployed and those preparing for deployment.

Until next time, God bless!

Laura

Checking out South Carolina

I have to say that we have enjoyed seeing new things in South Carolina. On July 5, we went to Congaree National Park. It was so beautiful with a very nice walking trail. Michael has the pictures on his computer, so when I see him again, I'll try to post a few. 

Victoria and I went to the Riverbanks Zoo on July 14. It is one of my favorite zoos in the U.S. It is so beautiful. I have always loved going to this zoo. 

The three of us got to go to Cypress Gardens and Charleston on July 26. I drove while Michael did homework on the way there and the way home. Yes, he has that much homework. I'm just glad he was able to take the time out to go with us. I DO have pictures of these places!

       

Cypress Gardens is a lowcountry scenic treasure. The blackwater swamp offers breathtaking views of mirrored reflections of tall cypress and tupelo trees. There were lily pads everywhere, and they were in bloom and lovely.

We took a boat out and paddled around the swamp. It was gorgeous, and we were the only ones out. We paddled under two bridges. This is the second bridge.

I turned around real quick to get a picture of my two favorite people in the boat.

Finally, we ran across an alligator sunning himself on a log. We paddled our way close to him, and he slithered off of the log and swam away. It was very cool to see an alligator in his own habitat.

There were benches and swings located all along the nature trails. This swing overlooked the swamp, and my two favorite people took a little rest.

  
We got to see two more gators. The first was completely hidden except for his head. He never moved. The second is a baby alligator. It was so cute. I got too close, and he wiggled a little bit, but other than that, he stayed pretty still, too.

There was a lot of flora and fauna at Cypress Gardens including this pineapple plant.

If you ever have a chance to go, I highly recommend it. There are 4.5 miles of walking trails, gardens, the boat ride through the swamp, an aquarium, and a butterfly garden and house. You can check out their website at www.cypressgardens.info.

We left Cypress Gardens and headed to Charleston. This was our first trip to Charleston, and I'm so glad we finally made it to the historic city. Since it was a quick trip, we didn't get to do a whole lot of deep exploring, but we saw enough to know it would be nice to go back and spend some quality time there. So, a few pictures...

          
Once we found a parking place, we walked directly for Joseph's Restaurant for lunch. (www.josephsofcharleston.com) We were all pretty hungry. Joseph's was recommended to us by a friend of mine who lived in Charleston. (Thanks, Carrie!) Victoria had penne pasta sauteed in olive oil, oven dried Roma tomatoes, spinach and grilled chicken. Michael had the turkey club on French bread. And, I had the Cranberry Bog ~ grilled chicken wrapped in a sun-dried tomato tortilla with warm spinach, feta cheese, toasted pecans, dried cranberries and balsamic vinaigrette. FABULOUS!!!


This is a church...I think St. Matthew's. There were a ton of beautiful churches in Charleston.

          

After lunch, it was time to do some exploring. We drove to the Battery which is on the Charleston Harbor. There is a beautiful park with monuments, cannons, cannonballs, and lovely trees.

    

On East Bay Street, there are some of the most beautiful homes. The soft yellow house is the Edmonston-Alston House. I don't know the name of the pink one, but it is gorgeous! There are a lot of horse-drawn carriage tours throughout the historic district of Charleston.



    
Two more lovely homes on East Bay Street.

    
We walked along East Bay Street and Charleston Harbor. Here is the view of the lovely homes and then the Charleston Harbor.

There are beautiful trees in the park on the Battery. Michael put Victoria on this lovely bough.

   

It was time to head home. Michael still had so much homework to do. As we drove down East Bay Street, I knew to look for Rainbow Row. This is it! The colorful buildings are known as Rainbow Row. Cute!

We came across the U.S. Custom House. So beautiful. I snapped this picture at a stop light.

Since I have written a novel, I will stop. Next up...our visit to the Riverbanks Zoo!

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you!