Congratulations!

Last night, we had the pleasure of attending our niece Amanda’s  high school graduation ceremony. She has never looked happier! There were around 200 students in this graduating class:

I loved this photo for all the caps being thrown in the air.

Here’s lovely Amanda:

She’s oh-so-happy and we are so proud for her!! Graduating high school is such a significant time in our lives. It signifies a huge change and choices are so abundant. I remember my own like it was yesterday…

Congratulations Amanda and the Class of 2009 everywhere!

Happy Mother’s Day!

I wish everyone a very happy mother’s day. I hope your day is special and beautiful…just like you! ♥

From the Bottom of My Heart…

I thank each and every one of you for your prayers for my Mama. She had her first appointment regarding her back and she doesn’t have to have surgery! She can’t lift anything, including my Grandmother anymore but she’s not going to have to have surgery at this point. This is such a blessing and an answer to our prayers.

Now, she just has to get through the heart cath later around the middle of this month. Please, please keep her in your prayers. There’s so much power in prayer and my strong Christian friends and family mean the world to me.

Thank you, again, from the bottom of my heart. ((((hugs)))))

xoxoxox,

Rhonda

Thank You + Garden Beginnings

Thank you all so very much for the wonderfully kind comments and private emails. My heart is touched by your concern and your prayers for my mother.  I’ve shed many a tear by your words – overwhelmingly happy tears. She’s doing ok so far and really just waiting for her appointments. In the meantime, she has a positive outlook and is in really good spirits. Her first visit regarding her back is coming up soon. I’ll keep you posted and thank you so much my dear and wonderful friends.

Before all of the issues with Mama’s health came to be, Charles and I had been working diligently on our very first garden. Last weekend, he tilled the area (and ended up with some horrible blisters!) and I had taken some pictures of the before and after.

Here’s the area in our back yard before:

and after:

I’m not sure if this looks large to you or not but this garden has 19 rows! Already planted in it are onions, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, lettuce, and pole beans (green beans).  Still to be planted are cucumbers, corn, peanuts, peas, tomatoes and okra. WHEW!

Plus we have this little second garden:

Inside this are strawberries and I think I’ll also have some herbs there. It’s just off our patio so things would be easy to harvest from there.

We can hardly wait not only to grow things but to share them with our neighbors, friends and family. I can’t wait until I want a salad and I just go to the back yard to make one!

Prayer Request

My dear friends and family who read my blog:

Please, please pray for my Mama. For over 20 years she’s had some very serious health troubles. She had a follow up visit to her doctor today and has learned that she will have to have two different visits to specialists. One is regarding her back. She has a vertebrae that is dangerously close to entering her spinal cord. If this happens, she will become paralyzed.

The other is her heart. She’s had two heart attacks in the past. There’s plaque buildup in her arteries and she must undergo a heart cath. Pretty routine usually, except for the fact that she was born with small arteries. Her regular Cardiologist has done this before to her but is sending her to a larger city to a specialist because he fears they may collapse. This specialist is supposed to be someone who can take care of her if they do collapse.

These are two very serious, frighteningly scary procedures she’s facing next month.

Please keep her in your prayers. I’m so thankful to have all of you out there to help me with this. I am truly worried. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.