YOUR PRAYERS NEEDED

Please pray for our good friends Wes & Teka Kennedy. Wes is a high school math teacher and the head football coach in Union, TN. He is the father of 3. Wes is in the hospital tonight, at the Med in Memphis, with burns over 75% of his body.
He was working a regular side job Saturday with another teaching-coaching buddy, cleaning machinery at the Kellogg factory in Memphis. They had thought they completed the job and they removed their has-mat suits, when they noticed they had missed closing down one cooking drum . Wes said no problem, I'll get that one, and he went to open the drum. He did not put his has-mat suit back on first, like he is supposed to. The drums are much like a big pressure cooker, and aren't supposed to open unless they have returned to normal pressure. But it seems that the pressure reader malfunctioned on the drum, and when Wes went to open it up the acid-based cleaner inside exploded under pressure and onto Wes. He was spared major burns on his face, but he is now suffering chemical burns over 75% of his body. Although he was scrubbed down at the hospital, chemical burns tend to continue to burn deeper into skin layers up to 48 hours afterwards. His doctors told Teka to prepare for his 2nd degree burns to go to 3rd degree burns, which would probably need skin grafts.
Wes and Teka are members of the LDS faith, and Wes received a Priesthood blessing Sunday morning from his father and brother. Teka told me that the wording of the prayer was to please limit the degree of the burns, and not let them burn further down in skin layer. As of this afternoon (Mon) his burns have not progressed to the more severe degree. But he is not out of the woods yet. He is in much pain, is at risk of infection, and requires much therapy. Please, if you pray, please join us in keeping our dear friends in your prayers. Thank you.

Tigers beat Arkansas St. 29-17 !

Do You Know The Significance of the Photo?

This photo means something special to our little family...do you know what it is?

"New Do" for Omi

Here's photos of the latest hairstyle for Omi. I've been watching some YouTube videos on styling African American hair and learning some new techniques from them. Who knew what you could learn on YouTube, and its FREE! This style took us nearly 4 hours to complete, and it lasted about 8 days before it began to look fuzzy. Then we took out the back twists (15 of them), moisturized, and retwisted. That took 90 minutes. Two days later we took out the top flat twists (12) and re-did them in about 2 hours. In the days between we just spray on our moisturizing mix daily. Each piece is really two sections of hair twisted together, with beads added to the ends. We used 6 pony beads per twist. She gets lots of compliments with her hair in the bead-twists....lots of people want to touch them. And Naomi loves it in the beads because she can swish her hair around and listen to the noise they make. Maybe you're wondering what Naomi does while I'm doing her hair? She watches TV mostly, and sometimes she looks at books or draws/colors. And she eats alot of popsicles. Sometimes we have nice little chats about her day, or whatever comes up.




Fiona has a totally different texture hair than Naomi. I'm still learning what to do with hers, and I resolve that I will not be putting any kind of relaxer (chemical straightener) in either girls hair. Fiona wears a lot of headbands around her little fro. I spray and then moisturize hers each morning, then pick it out with my fingers to fluff it up. She had a haircut early last spring when it was getting bushy looking. Right now we're going to continue to let it grow. Sometimes we put little afro ponys in it, but Ona has a big round melon of a head, and too many of those puffs looks kinda silly on her. She does like Naomi's beads, so hopefully in the next little while she'll have long enough hair to add some beading to hers, too. But right now she can't sit still long enough for a do like that.

Before we decided to try and adopt black American daughters, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do black hair. But I didn't want "hair" to be the reason we couldn't adopt. So I prayed to my Heavenly Father many times, asking Him if He would help me in learning to style black hair, and I'm happy to admit that He helps me all the time to give my sweet daughters hair styles they feel comfortable wearing. And I feel happy in sharing with you this truth; that a loving Father in heaven will help us do even the little things, if we but ask Him.

Lunch in the Park

Thursday we got to join the preschool class at the park for a picnic. Fiona had such a good time being with the big kids. After lunch they read a story, PINKALICIOUS, which is Fiona's favorite book. After seeing Fiona daily in the hall dropping Naomi off, Ms. Adams got to hold Fiona in her lap during the story, which tickled her pink.

Conversations With Five-year Olds

This is the conversation Naomi and I had at lunch today, over a bowl of clam chowder:

Naomi: Mommy, I have a new friend at school that's a boy.
Me: Oh really? Boys make good friends. What's his name?
Naomi: I don't know, but he winked at me in music.
Me: He winked at you? Wow. Did you wink back?
Naomi: No. But I smiled at him.
Me: How does it make you feel when somebody winks at you?
Naomi: Good. It made me think "Oh, maybe he wants me to be his friend."
Me: Its nice to have new friends, isn't it?
Naomi: Yes. I got to be on his monster team when we went out for recess.
Me: His monster team? We're you one of the monsters?
Naomi: No. I got to be his dog.

I was supposed to say "Oh, that's great!" , but I couldn't. I let the conversation end there. My daughter......some boy's dog.

All the Beautiful Pumpkins !

We found a special treat at the Fresh Market yesterday...pumpkins! And for once I had my camera with me. Fall is almost here and we can't wait. What fun it is to see the beautiful colors in the trees, and the bumpy gourds and fun decorations that adorn the houses. Fall is the time we get to wear our jeans and sweatshirts again. We get to play outside again! And even start to plan what we want to dress up as for Halloween. In the south they say " HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL !"

Treats for the Tigers

The Tigers are now 0-3, still looking for our first win of the season. Yesterday we went to practice to help pass out some treat bags to the players, a little motivation to keep them going and let them know we're here to support them. They need it badly, as the press and the "fans" here are very harsh. But we, as wives, are not ready to throw in the towel! GO TIGERS.
In the last photo that's Fiona and I, Lindsey West (head coach's wife), Lauren Chachere, and Angela Helton. Lauren's husband coaches special teams, Angela's is the offensive coordinator.

This One's For You, Ryan

It's been 2 months since we've seen Ryan, and we really miss him. The high school where he teaches/coaches in NJ won their first football game yesterday 30-7. Good to see one of the family's teams are winning. Saturday morning Naomi woke up and said she wished she could see Ryan. She was sad and a little teary because Ryan is always so good to her. He always takes the time to talk with his sisters when they call him on the phone. So Ryan, know that we miss you and love you and hope to see you at Christmas. Text me with those dates ASAP so we can start looking at a ticket.

Wig Fun

Some days life's more fun when you put on a wig

GO TIGERS !

The Tigers are 0-2 after our heart-breaking loss to Rice last weekend. Tomorrow we play at Marshall (which is in W. Virginia). Daddy's offensive line has been doing its job, and that's what matters most in our house. The girls love to wear their cheerleader uniforms to the game. Here we all are at the first home game of the season last week. Naomi makes friends wherever she goes. Here is one little guy, also 5, whom she met and hung out with most of the second half. It wasn't important to her to know his name, so I can't list it.
Fiona and Delaney munching on snacks, which are vital to have last thru such a long game. We're in the end zone seats, which makes it seem like there aren't many people there, but there were lots of people cheering on the Tigers.
One, Two, Three, Four...Who are we rooting for? The Tigers, yeah, yeah, the TIGERS. T-I-G-E-R-S.....Go TIGERS!!!!!

She can't understand how our quarterback threw that interception in the last 30 seconds, which ended the game and the Tigers chance for our first win of the season. Believe me, we all felt the pain....Check out Lindsey's site for more photos of the game. The link is in the column to the right. >>>>>>>>>>

RUBY T. DOG

The Rubster...she is 9 months old now, and a chewing machine.

Silly Girl Stuff

The girls with our neighbor-friend Ashley doing girly-stuff.

Ladybug Picnic

After she lost her tooth I had her sing so you can see those teeth.

Listen to her words

Fiona's vocabulary is growing every week. Most people don't get to see her be "chatty" but listen to her roll out the words to her favorite song "Book of Mormon Stories" (lyrics follow, sing along!)
Book of Mormon stories that my teacher tells to me are about the Lamanites in ancient history. Long ago their fathers came from far across the sea, given this land if they live righteously.

I Lost My Tooth...Two of 'Em !

Naomi lost her two bottom teeth within a week of each other. The first one she pulled out, the second one mom pulled out. You can see that the replacements are already there, waiting to take their place.



Fiona wants you to see her missing teeth cuz she's been wiggling hers as much as Omi!

Poem

I WOULD GATHER CHILDREN

Some would gather money
Along the path of life,
Some would gather roses,
And rest from worldly strife;
But, I would gather children
From among the thorns of sin,
I would seek a golden curl,
And a freckled, toothless grin.
For money cannot enter
In that land of endless day,
And roses that are gathered
Soon will wilt along the way.
But, Oh, the laughing children,
As I cross the sunset sea,
And the gates swing wide to heaven
I can take them in with me.
-unknown

Goofer-boys!

Whenever we take a complete-family group photo we have to take at least 20 in hopes of ending up with one good one. I have a reputation of getting quite frustrated with the boys by the end of the photo shoot, even letting some colorful language slip. Well, I'm not proud of that, but I want to share with you my frustration with "Huey, Duey, & Louie" who know how to turn a photo shoot into a comedy show all their own.........

Naomi loves "gussert"

Naomi has been bugging me for a few days to make some cookies. Now I LOVE cookies, but not too sure about the whole process of making them because there always seems to be something else around here that needs doing. Plus, I eat too many when I bake them. Friday I had a good excuse for not making them: we had already had icecream that day, and everybody knows we don't need to eat icecream and cookies in the same day. So yesterday, after she had eaten nearly all her dinner and wanted to know what was for "gussert" I looked at her blankly...I wasn't in the mood for more cooking at 8:00 at night. But she insisted with that annoying whine that accompanies many of her wants... and I remembered I had prepared for this moment a few days ago at the grocery store! I ran out to the refrigerator in the garage as she disappeared upstairs. She returned with her kids baking kit in hand prepared to help. She was ready to measure, pour, and stir..instead I plopped the refrigerated Nestle cookie dough package on the counter. There was a look of disappointment on her face. There would be no measuring, pouring or stirring. There would only be cutting the squares apart and plopping them on a cookie sheet. There would only be setting the timer and waiting for the buzzer. She was deflated, I could tell, but I told her its these or nothing. In the end there were warm oatmeal raisin cookies to nibble on while watching TV. And she was lucky, she got 3. Generous, huh? Well, I watched her feed part of #3 to Ruby-T-Dog, and that's when I knew she had had enough. And maybe we'll make real cookies tomorrow.

SAM Sculpture Park

While on vacation in June we went to the new Seattle Art Museum's Sculpture Park. Ryan flew out from Jersey to spend a few days with us. We had a beautiful summer day in the Northwest.