A DAY IN THE LIFE OF LOIS

MOTHER'S DAY, 2006
"WHERE HAVE ALL MY CHILDREN GONE?"

I have one daughter 17 going on 25, thinks she knows it all and IS ALL! She is seldom at home, and when at home, she is on the computer talking to her friends, or talking on her phone, or both at the same time. I have another daughter, 13 years old, struggling just to survive living with her sister or in her sister's shadow, one son in Israel on a "Walk Where Jesus Walked" tour and one son living in Lakeland. I am blessed, and was reminded of this on Mother's Day... even though it was quite and my 2 boys weren't with me, they both called to wish me a Happy Mother's Day and my 2 girls took me out to dinner.

Life is never boring around here. My morning begins at 6:30am and ends about midnight. My day consists of taking Heather to school then work: 8:30 - 3:00, then after work, running Michelle to weekly ice-skating lessons, running Michelle and Heather to friends and activities with friends, running Heather (since she doesn't have a driver's license or car... According to her a cruel form of child abuse!) to her many baby-sitting jobs. When the boys were little and living at home, I lived at the baseball field. Now, it seems as though I live in my car driving girls around all day! I shouldn't complain, though... Heather has one more year of school then she's off to college and Michelle has 5 more years of school, and it's going by fast ... I will probably miss all this going and doing for the girls and won't know what to do with myself when I'm hit with an "empty nest"!

When not driving the kids around and I find some "personal time", I walk, bicycle, yoga, go to the gym, go to kick-boxing and TaeKwonDo. One Friday a month, I get together with my girlfriends, "The Mommies", for GirlsNightOut - dinner and a movie, and one Friday a month we play Bunco. On the rare occasion that my family doesn't have any scheduled lessons or activities, we try to have a monthly "family date night" and enjoy watching a movie or "American Idol" or "Super Nanny" together and playing board-games (another form of cruel child abuse as defined by my 17 yr/old). My best friend and I get together often and take turns cooking for each other's family. Our kid's favorites: haystacks, Thai, lasagna, baked ziti, and spaghetti.

2006 - Chris (24) : Completed his 2 year contract working with LambdaChi and moved in with Bill. He is currently un-employed, waiting for school to start to begin studying/working toward his Masters in Education (a 2+1/2 yr. program). He has been accepted to both school and job at both Florida Southern College in Lakeland (where he attended college) and the University of Miami. He has now made the decision to attend University of Miami and has moved down there and beginning school soon.

2006 - My Oldest, Will (26), a.k.a. Bill, is living in his grandmother's 3 bedroom house in Lakeland since she passed away last February. Recently, Chris moved in with Bill. The same weekend, Bill also had a college student from PBA move in with him, and he will be a summer youth Pastor intern for Bill's church, working with Bill and his youth group. Bill just came back from Israel from a "Walk Where Jesus Walked" tour. He left the day before Mother's day and returned May 21. He called me when he got there, Saturday, from Tel-Aviv, and said he was staying in a large, nice hotel over-looking the Mediterranean Sea. He went to Egypt (pictured with the camel he rode), Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee and The Dead Sea (seen here, Bill floating in the Dead Sea). The Dead Sea is so salty, you can easily float with no floatation devices. He baptized 3 people in the Jordan River, where John baptized Jesus and Jesus baptized John (pictured here). The tour group went to Palestine, Bethlehem and Nazareth and did a "Stations at the Cross" walk. What an awesome experience that he will remember the rest of his life! Bill is really enjoying his travels and accomplishing his goal of traveling to all 7 continents - so far 4/7 - North America, Europe, and, now Africa and Asia.

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Imagine this: Both boys are gifted, highly intelligent, both scored extremely high on their SAT scores. Bill is studious, a writer and speaker, very disciplined, very scheduled, always on time or early, organized (to the point of anal retentive, over-compulsive), a place for everything and everything in it's place, is clean, a neat freak. On the other hand, Chris is ADHD, all over the place, has a dozen "projects" all over the place (I do not know where he gets that from). He stays up all night, sleeps all day, loses things, half the time can't find his keys (I do not know where he gets that from), his shoes, his phone, always late, or forgets he has somewhere to be and never shows up! This new living arrangement will be a test of true brotherly love, and a test of Will's patience! I think God gave Will his brother to teach him how to love the diverse, varied types of personality in his youth in his church! Pray for them that they both come out of this experience alive!

2007 Update: Well, I am happy to say that both of my sons are still alive and still talking to each other! Bill returned from his trip and has traveled again to New Zealand. He also just bought his own house in Lakeland, FL. Chris completed his first semester at UM with all As and Bs and is now beginning his 2nd semester. Heather still has the telephone growing out of her ear, it seems. Michelle made it to Disney World to the opening of Pirates of Carribean, and had a great time at Disney with her friend.

2008 Update: Bill liked NEW ZEALAND so much that he got a job as Youth Pastor at a Baptist church there and moved there on a 2 year contract.

2009 Update: Chris is now teaching P.E. at an Elementary School in Lakeland. Heather moved out on her own and has her own place and is teaching a VPK class of 4 year old children.

2010 Update: Michelle will be a senior in high school when school starts, taking 2 dual credit classes and 2 honors classes and is currently looking at colleges. Looking mostly at UNF, UF and SantaFe. Michelle wants to be a vetenarian.

My Kids. Christmas 2010

Mother's Day 2011.

Quick lunch at subway after church then off to the beach!

2012 Update:

Michelle graduated cum Laude and is now in her sophmore year of college. She is attending Edison State college and on Dean's list and will be moving up to live with me in Jacksonville, next year, to attend UNF. She is on the track for vetenarian and her attending UF for her vetenarian degree is looking promising.

Heather gave birth to McKenzie Danielle on November 29, 2011. Heather is still teaching preschool part-time and is a wonderful mommy to McKenzie.