Stupid Mistakes

Hello, all. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We had a wonderful time visiting with Evan in North Carolina. We were supposed to go visit him in Atlanta, but his leave was cut short and he could not go further than 250 miles from base. So, we packed up all our camping gear and headed to him. We had a wonderful two days with him. We got to play at the beach one day, and we got to see his room on base, plus he went camping with us so we had his undivided attention! Billie especially enjoyed his company. I would post pictures of the trip, but Matt used his phone to take all of the pictures and I accidentally dropped his phone in the river. Imagine how stupid and horrible I still feel! He was so sweet to me, though. He got mad for maybe a second, and immediately proceeded to making me feel better about it. He really is wonderful. We have the phone now "soaking" in rice. We "googled" what to do, and that seemed like the least invasive way. Some posts actually suggested baking the phone in the oven! It may never work again, but we had to try. I will let you know once we try to turn it on again. To top all of that off, we were very tired getting in Sunday after a 9 hour drive, and it was about 12:30 in the morning, so we made the mistake of leaving the car full until the next morning. We were robbed during the night and most everything was stolen right out of our driveway! We felt so stupid and so violated. Billie talked about it at school and come to find out her best friend's car was also robbed one day last week and the police had arrested the people. When her parents went to the police department, they noticed some camping gear and called me to let me know. Turned out it was the same people and Matt went down to the police department and got some of our stuff back! Of course they had already sold a lot of the stuff, or just trashed it because they couldn't use it or sell it. Moral of the story, don't leave anything in your car, especially over night. And don't take cell phones to the river, or lake or any body of water! You would think you are safe in your own drive way, but it just isn't the case. Billie thought maybe they would listen to one of her "Jesus Cd's" (as she calls her gospel music) and they would learn about Jesus. She was so sweet about the whole thing, even though all of her movies and music Cd's were stolen. She really is an amazing girl.

Billie got a part in the musical at church, and we have been working at learning her lines. She is so excited about it! She is learning the part really good, and it suits her beautifully. She loves to sing and perform. She just shines when she is on stage, and I love to watch her. I will be sure to post pictures, it isn't until May 3rd.

I have to confess I have been struggling with worrying. I am just naturally a worry-wart. I hate it, and I fight it, but it is a constant struggle for me. My prayer is that I am able to submit myself, everything including my worries, over to the Lord and stop trying to control the things that are not in my control. Even when I think I have submitted my worries, I have this terrible habit of picking it back up. So it is this constant tug-of-war with myself. It is pretty exhausting, too! I of all people know that God is in control and that he will take care of our needs, but try convincing that to my very strong inner worrier. I am working on it!

I am gearing up for finals, they start April 28Th. I am scared but excited to have this semester behind me. I am going to school this summer, but I will get a couple weeks off from school in between. Billie is looking forward to the summer, I know. I am little sad that we will have to say goodbye to Mrs. Merryman, we just love her so much. I know she will go down as one of Billie's favorite teachers of all time! It is hard to believe this school year is fixing to wrap up! It has just flown by, as it always does. I think this catches you up for now, I will let you know how my finals go and what happens with the phone as soon as I know! Have a wonderful day, we love you all!