Grace Bible Church

My whole life I have know God. I was raised Catholic until I decided in my 30's that I wanted to go to a Christian Church and raise my children there. When we moved to Big Valley and were staying in a hotel while our house was opening up this amazing lady named Kerri introduced us to Grace Bible Church. We thought we would check it out and see if it was a church where we could get the message of God and teach our children also.

Boy was it! I loved the church and the fellowship right away. We were apart of a family that loved God and wanted to be better. We went almost every Sunday until my first Brain Surgery. During my recovery I stopped going and for whatever reason I didn't return. Laziness, Sickness, whatever the reason was that week. I missed it. I missed the message of God. I missed the people and the fellowship. I missed the Community. Still I didn't return I felt almost guilty and I shouldn't have.

My family has God in our hearts. We talk about God on a daily basis. I pray and have a very close relationship with God. I am only human and make mistakes daily but my family tries to walk and talk with God on our minds.

Going back to Church was on my heart. Heavy on my heart for months. I wanted to go back so bad but thought weird things like people might think I am there just because I am having another Brain Surgery or because something was wrong and we needed God. Those were untrue and weird things to think because none of them were true. It wasn't God who didn't want me there......He did want me there.

We decided as a family that we were going back to church this weekend. Unbeknownst to us they were having a baptism afterwards for anyone who wanted to get one. People had been planning it for weeks. Praying, getting ready, preparing.

Baptism NOUN

1. (in the Christian Church) the religious rite of sprinkling water onto a person's forehead or of immersion in water, symbolizing purification or regeneration and admission to the Christian Church

 

Church was great. I knew the moment I stepped back in and starting singing that I wouldn't stop going. I wanted to be there. I yearned to be there. Fellowship was amazing. We were welcomed back as we had never left. Our Pastors are amazing and really are putting forth such effort. The church has grown so much even in the past year. Its amazing to see Gods work be done.

 

After church many people got Baptized. They restarted their lives with God. Cleansed their sins. Every Baptism that took place was amazing. Everyone clapped. As soon as they were done my daughter asked if she could do it but was scared because everyone had already gone that was going. Plus, we hadn't been to church so she didn't know how things were prepared or what you had to do. The answer was nothing. All she had to do was give her heart to the Lord again. Be cleansed by God and be renewed. Ryan walked over to our Pastor who had already gotten out of the water and said Cassie wanted to be baptized. All our kids have been baptized before but this was heavy on Cassies heart to do it again. An amazing thing! He said "of course" and they went back in. After praying over and for her Cassie was baptized. The neat thing is even more people decided to go in after that. I was so proud of her for doing what was on her heart! Not being afraid to speak up.

 

I am proud of each and every one who got Baptized on Sunday. What a special thing in their lives. It really has brought me to think about how much we love God. How I need to be a stronger parent and raise my kids knowing God even more than we do now. How fellowship is important too.

 

Grace Bible Church is amazing. They love you for who you are. I love how Pastor Kent says that he is only human and makes mistakes too. That God covers us all. His wife is amazing also she is the most caring Godly lady that I know. I am going to start going back to Woman's Bible Study soon. I love the fact that I am able to walk out of Church and have learned something that I can put with my daily life.

 

There is a revolution  going on. Grace Bible is expanding and really feeling the Lord. With Woman's Retreats with all denominations, Bible Studies and even with baskets for every worker at the school to give them a good start to their year from the Church. Things are happening. I can feel it and I want to be apart of it. They have an an amazing Youth Group ran by an amazing Lady who the kids love. I see differences in the teens that I want my children to be able to see, hear and feel too. God is good.

 

I am not going to be afraid anymore. I wont let my sickness hold me back from Church again. The Word of God and the fellowship that we receive is too important. What ever church you go too or your relationship with God even if you don't go can always be better. It just takes one person to start it and many to continue the love of God.

 

Thank you to our Church. For accepting our family as your own family. For your prayers and for the word of God. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Gods Blessings...still good people in this world.

I am one of those people who are still always trying to find the good. I believe this world is inherently good even though some may not agree. I feel that God puts in in positions to help others...even if we don't have much. He also puts us in situations for others to help us all as well I am sure. The reason I am talking about this is because of last night and also a memory I have of my Grandmother when I was younger.

So this is how last night went. My husband got stung by bees in the neck the day before. He wasn't feeling that well in the morning so we actually ended up not going to church and canceling lunch with our friends. He told me to go but I felt I should be with him instead.

By early evening he was feeling better so we drove 30 miles to the other ranch (as we do daily) to do irrigation. I finally had phone service so I made some phone calls while he did the irrigation. By then it was already almost 9pm. I wanted to go to Holiday Market to pick up some stuff since our local store had already been closed for hours. Holiday Market is another 30 minutes or so but we needed a few items for the lunches and dinners I provide our helpers at the Ranch.

We kind of hemmed and hawed about whether we should go because it was getting late. Decided we would go anyways. We were out of creamer and that's a must ha! On our way there Ryan and I saw a guy on the side of the road that was in his car with flashing hazards with out of state plates.

Now to understand this...we do not live in a city. We live VERY MUCH in the country. The nearest gas station is 25 miles either way from where this guy was. Ryan told me to stay in the car and he asked the guy if he was okay. He was...thankfully, he had just ran out of Gas.

We told the guy we would go get some for him but it would be at least 40 minutes as the nearest gas station was 25 miles away. Long story short...we got gas, brought it back to him.

He was very thankful and proceeded to tell us that he was coming back from his fathers funeral and just wasn't thinking about being in the country. Thought he could make it to the next gas station. We felt so bad for him. Ryan got him laughing a bit by telling him how he used to do that too. Told him God Bless. That night we prayed for the guy. I have lost my mother to Cancer and I couldn't imagine losing my father too. I felt SO BAD for this man.

Moral of the story...I think God puts you in the position and also the moment that you should be in to help others. Its up to you to actually take on that role. I am glad my husband is a helpful man. If we wouldn't of had to get that creamer (among other things) we wouldn't of been there at the time the guy needed us. We didn't do anything great or heroic by all means but it just really made me think about the fact that its always in Gods timing.

This brings me back to when I was a teenager. My sister and I went on a road trip with my Grandma and Great Grandma. While at a gas station my Grandma accidentally left her purse on the back of a toilet seat in the restroom. We drove miles upon miles before we stopped again and she discovered it. Quickly we called and they said yes they found the purse that someone had turned it in. We drove all the way back to get it. I kept saying to my Grandma that there is no way they didn't take the money out. My Grandmother told me that there are good people in this world and to always think positive. When we arrived to get the purse....not a cent was taken. All the money for our trip was in there. Hundreds of dollars someone could of taken. This made a big impact on me. God was there that day helping us out. If someone would of stolen all that money we don't know what we would of done. It was a good example for me as a child. One that I carry on with my kids.

People are inherently good. Is there bad in this world...of course. Its about making someone's day and lending a hand though. For all the good stuff that people have always done for us we have to make sure we do it back for others. Kind of a pay it forward type of thing. I am hoping that man pays it forward to someone soon too. Remembering the day he ran out of gas and someone came to help.

The more good we do for others....the better this world will be!

Ranching Easter

Easter was a ranching Easter with lots of friends coming together. Love love going to the Albaughs for Easter. It's becoming a tradition. Lots of food and fun. I thought I would just show it in some of my favorite pictures since I am late getting this blog out and already onto my newest adventure which you will hear about soon enough :)

Yes this is real and where we did our egg hunting at our friends ranch

Guys putting the eggs in barn in the snow...Lamb Following

Ryan coming back after loading up barn with eggs

Cooper posing in the snow with his Easter Basket

Yes its snowing in California on Easter

Looking for eggs and of course all parents are taking pics

So Darn Cute

The Amazing Hostess and Host of Easter

Eggs with $ in it

Cassie, Austin and Ms. Lewis

Trying to stay warm but got a lot of eggs (Jason)

Having fun with my hubby

The lamb so adds to this event

All the Easter Egg Hiders and the Easter Egg getters lol

Jason and Cassie pretty happy

Austin loving his stash of candy and money

Look Grandma!

Chillin and having fun!

Josh and Seth chillin and talking up a storn

Long Amazing Day and even the teens are out cold

Thank you to the Albaugh family for the fun at the Ranch. Its become a tradition that we love. The teens always feel like they are too old to hunt for eggs and yet.....they run around like chicken every year with smiles on their faces. I have many more pictures but these were just SOME of my favorites. I hope everyone had an amazing Easter. One filled with friends or family and lots of smiles. Remember your kids are never too old for an Easter basket, dying eggs or Easter fun. 

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My Secret Story....Now Revealed

Today I was thinking about a time that I just don't know what I was thinking because well...that happens  a lot in my life. I don't know if I can say this is my MOST embarrassing story but its a funny anyways and was DEFINATELY shocking to me!

I was 10. Just this lanky, freckled faced girl who knew what the world was all about. Isn't that every 10 year old? My Dad was in the Military so we were stationed on the Army Base in Munich, Germany. To really understand this story you need to know three facts .

1. We lived in Apartments on the Army Base. We were on the third floor.
2. German Locks are different than American Locks. You needed a key on the outside of the door and on the inside of the door to Lock or Unlock it. If you left the key in the inside ....you couldn't unlock it from the outside.
3. I was an adorable 10 year old girl...who knew what the world was about. Right? Right!

I was 10 and my sister was 8. We shared a bedroom in the back of the house (it was a long apartment). Living on the third floor was fun for us to run up and down the stairs. We had a great view of the park outside our window too. My parents had friends in the same building, as the stairwell had an apt on each side of the stairs. It was our bedtime and my parents said to finish watching our show on TV and go to bed. DONT LEAVE THE KEY IN THE DOOR WHEN YOU LOCK IT. They went to the neighbors to have some coffee and chat with their friends. We were good kids but they could pop in at anytime to check on us.

Our show was over and we SO diligently went to bed at the time we were suppose to. I went to lock the door and told my sister its bedtime. We tucked ourselves in. Knowing us ...we probably bickered for a minute or two but fell into a deep, good sleep!

An hour later my parents came home and tried to unlock the door. Tried but failed. WHOOPS I left the key in the lock on the inside! Guess I don't know THAT much about the world! They knocked and knocked and knocked.

No one answered.

They rang the doorbell and knocked some more

No one answered.

Being parents and we all know how parents are....they start to worry. What is going on with those two? Why aren't they answering? Are they okay? Did they do something? Are they joking around? They better not be joking around! So my parents went back to the neighbors and called the house. Ring! Ring! Ring!

No one answered! OH MY what could be the problem?

After trying a few more things like going downstairs to the Second floor Neighbors and pounding the roof of what would be our floor with a broom handle. We still didn't answer. We had fallen asleep and went to bed when we were suppose to. My sister woke up and so did I but I told her they must be having a party and go to sleep. When my mom heard about this later she thought we were crazy because they never had parties.

By now my parents were super worried. What could be happening to us? Are they okay? They called the Military Police and the Mp's said that all they could do was knock down the door but we wouldn't have a front door for 2 weeks or so. Finally our neighbors calmed my parents down and told them we are probably sleeping and cant hear. They put a huge sign outside the front door so if we woke up and went looking for them we could find them. They decided okay they will stay at the neighbors.

A couple hours later the Military Police came back with a Cherry Picker. He said he would be worried if it was his children. A Cherry Picker is one of those things that Electricians use to fix the top of phone wires. He was wearing Black and had a HUGE spotlight to shine in our room and went up to the 3rd floor to our window. He started calling my name.

Rae! Rae! Wake up Rae!

OKAY HOLY HELL!!!! I wake up and ALL I see is a siloette in my THIRD story window with a light shining behind it calling my name! God? Is that you? Is that an Angel?

Rae! Rae! Wake up Rae!

My sister woke up at that time and automatically thought the same thing. Except she said to me that I must of done something wrong because God was coming to get me!

I yelled back that It was probably her! Then I hide under my bed.

All the sudden I hear my dad say " Rae open the @#%@ window NOW". What? Why is my Dad in heaven and how is he able to say a curse word? What is going on!!!!!

I got up all the gumption I had, crawled out from under my bed and walked toward the light. I wasn't ready yet! I was only ten years old! I didn't even know how to drive! I have to live until I am old! That's when you can drive! God spare me! I need to make it till I am 16!

Rae! Rae! Go open the front door please and let your parents in!

Whew! I stopped in my tracks and now awake enough from my deep sleep I stepped back from the light! I ran down the hallway to open the door and ran out. SMACK! right into the paper my parents had strung up. I looked at it and it said "You better come to the neighbors when you wake up".

My parents came inside and were probably relieved. I am sure they thanked the Military Police many times. Ashley and I went back to sleep. It took till the next day at breakfast with my family when my Mom brought up the incident for me to remember what happened. It wasn't a dream? Omg....An Angel WAS trying to take me away! I will NEVER leave the key in the door again! I will Never ever do it!  And I never did! That night was I am sure not a night my parents laughed about this...but they knew deep down they would be laughing about it later in life for years to come.


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How to pray when busy

I think with life being so busy it sometimes is hard to really get in touch with God. Does not mean that we aren't being a good person or that we don't want to. This is my own list on how to pray when you are busy. For ME it helps me throughout the day. With four teenagers and a life that is on the go it has really helped me. I want to share it with you.

Side note: I am a Christian but I am not anywhere near perfect. This is something that has helped me and I want to share so hopefully it helps you too! Love from Rae-Rae

1. When waking up, before your day begins you can start with a prayer. Something as simple and perfect as "This is the day the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad in him".

2. One of the times I tend to pray the most is in the shower. I am alone and have that one on one time with God. To me and it might sound silly but its refreshing and like washing my attitude, thoughts or sins away. I tend to pray about getting rid of any feelings of anger, or sadness if I have any that week.

3. Car rides! I have a lot of those with teens. I am always going to pick up someone or drop someone off. This is a great time to pray. Put on K-Love it might even help to know what to pray about. This is usually the time I am praying for others. All those that I said I would pray for in their time of need. This is my time to do that. Helpful to me too because I drive a lot. For those of you who commute to and from work....its perfect. Once I was coming back from a Dr appt that was two hours away and I spent the whole time praying. I needed it and I felt much better by the time I got home.

4. When you think of someone. Use that time to pray for them. It doesn't have to be long. You can even say to God that you are thinking of them and want him to protect them or put his loving presence  in their life. Its good to pray for others.

5. Something I am just now learning is sometimes when I am stressed I turn to maybe a bowl of popcorn. I have been trying to pray at these times. Again it doesn't have to be long but having a conversation between you and God. I have noticed a lot of times I don't want that popcorn anymore and I wait for Gods answers. Its in his timing but I know he heard me.

6. Pray alone, or pray with others. I love praying with my friends. Sometimes I am the one who is more shy to start it but I jump in if they want to. I like it when a friend asks for prayer from me and others. I feel like we are more than one praying for whatever is happening. Almost like God is listening more or something. However I know that it only takes one person. I personally just like that more are doing it ...together. I pray with my husband or children. Dinner is a good time when everyone is together to give thanks for our days or even just the food that is in front of us.

7. When I am cooking or doing chores I try to pray. I give thanks for all that God has done for my family. Even the obstacles because it makes us stronger. I thank him for my family, my friends, my home, my life and all the things that has been happening to me. I especially thank him for answered prayers. It may not come in MY time but it always comes in HIS time. He can see way further than I can!

8. I don't have a certain time to do this but usually its before I go to bed. I ask God for forgiveness. Everyone makes mistakes....no one is perfect. Though sometimes people have a hard time admitting or thinking of a mistake they have made....there is always a way we can be better. God forgives us. Tell him and ask for forgiveness. Its healing.

9. I don't pray all day long but really I should. These are just some places that I find praying is good because I am so busy. Another is when you are exercising, taking a walk, riding an elevator or taking the stairs somewhere. Walking from the car to the store. God wont get upset with you for it being short. He just wants to know you are there. :)

10. I pray a lot for guidance. With a large family and kids to take care of I  pray a lot for that. I ask him to lead me and to show me what the right decision is. I am always asking God ways to make me a better person. I ask him for guidance with my kids and my marriage. How to help my kids and to guide them. How to keep a strong relationship with my husband. I think besides Thanking God...I ask for a lot of guidance.

I am not perfect....I am no where near it. I fall all the time but I get back up with Gods Hand. I hope these were helpful to you. Its been on my mind. I really wanted to share. I love to pray. There is no wrong way to pray. People across the world pray in different ways. Its just about your relationship with God.

11. Pray now....Take a second from reading this and just talk to God or say a prayer that you know. If you have never prayed....Say hi to him and tell him what you have been feeling. He is listening. God Bless you all!

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Twins? Tahoe? FUN!

When your three year old niece tells you that all she wants for her Birthday is for her cousins to come play with her.....you listen:)

Between Jason's Basketball game and school we weren't able to make the 5 hour drive to Mariah's 3rd birthday. Since we lucked out and it was a three day weekend we decided to get a house and pet sitter and head over to see our nieces. Mariah just turned 3 and Kylie is almost 6. Love these girls and they love, love their cousins!

Its funny when you see the interaction of teenagers with their little cousins. You would think they thought they were too good to do something but they get down on the ground and have tea parties. I love seeing how excited my nieces get with the kids.

Now Kelly is Ryan's twin sister. Kelly is older by a couple of minutes. As we are all growing older she doesn't say that as much now ha! My mother in law Sally came down too so we all could get together. It was really fun. I am very lucky because I get along with my mother in law. I know ppl are used to hearing the "MIL" jokes or "oh my MIL is so horrible she says this or that" but I am blessed to really truly like her. We could even hang out without her son, my husband....GASP! I know right!

I love Ryan's family a lot. They mean the world to me and 7 years ago they took me and my children in as their own. I am sure I get on their nerves or get cranky sometimes but they have been there for me through everything. My MIL even has taken me home from the hospital and taken care of me a few times. She will drive hours to come see us and even to watch our house, animals, kids anytime we need her to help out. Most of the time 9 times out of 10 she offers before we even ask. That in itself is pretty amazing!

With a blended family of four teenagers you would think ppl would treat the kids differently....but they don't. They are all told the same things..."I love you", "Use your fork properly", "How are your grades?", "You are so funny" ETC. Its nice to be apart of such a fun, entertaining family.

Anyways on to the day! Kelly and Dave and the kids had everything set up for us to stay there. Its not easy having a family of 6 come to stay. Kelly is always the very gracious host and I am thankful for that. Where they live they have a community pool that is apart of the package so we always bring our swimsuits come rain, shine or snow (hey its Tahoe). The first thing we did was head on over to the pool after our greetings and hellos. Dave stayed back and Grandma Sally (MIL) stayed back to start cooking dinner for everyone.

We had so much fun. I am so impressed with my niece Kylie who is five. She swims around with her goggles and flippers like she is a mermaid. I really think she should go into the swim team because she is an amazing swimmer. She can be like her Auntie Rae Rae and do swim team all through all her school years. She cracks me up because hooked onto Jason and wouldn't let him out of her sight. Love that kid!

Mariah went back and forth from the hot tub to the pool with us. She is so cute with her little ladybug life jacket. She would swim from Ryan to me to Jackson and Cassie. She was all over the place too just swimming and smiling away. She would keep going to Ryan or I so we could throw her in the air. Mariah would be thrown and go underwater and come up smiling wanting more.

Cassie and Jason were swimming with the kids a lot and hot tubing with us all. Then the craziness ensued!!!! Josh decided he was going to belly flop off of the diving board. He went and did it and SMACK! straight to the belly. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO DO THAT ON PURPOSE? Teenagers are weird creatures I tell ya. After him doing it about 3 times Jackson decided to do it also. What were they thinking? I do have to say out of the four kids Josh and Jack are always the dare devil ones. The other two are the watchers lol.  I tried getting Josh on video tape but the Video ran out and after that solid good belly flop he was done with doing it. So Jackson decided to do one and only belly flop before we left. I cracked up because he held his face and his well..."jewels" as he calls it and SMACK!! down he went. I actually got that one on video and you can see it by clicking this link! I am telling him not to waste my time because my phone was at 3 percent and we had 60 seconds of video left hahaha! He came up all smiles but had a bloody nose. We learned our lesson....if you are going to be crazy enough to do a belly flop...DONT hold your face because it will smack your nose! Click here to see his Belly Flop Jacksons Belly Flop

So as you can see teens can be crazy. We all went back to Kelly and Dave's house, showered and were pretty hungry. Dave had finished BBQ the chicken which was delicious and Grandma had finished all the yummy goodies to go with it. We all ate and watched a movie.

Fast forward to the next morning. Everyone is everywhere lol. I announce that I need to go to the donut shop to get us all donuts as everyone is eating cake from the birthday party ha! Collins family definitely has a sweet tooth:) We don't have a donut place anywhere near us where we live and I just wanted a donut considering I had decided to start low carbing the next day! After everyone's breakfast we did what we do best......Ryan helped him mom on her laptop on how to use it, Kids studied for their finals and took turns playing with the girls. I played Connect Four with Mariah and taught Mariah and Kylie how to play Candy land. Connect Four with a 3 year old is pretty interesting. Its basically match the color haha and Mariah saying "I got you!". LOL..... I loved watching Kylies wheels turn in her head on Candy land and really understand it. Such smart little girls! Uncle Dave showed the kids a helicopter and Kelly was just making sure everyone had what they needed for everything. She is organized like that which I love.

Around lunchtime we decided to all go over to a little Mexican Bistro Place with clean good foods. We had Grandma, Donna (her bff), our crew of 6 and then took the little girls so Mom and Dad could have an hour or so of peace:) We went to go meet Amber and Austin which is Ryan's bff. Amber is also a twin. She grew up with Ryan and they were always Babysat together. Amber and Austin are amazing. They are the only couple I know that liked each other in middle school. Dated each other in High School and after High school got married. They have only ever been with each other their whole lives and are still very much in love. I love seeing them. Ryan loves it more though because they have always been so much apart of each others lives.

The kids say that Austin is like a really big 12 year old and they always fight on who gets to sit next to him or who is going to talk to him first. Amber is this amazingly smart gal who I think has a heart of gold. I liked her the first instant I saw her. We had a great time at lunch and everyone talked, ate, and talked some more. Soon it seemed like 15 minutes had only gone by but it had been almost 2 hours. We had to say our goodbyes but we knew we would be seeing them probably in the next couple weeks closer to our house. As we were leaving they gave us this huge box of t-shirts and sweatshirts for the kids. Its all logos from their shop that they own called IN YOUR FACE SIGNS AND TEES. I love places that are family owned and ran! Check out their website if every interested....  In Your Face Signs and Tees

So the day was already getting to the point where we had to pack up and get ready to go. I already was missing the girls before we even left. I love being able to see everyone and have fun. I love the joking and all the memories. We had a 5 hour drive home and kids had to be back by bedtime so they could be well rested for Finals Week. We all gave our hugs and said our "see you soon" and headed on the road to go home. It was a fun short little trip and I am glad we did it. I am thankful for Dave and Kelly's hospitality. Its not easy having 6 ppl come to anyone's home. We will be back soon. Until then.......

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Concussion and Crabs:)

AHHHH life with teens! A comedian once said, "What does having four kids feel like?" the answer was "your drowning and someone hands you a baby". LOL so funny even though it doesn't feel like that but with four teenagers we are seriously always busy, someone seems to always be hurt from sports or ranch life and someone is ALWAYS starving because they haven't eaten in the last twenty minutes :)

Thursday morning wake up at 445am to get Josh to the Gas station at 515 where his coach so graciously takes a bunch of the kids to practice by 530am from our town to the town the school is in. It helps so much and we are grateful that he does this because its another 15 miles there and then 20 miles back to the house. I get home. Sleep for 30 more minutes before the next round of kids get up. Breakfast, showers, and then out the door where I drive them to their bus stop 5 miles away. As I am driving them to the bus stop Josh calls and you can tell he had been crying. He promptly tells me that they think his nose is broken so I am like ok....I will be there in a second. Drive 15 more miles to school. Pick him up and talk to the coach and off to the ER we go. I don't even think the other kids have gotten off the bus at school yet.

Josh is definitely in a daze. His pupils are way dilated but he doesn't look like he has a broken nose. His eye was starting to turn black. I asked how it happened. He said he has no idea, he got hit, not sure what hit him but he knew it wasn't the ball. He saw stars. We get to the ER and they checked him out. He didn't have a broken nose which was good but he did have a concussion. He was acting weird so I knew he got his bell rung pretty good. Dr said to go home and watch him today. We text the coach and told him because there was a game the next day. Called the school to find out the rules and CIF rule states if they have a concussion they are not allowed to play for 7 days. I was happy about this rule even though Josh was really upset he wasn't going to be able to play the next game. I just think the safety of our kids is the first and foremost important thing. If you have a concussion its super easy to get another and end up with brain damage. So I was glad that coaches, school and parents were together on this. Josh wouldn't be able to practice or play but he would be able to go to the game and go to practice and sit and support his team. Learn more by watching. His Coach told me he has been getting a lot better and gave me reassurance because Josh was upset and really trying to work hard to be able to play more in the games.

Josh laying down talking to friend

Fast Forward to Friday. Josh is doing much better. He iced his eye and it doesn't look like a black eye much anymore and swelling has gone down. Eyes are back to normal. Josh didn't even really remember going to the hospital. Today he went to school and left with his team to the game to support them from the bench.

Josh back to his normal crazy self

Josh and Jackson both had games. Both the games were won too. Jackson had Varsity game in a different area than JV this time. They were both away games so we didn't attend as we had tickets to the annual Crab Feed and had to get Jason there also since he was serving it as his 4H volunteering. The day was interesting so we definitely liked the distraction of going to the feed. We sat with this very nice family that runs some cattle on the ranch and had a really good time.

Having good time at Crab feed

I swear my hands could not crack anymore crab even using the tool. Ryan was in for the count. Our friend sitting across from us and Ryan just went to town eating. His wife and I were out before they were halfway done lol. It was pretty funny.

All you can eat Crab

The 4H did a amazing job serving and making sure everyone in the community had everything they wanted. I was super impressed with Jason serving other tables and making sure they had everything with a smile. He did a really good job. Later I even had another mother come up to me and tell me what a good kid he was. That always makes a moms heart warm. He did good! And all with a smile.


Jason serving everyone

Jason doing a great job Volunteering

The night ended great. They had a tip jar and all the kids who worked split the tips and got 28 dollars each. We won a 1/4 beef from Frosty Acres who has the BEST beef! Its All Natural Grass Fed Beef. I text my friend to tell her we bid on her beef and won:) She text me back to tell me how Jackson was doing at the game. He was able to play a lot and was doing really well. We were full and ready to go home. After clean up the kids ate tons of pizza (I think Jason had 7 slices alone) and out the door we went.

You know one thing I really love is our friends and this community. With Four kids at all different grades and events its not always easy to be at every single thing they are at. We kind of made it to where if its a home game or event we are ALWAYS there so they can always count on that part. Its nice to have friends who will always cheer on the kids or help with rides or what not so everyone can be at everything they need to be at. We wouldn't of been able to split our body up at Jason's 4H event, Josh game in one town an hour away and Jacksons game in another town an hour half away plus Cassie at home tired. I am so thankful for our friends....


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Question: Do you believe kids should wait a certain amount of time to play again when have a concussion?