debi and her dudes

Silly Timmy Pictures

2009-02-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

A GREAT WAY TO GIVE THIS SEASON

2008-11-24T19:42:00.001-08:00

2008-11-24T19:25:00.000-08:00

Hosea & Baby Esther

A fun lunch with my precious friend, Marci

Timmy, after eating his "umpteenth" piece of cinnamon toast :)

Hosea at his school computer...is he really having that much fun??

And...more to come after I figure out what's wrong with my video card...one of my neverending techy dilemnas....

Part 2

2008-09-20T17:11:00.001-07:00

I'm grateful to be helping David again 2 afternoons a week from my home office!

Timmy and his "too cute for words" 2nd cousin, Hallie :) He's teaching her a thing or two...

Hosea & Timmy enjoying the fun ground fountain in Oregon

Reading Buddies :) David being a good sport during a game...

Right after writing a large check for college!

Dropping Josh off at college :( I was trying not to cry!

The Last Picture: My mom visited in Sept. since she
was in town for a conference. We went to an
incredible restaurant called The Grand Lux!
Yummmmmy!

A LONG Overdue Update!

2008-09-20T16:18:00.000-07:00

Silly Boy....

So....this is exactly why I never wanted to start a blog in the first place! I knew it would be difficult to keep up and that I would feel guilty until I did something about it. Thankfully, none of you have complained to me (in person, at least!)...so, thanks for that! There's plenty to write about and lots of pictures to post, but when you fall this behind, then I guess I need to be okay with sending everyone the shorthand version. You know, I journal everyday, so I guess when I get to the blog, I really don't feel like typing a whole lot! Guess you will all have to wait until I die (when my husband releases my journals for public reading...or selling them on ebay!) before finding out what's REALLY going on in this head/heart of mine!

But, seriously, thank you all for being my friends and putting up with me :) I am grateful for the grace...

These photos will be in no particular order since they never post the way that I download them!

Hmmm.....Like Hosea, Like Timmy :)

My Super Cowboy...

Timmy w/my Uncle in Oregon...he loved every minute of riding in the big tractor!

Another fun machine the boys got to try out at our friends/supporters ranch

My friend, Gretchen :)

Hosea and his cousins....they had such a good time together! We are sad that we live so far away from them!

One of our "Home" meetings These two families have been friends of ours for over 20 years and were part of our sending church in CA. They have supported us since the beginning...

David's try at a sandcastle...I think he'd rather be bodysurfing!

Me and my "Sis".....She may be taller, but I'm still the Big Sister!

Timmy's in Backhoe Heaven

The boys loved the beach! Timmy didn't like the cold water, but he sure loved the sand and the food!

A few more pics....don't get too used to this! :)

2008-07-24T19:22:00.001-07:00

Hosea's self portrait :)

Aaron turned big 15 last month!

Timmy acting out David and Goliath...his favorite Bible story for quite awhile now!

Timothy took this picture....future Carroll photographer, obviously!

Timothy wanted Hosea to "play dead"....kind of like a puppy, but a little different....

My wonderful friend, Marci, took me out to an amazing
early Birthday lunch at Red Lobster. In this picture we
are about to dive into an incredible warm chocolate chip
lava cookie with molten chocolate in the middle and vanilla
ice cream on top, drizzled with more chocolate!!!
Just imagine how big our smiles were after we took our
first bite!! Marci has been a faithful friend for the past 15 1/2 years.

Timmy dressed up for breakfast this morning...

David reading the David & Goliath story to Timothy that
he acted out on him in a previous photo!

LOTS of misc. pictures of the fam

2008-07-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

Timmy playing with Grandma Dena...she was a good sport!

Kissing Daddy before he flies to a GFA meeting

PILLOWS are so much fun in our house!

"It's hot, Mama!" Elmo definitely kept things cooler....

Some of our friends who serve in the UK GFA Office:
Their son, Elijah, was baptized by Brother KP while they were
here for our Missions Conference. Eli is one of Hosea's good buddies~

At the Dallas Arboretum

So, we saw this sign AFTER the boys had a great time playing on the statues at the Arboretum!

Timmy with his buddy Simon and his sister Evie

Timmy and I got to take our friend Rachael out to a yummy mexican lunch for her
21st birthday! Timmy asked her how young she was....

7/20/08 Aaron had a great game pitching! He only gave up 4 runs in 4 innings~

Hmmm..not sure why this is upside down! But, it's cute anyways!

Timmy & Si at the Arboretum

Does he have a sparkle in his eye, or what??

The water was so refreshing at the frog fountains!

Josh's Graduation & Misc. Pictures...to be continued next time....

2008-06-29T14:53:00.001-07:00

Josh & Aunt Mary

Not the greatest picture of us, but couldn't find another one with Nana (David's Mom)

Timmy & his cousins, Kaetie & Josiah :)

Josh & his grandparents (Debi's side)

No words necessary.....

Guess the sun was glaring in Josh's eyes

Can you find Josh??? He's somewhere in the second row...

This thing kept Timothy & his mommy busy during the long parts of Josh's graduation ceremony!

Educational website w/a way to help provide food

2008-05-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Hi, Ya'll...I know I need to update my blog and put some pictures on, but I thought some of you might be interested in this website. Each time you guess the correct definition of the word, you provide 20 grains of rice....and trust me, it gets addicting! The rice is donated to those in Burma and other countries who are in desperate need of food~

I Discovered Another Favorite Hymn!

2008-05-07T12:34:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6BwPIgcAvA

Sorry, I don't know how to get the You Tube to paste on my blog....I guess I'm going to need some techy help from Aaron.

Anyways, the name of the Hymn is Before the Throne of God Above. If you click on this link, it will direct you to the song with the words. We sang this on Sunday at church. For some reason, I don't ever remember singing this before. So the words were fresh and powerful and it was as if I was all alone singing in the church to my Jesus. I pray you would be blessed....

Misc. April Pictures

2008-05-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

The boys enjoying some cold water during our downtown Dallas excursion on our anniversary

A side-view of this cowboy because I can't get my computer to flip it!!! I can't stand computers!!

This cowboy is definitely serious!

Havin' a good ole time at a great cowboy store

The Boys Enjoying the Park at Firewheel Town Center

Mr. Grumpy Face

A few more signing pics....

2008-04-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Carroll "Gang"

The second picture is with Brittany, Josh's friend and prom date...

The third is of Josh and his buddies since first starting High School, Patrick and Johnny...they've stuck by him all four years :)

Josh's "Signing" Day!

2008-04-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a big day for Joshua! As some of you might already know, Joshua was offered two wonderful scholarships at a college in Arkansas. One for academics and the other for baseball. There was another college in Mississippi (Delta State Univ.) that was scouting him as well. (I never imagined that happening!) But after MUCH prayer, the decision was made to accept the offer to attend Ouachita Baptist University. God gets ALL the Glory!!

David reminded me yesterday of when we found out we were pregnant with Josh. We were self-employed, and were having a challenging time making ends meet. We prayed and thanked the Lord for this pregnancy and really sensed the Lord sharing with us that HE gave us this child and HE will pay for him as well~ This has been so obvious throughout his 17 years of life. Josh knew that we couldn't afford to send him to college, so it would have to be God's will and plan to provide for him if that was the route he would take. We have encouraged him to keep his grades up and told him it would be best not to count on an athletic scholarship. Well....God gave him both!! And, we never imagined Joshua having the privilege to attend a private university~ Ouachita Baptist is only 4 hours away from our home, which is also another plus for us.

I am constantly reminded of how we know only a sliver of the picture....God knows the BIG one and HE is always worthy of our trust. Josh doesn't know what he will be majoring in, at this point. This is all still pretty fresh and new.

Thank you all for standing with us in prayer on behalf of our son. God is so amazingly faithful....no matter what!

I will plan to keep you updated.....:)

The second picture is Josh with the Varsity baseball team. The third, with the coaches. The fourth...with Nana. She just happened to be visiting during the time of the signing! She even had the proper colors on!! The fifth picture is Josh with the other team captains,

An April Update...

2008-04-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

Not the best picture of Josh....he really didn't want me to take it...surprised??

"Don't take my picture while I enjoy my breakfast!"

Hosea and Baby Evie (my friend's precious daughter)

Twister, anyone???

Time to go to the dentist.....

Wrestling time with Scooter :)

Brothers & Friends

Josh's team had the privilege to get to play a game at the Roughrider stadium. He's number 10....

They are the farm team for the Rangers. They lost that night, but they had lots of fun! Several GFA families came out to watch....they were faithful to sit in the freezing cold weather!

Timothy enjoying his wheelbarrow moment

He was so quiet out in the backyard, so I checked on him as was surprised to find him in there as quiet as can be....guess we all have our own special places!

As most of you know, I have been having problems with my neck (herniated disc), and it has kept me from being able to sit at the computer for prolonged periods of time. Thus, that is my excuse as to why I haven't blogged since February! I am now going to Physical Therapy 3 times a week, and with the combination of that and everyone's prayers, I am able to do a bit more that I could before :) I am hoping also to keep the Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles out there happy with some updated pics of at least some of the boys!

Canada!

2008-01-24T07:08:00.000-08:00

In Front of the Horseshoe Falls

In Front of the U.S. Falls

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

View of the Falls from our Hotel Window!

Brushing Buddies

Another View from our window

David and I just spent four days in Canada. This was my first time ever to this country and it was an answer to many years of prayer to be able to go to the GFA office in Ontario. I have always felt a strong burden for those in the office over there, and it was such a joy to finally get to see it in person and hug all of their Canadian necks :)

The 2 days at Niagara Falls were an unexpected blessing, as David and I really needed a little "down" time with all the busyness going on with the audit and his travelling. It was so cold there and we froze walking to and from the falls....but, it was all worth it!!!!

Friends of ours kept Timmy and Hosea (separate places for both of them), while Josh and Aaron stayed home by themselves. Thankfully, there were no incidents.....well...except for Josh's car getting broken into and having everything in his wallet stolen except for his license. Why do things like this happen when parents are out of town?? Josh handled it quite well and was much calmer about it than his mom was :)

Josh keeps getting phone calls from various baseball coaches around the country. It's quite exciting...but, we are really praying and hoping for God's will to be done regarding future plans. We are already halfway through his Senior year.....wow!!! Where does the time go...

Aaron is really enjoying High School and is looking forward to basketball season ending and baseball season beginning. It was fun for him to try basketball, but baseball is still the sport he loves most.

Hosea is such a helper for me around the house and with Timothy. I'm grateful for his cheerful attitude and creative ideas. :)

Timmy...well...let's just say I hope he's potty trained before age 13! He really doesn't seem to mind wearing pull-ups and has no desire to do anything else at this point. But, we shall see....
He's a cutie pie and is constantly making all of us laugh :) The other night in the van I was talking to him and he took his thumb out of his mouth long enough to say, "Mama, you my friend!" That warmed the cockles of my heart (whatever those are!!)....

We are richly blessed~

Misc. Pictures Part 2

2007-12-26T07:29:00.001-08:00

Aaron's First Basketball Season....Man, he's getting tall! 6' 1/2"

Can you tell what Timmy's into? Totally dressing up into one of his favorite characters :)

David gettting into (literally) the bag one of his gifts came in. He called this his "chill" hat :)
Yes, the other boys were with us yesterday morning.....I think I might have some pictures of them! If so, I will put them up in my next post. Needless to say, they aren't at the age where they ask to get their picture taken! I couldn't find my camera so Josh loaned me his...I need to get ahold of it and see what I ended up with. Love to you all! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas celebrating the Lord and His glorious blessings!

Misc. Holiday Pictures

2007-12-26T07:29:00.000-08:00

Quick Explanations for the pictures: Hosea and Timmy got to decorate their first gingerbread house at my friend Pam's house :) The other little boy on the left is their buddy Kyle. The next three sort of speak for themselves....let's just say the boys found a new use for the McDonald happy meal boxes :) The last picture...well....apparently, Timothy felt like really getting into the Christmas spirit....well, at least the wrapping paper! We wondered why he was so quiet....we went into our room and he looked up with his big eyes and said, "Mama, I need to do something in here..." How could you get upset at that???

Our First NFL Game!!

2007-12-10T06:52:00.002-08:00

A Loyal Fan

David and I travelled to India last year with several staff members and some friends of the ministry, one of whom happens to play for the Green Bay Packers! (that's a football team, for those who don't know :) His name is Aaron Kampman, and he is such a wonderful and godly role model for so many watching his life. He graciouly offered to give us and our friends who travelled to India tickets to the Cowboys/Packers game. Needless to say, we were quite excited, esp. since they both had a tied record at the time (I think it was 10-1).... Our seats were situated amongst many Packer fans....David sat next to a couple of them that had just flown in that morning for the game!! They apparently have some of the most loyal fans around~ Thankfully, we were rooting for the Packers that night...and wouldn't you know it, the Cowboys won...the only time I wasn't really wanting them to win! Anyways, I thought you might enjoy a few pics of our time there. Wow, it was a loud experience!! I'm either getting old, or am just so used to going to quieter baseball games instead :) I have to say, the two biggest highlights of the night were fellowshipping with Beth & Teressa and getting to "catch up" with Aaron after the game. He's such a genuine man who doesn't seem to be caught up in all of the action going on around him. He has a wonderful wife named Linde and two young sons and one in the oven!

Aaron helping this guy up....what a gentleman!!

In the stands

The gang after the game

Hanging out with Aaron after the game

Decorating and Celebrating

2007-12-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

Well...we decided to decorate the tree while playing Christmas music even though the temp. was in the high 70's...it was a little hard to get into the mood, but we enjoyed watching Timothy get excited over the lights and ornaments (when we weren't trying to keep him from breaking them!)

Even though we've had an unexpected warm front, it's been nice to spend more time outside enjoying the view of the leaves changing colors....it's quite beautiful, especially for this part of Texas!

Timothy turned 3 on the 30th....it's hard to believe how fast time has flown! I woke up with a very sore neck on that morning, so needless to say, I wasn't able to do much for his birthday. Thankfully, he's still at the age where he doesn't completely understand it all, and he keeps singing happy birthday to his friend Simon who turned 3 in August! I wanted to wait to give him his gifts until everyone was at home, which is quite a challenge with the boy's schedules, so at about 5:00 that evening Timothy said to me, "Mama, it's only going to be my birthday for 5 more minutes, then it will be all done!" Not sure why he said that exactly, but I decided right then and there to break out a few of his gifts and get out the video recorder since it was only the two of us enjoying the experience! He got some cool musical tub toys from Grandpa Larry & Grandma Sheryl and some fun heavy equipment kinds of toys (he's completely into anything that has to do with bulldozers, tractors and excavators!)....he's the only one around here that doesn't mind all of the construction going on in our city right now!!

I'm going to try to download a video or two...not sure how this works exactly....

Pictures for your viewing enjoyment....

2007-12-01T09:08:00.001-08:00

The first picture is of my big boys doing what they do best.....eating ~

Timmy is in his posing mood...first, just looking cute, then...his tough, but interesting look :)

Hosea is doing the hook 'em horns sign...yes, I'm a Longhorns fan by default...

David, his Mom and I went with the boys to dinner right before she left.....the picture is fuzzy, but at least you can tell who we are

I've finally arrived to bloggerville!

2007-12-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

Today is Dec. 1st and I realized that I needed to do a better job keeping in touch with my friends and family...since time slips by so fast, this blogging stuff seems to be the best way to do it in a short amount of time. And hopefully, I'll keep the grandparents very happy this way as well!

So...here goes!