I know, the cuban pics have disappeared below. St…

I know, the cuban pics have disappeared below. Strange huh? Anyway, more pics to come (i know i keep saying that). But for now this is just a catch up post. We have all gotten sick again! Just a bad head cold this time. But still annoying. It has been beautiful out and I just wish we were all healthy to really enjoy it. We’re tired of the sickies around here.

Owen has been very “almost 3″ lately. Throwing tantrums at every errand we ran yesterday. I’m sure it was partially due to having a cold… but it was so difficult! He has been super aggressive with Lukas (which isn’t too new). And he says “no” to us constantly. He is really into “the upside down show” and often retreats into his imaginary world when he is being talked to about bad behavior.

Lukas has in the last couple weeks cut 4 molars. Poor guy. He has picked up the habit of screaming at the top of his lungs when he wants something. We try not to respond to it when possible because we don’t want to reinforce the behavior. But sometimes it’s hard not to respond. He is less emotional and sensitive than owen, but incredibly strong-willed. Tough little guy. I feel like I could handle them better if my throat didn’t hurt so much, and my body wasn’t so worn out.

So nothing but normal in the mommy lives of the world- I know. But I guess I’m reaching out, sharing, or venting… On what is completely normal, but draining at the same time.

No other big news. Jeff leaves for a few days to Nashville next week. But a few days seems to pale in comparison to him being gone last time. I have really been working on getting to bed early since my children have been getting up at 7. And aside from this cold, I think it would be helping a lot. oh well

Cuban US Embassy

These are incredibly difficult pictures to take, so they are not the best quality or easiest to see. What you are looking at, (believe it or not) are pictures of the US embassy in Cuba. The Mass of white poles are holding black flags, which are a successful attempt to block out any pro-freedom, pro-democracy phrases left in the windows. They can not tear the embassy down because our country owns it. This confused me a little until Linda Lyons (meridith’s mom) explained to me that would be considered and act of war.

They keep the cuban military guarding it at all times and it is forbidden to take pictures. Obviously my husband and brother-in-law broke that law. The pictures in particular were taken shortly before they were chased by these guards. Fortunately for my sister-in-law and I, they out were able to outrun Cuban military.

More images to come in doses. I’ll balance showing pictures of the beautiful sweet people of Cuba with the scary propoganda, and random intersting images of their transportation. Stay tuned!

UPDATE-
The US embassy was taken care of by the swiss in 1961 until President Carter sent US staff there in 1977. It is called the “Us Interest Section”. very interesting. Because they are occupying it they are able to display pro-democracy sayings. We found out from wikipedia that the flags pictured actually cover up a pro-democracy digital billboard. The flags are called “Mount of Flags”, and are stationed in “Anti-imperialist Park”. Wikipedia refers to this as a propaganda battle between the US and Cuba. Interesting.

JJ’a HOME! :) The boys were so excited to see him…

JJ’a HOME! The boys were so excited to see him, it was so cute to watch. Unfortunately, he is really under-the-weather with a ton of work to catch up on. My body saw him and my survival mode vanished! Suddenly I could barely keep my eyes open! I had no idea I was that exhausted. It’s probalby pretty good I didn’t realize it Tomorrow is Friday and the weekend couldn’t come any sooner.

We went through his pictures of Cuba. Wow. I will eventually trickle some out here and there because they are pretty amazing and the stories that go with them even more so. So many of the Cuban people are amazing. They are living with little to nothing in a land where there is much control over everything they do. Imagine always fearing saying anything that may be interperted against your government knowing the consequences could be unimaginable. Jeff’s father has been there something like 45 times in the last 5-6 years. Jeff was able to go and witness first hand why his father has fallen in love with these people and has such a heart to help them.

The propaganda images he took photos of alone… are crazy. We seriously forget how great we have it here. What are freedom has allowed us in life. We have been spared so many hardships. People complain because they feel like all this big money controls the media (which I’m sure is largely true), we complain because we feel hopeless that the US isn’t going the way we want it too… But seriously friends, we are still able to speak what we feel! That alone is absolutely amazing after hearing stories I have heard from my husband. We are able to be frustrated with the Goverment, or the people on the other side of the Isle in Congess… or with the media, etc. The fact that I can go off in a blog about my thoughts and the most I have to worry about is some of my friends disagreeing with me! I’m seriously thankful I was born here.

Anyway, I will share more stories at later times, since my husband says he can’t/won’t blog. I feel like few of us really get a glimpse of what daily life is like in Cuba. It’s a place most american’s (from the U.S.) never get to see, and probalby never will. So I feel COMPELLED to share these things with you in the near future.

In other Jackson news- I joined facebook. I actually really like it. It’s very different than myspace. And It’s as private as you want it to be which I really like. Of course, I seem to have very few friends on it since most don’s seem to use it… where as on Myspace SO MANY friends are on. Anyway, thanks caroline for inviting me, cool place. I can even (and did) Import my blog feeds into it. Let me know if you join and I’ll add you (if and only if I know you :)). My blog is pretty out there in the wide open, so I tend to keep contact info far from it. But since Myspace and Facebook are a little more informative (contact wise) so I keep them private.

That’s it around here for now.

So everyone at our house is pretty much ready for …

So everyone at our house is pretty much ready for daddy to get home. I’m absolutely exhausted. Owen is throwing emotional temper-tantrums of the likes I have never experienced before. I’m right now drinking some nice tea with a concoction to *calm* me. 20 more hours left.

Aside from that this is what I’m meditating on this week. (from the Bible)

1 Corinthians 1:25- 2:5
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things- and the things that are not- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jeesus, who has become for us wisdom from God- that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redmption. Therefore, since it is written: “Let those who boast, boast in the Lord.”

And so it was with me brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that you faith might not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power.

It’s funny how when you have been around *the church* so long passages become so familiar… then one day BOOM you read something and it almost sounds like a puzzle. You know there is so much more to it than you have gotton before. And you may not know what all that is, but you keep pressing in to find out.

I have always considered myself to have a pretty g…

I have always considered myself to have a pretty good eye for space. No, not the final frontier, I mean the dimensions of a room, how and object will fit somewhere, distance, etc. Take my drivers ed. class for example, when they hit the part where the class was to participate in optical illusion experiments, they would flash up a card with 3 tilted lines and ask which was longer, my eye would quickly register that they were all the same, some looked longer simply because the angle. I have always considered these things some what of a strong point for me (though I wouldn’t say it was to par with some one doing something to save the poor, or anything nobel like that…) I tend to see through certain optical illusions life provides. HOWEVER…

I have been hanging a lot of shelves and pictures this week. And while doing so it amazed me how often I see things incorrectly when I’m quite positive I’m dead on. There are several times that I had marked spots to drill that seemed perfectly level to my over-confident eyes. Thank God I’m somewhat obsessive and couldn’t ever let it go without double and sometimes triple checking with a level. Almost everytime I was just slightly off and had to correct my markings.

It got me thinking.

It’s all pretty obvious to the Christian and it’s probably a cheezy illustration in ways, but true none-the-less. We all have different perspectives in life. Our spiritual, social, emotional, mental, psychological vision is often influenced by our genetics, our family, our past experiences, and our personality. Sometimes these angles, or perspectives, cause us to see issues correctly, incorrectly, or even just slightly off. But when we take a tool like a *metephorical* level, a constant of some sort, and measure it against how we are viewing things, we ought to be taken back by the correction of it all. It can be an amazing thing to have your eyes opened in an area they were once closed. Or to have your perspective deepened because of a new aspect you hadn’t thought of before.

As Christians the Bible is what we have. Christ is the foundation of everything we believe. And his word is an endless supply of wisdom and instruction not only for how to live life, but how to see the world.

Being a very opinionated person I tend to think I have thought through all the angles and that the conclusions I have arrived on are correct. I believe as long as I’m running that through the filter of the Bible God will correct me if I’m wrong (as long as I remain open to his kind correction,) As long as I’m always striving to allow God’s perspective to align my own, I can be confident that even if I’m trailing off in a faulty direction… he will gently guide me back… or even snatch me up if need be. Then he can open my eyes and reveal truth.

I’m a work in progress. That doesn’t mean I stop being passionate about what I believe, but it does mean that I hope to always be open to correction from God. It is just completely impossible that in all life’s matters I will consistantly see things 100% correctly. Everyone alive is too flawed for that, and I’m FAR from an exemption!

Jeff is in Cuba now. The last I heard from his wa…

Jeff is in Cuba now. The last I heard from his was 2 days ago in Cancun. I knew he would most likely have no phone service, but apparently no internet as well I’m sad, I miss him. We have never gone one day without talking in our marriage. But he is there for such a great reason and I think this trip is going to be so great for him. But I do miss him- very much.

My plans to adventure to Nashville with the boys and visit my cousin/ friends are thwarted by the stomache flu. Go figure. Lukas isn’t doing well, but I won’t give you the gorey contagious details. So far Owen seems fine- praying it stays that way!

There really isn’t much to update on. I’m very ready for spring, but who isn’t? We ha a day in the 70s this week and it was such a breath of fresh air! I have had the windows open and the heat off for 2 days (until now… it’s cold).

One of my best friends, Jordan, is one of the best faux/ deco painters i have ever known and she’s working right now on my dining room. It looks amazing. Thanks J. Jeff’s Office is also getting done in a suede wall treatment.

I’m still holding out hope that maybe just maybe Lukas will recover quickly enough to go to Nashville for the weekend!
But it’s not looking good….

So, If i’m ending up stuck here I figure I might as well get a lot of things done around the house! I’m hoping to get some of Jeff’s favorite posters framed before he gets home. His office has never really gotton finished. He has Gold records to hang! An old U2 tour poster he wants up… and tribute plaque from the label he worked at in Nashville for 10 years…So I will try to get those up and maybe buy a couple of plants and some small stuff to make a good workspace… but we’ll see how much I will be able to do with a sick kid. And this all assuming I don’t get to leave for Nashville.

Cuba & Cambodia.

My brother who is pastor at the Central Vinyard is currently over in Cambodia with my cousin Jordan. His church is very active in a ministry called Asia’s Hope. They have several ophanages over there saving many children out of sex slavery, poverty, abuse, etc. Their blogs are pretty eye opening. Please read the links below and pray for them when you think of it.

Jeff’s Blog (my brother).
Jordan’s Blog (my cousin).

Also one of the spearheads of Asia’s hope, John McCollum is over there. He is an incredible writer and is most familiar with the area and what is going on over there. His Asia’s Hope blog can be found here.

Next Tuesday Jeff (this time my husband Jeff) is leaving with his father, mother and his sister’s husband to Cuba.

Yes… Cuba.

Several years ago Cuba started allowing a limited amount of people to come in to build protestant churches. My Father-in-Law headed up a ministry for years through the ‘AG’ called MAPS where he went over to Cuba (among other places) to oversee the building of churches. For those over there that had come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior this was (and still is) a dream come true. A building to meet freely in!

For years Jeff and Tim (brother-in-law) have talked about going over there with their father, and now it is finally happening! They have been hoping to get there before Fidel Castro passed away since what exactly will be allowed after that remains in question.

During my father-in-law’s many trips to Cuba he has really fallen in love with the people (not Castro of course!) These people live like you have gone back in time. Communist/Socialist (it says both in their constituation), government has made them incredibly deprived - Need I say for the gazzilionth time-”another reason I am adamently against big governement and socialism”- or are you all sick of that? They are physically and spritiually hungry. Jeff leaves on Tuesday for 8 days (while i will be taking off to hang in Nashville!). Please keep him and his family in your prayers… He isn’t really a blogger so I will have to update you here if I am able to hear from him at all (communication from there is very difficult!).

Well. The boys are finally doing much better! No…

Well. The boys are finally doing much better! Not 100%, but much better.

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AND WE GOT SUCH A GREAT SURPRISE TODAY! Jeff’s parents showed up at our doorstep, surprising us shortly after 2pm. Such an answer to prayer. I have been craving family and feeling lonely. I’m so used to being out and about with the boys that all 3 of us have been going stir crazy. Having them here is like a breath of fresh air. Time loosened up in their schedule and they were only 4 hours away so they decided this morning to come and stay till Wednesday.

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I am not sure if you have paid attention to the news of the tragic health care at Walter Reed Medical Center for Veterines/ Military. If not please click HERE. *They are saying* that the more they look into it, they are finding most of these types of hospitals are providing horrible care and further investigations are neccesary.

FRIENDS! This is a foreshadow… pay close attention! This is what government taking over health care looks like. Is this really what you want? I know that insurance is insane and medical cost astronomical. But if we go to socialized health care I predict this is exactly what health care will look like for everyone.

There has to be another solution. I’m not the genius to figure it out. But their has to be one. This is one of the trillion reasons I am for small/limited government. Not because I don’t like poor people, or am rich, greedy and so on (the reasons many of us get demonized for.) I do care, it does break my heart to think of anyone not getting the care that they needs it. But I do not think the government taking things over is an effective answer to anything. Look at the disaster FEMA turned into. We have to think of effective long term solutions… not solutions that simply solve the short term only to evolve into a much greater problem for our children and their children’s children in the long run.

Recent Pictures

My dad just sent me a bunch of pictures I had taken on his camera.

We are a sick house.

Last I updated you on the sickies in this house was that Owen had contracted a bad cold. It has been 8 days now and he’s gone from bad to awful. There was some hope maybe he was getting better… but then last night he had us up crying and moaning and saying his ear hurts, which means a dreaded ear infection. To top it off Lukas is going on his 4th day of the said awful cold So today after being in all week, cancelling gym plans, cancelling lunches with friends, and everything else planned, I am finally taking them to the dr.

Tonight we had plans to go out with 2 of my best friends I have known since I was 7 and their husbands for my birday. We’ll have to see if we have to cancel or not. It was going to be fun to be out with these guys with out our 7 kids between us in tow. We were going to pretend we were really fun, cool, adults that have wonderful social lives for the night But the kids obviously come first, so we’ll see.

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