This morning Joshua turned breakfast into communion.

“Thank you Jesus that you got broken for me. Thank you Jesus that you got died for me. Thank you God that I’m your kid. I promise to always be your kid.” -Joshua

I watched through the door as he tore his pancake into pieces and said this prayer with each bite he dipped into his Welches grape juice. When he looked up and saw me peeking he said, “See Mom, the juice makes me remember”.

There was a little less snow on the ground today. There was more yesterday and the day before that. Uncle Kurt helped make a snow man. It has a hat. It is a little taller than me. His name is Frosty.
-Jeremiah

My Dad and me and Charleigh and Kaleb made a snow man. There was a hat on the snow man it was made out of a beach bucket. My favorite part of playing in the snow was making the snow man. My Daddy is a good snow man maker, so am I. I wish Sarah and I could make a kitty snow man. I think we will. THe only thing is we’re out of armadillo Jello. What? That last part doesn’t make since…Oh, well. The end
-Joshua

When I woke Saturday morning it was still snowing. It had started during the night. Later, we made a snow woman named Mrs. Frosty. Joshua, Charleigh and Daddy helped make it too. Afterwards we went inside and had hot chocolate. Yum.
-Kaleb

This weekend it was soooo snowy! We never get to make snowmans in the winter, well I don’t anyway. But this time I got to make a snow man! I am sooooooo happy. The End
-Charleigh

It was so snowy and it was sooo deep and I could do anything in the so deep snow! It is so big, the end. Wait, it was very sparkly when I went out of Grandma’s House. The end
-Sarah

stream-of-con‧scious‧ness- Pronunciation[streem-uhv-kon-shuhs-nis]
–adjective
of, pertaining to, or characterized by a manner of writing in which a character’s thoughts or perceptions are presented as occurring in random form, without regard for logical sequences, syntactic structure, distinctions between various levels of reality, or the like

So you may know I’m still conscious:

It’s been a while since I posted…I wonder if I should say something. Nah, probably not. I have very little to say. There’s no school today: Stock Show. Hmmm…I wonder what goes on at the stock show. To me it’s always meant “no school”. Of course I don’t wonder enough to go, just enough to mention it. Any of you ever been to the stock show? I’d love to hear your “stock show” experiences.

We’ve got another winter storm coming, joy. Can’t you feel that global warming? I know Malibu can. Grr.

I measured the kids today, they’ve each grown an inch in the last two months.

FYI, there’s been some confusion. Amy’s kids are actually staying with my parents. I am not the selfless martyr that has given my house up to the little people. That would be their grandparents. I do however live precariously close to them. (Across the driveway) I see them through out the day but Mom and Dad are the primary care givers. I thought I’d clear that up.

Interesting note…well not that interesting but it is a note. Chad Bulls and Jose Gonzalez both shared a birthday last Monday. It is interesting though and still amazes me that my little sis married Mr. Chad Bulls. Quite interesting, that we are now family. Well, I think it’s interesting anyway. Don’t you think so, Sheila?

The kids are fighting in the background. Charleigh thinks Kaleb has the music turned up too loud. He thinks it’s too quiet. They sound just like Kurt and I. I always think Kurt has the radio up too high in the car and he is always telling me to turn the tv up.

I’m reading Mark. Good stuff baby.

Mark 9:23″ ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.” 24Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

I love that one, God help me overcome my unbelief! Have you ever cried that out?

Mark 10:14″Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”

Charleigh, read this today. She was reading the Bible her Great Grandma Lavon gave her this Christmas. It is a small wooden new testament that was purchased for Grandma by a friend while visiting Jerusalem in 1973. This little Bible is precious to Charleigh for many reasons. The first being that it came from Grandma Lavon whom she got her middle name from. The second because it was given to Grandma in 1973 which was the year Kurt was born. She also loves that the Bible came from a place where Jesus walked. So anyway she loves this verse. She thinks those kids were really excited to get a hug from Jesus. I bet she’s right.

Speaking of hugs, Joshua gives the best hugs. What a precious little boy he is. I had a stomach bug earlier this week and was feeling pretty crummy for a few days. One afternoon I was tired of looking sick so I got up, washed my face and put on some lip gloss. I was still in my pjs and my hair was still a mess but as I walked back into the living room Joshua stood up beaming. He ran over to me, cradled my face in his little chubby hands and told me I was “absolutely beautiful”. Then he covered me up with a blanket and sat next to me as I took a nap.

I guess I better get to work, this is the official forth edition of Thought Yarn. I was wondering, would your rather I say nothing at all in these times of blogger block or do you want me to continue these random ramblings. I really should start writing something of merit. I’ve been listed as an “A List Persecution Blogger” and yet it’s been months since I’ve written anything on Christian Persecution. Last week I was going to do a write up on PrisonAlert.com and encourage you and your children to send letters to persecuted Christians imprisoned for their faith. I didn’t write it though, for some reason I thought it needed to be eloquent so instead I said nothing at all.

Ok, that’s it. Until next time please know that you are loved!
Jami Leigh

Thank God she escaped! The last update said her kidnapper had been arrested, according to the FOX News update that was a mistake. He apparently is still at large.

Oklahoma police issued an Amber Alert for the 10-year-old girl earlier, after she was reported missing in Texhoma in Texas County Thursday night.

“She took the opportunity to bolt from the car and into the convenience store and identify herself as the girl everyone was looking for and give the telephone number for the Texhoma Police Department,” said State Amber Alert coordinator Gene Thaxton.

Initial reports said the suspect had been apprehended, but police say he is still at large and the search for him continues. His name was not immediately released.

The suspect is described as a white male, 35-40 years of age with facial hair, a pasty complexion, and possibly brown hair, according to a press release from the Clovis, N.M., Police Deparment.
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The vehicle Marissa Graham escaped from is described as a purple, four-door van or SUV, which police are currently seeking.
Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call the Clovis Police Department at (505) 769-1921.

-FOX News

UPDATE!!! She escaped! (3:01 PM)

TEXHOMA, Okla. (AP) - A missing 10-year-old Texhoma girl has been found safe in Clovis, New Mexico, and her suspected abductor is in custody.

State Amber Alert coordinator Gene Thaxton says Marissa Marie Graham escaped from her abductor at a convenience store where the man apparently stopped for gas.

Thaxton says the girl ran from the car and into the store where she said she was the girl “everyone was looking for.”

The suspect was arrested by New Mexico state police and Clovis police. His name was not immediately released.

Date of birth 08-30-1996

Age:10

Girl has Reddish/Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes, White Female, Approx. four feet tall, weight: 60 pounds in weight.

Eyewitness that seen the girl at approx. 1830 hours advised that a white male possible driving a white in color car (possible cavalier) Witness advised that he saw the male reading a book with the girl near him.

The witness advised that he left the area and came back in about 10-15 minutes later and the little white car was driving off.

No make on the vehicle for sure or tag number.KVII

-

This little girl is a part of my sister n law’s family. Please pray for her safe return. For more info visit our local news station KVII
photo from FoxNews

Here are some good things about living in Texas:

At school I like recess and P.E. I like to play at recess with my cousins. At P.E, I love everything about P.E. I like to ride the bus, I like to sit by my cousins on the bus.

At church I like all of it. My favorite part is the playing games. I like church on Sunday and Wednesday. It is cool.

Some good things about living here is I get to ride my bike a lot and I get to play with my cousins. I like to play video games with Kaleb. I like to race Charleigh on my bike. I like to show Joshua how to ride my bike so later when he’s older he’ll know how to ride a bike. I like to race all the kids. I think baby Miah is cute. Ethan is cute too. Grandpa, I just like to play with him and I like to play with Grandma too. I had fun buying gym shoes with Grandpa.

and leave them on!

That’s Joshua and Sarah’s response to the too often loss of electricity around here. They say it’s driving them crazy. I think the rest of us would tend to agree. It’s off right now. Again. Thanks to my battery I’m still able to get online and whine about it. We were with out phone service for a while as well so when I finally was able to check my email I found that I’m a bit behind. I’ve also found that all the Prayer Requests and Contact forms sent to me via this site where all sent to my spam box. EEEEk. I found a bunch of them and have been trying to respond. I hope I haven’t missed any. It automatically dumps the spam after 30 days. I’m not sure when the messages started going to spam.

I hate to think I’ve missed any prayer requests. If anyone has sent some to me and I haven’t personally replied please let me know.

While we’re on the subject of Prayer Requests, I thought I’d talk to you about that. I was wondering if any of you would like to join me and my prayer partners. Many times I’m asked to keep the requests private but at times people ask that I share them. I have a group of women who join with me in prayer. If any of you men or women would like to commit to this ministry please let me know. I would be glad to have you join us.

WHooHOo the lights are back on. I better get the laundry going before it goes back off… No too late, it only stayed on 30 seconds.
Wait! wait here it’s back on again…

In the beginning I started blogging for Amy, I wrote to keep her up to date with my family. So, it only makes since now, when she’s at Ft. Jackson and her family is here with us that I’ll dedicate this blog to keeping her up to date with her own babies. Jeremiah plans on writing something each day and as soon as I find my camera charger I’ll share some pics as well. So to begin our six week series on what the Maxwell kids are doing I need to play a little catch up:

Thursday, after saying goodbye to Mommy, Sarah spent the rest of the day playing with Joshua. We had no inclination the two 4 year olds would meld so perfectly together. Their conversations were steeped in imagination and their games went well beyond adult comprehension.

At 4:00 I met the bus and gathered not two but three children. They were all smiles as they piled into my minivan singing “The Wheels on the Bus”. I gave a sympathetic wave to the bus driver. The kids had been singing that same song when they got on that morning and they sit right behind the driver, poor guy. Apparently the three have decided to sing it each time they ride the bus…and on the way home.

The following day went about the same. Sarah and Joshua played constantly and in case you were wondering “the kitties” didn’t make one appearance! The two buddies made up a secret handshake and had a grand day. They did start to drive me a bit crazy when at one point in the afternoon I couldn’t get the pair to stop crying. What was the reason for their tears? Well, it seems that a giant dragon monster swooped down from the sky and swallowed Joshua’s wife who just happened to be Sarah’s best friend she ever had. They went on for more that twenty minutes about how devastating the whole thing was. Finally I told them it was their game and if they didn’t save the wife soon they couldn’t play anymore, I was tired of the drama. They went outside mad at me then came back in five minutes with the great news that Sarah had sprinkled magical powder on the monster and the wife would be arriving home anytime now.

When the big kids came home Sarah lost her interest in Joshua and attached to Charleigh. Joshua tried to draw Jeremiah into his crazy world but Jer refused to believe that Joshua could possibly have a wife. “Kid’s don’t have wives.” He said. “Well this kid does!” replied Joshua. Then he followed up with the story of the monster and Jeremiah realized there was no point in convincing Joshua a mysterious blue wife wouldn’t be flying in soon.

Saturday was filled with more fun. Jeremiah smiles a lot and he has a fabulous imagination. He loves playing card games with Kaleb and Charleigh. He’s been very talkative and been telling us all kinds of stories. Sarah loves having Charleigh to pamper her with lotions and makeup. The two princesses played dress up and had a great time.

Sunday morning was quite exciting. Kaleb and Charleigh were so excited to take visitors to children’s church. This year the children’s ministry has started a new program in which the kids can earn “Bible Bucks” and then spend them on various prizes. Kaleb and Charleigh got “$5” a piece for bringing a friend then Jeremiah and Sarah got 5 a piece for it being their first time. Sarah didn’t stay with the big kids she came downstairs to my class with Joshua. She had a great time meeting all the little girls and she brought to all their attention more than once that I was not just her teacher but her “Aunt Jami” She liked that they called me “Miss Jami” and she got to call me “Aunt Jami”. Joshua, noticing the competition, started calling me “Mommy Jami”.

After church I went to pick up the kids from their class and I found three extremely proud little faces. Instead of spending their money on little things the cousins put their funds together and bought themselves a Candy Land game. They were so proud of their purchase they couldn’t stop giggling.

Yesterday was another great day for the kids, honestly this is going a lot better than I expected. Of course Mom and Dad are the ones they are actually staying with; in fact today Sarah told me all about the great house she is living in. She told me about her bedroom and her kitchen and she told me we’re her neighbors. She says Joshua is a good neighbor. I’m glad we’re living here right now. I think these six weeks are going to go by a lot easier for Jer and Sarah with all the kids to entertain and distract them. I’m also thankful for the chance to build relationships with my niece and nephew.

Rolling down the clearance aisle in a shopping cart Joshua sat silently contemplating. After a few minutes he looked up from his thoughts and with a gruff voice he sternly demanded, “I want you to buy me a toy”. I noticed the wheels turning in his head then replied that I would not be buying anything for him this time. Without pause he pointedly came back with:
“Perhaps I should throw a fit, I’ve seen other kids do it and get toys.”
I assured him he would not be seeing the same results; this would not work. He said, “Yes, it will. I’ll cry right now if you don’t buy me a toy”. I leaned over to my precious boy and whispered in his ear how nothing good could come from his plan. He looked into my eyes, let out a sigh, turned around and that was the end. We finished out shopping trip in jovial spirits as if the conversation had never taken place.