It's been a while (again)...

I haven't posted anything in a long while. Lots of things were going on.

Recently participated in Vacation Bible School at my church. I took the kids pictures. I had a cool set up with a backdrop, lots of diamond art decorations, a fake grass run, and fake potted flowers with diamond art plant stakes. It turned out pretty good, if I say so myself! I had a variety of rubber ducks and miniature magnifying glasses as gifts for all the kids after they got their picture taken. I learned YEARS ago that having little presents makes taking pictures so much easier! This year's theme was magnifying God. I've been told that next year's theme is (or could be) trains. We'll see. Not sure I'd be here but if I am, I'll have to start preparing probably about January or February, depending on what I think I'd need for my setup.

The reason I don't want to fully commit to next year's VBS is because there is a definite possibility that I may move with my dad. We've talked about it, but nothing is definitive yet. My sister-in-law (my brother's SO) had a pretty bad and scary health episode in the past week, and she is still recovering. My brother was having severe panic attacks as a result, basically lamenting about how he's all alone and nobody is there to help him. He and my nieces and nephews (who live nearby) have a bit of a strained relationship. Luckily, my sister was there. She was visiting one of her daughters who recently had a baby, and she was there to help out for a bit. I got in touch with her, and she started talking to our brother. It helped a lot and I'm also helpful that this will help repair their strained relationship and maybe help with the nieces and nephews too.

I really hate that sometimes it takes a health scare to make family talk to each other again. I wish my dad, and I COULD move sooner (not really financially feasible right now). All of it has made me wake up with headaches nearly every day. Not as bad as what my sister-in-law went through, of course. I got so upset after talking to my brother one day that I couldn't eat. Yeah, my blood sugar plummeted significantly. My app on my phone was basically yelling at me to eat something. Why couldn't we all live in the age of Star Trek now? Just beam from one location to another. We'd all be able to see each other without all the stress of driving or flying! Wouldn't that be wonderful.

I did joke with my brother that I did win $20 on a lottery ticket a few days ago. I joked that that number needed a few extra zeroes and we'd be moving close to family VERY quickly! It could happen! One can never tell. After all, $20 is the most I've won in a long time. Gotta have that faith! My dad and I already said we'd give some money to our church and the rest would be split between us and my siblings. If anyone could use money right now, it would definitely be my brother and me. My sister is good financially, but I'm sure she could use it too.

What would I do if I had the money? After paying off some bills (cough cough. Student loans), I'd want to travel, researching my family tree. It's been my dream for years. I'd enlist the help of a professional genealogist to help me check what I've done and help me find more information. I'd love to find stuff that may not have been scanned! Like what they do in those genealogy shows. Mainly, I'd like to know if the stories my mom told me about her father's side of the family are true. AND I'd love to clarify where some of my dad's family came from. I've always been curious about my ancestry. It would be awesome if I could win a trip to do all this but that's not likely! LOL

I know that one can achieve anything just with dreams alone. I keep praying, more for family than anything else. Prayer does help. I'm not over the top religious but I have ALWAYS believed in prayer. I believe it does help. I've told my brother that prayer can give you what you need, not always what you want. I will continue to pray for my brother and his family because they really need it.

God Bless Everyone! Have a fun and extremely safe Fourth of July!