Why don't I ever have wine in my house when I really want some?

Oh my! We have been so brilliantly blessed over the last few months. Ever since Bing's hospitalization, I have realized the enormity of relationship and community. People that we don't even know have come along side us and supported us financially, emotionally and spiritually.

All of this said.... I now realize that I am an introvert. I like to be around people but not in the center of everything. I do not like being on TV, or in the newspapers, or being recognized by every Tom, Dick and Harry at the grocery store, and I want my privacy. Funny comment to put on a blog, huh?

It is different to share our life with people who love us and want to be updated and to be able to control the details and edit the details. I never lie on Burch Perch, but sometimes I leave out details that I feel are private. The newspaper is cutthroat... they have misquoted, twisted and blurted out information about our lives and I DON'T APPRECIATE IT!

My husband revels in all of this. He is thoroughly enjoying every interview, photo op, and video taken of him. Not the inaccuracies but, the attention.

I am enjoying this rainy day, blogging, inside and alone. Now, why don't I have any wine in the house?


The beautiful home that we won!
http://tours.imagemaker360.com/Viewer/15.asp?id=95797 Click this link to see more photos of the home.

Dream Home

When Bing and I heard that there was a home being raffled off, we discussed buying a ticket. With all of the medical nonsense we were dealing with, it didn't seem plausible to spend $100 on a ticket that would likely not win us a home... Lord only knew how many people would buy tickets, our odds couldn't be good. I suggested that we pray about it and let God provide the answers (could we afford this, how many should/could we buy).

Bing wanted to buy 3 tickets. I said, "If God wants us to have this house, we only need to buy 1 ticket". We compromised and bought 2 tickets using some of the money from the benefit in Grays Harbor.

Weeks later, Bing approached me saying that the Lord was really laying it on his heart to buy a third ticket. It is hard to deny a request when you word it that way... even in all of my anal retentive frugality, I couldn't deny him the third ticket. I went in to McCall Homes to buy another ticket and spoke with two gals from St. Jude. While they looked for the right book of raffle tickets, I shared our story with them and left them with tears in their eyes. As I left I said " See you in a few weeks when I win the house".

The Bing-efit was on Saturday, September 26th and the drawing for the house was the next day. At the beginning of the week I told Bing it was going to be a good week, "we have the benefit on Saturday and then the next day we are going to win a house". I fully trust that the Lord has our best interest in mind, but I never, never, never thought that we would win. We were watching the live broadcast and eagerly awaited the drawing for the house, I was bummed when we didn't win $10,000 worth of new furniture because my couch is worn out and sinks in the middle. A beautiful little girl with brain cancer, reached into the hopper and pulled out the ticket, handed it to the news lady and...............drum roll please, announced that Lane Perrine had won the house. I screamed at the top of my lungs, jumped out of the sink-hole in my couch and landed on top of Bing. We both jumped up and down, screaming, squealing, crying, hugging and kissing. We immediately started calling our family and sharing the good news. In between phone calls, Bing hugged me and confessed, " I didn't tell you this, but on Monday nights when you were working, Maddox and I went down to the house and prayed over it".

I missed the call from St. Jude, so they called Bing and asked us to come down to the news station. When we walked in, the gal who sold me the ticket stared at me wide eyed, started bawling and said, "it's you". We hugged and cried and shook hands with a huge group of people who were waiting there to congratulate us and then we all headed down to our new house.

News crews, the builders, neighbors and the St. Jude folks were all there watching our reactions as we walked through. Bing had toured the house before, but it was my first time seeing the inside of this beautiful home, and let me tell you, it is AWESOME!

I don't have photos yet, but I will soon and I cannot wait to share them with you. We have to meet with lawyers and figure out all of the tax stuff and what not, it could be a month or so before we are even close to moving, but we hope to be able to host Thanksgiving.

When Bing bought the first two tickets, he put "Mr. & Mrs. Bing Perrine" on them, when I bought the third ticket, I only put my name on it. That is how we know that the third ticket was our winner. I am grateful that Bing was so faithful in prayer and had the wisdom to listen. I am grateful that I was able to submit to my husbands wish for a third ticket, and didn't argue our lack of finances. God has blessed us with more than we could have dreamed, THANK YOU GOD!

BIG BIG GOD= BIG BIG BLESSING

Tonight, we won a $400,000 St. Jude Dream Home. We have been blown away by the generosity of our friends and family. The benefit last night was outstanding! We had such a wonderful turnout and were superbly blessed by all of you. To top it off, our prayers to find a bigger home have been answered in a way we still can't fathom. I will share the full story soon.

Love you guys.

Ouchie

I got a bee sting in the palm of my hand today. It made me want to throw up it hurt so bad. I thought I might swell up and not be able to use my arm, but alas, nothing happened. It has been about 8 hours and it still aches, I'm pretty sure I never want to be stung again.

The commercial took longer than expected to edit, it should be on Youtube in the next couple of days. They put it on Youtube in order to raise money to put it on local TV. The first ad that came out in Maine raised about $100K in 12 hours on Youtube... pretty crazy.

I think we are going to develop big, huge, heads from all of the publicity we have been receiving. In the last week we have shot a commercial, a news program, and had an article in the local newspaper and the Bing-efit is scheduled for tomorrow. Not to mention, there are posters and fliers all over town with our picture and a brief synopsis of our predicament. What a blessing to have so much love and support and all of these people trying to help us. We are so appreciative!

Maddox now growls when asked, "what does a bear say?" Blows kisses, flexes his muscles, knows where his nose is, dances when he hears music, stands briefly on his own &
knows sign language for more and all done (those are the only two I know).

Photo frenzy

We took a day trip down to Sheridan, Wyoming to see new sights. We checked out the Don King Rodeo, kinda lame, we don't know much about calf roping and all of that but it was a really cool arena. It was just a wide open, grassy field. There were very few fences, which is apparently uncommon. Someone kept throwing a ball out into the field for their kids to retrieve. The announcer totally called them out and asked someone with common sense to explain why this was a bad idea... probably the highlight of the whole thing.

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Mom and I had a garage sale to rid our homes of unnecessary crap (I mean treasures). We were pleasantly surprised at the turnout, especially since it was so far out of town. We made a couple hundred $, while spending a good deal of time together... totally worth it! Maddox hung out with us, wandered around in the walker, entertained shoppers, and shared Grammie's snack food. Dad didn't pack socks and shoes so we were stuck with pink socks and the leather moccasins that my sisters and I wore as baby girls.

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Bing, Maddox and I are in a commercial for the Progressive Change Campaign. We filmed out at my parent's house and a little bit in downtown Billings. It should be on Youtube tomorrow and TV by the weekend.

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Aunt Sissy gave Maddox a Little Tikes car for his birthday, what a hoot! He loves the thing and tries to put all of his other toys into it... they promptly fall through the open bottom. Maddox fell out the bottom and Bing didn't notice, so Maddox was run over the day we got it :) He also love the little scooter/walker we got him for his birthday and like to fill up the "trunk". The first day he figured it out, he would hold it open while desperately trying to reach something to put into it. Blocks are the best fit. At his 1 yr visit we learned that Maddox is tall and skinny with a very large head... tell me something I don't know! Also, the doctor told us to start brushing ALL of Maddox's teeth, he much prefers doing it himself.

The Big, Billings, Benefit is this weekend! Pray for a good turnout, good weather and a rocking-good-time. For more on this see Heavy Head or The Softer Side of Cynical.
Soon to come: baby shower, friends come to visit, Bing-efit...

I finally got my videos loaded. I know there are a bagillion pictures of Maddox eating his birthday cake, but now.... there is VIDEO! Also, Maddox has learned how to give kisses. They are very sweet and very, very slobbery.

holy moly! I can send a text message from my phone and it shows up as a post on my blog.... just like this one. AMAZING!

I'm trying out this new mobile blogging thingy...

Party time

We survived the first year, and the first party! It was a fun afternoon with family, burgers, lots of cake, and toys. We went with a pirate theme in honor of cousin Blake and his pirate patch. Someone got a group photo which I am sure will be on a blog somewhere :) He got great toys to aid his development, and some apparel and accessories... every boys' dream! There was a lot of family missing from the party but we ate enough cake for everybody, and we partied in your honor. Maddox was hilarious with his cake; unsure at first until I pinched off a bite for him, and then it was face plants and fists full and then a bath before presents.

Thanks family, for celebrating with us!

Maddox has started to do a dolphin laugh whenever he is particularly pleased or excited. This morning, Bing shared little bits of his coffee with Maddox and this is what we got!