Getting Ready for Christmas

We brought the kids over to bake a few goodies for Christmas. We all had a blast putting on the finishing touches. Here are few pics.

Momma's Ark

Well so far we've combined three families into one household. Not exactly easy but do-able. The next to join in our home will be two (not just one) puppies for Christmas. Now Sam has wanted a puppy for a while but I always say NO, not until we get a fence, replace the sliding glass doors for easier axcess, & what ever excuse I can come up with. With that being said, it is not us that will be getting the puppies but my mom & brother. Not sure what they're thinking. I LOVE baby animals but also treasure what shred of sanity I can hold tight to. Sam now has more of an arguement of why WE should get our own. Sure, fine- but you can take him to work and potty train it every day; I've got enough to do for now. I suggested a simple goldfish; that was of course laughed at but it's something that wouldn't be time consuming! And enjoyable for the boys.

Next order of business is that there are talks of another family moving in...my sister & her munchkins. The kids I MIGHT be able to handle my sister however is in an extreme state of I WANT IT MY WAY, I"M THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE WORLD. I can't really go into all the details except to ask for prayer. We need wisdom & God's favor. It's possible that in the next 3-6 months I may have three more kiddos to be responsible for. It's a scary thought but I'd rather go this route than to end up with the kids scarred for life or worse....PLEASE PRAY FOR US as in all of our household.

CRAZY

The weather is outrageously crazy around here! Last week the low's hit around twenty & yesterday we broke a record hi of 80 degrees! Can we say sinus issues??? We may break another record today~ The boys and I went outside to play today. 70's is actually nice in the middle of winter but I'm thinking that cold weather would be just fine as well! Stack must have brought a little bit of Texas heat with her. Now if we could just throw in some snow we would have seen it all this season!

It's so much fun when someone actually reads what you write!!!

Or COMMENTS I should say!!!!

My friend Priscilla & her baby Paul

Paul is just nine months old & Priscilla is three months pregnant. Say a prayer for her! Her baby is super cute, kinda like the Gerber baby.

Nic's

It's so refreshing to go somewhere and not have a schedule of things to do. The kids we so funny. Justus & Darcy were hilarious. Kinda like brother and sister....they'd get along & then fight for a sec. Anyways, we had fun hanging with Matt and Nic! Sorry no pics of the adults. The kids kept us to busy.

Basketball as seen by Justus

Grandma & great grandfather~ Merry Christmas

A couple of pic of the boys with Sam's family...

Spoiled!

My child is spoiled! Check out the pics from Bama. Justus got this 4 wheeler from his grandmother in Alabama. The stinking thing wouldn't even fit in our car; Sam plans on going back to get it in February for Justus' birthday. Thats fine by me, that's two more months that my child will have all his limbs in the right place. Sorry, I just don't think this is an appropriate gift for a three year old. Obviously Justus would beg to differ, & his daddy as well. Welcome to redneck country!

Ps No child rode the 4wheeler alone!!!!

Check these out

Justus after his Rainbow awards with the badges he earned.


SAM & I at the game...Go Colts!


Zekie baby~

Zeke

My little fella is so talkative lately. A lot of his words sound the same but he definelty knows what he's saying it's not just a bunch of mumbo jumbo! He is also on a growing spurt. Sleeping and eating more than usual. He makes me laugh so much these days!

License to wed---

Is Hilarious! We watched with my brother and SIL last night. And woke up mom because we were laughing so hard in a couple of parts. Maybe you will like it maybe not but I enjoyed a few laughs at the end of the night.

NFL baby

We had an awesome time at the football game. Four hours of adult talk only was heavenly! That night after the game was the beginning of our community outreach. After two hours of traffic we made to the church right on time. Our outreach was a great sucess. In four nights we had over 1200 people come through. This was the busiest year yet. My mom stayed at the house and watched the kids for us. Aubrey and I had lots of fun making hot chocolate and taking it to the workers. It got pretty cold after tke sun went down. Here are a few from the game. And a few of the kids at the outreach on Halloween night.

Today seems to be creeping along. We got up at a decent time, ate breakfast, make the bed, start a load of clothes.....etc.....
It's not even noon yet and I have most of today's list done. Now I'm bored & that usually leads to snacking, which is not so good. Good thing it's almost lunch time.

It's raining here today so we can't go outside. The boys are antsy. I'm considering playing in the rain for sanity sake. We were planning on going to church with Sam today to do finishing touches on Hallelujah House ( fall outreach). It starts on Sunday and goes through Halloween. It's lots of fun and work but we're getting there. This is the first year that Sam has been in charge. Some people have been a little bit territorial & not as cooperative as they should have been. The closer we get to the start date the better it has gotten so I"m glad it 's almost here!

The weather is supposed to be getting cooler which I love since it is FALL!

Guess what happened last night???? Someone gave Sam tickets to this weeks football game. It's Panther's vs. Colts. Sam has been a Colts' fan for a while now & wanted to go to the game SOOOOOOO bad but then we realized that its on the same day that Hallelujah House starts so we didn't even consider it. But this person talked our pastor into letting Sam go, the tickets were for Pastor appeciation. How cool is that??? We're both super excited, of course Sam is ecstatic.

Oh yeah....YEA for the rain we REALLY need it! We're considered to be in extreme drought. Rain is good!

BACK-UP

Stomach bug hit our house. And is now gone but on Friday we took Justus to the doctor still complaining of pain. Sam & I thought it was just left over cramps. We get there & talk to the doctor. After talking to us & checking Justus out the doctor decided to take x-rays. I was a bit freaked out but Justus and I went to the x-ray room while the doc checked out Zeke just for good measure. His allergies were bothering him but nothing more. Anyways I could see something on the x-ray and that made me even more scared. Thankfully it turned out to be a bad case of constipation or as the doctor said a 'back-up'. So, that was interesting but things have been getting progressively better. We also went to the pumpkin patch. We had a great time...I'll post some pics as soon as I can.

Hello all~


I know you are just drueling to know what I will talk about next. And being the kind person that I am I will try to satisfy your cravings. Well----hope you're not to disappointed but life is still going on here in NC.

This weekend we went to get our FLU shots.....not sure if they're useful or not but my MOM insists that they are. With TEN people living here if ONE gets sick typically ALL get sick so everyone in my house got one with the exception of my dad who thinks he is super man. Mom is still trying to convince him to get one.

So anyways we packed out our van. Me, Sam & the boys. My SIL, bro & niece and head off to the Health department who gives them FREE to children & less than half the cost of what ONE shot would be at our doctors office. Everything is going fine until Justus realized that we were there for shots. Did I mention that it was drive-thru??? Sounds kind of kookie but it was VERY convenient.

Those goofballs waited to do Justus last. So he was mortified. I asked several times for them to go ahead & get it over with for Justus; they either simply ignored me or were so involved they didn't hear me. Justus squirmed & screamed so much that he didn't know when he got the shot. Later he asked: "Where did I get my shot". Our minds can do terrible things to us! Poor kid!

Once that was over we headed to my nephews football game. His team is for first graders & kindergarten age....BUT the competition is FIERCE. They flag but we have already scene several tackles! His team had won both games. We're planning on going to another game tomorrow.

The pumkin patch was next. We didn't stay as long as I wanted but by leaving early I think we avoided some temper tantrums from some tired kids! And saved some frustration on our parts. The kids were good but it is still pretty hot up here. Not very festive weather!

That night we ALL (us & bro's fam) went over to our friends Nathan & Traci's. We had a cookout & carved our pumpkins. It was lots of fun! The kids played themselves silly & were out not to long after a bath.


Sunday was the typical day. CHAOS, followed by the service, lunch, nap & then back to church. YEA>.....more positively the service was kick butt awesome!!!!

Woohoo!

On Monday I get the lovely privilege of going to the court house for jury selection for jury duty. Woohoo. Not sure if I'd like a break from the life of a SAHM or what. I'll update more when I get home tomorrow.

Battle wound

Justus got banged up a little bit today. He and a church friend were playing. The other little boy hit J with a golf club. Luckily they have some magic stuff called durabond....it's a glue like substance that hardens like super glue. They were able to use that instead of stiches. There was NO way stiches would have happened. I am so thankful he didn't get hurt worse!!!
How do you like that cheesy grin???

Sad News

Early this morning Clint died. I don't know any details other than it has been a LONG uphill battle. The medications did not work. His organs had difficulty keeping up with the meds. Aubrey has been there for almost two weeks. That is a long time to sit by and watch someone die, all the while hoping for a miracle. Several days he was unconcious and there was very little response from Clint when he was awake.

Please pray for peace within this family. Their names are Sherry & Jeff (mom & stepdad), Jessica (sister), Carly, Whitney, Aubrey (step sisters). That is the immediate family. Josh & Leah are still there as well. The funeral will be this Thursday. Josh will be part of it but I haven't talked with him today to find out if he is a paulbearer(sp??) or what.


Clint was only ninteen & proudly served our county.

Clint

Yesterday my SIL left for Texas to be with her family. Her step brother Clint has leukemia and was given a 30% chance to live.
Once she got there things got even worse when they discovered an secondary infection and changed his survival rate to only 10% percent. The only good news they have recieved is that the leukemia seems to have stopped growing while this infection has set in. So they think that his body is finally in recovery mode. He has had chemotheraoy without results. At one point organs started shutting down.


There are so many things to pray for but I am simply praying for wisdom. For the doctors & family that God will lead each step whatever that may be.

9/11

I still remember finding out that the planes had crashed into the WTC. I wasn't even scared; just shocked. Just one hour after it happened planes were flying over us ever fifteen to twenty minutes. We were on retreat with our MC in Ohio. It was our first week as Master's Commission Directors of our own group. We spent several hours glued to the TV watching & praying for the fire fighters & police officers. And those caught in the buildings. It took until late in the afternoon for the phone lines to clear up enough to get a phone call out.


I am still amazed at the hatred it took to carry out their plans and kill all the innocent victims... Today I looked at a slideshow of the construction going on for the Freedom Tower. We visited four years ago with our MCs from Florida. Then it was a HUGE whole in the ground. It doesn't look much different now but there is LOTS of construction.

Today I am thankful for my country, for my GOD, for our freedom; and for those who continue to fight for it. And for those who have lost their lives for my freedom. I am thankful that I am here safely at home with my children. I am thankful for Gods mercy. And for one more day to live for him.

My turn

Hambone....

A quote~

There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you.
(Peter De Vries)

Class reunion

It's been ten years already! SO a few months ago I started hearing buzz about our class reunion that will be in September. YIKES. I keep going back & forth on whether or not I should go. In fact I saw a girl I went to school with at Walmart. She looked the perfect!! Same haircut, same trim size, same great smile. I was impressed and a bit intimidated. I've gained a good bit of weight since the 'good ole days. And haven't loved my hair since I cut it in master's.

I have seen others that don't look so goo. And I'm just wondering if it's worth the time & money to see that I wasn't close to ten years ago & am not close to now. Any thoughts on the subject??? I honestly think the only reason to go is curiosity.

Our movie theater is LAME!!! They don't have Becoming Jane now or even on the coming soon list. Instead we will go see No Reservations today. We're going with our friend Lisa who has cancer as a get away girl time. She hasn't felt up to going out until now so I'm excited that her spirits are up a bit and she is physically able to go~! It's encouraging to me & I hope her as well.

My brother, SIL & niece are here!!!! It's taken the past few days for them to get things basically settled here in the house. They plan to be here in this house for about 6m- 1year....that was OUR plan three years ago. Having them brings our numbers up to ten in a four bedroom, 1.5 bath house. So please pray for smooth sailing!!!! I can truly say that living here with my parents & youngest brother has been SO much better than I thought it could be! And I hope this endeavor is just as sucessful. PS- We're in the process of adding an additional bedroom. With plans for another bed & bath. We'll see.


Justus has had a stomach bug yet again. I'm thinking he must have a sensitive stomach b/c I don't remember being sick like that when I was younger & I grew up as one of four so when one got sick we all did. Anyways it past quickly & tommorrow he will be at full speed ahead!!!!

I want to see the new movie Becoming Jane, I really like her work so I think I'd like this movie.

The other day I heard a new muscian that I enjoy, well new to me anyways. He is a bit like Jeremy Camp so if you like him you may like this guy. His name is Aaron Shust. Anyone heard of him???

Back to school sales are going on and this weekend is the tax free weekend....of course it's an off payweek...good thing our kids aren't in school yet or I'd be even more dissappointed. I'm a bit like Staci, I LOVE office supplies, even when I don't know what I'll do with them (stack probably knows just how she'd use them).

We got two new tires put on the car which is GREAT since you could see cord showing. Guess who payed for them??? GOD!!!!!!! Seriously someone gave us money randomly & we had just enough buy them!!!!! THANKS LORD!!!!!!

So much more to say but as usually I've forgotten the minute I have time to type.

Splash Pad

Check out this cute place we went today with our early childhood team. It's really cool because unlike a pool you don't have to worry about drowning but it's still as much fun because of the water. Even Ezekiel got in on the fun. There are pressure points all throughout the space so the kids can turn the water on & off randomly. Eventually they figure it out but it's fun to watch them try to make the water come back on. There are different levels so all ages can enjoy. The best part is that it only cost $1 to get in and you only pay if you play. We had a great time.!!!

Little Guy

Last week we took Zeke to the doctor for his 1 year shots. He is growing like a weed. 22lbs, 31inches. I really didn't think another baby would keep me on my toes as much as Justus did but I've been proven wrong. Ez is motivated to keep up with Justus so he is learning things a lot faster than I remember J doing. But there are also areas where is a behind. One of those things is talking. HE says: mommy, daddy, ball and then squeals and grunts the rest. I am a bit concerned but the doctor says he's within the norm.

He has allergies like Justus & myself. And they have been pretty severe the past month or so. The doctor put him on two meds daily & a nebulizer every four hours as needed. Justus has to use occasionally but not nearly as much as Zeke. Here is a couple of pics. One while he is getting a treatment. And one of the nebulizer. Its a cow & came with a barn carrying case....very cute, not much fun though.

Comfortable much???

I'm not sure how he does it but this guy can fall asleep ANYWHERE! Can you tell that he is up on top of the back of our couch?? I'm glad I discovered him before he fell off. Tiles to the head would not feel so good!