Happy New Years Everybody!!

I haven't updated since Christmas. We had a very nice one I might add!! We got to add another stocking to our fireplace mantel this year - one for Chad. So now we have 10 stockings on our mantel. We have a fireplace in every room so we will have plenty more room to add more stockings in the future for spouses....our grandchildren......great-grands....no telling how many stockings we will have!!!!!

Santa had a very hard time putting together Benjamin's 8 in 1 game table. If it had not been for Chad, I think the table would have been thrown out the door - no kidding!!! So thanks, Chad!! They were up until 2:00 in the morning putting that thing together.

My happy news for the day is that Brooke found me an artifical tree at Hobby Lobby. No more tree disasters to experience. It was a $350.00 tree that she got for $98.00 - that includes tax too!! I wish I could put it up this year since I only got to enjoy our tree this year for such a short time. My only fear now is that when we set it up next year - the lights won't work!!!

This is the last day of the year. Tomorrow starts a new beginning. A time to think about changes you would like to make....things you will do differently.....goals to set.....attitude adjustments.....so many things. May God bless all of you this coming new year!!

One of the best Christmas trees yet!!!

I can't believe how our little Charlie Brown tree turned out. It's absolutely beautiful!! I'm so so so so happy!!!. Randy was so clever in his idea of putting it on top of a box. Actually it was a book shelf he made that I didn't even know about. I have plans for that book shelf that he had hidden away. - after Christmas is over! It's laying face down with a maroon blanket on top of the box. All my ribbons and stuff are gold and maroon. The tree is absolutely gorgeous. Then sitting on top of that maroon box and all around the tree on the floor are my black and white presents that are wrapped out of Brooke's wedding reception paper....well....you can't help but just stare at it. I have wrapped the presents in maroon and gold ribbon. I was wanting to buy a huge tree after Christmas, but I love this idea and it's so different!!! I wish all of you could see it!!

We are having Randy's side of the family over at our house on Sunday for our Christmas celebration. I have the house looking so good!! Bethany said, "Momma...we going to get the house all cute-seed up in Christmas style?" She is so much like Hannah it's kind of scarry!!! Well we got it all cute-seed up for sure.

I'm in the Christmas spirit......pretty much finished with all my shopping except for stockings......and I've been thinking and meditating on the "true" meaning of Christmas. I pray that all of you have gotten to that point also. Have a great weekend!!

My tree story lives on......

I can't believe I still have a story to tell, but I guess I do. We put the fake tree up last night after Randy got home from Jackson. It was late but I want a tree up before Christmas gets here!!! The tree came in 3 parts. Can you believe the lights wouldn't work??? I tried every kind of connection possible but nothing worked. The very very bottom part worked and that was it. Second of all this tree looked really weird. I can't believe this tree was too big for Christy's mother's house. The top of the tree is eye level with me. It's short and squatty. I called Christy and asked her if there was a piece missing because it looks funny and the lights won't work either. I hated to sound ungrateful and tried not too, but I was kind of sad about the whole thing. When you are used to having a 10 foot tree that fills up the corner and now I can see over the top of the tree.....well, it was kind of depressing. She said it was only 3 parts and for me to just string some lights on it. So that's what I did. I put lights on top of lights that don't work. The tree is full of wires and bulbs.

We haven't decorated our little tree yet. We are going to set it on top of a bench to give it more height and put a blanket or something around the bench to disquise it. I officially dedicated this year as our "Charlie Brown Christmas."

I bought Hannah a cute little 3 foot tree for her room for $8.00. I bought some bright shiny turqoise material to put on the bottom for her tree skirt. It's decorated with all her Nutcracker ornmanets and hot pink ornaments. I made a gold bow for the top and wrapped the gold ribbon around it also. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!! She is so happy!! It is sitting proudly in the corner in front of her fireplace. On the mantel above the tree is her framed picture of her as Clara with nutcracker dolls next to the picture.

That part of my day has been good.

Tonight we will get the fake tree on the bench and get it all decorated. I'm using Brooke's black and white paper that we used for the reception tables to wrap all my presents with. I bought some maroon and gold ribbon to tie on all the packages. I think it's going to be so pretty. We have 3 different designs of the black and white paper. My favorite is the polka dot paper. We will have a memory of her wedding also - and this will be Brooke and Chad's first Christmas. It will make it more special that I'm using the paper in her wedding.

Report on Aaron's arm. It's not broken. He has a pretty big brace on it. He has to go to physical therapy 3 times a week. Absolutely no baseball for 4 weeks. I think I will kind of miss washing his hair for him in the sink - it was our bonding moment!!!

Hopefully this is the end of my tree story. I can't imagine anything else going wrong. This has certainly been a memorable Christmas.

Update to last update

In my last post I mentioned that our crooked tree was up but not decorated because it was....well.....crooked. We always get a very large tree - usually about 10 foot. It takes 3 people up on ladders to decorate it. We finally got it decorated Friday night. It took us 5 hours!!!!! It was so pretty when we finished it and we got to enjoy it for about 20 minutes before going to bed. The next morning we heard a crash.....and then a bunch of wailing from Benjamin. Our tree had fallen over and lots of my ornaments had busted in a million of pieces. Benjamin cried, "Christmas has been cancelled!!!" Because our tree was gone, he thought he wouldn't get any presents either. Randy came home from his deer camp to pick it back up and see if he could get it supported better. It was hopeless. We had to take everything off of it and drug the tree outside to our "burn pile". So now, here we are...about 10 days until Christmas....and we still don't have a tree. My sister-in-law gave me an aritifical tree to borrow but forgot the stand. Hopefully we can get the stand tomorrow and I can get a Christmas tree back up. I still haven't wrapped a single present either.

Update on Aaron's arm: he came home from school Thursday begging me to take him to the Doctor because his arm was hurting so bad. It really hadn't hurt much until that day. I took him to the After Hours Clinic and they did x-rays. Ends up his arm was cracked in 2 different places. They put a splint on it and we have an appointment in Jackson tomorrow to get it looked at.

Exams are this week for the kids and then it's Christmas break - yea!!!

I just noticed that Brooke changed by background scenary - I like it - Thanks Brooke!!

Shalom (that's for you Brooke)

It's been a long time......

Yes, I haven't updated in quite a while. It's getting quite busy over here......tis the Christmas season. That's the one thing I hate most about Christmas - all the busyness. I would just love to focus completely on what our Lord and Saviour did for us in sending His Son down here to earth so that we could have life and do nothing else but center everything I do around that and bring joy to others by finding ways to give and serve......but once I again I get all caught up in the hustle and bustle. GRRRR!!!!

Thanksgiving was really nice. We spent it with Randy's family.

We have had our tree up for over a week now and it still remains completely naked. It is sooooo crooked. We have it propped up but it has still fallen twice. I am waiting on Randy to make it more steady in some sort of way before I start decorating it. I have started decorating the house though.

Randy and I are driving to Jackson tonight to "try" and finish up our shopping. Brooke has offerred to fix us supper - yea!!! I can't wait.

Aaron has hurt his arm really bad. He was playing football and hyper-extended it. He can't move it and it's in a sling. So...baseball lessons have been cancelled until further notice.....

Hope everyone has a great week!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

I've been blowing and going for days and haven't had a chance to update. The Nutcracker was gorgeous!!! Hannah did such a good job. I got to see every single performance. She is so graceful and quite the ballerina. When she came home Saturday night from her last performance as playing "Clara", her toe was bleeding really bad. When she came to show me, it was dripping on the floor!!! Instead of freaking out about it, she was so excited. She said, "Mom, this is just like the movies. If your toe bleeds, that means that you are doing everything just like you are supposed too. This is what a ballerina hopes for...dreams for...." So we took several pictures of her bloody toe!!!

We enjoyed having my Mother here. Her blood pressure was lower than it's ever been since her stroke. So I'm glad she was relaxed and had a good time. I took her back to the Baton Rouge airport yesterday.

Randy, Aaron, and Daniel are at the hunting camp. Between the 3 of them, I hope one of them gets a deer. We have sure enjoyed eating Benjamin's deer. He is feeding our large family!!

The rest of us will be driving to Jackson this afternoon to spend Thanksgiving with Randy's side of the family.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for!!

Today is the DAY!!!!!

Today is the day that the Nutcracker begins. Hannah will play the part of "Clara". She has been working so hard for months. I can't wait to see her. She's been coming home from practices kind of discouraged saying she doesn't know it. But last night she got to practice on stage....in costume....and with the LIGHTS!!!!! Most people are scared of the lights (including me) but not Hannah. She loves them. Most people see her as a shy, and very quiet girl, but when the spot lights hit her, she turns into a completely different person. She said she feels like a different person. Hannah's ballet teacher even cried last night when she watched Hannah. OH....I can't wait!!!

Benjamin is back in the woods again. He saw 20 deer yesterday. Most of them were small and the ones that's weren't, outsmarted them. He will give it one more try this morning.

I picked up my mother at the Baton Rouge airport yesterday. She flew in from Texas to see Hannah's performance. My Dad wasn't able to come because he has to work. She likes to play cards and games, so we will enjoy her while she is here. She recently had a stroke and her blood pressure is still high so I would appreciate it if you would keep her in your prayers. She is on medication but it hasn't kicked in yet and she has to take her blood pressure at least twice a day. So...while she is here, I'm trying to keep everyone in the house calm, cool, and collected - yea right!!!!! Once Benjamin gets home, it will be more of a challenge.

Benjamin's BIG news!!!!!

Benjamin killed his very first deer this morning!! He called me and woke me up to tell me - he was soooooo excited!!! It's in his blood now and he is ready to do it again!! It was a very, very big doe. His Daddy had gone over and over everything you are supposed to do before they left the house. They had only been on the stand for 15 minutes when Benjamin saw the deer. Randy put him in his lap and started the "talk" again about what all you are supposed to do....where to put the cross hairs.....blah, blah, blah. When Randy was still talking....BOOM!!!!! Benjamin had already shot the deer because he knew what to do!!! It was a perfect shot right in the kill zone. So our little boy is bringing home some meat to feed the family!!!

We had a nice weekend. We went to Robin and Cole's wedding which was the sweetest wedding!! We saw the Walkers. I got to hold the Patrick's sweet little baby boy. I got to spend time with Brooke. I was finally able to go grocery shopping. Hannah and I shared a brown bag special at Sonic on Sunday. Nice, nice weekend.

As I was doing grooming duties on Benjamin and Bethany which included cutting Benjamin's hair, giving Bethany a trim and cutting their nails.....I was reminded how time flies with your children. When my 5 oldest were younger, I would line them all up to cut their finger nails and toe nails. That was 100 nails to dispose of!!! I'm talking ONE HUNDRED!!!! Now I only have 40 to cut. Well, actually it's less than that since Benjamin bites his. The nail numbers are dwindling - so sad!!!

The soccer tournament went well, even though we weren't able to go. They won every single game and made it to the Championship game in which they lost 2 to 1.

Let me know how your weekends went. Shalom (that's for Brooke!!)

Thank you for all your "well" wishes. I am feeling much better. Today is the last day for capturing bugs. I think we still have 4 to go. Me and Benjamin.....whoa.....excuse me and let me rephrase that.....Benjamin and I have our work cut out for us today. It's actually been kind of fun. It's weird how I go places now and instead of looking at things I used to look at, I'm looking for a bug!!!! I actually touch them too!!! WEIRD!!!!!

The wedding pictures came in today!!! It was fun reliving the wedding while I was looking at them. It was such a sweet wedding. All my little "dwarfs" were in it - how sweet is that!!! Now I get to sort through all of them....put them in order....get them in an album....and write comments about them. I want to be able to put some of them on this blog but I have no idea how to do it......help Brooke!!!!

Brooke and Chad will be coming home this weekend. It's still kind of weird adjusting to a son-in-law. Not that it's a bad thing....it's just different. I can't wait to see them.

Well I have tons of things to do that are waiting for me. Shalom!!

Feeling blah.....

Brooke says I need to post again but I don't really have anything to report. I felt really sick all day yesterday and I still don't feel that great today. I know what some of you are thinking....No...number 8 is not on the way. I just don't feel well. We have church tonight and AWANA'S. Plus Aaron has a bug collection that is due tomorrow. He needs 4 more bugs. In order to help him out, I'll have to go bug searching today. He really needs a dragon fly. Please go outside today and capture me a dragon fly. We'll come get it. Paige is doing her "clinicals" today at the hospital. She has her first male patient today - a sponge bath!! She isn't looking forward to it. Even though there may be a certain area you want to practice your nursing, you still have to do EVERYTHING whether you like it or not in order to get to that point. This is one of those things. She wants to be a nurse in the labor and delivery - especially work with the babies. She has always loved babies. Gotta go!!

Just one of the JOYS of homeschooling.......

.....happened today. You spend countless hours of teaching your child phonics - the sounds each letter makes. It seems like they will never "get it". Then one day...it clicks....and they can read words. I'm proud to say that Bethany read her very first book today. It was sooooo exciting!!! It's such a joy knowing that you taught your child to read. We still have a long way to go, but the first step is always the best!!!

Last night was our church's Fall Festival. Bethany went as "Belle" and she was such a pretty little thing. Hannah did her make-up and hair. She polished her nails too. She wore her little "tiarra" sp?? that she wore in Brooke's wedding. We had a little catastophe though in the process of getting ready. Hannah was curling her hair, and she jerked which caused Hannah to drop the curling iron and it burned the top of her shoulder. She was crying but trying not to cry because she didn't want the tears to ruin her make-up!!! Trying to be a lady even through the pain!!! Are we women vain or what???? Benjamin went as Spider Man. If I had put more thought into this, he could have gone as "The Beast". That would have been real cute.

Randy is in the woods today trying to bring us some meat home. I hope he gets one!!

Well, I'm fixing to go clean out Bethany's drawers and closets and get rid of some clothes. If any of you bloggers need some cute little girls clothes around size 3T to 4 or so, let me know.

..It's kind of depressing that I didn't get any comments yesterday after my banner 1st day, but I'll be o.k. I'll just copy the email that I sent out Wednesday concerning my daughter Paige so you will know what's going on with her and PLEASE keep her in your prayers. She has a disease called "Gastroparesis" which basically means stomach paralysis. Her stomach quit working a little over 3 years ago. That was the last time she had a "meal". She can only eat baby food now and even that is quite painful. She has 2 pacemakers inside of her. One is for her bladder which is working very well. The other one is for her stomach which isn't working very well. She has a section of ICC cells in her stomach that are completely dead which is why it isn't working like it should. Here is the update.

It's been a while since I gave an update on Paige. She went to Jackson and saw 2 Doctor's so I'll give a report from each.

Reproductive Specialist - things are improving in that area.

GI Doctor - about 6 months ago, we had her stomach pacemaker turned OFF. It was causing her so much pain. She said it felt like her insides were being ripped apart and like she was in surgery (cutting knife feeling) but she was awake. She said she would rather deal with worsening symptoms than with that kind of pain. We were constantly getting the settings on the pacemaker changed to try and make it better but it kept on shocking her and causing her all this pain. A couple of months ago, she had some tests done to see if there has been any improvement in her digestive system since it's been turned off. The Doctor informed us it has gotten much worse. Paige also said the pain is still there even though the pacemaker is turned off. So she agreed that since the pain is still there anyways and since things have gotten worse, she would would have it turned back ON. So as of now, the pacemaker is back ON at a very low setting. She will go back in December to have a lot of blood work done and also increase the voltage on the pacemaker if she does well. We were hoping and praying for a quick fix with this stomach pacemaker but the Doctor told us that in some cases it may take years before she feels any improvement. Even though she didn't FEEL any better with the pacemaker on, it did improve the motility of her stomach some.

So....please keep her on your prayer lists and continue to pray for her. She continues to have the 24/7 nausea, unable to eat, bloating, pain, migraines almost every day and unable to sleep at night.

Considering all these horrible things she has to deal with on a daily basis - she is going to Nursing School....making A's and B's....and I can't begin to tell you how proud we are of her. She is absolutely amazing and our hero!! She is such a fighter and isn't going to let this disease stop her from accomplishing her goals. Most of all we give God all the praise and glory for sustaining her and keeping her going. We can't explain it but are so thankful He is in control.

OOHHHH!!! I'm so excited!! I have 6 comments on my first blog. You all made my day - thank you!! Keep the comments coming.

I have spent the day in Jackson. Paige had 2 Doctor appointments today which I will talk about tomorrow. It's late and I'm fixing to go to bed. My Prince Charming and Aaron should be home from Jackson in about 30 minutes. He is taking pitching/fielding/hitting lessons in Jackson on Tuesday nights. Paige has Clinicals on Wednesday's which means she gets to work at the hospital and put her nursing education into practice. She has gone to the hospital to check her patients chart so she will know what she is dealing with tomorrow. She has to be at the hospital in the morning by 6:00 a.m. She is going to make such a caring nurse!! I know people are going to be blessed by her.

Well....when we got home from Jackson today which was at 8:30 p.m., our back door was WIDE open. It really scared us because your first thought is that somebody is in your house. We have a Sherrif that lives across the street so we drove over there. He wasn't home but his wife called him and told him to come check out our house. He came over along with another Sherrif. Randy was the last one to leave our house and apparently he locked the door but didn't shut it completely. It was windy today (and freezing cold) and our Jack Russell puppy who USED to be an inside dog and has been demoted to the outside, jumped on the door and let himself in. There were bird feathers all over our bedroom floor and I found Jack (our dog) in the living room with something in his mouth that he was trying to hide. It was a bird!!! I'm surprised he didn't tear anything else up. So that was our excitment for the evening. It was 60 degrees in the house so I had to cut the heat on.

Another highlight of our day was that our yard is all cleaned up now. We had about 6 huge trees fall in our yard during Hurricane Gustav. One of them hit our house and we have some house damage too. Anyways, we had to pay to get them all removed and as of today they are gone!!! YEA!!! We can see outside our front door once again.

Good night!!!

Brooke came to see us this weekend and did this all for me. I told her to put it in my "favorites" so I would know how to get to it - ha!!! I have no idea how to work this thing except to maybe do my posts. I gave her my password so she can change my settings around - no telling what she will do.

For those of you who don't know I'm a stay at home mother with 6 children now. One of them (Brooke) got married in July. I homeschooled Brooke (21) and Paige (19)( all the way to college. Brooke is now happily married to Chad who is a seminary student and flight instructor and she is working for a lawyer in Jackson. Paige is going to Alcorn School of Nursing and making A's and B's I'm so proud to say. I homeschooled Aaron (16)all the way to 9th grade where he is now attending Cathedral High School. He is a Junior now. He is smart and an awesome baseball player!! I homeschoold Daniel (14) all the way until this year. He is also attending Cathedral High School and is in the 9th grade. He is playing football and soccer. I am continuing to homeschool Hannah (12) who is in the 7th grade this year. She does ABEKA on the computer. She is a hoot. You would never know it because she is shy around people she doesn't know but she is absolutely hilarious. She takes ballet and will have the leading role in the Nutcraker in about a month. Please come out and see her!!! She is working so hard. My 2 youngest ones are Benjamin (7) and Bethany (5). They are just adorable!!! Benjamin loves sports - any and ALL sports and is really good at it. Bethany is called "Miss Priss" because that is exactly what she is - very prissy. As my older ones are growing up so fast on me, it's nice to have these 2 younger ones to still hold and cuddle. Well, that's about it on me.

Now....all you peoples and peepets.....please write me!!