Merry Christmas from the Mother of the Year Award LOSER!!!

The tree is trimmed...the gifts wrapped...the stockings are hung...but the tooth fairy didn't come. :-(

Only 5 days left till Christmas! Hope you all are ready and excited for it to get here. There's lots of excitement here at our house today...well, except for this morning but that story is coming in a minute...We are getting our clothes and presents packed this afternoon for our trip to AR! The girls are so excited! They can't wait to get there. We are leaving tomorrow morning after Taylor's Christmas program is over.

I am so relieved to be finished shopping and wrapping gifts! As I know you are too...if you're done. If you're not, I'm so sorry. I don't know about you but I always agonize over buying a gift for someone. Will they like it? Can they use it? Is it nice enough/too nice for the occasion? It takes me forever to finally decide to buy whatever it is. Pathetic! I tried this year, in an attempt to spare myself from some of the stress, to ask myself "Would YOU like it? Could YOU use it if you were them?" If the answer was yes, I bought it, if it was no, I walked away ticked off and in search of another gift. ;-)

Today I received a perfect gift from a friend. It was a new apron and Paula Deen's Christmas cookbook. I was so excited about it!!! I love to cook, love Paula Deen and now I can cook in style in my pretty new apron! Oh, the simple things that thrill us!

Yesterday Nathan and I celebrated our 9th anniversary. Can't believe it's been NINE years! We both forgot about it until reminded by someone else wishing us a happy anniversary. Would that have ever happened in the first 8 years? Not on your life! -at least not on my end!! But this year, we've been so busy with everything that it hadn't crossed our minds. We had a nice dinner of frozen pizza and were both so tired, I was in bed asleep by 9:30 and he fell asleep in his recliner somewhere around that time too. Again, PATHETIC! Ha! We had already decided not to get each other anything. We're going to Branson while we're in AR and we'd decided to let that trip be our anniversary gifts.

So that brings me to the sad story that took me out of the running for the Mother of the Year Award. Yesterday morning, Taylor was getting ready for school and her other front tooth fell out. It has been loose for some time but I kept telling her not to touch it until her OTHER front permanent tooth came in. (All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!...) I even told her the other day not to pull it because if she did she may have trouble singing in her program on Friday. I told her that her tongue would keep slipping through the giant hole in the front of her mouth and the words to her song would come out like "Up ons the howth thop rain theer pauth..." She was worried about it then and stopped pushing it back and forth. So that morning when it fell out she was horrified and said "Oh no! How am I going to sing?!!" I said "Don't worry, I was just joking with you...you can still sing fine." As I walked out of the bathroom I heard her going "Fa La La, La La, La La La La"! Ha! She came out smiling. That night, Nathan put her in bed and they put her tooth in a plastic bag and stuck it on the side of her bed post because she was afraid that it would slip out from under her pillow. As I said before, I was dog tired and fell asleep early, completely forgetting about the tooth fairy coming. Nathan had also forgotten and fell asleep as well. This morning I go in to wake her up, see the wadded up plastic baggie sticking out of the side of the bed post and I wondered "What the heck is that?" but didn't think any more about it. I sat on her bed, gently waking her up and all of sudden, she jerks herself up and starts feeling frantically under her pillow. Confused, I said "What are you doing?" Then she looks at me bewildered and says sadly "The tooth fairy didn't come." Instant dagger to the heart! :( I quickly looked around thinking where can I find a dollar to sneak under her pillow or SOMETHING!!!!....there was nothing. All I could come up with was, "I guess she couldn't find your tooth since it wasn't under your pillow." I felt terrible! I told her we'd try again tonight and this time put it under her pillow. She seemed still confused but okay with that. I quick, hurried downstairs to give Nathan the dirtiest look of his life and somehow make it HIS fault. But after the dirty look and saying "Hello?! Tooth fairy didn't come last night!" I felt sorry for him and saw the same pain in him that I'd felt a few minutes earlier, so I calmed the demon and said "I can't believe WE forgot!" (I did very good using that "WE" didn't I?!) When she came downstairs, she told him that the tooth fairy couldn't find her tooth but he had already come up with another excuse. (His excuse requires a little background info: She had gotten in trouble the last two days at school for talking and had gotten her name on the board. She has been in big trouble with us over it and has been grounded from everything she holds dear. ~quiet Mom!! ~remember "Do as I say and not as I 'DID'") So Nathan tells her, "You know, Taylor, the Tooth Fairy is a lot like Santa in that she knows when you've been naughty and nice. She knows that you've made bad choices at school the last two days and she won't come reward you for your lost tooth when you're not behaving at school." At that, she just shook her head yes and promised to be good today. Thank God she was!! When I picked her up I was so nervous to hear what her teacher was going to say to me as I have done everything and threatened everything I know to do. Thankfully, when Taylor came out, she mouthed "Much better today" with a smile. Whew! This afternoon I put a note under her pillow from the Tooth Fairy. It says "Dear Taylor, I'm so sorry but I couldn't find your tooth tonight. Please try again tomorrow night. Love, The Tooth Fairy." She hasn't found it yet but I'm sure she will by the time she goes to bed. I'm setting my cell phone alarm to go off and remind me tonight. However, based on how terrible I've felt about it, I don't think I'll need the reminder.

Well, time to get packin'! I don't know that I'll be able to post any messages until we return from AR, so I hope you have a wonderful, restful!!!!, holiday and enjoy the time spent with your family and friends. I know that it's sometimes easy to get agitated or irritated with our family members when we're spending that much time with them, especially in close quarters, but try to remember to thank God that you have them and thank him especially for sending us his Son and making this holiday possible! Love ya! ~and for those of you in AR

SEE YA REAL SOON! ;-)

Here is a picture of our tree.

Taylor turns 6 and a little "Christmas" history...

Monday, the 10th, Taylor turned 6 years old! I can't believe my baby is 6! She told her aunt Lesley on the phone that she "definitely feels a little older." I have been thinking the same thing about myself lately. I turn 30 in a month, ick! It turns my stomach just to say it ~makes me wanna puke! I guess it could be worse. You know, it could be a lot worse than a million new gray hairs coming out of my head every day and NO, they can't lay down like the dark hair that surrounds them ~ they must be wiry and stand straight up!, a permanent frown (or squinting) crater between my eyes, saggy boobs, butt, well -everywhere, adult acne, oh yeah, I keep telling myself "It could be worse!" Nope, it's not working. :-(

ANYWAY, instead of having a party Taylor decided that she wanted to go to Disney World. We went on Saturday. Since we've been to Magic Kingdom several times, we decided to go to MGM this time.

It was really fun. The kids had a ball. We got to see the High School Musical 2 pep rally and Taylor got to go out there and dance with them.

She loved that!

We saw the Beauty and the Beast show.

Mine and Nathan's favorite thing was the Lights, Motors, Action car show. It was awesome. These little cars were speeding through the streets and doing stunts and jumping things through fire. Emma slept through the whole thing. I honestly don't know how. It was SO LOUD!!

When we first arrived, Taylor insisted on getting an autograph book for characters to sign. This is a breakthrough for her! At every previous visit to Disney, she would want to go up and see a character but would be too afraid and shy to. We even stood in line to see Ariel once for an hour and when we got up to her and it was Taylor's turn to sit with her, she BOLTED and ran out the side door. I just waved at Ariel and said "sorry" as I ran after her. I was not a happy mother at that moment but she really didn't care. Unfortunately she only got two autographs. Leo and Annie from Little Einstiens.

But THE highlight of my day there was when I got a third autograph for her in her book. We had gone into a little shop and let Taylor and Emma pick out a toy. Nathan was in the check out line and was pointing for me to look at this guy walking through the store with a little girl. He insisted that this guy was a celebrity. Since there was hardly anyone in the store, I was able to push the stroller through there and get a little closer to check him out. It most definitely WAS a celebrity. It was Joey Fontaine!!!! (You know, he was a backstreet boy ~I think~ and then he was on Dancing with the Stars. I believe he may host a game show now too.) Anyway, I was thinking that it could be just someone that looked like him until this girl approached him and asked for a photograph with him. So after a few minutes I dug out Taylor's autograph book and walked up to him and asked him to sign it for her. He was so nice! I would've expected him to say "Look, I'm here with my family, give me a break and let me shop with my daughter!" But he didn't. He said "Sure!" He looked at the front of her book and said "Is her name Taylor?" Then he signed the book and smiled as he gave it back. When Taylor saw me hand her autograph book to some strange man, she said "Mom, who is that man and why does he have my book?!" I assured her it was fine and that she didn't know him but I sure did and that autograph was more for me! ;-) I don't normally watch dancing with the stars but the season that he was on there I did watch it and was hoping that he'd win. I thought he looked the best out there. I think he came in second though. But anyway, seeing him and talking to him just made my day!

The Osborne family from Little Rock had a Christmas light display there also. It was amazing. The lights "danced" to music every 20 or 30 minutes and they had snow machines on the tops of the buildings blowing "snow" down onto the streets. The girls thought that was really neat!

On Monday, for her birthday, I took her to the mall and let her pick out two webkinz and some webkinz clothes with her birthday money that she received from her grandparents and aunts. She was so excited to finally get a webkinz! After we left the mall she wanted to eat at El Chico. So we all went there for dinner. During dinner, Nathan made a comment to me, jokingly, and I laughed but thought to myself...he will pay for that! >:-/ So after the girls and I got into the car, Nathan was standing outside his door putting a dip into his mouth and I saw my opportunity for payback. I hit the door locks and locked him out of the car. (I know ~ it's so immature. But it's so funny to see that person's "coolness" melt to the ground as they stand there helpless and goofy looking.) The girls and I just stared casually out our windows (the opposite direction from him) as he pulled on the door handle, peered into the window at me, demanding that I let him in. Finally after a couple minutes of this, I had a "gweat idea!" (as Emma says). So I told him to dance. He started yelling "NO! Stop acting like a child! Let me in, NOW!" at me while I insisted that he had to dance before I'd let him in the car. When we were dating, he used to do this dance to make me laugh. He'd hold out his arms, point his thumbs up like he was giving a "thumbs up" and then extend both arms past his head on either side while he looks up to either direction as his arms go by. Also, he sticks his butt out simultaneously with his arms. Try to visualize it for me...he looks so goofy and hilarious when he does it. So when I told him to dance, he immediately knew what I meant. He tried to get out of it, poor thing, but I was relentless! To make this seem what it really was, you must know that El Chico sits on a busy 4 lane street with the mall parking lot in the rear of it. Not to mention that the restaurant parking lot was nearly full! So finally, he looked around ( I guess to see if anyone was watching him - ha!) and did the dance!!! The girls and I were rolling. Although it only lasted two seconds, it felt good! ha! He was not very happy with me once I unlocked the doors, but I just kept laughing at him so he laughed too. I was feeling like I'd pretty much gotten him back for his comment but not completely satisfied. Then Taylor did something that made me feel like he'd gotten enough. As we were driving home, she sneezed a huge sneeze and you could tell that she didn't cover her mouth. It went something like HUCK-SHHHHHOOOOO and ended with her lips flapping together. I'm sure, had it been daylight out, we'd have seen the wet particles flying through the air around us. We didn't see them but Nathan felt them...on his face, no less. (HA!) Just after she'd done it, Nathan frowned with his chin stuck out and lips sucked in and turned slowly around to her and said angrily "TAYLOR! I FELT THAT HIT MY FACE!!!" She said "Saaaarrryyyy." As I cackled uncontrollably, I reminded her that next time she should cover her mouth. Again, he had to smile through his disgust, knowing he'd been "gotten back" twice now! Poor Nate. He has to put up with so much from the three females that he lives with. And OH the wrath comes upon him when his "male" mind allows him to make a comment that's "malely" harmless, but to females, hits a nerve and triggers the earthly She-Satan to emerge looking for revenge. "Run for cover, buddy!!"

Okay, on to a different subject...

This past Sunday, the pastor talked about some Christmas traditions and what they mean. Things that we do every year to celebrate Christmas but things that I'd never really questioned "why" we do them. Take the Christmas tree for instance, why is it customary to put up an evergreen tree? The evergreen tree stands for 1) the "ever"lasting love of the Father and 2) reminds us of the tree that Jesus died on. The wreath (circle) that we hang stands for the unending love that God has for us and also eternity & the unending time that those who know Jesus will spend in Heaven. That night, the congregation participated in a ceremony where we each had different types of decorations to put on the church's trees. After a speaker would explain the significance of each type of ornament, the people with those ornaments would go up and put them on the tree.

The hooks for the ornaments - remind us that Jesus said "Come, let me make you fishers of men."

The silver tinsel - reminds us of Judas' betrayal of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and also the verse that says "You are not redeemed by silver or gold but by the blood of Jesus."

The red ornaments - stand for the blood Christ shed for our sins.

The blue ornaments - remind us of heaven and truth "I am the way, the truth and the life..."

The gold ornaments - remind us of the wise men and how they presented the baby Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The candy canes - remind us of the "sweet" name of Jesus.

The birds - remind us of how much God cares for us. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God's knowledge of it and how much more valuable to him are we than the birds.

The fruit - reminds us to be fruitful and win souls to the Lord; also reminds us of the fruit of the spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness

The icicles - stand for the cold indifference of sinners

The tree stand - Standing complete in Jesus; Rom 8:1...there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

The lights - John 1:8...Jesus said "I am the light of the world. If you follow me you won't have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life."

The star - Reminds us of the heavens where Jesus is there interceding for us and of the wise men following the star, traveling to see Jesus.

Okay, so my tree is missing a lot of ornaments!! :)

I also learned what the carol "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" means. I've always thought it was such a weird song and have you ever thought it to be strange that there is a comma between merry and gentlemen? Well, let me just enlighten you! This is an old English song in which the words of the title meant something different than what they mean to us in today's English language. "Rest" here actually means "Keep" as in keep you safe or keep you steadfast. "Merry" actually means "Mighty" as in strong. So you could read the title of the song as God Keep you Strong, Gentlemen. Now sing it to yourself (using the new words) and you should have a much better understanding of the song! You're welcome! ;-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Tank you fo spenning time wid me today!

Well, we've made it back from our visit to Arkansas. We had a great time! You'll be pleased to know that I did not have one single panic attack on the air crafts. (thank you...thank you). Although I did cry out to God on more than twelve occasions. Ironically, the page of my bible study book that I started reading on the first plane before take-off told of the author's fear of flying and how she had a terrible experience on an airplane once (our similarities were strangely coincidental-or not). She talked about how nervous she was when having to fly again and how when she began to panic and become afraid (during turbulence - which I totally don't get...when the wind is blowing around my car as I'm driving down the interstate, it doesn't send me bouncing too and fro. How is it that wind has "bumps" in it??...anyway) she would close her eyes and say "Dear God, please help!" She said it gave her comfort and peace and seemed to make the turbulence not so scary anymore. So I thought I'd give it a try. By George, it worked! And I should know. As I said before, I cried out (silently of course, as to not totally freak out those sitting around me) too many times to count. And each time, the turbulence seemed to pass quickly. God is good! The day we left to come back to Florida was a nasty, rainy day. Big dark clouds in the sky. Can you say TURBULENCE?? ~Dear God, please help me!!! Before we were able to board our plane to return home, we were informed that there would be a slight (hour and a half!!) delay due to a maintenance problem. "Say what?!" I think they said something like part of the wing had fallen off. Or maybe that was just what I made out of the statement "A minor piece of plastic has come loose on the wing and will not be anything major or time consuming to repair." Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. It's one thing to be nervous, go through the security check, get to our gate, take the girls to pee one last time (because I don't care that there are restrooms on the plane...I'm pretty positive that if I remove myself from my seat I will upset the entire balance of the plane and we will take a nose dive! So there are absolutely NO BATHROOM BREAKS while in flight.), then board, take off, boom...no backing out, it's done, no time to even think about what I'm fixing to do. It's another thing, however, to make me sit for an hour and a half watching the rain pour in knowing that some poor mechanic is out there freezing trying to FIX our plane so that we can take off. (Was he doing a good, efficient job or just trying to hurry and get out of that weather?) That, I almost couldn't handle. Thank God my kids were wired and bouncing off the walls in the terminal (Thank you for those Skittles, Nana!) so that I was having to corral them the entire time. Making threats that they knew I couldn't keep being that there was an audience around. So that helped to keep me busy. Finally, we could board the plane. Our seats were in the 6th row...comforting NOT hearing the engines on this flight. (We sat on top of an engine on our way up there.) Sitting in the five rows ahead of us were a group of black ladies from a church taking some kind of church affiliated trip. They were reading their Bibles and from what I could see, notes on "Religion in the world today" and some were praying because "Cuh-laud, they was nur-vis 'bout dis flyin mess!" Somehow, they were comforting to me. Then, there was our middle-aged Asian flight attendant who doubles as the in-flight comedian. We flew with the same crew the first flight and she was incredibly sweet and even let both of the girls say "Happy Thanksgiving!" over the PA once we'd landed. But this day, she was on a roll! She began with all the pre-flight announcements telling us about where we were going, the souvenirs they offered for purchase, etc...And then she begins to tell us about all the safety info. we need to know. First was the oxygen masks. She says..."In dee e-vant dat dee aiwcwaft looses pres-shuh, you will see deese funny wooking tings fall fwom dee compahtment above you head. Stop scweaming, and pull it down ovuh you mout. If you ah seated nex to a chile or someone acting like a chile, secuah dee mask on you self firs den secure dair mask fo dem." I was so grateful for the laugh at that moment. It helped to calm me down a little. Next she said "In dee e-vant dat you-uh aiwliner decide to become a cwuise linew, you will fin dee instwuctions for using you seat as a fwoatation device on dee cahd in dee seat in fwont of you. Fo dose of you who have a emotional connection to you cell pone, you MUST TURN IT OFF NOW! Take it A WAY from you ear and put it in dee OFF position!" Next came "Okay people, heeah come dee part you ahh all waiting for. Dee take off! Kis, put you hands up in dee air...heeah we go! I pwetty sure dis aiwcwaft is fastew dan any ting you have in you garage. It go zero to 60 in t minus one second!" By this time I didn't even care that we were taking off. I was crying from laughing so hard at her. If you could've just heard the accent with the sarcasm! Those were just a few comments that I could remember. She was FULL of them! At the end of the flight she came on again and said "Okay, fo dose of you having cell pone wid dwawals, you may NOW tun you pones BACK ON! Tank you fo fwying wid us on Allegian Air." And with that, we were free to get off!!! PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE GRAVY!

While we were there, Nathan and I hunted almost every day. I hunted with him some and also with my dad some too. We had a lot of fun even though neither of us killed anything and I missed the biggest buck of my life. Shot twice at him and still missed both times. He was too far away for me. I didn't judge the distance correctly through the scope. But even with that small disappointment, it was still so much fun. There is something about getting up and out on that deer stand before the world around you starts stirring. It's so peaceful. Then gradually as the sun rises everything comes to life and is so beautiful! I so hope that you will, at some time in your life, take the opportunity to get outside in the woods and witness the nature around you as it awakens for the day and be able to see and experience all of the amazing things that God has created for us to enjoy here on this earth. It is awesome! We were able to see a lot of deer and watch them as they ate and played together. One set of adult does came out with a baby and were eating the corn that we'd put out for them. Nathan whispered to me "That's two girlfriends out for breakfast together and one had to bring along their kid." Ha! I watched as one doe got a little too close to the other's food and that other one reared up and started kicking her on the back with both of its front hooves. It was hard not to laugh out loud. During the time spans of not seeing any deer, Nathan and I would whisper and talk about things. We also played "Would you have dated me if I looked like this?" and made funny, deformed faces at each other. I had my glasses on so I could really make him laugh! I also did a lot of text messaging to my dad and brother as they sat on their stands too. Isn't modern technology great?! Normally I would've felt like spending 5 mornings and 4 afternoons on a deer stand with no kill a colossal waste of my time. However this year I didn't feel that way. For the first time I was really able to appreciate spending that time with Nathan and with my Dad. And also getting to see all of those deer and watch them as they went about doing what they do. One afternoon a cold front was pushing its way through and the whole state was under a tornado watch and our county was under a thunderstorm warning and where were we? Of course, the faithful hunters were on the deer stand hoping that the cooler air would cause the big bucks to move and we'd finally have the chance to take one. I began to get a little concerned once the lightning started streaking to the ground all around us and the thunder got closer. So, not wanting to leave the woods, we decided to get out of the metal "tree" that we were sitting in and pull the vehicle up under our stand so that we could still shoot out the window in the event a shooter came out. Just as we'd pulled the vehicle in place, the down pour hit. Then came the marble sized hail! I said "We must be crazy...no deer is going to come out in this!" And yet I had to eat my words. Just as I was talking to Dad on the phone letting him know what we were doing and asking about the weather, a buck walks out about 100 yards from us. I dropped my cell phone to my lap and awkwardly positioned my rifle out the window. Unfortunately he was not quite big enough to harvest this year. I was just amazed that he was standing there eating corn and getting hailed on! The rain and hail were coming in my window and my one leg on that side was getting pelted. Not long after, the rain stopped and the cold wind started blowing. It started getting too dark to shoot anything so we left, not too disappointed about the day. It had been rather interesting.

Spending so much time with the grandparents, my girls were quite rotten by the end of the week! It's funny to watch them work the grandparents over. They can play on their sympathies and get them to do things they'd never even consider doing for their own children at that age! Even at just under three years old, Emma has gotten it down pat! She went into town with my Dad one afternoon. He had to go to his office for a minute and then to the parts store. She told me "Papaw wet me wide in da fwont seat with him, ha-ha-haha-ha!" Before I went berserk, Mom told me that she was strapped in to her car seat. ~but still in the front seat, no less!! I gave dad a look and said "I guess when you ARE the law, you don't have to OBEY the law?!!" He didn't pay any attention to what I'd said. ~typical! Anyway, when they left the parts store, she told my dad "Papaw, me not got no toys." "You don't have any toys, he said?" "No, me not got ANY!" She was trying her best to get him to stop off by walmart and buy her some toys. ha! He knew better...or was afraid to take her in walmart for fear she'd embarrass him if he didn't buy her what she wanted. Being the sheriff in a small town he was bound to know about every person in the store. So she came home empty handed but still feeling quite accomplished that she'd ridden in the front seat and she made sure I knew about it too!

On Saturday, we went to a family reunion. It was at a church and next to the church was a big cemetery. As Taylor and her Papaw Bill were walking in she said to him pointing to the cemetery "Look at all those people, Papaw." He said sadly "Yeah, there's a bunch." To which she knowingly and frankly replied "Yep, they're dead." Ha!

With the suggestion (or more like mandate) of Dad, we have decided for this to be an annual trip now. ~flying to AR for the Thanksgiving holidays. So I have a whole year to prepare myself for my next flight. I can most definitely say that I will probably have an entire library of self-help books by then. :) The one that will be most helpful to me though will be the one titled Dear God, Please Help!

Here is a picture of me with that deer that I missed. Turns out that the day he decided to show himself again, Dad was sitting in the right place at the right time and was able to take him. He actually let the deer walk off, back into the woods, hoping that it would come out on Nathan and I as we were hunting just a few hundred yards through the woods. When he came back out, Dad was able to get a good look at him and could count the 14 points he had and he just couldn't let him go again. I don't blame him! Nathan and I don't know HOW he let him walk by the first time. I have a good daddy! (Don't laugh at the orange jumpsuit I'm wearing. I know, it probably DID come off of one of Dad's inmates but it sure did keep me warm! Nathan said I looked like an orange teletubby! ~he was right!)

My Traumatic Day

What a day...and it is not even over yet. Any of you that know me very well know that I am a fraidy cat. A BIG one! I have been known to nearly jump on someones back (Hope-when we were walking together one day) when hearing a dog bark at me from out of nowhere. I've left fingerprints and possibly nail impressions on people at the slightest unexpected noise. I'm pretty sure I've nearly taken off an arm of a really good friend (Deana) on more than one occasion. It does not take much to frighten me. I used to try to be a brave person and to try to prove that to myself ~I once even rode one of those vertical acceleration rides. It's like dyslexic bungee jumping. You strap yourself and another brave friend into this cage that is being held to the ground by a large claw. The operator pushes a button and the bungee cords that are attached to both sides of your cage start to tighten. They pull and tighten to the height of their elastabilities and then the operator pulls a lever which releases the claw that is holding your butt to the ground. All of sudden you are "vertically accelerating" high into the air...up above the crowds below...so high that you can almost see God himself and all the Heavenly angels. Or maybe that part was just my imagination as I'm pretty sure that was as close to death as I'd ever felt. Anyhoo, once you fly up as high as your bungee cords will let you, you begin your decent back to Earth. So this is the part where I'm thinking "Praise God and Everything that is Holy! This is almost over!" But no. Once we again reach the extent of the bungee's capabilities, we go shooting back up into the air. We bounce there for several minutes, most of the time upside down, mind you, until finally the operator thinks we've had enough and he begins to lower our cage back to the ground. Once our butts were clamped to the ground again, our friendly little operator informed us that the entire event had been videoed. Yes, complete with my blood curdling screams and all. So I'm thinking it could be nice to have that video. You know, to prove my braveness to others. To show them the dangerous things that I'm capable of forcing myself to do. Then we get the kicker. You can only purchase the video if you go on the ride again, paying for another round. My partner in gallantry pipes up and says "Sure, we'll do it again!" However by the time he (yes, he~my best friend wouldn't go with me and my own boyfriend wouldn't go on it either so I rode it with my friend's beau while she and mine watched from the ground.) got the words out of his mouth, I was already clambering out of that thing! We went through much deliberation, him, the operator and myself and once they saw that there was nothing they could say or do to entice me to go again, the operator (in obvious disgust) agreed to give him the video if someone else would ride it with him. So another poor, valiant-attempting soul got on with him and up they went. Needless to say, I think that was probably the last time I FORCED myself to be indomitable. ~like that word? I LOVE the thesaurus! Isn't it great how it can take plain ordinary words and make them so sophisticated and superior. (In case you're wondering, here's how the Encarta dictionary defines "indomitable" -'brave, determined, and impossible to defeat or frighten.') ~So me at that moment I was paying for my ticket to defy death.
Okay, so back to my day...(thanks for chasing that rabbit with me~the jest of that last paragraph: I am such a pansy!)...Tomorrow is our MOPS meeting at church and we're doing a Thanksgiving theme, for apparent reasons. So I was in Wal-Mart grocery shopping and buying everything I needed to prepare some of the food. I was looking at the whole turkey breasts and much to my disappointment, they were ALL frozen. Who knew that a turkey breast takes 24-48 hours just to THAW!?? So I'm beginning to get worried as I'm digging through the turkeys hoping to find just one that isn't completely frozen solid. Finally, after getting frostbite on my nose and fingers, I give up. When I crawl out of the freezer bin of turkeys, an elderly lady is standing there looking at me. She has halted her grocery shopping to watch me. As I begin to pass by her, ever aware of her standing there staring at me and wondering why, she says "Honey, there are more turkeys down there in the other bin if you want another brand." I said, "Well, no, I don't care about the brand. They're all frozen!" I'm looking at her in utter confusion as if to say 'the gall of people to freeze all of the birds!' Now not only am I looking dazed and confused but so is she. Only she's directing it at ME. Then, in all seriousness, she says, "Well what did you expect to get, A LIVE BIRD!?" As I saw it, at that moment I had a couple of choices to make. Tell the old lady that I didn't appreciate her sarcasm in my time of need OR just laugh and say, I'll go look in that other bin. Of course, I chose the latter. She wished me good luck and walked away shaking her head. I'm sure saying to herself "Ughh, women these days. Don't have the sense God gave a goose!"
To my defense I DID, in fact, find the whole turkey breasts that were not frozen! They were in the fresh meats section. So humph! ONWARD TO CONQUER THE ROASTING!
As if I didn't seem crazy enough in that last encounter, the Lord saw fit to make me look even nuttier before I could exit the store. This time, I was in the check out line. So proud of myself that I'd found my birds and all the other fixin's I needed. I've unloaded the cart and am now reaching over into the empty cart to put in my bags when I see this THING jump at me from inside of my cart. Of course, I scream and jump 10 feet in the air. Once I landed, I saw that the "thing" was a LIZARD in my cart!! Now, my cashier is standing there holding her heart with both hands, eyes bugging out and breathing heavy. I'm pretty sure I just sent her half way to a coronary...maybe a little closer. She says "Lady, what is the matter with you?!" Still shaking from my reptile encounter I yell, "There's a lizard in my cart!!!" Again I got my second head shake for the day as she muttered "hoah, Lord!" She didn't even help me to extract him from my buggy either. Actually I think she was still trying to recover and finish ringing me up so that she could get me out of there. But I digress...so I pushed my cart out in front of me and tried to shake and shoo the thing off. FINALLY it decided to jump onto the floor but it didn't move after that. It just sat there right in front of my cart. I just knew if I pushed my cart an inch I would run over it and squash it. There is nothing more disgusting to me than squashing an animal ~ and I imagined that squishing that lizard would be similar to squishing a frog. Eeeewww...So I stood there waiting on it to come back to life and run away. Finally, after some foot stomping, it did and I proceeded to leave the store. Much to my cashier's relief, I'm sure.
Not long after that I was faced with a decision to make. One that both excited me immensely and terrified me at the same time. After a little prodding and negotiating from my father, Nathan and I had decided to entertain the thought of flying home, oops!, to AR. I was really excited about getting to go spend Thanksgiving with our families and getting to deer hunt with Nathan and my Dad but OH CRAP! I'm gonna have to get on an airplane! I'm not a flyer. I once could've been, but a near death experience on a plane once traumatized me so that I shudder at even the thought of it. (Okay, I know what you're thinking, "Man, she sure has a lot of 'near deathness' in her life. Maybe the ungodly turbulence wasn't a near death experience, per say, but in my mind, I thought I was going to die on that plane. The turbulence was so bad that everyone else on the plane screamed too! Not just me! :) So based on the setting and surroundings and the kind of turbulence we were experiencing...it was a near death experience. If not from the pilots losing control and crashing, then from my own heart failure.) BACK TO THE ISSUE AT HAND! It took me most of the afternoon (and tons of prayers) to finally click on that button to purchase our tickets online. I had filled in every blank, checked off everything to be checked off and was sitting at that final screen. I'd leave the room, come back and look at it, leave again, went to pick Taylor up at school and came back...button still there waiting to be clicked. As I sat there staring at it, I was shaken back to reality by my cell phone ringing. It was Nathan. "Have you done it yet??" "No, not yet." "What are you waiting on?" "I'm scared." "Are you kidding me? Buy the tickets already!" "Uggghhhhh, CLICK." Oh no, I did it. I'm committed now. Shoot! I had done it. I was exhausted. It took a lot out of me to click on that button. My fate's in God's hands now, I thought. (As if it weren't already.)
As the afternoon has gone on and prayers for peace have gone up, I've finally settled down now and I'm getting okay with it. I don't know if it's fatigue that's helping me get over it or if I'm realizing how ridiculous I am. Probably a little of both. A lot of the latter, actually. You know, I really don't know why I have such a hard time putting my faith in God for protection and my well-being. I have no trouble with faith in other areas. Last dime in the checkbook, no worries, God will provide. Making a Thanksgiving dinner for over 50 people, no worries, God will help me get it done. Flying through the air in a jet fuel propelled hunk of metal, NOPE! That's where the line is drawn; that's beyond His jurisdiction! ...Nothing could be more false. At the Women of Faith conference this past weekend, Patsy Clairmont spoke about her fears of flying to another country and she told about several other things that she "doesn't do" and about all of her different fears. The entire time I was thinking "this lady is me in 40 years!" But she went on to say that she DID do those things and she had to trust in the Lord for her protection and for strength. She had to put one foot in front of the other and step out in faith and face her fears so that she could overcome them. So I prayed with her and asked God to help me to put one foot in front of the other and face the fears that keep me from enjoying all of the pleasures of life that he's given to us. When I prayed that prayer I had no idea I would be sticking my toes out so soon! Lorda mercy, that was quick! We fly out on Sunday. THIS COMING Sunday! I bought a bible study book at the conference called 'Overcoming Fear'. I'll be sleeping with it for the next 4 nights. ;-)
Say a prayer for me.

Where have you been???

I know! It's been too long since my last post. I'm feeling the effects of the lack of blogger therapy. I've been quite scattered lately. (Yes, more than usual!!) It's been a whirlwind of a past couple weeks it seems. I've had many moments of "I need to go write this on my blog" but was never able to find a few minutes (or 60) to sit alone and write. ~put the girls in bed early tonight so that I could spend a little while on the psychiatric couch of my blog (which happens to be a not-so-densely cushioned desk chair...good thing I've got that extra padding down there! ~knew it must be there for a reason.) and pour out my thoughts.

Since my last post, Nathan took a week long trip to Costa Rica. It was an incentive trip that Mercury awarded some of their top customers and he got to go along with those customers of his that earned it. (So tough, you know?) He got to stay at a little resort right off the coast in the rain forest. And it rained the biggest part of their trip but the rain didn't stop them from doing all that they had planned. He got to go on a couple of guided fishing trips and zip-lined through the canopy of the rain forest. He took our video camera with him and I had given him specific instructions that he WAS TO FILM THE ZIP LINING EXPERIENCE!! NO MATTER WHAT! He was a little concerned about trying to hold a camera and hold on to his harness and cables but again, I told him NO MATTER WHAT-GET THE VIDEO! (Since I would absolutely NEVER do anything like that I realize that I have to live vicariously through him as he does these dangerous, death defying things that I know most certainly would cause my demise!) He minded very well and got some great shots...one of nothing but his face as he careened through the trees heading for the platform at the end of his line. As I watched his expressions of pure excitement and funness gleaming through his smiles and "Whoas", I could only imagine what my face might have looked like at that moment. I believe it would've been something akin to sheer terror and regret and most definitely accompanied by shrill screams that would make even the sloths get up and run. Speaking of sloths, he was able to film a couple different ones as he waited his turn on the "launch pads". ~Really cool! Because of the where this small, isolated resort was located, they had to take a toy airplane to fly in to it and they landed on a dirt strip in the middle of this village of shack houses. On one side of the landing strip were the shacks and on the other was a cemetery. ~interesting, huh?! I would've killed over from a heart attack before we could've ever landed if I'd seen that. Or actually, I would've never made it that far...seeing the model airplane that he flew on probably would've been enough to send me over the edge. But I digress... He got some beautiful footage while on the plane of the mountains, rain forest and the water. He said that one of the best parts of his trip was a Swedish massage that he got at the spa. THE SPA?!!! It wasn't enough that I had to hear about how wonderful the trip was, and how much fun it was catching these exotic fish, zip-lining through the jungle for crying out loud...NO! He had to rub in that icing on the cake with the massage part. I must be truthful though and not complain too loudly about it because he did say that it was something that I must experience myself, -not taking a trip to Costa Rica!!, a Swedish massage, and that the first chance he gets, he's going to take me to get one. I've never had, nor really wanted, a massage but I hear they can be pretty nice...or to hear him tell it...wuuuunnnnderrrrfullll! I'll let you know what I think about it WHEN I get one. Anyway, he made it back safely on Saturday.
While he was gone I was getting things ready for Mom and Aunt Connie to arrive and preparing to go on a little weekend trip myself. Mom and Connie flew in on Thursday afternoon to babysit my girls while I went to the Women of Faith conference in Tampa Friday night and Saturday. The girls were SO excited about them coming. We'd been counting down the days since the previous Thursday and then the hours on that day. I left on Friday morning with Bridget and we headed across the state to Tampa. We had a great time!! The conference was wonderful. Which if you've ever been to one, you know quite well how great they are. The conf. series they're doing this year has been "Amazing Freedom". Max Lucado was with them and he spoke. Also Anita Renfroe was there. She is the funniest lady I've ever seen! I mean, she is wet-your-pants, cry your eye make-up off funny! In addition to her side-splitting stories and views on life, she also writes songs that finds unbelievable humor in everyday things. Here is a link to a youtube video of her singing one of the songs that she sang for us at the conference. It is a Faith Hill song that she has changed the lyrics to. Run grab a tissue and click here to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uFRr67Dhic

She also sings the "Mom" song to the William Tell Overture music. That video has been going around on email for a while so you've probably seen it but it's also on youtube if you've not. She sang it for us as well and the lady doesn't even use teleprompters for it. She can remember all those words precisely and spit them out that fast all on her own!! It's amazing. She sang another one called A Salute to Underwire. It was to the music of "You Raise Me Up" by Josh Groban-it's a riot!! Couldn't find it posted anywhere yet. Hopefully someone will put it on youtube soon. Anyway, I had a great time and was really uplifted by all that the speakers shared. If you ever get the opportunity to go to one of their conferences, go...RUN!...you'll love it.
My children were completely rotten when I returned home. Man, give 'em just a couple days with a grandma and WOW at the monsters that are created! (But I wouldn't have it any other way. :-) ~yes, that last statement was for the benefit of Nana and Meme if you're reading this. ;-) ) When I called to check on them Saturday, they had taken their Aunt Connie to see the beach and then had stopped off at Toys 'R Us for two hours (They must be crazy-I try to avoid that place like the plague!!!) and as if T.R.U. wasn't enough, they also made a stop at Wal-Mart. Ever notice how your mother does things for your children that she would've NEVER done for you?! Guess that's part of the joys of being a GRANDma. Spoil 'em rotten, send 'em home to Mama. By later this afternoon they had begun to morph back into their old selves again. Usually doesn't take them too long to figure out ~"Give it up, it doesn't work on the parents." Well, guess it's time for my therapy session to end. I'll try not to wait so long to write again next time. Hope you have a great week! Only 12 days left till the after Thanksgiving Day Sales!! ;-)

"Happy" Halloween...this is how I feel about it too...

Here is just one of the very few pictures I took of the girls in their costumes. As you can see by their faces, they were a little less than enthused about having their picture made. Emma wanted to shed the hat, Taylor wanted to shed the hole blasted, itchy costume! But, I made them stand there and give me their best (fake) smiles, not because I'm such a mean mommy-contrary to their opinion at the moment-but because I KNOW when they're older they will enjoy looking back on their pictures creatively displayed in their scrapbooks and say "Hey, that was the year that I was a xxxx, and mom made us stand there crying in our costumes just so that she could get this picture. Thanks mom, great memories!" Unfortunately I forgot to take their pictures BEFORE we went trick-or-treating so that's part of the reason for the fussiness.

They really did have a fun night. We all did. We went over to Paul & Bridget's house for dinner and then we walked their neighborhood with their little girls, Isabel and Sophia. They got a TON of candy! Lots of chocolate (YES!!-I feel a candy raid coming on!) At a couple of the houses, they gave them whole candy bars!! Not the little bite-sized ones. Yep, I'm thinking we're going to be making trick-or-treating with them an annual event. (Sorry bulging belly & thunder thighs)

The rest of this week has been a blustery cycle of chaos and exhaustion. My poor children have seen "psycho" mom more than I care to disclose. I must be going through that time of the month where it's not THE time of the month but it's getting close. You know the time? When your emotions are a roller coaster ride of rage, happiness, indifference, forgetfulness and sadness. (Well, I can't really attribute my forgetfulness to this "period" of time, that pretty much sticks with me the entire month.) Then add to that just being dog tired as well. Anyway, that's pretty much been my week so far. The mornings this week have been horrendous; trying to get us all dressed and out the door on time. No matter how early I get up or how fast I move, we JUST......CAN'T......GET......OUT......THE......DOOR! And do you think that sometimes when your talking (or barking orders, especially!) that all of a sudden what sounds like plain English to you, comes out as an unknown language to your kids? Like you say "Go brush your teeth, hurry!" and then a few minutes later you find them playing in their rooms, teeth not brushed and now their shoes are off too. It's moments like those that psycho mom appears at our house. I try to suppress her and keep her locked away but after hearing the little angel say "but Mommy, I didn't know you said to brush my teeth" that's when she is out before I can even take another breath. She usually begins with a really ugly frown and her eyes get all beady and look like they could stare a hole through you. Her nice nude complexion turns to splotchy red. Sweat beads form on her upper lip and I'm pretty sure smoke is rising from her head. (Oops, no, it's smoke from the straightening iron she's holding at the base of her scalp...forgetting to pull it through her hair.) Then, she attempts to speak but her lips are curled in and stiff and her teeth just barely open to let the words creep out. The voice starts with a deep, slow utterance of "You'd better get up right this minute and..." Then the interrogative part of her comes out. This part is usually much much louder and higher pitched than then latter and comes immediately afterward, usually in the next breath. It screams "What are you doing? Didn't you hear me say ...?" Among a host of other unanswered questions. It's during this phase that her eyes go from beady to bulging, arms are flailing and the culprit knows for sure that this definitely IS a psycho mom sighting. They stand there, eyes wide, wondering if they should speak or move but afraid to do either. Especially afraid to move for fear that one of the flailing arms will find itself striking their backside. Finally, after a few brief minutes, psycho mom retreats back inside and all that's left is an exhausted, frustrated, singed haired thing. Yes, this happened to me twice this week. I have come to the conclusion that "psycho mom" has a diagnosis and comes from a condition called hormonal genetics. Hormonal being that her feelings of rage and delirium are purely from her premenstrual condition at the time, and genetics because, well, that's the way HER mother handled things like that. (Sorry, Mom! ;-)) Anyway, as He usually does, God let me know that He is so much bigger than my chaos (and yes, it's mine-solely created by me). He shows me that yes, while my little part of the world seems to be in utter confusion and disarray, he is a God of peace and order. On Tuesday morning, after I had unleashed psycho mom, the kids and I were driving to school and Taylor says "Look Mom! It's a rainbow! Isn't it pretty?" It was so beautiful and so peaceful. At that moment I felt God saying to me, "Calm down. Look, you made it to school on time. You weren't late and wouldn't it have been much nicer to have experienced this kind of peace this morning rather than your madness?" I felt really ashamed and guilty for acting the way I had. Did it keep me from doing it again? Well, you'd think it would have but no, this morning, same thing. I unleashed her again. This time once we got into the car and were driving away, Emma says "Mama, wook! God made a wainbow again!" I thought, no way, that's way too coincidental! I look up and there are two perfectly parallel rainbows pretty as you please! I thought to myself, Man, you did it again this morning and here God is showing you that your morning could've (and should've) been much different. And tomorrow, the headlines will read "Florida Skies Painted with Scores of Rainbows!" ;-) ~just kidding. I pray that the next time I start to get bent out of shape and feel psycho mom emerging that God will remind me of the three rainbows and how much better it feels to have His peace than to have all that chaos and anger. I know that all I have to do at that moment of choice is ask Him to give me His peace and he will and how much more pleased with me will he be than if I choose my own way of handling things.

Here is one more picture. One of Emma after Taylor had stomped away. Shows exactly what she thought of my picture taking! :-)

Quiet Sunday Afternoon

All is quiet here at our house this afternoon. The kids are napping. Nathan is napping. Why am I not napping? Tried to but my eyes seemed to be propped open with toothpicks-wouldn't close for nothing! Probably due to the sugar overload that I submitted my body to today. Last night was the fall festival at church. The girls had a great time. I think their favorite part was the "trunk-or-treating". Now I've embarked on my favorite part. My reward for taking the time to get them dressed up, patiently putting make-up on a squirming two year old and a fidgety five year old, walking them from game table to game table, from trunk to trunk as they stood there at each candyman or candy-woman greedily waiting for their piece of glorious sugary confection to be dropped into their pumpkin buckets. Their eyes just shined with glee as we finished making the rounds and they examined their buckets full of candy. Okay, is it time to go home now? Time for you girls to get in bed? (Time for me to raid the candy buckets?) So that's why I'm not napping right now. Raided the candy buckets...twice actually. (Shhhh)
We stayed at the festival long enough to not hear Nathan's name called to win the new surf board they were giving away. (I whispered to the lady doing the drawing that if she pulled Nathan's name, to quickly put it back! ~does he really need any help in injuring himself at the beach? I don't think so! He pretty much has that one covered all by himself, given that he's usually banged up or sore every time we come home from a day at the beach. Then who has to hear about it for the next week...you got it!) I was really surprised that Emma didn't bounce home afterward. Every time I looked down at her she was sneaking another piece of chocolate. Seriously, she probably ate 4 candy bars and I know she ate two suckers. I kept telling her I was going to take her bucket away if she didn't quit eating all her candy. (Empty threats-and she knew it, apparently.) But she continued to sneak them...I'd look down at her and she'd have her back slightly turned away with her eyes cut up at me while she was digging as fast as she could to grab another piece. ha! Stinker! Taylor is different in that area...she's a beggar. She begged and bargained her way through several candy bars and two suckers as well. Even after all that candy they still went to bed at a decent hour and slept all night. Well, Taylor got up and was scared so I let her sleep with me. She kept hearing noises and couldn't sleep...how could I turn her away when I feel her pain most nights. It would've been very hypocritical of me to tell her it was nothing and make her go back to her bed. Plus, with all the scary halloween junk that's all over the tv and in the stores, creepy, nasty masked things booing and howling at you at every turn, invading your mind when you're trying to go to sleep at night, who wouldn't be scared? Yeah, I hear ya-most people. (I hate halloween!) I am working on getting rid of some of the fears that I have. (Thank you, Jesus!) I am happy to say that I did pretty well while Nathan was gone this last week. I sang quite a few praise and worship songs...some in the middle of the night...but hey, it worked! Before I realized it, I was waking up to my alarm singing praise songs in my ear. I've found it's best for me to flood my world with praise and worship songs. I really think it helps to keep my children alive. ;-) ~joking! It helps me to attempt to keep on the straight and narrow. ~helps-not always accomplishes-but I'm workin' on that.
Well, Emma just woke up and informed me that it's "mowning (4:30 pm) and it's time fow huh to get up, put on huh sungwasses and push huh baby in duh stwoluh."
I'll post pictures of them in their halloween costumes this week. Taylor is a bride...which is really funny being that she is toothless! Emma is Fairytale Dora. No gorey blood or vampire teeth at our house...and it'll stay that way as long as I can help it! ...stupid halloween! :-)

The Crash and Aspirations

Okay, so apparently the knocking on wood thing IS only a superstition. No truth to it as I see it. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see yesterday's post below...)Last night after finishing my last blog and wondering if I had indeed jinxed myself by saying we'd had an "uneventful" day, I was shaken back into the reality of what is our "normal" life. Uneventful = not normal! We'd finished dinner and decided to go outside and let the girls play in the driveway and on the sidewalk in front of our house. (Since we have no yard this is their only option for playing outside other than swimming.) Taylor has been doing really well riding her bike without training wheels and she was practicing by riding up and down the sidewalk. Emma was riding her tricycle on the sidewalk too. It hasn't been a danger in the past because Taylor has only been able to go 10 feet or so at a time without putting her feet down and up until now Emma has never been in her way. Until last night. Taylor was doing great on her bike, actually going from one neighbor's driveway, past ours and turning around in the other neighbors driveway. She was a little wobbly but managed to keep her balance. You gotta know that when Taylor & Emma ride their bikes or scooters they're like little Evel Knievels. There is no speed too fast or too dangerous. There is only one speed and that's as fast as they can scoot or pedal. So anyway, Emma was on her trike coming down the sidewalk as hard and fast as her little stick legs could go. Meanwhile, Taylor is coming down the sidewalk from the other direction looking like a deer in headlights and a little more out of control and wobbly than usual. They are headed right for one another and neither of them are stopping or heaven forbid slowing down. Emma, as I imagine it, probably saw the look on Taylor's face and decided that she'd better stop right before Taylor got ready to pass her by. She stops but Taylor is unable to stop or control her bike and her handlebar crashed right into Emma's mouth! Taylor and her bike fall into the grass on the other side of the sidewalk and Emma is standing there screaming and in shock. Nathan and I had already started walking that way when we saw that Taylor wasn't stopping her bike and was going to try to ride past her. By the time I got to Emma, she has blood running out of her mouth and down her chin and both of her hands are covered in blood. Nathan is beginning to freak out at this point, as he usually does when he sees one of them get hurt...worse if there's blood involved. As much as I'd like to scream "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!" and freak out myself, I have to stay calm to keep him and the kids from going ballistic. I gave him a calm look and said "She's okay" and then I scooped Emma up and ran her into the house where I could better assess the damage and try to keep any more blood from dripping on her cute little Gap dress (darn it!). Once I cleaned up her mouth a little I could see that she had busted her bottom lip in two places and also her top lip. I cleaned those place up but there was still blood coming out of her mouth so I lifted her top lip and was able to see the real damage. The handlebar had hit her gums just above her front two teeth. Her gums had been pushed up on one side and it had cut a gash across them too. They finally stopped bleeding after a couple minutes and she had stopped crying. As soon as I got her down from the cabinet she said "I won to go back outside again and pway! Can we, can we, can we?" So I gave her some Motrin and we went back outside to ride bikes again. She is the toughest little booger I know! Mouth swollen and lips blown up like balloons she's off again, riding as hard as she can. Poor Taylor was so worried about her. She kept asking if she was going to be okay and if it was her fault. She had to have just as many hugs as Emma did. After she saw that she was going to be okay, it was no big deal...yesterday's news.
This morning Emma's lips and gums were still swollen a little bit but she felt good. I doped her up and sent her off to school. -that sounded really bad - let me rephrase. I assessed her pain level, saw that she was feeling optimal but just as a precautionary measure I gave her a little Motrin. She went to school and had a great day!

One more thing before I go...I don't think I told this yet but the other day Emma informed me that she knows what she wants to be when she grows up...a butterfly. Taylor used to say that she wanted to be vet, but she has changed her mind now. Moved on to bigger and better things. Now she wants to be an animal cop. ;-) You Go Girls!

Uneventful, somewhat

It's been fairly uneventful here at our house the last few days. If you can EVER call life at our house uneventful. I'm probably going to regret even saying that before the night's over. If you're near any wood, knock on it for me as I am doing right now as well. Thanks! ~Will let you know if that worked in tomorrow's blog. ;-)
We went to Orlando on Sunday afternoon and got to eat dinner with Anita & Darrell. (For those that don't know, that is my aunt and uncle from Louisiana.) They were in town for a conference. It was so good to see them! When we sat down at our table I told Anita "I'm so ready to come home!" (Oops! Yes, I used the H word!) Nathan stopped his conversation with Darrell and looked at me and said "What?" I quickly wiped the pitiful homesick look off of my face and said "I said I'm ready to go to Arkansas." Relieved he said "Oh, you mean for Christmas. I thought you were talking about MOVING back there." I said "Oh, NO." Like no way would that thought EVER enter my mind...(you didn't get wet from the sarcasm dripping from that last statement did you?) I think he's afraid that I'm going to say that I've had enough of living down here and I'm ready to move back home. We made a deal when we moved down here that if at any time either of us got so miserable that we just couldn't live here anymore away from our families, we'd pick up and move back. We'd start all over again if we had to. Honestly I do wish we were closer to ho...Arkansas...(good save) but I'm not ready to move back yet. God's still working on me here and I'm not near done yet. -surprising to you, I know! :) Plus, Nathan has done so well with his company here that I wouldn't want him to give up the progress that he's made and tenure that he's earned with them.
The kids were excited to see Aunt 'Nita & Uncle Darrell as well! I felt like I spent the entire time in the bathroom with Emma, though. Maybe that's because I DID spend most of the night in there!! I don't know what was wrong with her...she was like an overstimulated cocker spaniel puppy. I bet we went to the bathroom 8 times! That is no exaggeration, either! Every 5 minutes she said she needed to go potty. I thought after the first time that she just wanted to get up and go to the bathroom and wash her hands, etc...but NO, she was actually going every time! I figured she was probably getting (or had) some kind of infection but she hasn't done it any more so I guess not. She was seated between Darrell & Anita. Taylor, Nathan and I were on the other side of the long booth. Nathan and Darrell kept having to get up to let us out. I'm pretty sure their meals got cold before they could finish them just as mine and hers did. Finally, (probably on the 7th time she said she had to go) I said NO, I'm not going back...you do NOT have to PEE again, there's no way! She kept on squirming and then she said "I'm peeing, I'm peeing!" I said "YOU ARE NOT!" Anita looked down and lifted her skirt a little and she said "She really is! There's a little wet spot on her dress!" So, off to the potty we went again. This time I put a diaper on her. Why I didn't do that after the 4th or 5th time, I don't know. Well, yes I do, that would've been much too easy and I never do things the easy way. After getting Emma out of the wet panties and all diapered up I got back to my seat only to find Taylor sobbing with her head down on the table. GREAT! WHAT NOW?!! I figured she'd probably done or said something and Nathan had gotten on to her. Nope. I asked her "What's wrong, what happened?" She said "We're going back home." Apparently she'd asked her daddy what we were doing next with Aunt Anita and Uncle Darrell and he said well, nothing, we've got to home before it gets too late...you have school tomorrow. She cried pretty much the rest of the night. She wanted to go back to their hotel and spend more time with them. Poor thing...she gets so upset whenever any of our family leaves or if we have to leave them to go back home. :'( She finally calmed down but still wasn't very happy. I had to keep telling her that it was only a couple more weeks until Nana would be here. So then we had to go through the whole discussion of "How many weeks is that; how many days is that?" (That discussion NEVER ends well.) It usually ends with a long, whiney "OOOHHHH, that's going to take forrrrrevvvvvvvvverrrrr! sob...sob...sob... Can't win for losin'.
Emma and I saw the shuttle take off this morning. We had just come out of Bible study at church and we watched it from the church parking lot. It's just so amazing and awesome to me. We could see the shuttle and the huge ball of fire propelling it up into the air. ~just awesome! At the church, you can even hear the boom from the take off several minutes after it takes off. It sounds like loud thunder that continues for several seconds. I get awestruck watching the planes come in and out of the airport too. It's just so amazing to me that something that gi-normous is in the air! I think my fear of them is partly what fuels my fascination with them. One thing we talked about in bible study that really hit home with me today was fear. I am afraid of EVERYTHING! It's something that I really struggle with. I hate it when Nathan is gone because I'm afraid of the dark, basically, and can't make myself go to sleep at night. I'm afraid of flying, getting into an accident, something happening to my kids or to Nathan. You name it and I'm probably afraid of it. Anyway, today the lady was talking about the verse in Timothy that says "God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of sound mind." She talked about praying and asking God to deliver us from our fears and giving it to him. It is Satan who is causing us to have fear and it's just an evil plot that he can use to pull us away from God, even if for just a few minutes and he delights in knowing that he can scare us and use our fears against us. She said that when we feel that fear coming on that we should start quoting verses...any verses-not necessarily those about fear, or singing praises to God. Whenever you sing or praise God, his presence is there with you and therefore Satan (and fear) can't be. She said that if she gets afraid at night that she gets up and either reads her bible or starts singing praise songs and it helps her to get over her fear and get back to sleep. I think I'm going to try it when Nathan leaves this week. It may be 2AM at my house but I'm going to be "Oh what a singin', OH what a shoutin'"! Ha! Well, maybe not a shoutin'; definitely don't want to wake the girls, but I'll be gettin' my praise on, no less. Guh-low-ry Hallelujah!
;-)

Good Friday Morning to Ya!

It's FRIDAY! Yea!!
Those words used to have a lot more meaning to me when I was working but I still look forward to Friday and the weekends...Nathan's usually home, Taylor's Saturday soccer games, lazy Saturday afternoons, church on Sunday, lazy Sunday afternoons...
The girls are out of school today. We got to sleep in till 7:30 (thank you Emma!) this morning. Would've liked it to have been 8:30, but hey, I'll take what I can get. The girls have been playing around the house this morning...minimal fighting so far, so that's good! ;-)
I haven't been able to post much this week. It's been pretty busy around here. The last couple days I've been fighting a sinus infection and have felt like my face was going to split open. I've been drinking that "Airborne" stuff several times a day. It seems to be helping...I'm not getting any worse...maybe even a little better today. I just hate taking sinus medicine. It makes me feel like my head is the size of a watermelon and I feel all fuzzy till it wears off. So I'm going to try to avoid it and keep taking this other stuff.

I posted more recipes to my website this morning. I put the list of new ones added on here under "My favorite recipes & menus". I'm hoping to work on it a little more throughout the day today and maybe add a few more to it.

I bought a few pots of mums the other day and placed them out in the flower bed around one of the palm tress in an effort to try to make it look more like fall around here. The 90 degree heat and sweltering humidity keeps it lacking a fall feel though. We're supposed to get a "cold" front by the end of next week. So maybe we'll only get up to 88 instead of 90! Woohoo! I've noticed that I get the most homesick during this season. When October comes and all the fall things start appearing in stores and I'm wanting so badly to see leaves changing and feel cooler temperatures, I get really anxious for the holidays to get here so we can go back home. Just this week I was on my way to get Emma from school and I started thinking about the pumpkin bread that a girl was bringing to MOPS on Thursday (thinking about food-naturally!) and I started thinking about how much I enjoy those "fall" spices and smells and colors. That thought led to thinking about being with my family and how much I miss everybody...then come the tears...then I have to pull myself together before I step out to get Emma. Instantly when I get out of my car, see a few friends and have a couple conversations with these people who have become my family down here, that sadness and empty feeling is gone. I have to remind myself often of how blessed I've been being here in Florida. Yes, it's hard being so far away and not being able to see the people I love very often but at the same time God has really done amazing things for us here. It's during this season (ironically) that I struggle the most with being thankful and appreciative of what I have and where I am. Nathan usually helps in that area when I start saying "I want to go home.." (He doesn't like it when I use the word home in reference to AR or either of our parent's houses.) He reminds me that Arkansas is not "home"; My home is where he is and where my girls are. That's so true, you know. It's been a hard lesson for me to learn but since we've moved here God has shown me how misplaced my priorities have been. Not that they're always in the right order now, by no means, but I'm much more aware of it and sensitive to His calling now. So when I find myself wallowing in self pity and saying "Woe, is me" praise God that he brings me out of it and shows me what he has provided for me here. I don't think I'll ever get past missing my family so much and I don't want to. I believe that's one thing God uses to keep us close to each other and keeps us connecting with one another. Sometimes all it takes is just a thought of someone to make us miss them and make us want to pick up the phone or send out an email to that person and connect with them again.
On a lighter note :) ...I had to call our local poison control office yesterday. Remember the mums I mentioned before? Emma ate a few blooms off of one. How she managed to actually swallow them, I don't know. They have such a pungent smell. I can't imagine what they tasted like...not very good apparently. I heard her spitting and going "bluck" so I went over to her thinking that she'd taken too big of a bite of her lunch. When I asked her "did you take too big of a bite?" She said "No, I eat fwowers." "WHAT?!" So I check the floor and see a couple small buds laying there but they weren't wet or chewed. She told me that she swallowed them. Luckily, in small doses, they're not toxic. I did learn, from the really nice poison control man, that they are used in large quantities to make pesticides. He said she may show some signs of an allergic reaction but luckily she never did. "Woe is me...!" ~just kiddin'! ha!

Taylor has learned a new word.

I knew that it would happen sooner or later; I preferred later. Taylor has picked up a new word from a classmate(s) at school. Last Friday when I was volunteering in her classroom, I heard it come out of several different kid's mouths. And I thought to myself, I sure am glad Taylor doesn't use that word. It sounds so crude coming out of a 5 year old's mouth. Tonight while the girls were in the bathtub playing, I first heard "Eeeww...giggle, giggle." Then "Emma, you FARTED!" Now I know, it could've been a far worse word than that. Trust me, I've heard worse come out of their mouths but those words weren't used correctly and they didn't know what they were saying-just repeating them...and they didn't come from me! (Angel-saint that I am.) It just sounds so gross, I hate the word "fart". Normally I try not to reference it at all and have tried to teach the girls to say "poot" or even better "toot". Never do we use "pass gas"...that's much too refined for us. It's not really a big deal that Taylor now knows how to use that word and was using it without even thinking about it tonight. It's the fact that now Emma knows that word. Taylor can be broken from saying it with me just reminding her a few times that we don't need to use that word. Emma, however, based upon past experiences with her (Re: "there's a pig, he's eating on my toes,... there's a worm in my butt!" song) requires much more drastic measures to get her to quit saying (or singing) inappropriate things. I am so looking forward to trying to break her of this one! (eyes rolling back into my head)



Nathan comes home tomorrow night! The girls and I are picking him up from the airport in Orlando tomorrow night. His plane gets in at 8:30. Say a prayer for him for safety as he's flying in and for us as we're driving up there and back.



We've got a busy day tomorrow. Emma has school...it's pet day. She gets to take a stuffed pet to show to the class. Every pet will receive a ribbon for something outstanding about it. She's really excited about it. I am going to be grocery shopping and cooking for MOPS that's on Thursday. Luckily, I have 4 other girls helping me this week so I will have it fairly easy tomorrow. I have some light cleaning to do around the house before Nathan gets home. Nothing major since we are such clean, neat people. Just some dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing God knows what off of my floors, cleaning the bathroom. You know, not much. I did get our shower scrubbed and that hair ball removed. ha! I honestly don't know how I have any hair left on my head! After washing, blow drying and straightening, I could knit two shag rugs out of the hair in the shower and on the bathroom floor. It's really quite amazing.



In my spare time today I created a new website specifically for recipes. I have gotten so into cooking and gathering new recipes over the last year. I absolutely LOVE watching food network. My all-time favorite is Paula Deen. She is so funny and her recipes are the best! I also like watching Giada (Everyday Italian). She has some pretty good recipes and tips too. Anyhoo, I have gathered so many good recipes lately that I decided to put them online to share. That way, MOM, whenever you call and say "I have to take food to xxxx, what can I fix?" I can say (very uppity) "Have you checked my website lately? ;-) I posted the web address on here under "Favorite Recipes and Menus". The website is still a work in progress. I have posted a few recipes on there though.



Speaking of Paula Deen, some of you already know this but last year in MOPS we decided to do a "spoof" cooking demonstration. At one of our meetings, we had collected recipes from all of the moms and copied them. For our craft we all made cookbooks using each other's recipes. Then afterward a few of us put on a show. One of us was "Barfa" Stewart, another was Rachel "Play" and I was Paula "Spleen". It was so much fun. I made up a slide show that played on a projection screen behind us during our presentation. I took our faces and pasted them onto the celebrity's bodies and then set it to music. Barfa Stewart threw together some pasta dish that looked easy and then she pulls out this masterpiece and says "This is good" "Anyone can do this." Rachel Play taught the moms how to make homemade playdoh and another mom dressed up as a little girl and got the stuff ALL OVER herself. I made a cheeseball recipe only I didn't use cream cheese, I used a pound of butter and I mixed it up with my hands which had huge rings on every finger. My southern accent came in handy! I said "Yall" a LOT and at the end, I pulled out a real cheese ball that I had colored yellow with food coloring (to make it look like the one made of butter) and I took a huge bite of it and moaned "Mmmm!" Anyway, we had so much fun with that. Before I go, I'll show you the picture of me as Paula "Spleen".