New Year's Transformations

2007 is already on the brink of being over. Yikes! Can't believe it has flown by so fast. The typical thing for most folks to do on this day is to make New Year Resolutions. However, my pastor yesterday morning talked about instead of making resolutions, to ask God for a 'transformation.'

By this, he means that instead of focusing on all the do's and don'ts we want to accomplish for next year, that our main goal should be to fix our eyes on Jesus... to allow him to transform our minds, hearts, attitudes, etc. Then all the "other" stuff will be worked on naturally, as our soul, heart, and mind are filled with Jesus and his word. That was the message I needed to hear. I had been thinking about and setting many goals for next year, however, I think instead of setting those goals and then being disappointed in myself when I might not meet them, I am going to fix my eyes, heart, mind and soul on Jesus and ask Him to help me do the rest.

I pray that in 2008, you too will fix your eyes, heart, soul and mind on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. May He bless you and may you serve him this next year with all of your being.

Christmas Surprise

Oh, how we've had fun this Christmas! We had fun Christmas Eve surprising my mom and dad by showing up on their doorstep. When we orginially made plans for Christmas, Kevin was going to have to work right before and right after Christmas day, thus not allowing much time to travel. So, I was going to drive up with Stone (without Kevin) the day after Christmas. Well, a few weeks before Christmas, Kevin got news from his company that they were shutting down the week of Christmas. I took this opportunity to plan a little surprise for my parents.

After my endoscopy Christmas Eve morning, we drove up and ended up at their house around 7:30pm. The look on my mom's face when we walked in the door was priceless (too bad I didn't get to catch it on tape!). So, we got to spend some of Christmas Eve, Christmas day and a few days afterwards with my family. On Friday morning, (today) we left and drove to Greensboro, NC to visit with K's uncle Rob and Aunt Martha's home to spend the night and visit with some of the Hallquist clan. We've had a ball so far and Stone and Mercy were glad to be reunited! Ha! They are so funny.....when they see each other, even if it's only been 1 day, they act like they haven't seen each other in years.

Anyway, that's where we are presently and pictures of the festivities will be posted soon. As far as the endoscopy, it proved to show that I didn't have any ulcers (good news) but that my small intestine was a little irritated. Not sure what that's going to mean, but will find out in a few weeks, as they took a biopsy. Thanks to all who prayed!

Christmases Past and Present

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family. We pray you have a wonderful time celebrating Christ's birth! For fun, here are some pics of our Christmases since Kevin and I have been married...

Our very first Christmas together (2004). We spent our first Christmas together in Memphis instead of visiting either family. Reason: we just got married the September before and took a wonderful honeymoon to London/Scotland, so we were poor broke! It was a sweet time even though we missed our families. We spent it with friends there in Memphis and had a fun time opening packages from our folks and siblings.



Christmas 2005, with the addition of Stone...look how cute he is! This Christmas was a little crazy! Not only did we have Stone just 2 months before, but we flew to WV (yeah, with a 2 month old!) to visit my folks and then moved to Alabama just 1 day after we got back. Uh, what WERE we thinking? Don't know, but we were on some kind of crazy adventure.




Christmas 2006, just after Stone turned 1. (Yep, Stone is still cute!) This was our first Christmas in Greenville. We were still living with K's folks so since we got to spend lots of time with them, we decided to visit my folks again in WV. It was our last Christmas in the house where I grew up, so it was very special. This Christmas also brings back the memory of how on the day we were to leave to go to WV, K's temp job called him and told him he was "laid off" cause the job was over. Great. Merry Christmas. Then, on the way to WV, just 5 hours later after that call, the HR lady at the company he's currently with called him and offered him a full-time job! Yeah, Merry Christmas!!




Christmas 2007....(nothing has changed, Stone is still a cutie!!) This is our 2nd Christmas in Greenville and we are celebrating in our own house, and then of course with family as well. Last year, we and K's parents both put up our trees, but we left the rest of our decorations in storage. This year, even though we're in our own place, our house is still so small that most of our decorations are still in storage! We don't care, we decorated what we could and make the most of what we have. Another job story goes with this Christmas as well. K had an interview just this past Friday for a job at a local bank for a credit analyst position. Even though we won't know the outcome until after Christmas, we are praying this is the door God will open for us. If not, we know He has something else in store. Also, I have an upper endoscopy scheduled for the morning (Christmas Eve). Kind of a weird thing to have done on Christmas Eve but it turned out to be the best day to have it. Life continues to be an adventure.. we just try to take one day at a time!

Christmas Fun

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy this entire post and paste it into your own post. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then tag someone else!

I tag Gini, Meredith, Beth, Miriam, Marie, Kendra!!!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both

2. Real or artificial tree? Just a few years ago, I would have said real, cause we grew up with real trees. However, after using an artificial one for the past few years, it's the only way to go!

3. When do you put up the tree? Whenever we have time to. This year, it happened to fall on Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down? Again, whenever we can get to it.

5. Do you like eggnog? No, but Kevin loves it!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? This is a tough one---I honestly can't remember what my favorite gift as a child was! My parents were so great and spoiled us, so it's hard to say.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, many. The one I'd love to put out but have NO where to put it is one that I received as a wedding gift from my former roommate/friend's mom. It's gorgeous and ceramic, but again, I have no place to display it. I also have several smaller ones and a couple of ornaments.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My hubby Kevin. You'd think he'd be easy to buy for, but wrong! Also, my brother, cause he never tells me what he wants.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Uh, again, not sure on this one.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I have several here, but "While You Were Sleeping" still holds#1. My newest fav is probably "The Holiday" with Jack Black, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and Jude Law. And thanks to my former roommate and friend Jenny, "Christmas Vacation." And then there is the classic: "Charlie Brown Christmas" who doesn't like that one?

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Apparently, not soon enough, as I'm still not finished! I usually like to start early, which means around Sept.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I think so, but I sometimes get scared that I gave it back to the person who gave it to me!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My mom's ham and the fixin's and dad's world-famous peanut butter balls!

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear/white

17. Favorite Christmas song? Just about all of them. This question should be divided into "Christmas carols" and "Holiday classics that have nothing to do with the real meaning of Christmas." So, if it's a Christmas Carol, "Angels We Have Heard On High" & "Joy to the World." If it's the latter category, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" & "Sleigh Ride/Jingle Bells."

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We've done both. I love being with my family at Christmas and on Christmas day, but Kevin eventually wants to start our own traditions, so I don't know how much longer we will continue to travel.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Vixen, Dasher, Rudolph, ????

20. What's on the tree top? A rusty star that has lights in it.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Christmas morning. Although growing up, if we wanted to, we could choose to open one present Christmas Eve night.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I have a list: People trying to take Christ out of Christmas; People refusing to be jolly about Christmas-- It is the best time of year ever; TRAFFIC and trying to shop; People being rude

23. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color? Nope, it's very eclectic right now.. mostly of ornaments that I have collected over the years from growing up. My parents always gave us at least one ornament every year (most of the time we got more than one). So, I have all of them plus ones I collected such as snowmen and Noah's Ark (used to collect both).

24. What do/did you leave for Santa? Cookies and milk.

25. What were any traditions you had growing up? Any that you do as an adult now? On Christmas Eve, we would always go to a Christmas Eve service at the church. Afterwards, we'd come home and invite anyone over who wanted to come and just have a few snacks. We'd then sit by the fireplace and read the TRUE Christmas story and then open 1 gift if we wanted to. Christmas morning, we'd dive into presents first thing, eat a big breakfast and then play with toys or watch videos until time to eat dinner (mom always made a great Christmas dinner). Another tradition that we did and still do is to have our extended family come over and we'd have another big meal and exchange gifts and just hang out. As for traditions now: Kevin and I are still figuring all that out and deciding what we would like to do. We're just having fun with Stone and enjoying everything we can. Stone particularly likes it when we just drive around to look at lights, so I'm sure that will become a tradition we stick with. I'd like to make a special "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake and eat that on Christmas too. I'm sure we'll come up with some other ideas.

Stolen!

I have been seething over this since Friday afternoon. As most of you know, I have been serving at a local church where I work part-time as the Preschool Minister. To set the background to my story, it's necessary to include some details. As it was the end of the year, and our classrooms desperately needed new toys (some of those toys had been there since dirt), I have been on several shopping sprees. In order to store all these toys, so that I could later come back and un-pack them to put in the rooms, I had to put them in our "resource room." This room is located on the Preschool Hall but has windows to it. However, I keep it locked at all times and I had all the toys still in bags, not just laying out. The only people that has keys to it are the staff and cleaning crew.

Friday, I had arranged for Gini to keep Stone for a few hours so I could specifically go in and put out all these toys. Mind you, it takes time to "undo" all this stuff, which is why it had been just sitting in the resource room for about 2 weeks. Well, as I sort through things, I start noticing that some things are missing!! I get further into things and realize several things are gone. I then go to each room to see if someone (like a week-day teacher) put some of those toys out in the rooms. None are found. I then talk with our maintenance guy, Keith, who happened to be walking down the hall. Hating to point fingers, I ask him if he thought it was possible that the cleaning crew might have taken some things. He also hated to point fingers, but we tried ruling out everyone else, or the possibility that someone just walked in and took them out. I didn't think that was possible, since these toys were in big boxes and not easily concealed. Well, we left it at that for the time being, and I was still MAD cause someone STOLE from God and these little kids!!!!!

So, I left about 5 toys in the room Friday afternoon, as I ran out of time and needed to leave. I put these toys in garbage bags and put them in the furthest corner of the room. When I came in Sunday morning, I noticed one of the bags was opened. After further investigation, I then discovered that ANOTHER toy had disappeared!!! UGH!! So, I reported that too and we're pretty sure it's either the cleaning crew or someone connected to them.

I can't tell you how this has totally bummed me. I really feel for anyone who has been stolen from... nobody likes it when someone has just taken something from you. But I guess I'm even more mad cause someone took from all these kids and had the attitude that it was theirs to take. So, Saturday, I went shopping again, but this time for curtains to hang in the windows of the resource room. I put those up today and the lock is also going to be changed so it will be more secure.

Just needed to vent about all this....ba hum-bah!

Pics with Santa

Last year's picture....

This year's picture....

See any similarities? Obviously, he doesn't like men with big, long, white beards. I can't say that I blame him though.. I didn't either when I was a kid (although I sure did like getting presents from Santa, even though I didn't enjoy sitting on his lap!) Both of these pictures were taken at my fav fast food place, c*hic*fil*a. Last year, we went with Cuz Mercy, who did just great. This year, we went solo and he did fine, even standing up beside him, until I went to put him on his lap. I told the lady taking the pictures, "Just get ready to snap a picture, cause he's probably going to scream." Yeah, I called that one right! Well, at least we have it documented on film for the memory!

Forget Something???

Uh, Stone? Did you forget something? It's a little too cold to be going outside without any pants on!!

Body Art....

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory. However, I will say this: NEVER leave your 2 year old unattended with markers, even for just 5 seconds to answer the phone. Otherwise, you might end up with this! (Thankfully, the markers didn't make it to the couch!) So, do you think orange is a good color for Stone???

Refrigerator Art

Thought I'd decorate my blog with some Fall artwork from Stone. He attends a Parent's Day Out program 2 times a week at our former church and has WONDERFUL teachers. Not only are they are very creative with projects for them to do and make, they also love, love, love on him. As a result, Stone actually enjoys going to "school" and will "love" back on his teachers (not something he easily does with everyone.) So, here are a few treasures that decorate my fridge.. there are many behind the ones I took pictures of.. I'm almost out of room! (I've always wanted to be able to decorate my fridge door with my own child's handiwork, as my mom did with ours. Now I get the chance and love it!)





Okay, so this one below is not refrigerator art... it's a yummy cookie that we shared and boy, was it good!! (Not to mention, adorable!)

Crazy Sleeper

Had to post about my crazy little sleeper called my son. I think he gets his crazy sense of sleeping all over the place and rolling around from me, since Kevin sleeps in one space in one pose most of the night and I sleep all over the place. In fact, I remember waking up just last night after rolling over on Kevin and and one point, kicking him! Thankfully, he didn't remember!

On to Stone... I've caught him on film a couple of times and thought it would be fun to post them. The first one, he has a blanket wrapped around his head. Although not as good as our friend Little E, it was quite interesting.... sometimes he scares me when I come in to check on him, as he often will have a blanket wrapped around his neck! Ugh. I always try to "undo" him before I go to sleep..


This second one, look how his leg is just propped up in the air. How in the world is that comfortable? I have to lay on my tummy all sprawled out to sleep. Last night, he was laying on his back with this legs folded underneath him.. ouch! I unfolded the "pretzel" aka Stone, cause it just didn't look comfortable to me!

Turkey Day Adventures

Happy Thanksgiving! Ours has not been very traditional---we've had a good day, just kind of funny. It sort of started last night (Wed.) when my cooking attempts failed terribly. First, I made just a simple chocolate cake and used store-bought icing to have for dessert last night and for over the weekend. The cake turned out fine; however, after I iced it, it decided to fall apart! I have no idea why; maybe I didn't let it cool enough, but we didn't let it's appearance keep us from eating it. Kevin calls it "the snow-capped mountain cake." It still tasted good, even though it looked bad! Ha.. see the picture below.

Then, after I made the cake, I put a steak-roast we had bought in the oven to cook for dinner. This thing looked great--it was steak with cheese, bacon and spinach wrapped up in it. Well, I cooked it, but had no directions as to how long or what temp, so I had to make it up. I cooked it for about an hour, but apparently it wasn't long enough. I had waited until Kevin made it home to cut into it (mistake #2)... he was tied up at work and didn't get home until about 7pm. So, our steak wasn't cooked all the way through and it was getting late. I put the steak back into the oven, and thankfully, we had a grilled chicken breast left over so we ate that instead. Which meant we ate the steak for dinner tonight (thanksgiving). Not your traditional thanksgiving dinner, but it worked. We actually bought a turkey to cook, so we've saved it for tomorrow instead.

This morning, we watched the Macy's T-day parade and Stone got into that for the most part. After the parade, we went over to Kevin's parent's house to retrieve our christmas tree, ornaments and a few decorations (after all, i don't really have much room to put up many decorations).

As we ate dinner, we watched the last few minutes of the Cowboys game (in which they won.. which makes my dad and hubby happy!) Stone even got into the action... see below, as he's wearing his cowboy colors...

Then, we had decided to go ahead and put up our Christmas tree, as Kevin has today and most of tomorrow off. Before dinner, we had taken our tree out of its bag and soon discovered that it was missing a part of the stand...one of the 3 legs was gone. Pain. Why in the world were all 3 legs not in the bag with the tree is beyond me. It was a year ago, so neither one of us could remember. So, I go off to wallyworld to look for another possible stand so we can put up our tree. (Which, I discovered that the best day to go to wallyworld is actually on Thanksgiving night, during the time when most people are eating dinner cause there's nobody there! Wonderful! I hate shopping at wallyworld when I can't get around and then it takes forever to check out.) Anyway, back to my story. I get home, we eat dinner and then we put the tree up. Thankfully, I had remembered to call kevin while at wallyworld to see if all the lights still worked. All but one strand, but other than that, all good. Then, after "fluffing" the tree and putting lights on it, we discover the missing leg!! We have NO idea where it came from. It's our own Thanksgiving miracle!! Ha! Anyway, so now I can take back the other tree stand I bought to hold up the tree. We only got the lights and star put on after all that; we're saving the rest until tomorrow. Stone loved all the lights... here's a pic of him looking at one.

We had a good day, even with the minor flops. We wished we could have spent it with other family members, but we are thankful for all the many blessings God gives us each and every day and especially thankful for each other. We hope everyone out there also had a great Thanksgiving holiday.

The Uncut Version....

What do you get when you cross 2 very tired 2 year olds and a portrait studio? A VERY interesting afternoon!! My SIL and I decided last year that it would be cute to get M and S in their Christmas pj's and get a picture taken. They turned out so cute, so we thought we'd do it again, and keep doing it every year until they get too old. Well, our appt. was this past Saturday and we had to wait an hour! But, we did get some cute pictures out of it. The funniest part, I have to say, is after Gini dressed M in a beautiful little dress for some individual shots. The photographer pulled down the white background and just let M walk around and be herself. Well, after a couple of shots, M got down on the floor and starting rolling/writhing around (like some swim suit model)!! We were ROLLING... it was so hysterical! And of course, she entertained the entire place as well. S on the other hand, was just plain tired, so he was just ready to get out of that place. In fact, at one point while Gini and I were looking at the proofs, M opened the door (to the outside) and they escaped! Gini took off after them and M didn't hardly out the door but S went all the way down the sidewalk!

So here's a slide show of our adventure.... the uncut and unedited version!

New Hair Cut

Been a while since I blogged.. suddenly, I have found myself swamped with things at work and thus, trying also to balance home life with work. Last Saturday, we went downtown again, but first, we took Stone for another hair cut. As you can see in the before and after pictures below, he was over-due! This is not the first time I've blogged about his hair cuts, so you might be wondering what the big deal is. WELL, the big deal is that normally, he SCREAMS and squirms and makes a huge scene when he gets his hair cut. It takes Kevin holding his body down, me holding his head and the stylist holding him too and doing her best to make his hair look half-way decent. But NOT this time! He DIDN'T do all that!!!!! We were so impressed! He got a little fussy and a couple of times I had to hold his head, but that was nothing compared to the past 3 times. AND, he sat in the chair by himself, without Kevin having to hold him down!! Our little guy is GROWING up!! Yeah! I mean, boo... I can't believe he's growing up on me!! :(

BEFORE

AFTER

So, other things to blog about to catch up:

• This past Sunday, I got to speak in church... all 3 morning services. What did I speak about? (And no, I did not preach!) Well, the children's pastor and I basically told people that we needed more people to commit to teaching preschoolers and children during our church's meeting times. The children's pastor (Jeremy) actually preached a sermon and then I just shared my heart and vision for the future of the preschool ministry. I wasn't nervous at all.. which is not like me, so must have been a God thing. Also, I have MUCH more respect for our pastor who has to preach a sermon 3 times in a row... I only spoke about 10 minutes.. can't imagine having to preach a 30-40 minute sermon 3 times in a morning and then coming back in the evening! Exhausting I'm sure! I don't think we really realize how tiring it is to do that, unless you have the opportunity to do something similar.
  
• Also this past Sunday, I got to meet with a few ladies to discuss the Women's Ministry at our church. Very interesting.... how, in the past, nobody has really stepped up to lead this important ministry. We are praying for God to raise up the woman(en) to lead this. I mentioned how much the Mom to Mom ministry has blessed me and would love to help start that.. just so much to think about and organize and I have my hands MORE than full with preschool right now. I do hope that can come about though.
• Kevin's company continues to depress me and make me angry. They keep pulling junk on him.. the latest is that he has to work Saturdays for the rest of the year. He will get "compensated" for these work days (he has to work 6 Saturdays to get 4 extra vacation days) but doesn't get the vacation days until the later half of NEXT year.. WHAT??????????? (We are praying he has a new job before then, which means he won't even get to use those extra days!) ON TOP OF ALL THAT, they've already ruined Thanksgiving and Christmas.. making everyone work right after those dates to do inventory, which means nobody can be off or travel to see family. Kevin's mom's family is having this big reunion thing in MS and we wanted to go, but it's not going to happen. Which again, sticks. Sorry to be negative.. just reality right now.

Guess that's all for now...

Some results...

Had my "upper half" checked out this morning via ultrasound and all is clear. So, definitely a praise! They think it's just dense tissue and not even a cyst. Still working on all the other stuff and the next to tackle is the GI issues. I don't see a GI specialist until Nov 21, but in the meantime, some stronger acid-reflux meds have been helping, although not completely fixing the problem of pain in my stomach/chest area. After a recent conversation with a girl in the Monday night Bible study I attend, I think it could possibly be a hiatal hernia and/or ulcer. So, hopefully all that will be discovered and diagnosed soon. Thanks to anyone/everyone who has prayed!

Saturday mornings

For the past 2 Saturday mornings, we have enjoyed the downtown area. It started with last Saturday when, after trying to decide what to have for breakfast, Kevin said, "We should go downtown and just walk around and get breakfast at one of the coffee places." I said okay (to his disbelief since I like to be lazy on Saturday mornings and hang around the house) and off we went.

What fun we have had! And, of course, being that we're outside, Stone has LOVED it. The first week, the weather was still at that perfect temp---what I call the 70's. Not a cloud in the sky and just perfect. We made our way down to the river, where, to our dismay, Stone decided to take a plunge. Yep, that's right, he ended up in the river! Mind you, this wasn't planned (and for those of you who don't live here, we aren't even allowed to be on the rocks that jut out into the river or be in the river to swim, etc.) Here's what happened... Stone kept pointing at the water and wanting to go near it. Kevin took him down to the water's edge (as you can see from the last picture, the big rocks jut out into the river, so Kevin went out slightly onto the rocks). I was back a little ways with the stroller which had all our stuff and my purse, so I didn't want to stray too far. I was also digging out the camera to take what I thought would be an awesome picture of the 2 of them on the riverbank. Before I could get my act together, I remember yelling at Kevin to watch Stone. Before Kevin could turn around, Stone had walk off the edge of one of the rocks, slipped and fell into edge of the river. He didn't go under (like plunge), just kind of slipped and fell.. enough to get him drenched save for his head. Of course, he started wailing, from the fall and from Kevin picking him up and fast moving him onto the grass. I was upset because now Stone was freezing from the water and because he had his brand new shoes on (which weren't cheap) and they got soaked as well.

Thankfully, there was a public restroom close by and I had a change of clothes. The only thing I didn't have were a change of socks and shoes, so he had to go barefoot the rest of our trip! Ha! He didn't care, he just wanted back into the water. Now, this is the same kid who won't get on the inflatable blow-up things or ride a little caterpillar train ride at the fall festival, but will plunge into a river and the ocean!! Funny kid. This past Saturday, we enjoyed another morning downtown, even though it was a little cooler. The Farmer's Market was there and we also played in some fountains by letting Stone throw some pennies in them. He thought that was cool.

Here are some pics from the first Saturday we ventured out. The first 2 are from him looking out over the river and before the plunge.



After the plunge, barefoot, and at a little children's garden called Linky Stone Park. We thought it was neat that it was named after our little Stone. (not!!)


A picture of the river downtown.

Uniqua! and Farmer? Stone

Tee hee.... How adorable is my niece M? VERY! Her mommy made her an "Uniqua" (I think I'm spelling that right) costume for Halloween. That girl LOVES this costume.. wants to wear it all the time! And of course, she is too cute in it. And, I'll take this time to brag on my SIL and her sewing skills... as I mentioned before, she MADE Mercy's costume! I'm so impressed! You go girl!

Stone, on the other hand, doesn't really want to be bothered with such a thing as a costume. So, my SIL and I thought he could be a farmer or train conductor. With either one, he could wear the overalls and then possibly a hat or something. Well, the overalls were no problem, but getting a hat on him was. So, I guess he sort of was a farmer! Ha!

Anyway, a couple of pics of them from last Saturday when we went to a local downtown fall festival.

Visit from Ma-Ma and Pa-Pa

**side note here, I have posted several posts, so scroll down after this one**

Oh how we LOVE visits from my parents! It's true that I wished we lived just a little closer so we could visit more often, but we take what we can get. Stone is finally getting old enough to recognize them a little quicker and bond with them a little faster each time. My parents came down on my birthday and stayed for about 5 days. My little sis also visited and we had a great time. Plus, it's always nice to be spoiled by them (they took us out to eat a lot and even bought us some clothes!)

Funny story: my parents got a hotel room since our house is so small and since my sister also wanted to visit at the same time. After about 2-3 times of driving up to the hotel to pick up my parents or to go there and hang, Stone would recognize it and say, "Pa-Pa's house." HA! Yeah, I'm sure my dad would love to live in a house that big! Stone really enjoyed my dad this trip... my dad claims that Stone wouldn't have anything to do with him while we went to the beach at the beginning of Sept. I'm not sure about that, but for whatever reason, he loved being with my dad this time. Of course, he also loves his "Pop" so maybe he's in that "bonding with the men in his life" phase. Doesn't bother me.. I'm glad he loves all his grandparents! Here are a few pics..



At the pumpkin' patch with Aunt Kerri

Blowing out candles on my cookie cake.. Stone thought it was for him! It was really for all of us, but had my name on it.

Opening a few presents... he loves T the Train, so this was a real hit!!!!!

I'm Published!!

Finally, after all this time, I get to see the end product of a long labor of love. In Jan. of 06, I got the opportunity to go to L*ifeway for a writer's conference to be a writer for 3rd-4th grade Bible curriculum. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. I had several months to write it, get it to where it needed to be and send it in. Even though I liked this experience and I'm officially published, I much rather write stuff for whichever church I'm serving in at the time. Problem is, I'm usually too busy doing other things to take time to write. Anyway, it was a blessing. HOWEVER, notice in the bottom picture that my last name is spelled WRONG! (missing an "l") I find this very disconcerting since they had my name a hundred times.. in person and through emails. I mean, they even paid me for writing and had to have my name, info, address, etc.! Oh well, a reminder that we are all human and we make mistakes. Thought I'd share my excitement. It's cool to see it all together and with the artwork (that they did, not me).

101th Post

Can you believe I have posted over 100 times? I tribute this post to my SIL's who encouraged me to blog last year. I remember saying, "But I have nothing to blog about." And they said to just blog about anything, everything, my family, etc. Well, I got started and took off with it. I have so much fun posting stuff and reading people's comments, so if you're out there and haven't commented, please feel free! I'd love to hear from you. I also enjoy reading my friend's blogs.. seems like we have a whole "blog community."

So, how do you get your carpet cleaned for free? Well, you first get real stupid and let a traveling salesperson in your door. (Who knew people still did this?) Well, I let that happen today, but got my carpet really clean (I have all the dirt in my trash to prove it) and even shampooed! HA! They kept trying to sell me this $2000 vacuum. I mean, if I had $2000 I would buy a mega-nice digital camera before buying a vacuum. Or pay off some bills. Or take a trip. Anyway, I told them before they even started that 1) we rented, therefore we really didn't have to be completely responsible for carpet in the first place and that this particular carpet was just pieces and we were trashing it when we moved out in a few months and 2) we weren't planning on buying our own house any time soon and 3) that my husband wouldn't agree to spending that much on a vacuum anyway, BUT they insisted on demonstrating. So, I thought getting some housework done for me was not so bad. Do you think there is anyone who travels and does laundry or dishes???

Health issues: yeah, I have them. Not only am I overweight (the obvious) but I've been having some pain in my chest. I have diagnosed myself with either a) cracked rib; b) heart issues; c) cancer. However, my doctor said that it probably wasn't any of those. I then told him that I wanted to know what it was so I didn't think of crazy things it wasn't. I do have a good imagination. So, he thinks it's either gall bladder issues or upper GI like an ulcer. I'm checking into all that. THEN, went to my OBGYN and she is running more tests to determine if I have some kind of syndrome that I can't even pronounce. Basically, I'm not having my monthly like I should and she wants to check into all that too. AND, she found a little lump on my upper half, in which I will have an ultra sound to check that out too. She thinks it's just a cyst, and wasn't too worried. I'm not really worried about all this, but it has been a wake up call. Time to get serious about losing weight and being healthy. Anyone who wants to join me on my quest, please feel free. I'd love the company and encouragement.

So, that's it for this little post...... more to come...

Future Fireman??

Future Firetruck DRIVER is probably more like it! This boy LOVES to be in the driver seat way too much! Here are some pics from this past Sunday. My SIL was out with her little family running errands and drove past a local home improvement store. She called us to tell us that in the parking lot were all these firetrucks, ambulances, police cars, and HELICOPTER! They were parked there so kids (or adults) could climb up in them and explore. So, we took off to see for ourselves. It was a lot of fun for us to watch Stone as he tackled these giant vehicles. We even saw a narcotics police dog, which Stone wanted to pet, but we didn't think it was such a good idea since that dog was pretty big! The coolest thing though, is that the helicopter started up and took off while we were there so we got front row seats to that. Pretty neat, loud, and windy!!


Climbing through one of the firetrucks....

That's one huge wheel!


In front of the helicopter...Help! Police!!

Birthday flowers

This beautiful bouquet of fall flowers greeted me when I came in last night from the church. K claims Stone picked out the flowers! Ha! He said he was going to try and hide it so it greeted me this morning, but seriously, if you knew our house, there isn't anywhere to hide things! I didn't care.. I loved them! The card was from Stone too.. I'm so thankful my 2 year old is so thoughtful for my birthday... hee hee..

Today was a good day. I had to work just an itsy bit, then met my SIL and M at Moes for lunch. My SIL treated for my birthday, which was sweet and the main reason we went there was to give some support to LTBM. Check out their website for more info.. but a pretty cool organization. After lunch, off to nap time.

Then, my parents arrived just before we finished our nap (yes, I took one too!) We met them at their hotel room and then went out to eat at CA Dreaming, yum!! Then, we went back to the hotel room and had a cookie that K got from the store (so I didn't have to make my own!) I then got a call from my friend Jen (childhood friend) and we caught up. So, it was a good day and pretty laid back. Another fun part was that Stone took to my parents pretty quickly this time... he doesn't get to see them that often, so it's nice that he got used to them so fast. He really enjoyed my dad (dad said that when we were at the beach last month, stone didn't have anything to do with him!) And, my little sis is traveling down tomorrow. Oktoberfest has been good so far! Thanks for anyone who has sent birthday wishes!

First 'driveway' chalk drawings....

Well, Stone had used chalk before and made drawings at his GiGi's house on the easel but he hasn't ever had an opportunity to make chalk drawings on concrete.. i.e. sidewalks. Well, these are pictures of drawings on our driveway, since we don't have a sidewalk to our house. Monday, we had a "stay-at-home" day since he has been fighting a cold since Friday. He usually goes to cousin M's house, but she was not feeling well either. So, we stuck it out at home and by dinner time, he was cooped up enough! So, I let him get out and enjoy some fresh air, since it was in the low 80's (what's UP with this weather????? WHERE is Fall?????? but that is a whole other post for another time). Anyway, we had fun!

Then, on Tuesday, we had a "take your child to work" day since he was still not well enough to go to school. Can you believe he lasted for 3.5 hours at the office with me? He's incredible! And then today, he played some with his Pop and then his daddy had him for the rest of the day so I could make up some lost hours at work... K was sick too and ended up going to the doc this morning. He has a sinus infection. I was worried from Stone's coughing this morning that he might have the croup, so got him an appt this afternoon too. Thankfully, just the rest of the cold doin' it's thing. The dr. gave us samples of a very strong cough syrup and it has already helped Stone a lot. Hopefully, he and Kevin will be well soon!!! We are just a bunch of sickys here!


Yep, that is Stone still in his pajamas!!!! We had a pajama kind of day!