Wow! I have not posted in sooooo long! Are you like me? I think each day, "I need to post!" But somehow, I just rarely find the time to sit and do it! The next few days don't promise to be any less busy, so I guess I will take a few moments to give a brief explanation of what's been keeping me out of the blogosphere!
Paul, Tim's brother who was our best man, is coming over the weekend to see us. We have not seen him since about June 2007! This, of course, means non-stop cleaning for the next 48 hours.
Paul
We just recently celebrated Hannah's 5th Birthday! Bad, bad Mommy did not even get a post up for little Hannah Bee! (Her real middle name is 'Faith!') We took her to the Nashville Zoo and had a great day with family. I got a lot of super photos! We had quite a laugh out of the giraffe, who got my vote for funniest animal of the day! We enjoyed the enormous playland they had there, too. The slide was about 3 stories tall! Tim lured me up to the top on the premise of showimg me the view and then shoved me into the opening of the giant winding slide! I thought we would be calling E.M.S. to extract me from that contraption for sure! I nearly got stuck in one of the bends, and if I had, that would have been the end of me, as I am so claustrophobic! I surely would have had a heart attack in there! Can you see them using the jaws of life on a slide?
Micah and the Elephant
Scary three-story-tall fort!
Scary slide of death (well, to everyone but Sam!)
My crew leaving the zoo!
My precious Hannah-Bee on her 5th!
Hannah also had a separate day of joint celebrating with her cousin Lauren who turned 4 just a few days before Hannah turned 5! The usual trek to Chuck E. Cheese's and Build-A-Bear was again the order of this day. Sane people should not try to do C-E-C and B-A-B in the same day!
Lauren and Hannah
Hannah with her newest Build-A-Bear, which she named Hannah MonHannah
We celebrated Halloween with "Cousins United," the inseparable group of five cousins that are like 5 peas in a pod. Sarah and Hannah love every chance they get to be with their cousins Kelsey, Ben, and Lauren. We traveled to Smyrna Halloween night and enjoyed being with Steph and her parents and going Trick-or-Treating there.
Speaking of Cousins United, we enjoyed our day at the Fair with them as well! On this particular day, there was a 6th pea in the pod, as Micah joined us for Home School Day at the Fair!
5 Peas in a Pod
We celebrated my dad's cousin Ray's 70th birthday this last month, too. All of my family came together, and we gave a surprise party for a neat man who loves the Lord a lot! He would not like me to tell it, but he helped my Daniel out when he was first getting out on his own by purchasing him a laptop. It helped him get all the way through the first couple of years of college before Dan wore it out. Ray's son Rick is now battling melanoma. Ray just learned two days after we celebrated that Rick has relapsed. Prayers go out to this wonderfully sweet and caring family!
Ray is at the end of the table, between the black balloons.
We went to my cousin Abby's wedding. The pictures I made did not turn out so well. I cannot wait to see hers! While there, I ran into several folks I have not seen in a while! Some were old friends, and some were family!
Abby and Stephen
Daddy holds Hannah at the wedding
Sarah at the wedding
In other news, we have been following Daniel's Intramural Football team's games. It has been way too cold to go to most of them, because they mostly are played late at night. It has been the coldest November in TN that I can recall in years! They made it into the semi-finals but got defeated Monday night.
My Mom and Dad's beloved chihuahua is due to give birth on or about Thanksgiving! It should make for an interesting Turkey Day!
Dad and "Babe"
Last but not least, we got our bi-annual dental cleanings last week. The only way I can get the kids to go without whining is to promise a McDonald's trip afterwards if they go quietly! Sam picked the three smaller kids up and took them on down to McD's while the Doc finished up on me.
This was the hysterical sight I saw when I got there. I never dreamed Sam would go with them into the deep, dark recesses of Playland! I should have remembered from the zoo trip how he loves slides. Check out the boots in the McDonald's shoekeeper! :) Micah's tennis shoes are even approaching "too big for this playland" status. Now sing with me...."One of these things just doesn't belong here...three of these things are kind of the same...."
These were fun to peruse...and in my perusing, I found two of our members in one of the pictures! Joyce and Howard are sitting next to the birthday boy! Tell me all the connections with you. We knew they went up to Tennessee to see family and now it's all connecting to you!
Wow! I wish I had been there to see you go on the slide - you are getting so adventurous! Hope your visit with Paul goes well tomorrow! We can't wait to see you guys again although I guess it will be after we come back from Florida???? (I have to get copies of your pictures especially cousins united!) Love you guys!
I was glad to see your update and loved the pictures! Your Hannah is really growing up beautifully - it's hard to believe that she is already 5! Hope you post some pictures of the puppies.
I love your posts!! I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who doesn't have enough time to blog lately!! It's nice to catch up with you!! That shoe pic is hysterical!! I love how you just truly enjoy every moment with your kids!!
I remember in the not-too-distant past that the "talking points" in the country centered around the war in Iraq and immigration issues. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, when the first debates happened with about 10 candidates on each side lined up across the stage, the big controversy centered around those two issues. Now, those issues and everything else have been swallowed up in the "financial mess" that has overtaken the nation.
Things are rotten! We "the People" have stepped away from the shop, and the hired help have bankrupted the nation in our absence. We, the People, have stopped caring about much of anything besides acquiring the next material thing which is sure to bring us great joy. We, the People, have stopped worrying about what is moral and just and let the "hired help" define it for us. There is certainly a lot of muck to clean up, and no one is sure just how to do it or even if it can be done.
Within my circle of friends, family members, and brethren, all seem to have the same concerns. We're worried about jobs (and well we should be, since the hired help has allowed them all to be shipped off to other countries.) We're worried about retirement savings. We're worried that states just keep finding ways to expand "gay rights" and abortion, two things Christians know that God has zero tolerance for! Were it not for His long-suffering, we would surely be toast by now!
I spend a lot of time thinking about what a Christian's response to all of this should be. What can we DO that is positive and helpful to the situation at hand?
While I realize that God is in control, I don't think it is a Christian's place to just sit back and do nothing when we see all the evil around us. We need to do what we can to teach everyone we can about God's attitudes towards sin and not back down in our positions just because they are not popular or "politically correct." We need to not be bullied by those around us with a different, liberal political and social view. We have just as much right to be moral and conservative with our values, and there is no reason to apologize for our beliefs.
We can get out there right now and vote early. We never know what might happen on election day that could prevent us from getting to the polls to vote, and this freedom certainly needs to be exercised now more than ever. The weather may be awful, or the kids may have a virus on Election Day, etc., etc. Why take a chance and waste a vote? It makes me cringe to hear that Democrats are out early voting 2 to 1 over Republicans! What is the matter with us?
Of course, we can also pray for this nation, and we need to do that now more than we ever have, if we care anything about our freedom. God is withholding His wrath against this nation for the sins that we have allowed to permeate our civilization. We need to pray diligently that He will give us more time to work, and then we need to get to work!
We need to "talk it up!" Some of us have no problem going down the phone book calling everyone we know for fundraisers for the kids or other causes we care deeply about. But we will never call our friends and urge them to get out and vote, or take action on some piece of legislation that is going before our legislatures to legalize more sinful behaviors! If all of us who are "decent, moral people" don't start demanding that our elected officials start taking the moral high ground rather than dragging this civilization down into the pit of moral decadence, then pretty soon, we are not going to have a country left to take back!
Remember those 10 little words:
If it is to be, it is up to me!
I don't know who will win this election. I am having a really hard time picturing "President Obama." I know that, whatever happens, God will have His will done. What is more important now is that God's children stand up and make their voices as loud as the voices of godless men and try to restore at least some of the values we once held as a nation.
Amen!! Thanks for saying that, Dana. I had been "planning" on doing early voting but after reading your post I grabbed my voter's reg. card and headed to the polls. And, since my husband was off work today, he went, too.
Well, with the Nursing, as soon as I got home from work, my clothes went directly into the wash and I cleaned up before anything else. :) As for the bait, I usually went with a male relative and roped them into baiting the hook for me or else I used a lure. he he
Amen & thank you for your post on my pleo. You really have to go out of your comfort zone to speak out, and I have had some hateful comments from time to time. But this is one of the sacrifices that we make for God. Fighting the spiritual warfare takes a lot of strength to stand up for Jesus. I'm so glad that you posted this. Joe found a website this morning that just had him sick. It was Christians for Obama. They said, that the reason they can't vote for McCain is because he cheated on his wife, and God say's that adultry is a sin. They said they can vote for Obama becasue the bible no where says Abortion is wrong. Does that not just make you sick, God is a patient God or a whole lot of people would find themselves struck by lightening.
Thanks for the comment, Dana! Actually, it was Ben's birthday on the 12th. Andy will be 20 in February, Lord willing. Hope all is well with you and your wonderful brood!
O.k., o.k.! I have been resisting getting this done, because it is hard to think up 8 things about myself that might be the least bit interesting. Oh well, here goes.
1. I was born on the very day that Marilyn Monroe died--same day, same year. That pretty well disproves the theory of reincarnation!
2. I have lived in 5 different states in my life...TN, FL, NM, SC, and NJ., and I have moved 14 times in my 46 years of life, if I counted correctly. These are moves where all my earthly goods went with me. Incidentally, the order of the states above is not only the order in which I lived in them, but it is also the order of preference, from the most-loved to the least-liked!
3. I love going barefooted. I would go that way all the time, if society did not frown upon it so much, and if my feet would stand up to the different surfaces! I hate crumbs on the floor, because my feet are sensitive. So, vacuuming is one chore I usually keep up with!
4. In my life, I have had several careers. I have been a Driver's License Examiner, an Accounts Receivable clerk, a yogurt shoppe employee, an Adult Basic Education teacher, a secretary at a college, and a tombstone saleslady. Next to my current profession as a Wife/Mother/Homeschool Teacher, the latter career was the best fit and the most fulfilling. I sold monuments for nearly 10 years and loved every minute of it.
5. I have really developed the hobby of photography and amateur movie-making in the last few years, with the help of my wonderful hubby who has encouraged my talents and bought me some wonderful equipment to work with. I just got through making a film for my brother on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the returning soldiers for a conference he is doing. Hubby wants me to go professional, but I rather enjoy keeping it less that way.
6. I am an enthusiastic and proficient online shopper! I had much rather pick out things from the comfort of my computer chair than walk miles in stores and waste precious gas money only to find out that what I went for is out of stock! Since my boys wear very odd-sized clothing, I have much more luck finding sizes online! And you cannot beat Amazon's deals around Christmas time on the toys! I make good use of online coupon sites and rebate sites to save big bucks!
7. That being said, I love to scavenge at the Goodwill brick and mortar stores and other neat second-hand stores. I love a bargain any way that I can find it, and I have found some awesome things in Goodwill stores. Just last week, I found two pairs of pants for the boys with tags still on them for 50 cents a pair! I love to shop on Mondays when they have the 50 cent sale and on the days when they give a double discount (additional 20% off) with a "Smart Card," another discount card I get every year through the schools which provides discounts at local area stores and restaurants. Wow! I said "discount" as many times as the candidates said "Joe the Plumber!"
8. My mother had 5 kids and I had 5 kids! Neither of us expected to have that many! She thought she was stopping at 4 and got twins the last time, and I thought I was stopping at 3 boys, and I ended up getting 2 girls in the Summer of my life! I don't think my mom or I would take anything for each one of our children, though sometimes we have had to think hard about it when they are in the 7th and 8th grade!
Well, that was not too hard! I would quickly like to add on something that a few have been doing, and take the time to list 8 things I am especially thankful for:
1. I am so grateful to live in this country. I am not just saying that. Make a film about war, and you will quickly come to count what we take for granted as very special.
2. I am grateful to have a very loving, forgiving, "the-ground-is-level-at-the-foot-of-the-cross"-understanding family of brethren in my local body of the Lord's church. Having peace and love in the local church is a wonderful blessing!
3. I am so thankful for family. No family is perfect, and all families have some rough times. I know, however, that if I get into anything over my head, and I am sinking in the quicksand, there are going to be multiple hands reaching to pull me out. You are fortunate if you can count your close friends on one hand. Some of my best friends are in my family.
4. I am thankful for my husband. He has been God-sent in every way. He is unique, special, mysterious, and talented. He makes me laugh harder than anyone ever has. He is the most superb daddy you have ever seen, and he is an awesome step-dad, too. He is so talented at what he does. (He's an Information Security Officer.) He's managed to keep his company safe for 10 years without a major security incident. Anyone who knows about how hard that is in these times can appreciate the job he has done. But the thing I am most proud of is that he is a truly good man and an excellent Christian who won't compromise the truth, even when it is hard.
5. I'm grateful for the many provisions of life we take for granted too easily. A week without readily-available fuel or a snow event in Tennessee which produces mass bread and milk shortages is enough to jar me back into the reality that we are all so truly blessed.
6. I am grateful for friends, who are spread all over this country and the world. Friends are like the ability to see color versus just seeing in black and white. God didn't have to provide color in the world, or taste in our food, or friends. All of them, however, add so much joy to our existence here.
7. I am thankful to be able to have free speech to say all these things when and where and how I want!
8. I am grateful that Jesus was willing to die for me and that I have the hope of something that is even more wonderful than all the things listed above!
I tag you, you, you, you, you, you, you, and you and everyone else on my friends' list who has not been forced to do this yet!
I'm there with you on the barefoot thing. I hate shoes. Interesting about the monument sales! I think it would be a rewarding job to help people create something so lasting to honor a lost loved one. I remember buying the stone for my husband and me. It was a rough day but the lady was very patient and had good ideas.
Hmmm...I didn't know #1. How did I miss that? Enjoyed ChuckE.Cheese with you guys yesterday and we'll be counting the hours till Tuesday and more cousins united! :-)
What a great post! I loved learning all of these things about you, and I LOVED hearing all the positive things you are so thankful for. It made me smile, and made me thankful also. I found your 2nd favorite job very interesting. I imagine it must of been very satisfying, helping people put their loved ones to rest, when you really think about it. That would be a really rewarding job.
Grateful is good!! I posted some of the bows that I make on my pleo page. If you know anyone who buys bows for their girls would you send them to my page! Thanks!
I love your list! I love going barefoot, too. And thinking of your "tag-I'm it" entry line, reminds me of being a kid and playing tag past dark w/barefeet, that grass gets really cold. #4 doesn't surprise me since it seems like you can do about anything. I liked your thankful list. Don't know what I'd do without God's blessing of family and friends and provisions (#5). (And, I'm from IL so I had no idea what a snow event was until I moved to the South.)
I agree with the barefoot thing, too. I even kicked my heels off under the table at my wedding reception and went barefoot. (hopefully no one could see my bare feet underneath the dress)
Hi, I'm his wife. He doesn't check his blog very much. Where do you live in TN? My dad went to MTSU and most of my relatives live in Murfreesboro. We go there once or twice a year. I guess you used to live out here?
We live in Edgewood, NM about 30 miles outside of Alb. Frank's family lived in Belen and Albuquerque for many years. Now they also live out here in Edgewood as do my parents. Where do you attend services at in Murfreesboro?
Frank's cousin is Ernie, and they do live in Belen. Ernie's brother is Mark, parents are Barbara and Ernie. I think Frank's family was also there in 90. I'm going to OK City today for a craft show. My dad is getting ready to come out to TN to visit his parents. I might be able to swing it in Nov., but he probably doesn't want to drive.
It's past midnight now, and Tuesday was a busy day! My dear hubby celebrated his 47th birthday, and we watched the second debate of the Presidential candidates live from Nashville! It turned out not to be the most exciting way to spend a birthday, but we had fun anyway! I was sorely disappointed in the "debate" and in the moderator (Tom Brokaw.) They all three sounded like broken records to me...Obama and McCain with their memorized speeches and Brokaw with his incessant whining about how much time they were taking to answer the questions. I hate this "town hall" format and thought the first debate was so much better. I say let them have free reign to have 90 minutes to go at it with no big interruptions and let them have at least 5 minutes at a time to answer each other's points. What do the moderators expect when they ask a complicated question and give them 60 seconds to answer? Sometimes I think the whole world has gone "stupid!"
At any rate, Tuesday is a bad day to have a birthday. Tim did not even bother to take the day off, though his boss promised him he could take it another day. He was even a tad late, which gave us more time to get the "party" together. The girls and I made some neat art projects for him, and Daddy got some new clothes and accessories for his ever-shrinking wardrobe. He is down about 12 inches in the waist and 110 lbs. from this time last year! So some new belts were definitely in order!
Happy Birthday to my favorite Pleonast lurker--my love and my life!
It's 1:05am and I have insomnia so let me be the first say you creativness is amazing and Happy Birthday to Tim and now I know that I'm older than him.
Instructions: Post eight random facts/habits about yourself. Choose eight others to "tag", and include the guidelines in your post. Let your "taggees" know that they've been tagged! i tagged you!! :)
Happy Birthday to Tim!!!!! Love the scrapbook layouts! Awe have a wonderful new year with the man of your life! And Congrats on the weight loss TIM!!! Way to go! I've got to get it together and get rid of this extra weight also!! He is so encouraging to ME!!!
Tim didn't happen to be in Crossville, Tenn. on Monday did he? If not, I saw someone that looked very much like him. We were passing through on our way back from Mo. and stopped at a Cracker Barrel and I almost went up to this guy and asked him his name, but decided against it.
Thanks so much Dana - I hope Tim had a good birthday too! I loved the car decoration job and thought it was a very creative idea and a very tedious job. I was so sorry to hear about Daniel and Jenn's break-up but at least it's good that you're close enough for frequent visits during this difficult time.
