The Many Faces of Bowling!!

Well, we had some bowling passes that were going to expire the end of the year, so we went and bowled 4 games as a family Monday morning. Yeah for Daddy being on vacation. We Had a lot of fun and best of all, aside from a few groups of children from daycares, the place wasn't busy. We had a great time. We also had some fun with the camera while we were there, so without further adieu, here are the many faces of bowling-
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Dad just starting out:

Anna and Dad:

Dad after his thrid strike in a a row (You turkey!):
Me after Dad's third strike in a row:

Dad cheering me up See how impressed I am?):

My bowling pose:

Anna being my little drama queen:

Fishy lips Anna:

High five after Anna got a spare:

Wearing thin in game three:

You know bowling shoes were made for tap dancing, right mom?:

Anna's bowling pose:

We had a great time and we will go again some day, but not for more than two to three games in a row. By the end of the thrid game we were all dragging, but we had coupons for 4 free games a piece, so we had to use them all. It was a lot of fun. Dad will have a video posted about this, but her says not until January 5th. Ugh! You will have to wait till then to see all the pictures, but it is a very neat video too. Go watch it, if you remember by then. LOL!! God bless you all. Thanks for sharing in our fun day.

Growing Up

As I was sitting here tonight playing games and editing my blog, Anna and Daddy were watching a movie. I sat and listened to Anna giggle and I realized how VERY quickly my baby girl is growing up. She is 7 already and she is getting so big. There are no baby things in our house. There is just the things of a big girl. She is even slowly out-growing her princess themed bedroom and moving on to a horse and stable themed room. How can this happen so fast. It seems like just yesterday she was 2 years old and we were bringing her home. It seems like I will lose my baby anytime with her growing up so fast. Anyhow, I guess that's all a part of being a mom. I just want her to stay little for a while longer. Where is my baby girl going?

Christmas

A little late, but here is our Christmas in pictures and words.

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Listening to the Christmas Story

(The True Meaning of Christmas):

Anna made a card out for Jeremy and I

She was very excited to give it to us!!

Anna got a handmade blanket from my mom.

She was very excited about it:

See!! It HAD to be on her bed for nap time:

Anna with her horse that Santa brought her:

As you can see, we had a nice Christmas. It was small, but good. Anna loved getting the blanket from my mom. She was so excited and absolutely loves to sleep with it on her bed. My grandmother used to make me blankets too and I still have them. Her favorite gift besides that, has got to be her horse. It is a big horse. She still wants a REAL black horse though. LOL!! That faze may never pass. A real live horse is just not in the budget. Sorry kiddo. Anna also got a bunch of clothes (which she really needed), a set of Lego's, a few drawing things, and two books. She was very happy with what she got and she never seemed to notice that we down-sized big time this year. :) I was glad for that. Next year will be much the same. It was nice not going broke for Christmas. Oh and in case you are wondering, I got a watch, a multi-opening picture frame, a CD and Fireproof pre-buy and book. I will get to pick that up on the 27th. YEAH Me!! That was of course from Anna and Jeremy. We had a really good Christmas. Hope you all enjoyed yours as well.

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Oh and I spared you the pictures. We had like 200 plus, just from Christmas Day!! LOL!! You got 5. If you want to see them all, head on over to my husband's blog, I think he has a video. Well, I guess that's all for now. Take care and God Bless.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

That's all for now. I hope you family has a blessed Christmas today and I will be back to share our days blessings later. Remember the reason we celebrate Christmas...not Santa Claus, but Jesus' birth. Merry Christmas everyone and God Bless!!

Work Ethic

Well, I have decided that there are not enough good people at my job with good work ethic. I know my job and I know it well. For the most part, I think I do my job well. Don't get me wrong, I do have some off days every now and then, but I do know my stuff. What I am getting at here is WHERE is the work ethic in most people. They do a mediocre job and think all is well. Well, if all is well, then why I am I working my tail off to pick up your slack? I get no recognition for my work. NONE!! I am tired of working in a place where sub-standard work is ok. Why aren't we held to higher standards anymore. Is it okay in society if the doctor gave you sub-standard care? NO, so why do we accept sub-standard work from most people and think this is okay? I was raised to do your job and do it well. I was taught to know my product in the store and know where to look for things. I was taught that you will be rewarded for a job well done, but my question now is WHEN??? I have been completely be-littled and called high-strung too many times this week for wanting to do my job and the job at the store where I work correctly!! YES, God forbid I want to do my job right!! That makes me high-strung. UGH!! What has this world come to? We are way to accepting of the way society has let things become. I am thinking it is time for me to move on and get another job soon. My time at this nice place is coming to a close. I want to go somewhere where my work is appreciated. I want to go somewhere where they value people for doing things right. I want to go somewhere where they do no accept sub-standard work from people and where they make everyone hold to the correct standards. If it is done right, then it must be done right by everyone. We shouldn't let people slack off because they have a great sense of humor or because of who their mom or dad is. We shouldn't accept mediocre service from a place because that's become the acceptable norm. We should expect better. ALWAYS!!!

As you can tell, I had a lousy night at work. This actually makes two nights in a row now and I am tired of things the way they are, so I am going to have to look elsewhere. Being called "high strung" for wanting to do the job right is not something I look forward to and I am beginning to not enjoy my work place. How can this be acceptable? OH and its the other employees as well as our assistant manager. I am apparently hated at my place of work and it has to be time to move on. If you read my blog today, then thanks for sticking with me. I needed to vent. I wonder if I should put this on my bosses desk tomorrow?? Do you think it would matter? Maybe ditch the header and make sure it had no references to me, do you think he would care? OK, maybe the store manager would give half a care, but the others, they wouldn't give a darn!! Sorry, done with gripe session now!! I pray that God shows me what to do in this situation. There has to be a better way for me to earn some income. There has to be. Pray for God to open the right doors for me and allow me to find a new opportunity in life. Thanks all.

Happy Anniversary Honey!!!

Well, as you guessed from the title, today is our Anniversary. Yes, smack dab in the middle of the Christmas season. Isn't that the best place to have it? Okay, so maybe we didn't plan the wedding details right, but I wanted a Christmas wedding. LOL! I wasn't thinking of the future at the time when we have kids and need to worry about other things at that time of year, but it was a nice wedding. Ok, back to our Anniversary. It is our 9th Anniversary. We have been married for nine years now. So, Happy Anniversary Honey! Hope you enjoy the work Christmas party tonight, as that's our anniversary dinner. LOL!! I love you!!

Good Christmas Pictures?

Well, in an effort to save money, which I doubt we did, we printed our own Christmas pictures this year. I wanted to get just the right picture, so we dressed Anna up in Christmas pajamas and lit the tree lights and tried for every to get the perfect pictures. On the way, there was a lot of this type:

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Are we done yet?

Cheesy Smile! This will work, right?
You want me to do what?

I'm tired of taking pictures!!

Now, don't get me wrong.

we got some cute ones along the way, like these:

But it wasn't quite what I wanted to send out on our Christmas cards, so we kept going. About an hour later, I finally got the picture I wanted:

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Now, isn't that a very cute adorable picture? I love it!! It is so Anna and it suits her and me just fine. I just can't believe we had to take pictures for an hour to get this. Oh well, you do got to admit that it is a good picture. Even I was stunned that it turned out so good. So for those who never got our Christmas card, this was the picture we sent out with it. I loved it and it turned out very cute. Merry Christmas everyone!! (Don't worry, I will post more before then.)

The Dog House

Here is a cute video about being in the dog house. Please watch it. It is extremely funny!! I laughed so hard!! Enjoy!!

The Nutcracker

On Wednesday night, we had an opportunity to go to Ballet Lubbock's The Nutcracker!! It was a lot of fun and it was the second year for Anna and I to get to go. We get free tickets from Anna's ballet class. This year, Daddy got to go with us. Here are a few pictures from the night-

Standing next to the TALL Nutcracker:

Hiding Behind the Program:

There, that's better:

As you can see, we had a good time. Anna had a new shirt bought with a gift card from a nice store that I never shop at. It was very nice and the perfect color for her. We had a great time and it was a lot of fun. We hope to go next year, but we will have to buy our own tickets. I don't think Anna wants to take Ballet again.

Last Ballet Class

Yesterday was Anna's last ballet class. I will post pictures of it at the end, but she did so much better this year than last year. she mostly knew what she was doing and stayed with the other kids. It was very cute. They danced to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Very cute. It was funny though, because as I was getting her ready for her last class, she said, "This is my last ballet class, right mom?" I responded with, "Yes, this is the last one, but we can sign you up for more classes in January." Her response was an un-resounding, "YES!!!" I think she was glad it was over. I really don't care if she continues with ballet, but I do want her to go to some sort of classes to learn some structure. Especially since we homeschool. I feel it is important to learn listening skills and classes outside the home are a good way to do it. Anyways, that's it. She did well and class is over.

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Sitting with Daddy before class:

At the bar:

Practicing Moves:

Too Priceless:

When a jump didn't go quite the way she wanted, we were left with this picture. It was very cute, even though she says it was embarrassing. Yes, we talk about embarrassing stuff a lot lately. It was fun!! Stay tuned tomorrow for highlights from the big ballet!!

Polar Express

You know, the book, the movie and the fun train ride? We went on Sunday night with Grandpa and Grandma, Aunt and Uncle and three of the cousins! It was great!! Everyone had a great time. There was a reading of the Polar Express book and then we arrived at the "North Pole" and Santa and his elves got on the train. It was so cute and so much fun. We got pictures with the conductor, the elves, Santa, and one of the hostesses, dresses in white and black of course like the movie. It was fun. The kids received a bell from Santa and they had a cookie and a little hot chocolate. It really was a very fun time. I may have a picture or two, so let me get them and I will post more when I get them from my brother, our camera died unfortunately part way through the ride.

I am sure this one speaks for itself:

Waiting to board the train:

On the train with Daddy

(too much going on, getting her to look at me was difficult):

All 4 kids in their pajamas:

The hostesses

(also singers and entertainers):

The Conductor:

As you can see we had a great time. It was so much fun. We hope to go back again next year. I know I would definitely think its worth it now!! The kids looks as we arrived at the North Pole was priceless. I am so glad we had the opportunity to go. Thank you Grandma Renea and Grandpa John!! We LOVED it!!

It Could Be Worse

Well, today I took Anna to the Doctor. I know, I know. She has not been sick. She has really bad hands. I mean bad as in dry. Super dry!! They have been aching, er, uhm, I mean "stinging" her, really bad. They were even changing colors and it made me worry that they might be infected. So, after 3 weeks of trying different soap, zinc oxide, neosporin, lots and lots of lotion, and numerous other things, it was off to the doctor we went today. The diagnosis: She washes her hands too much. Yes! You read that right. My 7 year old washes her hands too much. LOL!! He prescribed some steroid cream to help clear it up and then said no more antibacterial soap for her at all. She is only to use Dove unscented for sensitive skin. She is also to use Eucerin or Aveeno cream after every hand-washing. UGH!! So, we got the prescription and she is fine with it. I couldn't believe that was my daughter's diagnosis. Too much hand-washing. Like I said, it could be worse!!

On an up side, the clinic I have been taking her to has finally decided that she needed a primary care doctor there after 2 years!! YEAH!! So, she will start seeing a regular doctor at the follow-up visit in 3 weeks. I hope I like her, she is supposed to be good. I just want Anna to be treated nice.

A Young Girl

I have a young girl on my mind and she has been there since yesterday sometime. This young girl came in to the store and was just minding her business shopping when a regular man comes in and asks her a question. He always asks questions about Bible stuff, so I have no doubt that is what it was. She apparently didn't like his answer and asked him to prove it. He told her it was in the Bible, but maybe couldn't tell her where. (I wasn't standing there the whole time.) This girl was only about 13-14 I am guessing. Anyhow, she told him that he couldn't prove his point and he told her that he did, it was in the Bible. I am not sure what the point being argued was, as I was busy working, but I am concerned and would like people to pray for this young girl and pray that she does not turn off Jesus because of this one man being foolish. He is a large and intimidating man and he has pulled this on me. I don't argue with him though I usually just walk away. She felt the need to argue back her point. Anyhow, when she left, he said "That's whats wrong with young people these days, they don't know how to read the Bible." UGH!! I am 32 years old and I never read my Bible faithfully until recently. I knew what I was supposed to do, but to many people, myself included, the Bible is intimidating. I can read it alright, but to read a truly understand is a different story. There are a LOT of things I don't know, but I can tell you this much, intimidating me in front of people and asking me things will only turn me off more if I was that young girl. I am asking that you all pray for this girl and pray that this is not a negative experience with the Word. I am asking you to pray that this is not the point that completely turns her away. That's all. He should never have done that and it was very sad for me to walk over at various points and still hear them going. She was a very brave young girl and I feel that this kind of negative experience can turn her off. It would have turned me off at 13 or 14, in a heart beat. Pray for this girl, that's all. Thanks and God bless.

Sad Day!

I thought Black Friday was set up for deals, but with a shooting in California and a death and injuries in New York, is it really worth all that? I mean good grief. It is so sad. I did NOT venture out at 4am or 5am for anything. There was nothing worth it to me. Besides that, I was set to work early yesterday and that would have made me extra tired. This just shows how over the top people get for STUFF! Yes, STUFF!! None of that is worth it in the end. It made me extra grateful that we are clearing out stuff and keeping important things, like pictures and family videos. Those things are important and will always be there. Toys for your kids, video games, movies, the latest clothes. YEAH, all that is nice, but it all amounts to just stuff. People here locally know I have been clearing out our STUFF!! After years and years of accumulating, something hit me a few years ago and I have gotten rid of a lot of it. There is no need to keep things forever. Someone else can make use of it. I have either sold it on Craigslist or gave it away on Freecycle. Both are great for clearing out stuff. What doesn't go this way, goes to charity. I am only part way done what I set out to start, but I feel better every time I give away more. But this feeling of not accumulating things we will not use or just to be bigger and better than whoever is gone from my spirit. Yes, we still get toys, but when I notice others not being played with for months on end, I pass them on. When I find something in the closet that hasn't been worn in years, I pass it on. Why hoard all this stuff that you really won't use. We always have what we need, but I try to not have a whole bunch of extras. Keeping up with the Smith's or the Jones' is not for me. Anyways, back to my original reason for posting, it saddens me that people have to die on what was supposed to be a fun day, for stuff. Yes, it all amounts to just things and none of them, YES none of them are worth a person's life. No matter what. I pray for the families of all those who died. For the reasons they died is greed and the families have to live with that forever. It was a sad day yesterday to catch that in the news. Very sad.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a good day today. Slept till 7:30am, yes, this IS sleeping in. We lazed around a bit, had breakfast. Jeremy cooked two pumpkin pies and then we went to his mom's for the traditional Thanksgiving feast: ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, corn, green beans, yams, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pies, etc, etc. There was more than that, but that's all I can remember right now. It was delicious! We stayed and visited for a while; I met Jeremy's half sister, who in the 15 years I have known him, I had never met until today; we ate and ate and then it was time to head home. At home I did three loads of laundry today, we sat and rested, for a short time and we took the pictures that we will be sending out for everyone of Anna. (I'll blog about this more another time-she was a mess.) We then sat and watched Wall-E. It is a cute Disney movie, but now that I've seen it once, I can say I have seen it and I'm done. LOL!! We will not be buying that to add to the collection this time. I save that for extra special ones. Anyhow, I finally got Anna in bed for just after 10pm. That's it, that was our Thanksgiving in a nutshell. How did you all fair? Anyone getting up for the special deals tomorrow morning? Not I! I work tomorrow and there wasn't a deal out there that I had money for that I wanted to get, so, not going until work. YEAH me! Okay, enough idle chatter from me. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. God bless!

Who Would Have Thought?

What do you think she is concentrating so hard on? I mean seriously, we are on a break! What would make her think so hard.

Ok, here's a hint. It has something to do with this bowl of mulit-colored Goldfish. YUM! Made you hungry, didn't I?

Ok, Ok, I will tell you, but first, think about it. Seven year old girl, on break from school and a bowl of multi-colored Goldfish...hmmmm!!!

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You spell your name out of course!!

See, she's proud of her work!! Got you going, didn't I?Who can resist a cute face like that!? Not me!! I love that face to pieces!!

Overheard at my House:

Mom: What are you doing Anna?
Anna: Studying Words
Mom: What kind of words?
Anna: The words in my book.

Ok, that conversation was one between Anna and I yesterday. It didn't seem to matter that we are off school for the week. She is studying words. LOL!! Smart girl!!

Week Off!!

YEAH!! We are taking the week off!! I am so happy for some much needed down time. School is fun and structured, but we needed some down time. I am glad we are taking the week off. I just wish I could be off work all week too and still get paid. LOL!! So far, I have done dishes, which I need to do again because we had breakfast and lunch; and laundry, which by tonight there will be another nice stack. I have also posted a few things to sell and I am trying to basically sit and relax, but sitting still for me is not easy. I have more fun shopping! Now, if only I could sell those few things, then maybe I could shop. LOL!! I guess that's it. Just wanted to stop in and let you know that we are off school for the week. Take care.

Reading, Writing & Math

Well, Anna is REALLY reading well. She was in the dining room yesterday and I could hear her sounding out "Reese's Peanut Btter Cups." It was really cute to listen to. She absolutely loves to read and recently discovered that she can read alot of the books on her shelf and not just her "reading" book. She is so pleased with herself when she figures it out.

Writing is getting better. She is learning how to sound out words and write down the sounds she hears and is even getting some of the vowel sounds in there. It is very cute to watch her write too. She wrote about Thanksgiving the other day and here is what she wrote:

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving..."becus i lic Grames trce." Translated to because I like Grammy's turkey. She picked Thanksgiving because it is on our school calendar and she could copy it. The rest was all her. She is very clever.

Math, well that's a different story. she is getting some of it, but slowly. She can count and she is good with shapes and number of sides, angles, etc. She can do most, but has trouble with least/fewest. she can subtract and even do some of that in her head, she can add with 0, but we struggle with 1 and MUST draw pictures with anything past 1. She is having a hard time with ordinal numbers as well. That is the issue. All the homeschool curriculum's we have come across really are going WAY to fast in math. I bought a second program a few weeks ago thinking it was slower and better suited to her needs, but we hit the brick wall again. I am having to make my own worksheets until we pass this gray area. I am very glad I know how. Is there a program for math that really captures them that I can afford to get? I am not sure. For right now, I will continue to make worksheets and practice a little bit of our trouble areas everyday without pushing it and hopefully after Christmas it will hit and we can keep going. This is really our only struggle.

I really love homeschooling and I am glad we chose to do so. She has learned so much and we can work on struggling areas a little bit at a time and then move on. We can also advance in areas she is doing well, so it won't hold her back. She loves being able to do school and then we can go experience life in the real world. She is so smart and receptive to a lot of things. I don't think I will have it any other way for a while. God has richly blesses us in this area.

Update on Mom's Disability

Just wanted to let you all know that we have heard from the judge and disability and the judge says my mom IS qualified and has been qualified since her doctor first put her on disability in Feb of 2007. I also got to read all the doctors reports that they received and there really is no way she should have been turned down the first or even the second time after seeing their doctors reports. BOTH of their doctors stated her disabilities and why. It should have been a slam dunk then, but for some reason they denied it that second time and we went all this way through appeals. Anyhow, She is approved and now we wait for money to start coming in. Hallelujah!! This was much needed this week. Thank you all for your prayers. I am so glad that things are starting to come through.

Christmas Time is Here!

Christmas time is here! Well, it hit our house anyways! Our trees are up, the stocking are up, but I need to find one more matching one for my mom. We are getting the icicle lights out of the storage shed and putting them up outside. (We had no where to put them last year.) The train will be up today sometime and then I was thinking about putting lit Garland on the fence ledge today. We'll see. I love all the things like this for Christmas. I absolutely love to see all the lights. No doubt we had some issues with our tree lights, but I rectified that. Anna got a pink tree several years ago and we put it up yesterday afternoon. Our tree was decorated last night when I got home from work. Here comes some pictures, of course!

Anna's Pink Tree:

Our Tree:

(Needs a different picture, like Anna's, so we can see the lights)

A Quick Family Picture:

The family picture actually wasn't half bad, now if can just coordinate it a bit better and dress up, I will have our Christmas pictures. LOL!! :-)

Lesson Learned, but Why?

Ok, my lesson is learned. My daughter for some reason can not tell me when she is full. She is too busy trying to please and when I said eat all her lunch (because I wasn't thinking clearly and served my 7 year old the same size lunch as myself) she tried to eat it all and made her self sick. Yes, sick. She shoved so much food in her mouth at one time that she physically made her self throw up. She gagged herself. Why can she not just say she is full. UGH! So, after she did that 3 times(small amounts), she was fine the rest of the day. If she would have said she was full, I would have pulled the plate, but she never said anything and is so big on pleasing people. She spent 40 minutes after that playing in the bath tub, then watched a movie and then played fine the rest of the day. We had a pillow fight, she played with her toys, she ate some supper. Everything was fine. Got me. I just wish she would use her words. I talked to her and told her that if she was full, she needed to tell me so we could take care of it. I don't want to have to clean that up again.

After that mess, I relocated a bookshelf, vacuumed up the gross mess where the bookshelf once was and all the dead flies on the window sills. That's what I get for locating shelves in front of the bottom part of my windows. Not sure they are going back there. I also relocated, for the 4th time in 2 months, Anna's toys. We are making room in the living room for our Christmas tree!! It is time ladies and gentlemen for our tree to go up and all our Christmas decorations!! YEAH!! I am so excited about this. I love our tree and I love Christmas lights!! I can't wait to put them up again. This has been a long process in the making. We have rearranged and sold and gave away a bunch of stuff to ensure that our tree could go up. I am so happy!! I will post pictures of it, if I ever get that far!! :-) The good part is now I have the space.

Well, I better go for now. Time to get ready and do school for the day. That is of course AFTER Anna decides to wake up. Have a great week all and God Bless!!

True Meaning of Christmas

Christmas Time already? Well, not quite, but almost. Christmas is like my all time favorite holiday. I love all the lights! I love the music! I love the tree! (After all the work is done) I love spending time with family! I love Christmas in general. What I don't like is how commericalized Christmas has become. Its all about the bigger and better presents. What happened to simplicity. I was reading one of my message boards recently and absolutely loved the idea from one of the ladies on there. I am going to copy and repost a modified version of it here:

We do Santa.. but now only on small scale due to the premise of " naughty list." (Items deleted here to protect her kids) According to Santa and all the songs about him he gives according to how " good " you are. Santa only does stockings at our house. We as our kids parents give our kids Christmas gifts because of Love and Grace.. not because the kids are good. In this we hope to show the gift of love to our kids even when they don't " deserve" it just like God gave us the gift of salvation when we didn't deserve it either. This is a lesson that I had to learn because my son cannot change so I have to change my thinking. I was quite frustrated with my child's (changed) issues around Christmas when I thought about being naughty.. and Santa etc.. and would get upset because he/she really didn't "deserve" to get the big gifts from Santa... but then it came on my heart that I didn't deserve it either and what right did a worldly fictional character have to take away the grace and Love that God already gave him/her.

I know she was referring to her kids, but what I really liked was her take on it all. (Her kids have issues that they can not help. They were born with them.) Santa is okay, but doing just a stocking from him means all the children receive. Kids should receive gifts from their parents. I know we too have gone WAY overboard with this gift giving concept (Santa and us), but I am not liking it now. They come to expect it. We have scaled back for the last few years and we are scaling back again this year. My daughter is going to be surprised when she realizes how scaled back we are going this year. I think the best part of the writers topic is how she relates gift giving to the way God gave us his son Jesus to die on the cross. Now, isn't Jesus really the whole meaning for the season. It shouldn't be about getting, but giving. I hope I can clearly get this through to my daughter. We are scaling back for many reasons, but seriously, I want her to understand the meaning behind Christmas and understand truly that it is about Jesus and family and getting to spend good time together. That's what its all about. It is not all about presents!

Where is she?

Well, a few nights ago, I walked in to go to bed and this is what I saw:
Just in case you can't see my daughter in there, here is a better one:

So, being the good mom I am, I removed the hundred pound horse from her face and left her like this:

You want to know the bad thing? She had that horse back over her in less than an hour. UGH!! At least we know she liked that birthday gift. (From 2007.) Now how can we convince a sleeping child that having a horse covering most of your body is not a good thing?

Anna's List

Anna has been writing a list of what "she" wants to give everyone for Christmas. Here is her list so far:

Dad: Goofy Shirts
Mom: Flowers
Nanny: Flowers
Grammy: Hershey's Kisses
PaPa Hershey's Kisses
Kendra: Horse
Amber: Horse
Avery: Horse
Andy: Dog

LOL! As you can see, her list is getting long and expensive. VERY expensive. She wants to get the girls all $25 horses. :-) Very cute idea, but not remotely possible. We will of course get people something, but I don't think Anna is understanding the concept of money. I asked her where she was getting the money and she looks at me matter of factly and says "my piggy bank." Now keep in mind we usually just give her pennies. Occasionally she will get nickels and dimes, but not very often. This child probably has less than $4 in her piggy bank. It is too cute to have her make a list for everyone though. It shows that she wants to give gifts and not just receive them. Maybe some things we are teaching her ARE getting through. Now, how do i break it to her that the list is not even remotely possible? That is going to be traumatic. I already told her it probably is not possible, but she tries anyways. Well, I just thought I would share how sweet my little Anna is. She has a kind heart. Hope you all have a good day.

Dear Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you so much for you kind gesture today. It was completely unexpected and very much needed. You wrote "Blessings" on the card and yes, it was a very big blessing. You were in and out like a spy and I don't even know who you are. You made my day and helped through a difficult time. You truly were a blessing to my family. I don't even know who you are, but do know that we very much appreciated the card and want to say thank you to you. Maybe you read my blog and maybe you don't, but thank you anyways. You are very kind and made our day. May God deeply bless you as well. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Nicole

No Excuse

OK, I said I would post pictures, but haven't. Sorry about that. Life is busy. That is the only excuse I have, but it really is no excuse. Anyhow, will you suffer with an update instead?

On Friday, Jeremy stayed home from work and we took Anna to see Madagascar 2. We will never have this movie in our home and we will never rent it or let her see it again. There were so many sexual connotations in the movie that I was quite disgusted. Honestly, we can't go to the theatre because I need to preview every movie that comes out so that I can be sure it is appropriate. That is terrible. We have become accustomed to this type of thing. That is also why we don't worry about having cable TV. There really is no point in it. We watch PBS in the morning for and hour or so and we watch Reading Rainbow every weekday afternoon at 2:30pm. Anna loves Reading Rainbow. That is fine with me. At least I know it is generally safe.

No news to report on my mom's case. We still sit and wait. I know this is a lesson in patience and to depend on God. That's all there is to it. At least my mom will get to see her other Grand baby again soon, my sisters baby. She is going there over Thanksgiving courtesy of my sister. I wish we could see her too, but it is VERY expensive to us to travel. I am really just glad that my sister gets to enjoy her time and mom gets to see a beautiful little girl.

I guess that's about it. We are going to get started for the day soon. Take care all. God bless.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!!

I can't believe my baby girl is 7 years old today. She is getting so big and so smart. She is so lively and full of energy. She loves to use big words. LOL!! She must take after my sister in that respect. My sister always liked to use big words. :-) She is still cute and lovable, but getting so tall. She will probably pass me up soon.

Anyhow, like I said, my baby girl is 7 now. We had her birthday party on Sunday, but she has one small, but big gift left for today. I will update later with pictures, after we give it to her. Have a good day all. Happy birthday Baby!!

Pray

Although the election did not turn out as I would have hoped, it is done. Now, all we have left to do is pray.

Pray for our country.
Pray for our economy.
Pray for our future President.
Pray for our people.
Pray for our State.
Pray for our cities.
Pray for our families.

Most importantly, just pray. That may be the only thing to get us through this next 4 years. Things will change, but it will not all be good. Just pray. Nothing more and nothing less. PRAY!

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who came out to Anna's birthday party yesterday. It was great. The weather was great, the kids were great and Anna had a great time. She received many wonderful things and had a blast. She came home and we promptly took off all tags and took everything out of boxes, so she could make use of them. LOL!! Here are a few pictures from the day:

As you can see, we had a good time. There ended up being 14 kids there, which is more than we have ever had and there were 15 adults. This is by far Anna's largest birthday party yet. LOL! We usually try to keep it simple, and this is the result. It was fun though and she had a great time. The last two pictures show her playing with a few thing she got. She loved everything and had so much fun. Yes, she finally got her first video game system. We let her play it a lot last night to figure it out, but will set a timer on her, so she is not playing it all day long. All her cousins have a video game system of some sort (handheld and other) and we felt that she was old enough to handle one, so she got it. It came at her birthday, so she could get games for birthday and Christmas, because past that, she won't be getting any more games, so that will give her 4 or so after Christmas. Anyhow, she also got a really cool crystal art thingy that she is dying to color. She loves the babies and that she can color them and put them in the window. She also got that Barbie horse and carriage, clothes, a couple of games, some dress up items, a diary with a four color pen (she loves this concept) and a addition/subtraction wipe off book. It was a very successful birthday. She got way more than expected. Anna was one excited little girl. Her actual birthday is not for a few days, but we wanted as many people as possible to make it. Anyhow, thank you everyone for coming and for Anna's great gifts. She had a blast! :-) Better go for now. We are trying to clean out some room for the Christmas tree now and we still have school to do. Have a great day all.

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P.S. Happy Birthday Emily!!! We will see you in a little while. (She knows who she is!!)