Busy, busy

Well this past couple of weeks has been hectic beyond belief! On Monday Jan 22, Tasha and I went to Atlanta for a class on Tuesday. Great class! Then on Tuesday night we drove to Columbus to stay overnight for a class on Wednesday. On the way to Columbus my brand new Nook Tablet died. I mean fully charged battery crashed dead. I was so upset. So Tasha being to great person she is found the Barnes and Noble in Columbus and 30 mins later the woman fixed my Nook. I love that woman. Class on Wednesday was another good one and then we came home. Back to work on Thursday and then on Friday the whole family (well minus Miles) loaded up and went back to Columbus for a hockey game. We love hockey in our family. It is a sport we all enjoy watching. Thank goodness the closest youth league is 2 hours away though because I don't want my boys playing. Then this weekend was horrible with some very serious drama resulting in Mommy at home Tuesday with really high blood pressure and other stress related issues. Let me tell you I am glad it is all over. I really need to be able handle my stress better. I just can't seem to find the right thing for me so any suggestions are appreciated. Now it is Thursday heading into John's long weekend and it looks to be another busy one. We have a Wild Game Supper to go to on Saturday night and it is always entertaining. I can't wait to see this years oppussum (sp) creation that I will NOT be eating. I will be glad to have a weekend with John though. It seems that with both our work schedules and the kids schedules family time keeps getting less and less. I might have to find a way to be more creative with that as well. So that is our past few weeks in a quick summary. I will post pictures from the hockey game as soon as I can as well as from the wild game supper. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Update on D.J.

Have a mentioned lately how great God is! D.J. is in a regular room, awake, recognizing people, and PLAYING! When all of the horror first happened no one really thought that he would be here. Now he is well advanced on his way to recovery. He still is not able to speak and he cannot really move his left side BUT with all he can do and how far he has come I have NO doubts that he will be back to himself in no time at all. Please keep praying for this sweet baby. We cannot wait to get him back home so that all of his grandma's work family can get ahold of him and love on him again.

Prayers needed

A co-worker of mine and her family need as many prayers as possible at this time.

http://www.rickeystokesnews.com/article.php/dothan-man-charged-with-aggravated-child-abuse-29189

Her 3 year old grandson, D.J., was brutally beated, burned, and attemped to drown by his mother's boyfriend on Saturday night. D.J. is now on a vent in Children's Hospital in Birmingham, AL. At this point we now that the police had to perform CPR on the way to the hospital. After emergency brain surgery to stabilize him he was airlifted to Birmingham where he has since had another brain surgery to place a shunt or drainage tube to help with the swelling in his brain. The right side of his brain has died from all the trauma with has left him paralyzed on the left side of his body. At this point he is being sedated because of his vent and ng tube and so that his body can rest from everything. We will know more in a few days. Today will be the first time Danior will be able to see her grandbaby since the incident. Please pray for continues healing for D.J. and for his family.

Cards

So I have recently rediscovered the importance of sending cards through (gasp) snail mail. It is exciting to me when I open the mailbox and there is a card for me. It reminds me that someone is thinking of me. So I joined the Heart Connections through Dayspring where I get 10 cards a month to send out to friends and family. My goal is to send 10 cards a month whether for birthdays or just because. I want to use them as encouragement to as many people as I can. I have already sent 4 cards this month. 2 for birthdays and 2 for reasons that I hate, to remind the people in a terrible situation that God is with them and that I am thinking of them. So I have 6 more cards to send so I hope that they are for better reasons than the other 2. ( I will write a post about it soon). So pick up a card and send it to someone today to say that you are thinking of them. Make someone smile.

Happy 2012!!!!

A new year means a new start. So lets be honest my resolutions are pretty much the same for the first 3:
1. LOSE WEIGHT (exercise and also doing the "I Quit Sugar" diet)
2. SAVE MONEY
3. SPEND MORE TIME WITH THE KIDS.
Now I am by no means putting my resolutions in order but those are three. I am also including several more:
- Spend more time on Bible reading (this one is going to start in earnest on January 15 when I join an online Bible study at www.goodmorninggirls.org). But I am also doing some on my own until then
- Do more devotionals with John and the kids to work on our family/ marriage relationships with each other and with God. I am reading one with John called "Love and War- and 8 week couple's devotional" and I am currently looking for a good one to do with the kids.
- Join an online book club.
- Support a mission (I actually already have 2 picked out just have to support them now :))
- Get more organized with everything!
- Move- finally after almost a year of owning our new home
- Attend at least 2 "ladies" events for my personal growth. I am hosting one on April 28 so more details to come on that. Now to find a second one.

There are plenty more little resolutions that I have but they are very tiny and hopefully easy. We will see. So updates on how it is all going as time goes on. I hope everyone has a great 2012!

Church Christmas Party 2011

Delilah and Santa

Pacey and Santa

Tyler, Delilah, and Santa

Tyler and Santa

Santa (aka Pawpaw)

Miles wasn't having any of this

Calvin and Santa

Miles liked Santa's chair until Santa sat in it

Doodle and Santa

So this past Sunday we had our church Christmas party. Everyone was there including Santa. Actually since Santa didn't do to good of a job disguising his voice everyone knew that it was Pawpaw all dressed up. Everyone but Miles. He did not like Santa no matter what we did to convince him that it was just Pawpaw behind that beard. But all in all we had a good time and maybe next year Miles will like Santa a little better.

Christmas Party #1- Work

So on Saturday Dec 10th we went to my company awards banquet/ christmas party. We spent the evening eating and enjoying all my work friends and teasing a newly engaged couple that we had a preacher and witnesses so they could just get married that night. I recieved my 5 year service pin and John said that he was proud I actually held down a job that long. Um yeah, I have only had 4 jobs since graduating college and this one was just the right one. So here a couple of pictures.

Maggie and Deborah

Brandy, Maggie, Tasha, Meghan, and me

Me and John.

I actually had another work party last week but it was for the clinic and I just didn't take pictures because it was in the middle of the day. I have 2 more this week and more than likely won't take pictures at those either.