Easter 2012

Not Ready

The last few weeks have blown by and if I might say they have been rather intense. Since the boy's birthday I have taken 4 different folks to various doctor's appointments and chemo treatments. I have been scheduled for a rather invasive bladder surgery as well as eye surgery. I wish the eye surgery were lasik but my eyes are in too bad of shape for that. I also have had two more crowns cemented and seated as well as 6 fillings. I brush my teeth FOUR and FIVE times a day and floss and swish and I do NOT drink sodas. I just have bad teeth! Both my parents had dentures by age 22. I hope the boys inherit their Daddy's oral genes! :)

I have been letting things slide since others have been deemed more important. With all the death and sickness it just doesn't seem like Easter time. I have always been "on the ball" with all things holiday! Not this time. I ordered the boys pants and a shirt for Easter. Neither fit them correctly and I have not taken them back. I have resorted to letting them wear last years attire,AHEM...if it fits. If not i will run to Wal-Mart and pick up some khakis and a polo. I am not even sure what hubby has to wear since his weight loss. And since my AHEM weight GAIN I am not sure if I have clothes either. My parents have decided that I need not cook and we will just get take out for Easter lunch. This is NEVER heard of in the south at least at our house. I am totally okay with it though....for some odd reason.

I have not dyed eggs with the boys or read the Easter story for that matter. Their Resurrection Eggs have sat alone in the closet as well. I am actually okay with this.....most all of it actually and am not stressed at all. I do and will talk with the boys about Jesus being "Alive and well" and how blessed we are. John is singing his first solo at church (Easter morning no less) and does not even have the soundtrack to listen to for practice and he is as calm as can be. While we are not ready we are okay and God has a plan. Perhaps we will figure it out before out Sonrise service Sunday morning! :) Happy Easter!!!!

Master Bedroom

This is our master bedroom. We redid it last year with a new bedroom suite, new linens, lamps, decor, curtains, shams, pillows and duvet.

We love our master bedroom! It has so much light and is so relaxing!

Blessings!

Talking Turkey

Thanksgiving is just a short few days away! We are having Thanksgiving at my Mom and Daddy's this year. John will have to work. It is our first thanksgiving apart and that makes me sad . It makes me even more sad that he will miss the boys and the boys will miss him on this special day.

My Mom's brother and sister-in-law are in from North Carolina and her niece and nephew-in-law will arrive Wednesday from South Carolina. All of those as well as her sister that lives a piece down the road will join us. I am not are of my bother and sister-in-laws plans. They usually have lunch with her family. There will be a table or two full nonetheless!

As far as the menu goes we usually have the typical smoked pecan turkey, a spiral sliced ham, brown and serve rolls, cranberry sauce (courtesy of Ocean Spray), Mom's delicious chicken and dressing made with cornbread, giblet gravy, hm creamed corn, home canned green beans, potato salad, sweet potato casserole, sweet potato pie and some type of cake....usually homemade honey apple cake.

This year I am going to make the green beans, creamed corn and apple cake. Maybe the sweet potato casserole......we shall see! We usually eat around noon. We usually go back home after the meal and let the boys nap while we watch some football. Then back to mom's for supper!

The boys are spending the night with her and Daddy this year and I am going Black Friday shopping like usual. John has to go into work early this year since Alabama plays at home and he will be traveling through there.

I am almost done Christmas shopping and have discovered once again that I have went a teensy bit overboard! More so with the boys. Some things I am putting up until their March birthday though. We need some pillows, a quilt and sheets for our new bedroom suite (arriving next week). So I will probably hit Kohl's for that. Booster seats are BOGO at KMART, so I'll be going there too and Target has their Wii Fit bundle for $67 and since Santa is bringing that as our family gift I need him to bring that to me! :)

So what is Thanksgiving looking like at your house? Are you cooking? eating out? Going shopping? Watching football?

Whatever you are doing here's to you and yours! Thanksgiving Blessings!

Memorial Day 2010

Happy Memorial Day!! How blessed we are to live the land of the free!
Aren't we blessed to serve God? You know, he was the same God when this country was established and he is still here and always will be whatever kind of condition this country is in! Praise His name! Freedom isn't free though is it, I mean really, think on it for a minute.
So many give their lives for us to have freedom, what a blessing that is!
So thank you to our past, present and future soldiers! Please join me today in praying for them and their families!
John has to work today but the boys and I will be talking about our country and eating bbq and tonight we will have more ice cream, bbq and fireworks too!
What are your Memorial Day plans for the day?
Whatever they are I wish you and yours a day of happiness and fun, health, wealth and blessings!!!

Easter Blessings..........

from our house to yours! He is risen! Praise the Lord!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

From our house to yours.........Happy Valentine's Day!!! Hope you all have a day filled with love and blessings!!!

Fall Made It's Appearance and Our Decorations Did Too!

Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love everything about it! October is my favorite month. Here are a few things in and around my house we have adorned with fall decor.



This wreath was made by and used by my mil before she fell ill to cancer, before she passed away she gave it to me. I will treasure it always. It is seen hanging on my front porch light fixture.
This is scarecrow man. Or possibly woman, picked up at Michael's for $5.99. He is guarding the boys pumpkins!

Here is mini scarecrow man. He is guarding the mini bounty found on the china hutch. He was bought at Dollar General for $1.

This Fall angel was made by my Mom and me 5 or 6 years ago. She won 1st place in the county fair that year. The jar of fall treats is no other than half candy corn and half dry roasted peanuts shook up good (to mix) and stored in airtight container. That treat taste just like a PayDay candy bar.

Last but not least is this fall arrangement that my friend Deb and I made. I saw one at Michael's and it was priced at $59.99. That was outrageous. We bought all of the stuff and made it ourselves for less than $15.00! It might have taken 15 minutes to put it together. I used it for a centerpiece for our table for a party a couple of weeks back.

Have you decorated for Fall yet? Blessings!!!!!!

Backing Tracking to October 10th.......11 Years

We celebrated our eleven year anniversary on Saturday (night-to be exact). We had a sitter and decided to go eat and to a movie (and to Sam's Club- Haha!)

We went to Lonestar (I had a coupon from there for my birthday, for an entree up to $15) to eat. I chose a steak dinner with a salad and baked potato. John had the trio with bbq chicken, steak medallions and fried shrimp with a salad and a baked potato. Then we had the chocolate something the other for dessert for our anniversary (it was also free)! ;)

We then went and got our movie tickets. We usually only go once a year to the movies. This year there was NOT much worth seeing. I had a $3 coupon off on each movie ticket that made them $6.50 each.........compared to the regular $9.50 each. Ouch!!! I thought that was high......I went to the ladies room and John got us the 2 drink and large popcorn combo..........Then he said that was $18.75.............NO!!!!!!! That is just crazy!!! After seeing the movie we should have just stayed home! I was embarrassed and I was thinking that the parents that had brought their 6-8-10 year old kids to see it had to be also! It was rated PG-13 but it should have been rated R! Enough said.



This is the movie tickets, the roses John got me and our leftover supper. It was yummy!

Here we are just before we left for our date. I felt like a school girl again! LOL!

How do you usually celebrate your anniversary? Have you seen any decent movies lately? What does going the cinemas cost in your neck of the woods?

Blessings!!!!!!

Mother's Day 2009

My first Mother's Day was very special because WE had finally brought our children home from the NICU only TWO days before. My second Mother's Day was very special because we finally given a living diagnosis for little John only four days before mother's day. MY third mother's day (this year) was so very special because my children are finally healthy! Praise the Lord! What a precious gift they are!

The night before Hubby and the boys came in with me a single rose each. A beautiful peach color. Then I found a Paula Deen magazine on my desk later that same night. Then as I was turning back the covers a Snickers bar fell from under my pillow. He is so sneaky! LOL!

My day started off with toast and coffee, getting everyone ready and taking blueberry pancakes and sausage to my Mom. We then went to decoration where my mother-in-law is buried. On the way home I asked John if we could stop at Jack's and just get lunch. He did and we got a family chicken meal. We went home, ate and then took some of it to my parents for lunch. I made my Mom a photo book from the last year's worth of photos of the boys (in a clearance bought album from Target), I also got her a new kitchen rug and some dish cloths as well as some body wash.

I was very surprised by her as each of the boys handed me a card with $25 in it just for me. Then my Mom gave me $50 and the boys each gave me another rose each that my mom had grown (see below picture). We came home and hubby told me to take a nap. I took an hour long nap and loved every minute of it. We then snacked around for supper and hubby gave me his card for me and the boys gave me a card their Daddy had picked out from them. It was truly a very special day and relaxing too. I know he missed his Mom but he sure did a wonderful job making it very special for me.

Earlier in the week, he had told me to pick out a few things I wanted so I did. I found the umbrella below at Wal-Mart for $12. It is huge and I love it. I also got a new pair of pj's and some dish cloths too.

I hope you all had a wonderful day! Blessings!

Easter Pictures

Here are the pictures I promised from Easter.

Here are the boys hunting their Easter eggs. They had a fun time. As a matter of fact we hid them again today.
Little egg hunters!

Mommy (slightly frazzled), holding Mason and John sitting beside me.

There were no less than 30 people in the next two rooms eating Easter lunch.

My love and our sweet boys.

Here are the boys right before church Easter Sunday.

BLESSINGS!!!!!

Reflections

The first reflection I want to share is that 3 years ago this Easter we were visiting our sweet boys in the NICU and our hearts were scared and in such pain that we might never get to take them home. Their monitors kept alarming and they were having A's and B's left and right. We could not even hold them until late that night. When we left that morning to go to my in-law's, the nurses finally got them calm enough to take their pictures with their bunnies and Easter baskets. Then the biggest surprise was a huge card stock collage with the boys tiny footprints and pictures of them together in a huge basket with their Easter bunnies. That was the most touching thing anyone could have done at that point.


Praise the Lord we are far from that point and this morning on the way to church (at 8am) the boys were just carrying on the cutest conversation. WOW!!! Just a few short months ago they were only signing and now just to listen to them!!! Blessings abound!!!


There are memories and scars, lots of scars (physical and mental) from the NICU, but praise the Lord for where we have come!


We have had a wonderful weekend! The boys and I are feeling some better and all are still on antibiotics. John was off from work Friday due to not enough work to go around and we got to spend the day together. We had thunderstorms and crazy hail storms. We had a tree to fall on the pasture fence that evening and then later that night our company from North Carolina arrived.


Saturday held visiting with the relatives that morning, grocery buying, more visits, a singing, dying Easter eggs and cooking up a storm. I also got all of our duds (clothes, for you non-southerners) ready for early church service. My parents had everyone over to their house after supper for visiting. Bedtime arrives about 2am.


This morning we went to early service and then home to cook lots of green beans and cream corn and some fast slaw for the Easter meal. The boys loved their Easter baskets that I made for them. They also hunted ball themed plastic eggs (filled with coins)in the house with their Daddy while I did the cookin'. We got to my parents about 11:30am and ate lunch about 12:30pm. We hunted eggs there and there was plenty of folks to visit with again. We finally made it home about 2:30pm and got the boys down for a nap . When they got up from their nap we hunted eggs outside again. They had a blast! Then we did bathes and dressed in pj's and headed back to my parents for supper. Home at last and kiddos in bed! We have been doing laundry and getting ready for another day of hubby being home tomorrow and storms on their way.


What a wonderful day! What a wonderful Easter! And, what wonderful friends you all are to share it with! Easter blessings and thank you Lord for all of them! Pictures tomorrow.......

Easter Blessings!

I hope each and every one of you have a blessed day, full of memories and fun!

Thank you sweet Jesus for coming and dying and rising for us!

Easter Blessings Today and Always!

Easter Menu

We have a large celebration planned this year. We will be going to early service at church and then home to prepare the remaining parts of the Easter lunch. We have family from North Carolina coming and some other family members as well. There should be about 20 of us all total.

That morning for our out of town guests (who are not use to much "homecooking") there will be homemade blueberry pancakes, maple sauasage links and hot coffee.

Lunch will be a spiral ham with orange juice and brown sugar glaze. green beans, cream corn, potato salad, homemade rolls, deviled eggs, apple cake and fresh strawberry pie.

We will feast on leftovers for supper, after a big egg hunt.

What is on your menu for Easter?

Elvis Has Left the Building (or house)

This was so funny. My Mom thought she, her sister, her niece and I had reservations at a swanky restaurant. There she was caught in the middle of "SURPRISE"! That is her as she walked in my front door. We had to tell her to please come inside, the boys were crying to see her. HEhe! We are so sneaky!




This she and my Daddy. She was still in tears she was so happy.

Here she is posing with Elvis 1 and Elvis 2!

This is me, the big one in the white, my Mom, my cousin and my Aunt.

Here are her rose arrangement and cake.

Here is some of the food. There was soft drinks (I forgot to make coffee, oops!), nachos and cheese, buffalo chicken dip, hot crab dip, cheeses and crackers, summer sausage from venison, veggie bars, grape salad, fruit tray w/ cream cheese dip, pigs in a blanket, chips and french onion dip, the cake was homemade strawberry and then we had mini cupcakes (chocolate w/ mint icing and butter w/ chocolate icing) and then there were nuts.

This is my brother and his family, with our twin boys.

Here is my Mom, still in shock, although she decided she liked being 56 better than 65 She is so funny!

Here she is opening gifts. That is a framed picture of my nephews in basketball uniforms with Coach (my brother, their Dad). That would be Tiger looking on

Here she is looking at a cute rose bush and that apple in the basket is a bird house. I love that!

Well, there it is! My Mom is still talking about the party and what a great time she had. My goal was for her to feel special and I think it worked out well! It was all for her and praise the Lord for a great Mom! I love you Mom!

Blessings to you all!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was spent partying with my family for my Mom's birthday. Here is the beautiful bouquet that hubby and the boys got me.

Hope you all had a great hearts day!

Blessings!

Happy Hearts Day!

Today has been a busy day, even the days leading up to today. We had the party today and my Mom was so surprised! More on that later though.

I got the most gorgeous flowers from hubby and the boys. More on that later as well.

I hope cupid struck you as well. I hope all is well and the hearts all floating all around. I hope to catch up on my spending posts and with you all as well.

Things hopefully will be back to normal the first of the week. Tomorrow is church and marriage class tomorrow night.

Have a great Saturday night and a wonderful Lord's Day! Blessings!

Date Night aka Valentine's Date

Since my Mom is having a surprise birthday party at our house on her birthday (Valentine's Day), we opted to celebrate this past weekend. The plan was to go to eat and then to a movie. We went to Huntsville, about an hour away. We had a wonderful meal at T.G.I.Friday's and then ruled the movie out. We had a half off appetizer and then I had a coupon for buy one entree and get one free. Yippee! The food was delish! We both had steaks of sorts and shrimp as well. When the waitress found out that we were celebrating Valentine's early, she brought us a brownie type dessert! Yummy! we were stuffed and had plenty of leftovers. One of my favorite parts of supper was the sweet potato fries. They were out of this world! I sure do wish I had the recipe! Supper and tip was about $30.

After supper we headed to Barnes and Noble to walk supper off and we had a blast! We each found some books (10), a video for the boys and a calendar for my parent's office. We paid less than $50 for all of it. We stayed and just shopped for about 2 1/2 hours. we sang and laughed all the way home. We came home to the boys fast asleep and a tired but happy sitter.

Many Blessings on your Valentine's Day! What are you doing this year?

New Year's Blessings.......

to you and yours! I hope you have a safe and joyous night! We are home and safe together and alone (the boys are tucked in bed) and ready to ring in the New Year. WE might try to stay up......we'll see!

Blessings Always!!!

Thanksgiving Day

I am a little (okay, a lot) late with this. Better late than never, right?! We had such a blessed Thanksgiving. We had lunch with my family. Thankfully, I had almost all of my cooking done the day before. I made a run to CVS about 10am and got a camera and a memory game for each of the boys. The toys were buy one get one free. I also got in on the all of the free goodies. I made in back in time to help hubby get the boys ready. WE were loaded up and at my parents before 12.

We had a terrific lunch at 12 and then my parents played with the boys while hubby watched a ballgame (or two) and I fell asleep on the couch. My Mom took the boys out to ride the BEEP BEEP (golf cart), when their other PawPaw drove up. Hubby went out and he and the boys had some quality time with his Dad. I slept.......I know.......I'm awful. About 3pm we headed home and put the boys down for a nap, I plotted my papers, coupons and lists for Black Friday. I then slept some more. WE got up, got ready yet again and back to my parents we were at 5:45pm to meet my brother and his family. We had a blast! The food and the company was great.

My parents let the boys sleep over (except there was only 2 hours or so of sleep ALL night long), so I could shop Black Friday. Thank you so much Mom and Daddy!

WE headed home from my parents about 8pm or so and crashed. Hubby got to work. YAY! I went shopping.

What a wonderful Thanksgiving! I hope yours was wonderful, as well!

Blessings!