Well worth the wait!

Okay, my mom has loved the Oak Ridge Boys for as long as I can remember. Truly. When I was in grade school, she called in to a radio station during a contest and won a bunch of stuff from them. She has treasured those things for years. She has never been able to go and see them. Either they did not come near the towns we lived in or the tickets were too much. Well...fast forward to this year. I saw a commercial for them that said they were going to be in my town in November. My sister and I found the website and realized that if all of the siblings pitched in we could get two tickets for the concert. OH MY WORD!! You would have thought that we were going for how excited we were!!! LOL

ANYWAY, since the concert was in November, we had to give them their Christmas present early. Like November 11th!!! It was soo cool to see Mom's face when she realized what she was holding.


The anticipation was almost too much as she opened the envelope!

It took her a full minute to realize what she was holding in her hands!!



It was so wonderful to see her face when she finally did realize it.



I wish I would have taken a picture of our faces when she opened it! We were squeeling and giggling almost as much as she was!! She has waited a long time for this; let's hope they are still good!! LOL

It isn't called 'CRAZY' for nothin'!

November 14th, my last post. Do I even remember that day? It was so long ago and so much has happened since then. I am not even sure that I can remember everything. :) I will try.

I finally am well, mostly. It took almost 4 weeks to kick this bug; but I did it. Okay, okay, I still feel congested and tired-that will go away eventually!

I found out that my calcium was way too low -again. If it hasn't come up by now, it probably won't and I will have to take massive amounts of calcium every day until Jesus takes me home.

I also found out the same day that my thyroid was way too low also. That accounts for the extra 15lbs in the last month. :( So, they upped my dose almost to the max and I go back next week to have it checked again. Here's hoping that it will level out and stay there.

We have fallen behind in school due to my illness(s) and I am getting cranky trying to get them caught up before Christmas break.

Dh has been given a promotion that should have been his years ago ( IMHO) and things are looking much better for him now. YEAH!

We had craft day at my house and my sister came. She hasn't been to my house in many years. We had a great time doing Christmas cards while the men did home improvement projects around the house. I still haven't put all the crafts away!!

Dh and I went to KC for a weekend getaway. WOOHOO! It was wonderful and relaxing and a good time of getting back to us as a couple.

Dh was told by the surgeon to have a steroid shot to see if that would help calm his shoulder down. The surgeon did not think there was a tear. That is good news. The bad news is that the shot isn't helping as much as they said it should if it wasn't a tear. SO...he has to go back and maybe they will do a scope and scrape the bursa sack and the bone to give the bursa more room to move and look to see if there is a tear at the same time. We are hoping that the shot is a little slow on the uptake!

We finally got to Thanksgiving. We went to dh's family on Wednesday night and had Mexican food. It's a little strange, I know. But it really does help with not getting burned out on turkey. We had taco ring, quessadillas, caso w/chips, and taco salad. We had a great time visiting with everyone. Dh's youngest brother and his wife were able to come and we had a wonderful time catching up with what the Lord is doing in their lives.

We went to my mother's on Thursday night and had turkey day on Friday. It was a long couple of days filled with staying up too late playing games and trying to cheat to win and way too much food that tasted way too good! ;) We had alot of fun and the kids got to watch more tv than ever before!

Black Friday my mother and I went to Wal-Mart at 5am because they had ONE thing that I wanted to get for Christmas. When we got there, the parking lot was FULL. The whole town showed up and was crammed inside this little store. We finally made it in and we seperated to find it sooner. When she called me on her cell phone because we couldn't get to each other, she informed me that the one thing I wanted, they had never received any - their store wasn't big enough. AAAGGGHHH! I was so frustrated. I hate shopping anyway and I just wasted all this time and sleep for nothing. Oh well. I later went online and ordered it and had it shipped to our store for pick up! Got to love the internet. LOL

It snowed Friday night and we were stuck (I say that with a smile and a wink) at my mother's for another night. When we came home my dh got ready to go and sing at church this weekend. It really never ends. At least it has given me some time to catch up with my posting, right? :)

Life really is crazy. But something that is even crazier is that God still loves us even though we fail Him time and again. He is so patient and forgiving. What a gentle and loving Father to wait for us and let us make our own mistakes, yet be there to catch us when we fall. Do you know Jesus? Do you know He loves you? He does. Talk to Him, He will listen.

Officially Speaking

I am officially sick of being sick! I am on my fourth round of antibiotics and my second round of steroids. I am done. I want to be well and have energy and not cough up a lung whenever I laugh or walk up the stairs. I am not sure I remember what it was like to not need a nap right after breakfast! LOL I am also not sure what it was like to hear my normal voice and not the squeeky, crackly one that I am talking with now. It is either that or I sound like a guy with a very low voice. My children find it quite amusing!

Someday I will feel better and things will get back to normal, right?

Caught in the Act!

I found her under the table after it had been quiet for a little too long!! She was being so careful to be quiet.









When she looked up at me, I could see what she was doing. Do you see what is in her hands? She was still trying to be very quiet about eating my snack!

When she took this bite, I told her that it was her last bite because she had already had enough of the candy bar.







So, what did she do? She shoved the last of it in her mouth and chewed for the next 5 minutes!!!

There goes my snack! :(

The end result

The end result of putting my child through orthodontic pain will be worth it, right? Our 8yodd started her 2yr ordeal a couple of months ago and we went back in today to get the second appliance put on the bottom teeth. She just sobbed with her mouth open while they worked away! It was soo sad. :( She didn't move or bite the Dr. She just had huge tears rolling down her cheeks. Aren't we supposed to rescue them from pain? AAGGHH! It was so hard to just stand there and watch.

We are already seeing the movement of her teeth and that is exciting. Hopefully by the time they put the brackets on the front teeth in January, she will have enough movement of her top jaw that she can have that appliance taken off and be left with just the bottom one.

I am really not looking forward to tomorrow or the next three days. I may have to adjust the menu to account for some soft foods for her to eat!

I will try to get some pictures of the appliances - if she will let me!! :)

Do I realize how blessed I am?

There are many blessings that I think about often. Such as this house, my husband, my children, living in America, having food, being able to pay bills. I have a lot to be thankful for. And I am. But something was brought to my attention some time back that I think I took for granted.

Here it is:

My mother and step-dad LOVE our children. I mean they really like having them around. If they don't get to see them at least once a month they are calling and asking to see them. They also call and ask if the kids can come and spend the weekend with them. We have to say no to them quite often just to have the kids at home sometimes!! This is the way it has always been. I don't remember a time when they weren't asking to keep them overnight or to just come and babysit so dh and I could have some time alone. They have actually driven from over an hour away just to babysit for a few hours and then go home again so we wouldn't have to pay a babysitter. I have never known a time as a mother that I could not call and get immediate help and relief from a trusted source.

Now the confession. I did take this for granted. It was just part of my life, it was normal. I didn't realize that other grandparents didn't do this! I assumed that all grandparents were like this and so when I ran across some friends who had NEVER had a weekend alone since their children were born (over 7 yrs ago) I was amazed. I asked about the grandparents and they had never even offered. I was incredulous. How could they NOT want their grandchildren for the weekend, and especially to give the parents a break and time with just each other? This family actually had no one willing to take the kids for any length of time to give them a couples time together. No, the kids are not bad, they are great kids.

Enter another couple I know. They have three great kids and have to practically beg the grandparents to take the kids overnight and then arrange for all kinds of activities to keep the kids occupied at the house. They also have to be on a tight schedule as to when they will leave and come back home. I am sure they are grateful for the time away, but is it really restful to have to watch the clock like that?

Countless other couples I have come across look at me like I have grown a new head when I tell them that the girls are gone again to my mother's. I hear constantly that they don't have anyone in their lives they can call to take their kids and not have to pay for it. I am starting to feel guilty about this.

Really.

But, it got me to thinking. Not only about the blessing that I have in this situation, but about the families out there going it alone. Where has the older generation gone? Where are all the substitute Grandma's and Grandpa's that used to litter the church and come along and mentor the young families? I had several sets of 'adopted' grandparents when I was growing up. I remember that they would babysit us and we would go to their houses constantly while our parents were working or what have you. They would sit with us in church and if they saw us doing something we shouldn't, they told us about it. Where are the grandparents who will call up the new parents and volunteer to sit with a baby so the momma can sleep or run errands or go on a date with her husband? Why have we lost this connection with the past? How can we get it back?

If parenting is the hardest job in the world, why are we backing away from those in the trenches? How many of us volunteer to watch someone else's kids to give them a break? How many of us come along side of a new mother and guide her through the wonderful and painful adjustment period of becoming a mother? What about a new dad, does anyone even remember him? Where is all the wisdom of the years that our older generation has gleaned from years of experience and why are they keeping it to themselves?

Could it be that this generation of people think they already know it all? We have all the books, have seen all the DVD's, and listened to the experts with the letters behind their names; so, Grandma and Grandpa, thank you but no. We have been fed lies for so long about parenting and family life that we can no longer even see the side of Truth. If you have just started on this journey of parenting or marriage, how can you have all the answers already? That is just dumb.

Am I the only one who thinks this way? I miss having older wisdom around me. I want my children to grow up hearing the stories of days gone by and knowing that you get wisdom by life experience and that no matter how much you think you know, you still need the Lord. I want young families to be supported by the older generation. I want the Church to support the WHOLE family and not just cater to the kids. Am I asking too much? I usually do!