November 25, 2014

Thanksgiving

This is the week our nation pauses to gather with family and friends to give thanks for our many blessings.


In all honesty, we should count our blessings every single day.  

Our community suffered an unimaginable loss this past weekend.    Three 16 year olds and a sheriff's deputy tragically loss their lives Sunday night in an automobile accident.    I can hardly wrap my mind around the pain the families are going through and will continue to go through for a long time. 


As you sit around your Thanksgiving table on Thursday, please remember these families and the grief they are enduring at this time. 

Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed Thanksgiving Day.






November 4, 2014

This and That and How Did It Get To Be November?!

I think November snuck up on a lot of us....seems like summer just ended! The older I get the faster time seems to go. It will be Christmas in just a little over two months!

I spend a lot of time with my mom at her nursing home. She has really settled in there and has her schedule of "events" she attends every day. She marks off the days on her calendar and knows what activities are planned and of course, what time to eat! It does my heart good to see her in such good spirits and happy again. Her health and physical abilities have greatly improved in the two months she's been there....it confirms to me that I made the right decision to move her there. Last Friday the staff all dressed up in Halloween costumes and had a bake sale. Mama was right in the thick of everything! I love going to the activities room with her and have met some of the sweetest residents there...one of the gentlemen there, who is 90 years old, loves me because I tell him he doesn't look a day over 83! He saves a place for me at bingo! There is another man there, the husband of a resident who has Alzheimers who visits with her every day. He is so precious to her, sits with her and holds her hand, brushes her hair and you can tell he just loves her so much. Yesterday he told me the end is near as she hasn't eaten or drank anything in 3 days and the doctor says it wouldn't do any good to put her in the hospital....so sad for him, they've been married 44 years.

I've been patiently waiting all summer to have some things done around the house. Our hall bathroom and my daughter's old bedroom are getting a facelift. I've already got all the things for the bedroom makeover but just not quite sure what I'm going to do in the bathroom. I ordered a grey tufted headboard for the bedroom; the wall behind the headboard will be planked and the room painted out in a pretty white. I plan on doing an industrial look in there....similar to what Joanna Gaines does on Fixer Upper (which, by the way, I'm watching a marathon on HGTV right now)! The bathroom will be similar. My husband is not on board for planking any walls in the bathroom so I'm thinking of doing some beadboard wallpaper instead. Instead of getting big gifts for my birthday or Christmas, I always like to have things done around the house.

This past Sunday eight of my daughter's friends gave her a wonderful baby shower. If you don't already know, my daughter has 10 year old boy/girl twins. The week they turned 10 (May 21st) she found out she was expecting again!


 This was taken at 10 weeks

 
"Big sister" Taylor is thrilled!

 In August she had a gender reveal party and she's having another boy! 







The due date is January 3rd but the plan is to induce her the 30th or 31st of December...the doctor says that shouldn't be a problem but by the looks of her, I'm not sure she'll even make it that long!


Here is the group of friends that put together such a sweet baby shower....these ladies and their husbands are all friends of my daughter and her husband and all the kids are about the same ages...they go to school and church together....I love all these "ladies"! 


My granddaughters wanted to pose like "teenagers"....look at the height difference between Taylor and McKinley and they are only a year apart!   They didn't plan their outfits either...most of the girls had on some kind of chevron print and boots!





 Can you tell which team "most" of us are for?   My SIL is a huge Alabama fan and I think Taylor wrote this on the diaper....not sure how he'll react to the little Auburn onsie but Shannon said she's going to put it on the baby anyway!


I just had to take this one of these girls....daughter in the middle, cousin Christie on the floor and long time good friend Shana on the chair arm.   Of course, Christie and Shannon grew up together and Shana and Shannon have been friends since 4th grade!   It's so funny for me to see these "girls" all grown up with children of their own since I still think of them as little girls themselves.

Well, my washing machine just died!   Guess we'll be buying a new one tonight....hate it when that happens!