The Weather plus the sinus crud=not so good

It snowed yesterday, not a lot but we take what we can get here, but we were unable to go outside to enjoy it because we all have the sinus crud. I took the kids to the doctor Tues. because they were running low grade temps and had snotty noses. I know this doesn't sound like much but Joseph has been snottin' for 2 wks and Morgan had a low grade temp 1 1/2 wks ago and now it's back. The over the counter medicine has not done anything for it, so here we go. I guess we have been blessed so far that we haven't been sick since Oct. Anyway I hope that we are on the mend.

For you scrappers, I have found a new book series. It is by Rebeca Seitz and it is called "Sisters, Ink". I am on the first in the series and I really like it. I have just finished a book she wrote before she started the series, "Prints Charming", and it was great. I just loved the ending and I laughed so much that some nights my sides would hurt. They are both based on scrapbooking and what a great job she has done.

Happy Birthday, Morgan!!!

From this to

this in five years.

Well my oldest is five today and it is breaking my heart every year that she has a birthday, but I know that she has to grow up. She is a miracle from God. The story starts more than five years ago, when Michael and I got married and knew that we both wanted a family. It took 7 1/2 years for the dream of being parents to come true. After much prayer and finally laying everything at God's feet He blessed us with a pregnancy. We didn't care what sex the baby would be, all we cared was that we were going to be parents! We found out it was a girl and everything was going great until the 34th week of pregnancy. That is when I couldn't feel her move as much and I found out that my blood pressure was up. The doctors wanted to me to be on bed rest and come back the next day to check everything out. The next day my mom took me to doctor and they stated that I had Preeclampsia and wanted to take her right then, so here we go to the hospital. Once they induced my labor and the contractions started we hit another bump in the road; her heart rate started dropping every time I would have a contraction so the need for an emergency C-section came into play. She came out breathing on her own, needing no oxygen at all, and weighing all of 3 lbs. and 14 oz. She was perfect in every way. She needed to stay in the NICU for only one week, so that she could learn how to suck, everything else was going great. After bringing her home we had to account for every little bit that she ate and make sure that her body temp. stayed where it was supposed to. Now look at my baby (she will always be my baby no matter how big or old she gets), growing up and getting older. It's hard to believe that she is 5 today when it doesn't seem like it has been that long since we brought her home. I am so glad that God answered my prayers and made me a parent not once but twice. Thank you God for your wonderful miracles every day and thank you for giving me the opportunity to see them for myself.

1 Samuel 2:27-28 "I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord."

Catchin' Up

Sorry everyone for being so long on posting with the holidays plus our anniversary, it's hard to keep up in December. So here we go playing catch up. First we went with my husband's stepmom and dad to see the ICE exhibit which featured the Grinch. We all had a great time but the kids just loved it! Halfway through Joseph's hands got cold and he was ready to go. We had a big time in Nashville! They also did the Build-a-Bear thing. Joseph got a dinosaur so he was in his glory and Morgan got the bunny. They had so much fun.

Then the next weekend we had Michael's graduation. YEAH!!!! I am so proud of him, he now has a BS in Business Management. He has worked so hard for this. I had planned a surprise meal for him afterward and had the whole family over and some friends.

Then the next weekend happened to be our anniversary and we went to Gatlinburg. The first picture was the view from our condo the morning after we arrived. It was snowing as I took this picture. Beautiful wasn't it? Brian and Karen went with us and we had a great time together, but was such a long ride. Brian and Michael decided on the way out that they wanted to do the indoor skydiving. They had a great time and I think both of them loved it! Karen and I watched from the observation deck.

These are the gifts that I made for Morgan and Joseph's class at Preschool. They are Christmas tags that I made that the children could color and put on presents. I got the images from my clip art on the computer, printed different images and then cut, perforated the top and punched holes then tied ribbon to the top. I thought they turned out really nice.

The next thing is gifts that I made for various family members. The first picture is the money envelope that I made for my stepmother-in-law and father-in-law for their Christmas present. The next picture is gift card holders that I made for several members of our family. This was my first time trying either one of these and I think they turned out quite nice. I had some compliments on some of them and that always makes you feel so good about making them.

Now this is what I am most proud of this Christmas. I made this clipboard for my aunt who is a teacher, lives in Knoxville and went to school at UT and still is a big UT fan. Instead of using paper on this, I painted the clipboard then stamped it with Crayon Kids alphabet from

Stampin' Up, after that my husband took it outside and put the sealer on it, then I tied the ribbon on the top. I thought this turned out very Volish and I hope that she really likes it.

We didn't know what to do for our wonderful neighbor who is like part of the family, Ms. Cook. So Morgan came up with the idea to make her a shirt and put angels on it like they did in Preschool. So this is the shirt that we made for her. Take into consideration that it has been a long time since I made a shirt, but I think that she liked it. The angels are actually their handprints and the wings are their fingers.

Now, we celebrated Morgan's birthday Sat. since all the grandparents could be here. She had a Wall-E and Eve plus a Tinkerbell birthday party. The reason for both is that we could not find everything in Wall-E. So we had a Wall-E birthday cake and a Tinkerbell pinata. She didn't seem to mind the difference. All of her grandparents were in attendance except for Ging-Ging which we will have to celebrate with him later, plus a few of her friends. They had a blast and we had fun watching and listening to them; they are so funny.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!! Happy Birthday Jesus!!!!

This photo was taken by Amy Bratton and didn't she do a great job! This is the only time that we have professional pictures taken and I am always glad that we take the time and save the money to do this.

I want to say to everyone that I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and that you are truly blessed this Christmas. May God shower you with blessings and may you not forget that this is Jesus' birthday, not just a day to get presents but to imitate Jesus by giving. I hope that you all have fun with your families this Christmas and do enjoy each other for you will not live forever and this is what memories are made of.

I am sorry that I have not posted in a while but I have busy trying to get ready for Christmas and Michael has a new work schedule which has taken some getting used to but I think that I am almost there. Now, quit reading this and go have fun and tell each member in your family that you love them and what a blessing they are in you life.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Altered Clipboards

Here is a picture of the two clipboards that I worked on Saturday at our monthly crop. These will be given to Morgan and Joseph's preschool teachers for Christmas. Sorry that it has been so long since I have posted. I have been Christmas shopping and searching for a camera.

A New Day

I just want to say PRAISE THE LORD!!!! I am saying this because I have been going through some things in the past few days that the enemy has tried to use to take me down and control me. But it is not working, thanks to God, my husband, and a few friends. We have a choice everyday when we wake up if this is going to be a good day or a bad one. I believe that God would have us to choose the good one. We need to remember that no matter what is said about us or what is done to us that God is always right beside us, guiding us through every valley and up every mountain as long as we take the time to listen.

I am currently reading two books; "The Love Dare" and "Facing Your Giants". While I was reading last night in the "Love Dare", one of the first things that it says is to be patient. Now how hard is that? For me, quite hard, I am not a patient person at all. In fact these are the three paragraphs that spoke to me last night:



If your spouse offends you, do you quickly retaliate, or do you stay under control? Do you find that anger is your emotional default when treated unfairly? If so, you are spreading poison rather than medicine.

Anger is usually caused when the strong desire for something is mixed with disappointment or grief. You don't get what you want and you start heating up inside. It is often an emotional reaction that flows out of our own selfishness, foolishness, or evil motives.

Patience, however, makes us wise. It doesn't rush to judgement but listens to what the other person is saying. Patience stands in the doorway where anger is clawing to burst in, but waits to see the whole picture before passing judgement.



Now let that soak in for a moment. Patience makes us wise. That's one way of putting it, but it got my attention. When we look at the bible God tells us so much about being patient, so why don't we get it? That's probably what He is thinking too. Sometimes we let our anger get the best of us and then we make a mess of things, when if we would just sit back and listen and be patient things would be a lot better off and we might get along a little better in the world. How many times have we all had someone trying to explain things to us or explain why they feel the way they do and instead of listening we burst in with our own comments or we go straight to the defense? I know that have stuck my feet in my mouth and chewed on them only to decide how awful the taste was one too many times. So I am asking God to give me His patience and His ability to listen to others and most of all self-control over any situation that arises.

Thank you, God for this new day that you give us and thank you for the choice that you give us every day.



Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

New Fish

If you have read my profile you will see that we now have 4 fish instead of two. The reason being that we have had to have another fish funeral Sun. night for Morgan's fish Rojo, which has been sick for sometime and Sun. God took it home. For those of you who are laughing, I know that it is funny having a fish funeral, but when you have a little whose is upset because her fish has died and she misses it, just remind yourself how we feel when someone close to us dies. Even though we know that God has healed them in His way we still hurt and so do the little ones. Rojo was something that Morgan was close to and she lost him, so of course he had to be replaced. Well Michael has outdone himself again, by bringing another fish home plus a new fish tank. Not just any ordinary fish tank would do and not any color of fish would do, he brought home a Mermaid fish tank and just the color of fish she wanted, blue. Well the new fish is now named Nemo2 because we have already had a Nemo whose has since passed and gone to fish heaven also. So now what do we do with the old fish tank? Well, we put it in the bathroom which is decorated with an aquatic theme anyway and we got two goldfish, which the kids have named Cinderella and Little Daddy. Can you guess who named which fish? So there you have it our newest additions to our pet family.

Proverbs 20:7
The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him.

Very Blessed

We've all the heard the old saying, "You can tell how blessed you are by the number of friends you have". That being said I have now realized just how blessed I truly am. Monday was my birthday and I thanked God for all that I have in my life; my husband, children, family, and friends. Last Friday night was a dream come true for me. I had my first girls night out and they all helped me to celebrate my birthday. We went to a movie and dinner afterward, which I had to wear a crown and a button that said it was my birthday. We had a ball! God is putting all sorts of women in my life and they are quickly becoming my friends. This is something which I have never had. I never trusted any female person that came into my life because of being hurt by them in school, now it seems that they are becoming something that I can't imagine my life without. I know that we all take things for granted from time to time, but maybe we all need to take time to tell our friends just how special they are to us. True friends are the ones that you can tell them that they are getting on your last nerve and they don't get mad. I have learned that when you allow God to work on you from the inside out it tends to make you a better person all the way around. I guess my mamaw was right when she always told me "pretty is as pretty does", she was definitely in touch with God on that one. I know that it is hard to open to things that have hurt you in the past, but God knows what they are and He can help you get over those hurts, it's just a matter of laying it at his feet. Give Him the bags and let Him tote them not you, you will realize what a weight has been lifted off you. I am so glad that I have my girlfriends (I've always wanted to say that) and I am so thankful of what they mean to me and that I allowed myself to be opened up and used by God. I have posted of picture of Friday night, keep in mind that it was taken with a cell phone and no I don't have the one made with the crown on my head. Thank you girls (you know who you all are) for coming into my life.