President Barack Obama

So yesterday became an historical day....one that will definitely be in history books and we'll be telling our children, grandchildren & great-grandchildren about. The first Africa-American president in the history of the United States of America was sworn into office. "W" has gone home to Texas. A new era dawns on our country.

Bush wasn't so bad.....so he made some mistakes....he is human, right? I think all in all he was a good president. He was/is a good man and made the decisions he felt needed to be made to protect our country and our freedoms. He was dealt some difficult blows in his time as leader. I think it's easy for any of us to sit back and say "I would've done this or that". I stood behind him then and I stand behind him now.

Obama, I hope, won't be so bad either. I'm sure he'll make some mistakes, he's human too, right? He's only one man so we can't expect miracles from him. I didn't vote for Barack Obama. I felt like he's not strong enough to stand up for what he thinks is best for our country. I think he'll be easily swayed by others, rather than carrying out his vision of how great our country can be. I truly hope I'm wrong. I do know that, even though I didn't vote for him, he will have my full, complete support in making this country an even greater place to live. I wish everyone would do the same. I know there are some who will disagree with everything he says or does because of his race, political party, because he's a man or a yankee. Who knows....I just wish everyone in our country would pull together, respect the fact that he won and be grown ups about things.

Here's to a wonderful, properous, forward-moving 4 years President Obama. May God be with you!

Top 10 of 2008

Taking a cue from my friend, Elisabeth.......

2008 was truly a wonderful year and it was hard to narrow down my favorite things to 10. I'm sure once I'll post this I'll think of others and say 'MAN, that should've been on the list'

1. Visiting Puerto Rico with most of my family. - The waters and scenery were gorgeous, the food was wonderful, it was a trip we won't forget!

2. Seeing two of my wonderful daughters be accepted into a BSN nursing program - and the subsequent struggles resulting in one making it to 2nd semester and one changing her major.

3. Going to Vegas with Jerry for a long weekend - We didn't win but we had a wonderful time together

4. Spending 4th of July in Gatlinburg with most of the kids and seeing the first 4th of July parade held in the country every year.

5. Taking the girls and Maliyah to see The Nutcracker - Davin & I used to go every year when she was younger and I miss that but it was awesome to do it again with all the girls!

6. Seeing two of our daughters be Baptized and join our church and see Maliyah's dedication

7. Watching Maliyah's eyes light up anytime she saw or learned anything new this year

8. Being with my grandmother on her 91st birthday in Jan

9. Watching our kids have "the best Christmas ever!" and seeing the joy in their faces when they get something totally unexpected!

10. Waking up every day and knowing without a doubt that I'm blessed

Christmas.........finally :-)

The eggs are deviling, the dressing is in the oven, the turkey is turking and the presents are all wrapped and waiting to be opened. Ahhh.....I love Christmas. I super duper love Christmas!! There are several things I'm very excited to give this year! Mainly.....my family chipped in and bought my 92 year old grandmother a new large LCD flatscreen television. She has no idea whatsoever that she's getting it. I just can't wait to see her face. If I know her, there will be tears. She's always so very thankful for everything she gets! I love her!

There are some awesome surprises in store for the kiddos too but I can't discuss them...yet :-) This year instead of numbering the gifts for each kids, I numbered all the gifts from 1 to 150, I did put names on them again this year though.

Back in April we did a "big kid" Easter egg hunt. Jerry & I hid one camouflage colored egg for each of the kids in a 9 acre area and gave them clues to where they were. They had to hunt for them in the dark with flashlights. It was pretty awesome. Everone won from $30 to $50. They had so much fun we decided to try to figure out something to do for Christmas too. Dirty Santa was becoming old hat sooooooo.....we're going to play Who Wants to be a Fifty Dollar-aire! Britt, Keith, Davin, Carl, Amber, Kaylor and my neice Stacy and nephew, Seth will play and can win from $10 to $50. My brother and I came up with trivia questions for them. Some easy, some hard, some is family trivia. We'll give them 3 life lines. Each question they get right is worth $10 and they will randomly draw five questions. I'm excited to see how this plays out. It should be fun!

In all the hustle and bustle this year....and I hope everyone has lots.....let's please all remember the "Reason for the Season"....Jesus Christ.

"I bring you great news, for unto you is born, this day in the city of David, a Savior" (Luke 2:10)

Let these words be a comfort, bring great hope and usher in peace and love. When you're watching the faces of those kids opening the gifts, asking a blessing over a bounty of food, or just sitting back and relaxing in the afterglow of it all, remember Jesus and celebrate his birth, his life, and his love.

Merry Christmas everyone! XOXOXO

The time for giving thanks.......

It's hard to believe that it's that time of year again! Seriously the past year just flew by for me! Thanksgiving and Christmas though, they make the winter months bearable for me. :-)

There is so very much to be thankful for this year. Jerry & I have been blessed in so many ways this past year it's hard to even begin to mention them all.

I'm thankful for the love and compassion of God. He has seen me through so much and been so caring in times of trial and confusion. I know that He truly does love and care for me and assured me a place in Heaven.

I'm thankful for the most wonderful husband in the world. I'm sure you've heard the Brad Paisley song "Waitin' on a Woman"...that's my husband. He's the kindest, most patient, and caring man I know. I was so truly blessed to have met him.

I'm thankful for the love and laughter brought to us through our children and granddaughter. There is never a single day, rarely a couple of hours, in this house without laughter.

I'm thankful that life is going well for the kids. There are ups and downs in life, but so much of life for them is "ups" that I'm truly thankful for that.

I'm thankful that when there are some "downs" that Jerry and I can be there to help. (although the word help is often subjective LOL)

I'm thankful for my "virtual friends". The AB October Mommies........nowhere will you find a better group of women who share a common bond for so long and show each other so much support and friendship.

I'm thankful for the freedom we have in this country and obviously for the men and women who have fought to make it so. I hope bless them richly for giving us a country that's wonderful!

There's so much in our lives we take for granted. I hope next year to spend the entire year showing appreciation more and not trying to cram it all in at Thanksgiving :-)

I hope each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

E'beth Tagged Me :-)

I was tagged by my friend Elisabeth on her blog, so here are my answers :)

8 Things I’m passionate about:-
Jesus Christ
My family
Organ Donation
Christmas
Shopping
Vacations
Friends
Crossword Puzzles

8 Things that happened yesterday
Went shopping in Birmingham with Dash
Ate at California Pizza Kitchen
Kissed Jerry a few times
Got a phone call from someone in Canada
At leftovers for dinner
Ran into a door
Got Maliyah's Thanksgiving shirt in the mail
Worked on my Christmas list

8 Things I do now
Love my husband
Try to take care of my family
Take care of maliyah while Britt goes to school
Dance to Wiggles songs every day with Maliyah
Watch Barney more than I care to
Do laundry every Mon, Wed and Fri
Take Mimi to Wee Kid Wednesday at Imagination Place
Take Mimi to Story Time at the library on Thurs

8 Things I can not do
Run
Sit Ups
Sew
Drive a semi
Dig a hole with a shovel
Draw/paint
Keep my mouth shut sometimes
Be in high places

8 Things I often say
I love you
I'm just sayin'
Freakin'
Rockin'
'sup
So......
Genius
idiot wrapped in a moron

8 Favorite TV shows
King of Queens
Friends
House
Hell's Kitchen
American Idol
Yes Dear
Spongebob Squarepants
Angry Beavers

8 Favorite foods
6" Subway club on wheat with lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, cucumbers, oregano, salt & pepper, oil
Chocolate
Pizza (with no sauce)
Fried Green Beans with garlic
Red Lobster Biscuits
Steamed Broccoli & Carrots
Grapes
Strawberries

8 Things you may not have known about me
I love to read
I count EVERYTHING
I once won a talent show (with 2 friends singing a song we made up to the tune of Rollin' on the River called Strollin' Through the ER)
I'm a pretty decent dancer
I've been to South Africa on a safari
I hate hot dogs
I can NOT STAND lizards (no, it would NOT be funny to try to scare me with one)
I like to color

Life is Good Again!!!

Well, things didn't work out according to my plan but they did work out. Britt & Keith signed divorce papers last week. It was amicable and everyone is getting along fine. No custody disputes and Maliyah is weathering the changes wonderfully! It was a surprise and there are no concrete answers as to "why", just something that happened that we're all dealing with.

We tried for the longest to get Maliyah to call Amber "Auntie" and Davin "Aunt Dav" but instead, she has come up with her own monikers for them both. Amber is now "Aunnie" (pronounced aww-nee) and Davin is now "Dash". She's been calling them those names for quite a while now so I'm guessing that's their new names :-)

Dash and I went to Birmingham to shop today and on the way home we got to wondering what her kids and Amber's kids will call Britt. We're guessing Bibbit, like Davin did when she was little. We'll see.....that day is a long time coming, I think.

While we were in B'ham today Dash and I were talking about how Britt & I had met our virtual friend Rayne from Montgomery last year at the same shopping area we were in today. I was just looking back over my blog and it was exactly one year ago today that we met. Funny that exactly 1 year ago I was in the same town doing the same thing. I also read in last year's blog that Keith was in Canada hunting and was due back on the 20th. He's there again this year and is due back the 19th. Weird.....or not really i guess. Anway...just sayin'.

I've tried to wait until Black Friday to officially start Christmas shopping but I did start a wee bit early this year. For reasons I can't print here, lest the kids read it....I've HAD to start early!

I've been teaching a manners class at church for 3rd-6th grade. We wound that up yesterday. Now choir practice for the Christmas Cantata is in full swing, as well as getting ready for Thanksgiving then Christmas. This is SUCH a busy time of year but I dooo love it!

Hopefully I will get around to writing my Thanksgiving blog to help myself remember what all I have to be thankful for this year.

Lessons learned in the last 10 days

Patience is having faith in God's time table....learned this from my Baby Girl

No matter now much you want to protect your kids from anything hurtful, you can't always do it.

Crying will do nothing but give you a headache.

Satan works the hardest to do damage when things are going smoothly.

Grandchildren are the best thing in the whole entire world (especially Maliyah)!!

No one could possibly have a better husband than me.

Life goes on in spite of heart ache and you have to go with it.

Friends are the greatest.

No amount of shopping, talking, eating, not eating, playing with Maliyah can take away the pain of watching your child's heart ache.

There is nothing in this world I wouldn't do for my kids or Maliyah (yeah, I learned this one a long long time ago but thought I'd throw it in anyway.)

Vacations Rock!!

We had a few really great vacations this year! We try to do a few short vacations every summer instead of just one big one. This year we combined and did both.

In May, Jerry, my mom and I went back to Vegas. It was awesome, as Vegas always is. This time we hired a car & driver to take us to the hotel from the airport. Way worth the extra money! We didn't do any shows this time around either. Just kinda' hung out in the casinos. No big wins this trip which was a bummer but, when we ran out of money for the day, we went to the room and watched National Treasure 2 one night and Alvin & the Chipmunks the next. We still ended up with enough comps to get our room and all of meals free plus we had a limo to take us back to the airport. We flew on Southwest for the first time on this trip and it was a great flight both ways.

We decided to celebrate 4th of July differently this year too. We spent it in a huge cabiin in Gatlinburg TN. Britt & Keith drove up the day before the rest of us, did the grocery shopping and had the cabin all set up. Jerry & I, Kaylor, Davin & Carl went up on the 3rd. They had a Midnight Parade. It's the first Independence Day parade held in the country every year. We had a great spot and the parade was awesome! Maliyah seemed to love it even though it way waayyyy past her bedtime. We, of course went shopping and to the dinner show at the Dixie Stampede. Those are 2 can't miss activites anytime we go to Gatlinburg. On the 4th at 9 PM they have a ginormous fireworks display downtown. It was the most impressive I'd ever seen!

Later in July Britt called and said "We're out of school on Friday, let's go to the beach!". Jerry & Keith were going fishing on Friday, Keith had a tournament on Sat, Jerry was working Sat night. Davin and Amber couldn't go so Britt, Maliyah and I loaded up on Thurs afternoon and headed for Gulf Shores. I used the laptop on the way down to find us a cute little condo right on the beach. It was Maliyah's first trip to the beach. Up to this point she had been to Vegas & the mountains so we were excited to see if she liked the beach too. She love love loved the sand! She played in it, tried to eat it, dug it up, mixed it with water, whatever she could do with it. She HATED being inthe ocean though. Not even standing at the edge so it washed over her feet! She wanted it in a bucket, safely away from the water's edge so she could put her shovel in it, dip her fingers in it and lick it off (ICK!!) and mix it with sand, though. We ate dinner out both nights, had great naps in the afternoon and hung out on the beach and by the pool the rest of the trip. It was one of the best beach vacations ever!!

In August we had a big family vacation to Puerto Rico. Amber was working so she didn't get to go but Jerry & I, Britt, Keith & Maliyah, Kaylor, Davin & Carl all caught a flight out of ATL and headed out. Let me just say FIRST CLASS IS THE SHIZZZ!! The flights were great and the trip itself was a blast! We rented a condo on the beach. It was 3 bedrooms with a living room, kitchen and an upstairs penthouse/terrace with a sleeper sofa. Kaylor preferred to think of that as his own little condo LOL We went shopping, sightseeing, visited an old fort on the oceanside in Old San Juan, ate at a small local restaurant with wonderful food. Our last night there we went to a little out of the way restaurant on the beach called Pamela's. That place had the most amazing food ever! The atmosphere was nice, the people were great. It was $$$ but totally worth the cost! Afterwards, Jerry & I took Kaylor, Davin & Carl to a casino at the Ritz Carlton. It was their first trip to a casino. Davin & I played Roulette and 3 card poker. She hit up a couple of slot machines. Kaylor played mostly slots with a few hands of 3 Card Poker. None of us won :-( Except Carl......the boy sat down to play 3 Card Poker for the first time ever and walked away with over $400. Then he went to a $1 slot machine and walked away with over $150. We stared to leave and he ended up cashing in all his chips for a total of $660!! Lucky!!!

We came back on a Sat. night, had Sunday to rest up then everyone went back to work and school. Maliyah and I started hanging out every day and things are still all good :-)

I love vacations. Time away from the norm with my family, making wonderful memories......AND means we're getting closer to Thanksgiving/Christmas again!!!!!!!!

The New Journey Begins.......

So Britt & Amber finished up their academics at Gadsden State this summer. Britt ended with an overall 3.96 GPA, Amber had a 3.34. We were sooo proud of both of them. They filled out about 6 dozen forms, sent in the proper admission work to ask for acceptance to the registered nursing program then they waited.....and waited.....and waited....and waited. FINALLY after about 100 weeks, the girls were at Britt's house and I went out to the mailbox. There it was, the long awaited letter addressed to Amber with a return address of Jacksonville State University School of Nursing and Health Sciences. It was a white letter sized envelope. The writing was black. I held it for a nanosecond then called the girls "THE MAIL CARRIER IS ON HER WAY TO YOUR HOUSE AND THE LETTERS ARE HERE!!!". I jumped in the car and took off up the street to Britt's. We waited anxiously by the mailbox for the carrier to come back up her side of the street. We told her why we were waiting and she said "Yes, I've got your letter" and handed Britt a big 8x11 brown envelope addressed to Britt with the same return address as Ambers. At the same time we all got a sinking feeling. The envelopes were different so obviously they didn't contain the same information. We were right.......Britt's letter started with "Congratulations!"....Amber's started with "Unfortunately". We were all crying. Crying with happiness for Britt, sadness for Amber but mostly for the fact that their journey together would end here. They started taking college classes together in the Fall of '06 right before Britt gave birth to Maliyah. They had done it all together. They were encouragers for each other. They pushed each other to do better. Now it was stopping. They were on their own.

After things calmed down, Amber called the advisor at JSU. He told her that they only accepted 50 applicants...Amber was #54 on the list. He told her that if anyone didn't accept their slot, it would be given to the next person on the list. Again a wait. This time worse than the last.

There were a couple of people in their microbiology class who had also not been accepted. They came home from class a few days later and said the guy who was number 1 on the list got his call. I was at a car dealer with Kaylor on about August 7th or so. My cell phone rang and it was Amber saying "So I need to get my schedule worked out and all because I GOT IN!!!". The advisor had called her at work (big no no to answer her cell phone at work but she knew who it was and was totally not going to NOT answer) She was so excited she talked about a 80 miles an hour!

We went to Fuji Japanese Steak House to celebrate (for the 2nd time, we had already celebrated for Britt). The second they saw each other there, they ran, screaming, jumping....you'd have thought they had won the lottery.

Classes started Aug 28th. This semester they're studying Pharmacology, Nursing Fundamentals and Health Assessment. They're going to classes Mon-Fri 8-3 or so. They leave home at 6:45 every day. They stay after class and have formed a study group with some classmates. They're working so very hard. I know they'll do well. It's going to be a long road...a hard road...but so very very worth it in the end!

Hopefully, if you're lucky, someday after Dec 2010 you'll look up from your hospital bed and see Britt or amber taking care of you. :-)

You want me to what?!?!?

So at our church they have an annual women's Festival of Praise which consists of getting dressed up, having some of the men folk serve up a yummy dinner, a humorous speaker and a fashion show sponsored by a local clothing boutique. Now I'm not ugly....I don't think but I'm far from "model" material. Imagine my surprise when I was approached about modeling in the fashion show. Man......my head swelled to about 4 times it's normal ginormousness! Of course, then, the other shoe dropped. I found out they just thought it would be cute if we had 4 generations in the fashion show...my mom, me, one of my daughters and my granddaughter. So, now that my ego is properly deflated, it's off to The Veranda to pick out a couple of model-worthy outfits. I take all 3 of my girls. Davin is modeling with us so she tries on a few outfits and finds a really cute casual shirt to wear with jeans and dress up with some strappy shoes and jewlery. For her "dressy' outfit, she's wearing a balloon hem taffeta party dress. Cute cute cute!! So, then it was my turn....yah. Did I look cute in all the adorable outfits I picked out?? Not so much! Did I have trouble finding something to wear? Yes, not because they were ALL so darn adorable but because most of them made me look frumpy, old or like a "singer" (yeah, that's my code word for hooker.....long story). Long story short, I ended up with a black faux-wrap dress and a pair of mocha brown pants with matching top. Some really tacky purses and the gaudiest jewelry ever. I realize I'm doing this to showcase the merchandise of the boutique but I do hope everyone realizes this is soooo not my style. :-)

Life Gets Busy.....

So it's been a while......

I knew this would happen...I'd start a blog then, inevitably, life would get in the way of keeping it up. There for a while I was at least reading the blogs of others but now, there's only a few that I keep up with on a regular basis. Not sure how things got so busy but whatev! So I wrote last in Jan.....

In Feb.....well in feb pretty much nothing happened.

In March I turned 47 and my baby girl turned 21!!! Moldy Cow!!! I only have 1 more teenager! She went out with her boy friend, Britt, Keith, kaylor and some other friends and had her "first" drink (yeah, everyone that believes that raise your hand). On Easter, Maliyah had a BLAST hunting Easter eggs. We hid them for her, like, 12 times. We even spent a good bit of time in the days after Easter hiding eggs. The Sat before Easter Jerry & I did a 'big kid' egg hunt. we took 6 plastic camouflage eggs with numbers 1-6 inside and hid them (and I mean REALLY hid them) in about a 9 acre area. We gave all 6 of the big kids a page with clues to where the eggs were, gave them flashlights and sent them out into the dark to find the eggs. Surprisingly it only took about an hour and a half for them to find them all. They brought them back and got an envelope that matched the number in their egg. The envelopes contained either $30, $40 or $50. We all thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm trying to come up with other opportunites to do the same thing. I may try to do it with something special around Christmas or Thanksgiving. We'll see.

In April the big girls all took a trip for girl's week and to celebrate Davin's 21st b'day. Britt & Amber took Davin to Orlando for a week during Spring Break. They spent their days at Universal Studios, shopping and hanging by the pool. At night they were in the clubs, dancing, doing karaoke (of course, in my mind, they all back in the room in their jammies by 9). We got to keep maliyah for the week and had a blast! We were kinda' lonely though :-)

What's in store for the summer? Well, Kaylor graduates next month. That's pretty exciting for me because 1) he's my baby boy and 2) I wasn't sure we'd make it this far LOL Memorial Day weekend, Jerry & I are headed to Vegas to hit the jackpot (or leave them a wad of money, whichever). In August we're heading to MO with Britt, Keith and Maliyah to visit some "virtual" friends. There's a large group of women who all had babies the same times as Britt did and we've been friends for about 2 years now. Some of us are going to meet for a long weekend. In November we're heading with the fam to Gatlinburg. probably somewhere in between we'll hit the beach for along weekend. Who knows??

We've gotten pretty involved with the youth group at church. Well, Jerry more so than me. We chaperoned a trip for them to Six Flags last Saturday. In June Jerry is going with them to New Orleans for a week for a mission trip. He's looking forward to that.

May 9th is homeschool day at Six Flags and Jerry & I are taking all the kids and their respective significant others. It will be Maliyah's first trip so I'm pretty excited about that.

So, that pretty much catches anyone who cares up to speed :-)

Gratuity Added?!?!?!

So you can ask anyone who has known me for any length of time, all restaurants used to have a picture of me hung up in the back with a warning "BE NICE TO HER...SHE WILL CALL THE COMPANY AFTER SPEAKING TO THE MANAGER". I've never had a problem complaining when service or food was bad......EVER. However, in the last few years I've tried to be more forgiving of mistakes. I've asked for the manager frequently when we've had great service to compliment the server or meal. We normally tip at least 20% for good service.

NOW.....for the issue at hand. I was thinking the other day about those places that add a gratuity automatically for parties or 6 or more, 8 or more, whatever. One of my daughters brought up a good point. If they know the tip is going to be added anyway, do you think they just intentionally go slow or don't try as hard to do a good job for that party? Hmmm. Something to think about anyway.

There's been twice in my life that I've approached the manager and refused to pay the added gratuity because the service was THAT bad. Neither time did I have any problem having the tip removed from the bill.

What if it's great service though and they're just gypped the server out of the extra tip I would've given by just adding that 18%?? If service has been exceptional, we'll usually hand the server a little extra on the way out but.....I guess it's just a practice I disagree with in general.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!

Another year come and gone and what a wonderful one it was!!! My family made it through relatively unscathed :-) We're looking forward to an even better year in 2008 if that's even possible!

We managed to get a lot worked into this past year. We started it off in the usual fashion New Year's eve of '06 hubby and I were asleep before midnight :-) In Jan we had a super surprise party for my grandmother's 91st birthday. It was a raging success and I'm very happy to say, in 9 more days, God willing, we'll have a quiet celebration for her 92nd.

In April Jerry & joined the First Baptist Church of Hokes bluff on Easter then were both Baptized the following Sunday. We've really been blessed to be part of such a wonderful congregation. We were welcomed warmly and have been made to feel a part of everything there.

In May Britt, Keith, Maliyah, my mom, Jerry and I took a trip to Vegas for a week. It was my mom's first trip there and she loved it. We stayed at the Excalibur and managed to leave behind enough money that they ended up comping our room AND all our meals. We had a great time though and plan to go back for a weekend this summer.

In June, our nephew, Jeremiah, graduated high school and we (Britt, Keith, Maliyah, Amber, Jerry & I) took a trip to PA for his graduation party. Both Jerry's brothers were there and it was an awesome time. First time Grammy has had all her boys together in 17 years. All 3 of them have been in the military and it's been impossible for them to gather at the same place. There was soooo much food and so many people there! We're really hoping to have an annual reunion amongst the immediate family. I know that would make Grammy and Pap extremely happy! By the way, we flew back first class and have decided to NEVER fly coach again :-)

July saw our annual 4th of July bash at my mom's pool. We still have a good time but it's just not the same without my dad. July 4th and Christmas were definitely his fave holidays.

August was the month we let Keith semi-plan our vacation. I was planning a trip to the beach but was having a hard time finding a large condo that would take pets that had a private pool. Keith suggested we go to Gatlinburg instead. What a great idea he had!! We rented a beautiful cabin (seriously, it was gorgeous!!). Britt, Keith, Maliyah, Jerry and I stayed the whole week. Amber got to come up for a few days. Davin and Kaylor were both working and didn't make it :-( We did something different every day and saw a different dinner show every night. It was great!! We're thinking of making the trip again this year for Thanksgiving.

September was boring LOL

Oct saw Maliyah's first birthday!!! I can NOT believe the child is over a year old already. It's just flown by. She is such a wonderful baby!! She's pleasant almost all the time and never ceases to put a smile on my face. Words could never begin to express how much I love that child.

Of course, you know about Thanksgiving already.

We couldn't find an Angel Tree for kids around so we sponsored a child through the Baptist Missions Center. We also did an Angel Tree for the elderly. We chose an elderly man at a nursing home and got him shirts, sweat pants, socks and houseshoes. I hope he enjoys them. :-)

Christmas Eve we (meaning all the kids this time plus a couple of their friends that are like family) gathered with my extended family on my dad's side at my grandmother's house. We had homemade vegetable soup, tons of desserts and exchanged gifts. Afterwards we gathered at Britt & Keith's house for Jerry & I to open gifts from the kids and each other. The kids outdid themselves this year. I got a ginormous set of super nice luggage, a Coach purse, Coach contact case, Coach medicine case, spice rack, mirror and A COACH WATCH with diamond markers. It is GORGEOUS!! Jerry got a beautiful personalized archaeological Bible, new tree stand, new camo and a Liberty Bow. We also gave each of the kids one gift from us. Instead of all the kids exchanging gifts this year, each one of them bought a $25 gift card, put them in card holders and we drew numbers. Whomever had #1 drew a card. Whomever had #2 could either take that one from person #1 or draw a new one. Everyone ended up with a great gift card and it was tons of fun.

Britt, Keith and Maliyah stayed home Christmas eve so Santa could visit. Kaylor stayed at Davin's house so they could go to their dad's early Christmas morning. This was the first Christmas ever since I've become a mom that I didn't have all my children sleeping under my roof on Christmas eve. I gotta' tell you it was sad.

Christmas morning we got up early and went to Britt & Keith's. We were there when Maliyah got up to see her reaction to the toys from Santa. Jerry & Keith made breakfast and my mom and grandmother joined us for that.

Later Christmas morning all my kids along with my brother, SIL, neice and nephew gathered at my mom's to open gifts from her. Then we came back to our house for Christmas Dinner that I made.

That afternoon, all the kids gathered here again and Jerry & I played Santa. It was pretty much a concensus that this was the best Christmas ever but then the kids say that every year :-) It was definitely the year of surprises. The kids had almost no idea of anything they were getting so it was pretty awesome!! Aside from clothes, games, household and miscellaneous items they had asked for, the big things for them were that Britt got a Coach purse, Coachwallet, Canon Rebel XT camera with extra lens. Davin got a Dooney & Bourke purse and wallet, Sony digital camera, Wii and a bunch of stuff for it. Kaylor got a really nice digital camera (can't remember what kind) that he was wanting , Wi-Fi hookup for his Xbox live, a new laptop & wireless internet. Amber got bunkbeds, a Wii with games, coach purse & wallet, a new laptop and wireless internet. Keith got a Liberty Bow and carl got a gas grill. Of course, Maliyah got everything imaginable between Santa and grandparents. She got a Peg Perego train to ride on that has real tracks. The thing covers Britt's living room. She also got a swing set, a battery powered car and a freakin' roller coaster LOL It's 10 ft long and has a car that takes her up and down little hills. She got a recliner for her house and a Pottery Barn chair for here. All in all...it was a great christmas, mainly because we were all together, healthy, happy, had a nice warm house, food to share and family and friends to share it with.

New Year's eve I made spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. My mom came to visit. Maliyah was at her other grandparent's house so Jerry and I carried on our tradition of sleeping through the changing of the year :-)

I wish each of you the most properous, healthiest, happiest New Year possible!!
XOXO

Christmas Shopping Crazies!!!

Yes, it's my favorite time of year. The time of year when my Christmas Shopping Crazies set in!! Starts the day after Thanksgiving and lasts until Christmas Eve day. There is no cure, no medication to slow it down, it's something I live with...and love every minute of it!

It starts off simple enough...I give my kids a blank list to fill out with their Christmas wishes. Along with the blank list is a page with the "rules". (rules are necessary because of things/people put on lists past). Anyway, the list usually has about 20 blanks to fill in. I give it to them around Halloween and ask that it be returned to me, completed, by Thanksgiving. After everyone leaves here T'giving night, I sit at the computer and compile my initial shopping list. I say initial because "the list" goes through several revisions, at least once daily.

Once I make my first two shopping trips, the Fri and Sat after t'giving, my first big revision comes about. I can usually see that one or two of the kids are going to have more than the planned 20 gifts...so I have to go in and add more for the other kids. Why you may ask....because I'm OCD like that and every single person must have the exact same number of gifts.

I shop almost daily until Christmas eve. I try to get the most important or hard to find items first. I try not to finish up too early, as this can be a problem. I feel I HAVE to shop every day until Christmas and if I've finished everyone's list and go shopping anyway, I will most certainly find something for someone that I just have to buy. That throws the whole count off and I end up having to add one more thing to everyone's list.

So far, this year, I've done better than last. I started out with 20 gifts each and have increased it to 28 each because I've almost finished with 2 of the kids but keep finding things I HAVE to get for them.

When I first saw the kids' lists this year, I assumed they thought we planted a money tree in the back yard this summer but it turns out that since Amber dumped her boyfriend, they knew we'd have more $$ to spend on them :-) Smart kids!!

Normally we wrap all the gifts, don't put names on them and put them under the tree for Christmas morning. Everyone normally knows most of the things they're getting. This year I'm trying really hard to keep most everything a suprise. Each one of the kids are getting something they have NO IDEA is coming their way!! I'm super excited. I'm even going to put names on the gifts this year AND number them so they don't open a smaller gift first that gives away one of their big surprises!

I'm sure lots of people take issue with buying so many gifts or spending so much on Christmas. I don't really care. My husband works really hard all year so that we can spend like we do every Christmas. Sure, we buy stuff for the kids all year long but not like we do at Christmas. The kids may be a little spoiled but they always show appreciation and enjoy what they're given. Makes it all the more fun to give to them :-)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

It truly IS the most wonderful time of the year. Out of all the holidays, occassions, anything you can name from the day before Thanksgiving until Christmas Day is my absolute favorite!!

We're having my entire side of the family here for T'giving Dinner. I soooo wish Jerry's family could be here too. I've been a baking fool today. Made 3 kinds of cookies, a chocolate chip pie, 2 pecan pies and 2 pumpkin pies. Yum!!

I've been thinking today while things were in the oven about how much we really have to be thankful for. Besides the obvious things like being healthy and happy......

I'm thankful for my granddaughter, Maliyah. She's the apple of my eye and brings so much into our lives every day. I'm thankful that she lives closeby and I can see her often. I'm thankful that she has such wonderful parents to care for her, teach her and help her grow. I know I'll never have to be one of those grandparent's who worry that their grandchild is being mistreated or neglected.

I'm thankful for my children...now that may seem like a given but anyone who knows our kids knows how truly blessed we are in that dept. They all have their crazy quirks but they're all pleasant, funny, respectful of others, caring and kind hearted. All things I hoped they would grow up to be.

I'm thankful for our church. Jerry & I joined the Baptist Church here back in April on Easter. We were both baptized the following Sunday. We've been made to feel so welcome and accepted in that church. We have a wonderful pastor, great Sunday School class. We came to realize that life here on earth is too short to waste it on being angry at others, trying to get revenge or wanting more "stuff". We're blessed in all that we have and for that we are thankful.

I'm thankful that no matter how bad things may seem sometimes, I have the ability to look around at others and realize that things here are good. :-) Life isn't always a bed of roses but it only takes one look around to realize that it's pretty darn close. Those occasional trials only make the victory sweeter :-)

I'm thankful to live in this country and for the men who fought and still fight to keep it free. We all may complain about things here "in America" sometimes but we still live in the greatest country in the world!!

I'm thankful for the things my daddy taught me. There are some people in life who make things unpleasant. They try to take my joy. They're angry or bitter for whatever reason and try to project that on others. My daddy taught me how not to let that happen and try not to get angry at them for being that way. It's not always easy to do but I try to.

More than anything else, I'm thankful for family and laughter. Those 2 things go hand in hand to me. I have the greatest family in the world and we're so blessed to be able to find things to laugh about and to be able to spend time together. I can't imagine life without them. There are so many people in this world who have neither family nor laughter. How sad that must be.

I wish each of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday and hope you each take time to realize just how much you have to be thankful for too!!

Mental Roller Coasters Make Me Vomit

So this has truly been one of those kinda' days.

I got an email yesterday that some news I was waiting for should be in today. I waited.....and waited.....and waited. Finally at 4:30 I called, everyone was gone for the day. GRRRR

While I was doing all that waiting, I took my grandmother to the eye doctor for 2 freakin' hours!! Now Mamaw will be 91 years old in Jan so I don't expect a lot from her but by the time we left the office, I wanted to pull my hair out. She asked me no less than 9 times what she should bring for T'giving dinner (nothing), she asked me no less than 4 times how Kaylor behaves with Maliyah (fine, he loves her dearly), she asked me at LEAST 12 times when Keith is coming home (tonight), she said 8 times (progressively louder each time) that the office was too busy today and they must be taking off the rest of the week and trying to cram everyone in today. WHEW!!!

So I take her home, and then set off to run some errands and grocery shop for my T'giving dinner. Went by Walmart but didn't buy groceries there as i had a big $$ off coupon for Food World. At Food World, they were out of 4 of the items I needed so I have to go back to Walmart tomorrow to pick those things up GRRRR

On the way home, I stopped at my grandmothers to drop off her sweet potatoes that she asked for (and told me 87 times not too little and not too big because she can't carry them if they're too big and she has to put them in the sun to dry out so when she bakes them they'll be nice and moist).

Jerry called to let me know he lost his wallet. ARGGHHHH!!! He left it in the seat of the truck at work, thinks when he went to the gym he knocked it out. He retraced all his steps and can't find it. Only had $60 cash but military ID, driver's license, work ID, gov't credit card, all that good stuff. So I called the 2 banks and cancelled his debit cards. Was on the phone for freakin' ever. 30 min later, he calls to tell me he found it. ***sigh***

So got off the phone with him and hear a weird noise in the kitchen. I go in and discover it's only the water in the fridge then I look down and see water all over the floor. CRAP! I pull the fridge out and the little clear tube that carries water has a minute hole it and it's spraying everywhere. The tube is small....and clear...and the hole is tiny so everytime I move it to try to find the hole it's spraying me in the face. I can only find scotch tape to cover it...doesn't work. Finally found the knob under the sink and just turned the water off (which, by the way I've tried to use 3 times since I shut it off).

Britt came by here and said she was going to Walmart. I gave her money and asked to pick up the items they didn't have at the grocery store. She just saved me a trip to the madhouse called Walmart tomorrow!!! She called and said they don't have the items either. Figures.

If the rest of the night will just remain status quo I'll be a happy woman :-)

Hung Out With Some Virtual Friends...and They Aren't Axe Murderers

So Britt & I belong to a message board made up of about 54 mommies who all had babies born in Oct '06. Most of us started chatting early in their pregnancy. We've gone through a lot together (yeah, even though I didn't actually have a baby). I'm the resident "Nana" on the board, the only one actually. I was the contact for many of the mommies when they went into labor or gave birth, they or their significant other called me so I could post the news right away on the board. We've been together through surgeries, baby illnesses, a couple of marriages, a break up, several moves, couple of deployments and tons more. There are mommies from all over the country, all races and religions. We have one mommy living in Germany while her hubby is stationed there. We've even agreed to pair some of the kids off in arranged marriages (relax, not really).

Anyway, a group of 4 of the mommies met a few months ago up in Chicago for a zoo trip. I missed that and was terribly sad. Then a couple of other times a couple of mommies have gotten to meet up. So far no one has turned out bad, everyone came back alive from the meetings.

In the last week I've had the pleasure of meeting 2 of the mommies/babies from the message board. One from MS (Mandy) and her husband and 2 boys. They were driving through here going to visit family and we (Britt, maliyah & I) hit up an IHOP for b'fast. We had lots of laughs, all 3 of the kids were nutty and it was great to get to finally meet Mandy after talking to each other for so long. Today we (Britt, maliyah, Amber & I) got to meet another mommy (Rayne) from Montgomery and her daughter. We had beautiful weather for walking outdoors and shopping. We had a great lunch at Macaroni Grill and had tons of fun!! We hope to meet more of our virtual friends in the near future.

Please Keep Your Under Garments On!

Ever have one of those situations in life that seriously has you sitting on pins and needles?? I have one of those right now. Not one that I'm at liberty to talk about but still.....It's like making plans but not being able to complete them because it all hinges on one thing in particular but you can't NOT make plans because that would just be silly. Crazy.

So I just got a call from my 2 oldest daughters. They spent the night in Nashville TN with my ex-step-daughter (hereinto referred to as Emily for brevity) last night. Apparently they had lots of fun. From what I understand there was some alcohol involved, Coyote Ugly (as well as every other bar in a 12 block radius), dancing on bars, body shots and talk of selling undergarments. Not sure, as the mom, I want all the sordid details on that one but I do take comfort in learning that they are all returning home with their underwear intact. From what I do understand the older daughter told the other daughter and Emily that the guy wanting is was like 50 so he was OLD and that was just gross LOL. I'm thinking I should also thank my lucky stars that the mechanical bull was out of order or I feel sure I'd have spent the wee morning hours driving to an ER in Nahsville where broken bones and head injuries were being attended.

I love being close to my daughters and they confide in me the things they do but at times while I'm in the role of "friend" the "mom" in me jumps up in my head and screams "YOU DID WHAT?!?!"

I think I may have gotten someone in trouble...

So yesterday was veteran's day. There is a clothing store in our town called Goody's clothing. They always give people with a military ID 15% off. That's really nice of them. Well, yesterday they gave military families 25% off instead. Amber and I went shopping there. At the checkout counter the young lady told us if we apply for a Goody's card we get an extra 40% off making a total of 65% off our total purchase with no exclusions (yeah, I know mathematically it shouldn't be 65% but she said it not me). Anyway, I went back and picked up several other items to purchase. Ended up getting $334 worth of merchandise for $97. How awesome is that!

We met up with Britt after her dentist appt, told her about the deal then we all went back to Goody's. She picked up tons of things too. Only the girl that checked us out was no longer there. We got to the counter to pay and Britt asked if it was still 40% off to open a credit card. The girl behind the counter said "No, it's only 25% for opening a card with 25% off with military ID but that discount excludes jeans (which Britt had 6 pair of(". I explained that we had been there earlier and were told 40%. I asked her to call the manager to make sure. The manager said I must've been mistaken, no one there would've told me that. Ummm......yah she did. I described her and told her about my earlier purchase with 65% off. She said she wasn't going to make me pay the difference but that the earlier clerk was definitely mistaken. I think when she gets to work today she's in trouble. Hope she doesn't get in too much trouble. If you're that girl.....you know who you are.....I'm sorry.

Now that I think of it, Britt had on one of her new shirts last night and I really liked it and thought about going back to Goody's today to pick up one for myself....maybe I'll wait and go later...much later.

What if Nothing is Funny.....

So if I tell myself I'm going to post and I have nothing to say.....then what? I have a headache. My mind is full of crap. Davin's boyfriend's dad died suddenly at the age of 49. No one can find his will.. He was divorced, has 2 kids that are 22 and 24. And adopted daughter estranged from teh family for 9 years has shown up wanting her part of stuff. they're fairly certain he has a will, update in the last 2-3 years. No one knows where it is, who the attorney was, nada. We've gone through every piece of paper in that house.....nothing. Anyway........my head is full of crap trying to help them figure out something.

I'm going to get a massage this morning. I need one. No, I don't work outside the home. I stay home and play with my 1 year old granddaughter all day but still....I need one. The girl that's doing it though is like a lady wrestler. She almost killed me last time. Seriously, my back hurt worse the next day than before she started :-) I'm going to have to tell her to ease up on an old lady today.

We have a birthday party to go to this afternoon. One of my ex-husband's daugher's baby. (yeah, go try to figure that one out). I've been married a few times. Well, OK 6 to be exact but who's counting?

I married Britt's dad, we stayed married 7 months and divorced after a big fancy wedding, stayed divorced 4 months then remarried (at the courthouse) for 3 years. He's remarried and we are friendly. I really like his wife. She's a great stepmom to Britt. He was a forklift operator (this is important later in the story)

I married Davin & Kaylor's dad. We had a fance ceremony (tux and fancy dress) at the courthouse. We stayed married for 5 years. He's remarried and has a son. We're friendly with them as well. Nice people (just not good enough to be my hubby). He's a mechanic.

I married a guy that I knew from work. We dated 6 weeks then got married. I was doing a 2nd job as a contract nurse for the health dept, he was doing a day shift at the police dept. We met on break at the court house and got married. He's a jerk (well, was a cop by profession). anyway, I put him most of the way through lawschool. None of us like him. We were married 5 years. He's still a jerk.

I married another guy I knew from work. We knew each other for years then he got divorced, I was divorced so we got married. We got married on the riverboat in Chattanooga TN. He had 2 girls that lived with us. We were married for 3 months then while I was at work one night, he packed his stuff and moved back in with his ex-wife. Nice. We got an anullment (so technically that one doesn't count). He was a fireman.

It's been said that I've been married to The Village People. HAA! (see that's why the occupation was important. Get it?)

Anyway the fireman's daugters and Britt and I still stay in touch. The older one is Britt's age. She's married now with 3 kids. One is a month younger than Maliyah. We get together for lunch sometimes, take the kids to the park and such. Today we're going to lanie's b'day party. HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY LANIE!!

Man, for someone with nothng to say, i sure said a lot.

Everything is For Sale.....For a Price

A little story from my previous life as an ER nurse....

I was charge nurse in the ER from 7P to 7A. We had a guy named Doyle that came in allll the freakin' time. Doyle annoyed everyone to no end. Doyle was in the ER on a particularly busy night. We had no beds so we put him in a chair in the hall. I was busy running all over and took a second out to greet a co-worker who was pulling a shift on the ambulance. He gave me a hug then went on his way. For about 1/2 hour after seeing him everytime I'd go into or out of a room or walk into the hallway Doyle would yell out to me "HEY LADY! HEY LADY!!". I responded each time with "Doyle I'm busy, go sit back down the doc will be with you shortly". An older man and his extremely hot son came to me at the desk and inquired about a patient we had seen earlier. Being single at the time I, of course, set out to impress the hot son. I put on my best ER nurse smile and said " follow me out front and I'll find out where she is for you". THey followed me out to the area where the log book was, I found the info they needed and turned to find them both looking at me with huge smiles on their faces. I thought to myself "Man.....I must be making quite an impression!! Bet he thinks I'm hot too". I pointed them in the right direction and they went on their way, the dad whispering to the son. Feeling pretty proud of myself, I trotted to the back and picked up where I left off. On my next trip in to the hall (by now about an hour since I'd greeted my friend) Doyle again called out "HEY LADY". Exasperated from the other end of the hall I yelled "Doyle, I'm busy.....what do you want?". His reply....."I was just wondering why you have a sign on your back that says "For Rent....Cheap"

As my ego slipped to the floor and under the desk, the patients within ear shot giggled, the doc and my co-workers cracked up. I set about trying to find a way to get back at my "friend".
Good times :-)

Laundry Mystery Solved

For the last year and half or so there have been 5 people living in this house. Jerry and Myself, Kaylor, Amber and Amber's fiance' Chad. Every Monday I had a mountain of laundry to do. Heck, most every day I had a mountain, some days only a hill, but still.....I have had to do laundry every single weekday for the last 18 months. On Mondays is was an allllll day thing because I chose not to keep up on weekends. Anyway.....you get the point. 2 weeks ago Amber broke off the engagement with Chad and he moved out. The following week I couldn't figure out where all the laundry went. I searched everyone's room thinking there would be dirty laundry lurking behind the doors, in the closets......nope. Nothing. I did laundry as usual on Monday. Took me 3 loads. Hmmm something's not right here. Tuesday, didn't even have enough laundry to do a whole load. Wednesday I did one load of laundry. Thursday when I had virtually no laundry to do it hit me like a bolt out of the blue....CHAD. He was missing and so was his dirty laundry. You wouldn't think one person would make that much difference but when I thought about it, he took a shower before work and put on clean clothes, of course. He took a change of clothes with him to take to the gym. He changed at the gym, came home afterwards, took another shower and put on clean clothes. Before bed he'd take yet another shower. Ahhh....mystery solved.

Now, while I have to find something else to count (see OCD blog) I can at least vouch for Chad's cleanliness if the need should ever arise.

A Fun Day........or Not

So it's happening already. A monkey wrench in the works, a kink in my plan, a bump in the road, call it what you will. I don't get to blog a bunch today. I'm going to an auction in Atlanta with Brittany today. I've been going to these auctions since 2001. This is Britt's first time. Jerry & I used to go with my mother, brother Jeff and his wife, Lynn. We used to have tons of fun at these things. Then my brother and his wife stopped going so often, Jerry started a new job so now I go with my mom. Someday when I write more about my mom you'll understand this better but my mom managed to take alllll the fun out of going. I'm not sure how she does it but she has a talent for doing that. At any rate, it's to the point now that I dread going. I get grumpy for 2 days before I know I have to go. So, why don't I stop going, you may ask......again, you'd have to know my mother. My telling her I'm not going any more would be akin to telling her I'd decided to no longer wear clothes. It would just not be pretty (her reaction, silly, not me with no clothes....well, OK that too). I'm hoping it'll be more fun since it's Britt & I going. We usually have a good time wherever we are.

After reading some of Dawn's blog last night, I started noticing that I, too, start lots of my posts, sentences, stories with the word "so". Not sure why, it just sounds right so I'm making no attempt to stop doing it.

It's freakin' freezing (I also use the word freakin' a lot) here this morning so I'm out to warm up the car.
XOXO

Sippy Cup Battles

Maliyah had her one year doctor appt on Oct 8th. Dr Snell told Britt it was time to get rid of the bottle and move on to sippy cups. Britt & Maliyah went cold turkey! It was awesome. For 2 whole days she used her playtex sippy cup (stage 2) and all was well with the world. Day 3 rolled around and Maliyah rebelled! No more sippy cup for her. She'd just do without any liquids at all rather than drink from a sippy cup. Day 4 we were getting deperate to get liquids in her. We used straws to pour some in her mouth, let he drink from our cups, whatever we could do. We had Avent sippy cups, Nuby sippy cups, Playtex Sippy cups, Baby Einstein sippy cups, Cups with and without valves. Cups with and without handles. At one point Britt lined up 6 cups with milk in them and let her try each one. She refused them all.

Last Saturday we were at Babies R Us. Britt found a new kind of sippy cup. A Nuby sport sipster. It has a straw like top but you have to turn it up to drink from it. She bought one to try. We went to lunch at Outback Steakhouse. Britt gave her the cup and low and behold.....she liked it!!! We went back to BRU and bought 3 more. Yesterday she drank out of it and got mad when I took it away!

The sippy cup wars may be over........we hope!

I have OCD

Yes, the rumors are true. I have OCD. Not the kind you read about in psychology textbooks where people interrupt their day because they are compelled to wash their hands 72 times. Not the kind where I can't function. I guess I have functional OCD. i can carry on with my normal activites of daily living just with a few quirks.

I count my laundry. I count items of clothing as I put them in the washer then count backwards as they go from the washer to the dryer then backwards again as I fold then forwards again as I put them away.

I count steps as I go up or down then backwards when going back up or down them.

I can't stand for a drawer or cabinet door to not be completely closed. I've put laundry way and almost closed a drawer all the way, tried to walk away and couldn't do it. They HAVE to be completely closed. Jerry left to go to Keith's one day. I went into the kitchen and found every cabinet door and drawer opened. Funny man :-)

I hate walking in a circle. If I'm at the bed and turn to go to the closet to put something away, I have to turn and go back the same way. If I go in a complete cirlce I have to turn and go the other way to "unwind".

I have a list over every bill we have to pay every month, how much it is and when it's due. Not so bad. But then i also have a page where every bill is listed according to which pay check it comes from. Each bill also has it's own seperate page where the payments are marked off and dated. I look at our accounts online every single day to be sure I don't miss something. I hope when I die, my family appreciates my hard work ;-)

I have a file in my file cabinet labeled "Stuff You'll Need if I Die". One of the things inside is my obituary. yes, I wrote my own obituary. Of course, the family is free to change it if they want, I was just afraid they'd leave something out.

You never really realize how strange you are until you see it in writing :-).

Boob Jobs and Bras

So you get a boob job. You tell the plastic surgeon what size you want to be and then you are. That's pretty much the size you'll stay. Your boobs will stay where they belong now. They won't succumb to gravity. You'll be a 90 year old with perky boobs (well, assuming you live to be 90). When you die and they lay you in the coffin your boobs won't end up in your arm pits. People will come to pay their respects and say "awww, look, her boobs still look nice". Those things are all true and wonderful. Now some will say, though, that once you have a boob job, you know what size you are and you can buy any bra you want in that size and voila! it fits. That's a lie and anyone who says it is a big fat liar! Before my surgery I could only find one style of bra that fit. It was a 34.00 bra from Victoria's Secret. Pricey but worth it because it could undo the effects of time and gravity. $7700.00 and painful surgery later, I've tried on every bra known to man....the only one that fits well is a 45.00 bra from Victoria's Secret. How is that fair?

Recovering Shopaholic

OK so totally not trying to recover :-) I used to go to the mall almost every day...seriously, 3-4 times weekly. That's harder to do now with a baby in tow. I hate staying home though. You can only clean and do laundry so many times (OK so I have a housekeeper, takes care of the cleaning part) a day. I compensate now by going to lunch with the girls 3-4 times a week. Usually just the girls because Kaylor is a night owl and prefers to sleep till at least noon. He's homeschooled so that works well for him :-)

Anyway, we found that we were spending 20 min trying to decide where to go or arguing over who had to choose last time. We devised a plan....We wrote the names of the 25 places we eat on slips of paper, folded them and put them in a bag. We choose a restaurant and that's where we have lunch! The first day we put the plan into action, Britt didn't want to go to the chosen restaurant so she vetoed it. We decided then we could each have one veto a day. The next restaurant chosen was good with us all so we go there only to find out they're not open for lunch :-( Was the plan really gong to work? We just went to a place close by and decided to try again the next day. Since then the plan has worked great! We ended only going to each one like once a month and the choice gets made quickly!! Awesome! Today we're having barbeque!!

As for the shopping, I still freakin' love to shop! I'm obsessed with Coach purses and shoes of all kinds. I love love love to shop for the kids and Jerry. Now that it's almost time for Christmas shopping (I can't officially start until the day after Thanksgiving) I'm all in a tizzy about it! I can't wait!!!!!!!!

I give each of the kids a Christmas list to fill out, due back to me by Thanksgiving. Everyone has to have the same number of gifts. I'm OCD like that. I still like to play "Santa". Every year all the kids would stay here Chrismas eve night so Santa could come. Every gift was wrapped and under the tree. Christmas morning everyone would open a gift and then figure out to whom it belonged because I didn't put names on anything! It was awesome!

Christmas was always nuts around here for 2 days because of tradition. Christmas eve was at my grandmother's house with my extended family. Then the kids would exchange gifts here. Christmas morning was Santa at like 4 AM then breakfast here with my mom and grandmother. Then at 10 we go to my mom's to let he do "santa" too. Back to my grandmother's for Christmas dinner then the kids would go to their dads or their significant other's family and everyone would be exhausted by 3 or 4 Christmas day. Tradition will change this year. Hopefully for the better. Christmas eve still at my grandmothers (she'll be 92 in Jan so who knows how much longer we'll get to have that tradition) then here for the kids to exchange gifts with each other. Britt, Keith and Maliyah will stay at their own home this year but the rest of the kids will be here. When Maliyah wakes up (usually around 7:30) we'll all go there to be with her to open her gifts from Santa. We'll cook breakfast there then still go to my mom's around 10. All the kids will come here then for 'santa' about 5 Christmas afternoon. Hopefully everyone won't be exhausted because we won't have to get up at 4 inthe morning to cram everything in. I think instead of cooking a full meal though we'll do finger foods and desserts though.

I HEART CHRISTMAS!!!

OK enough of the past......I think I've just decided all my posts now are going to be about the present and the future. Unless, of course, I think of something I just HAVE to share. :-)

The baby arrives!

Yeah, it's been a year now. Time for reflection and remembering. The whole time Britt was pregnant the girls and I spent almost every Sat together (still do). We'd get massages then go shopping. We'd hit every maternity shop and baby clothing dept we could find. We traveled all over for shopping. We had a blast. Then on Sat nights we'd all meet at the house with the whole family for family night. We'd throw steaks or burgers on the grill then play board or card games. Towards the end of Britt's pregnancy she took off work. She and I started going to the mall and walking every day. Trying to get the baby to come on out! We'd walk the mall, walk the track at the park, anything we could do.

On Sept 30th, we had the same plan, went shopping, ate dinner here, played Uno for a while. Since Britt was due Oct 1st, when they left at 9:30 I reminded her she'd go into labor the next day. At 1AM the phone rang. It was Britt. She'd started having pains about 10 and was now ready to go to the hossy. She asked if I wanted to wait at home until they found out something. Apparently she was delirious. There was no way I was missing one second of this!! I ran around the house grabbing camera, video camera, waking everyone up along the way. Grabbed shirts I had made for the kids (Ambers and Davin's each said "No, I'm the best aunt" on the back, Kaylor's said "But I'm the only uncle", even though he's not he's the only one that was there). We jumped in the car and headed the 1/4 mile to Britt's house to find her pacing the floor and Keith leisurely getting dressed. At the hospital, she was dilated 2 cm so they kept her. My friend Diane, was working L&D, thankfully. Britt got some pain meds, hooked up to monitors and we waited.....and waited.....and waited. Lots of folks came in. By the time Maliyah decided to make an appearance everyone and their brother were there. I was getting delerious from lack of sleep. I was starving but didn't want to leave. We sent Davin and Amber out for food and had a picnic in the waiting room....all 15 of us :-) Finally at around 5 or 5:30 Sun afternoon she was fully dilated and ready to push. The nurse, Pam Farley and Dr Christenberry were all great about letting everyone Britt wanted stay in the room. keith was there, of course. Me, Britt's stepmom, Davin, Amber and Britt's best friend, Leigh. At 6 PM Maliyah Rayne decided to show up, ripping and tearing her way out at a wiggly 7 pounds 6 ounces and 21 inches long.

In the last year she's grow up sooo much. She has a wonderful personality. She loves people, loves to wave and throw kisses. She's been walking a while now. Keeps me on my toes for sure :-) We have a chihuahua and a Westie. She loves the dogs and is very gentle with them. She loves the Wiggles, Barney and Baby Einstein. She's a very good eater (finally!!). Still doesn't talk much, Momma, Dada, Look, Dog. That's about it. She has her daddy and her pop wrapped around her little finger. She's so amazing and full of wonder and curiosity. I never thought I could love a child as much as I loved my babies but guess what.....I do :-)

I love you Maliyah!
XOXO

OK......I admit it..........

I LEFT MY SON AT THE MALL...........FORGOT HIM!

Britt & Keith had been trying for a while to have a child. After going to a fertility clinic for a couple of years, they had started looking into adoption. One Thurs in late Jan, it was the 19th I think, I was Britt's house and she was showing me some adoption literature she had rec'd in the mail that day. The folliwng Mon Jan 23rd Britt called and asked if we wanted to go out to dinner. I had a doctor's appt at 4:45 but figured I'd be out in time to make it. She even wanted me to call Jerry to see if he could meet us at the restaurant. She asked my mom to go, Amber, Davin and their respective boyfriends at the time, and Kaylor. I knew something was up. Could she be pregnant? No way, she had just looked at adoption literature 4 days earlier. That was it, they were going to announce that they had decided to adopt. How exciting!! I was so happy for them.

So halfway through dinner Keith says "Do y'all want the good news or the bad news? The bad news is someone has to pay for dinner. There is no good news". So I sat there waiting...and waiting...and waiting. Finally Britt couldn't take it anymore and said "Ok I can't stand it, mom you're going to be a grandmother". After spitting out my mouth full of tea, I screamed. Everyone in Logan's steakhouse looked at me like I was nuts but I didn't care. I WAS GOING TO BE A GRANDMOTHER!!!!!! Sweetest words I've ever heard (well besides "You're going to be a mom") Turns out that at Britt's appt at the fertility clinic that day, her pregnancy test as positive. I couldn't eat. i was waaayyyy too exicited! I was ready to shop (yah, I always want to shop but really really wanted to then). As soon as we were done Britt, kaylor and I headed to the mall. We parted ways with Kaylor at the door and told him we wouldn't be there long...it was already almost 8 PM. We hit Gap, Belks, Parisians and cleared out the baby depts of every cute outfit we could find, boy or girl (figured we're return whichever we didn't need later). Still chattering away, I dropped Britt off at home, went to our house and showed Jerry & Amber the cute things we had bought. After about 20 min Jerry said "Where's Kaylor?" OMG.........I HAD LEFT MY SON AT THE MALL!!!!! I jumped in the car, called his cell phone and said "Where are you?" He said "I'm outside the closed mall, where are YOU??" Yah, he still reminds me of that to this day, usually when he wants something :-)

Sooooo.....

Brittany goes to school full time, hoping to graduate in '10 with a BS in nursing. I watch Maliyah during the day while she's at school. I love spending time with her and watching her grow. She loves putting things in and taking them out of anything...everything. Amber gave her a small purse to put things in. Her current favorite thing to do while she's here is carry the purse around, put the strap over her head then scream like a wild banshee until I remove it for her. Then she promptly repeats the process. Fun game. :-)

I was extremely proud when our oldest daughters decided to become nurses. Following in my footsteps? Not so sure that's why they did it, but we're proud of them nonetheless. I went to LPN school, graduating in 1985. I then went on to get my RN degree in 1987. I worked one year in general med surg, diabetic, psychiatric nursing then in 1988 found my true calling. I was an ER nurse at the 3rd busiest ER in the state until I retired in '01. I loved the people I worked with, I loved the docs (well, most of them) and loved my job. It's wonderful to get paid well to do something you truly love doing! I have soooo soooo many stories from my life in the ER. Some super funny, some super sad but all more posts for another day.

Guess I'll post more later. Maliyah has found a new game of closing the front door and squishing the dog with it. The dog's not enjoying it so much so I'll go rescue her.

My Very First Blog.....EVER

So I've decided to start a blog. Everyone does it, right? I figured I may as well jump on the band wagon.

I guess for starters I'll write about us...as in my family. No one may ever read this but me, however, in case I ever forget who we are, I'll have written verification i guess. My name is Lisa (Nana to most). I'm 46 and I'm probably the most happily married woman in the world. My husband's name is Jerry (he's 47 and HOT). We have a total of 5 kids...this is where is could get confusing for some so try to keep up. The oldest is Brittany (she's mine). Britt just turned 25. She's married to a really wonderful guy named Keith. They are parents to our one and only grandchild. Maliyah is the light of my life. She just turned one on Oct 1st. The child puts a smile on my face every single day. She's the most beautiful, smartest, cutest, funniest baby EVER (of course I'm not biased!). Next in line for the throne (oh I shudder at that thought, you would too if you knew him) is William. Will belongs to Jerry. We love Will but he's sort of the "black sheep" of our younger generation (I say of the younger generation for reasons that may never become known to any of you LOL). Right now he's in Korea until the Army makes him leave (should be any day now). He plans to come home to live with a girl he dated before. He broke up with her in '05 because she cheated on him while he was in basic training. She just gave birth to a baby. The daddy is the guy she cheated on Will with. ANYWAY..... the next child in the heirarchy is Amber. She belongs to Jerry. She just turned 23. She's beautiful and single :-) She lives with us. She and Britt are going to college together to become RN's. Next on the list is Davin. She's my baby girl. She's 20. We tell her we keep her around for comic relief. She's beautiful and freakin' hilarious! She's in a breakup process so she'll be single soon too (we hope, not that we don't l ike Carl but well.....). Finally the baby of the group is Kaylor. He's the freaky one :-) He's into Insane Clown Posse and wants a tattoo so bad he can't stand it. He'll be 18 in 4 more days. I cringe when I think about what he'll do then :-). He, too lives with us, in a room painted black and white, covered in graffiti left by friends. Strange but true. Someday when I'm brave enough to go in there I'll post some pics of his room. It's very unique.

So now that I've started writing several things come to mind to write about. I'll proably be posting several times a day if time allows. At least for a week or so :-) Then I'll probably forget to write, then once I do remember, I won't remember where my blog is, then if I find it I'll probably forget my log on info. We'll see.

Remember there is always always always something to be thankful for.
XOXO