Wordless Wednesday - Bye Bye 2008!

Looking Back - Years and a Few Days

Today Sal and I celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. My how time flies! I'll never forget that cool December day. It wasn't the PERFECT wedding but it was such a happy time time for us. In looking back over the 17 years, it is very clear how God has had His guiding hand upon us, had mercy on us, and has greatly blessed us. We joke about the times (that lovely first year) that we didn't even have money to buy a soda and now I look around to see that Sonic cups are part of the decor of our home! In 17 years, God has allowed me to see Sal accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior, get baptized, watch him graduate from college, allow me to complete a Master's degree, buy a home, buy a few cars, need a new car, go through some very difficult times in trying to have a child, and then blessing us beyond imagination with two wonderful children and then seeing both of them accept the Lord. I could go on and on about these last 17 years! However, through it all - good and bad - I am so thankful that I got to go through it with my very best friend. I can only hope that God allows us to spend another 17 years (and more) together making memories, good and bad. Happy anniversary honey!

Finally, in looking back over the past few days, I have a few pictures of this Christmas to share.


We made cookies for Santa that definately had the seal of approval!

Actually, we got a little carried away and made cookies for Santa AND the elves!












The kids watched Santa on the radar (one of us more intent that the other), but it was nice that he played along!











At 4:30 A.M. we opened presents and Clarissa was quite excited over her Jonas brothers posters.












This is my favorite picture of all! This was their first reaction when they opened the HUGE box that contained their Wii! They have saved their money for several months with the anticipation that if Santa did not bring a Wii (because they knew Mom and Dad wouldn't), they would buy one for themselves. They were SOOOOooooo excited!












I hope you had a great Christmas and I hope that as you look back over the past days, weeks, or even many years, that you too can see how blessed we all are!

Wordless Wednesday - Reindeer, Moose, Huh?

Pull up a Chair for Coffee

That is if you can find one! Oh well, come on over anyway! I've got Diet Dr. Pepper and Danish Butter Cookies, yum, yum!

It has been a crazy week but before I get there, let's talk about last Friday. We did end up at the movies and I let the kids vote. Amazingly enough, the movie was chosen and we still loved each other! Madagascar 2 got our vote. It was a pretty cute movie, even if I did get rather sleepy towards the end! The kids really enjoyed it.

Now, back to the crazy week! The last week of school for the semester. Praise the Lord!!! I was busy with school functions at my school, the kids were busy with functions at their schools, and Sal has been extremely busy with work. On top of all of that, we've been preparing to leave town this evening to go to my parent's house to have Christmas with my family tomorrow. As I sit here and blog, I'm not packed and I still have two gifts to buy and we're leaving in 4 hours! BUT, I am going to get my nails done in about 30 minutes! You know, sometimes you just have to take care of YOU.

So, our Friday family night will be spent on the road for about 3 - 3 1/2 hours. We'll spend the time napping and singing Christmas carols probably. What kinds of things do you do with your family to pass the time on the road?

I do have one request before I leave this nice time together. My Mom is a breast cancer survivor. During the chemotherapy, her kidneys were damaged and she is now facing dialysis. She has also had a suspicious spot come up on her arm and was told this week by her doctor that he suspects it is cancer. Please lift her up in your prayers this week. She is a 76 year old angel of a woman that I hold very dear to my heart.

I hope that you will all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy this last weekend before we celebrate our Savior's birth! Thanks for stopping by!

Angels Aware

Well this day has certainly flown by! Somehow I actually thought I'd bake cookies....didn't happen! But what did happen was that we have had a great day!

This morning I was relaxing on the couch because I wasn't quite ready to hit the ground running, watching a Christmas cartoon that just "happened" to be on and found my two children (ages 11 & 7), both cuddling up to me so you know, I couldn't just GET UP! I had to wait until they were ready to get up because those moments are few and far between. Oh, how I enjoyed it! I couldn't tell you what I was watching on TV but I sure know that I was soaking up every second of my kids!

We finally got up and got ready and went to church for Clarissa's program. We couldn't have flash photography during the performance but I did manage to get a picture of my little "angel" beforehand.

She did such a good job! During her "semi-solo" performance as a Commandment Kid (Commandment 5 - Honor your father and mother)! After her time on the big stage was over and all the other children were returning to their spots, she turned around to the audience, gave a bow, a wave, and blew a kiss! It was quite adorable! I must report that she did have an angel emergency during the program - her halo fell off! But she quickly picked it up, put it back on only to find that it was broken! :( Oh well, we fixed it afterwards and she's good to go for tomorrow's performance! Can't wait to see what she'll do tomorrow...you know, show biz!!!

After the performance, Clarissa had a choir party at Mr. Gatti's (not my favorite place)! My favorite guys took me to the Rib Crib for a late lunch. We had a great time! It had been a while since we had spent some alone time with just Jonathon. I did have a surprise when I looked up and saw this.......

That's right! It's a racoon's bottom! Not exactly what I was expecting so see while I'm eating and did I mention, he (it) was hanging over the tea pitcher! We all got a good laugh over it but seriously....a racoon's bottom???

After the Rib Crib, we went to pick up Clarissa from her party and on the way home, we decided to make an unexpected stop at the Dollar Tree!! I LOVE THIS STORE! We acted like we hadn't been let out for months!!!! We were all finding goodies and the most exciting find for the kids were the battery operated tooth brushes! Well, while I'm blogging, we're trying to figure out how to get the toothbrush to shut off because it won't stop!!!!! My seven year old has decided that we have to take the batteries out each time when we're done! Hmmm...is that what they mean by "You get what you pay for"????

We ended up at home and everyone is tired now and not interested in baking! So we've all kind of just hung out and are getting ready for tomorrow! I spoke with my sister this morning and she had told me about an herbal remedy that I got confused and well....without embarrassing myself, let's just say, tonight when I asked her about it again, we had a very hard, deep, long laugh! (Something about marshmallows)

As fast as the day has gone, I sure have enjoyed it! I hope that MY angels are ALWAYS aware of how much I love hanging out with them! I hope your day was just as blessed! (minus the racoon's bottom!)

Time for a "Coffee" Break

I am new to this whole Company Girl Coffe Break thing but I am having a blast figuring it out and exploring everything! So, as I sit here with my drink of choice (right now Ice Water), I realize how much I love just kicking back and checking in with others!

I absolutely love this time of year and of course I LIVE for Christmas! The cool, crisp air seems to energize me and the excitiment that I see in my children rejuvenates me! With the economy this yer, we've tried to shop "responsibly" and shop early so that we're not stuck at the end, giving our arms, legs, and home for something that the kids wanted. I'm excited to start an interactive Nativity with my family this weekend. It is called What God wants for Christmas. You open up a new box to it every night for seven days. There are devotional questions that go along with it. Our Children's minister gave it to me last year for Christmas and I've been waiting almost a year to dive in. I think my kids are really going to love it, especially my 7 year old daughter!

I vowed that I was going to try not to get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season this year and enjoy every moment that I could. So far, I think we're doing pretty good. Friday nights are usually our "family game night" but tonight we've decided to "go on the road" and see a movie. Of course, as of 30 minutes ago, we had at least 4 different opinions as to what we want to see (we only have 4 people in our family!) Yikes! We will somehow, diplomatically come up with a solution and be off to have a great, relaxing time as a family.

I hope that all of you will take time to relax, enjoy, worship the one for the season, and hug someone that you haven't in a while! It will make everyone feel a little better! Thanks for stopping by!

Questions

Rules:
1. Post rules on your blog.
2. Answer the six "4" items.
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment.

4 Things I Did Yesterday: Went to church, rested my foot, updated my blog, took a nap

4 Things I Look Forward to: Being out of school for two weeks, Christmas morning with my children, Celebrating 17 years of marriage on Dec. 28, going to the Transiberian Orchestra

4 Things On My Wish List: For my students to do well on their Reading benchmark, for my heel to heal, a new phone, to have my house completely cleaned and organized

4 Restaurnts I like: Yamagata, Garcia's, Lujan's, Olive Garden

4 Favorite TV Shows: American Idol, Law and Order SVU, Dancing with the Stars, Extreme Home Makeover

4 People I Tag (You're it): Penny, Sarah, Megan, Cheryl

Turkey, Tech, and a Hairline Fracture!

I wanted to share a little bit of what's been going on in our lives over the past few weeks. We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving at my Mom and Dad's house. I love them so much! The Lord has really blessed us. Daddy will be 80 in May and Mom is 76. I love the picture below! It makes my 5'5" self seem so tall! (only because, God bless them, they're SHRINKING!)

To make things easier on Mom and Dad, we decided to stay at a hotel instead of moving our circus of 4 into their place. It ended up being a great idea because the kids had something to do on Thursday afternoon to wear off some turkey and some energy. This is a picture of my monkeys, just hanging around.

After a day of playing with her brother and her cousin, then packing in an afternoon of swimming, Clarissa was quite worn out. I think this is a sweet picture. She found a warm spot with Nana to snooze!

I love the holidays because it is, unfortunately, one of the few times that all (or most of all) of my family gets together. This is a picture of Clarissa and my great-nephew (Chelsi's little boy) Joshua. He is precious! The kids had a great time playing with him!

Of all the many things I have to be thankful for, I am so very thankful for these two precious children below. Many of you know the journey that Sal and I traveled to even have them in our lives, in fact many of you traveled that journey with us! I hope a day never goes by that they don't know how much I love them and how thankful I am to my Lord that I have the priviledge of being their Mom!

After Thanksgiving, we came back to Lubbock to enjoy the TTU/Baylor game. You are not seeing things below! Our die hard Texas Longhorn fan is wearing a Texas Tech shirt! He lived through it too!

This, my friends, is the biggest Red Raider fan there is! She stood and cheered almost the entire game and by the end of the game, had a pretty good understanding of football.

This week has been pretty interesting. Tuesday morning we overslept and I woke up at 7:20! I have to be at work at 7:30!!!! The kids actually made it to school on time and I arrived at 8:28 and my students were kindly taken care of by my good teacher friend! Wednesday morning as I was leaving for school, I found that my truck had been broken into and the only thing that we know they took was Jonathon's bible which we got back because it was found in someone's yard down the street! So if that wasn't enough, Thursday morning I got up to find that the soreness in my foot that I had been feeling for about two weeks had intensified and I couldn't walk! Well.....long story short, I have a hairline fracture in my heel bone. I found my self sitting Thursday evening thinking........."When the world is all as it should be, blessed be Your name, when the road is marked with suffering, blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the Lord!"

Thanks for hanging around with me this long. I hope that whatever comes your way this week that you will remember to say....Blessed be the name of the Lord!