Wordless Wednesday!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

I don't have long so I will just hit the highlights today. Between a sick little one and doing my tackle for the day time is not on my side.

So my little 2 year old is a doll. She has more and more words every day and sentences are falling from her mouth as if she has been talking forever.

The other day we went to dinner and she was tired of sitting in her chair so I scooped her up and had her in my arms. She looked up and said "hey baby" lol. Isn't that way to cute.

My MIL asked her on the phone how her day was and she said "fine".

She answers questions like "where's your daddy?" with "On my bed".

She asks questions a lot. What's that? where is ______?

She prays every day at meal time. We need to introduce bedtime prayer. She is so sweet though she goes Dear God, Buddy, yumm yumm, Mommy, Daddy and whoever else is on her mind at the time and then she goes AAAAAMEN

So what are your little ones saying? Go to NB7 for more Tiny Talk!

Tackle it Tuesday

My tackle today is one you can't see but I will hopefully be able to tell the difference. We have way to many pictures on my computer and it is slowing everything down. So today in between dealing with a sick toddler and not feeling well myself, I am going through the pictures and deleting duplicates. Then I will move them all from my hard drive onto dvd's. I will make a copy for myself and one for my inlaws so that I know we have at least two sets in case something happens to one of them. If you have any other ideas on how to make sure we don't lose them I would love to hear them.

For more tackles go to 5MFM!

Oh yes and while you are there sign up for their latest contest. They are giving away a Passport Portable Harddrive! Gee that would be a great thing for me to win!!!

Softly and Tenderly

I started a devotion blog oh in July and umm well I haven't been keeping it up. I figure if I am going to ask my students (3rd, 4th and 5th graders) to do a daily devotion I should do the same thing. So this week I used Bible Gateway and printed up their daily Bible versus'. So I will be doing them with them. If you want to do them with us go to Softly and Tenderly!

Allie ~ I didn't get your comment that you would help me stay on target. Otherwise I would have taken you up on that offer. I have to go in and make sure I will get them emailed to me. I know you are about to have a baby so I won't hold you to that now. Instead I will put you on the prayer list!

If anyone else wants to come over and encourage me or offer up a prayer request come on over. I will try to be a good girl this time!

It's WAY to early!

Well, my inlaws are visiting. Which is great I love them as if they were my own family. Can you hear the BUT there lol. BUT this means that Anna is sleeping in the bed with me and my hubby. Not a good thing! She likes to spread out and apparently likes to have her own pillow now. I finally gave up sleeping at 6:30 but the reality of it is I should have just gotten up at 5. I don't understand how someone that weighs 23 lbs, give or take a few, can take up SO much space. At one point I woke up and she was flopping around trying to spread out and she layed her head on my belly. Another time she put her head at the foot of the bed. Mostly though she would just wake up and say "I done" in this whiney little voice kinda how I felt at 6:30. As soon as I sat up you could hear this sweet little sigh as she stretched out across the bed.

By the way, my hubby snored all through this. I think he woke up once cause I kicked him (on purpose). When he would get wound up she would get disturbed. I should say that he doesn't snore all the time. He went and played poker last night and stayed out late. When he gets overly tired is usually when he snores the worst.

My Week in Review!

What a fun week this has been. It started with us going to the real park on Monday. All of that cool, well not cool but cooler, air was amazing! Then Tuesday we went to the indoor playground because we were out anyway. And yesterday my hubby stayed home from work because he didn't get any sleep. So Anna and I went to check on my car. That was fun. We had to sit for a while with an elder lady that LOVED to chat. Well I shouldn't say chat because I didn't converse with her but she loves to talk that is for sure. We talked about her grandchildren that were my age. Her dog that died a while ago. Her car and working at Publix. She was quite a lady. I bet she would be interesting to talk to if we weren't sitting in a hot little mechanic waiting room type place. So my car needs a new coolant fan. That little sucker is going to cost us $260.00 can you believe that. I tell you what, cars are just a royal pain when they start getting older. Anyway, after we got that lovely news we left and went to the playground so my hubby could get a little more sleep and Anna could burn off a little energy. She is getting to where she plays really well with other children. Before she would watch them or play in the same area as them but now she is actually interacting with them. Of course, a lot of that was her trying to love on them lol. I am raising a touchy, feely kid lol. Which is ironic to me since I am not a touchy, feely person. I wasn't raised that way. I honestly wanted to make sure Anna knew it was ok to hug people or to touch their hands or whatever. So I have made a concious effort to make her comfortable. I just didn't realize she would be an extremest lol. After that we came home and spent the rest of the day with Daddy! Anna loved having him here. She had him coloring, blowing bubbles and anything else she could think of. And of course he loved every minute of it. I enjoyed the break. I felt like I had a vacation day lol. I let the Daddy do all the work and I chilled out. It was great! Today we didn't go anywhere. We stayed home and did a little housework and played. It was kinda rainy and Anna's mood matched it. The best part of today was that it was actually cool enough to have the windows up ALL day! It got toasty in the late afternoon. But I love being able to have the windows up. I feel like the house needs to breathe sometimes. I know I am crazy but eh who isn't. Tomorrow, we will have to finish our housework and laundry and get ready for Yia Yia and Pop to come see us. We might go to the park if we get moving early. We will just have to see. So that has been my week. It has been pretty great. Anything fun or exciting happening in your life?

The picture with peanut butter was snack time today! She sure does love her butter lol.

Updates: Gina is making improvements every day. She is now critical but stable.

My friend Catherine has cervical cancer but they seem to be benign. She has finished her 2nd treatment. which consists of scraping the cervics and a little radiation. She has a 10 month old that is staying with his Daddy while this is happening. She is doing better after this second round so hopefully she will recover soon.

& I keep forgetting to ask about Anastacia. I need to send them an email right now while I am thinking aobut it.

Works for me Wednesday!

We have a webcam that my inlaws enjoy using. They like that they can see Anna even when they are not here. The only problem is getting my busy body 2 year old to sit still to talk to them lol. We have recently found the way to do it. With much success! We have discovered if we get her in the seat and blow bubbles she is so excited about the bubbles and talking to Yia Yia and Pop that she actually stays still.

So that is what works for us. What works for you? For more great advice go to Rocks in my Dryer!

Wordless Wednesday - Pouting ~ Will it work?

Melissa & Gina Update

Melissa was released from the hospital yesterday morning and is even allowed to drive. Gina has made improvement but is still in the critical period. She is getting antibiotics for the infection so hopefully that will clear up soon. She is still on the ventilater. She still needs our prayers. Melissa is hopping to nurse her and I don't know how that works with a baby in NICU but keep that in your prayers as well. I know that nursing was a bond that I would hope for everyone. I still miss it even though we have been done for a while now. I have heard that nursing can really help babies in NICU so I really do hope they can work that out. Thank you all for your prayers and positive thoughts! Keep them coming if you don't mind!

What's new in my life!

So here I am with an update on my life lol. I lead such and exciting life between diapers and dinners lol. No seriously, I have a great life. Anna has been such a joy lately. Well except when she is throwing her temper tantrums or telling me shhhhh, hush! That thankfully isn't to often so she is great lol. She has been super loving and playful and quite the chatter box. I will tell you all about that tomorrow.

I started choir practice last week and apparently they really like me. They have asked that I do a solo ooooo. I haven't done one of those since I was around 18 - 20. Makes me nervous but a little excited too. I will keep you guys posted on the progress of that. We have to find the right song for me because I don't want to make a complete fool of myself. I like to sing soprano but I am probably a better match to alto. I can hit some high notes but am much more comfy in the middle range I guess you could say lol. We will find a good one for me!

Today, Anna & I went to an outdoor park and actually stayed for over an hour. This is a first since probably early June. We had so much fun. She was doing all of the big kid stuff and scarying the poopy out of me lol. I forgot the camera in the car so I don't have any pictures but I am sure we will be going later in the week since we are looking at temps in the low 80's for most of the week. YAY!!! I can't take much more heat. So anyway, the park we went to has 2 playgrounds. One for 2-5 year olds and one for the older kids. We started out on the little one and she ran and played and had a big time. Climbing the little chain wall thing they have and climbing up the slides and going down them. Hiding in a tunnel and all of that fun stuff. Then she decided she should go to the big playground. So off we went. She climbed on their big ladder type thing that scares me lol and climbed up the tall slides. You would never guess she were only 2 well except for her size. She looks pretty funny out there all tiny and climbing all of these things big kids usually do. You gotta love her spunk and courage. You could tell when she would get a little nervous but then she would square her little shoulders and trudge on.

Sometimes I wish it were that easy for us adults. As you get older I think we start thinking to much. We analyze everything and see all that could go wrong. I think I will attempt to be more like Anna. Trudge ahead and see what happens. Just typing that scares me lol. Oh well maybe I won't do it but it sure sounds good.

Our second week teaching Sunday School was a success! We are now teaching 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. We still only had one student but we had fun and learned about Moses and the Isrealites, after crossing the parted sea. I am learning a lot because I didn't start going to church until I was in the 10th grade so I missed all of the basic Bible stories. We learned that the Lord provided food for them in the desert, they would have died without it. They ate the same thing for 40 years straight. Can you imagine? It is incredible to me that these people would have died if not for the Lord's provisions. It was based on Exodus 16 if anyone wants to check it out. I am thankful that Lord provides us with all that we need! Even the variety that we crave lol.

I will have an update on Melissa and Gina soon. Oh and I need to find out about Chris's cousin as well. So I will update you guys on that probably tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great week and enjoy being with family! Our children are so precious. Just hearing about Gina makes me more aware of how precious a gift children truly are!

Prayer Request

A friend of my in-laws had her baby yesterday. She is 6 weeks early and her lungs aren't fully developed. She is also fighting some type of infection that they can't seem to find the cause. Please keep them in your prayers. Melissa was like many women and had a very difficult time getting pregnant. Her and her husband are also adopting a baby from China. They started the process and then found out she was pregnant and decided to continue with the adoption. Gina was born around 5AM and weighs a little more than 5 lbs. They had to take the baby to a different hospital and they don't know when Melissa will be released. Please keep them in your prayers. I can't even imagine the fear Melissa and her husband are facing.

By the way, I am sorry I have been neglecting my blog I didn't even realize it until I came in to do this one lol. I will try to get a lovely post put on when Anna is napping!

Wordless Wednesday

Anna is taking good care of Buddy!

Yes, that is a diaper she is trying to put on him!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

The other day Anna was sitting with her Daddy. She wanted some crackers and he just couldn't figure out what she was saying. So he kept saying what do you want? Finally after saying it like 6 times she grabbed his face and said very slowly crrrraaaaackkkkerrrrsss! It still took him a second to get it even though it was clear as a bell lol.

Anna is a bossy child lol. She likes to command things. I am guessing from us talking to the dogs in commands at time. So you will often hear her say - sit, come, stay etc. Now she is Buddy's voice. If he is outside and wants in she says - lethim in. or if he wants out she says Buddy out! It is very funny. They have truly bonded. Oh and just for the record our older dog Buddy - the one that came home - is hard of hearing at times. So I will often times pat my leg if I say come. Anna will do that to whomever she is commanding lol.

I don't think I told this one - a few weeks ago at breakfast with her Pop and Yia Yia the waitress spilled coffee. Anna looks up at her and says - eww MESS!!! The lady quickly apologized to Anna (even though it obviously wasn't her coffee lol) and quickly retrieved a rag and cleaned it up lol.

For more tiny talk go to NB7

Lighten up!

Yesterday I got all serious on you. So I thought today I would try to be light and airy lol.

This is part of my view on the way home. Well from this angle it is leaving but you get the idea. When we go out of town and we get to this point that is when I know we are home. The air is thick and you can smell the marsh some days and I think it is perfect. I love to go out of town but boy do I love coming home to our space.

As I mentioned yesterday, my hubby and I started teaching Sunday School yesterday. It was interesting lol. We are teaching 5th and 6th graders. We had only one student yesterday. It is our goal to build our class and eventually have it busting at the seams. If anyone has any fabulous ideas to make our class fun and exciting please share them. Anna looked so pretty yesterday. She looked like a little Pixie. She loved the dress. It is a 2T so I wanted to let her wear it before the summer was over and she missed her chance. She is just know getting into 2T stuff lol. My little, itty bitty girl. So anywho, I had to actually bribe her to get her to let me take it off lol. She liked the ribbons and the way it felt. She would twirl in it and she kept running her hands through the ribbons. I finally told her she could put on one of her other dresses and she couldn't eat until we did. She finally agreed I guess she was hungry. Plus she really likes the other little dress we changed her into so that worked.

Here is Buddy! I have decided it was meant to be to get him back. We have had a lot of time to spoil him again and he is loving it. He is even being playful at times. Not for long mind you cause his hips are bad but we are cherishing every moment. Last night he gave us a scare but he is fine. I thought this picture was to funny. I was getting some of Anna in her pretty little dress and Buddy decided to get in on the action lol.

Well it is time for us to head out to the grocery store so I will chat with you all later. Hope you have a good week!

Christianity

Well, the weekend has come and gone. It went by way to fast. It was a flurry of activity. Going down town with my hubby and Anna. Meeting friends for dinner. Teaching Sunday School for the first time ever and joining the choir. Anna did great in the nursery woo hoo. My poor hubby spent most of yesterday afternoon and all of today, well after church, doing homework.

Sometimes, when I am at church I feel like such a phoney. I am a Christian I can tell you all about coming to the Lord. It was a very magical moment for me really. I was in our church back home and I believe it was during revival, not sure. I was standing there and I was holding on to the pew in front of me so tight I had white knuckles. Then all of a sudden I realized I was walking down the isle. I don't even remember stepping out. I was 16 I think, maybe 15. OK so my memory isn't clear lol. But it is all there. I began my journey that day.

It has been a good journey for the most part.

I have had my good moments. I was in the hospital with my MIL after she had surgery and her nurse was a girl that had gone to my church. She was a youth and I was a young adult helping the youth. She said she would never ever forget me because when she was ready to make that leap of faith I was there to hold her hand and go with her. I don't really remember that day but it makes me feel good that I had such an impact on her life.

I have had my bad moments. You know the missed chances of sharing your belief with someone. Saying bad words or having bad thoughts. Doing bad things, knowing they are wrong and doing it anyway. These are the things that make me feel like a phoney. These are the things that make me feel unworthy of sharing the Lord. Today our preacher was going over our plan for the church for the next 5 years. He said that we all needed to be above reproach making the best example possible. I know that if someone looked at my life and saw some of the things I have done they would think, humph and she's a Christian? I have screwed up and I have done things I am not proud of. However, I have confessed these things to the Lord and I have begged for forgiveness. I believe that we do need to strive to be in God's image but we need to allow each other to make mistakes. We need to forgive ourselves and each other. We need to expect mistakes but how we handle the mistakes makes the difference. Maybe that is what the preacher was talking about. I mean God knows none of us are perfect, it is impossible to be perfect. So maybe it is how we handle our screw ups, our personal failures that will make us above reproach.

I have held onto anger and bitterness towards my Mother. That is one of my issues. I don't feel like I am really holding onto it much anymore but a part of me does. A part of me feels like it is impossible to get over it. It goes back so far that it just seems to be a part of me. The Bible says to honor your father and mother. I haven't done that for a long time. I honestly don't know that I will ever be able to do that. I will start praying about it though. I can't do it alone but with the Lord's help I can. I have to be willing to really mean it and open my heart to it and let me tell you that is the hard part. I have other issues that I won't go into lol cause, well some things are just private, right? Just say a passing prayer for me if you have a spare second. Thank you!!!

I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me. ~ Philippians 4:13

Wordless Wednesday!

Tiny Talk Tuesday!

Well, Anna has been full of words this past week. Unfortunately, I forgot to write most of it down. Here is what I can remember

She was out and about with her Yia Yia and Pop Saturday morning. Pop asked her if she needed a clean diaper and she reached her hand down and pulled it back out. Holding her hand up she says "I'm good

Her most popular sentence right now is "where's Maggie"

She learned the word amblance = ambulance

Oh and my personal favorite lol. Pop was watching football sat. pm. She watched it with him with complete interest. Calling fooball! That is how she went to sleep. Last night my hubby was flipping through the channels and he paused on a football game but didn't say anything. Anna and I were in the floor and she calls out fooball! She was delighted to see it again

For more Tiny Talk Tuesday go to NB7!

Buddy is back home!

Well, it has been interesting lol. Buddy did great on the trip to his new home and then settled in fine for a while. Then he decided he wanted to come home and started peeing all over everything. He would pee just an hour after going outside, on rugs, on walls or just on the hardwood floor. Poor Cindy was distraught and didn't know what to do since she has to go back to work and didn't want to wade into her house after 6 hours. So after long thoughts and discussions and don't forget prayers we decided that the only way to handle it was to bring him home. Now we are just wondering if Maggie will make it there without him. She is doing great right now but tomorrow she will be home TOTALLY alone for the first time EVER! So hopefully she will be ok and not to terribly lonely. One side of me feels the universe has shifted back into place now that Buddy is back but a part of me was really excited about a dog free house. Oh well, apparently we are meant to keep Buddy and so we shall. Now a part of me wants Maggie back too. I mean why not since we have Buddy already lol. Oh well, seriously I hope she is happy in her new home and will be a good girl. She is loving all of the attention she is getting and I think that is fabulous! Thank you all for the prayers and please keep dropping one for us here and there as we adjust to all of these changes.

PS. Anna wasn't worried about the puppies before but now that Buddy is home she keeps asking "where's Maggie?".

Doggie Update!

I have talked to Cindy and just received photos too. They are adjusting quite well at her house. They are eating great and sleeping great too. She said they act like they have been there forever. I really do think this was worked out by God! He is an awesome God! I certainly feel much better knowing they are happy. So I will share a few photos and then I have to get ready for church. Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!(Above) Buddy & (Below) Maggie look like they are smiling!
Don't they look so peaceful!

It is all said and done.

Buddy and Maggie officially have a new Mommy. Today has been one of the hardest days of my life. I have been crying on and off since I woke up at 6:30 this morning. They seemed to adjust to her pretty quickly. When we loaded them up in her car they seemed to settle right in. She called when they got down the street to let me know that Maggie was sleeping and Buddy had nuzzled her neck but was mostly just watching the road. Enjoying the car ride. Hopefully this means they will enjoy their new home and will just settle right in.


It was so very difficult to watch them get in the car. I couldn't take it at one point and had to just walk away. The feeling of loss was so strong it overwhelmed me. They were waiting for my hubby to come say his final good bye so I ended up going back out there.


OK so I am about to cry again so I am going to go but I wanted to thank you all for keeping us in your prayers. I really do think it helped. I hope everyone enjoys their long weekend.

"D" Day

Well today is my Doom's Day. Or at least it feels like it. My stomach is churning and I can't stop crying. I am being such a baby but I can't help it. Last night I had to go to bed with Anna because she was having a rough night. I woke up this morning and Buddy was laying in there beside the bed. We gate them off in the kitchen and he had barely pushed the gate over to get through. I don't know how he had enough room to get through honestly. I got up and snuggled with him for a while. This is so much harder than I ever imagined and trust me I have a great imagination.

My prayer for today.

Dear God,

Please help Cindy to have a safe trip here and back home. Help her to bond quickly with Buddy and Maggie. Find a way for me to make complete peace with what we are doing today. Explaining to Anna has been difficult and I know she doesn't really "get" it. So please make this an easy transition for her. I pray that you will help Anna have a good day with her Yia Yia and Pop and not feel all of my anxiety and upset. Most importantly, please be with Buddy and Maggie. Help this be a smooth transition for them and help them adjust and grow to love Cindy. Make sure they know that they can be happy there and that I will always love them. Just keep your arms wrapped around all of us through this and make your presence known. Thank you Lord for helping us find the perfect person to take them and just keep reminding me that you are in control!

I love you Lord and I appreciate all that you do in my life!

AMEN!