THANKSGIVING

Well I hope you all had a GREAT Thanksgiving. I certainly did. We did not have a lot of family in unfortunately. But all of our kids including Charlie, our super sweet grandbaby, Avery, and Uncle Mickey were all here with us and we enjoyed a delicious meal and had a nice time together. (Despite the four legged turkey) Sorry no explanations. We got to spend a lot of time this holiday break with Avery which was awesome. We so enjoy spending time with her. Just before they left to go home after Thanksgiving Charlie got in their car and honked the horn and Avery thought that was screaming funny. She had the biggest belly laugh each time he honked that we have ever seen so far. We laughed so hard at her laughing. What a good time. Todd has been on vacation and really needed and loved his time off. One day while he was off we went to Baton Rouge and did some Christmas Shopping. That was nice to get it mostly done. As a matter of fact I think I am through now. Maybe one or two more things, not much though. When we were finished shopping we decided to go and start CAR SHOPPING! I hate doing that. It is so much work and such an important decision. I guess thats why we only do it about every 10 years! Anyway, we hadnt really planned on purchasing one. We just mainly went to look at what I wanted, to see if it was a possibility and check on prices. Well we ended up coming home in a new Toyota Camry! Just what I wanted! I am so excited. I love it. It is beautiful. I am a nervous driver on Interstates so I told Todd to drive it home from Baton Rouge. As I was following behind it I became so overwhelmed at the many blessings we have. I looked at that car and just thought how blessed we were. Now I know it isn't like it was given to me. We are going to have to pinch and pull and everything else to pay for it. But I realize that not just everyone can go into a car dealership and sign for a new car. I understand the blessing of being able to do that. As I was thinking of that blessing my mind was just flooded with all the many things that God has blessed me with. I have the best husband any woman could ever want. (I know lots of women say that, and maybe you feel that way too.) But I am blessed to have a husband who tells me daily (sometimes more) that I am beautiful. He is the only person I know who puts others first consistantly. Down to parking spots in the lot. He parks away from the door so that others can get the spots closer to the door. Seriously! He is the best dad! They may not all three know that yet, but they will eventually. I KNOW that I am blessed to have him in my life. I am also blessed to have THREE wonderful kids. They are all three very smart. They are much smarter than I ever was. I am so blessed to be their mom. Sometimes the things that they say just amaze me. I am proud and yes, BLESSED! Of course there is Avery. The little bit that almost didnt make it here with us. What an awesome blessing to have her in our lives. One doctor visit away from not having her here. That will make you take notice of your blessing, let me tell you. I remember that day sitting in the waiting room. We were laughing and a little nervous about whether or not we should have painted the room all pink the day before. Our only fear was that it could be a boy. We had no idea what we were in for. But a few minutes later we were in for a shock and in need of a miracle. Well that is what we got. Over and over God blessed us and Avery and now she is beautiful and growing and stronger every day. (If you want to see that blessing go to Caseys blog and watch Avery laughing out loud over the car horn!) You can follow the link to her blog at the bottom of mine. I could go on and on about how many many blessings God has bestowed on us. I did that as I followed along and was in a little bit of amazement that the car in front of me was MINE! It was a good thing I wasnt driving the new one, because tears welled up in my eyes thinking of all of Gods blessings as I was driving, to the point that it was difficult to see very well. I am very thankful this Thanksgiving. I am blessed beyond belief to know that Jesus my Savior loves me. I am blessed beyond belief to have this family and all the love that goes with it. I just want to thank God for my many many blessings. THANK YOU GOD!

Wordless Wednesday

Not Me Monday

I have been meaning to do this for a while but I am just now getting around to it. McMama does it on her blog. If you haven't checked our her blog then you should. I have her button here, you can just click on it. Hers is a great miracle story. Anyway this Not me thing is a neat way to make fun of your own imperfections. So I may do it from time to time. Here goes:
First of all I did not pass by my fish tank again today and leave the water unchanged. No way, it is completely clean and full to the brim of crystal clear water. Oh and I most definitely did NOT allow a three year old to EAT a staple last night. No way did I do that, because that would be completely irresponsible and I am a responsible mother of three kids. None of whom ever ate staples in my presence! And I didn't get so upset over it that I was nearly in tears. (and my husband didn't skip going back to work and instead come home with me, because he knew that I was not upset over it.) I did not do this post even though that is all I could think of.

Light

Tonight after leaving my wonderful visit with Casey and Avery, I was driving home in the dark. At some point through the darkness I noticed light of the city in the sky. There was darkness all around, but ahead of me was the light of the city. I couldn't see the city yet, but only the light in the sky above it. Then I noticed a vehicle traveling away from that light. He was going the opposite direction of me and heading away from the light. The odd thing was that he had no lights. His headlights were out. His emergency flashers were on, but no headlights. It was an odd sight. Beside him though was another vehicle traveling with lights. He seemed to be there to help the guy with no light, shining a way for him to go by. Okay the unusual thing though was that miles down the road, another vehicle not related to the first was traveling with his flashers on. Again no headlights. That seemed so strange to me. This time no one was there helping as he was traveling away from the light of the city. He was alone in the dark using only emergency flashers to travel by. I thought about these things as I traveled toward the light. It seems that things are happening all around us these days that we don't understand or yet know the outcome of, but the light of the city is ahead. The economy is bad. People are sick. Money is not so easy to come by. We have needs here and there, but the light of the city is ahead. Some of us know the way, the truth, and the light. We are headed in the right direction. Some of us are like the first set of vehicles I saw. One shining his light so the other could find the way. Others of us are heading the right direction while some pass us by in the dark with no light getting further and further away from the light in the sky. I thought tonight of the interesting fact that the way to baby Jesus was the light in the sky. Through the dark they followed the light in the sky all the way to Jesus himself, the light of the world. This reminded me that we need to let that light so shine in us that others can find their way. I want to be the one with the headlights on shining a way for someone else to see. As we got close to home another vehicle caught my attention. Ahead of me was a truck. Although it had headlights, it was moving too far one direction and then the other. Something was dangerously wrong. I stayed behind it for some time. I didn't want to pass for fear of it crashing into me beside it. When we finally came to a traffic light, she stopped. I pulled beside her and she was obviously under the influence of something. The light turned green and she pulled away. We alerted the police to the danger and I followed. At the next red light she very nearly slammed into the stopped vehicle in front of her. The person in this vehicle had it's lights, but the decisions she made were endangering her and others. Sometimes even though we have the light of the world inside us, we make choices that are harmful to us and to others. I want to make good choices. I want to take the path God chose for me. I never want to be someone with the light inside me making choices that affect others in a negative or dangerous way.

So after this drive home I am reminded of a few things.
1. Travel towards the light.
2. Use your light for others.
3. Be a light for people headed the wrong direction in the darkness.
4. The Light of the world is before us.

Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Regular Stuff

We went to see my mom in the hospital. We had planned on making a trip there to surprise her and celebrate her birthday. But instead she surprised us and got a blood clot in her leg. She was in the hospital for a whole week. GOOD GRIEF. But we got to celebrate anyway.

This is me, my mom, my sister!She was so surprised to see us! I was glad we got to go.

This is me putting on her birthday gift, - a Lisa Leonard necklace that I loved! She liked it too!

Today I enjoyed my day off. I got some Christmas shopping done! Yay for early birds.

Although there are ONLY 47 days left until Christmas! Proof of that was at the mall today.


Well for now I am off to cook, Pork Roast, Salad, Rosemary Bread, & Macaroni & Cheese! Yum Yum.

Miracle Story

For a while now I have been keeping up with this sweet lady and her "many small children". This is such an amazing miraculous story I finally decided I had to put a link to her blog here. So when you get time, click on over to her site and read her story. What an amazing story it is. God is so faithful and wonderful and COMPLETELY AWESOME. It is so cool to read stories where he shows himself. So I have added the MckMiracle button on my sidebar. Check it out if you wish.