A Huge Prayer Request!

My fellow bloggers, friends, family, and strangers please pray for my dear friends that visited us this past July, Brandy and her family. Her husband DeRance was rushed to the hospital from work yesterday for shortness of breath and numbness in his right arm. He is currently on a "stroke watch" and in the hospital care until at least Wednesday. They are running different tests and we will hear more today we hope. He is only 35 years old and has three little boys at home wondering what is going on and waiting on him to come through their front door. They are stressed and confused as to what exactly is happening. So I beg you to please pray for this family, for DeRance's health, Brandy's sanity (trying to keep the house and boys "together"), and for the children. This is a really hard time of the year for everyone so please keep God close to you.

Need a gift idea?

Are you stuck on someone on your Christmas list? You want to buy her something special and unique, something no one else has, right. Check out this blog. This lady does wonderful work and her prices are unbelievable! The domino and bottle caps are super popular and super cute! Please check her out!

http://rafterscreations.blogspot.com/

Thanks for Thanksgiving

WoW. Could this past week could have gone any faster? Man it just seems like yesterday we were packing and loading the car to hit the road to Mississippi to visit Les' parents. We ended up leaving a day early and pulling Nolan out of school an hour early so we could beat the heavy traffic and boy it was worth it. Sorry Mike and Linda for the late change of plans! They had to boogie to get their things done to get ready for us. We had such a good time and ate way too much food. The kids had a blast antagonizing the cats and popping popcorn. Mike and Linda had their house looking beautiful as always and food busting at the seams of the frig. We did all sorts of things while visiting, like playing ping pong

Nolan got to be really good! Hmm, maybe another Christmas gift?!

Popping popcorn in Grandpa's commercial grade popper! Mmm, there is nothing better!

Enjoying the lush landscape Grandma and Grandpa have worked so hard on.........

Playing games...............

Like I said, antagonizing, loving, squeezing, hugging, kissing, the different cats...........

And of course we did some shopping. Linda and I got up and hit Belk later in the morning, but none of us got up early to hit the big sales. Friday was Les' birthday....

Mike and Linda invited some very sweet friends of theirs over for Thanksgiving lunch. They happen to own the most gorgeous Bed and Breakfast, Belle of the Bends that was built in 1875, I think. They live on the third floor of this old colonial home and was so sweet to give us a tour. If you are ever in the Vicksburg area, please look them up and stay, seriously, they will make you feel at home! They are so down to earth and caring. Click on the link and indulge yourself in utter beauty! We got to witness it firsthand and it was just wonderful.

We are at the bottom of the most Grand staircase!

On Saturday we headed back to Texas with full tummies and eager to put up the Christmas tree.

Thanks again Mike and Linda for a wonderful week! See you at Christmas!

What did you do on your birthday?

Mmmmmmm............Can you smell it? You know, the pumpkin bread that is baking in the oven right now as I blog? The pumpkin bread that I baked on my birthday. A fire is burning in the fire place, the kids are watching Maggie and the Ferocious Beast on TV, Les is putting up the outside Christmas lights and I am about to sit down and scrapbook on this wonderful, crisp fall day. I sure wish you can smell the bread baking. Yummmm. When it is finally finished we will sit and have a delicious snack with homemade Spiced Cider. I am going to enjoy this day and be thankful for all that I have. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Sorry the photo is really bad, my camera was going dead. I just wanted to show my fireplace to help set the mood.

My Wordless Wednesday

I am actually speechless today as I thank the good Lord that we all have Guardian Angels among us.............or at least Leslie. As Nolan and I were doing homework this afternoon, I heard Leslie screaming outside. You know the kind of scream that hurts, not the kind that Brother is bothering me, or there is a bug beside me, or I am so mad at you. Nope, this was a helpless and scared to death scream. As I ran outside I saw my daughter stuck in the Crepe Myrtle tree. She had crawled up on her Radio Flyer wagon to reach the beautiful red and purple leaves.
When she realized she was still unable to reach them, she apparently decided to crawl up the long branches, when she lost her footing and slid down between two tall branches. Her head was pinched to where she could not pull it out. My heart dropped, and I said, "Okay, Leslie, are you stuck?" She screamed, "Yes, help me get my head out!" I replied, "Stay calm and don't panic!" As I was really telling myself that. I made sure her feet were braced as I pulled the two branches apart to release her poor head. As I hugged her tightly and walked away from the tree I realized how lucky she was. As I stared at the tree and wagon, I thought, my gosh, what if she had kicked the wagon away from the tree and she was hanging.......what if I would not have heard her screaming?! My heart is still heavy as I type this. Les came home from hunting and reassured me that her airway was not actually blocked since she was stuck behind her ears and not across her neck. But still................
Thank you Dear Lord for our Angels that watch over us daily.

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On a brighter note, can you guess what this picture is?






Yep, it is my sweet daughter lounging and enjoying her hot bath this evening.

Shopping Done!

I feel renewed and refreshed! Yesterday my sweet friend, Audra and her husband offered to watch our kids while we go get some Christmas shopping done. As you know from the previous post I have been quite worried about not having any gifts squared away. I did not want to wait until the last minute to do all of the gifts at once, so we ended up doing it all at once early! Yikes! Les and I had so much fun picking up the toys on our list at the crowded toy stores. I don't think we have ever Christmas shopped for the kids together. I usually get them while I am out and then we shop for other family together. So this year was fun! We ate at Cheddars and got Starbucks later in the evening. We got almost everything for the kids! Woohoo. Now I have got to check the bank! Audra said the night went well, but the kids woke up at 6:00 this morning. Oooops, I forgot to mention how Nolan wakes up at sunrise and then gets excited easily when friends are around. Sorry Audra, I owe you BIG time!

My Christmas Gift Dilemma - HELP!

WARNING THIS IS A LONG POST, BUT PLEASE HELP!

By this time of the year I usually already have over half of my Christmas gift buying done. This year for some odd reason, I have yet to buy one gift! Yikes. My heart is pounding and I am getting nervous just typing about it. I do not like to wait until the last minute because then I am totally stressed and end up buying whatever is leftover on the shelves at the store. I like to have the shopping pretty much done by Thanksgiving so I can enjoy the holidays and not stress over what to buy and dealing with crowds. This year I want my gifts family members to mean something, be personal, and not be in a garage sale in the spring! Each year "Santa" brings gifts for my kids that he could have done without! The kids did not even play with them for thirty minutes. What a Waste! I do not want to waste any money this year, so I am doing some research before I buy. I am really making sure that the kids' lists for Santa are things they really want and not something they just saw on TV or in a magazine. I suppose this is why I have not bought anything yet. I try to persuade the kids the toys that I think they would like, but there are always a few things they want that is just down right ridiculous. As most of you know, I was a teacher for two years, but it always runs in my blood. I love love love educational toys. For example, my kids really want the game Hungry Hungry Hippos, but I refuse to buy that game for two reasons: 1. The billions of little balls that come with it and 2. there are no learning values to that game! Sad, I know. Kids all over love that game, but I would rather spend money on games that teach or make the kids think. Do you see where I am having trouble? I wish I was the type of person that could just buy whatever my kids want, but unfortunately I am not. Number one I do not have that kind of cash and number two the cash I do have I want to go as far as possible. I do not want to buy toys this year that are just junk! I love toys that have won awards like the Oppenheim Toy award, or Parents Choice Awards. Granted some of those I do not like either. I really do not want to sound like a pessimist because I love buying kids toys, I just don't want to waste my money. I have found a great website about toy testing and the Oppenheim awards. I have placed it in my blog watch for you all to look at as well. Does anyone else have this problem? I look for moms to blog about their gift giving ideas for their kids, but I have not found any. Please blog about this topic or leave a comment on some ideas of what I can get or just what works for your kids. Maybe it will spark some ideas. I am listing some of my kids' favorite toys that might be helpful for you as well.

Here is a little background on Nolan and Leslie's playtime that might be helpful in giving suggestions on toys. Nolan does not play with toys much, actually. However, he will clean to his heart's desire, but this makes it hard at Christmas. You know that commercial for a vacuum cleaner where the kid opens up a new one for Christmas and is so excited! Well that would be Nolan. Lucky, I know. He will sweep, dust, clean windows, and rake leaves. He is actually now capable of mowing the yard too! Nolan will play board games or the XBox 360, but that is the main thing he will do inside. The boy is always outside tinkering, riding bikes, or throwing around a ball. In the winter, he gets cabin fever real easily because he cannot go out to "him-haw" around. So I would like to purchase some more games and indoor things to play.

Leslie is actually pretty easy to buy for, but like I said, I don't want to buy her junk toys. She plays really well alone with her dollies and Barbies. All in all, Leslie will play with ANYTHING!

This is what is on our lists thus far for Leslie and Nolan. Most of these toys do not have educational value like I want, but it is what the kids are asking for. Do you know anything about these toys?

Huffy Green Machine
Barbi Stylin' Head
Ponyville Sweet Sundae Park
PollyPocket Cruise Ship
PollyPocket Race to the Mall
FurrReal Panda Baby
Barbi Sing along CD player
Moon Shoes
Nerf Tag

Things I Would Like to Purchase:
Acoustic Guitars for both
American Girl Doll Accessories like the scooter and pony
Sorry Sliders Board Game
Cat in the Hat I can Do That Board Game
Cadoo by Cranium
Hullaballo by Cranium
Any of your suggestions.............

Les wants to buy Nolan a junior bow and arrow and BB rifle Yikes!

Toys the kids have received in the past that have held up well and liked well:
Dora Magical House
American Girl Doll
Barbi Sing along Radio
Tea Party Sets
Barbi Horse
Dress up Clothes

Lincoln Logs
Any cars
Mini Ranch toys, like cowboys, hunters, fisherman, cattle
Plug N Play Shooting games
Nerf Gun
Art sets

Okay there you have it. Please blog or leave a comment on what you would suggest or just what you are planning on buying. Thank you so much!