Super Great Day!

Yay!!!!! We found and purchased the rest of the big gifts today! A big thanks to Kevin's parents and my Dad for helping us!!! There is still much more to get before we are done shopping, we don't have anything bought for anyone other then our children at this point. But getting these gifts have taken a load off of us! A few months ago I was so stressed and often cried (and prayed) about our Christmas this year because I was sure that it would be just horrible. We were truly struggling very hard. We are still having a tough time, but things are really looking up, it just might be our best Christmas EVER!!!!! God is so good, and I'm so thankful for answered prayers!!!

Last night Taylor went to a birthday sleepover and she called me at 11:00, I saw her number and thought that something was wrong and she wanted to come home. Nope! She told me that she had led one of the little girls at the party to the Lord and she prayed and got Saved! I'm so proud and happy for her. Yesterday was also Taylor's spiritual birthday, she has been saved 7 years now. And she got to lead another little girl to the Lord on her birthday. How sweet is that?!

Also today we got SNOW! It came down really good from about 11 am. into tonight. It's still coming down now. Lane and Baylie played in it as soon as they saw it start. They really didn't get anything other then soaked when they played in it. :0) They hoped to have enough to go sledding but that didn't happen. Well, that's all for now. Check out a couple pictures of our snow today that I added below....

What's up?

Well, we have so much going on. We are excited about Christmas, but I'm a little aggravated too. At first I was stressing over affording Christmas, then we get the money and now we can't find the BIG items that we want to get them. Time is ticking away! I'm just praying that it all works out by December 24th.

The cutlass broke down again, so we are back to 1 vehicle. Which means that I will be missing Wednesday nights of church until it is fixed. Hopefully we can get Kevin's truck back on the road fairly soon, but I'm sure it won't be until after the new year.

Kevin will be going on a fishing trip soon and it's an overnight trip. I really don't like that part, we have spent 4 nights apart in 12 years of marriage..... I guess it will be 5 now. I hope he has a great time, and since I can't stand to be home at night alone... big chicken..... me and the children will be going to the lake to stay with Daddy while Kevin is gone. We are all excited about that! Papaw time is very special and treasured! We also get to see what he has done with his property there in preparation to build his house.

I don't do a lot of decorating for Christmas but we do have all 5 of our trees up and decorated. I did leave the dining room one undecorated since that is the play room for the babies and you know how that can go :-) but they love touching the tree and looking at the lights.

I am on my 3rd week of my P90X program. I thought that by now it would be getting a little easier, uhhh NO! But boy do I love it! I think I have been sore since the first day, the soreness has yet to go away, and that's fine with me. I know that I am really working myself because of the pain! No Pain, No Gain, right? Yeah, I'm realizing the meaning of that saying! I haven't weighed myself in some time, and I plan to wait a while before I do. I know I'm doing good things for myself, and I'm hoping for a great weigh in when I do weigh in again. I'd like it to be really good, so I'm waiting....

The UPS truck is my new favorite sight to see! Hahaha! Me, hating to shop, has taken advantage of many "free shipping" sales online. I have gotten some great deals and didn't have to pay for shipping or the gas to get to town. And I shopped from my recliner! Woohoo! Tis the season to be Jolly! And it helps to stay jolly when you don't have to fight the ridiculous and rude crowds of people out there in the stores!

Well, I better go eat some lunch.... and my babies are all snoozing... it's quiet time!

Thanksgiving

Oh my goodness, we had the best Thanksgiving ever this year! My daddy and my Granny (his mom) showed up sometime right before 11:00 a.m. and Dad got to play with the children while Granny hung out with me while I cooked dinner. It was so awesome to have them with us. Kevin's parents got to the house right before 1:00, if I remember correctly. Butch brought the race car trailer so he could pick up some metal from us and Kevin's Nissan pickup truck, so he can start working on it. I will be so glad when it's running again! Believe it or not the Cutlass gets worse gas mileage then my Denali does, so most of the time Kevin drives the Denali to work and leaves me the Cutlass. I don't mind driving it, at all. It reminds me of my first car when I'm sitting in it. But, I would love for Kevin to have his little truck back, and he misses it.

Anyways, I had dinner ready at 2:00 and we all ate until we were unable to move! hahaha! Dad seemed a little surprised at how good my food was, that was pretty funny. I do enjoy cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and it makes me so happy when everyone else enjoys it. We are having left overs for dinner tonight :-).

Well, right before 5:00 Butch, Liz, Dad and Granny all left and we waited for mom and Neil to get here from hunting. They came and filled their empty bellies and took some dessert and rolls home. We had a great visit with them too. I'm waiting for mom to get here now and pick up Lane so he can hunt with them tomorrow.

I love my family so much, and it was so great to be with them yesterday. I have the greatest parents in the world and I'm so glad that I am close to both of them! My time with my Granny yesterday was priceless. Please pray for her eye sight to be restored, it's about the same as it has been but she will be having surgery in a week or so to try to help her to regain some sight.

God is so good to me! I am so blessed! Here are a few pictures from our day.......

I took this picture Wednesday night. I was walking by the dining room and thought that it would be pretty. I like it.

Daylight, ready for eating time!

The guys loading up the race car trailer. Baylie was cruising around with Papaw Minter on the Golf cart.

Oops! After all that rain the ground was really soft and Butch got his truck stuck, so we hooked up Big Momma to the trailer to pull the truck and trailer out.....

And it worked! Woohoo! Now..... everyone told me to get a mini van when we were looking for something. No mini van could have done that! Big Momma saves the day AGAIN! LOL! So fun!

What a great day we had! I'm looking forward to our next trip to the lake, which will be in just a few weeks! Yes! Kevin is going deep sea fishing over night and I'm not one to be alone at night so the children and I will be going to the lake with Daddy on that Friday and Saturday. We are so tickled!

I hope everyone else had as great a holiday as we did! Later!

SUCCESSFUL HUNTING DAY!

*NOTICE: This post is not for those who get queasy looking at dead animals*

Lane went hunting today with my mom and step dad. He sat in the stand with their friend Frank today. In the morning Lane shot and killed a small doe, and then during their end of the day hunt he shot and killed a button buck. These two deer make a total of 4 that he has killed since he first started hunting. We are very proud of him, he LOVES eating the deer meat, along with the rest of us. So, this time his request is BBQ. It tickles him so much to bring the meat home and give it to me, he always puts in his request for how he wants me to cook it right when he walks in the door. He's pretty awesome. I'm just thankful that God sent the deer his way for him to have the opportunity to kill them. He was carrying a 20 gauge today and LOVED IT above every other gun he has used. I just wish guns were not so expensive so we could get him one for Christmas. I can just imagine how happy he would be to open up his own on Christmas morning. But, until then, we will continue to borrow guns from Frank, for Lane. God is so good to us, he just blesses us all the time. I'm so glad Lane had a great hunting day today! I'm very thankful for my momma and Neil for taking him, and Frank for hanging out with him today. Here are a few pictures!

Lane helping someone to load their deer into their truck.

Lane dragging his doe to the truck.


He was talking to me, telling me that he got one! I was probably squealing on the other end of the phone, look at his expression. Too cute! A call from him always starts a flurry of activity in my house. We start calling and texting everyone we know, who will be happy and excited for Lane. Yes, we are very proud!


Our little hunter dude with his little doe. I think one of my proudest moments is that after Lane shot this little doe, a 6 pt buck walked up. Lane, not wanting to be greedy, told Frank to shoot it since he already got one. A 6 pt buck would have been Lane's biggest yet, but he let Frank have it and sure enough Frank shot and killed it. I think that was really cool of Lane, and I hope that God blesses him for that unselfishness. Maybe that's why he got 2 today..... hmmmm...

"One of the guys" I love this picture of Lane standing around with the guys. It probably sounds stupid, but it brings tears to my eyes to see these pictures of my boy hunting. I love that he gets the opportunity to go. He truly has developed a passion for hunting, I think it is stronger then his passion to play baseball. The guy on the left is my awesome step dad Neil and the guy on the right is Frank, who Lane hunted with today and lets Lane borrow his son's old guns.

God is so good!

Monday

Well, what a great ladies meeting we had this weekend! About half way through Friday night the power came on. Me and a few other ladies jumped out of our seats and took a victory lap around the church! It was so fun! We had all worked hard on the meeting and were so thankful for God to turn the power on for us. The men were doing all they could, I think we had at least 3 generators going to give us some lights and BATHROOMS!

I really can't quite put my finger on my favorite part of the meeting. I love Mrs. Berry so much though, she is always such a blessing to me when she speaks. I even went up to her and asked her for a picture. She seemed to be tickled by that and she told me, "Honey, thank you for being so sweet to me, I don't know why you are so sweet to me, but I just love you to pieces." And she gave me a big hug. Which made my day!

Me & Mrs. Berry

All of our speakers did a great job. It was a fun time and I look forward to next year! I loved that I got to spend time with my friends Lori and Amber too. We had a great time at the meeting. I wish I could find the picture that we all took together 2 years ago before we lost weight, we took another one Saturday...

Amber, Lori & Me

Maybe I can dig our old picture up, or get it from Lori and put them on here together. I know that Lori and I are down at least 30 lbs. each from our last pic and Amber is down like 50 lbs. Go us! :-)

I started P90X today! Wooo it is harder then the Power 90. I look forward to it though, I was getting a little bored with the Power 90, even though it was doing something for me. I'm ready to kick it up!

Ok, that's all the time I have for now, later!!

I love answered prayer!

I tell you, last week at this time I felt like we had hit rock bottom. Right down to the fact that Kevin had a really bad paycheck and our power and cell phones (0nly phones) were going to be cut off any minute. I spent half of Thursday and most of Friday crying off and on and praying, because I knew that we couldn't do anymore then what we had done already so our only option was to ask God to take charge and take care of us. Well, I tell you what, it was like all this week God has been pouring the blessings out on us. We left it up to God, we did NOT go begging for help from ANYBODY. We had decided that we would let our checking account go in the negative to keep the power on and my mom was gonna let us use her cell phone till we could pay the bill this Friday. But, by Monday we had the money to pay our power bill and our cell phones, $400. I was asked this week also to watch 2 of my mom's baby sitting kids while mom took some vacation days. So that will help us alot, and then we were helped again in a big way last night from a VERY unlikely source and it was VERY unexpected. It's all too precious to share in detail, but I just wanted to thank God openly for his many many blessings to us this week, none of it was missed by us. We know that every bit of it was from Him, and he was taking care of us. God is so good!!

I'm very excited about our ladies meeting tomorrow night and Saturday night. I just pray that the power gets fixed at church so we can decorate and have the meeting! Power at church was knocked out last night by a fallen tree and the power people said it would be Saturday afternoon before it would be back on. That's after the meeting should be OVER. The devil is fighting like he always does for this big meeting. That just means that it will be a great blessing to somebody. Hopefully it will all work out and we will have a great time as usual!!