My life and the people in it.

So 2008 is winding down to a close and I still cannot believe it. As I sit here and look at the clock there is just like a little over 3 hours left. You know I remember a time when I would have been worried about being out half the night. Now I am wondering if I will make it to midnight to give Henry a kiss.




So anyway I though I would tell all those closest to me that I love you dearly thank you for all you have done for me this year. Whether it was emotional support, a laugh or listening to me complain thank you I love you all









Henry we are approaching 14 years of marriage. I don't know what I would do without you sometimes. You keep me so grounded and still try to spoil me without giving yourself a stroke. I know you think you need to give better to us. You are home you work hard and you are a good dad. You have been a very supportive husband and I am blessed most of all to have a christian husband. You are stuck with me for an eternity. I love you and cannot wait to see what this new year has for us.









My two darling little angels Zack and Dylan. I cannot believe how you have grown. I cannot believe what wonderful young men you are becoming. I am so proud of the young men you are turning out to be. You have both given your life to God and that above all else is enough to make me cry every time I think of it. You are wonderful loving people and I pray you never stray from what you know you should be doing. Keep growing and becoming the unique young men you are on your to becoming. I know 2009 will be successful for both of you. I love you.Dad and Mom I love you so much. I know I have defiantly been your challenging child. I have always done anything I can to be independent and sometimes that hasn't always been the best choice. I want you to know I love you. Thank you for always loving me unconditionally. Thank you for your sense of humor and your advice and the bond we have developed as a family as a whole. Thank you for all the sacrifices and things you have done for me. I love you so much....

To my little sister Julie. We are 12 years apart and it used to always suck. But here we are 2 grown women. You are about to embark on a great journey with someone you love dearly and I am so happy for you. Part of me wants to cry every time I think about it. We have just gotten to a point we can be friends and sometimes I think the age gap is still hard. I love you very much. I will always be here for you no matter what. I will protect you no matter how long you and Benny are together. Police standing there or not.... LOL.... I hope we can grow in this year to be better friends than we ever thought possible. I love ya sis
To my wonderful Grandma.... What you have been through in your life makes me in awe of you. You are the kind of woman I want to be. You have the spirit I can only hope to have one day. I love you so much and I am so thankful you are my Grandma. I have lost one grandmother that I loved dearly and miss very much. I am thankful for everyday God has given you to us. I love you

Ok Eric you get to be in this group but I am talking to my "guineas".....

So I began ODBC 3 years ago tomorrow. 1/1... I never dreamed I would walk in and find the friends that I did. Sarah, Julie and Terena you guys are the best. I know we all have best friends elsewhere but I am thankful that you three have grown to be ladies that I can turn to for anything. You are a treasure in my life and I thank you for all you do for me and my family. Our lives have crossed for reasons that God is seeing through. Thank you for being my friends and thank you for your love.....


Tommy and Judy. I love you guys so much. I couldn't ask for better in laws. Thank you for your son thank you for your love and support. Thank you for the guidance you give Henry and I even when you think you aren't doing anything. I love you


So Ben you are about to become a member of our family. I am happy that she has you because I know you will take care of my sister. I know you make her happy and I know she loves you. As brother in laws go I think you I am thankful she found you....

So these are my out of town sisters, Jennifer, Nadya and Aleece. I love you guys and I miss you so much. You have touched my life and held a special place in my heart that no one else will ever replace.


So these are my ladies at work Dorothy, Deborah, Nancy and Cookie. They keep me straight or try to. What a horrible job.... I love you guys and as stressful as our workplace is I am thankful I have you four to muddle through the day with everyday.

God bless all of you this 2009....

Happy New Year

So here we are at the end of 2008. Can you believe it? I know we all say every year how fast the year went and each one goes faster. But really where is time going? Anyway, this has been a year of ups and downs for my family. We have dealt with loss of loved ones. We have had highs and lows in our home goin through different everyday things. I had a son start high school and my baby is in middle school. Henry and I are still working steady which in of itself is a blessing this day and age. Zack and I went on a mission trip to Montana that was amazing. We were able to take some vacation time this year to the beach, Bush Gardens and DC. Even short weekends are vacations here.

Anyway this year instead of resolutions we have decided to do something a little different. We each are picking one thing that we want to do more of as a family. We are picking things we want to work on together. It could be doing devotions together, eating more meals at the table, game night etc.. We thought rather than doing things that only focus on ourselves and do something that focuses on us growing as a family.

As far as New Years Eve we just do whatever if it is staying at home or going somewhere last minute. So I pray you all have a blessed 2009 and that God guides you in each thing you do. We love you all and look forward to the new year.

Santa aka hubby

So Henry started out the Christmas season doing a great deed. He became Santa..... at least for a little while. Anyone who knows Henry and I know that pretty much everything Henry and I do revolves around kids of all ages. He said he got dressed at the house and rode to the church where our preschool is in his red dodge. So as you can imagine Santa in a RED truck turned heades even in the short drive to our church.
I stole these pics from a friends website. Thanks T......

I don't know all the kids but I know this little girl just rattled all kinds of stuff off he said he couldn't have remembered if he had to.

Mr. C here would NOT sit on Santas lap. But Santa got his attention by mentioning the Polar Express that he rode during Thanksgiving. I find it odd that he and "A" wouldn't sit on his lap because once he left C told his mom that Santa sounded and looked like Dylans dad!!! "A" revealed when she got home and just giggles now if I mention it.

This is little boy is very unsure....

He isn't a bad guy.....

Little "J" here is such a sweety and I hear she giggled the whole time. Which she always does. We had her in Bible School and "C" and "A" are in our Sunday School class..... HO HO HO

Happy Birthday Daddy

So today is the day after Christmas. Today is also my daddy's birthday. My dad is such a good wonderful loving man. He is the one (ecspecailly my sister and I) go to on advice on how to do almost everything. He is smart and I have always wondered what he would have done if he could have went on to college. No matter God had another path for him. I love my daddy very much and despite all the mistakes i make he always loves me. Thank you Daddy for all you have done for me and our family. Let me share some of Dads important people in his life....

This is my dad and mom. They have been married for 36 years now. Which is very unusual with most my friends I grew up with. They have been together I think since Mom was 15. Long time and despite a lot of hard times they have survived and love each other very much.....

This is me, dad and my sister Julie. He and mom only had 2 daughters and they spaced us 12 years apart and none in between. We really don't know what we would do without him. Because I am sure much to Henry and Bens dismay we ask advice of Daddy more than we do them.... Sorry we are daddies girls.

Thisis Grandma and Dad. Daddy is her first born. She had at least one miscarriage before dad I think that I know of. My grandparents were such a big part of my dads life. My PaWillard has been gone since '88. Long time and I miss very much and I am sure my dad does too.

This is grandma with her surviving boys. My Uncle Terry died in '93. Also not in this picture with them is my Aunt Pam. She has a terrible bone disease and she doesn't get around too well.

This is from left to right. My uncle Greg aka Crobar, Uncle Chris the baby aka Bubba, and my daddy.....

This is them misbehaving as usual and Grandma trying to get em to behave. How she grew to be such a sweet lady with all those boys.....

I don't really have a picture with both the boys and dad. But believe you me these two are my dads pride and joy. He had two daughters then got 2 grandsons. Zack the oldest is always attached to my dad and is so much like him. They both have that same sense of humor. Dylan is the more serious one and loves dad so much. These boys are the world to my parents .

So here is my dad and his Christmas self portriat. He is such a jokster and we love that. He keeps us all laughing and level at the same time. I love you daddy ... happy birthday.

Christmas Decoration

Well I cannot believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve. How in the world did this year fly by so fast? Although I always say that. Well anyway I thought I would share some of my Christmas decorations with you. I would love to see yours. So if you post it let me know so I can check it all out.

This is a photo of the outside of my house. Just real simple icicle lights candles with my frosty blowup (that I fought Clark for in the White elephant game a couple of years ago) YOu cannot see it in this picture but I have a snowman flag and a penguin flag too

This is a lighted gift box that my aunt made for me a few years ago. It has become one of my favorite decorations. My mom made me a new bow and I just haven't gotten around to putting it on. Sorry mom....

This is my manger scene. I think every single house should have one or a version of one. After all that is what we are celebrating this season for. Not presents, food and all that stuff.

This is one of my MANY snowmen. I love snowmen and I have them all over the house. This one along with several others hold tealight candles and look so pretty at night when I light them up. Look there is my mother in law Judy in a picture HEY JUDY...

So here is some more of my snowmen. These were given to me by the same wonderful lady at work. She drew my name two years in a row at work. But I am glad she did. She is a wonderful christian sister. The tall guy lights up and the little guy is part of a collectible set that I would love to have them all. The little cabin next to them is a tissue box that another lady at work had her hubby made for me....

So this is the tree upstairs. This is my tree where all the kids stuff goes on. All of our family ornaments, and all of my ornaments from when I was a kid that mom has given me. I don't have any of Henrys hmmmm.... This tree was given to me by mom. Some friends of hers and dads were moved to Hawaii to start up a new Gatorade plant. They didn't take alot of stuff with them. So mom was given this tree and she had nowhere to put it. I did so I took it. It is 71/2 feet and looks really beautiful in my front window. Sorry I cut the angels head off in this photo.

This is our man cave tree. This was the tree we used to use upstairs. It is prelit and has white lights. I decorated it in blue and gold to go with all of our CHS and GCHS stuff downstairs. Luckily where the boys go to school and where I went had the same colors. This was the only Christmas thing I put downstairs. Dont want to over do it with Henry.

So this poor little guy is in my kitchen. This is the tree Henry and the boys used while we were seperated. I have to use it. THe boys love it and I think it is cute.

So last but not least this is an arrangement Dylan made at school. Didn't he do a good job.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Pictures from Christmas program

So I wanted to share some of the photos of our Christmas program and some of the wonderful people we love. I won't share the names of the names of the kids for respect of the families.

Merry Christmas.... remember Jesus Christ is the reason we have this season......

Lord gives comfort

Ok so I have to share something that may have seemed like a small thing but meant alot to me. We went to a family dinner on Saturday. This family is huge and growing constantly. Just from Henrys grandparents there is 112 of us and will be 113 in January when a new baby arrives. Well I had a pity party. They were announcing all the bdays of December and mine was overlooked. It is this Saturday. I was trying real hard to not cry and feel sorry for myself. Then the Lord moved in a big way for me. I was sitting there and one of Henrys aunts brought me something that let me know that He is always with me and just when you think you are alone, He shows you that you are important.

These were given to me by a very specail lady, one of Henrys aunts. She let me know that just something as simple as emails touched her. I had no idea. I was so moved of course I cried. This was so specail to me and I don't know if she has any idea how much it meant to me.

I love this family dearly and they are very loving. I have made some horrible mistakes in my life and they took me back and love me. I hope they all know I love them and I am blessed so greatly to be in this family. You can truely see the Lord in this family and He is working doing great things. I love you all