Happy Thanksgiving (and free gift from Oprah)!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving holiday. May each of us realize our blessings and be thankful for them all.

I am very thankful for my wonderful family and friends and that I am able to spend the holidays with those I love.

Have a very happy and blessed Thanksiving!

HUGS!!

PS: Go to http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081118_tows_holiday/2 (sorry, still can't link...ughh!) and follow the instructions to download a free Christmas cd. Some great music from some really talented artists!! You can only do this over the next 48 hours so get yourself over there and start downloading!!!

My mini-book FINALLY

I have to apologize in advance for the crappy quality of the pics in this post. I am in dire need of a new camera...the one I have is 4+ years old. Hubby bought it for me before he left for Iraq in August of 2004. Hopefully, Santa will read this and bring me a new one...I've been a good...err ok girl this year! :)

Anyway, thanks to Miss Mel over at www.mojoy.blogspot.com (sorry, I couldn't get it to link), I am starting to get my feet wet in the scrapbooking world. This is my very first attempt at it so judge accordingly...LOL. On my next project I want to "journal" more but this time I did not have the right writing utensils for this tiny book so looks like another trip to Hobby Lobby (don't tell hubby, he'll hide my check card)is in order. You don't even know how exciting that is to me...just getting to spend 2-3 hours in that store...*sigh*.



























And here's a better look at the one above on the right. It is Aaron in his "disguise" costume (Groucho Marx glasses/ stache) from one of the care packages we sent him while he was in Iraq.









Way too blurry pic of my Jack Sparrow












And a better one, to show you the cute little 3-D trick or treat bag sticker.



And just for fun, here's my sweet *cough, cough* little Tyler TRYING to act all angelic...but you see his horns right?!










HUGS!!

Goodnight!

Prayers please...

My dear friend's (Alison) Mom is not doing well at all. She was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago which had already metastized to many areas of her body. The family decided given the progression that chemo would only buy them some time and would not be comfortable for her. They (as well as she) wanted quality not quantity. A went to visit her Mom on Sunday after church and found her lying on the floor, quite dioriented. They are pretty sure she had a stroke but there's nothing they can really do as she is on hospice care. Her nurses are keeping her as comfortable as possible...she has only been up a couple of hours today. A sent an email earlier and said they don't think she will be "here" much longer. Tonight, I pray for comfort and peace for A's mom and strength for the family. I know from experience it is not easy watching someone you love being called Home.

Take advantage of time you have with those you love...we never know when any of us will be called Home.

HUGS!!

A Whole Lotta Nuttin Goin On!!

That pretty much sums up what has been happening around here. Had a fairly low-key weekend. Aaron and I took my brother and his wife out for their anniversary on Saturday night. We went to this awesome seafood and steakhouse in Addison (Dallas area). I highly recommend it if you are ever in the area, it is called Nate's Seafood and Steak House, Inc. Their cooking "style" is Cajun which made my hubby from New Orleans so so happy. He was able to get his crawfish and softshell crab so he was one happy camper.

On our way back to HICKSVILLE we stopped off at Old Navy for a quick 10 minute shopping spree. It was 8:50 pm by the time we got there, we thought we had plenty of time to shop since we THOUGHT they closed at 10pm. Nope, got there and the sign said 9:00pm. WHAT?!? You should have seen me running through the store (and Aaron trying to keep up) trying to find what I wanted. I should have prefaced by saying we had a Friends and Family coupon for an additional 30% off of EVERYTHING!! Yeah, now you see why I was running frantically through the store. Anyway, 10 minutes later and I had racked up quite the bargains. Three outfits, socks, gloves for the boys, pet clothes and a wool coat for me...all for $170!! Yep, I was so proud of myself. I can't believe I actually got started on my Christmas shopping and it is not even December yet! YAY me!!

Sunday we went to spend some time with my precious Nanny then home to cook din-din and clean...FUN! Well, everything except for the cleaning part.

Today, I have been sick with some type of crud...slept most of the afternoon. Hate these kinds of days. I will probably be up most of the night with all the sleep I got today...or maybe this red beer will help put me to sleep. HA!

Anyway, hope your week is good thus far!

HUGS!!

Singing Laynie

TGIF!!!!!

I honestly thought this week was going to drag on forever. Seems like the weeks when Aaron is off on the weekend, they take their sweet time coming around. What do you have planned? We don't have huge plans...just taking my bro and his wife out, they celebrated their 20th anniversary Wednesday. They've been together since they were sophomores in high school...they have 3 children...all TEENAGERS...YIKES!! I cannot imagine having to live with that many hormones. Although it was very unexpected and not really a good thing to happen at the time, my nephew gave them their first grandchild a couple of years ago. We are a very open minded family and know these things happen but you never think it is going to happen in yours. After the disappointment and just pure shock wore off, our family was BLESSED with the arrival of Laynie Nicole. She will be 30 months old on the 17th and is a bundle of pure joy. My bro and his wife are the epitome of what good grandparents are...but don't dare call them anything remotely sounding like grandpa or grandma (they are both 38)...they are PaPa and MeMe and Laynie adores them so. Look at this angel child...just don't think they come any cuter than this! That is my niece (Laynie's aunt) singing with her. Laynie loves to sing, dance and do all things girly. She is going to be so much fun this Christmas...I am on the hunt for the perfect gift for an almost 3 year old. It is exciting buying for her because I have boys and I think each Mama longs to being able to buy things frilly, pink and just plain girly. Don't get me wrong I love my boys and wouldn't trade them for anything in this world, but I do love having a girl to buy for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend. HUGS!!

The apples of my eye(s)...

Sadly, I don't have many pics saved on my computer...usually I will upload and then copy to discs. I did find a few that I need to crop and resize in order to post. This one I had to crop some little ones out since I didn't ask their parents' permission to post online. We took Tyler (my little man on the right), his bro (my other little man on the left) and 3 friends to a Renaissance Festival for his birthday back in April...they had a blast! I'll have to find more over the weekend to share...

Tristan would have a cow if he knew I posted this...he hates it (preteens you know?!) since he is squinty due to a bright sun in his eyes...hehe, but I know you won't tell him...*wink*





Have a great weekend!

HUGS!!

Wow, where does the time go?!

It seems I am not doing so well at this whole blogging thing. For one, my life just isn't that exciting...LOL...but I also get so wrapped in it that I completely forget to come here and blog.

I suppose I could pick up where I left off on the autobiography thing...I will try not to be too detailed so as not to bore anyone who happens to be reading...

Ok, so Aaron is in the LVN program and doing his Navy reserves thing...he is 11 weeks away from graduation when he gets THE CALL. Any military spouse or family knows what is meant by that term. Yes, he is called to deploy to the sandbox...aka Iraq. Even though I so hoped this day would never come I knew it would and, at the time, was what Aaron wanted to do. Not only will he be away from his family for a year on the other side of the world but he would lose his place in the LVN program and would have to start over when he returned. Ughhhhh! I won't go into the emotional details of his deployment...just to say it was the longest year and yet it seemed to fly by...I am guessing because I seemed to be on auto-pilot most of the time. Many people asked during and even after how I made it through and I really can't answer that...only to say I did what I had to do. After all I had two young sons (they were 4 and 8 at the time) to take care of, if I had curled up and waited for time to pass, they would have been the ones to truly suffer. It helped too that Aaron was able to call frequently and email almost daily, except when he was out on 2 week missions (he did medevac missions in the Al Anbar province)...at these times I was a nervous wreck. He returned home in March of 2005 and luckily hasn't been called back up since. Like most other combat veterans, he suffers from PTSD (Post Tramatic Stress Disorder) and our boys still are having problems emotionally because of his deployment. Aaron has chosen to leave Reserve duty when his contract is up in December after about 14 years in so he can further pursue his civilian medical career to become a Nurse Practitioner.

Anyway, he came back ready to start the LVN program over but because his instructors and the head of the Nursing Dept were so impressed with his skills, knowledge and experience they allowed him to pick up where he left off...so he graduated with his LVN in August of 2005. He returned to school almost immediately to get his RN and graduated December of last year. He has been working on the Medical/ Oncology floor of an HCA facility here in north Texas since graduating with his RN.

So that is pretty much everything up until this point in our lives that needs to be revealed. We are a pretty ordinary family with ordinary lives. :)