Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

An Unusual Day in Mississippi

Where I wish that I had been.....

Where I was. . . .

To say the least, yesterday was an unusual day for us here in the South. We went to school, only to have sleet begin to fall within the hour, then snow, then slush....then a big mess! At times the snowflurries were so BEAUTIFUL - big and fluffy like cotton balls - all the while we had to look through the glass and not go outside....sigh.....

A couple of hours later they did dismiss the students and once they all were gone, we also were allowed to go home to our families....by then the "pretty" part of the snow had passed, but I still enjoyed being able to spend the afternoon with my munchkin - would have been even better if Ty had been off work, but amazingly where he works in Madison they didn't have ANY snow; neither did mom and dad in Clinton!

P.S. A BIG thank you to Ashley for going by to Mrs. Beth's house to help take the kiddos out for a few minutes to experience the snow....

That'll do it for now...

After the football game, we headed to the drill field - all kinds of memories to make - frisbee time and tickle wars.... we also walked around campus sharing special spots with Richard. I'm so thankful for my Big Bully (Ty) and how he has blessed my life - I love you hunny; and for my Lil' Bully (Richard) your infectious love of life brings me both laughter and tears...I love you too.

A Few More....

Richard had a wonderful time finding all of the "Bullys" all over campus....thanks Beth for telling us about the life size cowbell! urrr umm I meant to say "artificial noise maker" LOL

maybe some pics...

ok so maybe we were a bit drastic - we cut off both our cable television AND our high speed internet, so we are now depending on our dial up which we had as back up - Oh how very spoiled I was and didn't even realize it....I could care less about the tv stations being gone, but I am going into withdrawal with the amount of time it takes to blog or facebook...so I just give up and don't log on... I will try to post some of the promised pics from our first MSU football game with Richard - hopefully we will soon recieve an offer in the mail we cannot refuse and be wooed to a new provider for high speed service once again!!!

p.s. ok so it changed the order from which I uploaded them, but oh well, you can figure it out!

Richard's 1st MSU Football Game!

This entry is a work in progress - I now have picasa installed so that I don't have to write multiple posts in order to accomodate my pics, but I can't figure out how to make a collage - it seems I can find the directions in the HELP section but my dashboard doesn't look the same- no buttons - oh well, I will hopefully tackle this tomorrow. :o)

Trick or Treating in the Neighborhood. . .

After a fun time at the Park, and as other families began filtering in, we headed home....I thought I'd try one more time with Pablo - ABSOLUTELY NOT!! I did, however know where last year's costume was (it was big last year so I figured it just migh fit) - well what do you know - he wanted to wear "doggie" - so doggie we were for our actual trick or treating. Half the night he had the head up and half the night the head was pushed back - oh well. . .such is life with a two going on three year old. We had a great time - he was wonderful about knocking, stepping back, waiting patiently, saying trick or treat, and then saying thank you....way to go - can't wait for next year!

Halloween at the Park. . .

We enjoyed heading over to Winner's Circle Park - we learned our lesson in the past - you GO EARLY before all of the other mom and dad's are off from work!!! We easily moved about and checked out what was there - we were DEFINITELY loving the toddler area - NO big kids allowed in the same jumpies. PatPat and Poppa were on their way back from Ruston to Baton Rouge so they stopped by to see Richard. As you see - still no dressing up......

Library Time on Halloween. . .

Richard always looks forward to Library Time with Mrs. June on Thursdays - so much in fact, that it is one of the ways we are helping him count down the weeks until we go and "see Mickey." Mrs. June, the fairy, led us in songs, reading books, playing with the magnets, ribbon rhythm time, and of course playing with the balls. Richard, Claire, Kate, and Emma had a wonderful time and it was a GREAT way to pass the time till our hunnies all got home from work to join in the Halloween festivities.

Party Time at Mrs. Beth's. . .

Richard, Wes, Claire, Emma, and Manze always enjoy celebrating the various holidays at Mrs. Beth's house...it generally means pizza, cookies, cupcakes, and little presents from each other. What fun they look like they were having.

Celebrating Halloween at Mrs. Beth's House. . .

The kiddos celebrated Halloween at Mrs. Beth's on Thursday....Wes, Richard, and Manze all arrived about the same time. Richard had been determined that he wanted to be Pablo from the Backyardigans, but Thursday morning he REFUSED to put the costume on...so what is a mom to do!?!?!? I dressed him in his MSU warm ups, handed him a MSU basketball, and said "voila - you are a ballplayer for State!!"

The Sweetness In Life. . .

Life seems to be so busy and so stressful that it is easy to get caught by the tide of things and begin to feel overwhelmed - I have stated things like "I've tied my knot and I'm hanging on, but I'm getting tired" - "I have a never-ending headache" and other such things recently... as Chip preached yesterday I was reminded to not live for my tomorrows but instead for today - WE are the ones whose journey is the journey of dying - it is those in Heaven are LIVING - he also sprayed a bottle of mist as a visual reminder to show us what our lives are like in the scope of things - what seems so MAJOR here is less than the blink of an eye.

Daddy's transplant went well, but there have been numerous trips back to UMC and to the ER; his attitude stays constant though - my daddy has always been such a strong quiet man of deep rooted faith in the Lord - none of that has changed - regardless of the stints, drains being put in, drains taken out, packing of a wound that wouldn't heal, bouts with his gout, and still not being able to urinate without a catheter.... I know my attitude would not be as great - but he has remained thankful and reminds me that God is in control and that the kidney itself is working beautifully. Please continue to pray for daddy's healing - he is to have more tests run on November 10th. For mom, please pray strength and energy - she had to quit teaching WW in order to help with all that is involved in the care of a transplant patient. My gratitude and praise goes to Dr. Blondeau and his team at UMC - they have given daddy great care through all of this.

With work, there is a lot of stress - just the normal paperwork, plus a new curriculum to be implemented this year, a beautiful new campus on which we are still working out the kinks, a large class load, and we are to be site visited this year.

On a personal level, I am praying for two main things: wisdom in our raising of Richard...he is testing all boundaries and we want to continue to train him up as God would lead us...some days are so hard though after a long day at work and then all that is involved with a strong willed two and a half year old. Also, I seem to have a reapperance of my migraines - I was diagnosed about 12 years ago with migraines, before that I just thought that all people occasionally had headaches like mine... recently I have had so many headaches...I am trying to pinpoint the influence: is it my age, stress, or a health issue - I have have three major head aches in the last month and had to miss work with one of them.

In these times, hold on tight to the ones you love and make sure that daily they know how much you love them....and keep your eyes focused on the ONE who directs all of our paths!

Sunday Miscellaneous Pics. . .

I have no idea what is going on with blogspot - some of my pics have posted in the order I uploaded them and some have been "rearranged" - anyway - after nap time, Richard played ball with his Pat Pat - he was cracking me up that he absolutely REFUSED to take his Sunday socks off...so he looks like an old man wearing dark socks and sandals - and as you can tell, Ty has almost completed Richard's playset (thank you Poppa and Pat Pat for all of your help).

Richard Still Loves His Fish. . .

If you've followed my blog, you know that the fish were a "distraction" in an attempt to salvage a failed attempt to go and see Kung Fu Panda this summer...they are still going strong....Richard LOVES to talk to them, feed them, and make sure that they are all there including the "daddy" fish (he is twice the size of the rest).

Is It Really Fall?

The weather was so pretty Sunday after church that I just couldn't resist taking a few pics of Richard - where did my baby go to? He seems like such a big boy!!!