A Sad Day

It is always quite a shock when you get a call and find out that one of your family members has passed away. Today, I got one of those calls. Scott's second oldest brother, Bryan, has passed away. He was 39. Bryan had had diabetes Type I since he was two years old, so we believe that it was complications due to the disease, although we do not know for sure. Since the death was unattended, an autopsy will be performed. We do not yet know when or where services will be held. I am asking that you please keep Scott and his family, especially his mother, LaDon, and Bryan's daughter, Rebecca, in your prayers during this time. A lot of questions are unanswered, and I know many people are going to feel guilty about the circumstances surrounding this death, even though no one is to blame. The picture of Bryan above was taken this past October. He is with one of his loves--motorcycles. We will miss him.

My Bump--My Lovely Baby Bump

Here I am at 14 (almost 15) weeks. It's getting bigger!

This weekend was spent in Ruidoso, New Mexico, at Mountain View Christian Camp for a youth retreat. We had a good time up at the camp seeing fellow youth ministers and gleaning from the word. Scott Jarvis and his son, Tyler, were the speakers, and from what I hear (since Will kept me from most of the sessions), it was amazing. Of course...would we expect anything less from Jarvis?

The camp was covered in about 6 - 8 inches of snow, so that was really fun for all the west Texas kids who came. They had numerous snowball fights and built snowmen. The funniest thing, however, was the fact that all the church vans and buses got stuck in the snow. One of the youth ministers brought his own pick-up, which thankfully had 4-wheel drive, so he pulled all the vans and buses up the hill onto the highway on Sunday morning. Fun was had by all :)

Unfortunately, I don't think we got any pictures of the snow. Oh well, we were a little busy.

Anyway, now that we are home, there is plenty to do. This will be my first full week of the morning schedule, so hopefully I will be productive in the afternoons. I don't think I will today, though, I am really tired. Will decided not to sleep much this weekend, so we didn't sleep much either. I might just lie down and take a little nap...

Books and Such

Well, I did it. I got up and got to work semi-on-time this morning. A great feat for me. I am so sleepy now, but at least I woke up and got ready! I am really going to have to train myself to go to bed earlier. But, the good thing about working in the morning is that I can do my Internet stuff in the afternoon instead of after Will goes to bed at night. That should really help.

Also, I finally finished my mammoth of a book last night, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, by Diana Gabaldon. I think I've talked about this series before, but really...if you love a great story-teller, nail-biting adventures, love, mystery, and really thick books...this series is for you. This book is the most recent in the series (6 total)--the Outlander series. If you love to read, you should really check these out. The genre is hard to place, even the author doesn't really even know what it is. I found one of the books in the science-fiction section of the library, but I wouldn't call it that. Some say it's fantasy, others say it's romance. But the author just likes the simple "fiction" genre. You may find it in any one of these sections of your bookstore :) So, there's my little sales pitch--ha!

As for other news, Scott and I are going on a retreat this weekend to Ruidoso. It was supposed to be a youth retreat (we are joining forces with a few other churches), but our one kid who signed up has backed out. But Scott is a cell-group leader, etc, so he still has to go. So, we're going with him as moral support, I guess :) It may be a nice little getaway--although it will be quite cold there, I imagine!

Well, I suppose that's I all I have for today. Y'all have a great Thursday and weekend if I don't get around to it tomorrow!

Changes

Things are changing, once again. But not in a bad way. I am going to start working in the mornings at Dakota's instead of the afternoons. I think this will work out a lot better than our current schedule. Scott is even more of a non-morning person than I am, and he is just more productive in the afternoons. I think this will be better for all of us. I start this new schedule tomorrow.

Scott and Will both went back to school today (ACU and Children's Day Out, respectively) for the first time since before Christmas. CDO started back up two weeks ago, but Will had that bad poop/diaper rash thing going on and then last week we were iced/snowed in. So, here we are. Scott has been working for the last two weeks on his car (it has taken him so long because of the weather) and he was supposed to take it to ACU today, but when I just went outside to check the mail, I noticed the car out front and the church van was gone. So, I guess it wasn't fixed enough quite yet. Maybe he can get it right before next Wednesday.

I really don't have anything interesting to say. On the pregnancy front, I am in that awkward stage where my regular clothes do not really fit and yet, neither do my maternity clothes. Finding things to wear has proven quite interesting lately. My morning sickness stuff seems to completely left me now; yea! I am hungry almost constantly. I have been wanting fruit (especially apples and grapes), orange juice, cheetos, cheese, bagels, burritos, and Nestle Drumstick ice cream cones. It's amazing the things you want when you're pregnant. With Will, I couldn't get enough oranges and Nutter Butter cookies. I guess that's about all. Maybe I'll have something interesting later in the week :)

Until next time...

Why I Love Thursday

I love Thursdays. Not because anything particularly wonderful happens, but because it is a great line-up of comedy on NBC. You get My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock all in one night! It's amazing! If none of those shows make you laugh, there really might be something seriously wrong with you. But we can still be friends. Of them all, though, I have to say I look forward to 30 Rock the most. I love Tina Fey. She is hilarious. I so miss her on SNL, but her creating and being on 30 Rock is worth it. And Alec Baldwin, although I don't really like him "in real life," is just a riot. If you haven't watched this yet, you should. It's really for your own good. :)

Anyway...back to the real world. Not much is happening here other than it is supposed to get nasty here again tomorrow. I am so cold! I think my toes might fall off if I take off my shoes!

Happy Thursday to everyone and have a great, safe, warm weekend if I don't get around to posting tomorrow. (Aren't you all proud of me??? Three days in a row!!!)

Wednesday Report

I would like to thank everyone for their congratulatory comments on our new bun in the oven :) We are so excited and we are so thankful for all your prayers and well wishes. It seems like now that I have announced this, so many other people are turning up pregnant, too! Congrats to all my fellow expectant-mom blogging buddies out there! We will have to compare stories.

Today we woke up to a beautiful, peaceful white blanket of snow. I think this snowfall was a little heavier than the snowfall we had in November. It was colder and and the sun didn't come out til much later, so it stuck around longer, too. Scott was supposed to go to school at ACU today (his first day of class), but we didn't want him to risk driving there and back, so he called his professor and said that he would not be coming. ACU had already delayed their first day of the spring semester by one day. When Scott got off the phone with ACU, we got an interesting phone call from the LCU Alumni Relations office. The main A.R. lady went to camp with Scott back in the day. She was calling to tell us that there was an LCU student who was stranded in Big Spring because of the weather. This student had taken a bus to get back to Lubbock and ended up in a motel in Big Spring last night and didn't have enough money for another night's stay. Would we take her in? Of course, we said. So we have spent the day getting to know Sarah, a senior psychology major. She had started her travels last Thursday from Wisconsin and got stuck for 3 days in Dallas--sleeping in the Greyhound station--and finally ended up here. At first, we thought she might not get back to Lubbock til tomorrow (Thursday), but there is a bus running at midnight tonight. I hope that she gets back home safely and can finally relax. What an experience!!

Speaking of good ol' LCU, we are planning on attending the festivities during Master Follies weekend. This year is our five year reunion, so we are planning on attending that function, club breakfasts, chapel, the afternoon show, and a couple of receptions for past big time award winners like Scott (that's sort of a joke--Scott was Mr. LCU and recieved a special award from the Bible Dept. his senior year). Anywho, we look forward to seeing all of our friends in February!

I really can't think of anything else to report right now, so I'm signing off. Have a great Thursday :)

Back from the Dead

Literally! Our computer finally died a couple of weeks ago, so that is why I haven't been blogging (not like I did it constantly before, but, hey...I read other people's!). So, if any of my friends out there still stop by to see if I just might have posted something, I have returned. We purchased a new computer with our Christmas money and it arrived this afternoon! Yea!!!

On to other things! It is freakishly cold here. So cold and treacherous, even, that our church services were cancelled on Sunday. I didn't think any amount of precipitation could cause our church to close it's doors, but lo and behold. I think most of the churches in our area cancelled; and I think it was a wise decision. You know some people (I'm mainly thinking of the elderly) will get out in whatever conditions to get to church. I'm thankful that they decided to just cancel so those people and the ones that live miles and miles away would just stay in rather than risk it. Anyway, it's been very icy and tonight it snowed! We have had a fire in our fireplace (not nonstop) for the last four days. It's been great! I looked at Scott at one point on Sunday afternoon, while reading my novel in front of the fireplace, wrapped up in my fleece blanket, and told him, "This is great!" And it was.

Our family was ill last week. We got "the bug" that has been going around. I got it Tuesday night and missed work on Wednesday and part of Thursday. Scott got it on Wednesday night. Will was also sick, but his was a sinus infection and then his antibiotic gave him bad poops. He had a horrid diaper rash, too. But, we are all much much better now!

Although computers crashing, ice and snow, and sickness is all very interesting and newsworthy, believe it or not, I have bigger news. At the end of July, Will is going to be a big brother! That's right, I am pregnant! We are very excited. Last week (Tuesday as a matter of fact), we saw the baby's heart beat and it was moving all around. When Scott can scan the sonogram pictures at work, I will post them for all to see.

This pregnancy has been quite different from my first. I was quite a bit more nauseous this time and it lasted much longer. With Will, I was nauseous about two times. This time, it was more like every day, all day. But, I never did loose my breakfast, so that was nice. I am now about 12 or 13 weeks along, so hopefully all of that is about over with. In fact, I have been really hungry the last few days. I have been eating quite a lot. Also, my "bump" is starting to grow. I have to rubberband my jeans. I did put all of my maternity clothes in my closet, but it will probably still be a while before I can wear most of them. It was just a good weekend to clean and do things like that :) Scott is laughing at me because I start the whole "nesting" thing really early. I feel like I have to get organized! Now! It's kind of important, though, because we are going to try to get Will into a big bed soon. However, we kind of need to know the sex of the new baby before we start really getting his room together. If the new baby is a girl, she will go in the guest room because it is painted pink. But, if the new baby is a boy, he will take Will's room and Will will get the guest room (repainted, of course!). So, until the beginning of March, it's just a waiting game.

Well, I have probably rambled on much too long. I have missed all of you and hope to hear from you that you haven't given up on me :) Love to all~~

Surprise!

I'm here! We are now in the Sunshine State of Florida visiting Scott's family. On Dec. 22, Scott 29th birthday, we drove to Katy and spent 3 days there. 2 of those days were really spent in Spring and Beaumont, but we were with my family the whole time. Will enjoyed his Christmas. Santa brought him a tricycle and he didn't really want to stop riding on it to open any other presents :) It was fun. I also finally got to meet my brother's girlfriend, Staci, and she is really nice and friendly. She seems to be a good match for Kendall.

On Christmas night, we stayed in a bed and breakfast in Orange, Texas, which is almost in Louisiana. It was really nice. The best surprise of the B&B was that the lady had turned on the electric blankets on the beds so they were nice and toasty when we got in. It was really nice. It was also great to wake up the next morning and only have to drive 8 hours to FL instead of 10.

Anyway, things are going really well with us and we plan to be back home the night of January 1st. I will go back to work on the 3rd. I am definitely looking forward to that day of rest between driving and working :)

Merry Christmas and love to all!

I know....I know....

Okay, yes, I realize it's been forever and a day since I posted, but!! I have a good reason. Our Internet was screwy. Our DSL was acting all weird and the guy came yesterday to fix it. Also, we have been SUPER busy. This past weekend we had a mother/daughter retreat for our youth group girls and it was so much fun! We had a great time doing "retreat-type" things, like making s'mores, eating junkfood, watching a chick-flick, playing games, and of course, learning more about the God who calls us "daughter." Scott was literally the odd man out, but it was great. He taught the moms' lessons and I taught the daughters.

Other than that we have been busy Christmas shopping, visiting doctors, studying for finals (Scott), working, and sleeping when we get the chance. Right now, I really need to be working on my Christmas cards, but they're already so late, who cares now? My goal is to get them out by Friday.

I do have some pictures to post, but I cannot find my card-reader. My house is an absolute wreck and therefore this desk is so piled with stuff that I cannot even see if it is hidden anywhere. So, I will just have to ask Scott when he gets home if he has seen it and we will go from there.

To close, I will share a little Christmas survey:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I prefer paper, but sometimes you just gotta use a bag :)

2. Real tree or artificial? I use the fake ones

3. When do you put up the tree? it depends on when I can get around to it. Sometimes I'm ready before Thanksgiving, but usually right after.

4. When do you take the tree down? I take the tree down after New Years Day

5. Do you like eggnog? Negatory, Ghost Rider. Pattern is full.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? One Christmas I got all kinds of Barbie stuff--the house, the car, the furniture...it was great!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No, but I have a figurine of Mary, Joseph and Jesus

8. Hardest person to buy for? the grandparents

9. Easiest person to buy for? Scott

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Can't think of one

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love Christmas movies!! White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Home Alone--these are all staples at Christmas time

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? as soon as I think about it

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I have no idea...don't think so

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? my Grandma's candied pecans

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? even though I prefer white, I have colored ones on my tree. I have another tree that I have not put up yet (don't know if I'll get around to it or not!) that has white lights

17. Favorite Christmas song? Again, I love Christmas songs...Winter Wonderland, White Christmas, O Holy Night, Jingle Bell Rock...

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We usually end up travelling at some point.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph (although it has been reported that Donner was supposed to be Dunder and Blitzen was supposed to be Blixum...but who really knows??)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I like stars, myself.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Open one on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas Day

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? the crazy-busy stores!!

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful...

...But the fire is so delightful! Today was the coldest day we've had all year. It got down into the twenties, but felt as if it were in the teens. It snowed and we, like the good Texans we are, were enthralled by it. We see it so rarely, that you have to get excited about it. It's just the rule. So, we took pictures and bundled Will up to play in it. We made hot potato soup and built a fire. If I hadn't had to go to work today, it would have been the most perfect day ever :)

Here are a few of the photos we snapped on our wintery, blustery day:

The front of our house.

Our backyard.

Will in the backyard in front of the snow-covered lawn mower and leaf blower.

Will walking in the snow on the side of the house.

The beautiful roaring fire that Scott made.

Thankful

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love the food--turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes (or yams), mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce...it's all so yummy. And how could I forget the pumpkin and pecan pie?

We had a great trip...it was much too short, but it was good. We enjoyed seeing family and it was nice to see a few family members that we hadn't seen in a long time. Good news is spreading...my youngest cousin is graduating high school this year and has chosen a university, another cousin is having a baby in the spring, and yet another is getting married in June. What blessings to be thankful for.

I love this time of year when we get to reflect on the blessings God has given us and spend time with those we love most. Somehow, life just seems better.

I have two trees up and one to go at my house. Then I have to put all the boxes away...ugh. That's the worst thing about decorating...finding something to do with the boxes for a month and then packing it all away. But we won't think about that for now. Bring on the season!

November 20th Update

Oh, goodness, I know it's been forever. Sorry! Life has just gotten quite busy. I was really busy at the shop this last week or so because our Christmas Open House was this past Sunday. We were busy getting the finishing touches completed and cleaning really well. We had a great turn-out; I think about 200 people ended up coming through.




We have all been slightly sick the past couple of weeks, too. I had a UTI (if you know what that means, great, if not, I'm not going to explain it here!), then the very next week, an ear infection. Not fun! Scott has tonsilitis and Will has been complaining of an earache (which means he points to his ear and says, "Hurt"). Scott took him to the doctor today and he wasn't really sick enough to give him antibiotics, but if it gets worse, she did give us a perscription.


Other events of note: my in-laws came through almost two weeks ago. We had a good visit. Will had lots of fun with them and quickly started calling them Papa and Granny/Grammy. It was sad when they left, he kept asking for them. Now, if we say anything that remotely sounds like the word "papa," Will begins repeating it and looking around. It's really very cute. They were able to stay with us for about 3 days or so, and it was really good to see them. We will see them again at Christmas-time.



Last Friday, Scott's uncle came through town. He drives a truck and sometimes comes through on I-20. Many times, it's in the middle of the night, but this time was right in time for dinner. It was good to see him again, too. He brought Will a flight jacket that is so adorable. I will have to post a picture of him in it soon.


This week, we'll be spending Thanksgiving with my parents and grandmother in San Antonio. We hope to leave early Wed. morning and make it there by the afternoon. We have tried to come up with lots of things with which to entertain Will, so hopefully it will be a very successful trip!


For, now, that is all the news I have. I leave you with a few pictures of the shop...Happy Thanksgiving!

Santa Claus--isn't he gorgeous? He is so huge!!

Scott and Will dropped me off at work on Sudany, so we got a couple of pictures of him with the trees. This one is my favorite.

The "Western" section. I just love all the stars and such. Aren't those cool cowboy boot stockings?

Mi Vida Loca

Well, I have no idea how November got here so fast. Wasn't it just Labor Day? Ahh! Christmas is almost here and I have yet to buy a single gift. Good grief. The holidays are just coming to fast for me this year. I have been so busy in the last week, yet I can't pinpoint what has made me so busy! It seems like there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things I want to get done. I know you all feel the same way, too!

Actually, I guess you could say that we have bought a gift. For ourselves. Scott decided that this year, he was going to combine our presents to each other and his birthday present into one present and get this: Yes, Friends, it's the U2 special edition iPod. I do have pictures of the actual iPod, but they aren't very good, so we'll settle with the box. It's a neat little gadget. We have already downloaded lots of pictures, music, videos, and backed up our computer hard-drive. It's amazing what these little things can do.

On Thursday, my in-laws will arrive. It will be nice to see them and I know Will will be so excited to have people constantly giving him attention. We are also having a garage sale this weekend. It is long overdue. We should have done it months ago! But here we are, just now getting around to it. It was one of those things where I just said, "Okay, we're doing it this weekend. It's now or never!" I have had a box of garage sale stuff in the corner of my living room for waaaaaaaaayyyy too long. So, be praying for good weather this weekend!

Harmony, Abby and I went to Midland last Friday night. We went out to eat at Fazoli's and then saw The Prestige. Whoa, that movie was stinkin' awesome. It kept us talking the whole way back to Big Spring (about a 40 mile drive). If you like mysteries, somewhat super-natural type stuff, go see this movie!

That's all for now. On a patriotic note, I hope everyone voted today! It's our right and we should take advantage of being able to elect our own government leaders. Do you think Kinky will win?

Sweet Treats for Halloween

The sweetest treat of all~~

Will the Puppy!!

More sweet treats...

Sadie the Snow Princess and Colton as Dracula

Malaki the Cowboy

Raylee the Ladybug

Ryland the Pirate

Pumpkin Carving Fun

For some reason, I couldn't post these with my last post. Oh well! Here they are...

Scott carving his first pumpkin!

Me, doing the finishing touches

Fin...c'est magnifique!

All lit up!

Bunko, etc.

Last night I had Bunko at our house. I had fun planning it and getting my house ready. I didn't really enjoy cleaning it, but I enjoyed it once it was clean. I even took pictures of it today while it is still clean and no one has messed it up yet! I wanted pictures to remind me of what my house looks like when it is all pretty and clean :)

Since it's October, I did a very "fall" themed Bunko party. All the prizes were "fall-ish" and I got out all my Fall/Halloween decor. I also found some pretty paper plates and napkins. It turned out nice. I made baked potatoes and had pumpkin pie for dinner. When I went shopping for my potaotes, condiments, pie, etc. on Tuesday night, I decided it would be fun to get a great big pumpkin and carve it into a jack-o-lantern to sit on the front porch. So, when I got home at 11:30 from the store on Tuesday night, Scott and I carved "him" up. Scott had never carved a pumpkin before (or at least he doesn't remember doing it), so it was a fun experience. I hadn't carved one it a very long time either. I had forgotten how potent and slimy pumpkin guts are. We also separated out the seeds from the pulp and roasted the seeds. I had never done that so I had to look up the instructions on the Internet. It was really easy (I knew it would be) and they taste really good!

Today I subbed at the high school. I am so tired! I am just glad all that big stuff is over and I don't have to worry about my house being really clean anymore :) However, my in-laws are stopping through in a couple of weeks, so if we can keep it clean for a little longer...

As for other news, not much else is happening. So far, working at the shop again has been going well. I have had to refresh on several procedures, but it has come back to me fairly easily. The main concern right now is getting Christmas stuff out and looking beautiful. That is a long process which we will probably be working on until the day before our Christmas Open House on November 19th! Decorating for Christmas in the store gets me in the mood to drag all my Christmas stuff out and decorate my house. I want to turn on the Christmas tunes, drink hot chocolate, and watch Home Alone and It's a Wonderful Life in front of the fire. But, alas, today it is in the high seventies at least and it's not even Halloween! Christmas will be upon us though...soon enough :)

Week's End

Well, it's the end of the week. I am tired, but I survived going back to work! My legs are pretty sore from being on my feet a lot of the day...I guess I should try wearing support hose or something. Man, that makes me sound old :) I crashed when I got home today on the couch for a couple of hours. I fell asleep watching TV and woke up to it being almost dark outside and Scott was gone to a volleyball game. I didn't even hear him leave. I guess it will take me a while to get used to having 2 jobs :)

Anyway, today I subbed at BSHS for the lady who replaced me. So, today was like old times. I got to catch up with the teacher I used to work with, which was nice, and I got two lessons of my Bible study completed and several chapters read in my novel. Quite productive...ha! It was nice though...some "alone" time and I got paid for it.

Today is also my good friend Harmony's birthday. I won't say how old she is, she might not appreciate that. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, Harmony!!!

This weekend I will be doing A LOT of cleaning for my Bunko party on Tuesday night. Other than that, I don't have much of an agenda. Next week will be a pretty busy week. Other than my Bunko party, I will be subbing on Wednesday and Friday and working at Dakota's in the afternoons every other day of the week. I will also probably have to work on the Ladies Newsletter for November quite a bit. Ahh! Why does everything seem to pile up at once? That's just the way it goes, I guess. I hope you all have an wonderful, blessed weekend...Until next time...

Back in the Saddle

The working world has beckoned me back, folks. That's right, I am going back to work part-time starting Wednesday. I am going back to the flower shop where I worked for two years (2002-2004). My former boss (and current, I guess) and I remained friends since I left and she called me and asked if I would be interested in coming back to work some. She is hiring and wanted to see if I would be interested so she could hire around my schedule if I wanted to come back. I really loved working at the shop and only left in 2004 to get benefits. Scott and I really thought about this a lot and decided the extra money would be nice.

So, I am going to work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons and Wednesdays from 10:00 til 2:30 while Will is at Children's Day Out. I think I will enjoy it. I like having something to do (not that I don't have enough to do at home!). Christmas is right around the corner and it's time to start decking the shop out in lights, trees, and garland, and that is always fun :) Please pray for my new venture and that it works out for our family.

More from the Fabulous Fifties

Here are some more pictures of our party from Harmony's camera...

The Soda Shop

The Stage

The Doo-Wop Babies

Singing "The Yellow Rose of Texas" while wearing our cowboy hats.

"Elvis"

Me, Abby, and Harmony

Fabulous Fifties

Today was the big Fabulous Fifties party for the ladies at church. It was so nifty and we had a rockin' good time! Here are a few pictures that I got before the batteries in my camera gave out. Hopefully I will get more from friends sometime soon.

The finished product...my "poodle" skirt!

My full outfit

This is an real outfit from the Fifties...look at those shoes! Vickie was one of the few who opted for the "fancy" look of the Fifties. When she entered, you would have thought she was Marilyn Monroe...everyone wanted her picture!

An authentic autographed picture of Elvis Presley

Shirley, Trissa, Me, and Harmony in our poodle skirts. There were about 15 total people that wore poodle skirts.