Life with my sister

This year was Thanksgiving together. About every 3 years we end up eating turkey together and for that we are thankful. Stephen has this new fancy camera so he was all photo snazzy and for that we were also thankful....or at least for the most part! We had Thanksgiving in Little Rock at our great aunt's house. It was wonderful to have the original four together for a short bit. Sadly, it is rare for us to all 4 be together, and especially with Mawmaw. We are a busy people with lots of life to live. Sarah and Zach are brother and sister, and belong to our mother's sister, Janet. We all grew up together in Fort Smith. Sarah and I are 11 months apart and Zach is the baby of our group...his wife is having their first baby this coming spring. Much to be thankful for!    Pioneer Woman ain't got nothing on AJ! My BLT cheese ball fronting like a turkey. Not Pinterest worthy, but hey, I attempted it. Stephen found great humor in my turkey and provoked me to pose wit

Tuesdays have become my Monday lately. It seems that they are full of angst, crisis, and tears. I don't know why, Stephen thinks it's crazy, but it's true. Last Tuesday was a humdinger. It was the worst one ever, I'm pretty sure I didn't like anyone that day. But today was different.  I woke up, and went about my normal morning rituals. When I sat down by Stephen on the couch I mentioned that I looked bad. I mean I said, "I look bad!" He looked at me, rubbed his head like he does when he can come up with no words at all and walked out of the room. I thought is was weird, but continued to read the paper. He came back in, sat beside me, and told me to never say that again.  I cried. I'm crying now just thinking about it. It was such a sweet thing for him to do. He reminded me that he loved me, no matter how I looked. And that I wasn't to say it again!  I pray that moment in time stays with me for all of my days. It spoke volumes to me. As I sat there

Frosty the Snowman is the theme of ICE! at Opryland this year. We did Shrek last year and decided we needed to do Frosty this time. We drove over for it one day last week. It is 5 hours from our house. Henry loved the slide and went down it alone. I was so proud. He got stuck inside. It was comical watching him shake, scoot, rock, etc trying to move down. Everyone cheered when he started moving again. He was smiling so big. He was proud. We loved the red ice train. This display is so impressive. I have seen ICE! three times and I am always overwhelmed at the detail and mystery of how they make all this stuff out of ice! The had a NYC display and Henry had to drive the taxi, of course. We went in the middle of a week day so we had the place to ourselves, for the most part. Henry got to ride the train and ring the bell the whole time. We also rode the boat in the hotel, which we had never done before. It was fun to not have to fight the crowds. I rode the tea

I love Christmas movies. Do you? I've watched my share of Lifetime and Hallmark Christmas movies the last couple of weeks. Some of them I just adore and could watch over and over, and others I'm pretty much ok with never seeing again. Ha! I love that they all end up with a happily ever after ending, thank heavens Nicholas Sparks doesn't write Christmas movies. Can you even imagine? Santa's sleigh would probably run over the girl, or the guy would die in some horrible house fire due to bad Christmas lighting. Oh, Nicholas please don't write Christmas movies!! Anyway!! Some of my favorites are... 5. Christmas with the Kranks. Stephen and I read John Grisham's Skipping Christmas to each other for years before this movie came out. It was a fun little tradition we had. We would read it on our way home for Christmas, oh the memories. This movie is a hoot. Sweet, funny, and touching. Love it! 4. Family Affair. I had never seen the original of this movie until this year

Today is Monday. Trash day on our road. The trash is typically taken out Sunday night so that we don't miss the trash truck. At our house, the trash can is filled to overflowing by Sunday night, we can't risk missin the trash truck. We're doing school and I just heard the truck go by. It seemed that I'm the only one that heard it. I was overcome with tears (I'm blaming it on lingering effects of the flu) and memories.  It used to be that the kids waited on Monday morning for the trash truck to come by. As soon as they heard it, they were off to the windows and then out the door to watch extra close. We made friends with the trash guys. The kids took turns taking them drinks every week and sometimes brownies. At Christmas we gave them little gifts and at Thanksgiving we wrote them thank you notes.  I always told the kids that they had what we honk of as a yucky, stinky job but without them, our yard and neighborhood would be yucky and stinky!  Today when the trash tr

Well, as you probably guessed would happen, I'm not the only one in the house that has fallen ill. That sentence must not be grammatically correct, because autocorrect kept changing ill to I'll. It did it on that sentence to. I wonder why it doesn't like the word ill? (And it did it again! Ugh!) Stephen came home yesterday with a fever. That meant 5/6 of us were down. Samuel is the only one that is standing strong! Poor guy. He's having to do everyone's chores, run all of our errands and at the same time stay away from us.  We've made memories though. Anna and I have watched way to many Christmas movies for the middle of November. David, Daniel, and I have texted each other from opposite ends of the house. And Stephen and I have laughed while laying in bed at the hilarity of this sickness. And let's not forget that we are relying on Samuel, our brand new 16 yr old driver, to pick up meds and go to the bank for us. I love doing life with these people, it is w

After church Sunday I suddenly felt BAD! It was weird, I had felt fine all morning and then after church I had no energy to go anymore. I went home and went straight to bed, I didn't even turn on the tv and that isn't like me at all! Stephen got Wings To Go wings for supper and I didn't even eat them. That's when I knew something was wrong because I'm in love with buffalo garlic wings!  Yesterday I felt bad but acted as if I didn't, but crashed last night, and i've stayed crashed since then. Samuel took me to the doctor's office today and sat with me for 3 hours. Three hours! They finally swabbed my nose with the longest swabs known to man and announced the flu was indeed among us! Oh glory! I got home, finally, to find Anna and David coughing and alternating between being dizzy and being chilled. It seems I've infected my home. Luckily the doctor sent home prescriptions for everyone in the house, so they've begun Tamiflu just like me!  Sunday ni

We had an awesome time at the beach this week! Don't my people look happy?! We went on a dolphin cruise. It wasn't something Stephen and I were real excited about, but the kids had wanted to go for the last couple of years. It was so fun! It was a beautiful day, the temperature was perfect to be on a boat, and the dolphins put on quite a show. I have always loved the beach, and counted it as my happy place. But I found out this week that November at the beach is really my happy place! Watching the waves roll in while laying on the beach in my yoga pants and monogrammed sweatshirt is perfection!  All four of the kids braved the cold water day after day. It rained, the waves were huge a couple of days, and the red flags were out, but it didn't stop them from getting in the water. A big thanks to Stephen's parents for letting us tag along with them to the beach!

We're at the beach for a few days of R&R. We usually try to come once a year, but didn't make it this summer, so it's better late than never! My observations of the beach so far are these: 1) The sand isn't hot!  2) My family is the youngest on the beach, and that includes Stephen and myself. 3) It's windy. 4) The waves are big which makes up for #5 5) The water is COLD! 6) There are hardly any beach chairs on the beach. Maybe two per condo, which makes the beach look deserted, which I love. ( can I have a sentence like that? With two "which's) in it) 7) There are no airplanes toting banners in the sky. 8) The sky, sun, water, waves and sand are just as beautiful in late October as they ever are. 9) Shrimp and steak are as yummy as in the summer. 10) I love my family on the beach! And Stephen just added #11) "it's like an air-conditioned beach"