A few of my blessings

1. Getting the travel to Eastern Europe for the 1st time ever on a Mission Trip. It was a great trip and I learned so much and met so many really great people. And it made it even better that I was there with Jamey, Luke, Sara and my mom. My mom was SUCH a trooper. I hope to travel abroad with her again soon. The trip was made possible by a person who wished to remain anonymous, but whose gift to me and Jamey impacted far more people than he could ever realize.

2. Having really good neighbors. Neighbors that will let my dog in and out when I am out of town so I don't have to board her. Neighbors who will babysit and will come down for a chat and never once judge me on the condition of my house.

3. A fabulous husband. I came home from grocery shopping today to an empty house. I look out into the back yard and he has them engaged in a full on game on Teeball. What a great father. Makes me love him so much more each day which doesn't seem possible. He will do potty duty, children's church and patiently let the kids "help" him with a Wii or Playstation game. All kids should be this lucky...

4. Great family - a brother and sister in law that we are actually FRIENDS with - imagine that. In laws that love my kids. A sister in law who spoils my kids rotten.

5. My mom

6. a Job that is as secure as it can be in today's economy. We are by no means financially well off, but we can pay our bills and have a bit left for fun. And that is fine with me. I also have some of the best coworkers I could hope for...

2 days til Christmas. We are very excited and not quite ready. But Christmas will come no matter what is done and not done. :) And I say, bring it on.

Merry Christmas!

Uncle L and Stephen at the park over Thanksgiving


Ms. French (Jamey's grandma) made Ansley an apron with a matching apron for her baby doll. Ansley LOVES it.


I love the expression on Stephen's face as he runs...


Here are the kids blowing out birthday candles on their desserts. No birthday cakes this year! Neither of my kids likes cake. So brownies and cookies it was. Nice on my pocketbook too!



Ansley and her friends with Leighann at the birthday party. The COLD birthday party.

Christmas Through the Rain

Getting two kids out the door each morning in a reasonable amount of time is no easy task. I realize that many a mom and dad have done this long before I became a parent, but the job is nonetheless daunting even after both children got a good night’s sleep the night before and have awakened in a semi-good mood in the predawn hours of the morning. But add pouring rain to the mix, and time is the enemy. “Hurry, Hurry!” I tell the kids. “Eat, eat. We need to leave early with all this rain.”

The shoe search seems to take precious seconds longer this morning. I struggle to suppress a harsh tone as the thunder and lightning thrill my kids at the window. Rushing my kids to the car in the darkness of a full on thunderstorm, I do an inventory: backpack, lunchbox, extra clothes for the little one, phone charger. My kids are 100% dry, but my feet were not as lucky.

I sigh loudly and we are finally ready to go. And we are late.

And then, I am given a reminder:

“Look, Mama!” I hear my 5 (almost 6 year old she is quick to remind us all) from the backseat. “Aren’t you glad it is raining? We can see all the Christmas lights in the morning time today since it’s so dark out from the rain!”

We spend the car ride looking at all the Christmas lights between my house and the babysitter, pointing out our favorite displays that are shining through the sheets of rain.

The rain beat down on the car. The thunder rolled and the lightening crashed, but the spirit of my precious children was not shaken. They found joy in the morning drive to school.

What a lesson for me.

I certainly don’t have to list the many burdens we all face on a daily basis: illness, paying bills or buying groceries, layoffs, pressure and opinions from the people around us, loneliness, regret, fear. But seeing the light through the darkness means we have hope. We have hope that we are more than the problems that cause us to lose sleep at night. We have hope that we are more than illness that might have taken over our bodies or the overdrawn checking account giving us a stomachache. Having hope does not mean we live in denial. We know the problems are there and most people will face them scared or not. But when we can see, as a child, the light through the darkness, we can relax for a moment. We can breathe in the joy and it can help us get through the day, the hour, the moment.

I pray that you see the Christmas lights through the rain this season.

And I pray I will do the same.

Dear Santa....

Ansley has been asking for a few CDs for Christmas - The Taylor Swift one (of course) and another one with the "Monday" song. I could not for the life of me figure out what "Monday" song she was talking about...

Then yesterday, on the ride to school, we were listening to the 90s station on satellite radio (she is forced to listen to this station quite a bit) and the Cure song, "Its Friday, I'm in love" comes on.
"That's it mama!" she says, "That's the CD I want!"

So Dear Santa, please bring my baby a Cure CD for Christmas...


We had a great time in North Carolina with L and S. It was remarkably relaxing minus the never ending car ride home. I will post some pictures when I can.

At one point while we were there, we were out running around town and L and Jamey were going to run into the Class Six on base to buy a few things. Stephen wanted to go in with them. Jamey says to him that it just a store for daddies - that he should wait in the car with Mom.

Jamey and L go into the store and I look back and Stephen is on the verge of tears. "They will be right back," I tell Stephen. He looks at me with big sad eyes and says, "But I don't WANT a new daddy from the daddy store - I want MY daddy."

Bless his heart :)

Happy December everyone! The tree goes up tomorrow night. Hooray!