Saturday, November 29, 2008

Thanksgiving Buck

Michael went hunting Thanksgiving morning, just as he has done every year since I have known him. He was blessed to shoot a nice 8 pointer this year.

I'm not a hard-core hunter like Michael, but I do enjoy going a few times each year...in fact, Dylan was conceived while hunting in 2003! (TMI, I know..right!?) I am amused by the variations of comments we get about hunting...some people just cant stand the thought of a "poor innocent animal being shot"--yet the majority of those people eat meat, so it really makes no sense to me. We do eat the deer Michael shoots, and there are a few people he provides with meat from his deer also. Plus, hunting defiantly helps with the over-population problem.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The "First" Thanksgiving

Dylan was in a play at school yesterday. Not only was he in a play, but he had one of the two lead roles! He played John Smith. The play was titled "The First Thanksgiving" and went through the story of John Smith meeting Squanto and how the two came together.

John Smith & Squanto meeting


Dylan(right) with his friend, Kaleb


I hope everyone of you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Give Thanks

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1Thessalonians 5:18

Many years ago I had a preacher who read this verse and "brought it to life" for me. There are two very important words in that verse that I feel get overlooked frequently... Those two words are "every thing". We are to give thanks in EVERY THING...He didn't say "in the good times, give thanks" but he said "In everything, give thanks".

We should give thanks to God when life changing moments happen, even if they seem scary to us, because those moments are the will of God concerning us. God knows whats going on in our life, and he will never leave us alone, nor forsake us, if we put our trust in him. So the next time that you are sad, or scared, try your best to remember that God is with you and he is worthy of your praise... in all times!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

My Little Chef

Dylan & I made cookies today while Hayden napped. They were yummy!






Friday, November 14, 2008

What might have been...

I was reading an article the other day about a young mother in Charlotte who lost her life due to a pulmonary embolism. A pulmonary embolism (also known as PE) is basically when a blood clot becomes dislodged from its site of formation and moves to one, or both, of the lungs. Lately I have read, or heard of, more and more people developing blood clots. But reading about this mother made me think back to May of this year when my family had a scare.

It was a busy day because Hayden, my baby, was due to have tubes put in his ears early that morning. Michael and I were on our way to the surgery center when he complained about having a tight feeling in his chest-in fact, the night before he had tossed and turned alot saying he felt like he couldn't catch his breath. As bad as it sounds I just figured he was terribly out of shape and needed to get over it! The procedure for Hayden went over perfectly, thank God, but on our way home Michael kept complaining to me. He had actually had surgery a few weeks earlier to repair his knee, which had been injured while playing volleyball at church. Even though he hadn't really been laying around alot, he was alot less mobile than his normal self-so I wondered if maybe he was getting pneumonia. I had heard that people who are confined to bed can get that sometimes. I made him call his doctor to get their opinion and I went on about my business. At this point, just walking from our car into the house took every bit of breathe and energy he had so I was actually starting to worry a bit. The nurse listened to his symptoms over the phone and told us we needed to get him to the ER because it sounded like a blood clot to her. This was the first time I had ever really heard much about a blood clot, and honestly had no idea of its seriousness. I had my dad come get the boys and drove Michael on to the hospital. On the way there I could see the fear in his eyes, because at this point he was barely able to breathe and it scared him. When we got to the hospital, the actually rushed us back to a room where the asked him numerous questions and started running multiple tests. After a few hours passed, which I now know was a ridiculous amount of time to have to wait while experiencing his symptoms, the doctor came in to him and explained he had a pulmonary embolism. (In fact, BOTH of his lungs were filled with clots.) I naively asked the doctor if it was serious, and he replied "Yes! If you would of waited to bring him to the hospital, he would of been dead!" At that moment, Michael and were both filled with fear and the "what ifs" began.

Michael was hospitalized for a week...a long, scary week that I will never forget. Throughout that week we were assured by some doctors that he was out of danger at that point, but the occasional nurse would mention to us that with the severity of his PE he was still in danger of death! Obviously, it has now been 6 months and he is alive-so God did save him, but that fear we felt still haunts me from time to time. In a way, I'm thankful for the experience because its a good reminder to not take my family for granted--and I hope this story will remind you to go hug your own family and make sure they know you love them!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Our project

Yesterday, Dylan was out of school, so I took the day off to spend with the boys. I had decided to take them to Michael's craft store so Dylan could pick out a project for us to do. I found a super cool mosaic stepping stone kit that looked like it would be lots of fun, but Dylan was not interested. Instead, he found a tie dye kit he was set on buying--so we got it.
When we got home it was time for him to pick out what he wanted to dye. We went in his room and found 2 white T's, which he decided was perfect--One for him, and one to give his brother. Then we were set. But wait, nope...he then decided we needed to dye something for mommy! He dug through my drawers until he found the perfect piece, a pair of my white panties! I decided what-the-heck and let him do it. We had lots of fun, and I'm happy to say I'm actually looking forward to wearing my cute freshly dyed panties!

Dylan's shirt

The shirt Dylan dyed for Hayden

Mommys pretty "new" panties

Sunday, November 9, 2008

This Little Light of Mine

Today, at church, I heard a sermon that really hit home..it was about letting the "Light of God" shine through us. As a Christian I have strong beliefs, and while I try my best to never push them on people, I find that by merely living for God I sometimes end up "offending" someone.

Have you every woke up in the dark of the night to go to the bathroom, and as you get there you turn the light on to see a cockroach in the floor? When that light comes on what does the bug do? Scatter! Crawls quickly to the nearest dark corner it can find! You know, this is kind of how it is with unbelievers--when they start to see the light of God in us, sometimes they turn away because they feel more comfortable living in the dark. Its not us that they are rejecting, but God....they are rejecting what we stand for. But God instructed us to let our light shine...
Notice he didn't say to make it shine, but rather let it shine. Because if you have God it your heart, the light with naturally show.
We can only pray for those who haven't yet found the love and hope we have been given through our Savior.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Night time

I love the way my boys look while sleeping. I'm sure I'm not the only mom who does this, but often times after they are asleep I just go in and look at their precious faces. Hayden isn't a sound sleeper, so I have to be very careful not to wake him...but Dylan, he is a different story. I sometimes sit on his bed while he sleeps and rub his face. When they are all grown up , I'm going to miss being able to sneak a peak of them sleeping.

Dylan snoozing with Thomas.

Hayden stuffing his face in his beloved blankie.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Flashback

Last night Michael and I took a Ninja Turtle and a beagle puppy (better known as my boys) trick-or-treating ...we made the usual stops by my family and friends from church.

One stop was at my grandma's house-the boys great-grandmother. They call her "granny". I remember being a little girl and going to her house. She would wash my hair in her kitchen sink, and I thought that was so neat at the time. She always had a yummy pound cake sitting on her kitchen table..and don't get me started on her mouth-watering macaroni and cheese! I remember playing with my cousins there--and one time my cousin, Tasha, and I went in grandma's back yard and picked a big bunch of blackberries, which grandma then used to make a pie. I also remember stopping at her house every year to trick-or-treat...and last night I re-lived that with my boys. As we were sitting in "granny's" living room while the boys showed off their costumes I totally realized how fast time is flying by!

The boys with "Granny"