My Quarterly post! Part 2

Originally, we had planned to travel to Dallas over New Year's to visit Josh, Cindy, Emma and Cole.  But, some things happened and we needed to travel to Phoenix and see Grandmother and Granddad.  We packed up the car and drove out on Thursday as soon as I got off work.  We were going to stay the night in Albuquerque, but decided to drive all the way through.  We left Texas at about 6 and arrived in Phoenix at about 9.  It was a long trip, but I'm SO glad we went.  I'm so blessed because I had all four of my grandparents and two of my great-grandparents.  My dad never knew his grandparents, so we were very blessed to get to spend a lot of time with ours.  My grandmother taught me how to play Uno, gin and do puzzles.  She loved puzzles. She also made the best Christmas candy ever.  She also loved to fish.  She didnt' care about touching the worms.  Every time she and Granddad would wait up for us to arrive.  She was ok when we grew taller than she was.  She would stand back to back and let us measure all the time.  She always wore a snap button robe over her jammies when she woke up and cooked breakfast.  She always told us to stand up striaght and point our toes straight when we walked.  She would always let us sleep until we woke up.  She let me stay up late and read and sleep on the couch so I didn't have to share a bed with Whitney all the time.  I loved their house and the way the pillows smelled.  Granddad always had ice cream, I mean ALWAYS.  He would eat pie with cheese and cake with butter.  He loved to pick on me.  He called me blondie, still does sometimes, even though my hair is brown now.  He played basketball with us.  He always works the crosswords puzzle and reads the comics.  He wore thin panyhose socks.  He carries a bandana for a hankie.  He eats bananas in his cereal.  He has a spot under his nose and one on his hand from the carbon black.  No matter how early I woke up, he was always already awake.  He could do pushups one handed.  He loves coffee with plain creamer and no sugar.  Peanut butter goes with pancakes.  Every year for our birthday they would send us a dollar for how old we were.  They were the best grandparents ever.  I have not seen much of them lately.  Its been hard with them so far away and Taylor being so young.  We did fly out there when she was about four months old.  They have been here I think two times also.  Taylor loves GG and Other Granddad.  That's what she calls them. 

Taylor had a blast playing with Christopher.  He is my cousin Stefanie's son.  It's hard to believe he's getting so old.  He beat me at Jenga fair and square. 

The weather was so nice while we were there.  We got out a few time and took a little walk with GG and other Granddad. 

On our way home we had a little bit of car trouble.  We stopped at the Petrified Forrest and the Painted Desert.  It was so much fun.  I had always wanted to stop there, but we never did.  So, Jackie let me stop and we had a great time.  We made a little picnic and it was really cold outside.  Here are a few pics from our little stop there! 

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We made it home safe and sound.  It was a long trip, but I'm so glad we were able to do it. 

On Thursday, January 14th when I got out of class Jackie called me and told me that they had taken PawPaw by ambulance to the hospital for chest pain.  I drove straight from Canyon to BSA.  I stayed at the hospital with Mom until about 12:30 that night.  They decided to keep him overnight to observe him.  About an hour after I left he had a massive heart attack and they moved him downstairs to the CCU.  While there he had another massive heart attack.  Then he had any where from 20-25 little heart attacks.  Friday afternoon we moved him to BSA hospice.  I stayed there with him until he passed away on Monday morning about 6:35 am.  The last thing he said to me was that he loved me.  I have never been right with someone when they passed.  He was very peaceful and I know that was because he knew the Lord.  The hardest thing I have ever had to do was to pick up the phone and call my mom and tell her.  That week was a blur.  It was hard on Mema.  She has alzheimer's and has a hard time understanding.  Taylor is so blessed to have gotten to know them.  They love seeing her!  She was very concerned about him and made sure to check on him.  He did smile the last time he saw her.  I know he loved her too.  I know now he is not hurting, but it's hard on Mom.  The funeral was so nice.  A man from their church did the service and told so many great stories.  One thing I will never forget is how my PawPaw prayed.  You could really tell how much he respected God.  His voice and posture would change.  He always started, "Our gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for this day,"  If we were eating (we thank you for this food).  And then when he closed he would say, "Lord guide, guard, and direct us, in Jesus' name Amen."  I know he was stubborn and sometimes hard to get along with, but he was a very good man.  I know he tried to do what he thought was right and that's all any of us can ever do.  I will miss him very much and I'm so glad I was there to hold his hand and wipe his forehead.  I hope I did enough to make sure he knew how much I loved him and wanted him to be comfortable.  Over the last three years, I spent a lot of time with him and I know that Mema loved him.  I really admire that they spent their entire lives together.  That tells you the kind of man he was.  He always stuck by his word.  He was dedicated and loyal.  I want to be more like that.  PawPaw, I will always love you and will miss you very much, but I promise we are taking good care of Mema.

Sorry, these posts are so heavy, the last few months have had a lot of emotion in them.  Here's some of the fun things we have done lately.  POOL.  Jackie loves pool and it really good at it.  I'm terrible but want to learn.  The Church had a pool table donated to them so we have been practicing a lot lately.  On Friday we had a date and played from 9:30 pm until 2 am.  Just one game after another.  It was really fun!  I hope I will get good enough to beat him, I mean really beat him, not just win because he scratched on the 8 ball.  Taylor loves to play too, these pics are a little dark, sorry!

Another super happy day was Wednesday!  It was Taylor's 3rd birthday!  We woke up and she wanted chocolate chip waffles, so before school I made her some.  We sang and she got to blow out the candles!  Then I took her out for a special birthday lunch.  Then we went back to her school and had a party!  We had cupcakes and party hats and horns!  It was so much fun!  Then we went to the Credit Union to make a commercial.  Then Mom took her for a few hours and had some bonding time.  Then when Jackie and I got off we went out to eat with Mom and Dad for her birthday.  She wanted to go to Olive Garden.  She LOVES pasta!  It was so much fun.  As we were going to bed she said, "Mommy can it be my birthday again tomorrow?"  Guess that means we did a great job celebrating!  Her party is on Saturday.  I will post some snow pics and party pics soon, I hope.  Here are some birthday pics!

Happy Birthday Sweet Taylor!  Life is so rich with you in it!  I'm so blessed to be your Mommy!  I look forward to the many more memories to come!  I'm so proud of the sweet girl you are becoming!  Daddy and I love you so much!

My Quarterly post!

Here in Texas, its 3:45 am and there is 10 inches of snow on the ground, perfect time to blog!  I have a whole lot of stuff to tell you, so it might take a while.  So here we go!!

We had the best holiday season ever!  We began to put up our decorations the week of Thanksgiving.  I love the holidays.  I love the music, the decorations, the smells, the food, but most of all I love the happy feelings I feel during this time of year.  It seems like everyone is nicer and my heart is more open and loving, something I strive to be better at.  We had Thanksgiving at our house this year.  I LOVED IT!  I cooked the entire meal, except the dressing.  My mother makes the most incredible dressing I have ever tasted.  I didn't even want to attempt to copy it.  The main reason is because she never follows the recipe, well she starts out following the recipe, then she goes back and adds a bit of this and a pinch of that.  Every time it's perfect.  The first Thanksgiving I was away from home, I got up in the middle of the meal and called her and told her how much I missed her dressing.  It's just one of those things that I think I can never copy.  She will always be the dressing master!  Dinner turned out great and everything was ready at almost the same time!  We set up a table in the living room and I decorated it and it was so pretty!  I had already set up the tree and Jackie found us this DVD of Christmas music and a fireplace on the TV.  It was so nice!  We actually used the china and I even let Taylor use it!  Pretty impressive because its about $140 a place setting.  I was not sure if I was going to let her use it, but then my amazing friend Anita and I talked about it and she said something like, "Don't you want her to know that she is more important to you than any plate?"  Wow, she is so wise.  I'm so blessed to have an amazing woman who is so faithful in my life! 

Then after dinner we all just hung out and relaxed.  Mom stayed at home and snuggled Taylor while Dad and Jackie took me to Michaels, I know these guys really love me to brave the crowds to look at crafty stuff!  It was fun and we got some GREAT bargains!  When we got back to the house and showed Mom what I found, she wanted to go too!  So, I went back with her!  Two trips in one day, I was SO pumped! 

Our next project was to finish decorating the house.  We put lights up outside and decorations everywhere!  It was so much fun having our own place to do whatever we wanted to!  Our next door neighbors are an elderly couple who have a life size manger scene they put up in their yard.  They are so sweet and Taylor LOVES George and Emma Lee!  I feel so blessed to have such sweet caring neighbors.  Every time when we went outside Taylor HAD to go and check on baby Jesus.  She loved propping him up.  I asked why and she said so "everyone can see Him!"  WOW, I was so proud that she is beginning to understand the real meaning of Christmas! 

School wrapped up and I made a 4.0!  This one was so meaningful because I took 15 hours.  It was WAY too much and I won't ever do it again.  I wanted to quit so many times.  More times than I can count Jackie would find me crying and ask me if I was ok.  I kept questioning if it was all worth it.  I really began to think about limits and boundries.  The Lord was really working on me and trying to teach me something.  I feel like I learned a lot about balancing and trying to make the most of the time I have with my family and then do the schoolwork.  I missed so many Sunday mornings mainly because I was so overwhelmed.  Those were the only times I felt like I could find peace and quiet.  I'm so thankful that our church is on tv.  I became a regular member of the virtual church!  I did really miss all my friends though.  (Christine and Andrea the most!!)  And my kids on the van! 

Every year the credit union hosts a night with Santa.  This year it fell on the same night as the CityChurch kids party.  So Jackie took Taylor to church and then when I got off from work I went to church and then she and I left early and went to visit Santa.  When I walked into the church youth building I could not believe what I saw!  There were REAL horses!  They had set it up like a barn to show the kids what it was like when Jesus was born.  There was hay everywhere and lights and it was AMAZING.  My allergies didn't like it though.  Taylor had so much fun!  She was so excited to see Santa!  When he walked into the room she started laughing and saying, "HI SANTA!"  That's amazing becuase last year she refused to sit on his lap at the mall and then she cried when she saw him at the credit union.  This year she RAN onto his lap and just started talking away!  It was so cute!  Here's a photo

Santa gave her a doctor kit.  She loves to play doctor and give you a shot!  Paybacks for all the times I've had to take her, I guess!

The next big project I did was help plan my work Christmas Party.  I loved this but spent too much time I think.  I hand-painted a glass for every person attending.  They turned out awesome and I was so proud of them.  There were three of us on the committee, and the party was so nice.  It was fun but in a different way than last year (I was on the planning committee last year too).  Not sure which one was better, but I had a lot of fun.  This is how amazing my husband is, he spent our first wedding anniversary with me at a work function moving tables and hanging lights and being bossed around.  I know I'm blessed and he loves me.  I have never ever known a man with more of a servant heart!

December 19 was a very happy day because of our anniversary and the party, but it was a hard day too.  Jackie got a call about 7 in the morning that our pastor Don Lane had passed away.  I can't think about him without having a few tears fall.  Don was such an amazing man.  He was full of vision and passion.  He was such a dear friend to my husband.  I know Jackie misses him terribly.  When we found out we both cried and then Jackie said, "You know what I'm going to do?  We're getting up in the morning and we're starting our vans and we are going to go find as many kids as we can and bring them to CityChurch so we can tell them about Jesus.  That's how I can honor my friend."  WOW, you see, that's the kind of man Don Lane was.  He loved kids and loved telling them about Jesus.  He could see what other people couldn't.  He looked at 205 S Polk and while others saw an abandoned wasted building, he saw CityChurch.  When others saw a meth addict, he looked and saw what was inside and what he could become.  When others looked at me they saw a woman devestaed because of a bad marriage, but he saw a heart capable of amazing love!  The rest of our city avoids the area north of Amarillo Blvd, but Don saw all those lost people who need Jesus!  His vision and passion lives on.  Don't think so?  Spend about 2 secounds with any of his kids, or Jackie.  You can see the kind of impact and legacy he left behind.  I have never experienced anything like I did during worship on Sunday the 20th. It was so real and deep and indescribable.  We all had such heavy hearts, but still lifted them up to the Healer.  God did a mighty work that day in our hearts.  I will never ever forget that day and that worship.  Don was there when Jackie needed him and we will always love him for that.  I'm so glad the Lord blessed me by putting this man and his family in my life.  I know he's dancing and celebrating and loving spending all his time in heaven.  I never got to tell him how much he meant to me, but someday I will!

We actually went and had family pictures made!  Jackie, Taylor and I went on a Sunday and then on Tuesday Mom, Dad, Whitney, Kime and us all went.  It was really nice.  We had never done that!  I dont' have the whole group ones yet, they are still at Mom's but I will post one of those pics next time.  Here's some of the ones from our family shoot.

Christmas was so much fun.  Taylor stayed awake the whole time and loved all her presents.  She wanted to open each one completly and play with it.  I'm so glad she had so much fun!  She was SO excited when Santa came.  She was really worried that he ate the cookies.  Here she is opening her stocking!

See the next post for the rest of what we have been up to!