What a beautiful day!!!

Today was just an absolutely beautiful day!  It was georgeous outside, the sun was shining, the pancakes were flowing and the bees were buzzing.  Let me back up and explain. 

This morning, we took the family to Spiral Diner in Ft. Worth. 

For those of you who don't know, it is a vegan restaurant, the food is pricy, but it is worth it because it is GOOD.  Everything they serve is organic, most is local grown and everything is vegan.  We don't go there often because it is like an hour drive from us, and like I said it is kinda pricy when you are a family of our size.  But today we decided to splurge, every Sunday they do all you can eat pancakes for $5.95, so we hopped in the car this morning and headed to Ft. Worth.  When we got there the line took forever, but after about 45 minutes of waiting, we finally got to sit down (same table we always seem to get...hmmm.  Seeing as we went to have pancakes, that would be what you would think we would order right?  Nope, Sierra and Ella got the pancakes, Tae got broccoli and tofu, Jimmy got a nut burger, Haley got a portabello patty melt burget and I got a portabello burger.  So good!!!  Just not enough of it, but it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be.  So since we were already it Ft. Worth we decided that since it was such a beautiful day, that we would go to the Botanical Gardens, after all they were only like 5 minutes away, and it is much better than being cooped up in the house.

So we piled into the car and headed to the Botanical Gardens.  It was a great choice.  The fall colors were absolutely breathtaking.

Breathtakingly beautiful

Have you ever seen an evergreen tree not be green???

Sierra had to pose for this one, she picked which flower she wanted to smell in the picture

 

Ella wanted to smell the purple one because it was my favorite color.

Trying to get some good pics of the girls

I snuck this one when Haly wasn't looking

Sierra took a family picture, not bad for a 4 year old

After the Botanical Gardens we went to Coldstone Creamery and got some ice cream and then came home.  All in all today was a great day, no one took any phone calls (our phones were dead most of the day thanks to the newest iPhone update, and I am curerntly downloading what is supposed to fix it, hopefully it will because my battery is dying like crazy and I know I am not using it THAT much), and we just had a great family day.  Sometimes that is so needed, we get so busy in our day to day lives with work, ministry, school, housework that we forget how important it is to work on our family life.  Without our family life, nothing else matters.  It needs attention too, and I am so glad that we did that, it was needed.  So now the kids are in bed, Jimmy is on the computer in the office, I am finishing this up and then, I just might watch a scary movie (since all of my tv shows were reruns last week :( so I don't need to catch up on them) all by myself and pig out on some veggie straws (sooo good get them if you can find them).  Night all, see you soon!

I have arrived...

Ok at least in my opinion I have.  Today when I logged into my blog for the first time since I posted last week I think it was (sorry guys I went to San Antonio for a week to spend some quality time with my family, my grandpa who is on hospice, my grandma who isn't doing very well, my mom who does way to much and my brother who is developing himself into someone I am quickly becoming so very proud of, yes Jesse I mean you) and when I logged in I had...252 page views!!!!!  I about jumped out of my seat...and would have if it wasn't 11:30 at night and the whole house was asleep, and I even had my very first comment!!  (thanks MB <3)  It took me a minute to come back to earth with my big head, but I have calmed down some...not a lot but some, enough to post on here.

So on to the topic at hand...a lot has happened since I last posted, I went to San Antonio for 5 days, just me and the babies.  The first time Jimmy and I have been apart for more than 2 days since we got together 7 years ago.  It was almost like he was there with me seeing as we talked a lot and send videos of the girls and texted, but everyone survived (he was left with Haley and Taylor since they had school).  I came home expecting my house to be a disaster (since I am the one that does the cleaning around here), and unrecognizable but instead I came home to dinner (turkey roast, biscuits, gravy, and french fries) and a clean house (most of it and I won't complain).  I think I might just have to go out of town by myself more often!  Jimmy says this was a test run, but has since changed his mind, he won't leave my side for more than 10 minutes, tells me he loves me quite often, I think I am going to enjoy this bit of pampering while it lasts, I have since gone back to being the only one who cleans, but I think I will find a way around that here very soon...*tee hee hee*

Last night we went trick or treating with the girls (Haley went with Key Club trick or treating for Unicef) around his mom's neighborhood, and

  Sierra wanted to be a princess, so she was Princess and the Frog

 Ella was a cheerleader

And Buffy was a puppy princess

Taylor and I were 50's girls with poodle skirts (nope, no pics) and we had a blast.  Sierra was going to houses saying "trick my tree!!!" but wouldn't say thank you to them because she didn't know them so she couldn't talk to them (great thinking for a 4 year old, totally made since to her)

So now that Halloween is over, it is time to start working on our Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff, Thanksgiving baskets for our support group and Angel Tree party (we are adopting 100 kids in our county and providing Christmas presents from their incarcerated parent, also we provide Christmas dinner for the family as well).  We have canned good drives, bake sales, fundraisers, Christmas plays...talk about overwhelming, so glad I got my mini-vacation out of the way.  I have so much more I would like to post, but Tuesdays are pretty draining, so I will try to post all that is on my mind tomorrow, just wanted to check in, let ya'll know I am still alive and kickin' and that I have arrived!!!

San Antonio...and grandpa

So this weekend we went to San Antonio, I love going to San Antonio!  I was born there, raised there until I was 11 and my family lives there.  If I had it my way, I would go visit like every single weekend.  We stayed at the Menger Hotel by the riverwalk (do a search, it is supposedly haunted, but I don't think so), I got to see my uncle who I haven't seen since I was like 13 or so, met my cousin or something that I hadn't met before (he is 3), took some great pictures, watched the Rangers win the game and clench going to the World Series for the 2nd straight year (GOOOOO RANGERS!!!!).  Ate waaaaaaaay to much (I don't think I want to see food again for another year), rode the boar on the riverwalk, took some old time pictures, hung out with my baby brother (even though he is almost a foot taller than me now), went to lunch with my grandma, did some electrical work, walked around downtown, laughed a whole lot and came home.

I finally made it to go see my grandpa.  I sure have missed him.  He isn't doing well, and I am glad I got to see him this weekend.  When I got to the nursing home on Saturday, he was coming down the hall in his wheelchair.  My heart caught in my chest, he looks so frail, so fragile.  Just a shell of the vibrant person he used to be.  This was the first time he has been out of bed in over 2 months.  He got out of bed because he knew I was coming to see him.  He was going down the hall looking for me.  He didn't want me to see him laying in bed.  You see, the last thing I said to him the last time I talked to him was that I was coming soon, that once he got out of the hospital and got to doing better I would be coming to see him.  Sure enough, he got out of the hospital a few weeks ago, and started doing better, so I kept my promise, and I went to see him.  My mom has been telling him for over a week that I was coming, and my cousin told him Friday night that I was coming Saturday morning, so he knew I was coming.

I had such a wonderful visit with him, so many memories were made.  He wasn't back to how he used to be, his voice is very quiet, and my mom and I had to pat him on the back to break up the fluid in his chest every once in a while to get a voice back, but he told me that he didn't have much time left, and he could feel it coming.  He got to see Sierra and Ella again.  They picked flowers for him and covered him with about 40 yellow and orange flowers and he even let Jimmy take pictures of him (something that he NEVER lets anyone do) I gave him a mini massage he showed me how he could move his fingers on his left hand (something he just started doing within the last few months (he hasn't been able to move anything on his left side since his second stroke over 5 years ago).  He was trying to tell me things that I couldn't understand because he has no voice and I couldn't hear him, but all in all we had a great visit.  We sat outisde in the beautiful fall weather and just enjoyed some much needed time together.  I know that Sierra and Ella are way to young to remember any of this, but my grandpa's day was made by them loving on him even though they really don't know who he is, by them showing his rolly polly's that they found with their cousin (that they had just met for the first time the previous day but were instant best friends).  We stayed for almost 2 hours, but they just flew by.  I could have stayed all day, but he was tired, it was a lot for him to handle since it was his first time out in a few months.  I have a hard time looking at him as a fragile shell of who he used to be.  I see him and just want him to start making donald duck voices again, or telling me about how it was when I was groing up and telling him he was my daddy and holding onto his leg, or when I was digging in the backyard when I was like 5 and I couldn't find anymore dirt, or remembering going to the apple carnival thing when I was 13 or so and he introduced me to Toby Keith music.  It's not easy to see my big strong grandpa who could defeat anyone and anything because he is all powerful, reduced to a shrivled old man (who isn't old), who needs someone to change his clothes, wipe his mouth, someone to move his hand and wheel him around so that he can get where he needs to go.  Someone who has to point at a board to tell you when he needs or wants something because you can't hear him because he can't speak above a muttered whisper.  But he is still the same person on the inside, trying to joke around and make faces.  Still wanting and needing his family to love him, needing people to talk to, someone to show that yes, they still care about him and he isn't forgotten.

That was probably the best, and worst part of my trip down there.  I will never forget the time I got to spend with him this weekend, and there never is enough time when it comes to someone you love.

Weekends

Weekends are for a normal family, a time to relax, time to sit back and really do nothing.  Notice I said a normal family.  If I have ever given the impression that we are a normal family, I assure you, we are not.  Our weekends are hectic, they are crazy, they are loud, there is a lot of running around screaming like crazy people, there is a lot of kids screaming "she touched me, she won't quit singing in my ear, why doesn't she have to go to bed?"  The peace and quiet idea of weekends is lost on me.  Not that I really or truly mind, but sometimes it is nice.

This weekend was of no exception, we had our housefull (as we do quite often).  All 6 kids here, sugar flying, attitudes soaring, rain (thanks, couldn't have waited until during the week, lets rain on the weekend and keep everyone inside.  In reality, I loved it, but wished it would have rained before 1:00am so I could have sat outside and really enjoyed it, but that's ok), dogs barking and running around, growling because one of the kids won't stop picking them up (did I mention before we have 4 dogs, all of them small, 2 male sharpay/boxer mix puppies, 1 male chihuahua/min pin mix and one female purebred shi tzu puppy, she is the one who doesn't like to be picked up very much, the story of getting 4 dogs will be another story for another day), constant setting and clearning the table, neverending picking things up all over the house (don't even get me started on the bedrooms or laundry).  Our weekend was packed with football games, birthday parties, going to friends houses, work, ministering at the prison and before we knew it, Sunday night is here again.  All we can do is look back and say "wow, where did my weekend go?  What happened to the relaxing we were supposed to do?" 

Sunday, the day we are supposed to relax, never is the day it is supposed to be anymore.  Not that much got done today, food was cooked (heath bar pancakes for breakfast and some chicken pasta thing for dinner, lots of snacking in between), laundry was folded and put away (for the most part, there is still some in the middle of my living room floor that I am ignoring at this moment even though it is calling my name), kitchen was cleaned again, and again, and again.  But for the most part, today was relaxing in our own way, we watched a few movies, ran around the house chasing the girls around, gave the little ones baths (after the 3 year old decided that it would be more fun to wipe her poop all over the toilet seat than to throw the toilet paper in the trash), let them run around outside for a while to burn off energy, made cookies (yeah, smart to make cookies at 9:00 at night, not our most brilliant moment of the day, let me tell you), wrestled the little ones to bed in hopes the sugar crash would soon take hold of their over tired little bodies, which it did, a whole 20 minutes ago.  So I am sitting here on my laptop in the living room, Rebecca and Sam wanting to watch yet another movie to delay the bedtime that is coming enjoying the quiet time that is the few minutes I get between when Sierra and Ella go to sleep and when I finally unwind for the day.  A few minutes to really relax, have some "me" time.  And now, my "me" time has come to an end, my eyes are starting to droop and the morning is coming way to soon.  So good night for now, sweet dreams to all, and until next time :)

Remember what is important

Tonight I had the scare of my life.  There are moments where you think the worst, and then there are moments where you fear the worst in the pit of your stomach so strongly that you could throw up just to make it go away.  I had one of the latter tonight.

Jimmy goes to the prison every Friday night to do our bible study with the guys at the unit.  Normally he is done between 9:15 and 9:30 and home by about 9:45 at the latest.  Well tonight, the girls and I are having fun making cookies and just being like girls will be, homework and stuff like that, when 1, 2, 3 cops go flying down the road in front of our house, sirens blazing going no less than 90 mph.  I look at the clock because I know it is getting close to time for Jimmy to be heading home, and it is 9:30.  The cops are flying toward the direction of the prison.  Then a firetruck and ambulance go flying by.  The first thing I think is oh my gosh!  Jimmy is on the bike, and I have his phone!  It is just about time for him to be on his way and there is a very dangerous intersection between here and the prison and the worst flashes into my mind.  Minutes start to crawl by, I am imagining horrible things, and it is taking every ounce of my being not to jump into the car and fly to the prison.  All I can see is him laying in a road somewhere, his drivers license still has our old address on it, he doesn't have his phone, and doesn't have an insurance card on him (still with our old address on it too, I really need to fix that come to think of it).  My heart starts racing, I can feel the nausea setting in.  I start shaking thinking about what would I do if something was to happen to him.  How would I survive without him.  How empty would my life be, how would I explain to the girls that something happened to their daddy, he is their whole world (I am fighting back tears while I am typing this and reliving the entire thing).  I am trying not to panic but time just isn't moving fast enough for me and I have no way of knowing if the person I love more than anything is ok or not.  So I wait...time ticks by more slowly than it has ever ticked by before in the history of time.  9:45 comes and still nothing, 9:50 and I am almost beside myself with worry and I hear a careflight helocopter go by.  Now I am about to loose my mind and just burst into tears.  I calm down, get a glass of water and call the prison to see if he left yet, if they say yes just a minute ago, we are good, if they say he left a while ago, it is time for me to make the longest drive of my life.  They say that all of the volunteers are still there at the unit.  I almost cried with joy, I explained to them that I am not some crazy wife, that all of these cops went flying that way, he was on the bike, no phone and I could tell that she totally understood and reassured me that he was ok and still there, count didn't clear.  Needless to say, I felt so much better, I could have cried with joy at that moment.

I can honestly say that I have never been so worried about someone in my life.  It is moments like this that make you realize just how much you love someone.  How much your whole world revolves around them.  How important they are to you.  So many people worry so much about their posessions and don't really care about the people around them.  In that moment, I realized just how much I really do love him and don't know how I could live without him.  Him and I have a saying, "I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow" (then I found out there was a song that said it, and I said they stole it from me, but it turns out it was written long before I was born, but it is still MY saying).  That saying was never more true than it was tonight for me.

Introductions

Hello!  I have decided to start this over again, a new start and since no one read the previous posts, I deleted them, my blog and I can do what I want ;)

So here are my introductions to my life with a few pics so that as I go further along, you will know who I am talking about.

This is me and the love of my life, my wonderful husband of 6 years (as of 5 days ago).  He is the most wonderful husband in the whole world.  He is my support system and I don't know what I would do without him.  Together we have our own business and ministry, we are both ordained pastors and do everything for God's glory.  As you can tell, I am just a little proud of my hunny bunny.

This, is Haley, yes she is going to be mad at me for using this picture, but it totally describes the thinking of a 16 year old, the oldest child of 6.  The look says it all.  But in reality, she is a great kid, we are getting ready to go through getting her license (I am far to young to have a kid driving!).  She gets straight A's is taking 2 college credit classes, she does community service with her school and is already working toward getting scholarships so we don't have to pay for college for her!  I couldn't be more proud of her if she was biologically my own.

This is Taylor (Tae), she is 12 and just moved in with us this summer, she is a person all of her own.  Very headstrong and outspoken, not afraid to tell you what she thinks.  She has the biggest heart for the underdog I have ever seen in a 12 year old.  Since moving in here with us, she has blossomed into such a great person, I can't wait to watch her grow up into a great woman.

This is Rebecca, she is 11 and is the biggest ham!  She sees a camera and automatically strikes the goofiest poses.  She is such an amazing kid, I love her with all my heart, I have never met anyone like her.  She has never met a stranger (yes that impresses and terrifies me at the same time) and she loves everyone she has ever met.  And smart!  Man is this girl smart!  But blonde!  She cracks me up with some of the things that she says, trust me, you will understand as this blog goes further in detail.

This is my Sam-a-lam-a-ding-dong (she hates it, but secretly loves it when I call her that).  She is 8 going on 30.  This kid is soemthing else, she loves to be loved, she always wants to be hugging, kissing, be carried, sit on top of, hang off of, be under your feet so that she knows that you are close by, loving and be loved kind of kid.  The most famous Sam quote "I love dolphins" just randomly shouted out at the strangest times.  I love this girl!

Introducing Sierra.  She is 4 and thinks that she is much older than she is.  She loves to be the little mommy.  There is such a big personality in such a little body.  Her favorite thing to do is to sing and dance.  She would sing all day long if you let her.  She love hugs and kisses, but doesn't like strangers.  She loves baseball and absolutely loves Captain, the Ranger's mascot.

Introducing, Ella Bella.  She is 3 and our last baby.  What can I say about this little angel baby?  No matter what mood you are in, when she looks at you and smiles, the whole room lights up and everything that has been bothering you just melts away in those baby blue eyes.  She is such a sweet baby.  Her whole world revolves around Veggietales, music, dancing, dressing up and running around screaming at the top of her lungs.  She is the one who makes sure that the house is not clean and not quiet at all times, but I don't know what I would do without her, life would be so dull.

So this is my world.  My life, my heart.  My reason for living, breathing and getting up every day.  My heart never knew it could hold so much joy and love in it.  My days are long and some seem to never end, some are hectic, some days it seems like I haven't done anything at all.  Some days I am doing good to just get out of bed and get the kids dressed (or myself for that matter as I type this in my pj's), and others everything seems to just go right, up, house clean, all things taken care of for the day and the kids go down to bed early so my hunny and I can watch a move (rare days).  But to be totally honest, I wouldn't trade even the worst day for anything in the world.