The Dixon Daily

Casting Crowns ~ Who Am I

2008-08-04T20:41:00.002-05:00

Good Day yall, After the week that I had last week, I found this You-Tube Video that truly melted my heart.

I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did and can truly be inspired by it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT7x3VnrqbA

Sabbatical

2008-07-10T20:08:00.000-05:00

Hey there All, So I took a sabbatical for about a month from Blogging, however I have gotten so many emails that I have decided to update you all on the last month of the Dixon’s Life. It all began to go down hill when Joey got my laptop online and I could play games online and not worry about the Blogging World that was out there until I got the first of many emails from an old High School Friend, Jennifer, to remind me that I was doing a HORRIBLE Job at posting. Thanks Jen for the Humility that you have given to me. I am now back to work for the 2nd week and things are just as busy now as before I left for vacation. Trying to make my goals and making the $$$$$$$ is always a good thing.

First Week of June: Not too much going on, just working and doing a whole lot of nothing, including blogging.

Second Week of June: We went on a Mini-Vacation the weekend of June 13 to Gatlinburg, TN in the Great Smoky Mountains. My mother and father-in-law took the kids up on Wednesday, June 11th and spent a few days alone with the kids to do Ober Gatlinburg, Horseback Riding, Alpine Sliding and all of the other fun things that Grandparents do. Joey, his sister and myself went up after work on Friday. We had a Great Time the few days that we were able to spend there. We went Go Cart racing and boy can Court drive. I think that she learned from her DAD, running people off of the road and bumping into them. When we were done racing on the 40 MPH Track, there were several couples that were on the track at the same time and one of them stopped my father-in-law and said, I don’t know who that little girl learned to drive from, but all I saw was her passing me and bumping people out of her way. Claudia, my sister-in-law said that she couldn’t catch up to her at all, even with her foot glued to the gas and flooring it. Maybe Court’s car was “sooped” up just a little more than all of ours were. I will add pictures when I finish uploading them from the camera. I only took about 150 and I need to sort through them before I start posting them.
Our Resort was FANTABULOUS!!!!!!!!! We had the best time just being in the confines of where we were staying. Indoor, they had 2 pools with 2 large water slides, a hot tub, and a sauna. Outdoor they had a Lazy River, 2 more pools and another Hot tub. WOW. We would definitely recommend this place to everyone who wanted to take a trip to Gatlinburg.
When Sunday rolled around it truly felt like we could stay another week. We had so much fun in such a short time. I could have stayed another week at least.

Third Week of June: We left on June 20th to go to Missouri for Church Camp. We met my mom in Sikeston to get ready to go to Bootheel Youth Camp on Sunday.

SUNDAY - We got to BYC - Bootheel Youth Camp about 2 on Sunday afternoon and we were the first campers and staff there. I went to the Director’s Cabin to take my usual Sunday afternoon nap and about 30 minutes after I finally fell asleep I was awakened by Courtney telling me that everyone was there and we needed to go get our cabin assignments. I went down to the “Mess Hall” to meet with everyone and get orders only to find out that I was not part of staff and was told in not so many words that I was not even wanted there. I was in complete shock. I left camp and went for a drive to clear my head and bawled my eyes out. I was so upset that I didn’t even want to go back, however I knew that what I truly wanted to happen was for my kids to experience the same things that I did as I was a kid. I went to BYC the year after I was old enough to go until the year after I was too old to go. I went the extra year as a Junior Counselor. I always had the best time at BYC and a lot of GREAT memories were made at this little piece of heaven on earth. Sunday night we stayed up until about 11:30P.M. playing Spades and Spoons. As I wrote in my journal that night, where there are cards, a game will be played. We had enough laughs in one night to last the entire week, however we had laughs every other night as well.

MONDAY - Breakfast was at 8:00A.M. which came very early since we were up so late the night before. After breakfast, the 2 boys cabins swapped up on doing the morning devotional, which was very inspirational. How many times do you see 7-17 year old boys working together as a group doing a devotional for the entire camp? They were truly a Great Group of Kids that enjoyed spending time not only with their own age group but were all about spending time with the younger kids as well.

TUESDAY - Craig’s Cabin did the devotional in the morning and they did a Fantastic Job. Craig even got up to read a scripture. This shocked me since mom and I were there and we were watching him. He made some pretty good friends this week, Andy McCormick and Dean Davidson. They were all in a cabin together and they had some of the best counselors for the week. One of them was even named “The Mother Hen” or should I say “Father Rooster”.

WEDNESDAY - It was the middle of the week and by this time everyone was starting to get worn out. We had jam packed days every day and when I say jam packed that is what I truly mean. From the time that we got up in the morning until the time that we went to bed, there was something going on. Our schedule went a little something like this:

7:30 Wake Up
8:00-8:45 Breakfast
8:45 Clean Up
9:20 Chapel
9:35-10:35 Bible Class
10:40 Cabin Report
10:45-11:30 Singing and Open Forum
12:00 Lunch
12:45 Rest Time
1:15 Swimming/Crafts
2:15 Swimming/Crafts
3:30-5:30 Sports
5:30 Dinner
6:30 Staff/Camper Games
7:30 Swim/Canteen
8:00 Swim/Canteen
9:00 Evening Chapel
10:00 Little Campers to Bed
11:00 Big Campers to Bed

Can you see why we were so tired now? We were moving from the time that we were awakened by that awful bell until the time that we lay our heads down at night.

THURSDAY - We were all dragging by this day, however we still were able to enjoy the many fun relays and games. One of the ones that I had not seen before would be PUDGY BUNNY. This is where 4 or 5 adults are lined up in a row and they have to put large marshmallows in their mouths one at a time and say Pudgy Bunny. It was quite funny seeing them add more and more marshmallows into their mouths and the words Pudgy Bunny didn’t sound quite the same as it did when they only had one. The winner was Iain Lee, one of the counselors who managed to put 10 marshmallows into his mouth and still say Pudgy Bunny. He definitely looked like one. We also had a water balloon toss/fight. There were almost 900 balloons filled up and they were all used. There were quite a few who were drenched as if they had just jumped into the pool with all of their clothes on. Skits were followed by all of the games and there were some that were just too cute and some that were kinda lame/gross. The little girls and the little boys really did cute ones. It was a chance for me to see Craig in his element. He was so funny, and I have the pictures to prove it. Awards were also given out this evening. Campers of the Week - truly deserved by the kids that got it - were Rachel Powers and Braden Bass. They were so excited that they get to go to camp again next year - FREE. We had perfect weather for the entire week until tonight. It rained so hard, the little kids who were supposed to be in their cabins by 10:00 couldn’t even leave until about 11:00-11:30. Morning comes early for the little ones, especially when they arent in bed at a decent time. Do you really think that they slept though? This was their last night and they were going to make the best of it.

FRIDAY - By Friday everyone was completely worn out and you could tell by the looks on their faces. We were all ready to pack up and head home. I wanted to go to St. Louis so that the kids could see dad, so I called Joey and asked if he minded for us to go since we had already been gone almost a week at this point. He said that he didn’t mind, so I called dad and told him to be prepared to have company this weekend. I decided to be a nice daughter since mom had to be in the kitchen every morning at 5:30 that I would get all of our stuff and pack it in my truck so that she didn’t have to come back down the ridge and get her stuff, so packing I did. I put all of my stuff, her stuff and Courts stuff in my truck and there was no where for anyone to sit, not even in the passenger seat. I went up to the “Mess Hall” and found Craig’s stuff to load in mom’s van. He had the stinkinest clothes in all of the world, but they went into mom’s van and not my car, THANK GOODNESS. When we got to St. Louis we(mom) started on laundry like you have never seen before. Since it rained on Thursday night everything got damp and everything that we took to camp had to be washed…….clothes, blankets, sheets, towels, everything. I think that we(she) ended up doing about 10 loads of laundry on Friday night and Saturday.

SATURDAY - I got up around 8:00 and the kids were already up and moving. Dad went and got donuts for breakfast, so I managed to roll out of bed for breakfast. I then proceeded to their bedroom for what was only to be a little nap, only to wake up about 4 ½ hours later. Dad grilled steaks, we had baked potatoes and salad for dinner and went to bed early.

SUNDAY - We got up and went to worship with mom and dad at Arnold and it truly felt like I was coming home even though I didn’t grow up there. I got to see all of my new buds from camp and some of the friends I had made during earlier visits. It was a really good service. After church we went to my favorite restaurant in the entire world, Pasta House. I treated since I didn’t get to see dad for Father’s Day and we had a great lunch. I never come away from Pasta House hungry. We went back to mom and dad’s house so that I could take my Sunday afternoon nap and mom gave Court another perm and Craig and dad played pool. I got up about 4:30, got the car loaded and we were on the road by 5:15. I was still really tired from the week at camp, but at the same time I was so ready to get home. I went through Cape Girardeau instead of Sikeston because I thought it would be a little closer and faster. You know when you get those “gut instincts”? Well I had one and it was to go through Sikeston, not through Cape, but no, I didn’t listen. I went through Cape and there was water everywhere. The levy’s have broken and there are so many farmers who have lost everything. Crops were underwater, roads were underwater, houses were flooded, it was truly a sight to see. I was going over the bridge and trying to get over in the right hand lane, I was returning some voice mails that I had gotten from the previous week, and not paying attention when all of a sudden in my side mirror I see a police man coming my way. Surely I wasn’t going that fast, but oh no, I was going 65mph in a 45mph zone. I had all of the things going the wrong way for me, I was going downhill, talking on the phone and trying to listen to Craig saying that he wanted me to get over so that he could see the river and how flooded everything was and I broke the law. I admit it, I have never had a ticket before, but I cant say that anymore. When the police man approached my window I already had my drivers license out of my wallet and handed it to him. He asked me if I knew how fast I was going and I had to honestly answer him and tell him no that I just wasn’t paying any attention. He told me that I was going 65 and that the speed limit was 45. Craig who was in the passenger seat pipes up with “dad’s gonna have a cow”. How true, how true. The police man came back with his little ticket book and told me that I could just pay the ticket and that he reduced my speed to 60 so that it wouldn’t look so bad on my record. I appreciated that, however he was doing his job and something really bad could have happened if he hadn’t slowed me down and humbled me quite a bit. I asked the policeman how much the ticket was going to be and he told me it would be $75 to which Craig pipes up again, “dad’s not gonna have a cow, he is going to have the whole barn”. The policeman looked at me and said “you know he isn’t making this any easier on me”. Oh well, he gave me the ticket and we were on the way again, very conscience of my speed. Every 2-3 miles Courtney who was in the back seat would say, mom are you speeding again? What is the speed limit? I finally told her that she needed to go to sleep so that I could concentrate on my driving. They both finally fell asleep about 100 miles from home. They got a good nap in and when we got home they both went straight to bed.

That was our exciting and very short month of June. I will definitely update more in a few days since now it is almost the middle of July. I will be going out of town again tomorrow and will be back either late Monday evening or Tuesday morning. Quick trip, no kids, St. Louis or Bust.
Take care and I hope you enjoyed, especially you Jen.

In Him,
Kelly and Family

FFF Pajama Party

2008-05-30T19:03:00.006-05:00

So here we are again, another Friday. Our lives are so busy that I have no idea where the time has gone this week. It seems as if it as just yesterday that we were celebrating Mothers Day and My Birthday. I cant believe that it is almost June. I hope that my computer will work with me as I add pictures this week. Last time I posted it was kinda crazy and wouldnt let me put them where I wanted them. Here goes nothing...........

Let the Pajama Party begin !!!!!!!!!!!

So sweet when they are sleeping

Look at the CowBoy Hat. He wouldnt take it off of his head.Christmas 2007

Easter 2008

I cant believe it. I got it to work. I will now have to go and update the previous post since I know what I am doing on this laptop now. Hope you all have a Great Weekend.

To see more Favorite Foto Fridays Pajama Parties go Sarah's site @ http://www.kissthefrog4me.blogspot.com/.

Until Next Time,

In Him,

Kelly and Family

Mother's Day and My Birthday All Wrapped into One............

2008-05-27T19:09:00.011-05:00

Happy Late Mother's Day to all of my Bloggin' Buddies. I hope that everyone had a great day and that you were all blessed to have spent another day with family. I am so sorry that it has taken me this long to post, however I was waiting for the Perfect Time, and that time is NOW.

Sunday morning as I was laying in bed sniffling, the kids and Joey came into the bedroom and had a large bag. ********DISCLAIMER: When it comes to having a Birthday around a Holiday, I don't feel as if it is "Fair" to have a combined gift.******* So, need I tell you that I had been reminding him for quite a while that I wanted a separate gift for Mother's Day and My Birthday. His response to this comment was, I hope you wont be mad, but if you don't like the gift that we got you, you can take it back. I agreed and couldn't wait until Sunday Morning to arrive.

This is what I got........

I had been telling Joey that I wanted a laptop for quite some time. We have a desktop, but when he is doing his Preacher thing and looking things up for sermons and such, I don't like to bother him, but I do anyway. So it was getting to the point that I would get frustrated and he was getting frustrated right back, so I finally wore him down about it. Yeah, well maybe not so much, does this mean that I am just a spoiled wife or that he just loves me bunches or that he was tired of hearing me complain? Please no nasty comments about the previous question. Okay so I got my Laptop on the 12th and just last night Joey was able to hook the internet up on it. I am ever so grateful. He has got to be the BEST HUSBAND any girl could ever want. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am very high strung, needy and over the top on so many levels, so anyone who would be willing to put up with me for 13+ years has got to be one heck of a man. Again, Please no nasty comments on the previous run-on sentence.

We just kept Mother's Day Lunch very simple since I was sick again. Ok, these allergies are messing with my system so bad, I am contemplating going to the Allergist and getting tested again to see if I need to get shots or allergy pills. I cant get over the coughing, sneezing and so on. Mucinex has become one of my best friends lately. We had Joey's family over and had steak, baked potatoes, salad and dessert. Simple like I said, but ever so good.

My Birthday was the 14th and I woke up to a very loud Happy Birthday Singing Card and to work I went. The girls at work made made my day as Happy as they could possibly make it since after all it was "work". They got me 2 very cute shirts, an Ice Cream Cake and a very nice card. My new boss even bought the entire office lunch from Olive Garden. YUMMMY.

I know that there is a ton of stuff that I have left out, however I am getting quite sleepy at this point and I am making a ton of typo's so I must leave you. I will be back soon now that I have this wonderful electronic toy that is so at my disposal any time I want it.

Until Next Time,

In Him,

Kelly and Family

ALL ABOUT CRAIG ..............

2008-05-12T19:45:00.016-05:00

Where oh where should I begin???? First let me tell you that if you don't have about 45 minutes to sit here and look at all of these pictures, do not start reading this post. I have noticed lately that there are a lot of posts about my precious angel of a daughter Courtney, and very little about poor little Craig. So here is his post. It is all about him. Craig Daniel Dixon

Craig Daniel was born on November 22, 1995 at 12:40P.M. in Florence, Alabama. He weighed 7lbs 4ozs and was (I think) 19 inches long. Not sure about that one.

He was the only grandchild on both sides and was spoiled rotten from the get go. He was a very happy baby, smiling all of the time, however when he was sad, he had this little frown on his forehead that made us all laugh.

He was and is such a delight to have around. He is so funny, and he knows it too. I will tell you more about my Bouncing Baby Boy as I download pictures.

Some of his first photo shots were just the ole 35mm's and I have taken pictures of those pictures. I hope that you enjoy this post. Sorry the quality of these photos are so bad, but it is the best I could do with so many photos. If you have any ideas on how to make this work out better for me, I would be happy to listen.

Such a Happy Baby

Not so Happy Baby
See the "frown" in his forehead?
The puzzled look on Craig's face is... Why are we at the Ladies Booth selling Cookbooks?
This was Craig's first IBC Workshop.

Craig has always been a charmer. He was about 8 months old when this picture was taken. We were in Atlanta visiting Joey's dad who was working down there during the 1996 Olympics. We were sitting by the pool and my sister in law put this "doo rag" on his head and propped him up on the lounge chair. We laughed and laughed and still to this day when I see this picture I get quite a giggle. He could be on the cover of any magazine with his little SPEEDOS.

9 month Photo Shoot

Getting into mischief with daddy.

18 months

Precious when they are sleeping aren't they?
Love the Cowboy Hat
Look how big I am..

Halloween Costumes

Christmas Photos

Family Photos
New Baby Sister

This is what he got for being Potty Trained, I told you he was spoiled from the get go.
Cousin Time

The Many Cheesy Faces of Craig

All Growed Up

4th Grade Award Ceremony with Mrs. Palmer
How fast and furious that they grow....
So Proud to be HIS Mom

The END

I hope that you all have enjoyed looking at this post as much as I have enjoyed the memories that the pictures have brought to me. I am so blessed to have been the one chosen to be this wonderful child's mother. I can only imagine the next few years that I have with him being as much fun as the first.

Until Next Time,

In Him,
Kelly and Family

Field Day ...............

2008-05-12T18:52:00.007-05:00

Friday was Field Day at Court's school. It was supposed to be beautiful with 75* weather, but nope, that was not the case. It was 60* maybe, cloudy, spitting rain and we needed to bring out the winter clothes. What is up with this weather????? I am so ready for Summer. 75* weather all of the time. In my wildest dreams right? Not in Nashville.

Here are some of the highlights of our day. Courtney won 1st place for Bubble Gum Blowing, Jump Rope, and Basketball Shots, she won 2nd place for the kangaroo hop and 3rd place for the shoe scramble.

Here are some silly pictures of her and some of her friends.
Well maybe one of her Crazy Mom as well.

Courtney and her Bubble Blowin' Skills

Courtney showing off her Basketball Shots
White Girls can jump!!!!!!!

Courtney Jumping Rope like nobody's business

Courtney tying her shoes after Scramblin' for her them

Court showing off her 1st, 2nd and 3rd place Ribbons

Courtney and some of the girls from her class watching the boys

Courtney and Selena

This is me (freezing) with Selena's mom, Kathy

She was pulling up my Hawaii towel to see if I could pick up any men on my way out. I look so thrilled in this shot. I was so congested that I could hardly breathe and did not want to be out in this weather at all. We all made it out to be a great event for the kids even if it was a little chilly.

Hope you enjoy. DO NOT LEAVE NASTY COMMENTS ABOUT MY ATTIRE PLEASE !!!!

Until Next Time,

In Him,
Kelly and Family

Get Kids Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs.......

2008-05-03T21:05:00.004-05:00

The annual fishing tournament was held last weekend. There were 490 kids from our community signed up to go fishing with their parents, grandparents or an adult. This fishing tournament has been going on for over 10 years now and every year it grows bigger and bigger. Just to give you a little insight on how big it has gotten, the Community Base-Ball league cancels all games for this day.

Here are some pictures that I took of the day.

Julie made this picture board. I am so jealous of her talents.
Julie kissing the fish
Julie acting silly before we got really busy. You can see the scales in the background and the tents that were set up for the different activities.
Abbie and Hadley
This birds nest was up in the corner of the pavilion and the mama bird was feeding her babies. I just thought that this was such a good picture taking opportunity.

Tommy Gill, one of the members at Joelton, was in the hospital on the day of the Fishing Tournament, however thanks to a lot of other people who tried to fill his shoes, lots of kids with their adults went fishing at his pond. He was so proud that 3 of the "Super Fish" came out of his pond. One thing that I would like to say about Tommy is that he is definitely a fighter. He came by the bank where I work the other day with the results from his most recent doctors visit. His white blood count was 1 on the day of the FT and it is now up to 10.8. He also said that there are no leukemia cells from the most recent Bone Marrow Biopsy that was done. Praise God. We love you Tommy!!!!!!

Tommy and myself on New Years Eve 2007

Tommy and Dora Gill - A truly wonderful Christian Couple

Hope you enjoyed these 3 posts. Wow can you believe that I actually posted 3 in one day? Me either. I am now going to bed since it is getting late and tomorrow is His day.

Until Next Time,

In Him,
Kelly and Family

Courtney's 9.........

2008-05-03T20:26:00.003-05:00

I can not believe that my "baby" is already 9. Where has the time gone? I don't know what I am going to do. Muddle through I suppose. I have been so blessed to be this child's mother for 9 years. She is so smart and beautiful and talented. I could go on and on about her. She has been such a joy to raise. I hope that one day she will be able to look at this and know that the love that one has for a child is unconditional and remarkable. I am so blessed not only to be her mom, but to be Craig's as well.

This post is going to be more pictures than usual since it is all about Court.

Here Goes.........

My Beautiful Girl on Easter 2008
Craig, Court and Harmonie spending some quality "cousin time"
Courtney during Field Day 2007

Court's Cupcake Cake
Courtney Makin' her Wish and Blowing out the Candles

I tried to scan pictures of Court's early years, however I still haven't figured out how to do that and upload them so this is all you get for now. Hope you enjoyed.

Until Next Time,

In Him,
Kelly

Mom and Dad Come for a Visit...........

2008-05-03T19:32:00.007-05:00

Mom rode home with me from Arkansas after Gina's funeral and dad met us here, actually he beat us here. What was supposed to be a 3 1/2 hour drive took us almost 6 because of the severe storms that we had to drive through. We all arrived safely and were very tired. Joey and dad already had Craig's bed put together by the time we got home which was very appreciated, only we had to find sheets and such to put on his new bed for that night so we could all sleep.

Mom and I went out the next day to Ross to look for Craig a new Bedroom Ensemble. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. It was perfect for him, and the price was perfect for me. Only $24.99 for the comforter, shams, bedskirt, sheets the whole works. I was ever so impressed. When we got home I showed it to him and he was so excited. He said "Mom your Awesome, I love it" and I knew then and there that I had just become his hero (not really, I am exaggerating just a little bit). However he did love it. I think that he has made his bed almost everyday since he got it.

Craig's new Bedroom Set (Surfer Dude)

After all of that was finally done, we went out for Courtney's Birthday. Have I mentioned to you all that she has celebrated her birthday for an entire month and a 1/2. She got her ears pierced the middle of March, she went to FHU for Makin' Music with her best friend, we went to a movie and lunch, mom and dad came, the Annual Fishing Tournament, then her real birthday came just last weekend. I will post more about that later.

We went to eat at OutBack Steak House for Court's birthday while mom and dad were here. She says that we never let her go to OutBack with us, since Joey and I only go about once a year on our Anniversary, so we went. Here are some pictures our eventful outing.

Mom and her "Precious Grandchildren"

Me and Daddy

Me and Mom

Courtney and Ciera

Joey in "his zone"

We finally got home and celebrated Courtney's birthday with the ever so infamous Oreo Ice Cream Cake that she requested. We were going to do it at OutBack, but we had already been there for 2 hours and we were ready to get out of there. We got home expecting the Cake to be frozen since I asked them to put it in the Freezer, only to find out that it was completely melted. I was so mad, but what can you do? Freeze it again. It was all good though.

I will update again soon on Court's Birthday with pictures of her Cupcake Cake.

Until Next time,

In Him,
Kelly and Family

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy..........

2008-04-15T19:23:00.004-05:00

I promised you a happy post so here goes.

I have to tell you this funny dream......The other night I dreamed that my granddaddy(who passed away about 6 years ago) went to a Rascal Flatts concert with me. The first reason that this is funny to both myself and my grandmother is because my granddaddy would never go to a concert or event such as this because it would be so out of character for him. He was definitely a home-body and only watched Baseball and the news. The second reason that this is funny to us is that he was 92. Why 92? I have no idea, but that is the number that has stuck in my mind since this dream. The third reason is because when the concert was over, the band started running toward the back of the audience and I ever so bluntly stood up and stopped one of them and stated that "my 92 year old grand daddy came to the concert and he wanted to meet them", then we got to go backstage and meet everyone and they were so sweet to us. Why do we dream the things we dream? I know that I miss him and I guess I must have been thinking of him that day.

Here's to you Granddaddy - I LOVE YOU

On to other things that I am Happy about or Thankful for.

I am very happy that I didn't have to cook dinner tonight. Joey grilled steaks, we had baked potatoes and salad as well. MMM MMM GOOD. What a wonderful dinner. I might just have to get used to this, well maybe not. Steaks are kinda expensive.

I am ever so thankful for the CRAZY, WONDERFUL Husband that I have. He is a great father to our children and does so many things that I would never be able to do. He is truly a survivor. After all he has been married to me for 13 years.

I am thankful that I have 2 Beautiful, Smart, Talented, Amazing Children. Craig is becoming more and more like his father. He is almost a carbon copy of Joey. Such is life, such is life. Courtney is becoming more and more like me as well. WOOOOO, I hope I can make it through her teenage years. I know, what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger, RIGHT?

I am thankful to have some of the most Amazing friends. I once heard that you could count on one hand the amount of true friends that a person has and I have found that to be true. Thanks you crazy girls for being such great friends.

Tonya, myself and Jules

Andrea and me

I am thankful to still have one grandparent living and that she is one of my closest friends to this day. Grandmother here is to you. I love you so much and am so thankful that you are still just a phone call away.

Hope you all have a Happy and Thankful day.

Until Next Time,

In Him,
Kelly

Things Happen in Three's.....

2008-04-15T08:08:00.004-05:00

Update - 7:19P.M.

We have the final plans for the Gina: Visitation - Thursday 6-9; Funeral - Friday 1:30. I am not sure whether or not I will be traveling to Arkansas, it depends on several things including but not limited to the weather. Please continue to pray for our family during this time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is just a quick update to let you all know that my cousin Gina, earned her angel wings around midnight last night. For more info on this please see FFF - Feb 29th entry.

My mom and dad were supposed to be coming this weekend for Courtney's Birthday and I think that it has been postponed until we find out the details for Gina. Please continue to pray for our family and my aunt Terry as she is dealing with this less than 2 years since she buried her husband, Gina's dad.

I promise to post a "Happy" message soon, it just seems as if we are going through some rough times right now. I am grateful for all of the blessings that I have and will share those soon.

Until Next Time,
In Him,
Kelly and Family

Rainy Sunday....

2008-04-13T11:41:00.007-05:00

UPDATE - 9:15 P.M.:
The William's family are now settled into a Hotel for the next 2-3 days. They have to be out by either Tuesday or Wednesday morning. I am not sure where they are going to be staying at after that, however we have offered our home and Joey's aunt, who lives next door to us has also offered for them to come there. Who knows, they may be at both places.

We did get a few items of clothes for them and the Red Cross has given them a gift card for shopping and such until they can get settled temporary/permanent. Joey and his dad went to the house today to get the windows boarded up for prevention of looters. Joey said that the smoke damage was throughout the entire house and that they are probably going to have to have a professional cleaning crew to go in and fumigate. We will have to cross that bridge when we come to it. I know that there are several churches in the area that are going to donate money, time and supplies to get everything back to working order. All we can do now is wait and pray. Remember, God is good all the time and all the time God is good.

I want to thank all of the caring individuals out there who have offered to help in many ways, such as cleaning, repairing the rooms, shopping, and giving money, clothes and household items to this wonderful family. I think that it has truly renewed my spirit that there are really people out there who care for one another. If you would like to help, please do not hesitate to contact me. All of my comments go to my email first for me to approve, so you can let me know that way. Thank you in advance for your generosity. We all appreciate it.

Please continue to lift this family up in your prayers for the strength that they are going to need in the months to come.

Love to you all,
In Him,
Kelly and Family

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good Morning to everyone out there in Blogger land. Just a quick note to say a few things.

Please go check this out. I cant figure out how to upload it so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. American Idol Gives Back. How Amazing!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyj1FAQdPzg

One more thing, we got a call this morning from one of the members of the congregation that Joey preaches at telling us that his house had burned. The second floor was a complete loss and the first floor has a lot of smoke and water damage. He does not have any insurance. His daughter and her 2 children live with him as well. The fire started in the 7 year old's bedroom from a Safety Heater that was supposed to shut off when it got too hot. The Red Cross has provided a Hotel Room for them to stay in for 3 days, and after that we don't know what is going to happen.

I will update more information when I get it, but please lift this family up in your prayers.

Thank you all.

In Him,

Kelly and Family

HOLY MOLEY........

2008-04-08T20:46:00.006-05:00

Ok I am not going to whine about how long it has been since I updated and about how busy I was being the reason, however I will complain and whine about not being able to LOG ON TO BLOGSPOT. What in the world is going on? Can GOOGLE not handle the amount of people who are really trying to connect? I tried for 3 1/2 hours last night and finally gave up. I dont know what the problem was and really dont care except that I have been trying for about 1 1/2 tonight and finally got on. For those of you who read my blog, those of you who I leave messages to or otherwise, I am sorry that I have had such a horrible time logging on lately. Enough about that, I need to catch you all up on several things.

First Things First.....Old Business........Prayer Request from last time.

Jimmy Bagwell came home from the hospital sometime last week and is doing a lot better. He was actually able to go to worship services this past Sunday. Praise God for he is a Good God. God is Good all the time and all the time God is Good.

Please continue to pray for the family of Shane Ruiz. They held his memorial service this past Sunday afternoon and I am sure that the entire family could still use the prayers of everyone.

New Business........

1. New Prayer Request - Little Ethan Powell lost his battle with the horrible disease they have labeled CANCER on this past Sunday morning. His parents, Ben and Becky are planning a "Going Home Celebration" for Ethan this coming weekend. Please pray not only for Ben and Becky and their entire family, but for all of the people who have been touched by Ethan's story and the people who are going to be traveling to Louisiana for the "celebration".

2. Pictures of Courtney getting her ears Pierced

Before

Waiting Nervously

Getting them pierced (both at the same time)
After - The Princess herself

3. Easter Pictures

The Easter Bunny Came

Craig's Big Basket

Courtney's Great Gifts

Look at these
BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN

What a Handsome Dude - "I know I'm cool"

What a Pretty Girly

2-2-2 Handsome Men in one House????

Last but not least . . . . . Mom and Dad

Ok, now that I have finally updated the pictures, I will get on to the good stuff.

Things are changing.........My boss was transferred to another Financial Center and we have a new boss coming in on Monday. This week has been a very stressful week for me. As some of you know or don't know, I work in the Banking Industry. Yes there are banks everywhere that you can go to work for, however I work about 2 miles from home. Does it really get any better than that, except working from home? I love my job (some days) and I love sales, however since all of the change that is going on in the office I have been quite stressed. Please pray that I will be able to deal with the change that is going on and that I will continue to work so close to home without going somewhere else.

Well I guess I need to go and post some comments since I haven't been able to do this for some time and I must say that I am sorry that this post is mostly pictures, however I have been getting hounded by my mother to post some pictures of the kids. Guess I finally listened, so here you are mom. Hope you enjoy.

Until Next Time,

In Him,
Kelly and Family

It's almost Easter.......

2008-03-20T21:36:00.004-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in some time, however it has been a crazy week. Last Saturday, Courtney went to get her ears pierced. Such a big girl. She only had to BEG dad for about 30 minutes and with those big brown puppy dog eyes, she got what she wanted.....Again. I was really proud of her, she didn't cry at all. I will post pictures of her soon with her new earrings in.

There are several things on my mind tonight as I sit here and update..........

First of all, Prayer Requests:

1. Jimmy Bagwell - a good friend of my husbands from college is still in the hospital in Michigan recovering from 3 surgeries to repair a damaged diaphragm. Please keep him and his wife Mary in your prayers.

2. Shane Ruiz - Freshman at Freed Hardeman University, Henderson, TN died in a tragic drowning while on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic for Spring Break. The body was not recovered as of the time the FHU Press Release was given. Please keep the entire Ruiz family in your thoughts and prayers as they have to deal with this tragic loss of Shane.

Next, have you ever thought about the Wonderful, Powerful, Majestic, Forgiving, Understanding and Remarkable God that we serve?

As I sit here, I wonder how many people that have been affected by tragedies and circumstances beyond their control and still do not believe that there is a God who loves and cares for us and only wants the best for His children. Over the past few weeks not only in our area but around the country, there have been tornadoes, flooding, lives lost due to accidents, cancer, or other reasons and who knows if someone ever cared enough about them to tell them of the Awesome God that we have. We can go to Him for anything and everything.

I teach the children's class at church and since it is a very small congregation, mine are the only ones in there, but occasionally we will have a visitor. This past Sunday, my lesson was entitled "Are you a Pest?" I looked at the kids and they looked at me and then looked at each other, yes Craig can be a pest sometimes to Courtney and vice versa, but the lesson didn't have anything to do with being a pest to one another, it talked about being a "Prayer Pest". I had an A-HA moment.

I have not been a prayer pest like I should be. When we pray prayers to our God we often forget about the important things and only pray out of habit or memorization. We don't put the effort into our prayers that we should. We don't praise Him for giving us the beautiful lives that He has given us, we don't praise him for giving us another day to live on this earth and try to show others the way to Him and we don't thank Him for being so Awesome. I guess what I am trying to say is that when I wake up to see another day, I should immediately kneel in prayer for giving me another day with my husband and children and I should thank Him for the roof over my head, the food that I have to eat, the car that I have to drive, and the job that I have to pay for all of these material things that I often take for granted. I don't "want" for a lot of "things". We are very Blessed, however, I am confessing to you all that I need to be held accountable for not being a Prayer Pest. Please help me in this.

Enough of me rambling, I am going to go to bed since it is getting late, however before my head hits the pillow, I will be "pestering" God with prayers of Thanksgiving, Forgiveness, Healing and His will being done.

Until next time,

In Him,
Kelly and Family

Snow Again........

2008-03-10T19:56:00.004-05:00

It snowed again on Saturday and it was absolutely beautiful. I went down to the road to take some pictures and get some giggles at all of the 'Big Boys' sledding and having a snow ball fight.

The 'boys' are seeing who can sled down the hill the fastest.

See all of the tracks on the other side of the road????
Yes, they jumped the road and went down the smaller hill.

I know that at one point that there were red sled marks in the road from someone jumping the ditch and landing in the road only for the momentum to carry them down the other little hill. I don't know if all of the sleds made it through the 'big boys' competition, but there was lots of fun had by all and thankfully no trips to the ER. I know that they all had too much fun and were happy to be 'kids' again. One thing that I don't suggest is telling 4 men that they throw a snowball like a girl....they might or did make a new target...ME. Being hit in the leg by a very well made snowball is not fun, so I ran home, literally, to escape the incoming snow balls.

Hope that you all were able to make memories like we did this past weekend.

Until Next Time,

In Him,
Kelly

Monday, Monday...........

2008-03-10T18:55:00.005-05:00

After such a busy day at work, it is WONDERFUL to come home to a clean house and this.........

Beautiful Buttercups picked by my Beautiful children

Courtney greets me outside and tells me that she and Craig had a present for me. I walked in and this was sitting on my dining room table. This is truly worth coming home from work for..... and then REALITY hits. Whats for dinner, Courtney have you done your homework, Craig leave her alone. The list goes on and on. Don't get me wrong I am not complaining at all, I am SO SO SO blessed to be able to come home to this wonderful chaos. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Gina seems to be a little better, but still not out of the woods. Wow, what an Awesome God that we have. They did have to do a trache so that they would be able to wean her off of the vent a little easier. They also changed her medicine so that her fluid would be released. They have unsedated her and she is now able to shake her head yes and no. I just got off of the phone with Grandmother and she said that Gina can also tell when the TV is on, and she lets you know that she wants it off. Like I said in an earlier post, its all about her, but none of us would have it any other way. Thank you for the prayers that have been said on my family's behalf and please continue to remember us daily.

Until Next Time,

In Him,
Kelly and family

Ok, I am sick again.......

2008-03-04T20:35:00.002-06:00

Yes, I am sick again, but I should be and am very grateful that it is only the "gunk" that everyone else has and not something more serious. I started feeling bad yesterday and today I cant even talk. I sound like one of those squeaky toys that you give to pets. I called the Dr. and he called me in some antibiotics. I should start feeling better soon, I sure hope so. For those of you who know me, I like to talk, and this is about to kill me. I don't like not being able to communicate with people. Wish me well.

Gina seems to be doing a little bit better. They put her on some new medication to reduce the amount of fluid that she is holding. They also had to do a trach on her. I am not sure about the removal of the vent because I haven't talked to grandmother today. I will post again soon, I am headed to the bed.

Until next time,

In Him,
Kelly and family

Good Day Mates...

2008-03-01T22:43:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to brief you all on Gina's prognosis this evening. I spoke with grandmother several times today and she said that she had talked to my aunt Terry this morning and this afternoon. The doctors are saying that it is just a matter of time until Gina's body shuts completely down and that there is nothing more that they can do except keep her comfortable and without pain. My uncle Curt who lives in Michigan called Terry this morning and told her that she was going to have to make some very tough decisions over the next couple of days whether or not to take Gina off of the ventilator. Here is what we are facing, taking her off of the vent, we are looking at a day or two max that she will be able to live, on the other hand, leaving her on only prolongs the grim outlook of death. I hope that I never have to face this type of decision, whether or not to take my child off of life support. I know that we can only lean on God for help in these situations and that He will not put on us more than we can bear. Please continue to keep my family in your prayers and that my aunt Terry will be able to withstand all that she is dealing with.

Until next time,

In Him,
Kelly and family

Leaping Lizards it's FFF again......

2008-02-29T22:11:00.007-06:00

Ok the "theme" this week was "Leaping for Joy", however I am not going to search all night for a picture of one of the kids jumping up and down, so I figured I would just post this picture of Craig acting silly as usual. He was actually "leaping for joy" when he got this balloon hat(so to speak). We went to Chick-Fil-A one Saturday afternoon and there was a balloon artist there and Craig asked the man if he could make an airplane. The man responds with "how about an airplane flying around the world?" So that is what Craig got.............

An Airplane flying around the World

The blue part is the world, the yellow part is the airplane, the clear or white part is the smoke coming out of the airplane and the black part is the actual hat. I didn't realize what talent it took to make one of these. He was really good. Hope you enjoy this silly face as much as I do.

On a more somber note, my dad called me tonight to give me an update on my cousin Gina, who I wrote about a few posts back to tell me that the doctors didn't think that she was going to make it. I called my grandmother and she couldn't tell me very many details, only that my aunt Terry called her and left a message saying that Gina wasn't going to make it through the night. This is truly a sad post for me.

Anyone in our family could and would tell you that when Gina was in a room, the floor was hers. It didn't matter what you were talking about, what pictures you happened to be sharing, at that moment, it was all about HER. She could truly light up a room whenever she walked in. Being Downs Syndrome did not stop her one time. She is truly a unique individual and if she wants something bad enough, she will continue to fight until she gets it. I can't count the number of boyfriends that she had, and if one of us girls had a boyfriend or were married, she was bound and determined to "steal" him away from us. She graduated from High School, she had a job at McDonalds, she lived on her own(next door to my aunt) and she has always been determined enough to do whatever she set out to do even if it was to spite my aunt and uncle. I can only hope and pray that she is not suffering and if she begins to that God, being the loving and merciful God that He is will go ahead and take her. Yes we will miss her fun loving spirit, however she need not suffer. Our goal should be that we will one day be reunited with her.

I am going to look for a picture of her to post so that if you are praying for her and my aunt Terry that you can at least put a face with a name. We would like to ask for prayers for her and our entire family during this period.

Gina and her family taken around 1993 at a Watson Family Reunion

I will leave you on a lighter note, Courtney was in a talent show tonight at school and she was fantabulous. She did GREAT. No, I am not just saying that just because she is my daughter, she really was good. I will post the video of that soon, however my stupid camera uses batteries faster than I don't know what.

Courtney and Sarah - Best Friends at the Chili Supper and Talent Show

I better be getting to bed since this post has only taken me about 2 hours to write and I have to work tomorrow. Hope everyone enjoys reading my blog and please leave a message to tell me you have been here.

Until next time,

In Him,
Kelly and Family

Another One Bites The Dust...........

2008-02-26T22:45:00.009-06:00

2/26/2008

Another one bites the dust
Final: No. 18 VU 72 No. 1 UT 69

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Tennessee Volunteers found out being No. 1 can be tougher than beating No. 1. Shan Foster scored 32 points and No. 18 Vanderbilt knocked off Tennessee 72-69 on Tuesday night -- a day after the Vols moved into the top spot in the rankings for the first time in school history.

WE WON, WE WON.........
But was there truly any doubt???? I knew that my Commodores would pull through. For those who have absolutely no idea what I am talking about, the Vanderbilt Commodores BEAT the Tennessee Voluntears tonight. I am so proud of them, I feel like a new mom. This is how it all played out......Memphis(1 in the country) and Tennessee(2 in the country) played on Saturday night. Tennessee won, so that made them #1 in the country. Then they came into our playing field and lost against Vanderbilt (14 in the country) because they were on a huge high from just beating the #1 team in Basketball. So Sorry for the VOLS, but GO VANDY. I would have loved to be at Memorial Gym this evening, but the weather is getting bad and I am glad that I got to watch it in the warmth of my living room without the drive from downtown. I called Jenna, one of my co-workers who is a HUGE UT fan after the game, just to see if she watched it, and to BOAST just a little, and she called me some not so nice names. I love her humor. Thats all for now, just wanted everyone to know that WE LOVE VU. Maybe my dreams of Courtney getting a scholarship there to play on the Lady Dores will eventually come true.

Here is a picture of Shan Foster for you all......

And another one of the boys playing.....

Until next time,

In Him,

Kelly and Family

Look what I did.......

2008-02-25T20:16:00.005-06:00

Monday nights are always Joey's Guy's Night where they go play Basketball at the Church Building. He left me in charge of the newest project......Hanging Blinds. Who Me? Are you thinking that I just got home from work and you want me to hang mini blinds? Ok, Ok I guess since you have been doing all kinds of things around the house the last couple of days....weeks, that I can hang some simple mini blinds. It really wasnt as hard as I thought it was going to be, however we really need to invest in a cordless screwdriver. I attempted using the drill, however that thing is quite heavy when you are trying to reach over your head to hang the brackets. Here are the pictures of my new mini blinds that I hung all by myself.

I know that this may be trivial to most of you, but I am quite proud of my handiwork. I actually enjoy doing things like this because it lets me take out my frustrations on things instead of people.

It is Monday again - Today was a typical Monday. BUSY, BUSY, BUSY. Like I said in an earlier blog, I like to call days like today, JOB SECURITY. Today was just not my day. I had some serious problems and I never could seem to get things taken care of. I have so much to do and so little time. Customers make my job so hard some days, and yet other days GREAT. I do truly love my job and the people I work with make it worth going to work on a daily basis. We have such a great team, finally, that I know something is going to happen and we are going to bring someone new into the mix. This is never a good thing.

I talked to mom today to get an update on Gina, and she had not talked to my grandmother yet so, she will be calling me back soon and I will update when that happens. Please continue to pray that Gina and my aunt Terry are able to go home from the hospital soon and that she will be completely healed from her pneumonia. Thank you for doing this.

I hope that you all have a good rest of the week.

Until next time.

In Him,

Kelly and Family

Favorite Foto Friday on Saturday

2008-02-23T20:52:00.005-06:00

Hey there everyone. Sorry I didnt get to update last night. Courtney had a birthday party to go to and by the time I got home, I was very tired and just wanted to go to bed. Excuses, Excuses, I know.

Ok, I have a few updates since last week so just bear with me for a minute or so for those.

1. Congrats to Stacey and David!!!!!!!! They finally found out that they are going to have a Healthy Bouncing Baby Boy, William Daniel. He is due to arrive sometime around early July.

2. Prayer Request - My mom called me last night and told me that my 35 year old cousin, Gina Hudgens, with Downs Syndrome is in ICU with pneumonia and is not doing well. Her kidneys and liver are not functioning to the full effect so the doctors are very concerned about this. I spoke with mom tonight and she said that since they cant get Gina's fever to come down they have her packed in ice. Please pray for my aunt Terry and Gina as they are going through this battle right now. It has only been about 2 years since my uncle Ken, Gina's dad passed away from a rare liver disease.

3. BASKETBALL IS OVER.......Courtney had an undefeated season - GO REDBIRDS. Craig's team, the Supersonics, were not so fortunate however, they only won 1 game, but as the old saying goes, "They saved the best for last". They won todays game. I was so excited for both of them. They are both such good athletes. Our hope and prayers are that they can both get scholarships to college for their athletic abilities. God gives us all talents and I feel as if He has given them the talent for sports.

Now onto the Favorite Foto Friday THEME.......As you all know, we lived in the dark ages of 35mm cameras when both of the kids were born, so I dont have any pictures to upload from the digital camera. Also, since I have a printer that I dont know how to work, I cant get the pictures to scan for me either, so here is what I did. I had the kids hold a picture from SEVERAL years back while sitting in the same pose(different background) and took a picture of that. Pretty unique, HUH? Now here it is...........

Aren't they sweet?

They actually had just rolled out of bed and had eaten breakfast, hair not combed, teeth apparently not brushed and in such good moods. Can you tell that neither one of my children are morning people? And here comes mom in her chipper, bouncy, morning person way, "come on you guys I need to take a picture for my blog. Come on Craig, act like you kinda like her. Courtney smile." Mom, just get this over with so we can go watch TV.

Until I can either figure out how to work the goofy printer, decide that I want to call India for assistance on it, or get a new printer this is how all of the pictures are going to be. I think I might just go take some pictures of pictures so that I have them on a memory card. Wow, I might just move right on into the 21st Century. How about that????? Does anyone have any better ideas? I will gladly accept suggestions.

Well I will leave you on that note and go and update an earlier post of "Messy Faces". Have a great rest of the weekend and be safe.

Until Next time,

In Him,

Kelly and Family

Favorite Foto Friday......

2008-02-15T21:27:00.004-06:00

Sorry ya'll, I don't have any good photos of sleeping babies to post because our computer crashed and none of my pictures were saved :( I do have one picture that I could post since Wednesday we received the first real snowfall of the winter season here in Nashville. Joey emailed our picture to the weather guy and he actually used it on the internet.

Here is the snow........

This was about 8 in the morning and it was about 20* outside. Every county around us closed schools, but not ours. Not even when we sent these pictures to the school district did they close schools. The snow didn't last long, by early afternoon it was gone. Bye Bye snow. Atleast we got to see it for a little while and it was enough for the kids to sled down the hill a couple of times.

I hope that everyone had a HAPPY VALENTINES DAY. Ours was great. My precious Craig asked Joey to take him to the store to buy me something and he was so worked up over me not liking what he bought that when I got home he almost wouldn't give it to me. He gave me a Velvet Rose with Heart shaped earrings in it and a box of chocolates. Now how sweet is that? Did I mention that he picked this out on his own? He has such a loving and generous heart. I just love that baby. I know that if he ever reads this, he will be so embarrassed, however I don't care. I can brag as much as I like since I am the mama.

Have a great weekend and I hope to be able to put some more pictures on here soon.

Until next time,

In Him,
Kelly and family

Valentines Day....

2008-02-12T22:04:00.002-06:00

Is just around the corner. We were sitting down for dinner this evening and were talking about what everyone wanted for the big day and my sweet, wonderful husband pipes up and tells me that he won me something for Valentines Day....OH REALLY???? For those of you who know Joey, he is the private type and doesn't do the whole PDA (public display of affection) thing, so for him to say that he "won" me something was quite a shock. I thought about what it could be for only a few minutes. We don't play the lottery and I wasn't sure, but I didn't think that he would try to win something off of the TV or Radio, so I really was at a loss. I told him that I wanted it "now" and he told me that it wasn't Valentines Day yet so I couldn't have it, then he got up, went to his desk, retrieved the "winnings" and the entire time, the kids are telling me, "close your eyes, Mom, don't peek, here it comes". I finally am given permission to open my eyes and Joey hands me a brochure. What?????? I start reading and the brochure is for a Couples Retreat at Fall Creek Falls State Park. I could not believe my eyes. I have always wanted to go on a Couples Retreat, but for it to become a reality, I never dreamed. The only down side to this whole "week-end get-a-way" is that it doesn't happen until NOVEMBER. That seems like forever away, but I know the old saying, "time flies when your having fun".

OK - Let me update you since the first of February. Work has been CRAZY. Last week was truly a nightmare. We were busy the entire week, which I guess could be a good thing since that means "JOB SECURITY" for me, however, most days I didn't get to take lunch until about 2:30. This makes for a really, really long day.

Please continue to pray for Brandi, Neal, Tyler and Ella as they are still dealing with the loss of their sweet Maddie. She has updated her blog for everyone to go and look at. What a strong, God Fearing and inspirational family they truly are.

Friday night was unbelievable. I had heard that the Gaither's were coming to Nashville earlier last week, however, I didn't know if I would be able to get tickets. I called one of my good friends, Tonya, who is always in the know about good Concerts to see if she knew how I could get my hands on a couple of tickets. She told me who I could call and Friday morning I had my hot little hands on 3 tickets and a parking pass to boot. YEAH. I was so excited. I called her back, we made arrangements for me to pick up her kiddies and carry them downtown for us to meet and we could drive one car to the concert since I had the parking pass. We got to the parking garage about 6:30 and the concert started at 7. We were going to walk around downtown and find something to eat, however we didn't want to be late to the concert so we ended up eating at the Arena. We could have eaten at Ruth Chris Steakhouse for the amount of money it costs to eat at a venue like this. Wow, for 2 hot dogs, 3 nachos, and 4 drinks, I think that we ended up paying just over $40.00. Whod a thunk???? No wonder my parents always made us eat before we went to the ball game or to a concert or the circus. Oh Well. We had such a good time once the concert started. They sang and played for 3 full hours and then had the intermission. After the intermission they came back and sang and played for about another hour and a 1/2. It was the best concert that I have been to in a very long time.

Such is life, you have the highs (Friday Night) and the lows (Monday Morning). I went back to work Monday, was so tired from the weekend, I don't know how I made it through the entire day without falling asleep at my desk. I guess that goes back to the whole JOB SECURITY thing, good thing we were busy.

The rest of the week is going to be full of events as well. Craig is getting ready to go to his first weekend away at camp (without mom and dad) and Court has a big Social Studies - Science Project due on Tuesday. We will be working on that for most of the weekend. Glad that Monday is a Holiday and that all the Federal employees will be off.

Hope to update again soon. Keep yourselves well with all of the cold and flu season going around.

In Him,

Kelly and Family

Maddie....

2008-02-02T20:25:00.001-06:00

A sister in Christ just lost her precious angel this morning to the horrible beast of Cancer. Please pray for Brandi, Neal, Tyler and Ella as they have to deal with the next step in their lives.

I am sorry for not posting earlier, however I think that Heather from Faithful Froggers sent me and the rest of the family their colds that they had last week. I am not going to be up long so I had better say what is on my mind quickly.

This past week has been a crazy week at work, not to mention VERY Stressful. I think that every night when I came home that Joey and the Kids wanted me to go back to work, because that would be all I would talk about. OH Well. Life goes on.

We finally got our taxes done and should be getting a hefty refund this year, only to pay off more debt. I am glad that we are able to get these things paid off, however I really want a long, quiet, romantic getaway with my husband . Maybe when the kids are grown and we are no longer in debt then we can take a trip like this.

I will leave you on a good note. We went out to eat the other night and Joey noticed this lady's hair and he really liked it, so I told him to go online and look at some different hair styles that he likes and that I would be willing to take it to my hairdresser and see what she can do. Well I was going to post some pictures on here, however Joey deleted them so I will try to find them and get them on here soon.

Hope you and your family are feeling well. I just pray that ours wont be down with this junk too long.

In Him,

Kelly and family

Update: This was supposed to be FFF Messy Faces - So here is the only picture I could find. It is of Craig eating pudding about 8 years ago.......

I'm Back............

2008-01-22T21:05:00.000-06:00

Ok Ok I am finally back. There has been quite a lot going on in my life. I will start where I left off, right before 2008 began.

New Years Eve - Joey and I celebrated our 13th Wedding Anniversary. Don't we look HAPPY?We went out to eat at OutBack Steakhouse since we only go there on our anniversary and then went to Joelton Church of Christ to play games and bring in the New Year with our friends and Family.

The FIERCE game of pounce

Look at those faces - Quite Intent on WINNING

The Teens playing together -
Mimi it's too late, put your finger down, you look cute enough.
The guys waiting on me to put the camera down to finish Spades

Another game - Skip-Bo going on here.

I will definitely post more tomorrow or sometime soon, but I have done something to this computer and everything is magnified like 1000 times. Hope you enjoy the pictures that I have added.

Until next time
In Him,

Kelly and family

Christmas........

2007-12-29T09:08:00.000-06:00

Is finally over. We hope that you and your families had a Healthy Happy one as well.

I will start where I ended with Joey being in a lot of pain due to a neck injury. This is getting some better and he is finally able to drive and not wear the neck brace all of the time. The pain is still there and he gets a little grumpy every now and again because of it. I scheduled an appointment with his PCP for yesterday, however the doctor called in sick. I didn't think that was allowed, but apparently doctors get sick too. We are scheduled to see him sometime next week and I will let you know what comes from this.

Christmas at our house was BUSY to say the least. Monday, Christmas Eve, I only had to work a 1/2 day, which was very nice. Mom and Dad shipped all of their gifts this year since they were unable to come here for the holidays. I received the last box on Friday afternoon. After I got home from work on Monday, Joey and I let the kids open their presents from Nana and Paw Paw. They were on the phone so they did get to hear the excitement from the kids. Courtney opening her new Red Slippers

The New Red Slippers

Craig looking at his new Boxer Briefs

He is so happy that he got underwear(just being sarcastic, he loves his Boxer Briefs)

Then I went to wrapping presents and getting things together for us to spend the evening at Maw Maws and Paw Paws, which is a tradition. We always go to their house for Christmas Eve dinner and open presents with them. There were probably 35-40 people at their house, thank goodness it is big. We left there and Joey and Craig rode to MeeMaw and Pee Paw's house with them since we were going to be spending the night there. They now live in Gallatin which is about 45 minutes from us and since we had to be in Lebanon the next morning, it just made sense to spend the night. Courtney and I came home from Maw Maw's and began packing and getting all of the other presents together to take with us(and Santa needed to know where we were going to be) so I had to haul all of those gifts as well. By the time that my truck was loaded, I couldn't see out of the rear glass. Deep and Wide it was packed. We finally left our house about 11:15p.m. and headed to MeeMaw's. Courtney fell asleep on the way there, and I was so tired, so I stopped by the gas station to pick me up a Coke so that I could make it there without falling asleep. We finally got to their house, put out Santa gifts and went to bed around 12:30.

Christmas morning we got up and opened our gifts from each other, but waited until Claudia and Harmonie(Joey's sister and niece) got there to open up the other gifts. We all got ready and headed to Uncle Steve and Aunt Janice's house for the traditional Christmas Breakfast. There were several people there as well. I remember when I was growing up that there was never that many people in one house for Christmas. I guess being a part of a large family is what I have come to know, accept and love in our 13 years of marriage. We left Steve and Janice's house around noon and headed back to MeeMaw and Pee Paw's house to open gifts with the immediate family. The kids had a Great Christmas and Joey and I did pretty good too.

We are so blessed to have our health and that is truly what I wanted for Christmas.

Both of the kids have Basketball Practice today, so I will be going to that here in a little while. I will update a little more later, when I have more time.

Hope you and your family had a Wonderful Christmas as well.

Until Next time,

In Him,
Kelly and family

Finally...............

2007-12-23T19:01:00.000-06:00

Updated 01/22/2007 - Pictures of the Wedding - Used by Permission

This was the Arch at the back of the Auditorium

This picture was taken through the window at the back of the auditorium.

This is one of the Christmas Trees at the Front (see the snow?)

This is how the front of the auditorium looked when it was all finished.

I am back to blogging. Let me say right now, if you don't have time to sit down for about 30 minutes to read this, don't start. It is going to be a loooooonnnnnggggg blog since I haven't blogged in about 2 weeks.

Let me start from the beginning. Where we left off was 3 days until the wedding went down.

The Rehearsal was truly a nightmare. Like I said, if you haven't ever planned a wedding before from start to finish, don't start now. First, I have never worked with 3 sets of parents. Second, I have never done a wedding with 22 people in the wedding party, not including the parents, grandparents, ushers, etc. They had 8 Groomsmen, 1 Best Man, 2 Maids of Honors, 6 Bridesmaids, a Junior Bridesmaid, a Ring Bearer, and a Bell Ringer. I am truly surprised that they didn't have a partridge in a pear tree somewhere in the mix.

I took off work on Friday to go to the church building to help with the decorating with the understanding that there would be some of the guys there to help. All of the girls had gone to the Bridesmaid Luncheon and were due to return somewhere around noon. Some of the guys turned out to be the dad and granddad of the Bride. So here we go, cutting about 80 feet of batting and Tobacco Cloth for the aisle. I am sure we were a sight to behold. About 12:00-12:30 the girls return ready to decorate. One of the sweet Bridesmaids, heads to Wal-Mart to get some Christmas lights for the trees that we are putting on the stage. There will only be 5 of them. We also have an Arch in the back that some lights are out on, so those need to be replaced as well. Rachel gets back from Wal-Mart and the girls start on the trees and arch with lights and placing batting on the arch and trees to make it look like snow. It is all starting to come together and looks beautiful. I need something to eat at this point since it is going on 2:00.

I go to lunch with a friend from work, Megan, whose office is only a mile from the church building. We are only gone about an hour and a half at the most and I come back and everyone else is gone. Ok, I am not expecting this. I am told that they all went back to the hotel and to their houses to take a nap and get ready for this evening.

Fast Forward: The rehearsal was due to start at 5:00p.m. We get started about 5:45 and we use replacements for almost the entire bridal party. The last ones to arrive finally get there about 6:30, which is when the Dinner is supposed to start. The caterer arrives late as well so I have about 30 minutes to get everyone in their places and set. I wont go into all of the drama that happened, however I have never been so disrespected in my entire life. I lost it. I couldn't even go into the youth center where the dinner was being held. I went out to my car and called one of my friends, Tonya, who endured my crying and complaining. She told me that it would all be OK and not to worry, but that everyone was on edge just wanting to get this whole thing over. INCLUDING MYSELF.

Saturday morning I arrive about 9:00 to find everyone scurrying about, getting the bride ready and themselves ready. The guys arrive around 10:30 and start getting ready themselves. The photographer, who is driving down from Glasgow, KY arrives about noon and starts setting up to take some pictures. Yes, they saw each other before the ceremony, but they saw each other alone. We put Alex in the Chapel facing away from the door and had Amber walk up behind him to "capture" the moment. The wedding is due to start at 3:00 and we are running great on time. They get all of the pictures that need to be made before the ceremony and I get Amber back to the Bridal Suite to get her finishing touches done. I have emailed the photographer asking permission to use some of the pictures on here to show you all how beautiful it really did turn out.

Today turns out to be a nasty one. Rain, sleet and wind are keeping a lot of the guests away. Since Amber is from Kentucky and Alex is from Atlanta, almost all of the friends and family are coming from out of town and don't want to get stuck in Nashville for what the weather forecast is calling a "wintery mix". I cant say that I truly blame them, but out of 375 invitations that have been sent, we have a max of about 150 guests for the wedding. This turns out to be a great number to work with.

The wedding went off with only one hitch, or maybe two. Amber didn't want anyone walking down the center aisle before the bridal party, so we had a rope up, and yes I forgot to take it down before the grandmothers were seated. UH OH. The coordinator for the church came to my rescue, and helped get it untied before they got to the arch. YEAH!!! Thanks, Pam!!!!

The wedding is finally in full swing and going great, so I run around the outside of the auditorium to check on the caterer only to find out that she has had a chocolate explosion with the chocolate fountain. OH NO!! There is chocolate everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. But, by the time that the reception is to begin, you really wouldn't know that there had been any kind of explosion unless you walked into the kitchen. Keep the door shut and we will clean it later is what we both thought. Tiffany, Beth and Leigh.......You all were phenomenal. The food was delicious and there was definitely enough of it. Tiff, the cake was GORGEOUS, and just what the Bride ordered. You truly make it look so easy. I will get a picture of it and put on here to show your handiwork. If anyone in the area needs a caterer, I happen to know one that is WONDERFUL. Just let me know.

The wedding is now over and the reception is going smooth. I finally get to sit down for the first time all day and get off of my feet. Whew, what a relief. As I am sitting there, the photographer takes a picture of me and I am sure that it is quite a sight. I am plum worn out.

I try to do something nice for every couple that I coordinate or plan a wedding for and go to the hotel they are staying at and decorate with rose petals and candles and such, with only the Groom's permission. So off I go to the Opryland Hotel. I get them checked in, go to the room and start decorating. I feel sorry for the maid staff. I know the he or she was never so glad to clean that room. Rose petals everywhere, candles lit, Hershey Kisses on the bed, it was absolutely beautiful, or so I say myself.

The wedding is done. They are on their Honeymoon to St. Lucius in the Caribbean, and I am sure that they are having the time of their lives.

Normalcy is finally back. I am back to work, but I only had to work the last half of the day on Monday since I have to work on Saturday. Monday Night, Joey plays Basketball with some guys at Joelton, and I have to go and pick up the kids. I sit around and watch them play for a few minutes and realize just how rough they really do play. WOW I guess the old saying goes, "If you cant play with the BIG DOGS get out of the pen." Well, I am here to tell you, I am out of the pen, cause I couldn't handle playing with those big dogs. They are quite the players and what looked to me as a couple of wrestlers as well.

Tuesday, Just a normal but busy day at work and the kids practice Basketball on this night. For dinner we opted for the ever cheap Fazoli's. Kids eat for .99 cents, drink included and I had a coupon for a free entree with a drink. Our total came to $10.56 for all of us to eat. You cant make supper at home for that. I told them to expect to eat at Fazoli's every Tuesday night while practice is going on.

Wednesday, another busy day at work. The Vice-Pres. and President of our region pay us a visit with our Regional Sales Mgr., so some schmoozing is going on today. Dressing in a VERY Business Professional suit with heels is not something that I normally wear, however, we are expected to dress up more with visits like this. I am glad that it only happens about once to twice a year. Wednesday night as normal is Bible Study. We go to Joelton with Joey's family and then to our usual dining experience on Wednesday night, McDonalds. We get home around 9:30 because if you don't know me then I am not going to tell you how quiet and meek I truly am. HAHA. Remember, if you comment, I get to read them before they are posted, so don't make any ugly remarks about the previous statement.

Thursday, work again, and busy again. Do you see a pattern here? It is only 5 days until Christmas at this point and I need to do some last minute stuff. I run by the house, pick Courtney up and off to the Mall we go. We finally get home about 10:30, and daddy is not a happy camper that I have kept her out this late. My thoughts on this is, OH Well, she only has a 1/2 day of school tomorrow and she can come home and take a nap or go to bed early on Friday night. What to my wondering eyes should appear..............

Friday morning, I wake up to see Joey laying on the floor and he cant move. Houston, We have a problem. I call my boss to let her know that I will be late to work. I call Darlee, Joey's aunt who lives next door and Faye, his mom, who lives about 45 minutes away from us, to find out what I should do. He is complaining of a horrendous head-ache and his neck is hurting. We finally convince him to go to the closest ER(had I known any better, we would have gone into Nashville) to only be told that it is a Muscle Spasm from an injury playing Basketball a couple weeks ago(reference, Monday's paragraph). The doctor doesn't run any tests, just puts him on a muscle relaxer and pain meds and puts him in a soft neck collar, and tells him that if it isn't better by Monday to go and see his PCP. I guess the doctor forgot that Monday is Christmas Eve and that we wouldn't be able to see his PCP until Wednesday. I am at work, because I have so much to do before the Holidays that I feel as if I need to be there, and that his mom is meeting him at the ER and she can take better care of him and not get as frustrated with him as I might be. I work much better under circumstances such as these too. Faye calls me at work to let me know that he will be fine and I suggest that he go to her house so that he wont be alone with the kids and me at work. They go to her house and end up spending the night because I have to work on Saturday and he is in A LOT OF PAIN. For those of you who know or don't know Joey, he doesn't complain about a lot of things. If he has a headache, he just works through the pain. He doesn't take medicine for anything dealing with pain or muscles, so I knew that he was not feeling up to par, and wouldn't want to be here by himself, and I didn't want him here by himself. So they stayed with his mom and dad and after work on Saturday I went and picked him up and brought him home.

Saturday night Joey was bound and determined to go to church on Sunday morning, even though he didn't feel much better. I did talk to the elders on Friday and they told me not to worry about Joey preaching on Sunday, that they already had it covered.

So Sunday morning, we get up and get ready for services, drive down town and he sits there enduring an hour of pain, instead of being at home in bed. I guess that since he is the minister at Shelby Ave., he feels like he needs to be there. It reminds me of the post office.....Rain, Snow, Sleet or Shine, they are there delivering the messages. Thank you Norris. It was a mighty fine lesson that you presented. We get home and he is not feeling well and I don't want to say, "I told you so" but he is in a lot of pain. I think that he just overdid it trying to get ready this morning. He realized that he needed to stay at home tonight so my in-laws came by to pick up the kids for worship this evening.

Courtney and Craig went to bed early since they have been kinda cranky today even with taking a nap this afternoon. Courtney came into the office and told me one of her teeth has been bothering her lately and about 5 minutes later, she pulled it. Yes, she pulled her own tooth. I guess that the Tooth Fairy will be visiting our house this evening. Everyone is finally in bed at 10:00 p.m. except for me, and I am getting ready to go there as soon as I get the clothes out of the washer and hung up. I will be adding some of my own pictures to this site after the holidays since that is the surprise that we are giving the parents for Christmas and I don't want everyone else seeing them before they see them. So, stay tuned for those, and hopefully I will get some of the wedding to post on here as well.

If I don't see or talk to you before Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS. I hope that you and your families have a wonderful Holiday season and that you are blessed beyond belief. Our love goes out to you all.

In Him,

Kelly and family

Only 3 more days......

2007-12-12T21:40:00.000-06:00

Until this wedding goes down. Hopefully not really down......hill. As I sit here typing on this blog I am talking to the caterer and we are nailing down the final details. If you have never planned a wedding for someone else, and don't have any formal training, PLEASE HEED MY ADVICE, DON'T START NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't get me wrong, I love planning events, however I didn't realize when we started this that this wedding would be only 10 days before Christmas.

On to the new business. I saw Stacey at Bible Study tonight and got on her about her Blogging. She promised me that she would go home tonight and update, so go look at her page and pressure her to update if she hasn't already.

Also, I finally got some pictures uploaded so you will have to go to the previous posts and look at them. I am getting better at this thing, I think.

I am sending this picture out in my Christmas cards, so for those of you who wont get one, take a look at my BEAUTIFUL KIDDO'S. Doesn't Courtney look so excited to have her picture taken???

Until Next time.........

Happy Holidays to you and your families.

In Him,
Kelly and Family

T minus 4......

2007-12-11T21:19:00.000-06:00

Days until the wedding.

First of all, let me start by thanking those of you who have not only visited my blog, but left comments. I love to hear what you have to say about my ever so busy world.

Now, back to the wedding. Tiffany, the caterer called me tonight all stressed out. Originally they were only inviting 250 guests. Now the last count we had is that they sent out 375 invites. UH OH this could be a disaster. However, I want everyone to know that this is in no way, shape or form Tiff's fault. WE WILL SURVIVE.

Not much happening today. Just work, basketball practice, funeral home(no mom, Joey is not preaching this one, it was a customer), The Biggest Loser, now eating Ice Cream. Thanks to Becca, she said I could eat anything I want since it is the Holiday season. I will probably gain about 200lbs.

Ok, I do have a funny story to tell you all. My boss, Karen, has a sister with Down's Syndrome and she is 41. I have heard a lot about Donna and what we like to call "Donna Stories", but meeting her today truly told me that all of the stories that Karen tells after spending time with her are just the tip of the iceberg. Today she and her caretaker stopped by the office to see Karen. A few weeks back she broke her ankle and she has had to have a new cast put on every week to make sure that she is healing properly. She calls them "castles". So we(the entire office staff) are standing around talking and looking at her new "castle" which is HOT PINK and she wants all of us to sign it. So we are standing there and a customer walks in the door and Donna says, "You next, Old Man" and I thought I was going to pee all over myself. Ok, so I guess you had to be there, but it was so funny. One because the man wasn't all that old and 2 Donna didn't care who signed her "castle".

Karen and Donna in front of our office Christmas Tree. How sweet they look.

Until next time...............

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

In Him,
Kelly and Family

Where Do I Begin??????

2007-12-10T19:28:00.000-06:00

Ok, I know that it has been a week since my last blog, I might have to change the name of it to The Dixon Weekly. Hopefully after this wedding, which is only 5 days and counting, I might be able to resume some sort of normalcy in my life. If there is a normal. Well I guess I should just start from last Tuesday.

Tuesday - My day off, well off work anyway. I am always off. I got to sleep in, then I went and met a friend, Kelli, for lunch. I went and got Courtney from school and did a few errands in the area and came home in time for Joey, Craig and Courtney to leave for their first Basketball Practice of the season. I stayed home to make Peanut Butter Balls, then realized I didn't have all of the ingredients, so I watched some T.V. and played on the computer until they got home. Wow, I forgot how quiet it can be when no one is home. When they got home, I was watching The Biggest Loser and eating(there has to be something wrong with this picture). Joey walked into the den and said to me "I don't think that you are supposed to be eating chips out of the bag and watching The Biggest Loser at the same time". Ok, so there is something wrong with this picture. On to ...

Wednesday - Back to work I go. I worked all day, then went to Bible Study that evening. Nothing too exciting to report this day.

Thursday - Work again. I'm still not sure if I am liking this Full Time Gig or not. I guess it'll have to do until I get the kids out of college at least. I did go with the Bride to get her trial hair fixing(is that what you're supposed to call it?) and to get my hair cut. Again, nothing too exciting happening this day. Here is where the fun BEGINS........

Friday - Working once more, got home about 6:30 and came into the office to find out what Joey wanted to do for dinner. I said that I just wanted to order in and Joey agreed. We finally decided to order pizza about 7:00. The kids were in the living room watching "The Polar Express" and I was in the office looking at some things on the internet, when all of a sudden, we hear a round of Gunshots. (for those of you who don't know where we live, we live on a quiet road with mostly family) I immediately called Tara to see if Clay was out shooting at raccoons, which has been known to happen, however they heard it too and it was definitely not Clay. I called another neighbor and they heard the shots as well. Ok, this is beginning to be a little scary as we hear another round of shots. I am on the phone with Tara and she has already called 911. I get off of the phone with her to do the same. I am calling 911 as I am hurriedly walking through the house turning all of the lights out and telling the kids to get in the floor. Did you know that if you turn all of your lights inside off and the lights outside on that people cant see you in the house? I am on the phone with the 911 operator and Joey(our HERO) goes outside and crouches down on the deck to see what is going on. He sees 2 figures standing at the end of our house, shooting up into the woods, behind our house and then just casually start walking towards our neighbors house. The police finally arrive, do a road block and end up at the end of our road, which just happens to be our neighbors house and find the 2 people who were doing the shooting and drugs. We never suspected that!! The neighbors house is a duplex, which the back half is rented and that is where they found all of this. Don't get me wrong, our neighbors are great!!!!!!! You just never know if who you rent to is going to be. The police finally came by at around 10:15 to let us know that we are once again safe and we can put the kids to bed. Oh, yes, let me not forget, the pizza guy got through the road block and we did get to eat our dinner. Joey slept on the couch, baseball bat in hand, to let the kids know that the "bad people" would have to get through daddy, before they could ever get to their rooms. I finally got to bed around 11:30p.m. only to get up at 7:00a.m. the next morning to go back to work. Yes, it stinks having to work on Saturday. Good thing it is only for a 1/2 day.

Saturday - It is CRAZY. People are standing at the door waiting for us to open. That is definitely not a good sign for what the day is going to be like. I finally leave work around 1:30 and get home just in time to fix lunch. After lunch, I lay down to take a very short nap, then off and running we are again. We had big plans at 4:30, however I can't say what they are, or they might ruin the surprise. We finally got done with our plans at about 6:30 and went to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse, only to wait about 30 more minutes to get a table. We had a decent dinner and I needed to run to the mall to return something that I had purchased a couple of weeks back and Joey said that he would just take the kids home. Time really does fly when you are having fun. I got home about 10:00 and thought that it was about 9:00. OOPS.

Courtney had been complaining of a sore throat for the past couple of days and I just thought that she was faking because she didn't want to go to school on Friday. She complained on Saturday as well as Sunday.

Sunday - Courtney and I stayed home from Worship service both morning and evening. Joey went to the grocery store, not once, but twice. Yes in the same day. He very rarely goes, but twice in the same day has got to be some kind of record. Today was pretty much a slow day, giving lots of attention to the sickly Courtney and giving her lots of medicine to try and get her well for school on Monday. Another fun day ahead..........

Monday - When Joshua, the other FSR decided to up and quit on Karen(my boss) the week of Thanksgiving, she decided that since we were going to have to work every other Saturday, that we should get to take an entire day off during the week. So today was Karen's day off. It all started about 8:15. One of the tellers called in sick and the operations manager was at work, but sick as well. OH BOY!! I called our Regional Mgr. to try and get some relief so that the ops mgr could go home. Who wants someone with a stomach bug in the office infecting all of the rest of us? NOT ME. She left about 9:00 and all heck broke loose. I have never seen a Monday as busy as it was today. WOW is all I can say. We were working with 2 people who are normally there, Jenna and myself, and 2 of our float staff. It was so crazy that Jenna and I didn't even get to take a lunch break until 3:20. We didn't even get to go to lunch, really, we sat in the break room and scarfed our lunch down, and back to the grindstone we went. It was so busy all day. I was never so glad to leave that place today. I told Jenna at some point in the day that I ought to get a cot and just set it up there and sleep, since all I do at home is eat and sleep.

Courtney wanted Reuben sandwiches for dinner tonight, so as soon as I got home from work I went to work on the Reubens. I fixed them and got a phone call from the brides mom,(since it is only 5 days and counting until the BIG DAY), and we talked for a few minutes. As I was talking to her, I hear the crunch of foam. Yes, the little princess, Courtney got mad at Craig, (what's new) and stomped on his foam packaging of his Dukes of Hazzard Car. Boy did he get mad. More Fun getting ready to begin........I sent Courtney to her room and Craig being the big brother says, "mom, she hasn't eaten all of her dinner yet", so I let her come out of her room to finish eating, and on the way out, she says "I hate my life, I wish I were dead". Wow, where in the world did that come from. I was very upset and I let her know it. She did make me a card before she went to bed tonight. I truly think that she is so much like me and so emotional that she just says things without thinking. Man oh Man, am I paying for my raisin'.

Joey is at Basketball with the guys tonight. The kids have practice tomorrow night. I still don't have a tree up for Christmas. I still haven't made the Peanut Butter Balls, from last week. And I am sitting here wondering why I am so blessed to have beautiful healthy children God has blessed me with, who choose to take their frustrations out on me and their father, who love them so deeply and would do anything within our power to keep them safe, happy and healthy. I guess the old saying is right, you take out your frustrations on those you love the most. Today has just not been our day, except..................

Craig went to his neurologist today and he has apparently grown out of his abscont seizures. He doesn't have to take his "orange" pill anymore. This is what he said. Praise God. He has given us healthy children. Thank you Lord for Loving ME!!!!!! I truly don't know how I would handle the lives that some of the parents out there live. Being in the hospital day and night, night and day trying to help your little one survive. Today is truly a day that helps me realize why I am the mother and wife of Craig, Courtney and Joey.

Until next time, which I hope wont be a week, God Bless You and Keep You.

In Him,
Kelly and Family

What a Weekend.....

2007-12-03T20:48:00.000-06:00

My, My, My. I didn't realize how frustrated and how much fun you could have in one weekend. So, I am planning a wedding for a friend that I work with and his fiance', and it is almost here. Only 2 more weeks to go. Friday night when I posted I didn't want to get into all that had happened on that day, but now that I am MUCH calmer, I will tell you all about it. Get ready, Set, GO.

Amber, the bride called me on Friday afternoon to ask me if I could go out to the place that the tuxes were rented and find out why the ties that we picked out for the ushers were not at the location that the tuxes are to be picked up at. This is 2 different locations, ordered in Rivergate, to be picked up in Green Hills, and guess what, the young man that took our order is no longer employed by this company, go figure. So I go out to Rivergate ready and willing to yell at the first available person since the wedding at that time was 2 weeks and a day away. I walk in and I have no idea what the tie looks like that we picked out over 2 months ago. I call Amber, no answer. I call Alex, no answer. I call both again and again and again. I get no answer, just voice mail. So while I am waiting on a return phone call, I ask the girl working to look up and tell me if all of the guys that are to be wearing tuxes on the "BIG DAY" have been fitted. She turns to me and says that there are 7 out of 15 that have not been fitted. Now remember, the wedding is only 2 weeks from tomorrow at this point. I am livid. I once again start blowing up both cell phones and am waiting for a return phone call from the first time I tried calling. Still no one seems to be home. I finally get so frustrated after about 30 minutes of this that I call Paula, the brides mother to have her call the cell phones and try to get a hold of at least one of the "happy couple". Finally, I get a return phone call from Amber and find out that there are only 4 to be fitted, however if they are not fitted by tomorrow the rental for the tuxes goes up an additional $20.00. OH WELL, they have had 2+ months to do this. I finally leave the store and head to the mall at about 9:15, to search for a gift for the next morning. The ladies Christmas party.

Oh what fun it is to.......have 49 women in the same house?????? Can you imagine the talking going on here? A great time it was, honestly.

Thank you Ms. Ronelle for your gracious hospitality. If you have never played Dirty Santa, please don't begin by playing with 49 women, who rob from the elderly. Pictures will definitely be on another blog. I am here to show the good, bad and the ugly of this game.

Poor Ms. Ruby,
you couldn't keep a gift if you wanted it or not.

Dana and Shannon, you should be ashamed. Just kidding. We finally got done around 1p.m. and I was off to get Court who was at a friends house not far from where the breakfast was at.

I get to Tonya's and there is a stray dog who has been wandering the neighborhood for some time and terrorizing the other animals, including Haley and Siera's bunny. When Tonya got home the dog had ripped the rabbit hutch into shreds and had the bunny in his mouth. Thankfully a neighbor came to the rescue before it became this dog's lunch. I should also mention that this stray has already killed the other bunny. So, all I do is call the stray over to me and we finally get it onto a chain and call the Animal Control Dept. YEAH he is taken away, after much struggle to get it into the pin in the back of the truck. The Jason Circle Stray is gone. I told Tonya that she might just get Christmas Presents from all of her neighbors for doing this.

The Tennessee Vols and the LSU Tigers are playing for the SEC Championship and Chris, Tonya's husband plans on watching the game. What to do, What to do???? Bellevue Mall is calling my name and Tonya is tagging along. I still am not sure if she really wants to be there or not, however, we have a great time. Dillard's is going out of business . Oh my goodness, it is a nightmare. Clothes everywhere, people everywhere, and kids running WILD. Don't parents know how to control these kids? After looking, grabbing, and an hour and a half later, Tonya and I have a ton(or at least it felt like it) of clothes for the kids and some even for ourselves. We finally get checked out and take our first load to the car, only to come back to look at the Mens section. Wow, there are so many racks to choose from. Where do we begin with only 30 minutes left before the store closes? Did I mention, with the store closing, the prices were phenomenal. Everything in the store was either 50% or 75% off, with an additional 50%. Yes, believe it or not, what you would normally pay for 1 Ralph Lauren shirt, I got 7 and 3 ties to boot. Boy were we tired and hungry. I felt as if I had worked a full 8 hour shift chopping wood after that experience.

Ok, that was just Friday night and Saturday. Sunday is a whole new day. I will update that tomorrow sometime. I have lots to do, and I am not even working. Yes, I get to take the day off, however I have to work on Saturday. :( I have to miss eating Breakfast with Santa. No Fair, NO Fair, NO FAIR.

Tomorrow, I get to call the wonderful Board of Education to find out if I can get Craig into the Art Magnet School for the 2nd semester. Please pray for us to find a decent school for him to go to. As most of you know, Joey has been home-schooling, but since he is sending his resume out, and will more than likely have office hours if he gets a new position, we have to find a school for Craig where we think that his talents can be recognized. That boy can draw anything you put in front of him. Oh, for those of you who didn't know, Joey is putting his resume in at some local congregations so that we can be a little closer to home and also so Craig and Courtney can have friends within the church. We love where we are, however we just feel as if it might be better to have some kids, our kids age for them to connect with. Believe it or not, Craig will be entering the Youth Group next year.

I know that this has been a long post, however I had to update you on the weekend. I promise that I will get the pictures from the Ladies Breakfast on here soon. Yes, you should be very scared, you might just be one of them.

Have a great rest of the evening and week and we will catch up again later.

Please keep these things in your prayers, Ethan Powell, Joey being placed in the right position and Craig finding a new start with school.

Love to you all,
In Him,
Kelly and Family

P.S. I just got off of the phone with Dana, and she said that one of David's family members passed away this evening following a massive heart attack. Please keep the Ronnie Graham family in your prayers as well.

Whewwwww What a Day...

2007-11-30T23:25:00.000-06:00

And thankful that it is over. Princess Olga is about to turn into a Pumpkin. It is 11:26 p.m. and here I am blogging. I will update the good stuff that happened today on tomorrows blog, but just wanted to let you all know that I was still living and breathing after today. I haven't shot anyone, cussed anyone and haven't started drinking(yet), however, it has been mighty tempting.

Please visit this site and do all you can to help fill Jacob's Stocking. I know that it would mean a lot to Heather and her entire family during this Holiday Season. http://faithfulfroggers.blogspot.com/2007/11/jacobs-stocking.html

I am going to bed since it is so late and I really didn't want to get up early in the morning, however I am going to a Ladies Christmas Breakfast and taking Court to a friends house for her to go to a local parade.

Sleep well, Love to you all,
In Him,
Kelly

One more day...

2007-11-29T22:06:00.000-06:00

Until I finally get to "relax" for the weekend. YEAH!!!!! Another week gone. I know, I know, I am not supposed to be wishing my life away, I am just ready for a looooonnnnnngggggg vacation..... no kids, no husband, just me and some girlfriends at a spa resort with our cabana boys fanning us with very large palm leaves, feeding us grapes and let me not forget the most important part of this vacation, a massage every morning, noon and night. Anybody with me? Stace, Tonya, Jules, Kelli, anyone????

Another day, another dollar. Again, this morning started off almost as if I were living in the Groundhog Day movie. Talk about De-Jae-Voo(sp?). I woke up late again this morning and started the same 'ole routine . Getting myself ready, hollering at Court to get her things together, and of course rushing out the door. I once again assumed that Joey was going to take her to school, however I was wrong, or was it him. Late to work again....the never ending saga. As I was driving down our road, I saw what I thought to be MawMaw's coming toward me. A light bulb went off in my tiny brain, and I flagged her down. Ok it wasn't her, it was Joey's cousin, Ty coming back from taking Brookie, his little girl, to school. After a little pleading, he said that he would take her to school if I would call them and let them know that he was bringing her in late. She was going to be late no matter what, but him taking her to school kept me from being even later to work and the McDonald's calling my name again this morning. We left the house late so what do you expect. When Ty agreed to take Court, I said, "please don't tell Joey I asked you to do this, he will be so mad at me". Now really, who do you want more mad at you........the person whose payroll you are on or the person you live with? I can go to another room and ignore the person I live with(just joking Joey), but it isn't all that easy to go to another job, especially in the same day.

I did manage to get to work at a decent time, only 10 minutes late this morning. That is about what my boss has come to expect. My parents say that I will be late to my own funeral. I hope not, because I am not having one. I told Joey that when I die, I don't want him to spend a bunch of money on a funeral, just tie me up in a plastic bag, build me a nice pine box and ship my fluffy Princess Olga butt down the Mighty Mississipp. There is no reason to spend all of that time, effort, money and emotion, for people to be crying over my dead body, when I am having the time of my life in Heaven. Do I hear an Amen? AMEN.

So onto the start of my day. Again, I dealt with our TAC people that you heard about yesterday for another 3 hours trying to get the Loan Documents that were supposed to be printed yesterday to print this morning so my customer could start paying the interest on his newly purchased automobile. Finally, I got it. Customer is happy, TAC is very happy(that they don't have to talk to me for awhile) and I am ecstatic because I don't have to talk to them, well and that I am finally done with this loan and can move on to the next set of problems and circumstances.

By noon, I am just whipped. I had 2 cups of coffee, a large sweet tea from McDonald's,(someone else went) and a 3 hour conversation about a printer that wouldn't work. What am I supposed to do now? Well I have this "Celebration" after work tonight and I just don't think that I have the stamina to be "my perky little self" to go. After another cup of coffee, I pull out of it. I get to the "Celebration" and have a great time. I am finally home and once again I have seen neither of my children(I know I just said in the first paragraph that I needed a vacation, but it really isn't from my children or husband, I just want to go on a girl trip to the spa resort with cabana boys fanning me with large palm leaves and feeding me grapes and don't dare let me forget the many massages that I intend to have), my husband is watching football, and I am barely awake enough to write this blog. I do apologize if it doesn't make much sense.

Well, I guess it is about time, or should I say about 2 hours past time for me to be getting to bed, so I will update again tomorrow night. TGIF - Thank Goodness it's Friday.

Hope you all have a great weekend and keep the comments coming.

Love to you all,
In Him,
Kelly and Family

Here we go again......

2007-11-28T21:27:00.000-06:00

Old Business - How long does it really take for people to start reading this thing and respond????? I am getting bored here. Can you tell my attention span is that of a 3 year old when it comes to things like this? Start Posting you silly readers. I need confirmation that you are reading and are enjoying the posts.

New Business - Ok, today was not such a great day for Princess Olga (my new nickname, thanks Chelsey:)). I guess that I shouldn't say that it wasn't a great day because I am still alive and well and have so many blessing that I can not even count, but for a day in the life of Princesses it was kinda stinky. It all started off when I woke up late this morning, while getting ready for work, Court brings me a pair of her uniform pants and says "Mom, I need these ironed". Well anyone who knows me or any of my family, we kinda fly by the seat of our pants on most things. If I had to describe our family I would definitely call us spontaneous. So anyway, I have the curling iron stuck to my head and go to iron the pants, that should have been done the night before, all while yelling, "Court, do you have your shoes and socks on....Court, are your teeth brushed....Court, have you even thought about brushing your hair....Court, do you know where you took your belt off last night.... and I think that you get the picture. So I finally get my hair done, her hair done and start contemplating the dreaded decision of what am I going to wear. I finally pick out what I am going to wear and it is now about 15 minutes before I am supposed to leave to get to work on time. I finally get ready and now is when I find out that Joey thought I was going to take Court to school. I accept the responsibility with great pride that I, the blessed mother that I am get to take my precious baby to school (something I don't get to do often), however I have a hidden motive, McDonald's is just down the road (ah ha, I get breakfast this morning). So what if I am a little late to work this morning. I did call the office and find out if anyone else wanted anything and to let them know that I was going to be late. I finally arrived to work about 8:15 this morning.

On to lunch, can you tell I have been awfully hungry today? Eating lots of chocolates as well. I went to lunch with a friend of mine Lesley, and when I got back to the office, I promise you, it was the devil, all heck broke loose. I was one busy chick. I was supposed to get off today at 5 and well that didn't happen by any means. As I was trying to print some loan documents, I realized that when they set up the new computer system, I wasn't linked to print loan docs. Awww man, what do I do now??? I have a customer coming in at 5:30 to sign, and no one, and I do mean no one can tell me how or who to contact to get this problem resolved. I have never wanted to throw a computer tower out the door as bad as I did today. I finally get in touch with our personal TAC guy and he tells me that he is out in the middle of the country and doesnt have any access to his lap top to fix this "little" problem that we have, but that he would call a couple of people and get right back with me. Princess Olga is not a happy Princess at this point. The customer gets to the office and of all days to be early, yup, you guessed it, he was early. He had to wait until I finally got a response back from our TAC guy saying that it would be first thing in the morning before he can do anything with getting me "rebooted" on the correct server. I now have the pleasure to break the news to my very patient customer who has been waiting on me close to an hour to get something done that it will be first thing in the morning before he can sign the papers. Whewwwww, what a day at the office.

I leave the office at about 6:40 and come home for a few minutes and then head to Bible Study, to finally get to see my children, one of whom I haven't seen since last night. I needed that time to spend with God. I need to find more time to spend with God. I know there is time, because how does everyone else seem to have time? We all are given 24 hours in the day, we just have to choose how we are going to spend them. I obviously haven't chosen so well. I am going to do my best to spend more time with Him and be a willing servant to be used by Him. That is my commitment to all of you, if there are any of you, to be a God Fearing, Word Spreading woman. Please keep me reminded of this.

Now on to the Husband, the preacher man, he is also gone when I get home from work. He has to drive about 25 minutes to get to his Bible Study. We would love to go to the same place for Bible Study, unfortunately, there are no children where he preaches so Craig, Court and I go where Joey's parents go and where he grew up. He finally gets home to kiss the kiddies good night and since I was blogging, he went to another room to watch TV. So I haven't seen him all day either. WOW what a long day. I am really tired now, wonder why that could possibly be? I don't have any idea, so don't bother asking me, because I will be asleep for the next 7 hours.

I will try to post something positive tomorrow night as I know that you all don't want to hear a whining 32 year old grown fluffy woman. Yes I call myself fluffy, I cant bear to think of myself as FAT or OBESE or whatever those people with a PHD or MD want to call me.

So here is wishing you all a good night and peace to all.

In Him,
Kelly and Family

P.S. Please keep the family of Max Nance in your prayers. He was the 8 year old little boy who ran out in front of traffic and was hit and killed by a taxi-cab on Saturday on his way to the Vanderbilt Football game. I think that his funeral is tomorrow. His family needs the prayers right now and for some time to come I am sure.

Second Attempt......

2007-11-27T18:27:00.000-06:00

Well, here goes for the second day. I am not sure that I can keep this thing up daily or not, but I will do my best. I feel as if I have a new-born baby and I am constantly being required something of them, as if 9 months of them feeding off of my body weren't enough. Again, I will do my best to keep this up, but please let me know if I am boring you.

Enough of the blah blah blah, here is what is happening in our neck of the woods.... Craig just celebrated his 12th birthday this past week, Thanksgiving Day to be exact. Before his birthday, he kept asking me if he could have a Birthday Party and I kept telling him that I would think about it. We went to my grandmother's house for Thanksgiving, and we weren't around any of Joey's family so I didn't really think that we could pull one off since we weren't going to come home until Saturday in our original plans. Well in our family, plans change about as often as the television station. We ended up coming home on Friday night due to another funeral that Joey was supposed to attend. So I called Faye (my wonderful mother-in-law) and asked her what she thought about doing a surprise party with some of the family. She agreed and we pulled it off without a hitch. Craig was very surprised. He was also overwhelmed by all of them yelling Surprise as he walked in the door. He got lots of nice things at the party. Thanks everyone :)

Today he went out to the Parent - Teacher Store with Maw-Maws (Darlee) and got more stuff, then the neighbor brought him another present this afternoon. MY MY, the house is starting to look like a toy store. Anybody for shopping at the Dixon-Mart? No lines at the checkout. Ha Ha, what would Craig think if he saw this post??? While we were at Grandmother's house, we had a little party for him there as well. He got his favorite Oreo Ice Cream Cake, some fun toys and the all time favorite....$$$. He is expecting a package from Nana and Paw-Paw in the next couple of days since his Remote Control Dukes of Hazzard car didn't come in before they came down. I think that we are just going to have to make this a Birthday week instead of having just one day.

Heather, I hope you check this out. I did get to put a picture on the post today. I was quite excited learning how to do this. Thanks for your help. Heather's blog is located at the bottom of mine and if you get a chance, go and look at it. She has the most beautiful babies in Florida.

Christmas is only 4 weeks from today...... Have you been naughty or nice??? Are you on the good list of Santa's?? I will have to ask Joey as far as my name goes.

I will post more tomorrow if I get a chance after work and Bible Study. Have a great evening and keep the positive comments coming.

Love to you and yours,
In Him,
Kelly and Family

First of Many...

2007-11-26T19:58:00.000-06:00

Well, this is the first of many to come hopefully and I hope that I don't bore you all to pieces. While talking to one of my friends, Kym, last night, I realized that I too could set up a BLOG. I have been checking out a few and thought that it really cant be that hard, why not try it myself. So here it is.

With that being said...... Isn't God Great? Have you thought lately what a wonderful world we live in with all of its conveniences and luxuries, but that this is only a glimpse of what Heaven will be. WOW is all that I can say. Have you thought that we are such a blessed group of individuals to have the "things" that we have? I know that I for one take these "things" for granted. As I read in Elizabeths blog the other day, I too strive for the contentment of life.

Ok, Thanksgiving has come and gone and here we sit upon Christmas only 4 weeks from tomorrow. I haven't even begun to get any decorations out, much less anything else. I received a Christmas card/photo in the mail last week and it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet. Are we just going to start celebrating right after Labor Day next year? I don't think that I am up to that, I like having all 10 of my Federal Paid Holidays.

I hope that I didn't bore you too much this first time and if I did, I'm sorry. Setting this thing up has taken longer than anticipated and I need to make sure the little darlings are ready for bed, so I must go, however, please send your comments and feedback for what I need to do on this thing they call a BLOG.

In Him,
Kelly and Family