Christmas........

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...............

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......

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......

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??????

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.....

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.