A Month of Thankfulness

The month of November seems to bring out gratitude in a lot of people.  I think that is good.  It is important to me to get on my knees and be thankful for God's blessings.  My mom used to tell me to count my blessings in order to fall asleep when I was little.  I did not understand the magnitude of that simple idea.  There is a lot of peace at the foot of the cross.  Especially when you go there with an attitude of gratitude.

My sweet friend Jennifer (http:homewardboundbridges@blogspot.com) (sorry mr. linky isn't so linky today) is posting a thanks for every day of November.  I won't pretend that I can do that.  Obviously it is the end of the first week and here I am on my first post.  Maybe Fridays this month will be my day of thanks.

Today, I am thankful for this guy:

No it isn't our anniversary, or even his birthday.  Today he chose to stay home to take care of me.  Yesterday I had my first root canal.  It wasn't the worst experience of my life.  Nor was it the best.  But, my sweet husband decided to work from home today so he could be here for me.  It certainly isn't the nicest thing he has done for me.  However, it just adds to his list.  Adam works hard.  And I believe he works hard to be the best he can be.  I know he is pulled in many directions and sometimes I know he struggles to make it all work.  But, he is an answer to my prayers.  God knew just what I needed in a husband and He was generous when He gave Adam to me.  I am grateful that He thought enough of me to give me such a wonderful husband.  Even if I had to go through a Bozo first!!  Adam makes it all worth it!!

Thanks Adam for what you do for our family.  And thank you Jesus, for Adam!!

Here he is in his element backpacking in the mountains. You notice I am not there with him.  Not my element.  But he still loves me the same!!

Do NOT Climb?

Yesterday my boys brought home their first report cards for the year.  I was thrilled to see that BOTH of them have done the very best they could and made the Principal's List for this quarter!  Yes, that is the best possible.  All A's!  And I am all smiles.  I actually cried when I read my middle man's teacher's comment: "He exhibits an excellent attitude towards his school work.  He approaches his work with confidence.  I look forward to the wonderful year of learning we will have."  No, it isn't necessarily "crying material", but this is the child that I was so worried about going to school.  He loves it and is doing wonderfully.  I am proud of him and the accomplishments he has made this far.  I am also proud of his big brother and the fact that even he spurs my middle man to learn more.  You know that sibling rivalry is good for something!!  My oldest is a very smart boy and it seems to encourage middle man to strive for that too.  Not that he is not as smart as his brother, but it is nice to see both of them doing so well. 

I know a lot of parents give their children prizes or money for making good grades.  My parents never did that for my brothers and I.  I was told I was expected to get good grades and I would NOT be paid for it.  I will admit I had a generous adopted grandmother that started paying me a little.  I was thankful for that, but I am also thankful that my parents taught me that all hard work doesn't come with a paycheck.  That lesson is paying off now in mothering full-time!! 

This picture was taken at the State Fair this year.  I thought it was appropriate for this post---however I will say that I hope they DO climb higher and higher when it comes their school work.  Good job boys, mama is proud of you. 

My New Favorite Song

I just heard this song yesterday and I love it.  Thought I would share. 

Click this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re5EIUIXbhc

This is my prayer for my three blessings.  And not just for my personal blessings, but for the precious blessings I received from being a sister and sister-in-law!!  My sweet nieces and nephews. 

Baby Doll Memories

When I was a little girl I loved baby dolls.  I got a "Whoopsie" doll (above doll) one year for my birthday.  When you squeezed her tummy she would say "whoopsie" and her ponytails would flip up.  I loved her and remember the excitement I felt when I got her for my birthday.  (I would upload a picture of that birthday...but those pictures are with my mama.  I guess I might have to employ her to scan one for me to add to this post later.)

I felt a very similar excitment this week when I realized I have the REAL deal in my baby girl. I worked pretty hard to get her hair in these two ponytails and I was thrilled.  She was pretty excited too!! It didn't stay very long, but at least I know that Whoopsie isn't far off for us.  (another job for my mom...see if you can find that Whoopsie doll!!)

Making Labor Day Memories

Labor Day 2010 marked 34 years of Lake Lure memories!!  What a blessing that little cabin in the mountains has been to my family. 

Labor Day 2010 at Lake Lure did not fail to produce its share of memories for the book. 

On Saturday my poor ole dog took an accidental swim in the lake.  We didn't know he fell in.  I did know he was outside, but had gone on to my normal have-three-kids-to-care-for stuff.  Then we heard yelping.  Strange and slightly muffled cries from, from, Kobie!  He was stuck under the screened-in porch.  In. the. water.  Yes, the porch sits right in the water.  Thankfully he had found the seawall of the house and perched himself there, yelping for help.  My sweet daddy climbed under there, clothes and all, and rescued the little guy!!  Poor ole dog.  Still not sure how he ended up in the water.

On Sunday we were out in the boat with two of my nephews taking turns on skis and wakeboarding.  Justin, the oldest of my three nephews decided to do some hot-dogging.  He was attempting to flip.  After his first attempt and a little verbal whipping from his Nana, he said he would be fine.  Second attempt, looked pretty good, although he lost the wakeboard on this attempt.  When we returned to him, he said: "I am bleeding." I didn't believe him.  I thought he was kidding.  Afterall, I didn't see blood.   At least not until he turned his head.  The wakeboard had hit him just above the eye when he lost it.  11 stitches and a trip to urgent care will most definitely go down in Lake Lure history.  He handled it like a champ though. 

Enough action for one weekend!!! 

These dark blue skies also made their mark in the book.  Nothing like enjoying God's perfect handiwork with a little bit of action thrown in!!!

This picture was not taken over the weekend.  But was from the summer.  And this jump is TAME compared to what he was trying when he got hurt!!!

Oh for the love of a DOG!!!!

I have had a love affair with my dog for over 13 years now.  He is my friend.  He isn't such a good dog, but I still love him.  And I am sad that he is already 13.  My family enjoys making jokes that he doesn't have a lot of time left.  I try to take it all in stride and laugh with them...but I surely wasn't ready to see his life come to an end last night.
You see, my sweet little girl has a cold.  Runny nose, sneezing, coughing.  So, just before bedtime I gave her a chewable benadryl.  When I looked back down to her she said: "I gave it Kobie."  And there stood Kobie at her feet.  She feeds him often.  And he rarely turns down a hand-out. Often times it isn't even a hand-out.  He likes to swipe food from their little hands. (one of the many reason he isn't such a good dog)  So, I went into panic mode.  Here it is bedtime for my three kids and potentially permanent bedtime for my dog.  My dear husband starting making phone calls.  First the emergency vet.  As he read off the ingredients to the tech on the phone they said that he SHOULD be OK.  But for $60 we could call animal poison control.  YIKES!!  They also offered that regular poison control might help.  After a call to them, they also said he SHOULD be OK.  SHOULD isn't really what I was hoping they would tell me.  However, for a 13 year old dog it was the best we were gonna get.

He IS OK.  Especially considering he never even ate the pill.  A little after they kids were soundly asleep, I looked down to find the pill lying quietly under our kitchen table.    Oh well...at least you can count on us to help keep some people from being bored in their evening job.

Finally??

You might remember back in June I was itching for August.  After a particularly hard day of mothering my three, I had that "when do you go back to school?" feeling.  But, here we are and I am once again shocked at how quickly the summer went by!!  I thought I would be saying: "Finally!!"  And here I am wondering how it can go by so quickly.  I guess that just goes to show that time DOES fly when you are having fun!!

Mostly our summer was glorious!  We spent a lot of time at the neighborhood pool and I have a tan for the first time in MANY, MANY years!  (yes, I wore sunscreen---wasn't trying to tan)  We spent time with family and even made some new friends!  We learned some new things and we made some memories!! I am so thankful for such a great summer and for healthy and happy kids to spend it with!! 

Now we are back in the season of complete busy!  And complete abundance!  School started on Monday and so far so good.  We have been calling our little man "Mr. Kindergarten" this week!  He is loving it and loves being at school with his big brother, you know, our well accomplished 2nd grader!!  That said 2nd grader started his first season of tackle football last week.  Cub scouts started again this week.  And AWANA starts up after Labor Day.  We also have some WOLFPACK football coming up soon!   Need I say more?  Making memories...that is what we do!!!