Catching up

Busy,busy,busy! That best describes our family for the last month. A lot has happened since I blogged last. Eric was in an accident the week before Thanksgiving. He was hit by a drunk driver in his police car. Thankfully he was fine just sore for a few days. Then we headed to NC the weekend before Thanksgiving to celebrate with my family. We had one of the best visits we have had in a long time. We got to go to church with my parents on Sunday and it was great. We spent time just hanging out with my family and it was wonderful. My sweet parents decided that they would keep the kids so Eric and I could have some time together since those times are few and far between. We had a great week, we went to see "New Moon" and it was Awesome!!!! Thanks Mom and Dad we really enjoyed the time together. A couple days after we got the kids back, Emily's cough came back and it wouldn't go away. Took her to the doctor and she had micoplasma "walking pnuemonia". Poor thing. Then a week later, I started coughing and my sweet little girl had shared the germs with me. After a round of Z-pak we are both much better. The kids are getting excited and counting down the days until Christmas. I am still not finished with my shopping but hope to be by the weekend. So much to do and so little time. The story of my life.

Date Night

Saturday night, our sweet friends The Busy Blaines repaid the favor and kept our kids for us to go on a date. We were in desperate need of some "us" time. After we dropped the kids off we headed to Kabuki for some Japanese food. A 20 minute wait turned into an hour because the gentleman "accidentally" skipped our name. UGH!!!! Once we were finally seated we realized that we were sitting with a group of very immature college kids. It was an experience to say the least and left us feeling scared to death for our kids to grow up. :-( Anyway, our food was AWESOME!!!! We had a great cook who was surprisingly not Japanese. By the time we were done it was almost 9(you know because the "gentleman" "accidentally" skipped us and we had to wait FOREVER to be seated). We headed back over to The Blaines to pick up the kids who were not happy to see us. LOL They have so much fun hanging out with their friends!!!! Anyway, we had a GREAT time and hope to do it again soon!

Happy 70th PawPaw Jere!!!

This past weekend we headed to the big city of New Castle to celebrate FIL's(Jere) 70th birthday!!! WE HAD A BALL!!!! Saturday night we had a birthday party with just immediate family. Before supper, we took the kids trick or treating. Caleb had a great time but Emily spent most of the time sitting in the van because she refused to say "Thank You". Then we headed back to the house. My mother in law fixed the best baked spaghetti I have ever eaten. It was SOOO good. She had a dessert "Lemon Lush" that was the bomb!! You can't be on a diet at their house, its just impossible. My FIL's brother(U.Tommy) and 2 sisters(A.Betty and A.Julia) and their husbands also came to eat with us and celebrate. In all honesty, they brought the party with them. Tommy and Julia had wrapped 10 or so seperate gifts for the birthday boy, all which came from the $1 store. You can imagine what kind of gifts they were. LOL After each gift U.Tommy made a short comment about how Jere could use this now that he was SO OLD. This went on for what seemed like a VERY long time. We laughed so much we were completely worn out. :) On to Sunday, we went to my FIL's church and then to their new church(still under construction) for a churchwide birthday lunch. The ladies of the church had decorated and it looked so good. There was alot of food and 3 full tables of desserts. Notice that I keep mentioning food, I love it. My SIL's sister, Valarie made 3 sheet cakes for the celebration and let me tell you they were beyond YUMMY!!! The celebration continued with entertainment from my BIL's bluegrass group. They played old gospel hymns and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. U.Tommy is very well known for writing wonderful poems, mostly funny but sometimes serious. U.Tommy wrote a poem about his brother and read it for everyone, a little funny a little serious. After the party, we went back to my In Laws house and just hung out with family. We had such a wonderful weekend. I am thankful for a godly father in law and pray the Lord blesses him with many more years.

Finally!!

After living in "HOKIE Country" for 8 years, Caleb finally got to go to a Hokie game last night. A friend of Eric's had 2 tickets that they weren't using so Eric bought them and off they went. Eric dropped off his truck early and I picked him up after work. When we went to pick the kids up from school we had the video camera ready. Caleb's reaction was PRICELESS when he found out where him and daddy were going. He got so excited and said "FINALLY". It was too cute. So we rushed home, got Caleb dressed in his VT best. We picked up our Pastor on the way who is a HUGE TARHEEL FAN!!!(capital letters doesn't even come close to expressing how much he LOVES them) Emiy and I drove them over to Lane Stadium and dropped them off. I have never seen so many people in maroon and orange in my life. Wow! Unfortunately, the HOKIES CHOKED!!! Caleb and Eric had a great time though. I am so thankful that they got the oppurtunity to go and I know there were memories made that will never be forgotten. Congratulations Pastor Mike, I know you are floating on a Carolina Blue Cloud.

What a week!

The last week has been a rollercoaster ride for our family. Caleb was diagnosed on Thursday with H1N1 after running a fever for several days.*Sigh* Just as the doctor said "It's bark is worse than it's bite". Other than a fever and a cough he weathered this flu pretty well. Now we are all paranoid, everytime we sneeze or clear our throat our mind starts wondering if we too are getting the bug(or pig). We know that there were many people praying for Caleb during the last week and we are SO thankful for that. We also know that is what is protecting us from catching it. Hopefully, this is the last our family will see of the Swine Flu.

Stop and smell the roses

The past few weeks have been very overwhelming for me. We have been keeping a VERY FULL schedule. With the kids,church and work sometimes I feel like I can barely breathe. After feeling sorry for myself and sharing this with Eric, he has lovingly opened my eyes to how I should really be looking at these challenges. The challenges I have been facing are really BLESSINGS!!! How easy it is to get overwhelmed with life that we forget to STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES. With God's help I know I can change my outlook on everyday life. Thank you Lord for your blessings on me.

Getting Started....

I've decided to try this whole blogging thing. We will see how it goes. I don't feel like I have a very exciting life but anyway here we go. A little about our family to get started. Eric and I have been married for almost 15 years, we have two blessings Caleb(9) and Emily(6) that fight non-stop. This drives us CRAZY!!!! We attend Open Door Baptist Church and work with the youth group there and love it. We have an amazing pastor and church family. God has truly blessed us more than we deserve.