It's Sad Sunday...

We have had a wonderful day together, but I know that in about 3 1/2 hours I get to drop my Sailor back off at his ship. It's going to be sad. I just hope Jordan does sob as bad as she did last time. Broke my heart! And I knew that I couldn't cry, that would have made it even worse.

We had a great morning. We traveled to Wisconsin to visit the Jelly Belly Center. We took a tour of the warehouse and saw how they were made, even had to wear cute little hats on the train ride (pictures will post later). It was not optional! We even got samples on the way out. And of course the family will be getting some. They even had sugarless ones, so I am looking out for my husband and contributing fun to him still!

We have been back in the room just watching TV and laughing. So now I will run back to the room, and take something for my headache, then figure out what else we can do in 3 hours.

I also had to check the weather channel to see how bad it is going to get back home. Good thing we were not flying back today.

Until next time.....

Friday - we got Paxston, Saturday - Chicago

Well we were not sure of what time we were getting Paxston so we made a trip to Gurnee Mills Mall. That place is HUGE. Picked me up a super cute purse! As we kept on walking Paxston was telling us it may be 4 before he got away. I finally texted him and told him we were going to eat. (we had all planned on getting Chili's) He sent a message back to wait, he was going to ask about what time he could leave. They said he was released, so we left the mall and went to pick him up.

After getting us some lunch at Chili's we made a stop by ToysRUs so he could get Ethan a game. Then we decided we would go see Percy Jacksons The Lightening Thief. I liked the movie, but Paxston said it did not go along with the book at all. Guess I need to read the book.

We then went back to the mall and got Paxston some blue jeans. I found Ethan a Navy Brother shirt and a Navy Do-rag for Chris to wear when riding the motorcycle.

We ate at Chipolte for supper. It was a first time for me and was pretty good! Back to the room for some sleep.

Saturday - was Chicago day.
We drove to Chicago. May I say that the GPS on Paxston's phone is about as crazy as the one in Chris' car, but we made it. After make lots of turns to get back on the right road.

We ate a Bubba Gumps - was awesome. I have pictures that I will have to come back and add. I am actually in the hotel lobby posting this now. The waiter was great and had a blast asking us trivia questions. The last one he had to give us a clue on, and I am sure we look stupid as we were figuring it out. The question was what was Forest' s bus drivers name. The clue, we all had to hold hands, close our eyes, vision ourselves in Kansas, click our heals three times - DOROTHY! I got it! Ha ha.

After that we walked all the way down Navy Pier. I got to take lots of pictures of the stained glass windows, they were incredible! They also had mosaics on display - they were pretty neat too!
The best part was riding the Ferris Wheel. It made a complete revolution in 7 minutes, so I was taking pictures like crazy. The high was only 45 today, so it was pretty cold at the top and windy! I did pick up something for Crickette, but will not post what it is, she may read this! Sorry Crickette.

We left the Pier to go check out the Bean. Well there was no place to park so we just drove by and came back home. Of course we got to tour some of the "Chicago Suburbs" which were blocks of townhouses. Wow. Glad I do not live there!

We made it back to the room a bit ago and have watched Paxston's Navy Graduation on DVD. Now the plans are to run to Wally World and pick up some items he forgot and then grab something light to eat.

I am so excited about tomorrow. We are going to tour the Jelly Belly factory! Hope you are having a great weekend!

And I thought the trip

would be uneventful because we were flying.
Well well....

Okay, Atlanta airport is an interesting place for sure. We saw lots of different looking people. When we first arrived we saw a group of soldiers - we pretty awesome! After we were walking near security we heard the crowds clapping and cheering for them - how great! Made me want to run back and join in.
As we were sitting there lots of interesting people we walking back an forth. The strangest looking were the chicks in matching furry boots, but in different colors. Looked like they might be a part of some "I want to really draw attention to myself" club! They were not on the plane with us. We did have quite a chuckle after discovering the vending machines. I was getting my Chex Mix and as I leaned down to get them, I banged my head on the glass. This was too funny.
I would be very interested to know how much their recycling trash cans that were placed every five feet apart cost. It said on the can for you to just throw it in and they would do all the sorting. After tossing in my gum, I noticed it just looked like a trash compactor to me - how does that sort?
So next it is on to the plane. The captain told us it would be a bumpy ride. I was the crazy one taking pictures out the window. It was so beautiful! The ride wasn't too bad. And about an hour away from Chicago the captain comes on to tell us that we are ahead of schedule and that we would be landing about 23 minutes sooner than planned. Loved it that he told us that the weather would be rainy and then said sorry - I don't control the weather! Well as we were starting to descend some crazy woman decided to spray perfume - REALLY! I thought I was going to throw up! Of course I made a few comments that I hope she heard. The landing was the roughest part of the trip, but it wasn't enough to hear the woman have to take the Lord's name in vain behind us. We get to the airport ahead of schedule to find out that we have to sit on the runway for 25 minutes, therefore making us later getting in than expected. Oh well. I am still coughing from the smell! And as we were leaving I told the stewardess that maybe they should tell the next passengers that they don't need to spray their perfume before they land, she just looked at me and said have a nice day. REALLY - I think I may be giving Delta a call!
We got our Ford Focus and head to the hotel. Very nice Econo Lodge other than the fact that we have only 7 channels on the TV. So we decide at 8:00 that we will go watch Vampire Diaries in the lobby. Well all was well till this strange man (possible been drinking) decided to come use the computer and think that since we were sitting at the table next to him that he needed to be nice and talk to us. Then he made a comment about us being texters (we were texting each other about him).
We left as soon as previews were over so we could go watch Grey's on one of the channels that we could . It was a great day and we were excited about what Friday was going to hold for us.
That story will follow...

I will be gone....

Leaving tomorrow to go to Great Lakes to see Paxston. Jordan and I are flying out tomorrow. So the stories that will be following may not be quite so interesting, but then again...

Have a great weekend. I know I will!

I will return on Monday so keep us in your prayers for traveling safety...

Discipleship Weekend

I had a very busy weekend. I had 6 girls in my house for the weekend. I didn't just keep them the one night as planned, I let them stay on Saturday also.

This group of girls is AWESOME. We had a great time, even through the "can I ask you a question" time. My prayer was always to point them to Christ in making every decision. It's amazing to see what teenagers are going through this day and time. I encourage you right now to pray for each one that you know!
Issues that cross their minds:
How far is too far in a relationship?
Am I saved if I want to do things that I know is sinful?
Why don't my parents act like they care about me?
Is drinking a sin?

I'll try to get back and let you know what I shared.

Right After Paxston graduated...

Well I know, it's been quite a while since he graduated from boot camp, but I thought somebody might need a laugh or two.

After the graduation, we collected my purse from under the bleachers and we technically herded out of the arena. We all went to the NEX - Navy Exchange. As we are walking by we get to see all the Navy Mom, Navy Dad, Navy Sister, etc. hanging in the window. Well you know us, we are all excited about getting us a new shirt! As we are walking in we notice the other hundred or so other people excited about getting them shirts too. She yes there was nudging back and forth in between all the racks and people asking "do you see this shirt in a size medium and so forth going on". Paxston has been here before and you can tell he is not at all excited.
After standing in a huge line (I would have been complaining at Wal-mart because the other lanes were not open and there were more than 3 customers waiting - ha ha) we were all chatting back and forth, when I hear - are you Paxston's mom? I am Navy Granny - my kids just look at me. I "met" her on NavyforMoms.com, and afterwards my children call me a stalker. But of course we were all excited - we had our Sailors! After getting our goodies we head to grad something to eat. What do you know, a Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Subway and McDonalds are all there on the base in one little room.
Paxston says we should just hang around for him to get his orders and then he can go with us. So we did just that. He left us about 1:00 and told us to just walk across the street and he would meet us at the Visitor Center. I wish you could have seen the look on the guys face when he realized that we would be walking to the Visitors Center. Yes is was across the street - and down the street, and under a bridge, and then across another street or two.... it was no where near CLOSE by! So we proceed to walk. Remember I have on heels! My feet are KILLING me by this time. Well my phone starts ringing and it is Steven, he can't get Amber, in the midst of trying to walk and talk, I drop my phone and the cover goes flying off. Now I am behind my group trying to collect all my phone pieces so that I can call Steven back. I am sort of running now to the corner where they are all standing.
As we start to cross the road we do notice a limousine and the guy rolls down the window and ask if we need a ride. So we all hop in an let him take us the rest of the way. WHEW!!! I think by this time we are getting close to 2:00 pm. Paxston thinks he will be back by 4 at the latest.
So we are all in this little building, waiting and waiting and waiting. Ever so often I would go outside for Ethan to just run around in the snow and not be couped up inside. About 3:30 this woman came by to ask if we were waiting on our Sailor, us and quite a few others are waiting!
So she proceeds to "take" us to the USO - leading the way down the sidewalk - a couple blocks!!! My feet are still freezing and hurting! But on we go. She did make a nice cup of coffee and a couple of guys came and got the kids to go watch a movie. I think I will add that she seemed ever so pleasant to us, but she crawled all over one of the guys for giving a sleeve of the girl scout cookies to one of the tables, they should have given just a few to them.... hmm...
Well approaching 4 o'clock she seems to have something else happen, she said that the help was not coming in and that she had to be somewhere else, we would all have to be moved downstairs, but we would be out of the cold. Down we go!
Approaching 5 still no Sailors and we are all just waiting. And there are lots of us. At one point we were in a foyer and I made Ethan go sit in the room where the chairs were. I told him if he moved his punishment (from earlier in the day) would get worse and if he was good, I might lessen it. This was working pretty good when all of a sudden I hear the room break out laughing, yep, he is sharing stories about the family and how we got stopped on our way here.
Anyway we are still waiting for Sailors. We did see 5 deer come running through the streets! Too bad I didn't have a camera in hand! Would that have seemed a little redneck? After waiting and waiting Sailors started coming. But not Paxston. We did even get a Captain over who went crazy when he realized how long we had been waiting and seeing the lack of communication with parents and staff. He did apologize. Finally we get our son with a suit bag in hand - we have him for the whole weekend!!! We walk back to the Visitor Center and call the guys whose card we got when he gave us a ride, and had a Taxi to head on over to get us.
We were almost too tired to eat that night, but still managed to go through a drive through after dropping Chris off at the hotel. Still more stories to come.....

Good Monday Morning!

Now why would I say that? Because most of us wake up and say - UGH - it's Monday.

This is the beginning of a new week for us, it has the potential to be the best week of our lives! Yes, I know, it could the worst one too, but lets be positive this week, expect great things to happen.

Today is the day I get to go workout for 1 hour and 15 minutes - sheer torture to me. No I have not gotten to the point of saying this is so much fun, but I go each time and last week decided to at least try both classes - and I survived. So I will be back tonight. I had on my Burgundy workout pants and I told her that when my face got the same color I would quit. It all ended at the same time! HA HA. I am thinking that tonight is Zumba. (1st and 3rd Mondays). We start with Step class for 30 minutes, Abs for 15 and then either Zumba or Kick and Sculpt for the last 30. I told her the kick and sculpt was just that - she is kicking our rear ends while sculpting them! So prayers for me later in the day ladies!!


I meant for yesterday to be "Share Something Useful" Sunday but just didn't make it, so I will still share.

If you have a Cough at night, take Vick's Vapor Rub and rub it on the bottom of your feet and put socks on. This will take care of your cough at night! Try it! My mother did this when I was little but she never told me why. I was rubbing one of the kids down one night and remembered and tried it - now I know why she did - it works! Let me know when you test it out.

Have a GREAT Monday!

Saturday...

So it's going to be a busy one. So excited!!

But first I wake up to no cable. Chris and I were sitting in the living room wondering, what do you do with no TV? And something is messed up with my video cables so no DVD to watch movies either. HMM...
I call the cable company, after calling neighbors to see if they have cable. Wonder if the bill was paid...then remembered I have internet and phone, so bill paid. HA HA. It took only about 30 minutes and somebody was out here. WOW! Go Chesnee Cable! Well he checked all connections to house, and said it must be at the road, had somebody with the bucket coming over. After I see cable back on my TV he comes back over. Guess what - somebody CUT our cable line. His comment was - it was a clean cut, no knife, just somebody walked up to it and cut it. Somebody must have it out for the preacher. WHO DOES THAT? Maybe they really didn't know if was to my house. All that matters is that it is working now. And they did it last night. We just didn't realize it till this morning. Chris said it went out just after 10:30. Chickens! Can't even cut a wire in broad daylight? Scared you might get caught?

Okay, enough ranting about crazier people than me!
Getting ready to take Ethan to t-ball sign-ups. Ethan ask me a while ago "what kind of questions is the coach going to ask me?" HUH? This child's mind. WOW.

After that we get to go to Waxhaw and see Amber. Excited about her making supper for us, and it's her birthday supper. I probably should have invited her down. Sorry Amber! I love you!

Hope you all have a great Saturday. The rain is gone and the sun is shining!! Too bad I can't go riding on the motorcycle. It is a perfect day. Maybe next week. Ready to feel the wind blowing in my hair all snuggled up to my husband on the bike. Bet it will ride smoother with 100 pounds less on it! Yes 100 pounds - my husband has lost 68 and 25 for me - since July.

until we meet again....

It's Friday? Where did the week go?

Well, I can't believe that this week had come and gone, and I was so looking forward to Monday.

Ethan was too funny today when I picked him up from school. I ask him about PE - (I will fill you in later) and he said no he didn't even get called down once, then he proceeded to tell me the principal was the coach today. So I really need to go speak to him and see how that was.

You see on Monday I had a little visit with principal. I got a phone call last week about Ethan having problems - I was told that "by law, I can't kick him out of class", and that just didn't settle to well with me. After all last year I heard "It's pretty much the Ethan show". So now I am wondering if my child is actually the worst child in the school - which I know he is a little hyper but not AWFUL! Well principal reassures me that nobody hates my child and he will see what is going on. Can't wait since he had hands on directly with Ethan today.

Mrs. Rowe was out sick today so I ask Ethan about his substitute teacher. He said she was boring, they didn't get to do anything like they normally do. He loves Mrs. Rowe!

Tomorrow should be fun, we are signing Ethan up for t-ball. I so hope this goes better than when Paxston was in FL in a league. They let some of the older boys hit off the tee when they shouldn't have, and Paxston took a ball to the forehead, pretty much wound up his ever wanting to play ball again. He was only 5.

Later in the afternoon we get to go see Amber. Just found out that we will be having Spaghetti - How awesome! I am a little sad, the plate that I made for Amber did not get fired, so she will have to get it later. But I won't be going empty handed, so maybe she will like the other goodies I have for her.

Not real excited about the time changing and losing that hour. I think I may just have to go find that hour of sleep right now, it's raining and yucky right now and curling up on the couch would be perfect! So until we meet again....

Happy Birthday Amber

25 years ago today I had my first child. She came in the way of a surprise in my life. From the very moment that I found out I was pregnant, I knew she was a gift from God and He gave her to me to take care of! I was dating my high school sweetheart when I found out I was pregnant. I had just graduated in June. He wanted to marry me and I chose not to.
I will never forget that night on March 10 around 7:00 pm, when my contractions started. By 9:30 my mom realized that I was timing them. Talk about getting excited. I called my best friend for her to come over so that she could drive us to the hospital. I knew that mom would be just too nervous. So off to Dothan we went. I remember having to go to the bathroom and we stopped at Burger King. Leigh went flying in the door yelling "We're having a baby!". I can only imagine what they were thinking. I did order a hamburger and went to the bathroom. Well the contractions just stuck all night at 5 minutes apart.

The next morning the doctor started me on the medicine to make them stronger. And somewhere down the line he even broke my water. When it was time for her to make her grand debut, they called the doctor, and after the second call he finally came. (I think he thought he would just prove a point to a young unwed mother) I didn't get any drugs and didn't even get a local when it was time for her to be born. Today I can still remember that burning sensation from when he had to cut me to get her out!

She weighed 8 lbs 8 oz. And when she was placed on my chest and I called her Amber, she immediately stopped crying. This was an incredible feeling, knowing that she recognized my voice.

She was treated like a little person and it is evident in that today. I think this has made her much more stronger in her days of growing up. She was never really treated like a baby.

I also want to share that her dad and I both gave our lives to Christ about 18 months after she was born. That night when I prayed, I ask God to send somebody to take care of me and Amber. Two weeks later I was face to face with Chris, I heard God say "This is who you ask for". Two months later we were married.

Living in the deep south we did the "pageant" thing like everybody else. She didn't win but she was no doubt the prettiest girl on the stage. This hot pink dress was our favorite. My mom didn't even look at the price tag, she said she was do whatever she had to for that dress. My mom had so much fun with Amber. This would be where the great saying "All Dolled Up" came from.

I think Amber has done a great job adapting to us being in the ministry and moving to several states. She was always a social butterfly (still not as much as her sister) but she met people easily. And for my next picture she is a sophomore in High School. (Sorry Amber, I scrambled to find pictures this morning). We were living in Ohio at this time. This was a new haircut. Pretty cute and started to look more grown up now!
Her senior year must have been the most stressful for her. In November of this year she found out that her mother was pregnant - sorry Amber, you didn't get a puppy, you got a baby brother. But the good news was that her friends thought it was cool and not to gross. In February we found out that we would be moving to South Carolina and we made a choice to let her stay in Ohio and finish school. That was very hard for me, to leave my child behind. We would stay up and send instant messages at night. That was fun for me! I did get to enjoy flying back to Ohio and see her on a few trips. This gave me time to work on her scrapbook for high school. We traveled back to see her graduate and then move her to South Carolina so she could start college.
Amazing to see that in college was where she met her prince charming. But seriously with these blue eyes, how could she not catch him? Even though it was not technically love at first sight, when she told him where she was from he changed his mind about her and that was it. He thought she was a Yankee, but she quickly informed him of her TRUE Southern heritage. They dated through college. I had so much fun delivering her engagement ring to him. I think we were both so nervous to make sure she didn't know what we were up to. She didn't have a clue - whew!
The wedding was INCREDIBLE! God blessed us with sunshine for an outdoor wedding. Even though we were living so far away and trying to get it all together, we somehow pulled it off. It made traveling back and forth fun and I always love getting my visits in. Yes, I even treasure them today! Maybe we should think about vacationing together - now that would make for great blogging. Oh, wait, we did part of a trip already....let's rethink that.

Amber has entertained us with lots and lots of "blonde" comments. She makes life enjoyable and never dull. I just may have to do another blog of those moments but for now we will save them and spare her. It is all about Amber day today - in a good way!

Amber has always fallen into the little mother role, she helped take care of her brother and sister as they grew up. Maybe that is why she is putting off having kids for a while! But there is no doubt in my mind that she will make an incredible mother. I am enjoying getting to know her even more with her blog. And it is also neat to see how my character spills into hers every now and then (sorry Steven).

So today I say Happy 25th Birthday Amber. God blessed me with a jewel. I love you and look forward to seeing what God has in store for you. Always know that I love you!

What a day!

It is beautiful outside and warming up in the house. So instead of turning on the air conditioner, it was opening up the windows and turning on the attic fan! I LOVE IT.

Again there is so much to blog about, we had a fantastic weekend at church. We had our first Missions Celebration 2010. We had 18 missionairies come to set up displays and share with the community what is going on in their lives. We had two couples stay with us.

The first couple is Ryan and Leanne Alford - Ryan was in our first youth group (yep, makes us feel old) but it is so awesome to see him in the ministry. They serve with Campus Outreach in the campus of LSU. They are just the cutest couple and we had a great time getting to know Leanne and reliving some of the great times that we were in Darlington, FL. Oak Grove Baptist Church was where we served and it was a great first church, wish all pastors could have a church this great for their first one! I still keep in touch with the youth from there, and it is so awesome seeing them still serving the Lord!

The next couple that we had staying with us were the Tessenners from Alabama. Chris met Danny at a Boat Show and Chris found out about his ministry, so he invited them to share with the great people of South Carolina. His wife, Denise is a jewel. I so enjoyed getting to know her and see just how much we had in common. She is going to get me an outfit when she goes back to India and I can't wait to rock it at church! The name of the Ministry is "Ain't God Good Ministries" and here is the link
http://aintgodgoodministries.com/aboutus.html
oh and here is what the outfit will be similar to.

It snowed...

but it didn't stick. So you can see what I did instead.


We are doing the plates at craft night this month. Crickette bought the chargers first (because she didn't know what a platter was) so I had to go get platters. I did the family one for us and then remembered that there is a shower this Sunday, so guess what the bride gets! These were so much fun, well except for getting the paint to go over where I drew them with pencil. Details were not quite as good. But all in all I like it!
I took them to be fired today, so they will look better when they are truly finished.