Heaven help I need to The update some pics. I actually have started

ordering Chatbooks which syhows all my Instagram pics. I really like having those printed in book form to keep!  Check it out.

Pics of the nieces. Their family went to the mountains for vacation where Macy finally caught a fish! AH is so patient with her little sister and I'm so thankful. 

These two adorable cuties are doing well, too. Love them to pieces!

Thanks to my brother for getting a pic of me with both of them. Love snuggling.

And this pic!! Loooove it and have it on my fridge. My parents adore those boys!!

Macy and MawMaw after church.

Sweet niece #1!  She had her wisdom teeth cut out yesterday. Poor thing. She seemed pretty upbeat about it.

I swear Macy adores her big sister!! This is after Macy's birthday party. She's wearing her new frozen dress up dress.

Happy Birthday to this sweet girl!

Her gift from my friend in LA. An HK sun hat! Super cute!!

My awesome amazing super wonderful parents!! So thankful for them. So blessed by God for giving me to them. They are such a support. And now, I can honestly say, they are my friends. Love you Mom and Dad!!

So now that I've dumped a million photos ... The update on my life! 

1- I'm still using my Young Living oils and I love them! De-stressor, chemical free, healthy wellness avenue. And they have makeup now. And I'm going to try it! 

2- Some punk keeps knocking on our doors late at night. Then Katie's furniture in her porch was moved  or, most recently, her grill. My parents had someone knock several nights lately. If they are knocking on my door, I'm sleeping through it. But they have before. And it's annoying. 

3- my work life is calming down and I'm finally getting to take some time off. Spent Friday with Macy and my sister's . This is what I try to remember when I'm putting in the hours. 

Ok I'm falling Sleep - dropping the phone on my face.  Sweet Dreams!

Sprang is Here!

Happy belated Easter and Happy Sprang!! So happy we are seeing fresh green and pretty pinks popping up everywhere. Hate the nasty yellow pollen causing everyone grief, but you gotta have pollen to have Spring.

Roger celebrated birthday 42 and had Macy's help opening presents and blowing out candles. 

A random night on Katie's deck. She's all about dressing up. 

Dyed eggs for Easter, of course. 

Serious concentration going on so we don't drop and break the egg. 

I'm not sure what Katie used but she made dye that pretty much dyed the egg the second it went into the liquid. Great for impatient Macy. We ended up with a ton of dye cups and a ton of eggs!! 

Easter Sunday. He is risen!! So thankful Macy is in a Christian family and already grasps so much about Jesus and His love for her. 

Family photo!! Missing sweet niece #1, but she's a teen now and doesn't come home here much. ;)  I try to remember that but it's been forever since I've seen her! 

Some of the cousins came to Mom's for Easter egg hunts. These two should be brother and sister they are so much alike - Macy and River. 

 The only girl in her family group. And she can hold her own :) What a sweetie! 

Cutie Rylan, closest to Macy's age and one of her good friends. 

These two are first cousins and great friends. Leilla and Gates. 

My aunt and uncle (mom's sister) and their grand babies!! Eddie has Rylan and Emmett, Ann is holding Perrin, Leilla Gates and River are standing by her. :) 

While we are talking about family, my aunt Brenda came up from Georgia for an extended weekend and the sisters got together at aunt Kathy's house! (And one sister-in-law!) Back row, Brenda, mom, Dot, Ann. Front row: Bonnie Jean, Kathy and Faye. Love this pic! 

Macy's first school program was last night! She had five songs memorized with motions. She did so well! 

Aunt Faye came, too! So she and mom made the sisters' trip and then came to Macy's program. Busy day! 

Very proud of this sweet girl! 

At least that catches me up on pics! All of them are of Macy, but that's what I see the most of these days. Looking forward to getting the work life calmed down, so I can spend some time with my nephews. Gosh they are growing so fast, learning so much. What blessings! 

Ok I gotta get my booty out the door and off to work! 

Where is the Wonder

Today at church we had an entire family baptized.  The father rededicated his life to God, the wife and four children were sprinkled and committed their lives to the Lord.  And as I watched the wife stand there, eyes closed and a huge  smile on her face, the preacher filled the palm of his hand with water and pour it over her head.  Her smile - it was radiant. Her children each stood still and had water sprinkled on their heads and she wiped her tears from her eyes as each one received the blessing of baptism.  It was then I realized she was experiencing this heart-filling sense of love and acceptance.  I envied her.


Later in the service, it was something that smacked me in the head - The God that I speak to today, that is by my side through every step, He is the very same God that protected Abraham and Sarah, that calmed the seas, that spit Jonah out of the whale, that provided manna and loaves & fishes. He hasn't changed a bit through all this time.  And while I've known He was the same God, I didn't FEEL it deep in my soul and today - I recognized it. I know, I know.  Where have I been all this time? :)


And this is what's on my mind on a Sunday night. 

Blog writer, Part 2

I knew if I added many more photos, that last post would never go. Then I fell asleep! (Sleep- Success!)

Macy practicing giving the boys bottles... Hahaha! Ok, not really. She was feeding her baby-dang I can't remember the baby's name. She's in this great imaginative play phase and I just love it!

I finally got well enough to have the shots I needed to visit with "the boys" aka Liam and Kellan. What sweethearts. Liam was my twin for the day so I fed him bottles and snuggled. These are my nephews who were born at 28 weeks. And at 6 months you wouldn't know it. I consider them miracles from The Lord. Getting back to my visit, Liam snuggled up on my chest and slept for a good while. Gosh they melt my heart. 

So of course, on the morning of my second visit I woke up sick and haven't been well since. Sigh. I hope to see them again before they graduate college! Yes, dramatic I know... I just want to see my nephews! 

My nephews were in the NICU for quite a bit of time. What an amazing place! One thing we learned about were isolette covers that make the baby's incubator (isolette) dark and quiet. I'm not sure why I became obsessed with making and donating as many of these as possible. Shared it on Facebook and my work intranet. 

A lady from church made it a Women I the Church project. Let's tell you, we have many amazing quilters at church. So these babies have some incredible cute handcrafted isolette blankets!  

When we finally gathered our blanket and headed for the children's hospital, we had a total of 18 blankets! The stack was almost as tall as her son! It was great to deliver these directly to one of the NICU nurses that watched after my nephews. 

I love thinking about these babies tucked into their dark and quiet Isolettes with their cover on top. Warms my heart. 

Once I chilled with making isolette covers, I went back to quilting. New pattern I saw for sell and just figured it out. I'll be working on this one for a long time. 

My ADD tendencies kicked in so in the middle of a sewing fest, I worked on this project.

Mom found this empty frame at a yard sale years ago and I just managed to turn it into a photo board for my bedroom. Love having easy access to update photos. And love having family pics in sight :) 

Last photo- taken this week at my parents. Sweet niece was crawling all over me so I made her stop for a pic.

Work is already kicking in, full speed ahead. Sigh. I wish I could have gotten more time off before it picks back up but it didn't work out that way. I knew 2016 was going to be a doozy. 

It's now Saturday and the sun is up! Time for me to get moving and see what I can find to get into! Have a wonderful weekend. :)

Merry Eve of Christmas Eve

Holy cow, where did 2015 go? This last month especially! Today is it for shopping and running like crazy. My family celebrates with a feast on Christmas Eve so all presents must be wrapped up today. So of course, I wake up with a sore throat. Argh!

I noticed when life gets a bit crazy, I put God on the back burner. How crazy is that? I know, it makes no sense. But I've put down the Advent book and gotten behind. And I really enjoy it! It seems when the days go bonkers I crash into bed and the thoughts of reading or writing just seem like more than I can handle. Like it's stressing me out. When in reality, it would calm my stress and soothe my frayed nerves. And even knowing that, I still roll over and ignore. So that must change today. 

Let's talk about what's going right. Both twins are HOME and snuggling with mommy and daddy. One is on oxygen but both are doing well. This makes me SO HAPPY. I'm not able to see them right now (super sad face) because I can't seem to stay well enough, but I'd rather just see pictures than put them in danger. They are so handsome!! Love being an aunt!! 

Speaking of being an aunt, the two sweet nieces are home. I'm so thankful for the time off this week. Even though I'd missed work with my and family's doctor appointments, I decided to go ahead an take this week off. Best decision ever. 

Macy and her mommy and I visited with Santa. No crowds on a Monday - hooray! The mall has these critters to ride an Macy loved it. Especially loved the fact she got a puppy instead of angry bird. These things are really hilarious. 

We came home and rested, then went on a search for Chtistmas lights!  Picked up her sister on the way and life was good. 

Yesterday Katie helped wrap up my shopping while I kept the girls. We really lived it up with painting projects (gifts), decorated Christmas cookies and read pop-up Chritmas books in bed. And Katie knocked out several hard-to-find gifts for me. Hip Hip Hooray!! 

Macy is really getting into Christmas and I'm soooo glad I'm able to see her excitement firsthand.  This is the first year I've felt excitement about Christmas in a while. We've had a rough three years and this one is tough, too. So make it four. Her sparkle is rubbing off on all of us. :)

So this year, mom is totally down with a very painful tear in her knee. Totally. Down. Dad is pretty much staying close to her but he's got some issues, too. So I'm trying to wrap up their shopping and plan for the Christmas Eve feast. Those parts aren't terribly stressful but point back to the health troubles my parents are seeing. Katie went to the eye doctor in hopes of finding something to help her migraines. She can't keep on like this. And her husband is in immense pain from the multiple surgeries that didn't work. Of course the new parents won't make it this year and I really miss them. So there are some prayer requests in there. 

But we always have blessings, too. Like Dad being able to help mom. And me being able to take off from work. Katie being out of school right now. Those sweet baby boys and their successes. Their mama is also a teacher so she's able to extend her leave time. The great reviews of the classes I taught. It's hot here but at least we aren't buried under snow!! Aaaannnndddd...

We have 7 completed NICU isolette covers for our children's hospital from my church!! So excited! So thankful! We have another sew day in Januaury. And I'm excited to see how it goes. Here are some pics. 

I had a pic of another one but must have deleted it trying to get pics of Macy and Santa. Oops. Those flaps sticking out cover the ends of the isolette. I know it looks weird :) 

Ok this is top secret so do not tell a soul BUT this is what the girls made for their daddy. He's from West Virginia and this is the lyrics from a John Denver that all WV people worship. :) the white states are WV and SC, where home is now. Macy painted the background with three shades of yellow and Aliah did the states and letters. Pretty good, eh? He'll love it. He is going to be so surprised!! 

I suppose I should get moving for the day. Things to do and people to see. Y'all have a very blessed Christmas. Tell Jesus Happy Birthday and thank The Lord for sending His Son to us for our sins. That's Christmas. All this other stuff is fluff. 

Hugs to you all!  

Sweating into December

Hello - when did it become normal to have mid-70's weather in December!?! Heaven help it's hot here in SC. No wonder we are all sick. Sheesh.

Are you done Christmas shopping? If you are, please lie to me and tell me you aren't. I have no idea when I'll fit it all in. Tomorrow I'm starting my day at UrgentCare  for the third time, trying to battle this sinus, coughing, ear ache thing. Finished my antibiotics and steroids for the beginnings of pneumonia. But I'm thinking it didn't get the job done. Ugh. With something every night this week, I'm trying to juggle it all and not get sicker :)

I'm very excited for one event this week - the church sew-a-thon to make NICU isolette covers! One lay in the church - very dear family friend- hand sewed a cover and gave it to us on Sunday. It's already at the hospital in use. They were so excited! I have three more that need to get up there, too.  Imagine your baby being in the hospital during the Christmas holidays and someone brings a beautiful cover for your baby for no other reason than your baby is loved. I pray these covers not only help the babies but God uses them to touch the very hearts of their parents.  

See the flap turned over? It covers the ends. The black fabric makes it dark in the isolette and the quilting muffles noise, to help recreate the womb. 

I had to make one funky! 

Wow that is wrinkly!! Flannel doesn't like To stay crisp. 

Anyway, I'm excited to see where it leads. You know I'll keep you posted. 

How are our twins doing? One is home from the hospital and over 6 lbs.!! One is still there and he's over 5 lbs. So thankful for every success. Little miracles. Little fighters!! I can't tell you how excited I am for my brother and sister-in-law. They are going to be such wonderful parents. This is their hopes and dreams coming true. 

One of the floor quilts before I sewed it all together. 

I did gift the floor quilts at the shower on my mom's side. I saw one of them in a picture being used. Hooray! 

Random pics time: Macy and I made cupcakes :) 

And we had a slumber party! 

Me and the boss' dog, Bentley. 

Macy and a swing of cousins at the family Christmas get together this weekend. Crazy hot weather.

My stray kittens that hang out on my porch. And I feed them. Which I'm not sure If that allows them to be called strays anymore?

Macy and me after Thanksgiving. :) I hate the black circles, wow! But I've been sick a while.

We have seen blessings, y'all. The baby boys- what a huge blessing!! Katie has seen some pretty big challenges but she said she feels The Lord carrying her through it. Mom is down with a bad knee but the wheels are moving quicker than anticipated. MRI was Friday and we get results Wednesday. My job has been very understanding of days off for myself and to help the family juggle appointments. My classes (trainings) that I've been teaching are getting great feedback. So thankful! Lots of good. 

Ok I've totally rambled on about nothing and everything. I'm hoping you are doing well, that your heart is in the right place to welcome Christmas (I'm still working in this), and you know the love of God, greater than anything we can comprehend. 

Thanks for listening :)  Off to bed - night!