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! 

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!  

Home Sweet Home

Just got in, the car unloaded and strewn across the loving room floor, and heated up something to eat. Vacation is wonderful but nothing beats my own house and habits :)   

We kept it off social media and such, but my Mom, Dad, Katie, Roger, Sweet Nieces #1 and #2, and I headed for a week at Edisto Island, SC. Rented two houses, enjoyed hanging out at both houses, some beach time, some shopping time, just a good family vacay. 

One afternoon we took the girls to the beach for some sister pictures. I have others on my real camera so you'll be seeing them in the upcoming days. 

They are so adorable. Love love love! 

I'll talk to anyone and so will dad. We ate out for breakfast this morning and met a really nice thirty-something family from GA. They discovered they didn't like camping at the beach haha!  We always rent a house but this year our house was so horrible we left a day early and came on home. Ugh. Disappointing. The rental company was really nice though. But that didn't help the condition of the house! UGH!! 

If you've never enjoyed Edisto-it rocks. Not much to do, no chain restaurants, one Bi-Lo, a few gift shops, no hotels ... It's wonderful!! (Do you see this awesome photo?? Seriously!!) 

Sunset at the point. Dolphins were hopping by, tidal pools for the kids to jump in, sea shells and gentle lapping waves. Sunset at the point is unbeatable. 

I will recover from the lack of sleep and post more photos from my camera soon. Love Edisto but soooooo glad to be back in my house tonight!!! 

Hello Sunshines!

SO BLESSED.  Ya'll, my family is so very blessed.  I looked back at the past few months and where we are today and I'm so THANKFUL it seems we are all on the upswing. Katie's surgery is healing nicely, I'm feeling better thanks to medicine, Mom is doing better and Dad received a good report from his scan for his bladder cancer.  SO SO SO Thankful. Thank you, Lord!

In my job, we work super hard and crazy late hours for a time, then we have down time and we all try to take off to get the OT off the books. Then it starts all over again (which, for me will be September - mid November). Thankfully, I had all this OT so I've barely touched my sick leave. Since the DR appts are tapering off, I took off a few days to just play with my 2-yr-old niece, Macy. Such a joy! I feel like I miss out on so much of her growing up when I'm working the long hours so I really appreciate the time I get with her.

This week we visited with my bestie, Donna, at her work. Surprised her! (maybe not the best decision, oops!). We played on the playground and enjoyed lunch at Cracker Barrel. She loved it all, loved the people, the playing.

As we were leaving Donna's work, we were on the second floor walking down the stairs and Macy yells, "Hello People!!" She is a social child!

I loved her shadow with her pigtail.  We are horrible at fixing her curly baby-fine hair and are usually baffled about what to do with it.  Her babysitter started pigtails, so this was my attempt to copy it.  I love it!

This was a BIG KID slide, she was higher than 6 ft in the air. And she did NOT want to go down that slide. But after a while she warmed up and decided she loved it, as long as she could hold mine and MawMaw's hands. Did I mention it was a spiral slide so the hand holding thing could only go so far... hahaha.  I enjoyed SO MUCH seeing her expand her comfort zone and be brave. Little by little she would conquer more things on the playground.

My mom finally broke down and got a smart phone - an Iphone - and is learning how to take photos and send text messages.  One day Katie and I were out playing and Mom sent this picture to her.  How sweet is this?! Hmmm... Dad might just find this in a picture frame for Christmas. Daddy can get this girl to sleep better than anyone.

Oh! and I made one more awesome supper last night and wanted to share the recipes with you, but I think I left them at home.  So YUMMY and from a diabetic cook book! with a few tweaks.

Cottage Cheese Baked Potatoes
4 large baking potatoes, baked for an hour in the oven.  Cut them in half and scoop out, leaving a small amount of potato and the peel (make boats, basically).  Put the boats back in the oven to crisp up (I forgot this part). Take 2 cups of cottage cheese, 2 tbps. of onion powder, some garlic powder, salt and pepper and whip it up but good. Put back into the boats and reheat them in the oven so that everything is warm and toasty.  I put Parmesan in the mix but will not do that again because I don't think you need to - just sprinkle some on top.  Everyone really liked these.

I also made Deviled Eggs (which I don't eat but they are pretty easy to make).  Baked onion rings. and some baked brie with honey, pecans and apples to dip. MAN it was tasty.

Ok, so I've rambled enough I think.  :)  Talk to ya'll again soon!

Roller Coaster of Life

Gracious me, it's been some highs and lows over the past few days.

Friday, in am attempt to do a good thing, a helpful thing, I sent wrong emails to 500 or so people. Actually half were right but how could I pick out the wrong from right? So I sent a retraction email asking everyone to ignore the first. But no one got it. So i send a third saying please ignore the first, seems no one is getting my second. You want to talk about confusing people because they ended up getting all three- at about three am. 

Did I mention I'm having weird heart issues? So When I first realized what I had done my heart felt like it was going to seize up one or fall out of my chest. My vision tunneled and I couldn't breathe I was so upset. Thankfully, it didn't kill me - I was a wreck. 

I got home about eight that night, walked into my house and it was beautiful. Cleaned from top to bottom. Tablecloth on the table with colorful flowers displayed in a mason jar in the center. All the dirty dishes gone. Clean clothes in the closet. My Christmas tree was decorated for the beach. Oh my gosh it was wonderful  

I cried. 

I totally lost it and bawled. Sobbed. It was such a horrible ending at work and I was feeling so low about myself.

To come into a house like this, where obviously someone loved me so much they came in and cleaned up my mess. Wanted me to come home to peace and calm and beauty. Thank you much, Mom  and Sister, I'm touched beyond words. 

Look at the pics and keep reading, there is more. 

Yes I have mismatched pillows. I sleep with so many and seriously, no one sees my pillows so all I care about is them being soft :) 

Ok so moving on to Saturday - I work six more hours trying to undo the email debacle and come home to crash. The past several month of long hours and stress are wearing me down. Everyone in the family is worried about me and how totally exhausted I am. 

I'm asleep by ten thirty that night. Wake up at four am and see a text message from my sister asking if I'm up, sent at midnight.  I text her - are you ok? And get a message back. "At kings mt bad pain in side. Don't know anything yet. Gave her morphine and antibiotic and something for nausc" - what?!?! Katie, my sister, was throwing up she was in so much  pain and had called mom and dad to help her. No one woke me because I'm so exhausted I needed my sleep. !!! So Dad was with Macy and Mom was with Katie and her husband was out-of-town. First dose of Morphine didn't touch her pain so four hours after her getting there, the ER decides to do a CT. She has a huge cyst on her ovary that needs to either decrease or rupture for her to get relief from the pain. They sent her home. 

Not knowing what was causing the pain and having it not respond to morphine really put us all in a panic. I prayed and prayed, texted a few friends to also please pray. God heard out prayers and gave Katie relief with the second dose of morphine. 

So Sunday was spent worrying about her. Her husband made it home by ten or so and has watched her like a hawk. Macy is having a slumber party with Mawmaw and Pawpaw. Katie was still in pain last night but it was manageable as long as she didn't have to get up and go to the bathroom. That caused more vomiting. Since I got no phone calls, I'm assuming no additional trips to the ER were needed last night. 

I'm ready for a break from stress and drama, y'all. I didn't mention I had my own ER visit last week? Week before? Plus two Dr visits after that due to fear. So I have a cardiologist appt in 8 days. And a host of doctors bills that should keep me broke for a long time coming. 

Y'all please pray for us - we are out of the woods yet with Katie and my life will improve once this final election is behind us. Thank you all so much. Share something wonderful about your life so i can celebrate with you - PLEASE!!! :)

Happy Birthday, Sweet Nice #2!

I am so excited to wish my baby sweet niece a happy (belated) birthday!  Little girl turned two on Saturday and we had a wonderful time at her birthday party.  Well... semi wonderful, what time she wasn't screaming about other kids playing with her favorite gift: the pink car. Regardless, it was great to see everyone and celebrate this beautiful blessing God gave to our family: Macy.

First of all, check out the invitation I made using Publisher.  I'm pretty excited about it! Publisher can be limiting, it's not really a heavy-hitting design program, but I manipulated what I could and liked the end result.  Then I took these to Office Depot for printing.  I may do a tutorial on how to create your own when I get a chance.

Obviously, it was a Hello Kitty theme (love!).

We created a fishing game that was easier than setting up cardboard and hiding someone behind it while kids tossed a hook over the edge.  This was SO much easier.  The pool was one of her presents and since all my fish were pink/orange/yellow, we put a blue plastic tablecloth in the bottom for "water." The fish were cut out two at a time from folded over colored paper and we drew fish details on each one.  We put a paper clip on each fish nose. Macy had a kiddie fishing rod that had never been used, so I threaded baker's twine through the loops and attached a pipe cleaner on one end, shaping it like a hook.  Add a strong magnet with some glue to the bottom of the hook and you are ready for some fishing!

As the kids "caught" fish, they redeemed them for prizes, which ended up being their goodie bags. Bracelets, candy, sunglasses, etc.  Fun stuff. No hiding behind a piece of cardboard.

The bubble machine was a huge hit.  Dancing in bubbles, what's not to love about that?!

A good ol' fashioned hay ride around the house, complete with quilts to keep little legs from being prickled by hay bits.  Sweet Niece #1 is always a HUGE help at toddler events!

This toy is what caused melt down 2.0.  Oh my, don't even think about getting in her car. OH no no! Yes, sharing is one of those things being worked on, but you know how it goes. No Nap + Birthday Excitement + Terrible Twos = MELTDOWN! *sigh*

Two super cool gifts - the handpainted chair, with West Virginia logo! - what a hit! Love it! and the handlettered and handpainted birthday card from Paulene at Leen Machine (go check out her work at Esty!)

At the end of the night, after dinner and smores, Aunt Donna and Macy chilling out, reading some books. We had a great afternoon, evening celebrating Macy and her 2nd birthday.  I thank God for both of my nieces, two wonderfully special adorable girls that I love so very much.

:)  Happy Birthday, Macy Mae.  Aunt Beth Loves You.

Friday's Letters!

Be exuberant! :) 

Does anyone ever click on these random things I post from Etsy?  Just curious. Because Etsy houses some really cool things and I love finding new treasures when I need an image.

Anyway, toady is Friday- whoo hoo! and this week really zoomed by me.  Not that I'm not ready for the weekend, but since I'm working some this weekend, it doesn't have quite the same appeal. But it's all good. Let's dive into Friday's letters, shall we? I think it's time.

DEAR GOD - You are AMAZING and I'm so thankful that you respond to my worries and fears even when I don't tell You about them.  AND when you answered my worry, you also delivered me four shirts with my company logo on them... which was great! So yes, I hear You and I'm sorry! I'll try to do better about talking to You about everything.

Dear Sara - Enjoyed dinner this week and catching up on the funness of your life. And learning what the X sounds like in Spanish.

Dear American Idol & The Voice - Wow.  AI, you are just having a horrible season.  And I blame the judges because they are the ones that put these people through to this level.  But The Voice seems to be doing well so far! Love Shakeria and Usher over Christina and Ceelo (I'm sure I'm misspelling all these names, sorry).  So I'm much more excited about The Voice.

Dear Project Life - Holy cow your stuff is expensive!  (Anyone getting rid of Project Life stuff??) I purchased the starter kit and I'm excited to start my own scrapbook.  To catch up on the past 38 years of life and hopefully stay caught up. Gracious, it's going to be a journey.

Dear Raynore - I don't know what's changed yet (I'm guessing I'll hear in a letter!!) but I'm SO VERY HAPPY FOR YOU!  Watch out, NC, here she comes!

Dear happiness - thank you for visiting me.  Maybe the lack of sleep is making me giddy but I'll take it. :)  It sure ain't the weather making me happy (the weatherman said if this rain were snow, it would be 30-40".  CRAZY!) So happiness, come back and visit with me any time!

So there.  My letters to begin my weekend.  Ya'll have a good one and I'll see you back here on Wednesday, if nothing else! :)