Rainy Day Monday

 I tackled the last of the unpacking yesterday morning from our extended vacation. The scrap booking supplies I took along to the Mts. never left my car. After our buddy was hurt the entire trip changed :)

 One of the projects I had taken to work on was a Christmas Album for DD#3. I had set a goal of having Kara's first 4 years scrap booked before the end of the month. What the heck Tater Tot decided to take a nap after all yesterday so I got busy shoving photo's into page protectors

 Today I will try and begin the scrap booking part of their Christmas album, Yaa

 I do believe Tater Tot is more active than his big Sister Kara!!! This boy only sleeps at night. During the day he is all laughs and smiles as long as someone is within his sight. There is heck to pay in screams and real tears if he thinks he is alone. Mommy has created a cute monster :)

Figured since I was serving hubby leftover roast beef disguised as beep stroganoff last night the least I could do was to make a batch of loaf bread. Oh my :)

After a FULL day yesterday you would think I would have fallen into bed and slept like a baby last night, Nope! I tossed and turned until after 3:00AM, finally got up around 1:00AM, went downstairs to read thinking it would help. Nothing doing, for whatever reason my mind just wouldn't settle down. Today will be a very long day :(

Thankfully I don't have any of the little ones today, just me and AJ the Beagle that is until hubby returns home from work. It still feels funny to have the man at home. Seems more like AJ and I have a visitor, he has been gone way toooo long :)

Slowly we will all figure out what our new normal is. I haven't even tried to put together a weekly schedule as we have had so many monkey wrenches thrown our way for so many months it just seems to me to be a waste of time. I have never ever been a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal, guess we are never too old to learn new tricks after all!

I also gave up on a To Do list some time back. Now I have a MUST DO today list and a sure would be nice if I could do wish list :) There is a chance our buddy that is in UT hospital will be released today!!!! Praise the Lord. If so Hubby will be heading to TN after his morning meetings to bring him home. He will still have a long road to recovery but I know he will be soooo happy to be able to walk in his front door to see his extremely large dog.

Time for a shower and start the day in what I am sure will be s.l.o.w. motion :)

Home

 Our buddy Big Dog is still in the hospital :( Hubby and I stayed until I realized I would be out to seizure meds on Thursday night! Holy cow, I didn't figure on being gone so long. We are still not sure when he will be released as he is having trouble with swelling in his legs as well as the laceration on his leg is not doing well at all. Hubby has to return to work on Monday so we are just playing it by ear. As you might imagine a fella with a smile this big has a whole lot of friends in this world. Together we will all make sure he gets the TLC needed when they finally release him.

 I had stopped riding over a year ago. We have had so many close friends injured or killed on bikes that I just didn't feel comfortable riding any more. I never fussed to hubby that I wanted him to give it up but he knew how I felt and sure as heck didn't push me to hop on. I was worried sick about coming home Thursday as hubby would be riding his bike. Normally I would lead the pack, the bikes would follow but I was so afraid of something happening to him I just couldn't do it. He suggested he ride in front, I could follow....great then I can watch you go down on the bike? Again I didn't fuss, cuss, or go nuts but the tears, I couldn't hold back. So what does this man of mine do? After visiting with our buddy Wednesday morning hubby tells me he has decided to trailer the bike home!!! ,however there wasn't a single trailer to rent so.....we ran all over the state of TN looking for just the right trailer to bring his baby home on, OUCH. This purchase was not in the budget :) We haven't talked much about his bike as I don't want to be the one that says YOU MUST sell it. However I don't think it will be parked in the garage much longer. There is something about seeing a BFF laying in the street not knowing if he will live or die that can change you forever!!

 So we are now home safe and sound with a big old trailer parked in the driveway looking like crap :) After unpacking..UGH. I have been spending time in my happy place. First on the list was to get the pantry back in order then make a grocery list.

 Also restock the freezer with baked goods for deserts when our buddy gets back home. He will need lots of help the first 6 to 8 weeks, food too :)

 And home wouldn't really be home without the grands around :) Kara had a blast harvesting the pears yesterday. This wild child loves everything that has to do with gardening

We got a dozen pears from the tree that survived the summer, the squirrels...of course enjoyed much more than we did as always. Ha

I am working HARD to get out on this funk!!! For me the best place to start is with my bible and the kitchen :) In the midst of all the craziness hubby and I had heard of the shooting in B'ham AL at the UPS office. When I logged on FB that night I saw that one of the men killed was a good friend of one of our dear friends :( So heartbreaking. I think it was the next day, or maybe the same day, can't remember that again on FB our step Niece posted to pray for her friend who had been beheaded in Moore OK. Is it just me or has the world gone CRAZY!!!!!!

Yesterday afternoon I took a nap...Hubby was going to fire up the grill, I was going to cook up a few veggies Kara found in what once was our failed garden. My nap turned out to be 4 1/2 hours!!!! When I woke up it was dark outside, told myself for once do not get up before the sun is up. As I drifted back off to sleep I realized Holy Cow it's not morning it's night!!! My ever easy going hubby had peanut butter and toast for supper, I had a bottle of water. Sleep was very much needed!

Today is a new day, baking, yard work, Pewee football, keeping up with Kara the wild child and a real dinner on the table tonight. What the heck maybe even a real lunch :)

It Just won't End :)

Hubby and I along with 16 friends headed out Friday Sept 19th for our annual Anniversary Mountain trip in the Pigeon Forge TN area. We were to celebrate out 39th Anniversary Saturday September 20th. This year was extra special to all of us as one of our friends was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, he has fought this battle two other times. This round....Dr's are still kicking around treatment plans.

One of the things on our friends bucket list was to ride The Tail of the Dragon. Bright and early Saturday morning after a big old farmers breakfast those who ride were off to The Dragon. Hubby and another Bama Boy planned on being back by 3:00 to prepare for kickoff.

At 3:15 hubby called.. very quietly he said Hey, I'm OK but Dog went down. I'm at the hospital waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Hubby explained he was very beat up with a nasty cut on his leg but would be fine, he would call as soon as he knew more. A bit later he found out the ambulance decided to divert to the trauma center in Knoxville TN.

After 12 long hours "Dog" had 2 life saving surgeries for internal bleeding, 6 broken ribs, a very nasty laceration to his leg repaired, along with more bumps, bruises, abrasions than any one body should every have. He needed to spend the first 24 hours in ICU, just in case. we are at the end of day 3, he is still in Trauma ICU.....

Tomorrow we will all be checking out of our cabins and scattering back home to Canada, AL, Ill, OH, NC. Hubby and I will be moving into a hotel near the hospital. Our plan for now is to stay put until we can bring our friend home. I can't even begin to remember when the last time I have been able to blog about normal every day living. Oh how I miss cooking, baking, and merry making in our home...

Catch up Time

 I am still working diligently on Kara's scrapbook when I can find the time, oh so close to being done :)

 Tater Tot did his part yesterday by taking a nice morning nap so Nanny could whip up a whole lot more scrapbook pages

 Friday night was a very short trip to the fair with the family. Problem #1 a huge storm was rolling in, problem #2 Tyler came down with a stomach bug :( We were all BLOWN AWAY by how many families were wearing their Prayers for Elijah shirts!!!What a wonderful, community and world we live in that so many people have taken this little guy in their hearts and prayers

 Weekend baking with Kara, gotta restock the freezer you know.

 Sunday football season started

This face should say it all. We are crazy happy our Papaw is home :)

WooHoo chicken went on sale this week :)

I am beginning to wonder now days what normal is, sigh. Our new normal seems to be hit the floor running, hold on tight, it's gonna be a bumpy, messy road. The days of having a plan and working that plan....Them days seem to be long gone :)

This crazy, sticky, messy time shall pass (I hope) Now that our sweet Elijah is on the road to recovery, Papaw is home for a good long time (fingers crossed) and last I checked no one is prego things should begin to settle down.

I really and truly would like to get back to some sort of schedule. I like my days, weeks, months planned. I'm not much a fly by the seat of your pants kinda gal. 

We have company coming in today, the house was...a wreck, hubby was under foot. I sat him up a play date for Monday night football, delivered him to the destination and got busy. I'm not much of a houseworker at 11:00PM at night but you gotta do what you gotta do right? Along with company later today we have DD#3's kiddo's and...Our weekend in the mountains begins on Friday.

It's a crazy BLESSED life we have going on right now!!

Praise God Almighty

After 12 hours of surgery, (maybe more, I lost count) the Doctors have removed ALL of the tumor in Elijah's neck and spine. We are over the moon relived he did so well!!! There is no doubt in our minds and hearts Gods hands were in that operating room guiding the Doctors. Once Mommy, Aunt Julie, or GiGi gets some rest they will update his facebook page.

I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughts and prayers. Elijah still has a hard road to go with recovery and possible follow up treatments but for today, right now, this very moment in time, that nasty stuff is out of this sweet boy's body!!!!!

Our Hearts, Minds, and Prayers for Sweet Elijah

I would like to ask each of you to take a little time today to read the recent post on Elijah's face book page. Such a beautiful post from a family who's hearts are broken but with Gods help, a team of incredible Doctors, and the prayer of family, friends, and a world full of strangers who have heard his story our sweet Elijah will beat this nasty stuff. He just has to :(

Today we are all staying busy. None of us can just sit. Even a 5 minute break from the action and we fall apart in tears for the enormous trial Elijah and his family are facing tomorrow. Our God is good, he can do this, we can only pray.

Elijah Update

 Make A Wish foundation had ask Elijah what he would most like to do in the whole world before his BIG surgery coming up this Friday. WW wrestling some such thing was his first, the second was to swim with dolphins. Due to time restraints they were not going to be able to grant his wish but......His Pappy and GiGi saw to it he got to swim with the dolphins!!! We old geezers are good for a few things :)

Elijah's first surgery took twice as long as was expected yesterday but still he did great. You can read about it here

 On the home front I have been working on restocking our freezers as things go on sale. DD#3 was out of work for 10 weeks after having Tater Tot. Nanny and Papaws freezer and pantry took a pretty hard hit during her recovery :) Full pork loins was the meat sale of the week, sale price $2.99 regular price is $5.79 for boneless pork chops. Our butcher at the grocery does a wonderful job of cutting up these babies into just the right size chops and roasts to suite our needs.

 Tucked way in the back of the pork shelf in the freezer are 27 packages of pork chops along with 8 pork roasts. Total savings of $68.32. Sure hope chicken will go on sale soon as we are OUT!!! DD#3 family hit the chicken hard :)

Between working on the domestic front and helping hubby in the yard a bit I am still doing pages for Kara's album. Karsyn is waiting for me to get started on hers, there is not time to waste.

Hubby and I will once again do some man work in the yard this morning before the heat begins to build. Our concentration for now is the front yard, we still have 2 yards of wood chips piled on the driveway. Some of our front beds have been invaded with poison ivy and oak, until we can kill that off we can't move the mulch....so much work to do but so happy to have a buddy to do it with :)

Lots of many mini To Do's have been done! I now have a working light in the kitchen! The light fixture to the fan unit went out sometime over the summer, thankfully the breakfast light was still working so I made do. Our fan/lights are no longer sold in the stores if hubby couldn't fix it we would have had to replace the kitchen as well as breakfast room fixtures OUCH!! A man in a tool belt melts my butter.

It has been determined by me and everyone I know that I take TO MANY photo's!! Yesterday afternoon we were driven inside by a little rain storm, perfect time for me to download a few more of Kara's first year photo's and get them printed. Well don't you know I was able to find them in no time at all on our back up external drive....all 3,000 of them. Holy cow!! After sorting, sorting, and sorting some more I think I have it down to a manageable amount to be printed (I hope) Her album has turned into albums and still growing :)

I hear the shower running, that my signal it's soon time to eat. Before I sign off a huge THANK YOU for all who are thinking and praying for Elijah. This week is a BIG week on his road to kicking cancers butt, he needs us all! :)

Prayers Please

This is a photo of Elijah (hat on) and some of his buddies from "Kick it to Cancer" a benefit put on by Jeff Gordon of NASCAR from this past Sunday. Our Tyler is the other little boy on the right.

Our To Do list for today is prayer....Elijah is having his first surgery to clamp off one of his arteries in preparation for his BIG surgery this Friday.

Enough said

End of the Challange

 

Wheeee, Yesterday was a LONG day!! While Hubby was on a memorial ride (5,000) bike strong) I spent the entire day working on Kara's album. Thirteen total layout's completed. A GF came over in the afternoon to get a hang of the Project Life scrapbooking system, she too is hooked, so much faster, easier, and cheaper :)

One of this weeks goals is to get in the yard. While the company we hire for the summer kept the yard up on a weekly basis the big stuff was put off once the heat of the summer kicked in. We will be having temps in the 70's and low 80's for most of the week, time to get something done!!

Another goal is to try out recipe's for Brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts are so easy to grow in the garden but we just don't like them :) I hope to change that this week :)

I have a quilt that must be quilted!! It's been hanging out here and there for weeks. The sewing room....it's one big HOT mess. I turned things upside down when I reorganized and downsized all the scrapbooking supplies. Maybe a nice rainy day at the end of the week...I can only hope.

We will stay SUPER busy this week!! We are not the only family in our circle of friends and family who is trying to fill the days FULL with things to do.

You see this week is Elijah's cancer surgery week. It's a big, scary, life changing surgery. God has blessed Elijah's family with a network of Prayer Warriors from around the country and world for that matter. I am sure some of you are apart of this wonderful prayerful group. We are all frightened for he and his family. We know prayer works, we know God has heard our prayers along with the thousands of others but we also know he has his own plan.....

Will you join us this week as we lift Elijah and his family in prayer? Here is the link to his FB page :)

Is this a Man Thing

 Not once but twice yesterday I walked in to a bathroom with an empty toilet paper roll.

 Hubby has been home a week today. I swear he used a full roll of paper towels in 48 hours. I did a private test on Thursday. I wanted to see how long a roll of paper towels would last with him around. Results 48 hours. I was right :)

 A few more of my pages for this weeks scrapbooking challenge. Hard to believe what a chunky monkey Kara was

 Even at this young age she had that "I am gonna give you a run for your money" twinkle in her eyes :)

 Sweet baby girl

I cheated some yesterday by using some blank layouts from classes, retreats, crops and such I use to teach. That's a double play in my book!! I am getting pages done and using up some oldies but goodies.

Today is the last day of the scrapbook challenge I am in. High hopes of lots of completed layouts. I have set a personal goal of finishing up all of Kara's photo's by the end of September. Karsyn is starting to loose patience with me that I have not gotten an album done for her. There is not time to waste :)

Hubby will be on a Memorial ride for most of today leaving me on my own with AJ the Beagle. Sunday dinner has been postponed until Monday evening. A full day to play!! What I really need to do is to finish some quit tops and quit a quilt that is ready to go. All in good time. I am going to try and focus on one big project at a time for now.

Challenge continued

 Many of you who having been following this blog over the years might remember some of these photo's :)

 Tater Tot (Blake) is a carbon copy of Kara!! Remove the hair bow and we wouldn't be able to tell the apart.

 I remember these days with the little girls like it was yesterday. Lord they were cute but what a handful!!!

 

 Kara has about 10 different personalities, here is an example of 5 :)

 

AJ the Beagle is on the babies like flies on Poop from the day they first come home. We think she knows they will grow into a sure thing where snacks are concerned :)

More layouts after the grands left yesterday. Other than keeping up with them and cooking supper in the evening there was no forward progress on our ever growing To Do list around the house. Fine by me :)

Today will be much of the same other than we are going to DD#1's house this morning so Papaw can help install a screen door. All the little ones together, the fellas with tools trying to get work done...welcome to my world boys :) This should be fun!

Only a few more days left in the scrapbook challenge, it feels good to have photo's of the grands printed where they can see and enjoy then. Well that is once I get them into albums. Karsyn is cheering me on as she knows until I finish Kara's I can't start on hers. The boys...they could care less. It also feels extra nice to have unloaded so many scrapbooking supplies that I would never had used to homes where they are appreciated. I really need to do the same thing with fabric, all in good time :)

Another nice extra this week has been meals. Now that hubby is back home I am cooking full meals each day. Cooking for one sorta stinks. I had gotten into the habit of only cooking 2 or 3 times a week then eating leftovers or whatever was quick the rest of the time. Funny thing yesterday. I ask Kara if she wanted to help me make cookies. Normally the grands are all in, they grab their aprons and are ready to go. Yesterday she told me..
"Not today Nanny, I gots my Papaw to play wif" They love their Papaw!!

Running the Roads

 Not much got accomplished yesterday other than running the roads getting Hubby's vehicles taken care of. I at least did get my 2 layout challenges a day done :)

 My favorite by far is this one of Kara and AJ the beagle. I can't imagine life without this crazy sweet little dog

"Tissing" AJ at every opportunity might be part of why she is such a sweetheart, Aww

Oh for the good old days when my car could sit in the driveway for days on end!! I informed hubby last night that this Nanny would be home for the day today! Packing a toddler and infant around town is not my cup of tea. We might get a trip to the park worked in this morning but other than that I need to be HOME.

This summer has be insane!!! I look around each room at unfinished projects and little piles of this or that knowing I have been going a million miles and hour but still can't get it all done. I think the car is the problem. I spend way to much time on the roads and stuck in traffic. It took one and a half hours to pick hubby's truck up yesterday afternoon, it's a 3 mile drive!!!! The truck has one more place to be dropped off today, will it never end?

I long for a schedule....This flying by the seat of my pants is for the birds but for now there is no end in sight.

My goal for the day is to get the fridge and freezers back in order, everything is upside down. Kara and I also need to do some baking for the weekend. I think we can, I think we can.....

Oh ya, and try to get my layouts for the day done :) The new storage/organizational system better work!

Baby Steps

 Yesterday's scrapbook challenge pages. Kara meeting family members for the first time, aww

 I love all the extras Project Life has to offer like this small page protector perfect for the few extra photos I wanted to work into this layout.

 One of DD#3's baby shower's when she was prego with Kara. The extra challenge yesterday was to use oldies but goodies. I have more than my fair share of that :)

 The conversion of the old PC cabinet might be complete for now :) As I have been working on Kara's albums the past few weeks I have tried to remember what supplies/tools I use the most for girlie pages. I have high hopes this new storage will stop some of the million and one trips I have been doing each day pulling stuff out. It also should be easy to clean up at the end of a scraping  session

 The drop down table while not as spacious as the kitchen table and counter will hopefully work for small projects/pages.

I took forever to transfer the Project Life kits out of their boxes into albums!! This system is much easier to find what I am looking for and takes up much less space!!

We have spent the morning running the roads getting hubby's fleet of vehicles inspected, taxes paid, and tags taken care of. I HATE running the roads. Still to do with all his toys is to pick up the Harley after it has been serviced and pick up his truck after a new stereo system is installed. I figure it will be just our luck for both of them to be ready when rush hour hits :) Durn!

After days of unpacking Hubby's truck it looks like we have him moved back in and settled. It reminds me of when our kiddo's use to come home from college for the summer. Where in the heck did all this stuff come from? Why would anyone think some of these things are a "Treasure" Ha

Some other movement forward has been made to let the lawn service go now that the main man is back. It will be nice to have that extra $45.00 a week in our pockets. Hubby is not at all impressed with the work they have done over the summer, everything is looking shaggy :) I do agree with him but it's better than I could have done this summer with all that has been on my/our plate.

Time to make lunch...who knew that fruity snacks are not considered a meal :)