Thankful Thanksgiving #28

I'm thankful for an easy morning filled with puppy kisses, snuggles from Patrick, hugging Maggie goodbye at school, a husband to take Patrick to the babysitter's house, an hour of time to myself at Starbucks, and a job that lets me volunteer at Maggie's school.

Thanksgiving day #27

I am thankful for my husband's budget skillz. I tend to want to take the duck and hide approach when it comes to our finances. I'm thankful for a husband that takes the budget by storm and handles it. Please pray for us and our ability to "STICK" with this awesome budget. I don't have any new classes starting in January and it worries me. I'm trying to remember that this happens to us a lot in January and I don't need to worry about it. Worrying is not going to fix it, right? I just need to trust that God will provide and give me lots of new classes.

Name this puppy

We need opinions for this little guy's name. Maggie's come up with these names:
Rex
Wags
Charley
Steven
Black
Alex
Fred
Frank
Paul
Buddy
Matthew

Please vote in the comments.

Thankful Thanksgiving #25

Today, we surprised Maggie and Patrick with a puppy. Patrick is in love with the "baby woo woo" and I've never seen anyone more in love with Maggie before. They are stuck like glue and she wants to sleep in her room tonight (shockingly) so the puppy won't be lonely in his cage in her room. 

I'm thankful for this little guy. Any name suggestions?

Thankful Thanksgiving #24

Today, I'm very thankful for my God and my Savior. I'm constantly reminded of all of the blessings in my life. I'm so thankful that I have a relationship with Jesus and that I am His daughter.


I have a hard time putting into words what I want to say here, but I am so grateful for all that I have been given. I am so blessed.

Even in the hard times, He is there. Thank you.

Thankful Thanksgiving #23

Today, I'm thankful for our little family's thanksgiving day together. I was feeling left out of the big family get together in Georgia, but it's just not practical for us to go out there this year.

But, I think it's going to be okay. We have the day all planned out. We are going to eat cinnamon rolls for breakfast and go see the Muppet movie in the morning. Then, back home for Dallas Cowboys' football and a small Thanksgiving dinner. I think it's cheating that I bought a small Jennie-o turkey, but I don't really care. Steven's making his mom's rolls and I'm making my mom's dressing, so it's all good.

I think that because we have made it into a fun thing that Maggie is more excited than ever about Thanksgiving. She asked if we could have whatever we wanted on Thanksgiving. I told her that we could since it was just us. She told me that she wanted to have "popcorn, toast, and jelly beans" (anyone catch that reference?) and pizza with turkey on it.

It should be a fun Thanksgiving day.

And just for fun...here's  a cute picture (cause it's my blog and I wanted to post a random picture here)

Thanksgiving Day #22

I didn't know what to be thankful for today so I asked Steven what I should be thankful for.

His humble reply?

Me. Be thankful for me.

And I haven't really written about Steven yet in this month of thankfulness. And I am very thankful for Steven. He is a Godly man and I love him. He does so much for our family and for me. Last week was pretty rough and he did so much for all of us. I love him and I am VERY thankful for him.

Thankful Day #21

I am thankful for books. I have always loved to read and my kids love it too. Patrick will grab a book and back up into your lap.Maggie tells me about the new books she finds in the school library. Her journaling at home and cat school is pretty impressive, too.

Thankful Thanksgiving #20

I'm thankful for the sounds of sweet siblings. Tonight, Maggie is teaching him how to peel foam stickers and putting them on a bag. I have been hearing a lot of arguing lately, so this is especially sweet to hear.

Thanksgiving #19

Today, I'm thankful for Christine Curry taking our family pictures. I won't show you all of them, because we haven't officially picked out our Christmas card picture yet, but here are some of my favorites.

I mean, those eyes..seriously!

My cute goofball

Thank you, Christine. Your photography is amazing and I have a great reminder of my family this year. You rock!

Thankful Thanksgiving #18

My kids are geniuses.  I'm thankful for how smart they are and how much they love to make and create things. This is what Patrick did last night.

Patrick's invention

And Maggie had a great parent teacher conference. Her spelling and writing and reading comprehension are incredible and she is having an awesome year. She has a great teacher who finds Maggie hilarious and smart.

I agree. They are awesomely smart!

Thankful Thanksgiving #17

I'm thankful for a date with this guy. We went to a very fancy dinner (I won a gift card) and on the way home we saw the light.

Yep, that's right, the Krispy Kreme light. After a few second long debate, we went in and gorged ourselves.

It wasn't pretty. It ended with me throwing my head on the table. I kept saying, "why, why?" over and over again. It was so wrong and so right.

Steven (so poised and dignified) yelled to the lady as we left, "thanks for the heartattack". It was a fun way to end our date.

Thankful Thanksgiving #16

I am thankful for good friends. Since I have been sick, I have gotten so many offers for help and emails and texts to check on me. It's nice to know that I have a great support system around me. Sandee called and offered to watch Maggie and Patrick for me. My mom and stepdad have watched the kids so I could go to the doctor. Kim watched Maggie for me. Kirsten offered to pick up Maggie from school and the list goes on and on. I wasn't able to go count money for walk jog a thon and the group just took it over and told me to stay home and get better. I'm grateful.

Thank you,everyone.

Thankful Thanksgiving #15

So, I missed a few days. Ummm.....sorry about that.

I have been feeling pretty yucky lately. So, I'm going to skip a few days and come back to say that I am thankful for doctors and health insurance. Our family has had a lot of health issues lately and I'm thankful that we have access to great medical help.

Thankful Thanksgiving #11

Today, I am thankful for my home. We have a really nice home and we live in a nice neighborhood. Our home was built in the 1970s by the people in our church. It's really well built and it's in a great location for our family. I'm thankful for our home!

I admit that when I first found out that we would be living right next to the church that it scared me. But, it's worked out really well for our family to be so close to the church. The commute time for Steven is great, too!

Thankful Thanksgiving #10

I am thankful for walk jog a thon.

I am thankful for walk jog a thon.

I am thankful for walk jog a thon.

Maybe if I keep repeating it, I will start to feel it.

Maggie's school has one fundraiser a year. It's called walk jog a thon. It raises A LOT of money. It's awesome to see the community come together and work together for the kids at our school.

But, I'm a tired mama tonight. I counted money all day. Luckily, we had a lot of help with it this year. But, I'm a tired mama.

So, I'm thankful for walk jog a thon (and it being over for tonight).

Thankful Thanksgiving #9

I am so thankful for Sandee, the wonderful lady who watches and loves Patrick. I met her at the water park 2 summers ago. I started talking to her and saw how sweet she was with the kids that she was watching. I got her phone number and went to her house and signed up Patrick right away.


From the moment, he started going to her house, she loved Patrick. She feeds him, changes him, watches him for me. But, more than that, she really cares for him. And she loves each of the kids that she watches.

She has been so worried about him over the past few months as he has lost weight and stopped eating and battled with his tonsils. During that time, I couldn't get him to eat anything, but he would still eat for her.

I am so grateful for her and for the love that she shows to Patrick. I got the best phone call from her today. She called to tell me something funny that he was doing. She is amazed by his recovery. She said that it was like the doctors took out his tonsils and gave us back our sweet little boy.

Thankful #8

Today, I am thankful for says of rest. Patrick and I were super lazy today. We snuggled and played all day. Those kind of days are few and far between. I honestly have a hard time just being still and relaxing, but today was very needed and I am thankful for it.

Nuff-in

Today, I heard a loud crash in patrick's room.

I said,"patrick, what are you doing?".

He says,"nuff-in"!

His new found vocabulary is cracking me up!

Thanksgiving #7

On day #7, I'm thankful for Rochelle, David and Kayli coming to visit. They are on their way to a new home and have spent a few days with us. It's been so nice to have them here. Since we are so far away from family, I really appreciate seeing family out here and it's been way too long since we have seen them.

 

We had a nice, relaxing day yesterday and it was fun just catching up with them. Today, we did a tour of Sausalito and the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

 

Maggie has been so excited to see her cousin and had crafts and movies planned for their visit.

Thankful Thanksgiving #6

On day #6, I'm thankful for my job. It's the perfect job for my life right now. I am able to work from home and be there for my kids, my family and my church. It allows me to use my brain and feel like I am using my degrees, too.

In honor of my day #6 post, I accidentally posted the wrong set of assignments to my new class that started. So, I will spend my extra hour this morning trying to fix that mistake.

I'm also thankful that I have new classes starting to replace the ones that just ended. I haven't had as many classes lately, so I'm grateful when I have new ones starting.

Thankful Thanksgiving #5

Day #5 of being thankful...

Today, I'm thankful for Patrick's grandparents. I'll never forget the terror I felt the first time I called his grandma on the phone. His social worker decided it was time for us to meet and gave me the phone number. I called and talked to this lady on the phone and tried to be "normal". I was fine until she said, "just so you know, we're not going to try to take away your baby". I lost it.

She just wanted to know that Patrick was safe and happy with us. After that, we started building a relationship. It's an important issue for us. We want him to have some connection to his biological family.

And I'm so thankful for that. I'm thankful that they are willing to have this relationship with us. I'm thankful that they love Patrick enough to let us adopt him. I'm thankful that they include Maggie in our get-togethers and give her gifts, too.

I'm thankful that we get to share Patrick's life with them and for the relationship that has already begun.

She and Him

Kim and Tiffany told me about this:





This is Zooey Daschanel's band's Christmas album. It's only $5 on amazon right now.


I first loved her singing "Baby it's cold outside" on Elf and got the CD immediately. Now, it's a whole album of her singing Christmas songs. I know, I know, it's not Christmas yet, but this is a good deal!

Thankful Thanksgiving #4

If you are my friend on facebook, I'm sure you have heard about the Willie drama. I have been so upset in the past week about my dog. We got Willie 10 years ago a few weeks after we got married. He's definitely my baby and Steven puts up with Willie.

After Patrick got home from his surgery, we started noticing that Willie was having a really hard time breathing. We took him to the vet and they did some x-rays. His lungs were almost completely filled with fluid. They couldn't even hear his heart beating. They said that it didn't look good for Willie (aka Woo-Woo). They sent us home with lasix and 2 antibiotics and said to come back in a week to recheck him.


Over the past few days, I've sobbed and wondered what to do. How do you know if a dog doesn't feel well? He's kinda lethargic and he gets older and super picky about his food and seems to forget why he scratched on the door. His breathing has gotten  quieter, but he still is laboring to breathe and now he's not eating. I had to shove his medicine down his throat. He wouldn't eat it with cheese or ham or even wet cat food. I called the vet to recheck him today and cried some more. Oh yeah and I cried in the grocery store on the pet food aisle the other day and bought Willie a treat.

We made the appointment for after school so Maggie could go in case this was a goodbye visit. I took this picture of Willie and Patrick just in case it was Willie's last picture. Patrick thought it was hilarious that Willie was sitting in "sissy's seat".

Patrick really loves "woo woo" and held tight to his leash during the whole visit. The vet was impressed by Willie's progress. He could hear his heart and got another x ray that shows that he is improving. The antibiotics are working. We can actually see through some of the fluid on the x ray. So, we're going to keep doing what we are doing and see if he stays with us a little longer. He even ate a cheeseburger tonight loaded with antibiotics and a lasix.

Today, I am grateful for a little while longer with Willie. I love him and his sweet, goofy spirit.

How about you? Have you ever had a scare with a pet?

Thankful Thanksgiving #3

I'm thankful that they have each other. We were watching CARS 2 and he crawled up in her lap to snuggle. He has an oreo cookie moustache.

They are snuggling and hugging and it's quite a love fest. And I'm thankful for them.

Thankful Thanksgiving Day #2

It's Wednesday. Day #2. Think I can keep this up?

I'm thankful today for my Wednesday morning breakfast with Maggie. I have changed my volunteering time in her classroom to Wednesday mornings. So, I just stay at school with her until her class goes to lunch. It's been a really great time for me. I am working with the kids on counting money and on carrying with 2 digit numbers. My dad would think it's hilarious that I'm teaching kids math skills. But, I think 2nd grade math is my limit!

Since I can't survive until 11 a.m. without coffee, I suggested to Maggie that we leave a little early for school and stop at Starbucks and have some breakfast. She loves this. We call it our breakfast dates. She was so upset last Wednesday because Steven couldn't take Patrick to Sandee's house and we had to skip our breakfast date together.

We usually get the protein package and an unsweetened black iced tea and an iced coffee with splenda and cream. She eats the hard boiled egg and I get the peanut butter in the package. She poses for goofy pictures. We talk about chasing boys on the playground and spelling contracts and important stuff like that. It's just a time for me to really be able to listen to her.

I'm thankful for Wednesday morning breakfast dates.

Thankful Thanksgiving

A lot of my friends are posting things that they are thankful for all month long. I think it's a great idea. A great reminder about all of the things that we have and should be thankful for. I figured it would be better for me to blog them so I can have them all in one place.

So, for the 1st day of November....

1. I am thankful for my friend, Brandy. She made me a new blog banner with our family picture on it. Remember just last year, when I couldn't post Patrick's face on the internet. Well, now I can! And my blog can reflect it. Thanks to Brandy.

Brandy was one of the first people that I met at North Georgia College during orientation weekend (INTRO). We got along great and I asked her if she wanted to room together so we would at least know each the person a little bit that we would be living with.

We only roomed together for 2 semesters, but she is still one of my best friends. I miss her terribly. She is a wonderful photographer and mom and wife. She homeschools her kids and I love getting glimpses into her life through her pictures.

I wish we lived closer to each other so we could catch up in person.

Thank you, Brandy, for my new blog banner. I'm thankful for you!