Merry Christmas - #2

On Christmas eve we headed up to Fairmont to spend the next few days with my mom's side of the family.  After stopping at Att's for hot dogs, we headed to my parents place so mom & I could do some last minute shopping for breakfast Christmas morning.  Last year we started a long overdue tradition of having breakfast before we opened presents and I somehow got nominated to be in charge of this.  I don't mind it, it's nice to be able to contribute to the festivities but it does mean a little extra prep work on Christmas Eve.  

So, after a surprisingly easy trip to Walmart (we walked right up to the check out counter - who would imagine it!!) we headed out to my grandparents place for the annual "Family Fun Night".  We used to go to the Christmas eve services at their church, but a few years back they changed churches and the new church's service is at 11pm - far too late for us to participate.  So, we all get together have pizza, punch, peanut butter balls (and all kinds of other Christmas goodies) and play games.  Jenn, JP & Maggie are excused since they spend Christmas Eve with JP's family in Jane Lew, but everyone else's attendance & participation is mandatory.  =)  Our usual game is Apples to Apples so we played a few rounds before calling it a night.  Here's a few pictures from the festivities.

Here is Aunt Reta coming in the room with a larger than usual peanut butter ball. Uncle Wally rolled the balls for her this year and I guess he thought that the bigger they were the less he'd have to roll, so he rolled them extra large.

Here's Grandma, Kayla and Mark - Kayla isn't a huge fan of games, but she played like the good sport she is and I think she may have even had a good time. Here she is playing the judge.

David praying that his card will be picked

Here is Mike going through the options...

Uncle Wally hadn't been picked the winner yet, but it became a long standing joke that he had the card "Snow". About half way through the game, he told us he had the card and at this hand Mike said if snow was tossed down he was going to pick it. Sure enough, Snow was one of the options and Mike picked it. We all laughed heartily, Uncle Wally included.

In a rare "real smile" moment, I happened to capture my grandfathers true smile.

On Christmas morning we all met at my grandparents for breakfast & presents. After a reset of the stove, our yummy boiled omelets were finished and all of us ate together before congregating in the living room together.  Typically my grandfather reads the Christmas story out of Luke, but the last 2 years his vision has made it more difficult for him to do it without stumbling.  This year he just did a brief prayer and was ready to call it a day when my mother who is a stickler for tradition started to recite the story by heart.  With the help of my Aunt they made it through the end of the story by memory with the help of JP giving the last word.  It was fun to listen to them work together to tell us the story of Jesus' birth and the real reason for our gathering together.  

After they finished, we snapped a few pictures of the mound of gifts (aren't we in a recession??) before Liz & Jenn took over as Santa and started to divvy out the gifts.

Liz playing Santa

Mom, Maggie, Mike & his new Wii

JP & his mound of gifts

Maggie with the new toys that mom & grandma made her

Mom & Maggie

After all the presents were open, we watched Jenn open all of Maggie's gifts and watched as the first child in the home in 28 years enjoyed all the treasures bought for her. It was alot of fun and I know my grandparents thoroughly enjoyed their first great-grandbaby's first Christmas. I had the unofficial duty of putting Maggie to sleep and Jenn indulged me to let me hold her while she slept. She's such a sweetie, I really enjoyed my time with her. =) We shared a great meal together then all us kids cleaned up before we all packed up our loot and left.

Friday we had a relaxed day and everyone worked together to get mom's new bedroom furniture that she got for Christmas put together. Then headed back into town that evening and had leftovers for dinner and we got back together that evening to take family portraits. They turned out great...I'll post them later.

Saturday we met dad for lunch at Atts (yes, again) and then spent the afternoon with my grandparents. We headed back Saturday night to Elkins and Dad took us to dinner at the Lodge - definitely the nicest place we've eaten in Elkins. After a filling meal, we headed back to their place and spent time with our kitties who missed us so much, I did a load of laundry and David watched a Christmas Story for the first time holding Dad's Red Rider. Sunday morning we headed back to GA after a wonderful week. We are so blessed to have wonderful family!! Christmas #3 is up next - another update to come soon!

The Cricut

It's a Scrapbookers dream; I am now the proud owner of...a Cricut.
Envy my friends, envy me. =)

Merry Christmas - #1

On December 19th we (David, the cats & I) headed up to Elkins, WV to celebrate the holidays with my dad & step-mom. We got in safely around 11 Friday night and let the boys get adjusted before heading to bed. Since Casper was with us at Thanksgiving, it was a pretty easy transition and they seemed excited to see each other. Saturday we spent a leisurely day before heading to the Chinese restaurant in town for dinner and then to the Christmas Show at the American Mountain Theater. They were silly and sang songs, told the story of Christ and had a patriotic moment too. It was alot of fun, my favorite part was the chickens that "bocked" the Carol of the Bells...hysterical!

My brother Mark & sister-in-law Kayla arrived Sunday night and we've been hanging out since. Unfortunately, one of Dad's friends passed away last week and Dad traveled to VA for the funeral Monday. While he was gone us kiddos hung out with Linda dining at the Mexican place Sunday night and then heading to Buckhannon for some shopping on Monday. Mark & Kayla made this cat tree for Casper, you can tell who really loved it?

All 3 boys, best buds!

Here's dad & Casper in his favorite spot.

This was one of Casper's toys that I was curious about. I turned it on and put it in front of Scotty who paid attention to it for about 2 minutes.

My sweet Scotty cuddled up in fleece

On Tuesday morning David & I went to the YMCA for a workout since we had already had lots of yummy goodness and we are just at the start of our 2 week family (and food) extravaganza. It was nice to work up a sweat - hopefully we'll be able to make that happen again during our vacation time!  After showers, David headed outside to help my brother with our dad's gift.  We had made him open a gift early - we got him a new pulley system for his canoe (that he stores on the roof of the porch). The boys got it all set up and here they are attempting to pull it up for the first time...

They got it up to the top - will it stay up?

It works!

That afternoon we headed to the theatre to see the Tale of Desperaux, which was cute but not nearly as funny as Four Christmases which we saw a few weeks ago (very funny!).  Then we headed home to get Christmas dinner started and Linda made us a wonderful feast with ham (my favorite!) and afterwards we settled in to watch Wanted on DVD (definitely left something to be desired) while enjoying the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies I made while we watched. 

Wednesday morning we celebrated Christmas by opening our gifts.  Here's a few pictures from the festivities...

Linda with her new fancy, schmancy Scrabble game

Scotty so excited to open his present - we've never had a cat try to get into the package before! He actually got a few pieces of tissue ripped off before he gave up and pestered me to open it.

My brother Mark and his wife Kayla with Scotty after all the gifts were open

Casper excited about Scotty's new toy. Almost all the feathers were gone after just 15 minutes!

After all the presents were opened, we headed up to Fairmont to start Christmas #2 with my mom's side of the family. We'll be there until Saturday night, so a recap will come soon.

Merry Christmas!

Maggie's Christening

On December 21, my cousins Jennifer & John (JP) christened their daughter Maggie at their hometown church in Jane Lew, WV. Since we were here for the holidays, we were able to be a part of the celebration and I was so grateful! Typically family functions are held when it's impossible for us to be there so I was touched when Jenn considered our schedule while planning the service. Most of the family on my mom's side was in attendance and after the service we headed back to Jenn & JP's place for lunch and time together. It was a great day and so nice to be with many of those we love.

John (the dad), Jennifer (the mom), Aunt Reta (the grandma) holding Maggie, Uncle Wally (the grandad) & Liz (the Aunt)

My mom & step-dad (Maggie's great Aunt & Uncle)

Here's a few shots of Maggie that David took while I was holding her making her laugh. I think she's going to keep those big baby blues...

30 seconds of LOL

David made this for us a few weeks ago and I still laugh every time I see it. I hope it makes you smile too!

A full 2 weeks

It's been about 2 weeks since I posted last...wow time flies! You would think being unemployed I wouldn't get behind on anything, but we have had a lot going on. After we finished getting all the decor (that we were going to put out anyway) up and the presents wrapped, I had a few gifts I needed to finish - that's all I can say. It's been time consuming, but joyful as I love putting some heart into the gifts we give. That in combination with my still fruitless job search (that leaves me spending an hour or 2 each day searching job sites and finding nothing), writing our Christmas letter, keeping the house clean, laundry done, etc., and catching up on EVERYTHING else that I was behind on from all the hours I was working last month leaves me wondering where I would be if I hadn't lost my job. I guess I'd be really, really tired. =)

So here's just a few highlights from the last 2 weeks:

• I got approved for my unemployment - woohoo!


• David got new lenses for his glasses due to a manufacturer defect - he needed new ones anyway so this saved us $500. God is good!


• I spent a few wonderful days in Clarksville, TN with Lacey & her family in celebration of her 30th birthday!


• We hosted the last leg of the progressive dinner for the Youth Group's Christmas party and a good time was had by all.

Last night we went to see Harry Connick Jr. live in concert, which was SO much fun!! He put on such a wonderful show. The music almost brought me to tears a few times and I was in stitches a few other moments when Harry, who is also quite funny, was telling stories or messing up in good fun. I knew it was going to be a good show when the second song he played before he even greeted the audience was (It Must Have Been Ol') Santa Claus. It was nice to get out of the house together and enjoy some holiday fun. Have I said lately how much I love my husband?

Finally, please pray for my family. My grandfather is in the hospital and he has a series of serious health issues...it looks like he may be leaving us to go home and meet Jesus sooner rather than later which is both joyous and heart wrenching. This is hard for all of us, but specifically for my grandmother who lost her brother this fall and for my grandfather himself. Please keep them in your prayers. Pray for wisdom for the Doctors who are caring for him, and for Grandad to be in as little pain as possible.

My "Helper"

Last night we put the garland, lights and bows outside and the candles in the windows. That, and the tree, are really all we do for Christmas. We don't have a ton of Christmas decor, I mostly just use the greenery that we cut off the bottom of our fresh tree to decorate our mantels and shelves. We love the smell of the Carolina fur we get each year from the Coker Tree Farm, so I try to spread it around the room. We always had artificial trees growing up so going to a tree farm to find the perfect tree, cut it down and bring it home is so much fun!

I have also been wrapping all the presents. Thankfully, we had alot of our shopping done before I lost my job and we have gone in with other family members to combine gifts, which is good. I learned when we first got cats that bows and ribbons are a no-no. Tissue paper will now join the list. I have screamed at least 15 times "Get out of my tissue paper - that's mommy's!" to a willful little kitty. Here's a picture of him "helping" me fluff the tissue paper.

Then he helped me fluff the garland as I was getting it ready for David to wrap on the porch. Here he is in the middle of the freshly fluffed garland.

Christmas Trees & Kittens

We got our Christmas Tree on Tuesday. We knew Marty would be thrilled. He is always in awe of and in love with our Christmas Trees. He likes to sit under them and look up longingly at the tree. He does this with and without the lights, so we know it's the tree he truly loves. His first year with us we didn't get a Christmas tree since my Grandfather had passed when we would normally have been decorating and we made 2 trips to WV that December. By the next year, he & Vinny were too big to climb the tree or even get in it for that matter, so having a tree this year is going to be interesting.

When we brought the tree in, Marty lit up. He looked up saw David coming in with it, jumped down off the couch and patiently waited until he could get close enough to smell the tree. Scotty, however, acted like a cat on crack (and continues to whenever he gets near the tree). From the minute David brought it in, he has been in, on, under and in any way possible "involved" with the tree. He has climbed it several times already (that we know about!) and has "adjusted" the landscape of the tree...this means he has created several holes in the tree by weighing down the branches. We've rotated the tree so the major holes are in the back, but if he does it again I guess we'll just have to live with it. For now we've decided not to put any ornaments on the tree...it's just safer that way. We'll see if he calms down after we've had it up for a few days, but until then he's going to be locked in our room with us at night until he can be trusted.

It is fun though, especially with Marty - he is so cute. We got the lights on tonight and they have both had naps under the tree. Here's a few pictures for your enjoyment.

Unemployment Update

Resume updated - check.
References contacted - check.
Rough cover letter drafted - check.
Looking for jobs - well I'm looking, but so far there hasn't even been anything to apply for. We're both still feeling fine about everything though. We decided it would be best for me to go ahead and file for unemployment. I figure I've been putting in to the system since I was 14 years old (and no, not that's not a typo! =) so I might was well use it now that I need it.

What shocked me, was that I got my paycheck in the mail today with my separation notice. I couldn't believe it! I thought it would be a huge deal to get this little letter in hand that I need to file my claim with the GADOL. What a blessing that it came even though I didn't ask for it. Just another sign from the Lord that He is in control, and thank goodness for that!

So Monday, after my folks take off, I'll be heading up to Kennesaw to file for unemployment. Hopefully it will be a smooth process. That's all the news for now!

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

So everyone is finally feeling back to normal and so far David's folks haven't come down with it - woohoo! I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, and it was good! I was blessed to have Momma do all the dishes for me while I cooked and Linda showed me how to make her fabulous Apple Pie. Everyone seemed to like it so I guess I did a good job. I only bought a turkey breast since it was alot cheaper, we had a coupon for it, and I was making a ham (my favorite!) and it turned out pretty good as well. My su chefs were very instrumental in helping me get everything cooked and on the table on time by helping me peel and chop all kinds of things. =) It was a fantastic meal with good company and good conversation. Here's a few pictures from our Thanksgiving.

Here we are just before dinner

This morning David & I got up, list in hand, and headed out at 3:45am to go to Kohl's, Target, and a few other places. This was our first Black Friday shopping experience in Atlanta and it went SO well! I was very impressed by the preparations the stores took and how organized everything was. I even called my mom as we were checking out at Kohl's (at 4:30!) to see if she needed anything from the Jewelry counter. I would have never considered hitting the jewelry counter at Kohl's in Norfolk or NoVA, but here it would have been completely plausible! She wasn't out shopping yet and I woke her up. She just laughed. =) Anyway, we had a fun time together and got lots of great deals. Our strategy was to over-buy with the expectation of returning later. I think it worked! We got back home at 7:30 and David was able to get some sleep but I think all the Diet Coke I had was going to make it impossible. I was able to get an hour or so cat nap in this afternoon which was nice but I'll be looking forward to going to bed early. We took a few pictures of our adventures for your enjoyment of our craziness. =0)

The line at Old Navy (we got to Kohl's at 4:01 and the line had already moved inside so we didn't get a picture there)

Me in line at Old Navy - not to far from the door!

Here's David with me at Old Navy

The line at Target (I'm just to the right of the door at TJ Maxx)

David with the door buster redemption coupons for Target - yup it's 5:45am!

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving too!

Pre-Thanksgiving

We have family in town to celebrate with us and it's so nice! My dad & stepmom Linda arrived on Thursday night last week. We had a nice weekend, but on Monday morning we came downstairs to find Dad sick. We are surviving this AWFUL stomach virus that has plagued our household since last Monday, but we've had a rough go of it. Turns out what I thought was food poisoning must have been a stomach virus. Thankfully it's a short(ish) bug. I started having "issues" around 7pm last Monday night and by Wednesday morning I was feeling back to almost 100%. Tues I slept most of the day since I was up most of the night on Monday so about 36 hrs for me. Dad, unfortunately, has had a harder time of it. He started getting sick Monday early morning and he is still not back to 100% yet. Linda, thankfully, is feeling better tonight and has kept food down from dinner which is good news since she started having issues late last night. Whew - how awful! Whoever gave this bug to me can now take credit for 4 people - Bethany came down with it last Friday too...yuck!

These issues in mind, we called David's folks this morning to let them know they were "entering at their own risk". I have disinfected everything in this house, but I am sure there are still germs here and I'm not sure how long this can be contagious. They chose to come anyway, so hopefully no one else comes down with this nastiness and we can enjoy all the yummy food I will prepare tomorrow and the rest of our time together.

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family & friends! =0)

What A Mess!

So the other day, we came home to this:

Scotty had completely riped to shred 2 of the 3 flutterballs, and the feathers were everywhere! David and I just laughed when we saw it, Scotty has been playing with those things since he joined our family and it was just a matter of time before they were completely destroyed. I'm sure he was proud because on Saturday he did it again. Linda and I had run to the grocery store and he destroyed flutterball #3 while we were gone. Alas, all that remains are the balls themselves - I think we know what he'll be getting for Christmas. =0)

Scotty's 2nd favorite toy is Marty's tail. Marty has gotten so much smarter about it though. When he lays on the ottoman, or anywhere up high, he always tucks his tail in some fashion so it's not hanging off the edge and tempting his little brother.

The boys are getting along much better these days. They bathe each other more regularly and can even share a smaller space sometimes. Marty has rejoined us in the bed each night, though he is still sleeping at David's feet instead of his head. Maybe he has just changed his mind and that's his permanent new place to sleep, who knows. I do think it's super cute that Scotty has taken to sleeping in the pillows on the guest bed - Vinny used to do that. Here's a few updated pictures for your viewing pleasure...

He LOVES to cuddle with his mommy!!