A Weekend to Remember!

I am still processing the past weekend!  I am feeling extremely blessed and grateful for all God has done in my life!  It’s an awesome thing to be married for 18 years!  It still doesn’t compute that it has been that long.  I think we lost a few years in childbearing exhaustion!!  Dan and I have been blessed with a peaceful, fun, fruitful and very hectic life!  I am so thankful I get to do this life with Dan.  He is so very hard working, and self-sacrificing for our family!!  He spends every waking moment, doing something for our family, working at his job, coaching a team, doing the lawn, fixing something in the house and exercising our crazy dog. We try hard to squeeze in some dinner dates with just us two every so often to maintain sanity! He has loved me well, has made me feel loved and believes in my gifts and talents like no other!  I don’t take him for granted!  I know I chose wisely! :)

I got to do several fun things this weekend!  Friday night I got to see my oldest girl, Bonnie serve the Lord through YouthQuake Live!  I love to see God using my children in other people’s lives.  It’s truly what I live for!!  On Saturday, we dropped off Bonnie and Bubba to the 30-hour Famine that they signed up for themselves!  I don’t know if I would have volunteered to fast for 30 hours for missions when I was their age!  I was very proud!  Bubba also impressed me when I mentioned him playing the X-box.  He casually told me that he gave up playing the X-box for Lent.  I was like, WHAT??  Our church has never emphasized the Lent season like other churches do so I was pretty amazed!  Apparently they talked about it at Youth Group and Bubba was moved to participate!  I was stunned and maybe somewhat convicted that I should give up something as well!

It was also special to celebrate my Aunt Doris’s birthday with her whole family in town!  It’s really wild how fast time goes by and how time with your family is such a rare thing!  Dan and I also went to Taco Lu for a nice Anniversary lunch and then out with our friends the Wyatt’s for dinner!  Having the Wyatt’s as friends has been a wonderful blessing to us! They understand us and love us like few others!  We had a blast with them minus Duke’s win over Miami that we witnessed at the restaurant! (Only low part of the weekend!)  I am still ticked that the Wyatt’s bought our dinner though….

Today marked quite a historic day at Beaches Chapel Church.  I have attended that church since I was a baby.  I have only had one Pastor that I have had a relationship with and today we prayed Pastor Howard in as our new Senior Pastor.  It was a day filled with great joy and expectation!  My brother in law said it was  “just the beginning” and I truly believe that!  Pastor Howard and I started off in ministry together and were ordained together in 1993, 20 years ago in October.  We went on mission trips together and have seen the ups and downs of ministry life.  I am so happy that I am still at Beaches Chapel Church. There have been times that I wondered if it was time to go but I never felt released.  I truly believe that our best days are ahead!  I believe it is time for all of us to reach out to the lost and hopeless and to see a great harvest of souls!  I fully believe Howard is the man for the job!  He has a humble attitude, relies on God and prays for God’s direction!  He charged us as a church to Pray, Love and Serve and I think it has motivated us in the right direction!  

Today we had a church lunch and I got to see people from my childhood who have come back to the church and also see the future generation of leaders in our youth!  It was a mind-blowing, inspiring day to say the least.  I felt like I was on the verge of tears all day, tears of joy, of hope and of gratefulness that I am able to be a part of all God is doing!!  Beaches Chapel has the distinction of being a multigenerational church.  I saw so many grandparents with their grandbabies today!  What a gift and a rare thing in this fast pace, disjointed world that we live in!

I had a very moving thing happen to me! A friend I’ve known for 20 years slipped me a piece of paper during church.  I read it and was brought to tears.  She listed three people who were born on February 24 who meant a great deal to her, my Dad, Teresa Rogers and her son Isaiah.  She bought blocks for our new Impact Center in their honor!  What an incredible idea and a gift to me that someone is still thinking about my Dad.  This is what she said about him, “He was an Elder at Beaches Chapel, provided wisdom and encouragement to countless people. He was an inspiration to many and lived as a Godly man. His legacy is still so evident here, his beautiful wife Barbara, his children, their children and now even their children.  He was loved by so many and still missed in a very real and tangible way to all who knew him.”  It still makes me cry!

We ended our anniversary weekend with a fabulous dinner by Dan!  I was upstairs and all 5 kids came running up and said, “Dad wants you to come downstairs now!”  I went down and he was frying some crab cakes!  I was so excited!  I ran upstairs while he finished cooking to wash Eddie up real fast.”  Bonnie and Bubba stopped me on the stairs and said, “Go back down!  We got this!”  They bathed Eddie and put him to bed for me!  That was a gift!!  I also enjoyed a perfectly cooked steak, potatoes and Alaskan King Crab legs!  I went to bed very full in my stomach and full in my heart, very grateful for all God has done for me and expectant about the next 18 years!!

Walmart, Where Shopping is NOT a Pleasure!

The tag line for Walmart is definitely NOT, “Where shopping is a pleasure!”  The only pleasure you get is in your bank account.  Actually, there is quite a lot of pain and suffering when you shop at Walmart.  To be honest, some days I just can’t bring myself to go there.  It is just so dang cheap compared to Publix and with trying to feed five Wogs, we honestly just don’t have a choice anymore!  There actual tag line is, “Save Money, Live Better”  I think they should add, "Save Money, Live Better after you complete an Anger Management Class after shopping here!” or “Save Money, Live Better, Learn Patience!”  You know what?  Some days you just don’t want a lesson in patience!

I always try to sucker my mom into going with me to grocery shopping at Walmart.  For some bizarre reason, my mom loves to grocery shop and really doesn’t understand my personal loathing of it.  Because I was pregnant or nursing for most of my married life, Dan has done the bulk of the grocery shopping praise the Lord!  Only since Eddie has started school, have I returned to this awful chore.  My mom is so positive about it, I am secretly hoping it rubs off on me one day and I wake up without a sense of dread.

I am not even sure about my mother’s zeal for shopping after our last trip.  I really did not shop for two weeks.  Dan and I had both stopped to pick up things along the way like the 5 gallons of milk we drink a week, so I had a ton of stuff to buy!  My mom and I separated and I went through my long list methodically and got a bunch of random stuff.  The worst thing about Walmart is it’s so big. If you need shampoo, you have to walk a mile to get it.  Of course I forgot something that way and had to trek all the way over there AGAIN!  I always tell myself, that this will be my exercise for the day.

I had an overflowing cart, my mom even had some of my stuff in her basket.  We started looking for a line to get in.  They had 4 lines out of the 30 open. We were fourth in line.  I was in a time crunch too because I needed to get back to the beach to pick up the kids from school.  The longer it took, the more I started stressing.  I finally went up to the customer service to ask if they could send more cashiers out to move all of us along.  The girl looked me up and down with an attitude and said, “Nope, we ain’t got nobody else!”  Awesome customer service….

It started getting really bad when a non-English speaking customer in front of me started checking out.  She had all these WICA certificates in her hand.  We waited 30 minutes while she ran back to get the correct item with her government coupon.  It was pretty unbelievable. We had a spunky lady and her sister pull up behind us and go off the whole time.  She politically ranted and raved.  More people came behind them and it backed up all the way into the clothing area.  I thought we were going to have an angry mob incident.  Several more people went to customer service with no results. People were calling for a boycott and for all of us to walk away from our baskets.  I looked at my hour worth of collected items in my basket and decided I may want to persevere so that the 5 Wogs could have food for dinner but being an activist in my heart, I sure was tempted. The poor cashier was taking the brunt of it but I blame the management who understaffed this massive store and caused the customers to regret ever walking in the door.  I may have to send a copy of my blog to Arkansas (I learned from the spunky lady that you could call and complain there and that she has done it before and will most definitely do it again after our horrific experience!!) 

 

My mother and I hustled to the car at top speed, tossed the two baskets of endless flimsy bags in my truck and drove as fast as we could home to unload the completely defrosted groceries at my house.  I am pretty sure I was still sweating and panting when the kids got in the car.  It was definitely not a pleasure shopping there and I am not sure the discount was worth the trauma and frustration of it all!  I am not sure how long it will take me to recover from this most troubling experience but I certainly hope I can sucker my mother into the next trip to our Walmart adventure! I am too scared to go alone!

Bubba's 12th Birthday Miami Surprise

When I had Bubba on Valentine’s Day, we joked that he was the best gift I would ever get!  That is the truth!  I didn’t really understand boys when I had Bubba and wasn’t particularly excited about having one to be honest.  I was happy for Dan so he could have a sports buddy but I had no idea how much a mom could love a son.  Bubba is very kind to me.  He seems to understand how hard I work and also how much we sacrifice for the kids. Bubba has always made me feel very loved and appreciated since he was a baby.

In the fall, Dan and I were watching a Miami Basketball game.  It was a huge victory for them and we had the brilliant idea to take Bubba to a game for his birthday.  We checked the schedule and were so happy there was a game on a Saturday, the week of his birthday.  Bubba never really asks to do anything major on his birthday like a big party, so this was an easy solution that he would love.  Dan and Bubba have attended a Miami football game for the last several years but this year Bubba’s football season ran extra long and they didn’t make it to a football game.  Bubba was very sad about that.  I knew this would be such an awesome surprise because he has never been to see Miami play basketball.  They have never been very good before but this year they beat the number one team and have made history at Miami.  The other cool thing was that the arena is on campus so it had that college spirit with all the students in attendance!

What I failed to remember in our zeal to purchase the tickets was it was in the middle of our Flag Football season that Dan and I are in charge of.  I felt physically ill when I finally realized it and was so sad that we would probably not be able to go.  Thanks to my dear sweet friends John and Carrie Wyatt and Teresa Rogers, and many others who stepped in to help, we were able to bless Bubba!  They handled all the many details of the game, which is way more than anyone realizes. 

After a ridiculous amount of preparation to leave for one night, the day was finally here.  I had packed for Bubba and tried to be calm so he wouldn’t find out about his birthday surprise.  I was a nervous wreck keeping this big secret from not just Bubba but all the kids who were making all these plans for the weekend.  Finally the day was here!  I barely slept having nightmares about a manner of things and was relieved when the morning came.  We woke Bubba up at 7 AM, brought him downstairs and had him open a present.  The tickets were on top and his face was priceless.  He jumped up and hugged his Dad and hugged me and kept saying, thank you, thank you, thank you!  Under the tickets was a Miami basketball jersey from my mom that he has been begging for.  He was in heaven.  I told him to put the jersey on and get in the car!  He was speechless!  It was worth all the trauma and preparation for that moment!  Bubba is still at the age when he loves hanging out with his parents.  I hope it last forever but it may not, so these times are priceless to me.

Everything was going along nicely until we got close to Miami.  We were scheduled to arrive at least an hour before the game.  We got in terrible slow traffic and Bubba and I were freaked out.  Dan kept telling us to calm down, that we would make it.  Finally we parked and got inside.  The first thing we saw was beautiful Miami dancers and of course I let everyone know it was Bubba’s birthday and got a special picture for him!!

 

The game started and was incredible.  The student section was out of control! Sebastian the Miami mascot was firing everyone up to shout out C A N E S….Canes!!!!  It was bedlam and I was loving every minute of it and feeling a little sorry for UNC!  I leaned over to Bubba and asked him if the football games were like this and his response cracked me up.  He said, “No basketball games are a much more hostile environment!” and he was right!!  They booed and jeered and mocked the UNC team relentlessly. 

It was one of those games where whatever Miami tossed up, swished in.  Whatever UNC tossed up, swirled around and popped out of the basket!  Miami was on fire and took a commanding lead and kept it the whole time, which is my kind of game!  I just got to take in the whole experience and enjoy with no stress about the score.  We heard a little ruckus and couldn’t believe it!  Lebron James and Dwayne Wade walked into the game!  I was so amazed.  We had tried to get Heat tickets for Bubba the night before but the prices were outrageous so we passed.  God gave Bubba such a nice birthday gift and brought the Heat to him at the Miami Hurricanes game!  It was so exciting!! 

I did have a melancholy moment and my eyes filled with tears as I thought of my Dad.  My Dad attended the University of Miami and loved his Canes so much and was such a devoted fan!  I have no doubt that is where Bubba’s gets his passion for Miami from even though he never knew my Dad.  I looked at Bubba’s face during the game and wished with my whole heart that my Dad could be there enjoying his grandson and cheering on the Hurricanes.  I had to quickly push my sadness away and focus on this incredible time with my son.  I felt like I was filling in for my Dad.  What many people didn’t know about him was that he was a champion basketball player and could still swish a ball from anywhere up until the day he died.  What has been incredible to watch is how Bubba plays similar to my Dad according to my mom.  This year Bubba almost became an expert at driving for a basket and drawing a foul.  One game he made 12 points from free throws.  My mom said Dad would do the exact same thing!  DNA is a powerful thing!

After the game, I just knew Bubba would have some great opportunity!  Dan saw the Hall of Fame baseball player, Barry Larkin sitting close to our seats.  Larkin’s son is the point guard on the Miami team and is an excellent player and rarely misses his 3 point shots!  We walked up to them and they all loved Bubba’s new jersey, which had Larkin’s number!  Barry Larkin was doing an interview with a reporter so they told us to go into the tunnel where the players come out of and wait for an autograph.  Bubba got to go down on the court and through the tunnel. He was so pumped!   


A few security guards tried to move us along but Momma wasn’t moving.  Bubba was a little nervous but I told him to not be moved by these security guards with a false sense of power!  I acted like I belonged and ended up having a great chat with Barry Larkin about his son and got an autograph for Bubba!  I love God and how he always does abundantly more than we could ask!  He loves my boy too and looks for ways to bless him!  We strolled through the beautiful campus and let Bubba spend his birthday money in the bookstore.  He was so pumped about getting Miami tube socks!  He looked like a walking billboard for Miami from head to toe!!  LOL! 

Dan had his own surprise for Bubba and for me too!  On the Miracle Mile is a historic hotel called the Colonnade.  Dan used his travel points and got us a phenomenal room with a view!  It was such a huge treat for us!  I loved the beautiful marble floors and woodwork!  The coolest thing was our room had an upstairs with a spiral staircase!  Bubba loved hanging on them!  We took Bubba to California Pizza for Dinner and to his first Denny’s experience for breakfast!  That kid ate a ridiculous amount of food with his Lumberjack Slam!

I am so glad Bubba was surprised, so thankful to God for blessing us and helping us and was glad to come home to my other babies that my mom graciously took care of to make this possible for Bubba!  What I know is that time with your children goes on fast forward and you can’t turn it off.  Even though the trip was a ton of work and at an inconvenient time, I have learned to push through to create a lifelong memory.  I dread the day I take Bubba to Miami and leave him behind for college.  As I walked through the tropical campus my mind kept going there.  I kept telling myself, I have 6 more years and plan on enjoying every moment with my best Valentine gift ever!!!!  Happy 12th Birthday Bubba!!

No Meat for You!

Well, what a day!  I was kind of proud of myself for thinking ahead and planning what I was going to make for dinner.  I defrosted a pound of ground sirloin before the kids were out of school and planned on making meat pies and yellow rice!  Bonnie and Maggie asked if they could fry the meat, which they love to do.  I ran upstairs to do a quick chore and they called up and said the meat was done and I told them to make sure to turn off the burner, which they did.  I came down a few minutes later ready to whip out some meat pies and the frying pan was empty on the stove.  I thought to myself that they must have moved it into a bowl somewhere.  After looking around and seeing as how there was no residue in the frying pan whatsoever, I figured out that our dog, KC must have helped herself to a pound of meat.  My only hope is that she burned herself eating the hot meat.  I was so mad at her.  

  

I had to leave to take Annie to swimming and when I got back my girls had improvised and had a nice dinner spread out on the counter of fruit salad they cut up, leftover KFC, carrots and ranch and spaghetti O’s!  I was really touched that they were trying to make a bad situation better for me.  This was a day that I had dinner food for one more night until grocery day tomorrow so I was really impressed at what they scrounged up!  I was very proud of them and blessed!  Later after we got Eddie to bed, I was printing pictures for Maggie’s report and Maggie gave me a wild makeover!  All and all, KC did save me some work making dinner so I guess I can’t be too mad at her!! 

24 Hours in Wog World

Wow I miss blogging so much!  I used to blog several times a week and now it’s just become a luxury to me.  This weekend was so ridiculously jammed packed with goodness my head is spinning!!!  I want to post a warning about the forthcoming ADD blog!  I am hoping to declutter my brain!

It started off with Bubba having a Pop Warner banquet at Dave and Busters.  I couldn’t go because Bonnie had YouthQuake Live….I’ll talk about that in a minute!!!  Bubba was so overwhelmingly blessed its mind blowing!!! I run organizations with kids so I am so appreciative at all the effort and generosity that was bestowed on him and the other 30 kids on the team!  He got a hoodie, t-shirt, bag, trophy, trading cars, Jaguar M&M’s, playing cards, cups, Video highlights, memories books and probably more stuff that I have forgotten.  I was in total shock and awe at how much his coaches did for him!!!  These boys will never forget the love, encouragement and kindness shown to them and will have keepsakes forever to keep the memories alive!!!

Now onto YQL!!  Eighteen years ago, a stranger youth pastor called me and invited Dan and I to be interviewed about our Young Life involvement at this new thing called YouthQuake Live.  Little did I know that by saying yes to that invitation I would be hooked for life.  I can still tell you what Sean preached on that first show!  He made the biggest impression on me and the youth group kids I brought to the show!  He gave me hope in ministry and lit a fire in me that had waned.  My youth group kids were forever changed as well by this passionate, sincere, open youth pastor sharing his heart to all!  Eighteen years later not much has changed except that now thousands of kids come to show versus the 50 that were there the first time we went.  Or that we have almost 200 cast members versus the 15 original members.  The impact is still the same but reaching so many more lives!  I was so blessed last night to watch my daughter Bonnie perform at a meeting that truly changed my life and my families life, oh so many years ago!!!!  I am so grateful that YQL is still thriving and will foster and train my kids for their futures.

With little sleep, I rushed to the 5^th Annual 5K Race at Beaches Chapel.  I am so blessed that this event is also continuing and laughed to myself that probably no one knows the whole thing was Dan’s idea years ago.  It was such a great day with Dan running the 5K again, Maggie and Annie running the 1-mile and Eddie running and WINNING the100 yard dash!  It was a special moment for me!  Eddie has been in leg braces for over 6 months!  It has been a lot of work with home exercises, putting the braces on day and night and taking him to therapy to help correct the way he walks.  His therapist, Ms Jenn, really loves Ed and has encouraged and pushed my ornery boy and he has made miraculous progress.  To see him run without the braces so free and fast, almost made me cry!!!  The crowd was chanting, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie…..and we have watched the video over 20 times today!  He is beyond proud and keeps talking about it while he carries his medal around!!!!  I also got to visit and be interviewed by Theresa Ross, the DJ from the Promise!  We had a wonderful time talking about Alexandra and Jordan and all the people in common that we love!  It was a highlight of the day for me!

We left the race and rushed to the football field to set up for our games.  We hauled sound systems, tables, concessions and more to the field.  It warmed up and we had another beautiful day of football, fun and families enjoying the touchdowns and highlight moments of the day!  Jersey Mike’s brought leftover subs and cookies from the race and we sold out of subs, hot dogs and had a great day!!  I limped home and climbed in my bed to start downloading my full phone of pictures and videos from the day!

I ended the day on a good note!  The Miami Hurricanes won their basketball game by 1 point in the last second!   My boys who have been very disappointed by the Canes for the last few years, rejoiced, hugged and screamed and I may or may not have cried!!  My heart is full and satisfied and I am blessed and also praying for a good nights sleep!

Generations

I am so enjoying this new generation currently having babies!  I am also so grateful I have not had one ounce of sadness that my childbearing years are over.  I miss my babies being young but not the intense level of exhaustion, up all night and full on attention that infants require.  I see that ghostly hollowness in new parents eyes like they can only half focus on life and are counting down the minutes until naptime!  I think it’s a shame that these most precious days of infancy are sometimes left in a fog of confusion.  I am grateful that I took a bazillion pictures, journaled for each of my kids about funny, sentimental moments and did all I could do to capture the moment, even if I bugged doing it.

I have so enjoyed watching young men as new dads.  Of course, Dan is my hero as far as Dads are concerned.  He truly is the reason the Wog kids have made it thus far in their life.  The infant days would have sent me over the edge or definitely sent me screaming into the night but Dan was ever-patient, walking the babies in the night, sleeping in a chair with the baby on his chest. Whatever it took to let me sleep so I could survive the day of constant demands with the babies.  I have so much compassion on new parents because it is still too fresh in my mind how difficult it is functioning with no sleep.  No one can ever prepare you for it until you walk through it yourself.  It is brutal to say the least, even though you are so happy and in love with your baby.

It’s been an amazing thing to watch a new generation of our family come forth. Especially because it's not me adding to our numbers!! My nephew Britt is so capable and involved with his son Caden’s care, which is no surprise at all.  He loved my Maggie so much and would carry her around when she was a baby!  It was awesome to see four generations in my family for the first time at Thanksgiving!  My Mom and Dad not only have so much fruit in their family as far as numbers but also the spiritual impact that will come through all the many generations is going to be an incredible thing to watch.  They have given our family a strong spiritual foundation to build our lives upon and I am thankful beyond measure.

One of my most favorite pictures that I have seen lately is one of James sporting a Wog Blog T-shirt holding his new baby Cassie!  I could kick myself for not whipping out an infant Wog Blog onesie. What was I thinking??  I must have had a lapse of t-shirt making focus or something.  I just love seeing James as a Dad.  Cassie is in very safe hands.  James has recently been in touch with his violent, protective side of fathering a beautiful girl.  I think Dan and him are starting a Weapons Training Dad’s Club!!  

Baby James

With all the changes that last year brought, I am overwhelmed with gratitude that I am still a part of what God is doing.  I appreciate anew all the long-term relationships we are blessed with.  I love the fact that I held Britt and James when they were infants themselves and now I get to cheer them on as they bring up their outstanding children!  I don’t do New Year’s Resolution but one goal I have is to value true friendships and relationships like never before, to show more mercy and love and to be less negative and judgmental.  At the end of my days, I want to have many people along side of me who can rejoice about all the wonderful things that God has done!  I think it is time we give more honor to all generations and learn from each other!  When I am a grandmother, I want to sit in church with rows of little Wogs being raised to serve the Lord, all the days of their life!  I am committed to stay the course and do whatever it takes to achieve that goal in my life!!  That will be the best legacy I could ever have!  Now if I could only secure a marriage with Cassie and Eddie!  He will need a strong firstborn girl for sure!  Now that would take my blogging to a whole new level!  #thewogblog #generations

Christmas Season 2012

December was a complete blur.  I don’t really know what can be done to simplify and slow down the craziness.  It feels like it’s unstoppable.  I don’t think it’s just because I have 5 kids.  I am sure that magnifies the madness but even people with two kids are stressed to the max.  I don’t think it helped with Dan and my birthdays thrown in the mix either.  I felt like all I did was dole out money for gifts and parties and such.  It’s the biggest challenge to not resent the whole month on the calendar.  I really made an effort to but aside my “Grinch” feelings and to enjoy the season of songs, plays, dances and parties. 

Annie had a two-day championship at UNF and was swimming in 9 events.  We were very excited about it but it did take up a Saturday and Sunday in the busiest time of year.  She swam her heart out Saturday and swam late into the night.  On Sunday, she woke up saying she didn’t feel good.  I told her she could rest and skip the meet and she got quite vocal and proclaimed, “I AM SWIMMING!”  In retrospect, I should have stepped up as a parent and forced her to rest even though she had a great day of swimming and cut time on all her events.  However, when she woke up with a fever on Monday morning, I thought she had pushed herself too hard after all.  I took her to the doctor assuming her sinus infection was back which it was but had a terrible surprise when she tested positive for the Flu.  The doctor prescribed Tamiflu for all 7 of us and what a depressing moment it was to find out that the medication was about $50 a piece.  I had a moment of decision at the pharmacy, chance the flu in our large family or suck it up….I opted for prevention.  I have to say within two days Annie was on the mend and the rest of us stayed well so props for Tamiflu!

The kid’s had a school play and after 2 days free of fever, I let Annie be in the play.  Again, I probably should have resisted her begging and told her no.  After a couple songs, we noticed Annie swaying funny.  We had been focused on Ed’s cute little song and didn’t clue in until Annie’s teacher was rushing on stage to catch her from passing out.  Thankfully, there were several paramedics in the audience who all rushed to help and to make sure she was OK.  I don’t know if she locked her knees, or if she was still sick or if it was just the fact that her shepherd headdress was cutting circulation off to her brain.  I was just grateful that she was not seriously sick.  

What was really freaking me out was that Ms. Vicki picked her to be Mary in the church play.  I told Vicki after she passed out that we needed to replace her and she was calm and said she could sit down and would be fine.  On top of Annie’s drama, Ms. Vicki had picked Eddie to be the Christmas star.  I was freaking out.  He isn’t my most compliant child and I would rather him stay a donkey as he was in the school play!  Thankfully, the church play went really smooth, Annie didn’t pass out and Eddie only threw up a Miami U at the end of the play and didn’t knock down the set or anything!  I sighed a HUGE sigh of relief when that was over.

Christmas finally arrived despite the Mayans saying the world would end on December 21. Somehow all the mass amount of gifts got wrapped and all the children seemed satisfied and happy. I did however find Christmas cards I forgot to mail under my truck seat.  I felt like I wanted to sleep for a week or more.  I am most thankful that despite sickness everywhere, people hacking up lungs, I managed to come through the holidays still healthy.  I am truly grateful for all my many blessings, all my children and the chaos and love that they each bring to my life.  I am still pondering how to better manage the Christmas season and the only way I can see, is to leave the country for a month.  If I go missing next year after Thanksgiving, don’t be worried.  I’ll be back in January! Happy New Year!