No blogging motivation~

I have lost all my blogging motivation. It is true I have been so busy, but I have no other excuses other than I just don't feel like blogging these days. I'll try to do a quick catch up, but I can't promise a great post ;) Ryan is still looking for work. The Coca-Cola plant never did call him back. He recently took some classes for being a security guard, and took his test today. He will get the results in about 2 weeks, and then can get his license to be a security officer. He has actually always wanted to look into that, but never did, up until recently. I'm glad he did, and I hope it will go well. That may be a BIG reason that I'm just not myself. It has been about 14 months since he worked a steady, full time job. I have been through a lot of ups and downs, spiritually. I wish I could just be up and stay happy. The last year has just been so messed up for us, it definitely hasn't felt normal. Please pray for our family...
Our kids had a great Halloween. Taylor was a Pirate, and Blake was Wolverine (X-Men). Honestly, that is all I can come up with right now. Hopefully I'll get back into this blogging routine someday~

Coincidence or SIGN??? You tell me!

Okay, you tell me if this is crazy: I went with Ryan to apply at the Coca-Cola plant in a nearby town in Oklahoma today. We sat down at this small cubicle and he started applying on the computer. He needed some phone numbers from previous employers, and there were TWO phone books laying in his cubicle. I picked up the top phone book, which was a Tulsa book, and underneath the Tulsa phone book was a MONTROSE, COLORADO phone book!!!! How weird is that!?!?!? 900 miles away, I find a phone book from my HOME area! I still can't get over it, how in the world did it get here!? I am still sitting here in disbelief that out of ALL the USA, that ONE phonebook from my HOME area made its way to where I live now! So what do you all think of this???

Six Flags Over Texas

Hi again, it has been a long time, and I know it. I'm sorry... I have found other things to do when I am online and I have also been busy offline as well ;) I know I am way behind on everything, so I'm going to try to jot it all down. After returning from Colorado in July, we took a family trip down to Dallas, TX to take the kids to 6 Flags. We spent 2 FULL days down there, literally we were at 6 Flags from open to close. The kids had SO much fun. Ryan actually talked Blake into doing the Dive Bomber with him. Here is the video I took, please forgive me, I was sooo nervous taking it!

I did that with Ryan last year, so I knew how scary it was. But Blake did very well. And Taylor also did something very brave, she rode the Titan, which is a huge roller coaster! At closing time, the park did a glow in the dark parade. They turned out the lights of the park, and the parade was all glow in the dark. It was honestly the coolest parade I've ever been to! Then after those fun filled 2 days we came home and did normal things, like swim in our pool :) Then the kids started school on August 10th and life has slown down a little. But we are still busy here. I actually have to get 5 of my mom's rent houses rented, and then in October we are having a church camp here, and am really looking forward to it :) Other than that, not much has changed in our lives. We are really enjoying living in this area, and are probably going to be living here for a long, long time :) (That's good cause I don't want to move again! ;)

My time in Colorado

Hello, I know it has been a while since my last post. I'm sorry I am just getting to posting about my trip to Colorado. Well to start off, it was 100 degrees the day I left and very humid! I have to drive at night, because I have no air conditioning in my van. So when I actually left it was about 85 degrees. I drove to Dumas, TX and stayed the rest of the night. When I woke up, it was already cooler, and the closer I got to Colorado, the cooler it got. I was up on one of the passes and actually hit 59 degrees, it was SO nice! I arrived in Olathe, Colorado and it was nice and cool there also. So it was WONDERFUL getting to escape the heat and humidity. I immediately started helping my mom with her cherry harvest. I worked EVERY DAY but ONE. And we worked from DAWN TO DUSK (except for Sundays, we only worked in the afternoon). We would go to bed at night not even able to keep our eyes open, we were so tired!

I had taken the kids' bikes out there to ride in the orchard, and I'm so glad I did, they had such a blast doing that. Blake actually learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels, and he really did GOOD once he learned, which was quite an ordeal teaching him.

Every day was about the same, work work work. Then we had an opportunity to be a vendor at a BIG event in Olathe. It was a thing called "Night Vision". Basically it was a 2 day festival (July 3rd and 4th) and they brought in about 15 Christian bands to perform. Some of the bands were: Natalie Grant, Brandon Heath, the David Crowder Band, The Catinas, etc... (I can't remember all of them). So for those 2 days, we sold cherries and got to be at the festival and work at the same time, which was pretty fun.

I went to Colorado a little discouraged. Not too bad, but just a little unhappy. Well, I got to go to 4 baptisms and an ordinance supper, which really uplifted me, which I REALLY needed!

One of the highlights of my trip was getting to go to Ouray, Colorado (on my one day off) and spend the day with my sister, Peggy, who lives there. She took me and the kids WAY up into the San Juan Range. The terrain was SCARY, it was a one lane road (with an occasional part to pull off for oncoming cars to get through). There were rocks (BIG ROCKS) everywhere on the road, and cliffs all over. It isn't the most peaceful drive up into the mountains, but the views are BREATHTAKING! She took us up what they call Yankee Boy Basin, and it is just gorgeous there! (The mountains displayed on the top of my page is the San Juan Range, and we were on the back side of them) I really enjoyed that day, and I know it will be a great memory for me and my kids forever.

The first scenery picture is an actual picture of the road we drove on, pretty scary huh? The below picture is of me, the kids, and my nephew, Danny

Then after being in Colorado for 2 weeks, I was ready to come home, even if it was to heat & humidity. The old saying is true: There's no place like home :) I decided to go home through Denver and stop and see my brother-in-law and sister-in-law (Dale and Chantel). So we drove up to Denver, stayed the night, and it ended up working out that Chantel got to ride with me to Oklahoma and visit her family for a week, so I had company on my way home.

It was such an enjoyable trip for me. I got so much rejoicing while I was there, and was just glad to get to go :)

I will be seeing a lot of this in my future:

I'm heading to Colorado next week to help my mom and sister (who have 8 acres (combined) of cherry orchards) with their cherry harvests. I'm very excited about it! I can't wait to eat cherries and then more cherries!!! I will be in Colorado until around the middle of July. I do need some prayers though, my back has been hurting for 3 months now, and every time I sit down, it hurts severely. I am not looking forward to 15 hours of sitting, it will hurt BAD after that. So please pray for my lower back. I hope everyone is having a good summer :)

My near-tornado experience

Last night was a night to remember. Ryan had taken the kids up to Tulsa, and I was planning on doing some scrapbooking and taking advantage of the "alone time". Well, I was just getting ready to set up everything, and I noticed lightning and thunder going on outside. So I switched on the news, to see what was going to take place. It said that my town was under a tornado warning. A tornado WATCH is just where you are aware of the storm and keep an eye on the weather, and just be prepared to find shelter. A tornado WARNING is where you find shelter as quick as possible. Okay, I was expecting maybe a watch, but we were already in a warning, so I started panicking. Literally a few seconds after I noticed that we were in a warning, my mother-in-law, Sharon called and told me that we were in a warning and that I needed to find shelter. Luckily, I ran into one of my neighbors a few weeks ago on my road and he told me that he had a storm shelter, and that my family was welcome to use it, even if no one else was in it. So I knew that I could run to it. So I found a hooded jacket, and grabbed my cell phone and keys and locked my house up and headed across the road to the shelter. There was lightning crashing everywhere, that was scary enough. The rumble from the thunder was literally making car alarms go off. I could hear 2-3 alarms. And to top that off, the tornado sirens started blaring. So I was REALLY nervous. It wasn't even raining yet, it was actually peaceful, except for the lightning/thunder, car alarms and tornado sirens. Okay, maybe it wasn't really peaceful after all ;) I was in a panic mode, and got over to the neighbors house. I felt weird going in their cellar without them knowing. I knocked on their door, no one answered. I ran to their back door, knocked and no answer again. So I went ahead and ran to the storm cellar. There are no words to describe what is going on in your mind. You think that in a situation like that you would grab pictures, or keepsakes, but you don't even think of that when you are in a state of panic. I'm just glad I was able to get dressed and get over into shelter. My brain kind of went blank, because of the panic. Okay, so I opened the shelter door, it was heavy, and somehow when I was getting in, I hurt my hand by that door, don't know how it happened, but it did. I went down, and used the cell phone light to find a candle and lighter down there. I lit the candle, and sat down on one of the benches. I was expecting more people to show up, because he told me that any of the neighbors were welcome to use the shelter. But no one showed up. The sirens kept blaring for about 10 minutes. I called Ryan, my mom and mother-in-law to let them know I was in the shelter. They watched the news to keep me updated. After the sirens quit blaring, I waited for the rain to die down. I heard 2 rounds of hail, so I really wanted to wait until the weather died down. I was in the shelter for about 1 1/2 hours. Finally the rain slowed down and I ran back home. I was home for about 10 minutes and my electric went out. So I called my in-laws and asked if I could come stay the night at their house, and of course they said yes. So I jumped into my truck and headed up to their house across town. EVERYONE'S electric was out on my side of town. Even Main Street's lights were out. But luckily, my in-laws' side of town was fine. I got up to their house and turned on the news and watched the storm that had just left. It went DIRECTLY over my town, and it was a powerful one. I was very tired by this time, it was about 1:30 am and I went to bed, and slept great. It was definitely a night to remember.

Frontier City family fun!

Well, here is the 3rd day of fun that I mentioned in my last post or two. I thoroughly enjoyed my family being out here. They have all returned home, and I'm trying to get life back to normal. On June 1st, Blake's 7th birthday, my whole family, plus a couple extra friends all went to Frontier City, in Oklahoma City. It was Blake and Taylor's first roller coaster experience, and they did remarkably well. I remember my first experience was when I was 11 and my Dad was trying to get me on a roller coaster for about 15 minutes, and I whined the whole time. Then when I was done with that first roller coaster, I've NEVER stopped wanting to ride them. But both of the kids were very brave, and had so much fun. The funnest part about it was being with a big group, and the fact that I haven't done something fun with my family like that for a long time. It was a day to remember!

The group (minus Sue, who was taking the picture)The group getting ready to get on our first ride of the dayBlake had a fun but very exhausting day!

Ryan's surprise 30th birthday party

I mentioned in my last post that we had a fun filled 3 days, the wedding being the first day. Well the next day after the wedding, I held a triple birthday party for Blake who turned 7; Ryan, who turned 30; and my sister Sue, who turned 42. The party was awesome! I mainly threw it for Ryan, because 30 was a big number, and he had NO idea I was doing that! It was incredibly hard to keep it from him. I did the party in a 60's and 70's theme, because those were the decades Sue and Ryan were born in. We all went to church, and after church, Ryan went up to his family's house for lunch while I "spent time alone with my sister", which I did, just getting ready for the party. Then Ryan decided to come home and go swimming in the pool. His family tried their hardest to keep him there, but he insisted on going home. I was working at the church to get this all together, I told him that me and Peggy were still spending time together, and he was starting to get mad at me for ignoring him all day, LOL. He was getting more and more angry with me, but I knew he would forgive me ;) We finally got everything ready right when it started, and I told Ryan that there was an ice cream get-together at the church at 6:30 (which there was) I wanted him to show up at 6:15 so we could all yell "SURPRISE!!" So we had a nice crowd, and sure enough, at 6:15, he walked in and we yelled. There was a smile from EAR TO EAR on his face. I honestly thought he would figure things out, but somehow I pulled it off!!! It was so fun seeing all my efforts worked! Then as soon as he walked in and we yelled at him, I made him put on this hilarious purple velvet outfit with zebra print trim and a HUGE zebra hat! It was totally 70's and looked so funny! He did put it on, but only for a few minutes to take some pictures, because it was so hot. Gabriel was very entertaining! Lee kept getting a drink of tea, and Gabriel kept trying to steal it from Lee by giving him a kiss, so I had to snap a picture of it! Gabriel is so cute!And here is little Madison, she is getting so big, and she is so sweet! My sister peggy fell in love with Madison and Gabriel!

I served some finger foods, cake and homemade ice cream. Then Ryan, Sue, and Blake opened cards and presents, and everyone eventually went home. It was so much fun! I couldn't have done it without everyone's help (being sneaky). THANK YOU EVERYONE (You know who you are ;) It was a big success, and yes Ryan DID forgive me for ignoring him!

Shane and Courtney's wedding

Hello, hello :) A lot has happened in the last 3 days, but I'll just have to do one blog at a time, I first of all wanted to show everyone pictures from my nephew (and new niece's) wedding. Then I will post another blog tomorrow on the other things :)

Shane and Courtney had a perfect, BEAUTIFUL wedding. Everything went very well, and they are such a happy couple. It was sad not having Steve in the ceremony but there were a couple things done that gave tribute to Steve. First of all, they had an 8x10 picture of Steve at the alter, which I thought was so sweet. But the sweetest things were, Shane walked out of the dressing room into the ceremony with the minister, and then left the minister at the alter, and walked down to the end of the aisle, and walked his mother down the aisle (Steve's wife) and by the way, that brought out major tears to EVERYONE'S eyes. It was so sweet. THEN, when Shane and Sue got to the front of the aisle, Sue went up and lit her side of the unity candle, and ALL of the groomsmen put toothpicks in their mouths because Steve ALWAYS (except for when he was sleeping) had a toothpick in his mouth. That was his trademark. Anyway, they all did it at the same time while Sue was lighting her candle, and then they took it out to continue the ceremony. I couldn't have thought of a better way to pay Steve tribute. I just can't describe how thoughtful and sweet those gestures were, especially for Sue, and Steve's mother and sisters.

Then Courtney came down the aisle, and was she ever beautiful! The ceremony was perfect. The reception was also nice. The decorations were gorgeous. Courtney's family did an excellent job on everything! They put a lot of work into it, and they had so many neat ideas! I know that they are going to have a happy marriage, they are crazy about each other! It was just a perfect day, and everything went great!

My sister, Sue with her children and their spouses

My family

Shane and Blake, they were so handsome!

Courtney and Taylor, both were so beautiful!

Fun 3 weeks ahead!

Hello again! My move has slown down, but my life has definitely not... Before I get started, if anyone wants to mute my wedding music, just go to the slide show, and in the top left corner, there is a volume logo, and just click it, and it mutes.

Well, there are 2 more days of school for my children. And of course those 2 days are going to be nothing but fun. Last week, Taylor went to the Oklahoma Science Museum, and Ryan was able to go with her. They both had a nice time. Then Blake went (without a parent) to a place called "Jump-In", which is a place that has a lot of inflatable jumping equipment, and obstacle courses, etc... Then today, Taylor got to go on another field trip to a really fun place called Incredible Pizza. It is a pizza/pasta buffet with tons of things to do inside (like bumper cars, go carts, mini-golf, and lots of arcade games. So they have had a lot of fun in the last 2 weeks. Tomorrow they have a picnic at a local park, and then Thursday is it, the last day!!! AND... my sister, Sue, and her daughters are coming to visit on Thursday! They will be here all weekend, and then sometime in the next week, we are going to go to Arkansas to see some of my Dad's family. Then, on the 29th, we will be heading to the panhandle for my nephew's rehearsal dinner, then the following day is the big day for Shane and Courtney! I'm very excited. There is also a little sadness, that Steve didn't make it to see Shane get married. 3 DAYS before Steve passed away, he was fitted for his tuxedo for Shane's wedding. So that is going to be hard for everyone, just not having him to share the joy.

We will return home after the wedding, then the next day (31st) I have something very big planned, but I can't go into details, but I PROMISE that I will post about it shortly after ;) Then on June 1st, which is Blake's birthday, my whole family are all going to Frontier City, which is an amusement park in Oklahoma City. That is going to be a BLAST! Then, June 3rd is my sister Sue, and Ryan's birthday, then the 9th is mine. My sister, Peggy will be staying around for a week to two weeks after the wedding, and she will also be going to Arkansas, and I may go with her also, so I may be making 2 trips down to see my Dad's family. I know I'm rambling on and on, but now you see what the next 3 weeks are going to be for me, busy, but FUN!!!

Our 10th anniversary

I honestly can't believe that today is our 10th anniversary. It seems like it should be like our 5th, but certainly not our 10th. Time has really flown! Last year, Mary posted a blog about her 10th anniversary and posted some pictures from her wedding day, and I loved that idea, and decided to do the same thing. I decided it would be fun to make a slideshow of our wedding day :) Ryan and I are going to go out to eat somewhere in Oklahoma City and then go see "17 Again". We would have LOVED to went back to Dallas, but don't have the money at the moment. This day in age, I feel very thankful to have made it to our 10th anniversary. Most marriages are over by then. I am looking forward to more milestones in our marriage (our 25th, etc...) I love my husband and definitely look forward to many more years with him :)

My countdown has begun!

Life is finally starting to get better for us. We are officially moved into our new place, however I still have a lot of unpacking to do. We have been without our van for about one month. Ryan's uncle has agreed to help us put a new transmission in it, so Ryan is staying with his aunt and uncle and going to work on it with him, so I'm hopeful that we will have our van back very soon. I'm very happy about that, plus I'm so glad that this move is basically over. Those were 2 things that have been driving me crazy for a while!
This coming Friday is Ryan and I's 10th anniversary! I can't believe it is already here. I'm hoping we can go out to eat, if nothing else.
I am getting very excited because in 3 weeks, my sister, Sue, and her daughter(or daughters) are coming to spend a little time with me, and a few others before her son's wedding on May 30th. Then after the wedding, Sue, my mom, and my other sister Peggy (and her kids) are going to be coming to spend time with me. So I will basically have my family on and off for about 3 weeks! I am so happy about that. I get to missing my family so bad! Everyone is wanting to go down to Arkansas (where my Dad's family is from), and I'm also looking forward to that. It is going to be so nice having company!
Then after everyone leaves, there is a BIG possibility that my whole family will be going to Colorado for a month or so. My mom and sister (Sue) both have cherry orchards and it looks like they will both have a harvest. So they will REALLY NEED our help (even Taylor and Blake's). Ryan hasn't been able to find work, so this would be good for us, we can all work, and earn money, while helping my mom and sister out.
So that is basically what is going on in my life right now. It sounds like my life isn't going to slow down much for a while, but I'll be busy in a totally different way, not moving :P

It's nice to put faces with names, so I thought I would do that... Left to right: Sue, Me, my Mom, and Peggy

Left to right: Shane (the groom to be), Sue, Steve (Sue's husband who recently passed away), Savanna, Trevor (Vanna's husband), Jeremy (Steph's husband) & Stephanie

Peggy, Danny, and Kayla

Speaking of our horrible society...

Does anyone else get disgusted when watching this commercial FOR CHILDREN!?!? I make my children fast forward or just not watch this. I honestly can't believe that Burger King and Spongebob did this:

We're almost there!

This last month has been nothing less than complete chaos in my life. This move has been by far the WORST move ever for us. We've had issue upon issue, trial upon trial during it. It started off okay, but we've had a few delays. First of all, Steve's passing (which I can't believe was almost one month ago), and we've had a lot of weather issues that slowed down our move AND the transmission went out in our van. So we have been without it for about 3 weeks now, and I'm realizing just how much I need it! The only other vehicle we have is a very small pickup that really can only hold 3 people (and our family has 4) so we HAVE to drive around with Blake laying on our laps. We don't really go anywhere as a family, except church. But it has been a pain anyway. Oh well, I'm just thankful that we do at least have the truck. I'm just hoping we can get our van fixed, I know it is going to be a VERY EXPENSIVE thing to fix though. But back to the move, we are SO close to being done, I think one more day at the old house and we will be DONE!!! And of course the unpacking at this new place, but still, we are almost done!!! WHOO HOO! I don't want to even THINK of moving for a long time! Lord willing.

And today is one of those days that I just think of my Dad all day, because it has been 4 years ago that we lost him. Last year I made a slideshow of him and I cried all day. Today, I've been okay, as far as the emotions go, but I still miss him so much.

I just can't believe how this last year has flown by, it seems like I JUST made the slideshow of my dad, and it seems like Ryan and I JUST went to Dallas for our 9th anniversary. And it is that time of the year again. Our 10th anniversary is just around the corner (in like 2-3 weeks). Ryan wants to go back to Dallas, but our money situation isn't great, so I don't know what will actually happen. And speaking of time flying, I can't BELIEVE that we have been married 10 years!!! Wow.

And last but not least, I wanted to post a picture of my sweet little niece, gosh I just adore her!!! She is the most precious baby!!!

Me and my little ♥ Madison ♥

Moving stinks!!!

Ugh! We are still not fully moved! We have been trying to move for close to a month now. Half of our items are in the old house and half in the new house. We have had 2 setbacks during this move, first Steve passed away and we took a few days to go to his funeral, and now the weather is preventing us from moving. On Thursday, I was working on getting the last few things packed, I am ALMOST done packing up there, and then the weather got bad. So I headed down to the new house and it is a good thing, because this morning I woke up to a LOT of snow. All of Oklahoma has a ton of snow. I'm going to be working all this next week on getting the last stuff packed and getting ready for a yard sale. I'm going to sell as much as I can up there, and then have one down at the new place. So again, I'm so sorry that I haven't been on here a lot, but my life is absolutely crazy right now.

I haven't been able to upload any pictures of my new sweetie, Madison, but I will as SOON as I can. I have my cords from my camera packed, and that's the reason I haven't been able to. But I do have a picture of Steve that I wanted to share, so everyone could see what he looked like. It is a picture that I will treasure forever. It is a picture of me and Steve in 1986, I was 5 and Steve was 30. He had a beautiful funeral. It couldn't have been a more perfect funeral. There were Elvis songs (Steve was a HUGE Elvis fan). The songs were beautiful, the talks about Steve were perfect, then at the burial, they had a bagpiper, because Steve liked bagpipes. The song choices were: "Daddy's Hands", "I can only Imagine","Milky White Way(Elvis)","Amazing Grace (bagpipes)", "The Way that he Loves (Steve's favorite gospel song)." Like I said, it was a beautiful service, Steve would have been so happy. I think there were between 600-700 people. There were people in the basement, standing room only, there were even people outside. He was loved by SO many people. He was very outgoing, and anyone who had ever met him, has never forgotten him, he was quite a guy!

I sure do hope everyone is doing good, I am ready for life to get back to normal for me so I can keep up with every one's blogs. :)

I gained a new family member, then lost one.

Hell0, my emotions have been all over the place in the last week. I have been working super hard on moving (mainly packing). We have more than half of our belongings at the new residence, but still have quite a bit at the old home.

I was blessed with getting to see the birth of my new niece, Madison Dawn. I'm sure that Melissa will post on her blog about Madison, but I also know that you all have been waiting to hear that Melissa had the baby. It was truly an amazing experience to witness a birth. I rejoiced so much!!! Anyway, she was born on March 16th at 4:31 pm. She weighed 6 pounds 3 oz. and is 21 1/2 inches long. She is a perfect, beautiful baby!!!

Then yesterday, I packed some more and at almost 10:00 pm, I got a phone call from my niece, Stephanie. She said that her dad, Steve, had collapsed and was having a heart attack and asked for my prayers. I immediately started praying, and within 2 minutes, I got the dreaded phone call that he didn't make it. So I'm actually headed back to Colorado for his funeral. Steve was 52 years old, and had been married to my sister, Sue for almost 23 years. In my previous blog about the wedding on the way, that is Steve's only son that is getting married, so it is going to be hard to know that Steve won't get to see that. Also, in older blogs, I have had 2 nieces get married, and they are both his daughters, and there may be a picture of Steve in those blogs. Steve was a VERY outgoing person, a lot of times that I introduced myself, I said "I'm Steve P...'s sister-in-law." My heart is aching right now, I just can't believe he is gone. So please remember my sister, Sue, and her family, Stephanie, Shane and Savanna, this is a very hard time for all of them, and we all are hurting so much!

We're moving...again :(

Hello again. Sorry again that it has been a while since I was on blogger. I wanted to let everyone know that for the next month, we will be in the process of moving to another town in Oklahoma. For my safety, I am not going to disclose where it is, but I will tell you that it is one hour away from where we live right now. It is MUCH cheaper to live in this little town that we are moving to, and I hope that we can get back on our feet while living there. We both have been praying about what to do, and we both feel that this move is what we should do. So I won't be on blogger very much for the next month. Then after that I am REALLY going to TRY to be on blogger regularly again.

On a sad note, there is a sister from the panhandle of Oklahoma that was in a car accident and died the next day. She was either a teenager or early 20s. I think she was a teen. It is so sad, so please remember her family and friends in your prayers. Her name was Charity.

I am also getting ready to be an auntie again. Melissa is due in just a few days. She has asked me to be with her in her delivery, which is such an honor to me. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. So please keep her in your prayers also. I will make it a point to post a picture of her baby (more than likely on her blog), as soon as possible.

Until next time, I hope everyone is doing well :)

Another wedding on the way!

Last night, I just heard some wonderful news for my family, my nephew, Shane proposed to his girlfriend, Courtney, on Valentines Day. It is sooo funny because earlier yesterday, I was talking to my daughter, Taylor and I said, "It wouldn't surprise me if Bubba (Shane's nickname) asked Courtney to marry him." And then later found out my feeling was correct! That was a little weird! He recently moved to western Oklahoma, where Courtney is from. He moved to a SMALL town, but at LEAST half of the town is brethren. Unfortunately the town is around 3 1/2 hours away from here, so we won't get to see him as much as we want to. But anyway, it sounds like the wedding date will be May 30th. I am VERY excited!!! I just had to shard my good news!

Valentines Day

I hope everyone had a nice Valentines Day!!! My husband is in Colorado at the moment, but I still got a present from him, he's so sweet! Thank you Ryan!
As for our trip to Colorado, me and the kids are probably leaving this Friday. We don't know if we will get to go to Oregon, it is a possibility, but we can't say if we are going to go for sure. (I sure do hope so!!!)

New family pictures

Hello everyone! I'm back, again. I'm so terribly sorry about not being on in quite a while. But, this time it wasn't my fault. It was my computer's fault. I wasn't even able to get on Blogger. I would go to the sign in page, and it would freeze up. It did that for me for several weeks. Finally I attempted to go to it again, and somehow, it let me in. But... when I went to leave comments, it then wouldn't let me leave comments. So I went on to Internet Explorer and tried to leave comments, and it worked. So it will take me a little while to leave comments on everyone's blogs, but I will definately be working on getting caught up :)

The latest happenings in our lives is: We have had a very mild winter, up until last week, we had an ice storm, and had sleet/snow on top of the ice, so the roads were not so good. But that has since then melted and we are back to normal here. We got family pictures taken where I work, so I got a great discount :) They turned out nice! My mom is finally coming to visit me, she will be here on Wednesday (2/4) and will leave the following Wednesday (2/11). And Ryan is going to Colorado on Tuesday, 2/10. Then me and the kids will be joining him in Colorado a couple weeks later. We are going to be spending time in Delta/Montrose area, Grand Junction area, and Denver area. I'm looking forward to this trip. Unfortunately, we are not heading up to Montana or Oregon :( Sorry to disappoint everyone. We just don't have the money to go up there. I do hope that this year sometime, we will make it up there. I just don't know yet. Time will tell.

Again, I will be leaving comments on everyone's blogs, but it may take me a couple days, because I'm WAY behind again. Until then, hope everyone is doing well :)

This is a portrait collage that we do at my studioI love my little family!We will celebrate out 10th anniversary on May 1st

These are the kids' school pictures, blended together

And here is a candlelight picture, I love it!

computer trials

Hi, this is Chantel Julie's sister in law, and she has asked me to let everyone know that she is having computer issues once again and is unable to access her blog to make new posts. As soon as the problem is remedied, she will be back on and making new posts.

Happy New Year!

Hello again everyone! I feel awful that I haven't been on here near as much lately. I am SOO far behind on commenting on everyone's blogs, so I may just comment on the latest one and TRY to keep up. We got our computer back a couple days ago. Plus, the busy season is over at work, so I won't be working near as much. Ryan has been working lately, thank goodness. However, his job is temporary, and will only last one month. At the end of January or beginning of February, we will be getting taxes back and plan to take a trip to the Northwest (yes Oregon), and stopping in Colorado, and Montana. We are praying for a change, we MAY be moving, but where to is still unknown. Until we KNOW where we are SUPPOSED to be, we are going to stay put. But I am REALLY in NEED of a change, of getting away from here. Life has been getting better, in most ways. I am thankful that Ryan is working, and for other reasons. But we're not completely out of this trial. But I am confident that we are getting back on track.

We had a GREAT Christmas. I had thought that only half of Ryan's siblings were going to be here (the ones that live here), but the other 2 were able to make it and it turned out to be a great Christmas. I actually made 2 projects before Christmas, for my mother and for my in-laws. I made a picture calendar for 2009. I scrapbooked 24 pages altogether (12 for each family) and took them to Office Depot and they took the pages and made the calendar. They all REALLY loved it, it turned out nice. I couldn't think of anything better to give for Christmas. I somehow forgot to take a picture of Ollie and Sharon opening theirs, but my sister e-mailed me a picture of my mom with hers:

Then came New Years. It was actually not as great. We REALLY wanted to be invited somewhere, anywhere, but no one invited us to come over and spend the evening. That little fact actually brought me to tears. We don't feel like we are even thought of here. But, we watched the countdown on TV, and then went outside right after 12:00 am and lit off some fireworks. There were several people on our street doing the same thing, that was the highlight of the night.

Then yesterday morning, my niece from Colorado called me and said that she had flown in Oklahoma City for a wedding this weekend, and hoped that we could come see her, (because she was without a car). So we got in the van and headed to OKC. Normally we wouldn't be able to afford going to OKC, but the gas prices are AWESOME right now ($1.35)!!!! We didn't do much, just ate lunch and went to see a movie. We watched "Bedtime Stories". It was a pretty good movie. But it was nice to see some family. I always take advantage of that :) I have a nephew that is actually moving to Oklahoma in January. Btu unfortunately he will be on the other side of Oklahoma. He will be about 3 hours from here, but maybe we'll get to see him once in a while.

The first half of 2008 was a great year. My two highlights of 2008 were: Ryan and I got to got to Dallas for our 9th anniversary, and I got to go to Colorado for 1 1/2 months with the kids . Then when I got back from Colorado, things really unraveled. I hope that 2009 will be full of highlights that can be remembered forever. There are several big things in 2009 that I do have to look forward to: Mine and Ryan's 10th anniversary, my best friend's (from high school) wedding in Colorado, my 10th high school reunion (also in Colorado), and HOPEFULLY a fun trip , and POSSIBLY a big move for us :) I hope everyone else has a HAPPY NEW YEAR!