New Update on my mom

So we are still a little stressed. Really we have no confirmed answers as to what exactly is causing all of the infection in her body. She is very sick. She did have the surgery on her eye and today the doctors removed the patch and they were very pleased with the way the eye looked today. That was the best thing. She has been sick to her stomach today and had to have medicine for that. She is loaded down with antibiotics, pain killers, blood pressure meds, I don't even know what else to be honest. Her sugar was up to 309 when I left at 10pm tonight. So it is the highest it has been. She has ran a lower grade fever today but nevertheless still running fever. Hopefully tomorrow we will hear from the infectious disease doctor with where the infection is originating from. We know it is in the bladder, kidney and eye. They did a heart ultra sound today to rule out a heart infection also. We still haven't heard the results from that. Please continue to pray for her. Today she made the statement with a pastor came by to pray with her that her faith is not wavering. I believe that and I know that God is her healer and I believing for that. I am trusting that all things are working for her good.

Also pray form my brother, sisterinlaw and niece as they will be traveling back to Houston in the morning. Thanks again for all the love, notes, text, messages, and calls. Much love to you all and Happy New Year!

Update on my Mom

I have to admit that today has been extremely stressful. I want to thank all of you have sent text, messages, etc. concerning my mom. What we know so far is that she was diagnosed with uncontrolled diabetes (untreated) she has several infections in her body including bladder and in her eye. Her sugar levels are extremely high and her white blood cell count is unreal also. She was given some medication and we should know tomorrow morning. Please continue to pray for her! I love you all! Thanks again! I will keep you all posted!

Our Merry, Merry Christmas......

Oh my! We did have a Merry, Merry Christmas. Where do I start? I guess the best place to start is the place I left off in our Merry Christmas story. Thank God we all managed to avoid the puking thing! Sunday, We went to Papa and Nana's (Tammy and Tony's) to celebrate with them. Everything was nice. Thanks Tammy for a yummy dinner. The chocolate dessert was awesome! The boys loved their gifts. Eli was super pumped about his new "sit down" electric scooter. Bleeze was tickled pink about his "bike thingy" Learn N Trike. They had a blast! I hope Lexi likes her game for her Wii! She is such a sweetie. I have enjoyed her text message the past week. She has made my day and made me smile a ton! Monday was great! I finally got to see my sweet niece Makenzie. We enjoyed lunch with my brother and Jessica and some of their friends in Spartanburg. Tried to do some shopping but it was crazy at the mall. Monday night, Tommy and I went and finished up our shopping. FINALLY! Eli changed his mind a thousand times about what he wanted. I was happy with his final decision!

Tuesday morning the boys spent some time with Uncle Eric and Aunt Jessica, and Makenzie while I ran a couple of errands. Then the boys and I ran to the mall to try to get a picture with Santa. There was a 3 hour wait! HOLY SHAMOLY! After 20 minutes in line... Bleeze had enough! So, we got a tip that Santa was going to be at our local chickfila that evening. So, we decided to that instead (it was actually the same Santa that Bleeze did the portraits with for the boutique ad, so that was PERFECT) When Tommy got home we went to Chickfila, saw Santa snapped a picture ( Eli was so humiliated) LOL! Then we went to see the Christmas lights. We waited an hour to get in Roper Mountain. It was well worth it. Bleeze LOVED IT! Then we drove to Mauldin to a house that ROCKS! These people pull out all the stops. They have been on the news and everything. You get to walk through their back yard and they give out popcorn and hot chocolate. Santa was there too! It was SO COLD! Bleeze lips got horrible chapped! I think he did not mind. He was amazed by the lights and all the blow ups. I think they are doing it all this coming week too so we may go again before New Years!

Christmas Eve came early here. Bleeze up and excited. We made a birthday cake for Jesus, cookies, and coconut macaroons. That evening we headed to my parents for Christmas. The meal was wonderful as always. I our annual steak and shrimp ROCKED! I ate way too much and even ate a piece of Italian Cream cake...ahhhh. Then it was time to open gifts. I have to say that my sweet niece Makenzie was hilarious. She is precious! She loved ripping the paper of each package. She finally go tired. She loved this cute stuffed bunny that my parents gave her. She would just squeeze it so cute. I have her her first Cabbage Patch doll. She will grow into it! LOL! The highlight of the night was seeing my boys faces when they opened their Wii. They loved it! The picture says it all!

Christmas Eve was a late one for Tommy and I. We did not finish taking care of Santa until 3am! That train table was a booger to get together! Tommy worked and I wrapped. We did it as a team! I felt kinda proud when we were all done. We had fun!

Christmas morning started at 8am. Eli was up and ready to go. Bleeze was groggy he did not sleep good all night on Christmas Eve. He was restless and whiny. I think a combination of too much sugar, long nights, and excitement had done him in. The boys loved their Christmas! Eli loved his new bike, his Guitar Hero and all the other "surprises" and Bleeze LOVED his train and train table. He also was very excited for some reason about his Lighting McQueen bedroom slippers. LOL!! (out of all the many toys,he was pumped about those). After opening gifts we had a yummy breakfast that my mom and dad help make and then Nanny Mary came over. The boys were excited to see her and open all their gifts from her. She hung out with the boys and we had fun. It was warm and we even went outside and played for a bit. The boys loved it!

My poor mom has been sick all through Christmas. She went home Christmas Day and slept the entire day. Christmas night I cooked some baked spaghetti, we read the Christmas story from the book of Luke, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. It was awesome. Bleeze was so sweet. He listened to me read the story and he was precious singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Yesterday we went to Indigo Joe's for lunch and did some shopping. Then we came home and played the Wii. I think we are all addicts. Tommy and Eli are addicted to Guitar Hero.

So that's about it...our Merry, Merry Christmas. Today I think I may make an attempt to make a few returns and then tomorrow we will spend a little more time with my brother and his family as they come back through headed back to Texas.

I know this blog was long, I just wanted to get it all in here. LOL! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

SILENT STAR

Well, we survived the play this year. Eli did an fantastic job. He is so precious. He loves everyone at The Academy of Arts so very much! He is going to miss them now that the play is over. He said to me last night that he could cry! Bless his heart. He did a wonderful job and had lots of fun and I know many hearts were touched by this sweet story. Big thanks to all our family who came out and supported him again this year. You will never know how much it means to him. Especially big thanks to Mama Joan who came out despite having been sick with the stupid stomach bug! He played an orphan in London and then he was also a common person and a captured child in some of the Bible scenes. The play is really good about some orphans who wish on a "silent star" to go back to Bethlehem to the day Jesus was born. So for now we are going to go and have Christmas with Nana and Papa. Still rebuking the puke from our house. Praying everyone stays healthy and everyone keeps clean hands and uses Lysol! LOL! So for now, I am off for some holiday fun! Christmas updates to come!

Little catch up...

I decided I better catch up real quick. I have been super busy this week. Eli is in the play and I have been running like a mad woman. I have been rebuking the puke all week. So many peeps had that horrid stomach bug. UGGGHHHH. Anyone who knows me know that I HATE HATE HATE that stuff.
I really had fun Tuesday night at Brandi's cookie swap. Such yummy cookies! It really didn't help a girl on a diet. LOL!

This week I have spent a ton of time with Bleeze. He has been so sweet. He has missed Eli a ton. He asked every few minutes when is it time to pick him up. I have missed him too. It has been strange without him here.

Eli will have put in close to 60 hours by the time this week is over. He is so tired. I am really proud of him and I can't wait for opening night tonight. I will post pics sometime this weekend. Tonight Tommy, my Mother-In-law Mary and myself are going. Tomorrow I am taking Bleeze to the matinee with Brandi and Anna and then tomorrow evening we are going w/ my parents and Tommy's dad , Tammy, and Lexi. I may keep Bleeze home tomorrow night because I think he may only want to go once. I got to wait and see!

So for now I am going to show some gratitude. Been a little slack in that area lately. Not that I haven't been grateful in my heart...just not in my blog. LOL! So here it goes!!!!

* Jesus, without him we would not have this time of year.

* For loving God. Who hears and answers my prayers and loves me no matter how fallen I am.

* good health (for me and my family)

* good cookies and fun with the gals at the swap

* my sweet Eli's awesome passion for this play. He is precious.

* sweet lunches this week with Bleeze. He has made me smile so much. Especially the day we had Shrek soup. He would scream after each bite and just die laughing. LOL!

* weight loss despite the holidays!

* that I am going to get to see Eric, Jessica, and Makenzie in just a few months old ( but please leave your nasty colds and strep throat in Texas) LOL!

As many of you know my sweet Eli is in a play each year at Christmas time. I have listed some info below. If you would be interested in going you can contact me or you can call the theater. This is an excellent play for you to take your children too or go to as a date!

SILENT STAR Christmas at the Logos Theatre
Located in Taylors SC

It's almost a tradition! You don't want you to miss this delightful musical this year, so here is the information.You can make reservations beginning now for of one three performances of "Silent Star" --

Friday, December 19th and 20th at 7:30 pm and a afternoon matinee at 2:30 pm on Saturday, December 20th. Adult tickets are $15.00, Senior Adults and Student Tickets are $10.00 and group tickets of 10 or more are also $10.00 each.

Check out the website at http://www.theacademyofarts.org/

Crazy Christmas Times

Oh it has been fun, hectic, stressful, and such a wonderful blessing the past few days. I haven't blogged in several days. I am doing good to get sleep I have been so busy. As I stated in my earlier post my focus was Eli's bday party. So Thursday I got everything done here at home that needed to be done for the weekend and then Thursday afternoon we made Christmas cookies. The boys had a blast. They were so excited to use some of my cake decorating tools. They both thought they were grown. I will say that Eli was very good at it. You will notice there are several with just HUGE blogs on top....(those would be Bleeze) LOL!!!!



Friday morning Bleeze and I did a lot of errand running for Eli's birthday party while Eli

was at drama camp. After picking Eli up and doing a few more errands we came home and I put Bleeze down for his nap. I took advantage of that time and organized EVERYTHING for the party. I thought I was way ahead of the game......(more details to come)......Friday night we had dinner downtown with Tammy and Tony at Mellow Mushroom. It was yummy however, my boys were way to hyper. Eli talked WAY TOO much and Bleeze was just crazy! Sorry Nana and Papa! So we came home and I thought I would start Eli's cake. I was ahead of the game and I wanted to stay on top of things. WRONpG! OH MY LORD! It was the cake from you know where!!!! I was up until 3am trying to fix it! I thought the mission was accomplished.....I woke up Saturday morning to a nightmare.

Saturday morning 6am....uggh... I get up and start working on the cake again. I discover that the yellow in the icing on the bottom had faded and the top layer looked like a big ball of sunshine. The cake looked like a clown cake. It was horrible. My mom came over and we fooled around with that stupid cake until 3pm. I was ready to throw it in the garbage and head to Publix. LOL!

Saturday evening we enjoyed church with my parents at their church. It was a Christmas program and it was nice to see friends and enjoy dinner afterwards too! :0)

Sunday was the big day!!! My sweet boy Eli turned the big 10! It seems like yesterday he was born and I was holding him in my arms bawling my eyes out. Now he only lacks a few inches being taller than me. I would say this time next year he will be taller than me. We woke him up to our usual family singing (poor thing) Bleeze was so excited this year. He finally understands. He opened all his gifts in bed he loved his Webkinz from Bleeze! He also loved our gift. We got him some new shoes he had wanted, a digital camera, and a wonderful lightsaber! He really thinks he is a Jedi. LOL!

We enjoyed lunch with my parents. My mom made all his favorites I especially enjoyed the M & M dream bars for dessert. What is funny is one day when i was preggo with Eli I craved them all day long. My mom made me some and I ate an entire pan by myself. Now it is one of his favorite things.

We had his party last night. It was fun. He had it at Fuddrucker's. He was so happy to have all his friends and family there. I loved watching him. What was so funny is that he wanted to wear a tie to his party. He doesn't even dress up for church. LOL! He looked precious. He is such a big boy now. I love him bunches! I am very proud of the fine young man I know he is becoming. His energy, love, compassion, and passion for life inspire me everyday!

So this starts a new week, the week before Christmas. It should be fun! Eli has drama camp everyday and his play is all this weekend. We have lots of other things to look forward too also! I can't wait for Brandi's cookie swap tomorrow evening and I really can't wait for my brother, sisterinlaw and my sweet niece Makenzie to be home for Christmas. So for now....everyone have fun celebrating Jesus birthday these next few days!!!!

Notes for the day

I have been busy this week of course. We have been having to get up earlier than usual to have Eli at the theater for his drama camp. He is loving it! He can't wait until each day to get to go. Bleeze and I have been hanging out we have been running errands. Bleeze misses Eli something terrible while is there. He ask, "Can we go get Bub now?" So sweet!

Today was nice. Tommy was able to hang around this morning and so he rode with me to Gaffney to the outlets to take back some pants that my mom bought Eli for his Christmas outfit that were to big. Sadly, they had no more pants so we are having to have them altered. It was fun for us though. We had brunch at Cracker Barrel. I will admit it was very strange being three of us. We missed Eli!

The afternoons have been good. We have been homeschooling and Eli has had tennis. The weather has been yucky today. It is going to be raining more tomorrow.

The rest of this week my focus will be Eli's birthday party. Got cakes to make, party favors, errands to run, etc. He is really excited. I still can't believe he is going to be 10 years old! I do think we will make some Christmas cookies tomorrow and I have promised Tommy some fudge! So for now, I am going to show some gratitude and hit the sack! I am tired!

So grateful for....
* My boys and husband!

* Fun times with my hubby and Bleeze this morning.

* Eli's love for the theater and the people there.

* My BBQ I made for dinner that turned out! YAY!

* Our sweet dog Oreo that has decided that his perfect sleeping spot is right up under our Christmas tree. (I keep trying to sneak a picture but he always jumps up whenever he hears me LOL)

* God for giving me wisdom when I ask and sending just the right people and scripture into my life right when I need them. HE ROCKS ALWAYS!

showing some gratitude

I have so much to be grateful for, these little list do not do it justice. However, here are a few of my many blessings.

* Fun weekends like the past one.

* my wonderful family

* my wonderful friends.

* health

* seeing my sweet boys faces light up during this holiday season

* my hardworking man

* my home (and the fact that it smells nice and clean)

* spiritual revelations like the ones I have had the past few days.

* Christmas lights

* hand cream for my severely dry hands

* vitamins, supplements, and probiotics

* Most of all God- He is my everything!

Fun Weekend....

I am sitting here trying to warm up. It is so cold today. This weekend has been pretty good. We have been busy as usual. Friday night we went to the Ward's holiday cocktail party. So much fun! I had a blast! Everything was so nice. Brandi you rock a party girl!

Having Fun at the Ward's (Jon might be having too much fun....LOL! )
Saturday I woke up earlier than I would have liked. I picked the boys up from my parents. They were so sweet to keep them considering the last time when I had to pick Bleeze up at 1am. They did okay. Bleeze did not sleep well but they did good. Got them and we took a load of items to Goodwill. Then we met Candy and her kiddos for lunch. It was fun. The kids had fun! Candy I stole your picture! Eli was so happy to be with "his" Hannah as he told my Mom and Dad. LOL!

Last night we went to the Greenville Christmas Parade with the Wards. We had so much fun. We had dinner and fought the crowd. The kids enjoyed the parade from Jon, Tommy, and Brandi's shoulders. I did not see much of the parade but had fun talking with Brandi. It was cold and it made it all the more festive. After the parade we took the boys to Mast General Store for a candy run. They just love it. Then we headed home. My nose and feet were frozen.

This morning was church of course! I enjoyed the sermon so much. Bleeze made a potato baby in class this morning. (It is supposed to be the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes) They had a blanket for the baby potato and everything. The teacher informed me when I picked Bleeze up that Bleeze did not want to wrap his baby in swaddling clothes because it was too warm in the classroom. LOL!!!!!!!

After church we enjoyed lunch with my parents. Yummy as always! Now we are home, I am about to wrap some Christmas gifts, Tommy is adding some finishing touches to our outside decorations, Eli is playing in the freezing weather, and Bleeze is down for a nap. So I am having a simply awesome weekend. I think Papa and Nana may come over a bit later. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

This weeks starts the chaos for us. Eli starts drama camp in the morning for the next two weeks. So between that, the play, tennis, and planning his birthday party this weekend we are going to be swamped. I leave you with my sweet Bleeze...,,,,

hump day gratitude

Today I am so grateful for....

* My cleaned out pantry...fully stocked and clean.

* Date night with the boys. I had fun with Bleeze tonight. We went to McDonald's and then drove around and looked at Christmas lights.

* Snuggling in blankets and watching Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer with my boys

* My sweet hubby sitting up and watching Sister Hood of the Traveling Pants 2 with me tonight.

yesterday and today...LOL!

Yesterday I spent most of the day homeschooling and cleaning. I finished up cleaning just in time to cook dinner. After dinner I went to buy groceries ALONE! I love it when I get to do that. I just walked through Walmart and listened to the Christmas music. Who knew Walmart could be so relaxing. LOL! After I came home I added the finishing touches to our indoor decorations I still have to finish the outside. The wind and cold has been horrible. My poor porch decorations have fallen over a thousand times.

Today we homeschooled, went for a walk in the cold...burr...I have some cute pics to post. I will do that later. Our neighbor across the street had a tree fall a couple of weeks ago. The city came to clean it up today. The boys were AMAZED! We sat and watched the big truck pick up the branches. I also cleaned out a closet and organized all of our videos. I did not realize how many we had. I made a roast today. It was really good. After dinner I headed out to a funeral visitation. My long time youth camp friend Tricia Davis Weston's dad died yesterday. I went to pay my respects and then came home to get these wild boys in bed. They watched Santa Claus is coming to town. So that has been my past two days. We are going to have date night tomorrow night the boys are excited. Going to show my gratitude and get some sleep....my list is still a mile long of things that must be done around here.

So grateful for.....
* a clean house

*night shopping at Walmart ALONE.

* walks with my boys... so much fun...they make me smile

* crock pot cooking...(saves time)

* my cozy house, it is warm on this freezing cold night.