Why are we not home yet?

Our Thanksgiving travels led us four hours away from home.  We had a great time, but we were all eager to get back home.  We were given directions for a short cut back to I-85 which takes us down to Montgomery.  It was a new road that was not open the last time we were up in the northern country!  It was much better than our old route because it avoided all the twists, turns, and zig-zags.  John Mark and I were excited that we had made it back to the interstate (approx 1 hour into the return trip) when Lauren piped up "Dad, I thought that this was a shortcut."  

Dad replied, "It is, Lauren!"  

Lauren snapped, "Then why are we not home yet?"

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Thanksgiving Prayer for You

Thanksgiving prayers & wishes

  that God will smile on you

And send you lots of blessings,

  and lots of happy moments, too!

I know this is a little early, but I will not be at the computer on Thanksgiving Day!  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Deck the halls!

Or actually deck the house on the outside!  I just wanted to share pictures of our house decorated for Christmas on the outside.  On the inside, I have not really gotten to that!  I did taken down all the autumn/pumpkin decor and decorate the fireplace.  I will have to put up the trees after we get back from Thanksgiving.  I am running out of time.  we are leaving in the morning to go out to the lake for a few days.  Nothing big.  We just want to get away, and good family time is so much easier out at the lake with no distractions and no telephone!

Update on Corynne

"Wow! She is amazing!"  That is all I have to say.  She is so independent and confident.  We checked into Children's South in B'ham at 7:20am this morning.  After we were assigned to our waiting room, Corynne went down to the playroom to hang out with the other kids until it was her turn to go back to the OR.  She made it very clear that I need NOT hang out with her.  "I am fine, Mom."  JM and I enjoyed getting plenty of time to catch up (3 hours to be exact)!  We discussed how this would be different if it was Tyler who would be so nervous that he would make himself sick kinda like his mother, or Lauren who would become the tiny baby for the attention or Lyndsey who would have us running up and down the halls until they placed the gas mask on her face!  God is good!

Corynne had no problems at all today.  Many thanks to all our prayer warriors who held her (and our family) up in prayer today across the country.  We are blessed to have so many who truly care for us and our children.  Corynne came home today very tired, but ready to greet people who stopped by.  We were so humbled by her teacher who drove into Montgomery on a day off to stop by and check on Corynne and bring her a gift.  She is a godly teacher who went above and beyond her "job", and Corynne so appreciated her.  And I must acknowledge Corynne's sweet friends who brought her a cookie cake and balloons.  She is blessed by sweet girlfriends.  Thank you Cami (and family) and Mary Phyfer and Francie (and mom)!  God is good!

I could not resist adding this photo!  I think Lauren has sympathy pains or a need for the attention!!!

Christmas Decorating

I came home from church this afternoon and started my Christmas decorating.  I hung all the outside decorating.  Of course when it came time to plug it all in, I discovered (as always) that the extension cord mouse had visited our house again and misplaced all those cords I bought last year.  JM saved the night by stopping by Target on his way home from work tonight.  Now we look like Christmas is coming on the outside.  I will take some pics tomorrow evening and post them.  It looks great if I do say so myself!!!

****Important **** Corynne gets a new set of tubes and her adenoids removed tomorrow at 8:30am!

Tennis Time.

The kids and I went up to Pelham (about 1 1/2 hours) today for Tyler to play in a tennis tourny. It was very cold when we left the warm house!  It was a small tourny, so he and 3 other boys played a round robin for the 10&under division.  JM signed him up for this tourny verses a bigger one because as we feared - he would be on call and I would have to take him by myself with the girls.  He won his first match 8-1 while the girls watched a movie in the warm car and I froze watching him!  By the second match, it had warmed up a little (maybe 43 by now).  At least sitting in the sun was bearable!  Tyler won 8-2!  

I had packed our lunch and there was a park right next to the courts.  The girls enjoyed playing at the park while Tyler and his opponents played football between matches.  Is this a good idea???  Where did the football come from?  Oh, please not tackle guys!

By the third match, the temp was dropping again!  The girls returned to the car for warmth, popcorn and a movie.  Tyler was playing really good.  He was up 5-2, and my thought was "lets wrap this up and go home."  5-3. 6-4. Come on Tyler! 7-4.  Oh no, Lauren has to have a potty break right now.  Tyler finish this up while I am gone! 7-6.  What happened in those five minutes?  If he losses this championship match, the car ride home will not be pleasant.  Finally,  8-6!  He is a Champion (of a level 5 tourny) complete with a personalized trophy!

 Time to go home for the night and sit by the fire!

It's Cold!

I do not mind the cold if I can enjoy some snow, but this cold wind stuff really gets to me.  It doesn't help that I really don't like sweaters, jackets or coats especially when I am running errands.  My kids do not like dressing warm either!  Tyler in his typical style went to school today in shorts and a short sleeve shirt even after I recommended many times that a long sleeve UnderArmour under the uniform would be a GREAT idea!  Did I mention that it was in the high 30s this morning?  I think I may have to turn on the heater this weekend.  It is suppose to drop to 27 tonight!