Life While I'm Waiting: November 2012

11.28.2012

Wordless Wednesday (almost)

"Muri"

I'll be posting soon about that adorable smile and more.

Counting my blessings in so may ways.

11.27.2012

Happy Birthday Carrie

my baby girl is 25

let me say that again,

my baby is 25

I think that officially makes me feel old

just a little family dinner of your favorites

cheese tortellini with chicken

assorted sauces and roasted vegetables

we missed Ryan (working) and Kelly (Illinois)

Dylan always volunteers to help open presents

I love how you still close your eyes to make a wish

your dessert of choice, peanut butter pie

and I couldn't resist this adorable little owl cake from Publix

because you love all things owls

twenty five years ago I became a mom for the last time

I went into labor on Thanksgiving day just as I finished making our

Thanksgiving dinner. Of course I couldn't eat but everyone was able to finish

and clean up before I had to head to the hospital. You were two weeks late

which was convenient because your sister had just gotten out of the hospital

the day before after a 7 day stay. You were thoughtful that way. :-)

You were a very sweet baby girl with the most black hair

I had ever seen on a newborn. You were a big girl (10 lbs 3 ounces) and

21 inches long. When you were born your collar bone broke but you

never cried with it, not one time.

You slept through the night from day 1. Yes, that's what I said

DAY 1

our lives would be taking a tumultuous turn over

the next few years and I am so thankful that God saw

fit to bless me with such a calm, sweet and beautiful little girl

Happy Birthday Carrie

Keep closing your eyes when you make wishes, work hard and dream big.

11.24.2012

Another Thanksgiving come and gone. I never really got around to posting about all of my many blessings and I didn't even take my camera out at Thanksgiving dinner. I was having such a good time that I never got around to it. Something I'm now regretting......

just posting a few things to remember

Mike was able to nab me two sets of the Publix Pilgrims on Ebay

My blessing tree is very full.

For our anniversary Mike bought me the dough bowl/trencher I've been wanting.
It was a great surprise and I love it.

I made this runner this year for our Thanksgiving table.

The napkins are from Sasha of Lemonade Makin Mama. They're beautiful.
I've ordered several things from her and the quality is the best.
She also happens to be one of my favorite bloggers so hope over and have a look.

The only visual proof of Thanksgiving and I have it because Taylor
took an Instagram of her and some of her cousins.

An now that Thanksgiving is over, we wasted no time to bring on the Christmas season.
No Black Friday shopping for us. It's all about the Christmas tree.

I did get a fun Friday in with Dylan. We had a sleep over and watched our first

Christmas movie of the season together. Elf.

We also squeezed in Charlie Brown Thanksgiving..... again.

I think it's so cute he has an Ernie like his Uncle Bubba did.

and just because I miss my sweetie and her brother so much I just had

to post a picture of her with her missing teeth. She's actually lost

a couple more since this picture (6 total) and she just

turned 5 at the end of July. She's always been precocious.

*******************************

November is the month we celebrate all of our blessings.

I thank God for loving me in spite of myself.

I thank Jesus for my salvation.

I thank God for my husband who puts up with me.

I thank God for my children that I love unconditionally.

I thank God for the blessing of the most special grandkids I could of ever imagined.

I thank God for my parents who loved us and were great role models.

I thank God for my brothers, sisters and their spouses. I love my family.

I thank God for my nieces and nephews of both generations.

I thank God for my Aunts and Uncles and cousins.

I thank God for the best friends in the world.

I thank God for my neighbors.

I thank God for my health and the health of my family.

Even though there are material comforts that I'm grateful for,

the only thing that really matters is above.

Remember to be grateful for what you have and less about what you want

during this holiday season.

Jesus is the reason for the season.

11.13.2012

Turkeys

I had to opportunity to spend a couple of days with my great nieces and nephews while their parents were visiting Ethiopia. I always love when I'm lucky enough to spend the day with them. I got to do
a little bit of homeschool teaching while I was there and I've come to the conclusion that I should of
been an elementary school art teacher. I love to do little projects with them and my grandkids. I took
advantage of the fact that my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving and I came up with some "themed"
projects. On our first day together we made a turkey picture out of cutting up pieces of scrapbook paper . They did such a great job. Jessica and Nick have a group of budding artist on their hands.

On the second day together we did the ever popular pinecone turkeys.

The only problem was the part of town we live in has very few pine trees and the grounds

around the trees I found were picked cleaned. I made it over to their house with 5

pinecones. I knew we needed two for Caleb and Eli. They really

wanted to make some for their Mom and Dad so we needed four.

I planned a walk through their neighborhood to find the rest.

After 4 or 5 blocks it was apparent that wasn't gonna happen. Not

a pine tree to be found. So in the very large van we went on a pinecone hunt.

We were so lucky that the first park we happened by had exactly one pine tree with

exactly 4 pinecones underneath. Thankful for that.

Dad Mom Rahel

Caleb Hermela

Caroline Meron Colton

and Baby Eli

and while we were on a roll with our homeschool classes, we decided to throw

a little home economics lesson in and made some cupcakes to welcome

their Mom, Dad, Caleb and Eli

spice-caramel cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

with pilgrims and indians of course

Thanks kids for such a fun couple of days

The big reason for all the extra time with the kids.....

Jessica is bringing home our newest little family member

Eli

and also, she got to spend time loving on sweet Muri

our sponsor child from Trees of Glory

Blessings

11.11.2012

Veteran's Day

Thanksgiving blessings:

November 11th

Nov. 11th. I am thankful for all the veterans in our country's history that have bravely

served to keep us safe and free.

Especially the members of our family.

Dad

Mike Pat

Ben

Thank you. We love you and honor you today.

11.09.2012

3 parks and a movie

I had the opportunity to spend the day with two of my favorite boys.

Dylan and Colton are 4 year old cousins. Their mom's (first cousins) are the same age and spent most of their early childhood together constantly. Their uncle's, who are the same age also, did the same. These two remind me so much of my son and nephew when they were little guys. I don't get the opportunity to be with just the two of them very often.

We are having awesome weather in Florida right now. It was sunny, blue skies, breezy and in the low 60's. We decided to spend the day visiting different parks in our area.

So at 8:30 am, off we went.

We had a ......