Family Night Out

Our plans for the evening were to go out for dinner and go watch "Courageous" as a family. We had the dinner part covered, then we drove around to kill some time. We got to the theatre just in time to get our tickets, only to find out that it was "sold out". What a bummer. I guess we will try again tomorrow night.

Feeling Loved

What an awesome day! 

The morning started with a gift of a new Votivo Red Current Candle that smells really fresh, yet smells like winter.

At noon, I joined others at the PEP Talks (Parents Encouraging Parents) group for our Tuesday morning session. These meetings have been ongoing for about five weeks. The sessions are once a week and last about an hour and a half. I highly-highly recommend these sessions to any parent that is having trouble "understanding" their child and why your child does not have the same personality as you.
By the afternoon, another friend showed up with a bag of awesome jewelry that she wanted me to have. She even threw in a loaf of homemade bread. By this time, I was feeling really loved.
This evening, the family and I had planned to attend "Heaven's Gates/Hell's Flames" which is an awesome illustration of realty. The devil tried his best to knock us out of going, but was defeated. A large number of individuals gave their life to Christ tonight. I can almost hear the angels rejoicing from here. On the way home, my family discussed what we witnessed tonight and some of the words that my children spoke literally brought tears to my eyes. To know that they love God with their whole hearts completes who I am. It was even mentioned in one of the skits tonight how much getting your life right with God brings such an immence feeling of relief and overwhelming joy. I agree to that completely.
Every step that I take in building a closer relationship with God makes me feel...well closer; in turn, it also breaks the grasp that the devil continues to try to hold on me. Breaking free from the devil is a battle each and everyone of us face.
Of course I have known God all my life. I knew right from wrong, I prayed to God, my mom took me to church when I was a child, I asked Christ into my heart in 1999 and even attended church occassionally with my husband and children, but with every step that I take in getting my life right with God brings more and more freedom to my existence.
Hhhhmmmm....my pastor has been teaching "Freedom for Gods People" for months. I just realized how free I am. Thank you Jesus.

About a decade ago my husband and I decided that cursing should not be a part of who we are. It's kind of like the saying goes "WWJD". Well, he sure wouldn't use that language. Altering some of our vocabulary was a small step, nonetheless it was a step in the right direction.
Along that same time, the weight of "living in sin" was really setting in close to my heart. I never thought I would trust any man enough to say "I Do". I guess that was partially due to my mom and dads "I DO" not lasting. After contemplating on what I believe, right from wrong, and how strong our relationship was I decided that there was nothing left to do but say "I Do".  That moment changed us both. Of course we came home and lived the same lives that we had been living for the two years prior, yet it was soooo different. We spent our honeymoon discussing how different we felt inside and how right we felt to be living by the Bible.
Fast forward six years and tons of lottery tickets later. I used to joke that we would have to win at least a million to break even. We used to never miss a Powerball drawing, until out of the blue I came to the conclusion that I am far too blessed to play around with that mess. So, here we are, two years later...and haven't bought a lottery ticket since.

This year, Brookelynn began asking when were we going to start going to church? Thank you Jesus for that. We had taught our children right from wrong, we had told them about God and we had even visited church a handful of times.  I realize that wasn't enough. Devin is fifteen, Brookelynn is nine; my time to lead them in the right direction is now and I am so grateful that we began attending church six months ago, both my kids gave their lives to Christ and that we will spend eternity together as a family. One thing is for sure, I am loved...and so are you.

Game Day

What a busy and tiring 3 days we have had. I cant believe tomorrow will be Monday already.
Friday...Stroker and I went to Lebanon to get the roof vent fixed on the trailer since our last attempt to do it ourselves didn't work out. It was supposed to cost us a lot to have it worked on, but we were blessed with a bill of only $16. While the trailer was in the shop, Stroker and I went to Mt. Juliet to kill some time and eat lunch.  We got back to Cookeville just in time to pick up the kids from school. We got tables, chairs and a bounce house loaded up and headed to Dash's very 1st birthday party...sorry, I didn't take my camera.  We brought our the fire pit there too and had hot dogs and smores. It was around 11pm when we got home...What a day.
Saturday was the last cheer practice for Brookelynn. I went to White County to pick up Katlin and she went with us. While the girls practiced, Erin, Katlin and I ate a quick bite at Neeley's BBQ and took in a few sites. On our way home, Katlin had a wisdom tooth to start hurting her a bit. She thought she could tough it out at first, but later decided she needed something to help. We ended up making a run for pain reliever and orajel. We got home around 7:30, but the guys were gone to the TTU game and didn't get home till after 10pm. Tech won, so Devin was pumped up.
Sunday morning we were early to rise. We hit the Interstate at 7am. We got the girls dropped off at LP Field at 8:30,  forked over $20 to park and joined a tail gate party till time to head to our seats. It was a great game. TITANS WON. Katlin joined us for the game today too. She has luck like mine. As we were tailgating, her flip flop broke.
Again, we were blessed...it just so happened that Brandon had a pair of tennis shoes back at the car.

 

Resting Up

We have kind of kept to ourselves this week. We went out to dinner a few nights (Logan's, El Tap, & Olive Garden) by ourselves. We hung around the house most of the evenings, except for Wednesday when we went to church. It has been a pretty peaceful week. Getting ready for a busy weekend I guess.

The New Facebook

Um...is it just me, or did facebook just turn into a blog today?
I'm waiting for Mark Zuckerberg to "invent" the "facebook to print" just like "blog to print".  Hhhhmmm. he's pretty good at inventing stuff from other peoples inventions... or maybe he is just a better salesman.
I like one person's response to the "new" facebook. He posted "Funny how the more Facebook "improves" the less I use it".



Worn out from the Weekend

This past weekend was go-go-go. After we finally made it to bed Friday night at 1am, we didn't get up Saturday until 9:30. We had a couple of errands to run and I stopped by TJ Maxx for a quick run through before heading out to Nashville for another round of cheer practice. While Brooke and Ansley practiced, Erin and I went for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. After managing to getting through the traffic at Green Hills Mall and in to the Cheese Cake Factory, we found that the wait was about an hour. So, we scrapped that plan and headed to Noodles and Company. Either it is pretty good stuff or we were just really hungry.

 We got back to practice just in time to pick up uniforms and our game tickets. When we got back to Cookeville, We met up with Gary, Darlene, Stacia, Jett and Dash for dinner at Cheddars.

Sunday, was church and a trip to White County to visit with mom. We ended the day with a trip to El Tapatio.

Birthday's and Bon Fire's

We just got in from celebrating Stroker's 36th birthday. We have sit around the fire pit for the past 4 hours. We had hot dogs, smores, cake and ice cream. I think we had about 25 guests total. It sure was fun.

We went with a Michigan helmet for the cake this year.



I also just finished Dash's 1st birthday invitations. They are cute cute cute.

Accomplished

Whew...What a day

• Stroker made it back to work this morning after taking the day off yesterday to let his stomach virus subside.
• I was making sweet tea and a veggie tray before 7am this morning for a retirement party today.
• I also picked up Stroker's Michigan Helmet birthday cake today (that didn't turn out so good).
• Brookelynn and Devin both had dentist appointments this evening.
• Brookelynn missed her piano lesson due to her dentist appointment.
• Brookelynn and I attended a "31Gifts" party at Stacia's this evening. I bought a cool tote bag (that I will probably never use).
• I managed to squeeze in a trip to Lowes for a few supplies.
• I got the refrigerator cleaned out, not that it was a hard task being that it was pretty much bare to start with. The shelves were due a wipe down.
• I got a new Babyliss flat iron for my hair. Hopefully it won't damage my hair. I had a lot of dead ends cut off a few days ago from the torture of my old flat iron.

It's 10 pm and I am feeling sort of accomplished today.
Oh yeah...I left my very first Facebook comment last night, now I am taking a FaceBreak ;)

Too Sick to Drive

I got a text from Stroker at 2pm that simply read "My stomach feels sick". I totally blew it off as the left over Red Robin burger. At 3:11pm I get a call from Brookelynn..."Mom, daddy just threw up all in the truck, you are gonna have to go pick up Devin from school". By the time I got Devin picked up and got back home, Stroker was cleaning his seats and wiping off his dashboard.

That wasn't the last round either. Through out the evening it kept recurring. Brookelynn and I felt so bad for him. He has not heaved so hard or been this sick since our trip to Vegas. At least this time we aren't 1,900 miles from home.

Monday's Mission

Sunday, after church, we drove to Doyle to attend a fund raiser for my sisters church's "help center". The menu was a taco bar and desserts. Afterwords, there was an auction of baked goods and other goodies. As a combined effort, we won a basket full of Reece's Cups, Popcorn, Pepsi, Milk Duds, Cracker Jacks and Doritos. Devin managed to clean that basket out in one night. We seen daddy pass by as we were leaving Darlene's church so we pulled over and talked to him for a few minutes, then we stopped by moms to check in on her and catch the last 4 minutes of the Titans game. I guess you could say we watched the Titan's lose. Dinner Sunday evening was at Mildred's. Darlene and Gary joined us there too.
Today, after checking around at a few trailer supply vendors, I found that we would have to either drive to Lebanon to get a new roof vent or wait two weeks on shipping. So we made the drive. One of my many reason's for loving my husband is that he is NOT lazy and he is NOT a procrastinator. Wait...I think that is two of the many reason's that I love him. Anywho, when there is something to be done, he likes to get right on it and finish it. I am certain he will have the new vent cap installed tomorrow.
After picking up the new roof vent cap, which was only $12 thank goodness, we went to Red Robin and made a quick run through Target before heading home.

nine-eleven...ten years later

Today marked the ten year anniversary of 9/11 and I know it was on every radio station and every TV channel since Friday, I still plan to share my nine-eleven story.
We had all just finished our morning break at work when one of my co-workers returned with the story she just heard from her husband. She had phoned him during break just as she routinely did every morning. She began telling us that her husband described every channel broadcasting a "breaking news story" of how an airplane had just flew into the the World Trade Center. We all stopped to discuss how such a thing could have happened and how we thought there were two towers at the World Trade Center. Shortly after, the radio stopped playing and went to newscasters who shared the news that the second tower had been hit and America was under attack. At this point, there was only one thing on my mind...my kids. I had no idea what was going to happen next, how many other places were to be targeted or if this would be the last of the attacks. I couldn't believe I had a five year old son who is growing up during this and worse, there I stood there eight and a half months pregnant getting ready to bring another child into this world. Just as the rest of the world, I too was in total devastation. Nothing of this magnitude had ever happened in my lifetime.

Although we all stood still and tried to grasp the events that were taking place, time kept ticking and the world kept spinning. The Towers crumbled, thousands died. War began...and some soldiers are still fighting, but we all move forward as One Nation Under God.

Saturday Seven

1. Stroker took my car for an oil change and a car wash. 
2. Breakfast at IHOP
3. Broke the roof vent off the enclosed trailer. When people tell us it's ok to drive through their yard, we are going to ignore them next time.
4. While having the electrical wiring moved for our new master bathroom, we wound up with a hole in through the roof.
5. Sat in a 40 minute traffic jam on I-40 West due to weekend construction...Uuuuuggghhhhh
6. First 2011 Jr. Titan's Cheerleading practice.

    7. First night game ever for Michigan...and the WON! 

Fabulous Friday -3rd Edition

Our day started at 5:30am with breakfast at IHOP. Devin even joined me and Brookelynn this morning. Not only did we enjoy a nutritious and delicious (wink wink) breakfast, but we were running on time.
There was a tribute program in remembrance of 9/11/01 held at CHS this morning that I wish I could have watched , but today's agenda just wouldn't allow me the time.
The sun shone and the mercury rose today for the first time all week. It sure was nice to see the blue sky again.

  This evening, we met up with Gary, Darlene, Jett and Dash at the Fall Fun Fest on the square for BBQ, music, and fall fun. Bucket, Jennifer and Libby met us there too.
Gary bought some grilled corn on the cob that everybody was asking him about. No one could figure out where the booth was to buy their own ear, so Gary spent the entire time he was eating his directing everyone else to the booth. The kids found a "build your own" snow cone wagon.

My sister surprised me with a Jewel Kade charm that I had taken interest in at a party a couple of weeks ago.

Fantastic Friday...Absolutely!

Now, I have to get rested up for the rest of the weekend that begins with an 8am oil change tomorrow.

Blah

In looking back at this week thus far, I mostly think of rainy days and cool temperatures. Nothing really stands out to me for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (except for church) or today for that matter. It's been sort of a blah week...not that I am complaining or whining. Sometimes it feels nice to have down time. Especially when the upcoming weeks seem to be crammed full of places to be and things to do.

Life is not just about planning for tomorrow, but it's about experiencing joy in the gifts of the present. (Insert piles of applicable scripture, inspirational quotes, and other advice here.)

BTW: I hope the title of my post doesn't give me the Drouillard Family Blog jinx. They used that for a title and haven't posted since February.

I Won...I Won !!!

Yes!, for the second time this month...my five words were chosen.

Okay, so its not really a big deal at all. I am still taking the bragging rights.

It's a blog that I follow called "Five Words". Each week a subject is posted and you leave a reply in only five words. I won this week and I won two weeks ago too! This week I read the subject aloud and Stroker blurted out five words, so in a way he is the winner this week...but I am still claiming the win as my own :)

You can check out "Five Words" HERE.

You are welcome to compete with me too with your own five words.

Saturday Seven

Time has slipped away from me this week. I think the sunny days are partly to blame for that. Lets see if I can sum up five days in seven sentences.

• Went shopping for a new shower unit and offically picked one out.
• Cleaned out the room (again) that will soon be our brand new master bathroom.
• Darlene joined us at church Wednesday night for bible study and then she treated us all to 32 degrees fozen yogurt after bible study.
• Helped Brookelynn with a science poster project (Plant Cells & Animal Cells)
• Delivered Delano and Stacia's new 55" TV for their bedroom that they purchased Wednesday.
• Looked at some river rock for the landscaping around the house.
• Spent time in the evenings out on the back patio with iced tea and serious conversation.