Bring on the Holidays

Jett and Hollyn's first birthday party was Saturday, November 18, 2017. There was high winds and storms predicted all day. Thank goodness they had an indoor party.

We went to Chili's for lunch after church on Sunday, November 19.

I also visited my daddy for a while.

 Dr. Nash and I went to lunch at Cheddar's. Monday, November 20, 2017. 

What is with the new name anyway? 😕

I don't know about you, but I don't wanna know what they are scratchin' in the kitchen. 😨😝

I made chili for dinner and had the kitchen cleaned by 5 pm

We let the dogs in for a while on Tuesday, November 21st. They took naps.

We had a set up on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. Devin and I had it done quickly.  We had time to relax and get ready for the holiday.

They finally got the date of death put on moms headstone on Wednesday.

On Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 23, 2017, I got up, thought about mom for a while and decided that today is the first day of New Thanksgiving traditions. I have never missed a Thanksgiving dinner at my moms in my entire 41 years of life. I am so very thankful for that.

Just like the Dr. Seuss saying goes...

So, today begins the first year of New Thanksgiving traditions.

I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade just as always.

Then, I laid around on the couch for while till time to go to Mildreds for dinner.

We also got a text from a girl that used to be in our class on Wednesday's. It was so sweet that she thought of us and was Thankful for us 😊

I got the Christmas tree put up on Friday, November 24th.

While everyone else is either shopping for "black Friday" or sleeping all day from "pitch black Thursday all night shopping", you can find me at home dragging out the decorations.

Maleigha and I had our 6th annual Christmas shopping trip on Saturday, November 25, 2017.  We hit a lot of stores in Murfreesboro and had the best of luck with good parking spots and uncrowded stores.

 After church on Sunday, November 26th, we had lunch at El Tapatio.
Later, I went to Sparta to gather moms Christmas decoration because I thought now would be the prime time to donate all of them.
I took a picture of the TV stand because I will be in charge of getting rid of it since I was the one that bought it for her.
The sad part of this photo is the reflection of her empty chair. 😢
The chair too is mine too. I bought it to rock Devin in when he was born. There is still sooo many things to find new homes for.

 On Monday, November 27, 2017, I cooked ribs in the crock pot, worked on Christmas cards and watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I also left an ink pen on the couch which bled on the cushion and left an ink blob.😟

I sold 21 of the new toys that I invested in on Tuesday, November 28. That made for a good day of sales. Brooke and I also put Christmas lights on the spruce trees outside. It looked pretty janky, so we didn't take a picture.
Before Church on  Wednesday, November 29, 2017. Brooke and I met Heather at Tech and walked around the quad to check out the new Christmas lights.

Thursday, November 30th was Sharon A's annual "Nibbles and Sips" Christmas drop in. I was one of the first ones to arrive. 😄  What can I say...they had me at "Nibbles and Sips" ...and those tiny chocolate pies go fast 😋
I got a few decorations set on the porch. Kimba just likes to photo bomb.

That's November 2017 in a nutshell.

When God Shows Up...and Shows Out

Feast of Thanksgiving was Sunday, November 12, 2017. We stayed after church to help set up the tables.

We had a great turnout and tons of food to share. So glad we were in town to enjoy it again this year.
We spent Monday, November 13, 2017 heading south.  When we got to our resort and got checked in, we headed to the hot tub to relax.

Tuesday, November 14, 

we had breakfast,  headed to the convention, bought Slide Slick, rode rides, tested equipment, and finished our day with dinner at Ruth's Chris.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017 was AMAZING !

We walked down the boardwalk at the resort to start our morning.

Stroker told me that we had to be at the drawing today because we were gonna win. I replied "okay" 😉

We spent the day at the convention checking out all the new stuff. At 3:30, Stroker told me we needed to head outside for the drawing so we wouldn't miss it.

We got to the booth at 3:45 and the drawing wasn't until 4pm. Needless to say we were right up front. They chose a little girl from the audience to draw the name. As she reached in, I said a prayer. "God, I know we don't need this, but we would like to have it. If you think it would be good for our business..." 

(The little girl drew and name and the the guy patted her hand to drop it and told her to "go deep") 

I finished my prayer...."Thy Will Be Done"

and the little girl reached deep into the raffle drum (packed with tickets) and pulled out a ticket that was written in red ink.

I told Stroker..."That's not us, I can see red ink"

He replied "That's my ticket... I filled it out with a red pen"

I assured him we were not about to win the grand prize but he said

"Your gonna flip out when they call my name"

Sure enough...it was his ticket.

I had tears in my eyes.  Not because we won, but because God led that little girls hand to the ticket that I was standing there praying about.  

God hears Me 😲

He not only hears my prayers, but He shows Himself to me right at the moment I am talking to Him.  It almost takes my breath to think about how much attention He gives me.  He not has a plan for my life, but He does things out of the blue  just to show me that He is in charge...Yesterday, Today and Forever.

I told Stroker all about it as soon as his photo shoot and Facebook live session was over. 

We finished Wednesday, November 15 with dinner at Texas de Brazil.

Thursday, November 16 was our final day at the convention. 

We were feeling a little bit like zombies ourselves by the end of Thursday 😵

We bought a football game toss, a snow blowing snowman, underwater phone cases, flying disco balls, slide slick and whatever else that I can't remember.

I drove the whole way home on Friday, November 17. I don't know how, but I never batted an eye the entire trip. I was wide awake, alert and on a mission.

Sweet 16

We ate at TN BBQ in Livingston Wednesday, November 1, 2017. It was the first time that we have eaten there. It was good, even though I was feeling a yucky.
 I was sneezing and sniffling all day.
Tuesday, November 2nd was worse. I had so much sinus pressure that I thought my eyeballs were gonna pop out.

I went home at 11 am and went to bed.
Friday morning, November 3, 2017 after I dropped Brooke off at school, I went straight to the clinic. I was the second one in the door. They must have felt sorry for me because they got me straight on back to a room. After my assessment, I got a shot and a z-pack

Wow! Those steroid shots are no joke. I was feeling better the same day. Friday afternoon, I cleaned the bathrooms at home, sat outside on the patio, invited friends over to hang out on the patio....I felt so much better.
We got a new puppy on Saturday, November 4, 2017. She is seven months old and her name is Lilly.

Kimba is not a big fan of her just yet and Lilly doesn't really understand that this is her new home yet either.
We went jeepin' for a while since the weather is nice and warmed back up for a day or two.  The leaves are beautiful. They must be in peak this week.

After church on Sunday, November, 5, 2017, we went to have a photo shoot for Brooke's sweet 16.

 We also went to Mildred's to have birthday cake with Bee.
We went to the DMV Monday, November 6, 2017 so that Brooke could take the drivers license test. Her instructor even wrote "Good Job" on her form. She also told us that it is a rare occurrence that she gives any test taker a "Good Job".
While Brooke was taking the test, I was busy helping Dorothy renew her license on the kiosk.

Brooke and I had to go by the insurance company and add her to the policy.
We had dinner at Olive Garden for her birthday and celebrated with a sweet 16 birthday cake.

 On Tuesday, November 7, 2017 we went to Poet's and had coffee while we met up with Phillips to talk about business practices. 
We had church on Wednesday, November 8, 2017 and Brooke had her first chorus concert on Thursday, November 9, 2017.

It was a Veteran's Day program. Stroker and I went to listen and it was beautiful.  

The doggy's were starting to warm up to each other by Friday, November 10, 2017.

They were started to play and sniff around like dogs do. 😝

We went to dinner at Anchor Down Friday night with the Paramore's and Roberts.

We had four set ups on Saturday, November 11, 2017. That was more than I expected for mid November.