Thankful for my blessings

Today I am thankful for God, my husband and my children. Without them I wouldn't be where I am today.

My husband has been by my side for over seven years, through thick and thin. I can't put into words how wonderful he is to me and our children. I'm thankful for his good work ethic, and determination to always provide for his family.

I'm thankful for my son, and my daughter. They are my little miracle babies, the ones I thought I would never have. God is so good, he always knows what we need and exactly when to give it to us. His timing was perfect. These two little bundles of joy bring me so much happiness and love. They fill my life with laughter and good memories. I would do anything for them. Some days they can be more than a handful, but still I wouldn't trade a single second of our time with them for anything in this world. Each day goes by and I feel like there is no possible way I could love them anymore than I do, yet they always find away to make sure my heart is overflowing with love for them and from them. There is nothing comparable to the love of a child.

I am forever thankful, because I know at any moment any of these things could be gone. I cherish every second of every day that God lets me share with my family. 

Scarecrow Trail at Huntsville Botanical Gardens

Each year for fall Huntsville Botanical  Gardens puts together ''Scarecrow Trail'' various businesses, schools, groups etc. get together and make a scarecrow for the trail. It's always fun to go to the Botanical Gardens, we go multiple times a year.

 Fall is always extra fun though, we get to see all the creativity and hard work that is put into each scarecrow. This years theme was ''traditonal''

So one day Making Connections got together to set up the Autism Awareness Scarecrow. I don't get to be as involved with the group as I would like to be, and I was off the day they were setting up so I decided to go. Debbie did a fantastic job with the design. It's hair was spray painted and it had cute little iron on puzzle pieces all over it's overalls.

It turned out to be such a cute scarecrow too! After that my friend Whitney, my daughter and I all enjoyed a lunch at Clementine's at the Gardens. Then we took a short tour around the gardens, skipping most of the different sections of the gardens. It was so hot that day, and I had to pick up my little man from school so we were rushed for time.

Whitney working on the hair.

Little Miss Sassy working on his ''stuffing''

After it was all finished

How cool is this? I love the sunflowers, they add a nice touch!

Angry Birds made out of gourds and plastic jugs.... pretty neat! 

 

 

Giant Lilly pads in the water garden.

If you've never been you really should make plans to go. Fall is the perfect time, the weather is cooler, the leaves are changing and who doesn't love scarecrows?

 

Day 13 {This week}

• Sunday - I spent the entire day at home being lazy with my family. We watched Fast Five, and it was just as good as seeing it the first time.
• Monday - I did a ton of laundry. After my Hubby came home from work we all went to Costco. I got a bunch of stuff we needed. Afterwards the babies and I went out to eat at O'Charley's with some friends. Then we went to Target and I bought one of baby girl's Christmas gifts.
• Tuesday - I stayed at home all day procrastinating even though I had a billion things to do. I did manage to get a few things done at home though. I even caught up on blogging. 
• Wednesday -  Someone knocked at the door in the morning. I opened it to see our neighbor and her daughter. They said ''We have bad news'' I stood there looking at them in shock and said ''What's wrong?'' They didn't say anything they just stared at me. I realized exactly what was wrong. I said ''NO!!'' and they both started crying,I started crying. Their two month old baby girl ''Amaya Faith'' had passed away. She was doing so well,they were even saying she would be home at the end of the month. This was a shock to everyone. Her mom had went for her nightly visit, she changed her diaper and it had blood in it. She got the nurse right away, the nurse took the baby to the doctor on call. He immediately sent her for x-rays. It showed that she had air in her belly. At midnight they took her in for emergency surgery. She had a hole in her intestines due to a bacterial infection. Normally they would be able to repair it. Hers was so bad that there was nothing they could do. They took her off of her machines, and let her family hold her until she passed. She left this world at 4:53 am November 9th, 2011.  This family has become more than just friends, they have become like family to us. The rest of my plans have been cancelled for the week. I can't believe I will be attending a funeral for a two month old baby girl. I never in my life thought this would ever happen. It's heartbreaking. I know that God has a plan for everyone, sometimes it's just hard to understand that plan. This is the third baby they have lost, it just doesn't seem fair. I don't question his plan, I just wish I could understand a little better.
• On a lighter note it was Visitor's Day at ASD. Which meant that I got to take my little girl to her dance class and stay and watch everything she  has been learning. It was nice to be able to go, it was the only time yesterday that I wasn't constantly thinking of the baby. I am so proud of my baby girl. I was reminded yesterday of just how precious life is, and I held my kids even closer.
• Thursday - 
• Friday -
• Saturday -

Gatlinburg,TN

Our friends invited us to go to Gatlinburg with them, they completely paid for everything. The hotel,food, and attractions. The only thing I paid for was a few things for the kids and having a few ''Old time photos'' made. Such a blessing that we were able to go and that we have such thoughtful friends!




a train at the Chattanooga Choo Choo museum

 Saturday October 8th was the day we left. We stopped in Chattanooga. First we went to the Chattanooga Choo Choo and toured the museum, went on a trolley ride, then visited the gift shop. It was a lot of fun and my little conductor had tons of fun!


After that we took a trolley over to the Creative Discovery Museum it was a blast for all of us. We spent several hours there. I would love to take the kids back again sometime.

We stopped and got something to eat then made the rest of the trip to Gatlinburg. The weather was beautiful there, mostly in the 70's. The tree's were beautiful! We spent an entire day at Over Gatlinburg, we did the chair lift multiple times. We did the alpine slides, the water slides, the animal exhibit,the playground, the maze, and the train.                                                                      

We visited Fannie Farkles multiple times when we were there. The kids loved it, I loved it, lol everyone loves that place! The babies got airbrushed t-shirts, lil man picked Angry Birds, and Miss Priss picked out a ballerina one. She had her photos made at Ole' Thyme Photo. I think they turned out really cute despite the fact that she had a boo boo under her nose due to her runny nose that started Saturday.

One night we were standing outside of a candy store, watching them make the taffy. All of a sudden there was a man dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow! Not only did he look like him, he talked like him, and his movements were exactly like they are in the movies! We were quite entertained by him. My sweet angel said ''don't let him shoot my mommy'' gotta love the way little ones think! We explained to her that it wasn't a real gun, and that he was only wearing a costume sort of like Halloween, only it wasn't Halloween. She was happy with that and wasn't afraid of him anymore.

We went to eat at Texas Roadhouse, which has great food but poor service. The police were called there because the waitress added gratuity to a check, probably because she knew she wasn't going to get a tip. They wanted her to remove the gratuity, and so they called the police. There was a lot of yelling involved. Anyways I was amused by their high-chairs for the little ones! They are made out of old saddles! Cute idea if you ask me!

We had a wonderful time with our friends. I'm glad that my step-daughter was out of school for fall break and got to go too! I enjoyed spending time with her and the babies.

Monday we ate at the Pancake Pantry, lil man fell asleep waiting on his food. Out of the dozens of times I have been to Gatlinburg it was my first time eating there, I absolutely loved it.



Chocolate chip pancakes

 After breakfast we made another visit to Fannie Farkle's. We all played then cashed in our thousands of tickets for prizes. We walked the strip in Gatlinburg one more time, then started the trip back home. We stopped to see a small waterfall.

We stopped at a train museum in Townsend, it was closed but we still took photos of the kids with the old engine outside. Later on we took the Foothills Parkway, we wanted the scenic route home.

Along the parkway there was a place to stop and park. Then we had a half a mile walk up the mountain to get to what is called Look Rock. I managed to get a cramp in my calf during the walk up the mountain. It was well worth the view once we were at the top though. We could see Maryville, Cades Cove, Clingman's Dome and several other places from this one place. We got to see the sunset while we were up there, and it was absolutely beautiful!

Beautiful view from Look Rock

annual Fall cruise-in

The past several weeks I have been running around like a chicken with i.............(you get the idea) collecting items to stuff the goody bags,working with vendors and local businesses to collect door prizes. I absolutely loved it!


Yesterday has come and gone, I can finally say I did it. My first event as president was a success! We work with a local Ford dealership, to have an annual fall cruise-in. Its basically like a car show, only the cars  aren't  separated into judged classes. Instead we give out specialty awards and sponsor's choice awards. Proceeds benefit the Madison County Veteran's Memorial here in the Rocket City.

Everyone arrived Friday afternoon at 5:30 @ WAF to start stuffing the goody bags and setting up everything for the show. I slept a total of four hours Friday night. I got up at 5am Saturday to get ready to go back to the dealership. I arrived there at 6:30 am along with other members and WAF employee's to start setting up the registration tent, the t-shirt sales table, and the PA system for announcements and music.

Last year was a huge flop because of all the rain, we only had 53 entrants. This year we had a beautiful fall day, it was warm in the upper 70's and thankfully there was no rain. We had 89 registered entrants this year! Which is such a blessing! We had loads of fun. There was really only one thing that went wrong, and that was the fact that our microphone decided to quit shorty before our awards presentation.

There were several vendors on site, one selling lemonade, another selling coke and BBQ sacked lunches, a toy car guy, and several automotive vendors. After the show there was plenty of food leftover so it was donated to the local food bank.

I had a blast meeting new people and making new friends. Last year Sharon {who is our MCA director} brought her niece Karen along with her. Since it rained she decided to get into a water fight with one of the members named Skip. So it was only natural for me to help her keep the tradition alive.

I asked Skip to come over to where I was, luring him into our water fight trap. Karen soaked him, which was followed by a desperate attempt of retaliation. I unexpectedly got a TON of ice cold water poured over my head. It felt nice actually since I was so hot after being up on the roof. {myself and two others went up there to get an aerial photo of the car show, the roof is white and reflected the sun right onto us & goodness it was hot}

Tomorrow I go back to the dealership to hand off the money to be donated to the local Veteran's Memorial. Its still a work in progress. It feels good to be a part of something big, and to know we are making a difference in our community.
You can find out more about the memorial at this link Madison County Veterans Memorial

I can't wait for our annual May car show now! I'm already starting a notebook of ideas!

The Lincoln County Fair

Every year since I have known my husband we have made the trip to Fayetteville,TN for the  Lincoln County fair. It's become a tradition. We went before I was pregnant. while I was pregnant, and now we take our children there.

It's not just one of those carnivals that travels the country with a few questionably safe rides and a creepy clown. It's a full blown old fashioned county fair. A fair of a dying kind.

They have everything from rides, beauty pageants, livestock judging, 4H competitions, quarter horse races, cooking competitions, antique tractor display, demolition derby races, and so much more. Not to mention performances by country music artists Steel Magnolia, and Colt Ford.

It's almost like stepping back in time for a few hours. I have forgotten with the everyday hustle and bustle of adult life how much fun the simpler things in life can be. I enjoyed watching my children as they watched the hog judging, they informed me that it was the ''three little piggy wigs.'' I loved the excitement on their faces when we went into one of the barns and there were dozens of miniature horses waiting their turn to be judged, They were so cute almost made me want to bring one home! I can get away with telling people its a dog right?

Cotton Candy

As I walked around I took in all of the typical ''Fair'' smells like popcorn, cotton candy, funnel cakes, and so on. We tried just about everything. After all it only comes once a year so we might as well indulge ourselves. My babies are too small to ride most of the rides, so they had a few kiddie rides they could do alone. Then a few they could do with a parent. I let loose and had just as much fun as they did.  Seeing the excitement on their faces is just priceless. This was really the first year that they got excited about everything at the fair, not just the pretty lights. I could hear faint screams in the distance from the kids on the roller coaster and a few of the other rides too.                                                

                                                                              

I love that I have been able to share this experience with my children.  I hope this fair lasts for years to come. I wish that more old fashioned fairs like this would make a comeback. Maybe someday my children will still be able to take their own children to this fair or one like it. It saddens me to see good old fashioned fun events like this slowly disappearing. Kids these days are so wrapped up in video games and such that they don't do much of anything else. It was nice seeing all the kids in the arena with their animals for judging. At least someone is teaching the next generation how to carry on an old tradition.

It was an absolute blast! I would suggest this fair to anyone! If you are within a reasonable traveling distance it's well worth the trip!
  

                                                                               


Here is a link to their website http://www.lincolncountyfairinfo.com/map.html

and here is the link to their Facebook event's page                                          http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149866958400564