Pictures

I got your comment Tonya. I don't know what is going on. The pictures of the bed was there, and now they are gone. I guess they are not showing up for some reason. I am to tired to check it now, but if they don't come up in a day or so, I will check on it.

Fun Friday

I survived with one hour of sleep last night. We started our Friday off very good. We had a free day with school. Kevin took Courtney bike riding on the Greenway. Courtney would not let her dad take a camera. I have no pictures to share. You see Courtney never was interested in riding a bike until the past year. With us living in the country she only has grass to ride it on. Kevin was nervous about taking her to the Greenway, but he said she did great. They rode for about 2 miles or more, and Courtney only had two wrecks. LOL "ONLY "
Bless her heart, she has skinned elbows and her hands are messed up. She also has a Huge bruise on her leg, and some skinned up places on her side. Other than that, she had a great time with her daddy.

Brooke and I met Sonya, and Katie Lin at Chuckie Cheese. I have not had time to download my pictures yet. You can go to Sonya's blog to see a few that she has. After Chuckie Cheese we went to Katie Lin's house so her and Brooke could play. They had a really fun time. Sonya got a splinter in her finger from one of the toys that the girls was playing with. So Sonya and I had to dig that out of her finger while the girls played. It was not a small splinter either.
Brooke and I finally left. I had a 40 minute drive home. I was looking forward to getting a small nap when I got home. Brooke fell asleep within 5 minutes after we left, so I knew my nap was out. We got home at 3:00. I was going to bake some brownies for later that night. I discoverd I had no eggs. I did not want to get back out. I went to the store and bought the eggs and came back home.....tired.

My Friday night plans turned into a lot of fun. The young boys from our church, had a camp out with their dads. Most of the people in church have boys, so it left many of us ladies home alone. We don't have boys, but Kevin worked last night. Heidi and I decided to play some games at her house. Of course Kelly and I wanted to teach her the game Tuck. We ended up with 7 children at the house and 4 adults. The children did great. All of them ended up going to bed except Courtney and Alicyn who would stay up as long as they could. I did not get in bed until 1:00. My mom played Tuck with us also, so I decided to spend the night at her house. I never do that, and I probably will never do it again. Her house was so hot compared to mine. I had Brooke in the bed with me, and she tossed and turned, and hit me in the face. I could not sleep good because I was afraid Brooke would roll off the bed unto the hard wood floors. I had put pillows down, but I was still nervous. Heidi wanted me to go to some Yard Sales with her. I have not been to Yard Sales in a LONG time. She said she was leaving at 6:00. There was no way I was getting up and leaving that early. WRONG>WRONG>WRONG................. I only slept one hour. I could not sleep for some reason. I tossed and turned for ever. Finally I got up at 4:00 and decided I would go with Heidi. I am glad I went. I had a great time, and got some good bargains. I bought Brooke a tricycle, for $5.00. It was a metal one. ( Very pretty.) Brooke loves it. She can reach the petals great. I also got me a bubble gum machine on the stand for $5.00. I was glad to find that. Anyway that is my Fun Friday. I have a huge headache and my eyes are very red from lack of sleep, but I would do it all again.

Somebody's A Big Girl

With the Quilt

With the comfortor

Getting ready for a nap

Laughing, before bed time.

I bought Brooke this bed back in the summer. I have had it stored in our building. On our trip, Brooke slept in a big bed and did great. We decided to try out her big bed. She has slept all week in her bed and done great. I was going to paint the bed white, but I don't think Brooke will want that. She calls this her flower bed. I was talking about painting it, and Brooke said, "no, tats my flower bed"
I have a comforter and quilt for the bed. I can't decide which I like best. I may use them both, and switch it out. I really think the bed would look better white, with the bedding, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

For Melanie and Kelly

This post is for Kelly and for Melanie.
I am so sorry you guys are stressed. Did you know that stressed spelled backwards is Desserts.
Sending a little message to let you both know I love you.

Melanie, I hope tomorrow you have a better day. I wish I lived close enough to you, and I would come bring you some dessert, and I would eat it with you.

Kelly, I do live close to you...how about some brownies and a game of Tuck?

Desserts

3 months

Do you realize that Christmas is in three months? I thought about that today and I can't believe it. This has been the fastest year. It has flew by. I sure wish it would slow down just a little bit.

I went to let Brooke throw her passey to the cows, but the cows was not there.:(

Guess Who

Guess who this cute little country girl is? The video may not be that great because it was videoed from a tape.

Sweet Pictures

Brooke pulling her Dora bag, that had her toys and books in it.

I think the backpack is as big as she is.

Cutie

Brooke/campmeeting

Brooke and her little Friend Caden.

Libby and Brooke pretending to have a Tea Party.

To Cute.

I think Brooke had a good time. I think she would have had a better time if she would have not been stuck to me so much. I loved the meeting, but I have to say Brooke wore me out.
I had left Brooke with my Mother-n-law the day that my grandmother was so bad. When I saw my grandmother getting worse I decided I need to stay with my mom and the family. I called home and checked on Brooke. She was doing good, but she was asking for me. When my grandmother passed away the family still stayed for several hours until the funeral people came. I called home and ask my MIL to let Brooke spend the night. She said that was fine, that she was doing O.K. Well as soon as we hung up Brooke was screaming for me. My MIL did not want to call me because my grandmother had just passed away. I found out later that Brooke cried for almost a hour. She cried so much that she finally went to sleep. She would not let my MIL comfort her or rock her. My MIL said that Brooke would lay in the floor and cry and say momma. I did not know any of this until 2:00 in the morning, when Brooke woke up crying for me and my MIL called and said I might need to come get her. When I picked Brooke up her hair was matted together where she had cried so much and got tears and snot in her hair. Brooke clung to me and has not let me go very much since. I think seeing everybody crying at the funeral did not help matters. Leaving Brooke for 12 hours was to much on her and it really messed her up. The whole trip she did not want anybody but me. That made it hard because I was so tired anyway. If Kevin tried to comfort her she wanted no part. Kevin tried to help by taking Brooke to eat or to potty, and she would scream, "I want my momma" During the services she wanted me to hold her. Waiting in the line for food she wanted me to hold her. I have to say I don't know when I will be able to leave her again. You can not imagine what I went through this past week with Brooke. I had to ride in the back seat with her the whole way and the whole way home. Once on the way from the church to our hotel my MIL rode back there and Brooke cried and pitched a terrible fit. She was screaming that she wanted her momma to sit by her.
Brooke also stopped calling me mommy this week. She calls me MOMMA, and she says it really fast. She also calls her daddy DADDA, and says it really fast. It is cute. I have some funny things to tell you that Brooke said, but I can't remember them right now. I have them wrote down. One thing she kept saying was " I want to go to my real home." She wanted to come to our house with her babies. She was tired of the Hotel, so she kept saying her Real home.
Well that is all for now, I have to start school.

Courtney/campmeeting

Sisters

Courtney with several of her wonderful friends.
They was waiting for childrens service to start.

Jesse and Courtney

Courtney, with a new friend she met.

Courtney had a good time. She got to be with her friends that go to church with us, and then she got to meet some new friends. She was not ready to come home.

A little Blessing

Thank you all for you prayers and your kind words to our family. The funeral was last Monday. My family wanted me to read a poem about my grandmother. I did not know if I could with out crying. I prayed for God to help me and he did. I was able to read the poem with out breaking down. It was a sad time for us, but we was able to think on the good times, and that helped.

We had made reservations a while back for camp meeting. Many people think of camp meeting as tents, playing volleyball, and eating hot dogs. This is not a camp meeting like that. This is a church camp meeting where we go and we get to see the many saints from all over the U.S.A who believes like we do. We get to hear the minister bring messages to encourage our souls and lift us up. We get to hear people give their testimony's on what God has delivered them from, and what God has healed them from. We get to see a body of people who have sweet unity and fellowship. Unity is a sweet thing in the Beautiful Church of God. It does not matter what color your skin is, the saints love you. I find it truly beautiful to see the saints come together and have such sweet unity. You don't see the ministers or the people fussing and fighting. You get to see a people who is living holy, and living a life that is pleasing to God.
Sometimes it is hard to describe. It is something you have to see for yourself.
I really felt I needed this camp meeting. I needed to go. The devil does not want us to receive a blessing. The devil did not want us to go to camp meeting. So many things came up the past month, and the devil was there trying to discourage me from going.
Kevin's truck had messed up and it was going to cost us around $1600.00 to fix it. We was able to find somebody who did it for under half that price. It still was a good bit of money, and the thought was coming to me not to go to camp meeting because we did not need to spend the money. I kept praying and saying "I need this camp meeting" I had been going through some tough things with just every day life, and I needed something to lift me up.
There is other things that came our way that the devil tried to hinder us from going.
Once I made up my mind that I wanted to go to camp meeting, my grandmother became very ill. When the family was called and told the bad news, the devil was right there telling me that I was not going to camp meeting. I started praying for God's will and for God to help us to be able to go. God did allow us to go, and I received such a blessing. I was tired because of the stress from different things, and also Brooke was a very big mommy's girl. (That is for another post)
Once we got to camp meeting we desired to give a love offering to help with the meeting. Money was also taken up for some work that was being done in New York. Kevin ask me what we needed to give. I told him a amount I thought. As soon as I was thinking about the love offering the thought came to me, ....why give that amount? Here it is all the bills are waiting on you when you get home and you guys need that money. Whew....where did that thought come from?
I knew that was the enemy talking. As soon as that thought came another came just give and you will be blessed. Of course the devil wanted me to think about Kevin's truck, our electric bill which was higher than it has ever been, and the thought that we had to order gas for the winter. I cast the thoughts aside and just kept thinking on the thought from God. "give and you will be blessed" That is exactly what God did for us.
When we came home I opened up our mail and there was a small check from Brooke's Doctor where they owed us some money. We did not even know they owed us any. This gets better.
Yesterday Kevin went to the mail box and there was a check from another source that we had no idea that we would get. God blessed us and gave us a extra special blessing. I got tears in my eyes as I thought about what God did. God knew those checks was coming and we had no idea.
The checks together covered our trip, the love offering we gave, and we had extra. God is so good to us.
I had to share the special blessing that God gave us. Maybe tomorrow I can update with some pictures.

SAD

Kevin, Courtney, Brooke, and I went to be with the family today. We got there at 1:00. My grandmother was breathing very hard, and things looked bad. She did not respond to us at all. Her little body was so small, but yet her hands was swollen triple in size. Her one side of her body was so hot, and the other side was so cold. Kevin watched my grandmother breath and he told me that he did not think she would be here very long at all. I decided I was staying and being there for my mom. Kevin had to work so he left and dropped Brooke off at his moms.
The time went by so slow. I hugged my grandmother and gave her lots of kisses. My grandmothers room was full of family all day. I went to the waiting room some, but most of the time I was right there. Kevin had told me what to look for when it was nearing the end. He said my grandmothers breathing would become very slow.
I did not want to see my grandmother suffer. She had so much fluid on her that you could hear it rattle in her chest. I begged God not to let her suffer. God answered that prayer.
I called home and Brooke was wanting her mommy. I told my dad he was going to have to take me home. I had this feeling come over me very strong not to leave. I started watching my grandmother and I noticed her breathing had slowed very much. I told my dad I thought we needed to wait. Within no time I knew the end of my grandmothers life was coming to a end. We all stood by her bed and held each other as my grandmother took her last breath. Courtney had been in the lobby and she came in when all this was happening. She took it hard. This child has saw to much death. Her pawpa died almost two years ago and she was there right after he died, and it really bothered her for days.
When my grandmother took her last breath Courtney saw it all. She was in complete shock. Please pray for her that it will not cause her nightmares are any emotional trauma the next few weeks. I am afraid it has been to much for a nine year old to see.
My mom, her brother, and sister is taking this so hard. Nobody is ready to give up a loved one. Everybody kept staying around. Nobody wanted the nurse to call the funeral home.
The nurses was so kind to all of us. All night they brought us food. After my grandmother passed away and we all had calmed down some, the nurse wanted us to leave the room for a few minutes. She changed my grandmother and put a pretty pink blouse on her and combed her hair and fixed her where she looked at peace.
We all came back in the room and cried some more. I did pretty good, until the funeral people got there. I still did O.K. My hardest part was........I decided to go to the waiting room so I would not see them leave with my grandmother. I also did not want Courtney to see this.
I rounded the corner and the funeral people had left the stretcher in the hall with this beautiful burgundy, velvet blanket draped on it. I cried my heart out. That was to much to handle. I went to the big waiting room where it was just me and Courtney and I let all my tears flow.
I am physically and mentally exhausted.
For now the plans are to have the viewing Sunday and the funeral on Monday.
Thanks to all who have prayed for us.

Susan, Thanks for your prayers and for bringing up my back. I am so sorry I have not posted to everybody. I am doing so good with my back. Thank the Lord!!!!! I am able to put my hose on again. That may seem crazy, but for months I could not lift my leg to put my hose on. I still have to be careful, but I am so much better. Thanks to everybody for your prayers.
Remember me and my family for the next few days. We need extra strength. I love all of my blogging buddies. (((((HUGS))))) to you all.

Thanks

Thanks for all your kind words and your prayers. Things are about the same. I appreciate all your kindness to us.

For Melanie

Brooke was playing and I was taping her. Some of the video is fuzzy, but I had to post it because of the things Brooke said.

Grandmother

The nurse called my mom today and said that my grandmother was dying. She said if anybody wanted to see her that they needed to come.
We have been with the family all day. My grandmother looks so bad. He eye site has left her, and her hearing. Her oxygen level has been very low. It ranges from 50 to 70 which is really bad, especially with her having the oxygen on her. At one point her blood pressure was 48 on top and they could not even get a reading on the the bottom number.
We know her time is drawing to a end, and it hurts. I was thinking about the good times today as I sat and watched my grandmother struggle to breath. It really hurt to see this wonderful lady that I have known all my life, fighting to live, but yet giving up.
I am thankful that God gave my grandmother 89 years. I am not ready to give her up, but I know she has gave up the fight. My grandmother is a fighter. She has had many rough times and many sickness come on her and she has fought and made it through. The nurses was talking tonight about how tough my grandmother is. I don't know how much my grandmother could hear. I don't think she is hearing at all, but Brooke leaned over tonight and she said " get better Annie Bell." When Brooke said that my grandmother moved some and looked around. Of course the nurses said her eye site is gone so I know she could not see us. It really hurt me to see her struggling. I also hated seeing my mom crying and so hurt. My mom is very close to my grandmother. We all will miss her so much. It is about 11:20 here, and I am so tired. I had to bring the children home about 10:00, because they was very tired and ill.
I will probably be off the net for a few days. Hopefully I can touch base again in a few days. I know the next few days are not going to be easy. Keep us in your thoughts.
Denna

Yesterday

Yesterday, the girls fixed a cake for their daddy. I have pictures of them mixing the batter. I fixed lasagna for supper. Kevin loves lasagna. I got my camera out to take pictures of the girls singing happy birthday to their daddy and my batteries was dead in the camera. I put more batteries in and they was also dead. I got Courtney's camera, and her batteries was also dead. I told Kevin it was just not meant to have pictures of his special day. He did not want pictures, because he had just woke up.
Kevin's employees gave him a party last night at work. The girls and I was going, but we changed our mind at the last minute. I was so tired. I also did not want to drive in the rain. I knew it would be late when we got home, so we decided not to go.
Instead Courtney, Brooke, and I played dolls. After dolls, Courtney and I played a few games of Monopoly junior. Brooke wanted to play, but she is to little. I gave her some of the houses to play with and that made her happy.
The rest of my week is pretty busy. Today, Tomorrow, and Friday we have to have our vehicles in the shop. Kevin's trucks gas gage is messed up. He ran out of gas the other day. That is the first time he has ever did that.
We have to take the Durango in for them to add a hitch and then do some warranty work. We have a full week ahead. I also have got to start packing for campmeeting. We are leaving on Tuesday. I was kind of dreading going just because of different things that we have been through lately. My sister court date is Monday, and that has really stressed me out. I have also had a really hard time with homeschooling the past two weeks. It has not went that well, so I was dreading going out of town. Then I started thinking about getting to see the different saints from other congregations, and I started thinking about how much I needed campmeeting, and I am ready to go. (Of course I have to pack) Sometimes our bodies and minds get tired from everyday problems, and when you go to campmeeting your soul gets fed and you get lifted up so much. I really think I need this campmeeting.
For now I must go. Courtney and Brooke are both saying that need help. (Little Brooke is saying she needs help with her numbers. LOL) Funny

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Kevin. I am so thankful that God let you live another year. I hope your day is great, and that you have many more birthdays. Happy Birthday.
Denna, Courtney, and Brooke

Faith

"We walk by faith, but we also wait by faith, and the waiting is as important as the walking"

Sweet Sixteen

Whispering to Austin to help her blow the candles out.

Making a wish with Austin's help.

Sweet Sixteen

Liz and her friend Michael

Clowning around. Austin was so happy to spend the weekend with all of us.

My niece turned Sweet Sixteen this past weekend. I can't believe she is 16. It seems like only yesterday when she was at my house and we was baking cookies and playing dress up. My how time goes fast.

Nightmares

I woke up this morning with a terrible headache. I had nightmares all night long. Normally I dream good dreams, but last night was bad. It was the type of dream where you wake up and you are so thankful it was a dream. It was also the type of dream that when you go back to sleep you dream it again with more details. The dreams was about death. I dreamed my mom and a friend died. It was a terrible dream. They went to a store and the store got robbed and the men shot my mom.
This dream went on and on. Every time I would wake up I was so thankful that it was a dream, and not real. The nightmare started again. This time we was preparing the funeral and it turned out that it was for Courtney who had been killed in a car wreck. I was crying and saying " I should of played Barbies with her more." The wreck had messed Courtney up so bad that we could not open the casket. I woke up so scared. I honestly can see where people have a heart attack in their sleep. I got up and had to go make sure Courtney was O.K. I got in her bed and wrapped my arms around her for a little bit. I was so thankful that my girl was alive.
I then got up and called my mom. OH how I loved hearing her beautiful voice.
Kevin said I had to much on my mind last night. I did. I was worried about my nephew. I was trying to clean some. In the middle of cleaning I realize that our septic tank is stopped up. Everything was backing up into the tub and shower. I had to to go outside at 11:30 and remove a pipe so that all the water would drain outside. I hate it when Kevin works nights.
Anyway with me having my party tonight it is not a good time for having septic tank problems. I also wander if a little girl did not put something down the toilet that she should not have. I ask her and she tried telling me something, but I have no clue what.
I am so thankful that those nightmares are gone and that they was not real.

Jesus Loves Me

This video is of Brooke singing Jesus Loves Me. I went into her room and she was playing her piano and singing. I have to say it brought tears to my eyes.

Labor Day Fun

We had a really great time at the Brands house for Labor Day. I have many more pictures, but I don't have any more time today to get them loaded. Enjoy the slide show.

Three Days Left

Three Days left if you want to order.
Just going to check one more time and see if anybody needs any Pampered Chef.
Surely there is somebody else besides me and Sonya that likes Pampered Chef. If you are not local and you want something you can still order. Click here.
For some reason the click here is not working. Scroll down and read Pampered Chef Two if you are interested.

Outside Fun

I got a power point program for my birthday. (My birthday was in May) I am just now getting it loaded on my computer. I think I am going to like it. Thanks Vanessa for helping me get started. There is so many things you can do with this. I really think I need to take a computer class. Vanessa was showing me all these things. I have did a few pages. I think they turned out O.K. I will not tell you how long it took me to do this page. I really have a lot to learn.
If you click the picture it makes it bigger and you can see it better.

Little Monkey

Pretty Girl

Super Woman

Chinese Balancing Act.
This child will try anything.