Christmas Cards 2010

I know, it has been almost a month since my last post. So sorry! But time is just getting away from me. I know I promised you some first, and I will get to them, it just may be after the first of the year. But I promise, I am keeping track of them all and will get them posted. Remember, I keep this blog as record of all the fun things Mattie May does, so I have to get them in here eventually.

I can't believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. As much as I love Christmas and Easter, I do think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We spend time with family on every other holiday, but they all seem so rushed and commercial. Thanksgiving almost gets overlooked. For us it is a time of visiting with those who have traveled to see us and this year, on Saturday, we will be going to visit Ralph and his family. We are hoping that some day we will be able to actually spend Thanksgiving day with them, but it just isn't in the cards right now.

One thing I have done this year that I can almost not believe, I have my Christmas Cards ready and waiting for stamps. Yes, your read that right. They are done, addressed, sitting in their pretty white envelopes waiting for stamps so they can be dropped in the mail. Surprising, I know!

If you have read my blog for long, you know this is a big deal for Frank and I. They are special to us, and we put quite a bit of thought and work into them. This year, there is a change! Oh don't get to worried. They are the same yet different. There is a special scripture and of course the picture of Mattie May, but the style is a bit different. Sorry, but they haven't been mailed yet, so I can't share them just yet. But I probably will next week. In the mean time, scroll down to the tags on my right side bar and click the Christmas Card tag. It will bring up all the post of my past Christmas cards.

I can give you a hint - the scripture comes from Ephesians. I am afraid to give more than that. If you keep up with us and Mattie May, if I am more specific, you would probably figure it out! I promise, you won't have to wait long for the results!

I hope you all have a safe and fun holiday. And if you see me Friday morning, be sure to say hi and tell me who you are. I will probably still have sleep in my eyes and won't be able to focus very well. And I don't see that good anyway!

Y'all have fun and remember the number one rule of shopping on black Friday - HAVE FUN AND KEEP A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!!

We Have Survived and We Won!

Walmart at 5AM! lol

My alarm went off at 3:00AM, we left the house by
3:25AM, arrived at Walmart at 3:40AM and only had to park about five spaces out! YeeHaw! We had time to make a loop around the store to find the items we wanted then we took up our post at our selected pallets. At five minutes til five we could hear the wave of shrink wrap being removed (shredded) from the pallets so we started pulling. I grabbed a Cricut (which we decided not to get by the time we left the store) and Katie grabbed "The Jeep"! She is the winner of the day!




There were eight jeeps on the pallet and 15 people waiting to get one. The 'sweet' lady next to her, that the top of her head struck her about mid armpit politely looked up at Katie and told her "I am not afraid to throw elbows!" Can you believe that? Katie had already made an alliance with a young man standing with her on how they were going to get two of those off at once. She looked at him and they grinned at each other. Then she turned that 'sweet' lady and replied "My elbows hit higher!" The man that was with her started laughing and that was about the time the shrink wrap started flying. Their alliance worked out. They both walked (ran) away with a jeep and we finished our shopping. She hurt her arm in the process (she has a gigantic bruise on her bicep and a scratch on her chin) but she got the jeep.





I promise - she was polite to everyone, but that lady was rude. Katie did NOT throw any elbows! We left Walmart by 6AM and headed to Sam's. The wait at the check out was worse than the wait till five o'clock. We hit several more stores and met up with the cousins at Kmart then we were home by 8AM.





I have had my nap and am headed back to my aunts to visit with the family. I hope each of you has had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday. I have had so many blessing to thank God for this year and I hope I have not forgotten to thank Him for any. I pray that the coming month is fun for you and that we can all remind all those that seem to have forgotten why we are actually celebrating.





And finally, two things I thought would never leave my lips - GO BAYLOR AND GO OSU! (Ouch! That hurt!)





God bless you all!

IT'S HERE!!!!!

Well, we are all stuffed turkeys, UT beat A&M, we have had a wonderful day and there are only 4 hours left on my ticker!! God has blessed me beyond belief and I am going shopping in the morning! See you all at Starbucks!

I am Thankful For...

It is the time of year people start thinking about their many blessings and things to be thankful for. I had an email this morning that talked about the blessings that we should be thankful for. One of the statements was "I am thankful for a leaking roof and a yard that needs to be mowed because it means I own my home to make repairs on." Really that is a great sentiment. I am so very thankful for this old house of mine, even though the carpet needs to be replaced and the linoleum is peeling off the kitchen floor. I am also thankful for the husband I share this house with for so man reasons, but because on nights like tonight, he can make those repairs and I don't have to call in a professional.

My kitchen sink stopped up and the Drano didn't work. So, bless his heart, Frank set about getting it cleared and and cleaned up and even had time to spend on Mattie May.

Pipe snake - $27.00
Meal from EIEIOs because no water in kitchen $25.00
Being married to Frank for almost 25 years PRICELESS

Skunk - A Black and White Terror

I had popped over to Jessica's blog and reading her story made me laugh as I remembered the events of Thanksgiving 2006.

We had decided to spend Thanksgiving weekend with my dad and family at the deer lease. All the others stay in RVs but the cookshack was mine and Frank's. Now, I am not a snooty person who is above staying at Motel 6, but I do like to have a place to sleep that is warm in the winter and cool in the summer and a place where I can shower and, well you know, without going outside. The "cookshack", as we called it did provide both of these and was much better than staying at "Harvey's Cabins" (yet a post for a later date). This building has a large room that serves as the living area and the kitchen. The bathroom is a passageway between the kitchen and the bedroom. See the picture? Nice decor, huh, and check out the tissue dispenser. There is a shower on the opposite side, only, the sheet metal is blue and the floor is concrete. There is no sink in the bathroom so hands have to be washed and teeth brushed at the kitchen sink. The bedroom is has bed (for lack of a better term) and pressboard walls and ceiling. Someone did go to the trouble to decorate the ceiling with plastic glow in the dark stars. It was home when we were at the lease and it kept us warm and out of the weather.

At the front of the cookshack is a screened porch that runs almost the length of the building. The screen door doesn't have screen any longer but does have some wire attached to the bottom to keep the critters out. It is not The Ritz, but it does keep out the weather and has hot water, really hot water!

This was Mattie May's first Thanksgiving and they were going to be with us. Frank, being the wonderful grandfather that he is, went shopping and had her all decked out in her first camo outfit, from her bucket hat with a big safety orange bow all the way down to her tiny feet in hiking boots. We were having such a good time.

The owner of the lease lived up by the entrance and had aquired two labs. They were both about a year old, a black and a yellow. And labs are normally good dogs, but these two had no manners. They seemed to think they were ours anytime we were there. With nimal lovers in camp and having dogs there ourselves, these two were also fed and watered regularly.

I know this is a lot of information, but I have to paint this picture for you.

On Thanksgiving night we started preparing for bed because, being so close to San Antonio, and there being a new Bass Pro Shop, we were getting up early to go shopping on Black Friday (special, two game cameras for $79.00, it was worth the drive). We had noticed the dogs had been hanging around and had been barking but we just thought they were barking at the coyotes again. We never noticed any other commotion. The kids settled in on an air mattress in the living room and as he was brushing his teeth, Frank noticed the outside light was on. He opened the door and that is when it came in.

Oh, the odor! Those wonderful visiting dogs had a fight with a skunk right at the screened porch! The odor permiatted the entire shack. You know the smell. Driving down the highway you pass a dead one on the side of the road and the odor fills the vehicle. Well this time it lingered. After about 30 minutes it was so strong that it went from the skunky smell to a very strong smell of ammonia and that smell just got stronger and stronger. Frank decided the dogs had killed it right outside the door or that it chased off the dogs and was still hanging around outside. He grabbed the gun and went outside. The air was actually better out there than it was inside. The culprit was never found, dead or alive, and the the two labs were hanging out just dripping in the stench from that little fellow.

We tried and tried to get that smell out of the house but it was there to stay. We thought about just leaving for SA that night, but stuck it out. The next morning when Poppa came in from his RV and told us the smell was stronger in there than anywere else in camp.

That weekend we just crammed everything in garbage bags knowing full well that everything was going to have to be washed once we got home. After we got out of there and home, we realized that Mattie May's full can of formula had soaked up that smell and had to be thrown out. Even the air mattress made of rubber, plastic, or whatever, had the odor attached permantly attached to it and after laying out across the fence for a week, had to be thrown out.

Months later, as we were cleaning out the cookshack, the odor still lingered. Even leaving the doors and windows open didn't help. Everytime I smell that stench now, my throat closes up and I get sick to my stomach. But the weird thing is, every time we think about it we start laughing. Isn't it strange how some of the worst experinces in our lives become some of our favorite stories to tell and pass down. Even though Mattie May was too young to remember, I know I will tell the story to her enough that she will be able to tell her children and grandchildren. "Thank Lord for the time we are given with our family and even the bad bad situations that turn into funny memories. And thank you for not letting that little guy get in the building!"