Tuesday, December 30, 2008

I Am:

Tired, exhausted, hopeful, prayerful, waiting, patient, worried, nauseated, sad.
Did you know that you could have that many emotions running through you at once? I don't think I did. My grandmother had a bad day today and they ended up putting in a chest tube and increasing her ventilator settings. They say that she has ARDS. If you don't know anything about that, it's not good.
I know that whatever happens, God is in control. He is our great physician and no matter what the men/women with their college degrees say, anything can happen. It is so hard to just sit and wait. God is definitely trying to teach my entire family patience and understanding that is for sure. But I will tell you it's not easy. It's hard! Sometimes I think that I have too much book knowledge when they start spouting out medical terms and I have a tendency to think way too much!
It doesn't matter that there are about 15 people from my family/mom's church in the waiting room at any given time throughout the day. It's a lonely place! I keep reminding myself of the verse "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Deut 31:6
It's hard. Really hard. It's hard to eat, hard to sleep, hard to focus, hard to wait. Everything is just hard.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Was Yesterday Christmas?

Boy, has it been a crazy week! In my last post, I let you know that my grandmother was going to St Vincent's. She's been in the hospital or rehab center since Dec 5th. On Tues, she was brought down here to another hospital and was intubated and on the ventilator less than 24h later. She was admitted to the ICU and I cannot sing their praises enough! All of the nurses and doctors that have been on her case have been wonderful! She definitely has a very long road to recovery ahead of her, but I am trusting that she will keep improving. She was better Thurs, and was even opening her eyes and attempting to smile at me and my sisters. It truly made me feel a lot better seeing her trying to communicate with us as best as she can.
I am just really glad that we had planned to do our Christmas with my mom's family on Saturday, so she didn't miss that. This is my work week, so I am completely exhausted! Trying to go to other Christmas get togethers between visiting hours, working at night and attempting to sleep has proved to be a little more difficult than I wanted it to be! It's okay though.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Pray!!!

Please say a prayer for my grandmother. She has been in the hospital or rehab center for the past 3 weeks and tonight she is in the ER. They are in Cullman now, but are probably going to be transferring her to St Vincent's tonight. She has pneumonia and now it is worse and she is having some difficulty breathing. I was at my church tonight for the Christmas program serving coffee when I got the call. I just want to say that I have an amazing group of Christian friends and ladies that I serve on the hospitality team with! I love you guys and thank you so much for your encouraging words and prayers! I will close with this Bible verse, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:20.

Merry Christmas!

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Monday, December 22, 2008

Not Me Monday!


Over on MckMama, every Monday is "Not Me Monday." This is so that we can all divulge in the things that we most certainly did not do this past week. I thought that after my crazy week last week I would share my did not list with you all.
1. I did not get a notice that my car insurance had been cancelled due to non payment on Tues. I did not realize that I have had no insurance in over 1 week. And I most certainly did not forget my checkbook, have to go to the ATM and get cash since they do not do credit cards. And finally I did not drop my debit card in the floor on the way out of their office just to drive back to the insurance office for the third time that day.
2. I did not stand in front of my open blinded window and change my shirt so that people walking by can see me and my glory-because who really does that?
3. I did not go shopping every day and forget to do the one thing that he asked me to do for the week. I would never do that because I am the perfect wife. :)
4. I have not put off wrapping all of the presents that I am giving for Christmas and blogging about all the things I did not do this past week.
That was pretty fun, I think I might have to join in on the confessing more often. Check out this post for more Not Me Monday confessions.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Tonight...



Guess what we are doing tonight-


"Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead? "
That's right, off to the Alabama Theater we go to see our favorite Christmas movie! Can't wait!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Christmas Card

WOW! It's my 100th post. Who knew I had so much to say in 6 months!?!
I would like to join Faith and her Christmas card carousel. I made 2 cards this year. Unfortunately I am only able to share one since my camera is on the outs, but this one is the favorite of our family. I ordered them from Vistaprint, and I think they turned out really hilarious! On the inside I signed them from Gus & Frankie Hall. Enjoy!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Rockettes!

My sister Kali suprised me and my mother for Christmas and took us to see the Rockettes as our gift. It was so great! I had seen the show while I was in NYC a couple of years ago. The show was a little different since it was at the BJCC and not in the Radio City Music Hall where all of the history is, but it was still an awesome show! Kali told me that the show started at 7, so with her working day shift and driving home to Cullman, then back to Bham, we didn't get to meet up until right at 6. I was leaving my car in the parking deck at work since I had to work after the show, so we decided that since we wanted to eat together, we would just eat in the cafeteria. When we got to the show, we noticed that there really wasn't anyone there, then I looked at my ticket. Well guess what, it didn't start until 7:30. Kali felt bad since we would've had time to eat somewhere besides the cafeteria, but we did have a really good laugh. We had plenty of time to scout out the place and go buy a program.
The show was amazing! I just love the way that they incorporate the true meaning of Christmas! The manger scene was definitely my favorite! They had camels, sheep and a donkey. All the while singing We Three Kings of Orient Are.



The LED screen behind them was amazing. It was definitely in high definition and while the Rockettes were on a bus tour, the picture on the screen made it look like we were really there. I loved NYC at Christmas! All of the lights, trees, windows...I want to go back now! So, thank you to my sweet sister Kali, who really "stepped out of the box" for our Christmas present! She's really not that into plays or musicals, but she did it for us.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Venting...

I just got home from work and I feel like I need to vent a little.
Situation number one: I bought a box of tangelos from someones child at work. She brought them to me yesterday and I forgot to take them home with me and they were in a box in a chair in our nurse's lounge. This morning, I pick them up to bring them home, low and behold, someone has just decided to help themselves to half of MY box of tangelos. I had not even had one. I ask around, well of course no one saw anything because who would steal someones fruit right in front of someone else. I am trying to convince myself that apparently they needed the tangelos more than I did, they just were too ashamed to ask for them. And maybe that will be all they have to eat today. I just hope they don't get too much reflux from all of the citric acid they will be eating.
Second situation: I am on my way home talking to my mom and my mother in law calls me, (I work with my MIL) leaves me a message informing me that on the unit right beside ours, rumor has it that I am pregnant. Well, since I am not, that was news to her and she just wanted to let me know and make sure I didn't forget to tell her something. I called the person that asked my mother in law to see how that got started and why that was brought up. She says, "You were walking funny this morning." REALLY!?! Call me crazy, but pregnant people don't start walking funny until the third trimester and you would think everyone would've known if that was so-especially my MIL. And for the record- Just because I have gained a few extra pounds, doesn't mean that I am with child. I AM NOT PREGNANT. Don't ask!!!!
So what to do now. Definitely start back exercising and eating less and maybe tonight I will put up a Ten Commandments sign at work and highlight the DO NOT STEAL one.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Publix trip

My loot:
1 box Publix hot cocoa mix (penny item)
2 boxes Pop Secret
1 bag Tostitos scoops
5 lb flour
1 each Scotch gift wrap tape and packing tape
1 bag mini marshmallows
4 cans green giant veggies
1 jar Mt Olive dill pickles
2 jars Ragu pasta sauce
1 pouch Idaho instant potatoes
1 bottle Juicy Juice
1 Lysol bathroom cleaner
1 3lb bag apples
0.89 lb bananas
2 pkg brown sugar
1 3lb bag white potatoes
1 family size bag frozen green giant corn
2 8oz Kraft cheese blocks
1 gallon milk
2 Smart Balance butter tubs
1.5 lb lean ground beef
I saved $4.50 in MFC, $4.18 for the penny item and doubled coupons, $32.11 in advertised specials, and $0.40 in advantage buy savings.

Visit Sarah @ fiddledeedee, to see how everyone else did at Publix this week!

Christmas shopping deals

Well, I really haven't posted much lately about shopping. That doesn't mean that I haven't done a lot of it though. Thanksgiving weekend I got online a did a ton of my Christmas shopping. I did everything through ebates so I have earned a little cash back on all of my purchases. Some of the highlights of my shopping venture:
NY&Co:
I bought 2 sweaters and a watch for $45.xx. $10 of that was the shipping charges, but I think that's pretty good for what I bought. Especially since it equalled 2 people checked off my list.
Lucky Brand:
On their website everything was 40% off. I bought a pair of earrings and a bracelet for $45. My husbands family loves some Lucky Brand jewelry and for two pieces, I would've paid over $60 in the store. One more checked off the list.
Sephora:
My 14yr old niece wanted some good makeup brushes, so Sephora had emailed me a $15/30 purchase. Through ebates, I got a code for free shipping and a makeup case with 15 free samples. I bought her a set of brushes, gold glitter eye shadow, a huge sephora brand makeup palette, plus the normal 3 free samples with an online purchase and the 15 other ones-all for $55.xx-Another checkmark!
Victorias Secret:
Everything was 20% off, so I bought 3 sweaters and a pair of pants for $84.xx. I must admit that the pants and one sweater will be mine, but I LOVE their Boucle sweaters!!! Plus the other 2 sweaters checked 2 more people off of the list. I do feel somewhat guilty now though. I spoke to my friend Jennifer a little while ago, and she bought the same sweater I did and when she received her package, found out that they were out of stock and the sweater had been canceled. I just received my box-I must've gotten the last one. Sorry!!! If it makes you feel any better, I tried it on and need to loose about 5 lbs before wearing it in public. I immediately grabbed a bottle of water, put on my tennis shoes and walked around my neighborhood.

I did several other transactions and my checklist for Christmas only has about 4 more people left. Mostly the men in my life. It is always so much harder to shop for men to me. I do however have Kent done. Not too shabby for a weekend of shopping.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Wish List

The other day Trina posted about some of her wishlist items. So today, while my hubs is at a meeting, I thought I would indulge myself with my list. Most of these things, I will definitely keep on wishing for since they are a little pricey. But that is okay. We can dream right!?!





1. The Kindle-It's like an ipod for books. This is amazing and expensive.




2. Uggs-I bought a pair a couple of years ago. I love them! They are the most comfortable shoes that I own and I love these sweater boots! Kent thinks they are UGGly!!! But I love them!



3. The DVD set of Planet Earth-It's really amazing to watch and I would love to be able to watch the entire season.


4. This coat-It's gorgeous and my favorite color!

5. This shirt-I saw it at Christmas Village and wish now that I would've bought it.

6.This shirt-You can never have too many white shirts!

Well, that's all I will showcase today. There are many other items, but I don't want to look too greedy. :)

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Today...

So I finally started putting up my Christmas tree today. I am pretty excited! I have it together and all fluffed out ready for the ornament. I haven't been able to get everything out of the attic I need, since I don't really want to break my neck. I was able to get a few things out though. So I can at least get started. I did all of the decorations on our floor at work for Christmas, so I was feeling a little overwhelmed with all of it. I finished at work on Monday night. I did the tree, hung icicles and snowflakes from the ceiling and decorated the bulletin board. A few of the icicles had already fallen before I left on Tues morning so I hope no one gets injured. Anyway, I finished up my Christmas cards yesterday and plan to mail them out on Monday. I think that they turned out great! All were hand made by me so that makes them so very special. Tonight we are suppose to be going to Kent's family Thanksgiving. Trying to coordinate all of our different schedules has proved to be quite difficult. I think that I may develop an ulcer trying to figure out Christmas. Anyway, I am about to go and make an apple pie. I had to go to WalMart and get a few things before I got started. Well, they now have a coinstar machine. I took my big bag of change that totaled $34.30. My total for what I bought was $39.xx for the stuff to make the apple pie, squash casserole, brownies for a Christmas party tomorrow night, and a few other things. I was pretty excited. Especially since I left my debit card sitting on the table. YEAH!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

STOP!!! Go to these links ASAP!!!

I don't know what you are doing, but you need to stop whatever you are doing, and go to these links and check out these awesome chip in giveaways!!!
The first is from Lianna. I have posted about Lianna before, but this is huge!!! She is a young woman struggling with infertility. Her and her husband are raising money to go toward their third IVF attempt. She has an anonymous friend who donated a Kindle for her next giveaway. OMG!!! Have you seen this thing!?! It's like an Ipod for books! It retails for over $300. There are specific rules in order to get your name in the hat, so please read the steps carefully!
Next we have MckMama. If you have never read her blog before, you will totally be amazed!!! A quick summary, she was told early in her recent pregnancy that her baby would not make it. She was hospitalized for quite a bit of her pregnancy. None of the doctors thought that she would give birth to a baby that would survive. Guess what? She gave birth to a healthy full term baby boy! She is raffling off a Canon Digital Rebel package! It's an awesome prize package! Each ticket is $10 and all of the proceeds benefit 3 different organizations that are detailed in the post. I also added the link on the top right for more 411.
So like I said, Stop whatever you are doing and take a few minutes to read about the chip in giveaways and do what you can! These are some amazing ladies!!!!!