Once in awhile.....

I take pictures constantly. There's a never ending stream of 'let me get my camera' or 'look at the camera' and my all time favorite,' stop clowning around so I can get a good picture for once!'

And finally it happened. Isaac was upset with Mackenzie over something, so he went into my mother's room, jumped onto her rather high sitting bed and was somewhat pouting. I came in, camera already in hand, and took a picture of his sad face. :( Then Ev snuck in and I started snapping silly pictures. And then, God stretched out his hand and said, "Jess here's something like a gold star.' and ~poof~ a perfectly beautiful picture of Isaac and Evan Grace together.

So stop holding your breath, blink once last time to make sure you're eyes are clear....and wait for it....


wait


for

it

 

Opening Toby Mac concert with B. Reith

Family Force 5

Relient K

Toby Mac

Ok this slide show has like 67 pictures but they are ALL worth it.

All Bands

What my sister and dad do for Christmas Eve.

The one my sister is holding is a 9mm. My dad,...a Rugar 22 automatic that my mom got him for their 1st year wedding anniversary if I remember correctly. All we're missing is Carver. He would have liked to have seen the gun show I'm sure.

Isaac at Gymnastics

He loves his gymnastics class. There are two other girls in his class, though one of them was absent the day I took the photos. :) I'm glad he enjoys it so much.

A taste of Christmas in VA

Just a little taste of the Christmas fun so far!!! Merry Christams to all my blog readers.

Happy Happy Birthday Baby

It's our little Maltiwaagle's birthday today. She's 1 and still as feisty and cute as the day we got her. :) I'd wanted a dog for many many years and after finding a good home for my Collie Corgi, Eve, before moving to AL I was very bittersweet about the whole 'get-another-dog' thing. I'm glad though that we have something small enough to stay indoors and hyper enough to play with all of the kids. She's a stinker a lot of the times and addicted to eating my tubes of chap stick, even the pink shimmer kind. I love her to pieces inspite of that. Especially when she wants to sneak under the covers at night to keep warm as she sleeps. Happy Birthday Daisy!

Let's Go, GNO!

Yes I really did just quote a Hannah Montanna song. Forgive me!!!! A group of us girls got together Sunday night at Salsarita's and had a great time of fellowship and food for our Girl's Night Out!!! We stayed so late that management was turning off the lights and cleaning up around us. Which we then decided to take our fun time out to the sidewalk in front of the restaurant for another 20 minutes or so. I hope I speak for all when I say we had a great time and look forward to doing it again. There was talk of a movie night for next month and I think that would be great as well. Enjoy the pictures....I just noticed that lovely Shemalya is cropped out of the one in the top right. I'll have to fix that and repost!!!

Oh if you're wondering about the lovely sock in the top left picture...well there's a wonderful storey behind it...and you'll just have to ask Leisha!!!

~Jess

Bridges

I've always had dreams about bridges, well, that and large amounts of water that I have to cross. From as far back as I can remember, bridges have jumped up to be a part of my dreams. Reoccurring dreams, new dreams, nightmare's, silly dreams, weird medicine induced dreams. It just doesn't matter.

Last night I had a brand new dream, with a bridge as center stage. I had a friend the first part of this year, pretty much tell me that I was not 'living', 'acting', as she would and that she no longer wanted to be put in the middle of whatever was going on that I was confiding with her about. The situation is complex but that's the jest of it. She never said she was going to stop being my friend, it just kinda happened, she sent an email and I called her out on it and was really surprised by all she had to say, mainly surprised at how she jumped to her own conclusions before talking to the sources first. So needless to say. That was the last time I talked to her.

It bothered me. Of course it did. I really enjoyed hanging out with her and her friendship. But what can I do? When I see her I still say 'Hi' and try to make nice, but it's obvious she doesn't want anything to do with me anymore.

I'm not sure why I dreamt about her last night. We'll call her 'W' to make it easier.

'W' was on something of a bridge. It wasn't over water, but it was obviously the only way to get from point A to point B. Apparently at some kind of check point. Getting permission to cross the other side of the bridge. I was standing with other people that I didn't know, above the bridge, just hanging out watching the activity below. I see 'W' approach the 'permission counter' and state that she's moving. I didn't actually catch the name of the place she'll be living but I knew it was out of state. Way out of state and country.

Then for some reason I jump the little ledge thing I was standing on, and as she was walking away I call her name. She turns around, and it's 'W' but not, she's skinner, her cheeks more pronounced; her hair fuller than it usually is. She's younger.

"You're moving?" I ask.

"Yes, to Cancun.' W replies

"Why?"

Turns out her husband had a new job. She said they are leaving all her house business to her older kids to handle, but that it's not sold and she'll not be back ever, as far as she knows. There's a sadness to her face and voice and I'm torn between saying more than that or just letting her go. The crowd serge's and then she's gone.

I end up going in the direction of her house, and like everytime I've dreamed of her house, there's a corporate business in front of that section of town that you have to go through, physically walk through in order to gain access to her house. I'm in that building when my dream ends.

So why in the world blog about this? I don't know, maybe because I'm getting a cold and feel sorry for myself? Maybe because I don't realize how much I miss 'W' until I let my guard down. Maybe because right now my life is in chaos and I'm connecting the two together? I don't know. All I know is God works through good dreams, he doesn't use fear or sadness, or scarey things to talk to us in our dreams. But I know He's dealing with me on a lot of my issues...and maybe I'm just a little raw.

Bridges and water.....I think I need to look those things up in a Christian dream book.

My kids the Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Snowmen and Reindeer Puppet

I found these craft kits at Wal-Mart the other day for $4. I love doing crafts with the kids but let's face it, the more pieces I have to track down in order to make a craft the less likely I am to do it. So when I see things like the above kits I'm all over it. (They had a Santa Claus one but since we don't do Santa we skipped over that. The Elf was cute but the kids went for Snowman and Reindeer)

I helped with taking the backing off of the stickers and they did the placement. Ok, ok, I had to do the antler's too and the carrot nose because it folded once you stuck it on. But the rest was all the kids. Aren't they cute?

My favorite thing about them? The bags are a thick almost velvet/felt material and are really sturdy. The dog got hold of the reindeer and aside from a minor antler incident the puppet is still in great shape. Just thought I'd share a little bit of how we're getting into the holidays. I just wish Mackenzie could pull herself away from The Jonas Brother's long enough to have done one herself. LOL.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

We were able to make a trip back home for Thanksgiving. The first Thanksgiving we've been together in 5 years I must say. My sister was sick so she wasn't able to make it but her hubby showed up and entertained us with stories as always. It as snowed the day we drove in and was snowing as we left. I hate I didn't think to get a picture of that. I use to not care for the snow but now that I don't get to see it every winter,...I do somewhat miss it.

Emeril Turtles

My sister purchased some pots and pans by Emeril and opened them up while we were in Virginia for Thanksgiving. Evan Grace and Isaac love boxes so of course they wanted to play with the big box. I didn't give a second thought to the cardboard inserts that put into each pot and pan to protect it from the other cookware as it ships. That is until Evan Grace ran into the room, grab one up and said, "It's turtles Isaac," and ran off to show her older brother her 'turtle.' Here she is holding up the 'turtles' head for the camera. Her imagination amazes me at times. :) I even let her bring some of her 'turtles' home with her.

BRACES

Ok, here's the very first picture of Mackenzie's journey of braces. She got them on the Monday before Thanksgiving. The 24th. She had a lot of pain later that night due to the Diasy Chain they put on the front 5 teeth on the top. It started closing the large gap between her two front teeth within the hour as you can see below. The gap is almost gone. Other than that night she's done very well with them. She's eating like she's suppose to and brushing after every meal like a good little trooper. I'm so happy this isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Whew.