A Storybook of Grace

Born in Monroe, Louisiana during a heat wave.  Moved 23 times.  Lived in Louisiana (a few months), Florida (17 years), Georgia (13 years), California (2 years), Tennessee (7 years), and Illinois (2 years and counting).  Been skydiving with my sweetie.  Got married February 2005.  Been snorkeling with my Dad in the Keys and stayed at the Southernmost Hotel.  My mom and I setup a tent on an island and stayed the night.  We put up the tent all by ourselves!!!!! Spent close to two months in Boston while our son had two open heart surgeries.  Have had 8 children.  Volunteered at the Humane Society and Mease Hospital.  Am a deaconess at our church.    Drove from Georgia to California and then from California to Florida.  Marine Corps wife.  Baptized as a child, but baptized as an adult in 2007.  Have my associates and bachelors degrees in nursing.  Working on my masters degree to become a nurse educator.   Was employee of the month at Taco Bell.  Swam with manatees.  Mourned

  Hola!  I didn’t get to do my usual Sunday post!  It was a busy day with Panera for breakfast before church (our Sunday AM ritual), church, my women’s small group, Buddy time with Jessica, a makeup swim lesson for Jessica and Addison, and we had friends over for dinner.  Shew!   The rest of the week was quite busy, too.  I guess that’s how it goes after a two week vacay!  I had my normal therapy session with my counselor on Monday, Tuesday I had an 8 week post hysterectomy checkup, can’t remember Wednesday and Thursday lol???, and Friday I had to sign up Lucas for school next year, and I had a job interview EEK!  Saturday was swim for the girls, Sam’s, and we drove out to Chain Of Lakes State Park.  Oh and we’ve had sick kiddos.  Colds for most and Andrew also had a cold and threw up once.   Yesterday our pup chased after a goose and ended up in the middle of our pond and there had been some ice on the pond, but most of the pond was unfrozen and he got stuck out there.  It was so scar

 We’ve made it back to Illinois!  Our two week vacation to Tennessee was very much enjoyed, but it is good to be home.  We got back on Friday, which made it really nice to have the weekend to readjust before starting a new week and Sean starting back to work.  It was also really nice to have a two week vacation because we definitely felt like we had good time away.  We discussed rolling our time share week over every time now so we have a two week vacation every other year instead of one week every year.   And pleasant surprise, we came back home to the pond not being frozen any more, lots of birds, a beaver, and today it has been sunny and 60!  We also got to go back to our church for the first time since Christmas I think!!!!  yay!   And so nice to see the cats - they even acted like they missed us - and we got Connor back yesterday from Puppy Head Start Obedience training.  :). Time to start the week! 

Santa’s workshop (Santa’s Claus-et) Rare picture of all 8 kiddos in Pigeon Forge Kiddos with Santa.  Jessica was so excited to see Santa, she yelled his name and jumped into his arms  Hunter celebration part #3 maybe?  He had his friends over and they went to the water park and we had cake.   Here are his friends :)  Sean and I had a belated anniversary.  We went on an overnight - this is our hotel.  :). It had a wonderful water view and lots of rain came through so the noise of the river was awesome.  We kept our door cracked through the night and it was God’s natural sound machine for us while we slept. :). So nice!   Me and Dad.  He flew in on Tuesday and is staying with us a week.  It’s been so nice to have him here.   Connor back home in IL at obedience school.  We hear he is doing great! We’ve had all sorts of weather here - from sunny and almost 80, to cloudy, to lots of rain, to 50s, 60s, and 70s, to teens and 20s and snow.   Davy Crockett putt putt for Hunter’s birthday.  Nata

 We are officially in Gatlinburg for our two week vacation.  We left early Friday morning and embarked on a 10 hour drive.  We saw the remains of one really bad accident involving two semi’s.  Hopefully everyone was OK.  We actually made pretty good time.  We ate all our meals in the van, which we normally are very strict about and don’t do.  we just made sure we ordered less messy food ha ha!  We checked into our room, got unpacked, and finally all got to sleep around 2 am!   Saturday we stocked up on groceries and played mini putt and walked around our resort a bit.   Yesterday we went to our old church, Bible Baptist of E TN, and were there from like 1030 until like 530, doing church, eating lunch, and lots of fellowship with friends.  It was great to see everyone.   Lucas and Mr. Ellison at church.  Today is Hunter’s 11th birthday!  We left Connor back in IL for two weeks of obedience school!