HERE'S THE GRANDKIDS . . .

The ones who were able to come to Thanksgiving dinner at the house this year. Aunt Sarah took this photo. Thanks Sarah!

Here's who you're looking at from L. to R. (standing in back) Ashley and Alyssa Ridgeway (Susan's girls), Caitlin McOmber (Sarah's daughter, Megan and Julie Dyer (my girls), Ian McOmber (Sarah's son and standing in front are my wee ones--Jono and Carly. Missing from the picture are two of our girls who weren't with us this holiday our oldest Katie and middle daughter Sara and her husband Stephen.

Hope you had a terrific holiday weekend! We did!

SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR . . .

We had a houseful today. It was the good kind of houseful. Family. Our kids, my sisters with their families and, of course, my parents. Mom and I baked all day yesterday and part of this morning. My sisters both brought their goodies and my niece Caitlin made a yummy blueberry pie. I can't forget to mention that my hubby baked the turkey. He always does our turkey and it's always so perfectly moist and tender. Well, enough about food. It was just so great to have so many of us together. We were missing our daughter Sara and her husband and our oldest Katie. Other than that everyone was here.

I think we managed to tire Grandpa out pretty quickly but he stayed upstairs till the bitter end. Sarah and Grandma helped him back downstairs as Sarah and her family were leaving. He rested for a few hours and I checked on him just before starting to write this and he was sitting up watching TV and looking and feeling much better.

Our daughter Julie came up last night and spent the night but had to be back home this afternoon so she could work her retail job for Black Friday. :( We were grateful to have any time at all with her today and even more grateful that Susan and Russ could give her a ride back.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is here and almost gone already. This year has gone by so quickly. My little kids are growing up so fast. There are so many things I am grateful for but family is one of the biggest. I am so blessed to have a loving husband and kids I love so much. I am also grateful for my parents and siblings. I'm grateful to have been born in this wonderful land of freedom and plenty that we all too often take for granted. And I'm grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ--for my Heavenly Father and my Savior. There are many other things I'm grateful for but those are the most important.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We sure did!

SIX YEAR OLD FOR RENT!

Have you ever felt like giving a doctor a piece of your mind for keeping you waiting for a long time? Have you ever had other things to do but you were stuck in a doctor's office way beyond your appointment time? That's happened to me lots of times but I've never had the nerve to say anything about it. Even if they have  apologized for being late, I have always said "Oh, that's alright" even if it wasn't. I've never wanted them to make them feel badly about making me wait too long.

Well, the other day I had an eye appointment and I had to pick Carly up from school on my way to it so I just took her with me. We waited for a bit before I was called in. Then they did some tests on me and sent us to another waiting room. They called us back in and did some more tests and had us wait some more. Carly does not like to wait. She kept telling me how bored she was and that she wanted to leave. I tried to keep her entertained but that's not real easy in a doctor's office. We waited about ten more minutes and then the doctor came in. Before he could even get his whole greeting out--my sweet little six year old loudly said "FINALLY!" I was surprised and mortified! Thankfully, the doctor had a sense of humor. I apologized and told Carly it was not appropriate behavior but the Doc said it was O.K. because he didn't enjoy waiting in doctor's offices either. He engaged Carly and joked around with her about it so I guess it didn't bug him too much.

Anyway, if that kind of thing ever happens to you--I have a 6 year old for rent! Lol!

IT'S ABOUT TO TURN WINTER HERE

And I'm not ready for the cold. We are supposed to have a huge Winter storm coming in starting tomorrow evening and going through Monday. Don't get me wrong -- I love snow. I just don't love the cold. Wish I could have it both ways.

We took the kids skating last night and they had a blast. Rob even skated with them. I did not skate. I ordered us a pizza and watched the coats and took pictures. Important "mom" duties. Trust me, no on wanted me on wheels. I am a whirling dervish on wheels. Heck, sometimes I don't need the wheels! Seriously though, I am so out of control when I get on any kind of skate or ski. Look out world! Let's just say I know my limits and I've learned to mind them. Hahaha!

I can hardly believe it's almost Thanksgiving, which means it's almost Christmas! Time sure has gone by fast this year. So much to do and so little time to do it in. Well, better get some sleep so I'm up to doing it.

DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST PAYCHECK YOU EVER GOT?

Do you remember how excited you were to get paid and to see all those dollars add up? Do you remember being surprised by how many of your dollars disappeared to taxes and Social Security before they even made it to your check? Yah, me too. It was pretty frustrating. Okay, frustrating is a nice word. Maddening is probably the better word.

My little girl has had a couple of opportunities now to do some movie work. This last one she got paid $100 for and she was excitedly waiting for the check to come. Well, it came in the mail today and she was struggling to get it open. She asked me to help her, so I did. When I got it open I showed it to her. It was for $90.81. I was surprised ~ and I said, "Oh, I didn't realize they would take taxes out of your check sweetie. That's interesting." She grabbed it and looked at it and immediately the meltdown began. I mean--the full melt down. You know--the melt down WE ALL WANT TO HAVE every time we see how many federal, state and Social Security taxes are taken from our checks!

I had a hard time not busting a gut that my 6 year old was so upset about it! She doesn't even need $100.00 let alone understand how much it is--but she was so genuinely upset they took her money! Her "mad" went on for several minutes!

She finally started to feel a bit better when Grandma mentioned that maybe when daddy filed her taxes she would get all of her money back. Lol. I'm pretty sure all is well now--as long as she gets a tax return! Hahaha! (p.s. I'm not telling her over half of what they took out went to Social Security and she won't be getting that back. I suggest you don't either! Lol!)

I just wanna kiss those tears away!

Sure love this sad little face!



 

NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN

The kids had a church program today. They had to memorize their parts and both did really well. Getting there was the hard part. So much drama--so many "I can't(s)"--at least from my little girl! Jono's part was really easy (very few words) but Carly had to memorize John 3: 16 and she had never learned words like "begotten" and "everlasting" before. While we were trying to commit it to her memory she kept saying "God so loved the world that he gave his only forgotten Son" . . . Lol. Took us a few days to wipe out "forgotten" and replace it with the right word. Luckily she performed flawlessly! No one was FORGOTTEN~Yay!

WHERE'S MY MICKEY MOUSE HAT?

Jono left his hat in Grandma and Grandpa's room so you know what that means. Possession is nine tenths of the law. Yup. You guessed it. When Jono came back in the room - this is what he found:


He was not amused. Lol!

Maybe that will teach him not to leave his things where they don't belong. Yah, probably not. But one can always hope! :p

FIFTY-SIX YEARS AGO TODAY . . .

Something AWESOME happened. Dun, Dun, Dun . . .


These two amazing people married each other
November 7, 1958

And they are still hanging out with each other today
Ain't that sweet!
November 7, 2014

JUST FOR TODAY

Today has been a busy day. I started the morning out early getting Carly to school, then one of my nieces arrived to spend a few days with us. After that I had a doctor appointment with a NEW DOCTOR (see old blog about losing mine to Obama care.) Still not happy about that one! Then Jono, my niece and I went to lunch. We had Chinese food--okay, it was Panda Express--but it was as close as we could get today. Lol. The rest of the day went on about the same, one thing after another keeping me busy.

Tonight before dinner I helped a woman who was looking for a certain kind of job find one. Then after dinner, I helped a man re-work his resume. I am actually really enjoying my calling as the employment specialist. I just wish I had more hours in the day to do it. I currently have about twenty people who need help and I wish I had more time to help them all--so I could get them working or help them get better jobs more quickly.

Grandpa had an off day today. Grandma stayed close to home to be sure he was alright. We weren't sure if he just wasn't feeling good or if one of his medicines got mixed up but he was really sleepy all day and didn't have much interest in socializing. He was doing better tonight, though and seemed more like himself.

Rob's brother is doing better. Actually, I can't remember if I even blogged about this or not but Rob's younger brother had a massive heart attack last week and came very close to dying. He hasn't taken really good care of his health over the years but we still were not expecting this. He's not completely out of the woods yet but it does look like he has a chance at recovery right now.

MY JULIE ANN

I am so proud of my sweet daughter Julie! For the last 5 days she has been in Kentucky working her heart out for team McConnell. It's not so much that we were huge McConnell fans, though I am now since he provided my daughter with such a terrific experience these last few days.

Julie is a Political Science major and was offered an internship to work on Senator McConnell's campaign during the days running up to the election. She has spent these days working the ground game for him along with other college students from around the country. It's been a fantastic experience for her and she met lots of new friends and even a few of the senators. See the proof below.

I guess one of the things I really love about how much she loves her major and how much she loved being a part of this campaign--is that it's one of the few things she got from me. I couldn't give her the DNA she carries or so many of her early memories--but there are little ways this little girl -- okay big girl is mine too. Her mom and I truly share her. But it makes my heart smile when I can see just a tiny bit of me in her. I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART JULIE ANN~YOU DID FANTASTIC WORK!!

Julie with the new Senate Majority Leader
(I'm sure he owes it all to her--Lol!)

And here she is with Rand Paul. He just kept stalking her until she'd take a photo with her. (kidding)



Jules with Rob Portman