New post coming soon

But it's 2:15 and I just can't finish it tonight.

Caitlin's Christmas "miracle"

In my last post I referenced a story about the "miracle" Caitlin "made happen" or something else not like that at all. This post is the story about what happened that fateful day at the farm. What would have happened if we hadn't shown up? Read first, then I'll tell you. 

This is the entry in our Corsicana journal begun by Olivia and finished by Caitlin.  

December 22, 2014
Written by Olivia

Lisa, Caitlin, Emma and Olivia stopped by on their way home from Dallas. It's very sunny and windy and the sky is very blue with some wispy clouds. The grass is quite green and the pond is empty. We're going to sit for a bit and enjoy the weather and then go run some errands and be on our way. None of us think we've ever been here so close to Christmas before. Wal Mart was crazy but it was so much better than the Monroe Wal Mart. Lisa swears she'd come over here once a month to shop for groceries.  

Written by Caitlin
It's Caitlin taking over now. Today I made a Christmas miracle happen by liberating a cardinal from the chicken coup. The poor dear was trapped in there and begging us to free her. My cold, heartless family were just going to leave her, but I went to the red barn and got some pliers, then pulled the metal back just a little to make a hole for her. When Liv and I went back to check on her hours later, she flew out of the hole I made for her and tweeted, "Thank you Caitlin! You made my dreams come true!"

Call her dream catcher. She will answer. 

Orrrrr the bird would have flown out of the coup the same way she got in....orrrr she would have flown out the door when the chicken owner came to let them out and feed them.

Miracle maker? 

Or exaggerated  story teller. 

I know which one I'm going with....

Here's a new post

As you can tell, I've not been in the blogging mood for a while. Even with no shortage of things to blog about, its just not been a thing I wanted to do. There was Christmas and New Year's and John and Owen went to Pennsylvania and Emma almost moved to New York City. And I've just been blah. Blah blah blah. I get so tired of reading what I have to say.

But here goes again.... 

There was a pre-Christmas trip to Dallas by me and my girls, 

Christmas Dallas style.

Found another great book about me.

Found this ridiculous picture in the Sur La Table restroom. 

This is Becky's car. I'm not saying what I'm thinking. 

Restoration Hardware...

Had multi...

Multi use....

Glasses and Olivia tried them all on.

After Dallas we made a quick day trip to Corsicana where we found a Christmas tree in the street downtown.

And an inviting porch to sit on. 

We went with the intent of looking for some farm stuff for Christmas. We found nothing. 

But we did find a beautiful day with a big sky with wispy clouds. 

It was a perfect.

We rode around and saw Christmas Corsicana style. 

Then it seemed as quickly as we arrived...

It was time to leave.

But before we left, Caitlin had to take the time to write about her "miracle."

And I discovered something....

I love pictures of written words. Love.

As we were leaving town I saw these super cute toy soldiers beside the welcome sign and I had to whip around and take a pic. 

That's the closest to Christmas I remember being in Corsicana since I was a kid. And I don't remember any of those. It was a good decision to go. We arrived home on December 22nd. And that's the closest to Christmas I've ever been gone from home...since ever. 

Then Christmas was good and school came back around and other stuff happened I don't remember and I forgot some other stuff and....

Now to present day, or pretty close to it. 

These are the few things I remember that have happened lately. Every morning John gets his vitamins out and when he does he gets out a fish oil pill for me, and he sets it on the table by my seat in the den. Well, for about 5 days now my pill hasn't been there. I've forgotten until last night to ask him about it. So I said, "Hey, why haven't you been getting my fish pill out?" And he said, "I have." Well....seems that as John was leaving for work, he saw Addy with her nose in the air sniffing away. And then after he left, we believe she had herself a little snack, five times. Mystery solved. She had a good run though. 

The fish pill eater. 

Just a few more things...

The other night as Olivia and I were leaving Melanie's at 2:00 a.m., Olivia was driving and she was tired and then she or I said something about the next morning and then I burst into song, "Good morning, good morning!" (That's from Singing in the Rain.) And she immediately put her finger to her lips and said, "Shhhhhh." It was offensive. 

The other morning when I went to brush my teeth, I closed the door behind me, and as I was brushing I heard something in the bathtub and was all like, "whaaa?" So I hit the closed shower curtain and as I did I saw Milo the cat leap into the air about three feet. He had stealthily followed me into the bathroom to pee IN THE BATHTUB, and I'd never seen him come in. Because I was so annoyed, I thoroughly enjoyed his response. But lets be honest, I'd have enjoyed his response whether I was mad at him or not. True words. 

We went to a Super Bowl party at Jared and Colby's house the other night and had lots of fun in spite of the two teams playing no one liked. But, if a Manning boy ain't playing, I ain't caring.  

While there, James rode Texas 

And ate beads.

William reflected on his life thus far.

And rooted for football.

Don't know who he wanted to win.

And there it is, my first post in almost one month. 

Maybe this is a restart, but don't get your hopes up cause we shall see.

It's 2:05 in the morning and my pillow and I haven't seen each other in so long.

I'm out.

Sick

And tired. Two fever filled days have caused that. Yuck and ugh.

I'll be back, not sure when.

In the meantime, it was a multi layered kind of Christmas. 

These three were the stars of the show.

More later.

TTFN

It's Christmas Eve 2014...

I'm finishing last year's Christmas posts today. And I STILL don't feel bad about it. I have no idea if I'll wait til next December to post this year's Christmas celebration. I feel it will remain up in the air for some time.

I began this Merry Christmas Eve with the root canal of which I spoke last week. It was a doozy. They sent me home with pain meds and a phone number just in case. I'm concerned. I hope to stay unheavily medicated so as to enjoy the holiday. But again, it's up in the air. I spent yesterday wrapping gifts ALL DAY. Or some amount. The wrapping was due to a highly successful shopping trip to Dallas. In the three days spent shopping, we covered the four corners of the city spending at least 30 hours driving to and from, buying things necessary to buy. All wallets are currently on life support.

The day after Christmas John and Owen will be heading north to Pennsylvania for a visit with John's family as well as a Pittsburgh Steelers game on Sunday night. I have no hope the two males will Instagram or document in any way the trip and its proceedings. I've asked and demanded for that to happen, but my hope is lost before I had any. And to think about it, I'm not sure either knows how to photostream. A tutorial is needed asap. 

Last Christmas found us gathered in a cherry red room, in a familiar home, as we enjoyed the opening of gifts together. This Christmas will look different from any other we've had to date. Not that it's bad, just different. And as the years press on, it will take some getting used to, but new traditions can be fun, even if it takes some effort at first. But for now, lets look back to last year one more time and be thankful for all we've had in the past, what we have now, and what we will continue to have in the years ahead.

Never forget how precious our family relationships are. I don't take it for granted, because even with the tragedy we've had, we've truly been blessed beyond measure.

Very little commentary needed.

Just lovely memories.    

Is Austin Turner really number 1?

This was Owen's inaugural buying of a gift on his own. His first up? Maggie.

He knocked it out of the park.

After the ripping.

William had a great Christmas. 

Those are some big boots to fill. 

Iphone in the air. OMG.

I'm so grateful that in spite of all I'm not, God loves me anyway. I'm so glad He sees me through His eyes and not mine. SO happy about that. Because some days I'm a struggle. And I know that. But so does He. He knows me. He has been so faithful to me. My healed heart is because of Him. I know it. I will never forget the night Frank and Nina died, lying in my bed, so broken hearted I couldn't speak. I desperately reached to heaven, only capable of one word whispered to God. He heard me in that quiet pain filled moment. Long after that night, He told me it was the most powerful prayer I'd ever prayed. That's one of my secrets God and I've had. One of my secrets I'll tell on this Christmas Eve. I don't know why I'm telling tonight. But He knew.  

What was my prayer? JESUS. My MOST powerful prayer. The name of Jesus. No matter how people are celebrating tonight and tomorrow, it's because December 25th is Jesus' observed birthday. I'm grateful to God for his sacrifice. Jesus gave up Heaven for us. 

I'm also very grateful to God for my family. We're a unique group of people who love to laugh and have fun. We've trusted God with our hearts so He could get us back to laughing and having fun. He was faithful and He gave us back our joy. And we have had so much fun and laughed so much. Thank you Lord for choosing to make all of us one big loud, fun, fun loving, laughing, wonderful family.  

I'm privileged to do life with you people.

God bless us everyone.