TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear, Me at 16

There is so much I wish I would have known at 16, 21, and 25 so I am going to do a little series called "Dear Me"

Dear Me at 16,

First and Foremost, embrace that pant size, I am hear to tell you it is the smallest your ever going to be, don't be ashamed of your body because that will only bring down your self-esteem and you have a lot going for you. Love yourself because you are special, just because, you are YOU. Drive a little slower, life is going by fast enough, don't be in a hurry to get anywhere else, any sooner than you need too. Dance a little more, don't be a wall flower, the boys your trying to impress, really aren't going to be swayed but your dance swagger...Speaking of boys.... OH MY ....... that one your holding so tightly too, tell him what it is you have been meaning to say, don't wait......don't wonder, put it all out on the table.....even up the score so that you know right then and there if he is worth waiting for, being with, and giving a piece of your heart to, because you see, my dear, the waiting, the wondering, it grows into something beautiful but eventually becomes stunted, the weeds choke it out and you are left with a bunch of "if only's", it would have been so much better to have known, than to give that piece of your heart away, because it is so hard to reclaim it, and you can never get it all back....and you silly girl are the kind of girl that will grow up to find the positives in it all, you won't regret it, but if you could change a few things about how you did it you would definitely do it differently. Moving on, that homecoming party, don't hold back, just be you and go with it, don't be scared, this night will be one from your high school days that you will look back on and laugh about, and cherish, and just a side note, make sure and learn the difference between cop sirens on CD and real life ones....JUST SAYING! I guess, the most important thing I would say to you is that, it is all going to be okay, the life you are dreaming about it IS going to come true, you ARE going to get married to a WONDERFUL prince charming, you ARE going to be blessed with two BEAUTIFUL baby girl's and you WILL find fulfillment for that empty filling that all 16 year old girls have. So for this season in your life, just enjoy being a kid, enjoy lazy days sleeping in, read all the books you possibly can, spend as much time as your parents will let you with your friends, steal sweet first kisses in the headlights of your car, listen to the radio as loud as you can stand it. All of that grown up stuff, it is coming, and then you are going to be wondering what the hurry was!!

Love,
Yourself!

Caylee -31 months

Sweet Girl Caylee you are 31 months old today!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe you have been in our lives for 31 months already! You weigh 52 pounds and are 41 inches tall!!!  This precious time is just flying by, I know mama holds on a little tighter because you are my last but I am so proud of all the big girl things you are doing and I am really relishing all the ways you are still my baby!! You are a talking pro, their isn't anything you can't say. You can definitely tell us what you are wanting when you want it. You call Carleigh sis or sissy and you love to go in and give her kisses each night before bed. You have really gotten into reading and like to sit and read books with us. You are a great eater but you won't eat any kind of vegetable, you love everything else. You are also a milk addict! you drink it like CRAZY!!! It is very possible that you still have a bottle and a binky but I will never tell, it is our little secret!!

Your facial expressions are priceless and you have a definite strong will to your attitude.... you are our little Denise the Menace and unlike any child that has ever crossed the path of our family yet. You are going down in the family record books as "more rotten than Tommy Jr!!!" LOL! and that is saying something because he was a very spirited child! We wouldn't change anything about you, although chasing you, I should be a size 6, funny how that doesn't work that way! Some of the things I want to remember about you at this age are : " I have a milky pweeeseee" "We take sissy to scool now mommy? ""mommy me go with you" I wuv you"  "you're my bestest fwriend" You also LOVE to sing!! You know the words to Gullah Gullah Islands many songs altough Blue's Clue is your new favorite, you really like Joe and Dora is becoming a fast favorite!! You are so excited about Halloween this year and I can tell that this Holiday season will be a favorite with you and Carleigh! You both are very animated and love to see the lights on houses. We drove around last night and you kept saying "pumkins and It scare me mom It scare me! I can't wait to see how much you change and grown in the next few months, it is hard to believe that when Carleigh was your age you were growing in my belly! We love you Caylee Michele!!!

Love, Mama

The Weekend!

So the weekend is upon us and I am SO excited because we have NOTHING planned!! I am excited to cuddle up with my kiddos who aren't feeling 100 percent and sit by the fire and watch Halloween Spongebob and The Elf!! Making countless batches of coco in my cocoa motion machine and I am going to make Halloween hair bows and do another fun craft project I got out of a magazine and just enjoy the down time!! I think I will even finish painting my hallway and tackle the rest of my Mountain of laundry! We may squeeze in some Christmas shopping and some outdoor projects as well.....Oh boy it looks like my doing nothing weekend is filling up! I better quit typing about it before I have a list two feet long!!!!!!! :) Have a great weekend everyone!!! and for a Flashback Friday morning I present to you..........

The Clothing Drive Post Pt 3 I didn't know I would write!

You can read part 1 here and part 2 here

I didn't expect to write anymore about the clothing drive, It was an amazing event but I had shared everything I intended to and then I received a  message from a woman who attend the clothing giveaway and she had inadvertently left a bag of clothes that she had found for herself on the floor by a chair. It just so happens where she sat the bag was the same place we were putting the clothes that needed to go out. I told her I would talk to the other ladies and see if by some chance they picked it  up or moved it, this poor woman was almost in tears as she told me that her daughter and her had been so excited to find clothes in her size as she had just lost a bunch of weight and couldn’t afford to shop for clothes…….I hung up with her determined to help her out some way!! So I called Tricia who in turn called her mom and we came up with a plan to use some clothes that didn't make it to the clothing drive and were going to make some arrangements to find some  pants in her size so that we could at least give the woman SOMETHING, I called the woman back and asked what sizes she needed and she told me and I called Trish back our plan was going to work but it wasn’t the greatest plan as this woman had shirts and jackets for winter in her bag too and that was when I remembered that I had the bag of clothes in the back of my van . This particular bag never made it to the clothing drive because when I went to pick it up, I got busy talking and never put it into the back of my van, I then ran over it. Tim was supposed to stop by and get them the next day and forgot so we FINALLY picked it up late Saturday night, I rushed down to the van with Trish on the phone and I said to her “If I open this bag and it has 2 pairs of size 8 jeans in it you are going to hear my gleeful screams in Divernon!! I about fell to my knees when I opened the bag and it was FULL of size 8 pants and small and medium shirts! There was even had a jacket in there!! OH MY GOSH!!!!!!  There were really no words!! GOD IS AMAZING!!!! I know now that there was a reason I was flighty and ran over that bag of clothes and then Tim was absentminded and forgot to pick them up of that porch! God had handpicked them for this special precious woman!!!! I called her back and she is was so relieved, when I dropped them off last night she was so thankful, and I was just without words!! Me SPEECHLESS!!! I think Jesus got bored with the fish and five loaves story and has decided to dabble in fashion!! LOL!!!

and He met me there! Clothing Drive Part 2

It was a boys table, size 10 -12, and it was one of the fullest boys tables we had when the event started  and now I looked at it and the pants were gone and there were a few shirts left, as I straigthened up what was left a man walked in and I heard him saying to himself, please have size 12 please have size 12, my heart sunk, and I immediately wanted to look at him and tell him I would take him shopping right then as I knew we were all out of that size, at the moment it didn't matter to me that we had already helped so many, in that moment I felt like this was going to be a complete failure because to me having someone walk through that door anticipating there need would be met and then failing at that, that felt worse than any good we could have done. I looked up at him and smiled and then I looked back down at the table willing it to grow some pants, not even joking, I was like, begging it to sprout them! As I got ready to tell him we were out of size twelve a lady from my church walked in the door and up to me with a tote full of pants and said  "here, these are a size twelve, look can you believe my son never even took the tags off!!!" OH MY GOSH, I didn't know if I should cry or jump up and down and act like a crazy fool!!!!! I mean my table just grew pants, it was amazing. The gentlemen was very grateful and said to me that he could now let his middle son wear his oldest sons pants and these would cloth his oldest son! Across the room there was a woman looking for clothes for her daughter, she had some success and thanked us as she left, she came back a little while later carrying a bag of clothes. She said that these were clothes her daughter had outgrown and she wanted to give back to our cause and that she was so thankful for the clothes she had found in her own daugther's size. The clothes she brought replenished another table that was near empty. A couple hours later an elderly lady walked in and in her hand she had three pairs of pants, I went to lay them on a table and minutes later another elderly lady came in looking for the same size... JESUS MET US THERE ALL DAY LONG!!! I kept SEEING Him in so many tangible ways. The first time you may have been able to call it a coincidence if you are a non-believer, and the second time could have been luck but by the third time you would have been in awe!!! It was a modern day fish and bread story straight out of the bible!! I feel like the amount of clothes that exited the church that day had to far surpass the amount that we put on those tables on Friday. And as if this wasn't enough, Jesus must have really wanted to show off! This is the part of the story where a young single mom enters in, I don't want to give out to many details because I want to respect her privacy but believe me when I say she has her hands full of babies, she didn't enter into the church that day expecting to find anything more than free clothes, she definitely didn't come knowing that she would leave an impact on 5 ladies at cornerstone but she did, and the next day she allowed her little girl to attend church and Sunday school at our church!!! Can we get a WOOT WOOT!!! Yup Jesus, He met us there at our little ol' clothing drive, in a church in a small town in the middle of cornfields, He was there amongst us and man do I wish I could have given Him a high five and a big hug because I will NEVER be the same. I may look the same, and even act the same but I will be forever humbled at getting to witness a small town country miracle that day!

"We only have here five loaves of bread and two fish, they answered, "Bring them here to me," Jesus said and he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to Heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied and the disciples picked up the twelve basketful's of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men besides woman and children"- Matthew 14:9

Be Blessed Today!!!! Jesus Loves YOU!

video courtesy of youtube.com

I Saw a need......... Clothing Drive part 1

My mind is reeling from this weekend, please stick this post out with me, I promise you will be glad you did. A couple of months back I blogged about an inspiration to jump on the bandwagon with Patrice a fellow blog mom who issued the Get your Serve on Challenge, as most you of you know I decided to organize a community clothing giveaway  at my church because I felt that times are hard for just about everyone, of every income level right now, and over the past few weeks with the help of many of you, I received numerous clothing donations and this weekend my best friend Tricia (who jumped on board with me, no questions asked, knowing she was getting herself into a big project and a lot of work! I couldn't have done it without her!!!!) and I along with a handful of wonderful ladies from my church, made the clothing giveaway come to life, in a bigger way than I EVER EVER dreamed possible!! You see, I have been a Christian for as long as I can remember, I have always believed in God and known Jesus Christ as my Savior (don't click off the page, stick this out with me, I promise I am not going to get preachy on you! Although I do think Jesus is pretty amazing and I hope you take the time to get to know Him!) and I have always prayed to Him when I was feeling happy, and clung to him when I was feeling scared, a I begged of him until my heart was raw when I was trying to get pregnant, and I cried out to him when we lost our babies to miscarriages but never in all of my years had I SEEN Jesus, I have felt him comfort me, and calm me and give me peace but never have I witnessed a moment where I SAW Jesus visibly in a room. (Are you sticking with me???) On Friday we spent all day organizing, folding and hanging up bag upon bag of clothing we had 20 tables and 3 hanging racks along with these coats racks to utilize!

People we so generous, this picture was taken a few days before we went to organize, there was more than this people, the response to our call for donations was amazing!! When we opened the bags we found clothes that were in great shape, lots of name brands, and lots of things with the tags still on it. There were winter coats, Halloween costumes, shoes and suits and so much more! On Saturday morning we set up platters of cookies and juice and made signs to hang up around town, I kept telling Tricia I was nervous no one would show up! At 8:50 we went outside to put a huge banner on the side of the building and there were two cars in the parking lot by the time we were done!! I was so excited! We went back in, did a few final things and at 9:00 I went to open the doors and ,oh my gosh guys, there was a LINE of people!! It was JUST like black Friday! They rushed in to our tables, we stood back in awe, within fifteen minutes I counted more than 50 people going through the tables with more people walking in, (not a shabby start in our small town!) they were filling up shopping bags and garbage bags and for a few moments I panicked! There was absolutely NO WAY the amount of clothes we had on those tables was going to last as long as we had planned for especially with everyone filling up shopping bags and trash bags! and so I prayed that those that needed them worst would get there quickly and went around to help the ones that were already there!





and the people kept coming and going, the ones leaving were so appreciative and thankful, people were kind to each other and other's were in awe that everything was completely free and that there was no catch. We heard from numerous people saying that this helped them because they weren't sure how they were going to get coats and clothes for winter. And then the inevitable happened, one our tables got down to almost nothing, it was  a popular kids size and we were only 45 minutes or so into the giveaway....

and now because it is Eleven o'clock at night and my daughter is still awake with a miserable allergy attack and a stuffy nose that is making her completely miserable I am going to have to leave you hanging! Watch for part 2 tomorrow!! This story just gets better and better!!!

THAT mom makes a reapperance!

Oh My Goodness!! Has life been crazy busy or what! I love fall and all that comes with it but boy do the weekends fill up fast! We have had birthday parties, and cheerleading camp, soccer and performances at the football game, a candlelight tour of New Salem and school projects, pumpkin carving activites and allergies. The days are flying by and before I know it, it is time to fall asleep at night! I know this sounds picture perfect and in many ways it is but let's be real, how many times do we plan something and it go the EXACT opposite??? yup pretty much everytime! LOL! at least in my less than perfect world! It would seem that my darling, sweet, monster of a two year old is at the peak of tantrums, attitude and sass! (At least I am praying it is at the peak! LOL!) so all of these fun activites I have planned have had at least one moment where I was THAT mom. Ya know the one who is boderline pshyco?? Have you met her?? I am her! Let's share a few examples shall we?? Book Fair 2011 Auburn Elementary Library (remember I am a "single" mother during the evenings of the week) I pick up the girls and head to Casey's to order cheese sticks and pizza for dinner because we have a packed evening, making the most of my time I decide to head to the book fair while our order is being completed, we park, Carleigh hops out and I see my first error, I have no stroller for Caylee, right then I should have got back in the car, I mean I could hear that scary foreshadowing music in my head, but oh no, I got this, so I get her out and hold her hand and off we go, we stop and have a little talk, the three of us, of how we are going to be good girls, and only touch with one finger. We get to the door and they have a table set up,Carleigh has to sign in, Caylee tries to grab said pen and write on the table...I distract her, Carleigh finishes and  we step ONE foot in the door of said library and bam a book is off the rack and on the floor.....SIGH... pick up said book, grab Caylee's hand, remind her of the one finger rule by showing her how to point with said finger, walk two more steps, bamm another book down....so I decide to pick her cute darling 50 pound 3 and a half foot self up and carry her on my hip like she is dainty. . . oh yes, picture now a child who is the size of  a four and half year old, throwing her self back, yelling, crying and going into MAJOR meltdown mode, all the while her big sister is being an angel SLOWLY looking at each book picking out her favorites, here she comes, THAT MOM, watch out everyone! I whisper into Caylees ear, with that stern mom voice, that does NO good, "Caylee Michelle straigthen up right now or you are going to be in big trouble" nothing, nada, not evening a slight glimmer that she heard me...I rush Carleigh along and get up to check out, Caylee is still acting like a small hellion, we have to pay so I literally sat her down between my legs and held her there with my calf muscles while she acted liked I was killing her, I whisper loudly to her to knock if off before I give her something to throw a fit about, yup that classic line, remember when your parents used it??? I remember hushing up the second it came out of my parents mouth, Caylee was unphased, I then picked her up, and she dangled like a limp 50lb pound dead weight noodle. Can we say mortified!!! Everyone was watching us, I am sure they were wondering why I didn't spank her right then and there but I was not in a good mommy place to execute a punishment, she did not get to get her book that she wanted as her punishment and that was part of why she was having a fit,we get out to the car, I buckle her in, as soon as the seat belt clicked, the crying stopped, and there was complete silence. I drag my, huffing, puffing sweaty self, to the drive side seat, slump into it, I look and felt like I was just drug out back and beaten by a gang of huge men..... I look at the clock it had only been ten minutes since we had departed the car....................say what!!?!?!?!!!

I had some more examples, but reliving that one while writing it has worn me out!! How about you have you been THAT mom lately????