Almost

Thank the Lord "Decision 2008" is almost over. I am so sick of politics. I am so sick of listening to people debate back and forth everywhere I go. I am so sick of seeing "I am ______, and I approve this message." commercials. I am so sick of seeing "Vote for ______" signs everywhere I go.

Holy cow, I mean really. I have never, and I mean never, been a fan of politics. I think they are all crooked in their way, and they would all say anything to get people to vote for them. Now, having said that, I'm not saying anything else about it!

I will say that I will be voting on Tuesday, because I have that right and privilege as a citizen of the United States. I will also be glad when that day is over, and all of this ceases......for the most part. Now, hopefully whoever is elected into office can dig our country out of this massive hole we are currently stuck in.

May God be with us all.

Bye, Bye Cloris

I am a Dancing with the Stars fanatic!!! I obviously work on Monday and Tuesday evenings so it's set to record on the DVR every week. If it's slow at work and we're able to turn the tv on we'll watch it, and this week we were able to do that some. I wasn't able to see all of it though, so when I got home I watched it again!!

Cloris Leachman is 82 years old, and she made it to week 6 this season. As entertaining as she is, I was glad to see her go. It was disappointing last week when she beat out Toni Braxton and Toni was sent home. There have been a few people voted off already that were better than Cloris, but apparently people like her humor because they kept voting for her week after week. Not anymore! Now the real competition can begin. I'm hoping that Susan Lucci leaves next week because I CAN NOT stand her either! After she leaves I'll be happy with whoever wins this season. I like them all!

I do have my favorites though. I really like Brooke Burke and Cody Linley, but I also like Lance, Maurice, and Warren! As I said, I don't care who wins! I'm gonna have to start voting now though since it's getting close to the semi-finals.

Other than watching DWTS it's been a pretty uneventful week. Grace has slept through the night everyday this week!! Yay! This morning she woke up just before 7 because the boys were being kinda loud upstairs getting ready for school, but that's ok. She laid down with me for about another hour and we slept. She's with her Mimi (Gene's mom) right now so I could get some stuff done around the house and not be rushed to get ready for work.

I'm very ready for my work week to be over. This weekend is going to be a good one. Friday, of course, is Halloween so Gene and I are taking Grace and Corey with us to go trick-or-treating at some friends houses. Colt's gotta play at the football game because it's a home game this week. Then Saturday I'm going to Nikki's baby shower! Then Sunday I'm off work because my Mema (Dad's mom) is going to be here. She is taking a girls' trip to Branson and since they're driving all the way from Ft. Worth, TX they're stopping in Fayetteville to break up the trip a little and to see us!!! I'm so excited, because we don't get to see the Nabors' side of the family much since they live in TX and OK. So, I'm ready for the weekend!

I'm signing off for now! Have a good rest of the week!

Shall We Ride?!

My beautiful little girl!!

Yesterday was a lazy day at the Johnson household! Grace was asleep with Gene on the couch when I got home from work Thursday night and I was able to lay her down in bed without waking her up. She actually slept until 5:45 yesterday morning. Yes, it was very early, but that beats 2:30 in the morning and her sleeping with me the rest of the night which is what she's done the last week and a half or so. I've been so exhausted from not getting a full night's sleep! However, yesterday when she woke up Gene stayed up with her till the boys got up at 6 for school and she hung out with them till they left on the bus. Gene and I were laying in bed and she crawled up there with us and we all fell back to sleep for about an hour. We had to be up by 8 to get ready because we had to go sign some paperwork on the house. After we got home it was lazy time! Grace and I took about a 40 minute time, then Gene ran to the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner and Grace and I headed outside to play in her new wagon!!

Doesn't she look so cute and happy in it?! One of the officers Gene and I work with gave us this wagon because his child had outgrown it. It's in great condition and even has cupholders and a cubby hole underneath to hold toys!! Grace loves it! We rode all over the yard watching the dogs play.

After a little wagon riding we headed back to the trampoline so she could jump. She also LOVES jumping! It's usually quite the chore to get her off of it once she's up there! There were big piles of leaves in the corners of it and she had a hay day playing in them also. I wasn't able to get a good picture of that though.

WOOHOO!!!

Layla's been sick with ringworms the past 2 weeks, but she's finally better and able to come back inside and play with Grace again. She was following Grace around everywhere and had to stop to give her kisses!! Grace kept trying to climb up on the 4-wheeler so we went and rode around on it for a little bit too.

Such a serious face! She was getting tired of me telling her to smile for the camera so she kept trying to look away! We played outside for about an hour waiting for her bubbas to get home off the bus.

As I said, Layla was following her everywhere! It was cute to watch. Layla and Bear were going crazy in the front yard chasing each other around and just running circles around us. We had a good time outside, and it was nice to just hang out at the house for the day instead of getting out and spending the whole day running errands.

Gene made fajitas for dinner that were soooo yummy! After dinner Gene ran up to the tattoo shop to give Steve some company since he's been working by himself all week and it's been really slow. Grace was in rare form last night. She was so tired from getting up at 5:45 and it was showing. I've never seen her throw a temper tantrum like she was last night. She was screaming and crying over EVERYTHING. Any time I told her no for doing something, or changing her diaper, or going to the bathroom, or this or that she was freaking out. I finally gave her a good spanking and she calmed down and was just whimpering. I sat down on the floor and told her to come to me, she hesitated, but eventually ran to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I almost cried because of the way she just collapsed into my arms because she was so tired and upset. :( I don't like getting on to her, but my goodness, last night was bad.

It didn't take her long after we started rocking then though that she fell asleep. She was out like a light and I laid her down a little after 10. The boys were already in bed so Gene and I finished watching Criminal Minds on tv then I went to bed at 11. Grace didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning!!!!!!! Yay! It felt so good to sleep through the night last night, and I know she felt much better this morning. Gene made biscuits and gravy then the boys left with their mom and Gene went to ride to Rogers with a friend and Mom and Dad left just a little bit ago with Grace headed to Granny's. Therefore, I have the whole house to myself right now, other than the dogs! They're both asleep though! I'm fixing to try and take a nap I think! I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Beautiful Artist

I'm sitting in my dining room looking out my front windows and I see the beautiful colors of fall as the leaves are changing and slowly falling to the ground. I see the beautiful mixture of white, blue, and gray in the sky as the rain still threatens to fall. I see my God up in Heaven painting this beautiful scene that I'm looking at.

Is He not the most beautiful artist?! I mean really? We all sin and fall short of the glory of Him, yet He paints these beautiful landscapes for us and keeps forgiving us just the same. Our God is an awesome God!!

I will tell you I have had a pretty lousy month. Even though fall is my absolute favorite time of year, this fall is not going so hot. If you read my previous post then you know that it seems as if everything I touch either breaks or I lose it (let me add that Monday night on my way home from work the "check engine" light in Gene's truck came on....just one more thing to add to the list). However, I've thrown that list away. Today is a brand new day and I'm starting it with a better attitude.

Instead of looking at the negative things in my life I've started paying closer attention to the positive things in my life:

1. My God still loves me regardless.
2. Solid roof over my head.
3. Enough money in the bank to survive.
4. My wonderful husband who takes care of me and my family.
5. My children.....my reasons for getting out of bed every morning.
6. My job....which keeps that money in the bank to survive.
7. My friends.....who don't judge me because I sometimes fail.
8. My parents.....my rocks.
9. My brother.......who honestly could make me laugh no matter the circumstances.
10. Air to breathe another day.

Just to name a few. It's good to write them down or to speak them outloud. It's sort of like a confirmation to me. I'm grateful for the gifts I've been given, and I'm keeping my head up. I figure it's better for me than griping and moaning, considering I know there are some people out there who have it worse than me.

I hope that everyone is having a good week!!

Breakable

This week has been a crazy one. It's funny how God gives you trials in your life and tests your faith. I would say that this week I probably failed that test.

It was one thing right after another. First we were shorthanded at work every day but Thursday. We are technically fully staffed right now in dispatch and evening shift (my shift) has the most people on it. We always have at least 4 people in the room, and on most days there were up to 6. On those days every chair in the room is filled. This past week though we had 2 girls gone to Little Rock for a class and 1 person in a pd in-service. That combined with people calling in and being on vacation, we only had 3 people every day I was there except for Thursday when we had 4. When we only have 3 people we don't get to leave for lunch, and we can't take any kind of extended break. We have 3 positions that have to be manned at all times: fire side and police channels 1 and 2. Especially on our shift because it's the busiest one.

On Sunday I ordered food from Jim's Razorback Pizza. Monday I ordered Jim's again. I was tired of ordering food out after that, because it gets very expensive having food delivered. On Tuesday one of the officers brought us Rockin Chicken because that's where they were eating. Yes, very nice of him. On Wednesday we were pretty busy the first part of the shift and we were shorthanded on the streets so we couldn't ask an officer to bring us food. Crystal's fiance brought her something, but Teresa and I didn't have anything. By 8 that night we were feeling sick because we were hungry, and the call volume had died. I made a super quick Taco Bell run to get us dinner. Thursday we had 4 people again so we all got a good lunch break!! Hopefully this week will be better, but I know we have some people gone to the fire dept in-service class I went to 2 weeks ago, so who knows!

Then on Friday Grace and I got out to run some errands. Our first stop was Salwa's to get my eyebrows waxed. Then we stopped to get my tires balanced and rotated on my car. When they finished and I got back into my car and started it it made a weird noise. I didn't think much about it, because then it was running fine. Well, we had to travel a few blocks down Sunset (Hwy 412) to the insurance office so I could pay the insurance on our cars. As I was fixing to turn into the parking lot my car died. My steering wheel got stiff and all the gauge lights came on. Not a good thing. It scared me to death, and I was just glad I was able to get it up into the parking lot. I tried starting it back up and it wouldn't the first time, then I tried it again and it did just fine. We went on in and took care of business, and I called Gene to let him know. I started it back up to leave and it did just fine. Then we headed to the east side of town to see Mom at school and I pulled into McDonald's to get Grace some lunch. It did fine all the way to school.

Grace and I hung out at school with Mom until school let out and then she took Grace home with her because Gene was going to the football game in Charleston and I had a girls' night planned at Jennie's house. My car hesitated to start the first time, but then it went ahead and turned over. Well, I didn't make it far. I got to the edge of the school driveway before it died again on me. It didn't ever even try to turn over this time when I tried starting it back up. My eyes filled with tears and I called Gene again. He was already home from construction and loaded up some tools and headed my way. He told me he didn't have any jumper cables though, and there weren't any in my car either. I called my dad to see where he was and he was down on Hwy 45 almost to Fayetteville. I'm sure he and Gene passed each other! He told me he had jumper cables and would come if we needed him. I told him to wait until Gene got there and I would call him back. Gene called Eric (his best friend and also an officer at Springdale) to see if he would come over and block off the intersection so he could get to my car. By the time Gene made it to me the streets got busy and when I called Eric back he was on his way to an injury accident, but Sgt. Kirmer was on his way to help!!

Gene was able to back his truck in perpindicular to my car to try and jump it because a dad of one of the students stopped and offered his help. Thank you nice man!! He had jumper cables he let us use. Yea, they didn't work. My car still wouldn't even try to turn over. So, the nice man left. Kirmer finally made it there and they were able to get my car into neutral and push it back off the edge of the street. He stayed there with us trying to figure out what was wrong, but nothing was making sense. After several failed attempts at figuring out the problem Gene called his friend Brian who works on cars and he told us it was probably some kind of relay from the starter to the motor. I know, over my head too! Anyway, we were going to have to have it towed down to Fayetteville. Not an expense we were wanting to pay. We called A&B Towing, which we use ALL the time at work because we tow cars ALL the time. They are such nice people, and Lee (the owner) was at an accident (the same one Eric had to respond to) and was going to have to drop off that car first. We had to wait about 30 minutes for him to get there and then of course when he backs up to hook it up he gets into my car to look at it and it starts right up. What?! Yea, I know. We all looked at each other like "you have GOT to be kidding." Anway, Lee popped the hood and told us he though he knew what was wrong. He thought maybe the cables to the battery were corroded (which is exactly what my dad thought also). However, he pulled the caps off and they were fine. Gene had checked them too and hadn't seen any corrosion. So, we were back to square one in not knowing what was wrong. FABULOUS!

I was getting more and more upset by the minute, because it was 5:15 by this point and I was supposed to be at Jennie's at 6:30 and Steph was meeting me at my house around 5:45 or so. We shut the car off for a minute and then tried starting it back up. It started again. Go figure. So, Gene drove it home and I followed him in the truck. We're holding off on getting it fixed until finances are better, and I can drive the truck and Gene can drive the Bronco that we also have.

I was just glad to make it home safely. I was even more relieved that Mom ended up taking Grace with her, because I don't know what I would have done if she had been with me. Yes I do, I would have called Mom to come get her probably!! Ha! Anyway, I got in and took a shower because I felt gross and about the time I got out Steph made it out here. I had called Jennie and told her we were going to be late. I felt much better just after having a shower and refreshing myself. We got dressed and left to meet Teresa. We met up in Farmington and drove over to Jennie's.

We had a BLAST!!! Jennie had tons of food laid out to eat and we all filled our plates and our bellies, then sat down to play the game Apples to Apples. Sooooo fun! We laughed so hard we almost cried! The whole idea behind our girls' night was to watch Sex and the City, because we all LOVE the show! When Steph and I lived together in our apartment we watched every episode in order from start to finish. All 6 seasons! We had fallen in love with Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda! Of course as soon as we found out the movie was coming out we were pumped! Steph, Teresa, and I went and saw it 2 days after it came out. It was incredible, and it stayed so true to the show!

Anway, so Jennie loves it too and we decided that as soon as it came out on DVD we were going to get together and watch it. So that's what we did. After 2 rounds of the game we put the movie in. Oh boy, we got upset because it kept sticking and wouldn't play. We tried everything from blowing in the DVD player to cleaning the disc and nothing worked. It still kept sticking. Jennie then put in a different movie and it worked just fine. We came to the conclusion that it was the disc so we all loaded up into Steph's car at 10 and headed to Wal-Mart to exchange it! Oh my, that was hilarious. We were like a group of high school girls! Once again we laughed so hard we almost cried. Jennie's friend Diane was also there so we had a whole car load. They exchanged it for her with no problems and we headed back. It still stuck just a little, but I told Jennie I think the player just needed a good cleaning. It was ok though, because we were able to make it all the way through the movie! We laughed. We cried. It was just sooo good. It was 1 am by the time it was over and we were all about to fall asleep! We all helped Jennie clean up the kitchen and then headed home. I crashed hard when I laid down!

Saturday morning Gene came in and woke me up earlier than I had intended on waking up because he had made breakfast. I got up and ate then laid down on the couch. I eventually went back to sleep for a little bit and then got up to take a shower. Corey and I left around 3 to meet Mom and Grace to shop for a little bit. We met up at Kirkland's and Mom found some new pretties for her house! I refrained from spending any money in there. It was hard. After that we went to Guido's to see Uncle T! Grace LOVES her Uncle T, and ran straight to him as soon as we put her down. He made us some pizza and we ate yummy lunch. After Guido's we headed to Target because Mom wanted to look at some Christmas ideas for Grace. She ended up getting some good stuff for her this year. I picked up a few things in there and then we headed back to the truck because my next stop was Wal-Mart to go grocery shopping. Mom headed home. While we were grocery shopping Gene called Corey's phone and that made me start looking for mine because I figured he would have called mine first. My phone was no where to be found.

We finished all of our grocery shopping and as we were loading it up into the truck we were searching for my phone. It was no where to be found. Corey called Mom to see if it was in her car. It wasn't. I searched the diaper bag, my Target bags, the truck, my purse, everywhere. It wasn't there. We drove back over to Target to check and nobody had turned it in. Corey even re-traced our steps in the store and couldn't find it. We headed home and then Gene searched the truck and couldn't find it. I called Mom again and she searched her car again. No luck. Corey called Wal-Mart and nobody had turned it in there either. Fabulous. It was gone. I called AT&T and had them de-activate it so no one could use my SIM card.

We all went to bed, and Grace ended up waking up at 3:30 and climbing out of her crib. I went and got her and she slept the rest of the night with me. Again.

Sunday morning we woke up and ate breakfast, and I told the boys it was going to be a day of cleaning!! They were really excited. Gene called (Corey's phone) and asked me to bring him his air soft gun so one of the other officers could take it home and shoot it. I changed and grabbed Layla to take her with me and we headed in to Springdale. When Gene pulled in he handed me the AT&T bag with a new phone in it! I was sooo excited! We hung out in the parking lot for just a little bit then Layla and I headed home.

Once we were home the cleaning began! We cleaned everything. While I was cleaning my bedroom I started vacuuming and realized it wasn't really sucking anything up. After a few more minutes it quit on me. It's dead now too. One more thing that's broken!

I had put a big roast in the crock pot that morning and then added some potatoes, carrots, and onion to it! I told Gene to call Jennie and Steve and invite them over for dinner. They ended up coming out and we ate a great dinner and then I was ready to crash! Grace went to sleep quickly and I laid her down then put myself to bed! Grace woke up fussing around 4:30 but it was a tired pitiful whine and I never heard the thud that comes with her jumping out of her crib so I laid there for a few more minutes. Next thing I knew she was snoring again! I guess she was just too tired to climb out of her crib. Thank goodness! I went right back to sleep and didn't wake up until 9! Gene was the first one up and he grabbed the monitor to listen for Grace. She didn't wake up till around 8:30 and then he brought her in to wake me up. It felt good to get a good night's sleep.

So, I'm hoping that this bad streak is hopefully over. When things start going bad they keep going bad for a while it seems, and I have struggled big time this week to keep my faith. I've been praying and praying for things to start looking up, but I know that's selfish of me. I've now started praying that God keeps my head up and that I am able to keep my faith in Him that everything is going to be just fine. No matter how bad it seems and no matter how "breakable" things are, they are just wordly things and aren't what really matter in the long run.

This has turned into a really long post and I'm sorry that I was so wordy. If you made it this far then thanks for sticking with me!!! I'm also not going back through to edit because I need to take a shower to get ready for work. I hope everybody has a great week.

New Phone!!

Yay! I'm back in communication! I took the day off today because I had some comp time from working the Rummage Sale at the pd, but Gene called and asked me to take his air soft gun to him at the pd. I loaded Layla up in the truck with me and we headed to Springdale. When Gene got there he pulled an AT&T bag out of his car and handed it to me. It was a new phone! I was so excited!

I've spent the last 45 minutes or so figuring it out and bluetoothing ringtones from Corey's phone! I didn't even have to get a new number. I did however lose ALL of my other numbers, so I'm setting the comments on this to private and I would love it if you would post a comment with your phone number so I can put it in my phone!

I've got company coming for dinner here shortly so I'm signing off. Hopefully tomorrow I can catch up on my blogging!!

Lost Phone

I have a lot to blog about....scratch that....gripe and vent about, but I'm fixing to put Grace to bed and I don't feel like getting into it all right now.

I'll just say that it has been a not so great week, and just when I thought nothing else could possibly go wrong I proved myself wrong. I lost my phone sometime this evening either at Target or Wal-Mart and it is NO WHERE to be found. I'm very, very upset and was on the verge of tears earlier but told myself not to cry. I don't like being without a phone. Not because I have such a booming social life and am constantly talking on it, but because I had car trouble yesterday (whole other long story) and that scares me to death. Let alone not having a phone now if something else goes wrong. Plus we don't have a house phone anymore, so I won't have a form of communication.

Mom searched all through her car because we were in it part of the day, Corey, Gene, and I all searched through Gene's truck with no luck. We checked back at Target and Wal-Mart to make sure nobody turned it in....they didn't. The worst part is that every time we've tried calling it it's gone straight to voicemail, which means either it dropped somewhere and turned itself off on landing or someone has found it and turned it off. I have already called AT&T and de-activated it so nobody can use my SIM card, but losing it means I'll have to get a new everything, new number, new phone, new SIM card. I've lost all my pictures of my baby girl, all my ringtones, all my numbers. I'm still so upset about it.

Anyway, my whole intention of writing this was to let those of you who call me know that you won't be able to reach me for a while. I'll probably be taking over one of the boys' phones until further notice because I'm not driving with Grace without one. If you need to contact me you can call either Gene's phone or the boys' phones.

Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers!

New Pretties!!

I've had a pretty great weekend! Friday morning Grace and I lounged around the house because we had an appraiser out appraising the house so we just hung out till around 11 or so when I finally decided to get in the shower! We left the house and our first stop was school to see Nana. We hung out there for about an hour, then we left and met Tanner at Guido's at 2. Tanner was getting off work and had made us a pizza....yummy!! He is moving into a new house out on the lake and has been wanting to take me out and show it to me. So, after we ate we took off.

The house is not very old, but it's like a river cabin kind of. It's nice, especially for 3 20 something guys! Plus it's within walking distance of the lake. He's very proud of it. It took us forever to get out there though! After my home tour, we dropped Grace off at Mom and Dad's, which isn't that far from his new place. Mom said she would keep Grace for me so I could finally go to the Greenland football game and watch Colt march in the band. I then had to drop Tanner off back at Guido's, then I made a trip to Old Navy. Big mistake. I ended up spending more money than I intended to, but it's ok because Grace needed some cold weather clothes and now she has some!

Anway, then I headed home and got ready for the game. Steph got off work at 6 and she drove out to the house to go to the game with us. The Pirates won....again! They are undefeated this year!! The band did soooooo good during halftime! I'm so impressed by how good Colt is, even though this is his first year to march. Talented kid I tell ya!

Yesterday morning Gene had to be up early to take Colt to the school at 8:30 for marching contest being held in Huntsville. So, I woke up when Gene got up at 6:30 and could not go back to sleep. I decided to just get up since he was making breakfast. I fell back to sleep on the couch after they guys left. I slept for a couple more hours. Gene left again sometime during my nap to drive to Huntsville to watch. I had to get Grace and Mom and I had already planned a shopping trip.

Oh boy, I'll say a shopping trip. We both intended to just do some "shop looking." Yea, that didn't exactly go like we had planned. Mom had a massage appointment yesterday at 1, so I met her up there at 1:45 and Dad brough Grace up there at the same time so we could go shop. We started off at Old Navy so I could take some jeans back and I ended up getting me some more pants and Grace several more things. Like I said, she didn't have hardly any cold weather clothes. Now she does!

Our next stop was food, we were both super hungry and hadn't eaten since breakfast. It was 2:30! We tried the new Jason's Deli in Nelson Crossing and it was fabulous!!! They have a very wide variety of stuff, but Mom and I both got the Club Royale, which was amazing. It was on a toasted croissant. Yum! Grace had a polish sausage, chips, and a pickle and ate almost every bite.

We checked out Monday's Child, also in Nelson Crossing. Holy toledo!! Their prices were outrageous!!! I couldn't believe it. We found a couple of outfits for Grace, but one was $90 and the other was $56. I mean, come on. Why would you spend that much money on something your child is going to outgrow in 3 months?!?! Yea, not me.

We then worked our way over to Kirkland's. Oh my. Mom and I both LOVE Kirkland's. Mom was able to get Christmas for Gene and I out of the way! We got some new pretties for our house!! Yay! We moved in in March of 2007, and we still don't have anything on our walls. So boring. I just stress out really bad trying to decide what I want, where I want it, etc. So, yesterday Mom and I found some great stuff and a lot of it was on sale. Even better!

I have been wanting a clock to put on this wall pictured, but I hadn't found one I really liked at a price I really liked. Regular price on this one was $60 and we got it for $30! I had also been wanting a table like this one to go there to put picture frames, etc on. So, we found this one that was $20 off! Then I found the lamp to go on it for only $13. Super steal!! Doesn't it look so pretty?! I'm not completely satisfied yet, because I've gotta find some other stuff to go on the table.

I also got this cute sign. It was on sale, too, and the minute I saw it I fell in love with it! It matches my colors perfectly! When I got it home, Gene asked me if I was afraid I was going to forget where the laundry room was! Ha! Very funny.

So, here's what it looks like together. Pardon the mess on the dining room table. I'd been working on laundry all day. The boys laundry, might I add because it was overflowing, and they hadn't come home yet to put it away!

I also got a quilt rack to hang all of our blankets on, because right now they just sit on the floor in between the piano and the floor. Not anymore! I haven't put them on it yet, and figured out a good place for it. It was on sale also!

After finally dragging our goodies out of Kirkland's we headed to the mall. We went to Children's Place and got Grace's Halloween costume...I'm sooo excited about it. It's the first one I found, and I never found anything I like better. I'm not telling you yet though what it is, I'll post pictures of her on Halloween! After that we hit Lane Bryant and I got some of Mom's Christmas already, but unlike me, she has to wait until Christmas!! I also got some jeans and some pants.

That just about wraps up our shopping. We were worn out by 7 when we finally left the mall. Mom followed us out to the house to unload our stuff and Gene got to hanging it!

I think I'm done now. I've got some more to talk about, but I'll save it for another post. Have a great Sunday!!

Handbag Giveaway!!

Ok, so I have now also checked out Handbag Planet...super cool and they're giving away free purses on October 15th. All you have to do is visit the link I have posted below and choose a purse that you would like to win!! They have a ton of cute ones!!

http://www.handbagplanet.com

Enjoy!!

Fire & Ice

This has been a really good week! We had our Rummage Sale at work on Saturday so I was working that from 10 am to 4 pm. We did really well though, so our hard work paid off. Sunday I took a vacation day because Teresa, Mom, and I were wanting to see a movie but we hadn't had any time off together so I took off. We went and saw Nights of Rodanthe and it was soooo good. A tear jerker, but good. We knew it would be though, because it was based on the Nicholas Sparks book. We laughed. We cried. It was definitely good though.


Steve and Jennie came out for dinner Sunday night. It was yummy. Gene and I put on a pot of beans that morning, and I made cracker crumb pork steaks, green beans, mashed potatoes, and cornbread. Jennie and the boys don't eat beans so that's why we made so much other food. It was scrumptious!! Jennie brought dessert so we were all stuffed by the time it was all said and done!

Grace has been sleeping soooo much better this week. She is going to bed at decent hours and sleeping through the night again. Thank the Lord!!

Monday I had to go in to work at 10 am and work a 12 hour shift, because someone on dayshift was off work so they were shorthanded. It made for a long day, but it wasn't too bad. I had to go get Grace after work from Mom and Dad's so it was almost 11 before we made it home. I gave Grace a quick bath and she was in bed by midnight. I followed right behind her because I had to be up at 6 am yesterday morning for my fire refresher course.

As I've mentioned before, we dispatch for police, fire, and ambulance. Our dispatch center is at the police department and technically we're under the police department "umbrella" but the fire department has become a lot more involved with dispatch as of late. They put together a 2 day class for the dispatchers who have been there a while so we could become re-acquainted with their policies and procedures. It was a great class. Yesterday was spent going over dispatch's policies and then in the afternoon Assistant Fire Chief McDonald took us on a tour of all of our fire stations. Chief McDonald was the one who put on our class and he did a great job. I learned a lot of valuable information that will help me better do my job.

Julia 100 feet in the air!!

Today was the BEST day. Most of you are probably not aware (I certainly was not) that this week is Fire Safety Week. Every year during this week the fire department visit all the elementary schools in Springdale to teach the kids (K-3rd) about fire safety. So, this morning we all loaded back up into Chief McDonald's truck and he drove us over to the Springdale Municipal Airport and showed us all the fire department entrances in the case of either an aircraft emergency or a fire at the airport. It was really cool because I'd never really seen the airport up close and personal. He even took us inside one of the gates and we got to see some of the smaller hangars that people can rent for their personal planes. He also drove us out to the edge of the tarmack to show us where the fire apparatus set up for emergencies. We also got to go up in the air traffic control tower. It was soooo neat. You're up in the air abover everything and we even got to watch/listen to the Air Traffic Controller clear a plane for take off while we were up there. Super neat!! After that, we drove to Turnbow Elementary to watch the guys from Station 5 do their demonstration with the engine and the Fire Safety House. The Safety House was once a travel trailer, but it's now divided into 3 rooms that are set up like a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom. The kids went in and a different firefighter talked to the kids about fire safety. It was so cute to watch all the kids oooh and aaah over the fire engine and all the firemen!

After we left the school we went back to the station and continued going over policies until lunchtime. After lunch it was more policies and then we got to go outside and play! The guys pulled our brand new Ladder Truck out of the bay and set up the out rigging so we could go up in the ladder bucket. We've only had our new truck for about a year, and the ladder extends 100 feet into the air. That is HIGH! Little Julia went first, and she went all the way up. Michael went next and he went all the way up. Teresa and I went together, and I am completely afraid of heights. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to go very high before I freaked out. I did better than Teresa! She started freaking a little, but not real bad. We ended up about 75 feet up. It wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds. We had a blast getting to see all the neat tools (toys) they have to use in any kind of emergency.

Here's Teresa and I climbing up to the bucket. Here we go!!!

Securing our safety belts to the hooks in the bucket.

Julia was taking pictures of us, and she didn't get one of us up in the air, but this is Captain Miller putting it down to the ground so we can get out. It was a really cool experience! The whole fire class was great and I'm glad we had the opportunity to participate. I've got some more to catch up on, but Grace is getting sleepy and I'm tired of typing!! Hope everyone has had a good week so far!

Oh, and I was also going to say that yesterday afternoon and this morning I was wearing jeans and SWEATSHIRT. Yay! I am loving the cold weather!!!

Topless Spinning

I bet that spiked your curiousity didn't it?! It's been such an exhausting weekend, and it started off with Grace doing some topless spinning! More on that in a minute. I'll just say up front that this post is probably going to be jumbled because I feel like a writing, but everything is starting to run together!

Is this not the most precious picture of Grace or what?! I love it! I put her hair in pigtails earlier this week and she actually stood still long enough for me to take the picture. She's such a mess. This has not been a very good week as far as sleep goes. Grace is going through a weird phase (I'm hoping that's what it is) and she has not slept a decent night's sleep all week. One night I wasn't able to lay her down until 2 am. I was working and she was home with Gene and the boys. She fell asleep around 8:30 and Gene tried laying her down and she just woke up crying. When I got home from work she was asleep in his lap but as soon as I picked her up she woke up. She ended up not going down and staying down until 2. She was back up by 8 the next morning. I was exhausted. The next night, Thursday, I was able to come home from work early so she was still up. She went to bed ok by 10:30 or so, but woke up about an hour later crying. I went and got her and luckily she went back down pretty quick. Not too bad. Last night was the worst. She went to bed again easily by 10, but woke up at 1:30 and after rocking for a while she woke up the minute I stood up to take her to bed. I gave up and just put her in bed with me. I'm so stinking tired from not getting a decent night's sleep all week.

Like I said, this post is a little jumbled so bear with me! This picture I took yesterday morning when Grace was spinning topless! She cracks me up, because I was sitting at the kitchen table on the computer and had the radio on. Grace was dancing in the living room. I look over at her and she's halfway out of her shirt! She finally gets it off and continues spinning. I just left it off of her for a while and then finally after chasing her around for about 10 minutes I was able to get it back on her! Hilarious!

Ok, this picture I took yesterday right before we left the house. Cute huh?! My mother-in-law got Grace the jacket and it is so adorable on her. Grace and I both got our hair cut yesterday so her's is finally out of her eyes! She looks so cute. After the hair cuts we ran and got lunch and headed to the pd to help set up for the Rummage Sale. Teresa and I worked on it for 4 1/2 hours on Thursday night. We had so much stuff donated it was ubelievable and a huge blessing! We started at 6 this morning and didn't leave until 4 this afternoon. We worked in shifts, and I got there at 10 this morning and was there all afternoon. It was tiring, but we made a lot of money so it was worth it. It was definitely a success!

Grace and I were up at the pd from 1 to 4 yesterday and when we left there we stopped by Neighborhood Market to get stuff for dinner. I made chicken spaghetti and it was delicious!! As you can see Grace enjoyed it also. She was a MESS by the time she got done. We took her straight from the high chair to the bath.

This picture was taken last night after Grace's bath. She LOVES to get up and play the piano, especially when Colt's up there. I tried to get one with them together, but by the time I got my camera she was already down. She had a major boo boo last night. She was wearing her gown so I put some socks on her. They don't work well on the hardwood floors and I should have known better than to put them on her. Well, she slipped coming around the island in the kitchen and busted her lip open. It was not good. It bled really bad and scared her really bad. It broke her Mama's heart that I couldn't make it quit hurting. She was fine after Gene put some ice on it. I was afraid today it would be really swollen but it's not real bad. It doesn't even seem to phase her either.

Today was a long day, but now I'm sitting on the couch watching a movie because we moved the smaller tv from upstairs down here until we get the big tv fixed. Gene is now on his way home from working some overtime on drug interdiction, the boys are both in bed, and Grace is staying with her Nana and Papa so I can catch up on some much needed sleep!

I'm off work tomorrow, and a few of us are going to see Nights in Rodanthe! I'm really excited about it, and then I need to do some housecleaning. Yuck! Gene just pulled in so I'm going to heat him up some chicken spaghetti.

Have a good night!

New Family Member!

We have a new family member!! Her name is Layla and she is an 11 month old pit bull. Yes, I said pit bull, and no she is not mean. She is actually a big cuddle bug and sweeter than Bear! Gene has really been wanting a pit, and has done a lot of research on them. He's spoken to several different breeders in our area that he found either on the internet or in the paper, but we weren't impressed by any of them. Last week he spoke to a couple in Elkins that breed dobermans but had Layla and were looking to sell her. They had bought her when she was 3 months old, but she was the runt of the litter so they weren't going to breed her and weren't able to spend much time with her because of all their other dogs. Gene went last night to see her, and fell in love! She has the best demeanor, and he said that the whole time he was there visiting with them (2 hours) she never once showed any signs of aggression and she was in the house with 4 other adult dobermans and several puppies!

He said when he opened the door to his truck she just jumped right in. She only weighs about 40 pounds or so and won't get much bigger, which is okay, because she'll be an indoor/outdoor dog. We want a big dog for outside when we're not home to keep people off our property. We've had break ins out here recently. The police car is usually a pretty good deterent but it's not here 24/7.

This picture was taken his morning at about 6:20. Gene was up getting ready for work and the boys were up getting ready for school. Our bedroom door was standing open and Layla had come downstairs with Colt so she came in our bedroom to see what was going on! I was only halfway asleep and next thing I know there's a big lump in my bed! She was so funny, she just plopped right down on my arm and put her face right in mine to say "Good morning!"

When Grace and I got home last night Gene was asleep upstairs and the boys were both in bed. Layla was no where to be seen, so I assumed she was in bed with one of the boys. Bear was in bed with Corey and Layla was in bed with Colt! We walked in and said hi to her and loved on her for just a minute, but then left them alone to go back to sleep. Grace was soooooooo excited to see a new dog!

Colt put her out in Aros's kennel after Gene left so she wouldn't use the bathroom in the house while Grace and I were still sleeping. Grace woke up just before 9 and I got her and we ate breakfast, then I went out and got Layla. She was very timid at first and shaking because 1)it's freezing cold outside and 2)she wasn't sure about me just yet! It didn't take long though, especially since I was bringing her into the warmth. As you can see, her and Grace like each other. She just stands there while Grace loves on her!

Checking each other out! Layla's ears weren't cropped when they were supposed to be so now they sit kinda funny. One sits up more than the other and sometimes they just flop all over! Gene doesn't like it, but I think it's cute!

Grace is giving Layla her baby doll! Good that she's sharing, right?! Even if it is with a dog. Ha! They're funny because Layla will come stand by me for me to pet her then she'll wonder off to see what Grace is doing. Grace will love on her then Layla will walk off and Grace will follow her. They just follow each other back and forth!

You can tell here a little better that she's a beautiful brindle color, and her coat is super soft. She needs a good bath because she's just kind of dusty from her previous home. Gene said they kept those 4 big adult dobermans and her and puppies from 2 females inside the house. Yuck! That's a lot of dogs inside, plus they had 20 dogs total.Obviously, the other 16 were outside in the "yard" which was more dirt than grass. So, as you can imagine, she could use a good bath and her nails clipped.

We're all really excited about having her, and I'm interested to see how she comes out of her shell as she gets used to us and her new surroundings. She also gets along well with Bear!

I'm off now to take her out to the bathroom, and Grace is whining.......AGAIN!!!!!!!!