Life is too short...

Today, started out being a fantastic day, I was pumped and was in a great mood. I was at work doing my thing when I received a text from one of my very close buddies, it said, "You need to call me ***ASAP!**** Well we talk at least once or twice a month since we've moved, but I had never received a text message like that before from him... I called and got the most shocking news... His wife, one of my very good friends passed away suddenly Sunday night. She was a hard worker, 40 years old, who adored her three kids like they hung the moon. When I lived in Amarillo, I would go and stay over at their house when he would work nights and she was at the hospital working nights. I would stay over there with the kids, wake them up get them breakfast, make their lunches and take them to school.
During our conversation, it was as if it was a dream that we weren't having this conversation.... I mean what do you say to a grown man whose world just fell out from under him? I wish I could have reached through the phone and given him a hug, I wish I could take it away from those kids who will grow up without a Mother.... what do you say? There are no words to make it go away, there is nothing I can do to fix it....
All I can say is; and its the very reason I do it everytime I talk to ANYONE I love or that is in my life.... Make sure you tell the ones who are in your life EVERYDAY how much they mean to you, make sure they have no doubt in their minds how you feel about them, because Life IS TOO SHORT, and it can all change in an instant! Please keep this family in your prayers.


"You don't have to be alone in your hurt! Comfort is yours. Joy is an option. And it's all been made possible by your Saviour. He went without comfort so you might have it. He postponed joy so you might share in it. He willingly chose isolation so you might never be alone in your hurt and sorrow."

---Joni Eareckson Tada

New lifestyle starts..... NOW!!!

Well, lets see I am FINALLY biting the bullet... I am going to quit smoking. With heart disease running rapid through both sides of my family and with Mom's heart thing 2 or 3 weeks ago, I figured it was definitely time to quit. This awful habit has been a habit of mine for way longer than I care to admit, I started way before high school because... well we thought we were being "rebels" and thought I could quit anytime I wanted to. Not so much.... pretty hard... especially with all the crazy stress Jay and I have been under the last year, with the move, starting new jobs, and buying a house thing... I would have probably been in the fetal position in the corner somewhere sucking my thumb; had I not smoked...ANYWAY, I had spoke with a physician back when we lived in Amarillo about Chantix and decided I wasn't really ready yet... it was one of those things I had "control over" and at the time I felt like I was loosing control over a whole lot, so stupidly I continued to smoke used it as "my security blanket." Stupid I know, but unless you've ever been addicted to something, you will never know how hard it is to stop.... well, Jay and I are finally settled into our lives here in Nashville and I feel pretty confident in the fact that I can do this with the help of Chantix.... I think I will be able to quit fairly quickly, since I'm not a "heavy smoker," a whole pack can last me a week.
Both my parents were able to quit with the help of this drug and several of my friends have quit because of it....so I pray I have the exact results they have all had.
I pretty excited and know that this will only make that dream of ours; of becoming parents only that much closer! Yea!

My family is the BEST!!!

Its been awhile since I've wrote on here.... Jay and I got to fly back to Lubbock and Midland last week and see some of my family. I got to see my Mom and Dad, my little sister, and my little brother and his family. We had the best time, we got to see my neice who is 2 and my nephew who will be 1 tomorrow!!! Man how time flies! The last time I saw them before this trip my nephew was 3 months old! They both have grown up so much in the last 6 months. We got to play every waking minute they were up and it was a blast. We pulled them in the wagon, we played with playdoh, we pretended we were having a tea party in their play room, we did so much.... 3 days wasn't long enough for my to get over my fix, but it was so great to be able to hold them again and give 'em hugs and kisses. I really enjoyed hanging with my Brother and Sister-in-law, too I would have to say that was the best visit we have had in a very long time. Being away from them kind of put everything in perspective for me, all the little petty crap isn't that important when you have a limited amount of time to spend with them. I got to hang out with my Mom and Dad who are two of my very best friends and that was super nice to get to see them, 8 more months and they will live in the USA FOR GOOD!!! We are so ready for them to be here and to get out of Qatar!



I love his little face!



I love her lil face too!!

She's our little ham!

Mom and Dad got her this car for her 1st Christmas!

He just woke up from a nap, Nana looks pretty proud of her Grandson!

My Dad is pretty proud of his Grandson, too! He looks just like Papa and his Daddy!

Next......

Well so yesterday was a little rough for me, I wanted to be in Amarillo with my Mom while she was having a stint put in. Unfortunately I could not due to miles between here and Texas.... so anyway, needless to say I had a little mini meltdown around 4:30pm, when they had to take her back into surgery to check the stint and was WAY ready to be home to just chill and relax.

I have to go back a little bit... a while back we put our names into an entry for a brand new LG Refridgerator at Home Depot, so its supposed to be held the end of Oct. They also do a weekly drawing to pick who gets put in the "big" drawing. So anyway.... Jay and I won the weekly drawing a couple of weeks ago.... THERE'S A CATCH.... to get your $20 gift certificate they want to send out a water sampling man to test your water.... then they will send you the $20 gift card in 4 to 5 weeks....

SOOOO, I knew the water man was going to be at our house around 6pm last night, I figure this dude will be at our house until maybe 6:45pm at the latest, so I had kind of gotten geared up for trying to appease some strange man showing me how disgusting our water is.... blah blah blah
So I call my wonderful hubby who, in his defense, was really probably trying to help out, but man bless his heart.... so I call him on the phone tell him I am on my way home and would be getting home earlier because all the Nashville traffic was downtown for the Presidential Debate.....
What does he tell me? "Well.... thats is good, I called the insurance guy and asked if he could come over tonight around 6:45pm tonight so he will be coming after the water dude leaves is that ok?"
"Sure, ummmm.... when are we going to eat dinner?" That always seems to be my question.... when can I FEED MY FACE?
"Well, it won't take that long the water guy should probably leave around 6:30pm and the insurance guy will only be here for 10 or 15 minutes."

Ummmm.... apparently he doesn't realize that both these people are trying to sell us something in our home after work hours so there is no where to go.....

So, J puts the pizza in the oven when I had called him.... I get home about 5:45pm.... 6:00pm the timer on the oven is going off and my door bell is ringing..... GRRRRREAT!!! No food!, grumble, grumble.... fake smile, hi how are you.... oh I'm fantastic.... except I've had one hell of a day and now you are here to tell me about my nasty water... and I am freakin hungry!!!
So we go through the very long process of demonstrations, the man is in my kitchen and J and I are sitting on the other side of the bar..... well water salesman and J decide that they need to be talking bow hunting and fishing..... goodie, I know that I have an insurance man coming in about 5 minutes and I can see my pizza sitting on top of the oven getting cold.... so I gently and lovingly kick my husband under the bar to hopefully get him to shut up about hunting so this poor man can get the hell outta my house.....
Door bell rings...... great insurance man decides to show up about 10 minutes early.....
Now I have a damn waiting room going on in my house...... grrrr.... no pizza for me!!
So the waterman tries to speed up his shpill, and is not doing a very good job if you ask me.... he still has to show us 5 more demonstrations, show my hubby a picture of a buck he shot last bow season, talk to him about duck season, blah blah blah.... all the while I have a poor man sitting in my now waiting room area staring at the ceiling.... coughing and tapping his foot.....
I could have shot my husband for thinking that this was all going to be over in what 30 minutes???
Ya'll.... the insurance man did not leave my house until 9:20pm.... so now I have missed the entire Town Hall Presidential Debate that was going on in my city, AND..... I have not eaten.... by this time I am way past the point of hunger, so I poured me a small bowl of mini wheats and watch the evaluation on the debate..... all the while trying to chill out so I would be able to go to sleep.
Bless J's heart I know he was trying to kill 2 birds with one stone, but yesterday was just not the night for me.... hopefully I can go home tonight and not have to holler "Next please...."

Bonfire

Jason and I had a really great weekend, it started out kind of sad for me because all my immediate family met in Lubbock this last weekend and I couldn't be there, but my Mom made sure I got to talk to my niece and nephew a couple of times while they were all together which made that part a little easier, we are SOOOO ready to see them all... 7 more days left! Can't wait!
Anyway, Friday night Jay and I kind of hung out and watched a movie. Saturday we cleaned up the house, unpacked a few boxes and started to hang up stuff on our walls, I love I have so much space, its amazing that in our last two apartments that I had all this stuff. I had it all crammed into the apartment in Amarillo, sensory overload.... I have TONS of pictures and thought I guess they all needed to be in one area of the apartment... LOL. Anyway, we still have lots to hang up, but are waiting on painting the sunroom and the spare bedroom before we hang up the rest. Anyway, Jason went to a teach a fish clinic Saturday afternoon, so I just did laundry and watched a couple of movies. Saturday night our Sunday School class had a bonfire in Gallatin which is about half and hour from our house. The bonfire was out on someone's farm which was huge and somewhat in the woods... N and her husband are so creative, we had a blast. We roasted hot dogs over the bonfire, chit chatted with each other for awhile and then broke up into teams. Jason and I were on different teams, there were about 6 teams with 5 people on each team. You had stations that you went to and at each station you had a task you had to complete and puzzle piece, you could not go onto the next task until you had completed the one you were at. So #1 station you had to eat 5 oreo cookies before going onto the next station, #2 we got a compass with a task saying 10 steps N, 15 West 5 East... there was another puzzle piece and a task, #3 we had to tie a slip knot with a rope, once it was tied we had to go to station #4, at that station there was a huge bucket of water and a tin at the end, you had 5 little dixie cups that your team had to make a line and pass it down, once you filled up the pie tin you could proceed to the last station, #5 was the last and final puzzle piece in one bag with the task of putting together the puzzle. In the next bag was a razor, magnesium and flint you were to start a fire with your puzzle pieces and whoever's fire went for 1 minute won! Well my team won free movie tickets! It was so much fun, and keep in mind this is in the pitch black darkness in the "woods." After that we all sat around the bonfire and listened to our spirit team leader and another guy from our Sunday School class play the guitar. It was a much needed night out with friends, Jason and I had so much fun we didn't leave there until around 10:30pm went home and went to bed for church yesterday morning. When we got home from church we hung up some more stuff on the walls and then laid around and watched movies, we haven't been able to do that in so long with us working on the house or moving, so it was so nice to just chill out with each other yesterday.
It was a really good weekend.