Counting Blessings

I've had a very BAD 24 hours and although I feel like I need to seriously take a look at why, I'm choosing to do the "Oprah Thing" and count my blessings instead. Blending a family is NEVER easy, anyone who says it is....needs to seriously take a look at why they're in denial. I feel like we do very well and always try to put the kids 1st. Although we've had a rough patches, especially lately, we've been very blessed with the relationship of our daughters....Callie & Ali, who are just 6 months apart. Now, obviously that last fact was much sweeter when they were both 7 and not 12 & 13....talk about hormones. But, no matter how angry, sad, or crazy they get with us they ALWAYS love each other. We've actually joked lately about "how do they have so much to talk about?" They're in most of the same classes, they cheer together, tumble together, live together....yet most nights at bath/shower time they will sit in the bathroom floor and talk to each other. Well, tonight at a game I was ready to kill them for constantly talking on the sideline. But then I realized....."I'm so glad my girls love each other and that they have soooo much to talk about." Even if they were probably complaining about their parents. hahaha

Tis the Season....

Wow!!! What a day. Let me preface by saying that not only is it the day before Christmas but also Trey's birthday. So, take the craziness that has become Christmas and through a birthday party in the middle of it.....that's been my week. I thought I was so on top of things this year. I planned Trey's B-day celebration at Ghatti Land for Sunday, finished all my shopping Sat. (except for stocking stuffers), and started my mother-in-laws (don't you just hate that title...she's too good to me for that to be all I can call her) gift earlier than ever before. I do a scrapbook of everything that happened to our family (all 11 of us) throughout the year. Its become so special to everyone and a family tradition. Anyway, I was feeling so proud of myself for being very UN-Melissa like. I was on the ball. Then, I remembered why I have to be busy right up til Christmas....so my mind doesn't have time to think!
During this time of year, as we put more of our focus on Jesus, I can't help but get a little home sick. Louisa is my Home in every way except for missing my family, especially my sister and nephew, and my former church and church family. I long for my former pastor, church friends, and family.
My sweet Callie bug leaves to go to her dads the last day of school and doesn't come home til Christmas Eve night. I know how lucky we are that we're able to work this out so that she's always HOME Christmas Eve night and gets to wake up here Christmas morning ...all without having to miss Christmas with her dad, grandparents, and cousins. But, anytime she's gone for more than the normal 2 and 1/2 days my heart is just so heavy. Needless to say I'm ready for my girl to be HOME.
Then because we had done the friend thing Sunday we were going to Celebrate Trey's b-day with just family tonight, but he's stranded in Lexington with his Poppy. We haven't even seen him today. Now mind you he's probably not bothered in the slightest. He is a Poppy's boy. The last time I talked to him he was getting ready to swim. But his dad & I are miserable.
Just writing it all down gives me perspective. I'm so glad that even with all the terrible decisions I've made in my life, my children have a very normal life and aren't pulled and tugged with an every other weekend, every other Holiday, no exceptions schedule. I'm so glad my son & father-in-law (theres that title again) were caught behind a wreck instead of in one. I'm so blessed. Thank You Lord for perspective.

They want us to help them stay little.

My son Trey recently went to a UK game with his friend Spencer and during the trip visited the mall where they ran into Santa. The boys are both 9 and of course acted like they were appalled that Spencer's parents thought they may want to take a picture with him. Well mommy insisted (I'm so glad she did) and the boys did as they were told (rolling they're eyes I'm sure). As it turned out, long after the picture had been taken, printed, & purchased the boys were still sitting on Santa's knee. Can't you just see the genuine happiness in their faces?

Trey is not only our "baby" but the "baby of the hill. He is the youngest of 5 grandchildren. And although that has its great advantages it also comes with the price of trying to act like your older siblings and cousins. In this day and age its so hard to keep them little and innocent, but they really long for us to put our foot down sometimes. I often see my girls doing things that they truly enjoy, but acting like they're doing it for him cause he's little. I'm so glad Trey got this moment away from his sisters & cousins. I can just see & hear them now...making fun, having sarcastic remarks. Thank God for friends.

On Strike or OCD???

My sister recently ask if I was on strike because she had helped me set up this blog last weekend, I posted one blog then hadn't been back. This happened not because I wasn't interested in the blog but because I've been too busy setting up other blogs. You see I'm a little OCD or what I've diagnosed as an "all or nothing" personality. This is a trait that I laugh where my personality is concerned but, get very frustrated when I see the quality in one of my daughters. Why is it so scary when we see ourselves in our children?? Or worse than that when we see their fathers in them. hehehehe

Seriously though, I enjoyed the blog so much that I decided to use it for two of my Christmas gifts. First I decided to set up a blog for my husbands baseball team as a Christmas gift to him. He's been asking for some time now for me to set up a myspace for them and I thought this would be even better. I had to share the gift with him early because I had to get info and pictures from him and other coaches, but it didn't ruin the gift at all....he's so excited and loves what I've done so far. My son also thinks mommy's the bomb now, so all in all I did well. Although most of the page is still in the works and has a lot of fictional info on it just so we could see what we wanted to do, you can check it out at louisabulldogsbaseball here at blogspot.



I'm afraid the boys in the back enjoy this sport more than those in front. But with all that I've seen in my life I've come to know that there are worse things your husband could be doing than playing baseball with your son.

I'd also really struggled with what to do for my cheerleaders for Christmas. I have 18 so anything I did was going to take more money than I wanted to spend. We had discussed doing a $10 limit gift exchange but after discussing it with them I've decided we'll take that $180 and sponsor 2 little girls on our community Angel Tree. They're so excited about wrapping all the gifts at the Christmas party this weekend and really seemed to be proud about giving something to someone in need. So, I thought while we wrapped gifts I'm going to hook up the lap top to the big screen and show them our new lmscheersquad blog page. I had each of them fill out a profile this week and I'm using that info to set everything up, this too is still in the works , but feel free to check it out.



So no, I'm not on strike....I'm OCD !!!

Thanksgiving

This was the 1st Thanksgiving that my sister and I did the cooking....yes we're all still alive. Actually it went VERY well. But, suprisingly that won't be what I remember about this Thanksgiving. As we went around the table sharing what we were each most thankful for listening to what the 5 grandkids had to say just really warmed my heart. We or at least I often question every decision I make as a mommy. But when I heard my 12 year old daughter say; "I'm most thankful for my family, not just this one but the family I got when my mom and dad got divorced. I have a wonderful stepdad and stepmom and great families that came with them."...I knew (as I have for some time now) that we're ALL truly right where God wanted us to be. And for that...I"M THANKFUL!!!

1st Blog

I'm trying this for the first time, knowing that this, like myspace is going to become an addiction. Oh well don't really have enough time to become too addicted. Wish me luck:) I'm getting pics together for futue post.