today

Marks the one year anniversary of the day one very special little angel made Heaven a little more sparkly. Though I have never met Hannah, she has touched my life in a way I never knew a little girl I never met could. A friend told me about her mothers blog, we prayed for that family and celebrated Hannah's life by dressing our kids up in fancy clothes which would have made Hannah just smile with glee. Today her family and friends are celebrating her Heaven day and I know she is in Heaven just dancing and twirling in her fancy attire and her beautiful Angel wings. Hannah, doll, we miss you. I want to thank you for putting a smile on my face, even though you are not here with us so many of us can see you in the beauty of so many things. Thank you for opening my eyes, for helping me see the beauty in all that my kids do, for realizing that I need to over look the little things that bother me and look for the sparkle in everything. We miss you Monkey!

Fair results so far

Well the 4H fair officially began today. We were able to go in to see how the kids did on their projects. Now some of the things we have seen part of their score but didnt know if they made honor group or not. So for Alisyn, she got a blue in soybeans and corn in her crops project, blue on her fine arts project(which is going into MY room when it comes home because it will match the decor......lol), blue on her photography, blue on her cookies for foods, Reserve Champion for her microwave cooking. Austin didnt do as many projects in there, he got blue on his soybeans, blue on his corn(his score was tied so he was in the running for reserve champion on that but didnt get it), red for his rifle in shooting sports and CHAMPION in archery! That was a HUGE accomplishment. Last year he got white ribbons in both rifle and archery so to go from the worst place to the CHAMPION in a years time is huge...........at least I think. Alisyn and I were thrilled with Reserve champion for her microwave cooking, I found the recipe online and helped her make it and I was soooo nervous since I have never done 4H, I can cook but not always make it look pretty and they are pretty particular in that stuff. Her group was small, I wont lie, there were only 3 but still we didnt get the last place.......lol. So Sunday is the cat show, Tuesday is the 4H pig show and Wednesday is the open pig show. I will update with the results from those later. Its so very nice to go into the building on opening day and see what you got on your projects you have worked so hard on, it makes you forget that earlier in the week we were all ready to be done with 4H.........soooo next year I am sure we will take all the same things again. Hopefully next year Austin will get to finish his woodworking project, he was bummed he didnt get to finish it this year. I am sure he will do good with it too, thanks to Pappaw's help.

Rain Rain go away!

Ugh, its one of those wet soggy days. Yuck. I need to clean this house but rainy days do NOT help me in my motivation issues at all. I was hoping Eric could spray the playground for weeds and a few other areas he didnt get last time. But thats a wash now. Poor Erynn went to church camp last night and it looks like its going to rain all day. She will be home at 5 or so. I hope she is still able to have a good time. It makes me so sad for her that the older two had DAYS of perfect weather while they were there and she is only there for one day and it looks like its going to be rainy and stormy all day. We told her all about all the fun things she would do, swimming, hiking all the fun outdoor activities. I am sure they will still do some which brings me to another dilemma. I um, sorta forgot to pack her rain gear. Gah, so she will literally be all wet. I feel awful for her. Pray that it doesnt rain all day where she is.

GREAT news!!

Eric turned in a resume at this place back when he was laid off this winter. Well a few weeks ago they called saying they were calling people in for their application process. Of course they called the first week he was gone on his 3 week stay in Illinois so he couldnt get in to do the application. He finally went in this past Monday and did the test and filled out the application. They called him yesterday saying they had a position they wanted him to come interview for. So he went in today. He called me saying he felt good about it but they had been interviewing for 3 days nonstop for this position........eek. So they said they would let him know by the middle of next week. Before he even got home they called and said they discussed it and they really wanted him for this position. Yayyyy. So he came home and changed out of his dress clothes and went back to get his paperwork and go over the details. The base pay is about what he is making now but he will be working less hours plus we get insurance........finally!! It was way too scary to go this long with no insurance. So his hours are going to be *I think* 9-9 4 days then off 4 days then 9p-9a 4 days off 4 days and so on and so forth. That will be an adjustment but I am sure it will be nice for both of us. I will have 4 days of his help.......yayyy. I am hoping to use that time of having another adult in the house so I can sneak off and do my schooling so that I can maybe finish that sometime soon and get to working myself. I am just beyond thrilled that we had something good happen for us finally. He has the chance to move up with this company and that is something he has been looking for. He was tired of the "deadend" jobs with no potential for going anywhere.

Got one done!

Today we had to meet my friend Amanda's hubby to pick up Erynn's bag from when she stayed with them this weekend. She came home early because she was homesick but when she decided she wanted to come home they were on their way home from visiting Amanda's sister in Kentucky so she didnt have her bag with her. I just met them half way to pick her up. So while we were out we ran to the beauty supply to get me some more hairspray and some perm rods. They have these new sizes now that are HUGE, like roller size so I am going to attempt to do a haphazard roll job(dont know what to call it) to just give me some hopefully, natural looking body. Then we ran to get some lunch and off to Hobby Lobby. Alisyn got her drawing done for her fine arts project and we needed a frame and mat for it. We found the perfect mat, it is green and she has quite a bit of green in her drawing. Then all their frames were 50% off so I found a cheap one that didnt look real cheap and asked the guy there to put it all together for me. It looks very nice and I think once we get it back from the fair I might have to steal it to hang in my room because it would look very nice in there......lol. I think we are throwing in the towel and not doing a poster for their vet science project because........well its due tomorrow and we havent even started thats why! We worked on Alisyn's cookies last night and I threw them in the freezer. I will pull them out probably sunday night to thaw(if anyone knows the actual amount of time on thawing frozen cookies please spill the beans so I dont get them out too early). We have to work on picking her pics she has taken for her photography project and she might need to take some more pics. If so I think we will go to this nice park near us and let her take some there. Luckily Austin isnt ambitious like Alisyn and most of his projects are all super easy and dont entail much help from me. He was going to turn in a woodworking project but we didnt get him over to my dad's enough so its not going to be done. They are going to finish it though because my dad has enjoyed the little time they have worked on it. He wanted to make a tv stand so thats what they are doing. He did his final shoot for shooting sports a couple weekends ago, other than that and the vet science we arent doing his dad has to help him with the rest. I think next year Little Miss Alisyn will have to majorly cut back on her projects because I just cant handle the stress of these deadlines. Well thats about the story of my life here lately, 4H, 4H and a little more 4H.....pretty exciting huh?

home wreckers

I cant stand them. My sister is dealing with one right now and its someone I know fairly well. Eric worked with her before and he has told me she messed with him too. Ugh, I cant wait until she gets what she deserves. You see, my sisters EX boyfriend(oh how I love to call him her ex) abused her, physically and emotionally. My sister had NO life outside him and her boys and family. He made sure she didnt have friends. She didnt get to do anything. But yet when he would come home in a drunken rage after going out to bars with his friends he would hit her. Her poor boys have seen far more than any 2 and 5 year old should ever have to see, they have been verbally abused as well. In a way I am grateful to the girl who took this baggage from my sister. Maybe now my sister can live the life she deserves. She has already looked up lots of old friends and has hung out with several of them. She gets to have that support group to tell her she deserves better(that I am sure is why he didnt want her to have friends because they would tell her to leave his sorry ass) and cheer her up and make her smile again. Something I was afraid she had forgotten how to do. My sister is a beautiful person and while I am angry that she has been hurt again I am glad that maybe FINALLY she will move on to much better things. In the mean time I am sitting back waiting and watching for karma to get the two people who have hurt my baby sister so badly!

bread!!

I just found out that a guy from our church loads a little pickup truck with a camper shell with bread from the day old bread store and parks it at his car lot for anyone to come help themselves. I went and loaded up this evening. We got 4 loaves of bread(2 are the 35 cal bread) a big package of sweet onion rolls, hamburger buns, donuts, sticky buns, more donuts.........lol. I am soooo excited about this. I will be going weekly if not twice a week to get us some goodies. He just throws whatever is left in his truck to his farm animals at the end of the week.

Giving it another shot

I had a blog awhile ago but forgot my info so I havent posted on it(obviously) for awhile. Figured I would give it another shot to see if I do better this time. Right now we are just getting ready for the 4H fair. We have LOTS of stuff to do still. Cookies to bake, microwave snack mix to prepare, pictures to take, posters to make, pigs to get ready.........these are just a few of the ones that stick out in my head. Gahhh, I am about to stress out just thinking about it. Hopefully we manage to get it all done by the deadlines and dont hurt each other in the process. I will of course let you know how the kids do come that time.