It Rained, It stormed!!

Today was the typical workout day, but the day was gloomy- after my hour long treadmill walk ( yes, i do it every time! Low cardio = fat burning, baby!) i went over to do some free weights. the Gym has awesome music playing and since i'm ghetto and only have head phones to plug into the treadmill, i listen to gym music. All of a sudden, i heard a loud BOOM- - another one, then - NO LIGHTS! Uh ya.. a huge dark gym with lots of equipment and sweaty men.. i would LOVE to work out in the dark- then no one can see you grimmace as you lift or look like a fool. After about 10 minutes they came on.. But lemme tell you when it rains here, its like BUCKETS! you get soaked! just from the car to my house my shoes and socks were saturated- flippin nasty i tell you!

So, as i sit here and type, what am i listening to right now you ask? Well, Quin is screaming at the top of her lungs in bed ( have no clue why, she just was bathed, teeth brushed and had a bottle) and Lexi is also being as dramatic crying obnoxiously in bed- why is SHe crying?! Well, its now 8 and after an hour cheer practice of course she's hungry. While i was just on a FIVE mn phone call, TOPS, she came up and interrupted me on the phone. THIS is something that we've been working on the last few weeks. WHY IS IT that when you are on the phone, a child needs your utmost attention, but hasnt needed it AT ALL before then?! And so, She will go to bed now, without a snack to make a point that we do not interrupt or throw fits-

And it is moments like these, i will look back on in a few years and just WISH i heard their little voices whine and cry and ask for mommy- until then, I think i'll pour myself a glass of wine.

................. Until Next time, America..........................

Quiet time

It started out as one of those mornings- a shreaking scream poured out from Quin's room. I jump out of bed, look at the clock as i walk by the kitchen and think, my gosh 4:45, what in the heck is she thinking? i pick her up and try to calm her- to no avail.. until 30 min later when she calms down. She falls back asleep and suddenly i am awakened by my internal alarm. The craziness of the day starts, i get lex off to school, and just sit on the couch. As i look around me i think, WHEN DID THIS BOMB GO OFF?! clothes and toys surround me, 3 unmade beds, dirty dishes in the kitchen, papers all over the table, 5 loads of dirty laundry and clutter everywhere- all from THIS WEEKEND! i bite the bullet, turn on some tunes and do what every girl does when she needs to relax- light candles!! What is it about them that makes them so relaxing? And so now, with all my cleaning done and i a vacuuming job to boot, i'm sitting here reflecting on something that touched me so much TWO weeks ago, i have to share it with you.

Two Sundays ago, our pastor spoke for our series called : "Bling"- he spoke of giving and blessing people. You see, in our series, we're learing about being smart with your money, tithing to God, the man that's given us EVERYTHING we own. Everything is his, so what better thing to do than obey him and give him back a small portion of what he's given us!!! Last week, the church handed out a sealed envelope to every person in the service. At the end of the service, every person opened their envelope and was given instructions. They had taken $6600 and put sums of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 AND 500 dollars in each envelope. Our job was to use our money, Small or big to go out and Bless someone with that money- WOW.. have you ever heard of a church saying, instead of taking an offering today, we're giving YOU a gift to bless others! Our church also set up a webpage for this special assigment to read and see how people in this community were blessed by this money- Take the time to check out this webpage and read the blessings that people received and be encouraged from them! http://www.blessback.cc/

With the Holiday Season coming up, i encourage you to go out of your way, Think outside the box as our church did and bless someone or quite frankly KNOCK THEIR SOCKS OFF in a creative way- it doesnt have to cost 100.. it could be buying their Coffee. In doing this, i think you will find how encouraged you become by the shock and gratitude of these people!!!

Make it a great week!!-- Lots of hugs and kisses!

The Day We Almost Lost Jewel-

First off, this pic was taken special for my mom AND dad ;)who drove all the way to Hood River to pick up this apple and packed it up perfectly for Lex's teacher- How 'bout them apples?! She was touched to think that you would think of her all the way across the country.. and then apple even ended up being a class project ( one kid thought it weighed 50 lbs! ;)

Speaking of apples, Monday morning, Miss Quin thought she would share her cut up apple she had for breakfast with our dog. For ya'll that dont know our special little lady of the family is 4 years old, and weighs in at only 4 lbs! She is our little yorkie, Jewel and is the light of our lives- well, she likes to do what we call "sharkin" and circles around the baby when she eats. monday , she ate apple that lodged in her throat- she could barely breathe! I gathered her vet info from Oregon and rushed her to the animal hospital. They took x-rays and said it was bad enough, they wanted to send us to University of Georgia to their animal hospital- We quickly left, picked lex up from school and rushed there ( it took HOURS!) We get her there and they tell us she is BARELY breathing, she has bad color and they are preparing for the WORSE- i was beside myself! They finally got her breathing under control and due to having a liver shunt and a heart murmer they decided to keep her overnight- So.. we had a spur of the moment sleepover in Athens ;) No shower yet that day and no makeup, but we made the most of it!

ISNT THIS FACE HILARIOUS ?! This face is Quin's new Thang- we dunno where she learned it, but she does it ALL day long and its just too funny!



TAking in the Beautiful Fall scenery-
Arent' the buildings beautiful here?!


Across from the Animal hospital-
Gorgeous Trees

NOW in seeing this, do you understand WHY we love it here
so much?! its beautiful, AND SUNNY!
We also passed a cotton field- WOW.. what a trip that is!
its like thigh high stick plants with literally cotton balls
all over them- due to the dog choking and then time crunch the next
day, no photos.. i will get cha one some day!





After Discharge- tuckered out!

Poor little arm was shaved, and you cant see but on each of

her sides was shaved super fast due to the emergency and she has

razor burn which turned into scabs on both sides.. painful!

Thank you, Jesus and the staff of Univ. OF Georgia

for saving my dogs life!

After running tests, they were not able to find the apple once we got there!

They said this could be due to it being so thin- also, because of her heart murmer

and liver shunt, its terribly dangerous to put her under .. she risks dying. so, they decided

that since her breathing was under control, they would not scope her. However, the

cardiologist did find that she suffers from a RARE heart condition, usually only found in cats

(hence her 9 freakin lives!!!) and it causes an enlarged heart, therefore making

it harder for her blood to pump and increasing her blood pressure. She will now be on

medication for that every 12 HOURS FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE!

**YAHOO**

MY BLOG JUST APPEARED FIXED, JUST LIKE APPEARED JACKED

UP!! YEAH.. ITS FIXED!!!

Lex First Cheer Game!

So, the day after Halloween, we had a car wash in the morning with our community group at church and then lex had a game-- we received directions and as we were driving there, it occurred to us: IT WAS IN THE GHETTO! Now, let me refresh your memory. Remember the blog weeks back that had pics of the ghetto, bars on the dairy queen, etc etc?! UM.. YA .. THAT NEIGHBORHOOD!! I forgot to pack our bullet proof vests, but it ended up being ok. Lex cheered and i got some cute pictures out of it!

Her cute coaches on either side of her, who told me last night at practice they wanted to

be "cute" like me after they have 2 kids! I KNEW i liked them! Wonder how

much luke paid them to tell me that ;)

This arm crossin thing has GOT to go! Arms should be in back!


The Cheer : "firecracker, firecracker, boom, boom boom,
REPEAT, the boys got the muscles, the teachers got the brains,
the girls got the pretty legs so we win the game!"




Before leaving the house -she wanted to know : "Mom,
WHY dont we get skirts?! Cheerleaders are suppose to wear SKIRTS!"
Honey, i agree, but this is the "Y" we're talkin about!



**As soon as luke shows me how to upload video- i'll post on for ya'll**

Halloween NIGHT

Post trick-or-treating, we had a culdesac bonfire and ate more food and made smores-
Quincey trick or treating.. they had a son that was bob the builder of to the left
of Quin

The LIFESAVER of the night- Mr. Radio Flyer

OH.. and another jonothan pic- yes, he is crazy- on the way to trick or treat

he stopped at Star-YUCKS to get a coffee and thought he would be funny

and make faces and talk funny on the intercom- UNTIL the lady

says to him : "I Can see you, there is a camera- " DORK!

Sad, but luke only was able to eat with us on his lunch break- he had to work

Halloween night!!! LAME (mom and dad, i'm sportin my skull

sweatshirt JUST FOR YA'll!)

The Groupies!

Yes, she is TERRIFIED! This is the sweetest man under the mask

and little Quin just LOVES him, but when that mask went on, she literally screamed!

He kept taking mask off and on and let her touch it so by the end of the night, she

knew it was really him-