Scotty

For those that knew my cousin, here is his obituary.  I still can't believe he's gone.  He had so much life to live.  We don't know why God allows things, but we trust in the fact that He knows what is best.  We miss you and love you Scott!!  http://www.thelabsfh.com/obituaries/detail.aspx?obituaryid=20

Heartbroken

I just found out that my cousin Scotty was killed in a car explosion.  I don't know many details, but I am SO sad for his family!!  It is hard enough to lose an elderly family member, when you have time to prepare and say goodbye, but for someone so young and to not even get a chance to tell them you love them one last time, is unbearable.  He was so young, just 24 (would have been 25 New Year's Eve).  He had the sweetest personality and was such a nice young man who was trying so hard to live for the Lord.  Please keep his family in your prayers during this difficult nightmare.  It really does show you how things can change in an instant.  We all have to be prepared for where we will spend eternity.  God loves us all and wants us all to join Him in heaven.  We cannot do that on our own, since we are all sinners, but through Jesus Christ, we can all have a lifetime of peace and happiness in heaven.  Jesus offers us all the free gift of salvation to all who will accept Him and call upon His name.  I believe Scott is in heaven now, and I have peace knowing I will one day see him again.  I hope you are all ready yourself.

Christmas is almost here!!

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by, and yet how slow it seemed at the time.  So much has happened.  We moved to FL, we moved twice, we got an offer on our house (my FAVORITE part!), we added 2 1/2 more babies to our family (one is still cooking) and we went to Disney, a few times :-) Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday.  Unfortunately this year, I have hardly any of my own decorations, since they are still in NC, but my parents were nice enough to lend us their tree/ornaments and I had some other items to put out.  I did have to go and by the kids some stockings from the Dollar Tree.  We don't do Santa, but we do the stockings.  The kids need to open something in the morning so I don't get woken up too early :-)  Although, to be honest, I don't think my kids have EVER gotten up before 7 AM Christmas morning.  Which boggles my mind.  I remember waking well before daylight, opening our stockings, and seeing the white snow on the TV (back before there was in the middle of the night shows on TV!)  My kids sleep too soundly to wake up that early, but I won't complain about that!  Last year was very weird because we opened presents at the last minute on the 23rd and went to Nathan's grandma's funeral in MO that day, which means we were driving on Christmas day.  It was nice to see his family, but not under those circumstances, and also I lost my voice (a nice quiet drive for Nate!)  This year, we are trying to be as "normal" as we can, with some modifications due to Nathan's weird work schedule.  Christmas Eve, our church has a candle light service at 5 PM.  Nathan will be late to that and meet us there, but after the service, we will come home to some delicious finger foods and have a birthday party for Jesus.  He is the ONLY reason we celebrate Christmas, and we always make it special with a cake and everything!!  Then we sing songs and give a gift to Jesus, something about ourselves that we want to change and make better.   More like Christ.  Christmas morning, the kids can open their stockings, and then we have to wait, and wait, and wait to open gifts until Nathan gets home from work around 10 AM.  At least it will get us time to eat, and get ready to go for the day :-)  After we do gifts, we are going up to Brooksville to my aunt's house.  I am really excited, since we haven't been there yet, and I haven't been up to that neck of the woods in 9 years!!  I'm interested in seeing how it has changed.  The guys are all excited because they get to bring their guns and go shooting.  Ok, I'm a little excited too!!  Not to mention the white elephant gift exchange!!  I think it will be a really fun Christmas that will give us fond memories.  I finally got a camera, so I will be able to post some pictures as well.  Merry Christmas everyone.  I hope you center the holiday around Christ, and His miraculous birth.  Without Him, we would have no hope for something better, and we would have noone to look up to and strive to be more like.  He is the true meaning of Christmas!

Mystery Guest

I haven't been on a lot lately, because we didn't have internet at the house.  We have it now, so I hope to be able to update more often.  Since moving back to FL I have not done any Mystery Guest work, and I am hoping to get back into it soon.  If you don't know what a Mystery Guest is, let me catch you up.  There is a site that you go to and fill out all your information to see if you qualify to do the work.  If you are accepted, you go to a certain restaurant at a certain time and then you answer all these questions for the owners of the restaurant, such as what the waiter was like, was the bathroom clean, were your drinks filled in a timely manner.  Stuff like that.  They reimburse you for your meal, so it's pretty much like going on a date for free!!  We did it a lot here before we moved to NC and we also did it in NC, but we have not done it since moving back.  It's a great way to have a date, but not spend a lot of money.  It's a lot of fun, and you get to try out new restaurants!! 

Good news/bad news

Sorry I have been absent for so long, but I have been very sick with the flu. I literally felt like I was dying. I haven't been that sick in years, and I hope I never get that sick again!! I am feeling a little better, so that is a blessing. Good news is that we have an offer on our house!! I am so grateful to God for opening this door for us. I hope we have a quick closing, I will definitely celebrate when that is over :-) God has really grown my family this year, and I really hope and pray next year is uneventful! Although with my family, anything is possible!!