Baby's First Christmas

Merry Christmas friends! I hope you and your family are enjoying a special time of joy, love, and fellowship together.

Marathon day!

Today was a CRAZY day! In fact, I had to list all the things on our "to do" list out so we wouldn't miss something. Here's how our day went on this wild Thursday. Austin's play was today at preschool. He played Joseph (see video). I really thought he was going to all out ball on stage. I tried not to make eye contact with him and just kept a huge smile on my face the whole time. He did wonderful and he was so relieved when it was finished. From there, Kent went to speak at the nursing home and I went to Wal-Mart with my fellow PTA mom, Tina, and we bought 45 cases of Capri Sun for "movie day" at school tomorrow. Left WM and went to Mcky D's to celebrate Austin's performance.

A and I came home and made the cutest reindeer cookies for his class party tomorrow. He was a big helper and decided that the reindeer are of course Rudolph, but the brown nosed one is Blitzen.

I had arranged with Derek's teacher earlier this month to come and do a craft with the class. Today was the day, and it fit in my schedule around 1:30. So from 1:30-2:15 Tina and I made cute little snowmen with 21 second graders. They were very well behaved and it went much smoother than I had anticipated. Left school and went back to WM to buy items to make a dessert for our staff party at church tomorrow. Now it was time to go back to school and pick up D. Back to the house we go. Both little ones are napping, but I have to wake them up for A's doc appointment. This was just a follow up from surgery. Took B with me so Kent could get D ready for his basketball practice at 4:30. I took A's bball clothes with me to change after the doc. Man, was his office crazy today. Perfect! We were there for an hour for him just to look in and say "looks good, I'm here if you ever need me again". Thanks, but no thanks! I hope we're done with the ENT for ever!!!! (wishful thinking...I know)

Went to the boys club for practice and walked back and forth between gyms to see both boys practice. B was such a trooper and the loud noises of the gyms kept her alert and happy even though she's suffering with a nasty cold.

Left bball in time to come home and change for a boy scout dinner/meeting. D got 2 new patches. Left meeting, looked at Christmas lights, and came home to bake a cake for tomorrow. It's not a very pretty cake, so I hope it tastes divine. I'll let you know.

Sorry this is so long and rambly. We had such a fast paced day that my mind is still racing, I guess. Tis the season! And now it's time for bed!

Christmas Cookies are yummy!

We're home

Thank you all for your prayers. We are home. Austin did so good. He was nervous, so we took coloring pages and the dot game to keep him occupied. They gave him a "happy drink" but took him away before we could see how it affected him. When the doc came in to talk to us he said it was harder to get than he thought. He had to try 4 or 5 different instruments to get it out. Once they rolled Austin back to us, he was still drowsy. He was confused and didn't understand that the rock wasn't in there anymore. He was disoriented, he saw 2 Diego's on the tv...strange! He cried and was a little combative. But a little time passed and he was more like himself. The anaesthesia did make him sick though. All in all, it was an experience I will never forget. I do have the rock as a souvenir, too. Again, thank you friends for praying. Our God is an AWESOME God!

Are you kidding me?

Some of you may remember when Austin and I met Dr. Pillsbury in the spring of '06. That is the day Austin thought a small yellow flower would smell better in his nose than out of his nose. Well, we got to renew our acquaintance with the good doc today. When I picked Aus up from school at 1 he told me, "I fell on the playground and a rock jumped up and got stuck in my ear!"
Me: What!?! Let me see.
Sure enough, there it was, a bit out of my reach. Of course I tried shaking it out...ha, it didn't work. I called his doctor and the nurse said, just call the ENT doc. We head over to meet Dr. Pillsbury once again. Bless his heart, he really did try to get it out, but it slipped further down the ear canal. So, tomorrow we are scheduled to be at the hospital at 6:15 a.m. for Austin to undergo his first surgery. Poor baby! He's my first to be "put under". Please say a prayer for him tonight and tomorrow morning. I'll post when it's all over and let you know how he did. (And how I did :))

On a side note: We had pics taken yesterday. If you would like to take a look, go to
www.lairdphotography.smugmug.com
proofs
jobe
password: green

Not how I planned my week!

Take a look at my new accessory. Here's how this came about: Julie and I, with our children, drove to Pocahontas on Friday afternoon. El Dorado played Jonesboro in the playoffs Friday night so we thought we would come up for the game and just stay here until Thanksgiving. Good plan, right? We won the game and are now in the semi-finals. Yay! Being that there aren't too many places to shop here in Pokey, we traveled back to Jonesboro yesterday. Target was calling my name!!! We arrived at the mall around 2:15 p.m. and waited on a parking space because apparently Target was calling all of Jonesboro's names. We got parked, placed the babies in their strollers and were off. (Side note: Mom had the boys and my niece Hailey with her in Jboro at the movies.) There was a lady who I thought had said something to us as we passed her. So I jog up to Julie and ask what she had said. As I'm jogging, just like 3 quick steps, my right foot caught the stroller wheel, my ankle popped, and down I went. I was hurt! Julie picked me up but I couldn't put any weight on my foot. Two nice women helped us get back to the van with the babies. Off to the ER we went. I called mom and she and the kids came to the ER, too. Two hours later we find out it's not broken (thank you God!) or the doc didn't think there was a fracture. It was so swollen he said if I was still having trouble in a week or so to go to an orthopedic dr. So now I have this lovely boot and crutches. Had a little break down last night. I cried in front of the boys and I probably shouldn't have, but I was so frustrated. It is HARD having everyone wait on you when you can do nothing yourself. Just getting up to go to the bathroom is a chore. I can't just hop up and fix Brylee a bottle or get the boys a drink. Julie and Jarett had to move to the downstairs bedroom and the boys brought all our bags upstairs. This is NOT how I thought my week would go. I wanted to shop, and play, and go to church and show off my kids. Mom took the kids to church this morning w/out me. I can't remember the last time I skipped church on Sunday. It feels strange. Hopefully I can begin putting some weight on my foot soon. Kent is coming up here on Tuesday and that will be a big help. Say a prayer that this severely sprained ankle heals quickly. Being out of commission is not fun. Now I'm just wondering what God has planned and why this was part of that plan :)

We LOVE Karen!

November 7-8 I, along with 8 other ladies from church, mostly ministers and elders wives, went to Jackson, MS for a women's conference. So many of us are avid Karen Kingsbury readers and we were so excited to hear her speak and to meet her in person. My friend Tina was the MOST excited. In fact I thought she was going to tackle her when it was our turn to meet her. Karen was so sweet and not too overwhelmed with Tina's enthusiasm. She even gave her an autographed tote bag that read "to my BFF Tina"! We had a wonderful weekend together. Here's a picture of us squashing Karen. We have this enlarged to a 20x30 to place in our church library above all of her books.