Dinner!

Stephen killed a 9-point deer this morning! That is an answer to prayer because we just can't afford to have to pay for meat and we were getting low-ish on venison in our freezer. I was actually just telling people the other day that I was praying for him to get a deer. So, answer to prayer this morning! Yay!

Bath Time

Our kids take baths together, 35% to save time/water and 65% because they have so much fun together. I am truly thankful for many of the games we are able to see them come up with. This particular night I am thinking of, they began screaming at each other as if to see who could scream louder. Then they would both erupt in loud laughter and one of them would break the laughter only to start screaming again. Most people might be irritated by the loud noises, but hey, we don't have close neighbors, and so our little family of four got a kick out of these shenanigans. Very blessed.

Disappointment

I had a life disappointment today. I have a produce guy that I go to regularly but he's closed on Mondays. I went to another local produce stand down the road to get a couple of things. While I was paying for my yummy sweet potatoes I realized he had oranges.

Oranges?

We live in North Carolina, if you hadn't noticed.

I said politely, "Um, where did you get oranges from?" Florida.

Ooookay.

Then I said, "So I noticed last week that you had watermelons. Where were those from?" Peru. Peru, people.

I can't believe I thought all roadside stands were selling local produce just because the one I go to regularly does. I definitely urge you to check out where your stuff is coming from, especially if you are really trying to buy local and organic like I do. I won't be buying from him again in the future, unfortunately.

Conversations

Brianna is all the time having conversations with people - very animated conversations, and most of the time they have no clue what she's saying. Here she is on the phone with Nenah a couple of months ago. You can figure out most of what she's saying I think, although a lot of it is just gibberish.

Daddy's Coming!

Back in September, a few days before Stephen came home from deployment I was prepping Brianna to see him. We didn't know if she'd be shy around him or anything, so I was really talking him up and making sure she knew to hug him and kiss him when he came home. In this video, I'm getting her to tell me what she's going to do when she sees him - and trust me, when she saw him, she definitely hugged and kissed him first thing!!

Thanksgiving Program

Tonight is Brianna's first Thanksgiving program. So for the last six weeks all we have heard around the house is:

"It's a hoooooliday, a hooooliday, a hooooliday. It's a hoooooliday, Thanksgiving is the one. On this day we eat turkey, we eat turkey, we eat turkey. On this day we eat turkey and pumpkin pie too."

"Gobble gobble gobble gobble, fat turkeys are we!"

And a couple more songs that are in the program. I promise you, I sing them all. day. long.

So today I am spending the day:

• making cornbread for the Thanksgiving "feast" after the program
• making a pumpkin roll for said "feast"
• making sure the camcorder is charged
• impatiently awaiting for Leila to get here - she's flying in early for Thanksgiving and Stephen is picking her up this afternoon!

Okay, it doesn't sound like a lot when I bullet-point it. But I have to get on it and get off HERE!

Hunter's Second 1st Party

I blogged the other day about Hunter's first 1st party on Skype. A few days after that we had his party here at our house.






As you can see, I took so many pictures. Actually, Jenn took a ton but I can't figure out how to get them from Snapfish to my blog without the pictures becoming miniscule. Sorry. Needless to say, we had a BALL! And we have thoroughly enjoyed having Hunter in our family for over a year. Here's to the next 80+! :)

Friends!

The other day (okay it's been about six weeks ago now), Brianna noticed that Hunter had climbed up the slide and was playing. So she scurried up after him, swung her arm around his shoulder and said, "Look, Mommy, two friends!" I was ooh-ing and aah-ing at her sweetness so much that she said, "Take pictures!!"





They're so sweet.

Stop and Think

Okay, raise your hand if you've ever seen this picture. If you didn't raise your hand you either don't watch the news, don't read the news, don't have email, or don't have a Facebook account. This picture has circulated ever since Obama was elected President and I can't believe people are STILL posting this on Facebook. Are you kidding me?

The claim is that President Obama won't put his hand over his heart for the National Anthem, basically because he is Muslim. And he is so evil and a socialist and trying to destroy our country from within and ICAN'TBELIEVEHEREFUSESTOPUTHISHANDOVERHISHEART!!!!

I try not to get into politics on this blog, mainly for the reason that I don't know enough about politics to talk about them, but this is just interesting to me. Growing up, I was taught to put my hand over my heart during the National Anthem. I still do it as a reflex. I don't know why we do it, we just do.

Last weekend when we were at the tractor pull, they played the National Anthem before starting the races. As I looked around, I realized approximately 90% of people did not have their hands over their hearts. Lots of people didn't stand up. Some people carried on conversations during the song. I actually felt awkward that I was one of the few with my hand over my heart, like I was suddenly unsure that was the "correct" thing to do!

It made me stop and think back to when this picture was really prominent on the internet (usually followed with something like, "Obama MUSLIM hates America!!" or something else ridiculous). And I realized I'm not even sure people are being taught to put their hands over their hearts for the National Anthem anymore. Does anyone know? Anyway, I asked Stephen on the way home from the tractor pull about it (he's military) and he actually said to him it's almost reflex to simply stand at attention, because that's what they do in the military rather than placing their hands over their hearts.

Talking during the song? I think that's a little disrespectful, but I'm not going to judge you.

Not standing during the song? I mean, I really think you can get off your toosh for two minutes out of respect, but again, I won't judge you.

Not placing your hand over your heart? Obviously this is only a big deal when our President doesn't do it for whatever reason. Again, I won't judge you.

I'm not getting into politics and respect for the military or respect for the country or any of that. Actually the reason I'm writing this post is for you to stop and think before posting a dumb picture like this on Facebook or some other social network and writing "People, see this man is not American... please get him out of office."

Don't embarrass yourself. You might not like Obama. You might not have voted for him. You might have voted for him and now wish you didn't. All that is beside the point. He is our elected leader, and you're supposed to show respect for your leaders. Actually, Romans 13:1 from the Bible (NIV translation) hits the nail on the head:

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

I guess it just makes me irritated when people put stupid things like the "no-hand" situation in emails or on social networks, and then I go to a public event and see 90% of the population do the exact same thing and no one says anything to those people.

So please, please, stop and think before you send out that email, or put something on Facebook. And if you dislike the people we have in authority, I suggest you do two things:

1) pray for them.

2) vote.

I wrote this post after a VERY long night and re-read it 24 hours later. Not all of it makes sense to me (based on what I was actually trying to get across) but I'm still going to post it. If I need to explain anything I was trying to say, please feel free to comment (not bash me!) and I'll try to clarify my meaning.

Hunter's First Party

That is what's called a "double title". See, because this was Hunter's 1st birthday but these pictures are from his first party. See how clever I am??

Our family from Georgia unfortunately could not make it to Hunter's birthday party, so they mailed his present and we opened it while we Skyped with them. Success! The only problem was that the presents were so good the kids kind of forgot about the fact that we were Skyping with our family...

Patiently waiting for Skype to come up... poor child doesn't realize these are Hunter's presents!

"Daddy, let me help you!"

First thing that happens: Brianna finds that she does have a present! A very cool magic-color book!

"Hunter, allow me to help you."

Bri attempts to take pictures for us: