Addition....

I said I have 12 nieces and nephews. I actually have more. I have 6 in Las Vegas and when my sister married her hubby I gained 6 more. I also claim my friends kiddos as neices and nephews. See, I am truly blessed with so many kiddos in my life that bring me joy.

Good night and God Bless!!!

Changes are coming....

Alot has happened since my last post. However, instead of writing about past events, I will be writing about a new adventure in my life that I am extremely excited about. I have come to the realization that my walk with Christ is not what it should be. I know I am human and because of that my priorities get out of wack, my focus turns from Christ and my actions are NOT what they should be. When I hit these road bumps I find that my ability to withstand temptation and sin is much weaker. I have decided to make a commitment to myself and to God to work harder on my relationship with Him daily. What better way then to blog about it. I always wondered what I had to share on a blog. I mean my life is NOT that interesting at all. I wondered what I had to give to the world. It has finally come to me, my expereinces as a strong believer in Christ. What better way to reach other believers who are struggling and non-believers who are searching for more or who don't even know they want more. This is going to be a real account of what it is like to live in a world so consumed with sin as a believer in Christ. The daily temptations, the daily frustrations, the days when I just want to give up, the heartbreaks, the laughter, the happiness, the tears.....hear you will read it all. I will share everything, not sugar coating, in my life. I do this in hopes it will keep me more honest and hold me more accountable to my actions. I will also share the happy and sad things that go on in my life. My niece Dawna is starting dance, so there will be plenty of cute, funny stories to share and maybe a few pictures. My nephew, Connor, starts kindergarten this year and I am saddened because even though I have 12 nieces and nephews, Connor was the first one that I felt like a real Aunt. I was finally able to spoil like an Aunt should. Then came Dawna, a perfect gift from God. That doesn't mean that I don't love all my nieces and nephews just the same. The relationships I have with them are all different, yet very precious to my heart, my soul and my life. You will also come to know all 12 of them throughout this blog. I love all of them dearly and wouldn't trade them for the world. My dream is to be a wife and a mommy. However, I feel blessed beyond measure because God has given me the job of being an Aunt to 12 beautiful, talented people. They are all so different and I have learned a lifetime of lessons from them all. I will do a post dedicated to each one and by the time you finish reading about these precious human beings whom God has blessed my life with, I hope you feel you know them as well. I will also tell you all about my parents, siblings and other family members. Even though my family gets crazy and we have drama, I love them all and wouldn't want any other family in the world. So stay tuned and please leave comments. There will be times I ask a question, or ask for feedback for a certain experience or struggle that I am facing. God Bless!!!!

What I've Been Up To!

Well I realized today that I haven't posted a blog in a while. I am currently awake from coughing my head off. I woke up this morning with signs of either tonsilitis or strep, so I called the Dr. and got some antibiotics called in and got started on those this afternoon. I am thankful to have an Oncologist who knows that I know when I am getting sick and will call in a prescription for me so I can get it under control before I get too sick.

A lot has happened since my last blog. Not really anything exciting, just alot.

My friend Meghann opened up her own Day Spa and it is really cute and she is doing really well. She opened last Tuesday, 9/14 and has done really good for being open for only 2 weeks. I am so proud of her for finally making her dreams come true. I am working for her at the spa on Saturdays and doing her accounting. It helps her out and puts some extra money in the bank account. I will say working two jobs isn't much fun, but the extra money is nice.

My sister had a pumpkin carving party last weekend and it was a lot of fun. I didn't carve a pumpkin this year, instead I decided to take on the duty of babysitting little Makenzie. It was fun spending time with her and it gave her mom and dad a little break. There wasn't a whole lot of sleeping going on in there house that weekend. Makenzie was fighting sleep with a vengence. Everyone had fun carving their pumpkins and there were more this year than last year.

My mom, brother and I went to the Old Sorehead Trade Days Saturday 9/12. They had more booths this year than I remember them having the last time I went. My mom and I really enjoyed it, but my poor brother was getting frustrated with us because we took "too long" at some of the booths. My mom and I would just laugh as he "whinged" about us taking to long. Whinge is the Aussie term for gripping. It has been fun learning the Aussie slang and some of it is really fun to say and I have caught my mother picking some words up. I just laugh because it is a little backwards. He is suppose to pick back up the west texas slang and loose the Aussie slang, but it isn't happening that way.

My brother did find a job so he gets to stay here. He is working on getting his wife and the girls here, but it will take some time since they have to sell their property and get the money to fly 4 or 5 people here.

I guess that about does it. Will post more later!

Weekend at Granna's

The weekend started for my mother Thursday morning. Bryan and Renee' dropped Connor and Dawna off Thursday morning on their way to Longview, TX. The kids had fun playing in paper and in a box that some of mom's Longaberger baskets came in. The kids also played in the backyard on their outside toys and drew on the patio with sidewalk chalk.

Friday when I got to Midland, I had to go back to Odessa to get a few things I forgot so the kids and I loaded up, in mom's tahoe, and then headed back to Odessa. They enjoyed the ride and then we went to Wal-Mart and they both got a treat for being so good!!!

Friday night we went to play Putt Putt and we all had blast. The bad thing was I forgot my camera, so we don't have pics of them hitting the ball around. Ruddee, mom and I played and of course Ruddee won and I came in 3rd. I have never claimed to be the best at Putt Putt!!!!

Saturday I took the kids to the park that is down the street from my parents house. The playground equipment is so much nicer than what was there when I was a kid. The kids had a blast sliding down the slide, swinging and climing the rock wall. Connor climbed all the way to the top and Dawna tried really hard, but she is still too little!!!

Connor rode his scooter to the park and I pulled Dawna on the wagon, but on the way back Connor said he was too tired to ride his scooter, so I loaded Connor, Dawna and the scooter in the wagon and pulled them back to the house. It sure did add some weight and I got a pretty good workout. At least we all got some good exercise. After lunch we all pretty much took a nap except for Connor. That boy has more energy than he can handle.

After supper we went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream and the kiddos got to set at thier own table. I had forgotten that Baskin Robbins here in Midland had two kid tables that are pink and grey. They are so cute and the kids looked really cute sitting at them and eating their ice cream.

We are just hanging out today relaxing, watching cartoons.....getting a little tired of the cartoons....and enjoying each others company.

Hope everyone has had a great month, can't believe Sept is almost over.

Its Been A While......

Well alot has happened in the past 20 days. I have had 2 garage sales, which overall had great results, I have been to the Lonestar concert, have had a blast hanging out with my big brother the is weekend I have been at my parents. We have Connor and Dawna while my sister and Bryan went out of town. The weeekend has been so much fun, but so tiring......

A lady from my mothers stitching guild, cross-stitching group, had 2 extra tickets, so my brother and I got to go and enjoy an evening of great music. The opening band was CPR....they are a local band and pretty good. I had my good camera with my 300mm lens and was all set to get some great pics, when to my surprise I discovered that my lens is broken. It would take pics at the 70mm spot, but will not zoom out past that. Needless to say I was not too thrilled about the whole situation. I was bummed because I didn't think I would get as good of pics and the lens was like $300 and I have been told it cannot be fixed. I will of course get a second opinion, but it looks like I will be saving up for a new lens. On a good note I was still able to get some good pics of the band and the evening was nice and relaxing, but a little chilly.

I didn't get any pics of the garage sales, but they were crazy. On Sept 13 my sister and I had one at my moms and started the sale at 7 am. When I opened the garage door just before seven I could see all the feet standing at the door. I couldn't even get things pulled out of the garage so people could move around because there were so many people. My dad and brother and I were all bug eyed at the sight of all these people. They started coming in before the garage door was completely opened. It was crazy, but my sister and I both made some good money. I was impressed with what I made because it was all mainly little stuff. The next garage sale was the following Saturday 9/20 at Leah's house, she is the woman that does amazing things with my hair!!!!! She doesn't have a garage, so it was more of a yard/driveway sale. It was pretty good as well, not the crowd I had the week before, but I still made some more money and then took the rest to goodwill.

I have filled up 5 45 gallon trash bags of junk that was trashed and sold over $400 worth of junk. I didn't realize how many tote bags and purses I had until I started pulling them out of my closet. I was also able to get rid of my storage, which is going to save me $52 a month!!!!!! YAY!!!! I still have ALOT of cleaning out to do, but my apt doesn't feel so suffocating any more, but still have too much crap!!!!

I will also be adding to my patio before 9/30. The apartments of course put in new patio fences and now as an incentive they are doing a contest on the cutest/neatest patios and the winner gets a $100. Be praying that I win because I could use the money. If I win I will have to decide whether to use it towards the stanton crop or getting a new lens for my camera. I may be working a second job by the end of Oct, so I wouldn't be able to go to the stanton crop and if that is the case, it will go towards getting a new lens for my camera!!!!

Labor Day Weekend.....

So, I spend Labor Day Weekend cleaning out my storage building and my apt. You wouldn't believe the amount of crap I threw away and the amount of stuff I had to give away. I decided to have a garage sale instead, which I am doing this Saturday at my mothers.

I guess helping my mother clean out her house inspired me. Anyways before all the clean out the apt management had new fencens put on our patios, so I decided to spruce up my patio. I am so proud of it that I have to show it off. I did this during the clean-out. I sprayed down the walls and patio with a water hose as well as the chairs because months of dirt had made a home on the chairs. Here are some pics of my new and improved patio.....I LOVE it now!!!!

Abuelo's

My brother was craving Mexican food so several of us went to Abuelos for supper (didn't get any pics of that dang it)!!!! Before leaving for supper Connor and Dawna were watching a movie in my moms room and I had to get a couple pics of how cute they were!!! Dawna is learning to "pose" for the camera, so she kept looking at me and saying cheese....I had to tell her to not look at the camera, just look at the tv. Right after I took the picture, she looked over at me and said cheese. It was too precious!!!!