Mullet

I think I spelled that correctly. It's not every year I write that word. Anyway, Richard and I were at the Salon today. Me haircut and arch, Richard haircut. Anyhow, a woman comes in and proceeds to tell the stylist what she would like done. I look at Richard, he looks at me, I look at the stylist who's looking at the floor. And what do you know, the Lady wants a mullet. So the stylist proceeds to tell her exactly what she's asking for and if she's sure that's what she wants. And yep, she got her hair cut. A mullet.

Incommunicado

I know, I know. I've been hearing it. I'm finally posting again. Can I just say how much I hate viruses? I hate, hate, hate when my kids are sick. So last week the first boy gets it. Two days later I think the last boy is getting it. Nope, just a tease. Then Saturday the girl gets it. Not fun at our home. And it reeks of Lysol. At least the house got a major scrub down before Christmas! I've been in a clean freak mode lately. Not just a clean, but it has to be CLEAN! Not a bad thing, just not me normally. So we are off to another busy week. Haircuts tomorrow. Last minute shopping!(No, I haven't finished yet), Dropping 2k for a new transmission put me behind. And one more Christmas party. Then it's the Christmas celebrations. The kids have been doing their advent calendar. It's a good thing they are still young because Santa is actually coming to the "W" house on Dec 22nd this year. And then he'll be at Nana and Papa's on the 23rd, and then Nana and Papaw's on the 25th. Carter couldn't control himself this week and unwrapped a present at my mom's house. Too bad it was on my mom's 3 foot tall Santa's bag. Oh well, he was just warming up! I have so much baking to do it's not even funny. Okay, maybe this year some of our friends will be getting a bag of Oreos!! Hope you have a great and Merry Christmas!!
FYI: I need some addresses! I have Christmas cards to still send out! Sorry, had to manipulate our children into smiling while still ill!!! So if you are reading this email me your address! And be forgiving if you get it after Monday!!

Oh and Jenny, I loved your picture. Carter wants to come see Malaya, and Ashlyn has written her a letter! I'll include it with the Christmas card!

Turkey and Ham Overload

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Way too much food here, but hey it's only one day! Well for a couple more weeks then it's Christmas Day!

Wednesday night Richard and I and my two Siblings went to Guns and Hoses. We had a blast. For those of you who don't know what that is let me explain...... Guns and Hoses is a fundraising event for Backstoppers. Backstoppers is an organization that provides monitary, emotional, spiritual, and physical assistance in the case of a fireman, police officer, or emergency medical worker's death in the line of duty. This organization is a tremendous blessing to those in this area. So every year on the night before Thanksgiving is Guns N Hoses. It's a huge fundraising event to help Backstoppers. It's a part of the Amateur boxing league and it's firemen against the police. There are 17 matches and it's so much fun. I never thought I would have a good time at a boxing tournament, but the energy is unreal. There were over 18,000 people there and you had to root on your team. The boxers are from all over St.Louis area and surrounding Illinois towns as well. The best fight of the night was probably the women fighting. We had to laugh at ourselves when it was over, since you are so revved up, you just want to fight someone. You want to be a part of it too!! :) I actually call this event the Mating Ground since it's about 5 guys for every girl in the audience and the girls that are in attendance are probably not of the highest caliber. Obviously I am not talking about myself!! :)
Thursday we dropped the transmission on our vehicle. Talk about a bummer.
I also ate myself into oblivion.
Thursday night we had an outreach dinner at church. We made to go meals for people who had to work and delivered them. We had a blast! I loved this and can't wait to do it again!
Friday...no shopping for me. That whole new transmission thing.
Saturday....We finished putting up the Christmas that we started on Friday. Only one ornament broke in the process. And wouldn't you know it was the Harding one. And no snide remarks from you ACU readers! :)
Sunday..Small group at our house. Well they call it that but it's not really small anymore. Only one incident this week. A child (older) somehow managed to jump through the back sliding screen door. I'm going to have to take out a small group insurance policy for damages. Can you do that? Just kidding. That's the risk you take having people over.
And today....just sitting at work thinking about that silly transmission. (thank goodness my mom and dad let us borrow another car!, Pray Richard's keeps going until mine is returned!!)

Happy Turkey Day (well tomorrow anyway!)!

I know it's a day early, but tomorrow I'll be eating. And eating and eating. I love Thanksgiving! For me it's such a time of relaxation and family and good food! Bring on the potatoes! We are headed to Guns N Hoses tonight (not a spelling error, no Guns n Roses) and this will be our 2nd year. I had so much fun last year and can't wait to do it again!! Hope all of you have a wonderful turkey day!!

This is Ashlyn on her first day of Kindergarten. Yes it was 3 months ago, but maybe by July I'll get Christmas up!!

Hiding

Just some thoughts from some books I've been studying:

Am I hiding by acting like the girl my father/mother has always expected me to be?

Am I hiding by trying to be the kind of woman my husband wants me to be?

Am I hiding by trying to stay in line with the kind of woman I think my kids will want to remember me as? I don't want my kids to grow up wishing for another kind of mom.

Am I hiding by constantly trying to be a composite of many women I see around me-usually women who have skills I lack or personalities different from mine.

Am I hiding by agreeing to fit nicely into the roles I feel are acceptable in my church and social community?

Am I hiding behind what I feel are cultural norms ascribed to women and mothers? Do I have the courage to buck the tide?

Am I hiding behind my own fears? Am I afraid of failing or looking stupid, or being rejected if I raech for my dreams and let my latent true self emerge?

"to live as an authentic, ransomed, and redeemed woman means to be real and present in this moment. If we continue to hide, much will be lost. We cannot have intimacy with God or anyone else if we stay hidden and offer only who we think we ought to be or what we believe is wanted....You have only one life to live. It would be best to live your own."
John and Stasi Eldrige in Captivating

Weekend Update

Halloween is almost here! I just had to throw that in there!

Friday night I got to spend time just hanging out with my husband and children at home! We watched a couple new releases and I folded laundry. Oprah calls that multitasking. Saturday we got the kids up bright and early and drove to my mom and dad's. I had another funeral to attend. This one for a former teacher that I dearly loved! She made 2nd grade my favorite! She was still very young at her death, and this has been extremely difficult for her friends and family. After her service we left the kids at my folks for an overnighter and went to 6 Flags! Now Richard says he's never been there before! I have a really hard time believing that, so Kathryn if it's different, Let me know! He's not really a roller coaster type person! So he held our bags, while the rest of the group went on the rides! Now we did go for Fright Fest, but I can honestly say there was no Fright! The only Fright I saw was a whole section of clowns! I hate clowns! Happy, sad, it doesn't matter! They really freak me out! No I didn't watch IT or any other creepy clown movies, I just get freaked out by them! So a big disappointment that there were no scary things! I really wanted to see Hubby scared just once! So maybe we'll slip in a Haunted House before next Tuesday! Doesn't look too good though!

On Sunday our small group started our new study! We've been meeting for about 5 weeks, but last night we finally started it! It went great!

Before I forget, funny story with my firstborn!
She was helping me fold laundry and I noticed after about ten minutes that she had created a pile of daddy's "underthings". I assumed she just didn't want to touch them. So I asked her why she wasn't folding them and if she needed me to fold them. She said,"No, these have to go in the trash. They all have holes in the front" Poor kid. I choked on my drink. So needless to say Ashlyn had a refresher course in "Boys Anatomy".

No, cute little

sayings so I'll get right to the point! What fun we had this weekend! We planned for our small group to go to the Pumpkin Patch on Sunday so the kids have been talking about it for quite a while! But first I had a Ladies Retreat this weekend and then my brother brought some buddies home for the weekend from Harding and then we went to the Pumpkin Patch! The weather was beautiful and the crowd was minimal! I got alot of great pictures, and hopefully I can put them on here in the next day or two! We all picked out pumpkins and the kids have already put them on the front porch!
Ashlyn has taken a major growth spurt in the last couple of months, so I'm on to clothes shopping! We can't wait until Christmas so I've been scouring the stores. Sadly enough, I've found that for her age the clothing is either really kiddy(like Dora, and other characters-and those of you who know me well know I HATE character clothing! No offense, I just have a huge aversion to it!) or it's very provocative. And so if you have any suggestions let me know! I've checked out Gap (not a lot of selection), Old Navy (really tween look which we don't mind, but she's in their in between sizes, so 4's are a little too small and 5's a little too big), Children's Place (not really impressed with their fall Line) and Target (not impressed here either). Yes I'm picky, but I rationalize that with the fact if I'm going to spend a lot money I would like trendy clothing that fits and covers her and will not look faded and hoosier after one washing! So, since I think everyone who reads this is probably female (Sorry Chad) give me your best suggestions!

Friday Night

After we bankrupted ourselves to our babysitter this weekend! Just kidding! But seriously we had a great time going to the Mark Schultz concert. We went to his first concert of the Broken and Beautiful tour and it was incredible. Big Daddy Weave was with him and I was surprisinly impressed. We had so much fun with great friends and a great trip! I can't wait to do it again! For those of you who have no clue who he is ( I promise you've heard some of his songs on non-christian radio as well) he's worth going to see in concert or listening to on CD! That's my mommy-wiggy guarantee! Well for all that's worth!

Also this week, the dreaded paint project! Ashlyn's Room! Only two rooms left to do in the entire house! Hers and ours. So, she's asked and we've promised. The paint has been bought and we need to complete it! Wish us luck and sanity! It's just so hard to complete things quickly and without interruptions with three kids hanging onto your kneecaps! Thank you God for Baby Gates!

Sidenote: We'll be seeing all of our extended family this weekend as we go to my Great Aunt's Funeral. I haven't seen any of them in 10 years. This will actually be the first time they will have met Richard or my children! I'm sure I'll have some stories to blog on this after the weekend!

The End of September

Well the end of September is near! Our trip is over! It was so quick! We got to see almost everyone and spent way too much time in the car! I'll be happy not to do that anytime again soon! It was in the 90's in Texas and today it's in the 70's. I much prefer the 70's! I'm going to a MOPS meeting tonight! I'm really excited about this group of women! More so that I don't have to plan or organize anything!! Yea! Sometimes it's nice just to join a group and not do anything but go!!

Jenny---I'm praying for Papa-I saw your Dad's blog this morning-I'm so disappointed I didn't get to see him-can you email me his address? And I'm going to a Mark Schultz concert on Friday! I'll think of you!

Fall is Here!

I love Fall! It's my favorite time of year! Hot apple cider. Pumpkin bread. Picking Apples (which we did on Saturday and the kids had a blast!) Football Games (High School and Sunday Afternoon!) Tomorrow we leave for a 7 day trip to Houston, Tyler, Van Alstyne, Tulsa, and a couple other places thrown in. We're going down for a wedding and seeing some relatives we haven't seen for a few years. Can't wait!

Recovering

Well I am officially recovering. I am on a new medication that seems to be working very well. The problem has not gone away so we are still doing tests, but it is manageable for the time being. So thank you for all of your prayers!! The weather has been so cool here! I love it!! Fall is my favorite time of year! To me there is nothing like it!! The pictures are when the Jackson's came up for vacation and we had a little bit of a sleepover!

A week's recap

Just a family picture we took at Richard's police graduation! Yes I know it's old, but I'm just getting the hang of this picture thing!!
Last week really started off with a bang! As you know Ashlyn went to Kindergarten! She was just precious and so excited! I'll upload a picture later! It was also our 7 year anniversary on that day, as well as I had been having severe migraines up until that point. That day marked day 6. So I dropped Ashlyn off saw the Dr(who immediately gave me an RX and scheduled tests) and then went to pick up Ashlyn! She had a great first day! When I asked her how it was---her reply, " Moommmm, they didn't teach me to read!!" So of course I told her that she had to wait until they knew her name! She's been very emotional about this since she reads small words so well, but thinks she needs to read everything! So we get home, Richard takes off early from work to celebrate our anniversary, and I proceed to get very very ill. Husband takes wife to the ER where wife spends next four days on and off Morphine (not a good thing by any means) and finally gets to come home. Prognosis, still undecided, so wife gets to go to the Dr every other day for blood draws and medication reviews. So, as of today this is day 16 with migraine but I am on medication and I did have two days on Monday and Tuesday with no pain!!!! So keep me in your thoughts as I deal with this. Not because I can't deal with the pain, it's annoying and obviously painful, but that I remain patient and loving with my family. Loud noises really hurt and since I have three small children, well I don't need to go any further with that!!

Braden/TEST

Braden

Braden

This is the Birthday Boy!!

Special Birthday Blessings

Our little guy turned one on Friday! I know I say it over and over, but I can't believe how quickly he's grown. He's got the most charming personality. He's a wonderful child. So content in whatever situation and he loves to snuggle. That's my kind of lovin'!! He loved his birthday cake, so much in fact he cried hysterically when we took his plate away!! Because of all the storms and chaos, we haven't had his birthday party yet, so that will probably take place next week sometime. Special Blessings to you sweet boy on your happy day!! May you continue to be blessed and may you rest in the love of your family, friends, and your Lord. We love you!!

The Post Storms Update

Well, we've officially recovered. Well almost. The church is still without power so there's no daycare so I've had to get home babysitting for a few days. Not a big deal since it's my brother's girlfriend, but just the same the kids are at home :) Our boil order has been lifted and most of the people I know in the north part of the county now have power. Our hotel has ended but now we are cooking meals for people who had to throw out all their food. So, what a summer!! My sister flew up for the weekend, but not a lot to do, since everything was pretty much closed. We had a great time hanging out and catching up! So tonight, my husband is taking me out to dinner. And the kids too of course. We are driving out of state to go eat some great Italian! (It's really only 25 minutes) Thanks to all of you who prayed for us and for thinking of us. It's really been a time of reflection for Richard and I and how selfishly we rely on things so materialistic. As well as this has been a great lesson for the kids. Love and miss all of you!

Can't Find Water

Well we're okay, but I'm having the hardest time finding water! Who would have though that it would be hard to buy water? We have power so we still have A/C, but two houses down is where the line is for no power. We've been very fortunate. Anyway, I have to run open the Wiginton Hotel! Love you all!

Back to Normalcy

Well after an amazing week we are back to normal. Or what our little family calls normal. Great friends came to see us for a whole week! We loved every minute of our time together. We got to go eat at great places, the zoo, the Magic House, a Cardinals Game, catch a movie, play with the kids at the playground, etc. Too many things to try and name them all. I so wish I could have pushed pause on so many occasions. I am definitely looking forward to the next visit! Is it too early to start planning one?

Random

This blog is going to be very random! Sorry if it confuses you, but I sometimes forget or don't have time to blog about everything I want to, so I'll just summarize and save myself!!

Braden has two teeth! Yea!! He's 10 months old and finally has teeth! They are so cute. Like little chicklets!

Church had a musical and we loved it. We saw it twice and can't wait to get our copy on DVD or as Carter says, "DBDBD"
During the musical which was "Fiddling on the Ark", Carter says, (outloud for those rows all around us to hear)"that is NOT Nowah! Ms. Wanda said he's up there (heaven) AND he's in a dwess."

Ashlyn is registered for Kindergarten. We are still a little up in the air on which school she is going to. Lines are being redrawn and she's at one school for KG and then will transfer to another for 1st grade, so we are going to appeal and see if we can get her to the one she'll be at for 1st through 6th. I really like both schools, I just want to save ourselves and mainly Ashlyn from starting over at 1st grade.

Our great friends are coming tomorrow! I am so excited! They will be here for a week! It's truly going to be one big slumber party! Can't wait to squeeze those kids! And my kiddos are really excited about all the fun stuff we are doing! Can't tell you Jacksons! Its a surprise! And shouldn't you be packing?

Ashlyn's dance recital is this upcoming weekend, she is adorable! Just a little diva!

Our young marrieds got together on Friday night and played the Not So Newlywed Game and had a great time. We got done early and since we all had babysitters we decided to do something else. So we turned off all the lights in the church building and played hide and go seek. We freaked each other and ourselves out and had a blast! Who knew there were so many good hiding spots in the building? Some were so scary (at least to me and a couple others!) we couldn't even go and try to hide there!

Hope you have a great week!

TA DA!!

Okay folks! Here it is! A very sinful cookie!


Frosted Double Chocolate Cookies

2 Cups ( 12 oz package) Semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (no substitutes)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg

Microwave 3/4 cup chips in small microwaveable bowl. Zap until melted. Cool to room temperature.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Set aside
Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla in large mixer until creamy. Beat in melted chocolate and egg. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto cookie sheets. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 7-9 minutes. Edges will be set, but centers will be slightly soft. Let stand 3 minutes and then remove to wire racks! I know it's tempting to eat them now, but I promise it's worh the wait if you use the icing!

Chocolate Frosting:
Microwave remaining 1/2 cup chips and 2 Tablespoons butter until melted. Stir. Add 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar and 2 Tablespoons milk. until smooth. To get frosting consistency, you may need to add more pd. sugar or milk!

Let me know how they turned out!!