We enjoyed the Christmas Holiday!

We had a blast this year with two kids. It was so much fun. The excitement of Santa coming. Opening presents and the look on their faces. It was so much fun. Here are some pictures to express our excitement.

Life Lessons

This week was a week of trail and era. I've learned so much and it is so funny, I thought I was grown and pretty much "knew" just about everything about work and life in general. Boy was I wrong. This week I let my emotions get the best of me. I should have separated my family life from my work life. I failed at this. I put my family first. I was looking out for them for they are the ones who will ALWAYS be there for me.

After getting home I realize that I had not separated my family from my work and I needed to go and tell a friend, who I took my emotions out on. I needed her to understand where I was coming from and why I got so upset. Chad told me just to let it lie and not to worry about it. It was better if I kept my mouth shut. I wish I would listened to him, but I thought I was doing the right thing to explain and to apologize.

So I went to this friend and told her that I needed her to understand how I was feeling and why I got upset, because that is what your suppose to be able to do with a friend, Right? Wrong! You see I learned that you can only explain to those who chose to listen. It was clear by the second sentenced that my "friend" was clearing NOT wanting to listen. In fact it was clear that I had been "told on" to the office manager, when he came running out to let me know if anyone had a problem with this then they can take it up with him.

Now back to the beginning I was there to apologize not to start anything. So at that point, I pretty much felt like I was back in high school. That I had been told on to the teacher for hurting someones feelings, that I had been reprimanded for something that I was there to fix. Yeah, a little betrayed. It pretty much sucks.

I found out that there obviously this friend had issues with me far beyond this matter and they all came out, in a matter of 10 minutes.

So what did I learn from this.

1. Listen to your husband
2. Doing right is not always the right thing
3. Never trust anyone

Our Family!

I would like to introduce to you the newest members of our family. Please meet Doris and Me-maw. Doris and Me-maw came all the way from the Cracker-Barrell restaraunt. Nonna found Doris and Me-maw and just knew that Anna Grace would make a wonderful friend for them.

Doris is the blue fish and Me-maw is the orange fish with stripes. Anna says they love to excerise and get fresh water. She takes very good care of them.

Our next newest member of the family is Belle. Aunt Lynn found Belle and just knew that Anna needed to have another playmate. Belle loves to read stories with Anna and have snacks and play dress up. She even stays with mamaw while Anna is in school.

Frosty the snowman!

Anna and I made a snowman today tonight. It was a fast job, but fun. After a stressful day of work, I needed some baby time. We ate dinner and Chad stayed in with Collin, while Anna and I hit the snow for a little snowman fun.

No laughing please...we did the best we could with what we had. No he/she does not have the red eyes, he just has cherry tomato eyes.

Memories, Memories, Memories, that's all I need.

Playing in the snow!

We had a fun afternoon playing in the snow. Here's a few pictures of our fun day!

Snow? What snow?

It's Snowing!

It is snowing in South Arkansas! Can you believe it? I can't. But it is coming DOWN. The kids are so excited and I am too as long as our power stays on. Very seldom do we get snow here. We usually just get ice and sleet, which leads to trouble.

Right now we have a mix, but it sure is pretty to watch it come down. Anna is anxiously awaiting on going out to play. She wants make snowballs, snowman, ice cream and snow angels. It still needs to snow a little more before all that can happen.

The weather man is predicating 4-6 inches or more in our area. That is a lot for here. I went and did grocery shopping yesterday and it was CRAZY! For some reason when the word SNOW is spoken in the south everyone runs to the grocery store for milk and bread. I got both! :)

Collin looking at the snow!

We look like the kid off of The Christmas Story!

Hi, I'm Darrel, this is my brother, Darrel and my other brother Darrel.
Remember that off the show New Hart.

Here are a few pictures of the kids all bundled up before we went to Mimi's for a chicken and dumpling lunch. It was very good.

Chad went to Texas to go deer hunting at the Media Luna. It is a ranch that my boss owns and as a treat each year Chad and his dad get to go hunting. This year the trip was cut short by a day because of the weather. Chad still managed to get a management kill 8 point before he came home. We are so proud and excited. This is not a very good picture, but after we get the skull mount back I'll try to post a picture.

CLEAN

I've been listening to K-Love radio station  a lot lately. I'm not sure why, it just makes me feel good to have God around me all day, either through word or songs. This past week their topic was mostly on Resoultions.

It seems around this time of year some people begin to make resoultions. Some keep them and some do not. I'm usually fall in the second half of the do not keep them.

I always say I'm going to lose weight or do more in church or BLOG more or keep my house cleaner or save money and I never do. I always get side track and most of the time fairly quickly in the game.

K-Love suggested that instead of making a resoultion, to chose a word. Chose a word that you can use on a daily basis that will define you or the areas you want to improve (like you would if you were to make a resoultion).

At first I thought, cool idea, but what word will I chose and if you know me. I'm not a decision maker. I always just go with flow. Example, where do you want to eat lunch? Answer: doesn't matter. (when in the back of my mind I probably wanted Mexican)

So how can a NON-decision maker pick a word. But then it just was there. In my head. It was weird. My word, CLEAN.

First, I want to be CLEAN with myself. I want to know what I can do and not try to take on things that overwhelm me. I want to be the same person around everyone. Sometimes it is a lot easier to be more GOD loving around other GOD loving people than those that aren't so much.  I want those people to see me and say wow look how CLEAN for GOD she is and that is just her.

I want to be CLEAN, in my home. With two lilttle kids and working 40 hours a week, I'll will have to say, my house is not clean. I mean we don't live in filth, its just..........well cluttered. toys, laundry, toys, laundry...never ending. But I love it but still hate it! See NON-DECISION maker. I have issues I know.

Next, I want to be CLEAN, in my heart and in my mind. I want to stop and think before I speak. I want the words that come from my mouth to be CLEAN and honor GOD. I want to have a open CLEAN heart and mind with every decision I make. I want GOD to be there saying is this what I would do or say. I want to start and end my day with a prayer that says Lord take   Clean my sins away.

Next, I want to eat CLEAN. I don't want to diet, but I want to be aware of the food that goes in my mouth. I want to think twice when I go for the Snicker Bar @ 3:00 and grab the grapes instead. I'm not one of those organic eating, calorie counting people. I LOVE food and I LOVE to eat, but I just want to be more aware of the good verses the bad. I want to cook CLEAN for my family. I want to fight that feeling of just picking up the sonic or pizza because I'm tired. I want to cook them something, even if it is a hot dog or grilled cheese sandwich.

Next, I want to make CLEAN financial decisions. Just like before, buy the $1.00 pack of hot dogs and $1.00 pack of buns and $3.00 bag of chips. That's $5.00 verses $20.00 for pizza or burgers. Wow see I clean the table and I have $15.00 of CLEAN money.

I'm sure none of this makes since to anyone that reads this but me. But that is ok, because sometimes I need to write things down to stick to them. Kinda like making a list of to do things. I find when I make a list my day or project flows a lot better.

I really thought about taking pictures of the letters C.L.E.A.N and putting them up at work and home as a reminder that I need to be CLEAN.

I may just put these pictures of Collin up as a reminder to be CLEAN. Ha.Ha.Ha.