It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I love Christmas! It's my favorite holiday & I love atmosphere of the season. Some people cringe at hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but I LOVE it... sometimes I've even been know to start listening to it in August (yes, I just said..typed... that). Now that it's official, I'm even more excited. I went Christmas shopping this weekend and had so much fun with my Mom, aunt & cousin. I love the smells of walking into a store scented with cinnamon & peppermint & I love seeing all the decorations everywhere. One of my favorite things is driving through uptown Shelby & seeing the court square trees glowing with white lights and waiting in line at the Santa House & freezing my bum off. I love the excitement of seeing my kids yell when they see Christmas tree lights as we drive down the road & I love to hear Kensley scream "Tigger" at the Tigger snowman inflatable on our road. I love to drive to see Christmas lights (although, I haven't found anything spectacular in the past few years) and I love the joy that seems to linger throughout most everywhere you go. I love the anticipation of snow (although it hasn't snowed in forever here & I can only really remember 2 Christmases growing up that it actually did snow). Regardless, it's fun to wish and I love snowmen!

So here's to a wonderful season & blue is my color this year... (the new blog look & my Christmas cards). May we stay focused on the true meaning of this season... Jesus Christ our Lord & Savior. May we all feel the joy & excitement of HIM... because He is the only reason all of this happens anyway. I heard this in a movie this weekend... it was said "God came from heaven to earth... in the form of a tiny baby boy... to save YOU!"

I'm stuffed

I have a tradition in my family that I've tried to pass to the kids and this year I think it finally took, with the boys at least. I've always, as long as I can remember, watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I remember getting up early (well, 9am was early for me back then) just to watch the parade, looking forward to seeing all the "big" balloons characters & seeing my favorite group/band/actors perform or wave & smelling Mom cooking in the kitchen all morning. This kind of kicks off Christmas for me. I look forward to it each year but the kids have never really been interested in watching it. They may come & go in spurts and watch a few minutes, but it's never held their attention and they've never been excited about it... until this year. I mentioned it a few days ago & Carter has asked about it everyday. We got up around 7:30 this morning & the boys asked all morning "how much longer until the parade comes on?" That really tickled me to hear those words! They sat & watched almost all of it today. (I watched it too, but I was the one in the kitchen cooking this time.) All 3 of them were even curled up on the couch for a little while.

After lunch we headed to Morganton to my Aunt Connie's house for Thanksgiving with my family. I ate too much as usual, the boys had too much caffeine & cookies and we sat around all afternoon & enjoyed some relaxing time with family... as usual. The kids played in the leaves and took their annual ride with Mimi in Brandon's big army truck.

Here's a few more pics of our day

Kensley was a little unsure of laying in the leaves!

Here's my whole family... me, Daddy, Corby, Brandon (cousin), Chandler, Carter, Mom, Kensley, Aunt Connie, Dereama (cousin)

The cutest little turkey you've ever seen

Kensley had her first "performance" today at the preschool Thanksgiving program. This is a big production that the preschool puts on each year that includes a performance from all the classes (and they all dress up), a silent auction & a meal. It was wonderful! My 4 yr old class did a great job & they looked so cute in their indian outfits. But, I must say that Kensley was the cutest turkey on the block! Here's some pictures & a video of her little class singing.

Playing catch up

I've been so busy this week... still trying to hammer down having a job, taking care of the kids & the house and everything else that goes along with daily to-do lists. (So why am I on here blogging?...I need to de-stress) Anyway, the job is going good. I'm the 4 yr old teacher assistant. We've been so busy getting ready for our big Thanksgiving production that we haven't had a normal day yet, but it's okay because we've been crafting a lot & I love that! I'm anxious to see the big program which will be on Monday. Kensley has been singing lots of songs, but I have no idea what she's actually saying. She LOVES her class & says every day "i go my class mommy?" That makes it much easier for me each day I work. But to be honest, it's been hard getting back into the groove & trying to fit everything in every day when I'm basically losing 5 or so hours a day. I'm sure once I get into the groove it will be Christmas & then we'll be off a couple weeks & then I'll have to get into the groove all over again.. nonetheless, I'm thankful I have a job. A lot of people can't say that these days.

Anyhoo... just wanted to say hi. You may not see many posts in the next few weeks. Tis the season for busyness!

Shower Curtains

Okay, I need some feedback here. I'm on a mission for a shower curtain that actually does what it claims. Here's what I mean. I'm constantly replacing shower curtains because of the funk that develops on the bottom half after about a month or so. I've bought every "plastic" shower curtain in all price ranges from the $1 ones at the Dollar Tree to the $12 ones at Wal-Mart that claim they are some kind of special material that "resists mold & mildew" to the commercial strength ones to the $20 ones at Belk that have the little suction cups thingy's to keep the curtain closed. Thing is... they all are the same... they all mildew. Some may "resist" a few weeks longer than others, but I end up replacing them over and over and over and over... you get the idea. They are good for about a month & then the "funk" starts at the ends where the curtain always folds over because it's too wide for the shower. Then like BAM it's gross in a matter of overnight... the little black spots start creeping up towards the middle & there is no beating off the water or wiping this one clean. No matter how much I try to shake off the excess water & make sure to keep the curtain closed for it to dry, it will always need to be replaced.

So here's my question... what kind of shower curtain do you recommend? I've thought about buying a cloth-like one & washing it, but is it going to be worth it and will the "funk" actually come off in the washer? I need suggestions.

Going back to work

Well, today was my first day back to work. It's only a part-time job & may only be temporary, but I went to work for the first time in 8 years. I'm working at our church's preschool 3 days a week through the end of this year. I had a good little class today. Kensley also will be going to preschool while I'm there. She was excited about going to her class today & looked like such a big girl walking in with her backpack & lunch box. She had a great time with her little friends (she knows most of them from church anyway). I peeked on her several times today & she was running around laughing and having fun. I really missed her today though. It's going to take some getting used to getting into that routine, but it will be good once we hit our groove.

On a different note... me & Kensley were jumping on the trampoline the other day. This is what happened.

Worship through it

I had an experience at church this morning that I feel like I need to share. I had to sing a solo at church this morning. Normally, I'm never nervous, but today was different. I sang in the 8:30 service (everything was fine) & after went over to our regular practice with the worship team in the family life center. They were having some technical difficulties with monitors & sounds and had been trying to work through it for about 20 min. Our worship pastor finally stopped & said let's pray & ask God to help us figure this out. He started to pray & before he even asked, everything started working with the sound. Isn't is amazing that if we just take time to stop & let God be in control, He will answer even the smallest prayers? Obviously something was trying to hinder the Spirit in church today because all through the 9:30 service it was strange. People's faces were so bland, the atmosphere of the service was cold, it just plain ole felt weird. Then this pastor got up to speak & he struggled through the whole message. He had to stop several times because he kept losing his train of thought. He even asked at the end of the service for us to pray for him in the next service so that he could preach without being disrupted. Then I got up to sing at the end of the service. I was really nervous. I'm usually never nervous, but I was today. It was as if Satan was trying to prevent us from worshipping God today and hearing what our pastor had to say. Then it came time for the 11:00 service. I said a prayer for our pastor before I went up on stage & said "God I'm going to worship through it no matter what". I took my attention off of the audience & the strange air lurking around the building and focused on God & what he was ministering to my heart. Obviously people were praying for our pastor during his sermon because it was great & he nailed it this time. He talked about issues of integrity & taking a stand on what we know is right even if it means not blending in with the crowd and going with the flow of everything else.

God calls us as Christians to be different. I know God's calling me to be different, but will I listen? In today's society we've taken God out of schools & government and even taken One Nation Under God off US currency and we wonder why the world is the way that it is now. We've got to be different and take a stand. We just had a group return from China where you can be arrested for worshipping God. We have so much freedom in our country that we take for granted, but we as a nation are moving further & further from God just to please this world. Everything has to be politically correct these days as to not stir up any bad feelings or make anyone upset. It's like we are becoming a neutral nation. God calls us to be different. Be salt & light... be the salty bitterness of something when everything else tastes so sweet & the light in dark place that makes us stand out. I know I struggle with this every day. It's a challenge to me that I have to work on constantly.

I know in the days to come that spiritual warfare will be more frequent in places of worship in all nations. Let us not give into the temptation to just sit there & blend in... let us worship through it... to God's glory!

you can watch today's message here