Ornament Swap and thoughtful friends

Hello again!  I am trying to do better by keeping up with posting more often.  I have been so behind and really not in the mood to post.  But things are great now!  We are all in the Christmas spirit and looking forward to the holiday.

I participated in the ornament swap that Amy over at Bumble Bee Lane hosted.  This was my second time participating.  I love the swaps she does!  

I received the cutest ornaments!  

I have already placed them on my tree.

I love this little snowman ornament.  It was from Danice over at Homespun Hannah's Blog.  I am not a follower of her blog but am looking forward to visiting and getting to know her.  Thanks Danice!  

Isn't this little gingerbread the cutest?  He looks good enough to eat!  

It was from Marsha over at Tattered Chick.  I had never visited her site until now either.  I love making new blogging friends!

I also got this neat quilt block ornament from Allison over at Sew Many Girls.

Yet another new site to me.  

If you have never joined in a swap, you should!  It's a lot of fun.

At the end of last year, everyone was doing the pay it forward on their blogs and on Facebook.  I too jumped in and had several sign up on my post.  I have to admit, I have been a bad friend.  I haven't sent my goodies out yet.  I honestly forgot about it.  Oops!  I still have the names and promise you will get a package from me.  It won't get to you before the end of the year but I promise it will come.  I will carry it over into next year.  

Last week though, I received a surprise package in the mail. A pay it forward.  It came at just the right time to put a big smile on my face.

Look at these cute "candies."  These were from Janice over at Prims By The Water. 

I love these!  Thank you Janice.  You made my day.

If that wasn't enough, I went to the mailbox today and found another package!  Another Pay it Forward.  This one was from Jessica at Blessings in the Country.

Just look at all of these goodies!

Thank you Jessica!  

I love it all, especially the pin keep.  

It has been a good day! We are officially on Christmas break!  Yippeeee!   Darbee and I took lunch to Nana's and helped her make divinity.  Yummy!

We have a fun shopping day planned for tomorrow.  Hope all of you are having a good week.

Until next time....

A week later....

Good evening everyone.  Are you staying warm?  It's quite chilly here in the south.  I love it.  Makes it feel like Christmas.

As I sat down tonight to write a blog post, I really didn't know what to write about.  I knew it had been a few days since I had updated but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to post.

Then it hit me.  I knew what I wanted to say.

Have you ever had a feeling where you knew something was bad but you try to put on a cheerful face and go on?  Have you ever wanted to go in a room and scream and ask God why but you smile through the tears and stay quiet?
I know we have all felt that way at times.  This time last week, that was me.  I was so worried. So scared. So confused. So upset. My mama was in the hospital in the critical care unit.  I knew she was very sick.

I tend to be one of those people who think the worst.  I always jump to the worst conclusions. As I drove home from the hospital by myself, I prepared myself for the worst.  I mentally prepared myself to hear any bad news that could come my way.  I didn't want any surprises.  I thought through what I would tell Darbee if we got bad news.  How I would explain things.   I thought about the future.  I did. I didn't know what the next few days would hold but I wanted to be prepared for the worst.  I asked God to help me get through whatever I was facing in the days ahead.

God already knew what was going to happen. He had it under control. I became very hopeful through the week as more good news came our way and the kidney procedure worked.  Things were looking better and I had a better feeling about everything.

Now here we are a week later and I can only say Thank you to God that my mama is still here and is doing great.  She has been able to get out of the house and go shopping and to church. Something she hasn't been able to do in so long.   Her leg and hip pain is GONE! Her happy attitude is back.  She is smiling.  My mama is back.  I am so grateful.  

A week later, I am smiling but giving credit to God for it all.  Even the doctors were amazed.  They said she should have had a high fever and awful pain. She didn't.  They said if the abscess had busted she would have immediately been in a coma.  God didn't let that happen.

My God is so good.  I can't stop smiling.  My outlook is happier.  My mood is good.  Tonight I will go to bed much different than this time last week.  I am so blessed and so thankful I serve a God who still answers prayers.

Thank You

Thank you for all of your sweet words and for all of the prayers that were lifted up today for my mama.  The kidney procedure was a success!!!  I will never forget the smile and the look on her face when they brought her back in the room.  We all cried tears of joy.

There are still concerns about the colitis and the next step for that treatment but things are looking better.  Please continue to pray that everything will get back to normal and she can start healing and feeling better.

Please Pray

Good evening dear friends.

Tonight, I have a special prayer request.

All of you know the health problems my mama has been having lately.  She was scheduled to have another kidney procedure on Tuesday morning.

Around 9 last night, she called to tell me they were on the way to the ER with yet another issue.  She was quickly taken back and admitted.  She was losing blood and a lot of it.  Her blood pressure was VERY low also and her heart rate was high. That was at 9 last night.  At 5:30 today, she was still in the ER waiting on a room.  She has been admitted into the critical care unit and finally has a room tonight.  She is getting a blood transfusion and has been diagnosed with colitis.  That is about all I know for tonight.

Although the kidney doctor thinks this issue is totally unrelated to the kidneys, he has pushed up the kidney procedure to tomorrow morning at 7:30.  That is if her blood pressure stabilizes and will stay up.

Please pray for answers.  Please pray for healing.  Please pray for a smooth procedure in the morning.

Catching up again...

Good afternoon. I have been a bad blogger again.  I'm sorry!  I'm not going to put up excuses. Just haven't done it.

So here I am again playing catch up.

I received my ornaments from Amy's ornament swap over at Bumble Bee Lane and I love them.  I put them on my tree today and promise to take pictures and post them soon.  What a fun swap!

We are counting down the days until we are out of school. Five more days!  This week will be fun.  The kindergartners are putting on a Christmas play.  They will be busy practicing this week and then a big Christmas party on Friday.  We are busy in our class making ornaments and gifts for the parents.  I am still loving working there.  So much fun.

The weather has been so rainy we haven't got to do much decorating outside but we did manage to get the playhouse done.  It is so adorable.  I could live out there.

Here is the outside.  We added wreaths to the windows, garland and lights to the banisters and lights around the poles.  We also added a sparkly wreath to the door.I love how it turned out.

Come on in!

Darbee will greet you from upstairs.

Inside, we put up a tree.  It looks so cozy.

We also changed around a bit.  We added a large bookshelf and moved the chair up to the loft to create a little reading nook.

We added two pillows to the bench that you see as you walk in the door.  

Darbee enjoys being out there.  We want to have an "open house" for her friends to come play soon.  The weather just needs to cooperate so us moms can sit on the porch. 

This morning, we went to Breakfast with Santa at hubby's work.  They do this every year and it is wonderful.  We always look forward to it.

The decorations were beautiful this year.  

Darbee had so much fun doing crafts, eating her favorite, Chick-fil-A and seeing Santa.

She made an ornament.

And decorated a gigantic sugar cookie!

Yummy!

There was a nice fire to keep us warm and cozy!

And best of all, Santa!

We are headed out to a Polar Express party this evening.  Looking forward to it!

I hope all of you are having a good weekend.

Please keep my Mama in your prayers still.  She is having another procedure on Tuesday.  Pray that this one works and she will be feeling better soon. I miss her so much!

Until next time...