Laurie's Life

Well,  Steve had held out on being sick with the stomach virus until Saturday night.  It hit him.  I am happy and thankful to report that we are all better now.  Except I have an ear infection.  My terrible sore throat turned into a bunch of drainage and resulted in an ear infection.  I did not feel well at all over the weekend and my balance has been very off.  I was still running fever Monday morning, so I went to the doctor.  I am now taking an antibiotic.  My ear does not hurt anymore, but it is stopped up and driving me crazy!!!!  I just want to sit in a comfortable chair and just stare. We are hosting our Sunday School Christmas party this weekend, so I am trying to get ready for that. I have heard so many sad things in the past few weeks that I hate to complain about my health at all.  Next post, I hope to be doing better. Just something to think about...... GOD loves you soooooooo MUCH!  Always has, always will....

Life does not always go as we plan. Last weekend, Emily got a stomach virus.  Monday she was fine and we had a good day.  Tuesday, despite a terrible sore throat, I packed our bags to go to my parents for Thanksgiving.  We were so excited to see them, be with family and Steve had plans to hunt.  The girls were so excited to play with friends and their cousin. Wednesday morning we loaded up and headed for South Arkansas.  We had been on the road for two hours when Sarah Kate told us she did not feel well.  Within one minute she threw up all over the truck.  It was just awful.  We were in the middle of nowhere.  We made it to the next town and stopped at a Walmart for Steve to get us towels, wipes, bowls and trash bags. I called my parents and asked them what we should do.  Should we keep driving or turn around and go back home?  We still had about three and a half hours to go. We just did not know what to do...

Several weeks ago,  I found a Thanksgiving themed cupcake set.  The girls have been so excited to make the cupcakes.  Saturday morning, we made them together.  The girls love to cook with me!  We made carrot cake with cream cheese icing.  I thought they turned out really cute! Today our family got to eat with Sarah Kate at her class Thanksgiving feast.  It was wonderful!  We ate the best chicken and noodles EVER! Ms.  Beth is SK's teacher this year and she also taught Emily.  WE are so thankful for her.  SK's class had made butter to go on their bread.  So fun.  The children also made the noodles in class.  We love our pre-school.

Steve left last Friday to go hunting in South Arkansas.  My parents came last weekend and were of tremendous help to me.  We have missed Steve so much and were so surprised yesterday when he came home a day early.  It was a wonderful surprise! He did not see many deer.  I think he only saw one and that is the one he shot.  He took the deer to a meat processing place, so we should be good on meat for the next year. The girls have wanted Steve to get home and put up our Christmas tree and other Christmas decor.  They got a start on it last night.  Steve told them that we had to put out the nativity sets first.  He explained that Jesus is the only reason we have Christmas. Some of you have asked about the stray cat, Graycee that we had this Summer.  She was with us for 7 weeks.  I ended up giving her to a local family.  I heard from them a couple of weeks ago and they love her and she is doing well.  They sa...

 Frankie, our Elf on the Shelf arrived last weekend.  The girls are thrilled.  Do you do Elf on the Shelf at your house?  Emily and Sarah Kate wrote up a Christmas list over the weekend.  Emily asked for a baby sister and SK asked for a real pet unicorn for our backyard.  Sorry, but Santa will NOT be delivering on these two items.  SK is in her bedtime get up.  Check out the four barretts in her hair.  Emily is writing her nightly note to the fairy about a kitten. Kristen the cat is recovering nicely from her tooth extraction.  She still holds her lip like Elvis from time to time.

I had the lovely honor of taking Miss Kristen to the vet yesterday.  She went in for a routine exam, shots and to have her teeth cleaned.  I get so stressed out about capturing her and getting her in the carrier.  Yesterday proved to be no better then before.  She is determined NOT to get in the carrier!  After 15 minutes of attempting to get her in , I resorted to the pillow case capture.  I entice her in the pillow case and then bag her up like  Santa and his bag of toys.  I lower her in the carrier and she is meowing and hopping around in the bag the whole time.  I am stressed, she is stressed. About and hour after I dropped her off, the vet called me and said Kristen had a fractured and infected tooth.  It needed to be extracted.  When we went to pick her up at the end of the day, I realized it was her main front fang tooth, as I call it.  She is taking pain meds for the next few days and is only eating wet...

Saturday was a wonderful day for our family!  Steve was invited by his friend Matt to go deer hunting.  Steve LOVES hunting.  Later that afternoon we all went back to Matt and Kerry's cabin for dinner.  Matt and Kerry are super nice and so easy to be around.  It was so so fun.  We love to go driving through the country on beautiful Fall days.  The cabin was so beautiful and in a gorgeous location!!!!!  It was the perfect evening.  Kerry had brisket (love),  twice baked potatoes, green beans, rolls and blackberry cobbler and ice cream for dessert.  The guys made S'mores for us!   Our friends Nathan and Elizabeth were there too.  They are people persons and so much fun!  I love holding Elijah! Matt and Kerry have Will, 2 and Grayson, 4 mos.  They are so cute and I got to do some cuddling with sweet Grayson.  My girls LOVE Will.  You would think he was there age. I am so thankful for our ...

Sarah Kate dressed as Dorothy this year.  She has planned to be Dorothy for about 6 months.  So glad I was able to find her the costume! As for Emily....she was  girl named CiCi from Disney's show, Shake it Up.  I have never seen the show and I did not think Emily had either, but she said she watched it with a babysitter.  Oh well, she was proud of her costume.  I don't let Emily watch those pre-teen shows yet.  There is nothing wrong with that show, but I just try to keep her shows age appropriate.  I have noticed that a lot of those shows have a lot of smarty kids and subject matters that Emily is not mature enough for right now. We had some adorable little bumble bees stop by our house.  We all went Trick or Treating together and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was a magical/memory making time for the girls. I think Harper had the best time of her life.  She wanted to hold my hand all night and she woul...