Laurie's Life

I breathed a breath of relief a little while ago! The Dr said that my finger is HEALING!!!!!!! He said that he was just going to let it do it's thing. Then he said,"whatever you are doing is working." I thought..."what I am doing is PRAYING, having lots of people PRAY for me, and taking my medicine." Thank you again for praying for me and my family!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Continue to pray that my finger will be normal and infection free very soon. I am just soooo thankful to have my finger and hand and arm. I just feel like a new woman now!!!!!!!!!!!

Well............believe it or not, my mother in law got the terrible stomach virus Tuesday night. I lost my wonderful help! She is better this morning. Emily has a pretty painful ear infection and SK came down with something yesterday. She has runny nose, congestion and the runs. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am VERY encouraged that I don't have too much fever in my finger. It seemed to have gotten better around 8:00 last night. It is still purple. Hummm??? I didn't have fever either when I woke up this morning. I slept great, thanks to prayers and Tylenol P.M. I am so overwhelmed with all the encouragement you all have given me this week. I read all the comments last night and I felt so much better about everything. What a blessing you have been to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was also a blessing to me that two of my favorite church members came to visit me, Kelly and Susan!!!!!!!! Made my day! I will be looking into to those vitamin...

I began to get a VERY sore right index finger last Tuesday. I didn't think too much of it. On Wed it was worse and my parents, who were visiting, encouraged me to see my Dr. I had been on an antibiotic for several days because of my tooth and the root canal. I thought it was strange to have this finger infection while on an antibiotic. I saw my Dr on Thursday and he wrapped it and gave me another antibiotic. My finger has just gotten worse everyday. My Dr was pretty certain it was staph. Sunday my finger was REALLY bad and I went to a walk in (wait forever) clinic. This Dr put me on another antibiotic thinking it was strep. Monday I saw my Dr and he said he wanted me to see a surgeon. I saw a surgeon yesterday afternoon who looked and acted and talked just like Dr Oz!!!!!!! He examined my finger, put his hands in the air and said," I am not touching you!" He was concerned that there may be an infection in my bone or joint. He said he wanted me to see a hand s...

Steve and I have been married 5 years today! I am so thankful to have him as my husband. We have so much fun together. I was looking in the mirror this morning thinking,"I look very different than I did five years ago today." I have gained lots of weight, but I have also gained two little girls that we think are wonderful. (Babies are not the reason for my weight gain, I just don't know when to put the fork down.) Guess how I have spent my anniversary? I have spent a majority of my time getting a root canal. I have been in terrible pain for over a week after getting a temporary crown. I had an x-ray on Thursday and it was determined that I needed a root canal ASAP. The root canal did not hurt at all, in fact I welcomed it because I knew it was going to make me better. It was exhausting to have to keep your mouth wide open for two hours as he worked on my very back tooth. I am numb still but I know I am going to be so much better off. I love you Steve and I am so t...

I just wanted to put into words why I love our church so much. In my life, I have been a member of three churches. I have loved them all for different reasons. I have attended other churches, but did not join them in membership. I don't think Steve and I could find a church anywhere that is as special as our church. It is filled with people that have an authentic, strong love for Jesus. It is filled with people that serve without complaining. The people are loving and kind and growing in their faith. I can't speak for everyone in the church, but the people I know are the same Sunday morning as they are during the week and on Friday night. They are sharing their faith and people are getting saved. We baptize people most every week. It is very rare not to have a baptism. It is very rare not to have people walk the aisle at the invitation. I love the fact that our church has a clothing give-away in August and a toy give-away at Christmas. Our pastor and staff never t...

Emily with her friend Brigham. I love buying pumpkins and gourds for our mantel. I also bought this chest at the pumpkin patch. They have a country store at the farm. I loved the design and size of this. I am going to paint it and put new knobs on it. I love projects like this. I may do it something whimsical and put it in Sarah Kate's room. A friend at church did these shirts for my girls. Although, it was NOT smart to wear white shirts to a pumpkin patch. They are soaking in Shout as I write this. They may never look the same. Emily managed to get into oil on the tractor. Sarah Kate wanted to pick up all the pumpkins. She tried so hard to pick up some of the huge ones. Natalyn and Neely. I love Fall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emily is at pre-school today and I have just enjoyed some alone time with Sarah Kate. It has been good not to have anything on the agenda today. I am really burdened that Emily is too busy. I am a very laid back person and I don't have to be doing something all the time. I think my family needs a day or two with nothing to do each week. This is what our week is looking like these days: Pre-school twice a week Dance Awana Women's Bible Study group once a week. Children's choir MOPS Church playgroup MOPS playgroup Seems I am always saying," Come on girls, get in the car, Emily where are your shoes?" "Hurry up, come on!" Life is too complicated to have a 3 year old be this busy. I am praying and thinking about what we need to cut out, if anything. Feeding Blue's Clues. She was saying, "yum yum umm!"

When my parents came to keep the girls while we went to Gulf shores, my Mom brought Emily Pinkalicious. It has been a daily read ever since. I asked Emily if she would like to make some pink cupcakes on Saturday. She hesitantly said , " I guess so." She was afraid that she might turn pink like the little girl in the story. When I convinced her that she would NOT turn pink, she became very excited about our little cooking project. I always loved cooking with my grandmothers and mother. I hope Emily will share this love. This was her favorite- the sprinkles. I don't think I will ever get them all cleaned up.

I hosted our church playgroup this morning. We had a great turn-out. Here is Amanda and Neely. Both my girls are crazy about Neely. Jessica and Braxton Little monkeys jumping on the bed! Tracy was picking up toys. I am soooooo rude to have allowed that....she is nine months pregnant. This is Sarah Grace and Alex. Clay and Caleb, John Michael and Mary Avery. Look at the cute little boy. This is newborn Ben. Baby Caleb and Robin Sarah Kate sitting on the couch like a big girl. Amanda is always such a help to my girls! Kelly(Harper was asleep) and Vonda and Brandon. Ginger and Kade. Mary Avery and John Michael. When Sarah Kate was born, my neighbor, Amy, made Chicken Tetrazzini for us. I went NUTS over it. I made it today for our group. Here is the recipe. Saute in butter: 1 white onion 1 bell pepper 3 celery stalks Then add: 1 can cream of mushroom soup 3 cups of chicken breasts 4 Tbs of slivered almonds 2 cups Sharp cheddar cheese Boil: 7 oz. of vermicelli Combine and bake at...

Today we took the girls to our county fair. We all had a wonderful time. Emily loved the rides and the animals. She was so sweet the whole time. SK did great too. We let Emily ride the roller coaster and she was soooo excited till the ride started and then she has NEVER looked soooooooo terrified. She just looked frantic. Steve and I were laughing so hard because we had NEVER seen her look like that before. I felt terrible for putting her on such a big ride and I got scared that she might try to jump out. Steve LOVES roller coasters and scary rides. He was getting a kick out of it. He asked me if I took a picture of Emily during the ride and I told him I was to nervous and scared for her to take one. Steve remarked, "you looked real nervous and scared...you were laughing your head off!" When she got off and got composed, she said, "I'm not used to anything like that!" We can tell that she is real proud that she rode it. The picture was taken when the ...

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Poor little Sarah Kate is sick this week. She has fever. We went to the MD yesterday. She has no real diagnosis. She does seem better today. Bless her sweet heart. I have moved on up in technology! I just got rid of this phone on Saturday. I know I have had it 10 years and I think even longer. I LOVED this phone. It had the best reception in the world. I HAD to get a new one because it just died and they don't even make parts for it anymore. Steve has had several fancy, expensive phones, but none did as well as mine. Yes, I have had many opportunities to upgrade, but I just have never wanted to. When you find a good thing, stick with it! It was so easy to use and because it was so chunky, I could put it on my shoulder and talk hands free. As for the new phone, we are trying to bond. I hear myself echoing when I talk, it is too thin to rest on my shoulder. About all I can do on it so far is answer and dial numbers. That is all. Steve is going to give me a lesson on ...