The Bright Eyed Brunette

November is always a busy month. We have birthdays, Thanksgiving at church, Thanksgiving. This year it just felt like we were running around like crazy. About four days before Carlie's birthday, she had an ovarian cyst that ended with a nice little ER visit. Makena had her appointment with a neurologist for her back which ended with an epidural steroid injection that was useless, so we went back to the neurologist at the end of the month and scheduled surgery on the 12th of December (please pray). The girls helped with the beauty pageant that kicks off our town's Wings Over the Prairie Festival, Carlie had Chritsmas Open House at work (both of the latter things had days of preparation before the actual event), we had SNOW (which slows things down tremendously around here), our church Harvest Supper, packing Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes, Thanksgiving and in the middle of it all bean harvest was still happening because it rained every.other.day. Thankfully, like the month

My girls are always up for a selfie with mom! Carl, the pilgrim stooge  Makena Faith and Carlie with Papa Pilgrim  Carlie and Pop My girls were missing from this photo, but here are most of the other ladies at Grammy's Thanksgiving feast. We invited my mom and dad's sweet neighbors, Alan and Polly. Their families are all out of state, so we were their pseudo family for the day. Carlie and Delta Dawn  We traveled to Wynne to visit Carl's mom and step-dad on Saturday.  We had such a good time catching up. Happy Thanksgiving friends! We had a nice day full of food and family. We have so much to be thankful for. First and foremost, I am thankful for my salvation, for all of my family and our health. I am thankful for a roof over my head, clothes to wear, and food to eat. I am also thankful for my church family as well as the good old U.S.A.  I could go on and on because I am blessed....we are blessed and for that I am thankful.

It's funny how things turn out isn't it? Every single decision we make leads us to where we are this day at this very moment.  Some choices are easy peasy:  What to eat, wear, what to do this day....not too difficult.  Some aren't quite so easy: career choices or moves, crucial financial decisions....those are a little tougher.  Nevertheless, all are choices. And now we come to the crossroads, that proverbial fork in the road.  You know the one where you can either stay in the mundane yet comfortable and predictable or the one that leads to the new and unknown. I woke up this morning with the word crossroad in my head. Seriously, I could NOT get it out.  Not in the argument I was having with Carl, not in Sunday School, not in church...and it's still there.  I've prayed for the Lord to show me what in the world it's supposed to mean.  I've read scripture, googled crossroads, songs about crossroads, EVERYTHING you can think of to figure this out. I can'

Yes, we had a snow day...in mid-November! I'm not sure if that has ever happened here before. It was so pretty coming down and there was no ice (which is what we usually get), only big pretty flakes. Carlie had her college class at 8 and when she called me at 9, it was already covering the school parking lot. Carl made her follow him home and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief when they both pulled in the driveway. Carl sent me this when he and Carlie were on their way home. Our backyard Trey had to check things out on the 4wheeler The next day the sun came out but Trey made a small snowman. He used a croquet ball for the nose and but his glasses on him. Silly boy! I didn't get any pictures of the girls because they were both mad because it was snowing. Makena is not a snow lover and Carlie is busy working on school things these days. It was fun to see the snow this early and to see our small southern town literally come to a stand still. Scho

On Sunday, November 12, 2000 at 8:05 I gave birth to my first baby girl.  After a mere 3 hours of labor and no pain medicine, I was thrilled to hold my tiny 4lb 12.oz baby.  Do you know how small 4lb. 12 oz. is?  It was almost like her blanket weighed more than she did.  She was so pretty with lots of black hair and that pretty pink bow in her hair.  She scared the crap out of me. Carl on the other hand acted like a pro!  He changed her first diaper and probably gave her the first bottle.  I think that is when my anxiety kicked in full blast.  I was scared that she wasn't getting enough to eat, that she couldn't come home with me, that she would have to go to a different hospital than me...it was just very stressful for a new mother. We made it though.  Just like we made it through those first 2 or 3 years of no sleep and I mean YEARS people.  She is still an early riser but has learned to be quiet and let others sleep. We made it through gymnastics and dance, preschool, kinder

What a great weekend to make memories! Friday night we had my parents, sister, and niece/ nephews over for a bonfire and wiener roast.  The kids were mostly interested in eating and making s'mores.  It was fun and the weather was near perfect.  Not too cold but just cool enough. On Saturday morning Carl and Trey got up nice and early and went deer hunting at the farm.  They had made up their minds that no matter what they saw (buck, doe, or hog), they were shooting it...because Mama needs some meat in the freezer!  We have an over abundance of hogs in our area and they wreak havoc on the fields not to mention disturb the deer hunting. Well, turns out that none of that mattered because they saw nothing (not even a squirrel). Saturday afternoon I had planned to do family pictures for Christmas cards but due to lack of motivation (on my part), we just did sibling pictures.  You might think that taking pictures of your kids gets easier as they get older.  That is a