Chirstmas at My House

Since there isn't a hodgepodge this week, I thought I'd give you a wrap up of my Christmas with pictures.

 Let's start with the tree..the one I wasn't going to put up.... yes I caved.

 Then there was the get together with Biz's family - love the way the girls had to make faces.

 This is his daughter who just got home from Afghanistan.

 And then there was Christmas with my daughter and her hubs - and my next grandson!

She's easy to please - and easy to send into giggling fits.

 I got Biz a remote control helicopter - knowing that he would have hours of fun tormenting the cats with it.

 Which he did.

 I caught this last night - I think it was a battle for who got to lay on the fuzzy blanket.

 And there was this little guy - growing up so fast!

 He's definitely going to be a "ladies man"-just look at that grin.

 Daddy had to help a little.

Didn't want anything to do with Santa.

But it was ok if Mom and Dad were there!

Follow Friday Four Fill-In Fun

Welcome to the weekly Follow Friday Four Fill-in Fun Blog Hop!

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Each week, Hilary over at Feeling Beachie lists four statements with a blank for you to fill in on your own blogs.  This week’s co-host is Jessica from Black White and a little bit of pink – she came up with the last two statements!

 Hilary really needs co-hosts, so please email me some statements! She would LOVE it if you could please help her spread the word about this hop…. So, please tweet, FaceBook share, and add the linky to your post…

This week’s statements:
1. I have always dreamed of retiring and going home(back to VA) but it will probably never happen - won't leave my daughter here with no family.
2. My son is my hero.
3. I love to read when I go to bed.
4. I will never forget how it felt to be pregnant with my children - it was the happiest time of my life.

Today was my birthday!

 Another year older! Many thanks to my kids and to Biz for the awesome gifts!

Heather got me a new ornament! Awesome - I think this ties into the fact that she is wanting to learn to can.

She also got me a gift card so I could order my new Kindle cover - don't have a picture of that yet.

 Son and DIL sent me these! A purse that says Grandma!

 A lunch bag with my name on it - and notice the theme - they know how I am about my coffee!

 This is my favorite gift of all!

And Biz got me my new flagpole light!


I think I made out like a bandit!

Happy Birthday to My Son

27 years ago today I looked like this

At 9:55 pm, this little guy made his appearance

He was a fat little baby

Such a cutie - see that dimple?

And there it is again

I made those outfits for Christmas that year

His first Easter

His Sister's Birthday!

Good memories

And Halloween- I made those outfits too.

Another Easter

And yet another Easter

Six Word Saturday

To participate all you need to do is describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, go to Show My Face. and Cate will explain it. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing.



My son's family - good looking trio!
June - still need jackets in England! 
My baby boy - with his own.
Wonderful young family - see the smiles?

Is this not a wonderful thing for a mother to see?

My son with his newborn son!

Flagpole

 Just in time for the anniversary of 9-11-2001.

Flagpole went up last weekend and the light went up today.

Background

For those of you who have just started following this little blog - which is pretty much everybody since even though I've had this blog for 2 years, I have just started really getting into it - I thought I'd give you a little background. I am what I call a "displaced" Tennesseean. My father was a contractor so we moved around a lot when I was  a kid but home was always Tennessee. I graduated from high school in IL, went to college for 3 years and then got married and went to work in a factory where I stayed for 13 years until they shut down - the same year I got divorced. My kids were 5 and 7 at the time and I decided to go back to school, which I did - got my Associates and then went to work in the office of another factory.  I was there for another 12 years before they too, shut down and I was once again without a job. I did manage during those 12 years to take some more college classes and  get both of the kids through high school and beyond. My daughter got her Bachelors and my son went to a Tech school then joined the Air Force. They are both doing wonderfully. Raising them has been the most important thing I have ever done in my life. I did  manage to get a job after 9 long months of looking. I am now working in the office of a university here in IL where I can take classes for free! I will soon have my Masters in Computer Science. It's been a long journey and I've changed directions a lot of times - from way back when I studied Medical Technology right out of high school, to Office Systems Technology after I lost my job the first time to Computer Science now. It's been quite a ride but that's life. You just keep going and if you meet a roadblock, you have to change directions.

Ta-Da

My flagpole is up!

Home

After a week in Texas it is COLD up here! 34 degrees and it's 9:44 am. The wedding was good and I can hardly wait to see pictures. All in all it was a pretty good trip but I think we ran poor Jery and Camii ragged. I know they were both tired and sick and probably had things of their own they needed to get done.

Quiet

It's 6 am on Sunday morning and my house is once again very quiet. My son, daughter in law, her brother and cousin just left to go back to Texas. I'm amazed at how fast this week has flown by. In a couple of weeks I'll be flying out to San Antonio for the wedding ceremony and in another month, they'll head off to England for three years. I don't know when I'll get to see them again and it makes me very sad. It's bad enough with them in Texas. Maybe I'll have to go to England! Actually, I may just do that.

We had another party here Friday night for some of the people who couldn't come to the first one. Heather and Faron have been over quite a bit along with some of Hud's friends. All in all, my house has been very full for the past week. As I sit here this morning, I have a very heavy sense of being all alone again. Although I have always been somewhat of a solitary person, at times it gets to you - and this is one of those times. I must admit that I will not miss the video games. I have never had much of a tolerance for them and that has evidently not changed. I did not mind the wii fit with the aerobics, sports, and balance games but honestly just do not understand the attraction of the rock band, bunnies.......................... whatever.

I will however, get back into the "normalicy" of my life. Actually - maybe not. My "normalicy" is about to change with the job ending and the whole school thing about to start. I have been working on transferring all my contacts from my work computer to my home computer, signing up for the online job search sites, updating profiles....................... There are some people I will definitely want to stay in contact with.

Oh well, it is now 6:30 and I am going to start working on making my house mine again. Not that the kids messed anything up really but we all have our own sense of order and I need to get my mind on something besides my son being gone.

Found it

Found the letter from Hud's commanding officer. He sent it to me when Hud got airman of the month last year, Which, by the way, Hud never bothered to tell me about that. I laminated the letter and will keep it forever.

Need a favor

I need proof that Hud is in the service to join the American Legion Aux. I think I have a letter from his commanding officer. I'm on a roll!

Me and Heather just booked our flights for the wedding!

Life here is just grand! Don't know how much longer my job is going to hold out. Don't know how much longer I'll be able to live here. Don't know what I'm going to do when I don't have a job anymore. Could go back to school but for what? And I'm too OLD to go back to school. Heather wrecked her car. Life is just GRAND. But I guess it could be worse. Heather is ok and we have flights for the wedding. That at least is good! I'm going to try and upload some of the pictures of Heather's car. Will probably take a while.

Wedding

I have an idea. Since you kids are planning about coming home in March, how about having some kind of reception/party here? Just a thought. Let me know what you think.

Kimmy is fine. Don't know what she did but her foot was REALLY sore and swollen but not broken.