Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great time with our family this year. The number was smaller but that didn't diminish the great fellowship we had.

Brooks made Pilgrim hat name markers for the table. He insisted we get a picture with our "hats" on.

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Just some pics

As Thanksgiving approaches, our whole family has been talking about all of the things we are thankful for.

These two made the list.

Halloween Pictures

I only took a couple of Halloween Pictures this year. Brooks had been sick that day, so his daddy stayed home with him. I took Reese to Trunk or Treat and he had a blast hanging out with his friends.

Luckily, for me, Reese wanted to be the exact same thing he was last year. The costume was a little big last year, so this worked out perfectly.

I love this photo! I can always embarrass them with it when they are older.

Can't get it out of my head.

I generally don’t watch the news. I will catch it on occasion, but I don’t make a point to watch it every day. Some will think this is crazy. I know the argument is that one needs to stay caught up on what is going on in this world. I get that. I just can’t bring myself to watch it day in and day out though. The reason I don’t watch it is that I will see some heartbreaking story about some abuse, or murder, or even worse, and then that story will just stick with me for days.

I know there is evil in the world. I have to do my part to shield my children and even myself from that evil as much as possible. There are sad occasions though when you come across situations that you can’t avoid by just turning off the television.

I was pulling in to Publix on Friday afternoon to do my shopping. (Another good week for me….I spent $93.00 for $210.00 worth of groceries!) As I was pulling past the entrance, I noticed a couple coming out with several bags of groceries each. What caught my attention was that he had on bright orange and she had on crimson from head to toe. I thought they must be another divided family, by routing for Auburn and Alabama. I didn’t think much else of it, as I drove around to find a space. When I pulled into the parking space, I noticed the car beside me was facing backward in the space, which gave me a good view of what all was going on in the car. I noticed this same couple lighting up their cigarettes and yelling toward the backseat. I looked in the back seat and saw a little boy, that couldn’t have been older than 18 months sitting there. He was being chewed out by his father for what?!?! It was awful. Then it dawned on me, “Where was this little boy when they were coming out of the store!” Just then they drove off.

I sat there processing all of what I had seen. They had to have left him in the car while they were in the store. They each had several bags of groceries so it wasn’t a quick trip inside. What was going through his mind while his parents had just left him in the car for that long??!!! Was he crying because he thought he had been abandoned? Did he enjoy breathing in that cigarette smoke while all of the windows were rolled up??

If only I had been 5 minutes earlier and saw this situation! I would have called the police. Would my 5 minutes have made a difference in his life?

I just sat there in my car for a long while and prayed for this child. I know there are sad situations everywhere. I know there are people out there that have no business being a parent. All I can do at this point is pray for this precious child of God and hope that his parents will turn from their ways of parenting or that someone close to this family will step in and do what is best for this child.

I just want that afternoon back, to try and make a difference.

The Pumpkin Patch with Friends!

Julie and I had a wonderful time taking the boys to a pumpkin patch on Saturday.
Reese was fearless by leading the charge to go down the big slide.

He and Cooper had fun going down the slide together.

Brooks even got in on the fun.

Julie pointed out in this picture that her children were sitting the same way and so were mine. They were waiting patiently for the cow train.

They ended up being the only ones on the train.

Then they had a great time at the duck races. Reese like this especially!

After watching the pigs race, we went to drive the tractors. It ended up being a lot harder than it looked.

Then it was off to play in the corn box. I think this was one of the activities the boys liked the most.

Here is Austin and Reese playing at the duck race area.

On the hayride to go pick out a pumpkin.

I love the expression on their faces to see the little pumpkin.

This is probably my favorite picture from the day. They were all checking out a tiny pumpkin that Brooks said, "had just popped." Typical boys.

These are the pumpkins they picked out.

This picture was taken in the middle of the corn maze. Luckily they just wanted to go to "Marshmellow Mountain" and not actually go through the whole maze. I told Julie as we were following the signs to marshmellow mountain that I felt like we were Dora the explorer. "Go through the corn maze, past the signs, to get to Marshmellow Mountain."

On top of the hay bales.

We had such a good time with our friends. Brooks already is talking about going back next year.

Just a few words

We haven’t had any events happening lately that I felt like blogging about. Our lives right now go from day to day without many changes. Which is a good thing! Here are some words to share that will sum up our life over the past few weeks.

Report Cards

Clean Pantry

Publix Gift Card Winner

Certified Professional Coder

16 pumpkins

Alabama National Fair

Taco Soup

New clothes

Wintzell’s Oyster House

Christmas Shopping

Life on Mars Series

Field Trip

Wedding

Ink Stain on chair

Kindle

Roasted Pumpkin seeds

PEACE

Stone Soup

This past Sunday afternoon the 1st and 2nd grade classes at school performed their yearly musical production.

This year it was "Stone Soup-A Rock Opera"

Here is Brooks dressed as a villager.

As the production began...


Brooks focusing on his lines.
He had a whole paragraph that he had to recite. He did a great job and I was very proud of him.