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The holidays are upon us. I’m getting a little panicky……Excited and overwhelmed. However, I just bought tickets for the Nutcracker, we have much of our Thanksgiving food procured (sans the bird, yet!) and tonight…TONIGHT I will order Christmas cards!!! For me, I just can’t start shopping until the cards are DONE! It signifies the start of the shopping season for me. WOW!! How about you??? Do you wing it or are you structured? Blessings!!
“We” as a general population and electoral college have re-elected President Obama as our nation’s leader. I couldn’t stay up for the results; reading the twitter feeds and following along with the votes as they were being tallied was giving me major anxiety, so I went to bed. This morning I awoke to the news. News I can do nothing about. News I am not happy about. News I will live with and respect because, as a democracy, this is our country’s desire.
The President’s re-election wasn’t the only disappointing (to me and 48% of the country) result, but also some amendments to the constitution and a local referendum, HOWEVER……the people have voted and like it or not, today is Wednesday and life goes on. I voted my conscience and my faith; my prayer and hope for our country is that in regards to the adage, “It’s going to get worse before it gets better” —is that we will have already hit the “worse” and perhaps we are at a turnaround in our economy. The “Change” hasn’t been for the better yet, but perhaps these next 4 years will turn it around….we can only hit our knees and pray and remember that God IS in control and Jesus is still King!
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Now. It’s time for a second cup of coffee!
God Bless America!
My weekly roundup of the week with J.Fulwiler, Catholic blogger and reality show star and her amazing followers of blogginess…Check ’em out HERE, they have some FUNNY stuff over there….and USEFUL….and HISTORICAL….and…well…just go check it out, there’s something for EVERYone!!
1. I’ve returned to the gym (for weight work). My muscles are meeting to secretly stage a coup, I’m sure. Shhh, don’t tell them, but we’re going back tomorrow. As soon as I can bend over to tie my shoes. It’s just not fair how quickly you get sore when you add in new/old/different stuff. Cue the Rocky theme song….
2. To celebrate my return to the gym, I helped our oldest daughter attempt a Pinterest recipe for chocolate chip cookie bowls…click HERE for pic credit AND recipe if you should like to give it a whirl. Bless her heart. Her Mama didn’t read the directions first. Fortunately, she only made 6 and the rest regular cookies. Apparently it calls for the cookie dough in the tube…whatev…
Taste=FABULOUS Presentation=Room for improvement.
Ours:
Sweet girl. Our future “Cake boss”, but much kinder!
This is MESSY!!
ALMOST!!!!
Theirs. Perfectionists. So not real life…..:-P
3. This weekend we are getting our family picture taken. By a real person. Not just a self-timer. Christmas cards…..it’s on!
4. Our youngest diva daughter has been working diligently on this backbend kick over and by golly, she got it!! Try THIS LINK…I’m just too cheap frugal to upgrade to the video uploader….or you can go to my Twitter and view it…or just imagine our girl finally getting her backbend kick over!
5. This morning, somehow, we overslept an ENTIRE HOUR!!! ALL of us. We woke up when our oldest should have been getting ON the bus. Talk about an adrenaline rush. I don’t know about you but we are seriously efficient when running EXTREMELY late. There is NO time for bickering, arguing or even talking. The high schooler and elementary kids made it on time and I was late (fortunately no patients were waiting on me…I wasn’t THAT late!!) and Hubby took our middle schooler at his regular time. Mad skillz, I tell you. Or a well oiled machine. controlled chaos. What have you. Sure got my heart rate up. I have re-checked the alarm settings many times already tonight….
6. This week my Aunt received bad news regarding her cancer and has decided to be done with chemo and to let nature take its course. It’s awful. Her daughter and son are my age. I can’t even fathom it. She is at peace with her decision and I know God will take care of her family but it isn’t going to be easy. Not one bit. Today, my brother-in-law (Hubby’s bro), had a heart catheterization and two stents placed. After he drove himself to the hospital because he wasn’t feeling so good. He’s 42. 3 kids (10, 6 &6) He’s doing fine but……ugh. I can’t even go there. The point is…..We do not know when our hour will come. And I am reminded of a beautiful twitter quote I’ve been mulling over all week: @JamesMartinSJ: Gospel: “Live today as if it were your first day…your last day…and your only day.”
7. And so with Father Martin’s quote fresh on my heart earlier this week, I received an email with RIDICulously low air fare to see my mom. I promptly booked 3 tickets for myself and the girls to go in January. It’s their Christmas present (shhhhhh). I’ll take the boys this summer. YOLO, right? Fortunately, Hubby was VERY understanding and forgave me for my completely impulsive decision without his input and is on board. Phew.
That’s all from me….Blessings to you ALL! Have a great weekend!
The weather is amazing…have you heard? We don’t have the lovely leaves here in the Sunshine state that y’all have a little further north, however…..we’ve got the beach and the sea breeze and shorts in October. And November. And sometimes December. If you’re our cold desensitized son, January and February are game, too. Tonight, we embraced that weather and the girls and I hit the bridge. (Dad was swimming laps and the boys were doing their own thang, including starting dinner!). It was awesome. Killed thirty minutes before dinner and burned a few cals. Perhaps even set a “healthy example” for our girls. Made it with a minimum of bickering and they finally got to spit….not from the top of the bridge…only the edge of the dock…they were happy with that. For now….
Gearing up. You know you want socks like that…..
Such a pretty time of the evening
They were so excited to be EXACTLY at the top
Options. Always looking for option.
They aren’t hams at all. Nope.
Apparently we came just in time to catch the sunset..
Love!!
Then we checked out the various fishing docks
We weren’t disappointed
Someone ran out of steam…
My sis and the boys came to town for the air show at the beach. (BIL had to work–BOO HISS!). It was phenomenal fall weather and and AWE-inspiring air show!!
Crowds lined the beach for a perfect view!
The Snow birds were a HUGE hit (and our first act…a hard one to follow!)
This little trick of “crossing paths” took my sister’s breath away. Every time. Serious.
The Geico planes
The Thunderbirds. Man those jets are loud. And they give you goosebumps!!
This was a T-bird “putting on the brakes”…all the way past the pier…CRAZAY!!!
A great day to fly a kite, too!
making the trek 