Anybody Want To Guess What This Is ?

Real Men Knit

Yep, this is my dear husband, Knitting with the girls.
It takes a real dad to knit with his precious darlings! :)




Maybe he can teach ME how! He actually sews better than I do too!
I think I need to change the oil on the car now. :)

Anna's Self Photography

I found these on my camera this A.M.
When I was gone at the Dr. Anna gave herself her own photo shoot.
I think she did a great job! :)
Mr. Kitty Winkle has turned into a real Man Cat. :)

Thankfulness

Tonight, I am full of thankfulness for the many blessings in my life. Our son and daughter Timothy and Emily, (affectionatly known as Timily) came over with their new dog Stella. She is a beautiful dog and very sweet! What was really nice to see were the little girlies interacting with their brother and sister.
They put on an impromptu show of Christmas carols and made up songs they have been singing.
I watched as the older kids and younger kids interacted and it just blessed my heart.

I am so thankful that Adoption touched our lives; CHANGED our lives for the BETTER!~
Those 3 little girlies are so wonderful. They bless us each and every day and I am so thankful.
I was watching Erika today, and thinking back to the time we adopted her, and the Dr. at the orphanage told us she had been "left to lay" for her first 4 years.... She asked, "do you still want to meet her? Don't expect much."
I will never forget those words! Of COURSE we want to meet her. When we met, she examined us , knowing what was happening, because she saw the process many times before. It just hadn't happened to her. She thought to herself, "It would never happen to me!" And it did, and she savored the moment.

This i s me and Erika in Ukraine. It was her first day out of the orphanage and she was
trying on the clothes we brought for her.
We were in that room, with the smell I cannot ever forget, and she touched our faces sitting between us and said, "My mamitchka, my papitchka!" (my precious mother, my precious father)
And here we are today, with such a wonderful, sweet child. Her adoption file was full of sadness and doom. Her profile picture was of a baby screaming. (she was almost 8)
But, there was this little rose bud waiting to bloom, and she got to bloom in our house! YEA!
The same with Sarah and Anna.... they are our precious little roses.



This was Sarah on Mother's Day. She was 5 and turning 6 the next month.


This is Anna just before she turned 5 . Can you tell she loves Cats? LOL
This was her final visit before we picked her up for good.Thank you Lord for blessing us with 3 wonderful little girls. My heart is full of joy.

Good News!

The fancy shoulder doctor says NO SURGERY! YEA!
But... I was diagnosed with a Frozen Shoulder, which cannot be operated on because
I have another underlying problem having to do with hyperactive nerves.
He does not think it is MS related, but I don't know that it isn't.
Either way, I am going to take a steroid to try and calm the shoulder and arm
and a medicine to help with nerve pain. I just started it, so we will see what happens.

Worst case scenario, would be to go in and deaden the nerves from sending messages to the brain.
HOPEFULLY, the next few weeks will show improvement and then I can work on unfreezing this shoulder!

The Great Physician

I'm going to see a surgeon in a few hours. He is highly recommended by our doctor.
He is a shoulder specialist and works in sports medicine.
How about that? I never pictured myself seeing a sports surgeon. LOL
The checklist I had to fill out was interesting. It asked all sorts of questions like,
can you comb your hair, put a penny on a shelf in front of you, raise a 1 lb above your head, dress yourself etc. I felt like I got an F on a test!

It got me to thinking about another Surgeon. OUR GREAT PHYSICIAN, who has the ability to penetrate into our hearts dissecting our motives, our actions, our deepest of thoughts.
I have been praying that the Lord would give me insight into this dilemma I am in. It has been so painful personally, to be in a "dependent" position. So here I am, the one who takes care of everybody else, having to be taken care of myself. I don't like that feeling. I actually HATE that feeling and I had to look inside. As I have prayed and whimpered and begged for healing, He has remained silent, until now.
My heart was ministered to last night, as we had our family prayer. My own personal sin of "independence" overwhelmed me. My do it yourself attitude, my lack of dependence upon HIM pained me to see. I was actually feeling that I had no more value. A washed up, aging person who is of no good use except to cause expense. These were the sinful thoughts going through my mind. And it is SIN.
I found that I had been getting worth outside of Christ. If my own personal value is anywhere except in HIM, it is wrongly placed. He is the one who chooses to value us; who am I to tell Him he is wrong?
So in confessing that sin, and praying for forgiveness, I am still in pain in my shoulder, I am still in need of help and assistence, but the attitude is changed because the heart has been realigned with the source of life.
I am once again abiding in the Vine.
Thank you Lord for that.

Wednesday Fun

A tender moment with Sarah.


Getting hair in wrag curlers for tonight's party.

Katie and the Honor's Band

Our grand daughter Katie played Oboe tonight in the Barnett Jr. High Honor's Band.
She did a great job. This band sounds fantastic. They are 7th and 8th graders.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Let The Celebration Begin!

Ya-Ya Gram

Mr. Will was famous last year for pitching Christmas ornaments and breaking them. This year he is 2 1/2 and can understand a little better. So to help out, I sent him a Ya-ya gram.... kinda scary looking at my haglike appearance as it is hard to comb my hair right now.LOL I hope he enjoyed Ya-Ya's instructional video on Christmas Tree Etiquette. :)

Blogging

I love to blog, and things have been slow going due to the lack of an arm. My right arm is useless at this time. I am doing acupuncture for pain and it has helped a lot, but only if I keep it in a sling and don't move it at all.
I thank the Lord that He saw fit to make me left handed or I'd really be in a pickle!
Surgery is in the future, but not until the house sells. (our old house) So I am slung until then.

I laughed when Erika went to the store to help me.... She is so funny. She said, "Wow mom, I don't know how you do it with one arm!" To which I said, "Well,I don't know how you do it with no feet!" And then we both started laughing..... helping each other through the store. She pushed the basket and I put the items in. When we got home, Sarah and Anna unloaded and put away. We'll get through this together.

Blogging is slower for awhile, but I'll try to keep up.

Mr. Will and The Gingerbread Village

Will discovered the special Gingerbread Village on Ya-Ya's counter.

What a good boy to just stare at it! Mouthwatering...

Maybe if I just put my mouth up closer, I can get a small taste?
Ahhh! Mercy. Katie shared with me. :)

Its Gingerbread House Makin' Time!

This year instead of one big gingerbread house, we found a gingerbread village. Each girl got to make their own unique design. It was a lot of finger-lickin' fun.

Anna Turned ELEVEN! NO WAY!!! YES WAY!

It is hard to believe that she is already 11.... She had a very nice birthday today. There were visits from the brothers and sisters and nephews, and there were presents to open..... We also visited the Nursing Home where she requested to visit a new friend she made named Robert, who has no visitors. She brought him a picture of Indian Ruins she found on the Internet. We had a play date with her favorite friends and then, it was off to come home and get ready for Pizza.
We never made it to making a cake. We'll try that for tomorrow. LOL

More Thanksgiving Highlights

Some Thanksgiving Highlights

RELAX ......

AND HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!



We're Eating Ham This Year!

The Fun Visit

Our friends from the East Coast visited us yesterday. They left early this a.m. to continue their Thanksgiving Trek. We are so glad they could stop by for a visit on the way, and we could offer respite to the weary travelers. :)

The girls had a great time visiting with Daniel once again, and were right in play mode as soon as he arrived. We had a nice dinner of Tilapia, cucumber tomato salad, broccoli, and rice.
The girls went to Sprouts and the guys headed to Frys. LOL

It is so very special to have a friend to connect with in many ways. Our lives are touched by similar experiences and we both love to share and talk about our Lord with each other.
JJ has been a tremendous encouragement to me and I am thankful for her's and David's friendship. While I am sorry they moved away, they moved to a very strategic place, which could cause us to need to go on a vacation there quite soon.:)

What a great treat. Here are a couple of pictures of our visit. And yes, I did just wake up in the morning. :)

Will And Charlie

Will, Ya-ya is SO PROUD of you! What a fast learner! :)

Instructional Video For the GrandChildren

Gramma Names

One time, my daughter in law and son asked me what I wanted to be called by the kids.
I didn't mind, being called Gramma or Grammy or Grandmother, or anything as long as it was nice. :)

I have been thinking this over and there are a WHOLE lot of gramma names out there.

One thing I DON'T like, is when my girls get confused, as we have this large family and when the grand girls are over start calling me gramma. They don't do it to tease, because sometimes I say, "can you get gramma that pen?" or something along those lines.... then I say mom, then we all laugh.....

SOoooo, I have been thinking about gramma names.
I hope they don't hate it, but I really have decided to get called something fun.
I want to be called "Ya-Ya".... it is greek for Grandmother.
So it is a real gramma name. But I find it to be affectionate and fun.
Kids, is that ok?
You can respond in private. LOL
Yep, your mama is crazy.

The Adorables

This is Marcus, Ivy, Will and Charlie.
I call them "The Adorables".

Marcus is our youngest son.
Charlie looks like Grammy. :)