HALLOWEEN!!!

Tonight was FUN!!!

Mark and the boys met me at work and we decided to take them to our local Mall for Trick-or Treating! Mackie was sooooooo funny........Mark said "What is Mack supposed to be?" I said "Frankenstein..........he(Mackie) walks all lop-sided,....I thought that it would be cute this year!" Sure enough, Mackie MUST know what we are talking about because he actually kept the Big-Head Frankenstein "Hat" on the whole time and actually walked a bit stiff-legged! It was soooo funny!!

Here's our little Frankenstein!

Bless his little heart.....the things I make for them to wear!

Creston was so cute in his Ghostie Costume! He didn't have to wear

his big coat this time, so he could move a little bit better!

Here are all three of my guys! Ohhhhhhh! Scary!

Creston, Mommy, & Mackie starting to break down!

Special friends of ours, Betty & Gary Redden!

Pa-Paw took this one...................

Now.....can you see why it was off center and that we were lucky to even get in the picture???

It was a good night! We went through all the stores at the Mall! I reccommend this to anyone who needs somewhere "Easy" to take their kids. We were going to also go to the Shops on the Parkway, but decided that we would go the "quick" route and do the Mall instead! After trick-or-treating, we went to Chick-fil-A to eat dinner and let Creston and Mackie play for a few minutes. Then a quick stop at Gary & Betty's and then on to Nana's and Pa-Paws! I think Gary & Betty said that they had about 25 kids by the time we got there! Nana said they had about 12 maybe! That's pretty good for our area!

We wound up with 3 Halloween buckets FULL of candy! Sugar highs for everyone for the next year!!!!!

Hope that everyone had a good Night!

Happy Halloweenie!!!!!!

Carvin' the Punkin's

Tonight we carved the pumpkins!

Mackie was all excited and immediately got a spoon and went to town! Creston, on the other hand, decided that he didn't want to get his hands all slimy and basically refused to pull the punkin' guts out with his bare hands. Mackie felt like the punkin guts were just fine and thus tried repeatedly to eat them! Shew!!!

Playing with friends and our FIRST Trick-or-Treat this year!

My friend Paulette and her two boys came over this morning to play with my two fellers! They all 4 had a GREAT time running and yelling and chasing each other! It was loud, but at least they were all getting along together!!! I can deal with noise if it's the "good" kind!!! Thanks you 3 for the visit!

This evening, Boone had their Downtown "Boo", and Mark reminded me that it started at 4:30...this he tells me at 2:30 just after the boys have gone to sleep for their nap! I got their costumes and warm coats together and waited for them to wake up. We all got to Boone and got the boys costumes on them. Creston got upset before we even got going because the Fire Department had "Sparky the Dog" helping to hand out the handouts and candy. Creston does NOT like anything in a costume!!! It got better, though, and they got several pieces of candy each!!!

As you can see above, Creston was a Ghostie, and Mackie was a punkin'! Granted, they BOTH had on their heavy coats due to the COLD weather and wind. (Mack is supposed to be Frankenstein, but Creston insisted that Mackie wear his "First Halloween" Pumpkin costume today. We'll try the Frankenstein costume out on Friday night!)

The boys and their Daddy!

The boys and Me!!!

Here's the First Snow Pictures!!!

This was the scene from our door this morning as I was leaving to go to the Dentist to get my tooth "ready" for my crown!!

So Pretty!!!

And THIS was the picture across the pond at our neighbor's house as I was coming home!

Amazing!

Our FIRST Snow!!!!!!

FYI to everyone!!!
We got our first Flurries this evening as we were coming home from Boone after Mark's Doctor visit!!!!

Love me some snow!!!!!! (I like snow until Christmas, then I get tired of the COLD!!!)

Yippee.......SNOW!!!!!

Mark's back/neck/shoulder pain...

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to touch base and ask you all to pray for Mark. He's been having some pretty intense upper back pain for the last couple of weeks that involves his neck and shoulder too. I think it finally got the better of him because he actually made an appointment and went to the Doctor this afternoon. The Doc. seemed to think that it was probably just his muscles having spasms, but he went ahead and had Mark get some x-rays done. Hopefully we'll get the word on those in the next few days. Mark thinks that it's Bursitis??? Some kind of inflamation. Whatever it may be, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. His job requires him to do quite a bit with his upper body and this pain is not at all what he needs to be feeling. Please pray that we'll find out what the problem is and that we can treat it so that he'll be as good as new!!!

Thanks, everyone!!!

Martha

It's o.k. to be aggravated...

A horrible mommy! That's what I am!!! There's no other excuse for me...plain and simple...I'm just not cut out for this thing called parenthood!

That's how I feel a lot of the time when I'm here with the kids by myself. Like today, Mark is working, so I've been #1 parent all day long.

My mind goes numb from all of the yelling and hollering and running and screaming.......then there's all the stuff that the kids do!!!!

I read something earlier while I was giving Mackie a Bath that it's "o.k. to be aggravated". It's perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed as a parent. I thought to myself "well whoop-ti-do Mrs. Writer-Person! Now, what do you think I should do about the overwhelm-ed-ness?" Nothing.....just that it's o.k. There was no 12 step plan to get past the feelings of "Oh Dear Lord in Heaven, please remind me why I'm here?".

Life as I see it is a series of events, some unfortunate and some very wonderful! It is all in how we deal with those events that define us as people to ourselves and to others. I'm afraid that I often am seen as a CRAZY NUT who can't ever open my mouth when I ought to. Sometimes, although very rarely, I do rise above my nut-case ways, and do or say the right things. I really hope above hope that I will be able to adjust my mental condition so that I can get my children raised to remember that "Mommy was always so nice and sweet and loved us and baked cookies and NEVER hollered."

I've got a long way to go..........please pray for my nerves, my ears, my husband's mind, and my children's behinds......oh.....and please pray that Mackie will learn to talk so that the constant "uuuugggghhhhh!!!!!!!! EEekkkkkkeeeeekkkkk!!!!!" will stop........Oh.....and also pray that Creston will stop touching/tackling/attacking/arresting/and pushing his brother......OH!!!!.....and please pray that I will learn the fine art of getting Creston into bed at a decent hour on the nights that Mark is working.......he seems to think that he CAN'T POSSIBLY go to bed until mommy goes to bed...........ect., ect...........:o)

Andy, Jennifer, & Aidan came to visit!

Tonight we had Mark's cousin Andy and his wife Jennifer and their son Aidan over for a visit and some PIZZA!!! Yummy!!

Mackie and Aidan got to play together for the first time since they both started walking!!! They had a really good time! Creston even behaved himself and didn't "tackle" anyone!!!

Aidan's FIRST Birthday was last month, and we were a bit behind on the giving of the gift, but he got to open it and Mackie tried his hardest to grab all of the presents inside the bag....especially the little cars!!!

Aidan is the CUTEST little feller! He has the biggest brown eyes and cutest little round cheeks with dimples in them!!!

Here are the proud Daddies with their little men!

Andy Storey, Aidan, Creston, Mark, & Mackie!!!

(it's hard to get 5 people to look the same way at the same time!!!)

We always enjoy our visits with Andy and Jennifer!

Maybe one day we'll make it down to see you!!!

I love Halloween!!!

I absolutely love Halloween! The reason why? Maybe it's because it comes during one of my most favorite seasons of the year.....maybe it's because I LOVE candy......maybe it's because my mom always made it special for me when I was little....maybe it's because that's the only time I ever got to dress up as a witch year after year after year!!!

When I think of Halloween, I don't envision evil things and people,........I think of CANDY!!!!! I see it as a fun time for kids to dress up and get a sugar high! I experienced several different ways of celebrating Halloween at my Church in Elizabethton when I was growing up. We did have costume parties....one year, we all wore biblical costumes, another year, we created a make-shift "Heaven" instead of a Haunted House....it was only in 1 room of our fellowship hall, but it was different and interesting! One year, we hosted a "non-violent costume" party. I think we just finally went with letting the kids wear whatever they wanted to because the Church felt like it was just better to have the kids in our fellowship hall having fun than to have them running out in the roads.

No matter what the take on Halloween and it's origins may be, for me it was always just a special time. When I was little, we lived in Florida and from what I've been told, it wasn't a good idea to take your kids trick-or-treating in my area because people were being mean to kids and messing with the candy to make the kids sick. Mom would sometimes take me to the area Mall, but usually, we just stayed home and I got dressed up in my witch costume, we carved a pumpkin, and mom would make me some yummy Peanut-Butter Pinwheel Candy! YUMMY!!! It wasn't until we moved to Elizabethton that I actually got to go around in neighborhoods and get candy! My Grandma lived in the West-Side Elementary School neighborhood and nearly everyone there would hand out candy. When my nieces got big enough to take around, I sometimes made their costumes and went with them. I really enjoyed doing that.........

Now it's Creston and Mackie's turns!!! We don't really live in an area that has a "neighborhood" in it. I think our road is one of the few populated roads on our mountain that is off of the main one. Even then, the houses are far apart. We usually hit several houses on the mountain and then call it a night, but this year, we may also try to take the boys to the area Mall.

I've made their costumes each year. For Creston's first Halloween, he was a Pumpkin....

The next year, he was a Scarecrow,

last year, he was a Pirate and for Mackie's first Halloween last year, he was a CANDY CORN!!!

This year, Creston will be a Ghost and Mackie will be Frankenstein (or he'll wear the Pumpkin costume if he decides to hate the Frankenstein "hat".) I just absolutely LOVE Halloween and love seeing it through the eyes of my kids!!!!

Hope you like my Halloween picture at the top of the blog!!! It's a Charles Wysocki Print!!!!! (I also LOVE Charles Wysocki!!!!! Mom and I got into working the puzzle-forms of his artwork! We have TONS of those puzzles!!!)

So...........................Happy Halloween Week, everyone!!!!! Hope you scare the candy out of lots of people!!!!

Really Yummy Loaded Potato Soup!!!!

Not sure how I actually heard the recipe for the potato soup over the loud roar of my children running and screaming around the house, but somehow.....there was a brief pause of activity when the good Lord above MUST have wanted me to hear this recipe!!!

(if you LOVE O'Charley's Loaded Potato Soup, this tastes JUST like it!!!!!)

I got it off of Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee...here's the recipe!!!
It is soooooooooooo EASY!!!


Cheddar Cheese Baked Potato Soup
(Recipe courtesy Sandra Lee, 2007)

Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 6 servings

Ingredients
1 baking potato
2 (10-ounce) cans Cheddar cheese soup
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1/4 cup real bacon pieces
Sour cream, for garnish
Green onion, finely chopped, optional for garnish

Directions:
Microwave the baking potato for 7 to 8 minutes on high. Carefully remove from microwave using oven mitts. It will be HOT! Set aside until cool enough to touch. When potato is cool, cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Add Cheese soup, chicken stock, and bacon pieces to a medium pan. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally over medium high heat. Add potato and continue to heat soup for 5 minutes. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with a dollop of sour cream and a few chopped green onions.

Here's the link if you want to look it up and print off the recipe card...
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/cheddar-cheese-baked-potato-soup-recipe/index.html

There was a pretty yummy-sounding slow-cooker Meatloaf recipe from the same episode too!
I really like the Sandra-Lee recipes!!!

My Root Canal...

Well, I thought that I should mention what happened to my tooth since that was such a big deal to me several days ago…….since I had it done, we’ve all come down with the yucks, and I hadn’t thought about updating everyone about it anymore.

I did have the root canal on Monday morning. Dr. Jerry Butler, DDS did it here in Boone and he REALLY did a good job. I would recommend him to anyone that needs something “special” done.

I went to my regular dentist on Tuesday morning for the Crown prep, but since the tooth was still sore and I had come down with a ickie sinus problem, the Dentist decided to hold off until next Tuesday…. So….we’ll wait until then!!!

It’s still sore, but at least it’s not throbbing anymore!!! Yippee!!!

Well……that’s the low-down on the tooth!

Our Wedding Ceremony Photos...6/23/01

Here are the pictures from our Ceremony......

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Just because......

I recently decided that our engagement and wedding pictures needed to be put on a CD since all we had were the original photos, and the negatives. Things have a way of getting "messed up" around our house, so I trotted off to Walgreens and took the whole she-bang!

For roughly $6.00 per CD (and they can hold a LOT of Pictures on each CD), I got all of our Engagement AND Wedding negatives placed onto trusty CD's! Now, I realize that in a matter of months, probably, the CD's will become "ancient", but at least I'll be able to transfer them on up to the next best thing when that happens!!!

Sooooooo.......................in installments, I will post those 7 1/2 year old pictures to my blog!!! Enjoy!!!

I will begin with.........Engagement Bliss!!! (These are the Black & White ones, there are Color Photo's also, but they didn't get copied onto the Cd's for some reason!!!!)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Creston and his "Puffer".

Well........because our oldest little fella was coughing his little head off this morning, we took him to the Doctor. There, we found out that he has a little "rattle" in his lungs, which COULD be a symptom of Pneumonia, OR Bronchitis....... Hmmmmmm........

The Nurse Practitioner stated that since he wasn't running a fever, it was probably Bronchitis. She gave us a script for an antibiotic, and also an Advair inhaler for him to use for the next 5 days. She thought that whatever he's trying to fight off should be gone by then. She showed him how to use the "puffer" and he thought that was the best thing in the world! He held onto his "medicine" all the way home and was so excited to get to show Nana & PaPaw how he could use it! He doesn't quite have the hang of sucking the medicine into his lungs just yet, but I think we're getting some in.

No picture of this little life moment........my battery on my camera is dead and I have misplaced the charger.......no pictures for my blog.............

Well.......on that note, I will head off to beddie-bye land. I'm really tired and my tooth is beginning to tell me it hates me again......

I'm sure I'll be in a MUCH happier mood sometime next week (after the dental work is done!!)! :o) Just hang in there with me until my blahs go away!!!

This past week!

Well, this past week has been a bit wild and crazy!!!


I came down with a yucky toothache last weekend.....went to the Dentist on Tuesday morning, and found out that I'll be getting a Root Canal this coming Monday morning!!! Whoo hoooo.....can you feel the excitement??? It's been throbbing, but not exactly unbearable just yet....I will now go religiously to the dentist EVERY 6 months!!!

Wonder if these things worked in the "old days"?

Anyway...on top of that, Mark went in to work last night to pull a 36 hour shift. That wouldn't be so bad if BOTH boys hadn't come down with a cold....yet again!!!! :o) To top it all off, I've had a headache on top of my toothache since yesterday!!!! I need a few "aaawwwwww"s from everyone!!!

I'll quit complaining now!!! :o) On to other news and tidbits....

Mark and his dad are currently building a 2-car garage for us at the back/side of our house. They're trying to get it done in time for the first bad weather....hopefully the weather will hold off for a bit longer. (I'll post some pictures of that when I get them taken!!!)

Wooly-Worm starts TOMORROW!!!! I just love that festival!!! Mark, however, does NOT, and thus, we will not be going again this year!!! When Mackie gets a bit bigger (NEXT YEAR!!!) I'll take them without ole' grumpy-butt!!! :o) There's nothing like watching fuzzy worms crawl up strings to see who will be able to predict the coming winter weather!!!!!

Mark is off BOTH Saturday & Sunday this weekend!!!!! We're all excited! Hopefully it will be a good one, without too much of the runny nose, headache, and toothache!

You all have a GREAT Weekend!!!!!

Ripley's Aquarium & something strange at the end...

On Thursday, Mark decided that since Dollywood was such a bust we would take the fellers to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg.


Neither of us had been before. We were VERY impressed! Both boys liked it! Everything was lit up so that the kids could see it all very easily. There was TONS to do and look at inside. You wouldn't think there was so much "stuff" in there looking at it from the outside!

(we got to see a Dive Show)





(Creston got to touch a Horseshoe Crab!)

We all had a good time, regardless of the rain! We found a few new roads to help us get around town better...we actually got daddy to go to Gatlinburg...&...we actually did NOT go shopping in Pigeon Forge!!! I think we were all shocked by that! We did, however, stop in Johnson City on the way back home to get some pants for Creston from JC Penny's. :o)

Now......for the strange thing.....see the picture below.

This is part of a new indoor water park that is going in on the out-skirts of Pigeon Forge. I guess it's some type of water-slide "funnel". (This part is obviously NOT indoor, but I think there will be indoor AND outdoor parts to it! Actually, it's being built even before you get to the main part of Sevierville. Here's their website. http://www.mywaterresort.com/


It looks pretty impressive. It is HUGE! Here's a picture of what it is supposed to end up looking like... Something to look at for those of you who have kids who LOVE the water! It would make for a great vacation spot in the middle of winter when everything is Blah.....and you need to get away!

O.k.! That's all I've got for now!!! I may write more tomorrow.....maybe not. Mark is working today, so we'll see what tomorrow holds!!!

To Dollywood......again.....

This past Wednesday morning, we loaded up the car and went to Pigeon Forge for the 4th time this year.......(I think we're trying to break some kind of record....). We only stayed Wednesday night, though.

Well......Wednesday.....it rained......and rained......and rained........and rained some more.

(this is out the door of the Hotel looking at the car...)

We did go on to Dollywood, though. That's why we went....to take Creston to Dollyood 1 more time before it got cold.....(and before the economy keeps us from going anywhere EVER again!!).

(They are having their Gospel and Harvest Celebration now...thus...the Tractors!)

I figured...."It's a Water-Park! You're supposed to get wet!" However, we bought Poncho's to keep us semi-dry. (Sorry, Mark, about the closed-eye shot!)

Dollywood had all of their BEAUTIFUL decorations up. I just love fall at Dollywood!!!

There was a feller there making Molasses. It smelled really good! The picture below is of Mackie waving to the man's horse. He waved and said "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!".
The Big Thing of the Dollywood Trip was that My Husband, in all of his infinite wisdom......took our 3 1/4 year old son Creston on the Blazing Fury Roller Coaster. Now.......he WAS in fact tall enough to ride.......but he's a bit afraid of anything out-of-the-ordinary......so I was a bit scared for all of us. There wasn't anyone in line to ride since it was such a yucky day, so I wheeled Mackie and his stroller along with Creston down the ramp and asked the worker-person if she thought that it would be a good idea or not...she said she thought that it would be fine...(Mark was at this time riding it by himself). So....I allowed my oldest child to get on that ride with his father....

(here he is...poor little unsuspecting thing...)

and here they are....alive and well!

When he got off the ride, he was fine, happy, and excited...as the "shock" wore off, he declared that he would not be riding that ride again.....at least he didn't try to jump off the ride while it was in motion!

This is a really pretty shot of the mountains behind Gatlinburg. The clouds are hugging the outline of the mountain so that it looks just like SNOW!!!! Whoo-Hoo!!! Snow!!! Love it!!!That's all of my info. on Dollywood! I'll post about the rest of the trip tomorrow!!!!!