Promised Post....

I love my mom. There is nobody like her. She is multi talented. like ridiculously so. and everything she does is perfect.  She can cook, bake, decorate, EXCELLENT SEAMSTRESS, matter of fact in my VERY picky and fashionable opinion there is NONE better than sewing as she, sing, ministry leader and partner in so many areas, is spotlessly clean, ORGANIZED, incredibly smart, Write, Create, she is Beautiful,one of those people that can do anything she sets her mind to do, and she can do it well, probably better than any body else...... and good grief she raised me and survived that is saying alot!
When I was young, my mom was so self-disciplined that I just thought when you became an adult....you were perfect. The house was always spotless, you became a dedicated Christian upon marriage who read daily and prayed daily had that daily walk with God we all so desire.....never fought with your husband or even argued, and just knew how to raise your kids even when they were hard to raise!
GEESH was I ever wrong!
 But she was just so good at being who she was that I didn't know better. She shielded me from so much that when I got married and Life hit it was a shock to me! I am not saying she was perfect, and she will agree there are things she would go back and change if she could as we all would.
Even though we were poor I NEVER heard my mom complain about not having beautiful clothes or beautiful shoes like other women had, she never griped about the fridge being bare she somehow always cooked something out of nothing! Not that I liked it all but I was skinny enough then I didn't mind skipping a meal if I didn't like it. I don't recall doing that often unless it was that steak you bake with tomatoes.....*gagging*  I think it is called "swiss steak" *shiver*

Now that I am older, I understand her reasons for why she raised me as she did, and all though I raise my own kids differently in some ways, I am so thankful for how she raised me and there are some traits and expectations I pass along to my own kids. I am so thankful that she loved me enough to say no when she knew my "teenage" heart would hate her for it, I am so thankful she taught me that kids who do chores not only grow up learning how to take care of themselves but they learn to appreciate the time others spend on their behalf as adults, they learn to teach their own children to become self sufficient.
She also taught me some other valuable lessons:
~ No matter what I do, I want to be the best I can be at it.
~As a Christian, it doesn't matter if you have a position or what others say about you, Be Christlike no matter how they treat you.
~Spiritually speaking Take a "blow or arrow to the heart"   and just do what is right in spite of the friend, or person or even their "position".
~Be proud of your beliefs, don't back down when you feel the pressure to do so due to criticism of others, sinner or saint
~Do NOT under any circumstance, be one of those who sit and expect others to do all the work while you take all the glory and praise. DO your part, and if others get credit & praise & a good name for your ideas, your hard work and your talents...
~When the spotlight has went off, you still Wash the dishes, clean the toilets mop the floors & be thankful....
~ THINK OF OTHERS, DON'T Be self centered and Self absorbed.
~Cook or Bake for those that are lonely, broken, sick , needy, or just need somebody to say hey I care, I may not have the money to solve or answers but I do care.

I could go on and on on how wonderful my mom is but I will just sum it up with saying, She is an amazing lady, and I am thankful and proud to say I am her daughter! You will have to forgive me as I don't have a lot of pic of her, but here is one from this weekend taken with my dad, my BEAUTIFUL niece and my HANDSOME Nephew! ;) Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you.
 

Happy Birthday Mom! Coming soon...

    Dear Mom,
I just can't gather my thoughts today they are still running in to many directions to blog but I have started your birthday blog  ;)
Jamie

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year full of joy and enough Happy moments to fill your scrap books!

Here are a few things from 2012 that I am thankful for or was a memorable occasion for me ;) Not in order just as this web site would let me post.....

-My Parents! My brother & sister! All of my extended Family. Gary's Family.

- Gary's Dad got saved! Filled with the Holy Ghost! and Baptized!

 -"Finally reached my weight loss goal" after 14 yrs...now the hard part, Staying there! 

2007-I think this was my heaviest weight, hard for me to look at let alone post!

My "Normal" weight

Christmas 2012- My Goal weight

. I am thankful for the people in my life that love me no matter what I look like, not everybody is as blessed. For myself, the best way to describe it is to say this is the first time anybody has seen that picture of Jadyn and I, I hope I never get to the place where I am ashamed to take a picture taken with my kids, again....not that I am Supermodel...okay, I will be honest, I am not even Big Lots model gorgeous now but, at least  I don't have to hide our Christmas pictures ;)
(And don't leave any comments telling me you think I am beautiful, your family, or like family if your reading this so, I know you are blinded by love! hehe!)

-My Little Family 

Perfectly Imperfect! (I should add the photographer and his beautiful Wife in my list of thankful for's! My SIL Lori, and BIL, Dave!)

Our New Pastor and his family!!!!

Pastor & Teresa with the Board 2012

-Gary has a job. Oh! and I have one too now....almost forgot been so long since I had a job outside the home! I am very thankful for my job, right now I LOVE what I am doing. Really like the people I am working for and with!  Praying that when this position ends another one like it will come along! I even miss the kids on this Christmas break and I have only been there 6 weeks....just very blessed to have been able to do something I like so well!

- For all the new friends in our lives and our new church family at Full Gospel. They have been sooo good to us, I can't express how thankful I am for them, nor how loved they have made us feel. Sometimes, I will get a text or a  FB or just a hug or kind word when I need it most, and I thank God that when we had to leave Dryden Road, He placed us with kind and loving people!

- Our Long time friends we miss sooooo much! :( 
-And our church family of 20+ yrs, Dryden Road Pentecostal Church
-BRO. BENNIE!!!!!

In One Accord- more commonly referred to as "Bev and the girls" :)

Holly & Beth

Amanda (Myla) & Michael

Me and Sarah...

  I really miss IOA! I miss Michael's awesome bass, I miss Kevin's & Andrew's drum skills, and I miss Bethany's piano magic....I am so not a replacement for 1 of them let alone, all 3!!!

My Lil' Sis & I!

Holly B and Amanda!

Bev & Steph!

-As always, Thankful for our Home!

Words can't express how thankful I am. We have been in this house for a little more than 1 year now and sometimes I still wonder at how God worked it all out.....So thankful he did though!

Most of all, thankful for Salvation, for the Savior, peace of mind, a Heavenly Father, and the Holy Ghost, for a Heaven to go to when this life is over....Thankful for the things I never think to thank Him for, Breath in my lungs, the beat of my heart, a roof over my head and a nice warm bed speaking of..... I have spent the last 2 hrs blogging....I am well into 2013 now! And SLEEPY!
Love to you all,
Jamie

Visions of Sugar Plums.....and Thanksgiving

• YEAR 2012
• 

Didn't realize till after I took the picture that 2 lights were unplugged :D

 Our greatest Gifts!

Lights out and Tree light plugged in :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this is Pictures I took tonight, but I thought I would upload some of our past Christmas Card pictures just to compare how much life has changed, and how quickly!

Year 2006

2006

2006 Ethan 4 weeks

Jadyn 3yrs

Cayden 7, Tre` 6

YEAR 2007

Year 2005

Tre` 5

Jadyn 2yrs

I think this was the year we gave up on Christmas card pics, for obvious reasons.....

Cayden 6

 YEAR 2008

 These are pictures that never made it to a Christmas card, another one of those years we gave up, I don't know who we stressed out more the kids or ourselves! Ethan as you can see would not cooperate! Looking back it is funny, but at that moment it was not! lol!

Poor kids they are thinking, " just smile so we can be done!"

This picture here says why Ethan has only 2 baby pictures taken.....He was AWFUL! hahahah!

Poor things, they tried so hard but in the end it was all in vain...:)

YEAR 2008 , My all time favorite pictures ;)

And Last Years, 2011....

 never made cards either :) But here it is anyways, we lost a few years due to the computer getting a virus...

We had just moved into our new house and stripped wallpaper, so all though it doesn't look like the prettiest house in the world we were so thankful to finally have our own home once more that it didn't matter what the background looked like, it may never have made it on a card but it was still taken in remembrance of what is really important at Christmas. Not gifts, decorations, prettiest tree award, best dressed award, or anything else that we tend to place so much importance on, but it is about remembering, Jesus was born into this world, it's His birthday we celebrate and it is His return we long for. It is also a time to thank God for the blessings in our own lives, not only did Christ give His life for us but, He has also blessed us with what is truly important in life. To me that is Gary, Cayden, Tre`, Jadyn, Ethan. As well as my parents siblings and extended family members, and lots of friends, some near and some far, some old some new!
Wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving and hoping this year as you celebrate the birthday of our Savior it is  with an anticipation of His second coming!
As I ponder all my blessings in life with Thankfulness, still my soul is saying "Happy Birthday Jesus!  See you soon!"

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Today Ethan turned 6yrs old ;) He is growing up...*tear* or *sigh of relief*....Maybe a bit of both!
Since school he has really changed in a lot of ways, some good, some....not so good! lol!
He FINALLY wants to learn and does school work here at home, that is a big shocker!
He is not so much a baby, well still some but not like he was before school started.
He is getting big and maturing, learning as he demonstrated over Breakfast

Birthday Breakfast- Oreo Ice Cream cake!

 to Jadyn and Cayden this morning how to "cuss with his finger" as he put it....uhh, learning a new song that goes something like "I'm sexy and I know it"...yeah not happy with those learned experiences but, on the bright side it is a lesson learned of what not to sing or do with our fingers? :)

 

 

" THUMBS UP on the Cake Mom!" Better sign language here....

And here are some more pics for you to enjoy.....if you lay on your Right side to look at, when uploading, they were right side up but on the blog they all turned sideways....sorry I can't figure out how to fix it and just really don't want to take all the time trying! Again!

Ethan with his "picture smile" and Jadyn!

My "Birthday" kiss.....Love how that works!

I told Cayden to hold Ethan  so they would all be the same height. ..

Finally, a normal smile! (Before school)

Ethan & Tre` (After school notice the absence of hair gel....)

Well 

Guest Recipe Buffalo Chicken Dip

Buffalo Chicken Dip By: Heather Terry (aka...my very first BFF)
 
3/4 cup Franks hot sauce
1 cup ranch or blue cheese dressing
2 cups shredded cheese
2 10 oz cans chicken or chicken breasts (3-4)
2 8 oz cream cheese
Heat chicken & hot sauce. Stir in cream cheese and dressing. Blend well. Mix 1/2 cup shredded cheese in. Put in 9x13, top with cheese and bake @ 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly.
Serve with Tortilla chips! ;)

I have some other recipes by Heather I will share with you at another time, for now I gotta get to bed! 

Heather is my first cousin, we are 3 months apart.....what can I say about her, she is perfect! No her life hasn't been perfect but, it has molded her into the beautiful lady you see in the picture below. She's beautiful, inside and out. She is sweet, she is considerate, kind, compassionate, caring  and constantly giving of herself to others. In a world where so few people value the time of another, she is always giving her time to help those in need, those in her youth group, her church, her family. Most people never realize what a valuable gift a person gives to another when they give of themselves, and their time. I love her and I soooooo miss her! I guess I should mention she is an awesome cook! lol!

Meatballs in Crockpot

Homemade Meatballs in Crockpot 
Cook on LOW!  aprox. cooking time 6-8 hrs

Ground Beef (your choice of cut)
Italian Bread crumbs
Onions- chopped
2-4 TBSP Garlic-Chopped/diced
10 sprigs leaves Oregano-FRESH CHOPPED
2-4 Eggs (enough to get it all to stick together)
1/4 cup FRESH Parmesan          
> Found in Cheese section at grocery in a wedge worth every penny and a little goes a long ways
1/4 cup FRESH Feta cheese crumbles-
>Wal-Mart has this in cheese section and for a good price Also Sam's if you have a card there)

I like to make extra and freeze them for another time. You can put them Frozen in the crockpot.

Spray crock pot with nonstick spray. Pour in spaghetti sauce. Add Meatballs. Cook on Low. Takes about 6hrs on low.

Cook Pasta. DO NOT MIX pasta with meatballs, that way you can freeze your leftover meatballs for another time!
Not to mention spaghetti noodles mixed with meat/sauce....is disgusting. I know I am weird. I can't eat it, makes me gag thinking about it.....not really sure why?

Oh! and Thanks to my Cousin Heather Terry for this tip, you can freeze pasta as well. (add little oil I think she said)  To cook just get the water very hot then add bag (noodles inside) she calls it "Shock" the noodles get them warm and serve. I also have added the noodles to hot water and then just drained again and they were fine too.....