Idol this week

If David Cook doesn't win this....it's a mystery to me.

No more Guns....

So, last night after our flight home...we stopped and picked up some "buffalo wings" for supper. As we were eating, my second born who loves any animal living, DEAD, stuffed, etc.....notices the buffalo on the tub....

Thing 2: "Look....a buffalo!"

Dad: "Yeah...you want to go on a buffalo hunt with me?"

Thing 2 contemplates..... "No. No more guns, Daddy."

Dad: "No?"

Thing 2: "No more shooting animals with guns! No more."

THIS COULD GET INTERESTING

Easter in Michigan

This year was our first Easter to spend in Michigan with my husband's family. It coincided with his Mom's 60th birthday...so it was a weekend of celebration! We were not disappointed!

The girls flew for the first time since they were about 9 months old...so they had no memory of flying. They did great! Screamed "up...up...and away!!!!" as the plane took off!

My little travelers in front of the AWESOME fountain at the Detroit airport!

The birthday "girl" and her grandbabies...

EASTER in Michigan...we got 5-7 inches of SNOW!!! The pinwheels were actually part of Gramma's birthday, but they looked soooo pretty in the snow! Hiding the eggs was NO problem!

Happy Early Easter! I won't be posting for a few days. My girls are so excited about Easter and have been immersed in it for about a week or so. They got a "Max and Ruby" Easter video from their Grandma and have watched it over and over. My second born (by one minute) is notoriously difficult to photograph HAPPY....but, she was thrilled to show off her "Easter Bonnet".

"It's just like Ruby's!"

Samantha Update

Thanks for all of your prayers. My cousin Samantha has come through the first surgery with flying colors. Please continue to pray for her and her family as she faces more surgery in the coming week. Please read the following email from my Mom:

Most of you have called or read Sam’s message posted on the Caring Bridge site last night. We asked all of you over the years to pray for Samantha and you have always come through. For this reason I am once again sending an update as of Wednesday after actually seeing Samantha. Some of you have called and many of you had posted requests for updates on our computers. Please feel free to forward to anyone I may have overlooked or to your extended family or prayer groups. Having spent yesterday in the Le Bonheur waiting room, I can tell you that the prayers were certainly felt. We witnessed several real answers to prayer………the doctors never stopped trying to come up with a better plan for accomplishing the ultimate for Samantha with the least invasion.
They finally decided rather than opening her chest, they would enter her side for the first stage of surgery. They were able to do so with minimal affect on the diaphragm and other organs. The doctors were able to remove cushioning in five different areas of her spinal column and found it very easy to manipulate. This was done in 2-2 ½ hours instead of the 5 or 6 they were forecasting. They were able to take her off the breathing tube in a very short time. What the doctor’s originally thought was to be a tough surgery, absolutely thrilled them in that optimal results in preparation for next week’s surgery were achieved.
I was able to visit Nicey and see Samantha in the ICU this morning for a few minutes. She was sleeping peacefully on painkillers as they are trying to keep her as free as possible from pain. She has already started breathing exercises. I don’t think Samantha really knew I was there this morning, but she was as beautiful as ever. As Sam stated on the Caring Bridge site, they look forward to moving into a private room as soon as one becomes available today.
The groundwork has now been laid for the lengthy second part of the surgery next Tuesday, March 25. Yesterday the doctors freed up Samantha’s spine so they could better work with it. Next Tuesday, they will have a much longer day as they open her back and re-align each vertebra. Once this is done, I understand a rod will be affixed to each side of the spinal column to stabilize it. The doctors are very pleased and optimistic that Samantha’s spine will be almost perfectly aligned after next week’s surgery. So…don’t stop praying for the healing from the initial surgery, giving praise for God’s answer to prayers and for strength and good health for Samantha’s family as they sit, stand, sleep and cope with all the wonderful world of the medical institution.
Remember this next surgery will be a long day for everyone involved and will need to be bathed in loving prayer and support like yesterday. Sam will keep the Caring Bridge site updated until Samantha takes it back over. You can imagine how full their days are with round-the-clock watch and care.
This email comes with love, hugs and many thanks for your continued prayers. May this Easter be a blessed one for each of you and your families. May we all remember that our God is a mighty God and He Lives!

Luck 'O the Irish to Ya'll!

Dan in Real Life

First... Steve Carrell is just the BEST. I watched "Dan in Real Life" the other night, and it just shows his genius even more. Here is a trailer that somebody remixed....kinda cute. Check out the movie, though!

My Idol Picks

We'll see how good I am at picking the best on Idol this season. I love the whole idea of American Idol. I just wish they would take the judges OFF the show and let the real talent do the entertaining! ....and my picks are.....

Best Guy: David Cook

Best Girl: Brooke White

This Week's GG Score

So, I did really good this week. I just missed my budget of $100.00, but hubby's low carb diet is requiring some off-list purchases. Overall I am pleased with my performance...especially since I have had to fight the "system" with every shopping trip.

I skipped CVS altogether this week. Nothing I really needed.

Publix was awesome as usual.

Walgreens only gave me $17.00 of rebates on my gift card...even though I had confirmation for 21.00 (even that wasn't the full amount I had qualified for...just the amount they had figured they HAD to give me!) I am honestly sort of over Walgreen's. I used the entire amount of rebate on pull-ups and candy (for the girl's school Easter egg hunt).

Then I went to Kroger.

They had a deal where you buying 4 fruits snacks for $10.00 would get you $4.00 of at the register. I also had 4 coupons for $.50 off 2 (doubled to $1) which made them $1 per box. Well my girls LOVE them...so I stocked up. Having my sleep deprived children in tow after preschool today, I didn't check my receipt until I was home.

Only ONE $4 off the receipt!

Phone call to customer service: 20 minutes.

Trip to Kroger tommorrow for $4 refund.

This game can be tough.

The Strongest Girl I Know

When my cousin Samantha (the baby) was a little younger than my girls, she was diagnosed with a tumor that started at the base of her brain and wrapped around her spine like a hot dog. In her short life she has undergone multiple surgeries and chemotherapy. The treatments have left her spine weakened with severe and worsening scholiosis that now requires surgical intervention to allow her lungs the room they need. Despite the challenges she has faced, Samantha is the most positive, confident, strongest girl I know. Along with her family, they are a testament to true faith. Please read the following email penned by my mom. She is artful with words:

This is an update on our niece, Samantha, and a request for renewed prayer on
behalf of Samantha and her family as they face the upcoming surgery to
straighten her spine at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Hospital in Memphis. We
received the medical decision yesterday that this will not be one surgery on
Tuesday, but that the complexity will call for breaking it into two parts about
one week apart. This Tuesday, March 18, four surgeons (The Great Physician
be the fifth surgeon in the operating room.) and their team will open Samantha’s
chest as they do for heart surgery and move her heart and other organs out of
the way to work on putting a rod in her upper spine. This is the area with the
most complexity and causing her worst problem. They will insert half a rod
during this lengthy procedure. Samantha will then be in ICU for several
days.

If all goes well, the second surgery will be the next Tuesday (all subject to
change) when they will go through her back to insert the rod and straighten
the lower spine.

We have been so grateful for so many of our friends
and church groups who have prayed for this amazing child and
family over the years. The doctors have told the family that this is more
complicated than any surgery of this type they have done and not without risk.
As they put it, “Samantha will be in God’s hands.”

We are asking each of you to lift up our precious family and Samantha in particular as
they face this newest hurdle. Their faith has been an inspiration to all of us
who know them and they’ve made sure the glory has been given to The Great
Physician at every turn. The family decided to develop a blog for all of us who
want to keep up. I am including that address at the bottom of the email.
You many send a note to Samantha and family should you wish and you can sign up
to be notified of any update.

There is no end to the prayer list these days for any of us as problems, illness and hurdles come into our lives. We ask that you add Samantha and her family to your list. Thank you for being our friends and family and prayer warriors. Sometimes the only thing we can do is wrap those we love in prayer. Please visit Samantha's Caring Bridge and leave her a message of strength and support. Thanks.

Below watch Samantha and her Dad perform Silent Night this past Christmas.

For those of you who don't know, I spent some time as an RN at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Samantha was a patient there during that time. There is no better charity to support. Please give if you can.

Click above and come join the Blog Party for WOMEN only! There are lots of great prizes, and you can "meet" other Mom bloggers along the way! Some of the prizes:

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Come join the party!

Remember when snow was fun?

This past weekend Nashville had a HUGE snowstorm. As a nurse at a major hospital under Yellow Alert, I had no choice about braving the weather to care for my patients Saturday morning.

I spent most of Friday trying to find a place to stay for the night closer to the hospital, because they do not clear or salt the rural roads where I live!

As I packed my family up to go to a hotel...I realized I am officially a grown up. I had no sense of wonder as the sleet mixed with snow pelted my car on the way downtown. I was simply worried about all of the idiots driving around me and my sweet girls in the back seat.

Saturday Nashville came to a beautiful, snow-covered screeching halt....except of course for those of us that have jobs that don't wait for the snow to melt. As I scraped 6 inch drifts of snow off my car windows at 5 am in a hotel parking lot,then drove to a short-staffed day of work on snow covered interstates at 25 mph....I realized what a real pain a winter storm is for "the grown ups."

I can tell you that my days of eagerly anticipated snowfalls are over....except for the joy it brings my girls....which was as pure as the snow itself.

Little Sprouts

Our seedlings have taken off. The girls are thrilled with their progress. I am a little worried! I may not be able to plant them outside soon enough if they keep growing at this rate!!! I'm not sure hubby will appreciate waist high sunflowers in the kitchen!

I dug the perimeter of the garden today...and my wonderful parents are loaning us their tiller!!! I thought I was gonna have to do it the old fashioned way....What a blessing! Here is a darling picture of my little sprouts with their little sprouts!

This Week's GG Score

This was a good shopping week. I spent a little more than I would like, but I got some great stuff and had some expensive medicines (poor me) thrown in there.

My challenge in coming weeks will be to LEAVE THE DEALS! I have a very difficult time leaving a REALLY good deal at the store. So next week I have set a budget of $100. Let's see if I can do it!

I am still alive.

Still under the weather. Pretty nasty cough today. Trying desperately to keep the illness to myself and away from the girls.

Our seeds have started to sprout! That is the excitement around our house. With lots of rain and dreary weather....we are all getting a little bit of cabin fever.

Well, yesterday at work I came down with a fever...low grade, but anything over 99F puts me in the bed usually. I took some Nyquil last night and I am back at work today. Feeling ok until the fever starts to creep up again...thank goodness for Dayquil.



Hubby is on notice. Tommorrow Mama is sleeping in.