My Tribute to NuNu

As most of you who read my blog know, my aunt Norma, fought breast cancer for over 3 years. She fought it with everything that she had. The past several months were even harder on her for she had gotten sicker. She was in the hospital on December the 3rd. She went to be with the Lord on December 26th.
Norma is someone that I admire deeply, for during the entire time that she had the breast cancer, she kept her faith, she didn't complain and ask "why me?", and she didn't let the cancer get her down. The picture above is of our last vacation together in July 07 when we all went to Pigeon Forge, TN. Norma rented a cabin for all of us to stay in. Her brother Larry and his family came up and we all spent time together. Norma loved all of her family and enjoyed spending time with all of us.
And growing up I remember going on vacations with Norma and getting to stay up late at her house. I remember watching Gone With the Wind, North and South, and watching the Beauty Pageant with her. She was like my second mom. And as I grew older, she still was my 2nd mom. When I got married for the 2nd time, it was in her backyard and she decorated the gazebo right up. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful wedding or a better place.
My son Cody was the closest to Norma, he is the one who gave her the name Nunu which is what we all call her now. Cody went to many places with Nunu and she didn't miss much of what he did. Whether it was in the play at church, parades for boy scouts, or anything for the band. Cody was her sweetheart.
I know that Nunu is in a better place, and I am thankful that she has no more suffering, no more pain, no more cancer, and no more tears. I am also thankful that I will see her again someday.
There was a poem printed out with Nunu's picture on it, and the title was I'm Free. And she is definitely free.
I love Norma very much and I will always hold her dear to my heart, and I miss her being here. But I know that she is with Jesus now and that she will be watching over me and my kids. There is a song that is sung at our church that sums it up, I will meet you at the river. And I will get to see her again where the streets are gold and we all have mansions there.
Thanks to all of you who have kept my aunt and family in your thoughts and prayers.
God Bless You All.

Merry Christmas!!!!

I am finally updating my blog. Won't it be nice to not see Halloween pics at Christmas time?!
I am sorry about the delay in getting some new pics posted. I have been busy doing many things. I have been wrapping presents for the American Red Cross, taking pics of some toddlers for some girls I work with, ordering their pics, getting my own presents wrapped, decorating for Christmas, The Christmas Dinner at church, and at work, the Christmas parade, 2 Christmas programs at school, Christmas shopping, working, visiting with Nunu in the hospital, and of course the regular day to day things that we do. See I have been busy, and I haven't been taking too many pics either. Anyway, above are some of the pics I have taken in the past few weeks.
The first weekend of December, Me and my family, My brother and two of his kids and Ryan, all went to Dollywood to use up our rain tickets from earlier this year. We got to ride all of the rides that we wanted and didn't have to wait in lines for too long. It was a lot of fun. Most of the pics are from that. Casey and Lacy posed for many pics but I only posted a few. We watched the light show that evening and then we went back to the hotel to enjoy some time in the pool.
The weekend after Thanksgiving, Casey and I decided that we were going to make some ornaments for the tree. We made some cinnamon ornaments and some salt dough ornaments. The salt dough ones we painted after they were baked. We had fun cutting the ornaments out and decorating them. We then decorated the Christmas tree with handmade ornaments. I took a picture of my favorite ornaments. Some I painted and some Casey painted. We have decided to make this a new tradition at our house for Christmas. We are going to make a new, different ornament for the tree every year until that is all we have on the tree is handmade ornaments that we did ourselves. The other two kids didn't want to participate though. The big cake pic is the cake that our preacher made for the Christmas dinner at the church. And it was extremely moist and tasted great!!!

I hope that everyone has a blessed Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!!! I will probably send my Christmas cards out after Christmas, because I haven't taken our family photo yet. So I apologize to those of you who usually get cards from me, and I will be sending them late. Sorry!!!!!
By the way, keep my aunt Norma in your prayers, for she isn't doing so well right now, she is in the hospital, Monday will make 3 weeks. And she just needs all of the prayers that we can send her way.
May God bless you all this Christmas Season, and let's not forget the Reason for the Season, Jesus Christ.