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.

Trick or Treat!!!!

Here are some pics from Halloween night. Casey was a Cheetah, Lacy was a cryptic old lady, Curtis was a start trooper, Samie was a vampire, Anthony was that weird looking face thingy, and the other three kids with us were friends of Renisas and they were a football player, a barbie fairy, and the black spiderman. We had lots of fun trick or treating and the kids got lots of candy. More than they needed. But the evening was nice, it was cool, but not too cool. I hope everyone had a safe Halloween.

Shayna's Baby Shower

Last weekend I went to SC for my cousin Shayna's babyshower. Here a just a few pictures that I took while I was there. The shower was lots of fun and Shayna's friends did a great job with the food. After the shower, Debbie, Cindy, Shayna , Casey, and me went shopping at AC Moore, Carolina Pottery, and Hobby Lobby. That was my first trip to a Hobby Lobby and I loved it. I could spend hours in there. :) Any way, I had a good time with the family last weekend and my next trip down there will be when Andrew is born. I took more pics than I have posted here. I have them posted on my myspace page. And I have already gave Shayna a copy so she may put some on her myspace page also.

Trunk or Treat

On last Wednesday night we did the trunk or treat at our church. The kids had a lot of fun. And it was fun for me too. The only thing that I didn't enjoy was the rain. But it stopped long enough for the kids to get some treats. The top picture is the trunk that won 1st place, then the one that won 2nd. Then you have mine. With and Without the lights. I won 3rd!!! I am already trying to figure out how to decorate for next year.

Charlie is 12 weeks old now.

Here are the most recent pics of Charlie. She is now 12 wks old. I took these today. Ain't she just rotten already? :)

Casey's Last Game

This past Sunday was Casey's last game to cheer for this season. This was for the regional championship. At the beginning of the game the ghostriders(motorcycle group who sponsors the team) Rode on back of the field with the team flag on the back of their motorcycles. I did not get a picture of this for I was leaving to get my camera. I forgot to take it to church with me so I would have it at the game. So while I was gone, the girls released black helium filled balloons. So it was a nice way to start out the game and get the players spirits up. The top pic is Casey doing part of the half-time dance. The superman part. Our team won the championship and I took pics of the entire team with the cheerleaders and then some of just the cheerleaders. These boys did a wonderful job at playing we were undefeated this season. And these girls cheered their little hearts out. And so did some of us parents. My voice was just about gone after this game. :) This was also Lorrie (the cheerleading coach) last year to coach the girls. So I have a pic of Sam giving her a hug. Sam cheered for Lorrie for a couple of years before middle school. Congrats to our team and I look forward to next year.

More Catching Up

This will be my last post for tonight. I am playing catch up. :) Casey is doing splits on a regular basis at the football games, so I figured that I would post a picture of her doing her split. Now she is not doing her normal split in this picture, cause her legs are usually straighter than they are in the pic. Now I also wanted to post a pic of how Casey dressed for hat day. First off, the weather has been a little chilly in the mornings but warming up in the afternoon. The school had hat day last week, in a way to get the kids involved in homecoming week. So Casey looked everywhere for her pink Atlanta hat. Since she couldn't find it she decided on the two she is wearing in the pic. Now she also had on a pair of shorts with a shirt to match, the sweatshirt jacket, a scarf, and she was wearing flip flops on her feet. She just loves her flip flops. She will even wear them with a sweat outfit. I took a pic of her with this get up because I was thinking she was dressing more for Diva Day than for hat day.

Now I also want to give some updates on my aunt Nunu. She is now out of the hospital and has been for a couple of weeks. She has completed her antibiotics, and the doc said that her blood work looked good, except her potassium was low. She is going to have to start a new Chemo drug this Thursday, and this is to keep the cancer from spreading. This new one is suppose to kill the blood supply or the cells to the cancer, or something like that. Nunu has been feeling this week so far. She went out to eat with us on Sunday and went shopping at the local Wally World. We were all glad to see her get out. She needed a little bit of fresh air.
Norma has been an inspiration to all of us. She has been fighting the cancer now for 3 years, and no matter how sick she has gotten from the treatments or from the food, her spirits have been up. She just keeps on fighting. She hasn't lost her faith, and the Lord has blessed her with this strength and this courage. We all are inspired by her. I can not say that if I were to go through what she has and still is that I would have made it this long. I pray everyday that she keeps this strength and that the Lord just continues to touch her body in a way that only he can. Only he can keep her strength and her courage as strong as she needs to have it. I know that he has his arms around her and is with her every step of the way.
This weekend is the Women's Conference at our church. It is the 10th annual conference. And this makes my 7th year going and this makes my 6th year anniversary for me being saved. Every year I have been going I get a blessing. We have a wonderful group of ladies come from Ohio to sing and preach, and it is just wonderful. This year Nunu is going to try and go and actually just sit so she can hear the Norths sing. This will be the first year that Nunu hasn't been busy with the working part of the conference. So I am praying that she feels well enough to go and that she gets the blessing that she needs. Keep her and Sheryl in your prayers. Sheryl is staying at home with Nunu to keep her company, take care of her needs, and to spend some quality time with her. So Sheryl needs your prayers too.
Thanks! God Bless.

Pittsburgh

Last week I went to Pittsburgh with a co-worker, for Pacs at the hospital that we work at. We had a good time and we learned alot of things. On Thursday night we ate at the Grande Concourse, which is the top two pics. It is one of the largest restaurants in Pittsburgh. Anyway, I was mostly just wanting to show the pics I took of the city at night. It was so beautiful with the water and the lights.

Happy Late Birthday Samie!!!

By all means we did not forget Samie's birthday. I just haven't had much time to post on the blog. I have been extremely busy with everything here. Not only is this a belated birthday for Sam but it is my 100th post. So yeah me. For Sam's birthday she had a friend spend the night. Erika and Sam are pictured above. Now this was on Samie's birthday. That weekend we had the family over for hotdogs, cake, and ice cream. My uncle Larry and aunt Dawn, my aunt Debbie were also over to celebrate. This birthday was the big 13 for Samie. Now we have 2 teenagers in the house. I feel really old now. :)

Our New Kitty, Charlie!!

About 5 weeks ago, we added a new addition to our family. I got a kitten from a friend I work with's sister. She is 11 weeks old tomorrow, but in the pics above she is 6 and 7 weeks. This is Charlie. She loves feet and socks, she likes to attack them as she passes them by or they pass her by. Hopefully I will be able to get more pics of her as she grows to show you.