Name

Okay, I've chosen a name for the puppy. Thank you Rebecca for the suggestion. His name is now Jasper. As you know, I'm a Twilight freak, and Jasper was in the movie. But then again, I'm a Christian, and I'm anxious to see the walls of jasper. So as I sit here at my computer with Jasper in my lap, I'm getting all kinds of kisses from him. He's so glad to finally have a name. As for Troy, he wishes the new dog would just disappear.

Got my income tax check yesterday. A bit smaller than I expected, but still big enough to accomplish what I wanted to do. I got a poodle. I've been wanting one for quite some time now. So guess who made pictures? He is so funny. He had never been on the floor before, just in a cage. So when he runs he usually gets his feet tangled up and then he falls over sideways. He's so tiny, and he's already 3 months old. The lady said he probably won't be over 4 pounds, full grown. I haven't named him yet. I thought about Bitsy, but kind of girly, right? So I was singing itsy bitsy spider to him and thought about Spyder. What do you think. Suggestions? Anyway, here he is:

Goodbye Chevy...Hello Dodge

We have owned a Chevy Venture van for 6 years so we could haul all the kids around. I lovingly named it the "kidmobile". We definitely got our money's worth out of it. But all good things come to an end, and so did our "kidmobile". We drove it Easter Sunday with all the kids going to church. It did fine but it had almost 101,000 miles on it, the brakes were about gone, and the a/c had quit working. I know, it would have been cheaper to fix these things, but with that many miles, there's no telling when something big might happen. So we had seen some advertisements for cars on tv, and started watching the on demand channel that advertised cars. I also looked in the paper and on the internet and we decided to go to Burgin Dodge, as they seemed to have a better selection. Well...they had a white van that was in our price range but it had quite a few flaws and high miles. It was a 2005 Caravan. We asked to see some more and he showed us a 2008 Grand Caravan with only 35,000 miles on it. It has everything I wanted. So what if it was $3,000 higher. I wanted it. That's my biggest downfall. If I see something I want, I buy it. Anyway, I made several pictures of it this morning, so here it is. I love it!
Side view:

Front view:

Back view:

It has lots of cupholder space:


Second row of seats:

Third row of seats:

Rear a/c:


It has heated side view mirrors and so much storage space it's unreal! And get this! The back windows roll down! God is so good blessing us with this van. It will be paid for, I'll just have to stop buying so much stuff like camcorders, laptops, etc. Also, we'll have to start eating at home more. If we ate at home any, it would be more than we do now. But I just praise Him for everything I have. It's not the fanciest thing in the world, but it's fancy to me.

Another Weekend

Rebecca and Nicholas finally got to come up and spend the night on Friday. Doug brought Billy, Shelly, and Hannah over to play with them. Here are some pics. My crazy grandkids, minus Billy:

Billy and his dad:

Hannah getting nerdy:

Rebecca getting relaxed and laid back:

Nic batting with a broom?

Penny, this one's for you:

Billy and Shelly love each other:

My bed on Sunday morning (how could Billy stand it?):

Cheerleading

I don't know why my photobucket won't let me upload the videos of Rebecca and Nicholas's cheerleading from yesterday. Maybe it's too long. It let me upload a 15 second thing with Shelly in it, but not the expeditions. Anyway, Rebecca's team got 1st place and Nic's tteam got 5th. So here's the up and coming cheerleader with the help of Rebecca and some of her team members:

Sunday at the Carter Household

I had Billy, Shelly, and Hannah last night and today. And of course, I had my camera ready. So here goes.
This was last night, and he finally smiled for a picture:

Shelly likes my Snuggie:

I woke up around 5:30 this morning and noticed Hannah wasn't in her bed. I got up and was going to look on the couch to see if she was there. Good thing I was watching where I was going. She got her blankets and came to my bedroom and laid down in the floor:

Billy got up this morning and started playing with his game boy in Hannah's bed. He's just like his MeMe, not a morning person:

Shelly and Hannah like to lie in my bed and watch tv:


Here's all 3 of my angels:


Doug had surgery on his foot and he still has over a week before he can put weight on it. It's been almost 3 weeks now. He can't walk on crutches without falling either:

Hannah likes his wheelchair:

Me and My Dog and Shelly too

On New Years Eve some of my neighbors were shooting off really big fireworks. I had to work, of course. Anyway, when I called home that night to talk to Doug he told me that the lady down the street called and said that Troy (my dog) was down there running around scared to death. He put on his shoes and jacket and went down there but Troy was gone by then. I searched high and low for that dog. I made daily trips to the animal shelter, put up flyers, went door to door, searched on foot and driving, even passed his picture around at church. Every day I would go outside, several times a day and call for him. I know if he had heard me, he would have come. Finally, I got up on Monday morning dreading another disappointing trip to the animal shelter. I also dreaded the tears that I knew would come since that's about all I had done. I looked out the kitchen window and there he came running up the fenceline. (He dug out from under the fence). I went running out the front door in an old nightgown with holes in it and kind of short. I was jumping up and down and probably showing my butt to every neighbor I had. I brought him in and woke Doug up. Shelly, Billy, and Hannah were here and Shelly raised up in bed and she was so happy. He had been gone for 4 days and 5 nights. I had just about accepted the fact that he had gotten killed and I just hadn't found his body. Shelly was all smiles all day. And of course I made their picture together:

He looks awful clean to have been outside running all that time, but looks can be deceiving; he stinks. But then he's a dog and it's been raining and he smells like a wet dog. Maybe that's why he stinks. Anyway, he is now microchipped, his collar and rabies tag is on, and I'm having another tag with my address and phone number on it. But I really don't think he'll run off again. But in the event he does, I'll be ready!

Ribbontail Sharks

As I put in the previous post, I video taped Nic's performance in the cheerleading competition also. I don't know if he will be competing next year or not. He has decided he wants to play baseball. He's only 6 so he'll probably change his mind a million more times. But there will be more competitions this year, so be prepared for more videos. Here's the Ribbontail Sharks starring Nicholas Gates:

Zebra Sharks

We went to Sevierville this past weekend to attend the Premier Athletics Cheerleading competition. I reserved a room for what I thought was Friday night. I put in the wrong date and it was for Saturday night. From now on I'll call and reserve the room myself. Not only do you have to pay $10 for the service of having one of these places book it for you, but the money is non-refundable and you can't change the dates. So we had to pay for Friday night. So we decided to stay Saturday night too since we had already paid for the room. The competition was Saturday and Sunday, so we went to both days. On Saturday, I tried to videotape Rebecca's performance but the batteries went dead in my camera. So it's a good thing I went on Sunday. I bought new batteries Saturday night and changed them before I used the camera each time. I also taped Nic's performance but I haven't uploaded the video yet. I will post it in a separate blog. You won't have any trouble figuring out who Rebecca is, since she's the only one I centerd on. Here you go. Hope it works:

Bail Out

This is a funny interview on Jay Leno. The lady's name is Wanda. I don't know who she is, but she sure is funny, and true too!

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Babies and Curtains

The other day my son was getting ready to take the kids home and we couldn't find Hannah. Now you would think an 18 month old wouldn't be that hard to find. The front and back doors were locked, we looked upstairs, in closets, under beds, we looked everywhere! Finally her dad found her standing in the corner behind the tv in the computer room. She was so cute. She was standing there real still and quiet as a mouse. I didn't get a picture of her because I couldn't find my camera. But she went back there a few days later and I caught her.





Shelly likes to pose like a big girl:

I got new curtains for the bedroom upstairs, I think the girls really like them. Don't quite know how the boys like pink, though.

Seance (or however you spell it)

Okay, this was a little wierd. Rebecca and Nicholas came up to spend the night, then Doug and the kids came up for supper. We were all sitting around the table, when all of a sudden Billy wanted everybody to join hands. I thought he wanted to pray. Was I ever wrong!!! He then asked that all the lights be turned off. Of course I told him no because then we wouldn't be able to see what we were eating. So then all of a sudden he started chanting and swaying back and forth. It was hilarious! I can't wait until his mom sees it. Anyway, you know me, I had to get it on film:

Forgiveness

I have decided that this world is getting worse each day and the way things are going, I don't think the Lord will be long in coming. So I have searched my heart and have realized that I haven't really been ready to go. I have had unforgiveness in my heart and I need to forgive the people that I have bad feelings toward and who have bad feelings toward me. It has taken me a long time to be able to get to this point, but I'm finally here. I was going to wait until I got an apology from some people, I think you know who you are, but I don't want an apology that isn't from the heart. I forgive you if you never apologize to me. How can we expect to be forgiven if we don't forgive? If we have one bit of envy, unforgiveness, or any hard feelings in our hearts when Jesus comes back, it won't be pretty. So I have decided to cleanse my heart of all these feelings. I don't want anything that anybody has, nor do I have hard feelings toward anyone. And if I have wronged anybody, you do have my heartfelt apology. I will not bring this particular matter up again.

Homecoming

Today was homecoming at church. We had such a great time. There was lots of good singing and preaching. Just a wonderful time in the Lord. And not to mention the good food and fellowship after church. I took my camera but didn't use the flash inside the church because I didn't want to distract anybody. So a couple of the pictures look really dark. And the one of Danny singing is kind of blurred. But here goes:
Our choir:

Danny visiting his home church and listening to the good singing:

The choir doing a special:

Our very own "Golden Girls" singing a special. From left to right is Linda, Kay, and Debbie. Judy is on the piano:

Danny singing a special (this is the one that blurred):


Kelli singing a solo:

Here is the best pastor in the world! It is my honor to introduce Dr. Mike Goodson:

Then came the food in the fellowship building:

This is Jimmy, Barbara's husband. He's a nut:

I think about every seat was taken:

Jason, Lori, Destiny, and Brady sat in the kitchen so they could sit together (looks like Jason stood):

The food was great! Tammy (our resident Indian) was getting seconds:

The fellowship building lives up to it's name. Lots of good fellowship. If some of the faces look long, it's only because they were about to pop from all the good food: