A Special Night

Ok, so lately, I have no patience for posting pictures. Our internet is being kinda quirky and Comcast (the culprit) should be out sometime this week to fix it but for now, you just get to listen to, or I should say read my ramblings.

A few months ago Kristi signed me up to volunteer for the Festival of Trees and boy am I glad she did. This is an event that we LOVE and have gone to every year except for last year, of course. It's so touching and special to see the amount of time, thought and love that goes into each and every donation for such a great cause. Every year I gain a little perspective on what matters. Every year I shed a tear or two for the parents who have lost their little ones - God bless them. Every year I am reminded of how truly blessed I am. And every year I really get to experience the spirit of Christmas as I see the generosity of so many.

I love how each donation has a story. As a volunteer you get to learn a little more about some of them. We hosted one of the centerpiece isles and there were two Christmas villages. Both were made by a 78 year old man who made 8 of them for the festival this year and has been making and donating them for several years. Last week he had a stroke and was hospitalized. When he regained the ability to speak the first thing he did was tell his children to make sure his villages made it to the festival. How amazingly selfless.

We witnessed a tree that was in memory of the four beautiful children one family lost, each due to illness. I can't imagine.

One gentleman told us about his experience wood carving. He is retired and carves beautiful trees to donate to the festival - one of them raised over $33,000. What an awesome contribution.

I could go on and on.

It's such a beautiful, amazing event. I love to go but I think I'll make it a tradition to volunteer from now on. It makes it even more amazing.

I've Got To Give Thanks!

Thanksgiving. WOW!


I was just sitting here trying to unwind from my day and thinking about the past year. Last year at this time we were in Texas. Boy how time changes things.


I really love my family - my little family and of course my family family. You know who else I love? You. Chances are if your reading this, your my friend, unless your my family but I've already said I love you. I'm really feeling extra blessed to have the people in my life that I do. I'm also feeling extra blessed to be back in my most favorite state living by so many of them. Oh and the ones that I still love but now live far away? Yes, I'm extra blessed to have them too and facebook, text messages, and phone calls to keep up with them.


I can't talk about special blessings and not mention the two greatest things I've ever done. You know those little blond haired blue eyed kiddos that call me mom? Yes, I'm very grateful for them too. Oh, and that fella that I'm married to, he's pretty great.

I DO have a lot of thanks to give and I think I'll give it to God. Withough Him, I wouldn't have all of the wonderful people in my life that I do. =]

I'm thinking...

I miss the whole blogging thing. Everytime I decide to update the ol' blogaroo I am completely overwhelmed because I've let so much time pass by. Ontop of that, none of my former faithful blogger friends are keeping up with their blogs either (what's up with that)? But, I miss it so I'm going to try and do better. I'm not sure anyone even reads this silly thing but that's ok. It gives me something to do.

Well, here we are. November 1st. Wow. That's about all I can say. This year has sped by lightning speed! I woke up today feeling a little sad about October being over. It was a VERY fun month for our little family and the weather has been beautiful. More beautiful than I remember it ever being this time of year. I even LOVED the couple of snowstorms we got! Plus we took a little jaunt to a magical place called Disneyland. Then we threw in a bunch of super fun Halloween activities and now, well it's over.

I went to a few stores today to wallow in my post-October sadness and to see what kind of discounts they were offering their Halloween goods at and besides the few Halloween isles, the WHOLE store was Christmas. Well, decorated for Christmas anyway. Suddenly, my blues were swept away. AAAAhhhh! Thanksgiving - LOVE it! AAAAhhhh! Christmas - LOVE it! What a great time of year. September, October, November, December. LOVE IT!