Dinner with friends

There is a couple in our church whom we have not seen much of recently. Chris is working on a fishing boat and is out both night and day. His wife, Catherine, teaches Sunday School and is currently a stay at home mom.

God laid it on my heart to invite them to dinner.

Nothing fancy, just good food and conversation.

Something to let them know that we still care. We are still concerned about their lives. That we want to remain connected.

So, I invited them to come. And once Chris heard I was planning Lasagna, he was committed to coming. Even when his boss asked him to show up at the boat 2 hours earlier than originally planned. Chris was coming for lasagna!

Since we had leftovers and I knew Chris would be out tonight, I set some aside in 2 containers to send with him. Instead, Chris thought to take one to another person in our church who would appreciate it as well.

It was nothing fancy. Just some lasagna and garlic bread. But, we enjoyed the company and the time together. I am thankful that God laid them on my heart and prompted me to invite them over.

Pictures

I have updated with pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas. They start with Christmas Take 4 at the top and end with Thanksgiving near the bottom.

I hope you enjoy them. There were way too many to choose from.

Christmas Take 4

And finally, making new friends. The ladies in the following pictures I have known for a couple of years, but we finally met in person in 2009! Terryl, in the 1st picture, enjoys photography and we have shared pictures over the years. She takes some amazing photos. And to make it even better, she is absolutely wonderful in real life!

Kim and Hope were amazing as well. Mom came to dinner with us that night and in talking with Hope, found out that they knew some of the same people. And Kim is just so sweet. I loved meeting both of them. Makes me kinda sad that I know so many people that live so far away...

Christmas Take 3

We'll help with the candles! Happy Birthday to a very special Grammy!

We went to the zoo and I thought this was the coolest toad. Ever.

I touched her foot! Alex & Miguel were sweet about touching Miss E.

Amazing picture of the eagle.

I'm glad that we were meeting this guy with a fence between us!

Christmas Take 2

Familiar skyline.

I give up!

Me too!

I'm not leaving until I get LUNCH!!!

Too many cameras to look at. Don't drop her... don't drop her...

Christmas

Making the Gingerbread House Set. By our very own Theatre Designer.

Storytime with Grammy and a beat up copy of The Polar Express.

Fighting over the baby. Round One.

Love at first sight.

Sunset on the drive into Texas.

Thanksgiving part 2

Finally had a good picture taken.

The sights of home.

The "funny face" picture. I was nice and used the one with Grandmama smiling instead of the blackmail photo...

Let's see... 5 different cameras, 4 different photographers, and no one is looking in the same direction. You do the math.

Thanksgiving

Organizing children for a family photo.

Seeing friends from the old days... not that they were that long ago! :D

Snuggling with Daddy and trying (successfully) to go to sleep.

Swinging at the park.

And glaring at her sister because N was big enough to get onto the swing by herself.

Catching up...

Now that I have a moment to breathe, before I start the paper chase for the EMS report for E's birth certificate, I thought I would play catch up. Photos will be in separate posts.

We went to FL for Thanksgiving this year. It was a fun time with lots of late nights and early mornings. Miss E loves to eat around 5:30-6 AM.

Michael's family was able to meet Miss E and I think she made a favorable impression.

While we were there, we tried to do some family photos. It was interesting to try to coordinate 16 people. But we got some really good shots.

For Christmas, we traveled to TX. We stopped in Asheville, NC for a night and had about 2 inches of snow in the back of the truck by morning. Then we traveled on to Memphis, TN where we spent a few days with one of our friends from back in the Marine Corps days. Bret was very excited to show us the city.

Once we left Memphis, it was another long day into Houston to see Rachel & her family. I am not sure what the best part was though. Getting to see everyone or getting to see my mom meet Miss E.

We spent about 12 days at Rachel's and had a wonderful time. Once again, late nights and early mornings. But there were also some serious cribbage games and lots of laughter. Plus Laddie and the Wii...

But mostly, there was time spent with my mom. It was incredible to see her after 2 years. I never realized just how much I enjoyed, and missed, the visits with her each year regardless of where we lived.

There is so much that has happened over the past few months and I don't have words to share it all.

I just pray that each of you have a blessed year.

Lesson learned...

Don't leave the hospital.

When Miss E was born, I was very glad to have paramedics available to help with her birth. I figured there would be some difficulties because of her birth being on the side of the road, but I wasn't sure what they would be.

Little did I know it would be in the form of her birth certificate. It took 6 days to finally get the correct information on the form I had to sign at the hospital.

Last week, I spent 2 days trying to figure out if E's Social Security number had been issued since we had not received anything in the mail regarding it. In the midst of all of that, I had to get her birth certificate as part of the documents needed to issue a new card.

And sure enough, as I looked at the certificate the information, which I had the hospital correct twice, was incorrect. Again. Though I do have to admit that they did not try to show that she was born at the hospital this time.

Friday, I will be filling out the request form to receive the EMS report and I will hopefully receive that next week. From there I take the information to the Vital Records office and apply for an amended birth certificate. I am praying that since it was their mistake that I will not be charged for the amended certificate. If I am though, it will be a small price for accuracy.

So, the lesson learned... don't leave the hospital. Things get complicated when you do.