Happy 14th Wedding Anniversary Brian!

Today as I look back with happiness and pride upon the 14 wedded years that you've spent by my side, every memory that we share of dreams we've seen come true,
make this Anniversary Day so special...and I love you!

Noah's First Catch

Check this out...when the weather was pretty last week Noah got to go down to the river with his Daddy where he got to fish. I just love this picture and had to share it. You can also check it out on WCYB.tv in the weather pictures section.

Gladys cracks me up! Watch this!

Click on the link below or copy and paste it to your browser and check out this clip from the Ellen Show...this older lady Gladys is hillarious! Enjoy!

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2007/ellen-gladys-hardy-p1.php?emf=1

4 Commitments for 2009

At church this morning Preacher Phil gave a really great sermon and challenged us all as a congregation to make 4 commitments for 2009:

1. Forget your failures.
We need to forget the past and not dwell on our past mistakes. We can learn from them and gain wisdom from them but we shouldn't beat ourselves up for them...our enemies will do that for us.

2. Give up your grudges.
Grudges destruct you, forgive yourself and then you will be able to forgive your enemies. Turn loose of it and free yourself.

3. Restore your relationships.
We should try to make right any failed relationships, our time here is too short, the fact is that you may not be able to trust some people and this doesn't mean you have to hang out with them, but you can forgive them and show people how Jesus works by overcoming evil with good. Usually evil working in our lives is what causes broken relationships.

4. Turn your back on sin which easily besets us.
We should try to leave sin behind us...we shouldn't continue to be sinful because that is what we are used to, it's what we are familiar with. We should try to live the way God would have us live. It's easy to get stuck in the "norm". He used an interesting example to demonstrate how people stay with what they are used to by telling the story of how in history when the Civil War was over and the slaves finally freed...many of those slaves went back to the masters they worked for and continued to work as slaves...because that is what they were used to. We as Christians should try our best to be free from sin. None of us will be perfect but it gives us something to strive toward.

I just loved his messaged this morning and felt it blog worthy. I know I could work on all of the above and am going to do my best in 2009 to fulfill this commitment.

Christmas 2008 was AWESOME!

Well it looks like Santa was extremely good to me this year...see it truly pays off to be a good girl! What started out looking like it may be a bleak Christmas holiday with my brother in law, Ed, in the hospital with a heart attack and then him having to undergo a heart cath to insert a stint, then him having to go back into the hospital due to some sort of complication that they never did figure out. I did however get to keep my nephew Noah overnight while his Daddy was in the hospital and we had a blast. He was soooooooooo much fun! I have the funniest video of him laughing and dancing. I almost never got him to my house though because everytime we passed a cow field on the way here I had to stop because he was in the backseat saying look look! stop! Moo moo! It was hilarious! He's a cracker jack. The good news is that Ed got out of the hospital just in time for Christmas!

Of course we did our normal tradition of opening all of our presents on Christmas Eve since Ryan is now 15 almost 16 there's no need to wait on Santa, put out cookies and milk and reindeer food, which is kind of a bummer. But I was so surprised to see all of the wonderful gifts Santa brought me this year. I got a bunch of much needed things from my momma in WVa, things I wouldn't buy for myself but truly needed. Then of course money from Dad. Doug and Betty got me the huge roaster oven I've been wanting for 2 years now, and clothes. Brian bought me my favorite expensive perfume, a sweet foot massager, an Airport Express wireless system for my laptop, and a DVD burner for my laptop...so now I can make all the movies and slideshows, etc...on my IMovie and IDVD programs and burn them to disk. It's soooooo awesome! I got the sweetest gift from Whitney it was a picture frame with a pic of us in it that says Our Friendship is a True Blessing...right backatcha girlfriend!

Christmas Day we went to Betty's for an awesome meal and then we were off to visit Mamaw Fugate and let her open all of her presents. I got some really good pictures of her and Ryan, Brian, Doug and Betty. Then Christmas night Jr, Whit and Daniel came by and we ate good food, enjoyed some drinks and all got a big kick out of watching Whitney's and Daniel's DVD that I made them. JR loved his present but if I told you what it was I'd have to kill ya!

All in all Christmas 2008 was a huge success! Thank you to all of my family and friends and I'm looking forward to a momentous 2009!