I'm sorry, but again...

my family is in need of prayers. This has been one super rough year for us. This past Friday one of my uncles died. This death is unexpected and very, very difficult for my family. He is one of my mom's brothers. He was number 5 of the 7 siblings (my mom is number 6), and he is the first to move on. We all know that he is in a better place, but being human it is still hard.
I have asked often for prayers, but I truly believe in their power. This has been the most difficult year yet. We have not figured out the direction we are suppose to be taking yet since the last time I asked for your prayers. But even with this added in, I believe what we are taught: God never gives us more than we can handle. We may not handle it well, but handling it we are. Please pray, they are felt and heard! Thank you, and know my prayers are sent out for you all too.

Pround and Annoyed

Proud:
Starting around mid February every year my youngest gets a severe case of Spring Fever. This illness causes her to make MANY BAD choices at school. It clicked with me towards the end of our rough time last year that it did go hand in hand with the season change. So I had talks with her about it early this year and made threats. Well it really seemed to be doing the trick. Then I found out she had been struggling with one problem all year. The teachers had been handling it themselves, so I didn't find out till more than half the school year was over. When I found out, I got creative with the punishment and am proud to say I'm sticking to it. She has had an occasional screw up, but for the most part has really turned things around this year and I am VERY proud of her.
Annoyed:
Insurance companies are great, they really help lower the costs of medical bills. But then they can be a severe pain too, especially when they do all they can to get out of paying for things. I went to the pharmacy to get a refill on Larry's daily migraine preventative on Tuesday. When I went to pay for it they told me insurance had declined paying for it. WHAT?!! This stuff is an absolute must for him to have, and it's VERY expensive. We are having to go into "super save mode", as Lori calls it, right now and I don't want to pay an extra $70 in addition to my high copay on this one. We have been getting it for months with no problems. What the deal is, is they want us to mail order it to save money. Actually a great idea for us now, but would be nice to be warned that we need to do this before I'm trying to refill his pills due to having only 2 left! Thankfully when he went to his last appointment, he explained some of our situation to the doctor and she was kind enough to make some adjustments to his prescription to help us. Well this adjustment allowed me to get an immediate fill at the pharmacy and still get a huge supply mailed to us. So all in all it is turning out to help us, but it had me panicky for a bit there.

Cheers!! and T.T.T.

For Larry! He had his appointment with his neurologist today, and she reported that his EEG came back with good results...no signs of seizures!! Now on to have standard blood work done.
So for my Tiny Task Tuesday report: Last Thursday I took my mom to see my eye doctor. On the way we took the toll road. I have not remembered to switch my tag to the new car, so we had to stop at the booths and pay. And since I had no change we went to the ones with people. I am always giving with my please and thank you's and this time no different. And after one toll I recieved a very bright and almost surprised thank you back from my own thank you that I gave. So small and I could see it ment so much. And that's what T.T.T. is all about: making things a little better and brighter for others!!
Coming soon: Back to getting creative and making things again. My to-make list is growing and growing. Need to get a little room made for the more items that are sure to be added to it.

Keep pushing through

That's the motto around here. Things are still upside down here, but we are getting peeks of turning back right. I know it's all very cryptic, but for now it must stay that way. Know that we are definitely feeling the prayers. Please keep them coming. Along with ours we know they will be heard. There is a plan in all of this, and when the time is right He will show it to us.
This weekend we went to East TX to visit family and let Larry relieve some stress as he had a little fun shooting off his guns and playing Wii with Chris and Craig.
Before all the shooting began I was talking to my MIL about Oreo (he's our dog we picked out from a litter that a dog had that was staying with her at the time when we lived in East TX. we left him with her though when we moved back to Ft. Worth because we didn't have a yard and taking him from his freedom would be cruel.). We were discussing how he use to be afraid of going in the house until the tornado hit out there a few years ago. Now he wants inside at the smallest noise. We mentioned how he still doesn't get in cars though. Later that evening after all the shooting was done I went to the truck to get some cash for Haylee to go to the movies with her cousins. Look what my sweet dog did as I was getting in my purse.He's 5 1/2 years old now, but he's really just a big baby. So sweet and mild tempered.
Also, Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law Linda!!! We love you so very much!!!!!

PLEASE!

keep my family in your prayers. Our lives are very suddenly and completely turned upside down right now. I can't really explain what is going on due to not being able to wrap my own thoughts around it all right now. I will say it has nothing to do with anyone's physical health. We are all fine as long as you don't count our sanity. We just are in desperate need of guidance on what to do.

T.T.T.

Check out the picture on the side. To better understand what it's all about and what's going on, go to my friend Twinkle's page every Tuesday.

Opals, Pizzas, and Pickles = Valentine's?

In our family, we celebrate Valentine's by just relaxing and enjoying being together. This year for the most part was no different, and in my opinion the best yet (and not just due to the big surprise I got).

What I usually enjoy the most about the holiday is the colors and decorations. I LOVE pink, red, and white, and a little purple added in. I also like the cute little trinkety decorations and gifts. I did a great job of resisting purchasing them this year. Go me!

As for gifts: For Holly this year, I got her a gift that also helped in other areas. I found a cute pink and white outfit. Pink for Valentine's, and outfit because the kid has grown a ton this year and is in need of some spring/summer clothes. Also, Wednesday is Spring Picture Day at school and I thought this would be great for that. But the outfit just didn't look right on her, so I will return it and get her a cute dress I saw at another store. For Larry I got a new game for him for the Wii. So as you can see I didn't get anyone anything big just things I thought they would enjoy.

Larry surprised me with this:

I was totally not expecting this! I had told him back at Christmas I wanted one, but I told him so he could use it as an excuse of something to look for when he was taking a buddy out to run errands while I could helped his girlfriend set up for his surprise birthday party. I already have an opal, but it has been passed down to the next October born female in my family for a number of years and is becoming quite delicate in its setting. I have not liked any of the suggestions made when I have taken it in to various jewelry repair shops, so I don't wear it. So Larry has known for a long time my want. This was long coming I found out. He's just been looking for one that had my other birthstone, Tourmaline (which is pink!), too.

Like I said though, the day was really spent just relaxing. We watched movies and ordered in for lunch. You would think on Valentine's you would be all about the hearts, and this would include being healthy. We were all about the hearts too, but definitely not healthy ones. Our lunch:

HEART SHAPED PIZZAS!

For dinner, we had planned to go out to eat, but after ordering pizza and being lazy, we just stayed in. I ended up making these:

FRIED PICKLES!! (Told you we weren't heart healthy for the holiday.) Larry has been going out to lunch with vendors and co-workers a lot lately and he keeps telling me they keep going to Hooters where he gets fried pickles. This greatly upsets me! Not the Hooters part, the fried pickles part! I am not a jealous wife when it comes to other women. I totally trust my husband. But I do get jealous of his eating those pickles! None of the guys he goes with believes Larry when he tells the them that I only get upset about the pickles and not the restaurant they went to. They all say they can't tell their wives/girlfriends they went and will even pay in cash so they don't find out. To prove to the other guys he means it when he tells them I don't get jealous, he's mentioned going to Hooters to them with me standing there. We both laugh when we are alone again at the scared looks that come across their faces when he does it and I just stand their enjoying the conversation! So anyway, my point was that Larry had originally promised to go and pick me up an order of pickles for a Valentine's gift. But I decided it would be fun to see if we could make our own. They came out pretty good. Still need to do a little more tweaking on the recipe I found, but I'm pleased! Heck, Larry had me make another batch tonight to take with him to work tomorrow.

Hope everyone else had just as enjoyable VALENTINE'S as we did!