Moving...

...but not in real life, thank the Lord!

I have a new blog (yay!) that I would love for you to come visit. You can click here, or type www.crazyjos.org in your browser box. I am going to be using that one from here on out, so please update your links. Thanks!

Pray for Melissa

For quite a while now Keer has had a post floating at the top of her blog asking us to pray for Melissa Snow. This young mother of 6 beautiful girls and a baby boy is dying of brain cancer. I am ashamed to admit that I would usually just glance at Keer's request for prayer and then scroll down to see if she had anything new. But today I felt compelled to click on the link. Here is the most recent posting on Melissa:

MONDAY, JANUARY 01, 2007 04:25 PM, CST

Sorry it has been so long since an update. Melissa's folks have been here since Christmas and a few other visitors also. Melissa has been able to be up and around some and to visit with family and friends. She still hasn't been able to eat though. The Dr's and hospice nurses say that we will reach a point where things will nose-dive. She is able to drink fluids and that is what is keeping us going. We have been able to take care of some important things, Melissa is working on some letters for the girls and planning some things out for them.

We were able to talk to the oldest girls about everything and they are all doing good also. God has been so good to us. Honestly, He has answered all of our prayers except for healing Melissa. We know that He is going to keep us through the rest of this.

Please continue to pray for us. God Bless.

I really feel that I need to be praying for this family right now. If God lays it on your heart, I ask that you would pray for them as well.

Family life

Ah, family!

Hearing Star Wars VERY, VERY loudly because they were trying to drown out the sound of my son's toy vacuum.

My brother telling me in great detail about his plans to ride his bike around to go dumpster diving. OK, enough already, just go!

Complaints over doing dishes - a common refrain. :)

My step-dad complaining his new pencil sharpener doesn't work - then realizing he had plugged in the wrong cord.

Seeing my 13 year old brother VOLUNTARILY vacuum the floor. Wow! I'm impressed. Quick, go mark the calendar! ;)

I love these people! Life would be much too boring without them.

Goodbye 2006!

Some highlights of 2006:

- My second nephew, born in October
- Meeting and visiting with the awesome Andrea in Texas
- My trip out west - highlights include:
- Seeing Carlsbad Caverns
- Driving through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest
- Going to the Grand Canyon
- Driving up the pacific coastline in California
- The pacific ocean
- Redwoods!
- Meeting and visiting with the delightful Justine in Washington
- Getting to go down to Florida to see family - twice!
- My sister Arielle and her two sons visiting me for my birthday
- Many more blessings!

Lowlights of 2006:

- Major relationship issues
- Election crap
- Texas in January
- Year end seemingly non-stop sickness
- Seeing our nation pick up speed in it's downward spiral
- I could go on, but that's more than enough blech to dwell on right now...

As the year (finally) draws to a close (thank God there are no repeats, right?) I must say, I am very thankful for my family and friends. They are the best part of this past year, next to my loving Saviour, who has held and sustained me through a very crazy 12 months!

May you all be blessed in 2007!

Curtsy, filthy commoner! ;)

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Duchess Joelle the Intractable of Chipping Sodbury Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

*A lady's polite shout out (is there such a thing?) to Marie. :)

Mmmm, cheesy

You ever watch a movie you haven't seen in a while and it's just not what you remember? We picked up Hook from the library and I sat down and watched it with the kids yesterday, and let me tell you, I was cracking up.

I used to love this movie when it came out! I had such a crush on the kid who plays Rufio, the boy who replaced Peter Pan as leader of the Lost Boys. In my early teens I'd cry every time he was killed in the movie 'cause it was just so sad, y'know? Now I really don't see what I saw in the kid.

Anyway, we are watching the movie yesterday, and the death scene was so cheesy and corny I wanted to laugh my ass off! Punk kid fights pirate - punk kid gets stabbed in heart - grown up Peter Pan (Robin Williams) catches punk kid and slowly lowers him to the deck of the ship - punk kid's last words before dying: "Do you know what I wish? I wish I had a dad...like you."

It was just classic cheese. And don't get me started on the rest of the movie!

Mr. Obvious

I took the kidderbeans to the park this afternoon, and my son ran off with another child’s soccer ball. When I returned it to the boy his father said that my son could play with it for a while if he wanted. Then the dad proceeded to check me out, even checking my ring finger – so obvious! Sorry mister, married lady here. I have to admit, though, there is a part of me that kind of got a kick out of the attention – and another part going “ewww!”

Hello, world!

Don't know why, but I have this little snippet of song stuck in my head, that I think goes like this: "Hello world, this is me, life can be, fun for everyone" and that's all I remember. Don't know title or singer, think it was on the radio this past year at some point and lucky me - stuck like a sandbur.

Haven't blogged for a while. Came down with a cold last weekend and didn't feel like doing much. I'm feeling much better now, so thought I'd update ya'll.

My sister Arielle (a.k.a. The Antenna) and her two little boys were my suprise birthday gift from my hubby (thank you again!). They arrived on Wednesday the 13th and flew back to Florida that Sunday. We had such a great time having them up here, though 4 adults, 1 teenager, and 5 kids in a small 3 bedroom place could be quite overwhelming sometimes. Mom was nice to me and Arielle and watched the grandkiddles a couple times so we could escape and go hang out or run errands. We took a trip up to Knoxville to pick some stuff up. We stopped by McKays (a marvelous used book/cd/dvd store) where we lost track of time but picked up some great bargains. Though the best bargains we found were at the library's used book sale - I picked up 4 books for 70 cents and she got two for 30 cents.

Between having visitors, Rick's graduation, starting Hanukkah - that week just flew by!

Then my son and I got sick, which like all sickness was no fun. I hate head colds. I hate the feeling that my head is leaking. Not only was my nose running, but my eyes started watering like I was crying. I was out grocery shopping when it happened. I was thinking "great, now everyone will think I'm being moved by the mustard selection". When I told my sister about it later she told me they probably thought I was just having a breakdown or something. Just what I want, right? Oh look, it's that crazy woman who was in here the other day - she was having a breakdown in the mustard aisle! :D

The kiddos are watching Cars out in the livingroom. It's my son's favorite movie - he can always find the case on the shelf and likes to carry it around - which I'm sure annoys his uncle Izak since it's his movie. Poor Izak - he just turned five and has been used to being the baby, but since my son and I have been staying with them he's had to deal with having someone younger taking over the baby-of-the-family slot.

Don't really have much to write about right now, at least that I feel like writing about. A lot has been going on in my personal life that I haven't blogged about here, but still don't feel up to making it all public right now.

Anyway, those of you who are celebrating Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful time with your family and friends.

Three Cheers!

This morning my stepfather, Rick, walked across the stage to receive his diploma. Rick, I'm very proud of how hard you have worked, and all that you have accomplished. I wish you all the best!! :)

Happy Hanukkah!!!

HAPPY HANUKKAH!!

Here's to family, latkes, lights and remembering miracles. :)

Gee, thanks!

This cracked me up because it reminded me of a situation with my parents when I was little. My mom was crocheting a pair of bedroom slippers for my dad, but she only got one done in time for Christmas. She wrapped it up and gave it to him anyway with an IOU for the other one. Took two years for him to get it!

Anyways, found this while looking for a birthday funny to put up, so had to post it.

When I was a kid one of the things I always hated about having a December birthday was that it was so close to Christmas (back when my family still did Christmas). Sometimes relatives would include my birthday gift in with the Christmas package, so it just didn't seem that special of an occasion a lot of times. Now that I'm at the grand ol' age of *ahem* 28 I can laugh about it.

So happy birthday to me! And if I only get one slipper, well, it's only 2 days to Hanukkah. :-)