Christmas Cheer in November

On November 3rd, my mom made a casual comment on Facebook about how she would like to go ahead and put Christmas lights in the tree outside the dining room window. That is where my mom and dad are currently pretty much living, and she knew my dad would enjoy the lights. Well, in true social networking fashion, it didn't take long for the word to get out and a plan to form. The young marrieds group at their church happened to be having bible study at the time, and apparently a few of them saw her Facebook post during the study(tsk, tsk...ha!). Before they left that night, they made plans to visit my parents to put up the lights. From there, it kind of...grew.

So, on November 4th, about 50 people showed up at my parents house to pitch in, bringing food and hot chocolate with them. Their music minister came, bringing even more people with him, and led carols outside the dining room window for my dad. Aren't people just great sometimes? It warmed my heart, and I know it meant so much to my parents. What a wonderful example of how a church family is such a wonderful thing to be a part of.

And oh yeah...did I mention they brought a cherry picker??

My dad enjoying everything from bed

My cousin Jeffrey and Max

My cousin's daughter Maddie...with attitude...love it

Tyler and Maddie

Max had SO much fun

My brother, Max, and my cousin Jarod

Hard at work...

Bringing in the big guns...

My Aunt and Maddie

Using the cherry picker.
These guys don't mess around.

Max and my brother

I have no idea about this face.

Caroling

The final product...

Texas (Again) (and Again)

Well, Max and I made it back to Mississippi only to be back in Texas 48 hours later! We got a phone call at 2:30 in the morning Sunday that my dad had slipped into a coma. We started packing right away only to be called a few hours later saying he was awake and talking. Whew...a praise the Lord moment! According to his caregivers there is no doubt that he was in a coma, but apparently it's common for younger patients to come in and out like that. He's been fairly lucid ever since, and they think the temporary coma has to do with the cancer entering his upper vertebrae. At any rate, we went ahead and came back to Texas a little earlier than anticipated, and we are glad to have some more time to spend with him. He's doing fairly well, although his pain and confusion are increasing quite a bit. As always, thanks for your prayers!

Block Party

On October 31st, we helped host a neighborhood block party. Our neighborhood is still fairly small and doesn't see a lot of trick-or-treat traffic, so we thought it would be fun to get together and let the kids play. I didn't take into account the fact that it was freezing and pitch black outside early (party fail), but we still managed to have some fun before we all got cold and went inside.

Fall Festival

Since it's almost Thanksgiving, I figure I may need to go ahead and post about Halloween! I have a few more fun pictures coming later, but these are what I have for now. We started off the weekend with our church's fall festival.

Since I knew Max wasn't going to be too thrilled about wearing a costume anyways, I went for cheap and simple. I decided he should be Mario, and then I figured Mike and I needed to get in on the action, too! So, Mike was Luigi, and I was Yoshi. Because let's be honest. We all know I'm more crazy green dragon than pink wearing Princess Peach.

The Mario and Luigi costumes were super simple to make. Overalls, t-shirts, some painted yellow button pins, and big hats with some felt. Done. And I didn't feel as bad when Max refused to keep his hat on! I made my tail with some green felt, stuffing, and black ribbon for the belt. The best part of the costume was my cool hat, and I have to give my sister credit for that one!

I could get into this candy stuff! Max actually spent the whole night wandering around pulling the same rice krispies treat in and out of his bucket. Something tells me that won't fly next year.

Is it still in there??

What is this? Because I like it.

One last family shot...

Thanks to some wonderful friends who took some of these fabulous pictures. Yes, I swiped them off of Facebook! And yes, in my head I totally just said, "Swiper, no swiping!" Oh Dora.

Texas (Again)

my dad and me on our last visit. he may be obsessed with sour candy.

I finally got all of our posts up about trip to Texas, and now I have already been back in the lone star state for a week! I am here with the Maxster visiting my family while Mike holds down the fort back home. For those of you who have been praying for my family and my dad, thank you so much! He is still in hospice care, and since my last visit he has become paralyzed from the waist down. He is living life now in a hospital bed in our dining room. He still has a great attitude, and his faith in God's plan is awesome. Right now I'm not sure how long we're going to stay, but I will try to keep blogging as much as possible. Because I'm sure your day is made or broken by my posts...

World Series

Although by this point we know how it all ended, we are proud of our Texas Rangers and had a great time attending World Series game 3 while we were in Texas. What an experience!

Family Reunion

On October 22 (yes I am behind!), we attended a family reunion for Mike's mother's family. For those who don't know, Mike and his family lost their mom to cancer when he was in elementary school. We don't see her side of the family very often, but it sure was fun to get to know them better and spend some time catching up. I think all the time about how I would have loved to have met Mike's mom, but getting to know her family better makes me feel a bit like I know her better. We had a great time, and I hope we do it again soon! I took a ton of pictures that day, but since they don't know me that well I didn't want to post all of their pictures out on the Internets without permission. So...here are a few pictures of our little family on that day...

Can you find Mike and his sister??