The tree is up....

...presents are wrapped.....COME ON CHRISTMAS!!!!! I SO can't wait to see Tyler's face on Christmas morning! We got him a huge 42in. stocking from the Dollartree to put stocking stuffers in. We didn't get him alot for his stocking, but some of the things are a little big for a regualr sized stocking, so we got the big one! Wal-mart had a stocking that was 3?in. (not sure what size it was again...) for $2.97, so I figured it would be smarter to get the huge stocking from Dollartree. Also, to help get in the Chrismtas spirit even more we've been playing Christmas music on Sirius radio, Country Roadhouse. They play lots of old classic music, which I love!!!! Burl Ives, Gene Autry, Brenda Lee.....LOVE it!!! I also got a free Christmas ringtone for my cellphone! LOL

Now if I could only stop myself from getting more gifts for Tyler i'll be good to go! Everytime I get a gift card for someplace my first thought is, "ok, what can I get for Ty?!?" I did get something ordered for Zane that should be here sometime next week. It's not what I originally wanted to get him, but I know he will love it. I'm still waiting for at least $45 in gift cards for Amazon that I should hopefully have within the next week or so.....possibly even another $40 to go with that. I just wish Amazon Prime wasn't so gosh darn expensive. I'd love to find a few people to go in on a prime membership with......that would be awesome!!

Ho-Ho-Ho!!!

Can't believe

It is less than a month until Christmas!!! I can't wait!!! Yesterday I got to wrap a few more gifts for Ty before he woke up from his nap....I still have so much more to do!! And I know I keep saying i'm done with shopping for him, but today I found a Spongebob Christmas dvd for only .99!! I could NOT pass that up!! We still need to get my dad and Z's dad Christmas gifts, plus I need to figure out what i'm going to get Zane......i'm hoping I get the amazon gift cards i'm waiting for in time to order him something from there.

So, our Thanksgiving was nice....just quiet since it was just us 3. But, the food was YUMMY, so I was happy! LOL We brought our Christmas decorations down and finished up decorating the tree.....I think it looks cute!!



Zane got off work early on Saturday and suprised Tyler and I by taking us to the Festival of Trees in downtown Knoxville!! Our landlord volunteer's to help set up the event and he gave us free tickets to get in......$10 a person without the tickets!! (but, in my opinion, well worth it!) They hold it at the Convention Center, and have well over 100 Christmas tree's decorated!! Plus, they had a carousel and a ride for kids to get on. Tyler was too small for the ride on, and he was scared of the carousel! LOL But, they had TONS of crafts for kids to do, so he got to decorate his very own sugar cookie, and made mommy, his mom-mom and his granny an adorable thumbprint snowman ornament!! There were other crafts, but they were more geared towards older children.

And the trees.....oh my goodness!! They were SO gorgeous!!! They had a tree decorated by Chick-fil-A, and a western-themed Christmas tree with cowboy hats and REAL cowboy boots on it!! They also had several trees decorated with the college football colors, orange and white. All of the trees are for sale to the public, and all of the money collected (including admission, craft money and the sale of the trees) went to the Children's Hospital here in Knoxville......such a wonderful cause!!!! One tree/display they had was selling for just over $8,000!!!

I am kicking myself in the butt for not taking my camera, though!!!! :( We went two years ago and I remembered it being pretty dark inside (they only turn on a few ceiling lights because the lights from the trees are bright enough! LOL) so I didn't think I would be able to get any good pics, but once we were there I saw it would have been just right for taking pics!! Oh well, we still had a blast!!!! Zane get's me an ornament every year, and this year he got it for me from the festival.....it's an adorable gingerbread family ornament with our names on it!!! Between that ornament and the one Ty made me, I was so happy........here is the ornament Ty made me:



And here is the ornament Zane got for me.....I just LOVE it!!!



It was such a special day..........

Mail for the last few days

Mail has been fairly decent for the past month or so...finally!!! LOL

Since Friday I have gotten:

- $5 survey check
- Old Spice razors (2)
- Old El Paso taco seasoning
- Petstyle Charm Bracelet
- a wal-mart gift card for Zane and I from my oldest sister for Christmas!!

And the big brown truck came today and brought Zane's 100% free Sonicare Flexcare toothbrush!!!

I'll update this post when I get today's mail.....:)

Todays mail :)

Wow, what a great mail day!!!

- Calgon lip gloss/Start Sampling
- Loreal Vive Pro sample/Walmart
- Figi order....not free but SO yummy!!
- Shutterfly order...our Christmas cards!!! (be on the lookout, as we will be mailing them soon if you're on our list!!)

And this morning, the big brown truck was here!!! We got:

- my Bzzagent Sonicare Sanitizer....worth $50!!
- Tyler got a Christmas gift from my oldest sister and her family....he will LOVE it!!!!

Have a happy and SAFE Thanksgiving, everyone!!!! **hugs**

Mail for Saturday and today

Saturday's mail was great!!! I joined an awesome website for scrapbookers back in September, and Saturday I got a HUGE pair of Fiskar scissors in the mail in an adorable burlap drawstring bag!!! It had my "number" engraved onto it (my number that I am on their website) and even the box it came in was cute!!! Here is a pic:




Tyler also got a package from granny and grandpa with an adorable Santa hat! He loved it!! He was running around outside all weekend long wearing it.......

As for today's mail, the snail mail hasn't come yet, but the big brown truck came!!! I got a sterling silver KitchenAid cake server.....it's gorgeous!!! I'll update when the snail mail gets here.....:)

Almost turkey day!!

So I took our turkey out this morning. He is now sitting in the bathtub with cold water.....thaw out, baby!!! mmm, I have been wanting some turkey with all the trimmings for SO long!!! It's just going to be us this year as usual, but that works for me. I'd love to have family here, but I get so sick and tired of all the "excuses" they make for not being able to come for the holiday. But hey, we are the one's who decided to move away, right?

I was going to wait until after thanksgiving to get the rest of our Christmas stuff out, but I think I may do that starting today.......the Christmas tree looks so lonely and bare with just lights on it. LOL I am SO excited about getting the house all decorated!!!!

I'll be sure to post some pics of the tree and decorations, and I would LOVE to see pics of everyone elses decorations!!! If you do post pics, send me the link to your blog so I can see, please!!!

Am I crazy?!?!

Why yes, Yes I am!!!

Ok, less then a week to go for Thanksgiving....and we have our Christmas tree up!! Tyler and I put it up on wednesday, and I must say, even with only the lights on it, it looks nice!! Since rearranging the house, this is the first time we've had a decent sized living room to put our tree up in, and I love it!! We'll probably work on the rest of the decorations next week. Honestly, I think the main reason I put it up was to help take my mind off of everything that has been going on this month, mainly with my mom. We're all still worried about what the doctors might find, but if I sit here and keep thinking about it, I may just lose my mind!! So, the tree is up. I can not wait for Christmas to get here!!! I can't wait to start baking cookies, decorating the rest of the house and outside, going to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg to see all the lights......bring it on!!!

Speaking of baking, I am going to start doing Christmas cookies next week so I can get them out in the mail. Since Tyler is older, I told him he can be my big helper this year with making cookies.....he's so excited about that!!! He asks me almost every day..."mommy, are we doing kissmass cookies today?!?" Zane is off the day after thanksgiving (well he is supposed to be, anyway....) so i'll try and get most of the baking done then. Hopefully we'll get packages in the mail real soon!!!!

Recent mail

I want to try and keep this blog as normal and upbeat as I can while we are dealing with my moms health.....hopefully that will help keep my mind occupied until we know for sure what all is going on with her. I hope no one minds.....

Anyhoo, mail has been pretty decent. This week I have gotten:

- Another Lightning McQueen car for Ty's stocking from amazon (pd for w/gift cards)
- Tylenol Rapid Release samples (walmart) it was sinus, allergy and cold
- Post it samples (5 total!! I LOVE these, even though they take SO long to come! LOL)
- Shutterfly order (3 11x14 posters and a calendar...FREE!! Actually, we ordered a total of $155 worth of Shutterfly stuff and it was all free!!)

Also, I found out I will be in a campaign to get a free electric toothbrush head cleaner (worth $50) and Zane made it into a campaign to get a Sonicare Flexcare toothbrush free!! (worth $180!!)

I'm still waiting for a christmas gift that I ordered, and paid for, on Oct 17th! I emailed the person about it and she said she mailed it out on Oct 30th but since I didn't get it she would mail me out another one. That was Nov 8th and i'm still waiting for it....I so hope I get it!! :(

I'll update when we get today's mail.....:)

Latest mom update

I'm so sorry I haven't updated!! I've been a little busy with other things and keep forgetting to update here......anyhoo, mom is home! She came home Tuesday. She still needs to have surgery, and will call the doctor after Thanksgiving to set up the date for that. Because of the ulcer they found, they can't operate until that has healed some, so they are giving it at least two weeks. She still is in quite a bit of pain and is anxious to just get the surgery done and over with so they can decide what the next step will be. Obviously, if they find out the mass is cancerous, they will start chemo. It all depends on what they find once they do the surgery. She's worried about it being cancerous, of course, but I told her so many people are keeping her in their thoughts and prayers that she will be fine. She is also upset that she won't be able to finish Christmas shopping and I told her that is just crazy!! EVERYONE will completely understand that she can't get out to do shopping, and that all we ALL care about is that she is ok!!! I can tell in her voice that she is scared of what they will find, and I feel so bad. I hate hearing that in my moms voice.....she has always been so strong. Hearing her sound scared scares me!! :( I of course will update once she finds out when the surgery will be...........love you all!! **hugs**

Mom update

Well, I just got off the phone with my dad. My mom had the colonoscopy done today. They found she has an ulcer, as well as the tumor. She was scheduled to have surgery tomorrow, but because she takes aspirin every day she has to be off of that for at least a week before they can operate. So, she will most likely come home tomorrow or Wednesday. I think i'll feel more relieved when she is home, but at the same time i'm still worried about the tumor she has. We still won't know if it's cancerous or not until next week.

I had Tyler call her again today, and she sounded so happy to talk to him!!! It will be nice to call her at home again like we used to......

I'll continue to update when I know more......thanks for all the thought and prayers, everyone!!!!

Mom update

So, i've been talking to one of my sisters and my dad and here is what i've found out so far:

The doctors have said that they found a tumor either in or on my mothers stomach, that is the size of a soccer ball. (I honestly don't remember if my sister or dad said it was on her stomach or inside.....i'll find out for sure sometime soon) They know she will need surgery for it, but they want to do other tests first. This weekend she is having a colonoscopy done, and on tuesday they are going to put a camera into her stomach to see what is going on. Of course, they don't know if it's cancerous or not.

It's just all so scary and me being over 500 miles away is killing me.....although, it's not like I could do much if I was there, right? I was holding up just fine until I talked to my dad last night on the phone. Hearing the worry in his voice really scared me, and then he told me my mom said she misses talking to me and Tyler every morning (I call her every morning, just to mainly catch up on family stuff and gossip) and I really lost it. I hung up from talking to him and just completely broke down. Tyler came into the room I was in and kept asking me if I was ok......I hugged him so tight, and just told him mommy was a little worried about things but that everything would be ok.

I'll update this blog as I find out things.......

Thank you all so much for all your love and support!!! **hugs**

Mail update :)

Well, the mail hasn't been too bad lately. This is what I have received this past week....

- $10 Target gfit card from InHomeProductTesting
- $2 survey check from NetVerdix
- Close To My Heart acrylic stamps (very cute...and free!)
- American Flaf (it was HUGE!)
- An adorable Lightning McQueen car from Amazon...perfect stocking stuffer! (paid for with gift cards)

And today, FedEx brought a VERY cool gift from Calphalon from a gift registry I did! It had a really nice bowl scrapper, a set of measuring spoons (LOVE them!!) and a cute nonstick muffin pan that makes 6 at a time!!! I can't beleive it was all free!!!

Not really a mail freebie, but yesterday we went to Target to look for new shoes for Ty. They had a cute pair of sneakers for only $6.47!!!! With the gift card, they were basically free!!!!!!! :)

Update

Hi, all! I want to thank everyone for the very sweet emails and comments I received. They were so very sweet and I really appreciate them all!! **hugs**

Basically, Zane and I went through a pretty rough patch, that has technically been going on for quite awhile, and it all came to a head this past Monday. I was so angry and fed up with things, I was going to leave Zane and go back to MD to be with family and friends. After talking things out with a few people and sitting down and talking things through with Zane, I agreed to stay. We still have a long way to go, but with better communication we should be back on track in time.

I'm so sorry if my posts came off as being over dramatic or asking for attention.....I didn't mean them to come off that way at all!! I just needed a break from online to think about things and didn't want to just disappear.

Now, on another note: I got a call from my mom yesterday morning saying my dad was taking her to the hospital because she wasn't feeling well. Actually, she hasn't been feeling well for over a month now! We've all been telling her to see her doctor, but she kept putting it off until she really felt bad. Well, I got another call yesterday evening from my dad saying the hospital is going to keep her there for a little while, and that they did x-rays and they showed no bruised ribs (she thought she either fractured them or bruised them from all the coughing she has been doing on and off for over a month...) but the x-ray did show some sort of spot/mass in or on her stomach that they weren't sure what it is. :( The doctor did say it could be some really inflamed tissue from her coughing so much, but they won't know much until the test results come in sometime today. So, here I sit in TN worrying like hell about my mom back in MD, not knowing what is wrong or going on. My dad promised to call and update me today, but he's not the greatest when it comes to talking on the phone (I love him, though!!) so I'm hoping one of my sisters is there with them and they may call me. I'm so scared and worried something is really wrong. If y'all can please keep my mom in your thoughts and/or prayers, I would greatly appreciate it. I'll update when I get some news.......

Then, on top of everything else this week, Firefox proceeded to remove all of my bookmarked websites overnight!! Wasn't that nice of them?!?!? AHHH!!!!!!

Once again, I thank you all so much for the love and support you always give to me....I don't know what I would do without you all!! **hugs**

I'm sorry I haven't updated in awhile.....

But I think i'm going to be MIA for awhile. There are some things going on that I need to make a decision on, and I don't know when i'll be back on here.....

Take care, everyone.......