Winter Photo Shoot 2009

This year, instead of doing our Christmas pictures in JCPenney studio, we got Matthew Harris to do them at Legacy Play Village. It was the coldest Sunday we've had all year. It was 39 degrees and we were outside for over an hour. FREEZING!! Austin was such a trooper and I couldn't have asked for better pictures. Except maybe warmer weather! Brrrr!! Matthew did an awesome job and we will definitely use him again! :)

Christmas 3 years ago

I wrote this post December 20, 2006 after spending the holidays alone and having one of the most blessed Christmas' I could imagine. I will never forget that year and my special time with Austin when he was a baby.

"So this Christmas season has made me realize a lot in my life lately. Being a single mom is hard. I can't believe the transformations Me and Austin have gone through in the last 9 months. He's growing into such a smart, amazing child, who can make me laugh over the littlest things. I've truly realized lately that I cannot do it alone. My family is amazing. .....from 18 hours away. My friends in Utah truly are my family, specifically Cassidy and Amanda and some other special people who have truly touched my life lately.

I have not had the faith I used to know these last few years, but somehow, someway...God is still watching out for me and telling me everyday in the slightest way that I am important and I am loved. Last week, someone anonymously dropped off 12 Christmas presents to my house, one to open each day. I was convinced that was the most special, unselfish thing someone could do for me at this time of the year, until tonight, I received another anonymous knock at the door. Lo and behold, 2 children (whom I don't know) hand me a card and say "Merry Christmas from someone who loves me dearly". I was shocked.

I brace myself, open the card and there, was $150. I started bawling. I cannot believe someone could dig into their pockets at this time of year and give me such a large and generous gift. Austin and I are not struggling. We are not in need of anything. I feel like I should turn around and give the gift to someone who needs shoes or a warm winter coat, or a turkey for Christmas dinner.

I was feeling down on myself for not being able to go home for Christmas, spending our first Christmas alone, without "daddy", working Christmas Eve, having no where to spend Christmas day and eat dinner.....all of those things...and then I get this gift, truly from God. It makes me realize how blessed and how special I really am and how much God really does love me, no matter what I've done. I have lots of presents under my tree. I have food in the fridge and I have Austin. And I'm starting to think that this might be one of the best, most special Christmasses ever.

My hope is that everyone takes the time to give something this year. Whether it's an old pair of shoes, blankets, or a couple of cans of beans. Somewhere, someone needs something that you really don't need afterall. I love you all. Merry Christmas.

Chelsea"

This year, I have been fortunate to be a part of Experience life and to participate in Crazy Love Christmas 2009. http://experiencelifenow.com/crazylove_christmas.php

I nominated 2 of my friends to be recipients of the program and they were both accepted! 2 teams agreed to sponsor Mandy and Katrina and bless their families with Christmas joy and presents this year. Mandy was given $1900 in Southwest Airline tickets so she and her 3 kids could fly home for Christmas.

http://www.youtube.com/user/bonfirelove#p/a/u/0/Gpt_pOCOfLM

Katrina is a special friend of mine who is the mom to 3 kids. Her youngest has suffered kidney problems since birth. Her ambush has included tickets and jammies to the Polar Express, as well as 12 days of Christmas presents. Austin and I were also fortunate to get to go to the Polar Express with her family.

In addition, my Lifehouse group has chosen to sponsor another family that was nominated. We have collected gifts for the last month, and are planning on providing them with a giftcard to United as well as a gas card. We made ornaments on Tuesday at our monthly social and plan to give them a Christmas tree with the ornaments we made. I'm in the process of making them a free coupon book with neat things inside too. I'm so lucky to get to be a part of these things and help to bless families within the Lubbock community. It's so much more of a reward to give than to receive.

Tacky Christmas sweater party

Making ornaments for our family

This year, we are spending Christmas Eve at the City Bank Auditorium with the rest of our church family. It's gonna be awesome!

http://www.facebook.com/#/ical/event.php?eid=224215315560

Fall :)

I LOVE this time of year. We've been doing so many fun things. Halloween, Corn Maizes and the fair. It's been a while and I have a ton of fabulous pics to post as soon as i get time! So for now, just wanted to fill my blog readers in on life. Austin is good. He's had a bit of a hard time lately. Maybe it's being 4. Maybe it's being abandoned by his dad. Maybe it's just being a brat. But I think things will work themselves out. He's strong and resiliant and will come through.

My spritual walk has come full circle and I love the things God is blessing me. I couldn't have asked for anything more for October 2009. I'm blessed to be employed. I love my family. I love my friends and my church. My dad and I have gotten so much closer and I am really loving having a stronger relationship with him.

In addition, I met someone. :) We met at my church Lifehouse group and instantly felt a connection, unlike any. I'm grateful for him in every way. He's smart and handsome. Funny and kind. Respectful. Patient and sweet to Austin. And he's Godly and that's the major trait I need in a man I want to be with. I couldn't have designed him to fit me better honestly. We have so much in common and have so much fun with one another. He is constantly impressing me with his ambitious goals and sweet spirit. I look forward to what the future holds with John Mark.

Cowboys...

Austin is perpetually obsessed with cowboys. And trucks, firetrucks, ambulances, fast cars, animals, dirt, trains, dinosaurs, farms, football, little birdies, girlfriends, cheese, I could go on and on...

About 2 weeks ago, he got new cowboy boots to replace the cute little size 7's he'd outgrown. He had to look sharp for my aunt's wedding of course ;) So he decides he wants to wear them Sunday to church. Every morning he has a routine to follow. Get dressed. pee. spike hair. gummy bear vitamin. brush teeth. cologne (yes I know...it's just Axe body spray. He's such a little man). and then breakfast of course.

So I said, "Austin..come brush your teeth!"

He says, "Mama! Cowboys don't even brush their teeth!"

"Well Austin, actually cowboys do what their mama says!"

"Oh no mama. Cowboys don't even have mama's."

This kid. Hilarious. Needless to say, he came and brushed his teeth!

Prayer Gathering

Monday nights you can find me at Prayer Gathering. I love this hour of prayer and worship and look forward to it each week. Austin also loves to go play in the children's center. After it was over this week, I picked him up and his 2 teachers handed me an index card where he had written his name. Nothing new here..he's been doing that for months. But on the other side, was Austin's prayer to God. As I start reading it, I am immediately overwhelmed with emotion. I can't even speak really and I ask Miss Sarah what brought this on...why he wanted to say these things...

His other teacher pipes in and says they were talking about Trust and Worry. And putting your trust in the Lord and letting him take care of your worries. So my 4 yr old says he was worried about his daddy. When the teacher asked him what he wanted her to write on the card as his prayer, he says, "Dear God, Thank you for this day. Thank you for my dad. Please take care of my dad while he is in Minnesota."

You can see why I was brought to tears and filled with emotion. He hasn't seen his dad in a year and a half. He still thinks about him, worries about him, loves him, feels abandoned, prays for him and asks God to watch over him...

I am extremely blessed and lucky. Blessed to be raising him by myself even. Some children don't get to be raised by even one of their parents. I know that I can set the example within him and show him how to be a good man and a Godly person. I am blessed with a happy, outgoing, beautiful (no, really), resillient little boy and I wouldn't have it any other way!

26?!

So my birthday came and went and it was amazing!!! I have to say my girl Becky made it super special for me :) In the middle of the night, she came and decorated my car with car paint, confetti and streamers. When Austin and came out Thursday morning to go to school, in amazement, he says, "Mama! Someone had a birthday party for our car!" She wrote on my windows...26!, Hot mama, Birthday girl and on Austin's window, "and I'm 4!" I was cracking up. I get to work and my desk is covered in confetti and a bouquet of flowers. She also got me 2 cards and a chocolate cake :) And some jewelry! So sweet. I went to dinner with my dad, step mom, g-parents and my brother at Cheddars. They gave me a new purse, giftcard to Red Lobster, $20 bucks and a gift certificate to the bead story. My jewelry making hobby takes up all my extra money and time. I love it. I need to post pics so if anyone wants to make a request, I'll take em. I'll ship it to ya too :)

After dinner, my sweet grandma came to babysit and my friends made me go out to the Piano bar. I love love love Louie Louie's and it really was a blast. Going to work was a little hard Friday but you only have one birthday a year right?! I was so ready to go stay with my family for the Labor day weekend. Usually we're in Taos this time of year but we have had a blast this weekend. My grandma came with us and we've been playing board games, eating amazing food, doing myspace karaoke and tonight we're gonna be making jewelry. We'll see if I can get all my fam addicted too. My aunt and uncle are coming over and I absolutely love this family time :) It doesn't get much better.

Austin is loving pre-k. He's officially a Frenship Tiger and getting smarter by the day. Last night he told me the moon was a waxing moon. I didn't even know what that was? He's been so funny lately, saying things like, "Excuse me ladies!" when we go somewhere. Or "you can call me Sir, cause I'm a man." And almost daily, he'll say, "....Cause that's what men do."

Austin had an amazing summer. He went to the lake with Ty and Mark, & Grammy and Pappy. He caught 2 perch and managed to tell everyone he would be eating Pappy's fish cause it was the biggest. And everyone would be eating broccoli with their fish, but not him.



Last night he was playing outside and went on a frog hunt. He was laughing so hard but too scared to touch the frog he caught. He named him Croakie. He was entertained for at least an hour. Summer nights :) It's beginning to feel like fall though and I love it. Next weekend we're going to an Apple Butter festival and this fall we plan on going to the Corn field maize, a Tech game and the South Plains Fair. I love this time of year! Life is good. We are blessed :)

Summer!

Has gone by so fast! I can't believe I haven't blogged much lately but between work, Facebook, and being a single mom, I haven't really had time. My divorce was final on Monday. It's been a long 3 years and when it was all said and done, I was kind of left feeling sad and overwhelmed. I knew it was inevitable and I had been used to living as a divorced woman for so long, but it was still the end to a huge chapter in my life. I still miss him. I still think about how things would be if we were together. How mine and Austin's lives would be so different. But things happen for a reason and I am blessed none the less. I have faith that I will find love again and have the family I've always dreamt about :)

Austin starts pre-k on August 24th. Thankfully we qualifed and he is proud to become a Frenship Tiger. He will be going to Bennett Elementary for half a day and then we found a new wonderful lady to keep him for the rest of the day. She has 3 kids of her own and I think Austin will do great with her. I've had him in 4 different places since we moved to Lubbock and have had issues with each other. Hopefully this will be the place to stay until we move on to bigger and better things.

With that being said, my plan is right now to move to Colorado Springs. I went up in July with my best friends and fell in love with it. I am ready to get out of Lubbock and see what else is out there. I've applied to several jobs but they all needed me to start immediately. So at this point, I'm just gonna wait until I get my income taxes in February, rent a Uhaul and go where the wind blows! I can't wait. I feel like I'm finally doing this for myself. After Clay left me, I had to move back to Texas to find myself again and pick up the peices of a broken heart. My family has been great but I know Lubbock isn't where I want to be.

Everything else is going good. Work has been insane busy! We're doing turn right now where our residents move out and move back in and I've gotten a lot of overtime. Austin has been lucky to go see his Grammy and Pappy the last few weekends because I'm working so much.

We've been going to a new Church since April and really like it. I don't know exactly what I think about everything but I just feeling like I'm doing what's right and I have faith. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and Austin and will watch over both of us. www.experiencelifenow.com As of now, I feel like there's a reason that I'm supposed to be at Elife.

I can't believe I'm almost 26! Where did the last few years go?! Can't wait to see my best friends for my birthday! I'll try to update more often :)

Colorado Springs

For July 4th, Austin and i took off to Colorado with my long time best friend Monica and her family to see our other best friend Dawn and her family. It was a blast!!! Our kids got to meet for the first time and we tried to pack up our weekend and make it memorable for the kids. We got there Friday morning and got ready to go to the zoo. It is the highest National Zoo in the US at like 6000 ft. or something. We got to feed the giraffes crackers, which was so funny! They have like 2 ft long purple tongues and just wrap their tongue around the cracker and take it out of your hand. It's amazing how each animal has a purpose and was created for a specific reason. Each time we saw one of our favorite animals, we had to name them Gloria, Melman or King Julian. Austin and the kids had a blast! The whole weekend it rained off and on.

That night we went to see the Sky Sox play. It's Colorado Springs' minor league baseball team. After it poured rain for 45 mins, we were finally able to get our seats and dry off the stadium. The Sky Sox won and after the show, they put on a huge fireworks show! The kids loved it.


I couldn't have asked for a better weekend with my girls and our babies :)

Shawn

My brother has been in a place called Safe-P for 6 months. He now has to go to a halfway house for 90 days to readjust to the real world and get everything together before they release him back into the wild. :) He's learned a lot, beat his addiction and is doing great. I have a feeling he's going to prove everybody wrong and really get it right this time. He's been out 2 weeks and has already gotten a job! I know the Lord is going to take care of him. He's such a great person and everyone really does deserve second chances. We went to see him last weekend with my mom and grandma. Austin was so excited to see his Unkie after 6 months!

The bird...

So thanks to my sweet dad for finally cleaning out my garage that has been so patiently storing my brother's belongings for a year and a half. So we were outside, carrying in my groceries through the garage (which is so nice) when Austin comes in the kitchen holding a dead black bird. He says, "Momma...this bird got dead!" My first impulse wasn't fear of the bird, but of my precious son holding a dead animal! So of course, I screamed. Then he screamed, dropped the bird and literally burst into tears. It's crazy how emotions can change from happy to histerics in a matter of seconds. He kept saying, "I'm so sorry mommy..i didn't mean to." He thought he was in trouble...poor little thing. I reassured him I wasn't upset with him and went to wash his hands and bleach the kitchen floor. After I carried the dead bird outside, we both just started giggling. It really was funny. My little boy has such a sweet spirit and so much love for life. I'm so grateful for the joy that he brings me.