I know the Alicia Keys song is not very Chrismassy…but what can I say, the selection was limited…and I love the song!

Speaking of which, the Christmas season is in full force…but has anyone noticed that it’s not December yet??? But as a conformist, I did my shopping for Children’s Church for the month of December. Sometime before Sunday Josh and I are going to hit the Children’s Chapel with full force and transform it into December’s theme: “Jesus is the Best Gift.” (I know that I’m probably violating somebody’s copyright by making that my theme for my curriculum, but I assure you I am not trying to publish it…I certainly don’t have time to get into that!) It will probably not be a winter wonderland, I am not that efficient, but it will hopefully be very merry and bright. (On the other hand, will my house be decorated shortly? No. I have a worthy goal for having the house completed: December 13th.)

Ava’s GiGi took her shopping yesterday. She came home with colored tights, adorable shoes, and the best part…striped Hello Kitty sunglasses! My child is now the hottest thing to hit South Park Avenue. When I have a moment, I shall take a picture of the hipness.

Wow, 62 credits!

Xanga keeps telling me that I have all these credits. Are they like college credits??? That’s like 2/3 of the grad school program I want to do already! Are they like store credits??? We need some diapers! Hmmmm…

Anyway, I suppose I can now take a moment out of my busy life and write about the wonderful holiday. My “Thanksgiving season” got kicked off on Tuesday when I started baking. My mother came on Wednesday morning and help me continue the baking process. Then Wednesday afternoon, I went over to Georgia and did my first EVER semi-professional photo shoot! Yes, yes, the Hunter family were my gracious guinea pigs. It was great fun! Then back to my house for a chili dinner for one of the families in our church.

Thursday, we made the trek to Blakely and had Thanksgiving with Josh’s family.

After GOOD eating (particularly for Ava), we headed up to Atlanta to my Uncle David’s beautiful house. On Friday, we had the Holloway extended family Thanksgiving dinner. This was great, we missed it last year because Ava was so tiny, so this was almost everyone’s first time meeting Ava!

(My fab cousins, Rebecca and Mary Evelyn. The last time we took a picture of the three of us, it looked like I had a basketball up my shirt!)

(Yes, our family celebrity…but I really wanted this picture so I’d have one with his wife, Yessica!)

On Saturday, we headed over to Winder to see Mandi, Nettie, and Lauren since we were so close, and then it was back home!

Some funny notes from the weekend: When we woke up Thursday morning it was WARM. We were running late and in a hurry, so I packed clothes for our south Alabama warm weather. By the time we got to north Georgia, it was not so warm anymore! Therefore, Josh was a sweetie and took me to get those shoes that I said I found last week! I didn’t deserve such kindness or expense, but my feet felt a whole lot better…and I got some cute shoes out of the deal!

Ava ate so much!!! Especially sweets – every person that got dessert had her begging for food, and since we all got dessert at different times…well, so did she! I guess I don’t mind so much if she splurges when she’s around family, as long as I keep her healthy at home!

I have SO much to do this week, I’m writing a curriculum for December’s children’s church since what I have really doesn’t fit the Christmas season. I have to totally re-decorate the Children’s Chapel, including putting up a tree. AND I have to continue to prepare for our Children’s Christmas party, which is less than two weeks away! Oh well, at least the preparations will help me start the Christmas spirit!

Thanksgiving Rambles

“Project Christmas Card Picture” went sooooo well, and I am tempted to reveal all, but I will resist for the sake of my “blog fans” that I also know in real life whowill also be getting a Christmas card in the mail. But I must at least show one of my favorites…

The fact that our pictures were in a cotton field actually has great significance, but I will also wait to reveal it until the proper time. Hey, I know what I’ll do…

Oh, OK, want to see one more? Here’s one that won’t make the card due to how many really, really good pictures we have, but it’s hilarious to me, all the same!

Random baby crying in the cotton patch! (No, we were not abusing our child, we were trying to get a picture of her STANDING all alone in the cotton patch, but she wasn’t feeling cooperative. I rescued her immediately after the taking of the picture.)

I was going to write all about our Thanksgiving plans, but I just realized that I don’t really have time to tell you how much I have to do! I suppose you can look forward to me telling you when I get back from our travels!

Virus Number Two in Two Weeks…COMPLETED

Ava woke up yesterday right as rain, and this morning she had what the doctor calls a “viral rash” all over her. That means she made it through her second virus in two weeks! I wonder if she’s reserved Monday – Wednesday as her sick days from now on…

Just a side note while I’m thinking about it…if you’re not on my Xanga “friends” list, shoot me a friend request…just in case I need to do some protected posting one day!

Today has been beautifully low key, me and Ava have been sorting her clothes (or I’m sorting, and she’s unsorting). We got a lot of hand-me-downs at one time, so now I’m having to pack up smaller clothes to make room for them. I get so sad when I have to pack away the li’l clothes!

Josh and I took a spontaneous date tonight, that’s the best kind! AND we walked around the mall and I found THE Children’s Director’s bag I want for Christmas. It’s so big, I can fit my Children’s Director stuff, Ava’s diaper bag stuff, and Ava! (Well, not Ava, but I CAN fit my lap top in its own separate compartment if need be!) (For those of you who never see me, since Ava goes with me to work, I’m always carrying three bags: “Children’s Director Bag,” which is basically my office since I work in two places, diaper bag, and purse (Not to mention a baby!). My Children’s Director bag is usually full to overflowing, I’ve been wanting a bigger one. And if I get this one, I can combine two of those bags into one!) (That was a lot of parenthetical commentation!) And I found a pair of shoes I like…but well, yeah, getting both would be over the Christmas budget.

My hubby is so amazing, he surprised me with a new car TWICE! He got the Kia for me a month ago, but we couldn’t drive it until we got the title. He got the title yesterday, but kept it a secret from me, so that today he came home with a tag, insurance, and extra keys. It was like getting a new car AGAIN! Now maybe I’ll get to drive it sometime… (The downside: I have to clean out the Mercury so we can sell it! The WAY up side: we’ll have the Kia for our Thanksgiving travels next week!)

Tomorrow: Project Christmas Card Picture!

Sick…Again

Ava just can’t decide to get well! She was doing fine until Monday…fever and throwing up. She still had a fever this morning, so I went ahead and took her to the doctor. I was pretty sure that they would say viral, but it feels like she’s been sick quite a bit so I went ahead and took her in. Her blood count looks fine, so it should be viral, as long as she stays hydrated and the fever is gone within 72 hours, we’re A-OK. She hasn’t had a fever since the Tylenol kicked in this morning, but I’m having trouble hydrating her; she doesn’t want to drink anything, not even sweet tea! But she’s playing now for the first time in about 24 hours, that’s a good sign!

I got A LOT accomplished for church this weekend, but I haven’t gotten anything else done since Monday night! We had a GREAT Children’s Committee meeting on Monday night, we planned our Christmas event in full, and went ahead and set dates for the next two events on the church calendar! God is so good to provide smooth committee meetings when I remember to pray specifically for them! (And when I have prayer support from my wonderful network of support!)

Leaders out there: Do you ever not like who you become when you are placed in a leadership position? Sometimes I don’t! Yes, I get compliments all the time about my organizational abilities, (which, by the way, does not come naturally to me, I have to work really hard to be that way!), but in the process of becoming so, I feel like I become pushy and far more serious than I desire to be. I’m afraid that people dread my phone calls and my visits because they think that I will be giving them more work. (And many times I am!) I feel that although many people respect me for my “ability” to get things together, I am probably not very well liked. (Now I must add a disclaimer here; in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter whether I am liked or not. What matters is that Jesus Christ is glorified and that the ministry of the church draws the lost towards a relationship with Him and Christians towards a deeper relationship with Him. I know that in the big picture, who likes who doesn’t matter at all. However, it is human nature to want to be liked. I believe that this desire comes primarily from the sinful nature if we allow it to interfere with our ministry, but I also think that God understands the way we are designed, which includes our need to be liked or accepted. This was a longer disclaimer than I intended it to be!) I really try to express my gratitude to the volunteers that I work with all the time in multiple ways, but I do not always feel that that it is effective. Sometimes I wonder if my “position” is keeping my family from gaining vital friendships at our new church. This is just a rant, don’t worry, I’m not planning on “quitting” in the immediate future…but is it natural for church work to always feel lonely?

Well, the babe is already tired of playing alone, so it looks like this may also be an unproductive day for me! That is OK, God always provides exactly what we need!

I don’t see the word “rest” in “weekend”!

Ava is doing much better! She broke out in a rash all over on Wednesday, but that’s also when she quit having fever and started eating normally. I’ve been given all sorts of ideas of what could have been the problem, but I’m still thinking that it was the shot due to the order in which all the symptoms happened. But she’s alright now, although she’s still pretty cranky and more cuddly than usual. I’m going to try to put her back on a normal nap schedule today and see if that helps!

I’m afraid I have more to do than could possibly be done before Sunday. Well, I take that back, it COULD be done before Sunday, but not when I need to take care of a baby, clean the house, and take care of a hubby! I invited a few people over for dinner, which has its positives and negatives. Positives: the house will get clean today. Negatives: I have to clean the house today! It does need to be done….along with everything else!

Our church is doing visitation on Monday night to follow-up on the prospects that came to Fall Festival. That’s great, except I had already scheduled a Children’s Committee meeting that night to plan our Christmas event! I foresee that this job is going to consist of a series of schedule conflicts….

:-(

Poor baby is sick…

It started with gas. Then constipation. Now diarrhea and fever and rash. What is to blame for it?

She had the MMR a little over a week ago. I know that’s what’s causing the rash, but I don’t know for sure about the rest.

She’s cutting a tooth.

She just had a change in schedule over the weekend.

So, Mommys, has the MMR ever caused diarrhea in your child? I don’t see it on my list of possible symptoms.

We did alright getting fluids into her until tonight. I really wanted her to drink something before she went to bed, probably more for my peace of mind, but she refused everything. The only real meal she had today was breakfast, but as long as she drinks, I’m not as worried. If she won’t drink in the morning, I’m calling the doctor.

We had a GREAT weekend, I took off from all my church responsibilities and we went “home” to visit family. Josh’s sister was on Homecoming Court for the high school football game on Friday night, and our old church had its Homecoming on Sunday. So we made a weekend of it, and we RESTED. I think it really helped me to recover from Fall Festival. But now I’m playing catch up at home, and at work! I don’t know if it will really be possible to get all my hours in this week, especially with Ava sick. But God will provide what I need!