Soon to have home internet again!!

And hopefully that will mean more up to date blogging!

There is so much to blog about today I hardly no where to begin! I guess I will just give a weekly run down of what has been going on and hit all the big stuff along the way.

So lets start with Monday. It had been a good day for all the Mayos. We were doing our thing at home, homework was done, laundry was going, dinner was cooking. Jim was on the phone with his mom and I was busy with something, I cannot really remember for sure what it was now. But, I remember knowing that JC had run into our room and that I needed to go get him. Usually him running into our room just means he is trying to find Leo! So, I finished what I was doing and went to get him. Well I discovered that the bathroom door was shut, not big deal, he loves to shut doors. Then I tried to open the bathroom door, it was locked! I panic! I am running to the laundry room, screaming at Jim that he has locked himself in the bathroom. I pull all the towels and rags from the cabinet digging for the emergency key to the doors. This was where we had kept it before. As I am digging I remember that we had to use the key before to get in Drew's room because the door had been mistakenly locked. After that incident we had put it in the drawer in the boy's bathroom. I tell Jim to look there and he gets the key and runs back to the bathroom to release the bad child before I could even get down from the step stool in the laundry room! I just could not do anything but laugh at this point. He was not even phased by it! Jim was on the verge of breaking the door down! He is amazing sometimes!

Tuesday morning as we were getting ready to leave for the day I noticed that JC's right eye looked really red. We looked at it, cleaned it out really good and put some pink eye drops that we had in the medicine cabinet in it as a precaution. I really did not think that it was pink eye but most likely just allergies. Well, he did not make it at daycare but about an hour before they called me about it. Jim went and got him and took him to the doctor. They said it was mild pink eye and gave us a prescription for drops. He was not going to be able to go back to day care until Thursday. We were not really sure what we were going to do on Wednesday. Neither one of us really could miss an entire day of work. We ended up getting Elizabeth to keep him on Wednesday. This is the first time she has really ever kept JC. He had a wonderful day over there. Elizabeth has been trying to convince me to let her keep JC for some time now. We talked about it a little bit more that afternoon and I told her that we would talk about it more. Jim and I looked at the numbers and it will save us $55 per week! Not to mention that with Elizabeth we only have to pay her for days that she actually keeps him. So if he is sick or if we are on vacation or if Jim is out of school for a day or what have you we will not owe her money. So we will save atleast 2500.00 per year just because of the cut in the weekly amount and having to pay at the day care regardless of whether or not he attends. Of course there will be some extra gas expense by going to her house everyday, but that is a minimal expense and still means a massive savings each week. We are excited about it and she is too. She does not keep very many kids each day now that all but one of her own are in school. He will begin going to her house the week after Christmas. She is going to keep JC and Drew two days that week to allow Jim to get some work done to prepare for the semester ahead.

We will be going tonight to my mom's Christmas program! I am excited about that. We are planning to get some dessert somewhere afterward and visit a little. Tomorrow is the OB Christmas Parade. That is always a fun event! We love to watch the parade. We especially like to watch the OB band and look for Jim. My best friend, Stephanie, will be going with me and the boys. We always have a lot of fun. Tomorrow night is my staff Christmas party. We got a sitter for the boys so they will be able to have their normal routine that evening and be ready for bed when we get home. I am looking forward to an evening with good friends and some awesome food!

Now I am going to post a lot of pictures.

This is sick JC from a couple of weeks ago. He was loving all the attention that he was getting this morning. I had propped him up on his boppy pillow in the recliner with his milk. Such a typical man!!


This is JC on any typical afternoon. He thinks that if there is food in the oven it should be done immediately so he can eat it. So he will stand there and talk to the oven. We think he is telling it to hurry up and get done!


This afternoon he decided to play Peek-A-Boo with me and the camera!



Since the oven was not responding to his demands he decided to sit down and learn some letters!


Our decorated tree! Simple, but beautiful I think!


JC watching the Christmas parade. He is sitting in the storage box for the train track, what better place to sit and watch the parade!


Christmas Card Photos; Take 1


Take 2, probably the keeper. JC would not wear his Santa hat!


The Christmas Ham who wanted me to keep taking pictures of just him!

Sunday

I wrote this blog on Sunday. I just now have had a chance to upload it! I am about to do another blog with more info from the last week and pics.

Sunday, November 28, 2010:
Well, the Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone and now as I sit on Sunday afternoon typing this blog post I am wondering how the last 4 days have passed by so quickly! We really did have a wonderful holiday though. It all started off on Tuesday evening. We went to Southaven that evening to go grocery shopping at Aldi and Kroger and we went by my sister’s house to get her old Christmas tree. She decided to buy a new one so we got her old one, which is a 7 ft tree that is very skinny. It is a bit taller than our old one but the thing I really love about it is that it is so much less tree around. So, after we picked up the tree and went to the grocery store we decided to have dinner out at the IHOP. This has been one our favorite family dinner locations. The kids eat free there and they eat well there, so it is great! We came home from there and actually put the tree together. I did go ahead and put the angel on top and the ribbons running down it, but we were not going to decorate it until the next day. Wednesday I did have to work but Jim stayed home with the boys. I got to come home a little bit early and we began the decorating when I got here. We really did not put much out this year. JC is in such an active stage and he has a tendency to get into things, so we decided that it would be safer to decorate very minimally this year. It looks very nice though and it will be fairly easy to clean it all up after Christmas is over. Usually we have all decorated together but this year is was mainly just me doing it! This was mostly because JC was so busy trying to get into all the boxes of decorations that Jim pretty much just had to corral him away from the living room! Drew was just busy doing his own thing so I did not have a whole lot of help. That night, after the decorating was done, Drew, Jim and I sat down to watch a movie. I had gotten A Christmas Carol from the Redbox. It was about 7:30pm when we sat down to watch it. We got to the part just before the ghost of Marley was to appear and the dvd messed up! It was quite frustrating! Jim called the number on the back of the case and the person at Redbox was most hopeful. They gave us 2 codes for free rentals. Jim was able to go and get us the same movie at another location. However, by the time he got home it was after 9pm! It was nearly 11pm when it was over and we went to bed. It was fun though. It was a really good movie and Drew enjoyed it. We all slept in on Thursday morning. We had prepared a breakfast casserole the night before so I got up and cooked that and perked some coffee and we have a wonderful breakfast and then just sat around and watched the parade. It was nice to relax and spend some great time together as a family. We headed to my mom’s around noon and had a dinner there with all my family.

Well that night the real fun began! My mom, sister, aunt, and I headed out to begin our Black Friday shopping at 11pm on Thanksgiving night. We went to Wal-Mart to be there for the sale beginning at 12:01am. We got back to my mom’s around 12:45am and headed back out for Kohls at 2:30am! Yes, you read that correctly, 2:30am. We were there at 3am when they opened the doors. We were in Kohls for quite some time since it took about an hour and a half to check out. After leaving Kohls we headed to Target and after that it was nearly 6am so we headed to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. By then we were in serious need of some nourishment and coffee for fuel! We headed on to the mall in Southaven after that and then on out to the mall in Collierville. I got home just before noon. So that was over 12 hours of shopping! Oh my, I just realized that as I typed it, I am pretty nuts!! It was fun though. I did get some awesome deals but mostly I really enjoyed the time of fellowship with the ladies of my family!

Yesterday we went to my mother-in-law’s for Thanksgiving with Jim’s family. It was a really great visit with them. Jim’s brother cooked the turkey and dressing and they were both incredibly good! It was a really good afternoon. Jim and the other guys helped get her Christmas decorations out so that she can begin her decorating. Drew played with his cousins and seemed to have a really good time. He is a several years younger than them so he is just getting to an age where they really can play all together. It ended up being quite pleasant outside yesterday afternoon so they were able to play outdoors some too. It is always good for them to be able to get outside and burn off some energy.

Today has been a mostly usual Sunday. We went to church this morning. I went and met some friend’s for lunch. It was so nice to visit with them. We have not gotten together for some time. We sat and visited for hours at the restaurant.

Well, it was a busy but wonderful holiday! I know that before we know it we will be celebrating Christmas. The weeks ahead are so very busy with parties and activities. I will do my best to blog as often as I can. I am trying to type out my thoughts at home and upload them when I am in the office. So until next time that is all!

Trying Something New

So I decided to just type out what I would have blogged on Friday night on my laptop. I saved the file to my phone and then put the file on my work computer and am now going to copy and paste it! Pretty ingenious I think!

I just watched the most delightful movie, Miss Potter, starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. I got it from the library today. On Fridays I try to take Drew by there to get some movies for the weekend. They are free there and we get to keep them for the entire weekend. This movie was the story of Beatrix Potter, the author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It made me laugh, made me smile, and made me cry! I highly recommend it!

Well tonight Jim had the last football game for this year. We managed to make it to the second round of playoffs and played South Panola tonight. Of course we lost, but from the reports I have heard thus far it sounds as though we put up quite a fight. The boys and I stayed home. It is just too cold now to be out at the ball field with the boys. We had a good evening here at home. JC actually took a late afternoon nap because he did not nap good at day care and I really did not want to put him to bed early on a Friday night only to have him wake up early on Saturday morning! So after his nap I fed them dinner and then we did some big cleaning out in Drew’s room. We cleaned out all the toys and put things in there proper place. We filled up a box full of toys and books to give away. Drew was really very good about it. I had prepared him ahead of time that we were going to do this but I still expected the whining and begging to keep some of the silly happy meal toys and stuff! He was so good about it all though, not once did he complain about something I wanted to get rid of. I was very proud of him. I hope this is a result of some spiritual growth in his life.

Well that is it for tonight. I got another movie for Jim and I to watch tomorrow, His, Mine, and Ours with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. We will see if Jim can stay awake for it after a full day of house cleaning!

Long time no blog :-(

Things have been pretty crazy lately! I keep thinking that things will slow down soon but I am afraid I am just kidding myself. My blogging is hurting a great deal because we do not have the internet at home right now. We cut it off when the school year started due to Jim getting a pay cut. We do hope to turn it back on after the first of the year. Jim has work that he can do from home if we have it and right now he is having to go to the school all the time in order to do it. So I hope that I will be more current on my blogging then. For the time being though I will just continue to do the best I can! We started off this week pretty rough. Last weekend I went to the Flea Market in Tupelo with my mom and sister. We had a great time. It had been a while since we had gotten to do this. I actually bought the very first of my Christmas presents while there so that was great. I got home that afternoon about 3:30 and just as I arrived home my best friend, Stephanie, was dropping off her girls for the night! I was really excited to have "my girls" to spend the night and to go with us to church on Sunday. I had thought about all the great things we could do together, like paint our nails and all watch a movie! Well it just did not all go like that! Jim was not feeling good at all. He had already been sick for most of that week and was putting off going to the doctor. It ended up just being a non-stop afternoon and evening of just getting dinner ready and getting them all to bed. By the time Jim and I got back to our room for the night we were pretty wiped out. And, by then they had gotten a bit too loud and woke up JC so he was in our room, wide awake! He ended up going back down for us pretty easily about 10pm. I then went into the bathroom to do my normal routine of taking out contacts, washing my face, and brushing my teeth. Apparently as I took my contact out of my right eye I scraped the surface of my eye with the tip of my finger. It hurt soooo bad! It made it very difficult to go to sleep that night. Sunday morning it was still really bad and I of course could not get my contacts back in. We manage to get everyone ready and get to church though. It was not my best Sunday! It was hard to see and my eye just constantly watered. We ended up eating lunch with our friends in order to get the girls back to them. We went home and put everyone down for a nap. We went back to church that evening for our Operation Christmas Child box collection service. Drew sang with the children's choir and did so well. He did not act scared or upset at all. It was a very sweet service as we listened to a woman share about her experience of actually taking the shoeboxes to a country in South America for the distribution. She showed pictures of children living in a dump, an actual dump. It just made my heart ache for the poverty all around our world. We just do not realize how blessed we really are. This year we are not doing nearly as much for Christmas as we have in the past, and Drew knows this. With pay cuts and unexpected repairs to our home we are just not able to do much. Even the little we are doing though is so much more than the kids that will be getting the shoeboxes. I cannot thank God enough for how He provides over and above our needs. Sunday night Jim and I had made the decision that it was going to be a doctor visit on Monday for both of us, as well as JC. JC was all congested and following his typical pattern of getting an ear infection. So Monday morning started off at the doctor's office. It was determined that all of us had sinus infections, Jim had an ear infection, and JC was close to an ear infection. My eye was okay, just scratched. Jim and I both got sinus shots, I got a flu shot, and we all got prescriptions for antibiotics. I am happy to report that we are all feeling much better now. Jim is still having some issues with his ear being closed up but it is improving. It was extremely bad infection in his left ear. He has a football game tonight and I have instructed him that he must wear some cotton in both ears to keep the infection from returning. It has made for a really long week and extra busy at work due to missing a day. Thankfully we have no plans for this Saturday other than cleaning our filthy house!! The house must get cleaned this weekend so that we can begin decorating for Christmas next week. I really don't even care to decorate! I know that is aweful but I am having a really off year when it comes to Christmas. I seem to go through cycles like this. I am either really excited and ready for it or I am dreading it. This year I am dreading it. I can say that I have now just about gotten my shopping done so that has helped a bit with my attitude about it. Also, I think that it is going to be a hard year for decorations with JC. He is quite the mischevious little boy! I think it is going to be a lot of fun for the actual Christmas activities with him this year.
Well, that is all for now. I am finishing up this post on my phone, which is much more complicated than on computer!

Big Things Going On!!

The most exciting news ever!!!

A week ago today Drew ask Jesus into his heart to be his personal Lord and Savior!! This is something that Jim and I have been praying about for a long time, really since he was born. We are so excited that he made this decision. He will begin attending a class for new Christians this Sunday. This is for about 7 weeks and then after that we should be planning a time for him to be baptized. Of course we will let everyone know and hope that many of you can be there with us for this very special time!

The last week has been very busy with activities! Last week we made the big move into the new office! I am so excited to have a real office of my own! The new space is really beautiful. The guys that worked so hard can not possibly know how much their hard work is appreciated. The move was very successful and without great incident.

On Friday I had promised Drew to take him to see my new office. He was very excited to see it. I also took he and JC out on the playground at the church for a little play time. Here are some pics from our time playing!








They had a great time, as you can see!!

Saturday morning we got up and had a very leisurely morning at home. This was Jim’s first Saturday off from band competitions. After getting a little extra sleep and a great home cooked breakfast we got ready and went to Cedar Hill Farms for some great fall fun! See the pics from our fun below…










After all our fun at the farm we went and had lunch together and then did some Walmart shopping. It was a very good day but by the time we got home we were all worn out. I made a nice hot pot of bean soup. The weather was perfect for a relaxing evening in the house with a good fall meal like soup!

Sunday was Halloween. We had our Fall Festival at church so the kids got to dress up and have fun and stay safe. JC was a lion and Drew was Luke Skywalker. Check out all the fun below...










We were really glad that our friends, the Hanks, could join us for the fun. This was our first Fall Festival at our new church home. It was a great time. We are starting to make connections with people and build some friendships. We are so thankful that God has brought us to LHBC.

Yesterday afternoon we took JC for his first haircut! He was so good, really better than I had anticipated he would be. Here are some pics of this momentous occasion!









Well, as usual our days are busy! I was told yesterday that we are only 7 weeks from Christmas. I am now in panic mode! I cannot believe that it is almost that time of year. I am looking forward to the holidays and the time spent with family, but I am not looking forward to the shopping. I seems I go through cycles where some years I am on fire and have everything done before Thanksgiving and then I have a year, like this one, where I seem to be dragging my feet and dreading it all. I think the most important thing I can do in all of it is remember why I am celebratin. It is the time for us to remember the birth of our Lord Jesus! This year will be especially wonderful since Drew will be able to celebrate it as a new believer!

Well, that is all for now!

Checking in

Well we are officially done with all band competitions for the year! It was another great year for the OBHS Marching Band. I am always very proud of Jim and the work that he does and this year was no exception! We are all very glad it is over. As much fun as it and as great as it is to watch them perform we are glad to have the hubby and daddy back home in the afternoons and on Saturdays! We have a couple more regular season games and then we will be in playoff season.

The first major big news is that Drew made Principal's List for his report card!! All A's and all S's in conduct! WoooHooo! We are so very proud of him!

We have had all sorts of things going on. Two weeks ago I took the kids to a football game for the first time this season. They were really very good. I was actually expecting it to be really bad and stressful and I was most pleasantly surprised! JC was absolutely mesmerized by the drums! Drew was a big helper. We stayed through half time and got to visit with Jim a little bit and still got home about 8:30. That Saturday Jim had a competition in Southaven. It was very nice that this one was so close wo we got to have Jim home for the morning! This made our day MUCH easier! We were able to enjoy the morning having a leisurely breakfast and getting some laundry and stuff done. After Jim left we got ready to go to my mom’s for the evening. My sister and her boys came too and we had a wonderful time visiting and letting the kids play. It was a nice distraction from being home alone with the kids. Of course being all together is exhausting too! I was still running around behind JC a lot. My sister and I had already discussed that we would bath my 2 kids plus her 2 youngest together in my mom’s big tub before leaving. I wanted to be ready to just put them in the bed when I got home. So we got the kids in the bathroom to get them in the tub. I had just taken JC’s clothes off and was checking the water temp before putting him in and he started peeing on me! I was so frustrated at this point! So I came home quite tired and with JC pee on my leg! All in all though it was a really good day and I really enjoyed the visit with my parents.

This past weekend we had the last band competition for the season. Some good friends kept the boys over night for us so I got to go and even ride with Jim on the bus. Not that riding on a bus is a great fun thing to me but it was nice to just get to be with him since we had been seperated so much lately. As a matter of fact, this is the third time we have had someone keep our kids this fall for me to go to a band function. One of the parents has noticed this and thinks that Jim and I really need to rethink our idea of a date night!! HA!

Sunday afternoon the Sunday School class that we have been visiting was going on an outing to eat lunch and to Cedar Hill Farms. We have been back and forth about going because of the money and because of it being Sunday afternoon and right in the middle of nap time and all. But as it turned out I won 2 tickets to get in so we decided since we only had to pay for one person (JC is under 2 and free to get in) that we would go. Well on Sunday we finally got some rain!! Unfortunatley that much needed rain made it impossible to go to Cedar Hill Farms. We did get to eat a picnic lunch at Congor Park and then we went ahead and let Drew pick out a pumpkin since that was his reward for his report card. We are planning to go this Friday back to the farm. Jim has a week off because it is an away game that the band does not have to travel to. So I hope to get lots of great pics of them there! For now enjoy the pics below that are from the last several weeks!

Hanging out with mom while dad was at a middle school football game

Watching TV on Friday night while dad was at the football game.

Check out what I can do all by myself now....

Ready to carve the pumpkin

Drew demonstrating what he wanted the pumpkin face to look like


The finished product!

Is it November yet?????

I wish it was! I hate to wish time by since as I grow older it seems to pass by much too quicly on it's own, but I am ready for this month to be over! This is, without a doubt, the busiest time in the life of a band director and his family. My blog is suffering greatly because of all our business! It has also made a huge impact that we do not have internet at home anymore. I really miss that and being able to work on this at home. Hopefully after the first of 2011 and the completion of our car loan, HALLELUJAH!, I will be able to reconnect that service.

Since I am so incredibly behind on blogging this post may get a bit randam. I am going to try my best to get everyone caught up on everything. I do not have any pictures to post today because there has been no real time for that either!

Let's start with JC. JC is now 16 months old! That is so hard to believe. He is weighing it at more the 27lbs and is now wearing size 5 diapers! We barely even got Drew in a 4 before he was potty trained! He wears 24mon clothing although the pants are a bit long and are all having to be rolled up. Shirts we do not seem to have a length problem with. He is BAD! Yes, I said bad, and you two grandma's don't think I am just exagerating! He has a hard headed nature, and I have not got a clue who he gets that from!! But, I will break him! He can tackle his brother and pin him on the ground and he has recently been trying that trick at school which has landed him in time-out! He still does not nap good at school. I am not sure what we can do to help with that. Yesterday he had only napped for an hour and was in such a state by the time we sat down for dinner that we had to just put in him the bed and he slept for about 30min and then ate dinner and went straight back to bed. He can speed walk now. I would not call it running yet but he sure gets around quick so I consider it speed walking. He has also recently decided that he no longer likes green beans. That and zuchinni and squash are the only things he really will not eat. Although, if he sees fruit or anything sweet on his plate he just about refuses to eat the other food first. Right now he is really having issues with his allergies. I really should have began giving him claritan when the weather got cooler but I did not. So now we are giving him cough stuff and hoping that this one will not end up in his ears. He had another ear infection 3 weeks ago. Most times these little colds have ended up in his ears but I am praying that will not be the case this time. But overall he is doing great and getting big quick!

Now on to Drew. Drew is still the silly, goofy little boy he always is! He iis still involved in Cub Scouts. They are working on earning the first award for his age group. He has really enjoyed being part of this. I think once Jim gets past the band season he will be able to be more involved. He has not gotten to go on the 2 campouts that the pack has had. Jim and Drew did campout in the backyard last Saturday night. It got a little cool that night, about 40 degrees, but they stuck out the entire night and had a great time. He is doing really well in school academically. He has an all A average right now. He does like to talk a bit too much at school though and is trying to work harder on sitting still in class and paying good attention. The classwork is pretty challenging but he is doing really well and the homework is not too overwhelming or time consuming. He is doing really well at church and is starting to make friends. It will good when we transition him to the Olive Branch schools next year and he will actually see some of the kids throughout the week. He is now riding the bike like a pro! He is definitely getting a new, bigger bike for Christmas. He is still asking lot and lots of questions about Jesus and becoming a Christian. I think he is really close to making a decision. He just needs to get a better understanding of why he needs Jesus as his personal Savior. It is something that Jim and I are so anxious for and yet we do not want to be over zealous and push him too early. We just pray to say the right things at the right times and that God will lead the way!

Jim will be at band competitions for the next 3 weekends. We did get last week off which was so very nice! Last Friday was the big game against South Panola. Of course we lost but still there is always a big crowd at this game. I got a babysitter for the night so that I could go and enjoy the game and some time with just me and Jim. It has been such a long time since I just stood and watched an OB football game with him. We had a nice time and even got out of the school early enough to go get something to eat before sending the babysitter home. We spent all day on Saturday cleaning the house and the yard up. Both were badly in need! I even cleaned all my curtains and just last night got the ironed and rehung. It was very nice to have some time to actually work on that. We went to church Sunday morning and we joined that day! So now we are officially members of Longview Heights Baptist Church. We are very excited about getting involved and meeting people in our new church home. The kids have really transitioned well. It seems now it is just Jim and I that need to find our spot and begin to make some connections with people. We did really enjoy the Sunday School class we visited on Sunday and plan to be in there again this week. It turns out that I know the teacher of this class from a long time ago and we both really enjoyed his teaching. Of course we miss all our friends but we know that this is God's will for our lives at this time.

Well, the next few weeks are gonna be wild! I am flying solo with the kids this weekend and the next. The next weekend (22,23,24), will be the last week of Jim's band stuff. I am actually getting to attend that weekend. Some friends will be keeping the boys for us on that Saturday and overnight until Sunday. I am really looking forward to that. I will be frazzled after two weekends on my own! I am trying to plan some things for us to do though. Tomorrow we are going to spend the afternoon at my sisters and let the kids play for a while. I will try to do better this weekend and actually take some pictures of my kids!

Oh, before I close I will have to give an update on the new building/office renovation project at work. The church has officially moved into the new building, although there are many things that still need to be done. The office is about mid-way through the renovation project. As I type they are putting down the new flooring and hopefully the wiring and phones will all be moved by next week. We are looking at a move in date of 10/28-29. I like having a date in mind so that I can be prepared, on some level anyway! I hate moving! I am so very excited about my new office and my window but I really hate the process of moving. I meant to go take some pics on my phone of the office renovation yesterday but I forgot too and since they are up there working today I cannot. So maybe next week!

So, that will do it for another update from the Mayos!