10 days to go!

10 days till Christmas, 12 days till my birthday ....

all of this would be more exciting if Preston was going to be home, but it looks like he wont get to come home till January sometime :( boo. He is having a really, really hard time emotionally and physically with this job and I just pray he can stick it out and not quit. At first we thought he was going to be home for the week after Christmas and now we dont know when so i hate not having a certain date to look forward to. I'm totally bummed at the thought that he probably wont be here, we haven't spent a Christmas or birthday apart in 5 years, so im trying to not let it spoil the season for me:) but it still stinks. I just have hope that maybe by some chance he'll get be here. I have shopped for everyone and wrapped for everyone all by myself, blah, I need my other half!

Thank you Lorri Anne for changing my blog background! loooove it :D it made me smile ....

Tonight i went to dinner with prestons grandparents and then we drove around looking at christmas lights, it was fun:) and tomorrow is wednesday and that means its time for this busy weekend! actually thursday and friday are packed too, babysitting, work christmas party, moms family is coming down saturday for christmas. i;m going to try and enjoy it all . . . i miss my husband and cant wait for him to come home!

JwF

Oh my, 15 days!?!?!

wow, its almost the middle of December already?

how crazy is that! just the other day it was summer and life was a breeze :)

I have a Love/Hate relationship with Christmas, i love the lights, trees, food, family time and giving presents! but i hate the stress that comes with the Holidays. every year since my daddy was little they went into our woods and cut down their Christmas tree each year and he has always done that with us, such memories cutting down a tree each year:) bringing it home and tying it to the ceiling so it doesn't fall lol, below is the winner picked for 2010, she really is a beauty compared to some we have had:) AND no strings on her yet!

Wood Family Tree

My Birthday is also in Dec. which i have always really hated it being right after Christmas and my brothers is the day before mine! i always envied the kids who got to have summer birthday parties at the Lake or somewhere fun ... December is cold and wet and yucky and not a good time for a birthday lol but what do ya do! I turn the big 24 this year and i must say i am a little freaked out about that, i feel like life is going by too fast and i want to be young forever!!

some good news we have had the past few weeks is - Preston was able to take a course for truck driving and passed with flying colors after his 6 weeks and has a job! hallelujah! :) i dropped him off in Dallas sunday night and he had 2 days of orientation which turned into 4 days and he finally goes out on the road tomorrow with his trainer ( he rides/drives with a trainer for 6 weeks) the bad news is that he will be gone a lot and i miss him terribly already:( i havent spent more than 5 days away from him in 6 years! and that was years ago when he went to Paris Junior College for a year. so yes i am so not looking forward to all his time away but he is supposed to be home for christmas and my birthday as of right now but that could change and then gone for another 3 weeks with trainer till he is out on his own and he should be home most* weekends then ::sigh:: i am proud of him for taking on this and i worry about his safety constantly but i did that here too lol. This is yet another challenge in life/marriage and we will work our way through it and learn from it all. God is good, all the time!

I must get off of this computer and get to bed! with all my alone time ill be having now i see more frequent blogs again, if i have no one to talk to i can always talk to myself on here! :)

JwF

Rebuilding ....

"After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, establish and strengthen you." 1 peter 5:10

just repeat that over and over and over and over again ..... its calming : )

the last 6 weeks have been a little rough and im just trying to make it through this life change, with lots of new things coming up ahead too but i dont want to get into any of that till things actually happen. this month i have been doing ( like a lot of others) 30 days of thankfulness and it has really made me look past the bad that has happened the last month and think about all of the good things, things that i am thankful to have, i thought it would be hard to come up with something every day for 30 days that i am thankful for but its rather easy, my life is blessed even in times of trial. My Family is my world and i dont know what i would do without them. This is not meant to be a downer post! :) I have always said that i believe everything happens for a reason ... even if we cant see that reason ourselves at first ... yes i so miss my own space, my bed :( my DISHES lol but some day sooner rather than later i hope i will have my space again, i am so thankful for my mama and daddy!

I cannot wait for church tomorrow ... and then hopefully ill get to check out my sister in laws new apt and spend some time with my husband whom i havent been able to see much lately and the next 2 weeks are going to be so busy and i know i wont see him then either! and today i actually got to sleep in and it was heavenly ...really:) then i went to my great aunts like normal and my sister and i decided to clean her 50 gal. fish tank and get new rocks and a few new fish ( my aunt loves her fish, she watches them for hours! ) so about 30 minutes into this ordeal we realized how much work it was! we are beat, but the tank looks great (even got some glow in the dark rocks!) and i got home at 8pm! so off to bed for me :) good night!

and ..... Gwenny is free from the turtlenapper!!! now she is still not in my possession but she will be soon! :D Kelly Anne won her bid on Ebay and Gwenny is recuperating at kelly's house and i will get her back this weekend! :D

JwF

Hello World!

I'm still here ... somewhere ... in the hidden forest that is Wood Lane :) Not much has happened the last few weeks which is not exactly a good thing but things could be worse right? ... right! so i am thankful for that.

I wanted to post some pictures of my precious babies i have been watching for the past year and a half, they are like Family to me and i just love them! the girls are changing so fast, Julia was only 15 months when i started watching them and Jenna wasn't even born yet. so sad how fast they grow :( Jenna has started walking some and she is so funny. I had them all last weekend while mommy and daddy went to the 2 rangers games ( and they are going tonight so ill have the girls, im so jealous:) but they did get me a cool playoff shirt so im happy :) )



Julia & Jenna - this picture is from early spring this year and they have grown so much since then! sweet sisters.



this was this past weekend when i had them - too cute




Julia loves her baby sister, jenna .... im not sure lol




isn't she beautiful?



this one i could just squeeze on all day

this was sometime in the summer they are funny and are never still! i love nap time.

Jacob ... he can be a handful but he really is so sweet

this was Julia when i first started watching her. she has changed a lot!

and baby Jenna, i miss her being to little but i love her new stage she is in!

these kids keep me smiling and are such a joy! cant wait to have the girls tonight!

hope everyone has a great weekend!!

JwF

Changes

short quick update for now -

I haven't been on in a while, now i did of course keep up with my other blogs i stalk

but life has been a little crazy and i just haven't felt like blogging. Lets see ...

um in the past week, long complicated story short - my husband was laid off,

and we moved back out to wood lane for a little while which isn't too bad, i miss the family

and Preston and the boys are having a blast, hog hunting, gun shooting, playing video

games etc. Preston would get lonely with just me and nothing to do so now i never

see him ... in fact he is off in the woods with Chris now shooting things

(Note to self: get more life insurance on that boy! haha)

Trying to stay positive is hard some days, today was a good day though.

I just have to remember it will be OKAY! :D

JwF

Its always something ....

Tuesday while I was driving around on lunch break I noticed that my air-conditioned was not doing right it was cold then I would hear a weird noise from under the hood and then the air would get really warm and back and forth this went on so I called my uncle ( I am so lucky to have a dad and brothers and uncle who can truly fix and build anything!) and I told him what it was doing and so he said he'd be out at his shop tonight ( which is out where my parents live) and told me to bring it by after work, so I did. I was so praying it just needed some coolant or recharge - something simple.... but no. long story short what had happened was my cooling fan on my engine went out, which caused my air compressor to go out, uhg! But uncle Andy found a cooling fan for the engine ... couple hundred dollars later :( Its fixed. the good new is once he got the new fan on by some miracle ( lots of praying!) the air compressor has been working great (Tuesday night it was sparking and smoking really bad!) thank you Jesus! because that was so going to have to wait till spring to get fixed lol. every time I get a little something put aside something comes up, but that's what its there for I guess - life's unexpected moments, so I am thankful that I was able to get my car fixed and was only out of it for 1 day. So back to rebuilding my stash fund again and praying the cars stay working! but we do need 2 new tires for mine and 3 for Preston's really soon . . . must have been easy back in the day with a horse and wagon ... couldn't have broken/worn down as much lol. But I'm hoping Preston's will last till at least the 1st of the year when we can hopefully get him something newer ::fingers crossed:: his car is a year newer than mine but its been driven a little hard and is kinda sad cosmetically lol.


because I was out of my car till wed. night I had to miss bible study:( so I was not very happy about that and I'm looking forward to next week when I can go back again. The rest of my week after the car episode has been quite nice and I'm looking forward to this weekend, some time with some of my favorite kids and then my very first best friend is getting married Saturday yay! and then moving to Indianapolis boo! then saturday afternoon im hoping to go see an old friend and her new baby :) and Sunday I hope to have a restful day and praying that those cowboys can bring one home! A little stressed about the future these days ... sometimes I wish I still lived at home with mommy & daddy when life was so simple and not a care in the world :) But then I remember what it was like with 10 kids and sharing a room with and just 1 bathroom! and I'm thankful to live with just 1 person haha! hope everyone has a great weekend!


JwF

wrap it up

I was so proud of myself yesterday! We went to Preston's grandparents yesterday ( for grandparents day) and I made lunch to bring with us, now normally I dont really cook for anyone but Preston because im afraid something wont taste good and he'll eat anything so its ok:) but I cooked a seasoned Pork loin filet and brought salad, green beans w/ almonds & potato salad and it was all yummy:) so cooking confidence went up a little . . .but I still dont want to cook for a crowd lol.

I had a good weekend, Saturday I watched the little girls ( Jenna & Julia) for a few hours and then I went to my great aunts to visit her for grandma day and then I ran to the store to get groceries for Sunday and then home, I was supposed to clean the house and do laundry Saturday night .... but I got home and made the mistake of getting in bed for just a second and that was it, I was asleep by 7! Sunday was all about grandparents and we stayed there till 5ish then came home to finish the laundry I started that morning and cleaned the house and that was all done by 6 so I settled in to watch a few hours of Law & Order SVU then some Kardashians and the cowboys weren't doing so hot so I didn't stay up to finish that game ... and it looks like that was a good idea. poor cowgirls, we're never gonna make it to the bowl playing like that! but maybe the good 'ol Saints will again!

no big plan this week but I am going to try some more new recipes that I have been collecting and that excites me! :D Last night I slept so good ... and you know why? because Preston stayed up all night playing xbox and ended up sleeping in the other room and I forget how badly I sleep with his snoring, it wakes me several times a night and I just kick him till he stops lol but this morning I felt so refreshed :) maybe I can talk him into sleeping in there a few nights a week so im not such a zombie? I totally see why my great aunt and uncle had separate bedrooms because of his snoring .... note to self: buy a house with lots of bedrooms!

I'm so excited that Fall is nearly here! I love the cool ( not freezing cold!) weather and the fall clothes and THANKSGIVING & CHRISTMAS!! woohoo! I am so starting on my Christmas list this week so I can start slowly collecting that stuff, Christmas can be stressful with my huge family so I say every year im going to start early but do I? no. but am I this year? YES. .... we'll see

:)

Hope everyone has a great week! Happy Fall!!

JwF

stepping up

This has been a great week!

started off with a *no work Monday* which is just awesome! and the stress at work this week has been pretty much a 0 (knocks on wood) which is so nice, its been a little rough this year but I just try to do my best and stay out of trouble and take each day as it comes. I went to a women's bible study Wednesday night at my sisters church and really enjoyed it. they are doing Beth Moore's *Stepping Up* ( its a video study with work books) a journey through Psalms ( which is my favorite book in the Bible) and I have got to get around to LifeWay this weekend and pick up my study book so I cant start on the daily devotional stuff that goes with this lesson. Beth Moore is so funny and easy to follow. So I'm excited to see what I can come out of this with!

Wednesday baby Jenna turned 1 and I cant believe how fast the year has gone! so tonight after work I'm going to their house for her little bday party and I got her a new book and a cute little outfit! I went to Macy's after work and normally I dont shop there because they are so over priced but they actually have really good deals on baby clothes ... I really want a girl first when I have a baby .... but I see now that its probably not a good idea because I really could have bought up a hundred outfits last night because everything is just so darn cute! It would definitely become a problem lol!

Yesterday I won a pair of tickets to the Robert E. Lee vs. John Tyler football game, which if you are from around here you know that's the game to see with those rivals! so after the party my husband and I are going to my first football game of the season ( He went to the TJC game last weekend with his granddad) and then Saturday ill be spending time with my great aunt and hopefully resting being a couch/bed bum that night, Sunday is church and Grandparents day so we'll be with Preston's grandparents! busy weekend and I'm not going to fully enjoy it if this awful headache doesn't go away asap!

Have a great weekend!

JwF

Monday thats actually Tuesday :)

Update: Cheeseburger Pasta was so good!

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

all weekend I had no problem getting up in the morning, even if it was early, but today when we had to go back to work when my alarm went off at 6 I hit the snooze button till 7, I just couldn't get up but I did only have 7 hours of sleep instead of my 10-12 so tonight its back to bed early lol.

I'm searching for another recipe to do this week since the two yesterday were a success! I have a recipe to do homemade soft pretzels .... but you have to have a mixer :( which I dont ... .so maybe someday I can give that a try because the soft pretzels in the mall are a total weakness and imagine if you could do them at home?!?! I think I have decided that im going to do *CheeseburgerPasta* tonight, yum! I just love campbellskitchen.com! All this pasta is so not healthy .... I know, but this one has hamburger meat so its not just cheese and pasta :) sometime later I'll do a dish that is more meat! but for now im looking for the quick and easy. I love to cook even if I'm not the best :)

This week is short with only 4 working days and lots of stuff going on, Preston has school on Wednesday & Thursday night each week so those are my quiet nights :) and Friday night we're going to celebrate baby Jenna's first birthday at her house:) ( she turns one tomorrow!) I cannot believe she is 1 already! just love those kids! and Sunday is grandparents day so of course we'll be spending it with them:) so I cannot wait for this weekend and i hope everyone has a great week!

JwF

cooking

Today i was in a cooking mood and i haven't done it in a long time so it was fun:) relived a little 4-H memory and decided to make a fruit pizza which i have not done in about ... oh 13 years or so! lol just forgot about these things and they are so good and healthy-ish. my husband had never had one or even know what it was and i told him i was going to make one and his first thought was *disgusting, im not going to try a pizza with fruit on it* poor baby has been missing out on this good stuff! but once he saw that it was not like a pepperoni pizza with strawberries or something he tried and liked it :)

Ingredients CRUST 1 Ready to bake piecrust, your favorite recipe, or our Foolproof Pie Shell FILLING 1/2 cup soft spread fat-free or low-fat cream cheese 1 tablespoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract TOPPINGS A selection of berries and sliced fruits (blueberries, strawberries, bananas, kiwis, seedless grapessliced in half, Mandarin orange sections, pineapple, etc...) Shredded coconut (optional) Instructions Let the piecrust come to room temperature per the package instructions, then unfold it onto a large cookie sheet or pizza pan. Roll up edges of the crust, crimping them slightly so that they'll stay rolled up. Prick the crust lightly with a fork in about 20 places (allowing air to escape). Bake the crust in a preheated 450 degree oven for about 9 minutes or until it's lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool. As the crust bakes, whisk together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract, adding just enough milk to make it spreadable. When the crust has cooled, spread on the cream-cheese mixture with a rubber spatula, bringing it to the edge of the pizza. Arrange the fruit on the pizza and don't stint on the creativity. Your kids can make a wild mosaic or a fruit face. If they like, sprinkle the pizza with shredded coconut. Slice with a sharp knife and serve, or refrigerate. Serves 8.

I also found a recipe for a 3 cheese pasta bake that was really good too:) anything with cheese is good to me and when its triple ... oh boy! it was very simple and easy to make and left over to bring for lunch tomorrow!

JwF

Happy Birthday Laura

today is a very special persons Birthday! and its the big *21* oh boy! Laura i have gathered a few :) pictures of us over the years to share. you are smart, beautiful (hate you), mexican (lol) and i am so lucky to have you as a friend! you're family to all of us! Love you so much bff. hope you have a great birthday!!! so take a look at the pictures and have a laugh! :)

Jennie-

just grape juice ppl! :)

JwF