God Is Good

Yesterday was one heck of an agonizing day.  Leading up to this day was a week and a half of pure worry.  It tested my faith and my strength.  Both of which needed some nurturing.  A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I have taken many sighs of relief.  I love my kids and my family more than anything and I am so very thankful for this journey, this path of life I have been given and I am embracing it.  Yesterday was a tough reminder of how precious it is.  It was also a good reminder that all those little things are just simply that, little.  I had a scare and it was big enough to shake me up again.  I am grateful.  I am happy.  God is good.

  

Halloween 2016

Halloween 2016 is in the books.  That is very hard to believe. Even harder that Thanksgiving is right around the corner and Christmas is a couple streets over.  Time is a flying.

I had asked the kids if they wanted to carve pumpkins this year.  Christopher was an "I don't know, maybe" and Bella was a very enthusiastic "YES".  Friday after work, I had to swing by Kroger to pick up some prescriptions so when I picked up Bella, I told her we could pick out her pumpkin for carving, but that we wouldn't carve until Saturday.  My girl picked out her pumpkin and proceeded to tell her pumpkin how very lucky she was to be picked by her, that she only chooses the most beautiful pumpkins.  She also told her pumpkin that it was soon to become even more beautiful after we carved a very special picture out of it.  Precious.  Saturday came and my girl chose an owl for carving.  Mommy ended up carving because I just wasn't okay with her using a very sharp carving tool so much to Bella's excitement, her job was to scoop out all the seeds after I was done.  

I was pretty impressed with my work since this was my first "fancy" carving.  I've only previously been limited to the standard jack-o-lantern face carvings. 

We lit our carved pumpkin as well as all our other lanterns on the porch and enjoyed them all.  

It was awesome. Something about this time of year with lit candles and lanterns is just soothing to me.  Unlike most, I love it when the time changes and the days are shorter.  I feel totally justified changing into my pajamas as soon as I get home and lighting a candle.    

Monday I left work an hour early to get home and get to daddy's before all the trick or treaters made it out. His neighborhood is very popular place on Halloween so I wanted to get there before it got crowded.  

Bella went as a cat again this year...

Her cousin Brady went as a catcher.  God bless him, he wore every piece of that equipment through the neighborhood as we went from house to house.  He was a trooper.  He would take off the helmet every now and then but put it right back on when he got ready to walk up to a new house.

There were only two houses that scared Bella enough that she stood her ground at the end of the driveway and waited for Brady to come back. In both cases, the owners were kind enough to see she was scared and brought some candy out to her.  One of them had a mask on and took it off so she could see he was just a nice normal guy.  Good people right there.

Before we headed home, I had my niece take a picture of me with my sweet goblins.

One lucky mommy right there. 

From The Fair

We wrapped up the Brazoria County Fair last weekend and I was kind of glad to see it go but also sad because truthfully, I do enjoy our fair.

Before I get started with all the week long festivities, let me share with you Toot Marie's artwork that was chosen for the fair.

She placed second and was super happy.  I was so proud of my girl.  I love her animals.  This was the best picture I could get because they displayed her artwork waaaay up top.  Short girl problems!

The week started out with my niece and nephew participating in the calf scramble and I am proud to say, they both caught a calf!  Brandon took a beating but he won out in the end.

Brandon with sponsor.  

And with me :).  

The kids were with their dad this particular weekend so they missed the scramble. 

The next night was Kenna Bug...

Here I am with the previous night's calf catcher.  He had a huge bruise on his leg and a few scratches but other than night, he was good.

With her sponsor...

And her godmother :)

And now with me and her Mommy.  

Can you tell we're related?  Lol

The following weekend, I decided to try my hand at not one but two contests.  The last couple of years, I have entered the Rice Plus Cook Off.  In this contest, you can make a main dish, side dish or dessert but it must have rice in it.  The first year I made rice pudding and finished second.  Last year I placed first with rice zucchini muffins.  This year I wanted to try a rice pecan pie.  Even I was skeptical so I did a test run and had my family taste test for me.  I got a thumbs up so I decided to go for it.  The fair also has a Kitchen Pride Bake Off so I decided to see how I would do there.  It is a much larger crowd and a lot more entries.  I baked two rice pecan pies and let me tell you, I was not feeling it.  To top it off, when I took the pies up to the fairgrounds, I entered the Rice Plus contest first, then walked over to the Kitchen Pride contest.  The gal there was taking my information down and asked what kind of pie I had.  I told her and she asked if it had rice in it.  Yes ma'am it does so she tells me that I should probably take it next door to the Rice Plus cook off, I wouldn't have as much competition there.  I kindly told her I had already entered a pie there too, just wanted to see how I would do here.  Guess I showed her because this girl right here not only took 1st Place, but received an Outstanding ribbon and was Grand Champion of the Bake-Off.  

Look at those pretty ribbons...

And the winning pie!

Here I am getting my picture taken with Brazoria County's Little Miss and Little Mister 

It wasn't until we left that I realized what I had done.  Tony even told me he didn't understand why I kept asking how many pies were entered because I had won the WHOLE BAKE OFF!!  I was the GRAND CHAMPION!!!  Finally!  I found something I'm good at.  I have a talent!  I do enjoy baking.  I enjoy baking for others. Its relaxing and good therapy!

Later that night I spent some time chasing this girl from ride to ride...

 I have to say she had the time of her life. She loved getting to do the rides at the carnival.  She was laughing, squealing, jumping up and down, waving her hands in the air just having a good time.  

After we finished rides, we walked back to the cook off area.  We didn't have a team this year but some close friends did so we were still able to hang out there.  Bella had some friends across the way so she would spend time playing with them running back n forth.  Ronnie Milsap was playing at the arena that night so Tony stayed back at the camp while I walked over to the arena to hear Mr. Milsap.  Oh my gosh, he was awesome!  So glad I was able to see him.  My pictures aren't good at all...

And with that, I will close out this year's Brazoria County Fair.  We had lots of fun and look forward to next year to see what it brings.  I know we'll have at least two heifers to show, or rather...Makenna and Brandon will! 

 

Well...

Honey and I made it another month, but it ended this past weekend.  This is what he wanted.  I really do understand, but I am heartbroken.  He is in a bad place right now and needs to focus on himself. He is frustrated with life and the way things have not been working out for him. Those frustrations are sometimes directed at me in that he will take a question I ask the wrong way or something I say the wrong way and we end up in an argument.  He doesn't want that.  Neither do I.  He can't be here for me right now in any way, and its not fair to me.  Our conversations are not frequent enough, our time together is not enough, nothing is enough.  We are both frustrated but his focus is where it needs to be and I will not be the one to disrupt it.  We love each other very much.  Maybe one day we can be together.  We just can't be together now.