Dear Blog....

Dear Blog.... I am sorry I have ignored you for a week. With so much going on, you'd think I'd be on here blogging away, but the busy-ness of the season has pretty much captivated my time, attention, and energy!!! I so much want to stay Christ-focused during this Christmas season so with everything we are involved in, we offer it up to Christ as a means of ministry or activity in His name.

So what has been going on since my post on last Monday? (Last Monday seems like eons ago!!!!) On Monday and Tuesday, we were busy with last minute decorating, clean-up, and meal preparation for our 4th Annual Couples' Christmas Party on Tuesday night. Our home and our hearts were graced to have 7 couple friends over (including our dear pastor and his wife) for the dinner party and everyone had a good time. All week long, we had a dear friend in the hospital who had cancer surgery, so we made visits there until he came home on Thursday. Another friend from church has cancer and needed a ride to her last radiation treatment on Wednesday and we took her to that. Church on Wednesday night On Thursday afternoon, we picked up Josh and Jaden from school at 3:00 and had them through the dinner hour and took them to the program with us. I forgot to mention that the parents of our Indiana campus daughter arrived on Thursday and were here until Saturday morning. I had left-over lasagna from Tuesday night's dinner party and fed us, the grandsons, and our Indiana guests on Thursday evening in addition to preparing a meal for our friend home from the hospital. . We went to the Academy Christmas Concerts on both Thursday and Friday nights as Belle sang in the choir on Thursday night and Josh played trumpet in the band on Friday night. Amy emceed the program on Friday night as well. Both programs were awesome. On Friday morning, Richard went to the Retirement Center Bible Study, we ate lunch with friends afterwards, and then he and I shopped until 3:00 at which time we picked up Belle at school. We took her out to dinner before the program on Friday night. On Saturday, I got up early and got busy with some chores around the house. I had to finish up a sewing project for our retirement center Bible study Christmas gifts so got that done. Richard and I ran out to do a bit more Christmas shopping and to get a bite of dinner. When we came home last night, I wrapped a gift so that everyone would have ONE under our tree as Brian, Amy, and the kids were coming over for Sunday dinner.

That's been my week. It made me tired just re-hashing all of that so think I'll go take a nice long nap!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!!

Campus Daughters Christmas 2008

L-R: Kelsey from TN, Melissa from WI, Darla from TN, Diana from OH, Kaylee from TN and Jess from CT

We had our campus daughters over for "Christmas Sunday Dinner" and gave them their gifts. Three of our girls were unable to attend so we missed them but enjoyed the other girls. They are in finals this week and then leave on Friday to go home for the holidays. They are a sweet bunch of girls and we wish them and their families all a VERY Merry Christmas!

Pics of our "D" Family 2008 Christmas Reunion

Here is the link to the album of pictures that Richard and I made at the Christmas Reunion on Saturday at Bill's and Darlene's home:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=nhewoo3.4fhl9sl7&x=0&y=e1io2x&localeid=en_US

"D" Family Christmas Party Today~~~

We had a wonderful Christmas fellowship with our beloved "D" family today. Bill and Darlene hosted the event and made it extra-special nice for us all.

Everyone was there except for Amy and her family, and they were "providentially" hindered. We missed them but had a wonderful time with everyone else in attendance. I am uploading my pics into a Kodak Gallery so that I can share them around and will post that link here later. With a 5-hour trip there and a 5-hour trip back in one day, we are pooped (happily pooped but pooped none-the-less) and are headed to bed!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 33rd Birthday to Our Dear Daughter, Amy!

I woke up on December 1 in 1975 not even thinking that my baby would be born. Being my first pregnancy and still 2 weeks from baby's due date, I went to my regular weekly OB appointment AFTER I had mopped and waxed the kitchen floor that morning. When I got to my appointment and was checked by my doctor, he announced that I was in the early stages of labor (quite effaced!) and to go straight to Druid City Hospital for the big event. I didn't go "right to the hospital" but went back home and called Richard to let him know that we were to go to the hospital. I can't remember if he came and got me or if I drove and met him there. I think he came and got me. I do know that I got there at 4:00 and Amy was born at 6:15 ~~ just two hours later. Not bad for a first baby.

Amy has been a delight to her Daddy and me for these 33 years. She was a precious baby, a good child, a sweet teenager, and is a loving wife and mother of four today in addition to her professional role as an elementary principal. We made a lot of mistakes in our parenting through the years, but God blessed in spite of us and Amy turned out alright. We are very blessed to be her parents and are proud of our one-and-only daughter.

Happy Birthday to my lovely and dearly loved daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS...

Josh's School Program This Morning

The 4th grade band played in the chapel program at school this morning so Richard and I ran out to hear our favorite trumpeter. They are making progress. Josh is on the back row and is the 2nd boy to the left of the blond boy. Here is a video of them playing. It is of the portion of song they played called, "Childhood hymns."

HAPPY 34th BIRTHDAY TO MY 'FAVORITE' SON-IN-LAW

Brian is a treasure. Could I have had the precious privilege of picking my daughter's husband, I would have chosen him. Brian is a man of intregity: honest and hardworking, faithful to Christ and a loving and faithful husband to our daughter and daddy to our grandchildren. Tomorrow, Wednesday ~~ November 26, is Brian's big day. Happy Birthday, Son-in-Law!!!

Amy has some special birthday doings planned for tomorrow evening before church so perhaps I will have pics to post afterwards.

God Provides ~~ Answered Prayer!

Little is much when God is in it!! I decided I wanted/needed (?) a chest of drawers for our bedroom. We have a waterbed we bought for $100 twenty-two years ago and then a pretty nice entertainment center we bought new when we moved here 6 years ago. I have a lovely jewelry armoire that Richard gave me for Christmas some 10 years ago. Richard has a little chest of drawers that we bought at a garage sale here in our neighborhood a couple of years ago. SO~~~~~~nothing matches. It is quite eclectic bedroom furniture that we have. No one else ever sees it, and it works for us. When I decided we needed a new (large) chest of drawers, we had heard about a row of used furniture stores downtown. Richard removed a door from our nice entertainment center and off we went.

The first four stores we entered didn't have anything we could use and NOTHING I would have had. JUNK!!! The 5th store we entered, was the place we were looking for. A nice young man greeted us. Across the room stood MY chest of drawers. I walked right over to it and spied the ticket: $167. Richard had told me that we ought to stay in the $100 range (remember, we were looking at used furniture), so I asked the young man if he would take less. He said he would have to call his dad and ask. As he was dialing the phone, I asked him to ask his dad if he would take $100 for the chest. I figured we could dicker from there and meet about halfway.

The young man talked to his dad for a moment and in a second called across the room to us that, "My dad said you can have it for.................................. (my breath was baited!).....................$100!!!!! We paid, loaded her up, and hauled her home. It looks lovely with the entertainment center. I put all of my jewelry in boxes in the top drawer and am going to give my beautiful jewelry armoire to Amy as it will match her cherry bedroom furniture perfectly.

"Little is much when God is in it!" It is so neat to know that God heard my prayer for a used piece of furniture and answered abundantly!!

Our Family Tree Got a Little Tangled During the Sisters' Reunion

We have always known that my husband's mom was a Hobson and that my sister's husband's mom was a Hobson. Both of these moms have long since passed on, but back in the day, there was discussion of how they could be related because they both had lots of Hobson kin in the Bibb and Perry County areas of Alabama.

During our Sisters' Reunion this weekend, I got out THE HOBSONS book that Richard had bought from a man who did a lot of research on the Hobson Ancestry. I got the book out and gave it to Paul (my sister Karen's husband) to look at. He immediately spotted his GGG Grandfather who was Richard's GG Grandfather.


My baby sister, Nonie, is a genealogist and so she got interested in all of this and has spent much of today digging up a lot of information to send to us. She is sending it to Paul and Karen as well. Here is how the kinship has shaped up to be:

*My husband Richard and Karen's husband Paul are indeed related.
*Paul's mom and Richard's mom were 3rd cousins once removed. (Both are deceased.)
*Paul's mother and Richard were 4th cousins.
*Paul and Richard are 4th cousins once removed.
*Paul is not only my children's uncle because he married my sister, but he is Amy's and Chip's 5th cousin on their daddy's side of the family.
*My grandson Jaden is 6th cousins with my Karen's and Paul's sons (Steve, Doug, and Bryan) but is also their first cousin once removed on my side. (Right, Nonie?)

There is NOTHING hanky-panky about any of this, but it is a new twist in Richard's relationship with Paul who was before "just" a brother-in-law by being my sister's husband.

Are you confused???????????????? Dont' worry~~~ I am as well.

P.S. We had dear friends at our church in Tuscaloosa who are in this book, too, and so there is some kinship with them: Irene (Hobson) Hall and Katrina (Colburn) Ward. Here's the connection with Katrina: Richard's GG Grandfather William L. Hobson had 18 children, one of which was George Hobson. Katrina was George Hobson's GG Granddaughter.

Here is the connection with Irene: She is a descendant of Joseph Hobson who was a son of Samuel Hobson, Richard's GGG Grandfather.