Since I've only posted about three times this year I thought I would let y'all know what went on in 2011 for me and my family.
It wasn't a horrible year but it wasn't a great one either. The Lord has blessed me tremendously this year. He has provided for us on so many different occasions when I didn't know how we were going to get by. And I mean in every sense. Like emotionally, financially, spiritually and our safety! He always has provided for us. (read Philippians 4:19)
The year started off normal enough. I was just enjoying life and my family. We had started planning for my step-father's 80th birthday party in May. We were having family coming from out of state and we were excited about seeing them. But what really excited us the most was my nephew coming from Michigan. It was what I was looking forward to most of all. It was great to see him and all our other family members that came to the party.
In April there was a tornado that wrecked havoc in our state. I was watching the news when it actually showed it touching down in Tuscaloosa. Immediately I started worrying about and praying for my nephew who works there and lives by the university. It was an F5 while it was on the ground. Thankfully it didn't come near his apartment, it did kill a lot of people and it did destroy a lot of others' homes and businesses'. We continued watching it not realizing it was heading right towards us!
The weather man kept saying it was going to hit metro Birmingham. Well we are about 8-10 miles north of the city, thought we were in the clear. About 6 o'clock that night I looked out the window, I was looking to see if my neighbors were home. That's when I noticed debris on our cars. At that time we heard on the news that the tornado was in Smithfield. Now Smithfield is right across the highway and usually if a tornado touches down there it will hit my neighborhood next. We started heading down to the basement, my phone rang and I was on it when my husband yelled for me to hang it up and come on. It was my sister asking if we were in our basement. I was trying to juggle the phone, a flashlight and my chihuahua all the while heading downstairs. Oh with my motorcycle helmet on too!
We were in our safe spot only a little bit when it hit. My town was struck by an F4 tornado. We were very blessed as we had almost no damage. Just trees basically. Other neighbors lost their homes and businesses. Our town was hit pretty bad but no deaths which was a miracle. Below is an actual video of the tornado going through our neighborhood.
This video was taken from an apartment building across from my neighborhood (across a 4 lane highway and I65). While I was in the basement with my husband, hearing the roaring and
just by the sound of it you knew it was big. I told my husband this is how
we're going to die. Strangely enough I had no fear of dying. As I said we were very blessed that day.
Even now there are still lots of reminders of that day. Our trees behind our house are just all broken. There has been a lot of repairing of our town but there are still signs of the tornado. I think the emotional scars have a long way to go before they are completely healed though.
My grand babies turned 4 and 2 this year they are getting so big. The best parts of the year were times spent with my daughter's family. They have brought us so much joy. They are really at the ages where we have a ton of fun. They like to wrestle and let me tell you this Grammy gets worn out! I am so tired after spending the afternoon with them. But there are also a lot of climbing on my lap and snuggling. I will have one on one leg and the other on the other leaning up against me reading stories or watching videos on the iPhone. I love these times with them.
October brought sadness. My father passed away on the 25th. We went to California for his funeral. It was a beautiful service, he was a great person and the best father ever!
Alfredo "Fred" - my dad
After I got home it was about three weeks before we lost my husband's mother. She passed away on November 20th. She had been sick with her heart and on this day her kidneys failed. As we were getting ready to leave the hospital it was about 9:30 when my husband seen all the doctors running into her room. About 20 minutes later they came out and told us she had passed.
Kathryn - my mother in law
My husband was her only schild. His father has passed so he feels really alone now. Please remember him in your prayers. Kathryn had remarried about 7 years ago. Her new husband was real good to her. One thing I disliked was that one of her step-children's wife had posted on Facebook that Kathryn had passed before we even got to notify all of her family. I hadn't even told my daughter and it was already on Facebook. I just think that people ought to consider a person's family before they start posting their deaths.
We stayed home during Thanksgiving just didn't feel like going any where. For the first time I had my daughter and her family over and made my very first Turkey. I must say it was really delicious!
We really did have a great Christmas. We enjoyed shopping and then watching our grandchildren opening their presents. Hubs got a kick out of putting Roary the race car together with our oldest grand son Ray. Little Bruce played with his toys for a bit then got on his old airplane toy that he likes to ride on. All the new ones and he was on the one toy he plays with every time he comes over here. Oh and the marshmallow suckers I got them tasted like "turkey and cheese!" I don't even know where that came from. lol
Well that's about takes us through the year. I am sure I have forgot a few things. There were losses but also lots of love and good times. But now that's life. Prayers and a relationship with God will always get you through the bad times and the good times. Just so thankful He is in my life.
I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I stayed home and had my daughter and her family over. We had just got home from Nashville and really didn’t feel like going with the family to the lake. I can’t swim in lake water anyway and just didn’t want to sit there sweating all day.
I served my delicious ribs and I must tell you that they were my best batch ever. That’s saying a lot because my ribs are the best. So we had our meal and waited for it to get a little dark so we could do our fireworks. The boys were just so excited. They were clapping and screaming and really had a great time. They were swapping laps between me, their mommy and Paw while daddy was in charge of firing off the fireworks. They are at the age right now that it is so much fun. Here’s a couple of pics of the boys watching the fireworks.
The important thing to me is just being with them. God is just so good to me and has blessed me so much. I am just so grateful for the family He has placed in my life. Also my friends, my Siesta’s and church.
I’ll leave you with one last pic. It’s my son-in-law, hubs and Bruce with the bike. I don’t know why I like this pic so much you can’t see any of their faces but I do like it.
I just can't believe I haven't posted since January!! I am so sorry for neglecting my blog. I have had a thousand things to blog about but just haven't sit down to do it. So I am seriously going to try to get back to my bloggy self. I have missed you all so much.
So I wanted to let ya'll know that I finally got to meet someone very special last month. Someone I have loved for 19 years but wasn't able to see or meet. You might remember this post from 2009. Here we are on Memorial Day.
This is my nephew Stephen. He is such a great kid and fit right in, he has always been with us but now he was with us in person. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with him but I am looking forward to the future.
I'm going to be getting this blog up to date and changing it around a little. I added some new pages as you can see at the top but need to update those too. Can't wait to get caught up with ya'll!
Hello everyone! I'd like to thank you for coming to my blog. I am married to Larry and we have one daughter. Summer is married to Josh, they have given us our two grandchild. Ray is two and has brought such joy to us. He is our big boy. Bruce was born in August 2009 so he is our perfect little man now. We also have a little Chihuahua named Chico, he is our baby. I have a very large family and we always enjoy getting together. Family is so important! God is so good to me and my family and he blesses us daily. My blog is about my thoughts, feelings, family and happenings of my life. I hope you enjoy it and will return.
