PASSED!

This evening was my state board exam. I passed with flying colors! It really wasn't that hard. I studied all day today so maybe that helped. I am so glad it is behind me. Now on to getting a job in a hospital then on to the next step in becoming a nurse.
I am so glad to be bringing in the new year with a new career!

Many Blessings,
Heidi

Happy Birthday Drew!

Yesterday was Drew's birthday. Happy Birthday son; we love you. I didn't have access to the computer so was unable to post this yesterday.
Drew is an amazing father and husband. I am so proud of the man that you have become.

Christmas 2010

This is my beautiful family(minus Stephanie), they are a silly bunch but they are mine and I love them all.

We had such a wonderful Christmas. It took several shoots to get this picture. We had an escapee in the middle shot but quickly got him back on track. Getting all seven looking at the camera and smiling would have been a Christmas miracle.
This was taken on Christmas day evening about 9:00pm. At this point the kids are tired and cranky. The parents....well as you can tell the women already had on their jammies. Its what we do after dinner. Put on our happy pants(that is what my mother-in-law call them).

So blessed to be able to be with my kids this Christmas. We sure did miss our Stephanie though. My in-laws were very missed as well. Maybe next year we can all be together.

I spent the day today taking down all of our Christmas decorations. I do that every year the day after Christmas because someone here at the zoo will be having a birthday tomorrow. Since a birthday is so close to Christmas I remove all decor for their birthday. I will tell you more about that tomorrow.

Many blessings,

Heidi

This year..................

This year, this is our Christmas journey.

Less Decorating, more living.

Less Shopping, more giving.

Less Running, more being.

Enjoying all the little gifts along the way.

Christmas is coming.

From our house to yours, may the perfect love of Christ be your light and life.

Christmas Eve Eve

Our Stephanie came home last night. I wish it were for Christmas but unfortunately she was hear because of a funeral of a friend. We were able to give her her Christmas gifts this morning before she had to return to southern Illinois to a job that I wish she did not need this holiday season.

Meg's twin brothers were here this morning as well. Drew helped them prepare for their driving permit. It appears that parallel parking is not their thing. Wasn't mine either. Still to this day I will do everything I can to prevent parallel parking. But this afternoon we received good news that they both passed.

I did some holiday baking today. Well maybe I should rephrase that to I made chocolate mint cookies. That's it so far. I hope to do more baking tomorrow. The mint cookies were so easy though. All you do is melt chocolate bark, add a little peppermint extract then dip Ritz crackers into the chocolate and set aside. Heaven! Hoping to make peanut cluster as well.

These are some pictures that I had on my computer. I think they are just precious. I really need to download the 300 plus pictures on my camera before tomorrow.

Many Blessings from our family to yours this Christmas!

Heidi

Really Good Santa!

I am not doing a very good job lately in documenting my life. I have been so busy that I am not sure what day it is. The days seem to fly by when I am going to school. Just about ready to wrap it up though. Clinical's are complete. Now just a couple more tests and I will be done.

I can not believe that Christmas is less than a week away. All gifts are bought and wrapped. Thank goodness for Meg though. I haven't had time to wrap one gift. If not for her no one would be able to open gifts this year.

I have been able to relax a bit this weekend before a big test on Tuesday. So I decided to keep my Aspen for the night. Her and Drake have been having a good time. Drake calls her Appy. Aspen is just too hard for him to say. Drake is talking a lot now. It is very cute to hear him.

Drake recently went to see Santa. He didn't cry which was really surprising. He doesn't take to strangers very well. I asked Aspen if she has seen Santa yet. She said, "No; he is sleeping a lot." HAHA she is too funny.

Well off to do some home work.

Many Blessings,

Heidi

UUMM December, REALLY!?!

The time is flying by; when did it become December!?!

My time is filled with school and clinical's. A week will go by in a flash. Not sure how that happens. I will be done with my clinical's on Monday. Yea for me. I will be hitting it hard again for three tests before the end of the year. No rest for me.

I wish I could say all is well here at the zoo but all is not well. All have colds and cough. Yuck. I wish I could say that I breezed right by it all but I got it.

Spent last weekend at the lake. We really needed a little R&R. What better way than at the lake.

Christmas shopping is 95% done. Wrapping is 100% incomplete; but have intentions on getting that done soon. Like maybe next week.

Off to bed. What a boring post.

Many Blessings,
Heidi

Beautiful Thanksgiving Week!

I have been knee deep in the Thanksgiving week. Our Stephanie came home on Monday evening. Feels so good when she is home. All seems right with the world.
Thanksgiving was wonderful; was able to see all my kids. Dinner if I do say so myself was amazing. I tried out a new mashed potato recipe. The. Best. Ever! Definitely will be a family tradition from now on.
Then there was BLACK Friday. Yes I do partake and yes I never slept Thursday night because sales started at ten and went on the entire night. The number of great deals were endless. So excited. Now I am paying for it because now I have a bad head cold. Feel like poo. I need to be decking the halls but all I can do is take halls cough drops. I have a major test Tuesday and I haven't even opened my books this Holiday weekend. I have to get to it tomorrow.
Off to bed with my new fleece pj's my box of Kleenex and my cough drops.

Many Blessings,
Heidi

Love Sundays!

I just love Sunday's. I am sitting by the fire. Listening to the football game. Smelling chicken tortilla soup simmering on the stove.
Then D called and told me he got another deer. Great another one hanging in the tree. He is ruining my Sunday tranquility because I know he is going to want me to get on a coat and take a picture of that thing. I won't share that here. Again your welcome.
I finished my first clinical shift yesterday. All I can say is I survived. I also realized that for the past thirty years I have umm lets say not had the opportunity to see some things. Well I seen enough yesterday for last me a while. I worked in a total Alzheimer's care facility. This was very hard for me. I just wanted to sit down and cry when family members would visit there loved ones. I have had several family members tell me that this nursing thing would not be for me. I disagree. At first I wasn't sure but now I know. Yes I am going to be the kind of nurse that gets too involved with her patience. I am going to feel their pain. Yes I am going to sit down and cry like a baby when I loose my first one. But that is ok. Because it is all going to be worth it.
Yesterday I took care of a patient; I will call him Eddie. Eddie was an elderly man that was a boxer in his day. Very large strong man. I would guess that Eddie is in his late seventies. The current nursing staff could not get Eddie to eat. What was my job assignment for the day? To get Eddie fed. Three square meals. I knew the challenge I had before me and got right to it with breakfast. At first Eddie was not having it. This did not surprise me. But I kept at it. I cared for him for more than ten hours.
When I walked up to Eddie with his dinner tray he looked at me and smiled. I knew for a brief moment he was there. It made it all worth it. What was really neat was his son was there to see it. I didn't know he was standing in the door way to his fathers room when I received that smile or the big hug I gave him. Once I turned around and noticed him he said, " That's my dad; and I haven't seen a reaction out of him like that in months." I left the room and allowed the father and son to have as much time as they could. I hate Alzheimer's. But I love what I do. Its all worth it.

Many Blessings,
Heidi

Happy Birthday Devin!

Happy Birthday to my first born son. I hope that you will always know how much your father and I love you. We are so proud of the man that you have become. Have a wonderful day son!

Tests Tests Tests

I have two tests this week. One tomorrow and one Thursday. Lots of studying going on here.

But the weekend was fun. D and I went on a date Saturday night. Drew said it was a date for old people but I had a great time. We went to dinner and shopping. To me that is a perfect date. I don't know what he is talking about OLD people.

Devin shot his first deer over the weekend. Yep another deer in the tree. Dang I thought I had one son that hadn't been touched by the hunting bug. I don't believe that he will become an avid hunter now. Just one of those fluke things. I would love to show you a picture of Devin with his deer; however I don't have it downloaded yet and I don't have time to do it because of all the studying I need to get done. I will tell you though it is not your average deer with hunter picture. He is standing next to the deer which is hanging in our tree while eating a bag of donuts. Only a cop. HA

Back to studying.
Many Blessings,
Heidi

Here I am

Here I am again; not posting on a daily basis. I give up. I thought my life was crazy before. Ha I have school two days a week and then I try to schedule clinicals three other days a week. Makes for a busy girl for sure. Especially for a girl that is not used to getting dressed before 2pm.
School I love. I am learning so much for which I am grateful. Clinicals? Well today was my first day and lets just say I know why all nurses have to do their clinicals at a nursing home. Because if you can't make it there then you have no business being a nurse. At one point today I wanted to just run out the front doors. Like most women feel just before they give birth. They decide that they have changed their minds about the whole birthing process and just want to go home and cover their heads and pretend they are not even pregnant. Yea; that was me today. I wasn't sure if nursing is in my blood. And today; it was just observing.
I am not giving up though. I know a hospital is where I need to be. I will give this nursing home all I have. These sweet old people at least deserve that. And the fact that I can't graduate until I complete one hundred hours their.
I may need some prayers. No I know that I do.

Many Blessings
Heidi

Great Day!

Here are pics of the grand kids trick or treating last night. They were so cute. Drake was a monkey which in the picture above it is kinda hard to tell. As you can tell Drew put a lot of thought into his costume. I think he walked out of the woods and was ready to go. Ha. Thank goodness it didn't rain and fun was had by all.

Today I spent the day with my friend H. We had fun catching up and laughing. That girl says the darnedest things. We had lunch and then a pedicure with shopping through out the day. All friends should do this at least once a week. Friend therapy is the best.

Now back to reality. Homework. Homework. Homework.

Many Blessings,

Heidi

Happy Halloween!

Pictures from the pumpkin patch. It is a tradition to go to this pumpkin patch every year. It is owned by D's friend. So we get to pick all the pumpkins that we want. He usually tries to unload some really big pumpkins on us. This year we decided to go out into the fields and pick our own. Drew got a wagon because we were unsure as to which ones the princess and Drake would want. Meg decided to have Drew pull her to the field. HA

Drake decided to help his daddy pull the princess and her pumpkin. How sweet is this!

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween.

I am still here!

Too long since I have updated. Hate it when life gets so busy that I don't have a chance to update. So much to talk about. Drake's birthday party was a big success. His parents rented a big bounce house. All the kids had so much fun.

Started school on Tuesday; had a small melt down the night before. Scared to begin a new chapter in my life. All was well after a call from my mother-in-law. She knows just the right thing to say. The first class was very nerve racking with two tests right off the bat. Passed them both. It was a basic English and math test. Just to see if you had any smarts, Thursday was the second day filled with 6 hours of lectures. My brain was mush by the time I got home. It is going to take me a while to get back into the swing of school and studying.
A good friend of D's owns a pumpkin farm. So Drew, Meg, D and I took the babies to get pumpkins. Drake calls them punkies. It's the cutest thing. They each picked out baby ones and then two big ones for carving. I will post those pics tomorrow. That is if I remember to update. Devin and Heather did not go to the pumpkin patch. They took Brennon to a rodeo. Umm I like pumpkins but I would have loved to go to the rodeo and horse show. Maybe next year.
Well another weekend and another deer in the tree. D got an 8 point buck this morning. Freezer is full of meat I don't eat and now another one hanging in the tree. Greaaat!
I played the good wife and took lots of pictures for him to show his friends. Will not be posting any of those anytime soon. Your welcome.

Back to the books.
Many Blessings,
Heidi

Wedding/Grandkids/Deer

Friday was a very quiet evening for Drake's Birthday. The princess came to spend the night with us and ended up spending the weekend. Her and Drake are getting along a little better. So close in age and her having and older brother causes fights sometimes.

Saturday I went to lunch with Devin and the princess. Love spending time with my Dev. I don't eat out much so it was a real treat.

Saturday night we went to a wedding of one of Drew's best friends. The bride Beckee was just beautiful. Beckee and Drew; Beckee's twin sister Aubrey and their cousin Sam have been very close friends since they were in kindergarten. Drew calls them his girls. It was so much fun sharing this wonderful evening with all of them for Beckee's wedding. I thought I had some pictures but they didn't turn out.

I do have a picture of the princess taking a nap. She is so peaceful when she is sleeping. But look out when she wakes up. She starts talking and doesn't stop. Poppa tried a game with her on the way to the wedding to see who could stay quiet the longest. Um guess who lost. HA
Today was just beautiful. The high was about 65 and no wind. Picture perfect day. A day that I like to do some outdoor projects. Like clearing out the garden. Weed eating and trimming bushes. Drake was trying to help his daddy with some dirt hauling. He was such a big helper. There is so much to do before the weekend. I have made a to do list a mile long and each day we are seeing what we can get done.
Drew got another deer this morning with his bow. Can one have too many deer? My answer is YES. One is too many. No one should have to see a deer hanging in ones yard. Thanks goodness I have no neighbors to speak of. I need a nap!

Many Blessings,
Heidi

Happy Birthday Drake!

Today this sweet angel turned two! I can hardly believe how fast time has past. It just seems like yesterday that he was born. He is talking so much now and is so funny. Next weekend his parents will be having a very large birthday party for him. I will post pictures of all the fun.

After a fun day of watching precious Drake play with all his toys his mom and dad got him. I am snuggled up on the couch with another angel or I should say princess. Aspen is spending the night here at the zoo while her mom and dad work. Love to watch her sleep. Another sweet baby; yes at three and a half she is a baby to me.

Many Blessings to a wonderful weekend
Heidi

Ten things

Here is a list of a ten things that I have learned about myself in the past week.

1. I can't live without Craigslist.
2. I really love spending alone time with my hubby (as long as we have been married its good to know these things; ya never know when that could change. HA)
3. I really don't like jeans.
4. HoneyCrisp apples are the best apple there is. Why can I not have them year round!?!
5. I can't live without my mother-in-laws wonderful advice.
6. I am not perfect but that is ok with me.
7. Love Love Love when my house in completely organized.
8. Nike tennis shoes make my feet happy.
9. Nervous and excited about school starting.
10. Love my boys more than my Louis Vuitton purse. This isn't something that I learned this week; its just I ran out of things that I have learned about myself and both of my boys are on my mind. I wish they both were here so that I can squeeze them to death.

Talked to Stephanie today. One of the reasons I love Wednesdays so much. That is our day of the week that we catch up on what is going on in our lives. We both are so excited for her to be coming home next weekend. I can't wait until she graduates college so that she can be home to stay.

Many Blessings
Heidi

It feels good to be back home. My father-in-law had surgery on Friday; he did really well so my mother-in-law and I was able to bring him home Friday evening. The hospital is a long two hour drive from my in laws so Friday was a very long day.
Saturday was a very relaxing day; D and I slept in and then spent the day just visiting with his parents. It was awesome. Very relaxing. Our lives are getting ready to be really busy so it was nice to just take a weekend to relax and recharge. My Mother in law made chocolate chip cookies and fed us some amazing food that she was trying out on us. One of the things that we like to do is try new recipes on each other.
My father in law is recovering nicely so we felt it was ok to come back home on Sunday afternoon. D and I returned to the zoo with a few less people living here. It was great that Matt and Amanda are going out on their own. We wish them many blessings.
Today was rainy yucky day. I spent the day unpacking and getting a TB test done before I start school. Hope tomorrow I am able to get some things done on my to do list.

Many Blessings,
Heidi

Once a week

Maybe I should only post once a week because that is what I seem to be doing lately. Monday I spent the day with Devin at his house. I really enjoyed myself. I wish we both had more time to spend together. His wife has been fighting a virus for several days now. I am praying for her to recover as soon as possible.
Yesterday I spent organizing my closet. Packing away most of my summer clothes and washing my winter clothes. It always feels good to purge all my unwanted items in my closet and get completely organized. I tell you the heavens open and the angels sing with this job is complete. I have a whole list of items I am wanting to get done before school starts. It's just how I like to roll.
D and I are off to the lake tomorrow; my father in law is have surgery Friday and my mother in law would like for me to be with her. D is going to show his support by fishing and hunting while we are at the hospital. That's how he rolls.

Many Blessings
Heidi

Beautiful Weekend

Another beautiful weekend. The temps were cool and crisp. Love it!
The zoo has been a flurry of activity. The guys have been hunting and building deer stands. I picked up Aspen on Saturday morning so that she could spend the weekend with us. She is having so much fun with Mariah and Taylor. They had a slumber party last night right after Matt made them Banana splits. Personally I was grateful that they all stayed at the lower level of the zoo because that is a lot of sugar before bed and there was lots of giggling going on. It is so strange to have so many girls living here at the zoo. I am used to so much more testosterone; its kinda nice for a change.
I wish I could say that we got something accomplished this weekend but we didn't unless you count the 3 deer stands that were built. Which I don't. I can't even supervise such an event.
Crazy busy week ahead. Looking forward to it.

Many Blessings
Heidi

Another week has flown by!

Where does the time go. I can't ever seem to get caught up. In the past week or so I have signed up for school. Going into nursing. Starting at the bottom and seeing how far I want to go. Can't wait to get started. It is going to be so different then what I am used to. But caring for people seems to be speaking to me right now. I never thought I would be happy to go back to school or work but I am looking forward to it. I have had a year to catch my breath and figure out what I want.

My nephew and his wife had family pictures recently. Their baby Eva is three months old now. I don't get to see her too often so thank goodness for facebook.
Not too much going on here at the zoo; just the normal day to day stuff. Its deer season here; so the men in this family have been hunting fools. Drew got a deer tonight. Wish I liked to eat it but it is just not my thing.

Many Blessings
Heidi

A week from HEL........

This has been the worst week ever! Truck broke down. Then car broke down. Washing machine broke and D told me tonight that the spring broke on the garage door! I can't take any more.
Also my precious aunt on my grannies side passed away and some deer friends of ours are moving here to the zoo because life has not been treating them too kind. Issues resulting from this horrible economy. See told ya it has been a bad week.
I think I will just stay in bed tomorrow then maybe nothing bad will happen.

Many Blessings.....I could sure use some.

Heidi

I can't believe it has been almost a week since I posted last. I have been so busy here at the zoo. Last week Meg went to Virginia to visit her grandma. So I was all by myself as zoo keeper. Too many people here at the zoo for just one keeper.
Then D whisked me away to the lake for the weekend. I would like to say that we got to spend a lot of alone time together but that didn't happen. It is archery season; so unless I look like a deer I am not getting much attention.
Got home from the lake to the wonderful news that our washing machine is broken. Can't keep this zoo clean unless I have all my appliances working; and working well. Thank goodness D is real handy so he will have it up and running again soon. I hope!
Signed up last Friday for nursing school. Can't wait to get started. Classes begin at the end of October.

Many Blessings;
Heidi

Corporal Lambeth

My son called and woke me early this morning. Since he is a police officer it is alarming to get a wake up call from him. But this call was so awesome. His chief (pictured above) made him CORPORAL this morning! His father and I are soooo proud of him. Look out chief. My son can do amazing things and your job can be taken from you. HA

One of my favorite photo's from last weekend!

Labor Day Weekend fun!

D and I had so much fun this weekend. On Saturday we had all the kids here for D's birthday. The zoo was full with kids and D and I really enjoy that. It seems that over the last couple of years we have added to our zoo family with friends that have become family. So we started the weekend with birthday celebrations. It was also Amanda's (adopted family) birthday as well. So celebrate we did.

D fried up some frog legs and fish. Us girls filled in with yummy side dishes. Thank goodness it was a little cool because we wanted a bonfire Saturday night. The kids had roasted marshmallows and the adults had adult beverages while we enjoyed the fire. I failed to get any pictures. I was so busy with all the fun I never got my camera out.
Sunday D and I spent the day together; we again had a great time of shopping and BBQ ribs and a movie. Monday the kids invited D and I to Deanna Rose Farmstead. This is a farm that is part of a Parks department in a neighboring state. The kids had so much fun with all the animals.

The guy in the top picture with all of us is another friend of Drew's; his name is Tyler. He started coming to the zoo in the spring and never left. Started calling me mom about a month ago. Another adopted family member. I am up to four boys and one girl. Life is good! D and I always wanted a big family.

Another picture above where Amanda is looking up; we are in an old school house. The ceiling was beautiful with old tile. She is admiring the tile work.

The kids had so much fun feeding the goats; fishing and riding a horse drawn carriage. We will be returning to this farm next month for their Halloween Festival. Can't wait!

No it is Monday morning. Time to clean the zoo.

Many Blessings,

Heidi

Happy Birthday To My Best Friend!

Happy Birthday to my hubby!

Government Office and Shopping

Well today I ventured out to the big city to our local government office to get a copy of D's birth certificate. After waiting for 30 minutes the kind lady said that they can not locate any birth certificate for D. She asked if I was sure he was born in this state. Yup cuz his momma said; I told the kind lady. She said well we have no record of his birth. Umm kind lady; I just saw him this morning and I am sure he was in fact born and I am pretty sure his momma is correct on the state that she gave birth to this big lug. The kind lady said well I will have to e-mail the states capital to see of they have anything on him; come back in 30 minutes. Well I live about 30 minutes away so I was not driving back home. So a diet coke was in order if not something stronger.

As I was driving to a convenient store for my diet coke I saw a sign about a summer clearance on summer clothes. Well I couldn't pass that up. I may not go home with D's birth certificate but I am all over this clearance sale. Scored I did; bought two tops for $6 each! Gotta love that.

So after 30 minutes had passed and one diet coke and two tops later I returned to the government office.

Kind lady said the state has located his birth certificate. Well that's good. After paying I was on my way back to the country. Well suburbs anyway. All in all a good day.

PS-The picture above has nothing to do with this post. It's just a cute picture of Drake after he had fallen asleep on his bean bag chair. Too cute!

Many Blessings,

Heidi

Beautiful Weekend.

D and I had a date all day on Saturday. Drake went with us. We went to a local lake so that Drake could feed the fish and the ducks. He loved it. He wouldn't take his binky out of his mouth though. The top photo is the little pond inside Bass Pro. Another one of Drakes favorite places to go. He loves animals so much. So really D and I didn't end up having a date, date. It was more like a Drake day. Drake's parents were gone all day helping her mother move. Move; in the heat. Umm that would make me sweat so I volunteered to watch Drake. In the air conditioning. If I haven't mentioned it before I don't do sweating.

We did stop by the local DMV so that D could renew his drivers license only to find out that the original birth certificate in not acceptable. I have to get a copy this week from a State office. Doesn't make any since to me that the original will not work but a copy will. We are running out of time because his license are up later this week. If we miss the deadline he will have to retake the test. Not a pretty thought at all; D doesn't take tests. D doesn't even read unless it is a recent copy of Field and Stream.

Anyhoo we had lunch at a local pizza shop that has been in business when Washington was president. They remodeled which was badly needed; and the pizza was wonderful just how I remembered it when I was a teenager and D would take me there on a date.

We ended the beautiful day at Devin and Heather's for dinner. They wanted some time alone so we brought the princess home with us for the night. Poor baby cried all the way home wanting her momma. Once we pulled in the drive way and she saw her uncle Drew she announced that she was done crying. She's a hoot!

Many Blessings,

Heidi

Friday!?!

I can't believe that it is already Friday. I have been in such a funk this week. Menopause really sucks and has been kicking my butt.

I just need some hubby time and a couple days of sleep.

Many blessings
Heidi

Tamara Lowe at Christ Fellowship

More wedding pics

Here are a few more pics of the wedding. I sure had a great time. I love it when all my kids are together.
My boys don't look so happy in this one. Probably because they were tired of their mother telling them to hold still and smile. The girls look cute though.

Meg and Stephanie right before the ceremony. I wish I would have taken a picture of these two with Heather.

My in laws with Devin. The wedding was in a beautiful park. You can kind of see a small lake behind them. There were lots of geese. Needed to watch that geese poo though.

This pic is of my kids. Devin doesn't look to happy. I am sure it is because it is one hundred and fifteen degrees and he is in full uniform.

The reception was at my parents house. Drake likes the gator, D watching over him making sure he didn't start it up and take off.

As you can tell there are no pics of me. That is because I don't do sweating and that day I was doing a lot of it. I looked like I was melting away. Not pretty at all.

This was a very casual wedding so that is why the guys look like they do. Girls just don't know how to dress down when it comes to a wedding. Fun was had by all.


Many Blessings,

Heidi

Wedding Pics

The beautiful couple right after the ceremony. I thought Devin would melt in his uniform. It was so hot. We were all dripping by the time they said their I do's. You know I don't like to sweat; but it was worth every minute of it.

This is our beautiful daughter Stephanie; we were so glad she was able to come home from college to be with Devin on his wedding day.

More pics later in the week. I need sleep.

Many blessings to these kids,

Heidi