My Baby Girl Holly!

The following pictures are of my baby girl, Holly. She is a puggle and she is now 9 months old. The pictures are in order from when we received her until the present. She was VERY tiny when we first got her, she only weighed 1.5 pounds at her first veterinarian appointment. Look at the size of her in comparison to the 20 oz Pepsi bottle in the second picture. She has grown quite a bit since then and is spoiled rotten! By the looks of these pictures, it doesn't look like her and Daddy do much but lay around on the couch...

P.S. I Love You

What a wonderful weekend I had! Me and my hubby started off the weekend watching the movie, "The Bucket List". I give the movie 2 Thumbs Up! It was a mixture of sad and funny. I cried and I laughed until I cried. It really makes you think what you would do with your life if you knew you only had a short time left here on earth .

Saturday morning we went out for brunch and then went to Saunders Springs and Tioga Falls. They were beautiful places to see. I didn't even know these places existed. I have added a few pictures above for you to see. After we got home and showered, we went out to dinner with my sister and her husband. It was a great meal and a great time with great company.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast and then we loaded up Holly and headed for Bernheim forest. It was a lovely day. I have added some pictures above that I took at Bernheim as well. After Bernheim, we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream and then headed home. We ate supper and finished the night off with the movie, "P.S. I Love You." It was a great movie as well. I don't know what I would ever do if I lost my husband. I do know that as we layed on the couch watching the movie, I held onto him a little tighter as the movie went on.

I had a very heart-warming weekend spent with the man I love. Being outdoors was wonderful and the movies we watched were equally as wonderful. What better way to end a perfect weekend with your husband than "P.S. I Love You"

The Good Ole' Days

On my way to work this morning I heard the song, "Almost Home". I have always loved that song. For those of you who don't know it, it is about a man who came upon a homeless man sleeping in the snow. At first he thought he was dead, but as he went to shake him a little he awoke. The kind man was trying to talk the homeless man into letting him take him to a shelter, but the homeless man just replied, "I just climbed out of a cottonwood tree, I was running from some honey bees, drip drying in the summer breeze after jumping in to calico creek. I was walking down an old dirt road, past a field of hay that had just been mowed. Man, I wish you'd just left me alone, 'cause I was almost home...". Of course, the homeless man had been dreaming of home and the kind man woke him up and brought him back into reality. Like the homeless man, there have been many times that I have wished to go "back home". Don't get me wrong, I love my life. I have a good job, a nice home and a wonderful husband. But, wouldn't you, even for just one day, love to go back to the days when things were so innocent and the only worry you had was getting home in time for supper? I long for those times. I would love to have a day to go back in time. Perhaps around 1984...everyone I loved was still alive then and my mom & dad were still together. I would love to set at the dinner table with my mom and dad again as we ate and looked out at the back yard through our sliding glass patio doors, to have water fights and snowball fights with them again and take a trip to Rough River or the Smoky Mountains. I would love to watch my Saturday morning cartoons (back when cartoons were good) and play in the yard with my neighborhood friends. I would love to go shopping with my Granny for a day like we used to or just set on the porch swing and have one of our talks. I would love to go to the Sale Barn with my Papaw Torchy or let him take me on a tour of his garden that he was so proud of. I would love to go to Bingo with Mamaw Shirley or sit on the picnic table in her back yard and listen to her stories. I would love to spend some time with Papaw Bob and eat some of his famous meatloaf or spaghetti. I would love to play "Little House on the Prairie" with Shelly in Mamaw & Papaw's back yard or have a slumber party with all of my cousins and watch scary movies. All of these things are fond memories that I hold in my heart. They say that you can dream about it every now and then, but you can't go home again. Of course I could never physically go back there again, but in my heart and in my mind I can go "home" any time I want. I do dream occasionally of being home again and being with those who have passed awayagain , only to wake up to the realization it was just a dream. It is kind of disappointing at first until I wake up enough to realize that I am still very blessed. I still have my mother and my father. They aren't together anymore, but they are friends and are still a huge part of my life. I still have one grandparent left, my Mamaw Shirley. She isn't totally the same in her mind, but I know she is the same in her heart. I still have all of my cousins that I had slumber parties and watched scary movies with. In fact, we all live in the same town. We are the same too, we are just a little older. And last, but not least, I wake up in the arms of a man who loves me more than anything else in the world. You see, the times I live in today are just as good as those times, just in a different way.

Land of the Free/Home of the Brave

Remember Their Sacrifice

Good Morning! I apologize for not blogging in the last week. It has been very, very busy in my office. I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July holiday weekend. We went to the BCRGC for a 4th of July celebration on Saturday. They had a wonderful dinner and a very beautiful fireworks display. Before the fireworks began, they put a spotlight on the flag that waves above the lake and we all stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. It was very touching to see the men remove their hats and hold them against their hearts and the fact that everyone (probably close to 60 people) participated. During the fireworks display they played music, songs like "God Bless the USA", "American Soldier" and "Only in America". It was a very moving moment especially when they played "American Soldier". The thought of our soldiers over there fighting for what we were celebrating at that very moment, our FREEDOM, was very touching. We are free because they were and are brave.

Heavenly Father, I ask you this morning to bless, honor and protect our troops and their families, I ask Father that you also give strength and comfort to the families of those that gave the ultimate sacrifice. In Jesus' Holy and Wonderful Name I pray...Amen.

In honor of our troops, I would like to share a poem I wrote on Christmas Eve 2004...

“A Christmas Miracle”

The airport was full of loved ones saying their goodbyes
They kissed, hugged, and said, “I love you” with tears in their eyes.
She held on to him a little tighter as she begged him not to go
He assured her that he would be home soon and that he loved her so.

He kissed his little girl and told her “Don’t worry about me”
“Take care of Mommy and I’ll be back soon, you’ll see”
The little girl just cried, as she did not understand why her Daddy had to go
Doesn’t Mr. Bush know that now Daddy will miss her in the school talent show?

He held them both in his arms one last time before he boarded the plane
His wife knew he had to go, but she didn’t know there would be so much pain.
How is she going to make it and take care of their little girl with him so far away?
He wiped her tears and told her “just one more mission and I’ll be home to stay”

With tears in his eyes he boarded the plane and was out of sight
His country called and needed him, for his freedom he must fight
He longed to be home with his family as Christmas was just a week away
This year would be the first he didn’t wake up his little girl on Christmas day

She was wrapping presents and baking cookies when she got the dreaded call
It seems her husband had stepped on a land mine and for his country he took the ultimate fall
She could not believe the words the officer was telling her, this could not be true
He promised he would be home and they still had so many things they had planned to do

She had to tell her daughter that daddy went to Heaven on Christmas Eve
Will she understand, will she be strong, will she even believe?
Her daughter looked at her and said, “he’ll be here soon” much to her surprise
“Jesus told me Daddy will be here for Christmas, and Jesus tells no lies”

Late Christmas Eve night after the wife had cried herself to sleep
She heard her husband’s voice say, “Honey I am here, please do not weep”
“For I have little time and had to come see you on this Christmas day”
“I want you to know I will always be here for you, I am only a dream away”

He kissed her gently on her cheek as he handed her his wedding band
“I want you to keep this for our little girl to one day put on her groom’s hand”
She awoke Christmas morning with the dream fresh in her mind and her hand clinched tight,
She opened her hand to find her husband’s ring as she realized that her daughter was right.

She ran into her little girl’s room to tell her everything would be okay
That her dad did come and visit on this special Christmas day
Her daughter was not in her room like she had thought she would be
She was in the living room standing in front of the lit Christmas tree.

“Merry Christmas Mommy” she said with a childish smile
“Daddy woke me up this morning and said he had been here a while”
“He said he had a Christmas gift for me he left with you last night”
“He said you would give it to me when the time was right”

“He said Merry Christmas as he lit up our Christmas tree,
And told me to remind you that in your heart is where he will always be”

Sherri Kaye
December 24, 2004