HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO MY GIRL

                      
I am lucky to have a daughter and a daughter-in-law that are both wonderful MOTHERS.  This post is to tell Amanda how over the top PROUD I am of her, especially this Mother’s Day.  The almost 12 year old PARKER above is the little boy that made her a Mom and me a Grammy years ago at the very young age of 18.  For the next 11 years she worked for a doctor and had a very good job, BUT she always wanted to go back to school and finish college. 

Fast forward to last October when her Dad had his stroke and something changed.  She encountered many nurses through our 6 week hospital stay and realized the difference a GOOD NURSE makes.  A few weeks later she first told her Dad and then me, that she was quitting her job and going back to school to become a nurse.  It was huge to give up a good job and an income. 

With Micah’s blessing and encouragement, she did just that. Took a HUGE leap of faith.   In January she enrolled in school and has studied until her eyeballs have almost fallen out.  She finished her first semester this week with all A’s and 1 very high B.  
I cannot tell you how proud we are of her.  She is going to be an awesome nurse. Staying home has given her a new lease on life. 

The extra amount of time she has gotten to spend with her boys has been the big BONUS.  She has even taken up golf and she and Micah play several times a week.  She is just HAPPY.  And that makes a Mom and Dad HAPPY. 

This little boy below, Jack aka Woody made her a Mom for the second time. 
This Man made her his QUEEN and shows his boys how to treat her everyday!
         
                     
           

           Happy Mother’s Day Amanda

Tomorrow I will get some new pictures of Dana with her boys and post them soon.  She is a great Mom and I am proud to call her my daughter-in-love. 

Remember there is a giveaway tomorrow….and because I need you to do something for me, I will give away another “Card Box” on Wednesday.  My little nephew is in a contest that I so want him to win. 

Would you please go to this link and vote for Sweet William.  You do not have to sign up, just click on his name and that’s it.

Come BACK HERE and tell me. Your name will go in the drawing for tomorrow and Wednesday.
 
http://exploretexarkana.com/pages/Contest/view/1

If you have not read this post on my other blog, it may be my most read post since I began blogging.  I am shocked at the email and all the requests to repost it..(be sure and turn the music down)
Happy Mother’s Day to all my blog friends. 

MOTHER'S DAY GIVEAWAY

My heart hurts for all those Mothers out there that are trying to pull their families back together after a week of devastation.  Where would you even start?
I just found this on a blog and thought it was EXCELLENT.

Social Media to the rescue.

It is so hard to know what and how to respond in a tragedy. 
Grasping For Objectivity
in My Subjective Life
….love that title, gives some great suggestions.
 
I am busy making Mother’s Day baskets and that famous CARD BOX is the favorite gift again this year. Some mothers request it year after year. 
I am going to give away a
CARD BOX!
Parker will draw on Mother’s Day. 
All you have to do is tell me that you went to ONE blog of someone touched by the tornadoes and encouraged them.
If you tell me you visited multiple ones, then I will enter you that many times.  You can read my previous post for just a few of the blogs I found.  It will not be hard to find them.   Feel free to leave names of other blogs in the comments.  I would love to visit them.
Sunday I will post about a very special Mom.
 
There are so many incredible Moms in the blog world.  I started to list some and realized I would leave someone out.  One that is especially dear to my heart right now is Paige at Paige's Petals. She inspires me daily as she walks through a very hard place.

Being a Mom has been the greatest honor of my life.  It is a job I have failed miserably at many times. It’s a job I get a redo on regularly. I laughed at a comment someone left essentially saying they felt like we had perfect relationships.  If I have ever given  that impression…
x that out. 

We argue, get our feelings hurt, get in each others business, give our opinion when no one asked and all the other things you can think of on a regular basis.  But as the song says “We ARE FAMILY” and as Woody’s favorite song says, “You’ve Got a Friend in ME”

We have each others back, no matter what, and that’s the way it should be.  We are a soft and safe place to land.   I really would pick my adult kids as my friends and that’s a good place to be. 
This is a year that I have needed them more than ever.  This week marks seven months since their Dad (and my husband) had a stroke.  Today he is out in the back yard playing “golf” with Woody.  Earlier today he was out delivering baskets, going to the grocery store, picking up the kids from school.  Five months ago we had no idea if he would recover 100%.  He has and I cannot tell you how much of that is because of the love and encouragement of his kids and “the littles”!
        
Happy Mother’s Day to all My Blog Friends.  You make my Life Richer!


I know it must drive you crazy when I change font colors so often…It’s just me. Sorry
REMEMBER THERE IS A GIVEAWAY SO COMMENT AWAY.
I just posted a GREAT READ on my other BLOG. It will not be for everyone but it will make you think.

LOOKING FOR A WAY TO HELP

EDITED SUNDAY NIGHT  What a way to end this week! God Bless the USA!
              


Please watch this video! 
There are so many blogs I have found that show pictures that are almost too much to view.  These are just a few I read today.
Breakfast at Tiffany's
A Southern Belles’s Tales the pictures on this blog tell a story of lives destroyed
Leslie at Lamberts Lately
Two Plus One Makes Three
It is so easy to just turn the TV off, look away from the pictures, go on with life as usual, but for some reason this horrible devastation has left me unable to do that. 
I want to help.  Really I would love to get in the car and drive there and help someone pick up their yard, rock their baby, look for their old pictures.   
These people will not know normal for months and years and if I Iook long enough at the pictures, I think never. 
I am not sure how, but I am going to do something in the next few days that I know will make a difference for at least one family…If we all did for one…If I think about it any other way, it just becomes overwhelming. 

If you read this blog you will see inside the family of the man that gave his life for his family.  The Mom posted this a week ago on Easter Sunday…one week ago. 

Today I had planned to write about the Royal Wedding, or maybe the NFL lockout, or maybe the antics of a very funny Jack who has been with me for the last 24 hours (that makes for many funny stories), but none of that seems blog worthy when so many people are hurting…so many bloggers that I read weekly have had their lives totally and literally turned upside down.  Please do not worry about leaving me a comment.  Go to one of these blogs and encourage one of them.  I would think that a word of encouragement, a promise to pray, would not be wasted on any of them.
I will be back with a Mothers Day giveaway in a few days.