Here's to a New Year of Hope and Peace for Everyone!!

I haven't been very good at posting since my last one on the 20th. Such a busy time of year this is and with the going's on since my last post, it just slaps you in the face that live happens and so do bad things in the midst of such a joyful holiday.
My last post was about my dear Grandma King and what a gift she is to me and my entire family. We just a few days after that post she fell out of bed and they thought she may have broken her pelvis. She had a minor stroke and has lost use of her left side. Not completely, but enough so that she is now in a wheel chair and with her current memory loss, she doesn't remember that she can't get up and so she has fallen twice more. The poor thing just doesn't know not to try to stand up. She has always been very independent and being told not to do something makes her that more determined to do it!! She is a fighter, but they now have give her a mattress that has higher sides so she won't roll out of bed with out help. I just love her so much and hope that she will not have to suffer with much pain.
And then if Grandma having a stroke wasn't enough, a very good lifelong friend of our family got killed on Dec 23rd on his farm in rural NE Colorado. Jesse was doing what he loved, working outside and with his cattle, and there was an accident with his loader that took his young life. He was only 34 and had two young boys that thought their dad hung the moon. His funeral was yesterday. It was the largest funeral I have ever been to, so much sadness but also a great celebration of Jesse's life and his love for it. My heart goes out to his family and all the friends he has left behind, he will be missed.
Yet among the sadness and worry we did have a very nice Christmas with my family and have been able to spend a lot of time with our kids at home. They are so very important to us, and in light of the recent events we cherish them and everyone we know and love that much more.
My wish for all of you this New Year is that it is happy, healthy and prosperous and that you let the loved ones in your life know everyday how very much you love them. Even if you think they know it, tell them again and again, you can never tell someone enough...I Love You!!!
Have a Happy New Year all my blog friends. I hope you make the most of your new year and that all your dreams come true.

A Frosty Day... & ... What a gift I have!!!

On Thursday night we had a very quick and icy snow storm come through, but what a pretty picture it made for us the next morning!!!Jasper even had icicles hanging from his face. But he LOVES the snow and cold!!!
The fog was very dense and so cold, we had to "listen" for the bus this morning we couldn't see it.
But the best part of my day was this...my gift!! This is my 98 yoa Grandma King. She is in home here in town and I go once a week and do her hair. I don't do it as well as a professional would but it makes her feel better and it's good for Ashley and I to get to spend time with her.
Bless her heart, I have to tell her who I am almost every week and she thinks Ashley is a boy, but she loves on her and hugs her and gives her candy. Ash just loves Grandma King to death, she always has. Grandma is the oldest in our family and Ashley is the youngest, the fourth generation, so I feel lucky to have them both in my life and able to share some time together even if Grandma doesn't remember each time she is thrilled to have company and some time with us, Ashley and I will remember it and it is a gift for me each week that we get to go visit and get a hairdo!!! Love you Grandma!!

Thinking about you all Thrusday!!! Dec 18

I've been so busy the past couple of weeks I have neglected my blog!!! Thanks to all of you that keep checking in and leaving me your sweet comments. I love hearing from all of you so I'll try to keep up now that is is slowing down just a bit.. I have been busy...as I'm sure all of you are, it's not just me!!! I went to Ashley's pre-school the other day to help them make Gingerbread men, and alias I have no pictures of them because I was the one with the messy hands!!! But I got a great group shot of them by the singing snowman in the lobby of the school. Ash is the tall one with the pink pants and brown shirt on the left side.. And the one below here she is writing her name and being a reindeer!!


I wanted to share some of my Christmas decor, but haven't done it so the next two are of some of the things in my home. My tree is huge!! TOO big, I want a tall skinny tree, my hubby says next year!!! But this one is pretty is just takes up to much room in my little living room!! I should have taken a new picture of the tree, it does have gifts under it now1!! My angel swap angel found a home on the shelf along with some of my own creations!!


This last one is of the kids at the mall in Pueblo, CO. I had done a show the day before at my sisters school and the next day we got to go to Pueblo to watch my nephews play basketball the CSU-Pueblo. Jake and Ty both are on the squad there. Jake starts and Ty is only a freshman so he gets limited playing time right now, but it was fun to get to go see them and get some shopping done too. They kids hammed it up for me, as usual!!!


I truly hope all of you are ready for Christmas but remember the reason for the season and the YOUR FAMILY IS YOUR GIFT!! I didn't ask for a thing for Christmas this year, My gift is the health and happiness of my kids, that is all I need!!!

Have a great day everyone!!!

A Different Christmas Poem!!

I have been so bad at keeping up my blog. Sorry for those of you that have been looking and I have nothing new. I did a show last weekend and it was okay but not as good as my first. But it was at a high school during a basket ball game and there just wasn't a big crowd for the game so the show crowd was down also, but I got to spend the weekend with both my sisters and watch my nephews play basketball the CSU Pueblo in Pueblo Colorado and got some shopping done, so it wasn't all a bust.
I received the following poem in an email from GF of mine. Her son was in Iraq so this really hits home for her. It's good to remember those that are fighting for our freedom and having to spend the holidays away from home and away from loved one. Have a great day my friends.

A Different Christmas Poem


The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many
people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due
to
our
U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these
festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we
owe.
Make people
stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves
for
us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq