Our newest family member

Dominique did not want to have Bentley on Thanksgiving Day so she had ask the dr to go ahead & induce the week before to which he agreed as long as his lungs were developed. She went to do the test on Nov 15th because she was supposed to be induced on the 17th. The test came back that they weren't quite as developed as they should be so he changed her date to Nov 28th.

I talked to her for a long time on Wed night while I was cooking for Thanksgiving & cleaning up my kitchen and she was fine. She text me around 9:30 to tell me she had been having contractions 3-5 minutes apart for about 15 minutes. I called her & told her to have Bubby come home and let us know what she needed us to do. She text back around 10:00 pm and said to come get Lizzie she was going to the hospital. We get to her house within 10 minutes, waited on Bubby to get home and we all left.

She text a few times telling me her stats and then said they were waiting on the nurse to come back in her room. At 12:30 we just about had Lizzie back to sleep when my phone rang, it was Nikki telling me they were having a baby in 30 minutes lol We all jumped up & took off to the hospital, just as we walked around the nurse's station Bubby was bringing a very precious baby Bentley Cash to their room. He's just a perfect little boy & has the sweetest little disposition, only cries when he's getting changed. He looks alot like his big sister too :)

Getting his first kiss of many from his big sister

A very proud mom :)

Already love this precious baby!

I'm so thankful we have a close relationship, I have loved watching her grow into a beautiful wife & mother!

Levi was so excited to hold him for the first time :)

Bubba, oh how much he loves this girl!

Triston was really excited he just never smiles in pictures.

The day they came home from the hospital Bubba can't keep his hands off him.

The happy little family minus one little sweet girl who was staying with her Pepa.

We get the pleasure of helping with Lizzie until Nikki can get back on her feet since she had a c-section and they knicked her bladder so she also had to come home with a catheter. We told her to worry about getting well & taking care of herself before trying to take care of a baby & a 2 yr old. She will have plenty of time to take care of both of them after she's well. I'm so proud of her and the way she has recovered so far. Her & Bubby have a wonderful little family with a girl & now a boy. I'm so thankful God has allowed us to be a part of their lives!

Always Remember

A very good friend of mine turned me on to this site http://www.proverbs31.org/  I get emails daily and it seems like everyday it fits me to a tee. I usually save & reread them on the days I've got the blahs and today this one just seemed to "show" up.

There are those days that I feel unappreciated or those people who I consider to be my "friends" aren't necessarily acting like the "friend" they claim to be. I always have to remember that God is in control and the negative thoughts that I may have need to subside because I've got someone greater on my side :)

September 16, 2011 Your Thoughts Have Wheels Tracie Miles

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7a (KJV)

The day started off just fine, but ended with confusion and tears. As a timid middle-schooler, I climbed the steps of my school bus eager to get home after a long afternoon.

Sitting quietly in my seat, all of a sudden I got this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Although my surroundings appeared to be the same, something was not right.

The bus was the normal sunshine yellow. The seats were standard black vinyl, displaying rips and tears from years of students. The floor was littered with the usual misplaced pencils, erasers and wadded-up papers. Yet, I felt out of place.

That’s when I realized I did not know any of the kids sitting around me. And I had never seen the bus driver before. Frantically, I searched for anything familiar. My cheeks grew hot and my heart raced with panic as I realized I was on the wrong bus.

Although I WAS headed somewhere, it was NOT where I wanted to go.

I’d been distracted by conversations with friends, thoughts of sleepovers, and how much homework I had. My thoughts were not focused on where I was going. The actions that followed caused me to end up somewhere I did not want to be.

Thinking back on that day, I’ve considered how our thoughts determine a lot about the direction of our lives. Like my school bus, our thoughts will always take us somewhere, but it may not be somewhere we want to end up.

If we spend time thinking about how our boss does not appreciate us, our thoughts will take us straight to a bad attitude at work and possibly poor performance.

If we focus on how much we do for others and how little we feel appreciated, our thoughts will take us to a place of resentment, with lack of patience and love.

If we spend an entire day fuming over something our husband or kids did, and mentally practice the harsh words we plan to say to them, those thoughts will lead us into a place of arguments, hurt feelings and damaged relationships.

If we dwell on why God has allowed certain problems in our lives, we will transport ourselves into a state of insecurity and unhappiness as we stop trusting God.

If we focus our thoughts on money, career, success and pleasure, we will find ourselves in the land of the lost—feeling frustrated and discontent.

Our thoughts are powerful and require great self control. If we allow them to run rampant, focusing on things that lead us away from God, then we will wind up at a destination we would never deliberately choose.

In today’s key verse, God shows us why we should choose carefully what we think about, because our thoughts determine who we are and how we live.

My childhood memory reminds me to consistently ask God to help me keep my mind on Him and on the thoughts He has for me. That way I can live according to His plans and with His perspective, seeking to be acutely aware of where my thoughts may lead me.

Our thoughts really do have wheels. Where are your thoughts taking you today?

Dear Lord, please help me take my thoughts captive, and focus on things that are pleasing to You. Please give me the desire to honor You and abide by Your Word in any area of my thoughts I am struggling to do so. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Mountain Ride

Since Triston didn't have a game on Sept 16th Michael & I decided we would take a ride to the mountains. All our friends bummed out on us for various reasons but we decided that we were going even if it was just us. I just can't stress enough how much fun we had and the pics well they don't do it justice. It was gorgeous scenery and it still amazes me to see what God has created. We left it was fairly chilly like in the high 60's but cloudy so Michael decided we would go to Judy's Leather in Lynchburg and get some jackets. We got there found some jackets and then Michael thought that I needed chaps, I really didn't want them at first but after we were on the road I was so glad that I went ahead & got them because I could tell a huge difference in the wind hitting me. We ended up riding around 830 miles which included going into the edge of North Carolina and also stayed there on Friday night and staying in Pigeon Forge Sat night. While we really look like bikers in some of these pics it's nice to know that we don't act like most people think "biker" people act.

                                           We took this just before we left our house.

We rode through the campus of Sewanee which was really neat.

The tunnel heading into Chattanooga

We rode down by the Ocoee which was so pretty.

Excited that we made it to NC even if it was the edge :)

This is where we stayed Friday night & it was getting late so we were way excited to find somewhere decent. We got there around 8:20 so we were freezing cold & hungry by then.

Sat am when we got up to drive to Pigeon Forge

This was an awesome road to ride, there are 318 curves in 11 miles.

This tree is filled with items from accidents that have occurred on this road which sort of scared me at first but after riding it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be because we would certainly ride it again.

I took several pictures of the curves that we went around but didn't want to post them all on here lol

Sun morning on the way home we decided we would ride through the Smoky Mountains to take the scenic route home.

Not sure of the spelling but once we got off the Smokey Mountains we rode over to the Cherolhola Skyway which is around 50 miles of nothing but curves. There are no roads to turn off of so once you are on it there's no turning back.

This was one of the highest elevation points which was a tad over 5000 feet.

Enjoyed being riding so much but was so thankful to see my home state sign again :)

Homecoming Time in Chapel Hill

We love living in a small town, it's especially wonderful during Homecoming week. The kids have a great time dressing up different everyday that week, I really wished I had pics of Levi but he has cross country & meetings every morning so he put his dress up clothes on at school. I know one day he dressed up like a cowboy, one day was crazy day, one day was toga day and then on Friday they just anything pertaining to the Rockets, blue & white day. The entire week every spends time working on their class floats & yes our town completely shuts down for about 45 minutes so we can all watch it. People start lining up on the side of the road around 10:30 I normally try to take off work on Friday but this year I wasn't able to but Dave was kind enough to let me leave to go watch the parade.

                                                  Our wonderful friends Dan & Michelle

                                                                My wonderful honey & me

                                     This is Jackie King who we consider to be our town "sheriff"

 Mr. Delk our elementary principal, we all love him. He lets all the kids paint his truck all the time so it always looks different.

 

This is the special needs kid float as well as the helpers.

Sweet little Casey on the 1st grade float

This is the 2nd grade float

 Little ms. mature Casey

                                                    a few of our high school cheerleaders :)

                                                                 The freshman class float

                                                                   Sophomore class float

                                      Junior class float, yep that's my Levi driving the 4 wheeler :)

 They didn't have enough money to do a big float so they used a 4 wheeler trailer which turned out really good, they won 2nd place :)

                                                                   The Senior class float

Hearts, hearts & more hearts

Sun night about 9:30 Levi informed me that he wanted me to sew him about 5 or 6 stuffed hearts so I told him that wouldn't be a problem, I'd do it tomorrow night. I came home Monday night and showed him the material that I had & he picked out 2 colors and then said can you make 12? I said sure that will be fine so I started sewing & finished them around 9:00. When I took them to his room he said can you make some felt ones too? LOL I said yes, how many he said I don't know maybe 12. I said what in the world happened to making 5 or 6 of these things? He said I don't know thought maybe it would be nice to give one to everybody. I started going through my stash to see if I had enough felt and since he didn't care what colors as long as they were pink, reds or purples I was able to find scraps to use. I made 8 before it was time to go to bed so I told him I'd finish the rest tomorrow night. Well Tuesday afternoon he said there was 28 kids in his class so guess what I cut, stuffed & sewed a total of 28 hearts. It really wasn't that bad and I fell in love with the felt ones. I'm thinking that I'm going to make some to help decorate the house on Valentine's Day.