pumpkins and Christmas trees...

There's only 3 more months till Christmas!!! Better start shopping now! ok ok ok "stephanie", you're saying, "can we at least get through halloween and Thanksgiving first!"

i just love fall and i love Christmas. These next few months are my fav. We are going to be taking family pictures sometime in October. We haven't taken family pictures since mattie was 1 1/2 years old....so sad i know. my mom and mominlaw are ready to kill me. brian is sooooo excited words can't express how he feels about this....SARCASM!!! i have a goal...a weight loss goal...i've kinda regressed during september. not too bad but i gotta get things under control again. my goal for the family pictures is...130lbs. it wont be too hard. i'm 143lbs right now. i've gained about 3 lbs. but thats not too bad. These family pictures are going to be Christmas gifts. a friend i go to church w/ is going to take them.

anywoo, just thought i'd remind everyone that's the "gift giving season" is fast approaching:)

Fireproof The Movie!

opens tonight...go see it.

Why is it that....

first this is not a husband/man bashing post, it is a legit..."too legit too legit to quit hey hey"..sorry had to get that out...question. Why is it that we have to tell the men in our lives just exactly what we want them to do. how many times have i heard him say this, "why didn't you tell me to....or ask me to...".

am i the only woman that has this issue going on in her life?....

Thank You!..."i'm just sayin"... and Matt girl

THANK YOU to all my friends that have given me words of encouragement through this hard time. continue to pray for my family...especially...Gary-Steven's dad...Diane-his mom...Danny-his older bro...Michael-his middle bro...paulandjana-they helped raise those boys through the high school years...my grandaddy...and all steven's friends-they loved him very much and were greatly affected by his love for them and his friendship to them...erinandgirls-his wife, two step daughters and the little one that is on the way.(Michele...erin is KC Ashebrenner Deal's little sister. by the way KC and Joey Deal are married w/ kiddos if you didn't know already)


"i'm just sayin"
that's my new phrase i say ALL the time..."i'm just sayin". i usually say that after i've pured forth words of 'know it allness' when talking to brian about something.


Our Matt girl is making straight 100's!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm just sayin and that's all i'm gonna say. well,i'll add this...she's making straight 100's.

Steven Wilhelm Richie

My cousin! I love him and miss him!

this picture was taken of him was when he was fishin w/ our uncle paul a few weeks ago. see paul doesn't really feel like our uncle, he's more like our cousin. he's just 4 yrs older than me so he seems more like a cousin. anywoo, paul and steven had been fishin all day and he hadn't caught "the big one" and was disappointed. so he threw his rod out one more time and brought this big sucker in. paul said he was so excited.

memories. they're good for the soul. i have a lot of regrets when it comes to steven. i've had his cell number for almost a year and not once did i call him. course he didn't call me either:). but this loss has caused me to take stock of some things in my life. i'm going to stay better connected w/ my family and friends. our next breath is not promised.

i left the funeral w/ one question in my mind.....what will be said of me at mine. i know i know how morbid can u get stephanie. but seriously what will be said of me and my life, my witness, my friendship. it's a very sobering thought.

why?

i went to the funeral of my 29 year old cousin yesterday and i'm pretty mad about it. Steven had battled w/ an addiction to drugs and alcohol since jr. high/high school up until the past few years. steven had lived a life of second chances. he lived w/ many different people and families through out his life. see his mom and dad split when he was about in the 5th or 6th grade. his mom left he and his two brothers. she moved away. their dad worked out of town so they pretty much raised themselves for a while. He was in and out of jail different times in his adult life. almost went to prison. my grandfather and uncle paul had a hand in him not going to prison. about three years ago he got saved. and as he put it he got saved from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. see steven had many many many friends. everybody loved him. he was easy to love. when he got saved he started witnessing to all his friends. memorizing and quoting scripture to them. asking them what he could pray for them about. he had just gotten married this past year to a very sweet girl that loved him and he loved her. he had just started a business power washing oil rigs. his business cards had just come in. his wife is expecting their first baby, a girl. he was just starting life. he was on fire for the Lord and the Lord took him. why? he had so much to still do. i don't understand.

when the family walked into the church for the funeral i was blown away by the amount of people that were in that church. it was full. it was overwhelming. the pastor that did the funeral laid out the plan of salvation. told anyone there that he would be available to anyone who wanted to get saved. there were praise songs played. preaching. his brothers read a letter from a good friend that is in jail who steven had witnessed to and i believe led to the Lord. the letter just told about how much steven loved the Lord and how much he meant to this guy.

what saddens me the most is that he's gone. he'll never see his little girl. he won't get to live the life that he deserved. well i guess none of us deserve anything but you know what i mean. i just don't get it.

Is this really happening in America...Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness...

You probably won't here much of this in the mainstream media, but thank God for Fox News.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xVYW-_0jVU

God help us...My friends this man is evil. no other word could better describe him. You better begin and end you day in a prayer that God spares America from this evil man and his evil evil evil evil beliefs.

1. How can you go to a church for over 10 years and be under a man that "preaches" hate and NOT believe it. you can't.
2. How can you start your political career at a man's house who is a KNOWN terrorist...Bill Ayers
3. How can your wife say she has "never been proud of America till now" and not apologize for that horrible remark... our hope to
God not "First Lady" and i use that term loosely.

Here just watch this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIlS0_rArks

i ususally do not watch videos on other peoples blogs but please watch this and pray my friends, pray.

Life after "work outside the home"

So far i haven't had a "normal" week. if there's such a thing. The first week i was "home", i was cleaning house w/out the kids. the second week my sis and nieces came to visit!! then last week we took Brian's mom to Tennessee for eye surgery. she had cancer in her eye twice in the past 10 years. the two rounds of radiation have caused her to loose total site out of it. her eye had been really hurting her a lot, so they removed it. she had a "false eye" made out of coral put in. in october she will get her "contact" that covers the whole front part of the eye that looks just like her "good" eye. she has been here at the house recovering quickly i might add. for those who don't know our "living situation" Brian's mom was invited to come live w/ us last november. uuummmm she stayed for a couple of months then started going back and forth between our house and her mothers house. her mom is 83 yrs old and elderly. she would come on sunday, keep ryder mondays and tuesdays then go back to her moms. well that worked out good. then she just kind of started staying w/ her mom all the time. she'll come stay a few days then leave. frustrating. the kids are confused. we just tell them she had to go stay w/ MawMaw GG to take care of her. i kinda feel sorry for her b/c she doesn't have a place to call her own. but then i think about the reason why she doesn't have a place to call her own and don't feel sorry for her. who knows what's going on. i don't ask. she'll probably leave in a few days. just have to wait and see. then this week the hurricane came through. the Governor cancelled school for most of louisiana on tuesday and wednesday so mattie's been home. maybe next week will be "normal"....i need a schedule. connie and i were supposed to "write one up" while she was here but that didn't happen. i guess i can work on that.

oh and Mattie is having a most excellent year. her teacher is very nice and she's doing really good. When i dropped Mattie off on her first day, her teacher met us at the door w/ a huge smile, shook my hand and introduced herself. said she was excited mattie was in her class. THANK YOU JESUS! her teacher last year was, well lets just say in can't describe her using the same words i used for this year's teacher. we all went as a famiy to tennesse for Sue's surgery. when she went back her class and teacher missed her and let her know it. her teacher wrote a note in her "agenda" book saying she was glad she was back. when mattie was sick last year and out of school for FIVE days, she came home after her first day back and said, "mama my teacher didn't say hi to me or say she missed me or was glad i was back". sad huh. some teachers just don't get it.

God is Good

New Orleans was spared! but many other counties/parishes were hard hit down south. we lost power for maybe 5 hours. mostly in the middle of the night. some were asking in the comments from the previous post were we live...north on I20 between Monroe and Schreveport. Gov. Bobby Jindal(or Jendal) redeemed the Louisiana "state government" reputation by his quick response and obvious preparedness.

Other Tropical Storms/Hurricanes already on the radar...
Hanna...probably will hit the East Coast this weekend
Ike...who knows...the last radar had him headed for that space between Cuba and Florida...