What a blessed life I have!

Wow! It's been quite a while since posting last but what a month and a half I've had. In many ways it has been a most difficult time, a scary time, a rough time and a wonderful time. It's had it's ups and downs and in betweens. Most of all, I have realized how lucky we are and how blessed we are.


















We'll skip over much of the daily's but here are the high points. Halloween was tons of fun. I dressed up as the widow of Dracula. Dalton was the "Crypt Keeper". We both had a blast. I handed out candy while Taylor and Reaves together took Dalton to each and every house with a porch light on in our neighborhood. I've not seen that much candy since Taylor used to make that his personal goal every Halloween. Fortunately, Dalton's not been digging into it and thus, our dentist visit is not to be filled with impending doom.


















We got through momma's birthday letting off balloons in her honor. Taylor made me cry. He wrote on his balloon, "We miss you Meggie, but we see pieces of you every day in Lissa." How amazing was that to say about me?! The balloons were her favorite colors, pink and blue, gold for her birthstone, emerald green for my birthday and their anniversary and white for Daddy and Martha's birthstone (Pearl and Opal). They looked so beautiful climbing toward Heaven.

We got through election day where fortunately Virginian's are starting to wake up.

We got through Ive's birthday (Lisa's mom) but didn't get to send up balloons for the rain...

We got through the Hurricane Ida remnants and a nasty Nor'easter that dumped so much rain in our fair state we had to be declared in a state of emergency in Hampton Roads.

Taylor had a horrible run in with an 8 point buck. The car and the buck lost the fight. Taylor won the battle. Reaves and T were going to visit Michael and his family in Quinton and this deer managed to step out into the highway at the wrong time. He hit the right front side of the car, rolled onto the car, hit the left side, rolled onto the windshield and ended up being under the car. Taylor, who hit the deer in the RIGHT hand lane going about 68 mph, ended up behind his air bag, slamming on the brakes which locked up, skidded over the left lane and way over the soft muddy shoulder (which was very wide thankfully) and finally stopped just short of kissing a guard rail and the side of a hill. The car was dug into the mud and the deer was about 50 yards behind the car very gone.









Sorry about the poor quality, but these were all from a phone. When Reaves called and said they'd been in a highway accident that the car was totaled, I grabbed a purse and ran. I called Paul to have an escort since I was riding the highway at night and was a little trepidacious about that. (Kevin was working that night of all nights!)

Shockingly, the boys neither had any physical damage, which I attribute solely to the fact that I'm certain God rides shotgun with my children all day every day. The accident could have been SO much worse. Just a half mile down the road, rather than a hill in the center of the median, there is a deep ravine. The end result of this wreck could have been quite different. While the car is totaled, the deer did NOT penetrate the undercarriage, did NOT penetrate the rag top roof. He is, however, residing in my freezer. (Sad but true...)

We spent the better part of 3 hours trying to take care of everything, waiting on the wrecker (that got stuck in the mud after getting the car onto the flat bed), taking the deer back to Lisa and Paul's (thanks to our friend Tony who came and got it for us) and Kevin came after work to gut it and butcher it. The rack was impressive. Paul's remark upon seeing the deer? "Holy crap Taylor. I've waited my whole life to get a deer like that and you just got it on your first season out!" Funny, but sad too...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Daddy's. It was fabulous to be able to be there. Daddy is so awesome and I love him so so much. He was such fun to be with and we celebrated being thankful by staying up until Midnight the day before playing a rowdy game of family Monopoly! Reaves and Dalton ended up out of the game early and played parchisi (sp?) and Pictureka. All in all, a fabulous night!

I cooked a grand meal if I do say so myself and got many compliments which also blessed me. To have my daddy compliment my cooking makes me feel so awesome. Momma was such an amazing cook. I could never be the cook/chef she was but I strive to be close when I can. It's hard to cook a big meal like that for me as it takes so much out of me, but fortunately I had tons of help this year. Kevin stepped in and was a tremendous help.

We are indeed quite blessed. What a difficult, trying month or so we've had but blessed all the same.

I've scrapped a little, prayed a lot, changed meds and my blood pressure is back to normal now. (Praise God!) Now it's the holiday season, I'm preparing for Dalton's birthday, Christmas and New Year. I'm so sad that Kevin has to work on Christmas Day (8-4!!!) and have to figure out how we're going to do the holiday festivities before he goes into work. But that's a worry for another day. Today I'm going to concentrate on all the goodness!