Black Friday

As most of you know, Black Friday is my holiday. I love it. I look forward to it all year long. This year was no different. Except one little problem. Black Friday didn't start on Friday this year but on Thursday evening, Thanksgiving. That's right. So where to start this story. I guess we'll start it at the beginning of Thursday. We woke up Thursday morning and started getting dressed for the day. We were having Thanksgiving at Aunt Cathy's house. We all went up there around lunch time and ate and played. You know you always hate to eat and run, but today was definitely an eat and run kinda day. The Saints were playing at 3 so we had to be home for that and the first sales started that evening so we had to get a little rest as well. Of course, procrastinater that I am, I hadn't even looked at the sale papers yet so when we left Aunt Cathy's house, that's exactly what I started doing. I made lists, looked at papers, got the car cleaned and ready to go. We were all planning on meeting at Aunt Brenda's house at 8:00 because the Toys R Us Sale started at 10:00. So it was just about 5 when I decided I'd try to get a little rest when the phone rang and Krissy was on the other end letting me know Walgreens toy sale had already been going on. So she and I scrambled to get dressed and get to Walgreens before meeting up with everyone else. We were gone by 6:30 and back to Aunt Brenda's just on time. This year the gang consisted of me, Krissy, moma, Aunt Brenda, Katie, Patri, Aunt Patricia, Aunt Deedee, Meghan, Aunt Trina, Aunt Cathy, Melissa, Tina and Aunt Linda. We separated into 3 cars and took off. Our plan was Toys R Us, Walmart, Kohls, etc etc. Toys R Us was nuts so we nixed that idea and started our night at Walmart. Their sale started at midnight so it gave us plenty of time to get ready. After we left Walmart we headed to Waffle House to eat, then to Kohl's, Target, JCPenney, Academy and then back home for a quick unload. By this point moma was exhausted and Patri's back was hurting. This was 5:30 am. Once home we unloaded what we could and all separated. Moma, Patri, Brenda, Katie, Aunt Cathy, and Melissa called it a day (lightweights), T and the rest of the gang headed to Mississippi and Krissy and I headed to Lakeside. Once all was said and done and shopping was finished, Krissy and I didn't make it home until 4pm Friday. *Don't forget we left at 6:30 the day before. Thats 21.5 hours of shopping.* We had a great day though and it was lots and lots of fun. CAN'T WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!!!!

Hospital Day

Friday was moma's surgery. This is hopefully the beginning of the end for all of her cancer troubles. She has been giving the cancer a run for its money and this was the day to hopefully remove it for good. We started out at the hospital at 9am. Her surgery was scheduled to start at 11. We were a little surprised by the hospital waiting room. We thought going in that it was only going to be me, Krissy, and daddy waiting. We were pleasantly surprised to walk into the waiting room to see Aunt Cathy there and waiting already. Shortly after Aunt Colleen, Aunt Laura, Pawpaw, Aunt Patricia, and Aunt Linda all showed up. Later in the day came Aunt Trina, Aunt Brenda and Uncle EJ. (I really hope I remembered everyone; it was a really long day, please don't have your feelings hurt if I left you out). We loved that so many people came by to show their support. And we know those of you that didn't, you were there in spirit and prayers. We know that we have the best support system in the entire world made up of the best friends and family anyone could ask for. They took her back to preop at 10 and didn't actually start her surgery until right at 12:30. They surgery suite was a little behind. Its ok though, once they got started, they notified us every hour to give us an update. Everything was progressing well and going as scheduled. They finally came out about 5 and told us she was finished and everything looked good. She stayed in postop about an hour and then they got her to her room. Once moma got in her room, she started feeling bad. She was white and queasy and feeling very claustrophobic. So Krissy and I did what we thought should be done, we sent everyone away. Without seeing her. We felt awful about it because they had stayed and been with us all day and now we weren't even letting them see her. I hope they all understood. We were just trying to look out for moma at that point. Once the night grew on though, she started feeling much better. Krissy and I decided we weren't going anywhere and we knew daddy needed sleep so we kicked him out and we had a girls night at the hospital. Daddy wasn't very happy about it but moma needed someone there who would wake up if something happened and we all know daddy sleeps like a rock. The next morning we left after daddy came in and by that time moma was great. She was up, they had already removed her iv and she had already made her first trip out of the bed. Daddy stayed the next night with her and then she was free to come home. They woke up bright and early Sunday morning and headed home. Hopefully moma is on the better side of things now with only good to come.

Global Wildlife Campout

This past Saturday was the Annual Global Wildlife Bonfire and Campout. Since Krissy and I are members, we decided to go this year with all of the kids and moma and daddy. Moma and daddy brought the camper down and checked in around 12:30 to get a good spot. Me, Barrett and the kids got there about 4:00. Elena was so excited to be going to a campout. She just loves when we are all together. Landon, on the other hand, is such a homebody, he didn't want to go. Krissy and her kids got there about 5:00. They lit the roasting fire about 5:30 so we all went over and roasted marshmallows and hotdogs. Then they started serving dinner. Dinner consisted of traditional campfire food, hot dogs, chili, beer, and soft drinks. Then the fire trucks came. They inspected the bonfire and watered around it and lit it up at about 6pm. This was a massive size bonfire. We immediately had to back up because it was putting off way too much heat. So we sat around the bonfire for a few hours. They had a live band so the kids got to dance. We made some new friends and they basically ran around all night dancing and playing. They got their flash lights out later and started exploring. Even scared-of-the-dark-Landon went off exploring. All of the kids had such a great time and by the time it was ready for bed, they all just crashed. This was so much fun, we can't wait to do it again next year.