I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is THURSDAY.  That is just insane. 

And my little boy will be 13 – THIRTEEN – in exactly one week.  That is also just insane.

Time sure does fly. 

This year I am thankful for many things.  I am thankful that my child is adjusting well to middle school and continues to be a compassionate, caring person who loves going to church.  I am thankful that my husband and I both have jobs and health insurance in this fragile economy.  I am thankful that my best friend recovered from an extremely scary burst appendix and both she and the little girl she is carrying are now healthy.  I am thankful that I live in a country where I am free – despite the best efforts of those who are opposed to morality and
God - to worship my Creator.  But above all I am thankful that I know Whose I am.

So, Christmas is 67 days away.  Yikes.  By this time of year, I am normally about 75% done with shopping.  Not this year.  If I don’t get in gear, people will be getting popcorns tins.

I did make it out this weekend, though, and got some AWESOME deals at Penney’s and K-Mart.  Penney’s had a lot of baby/toddler stuff on sale buy-one-get-one for $0.88 and other stuff was 50% off.  Then I had a great 20% off your total purchase coupon.  I also put a lot of stuff in layaway at K-Mart, and most of that was also on sale at either 30% or 40% off, and some things were BOGO.  I was able to get most of the shopping done for my 3 youngest nieces – ages 3, 2 1/2, and -2 1/2 months (she’s still on the way).    Though I think I went a TAD bit overboard with the baby stuff.  lol  Now I just need to shop for my oldest nieces, ages 5 1/2 and 9 1/2.  Hopefully Kohl’s will have an awesome sale next payday.

I just realized that I never actually posted this entry.  lol  Oops!

Yes, I dropped my kid off today for his first full day as a 7th grader.  I cannot believe how time has flown.  I am refusing to accept the fact that he will be 13 – THIRTEEN – in November.  I am SO not ready to have a teenager.

He is growing like a weed now.  It is crazy!  I have a feeling he will be taller than me by the end of the year.

However, he will always be required to call me “mommy” no matter how old or how big he gets.

Austin and my baby brother, Doug, on Doug's wedding day

Which wouldn’t be THAT big of a deal on an ordinary Friday night.  I mean, I’d still not be happy about it, but I really would fret that much about being late for the grocery store or starting laundry. 

This is no ordinary night, however.  This is the night before my brother’s wedding.

Of which I am the official director and decorator.  But no longer the official caterer and photographer, however. Which up until today at 7:30 p.m. I was.  Not too sad about that, though.  Don’t know how I would have pulled it all off.  Since I am now also the music player.

So I got into town around 3:30 this afternoon, checked into my hotel (so incredibly glad my father-in-law has Holiday Inn points), then went straight to the church to start decorating and preparing what food I could for the reception (this was before I found out someone ELSE was bringing food, too).  Then the rehearsal started at 7:00 and ended about 9:00 PM and I made a mad dash to a local Chinese restaurant to get dinner.  At 9:30 PM.  Finally got back to the hotel at around 10:00 to eat dinner.  At 10:00 PM.

Did I mention I hadn’t eaten since noon?

And I woke up this morning with raging allergies/sinus issues and had missed my 6:00 appointment with Mucinex.  And I sounded like Rudolph with the thing on his nose.  And I kind of look like him without the thing on his nose.

So, anyway, I finally got to bed around midnight, after Mr. Mucinex semi-kicked in. 

And then I woke up at 2:30 and I’ve been up ever since.  It is now 4:30 A.M.

And my alarm is set for 6:00 a.m. 

And my brother is meeting me here around 8:00 so that we can book a room in Gatlinburg for his honeymoon then go buy clothes for him to wear to his wedding.

You know, for the WEDDING THAT IS TODAY AT 2:OO.

Oh, and we also have to stop by Michael’s and get flower petals for the flower girl, the garter for the bride, and pins to pin the flowers on the guys. 

And I have had approximately 2 hours of sleep.

This is not going to end well. 

Must try not to snore during ceremony.

From Tennessee Right to Life

Abortion measure passes, then fails, in House

(AP) – 11 hours ago

WASHINGTON — An anti-abortion amendment to a sweeping health overhaul bill was voted down in a House committee late Thursday — a dramatic reversal just hours after the measure initially was approved.

The amendment said health care legislation moving through Congress may not impose requirements for coverage of abortion, except in limited cases. It was approved in the Energy and Commerce Committee after conservative Democrats joined Republicans to support it.

But committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., invoked House rules that allowed him to bring up the amendment for a second vote, despite Republican objections.

This time, one conservative Democrat — Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee — changed his vote from “yes” to “no.” And a second conservative Democrat who hadn’t voted the first time — Rep. Zack Space of Ohio — voted “no.”

It was enough to take down the amendment on a 30-29 vote.

TRL NOTE: Pro-life congressmen will offer one more pro-life amendment this morning, the Stupak-Pitts amendment to explicitly remove tax dollar funding for abortion from the health care plan proposals. Urge Congressman Gordon to support the Stupak-Pitts pro-life amendment and keep us from funding abortion in health care plans!

Please Call Congressman Gordon Even If You Are Not a Constituent:

Washington, D.C. 202-225-4231

Murfreesboro 615-896-1986

Cookeville 931-528-5907

Gallatin 615-451-5174

Below is an e-mail I received today.  BE SURE TO SIGN UP FOR THE WEBCAST, even if you can’t actually participate tonight.  They will e-mail you a link to view it later.

Dear Nancy,

You’ve been breaking all kinds of records over the last 24 hours!

An exciting 40 Days for Life report, and then an update about tonight’s URGENT webcast…

——————
40 DAYS FOR LIFE
——————

Applications for this fall’s 40 Days for Life campaign are officially underway… and things are shaping up better than we EVER expected!

108 cities have already applied to participate in the September 23 – November 1 campaign — and there are still eight more days for people to apply to lead campaigns in their communities.

This fall promises to be exciting!

If you feel led to help end abortion in your community by conducting a 40 Days for Life campaign this fall, take the first step by applying at:

http://www.40daysforlife.com/apply

——————
URGENT WEBCAST!
——————

I apologize for sending so many e-mails to you this week, however this is one of the biggest challenges the pro-life movement has seen in decades!

In just a few hours — at 9 PM Eastern (8 PM Central,
7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific) — more than 25,000 people of faith and conscience will join together to shape history on the “Stop the Abortion Mandate”
webcast that 40 Days for Life is helping to organize.

If you haven’t already registered, do it now at:

http://www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com

The stakes have never been higher. The current health care reform proposals — if enacted in their existing form — would represent the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.

The proposals would mandate taxpayer-funding of abortion and would force virtually all Americans into health plans with mandatory abortion coverage.

This abortion mandate simply MUST be stopped.

And on tonight’s webcast, we’ll take the first steps to do just that.

In an unprecedented display of collaboration and unity, more than 70 pro-life and pro-family organizations have joined together for this nationwide webcast event.

The line-up of presenters is a “who’s who” of respected leaders:

* DR. JAMES DOBSON, Focus on the Family
* DR. CHARMAINE YOEST, Americans United for Life
* FR. FRANK PAVONE, Priests for Life
* TONY PERKINS, Family Research Council
* MARJORIE DANNENFELSER, Susan B. Anthony List
* DOUGLAS JOHNSON, National Right to Life Committee
* WENDY WRIGHT, Concerned Women for America
* TOM MINNERY, Focus on the Family
* KRISTEN DAY, Democrats for Life
* CONGRESSMAN CHRIS SMITH, New Jersey
* DR. RICHARD LAND, Southern Baptist Convention ERLC
* KRISTAN HAWKINS, Students for Life of America
* CONGRESSMAN JOE PITTS, Pennsylvania
* PEGGY HARTSHORN, Heartbeat International
* MELINDA DELAHOYDE, Care Net
* JIM SEDLAK, American Life League/STOPP
* DAY GARDNER, National Black Pro-Life Union
* BISHOP HARRY JACKSON, High Impact Leadership
Coalition
* CARMEN PATE, Point of View Radio Show
* And me, David Bereit, 40 Days for Life

The number of registrations for tonight’s webcast just shot past 25,000 and is climbing rapidly. This has become the largest pro-life web event in history!

The abortion industry is howling about how the pro-life movement is getting organized and focused, the bureaucrats are playing defense, the media has been reporting on the build up to tonight’s webcast, and friends in Congress tell us that Capitol Hill is buzzing about this event.

With everything that’s at stake, there are three things we need you to do RIGHT NOW…

1.) PRAY!

2.) Register to attend (if you haven’t already):

http://www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com

2.) Ask others to join the webcast by registering at:

http://www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com

Let’s max out tonight’s webcast to show the media and America that the pro-life movement is united and determined to STOP THE ABORTION MANDATE.

Even if you’ve already spread the word, please send ONE MORE MESSAGE to invite friends, family, co-workers, and fellow believers to join the webcast by registering at:

http://www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com

We have a short window of opportunity to shape history — and with your help spreading the word about tonight’s webcast, we can make a powerful impact.

Work like it all depends on us, and pray like it all depends on God (because it does.)

Spread the word and then show up tonight with pen and paper in hand — ready to learn and take action.

Yours For Life,

David Bereit
National Director
40 Days for Life

If you are in TN, visit www.tnrtl.org to contact your state legislators today!  Session ends next week, and we still have time to get this done!

Someone forwarded me this e-mail and picture today (thanks Merilyn!), so I have no idea where it came from and take absolutely no credit for it. But the image and message IS AWESOME, even though the quote isn’t from Abraham Lincoln, as the e-mail stated.  I added the second quote, however, and it is from Lincoln.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

- William J. H. Boetcker

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
– Abraham Lincoln

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Today I am grateful for heroes that are not afraid to stand up for the unborn babies in our state and nation.  Heroes that will do what is right and fight for the chance for children to be born instead of killed for convenience sake.  Heroes like Mother Teresa, who said:

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

And:

“But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child – a direct killing of the innocent child – murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love – that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”

So today I am thankful, especially, for the 77 members of the Tennessee House of Representatives who voted in favor of SJR 127, a proposed Constitutional amendment that would make our state once again neutral on the issue of abortion and undo the extremely wrong 2000 state supreme court ruling by activist judges appointed by liberal pro-abortion individuals that stripped our state of all abortion regulations by “finding” a right to abortion in our state constitution even greater than that granted by Roe v. Wade.

They are my heroes.

Now we just have to do it again in 2 years.

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Today I am grateful for family bonding.  It seems like we have all been running in different directions lately.  Friday night and Saturday morning, though, hubs and I went to a family conference at church that would hopefully prepare us for the dreaded “teen years” that are fast approaching.  You have no IDEA what a miracle that is in and of itself.  But we had a blast, and he really enjoyed it.  Then we all hung out at home on Saturday night (Valentine’s Day) and ate lasagna (prepared by the HUBS!) and watched a movie.  Sunday we started implementing some of the new discipline strategies we had learned at the conference, and so far things are going great!  Then Sunday afternoon I got a call from my boss telling me to take Monday off since my son was out of school.  Sweet!  I got to spend the day hanging out with him and reinforcing some of the stuff we talked about on Sunday.   And I got to make lunch for the hubs!  Something I never get to do.  All in all, a nice relaxing weekend!