JANUARY UPDATE

BEN CAN DRIVE;
For me, this is old news, but you might not know it. Ben turned 16 the day Ruby Kate was born. The month of December was slam packed with things that we needed to do. So last week, on Friday, Ben got his license. There is more to the story, but I'll just leave it at that.

DPA PREPARATION
Just writing about this gets me stressed out. I am excited.....and    a l m o s t    r e a d y  for running for board. My campaign speech is written, and all I need to do is make my posters.....and practice. I'm more worried  about my actual project. I haven't finished my speech, rag quilt, or posters. It's very important to do well on your project because if all else fails, you'll place on that.

WINTER IS HERE
I thought that it would never come, but these past few weeks haven't been hot or humid. The only problem now is that my hair is always frizzy!!!! I still like this weather better.

SADIE'S PRESENT
Next month is Sadie's 3rd birthday, and Ben and I are giving her a princess dress. She will absolutely love it!!! I also want to throw her a princess birthday party.

Wild Boar!!!!!

It was just a regular day in south Georgia. Ericka and I were enoing while doing school work, when out of the woods, marches a wild boar!!! Ericka was too scared to get out of her eno, but I ran to the house, and told the family. Ben loaded his 22, and Timothy took a picture. The wild boar trotted away from Ericka, and through our front yard. It's not everyday that you see a wild boar trotting through your front yard. It might be a while before I go outside. Once when Daddy was jogging through the woods, he saw a wild boar, and thought that he might have to climb a tree. Wild boar can be even more dangerous to hunt than a bear because they are so smart, and they have razor sharp tusks!!!!

80 Degree Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas,

And all through the house,

The AC was running,

Because we live in the south.

I think that this poem sums up Christmas Eve. When I woke up on Christmas Eve morning, I made what I like to call, "The North Pole Breakfast". I decided to cook some waffles with about a forth a cup of chocolate chips per waffle (literally). The table was decorated with poinsettias, gold pine cones, and garland. There were cups for apple cider, and cups for chocolate milk. We didn't have hot chocolate or warm apple cider because at the time it was about 70 degrees outside. As we ate we listened to Jingle Bell Rock, and other Christmas songs. I have been in the cooking kick lately. The night before Christmas Eve I made a cake, and some chicken with pepper jack cheese, and spinach on it.The holidays are the perfect excuse to make sugar loaded foods.

After breakfast I went to the woods. I was rudely interrupted by black widow spiders, and helicopter sized mosquitoes.......I despise mosquitoes with a fiery passion. Noah should have squashed those two mosquitoes. It is January 3rd, and my ear is still swollen!!! Anyway, I had wished for an eno for Christmas. I had looked at videos on YouTube on how to set up an eno. For those of you who are wondering what an eno is, it is a super strong hammock that can be attached almost anywhere. I wasn't getting my hopes up! I was going to get one with my own money if Santa didn't get me one this year.

We made the traditional sugar cookies, ate our traditional supper with Mr. Miles, and went to bed. I couldn't get Sadie still so we watched something on Ericka's laptop. That got her to sleep. Around 6:50 a.m. I woke up. We kept a curtain in our hall so we wouldn't peek. I remember 4 of Christmases ago I peeked. This year I didn't walk near the door. I knew that I would feel the urge to peek. Daddy said that we could come out around 7:00..... It was 7:15 when we walked out. Excitement had built up for so long. When I walked out, there on the love seat was my stocking. I didn't see anything because my stocking was overflowing with candy, toys, and school supplies. There it was, in the cutest little bag, my eno. It came with atlas straps, and it was aqua blue with purple and yellow on the side. Santa knows me so well because that was exactly what I wanted!

I also got a Joanne's gift card, money, and a t-shirt from Mr. Miles!!! You know how I love Joanne. I can't wait to be let loose in that store! Timothy got a ventriloquism dummy named Kenny, Sadie got blocks, and two dolls, Ericka got lots of cash, and Ben got lots of cash. We are all so grateful for everything we received, and we thank God most of all for sending his son, Jesus, to give us the greatest gift of all.

"The New Normal"

Things have clearly changed.          I know that.       It's just harder than I thought it would be.

I love Ruby Kate so much that I don't have words to describe it, but I'm not used to having a baby sister. I know....Sadie has been my little sister for the past 2 and a half years. The difference is that now I am used to things. When you are little, you can adapt well to everything. I seem to not be able to deal with little things.

There have been a few new things that I did this year like going Christmas caroling at the nursing home, and going to a 4-H Christmas party. Sometimes I guess you have to replace the old traditions with the new ones. I've just got to get used to "The New Normal".

NEW BABY

On December 3rd, 7:05 p.m. Ruby Katherine Lord was born.

It had been a pretty exhausting day. I have found that standing still can be the most tiring. We got there around 10:10 a.m. We all went to visit mama, and get settled in at the waiting room. After chilling in the waiting room for a while, we decided to go ahead and eat lunch. We went to Wendy's, and we picked up daddy something to eat. When we got back, we quickly found a parking spot. A lady driving a golf cart offered us a ride to the building where mom was staying. She kept on laughing at us. We might have been pretty excited. When we got to the building, Tim and I took the stairs and the rest of them took the elevator. When Sadie was being born at this place I was nine years old. I had brought a big green bouncy ball, and I would bounce it on the staircase. The waiting room at the time was awful, but when we got there, there was a nice, new waiting room near the old. When I was bored I watched a show on my ipad, or I took a ride on the elevator. We were on the second floor. There were three floors. What I would do is go to the top, bottom, and then back to the middle. Later Aunt Laura stopped by to see mama. Things were going slow. I was so bored that I watched a cheesy

documentary. Things got turnt when Aunt Lori, Sara, Jarrett, and Gracie stopped by. We all made predictions about when the baby would be born, and how much she would weigh. I guessed 8 1/2 lb. Ruby Kate was really 8 pounds 10.9 ounces. I was close. Well, shortly things started to pick up the pace. Aunt Laura had gone shopping, and she came to the hospital with chicken sandwiches and waffle fries!! Thank goodness because we were so hungry. Dad called and said that she was born!!!!!!!! First Grandma went to see her, and later Tim, Ericka, Sadie, and I got to see her. We didn't get to hold her or anything though. The next morning we went up there and got to hold her!!!
Grandma had spent the night up there and daddy stayed at the house with us. Grandma brought Sadie to Wendy's, and they got some balloons. Daddy took the rest of us to Pizza Hut. Poor Benny had to be somewhere, so he didn't get to meet Ruby Kate until later that day. After that Grandma brought us to Aunt Beth's house to spend the night. The next day was Saturday. We visited mama again for a little while. Mama had to stay in the hospital for a longer time because she ran a little bit of a fever. She was probably just running a fever because she was tired, but they still kept her. The next day we went to church with Grandma, and when they finally did get released from the hospital they dropped by the church and picked up all of the girls. When we got home we got to hold her for a while. Grandma and the boys got home a little later. It felt so good to have all of the family back at home. It feels like things will never slow down. Maybe it will someday, but for now we will just have to get used to this fast pace.

Consumer Judging 2015

On Monday, our county participated in Consumer Judging. We didn't do to bad. Our Senior team got 2nd place and are headed to state. Our Junior team got first place, but Juniors don't go to state. It was a lot more fun this year because our cousins from Irwin all went. I tried to really step up my cotton commercial game because I keep on getting 3rd place on it. They announced that there were ten winners for cotton boll speech. As wrong and arrogant as this may seem,  I thought that I was one of the ten. I told myself that my only hope was with my cotton boll speech because I thought I had flunked everything else. After the tenth person was announced, I was about to leave because I was about to cry. I had worked to hard. What more could I do? All of a sudden, they announced "High individual goes to.....Caroline Lord." I was in shock. I walked up there, got my picture made, and sat with Ben. I didn't think that they had called out the right name. Sara, my cousin, only needed a half of a point more to tie with me in first place. Ugh... I wish that we could have tied.