Life's a Beach

Life's a Beach?? Well, it was for a few days this past week for the Moffatt family at least...most of the Moffatt family that is.  :( Poor hubby was hard at it working, while we were playing.  Not quite fair.  There is just no talking him into taking a break though, he's a hard working man and there's no nonsense when it comes to work, I won't argue with that....so off we went.....to this place:

Now I had to explain to my 8 year old daughter why I had to take 'that' picture......when we've been past 'that' sign millions of times in the past and I've never took a picture of it before.  It's all about the blogging baby doll, it's all abut the blogging.  I'm pretty sure I got an eye roll....pretty sure......she'll understand some day. :)

We ended up going two days in a row to this little getaway close to home and came home with a nice big sunburn. Did I say nice? I meant, O-U-C-H! I think Tinsley and I got the worst of it, even though I made sure to lather on tons of sunscreen several times during the day, we still got it. Weston looks like the little blonde haired baby on the suncreen bottle, with the line right at his waist, I giggled when I saw it with the bright white bottom and the reddish-tan back. Hunter will have that little farmers tan since he opts to wear a rash guard shirt when he swims....wonder if he will change his mind when he sees his tan lines? ;)

Gonna post a few of my favorites from our past few days on the 'beach' :)



His 'seaweed' fish ;)

Gonna have that farmers tan ;)

Such a good big sister!



Such a lil ham!

Struttin' his stuff

My baby girl... :)

Can you believe I got them together for a group photo??

Getting ready to build her castle :)

We had a GREAT 2 days playing at the beach! You can tell from the pictures. We played, played & played some more. We brought home more sand than mommy cared to bring home, but that tends to happen. Our 'beach' is never that crowded....but we managed to run into some out of towners from the New England states, which I thought was so funny. Folks from way out yonder........way out here in our lil part of no where.....makes you woner how they ever ended up here. They had 2 boys the same age as Hunter and they all hit it off real well.

We're planning on more beach days before summer is over....we just can't wait!  This is one family who loves to spend time in the water....but we need to fine tune the swimming first. Yes, that's right, so we are going to work on swimming lessons next week......as a matter of fact, starting TOMORROW! :)   So guess what I'll be blogging about next? ;) I see more water pics in my blogs future!

Prayer Request

I'm not writing a long post today, just coming to you asking for your prayers.  My Uncle, who is like a father to me, is lying in Critical Care right now.  His health has taken a dramatic downhill spiral and it kills me that I can't do something, anything, to help him.  He has fluid filling up in his lungs again and we were told last night in the emergency room that he either has a blood clot on his lung or pneumonia.  We will know something later today.  I spoke to the CC nurse early this morning and she said he is very lethargic.  Please lift him up in prayer. Thank you!

Halloween 2010

My children LOVE Halloween! It's a time to dress up as a favorite character and get CANDY! What kiddo wouldn't love that??  I remember as a child, the anticipation leading up to it, I couldn't wait either.  I would go around with my sister and brother to our neighbors and then we'd hop in the car and go to our grandparents houses, a great night for visiting.  My kids share the same except we skip the neighbors (I mean really......deer, turkey, coons, possums....they can't give away candy!) and we go straight to Nannie & Papaws and then onto the church Trunk or Treat for a fun filled evening.  I know some people aren't fond of Halloween and to each his own, I understand.  We are not celebrating evil, we are letting our kids be kids.  At least that is the way I see it. We had a great time and now.........whew! It's over!!! Yip-yip-yippie! Onto my favorite time of year, Thanksgiving!  But before we go there, here is a little recap of our dress up & get candy time. :)

We started by carving our pumpkin....not a good idea to wait til the last minute, I was lucky to get this dude......everyone was sold out! But, let me tell you, one was plenty!  I am still washing pumpkin 'goo' off my kitchen walls!  But they had fun!

Even my little guy (who is extremely picky about what is on his hands) got into it!

Not my favorite pumpkin face....but it was 3 against 1.  Pay no attention to the pumpkin being cross-eyed :/ Mommy was cutting free hand.

Now to introduce my little people.....

Miss Cleopatra.....minus the snakes!! She loves to pose :)

And in this corner we have Spiderman.....again....for the 4th year in a row! ;)

But this year, he added Batman's cape and his soccer shin guards (in case Spidey had to run & slide).

And last but not least, my little garden gnome! He was having nothing to do with the beard until he realized he was getting candy each time he put it on.

Forgot to mention we stopped by my FAVORITE Uncle & JB's house too - LOVE LOVE LOVE these people! I love this pic.....hard to get one of him but he was distracted. :)

One more for the road......

Little gnomes get hungry too....he paused very briefly to grab a bite.

A HUGE thank you to my Momma for helping me take the kids trick-or-treating!! I love you Momma!!!!

Welcome to the 8th Wonder of the World

Who would have thought it?  Way out here in the middle of nowhere?  Surrounded by cornfields and cow patties? Only 1 stop light in town.....where you are sure to see several tractors, a golf cart and occasionally a lawn mower rolling through it during the day.  I'm not sure why....but the good Lord works in mysterious ways! :)

Welcome to the West Baden Springs Dome - the 8th Wonder of the World.

A little history on the Dome before we get started.....

The West Baden Springs Hotel is a historic landmark hotel in the town of West Baden Springs in Orange County, Indiana, United States, known for its vast domed atrium. Prior to the completion of the Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1955, the building had the largest free-spanning dome in the United States and was the largest in the world from 1902 to 1913. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, became a National Historic Landmark in 1987,[3] and is a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. This hotel was the Disney World of their time. In those days, it was assumed that if you could afford to come to America [for vacation], you would go to French Lick. It was that well-known overseas. Beginning in the late 1880s, southern Indiana was a favorite destination of the wealthy, famous, infamous, and near-famous who would relax, golf, gamble, enjoy fine dining, and be entertained.  Some notable guests included: Paul Dresser composed Indiana's state song "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" at the hotel. Boxers John L. Sullivan and James J. Corbett trained there. Al Capone and his bodyguards were frequent guests as was Diamond Jim Brady. Politicians included Mayor "Big Bill" Thompson of Chicago and New York Governor Al Smith; also General John J. Pershing, writer George Ade, and entertainer Eva Tanguay.^[3] Professional baseball teams even held their spring training in the region: Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Browns and St. Louis Cardinals.  You can read more about the Dome here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Baden_Springs_Hotel  Very interesting, especially since it is right here - in my little town! :)

I remember back to my days working at the Sheriff's Department (pre-babies), when the cow calls & goat ropeing quit coming in, we would head on over to the Dome, while it was still in it's stages of renovation.  I would lay in the middle of that huge floor and watch the lights change different colors.  Even then you felt like you were being transported to a different time. 

My oldest is now 7 years old.  It's been that long since I've been back.  Since then, the renovation is complete and it is open for business.  Actually it has been for awhile.  I guess I was just waiting for the quiet season to take my rowdy crew & turn them loose in there. :) These ceilings are HIGH....keep going.....keep going.....even higher than that!  You know what high ceilings mean to kids, right?  ECHO! Echo...Echo....Echo...get my picture? 

This is a picture of the ceiling, inside the Dome.  My camera does this NO justice.  I kept zooming in to get the middle, where it lights up.  It's just amazing!  I could go on & on for days.  But I'll try and let my pictures do most of my talking. 

This is also inside the Dome....where you get all those wonderful LOUD echos from little children! :) By the way, they like to run round & round in circles here too...knowing mommy can't possibly catch all 3 of them at one time.  Those little windows, they are rooms at the Dome.  Ahhhh....would be so nice to stay in one of them.  Maybe someday...

Got some great pics of my beautiful children while we were there.

My little wiggle butt even stood still for a second.....

Alas....(he is his father's son) this little one refused to be a sheep...he took off running before I could snap a pic like I wanted ;)

Here we are outside at the Gardens...I can not express how beautiful it was.  It awes me that our God created this.  There is beauty in everything He is and you can see it out here.   

I saved my black & white pictures for last.......I absolutely <3 these! :)

The End.



Annual Grandstaff Ridge Roast

So this past weekend, we attended the Annual Grandstaff Ridge Roast.  My cousin, Temple and her husband, Brad, host this every year for family, friends and neighbors.  It's always on the 1st weekend in October and let me tell you, it could be 90 degrees the day prior to the Roast, but on the day of it......prepare to be chilled to the bone!  It never fails. 

Here I am with my three wonderful children!

The kids always look forward to the hay ride that Papaw Kippy throws together.  Here Weston is sitting in the drivers seat.  He <3's tractors! :) My lil country boy.

Great food - great friends - great moments with family!




My niece & her signature pose.

 




Weston digging in the sand....he brought half of the sandbox home with him!!






The 4 Amigos! (The shortest one being mine.)

 



Mi familia!






Our cousin Ryan even stopped by!

 


Momma & Kippy

 


Cornhole champs CHEATERS!!! ;)

 I've improved greatly on corn hole game since last year.  People actually didn't mind when they found out I was their partner this year!! (WOOT WOOT) Next year, I'm hoping to be the one collecting the loot, or half of it! ;)

Uncle Ronnie...

I've had a lot, and I mean A LOT on my mind lately.  One of the most important being my Uncle.  He is like a father to me and I adore him.  His name is Ronnie.

Can you tell he is my favorite uncle? ;)

Like I said, he's like a father to me.  So when we got the news he had cancer, my world felt like it was crumbling apart.  I was distraught, upset, questioning God why him?  I would have taken his place had I been given the chance.  Many nights I sat crying, praying, asking for prayer & had so many wonderful friends reassure me that they were praying.  Let me tell ya, if you don't already know it, GOD IS GOOD! He hears every word we speak.......He's always there. 

The doctors gave my uncle a choice.  He could have surgery to attempt to remove the tumor he had or he could do nothing.  Of course, having the surgery meant there could be a chance something could go wrong, so I was against it, but didn't dare tell him. When asked, I just said it was his decision to make, not mine.  How could I tell him I was being selfish & was scared something would go wrong? I couldn't.  I prayed & prayed so many times.  Then he told us the date was set for surgery.  This wasn't going to be a walk in the park, it was going to be an extensive surgery, they were going to remove the kidney, with the tumor in it and also hook him up to a machine as if they were performing open heart surgery to remove the tumor leading to his heart.  Scary stuff!!!  The doctor informed us that there was only 3 hospitals in the United States that did this exact kind of surgery.  Luckily, one of those was right here in our little state of Indiana. 

The surgery was scheduled for a Tuesday morning.  He had to be at the hospital at 5:30 a.m.  We drove up the night before & spent the night in a hotel room.  There were 10 of us that went. I think only one of the ten actually slept (ummm.....yeah, it was a man!) but not my uncle.  We left for the hospital the next morning with our bloodshot eyes and weary hearts.  We got to the hospital and met up with 3 more family members. They prepped him for surgery, then everyone in the family, squuezed into his room, we held hands and I prayed over him.  It was an emotional time.  I think we all left the room crying.  Uncle Ronnie told us he had peace in his heart and he was ready to go if the Lord called him home.  I wasn't ready to let him go, but my heart was soaring knowing this! 

The staff at the Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis is absolutely amazing!  They came out hourly and gave us updates on how things were going.  We were surprised how well it was going & how quickly!  We were planning on a 10+ hour surgery and it was only 6-7 hours.  Have I mentioned that God is good?? :)  The doctors came out to let us know that they believe they got every bit of the tumor out & that they were very pleased with the way things went.  Answered prayers! My God is great!  Not just good, but great!  They did inform us that they would keep the breathing tube in and keep him under anesthesia until the next day, then they would wake him up & remove the tube.  We went back the next day & went in to find him AWAKE! :) He couldn't talk because of the tube, but within an hour, it was gone & he was talking to us.  Some of the first words he said were "I made it!" Praise God - he made it! 

It's only been 2 days since the surgery....so he is still in the hospital.  Things are looking great, they've had him up sitting in a chair already.  If all goes well, he can come home in 7 days! Keep praying, cause he still needs healing.  God has his hands on him, that is for sure.

I stand in awe of my God.  All the hurt, all the pain, the cancer and everything else out there that is robbing us of precious life and He has given us all these modern conveniences to bring us back to good health.  I know in my heart, the majority of it is God, guiding the surgeons hands and giving them wisdom to do the right thing at the right time.  I thank God once again for holding my Uncle's hand while he went through this major surgery and continuing to watch over him.  My God is sooooo good!