Prayers Needed

In this season of Thanksgiving and of Miracles, I'd like to ask your help in praying for this Army family. We do not know them personally but they are at Fort Hood and friends of friends. This husband and father was hurt by an IED at the end of October in Afghanistan: http://yllescasfamily.blogspot.com/

Giving Thanks!

Grant's Thanksgiving was pretty typical...

He caught up with Family that he hadn't seen in a while

Chowed down on some Turkey and taters

Got way too full, way too fast ; Got a head start on Christmas gifts

Realized that you can't ignore family genes (as much as you'd like too sometimes); Enjoyed a Cigar with the guys

and of course, Cheered for Football

(Geoff texted us from Iraq to say "Is Grant watching Tech beat Georgia?" he got to see most of the game which was a Thansgiving gift in itself!)

http://picasaweb.google.com/laurabchilds/Thanksgiving#

Our Atlanta Weekend

Grant and I are back from a fun-filled long weekend in Atlanta! Some highlights include large family and friends meals (complete with Grant eating EVERYTHING in sights and wanting others to do the same), ball blower gone wild, craft fairs, laughing at funny women with funny shoes on - two days in a row, cheesy smiles, Grant being a "sweet boy" to the stuffed doggy, standing WAY too long on Sunday with sore feet and knees resulting, and Dancing with the Stars commentary.... all in all, a lot of fun!

Here's the whole album: http://picasaweb.google.com/laurabchilds/NovAtlanta#

The St Jude Bazaar

I had my first experience at selling my Platters&Splatters at a craft fair on Sunday and it was SO MUCH FUN! The ladies (Patty, Terry and Leisa) helped me price my things Saturday after we had scoped out some competition at the St. Pius fair earlier that day and by Sunday morning we were set to go. We created a "homebase" for Grant in Patty's office, put Doug in charge of him then went to see what I could do.

There's a picture above of my set up and I was pretty happy with it. The two platters shown are the ones that got the most comments and attention (St Pius is the Catholic High School where Geoff went) All in all I made about $300 which I was thrilled with. the website got 12 hits on Monday and supposedly I should be expecting some emails sometime this week for some more orders! YAY!

Vegetarian?!?

I don't think so!

17months!

Grant is 17 months old today! geeze louise~ time flies

Theres not a whole lot new happening here, I'm busting out a BS paper for my class at State so I can go down to Altanta this weekend. I am beginning to see that a lot of education classes fall under the "common sence" catergory for me but I guess thats not always the case, and just in case it is, they still want you to "prove it".
I just finished the third book in Stephanie Meyer's vampire series (you know, all of the hype about the movie twilight-those books) I NEVER would have guessed that I would enjoy them but Rory knows me too well. I finished the first 3 books in the past week~
Other than that its just packing up for the long weekend. I wrapped up all of my Platters&Splatters plates that I'm hoping to make a little mullah off of at St Jude's holiday Bazaar and have all of my booth supplies ready. I need to make $250 to come out even so stay tuned~

Mail for Heroes

The American Red Cross is sponsoring a national "Holiday Mail for Heroes" campaign to receive and distribute holiday cards to servicemembers and veterans both in the United States and abroad.
Holiday Mail for Heroes, which began Tuesday, Veterans Day, is a follow-up to the 2007 effort that resulted in the collection and distribution of more than 600,000 cards to hospitalized servicemembers. This year's program will expand its reach to not only wounded servicemembers but also veterans and their families. The goal is to collect and distribute 1 million pieces of holiday mail.
"As we enter this holiday season-a time to celebrate with family and friends-it's important to remember the thousands of men and women who serve our nation in harm's way and those who are recovering in military and veterans hospitals," said Army Col. Norvell V. Coots, commander, Walter Reed Health Care System. "The Holiday Mail for Heroes program is a wonderful outreach effort and a great way to acknowledge the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform."
Holiday cards should be mailed to:
Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD. 20791-5456
All cards must be postmarked no later than Dec. 10. Cards should not be mailed or delivered to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
For more information, visit http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/ or www.redcross.org/holidaymail for Holiday Mail for Heroes program guidelines.
Walter Reed is not accepting mail addressed to "A Recovering American Soldier."
As per Walter Reed's web site:http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/NewsAndEvents/media/resource/Lists/wrarticles/DispForm.aspx?Id=65&

Geoff and the Hawk

Geoff had the opportunity to check out some locals and their hawk last week. Apparently those who are a bit better off use them with hunting, hence the hood. I had to blur out some faces but we FINALLY got to see Geoff's face and that makes me very very happy!

(you can always click on a picture to see the whole file)

Iraqi Happenings

I learned that Geoff isn't in these pictures but this is part of Bandit Troop patrolling along the marsh land. This river is a huge part of their mission... but it won't be Geoff's mission for long! BY NOV. 20 GEOFF WILL HAVE A NEW JOB! Byebye Platoon Leader and Hello Personnel Officer! He's moving to become 1-9's S1 which means hes in charge of everyones paperwork and won't have an actual group of guys to be responsible for (Happy Geoff, Happy Laura!)

A Song for Grant

Oh where, oh where has my good sleeper gone?
Oh where, oh where could he be?
Who use to go down and sleep all night long
Oh where, oh where could he be?

Gone are the days when we'd put Grant down at 7pm and not hear a peep until 7am. (I know, I was lucky) It started about a month ago with a random scream in the middle of the night, but he'd roll right over and go back to sleep. then the scream started lasting a few minutes, but again he'd go back to sleep within 5. The past week or so has been a new deal though, he'll scream until you can't take it anymore, so I'd go in and bring him to my bed and he'd quiet right down. well, you know I didn't want to train him of that so as soon as he quieted down he'd go back in his crib, scream for a second then sleep. I guess this is payback for all of the wonderful nights sleeps we'd taken for granted!

The Monster on Monday

Grant had quite the day Monday! His new favorite hobby, in addition to clearing out the plasticware drawer, is to dump and play with plastic cutlery. We've limited him to spoons only so he'll shake out the bag, use them as drum sticks, practice eatting with them, run them through his hair, stick them all back in the bag, then empty them out again!

We also had a special treat as we tried out a class at The Little Gym. It was a bit like our old beloved Kindermusik with the addition of gymnastics. Grant had a blast a was kindof the star of the show even though most of the other kids were repeat participants. Grant LOVED swinging from uneven bars, making his way over the "challenge course" pictures, and playing with all of the balls in the ball pit!

Grant also was a bit sneaky and got hold of MiMi's disposable camera, he walked around the edge of the couch and this is what we saw...camera being held right on his nose, grinning ear to ear, ready to FINALLY take some pictures himself! He was so proud of himself

Happy Birthday MiMi

My Grandmother is here celebrating her "not out of 'middle age' yet" birthday! As a special treat there might be a certain fondue restaurant in our futures tonight~ yippeee

Another Classic

So I guess there really is a part of the teacher of 4 year olds' job description that includes a clause on fourtune telling and sugar coating. Here's what was written about yours truely in May of 1987... sounds like I was a handfull

Pre-writing: Excellent pre-writing skills. She will do as good a job on these activities as her mood at the time allows.

Language: Laura readily relates information, asks questions, good vocabulary for her age. Occasionally I do have to remind Laura to listen to others as they have their turn to speak in front of the class.

Self Help: Laura continues to be confident of her ability to do things for herself. Often she is helping others before they even ask-

Personal/ Social: Still needs encouragement to put things away in their place. Good imaginery play and roll playing. A typical teacher-Once after I had stepped out of the room to answer the phone and then returned one of the children asked if Laura was the teacher when I'm out of the room. She had told them exactly what they could and could not do.

Geoff on Halloween

I got this picture that shows some of the guys on Halloween:

oh to be a fly on the wall... Geoff, why is your belt undone? Cpt Crofford, why are you still wearing eye-pro? Sgt Whitbeck, why are you standing up to play Xbox? Sgt Whitbeck, why do you have your gun on when you're playing Xbox? Is this where you sleep? How many people in one room? Why doesn't the top bunk have sheets? Geoff, WHY WON'T YOU LOOK AT HE FREAKIN' CAMERA, I want to SEE you?!?!