We even decorated the office

Left Window


Right Window

More from the parade....


Melanie's Group around the heater....they know how to watch a parade...with heat.

Here is Adam, all the boys (including Damon acting crazy) and me.



And there is Macy, Maddy & Sarah with their church float.

Our Typical Hometown Christmas Parade

Most Christmas parades have Christmas floats, but not ours...we have horses, four wheelers, trucks jacked way up for muddin', shriner's, tracters, hot rods, tow trucks, oil rig trucks and of course the Santa on the firetruck at the end. I'll take you through our parade...

We start with the flags

Then the grand marshall

And of course the high school band


And what's a parade without Smoky the Bear and his owl sidekick

The theme of our parade was Santa's Toyland. Devon seemed to have gotten close the theme.

Now in no particular order but plenty of commentary.

The Cloggers are a yearly float and they are festive and entertaining.

What's a parade without lots of advertising? We had cellphones, towing trucks, drilling rigs, mexican restuarant, radio station, port-o-pottys, taxi, & bail bonds (seriously!! Do we need to advertise bail bonds at a parade?).





Of course, no parade is complete without our local cheerleaders & Butch. Thought their minivan was rather cute & original.


And what kind of local parade would it be without horses, lawnmowers, and tracters? Here we have the Rodeo Queens, The Antique Tracters Assn., and not real sure about the mini horse and lawn tracter.



Can't remember what this van was for but heck lets all put a van in the parade, add a christmas stuffed animal as a hood ornament and call it decorated for the parade.

Naturally we have to have the kids from Rowe's Performing Arts.

I believe we had a ballerina and toy soldiers from their Nutcracker Performance.



What's a parade without the Shriner's and the cool cars that they drive super fast?

Now here is the kicker....where else but my hometown in Rural America would you see jacked up trucks that are used for entertainment aka muddin'? We had not 1 or 2 of these trucks but 8. Actually I think there were more than 8 but I didn't get pictures of them all.

Here is a float that I thought was neat. Had a really moving picture on it.



And of course, the grand finale....Santa on the firetruck.

Update

We are still waiting in limbo to close on our house. It has been one delay after another. We finally got the papers to the finance company November 17th. Now we are waiting on the appraiser. Ugh!! We just want to close and get moved. Hopefully at this point we will be all moved in before Christmas. We have missed the original promise of Oct.31st and now we are about to surpass the 2nd promised date of Nov 28th.

Not only were we promised to have already been in our house, we were promised several remodels. We were told we could have a side by side refrigerator. We were told it won't happen they will only put a regular fridge in there. We were told they would paint all walls and the kitchen cabinets. We found out they won't paint one bathroom and the kitchen/dining/utility room. We were told they would paint the kitchen cabinets brown and now we find out they won't. Supposed they have to repaint them the original color of white. We were also told we could get a ceramic flat top stove

So now I will have to paint once we move in. The bathroom and kitchen/dining/utility room are a hideous pink flower wallpaper. Well I guess I could pick out my own wallpaper now.

Doesn't this look delicious?

Cool Whip Chocolate One Bowl Bliss Cake

Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 2 hr 20 min
Makes: 16 servings

Ingredients

1 pkg. (2-layer size) devil's food cake mix
5 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, divided
1 tub (8 oz.) plus 1-1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, divided
1 Tbsp. powdered sugar


Directions

HEAT oven 350F. Prepare cake batter, in 2-1/2-qt. ovenproof bowl, as directed on package; scrape side of bowl. Bake 1 hour 5 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake 10 min.; loosen from side of bowl with knife. Invert onto wire rack; remove bowl. Cool cake completely; cut into 3 layers.

MICROWAVE 4 chocolate squares in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min., stirring after 1 min. Cool. Add 1 tub COOL WHIP; whisk until blended. Stack and fill layers with chocolate mixture. Frost with remaining COOL WHIP.

MAKE curls from remaining chocolate square. (See Tip.) Arrange on cake; sprinkle with sugar. Keep refrigerated.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Size-Wise
Sweets can be part of a balanced diet but remember to keep tabs on portions.


Source: KraftFoods
Found here

What is going on?

There has been so many tragedies effect the young families in Panola County in the last month. It started with a boy from Gary ISD being diagnosed with Leukemia, then Oct 9th, an 8th grader in Carthage was diagnosed with AML. A week later Cody B. (whose wife is a teacher at CJHS) was diagnosed with APL which is a form of AML. I heard two days ago that Rusty E. had a heart attack and this morning had a triple bypass. And just now I found out that Valerie Ritter, who graduated the year before me, passed away due to a long battle with Cancer.

Cancer is rampant in Panola County. I know it is everywhere but there are so many people that have had cancer from Panola County or the spouses of a Panola County resident has cancer. We have got to find a cure. Be sure to support the American Cancer Society and the Relay for Life. RFL is the largest fundraiser that ACS has each year.

Please respond to my blog with a small note of who you know has cancer and what kind of cancer.

These are the people that I know of that have either had cancer or have succomed to cancer.

• Sandra Weaver Hudson -- pancreatic cancer -- passed away in 2005
  
• Minnie Weaver -- melanoma --removed and in remission
• Leigh Anna Shubert -- AML -- in remission
  
• Mary Jo Shubert -- Ovarian Cancer -- removed and in remission
• Rebeka Shubert -- melanoma -- removed and in remission
  
• Alisha Shubert -- melanoma -- removed and in remission
• Tripp Penner -- AML -- in remission
  
• Cody Baldree -- APL (a form of AML) -- receiving treatment
  
• Jacob Boniol -- AML -- receiving treatment
  
• Mandy Davis' husband -- receiving treatment
  
• Ginger Gates' husband -- unsure of his status
  
• Valerie Ritter -- passed away due to a long battle with cancer -- 2008
  
• Roger Brightwell -- pancreatic cancer -- passed away due to cancer -- 2005 or 2006
  
• Macy Isbell -- AML -- considered cured 5 yrs in remission
• Gertie Denton -- ovarian cancer -- passed away due to cancer
• Allen Joe Hicks -- passed away due to long battle with cancer -- 2008
  
• Mozelle Bixler -- aggressive breast cancer -- passed away due to cancer -- 2006
  
• Ted Leach -- Liver Cancer --passed away due to cancer -- 2008
  
• Kenneth Owens -- lung cancer -- passed away due to cancer -- 2004
• Wanda Hanzen -- breast cancer -- receiving treatment
• Sallie Lipsey -- breast cancer -- receiving treatment
• Joni Reed -- breast cancer -- in remission
• Nicole Coleman -- in remission
• Shannon Ramage Knight -- thyroid cancer -- in remission/cured thyroid removed -- 1991
• Linda Murphy -- breast cancer -- receiving treatment
  

I know there are many more that I am forgetting. Please feel free to share your family or friends that have cancer currently or have passed on and I will add them so that others can pray for their family and them during treatments.

Ugh....my car

My car is messed up now because a college kid rear-ended me since a dumb shit was sitting still at a green light in front of me. I had already blew my horn at the man and eased up a bit before she hit me. She hit me hard enough to mess up my bumper and then push me into the car in front of me. Her car had to be towed because it messed up her front bumper and busted her radiator and crushed a hood like an accordian. My car probably had $600-$800 in damage. Her car probably has $4000 worth of damage. The car I bumped shouldn't have any damage at all because it just dented my license plate on the front.

Of course, I am now starting to get sore. Hopefully Adam won't be feeling any effects from it. He was rather upset that his Sonic drink spilled in the floor board. If I am too sore tomorrow I will go to the doc because there is no way I can work when my back is killing me.

New giveaway on Frugalmom.com

All you have to do is visit her blog for instructions on how to enter. She is giving away a $50 gift card to Coffeeforless.com. To enter, visit the Frugal Mom blog .

Wade's party

<----Here is a picture of the birthday boy.

We make it a tradition to let the boys choose where they want to eat or what they want me to fix for supper on their birthday. Wade chose Jalapeno Tree, which is a local Mexican restaurant. We weren't too satisfied with our service because our waitress was so busy that she kept forgetting us and she forgot that we told her it Wade's birthday so he didn't get his "treat" and they didn't sing to him. Needless to say, she didn't get a great tip.




We came home and Wade got his birthday cake and his gift. We only give the boys one gift on their actual birthday and hold the rest until their party. We are going to hold off on his party until we get moved into our new house, which should be within the next two weeks. Wade got money from my mom and the movie, Journey to the Center of the Earth with Brendan Frasier. Here is a picture of Wade's Bass fishing cake. I think The Bake Shoppe did a pretty awesome job with it. Definitely a better job that any cake I have ever received from Brookshire's or Wal-mart.



Of course, I can't leave off my other two boys....here is a picture them from tonight too.

Wade is 10 today

10 years ago today, I was on my way to the hospital. I had been scheduled for a c/s just a mere two days earlier. You see, the doc was concerned about Wade's size because I was only 38 weeks and was measuring 45 weeks. The doc decided to have an u/s done to check his size. It was discovered that the cord was floating below his head which could have been very dangerous for both of us had my water broke. It was also discovered that Wade weighed a whooping 10 lbs +/- 1/2 lb.

So on Thursday, Oct. 29th, 1998, I went into surgery with Damon by side at 7:30am and at 8:02 am, Derrick Wade was born. He weighed in at 9lbs 9oz and 21 inches long. His head was larger than the 10cm incision so the doc had to use the vacuum extractor to get him out. He had a bruise on his forehead for a few days.

We got to come home 2 days later on Halloween. I had been give a santa clause outfit by my Nov 98 cybershower buddy. Unfortunately, since Wade was large, the SC outfit would not fit by the time Christmas rolled around, so Wade was Santa Clause for his first Halloween. Yes just two days after a c/s I took my "santa clause" and "Darth Vader" trick-or-treating. Of course ,we only went to see family but Brian was only 3 so he didn't know the difference.

Wade is 10 today and he is active playing soccer and struggling through the 4th grade. We are holding off on his party until we get moved into our new house. I will post pictures later.