Are things ever going to settle down after the Holidays???? =)

Christmas was a blast. I'll start from Saturday. Kathy had a Christmas party at Windy City Sundries in Hickory, and since Britt had to work Ida and I went together. Talk about fun......get Ida and me together and we are trouble, but in a good way! We had the best time that night. I wasn't planning on drinking that much, but by the end of the night I was feeling PRRREETTY good! We ran into, of all people, Candace there. It was kind of awkward at first but once we all had a few drinks in us it was like old times.
I got up Sunday morning and went to church. Then came home and got everything together for Christmas Eve at my Mammaw and Pappaw Drum's house. It's one of our family traditions......spending Christmas Eve at their house. I LOVE IT! We eat, open gifts, and then head to church for the candlelight service. Ashlyn was so excited. She didn't know which present to open next. She liked all of them, but her favorite was a my little pony doll that was bigger than the regular my little ponies are. You could fix her long pink hair. Whitney and Derek got it for her. She kept saying "this is my favorite pony ever!" Cute!!!
After all of the festivities at Mammaw's and Pappaw's we went over to Mom and Dad's to open our gifts over there. They went all out this year. I got a gift certificate to the spa. WHOO HOO! Britt got a gift card for some tools. We both also got clothes and a few odds and in things. Ashlyn got a pop-up playhouse, baby chimp, clothes, and a few other things. By this point I had NO clue where we were going to put all of these toys, and we weren't even halfway over.
Santa brought Ashlyn her gifts for Christmas morning. She was grinning from ear to ear. She got a Fisher Price art Easel that talks and does all kinds of neat things, the tj bearytales bear that tells you stories, a star station (it hooks up to the tv and she can watch herself sing and dance on the television screen with her microphone). She loves seeing herself in pictures, or on video.
Then we were off to the Cody's lunch. It was great seeing Pauline and all of the family. After lunch there we went down to Mammaw Sherrills and opened gifts there. Ashlyn opend a ton of presents over there. She got so many toys! I honestly don't know how all of this is going to fit in our house. =)
Next we went to Britt's Mom's for Christmas dinner. We ate some delicious food, and then opened presents and enjoyed the company of one another. Over there Ashlyn got 2 cabbage patch dolls and alot of nice outfits. She played with her cousins Reid and Alain all evening. She loves them sooooo much! She thinks that she can do anything that they can do.
We all went to bed after our exhausting day.
Tuesay we were supposed to go to the Drum Christmas Get together. I may have missed it once the whole 27 years that I've been going. Ashlyn was exhausted though. She kept telling me that she wanted to go nite nite in her bed. So I laid her down and I took a little nap too. There was just no point to take her when she was going to be miserable at the dinner.
That evening we drove to Britts dad's house in Taylorsville to do our Christmas with them. We grilled steaks. They were sooooo good! Ashlyn and her cousins got to play a little longer before they headed back to Clemmons. She got a few more toys from Pappaw and Treva. She absolutely loves her shopping cart. She strolls it all through the house.
I went back to work Wednesday. It was fairly slow. I'm hoping that most places are shut down this week. Next week will probably be pure hell at work once everyones back to all of the major companies.
I ended up being out of work today because Ashlyn is sick, yes again! UGGGGHHHH! She had been running a fever. I came in from the doctor today and she puked all over me. We cleaned it up. A few minutes later, she puked all over our chair and a half, and so on. So now that we've battled the flu, she now has a freaking stomach virus. And let me tell you, THIS IS NOT FUN!
Hopefully she'll start feeling better very soon! I sure hope so. Having a 2 1/2 year olf vommitting uncontrolably is not my cup of tea!
So that's my Christmas in a nutshell. Hope you aren't pulling your hair out after reading this. =)

Oh - and on top of everything else, I did have my IUD taken out today......we'll see how that goes. FUN FUN!!!! It's nonstop at the Cody house.

Wishing all of you a happy new year!!!!!!

Some pictures from Christmas

Christmas Card

Moriah put this together for us. Thanks girl! You did a great job!! Unfortunately I tried taking it to a zillion places to have the cards printed and every place that I went to did not have a PLAIN 4x8 card that I could print it on. RIDICULOUS!!!! I was going to send it to a company on the internet to print them and then mail them to me, but with Ashlyn getting the Flu last week it threw my timing off. So.......with all of that being said, I will not be able to mail this particular card out, but I wanted to share it with all of you. Thanks again Moriah!!! Next year I'll have to get a VERY EARLY start on my Christmas cards! =)

testing

I set up the beta blogger account. I'm just making sure that it works.

Flu

Tuesday night Ashlyn started running a fever and was extremely whiney. Wednesday morning she was still running a high fever, so Britt stayed at home with her. I figured that it was just a little cold and she would be feeling better in a day or so. When I got home Wednesday evening she was burning up and wouldn't eat any supper. She slept with me Wednesday night and was up all night crying. I had been giving her Tylenol every 4 hours. At 5:30 I took her temperature and it was 103.5 with the Tylenol in her system. At this point I knew that I had a very sick child. I let her sleep a little longer and then I woke her up and took her to the doctor. He checked her out and said that her throat was extremely red and swollen. He started putting all of her symptons together and said that it sounded like the flu. He did a flu test and sure enough it came back positive. =( She is pitiful! Yesterday she didn't even have the strength to keep her eyes open long enough to watch tv. All she did was lay in my arms and sleep. The doctor prescribed her some Tamiflu. It's supposed to shorten the length of time that she has the flu. I dropped her off with Britt and then headed to the pharmacy to have her medicine filled. Get this......the lady behind the counter said that they did not have any Tamiflu and their warehouse wasn't expected to get any in until December 19th. I couldn't believe it! Why in the world wouldn't a pharmaceutical company have enough of this stuff on hand? Every year there are millions of cases of the flu. I just don't understand why we don't produce enough of the flu vaccines and medicines to have on hand once flu season hits. This happens EVERY YEAR!!!!! You would think that we would have learned that by now! Anyways, the lady went back to double check and she found ONE box. So I got the very last box of Tamiflu that they had on their shelves. Thank goodness for that! The funny thing with this story is that Ashlyn had her first round of flu shots on November 28th and she still got the dern flu. I guess now I don't have to take her for her second round now. She'll definitely have the immunity to it after this. And Britt and I didn't get a flu shot this year. Wasn't that just brilliant?!?! Now we'll probably both get it and if we do we'll be sick over Christmas. LOVELY! I've been lysoling the entire house and taking vitamin C. Only time will tell. Just make sure to wash your hands and keep disinfectant with you at all times. The flu is here and in full force!

THEY ASK SO LITTLE

TAKE TIME TO LAUGH AND SING

AND PLAY AND CUDDLE THEM A BIT,

TELL THEM A STORY NOW AND THEN

AND STEAL A LITTLE TIME TO SIT.

AND LISTEN TO THEIR CHILDISH TALK

OR TAKE THEM FOR A LITTLE WALK.

TAKE TIME TO HEAR THEIR PRAYERS AT NIGHT,

TO REALLY CHERISH AND ENJOY.

A LITTLE GIRL WITH FLAXEN CURLS

AND THE SMALL WONDER OF A BOY.

THEY ASK SO LITTLE WHEN THEY'RE SMALL,

JUST LOVE AND TENDERNESS, THAT'S ALL

(ANONYMOUS)

I received this from a gentleman at the craft-show on Saturday. It's too good not to pass along to others! These are definitely words that any parent should live by!

Whirlwind Weekend!

Friday I was planning on skipping lunch and leaving work an hour early so that I could paint some pottery. Well..........that didn't happen. Britt called me around 2:00 and informed me that I needed to take Layla, our female chocolate Lab to the Vet. He had to go to work, so that left ME to take her. Somehow she had cut her eye open.......not the actual eye, but the bottom eyelid was torn open about 1/2 inch-1 inch. She must have gotten it hooked on something. It looked REALLY BAD!!! Soooooo......I left work early and headed to the house to get Layla. Let me just remind you that she doesn't like getting in the car. She's a big scaredy cat (dog). So I'm wrestling with her to get her in my car. She wasn't going to budge. After about 20 minutes of trying to force her in the car I just gave up. I got in the drivers seat and just sat there hoping that she may calm down and then jump in for her doggie treat that I had waiting on the console for her. FINALLY she slowly climbed up into the floorboard of the car. And we were off. The vet's office was packed. I didn't mind the wait though. I sat and talked with all of the other dog and cat owners. Everyone is always so friendly at the vet. I learned about every animal there and what problems they had. I'm a HUGE animal lover, so it was nice to sit and play with all of doggies that came in. They finally called our name. The doctor looked Layla over and told me that she was going to need stitches, and since the tear was by the eye they were going to have to sedate her, which meant that they had to keep her overnight. I told her goodbye and went home. Poor Nate didn't know what to do. He howled almost all night long. I felt so sorry for him! They have never spent a night apart, so he was extremely lonely. I went and picked her up Saturday morning. I dreaded hearing the total amount that all of this was gooing to cost. I just knew that it was going to cost us an arm and a leg, but it had to be done. The doctor started reading everything that they had done back to me. The list goes on and on from shots to stitches to her medicine. The total came to be $110.00.......I couldn't believe it! Only $110 for ALL OF THAT!!! At most vets her shots alone would cost $100. I must say that after this ordeal I HIGHLY recommend going to Dr. Robinson. We take all of our animals there, but fortunately we have never had to go for an emergency until Friday. Dr. Robinson is not out to only make money. He actually wants to help people and not charge a ridiculous amount for his services.
Saturday morning Ashlyn and I met Mom and Pam to go to the Metrolina craft-show. I found so many bargains. I got half of my Christmas shopping done that morning. After the craft-show Ashlyn and I went to Concord Mills to do a little more shopping. The mall was so crowded, but alot of the stores had some great sales. I was able to knock out a few more names on my list. Then we headed to MegArt in Mooresville to paint some pottery. I painted 2 trivets for both of my mammaws. I made and angel and used Ashlyn's footprints for the wings. I can't wait to see the finished product.
Yesterday was a lazy Sunday. I was worn out from our big shopping day, so I just rested for most of the day. Ashlyn had her Christmas Program last night at church. On our way to church my car started making a terrible sound. It sounded like a flat tire. I turned around and headed back home. Sure enough my back tire on the passengers side was flat. JUST MY LUCK!!!! I ran in and grabbed the keys to Britt's truck and transferred everything from my car into the truck. We got to the church just in time. The children did a GREAT job! Ashlyn was an angel. She looked precious! She kept waving to my mom while she was on stage singing. It was TOO CUTE! I helped clean up the family life center and set the tables up for our United Methodist Women's Christmas dinner on Wednesday night. Guess who's catering it.............KIM! Yep. I can't wait to taste her delicious cooking.
That's my weekend. It's always and adventure with me!

Prayer Request

Please keep Britt's Grandma Cody in your prayers. She has been battling cancer for almost 2 years now. She is the sweetest, most caring person that I've ever met! She thinks of everyone else's needs before her own.........If only the world was full of Pauline Cody's. I look up to her and thrive to be the kind of woman that she is. I've never met anyone with a heart like her's. Unfortunately the cancer has gotten progressively worse. Britt went to visit her yesterday and she didn't even have the strength to talk. All she did was sit in her chair and stare. It just breaks my heart to see her like that! Not once, the entire time that she has been diagnosed with the cancer, have I ever heard her complain. I honestly don't think that I have ever heard her say a negative comment. She always looks at everything with a positive outlook. Please just keep her and our family in your prayers. It's a very difficult time for everyone in the family right now. Thank you!

Cute as a Baby Doll!