Smells like Halloween

Well, at least is smells like dead pumpkins. Dead pumpkins, isn't that funny. I told the kids that was what is smelled like while they were cleaning their pumpkins out. Along with the cookies we were baking also. We made quite a selection of cookies, chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia, and peanut butter. Anyway, back to the pumpkins. Rusty called me at work today and said "Oh, my gosh, we haven't done our pumpkins yet and tomorrow is Halloween." We have never waited this long to do them, I'm not sure where the time has gone but we are so busy and it seems like we are never home. Rusty said when he got home he would start on the pumpkins, he had football practice so he wasn't going to have much time. When I got home I just had to laugh. He started the pumpkins, his pumpkin.

If you can't tell what is on his pumpkin, it's a Redskins helmet with the Redskins emblem on the side of it. What else did you think would on his pumpkin?

Blake and Wayne started working on their pumpkins, Wayne doing the cutting and then both of them doing the cleaning out. Ashleigh was at work. Blake made a liar out of me this year, normally he doesn't like to clean out his pumpkin but this year he was buried up to his elbows in pumpkin guts.

And drum roll please, the finished product.......

This is Blake's, Rusty helped him.

This is Wayne's. He was really unhappy with it, this was not what he had wanted to do but the other thing did not turn out so he had to do another one. I think it turned out nice.

Wayne will be handing out candy tomorrow and Ashleigh is hanging out with her friends here at home. Normally, my Mom and Dad come up and Mom goes with me and Blake and Dad helps Rusty hand out candy. I think they eat more than they hand out but they do have a great time. I think Mom will still be up but it won't be the same without Dad here. Steven came last year and took Wayne to see Saw II, he wanted to do that tomorrow and go see Saw III but I don't know if they will because Steven has to be up so early on Wednesday for work.

A little update, Blake's teacher loved his project and he said everyone clapped when he finished giving his presentation so he was very happy.

Good night.

Bridget

beta blogger

After complaining about the pictures not loading I started reading about the beta blogger and thought that maybe that was my problem, so I switched over and here are the long awaited pictures.

This is my Mom and one of her gifts.

This is another one and like I said she always says she doesn't take a good picture, that they all turn out with silly looks on her face.

I don't know what we were laughing about but obviously it was hilarious.

Mom and her cake, we had a hard time getting her to stop laughing to get the picture. We had a great time all together, I am really going to miss her when she moves to Carolina Beach for good.

This is Blake squirrel project for school. Did you know the Bald Eagle is a natural predator? How do you like that eagle? You would never know that eagle used to be a crow until Rusty worked a little magic on it, would you? Oh, and the orange spot in the middle is the bull's eye, we got this from a target.

I am headed to bed, good night for now.

Bridget

Mom's birthday and school projects

My Mom's birthday was on October 24th and we had her and my brother come to the house to celebrate with a wonderful homecooked meal and homemade cake. I know my Mom is reading this and laughing, we had chinese take out and german chocolate cake from Food Lion. Hey, I had to work all day and we all love chinese food. We had a great time with her but we were really missing my Dad. He is already living down at Carolina Beach with my Pawpaw. My parents bought his house and are moving in with him. He will be back up here this weekend and my Mom, Steven and Wayne flew down there last weekend to visit. It was Wayne first time on a plane and he loved it. Anyway, back to the party. I have pictures, now these are pictures that Mom did not want me to post because she said they aren't any good but I am going to anyway.
Ok, once again blogger won't let me upload pictures, is it just me? I will try again tomorrow to do the pictures. I was also going to post pictures of Blake's school project on squirrels but that will have to wait also until tomorrow.
Good night.
Bridget

Liar, liar, liar

This stupid thing made a liar out of me. It never said it had posted but when I checked this morning it my post was there. So I was whining for nothing. Oh, well I will put the rest of the pictures on tonight.
Have a great day!!
Bridget

WHHAAAAAAHHHHH!!! I wrote this wonderfully witty blog complete with pictures of Ashleigh homecoming and then nothing. nothing. It wouldn't post, it just keep spinning around and telling me it was posting but after 15 minutes of spinning, I finally gave up. I will try to post them again tomorrow and I will also tell about the wonderful time we had with my Mom for her birthday last night also with pictures. I'm getting good at this.
Good night for now.
Bridget

TaDa, the dress

Well, here it is, finally, the dress that we searched for all over God's creation. Was it worth it? She definitely thought so. The guy she went with is such a nice guy, why can't she like him more than a friend? She always likes the guys who treat her horrible and I just don't understand that. This guy goes to school with her, works in a funeral home (that's what he wants to do for a living, job security) and delivers flowers for a florist on the side. He made her corsage himself. Isn't that sweet? Not that I want her to be serious with anyone, but it would be nice if the same boy was around for more than a week or so.

I must be doing something wrong tonight because no matter what I do blogger puts my pictures where it wants them and not where I am trying to put them. Oh, well at least they are on the blog.



Ashleigh and Justin














Justin, Ashleigh, Mara and Timmy.
















Ashleigh and Mara



















And this next picture is Ashleigh and Mara going to their second homecoming the next week-end at their rival school. Different school, different dates, different flowers, SAME DRESSES. There was no way I was buying 2 dresses. I really like the boy Ashleigh went to this homecoming with also and he worships her. He calls her, tells her how much he likes her, how pretty she is but "she doesn't like him like that". I told him he's too nice to her. Sometimes I don't know what to do with her.















Why, why, why does this keep happening?!!! I was now going to post the pictures of Blake making the cupcakes and cookies and blogger won't upload the pictures. What have I done to deserve this? Maybe they know I need to be doing laundry and not sitting at the computer, but don't I deserve a little blog time? Oh, well I did get these on there so I guess I will have to be happy with that.
Talk to you later.
Bridget

Thursday

October has been such an incredibly busy month. Of course we have Blake's football games and the other 3 teams that Rusty coaches. Then we have the Redskin's games, but we really don't have to mention them, it's bad just really bad. It was so bad last Sunday that when they made their last touchdown Rusty didn't cheer, he didn't clap, he didn't say one word. It really was kind of pitiful, to look at anyway, so I just chose to look the other way and pretend he wasn't there.

Ashleigh had her homecoming last weekend. Her school lost their football game (of course we were there) and that was sad, you're not supposed to lose on homecoming. But she had a great time at the dance Saturday night. She went with a really good friend of her's, Justin. They went to dinner and then the dance. Let me tell you, we had the worst time getting her dress. First she found her dress while she was out with one of her friends, but she didn't have any money with her. So, when she had the money all they had was a size 3 and an xs. Neither one of those will work so she starts looking on the internet and finds it online at a prom site. I pay extra to get it here faster, they email me 2 days later (it was supposed to be here within 3 days) and tell me they don't have her size in stock but they have 1 size up. We decided to take it and deal with any alterations that may be needed. Of course I have to pay another $15.00 to get it here overnight. They email me the next morning to let me know that "Oh, they are so sorry but they are out of that size also." I wanted to scream. It was Thursday and the dance was Saturday. Ashleigh was supposed to get out of school at 1:00 on Friday so I took off half a day to take her dress shopping. In the middle of all of this I bought a parking pass on ebay for the Redskins game and I am trying to figure out how to pick that up. On Friday Ashleigh, her friend Mara and I went to Alexandria to pick up the pass and then to Potomac Mills to Group USA to search for the perfect dress. When we walked into the store, there hung her exact dress, they only had one and it was her size. Was that incredible or what? I thought she was going to cry in the middle of the store. So, what do you think, was it worth it?

CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, I tried to post the pictures and blogger is having a problem. Of course.

Blake and I baked cupcakes and cookies tonight to take to his Oktoberfest at school on Saturday. I have pictures of that also but just. not. happening. right. now.

Well, I better take the last batch of cookies out of the oven and I am headed to bed. Have a great day tomorrow.
Bridget

Football Widow

Am I still married? Do I still have a husband? Oh, yeah that must be the man I wake up every morning and pull out of bed. I think it's great that he is so involved with the Little League football but it would be nice to see him every once in a while. Monday through Thursday he has practice until 7:30, doesn't get home until after 8:00, then Friday nights it's the football at our local high school, Saturday is little league games all day (Rusty is the head coach for the freshman, Blake's age, and then he helps with the juniors) and then Sundays is the Redskin games. I think I have defintely gotten my share of football. He loves all of it, he lives for it. Blake didn't have a game this past Saturday but the other teams did so Rusty was gone all morning. Two Saturdays ago Blake scored his first touchdown. You would have thought he won the Super Bowl. Rusty went out on the field, picked him up and carried him off. It was really cute, Blake didn't know he had scored. When they got back into the huddle he asked one of the other coaches if he could have the ball again to try and score. The coach looked at him and said "Blake, you just got a touchdown." Blake said "I did?!" He was so excited. He has wanted to get his haircut, a mohawk, for a couple months now so Rusty took him that evening and got him one.

Well, what do you think? It really does take a while to get used to. It wasn't supposed to be tall and spiked up like that but that's how it ended up and he loves it. I look at it as it is just hair, it will grow back. He's happy and we have pictures of Rusty with one when he was a senior in high school. Oh, well.

Well, we tried a new church two Sundays ago and loved it. It was great. We were a little worried because, of course, we decided to do this the day after the haircut, but we figured oh well what are they going to do, throw us out? When we got there we realized that 3 of the other football coaches are members of that church. Blake also had friends there so he fit right in and had a good time. Ashleigh had to work, but had been to that church with a friend before and had wanted to go back. Wayne wasn't home that Sunday so he didn't go either. We didn't go this past Sunday because we had a Redskins game to go to but we are going back this Sunday. We have been looking for a church to call our own and we may have found it.

Well, I better go check the laundry, check back later.
Bridget

YEAH, A/C

We have been without air conditioning since last Friday evening. We went to our local high school football game (sorry guys better luck next time) and when we got home it was not working. My husband is very handy, he's an electrician, and can fix just about anything but the air conditioner. He knew what was wrong he just wasn't sure how to fix it. I called someone on Monday, they said they could come on Wednesday. Wednesday evening came and Wednesday evening went and still no repair guy. I called today and he said he was here, he couldn't find the house and the only phone number he had was my work number. ARGGGG. So we made arrangements for him to come back today. He came, he saw, we now have cool air. Thank God. All I heard all weekend was "I'm hot, I'm hot" and that was just from Rusty. Now, I'm sure it will be nice and cool outside. I love to have the windows open and air the house but not when it's 90 degrees outside.
Blake has a football game on Saturday, hopefully it will be better than last weekend.
My Dad will be home this weekend and he is bringing my Pawpaw with him, it will be great to see them. We are going down there on Saturday to have a cookout.
Well, I better get ready for the morning, good night and talk later.
Bridget

Catching up

Well, there hasn't really been alot going on here. We have been back down to see my Pawpaw and spent a long weekend with him. We really enjoyed that, Rusty took Ashleigh and Blake to the beach and even though I really like going to the beach also I really wanted to spend that time with my Pawpaw. The beach will always be there. Wayne and I took Pawpaw to Wal-Mart and generally just hung out with him. I will tell you a little about my Grandparents, I've asked for prayers and it's nice to know who you are praying for. I've always been close to my Grandparents but I have gotten to know my Pawpaw all over again as a different kind of person. He's always been my Grandfather but I'm am really getting to know him as a friend. You know your parents and Grandparents love each other but since my Mawmaw passed away it has been so different to hear him talk. He told me that she wasn't just his wife, she was his best friend, the person he did everything with. I look at my husband as my best friend and we do alot together but I guess you don't look at your Grandparents in the same light. It has really made me look at things differently. My Pawpaw and I laid on the floor for 5 hours straight looking at old pictures. I am very blessed that my Great Grandmother took so many pictures. There are pictures of my Great Grandmother from the 20's as a flapper. That was so incredibly awesome. It really makes you look at them as people, people who were young, hung out at the beach, racing around in fast cars and went to parties. It is really touching to look at a part of your history.
My Grandparents really had an incredible love story. They met at Carolina Beach in North Carolina. My Mawmaw was 16,living there and going to high school and my Pawpaw was down there visiting his brother. He saw her on the beach and got his brother's girlfriend (my future great aunt) to set them up. They dated for a while and then he had to go home to Ozark, IL. When he left he told her if she was still interested, when she graduated from high school to send him an announcement of her graduation. 2 years later she did just that and then he proposed to her. They did not see each other until the day before their wedding. They were married for 58 years Sept 5, 2006. My Grandmother was the kind of person that would give you her last dollar and she did many times. If you asked her if she had any money she would always say "I think I've got my last dollar" and it became a family joke. When she passed away we buried her with one of her many purses and we each put a dollar in it. She would have loved that. She was always there when I needed her and she would call me just to check up on me. I really miss her. Now, my parents are moving to Carolina Beach to move in with my Pawpaw. They are buying my aunt out of her part of the house and it will be my parents. My Pawpaw doesn't want to live alone and we don't want him to either. They are going to keep their house here also. I will really miss my parents but I would rather them be there and be able to have my Pawpaw around longer.
Blake has started football, they won a game and lost a game. I will post some pictures of him at his games. (Now that I know how to do that you all will get tired of seeing all my pictures.) Ashleigh changed jobs and she is now working at Peebles, which she seems to like but she's only been there for a week. Wayne has been riding his bike alot and we have a bike shop in town now so he has been hanging around down there with his friends. School is back in and work is getting really busy. The holidays will be here before we know it and Wal-Mart is going to stop doing layaways. What will I do? I start shopping for now and put toys on layaway along with cds and movies. They are really putting a crimp in my plans.
Have a great day tomorrow!
Bridget

Pictures at last...

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Finally, I will be able to post my pictures. Steven taught me how to do it but then we had the problem with the modem and I was never able to try it, it took a couple of trial runs but I have finally mastered it.
This is my Mom and my brother Steven on the deck of the Carnival Glory. We had so much fun and I am finally going to get to share some of the pictures.
















This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip. My Dad, who doesn't smoke, and Steven (who also doesn't smoke) went and bought 3 cigars for them to smoke on deck as we were pulling out of port.


In Costa Maya it is too shallow for the ship to dock in the port so they send out "taxis" to get you. This is how we got to the beach, you can see our ship in the background.

Rusty stepped on this in the water. Isn't that the most incredible shell you have ever seen not being sold in a store? He really wanted to bring it home but we didn't think the conk would be really happy being evicted from his house so back into the water he went.

Me and Rusty in front of one of the Myan pyramids. If you ever get the chance to see these, go, run as fast as you can, they are incredible.

One of the mexican military check points we had to go through, that was kind of freaky.


Ok, now we are in May.

Ashleigh and prom. Sorry I didn't flip the picture around, hey I'm new at this picture stuff.


Ashleigh and her friends, the next Charlie's Angels.

Ashleigh, Brooke and Kelsey.

June


Blake's 2nd grade awards ceremony. He received reading and math awards and was awarded the class clown award. I was a little concerned about the class clown thing but his teacher said that was a good thing that he always made her laugh and he always has a smile on his face.


Blake climbing the rock wall. He didn't make it all the way to the top but he made a good try of it.

July 4th

Ashleigh, her friend Devin and the newest addition to the Gibson family, Mason. He was born in March, isn't he cute?



My nephew Brett and his girlfriend at our family's 4th of July party.

Mom and Dad, aren't they cute?


Steven having a good time at the party
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Rusty (on the left) and his best friend Dan.

Wayne and Ashleigh at my Dad's birthday party. Thank God Wayne finally got his hair cut. Before my Mawmaw passed away she told him to get a hair cut. When she died he did and then was one of her pallbearers.

This is my Pawpaw with all of his grandchildren and great grandchildren minus 1 who is pregnant. We have the oldest (yours truly) down to little Peyton.

Sorry, another sideways picture. This is Blake on his 8th birthday.

Mom

Steven, doesn't he look happy?

Dad

Brett

Wayne, another happy camper, do you think it's the hat?

As you can see, when you come to our house everyone is required to wear the happy birthday hat. Even our dog Abby wears one. She doesn't look as unhappy about it as some of the party goers.

The second celebration of Dad's birthday.

Rusty in his annual picture of him with his new set of Redskins season tickets. Go skins.

The first day of school. Sorry they are sideways, I promise I will get better at this.







Well, there you have it a recap of our lives for the last couple months. Thank you for the prayers and thoughts.
It has been a happy, sad, exciting and disappointing time for our family but together we pulled through it.
Have a great night.
Bridget

Look what I have learned

I have finally figured out how to post pictures, I feel like I should give a little speech on my accomplishment. We have finally gotten a new modem that will work and I have my DSL line back. YEA!!!!! This is just a short blog as a trial run, I will blog more later tonight and bore you some more with more pictures. This is in Costa Mya (I think I spelled that wrong) but you get the idea.
Talk to you later.
Bridget

Tuesday

You Have Your Sarcastic Moments

While you're not sarcastic at all times, you definitely have a cynical edge. In your opinion, not all people are annoying. Some are dead! And although you do have your genuine moments, you can't help getting your zingers in. Some people might be a little hurt by your sarcasm, but it's more likely they think you're hilarious.

How Sarcastic Are You?

Sad News

I will be gone for a while, my Grandmother passed away at 6:45 this evening. Please pray for my family.

Bridget

Grandma update

Just a note to let you know we made it to NC and home safely. Well, I made it back home, my Mom stayed and I'm not sure when she will be home. My Grandmother is not going to get any better and actually she is only going to get worse. The doctors have said that her body is just tired and she doesn't want to fight anymore. My whole family is having such a hard time with all of this right now. The only thing that is helping, is knowing that she is saved and I will one day see her again, but like Blake said last night "That will be in a really long time" and that just hurts so bad. My little 8 year old has prayed for her for months every day multiple times, from saying grace at the table before we eat to saying his prayers before bed. He didn't understand last night why she didn't get better, he said "but I prayed". So Rusty and I had to sit him down and explain to him that God always answers our prayers just sometimes they don't get answered the way we want, but that it is always the way it is supposed to be. He seemed better after that but he kept crying and bringing his little hands up to his head, he broke my heart. My children are very close with my Grandparents, they have spent alot of time with them and this is going to be very hard for them. There aren't alot of 17 year olds that have been blessed to have Great Grandparents. The decision was made yesterday to make her comfortable, no more tests, no more blood draws or poking, she is on morphine for pain and she is still on the ventilator. They are going to let nature take it's course and let God's will be done. My Grandparents are such strong Christians and I don't know how my Grandfather is holding up the way he is, but he has been so strong for all of us around him. Please pray for us and keep us in your thoughts.
Bridget

Prayers Please

I am leaving with my Mom to go to North Carolina, we got notice today that my Grandmother is doing really bad and that she is "not there anymore". My family really needs prayer right now for God's will, I am not ready to give her up but I also do not want her in any pain.

Thanks

Happy 4th of July (the day after)

Well, it was once again a busy but fun 4th of July for our family. Saturday was the 29th annual Gibson 4th of July party at my mother-in-laws. It was a lot of fun, tons of wonderful food and great music. We had about 130 people and I worried all week because of all the rain we were getting, but thank God by Saturday things had dried out and it all went off without a hitch. Yesterday on the 4th, my parents and my brother came over for a cookout and to watch the fireworks in our town from our deck. We have the best seat in the house, our deck overlooks the mountains. They have a big celebration in town and then around 9:30 they set off fireworks in the town park. We have a perfect view of the fireworks as they are going off and we don't have to leave the house. It's great.

My dad will be heading back to North Carolina tomorrow to stay with my Grandfather again. He has been trying to come home every other week but we can't depend on my aunt to go down and stay there for more than a few days so his visits have been cut short some. My Dad worries about my grandfather being alone, he is 81 and gets confused sometimes. My Mom is very lucky that my Dad will stay with her father like this, there aren't a lot of husbands out there that would be willing to do that. The doctors seem to be pleased with the progress my grandmother is making even though it sometimes doesn't seem like much to us. Please keep praying for her.

I am officially the assistant secretary for the little league football, I will be the assistant while I am learning from the current secretary and until she moves. I hope I am up to this, from the sounds of it, it is almost like a full time job. I am just glad I really don't have to deal with the parents a lot, that falls to the President, lucky man that he is. I guess we will see how this goes. I was the PTO President for Ashleigh's school when she was in 1st grade and those parents drove me nuts, everyone wants to tell you how you should do things but no one wants to volunteer to help. What have I gotten myself into?

Have a great day!!!
Bridget