Christmas, New Year, and Afghanistan

Wow, so much catching up to do. I guess this will be a somewhat long post. I hope everybody had a GREAT holiday season. We did. Mackenzie went to her dad's Christmas Eve and actually stayed with him for Christmas morning. This was very hard for me to deal with. I have never broken down in front of Mackenzie until this came along. She was so sweet though. She climbed up into my lap and told me to take a deep breath and think about something else and it would be OK. So about 4:00 I met her daddy to drop her off and cried some more. That night was nice though I went to the candle light service at church and then rode around looking at lights. Christmas morning I awoke to the phone ringing. Hoping it was Mackenzie I jumped right up and answered the phone, it was only Tyler (her daddy). He called to let me know she was about to get up and to say Merry Christmas. Not quite 10 minutes later I got the call I originally wanted. It was my sweet girl telling me everything Santa had left for her at her daddy's house. Around 1:30 Tyler brought her back to my house and she got to see what Santa brought her there. I am very happy to say that she plays with the guitar she got at my house more than anything. Then we went to my mom's and opened presents and then back home to sort through the mess. Here are a couple pics from Christmas. I tried to do a slide show but could not get it to work.

Mackenzie has been talking about getting her ears pierced for quite a while so I took her to Claires the Saturday after Christmas and the lady told her it was like a finger prick. Well that was all it took. That is the worst thing you could have told my child. Needless to say we walked out of there with no ears pierced. So the next Saturday we went and had lunch with Tyler and she was pretty excited and told her daddy she was going to do it today. We walked in she jumped up in the chair and she now has pierced ears.

This was my year to have Mackenzie on New Year's but plans changed. I was invited to go out with a group of friends so I called Tyler and he said he would keep her. It was great. We went to Liberty and then went to Jillians. It was nice.

Now about Afghanistan. On Christmas day a very good friend of ours arrived in Columbia on his two week leave. This was a great Christmas present but he still has to go back. Well, he is on a plane as I am typing this on this way back. We went and had lunch with him and his family on Sunday and that made things even harder. I truly admire all military families. I am not sure who has the harder job the family or the soldier. Here is a picture of Mackenzie and Brandon from Sunday. She is really having a hard time understanding the situation.

Also while we were in Kingstree I decided to take Mackenzie out to the farm. It is no longer an operating farm but it is where I lived until I was 5 and visited quite frequently after that. Our grandparents left the land to us when they passed away and it really is beautiful. This is a pic of the barn, Mackenzie on a gas tank and then the horses.

Ok after all this my goal is to try to post more often. I hope everybody is having and will have a GREAT 2008!

Wedding and POW WOW day at school

My cousin Ashely got married this past weekend and Mackenzie was the flowergirl. I was a little nervous because the only other time she had done this was when I was also in the wedding and she could stand with me, but she did a GREAT job. It was great to see the family as well.


Also Mackenzie had POW WOW day at school Tuesday and she made her own accessories. It was so cute.

I hope everybody has a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow and for this weekend GO GAMECOCKS!!!

Happy Halloween

MY USC Cheerleader!!!!

Last night we went to our church carnival to play games and get lots of candy. Let's just say we succeeded. After leaving the church Mackenzie wanted to go to a neighborhood so she could walk door to door. So I took her and a friend to his neighborhood while his mom gave out candy. All in all it was a good night. The pics below are Mackenzie and some of her friends from church and the other is a pic of our neighbor from when we lived at mama's. Such a sweetheart.

Catching up

We are finally moved out. The new place is liveable but still a ways to go to finish getting settled. We are loving it though. It may get old after a while but I love going home and being able to cook supper and sit down and have a quiet meal with just me and Mackenzie. It is GREAT!!!

I know this is a little late but we did get a chance to go to the fair. I took Mackenzie out of school for a day because she was going to Alabama with her daddy for the weekend. She had so much fun. Both at the fair and in Alabama. She caught her first fish.

My nephew is now growing by leaps and bounds. It is amazing to watch the growth in children as most of you know. Poor thing had to have surgery two weeks ago to correct his stomach tube. It went perfect and he is now keeping everything down.

Well, this is enough for now. I need to do some work. Hope everybody has a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

So much going on

Ok so I have been slack on this so it is time to catch up. I don't have all the pics on the computer yet so a lot of those will come later. My car died a while back and I was driving my mom's extra car while looking for one. Well I finally decided on a van. Even with one child this vehicle is a blessing. I love it.

My sister had a baby boy on September 13. His name is John Mccullough.

Mackenzie absolutely loves him and is constantly wanting to hold him or give him his pappy even if he is not crying.

We took Mackenzie to the doctor for her 5 year check up and she has been complaining about her back and legs bothering her so the doctor wanted to take some blood. That was the worst experience in my life to this point. Mackenzie screamed so loudly that she busted blood vessels in her face. The blood test results came back good but now we are going to an ortho for x-rays. I am hoping it is just growing pains but because of a spot on her back close to her spine we are having it checked a little closer.

This week has been a great week. I have been trying for some time now to get out of my mom's house but have been unable to find anything reasonable as well as in the right school district. Well, it finally happened. Me and Mackenzie have finally found a rental house and we are moving this weekend. I am not sure who is more excited me or Mackenzie. It is going to be such a big change but I am so looking forward to it. We are going to take everything to the house this weekend but still spend the night at my mom's next week so we can get things straight before staying there. I would like for it to be an easy transition for Mackenzie and not looking through boxes trying to find items we need. I will post pics of the house as soon as I can.

Hope everybody else is doing well.

The last week

The last week has been great for me and Mackenzie. This past Saturday Mackenzie went to the Lil' Demon Cheerleading Clinic. I have to say it went much better for her this year than last year. She actually got involved and learned the dance somewhat. So this Friday she will cheer at the football game during the first half.


School is still going great. We started with homework this week which she loves. Hopefully it will stay that way. Oh and we pick up our soccer schedule today.

As some of you know we have been living with my mom since Tyler and I divorced. Well it has finally come time for us to get our place. Of course as soon as I decided this my car died. So not only am I looking for a house I am also looking for a car. I will be going from no car payment or mortgage to both. It is pretty scary but very exciting.

Hope everybody is doing well!! Have a great Labor Day!

A little bit of everything

My job has been up in the air for a while and very stressful at times not knowing if it was going to stay open or not. Well we went through two layoffs and now there are only two of us left. My director and myself. Last week our big boss calls and says he is coming to meet with us. Very scary! Well thank goodness we are safe for now. He was just trying to get an idea of what we did. Although this job is a long drive each day it is perfect for me right now. I usually work 4 days a week and get off at 4:00 each day. Getting off at 4:00 is great especially now that Mackenzie has started school. I have a little more time with her in the afternoon.

Not only did we start school this week we change classes at church tonight. We also start back to children's choir with a new teacher. Hopefully Mackenzie will stay in class.

Several weeks ago we had pics done at the High school for a cheerleading fundraiser. They turned out so cute. A lot of money but cute none the less.