[JUST SOME PiCTURES]

I was looking through the pictures on my phone and had some very very cute ones so I just thought that I would share :)

Bentley sleeping (that crazy little monkey is hanging off of the bar):

Cam & Bentely love each other so much:
I got a Snuggie for Christmas...Bentley thinks it is his:
Sweet Macy-Mae playing with her toy that she later destroyed:

Ellie's first outside adventure:
Crazy Destiny, she got on my Jeep and the jumped on the roof:

We love all of our crazy babies!!

[MERRY CHRiSTMAS & A NOT SO HAPPY NEW YEAR]

Since I last posted we have had 2 holidays. I cant believe it. Everything has gone by so fast.

We had a wonderful Christmas and got lots of great things. We went to my Pape and Nanna's for Christmas Eve like we always do. Then we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. On Christmas day me and Chaz got up very early to do our Christmas together since I had to work on Christmas Day. It was fun even though it was very early. After I got home from work Chaz's Dad, Mom and his brother came up to have lunch and open presents with us. After that we went to my Dad and Mamma's house to have dinner and open presents. So we had a wonderful 2nd Christmas together and we cant wait for many many more!

Our New Year's eve was fun. We went to my friend Tiffany's house to ring in the new year. Then on New Year's day our day started out great! We went to my Pape and Nanna's house to have lunch like we always do. When we got home is when our good day turned to a terrible day. When we got home Chaz went to check on his deer corn and found my sweet precious Reagan... she had been killed :( I was devastated, and still am really. Its hard to lose one pet but to lose two in less than a year is more than I can deal with right now. We think that she was killed by a very mean looking stray dog that roams around our neighborhood. Next time I see it I am calling animal control and if they don't do anything about it I will. I just cannot believe my my precious Reagan is gone and I am beyond heartbroken that it happened the way that it did and that she had to suffer alone in the cold. I put up her stocking the other day and all I could do was cry. I want her back! And I still want Misty back too :( I don't understand why God has done these horrible things to me this past year. What did I do for them to deserve what happened to them?! I just don't understand why God took them away from me. I am still grieving the loss of both of them and I want to cry as I am sitting here typing this but I cant because if I do I wont be able to stop. I just have to be at peace knowing that they are together in heaven without a care in the world. I just have 2 guardian angles now :) And I still have all of my other babies that I love very much and that still need me so they keep me going.

I have since started back school, not a very long break but oh well. I am taking 3 classes this quarter. Everybody always asks me how much longer I have and the truth is... I have no idea. All I know is that I am not stopping until I am done. So hopefully this quarter will go as smooth as the last.

Chaz is still home which I am glad to say. We don't know when he will be leaving again but more than likely it will be either February or March. I personally would prefer it be March, that way I can spend more time with him.

More bad news from the Gibson family... The hospital that I work at has really been struggling for a little while now as far as money goes. This past week there were a lot of budget cuts and in those cuts my hours got cut. They got cut from 80 hours every 2 weeks to only 64 hours. Don't get me wrong I am very thankful to still have my job but that cut is really going to hurt us. And if it gets cut anymore we will lose our insurance which is my main concern. So just pray that things get better here and that my hours will go back up soon. And also if anybody knows of any places that are hiring part-time or for nights please let me know.

Well I guess that's about it for now... hopefully next time I will have only good news to post about.

[iTS ALMOST CHRiSTMAS]

I cant believe that it is almost Christmas!! It seems like it was just Christmas a few months ago. I love Christmas! I wouldn't care if I didn't get anything as long as I could get stuff for everybody else. I just like to see other people happy. I am pretty proud of myself because I am actually done with all of my Christmas shopping! I finished last Tuesday . I don't think that has ever happened before but I didn't really have a choice. I have worked everyday for the past 2 weeks and before that I have only had 1 weekend off since I started back working so I had to get it done a lot sooner this year but luckily I managed. I have to work on Christmas again this year which just totally sucks : / I have Christmas Eve off though and I am so ready for it! By the time it gets here I will have worked 14 full days straight and needless to say I am VERY ready for a day off even though it will not be a day that I get to rest. I am baking a pecan pie and a chocolate and strawberry celebration cake (if you have seen the Christmas Taste of Homes magazine it is the one on the cover) so I will be up early to get everything done in time for dinner at my Pape and Nanna's house. I love going to their house on Christmas Eve, we always have the best food and so much fun! I cant wait until Christmas gets here!! Only 4 more days!

I am FiNALLY done with school...for this semester at least : / I don't have my grades yet but I am about 98% positive that I got all A's! So I hope I did. Now at lease I have about 2 weeks off from school. I don't think that is going to be long enough at all but I guess it will have to do.

Chaz finally came home this past Friday and its a good thing that he did. He was in Philadelphia and he flew home the day before the snow storm hit there. So it was just in time or he probably wouldn't have been home for a while. So I was very glad about that!

But I guess that's about all has been going on! I hope everyone has a great Christmas!

[LONG TiME NO TALK]

Wow! It has definitely been a VERY long time since I have posted on here. I would like to say that we have been very busy... but that would be a lie up until last week. So I will try to update on what all has been going on for the last month and a half.

I am now almost 3 months post op from my surgery. I am doing VERY well thank goodness. I am still going to physical therapy 2 times a week. I am not sure how much longer I will have to go but I hope it is not very much longer . I am just tired of having to go to Athens at least twice a week every week. But I am very thankful for my physical therapist, Trey, he has definitely helped me a lot. I went to see my orthopedic surgeon yesterday and he told me how he could still see the inside of my knee plain as day. He said that the other day that he was thinking about me the other day and thinking about how weird my knee was. He said that he has probably done 7,000 to 8,000 arthroscopic surgeries ( which is what I had done) and that he has NEVER seen anything like mine before. So I guess that makes me pretty special. haha. But anyway I just pray that it is fixed for good this time.

I am FiNALLY back at work! I started back last Monday. I am so glad to be back. I was getting bored sitting at home so much. But ever since I have been back I have had the worst cold ever. I just cannot seem to get rid of it. One day I will think that I am getting better but then it will be worse again the next day. But hopefully it will go away soon. I definitely think that 2 weeks is long enough for it to run its course.

I am almost done with school for this quarter. I only have 2 weeks left thank goodness! I am just ready for a break. But I really like it there so I am happy.

Chaz has been doing good too. He was sick a few weeks ago. He is the one who got me sick! How nice of him right? haha. But anyway he is back in Philadelphia now. He left on December 1 and he is supposed to be coming home on the 12th. Since I last posted he has worked in Alabama and South Georgia. I am not sure where he will be going next. He was supposed to be going to Ireland in February of March but he told me yesterday that they might get a job in northern Canada. So I guess we will just have to wait and see! But where ever he goes I am definitely going to visit.

We had a good Thanksgiving and I hope that everyone else did too. We ended up going to Florida to spend it with Chaz's family. I was very very sad that I didn't get to see my family because I have NEVER not seen them on Thanksgiving so it was pretty hard for me but we did have fun in Florida and it was good to get to see all of his family. Now I am just getting ready for Christmas to get here! I am not really anywhere near done with my shopping so since I don't have to work this weekend I am going to try to finish as much of it as I can since I don't really have a lot of time to go shopping these days.

All of the animals are doing good. Bentley is getting so big! I cant believe how big he is! Chaz thinks that we should give him some kind of medicine that will make him stay small forever. haha. But he is a good little baby. Cam is doing good too. He is still my little baby boy. Him and Bentley both sleep with me every night. Ellie, Reagan and Destiny are all doing good too. They play outside all day and have made friends with the neighbors cats. They occasionally invite them over for dinner which makes Chaz mad because he says that we are not going to feed all of the neighborhood cats. haha. When it started getting cold I bought them a bed and a kitty tower and they love both of them. I think Destiny claimed the bed because it seems like she never gets out of it. Harley and A-1 are also doing good. They are getting so big too. We have started feeding them hay in addition to their feed since all of the grass is almost dead. We also have a new addition to our family! We adopted a 10 month old yellow lab that we named Macy. She is very sweet and has lots of puppy energy. She also loves to play with Jett, my mamma's black lab. But he has gotten a little fat lately so she wears him out pretty fast. haha. But we are very glad to have her as part of our family now!

We went and cut down our Christmas tree on Sunday. It is very pretty if I do have to say so myself. We are very happy with it. Now I just have to fill up around the bottom with presents! Bentley loves the tree. I think that he thinks that it is a toy. He has already taken off a few ornaments and played with them around the house. He also has taken some of the lights off too which he got in trouble for but it didn't seem to phase him any. He only messes with it when the lights are on. I guess he thinks they are pretty and he just wants to touch them like a little kid. But he has been getting better about not messing with it. I will try to remember to take some pictures of it and post them on here. I will also put some pictures of Macy on here.

Well... I think that is pretty much everything that has been going on lately. I will not wait so long to post again! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

21 DAYS UNTiL CHRiSTMAS!!

[iT'S BEEN A WHiLE]

Its been a while since I last posted. We have actually been pretty busy the past few weeks. So here it goes...

It has been 5 weeks since I had my surgery. I have still not been released to go back to work and needless to say I am very ready to go back. I have been going to physical therapy twice a week in an effort to regain my range of motion and my strength. My therapist seems to think that I am doing very well. The only thing that my doctor is worried about is the fluid that is on my knee and the swelling. For the most part it has been feeling pretty good...until today. For some reason I have been a pretty good bit of pain. I don't know why but I hope that I feel better tomorrow because I have physical therapy. But over all I am doing well. I go back to the doctor on November 5. So I hope he will say that I can go back to work then.

Chaz has gone back to work. He was in Opelika, Alabama for 3 weeks. He has got to come home the past 2 weekends to that's always nice. This week he is Bainbridge. I'm not sure how long he will be there. He says that it is very boring for the most part because pretty much all he does is just sit there and wait for something to happen. But at least he is getting paid for it! haha.

School is going good for me. This is my 4th week and so far everything is moving along smoothly. I just hope that it will stay that way once I go back to work and don't have as much time to do school work.

This past Sunday was mine and Chaz's 1 year anniversary! I cant believe that it has already been a year! We spent a lovely weekend together. Saturday night we went and had a lovely dinner at The Melting Pot in Duluth. It was so good. I love that place. Then on Sunday we didn't really do a whole lot. We just spent the day together. We ate our wedding cake, which was delicious I might add. Chaz said that it wasn't bad for year old cake! haha. We also had some wine that we had bought in Helen on our honeymoon to have with our cake on our anniversary. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband! I cant wait to spend many many more amazing years with him.

Well I guess that's pretty much it for now!!

[LONG WEEK]

It has been a long week this week. Chaz left Monday to go to Alabama to work. He was supposed to get to come home today but he has to stay for at least another week. The man that he is covering for had to have surgery and has not been released to come back to work so Chaz has to stay there until he can come back, which will probably be another week or so. Then once he is done there he will go straight to Bainbridge. I'm not sure how long he will be there but it will probably be a few weeks. Also it is now official that he will be going to Spain as soon as that job starts which will more than likely be before the end of the year. There is also still a possibility that he will be going to California. And there is a good chance that he will be going to Ireland in March. So it sounds like he will be busy and not home for any extended amount of time anytime soon :( I don't like that at all. But you have to do what you have to do to survive these days. But I am excited about him getting to work at all of these neat places because that means that I get to go visit him there. So I guess that means that I need to go get my passport soon :)

Here is an update on my knee: I went back to the doctor on the 1st. He has still not released me to go back to work because of the swelling and the fluid that is on my knee. I go back to see him on the 15th and if the fluid is not gone he is going to drain it : / I am not looking forward to that. Because from the way that he said he might have to drain it it sounded like he didn't think it was going to go away on its own. But he did say that this is a very common thing to have with this procedure. There is nothing that I can really do about it, it just has to go away by itself if it is going to. I have still been going to physical therapy 2 times a week. I think that it is helping because after my surgery I couldn't really bend my knee at all and now I can barely sit indian style and it is not to painful. So we are definitely making progress and my physical therapist is very pleased with my progress. I hope that after I go back to see my doctor that I will soon be well enough to go back to work. Because now that Chaz is gone and I just sit at home by myself a lot I get really bored. My Mamma does come over a lot and help me do stuff so that I'm not just here all day by myself. But I am still just ready to get out of the house and do stuff.

I started school on Monday. I haven't really done anything so far since it was only the first week all we did was just introduce ourselves. I think that it is probably going to be a long quarter but I know that I can do it. I am just looking forward to really getting started.

As for everyone else they are doing good. Bentley is wild as everything and Cam and Ellie are slowly learning how to play easy with him. At first they were scared of him but I think that they are pretty used to him now so that's good. Destiny and Reagan are doing good too. They just sleep in the garage on my Jeep most of the day. But now that it is getting nice and cool outside they like to sleep in the flower bed under the bushes. Reagan has also made friends with a cat that lives down the road. They like to sit in the driveway together and enjoy the weather. Harley and A-1 are doing good also. They are getting so big. Before Chaz left I was not able to go and feed them because of my knee. But now that he is gone it is my job to take care of them. I am glad to have that responsibility back because I love getting to see them and pet them. I just miss being able to wash and walk Harley because I am not allowed to do anything that I could hurt my knee doing, and playing with her is one of those things :( But hopefully I will be able to do it again soon.

So I guess that is pretty much all that has been going on. Nothing to exciting but I just thought that I would share :)

[SCHOOL, WORK & THE NEW BABY]

I just found out like not even a week ago that I got into the BHS program at NSU. Well I got an e-mail welcoming me to the program and all of that stuff and how to sign up for my classes and to do my orientation and everything. Well I didn't get to do all of that stuff until yesterday because I had a hard time retrieving my PIN from them to sign into all of my things. So I finally got to sign into everything yesterday and if I read everything right... I am supposed to start classes TOMORROW!! Everything that I read before I even applied said that it started in October so I have no idea what is going on. And I don't know how on earth they expect me to do that! I mean I don't have my books or anything. So I don't know what I am going to do. I guess just order all of my books ASAP and hope that they get here really really fast because from all of the syllabi's for my classes it looks like there are going to be assignments due every week. So now I am super stressed out and trying to figure out how I am going to pay for my books and everything because I cant figure out my financial aid stuff... like if it telling me that I got it or not. I don't know what I am going to do! Its pretty bad that I am already this stressed out and I haven't even started my classes yet. Oh it is going to be a long quarter.

Chaz is going to be leaving tomorrow morning to go to Opelika, Alabama. He will be there for about a week and then hopefully he will get to come home for a few days and then he will be going to Bainbridge, Georgia for a week or two. Then he will probably come home for a few weeks and then he will be going back to Opelika for a few weeks. After he is done there he will hopefully be going to Spain or Ireland. We are just waiting to hear which place and when. But it wont be until the end of the year probably. So that means that I have to go get my passport so that I can go visit him. I am going to miss him very much but I am excited and I cant wait to go over there! It is going to be hard without him here since I am really still getting over my surgery and cant really drive yet...or not long distances anyway. So I'm not to sure how my drive to Athens 2 times a week for physical therapy is going to go but I'm sure that I can make it okay. At least my Mamma is close by now and I'm sure that she will take good care of me :)

We also got a new addition to our little family last week. He is furry, gray tiger striped and white, and very very tiny. He is our new sweet little 5 week old kitten, Bentley. He came from the same place that Cam did and we are pretty sure that they are full brothers because one of the other kittens in his litter looks identical to Cam. He is very sweet and super playful. We love him so much already :) Ellie is very good with him but Cam is still not used to him and when Bentley tries to play with Cam he really scares him. It is so funny because Bentley is so small compared to Cam but Cam is still scared of him. Here is our sweet little Bentley sleeping with his toy lion the first day that we got him.

So it looks like we are going to have a busy next few months ahead of us with me trying to get used to my new school and him working all over the place. Wish us luck :)

[RAiN RAiN GO AWAY]

I has been raining for what seems like forever. I would have to say about 12 days because it started raining the day that I had my surgery. I have never seen anything like this before. Everything is flooding! I was starting to worry about the water getting onto our house because we had a lake in the backyard and rivers going down both sides of the house. The water was getting really close in the back... it was over our patio. But thankfully it has gone down now, but we still have a lake. I am ready for it to stop. I mean it is hard enough for me to get out of the house and do anything with my crutches but it is 10 times harder when it is pouring down rain. So hopefully it will stop very soon. There has already been so many peoples homes destroyed and as of this morning 8 people have been killed. It is so sad that so many lives have to be lost like this. All we can do is just pray for all of the families that have lost loved ones and or their homes. I don't think that I will ever forget this.

On another note... we hope that Chaz will be going to Alabama to work soon. We haven't really heard anything about Spain, Italy or Ireland yet but we should hear something once Chaz has his passport in hand and can actually go over there. So hopefully he will get his passport soon and we will get some good news. I still haven't gone back to work yet and I wont be going back before October 1.That's when I go back to the doctor after doing 2 weeks of physical therapy. So hopefully then he will tell me that I can go back to work.

Well I guess that's all for now. Nothing to exciting but I am bored being stuck here at home so I just thought that I would write something. I hope everyone has a good day!!