HAPPY NEW YEAR

I just want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. We had a wonderful Christmas and were spoiled by our families, as usual. We are so blessed and God has continued to keep us safe and relatively healthy this year. May the new year bring a time of renewed faith, good health and love to all of you. We are thankful for our friends - new and old - and may God bless each of your lives.

Love,
Thomas, Tami, Callie and Lyla

What Do You Think?

I read an article this morning regarding some of the things Obama will do with his executive power without "waiting for Congressional action." Some of the issues he is going to change immediately with his executive powers are removing any restrictions on stem cell research and closing off 360,000 acres of public land in Utah to prevent drilling. Regardless of how I feel about these issues, what was more disturbing to me were the comments left by 654 people below this particular story. The comments were varied, but seemed to be split 50/50 - almost ALL were attacking the other side in some major way. Not intelligent debate, just attack after attack from all sides. I realize after every election, there is this type of discussion all over the media and internet. This is especially the case when people are so divided.

So, here is my controversial question for the quarter...

Do you believe our new President-elect will unite or divide our country?

Don't worry about leaving your comments - you can always leave them anonymously. I know many people who read my blog voted different ways. I want to hear what you really think. Don't hold back and don't just write the PC answer. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Halloween

Before I discuss our awesome Halloween, I have a very important announcement....




For the very first time ever, someone came to the door to come out and ask if Callie could play! There are a TON of kids in our neighborhood, but since I was so sick during the pregnancy, we really didn't spend a whole lot of time out front with her. Last night, she played a lot with a little girl next door named Jasmine and Jasmine knocked on our door tonight to ask if Callie could play! It was sweet and made us feel good that she had so much fun with Callie, even though she is five and Callie is two. Anywho - it was heartwarming.


On to Halloween...


As you know, Thomas LOVES Halloween. Let me tell make it clear - he doesn't like cutsy Halloween. He likes scary Halloween. The scarier the better, BUT we had Trunk of Treats at church and I reminded him it was not appropriate to be scary. So, alas, we went as the Swedish Chef and Miss Piggy from The Muppets. He was HILARIOUS and my costume was perfect, in light of the number of pounds I packed on when I stopped being pregnant (because it was then that I was finally able to eat). So, the first set of pictures is from Trunk of Treats - Callie was a spider and Lyla was a ladybug! Also, note the awesome carving of pumpkins. I only did one - Thomas gets credit for the rest...





For our home celebration of Halloween, of course our house was all decorated, as usual. This year, Thomas built a graveyard and we went with a spider theme. As you can see from the house pictures, our spiders had captured a human in their web this year. It was pretty awesome! We played a track through our window that everyone thought was real. The BEST PART was Thomas as the undertaker. He wandered around the graveyard looking frightening. He was in charge of scaring the kids and I was in charge of softening the blow with giving them big handfuls of candy (with the girls) on the porch. We had a great time, but there was one problem - we have determined that due to Friday night football, we had about 75-100 less trick or treaters this year. We only had about 115 and that was pretty sad. We will still continue to do cool stuff though and hopefully, have more kids next year!

Thomas had an awesome idea to carve the inside of a pumpkin and let the candles show the design. He was going to do "redrum" and then determined the letters had too many curves for the short time frame he had to get it done. Can you read this one? I told you he likes scary Halloween....

So, believe it or not, now I have started planning Christmas! Plus, I have Bunco at my house this year, so the pressure is on. :-)

Lyla wears A LOT of hand-me-downs. Callie had some adorable clothes and we have again put many of them to good use with our newest little girl. Yesterday, after we arrived back home from a full day at work and my parents' house, I put Lyla in a yellow ducky sleeper. I remembered taking a picture of Callie wearing this right after she was born in 2006, so I took a picture of Lyla in it as well. The pictures are kind of grainy because I took them all with my phone. Callie was only 6 days old when we took hers, Lyla is now two months. What do you think? Do they look alike to you? Do you know which one is which?

Bad Things Happen In Threes

Isn't that the saying? Well, we have experienced that at GST over the last few weeks. A few weeks ago, we had an employee pass away very unexpectedly at his home. It was a very sad situation and I am sad that we didn't know him better than we did.

The second happened this morning. We had an employee suffer a heart attack after arriving to work. The paramedics were called and he was transported to the hospital immediately. At around 2:00, we found out he had passed away. He has been having heart problems for quite some time, but, as Thomas puts it, he was "just talking to him this morning." This employee was one of the nicest guys you could meet and it breaks my heart to hear of his passing.

The final issue was also this morning. Some of you may have heard about the shooting in Haltom City that happened early today. It happened in front of our new facility and my Dad and a few other people were there as it was taking place. They had to watch a man die in front of them and they were helpless. There was no way to save him and they have not caught the guy who committed the crime. These are images that will forever stay in the minds of those that were there. UPDATE: They did find the guy they think did the shooting and he is in jail in Haltom City.

All of the above remind me of how precious life is and how I need to remember to take advantage of every minute. Please keep the families of these individuals in your prayers.

Despair

Here is another print I love from http://www.despair.com/...

Cupcakes

So, obviously, I have a sweet tooth. Thomas and I have recently discovered a place in Fort Worth that I am hesitant to even mention to you. I want to keep it to myself, but I just can't. So, whenever you are downtown, hop over on Camp Bowie and go here... The Cupcake Cottage.

On another note, we have a new bakery opening up next door to our office. Yes, I said NEXT DOOR. How can life be so cruel? They will specialize in cupcakes, cookies and cheesecakes. They aren't open yet, but are called J. Rae's. They are hiring and I am seriously tempted to apply. :-) Since Tonya and I are starting a new weight bet on Friday, I am really wishing these bakeries were close to our Janada facility, since Tonya is there everyday. Oh well. Pray for will power!!

California, Callie's Birthday and Baby Shower

Okay - so it has been a really busy four weeks for me. As you know, four weeks ago this coming Tuesday, Lyla Megann was born and things have been crazy ever since! Just a side note - when my mom was here helping with Callie, look at what Callie got for breakfast one day...

The last weekend of August, I flew out to California to sing at the wedding of a childhood friend. It was fantastic to be at home, but the trip was too short and I wanted my family with me. Fortunately, Thomas is awesome and really wanted me out of the house - so he agreed I could go and he would watch the kids, with the help of his parents. Here are just a couple of pictures from my trip...the first is from that Friday afternoon when all the girls went to go get pedicures and manicures - this is Stacey, the bride. The second is a picture of Kristen, Steve and Christy. Steve is Christy's husband and the two girls are friends from highschool. They were bridesmaids at the wedding. The third picture is of Keith and Stacey - the bride and groom! The last is of Stacey and me - do I look tired or what? I was and it was only 9:00 pm...

Yesterday, the 6th, Callie turned TWO. Yes, TWO. Scares me to no end. I have several pictures from the family party we had last night. We had 19 people at our house for the celebration and it was fantastic. Callie was blessed to get a ton of great gifts and she had a blast with her cousins. The first picture is of the cake that Thomas and I made. It turned out pretty good, I think. It matched her invitations, party decor and dress...

Callie received a stage from my parents for her room! It is shown here and fantastic! We are doing her new room in movies and music and she is such a ham. She loves to sing to us and couldn't have been more thrilled with this gift. Callie's older cousins helped her open the huge pile of gifts. Callie learned how to hold up two fingers, but she still has to concentrate pretty hard to keep them in the right place. Obviously, Tatum does a little better with a plate and fork, judging by the fact that Callie is stripped down and wearing a bib. Tatum will be three in October and is Tye and Jere's youngest.This is Callie on the stage after she put on her new princess costume from Papa and Grandma Sharri. Papa George helping her with her new toys. WHAT AN AWESOME BIRTHDAY!!
Last, but certainly not least, we had Lyla's Baby Blessing and Baby Shower at church today. I don't have the pictures from the blessing yet, but here are just a couple from the shower. Thanks to Pam, Jeana, Tonya and Mistee for an awesome shower! I am so blessed to have friends like you guys...the shower was awesome and you did way too much!!

It has been a great four weeks. Did I mention that I am going to work tomorrow? UGH.

Announcement...

Lyla Megann Freeman

Born August 12, 2008 at 4:03 pm

Weighed 7 lb., 12 oz.

19-3/4" long

Update

Well, we are in the final week(s) of what I think has been the longest pregnancy on the books. Just kidding. It just seems that way. In fact, the other night, someone at Bunco said, "It seems like you have been pregnant forever!" Tell me about it!!

Anyway - feeling pretty good. Ready to be able to drive again!! I am at Thomas's mercy when it comes to leaving the house. I feel pretty bad for him. By the time Thursday rolls around, I am usually a bit of a bear to deal with at home because of cabin fever!

So, I finally moved my pictures over to my new-to-me computer at home, so I am posting a few morsels from the past for your viewing pleasure!

WARNING - LOTS OF PICTURES! This catches me up for some of what I intended to post for 2007. It really only catches me up on a few events, so you may still see some random pictures from the past show up on my blog.

One year ago - my surprise 30th bday party...

Pamela A. being funny. Or so she thinks.

I don't think I have any pictures of Tammie not making a face, so here it is.

The pictures below are from our night out for Pam's birthday last September. We went to The Melting Pot.

Here are some more pictures from our vacation to the West Coast last fall.

These are from my Halloween Bunco last year. I made spaghetti and this is how I plated it. Also, everything was candlelit, so I thought it was pretty neat. Don't know what my Bunco friends thought, but we can pretend they loved it.

What is she doing, you ask? Why, she is smoking a chocolate dipped pretzel, of course!

Pumpkin Patch with the cousins below.

We helped out with the small group sponge toss at Trunk of Treats this year. Tonya and Trey did a great job of making our dummy and Tonya was by far one of the funniest to work it. Below that are some pumpkins Thomas carved.

That gets me through October 2007!! Not at many pictures as I wanted to post, but it will do for now. :-)

No Big Deal

Hi Friends,

Several of you have inquired as to why I visited the hospital last week and how I am feeling, so I thought I would go ahead and post an update!

First, thank you all so much for your prayers and well-wishes. My circumstances pale in comparison with what others are going through and it means a lot to have such great friends around us during this exciting (and yet a little frustrating) time.

As many of you know, I have been having dizziness and fainting issues since the end of March. Some of this is very normal during pregnancy and many of you have gone through it yourselves. Generally, it is very manageable and can be controlled. When I visited my doctor last Monday, I casually mentioned that the last two fainting spells I have had, there has been no warning and I fell (not hard, but still a fall) when it happened. To my knowledge, once I was in a horizontal position, I "came to" and was fine about 15 seconds into the ordeal. Well, having the awesome doctor that I do, she was...ummm...VERY UPSET with me for not calling and reporting the "no notice" to them. To me, this has all become second nature and, as scary as it can be while it is happening, it has become my recent reality.

Needless to say, she gave me two hours to go home and get things set up with my parents for Callie, grab a few items for overnight stay at Harris and drop by work for a minute. Once I arrived to the hospital, she had my room number and specialists waiting for me to start running tests. The sad part is that they do not know what is causing it and cannot run any neurological tests until after the baby is born. She considers me a "fall risk" (which was the reason for the orange socks) and is extremely concerned that if I am up and about, I will fall and possibly injure myself or the baby. From the way she was talking about it, I assume she has had some sort of experience with either the death of a mom or a baby due to a fall and this has her very concerned, which you can tell by the way she is handling my case. She is a fantastic doctor and I couldn't appreciate her more.

Of course, I understand all of this, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating. On a good note - I am now 35 weeks, so we are definitely on a downhill slide toward Callie having a little brother or sister!!

Because all of you are the people you are, I have already been offered meals, babysitting, you name it. Trust me, I will let you know if I need anything other than prayers right now! If you think I won't let you know, you can always call Tonya and she will be honest with you...usually.

Thanks again for being the friends you are to our family!
Tami

Hospital Boredom Sets In...

That being said...here are two pictures for your viewing pleasure:

This one is just for See Dub. I am a fall risk, so they are having me wear these WONDERFUL orange socks and use this BEAUTIFUL orange blanket. Mary N. decided it would be fun if she were the one to deliver these to my room. THANKS.

Thomas is very proud of our ET picture.

Music Camp!

Our performances for Music Camp are this weekend! The kids have worked so very hard and I am so proud of them! Check out our blog (big thanks to See Dub)!

Performances are Saturday and Sunday at 6:00 pm at Heritage! Come and see our kids and their wonderful production, AmeriKids!

Impending Doom or New Phase??

I guess it just depends on how you look at the circumstances. After seven years of work at GST, my role is slowly transitioning for several reasons. First, I am having another baby and have not had the smoothest of pregnancies. Second, Thomas has a hankering (yes, I believe that truly is a word) to move up at the company and take on more responsibility. For these reasons, we cannot continue to work our awesome schedule where both of us get to spend so much time with Callie. We knew a change was coming, but there has been some doubt as to when this would happen. The doubt has now been replaced by certainty for Thomas and uncertainty for me.

So, why do I say "impending doom" in my subject? I think it is out of fear of the unknown. I will be extremely blessed to work from home Tuesday through Friday (for the time being) and can spend time with Callie and will have a chance to do some of the "wifely" things I have always wanted to do. Fix dinner for Thomas most evenings, be here more to make sure the house is in order, and kind of feel like a stay-at-home mom, all while still being employed full-time. I think that is where the doom sets in. I am not one to want to work from home necessarily. My expectations for myself become overwhelming because I feel like I have to work 10x as hard to make sure people know I am worth the effort and money for the company. I have to work harder to SHOW people what I am doing. It is different than being in the office all day where people see your productivity on a regular basis. This is the WORST - I also feel like all of the hard work I have done in specific areas of the company will be erased in a matter of weeks. Yes, it may just be a feeling, but it is still there and eats at my subconscious. I feel like I am breaking up my team and I hate that feeling. Does my team feel that way? No. They know I will hound them just as much as I ever have. I know, it is just me. I have worked my way into being more than the owners daughter, I have become a key player in my own right. I don't want to lose that part of my professional life.

On the other hand...new phase?? Yes. Absolutely. This change has the potential to totally change what I do for the company and where I am headed. There is no doubt in my mind that Monday will be the start of a brand new phase in my life and will be the start of something TOTALLY different. My responsibilities as an employee may be relatively the same, my duties as a wife and mother may be the same, but the way I approach those two areas will be completely different. It is mildly exciting, very scary and deeply troubling all at the same time. I have to make myself believe I am up to the task and can function above my own expectations. I MUST believe I will not fail. I also must believe the change is positive and will allow me to grow and learn.

All that being said, I am ready to meet it head on...I think. :-)

Mother's Day and Evening with Reese

Tonight, we had the pleasure of having Sara's youngest over while she and Pete went out. She and Callie had fun playing in Callie's kitchen. Reese really showed Callie the ropes with some of her toys! She showed her how to work the pepper grinder, how to use the microwave and how to organize her kitchen! Callie had so much fun with cousin Reese and we were thrilled to have her here! Here are some cute pictures of the two of them playing...

And my favorite of the two of them....

Also, here the only picture we took from Mother's Day. Thomas and Callie took me to The Melting Pot and we had a great time! Unfortunately, it was a humid day, so my hair is all over the place. Oh well! Here is the picture anyway...