A few of the things I am Thankful for...

In spirit of today's holiday and the year's I have been celebrating the day, I thought I would compose a list of 27 things I am thankful for.  Disclaimer:  This is by no means a complete list, just a few thoughts and is in no particular order (except the first couple)! 

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll!  Don't eat too much!

I am thankful for...
1. A wonderful God who has blessed me with an infinite number of things to be thankful for!
2. My amazing husband who loves me unconditionally, supports me, encourages me, is my best friend, makes me laugh, makes me cry with happiness, is already such a wonderful father, and is an amazing Christian husband and leader.  (again, the list could go on but I will spare you!)
3. This little human growing inside me that I already love so much and can't wait to meet - and all of his sweet soccer player moves in my belly!  Taking after daddy already
4. Quite possibly the cutest dog in the entire world
5. A family that is so wonderful they are beyond words. 
6. An in-law family that treats me like one of their own and that I can love like my own family
7. A new church family that is so special I can't imagine not having them as a part of our lives
8. My Chicago family moving closer (only 1.5 hours away!!!)
9. A sister-in-law with so much knowledge about baby boys :)
10. A roof over my head and food on my table every night (actually - 2 roofs, if you want one let me know!)
11. A good job even if its stressful at times
12. Staying healthy all these years
13. Target! haha
14. The inventor of Spaghetti - and Granny for making her sauce
15. The almost 17 wonderful years I got to spend with my amazing Grandfather
16. The traveling I have been blessed to experience and all the cultures I have seen
17. The fact that I have too many people to buy Christmas presents for!
18. Having so many people who love me
19. The sunshining and the beautiful landscapes the Lord shows us each day
20. Waking up this morning and my loved ones doing the same!
21. Waking up this morning with my husbands arms around me and Charlie cuddled between us
22. In two days, I get to cut down my Christmas tree and celebrate a year of awesomeness with Michael
23. A wonderful work family that helps the time go by with some sense of sanity and that we like each other outside of work too!
24. All of the wonderful family traditions that have been passed down and that I am starting some of my own now!
25. The beach - pretty much any beach!
26. All of the new and fun experiences I get to enjoy each day - and I have a feeling they are going to keep on coming!
27. Being a Christian and serving such a loving God and living in a country where I can safely and freely share that with each of you!  (it's not a perfect country, but it sure beats a lot of the others out there - don't forget that!)

With that - I challenge you to think of things that you are thankful for.  And I challenge myself and you to be thankful for them everyday - not just the last Thursday of November.

Enjoy your food and family today!

Hello!

Sorry!  It's been a few weeks...but never fear, I am still around :)  This is going to be a random post, but my husband was busy at work so I couldn't share my excitement so ya'll get it...

1. I found out today that another one of my "brilliant ideas" has made it to the market.  Yep, first it was the spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-a (I had the idea in 2001 - just so you know) and today I discovered...drum roll please... Rock Band 3 is out and has added a Keyboard!!!!  For those of you who don't know - Michael and I are rock stars in our other life.  He is like break out in a sweat- strip to his boxers- style expert level drummer and I play a mean guitar!  I have been saying since we got the game, that a keyboard was the missing piece - and lo and behold - they listened!  Now if only I could get royalties on these ideas.  (for those of you wondering, my next idea that needs to come out is a Chick-fil-a kids meal that has a mini sandwich for the entree.  Just wait, it will happen!)

2. Michael hurt himself this weekend - well kind of.  I went to get us breakfast on Saturday, came back 10 minutes later and found what looked like a murder scene in my garage.  I will spare you the pics, but if you are interested in seeing them let me know.  Apparently, he didn't listen to his best friend who is a bike repair expert and put his pedals on too tight.  Now they won't come off.  In trying AGAIN to get them off - his hand slipped and he stabbed himself with the gears on  the bike and was GUSHING blood everywhere.  My first thought - did you get it on the new car and Lord help me with this boy (more on that later!)  His first thought - you should blog about this!  Well here ya go babycakes - I blogged about it.  Really the blog worthy part is about how I left him for 10 minutes and he injured himself and that he has really gotten into reading blogs!!!  I think it's adorable!

3. We found out yesterday that we are having a BOY!  We are naming him Ryan James.  I will post pics and more later, but now I just have to tell you how pathetic I am...  By the time I left work, I had picked out and was ready to order his bedding for the crib and by lunchtime today, I had already bought him a new outfit complete with a little hat!  I think I might run by Target on my home from work - after all I need to get some groceries and what better place is there than Target ;)

More later...sit tight!

Weekend Recap

Let's start with the good stuff - Friday night at the Fair!!!
True to style, 8 adults = running late.  Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but if you check out my previous post you will see that we had a tight schedule to follow.  Never fear!  We made it with 7 minutes to spare!!!

Stop 1 - Pig races.  (well technically, I ran for pizza while everyone else held our spot for the races!) Our pig won the first race, but we came in 3rd and 2nd the following races.  All the pigs had racing names (like Britney Spareribs) and now my husband thinks he should have a pig racing nickname - any suggestions?!There was a brief pause in the races so we could see the baby pig jump from his platform into the water.  Thanks to pregnancy hormones, this actually brought a tear to my eye.  This poor piggy was PETRIFIED!!!  I mean scared frozen.  When he did finally jump, he was inches from hitting his head and was so scared.  It was all I could do not to take him from the handler and cuddle him :(  But it was pretty cool.

Stop 2 - Figure 8 racing.  Okay, I had never seen or heard of this until now.  Everyone told us it was so cool and it did not disappoint.  This was an action packed 45 minutes complete with rednecks, junk cars, near misses, and big time collisions...Friday's in WS just don't get much better!

Here are the racers and their fan clubs getting ready for the big event  (yep, we are now part of the fan club)

Gentlemen, start your engines!!!

This is the madness that follows...

The rest of the night was spent eating, walking around, checking out the amazing mullets in our town and of course playing BINGO - which none of us one and we were about ready for a throw down with some old ladies!

Now onto our much tamer Saturday... 
The morning started off the best way I can think - helping a family who needs it!  A few of us from our Bible Fellowship Class did some housework for the family we have adopted.  Mak was a kitchen cleaning machine, the whole Derstine crew worked in the yard (Alex broke his arm the day before, but that didn't slow him down - what a great helper!), and I tackled the bathroom.  And the morning would not be complete without a few rounds of freeze tag with the boys!  What a great morning!

Michael and I spent the rest of the day doing baby prep work.  Our nursery furniture came in, so the hubby got to work on assembly.  He did a great job!!!  In just 2 weeks we will have decorations to add when we find out what we are having :)

And then - it was time to haul away all the trash...

Seriously?  That much trash for a tiny baby's furniture?!  The funniest part was prior to it being in the car, it was all piled on our front yard for a good 3 hours!  haha - we were the trashy neighbors for a little while and it was so fun :)
Have a great Monday!

Who's ready for the fair???!!!

Get your jackets and walking shoes read...Round 2 - Dixie Classic Fair tonight at 6:30!!!!!!!  :)

It's a gorgeous day (how can anyone say there is no God when you look outside on days like we have been having - come on people!), and we are heading to the fair tonight with some great friends.  Here is a list of activities that we plan to partake in...I will let you know how successful we are!

6:30 - meet up with everyone and EAT - funnel cake is for sure on the list!
7:00 - Pig races - all for an Oreo, and it's not even fried!!!  Although, at this point in my life, I would probably race for an Oreo also!
7:30 - Figure 8 (I have never seen this before but I hear it's COOL!)
Bingo, other tacky games, and lots more food!
9:45 - fireworks

Whew!  I am tired already, but what better way to get worn out?!

Special Announcement

The Galloway Clan is growing!!!!

Yep, that's right.  Michael and I are thrilled to announce that we are HAVING A BABY!!!  (as if the overwhelming majority of you didn't already know this!)

Baby Galloway should grace us with his/her presence sometime around March 27, 2011.  We are thrilled!

So, this officially marks the beginning of Baby Blogging :) 

Ich vermisse meinen Mann

So, here I sit...day 3 of no hubby.  He is working hard over in Germany and I am holding the fort down here.  Wouldn't be all that bad but he has no phone or email thanks to the small town he is in with no reception!  Sorry for the complaining, but hey isn't that what blogs are for - getting stuff off our chest?

Is it Friday yet?!  I miss him  :(

Target, McDonald's, 3 cute boys...

So there is absolutely no excuse for my slackness in posting...one post in and I got lazy! That is just sad. I know I said there are no excuses, but here is mine anyway - I had all these grand plans for posts. I even took my camera along on our bowling double date (where I bowled a personal best 148!). But, then our computer at home was being slow so I was too frustrated to post, then my camera cord was at home when I got to my office computer and I couldn't post without the photos - so the end result is no posting!

Until NOW!!! :)


A few weeks ago our Bible Fellowship Class (yes, that is the same thing as a Sunday School class!) was introduced to a lady who is pregnant with her 4th boy and in need of some help. She is a single mom, working at McDonald's, speaks little if any English, and has 3 boys 8, 6, 2.5, and a boy to be born next month. A group of us went to their house to deliver some items that were collected and we really grew to have a heart for these sweet boys! So with the help of some other folks, Michael and I were able to pick up the oldest two kids (8 and 6) to take them shopping for school supplies, school uniforms, shoes, toiletries, and dinner. We had them for about 3 hours and it was the best 3 hours ever!



We took them to my personal fave - Target! They had never heard of Target and you should have seen the smiles when they walked through the door and the first thing they see - a pack of silly bands. Instantly they knew they would love this store. We spent a good hour and a half fitting them for clothes, shoes, and everything in between. Although they were very appreciative, this got a little long for them so we had to get some silly bands :)  As we were walking, we turned around and this is where we found them...

Next stop...dinner!  We gave them their choice and they chose, drum roll please, McDonald's!  They were in heaven...cheeseburgers, fries, nuggets, cookie flurries, and a playground!

I am so thankful that we were able to meet these little boys and hopefully have an impact in their lives now and in the future.  They sure have had an impact in ours!  Continue to pray for them and their family. 

I promise it won't be so long between posts next time and hopefully the post won't be so "wordy".

Until then...

Welcome!

Hello cyber world! Welcome to my first official blog EVER!!!! I am really not sure what to do with a blog or how all of this works, so pardon me while I learn. If you have any tips, suggestions, or advice feel free to pass it along.
And of course, I must say "thanks!" to Laura and Makenzi for the blog inspiration :)

In the meantime, I guess I will introduce myself and my family. I am the proud Momma to the cutest dog ever - Charlie! Michael and I were married about 3 months ago and we are loving every minute of married life. We really enjoy each other's company and have a blast. There are very few dull moments around our house! Speaking of "house", we currently own 2 of them (not by choice...we each owned one prior to getting married) and we have decided it is time to start the process of getting rid of 2 homes and buying a new home for us to start our lives in and raise a family. We have signed the official paper work to have mine listed and it will have the "for sale" sign in the yard tomorrow!! Crazy!! Now I get to spend my weekend "staging" a house - but we have a renter who is living there, so things could get interesting real quick!

And, my 1st ever blog posting/ tell you about my life posting would not be complete without a few pictures of Charlie, 4 ridiculously cute nephews, and the most adorable niece ever! Enjoy :) And I just realized I am a bad Aunt and have no pictures of my niece, Ellory, since she has grown so much. Guess I better pay the Raleigh crew a visit so I can get some recent photos!

Ok, sorry for all the pictures and the rambling...Hope everyone has a great day! Today is my Friday :)