Stuck...but blessed!

Most of you know that I have truly been "stuck" at home for the last eight weeks on bed rest. In the last couple of weeks I have been able to venture out a little bit at a time because my fluid levels have remained low, but steady (in other words...I've managed to stay out of the hospital, which for awhile there, we thought was going to be a weekly thing!) Needless to say...a woman on bed rest who is used to going going going has been very bored at times. If I had been able to be up and about around the house doing things I would have been fine. But my bed rest for many of those weeks required me to lay on my side and basically do nothing that required any amount of activity.

Despite all of this worry and frustration and monitoring and adjusting to my new temporary life...I know that I am blessed. I am blessed to be told each of the two times I go to have an ultrasound every week that my baby looks great and is healthy. He is measuring great, his organs are functioning as they should be (meaning this fluid thing is my fault, not his :), he is practicing his breathing, and he is moving ALL of the time. Not all moms get this great news each time they visit the doctor...and I have spoken with several women who are in the waiting room along side me for babies with downs syndrome and other genetic disorders. Some are in preterm labor and have had to be in the hospital for weeks.

The other blessing that I have been given through all of this is...



...time spent with this guy! I've sort of gotten to be a stay at home mom since the end of September and I've loved being with Payne. Don't get me wrong...due to the bed rest we've spent a lot of time watching movies and he's played by himself while I've watched. But it has still been time spent together and he's been great company. Although he is ready to have his mommy back to normal...he asked the other day if after the baby gets here is we could have a race! Not so sure when this "race" will take place...but I feel certain he will win!

And in the last few weeks, we have gotten to do some fun stuff.

Making pumpkins for Halloween...






And this year trick or treating was not going to be ruined by some pesky old medical issues (like last year's seizure!)

(yes...he was Batman...a little bit obsessed...but easy on mommy since he already had the costume!)




He and Avery (a.k.a. Minnie) acted like old pros

And let's not forget that friends came over to visit us and play too...which also made bed rest more bearable!





Having visitors and meals brought to us by our wonderful friends from church have made all of this so much easier to go through. We know that we have been prayed for and thought of so much during this time...and without it I don't know what we would have done. Thanks to everyone who has a had a part in making these last few weeks a blessing!

So this time next week...we might have a new addition joining us and the next blog (which will hopefully not be in six months!) will be about our newest blessing...Fisher!

Catching Up...with a twist!

Now that school is out for the summer...I actually have time to FINALLY post! Last time I posted it was my blog's birthday...and since then Payne and Bryan have both had a birthday! So much has happened that I can't possibly try to write about it all. I'll post the "highlight reel" of pictures instead! Enjoy!

Snow in January


More snow in February...


And then there was Springtime...a very busy season!

First movie in the theater with two silly kiddos!


Payne becomes a fisherman


There was Easter complete with egg hunting


First and likely the last soccer season for Payne...seeing as how the interest was more in picking flowers and pretending to be a dragon than in scoring goals! :)


Batman had himself a four year old birthday party...complete with costumes!


We went to the beach just a few weeks ago and had a wonderful, relaxing time


And for the biggest news of all...if you think that family picture above looks great...wait until you see it next year with this new addition:


Yep...Payne is going to be a big brother!! He is excited about "his baby" (as he calls it) that is due December 14th...as long as it's a boy. He says if it's a girl he's going to spit and stomp! We'll know in a few weeks and I'll let you know what his real reaction is...it will be comical I'm sure!

Happy Birthday!! (to my blog)

Yep...my blog is officially one year old today. And I know I haven't kept it up nearly enough...but I did the best that I could. It's been a fun way to look back at what the year has held for the Sheriff clan. Of course, a lot more has gone on than is recorded on these pages...the bad stuff has been noticeably overlooked...but we are fortunate. There really hasn't been too much bad stuff. In fact...our blessings of the last year look a little something like this:



and this...




and this little blessing couldn't be left out...




You see...this may look like a bunch of pieces of paper. But to our family, they are our blessings of 2009. We started a new tradition last year that I almost forgot to blog about. Anytime something happened to our family, big or small, we would write it down (usually on a that pad with the blue and green dots on it until we ran out of that paper). Then we would fold the paper up, and put it into this box:



a.k.a. The Blessings Box

Then on Thanksgiving, we sat down, dumped out the box, and read each blessing as a family. This gave us a year long look at how God has truly blessed us last year. It is so easy to forget and we get so caught up in our worries that we tend to forget the little things. It was so neat to look at all of the ways God answered and also did NOT answer some of our prayers in 2009, blessings that we never knew that we even needed at that time.

And so then the blessings papers were binded up, labeled "Blessings of 2009", and put in a special place. And now the new blessings have begun, and next Thanksgiving we will literally pour out God's blessings and look at them in a physical way as He pours them out on us all year long.

We actually didn't come up with this idea on our own...we stole it from a friend...but isn't it neat? We love doing it!

And now...for some priceless Christmas blessings in the form of pictures from 2009...

Payne and Daddy reading the Christmas story on Christmas Eve


Before...(carrots are for the reindeer before you think we are trying to put Santa on a diet)


After...(notice Santa made a little trade)


Overwhelmed!


A tired little boy on Christmas morning


"Riding" a the new old fashioned sled that Grandaddy gave Payne for Christmas


Hope your 2010 is as blessed as 2009 was!! Happy New Year!!

Catching Up

So I guess it's about time for me to try to catch up...although I think it is sort of impossible for me to completely catch up since my last post, which was I think back in September, perhaps beginning of October. But I will try.

Many of you know that I had a grand mal seizure on Halloween...which is why I am so behind on everything...from changing out my closet (and Payne's) from summer to winter clothes, to giving my house a good thorough cleaning, to updating my blog, and so on...because daily living was hard enough to catch up on after that...much less all of the other stuff! But I digress...I am fine and feeling good and actually feeling better than before my seizure because I am off of the meds that they think caused the seizure in the first place.

God is so wonderful and has brought me and our family through all of this by His grace...and without Him, our family, and our friends I don't know where we would be! All things happen for a reason and I know that going through this has helped me to slow down (because I have had no choice...that's what happens when you cannot DRIVE!) and really put things into perspective. I appreciate things so much more than before and Bryan has been such a great caregiver and supporter through all of this.

And as for Payne....





Well...he's just as sweet, wild, fun-loving, and imaginative as ever! Completely unaffected by all of it...yet another blessing that only God could have provided! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and I hope to be more on top of my blog updates (and my closet and house cleaning :) from now on!

Blog...what blog???

Do I have a blog? Well...you wouldn't think so the way that I've totally neglected to post lately. But...we've been a little busy since school started back. I think in my last post I alluded to the fact that once school begins things get a little crazy, which in turn made me a slacker in the blog world.

But anyway...I digress. Here are a few pics of the things that we've been doing that I've been able to snap photos of (there have been a lot of times that I didn't get the camera out...I've slacked on that as well!)

Payne started AWANA at church this fall...

...and I have been his teacher which has been...well, interesting!

He has made a lot of new friends at AWANA.

Payne has loved going to Cubbies and I really do enjoy teaching each Wednesday night.


And of course there's been time with "old" friends too...

Don't ask why Payne and Avery like to play in this corner of the living room.

They told us this was there tent.



There have also been some interesting times at home...with all of these rainy, lazy, football watching Saturdays. Payne decided he was going to have a sack race so he used our pillowcase.

Payne playing "train" with his animals...he has a wild imagination!




Then this past weekend we tried to go to Fall Festival at church. Payne was really looking forward to going...however, he had an upset stomach the day before and on Saturday when we went he was really cranky. It took us about 10 minutes to get him to decide that he would finally get on the slide (so unlike him).

Poor thing...this is all he got to do before we had to leave. He actually asked to leave...so I knew that he wasn't feeling good if he was asking to go! But oh well...we tried. And he is feeling better now, thank goodness!


And that's about it. Most of my time has been spent going here and there...doing school stuff...trying to get to see Bryan since he is gone about 2 nights a week with athletics...and so on and so on. I'm sure there will be a lot of posting coming up since school has calmed down and the holidays are coming up. Payne loves Halloween...this is his favorite time of year!

All Good Things Must Come to an End (sniff sniff)

It's been awhile since I've posted...but I've been so busy soaking up the rest of my summer with my family! And school starts tomorrow...and it will probably be even longer than last time before I post again because my life will officially go from 0 to 60 in a matter of hours. But that's the life of a teacher...and I wouldn't trade my summers with my family for ANYTHING!! We are blessed beyond measure to have this time together each year to spend as a family...and I thought I would post some pics of the highlights of our summer.

It all started with VBS...




Then of course we had potty training...which Payne has done fabulously with!


We were off to the beach which was a blast...but it also seems like it was forever ago!!












There were a few birthday parties...





(this was Sam's birthday party...but I have no pics of him with his cake!)

There was a first trip to the dentist...




A First Trip to the Golf Course






Several baseball games...




Fun times with friends...






And lots and lots of swimming!






Whewwww! And those are just the highlights! Like I said, we are so blessed to have had such a wonderful time this summer. We haven't taken a lot of trips...but have found that being at home and chilling out has been the best thing for us this summer. I am so sad to see it go...but I have loved, appreciated and enjoyed every minute of it! Hope yours was great too!