Family Reunion 2010

This past weekend we had our annual Palmer Family Reunion! This is all of my Nana's side of the family and it is always something I look forward to!! It is so fun to see all of my cousins and catch up on what is going on in their lives!

We left out on Friday afternoon/night to head to Lake Guntersville, near Huntsville, to meet up with Mom and Dad, who had been there already for a day! Dirt, my brother in law, was so excited about taking the Jeep, which is his pride and joy and it is so very nice and so fun, with top down all the way up there! And me and Louise, knowing what submissive women we are agreed happily! :) (LOL) We loaded up our jackets and headed north! About when we got to Clanton we started smelling rain, you know the smell rain has! Me and Louise just looked at each other....little further down the road we started seeing lightning! I could see the boys snickering in the front seats and me and Louise just kept on smiling....little bit longer and my brother in law turns around and ask if we want to wait it out...well in true Walker fashion, Louise shoots back with " Well no, it could rain all night!" So we stopped to get gas and while there the boys pulled the soft top over, so we were a little sheltered but still had no windows or doors :) But Louise and I just smiled and scooted close to each other and sang our little hearts out to Cornerstone! :)

It only rained for about 20 minutes maybe and then is was smooth sailing from there! Made it to the Chalae about 10:15pm and the boys were headed out to bow fish. From what I hear Dad was pretty stinkin excited about going fishing and Dirt bringing the boat! :) They had a pretty exciting night too...maybe one day we can blog about that but I just feel like that is a story that Dirt and Nathan must tell in person...wouldn't do it justice to blog it! :) But Saturday it rained and we got some good visiting time with the cousins and Mom. :) These are a few of my pics from the family reunion! The little girl is Hollie, my little cousin! She is so fun and I REALLY hope Louise post the videos of her talking about Ellie! :) TOO CUTE! :)

This is me and Brice! He is absolutely precious!! I just love his little face!

Me and Nate....It was absolutely beautiful up there!
I just thought this was a precious picture. Like father like son...with balding anyways! :)

Shannon and Darl! Darl is out cousin who was diagnosed with lymphoma and has recently had a stem cell transplnat and he looked amazing! It was so wonderful to see him!

This is generation #4 of the Palmers! (Missing a couple of course!)

Oldest and Youngest....taken every year!

Nana and her 2 sisters. Papa is the only spouse still alive.

Our "Copeland" side of the family

Me and Hollie :) Love this girl!

Me, Aunt Harriet, and my dad :)

Hollie saying "CHEEEEESSSSEEE" :)

The Situation.....

Well I have officially started my braces process! And boy has it been a heck of a week! Last Wednesday I went for my appt to have 2 (of the 4 TEETH I HAVE TO HAVE REMOVED) teeth pulled. I was very VERY nervous about all of this. I went to the Dr. with Michelle, who bless her heart didn't know what she was getting her self into with me...I wasn't really sure how long it would take but when I asked the dental hygienist that was helping she said, "oh, maybe 10-15 minutes max!", which I was glad of bc Michelle had taken off to take me. (Laurie and Louise both offered but Louise was leaving to go out of town this week and Laurie had a Dr. appt in Anniston and she needed to rest so Michelle was more than willing to help!) Well 2 hours after she had told me that I was done. He told me I would be sore because my teeth were in there good....(I must insert that it was here that I said....well you idiot teeth that have been in my bone for 25 YEARS ARE NOT MEANT TO COME OUT!! I think that was part of God's plan right?!?) But anyways, I bit my numb tongue and just smiled, as much as I could since I was numb to my ear on my left side.

SO Michelle stopped and filled my pain medication and then took me to the house. I was a little emotional and just cried when I talked to Nate on the phone after I left. I was in NO pain at that point because I was still so numb which was great but I guess I just dreaded the numbness wearing off! And boy was I right!! I was absolutely miserable! And Have been up until last night when I finally found some good stuff to make the pain go away and BOY DID IT WORK! I will be doing that little diddy from now on! :)

So next appt is on the 24th of this month....hopefully it wont be as bad but I am so dreading not being able to chew on either side...I know I will be happy with the end result but man I am so not happy with it right now. So I guess as I continue to update "the situation" I just ask for your prayers during all of this....I am very nervous and to be honest probably more vain than anything else.

But hopefully within the next month my mouth will look like this:

Things that annoy me....

1. I can not stand for people to beat around the bush about things....especially when it comes to my love life or work life....when I ask your opinion please tell me the truth and do not use examples of other people to try to subtly get the point across...THAT DRIVES ME CRAZY!
2. IF you hired me to do my job, please do not try to do it for me...That is what you pay me for....also if you are not in my job PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO TELL ME HOW TO DO IT! You do not know because you have never done it!

Is it possible to just fast forward through the next 2-3 years and not have to deal with all this crap anymore?!?!

Happy Anniversary!!!!

Hard to believe it's been 3 years that I have had a brother! :) And a wonderful example of a Christian marriage and how a marriage should be. It has been nice having a sister that is such a great example of what a Christian wife and woman should be. We had a great example growing up! And on top of that she is going to be an AMAZING MOTHER! Ellie is in for treat with Louise and Dirt! (And of course getting me and Laurie as Aunts makes YOU EXTRA SPECIAL!!) And well Dirt is a good man....especially dealing with Laurie and I. :) We aren't the easiest people to always get along with and he has done well! He is a good man to Louise and is going to be an amazing Daddy to baby Ellie :) These are a few pictures that I love from the wedding!

This was one of my favorites!

And I just don't think these next 2 could've turned out any cuter! I LOVE THEM!

That smile I just love....pure innocent love.... :)

Happy Anniversary Louise and Dirt!!! I wish you many more!!! Love you!

Welcome to Chick fil A World!

For those of you who do not know me all that well.....

I LOVE CHICK FIL A!!! Love it!! I have for as long as I remember....

(well except for the brief moment when I was a child and Laurie told me where chicken fingers come from....needless to say if you know me now that hasn't stopped me! :)) I just love everything about Chick fil A! They are always so friendly and they always at least ACT like they are happy to be there! SO I am just always impressed with that!

So today was no different from any other day....Louise asked me if i wanted to go to lunch with her and Michelle and that they were going to chick fil a....well even though I had chick fil a yesterday, I was still down for lunch! (AND not to mention I had a TON of free coupons!!) So we load up and head out! Little did we know the journey we were about to embark on! :)

We get to chick fil a and all go and place our orders, well their new thing is that they will bring your food out to you instead of having to stand there and wait on it to come up! It is so nice! So Louise is placing her order at a different register and me and Michelle are at the same one....so we order our food and go sit down. Well not 3 minutes later they bring our food right out to our seats! So we sit down and eat. Well Louise looks at Michelle (she and Louise had gotten kids meals and if you turn the toy back in you can get a FREE icedream cone) and tells her to save her toy so we can get icedream cones after we are done. You would've thought Michelle just won the lottery! She was so excited!! it was so funny! So after that we just started people watching....and boy did that get interesting!

There was this middle aged gentleman, who to me looked nice but to the other 2 did not..., who was in deep conversation with a young lady that worked there, who was a very sweet, special girl, and was just so very nice to her....I was just so shocked....went as far as when she finished talking to him she told him she loved him....AND HE SAID IT BACK!!! It was so nice!! I was shocked!!

Then next instance happened when a Asian man and his family came in and they needed to sit by a plug so he could plug in his computer to charge his phone...this nice gentleman already sitting down and eating offered to get up and move so he could share the plug with the other man charging his phone! HOW NICE IS THAT??! Who gives up there table at lunch to convenience someone else?!? No one sadly in this day in time!

And last but not least there was this elderly couple sitting and having a sweet lunch and i just think it was so sweet...they were just sitting staring into each others eyes...SO SWEET! :) (Maybe that will be Me and Nate one day! Ha! :))

But I just feel like chick fil a is its own little world! And it is how people acted in the 50's and 60's when there were still people who respected each other, and cared, genuinely cared about other people. Made me wish I lived then but happy to have a place to go to get that feel! So this is my plug......EAT MORE CHICKEN!!!! It really will make your day better!

Blessed beyond BELIEF!

So today started out pretty normal, with the exception of a meeting, and I got a phone call from Laurie saying......SHE IS A MATCH FOR JANET!!! SHE CAN GIVE JANET ONE OF HER KIDNEYS!!! Go here to read the whole story. I do not know how people don't believe in God after seeing something like this. God is so good! :)


Also another side note is Laurie leaves today to go on a mission trip to the Philippines....PLEASE PLEASE keep her, my dad, and my grandparents in your prayers over the next few weeks! Laurie has a lot to do when she gets back! So with all that said please just Keep and Laurie and Janet and her family in your prayers.

The blog I have been dreading to write....

Well today is my Friday.....I am taking off Thursday and Friday to spend time with my best friend, Taylor, who will be leaving to go back to Washington to get things prepared for her husband to come home from fighting for our freedom in Afghanistan. Don't get me wrong I know how much she has missed him and she absolutely can NOT WAIT for him to be home. It's funny though how attached you become to someone who you spend every waking moment with!! From the time she got here I decided that I was going to do everything possible to have her included in everything and make sure she felt wanted and needed. I knew it was going to be a hard transition and I wanted to help make it as easy as possible! So from day 1 I was stuck to her side. I didn't give her a choice. I just called and said I was coming over. I told Nathan that he needed to know going into this that she would be attached to my side and he has been ABSOLUTELY great about it!! Just another reason I love him! :) But I am just glad that we have got to spend the past year together! She is the best friend I have ever had and I am so happy that I got to have this year with her! Over the course of this year we have done and had some crazy times! Some of which include: Disney World, the beach, the pool, the many many shopping trips, getting our hair done together, getting mani & pedi's, Lads-to-Leaders, the long talks, wedding planning, vacation planning, football games, baseball games, philly cheesesteak sandwiches, planning how to talk down the crazy guy on the monorail at Disney, oh and how can I forget the SCHOOL WORK! :) Sometimes that school work was very easy though! :) But there are so many memories that I will never forget and she has been such a HUGE help to me here.

I know I am blessed with friends here and 2 sisters that are amazing but there is something about a best friend, her knowing everything about you, and still loving me unconditionally, or loving me because I know too much on her too! :) She has taught me many a thing or 2 about marriage, being away from your family all the time and how to be a true friend. I am truly blessed to have had her in my life. And I know she isn't dead and that she is just leaving but when you are with someone day-in, day-out, when they leave and you don't see them for 4 months it feels like a death in someways. I remember her saying that in her deployment meeting before Blake left that they said it would feel like you are grieving for the actual loss of that person because of the absence of them, and well I feel like that is how I will feel. I know it's no where near the pain of missing her husband but she is truly my best friend....and for those of you that know me, well I have gone through my fair share of best friends. She is just the one person I know that I can tell anything to and she won't judge me or tell anything I say to her. And well there aren't a lot of friends I have that are like that....in fact I have learned that i do not say stuff to anyone about anything because most people just don't know how to keep their mouth shut...but she can. And I love and appreciate her for that. She is generous and willing to help me in any way possible. She would bring me anything I needed and was always up for a lunch date! She lets me vents and just listens. I am just so very grateful!! So below are some pictures from our year. We have alot together but i just didn't want to bore everyone else with them. :)

This is from our trip to Disney! We had so much fun!!!

Again from Disney....that trip was the BEST!!

This is from Halloween, which was also her birthday! :) We took Morgan out to pick out a pumpkin!

This is from Halloween too! I was a cowgirl (I know how original :)) And she was an Army Wife....fitting right?? :)

This is from Disney too, this is where we almost forgot our tickets and had to run back to the car to get them, then we RAN back to catch the shuttle! :)

This is from when we went to Adairsville to see Nate's family and get our hair done :) This is one of my favorite pictures of us!

This is from the Rodeo....that was a fun night! :)

This was right after she got home....she went with Laurie, Louise, Dirt, and I to have family pictures done! :)

Well that is a good wrap of the year....So Taylor I hope you know how much you mean to me and I am so blessed to have you in my life! I am excited for you that you get to see Blake in a month and I know that I will be seeing you in Germany. You are the best friend I could've ever asked for!! Thank you so much for making this year so so great!! Love you so so much!! And I will miss you more than you know!