Lauren at Smith Lake a few minutes from our house!

Missionaries over for dinner

Lauren at Halloween party at church a pirate girl

Live nativity at the stake center

Heather and best friend Claire Morring

I took a picture of myself for a profile pic

Picture of trees outside

Heather Middleton



Lauren wore this Santa's hat around the stores in December



Well Jeff finally recieved his orders the other day.  He will start in February with the National Guard. He might have to go through a three week school sometime soon.  Heather has her tournament for basketball this evening.  We thought the weather would be bad today the schools had a two hour delay but we thought they were the city and county schools.  We have children in both city and county schools.  Trey's school was delayed  but Heather's wasen't.  She was upset when she found out her school had to be there at 8:00.  Jeff thought he heard it on the radio that all the schools were out.  She may not be able to play in the tournament now. I feel bad about that.  Lauren's school was out as well..  I am off work on Fridays so that gives  me a break and catch up on laundry and house cleaning.  Jeff likes his work with FEMA and is the boss over some of the people that work there. We are hoping to get better financially and hopefully getting back into the military will help us out some.  I need to use my education and get a better paying job probably but it's nice to have work close by and I don't start work until 9:00 am in the morning so I can shuttle kids around. I enjoy my dental assistant job but pay is not that great for a college graduate.

It snowed so hard here in Alabama. I was let go early Thursday from work and I was slipping and sliding on the road after I picked up Heather from school. The snow is very pretty to look at! I put some pictures up on my facebook page. Lauren is heartbroken and it will take a while to get over this boy Landon that she really liked.  I hate to see her go through this!  I talked to my dad on the phone and he talked to Lauren for a little while and that helped.  I love calling my parents and checking up on them and talking to them. My dad also likes to write letters, so I love to get letters from him and save them. He likes for us to write him as well. He isn't much into the computer so that wont work much for him. Today the sun is shining bright and I love that because we have had so much rain lately and clouds that it seemed like Seattle Washington. I need to make sure I exercise and eat healthier because I get into bad habits.  I made some delicious homemade bread bowls and potatoe soup last night that turned out delicious. I think I got the idea from Summer Davidson.  All the kids are out of school today so they have a long  weekend, they will be out Monday as well. We also celebrated my brothers birthday, Darryl, that passed away with cancer in 1986.  His birthday is January 16, 1962 and our family always remembers him on his birthday by eating apple pie.  He loved apple pie and always wanted this for his birthday cake.  Daryl was an amazing brother that set such a good example and was always so strong spiritually.  I love him and will always try to keep him in my remembrance.

My daughter Lauren is now in JrROTC at her school.  The first day they were really tough on her physically she will be really sore for a while! She came home with an outfit and told me about it when I got home from work.  About the same things are going on in our life right now, we are still awaiting orders for Jeff's national guard unit.  I am busy working and I hope to be able to finish some more schooling later on so I can get my teaching degree back so I can apply for teaching jobs.

This morning I had to take three puppies and the mom to the pound, it was hard to do but it needed to be done.  The dogs bark at night and I can't sleep good and we have to many of them to take care of. I kept one of the puppies because Heather would be heartbroken if she came home from school to find all the dogs gone. It was tempting though. We are still waiting to find out any news from the National Guard. Hopefully we can get better on our feet this year financially. It has been extremly tough having financial problems. I'm going to try to stay optimistic and positive through it all. We had a nice Christmas and it was fun being in our new house for Christmas. Jeff is burned out from working on it but there is still a lot to be completed in our home.