Bubbles

ELFIS! Bad Elfis!

That stuff's limited edition. Shesh.

Grace and Peppermint Twist

We read and re-read hubs' path report this afternoon time and time again, in absolute awe of our sovereign God. "No evidence of malignancy"..."no trace of tumor recurrence". Clean, clean, clean! Take that kudzu. Our God is bigger than you (again)!

"Do not fear, just believe".

Buckets of his amazing grace raining down.

So, have you heard about Bath and Body Works' Peppermint Twist? It's my all time fave. It's kind of like what might happen if Chick-fil-a's Peppermint shake found it's way into your bath tub. Christmas in a cup and Christmas in my tub. Don't be fooled though. It's a limited time offer. Seven days only. Starting today. And the stores only have about 12 bottles total on the shelf. Ready, set, go!!

5 whole days.

We've had FIVE whole days together. F-I-V-E! No alarm clocks, well other than our sweet pre-programed Coopster, which we'll take over the cock-a-doo-da-doodling rooster alarm ANY day. No work. No worries. Just sweet sweet time home together. I've gotten to love on my boys super lots. They got to love on me ridiculous amounts too.

Tonight Chris and Coop sent me away to Spa Sydell to use up my 60 minute gift card. Ahhh. It was all lavender scented heated blanket bliss until the grey haired, ponytailed man rubbin' on me told me I have hunched over old lady shoulders. Hmrph. YOU try sitting criss-cross applesauce on the floor with little ones ALL day and not have old woman shoulders. Once he told me that, I might have tooted right there in the little room just to get back at him.

I got home and we chowed down on TURKEY (again) and piled up in the car to peruse the Christmas lights. Our neighborhood does it up big. Woo wee. We got to get to gettin here a la casa Davis.

I just about caught a case of the Sunday night blues when we got home and I realized it's back to work tomorrow, but then I remembered it was my night with Elfis :)

Something about a bag of mini marshmallows and a yellow school bus.

Look at his side profile. Smitten.

He was screeching around the island burnin rubber hollaring something about a campfire until he realized he forgot the graham crackers, so back to the pantry he went.

All better.

It's going to be a busy week for us. We get the results of the latest kudzu scan tomorrow, find out if we start Clomid Tuesday, Coop goes for his 18 month check up Wednesday, and we head to the mountains Friday for Thanksmas 2011. Barrels of fun, y'all.

**Oh, and would you, could you, please please please, pray for two sweet ladies tonight? Both are fighting the good fight with kudzu and both are absolutely amazing women. One is our good friend and super hero (seriously y'all, she is a ROCK) Melanie, the other is my sweet friend Kim's Mom. Kim's getting married soon and her reception site just burned down. Her mom got recently diagnosed with Lymphoma and her entire family is rallying around her right now. They need your unending prayers and so do their precious families.**

Thankful

This Thanksgiving found us absolutely in awe of about a gazillion things. Thankfulness doesn't even begin to describe our gratefulness for all that we have witnessed and been a part of this past year. It has been a doozie, folks, but we each step of our journey has brought us stronger and closer together.

A year ago, Chris went to chemo and to radiation. A year ago we house hunted and prepared to purchase our first home. A year ago we could put Cooper down on a blanket and walk into another room without him moving an inch. A year ago I cried because I missed Mama Potts and Thanksgiving at her house, sittin' on the porch counting the cars go by. A year ago, we sat next to Big Steve at the Davis Thanksgiving dinner, laughing and cutting up and eating fried turkey and spoon cornbread, never in a million years dreaming it would be our last. Never, ever, ever.

This year is a year of new traditions. 

Enter: Tradition Numero Uno: Elfis, ahem (sorry, Chris) Shamus McElfis. I wanted our Elf on the Shelf to be named Elfis, but hubs had his heart set on something Irish to give him an excuse to talk in an accent (like he needs an excuse), so Shamus McElfis, it is.

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

I'm serious. Is something wrong with me? Am I the only grown up who thinks this concept is the best thing ever?? I laugh myself silly every single morning. Even on the mornings where I am the one who "helped" Elfis make his rounds. Even when I crept downstairs twice after bedtime the night before to get a sneak peek and to belly laugh at him. He just looks so darn mischievous. And he's just so posable. I love it. And Coop and Dada do too :)

Happy Thanksgiving, from our families to yours...hug 'em all a bit tighter, stay just a little bit later, and tell 'em one more time just how much you adore them.





My apologies BCBS. God had a hand in that.

We are habitual food eaters. We find a food, latch on, and hang on for dear life. We know in our hearts that the world is full of wonderful things, but we stick to what we know and we stick to it well. We are quite loyal, after all. Oh, and by we, I totally mean I. It just feels better to include Chris in my neuroses.

We go to Rico's on Kids Eat Free night every.single.Tuesday. I order the same exact thing, the same exact way. every. single. time. Fried Green Tomato Salad with a side of remoulade. When I was preggo with the Coopster, Chris trucked it up to Mimi's Cafe every.single.Saturday.morning. Breakfast Ciabatta, hold the tomato, extra remoulade on the side.

You did what, Mama? I knew there was a reason I crave that yummy sauce. You're crazy.

Before church every Sunday, we go to Bagels and More. SHAMELESS PLUG. The sweet couple who runs this place stole my heart from our very first visit where the wife apologized multiple times for being sold out of Swiss Melt bagels. We didn't even know what we were missing. Oh but now we do. Cheddar Herb bagel for me, chocolate chip muffin cake for Coop and Dada and Yoohoo drinks all around.

So Blue Cross got their act together on Friday afternoon at 2:40. Just in time to reschedule Chris' PET for tomorrow morning.

It's ok though because this morning at church we found out why it got cancelled in the first place. God needed to move a mountain. Ok, that's dramatic.  He needed to move a mole hill. The week before Chris got diagnosed last Spring, 12 Stone did this crazy thing at the end of a Sunday mornin' service where people could go down front and be prayed over. Chris was out of town (you know the trip where he ended up getting the call). Coop was just an itty bitty thing. So itty bitty he was curled up on my shoulder snoozing as we rocked out in worship. Going "up front" for anything is SO far beyond my comfort zone. So far. Remember the time I played "Silent Night" for the offertory and blurted out "Oh Shit" when I missed a note? Or the time I made Colleen Gardner give my testimony for me because I couldn't even imagine getting up in front of our church of 50 people?

Before I knew what I was doing that Sunday morning last Spring, I found myself toting Coop up to the front and pouring out my cries for God's grace to the prayer team. We prayed for the biopsies and scans to be clean. We cried out to God to hear our pleas for Chris' health.

4 days later, we got the news that he had cancer.

We knew the entire time that the glory was going to go to God, we just didn't know how or when. He saw us through every single step of the way. He drew us closer as a couple, stronger as a family, humbler (is that even a word) in our walk. He poured strength over Chris, sweetness over Baby Cooper, and grace over me to be the wife He was calling me to be.

This morning our message was on Supernatural Healing. The words poured out of Kevin Queen and straight into our hearts. We sang praises to God over and over for bringing us this far and for never leaving us. We praised him for health and for hair and looked out into the congregation and praised him for two of Chris' kudzu nurses, who have since started coming to our church. At the end of the service, they did it again.

The message was geared specifically at those struggling with illness. Kevin opened the invitation for those of us going through difficult health related things to come down front and to be prayed over. Family after family humbly walked down front. Middle aged men, older women, itty bitty children. The tears just streamed down my face, knowing exactly what they are feeling. Knowing exactly the fears they are facing. Once the crowds stopped and the service ended, we made our way down front to thank our prayer warriors for their unending prayers and to pray for God's presence and continued healing as Chris goes for his PET scan in the morning.

The book of Mark tells us "Do not be afraid. Just believe".

So there you have it. God and Blue Cross Blue Shield are in cahoots. And I sure am thankful for that.

S'more Puffs and PET Scans

Thank you, Pinterest. Without you, I wouldn't have eaten four of these tonight:

S'more Croissants, or S'more Puffs, as we call 'em. Drop and plop, warm and serve. Warm, gooey, delight, oh my goodness.

Without you Pinterest, I wouldn't have sucked my sweet husband into my world of unending craft-making. He's been drillin' holes, cuttin' boards, staplin' burlap, and distressin' picture frames all week. I'm telling you, IT IS ADDICTIVE. I would tell you more, but Christmas is coming and I sure don't want to spoil any crafty Christmas surprises. Contain your excitement.

Pinterest, sweet Pinterest, I adore you.

Blue Cross, Blue Shield, I do not so much adore you. Because of you, Chris' PET scan had to be cancelled tomorrow morning. Because the PET scan had to be cancelled, his visit with Dr. Szabo had to be cancelled. All this canceling made me want to eat more s'more puffs and cuddle with Coop in his new snowman jams. Sweet little love muffin.

I'm scheming on how to get this framed and hung in our family room.

Yes?

We are loving this chilly weather. Snuggle up, hunker down and watch some trashy TV. Oh, and if your shows not on, hop on over to Pinterest.

Wednesday's Post...5 days late

It's Wednesday, which means we've been to the bank, to Chick-fil-a, to Target, and to two doctors appointments.

I have been stalking cuteness on Pinterest for the past thirty minutes. I had to.

We started another chapter of our lives today. It has everything to do with our prayer to add another little Davis to our family. Before Pinterest, I was searching side effects of my ginormous bag of fertility meds (side note: I. Do. Not. Take. Drugs. Any. I won't even take Aleve for a headache. I came home from delivering Coop on sweet tea and prayers because I declined pain meds. So this is a little out of the box for me...)

Anyway, I was searching one of the drugs and forum after forum talked about how the med causes delirium, dizziness, vomitting, and the best: the feeling of intoxication. One girl took it, had to have her hubby help her to the bathroom to tee tee and slipped and fell and ended up in the ER with stitches. If you know anything about Chris and I, you know that we have far from normal experiences together. We are chuckling already about what the next few months are going to bring.

We are on our knees praying for God's continued grace. We can feel the showers of His mercy raining down and it sure is a beautiful thing.