Our sweet little Aiden

On September 9, 2011, we welcomed our 6th grandchild, Aiden Blake Story, to our sweet family. We are so thankful to the Lord that he is here and doing great!!! There were a several weeks that we were worried that he was going to be born early and not ready to be here. But he was born just on time. We know that God has a plan for this special baby boy.

Aiden Blake Story, 5lbs 12oz, 20” long

Aiden is welcomed home by is Big Brother Reed.

This is Reed and his daddy, Curt just before Curt went to help get baby Aiden here. How precious is this!!!

As you can see Reed was all smiles seeing baby brother for the first time. Do you just love his shirt. We made it at the store and ended up making him two more call that’s just about all he wants to wear.

We didn’t get to hold the baby because Gracanne was having a little trouble with her temperature and they didn’t want to bring him to her until she was stable. We also had to hurry home so we could help with Reed while his Nene went to a funeral visitation for a dear family in Magnolia who lost their husband, daddy, grandpa, etc.

We are going to pick up Aiden on Monday and keep him for a couple of days. Gracanne needs some sleep and they are getting ready to move in the next week. Can’t wait!!!!

Blessings from Grams,

Sharing life

Good Morning, I can’t believe it’s been almost two months since I’ve posted. Our life has been crazy, like always and I’ve just let my blog go by the way side. I probably have been doing some of nothing too or just some mindless junk.

Well since I’ve been here we have been on two trips will share more about that later, pictures involved and preparing for our Mission trip to Slovenia in October. We are so excited about this trip. We will be gone 16 days and hope to share so much and be a blessing along the way. My plan is to share with you all along the way via my blog. Hope you will enjoy it.

Hope you have missed me as much as I have missed you. Watch for my trip pictures.

Blessings, Lori

Quite Sunday

Today has been a wonderful day. Spent the morning at Sunday School and Church. It was a wonderful sermon on “How to build your life well” 1 Cor. 3:10-15. The main thing that was impressed upon my heart today was, God has trusted me with my life. WOW that is BIG.

Hope you had a restful Lord’s day. Blessings, Lori

Cleaning all day long…..

So glad to be back. I will share with you over the next few weeks what I have been up to but today I wanted to discuss our day of cleaning. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more and we’ve just made a small dent. First we worked in the kitchen, then to our bedroom where we moved everything, on to the guest room where we moved out some furniture and finally to the family room for the basics. While we were in the kitchen we cleaned the refrigerator condenser coils. How often do you clean yours? We are suppose to clean them every 6 months. I don’t know about you but I don’t. But I plan to do better. We are trying to take better care of ourselves and the things we have.  While moving things around in our bedroom we needed to move the TV around. We still have one of those HUGE small TV’s. What about you… any of the older TV’s in your house?  I have one more question for you today. Does your husband help you with house work? I am VERY thankful that mine does. He helped all day. Over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that if a woman works outside the home her husband should help. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t if you are a stay at home Mother, please don’t think that. I know that you have one of the hardest jobs on the planet. I just know that it encourages me to have the additional help and not feel like everything is my responsibility.    

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Lori

Blogger Changes

I'm not sure about you but I am VERY frustrated with the new blogger changes. I can't see the blog updates from my favorites and I don't know how to fix it. I don't like the new look of the home page and I can't open more than one blog at a time. Any suggestions for me?
Blessings, Lori

Our American Flag

As we celebrate our Independence Day, what do you know about the American Flag? One thing that I have learned over the years is that unless you are in the military, police or fireman you are not suppose to wear one on your clothes in any way. It should not be used in advertising. WOW!!!
Take a look at this site:http://www.usa-flag-site.org/etiquette.shtml
Blessing to you and your family on this 4th of July.
Lori

Been gone to long...

Happy Sunday to you. It has been well over a month since I've posted anything.  We have been really busy at work and I started giving swimming lessons May 30th. I love working with children in the water. It is one of my favorite things. I would give up my day job to do it full time if I could. But this year I promised Lynn that I would cut back some because of all the things that went on while caring for Mrs. Story. He felt like I needed to take a break. I have had 3 Great weeks with only 1 day of rain that I will be making up this coming week. For some reason I have the sinus, crud stuff like I had in February and March. I did go to the doctor right away so that it would get really bad. I've been on antibiotics for 6 days and don't seem a lot better. I can hardly talk which is a bad thing for me. LOL I also can't hear very good when my ears are clear so you just about have to holler at me.  LOL. You just have to laugh. So on this 4th of July weekend I am just resting. There are so many things I need to be doing besides laying on this couch. We had plans to go to Texarkana to try and find me a new swim suit. Lynn told me last week that you can see through the back of the one I have. I already threw away my very favorite one because it was wore out. Being in the pool giving  lessons they break down quick. I guess we will go later in the week. Hopefully I will be up and ready to swim by Thursday. We had one of our grandson's last week while his Momma was out of town. Connor was such a sweet and helpful boy. We had a good week.
Blessings, Lori

Never been so tired...

First I want to say a Thank you for those special comments. They are so special to me. We have been through so much since I've posted. I wanted to shared a few things mostly for me to remember. We rushed to have the visitation on Sunday and the graveside service on Monday. Wanted to make it easy on everyone. I filled out the information for the funeral home and obituary trying to get help from the sons. Guess what? I failed to list Mrs. Story's only living brother. I got the ones that have passed on. I was really upset but it was to late. On Sunday morning we had to go to the funeral home to make sure she look OK. She looked so much better than she did the last weeks but her hair was a mess. So I got a pick comb and some hairspray and went to work. By the time I finished she looked really good. I've never done anything like that before but I knew it needed to be done. We decided that we would leave the casket open for about 30 minutes for the family then close it before the visitation and keep it closed at the service. Mrs. Story was a private lady and we didn't think she would want folks looking at her. Jodi(our daughter), Michelle(our nurse for them) and I carried Mr. Story to the church to eat lunch and to the service. Our church, Central Baptist, is wonderful when you loose someone. They fix a meal for the family on the day of the funeral. Thanks to them for all they do. And a special thanks to Jodi for all her help. I couldn't have made it these last two months with out her. She would stay with the Story's when I didn't have someone, to give me a break. She worked at the store, went to the store, just anything we needed. Back to the visitation. I spent most of the time with Mr. Story and I tell you it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. He began patting her head/hair and lips then her arms. Then he stood up and began kissing her on forehead and lips. He was trying to see if she was really dead. Oh my, I began to cry. I was trying so hard not to cry in front of him. I spent the rest of the hour and a half wiping his tears, assuring him that she was with Jesus and that we would take good care of him. There were lots of visitors that shared how sweet Mrs. Story was and how much they loved her. We then went to their house for some wonderful food that was prepared by the sweet folks at Kathy's Dance Arts Studio in Magnolia. I was so thankful that Josh and his precious girlfriend spent the night with us. Monday is kind of a blur. We met at the church for lunch and headed to the cemetery for the service. I was sure to add her brother and the Bro. Mike did a wonderful job. Mr. Story started crying the minute we got there. I sat with him while we were there and Lynn has to set by himself. I felt so torn with where I should be. My cousin Bille and her husband came and locked their keys in the truck. The nicest locksmith came and opened it without charging them. After the service we went to the Story's for some stories. We had a blast. I know Nanny would have been happy. Laura, Jeremy, Jodi and the grands were at our house while the babies napped. Laura was so sweet to clean up my kitchen. What a blessing the kids have been. The days since the service have been hard. I miss Nanny but I'm so thankful that she isn't suffering any longer. Papaw seems to be doing better. He hasn't cried much and has been sleeping all night. We are so thankful for that. My brain has just not wanted to work. Tuesday we opened the store and I was a mess. I just couldn't make my brain work. I just couldn't. Lynn finally sent me home to rest. I was better on Wednesday and Thursday but Friday was brain mush again. I haven't slept very good. I think I have my days and nights mixed up. My plan for this long weekend is to rest and try to clean up some of this house that has been neglected for a couple of months. I have slept off and on all today. I hope by Tuesday morning I will be back to my old self. Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Remember those who have given their lives for us all.
Blessings, Lori

Waking up with Jesus

Mrs. Story is waking up with Jesus today. She passed away yesterday at 9:03 in the morning. We are so blessed and thankful in knowing that she is no longer suffering, no longer struggling for a breath, no longer longing to be with her Lord and Savior. She was such a wonderful Christian lady who wanted all her family members to know and have a relationship with the Lord. She started reading her Bible through on January 1, 2011 with our church and kept up until her last days of which our special care givers continued in reading it to her until the end. What a testamony to her loved ones about her relationship with the Lord.
"A faith that fizzles before the finish, was faulty from the start." Isaiah 58:13 I found this in her bible and this is how she felt. Her faith and love for the Lord was her life. She and Monroe, her husband had the most wonderful marriage and love for each other. I've never had the opportunity to see this before. When Mr. Story came in the room after she had been gone for a while. He stood up out of his wheel chair and kissed her on the mouth. I could only cry. The love of his life was gone.  He has sat with her, patted her, prayed over her, helped her do all those things she couldn't because of RA for the past years. What an example of what real love is. My prayer is that the family will see that this is how God planned for marriage to be. We will celebrate her life today and tomorrow. You can find the information on her services at the following link.

http://lewisfh.funeralplan2.com/obituaries.aspx?turl=http://aurora-24607.tributes.com/show/Marilyn-Taylor-Story-91524649
Because of who He is, Lori