Last night the whole band, management, me, Emily, and Megan got together for the band's yearly summit. Poor Cami was there by phone, but could not make the 3 hour round trip it takes to get from their house to ours. We let her off the hook since she is 9 months pregnant!! :-) (love and missed you Cami) Patton House management company organizes a time twice a year for the band to get together with them to discuss how things are going and future plans. We got together with the other bands that Patton House manages over the summer and then last night it was just for Echoing Angels. We had a blast!! I am so thankful to have such a dedicated, focused team surrounding the guys. The guys are spending the next few days with their management team in rehearsals and meetings trying to prepare for all of the great things God has in store for the band.

It's hard to believe we are 3 weeks out from Lacey's due date. But, the way I'm feeling these days (Big and VERY uncomfortable) I'd be okay with her coming a little early. I went to the doctor yesterday and everything is great! Her heartbeat was perfect. She's still measuring about a week big. Dr. Ruffin checked to see if I was dialating at all and that was a big no. Sigh. That's okay though. Just means she's not ready to come yet. Josh said that Lacey can come any time after Dec. 13th because this is a crazy busy week for him between work and Echoing Angels. I said she could come after Dec. 23rd because that's my last day of work here at the station before I go on maternity leave. But, I supposed that she'll decide what time is the best time for her to come. LOL.

Josh wasn't able to go to the doctors appointment with me because he had to head up to Gainesville to meet up with Echoing Angels and their managment team Patton House Entertainment. They had a meeting last night and then are doing 2 days of rehearsals. Thankfully, my Momma was able to go with me to my appointment. Ever since our 2 miscarriages Josh and I decided that I would never go alone to an appointment again. So, it was so nice to have my momma there with me. I'm so grateful for her and her support. Plus, I know she's just as excited because this will be her first grandbaby. So thank you Momma for coming with me.

Since Josh is gone for a couple of days my parents are coming out to help me with some things around the house today. I wanted to steam clean the carpets in the house so that they are clean when Lacey arrives. My parents have a steam cleaner so I asked my daddy if he could walk me through how to use it. He said no that he would come out and do it for me. Wow...what a blessing! So while my Daddy is doing that my Momma and I are going to rearrange some cupboards to make room for Lacey's bottles, formula and stuff. I am truly blessed with some amazing parents!

Josh and I are anxiously waiting for our Lacey to come. So c'mon Lacey!!! But, as we wait, we are really excited for some of our friends. Jacob (from Rush of Fools) and his wife Amelia were induced last night and should have their precious baby boy sometime this morning. So pray for them and baby Collin!

I just finished my long, very long weekend. I was there from 3pm to 7am two days in a row and we worked most of the night both nights. So I am pooped. But I am already reaping the benefits because I have this week off, the whole week and I know it will go by so quickly. We took the kids to a tree farm and cut down our own tree. It was so much fun, 35 degrees out, but fun. We stopped for hot chocolate first so we were all warmed up! The tree is up in the den and its finally starting to look a lot like Christmas....the star is up on the front porch, I think the Thanksgiving wreath is too, I better get that....tomorrow.

We took the kids to see Santa tonight. That was a lot of fun. James is so excited he is beside himself. He totally thought Santa should come tonight with his big boy bike. I had to dig out his Santa calendar so he could see it wasn't time yet. Eliza was acting really excited to see Santa when we got up close but then when I tried to sit her on his lap, she stiffened up and shook her head no. But he gave her a candy cane and she was all good. We got a really cute picture.

On the sickness front, my ear drum did perforate. Nice, huh? However, the absolutely excruciating pain is mostly gone because of it. I can be thankful for that even though I can't hear a thing! Put one finger all the way in your ear and listen, yes, that's what I hear. Muffled noises. "huh? What'd you say?" And if there is other background noise, I really can't hear you. And to top it off I have drainage from my ear ALL day! Gross! And I've got a really nice ringing in my ear too. So the doctor says to use antibiotic drops for the next 5 days and not to blow my nose too hard, yeah, that's easy since I have a sinus infection and enough snot for an orphanage of toddlers! If it does not get better, I will have to have a minor surgery. I'm not at all apprehensive about that, I do the anesthesia for other people who have it done all the time. Its a 10 minute procedure and I will feel so much better. Its really a matter of...who's got time for that!? Anyway, I am praying for healing and I pray God has a better plan than that. I am still singing for James' program Thursday. I finally picked a song, James' helped me. "Winter Wonderland"..."because it's about a snowman!" Good news, its a nice easy song in a low key and I think I can pull it off. I can hear my voice in my head really good right now! Let's just hope I can hear the music well enough out of the other ear to stay on pitch! It should be fun!

I have finally found time to get on my computer in the past two weeks! We have been busy preparing at the studio for our 7th annual Holiday Show. When you consider costumes, tickets, dress rehearsals, seven sold out shows, and hundreds of students, it takes alot of work and preparation on our end to put it together! All of us have been pulling 13-15 hour days for the past week and I feel like I have been hit by a truck! This is the first day I have had to just sit and relax. It has really been great! I have to admit though, watching the girls perform is extremely rewarding. It makes all of the hard work pay off. I love to watch the parents watch their little ones! You know there is nothing is sweeter than a four year-old in a tutu and a princess crown!

I am at work today. I came in at 3pm and will work until 7 am. I am really hoping that it will not be a busy night. Nobody else fall off your roof and break a hip putting up Christmas lights, we already have one of those on for tomorrow. I wish I could say I am feeling better but I actually feel worse. I am tired of hearing myself complain. I woke up at 2 am last night with the worst ear pain I have ever felt. Really?! What now? It kept me awake for more than 2 hours and I kept trey awake too with my tossing and turning. I took advil and an hour later took the robutussin with codeine that the doctor gave me for my severe cough. It helped finally and I was able to sleep. My ear has killed me all day. I feel like I have 14 cotton balls stuffed in my ear too. It hurts to burp, cough, hiccup, eat..... good grief! I went down to see and ER doc when I got here just to make sure I didn't perforate my ear drum blowing my nose. He said there was just a ton of fluid behind the ear drum. Now I know how my patients feel who come for ear tubes, especially the little babies and kids. No wonder they are miserable! So this is probably now a full blown sinus infection. None of the antibiotics seem to be helping....so I guess time is the only cure....which I never have enough of. I really wanted to ask someone else to work for me this weekend but I really want and need next week off. I want to spend some much needed time with my kids and put up some Christmas cheer ....and rest too some where in there. So I will just have to grin and bear it. I just took advil and aleve, my liver loves me, and I hope the piercing pain will at least leave me for a while. Here's to hoping.....

Today is Friday, but it doesn't feel much like it because I have to work the weekend. Two sixteen hour shifts. It does provide me with next week off, which is a blessing. There is a lot to do and I am feeling stressed. Despite having started my Christmas shopping in October, I still am not done. And it still looks like thanksgiving in our house, with the fall wreath on the door. I really wanted our decorations up early this year because I was so excited about it, mostly because James was. But getting pneumonia has really stunk. It has squashed some of my Christmas spirit. I am hoping to get it back really soon. We plan to get our tree on Monday, so that should help. James' Christmas program is next week too. Last year trey sang one song which was really cool. James sat right beside him playing his out of tune guitar and singing loudly. This year Trey is busy that night and they asked me to sing instead. Yikes! I am really stressing over that! I haven't sang a solo in a while and I will have to use a track which I don't like, live music is always better. I haven't even decided what to sing, Christmas music is always difficult for me because its usually not in the right key. And I've been too sick to practice. Yes, I'm a little bah-humbug today. I feel like I need to sing though because the pre-school has been so good to us, allowing us a flexible schedule and discount rates. So I guess the Christian bookstore is at the top of my list now.

Tonight we are having dinner with my friend Sarah and her sister for their birthdays. We are going to the cheesecake factory. I haven't been there in years- 5 probably. So I am looking forward to that. Trey and the kids are meeting me there so it will be good. Maybe I will skip food and head straight for the dessert menu! That will lift my spirits!

I can not believe it is December 2 and I have a lot of my Christmas shopping already done. Jon and I decided to brave the crowds on Black Friday and I was able to get a few presents then at really good deals. I am usually really stressed as the holidays approach because I have such a large family to buy for. On my side of the family, I am one of five girls. So this means other than buying for my parents, I have four sisters, their husbands, and eleven nieces and nephews to buy for. That is over 20 people just in my immediate family. Then on Jon's side, we buy for his parents, his two sisters and their families. This totals up to around 14 people. So, having to buy for close to 35 family members is a lot so you can see why I am so happy about already having some of my shopping knocked out. I am also a stickler for trying not to put anything on a credit card and so far I haven't had to!!

Jon and I are going to try and go get some more shopping done this weekend. I have two weeks off at Christmas and I would love to be able to spend the entire time with my family and not having to go shop during that time.