Excited and a new obsession

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been in a blogging rut with nothing to blog about. There hasn't been anything too excited going on in the Stracener world. I do have a new addiction though. I know your thinking man how many addictions can one girl have, for me that is alot. I am loving EBAY!! I have found a new obsession. They have the best deals and I cand stay on it for hours on end searching anything and everything. I have already gotten Todd 2 polo shirts for $10 and under and shipping isn't bad either. I might have also bid on a few baby outfits for a few special nieces and nephews ; ) EBAY is great and you get addicted and fast. I have Callie on there too looking up stuff. I never knew how many great finds they had, and most of it is brand new with tags. Its crazy....When you have time you should definately check it out....Or am I the last one to know about how awesome it is??

So is anyone else excited for Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday. I have always loved Thanksgiving because it is the only time my whole family gets together. I love being around my family, they are wonderful. I am so blessed!! Of course I also love it because of all the good food especially stuffing and my grandma's famous pies. She makes every pie you can think of it and makes the crust from scratch. Nobody can beat her pies. They are AMAZING!! Her apple pie and pumpkin is my fav. I also love the cinnamon rolls she makes out of leftover pie crust. Both my grandmothers can cook so good, I only hope to be as good as a cook as them one day. Does that sentence even make since?? Sorry Im just in a rambling mode today... Todd and I are leaving early Wednesday to make our way to Mobile, Alabama. My aunt just built a new house and we can't wait to see it. Both sides of my family will be spending Thanksgiving together, my mom and dads side so it should be fun. We also plan to play a little football maybe?? Its a tradition that we used to always get outside of eating a enormous meal and taking a little nap to then play football and work off some of those pounds of food we have just consumed. Can you tell I'm just a little excited?? Well I probably won't be blogging again until after Thanksgiving so I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and remember be thankful for all the blessings God has given you this season. Have a great week and I will be back and ready to blog when I get back to town because then I get to blog about Christmas and all that it encompasses.

Prayers needed

I have come to love the bloggy world. There are so many amazing people out there that have such a strong faith. Most of you know about the story of Audrey Caroline. I have the link in my blog list. If you haven't read it I encourage you to do so. Warning: Tears will probably be shed. Anyways I feel very compelled to write a this blog today. I found Adriennes blog from Audrey Caroline blog. I dpn't even know this family yet feel connected through this crazy bloggging world. I have been reading it since the summer and have followed their story of adopting their son Owen and now they are in the process of adopting a daughter. They have been up in New Jersey waiting for the birth mother to have the baby. Adrienne has been able to hold, feed, rock the baby. About 2 days ago the birth mother was released from the hospital and still wasn't 100 percent sure she wanted to give her baby up. Now Adrienne and Jim are heartbroken and are just hoping for the best. I ask you to go on over to their blog and read their story and then ask you to lift them up in prayer. They need all the prayers they can get right now. Isn't amazing how God leads us to these people through this blog world we don't even know yet we are praying for them as if they are our own family. I think its amazing that they have people all over the world praying for them. I personally have been praying night and day that they are able to have the daughter they have always wanted. They knew it was a risk vut there was never any inclination that the birth mother would change her mind until the last minute. Whatever happens I know it is in Gods will and he knows the perfect plan for this family. If you have a few minutes in your day today I ask that you lift up this family to the Lord and pray that everything will work out. Thank you for your prayers and I know Adrienne will thank you too.

*Update* The birth mother has decided to keep her baby. Lets pray that she too is making the right decision and that God will guide her as being a mother. Please keep all parties involved in your prayers today and hereafter.

Weekend Recap

This weekend my brother and girlfriend came for a visit. I was so glad that we were finally able to get together. My brother and his girlfriend stay pretty busy on the weekends so when he called to see if they could come up of course I couldn't say no. We have been trying to get together for a while now and it finally worked out. They got in town Friday evening and we went to our favorite restaurant Hole In One. It seems that is where we always take company because its the best place to eat in town. Todd and I love the quaint atmosphere. After a delicious meal we came back to the house and gave them a tour and then sat out on the back porch and visited. We enjoyed catching up and hanging out, we didn't go to bed until really late and had to get it up early the next morning. We got up on Saturday morning to play golf. We set up to play 18 holes but only played 11 because we had to be off the course by noon. There was a women's golf tournament there that day. We all received golf lessons from the golf pro my brother. By the last couple of holes Todd, Kate and I were actually getting pretty good at it. I was upset that we had to end our golf game just as I was getting better. After golf we went and ate lunch at Cheddars and watched the Texas football game, then came home and took a much needed nap. I think Kate and I slept for about 3 hours, it was so nice. Saturday night we cooked out. I made my famous (yes I said famous) turkey burgers and onion rings. Kate and I literally had a pile of onion rings. Then Todd and Kate decided to just fry the leftover batter like a funnel cake. Pictures to come soon I promise. We were all in bed by eleven that night. My brother said that was the first time in almost 2 years he has been to bed that early on Saturday night and he was talking about how great he felt on Sunday from getting such good sleep. Todd told him he should try it more often..haha. On Sunday I layed around in my pjs most of the day and Todd put up some more Christmas decorations. I wanted to post more pictures of the decorations but Todd told me I had to wait. So don't fret the pictures will come soon enough. Overall we had a great weekend and I was so glad they were able to make it to good ol' Lufkin, Texas.

Don't think I'm crazy...

Okay don't think I'm crazy but I have officially started a baby closet. First let me tell you NO IM NOT PREGNANT!! I will have to explain it from the beginning... About a year ago House of Hatten was going out of business and Sharon got word of it and started buying their baby clothes, then my mother heard about it and started doing the same thing. They were selling smocked dresses for 10 and 15 dollars. How could you resist? So my mother in law and mother both had baby closets. Baby clothes are so cute and we all love to buy them if not for ourselves at least for gifts. Malee then jumped on the band wagon and started her a baby closet and 2 months later she was pregnant. Now we are one big baby clothes obsessed family...haha. A childrens boutique here in Lufkin is going out of business. They have some of the cutest clothes, boys and girls. Last week Callie texted me and told me and of course I had to get up there as soon as possible. Most everything was 40% off, now you can't beat that. I bought boy and girl clothes, mostly boy though because it is super hard to find cute boy baby clothes. Most of my friends are expecting so I thought if anything I can give these cute little outfits as gifts. Of course there are a few outfits that I would like to keep for myself because I just love them to much. If you haven't been to Alden and Claire in Lufkin lately I highly recommend you go. I was in there about 2 weeks ago and my mother in law was there, then Nancy and Sarah walked in with Addy and then Callie showed up. It was so much fun shopping all together. We were the only ones in the store and I think Sharon and I were in there for a good 2 hours. Are we crazy or what? I did get a few Christmas gifts for Anna.

Are these not the CUTEST outfits??

P.S. This is my new favorite magazine....

Lots to Blog about, so little time

I have so much to blog about lately but I haven't had much time. This past weekend I headed to Dayton to spend the weekend with my mom. I didn't get in until late on Friday night so Mom and I just hung out at the house and looked at all of my old smocked dresses. It is amazing how good my mom is at smocking. I never realized how much hard work it was. The dresses are beautiful and timeless. Her plan is to teach me one day too. We were suppose to sew this weekend but time got away from us and we never did. Hopefully next time I am in town she can start to teach me. I am really looking forward to it. My mom still has a few dresses that my Nana made and my baby shoes as well. It is so neat to look at all of that stuff. On Saturday my mom and I did what we do best and hit the town to go shopping. We got in a little bit of Christmas shopping. I went to DSW for the first time and I was in heaven. I am such a shoe fanatic and there were shoes everywhere. I could not believe I had never been there before. I may have bought a pair of shoes or two ; ) When we were headed home I saw this big black cloud of smoke and wondered what was burning, come to find out it was my moms work. The plant had caught on fire. One of the motors exploded and it was just a chain reaction. We drove over to the plant and got about a mile away. The smoke clouds were never ending, we could not believe it. Thank goodness just part of the plant burned, but the office building and their customs plant was okay. Most everyone was back at work on Monday and nobody was hurt. Saturday night I met up with my brother and his girlfriend and watched part of the Texas Tech game before heading over to my best friend Janci's new house . Neal cooked burgers and hot dogs and we enjoyed hanging out and catching up. I had a great weekend!! While I was gone Todd decided to go ahead and start on the Christmas decorations. He put garland over the mantle and a tree hanging over the mantle. (He also wanted me to let you know that he built this garland from scratch) He is already getting in the Christmas spirit.

A work in progress...

VOTE 2008

As I am sitting her watching Gossip girl I decided I must write a short blog about this years election. No matter who you are voting for, I encourage you to get out there and vote. This is one year I believe that no one will forget. It's definitely a historical election no matter what the outcome is. I don't really get into politics too much but this year I have been more interested than ever. I hope you plan to vote tomorrow if you haven't already. Todd and I went and voted last week. It is such a liberating experience to know that we have a right to vote. I mean in some countries they don't have the right to vote. It makes me so nervous that tomorrow is our future for this country. I believe though that no matter what God is in charge and he knows what is right for America. I know Todd and I will be watching fox news probably the whole night. I have a feeling its going to be a close race and I can't wait to see what the outcome is going to be. Anybody else have any thoughts on the election tomorrow?? Well I guess I will get off my soap box now. We will see how tomorrow night turns out. I know who I'm rooting for......

Happy Halloween!

My costume for work. I look good with blonde hair don't you think?

Bentley is not too sure about this costume business....

I love this pumpkin costume I got for Bentley.

Happy Halloween Everyone!! I hope everybody had a fun and safe night. Todd and I enjoyed ourselves last night. Our first trick or treaters were Ben and John. Ben was Bob the builder and he was adorable in his outfit. John was a frog. Ben really enjoyed playing with Bentley and eating some good candy. Next, Anna came by and trick or treated. Since she is a little too young for candy, she got a pair of socks that say BOO and a little bear dressed up like a witch. She didn't really care for the socks too much but she really liked the bear. She just kept looking at it and playing with it. It was so cute. She looked so cute in her Halloween outfit. We love her so much and she is growing so fast. After they left we headed over to the in laws and Mark, Callie and Caroline came by and so did Elizabeth, Hughes, and Will. Caroline was dressed as a Zebra and Will was a puppy dog. They were both so cute crawling around and playing together. Caroline finally warmed up to Will and was hugging him and being so sweet. Caroline would get a little jealous when Mark picked up Will. She did not want her dada holding anybody else but her. It was so funny. Its so much fun being around all the kids. I love how we have so many children in our family now. I can't wait until that day comes for us. Overall, we had a great Halloween and hope you did too.

(WARNING: Lots of cute babies ahead)

John the little froggie

Ben the Builder...so cute :)

Malee and Anna...doesn't she look like a little doll

Miss Anna talking to her Uncle Todd

Miss Anna and her bear.One scary looking family, except for Anna she is TUTU cute!

I don't know why this picture is sideways, Anna loves her new bear.

Todd loves Anna Wanna.

Will, the cutest puppy dog ever.

Caroline in her cute little zebra costume.