Harn Homestead

We went to the Harn Homestead on Thursday with my sister, Brandi, her husband, Aarron, their two girls, Gloria and Olivia, and my Mom, Vickie. We had a blast! It was cold, but we stayed bundled up! It was a great time. It was amazing to learn the history of this man who owned land in the late 1800s and donated some of it for the capital to be built on. And, his niece lived in the house until 1987. How cool! Anyway, you get to tour several things, including their home, which was the most expensive in the Sears Roebuck & Co. catalog. It arrived in pieces on a train from Chicago. There are several other bulidings and houses out there. I recommend taking the time to go and visit. It was only $5 each and kids 3 & under are free. Here are some pics...

Finally!

So, here are some pics from our Thanksgiving motorhome road trip!

The one with Jeremiah in the tiny window, is acutally the window at the foot of the passenger side front floorboard. He practically turned upside down to get in that window. It was hilarious!!!

Also shown are: the annual Garden Ridge trip, me and Jourdi's inside joke, (you'll know it when you see it.) Nanny, Josh yelling at us to stop taking pics because the flash was too bright, us at the firestation, Gary letting Camden up in the rig, and others...Enjoy!
By the way, I don't know yet how to make all the pictures post where I want them. So, bear with me!

Hot Date!

HOT DATE!!

My hubby and I just got back from a hot date! I love my husband! He is the perfect man for me! I'm so blessed that God chose me to be his woman! I was so excited when we dropped Camden off with my Mom to have some time with my man! I was all excited and giddy! We needed a night out! As you can see from all my exclamation points, I was pumped to go out on a date! We went to eat and to a movie. We saw Fireproof, by the way, which was a great movie! I highly recommend it!

This isn't a pic of tonight, but I wanted to put a pic of me and my hubby on here. It's from last month...

We also saw the dad of a guy that was in my class in high school, AND, we saw two people from People's Church! It was good to see Janel and her mom, Janet! Janel serves in Kids Ministry on Sundays and also helps me during the week. I love having such great volunteers! I don't know what I would do without them. Yes I do, I would die!!! :)

Well, it's been little bit since I blogged. Thanksgiving holiday was sooo much fun! We did something almost every night, which I normally don't like to do, but it was so much fun, we couldn't resist! Camden stayed up later than I think he ever has on Friday night, but, we had Saturday and Sunday to re-coop before Monday, and school, came! :)

So, Friday after Thanksgiving...

Well, Mustang was playing in the state semi-finals in Broken Arrow. So, again, we all loaded up, all 14 of us that is, in Nanny and Hank's motor home and went to the game. We had soooo much fun!!! It was a fun ride up, and the game was good, until Mustang got beat! :( But, it was hilarious to see everyone staring at the motor home, which was all shoe polished and decked out, courtesy of Josh and Conner! It was a night to remember! Here are a few pics...

So Thankful!

Well, all is quiet in the Jackson house. I need to be in bed, but I just had to post about today. (I will try and get some pictures up tomorrow.) This morning started off great with Jeremiah, Camden and me watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. We moved from the love seat into our bed and cuddled up together. It was an awesome time of just hanging out. Camden was a little upset at first when Daddy wanted Mommy in the middle, but when he saw his view of the t.v. was better, he finally relented. (After a few tears and a borderline tantrum!) After that, I put Camden down for a nap and Jeremiah went to get our niece, Jourdan. She came over and helped me as we made homemade coconut cream pies with meringue and Kansas Dirt. We used my great-aunt Letha's recipe for the pies. The only thing we didn't make from scratch was the crust. I have some homemade crust, but we didn't get around to making our second batch. If you knew my aunt Letha, you would know the pies were delicious! She is one of the best cook's I've ever known! It was so great to spend that quality time with Jourdan! She is so great and we always have a good time together. God put a special place in my heart for Jourdan many years ago. I love all my nieces dearly, but, Jourdan and I have this special bond that is hard to explain. Anyway, our desserts were a big hit for Thanksgiving.
We went to Nanny and Hanks today for Thanksgiving, and we had a great time. Nanny and Hank are Jeremiah's grandparents on Bruce's (Jeremiah's dad) side. We had a great dinner then we all went up to uncle Gary's work at Fire Station 14. He had to work today, so we all piled in and surprised him. The kicker, was that we took Nanny and Hank's motor home. It was great! We were cruising like down the road in style, let me tell you! :) I'm not sure if he was excited or embarrassed, but I'm going with the first one! We took pictures and hung out for a bit. Then we all piled back in, went back to Nanny's and hung out some more. Camden got me, Corbie, Conner and Jourdan to play Duck-Duck Goose with him in the floor while everyone looked on in laughter! Camden had to start out as the 'gooser"! I think he made that up! :)
After that, we all piled back in the motor home again and made our annual trip to Garden Ridge. We never buy anything; we just walk around and goof off. Of course, we had to have the sword fight again and Conner and Keeley wore silly hats. (pics tomorrow!) After Josh picked us up at the front door, we went to IHOP and had either late dinner, or really early breakfast! It was great to hang out and spend time with the family. We are really blessed to have such a close family. Jeremiah's family has always been close and they have always made me feel right at home. After being together for nine years through holidays, birthday parties, family reunions and OU-Texas parties, I don't even call them "Jeremiah's family" anymore. I just call them family and that sums it up! We had so many laughs and great times tonight! I always look forward to hanging out with them. We are not just family, we are friends! I love you Jackson family!!! You are the best family anyone could ever hope for!!
(OK, this is not exclusive to my side of the family! They are just as great! I will post an ooey gooey blog about you guys the next time we all hang out. So, don't call or email me about this! ;)
I want to end this with the right acknowledgement of all I have to be thankful for. God has blessed me so abundantly! I could never put into words how humbled I am by His goodness. I am so thankful for my life, which includes my faith, the freedom to live it, my family, my friends, my job, my country and everything in between. God is so good! Much better than I deserve! I hope you take time to reflect on all you have to be thankful for. If we were to all live our lives each day in this mindset, what a different place the world would be!
Well, good night! I will post some pics tomorrow!

Up WAY too late!

Well, I'm up late catching the results of the Dancing With the Stars Finale. I love this show! I missed it earlier while we were hanging out, then putting Camden to bed. Jeremiah went to bed early after taking a Tylenol PM because it was all he could find. (It was too funny! He could barely keep his eyes open!)

Anyway, got started watching and didn't want to stop. Plus, we got a new DVR box today because our current one keeps erasing all our stored shows. So, after we hook up the new one, we will lose everything. Hopefully, this will be the last time.

So, I finally figured out how to post pictures, so I am going to post a few pics of Camden's Thanksgiving party. I don't know how good this will look when it's finished, but I'm trying! He was soooo cute in his costume. But he wanted to take it off right after they sang, so I don't have any pics because we forgot our camera. The little boy in the picture with Camden is Pierce. His mom sent me these pics. I was very grateful since we didn't have our camera with us! It was so cute to see him singing with his class! I can't believe my little man is having school parties. I now it's pre-school, but still!!

Well, that's all for now! Good night! Have a fantastic, blessed and happy Thanksgiving!!!

Wow! Two posts in one week! I may be on to something here! We'll see!
This week has been a busy one, to say the least! I had a leadership team meeting at my house on Wednesday night and it was awesome! I love the team I serve with! These ladies are amazing! The way they give of their time and talents to help make Kids Ministry better each week is such a blessing! I love each one of these awesome women of the Lord! We covered a LOT of things and discussed what it will take to rocket Kids Minsitry to the next level. We are all SUPER pumped and ready to go!!!
We spent Thursday night at Jeremiah's parents'. His nieces, Kyla and Ashlinn, and his sister, Amber, came over, along with Josh and Holly. We all hung out and had a great time! It was so good to get together! It has been a little while since we have all been over there for an evening of fun and hanging out! I love my family! Camden had a blast running around with uncle Josh and his cousins, Jourdan, Kyla and Ashlinn. They played Wii and goofed off until we finally had to leave to put our little man to bed. :)
Friday was Camden's first school party. He missed the Halloween one from being sick! :( But, this one the kids all dressed up in pilgrim hats and indian vests. They sang some songs they had been practicing and it was too cute! Camden has been singing the turkey one all week long. :) Then we all ate Thanksgiving themed food. I was one proud Mommy watching my little man sing with his class. It's always fun to visit with the other parents and his teachers too. We followed that up with a good old fashioned night at home. That felt good!
And tonight, I am currently watching OU put a WHOOPIN' on Texas Tech!! BOOMER SOONER!!!!!! We should move up past Texas in the BCS after this! National Championship, here we come!!!!
All in all, great week and weekend!!!

OK!!!! So, no more waiting until I have time to make my blog all cool with picutres and all that like the rest of my cool friends! I have decided to lay the perfectionist trap aside and just blog away, pictures, or not!
Well, since my last post was in August, a lot has gone on. My birthday was September 8th. I am 28 now. Only 2 more years to 30! YIKES! I remember my Dad's 30th birthday party. How weird is that? September 28th marked 9 years Jeremiah and I had been together. That is amazing! I never knew what God had in store! What a blessed, challenging, and more rewarding than I dreamed, 9 years! I love my husband!
October, well, we went on a lovely vacation to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Jeremiah and I went down on Tuesday, then Josh, Jeremiah's brother, Holly, Josh's wife, Jourdan, our niece, and Camden came down late Wednesday night. We had a GREAT time! It was a much needed and overdue vacation! We stayed in this wonderful cottage on a little lake and we were only about 5 minutes from downtown. We made lots of memories, and will definitely go back! "I said a beef hot link!" (Inside joke!)
October 31st was our first Halloween without "the Storm." For those who don't know, we lost our 11-year-old niece, Stormie, on July 18th to an accident in the pool. She was much loved and greatly missed! God is good and He sustains us. I know He is very close to us during this time with the holiday season fast approaching.
November is shaping up to be fantastic!! We have had AMAZING weather and the trees are so beautiful with the leaves turning and wind blowing. I always look forward to the familiar sights, sounds, and smells and especially tastes of the holidays! :)
Things are moving right along with our new building coming up super fast! If you haven't done so, check out www.peopleschurch.tv. Our new 44,000 square foot facility will be done in no time! I am sooo pumped up about what God is doing at PC!!!! I can't wait to have more room for our kids. We are jam packed in there! How exciting!!!! Thanks to all of our amazing volunteers who make it happen every week! We could NOT do it without our great team!!
Well, I will keep you posted much better now. If I happen to be able to attach a picture here and there, it will just be a special treat!
Have a great week!

Numero Uno

So, this is new to me...I have become a blog reader, so I guess this is the next step? I don't know how regular I will keep up with this, but we'll see. My hope is that family and friends that I'm not able to keep in touch with as often as I would like will be able to stay current on what's going on with us. Again, we'll see...

So, MandiLand80? (The 80 is the year I was born.) Well, it started in jr. high one summer at camp. I don't know how it came to me, most likely divine inspiration :)! I was talking with some friends and somehow it came up about how happy I was, or something along those lines. I just kind of said, "Everyday's a holiday in Mandi Land!" Then it just kind of stuck. I even came up with an introduction complete with an imaginary sign and sparkles. I know, but give me a break, I was in 8th grade! Anyway, not very exciting, or mature, but I try not to take myself too seriously. There are enough things in life to make a big deal about. My blog name is not one of them!! :) Besides, it shows how creative and exciting I am! I only had to go back to 8th grade to find something to use!