HUGE TURNOUT

We had a big turn out for Nathan's blood drive. Here are a few pictures of the Fire Dept guys giving blood. UBS wasn't thrilled with us taking pictures, so I only took those of the guys on the fire dept.

Jay Ezell...relaxing
Lil Bo Dixon...all smiles!! (could have been the cute girl that took his blood)

Daddy wondering what I volunteered him for (plasma or platelets)

Chris finishing up!

Justin Lloyd (didn't pass out even though he was scared he would)

Raymond Scott (East Franklin VFD)

Christian Ezell

Bodi Bass

Joseph Cothren

We as a dept set a goal of 50 units...and after LOTS of headache and problems we managed to get 47 units. Which we will get our goal of 50 by the 25th. The blood banks had a surplus of A+ blood, so we had to turn away any A+ people (which sadly was about 25 donors). BUT any A+ people that couldn't donate Fri can donate at FC memorial Hospital on Feb 25th and it will go towards this drive's goals! I was so happy to see a waiting line...Not that making people wait was what I wanted to do, but I was Glad that FC people showed up and showed out in support of Nathan and his family!! THANKS EVERYONE WHO MADE THIS A HUGE SUCCESS!

BTW: United Blood Services called to congratulate us on our turn out for it to have been a 1st time deal for us. She said that they honestly expected us to fall short by about 20 units..WE SHOWED THEM!!!!

Quiet...sort of

All has been quiet lately...busy but quiet. Have had nothing major to post pictures of. However this week from Wednesday on will be busy.... Wednesday after church is done, Mom and I have to do our weekly cleaning. Of course being the 1st Thursday of the month, we have fire dept meeting, and Friday we have a blood drive for this amazing guy!Nathan Steele. Our familys were very close as we were growing up. He's an EMT, along with a volunteer fire fighter. Nathan has been married for about 5 yrs now his wife Rebecca. Last year around Sept or October, he was diagnoised with Colon Cancer. Such a blow for a 29 year old man to face. But Nathan and Rebecca have stayed strong and he's taken his chemo like a champ with very little complicatons. On January 13th, he had the cancer removed from his colon and have had complications due to an infection. Please, I ask you to pray for this family as Nathan has a LONG recovery ahead of himself. He will undergo more Chemo once he is recovered from the surgery and infection. So if you are in Meadville, come out Friday to support our Fire Department as we show our Support to Nathan and Rebecca by a blood drive.

After the drive I'm coast bound with some friends to celebrate their mother's 50th birthday!!! Maybe I'll have some exciting pictures to post...until them, stay safe and remember to pray for my buddy!!!! Love you all!

Some snapshots from Christmas weekend...enjoy

I GOT ME A NEW RIDE.....FINALLY!!!!

We have had a "Winter Wonderland" here. I'm about a week and a half late posting these pictures, but never the less you can see it SNOWED!!! Hope for more to come before the winter is up....(always good for business!!)..

These are just a few pictures...I'll try to get more up later

Sorry for this post to be so short, it's almost time to go, I've got a wake to go home and get ready for....

COOKING CLASSES
As many of you know (who keep up w me thru facebook), I attended a cooking class called "Holiday and Party Food II". Taught by Ms. Annie P from Annie P Goodies.... I had a blast...don't have much time to go into detail, but here are a few pictures from our class...I'll upload some more maybe after the holidays....These are just a few of my favorites...FEW ...there were many more


Pecan Tassies (right) Over the top Potatoes (left)

"Fancy Rolls"

Sugar Snaps

Craberry Pecan Cheese Cake

WHERE OH WHERE HAVE I BEEN???

Where to even start....lets see...September for us at work is a month that we would like to forget. INVENTORY and prep work for year end close out! So really that explains the lack of posting...worked late and was mainly up at NAPA during the day. But the Lord has blessed me with a good job so no complaints...lets get to where all I have been...

Last weekend in September, I went to Richton to stay with Junior & Sara and to attend the Pecan Festival...let me tell ya somethin' If you haven't been you MUST do so. Booths, arts, crafts, mule pull, old time tractors, sheep herding and anything else imaginable is there. I came home with a few items. Next year I will go prepared to Christmas shop and be done with it all by Oct!! Yep, I'm tellin you it was that much stuff there!!! I do have pictures so i'll post them later. Oh of course we ate out alot that weekend...

Along the month of September and among all this other stuff I had two great uncles (brothers in fact) pass away on the same day, so sad, but they were both sick. I got to see family I hadn't seen in a long while. Mom and her girl cousins had a little get together the weekend after both funerals and had a good time.

L to right, Belinda, Vivian, Kathy, Mom, Joy & Brenda. These are all 1st cousins. They have an agreement between them all to have a Cousin's day about once every 3 months. They said no Aunts allowed!!

Then there was the dreaded work day at the Fire station! UGH!! INVENTORY again....but i guess I got off easy. The guys had to wash almos everything that had wheels! The only thing that didn't get washed was the Recovery boat I think...

I took a trip to Monterey this past weekend to see Will, Paula, Brother and Sister (Riley & Natalee). For those of you who don't know, I lived with them while I worked in the Jena office. Will was my boss and his wife quickly became my best friend. Brother played basketball while Sister cheered him on. I'm having trouble with the computer, so I'll post those pictures later also.

I have signed up for a cooking type of class thingy with Annie P. Goodies and that begins tomorrow night. 5 weeks of fun holiday foods! Bound to cause a person to gain a few extra pounds...The class will be every Tuesday night from 6 to 9 till the week before Thanksgiving. MaYbe I'll have some new idea to contribute to Turkey day meal!

As for tonight, I'm working at the sheriff's office filling in. The house is coming along well. We have like 3/4 of the siding up but next will be a porch to keep me from getting soaked when trying to get my door open!

Hope all is well with everyone and as I get pictures to work, I'll add them along the way.

How Dirty can one lil boy get?!?!?

Colten 9/5/2009

Yes, we did determine something is NOT NORMAL!
This was what I did all this weekend...EMT refresher class...24 hour class shoved into a 2 and a half day period.... I'm to tired to type anymore..oh and we won't mention the 2am call I got this morning! Did i mention I was tired?!?!

Mission Trip 2009

We all pulled out Sunday, survived what could have been a bad accident on 55, and made it to our destination. We were greeted by some very nice church members of the Bogue Chitto Baptist Church and we were greeted with a SPREAD of food to top it all off!!!

After fellowship and eating, we went to our "home away from home" for the week. The Bogue Chitto Boys and Girls Club (gym). The kids loved it there..along with some of the adults. Jennifer was in heaven since she has no where out here to play basketball.

Monday started out rough, the VBS bus was like an hour late getting the kids to the church, but we managed to make the most of the bad start...on Monday we had 50 something kids, Unsure of how many on Tuesday, but Wed and Thur we had aroud 87 -90 kids for VBS!! How awesome is that?!?!?

This was my first mission trip, and I promise you it will not be my last!!! Blessings were received by all...Teachers, students, construction workers, preachers...it was amazing to see how the Lord had his hand on each one of us...

Jennifer and I worked with the 5th & 6th graders...if we had the room for them, they would have all came home with us!! We had one accept Christ on Wednesday and then get this...5 more on Thursday!!! Jennifer put it straighforward to them...No hold bars...they had a choice Heaven or Hell and that we wanted them with us!! We were both in tears when we looked up to see 5 of our students going w Bro. Marvin Thursday!! And to top it off, Thurday Jennifer and I had to head home...talk about leaving on a high...Knowing our students made this major life step...I have actually talked to one of the girls via text and Jennifer has another student or two, so staying in touch is something we plan on doing!!

I can't put into words just how much that trip meant to me...All I know is the Lord touched me and worked in my own heart as much as he did theirs!

We made some great friends...in fact some are talking about coming down in September to stay at the dorm that our church has for the weekend...I'm already wanting to see them!! There is actually talk about going back next year and doing their VBS again...I hope to be able to go and would love for Cheyenne to go and help as well...

I'm attaching the link to my pictures that I've uploaded thru face book...it was just too many to pick a few from to attach on this post.... Enjoy!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=288884&id=771890082&saved#/album.php?aid=288884&id=771890082 (construction pictures)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=288884&id=771890082&saved#/album.php?aid=288343&id=771890082 (VBS pictures)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=288884&id=771890082&saved#/album.php?aid=288811&id=771890082 (our downtime pictures)

Baby Caden Bruce Ellis is here.. Born Wed weighs 5 lbs 7 oz...18" long...baby and mom are well...

Can we say a dirty little boy? Do you care to guess who the feet and legs belong to?

That's right Cole! He's been w us this weekend. Saturday Tara and I took her 2 boys and Cole to the river. Couldn't have asked for a better child. I think maybe once I had to get on him.

The dirty feet and legs are from Sunday. I think the only time he had on shoes or flip flops was while he was at church! He has had a blast this weekend and goes back to Brandy tomorrow...

New adventure.
Please be thinking about myself and some of our church members that are going to Philadelphia the week of July 19-25th. We are doing a mission trip. We will go to the Reservation up there and do a VBS with approximately 80 to 100 children and also doing some repairs to some of their buildings.

This is my first mission trip of any kind, so I'm really glad it's only a few hours away especially since Bridget is close to her due date and having a few issues. This is also if I'm not mistaken the first mission trip our church has done in a long while.

Please say a prayer for traveling grace and the trip as a whole.

Let's play where have we been and what have we done?!?!

Here's what we've been up to:

July 3rd

Girls night out w Tara, Wendy and myself...two of my best friends in the whole world!

I spent July 4th at the River & pavillion with the Sullivan group (after I went and got my siding), then at home with the family for the evening.

Chris rented a cabin in Osyka @ Alford's Lake...very nice and peaceful. He, Bridget, the 2 boys and myself spent Sunday and Monday down there They boys and I had a good time. Lots of trails to ride. I recommend it but just at a cooler time of the year.

For laughs and kicks this week, I let Jennifer foil my hair....her daughter Aubren just laughed at me as we were sitting and waiting...one friend refered to me as a redneck antenna...thanks Carlos!