STAN MITCHELL FAMILY PICTURE FROM THANKSGIVING

Back row: Chris Mitchell, David Fox, Kathy & Stan Mitchell, Jon Mitchell, Tim Mitchell

Middle Row: Heather Mitchell, Kim Fox, Tiffany Mitchell, Julianne Mitchell, Sandy Rhodes, Cristina Mitchell

Front Row: Kailey Mitchell, Nathan Mitchell, Kimberly Mitchell, Tron Rhodes, Tynan Rhodes

Not present for picture: Burt & Julie Mitchell, Tyson Rhodes

Happy Birthday, Julie

HAPPY 29TH BIRTHDAY, JULIE!! We love you and miss you, and hope you have a great day!

THANKSGIVING TRIP TO PENSACOLA - SATURDAY

Saturday morning, we all got up and got ready to leave. We took a few pictures of Sandy and the boys, then said goodbye to them. Chris and I took Julianne back to campus, then met our friends Rob & Emily Hazewinkel for breakfast at Granny Cantrell's Restaurant. After spending some time with them, we headed back to PCC's campus to say goodbye to Jonathan, and my brother, Nathan, and his fiancee, Caroline. From there, we headed home to Indiana. We had a great time with family, and miss them very much.

Dr. Pepper 23 & Cocoa the bear

It's hard to see on this picture, but this is Cocoa the bear. She has a cup of cocoa on her paw. My dining room has a "coffee" theme, but I don't drink coffee, only hot chocolate. I saw this bear at Cracker Barrel back in April, and loved it. I thought it would be a great addition to my decor, but didn't have the money to get it. While we were at Cracker Barrel, I saw it again, and showed it to Sandy (who also has a coffee theme in her kitchen/dining room). When Sandy, Chris and Tron came back from shopping, Sandy had bought me this bear. THANK YOU, Sandy!

While we were at the mall on Friday, Uncle Chris bought Tron a Dr. Pepper. Tron went to open it, and it exploded. Tron loves "Dr. Pepper 23", as do I! The reason he calls it "Dr. Pepper 23" is because of the new add campaign that says that 23 flavors make up Dr. Pepper. They also have a "23" on the label now. Tron showed me... "See, Aunt Heather, it has a 2 and a 3 and that makes twenty-three. So it is Dr. Pepper 23." ANYWAY... it was a mess. Then, when Chris, Sandy, and Tron went shopping while Tynan & I took a nap, they bought some Dr. Pepper 23 to drink later that evening. By the time we got home that night, we didn't end up drinking any. Sandy said that Chris and I could take it with us on Saturday for the trip home. Saturday, when we were loading the vehicles, Chris walked out with the full 6-pack of 20 oz. Dr. Pepper bottles. Tron turned to Sandy and said, "Mom, Uncle Chris is taking all the Dr. Pepper 23's!!" Since he was so distraught over this, we left one with him to take on his trip. On our way home, almost every one of our Dr. Pepper 23's exploded (or almost exploded) in the car. I'm not sure what that was all about!

THANKSGIVING TRIP TO PENSACOLA - FRIDAY AFTERNOON

After we said goodbye to everybody, Chris, Sandy, Tiffany & I were trying to decide what to do. Tiffany didn't have to go to work for a while, so we had some time "to kill." First we headed to the mall to the Florida/Bama store (since Tyson, Sandy's husband, loves Florida State, she was looking for Christmas presents for him). After leaving the mall (unsuccessful at finding a gift there), Tiffany took us on a "wild goose chase" to find Bayview Park, which is located on the bay side of Pensacola. (DUH!) We finally got there, and had a good time playing. Tron hiked up his pants to "highwater" level to walk in the sand, and the boys enjoyed playing on the playgrounds. Then we headed down to the water and the dock. Tron&Tynan love to go fishing and play in the water (typical boys.) Uncle Chris let Tynan down from the edge of the dock to put his feet in the water a few times. Then they went and played along the water's edge, "fishing" with sticks and a small piece of fishing line they found, then resorting to just throwing handfuls of sand into the water. After succeeding in getting dirty with sand and wet, we took Tiffany back to campus for work, and then went back to the hotel for Tynan and Aunt Heather's nap time.

THANKSGIVING TRIP TO PENSACOLA - FRIDAY

HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY TO KIM!!!
Friday morning, we all got up and met at Cracker Barrel for brunch before Mom&Dad Mitchell & Kim&David left on their long trip home to Las Vegas. Jonathan & Julianne weren't able to come because of classes and work responsibilities. The kids enjoyed "playing" checkers while we waited. Mom, Sandy, and I browsed the Cracker Barrel Country Store. Sandy found Tyson's Christmas gift from her, and Chris found Tyson's Christmas present from him. Tiffany was watching Tynan in the store, and Tynan found a dancing Christmas tree that mesmerized him! When we finally all sat down to eat (at 2 tables b/c there wasn't a table big enough for all 15 of us! At the small table that we were sitting at, Tynan discovered that there was a hole in the table (why it was there, I don't know) big enough to drop the pegs to the triangle game through. When Sandy and I noticed what he was doing, I slid my hand underneath the table, and pushed the pegs back up through the hole after he dropped them in. He thought that was pretty funny. He then put his finger in the hole to keep the pegs from coming up, while he tried to push another peg through. Smart kid! We went from pegs to crayons, then Tynan figured out that he could stick his finger up through the hole from UNDERNEATH the table. Uncle Chris then started grabbing his finger... all in all, it was a pretty fun and funny game that passed the time quickly until we got our food! After we finished eating, we said goodbye to Tim&Cristina and their family, as we would not be seeing them again before we left. Back at the hotel, we said goodbye to Mom, Dad, Kim&David as they headed out for the long ride home.

THANKSGIVING DINNER & MOM'S BIG SURPRISE

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!! Thanksgiving Dinner was served in the fellowship hall of Tim & Cristina's church (their house isn't big enough for all those people!) Their pastor was very gracious in offering it to us to use. We all headed over to the church after the game, and finished fixing dinner. When dinner was served, we called Chris' brother & sister-in-law that couldn't make it, and had them say what they were thankful for. Then each of the adults took turns saying things that they were thankful for... mostly for their mom and what she means to them, and how thankful they are for her sweet example of a Godly woman. The last person in line was Sandy, the oldest girl, who is the one that came up with the idea of giving Mom her mother's ring. The ring was custom made by a friend of Chris' dad who makes jewelry for Tiffany's in New York. Anyway, Sandy said what she was thankful for, and then presented her mom with the ring. Mom was incredibly surprised, and of course, there were a lot of happy tears shed. We then ate our meal, and had so much food left over that we were able to make take-home plates for a few college students that didn't get a good Thanksgiving meal (including my brother and his fiancee.) It was awesome to be a part of this incredible gift to Chris' mom. I am so thankful for my great in-laws, as well as my own family. God has been incredibly good to us!

THANKSGIVING TRIP TO PENSACOLA - THURSDAY

Thursday morning we all got ready and headed over to the campus of Pensacola Christian College for their "Turkey Bowl." This is the championship soccer game between the intermural collegians. Chris' brother, Jon's collegian was playing in the game. The teams always make a big entrance. This year they were complete with a helicopter landing on the field... TWICE, along with police escorts and limosines... a hummer limo and a VERY long van limo. Then during half time, they had a parachute troop land on the field. It was pretty cool, and best of all, Jon's team won 5-0. I was also able to see my brother, Nathan, and his fiancee, Caroline, for a little bit. From there, we headed to Tim & Cristina's church for dinner.

THANKSGIVING TRIP TO PENSACOLA - WEDNESDAY

Wednesday, we took our time getting up and ready. Chris&I shared a hotel room with Chris' sister, Sandy, and her boys, Tron&Tynan. Chris' sister, Kim& her husband, David, had the room next door, which they shared with Chris' brother, Jon, when he chose to stay off campus a couple of nights. Everyone congregated in our room to enjoy the free entertainment of a 5 year old and 2 year old... pillowfights, jumping from bed to bed, etc. Who needs TV when you have kids?!?! :-) Anyway, Wednesday mid-morning, we headed over to Chris' brother, Tim's house. Tim&Cristina live in a small town on the outskirts of Pensacola with their 3 kids... Kimberly(5 1/2 yrs old), Kailey (3 yrs old) and Nathan (2 yrs old). The ladies helped Cristina with making pies for a little bit, then Chris, Kim, David and I all had to go to campus for haircuts. We then met at LongHorn Steakhouse for dinner (all 17 of us). We had a good day just spending time with family!

THANKSGIVING TRIP TO PENSACOLA, FL - TUESDAY

Nathan Chromy&Caroline (soon-to-be Chromy) LaChance
Chris&I were able to meet up with Nathan&Caroline on Tuesday for lunch before Chris' family came in. It was nice to spend time with my family (and soon-to-be-family - June 30, 2007) :-) as well.












SURPRISE!! Joke's on you, Mom!
Chris' mom was prepared to surprise her 3 youngest kids, but was surprised herself when she looked up to see Chris, Sandy, and Kim, along with their families. She sobbed! :-)

Chris&Heather Mitchell

Kim& David Fox

Tron & Tynan (Sandy's boys) have a pillowfight with Grandpa

Uncle Chris & Tron - Chris was already sitting like this watching TV, and Tron crawled up beside him and copied him.

THANKSGIVING TRIP TO PENSACOLA, FL - MONDAY

Kathryn Hazewinkel
Steven Hazewinkel
Heather Mitchell & Kathryn Hazewinkel

Over the week of Thanksgiving, we took a trip to Pensacola, FL. The purpose of this trip was to surprise Chris' mom by having all of her children together during the time of the holidays. Unfortunately, one of the children and their spouse were not able to make it, and another child's spouse was not able to make it either. However, MOST of the family was able to make the trip.

Chris and I were able to head down to FL on Monday. Chris was able to get off work earlier than expected, so we made the 8 hour 45 minute drive and arrived in Pensacola around 5pm. We were able to catch up with one of Chris' co-worker/friend from when he worked as a Graduate Assistant, and enjoyed the time over dinner with her. Then we spent the night with our good friends, Rob & Emily Hazewinkel. We were able to meet the newest addition to their family, Kathryn (Katie), who is now 6 months old, and play with her big brother, Steven, who is 2 1/2 years old. We had a good time catching up with them as well.

WILD WEEKEND

Steve & Joy Francis, Brendan & Dylan, and 5 teens from the Southland Missionary Baptist Church where Steve is the music/youth pastor.
Brendan & Dylan Francis
A wild game of PIT!!

This weekend, we were supposed to leave on Saturday for the Thanksgiving weekend. However, our lack of finances deterred us from leaving to go to my brother, Steve's, house in Jacksonville, FL. I ended up picking up an extra shift of work instead. When I arrived home, there were 9 extra people at our house. (This was planned, of course.) Chris' friend from PCC, Steve, is a music/youth pastor at Southland Missionary Baptist Church in Cincinatti, OH. Steve and his wife, Joy, and their two boys, along with 5 teens from their youth group, were on a college trip. They started out visiting Shawnee Baptist College (which is the college that our church started). From here, they headed to Crown College in TN, then on to Pensacola Christian College in FL. They ALL spent the night at our house, went to church with us on Sun. morning, then headed down to TN. We had a blast playing PIT . It was fun having so many people around, and we were glad to be a blessing and save them some money on hotel costs. BUT - it was a little wild having so many people spending the night at our house at one time!

JUST FOR RACHEL... CARDS AND CRAFTS!

Welcome Cross-stitch

I stitched this as a wedding gift for my sister-in-law and her husband... it's only 5 years late! :-) I made up the pattern from different books and cross-stitch patterns that I already had. Obviously, I haven't had a chance to frame this one yet.

Wolf Cross-stitch

Another wedding gift for another sister-in-law and her husband. (This one wasn't quite so late... only a year and 1/2!!) I haven't had a chance to get it framed yet, either.

Hedgehog Candy Cane

(I put flocking on the hedgehogs' bellies so that they feel fuzzy!)

Embossed Christmas Angel

Embossed Victorian Christmas

Winter Smiles Christmas

Pumpkin Thank you

Free punkins Thank you

My friend, Rachel, told me that she wanted me to post some pictures of cards that I have made, so that she could see them. So - here they are. Some of the pictures didn't turn out great, but you'll get the idea. Also, I'm including pics of two cross-stitches that I just finished. Enjoy!

TEAS, TREES, & TREASURES

Snowman door hanger

Brown paper bags, stuffed with shredded newspaper, painted and embellished make great snowmen.

This was my contribution to the tree... the star topper. They delegated me because they said that I'm "so creative" that I could figure something out. They helped with different ideas, though... I just put it all together.
The Lollipop Tree

November 15 was Teas, Trees, and Treasures at the school where I work. It is a craft show fundraiser. The classes all decorate trees and baskets for a silent auction to benefit the school, then each classroom does crafts to sell and that money goes to the specific class for field trip money. Here are some pictures of the tree that we decorated (The Lollipop Tree) and our craft that we did for our classroom. Our students actually helped with the craft, too!

THINGS I LEARNED IN SCHOOL TODAY

DID YOU KNOW? Today in music class at school (where I work) we sang the song "Over the River and Through the Woods." Now, I have always sung this song at Christmastime as a Christmas song. However, today I learned that it is NOT a Christmas song... it is a THANKSGIVING song! Here are the lyrics (for 3 verses):

Over the River and Through the Woods


Over the river and through the woods,
To grandmother's house we go;
The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh,
Through the white and drifted snow, O!

Over the river and through the woods,
Oh how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes, and bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.





Over the river and through the woods,
To have a first-rate play;
Oh hear the bells ring, "Ting-a-ling-ling!"
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day, Hey!

Over the river and through the woods,
Trot fast my dapple gray!
Spring over the ground,
like a hunting hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day, Hey!



Over the river and through the woods,
And straight through the barnyard gate,
We seem to go extremely slow.
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river and through the woods,
Now grandmother's cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!

I also learned that the Physical Therapist is a Christian, and she was a huge blessing and encouragement to me. Another thing I learned is that if you have a very quick special needs child that loves to grab things and loves to eat candy, you need to keep him FAR AWAY from a "Lollipop Tree." (Pictures will be posted later... of the tree, not the child.) We were able to save the tree, but this child was very intent on stealing the lollipops off the tree. He ate 7 lollipops within less than 5 minutes on Halloween! Talk about a sugar high! :-)

THANK GOD FOR LITTLE THINGS

Most of you who know me know that I have an awful tendency to be negative. This is a character trait that I am working on (or trying to allow God to work on) in my life. With all the frustrating things going on in our lives right now (especially financially), I just wanted to share a little thing that I am thankful for today. Since I work in the public schools, I do not work with my little boy when there is no school. All of the schools were closed to students on Tuesday, Election Day, so I in essence had the day off. However, I was able to make a little bit of extra $ because I did an admission that morning, and then enjoyed the rest of the day off by starting to make my Christmas cards. :-) This morning, I was just putting my lunch together about 5 minutes before I had to leave, and I received a phone call from my little boy's grandma saying that he would not be going to school today. Now, that raises conflicting emotions for me... no work, no income; however, I love to be able to stay home and work on projects when Chris isn't home. ANYWAY, I called my agency to let them know that I was not going to school today, and they had a shift open 15 minutes from me with a baby that I have already worked for several times. So - I left for work at my normal time, and was able to put in 6 hours on a day that I would have had no work if they had that shift covered. So - I'm thankful that the baby didn't have a nurse scheduled for today, and that I was still able to work and get some income. Thank God for the little things! Also, today, I am extra thankful for my husband and how God has kept him safe. He is driving somewhere between 1,500 & 2,000 miles per week. In Kentucky/Indiana, sometimes I think that people are TRYING to get into car accidents... they drive like IDIOTS!! They run you off the road, drive 5-10 miles below the speed limit in the high speed lane, cut you off and then slam on their brakes... etc. Today, Chris was almost involved in 3 major accidents while driving around, but God protected him! Also, our car started making a clicking sound this week. Today, it got really bad, so Chris went to an auto shop to have it looked at. Come to find out, we paid for synthetic oil in our last oil change, and the guy put regular oil in instead of synthetic. :-{ Chris ended up driving almost 8,000 miles on regular oil (he just lost track of how long it had been... even with synthetic oil we don't usually wait til 8,000 miles!), and it was totally broken down in the engine. So, what am I thankful for? I'm thankful that the engine didn't blow up somewhere out in the middle of the sticks of Kentucky when Chris was driving to an appointment; I'm thankful that the clicking stopped as soon as the oil was changed, which indicates that the engine was not damaged; and I'm thankful that the cost was only the amount of an oil change, not a new car! There's got to be SOMETHING positive about every day, right?!??! :-)

Thankful for Family

Nothing really exciting going on here... just a note to say I'm so thankful for family (and friends.) I was able to talk to my mom for over an hour today, and then my sister called and I have no idea how long I talked with her (my cell phone lost the call once, then turned off because of no power, then I called her back with Chris' phone!.... Technology is GREAT!!) It is so encouraging to have a family that are Christians, and encourage you spiritually when you are doubting and discouraged. I also was able to talk to a good friend today, and always am encouraged after talking with her. Thank God for family and friends!
Chris and I took a road trip today to Nashville, TN. It was an exactly 5 hour trip from the time we left the house til we returned to the house. I know this sounds silly, but we drove down there to put Chris' paycheck in the bank. We bank with a "nationwide" bank, however, for whatever reason, they do not service Indiana, Kentucky, or Ohio. (????) We use direct deposit and online banking (what would we ever do if the power went out for a while?), so it's not usually a problem, but this time we needed it in the bank ASAP. So, we spent some quality time venturing down to Nashville, putting the check in the bank, and heading home. Exciting, huh?
We drove by Churchill Downs on the way, and saw a plethora of horse trailers due to the Breeder's Cup happening today. Then we drove by the airport (not more than a minute away) and saw a whole bunch of private jets, all in for the Breeder's Cup as well. So - that was the excitement for us today! :-)