Happy New Year...Kayci is home!!

Thanks to all of you for your calls, emails and prayers!! Kayci was discharged today from the hospital. It will be about five days till she is not contagious but she was so happy to be home!! We were thrilled also!!


We have our New Year's Joy!! Happy New Year to Everyone!!!

Update on 'Jonah Days' post

Well I am headed off to the hospital in a few minutes because they decided to keep Kayci overnight due to her fever and testing positive for RSV. Still, it is a curable illness so life is good! Will update as soon as I am home with her...hopefully tomorrow!

Jonah Days

We all have them...those days you'd rather forget! Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful for the life that I have and my family!! Things just seem to get better and better as time passes and I am so thankful for that!!

So why the title? Well as I posted earlier, my girls have been sick through the holiday and today my youngest took a trip to the emergency room. She was running a high fever and having trouble breathing...I am assuming that she has RSV. Both my husband and I are pretty familiar with that because our first daughter, Zoe, caught that when she was 3 months old and we spend new year's in the hospital. I guess I am just having flashbacks. She has not been admitted as of yet so I am hopeful that a new round of antibiotics and steroids will do the trick. I just wanted to vent a little over my poor little ones...especially Kayci. The one thing that I appreciate about Jonah Days is how they remind you of what really matters and why I am so thankful for my life and the loves that are in it!

(Disclaimer: Grandparents who read this post....there was no need at this point to alert you. It is not a life threatening illness and there was no need to disturb your holiday as of yet!)

The O'Neil Family 2007 Year in Review

A Christmas Story??!!

By now I am sure that most of you have heard of, if not watched...several times, the movie, A Christmas Story. Well, for those of you who have not been blessed by this Christmas wonder, let me enlighten you. It is hilarious movie about the goings on of a family in the 1940s. Now my siblings and I have remarked on many occasions how similar the dad and mom are to our own, IN SOME WAYS...must be clarified to avoid any unfortunate happenings as Paige is the only one at present able to escape their wrath!
Anywho...as I was saying, some of the things in the movie have actually happened at the Bennett household from time to time. SO...I got this wonderful idea to actually 'play out' a movie event. In the movie, the dad receives a "Major Award" for something he had applied for and when it arrived, caused quite uproar to say the least!! It was a full plastic leg lamp which lit up very brightly and was placed, by the dad, in the picture window in front of the house! The mother was not amused...as can be imagined and the lamp met a tragic end soon after...totally by accident!!??(or did it)

Well I happened to find that same lamp...online of course... and purchased it for dad for Christmas. Oh she is a beauty with her hardcore fishnet stocking and black three inch pump. The reaction from both parents was exactly what I expected...for reference see movie or Christmas 2007 montage below! Though she has not ended up in the picture window yet, she is perched on the den TV at present! Will I hear the sound of taps being played...one will have to wait and see!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!!

May you and yours have a blessed day!!
Love the O'Neil's

Merry Christmas Eve

What an original title....right? Well I mean it!! Merry Christmas Eve everyone. As you get ready to eat, drink, and be merry... if not already, let me remind you of the reason we celebrate this special occasion. It's a birthday really...although perhaps not in this actual month.

...and there were in the same country shepherds keeping watch over their fields by night. And lo an angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were afraid. The angel said to fear not for he brought good tidings of great joy. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a saviour who is Christ the Lord. This star shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and laying in a manger.

That baby was Jesus...that was the first Christmas and the first gift that was given. His later gift was to be his life for our sin so that we could be with him one day! What a holiday to celebrate!

Merry Christmas to you and to you all the love He has to give!

I want my chocolate peppermint stick!!!!

Well I guess that I can't expect things to run smoothly all of the time when I have children right?! Ugh....my littlest one has a version of pink eye and ear infections that we are keeping a close eye on. My middle one is coughing and taking breathing treatments. My oldest...well she does not seem to be getting along with anyone in the family at present...woe is me... seems to be her staple right now (she is 5 so what can I expect at 13).

Well I got to thinking...as I sometimes do... It occurred to me that at any other time of the year I'd probably not bat a eye, so to speak, and just chalk it up to having children and what comes along with it. During the holidays, however, I seem to take an approach that all should be rosy and bright, candles flickering, Christmas music playing, fire roaring, and snowflakes gently falling outside our picture window. When someone throws a rock, braking the window, I get a little discombobulated! I want to join in the chaos and throw myself down on the floor screaming, "I want my chocolate peppermint stick"(see last post). But, if life gave us those all the time we'd probably lose the ability to savor the sweetness they give!

Alas, tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la I love my girls EVEN when my life's not quite perfect. Merry Christmas to all and to all a chocolate peppermint stick!!

Oh that life were a chocolate peppermint stick

Around the holidays...and other times of the year possibly...they make these chocolate peppermint sticks. They are tiny, dipped in chocolate and quite wonderful to eat. This afternoon I gave my girls each a stick and watched them eat it. Of course they got the chocolate all over them and made yum noises as they ate. Zoe and Hannah bit right through and chomped it down but Kayci had to take a different approach because she only has her... 'rat teeth' as we call them... in. She sucked and sucked and smacked and drooled till she had dissolved it and it is all over her face. I got to thinking as I watched the different approaches and realized that it's a lot like how we approach life sometimes. There are those of us that just 'chomp' it right down and then others that saver each moment life has to offer...with almost childlike pleasure. It was in that moment that I decided to take some moments from time to time and experience the pleasure that life is and can be. It is my hope that you will do the same from time to time...make life your 'chocolate peppermint stick' and enjoy!

I send Holiday Greetings!

To All My Democratic Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply th at America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To My Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Well I guess we all know which way I lean now don't we. LOL!! All political jokes aside....have a great Christmas everyone!!

Party Time!

Since the Christmas Parade, the girls have hardly been able to wait until the school Christmas party. Zoe, particularly, had been counting the days till the party. She had already picked out the outfit she wanted to wear and wrapped the gifts she had to give.

Today arrived and they were both up and around....which usually does not happen but we had reminded them last night about today's party. We snapped some pictures at the house then Mark took them to school and snapped the rest between presents and snacking. Days like today are one in a million and make for sweet memories!

Ice Cream in December

This weekend Pat (or papa hat) came to visit with us and we had a wonderful time! It was even so hot that we made ice cream, coke float flavor...Mark's newest creation, on Saturday night after we went to look at the Christmas light display at North Hill. What a fun time we had with that one. It was just a wonderfully spontaneous weekend....kind of like ice cream in December.

Home for the Holidays

As I have said in an earlier post, my sister usually decorates my parents house for Christmas. Because she is overseas, my mom decorated from pictures she took last year. She did a bang up job and I promised to send Paige pictures. Paige, this post is for you! I love you and miss you very much!

Nan and Pop Claus

Our town has a Christmas Parade the first Monday in December. This year, my parents were selected as the Santa and Ms. of Christmas. It was very exiting for Zoe...who now feels a special connection to the 'big guy' and sure then to get exactly what she has asked for. She even got to ride on the float with them as Rudolph! I think she'll be in the clouds for days!! Hannah and Kayci enjoyed watching the parade from Dad's truck bed. Hannah especially enjoyed catching candy and eating it as the parade went by! It was truly a night to remember!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

LSU...no more needs to be said...well perhaps a little:)

Well I just had to post about my favorite college team! I don't care what anyone says, they have earned this game against Ohio all the way. Les Miles is a wonderful coach and person as far as I am concerned!

The Tigers (11-2), who dropped six spots to seventh after falling to Arkansas in their regular-season finale, bypassed three teams that either won (Virginia Tech) or were idle (Georgia and Kansas) by defeating Tennessee in the SEC title game.

"I'd like to thank the voters, those people that are responsible," LSU coach Les Miles said. "We're humbled by this selection. We'll honor that game with our finest effort."

That game will kick off at the Superdome in New Orleans on Jan. 7th.

Geaux Tigers!!

Friends of the Midnight Hour

Remember how, when you were young, you would stay up late then rise early in the morning for cartoons or whatever reason. The energy springing from a child...of which you were... was almost endless.
Well, it's very nice to know that I can still do it...even though 35 is not old...Well not anymore!
We had some wonderful friends come over last night for dinner. We sat to eat and just began talking about different topics. Before we realized, it was 2:00 am. Wow! Lately I have only been up at that hour to feed Kayci. It was really nice to have adult conversation that lasted till the midnight hour and later! Mark and I (also our girls) really enjoyed the visit and must do it again very soon! Samantha and Lucas are great people and friends of the kind you don't see often! We're lucky that they don't mind hanging around with 'old people':)

Friends of the midnight hour...ride on!

Mr. Scrooge and Santa's helpers

I know it will appear that I am a person with too much time on her hands BUT that is not so!! This was just TOO funny to pass up doing!!

Hope you enjoy my morphisms!!

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