Thanksgiving and more giving

How was everyone's thanksgiving?! Lot's of food and family time I hope! Ours turn out pretty awesome, minus my, just in time for the holiday's, sickness. But even that couldn't stop me from feeling truly thankful this year!

Wednesday morning I woke up not feeling to well, Cain was off to work for a few hours and while I got things ready for a trip to Ohio I started feeling more and more light headed and ill.

 By the time Cain got home I was ready to hit the hay and sleep until thanksgiving! But sadly that wasn't in my cards! We said our goodbyes to Nova and drove to Ohio. Determined I would have a happy holiday I smiled through the pain of my headache! We had a great night with Cain's family (which we always do!) the kids are always so excited to see us,........... well okay, maybe just Cain, but I like to think they are excited to see me too :p What's not to love about Cain is something I tend to say often, because it's just a true statement. EVERYONE loves Cain. He is so fun to be around, and he loves his family more then anything. So I can't blame his siblings for wanting to see him more then me! 

Wednesday night I had a fever, but luckily I am marrying a sweetheart who took time to make sure I had medicated to help ease the pain. By 2:00am the fever was breaking and after tossing and turning for awhile I got a couple hours of sleep. But HEY it was THANKSGIVING so I woke up my smile from isn't frowning place and was ready for the day.

(My "holy cow I'm getting married" ring shot)

We got to see Cain's Grandma Ruth, Aunt Roda (And Hope, her kitty), his Uncle Steve, Aunt Kate, brother Derrek, Cat, his sister Christine and her boyfriend Ty!

Talk about everyone getting together for the holidays! It was awesome to have everyone there in one place. His Grandma Ruth is on my list of all time favorite people. She is so straight forward and to the point. I love her honestly, yet loving heart she has with it. When ever she tells a story or gives advise I start to catch myself taking notes in my head lol it's odd I know.  Aunt Roda is a hoot to be around, try not laughing at one of her comments or jokes, it's impossible I swear!

Here is Scott (Cain's dad) reading off our "thankful leafs" from the tree. Wanna guess what mine was?! Well I'll just tell you ;)

"Thankful to become a future Grogg"

hehe. Me a Grogg, yup so happening!

Cain made the three hour drive from his Dad's to my family's house in two. Yes, I'll say it again if you didn't think you read that right. Cain made the three hour drive from his Dad's too my family's house in two. Yes two hours. I was very impressed and a little scared. But thankful. It was wonderful to see my family. I can be gone a day, and it feels like years. I missed helping my mom get everything ready for thanksgiving ... but was okay with just having everything prepared for me! ;p

Emma made her first day-bew at our house Thursday. As much as we loved seeing Derek and Lana, Emmie stole the show. It was my paw-paw's and Nova's first time meeting our sweet baby girl. Both did well by not getting to close lol my Grandpa said he was to old to be holding something that small. Nova wasn't to sure about her smell lol

My Grandpa, Mom, sister and niece! 

It was a great night. But our thanksgiving wasn't over yet. We had one more thing to take care of on Friday. You see, people are so giving to us... we wanted to give back this year.

Grandma Smith has been cooking on a one heater stove top for a while now. Even though most people would complain all day about that and throw a fit (someone like me!) she hasn't. She still makes everyone a big breakfast anytime she gets the chance. She just does everything with one little heater on the stove. Only a great grandma could pull something like that off!

Well last week our Church gave each family $50 to give to someone in need this Thanksgiving.  We could give the money to anyone we felt needed it. We couldn't just go give someone $50 bucks in cash though, we had to go meet that person's need. And we could have done a lot with that money, there was endless ways to spend it. But only one way hit both our hearts, we knew what we needed to do. No one is more deserving then our grandparents. Those two are the most loving, giving, hard working and honest people you'll meet. We got ahold of the rest of the family and everyone wanted to help us out in giving them this gift. It's nice to see the willingness to help our family.

Cain found a stove at Lowe's he thought grandma would love, we loaded it up Friday after he got off work and headed over to their home. With the help of Toni and Matt, by getting them out of the house we were able to take the one heater working, gross and falling apart stove out and replace it with the beautiful new one! All in under a hour by the way haha.

We got a call later that night from grandma. I won't say her age because she would probably hurt me, but she told us she has NEVER had a new stove before. I can say I have never had a new stove before but I'm 22, I've got many chances for that. But through her life she has never gotten the chance to have a new stove. But she can't say that anymore! And she better be making us breakfast soon with all 4 heaters WORKING!

New stove!

Yes, I was sick though all of that time. But nothings a better medices then making people happy! Toni was so sweet yesterday, I talked to her for a short time at Lowe's and she asked if I was sick. How could she tell over the phone I thought? I was sure doing a good job faking my "I'm perfectly healthy and alive right now" sound, so I thought. Haha she's a mom she knows everything though. So after we had loaded the oven and were driving, Toni called Cain and after awhile he smiled and looked at me. I guess she had told him everything he needed to do to help me out with my sickness. What a great mother in law I have. So that night Cain brought me home a couple CVS bags filled with different ways to help me sleep and get better. I would like to thank Cain for the restful night and a morning without a stuffed up noes and dry throat but I think Toni deserves that praise ;) Haha.

I am sooooo much better today! Feeling a bit more like a human (I was thinking I was becoming a zombie for awhile) and my appetite is back!

Even though thanksgiving is over, I still count my blessings. Life has so much to offer you if you just embrace the hard times and learn from your mistakes. There is always love around, you've just got to be open to it.

Family is so important to both Cain and I, and I feel more blessed now then ever to have them all apart of our life. We couldn't ask for a better support team.

~Psalms 118:1

Lanette