Just Stuff!!

Hello All!  When I started this blog I my plan was to post a little more often.  But with having 3 kiddos home for the summer and our schedule being crazy that hasn’t happened.  So for now, bare with me and try to make it through the randomness of this post.

I’m a little teary this morning at the fact that school starts in less than one month.  WOW.  It seems like this summer has went by a ton quicker than last summer.  I find myself counting down and again wondering…"Did I do enough with them?”  One thing that I KNOW I didn’t do enough was school work at home. When summer started we took two mornings per week and went over flash cards, practiced math, handwriting, and spelling.  Well, I haven’t done that in at least 3 weeks.  Hopefully knowing that we only have 4 weeks left will get be back on track again.  I read that kids loose a lot of their knowledge in the summer.  Oh well, hopefully they will remember it again once school starts back.  If I were grading me on this subject I would get a big F for the summer.  Live and Learn right?

Jeff just celebrated his birthday on Sunday.  He turned 36 and said that it was one of his better birthdays in a long while.  We celebrated by taking the kids to the lake.  We had to PRY them out of the water due to the fact that the beach was closing soon.  Emmitt has always loved the beach and water (just like his daddy).  He stayed in the water the majority of the time.  The girls however built sand castle after sand castle.  And I think that we brought home most of the sand with us.  I’m still stepping on it around the house.  It was a great day and I’m so glad that I got to share it with my family.  I feel like I cooked all weekend for him.  BTW..you need to look for Blue Bells Ice Cream.  I bought him Blackberry Cobbler for his birthday weekend and it is DA BOMB.  It’s got ribbons of blackberries and even bits of pastry through the ice cream. I have heard that they have an amazing Snickerdoodle ice cream also.  Delish!

We have great friends coming to visit us today from Tennessee.  They are Jon and Lorrie Ritchie and they have a son, John Michael, Emmitt’s age.  And a daughter, Megan, Carleigh’s age.  The kids call them their adoptive cousins.  We met them when they were pregnant with John Michael at a church that we attended and have really been bonded to them ever since.  They have been their for the birth of every child.  When I had Elijah in April, and it was so sudden, Lorrie of course couldn’t be there.  So she called about a million times wanting to know what was going on.  About an hour before I had him we had a knock at the door.  Lorrie had sent her sister, Megan, to “stand in” for her since she couldn’t be their.  I was so touched.  She brought an adorable little Baby Bootie Vase with beautiful blue Hydrangeas in it and also a little Precious Moments stuffed toy that was a little boy on his knees praying.  I don’t think that she even knows what it looks like, so I will be happy to show her what she sent this week when I show her the pics of Elijah.  The kids are SOOOO excited to play with their “cousins”.  It will be a fun few weeks for sure.  BTW, I cannot talk about them without mentioning that their kids go to school with Steven Curtis Chapman’s kids.  Megan plays with his youngest, Stevie Joy a lot.  Jeff and I are in awe because we both feel like he is the best Christian song writer their ever was.  We had two of his songs in our wedding.  It’s no big deal for them to go to birthday parties or have play dates at their house.  I’m like “HELLO, It’s STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN”.  For those of you who don’t know him here is his website.  www.stevencurtischapman.com.  Anyway just had to add that.

Jeff is really close to being done with school for the semester.  He has one test tonight and a final tomorrow and then he is done for 4 weeks.  It will be so nice to have him home in the evenings.  We have missed him so.

My heart is heavy today for my friend Kim.  She will have a double Mastectomy at 10 am this morning.  Please remember her in your prayers.  I cannot imagine how she is feeling right now.  We have meals covered for her family for at least the next 3 weeks.  I keep telling myself “By His stripes she is healed”.  We love you Kim and will be there with you every step of the way!  Stay strong!

My heart is also heavy for a few of my friends right now.  I cannot go into detail about what has happened with all of them.  But they are hurting right now and I just want to make it all better for them.  Please remember a very special “unspoken request” in your prayers today.

On a much lighter and sillier note I have to talk about my Jazzercise. Ya’ll know how much I love Jazzercise.  I started it when Emmitt was just 5 months old and have been their faithfully ever since.  It’s such a great stress reliever and I absolutely love teaching. Every 2 months or so we get a new DVD with about 30 songs on it to teach the class.  Well I just have to say that the newest DVD is AWESOME.  I very rarely get excited about the music because quite frankly when Jeff and I have music on around our house or in the car it’s usually worship music or Hanna Montana. (ha).   So I don’t know a lot of the new music that they send.  However, the new set is totally old school.  It has songs from Paula Abdul, Salt and Peppa (not pepper), Lionel Ritchie, and a tribute to the Jacksons. Now, those are songs that I know.  I think that I was in elementary school when Salt and Peppa came out with “Push It”.  Am I getting old?  I feel like it.  Anyway, I’m so excited to teach the songs and see the looks on the customers faces when I break out Salt and Peppa and the Jackson 5. Ha!

That’s all for now folks. Hope you have an awesome day!

Marsha

This is Jeff……

 

to those of you who don’t know my sweet husband, I want to share him with you.

36 years ago today Jeffrey Lee Hasty was born into this world.  He grew up in the booming town of Bismarck Missouri.  He lived in the same home for his entire childhood.  He was really good at Basketball and Baseball in school.  He also played saxophone in the schools band and Jazz band and won MANY awards for his talents.  (Bet you didn’t know that). 

We met at church after he graduated High School.  I really liked his smile and attitude, and boy did he have one back then.  What also attracted me to him was his personality.  He is very quiet when you first get to know him, but once you know him a little while you understand that he is so funny and the life of the party!!!

Jeff accepted Jesus into his heart (and it stuck) at a Carmen concert soon after we started dating.  His life has never been the same.

Jeff graduated X-Ray school on July 18 of 1997 and we married the next week on July 26, 1997.  You may hear him talk about his love for Florida a lot.  I would like to think that it’s because that is where we Honeymooned.  It was both of ours first plane rides, first trip by ourselves, his first time to Disneyworld…and we had a BLAST!

Many of you may not know but Jeff and I moved to Kansas City in 2000 after a very hard trial in our marriage.  We had decided to split up (for reasons that one day I very well may tell you about, just not today), we were living separately and we thought our marriage was OVER.  But GOD>>>he had other plans for us.  Jeff told me that one day God woke him up out of a sleep and told him that it wasn’t over and that we needed to be together.  We got back together and God did a miraculous healing in our marriage and hearts.  Emmitt Michael Hasty was born almost exactly one year to the date that we said that we were over.  The attorney had already been called.  But God>>>again he had other plans for us.  Plans to not harm us, plans to give us HOPE and a FUTURE.  Jeff has said many times that the easy thing would have been to divorce.  The hardest thing that we ever could have done was stay together and work through all that we chose to work through.  I plea to any of you reading this that is going through a “trial” in your marriage.  Trust God.  It may not seem like you are going to make it, but you will.  God has plans for YOU also.

Carleigh Rae Hasty was born on November 11, 2002 and had daddy wrapped around her little finger from the moment that they met.  Although I have to mention that when she was little she cried a lot for me.  I would hand her to Jeff to get things done around the house and she would start crying.  He would bounce her on his knee and say “She hates me”.

Delaney Grace Hasty was born February 11, 2006 and so Jeff had yet another Daddy’s little girl!  They truly have a unique father daughter relationship.  She thinks that the son rises and sets with him.

Then there were our sweet angel babies.  Jordan, Mia and baby Elijah.  Before loosing them I’m sure that Jeff would have told you that there was no way that he could go through anything like that.  He’s such a great dad and loves his kids SO much.  But once again he has persevered and I believe he’s become wiser, stronger, and closer to God and his family all at the same time.

I honestly believe that Jeff could write a book on parenting.  He thinks about things that my mind has never once thought about concerning the children.  Regarding their personalities, sports, what they watch on T.V. and many other things.  He loves those kids more than ANYTHING and has proven over and over again that he would sacrifice anything for them and not complain one time about it.

To wrap it up, here are a few words to describe why I think the world is a better place because of Jeff being born exactly 36 years ago today…..

Jeff is:

• a Godly man
• a provider
• an amazing MRI Technologist
• a friend
• a worshiper
• funny
• intelligent
• the best father that I ever could have asked for
• a loving husband
• sentimental
• a fighter
• a wonderful Coach
• really good at fixing things around the house
• always quick to praise someone for a job well done
• a crier
• more patriotic than anyone I know
• a lover of Diet Coke, iphones, golf, MRI, Red Velvet Cake, Hard Rock, Petra, and Disney World

Happy Birthday Babe~!  We LOVE you!

Marsha, Emmitt, Carleigh and Delaney

A trip to remember!

Since I last wrote my sister and the kids and I took a quick trip down home (one hour south of St. Louis) to visit family and my grandmother who is very sick. (I wrote about her in my last post).  She isn’t doing well and I fear that she only has a little while left on this side of heaven.  However, we had a wonderful time getting to see her and family and showing the kids all that we used to do growing up.  I thought instead of just writing about what we did, I’ll show you in the pics we took. 

 

Emmitt and Carleigh swimming at my Aunt Lisa’s!

 

Delaney sleeping at Nana’s house! So sweet!

Jeff’s  mom, brother, father in law, and nephew Taylor and Niece Kaitlyn at the Family Fun Center!

Miss D concentrating on her golf game!

The kids looking completely soaked after squirting each other (and me) on the bumper boats!

Seriously, Taylor was Kaitlyn’s height at Christmas! They are amazing young adults!

My kiddos and Grandma Thurman! I hope to get many more pictures like this with her!

I love this woman!

The kids exploring the woods with PawPaw!

I love this man! He’s 83 years young!

Photo Op by the train tracks that we used to play ON when I was their age!

Delaney so proud of the rocks she picked for the memorial garden!

Love this pic of the kids at Nana’s.  I spent many years growing up at this house!

Emmitt had to try to scale the wall!

Carleigh posing on the old tractor that we used to play on!

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!

The kids on one of Paw Paw’s tractor rides!

One last picture for the day!

Delaney after she was stung by a wasp 3 times.  Ooooh the drama~

Enjoying the St. Louis arch!

My thinker, figuring out how the arch was made!

E touching a stingray at the St. Louis Zoo!

Carleigh NOT touching the stingray.  Ewww gross!

2 seconds after I took this, the bird squawked at Delaney and made her cry! Ha!

Had to post this.  These are what we in the country call “Chigger Bites”. Ouch!  We were all covered in them.  It was from our walk in the woods!

Popsicle Smiles!

Sweet sisters!

HUGS!

and hugs to you all.  Hope you enjoyed our pictures!

Marsha

It’s Christmas In July!!!

What?  You didn’t know that it’s Christmas in July?  It is to me.  You see, it’s about this time every year that I get the itch.  What starts it?  Knowing that HSN and QVC will have a few glorious weeks of nothing but Christmas items.  Christmas Decor, Gift Ideas, Toys, and anything that you could possibly need for the Ho-Ho-Home. (I couldn’t resist). 

It all started the July after Jeff and I got married.  He discovered that all the home shopping channels have Christmas in July.  We were glued to the T.V. for an entire week.  Now when July rolls around, instead of planning for Summer activities, I start wondering when HSN will start showing the glorious Christmas Festivities.  I laugh when I see beautiful young models showing off their best “Ugly Christmas Sweater”. 

 

Here is one you can by on ebay for only $39.99.  Wow what a bargain.  It even lights up!

Did you know that people even have “Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties?”  One of Jeff’s friends was invited to one last year.  Isn’t that a hoot?  Everyone got together and wore what they thought was the ugliest Christmas sweater.  I wonder if they gave a way a prize for the worst?  My wheels are turning now, I want to have a party like that and take LOTS of pictures.  It would be soo fun.

Anyway, back to Christmas.  My families favorite movie is Christmas Vacation.  We watch it every year, (one or two or 50 times).  Unfortunately my kiddos have not been able to watch the best movie ever made because Clark drops a few f-bombs, and other “choice” words.  Maybe this year we’ll do what my dad did when we got to a bad part of a movie when I was growing up……fastforward until he thought it was done and then grunt the whole time.  We’ve been known to quote word for word parts of the movies at each other.  I don’t think that we ever have a meal with my mom and dad and Sis and Tom when someone doesn’t say  “If this is half as good as it looks, we’re in for a reaaaal nice surprise!”  He he!  I laugh just typing it.  BTW…our house is totally decorated for Christmas.  It’s right up there with Clark W. Griswalds.  Every year we add more and more to it.  I’ll have to take a picture this year and post it.

So if your interested, HSN starts Christmas in July on the 15th.  QVC will start theirs on the 25th.  I’m so excited~~

I’ve went so far as to get a Southern Living Christmas book from the library this month.  It had some great ideas and had a recipe that I will most definitely try in November. (if not sooner).  Are you ready for this??? Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream.  I don’t even like sweets, but that sounds DELISH.  You basically take a Frozen Premade Pumpkin Pie, chop it into bite size pieces and stir it into semi melted ice cream.  Then you re-freeze it for a little while.  Mmmmmm.

You may have already guessed that I’m not one of those last minute shoppers.  I start buying things right about now and am usually done by the 1st week of December.  I love finding the perfect gift.  It is truly more blessed to give than receive.  Last Christmas was special because I told Jeff that I was pregnant with Elijah on Christmas Eve.  I wrapped up the little stick in a pretty Christmas package and give it to him as an early Christmas present.  He was soo surprised.  I had always wanted to do that since I was a little girl.  I still have the stick in the pretty box.  The rest of the world didn’t find out about him until February.  It was our little secret.

Well, anyway, I have 5 more months to talk about all the many reasons that I so LOVE Christmas.  (I’m weird, I know that you were thinking it).

Here’s something fun for you to watch (you will have to turn off the music at the bottom of the blog to hear it).  I would love it if you could send me a comment of your favorite Christmas movie or tradition.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzMUxMp1ndk

By the way….Christmas is  167 days, 4 hours and 52 minutes.  But who’s counting?

By for now!

Marsha

Miss D’s Debut!!!!

…you will have to scroll down to the bottom of the screen and turn off the music for you to hear this…

 

So I took this video last week and thought it was so cute I had to share it.  What I thought was funny about it is at the beginning she says “hi, my name is Laney, and I like to play and dance and FIGHT!”  Don’t know where that came from?  I also think it’s funny that the only part of the song that she knows is “I am a friend of God”.  She sings it over and over again.  She learned when I dropped the kids off at VBS a few weeks ago.  She was there maybe 3 times and picked up on the song.  It’s amazing what they learn so quickly.  Good and bad.  Tonight I had to babysit at Jazzercise and one little boy kept saying “Butt” and “Nerd”.  I could see her wheels turning on how she could use those words in her next sentence.  By the way, there were little girls there and 3 8 year old boys.  Guess who she played with????  U guessed it.  The boys.  She even beat one of them up so much that he came and told on her. Ha!  At least I’ll never have to worry about her not sticking up for herself when she starts dating. 

Switching gears here:

I posted on Facebook today that Emmitt is just certain that President Andrew Jackson is the Grandfather of a Mr. Michael Jackson.  He also informed us last week that he believed that MJ didn’t love Jesus.  We of course asked why he would say such a thing and his response was “None of his songs are about Him!”  Ouch.  Jeff was quick to let him know that MJ and God would be the only ones to know for sure.  I told you all that he was my thinker. 

So my question to you tonight is this…what will people say about you when your gone?  Did you point them to the cross every chance that you got or were there times when you didn’t feel like going against the crowd?

I had a situation just last week where I chose to be the one who didn’t go with the crowd.  No one would have even noticed if I did, they wouldn’t have said anything if I gave in.  I think sometimes true success in life is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. 

Switching gears again:

I need prayer for my Grandma Thurman this week.  She is 77 years old and is very sick.  She has Congestive Heart Failure, her kidneys are failing, and she has fluid around her lungs from an infection that she has had ongoing.  She is also starting to have short term memory loss.  She says the same things over and over again.  And will ask you a question 6 times.  The Dr’s have pretty much said that there is nothing much they can do for her, so she is starting Hospice on Friday. My grandpa died the fall after I graduated high school.  She has been very sad since he passed and I just think that she’s ready to go “Home”.  I’m planning on going home to visit her next week.  I hope she stays with us for a long time, but if not, I want to hug her one last time. The last time that I talked to her was a few days after I had Elijah.  She just kept saying over and over again “I’m sorry about your baby, I’m sorry about your baby”. I’m 5 hours away from her and still remember the way she smells.  She’s known for her Chicken and Dumplings and you will hardly ever find her without a giant cup sipping sweet tea or diet soda.  Virginia is her name.  Please remember her tonight.  The aging process is never easy on the person who is aging, or the family that they leave behind.

I’ve talked about Delaney, Emmitt and Grandma.  How can I end this blog without talking about my sweet Carleigh?  I noticed something about her tonight at Jazzercise as well.  She is 6 1/2 years old, and is getting ready to start 1st grade.  You see she was there with 4 little girls (ages 4 and 5), but she didn’t play with them one time.  She practiced math homework and fiddled with my ipod and even sent her daddy a text at school.  WOW> my little girl is growing up.  When did she stop playing with dolls?  When did she get too big to play with toys?  When the heck did she learn to text? LOL.

That’s all for now folks.  Hope you enjoy Miss D’s debut!

Love,

Marsha

The 4th, Fireworks, Fantastic Food, Family, Fearlessness, Freedom, Fun and Falling asleep under the stars!

Whew!  What a title.  That pretty much sums up our July 4th. 

We spent waaay too much $$ on fireworks (although it was worth every penny), we ate some fantastic food, (our gatherings wouldn’t be complete without hashbrown casserole), my family came over, Emmitt, Carleigh, and Delaney were way too fearless with the fireworks, (yes I do let them light them,ooooh bad mom I know), spent the day reflecting about my freedom given to me by others who put their lives at risk everyday, and finally after a loooong day of fun the kiddos and I fell asleep under the stars in our backyard.  (Listening and watching fireworks all around).  It was wonderful.  Dare I say the best July 4th to date.  It makes me wonder how we can top it next year.

Here are some fun pics of our day.  And I don’t think Jeff cried one time.  How was your day?

  

Questions and other random things!

Why in the world do I feel such pressure to be the “Perfect MOM?”  I have realized in the last few days that I put tons of unnecessary pressure on myself.  I have never been the type to sit still long.  I always want to be doing something, cleaning something, playing with the kids or changing the world.  I don’t just RELAX. 

So here I am July 2, 2009 and I struggle with the question “have I made summer fun for them this far?”.  It’s very rare if I don’t have every moment of every day planned out.(As much as you can plan for things with 3 kiddos).  We’ve been to farms, pools, water parks, libraries, play dates, parks, malls, educational exhibits, VBS, Sports Camps, Numerous Bike Rides (all in one month mind you) and I'm sitting here tonight wondering “is it enough?”  Ahhhhhh! 

I decided this week to just relax a little.  They don’t have to do everything, be everything, and get along perfectly all of the time.  One day this week the kids were struggling to get along together and I was so upset.  I was just certain that I was a horrible parent and that was a reflection of how I had parented them.  Then it was like God himself just smacked me across the forehead and said “They’re just being kids”.

So tonight, after I post this, I’m going upstairs to just enjoying being with them and not doing everything with them.  We’ll see how it goes.  It’s not in my nature to “chillax” but I’m sure going to try.  I have housework to do, and the yard needs mowed, but it can all wait right?  Lord know the laundry monster will be there waiting on me tomorrow and the next day and the next day. Ugh. 

What have you been up to?  Let’s see, since I last posted:

• the kids started a Sports Life camp at Deerbrook Church and absolutely loved it.  The learned a ton, had a ton of fun and hopefully will remember the “experience” of Jesus being there for the rest of their life.

• Jeff and I tackled the basement that had gotten OUT OF CONTROL after having 3 kids.  We had every baby item the ever had.  I went from about 45 totes of clothes and misc. baby items to about 3 totes for Delaney (of Carleigh’s clothes) and a few seasonal totes.  Yeahhh!  It looks so good down their I should take a picture.  It seriously was our “dirty little secret”.  I would have died if anyone ever wanted to go down there.  I’m telling on myself but I’m admittedly a stasher.  Things always look clean, but don’t open the pantry, or the Tupperware drawer and don’t you even think about going down to the sub-basement.  That’s were everything is stashed.  Anyway…focus Marsha

• We finished planting the rest of the plants and vines in our memorial garden for the babies.  It looks so pretty out there and is SOOO peaceful.  I’m so thankful that Jeff had the idea to do it.

• We spent a day at Summit Waves with some of our new friends and had a blast.  However, Carleigh is finally brave enough to go down the slides and I was the lucky one who got to go up and down the 300 stairs with her about 10 times.  My glutes weren’t happy the next day but it was all worth it.  What was also worth it was talking my mom into going down one of the slides with me.  She is what you call a chicken who can’t swim.  It only goes to 4 ft of water so I was able to talk her into it.  I will never forget the way she screamed or the look of terror that she had on her face when we got off.  Priceless. ha.

• Jeff started week number 5 of school.  Wow.  So proud of him.  He’s doing really well but is completely ready for this class to be over.  He is learning about parts of the anatomy that he will never need to know, but necessary for the class. 

• We went on a Family bike ride Sunday evening.  It was great.  Carleigh rode out in front of a car TWICE, and Emmitt decided that he was going to ride on a main rode instead of the side walk.  That’s when the “momma” came out in me and I told him to get on the sidewalk NOW!!!  We got home in one piece so score for us.

• the kids are sooo excited for the 4th of July.  We tie-dyed t-shirts and tanks last Wednesday for the 4th.  Never done that before, but they loved it and were so proud of their creations.  I can’t wait to take pics.  I also cannot wait to see the looks on their faces as we do fireworks.  I love it.  I’m sure our moment will be complete with the patriotic CD that Jeff made for us.  I wonder how many times Jeff will cry on the 4th?  He is so sentimental, I love that he cries more than I do.  Sorry hunny, did I just write that?

Wow, for someone who sat down and didn’t know what to write about I sure wrote a lot!

So sorry, I’ll try to write a little more often and post a little less.  I don’t want to take up your entire eve just wanted to fill you in on “The Days Of Our Lives”.

Wishing you a wonderful 4th from the Hasty family!

Peace,

Marsha

P.S. This post wouldn’t be complete without pics of the reason why I get out of bed every morning!  Here ya go!