Top Ten of 2010

I've seen everyone's Top Ten lists so I decided to list my top ten posts (according to blogger) from this year. I think blogger has only been doing this since the middle of the year but here are the most popular at least from that time:

10. A Roll Tide Christmas Card

9. Let's Go Chiefs

8. Thankful with a Little Style

7. A Needle in Every Style

6. Christmas Tree Wars

5. Brilliant Minds

4. Thoughts Formed From Iron

3. Standing in the Gap

2. Sir Jack the Brave Knight

And I really cannot tell you how happy it makes me that this was the most popular post BY A MILE!!! I would also like to take this time to thank all my blogger friends for all the sweet comments and encouragement you have shown since I talked about Jack's diagnosis. And finally....

1. Something Bright and Beautiful

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2010 in Pictures

We had a really amazing Christmas season this year!! Instead of going thru it step by step, I'm just going to bombard you all with more Foreman Family Christmas pictures than you ever wanted to see! :)

Enjoying Daddy's new 3D TV:

Ben had to go back to work on the 22nd this year so he wasn't with us on Christmas Day. We always have our Christmas when he's home (the 19th this year) so it was a really relaxing fun day on the 25th. Here are a few pictures of Jack and I enjoying Christmas Day but missing Ben lots and lots!

Here are some pictures of Jack opening presents from Ben and I on our Christmas Eve (the 18th):

If you know my child, you know that when the hands are going, the excitement level is HIGH:

What Santa left:

Jack is the only child of two only children so you can imagine between us and grandparents and other family that Christmas for a three year old can get a little over the top. Santa only brings Jack three presents for that reason. This year, he had asked Santa for "Monster Truck Mater" and a Shrek game (this translates to a MobiGo). Ben and I asked Santa for a small trampoline to help Jack with his jumping to round out his three gifts. Jack also REALLY wanted "Stinky the Garbage Truck." He had found it in Target and I'm not exaggerating when I say that he drew a LARGE crowd every time he played with the display. Well, my parents had gotten Stinky so of course, Santa didn't bring him. When Jack got in there Christmas morning, he looked at all his loot and then very calmly said, "Hey, has anybody seen Stinky anywhere?" T.O.T.A.L.L.Y O.W.N.E.D M.E!! He did come around to his gifts eventually:

And then at lunch, he got Stinky at my parents house. It was a wonderful moment:

I know I look like I had been up all night in this picture. Well, that's because I had been up all night:

Here are some pictures of us with Ben's family Christmas night:

And some pictures of Jack and Ella opening presents from each other:

I got this cool "I caught Santa" photo from a great blog giveaway at Running Away: I'll Help You Pack. I made him a little too small but Jack liked it anyway. So Santa came:

And then there were no more presents:

Our Christmas was full of tons of joy, fun, family and food. But most of all, we were caught up in the wonder of Christmas - that the King of Kings would come to earth - would become one of us just so you and I could come to God. O, come let us adore Him!

My Kind of Superhero

A Cheesy Christmas Treat

A few days ago, Jack and I made a little treat for all his teachers at school and church. We (and by we I mean me:) made up a batch and made some cute little Christmas cards for them.

We made one batch a little bigger to take to Nana's house for our Christmas with them Saturday night.

Jack enjoyed giving them out last week to all his teachers who just happen to be some of his favorite people! And of course, I love the people who love on my baby!! :D

Christmas Tree Wars

Last time I talked about my Christmas decorations, I was really excited about getting our first real tree this year. Ben got home on the 1st of December and we went that day and picked out a beautiful 8 ft. Frasier Fur tree. We came home and put it in a tree stand and it looked wonderful!! Beautiful!! Amazing!! I had visions of beautiful lights and amazing red and green balls on this fantastic tree!! I went to bed feeling fabulous about my tree and so excited to decorate it the following night.

Then we actually started to decorate it the following night. Y'all, I haven't put lights on a tree since I was about 16 years old and then I wasn't really in charge, but just doing what someone told me to do. Well, I learned a great lesson this year - I HATE PUTTING LIGHTS ON A CHRISTMAS TREE!!! I am a pre-lit tree kind of girl for sure!! We took the lights off and put them back on that tree about 15 times (and I'm not exaggerating) and I swept my floor more times that that. It's amazing the tree has any green left on there because I filled up my trash can about 3 or 4 times that night. What's even more amazing is that my Christmas tree is up and not laying beside the side of the road. I'm telling you, if I hadn't paid good money for it, that's where it would be. Two thousand lights later (yes, you read that right - 2000) and that part of the tree was done. It wasn't done well, but it was done!

I thought my husband and I were going to KILL each other trying to decorate that tree!! All the while Jack is happily running in circles like a crazy man oblivious to any difficulty around him. I've seriously got to learn to live in Jack's world - seriously!! We actually went out of town the following day and my mother came over and moved some decorations around for us and added a few to make it look better. She just texted me and said, "The tree doctor is in!" So, we did get the tree up. I'm pretty sure it's dead at this point so we just don't go near it. I'm going to share a few pictures while it's still somewhat green. I have a few pictures of some of my other nice, easy, pre-lit trees. I didn't take one of my dining room tree. Ben put it up and decorated it for me and I wasn't all that pleased with it. However, since we had just barely decided to stay married after decorating the other tree, I let it go:)

Here she is - my first (and VERY likely LAST) real tree:

And some of my favorite ornaments this year:

Jack has made several ornaments this year in school and at church, but this is my favorite. One of his therapists from the school board that comes to the daycare twice a week helped him make this snowman ornament with his fingers... I love it! Thanks, Ms. Candy!

Jack's Alabama tree:

And Ben and I even have one in our room this year:

So, we survived our first real tree - somehow:) We are having Christmas on Saturday around here since Ben leaves on Tuesday to go back to work - it's sad, I know! We have quite a weekend planned... Yogi Bear in 3D and some last minute shopping tomorrow; Santa Saturday morning; lunch with Granny San and Grandaddy; dinner with Nana, CeCe, Papa, Uncle John, Jen, and Brannon; Christmas services at church on Sunday along with our children's musical. CANNOT WAIT!! Look what all we would have missed out on if there had actually been fatalities in our war! Merry Christmas!

A Roll Tide Christmas Card

Well, I've just put my last Christmas cards in the mail (well, I still have three waiting on current addresses but for the most part, they're done). All 150 of them - yes, 150!! Christmas cards are my biggest Christmas present (to myself) every year. I love everything about them. Getting our pictures taken (by the most talented photographer of our time in my opinion); picking out the cards; addressing them; mailing them; AND receiving them from my friends!! I just LOVE Christmas cards!! So, since I've sent (most) of mine out now, I'm going to share them here with all of my blogger friends too!


The cards were made by Patsy Brown (she's under my friends list at A Thousand Words Photography). She's just been part of our family since she was our wedding photographer years ago and she's WONDERFUL, FUN, COOL, and TALENTED and we LOVE her!! She knew the Foremans had been a little discouraged by Alabama's season this year, so she incorporated that into the card, just so everyone knows that we are STILL loving our Crimson Tide:)


From the Foreman Family to all my blogging buddies:

Thoughts Formed From Iron

First, I'm finishing up my Thankfuls...

24th: J. Crew and Crewcuts - Yeah, I know it's vain but it is what it is... I love the place!

25th: Small group Bible studies: I have grown a lot in my spiritual life thru these and I just finished my favorite one ever. The thing I am most thankful for in these is getting to know my brothers and sisters in Christ in a deeper way.

26th: Christmas decorations - just got them out on Friday and I really get excited!! Put up five trees and I'm getting my FIRST real tree this year. Unbelievable I know, but I'm thrilled! Jack has a "GO BAMA" tree in his room:)

27th: really amazing fabric - I am completely unable to do anything productive with it, but I have found that I can find great fabric and give it to other people and they can make the coolest things for me:)

28th: kitchen gadgets - crazy about them!

29th: bonfires on cool nights - We built a brick fire pit when we built our house and I LOVE IT!!

30th: And finally, I'm thankful for all my blogger friends. I can't imagine not blogging now that I've been doing it so long. I enjoy sharing about our nutty life, but more than that, I have gained so much information that I never knew I needed through this blogging world and that's been fantastic!

And now............. I've been asked about my thoughts on the Iron Bowl. For those of you who don't follow college football, the Iron Bowl is played every year between the University of Alabama (who I L-O-V-E) and their in state rival Auburn University (who I H-A-T-E). This is a HUGE football game and people from out of state who find themselves at this game really don't have a clue what to think about it. There's just no atmosphere like it... I have been to some pro football games and that atmosphere doesn't come CLOSE to this rivalry. You also should understand that some of my best friends are huge Auburn fans and this is true for most everyone so it's a really odd kind of thing - I love my friends but I want their team to be destroyed. You get over the oddness by about two years old though so no big deal anymore:)

I'm going to share my thoughts, but I'm going to say up front that I'm completely and totally biased towards Alabama. I cannot in any way be trusted to form a fair and objective opinion of the game or anything to do with the game. So, there's my disclaimer...

(and if you don't know, Alabama lost the game 28-27 after being up 24-0 at one point. Auburn is also undefeated this season and trying to get to a national championship game and their quarterback is the front runner for the Heisman trophy this year. Alabama won the national championship last year and our current running back won the Heisman trophy last year so it was a BIG game. Two schools from the same state winning back to back national championships AND having back to back Heisman trophy winners has never happened before.)

Here are my thoughts (if anyone is still interested after all that:):-

- I think the fact that our stadium played "Take the Money and Run" and "Son of a Preacher Man" for Auburn's warm up music was very ironic (and pretty funny) and I'm thinking not conincidental. Hats off to the Million Dollar Band director for that. I would only have added "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers:) *After writing this post, I found out Alabama fired the part-time employee that played this unauthorized music for Auburn's warm-ups. I'm guessing he thinks it was worth it:)

-I thought that our offense and defense played their best two quarters of football in the first half of that game.

-I think that if you follow those two quarters with the last half of that football game, they aren't worth much at all.

-I don't believe in celebrating losses or moral victories so I would have been just as pleased with losing 50-0 as I was losing 28-27 (which wasn't very pleased at all).

-I think Julio Jones is actually beautiful to watch on the football field and I think he will easily be the most successful NFL player out of all the players on the field that day. (He's also become my all time favorite Bama player!)

-I think that although Greg McElroy is not nearly as good as Auburn's quarterback overall (he's not even the best player in his own backfield), he was without a doubt the best quarterback on the field that day.

-I think Auburn didn't beat Alabama, but Alabama beat themselves. (which makes no difference at all in the outcome)

-I think I would rather Auburn have beaten us by being the better team that day.

-I think that if we had taken advantage of even ONE of the opportunities to score we got in the first half, we could have put the game away right then.

-I think I get much more aggravated with Alabama fans that are proud of that game than I do Auburn fans that are obnoxious about that game. (I'm actually a pretty obnoxious fan myself so that doesn't bother me so much from the other side.)

-I think that I have been amazed by how many people that are fans of both teams have told me they've never heard the term "barner" before last Friday. I was raised on that word:)

-I KNOW that we have the best coach in college football HANDS DOWN!!!

-I think that we have the classiest players in the league and you can attribute that to the above statement. I believe the proof of that is in our attitude in winning all year last year and not so much in our attitude in losing a few times his year. I think it's much harder to win with class than lose with class (though in the past two years we've done both).

-I think the fact that I had a really fun night after the game shows growth that I didn't know I was capable of a few years ago:)

-I think that I am still thrilled that I'm an Alabama fan and not a fan of that other team:)

I don't know if anyone is interested in any of that, but it's my blog and I get to write what I want on here:) However, I won't get into my thoughts about Auburn except to say this:

-I think Cecil Newton has over $200,000 buried somewhere but I can't prove it and I'm not sure anyone else can either... Time will tell...!!! :) :) :D

I tried to put a little humor in there even though my heart is continuing to break...:D I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and ROLL TIDE!!! Is there a team that breaks your heart sometimes?? Please share - misery loves company!! :)

Thankful 17th - 23rd

I've got some catching up to do on my Thankful list, so here goes:

17th: my church: God has blessed us with THE BEST family of friends at our church!

18th: really great ideas that I can steal from other people like this one:

I got the idea for "Cupcakes in a Jar" here at Relatively Reagan. (I used her icing recipe, but I couldn't find a box mix for spice cake so we made our pumpkin spice cupcakes from scratch using a different recipe.) I got the free Thanksgiving printables here at Skip to My Lou.

Jack and I made 12 "Cupcakes in a Jar" last Thursday night while we watching the Bama game. Jack gave them to all his teachers and some other really special people. We had a great time making them and delivering them Friday morning:)



19th: I'm thankful for really good pens!

20th: My mother who had a birthday on Saturday the 20th. I think she's the greatest, most unselfish person ever, but the really cool thing is there are a LOT of other people who think that too!

21st: scrapbooking - something I really enjoy and get to do with some special friends!

22nd: handbags and shoes - two of my very favorite things:)

23rd: this new (old) piano - A lady who was like a grandmother to me had this piano in the front room of her house. I remember seeing it and playing it while I was really little. She died several years ago and someone in our church inherited the piano. The piano hadn't been played in years so the lady who had it in her home gave it to me a few weeks ago and I'm thrilled!! I can only play two songs (even though I took lessons for 10 years), but Jack has ceretainly enjoyed it!

Thankful - 16th

I'm thankful for pictures - one of my most favorite things!

Thankful - 14th and 15th

14th - I'm thankful for a really good book. I'm such an avid reader that I will read an okay book and sometimes I'll even read a bad book. But there are very few things that compare to my LOVE of a REALLY GOOD BOOK!!! Give me "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers or "Safely Home" by Randy Alcorn or "This Present Darkness" by Frank Peretti or "The Charm School" by Nelson DeMille or "At Home in Mitford" by Jan Karon or.... or.... or.... (I could do this for days), but give me one of these books and a little quiet time and I'm a happy girl!! :)

15th - I'm thankful for my car. Not only because it gets me where I need to go, but also because I enjoy time alone in my car - just to listen to music and think or just to not think for a while and ride. I even enjoy time in my car with Ben and Jack (b/c they don't like to talk and ride a lot either:) or time with my friends b/c we DO get to talk more on long rides somewhere than any other time. So, for lots of reasons, I'm thankful for my car:)

Thankful - 13th

I know this will sound crazy but today I'm thankful for my football friends! We love Alabama football (Ben, Jack and I) as most of you know. We also have some really close family and friends that love it too. The reason I'm so thankful for that is because we have some of our very best days watching Alabama football with our great friends and family! It's so much fun and such a huge part of our family! So, on this day I'm thankful that God has used something like college football to create some really special and fun times for my family!

ROLL TIDE!!

Thankful - 12th

Today I am thankful for "Brilliant Minds" and the therapy that Jack is getting there right now. He's with Ms. Cassie right now and he was soooo excited to go see her like he always is. Even more than that, we have seen so much progress so today, I'm thankful that we are able to get Jack the therapy that has been beneficial for him!

I'm also thankful for TOMS shoes (and I just bought a new pair of them while I'm waiting on Jack to finish his session today). So, I guess I should also be thankful that "Brilliant Minds" is located in Destin right next door to some of my favorite stores!! Makes for a nice wait:) Have a great weekend!

Thankful - 11th

I'm very thankful today for my country and my freedom. I am also very thankful for all the veterans who fought to make my freedom possible - especially my dad who served in Vietnam.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Thankful - 9th and 10th

Going to quickly catch up on my Thankful posts:

9th - I'm thankful for TV on DVD and DVR. I'm going to put these two together. I love, love, love watching tv shows from first season to last on DVR and have quite the library these days. I have Gilmore Girls, The West Wing, Friends, Studio 60, Sports Night, Designing Women, Royal Pains, Everwood, The Office, Brothers and Sisters, Psych (only the first season which I didn't like), Ally McBeal, Coach, and Mad About You. I'm sure I'm leaving a few out but you get the point. I also love, love, love my DVR and honestly don't know how I lived without it for all those years:)

10th - I'm thankful for Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan's Purse. If you're not familiar with this, Samaritan's Purse is an organization founded by Franklin Graham. Each year at this time, people fill up thousands upon thousands of shoeboxes with Christmas gifts for children and they are delivered all over the world. Our church has been very involved in this ministry for years. Tonight is our "shoebox" night. Jack and I are headed to buy our supplies this afternoon and fill up a few boxes. Such a neat way to share the love of Christ with children in need!

Thankful with a Little Style

So, I knew I would have to post several thankfuls together but I don't blog a lot on weekends so I'm catching up now....



5th - I'm thankful for family!! We are so blessed to have lots of extended family close by. This means so many wonderful things for us and one of the best is a lot of free babysitting:) You just can't beat that!


6th - Our jobs - Ben has a really difficult job and sometimes he gets so aggravated (understandably) with it. It's also hard for him to leave home for weeks at the time and hard for us to watch him go, but we are so grateful that he has this job that provides for our needs so well!! I'm thankful for mine too for lots of reasons - the flexible hours, the great coworkers, the never-ending excitement of working in child welfare:) We are very blessed with our occupations!


7th - Our home - we've been in our house for about 18 months now and I love it more with each passing day. I keep a long list of things I want to do and little by little, we check them off and then I add more to it. Maybe in 20 years, the list will be complete, but I doubt it!


8th - Barnes and Noble - aka "the train store" - This has always been my favorite store and it has been Jack's since he was about a year old and started playing with the train table in there. We still L-O-V-E it and now that we go to Destin once a week, we always stop here. It has lattes, books, movies, trains - this store was created for people like me and Jack!! I actually rode out of town with some coworkers one day last week and Ben and Jack were meeting me for the night to go to the fair there. My coworkers were leaving town a few hours before Ben and Jack got there and they were feeling bad about leaving me without a car. I was like, "No problem. Just drop me off at Barnes and Noble." It was wonderful!!


I think I'm all caught up on my Thankfuls for now, but I'll leave you with these pictures - just b/c he's so snazzy with a style all his own:)

"Falling" for Jesus

Like everyone else, we had such a busy weekend last weekend but it was full of fun too!! We started by going to the Pumpkin Patch with Jack's preschool class. His class was supposed to wear green shirts and I, of course, waited until the last minute to get a green t-shirt. I went ALL OVER THIS TOWN looking for a green t-shirt. I had enlisted all my family to help me find one. I had a sweet and very talented friend (who you can visit at Just Breathe) that had agreed to applique it for me if I could find one but I just couldn't... there wasn't one to be had. Carrie finally called and said, "I can't believe that every kid in Jack's class has a green Fall or Halloween t-shirt." I then let her know that the school rule was just a green t-shirt - it was MY rule that it had to be a fall or Halloween t-shirt. She kind of stopped helping at that point - I had led her to believe that Jack would be the only one without one up until then:) Anyway, I finally went to a new children's boutique here in town and they made me one overnight - crisis averted:)

Jack insisted that he ride the big, big bus so Ben and I took him to school and put him on the big, big bus without us. We were going to follow them, but I hadn't had my latte yet so we had to go get that (or my attitude could have gotten us kicked out of the preschool field trip:) and of course, we got a little turned around (meaning lost). My mother was appalled by this, but I think I can find some mothers out there who agree that getting the latte is equally important to following the school bus that's carrying your three year old, right?? We finally got there about 30 minutes after the bus. I found Jack and said, "What do you want to do now?" The answer was, "I just wanna go to Jack's house." Yep! That's about how these things go. He actually did end up having fun at the Pumpkin Patch and here are some pictures to prove it!

On the hayride....

Trying to find just the right pumpkin...

Forget picking it up - I'll just use it as a chair so mom can get a good picture of the infamous GREEN FALL t-shirt:)

With cousin Azland sporting that great Foreman hair!! A brush wouldn't have killed either of them, but they were having fun.

I know... I know... the kid's precious loving on me like this!!

We were so proud of Jack b/c he climbed up the slide and went down ALL BY HIMSELF the first time (and with his motor issues this was a HUGE deal). Unfortunately, he did a sommersault about halfway down and Daddy had to go the rest of the time b/c "I will fall and break my crown." (He takes the name Jack very seriously and tends to indentify with all the famous nursery rhyme Jacks - which is honestly beyond adorable:)

Riding the cows with friend Channing:

We're still not the best "jumper" but we're trying and we're learning!! It's improvement and Mom is PROUD!

Pretending to eat the corn after I told him to STOP eathing the corn. Let me tell you, you just haven't seen fun til you put a child with sensory integration disorder in a big sandbox full of corn kernels!! HE LOVED IT - and that's an understatement:)

So, you can see we had a blast at the pumpkin patch!! A successful first field trip. The rest of the weekend was devoted to getting ready for our "Fall for Jesus Festival" at church. Since I chair the children's committee in our church, this is a big event at the Foreman house. I was so, so excited that Jack actually enjoyed it this year!! He's never been much for crowded games and activities so he's never liked it before. But this year was different - maybe it's his age, maybe it's that his interests have changed, or maybe, just maybe we are on the right path with his therapy - but he really enjoyed himself this year. He didn't get scared by the costumes (there was an adult clown that was a little peculiar to him, but I got him to go talk to him and we worked through it - YAY! YAY! YAY!!) and he didn't get upset by the other kids being around. It was a really fun time. My knight wouldn't leave all of his costume on b/c "it itches my head" but other than that - a HUGE success. We had 1000 kids there (felt like it anyway:) and everyone had a great time. I hate I didn't get a lot of pictures of the games and decorations everyone worked so hard on but I was exhausted and it just wasn't in me to be photographer, but I did get some shots of some of our favorite friends - not all of them, but some of them...

Other than the big slide, "Go Fish" was definately Jack's favorite game!!

Shonna (who also planned the event) and Caroline - who makes orange and blue beautiful even to the Foreman family:) She was the cutest Auburn cheerleader we've ever seen! This picture was taken towards the end of the night and Caroline made the face that the rest of us felt like making:) She had been there all day too and we were seriously exhausted!

Piper the pig - another child who had been at the church (like Caroline) all afternoon with her parents helping to get ready for the festival. So, so adorable!! I loved this outfit!

And our sweetest and most precious little lamb - Ella (whose mom was another event planner:). How precious is this??? !!!

Here's Ben and Jack with his brother, Dusty and his family. We were so glad they were able to come to the festival too!!

We had so much fun and were thrilled to be able to do things that were glorifying to the Lord as well as fun for all the kids!!

And my Thankful - Fourth is: I'm thankful for my friends!! Sweet friends who listen and are always around. Especially Shonna, Tara, and Carrie (whose children are pictured above - the Auburn cheerleader, pig, and lamb) - this is my core group of best friends. We get to spend lots of time together, lean on each other, depend on each other, and just love on each other all the time. I feel so blessed that God has led me to these special women and that I get to know them and grow with them and love them back!

I'm especially thankful for healing and answered prayer in Shonna's family this week. We were all calling out to the Great Physician and I'm so thankful for his faithfulness to His children!