Losing time

This little girl has been the highlight of my day every single day since the day she was born! She was born 10 weeks early and came into this world weighing 3 pounds. Never a problem otherwise though. She has never even been to the doctor for a sick visit. She is so well behaved, so bright with a smile every morning that she wakes up and so silly. I love every thing about her. She makes me laugh all day long! I am a stay at home Mom, so we spend a whole lot of time together. The truth be told I would rather go shopping with her than anyone else. Sydney is a very prissy little girl, who loses her time playing by herself in her room. Occasionally she will come out with make-up all over her face. We will sometimes get into deep conversations about heaven and the people we have lost who are there now. She is so understanding and loving. I couldn't have had a sweeter girl to call my own.

She will go outside and play sports with her Daddy, brother and me even though she really isn't all that sporty. She would rather spend time with us doing something she really doesn't care about than no to have spent time with us at all.

Sydney is an excellent swimmer. Before she could even walk she would get into the pool with her Daddy and swim. She would jump into the pool, going under water just to get pulled out and do it over and over again. She loves the water!

Sydney is so low maintenance, she can spend an hour out in the yard with her Papa just playing on her tricycle.

When Sydney was a baby she was in the hospital for 6 weeks. When we finally got to bring her home the very first thing I did was to polish her toe and finger nails. I think that was the beginning of the pris-pot we know and love.

Sydney does ballet. She started when she was 3 and loves to dance. She just popped into this pose with no one prompting her.

This coming July she will start kindergarten! I will honestly say, I am not in the least excited! She is though. She can't wait to go meet new friends, to go shopping for school clothes and a new back-pack, and to be big! I am expecting to cry my way back to the car that day! I will miss her so much. We are partners in crime. We go everywhere and do most everything together. But it is just the first of so many mile-stones to come!

Say your prayers...

This is my nephew Ethan Charles Walker. He was born with Hypo left heart Syndrome. Which basicly means was born with one working side of his heart. He had his first open heart surgery at Duke hospital when he was a week old. Although he is at home now with his parents. He has spent a fair amount of his short little life in the hospital. He had his second heart surgery before he was 4 months old. He stayed at Norfolk hospital for most of his second surgery. But when things weren't going as expected his parents decided to move him back to Duke. In no time they had him doing so much better and on his way back home to Franklin Virginia.

Ethan is a fighter! He has the best parents he could ever ask for. They have researched and know all about his heart defect. They pretty much know as much as any nurse, and have taken classes to learn how to take care of him at home. I am so proud of them and him!

But now is when I ask you to pray for Ethan....

Even if I don't know you, will never meet you or if we are best friends please put Ethan on your prayer list(s). He is so precious and loving and he also needs our prayers! Thank you in advance!

Growing-up Cotten

Daddy & his girls

the triplets

When you are born with the last name "Cotten" you don't know it yet, but you are blessed! I grew up with an older brother who was at my beckon-call. When I needed anything at all he was there for me! I had 3 older sisters and they aren't just any sisters, they were the most beautiful triplets I could imagine. My sisters always looked so perfect, with the best personalities and always so sweet to me. The Cotten Girls....

A Cotten Christmas!

The younger Cotten Boys

The older Cotten guys

The Youngen's

My parents were divorced, but still stared their time with me. Never an argument, my parents raised me separately, together.

My Daddy is the very best man I have ever known. My Granny was the heartbeat of the family. She was the glue that kept up together. We lost my brother and my Granny in the past few years. But we were all taught to trust in the Lord and never question the Lords reason's for what is done.

I am so blessed to have grown-up a Cotten. Who can say they have all of the things I grew up with. Not material things, but the things that really matter. Love, protection, God, trust, Family and happiness. For this I am so thankful!

What must go through your mind...

What goes through the mind of a person who chooses not to believe in God? I would really like to know what they believe.

In a world filled with so much beauty, so many different animals, and the unimaginable wonder that in every one of our brains & bodies...how could any one choose not to believe in God?

I just simply can not imagine what must go through some one's mind who convinces themselves that there is no God.

Do you think that your parents alone created you? Wow, you must just warship them! If they could create you on their own, well, you should!

Do you just choose not to think about it?

Do you think you would have to change your entire life if you actually had to give over control to someone else? I hate to tell you, but it isn't up to you, he is already in control!

How could you not beileve when there are things in this world like this?

We LOVE Summer time! Summer is a time for people who get out and DO things, enjoy the weather & spend their time together! THAT'S US! This is my children playing at a local fun farm called Hill Ridge Farm. We loved the activities!

We lovingly call this picture "Bucket-heads"! We were in this big barn filled with corn. It is sortof like one of those pits filled with balls, only there is dried corn instead of balls. So much fun even for those of us who are over 30.

There was a hay maze. They were directed and redirected a few times but eventually figured it out!

We got on this huge Velcro board!

The beach is great favorite for us.

Sydney was so hot, but wouldn't come in. The tricycle was calling her name!

We play lots of sports. This was during kickball season. My husband and I played for a local recreation league.

Some of our good friends have a pool on their families farm. We spend a whole lot of our time with them in the summer.

These are the kickball stars. (Left to Right) Jeremy, my husband, Dale, our good friend, Mike, a life-long friend and with his back to us, Harold who is another old friend. These guys are really very serious about Kickball. Our team actually won the big trophy too, first place in the tournament!

We used to raised beagles. It all started when we got the kids a female for Christmas a few years ago, and it just so happened that my parents (next door) already had a male. They were really great dogs to have around kids and if it got cold they were fine to let come in the house. This picture below is one of my childrens friends playing with 2 of the puppies we dicided to keep from the second liter. My daughter Sydney is an animal LOVER! She would kiss a mule in the mouth. She just loves anything with a heartbeat!

This past Winter hunters in need of dogs decided to start stealing our dogs one by one. Eventually we were down to one dog, Scooter. Scooter was Sydney's best friend. Sydney would get in trouble and walk right out the front door to find scooter to talk it over with her.

Like I have said in previous blogs, we live on a farm with a whole lot of family memebers. So one day a truck came by our house (not family members) with their dogs running with the truck. Scooter ran to check out the dogs and got ran over...

There was nothing we could do, it was immediate, she was dead. My children cried like their sister had been killed. They had been playing outside and saw the whole thing from afar. The truck driver was going very slow (we live on a dirt road) and it was no fault of his, even the kids said so. But what do you tell them? I didn't know what to say at first...then it came to me. "Granny is in heaven, and all dogs go to heaven. Granny will watch over Scooter, and Scooter can be her watch dog." For some reason that satisified them. .

Sydney still sits on the from steps from time to time by herself thinking about Scooter. When I ask her what is wrong she says "I just miss Scooter." I just tell her that she can pray for God to take the pain away. She will immediatly bow her head and close her eyes.......

Such an awful loss

My Granny raised me. When my parents divorced I went to live with my Daddy. His shop, where he worked was behind his house, so I always ended up at my Granny's where I had a companion. My Grandaddy died when I was 4, which was the very time my parents divorced. So Granny and I were there for each other in both of our times of need. She was very tender hearted, very kind and Christ-like. My Granny taught me how to love and how to treat the ones we love. She was so sweet and never unfair.

As I grew into an older child, I did tend to take advantage of her sweetness.

As a teenager I wanted my freedom and she allowed it...to a point. When I was away for too long she would call every friends phone number she had and she would eventually find me!

I finally moved out of town. I worked 2 blocks from her house, so everyday on the way to work I would come and eat breakfast with her. She never got tired of me and neither did I of her. She was so easy to talk to so caring, and such a great listener.

Gran was very particular about her house. Her house never got dirty. She made me pick up after myself, and to always do things the way they should be done. She HAD to have the bath mat picked up after every shower. The television was never left on and before she would leave the house she always checked her tires to make sure they looked safe enough to drive.

She loved Jeremy, my husband. She agreed on one thing, we both thought he was gorgeous. She made him laugh and he likes anyone who can do that. Gran was so funny. She'd tell those old folk jokes and he just loved her to death.

When I had my son she was the biggest help, even though she lived an hour away. She taught me so many old remedies. She'd help out in any way she could ALWAYS. I worked part time and she'd keep him even though she couldn't even pick up his chunky butt!

When I went into labor with my daughter 10 weeks early we ended up having her at UNC. So we moved into my Granny's house for a month in order to be close to Sydney in the hospital. Not many people would take on an entire family into their home for that long, but she was glad to.

Sydney, Cameron and I saw her every week from that point on. We would take the day and go visit her. That was the only place other than home they would take a nap. Because they were used it every week.

On the second day of a beach trip I got a phone call...Gran was in the hospital, and wasn't doing good at all. She went down hill from there. For the next 4 months she progressively got worse. I would go see her at least every other day. She began to forget things. One day she asked me if Jennifer had made my dress. It hurt me so bad. I didn't even have a dress on.

I would bathe her, and help her to the toilet (which was right by her bed). She would call for her Mama who had died 10 days before I was born, and would say the craziest things.

One Friday I stayed with her while my Daddy was working. She wasn't herself at all that day, and I knew she was ready for heaven. I couldn't let myself see her again, it just hurt too much. The very next Wednesday I got a phone call from my Daddy saying she had passed comfortably in her bed with the family sitting with her. That was the worst day of my entire life...

I cried until there were no more tears. Still sometimes I can't hold back the tears when her name is mentioned. My son tells people not to talk about her because it makes me cry.

But the 28 years we spent together was such a blessing to me! She taught me so much. She taught me about the Lord and how to do the Lords work. She was a priceless part of my life. I agree with the old saying, it is better to love and lose than to never love at all.