Family Devotion Time

Each night, the kids and I (and sometimes Rich when he has the chance) do a preschool devotion after bedtime stories. It has been wonderful for the kids. The devotion is short, so it keeps the kiddos attention and asks a simple question or two to engage them in what is being taught. It also has a bible verse and a prayer to go along with what we're learning....and when I say 'we', I mean me too! Even though the devotions are meant for little ones, I always feel like I go away with reminders of God's love and what it means to be a Christian. I love the devotion time that we have each night and it's made me think seriously of doing a devotion either on my own or as a couple with Rich in the near future! For now, I'm happy with that special time with the kiddos learning more about God. Plus I love that we're starting the routine now, so hopefully it will be something that the kids will continue even after they've grown up and left home :-)

Here is a video of the kiddos doing one of the prayers in their devotional that I recorded back in the Spring because I wanted to remember their cute little voices praying :-)

Pre-Thanksgiving Fun!

We have been having fun, like usual, doing some crafting to get ready for Thanksgiving. Most of these I saw online and seemed easy enough, so we tried them out!

This one is actually a card. Morgan and Blake each made one (with mom's help) and the cards were given to their grandparents. Aren't they super cute!? This one was found at Peppers and Pollywogs.

This is Morgan's entry into the newspapers contest. She had to color in the turkey's feathers and she wanted to use paints...not sure paints were allowed, but she had fun! ;-)

This family of turkeys idea came from Trendy Treehouse. We changed them up a bit by adding beaks and waddles and leaving out the legs...I think they turned out adorable! :-)

I put them above the doorway into the kitchen...they seem to like roosting up there ;-)

These were kinda my own idea. I had won a turkey cookie cutter last year AFTER Thanksgiving, so I had to wait a whole year to use it, but I think the wait was worth it! YUM! We took most of them in to Morgan's class and to the vet clinic my moms work at. (Moms=my mom and my MIL.) Morgan had fun cutting them all out and putting the tail feathers on for me :-)

Morgan colored this turkey in her preschool class....they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but no one will say anything if they happen to focus a little more on turkeys this time of year ;-)

I saw the idea for these pilgrim hats on Snack Picks. (I must have got the link through another blog I follow, but don't remember which one right now.) They were SO easy and they'll make a great addition to our Thanksgiving dinner! :-) (They taste delicious too!!!)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!! There is definitely A LOT to be thankful for! :-)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a $45 gift code to CSN Stores!! It ends tonight (Thanksgiving) at 10:00 pm.

*UPDATED* Airline Taking Advantage of a Military Man

*UPDATE: First of all I wanted to thank those of you who took the time to write U.S. Airways. I really appreciate the time you took out of your busy schedules to help a member of my family and a Marine! Now for the update! U.S. Airways has been in contact with my in-laws and are in the process of having a $150 voucher sent out to them. Great news, right!? In light of this news, if there are people who come across this post wanting to write an e-mail to the airline, there is no need to anymore. The situation has been taken care of and everyone is satisfied with how it all worked out. U.S. Airways was very helpful and understanding....after all the e-mails they received ;-) Thank you again, enjoy this holiday season and have a very Merry Christmas! :-)

***************

I am angered tonight. I typically wouldn't write a post like this, but it has angered me to tears and I feel like everyone should know what happened.

My brother-in-law, a U.S. Marine, recently found out that he is to be deployed soon to Afghanistan. So when he was granted leave, he booked a round-trip flight home with U.S. Airways to spend time with his family before being overseas for a year. Not having his own vehicle on base, he depended on another Marine to get him to the airport, but that Marine took his time and got my brother-in-law there late. By the time he made it to his terminal, it was only 20 minutes before his flight was to leave. No one was at the desk and he was unable to find anyone to get him on his plane....he ended up watching his plane take-off without him on it.

Alaska Airlines was able to get him on a flight with a one-way ticket, which cost as much as his round-trip ticket, and assured him that he would still have his ticket back to base with U.S. Airways...but now, 2 days before he is to head back, we find out that isn't the case!

Apparently if you miss your flight, they automatically cancel your flight back on a round-trip ticket and they charge another $150 to reinstate that ticket. I don't understand it! If you pay for 2 tickets and don't use your first, you should still have the second one that you paid for, right?

So, my mother-in-law ended up calling the airline to see if there is anything that they can do...at least wave that fee. The woman she talked to was rude. She acted like my mother-in-law should have known that's what would happen. My mother-in-law insisted that they never fly and there was no reason for them to think that he'd lose his ticket back to base....the woman at U.S. Airways HUNG UP ON HER!!!

My mother-in-law ended up calling the number again and got someone totally different in a totally different call center, so there was nothing he could do about the first person my mother-in-law talked to. He was very kind about the situation and apologized saying that there really was nothing that she could do by calling....the only thing she could do was get as many people as possible to write the airline at their website and maybe if enough people were upset by what happened, then U.S. Airways would do something for my brother-in-law.

If this had happened to just anyone, I'm sure I'd be upset, but not to the extent that I am knowing that this is my brother-in-law, who is a U.S. Marine, who just came home to see his family before being deployed to risk his life for our country...that's the part that makes me cry. How could the airline NOT do what they can for him? And what is $150 dollars to an airline?

I am going to be writing U.S. Airways in hopes that they will work with my in-laws and help them out. I would appreciate it, if you have a minute and are as upset about this as I am, if you could also write the airline? It would really mean a lot to me :-)

This is the information you will need to fill out their complaint form:

Link to form: http://www.usairways.com/Forms/CustomerRelations.aspx

Departure City: Palm Springs, CA

Arrival City: Detroit, MI

Departure Date: November 13, 2010

List Names of People Traveling: Please e-mail me at khmorgan_00@yahoo.com for his name.

If you would like to just copy and paste what I wrote to U.S. Airways, this is my e-mail:

"I was recently made aware of a situation where a U.S. Marine, missed his flight home on your airline. He was going home to see his family before being deployed to Afghanistan. He was able to get a one-way flight through another airline and was under the assumption that he would still have his ticket back to Palm Springs...since it WAS already paid for. Turns out your airline cancelled that ticket and wants to charge him $150 to reinstate it....even though he already paid for it? This man is about to go overseas to fight for our freedom and I feel that we, including your airline, should be doing what we can to thank him! Your airline was already called by his mother seeing if there was any way you could wave that fee and she was hung up on by one of your employees who was being rude to her throughout the conversation. We are only asking that you be kind enough to wave the fee to reinstate his ticket back to Palm Springs. PLEASE consider this request to help a U.S. Marine."

The rest of the information that they ask for will have to be your own personal info if you were to take the time do this for me. Again, I would really appreciate any help that I can get with this. Also, you have my permission to re-post this on your blog as well, if you would like to do that or share on facebook or twitter.

Thank you again! And remember, on this Thanksgiving, to give thanks for our service men and women who are risking their lives so that we can enjoy our freedom!! :-)

***I also wanted to let you know that despite all the negative elements around this situation, there were some positive. When my brother-in-law was trying to get on his plane, Alaska Airlines actually paged U.S. Airways several times for him trying to get someone to get him on his flight. And, when he missed his flight, an older couple, who had seen what had happened, gave him $200 out of their pocket to help him get home! The kindness and generosity of these people really warmed my heart! :-)

CSN Stores $45 Gift Code Giveaway!! *CLOSED*

Congrats to Liz, comment #26!!

Just in time for Christmas shopping, CSN Stores has offered a $45 gift code to one of my readers!! Isn't that awesome!?

I've thought of a couple things that I could get from CSN Stores if I had a $45 gift code:

I like this Bilibo for the kids. I LOVE how versatile it is for the kiddos to use their imaginations:

I also like this backpack for Blake. It has Legos AND firefighting-PERFECT! He'll most likely be going to preschool next year and I'd like to get a head start on school shopping. (I like to plan ahead!)

If I were shopping for myself, I like this end table to replace the end table/coffee table set we have. We're trying to open up our floor space a bit, plus this would provide more storage!

BUT, this gift code isn't for me...it's for one of you!

WIN!: To enter the giveaway for the $45 gift code to CSN Stores, please take a look around their 200+ stores and tell me what you'd like to get if you were the lucky winner. Be sure to leave your e-mail address in your comment, so I can contact you if you win.

Extra Entry Opportunity (leave a separate comment):

*Follow me through Google Friend Connect. (1 Extra Entry)

Giveaway will end on Thanksgiving Day (U.S.), Thursday, November 25th, 2010 at 10:00 p.m. Winner will be chosen that night by random.org and contacted via e-mail. The winner will have 48 hours to respond otherwise I will have to choose a new winner.

*Disclosure: I was given this opportunity to host a giveaway in exchange for a teaser post. I was not compensated in any other way and any opinions expressed are my own.

Wordless Wednesday: Blake Sleeping

Blake decided he could quit taking naps when his sister did and this is what happened:


This little guy sleeps everywhere!