Spring Picture Day!

My Friday morning didn't start out to well...the alarm clock said 6:13...I get up at 5:30. To make matters worse, it's picture day! Good thing is, it is also pizza day for lunch and I only had to pack snacks, so that helped time-wise. Emma-Leigh got up and got ready pretty quickly. I curled her hair and she wore a white sundress with a brown sweater over top of it and her high heel strappy silver sandals. (I did think ahead and packed her some clothes and shoes to change into) Madison wore her Abercrombie jeans with the holes in them and a blue Abercrombie t-shirt. Emma-Leigh wanted to know why Madison wasn't wearing a dress. I had to explain to her that the older you get, the less likely you are to dress up for stuff like this. She didn't quite understand but I am quite certain she will hit that same phase.

So tonight is sleepover with Rileybug night! ya-hoo!! I have been waiting a long time for this day! The girls are very excited as well. Tonight we will have Pizza & Beer (instead of Papas & Beer) at our house with Shawn, April and Abigail. A bit of a change for us but it will be just as much fun. Hopefully Brett and Sarah will join us!

I found a new XM station the other day. It is called Hair Nation and it is lovely. I added a new song to the playlist..see if you can figure out which one I listened to on the new channel!

Beautiful sunnies skies in the forecast this weekend. It's about time :)

95 days and counting...

95 days until we sail away on the Fantasy!! I can hardly wait :) Passports for the girls have been applied for and we are ready to go! Bayley will be traveling with us as will Shawn, April and Abigail. Madison & Bayley will have their own cabin - which we are hoping Emma-Leigh will want to join them - and they are thoroughly excited. It will be our first time going on a cruise and we are all looking forward to it!

This past Monday night, Emma-Leigh went for soccer evaluations. She has decided she wants to play soccer and will be playing for Biltmore Baptist Church's league - Upward. This is not a competitive league. She will learn the rules of the game (and a Bible verse or two) and become familiar with how to play. I am very excited for her! She is also excited. Madison has joined the Stage Crew for the Musical Theatre at Cane Creek. She unfortunately did not make the cast but was accepted as Stage Crew. She is very crafty and creative and is enjoying being able to participate. Damion is busy as ever at work. He has many jobs but is mainly chasing people around, trying to collect. I really don't understand why someone would have you do work on their home and then not be able to pay. We are in a recession, I guess. It's got to get better! I am working as normal - going to the gym 3 days a week and have been walking 4 miles. I am very sad that my favorite Body Step instructor, Tera, has moved away :( I must admit that I have not been to class since she left. It's just not the same. I do enjoy walking though and am hoping to have that bikini figure in just 95 days!

On another note, a mailbox jumped out in front of me yesterday as I was dodging a huge hole in the road at the entrance to Glen Arden - so now I have a deep scratch on the side of my car. Lesson learned - do not get in such a rush all the time!! Have some patience ;)

History in the making...Saturday School!

Because of the crazy weather in Buncombe County our school district has missed 11 school days. There is still more snow to come (according to the Farmers Almanac) and all the teacher work days and some holidays have been taken away. (Memorial Day being one of them, which we probably won't participate in.) So Saturday was the first day EVER of school. Bayley is staying at our house for 5 days because Cindy and Randy are in Vegas which was great motivation for Madison to get up and get ready. Emma-Leigh was MVP in her class and was able to share her favorite snack with her classmates and she was also ready to go! I had already decided to clean the house that morning and was actually pretty excited about it. The next scheduled Saturday school is March 27th - I promise I will not clean that day! :) Saturday school is like an early release day which means they get out at 12:25 and 1pm. The time flew by and before I realized it, it was time to go pick them up. I can honestly say I wasn't too excited about getting up early but I got over it.

We have been attending church at Biltmore Baptist for about 8 weeks now. Emma-Leigh is involved in AWANA's on Wednesday nights and is soaring! She loves it! Madison has lots of friends in the youth group there and is starting to come around. She told me this past Wednesday night that she gave her life to the Lord and will be getting baptised on April 14th. That was music to my ears! I am continually praying for Damion. He only gets 1 day off each week (Sunday) and sometimes even works that day but I am holding out hope that he will come around. It would mean so much to me if he were to start going with us.

We are in the middle of planning our summer vacation. This year we will go on a cruise to the Bahamas!! We are all very excited about this. Bayley has been invited and will cruise along with us. Madison couldn't be more happy!

vent session

I'm struggling this morning. Trying to come to terms with some things. Why do people act one way about a person, then when face-to-face with that person, act differently? I hate exaggerated stories. I hate when people are 2-faced. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for gossip. But when actually talking about another human being, their values, morals, just them as a person - I don't do it. Some people say, "rise above it, life's too short". I get that, but right now, the way I'm feeling, I want to just remove myself from the situation all together. Don't deal with it, push it under the rug. Life is too short to have to worry about other things. Family is most important. Friends come and go. Some people live for the drama. Not me. I'm happy with a boring life. I know that what goes around, comes around. I just don't want to be a part of it anymore. It makes me mad, mad enough to cry....I'm heading out for some retail therapy.

Happy New Year!

okay, can I say again that time goes by way too fast? I wish I had the time to update everyday. My kids say the darndest things and so much happens in just one day it is hard to sit down and recap it all. Christmas was a blast. Tiff and Todd came the weekend before and we had an incredible snow storm. They were traveling into town on Friday but had to stop in Hickory and start again the next morning. They made it safe and sound but it was a mess.

Christmas Eve was spent with Damion's family at Brandon and Alejandra's new home. It is way out in Hendersonville but lovely and spacious. We had dinner and spent some time relaxing. It was very enjoyable! Then the next morning, Santa had come! (surprise! I was convinced the girls were getting coal this year) We had a great day hanging around at home. It was somewhat of a white Christmas, the snow from the previous week was still lingering (it was about 12 inches). That night, we went to mom and dad's and had Christmas with dad's family, then after they left we exchanged gifts with Brett, Sarah & Riley. I was lucky enough to be off the whole week of Christmas and it was SO nice. I enjoyed every minute of it and wished for one more week off when it was time to go back to work. No such luck :( the girls enjoyed being at home. I swear they are such homebodies!

So now it is the New Year! Madison spent New Year's Eve at a party that her friend, Briana was having at her house and Damion and Emma-Leigh were asleep before 9. I tried very hard to stay up until 12am but just didn't make it! I am getting so old! So now we are back into the routine. School has been on a 2-hour delay this week, except for today and snow is in the forcast for tonight. We will see!

Home today.....

Today I am at home with Emma-Leigh. She has been running a fever and has had a really bad cough for the past 2 days. I took her to the doctor yesterday and they said she has H1N1 (aka swine flu). She is feeling a little better now and is playing with legos in her room. I am going to try to use this time to update my blog. I promised I would get better about keeping it updated but I have failed. So much has happened since I last wrote.

On October 31st, Tiffany's really good friend, Cassie Rutledge passed away. She had diabetes and was on an insulin pump. Still not exactly sure what happened except that she was gone too soon. This has been extremely hard on Tiff. For her birthday, mom and dad bought her Cassie's bicycle. She hasn't gotten it yet but they will give it to her when she comes here for Christmas. I think she will really love it. Also, Carroll's son, Benny is very sick. He went home this past Saturday from The Oaks and Hospice will be taking over. He has had esophagus cancer for 2 years and now it has spread throughout his entire body. He will be heading home to the mansion in the sky and will be with his dad. Crazy how things happen. There's a reason for everything.

Madison's birthday was fun. She had just been diagnosed with H1N1 the week before and still wasn't feeling 100% but we carried on with the festivities anyway. On the Friday night before her birthday, she and a group of her friends went skating. Then on Saturday, that same group of girls went horseback riding. It was alot of fun! After that we went to lunch at French Fryz then headed to the Awards Ceremony for cheerleading. Her friends spent the night but I think it was too much for her. She was still not feeling well and ended up falling asleep by herself before all her friends did. On Sunday she was feeling better though and all the family went to dinner at PF Chang's. It was her first time eating there.

Thanksgiving was fun too. We had lunch at mom and dad's and then had dinner at Damion's parents.

Madison is at the Health Adventure today learning about the topic we most often avoid. I'm not ready for her to grow up. Thursday she will leave for Earthshine and the weather forecast is looking pretty good. No rain on those days so hopefully it will stay that way. Emma-Leigh's Holiday performance is Thursday night. I am eager to watch her sing and perform! Christmas is right around the corner and so far I have just 1 present bought. Riley's. That is probably the easiest one to buy for too. Oh well. It will get done. My Christmas party for work is this Friday. Hopefully there will be a nice bonus given out on that day although from the hints Dr. Travis has been dropping it doesn't look good. Oh well. Merry Christmas everyone! I won't promise an update before then but I will t r y :)

So far behind

I am so far behind in absolutely everything. I can not stress how fast time flies. It is incredible! My babies are growing up right before my eyes. People get older, they die. That is when we realize we MUST slow down. 1 week ago, my grandfather, Carroll passed away. It was one of the hardest things I have had to go thru. Not the hardest thing I will ever go thru, I know but I haven't had to deal with death so it was a first for me. Mom was with him when he took his last breath. I cried. (surprise!) It made me stop to think - to want to take time to smell the roses. We are so rushed in our day to day hustle that we don't take time for our family. The people that love us, that we only see 1 or 2 times a year. I broke down to Nana on Tuesday, Carroll's first night at the Solace Center. He looked so bad. I told her I was sorry we were so busy, that we were all together now because Carroll was so sick. She said she loves us anyway but I still felt bad. I haven't seen her since Sunday at the funeral. Mom said she's doing pretty good. I need to go visit her.

Cheerleading is almost over! East Division competition was almost 2 weeks ago. Emma-Leigh's team got 1st place and Madison's 5th place. Emma's went on to the championship this past saturday and received 1st place again! Yay!!! It was a great day :) Tiff and the girls were with us at competition and fun was had by all. Playoff games are this weekend then all-stars. (I am silently hoping Madison doesn't make all-stars so we can be done with all this - she made it last year so should not get it again this year). Then we are free!! Time to slow it down and enjoy going home after work without having to rush around everywhere. Who knows, you may even find me at the gym! :)