A weekend without the girls....

At this very moment, Madison & Emma-Leigh are on their way to Pinehurst with mom, dad and Nana. They are going to visit Tiff and her family and to join Ayla in celebrating her 3rd birthday at Monkey Joe's. I have decided to stay behind and try to spend some time with Damion. Not sure how successful I will be...he will be working tomorrow but I am hoping to tag along and see some of his work. Hopefully tomorrow isn't a paperwork day and I can do as I've planned. I should tell you he doesn't know that I want to tag along - so it may not work! I am gonna bring a book, I'll promise not to be too distracting.

There are no plans for tonight and I haven't talked to Damion since this morning so I'm not sure if we will do anything or not. Knowing him, he will probably be too tired. That's okay. Tomorrow night we are going to Hickory Tavern for dinner. Shawn and April will be joining us. I have vowed to do no cleaning this weekend. I hope I can stick to it.

In the meantime, I have been doing lots of thinking about fasting. Pastor Bruce has encouraged us to fast beginning Sunday night until the following Saturday night. This does not have to be with food, although Jesus did fast for 40 days, there are other ways of fasting and bringing yourself closer to God. I haven't yet decided or been lead to do a certain kind of fast. Maybe it will come to me eventually.

I hope that Madison & Emma-Leigh have a FABULOUS time with Jaidyn and Ayla. They have looked forward to this weekend for many days. I am hoping to take the girls back to visit them on Easter Sunday, after Church and our traditional egg hunts. Of course, that depends on their plans as well. Tiff said they might go to the beach. So we will see! Happy weekend everyone!

Wednesday~

Today is Wednesday. The sky is blue and the birds are singing. It is supposed to get up to 71' today. Let's hope it does! Lots of things to accomplish in the next few days and man, am I tired already! Tonight we will be going to church. Cindy, Ashley (Cindy's sister-in-law) and I have been taking a class on marriage. It is a women's only class and it is called Women Making a Difference in Marriage: Building Love, Joy & Committment. I am really into this study. I look forward to the time after the girls are in bed, to sit alone and read. I have learned a lot but I feel like if Damion were also involved it would be much more beneficial. Our instructor has told us not to let our husbands know we are doing it but that is a little hard in my house. He has seen me working on it and reading the Bible so he knows I'm up to something. I do struggle though. It feels like since he isn't involved, since this lesson is really about me changing and making a difference in my life that he should work on stuff too. It seems like everytime I try to apply my studies, that something will happen that will make it so very hard for me to follow thru. The instructor explained this also. She said that the devil will try everything in his power to discourage it. God is in the business of building marriages and the devil just tries to destroy them. It is so true! I love my husband very much but I am quick to smart off, don't EVER bite my tongue and sometimes I don't act very supportive of him. Our husbands need us to build them up, we all need to be built up daily. Love the one your with!

Our "professional" cleaner.

So going home after work yesterday was...TERRIFIC, WONDERFUL, PLEASANT, REFRESHING, LOVELY, EXCITING, AWESOME.... and CLEAN!!! I am pretty certain almost every one of you know how much of a clean freak I am. Well yesterday, someone else who is pretty much just as freaky about cleaning as I am, came to clean our home :) She did an awesome job and I am so truly greatful! Our "professional" (as Emma-Leigh liked to call her) did things I absolutely never do like baseboards, window sills, chair rail molding, that sort of thing. She did the routine stuff as well - bathrooms, kitchen, floors but it is amazing how much difference a clean house will make you feel when you get home. The girls were pleased and are gonna try really hard to keep it that way...until the next time she comes :)

It's finally Spring....or is it?

What a beautiful first day of Spring we had! It was a beautiful day - a little on the chilly side but the girls were able to be outside so it was fantastic! Friday night Brett, Sarah, Riley, Shawn, April and Abigail came over. I got pizza and beer and we all hung out together and played Scattegories. It was a lot of fun! Even Damion eventually got in on the game :) Riley spent the night with us and she did great! She's so cute...the picture above was taken right before bedtime. She did great throughout the night and woke up around 7:15am. She got up and played with Emma-Leigh and the Barbies and we took Brett & Sarah some lunch around 11, got the car washed after that and then hung out at home. They played outside for a little while on the trampoline and the playground and then layed down for a nap. She was picked up around 4 and after that, Emma-Leigh and I ventured to the grocery store. We had a smorgasboard of things for dinner that night - I fixed a salad at the Ingles salad bar, Madison had sushi and Damion and Emma-Leigh had a rotisserie chicken. We settled down for "Family Movie Night" with Where the Wild Things Are but didn't make it very far. We were so sleepy!!

Sunday the girls and I got up and went to church. We skipped sunday school and watched the rest of Where the Wild Things Are. Damion ended up going to the office to work for a little while and around 7 we met him and Shawn at Papas & Beer!

Today is Ayla's 3rd birthday!! Happy Birthday, Ayla!! Madison & Emma-Leigh will be leaving on Friday afternoon with mom, dad and Nana to go celebrate with her. Time goes by so fast! I can't believe she is already 3.

Oh, and in case I haven't mentioned it...Sarah is pregnant!! She is due October 28th.

Lots of things to look forward to :)

A few funny things Emma-Leigh said this weekend - she was telling me about how one of her friends at school wore a tuxedo to school and she said "He just wore the tux, not the sedo." I just busted out laughing at her. She was telling me he just wore the jacket, not the pants. Then she was describing one of her overweight friends at school as being "wide" she said that is the nice way to put it. She's so funny!

Madison is spending more and more time in her room it seems. She tends to play her music really loud and write in her journal all while watching tv and sometimes talking on her phone. She is certainly in her "tweens", only coming out for food. I ocassionally will hear her laughing hysterically while in there. I'm just glad she's having a good time!

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!