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! :)

wow! a whole month?

I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged. I have got to get better at this! I almost forgot my password to this thing. So lots has been happening this summer. The girls were at summer camp for 7 weeks out of the summer, the rest of the time they spent it hanging out with Sarah and Riley and loved every minute of it! We went to the beach with Vickie and Jennifer went too. The girls had a lot of fun, the weather did not cooperate. We were able to get away for awhile which made me feel better at least.

School is in full swing and Madison is now a middle schooler! Emma-Leigh is in 2nd grade and I think she really likes her teacher. She has Ms. Swangim. Madison has 3 teachers, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Nache and Mr. Briendell-Watt. Out of all the teachers on her team, she has just one friend - Julia Ehlen. I know she will make friends quickly but I worry about her.

Cheerleading is also in full swing! Our first real game was this past Saturday and they kicked booty! It was a non-conference game against Enka and the girls did great. I was proud!

So now it's back to the routine! We have a carpooling thing lined up where Heather, Randy, Damion and I rotate taking the middle schoolers to school. This has worked out very well so far and I am thankful to have friends that are happy to help out. The afternoon schedule is a little up in the air and I am hoping to start contributing to that very soon.

1 week until I'm 32....

I can't believe I'm almost 32. I'm getting old. We're all getting old. It's so very sad. Time goes by so fast. You don't realize it until you get older. I have been a little slack on my blog here lately. I was reprimanded yesterday by a dedicated reader so sorry to everyone I have let down.

So much has been going on this summer that I have gotten a little side tracked and almost even forgot my login and password to this thing! I do enjoy it though so I will try to do better :)

SO, the remodel is almost done. Thru my eyes anyway, I am sure there are many things that need to be done that only my contractor husband can see but I am assuring myself we are almost done. The furniture comes today! Madison's room was completed on Sunday morning (except for window treatments). She and Emma-Leigh had gone to the lake with mom and dad for the weekend and when they got home and walked in the bedroom, they both absolutely loved it. Then, Emma-Leigh walked in her room to see what had been done there - big mistake! Her room was exactly the same. We still haven't even fully decided on a bed for her. She was heart broken - but only for a little bit. It was her birthday party day and she quickly got over it and focused on her pool party and presents! We had beautiful weather on Sunday. Her party was from 2 - 4 and it was blue sky and burning up hot. It did however rain around 5 or so but we were long gone and thankful for the great weather! We had cake, brownies, chips and fruit. A very nice time for all! After the party, we had to go clean FPS and then we had dinner with mom, dad and Shawn at Bay Breeze!

Cheerleading camp started last night for both the girls. Madison was very excited to get back into it. Emma-Leigh on the other hand cried her eyes out. I don't know what her problem was, she was scared,nervous - I don't know. I quickly got her to where she needed to be with another mom/coach comforting her and took off! When I came to pick them up, I had to beg her to come. I think today she will go with no problem.

Madison spent the night with Cameron last night after practice. She said she did not want to sleep on the floor last night and was staying with Cameron instead. (We were taking turns sleeping on the bunk bed mattress in her floor until our bed got here - for some reason, I had 2 turns and Damion had 0.) Hopefully today will be a good day, all our furniture will get here in one piece and tonight we can sleep in our own bed and get things cleaned up. Maybe by the weekend we will be ready for company! Although now that I think about it, we have no sheets for our bed....uh-oh.

it's a rainy day

The rain is pouring down. Mom and dad are at the lake with Jaidyn and Ayla. Madison and Emma-Leigh are at summer camp. Hopefully all of them are staying dry! We had an awesome 4th of July! We went down to the lake friday afternoon to meet up with mom,dad,tiff,todd,jaidyn,ayla,brett,sarah and riley. Damion stayed behind and worked. We went over to mom and dad's camper and had dinner with them. They made steaks, baked potatoes and salad. It was very good! They took us back to Donald & Vickie's after dinner by car because it was so late and dark. Too dangerous to travel by boat. The next morning, we were up and out on the water. It was such a gorgeous day! Our usual spot (Jamaica) was taken but we ended up finding a nice little beach for the kids to play and swim. They had a blast. Emma-Leigh got burnt pretty bad but she was in the water for just about the entire day! Brandon, Alejandra, Kaleb, Kevin, Jennifer and Kaly came about 2 o'clock or so and they continud to play for a few more hours. When we finally went in, we started dinner. We had hamburgers and hotdogs, potato salad and a greek salad. We had showers before we ate and just as we were sitting down to eat guess who pulled up? It was Damion! I was thrilled! The next day, we were up kinda late and out on the water by 11. It started out rainy and cloudy but turned out to be an excellent day! All the kids played together and had a blast! Vickie's birthday was the following day so after we all had our showers, we took her and Donald out for her birthday to Fatz Cafe in Seneca. After that, we went back to their house, got all packed up and then went to visit mom and dad at their camper. Damion hadn't seen it yet so it was nice to just hang out for a little bit. We got home really late though. About 9pm and we were all wore out. We had a ton of fun though! Lots of memories made :)

Can I just start out by saying that I am so sick and tired of people asking me what is wrong with my arms?! I HAVE VITILIGO!!!

ok, glad we got that out of the way.

So this weekend was lots of fun. Friday Damion and Shawn got a contract on their spec house. Totally awesome! We are thrilled. Closing date for that is July 31st. Hopefully all will go as planned between now and then. Saturday we were up and out early! Off to the Bone-a-Fide Bakery in Black Mountain to pick up the birthday cake we had ordered for Princess. After that, we ventured to Target for stuff for the house and for the party on Sunday. Also on Saturday, Gabriel's 2 youngest daughters were being baptized and his middle daughter was turning 3. He had a huge party for them. We were there from about 2 until 7:30. They had clowns, face painting, balloons, live band, food, a dj, about 12 cakes. It was crazy! After that, Madison went to Emily's house to spend the night and Emma-Leigh went to mom and dad's to stay the night. Damion and I did absolutely nothing. Oh, we watched a movie, that was it. Sunday, he slept in and then we went to FPS to clean. After that, we ate lunch at Jersey Mikes then it was time to gather all the stuff for the dog birthday party! I went home, got all the stuff, got Maggie and Muffin, took them to mom's and then left out again to go pick Madison and Emily up. While I was gone, something happened to Muffin. He hurt his right arm somehow. He will not put any pressure on it. Hasn't gone to the bathroom since before the party. He did not sleep at all last night. He just cried and cried. I feel so bad for him! Vickie is taking him to the vet in about an hour. I hope he does okay! The party was a lot of fun though. We had 9 dogs there all together. Madison had a blast! We are going to the lake on Friday for the 4th of July holiday. Hopefully Damion will make it down there either Saturday or Sunday...

Changes...

Lots of changes going on in our house this week. Monday was the start of lots of remodeling! First, tile is being laid in the kitchen and small bathroom. Ceiling fans were also changed out in the living room and our bedroom and ceiling fans were added in both the girls rooms! After the tile is completed, we will get all new stainless steel appliances! We will repaint everything, maybe even change a few colors. Brandon will take the bunk beds for his new house and Madison will get mine and Damion's bedroom set, Emma-Leigh will get new furniture and Damion and I will get new furniture! We will also get a new kitchen table and new couches! Eventually the tub in my bathroom will be taken out and Damion will put in a walk-in shower. Also, door knobs will be changed throughout the house. I could not be any more excited! Our house has stayed the same except for paint colors for the past 10 years! It is a process but it will be over soon enough. Right now, the washing machine, dryer, dishwasher are all in the living room. I will not complain. I will not complain. I will not complain. :) okay, I feel better now! Pictures to come!