Last of the Pictures

Okay, this should be it for the pictures. The first one is of the girls as we were leaving the Atlantis for the day. They both got up on their "throne" to snap a photo to prove how spoiled rotten they are!!! The second one is a picture of Sarah with some of the friends she met on board and the guy who sold Todd my ring. He bought me a "trilion"(triangle shaped) tanzanite/diamond ring for Mother's Day. I loved it, and Sarah just loved the guy who sold it to us. Such is the life of a teenager. The third picture is of Bailey and her friend, Sara, who she met on board in the kids club they had. The next is a picture of the girls with Funship Freddy. Sarah hated posing for that picture cuz people in costumes freak her out. The things she will do for her mom. The final picture is of Todd and I goofing around on the back of the ship. This is our version of the Titanic scene....except we are on the back of the ship cuz you couldn't even get close to the front. We were laughing so hard and Bailey was trying to get us to pose right....this is all she got.....it was funny, and I know you had to be there to appreciate it, but needless to say we thought it was fun. I guess that is all of the pictures I will share for now. All in all it was a wonderful trip.

We all headed back to work/school today....not very happy about it, but such is life. We only have a few weeks left, so I can't complain too much. It is just so nice to spend time together as a family without the interuptions of the outside world sometimes. I hope you all have a great week, and that you have good weather to go along with it! Hugs from all of us!

More Snapshots

Here are a few more snapshots....the blog only allows me to put 5 at a time on here. The top one is of Todd and I after we shared a private slow dance in one of the lounges....private until our daughter walked in. It was a sweet moment for me because number one, I don't get a lot of alone time with Todd, which I cherish when I do get it, and number two, he is not one to do stuff like that so I enjoyed every minute of it. The next two pictures are of course all about the food....Todd is showing off his piggy face cuz of all the food that is in front of him. Needless to say, his diet went out the window on this trip! Bailey was so excited to eat lobster. She thought she was the cat's meow cuz the server brought her more. The kids loved seeing what animal would be waiting for them in the cabin each night with their chocolates and cookies! And the last picture is of all of us at the Atlantis on Paradise Island after a fun day in the water and sun.
I will post a few more tomorrow,and then that will probably be it. Being that Sarah took 245 pictures, we could fill up the rest of the year practically on this blog.
Hope you are all having a good day. I am gonna enjoy our last two days of spring break!

A few pictures from the cruise

Sorry I am so late posting these today. I thought I would have time to do that earlier in the day, but my day ended up being filled with errands and getting caught up. Then tonight Todd and I had to go to a political fundraiser.....Todd has to hob nob with the Tifton elite for restaurant pr....but it ended up being fun. We got to hang out with John Berry, who is a famous country singer, as he did a private concert there. It was a nice evening.

I am gonna just post a few pictures here of the cruise. The top two pictures are on the beach in Port Lucaya (in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island). The center picture is our servers for the cruise, Manuel and Patricia. They were so fun! Bottom pictures were at dinner on the formal night on the cruise.

Enjoy!

Back to Reality/Relay Update

Well, we are back from our cruise and I can post pictures from Relay now. Let me see if I can catch you up.....

Relay went very well. Everyone had a great time and Todd stayed all night with his team. I on the other hand had to leave early cuz Bailey started feeling bad. They decorated our tent in a disco theme. Todd's boss showed up from Macon to "check out what he was doing"...he was shocked as to how big it was and very impressed with the community spirit and involvement. He got to see when Todd was presented with a plaque for being what is called an Emerald Sponsor. The event went very well with a lot of money being raised for cancer research. Thank you to all of our friends and family that donated to our team. Team Longhorn raised over $2400 which is great for our small little restaurant. Tift County was number one in the nation last year for a county of our size and they were shooting for it again this year with a goal of $350,000 total. They were very close to the goal when I had to leave at around 9:30ish. Bailey started feeling bad which got me very nervous as we were leaving for our surprise vacation the next day.

The next morning we woke up and she was feeling fine, so we headed to Florida for our trip. The girls thought we were going to Cocoa Beach. We spent the night there and woke up the next morning trying to buy for time before we had to be at the port. We decided to go "look at the yachts" down on the water. We made a bunch of wrong turns on purpose to make it look like we didn't know where we were going. Then Sarah saw the cruise ships and asked if we could go down and take some pictures of the ships. We said okay if we "could find our way"....well needless to say we found them and then told the girls we were going on a cruise. Sarah wouldn't believe me when I told her, and Bailey told Sarah not to argue about it....It was so fun, and they were so excited! I have added the video of when we just pulled into the port area and we told them....not the best video in the world, but you can get an idea of how they found out. The girls were so cute and so grateful for the trip. They just kept saying how they couldn't believe it was really happening and how they couldn't thank us enough. When they saw the ship, they were in awe. It was a great trip and I will post pictures tomorrow of all of our highlights. We had one mishap on the trip, but it of course made it memorable. Bailey came down with strep throat....hence the not feeling good the night of Relay. We got to visit the ship's infirmary, so that added to the fun, but once she got her medicine in her she was great!

Well, for now, just enjoy the video of the surprise, and I will update tomorrow with pictures and more stories.

Have a great night......I am going to bed.....I need a vacation from my vacation! LOL

Here is the video:

Special Olympics and Weekend event

Good Morning everyone. I just got back from Sarah's school where they are hosting the Special Olympics for our county. Sarah and the band played and marched in the openning ceremonies/parade. She then shed her band attire and went into volunteer mode. She was very excited about helping with this event this year through the TALK program at her school (Today's Aspiring Leaders...Kids). It was the one thing she was so excited about getting accepted into TALK for, that she would get to help out with the Special Olympics. I have to tell you, I have never been to a Special Olympics event, and boy.....what an emotional thing for me. I didn't expect to get all teary eyed, but I did. I am so proud of my daughter for wanting to be a part of such a fantastic event. I could do nothing but think of how cool it was, and how proud my Aunt Martha would have been to see her there. Made me really miss her.....

Also, the other event that is happening this weekend is the annual Relay for Life Walk to benefit the American Cancer Society. Longhorn once again has a team and we are all going out to support this wonderful cause. I was proud of Todd this morning when I read the paper, as there is a nice write up in it about the Survivor Dinner that he did on Tuesday night. Longhorn brought in the food for over 200 cancer survivors for an event that celebrates survivorship against this horrible disease. The link to the paper article is here if you feel like reading it:

http://www.tiftongazette.com/local/local_story_107220526.html

Also, we as a family always ask for donations to sponsor us in our walk. This year, we decided to make a big donation on our own and not bother family and friends, as we don't want you to feel like we are hounding you for money. But, I got an email from one of Todd's uncles asking if we were doing it again this year, and his comment was he got used to making his donation to the ACS through us.....so that got me thinking, maybe we should have still sent out the mass email. So instead I am going to post the link to the Longhorn/ACS Relay site here, where you can go and make a donation if you want to help out our team. If you want to pass the link on to anyone you know, please feel free to. The walk is Friday night, so there isn't a ton of time to do this, but all donations will be credited to our team and go toward all the wonderful work and help the American Cancer Society does. Todd's uncle's donation was posted immediately to the team total. The link to that site is:

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifeSouthAtlanticDivision?team_id=195914&pg=team&fr_id=8455

Well, I will post pictures of Relay on Saturday, and then on Sunday, we head off on our "camping trip". I cannot wait to see the girls faces when we pull up to Port Canaveral and they find out where we are going. I am like a kid at Christmas....

I hope you all have a great day!

Life School Musical

Bailey was in the church musical today. They did a take on High School Musical. It was cute. She was one of the cheerleaders. She did a good job. The kids put a lot of work into practicing for this event. Sorry the picture is not the best in the world, but at least I got something. She is on the far left side.

The other picture is of Sarah working the sound board. She helped out with the musical quite a bit, but she loves working the sound board....looks too complicated to me. This picture was taken at one of the practices.

I am finally feeling better. Still coughing a bit, but overall I am getting back to normal. Otherwise there is not a whole ton new here. We are on our final week of school before spring break starts. We will be doing Relay for Life this coming Friday, so I am sure I will post pictures from that.

Otherwise, have a great week!

Yuck

I am feeling yucky today. I went to the doctor and I have an upper respitory infection. I have had the chills and been exhausted with a very annoying cough. I started on my z pack, so hopefully I will feel better by tomorrow. We are supposed to be going to the strawberry patch with the preschool, and I know that Gina will not be able to handle it on her own, so I can only pray my meds take affect soon.
The kids have been taking their state mandated tests this week, so we have all been hitting our pillows earlier than normal. I hate these tests because they stress everyone out! I just hope the kids get through it fine.
Well, that is about all that is going on here.
Have a good week.

Moments

It isn't very often that I get a moment to just sit. The tasks of daily living always seem to keep me busy. I feel like I go through life one task followed by another. I never slow down to stop and smell the roses (as the saying goes). This weekend, I made it a point to sit down with my girls and just enjoy the moment. I have been going nonstop for the past few months with not one second to just relax, and taking the time this weekend made me realize that I need to do it just to reenergize myself and realize why I am running all the time.
Yesterday, my girls and I sat and played a game together which is something we enjoy to do, but lately it has been put on the back burner. We had such a great time just laughing and playing together. Then today, after church, we came home and I realized I didn't have anything to do! I kind of felt a bit lost for a second, and then I realized it is okay. The girls and I decided to look at some pictures together. As we were flipping through pictures of them when they were younger, it occured to me how short our time with them really is. It seems as though it was just yesterday that I was holding them in my arms. Now I am faced with the reality that I only have four years left before Sarah is going to be going off to college, and Bailey will be there right behind her. I actually got teary eyed, and the girls were thinking I was weird because I was crying, but I am not ashamed of my emotions over this. I thought how much I have invested in both of them and I wouldn't change it for the world. I would turn back the hands of time and do it all over again....only I would take more moments with them. I would try and slow time down so I had more of it with them. We often times take advantage of each other and of the time we have together. That really is a shame for all relationships.
We often forget to take those moments together. Time to appreciate who we are as individuals and who we are as a family unit. I hope that each of you will take a moment to have a moment together. I realized after sitting with my girls today, that although our moment today was a brief one, I will cherish it just the same. It is amazing how much hope comes in just a brief "moment".

Student of the Month

Bailey was nominated by her teacher for Student of the Month for the month of March. They had a breakfast at school to honor the kids that got it yesterday. She was so proud. I am too. We had a nice breakfast together, and the two of us just giggled at each other, being silly, I guess. The top two pictures are us sharing breakfast, and Bailey with her treat bag and certificate she received. The bottom two pictures are of the group of kids that got it, and Bailey with her principal, Dr. Smith.

The nomination from her teacher, Ms. Dozier, read:

I nominate Bailey Cook for our Student of the Month for March. Each morning, she comes in and gets all of her work done. She is always kind to her classmates, and if anyone is ever hurt on the playground or at recess, she always helps them. Bailey is a beautiful girl on the inside and outside. I am so glad to have Bailey in my class. She will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Todd is headed home tonight from Miami, so I will get to hear all about his trip, and find out how much our benefits etc are changing.

We have church activities this evening after we pick Sarah up from Brigade practice, which is where the marching band kids from the high school (called the Tift County Blue Devil Brigade) come to the middle school to work with the rising 9th graders on basic marching skills, calls, and formations. She has Brigade all week, so she has been extra tired.

I had a good day today at school, except for the fact that "poop" boy decided to stomp on a red ant hill today. He was coated within seconds with ants, and we had to strip his pants, shirt, socks and shoes off of him to get all the ants off of him. Now did he get any bites on him.....NO, of course not. But I on the other hand, got bites all over my feet and my arms, trying to save him......grrrr! I will survive, but part of my evil little self wished he would have gotten a few bites of his own....in parts unknown........LOL

I guess that is all for now. Have a good day!