Weeks Happenings

We have been soooo busy....then again when aren't we? I feel like that is all I ever write in my posts, but that is the life of a mom with kids I guess. Let's see.....where should I start?

At the beginning of the month, the girls and I set off for Atlanta to take Sarah to her audition for the Governor's Honors Program. It is a very selective program that the state of Georgia offers to high schoolers....mostly upcoming seniors...but Sarah was nominated in music by her teacher and she is only a sophomore. She made it through all the interviews and then on to the State Level interviews/audition. She felt like she did pretty well, but she is going up against kids that go to fine arts only schools, so the competition is tough. We will find out if she made it at the end of March. If she does make it, she will attend Valdosta State University for a six week program in the summer where she will take college level classes with a declared major of music and a minor in education. She will have classes Monday thru Saturday, and will live on campus in the dorms just like a college kid does. I hope she makes it because it would look soooo good on her college applications, but part of me doesn't want her to make it because I don't know how I feel about my baby being gone away to "college" for six weeks without me....that means I have to admit she is growing up!!!

We did have fun in Atlanta before and after the audition. We drove around our old stomping grounds and relived some of our memories while doing it. We ate like crazy at all the good restaurants that we miss since we have moved to Tifton. And we went prom dress shopping while we were there as well. Sarah found a beautiful dress and accessories, so she is ready to go to the prom in May.....my wallet on the other hand is awfully empty!!

Then this past Thursday, Bailey and Todd went to the Father/Daughter Valentine's dance here in town. They had sooo much fun, and looked fabulous, if I don't say so myself! Bailey got to go shopping to pick out her dress, get a "mani-pedi", and then got her hair done in lots and lots of curls. She thought she was the princess. My prince looked pretty spiffy too! I teased Bailey that she would need to beat up if anyone was hitting on her date. She assured me she would take care of it. They had a great time together and made lots of memories. I was so glad they got to have that time together.

The day after the dance, South Georgia went into the history books as having a record snowfall!!! Yes, the girls were soooooo excited and loved every minute of it. They built a snowman, had snowball fights, and just played around in the snow like they were three. It wasn't quite the snow that we are used to seeing in NY, but for down here, it was AWESOME!

I have been finding time lately to get back into my scrapbooks. It has been so long and I am soooo far behind, but I am loving being able to utilize my creative side again. I also have been looking for a job, which is scary to me being that I have been an at home mom for so long, which I have loved. I guess that is why I am so scared....it is me having to close that chapter of my life and I don't like it one bit. I do have a job prospect on the horizion. I will see what happens in the next few weeks. I so wish I had all the money in the world that I could open up a store like I have always wanted to, but that is not an option for me right now.

Todd has been doing well. No major changes....which is a blessing! He has cut back his hours at work and is only working open shifts which has allowed him to be home every night for dinner and time for him to rest his body...which is what the doctor has ordered. I just hope an pray we stay on this path of no change for as long as possible.

Finally, I am in the process of booking our trip to Ireland! I am so excited. It has been exciting to plan it, but frustrating too because I can't seem to find a travel agent who wants to give us what we want.,...for them it is all about commission and not about making a happy customer, so I am falling back on my travel schooling and booking it myself. We are planning on going the last week of May. The kids are going with us, so it will be a full blown family vacation....hopefully the trip of a lifetime.

I guess that is all for now. I hope this finds everyone else well. I will update when I have time! Have a great week!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, it has been a busy few days.
Last week, Bailey found out she is going to have one of the lead roles in her schools play...Peter Pan....she will be Wendy! She is so excited and nervous all at the same time.
I spent the weekend in Atlanta, scrapbooking the entire weekend with some old friends. I had a blast and got a ton accomplished. Gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get started again. I also got to go to Archivers which is a huge scrapbook store up there. I was in paper crafters heaven.....I had to force myself to leave! It was a very enjoyable weekend and gave me the much needed break I had been craving for. Looking forward to going again in July!
Sarah has her Governor's Honors Audition in Atlanta this weekend, so we are going to head out tomorrow when the girls get out of school to spend the weekend up there. We will prom dress shop before and after her audition time which is on Saturday afternoon. She is nervous about the audition but as I have explained to her she already has accomplished so much by being nominated and making it to this level as a sophomore....normally sophomores don't make it this far, so I am proud of her already. If she makes the program, that would just be extra icing on the cake!
Todd is heading to S.C. to finish up his car that he and his dad have been restoring. He is hoping to finally be able to bring it home this weekend. I hope he is able to, but we shall see.
Healthwise, Todd is doing well with no major changes at this point. We continue to rejoice in his current good health.
We will be booking our trip to Ireland probably next week! I am so excited to be going all together as a family. May will not get here soon enough! I still can't believe we really are going! Dream vacation come true!
I hope this finds everyone else well! Will let you all know how Sarah makes out this weekend! Have a good one!

Ya Ya Sisterhood 2010

Friday night was the annual Ya Ya Sisterhood Event to support Women's Health here in Tift County. Last year we went as Revenge of the Nerds....this year's theme was Women of the World. We choose China as our country. It was a wonderful night of fun and fellowship with the girls. We laughed and danced the night away after eating a yummy dinner. I think we all looked fabulous in our 'kimonos', which were actually robes that one of the girls, Kim, found at Belk's on the clearance rack. She scoured two Belk stores to get one for all of us. Kelli, Leslie, Tonya and Kim decorated our table which looked awesome as far as I was concerned. There were lots of really unique table designs there. It always amazes me the level of some people's creativity. The best part of it was that it was for a great cause and money was definitely made for the foundation....especially off our table just in the bar tab alone!

I wish I could come up with some sort of fundraiser that would be as successful as this one is to support ALS and MS. These diseases affect my closest family members, and I am always one to dive right in to whatever we are facing....I know I could come up with something if I put my mind to it, but I just don't even know the first thing about starting a fundraiser. Maybe that is just something that will come eventually.....in fact, my fortune cookie from the YaYa event that I got at our table said, "You will become a prominent public figure and community leader." What do you think? Politics aren't remotely my thing, but advocacy is. Who knows what the future holds for us.....I guess we will just leave that all up to the Big Man upstairs, and in the mean time get my wheels turning......

Have a great day!

It has been a while......

I know it has been a long time since I have posted on this site.....but our life has taken a turn that none of us were ready for. I will try to update you on what has been happening....
November brought us to the end of band season. It was a fun season but we were so ready for it to end. Bailey finished up soccer season as well. She had a great season and really enjoyed it more than we thought she would. December was full of the usual activity for the holidays. Todd and I were involved in the organizing of the John Berry concert that happened at the beginning of the month. It was a fundraiser for our band program. It was definitely challenging but in the end turned out great. If you don't know who John Berry is...he is a country singer, mostly popular in the 90's. Some of hits are "Your Love Amazes Me", "Kiss Me in the Car", and "40 again". Part of the concert was Christmas music with his "O Holy Night" rocking the house. It was a true pleasure meeting him also. We had lots of visitors through the holidays as well. All of our parents came to visit during the months of November and December which was so fun for all of us. Along with having a wonderful Christmas, we celebrated Sarah's 16th birthday as well. It is so hard for me to believe my baby girl is 16 now. She truly has been a joy to raise though. I wouldn't change a thing, and I am so proud of her.
Now for the big changes.....in November, Todd starting undergoing intense testing for the issues he has been having with his legs. After five trips to Augusta, Ga to see a neurologist there, we were dealt the crushing blow of his diagnosis. Todd has been diagnosed with ALS, or as it is more well know Lou Gherig's Disease. For those of you that don't know much about the disease, I can tell you it is not a kind disease, and the prognosis is very grim.....so needless to say our family is having to deal with it as best we know how. We had the horrible task of telling the children what was going on with Todd. Needless to say it was not pleasant, but we have vowed to be completely honest with them through our journey. We are taking each day as it comes. Todd as of right now is feeling fine and to look at him you would never in a million years think something was wrong. So we will relish in this good health while we can. He has such a wonderful outlook on life and a positive attitude about everything. That coupled with his sense of humor is what is going to bring us through this. Don't get me wrong...we have our moments where we feel the pain of what is going to happen to us, but it has been our goal for now to not dwell in the negative and the sadness. With that being said, all we ask of everyone is to just pray for him and for healing or at the least slow progression. We did take a trip last week again to Augusta to go to the monthly ALS Clinic. We will only need to go every three months at this point but when you go to clinic days you basically meet with everyone on your "team". In other words, your dietician, respitory therapist, speech therapist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, clinic nurse, the neurologist, and then people from the ALS Association (social worker) and MDA representatives. Todd's joke is now he is officially one of "Jerry's Kids"....so next time the telethon is on or someone asks you to buy a shamrock to support MDA....PLEASE do it....it may be what helps my husband. At this point it all is very overwhelming as far as the information that they bombard you with, but we will weed our way through it slowly.
Well, I guess that about catches you up on what is going on in our world.....it is a lot and I could probably write all night, but I have things to do and people to talk to, so I hope this finds everyone well.
Please pray for Todd and for our family. People want to know what they can do for us....pray and stay positive!

Fall Fun

Well we have been very busy the past week. Last weekend, we were in Ocala, Florida for Sarah's big band competition. They did a great job and placed 3rd out of 30 bands and 2nd in their class. They received all superior ratings as well which for those that know nothing about band scores....that is awesome. It was sooooo cold at the competition.....45 degrees in Florida....brrrr. The day after the competition we went to Busch Gardens for the day. Bailey enjoyed a day with mom and dad while Sarah walked with her friends.

When we got home, the week was filled with lots of basic day to day errands and lots of aggravation.....car went into the shop and is costing us much more than we really want to hear. I had planned a trip to the north Georgia mountains which is my one thing I love to do in the fall. I had to cancel the trip because of the car, and it made me really mad. I pouted like a baby about it all Friday night which didn't make the football game all that fun, but it made me feel better! LOL.....On Saturday, I got up and decided I would still see if I could salvage my 'ruined' weekend. I found a corn maze about one hour from here so we headed out to attempt the corn maze. We had a fun day and I felt a little better about the weekend. Yesterday, we went to our church's fall festival. Bailey was excited to wear her halloween costume.....a jellyfish.....she was too cute. It kinda makes me feel sad cuz this is probably the last year she will do the halloween thing. It makes me realize how fast time has gone by......my babies are definitely not babies anymore.......so for now I will cherish the memories we make and know that both girls have had very good childhoods....broken cars and all!

HGTV.....Bathrooom Redesign.....

I have spent this whole week remodeling our bathroom. Since I don't have the cash to gut the bathroom and redo the whole thing like we really want, I decided to just make it livable for the time being. All for under $300, I was able to redesign the entire bathroom. New flooring, paint, window treatments, lighting and accessories! I love how it turned out and I am so glad I got it done while Todd was gone. Hopefully he will like what I have done.

He will finally be home tomorrow. I know he made it back into the States safely so that is all I care about. No moose once again, but he had fun and I guess that is all that really matters. I cannot wait to hold him in my arms again. I have felt like a part of me was missing all week.

He will be home tomorrow evening so I am gonna take the girls to the Georgia State Fair tomorrow while we anxiously wait for him to get home.

We had soccer pictures taken today for Bailey. She looks so cute in her uniform. She is really enjoying it so far. She has another game on Monday.

I guess that is all for now. I am tired and gonna head to bed. Hope everyone has a great week!

Soccer and Dances

Whew! What a week! I am so tired from all of it, but so fulfilled because my children are experiencing so much fun and excitement.

Bailey had her first soccer game this past week. She did SOOOO good for never playing soccer before. She was sitting on the ball before the game started, and I was like "oh boy, this is gonna get interesting". But once that whistle blew she just hopped up and got her head in the game. She played defense which I thought was a good choice on the coach's part being she had never played before. I just sat on the sidelines praying she would just not get hurt. Well, let me tell you that ball came down near her and she got right in there. She had a few good plays too. She learned a few things as well which was great. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Her team won 5-1. She was so excited and couldn't wait to tell Sarah and Daddy about it. She has another game again tonight so we will see if she does as well. It was so neat to see her involved in something.

Sarah had her Homecoming this weekend as well. It was Spirit week at school so she got right in on the festivities....twin day, tacky day/duct tape day, zombie day, red light day and finally spirit day. The football team won Friday night at the game which is always a good thing for homecoming. Band did great as usual. Saturday started off with a nail appointment, then hair appointment and finally the dance. Chase looked so handsome when he arrived to pick up our princess. Sarah looked fantastic if I don't say so myself. She was absolutely radiant and classy. Some of these teenage girls look like hoochies when they go to these dances. We took some pictures and the kids headed out to dinner. She and Chase went with one other couple to eat. I went out to eat with Chase's parents and when the kids were done, they met up with us again to get more pictures made at ABAC (our local college). Then they headed to the dance which they had an absolute ball at! I had a bonfire at the house and all the kid's parents came to it and then the kids joined us after the dance was over. We all had a great time relaxing and enjoying the laughter of our kids. We didn't get to bed till around 3:30 am. Sunday was spent recovering from lack of sleep! Sarah didn't want the weekend to end...but like all good things it did. She made lots of memories and that is all that matters.

So I sit here on Monday morning exhausted but fulfilled......funny how your children can bring you so much grief at times but seeing what my girls have been up to lately, the joys of being a mom by far outweigh the crazy times. I love being a mom and seeing our children happy....there is nothing in the world quite like it.