Wrap Up of Wrightsville Beach

I cannot begin to put into words how much fun we had at the beach with Mike's Dad & Step-Mom, Judy. We are very very very grateful for the fun weekend they gave us and all the memories that we left with. Here's some pictures to wrap it all up!

Family Pictures at the Beach

Can't Wait to Meet You, Baby Chloe!

I hosted a baby shower for a very good friend and co-worker of mine this afternoon. Marli hired me straight out of college as a therapist, and within a month had enough faith in me to promote me to a Rehab Manager! We just "clicked" from the get go and I treasure our friendship.

Baby Chloe is such a blessing to Marli and Rick! After 8 long years of testing their faith and hope, she's well on her way! We are so very excited for Baby Chloe to arrive and can't wait to snuggle her up and tell her how many people prayed for her every step of the way!

Instead of games (because Marli's not a fru-fru girl!) we all told Marli what no one ever told us about childbirth or raising a baby! What fun that turned out to be. Did you know that you now have an option to freeze dry the placenta to be put into vitamin form for the Mom to take to reduce effect of post-partum depression!!! We all learned a lot today!

While the big girls were upstairs opening gifts, eating, and having fun, Paige was downstairs with Daddy and her brothers. Yep, you guessed it, she managed to get hurt anyhow by falling off the footstool to the recliner. Now she has a gorgeous shiner to sport to church tomorrow!

Marli - I enjoyed having you and all our coworkers over today! Thank you for being such a good friend and I look forward to meeting little Chloe!

8 Teenage Girls Under One Roof!

We celebrated Kayleigh's 15th birthday a week early... with a sleepover of EIGHT teenage girls! Mike and I gave up our bedroom for the night so that they could have plenty of space (if you've never been here - it's 600+ square feet with a living room suit, dining room table, and king size bed!). They stayed up until well past 4am... but all woke up by 9:30am Saturday!

We really are blessed that Kayleigh has such a great group of friends! Mike and I slept directly above them, and didn't hear a thing! They had a great time and we enjoyed having them!

Kayleigh - we hope you had a great time and are very proud of you! We look forward that God has in store for you!

"Harry Potter Can Rot"...

If you haven't heard yet, the new Harry Potter movie was released this week. The world seems to be pretty excited over it... I just read that worldwide it has made over $100 MILLION dollars in just a few short days!!!

On the flip side of the excited fanatics who are storming theaters to see this movie... you have the exhausted employees who work at and operate the theaters...

Take Mike, for example....

Tuesday he worked 7am to 11am to prep for the movie, then back in at about 4:30-5:00pm for the beginning of mass chaos... notice, I didn't put an end time... that's because he came home at 7:00pm WEDNESDAY for a total of 26.5 hours straight! Then the poor guy had to BACK at the theater at 7am this morning to meet a tech to fix a projector! By the end of the day Saturday he will work over 60 hours!

Mike's facebook status this week has been "Harry Potter Can Rot"... and I can certainly see why!

Such a Proud Kid...

Chase was jumping on the trampoline this afternoon without a shirt on and flipped off of it, backwards. Now we all know Chase is made of rubber and doesn't really break... so for him it was "funny" and quite a proud moment complete with some scratches and battle wounds from the fall!

It wasn't quite so funny after he came downstairs tonight asking what all the bubbles were all over him. It was then that his big brother said he had fallen into a patch of POISON OAK!!! Really not so funny now! The kids is COVERED in poison oak all the way down his chest and left arm! Add to the poison oak bubbles the fact that he's got open scrapes all over his chest.... YUCK!

After a long hot soapy shower and careful towel dry we lathered him up with a 50/50 split of prescription strength corticosteroid cream and Eucerin (b/c the cream was adult strength). For now he's doing fairly well and says it feels "cooool"!!

The smile still shows how proud he is... wonder if he'll still be this proud tomorrow when he's all itchy and miserable?

Happy Birthday Grandma McMahon

Today would have been Grandma McMahon's 81st birthday. I miss just hearing her voice on the phone every week, and miss talking to her about memories of my Mom and her telling my kids stories of my Mom.

I also have such fun memories of visiting her and "Pap-Pap" when I was a kid. My favorite memories will always be the nights that we would travel and get to their house late at night. She'd always be at the kitchen table waiting for us with fresh kielbasa and colby-jack cheese from the Convenient store she worked at down the road. We'd nibble on it little by little in hopes of staying up even later. Meanwhile, Pap-Pap was snoring like crazy in the lounge chair in the living room with his dog on his lap... claiming he was trying to stay awake for us to get there! It was always a special treat when we were there!

I know that Mom and Grandma are celebrating together in the Glorious Heavens.

Until then...

Love and Miss you!

"Shell"

Happy 60th Birthday Mom!

Dear Mom,

Today would have been your 60th birthday. You're not celebrating here with us, but I know you are having your special day in Heaven with the angels. I miss our "girl-days" we always shared on birthdays... getting up bright and early and spending the entire day together with Cassi. Such fun memories I'll always treasure!

You are always loved and always in our hearts.

Love and Miss you!

Blog Hop!

Brent Riggs and MckMama are sponsoring a Blog Hop! This week, on TUESDAY, 7/7/09, the theme is A FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPH. Want to join us? Post up one of your favorite photographs and a caption that tells the audience about it.

This is a picture of my beautiful daughter that SHE took HERSELF this week! She's growing up so quickly...

Another One Behind The Wheel!

Kayleigh starts "in-car" any day now, then she'll get her permit... so I decided I'd give her a shot behind the wheel in our church's parking lot. She wasn't so sure at first, and was so nervous! I was just praying she didn't drive right through the sanctuary!

After about 20 minutes we switched and I drove towards home. Once on Summerglen, I figured I'd give her a shot again... after all, it's only about 1/4 mile and it's a straight road... surely she could do that... right?




OK... so it was her first time... But, I guess we have some work to do!

Fun on the Fourth

We learned last year that fighting the traffic to get to Lewisville Square for fireworks was just plain crazy... so we found our own spot in a field up the road to watch the fireworks and let Chase and Paige play.

After the fireworks were over we walked back to our house and enjoyed the $10 fireworks we bought from Kmart more than we did the Lewisville fireworks anyhow. Mike had me a bit worried... beer plus fireworks just seemed like a recipe for disaster... but it turned out ok!

Hope everyone else had a great holiday!

Goodbye My Friend...

This evening, Matt is pain and cancer free. He will be missed by family and friends, but we all know Heaven is rejoicing today as he is welcomed to his eternal home.

Just a Moment In Time...

Word spread tonight of a high-school friend recently diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma just a few weeks ago. While on chemo he contracted a bad case of pneumonia and now is fighting for his life. The physicians are telling the family it is not looking good and to expect the worst.

It really got me thinking... when we were in high school we didn't look around and think: she's going to die in a car accident at 23, he's going be on dialysis at 40, she's going to die after a kidney transplant from complications of diabetes at 36, he's going to be fighting for his life at 41. We all seemed so invincible back then. After all, we were all going to live well into our 90's, right?

I've seen so much heartache, pain, and suffering to family and friends and such young ages. My best friend Tammy died in July of 1995 in a car accident... 23 years old. My own Mom was only 54. Cancer is not choosy and accidents do happen each and every day. Life really is unpredictable and we can't just take tomorrow for granted. We need to live today like it is our last and we need to live righteously.

Pastor Beaty said something a few weeks ago that popped back in my head tonight and I'm leaving you with it...

If you died tomorrow, would you go to Heaven? Have you opened your heart to Jesus and accepted Him? Trusted in His love for you? Are you living your life to glorify Him? Will your family know that you have given your heart to Him so that they have peace in knowing your final destination?

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall live, even though he dies" (John 11:25)

Clear The Roads!!!

Devin got official permission from the state of North Carolina to drive without Mommy and Daddy in the car...

Crocodile Dock Week!

This week was River Oaks Community Church's Vacation Bible School... also known as "Summer Block Party". The theme was Crocodile Dock and the kids LOVED it! The crew did a great job turning our sanctuary into a swamp and the volunteers were fantastic... making this year's SBP a big hit with many "God Sightings".

My friend, Carrie, led the kids with the music and skits this year! She did a fantastic job (and so did her team!). The kids learned 4 different songs with sign language to them. My kids came home every night singing them in the car.

As you can see... all the kids had a great time. If you look closely in this picture you can see Chase up front... he's the one in the orange shirt with his hands in his pockets (dancing is not his thing!).

One of our members, Kristina, was responsible for the snacks. Each night the snack had to do with the lesson. For instance, one night she made cupcakes with a hollowed out center and a piece of rock candy on top to represent the empty tomb after Jesus rose. Another night she put blue icing on graham crackers and when the kids cracked the open there was chocolate underneath representing the parting of the seas. Such creativity and what a way to teach the kids!

I worked in Preschool registration this year. Watching those little tots leave every night with smiles on their faces, telling their parents about all they learned was such a gift!

Kudos to our SBP team: Laurie, Becky, Tiffany, and Allison. They did a great job!