Vacation 2010 Part 2 Rockbottome Lake

We went to Rockbottom lake and swam on July 5th. We sure did have a lot of fun....but....they don't call it rock bottom for no reason. Wow walking across those rocks sure did hurt. This is the day I got sun burn too. My face looked terrible.........lol. I was glad we were away were no one knew me but family.LOL But we were so ready to cool off it was soooo hot.

My baby girl....

Isabelle and Raina walking to the water.

I think they were the first ones to get in this dirty water...The water was so dirty Isabelle's white wasn't white anymore. :)

Cody has always loved water. So needless to say he totally enjoyed the day swimming in the cool lake.

Raina cheesing for the camera!

Cody and Isabelle both had a real good time!!!

Austin, Dalton, Cody, Isabelle, Andromida, Raina, and Dymond couldn't wait to go off swimming.

The kids took this wonderful creature out in the water and then decided they didn't want it....LOL. So Tonja and I decided we would use it. But not for very long cause then the kids decided they wanted it back. (And yes I'm rubbing my nose....when I went under the water it went up my nose....LOL. I just hate that feeling.)

Cody lounging on the floaty...until someone flipped him off. Hahaha

Dad, Dalton, Me, and Cody

Dalton and Cody

Cody and EJ had sooo much fun playing together. I think they would be real buddies if they were around each other more often.

Belle

Raina and Alyssa's turn on the dino float.

That's my boy....Wow...he sure is growing up way to fast.

Hannah playing with Alyssa in the water.

She seemed to do so good with Alyssa and Alyssa sure does love her too.

Me and Cody getting ready to leave

We had another great day with family. It's so much fun to visit but sure wish we could see them more often.

Vacation 2010 Part 1 July 4th

We had a great time on vacation. We spent part of our time away with family in Sparta, TN and part of our time away in the Pigeon Forge area. We did lots of fun things together and took lots of pictures too....so I will only be posting a few at a time. We left IN on Saturday morning to go to Sparta. Sunday morning we went to church with Amanda. It was July 4th and her pastor delivered a message about Jesus dieing for us so we could be free. He did a real good job and several went to the alter that morning. Later that day we had a cook out (with lots of garden food....potatoes, corn on the cob, cucumbers and onions, etc. Mmmmmm) and spent time visiting with family. Then after it got dark we made smores and let off some fireworks. It was nice to get to spend time with everyone there. This is Gavin! He is such a cutie!

This is Stacy and her niece Alyssa. Alyssa sure is a beautiful little girl!

Beautiful Boo!!!! (with blue in her hair....lol)

Mr. Smiley....he just loves having his picture taken.....not!

Me and my dear husband.....he doesn't really like having his picture taken either....but he loves me....sooooo.......he does it for me. :)

Tonja and her lovely daughter Brittney.

This is my Aunt Debbie. She was so kind to let us stay with her while we were there.

My cousin Amanda....she seemed to be always happy.

Aunt Debs youngest daughter Echo....this is Alyssa's mom too.

Cody had a great time visiting everyone and playing with all the other kids. Andromida

This is EJ....Tonja's baby boy. I just loved his deep voice....he says the funniest things.

This is Stacy's youngest and he is not afraid to try anything. I'm sure he keeps Stacy on her toes.

Dymond and EJ....I don't really know what they were looking at.

Austin talking with Chase...Stacy's step son. He seems like a real nice kid. The guys all seemed to get along real well.

Tonja again

Stacy enjoying her corn on the cob....lol.

Stacy and a couple of the teens went to buy fireworks. We had a good time watching them go off after dark that night.

The kids played a lot of basketball while we were gone. We learned that Isabelle actually is pretty good at basketball. She played and played and made a lot of her shots. She was so proud of herself too.

Uncle Bruce played ball with the kids for quite a while....he thinks he's still young.....but we know the real truth.....lol.

Something about this just doesn't look fair. But then again he is old so maybe........he can out run Uncle Bruce.

The kids got tired of playing so much basketball....to the point I think they actually played duck, duck, goose for a game or two. They also played tag for a while too. Now we are not talking about just the little kids....these are teen age kids we are talking about. But we your in the middle of TN in the country....no body knows your playing kids games.....LOL.

Austin playing the limbo....another game they started playing because they were tired of basketball.

Cody hopping under the limbo stick like a rabbit. The kids were real good about playing together and when they got tired of one game they just thought of another game to play.

Sitting around the bon fire making smores.

Aunt Deb roasting her marshmallow for smores.

Raina eating her roasted marshmellow.

Isabelle waited for her daddy to make her smore for her. She sure does have a sweet daddy!!!

Cody doing sparklers...doesn't he look like he is having a great time..........lol. No really he did have a good time playing in circles with the sparklers.

Cool design with the sparklers!!!

Isabelle playing with her sparklers too!!!

She sure does love her daddy!

Hannah (Stacy's daughter) and Gavin (Amanda's son) watching the fireworks go off in the sky.

Me and my boy....

Well that is our first day in TN....in pictures. We had a lot of fun spending the day with family.
I will try to post more of our vacation soon..........

Up way to early....

Well here I am up way to early.....So I figured it has been a while since I've updated my blog.....What has been happening here. Well....rain, rain, rain! Our basement does not get water in it very often but it seems we could almost have a small wading pool here lately. (Actually it isn't quite that bad but has had water in it for days now.)


Austin has been doing great with his driving! Although there was a couple times he has scared us....like the time two police officers were walking across the street and he just kept going instead of stopping to let them cross. He said, "Well they shouldn't have been out in the road." Haha Or the time he comes home from drivers ed and tells me, "I pulled out in front of a semi today." The drivers ed teacher told him it was a good thing he had a break on his side. Haha But he really is doing a lot better and hasn't totally scared me to the point that I don't want to ride with him YET.


Janiece, Kathryn, and I went to the "Baxter Family Reunion" on June 22 and 23. This was a program put on by Karen Kingsbury. One of my favorite authors. The Baxter family is actually a fictional family from a series of books she has been writing for several years. The Redemption series, the First Born series, and the Sunrise series...this series of books follow "the Baxter Family" with trials and triumphs just like we experience in our lives. If you enjoy reading and have not read her books I encourage you to read them. But be sure you have some Kleenex with you... ;) Anyway, we had a good time shopping, visiting, and seeing Karen again.

Other then that our summer has been busy with everyday living. I've been happy to fill in for a friend of ours in her office a couple days a week this month. Went to Pilgram camp meeting a few times this past week. Taking Isabelle to library programs and piano practice. Taking Austin to drivers ed. Well you get the point doing a lot of running around....but such is life. I get tired but when I think about it someday my kids will be grown and won't need mommy to run them around. I sure will miss it then.

I am well aware that none of this makes sense but I couldn't sleep so ....I just thought I bless you with an update. Hope I didn't bore you too bad....

And We Lived To Tell About It!!!!

Okay so I know that some of you may let your kids drive before they are supposed to but I have chosen not to do that. Soooo today was the big day! We went out to the BMV to get his drivers permit and took a "practice" drive. Wow....a little scary! He didn't do a bad job just drove a little (a lot) closer to the right then I would have liked and wouldn't use his turning signal until he came to a complete stop to make a turn. I'm sure I made him nervous because I'm not real good at riding with people anyway (just ask Janiece about my passenger side brake lol).

He drives with his instructor on Monday and I'm sure he will have way more patience then I will in teaching him. I'm so glad that he will have to drive with an adult for a year before he will be able to drive on his own. I think with more practice and instruction kids do a better job rather then just turning them loose with this flying bullet.

The instructor told us last night that more sixteen year old kids die every year in America from car wrecks then we (Americans) have lost total in the Iraq war. There has been over five thousand American soldiers die in the Iraq war so far and six thousand teens die EVERY YEAR in America from car wrecks. Puts driving all in perspective that is for sure. It almost scared me enough that I was ready to tell my kid "we are out of here". :-)

They also showed them a true story video of a car wreck involving teens that were not wearing their seat belts and two of them died. I thought "I'm going to be the only parent that is sitting here crying" it was so sad to see this girl that still had so much life to live. Yet her life ended so young. You can watch it at... http://journeysafe.com/video/?v=6584076

Anyway my boy is growing up to fast and we now need to stay off the sidewalks. :-) No really we are excited about him learning how to drive safe. I pray that he isn't one of these kids that think it's cool to show off and be stupid.

Memorial Day 2010

In memory of you:

"I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb...." Jeremiah 1: 5

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb." Psalm 139:13

Although it seems that others don't remember or maybe never knew of you I think of you often. I carried you in my womb for four months but I never got to hold you in my arms, never got to hear your voice, never got to calm your cries, never got to see you crawl or learn to walk, never got to kiss a boo boo or help you while your sick and I miss you so much. It has been almost nine years but the memory of you never ever goes away. I often wonder which of us you would have looked the most like, what your personality would have been like, even whether you would have been a boy or a girl (although my gut feeling is that you were our son). Would you have been our singer, our artist, or maybe our scholar. I guess we will never know. But what I do know is that we would have loved you so much and I sometimes don't understand why you were not able to be with us here. But I know you are safe in the arms of Jesus. We could have never loved you or cared for you more then He does and that brings so us much comfort. At times it even brings me comfort to know that you didn't have to experience some of what this world has to offer. You got to go to Heaven without experiencing grief, saddness, and heart ache.

What will it be like when we get to Heaven and all be together again. I just can hardly wait to see Jesus face and your sweet face. What a day that will be!!!