May 2011

The month in review. :)

So proud of my best friend!! Tiffany graduated from UNC with her Masters!! :)  I’m so excited for her.

After the graduation ceremony, her husband threw her a great dinner.  This is after dinner, and I love them. :) They love each other SO.MUCH. And I love seeing them together.  They make me happy. :)

The kids in TinyTown at church sand some songs for us one Sunday morning.  Ava, my youngest niece, is the on on the right in the blue dress with a bow in her hair.  She was so funny, as always.  Love seeing kids sing to God! :)

We did landscaping around the front of the house.  This is the picture the day we did the planting.  Since then, we’ve added a dogwood tree to the right front, just beside the sidewalk, and spread more mulch to the left.  It only took us 3 years to add some “curb” appeal. :)

For my brother’s birthday, he decided that he wanted to race 4-wheelers, again.  Two weeks later, he raced again.  We went to see him, and rode with his wife and kids.  Ava passed out on the way.

This is Brock with some of the other guys who raced that night looking over the track.  Brock’s on the 4-wheeler.

And this is Brock during the practice.  I love watching him race.  He’s such a natural, and so good!  He won first place that night!! :)

We spent Memorial Day at the beach with friends.  It’s always a great, relaxing time.  The guys went fishing on Saturday, and came back with a lot of dolphin (mahi).  This is the biggest one they caught, >30 lbs.  It was GREAT fried up Sunday on the beach!! :)

And this is one with all of their fish.

The girls with the fish, and the big fisherman of the day! :)

Everyone game Marc a hard time because his shirt looks like the dolphin.  If you count him, he’s the biggest catch of the day! :)

Sunday of Memorial Weekend:

Sand bar at low tide…the guys pushed us off

Wild horses on Carrot Island.  Seriously, one of the most beautiful sights there is…

And that’s pretty much it for May.  Great month.

Now, I’m looking forward to the rest of June. :) Two of my nieces have birthdays, helping to host a baby shower for one of our life group couples, DEF LEPPARD concert (I.cannot.WAIT!!) with all the friends, my 28th birthday, which then leads to July and another weekend at the beach. :)

Hope you’re having a great month! :)

Randomness…

I think I’m still a little full from Thanksgiving.  I’m loving my leftover turkey sandwiches, though! =.)  It was great for lunch today! =.)

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I had a great Thanksgiving, even though I caught a little cold.  I’m hoping it goes away by this weekend.  We’re heading down to South Carolina to do Christmas with Marc’s stepmom’s family. (I don’t remember the rule for apostrophes when there are two possessives beside each other.  If you know, please let me know, because I hate it when my grammar is incorrect.  I’m a dork.  I know this. =.)

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Black Friday was great!  I’m mostly done with my Christmas shopping.  I have just a few more people left.  And, more hints of the dork that I am, I have it organized into a spreadsheet with each person I have to buy for, each gift already purchased, gift ideas on those left to purchase, and highlighted if I still need to purchase. =.)  I know, a bit extreme.  Marc laughed at me when I showed it to him last night.  Fun! =.)

I arrived at Wal-Mart at 4:30 on Friday morning.  I got home, when finished for the day, at 5:00 in the evening.  Such a long day, but so great to be with so many ladies in my family.  I went with my Mama, my grandma, two aunts, and two cousins.  I love tradition! =.)  It was great, and I slept soooo well on Friday night! =.)

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Marc’s dad and stepmom stayed with us from Wednesday through Friday.  We renovated our house last spring, put up vinyl siding, new roof, redid a lot of the inside with hardwood floors, added a master suite, etc.  It looks really, really nice.  Until you look out back and see this awful mustard brown, paint peeling, shingles missing, wood rotting shed.  It’s just gross.  But we use it, so we didn’t want to get rid of it altogether.  Luckily, Marc’s dad, Lyman, is great with a hammer and some nails! =.)

They spent all of Wednesday afternoon and evening, Thursday afternoon and evening, until it started raining working on this shed.  We had some leftover vinyl siding, so they used that, then they put on a new roof, and added a lean-to, so we can park our mower and put other yard stuff under there.  They finally finished it up on Friday morning.  And let me just say…it’s a HUGE improvement! =.)  I love it! =.)  It matches the house, now! =.)

So, on Saturday, I spent most of the day painting the doors (three coats) to match the siding.  It’s not an exact match, but it’s still a vast improvement from the mustard brown. =.)

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We went out to dinner on Saturday for Wendy, my sister-in-law’s, birthday.  She turned 30 yesterday.  Happy belated Birthday, Wendy! =.)  I’m sorry, but I didn’t take any pictures…I’m a bad blogger (for more reasons than that).

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Sunday, we had lunch at my grandmother’s house.  The guys rode their 4-wheelers after that, and I had a little photo shoot with them. My crazy brother, Brock…awesome picture, though! =.)A little background – before I even got up there to watch them ride, Marc and Brock hit head-on.  They’re both fine, but Marc’s 4-wheeler doesn’t look so great at the moment.  So, he decided to ride Allie’s 4-wheeler down to the track.  He was just playing around, but he did jump one jump…love it! =.) See…all four wheels are off the ground! Hahaha…=.)  Great form, though. =.)

Allie and Ava love riding on the Ranger!  Here they are with my Daddy!

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Then, we went and played in the leaves…so.much.fun!! =.)

Allie loves the leaves.  Ava, not so much.  Look at the face on her…she wanted OUT! =.)

I love this one with the moon in the background.

She was holding on for dear life, as well.

I hope you’re having a wonderful week! =.)

Fun weekend ahead...

...if I can just make it through the rest of this week!

I'm super excited about my weekend! It's filled with fun, but I have a feeling that I'll be taking a long nap on Sunday afternoon to catch my breath! =.)

On Friday, I'll be enjoying an evening with my two best friends to celebrate Kelli's birthday. We're going to see Julie & Julia after work, then indulging in some of the wonderful sweets around the movie theater. Either Cold Stone or Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Best of all, though, is that I get to spend time with Tiffany and Kelli! =.) I just love those girls! =.)

I'll be waking up early to head to the lake Saturday morning to enjoy the beach music festival at Hyco Lake. Since we're gonna be at the marina all day, so we won't be taking the pups up. Paisley is gonna be really disappointed! It's only a day trip, though, so it'll be okay. Maybe we can take her to Brock's pond swimming on Sunday.

Then, on Sunday, I'm working the projectors at church, so I've gotta be there early to help set up and such. I really like being there for both services, because I can focus and get more out of the message. And I get to see people that I don't see every week because we're at different services.

And I can't leave without some photos, but they're just of the boys riding last night on the 'new and improved' (read bigger and slightly more dangerous) track at Brock's house.

Marc

Chad and Rob
Katie & I decided it looks like a fog scene out of Twilight. It's really just dust, though.

Chad jumping 'over' Katie

**It was getting dark, and the flash on my camera started auto-focusing on the dust between me and the jump instead of on the jumper. Sorry for that.**

Sorry for such an uneventful post, but such is my life at the moment! =.)

"I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23

The 'Shredders'

From some of my previous posts, I think I told y'all that Marc has 4-wheeler. Well, it's not one of those just 4 wheel drive for trail riding. Nope...not my husband. He's gotta have one of those that's really loud, definitely not stock on anything, except maybe the frame, best of the best, off of Ebay, etc. And I have no one to blame for all of this, except maybe Brock, my brother. You see, if it weren't for Brock, Marc would not have gone all the way to Tennessee to purchase a 4-wheeler, and then spend lots of time and money to make it better, faster, whatever. Oh, and when they ride, the "shred." Just an inside thing.

I don't really mind, though. You see, every Wednesday, I get the television all to myself because it is "Guy Night" at Brock's shop. So, all the guys get together to work on whatever 4-wheeler happens to be broken or taken apart that week, and do whatever else it is that guys want to do when no ladies are around. And I really don't mind. Well, this week, they were riding. My brother decided that he needed a track to ride on (in the pasture that's supposed to be for his horse and Allie's pony). And Brock doesn't do anything halfway. So, he's got this track with a couple of jumps and some big turns, and they ride, when they get the notion. It's funny, though, because when you go to watch, they'll do about 15 minutes of riding, then about 20 minutes of catching their breath and 'resting'.

Back to the point, though...this past Wednesday, I was supposed to go take some pictures, because they love pictures of themselves. I got a few videos, too. So...here you are (and I'm sorry for all of the blurs - my camera was not doing well on focusing):

Chad, Marc & Brock

Taking the turn 3 wide

Gearing up for the next round

Brock

And, while the guys were on their 4-wheelers, Allie was in her Escalade. She was even going up some of the jumps (not actually jumping them, though! No worries!)

I have a feeling Ava is gonna be the daredevil - she really wanted to make it go!

And I'm not an expert on kids, but she looks so big for being only 1 year old!

This is for Chad - his first time on the big jump!

"How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kindgom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation." Daniel 4:3