Leaving on a jet plane…..

Tomorrow morning, my BFF Laura and I are leaving on a jet plane going to the Big Apple!!  Woohoo!! 

Back in April, we were sitting in Sunday School rocking our bed babies and I made the comment that I really wanted to go see Wicked.  Well, Laura’s hubbie went home and found us cheap tickets to NYC.  And it just grew from there!  We were just going up to see the play and come home.  But that wasn’t enough!!  We would be in NYC!!!  We’d have to see another play, Momma Mia.  And we’d have to go to the top of the Empire State building, go to Ground Zero, go to the Statue of Liberty…..our list just grew! 

We’ve got 3 full days to sightsee and eat as much cheesecake as we want!!  So much for the 10 pounds I just lost!!  lol 

The weather is just perfect according to weather.com.  It’s not supposed to be above 80.  Laura and I will probably freeze since it’s been in the 100’s here!! 

Wish you could see the smile on my face!! 

So proud!

I know I’m waayy behind so this will probably be long and picture-full!! 

Where to start??  I think the first thing was the children’s choir musical.  Jonah had a speaking part.  He loves to act and sing!

Jonah got to learn how to use a lasso – that was his favorite part!  The cutie pie is my niece Callie.  I’m proud of her too.  She just cut her hair and donated it to locks of love!  This is her second time to donate and she’s only 7!!

This gorgeous girl is my niece too, Emma Beth.  She’s Callie’s sister.  What a sweetie!  My dad got to come to the musical too.  He was so proud of his grandkids!  Emma and Jonah both had speaking parts.  Callie sang in the choir.  She was too cute.  At one point during the song *All Things* while everyone else was doing the motions they were supposed to do, she did cute movements showing off her muscles, showing how strong her God is! 

 

Here’s the whole cast!  They were so good!  I don’t think any of them forgot any of their lines!  I think it was the best one yet!  (I say that every year though!!)

 

 

Now to Josh!  This is the end of school awards.  He was a Cub Scholar.  He had all A’s and one B every 6 weeks!!  Math was a killer!!  The others in the picture are his principal (lady in white shirt) and assistant principals.   They love Josh.  He’s so outgoing and funny!  He keeps everyone laughing!!

I don’t have a picture of Jake at the end of school.  He’s in high school you know!  They’re too cool for that!!  But he played soccer, division one and school league, and football.  He lettered for school soccer and we ordered that jacket!!  What an honor!  He has tried out for the division one team again and made it!  Oh, back to his grades!  He did great for his freshman year!  All A’s and one B.  Math is not good to my boys!! 

 

     

 

Here is Jonah at his end of school awards.  He got the trophy for having the longest jump rope record, 3 minutes 14 seconds!!  And he got the math award!   That’s Mrs. Dee Dee trying to kiss him!  She wasn’t his teacher (she wasn’t able to be there that day ):   )  so Dee Dee stood in!  We love her!!

 

These are his bestest buddies!  What a great group of kids!  Smart and cute!!  He had such a great year!  Third grade rocked!! 

 

 

This is my baby brother!  He is the store director for Super1 in Ruston. He and his store were honored with an award for their partnership in education.  They donate a lot of time and money for the children in Ruston.  I’m so proud of him!!   It is quite an honor for him!! 

22 Years!!

 

 

Twenty-two years  ago today I married my best friend!  He is a wonderful man and I am very blessed to have him.  He has worked very hard to take of me so I could stay home to take care of our boys. I think have always been together.  We started dating the end of our junior year in high school!!  I got him to go out with me by telling him I had a *vette*.  He loves cars.  Imagine how disappointed he was when he got to my house and found out it was a Che-vette instead of a Corvette! 

I pulled out our wedding album to get this picture.  I haven’t looked at it in a very long time!  Oh the memories!   I think my favorite one is while I was getting ready in the back of the church, Daddy came in and said that everything was fine now.  I looked at him puzzled.  He said that they had found my ring.  I had NO idea my ring was lost!  Brad had put his keys in the box with my ring so he wouldn’t forget it.  When he opened the box to get the keys, unknown to him, he dropped my ring.   So when he gets to the church he starts looking for it.  His house is 15 minutes from our church.  Luckily one of his sweet neighbors went looking for my ring in the GRAVEL driveway.  She found it and brought it to him.   I’m so glad they didn’t tell me until it was found!!

Some of the memories looking at pictures were sad.  Grandparents that are no longer with us.  Brad’s dad that is no longer here.  But I am so glad that we have the pictures to remember! 

We all look so young!  (and skinny!!)

Happy Anniversary Brad!  I love you!  Thanks for sharing your life with me!!

Please pray

 

Yesterday was a horrible day in our family.  My brother and his wife found out during an ultrasound that their sweet baby boy no longer had a heart beat.  We’ve known for a couple of weeks that there were some problems but we were ever so hopeful.  She was around 22 weeks.  They admitted her and induced labor.  Around midnight Christopher Claude was born.  Christopher is my brother’s name and Claude was my paternal grandfather’s name.  

To say we’re heartbroken is such an understatement.  They have 3 precious little girls and to add a boy was just a dream come true for them. 

Please pray for them!  The only way they are going to get through this is with God guiding them.  Thank you!

(this picture is of Chris and Nancy and 2 of their girls.  The one in Chris’s hand is a friend of theirs.)

Life in Texas!

We decided to spend spring break in Dallas again this year. We only have 2 things we HAVE to do. The first is the Great Wolf Lodge and the second is the King Tut exhibit. We are at the Lodge right now and it is WONDERFUL! It's a huge indoor water park. Now the thought of me in a swimsuit is horrible. I did not stick to my diet and exercise plan like my BFF Laura! So I ordered me a swimsuit with a cute little skirt so I would feel more comfortable. So far so good! Now if I only had a tan.....lol

We made our first stop in Longview at the coolest gas station ever! We got out to get gas but not only could you get gas, you could order Sonic while you waited!! A dream come true. We decided to go in and check out the inside. There was a billboard earlier that advertised 25 flavors of beef jerky. In a truckfull of boys, that was very interesting!! Inside was not only the jerky, but a Sonic, a bakery, a BBQ eatery and the normal candy and drinks!! I had no idea gas stations could be so nice!!

Did I mention that both of our mothers are with us?? This should be a very interesting trip!! I hope they can survive us...

I do have some pictures but not many yet. I promise to take more today to show the lodge but I'm telling, pictures will not do it justice! This place is made for kids and more kids!

Well, I just tried to upload the pictures, but I can't seem to do it. Sorry! I'm on Brad's computer and it just doesn't work like mine.

Guess I'll go float in the lazy river instead!!

Happy Birthday Jonah!

 

Today Jonah is 9!  My baby boy is growing up.   Could it be that 9 years ago he was (or it seemed!) always crying?  I bounced that baby boy more than the other 2 boys put together!  He wouldn’t let me out of his sight!  And now he is very independent.  Who would have thought??

                                                                       

 I love you Jonah!!  I’m very proud of the boy you are!

Laura’s Blogiversary!

My BFF Laura is having a giveaway!!  Go check it out!!

 

If you enter, tell her Leigh sent you!!

A little beading

Thought I'd better do a little post or y'all (all 3 of you!!) would think I'd gotten lost!  What have I been doing you might ask!  Well, work, soccer and more soccer!!  Jake and Jonah are both playing, so we're doing a lot of soccer!  And I still don't understand it!!! 

I do have soccer pictures, but they're on the other camera.  So instead I have some pictures of a little beading I have done.

                                                          

 

The black bracelet was FUN FUN FUN!!  I’ll be  making more of these in different colors.  The coral and turquoise one I made for my mom for her birthday.  I got the kit from Melanie Massey (mojoy.blogspot.com).  The black one was for mom too.  The other one I made for my BFF Laura.  She and her family are going to Disney in May to celebrate their daughter’s birthday!  I saw this bracelet on one of the websites I shop and had to do one for her in honor of their trip.  I also made one for baby girl but haven’t finished it yet.  I can’t remember what size to make it!!

Wordless Wednesday

I've never done a Wordless Wednesday so I'm using that excuse to use words!!  I LOVE this picture!!  This was taken last fall at a tournament.  Jake was one of the new guys and hadn't gotten his uniform yet, that's why he's different from the other orange guy. 

He played his last freshman/JV game last night.  I think it was his best game yet!  I don't think I've seen his foot on the ball more!  He was upset because he got a foul that ended up with a penalty kick which let the other team win.  But I was still one proud momma!! 

I'm also one sad momma.....I signed him up for driver's ed today!  When did he grow up???? 

Happy Birthday Brad!

Today is my sweetie's birthday!!  What a man.  There is nothing he can't do.  He works very hard at his job (which I still can't tell you what he does!  I always say he's a nerd, a cute nerd!!) then he takes care of us (3 boys and me), my mother, his mother and all of his friends.  There's not a week that he doesn't have somebody's computer here to work on.  He is one of the most giving people I know.  Such a big heart!

Thank you Brad for taking such good care of us!!  I love you very much!!  Happy Birthday!!

 

 

The Phone Call

Today I got the phone call.  The one as parents we dread.  It wasn't very bad, but bad enough.  Jake had a soccer game today in a town that's 2.5 hours away.  Brad was out of town.  The other 2 boys didn't want to go.  I didn't want to go by myself.  (it's a hard drive down back roads)  Jake told me it was okay if I skipped this one, that he would be ok.  So I did. 

The coach called around 2 this afternoon saying that Jake had been clipped during the game and was injured.  I felt like a horrible mom.  I wasn't there for him.  Not that I could do anything but get him home faster.  But.....   Coach said that he had a second degree ankle sprain and it was VERY swollen.  He landed on his wrist and was probably fractured.  I can't even begin to tell you how horrible I felt.

I finally got to talk to him and he sounded ok.  Said he wasn't hurting too bad.

As soon as he got home we went to see the trainer at the high school.  We both think his wrist is fractured (for those that don't know, I'm a rad tech) and the ankle is sprained not broken. 

He really is ok, just aggravated.  He hates being taken care of!!  And I'm hovering!!

Here's some pictures of my baby!!

                                    

 

His ankle is already looking less swollen but the wrist is looking worse!  We go to the orthopaedic doctor first thing Monday morning.  Jake swears he's not getting a cast!!  I hope it's so!