Home in NC

2009-05-17T22:16:00.002-04:00

Kayla's end of the year field trip was to the Marble Museum in Raleigh, NC. Here are some pics of the highlights of the day...=) Jerry was able to go with us that day...so Kayla was really excited about the trip!

2009-05-17T22:11:00.001-04:00

While in NJ for Robs wedding we went into NYC...we had a great time with Rob, Heather, Uncle Terry and MeeMaw Maure. Here are some pics from our trip to the ciy that day....

2009-05-17T22:03:00.003-04:00

Okay...the post is titled Robs wedding ... but not a lot of Rob at his wedding...but as a parent I am biased that I should put up pics of my 2 little flower girls! HEE HEE HEE HEE....

The girls with Grandma Vicky

Rob with the Girls...they would not leave him alone all night...without me evening having to egg them on!

My two angels outside of Church

Madison looking so innocent

Kayla looking innocent too!

2009-05-17T21:56:00.002-04:00

Wow...I have a lot of cathcing up to do! I will start with a few months back and touch on some highlights of the last 8 weeks.

The girls had a very nice Easter. We went to the Church, Eastern Pines, and did the egg dying, egg hunt and then listened to the Easter story.

2009-03-16T20:32:00.004-04:00

WOW!!! Has it been 6 weeks since I last put up a post! That is what Facebook will do to you!

Anyway....

Today we lost our dog Rock. We got him on Election day, so he was only a puppy. He hated being kept in the backyard and was able to open the back gate today and got out and I guess ran into the road. Jerry came for lunch and saw him on the road. He picked him up and put him in the car to try and see if there was anything he could do to help him but he was already gone by that point. He buried him before the girls got home.

I told Kayla he is in Heaven and now DJ has a puppy to take care of!

2009-02-01T15:24:00.001-05:00

2009-02-01T15:20:00.000-05:00

Every nine weeks the children at school get awarded for their hard work. Kayla got a reading award. She is reading a level 3.1 in AR - which translate to 3rd grade 1st month and a DRA level 28/29 She needs to be at 32 by the END of 3rd grade.

Jerry and I are so proud of our little reader!

2009-01-20T21:48:00.000-05:00

Here are some more pics of our snow day in NC. We had Jackie and Anita and their children, Mabry and Jackson come over. They played in the snow and we found a little hill up the road to try and sled down. The kids were so cold that it didn't last very long. They have thin blood down here...can't take the snow like us Northeners...guess I can't say I am a northener anymore...cause it was pretty darn cold!

2009-01-20T21:42:00.002-05:00

We had our first snowfall since Madison was born, December 20, 2004. The girls had a blast! They had us up at 7am dying to go outside to play in it. This is the first time that either has played in any snowfall amount!

2008-12-31T14:48:00.001-05:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

2008-12-31T14:25:00.000-05:00

Make a Smilebox postcard

2008-12-22T20:28:00.003-05:00

The girls helped me make some of our cookies for Santa tonight. We made peanut butter blossoms tonight and are saving chocolate chip for tomorrow. Just in case Jerry eats them all before Santa can come and get some. We have to ration our cookies around this house. they had such a blast together getting the kisses ready for the cookies I couldn't help but to stop and video it. Isn't this what Christmas is about?????

2008-12-22T20:23:00.002-05:00

No big deal...Kayla lost a tooth...but this tooth was in her mouth FOREVER!! Well it felt like it was loose forever. WE tried to have Mrs. Boyd (Kindergarten Teacher) at our school pull it. We tried having Mrs. Nancy convince her to pull it. Nothing! Until Last Thursday...came home from school to a nice mild day and the girls decided to play outside. Kayla being the clutz she is fell flat on her FACE and came running inside with blood running down her face, arms, etc....scared me to death. It turns out it was that loose tooth hanging by a thread so we had to pull it. Well she was so proud that the tooth finally came out she made me take several pics. of her and her missing tooth.

2008-12-22T20:18:00.002-05:00

This year I thought I would be smart and instead of trying to do those AWFUL gingerbread houses..Joanne you are a better woman than I....I would try and do Gingerbread TREES! They stack and a whole lot less work and mess....here are their final products!

Kayla working on hers

Madison working on hers and eating along the way

2008-12-22T18:56:00.002-05:00

Kayla's Daisy troop went Christmas Caroling at the "old folks home" The girls did a lot of practicing and did a really good job. Madison went along for the ride. =)

something about this picture just gets to me. The siloutte or something...not really sure...so I thought I would share it.

Kayla being grown at home already to go sing

The girls posing for a Christmas picture for me...before Caroling.

Just another pic of them

2008-12-22T18:37:00.003-05:00

Madison had a Christmas pageant at her Daycare and here are some pics from that night.

Here are the girls and Jerry after Madison had finished her songs

Here is Madison at home all dressed up in her Christmas outfit to go to her pageant

Here she is with Mrs. Minch waiting for her songs and her part

another one at home waiting to go

Notice what the boy is doing next to her.

2008-12-22T18:31:00.002-05:00

Madison loves her a cash register...and here she is taking orders.

again waiting for a customer

Kayla on the other hand loves to WRITE her orders down.

she was very excited to get a clip board from Tassels. She LOVES their stuff there...it is so "Miss Ingalls!" http://store02.prostores.com/servlet/tasselsinc/Categories?category=Christmas+Tree

2008-12-22T18:18:00.002-05:00

Kayla had a field trip the the Tryon Palace http://www.tryonpalace.org/ The trip was nice except that it POURED RAIN... we got lucky because the rain just drizzled for most of the trip and it wasn't until the very end that the skies opened up on us.

Kayla eating in the car with me. They couldn't have their picnic lunch outside due to the rain and she didn't want to eat on the bus without me....ahhh...what a good child.

The children learning manners of the 1800's Ladies before Gentlemen.

Kayla getting off the bus and ready to go into the Palace

Kayla's class...her teacher Miss Ingalls and a Dad on the trip

2008-12-22T18:13:00.002-05:00

Kayla was playing in her room but Madison wanted to be part of the preperation of Thanksgiving dinner. Madiosn came home from school and changed right into PJ's...that is why she has the stripes on her face from the party at school. She would take a break with me for awhile and go rock out with Kayla for awhile in her room. Nothing like a rock and roll Indian. =)

2008-12-22T18:04:00.003-05:00

My Daisy troop was in the Chocowinity Thanksgiving Parade. I know that is how far behind I am on this blog....sorry.... But it had to have been the coldest day of the winter season so far...well up until TODAY! It is in the 20's today but Christmas we are expecting weather in the mid 60's. Oh well...I guess the girls can get outside and play with any toys they get.

2008-12-22T18:00:00.003-05:00

Hello, I can't believe how long it has been since I put anything new up.... =( I hope everyone is having a good Holiday Season. Here are some pics or our new dog...ROCK! He really is such a good dog. We got him on Election day...and Kayla kept calling him BROCK...but we finally convinced here that we didn't name him after Barock Obama...He is 1/2 lab and 1/2 Alpha blue bulldog. He is learning fast and now is 2x's the size that he is in these pics.

2008-11-08T08:33:00.002-05:00

Madison rode her bike yesterday at school for Charity. She was raising money for St. Jude's. My mom went out there and took some pics. while she was riding, just thought I would throw those up on the blog. Nothing else much going on here!

2008-11-02T19:52:00.003-05:00

The kids trying to eat doughnuts off of the string....they kept falling off!

Madison got her apple the fastest....she got to do it again, because I didn't catch it on camera the first time around. =)

Mr. Jackie, Kayla and JoMarie bobbing for apples. Kayla figured out the "stem" thing (we left them on for the kids).

Dads as mummies. Jackie, Kraig and Jerry then in the front we have Zoe with Ms. Anita and Jackson, JoMarie, Madison and Kayla

Kayla and Madison as Hannah Montana! Striking a pose!!

Halloween has come and gone. The girls had a great time and got tons of candy!! Great...more goodies to temp me in the house! =( They both went as Hannah Montana. We had a nice time with the Longs and Both families came over, got some pizza, went trick or treating, then came back here and we dressed up the dads as Mummies then went into bobbing for apples and finished with eating doughnuts off the string. Dads did the mummies and Moms did the apples with the kids. The kids did the doughnuts by themselves, the adults just ate the doughnuts without having to get them off of the string. =)

2008-11-02T19:34:00.003-05:00

Madison had a field trip a couple weeks back to Briley's farm. Here are some pics....for some reason my computer puts pics in as words until it is published so I can't comment on individual pics. ugh.... we are having tons of computer problems!!

anyway we went to the farm and she got to pick some cotten, then went on the playground, hay ride to a pumpkin patch and then over to feed some animals and pics with the cutouts. The little boy with Madison in the bus pic. is her boyfriend, Dixon. =)

2008-10-12T21:59:00.004-04:00

this past Saturday was our School's fall festival. The festival was held from 3-5pm and it drizzled a little here and there, but other than that the girls had a SUPER time. They did hair painting, face painting, nail got done, played baseball, basketball, football, also did a cake walk, sand art and all sorts of neat games. Kayla told me today that she wished the fall festival was again today...and was EVERYDAY. The pictures above are of them putting together their halloween bag and also joining in on the sack race.

2008-10-12T21:41:00.002-04:00

Here is how it works....Each player answers the questions themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and leave them a comment on thier blog. Let the person know when you have posted the response.

10 years ago I was...

1. Celebrating the birth of my son DJ

2. exploring Cape Cod

3. trying to get into the teaching field

4. bowling on a league with Jerry

5. hanging out with Joanne and Joe

5 things on today's to do list..

1. Do a new post to the blog (done!)

2. get my girls to go to bed on time

3. go grocery shopping

4. get my classroom ready for the week

5. eat dinner with my Mom

5 snacks that I enjoy...

1. Ice cream

2. Popcorn

3. brownies

4. Salsa, chips and CHEESE dip

5. anything that mixes chocolate and peanut butter

5 things I would do it I was a millionaire...

1. Invest wisely

2. Travel to Bermuda

3. Make sure everyone I love was well taken care of

4. pay off all my bills and mortgage

5. add the dining room, bathroom, and 1 extra bedroom that I want

5 places that I have lived...

1. Howell, NJ

2. New Brunswick, NJ

3. Cape Cod, MA

4. Roxboro, NC

5. Washington, NC

5 jobs that I have had...

1. Teacher

2. Bank Teller

3. Mortgage Originator

4. Teacher Assistant

5. Retail store cashier

Okay well I do not know a lot of people that blog...and the ones that I do know have already been tagged....so I guess the tag stops with me! =((

2008-09-21T21:50:00.004-04:00

this is Madison in her soccer uniform

Madison and her coach at halftime getting their pep talk. He is an AWESOME Dad/Coach! I give him props because he has a lot of patience and knows just how to talk to a bunch of 3/4 year old girls!!

this is Madison and Ashley after the game getting their snack...
Hello Everyone,

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I put a post on here. I guess that is what happens when I start back at school and get bust with my 15 other little ones! I looked at Tammi's and Joanne's blogs and saw how much they have going on and I thought "UH OH" time to get rolling again. =)

Let's see in the past month we have been busy busy busy with school, work and SOCCER. Madison and Kayla decided on doing soccer instead of Gymnastics this year. Which was fine with me. It is a WHOLE LOT CHEAPER! =)

The girls have been having practice in weather that have been soooo hot..but this week we had some fall like weather come in so the games they played yesterday were chilly! We had high's only in the 70's!! I know that doesn't sound chilly, but the mornings were in the 60's and just last weekend we were at over 90 and swimming in the pool...this weekend were wearing jackets!

2008-09-21T21:32:00.003-04:00

Here are some pics. of Kayla in her "activity" for this year. In the past it has been gymnastics or cheerleading, but this year she wanted to try soccer. At practice she was VERY hesitant and I thought she may not last the entire season....but she really kicked it up at her first game this past Saturday. I am very proud of her, she really tried and she did a good job!

Her first game and really her and Madison's game were a bitter sweet kind of experience. The last time we went to any "sporting" event was for DJ's flag football. It was fun to be there for them but at the same time it was sad to know DJ couldn't be there. Kayla wanted Burger King afterwards...so we took the girls, and after we got back into the car to go home "Good Morning Beautiful" DJ's song to Kayla...came on the radio. I told the girls it was DJ's way of telling them he was with them and watching them play today!

2008-08-25T20:34:00.003-04:00

Kayla started 1st grade today!! I can't believe it. this is more painful than when she started Kindergarten. I had to hold back the tears today. She was so ready to go back. she is very excited about learning and starting big kid work. Here are some pics. of her getting ready to walk out the door for us to head out for our first school day this year! Miss Ingalls is her teacher this year. She is so excited to be in her room.

On a side note Madison started PRE-K today!!! Yep...she is 3 1/2 years old and the school promoted her to pre-k...said she was too advanced for their 3 year old program!!! Wow...my little brainyack!! They said she won't get everything in pre-k this year...but being she will have to be in it for 2 years (because of her age) she will really get a lot out of it by the time she is going to Kindergarten

2008-08-25T20:29:00.000-04:00

wwwwwhhhhoooooo.....what a party he had! Another blast! I just hope he remembers everything I do for his birthdays...=) HA HA HA HA.....we had over 50 people here...Karaoke going on...Parkers catered....Kenny (Jerry's cousins husband and Cory their son) had out their guitars and were singing and playing songs. It was a really good time. Of course I had to add a couple pics. of the boys who drank too much (Jackie.... and or course Jerry) The first couple pics are of Jerry getting his cool tee-shirt from Sam. The back said...Jerry is 18 years old...with 22 years of experience! LOVED THE DAY...it was a good time....

2008-08-25T20:23:00.002-04:00

we went back to Dollywood for our last day. We had such a good time and was so impressed with the park that we went back again. The girls had a blast. Here are some pics of the last day.... again they come in as jibberish so I can't tell you about the pics but I am them doing some poses at Dollywood ...along with Jerry being silly in the coffin...told him that I was going to put that up for his 40th birthday part last week!

2008-08-25T20:18:00.001-04:00

Cades cove is in the gatlinburg area of TN. absolutely beautiful!! we saw a wild baby bear running....saw a HUGE buck...Jerry was dying to have his gun. We let the girls play in a real mountain stream. It was really a great trip. The girls were amazed by nature. They found a lot of enjoyment in just spending the afternoon in the country and doing some nature watching. again...pictures are jibberish... but there should be a pic of the baby bear...a dear...and the girls in the mountain stream!

2008-08-25T20:15:00.001-04:00

okay...finally getting pics. up on the blog...but it is messed up or something...because the post when I type it shows a whole bunch of jibber jabber and no pics...but when you look at the preview the pictures are there. UH.... anyway..here are some pics...can't really comment on them because not sure in what order I put them up...but these are from splash country when we went a couple weeks back to pigeon forge....LOVED IT!

2008-08-11T16:59:00.004-04:00

We spent day two at Dollywood. It is by far THE best amusement park we have been to! The lines were very short, the rides were perfect....there were enough rides for ALL of us to ride. Madison only had to sit out 2 rides that Kayla was able to ride. Jerry and I didn't do the big upside down rides but to be honest....we were just as happy not doing them. The girls had a blast. The park was clean and the people were super friendly...Jerry and I said we would come back here before Busch Gardens or Kings Dominion!!! To be honest I think it was better than Disney...just because we were able to have family fun and not be in huge crowds and worried to death about where the kids are...the longest we had to wait for a ride was about 10-15 minutes. If you have not been here I highly suggest you consider it a trip for your family!

for some reason I can't get the pics up....I will upload those later...tomorrow we are off to splash country

2008-08-11T16:48:00.003-04:00

This is a view from our balconey of the resort.

Here are the girls eating in the dinning room
the view of Seiverville from our balconey
Kayla posing on the balconey

We got to Fairfield today. Took us about 8 hours but we stopped for breakfast and lunch...and the girls did an excellent job in the car!!! We were so proud of them....we only had to ask them once to calm down and that was about 15 minutes from the resort.

2008-07-30T08:35:00.003-04:00

With all the election talk....not sure who I am going to vote for but the more and more I read about Obama I get awfully scared....this is the last bit of information that I have read and have seen earlier....... check it out.....

The Book of Revelations!

> > > This will make you re-think : A Trivia question in Sunday> > >

School : How long is the beast allowed to have authority in Revelations> > > ? Guess the> > > Answer? Revelations Chapter 13 tells us it is 42 months,> > > and you know what that is. > > > Almost a four-year term to a Presidency. All I can say is> > > Lord Have Mercy on us.!!!!!!> > > According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is:> > > The anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM> > > descent, who will> > > deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a> > > MASSIVE> > > Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will> > > flock to him and> > > he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is> > > in power, will destroy everything .. > > > Is it OBAMA??

2008-07-19T20:04:00.002-04:00

this is my second painting. The first one I have up in my bedroom in between pictures of my Dad and DJ...I think of it as their home in heaven. Kayla likes the picture so much that she wanted me to paint one for her too. I finally finished this one...I worked on it for awhile....took some time off and FINALLY finished it. I told her that this is the little town that they live in. I will try and get a picture up of their house that I painted.

2008-07-15T16:47:00.002-04:00

Kayla is really interested in penquins and was very excited about being able to see live penquins when we visited Tanner and Evan in Ohio!

2008-07-15T16:37:00.002-04:00

We just got back from Ohio! The girls had a blast...they keep talking about wanting to go back and see "the boys." Here are some pics of our visit....I have tons more but I just put a handful here:

Here they are at the aquarium....
Here is: Tammi, Evan, Kayla, Tanner, Madison and Me outside of the Aquarium and Cincinnati in the background across the river

the kids put together their own band....Tanner sang and played guitar, Kayla was a singer and Evan and Madison (not in the picture) were the groupies!

here they are on the front porch after Church

Kayla, Madison and Tanner getting ready to hit the park and splash pad! They had a blast at this...and I wish we had one of these parks here in NC!

2008-07-07T20:37:00.003-04:00

On the view...they talked about real age vs. calendar age. Well I took the test and my calendar age is 35.5 years old but my real age is 36.3years old. My mom turned up about 8 years older than her real age...take the test and see what it turns out for you:

http://www.realage.com/reg/regvar/st1.aspx?cbr=DDCP2887&mod=LONGFORM

2008-07-06T22:36:00.002-04:00

times like this have such mixed feelings with them. This story brings around such emotion for Jerry and I....one of Joy over Madison's birth and her being here with us....and then one of such sadness...the loss of DJ. We are lucky to have been able to share our story....helps to keep DJ alive. Here is the picture that Dateline has up for our story:

here is the link to see the clip on dateline:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25559012?pg=4#DTL_911

2008-07-02T19:01:00.002-04:00

the girls love swimming...I wish you could see their hair...it is tinted GREEN!! They each have their own style...Madison loves swimming under water and jumping in and going down the slide...Kayla likes to stay in the low end and dance and HAS to wear her nose plug or hold her nose...not Madison. It is truely funny how different they are....even in their swimming!

2008-07-02T18:54:00.004-04:00

Madison has really done well with swimming this year. She gives us a hard time about wearing her floaties...so we let her swim for a little bit without any on. She does really well...she tires out though. From this video you can see her swim....I think she is doing really well. She even jumps off the diving board and will swim to the ladder...I didn't get that on tape because my batteries died....of course! Her technique is almost better than Kayla's. Kayla doesn't really like the deep end and swimming...she likes hanging out in the low end.

2008-06-29T15:30:00.002-04:00

Madison had a rough afternoon today. She decided that her hair had too much green in it (I guess she hears me talking about how the pool is turning the girls hair green) so she decided to cut her own hair!!! In the following pictures she is napping so I took some pics of her new haircut...she was so upset after I caught her that she wouldn't let me get near her so this is the only time I could get the pics. I am pointing to the spot she cut.

2008-06-28T22:44:00.002-04:00

The girls and I are traveling to Dayton Ohio on July 11th - 15th to visit Tammi and her family. We are all so excited about going. The girls are trying to pack their bags already...and trying to figure out how much of their rooms they can take with them. =) We have marked it on the calendar so that they can count the days down until we leave....... This should be interesting...me traveling with them...by myself. I told Madison she was going to have to wear her backpack lease and she said to me...."like a doggy??"

2008-06-28T22:35:00.001-04:00

Kaylas tooth has been loose FOREVER! Today Stacey (Jerry's sister) was over for Jerry's youth baseball teams party....so she tied some dental floss around the tooth and pulled it out for her...she was all excited and then when it was out the fear set in...=) she didn't cry but looked like she could at any second. She is so excited to get her tooth under her pillow tonight for the tooth fairy.

this picture is showing Stacey getting ready to pull out the tooth

Here is the tooth (hard to see because it is so tiny)...and Kayla with some papertowels in her mouth
here's Kayla showing off the hole in her mouth
better pic. of her missing tooth
another pic. of her chocolate face and lost tooth!

2008-06-25T20:46:00.002-04:00

the girls decided that they wanted to try skateboarding. So Jerry went to the the shed and took DJ's old skateboard out so they could try it. DJ only got to ride it a handful of times before he passed away...maybe the girls will pick up where he left off!

2008-06-25T20:41:00.002-04:00

Kayla trying the board

2008-06-25T20:38:00.001-04:00

Madison trying out the skateboard

2008-06-22T15:04:00.002-04:00

I took the girls to see this movie on Wednesday...It was pretty good. Scared Kayla in parts...really more suspensful than scary...and Madison got antsy the last 20 minutes....

2008-06-22T14:59:00.002-04:00

Kayla planted two sunflower seeds at school in Mrs. Howards class and brought them home about 6 weeks ago (give or take a week or two..) =)

here are some pics. of her standing beside them now...to show off how much they have grown!

2008-06-22T14:48:00.003-04:00

We went to the movies and out to lunch the other day. I took some pictures of the girls at their favorite restaurant: www.mcalistersdeli.com

Kayla getting ready to throw her pennies into fountain.
Madison doing her famous pose in front of her fountain at McAlisters....she loves digging in our purses to get out as many coins as she can!!

2008-06-22T14:35:00.002-04:00

Here is Kayla getting Ready to go into her first show. She rode Carolina. She was very excited and I think Nancy has started something here! We are already talking about the next horse show in September. She is going to practice at the barn with the Longs and hopefully she will re ready!

Here she is all ready to ride...she was watching JoMarie in her show and was getting ready to get on Carolina.
Here is Kayla getting ready to walk out for her show.
Here is JoMarie and Kayla with their blue ribbons.
Here is Kayla after her show riding Carolina back to the barn.

2008-06-22T14:25:00.003-04:00

Kayla went into her first horse show on Saturday....she got a blue ribbon!! Of course every one in the begginer class got one. =)

2008-06-20T11:06:00.002-04:00

Its hard to believe sometimes that DJ has been gone for as long as he has...he passed away in 2004 and he was in Kindergarten. Chocowinity Primary goes up to 4th grade so this was his class's graduation year. It will prob. be the only graduation that DJ will be a part of. The 4th grade teachers, students and PTO put DJ into graduation (June 9th) for us. They got a huge bouquet of flowers and announced that they were in memory of friend and classmate Derek Sneed. I was able to get 1 picture of them before my camera died on brand new but Cheap batteries! They gave me the flowers at the end of the day to bring home. They are still here in the house but are getting to the point where they will need to be thrown away very soon. I am so grateful that they included DJ in the celebration. It doesn't make up for him walking across the stage himself...but at least he was a part of it. =(

here are the flowers at the podium (just some random woman in front of me....)

2008-06-19T14:33:00.002-04:00

here are some pictures of the best dog in the whole world!! BUTTERBEAN! I just took her to the groomer and had her nails, teeth and hair done...that is why she has those funny pink bows in her hair. Needless to say as soon as she got home and went outside ...she ran through the mud and lost her bows...she is a tomdog at heart.

Isn't she such a pretty dog??? okay I know...I am bias...but she is such a good dog...and she is one of the longest lasting dogs that we have had..and she has become a part of our family...no dump for her!

2008-06-19T14:22:00.002-04:00

the video says it all

2008-06-19T14:12:00.002-04:00

here are some pics of the girls at Emerald Isle. We went camping at the beach at Holiday trav-l-park. The girls had a blast! The water was beautiful.
Madison had a good time running from the waves
Kayla staying as far away as she could from getting in the water...I guess thats what I get for letting her watch JAWS a few weeks ago!!!
Madison doing her famous pose!
Kayla finally deciding to get wet...but she insisted that she kept seeing blood (where the waves were hitting the sand and kicking it up and giving it a muddy color!)

2008-06-17T20:01:00.003-04:00

For those of you who have known my little brother, Rob, since he was knee high it may be hard to believe that he is growing up and is getting married April 2009 and is also in the process of buying his own house with Heather

here are some pics of his future home:
this is the backyard....looks like it is landscaped very nice! he said that there is only .09 acres and most of it is landscaped so it won't leave him much to have to cut or trim

this is the outside of the house, he said that from looking at the outside of it, it looks smaller than it really is! We are going up there for 5 days in April for the wedding and we will get a chance to check out his new digs then...=) We'll let the girls run around for awhile in it and see how it child proof it is. =)

2008-06-17T13:52:00.002-04:00

this was our last day at Emerald Isle. It is hard to see in the video and the pics but the water was absolutely beautiful! It was an aqua color...not that dark brown mud that we are use to here at the river!

2008-06-17T13:28:00.002-04:00

The girls are getting ready to ride on the gocarts...Madison thought they were a little loud for her liking!
Kayla was ready to go (with Me...she said Jerry would drive too fast so she made her little sister go with him instead!)
Kayla stopping to pose while she was waiting her turn
Madison our little ham was right behind her waiting to take her picture..(notice that the hands are finally down)

2008-06-17T13:20:00.002-04:00

Here is Kayla coming down the smaller waterslide...you can see in the background some people walking up the hill for the bigger slide...Kayla did that! Jerry and I took turns bringing her up there

Here is Madison coming down the slide...SHE FLEW!! I guess she was just that much smaller than Kayla that she shot down like a rocket! the first time her eyes were like saucers but she loved it and did it over...and over...and over.....
Madison in the little kid section playing in the water..she is giving us a thumbs up here...she was so happy that she didn't have to wear her floaties...
Here you can kinda see Madison FLYING down the slide...she always put her hand out to the side to slow her down but it didn't seem to work
Kayla coming down just a tad bit slower

2008-06-17T13:18:00.001-04:00

This is the campground we went to for Fathers day weekend...the girls had a blast...as you can see from the previous pics. I have off for the summer so hopefully I will do some catching up on here!

2008-05-23T20:31:00.000-04:00

This is my FAVORITE show...I am soooo hooked on the Deadliest Catch!! Who would have thought that an Alaskan fishing show could be sooooo good. If you haven't seen it yet you need to catch an episode and then you may just end up hooked like me....or the crabs! Ha ha ha...a little fishing humor there.

2008-05-23T20:23:00.003-04:00

Deadwood. this is where Kayla had her field trip last week and LOVED IT@@!!! so of course we had to go back...which was about 2 miles from the campground we stayed the weekend at. They have good food, a little roller coaster, train ride, put put course, fish pond and a playground.

http://www.deadwoodnc.com/

2008-05-23T20:12:00.003-04:00

this isn't our trailer but this is where we spent last weekend camping. It is an older campground but for the girls it was fun. It was close enough to home to save gas...but far enough away to make it feel like we were away from home.

http://www.greenacresnc.com/

2008-05-13T20:46:00.002-04:00

It is hard to believe that Kayla is now 6 years old. She was officially older than DJ back in January but now that she is 6 and he will always be 5 1/2 it was a little difficult. Kayla is getting so big. She has just a few weeks of school left as a Kindergartner and will be moving up to 1st grade next year....it is hard to believe....seems like we waited such a long time for her to get into Kindergarten and now she is getting ready to be done. Her teacher told me she did AWESOME on her reading test. She read 7 levels above what is expected of her right now...AHHHH my baby!!!

Kayla skating at her birthday party
Kayla blowing out her candles with Allie and Desoray.
CJ REALLY enjoying the birthday cake!
Kayla opening one of her many Hannah Montana presents!! She is all about Hannah Montana!!
Kayla leaving school the day of her birthday. She was so excited to have her birthday crown (the sun was shining in her eyes). We went home and she put the hat down on the table and the puppy got it and chewed it within minutes of us getting home...poor Kayla lost her hat within minutes of being home!!

2008-05-13T20:38:00.002-04:00

Kayla had her 6th birthday at the skate trac in Chocowinity NC. She had a blast!!! Here are some pics of the party:

Kayla with her birthday sign in the party room

Madison and Jerry enjoying the party...Madison LOVED skating too!!
Here is JoMarie, Kayla and Allie enjoying the party together. Rachel, Kayla and Madison skating and being "cool"

2008-04-19T21:04:00.002-04:00

Here is Tot in the lovely cabin we stayed in. the bunks were HORRIBLE sleeping...like sleeping on the floor. But we did it!! We were good Leaders and went through with it.

Here is the cabin we got to spend one of the worst nights of sleeping I ever had in my life! =)

This is the main lodge that we spent 14 hours INSIDE learning about the outdoors

After a long and tedious weekend here is Tot happily leaving Camp Hardee.... see she is leaving me behind....

two weeks ago Tot and I had to go do our Daisy (Girl Scout) outdoor training....but of course it rained and POURED all weekend long ...so needless to say we stayed inside all weekend long...but we read a lot about the outdoors! HA HA HA....we are now officially able to take the girls camping....which I am not sure is a good thing.

2008-04-19T21:01:00.002-04:00

The girls were out riding their bikes the other day and I had to snap some pictures...

1. because Madison has finally gotten the knack of pedaling her own bike and we don't have to put her in the baby seat anymore!!! Yea says Jerry (she was on his bike)

2. Kayla thinks she is sooooooo cool...that she rides with one arm hanging down

but if you notice...she still has her training wheels on!! It won't be long before they come off...she is outside everyday riding her bike now that Spring has come!! It won't be long before I put up pool pictures!

2008-04-19T20:57:00.002-04:00

I forgot to put these up...when we went to Myrtle beach for Easter we went out to eat at the Dixie Stampede....and they do the group photos of everyone before they go in... these were the results! Have a good laugh!!! we did! (Kayla looks possesed and when they added the background in they cut off arms...hair...etc...we all look a little deformed...but we had a good time!)

2008-04-19T20:32:00.003-04:00

Latasha wanted me to make her mom a cake for her birthday...so here was the results. I haven't made a cake in awhile I wondered what it was going to look like but it is hard to see from the pics but I thought it was one of my better looking cakes...one that I made on my own...with no instructor. Also it was light purple with dark purple decorations...you can't see that in the pics. =)

2008-04-19T20:26:00.002-04:00

Here is Madison in the Grifton Shad festival parade. Yes we have a festival for FISH down here, next will be the strawberry festival and then onto the Watermelon, Collard, Dogwood, etc.... We have a festival for EVERYTHING down here in NC. Sorry the quality of the video is bad...I was sitting in the car shooting up at her.

2008-04-19T20:15:00.002-04:00

Madison was in her first parade as Wee Miss Grimesland. She LOVED it!! This was right up her alley. She threw candy...she smiled...she waved. She is definately a little ham.

Here she is waiting for the parade to start...she waited for a good hour patiently...next time we will know not to get there so early!

Here she is next to the convertible we got (1976 big boat...Jerry said he needed a hat and cigar and he could have been boss hog!)

on the back throwing candy...and loving every minute of it...she hated to stop and have to pose for the camera....she just wanted to throw and wave.

just another pic. of Madison enjoying her first parade as Wee Miss Grimesland. I am so proud of her she did a super job! She was such a big girl!!

2008-04-16T21:53:00.002-04:00

Today would have been DJ's 10th birthday. Hard to believe he would have started his "double digits." The above picture is one of my all time favorites of me and DJ. This picture was taken at my Moms house in Howell, NJ. It was DJ's birthday...I want to say 3rd. It looks like he has an heavenly light shining down on him already.

2008-04-13T19:37:00.003-04:00

Daisy troop #841 outting:

here we are at IFO http://www.ifozone.com/cart/nc_store.php in Greenville and we had a great time making kites!! We would have had a super kite flying day except that it wasn't just windy but stormy as well.! A Tornado touched down a few counties over.

the window in the back doesn't show the storm that came through....but it didn't matter because the girls had a great time making their own kites... Next we are heading to River Park North (April 26th) The girls worked hard all year and now we get to play!

2008-03-28T15:15:00.002-04:00

Kayla finding eggs behind Chad and Christines camper

Girls looking for eggs...
Wow...JoMarie and Kayla found a lot of eggs!!
you can see everyone is bundled up today compared to yesterday in shorts and tee-shirts dying eggs...picture is Jerry, Chad, Samantha and Nancy
Everyone bundled up while the kids hunt for their eggs: Kraig, Jerry, Samantha and Nancy

2008-03-28T15:11:00.002-04:00

Here we are dying the last of the eggs...Kayla, JoMarie (in background), Madison and me

the girls waking up to find out that the Easter bunny was able to find them in the motorhome!! Good thing about! +)
Kayla going through her basket
Madison going through her basket

2008-03-28T15:03:00.002-04:00

We went Camping in Myrtle Beach for Easter and Spring Break. We went with Nancy and Kraig and family...Chad and Christine and family....I have some random shots of them preparing for Easter

Here is Nancy helping the girls with dying their Easter Eggs...we did it out on the picnic table...lucky for us it was the warmest day while we were there...after this day it dropped to the 50's.
The girls are dying more eggs
Kraig hard at work watching the girls dye their eggs....=)
Mee and the girls doing eggs

more egg dying

2008-03-18T19:37:00.003-04:00

This past weekend we got a new puppy....it is a Cockapoo. The girls have named her Montana (for Hannah Montana...go figure!) I don't think this animal will ever learn how to walk because they carry it around EVERYWHERE! Here are some picks of the new pup

2008-03-18T19:27:00.003-04:00

We went to a VERY local bull riding competition this past Saturday. My girls were all pumped up for 2 weeks to ride the sheep (they had done it last time they went)....they ended up chickening out....But JoMarie got on it....she says she won't do it again! =) I say give her another few years and we may have a bull rider! This video is JoMarie showing us her sheep riding skills! Enjoy!

2008-03-04T21:30:00.004-05:00

The weather here is starting to turn to spring....and with the coming of spring comes Easter....and normally Easter brings DJ's birthday but this year Easter falls a few weeks earlier...but still it has me thinking of him. I thought I would put the video of his last birthday. It was at the skate track....we had him and Kayla share a party....she was turning 1 and he turned 5. This year, Kayla on her own, has decided she wants a skate party for her 6th birthday. anyway I hope you enjoy the video as much as I do....I especially like the smile on his face!!! I think that is priceless....he looks so happy!

2008-02-24T09:57:00.000-05:00

Our girls love Hannah Montana....here they are pretending to be her!

the poor dog got dragged into it as well!!!

2008-02-24T09:50:00.003-05:00

the girls love Hannah Montana and MeMaw brought over some dress up stuff....so here they are rocking out to Hannah. Butterbean you can see thinks that they are crazy!!

2008-02-24T09:32:00.002-05:00

Williamston had a pro-rodeo this weekend (http://www.visitmartincounty.com/Default.asp) and we decided to take the girls from some good family time...nothing like a rodeo!! The 1pm show was the family show...they had ponies set up and they had cowboys walking around teaching the kids how to lasso and some other stuff. They had a great time!

Here is Madison riding her pony...she liked it sooo much that she had to ride 2x's!! She told me when we left that she wanted to lasso a cow....and ride the bull!!! NO FEAR!

one ride for Kayla was enough! She likes to dress the part...but that's about where it ends. She was more interested in looking at what the cowgirls were wearing than anything else!

Here is Kayla holding onto Jerry for dear life when the rodeo started...she was scared to death until she realized they weren't going to come into the stands and get her.

Here is Madison LOVING every minute of it and really into it! She couldn't get enough. We had GREAT seats too!! we were in the 2nd row...the 1st row was the handicap row...it was perfect viewing for the girls. Madison says she wants to go again......

picture came out blurry but here is Jerry and Madison learning how to use a Lasso...Kayla wouldn't let go of my leg long enough to even walk over and get into the picture.

2008-02-24T09:26:00.002-05:00

NOW THAT IS FAST!!

2008-02-24T09:21:00.002-05:00

Here is Jerry's attempt at using the lasso!

2008-02-24T09:14:00.004-05:00

Williamston had a Pro-rodeo this past weekend and we took the girls on out there. Kayla of course was too scared to try or do much of anything....Madison on the other hand was right out there with the cowboys learning how to lasso!!! of course she wouldn't let go of the lasso! My future Cowgirl!

2008-02-16T17:54:00.002-05:00

This is me and DJ's grave. I changed the winter flowers out and put some spring flowers in. The daffodills are already starting to pop up around here!

This is DJ's part of the grave. His poem says: "In my heart you live on, always there never gone, precious child you left too soon, my precious child." We have his picture on the grave.
This is my side....all Jerry or the kids will have to do is add my date of death...Jerry already has my poem picked out...he says he will write "FREE AT LAST! FREE AT LAST!" I asked him..."for who? you or me?!?!?!"

Jerry and I had to go to the grave today to fill in a sink hole. We think that there are moles down there and a dog in pursuit of the critters.....so there are mole holes and then there are dog dug holes...which is all making the ground very soft and making it sink in spots...and of course one spot having to be DJ's grave. If you look at the first picture you will see the black dirt...that is where we had to fill it in. His grave has been there for over 4 years now and do you know there is still no grass growing! Almost like the grass it too sad to even grow over his grave.

2008-01-27T20:54:00.000-05:00

We have tried many different hair products...and we may have finally found some that will straighten without making it a big frizz ball....it is still a little puffier than normal straight hair but she LOVES it. she can't wait to go to school tomorrow to see what all the kids say about her new hair. It seems funny to see her with straight hair. Maidson was so amazed by it she kept walking behind her saying "kayla's hair is like mine...Kayla;s hair is like Mommys" and she kept rubbing her hands on it...She was just as amazed with Kayla's hair as Kayla!! Of course it took me about a good 3o minutes....which I guess for us women is not so bad...but I told her that this is not an every day deal...I would have to get up at 5am to do her hair and my hair...and that just isn't going to happen!

2008-01-22T14:16:00.000-05:00

the boys had to stop here and check out the "outdoor" stuff....

Cheeseburgers in Paradise...restaurant we ate at during our lovely rainstorm all day Saturday.

one of the things we did: Ripley's Aquarium I had to put pictures like this in the blog...because dummy me...forgot to put my SD card in my camera...so I couldn't take any pictures!

We had an awesome time away at Myrtle Beach with the girls and the Sullivans! Saturday it rained all day but we went in the indoor pool, out for lunch and RELAXED! That is what was so good about this trip...a lot of time to relax. Sunday we went to the Ripley's Aquarium and then watched the playoff games...and of course took the girls swimming again. The resort was beautiful. Tot and I went in the hot tub outside and got to look out over the ocean while we sat in 25degree weather (hottub was 104)!

2008-01-13T18:59:00.001-05:00

As football season comes to an end....and playoffs are going on....Superbowl is about to take place...I would like to share with everyone the Heisman trophy that our son received...you can see it below or go to the website and read: http://www.nceyebank.org/html2004/eb_s.html

Derek John Sneed
On January 5, 2004, we lost our son, Derek John Sneed. Derek was 5 years old and in kindergarten when he was tragically killed by injuries sustained from a car accident.His favorite things were playing flag football, Power Rangers and soldier men. Derek was a sensitive, happy, loving, caring and wonderful son! Two weeks before he went to Jesus he told everyone at Christmas that “it didn’t matter how many presents you received, it was who you loved in your heart!”
Our son will never go on to play any sports but we received his Heisman trophy when we got our letter from The North Carolina Eye Bank stating that two other people can see now because of our son! It is a blessing knowing that the gift of his eyes will bring joy to others

2008-01-13T18:36:00.000-05:00

Fairfield Resorts at Myrtle Beach South Carolina: https://www.fairfieldresorts.com/ffr/resort/details.do This week marks the downhill slope to my 40's! Yes this week I will be 35 years old! I remember when I was on a countdown to 21. The teasing of Tammi that she still had 4 LONG MONTHS to wait until she was able to join in on the "club" scene....namely the "Knight Club." Hard to believe that Jerry will be 40 this year. How did we get so old??? and so fast?? I know...some of you are saying that 35 is not old...but it's closer to 40 than it is to 30! =)

Anyway you may be wondering why the picture of the resort is up on this blog. On Friday my family along with the Sullivan family leave for Myrtle beach. We are going away on a 3 night stay to celebrate my birthday and Latasha's big 30! We have the same birthday. Every year we go somewhere (works out that MLK day falls around our birthday weekend so we get some extra time off of work...which we use our time share points to go away with). We have gone to the New Bern resort before and this year we decided to do something different and go to the beach....in JANUARY. Luckily the resort has some indoor pools. Now the funny thing with this is...on Jan. 11th we had a thunder storm here in NC and the old wives tale is 10 days after a thunder storm in winter you will have snow (that is how it worked with Madison...the snow she was born in was 10 days after a thunder storm). and 10 days from the 11th will be while we are away at the beach...how funny would that be...?!?!?!? Let's hope this time the old wives tales proves to be wrong.

2008-01-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

I am back tracking some with this post. I thought I would post the girls Christmas/Santa pictures. We went with the Longs...and we have a nice one of them altogether but I haven't gotten it printed yet....so I thought I would just add the ones of each set of girls. I think this was the first year I didn't have to drag Kayla up to sit on Santa's lap. They both did a good job at telling him what they wanted. It was nice to have them both so into Santa this year. It was nice to be able to have Madison old enough to understand. Only 11 months to go until next Christmas!!

2008-01-12T22:27:00.000-05:00

Thanks to their Uncle Rob the girls room is now COMPLETELY covered in stars!! And Rob no...we didn't put up any constellations, galaxies etc..... They are just randomly placed around the room. It does make a funny combination of fluffy pink princess stuff, Dora and Stars...but they love it. Here are some pics of them putting up the final touches. Rob we saved all the real little stars for you to put up for them on your next visit here!

2008-01-10T06:17:00.001-05:00

I couldn't resist putting this picture up on the blog. My friend Joanne and I always laugh about this picture. DJ was born in April and her little girl Cassidy was born that following August. Somehow we were able to get them the same PJ's...and I almost think that I remember it wasn't planned....so of course we had to take pictures!! We sat DJ up and Savannah held Cassidy and then history was made! =) Boy is it funny to look at that picture...Savannah looks so little...Cassidy has Mr T's haircut and DJ looks like a rolly polly baldy, but I LOVE IT!!

2007-12-27T13:27:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe but it has been 4 years since we had Christmas with DJ. Every year something seems harder or easier to handle than the year before. For example in the past one of the hardest things to deal with was his stocking...do I put it up or not...etc.... This year it was Christmas cards. Do I send them without his name listed with the family...or do I do it...or the option I went with...just don't send any at all...

Anyway the video isn't that good...it is a video of a video...but I wanted to share with everyone. This was his last Christmas...it was 6 days before our accident. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I do...it is short but sweet. I love his expression when he sees that Santa found him at his MeeMaw's house. It is also funny to see how young Kayla was in the video. I have calculated and figured out that Kayla will be officially older than DJ on January 27th.

2007-12-27T11:20:00.000-05:00

Here are the kids opening up Santa presents....they were so excited and it was so much fun this year because Madison was really into it...so we had two that were just over excited and just couldn't wait until Santa came!

2007-12-27T11:11:00.000-05:00

Kayla excited and opening presents on Christmas morning
Madison showing off some gifts
Daniel opening up his gifts...the last gift he opened was the key to his own car...he is getting his license this week!
Madison showing off another gift
Kayla opening up another present

2007-12-27T11:05:00.000-05:00

Of course we had to prepare for Santa's arrival...so we went outside and threw some reindeer food out for Rudolph and the bunch Butterbean had to try out the food for the deer...

Kayla throwing out food in our "Santa Land here" runway
Jerry and the girls getting cookies out for Santa...Jerry had them stop at 3 cookies each...he told them that Santa may not want that many ...=)