My Family

I did not author this myself, however, I love it, believe it and it touched me. I found on the Scrap Girls website by Sonia11.

A Day to Remember

A day to remember. I have talked a lot about this summer as it has been quite adventurous! One of my favorite days is when Bekah and I spent the day in Soho and China Town in NYC. These pictures were taken when we were having lunch at the Soho Cafe in NYC. We shared an artichoke panini and enjoyed a strawberry lemonade! Yummy!
It was exactly what we needed to give us that burst of energy to keep shopping. It was a wonderful day, definitely one to remember!


-Paper by JSprague, Echos of Asia "Summer" brush by AEdwards, Kpertiet on the edge Flourishes3 Brushes, Hof3 Collage Storyboard 10X4

...and so it begins

...and so it begins, we had our first senior "final" as UCA Stunt Camp recognizes the class of 2010 by the announcement that this is their last stunt camp and wishing them well. Yes, I teared up. Didn't think this was going to start already. Here we go!


Hof3 Chic Digital Card

Our time together

Good morning and happy Wednesday! I have been so busy vacationing that I haven't been able to keep up with my blog. I missed it! I enjoy going back and reading my own entries (I know, probably a little weird!), so when I didn't have time to write last week, I took some time while riding in the car to read some of my old posts. I'm a lucky girl, I can say that! I'm surrounded by people who love me and who I love dearly. I am having some pretty awesome experiences and I appreciate my life everyday. Last week was just great, spending time Deanna, Doug, Craig, Tiffany and Marc in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. Rich, Bekah and I had a blast! We laughed so much and were so busy we had to squeeze in making dinners, we almost ran out of time for dinner. It was good to see the rest of the family too and their families. I got to know a couple of people in the family that I didn't really know before, so that was cool. Allen Idol was so much fun and what a talented group! I loved being out in the mountains riding the motorcycles, there is such a freedom with that and the scenery is so tranquil. I missed Zack, we all did. We know how much fun he would have had if he was there. Can't wait for him to come home for a visit! I need my Zack hug!
We all missed Jakki, but not more than Craig, Tiffany and Marc. I am amazed by their courage and strength to continue to "live" their lives without Jakki, their wife, friend and Mother by their side. I know she is always with them in spirit. It is such a lesson to us all, that we have to live our lives to the fullest, each and everyday, we need to say what we need to say and love unconditionally, be happy, be at peace. It is not a lesson we wanted Jakki to teach us, she is missed by so many, but it is a lesson we need to take to heart and remember. Life is short, there should be no regrets, we need to love each other and cherish the time we have on this Earth.
I am so happy we had this time together. I am looking forward to many more visits and get togethers with our Peacock Group! (Peacock was the decor of our cottage and they everywhere... they sneaked up on you!) Thank you for an incredible time.

Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
-Hans Christian Andersen

Hof3 Chic Digital Card Smile Brush

Loving the Mountains

Loving the time we are spending at Lake Junaluska. This picture was taken at the Historic Grist Mill along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had an incredible time yesterday riding the motorcycles through the Smokey Mountains with Craig, Keith, Rebekah, Doug and Deanna, having lunch in Gatlinburg and riding through Cherokee on the way back to Junaluska. Amazing views. Love the time we are spending with family and it is great to see Bekah bonding with her second cousins. She has always wanted a "big" family and she is having a blast hanging out with all the teenagers of the family. We are missing Zack and wish he was here along with Craig's son Richard and his family, who is in the Navy and could not get leave. Today all 52 of us went to the Fun Depot in Asheville. We played putt putt golf, laser tag, some went on the go carts, we played all kinds of video games and indulged in some awesome pizza! After our time at Fun Depot, some went back to the house to take naps, relax, etc. I went to downtown Asheville to walk and take pictures, it was a wonderful afternoon. Below is a picture I took in Asheville. Tonight we cooked out at the house and Deanna and I rounded out the evening with our own rendition of "Love will Keep us Together" with pink boas and everything! Tomorrow we are going out for a morning ride in the mountains again, can't wait. Then tomorrow night we will attend a family banquet with performances at the "Allen Idol" Show. Picture #1 png by Ali Edwards, Frame by Rhonna, Photo Edges 4
Bottom Picture, added subtle grunge 5 and mask by dwd_laura edgy scruff

Do we have everything?

Well, I think we are all packed for Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. Tomorrow it is off to take Bebe to the vet, go to the final competition at cheer camp to watch the finals and pick up Bekah. Then we are on our way. It has been a very long time since we have taken a road trip, we typically fly to where ever we are going, so I hope can handle the long time in the car. I get a little antsy. I know Bekah and Rich will make it fun. We are looking forward to spending time with my cousins, riding the motorcycles in the mountains and just hanging out and relaxing. Just can't wait to get there.
Mask by DWD_Laura_Edgyscruffy.png

I knew we were going to be busy...

First I probably should explain the picture above. This picture was taken in the UCF dorms on the first day of UCA Cheer Camp. The girls room had a terrible smell to it, musty, sweaty, icky.. they deducted that it must have been a guys room that played sports! Right before this picture above was taken, Bekah had been spraying air fresher around the room. She then went over to Kari's side of the room to spray. Kari was laying on her bed and what Bekah didn't realize was that the spray was not a fine mist in the air but came out kind of clumpy. She sprayed it over Kari and it landed on her face in big white clumps, this caused Bekah to laugh hysterically! So that is the back story of this picture. I'm glad I was there to witness and snap a photo!

I knew we were going to be busy this school year, however, I didn't think it would start already! Guess I wasn't thinking... I had 12 years to get ready for my daughter's senior year. Those 12 years do not seem long enough. Even though we have gone through a senior year in 2007, with Zack it was a different type of busy. Zack was not into the senior photos, not into the senior accolades, school social events, etc. He was into getting out, just wanted school to be over. My "busy" in 2007 was working with teachers and making sure our son would graduate on time. His graduation was exciting, we had a great party to celebrate and are very proud of his accomplishments, then and now. Now it is time for our youngest, "our little girl", to complete her senior year and graduate high school. We have already had two rounds of senior photo sessions, location shots, several poses and outfits. Cheer season has started, this weekend she is at UCA Cheer Camp at UCF. I drove some of the girls out to UCF and ended up staying until the afternoon to take pictures. I'm so glad that I was able to do that, being Bekah's last year, this will be her last cheer camp and I was more than happy to be there to take pictures and capture those memories. I admit that I love that she enjoys me "hanging around" and let's me take as many pictures as I want! Bekah informed me last Thursday that she told the squad that she wants me to do the Cheer yearbook page because I will make sure everyone is included and will do a good job on the page. That made me feel good. More things to add to the list.
Tonight I finished a congratulatory senior ad for the Football Program. We received the proofs of her first set of senior portraits from the school assigned photography studio. They are beautiful and the decision on what to purchase is going to be hard! She has more coming...
Monday, we are going to go watch her squad compete, then we are off to Lake Junaluska, NC. When we get back next next week, Bekah will need to sell a few more ads for the sport program, practice will continue and cheer activities will resume and let's not forget SAT testing and college applications. The busiest part of her season is in the fall. It is going to go by too fast!

Take things back day

Not sure what I accomplished yesterday? Laundry and an updated project plan, maybe? A couple of digi-scrapbook pages for Bekah's book and a few updates and links on my facebook. Digging deep... I did review and compliment Bekah's dance moves last night, pulled some clothes out for packing and downloaded some pictures to shutterfly so they can be accessible from anywhere. (This is important stuff!) Oh! Oh! I did make "Puppy Chow" for us humans to enjoy on the road to NC and also for Bekah to take with her to cheer camp. Huge accomplishment I'd say! Filled out a medical release form... put medicine in Bebe's eye (several times) and of course made a blog entry. It was a busy day after all! :) Today it is "Take things back day!" my least favorite thing to do in the world. Well, maybe not in the world, but I don't like it one bit. I don't know why, no one ever gives me a hard time... just don't like it!! Just called Cutco, running those beautiful knifes to the post office, wonder how much it will cost to insure as I was instructed. Then off to Avenue to return a bathing suit (of course never worn)... so depressing. Then I think I will read our "house" instructions for Junaluska, NC to see what we should bring, etc. Well I'm off to do important things. Time is ticking...
Have a great day, I know I will.
P.S. I have to take Bebe back to the vet today too...:( all part of "take back day" I guess.

Bekah's Compliment

This morning Rebekah and I were talking, just about things in general and the topic of marriage came up. That's when Bekah gave Rich and I a wonderful compliment. She said when she gets married she wants a marriage like ours. She wants to be able to learn from her husband and he learn from her, laughing is a must, being partners and great friends. I can't think of a better compliment coming from our daughter, it says we are setting a good example for her in our relationship with one another. With all my heart, I pray that she will find that special someone some day, who will cherish her, who she can laugh and grow with.

I came across this picture this morning, It was taken in Savannah, GA in 2007. We rented a cottage in historic Savannah for Christmas. I love pictures of the kids together, this one is a good one.

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Enjoying My Summer

Being laid off in April has given me the opportunity to be with Bekah a lot this summer and I am loving it! Today I didn't go anywhere... I worked around the house, doing laundry, dusting, general cleaning. Bekah and I had no plans today. She came home from her summer cheer practice and Brianna came over to the house with her. They showed me their new cheer sling bags, their new camp attire, we looked at some pictures, Bekah ran and picked up pizza for lunch and then we did our own thing. As I was walking by Bekah's room I could not help but notice how appropriately "teenagish" they looked hanging out on the bed and being on the laptop. I had to go get my camera to snap a couple of shots. I was very sensitive to the angles... Teenage girls are very particular about body parts and pictures! Of course I think Brianna and Bekah are adorable and perfect just the way they are. I'm enjoying my summer, hope you are too!

Bekah in Venice Beach, CA

Grungepapers6 by Fudgegraphics, Subtlegrudge4 and GThomas Grungy Spring Frame

Beauty all around us

I took this picture at Downtown Disney when we were walking back to the parking lot after a wonderful House of Blues Gospel Brunch. Magnolias in bloom are absolutely stunning and they smell amazing. I removed most of the color from this photo, added a warm sepia tone, added some hand painted tint effects and a "Through the viewfinder" texture from Steffen J and a PNG file from Rhonna Cabaret collection.

The Week Ahead

Happy Monday! We had a great weekend spending time with family and friends. We celebrated Rich's Mom's 70th Birthday at the House of Blues Gospel Brunch at Downtown Disney. Great food and music! This week is going to be a busy week. Need to get the house cleaned, do some work for S3 Integrity and need to get ready for traveling to The Allen family reunion in NC, so I can spend some time this weekend at UCF taking pictures of the Cheer Squad while they are at camp. We leave for Lake Junaluska on Monday the 20th as soon as Bekah is done with camp. Busy, Busy... We are looking forward to spending time with family and riding the motorcycle through the beautiful mountain terrain.

A Friday Afternoon in St. Augustine

Just a Friday afternoon in St. Augustine with my favorite cousin and my favorite daughter! :) Yes, she is my only daughter, but she is still my favorite daughter! I have a favorite son too! Bekah and I decided to drive to St. Augustine after her cheerleading practice on Friday, called Craig and met him there. We had to drive through stormy weather, but we finally made it around 2:00 PM. To our pleasant surprise it was not raining in St. Augustine even though it was raining the entire way there. We walked up King St., through the park and up St. George street. We went in a few shops, just looking around. Stopped in the Harley store to buy my favorite husband (yes, my only husband) a St. Augustine Harley T/Shirt to add to his collection. In our wandering... we decided we needed something to snack on before we met Craig for a late lunch. We first stopped in a pizza place, Bekah ordered a slice of Hawaiian pizza and we proceeded to move down the counter to pay; however, the guy behind the counter helping us told us to stay and wait for our pizza slice. So we did.. a woman then took a slice of Hawaiian pizza out of the oven (let me point out there was no one in front of us waiting for pizza) and said "Hawaiian Pizza" - so Bekah went to take the slice of pizza, the woman behind the counter said "Lady, I don't think that's yours" - then the guy behind the counter said yes, she ordered a Hawaiian pizza... by now Bekah had reached for the pizza, pulled it off the counter, put it back and pulled it again... Bekah turned around and looked at me and said "Did she just say what I think she said?" ... I said "yep wanna leave"... she is "yes", turned around and said loudly "Lady, I don't think that's yours... forget about the pizza, I don't want it." and we left. There are too many establishments that want our business that we don't have to take that kind of rude behavior. We walked a couple doors down, got a hot dog and we were treated very well.
We then walked around a bit more... met up with Craig and we went to Pizza Alley, they have a very good full service Italian restaurant if you walk through their counter pizza service to the way back. Craig and I had the best Sangria I think I have ever had! Amazing... 2 glasses was all that was needed, one more and I think I would have started forgetting some of the evening! Ha ha...
We then walked around for a bit, took pictures and Craig and Bekah got some ice cream. After the ice cream, we decided to leave that area and drive across the bridge to The Conch House. This was the last place Jakki was on Easter Sunday before she got in the boat and the terrible accident happened. Craig showed us around, big complex of bars, restaurant, a pier and marina. We decided to hang out there awhile, ordered mud slides and a couple of appetizers.. their hummus was wonderful. We were laughing a lot! Isn't that what life should be all about really? Laughing, enjoying each others company and having fun!!! Bekah was calling Craig her CousUncle... he is a 2nd cousin to her.. but he and Bekah think he should be a fun loving Uncle who also has to approve all the boyfriends, but one who lets her get away with stuff her Dad might not!! Good times!! I am glad Bekah and I have been able to spend time with Craig this summer.

Poor Bebe

It has been kinda crazy since last Monday (6/29), Bekah and I came home to find that BeBe had popped her eye out of the socket. It was an awful site. Bekah of course got very upset immediately and I wasn't much better. I rushed her to the vet and they quickly took her in for surgery to put the eye back into place. The procedure seemed to go well and the vet was hopeful that she would not lose the eye and she might even be able to see again with it. She had ointment for her eye that we put on four times a day. The eye wasn't looking great and I was getting concerned that she would go blind in that eye. Then this Monday we took her back to the vet to get her stitches out of her eye lid. The vet felt that the eye looked pretty good and still might come back. He prescribed new ointment. The next day the eye looked swollen, but it had been and the vet said that is normal and would go down. So, we just kept a watch over her. Then on Wednesday, I thought the eye looked worse, so I took back to the vet. This time the vet said the eye was infected, so he wasn't as optimistic that she would be able to see out of that eye again. Now he was concerned that she might lose the eye all together. BeBe is on antibiotics twice a day, eye drops every two hours and the ointment at least 4 times a day. She also has to go back to wearing the "cone" collar. She is still wagging her tail and is active, she doesn't like the ointment much, other than that she is doing okay relatively speaking. We are hopeful that the we caught the infection soon enough and she will not have to have the eye removed. She is such a sweet girl and we feel so bad for what she is going through. Blue feels bad too, we have to keep him from trying to lick her eye and from trying to take care of her. He gets very sensitive when things happen and BeBe is his buddy. It is so sweet. We hope she gets better soon.

Let's Get It Started!

Cheer practice started this week! 8:00 AM everyday... Bekah is loving it this year and really looking forward to the season. We are too!! It's her last year... (sniffle, sniffle) we want to make the most of every minute of it!! Gearing up for the games, activities, parades, homecoming and of course all the fundraising!
Go Eagles!!

Smiles in Sausalito, CA

I just love this picture of Zack, he had just turned 16 and we went on a family vacation to San Francisco. It was a great trip with lots of fond memories. The four of us had so much fun... one silly memory (of all things) is the location of our hotel room! We stayed at the Hyatt in Fisherman's Wharf and the hotel was shaped like a "U" well our room was the furthest point from the entry of the hotel (or the elevators for that matter). So when we got off the elevators to go to our room it became a joke about how long it took to get to our room, especially after long days of sight seeing. Some days it was a race to see who could get there first, some days it was "I need water..." comments on the way, and some days we just drug our feet and pretended we would never find it. No one complained, we just all laughed and made silly jokes about it. At this age, Zack didn't always like his picture taken, but this time I got a nice big smile! This picture was taken in Sausalito, CA we took a water ferry from San Francisco to get there. It was such a beautiful quaint city. I tinted the picture in a vintage tint. You can see the difference with the original one below.

I HEART Sushi

Bekah is so much fun...such a joy. Always laughing, having fun, and being goofy too! One of my favorite things about her is that she just appreciates her life and she lets us know. She is a very positive... go with the flow person. When I opened my laptop, this picture magically appeared as my wall paper. (Rebekah is such a magician!)I love this photo, I took this of Bekah in the West Village in NYC at a restaurant called Sushi Samba. We loved the colors in this place and the food was good too.

Watermelon 5K July 4th, 2009

We started our 4th of July out with a very humid...HOT 5k. We participated in the Watermelon 5k yesterday morning at 7:30 AM at Mead Gardens in Winter Park. Craig and Mike came down from Jacksonville to run and Bao visited us from Gainsville and also ran. For Russ and Markus, this was there first 5k run and they did awesome!! It wasn't a chip race, so we don't know exactly what the running time was but everyone has an idea. Rich was happy that he shaved a minute off his last time, Bekah didn't beat her last time, but she did well as always. Craig, even with bruised ribs came in within 28 minutes! I don't run and planned on walking it, well I got caught up in the running in the beginning and thought I was going to die. I should not have ran. I finally finished though and on the plus side, I never stopped moving. I am so proud of everyone! This was my 3rd 5K that I have participated in and I was happy when it was over and I can say at least I did it. I'm losing count on how many Bekah has done, I think she is up to about 8 races, she inspires me. Rich is doing awesome and he is so supportive, for that I'm so grateful! What a great way to start the day.

"Get It Together!"

Everything I started today I had a hard time finishing. Somethings did not get finished. This morning, I woke up with a list of things I needed to get done in my head. Rich had the day off, so he took half the list (really more than half) and I proceeded to get out of bed. Really struggled with that today! Rich was up and out in no time. He washed the Jeep and Harley, cleaned the pool, and cleaned the bathtub. I moved to the sofa where I checked my work e-mail, worked on a couple of updates, received a phone call and checked Facebook and myfamily.com. A couple hours went by (and so did Rich working hard going in and out of the house) so I decided I probably should take a shower and get it together. So I did. It was about noon at this point. I then offered to get Rich something to eat, but he was almost done with his chores so I waited for him to jump in the shower to get cleaned up for lunch. While I was waiting, I mustered up just enough energy to sweep and mop the floors, put in a load of laundry and change Bekah's bedding. Yeah, I accomplished something today.
Rich and I headed to Mimi's Cuban Cafe only to find out they are closed for the July 4th holiday, then we tried Black Bean Cuban Cafe, closed too! As we were headed to a Cuban Cafe off of Park Ave (We really wanted Cuban), we decided to go with Sobik's instead. We were pretty hungry by this time. Had a nice lunch, went to the grocery store and came home.
After we got home, we had the pleasure of meeting Bao, Bekah's friend who is staying with us tonight to run in the Watermelon 5k in the morning.
Tonight we will have a houseful people, which we love. Our house is small, but we manage. Just makes us that much closer! :) Happy July 4th!

Yesterday, Bekah, my Mother and I took Joshua, Ginger's son, out to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours. We had a good time, going on a few rides and watching a show at the castle. These are a few pictures from our wonderful day.