The girls - too cute.....my neighbor and I tried to get in on the fun this year - she was a bit more inventive than I was with her outfit!!!

UNC Football 2009 Joe and his friends..Joe had a great first semester of his sophmore year. He has applied to the business school at Chapel Hill and we will hear about that in January.

He seems to be enjoying being a Tarheel and went to most home football games and has made it to a few basketball games.

Fall Soccer 2009 - had a great team this year and lots of wins and fun.. Elizabeth is now in the 8th grade and besides soccer she is on the yearbook staff at school this year. She is loving that. She keeps me busy with all the sleepovers, trips to the mall and church stuff. When she doesn't have a group here, she is somewhere. Girls just seem to always have activities going on....barely a Monday goes by that when she gets in the car when I pick her up that she isn't asking "What are we doing this coming weekend!!"

The fall has gone by way too fast and I can't believe it is already the holidays!! But now that they are here, we are enjoying having Joe home and having a family time with everyone.

Pictures from Move In Day 2009. Boy, this was quiet a different experience than freshman year. It took most of a day to get him moved in freshman year and tons of emotion - this year we left Cornelius about 8:30 am and we were back in Cornelius by 2:30pm!!!!! With the hand truck, lots of friends, and us - we had him unpacked and stuff in the room within 30 minutes (that's all they give you for parking!!!). There was some emotion with it, I really love having him home and being with him but he was so ready to go back. When the "big red bag" was put on the landing on Wed. (We weren't leaving until Friday) I knew he was ready to get back. I can't blame him. I remember college - even though it was many, many years ago and it was hard to be at home where none of your friends are and not much to do. We missed him over the summer but he came home for a couple of weeks before he went back and it was just enough time to get all he needed together and back to school. He has had enough time on his own now that he knows what he needs to do and gets it done!!! Oh, you are asking and wondering - who's the girl???? That is Cameron. She is a girl he has met at Carolina and we just love having her around. ( He does too!!!)

Joe's Adventure on the Appalachian Trail

Once Joe's job was over for the summer - a big group of the counselors got together and walked 35 miles of the trail over 3 days. They saw all sorts of things. It was a great experience for them. The cool thing is they ran into these miniature horses - they came right up to them. It did rain some on the trail but that just seem to be the norm for the summer. Lots of rain.

Summer 2009 - Lake Norman

We had a ball on the lake this summer. Joe got some use out of the jet ski over the summer even being gone for most of it. The jet ski was used almost triple what it was the first summer and I mastered trailering it in and out of the lake!!! Fun....life is good.....

Camp Grier 2009 - A Part of our summer always!!!

Elizabeth headed out to Camp Grier a week after she got home from the Mission Trip. This is her third year and comes back wanting to go a week longer every time. Not sure what's up in them there hills but both kids love it there - Joe worked there for the second summer in a row.....it truly is "The Place To Be" as their song says!!! Check out the pictures of Elizabeth's stay - yes, there is a boy who dressed up like a girl for the dance - the boys let the girls do their hair, yes, that is Elizabeth actually rolling up the tent after doing an overnight stay away from the camp. With all the rain this year, there were bears spotted in camp and snakes. As a counselor this summer, Joe had many new experiences. He got to do bike camp one week, where the kids bring their bikes, he participated in many skits - you'll see some of the outfits he came up with from the counselors hitting the thrift shops and Goodwill on the day off in the Asheville area. It's just an over all good experience for both of the kids and doing bible studies regularly is also a great thing.

Elizabeth and her first Mission Trip

Elizabeth went with our church on a mission trip to West Virginia for a week. What an experience for an 13 year old. It was the first time she has been away from me with no contact at all - the leader did use Twitter to give us updates from the day which was very helpful. Just to know they were out there. I went to Charleston for a few days however, by the time I got home Wed. night I had hit the wall - I needed my kids - too much time away. I would never stop them from going and being independent but it's just been alot of that this year. Anyway, what an experience. It made me cry to think about her serving others in a way that will make their lives different. What I didn't know until she got home, she worked construction all week!!! She and a buddy had signed up to work with the kids and they were switched to the construction group. Just goes to show and she and I talked about it - god knows where he needed you most. She and her friend loved it and painted the entire inside of a house, scrapped a deck and painted some of it. She is still telling me stuff even today about what she did - like moving all the furniture out of a room but the couch and needed help with that!! It was just an overwhelming experience that I know changed her. She said she wasn't going to buy but a couple of outfits to start school because she just sometimes buys things and doesn't really need them. Aren't we all that way. They even made make shift knee pads with papertowels and some wrap she puts on her head for a headband but used it on their knees. Of course, the night before she left, Chris had asked me if I had bought her safety glasses and jokingly I stated "I did not because honestly, I didn't think she had the training to do any job that might require safety glasses!!!" She did wear sunglasses when someone was trimming bushes. Amazing what they know how to do!!! There is a slideshow of a few pictures of the group - yes, there are a few in there of the girls picking up trash on the side of the road - that was the first big story - E had picked up a rotten carton of milk and they didn't know the bag had a whole and it ended up spilling out all over her friend Nicolette's jeans. She is off to Camp Grier next week and that should be all her comings and goings.

Got a nice surprise on Friday when Joe texted me and asked if we had plans on Friday night because he was thinking about coming home. Wow!!! We were so excited. I slept like a baby that Friday night. He was only home until about 4 on Sat. afternoon but we had a meal with us all around the table, all of us around the washing machine alot, all of us to the lake for the afternoon before he went back. It was just great. We will see him a bit when we drop Miss E off at Camp on Sunday.

Trying to do better!!!

How out of date are we?????

After the big win at UNC!!!! We do not know who the "gangsta" guy is...he wanted to be in the picture!!!

Working at MaMere's

Elizabeth's baptizm day!!

Well, it seems that this year just went by. From January until now, I have not done a good job updating the blog. Truly, not much has gone on but on the other hand, ALOT has gone on that has created many diversions from keeping this blog up. Recapping the last few months in a few words:

1. Elizabeth finished up her 7th grade year and will move into 8th grade come August

2. Joe finished up his freshman year of college and will be returning as a sophmore at UNC Chapel Hill in the fall.

3. Both kids celebrated birthdays this spring.

4. Mom ended up in the hospital for 4 days - still not sure why because all the tests coming back show I am o.k. Still have a few things to work out in the health department but those are hopefully all age related.

5. Elizabeth was baptized.

6. A biggy for mom, Joe has let his hair grow out again - we can call him Joe Fro again and I love it. Oh yeah, he is learning how to play the banjo.

7. Joe is back working at Camp Grier this summer and we are all thankful he has a job. So many don't - he seems to be enjoying it. We miss him but like I said, we are so thankful he has a job.

That's a pretty quick recap.

June found us on vacation in Naples, Florida for the week. Hot, Hot, Hot. First 3 days the heat index was 110. Unbelievable. Elizabeth got to bring a couple of friends since Joe was working and we swam, took boat rides, saw some of the everglades and did something mom has always wanted to do - take an airboat ride. Ever since those Gentle Ben days, I have wanted to ride on an airboat - what a blast!!!! Got up close to the alligators.

Joe did get the week before the 4th off and we got home on Sat. afternoon, spent an evening at home and Elizabeth and I were off again to Charleston, SC. Chris's siblings rented a house at the Isle of Palms and so it was back to the beach for us. I came home on Wed. night, E stayed and Chris went down on Thursday night until Sat. They got home in the afternoon of the 4th. Still enough time to go swimming at a friends and see fireworks off their dock. Joe left on thursday with his friend to go back to her house on thursday of this week, so I felt badly I didn't get to spend much time with him. He should be home some before he heads back to school in the fall. I am getting used to him coming and going. It still seems hard to believe this is where we are in life with him. He is so grown up.

What else? Let's see. Elizabeth is going on her first mission trip this summer to West Virgina with church next week and will be going back to Camp Grier for a week also. Seems my kids just love to be on the go.....

I am trying to keep my flowers pretty but it has now stopped raining again so that is full time job. I even planted a garden of squash and tomatoes but I have lots of blooms, just no produce yet!!! It's been years since I have done this so I didn't know how it would work out. I am actually going to take off while E is gone and go back to Charleston and see my friend for a few days something I haven't done in a while. These are always very restful visits and stress free and cheap!!! As sad as I was during the spring about Joe in college and Elizabeth pulling away, (really sad) I do like my time for me.

Chris finally got bumped up to a 2009 IPOD. Like most parents, we get the hand me downs. Folks couldn't believe the IPOD he was using still worked!!! It was one of the first ones. He now has an iPOD that holds up to 30,000 songs. 120 GB. He's in heaven. Spending hours putting music on it.

Well, now I will add some pictures. Not too much more news......will try and do better.

New Year's Day

Chris's family joined us on New Year's day for Clemson Football and celebrating Christmas and a birthday. Between Christmas and New Year's we have my dad's birthday and Chris's birthday. It was so much fun to have everyone and we made sure that everyone ate their collard's and black eyed peas. Think we got a tablespoon in each kid!!! Don't think Cooper appreciated the gag gifts of empty boxes and he guessed they were empty - which let me know - I can't trick him very easily!!! Enjoy the slide show!!!!

Christmas 2008
Christmas break for Joe started Dec. 10th. I went and picked up he and his roommate - let Elizabeth skip school. It was great to have him home. Amazing how just having him in the house makes it all better. Of course, even if the kids are at sleepovers it doesn't feel normal. He did come home with a new habit of staying up really late. It was hard the first week he was home with Elizabeth still in school. I did let her skip an afternoon after a dentist appointment and we met Joe at the mall and went to Bravo to eat and do some christmas shopping. We made many trips to mall before Christmas. One day we were there and a fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate the mall. Now that was interesting. Never have done that before. One other thing that has never happened before is mom getting a black eye. Thanks to Chief about 3 days before Christmas as I went down to get the puppy out of his running rant, he hit my eye, threw my glasses off and within 24 hours - I had a black eye. Thankfully for me - I could cover it up with make up for the most part!!!Christmas Eve came and we started a new tradition this year. We usually go to the movies and out to dinner but this year we went to the Christmas eve service at Church and to dinner. It was so nice. This year it just was appropriate and a natural place for us to be. Lots of changes in our lives in 2008. We still got home early enough to get into our Christmas Eve jammies, wrap gifts and enjoy the evening. Christmas morning came with me actually having time to get up, make coffee, get make up on before everyone else got up. Very slow moving crowd these days. We opened gifts, enjoyed some coffee and danish, played Apples to Apples and put on the Dark Knight until 11.

Around that time we headed to Ma Mere's, Mary, Mom's house to have brunch and spend time over there. Normandie made the trip and so did Jerry. That was lucky that Jerry was able to make. He wasn't going to be able to at first.

We went home for awhile and got ready to go to Grandad Putt's, Jerry, Daddy's house to have dinner and spend time there. Paul joined us that night and unfortunately John and Nicole were with her family.

The day ended with all of us tired but feeling very wealthy and wondering what all this talk of recession is about!!!! We were blessed.

O.k. these girls still wonder why they didn't win the
ugly sweater contest at youth group!!!!