Happy 20th birthday!

20 years ago, my life changed once again.  I was already a mother but there were now 2 of you.  You entered the world making sure we knew you were there.  You showed yourself to be a different person than your sister from the start.  You kept us on our toes with your health from being hospitalized at 8 weeks, having a bad burn at age 2, multiple chest and bronchial infections leading to an asthma diagnosis, and stitches in your chin.  You have shown the talents God has given you from art to writing to swimming to music.  You are a lover of animals and a giving heart to all.

I have had the pleasure to know you as a daughter.  I have watched God grow you and work in your heart so I am thankful to also call you sister.  I pray as you start to spread your wings and fly that I might call you friend.  These 20 years have flown and I'm not sure how we got here but I wouldn't change anything in them.

I love you and look forward to seeing what God has in store for you in the next 20 years!  Happy 20th birthday, Victoria!!

One Has Flown the Nest

If you asked me last week how many lived in my household, I would have replied 7.  Now my answer would be 6.  I knew this day would come, actually it is what my role has been, to help prepare the children God has blessed me with to leave and make their mark on the world.

It isn't easy though.  I will miss the few minutes in the morning to chat before she heads out to work.  I will miss planning enough food so she might also have some leftovers for lunch.  I will miss her asking if I need help with dinner or something else.  I will miss the late night talks over something on her mind or heart.  Most of all, I will miss her texts saying "Imacominhome".  I'm thankful God has allowed me to build a relationship that causes a little sadness in her leaving the nest.  She hasn't gone too far so we can still enjoy times together and see each other at church.

There are 4 more to leave the nest so I will go through these emotions again but each time I will be thankful for the time I have had preparing them to spread their wings and fly.  I can't wait to see where her wings take her!

Road Trip to Oklahoma

If you come to me and say "Let's go to _________" (fill in the blank with anywhere in the continental USA), I will be ready to jump in my car and start out.  I love to travel and prefer to do it by car so I can see all there is to see between here and there.  My friends call me crazy but I come by it naturally as my family traveled up the East coast numerous times and even took a driving trip to CA and back one summer.  I have a desire and goal to visit at least all 48 of the continental states, all 50 if I have the opportunity.  Right now, not counting Hawaii and Alaska, I have 9 states to make it to so when my Hannah was given the opportunity to compete at Nationals in Oklahoma this year, I said, "Let's drive!" much to the disappoint of Hannah who hoped to make her first plane trip and instead has been proclaiming "17 long hours in the car!"

We, being Hannah, myself, my mom and Gretchen, left Saturday morning with the plan to make it to Memphis, TN by around 5:30-6 p.m.  We had great driving weather but the traffic was a different story.  When we made it to Dothan, AL, the traffic was very stop and go, making it difficult to get through quickly.  We made decent time until we got past Montgomery, AL where we hit about 20 miles of extreme backup just outside Birmingham which probably cost us 30-45 minutes.  The worse thing was we never saw a cause for the backup!  By that time, we were starving and looking for a somewhere to eat but we wanted a decent meal not fast food.  Unfortunately, we could not find anything so we finally settled on Cracker Barrel in Jasper, AL.  It was very busy so we probably lost another 1.5 hours getting our food.  All that to say, we didn't arrive at Memphis until 10 p.m. which was actually 11 p.m. our time.  We were exhausted and pretty much fell into bed.

Sunday morning found us awake early so we got breakfast and then went for a swim in the pool.  

Now you may be wondering why the pool was shaped like a guitar.  Well, the reason we pushed to get to Memphis was to be able to see Graceland, the former home of Elvis Presley.  My mother is a big fan of Elvis and has always desired to see Graceland therefore when I found a hotel right down the street from Graceland that had lots of Elvis memorabilia, I booked it.  Good thing I did as they had a sign on the door saying no more rooms when we arrived.  After breakfast, we took a walk down to see Graceland.  We could see the wall in front from the hotel.

We then got in the car for another 7 hours of driving.  We spent most of the day in Arkansas.  Due to a not very filling or good breakfast, we decided to stop for food.  Again, we had trouble finding anything beyond McDonald's or such so when we saw a sign for a cafe, we decided to give it a try.  It turned out to be a good choice.  They had a buffet with some of the best fried chicken I have ever had.  Their coffee was good and strong too!

Finally, we made it to Oklahoma!!  However, we had a few more hours to go so we pushed through and made it to our hotel by 7:30 p.m.  We look forward to some sight seeing in the morning! Stay tuned for the rest of our road trip.

First Recital

 

Gretchen had her first recital yesterday afternoon.  We signed her up for Baton Twirling at a local dance center.  Mama had enjoyed learning the baton some when she was younger and was happy to see Gretchen enjoy it also.  She did a fantastic job with their routine and only dropped her baton once.  They had a section where they performed in the dark with colored glow sticks on the end of the batons.  It looked really neat!  Next year, they don't have baton so we are going to give tumbling a try.  Gretchen is kind of glad she doesn't have to worry about a recital next year.

Wait...it's May?!?

Ok, someone tell me how it has gotten to be May already?  I was just taking down Christmas and now I'm sweating like it is already August.  Wait, wasn't that how it was in December?  Seriously though, I have lost a few months here on the blog and I was doing so much better about posting.  So what has been going on you ask?  Speech tournaments, of course.  We had a tournament every 2-3 weeks from the middle of February to the beginning of May and working as Logistics Coordinator means I am actually working on things 1.5 to 2 weeks before a tournament so it was all I could do to try and keep the household going while doing tournament prep.

The girls had a great season with each of them taking 3 speeches to the Regional tournament - their duo on coffee, Hannah's Original Interp and her Open Interp on "The Day the Crayons Came Home" and Abigail's Open Interp on "Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty and Other Notorious Nursery Tale Mysteries" along with her Bio Narrative on Fred Rogers.   We had high hopes for Regionals and 2 speeches made it to the elimination rounds which was Abigail's Open Interp and the Duo but both of them only made it to semi-finals.  No invitations to Nationals were earned.

So you are finished and free for the summer, you say?  Well, no, actually not because the Monday after Regionals, we found an e-mail offering Hannah an At-Large slot for Nationals with her Open Interp.  Now I know you must be wondering why Hannah got the slot and not Abigail since Abigail was the one who advanced at Regionals.  The reason is At-Large slots are based on how you do with a speech throughout the season which accumulates points.  We were hoping for the same thing for the Duo but our points were not high enough.

Now we are planning a trip to Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, OK in the middle of June.   We have decided to drive for mainly financial reasons but also for the fun.  This means Gretchen and my mom can join us too!  So stay tuned and I will try to post as we travel.  Of course, I will hopefully do some more posts in between that time.  In the meantime, enjoy some pictures from our great tournament season!