This was Mckray's first year playing flag football with the 3rd and 4th grade leagues. He was a little disappointed at first that he didn't get to play with pads and helmets but got over it quickly. He will be able to play tackle football when he is in 5th grade. Like I have said before Mckray loves sports and he loved football. He knew when every game was and times and practices. I write all that important stuff on my calendar but most of the time he kept me informed and I never had to tell him to get ready for practice or a game because he already knew or was already dressed and ready to go. That is something that I love and admire about this kid, he has such a love of life and is sooo passionate about anything he is doing. He kept the coaches in line also, a couple of times there would be too many guys on the field and he would tell the coaches and sure enough a player would have to come off the field. He is so aware of his surroundings and sometimes I wonder if it is because of his hearing loss that his other senses are so heightened. He doesn't let his lack of being able to hear very well get in the way of life and he is such a great example of that to me. He never feels sorry for himself or stops doing what he really wants to do and I hope that he never looses that.

Similar posts: flag football

We wanted to share that with you for a couple of reasons everything that she had been praying in those prayers were fulfilled in that encounter. By seeing Jesus he gave her the peace that she had prayed for; she knew that HE was with her, that he was waiting on her and that he was her healer and deliverer. And the most important part was she knew how much Jesus loved her and how important forgiveness is.

I think if she were with us right now she would want to remind us of these 2 main things:
1. First, is forgiveness. She knew that through salvation Jesus had forgiven her and more importantly she knew through the experiences she had with him on that Saturday morning that he wanted her to walk in forgiveness. I encourage you today right now that if you have un-forgiveness toward someone to forgive them. When we refuse to forgive someone it only keeps us hurting and bound up, it keeps us walking in anger it really does not affect the person we havent forgiven. I know that she would want each and everyone of us to forgive - you know one of those other prayers she had marked was about letting go of anger and forgiving. In honor of her do that today forgive anyone that you have held anger toward. Release them it doesnt mean that what they did to you was right but dont hold un-forgiveness toward them. Make a decision today in honor of Geneva Katherine Hughes that you are going to forgive them and release them.
2. Secondly, we believe she would want everyone here to know that Jesus loves you so much. The Bible says in Romans 8:38-39 I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from Gods love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrownot even the powers of hell can separate us from Gods love. No power in the sky above or in the earth belowindeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Whether you have ever accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior or not does not change the fact that he loves you so much. I know that Grandma would say accept Jesus today make Him your Lord and Savior. Accept the person who loves you unconditionally, who doesnt make you get everything in our life before we come to him. The Bible says in Romans 5:8 that while we were lost in our sins Christ died for us. She would say accept that free gift of salvation today. She would not want you to miss out on the wonderful relationship with Jesus that she had here on this earth and that she is now experiencing in heaven. No amount of cards, flowers or money could honor her life more than giving your life to Jesus today.

And for those of us who have made Jesus our Lord to understand there is nothing we have done in our past that can separate us from Gods love. No amount of sin or wrongdoing can separate us from Gods love. God loves you so much and she would want you to know that today that you can walk out of here knowing the vastness of God loves for you, that he is for you, he wants to be a part of your life and he has a great plan for you.

Lastly, she would want us to know that she is truly finally HOME. That on September 12th Jesus met Geneva Katherine Hughes face to face and that she is now enjoying the peace and beauty of heaven. Thank you.

God is so good. Through the experience she had with him she was able to be at peace those last few days PLUS it gave us the family peace as well. God did not allow her to suffer with the pain for months on end - he took her quickly and peacefully. I will miss her immensely but am so thankful she is in heaven free of pain and worshiping her savior.

Similar posts: flag football

We wanted to share that with you for a couple of reasons everything that she had been praying in those prayers were fulfilled in that encounter. By seeing Jesus he gave her the peace that she had prayed for; she knew that HE was with her, that he was waiting on her and that he was her healer and deliverer. And the most important part was she knew how much Jesus loved her and how important forgiveness is.

I think if she were with us right now she would want to remind us of these 2 main things:
1. First, is forgiveness. She knew that through salvation Jesus had forgiven her and more importantly she knew through the experiences she had with him on that Saturday morning that he wanted her to walk in forgiveness. I encourage you today right now that if you have un-forgiveness toward someone to forgive them. When we refuse to forgive someone it only keeps us hurting and bound up, it keeps us walking in anger it really does not affect the person we havent forgiven. I know that she would want each and everyone of us to forgive - you know one of those other prayers she had marked was about letting go of anger and forgiving. In honor of her do that today forgive anyone that you have held anger toward. Release them it doesnt mean that what they did to you was right but dont hold un-forgiveness toward them. Make a decision today in honor of Geneva Katherine Hughes that you are going to forgive them and release them.
2. Secondly, we believe she would want everyone here to know that Jesus loves you so much. The Bible says in Romans 8:38-39 I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from Gods love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrownot even the powers of hell can separate us from Gods love. No power in the sky above or in the earth belowindeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Whether you have ever accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior or not does not change the fact that he loves you so much. I know that Grandma would say accept Jesus today make Him your Lord and Savior. Accept the person who loves you unconditionally, who doesnt make you get everything in our life before we come to him. The Bible says in Romans 5:8 that while we were lost in our sins Christ died for us. She would say accept that free gift of salvation today. She would not want you to miss out on the wonderful relationship with Jesus that she had here on this earth and that she is now experiencing in heaven. No amount of cards, flowers or money could honor her life more than giving your life to Jesus today.

And for those of us who have made Jesus our Lord to understand there is nothing we have done in our past that can separate us from Gods love. No amount of sin or wrongdoing can separate us from Gods love. God loves you so much and she would want you to know that today that you can walk out of here knowing the vastness of God loves for you, that he is for you, he wants to be a part of your life and he has a great plan for you.

Lastly, she would want us to know that she is truly finally HOME. That on September 12th Jesus met Geneva Katherine Hughes face to face and that she is now enjoying the peace and beauty of heaven. Thank you.

God is so good. Through the experience she had with him she was able to be at peace those last few days PLUS it gave us the family peace as well. God did not allow her to suffer with the pain for months on end - he took her quickly and peacefully. I will miss her immensely but am so thankful she is in heaven free of pain and worshiping her savior.

Similar posts: flag football

To give you an idea of how close we are to the area affected the worst by Ike, League City sits just west of Kemah and only 20 miles NW of Galveston. Its right off Galveston Bay so you can imagine there were parts of the area that got hit pretty hard.
Clear Lake Shores is a little island separated from the mainland by an inlet, and it was as recent as late this week that police were restricting access to the island for residents only. The guards were gone today so we were able to get onto the island and help one of Marks co-workers, and to get to her house we had to dodge massive piles of damaged personal belongings ranging from couches to refrigerators and pictures. Not only that, but we passed a multitude of sunken boats and yachtsand we passed some houses that had yachts sitting in their yards, at the intersections of roads, etc. Pretty surreal.
We helped Marks co-worker Nancy remove plywood that she had used to board up her stained glass windows and also helped hand out some Salvation Army meals to the neighbors who were still throwing stuff out onto piles for dump trucks to come by and pick up. We met many neighbors and they are all great people, and I can tell you if there is one positive that comes out of a crisis like this, its the fact that people band together and help each other. That was really evident today and it was neat to be a part of it.
After that was over, we took a little drive through the town of Kemah and saw the Kemah Boardwalk, which to say the least is not open for business. After that we went through Seabrook and saw even bigger piles of furniture, clothing, refrigerators, tree limbs, you name it. And the neighborhoods smell horribleall the mold from the water damage has a sickening smell to it. As such the folks cleaning up were wearing dust respirators and taking multiple trips back and forth.
You get the feeling that in effect the stories of peoples lives up to before Ike hit are what is sitting on the side of the road when you drive by, and thats really sobering. It hit me hard when I saw a pile of toys and stuffed animals in one familys yard and you know there is a kid in there whose young mind isnt ready to even begin comprehending something like this. Its overwhelming to a point just to think about that.
Even two weeks after Ike hit, a lot of the neighborhoods we passed through still have no electricity or running water. As a result, schools have opened up their gymnasium showers for free, but as for living arrangements, its so hot in some of the houses that the people are living in tents in their front lawns. As we passed Dolphin Avenue in Seabrook today I saw a young woman with her child sitting in a tent, and staring blanklyas if they just wait it out and time will heal everything.
The most eerie thing I saw today was an entire apartment complex gutted, with cyclone fence constructed around it. Instead of being full of cars, the parking lot was full of mattresses, splintered wood, cabinets, more tree limbs, personal belongings just a mess. The place had been declared uninhabitable to the point residents cannot even re-enter to retrieve their personal belongings. What a nightmare.
We passed houses with large spray painted red circles with an X in the middle. Just add two and two together on that oneno one will ever live in those houses again.
We helped some more folks over in Pasadena remove their fenceposts and I pruned some tree limbs that were looking pretty ugly, all the while fending off a neighbors mini-pinscher. Hey, if helping someone means helping them get their backyard to some sort of normalcy then so be it. After we were done there we ate at a barbecue joint, and I stuffed myself on a pulled pork sandwich and some good fries.
Tonight Mark and I just hung out, and headed to a movie theater to go see Eagle Eye. It was alright.
On the agenda for tomorrow, and this will be interesting, is that Oak Meadows Community Worship Center (Marks church) has decided to have church. Praise God! Only thing is, there is no electricity and no A/C in the building. The pastor has suffered a health setback so this means Mark gets to moderate the service. It should be a good one, and their first since the hurricane hopefully it provides a touch of normalcy to some people whose lives have been topsy turvy over the past two weeks.
Well more than likely use tomorrow to ask folks from their church if they need help with anything and just give them a hand. Im sure well receive a few requests.
I have shot some decent photos, but alas, Mark does not have Wi-Fi in his apartment and even though my laptop is tethered to my iPhone, the data network is horribly spotty for obvious reasons. The best connection I can get is GPRS, which for you non-tech gurus is roughly the equivalent of dial-up speeds.
Thanks for the prayers, its been cool down here so far, and I am driving back up on Tuesday.

Similar posts: flag football

Tonight, we were out in a neighborhood selling Cub Scout popcorn and Franklin forgot to collect a check from a sale. So, we returned to the neighborhood and sent Franklin to ask about the check (the family was still playing outside in their driveway). We were waiting in the car directly across the street from their driveway. When he had collected the check, we warned him to watch for cars - there were a couple coming down the street it was beginning to get dark. One car passed from the north. Two cars were coming together from the south. One car passed.

Franklin darted out into the street.

Right in front of the second car - not just a car, but a rather large SUV. My heart stopped. A life flashed before my very eyes that was not my own. Fortunately, the brakes on the SUV (and horn) worked rather well and they were able to stop in time. Wow. All of us are a little shaken up and decided to call it a night.

Thank you, God, for miraculously making the brakes work extra well on the SUV. Honestly, I believe in miracles and by the speed the vehicle was traveling and the timing that Franklin ran out, I don't think the vehicle should have been able to stop in time. Praise be to God!!

Now I sit here 30 minutes later... waiting for my pulse to slow down. Praying that my kids will remain safe for many, many years to come. Grateful for the joy they bring to my life.

Similar posts: flag football

All day today...Saturdays are awesome. No other day of the week can compare in the fall. Any other CFB fanatics can agree as well. This season kicked off today, UF cleaned Hawaii out. I was fairly pleased with alot of the game but there is still significant room to improve. Some things I had gripes with:

-Penalties. UF showed its youth in the DL. True they were overly aggressive but the sheer number of penalties committed were frustrating to say the least. It's like it's 2006 all over again where we were among the most penalized team in the nation.

-OL didn't impress me as much. They had a few nice plays in terms of setting up nice runs for our RBs but they were touted to be among the best in the nation. Pass D can improve.

-Backup QBs were LOL. enough said. I don't even want to talk about them.

As I said though, I was pretty pleased. The corners and safeties played well, forcing some pick-6s and fumbles. Tebow played pretty well, I don't expect him to win the heisman as projected. He made up a very high percentage of our offense last year (perhaps due to a lack of RB). This year I hope that we are able to spread the ball around more (and namely run more). Though with the new clock rules I think offenses (alot of power running teams) will be able to control the game even moreso than before. We should be better for Miami with Percy and Spikes back. I was pretty pleased with Lawrence Marsh, our DT as well. Finally getting some pressure up front, a far cry from last year.

Nebraska won as well. Sucked because we didn't get any seats, we came too late because we were piles. Game was fun overall. NE has a pretty solid offense, running game was meh. Defense was meh at times. DL especially sucked. They have alot of work to do.

Some upsets this week. It's to be expected I suppose. VT loses to ECU, Clemson got hammered by Bama, Texas AM loses (LOL) to some shit team. Mizzou held as did many other top 20 teams this week. Some significant headlines were Beanie wells perhaps hurt, which sucks for the tOSU/USC game (want it to be as huge as possible), UGA's starting DE got a torn ACL. Sucks ass for UWashington getting stomped by Oregon too, UW is a team I quite enjoy watching (partly because of Jake Locker as well as my gramps/parents both being UW alumni). Locker's OL got smashed from what I saw so bah.

Anyways, probably going home tomorrow for labor day, no school on monday so I'll get to catch UCLA/Tenn and do some scouting for 3 weeks from now. No poker recently either, the break has been pretty nice.

I also went to the bars tonight with a friend. An interesting event happened as well (posted in SSNL life thread too)-

okay so i met a friend at the bars tonight. she was in a group of her friends, one of which was a crazy meth addict looking guy who she met from another one of her friends. ANYWAYS

so we're talking...talking about football/whatever.

him: "yeah...i just won $280 this weekend. I bet on sports."
"oh really? that's pretty cool man. nice score."
"yeah man. A few weeks ago I loaded $300 onto pokerstars"

(cue orange's eyes lighting up, mouth cringing to a smirk trying to contain laughter)

"oh yeah? thats cool. are you up money?"

(enter him looking at me with a queer grin, super cocky and arrogant. It's like he has a super secret that he wants to let out but has noone to share it with).

"well...I'll tell you this...I bought my beamer with it." (holds up 8 fingers).

"you've made 8 grand man? wow"

"oh yeah...i ran that $300 up to 5k within a week. I play no-limit. I played $5 dollar/ $10 dollar, $1000 up front. It's such a rush"

"wow thats alot of money."

"yeah man. you don't know what its like to win a $2500 pot. (insert me saying i've won a 7k pot. in reality i held my tongue and kept smiling).

He continues to ramble, saying you can't play poker professionally because of the swings. "you could win $1000 in one hour and then lose $3000 within the next hour. I can't do it" He also bragged about him getting 200th in the sunday million for $1600, a nice $300 hourly or something. I kept nodding.

then I continued my sick game and asked if poker was all luck. he looks at me sheepishly and shakes his head frantically.

"hell no man. how do you think i ran my money up? S-K-I-L-L. you have to know what the you're doing. or its all just luck"

"ah okay. i always thought otherwise"

we hang out for a bit longer, we all depart shortly after, I never say a word about me playing poker. I laugh alot. I'm a sick human.


maybe i sound arrogant but meh. I found it funny maybe noone else does. be good.

Similar posts: flag football

I'm realizing I should have just had one big weekend update post, but anyways, Sam had his first flag football game of the season Saturday. It was pretty sad, most of his team is on the 5th grade side of the 5th/6th grade bracket, and honestly most of them are there for fun, but the team that killed us were the real deal, their coach called in plays, they reverses, laterals, everything! Even more saddness when I think about that there are only 4 teams and so we will play those kids every 3 games! Oh, well better luck on Tuesday.

Similar posts: flag football

Tonight, we were out in a neighborhood selling Cub Scout popcorn and Franklin forgot to collect a check from a sale. So, we returned to the neighborhood and sent Franklin to ask about the check (the family was still playing outside in their driveway). We were waiting in the car directly across the street from their driveway. When he had collected the check, we warned him to watch for cars - there were a couple coming down the street it was beginning to get dark. One car passed from the north. Two cars were coming together from the south. One car passed.

Franklin darted out into the street.

Right in front of the second car - not just a car, but a rather large SUV. My heart stopped. A life flashed before my very eyes that was not my own. Fortunately, the brakes on the SUV (and horn) worked rather well and they were able to stop in time. Wow. All of us are a little shaken up and decided to call it a night.

Thank you, God, for miraculously making the brakes work extra well on the SUV. Honestly, I believe in miracles and by the speed the vehicle was traveling and the timing that Franklin ran out, I don't think the vehicle should have been able to stop in time. Praise be to God!!

Now I sit here 30 minutes later... waiting for my pulse to slow down. Praying that my kids will remain safe for many, many years to come. Grateful for the joy they bring to my life.

Similar posts: flag football

To give you an idea of how close we are to the area affected the worst by Ike, League City sits just west of Kemah and only 20 miles NW of Galveston. Its right off Galveston Bay so you can imagine there were parts of the area that got hit pretty hard.
Clear Lake Shores is a little island separated from the mainland by an inlet, and it was as recent as late this week that police were restricting access to the island for residents only. The guards were gone today so we were able to get onto the island and help one of Marks co-workers, and to get to her house we had to dodge massive piles of damaged personal belongings ranging from couches to refrigerators and pictures. Not only that, but we passed a multitude of sunken boats and yachtsand we passed some houses that had yachts sitting in their yards, at the intersections of roads, etc. Pretty surreal.
We helped Marks co-worker Nancy remove plywood that she had used to board up her stained glass windows and also helped hand out some Salvation Army meals to the neighbors who were still throwing stuff out onto piles for dump trucks to come by and pick up. We met many neighbors and they are all great people, and I can tell you if there is one positive that comes out of a crisis like this, its the fact that people band together and help each other. That was really evident today and it was neat to be a part of it.
After that was over, we took a little drive through the town of Kemah and saw the Kemah Boardwalk, which to say the least is not open for business. After that we went through Seabrook and saw even bigger piles of furniture, clothing, refrigerators, tree limbs, you name it. And the neighborhoods smell horribleall the mold from the water damage has a sickening smell to it. As such the folks cleaning up were wearing dust respirators and taking multiple trips back and forth.
You get the feeling that in effect the stories of peoples lives up to before Ike hit are what is sitting on the side of the road when you drive by, and thats really sobering. It hit me hard when I saw a pile of toys and stuffed animals in one familys yard and you know there is a kid in there whose young mind isnt ready to even begin comprehending something like this. Its overwhelming to a point just to think about that.
Even two weeks after Ike hit, a lot of the neighborhoods we passed through still have no electricity or running water. As a result, schools have opened up their gymnasium showers for free, but as for living arrangements, its so hot in some of the houses that the people are living in tents in their front lawns. As we passed Dolphin Avenue in Seabrook today I saw a young woman with her child sitting in a tent, and staring blanklyas if they just wait it out and time will heal everything.
The most eerie thing I saw today was an entire apartment complex gutted, with cyclone fence constructed around it. Instead of being full of cars, the parking lot was full of mattresses, splintered wood, cabinets, more tree limbs, personal belongings just a mess. The place had been declared uninhabitable to the point residents cannot even re-enter to retrieve their personal belongings. What a nightmare.
We passed houses with large spray painted red circles with an X in the middle. Just add two and two together on that oneno one will ever live in those houses again.
We helped some more folks over in Pasadena remove their fenceposts and I pruned some tree limbs that were looking pretty ugly, all the while fending off a neighbors mini-pinscher. Hey, if helping someone means helping them get their backyard to some sort of normalcy then so be it. After we were done there we ate at a barbecue joint, and I stuffed myself on a pulled pork sandwich and some good fries.
Tonight Mark and I just hung out, and headed to a movie theater to go see Eagle Eye. It was alright.
On the agenda for tomorrow, and this will be interesting, is that Oak Meadows Community Worship Center (Marks church) has decided to have church. Praise God! Only thing is, there is no electricity and no A/C in the building. The pastor has suffered a health setback so this means Mark gets to moderate the service. It should be a good one, and their first since the hurricane hopefully it provides a touch of normalcy to some people whose lives have been topsy turvy over the past two weeks.
Well more than likely use tomorrow to ask folks from their church if they need help with anything and just give them a hand. Im sure well receive a few requests.
I have shot some decent photos, but alas, Mark does not have Wi-Fi in his apartment and even though my laptop is tethered to my iPhone, the data network is horribly spotty for obvious reasons. The best connection I can get is GPRS, which for you non-tech gurus is roughly the equivalent of dial-up speeds.
Thanks for the prayers, its been cool down here so far, and I am driving back up on Tuesday.

Similar posts: flag football

I'm going to ramble for a moment. It was a very busy weekend.

It was the 9th annual Art Wine Festival at the SoIL Artisan Shop. The weather was almost perfect (could have been 15 degrees cooler to suit my taste, but I'm very hot natured) and the turnout was wonderful. I "volunteered" once again to work and spent all of Saturday and Sunday leaning over a table applying arm bands to those partaking of the wine tasting. In addition the the wineries, which Bruce was ever so nice to provide the ticket workers with a comp bottle of Red Raz (my favorite!) on both days, the artists in attendance did very well this year also.

There were several jewelry artist this year whose work I loved. I'll try to take some pics tonight of the pieces I bought. I ended up with 6 new necklaces, 3 bracelets and 3 sets of earnings!! So, from my point of view it was a successful weekend! A girl can NEVER have too much jewelry.

After the festival on Sunday I ran home as quickly as possible to take pics of an adorable little 18-month old boy and his parents. Promise I'll get those pics up either tomorrow or Wednesday. Unfortunately since I worked the Art Wine Festival I missed the second week of flag football, which I still haven't posted the pic's from the first weekend...I had issues with Picasa the other day which is why the pic's aren't up yet. I have a board meeting tomorrow as soon as it's over I can hopefully get some other things done - first of which will be flag football pics.

This weekend I intend to get a least one more set of senior pics taken, possibly two. The temp in SoIL is only suppose to be in the low 70's which in my opinion is PERFECT weather for picture taking. I'm also going to try to get some pics of nieces and nephews done. The second weekend in October is the outdoor wedding which I'm planning, coordinating, decorating, catering, photographing (how do I get myself into these things??).

In addition to the outdoor wedding which will consume most of my day, my cousin (Tyson) is getting married, another cousin is having his retirement party and two of my favorite cousins (Arielle Bethany) are the senior attendants for Sesser Homecoming Queen! Hopefully one of the Seniors will be named 2008 Homecoming Queen - Go Seniors!! October 11th is just going a packed fun-filled day. I'm not quite sure yet how I'll make it to everything, I'll worry about that next Friday!

The third and fourth weekends in October I hope to be taking lots of pictures, I have several sessions booked already with others waiting to lock down an exact date/time. I'm super excited to be taking so many pictures! Needless to say I'm going to be busy, busy, busy until the end of the year! Hopefully I'll find time to keep everyone up to date on my blog.

Similar posts: flag football

Saturday Matt was going to make a trip to Tallahassee to meet Mikey for the Florida State Wake Forest Game... Matt is a long time Seminole and Mikey went to Wake so it was a perfect game for them to be able to go to seeing as we are only an hour and a half from tallahassee.

Saturday morning after No Luck Garage Saling and a yummy IHOP breakfast Matt wanted me to come along with the boys so I did we had sooo much fun...

We first all meet at the Ale House for some dinner and the Florida Tennessee Game and then headed off to the Stadium with no tickets in hand... we had to SCALP EM!!! It was sooo fun I wish I would have had pictures of all of us trying to run around to all the wheelers and dealers trying to find the best seat at the best price finally we found an old man with the three golden tickets... we sat on the 40 yard line with a perfect view of the field and we got the tickets ten bucks below face value whoo whoo that was one of the better parts of the night since Florida State had 7 turnovers and not one team scored a touchdown the whole night... but after a couple cokes... a pizza and a pretzel eaten by the boys... they had to have stadium food even though we had already eaten dinner .... we headed home and were glad our good friend Mikey came away with the win!.

Similar posts: flag football

I'm going to ramble for a moment. It was a very busy weekend.

It was the 9th annual Art Wine Festival at the SoIL Artisan Shop. The weather was almost perfect (could have been 15 degrees cooler to suit my taste, but I'm very hot natured) and the turnout was wonderful. I "volunteered" once again to work and spent all of Saturday and Sunday leaning over a table applying arm bands to those partaking of the wine tasting. In addition the the wineries, which Bruce was ever so nice to provide the ticket workers with a comp bottle of Red Raz (my favorite!) on both days, the artists in attendance did very well this year also.

There were several jewelry artist this year whose work I loved. I'll try to take some pics tonight of the pieces I bought. I ended up with 6 new necklaces, 3 bracelets and 3 sets of earnings!! So, from my point of view it was a successful weekend! A girl can NEVER have too much jewelry.

After the festival on Sunday I ran home as quickly as possible to take pics of an adorable little 18-month old boy and his parents. Promise I'll get those pics up either tomorrow or Wednesday. Unfortunately since I worked the Art Wine Festival I missed the second week of flag football, which I still haven't posted the pic's from the first weekend...I had issues with Picasa the other day which is why the pic's aren't up yet. I have a board meeting tomorrow as soon as it's over I can hopefully get some other things done - first of which will be flag football pics.

This weekend I intend to get a least one more set of senior pics taken, possibly two. The temp in SoIL is only suppose to be in the low 70's which in my opinion is PERFECT weather for picture taking. I'm also going to try to get some pics of nieces and nephews done. The second weekend in October is the outdoor wedding which I'm planning, coordinating, decorating, catering, photographing (how do I get myself into these things??).

In addition to the outdoor wedding which will consume most of my day, my cousin (Tyson) is getting married, another cousin is having his retirement party and two of my favorite cousins (Arielle Bethany) are the senior attendants for Sesser Homecoming Queen! Hopefully one of the Seniors will be named 2008 Homecoming Queen - Go Seniors!! October 11th is just going a packed fun-filled day. I'm not quite sure yet how I'll make it to everything, I'll worry about that next Friday!

The third and fourth weekends in October I hope to be taking lots of pictures, I have several sessions booked already with others waiting to lock down an exact date/time. I'm super excited to be taking so many pictures! Needless to say I'm going to be busy, busy, busy until the end of the year! Hopefully I'll find time to keep everyone up to date on my blog.

Similar posts: flag football

I'm going to ramble for a moment. It was a very busy weekend.

It was the 9th annual Art Wine Festival at the SoIL Artisan Shop. The weather was almost perfect (could have been 15 degrees cooler to suit my taste, but I'm very hot natured) and the turnout was wonderful. I "volunteered" once again to work and spent all of Saturday and Sunday leaning over a table applying arm bands to those partaking of the wine tasting. In addition the the wineries, which Bruce was ever so nice to provide the ticket workers with a comp bottle of Red Raz (my favorite!) on both days, the artists in attendance did very well this year also.

There were several jewelry artist this year whose work I loved. I'll try to take some pics tonight of the pieces I bought. I ended up with 6 new necklaces, 3 bracelets and 3 sets of earnings!! So, from my point of view it was a successful weekend! A girl can NEVER have too much jewelry.

After the festival on Sunday I ran home as quickly as possible to take pics of an adorable little 18-month old boy and his parents. Promise I'll get those pics up either tomorrow or Wednesday. Unfortunately since I worked the Art Wine Festival I missed the second week of flag football, which I still haven't posted the pic's from the first weekend...I had issues with Picasa the other day which is why the pic's aren't up yet. I have a board meeting tomorrow as soon as it's over I can hopefully get some other things done - first of which will be flag football pics.

This weekend I intend to get a least one more set of senior pics taken, possibly two. The temp in SoIL is only suppose to be in the low 70's which in my opinion is PERFECT weather for picture taking. I'm also going to try to get some pics of nieces and nephews done. The second weekend in October is the outdoor wedding which I'm planning, coordinating, decorating, catering, photographing (how do I get myself into these things??).

In addition to the outdoor wedding which will consume most of my day, my cousin (Tyson) is getting married, another cousin is having his retirement party and two of my favorite cousins (Arielle Bethany) are the senior attendants for Sesser Homecoming Queen! Hopefully one of the Seniors will be named 2008 Homecoming Queen - Go Seniors!! October 11th is just going a packed fun-filled day. I'm not quite sure yet how I'll make it to everything, I'll worry about that next Friday!

The third and fourth weekends in October I hope to be taking lots of pictures, I have several sessions booked already with others waiting to lock down an exact date/time. I'm super excited to be taking so many pictures! Needless to say I'm going to be busy, busy, busy until the end of the year! Hopefully I'll find time to keep everyone up to date on my blog.

Similar posts: flag football

NET IMPACT Net Impact invites you to a special dining event at Harvest on Wednesday October 22nd.    As part of Net Impacts mission, our goal is to introduce sustainability into your daily lives.   One part of global sustainability is the concept of supporting local farms.   Not only does this reduce our carbon footprint through a reduction in transportation of foods, but it also helps the local economy by boosting sales from local farmers.
Details: Harvest will close its doors to hold this event exclusively for Net Impact Wine Club.  Harvest has agreed to prepare a 4-course menu of local foods including local beer pairings for $50 per person, which also includes Tax and Gratuity. Considering normal menu prices,  this is an outstanding offer.  Additionally, we will be hosting Miriam Grunes, Executive Director of Research, Education, Action and Policy on Food Group  (REAP) to speak about the economics of eating local.
6pm - Social Hour with Cash Bar
7pm - Dinner is Served
Seating is limited to 60 people(Significant Others Welcome!)
To purchase tickets, please register  below.

Similar posts: flag football

Michael, Olivia, and Jack love to help in the kitchen. These pictures are from the day we were taking a lunch with us so they got to make the sandwiches. The first ones are from making their own, showing them off, and then making the rest of the sandwiches for us. While I typically have a rule that I don't like to eat things kids make, they did a great job and the sandwiches were delicious.
We also made Rice Krispie treats one night which is a great lesson not only for kitchen rules but also great practice for the math lessons they were all learning. We practiced addition, subtraction, and fractions- who knew they could be so educational. What did Aunt Melissa learn you ask? Why it is important to butter the waxed paper before you try to use it to press the hot, gooey mess into the pan!
For my last full day there, we made Halloween cupcakes- white cupcakes with orange and black inside, white frosting, and monster sprinkles on top. Jack and Olivia were pretty excited to break eggs and Michael got to use the mixer. After they were mixed, Michael helped me scoop the batter into the Halloween baking cups and then the three of them sat in the kitchen to watch the timer.... for 23 minutes each pan :o) The second pan was more exciting because I got a second by second countdown of the timer! Once they cooled off, Jack and Olivia frosted them (with a little help from me) and then applied the monster sprinkles that Jack picked out. If you remove the mess that I made trying to clean the mixer off and the 1/4 of the bottle of sprinkles that Jack knocked all over the counter and the floor, we did a great job!!! Everyone loved them after dinner and Jack was pleased that Grandpa John ate the cupcake that he had made just for him. It was a lot of fun to be in the kitchen with the kids.

Similar posts: flag football

I'm going to ramble for a moment. It was a very busy weekend.

It was the 9th annual Art Wine Festival at the SoIL Artisan Shop. The weather was almost perfect (could have been 15 degrees cooler to suit my taste, but I'm very hot natured) and the turnout was wonderful. I "volunteered" once again to work and spent all of Saturday and Sunday leaning over a table applying arm bands to those partaking of the wine tasting. In addition the the wineries, which Bruce was ever so nice to provide the ticket workers with a comp bottle of Red Raz (my favorite!) on both days, the artists in attendance did very well this year also.

There were several jewelry artist this year whose work I loved. I'll try to take some pics tonight of the pieces I bought. I ended up with 6 new necklaces, 3 bracelets and 3 sets of earnings!! So, from my point of view it was a successful weekend! A girl can NEVER have too much jewelry.

After the festival on Sunday I ran home as quickly as possible to take pics of an adorable little 18-month old boy and his parents. Promise I'll get those pics up either tomorrow or Wednesday. Unfortunately since I worked the Art Wine Festival I missed the second week of flag football, which I still haven't posted the pic's from the first weekend...I had issues with Picasa the other day which is why the pic's aren't up yet. I have a board meeting tomorrow as soon as it's over I can hopefully get some other things done - first of which will be flag football pics.

This weekend I intend to get a least one more set of senior pics taken, possibly two. The temp in SoIL is only suppose to be in the low 70's which in my opinion is PERFECT weather for picture taking. I'm also going to try to get some pics of nieces and nephews done. The second weekend in October is the outdoor wedding which I'm planning, coordinating, decorating, catering, photographing (how do I get myself into these things??).

In addition to the outdoor wedding which will consume most of my day, my cousin (Tyson) is getting married, another cousin is having his retirement party and two of my favorite cousins (Arielle Bethany) are the senior attendants for Sesser Homecoming Queen! Hopefully one of the Seniors will be named 2008 Homecoming Queen - Go Seniors!! October 11th is just going a packed fun-filled day. I'm not quite sure yet how I'll make it to everything, I'll worry about that next Friday!

The third and fourth weekends in October I hope to be taking lots of pictures, I have several sessions booked already with others waiting to lock down an exact date/time. I'm super excited to be taking so many pictures! Needless to say I'm going to be busy, busy, busy until the end of the year! Hopefully I'll find time to keep everyone up to date on my blog.

Similar posts: flag football

I'm going to ramble for a moment. It was a very busy weekend.

It was the 9th annual Art Wine Festival at the SoIL Artisan Shop. The weather was almost perfect (could have been 15 degrees cooler to suit my taste, but I'm very hot natured) and the turnout was wonderful. I "volunteered" once again to work and spent all of Saturday and Sunday leaning over a table applying arm bands to those partaking of the wine tasting. In addition the the wineries, which Bruce was ever so nice to provide the ticket workers with a comp bottle of Red Raz (my favorite!) on both days, the artists in attendance did very well this year also.

There were several jewelry artist this year whose work I loved. I'll try to take some pics tonight of the pieces I bought. I ended up with 6 new necklaces, 3 bracelets and 3 sets of earnings!! So, from my point of view it was a successful weekend! A girl can NEVER have too much jewelry.

After the festival on Sunday I ran home as quickly as possible to take pics of an adorable little 18-month old boy and his parents. Promise I'll get those pics up either tomorrow or Wednesday. Unfortunately since I worked the Art Wine Festival I missed the second week of flag football, which I still haven't posted the pic's from the first weekend...I had issues with Picasa the other day which is why the pic's aren't up yet. I have a board meeting tomorrow as soon as it's over I can hopefully get some other things done - first of which will be flag football pics.

This weekend I intend to get a least one more set of senior pics taken, possibly two. The temp in SoIL is only suppose to be in the low 70's which in my opinion is PERFECT weather for picture taking. I'm also going to try to get some pics of nieces and nephews done. The second weekend in October is the outdoor wedding which I'm planning, coordinating, decorating, catering, photographing (how do I get myself into these things??).

In addition to the outdoor wedding which will consume most of my day, my cousin (Tyson) is getting married, another cousin is having his retirement party and two of my favorite cousins (Arielle Bethany) are the senior attendants for Sesser Homecoming Queen! Hopefully one of the Seniors will be named 2008 Homecoming Queen - Go Seniors!! October 11th is just going a packed fun-filled day. I'm not quite sure yet how I'll make it to everything, I'll worry about that next Friday!

The third and fourth weekends in October I hope to be taking lots of pictures, I have several sessions booked already with others waiting to lock down an exact date/time. I'm super excited to be taking so many pictures! Needless to say I'm going to be busy, busy, busy until the end of the year! Hopefully I'll find time to keep everyone up to date on my blog.

Similar posts: flag football

Nolan has been involved in flag football the past couple of weeks having two games a week between here in Clearfield and going to South Weber and Riverdale. The first two games he scored the only touchdowns for his team and the last few games he has been doing really well on defense. He was a little hesitant on grabbing the other kids flags at first, but now he is the first person to ball getting their flags. You can see how much more confident he gets with every game - it is fun to watch.

Similar posts: flag football

I'm going to ramble for a moment. It was a very busy weekend.

It was the 9th annual Art Wine Festival at the SoIL Artisan Shop. The weather was almost perfect (could have been 15 degrees cooler to suit my taste, but I'm very hot natured) and the turnout was wonderful. I "volunteered" once again to work and spent all of Saturday and Sunday leaning over a table applying arm bands to those partaking of the wine tasting. In addition the the wineries, which Bruce was ever so nice to provide the ticket workers with a comp bottle of Red Raz (my favorite!) on both days, the artists in attendance did very well this year also.

There were several jewelry artist this year whose work I loved. I'll try to take some pics tonight of the pieces I bought. I ended up with 6 new necklaces, 3 bracelets and 3 sets of earnings!! So, from my point of view it was a successful weekend! A girl can NEVER have too much jewelry.

After the festival on Sunday I ran home as quickly as possible to take pics of an adorable little 18-month old boy and his parents. Promise I'll get those pics up either tomorrow or Wednesday. Unfortunately since I worked the Art Wine Festival I missed the second week of flag football, which I still haven't posted the pic's from the first weekend...I had issues with Picasa the other day which is why the pic's aren't up yet. I have a board meeting tomorrow as soon as it's over I can hopefully get some other things done - first of which will be flag football pics.

This weekend I intend to get a least one more set of senior pics taken, possibly two. The temp in SoIL is only suppose to be in the low 70's which in my opinion is PERFECT weather for picture taking. I'm also going to try to get some pics of nieces and nephews done. The second weekend in October is the outdoor wedding which I'm planning, coordinating, decorating, catering, photographing (how do I get myself into these things??).

In addition to the outdoor wedding which will consume most of my day, my cousin (Tyson) is getting married, another cousin is having his retirement party and two of my favorite cousins (Arielle Bethany) are the senior attendants for Sesser Homecoming Queen! Hopefully one of the Seniors will be named 2008 Homecoming Queen - Go Seniors!! October 11th is just going a packed fun-filled day. I'm not quite sure yet how I'll make it to everything, I'll worry about that next Friday!

The third and fourth weekends in October I hope to be taking lots of pictures, I have several sessions booked already with others waiting to lock down an exact date/time. I'm super excited to be taking so many pictures! Needless to say I'm going to be busy, busy, busy until the end of the year! Hopefully I'll find time to keep everyone up to date on my blog.

Similar posts: flag football

Michael, Olivia, and Jack love to help in the kitchen. These pictures are from the day we were taking a lunch with us so they got to make the sandwiches. The first ones are from making their own, showing them off, and then making the rest of the sandwiches for us. While I typically have a rule that I don't like to eat things kids make, they did a great job and the sandwiches were delicious.
We also made Rice Krispie treats one night which is a great lesson not only for kitchen rules but also great practice for the math lessons they were all learning. We practiced addition, subtraction, and fractions- who knew they could be so educational. What did Aunt Melissa learn you ask? Why it is important to butter the waxed paper before you try to use it to press the hot, gooey mess into the pan!
For my last full day there, we made Halloween cupcakes- white cupcakes with orange and black inside, white frosting, and monster sprinkles on top. Jack and Olivia were pretty excited to break eggs and Michael got to use the mixer. After they were mixed, Michael helped me scoop the batter into the Halloween baking cups and then the three of them sat in the kitchen to watch the timer.... for 23 minutes each pan :o) The second pan was more exciting because I got a second by second countdown of the timer! Once they cooled off, Jack and Olivia frosted them (with a little help from me) and then applied the monster sprinkles that Jack picked out. If you remove the mess that I made trying to clean the mixer off and the 1/4 of the bottle of sprinkles that Jack knocked all over the counter and the floor, we did a great job!!! Everyone loved them after dinner and Jack was pleased that Grandpa John ate the cupcake that he had made just for him. It was a lot of fun to be in the kitchen with the kids.

Similar posts: flag football