On the Eve of 3K

As I tucked my baby girl in tonight, I thought about how much she has grown and changed over the past three years. While there have definitely been some challenging moments, overall she has been such a wonderfully easy child. We have witnessed lots of milestones with her, but school always seemed to be a milestone that was WAY off in the distance. I had forever to prepare for the first day of school. And while she will not be going to a "real" elementary school, it is her first school experience nonetheless. Man, was I wrong? Forever? Not quite. It happened in what seemed like the blink of an eye. She is growing at an alarming rate and reminds me daily with her ever growing vocabulary and attitude that she is not a baby anymore. Phrases like "WHATEVER" and "Why are you always ignoring me?" seem to roll off her tongue with such attitude and sass. I just can't help but laugh at her. All the while, I remind her that no matter how big she is that she will always be my baby! I know those words are cliche' to her as of now, but she will understand exactly what I mean one day, just as I understand how my Mom feels! She doesn't realize the joy and excitement that she brings to our lives and to everyone who truly knows her. She is nothing short of our blessing from God, a constant reminder of HIS grace and unconditional love!

Richard and I will both take her to school in the morning. I'm sure she will do fine. I, however, will probably be a wreck! I had a mini breakdown today because her book bag did not arrive in the mail as it should have. How can you expect a 3K child to start school without a book bag? I ordered it in plenty of time! I know, it's dramatic, but my feelings exactly! Richard said, "Just take her things in a Wal-Mart bag!" I can see it now. Her first day of school pictures in front of our house carrying a Wal-Mart bag! Not going to happen! I improvised and you will see the make shift bookbag in the pictures tomorrow. Let's just leave it at I called the company and it will be here ASAP!

Until tomorrow, please pray for my baby girl and for me especially! I will probably be a ball of nerves as I drive to my school to face my own 20 Pre-K "babies!" As Darryl Worley says in his new song, “Sounds like life to me, it ain’t no fantasy. It’s just a common case of everyday reality.”

Darius Rucker

After Kamdyn Open House, she went home to spend the night with Georgia! Have I mentioned lately how AWESOME Georgia is? Richard and I ventured downtown to have dinner. We took Kamdyn's 3K folder with us and read all about the procedures of the program and filled out all of the paperwork. After a enjoyable dinner we walked to The Bell Auditorium to get tickets for the Darius Rucker concert.

Tickets were still for sale at the box office; however, my darling husband insisted standing outside with two fingers up in hopes of getting cheaper tickets, but better seats! It was misting rain outside. We were the only "fools," I mean smart people standing out there, and I was EMBARRASSED to death! Dang, why couldn't we just pay like everyone else? After 15 minutes of embarrassment and misery for me, a man walked over and handed us a flier. He said, "Have you ever been to the Country Club? I expect to see you here for this concert!" I can't remember the guys name, but he sings that song, "I'm going out with my boots on!" We looked at him kind of funny and said, "Uh, OK!" Then, he handed us two tickets and said, "Enjoy the show!" I almost died! He was from Kicks99 our local radio station. They were awesome floor seats and they were FREE!! Richard, of course, wanted to kick me to the curb and take someone else because I had doubted him. Not only did we get better, cheaper seats, but we got them for FREE! I ate my words, but told Richard that the radio guy only felt sorry for me. I'm sure he could see the look of disgust and embarrassment on my face as we stood outside with two fingers in the air! Oh well! All is well that ends well! We had a fabulous time and got to keep $100 in our pocket!

By the way, Darius was AWESOME! He sang his new stuff. He sang some "Hootie" stuff. And, he covered a few songs......You Never Even Call Me by My Name (David Allen Coe), Family Tradition (Hank Williams, Jr.), God Love Her (Toby Keith), You Should Have Seen it in Color, Purple Rain (Prince).

3K Open House

We had Open House for Kamdyn's 3K class this past Thursday night. Yes, I said 3K! I can hardly believe that she is starting school! She will be going to Grace Child Development Center which is where we have been going to church; where I Jazzercise; and, where we take Kindermusik. While the surroundings will be familiar, the setting will not be. As of now there are 10 children in the class, mostly girls! I hope for Mrs. Pond's sake that they are not all as dramatic as Kamdyn. Maybe she will surprise me and be calm at school! I can always hope!! :)

Mrs. Pond will be her teacher whom Kamdyn has known for a couple of years now. Mrs. Pond is one of my friends. Kamdyn has been in childcare at Jazzercise with her two boys and is very familiar with Mrs. Pond. We are very excited for Kamdyn to have her. While we only chose the two day program, we feel it will be very beneficial to Kamdyn. Since Jacob is now in school she doesn't have day to day interactions with other children. This is a MUST!! I know that she is going to LOVE school and I know she will do well.

Thankfully, Georgia will be able to pick her up at 12:00 every day. We LOVE Georgia and couldn't live without her!

During our Open House visit Kamdyn quickly spotted the behavior management "stop light." She is familiar with this because I use the same system in my classroom. I said, "Kamdyn, what does green mean?" She said, "GO!" I said, "But what does it mean in school?" She said, "It means good! I'm going to get a green light every day Mommy! And, the other kids are going to get yellow lights!" Ha, we'll see about that!

She also counted the numbered clouds on the carpet. After going around the circle and getting to number 10 she said, "Where's the 11? They don't have an 11?" I reminded her not to be a know-it-all and to always raise her hand to answer question. Again, we'll see about that!

My only thought......WHERE DID THE TIME GO? MY BABY IS GROWING UP WAY TOO QUICKLY!! (My second only thought.....IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER ONE!!)

The LOVES of my LIFE

This is what I found as I went outside on our screened in porch to clean up the rest of our dinner plates on Sunday night. Kamdyn and Richard had walked down to the dock to watch the sunset. I ran inside to get my camera and snapped a few pictures. I tried to sneak up on them to get a few more candid shots, but they heard the dock creak and discovered me.

These two make my life complete! How did I get so lucky? Thank you, God, for all of my many blessings! This is what life is all about - the simple things.






This face cracks me up!

Moving On UP!

Kamdyn finally graduated to a BIG GIRL booster seat! She has been tall enough for quite some time, but she barely meets the weight requirement. I can't seem to get her to eat enough to get past 30 lbs. She loves being able to get herself in and out of the car ALL BY HERSELF! Her favorite part is the PINK all over the seat. Daddy wants to know what we will do with this pink seat if we have a boy. Yes, he asked the question! Does this mean that I am wearing him down? Another baby may just be in our future. I'm still trying to convince him! At least there is a little bit of hope!

Family Fun Day

On Sunday we enjoyed a nice HOT afternoon at our church for Family Fun Day. Kamdyn refused to wear and/or take her bathing suit because she is not fond of water slides as of yet. She did, however, enjoy the jumping castle, having a peace sign painted on her face, and the delicious snow cones! She chose the peace sign all by herself. I asked her what it was and she said, "It's peace and quiet!" HMMM.....too bad she doesn't know what that means! :)

The view from the jumping castle.


Kamdyn enjoying getting all sweaty!


Daddy watching from the shade.


The HUGE water slide that Kamdyn refused to get anywhere near!


Strawberry Shortcake Jumping Castle

Emma's Birthday Party

Emma had her 3rd birthday party on Saturday at Chuck E. Cheese. Kamdyn had a great time playing all of the games. She was very scared of the moving stuffed animals on stage. I had to convince her to sit at the birthday table near the scary moving/singing animals. She had a hard time enjoying pizza and cake because she was worried about the animals. She finally calmed down and seemed to like the fact that Chuck E. Cheese was moving around the birthday party area as long as he didn't come near her. Emma was so sweet and we are so glad that she invited Kamdyn to her party. I just hope that Kamdyn doesn't want to have her party there! Kids were EVERYWHERE! More than half of them weren't even supervised. I actually thought that Chuck E. Cheese may have been a possibility for her 4th birthday party. I think I've changed my mind!! :) It could also be the fact that my first week of school had just come to an end.

Streak of Bad Luck

The past week was my first week back at work. As if that weren't stressful enough, we have had two HUGE trees fall in our yard. The first fell on Sunday night around 9:30. I seriously thought that it was an earthquake even though Richard laughed at me. We had no clue what caused the loud noise and house to shake. We even went down into the garage armed with a gun! We opened the garage to see a HUGE tree covered our driveway in front of our garage. Luckily, I had backed the Pathfinder into the garage, otherwise I never would have been able to leave for work on Monday. What alarmed us the most was that there was no wind, no storm, no reason for the tree to fall. AND, we had all just been outside watching Kamdyn ride on the driveway on her tricyle. We would have all been seriously injured or even worse if the tree had fallen only 3 hours earlier. Did I mention that this wasn't a tree on our lot, but on a vacant lot next door to us? Richard spent much of the day on Monday cutting up the tree and hauling it over the vacant lot beside ours. We thought the tree madness was OVER!!

This is part of the tree that still remains beside our drive way. The rest of the tree split and landed on our driveway. I suspect that this tree won't stay standing much longer.


The tree to the right used to have a HUGE limb/trunk attached to it.



On Tuesday night we had an awful storm. This time the top of a tree, which was huge too, flew over onto our dock and into the rocks beside our dock. Our awesome neighbors came over to help Richard get rid of as much of it as possible; however, the HUGE tree truck was impossible to move. It also punched a hole in our dock. After attempting to get the rest of the tree out alone, almost breaking his arm, falling into the River with chain saw, Richard finally accepted defeat and is having someone come and remove the tree. I hope this is all of the tree falling for a while! So much for leaving the trees for aesthetic appeal. I guess we should have cleared all of them when we started building!

Hole in dock = an unhappy Richard


Huge tree on the rocks beside the dock.


Brush and tree that fell from the storm.


This area used to be nice and neat with only rock visible. Now it is filled with a tree and LOTS of ugly brush from the storm! UGH!!

Concert on the River

Corey Smith played at the Amphitheatre on the Riverwalk here in Augusta last weekend. Richard, Kamdyn, and I took the boat out to join in the fun! We had a great time! Kamdyn is such a trooper these days. She is finally at the age where we can take her anywhere and she enjoys herself regardless!


Self portrait of Kam and me.


The sun setting over the boats anchored in the River listening to the concert.


Beautiful sunset!


The Amphitheatre filled with paying customers....our show was FREE!! :)


Sweet Kamdyn enjoying the show!


Richard dipping Kamdyn's feet in the water.

Guitar Hero

This is my, I mean Richard's, new toy that we got last weekend! :) We love our new PS2. Richard and I have a pretty fierce competition going with Guitar Hero. He's currently in the lead, but not for long! Kamdyn loves to get in on the action, too. However, we have to put her song on practice mode and on the slowest setting! She gives new meaning to the song S-S-L-L-O-O-W-W R-R-I-I-D-D-E-E.....take it easy!!

Life is Good!

This is one of the many beautiful sunsets from our dock! Even through the frustrations, busy work weeks, and ordinary struggles of life, we manage to remember what life is all about. We try not to take things for granted. Sunsets like this are simple reminders of God's graciousness! We are so blessed!

Got Flotilla?

We took our annual trip to "The River" the weekend before I started back to work. It was a great way to end my summer with great friends! We floated down the Black River near Georgetown, SC all day on Saturday. We even saw an alligator while floating! Luckily, the gator didn't think that any of us looked tasty enough to sample. We had an awesome time!


Eating lunch on the way down to The River. Notice that he doesn't have any hands on the wheel and we ARE moving!! We stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up a few things including this HUGE sub that we shared! That was the biggest sandwich I have ever seen!






The River House and Garage


Patrick and Richard spraying down with bug spray. This is the first time in 10 years that I was able to leave without one single mosquito bite!!


Our radio, sandwich cooler, and dry box barge.....Emerson Bigguns!


WOO!! Look at those guns, abs, and pecs!! :) Looking good guys!


Can't float without our flags!


Let's Go!


The boys getting the coolers and floats ready!


Getting hydrated before a long day on The River.




Go Omar!





Woo Hoo!


This has got to be one of the most relaxing days of the year!


Got coolers?


Uh oh!


Shannon climbing up the tree!


Shannon jumping!


Potter and Richard after our flotilla had ended. They didn't really want to get out!


Happy Richard


A view from upstairs in the house. Omar setting up his game!


Up close and personal with me and Richard!


Carly and Patrick


Late night with Potter and Patrick! The "old" people were already in the bed!