Maggie

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Katy

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Riley

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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer Time!

Well, the boys made it home from Florida on Saturday. Katy came home on Sunday, and then me and the kids went to Mississippi for about 24 hours. Katy is going to stay for about a week to go to Bible school. She is having a great time. We got to see my new nephew. He is absolutely precious. I just love him to pieces. We also found out last week that we are going to get another nephew in October. So excited.

Storm damage clean up is continuing. My brother tore his house down over the weekend. It was really sad to see it gone for good. They were working with bulldozers and heavy equipment, burning a huge pile, and cleaning up the property.

Summer is business as usual for us. Football workouts, meetings, and general easy schedule. Hope it continues this way until school starts back.

Overall, life is good right now. I hope your summer has been as good as ours!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Girls Week

Well, the boys made it to Tampa yesterday. It took them a while, and they stopped for several adventures along the way.

First major stop was to tour Florida State stadium. Turns out and employee happened to be around and took them inside for a tour. The next major stop was Florida Gators stadium. They found an open gate and let themselves in. After wandering around for a while, the children found their way down onto the field. Somehow, they ended up in the coaches offices and met Will Muschamp. This was a pretty exciting thing for my football head husband.

Now onto a week of wrestling a vacation. They are having a great time and the boys are making memories and friends that will last a lifetime. I am slightly jealous that they were at the beach today and I was here in Alabama where it is about 100 degrees.

Oh well....life goes on.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Summer is Here!

For those of you not in the South, it is H-O-T here. We have been in the upper 90's and low 100's all week. Summer arrived with it's mad on this year. It has really been to hot to do anything but sit inside or go to the pool.

Maggie and I have spent the last two afternoons at the pool. It has been great. Nice and cool in the water. Great time with friends.

Riley has started his summer tour of wrestling camps. The first one was here in Alabama. He finishes that one Sunday and leaves Sunday night to go to Georgia to the Alex Tucker wrestling camp. He leave the Sunday after that to go to Brandon Florida for a week long camp. I will not see my child for about 2 weeks straight. I guess that's what happens when they get to be teenagers.

Katy has been gone all week to the beach. She will be home tomorrow night. It has been a weird week since I have essentially only had one child. I don't know quite what to think about that.

However life returns to normal next week. Back to the grind of the daily work schedule.

The one thing new that I have to report is that I have started my couch to 5K program again. I am trying to do that and Zumba so I can get back to a more healthy weight. Sounds fun I know. I will keep you updated.

Until next time, stay cool and have a fun summer!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

SE Regionals

Well, we have finished our 4th year of heading to Atlanta for Southeast Regionals Wrestling Tournament. It is a two day tournament with some of the most talented wrestlers from around the southeast.

We arrived on Friday for weigh-ins, and wrestling started early Saturday morning. We had a LOOONG 12 hour day on Saturday. Riley ended up finishing in the 7th out of 19 in Greco-Roman Wrestling. It was a long day, and a little disappointing that he did not finish in the top 6, but overall a success.

Sunday started almost as early for Freestyle wrestling. Once again we had 19 wrestlers in our bracket and we finished 6th!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, we go got a medal that day. Riley's success was hard earned this weekend. Nothing came easy for him this time.

This has been the official start to our summer for 4 years now. We finish our wrestling for the year in the great city of Atlanta, and we make some wonderful new memories with old and new friends every year.

So, now we are onto summertime. Riley is spending some time in Mississippi, Katy is at the beach for a week, and the rest of us are up to a whole lot of nothing for a few days. We need the recovery time from a LONG school year.

Hope everyone else had a peaceful, restful, and fun Memorial Day weekend.

Monday, May 16, 2011

A New Perspective

The tornadoes that have devastated the area almost three weeks ago now have given me the opportunity to see how life can change in an instant. I don't know how to convey all the feelings that I have. I went home to Mississippi this weekend, and I saw the county road I grew up on for the first time since the storms. It was really hard to see. The landscape that has been so familiar for 33 years is not totally devastated and changed forever.

My grandmother's house will be gone soon. The neighbors across the street have lost everything. The family on the other side also lost everything. It can be so hard to hear these stories.

However, the uplifting part of all of this recent tragedy has been seeing the outpouring of support from friends, family, and strangers. In nearly every yard on the road, there was a tractor trailer donated for use to store people's belongings that they were able to save. People finding places to stay while they try to rebuild their lives. Hearing stories of survival and my family being grateful that no one was home. Things could have been so much worse if these people would have been at home.

I know tragedies like this happen and people change for a short period of time. I am hoping that some of the things we are seeing in Mississippi and Alabama will continue for a lifetime. The things we are seeing are what makes the South such a great place to live. We love our neighbors, whether we know them or not. We see people in need and we turn out to help.

Just remember that no matter what you have done so far, there are people who are going to need help for a long time to come. We don't need to let these people be forgotten.