"Blackout" Saturday

OK... NOT the best Saturday for football!! But what truly made our weekend so much better was getting to spend time with our friends, the Flemings, from NY. Barbara and Davis came down for the game this weekend and we did our tailgating at David and Douglas' house near the stadium... great food and time with friends! Mitchell was thrilled to get to spend Friday night and most of the day Saturday with Davis, who is one of Mitchell's very best friends. Steve could not join us this weekend because he is still doing duty in Afghanistan and won't be home until December (so please pray for all of the Flemings while he is away!). We are happy that we will get to see everyone again in December when David graduates from UGA!

Happy Birthday Bailey!

 

Today is Bailey's 3rd birthday! Bailey is our very sweet black and tan pound puppy that we have had since she was 7 weeks old. Bailey and Jake enjoyed "Frosty Paws" icecream and Callie (our calico cat--on the table in the background) had some special cat milk for a birthday party treat. They all seemed to enjoy our little party... Jake, of course, was done with his treat in a few seconds! Jake is looking forward to his party in a couple of months when he turns one! We love our pets!

Family Fun Weekend!

 

For the first time in a few weeks we were going to have both kids home for the whole weekend... so we decided to make it a "family fun weekend" and spend the whole weekend doing things together. It was so much fun! Friday night we picked Mitchell up from tennis clinic and went to see the "Indiana Jones" movie. Then on Saturday morning we got up and packed our bikes onto the car, then headed to the Athens Greenway for a very fun bike ride. The three mile trail is paved and goes from Sandy Creek Nature Center to downtown Athens. We had a great time! We rode the length of the trail, had lunch out in Athens, then headed back up the trail to our car. Mitchell and Amelia couldn't believe that they had ridden for six miles! Saturday afternoon we rested and watched football on TV and our computer (since Clemson wasn't on TV). Then we drove up to Hurricane Shoals Park in Maysville, GA and tried out their new miniature golf course. It is very hard (because of lots of slanted holes)! The neat thing about the course is that it teaches you a lot about the history of the area and has little models all around of different things such as schools, churches, etc. We really enjoyed seeing the park also and would like to go back and spend more time there... with a picnic! Saturdy night we settled in for the night to watch the Dawgs beat Arizona! Today was the typical Sunday for us... church, youth group, relaxing. We were very happy to get to spend some quality time as a family this weekend because sadly those times will be harder to find in the future. We will take any moment we can and make it special!

 
Mitchell had his first official tennis match yesterday... and he won! He played a singles match, and did great! I was proud of him and the way that he handled himself on the court (I had coached him a little about certain rules of tennis, and about bad calls, arguing, etc.). We can't wait for the next one!

Happy Birthday Dave!

Today we celebrated Dave's (41st!) birthday... yes, we managed to fit a celebration into our busy schedule! After Amelia's classes at OYSP we had dinner at Brett's here in Athens along with my parents... great food! Then we headed back to our house for birthday cake (Oreo delight, which is Dave's favorite) and presents. We will do a little more birthday shopping soon to let Dave pick out what he requested (a new suit), so the celebration will continue!

Sam and Abby's Wedding!

Dave and I had the honor of attending a very special wedding this weekend. Sam's family attends our church and we have really enjoyed getting to know this very sweet family. Our relationship grew even stronger with the Haygoods when Sam was diagnosed with cancer in May of 2007. Sam was treated at Egleston in Atlanta where I work and I was blessed to get to know them on a more personal level by taking care of Sam during hospital stays. Sam asked his wife (as of yesterday), Abby, to marry him the day he was diagnosed. We have all looked forward to the wedding day (probably not as much as Sam and Abby!) to help them celebrate their relationship and a new life together. The day was beautiful, the ceremony was amazing, and the reception was every bit the party that Sam and Abby had requested! We all had a wonderful time! We have all prayed very hard for Sam's health these past several months during treatment, and we have found that the praying must continue, as Sam's cancer has returned as of two weeks ago. After the honeymoon Sam and Abby will return and start new treatment for Sam's cancer. They will need all the prayers that can possibly be directed towards them... so please pray for them! If you wish to keep up with Sam and his journey, you can visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/samhaygood. Thank you, Haygoods, for including us in this very special day yesterday! The late night was worth it!

Student Council?

Amelia decided to campain for 4th grade student council this year, so yesterday she got to work on her poster and speech to prepare for the big day. Her poster turned out great! She modeled the poster after one of her favorite TV shows "i Carly" and made it look like a web site on a computer screen... except of course Amelia's was titled "i Amelia". Well, I hate to report that Amelia did not get voted into the student council this year. She was dissappointed, but I was so proud of her because she bounced right back and announced that she was going to try again next year! I told her that what mattered was that she tried at all, and that it was very brave of her to make such an effort. There was no time to be very sad because she had to get ready for her sleepover tonight with a classmate! Once again Dave and I will not see very much of Amelia this weekend... she has the sleepover tonight and another one tomorrow night at my parents' house (along with Mitchell) so Dave and I can go to a wedding in Atlanta. Maybe someday she will want to spend the weekend with us! Hope your weekend is filled with fun things, too!

Quiet Weekend

We had a pretty quiet weekend around here! Friday night Amelia slept over with a friend so Dave, Mitchell and I went to the Oconee HS football game (we definitely did not bring them any luck!). Saturday morning Dave and Mitchell went to work at our church parking lot where the youth group sells parking spaces for the UGA football games. I got Amelia back home only to have another friend call her and ask her over for the afternoon and night! There is not much that Amelia loves more than to spend time with her friends so she was pretty excited (we just hoped that we weren't creating a ugly monster for Sunday!). Mitchell also had a sleep over planned at a friend's house that night, so after about 2pm on Saturday Dave and I were alone until Sunday morning! We relaxed, watched football and went out to dinner... it was so nice! Sunday after we gathered our children back with us we headed to the church picnic, which we have every September. We all had fun playing Bingo, Corn Hole, and Ga Ga Ball... and let's not forget the covered dish supper! There is nothing better than a covered dish meal at church! That pretty much ended our great weekend... we hope that yours was, too!

A Furry Playdate!

This past weekend we watched our neighbor's dog "Peanut" while they went to the UGA game. We brought Peanut over to our house so Bailey and Jake could have a play date with him... they are so funny together! When they finally got their energy out this is how I found them... they look pretty comfortable, don't they?