Pictures and Such

I totally forgot about Tori-bug's birthday on June 14th. She turned 10. Double digits now!! Woohoo! We kept it very mild this year and only did a small family party since her "real" gift from us was GymDog Camp. Here she is with her favorite GymDog--- Hillary Mauro! Tori-bug had such a fabulous fun time during the entire week. But, true to Tori-bug fashion she did break her pinky on the first day!! Poor girl, she didn't even want to tell me for fear that I wouldn't let her go back the rest of the week. I guess she didn't realize how much we had spent on that week of camp so "Oh, she was going back every day!!" She barely let it slow her down at all. She just couldn't do a couple of the bar routines. The mat slid out from under the beam on dismount is how she broke the finger. She's good now.

This is my gorgeous niece Leah! She is now 15 months old and has a brand new baby sister. She spent a little time at my house this day and we got her an Tori-bug in a little baby pool on our back deck. She had so much fun. I sure do love that little sweet thing.

Speaking of brand new---- here she is, Kylee Kristina. She is so adorable. She was born on June 10, 2010. My very young, 20 year-old sister now has two precious baby girls under age 15 months. She is a great mom though, just has her hands full. My other sister and myself try to help out as much as we can.

Pictures of my sister, Monica's burned up house. The house caught fire on July 10th. at 7:00pm. My husband and I had been camping for the weekend so I had invited my sister and my disabled mom to come visit me at the campground for the day. They did and we had a great day and ended it with a cook-out. My sister, her husband, 3 kids, our disabled mom, and my sister's inlaws all lived in the same house. The in-laws and the children had went to Florida for the week. A 12-year-old neighbor called my niece (not knowing she was in Florida) to say her house was on fire, the roof was gone, and the firemen were there. She didn't know if anybody was home. I got the call at 8:30 about 45 minutes after my sister left the campground to go home. The inlaws didn't know Monica and the dog had been with me all day so thankfully nobody was home at the time. By the time my sister arrived at her house, the whole thing was in flames. We decided to stay put at the campground so the rest of the family could go to my house to sleep EVENTUALLY. About 80% of the house is burned. The basement where the mother-in-law suite was and my niece's rooms was not fire damaged, just under a foot of water. Everything down there was soaked. My family was devastated! All night I cried out to Jesus asking what are we gonna do. My house is not that big, but we have the new camper and such so we would make it work. With my mom being disabled with only 18% of total lung function she was the one we were most concerned about. My sister and the rest of the family functioned during the day out of my house and at night were sleeping in a hotel. People in our community really opened their hearts and brought homecooked meals, food, clothes, school supplies, etc. We are really blessed.

The biggest praise out of all of it was this: All night while I was crying out to God, my sister's best friend (unbeknownst to me) were both asking God to save my sister's pictures. Everything else is replaceable, but we couldn't replace pictures. On Sunday, after the firemen released the house to us we discovered that only a portion or about half of my sister's bed was burned for some unknown reason (*well, I know the reason, but anyway*). The side that wasn't burned had three storage totes under it. Guess what was in those totes? My sister's wedding scrapbooks, birth photos, and baby pictures!! We both fell out praising God for that miracle. My God is a big God. What ever is over my head, is under His feet. They still haven't determined the cause of the fire. They are supposed to go in the morning for them to release the investigation report. Doesn't really matter at this point. They had insurance and they have been amazing thus far. They got moved into a rental home yesterday which the insurance provided for them. It is far more than we could have asked for too. My sister had quite a large house, 3600 sq. ft. as you can imagine with 8 people living there, but the new rental house is 6-bedrooms and 6,000 sq.ft!!! God proved himself big in that situation too!!

It will take them about 6-9 months to rebuild and they are thinking of adding another level when they do. They will level the house down to the foundation and start over. The ins. company even rented all new furniture to go in the rental house. They even rented pictures to go on the walls to make it look "home-y".

Thanks for checking in on us! Sorry this was such a long post, but I had to share some of our experiences over the past few weeks. It has been a busy month indeed!!

Hopefully the next month will be a little more relaxed. School starts for us on Monday, so we shall see :-)

Wendy

What a mess!!

Lots of stuff has happened since my last post. Most recently, as in on Sat. night, my sister's house burned down. My sister, her husband, 3 kids, my disabled mother, and her in-laws lost everything in the fire. My family is totally devastated. We are a super close knit family and have endured a lot of stuff but never a fire. No injuries or lives were lost and we were able to salvage some pictures, thank God for that!!! They think it might have been an electrical fire, but it is still under investigation. The pictures (which I haven't downloaded yet) are horrendous. My family is staying with me for now. Well, between here and they are sleeping in a hotel at night. Mom is with me. It will take 6-9 months to rebuild so we are praying and ask all of our friends to pray that they can find a handicap accessible rental house big enough for 8 people that is in our area.

On a lighter note, my Tori-bug was able to go to GymDog gymnastics camp a couple of weeks ago. She had the most fun and learned a lot. I'll try to post pictures of her experience soon. She says she is going to be a future gymdog. I surely hope so b/c she needs a scholarship to go to college :-)

I have a brand new niece, Kylee. She looks just like Leah, her sister. She is gorgeous, but I'm a little biased I guess. I need to post pics of her too I guess.
I just wanted to ask everyone to pray for my family as we go through these trials. I will try to post again soon and put the pictures up.

Summer is here!!!

I love this picture of my Tori-bug. It was taken at a hotel in Concord, N.C. when we were there for the Regionals Gymnastics Competition. She swims like a fish! We do a lot of swimming in the summer. My dad has a pool so it is convenient. When Tori-bug was 4 she took her first swimming lesson class. By the end of the 6 weeks she was the only one in her group that was diving to the bottom of the pool.

Tori-bug and her daddy stopped to pose for a picture. I am so blessed for them to be a part of my life. I am thankful that I have a husband that still takes my breath away. He is so loving and is a man of God. We are ready for summer to begin. School got out last Friday. Tori-bug will be going into 5th. grade. We have lots of plans to swim at the pool and go to the lake with our friends. We are also going on our annual family camping trip. About 30 family members on my dad's side all go to the lake to camp-out every year. We ski, boat, kneeboard, ride the tube, and swim all day long for the whole weekend. Tori-bug also gets to go to GymDog gymnastics camp this year. It is a week long daycamp. Gymnastics 8 hrs. a day!!! Fun, fun, fun!!! We have VBS that same week in the evenings so she will probably be exhausted, NO DOUBT!

I hope you all enjoy your summer! Thanks for checking in on us!

Wendy

Our Daughter, The Graduate- Class of 2010

We couldn't be prouder of Lyndsey. She made it through high school. I told Kevin yesterday that some days it seems like she was just born and other days it seems like it has been a lifetime ago. I was 17 and a senior in high school when she was born. Kevin was just out of high school and was 19. We had a very tough time some days just because we were so young and her mom and Kevin were never married. Thankfully, Kevin and Michelle both found a way to make it work. Michelle married Jonathan and Kevin married me. We all live in the same town and for the most part get along very well. I wouldn't say it was a piece of cake, but we made it to this day..... Lyndsey's (OUR daughter) GRADUATION DAY!!

Kevin, Lyndsey, and Michelle

Lyndsey--- we are so proud of you!!!

Easter and Anniversary

Me and the love of my life--- 12 wonderful years later

Me and my mini-me- Easter 2010

Tori-bug in her Easter dress 2010

Leah on her first Easter

Easter happened to fall this year on our 12th. year wedding anniversary. We were able to enjoy not only the day celebrating a risen Saviour, but also His blessings on our family and our relationship. I married the most wonderful man. He truly treats me like a queen. I couldn't have hand-chosen anyone better. We got up early and went to sunrise service at church. Came home and got dressed up in our new Sunday clothes and went back to the church for an Easter celebration. Tori-bug agreed to take our picture before heading out. After church we were able to have lunch with my husband's mother and really enjoyed being together. There is very few kids around now so the three of them (after they found eggs), re-hid them and made their daddy's go on an egg hunt. It was really cute. I hate that I didn't get pictures of the men running around the yard looking for eggs. Besides the fact that they were hunting empty eggs (the kids had already taken out the candy). Hahaha...... We did have a real egg hunt on Sat. at the church and my niece (who is about to turn 1) got to look for eggs too and have her picture made with the Easter bunny.

Wendy

State Meet

Well, let's start with the good news first.......


2nd. place on bars in the state!!!!


I was so happy for her. She deserved to get a great all-around score too, but she didn't. She took a risk on the beam routine, trying to do the back walkover, which I didn't want her to do, but she fell off the beam. She scored the lowest score she has ever made at state or any other meet with a 7.7. I was very disappointed at first and so was she. After I calmed down and really put myself back in check, I was proud that she took a risk (despite it not going in her favor). She can land the routine that she has practiced all season easily and probably would have gotten a point or so better on the score, but nobody gets far in life without taking risks....... at least that is what I have convinced myself now. She did great on vault and scored a 9.325, but didn't medal on it. She had a really good floor routine, but the judges were scoring a little hard so she didn't medal on it, nor get the big scores like she usually gets. It is supposed to be hard. It is the STATE meet. Not everyone gets the chance to go to state so I am trying to be easier on myself. Mama just wanted the best for her :-).

We are going to Regionals in a few weeks. That is in Concord, N.C. We talked about her doing the cartwheel on beam at that meet. It will be competing against 6 different states in our southern region. We plan to go get our first place medal at that meet. She can do it!!!

Go get 'em in North Carolina, Tori-bug!!!

Wendy

Slacker

Ooooohhhh, just call me a SLACKER!!!


I have been so terrible about updating my blog. I realized that I had not posted anything since Tori-bug's Panama City Meet over a month ago. Let's see..........

We went to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee at the end of February for a gymnastics meet. Tori-bug did really well there. REALLY WELL!!!

Here is how it broke down. There were 15 competitor's in her age group. She got her highest all-around score EVER. I can't imagine why I didn't get on here and brag, brag, brag on her, but I have been sooooo busy.

All-around score: 36.45 Third place
Vault: 9.350 Third place tie
Bars: 9.025 Sixth place
Beam: 8.775 Third place tie
Floor: 9.300 Third place

I was so very proud. Despite the beam score not being very, very high she still got a third place tie out of it.

On March 12, she had a gymnastics meet near our home town. Actually in Athens, Georgia (Home of our beloved UGA Gymdogs). She scored really great at that meet too. Second highest all-around score for her.

All-around score: 36.325 Second place (1st. place went to her teammate)
Vault: 8.85 Third place tie
Bars: 9.3 Third place
Beam: 8.775 Third place
Floor: 9.400 Second place tie (also with her teammate)

Two back-to-back meets that were rocking!! We have our State Meet coming up on Sunday. Her coach wants to change her beam routine for our big State Meet. She learned her back walkover on beam a few weeks ago, but it is still inconsistent. She is only "landing" it 3/4 of the time. She has a great cartwheel on beam, but the back walkover looks prettier for her to do. I am not the coach and I will go with whatever her coach (who is former Olympian-Hope Spivey) recommends, but I don't want her to fall off the beam at the State Meet and get a big deduction when she can land the cartwheel with very little risk of falling off. She is going to decide tomorrow night at practice and tell her which one she wants her to do. I think she is definitely capable of landing it, but I am kinda worried for her :-)

I have had pneumonia three times (well probably never got rid of it from the first time) since January. I had it, got better, relapsed three weeks later, got better, then got sick again. It was exhausting coughing so much and thus the reason I have also for not updating this blog. See, I am trying to find myself some good excuses Kathleen!! Haha.

I started a new once a month Bible Study at church. It is a Beth Moore study and I love that we only have to show up once a month. They are calling it a busy woman's bible study and that is definitely me.

I didn't get to make it to Pyper's funeral and actually haven't had much contact with Ms. Mandy (Pyper's mom) since she went to be with Jesus, but I have thought of her almost every day. I know her parents are still having a very difficult sad time. I keep up with Ms. Mandy via FB and I think she is trying to find a job now that lil Pyper is not her full-time job. Oh, how that was a sweet girl. Please remember both of her parents in your prayers and that Mandy can find something to do that she will enjoy and also find a way to honor that sweet girl that she lost.

I won't promise to update on Sunday, but I will do my best to update next week about the State Meet (UNLESS of course, that she is the STATE CHAMPION and then you will probably hear me screaming about it).

Thanks for checking in on us,
Wendy