Isn't she lovely

Jenny (sil) needed a model for some makeup line she is getting into so she borrowed Amanda as a model. Amanda has never really bothered with makeup before now. She is already a cute girl but we were all blown away by how great she looked.

A Field Trip to Travelers Rest

I lived here half of my life and never visited historic Travelers Rest even though it is 7 minutes from my house. The Kissacks were in town this week and TR was having a pioneer day. There were all sorts of demonstrations that I found incredibly interesting. The most fascinating of all is the open cooking. I love to watch them cook in an open fireplace, if I ever found myself in need of a job I would love to work in a place like this doing the cooking. When we went to Williamsburg last Christmas I was captivated by the separate cookhouses and all the ways that they preserved and prepared food.





The boys participated in some period dancing much to their embarrassment and Tonya tried out some kind of loom.

Bikes, Guns and Age

The Kissacks are in town again and we are all happy to see them again. We will be camping together in a few weeks, but the boys can't get enough cousin time. Life is running at breakneck speed but what is new. Amanda continues to pester and amaze us all. (she is doing it at this very moment 6 inches from me)

There is no news on Dania. (sad)

I am finally realize how old I am becoming. I used to take everything dangerous that happened in stride, but now I FREAK OUT at the sight of them racing around on their dirt bikes. I went down to the track tonight to watch them jump, and a couple of days ago I had to look away as they came racing up from the woods. The problem comes from the fact that they have long surpassed their MOTHER in the talent factor. When we were all riding together and I was still better then them I didn't worry so much, because we were all on the same level. Nathan is an awesome rider and teaches them well, and I recognize that he was once young and scared his mother as well and she is still living, so I know that I can survive as well. I might as well get used to the fact that we are a motorcycle family and I have three sons that will be approaching adolescence soon. I don't know very many moms that would be excited at the thought of boys on dirt bikes and teenagers on motorcycles.

I must say that the highlight of the last 2 weeks was when I entered a tactical shoot with Nathan at the local shooting range. There were 32 participants with only 3 of us being ladies and I placed 22nd. I beat the 2 other women and 7 guys. Nate was really proud of his gun toting wife, and I have to say that I had more fun than I thought I would. Nate came in 1st with his friend and employee coming in 3rd. I will try to enter again next month and improve my standing.

I am so busy with school this year. I can't believe that so many sahhm do this by themselves. 4 different grade levels is really hard to keep up with. I am so happy to have Tia helping me this year, it has made the trasition so much easier. My kids are really learning something, ain't that amazing.

Hilton Head

We just came back from a 4 night vacation to Hilton Head. This was our scheduled vacation, the one to Fla was a business trip/vacation. I have never been to HH before and found it quite charming. There are no street lights so it is pretty dark throughout the island at night. The beaches were fairly empty, and the ones that were there were retired folks or some young families. The best part about the island is that it is flat and filled with bike trails. We rented bikes for $12 a bike for the 3 days or $16-18 for the week. The beach was a mile away so we rode there almost everyday. We just shoved our towels in the little baskets on the bikes, threw in some water and sunscreen and were off. The best part of our trip was riding at night on the beach and on the golf course cart paths. You couldn't ride during the day, but night time was open. We sped around like it was a race track without any lights. It was definitely the riskiest this old lady has been in a while. The weather was perfect, I think we missed both of the hurricanes. The only down side was that I didn't get to sample any seafood. All the seafood restaurants that I saw a menu from were really pricey, and taking our crew of 5 out to the Golden Corral cost us a whopping $88 bucks. Four of us our eating adult sized entrees with only 2 still ordering from the kids menu, and sometimes even they aren't filled with those meals.

Another night of shame

We had another night of kareoke shame and this time even my parents joined in. I sang a song but their is only video proof and I wasn't about to load that on here. The boys played foosball and air hockey while Amanda chronicled our shame.

The Girls room

I never showed pictures of the quilts I got for the girls room, so here they are. Amanda had hers off the bed in this one. The furniture Paul made was awesome. I just need to get white drawer pulls put on them. He was in a hurry and only had these silver ones in the shop, and not enough to put on all the drawers so we are just making do.

A cute little Afro

They were taking all the girls hair out to redo their braids or knots. I don't relish the thought of learning how to do this. I heard it takes quite a bit of time and practice.

Her best friend

After her little fro was put back in rows.
This is Jeniflore and I think that they are best buds, she is always in the pics I get of Dania.