The New High School Freshman!

This morning we attended Christina's 8th grade graduation. The ceremony went beautifully. I have to say, Christina was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! This is a picture of her with her closest friends. These girls are known as the SMART girls of Whale Branch Middle and is the group all the teachers tell the parents to have their kids hang out with. There is one missing but you'll see her in a sec. This is Mr. Williams. He is the I-Tech teacher and Robotics coach. He met Christina in the 6th grade and has held onto her ever since. In his 36 years of teaching he said she has impressed him the most. :)
This is Christina and her very best friend Leah, the one missing from the top photo. These two are a couple of goof balls when they get together. They aren't afraid to be themselves together. LOL I've witnessed many a burping contest this year! Oh yeah..we're talking real southern flowers here people! LOL!
This is a mural she designed for the wall. She drew it on the wall and some 6th graders helped paint it. She wasn't thrilled with their help. LOL They went out of the lines!
So here she is for the world to see. The newest member of Battery Creek High. Eric and I are so proud of our baby.

P.S. Yes...that is blue hair. LOL Her mom gave it to her as a graduation gift. Yep..that'd be me! :)

A boy's room is his castle..

I was standing in Bubba's room the other morning just glancing around. Actually I was picking up some dirty towels. LOL Anyway, while I looked around I thought to myself..every facet of his personality is displayed in this room. I didn't post all the pictures but here are a few. The pics missing are his gun rack army men and fishing gear.
Well that just goes without saying doesn't it?
His football side, perhaps one of his greatest loves in life. LOL Outside of fishing that is. He's pretty proud of that Rookie of the Year trophy.
This is his pirate cove. I like to think this shows his love of getting into mischief. He does it well you know.
The flag my cousin Bill bought for him. He's deployed to Iraq right now. Bubba has a very deep seeded love and respect for his country and military.
Of course there's the cowboy side. He hasn't been able to ride in quite a while and he misses it. This is what every little boy should be. OUTSIDE! Having fun with his friends, having adventures, chasing little girls with frogs or bugs, exploring and getting into mischief.

Ya gotta love those little men, and as well all know; they don't really change as they get older..they just have to buy bigger pants. All the older little boys I know in Sheldon still love exactly the same things that are on this post. LOL They still want a little space free from the girls, they love their sport, they all like to cowboy up from time to time, yes..they still get into mischief and boy do they love a good day of fishin'! Yeah, they're pretty special. :-D

Now who is that riding off into the sunset? This was a really nice deer track we spied on one of our MANY bike rides. Bubba was pining for his 20 gauge after seeing it. LOL

This is posted per Bubba's request. That is the ONLY reason its on here!! I just proved my love for him. LOL

Family Time

Catie and Aunt Erin at the Mad Hatter being silly.
My favorite cowgirl.
Sheesh! What a motley crew! LOL
Catherine was sooo ready for some lunch and a chair!!

Eric's mom, step dad and sister came to visit a month ago. We took them to Savannah for the day and boy did my m-i-l love it! Had to catch a few shots of them enjoying the Mad Hatter!

Semper Fi

Ok, ok, I realize we have more Army personnel in our little circle than we do Marines but thats alright. ;) I grew up in the Marine Corps so they are near and dear to my heart.

This is my girlfriend Rosy and a few of her guys. Thanks to some very dear friends and family members we were able to send them 23 lbs. of Girl Scout cookies! When I received the pic from Rosy I said...girl, you and the guy on the left look like you're in pain! LOL Send me one of you actually smiling! She is currently deployed to Iraq and hopes to be home next spring. To have fun when she's off duty she umpires for PALS. Shelby and I miss her terribly as she always made great calls during games...even if they weren't in our favor! LOL

Funny how a little box of cookies can make someone far from home smile ya know? This picture is a great reminder of the sacrifice our military is making for us on a daily basis. When is the last time a box of cookies made you sooo excited?

I'm currently putting together another box to send them so if you have a letter or anything you'd like to send to a Marine just get it to me and I'll send it along.

I understand we'll be welcoming home one of our heroes pretty soon! :D Great job LT! More proud than you know bud!

That's my baby

You all know Shelby loves her softball. I'm proud to say she's coming even further with her catching. She always gives her team 100%. What mom/coach could ask for more than that?

LETS GO PURPLE AND GOLD!

Spring Has Sprung!! Ya'll!!

Saturday was such a beautiful day I HAD to go outside and plant something! I could resist it no longer! I also had my very good helper. She was repotting her miniature rose plant.

I'm cheating. I took these pictures last summer at Hunting Island, one of my favorite places on Earth. I can't wait to be back there again!

She was waaaay too cool to be there that morning...at 5:30 am.
Now would someone like to tell me how I was "lucky" enough to chaperone the 6th grade girls?! This pillow fight last almost an hour, then the wrestling lasted another 15 with jumping from bed to bed. LOL I had a great time.
This is the competition floor, where the magic happens. A crappy picture but you get the point.

"The Pit"...where the teams work on their robots and wait for their turn on the competition floor. So this is it. I'm done posting from the robotics competition. For all you parents and grandparents, this is a really cool thing to get your kids involved with. They learn so many neat things, things you would never dream of and they go on to do some pretty incredible things with their schooling. I think some Blankenship boys and girls and a certain little Whittington guy would like it!!

OK people, this is a test. These pictures are from the robotics competition at Clemson. These are members of the special "security detail" they hired for the event. LOL The test is...tell me either the name of the character or the species. LOL Betcha didn't know just HOW nerdy I really am, did ya?? Oh yeah, and naming Bubba doesn't count either!

Yay! I was finally able to log in! I've been having some issues with it lately.
Some of you know that Shelby, CJ, Bubba and I went on a little trip two weekends ago. We traveled to Clemson University for the SC State Robotics Championship. Shelby is on the robotics team at her school. They placed well at regionals so won a spot to compete at state. Being that this is also the college of choice for Shelby(she decided this in the 5th grade) as well as being Jeff's home for a few years I figured what the heck. I guess they can kind of sort of be considered pictures of home for Jeff. So, here ya go buddy. They're not the best in the world but then again, I never claimed to be a professional! LOL
I was trying to fit the entire stadium into my camera. As you can see it didn't turn out well. LOL So I took it in sections.
There's a huge hill to the left of this picture that little Eric spent every free moment rolling down. By the time he reached the bottom he was very much out of control and almost went head over foot at one time! LOL He loved it!

This is inside Little John Coliseum where the competition took place. The competition was amazing! I'll save those pictures for tomorrow.

These are some old chairs Eric and I are repairing and refinishing for some old people we know. HEE HEE!!! :-)
Please notice the PINK shirt! Don't let Eric tell you he did it all himself! LOL This is actually quite relaxing, the sanding and fixing I mean. I had a hard time pulling myself away from it.
Primed and waiting for a coat of satin black!

Christina and her Great Uncle Kurt, getting a lesson.



Uncle Kurt jamming. He's recovering from his cancer at my mother's house until he's strong enough to move back to San Diego. He's incredibly talented with the guitar. This is the first time I ever saw him hold an acoustic, he's always been on an electric. LOL

This is Master Gunnery Sgt. Higgins, Eric's Grandpa. He had an amazing military career, one of the best I've read about to date. I began a scrapbook for my m-i-l with items from his career. The neatest things I saw were postcards and "V"-mails(Victory) to Eric's Grandmother. He always called her, "my darling" or "dearest love" or "my sweet darling petunia". His words were so tender despite the battles that raged around him. I believe its just another great example of not judging a book by its cover. I was honored to meet Grandpa Higgins before Eric and I were married. He was very lighthearted and smiled a lot. I think Eric misses him. This is his favorite picture of his Grandpa. He was quite a Marine, he was quite a man.
I just know you're all dying to see this picture! LOL This is a picture of the island of Okinawa, where I used to live. Of course it has changed quite a bit since this picture was taken, but this is it, this is where I lived. Both of my Grandpa's saw action here and Grandpa Higgins was stationed here later in his career. Pretty neat I think.

Christina and I started playing racquetball about a month ago. You can't tell by this picture but she really enjoys it! She just doesn't like having her picture taken. Even Pooh likes to play. So I'm hoping that between softball, racquetball, football and cheerleading and the amount of time I'm on the go each year I'll be dropping some weight! LOL Even if I don't, I LOVE playing this sport with my baby girl!