The Gabby Family

Summer 2010 - Week 3

2010-06-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

This was the Kids On Stage week. Emily had been looking forward to this since last summer. I spent the week driving between home and Leiper's Fork. It's a beautiful drive, but by Friday, I was done. She spent the week in Song Writing and the Elite Vocal Jazz Ensemble. She loved camp and really enjoyed the Jazz Ensemble, even though she wasn't sure about it initially. I can't get that song to upload, but here's the song that she and the girls in her song writing group wrote called "Wake Up". It's very catchy.

First 2 weeks of summer

2010-06-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

The first two weeks of summer, we had nothing planned. It was nice. I started organizing the house, we visited the pool, worked out at the "Y" and I planted a small garden on a very hot day. I had to remove the sod, build the box (it was a kit), break up the dirt, put more soil in the box and plant. I planted 2 tomato plants, 1 cucumber, rosemary, basil and a jalapeno plant.

This picture is about 2 weeks after the initial planting...

The last day of school!

2010-05-21T05:26:00.000-07:00

The picture on the left is from the first day of school for both. It's the first day of middle school for Michael. The picture on the right is from the last day of school and the last day of middle school for Emily. Time flies...

6th grade Awards ceremony

2010-05-20T16:39:00.002-07:00

Today was the 6th grade awards ceremony at the middle school. Michael got an award for all "As" for the year. His best bud from church got one, too. As you can see, he dressed up for the occassion!

The Fermatas

2010-05-20T16:39:00.001-07:00

Emily at Rocketown

2010-04-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

Emily along with 12 others performed at RCKTWN on Sunday night. It was students of Emily's voice teacher and Kid's on Stage. The band was awesome and it was one of the last show's at RCKTWN before being torn down. :( They will be moving to a new location that is not in the way of the new Nashville Convention Center.

Page Middle Band concert

2010-04-21T19:05:00.001-07:00

The middle school band had their Spring Concert on April 15th. They played 4 songs. This is one of them...

Day 4 - Costa Rica Spa Day

2010-04-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

Day 4 was our day to relax. It started with a walk on the beach, then we went to the pool and planted ourselves. Then we had appointments at the spa. I got a 75 minute facial - fabulous! Kevin was going to get a facial, but he changed it to a pedicure (his first) and I think he kind of liked it. After that, we went back to the pool and stayed there the rest of the day plotting how to get the kids shipped down to us...

Day 3 - Costa Rica: The Zip Line

2010-03-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

Day 3 started out much like Day 2. The birds and monkeys started making noise about 4:00 am. This time, I woke up early. After Kevin got up, I took some picture from our floor and then we went for a stroll on the beach.

I thought these were monkey footprints, but now I'm thinking they belong to a raccoon, since we saw one on the beach the first night.

The cacti were scattered on the hills.

We really didn't see many shells on the beach. it was mostly rocks and coral. I was going to bring some coral home, but then read later that it was illegal to remove anything from the beach. I really didn't want to end up in a prison in Costa Rica!

After our walk, we came back to the room and had breakfast delivered. Can I just say that their version of skim milk is...interesting. It did not taste right. If it came from the skinny cows that we saw on the way to the resort, I can understand why!

This was our day for the zip line. The day that Kevin has been dreading for two months now - ever since he picked the activities that we would participate in for the trip. For those of you who know him well, he is terrified of heights! He started plotting ways to either avoid or survive the adventure. Some of those included "maybe it will rain that day" or "maybe I'll ask for some medication from the doctor to help me through it". Neither of those happened.

We headed up to the lobby to meet up with the group. When we got there, we were asked to sign a waiver releasing the resort from any injuries that we might incur on the trip. Nice! Then we loaded up the buses and drove about 20 minutes to Witch's Rock Canopy Tour. As soon as we got there, we were sent to the office to sign another waiver, saying we wouldn't sue them if something happened to us. Kevin was feeling pretty confident at this point!

After signing our life away for the 2nd time, we were sent to get our gear on. It was extremely attractive and quite comfortable.

They geared up everyone, which took a little while and then said "is everyone ready to rock and roll?" Uh, are they going to give us any instruction?! We hiked up a hill and when we got to the top we got about 3 minutes of instruction - you brake with your right hand, hold on to the straps with the left, and don't put your hand in front of the thing on the wire. We felt confident and ready - ha! They snapped a shot of the entire group and we began. Check out the expression on Kevin's face. It's classic!

At about the 3rd zip, they took the individual pictures.

Kevin took this picture at the beginning of the longest and highest zip and then again about half way through.

There were a total of 11 zip lines, 2 suspension bridges(very difficult for Kevin), 4 ladders to climb and a lot of hiking! It was definitely a workout! You'll have to ask Kevin about getting stuck at the first zip and then taking out one of the workers towards the end. He did it, though! As you can see from the picture, he was very relieved when it was all over! I loved it! I am already researching places to zip line around here. I'm thinking it's going to be a girl's outing.

We went back to the Four Seasons and were very happy to lounge by the pool the rest of the afternoon. With the helmet and equipment and hiking, we got pretty hot - not to mention the fact that is was 90 something degrees.

There was a market on the beach where I bought some more "authentic" handmade items for the kids.

That evening was the Awards dinner. It was held at the golf course clubhouse. It was dark, but what we could see was beautiful. After dinner, they introduced each person and told of their accomplishments for the year. They also announced the next trip planned for 2012. Needless to say, I will be encouraging Kevin to qualify for that trip. It will be at the Four Seasons Resort in Nevis, West Indies. Can you blame me?!

Day 2 - Costa Rica

2010-03-11T18:46:00.000-08:00

Day 2 began kind of early. The birds and other creatures start making noise about 4:00 am. I didn't hear them, but Kevin said it woke him up. We got up and walked around the resort a little. Then we went to breakfast and sat outside at the restaurant. We had a bird friend join us. It was their blue jay or magpie. It was pretty big and really pretty.

After breakfast we went to the pool. I went to the pool boy to ask for some towels, but they wouldn't give them to me. They asked where we wanted to sit and then proceeded to set up our chairs with towels neatly tucked in and then used another towel and rolled it up to make a pillow. They put a table in between our seats and brought us cups of ice cold water. Every so often they would come by and see if we needed anything. During our stay, here were our poolside amenities: ice water every time we emptied our cups, Popsicles, cold wash clothes, someone would come by and offer to clean your sunglasses, someone would come by and offer to spritz you with Evian, samples of a frozen cappuccino and a strawberry/banana smoothie plus we ordered lunch there a couple of times. Oh, and popcorn shrimp came with popcorn and shrimp. Really. We also had our first celebrity citing that morning at the pool. It was James Hetfield from Metallica strolling by on his way to breakfast.

After we were at the pool for a while, Kevin's group decided to play a little beach volleyball. I was very excited to play. Unfortunately, I was on the only girl. We won the first game, but lost the next 2. They did have 1 more player than us and they had all men. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Sorry to let you down guys!

Down on the beach, there we 2 guys selling pottery. I went over to look at it. I was talking to 1 of the men and he was telling me how he made the pottery and fired it for 40 hours. He showed me his name on the bottom and then showed me another piece with another name on it and told me that his friend made it. Kevin and I picked out a couple of pieces and bought them. Fast forward to Sunday. While in the gift shop at the zip line place we saw a shelf of pottery that looked exactly like the pieces that we bought. Wow, those guys have been busy! :) I didn't bother to look at the price. I didn't want to see how much I had been ripped off. Fast forward to Monday. We went to the other beach and there was another guy selling the same pottery. I asked him "did you make that?" and he said with a big smile on his face "Yes!". I said "no you didn't". I showed him - ha! I did end up buying some bracelets that "he made". Right!

After purchasing our pottery that was hand made by the man on the beach, we headed back to the pool. There was a planned boat outing, which we weren't going to go on, but changed our mind when we found out that the catamaran had 2 levels, so we could get out of the sun. Plus they were serving lunch and going to watch the sunset on the water. While waiting to leave, the moneys appeared on the beach again. I went down to get a picture, but they were moving too fast. Then a guy on the beach got my attention and was yelling "parakeet!" I was looking, but didn't see a parakeet. I did see 2 monkeys above me. He keep saying "parakeet" and then said that the monkeys had a parakeet and were eating it. Nice! I took a picture, but it's hard to see the parakeet in it's hand.

The boat was on the Pacific side of the beach. While waiting for the boat to come to shore we had our 2nd Metallica front man sighting. I tried to discreetly take a picture of him. Tacky, I know. Back to the boat...they were trying to get the boat as close to the beach as they could by riding the waves in so we could get on. In the process of doing that, the dinghy tied to the side of the catamaran was shoved into the side of the boat and flipped over. I think at least 1 person bailed when they saw that. 2 of the men from the boat jumped into the water to try to flip it back over and bail out the water. All of this took place while there were still waves crashing in. Fortunately, no one was hurt. We boarded the boat and there were couches and chairs set up all over the place like a lounge. There was also a bar and buffet.

We sailed to a cove where most of the people got off and went snorkeling. About 5 minutes later, most of the people got back on the boat. Apparently, there were jellyfish in the water stinging them. We lounged around there, ate and chatted with people. After about an hour we cruised around until the sun set. While we were cruising, a pelican decided to hitch a ride with us. Then he/she decided that the buffet looked pretty good, so he jumped up on the table, stepped in the salsa and left. Needless to say, they removed the salsa.

The sunset was beautiful. We did not see a green flash, though. We were so glad that we went!

We came back to the room and it was clean. Whoever cleaned the room did not like how I had arranged all my products on the sink, so it was rearranged. They also did not like where our shoes were, so we had to search for them. Apparently, shoes belong in the closet. We took a little snoozer, because it was such an exhausting day - ha! After that we went to dinner - celeb sighting #3. Kevin and I went to the outdoor restaurant and got a romantic little corner table overlooking the beach where someone had paid to have dinner on the beach with their honey. We had the Brazilian buffet where they bring around a bunch of different types of meat to your table. I tried most, but not all! The breeze was blowing and the stars were out. It was a lovely evening.

When we got to the room there was a note from the manager apologizing again for the ceiling fan incident (he had already called twice to see if everything was ok). His note said "Dear Mr and Mrs. Gabhart, We hope you have a wonderful stay with us. We sincerely apologies (that's how he spelled it) for the inconvenience you had regarding the ceiling fan. please do not hesitate to contact us if you need anything else. Warm regards, Gustavo Monks". He had delivered a bucket of beer along with chips, salsa, guacamole, and trail mix. Unfortunately, we were so stuffed from dinner that we didn't eat any of it. Plus, we don't like beer. It was a really nice gesture, though. We were supposed to go back out and meet up with some of Kevin's coworkers, but were just too tired. Again, it was an exhausting day - ha!

Day 1 - Costa Rica here we come!

2010-03-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

We learned several months ago that Kevin had been invited on a "work" trip to Costa Rica. The thought of going some place tropical and warm during early March had me running to get my passport. We lined up the grandparents to come stay and got everything in order and the time finally arrived for us to leave.

Friday, March 5th our morning started at 3:00 am. We left for the airport at 4:15 for our 6:15 flight. The roads were empty. When we got to the airport the line was out the door for American Airlines. This immediately put my hubby who travels in a panic. Apparently, there was a group of college students heading to Belize to build a house and there were also college students heading out for Spring Break. What happened to driving in a car for 14 hours for Spring Break?!

Anyway, we got checked in and through security with time to spare. As we were waiting we ran into our friends Leigh and Dana and POG as they were getting ready to head out for a concert and chatted with them.

We flew into Miami and it was only in the 50s brrrrr! We waited for a couple of hours , met up with several of Kevin's coworkers and then boarded the plane for our flight to Liberia, Costa Rica.

From the air Costa Rica looks pretty barren. We flew over an active volcano that had smoke coming out of it! We also flew over our resort. We didn't know it at the time, but we did get a picture!

We landed in Liberia and went through immigration in a very warm airport. After that, our pampering began. We were greeted by the resort staff who had already pulled our luggage and loaded it on a cart. We went through customs and then headed out to the bus. We were greeted by taxi drivers all swarming wanting to offer you a ride. We proceeded to the bus, our luggage was loaded, we were offered a cold, wet towel and an ice cold bottle of water.

The drive to the Four Seasons Resort at Peninsula Papagayo was about 35-40 minutes. The terrain was rather barren, but we found out that we were there during the dry season. We really only saw fields and mountains, with a few homes scattered here and there. Once we got to the resort area, everything changed. it was green and lush. The entrance reminded me of Jurassic Park.

We saw monkeys in the trees and a huge iguana crossing the road. Since we were on a peninsula, there was water on both sides framed by mountains. It was absolutely picturesque.

After arriving at the resort, we were greeted and led to the welcome reception. They offered us another wet towel, juice, free sunglasses and a snack buffet with majorly awesome guacamole.

Then we were given a quick tour of the facility and taken to our room. Our room was fabulous! The view was amazing. Our luggage was delivered there.

We decided to order room service since we hadn't eaten since 5:30 am. While Kevin was ordering room service, I heard a banging noise and then a loud crash. Our ceiling fan crashed to the ground within 3 ft of Kevin. Yikes! We called and reported the ceiling fan mishap and waited for someone to come fix that (?) and for our food.

When they brought room service, they took it out to the patio and set a lovely table. We ate and then headed out to check out to the beach on the Pacific side and met some more of Kevin's coworkers. While we were there we saw monkeys in the trees. That was really cool, but a little unsettling! We also learned that Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush were staying at the resort.

That night there was a dinner on the beach for all of the attendees and their spouses. This dinner was under the same trees that the monkeys were in - also a little unsettling. The night was beautiful and the food was wonderful. After eating, we were sitting around and talking and a very cute raccoon came up to the buffet to check it out. One of the ladies in the group decided to give the raccoon a roll. Then we noticed that there were monkeys in the tree directly above our table. I immediately put my hand over my glass.

We thought they had left and then we heard a group of women screaming. We looked over and and saw something really nasty on the table next to us and then saw a stream of liquid falling from the air. The monkey had decided it was time to take a potty break. Nice! But, really really funny. Luckily, no one was hit.

We called it a night and headed back to our room. When we got there, we had our 1st "amenity" waiting for us. It was a beach bag from the resort. I love free stuff! And that was just day 1!

2009-10-01T04:32:00.000-07:00

Emily at Puckett's Best of Kids On Stage

2009-07-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Emily at Kid's on Stage - "Betrayed"

2009-06-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

This is the song that Emily's group wrote.

Michael Rock Band Camp - Come Together

2009-06-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

Michael has the guitar solo

Awards Day

2009-05-23T17:39:00.001-07:00

Michael and Emily had their awards days on the same day. Fortunately, they were at different times! Michael got A/B Honor Roll for the year and a Safety Patrol and Good Morning Oak View award. Emily got A/B Honor Roll for the year for the 1st time ever. We are so very proud of both!

Graduation Night

2009-05-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

Michael graduated 5th grade last night. Grandmother and Grandonnie drove down and surprised him. After the ceremony, we headed over to his friend Connor's house to celebrate with Connor and Abbi, his church friends. Fortunately, I must have gotten my tears out earlier in the day and I didn't embarrass Michael at graduation. It was a bitter-sweet day!

Michael's Art Show

2009-05-17T17:44:00.001-07:00

School is winding down and Michael's school had an art show. They displayed their best projects. Michael was supposed to have 2 things, but they apparently lost his "Louisville Slugger Bat" made from everyday objects. They eventually found it, but not in time for the show. His drawing is the blue and black one to the right of him.

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

We started out the day at church and then Kevin and the kids took me to Bonefish for lunch. After we got home, one of Michael's friends came over and they played for a while. I decided that I wanted to walk through downtown Franklin, so we loaded up and walked around and stopped off at Ben and Jerry's. After we got home, I read, updated the blog and napped. It was a great day!

Volleyball tryouts day 3!

2009-05-10T16:07:00.001-07:00

Em and her friend Kelsey before going to tryouts...

Emily after tryouts. She's still smiling so that's a good sign?! She ended up not making the team. She was pretty sad about it last night, but seems to be doing better today. There's always next year...

Emily's volleyball tryouts

2009-05-08T19:33:00.001-07:00

Well, so far she has survived. There is 1 more day of tryouts. Here is a picture of an arm bruise and a floor burn on her knee. She was wearing knee pads?

The Asthma Walk

2009-05-04T04:14:00.001-07:00

As you may or may not know, Michael was diagnosed with Asthma when he was in kindergarten. Since then, he has been on preventative medications to help him. He usually only has problems when he is sick, otherwise it doesn't seem to be an issue. We have recently stopped one of his medications and his body seems to be handling it just fine. We are hopeful that one day he will outgrow it.

Last year, Michael heard about the Asthma walk and wanted to participate in it. Unfortunally, it fell on Derby day so we told him that he wouldn't be able to do it. This year, he asked us as soon as he found out about the walk . We decided to put aside our selfishness :0) and let him do it. He ended up collecting $560 for the event. I believe he was 7th highest fundraiser in Nashville.

Kevin ended up walking with us, since it was raining and football was cancelled. The event was held at the zoo and he walked with the few people from his school team that showed up. Fortuantely, the rain held off for the most part during the walk. It was damp, but there were no downpours. The animals was quit active, so that made it fun. Thanks to all of you who supported him on this walk! It was a great event for a great cause!

Happy 1st birthday Blog!

2009-04-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

Michael's broken arm.

2009-04-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

Our weekend was busy, filled with movies on Friday, games on Saturday, Main Street Festival on Saturday night, church on Sunday, lunch with our SS class that afternoon AND a visit to the Emergency Room on Sunday night.

I didn't see it happen. Michael and Em were swinging. Michael was very high and his sister bumped into him causing him to fall to the ground. He landed flat on his arm and apparently on his chin sending a tooth into his lip. Both tooth and lip are still intact! There was blood, screaming and crying. Kevin finally stopped crying (ha!) and we loaded up and went to the ER and SAT for 2 1/2 hours or more and then found out Michael had a compression fracture in his left arm. Michael said in the ER, "Wow, that really hurt.".

He got his lovely UK blue cast on today. He has to wear it for 4 weeks and then he will switch to a shorter cast for 2 weeks. There's nothing quite like being a Gabhart!

Wednesday at Dollywood

2009-04-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

Wednesday we went to Dollywood. There are really only 3 good rides there - all of them roller coasters. I used to love roller coasters when I was younger. Now...not so much. I like them after the first hill, or so I thought. The first coaster we road was the Tennessee Tornado. There are 3 loops on that one. After we got off, I was very dizzy. The boys road it twice. Then we road the Mystery Mine. Most of that one was indoors, so you couldn't see what it did. What we could see was a little crazy. There was a 90 degree drop and a loop where it went really slow. It didn't look too bad, so we all did it. It was the craziest ride I have ever been on. There were 2 sections where you went straight up at 90 degrees. I can't even tell you what else it did. I think I have blocked it from my mind. The last coaster we road was Thunderhead. Apparently, it's one of the fastest wooded roller coasters in the nation. It was also crazy. Emily was done after the Mystery Mine, so she didn't ride on that one. They road the water ride 4 times in a row - real smart - and were soaked for the rest of the day. It was about 68 degrees yesterday. Needless to say, they were a little chilly last night. Michael went back and road the Tennessee Tornado and Thunderhead before we left. I think he has finally found his inner-daredevil. I'll post pictures later. I'm almost caught up on the week!

A Snowy Tuesday

2009-04-09T19:39:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning we woke up to a dusting of snow. Luckily, the roads were clear. We were going to go to the Aquarium; however, the rest of Gatlinburg had the same idea, so we went to Ober Gatlinburg. We rode the Tram - this is not one of Kevin's favorite things, but he was a trouper! After we got up there we had planned on ice skating - also not one of Kevin's favorite things. However, we noticed that they had snow tubing. We did that instead and had so much fun. The track was pretty high. By the time we finished, it was really fast. On my last run, I ran into the wall. Emily and Michael had a blast since they had never experienced real sledding. It even snowed while we were up there.

After tubing, we went back down to Gatlinburg to grab some lunch. A man with a very deep voice convinced us that we needed a really good SIRLOIN BURGER, so we ate there. You need to get Kevin to do his impersonation of that man.

After lunch we went to the Aquarium, which was great. The crowds were way down by then and we were able to walk right in and walk around with no problem. It was a great day!

Monday in Gatlinburg

2009-04-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

We left Knoxville Monday morning and drove to Gatlinburg. We couldn't check into our cabin until 4:00, so we drove around Pigeon Forge, visited the Wal-Mart to get a few things (I hate Wal-Mart!) and did a Mirror Maze. Then we met my friend Cindy and her family for lunch. After that we got our cabin. It's in the hills of downtown Gatlinburg. There are 3 levels with a spiral staircase. The kids think it's awesome. They are on the 3rd floor with the pool table and we are in the basement. I think they got the better end of that deal! The middle floor has the kitchen, living room, and another bathroom. That night we all watched a movie and had a raccoon visit us out on the deck.

Sunday night and Monday morning in Knoxville

2009-04-08T05:17:00.000-07:00

Sunday we packed up and headed to Knoxville to see the Cromers before heading to Gatlingburg. It was so good to see them! We had dinner together and the kids played for a while before we checked in at our hotel. The hotel had a pool, so Em and Michael went swimming for a while.

Monday morning we loaded up our car and ate breakfast at IHOP and then on to Gatlinburg.

Is it Spring Break yet?!

2009-03-29T16:19:00.001-07:00

Well, it is not Spring Break yet. We still have another week! Ugh! We are all so ready for it. This past week we had our normal schedule. Voice lessons and volleyball for Em on Tuesday. We have recently added flag football practice to our Tuesday night schedule, also. Kevin is the assistant coach. We are so excited about Michael's coach this season. He goes to our church and is such a nice guy. Speaking of coaches, Em's volleyball coaches are SO cute. They are in high school and play for their school team. They are so excited to be there and the girls think they are the coolest, so the actually listen to them.

Wednesday Michael had his guitar lesson and Pepper and I had our 3rd class together. We got a "much better" from the teacher. He told me that we were in the "dog house". I guess that means they were going to tell us, thanks but no thanks. We have redeemed ourselves for at least another week. If we survive that, we test with the Delta Dog Society to be a registered pet partner team on Sunday the 5th. If your dog barks, you are immediately dismissed. If your dog bites, you are dismissed and not able to retest. I'm a little nervous about the test. Who knows what she will do.

Thursday, Em had an extra volleyball practice. Friday, she had another birthday sleepover (3rd one in 3 weeks!)

On Saturday Michael had practice AND got a haircut. He was not happy! Em had a volleyball game. They won all 3 games. In the last game she served 12 in a row of their 15 points ( I had to brag a little). Then she headed off to go to the Predators game with the Middle School. There were only 5 girls, I think. The rest were boys. Kevin, Michael and I ended up going to the game, also, but we were on the opposite side of the arena. We were actually in the "Cell Block" section. That's the section where the serious fans sit. They start lovely chants with colorful language! Michael said , "the lady behind me said the "s" word a lot". Unfortunately true! Oh, in the midst of all that, there were Severe Thunderstorm warnings AND Tornado Warnings. Nice.

Sunday, of course, was church day. We have one more week of school and then we're on Spring Break. We'll be heading to Gatlinburg for a few days for some R and R. We can't wait!

Our past week

2009-03-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

We started the week on Sunday night attending the Winter Wonder Jam concert. We were all tired from the weekend, but went anyway. It turned out to be a really great show. There were even flames shooting out of the stage - cool! We're so glad that we went.

This was the week that Em's big project on Jane Goodall was due and we went to the school "Wax Museum" for the viewings. Each child had to pick someone who had made a contribution to society in the arts, science, politically, etc... She did a great job and got a 94 on her project.

We also got report cards this week. Michael had all "As" and Em had 3 "As" and 2 "Bs". We were very pleased with both.

Kevin left for Vegas on Friday (I'm guessing he's planted in front of a wall of TVs watching NCAA games) and today we've run from football practice to a volleyball game. Emily's team won 1 and lost 2. The last game was 14-15. Ugh! Oh well. it was their 1st game. Tonight Michael is going to a sleepover and Em and I are having a girl's night out! That's all for now.

Emily's Puckett's Debut - finally!

2009-03-05T17:52:00.000-08:00

They misspelled her name!

2009-02-27T16:54:00.000-08:00

Franklin- Wednesday, March 4–Linda Davis’s “Kids on Stage” Showcase Join us this evening for a very special show with some very awesome talent! Grammy Award-Winning Singer/Songwriter Linda Davis will be joined by some of the stars of Kids On Stage: Nikki Archuletta, Jordan Birdwell, Deanna Cunningham, Jessica Foulk, Emily Gaphart, Millie Grasso, Vanessa Hendel, Hannah Johnston, Mo Kirkpatrick, Jessica McCall, Maci Pye, Kendall Swanson, and Taylor Ware. This is a rare opportunity to see some true superstars in the making. 7pm show, $5 cover, reservations 615-794-5527.

So that's the ad on the Puckett's website. As you can see Em's name was misspelled. I even emailed them with the correct spelling. Oh well. It happens. We haven't told many of you, but Em is taking a class tomorrow on Stage Performance and she is singing at Puckett's this Wednesday night. It's a big deal.We'll see how it all goes. It will be very telling as to whether she is serious about singing or not. We bought a new video camera and will do our best to record it and get it out on the blog. Say a prayer for her and her momma!!!

The 5th grade Presidential Program

2009-02-21T11:24:00.000-08:00

Michael's 5th grade program was this week. For those of you who don't know the story, the 5th grade class does this huge project/musical presentation each year about all the president's of the United States. They are assigned a president or first lady, have to research that person, write a paper, prepare a speech and get items from that time period. Then it ends with their play and display of all they have gathered.We knew about this project when we were in DC. We were debating whether we should buy a book about the presidents when we were there. Well, it wouldn't have helped, because Michael was assigned a Vice President. There were more boys than presidents. He was SO bummed. He said "Mom, he's not even a Republican!".

Anyway, Michael was chosen to be Walter Mondale. We googled his email address and they ended up emailing each other Friday a week ago. Michael thought that was cool. Modale was VP in the 70s so we went to Goodwill and found some plaid polyester pants. I had a K-Tel album from the 70s and a fondue pot. Their program was cute. Nobody passed out. Hopefully, we'll get a DVD of it, because my video did not turn out - or course.

Dnow weekend

2009-02-15T04:35:00.001-08:00

We are in the midst of Dnow weekend for the middle and high schoolers at church. It's kind of like a mini summer camp. The kids stay in homes and meet for worship at church. Friday they had the opening at church and found out which home they were staying in. There are 11-13 kids at each home. After worship they headed to their host home and had small group sessions with their group leader. Some are college students, others are out of college and working. Then it was supposed to be lights out, but Em informed me she stayed up until 5:00 am. That was a great decision!

Saturday they had more small group sessions and then all met for rec time and lunch. After that we were back to church for worship and then our group went to the nursing home and delivered flowers. Em got to see Ms. Eda again. She has visited with her a couple of times at this nursing home. Then back home for another small group session. 2 of the homes hosting 7th grade girls met up at one home and we had a chocolate fountain and they played games. Then back to the host home for a one on one session with their group leader. Hopefully they got some sleep last night!

I did not host, but I am driving for it. I have probably put 200 + miles on my car in 36 hours. I'm getting ready to go back out to the house and help load up the girls for church. Their closing session is this morning.

Let's go fly a kite...

2009-02-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

Today was just beautiful. It was 68 degrees, sunny and windy. Michael left us for the day and headed to Huntsville for a friend's birthday outing. He got to go to the Space Center. He came home this evening completely exhausted.

We spend a majority of the afternoon in the front yard with kites. Emily informed us that she had never flown a kite. I have a hard time believing that. I'm thinking that she has never successfully flown a kite. At least, that's what I'm going to tell myself. How horrible is it that my child has never flown a kite!

Today she flew a kite for probably 2 hours. It was a great day for it. She had a unicorn kite - Charlie. Some of you will get that. Or maybe it was a Pegasus with a horn. Someone asked if it was a goose?! Anyway, Kevin decided to get out the beach kite, too. It's a red tri-plane like the Red Baron. After several attempts he finally got it to stay up. Pepper wasn't sure what to think of them. She really did not like them when they landed and stayed as far away as possible. She is also completely exhausted tonight.

Gram and Gramps are here. They had a trip to Bowling Green for a conference and headed down here afterwards. Gramps is...exhausted - ha! So we have a house full of exhausted people and 1 tired animal. It was a GREAT day! And I'm not being sarcastic. Really.

Super bowl party - a few days late.

2009-02-05T20:01:00.000-08:00

We hosted the church 7th grade Super bowl party. We only had 9 show up, but it felt like 18. We had both boys and girls. Wow, middle school boys are interesting. They stayed for the whole game, but I think they only watched maybe the last quarter. It was the most exciting part anyway.

And the diagnosis is...

2009-01-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

Sever's (Seaver's) disease. This is what Michael has. It's not a disease. The doctor couldn't even tell me why they call it that. Basically, there is an inflammation in the heel growth plate. It's probably due to rapid growth. It's also something that he will more than likely have to deal with until that closes up. So, for now he's gellin' (ha) and has to do PT for a couple of weeks. He also can take Ibuprofen if he can tolerate it. We tried it for a week (yes, with food), but his stomach started giving him fits. We're going to try a lower dose and see what happens with that.

Our fun story tonight was our dinner. I tried to cook a pork tenderloin. This was not the first time. When the timer went off, the bottom was cooked, but the top was raw. It was not an attractive sight! We determined that something must be wrong with the top heating element in the oven. The power went off today, so I don't know if that messed something up or not. Anyway, I thought maybe we should try the broil setting to see if it worked. We finished cooking the pork on broil, opened the oven and the cool air busted my Pampered Chef bar pan. Dang! Then in the midst of all that, we messed up the mashed potatoes. You could slice them! Then I dropped a box of baking soda while looking for something in the pantry, Kevin got up to get more potatoes and flipped the spoon out of the bowl. In the process of trying to catch the spoon, he busted his hand on the granite. As all that was happening, I was sitting back down at the table and busted my knee on the edge of it. Whew! What an exciting meal. After dinner, I apologized for the meal and my sweet husband said, " you could have cooked a normal meal and we could have had a normal dinner, but instead, you created a fun memory." And that's why we are still married after 20 years! Sorry there are no pictures to post! LOL!

Our weekend!

2009-01-25T17:24:00.001-08:00

Our weekend started with a birthday. We celebrated one of our favorite girl's 11th birthday on Friday. The kids went to see Hotel for Dogs and then we all went to get pizza. A fun time was had by all!

Saturday, Michael had a game. He is still not putting any weight on his heel, which makes running a challenge. They lost their game even though they were within 4 at one point. :(

After the game, the boys worked on rearranging the Bonus room. That afternoon we went back to church to read in the new chapel. The pastor of our church wanted the whole Bible read in the new chapel. They started having people read last Sunday. I believe there was someone in the chapel from 6:00 am until 9:20 pm everyday until yesterday. They finished reading the Bible by Thursday, so they started over with the New Testament. Our scriptures involved the parables of sowing seeds, calming the storm, driving out Legion into the pigs and John the Baptist's beheading. It was a neat experience to be in the chapel together as a family reading God's word aloud.

This is the new Children's worship space. Em sings once a month on the worship team. Today was her first day in the new worship space. It's pretty amazing.

Tonight we ended with the dedication of our new space. We met in the chapel for the service. It's hard to believe that it is finally done. We added the chapel, it holds about 400 people. They will hold services in there on Sunday for those interested in a more traditional form of worship. Our pastor's image will be on a life size digital screen during the sermon. Ok, so it's kind of traditional. We also added a whole new preschool wing and play area, an incredible children's worship area and a high school area. We are so blessed by our church family and excited about God's plans for the future!

And they're off!

2009-01-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

The braces, that is. Today was the last day - yeah! We pick up the retainer tomorrow. She has a permanent one on her bottom teeth. 1 down and 1 to go - probably.

The super horrible Titan's playoff game.

2009-01-18T20:00:00.001-08:00

There are really no words. We are still in mourning!

Michael's basketball game

2009-01-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

Michael has started basketball again . He's loving it, but having some heal pain. We may be back at the doctor again this week.

January catch up/ visit with our Nashville Grandma!

2009-01-18T19:37:00.001-08:00

I have miserably failed at keeping the blog updated through the holidays. We saw most of the family at Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I'm going to pick up with January. During the break we went to see our Nashville Grandma. We always drive over the Natchez Trace bridge when we go. It's an awesome view!

Em's Family Celebration.

2008-11-22T07:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Em's 13th birthday. Thankfully, we had her party last weekend. She has been sick almost all week. She missed 3 days of school with a fever and sore throat. She went back to school on Friday, but now she seems to have a head cold or whatever she had has morphed into something else!

However, she was well enough to want to go to the Cheesecake Factory for her birthday dinner. We got our cheesecake to go and came home and watched Wall-e.

The picture of Pepper is her watching Em open her gift. She always looks so annoyed in pictures!

Em's 13th birthday party!

2008-11-14T20:38:00.000-08:00

Emily doesn't officially turn 13 until next week, but we went ahead and had her party tonight. She wanted to have a "big" party since she hadn't had one in a couple of years.

Her party was at church in "The Station". She wanted to have a pajama party. We had Guitar Hero, Wii karaoke and music, plus 3 awesome girls that came and did hair, nails and makeup. It lasted 2 1/2 hours, although Kevin will tell you it was more like 6 hours! It seems like everyone had a good time and Emily said it was one of her best birthdays, so mission accomplised!

Balloon in the Hood.

2008-11-10T17:46:00.001-08:00

This afternoon I got a call from a friend who asked if we were home, which we were. She told us to look out the front door and this is what we saw...

The last football game of the season

2008-11-08T19:27:00.000-08:00

Today was the last day for football this Fall. I think Michael has enjoyed playing. We've learned a lot about quarterbacks and their dads being the coach! I'm thinking we'll be requesting a different coach in the Spring. All in all, it was a good time. I can't even tell you if they won today. I think they lost, but not by much.

A boy and his first guitar!

2008-11-02T13:37:00.001-08:00

Michael has been taking guitar lessons since this summer using his sister's guitar. We told him that he had wait a couple of months so we could see how dedicated he was. He bugged us the first couple of months wanting his own guitar, but we told him he had to wait. Well, the waiting is over. He loves playing, practicing and going to lessons. Today he got his Cherry Sunburst Les Paul Epiphone 100. I think that's what it is, anyway. Needless to say, he is one happy boy! Oh AND the Titans won again. 8-0 baby!

Halloween night!

2008-10-31T18:27:00.000-07:00

Em is with her friend for the night. Michael is with a friend. Kevin is with Michael and I'm at home alone with Pepper. She has had an interesting night. I think she is really confused. I'm watching the Wedding Singer and missing the days that I walked hand in hand with my little ones on Halloween night. It goes by way too fast! Oh, BTW, Em is a fashion victim and Michael is the ghost of Rock and Roll in case you couldn't figure it out from the pictures!

Craft Night.

2008-10-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

Emily just got done with her plant cell project that she started last week and I just finished carving a Titans pumpkin!

Pumpkin Carving Party 2008

2008-10-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

This is our 19th (?) year give or take a couple of years to have a pumpkin carving party. Last year, we changed it to the kids pumpkin carving party where they invited their friends instead of us inviting ours. :(

We had 6 girls and 5 boys plus a couple of adults hanging around and 2 dogs. There were pumpkin guts all over the back porch, but lots of laughter and fun.

After they were done carving they ate "Zombie Brain Soup" (chili), "Mummy dogs" (pigs in a blanket) and "Bat Wings with Zombie Ear wax" (blue corn chips and queso).

Of course, no pumpkin carving party is complete without karaoke and Guitar Hero? While they were doing that, I walked outside to look at all the pumpkins and spotted something in the middle of the yard. It was one shoe...Someone was wandering around without a shoe and I hadn't heard anything about it. Of course, it belonged to a boy! I still haven't carved my pumpkin and I'm not sure it's going to get done tonight. I'm beat!

Fall Break!

2008-10-21T20:36:00.001-07:00

Last week we celebrated the kid's Fall break by going to the beach. We have gone ot Orange Beach every Fall since 1991. That's even before kids! There have been 2 or 3 times that we haven't been able to go due to hurricanes. Those were not happy years!

We left Tuesday after school and drove straight through to the beach. Gram and Gramps had gone the day before, so they were waiting at the condo for us to arrive. Our trip was uneventful. The kids were troopers! The area south of Montgomery to the beach exit is really boring. So, Kevin had to endure my XM radio channel surfing. We were jumping around the 70s, 80s and 90s, and the Big Tracks stations. It's amazing how much of my brain is cluttered with songs and lyrics AND the guitar and drum solos. Yet, I walk out of the room to get something and I can't remember what it is.

Anyway, our trip was great. The weather was perfect! Warm, but not too warm. The Gulf was pretty rough the first few days, but by Friday it had calmed down quite a bit.

We lounged on the beach, while the kids played. We had friends down there, also, so they were entertained. I started and FINISHED a book, which is huge for me. I went shell hunting pretty much every day. We found many awesome shells and 1 bone(?).Kevin found the biggest shell EVER on one of the last days. This after stating that he didn't understand the thrill of looking for shells - grrrrrrr! We went crab hunting at night and caught "Crabzilla". The kids got boogie boards and rode the waves. We had a pet seagull that we named "Rover". He would guard our chairs and chase off all the other seagulls. All this for some cheddar popcorn. Emily and the girls danced on a table at a restaurant. She loved that... A good time was had by all.

One funny story happened the second night we were there. I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom - TMI. When I got back in bed I heard a scratching noise under the bed. Kevin had told me about one of his friends who was staying in a condo and they came in and found a Copperhead in the corner. Now, I wasn't thinking that there was a Copperhead under the bed, but I started thinking that it could be a lizard or mouse scratching. I laid there and heard the noise again. By now, I am somewhat freaked out. The third time I heard the noise, I basically jumped on Kevin and scared him to death. I didn't want to wake the rest of the condo so I whispered "I think there is something under the bed". He thought it was the fan blade or the blinds. I told him it wasn't. So he listened for a while and heard the scratching. He really didn't want to look, but he turned on the light and looked under the bed. Apparently, one of the slats from the bed had fallen out on my side and everytime he turned over it would rub on the carpet, sounding like something scratching. So, I hadn't totally lost my mind. I think Kevin was awake for the next 3 hours. I eventually was able to go back to sleep. Sorry, Kev!

We drove home Sunday to cold weather. We had to turn the heat on. I wasn't ready for that. I was ready to see Pepper dog. She seemed to have a good visit at the home she stayed at. She came home with a cute Halloween scarf.

Now we're back to the grind - homework, work, school, laundry, etc...I'm ready to go back!

Hoot, Scoot & Boogie weekend

2008-10-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

Well tonight was our last year for the Hoot, Scoot & Boogie school fundraiser. I'm sad and I'm not sad. Emily had 2 friends come over before we went to practice for their karaoke and to do each other's makeup and hair - great! Michael's friend,Connor, came with him.

They had fun, I think. Michael and Connor were ready to go home at 7:00, but Emily and her friends were not ready. That's a problem. I talked the boys into staying a little while longer. Hopefully, I won't win everything that I bid on. Michael really really wanted the Star Wars basket. I'm really hoping that someone else bid on that after me. Don't tell Michael that, though.

Kevin is in Boston, so he missed all the fun and we missed him. :(

Last week in September

2008-09-28T19:24:00.001-07:00

This week flew. Kevin went to the doctor and found out that he dislocated his thumb. He's in a brace for 2-4 weeks. I worked Tuesday and then headed out to Savannah on Thursday for a girl's trip. Kevin did the mom AND dad thing. He got the kids up and ready for school, ran the carpool, monitored homework, etc... I instructed him to pick up a snack for Emily after picking Michael up on Thursday. Emily told me tonight that "Daddy picked an interesting snack". Apparently, they got Poptarts and chocolate milk. My snacks are going to look really lame now! Ha! Friday he only had to get Emily and her friend from school.

Saturday, Michael played football and scored his first touchdown! Unfortunately, there are no pictures. Emily's team played and lost the first 2 games and won the 3rd when Kevin took over coaching. Emily also took a direct hit to the face with the ball that knocked her flat. She got up and kept on playing. There are also no pictures of that!

I do have pictures of my trip to Savannah. We had a great time! There are so many beautiful things to see. Some of the smells were rather interesting. I definitely want to go back. We also went to the beach for a day, which didn't hurt. It is definitely a place I would recommend visiting! I can't wait for our next trip!

September

2008-09-21T15:34:00.001-07:00

September has been a busy month. School is in full swing for Emily and Michael. My preschool is back in session. Emily and Michael are playing sports - volleyball and football. Michael is still taking guitar, but Emily has put her voice lessons on pause for now. We're having a hard time finding a time to do them. She is singing in the chorus after school. All in all things are going well for everyone.

Kevin and I celebrated our 20th anniversary at the end of August. Terry and Sandy came for a visit at the beginning of the month and I celebrated another birthday. Whew!

This past week, Kevin had a car accident - and it wasn't his fault! His car is pretty banged up in the back end. I'm thinking he's broken his thumb or at least really messed it up. He did manage to play on a golf outing for 2 days. He's still waiting to hear from the other driver's insurance company. Michael had a spill down the driveway the same day, further proving that he's a Gabhart. He shredded his knee and got on the bus anyway. The driver promptly put him off the bus, since he was bleeding! He is mended now.

Nashville has been pretty much without gas this week. On Friday 85% of our gas stations had no gas. I sat at Kroger's Friday morning for about 20 minutes since I was running on fumes. Others had to wait up to 1 1/2 hours that night. They are slowly opening up stations, but there are still a lot of station without gas. It's crazy!

Today we went to a Titans game after church. They won! I'm heading out of town on Thursday for a girl's weekend in Savannah. I am VERY excited about that.

I think that pretty much catches everyone up on what's going on in our lives down here in the South.

2 weeks into school

2008-08-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

I think I am almost caught up with blogging. The one thing I didn't write about was Michael's photo entry into the county Fair (his is the photo of the shield on the teal cardstock). He didn't win anything, but we're proud of him for trying. We're not sure why some of the pictures won and others did not. I'm sure they were looking for something specific, but there were a lot of photos that looked better than the ones that won.

We are 2 weeks into the school year and so far so good. They both seem to like their teachers. Life is getting busy. We have volleyball and football practice and music lessons for both. Emily started chorus at school. I'm getting ready to start teaching so, we are in full swing. Pepper is getting a lot of rest time! I don't know if she likes that or not.

Today we helped a couple from the Sunday School class move and stopped by to see Mrs. Schindler while we were on her side of town. I think she was happy to see us. She looked lovely. She had just gotten back from the beauty salon. The picture of her is from a visit earlier this summer. Her birthday is on Tuesday and she has breakfast and dinner plans. Sounds like she is going to have a good day. We are so thankful that God placed that sweet lady in our lives! He definitely knew where to put us when we moved to Nashville!

Our trip to Colorado!

2008-08-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

The day after Julie and the gang visited, Gram and Gramps graciously came down and stayed with Emily and Michael while Kevin and I went to Colorado. It's been a busy couple of weeks! Kevin had a business trip to Broomfield, Colorado (between Denver and Boulder) so I decided to tag along since I'd never been there.

We flew out on Tuesday and came home Friday. Tuesday night we had a company dinner at a restaurant called Flagstaff. It's up on Flagstaff mountain and there is a beautiful view of Boulder from there. Wednesday Kevin was in meetings all day, so me and a couple of girlfriends shopped in Boulder on Pearl Street and finished up at the mall in Broomfield. That night there was another dinner at the hotel. Thursday, Kevin played golf and I had a facial - FABULOUS! That afternoon we drove to Estes Park Colorado. It's a mini version of Gatlinburg with MUCH bigger mountains. Friday we flew home. It was a great get-a-way before school started back!

Our visit with Julie, Jeremy, Jacob, Hailee and Dillon

2008-08-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

The day after the sleepover we had guests come into town. Kevin's sister and her family came Friday night and stayed through Sunday. It was so good to see them and so nice of them to drive all the way down here. Especially since gas was not cheap then! We hung around the house and went to the pool. Although, the pool was not extremely refreshing since it was so dang hot outside. The boys all sat in the bonus room and played guitar and drums and played the song "Sweet Child of Mine" over and over and over...It was great, though, really! We also ate a lot. What else can you do when it's 100 degrees outside?!

Michael's rescheduled birthday sleepover!

2008-08-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

This has been the longest birthday celebration EVER! We had Michael's birthday sleepover on July 31st. We had nine very active 10 year old boys spend the night at the house. It was loud and a long evening! However, much fun was had by them. I'm not sure I can say the same about Emily, Kevin and me!

The biggest pancakes...EVER!

2008-07-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

It has been a LONG time since I have blogged (right, Tori?). We've had VBS, stomach viruses, a visit with Mrs. Schindler, a trip to the Mufreesboro Discovery center, church middle school mission projects, a luau and most recently, Emily and I went on a girls only trip.

We left on Sunday and headed to Chattanooga. We stayed a block from the Aquarium. Sunday night we went swimming, wandered around downtown and then ate dinner. Monday we went to the Aquarium and IMAX, to the North Shore shopping and then on to the Hamilton Place Mall - don't waste your time there!

Today we went to Aretha Frankenstein's for breakfast. I would consider it a dive. However, it has the biggest, yummiest pancakes ever. Wow! We couldn't even eat them all and we only ordered 2 each. We heard about it on the Food Network a long time ago. So that's how we ended the Chattanooga trip - very very full!

We drove back to Murfreesboro and did a little more shopping and then headed home for voice lessons. Now it's back to me being a nagging Mom.

Michael's 10th birthday continued...

2008-07-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

Tonight we continued Michael's 10th birthday celebration with friends. We were supposed to have a sleepover, but Em got sick Wednesday night and had a fever last night, so I was afraid to have 9 boys stay overnight in our germ pit. The good news is that the party is over for the night. The bad news is that I have to reschedule the sleepover.

Michael's party was at this animation studio. They have a party room and basically do it all. The boys played video games in the party room and they pull them out a few at a time to film a short movie in a big blue room. They then put it on a DVD and the kids get to take it home. Michael got to make his own space movie. They served the pizza, the cake and cleaned up. It was awesome for Kevin and I. After our week, I'm not sure I could have done it on my own. Michael and the boys seemed to have a good time. To quote Michael...his party was "cool". Until 10th birthday part 3!

Michael's 10th birthday!

2008-07-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that my baby is 10 years old! It's just not right. His birthday celebration started this weekend in Kentucky. We visited Gram and Gramps, Karen, Matt, Tori and Luke, Uncle Charles, Grandmother and Grandonnie, Aunt Julie, Uncle Jeremy, Haley, Dillon and Jacob, Uncle Aaron, Aunt Katie, Evan, Ann Marie, Conor, Riley and Stella, AND Grandaddy and Nana. Whew! Hopefully, I didn't leave anyone out!

Today was all about him. After I walked, I headed to Kroger at 6:30 am to get a special (quick) breakfast. I brought home cinnamon rolls from the bakery and bacon. He ended up not liking the cinnamon rolls, so he ate cereal. Oh well, I tried!

He spent the morning at VBS and ate lunch with friends. He played all afternoon with a friend and then we headed out to a really bad Mexican restaurant topped off by Marble Slab.

After the pigfest we headed home to open gifts and then we watched his baby video. It was so sweet and made me miss the baby phase! Now he and Kevin are playing one of his gifts - Super Smash Mario Brothers.

His official party is Friday night. Of course, it appears that everyone invited is going to be able to be there. I'll be pulling my hair out about 10:00 Friday night wondering "Why?". I guess you only hit the double digits once in your life!

2008-06-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

Really, what can be said?

Crazy face day and night!

2008-06-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

Today was not extremely eventful. We went to church and then Michael went over to Kyle's house to play. Kevin, Emily and I went to lunch and then to the mall. We did have a big time in the MacAuthority store. We found a laptop with software that "dented" your face. I was laughing so hard that I cried. I thought they were going to throw us out of the store.

We eventually picked Michael up and then headed home to a beautiful evening on the back porch. We've had a lot of those lately. Tomorrow, Kevin is back at work and we are back at keeping busy (and happy) during the day!

They are still so sweet when they sleep!

2008-06-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a full day. We worked out at the "Y". Em swam laps, we went to the grocery store and then set up the water slide in that back yard. Sophie came over and played on the slide and then Abbi and Hannah Grace came over and left about 10:00. I think they played on it for 3 hours! At the end of the night, I found Michael sound asleep on the sofa! Mission accomplished!

Summer is in Full Swing!

2008-06-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

I am not doing a great job of keeping up with our Blog. It seems like since we got back from DC there just hasn't been any "down time". So far it feels like all we are doing is packing, unpacking or doing laundry.

After our camping trip, we were home for a few days and then Em was off with the Middle School church group on a retreat. After she got back we had a week and then we were packing again for Michael's camp. I chaperoned and Emily tagged along and was picked up by Gram and Gramps for a few days there.

After we got back, I slept and took naps and took naps and slept! It hit me harder than I thought! However, I believe a good time was had by all. We had no illnesses this time!

Since we've been back we've been working out at the "Y" and swimming and doing music lessons. Emily is still continuing her voice lessons. Her teacher came out yesterday and said that "Emily had a breakthrough". She said that sometimes it takes people 2-3 years to do it, but Emily did it in 2 weeks! I'm still not sure what the "breakthrough" was, and Emily couldn't really explain it either. It has something to do with using your head and chest voice. She's not sure how she did it, so that have to figure that out next week...

Michael started guitar lessons today. He said that his instructor is "awesome". I'm guessing he's referring to how he plays, although, he did have really cool long hair. I was Googling him and he's written several guitar books and has played in a couple of bands.

I guess that's all for now. I'll try to be better about blogging. Don't give up on us. Hope everyone who reads this is having a great summer! We'll be in touch!

Weekend at Dale Hollow

2008-06-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

Back in November, we tried to go camping. Michael got sick, so he and I stayed at home. Em and Kevin braved the cold only to come home on Sunday morning about 3:00 AM with her wheezing. So, we promised them that we would try again when it warmed up. This past weekend, we fulfilled that promise and boy was it warm!

We headed to Dale Hollow on Friday with 2 other families and set up camp in 95 degree weather. We were up on a hill and there were some trees on the site. It was a beautiful setting. The playground was across the street, so the kids were able to go play while we sat! It was great!

Saturday we got up and headed to the marina to pick up our pontoon boat with a slide. We spent the whole day on the lake. The kids pretty much played on the slide all day. It was a hot day, but the lake felt great and there was a nice breeze. Other than a totally creepy guy sitting in his boat near us for a while, we had the cove to ourselves.

When the meltdowns started, we headed back to camp and the kiddos and adults had water balloon battles for the rest of the afternoon and then after dinner it was Smores' time.

We packed up Saturday and headed home. I think it was one of our more successful camping trips - no rain, no sewage issues... We did have to leave our faithful tent of 12 years behind. The zipper on the front door split out. We were so glad to get home to our air conditioning, beds and our sweet puppy Pepper.

Friday...Our last full day in DC:(

2008-05-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

We have had such a good visit here in DC. I highly recommend visiting here. There is so much to do. I thought we could do it all, but I was wrong. Yes, I said I was WRONG. Anyway, we have seen a lot of things.

Today we toured the Capital with Interns from our Congressman's office. They were maybe 19 and 21? We saw the House Floor where the President holds the State of the Union address, the Rotunda, a beautiful view of Washington Monument. Ask Kevin how many pictures he has of the Monument! We got to travel through the tunnels connecting the Capital, Library of Congress and Madison Building. There were many more things that we saw there, but I can't remember all the names right now.

After our tour, we went to the Library of Congress. Yet another huge beautiful building. It was there that we hit a wall ( figuratively!). I decided that my brain couldn't hold any more information. I decided it was time to eat, so we ate at the cafeteria in the top of the Madison building.

Our final stop of the day was the Old Post Office. Since we were unable to go to the top of the Washington Monument we were told this was the next best thing. Actually, we were told it was a better view that from the Washington Monument. It wasn't as high, but I think it was a better view of the whole city and it has bigger windows.

On our way back up the street, we bought all the crazy souvenirs - homeboy caps and sunglasses, fake Coach, Prada and Dolce Gabbana purses. Tomorrow we'll probably try to go to at least 1 more museum before we head to the airport.

Until tomorrow night...

Wednesday and Thursday

2008-05-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

Greeting to all. We were too tired to blog yesterday! The day started with us heading to the Smithsonian of Air and Space. We stopped on the way and saw the house where Lincoln died. It is directly across from Ford's theater. The theater is under construction right now, so we couldn't go in there. A lot seems to be under construction right now.

After that we went to the museum. We had a great time there and were there quite a while. Again, there were many school groups touring. However, the museum is so big, it wasn't too bad.

We came back to the hotel for about an hour and then headed to Union Station for our Monuments at Midnight tour. We ended up taking the Metro to that since we didn't want to walk home late at night.

Union Station is beautiful. There is a Mall, restaurants, and oddly enough a train station. The Metro station also has a stop there, so that was nice.

The night tour was very fun and interesting. The only bad thing is that most of the school groups were touring the Monuments at night, so where we would get somewhere, it would be PACKED with crazy middle and high school kids who were pretty disrespectful of where they were.

We went to the FDR memorial, Lincoln Memorial (crazy packed!) , Ijo Jimo (sp?) memorial. We decided not to walk to the Vietnam wall or the Korean Memorial because the schools were all there and so loud.

We drove past the White House, but we didn't get out there. The kids were too tired and frankly, so were we. We went back to Union Station, got on the Metro and got back to our hotel after 11:00.

Today we got up and took the Metro over to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to get tour tickets. We were late and I thought that we wouldn't get any, but we did get in to a tour at 2:45. Yea!

While waiting for that we walked back to the Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial and Vietnam Memorial. It was MUCH better today. Not so wild!

We grabbed a really nasty hot dog for lunch and then sat on a bench and ran around in The Mall for about 1 hour before heading to the Smithsonian Castle and then on to the Bureau at 2:45. The tour was very interesting. Glad we got in!

Since we're so tired, we ended up coming back to the room and hitting the pool and eating close to the hotel. We're hoping to get to bed early tonight, because tomorrow we're hitting Capitol Hill. Our trolley tour went through there last night and there are so many beautiful things to see.

Small world. Someone just walked up to the computer Kiosk with a Page Middle sweatshirt on. Same Page that Emily goes to.

Ok, I think that's it for now. Sorry there are no pictures. We let our room Internet access expire. So, I've been standing here in the lobby typing this.

Day 3...and we're walking!

2008-05-27T16:50:00.000-07:00

Day 3 we went to the White House Visitor's Center and watched a video on the White House (since we couldn't get in) read a lot of info about it and saw some, pictures (Taft's bathtub was a favorite), china, etc...

We walked back to the Lincoln Memorial to go to the top, but the tickets for the day were all gone. I tried to sign on and get tickets for tomorrow. The first available online tickets are for June 25th So much for that idea.

After that we went to the Museum of Natural History along with many other school kids on field trips. It was pretty packed, but we toured most of it. We saw dinosaur bones, stuffed mammals, bugs and the Hope Diamond. That was my favorite!

We were all dragging after that and still had our tour of the National Archives to go to, so we ate lunch and revived some. We walked to the Archives, but were early. There was a really cool sculpture park across the street with a beautiful fountain. We walked around there and then sat for a few minutes before our tour.

We had advance tickets so we were taken to the front of the line of the National Archives (kind of like a Disney fast pass) and went on in. Again, there were many school groups touring. We wandered, and tried to look at everything else before seeing the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. Michael REALLY wanted to see those, so he was basically running through the rest of the building. We got to the Rotunda and it was packed. We had to wait in line, but couldn't figure out how to get to the end of the line. At one point we ended up walking through the exit where people were coming out after seeing the documents. The police/security were completely oblivious. We ended up walking back out. We should have just stayed in there.

The documents looked like, well, old documents. The Declaration of Independence was really faded. The room was darker than I thought, so it was hard to see. We saw them, though. We can now mark that off our list. Michael bought a copy of each if you want to see them! Ha!

Did I say that we were tired?! Tomorrow is another day. Until then...

Memorial Day at Arlington Cemetary

2008-05-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

Today we got up and decided to head over Arlington Cemetery for the Memorial Day ceremony. What they didn't tell you online is that you couldn't go into the main part of the cemetery until the President was gone. However, we got lucky and saw his motorcade coming in. Laura Bush waved at us. I'm sure she was looking directly at us - ha! If you click on the picture, you can see her clearly and George's hand and silhouette. Anyway, it was a cool moment. After about 45 minutes we were able to walk through Arlington. While walking we heard the 21 gun salute, saw the Kennedy's graves, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the Challenger Memorial. At the tomb of the Unknown soldier there were various veteran groups presenting wreaths to the soldiers at the tomb. We watched that for quite a while. There were many veterans there in their military dress uniforms. It was a very special way to spend Memorial Day. I'm not sure that the kids felt the same way, but hopefully someday they will look back and see that it was.

Later in the afternoon Em and Michael hit the pool for a while and then we walked through Chinatown that night.

Tuesday we are going to the White House Visitor Center and then the National Archives this afternoon. We're hoping to fit something else in today, too, but we'll just have to see how we are doing on time.

More later!

And we're here!

2008-05-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Baltimore about 4:50 pm yesterday afternoon and had an exciting ride to DC. Our driver seemed ok until we got in DC then someone pulled out in from of him and he slammed on the brakes and the horn. It was aggressive driving from then on. You should have seen the look on the kids faces!

From our hotel you can see the top of the Washington Monument and the top of the Capitol. We're about 6 blocks from the White House. Last night was so beautiful that we went walking. We ended up at the National Mall. It's probably 7 or 8 blocks from here. We had a great time just walking around, figuring out where everything is. We found the Smithsonians, the National Archives, the Department of Justice, the Old Post Office. I could go on and on. We are definitely in walking distance of many things.

Today we got up and walked to the White House. It was pretty busy. There were several protesters and one man with a box on his head who is running for president - who knew! After that we experienced the Metro (subway). We bought passes, transferred to a different train and ended up where we supposed to be going! Amazing. The kids loved it.

Our destination was the Nationals baseball field. This is their inaugural season. The game was ok. We ended up leaving our seats to move to the shade. It's not really hot here, but after sitting about 1 1/2 hours in the sun, we were ready to move. We ended up leaving at the bottom of the 6th inning and now were resting in the room for a while.

There is a concert in front of the Capitol tonight. We might head over there later on. The kids will definitely be hitting the pool tonight.

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day! I think we might head to Arlington tomorrow. We'll update more then.

And...we're off!

2008-05-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

DC here we come! Its been months in the planning and now, like a whirlwind, it is here. Our long-awaited and much anticipated trip to our nation's capital (or is that capitol?).

Anyway, we've dropped Pepper off at her friends' home and the car is packed. We've logged in and gotten our A boarding pass for SWA. The only thing that is left is getting there, getting around, and finding an adventure somewhat akin to National Treasure.

While it would be nice to discover a hidden room filled with millions of dollars of gold and artwork...we're only likely to find a moderately clean hotel room with an indoor swimming pool and (hopefully) an International House of Pancakes.

All the best to you and yours this long holiday weekend. We have several in our thoughts and prayers, but on this holiday, I especially want to lift up Danny P. who has been working with us on our investments and retirement planning and has just been called up to serve our country in the Army Reserves. Danny is a great guy. Now, I have a whole new level of respect and admiration for him. I also appreciate what he and all the others are doing. Right or wrong, they are serving our country and trying to make it better for all of us.

Considering how good things are in our family, I guess we did find the national treasure.

(OK, it was my first shot at one of these and I got a little preachy...please forgive and come read Mrs. Incredible's writings in the future.)

MR. INCREDIBLE

The boy and the missing jacket

2008-05-12T17:06:00.000-07:00

About 2 months ago, Michael came home from school without his really cool zip up hoodie. I asked him where it was and he said "I don't know". That is a typical response from my boy. I told him to look on the playground and in lost and found when he went back to school the next day. So, he comes home the next day and I ask him if he found his jacket and he says that he couldn't find it. Now Michael is really bad about not finding things when he looks for them. I would like to say that he gets that from his father, but I'm afraid he gets it from me. I cannot lie. Anyway, this same conversation took place pretty much the whole week - "did you find your jacket?" "No". I finally decided that some hoodlum from school lifted it and it would never be seen again. It wouldn't fit him next year, anyway.

Fast forward to today. Michael was a car rider today. I was a little late getting in the carpool line and I was looking for him to make sure that he didn't get on the bus. He wore a bright orange shirt to school today, so I was looking for a boy in an orange shirt. Emily finally spotted him, but he wasn't wearing an orange shirt. He was wearing his lost jacket. He gets in the car and I said "Michael, you found your jacket! Where was it?" He proceeds to tell me that some boy found it UNDERNEATH A BENCH ON THE PLAYGROUND"! So this jacket has been outside for 2 MONTHS and Michael is wearing it. I told to take it off immediately! It had to be filthy. His response was to put his hands in his pockets and say "It just has some dirt and leaves in the pockets". Gag! Who knows what all is on that jacket after being outside for 2 months. It's a good thing he's so cute!

Pepper and The Boy

2008-05-06T20:07:00.001-07:00

MG and Pepper started taking a 4H dog obedience class about 7 weeks ago. They went every week for an hour and learned sit, lie down, come, stay and heel. He took over feeding Pepper at home and has been practicing with her 3 or 4 times a week. They have really bonded. It's so cute when she hears the bus coming. She'll sit at the back door and pace or cry until he is in the house.

Tonight MG and Pepper had their testing. On a whim, MG took the written test before the obedience portion of the program began. AFTER 2 HOURS of waiting, he finally had the obedience test. They both passed AND Michael got 3rd place ribbon for the "skillathon" which was the written test. Needless to say, we were all shocked!

It was a long, but successful evening. They start agility training in the Fall - maybe...

Crazy Weekend!

2008-05-04T17:38:00.000-07:00

This has been one of those whirlwind weekends. Friday, Kevin and I drove to Louisville for the Kentucky Oaks. As all you Kentuckians know, it was a lousy day! The weather was horrible. I think we watched 2 races outside. The rest were seen on a TV monitor inside with 100,000 other people! Fun! We finally gave up after the 7th race when there was no hope of the rain stopping. Kevin and our neighbor got contraband umbrellas from the gate (out of the dumpster) and we walked back to the car in the downpour. Along the way we were mooned by a very inebriated teen. Welcome to Louisville!
Saturday we had a yard sale in the morning, Em's volleyball game at 12:00 and a Derby party at 4:00. I don't know why I create so much stress in my life. Anyway, it turned out to be a good party, except for the very sad Derby race.
Last night I started losing my voice and today isn't any better. The kids think it's funny when I talk and they are trying to make me laugh, because that is even funnier.
Kevin wants everyone to know that 3 pieces of pie in a day are too many. Words to live by! I guess that's it for today. We're done with craziness for now - until my Derby Bunko party tomorrow night!

Em's first vocal showcase

2008-04-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons that I started this blog is so that I could put a video of Em's first vocal showcase on here for you to see. She started voice lessons about 6 weeks ago and is loving it. At first the instructor was just going to let her listen to the first showcase, but she decided that Em was ready to perform. So, we took the digital recorder, camera and cell phone to call Dad. We managed to knock the recorder off the table before she started, so it didn't work. I took several pictures of her on stage and got home and found out they were ALL blurry. I did remember to call Kevin while she sang and he listened to her on speaker phone. So, this performance will just have to be a memory. In spite of all that chaos, she did great! I was amazed at her performance and very proud of her. I'm guessing that this will not be her last showcase. Hopefully, we'll get it on video next time!

Our first Blog

2008-04-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

Kevin recently started teaching a new Sunday School class. Most of the members are in their 20s and 30s. We noticed that everyone seems to have a blog for their children. We are SO behind times. We thought emailing pictures was pretty "with it". As our kids get older and busier, I'm finding it hard to keep all the grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends up-to-date. So here it is - our first BLOG. Hopefully, we'll be able to share accomplishments, band concerts, sporting events and whatever else is going on in our crazy world with you. All you have to do is sign on. So here we go. We're entering the BLOG generation!