I Miss You Brenda......................

Brenda Leigh McVean 7-31-1972 to 08-20-2007

You were such a pillar of strength for your girls and you fought the toughest battle that a woman could ever fight. I love and miss you so much Brenda.

Happy 17th Birthday!

Wow, it's hard to believe that Shanna and Lindsay are 17 and entering into their final year of high school. We celebrated their birthday on August 14 instead of August 16 because Shanna had plans to travel to Washington D.C. for the weekend. We went out to eat at Applebee's and their main birthday gift was new cell phones. I'm always reminded that they are my birthday gift since their birthday is a day prior to mine with the exception that my date of birth is a mere 23 years and 364 days prior. Ahhhhhhhh, another year older. I really don't feel any different, but maybe a year wiser.





Can you believe they are twins??? Nothing alike at all!!!

Time on my hands.......

What would you do if you had some extra time on your hands? I am currently on a 3 week break prior to my full-time schedule of fall classes, which begin on August 21. My husband and I decided to do a little work (I use the term "little" very loosely) in our kitchen. We thought this would be no big deal. We thought that we would just rip out the old cabinets and replace the cabinets with new (used) ones, paint and glaze them, and replace the flooring, right? Oh my goodness we were sooooooo wrong!
Let me start by saying, if you ever plan on doing a remodeling job in any room in your home be prepared for the unexpected. As we were doing a little demo we decided to move the front entryway that leads into the kitchen. This would allow us to have more space to place a large pantry in our kitchen. This grand idea lead into ripping a wall down, rewiring, replacing drywall, and a lovely thick layer of dust covering every possible inch of your home. Oh ya, I almost forgot that there is a 5 to 6 week wait for our new countertops.....eeeeeeek!
Honestly, I'm not really complaining. I actually feel very blessed that we can update our home and I know we will truly enjoy all the fruits of our labor(well eventually), but sometimes it can be a real pain in the you know what. We have always taken great pride in doing our own home improvements and I am looking forward to seeing the end result even if it is a few months down the road! Stay tuned for the end results!

My old Coca-Cola Kitchen

Cute, but tired of the Coca-Cola theme

No more sink.....yuck!

What a mess!

Don't look at the dust on my ceiling fan. Oh, I knew you would look...ha, ha, ha Who needs a darn wall anyway!

Only 7 More Days

I can't believe that in only 7 more days the Olympics start! The travel channel dedicated a whole week of programming about the People's Republic of China. Every evening I made it a point to sit down and further educate myself about China and its history and traditions. Viewing the footage of Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace and the Great Wall of China brought back wonderful memories of our trip in May 2007. Oh how I would love to go back and visit! The travel channel also aired several shows highlighting China's cuisine. I've tried to make several Chinese dishes, but let's just say that it wasn't too appetizing! I think I will stick to Chinese take-out from now on. I wanted to share a couple of photos of the Beijing Olympic countdown clock in Tiananmen square. I mean how many people have the same picture of the Olympic countdown clock during the same day, hour, minute and second?

Lazy Posting Days........................

Wow, it's been quite some time since I last posted! We recently took a trip to visit my parents in Illinois, and it was Kaiden's first time meeting them. Kaiden isn't shy at all, so there wasn't a problem with him getting to know his grandma and grandpa. Frank and the girls were hoping to go out fishing at least one day, but with the flooding, it was pretty much impossible. However,during our visit we went to the local zoo, went the the movies to watch Kung Fu Panda, shopping, and we also visited the John Deere museum. Kaiden has a John Deere hat and he would sleep with it on if we let him, so we just had to take him to the museum in Moline, Illinois. We have been to the museum before, but Kaiden didn't seem to thrilled with the large tractors at all! It's funny because we will go to Lowe's to pick up something for the house, and he will get excited every time we walk in and he sees the John Deere lawn mower display. We tried to purchase Kaiden a new John Deere hat and he wouldn't have any part of it! He said he only wanted his green hat. Kids are too funny!
We hit all of the local restaraunts that were my favs growing up; Whitey's Ice Cream, Harris Pizza, Happy Joe's Pizza. Mmmmmmmm, I better stop because it's making me hungry! We also stopped at Maggie Moo's and may I suggest if you have one in your local area, you need to try the red velvet cake ice cream...Yummmmmy! All in all it was a really nice visit. It's going to be some time before we make it back there again since I will be taking a full load of classes until I complete my degree.
It seems like home improvements never end. We are putting the finishing touches on our main bathroom and then we are moving onto another project. Our family room is very dated (1969) and we will be removing the wood paneling and putting up drywall and then laying wood laminate flooring throughout the house. Hopefully we can call it quits after that one. Frank would like to continue his education to receive his Master's degree in hospital managment so we will have to put all projects on hold for at least a couple of years. It's hard to believe that after Shanna and Lindsay graduate in 2009, there will be 5 of us in college next fall! eeeeeeek
Have a great week everybody! Hopefully I will get back into the swing of things and start posting on a regular basis.

Congratulations Kirstie! Class of 2008

On Friday June 13, Kirstie finally did it! She graduated from Western Branch High School, and we couldn't be any prouder! Kirstie said "It's finally over mom", and I said "Honey, you have only just begun!" A total of 499 graduating seniors in a ceremony that lasted only 1 hour and 15 minutes. I didn't think they could pull it off in such a short time, but they suprised me. Joe drove up from Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Laura, Grafton, Tyler, Keke and Shanna's friend, Jumaria, also attended. After the ceremony Kirstie decided she wanted to go to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch. The weather couldn't have been any more perfect. It's hard to believe my oldest has graduated from high school and will be starting college in the fall. Kirstie and I will be attending the same college (I don't think she is too keen on the idea of being seen with her mom in college). I will try not to embarrass her....too much lol
I remember Kirstie's first day of school when the bus stopped in front of the house to pick her up. She walked up to the bus steps and started screaming and flung her legs and arms out refusing to get on the bus. Nothing I said, or the bus driver said, would convince this screaming, red faced, little girl to board the bus. After calming her down we hopped in the van and I took her to her very first day of Kindergarten. It's hard to believe my baby is now riding around in her Mustang and will be attending college. Although, her face still sometimes gets red when she is upset with me.
We are all so proud of you Kirstie! You have struggled through some classes, aced others, and took classes that you thought would be an easy A, but the class proved you wrong. The struggles and journey is what life is all about, and what helps your grow during your time on this earth. We love you, and we pray that God leads you to your career path, so you can bless others, as much as you have blessed our lives!

Overnight ambush..................

Late last night while Kirstie was on her cell phone in her room, we took it upon ourselves to do a few modifications to Kirstie's car.
Cell phone + Kirstie = Enough time to execute our plan........lol
Lindsay blew up all the balloons and hid them in her closet until the coast was clear. Lindsay, Shanna and I went outside around 11:00pm and decorated Kirstie's Mustang for graduation. Kirstie was suprised and immediately called her friend Britney to let her know she would be a little late since she had to pop all of the yellow and blue balloons in her car...ha ha ha. Kirstie said "Thanks Mom" and was proud to drive around with class of 2008 advertised in her back window.