A heavy heart

     I end this week with a very heavy heart. My classmate from HS gained her wings and flew to Heaven this week.  Three short years ago she was at our HS reunion going through chemo with a new diagnosis of Breast cancer. She fought this battle hard over the years but unfortunately the cancer won. She is a single Mom with a daughter that is turning 10 years old next week. It breaks my heart that she left this world way too early. Although on a very touching and positive note, it is very apparent through the support shown on FB of how much she is loved and how many, many, many lives she touched. She has a beautiful smile that lights up a room. As we go through our daily lives it is easy to get discouraged at little things, get caught up in the busy days of life and take things for granted. You never know what might happen any day in your life or a loved ones, so live each day to it's fullest and keep in mind that sometimes those around you are fighting battles you can't see. This short story is very touching and a great reminder:

I know you did not know Shana but I still would like to post this link in case you feel led to contribute. In lieu of flowers the family has set up a fund for her daughter. 

You can click on the words Shana's legacy below for the link to the donation page.

Shana's Legacy

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers and please continue to pray for her family and friends during this time of loss. Thank you.

We are "Happy"

We did our own little " Happy" video while heading to Tampa! ha ha...just sharing for you to get a laugh! By the way...I even got Mike to participate!! yay!! Dev gave up easily but Bry just kept singing along in the background! Cheers to being silly!!

Cloudy skies

We were up early Sunday morning and headed to Tampa for the air show. The forecast was clear so we were excited for a great day. Well I don't think it was clear the whole day except maybe when we were leaving. The good part of the cloudy day was that we were not really ever hot. A moment or two when the sun did try to shine through the clouds let me know how hot we could of been on the forecasted clear day! I wasn't sure how good the show would be with the clouds but it ended up being a great show anyway. I know they altered a little of the show due to the overcast skies and low clouds but we still had a great time! A trip would not be complete though without our silly picture!! 

I am most impressed with the shots I got with my new camera!! yay!! It was difficult to tell how they were turning out with the overcast skies. I was very pleased to see them later at home. I won't bore you with all the pictures but I just love the detail I was able to zoom in on! Also, I don't have any photographer experience...LOL...and I don't even know all the tricks I could do on the camera, so I wonder what a little knowledge could do?? :-)

I love that I can see the pilots in these pictures!

The boys were excited to see this plane fly because they have the toy one at home!

Bry and I were walking around and peeking at this Blackhawk helicopter and one of the guys came up and offered to open it up so we could get a better look....awesome!

I really like this picture! It also reminds me of the story.....I was telling Mike he could just lay back a little in his chair and then lift his shirt up some to expose his belly in an attempt to get a little sun tan...and then Bry blurts out very loud!...."Like the guy over there??!!" OMG...seriously.......the answer is yes, but....don't yell that out next time please!!! LMAO!! That's what I get for making a sarcastic remark about the guy next to us!! ha ha...

Bry also announced loudly to the crowd behind us as he was sitting on Mike's shoulders..."wow! You were right Mom...all the short people are behind us!"  haha...because right as the Thunderbirds were about to climb in and take off all the tall people came out of nowhere and decided to come in and stand in front of all of us that had been patiently waiting in our chairs for the best part to start. Oh well, we could see pretty good once they got in the air! ha ha... Watch out what you say around Bry!!

The boys were amazed at all the controls inside this refueling plane! As you can see they were being given the info by a girl!!! yay!! Go girl!! 

We had a great time seeing the Thunderbirds! I don't know if the show was better than the Blue Angels though, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt since they didn't have clear blue skies to fly over the beautiful Gulf of Mexico. We had a great family day!!

The first soccer games of the season also went OK. Both boys teams lost but they both played pretty well and I think they have some pretty good teams. I am already turning into a cold weather wimp though. The temperature was 69 last night while I sat out watching soccer practice and I was freezing!! I was snuggled under a blanket and freezing! In my defense the wind was blowing pretty strong! LOL...

Well we have a busy weekend ahead with soccer games, a Red Sox vs Twins game and the neighborhood camp out. The bad news is it has rained already this week and it's supposed to rain on Friday and Saturday! Boo!! Maybe the forecast will change in time for Sat. I hope so. 

By the way we did get the History fair projects turned in...whew.... and none of us will win the billion dollar bracket for the NCAA. Although, good news is that even though I've picked some losers for the bracket my overall winner pick is still alive! I'm not telling who I picked yet so I don't jinx them or anything. I think we are all about tied as far as wins and loss picks. I will have to total them up and see where we stand. 

I'd like to ask for prayers again for my HS friend battling breast cancer for the 3rd time. The cancer is winning at the moment and she isn't doing well at all. Please pray for her strength, comfort and peace. Thank you. 

Finally!

     Well I finally finished the tile back splash! yay!! I think it looks great. I have a few things I wish I would of done differently, but oh well. I still really like it. It looks so normal now with the new tile and when I look at the before pics they look so plain! ha! But I guess that's the point, so mission accomplished! Now I want to pick out a paint color to paint the family room and kitchen. I'm not sure when my schedule will allow it, but I'm going to try to get it done in the next month or so hopefully! Here are a few pics:

Before:

In progress:

Finished product! I realized I didn't take the same angle pictures but you can still see the dramatic difference.

 
     The boys have been having great weather for Spring Break!! I only wish I was at home enjoying it with them! Gotta love this weather forecast!! oh yeah!!

    I got my little welcome vacation package in the mail for my girls race weekend in Disney in October. yay! The Epcot Food and Wine festival will be going on also while we are there.  I'm hoping we will be able to spend a day trying out all the different foods from around the world..yum!! Of course the theme of the race has to do with the Tower of Terror. I'm not a fan of that ride at all with the free fall drop! I think I rode it one time a long, long time ago. Although, I'm hoping to brave up the courage to ride it this time and have the other girls join me so we can get a group picture in our race gear, medals in hand and screaming our lungs out as we free fall!! yikes! ha ha...

     I don't know if you attempted to try any of the new flavor chips that Lays was putting out on the shelves. I tried a few of them but none of them really seemed all that great to me. There was one flavor that Dev kept wanting to try. Well, I saw it yesterday in Walgreens so we bought it. He loved it! I only smelled in the bag and didn't try them. I'm not sure if I was scared I would be totally disgusted by the taste or be totally disgusted with myself if I actually liked them! ha ha... Maybe another adventurous day I might decide to try them. Plus, even if I wanted to try them, he inhaled them. Like I said ...Dev loved them and was humming "mmm mmmm so good" the whole time he ate them!

     We are headed to Tampa this weekend to see an air show. The boys are excited. It won't be the Blue Angels like we are used to, but the Thunderbirds will be there. I don't think I've ever seen the Thunderbirds so it will be a nice new experience. I'm assuming it will be very similar to the Blue Angels Air show.

     Both boys have history fair projects due on Monday. yuk! It's one that you have to make the presentation board like a Science fair project. yuk! Why is it due the day we come back from spring break???!!  Yes, I admit I've known about it for probably 2 months, but we have procrastinated and haven't even started on it. They picked the topic and that was it. LOL...so now we are going to be cramming this week, prob tonight, Wed and Fri trying to get it done so we don't have to worry about it over the weekend with our soccer games and air show. I don't like projects!! I know it's their project, but seriously at this age...we all know the parents have to do a lot of the work! yuk! Have I said yuk yet? ha ha...so I told Mike he is going to be in charge of helping one boy and I will help the other, I'm not doing two of them!! yuk! LOL.... I see computer searches, copy and paste, print and gluing in my near future!!

     This year me and all the boys filled out our NCAA basketball brackets for the tournament. We each did one and we will see who gets the most teams correct. I made several educated and many uneducated guesses in who I thought would win each team. It was neat to see the boys filling out their bracket and trying to decide who will win. Mike and I even went online to fill out for the Billion dollar bracket contest. The odds of winning are basically that no one will win ha ha, but I guess it's worth a try! Dev wanted to put in his bracket for the Billion dollars but I told him you have to be 18. I offered to put his choices instead of mine but he decided against it. Later he had the nerve to ask me what I'd do if his bracket had all the winning choices....seriously?? I'd cry, cry , cry!! ha ha....

    Well happy HUMP DAY! and I hope you have a great weekend ahead! Toodles.

   

Lots of busy days

    So the best part has happened! Our Disney trip with friends! Wow, it was such beautiful weather and we had such a great time!! The boys were so happy to see their friends from Louisiana!! We had a busy four days visiting all the Disney parks but it was so much fun. I have to say...Disney is amazing. We have been many, many times since 2008 and I think every time we go we experience something new or find a new ride or a new something to try. We love it! It was Mardi Gras time for the Louisiana peeps, so we saw tons of LSU clothing everywhere!! Wow, our friends even saw several people they know!! The crowds were pretty light for Disney standards. I would say there was only one disappointment, Bry was sad that Splash mountain was closed for work while we were there. But not to worry....we will be back!!  The new Seven dwarfs mine train wasn't open yet either, but next time!
     Some of my fav pics from the trip...hard to pick only a few but let's see:

     I still haven't finished the tile backsplash grouting yet. I'm hoping to get that done this weekend. It was a short week when we got back from Disney and then Uncle Tim visited us. The boys had a blast. We all went kayaking and played some tennis and enjoyed a relaxing weekend. This time we saw quite a bit of wildlife along the way while kayaking. Bry did so much better paddling this time than the last but still got tired at the end. I think next time I will make him ride in a two seater with me. Mike, Tim, Dev all paddled ahead of us quite a bit. We met back up with them on our way back. I did see a baby gator! eekk! I paddled back to get a picture but made sure Bry didn't know because I know he would of totally freaked!! When Mike caught back up to us he said a Manatee surfaced right in front of Dev when they were paddling out. Of course he said Dev was freaking out and screaming! ha ha.... so on our way back together...we saw it again! Bry freaked knowing it was ahead but managed to direct himself over to the side and then I saw it come up for air! Cool!! It was neat, although I was a little hesitant also that he might surface to close to me and tip me, but didn't happen. We saw several very cool birds also, and a very large Pelican! Bry was getting very tired on the way back so I kept giving his kayak a push from behind with my paddle. Well one too many hard pushes and oopps, by paddle got stuck on his kayak and away he went with my paddle!!! LOL....thankfully Mike was near by and could come back to help. Meanwhile I drifted straight over to the bank, but not happy about it! It was scary..for me...yuk...I kept wondering what might pop out of the brush or trees any minute..lmao...but I kept trying to keep my cool and not freak out. But luckily, it was probably one of the best places to drift if I had too, some of the other places would of really freaked me out to drift hopelessly into!! It was hysterical though. Needless to say I was much more careful the next time I tried to boost him ahead with my paddle!

Can you see the gator at the waters edge?? eekk! Where is the Momma?? 

     We are getting our summer plans all into order! I am so happy...we are going to have two great summer trips with friends to the beach! One set we haven't seen in several years and the others are moving far away....boo...   So remember my recent post about 222....well here ya go!!! So my friend is booking a condo for us for a family beach weekend. The original one she had wanted to book was already booked when she went back to book it. So she finds another one and she books it and sends me the website of the resort and the unit #....yes...I"m serious...the room # is 222!! No kidding!! :-)  So we are obviously meant to be at the beach having fun!! LOL....now if I can just hit the lottery with my 222!! I'd take any form of the # !!

     Well this weekend is going to be a catch up weekend around the house. I have a few more projects I want to get working on. This is one of our only free weekends for awhile, so I need to try to take advantage of it. Next week is spring break for the boys and they are spending it with Granny. I hope she still has some hair left by the end of the week!! ha ha...

     Bry started his classes this week with the new TKD team! He had a good time and is really enjoying it. He got his new uniform for the team and looked so cute in it!! He is really excited!

    The boys also started soccer practice again. They have two weeks until games start again. Bry has a different coach than last season, thank goodness..so I hope he has a little better season this time. Dev has the same coach and a few of the same players on his team.

     Our neighborhood is having a movie night , camp out in the next few weeks. I know we will probably go to the movie. I'm not so sure about the camp out. I am a little questionable about critters....lol...I might just see if Daddy wants to camp with them in the tent and I'll go home to my bed. ha!

     So I found these lovely things in the store the other day and decided I had to try them! I love the Magnum caramel ones, I don't buy them often....price and calories...but I had to try the new flavor!! They were oh so yummy!! I still think the double caramel are my favorite though!

     Anyway...well that's my update for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend!! Toodles.