Yay! It's My Birthday!!!!

Ok - so June 30th is my birthday and I'm turning "37" years young.

In honor of this special occasion, I would like to give away gifts.....bloggy award gifts to be exact.

In the last few weeks I have been awarded some bling from some of my wonderful bloggy friends and today I'm going to return some of the love.

Let's get the award ceremony started:

Award #1:

This award was given to me by Jennifer at A Sample of Jennifer's Thoughts .

It was originated by Crystal at Memoirs of a Mommy in honor of the organ donor who saved her young son, Noah's, life. In order to accept this award, you just have to link back to her and share it with other blogs that you read and love.

Now for the receipients (in no particular order):

Wendi at Because Wendi Said So!

Kristen of Loving Our Simple Life

McMommy of the McMommy Chronicles

Award #2:

This award is pretty self-explainatory, so with no further delay, it goes to:

Memoirs of the Shoe Obsessed

Jodie of The Minniear Family - Life Through My Lens

Kellan from On The Upside (you probably already have this one - just not from me)

Award #3:

This special award is to be given and accepted by everyone who has visited me & comments on a regular basis (you know who you are). Enjoy!

Thanks to everyone for stopping by & sharing my special day with me.

You are all truly great friends.

Our Nest

OMGoodness! I have been surfing around blogworld and have discovered a whole new set of sites that I just adore. There is Shannon from Bless Our Nest, Feathers In My Nest, Kari and Kijsa, and The Nesting Place and these are just a few. I haven't made it through their blogrolls yet, so I'm sure there's a lot more in store for me to enjoy.

I have gotten so many ideas already. I can't wait to try some of their tips and ideas in our new home.

For those of you who don't know me well, I love to decorate our home. It's one of my passions. Not only do I love to decorate but I want to do it as inexpensively as possible (without actually looking it). Since our house is on the market now, I went around the other day and took some pictures, so I thought I would take this opportunity to show you inside our nest.

Our Family Room

Our Kitchen
Our Office

Our Bedroom

Our Bathroom

Gracie's Room (yea, her bedpost is broken - it's on the to-fix list)

Bray's room - (it's not finished - we stopped until we move)

Well, there your have it - a tour around Chez Edwards. Have fun browsing some of the blogs mentioned above & I'd love to see your nest.

I'm Feeling Nostalgic

The time was 1989 - 1991. The place was White Hall of East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, where a group of girls were placed together in a dorm and became life-long friends.

For some reason, tonight I'm feeling a little nostalgic for those friends. I'm not sure if it's because in 5 days I'll be turning 37 or if it's because today we applied for a new mortgage for our house in SC (and that's got me feeling old & responsible), but whatever the reason, they were on my mind. Some I keep in touch with on a regular basis, others only occasionally, and some I haven't heard from in years. I hope everyone & their families are doing well. I know we're all busy and time goes by too quickly, but I'd like to take this opportunity to let them know that they are missed.

W, Me, M, C, & S (where's T?)
Spring Break 1991 Myrtle Beach, SC

There was always a lot of this going on. M showing T how to work it.

(Maybe they're getting ready to head out to "The Elbow Room".)

Always some kind of spa treatment being adminstered.
(That's me, BTW.)

Now, let me introduce these great girls to you.

This is M. She's now an Assistant Principal at a High School, a wife and
mother to two beautiful girls.

This is S. I guess her t-shirt was foreshadowing because she is now a teacher. She also has two children and a husband of her own at home.

Here we have W and C.

W is a social worker, wife and mother to a wonderful little boy.
C is now a stay at home mom to two great kids and wife of one lucky man.

Here is T. She married her high school sweetheart & is now the stay at home mom of twins.

And now last, but not least.......

We all know what happened to this couple.......they lived happily ever after.

Thanks for taking this stroll down memory lane with me and Wendi, I'll apologize for the music now - I know you'll be singing it all day.

Just a quick note to all of the younger readers out there. Please don't laugh at the music, hairstyles, or fashions & think to yourself...."I was only 8 (or whatever) when this was popular." because I promise you, 37 will be here before you know it.

Fun with Friends

She's like a fish.

He's my "surfer dude".

What a better way to spend those lazy summer days than with some friends at the pool and on the playground.

Ah......to be a kid again.

It's Official

Today is a great day in our household.

Today, our NC home officially went on the market.

Yay!

We are one step closer in our move to SC.

We welcome any and all prayers for a quick sale so that we can be reunited

with Daddy and get registered for school (that starts in 8 wks.).

We are very blessed that Daddy's company will purchase our home

after it's on the market for 90 days, however it would be much better

if we sold it sooner rather than later.

Here's a picture of our house.....do y'all know anyone who would like to live

(or have a second home) in the heart of golfer's heaven, NC?

(Some of you know exactly where that is.)

If so, send them my way.

Weekend Wrap-up

Since time is just flyin' by, I thought it might be a good idea to document where it actually goes. So, I'm going to try to start doing a Weekend Wrap-up kind of thing on Sunday evenings or more likely Monday mornings.

Friday:
Just hung out at home, washing clothes from our trip and straightening up a little.
Daddy made it home for the weekend.....yea.
Bray came home from staying over with a friend. He seemed really tired but actually was running a fever of 102 and had a headache.

Saturday:
Real estate agent came over to sign the listing agreement for this house to go on the market.
It will be officially up for sale on Monday......double yea.
Bray's fever is down and he was feeling better.
He begged to go over to another friend's house to play for a while and since we'll be moving soon I said ok.
We did yard work and then watched the thunderstorms roll through all afternoon.

Sunday:
Should have gone to church but didn't. (I know, I know.)
Bray went swimming with another friend this afternoon and then we all went to the baseball team end of season pool party late in the afternoon. The boys all had a good time playing together for a while before the thunder started again.
We all went out to eat Mexican before Daddy had to head back to SC.
I almost forgot to add.....the kids fussed all afternoon - what is the deal?? full moon or something? I suddenly developed a headache - I wonder why?

That's about it - nothing exciting & you'll probably dread seeing these weekend wrap-ups, but when I'm old and gray I can look back & remember when.
So, if you'd like to tell us....."What did you do this weekend?"

I've Been Ding Dong Ditched

The other night, Gracie and I were sitting on the front porch. We were having a nice conversation about the birds living in the ferns and then, out of the blue she says:

Gracie: "Brayden's ding dong ditched you."

Me: "Ummmm.........huh?"

Gracie: "Brayden's ding dong ditched you."

Me: (in a very confused state) "Ummm....Gracie, I'm not quite sure what you're talking about."

Gracie: "You know, he rings the door bell then runs."

Me: "Ohhhh!! (Whew!) Now I get it." (Thank goodness it's not what it sounds like.)

This was one of our stranger conversations but I'm glad it was all cleared up in the end. So, tell me.......Have you been "ding dong ditched" lately?

We're Back

Hey Everyone. We are back from our little jaunt down south.

It was a hectic visit, but successful.

We now have a better idea of what areas we'd like to call home and a lot of neighborhoods to choose from. I did see a couple of houses we really liked but we've got to get our house here more settled before we can do anything, so.....I'm not emotionally attached to anything right now. There are so many houses on the market, that if the ones we wanted sells, I'm sure we can find another with no problem.

Well, better run. I've got to get some calls in to our lovely (and ever so helpful - ha!) relocation specialist. I never hear from her unless I call & leave impatient messages.

So, what's everyone been up to? Let me know - I feel completely out of the loop.

(I'll definitely have to check out ALL of McMommy's POW tomorrow.)

SC Bound

I'm not being a bad blogger - we're just out of town for a few days.

Heading down to SC to check out the housing market.

Hope everyone has a great week & we'll be back on Thursday!

Happy Father's Day!

Here's just a small THANK YOU to some of the special father's in our lives........

Daddy's - always good for climbing.

Granddaddy's & Papa's - always good for snuggling.

We hope you have a very special Father's Day!

We love you.

We Are The Champions!!!!

Whoo-Hoo!!

Ladies & Gentlemen,

By a score of 10-3,

The Sandhills Optimist Baseball

Minor League Tournament Champions of 2008

The........

(Cheers, Applause, Screaming, "Go Royals")

Everyone was so excited over this win.

You see, we were expected & told that the Royals would be the worst team in the league. "You don't want your son to play on that team." some players were told. "They're not gonna do anything this year."

Well, the little 7th ranked (out of 9) Royals with a 5-7-1 season, rolled over everybody they met in the playoffs. They worked hard and they played hard.

It is a well deserved victory & just goes to show that if you want it bad enough, you can make it happen!

Great job, boys!

We're all very proud of you!

Yay! School's Officially Done

Today is officially the kid's favorite day of the year.

The Last Day of School!!!!

To them, it's been a long time coming,

To me, it's gone by too fast.

I helped out with refreshments at the 5th graders graduation today

and while watching the children march in,

I got teary eyed thinking about how Brayden will be doing that next year.

At a new school.

Without all of his friends from this school.

And the tears slowly started.

It's really hard saying goodbye to a school that has been so wonderful.

I'm sure there are friends in SC just waiting to be met,

but just for today, I'm a little sad for the friends that will be left behind.

I didn't really intend to be so depressing,

it really is a cheery day.

No more homework.

No more projects.

No more tests.

Days lounging about at the pool.

No early bedtimes.

Ice cream runs at 9:00 at night.

So, let me end on a positive note....

Gracie & Brayden,

Mommy & Daddy are very proud of all of your accomplishments.

You are two very intelligent and well-rounded people.

You have worked very hard this year and I can't

wait to see what's in store for 5th and 2nd grades.

Enjoy your summer!

Whew, It's HOT!!

What's that old saying about it being hot enough to fry eggs? Well, I think we're there. I haven't actually broken out the egg carton yet, but that's only because I don't want to stay outside long enough to try it. We've been forcasted to be around 102 today.....and it's only June!

The kids have been trying anything they can to keep themselves occupied and cool. Here are some pics of them enjoying the slip-n-slide. Maybe it will cool me off just looking at them. We've also been doing the pool thing - I hope they don't get bored with that before school even gets out.
Let us know what you're doing to stay cool. I need some new ideas.

(Notice Chase trying to get in on the action.)

Ok - he says...enough is enough - it's the big dog's turn.

There's something about "Those Dog Days of Summer Spring".