Mom's Birthday

This past weekend we also celebrated my mother's birthday.

My sister had some family over to her house for a little birthday cookout and cake.

Little Miss Mallori was in attendence, so we all got to love on her.

I think Mimi & Mallori had a good time.

The boys didn't get to go with us due to some baseball & fishing obligations here at home, so they were missed.

Hope your birthday was great Mimi - we love you.

Trying to catch up

Happy Easter everyone!

Oh, wait.  That was yesterday, wasn't it?

That's the story of my life lately.....always trying to catch up.

The truth is, I've been too busy enjoying my family and all of the beautiful weather we've been having to keep my blog updated.

We're usually outside every afternoon after school and our weekends have been busy, busy.

For now, let's jump backwards a couple of weekends and take a look at my daughter's trip to TN to celebrate a friend's birthday.

After an overnight at their lake house on Douglas Lake in Dandridge, TN, the plan was to head to the Knoxville Zoo for the morning. 

Here we go......

The rhinos had been introduced to a new member of the community - the male was trying to meet the new female & those other girls were determined to keep him away. A fun little show took place.

The girls got to ride a camel.  They really enjoyed that.

After having a picnic lunch at the zoo and checking out all of the animals (and gift shops) we piled back in the car and headed on the three hour drive to Nashville, TN.

The birthday girl also wanted to celebrate with her friends at The Rainforest Cafe.  We had never been to one before and it was quite a treat.

Hope you had a great birthday, Lorin!!

Everybody had such a great time.  It really was a fun weekend.

Must be Spring

Q:  How can you tell it's Springtime in SC?

A:  This is what you may see when you look outside the front door.

It was quite a storm we had yesterday. Thankfully no tornadoes here but there were some in NC.

How was your weekend?  Ours was packed with travel excitement - more on that later.

Sometimes life is tough

Well, yesterday was the day.

The day we had to say good-bye to our sweet, Murphy.

I wasn't ready.

I'm never ready to say "Good-bye".

I'm more of a "I'll see you soon"  kinda girl.

But, yesterday when the kids and I got home from running errands, they called me to come upstairs and look at her.  She was sitting in my daughter's room and when I looked at her eyes, I knew.  One of them was completely dialated and the other was still skinny. 

She looked so pitiful and I knew.

Thankfully, one of the mom's from my daughter's gym is a vet, so I gave her a call.

Then I called Daddy and he said he'd meet us there.

I won't go into all the details, but she confirmed that Murphy was indeed very sick. She could feel a tumor in her tummy area.

We had come to this conclusion before we took her in, so we knew the end result.

It was a very peaceful procedure and Daddy was with her til the end.  I just couldn't do it, but I'm so thankful he did.

Now, we're left to go on with life without that sweet kitty lap surfing every evening and I'm thankful that we still have Chase to keep my mind off of that. 

Here are a few pictures of our beautiful Murphy - she is missed terribly.

We love you, kitty!

I'm still around

Hello? Anybody still out there?

I'm still here.  I've just had a lot of irons in the fire and haven't felt like organizing them enough to post.

But, don't worry - I'm slowly coming out of hibernation.

It's Springtime now - although it doesn't actually feel like it today.

I love Spring.

I was finally able to spend last Saturday working out in the yard.  My arms can tell.  They're sore.

Here are a few glimpses of what we've been up to this month:

New rug.  Too small for this space?  Let me know your thoughts.  I just loved the colors & can always find somewhere else to use it.

We've finally been painting.  I'll have a complete post on this soon (I hope).

I've been worried about my 17 year old kitty, Murphy.  She's on her last leg and I'm trying to know the best way to handle her last days.  She's not in any noticable pain so I'm not sure if it's time to put her to sleep or not. Any advice or similiar stories would be appreciated.  She's extremely skinny now and hardly eating at all.

Spring is slowly blooming inside our house as well.  Here's a glimpse.

Yay for grilling season!  (man that chair needs a good coat of paint - it's on the list & hopefully will get done soon).

Hope y'all are doing well and thanks for stopping by.

Charleston - Day 2

So, we continue on our quick weekend visit to the charming city of Charleston, South Carolina.


We had to start our day off with a nice breakfast and then get to the convention center for my daughter's gymnastics meet before we could go and do more site seeing.

After her competition, we headed out again.

Walk around with us, won't you?

That's a brief look at our quick trip.

Thanks for coming along.

I can't wait to go back.