REVIVE…

…summer camp '09. Raymond returned home tonight from a week long church camp trip in PC. These trips are always good for the soul, as the kids take time during this retreat to relax, refresh, and reignite their commitment to God. Although the group was small this year, it didn't mean it was not just as much fun. Raymond tried different foods this year as he ate shark, dolphin, calamari and who knows what else.

Here are a few pics that Heather took during the trip; overall they both had a great time!

Chris & Raymond being...well, Chris & Raymond
At the restaurant where he tried all the "new" foods!

Where this all began about a year ago...can't believe at the end of next month they will have been dating for a year, my how time flies

End of July and Buford HS football only mean one thing…

…CAMP BUFORD! For those of you from around here and that have been through this before, that is all I have to say and you know that this marks the official beginning of another season! I had always heard about it, but didn't really know and understand all that went on behind the scenes, not only with Camp Buford, but with a lot of other varsity football stuff! That has all changed and since I'm right in the middle of it, I'm seeing a lot. Camp Buford is 4 days of two-a-days, and well I'm hearing, that we should be grateful that the weather is not too bad, it's been pretty mild and not as hot in year past. The players are doing practice from 1:00-10:00, and well that makes for a long day in itself, can't imagine how it would be if it was hotter or if we were doing this in early July.

Part of Mom's Huddle is to assist and give service to our players and coaches and one way we do that is by preparing, serving and cleaning up for a dinner and a late night snack 3 of the 4 days during Camp Buford. For me this is a first, I have never prepared meals to feed 120, and I have to admit, I have been a bit nervous on all of this. Thanks to folks like Dawn, Jenny and all the parent volunteers' things have gone rather smoothly these past two days! It has been fun, to work alongside other parents to serve in the same purpose and to do it with thankfulness and appreciation. It has been a great opportunity for me to meet other parents, create new friendships and catch up with old ones, not to mention being there for Robert! I just love the affection and attention he gives me…he is not shy, nor is he embarrassed to give his momma a hug and a kiss in front of all those other players…the next 3 years of HS for Rob are gonna come and go so fast, that I don't want to blink, any chance and opportunity that he will allow me to be a part of, I'm all in!

feeding the boysBrandon getting secondsBig Rob

Can’t believe it’s over…

…it really seems like yesterday, Lori Stacy, and I were planning, preparing, and organizing our lives for Beyond 12, and our time has come to an end. We had our last meeting tonight and it was just another reminder on how blessed we have been to part of such a great group, there is no doubt God blessed this effort and made it possible to fall into place.

Our last topic tonight was on "Second Chances" and it tied into "forgiveness", which we coved a couple of weeks ago, and I am so amazed how "in tune" these kids have been every week, I am also, amazed with their excitement and willingness to come together for the last 8 weeks or so and take 2 hours out of their week to come fellowship, share, dig in the Word, and encourage each other as well as look at themselves and where they could use some room for improvement.

Beyond 12 has been a blessing to the adult folks involved as well, it has keep us all accountable for our actions and has been a reminder, that our kids do look at us, and we do shape who they become. We explored topics, such as, gossip, influence, integrity, generational sin, forgiveness, self-esteem, and second chances…these are real everyday things that we all have to deal with in life, and I pray that they have learned from us as much as we did from them. We may not see the fruits of our labor for years to come, if at all, but we have seen the impact it has had on some of our kiddos. I cannot explain in words the blessing and honor is has been to work with this group of kids!

With the start of a new school year approaching, it is our prayer that they will be the change, rely on each other for accountability, take what they have learned and apply it in their lives, to be an example by the way the carry themselves and that they always remember that their actions not only represent themselves, but also, their families, their school, their community and their God!

We are having an "end of study" celebration in a couple of weeks…who knows this may not be the end of something special, but just the beginning!

It is going to be a crazy busy week…

…got up at 5:00 am to drive Raymond to meet the youth group…don't remember the last time I was up that early! He will be gone for a week and I will miss him, but that also means I get to drive the mustang J

After he was off, I headed back home where I had to wake up the 2^nd offspring and get him moving, we needed to go to Papa Jacks by 7:15 am, to pick up 240 sausage biscuits to feed the varsity boys breakfast before they headed out to FAC camp. Needless to say, by the time 8:00 am rolled around and I was at work, I was a bit exhausted. No big deal, I have a few days to recoup before they get back and Camp Buford gets underway!

It was funny to see a sea of coach's trucks, with all the players bags in the back...hopefully nothing will fly out!

Lazy Sundays are the best…

…however today was not one. We started our morning by going to church; it was nice to have Stacy, Brandon, Celia & Mario meet up with us at 12Stone. As usual service was great and inspiring and a nice reminder of what an awesome, loving, gracious God we serve! After we all headed to a new Mexican Restaurant that opened down the street, for some lunch. The service was okay, food was good, but the company was the best! After we had our fill, we all went different direcitons, however I headed to Wal-Mart to get some groceries for the week and some last minute camp items/snacks….Raymond will leave with The Crossings Youth Group to PC at 5:30 am, and Robert will be heading out with the Varsity football team to FCA camp.

After Wal-Mart it was back to the house where Christina and Emma baked some cupcakes (with Stacy's help); and I organized or at least tried to put away all the clothes that are still in my living room (with Stacy's help), or at least to what I could get to. For some reason when she comes over, it seems to bother her that my house is in disarray and feels the need to clean, I'm just glad she is the one with OCD and not me…it would be a never ending job…oh wait it is J

Heather has been on a family vacation for this past week and lil Raymond has been working hard trying to keep his mind busy, but he has missed her very much. He is not a very patient young man, so as her arrival time back home got later and later, he just could stand it. Today is her birthday and it's been fun watching my young man, shop for her and buy that perfect gift, with that perfect card and flower, and then asking me to help him put it all together in the gift bag, so that it would be perfect. I must admit, I feel a little proud that I must have done something right in his 19 years…for him to be so thoughtful of someone else, and the time he has put into getting her gift. He could have just said "mom, here is some money, would you go buy heather a gift?", and you know what, I would have done it!

She finally made it home, and came to the house for a while and since we had cupcakes, Emma can Christina decorated them and a made her a very special one, so we all gathered around the table and sang her Happy Birthday…today has been a great day!

Raymond & Heather enjoying that speical cup cake!

Another Saturday, another Girl day…

…it actually started last night…girl time that is. I took Emma and Christina to Chuck E Cheese, where Stacy came and joined us. We don't just go there to go there, we usually have only been for a birthday parties, but it has been a long week for the girls and I needed to get them out of the house!

Then this morning, Stacy and I went to support the Cross Country Team @ BHS. It gave us an opportunity to exercise and support the program at their 1^st annual "Player/Parent 5K fun Run/Jog/Walk! Carson and Liz are part of the cross country team and told us about it, so we joined them & their parents and enjoyed being an active supporter.

Once we were done with that, it only seemed appropriate to get a pedicure, but before I could do that, I took Brandon and Robert to the barber to get some well needed haircuts! We all joined back up at the nail salon and that's where the real fun started! Lori & Carson joined Stacy, Christina, Emma, and me and we had a great time. While Emma created some havoc with Mary (the owners daughter), the rest of us enjoyed having our feet cleaned, massaged, and painted!

Can you guess whose toes, belong to whom?

We finished our girl time by having a late lunch/early dinner at Chilies…just want to thank Lori & Carson for hanging with us today, I see us doing this again in our near future! Now back to reality, got to get home, wash clothes and get two boys ready for FCA & Teen Church Camp for next week!

Work Hard - Relax Harder…

…so this past week I had a conference in Savannah, I guess if you have to travel locally there is no better place in GA to go to work hard during the day and relax in the evening. Last year when we were there there was a cargo ship with Emma's name on it...this time, there was a boat docked outside of our hotel with her name, we had to take a pic.

This is the 3^rd year I have attended this conference and well since its summer time, most members take their families, and well for me that usually means I take Emma. With football, Rob can't go, lil Raymond works, and Big Raymond is usually working as well so that means, I get to take a "friend" and well it's usually girlfriends, that way while I'm working all day, they and Emma get to play!

This year since Christina is spending the summer with us, she came as well as Ms. Alisha and her kiddos, and they all had a great time. One of the events hosted by the conference is the "president's dinner" and if you are in Savannah it usually means some kind of seafood dinner. This year's dinner included all you could eat "low country boil", other than lil Raymond, no one else in my family loves seafood, so this was a seafood lover's dream, the king crab legs, boiled shrimp, potatoes and all the other great food was just to awesome to express in words…needless to say, can't wait till next year!

Over all it was a great conference and a good time to get some relaxation, and since we did not take a family vacation this summer, it was kind of a mini one for Emma and Chris, now back to reality and getting ready for school to start in less than two weeks!

The Westin View from our room...NICEI work...they playAfternoon at Tybeeokay, so my green toes got some sand time :-DPic opt with the colorful big turtleLast day, last ride on the ferry, need to make one last stop......can't leave without getting some candy or some world famous pralines!enjoying some ice-cream before our long drive home

It’s a girl thing…

…and one of our favorite times together. It seems like yesterday that I had to "convince" Stacy that she needed the experience of a pedicure. As she hesitate and fought a good fight, she finally caved and as hard as it was to get her in the chair, it's been just as hard to get her out of it!

Once Stacy figured out that she liked having her feet massaged and toes painted and wanted to do this on a regular basis our next task was to find a place that didn't "mind" having a 3 foot, curly top, brown eyed little girl that I like to say is "well loved". After several rounds and visiting different places we finally found the perfect little place that took us for who we are. Although Emma doesn't go all the time with us, when she does go, we want to make sure we can enjoy the time we are there, rather than worrying about all the things that could go wrong and she could get into…if only I was blogging back then, you may have heard about some of those experiences…we still laugh about some of them todayJ

The last time we went we didn't take Emma and when we got home and she saw my freshly painted toes, her face and words had a lot to say, "What? You got your toes painted and didn't take me!", so today we took Emma & my niece Christina with us and they enjoyed being pampered too, I thought I created a monster in Stacy and well I know we are creating one in Emma!

Stacy & I have been having our "girl time" together over the last year and a half and have enjoyed every chance and opportunity we get to go. It gives us some time to sit, relax, share and catch up with what's going on in life. I just have to thank Stacy for being a great bestie, keeping our traditional alive and treating me to a great day.

She likes the wild colors that fit her wild personality!She had one hand/foot purple and the other blue...that's our girl.Christina is thinking, she could get use to this too.Stacy always pics bright colors during the summer months, apparently they make her look tan…she went with white today, because the owners daughters toes were white and she thought they were cute.After taking a double take, she thought they could be spruced up so she added some color and they came out really cute.I never go bright, but after being around Stacy this long, I gave it a try, I can’t seem to stay away from green, must be a Buford thing…the problem is that I have a conference next week, now I have to find attire to match.

Here is to our independence…

...and like most families; here is to eating barbeque, enjoying the glow and popping of fireworks, and all that comes with celebrating our independence with the company of family and friends.

For us it started last night, Raymond and Heather drove up to South Carolina to buys some fireworks, yes even though they are now legal in GA, they still don't make them the same! This was a first in so many ways…for one he drove across state lines and second, he is caring on a tradition that his dad and I started way back when we would celebrate the 4^th or New Years in GA. Lil Raymond had to work today so he was unable to spend the day with us, however did not want to miss out on the fun of popping fireworks so him and Robert started last night, as Heather and I watched, Emma was inside the house the whole time, she still can't stand the sound of them.

Today we went to Marietta to celebrate Justin's 17^th birthday. Connie had prepared a great spread with barbeque ribs, chicken, hamburger, dogs and all the fixins, including her famous backed beans, everything was yummy! After a long while at her house and popping some fireworks, we made our way to my mom's where we were able to view the "big" fireworks that were displayed by the City of Marietta, as usual it was a great show!

This whole weekend was a great joy, even though one of our boys traveled out of town to visit family in Florida, another one came home for the weekend holiday. Although we missed Brandon, seeing Melvin this weekend was good for the soul. I didn't think it was possible for him to grow anymore, but he did, after measuring him on our growth chart, yep he has a new line, it would be at the crack at the top of the doorway! Hopefully we will be able to make it to Ole Miss this fall to watch him play some football.

Here is a special thank you to those who over two hundred and thirty years ago, fought for our nation, and for those who still sacrifice and stand in harm's way to preserve and protect it.

Here are a few pics from Justin's B-day party...spending time with family is always fun!

Robert with his gmaMe & RaymondCrazy Em and her daddyJustin, Raymond, and RobertJustin & Idalia