Halloween ’09…

…not too much to tell, we had a "Fairy Garden Princess" who waited what seemed like forever for her mom and dad to get home to go trick-r-treating. With older big brudders, doing their thing, Raymond worked all day; Robert spent the night elsewhere, thus Halloween seemed just like another Saturday night for us.

However, Emma is quick to remind us that she is still 5 and this is still a "big" night for her. And well if we are being honest, this is probably the only time we have candy in the house, so she needed to do whatever it took to stock up, and we would be by her side to give her a hand.

Christina was over this weekend, which did two things. 1. It gave someone to walk with Emma from the driveway to the door, and 2. another person who would/could get candy, imagine me or Raymond with a bag J. As Emma carried her pumpkin basket, Christina carried Emma's pillow case that her teachers made for her class this year…isn't it cute & big?

It has her name on it, and they even put a green paw print for the "Buford" kids. Raymond enjoyed it, since it got filled up pretty quickly and I enjoyed the fact that we had family over, which meant that most of the candy was gone pretty quickly!

Family Game Night…

...with a real board game! Who knew, that Monopoly would bring my family together for some good ole family time fun?

It's may not seem so odd to those of us over 30 something, board games were just another form of entertainment when we were young. But in the times that we live in now, some kids don't even know what board games are. From on-line gaming, video game systems, handheld game devices and the list goes on, these events are rare, even in my house. So of course it was no surprise that I took the camera out and took a few shots. Not only is it rare this day to play a board game in our home, but the other rare thing is to have all 3 of my kid's home for more than an hour at the same time.

The other nice thing is that these past few weeks I have been getting back to my roots and have been cooking up a storm on the weekends. My mom, dad, and brother have been finding their way to our house to enjoy some good ole traditional homemade foods, such as menudo, pozole, and caldo de res, and can't wait to see what next week brings.

Here is to finding other methods of entertainment during tough economical times, having family over on the weekends to enjoy some good homemade traditional foods, and being blessed enough to be able to share time and food with the ones we love!

Andy, Heather, Raymond, Emma, Robert, and G-ma Linda, playing a hard core game that went on well over 3 hours.

To Go or Not To Go…

…that is the question!

Go where?

The homecoming dance of course!

This seems to be a dilemma in my house for my boys. Raymond didn't go as a sophomore, so it was no surprise to me when Robert decided not go. It seems to be exciting for them as freshman and can't wait to go to that first high school dance. But for whatever reason, it is/was not all they had hoped it would be. They think its lame, or at least my boys thought it was. Big Raymond said that if everyone who felt that way in the sophomore class actually went, that they would have a blast, and make it fun. For me, it's a missed opportunity to take pictures, but I will live and life will go onJ.

So what did he do instead, he enjoyed a great dinner, with great friends who didn't go to the dance either. They met up at the local Japanese restaurant Mo Mo Ya, afterwards enjoyed a game of laser tag, then him and Austin caught up with Brandon and they hit up an after dance party.

Although not my idea of homecoming pics, leave it up to me to snap some anyway:
Cohron, Grant & ContrerasCarson, Watkins, & JonesKodi, Bay, & CarsonThe whole gang, minus two more who joined in later

Homecoming ’09 = More work…

...than I bargained for! Remember I told you that October is one of my busiest months with work, so how in the world I got wrapped up in coordinating the Sophomore float is really beyond me! I must admit, I had fun along the way and even though I felt like I was in over my head, I had a few strong friends around me to support this effort and I kept reminding myself, this is a service for others, this is a service for others, this is a service for other, so do the best you can and keep a smile & positive thought.

You see even though Robert is a sophomore and is part of this class, his help was limited to a few moments here and there, due to his football schedule, so I truly was doing this to help the sophomore class as a whole as well as Mrs. Vitulli, the sophomore class sponsor, it is her first year teaching at BHS and as Roberts English teacher, I couldn't leave her to do this all alone. I figured the hard part was done, we had a location, a trailer and a theme, all I had to do was communicate and share information, I can do that, it's what I do, but boy was I wrong, it was so much more, but I wouldn't change any of it for the world. Over all the experience was a blast, it gave me some time to get to know some other students that Rob doesn't usually "hang" with, plus it did give me some quality time outside of soccer to interact with 2 of my girls from the team, so that was nice.

We learned a lot along the way and even though we placed 3^rd, behind the seniors and juniors, I was very pleased and proud of the finished product. After all it was a design by a sophomore, built by sophomores, all I needed to do was provide materials needed, and communicate information to the rest of the class. Student participation was low, but the ones that came out did the best they could with what they had and worked around the conditions of the weather, I could not be prouder of them and the great parent volunteers who came and helped as well!

A special thanks to Olivia's mom, Rachel for providing the location, and opening up her home for us to invade and use, and to Olivia's grandmother April, who was instrumental with the making of the mascot heads, as well as any other task that needed getting done. Thanks to Randy for being Randy and just getting it done as well as my support system through this whole process, to Kelley Rosenbalm for making sure the kids had snacks each night, and to all the students who came out to participate, adults who helped chaperone and/or donated supplies and/or materials. Without your help the memories made would have not been possible!

Here are some pics that captured the efforts:
Getting started, creating the base for the floor, Bratton & Rosenbalm pounding away.Emma wants to help too...she is helping out for her big bruder.Mascot creations...the making of Wolf a.k.a "Howl".Painting the base...Rob & Bratton putting some elbow grease into it.Painting the mascot heads.Glittering the letters and making them shine.Putting the mascots together.Carefully placing the letters on the back wall.Putting the back wall up.Putting the jail together...working late into the night, Lanier is thinking, don't lock me up in here.Final product.Beat'em up, Lock'em up, Throw away the Key! And that is exactly what we did to the Bulldogs last night!

Tribulation Trail & last…

…B12 Fall Meeting! Can you believe it; another session of B12 has come to an end. I say that as if we have had so many, but we have had one more than originally planned. We had a super weekend with the B12'vers, as they have become known. Saturday night we took a field trip to Stockbridge, GA, with 30 awesome teens and 8 valuable chaperones!
Tribulation Trail was an interactive walk through of the book of Revelations from the bible. It was an awesome time; these kids never seem to stop amazing me. It was awesome to see Stacy witness to a couple of kids who had questions before the "trail walk" and by the time it was all said and done, they prayed a prayer to ask Christ to forgive them of their sins and accepted Him into their life...how awesome is that? What a blessing for me to be a part of, what a blessing for me that God has used me to do His will and show me sooner than later what a difference B12 has been, not only in my life, but the life of a teen. Here are a few pics from that wonderful night:

Zam Fam's Driving Group

Bratton's Driving Group

Farrell's Driving GroupC's Driving Group
Watkin's Driving Group
Stacy's and My Driving Group
TB and Big Rob
Rob and LC
Rob and his Madre...me!

But it didn't end here! We had our last Sunday bible study of B12 and used this evening to enjoy burgers and dogs and then ended the night with a large round room discussion of what we had all experienced the night before…it too was awesome, the questions these kids had, the discussions shared, the power of God in the room is indescribable. By the time it was all said and done, we had a B12'ver pray the sinners prayer, asked Christ to forgive him of his sins and accepted Him into his life. Still brings tears to my eyes, just typing this up and knowing that God has blessed and used this group to do His will and help us to plant seeds and share His word! Praise and glory belongs to Him and Him alone, and praise to Him for conforming and shaping the hearts of the adults involved in this group and giving all they could to make this group happen and provide a safe place where teens could come, fellowship, share their thoughts, struggles, all while learning and growing in Christ. How can anyone deny the spirit of Christ?

It’s been almost 2…

...months that is! Wow, I knew life would be crazy with the start of school, but didn't realize it would put my hobby on the back burner! So much has happened, so much to share, but not enough time. If nothing else October has already proven to be one of my busiest months, but I needed to squeeze in some time to let you know what we have been up to. I'll try to do a better job on keeping you updated, but no promises, not at least until October is over! Here are some pics that I took to capture some important moments over the past two months, hope you enjoy:Katherine, Patsy, & Joey came to visit us from TexasKatherine taking a picture outside the Mall of GAKodak Moment...Robert and Dad @ Claires shopping with Emma...who would have thunk it?Emma's first day of Pre-K @ Lanier AcademyFirst Home Football Game as Varsity Football ParentsEnd of Summer B12 Bible Study Pool PartyBeyond 12 is back by popular demand for the fallB12 field trip to "the 99", not sure what's up with Rob's hard faceand well more football...tis the season
Even though the pics above are of happy times, the past few months have been a battle, our family has not escaped the woes of the current state of this nation’s economy troubles, however we recognize and give praise where praise is due, God continues to provide. It is because of Him that we are able to go through these tough times with smiles on our faces.

Raymond has not worked in the past 3 weeks and left yesterday for a project in South Carolina and is scheduled to be gone for 3 weeks. Lil Raymond continues to go to school and working at Chick-fil-A, as well as enjoying his relationship with Heather. Robert is hard at work in school and on the field, seems to be gone from sun up to sun down Monday thru Friday, and enjoys gaming on the weekends. Emma, well Emma is Emma and although she is still along for the ride, I can’t help but quote Stacy in saying “it’s her world and we are just living in it”, so it may be that we are along for the ride. As for me, working, being a mom, being Emma’s mom, football mom rep and now homecoming float organizer, did I mention work..yeah, it’s a bit overwhelming, but wouldn’t trade it in for the world.

I share all this to say, all thoughts and prayers our way are welcomed and appreciated! Like I said, October will be a crazy buzy month, so who knows when you will hear from me again, until till then, stay happy, healthy, and be blessed!