India Art

Colleen and Conlan did the Fellowship of Christian Athlete Camp this week. A group of girls from India were there. They had been disowned by their families for accepting Christ and turning their backs on their religion Hindu. One of the girls drew on Colleen's leg with a sharpie. It was beautiful, but after day it is starting to fade away.

Donavan's baseball game

Happy Birthday Day Sarah

Sarah is 12 years old today!

Canoe Trip Webpage

http://web.mac.com/jayg99/The_Boys/Reunion_Albums/Pages/Canoe_08.html

Jay made a webpage for the trip. Great pics and a couple of videos!

Conlan Basketball

Conlan scored 18 points in a 24-18 victory on Thursday night.

Preview of Canoe Trip

This is the first picture that has been released from Ray's Canoe trip a couple of weeks ago.

SMAC Meet

Colleen and I left for Waynesboro on Thursday for a three day swim meet. The boys came up on Saturday night to swim on Sunday. Everyone did a great job! Colleen finally took off some time. She placed 7th in her 50 and 200 Breaststroke!
This was also a very social time for the kids, plus the girls all watched CAMP ROCK together!

Super Blonde Moment

This morning I was making waffles for the kids. I grabbed the can from the cabinet and sprayed it on the waffle iron. It didn't look right so I sprayed some more and then sprayed it on my hand to make sure stuff was comng out. Then the awful smell hits. I was using REPEL insect spray not olive oil spray! I quickly unplug the waffle iron and took it outside. Apparently my lovely hubby placed the bug spray in the wrong cabinet (of course I am blaming this on him). My day can only get better! Right?????

Married 12 years

Jane and Tony have been married 12 years today!

Straight A's = Cell Phone

Colleen did it! Plus more! Colleen was told last summer if she could make the honor roll all year she could have a cell phone (since she was the only 6th grader with out one:) ) Today she received her report card and not only made the honor roll all year, she made straight A's for the year! WOW! Even her brothers were impressed! Donavan said " Mom not only did she have a goal she even worked harder to do better." We ordered the phone tonight, so now the next phase of our lives starts. Colleen already has a list of conditions of when and where to use the phone and what happens if rules aren't followed. She is wondering if she will get to use it at all:)
Conlan a couple of weeks ago had a great swim meet. He took off major time in his three events and got all BB times. This has caused him to work super hard in swimming the last week. The coaches are asking "What happened to Conlan?" Conlan says he wants to get A times in the next year so he is going to try harder.
Donavan at the end of the school year got a couple of big awards. He received best Math and PE student for his first grade class.
Tomorrow is the first meet of summer swimming! On Thursday Colleen and I are going to Waynesboro for 3 days of hard competitive swimming. Ray is bringing the boys on Saturday night to swim on Sunday. WE also have a baseball and basketball game this weekend! I got a new camera today so hopefully I can start posting new and improved pictures!

Happy Father's Day

Thank you Ray for being a GREAT FATHER. Deuteronomy 6 talks about how to be an effective father.

Fathers are to initiate action.
Fathers are to teach.
Fathers are to discipline.
Fathers are to communicate.
Fathers are to be available.
Fathers are to be aware.
Fathers are to be involved.

You do all this plus work 2 jobs and take care of me:) We Love You!!!!

Brief visit to the ER

What would happen if you tried to swallow 7 grapes whole????HMMMMMM Might you choke???? Donavan tried this and lo and behold they got stuck in his throat. He started choking and managed to get most out but was still gagging. Even though he was able to breathe, the constant gagging was scaring Ray so he scooped him up and took him to the ER. Once they got check in D-man proclaimed that the grape was out of his throat and now in his stomach. Ray then signed a refusal and took him to baseball practice. I missed 90% of the drama b/c I had taken a mom's day out and hod gone to the movies. When I called to say I was coming home Ray was in Medic MODE. They were gone before I got home. Colleen was a little upset b/c she was in the room when all it was going on. Conlan, who was watching TV, thought Donavan was acting stupid so he could get attention! It does make you take time to realize how quick your life could change from one poor decision.

Happy Anniversary!

Ray and Virgina have been married 42 years. They are a wonderful role model for us younger folks.

Last Day of School

Tomorrow is the last day of school for my babies. All three have had a wonderful school year. Colleen bloomed in middle school. She had a terrific team of teachers. We have felt very blessed that so far she has taken the path of being a "teacher pleaser" and excelling in her work is important to her. A few of her friends have taken the attitude that it is not cool to make good grades and being disrespectful is the "IN" thing.
Donavan made it thru first grade with flying colors. He is quite the writer and enjoys making up stories. Miss Costa is the perfect 1st grade teacher, besides being young and cute, she works so hard to make all the kids feel special.
Conlan has had a whole support group of teachers. Six different educators work with him and each one of them are incredible. He has had the same speech therapist for four years. Miss Goyer has been a true God send for not only Conlan but for us also. She and her aide Mrs. Swaim spent many hours working on his sounds and Conlan has made great strides in his speech. They have also gone way beyond and have helped Conlan read and study for many test. We are all going to miss them dearly next year. Conlan's year was a great example of many people working together to help him succeed. We have refered to Conlan being "angel bait" since he was a baby. God is still surrounding the boy with many angels.

Happy Birthday Louis!!!!!

Louis is 42! He got the best present ever this year when Nicolas was born!

Hot swimming weekend!

It is HOT on the east coast! Temperatures are in the high 90's with heat indexes hitting over 105. Lucky for us we were swimming indoors. The boys swam today. We won't get the official results until tomorrow but they did terrific! Conlan has had a couple of bad meets at this pool and started having a phobia that the pool was trying to drown him. Thanks to the coaches making his first event backstroke so he didn't have to worry about when to breathe, he had a great day. He now blames eating the HUGE MUFFINs on his previous troubles. Donavan and him both dropped lots of time. Colleen is still struggling with her times. Her coaches blame some of it on her recent growth spurt, mind and body are not in sync. She also has not been swimming every day and that is part of the problem. She says she is going to concentrate on swimming this summer, just as long as it doesn't affect her social life!

Thunderstorms

Wednesday we had 2 major storms come thru. The first one had a tornado warning attached to it. I was checking the radar and watching the weather, so I wasn't too concerned, but at one point they weather channel had our neighborhood being listed for 6:38 so I moved the stuff out of the bottom of the closet and Donavon climbed in. Conlan starts praying but he is kneeling in front of the window. I asked him to pray downstairs closer to the closet. I have faith but safer than sorry:) Nothing happened besides marble size hail and some strong winds. We then had to go get Colleen from the YMCA who had been locked in the locker rooms for an hour. On our way home we got caught in round two. Heavy sheets of rain and lots of the thunder and lightening. Virginia doesn't have the same kind of weather like AR, so my kids were freaking out. I was in awe of the movement and darkness of the clouds, but the children didn't seem to have the same fascination.
Yesterday was Field Day. It was a great day except for the heat. All the volunteers showed up so that made me happy. Ray got to help with this one activity and went thru 2 shirts and a pair of shorts from sweating so bad. The kids all seemed to have a wonderful time. Colleen also had her last soccer game (for the season) They won 3-2. The heat index was close to 100 degrees. All the girls were exhausted by half time. They were playing a team that had their friends on it so they all played hard the whole time. It is amazing to watch how much determination and competition some of the these girls have in them. They don't have quit or give -up in their vocab. Hopefully they won't turn into Hillary's when they grow up!
Today is Costa Day! Donavon's teacher is 24 today. One of the mom's(who is incredible)has come up with all these activities celebrating Miss Costa's birthday. I am thinking today is the last day I will get to volunteer at Lee Hill Elementary! Probably not but I can dream!!!!!!!

Day on the Rappahannock with 6th graders

It was peaceful if you looked out at the river and pretended there wasn't a boatful of 12 year olds.

6th grade field trip

Colleen's team went on the riverboat down the Rappahannock River. They had a great time. Field trips have changed in the last 30 years I don't remember having so much fun. Once again I managed to spend the day with Colleen's peers without embarrassing her. She also did a good job by not embarrassing me!