Last Day of School!

We have survived...all of us. G managed to figure out the difficult level of his Freshman courses and get his butt on track for a strong finish.
C managed to annoy a few teachers, till they figured him out a little better and he survived his first year of middle school.

And well, lil' W survived. It's been a tough year for him. He has had the hardest time adjusting to his new life in GA. He misses paradise and reminds me regularly that he's ready to go home =0(

He had a pain in the ass teacher, who no doubt, taught him a lot and covered many things that aren't being touched in our old school system till next year, but the price was difficult on him. He is the youngest in the class and misses his old life. He had quite the social life in paradise and it's not quite as happening here for him. We are working on it and I pray he gets a teacher that

A. Likes Boys and B. Gets that he is the youngest in his class.

I hope summer brings back his smiles. AND this is what my ducklings looked like at the start of the year...

The growth spurts have been huge.

G became a man.

C grew a few inches

W grew just a tad

Here's to the SUMMER OF 2011! Georgia Style ;0)

2 years ago...

It was 2 years ago when I walked into that hotel room and saw a stranger carry my daughter towards me. I am in awe of 'that moment' and the emotions that it stirs in me. I know my girl had a rough beginning and that was just the beginning of another journey to her new life. We have come so far that it sort of shocks me that it's only been 2 years. The connection with each one of my children is different in it's own right, but I admit, that our connection is much deeper on a very different level. Maybe because the depth of emotions felt came very quickly and cut right to the core of all of life's natural understandings. I am fiercly protective of her heart, though I'm learning to let her spread her wings now that she has the confidence to do so.

They always say you get matched with the perfect child for you and they weren't lying. I have no idea how they do it, but I do know there was never a little girl more fit to be my child. She is exactly who my soul longed for my entire life and I will spend the rest of my life thanking God for the journey and all the 2 million little things that led us to be together. I can't imagine my life without her.

Our travel video is posted here: www.emesjourney.com

thanks to the smartness of Doug!

Warri0r Dash 2o11!

What a blast that was!

If you're into a lot of mud and adventure, you gotta check out this 3.02 hellish miles of obstacle courses. Below are a few photos we took along the way. Many are really poor quality, but that would be due to the water and mud on the camera lens =0) This dude is a teacher. With a Masters Degree....look what higher education can do to one.
& there goes Fred Flinstone!
After you swam the muddy lake, you had to jump over 3 rows of cars. The wetter they got the trickier!
Next you went over 6 black steel walls and immediately had to go under 6 barbed wire mud pits. It was an over under thing. I seriously looked at that 4th wall and thought no way, I'm already tired...but I did it. I think this is where many got cut up. Lots of bleeding legs at the end of the race.

Getting ready to start!

Ok, so this is totally fuzzy...however, I was running too and we didn't want to stop, so I got an 'action' shot of my husband actually running. My dh NEVER works out. I told my boss that if he dies on the course this weekend, then I'll be cashing in on a nice insurance policy and they shouldn't expect me back at work. J looked at me and said, "Why do you keep telling eveyone I don't work out? I was the high school quarterback, I worked out over 2 hours every single day." One mile into our run, I heard him breathing so I just had to know,

"How's that 1985 workout working for ya babe?"

At some point we had a spider web of bungee cords to slither through. After hearing those cords snap up on some of them, I was glad I wasn't a man.

I'm Winning! I'm Charlie Sheen!

The water slide! A little rough on the keyster.
There were many more that weren't photographed, but the fire jumping was the last one.

Totally soaked and muddy, but so much fun!

Now those boys are some real warriors...show me your muscles boys!

I'm a Warri0r!

Now every real man needs his own tutu, don't ya think?

The rope climb wall

Well at least he won't drown in the mud pit...

Thing 2 seems to be missing.

FUNTASTICALLY UNCIVIVLIZED FUN!

school pic

Just wanted to post a quick picture of my very happy girl's preschool photo.

It sat under a pile on my desk for to long and now I can't order them=0(

I guess I'll just keep the proof!

Surviving being 'just good enough'

We've had a doozy of a month.

I came back from my island time getaway to be thrown into full throttle move mode. We thought it would be easier to move a street over, but I can honestly say that it hasn't been easier. It's been the longest move of my entire life and I'm over it. I've still got stuff everywhere and I've decided to hold a 'garage' sale if you wanna call it that this Saturday. It's going to be more like an open the garage and haul out whatever you like because quite frankly, the clutter is killing me. We downsized our house (again) and my furniture is just not cut out for these types of homes. I have very large Florida furniture because I had huge ceilings and huge entries and now I live in an older home with smaller ceilings and smaller entries. This is what my bedroom is supposed to look like...

but instead...

my headboard and footboard are in the basement in 4 pieces, my beautiful T0mmy Bahama armoire is in the dining room and 1 nightstand is still in the garage. All my bedding is in a black trash bag and I have absolutely no idea where that damn rug is...I'm tired.

My master closet is so ridiculously small, I think munchkins built the house...but I digress. We are happy we moved, though we had no plans of moving and it all sort of happened in a week, but the lady that owned the home was crazy and I can't deal with crazy. Needless to say, it's our 5 year plan to stay in this house. I just want to get my kids through the school zone and then I'll figure out another plan.

Among moving taking place, we still had golf and I must report that G had a fabulous season. He was the underdog, the new guy on the course and he played very well. Shooting 72-74 in tournaments. His coach was impressed and we were proud. He has decided to end his football career and focus solely on golf. G recently had his iPhone stolen and I spent a whole night tracking that sucker to nowhere. Ugh...

C has begun football. God help me. He's good at it, but he's so small it scares the bejeezus out of me. He's fast and speedy, he has NO fear and that makes him 'good' according to the coach, but to me, it's downright frightening.

W begins swim this week. He is very excited! He's had a rough year and he is really looking forward to school ending. I continue to race home for a late lunch and pick him up from the bus and bring him back to work with me.

Lil' EG is plugging through life like nothing happened. Loves her new room, loves to hop in bed and reads books for about an hour a night. She goes through every single page and reads it intensely. She is singing songs in Spanish and has her first program next week at her preschool. I can't wait to see her in action. The teachers adore her and we think she's the most amazing lil' girl ever.

Our Easter was well...terrible. Not even gonna lie. I don't even think we made the 'just good enough' list. That Sat/Sun was the major moving day. Just a few pics of the neighborhood egg hunt and brunch...yep, we sucked, but had no more in us to do anything else.

I haven't forgotten the coupon lesson either, for those that have asked and emailed me. I've just been so underwater with life that I haven't had time. I have continued to shop faithfully every week with my coupons. Yesterday I spent $144.42 and saved $146.41. Collect your coupons folks! With the way this economy is going, the inflation that is on the horizon and has already begun, you can not afford to not save money. And while you're at it, call around to several grocery stores around you and write down their coupon policies.