2 More Doctor Visits

In a previous post I told about our recent trips to the doctor. Well here's an update for you. Good news is Katelyn finished up her antibiotics today!! YEAH! However, Rachel and I both went to the doctor yesterday, so now we're both on antibiotics! Rachel has a sinus infection, which is what we thought. Her poor little nose has just been full of that yucky green stuff, and her eyes had even started having lots of discharge from the infection. Kind of gross, I know. I ended up with a sinus infection and ear infection, along with my signature cough! So there's still lots of coughing, snot, and medicine around here! Rachel seems to be feeling fine, and I'm feeling better than yesterday, so I do believe we're going to all survive!!!

Tooth #6

Up until Wednesday, Rachel had lost 5 teeth (3 on top and 2 on bottom). She had 3 other teeth loose, and 1 of those was getting really loose! She likes to wiggle her teeth once they are loose, and she's good at pulling them too! Christmas Day she was really working that one tooth that was pretty loose. She just kept wiggling it back & forth. Kate guessed it would come out on Thursday. Kate - I hate to break it to you, but you weren't right. Rachel got it out Wednesday afternoon! Here's her smiling face to show her missing bottom tooth.

Of course, Katelyn wanted to get in on the camera action, so here's a picture of Katelyn. She actually does have one tooth that is a little loose, so before too long she may have a toothless picture to show!!!

Christmas at Puddin & Papa's House

After we opened our presents here Christmas morning and had a chance to play a little while, we got ready and headed to Puddin & Papa's house. All of Robert's brothers and sisters and their families would be there. The girls were so excited to be going to Puddin & Papa's house. When we got there, most of the other people were already there. Rachel & Katelyn got several games for Christmas, so we took some games with us. Rachel talked Charlie and Steve into playing Twister with her and Robert! It was quite comical! The guys were all pushing on each other trying to knock each other down. Luckily, they didn't fall on Rachel! After that round of Twister, Rachel and Brittany had a calmer game of Twister. During the Twister commotion, Katelyn and Kayla played with some magnetic wooden dolls that Puddin has. After this, Rachel brought out her new Cadoo game. Rachel, Beth, Charlie, & I played Cadoo while Katelyn, Robert, and Donald played with Katelyn's new UNO cards. At the same time as these two games were going on, some of the "big kids" were playing Brittany & Kayla's new Life game. So there was a lot of game playing going on Christmas Day!!! We had a great lunch and then it was time for presents. One of the few things that the girls actually asked for was an Etch-a-Sketch! Puddin & Papa got each girl their very own Etch-a-Sketch, so they were excited! Rachel & Katelyn also got some very cool clothes, magazine subscriptions, hip hats, Cinderella DVD, books, hair accessories, and games. What a fun day!!!

Since everyone was there, we set up my tripod and camera to get a picture. The picture didn't turn out as well as I would've liked, but it's still better than nothing! The lighting wasn't very good, and I'm not a professional so this is as good as it gets!

Front row from left to right are Ryan, Jessica, Rachel, Puddin, Papa, Katelyn, Kayla, and Brittany. Back row from left to right are Shannon, Charlie, Donald, Beth, Steve, Connie, Kate, Robert, and me!

Puddin & Papa got all of the grand-daughters these cool hats. Left to right are Rachel, Jessica, Kayla, Brittany, and Katelyn.

Here's a slideshow of our fun day at Puddin & Papa's house.

Christmas Morning

Waiting patiently to go open presents!

Christmas morning at our house was fun & exciting as usual! Robert got up and went downstairs to get the cameras set-up and ready. While he was downstairs, he heard little footsteps coming down the stairs! Turns out Katelyn got a little sneak preview of what was under the tree! She was still half asleep, so we're not sure if she really saw anything or not. Robert took her back upstairs and got Rachel up, and then we all headed back downstairs to open presents. "Santa" had left the girls some fun toys to play with and matching sweatsuits. What always amuses me is how excited the girls get over the little things in their stockings. Just a simple pencil and notepad seem like gold to them!

Our big gift to the girls this year was a karaoke machine! Of course, we had to get two microphones so that there wouldn't be any fighting over them! They both also got a dress, books, workbooks, videos, and lots of games. Rachel got a telescope and a Webkin, and Katelyn got a Bible and a clock. One of Katelyn's classmates got everyone in the class a Webkin for Christmas, and Rachel went on and on about how she'd like one. I asked her what kind she'd want if she had one and she said she'd like a monkey one if they made them. So I found her a monkey Webkin and it's really cute! She was so excited when she opened it! Katelyn has a little New Testament that she carries to church every Sunday, but she gets frustrated when Pastor Chris speaks from the Old Testament and she doesn't have that in her Bible. So we got her a big girl Bible with a cool purple Bible cover. She was so excited!!!! Something else that Katelyn has been wanting is an alarm clock. So I found her a basic, blue alarm clock. She loves it! She wants us to set the alarm for her all the time! I'm sure in a few years she won't be loving that alarm quite so much!!!

One of the neat things that Rachel's Sparks class did at church was to wrap up a gift and put it under the tree to open on Christmas. It was a gift to Rachel from Jesus. On it was a cross and a printout of the Bible verse John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." I thought that was a really neat reminded of what Christmas is really about.

Robert surprised me with a cool new video camera! It's not much bigger than a cell phone! It records to internal memory or you can use a memory card. It plugs directly into your computer's USB port. And you can connect it directly to the TV too. It's really cool and so compact and portable! I've recorded a few videos that I'll have to post later.

Christmas on the 23rd

Our first Christmas celebration was on Sunday evening with Mamaw & Papaw and Lloyd & Wendy. This year we celebrated at Lloyd & Wendy's house. The girls had fun handing out the gifts to everyone. As usual, Rachel & Katelyn received some wonderful gifts! Katelyn got a pair of boots that she loves! She had to put them on immediately and wear them the rest of the day. She even wanted to sleep in them!!! Katelyn also got some cool clothes, new PJs, a Backyardigan's color by number set, books, workbooks, and a boy Barbie (aka Ken) with extra clothes. She got all sorts of cool things in her stocking. You can see one of her favorite items from her stocking in the pictures below. It's a cow change purse that clips on your pants, backpack, etc. Katelyn clipped it to her clothes, so you can see it hanging down in most of the pictures!!!

Rachel also got lots of cool new books, workbooks, new clothes, PJs, and a potholder making set. Lloyd used to make potholders when he was young, so he & Wendy got that for Rachel. After we opened up all the presents, Lloyd showed Rachel how to make potholders. Papaw also used to make potholders and sell them when he was young. He actually had to make his own "loom" and used scraps from the hosiery mill that his dad (my Papaw) would bring home from work. So we had 3 generations of potholder makers together!!!

Robert & I got lots of great gifts too! I have to admit that one of our favorites is a "coupon" for 1 night of babysitting and a gift card to go to the movies from Lloyd & Wendy. They did this for us last year too, and Robert went on & on about how great it was. He inspected the coupon for babysitting last year and couldn't find anything to indicate it was for just one use. So this year when Lloyd & Wendy made the babysitting coupon they made sure to put on there that it's for ONE use only! We all got a big laugh out of that!

It was a fun night to spend with family! Here's a slideshow from the evening. There are even pictures of Rascal and Abbey (the cats). Abbey was just declawed, so she has a cone on her head.

Christmas at Dollywood

Advent Calendar

Robert's mom, Puddin, made this Advent Calendar for us when Rachel was born. The girls look forward to putting an ornament on the tree every day til Christmas. They are good about taking turns. This year, Katelyn got to start out with putting an ornament on the tree on the 1st, and then Rachel took her turn on the 2nd.

All I Want for Christmas Are 2 Trips to the Doctor, 1 Visit to the ER, and a Busted Head!

Yep - that's what our past week has been filled with! It all started last Saturday night at a Christmas party at one of Rachel & Katelyn's friend's house. We were getting ready to go and the girls were all back in Alexis' room cleaning up. Next thing I know, Katelyn was screaming and one of the other moms was bringing her to me. She told me she wasn't sure what had happened, but she thinks Katelyn fell and hit her head on a dresser. I put Katelyn in my lap and was trying to comfort her. I just thought she was being overly dramatic. I kept rubbing her head and asking her where it hurt. Then I noticed that my hand was moist. I thought to myself "She shouldn't have tears on the back of her head." So I checked my hand - sure enough, it was blood! So now it was time to try to get it cleaned up a little to see how bad the cut was. Of course, since I had been rubbing her head, I had proceeded to smear blood all across the back of her hair. She now had blond hair with red streaks! I got her cleaned up some and determined that it wasn't too bad. I decided to just head home and get her cleaned up better and let Robert look at it too. We gave her a bath and decided that it wasn't worth a trip to the ER! It had pretty much stopped bleeding. It might could have used a stitch or two, but we just put some liquid bandage stuff on it and gave her some Tylenol for the headache. Oh - you want to hear how she did it? She decided she wanted to stand on a basketball without holding onto anything! Evidently, that's not a very good idea since she fell and hit her head on the dresser! When I asked her if she had learned a lesson she said "Yes - don't stand on a basketball." I told her that the lesson really is DON'T STAND ON A BALL - PERIOD!!!!

Now it's Sunday and Katelyn wakes up really stuffy and congested and coughing a lot. She had been sick back at Thanksgiving and was on antibiotics for 5 days because of an ear infection and just the crud. She never truly got over it and had continued to cough and walk around with a Kleenex in her hand. Sunday you could tell by looking at her that she just didn't feel good at all. Monday morning I took her to the doctor. She had fluid on both ears and a sinus infection, along with her nasty cough. She takes daily meds (Zyrtec and Flovent) for allergies and asthma, and also has a "rescue" inhaler for when her coughing is really bad. We had been using Xopenex off and on since Thanksgiving. The doctor agreed that she shouldn't be sick again so soon after being on antibiotics just 3 weeks prior. So this time she's on 10 days worth of antibiotics. The doctor also gave us a prescription cough medicine with a decongestant and antihistamine to use as needed. We used that for a couple of days and it seemed to help her. Now she's doing much better - just a little cough every now and then.

Okay, so we're thinking we're all going to be fine for Christmas. Then Thursday night rolls around. Rachel had been coughing a little for a few days and we had started her on her Xopenex inhaler. She wasn't bad at all, and didn't act like she felt bad. She had played all day, went to Kid City while I played tennis, and just acted fine. We did all of her usual meds (Singulair, Zyrtec, and Flovent) at bedtime, plus her Xopenex inhaler. She went to bed a little after 8:00. All was fine. Robert and I watched some TV and then at 10:45 he went outside to turn off the Christmas lights and I came upstairs to put on my PJs. That's when it happened. Rachel woke up trying to cough, but couldn't breathe. I mean she literally couldn't breathe. It wasn't like she was congested, she just flat out couldn't breathe. She had a panicked look in her eyes. We've been through this several times before, so the first thing I did was rush her to the bathroom and get the inhaler. I gave her several puffs, but it didn't work. By this time Robert was upstairs. He rushed her outside into the cold air. This is usually what can get her calmed down a little and the cold air usually opens up her airways enough for her to breathe. But not tonight. She was struggling SO HARD to breathe at all. We were getting a little panicked ourselves. We briefly thought about calling 911, but decided since we're just like 2 miles from the hospital to just take her ourselves. I called our neighbor, Jill, and she rushed over to stay with Katelyn and we took off to the hospital. Robert drops us off at the ER door and I go in and tell them she has the croup and needs steroids. They just kind of look at me like "sure lady." We tell them she has asthma and allergies and that we've done her Xopenex inhaler at 8:00 and again at 10:45, and it's not helping much at all. They kind of change their attitude then like maybe we know a little of what we're talking about. After all, we've had to the go the ER in Nashville, Cookeville, Knoxville, and now here! We know when she has the croup and needs a dose of steroids!!! By this time, Rachel is beginning to breathe a little easier, but it still having a tough time. After a few minutes, we get back in a room and the doctor comes in and very quickly determines she has the croup. DUH! I already told you that! Now where are the steroids?!?!? They bring her a strong dose of steroids and then she does 2 breathing treatments there in the room. We hang out there for a while to make sure that's going to work, which it does, and then they let us leave. The doctor gives us a prescription for 3 days worth of steroids and tells us to go to our pediatrician when they open. So we get in bed around 2:00 am. She sleeps well the rest of the night. Friday morning I take her to the doctor and spend $30 to hear what I already know. She has the croup, continue the steroids, use her Xopenex as needed for coughing, come back if she starts running a fever or gets worse. And of course he warns me about this developing into a secondary infection like pneumonia. I ask for a new prescription for Xopenex for the nebulizer. Since both girls use inhalers now, all of our nebulizer meds have expired. But sometimes the nebulizer works better than the inhalers. So he gives me a prescription for the nebulizer meds and we head home. She was feeling well enough to go to Dollywood yesterday afternoon, but that'll have to be another post!

So right now we have 2 charts going. One chart is for Katelyn's medicines and one is for Rachel's medicines. We're a regular pharmacy around here! We have inhalers, nebulizers, antibiotics, steroids, allergy pills, prescription cough medicines, etc.!!

Rachel did well last night too. The steroids seem to have kicked in and have opened up her airways so that she's able to breathe. Her cough has changed from a croupy cough to a loose, wet cough. Our only worry now is that it will turn into a respiratory infection or pneumonia. Who knows - we may head back to the doctor on Monday!

So it looks like Rachel and Katelyn are getting co-pays, co-insurance, and deductibles for Christmas!!! HaHa!!

Elves That You Might Recognize

Click here to see some elves that you might recognize!

Rachel and Katelyn - Live in Concert

ABC's Opera Style

This post is just for fun! Rachel sometimes will launch into her opera voice when she's singing. Her favorite song to sing "opera style" is her ABC's. Here's a video of her singing "opera style." I've seen her do this a bunch, but it still makes me smile to watch this. Hope you enjoy!

I Just Have to Brag on My Girls!!! - Part 2

I guess since the previous brag session ended up being all about Rachel, this brag session will be all about Katelyn!

Katelyn is such a sweet girl! All of her teachers say that about her! She has a mischievous side to her too, but I think she usually reserves that for us at home!! Katelyn goes to a mother's day out program twice a week. She loves it and wants to know why she can't go to school 5 days like Rachel does! Katelyn's pre-k teacher has told me that her kindergarten teacher next year will love her because she already knows how to do so much! She writes both her first and last name on all of her papers at school! She colors better than any 4 year old I've ever seen! Of course maybe it's because she could sit and color 24 hours a day! Seriously, whenever I go work out she goes to Kid City and colors the entire time! All of the teachers there talk about how well she colors. She stays in the lines completely, and she adds details to things. She not only knows all of her letters, but she also knows how to write them (uppercase and lowercase)! And she has a variety of words that she knows how to spell! When we go pick Rachel up every day at school, I have to sign her out. Most of the time, Katelyn wants to do it. She signs Rachel's name, then my name, and puts that Rachel is in 1st grade! The teacher's aides that "guard" the sign-out sheets are all impressed with how well she does! I don't have to tell her how to spell anything - she just walks up and signs Rachel out!

This past month Katelyn has also learned how to tie her shoes!!! She had been intently watching us tie our own shoes, but we hadn't really worked with her much on it. One morning while she was getting ready for school she started yelling "Daddy! Daddy! Come here quick!" When Robert got in her room she had tied her shoes! I guess she had studied us and had a mental picture in her mind of how to do it! And she didn't do it the "easy way" of making two "bunny ears" and then tying those together. She tied her shoes just like I do! That day when she went to school she was so proud of herself! She had to show off for her teacher! And the funny thing was that Katelyn did NOT want to tie her shoelaces in double knots - she wanted her shoes to come untied so that she could show everyone she could tie them all by herself!!!

Katelyn can also do numerous "big girl" things, like jump rope, hula hoop, flip over on the monkey bars, hit a baseball that has been pitched to her, and dribble a basketball!

Katelyn is such a sweetie! I'm so proud of her and thankful to be her mommy!

I Just Have to Brag on My Girls!!! - Part 1

I know, I know. Everyone thinks they have the best, smartest, and cutest kids, but I'm here to tell you that you're wrong! I have the best kids!!!!

Let me start off by bragging on Rachel! She is doing so AWESOME in 1st grade! Every week they have a spelling test on Thursday. The spelling words are given to us the Friday before. All of the spelling words are on the test, plus a bonus word that they haven't had to learn. If you make a 100 or 101 on the Thursday spelling test, then you don't have to take it again on Friday. But if you make less than 100, then you have to re-take the test on Friday. Let me just say that Rachel has only made a 100 once - all the other times she has made 101!!! She does so well academically!

In 1st grade they have also created the 100 Book Club. The goal is to get kids to read 100 books at home during the school year. They have a chart that they keep up with it on with the title, author, number of pages, date read, and parent signature. You are allowed to count books that the child reads to you OR books that you read to your child. Plus, if it's a chapter book, you're allowed to count each chapter as a book. I told Rachel from the beginning that we were only going to count books that SHE read because I knew she could read 100 books by herself during the school year. I also told her that we'd count chapter books as just one book - not as multiple books. She was fine with this and the charting of books began! Since this started just a week or so into the school year, the first books that she read were easier books. But now she's reading much harder books! She loves the Amelia Bedelia books! I've bought several of those from a used book store, and we've checked out some from the library. She has also read one of the Little House chapter books. She is just reading SO WELL!!! And last night she completed her 100th book at home!!! I'm so proud of her! When she looks at her chart she knows that she read all 100 of those books all by herself! How awesome is that? And the school year isn't even half over!!! Rachel has entered the 100 Book Club!

Speaking of reading, Rachel has been reading books at school and then taking Accelerated Reader (AR) tests on the computer. There are just a few kids in her class that are doing the AR books and tests. Here's a simple explanation of how it works. The kids are tested to determine their reading level. Once their reading level is determined, they are supposed to pick books that are their reading level and above. There is a list of all the books in the AR program and each book has been assigned a reading level. After Rachel reads a book, she takes a test on the computer to test how well she comprehended the book. If you pass the test, then you earn points. These points are accumulated during the 6 weeks. At the end of the 6 weeks, kids can redeem their points at the AR store in the library. So far, Rachel has passed every one of her AR tests! I'm so proud of her!!!

Pretty much every day I get compliments on Rachel from the school staff. The principal and assistant principal have told me numerous times what a good kid Rachel is and how well she does and how they wish they could clone her! Rachel's teacher is very complimentary of her too! One time when she was out, the substitute teacher happened to be a lady from our church. The sub told me that on the note Mrs. Wilson left for her, it said if she had any questions to just ask Rachel!! At church it's the same thing! Her teachers all brag on how good she is and how sweet she is!

Can you tell that I am SO PROUD OF RACHEL!!!!!! She's an awesome 6 year old and I'm so glad that she's my daughter!

Well, I've written a book, so I'd better go ahead and post this. I'll brag on Katelyn in the next post.

Christmas Sisters

Decorating the Tree

The week-end of Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree. The girls get so excited about decorating it! Of course, we end up with a ton of ornaments on the bottom half of the tree, and all on one branch!!! I must admit, they have gotten better over the years about spreading the ornaments out around the tree. Robert helps get the top of the tree decorated by picking the girls up to reach the top half of the tree. After a few lifts, this gets to be quite a workout!! Here are some pictures from our day of decorating:

Thanksgiving 2007

For the past several years, we have done pretty much the same thing each Thanksgiving. We spend Thanksgiving Day with Robert's family, then we come home late Thanksgiving night so that I can get all the sale ads from Mom. EARLY Friday morning, Mom, Wendy, and I head out to find bargains. We shop pretty much all day, head home to unpack all of our bags, then meet back together at one of our houses to celebrate Thanksgiving, my birthday, and Lloyd's birthday.

This year we pretty much followed our normal routine. We had hoped to go to Puddin & Papa's house on Wednesday and spend the night, but Katelyn was sick. I broke down and took her to the doctor, and it turns out she had an ear infection and some kind of respiratory infection. We started on antibiotics and continued all of our other normal medication/inhalers (Zyrtec, Flovent, and Albuterol). We decided to spend the night here at our house and see how Katelyn was feeling. She was still coughing A LOT, but we decided to all 4 head to Puddin & Papa's house. Robert's logic was this - if Katelyn stays home she'll cough, if she goes to Puddin & Papa's house she'll cough. She's not contagious, so why not go ahead and let her go to Puddin & Papa's house where there are other folks who will baby her and take care of her! So we all went and had a good time! Yes - Katelyn coughed, but she did fine. Thanksgiving Day was also my birthday, so Robert's sister Beth had made me a cake. Somehow, the icing melted a bit in the car (not sure how since it was cold outside!), but it still tasted great!! Here are a couple of pictures of me with Rachel & Katelyn blowing out the candles:

Thursday evening we stopped by Mom & Dad's house so I could get all the sale ads and then we headed home. Robert and the girls went to bed while I stayed up scouring the ads to develop my plan of attack! After phone calls to both Mom & Wendy, we had a plan. Mom was going to start out on her own, while I would pick Wendy up at her house around 4:45 am! We've gotten smarter over the years. The first year we did the after Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza, we only drove one car, and we ended up all 3 riding home in the front seat of Mom's car because the truck and back seat were all full!!! Now we always take 2 cars so that we have plenty of space, plus it allows us to go to 2 places at once! Anyway, we got a lot of shopping done and got home relatively early - like around 3:00 or 3:30. Usually it's later than that. We had already planned to all meet at our house for supper to celebrate mine and Lloyd's birthday. His birthday is the 20th and mine is the 22nd, so we usually do a birthday dinner together. This year we decided to grill steaks. The only problem was that we didn't check to make sure that we had any gas for the grill!!! Luckily we're really close to a gas station that has gas tank trade-ins! Supper was a little later than planned, but it was good!!!!

Every year we take a day after Thanksgiving picture with all of my family. Click here to see last year's pictures. Here are a few from this year. As usual, we had to do a silly picture!!!

NATIONAL CHAMPS!!!!

This past week-end, my mixed doubles team went to Orlando to play in the 2007 National Eastern Mixed Doubles Championships. Our team won our local league, went on to win the state tournament, and then advanced to win the Southern Sectional Tournament. The National tournament was the final step. It was a huge accomplishment to win the Southern Sectional tournament. Just to play in the National Championships is a big deal. We were all very excited to be there. The winner from 8 different sectional tournaments were there. The 8 sections represented were USTA Florida, USTA Middle States, USTA New England, USTA Eastern, USTA Mid Atlantic, USTA Midwest, USTA Caribbean and USTA Southern. For whatever reason (I'm assuming logistical concerns, travel, court availability, etc.), the USTA (United States Tennis Association) splits the nation into the western region and the eastern region and then has national championships for each region. So this was the National Eastern Championships. Our first match Friday morning was against the Midwest Sectional Winner which was a team from Indiana. We had a great match and won all three courts! Lanny (my partner) and I won our match 7-6, 6-1. Friday afternoon we played the Mid Atlantic Sectional Winner, which was a team from Maryland. They were a very, very good team and we ended up losing all three courts. Lanny & I lost our match in a third set tiebreaker. We lost the first set 2-6, then rallied back to win the second set 6-0. The third set tiebreaker just didn't go our way, and we ended up losing it. Saturday morning we faced off against the Eastern Sectional winner, which was a team from New York. We had to win this match in order to continue on in the tournament. As it turned out, we won all three courts! Lanny & I won our match 6-0, 6-2! We finished up the round robin for our group in 2nd place. This meant that we would advance to the semi-finals and play the 1st place team from the other group, which was the Caribbean Sectional winner. We had heard about this team all week-end. They were supposed to be really good. Many said they were unbeatable. We went into Saturday afternoon's match fired up!!! It was awesome! Our team won the match 2-1! Lanny & I won our match 6-2, 6-0! We played unbelievable! The mixed doubles team Lanny & I played had not been beaten all year long!!! We didn't make hardly any mistakes and played awesome! We had beaten the "unbeatable" team! Now we were headed to the finals on Sunday morning. And guess who we were playing? The Mid Atlantic team again. They won their semi-final match, so a rematch was in place! We were pumped about getting a second shot at them. We wanted revenge for our loss on Friday afternoon. Sunday morning we were ready! We had nothing to hold back. Lanny & I ended up on a court away from our team's other 2 courts, so we didn't know how things were going on those two courts. I finally heard someone from the other team say that their team had already won court #1, and that court #2 was in a 3rd set tiebreaker. A few minutes later, I heard a bunch of cheering and recognized voices from my team! Our team had pulled out the win on court #2 in a 3rd set tiebreaker. Lanny & I were still on the court. The championship depended upon us! We had won our first set 6-4, so we were in the driver's seat. We were up 5-4, but then lost Lanny's serve, which tied it up at 5-5. By this time, all the members of both teams were sitting nervously on the sidelines cheering every point! We broke the girl's serve for the other team, so we were up 6-5 and it was my serve! I was serving to the set, the match, and the national championship!!! How exciting is that?!?!?! Anyway, to make a long story not quite so long, we won my serve, which meant we had won it all!!!!!! All of my teammates ran out on the court screaming, yelling, jumping up & down, even crying! It was awesome!!!! We had reached the highest point we could as a mixed doubles team!

Fast forward a couple of hours to the airport. Our flight was supposed to leave at 4:20. We were told it had been delayed until 5:50. Then it was delayed again, and again! We finally boarded the plane, only to be told that a light in the cockpit had come on, and maintenance had to check it out. We waited and waited, and then finally were told that the problem had been fixed, but another warning light had come on. This time it was something about fire protection in the cargo area. We would not be allowed to depart. We sat for awhile, then finally they had us get off the plane. We waited a while longer, then they got another plane for us to board. Finally, we actually were able to take off. Of course, what was supposed to be a 6:00 arrival time had turned into like a 10:45 arrival time. Rachel & Katelyn had made posters for us welcoming us home. They also had cards for everyone they had made, along with gerber daisies for all the ladies. Since it was so late, they weren't able to come to the airport, so Robert had to get our neighbor, Jill, to come and stay with the girls while he came to the airport. He held up the signs for us and distributed the cards and flowers to everyone, but it wasn't quite the same as if two little girls were there! Rachel & Katelyn were so sad they couldn't come.

I guess for the whole week-end, being delayed a few hours isn't so bad. At least we had the national championship to talk about over & over again while we waited!!!! If we had lost, the delay would have been horrible! But we were all still so excited and pumped up from winning that we didn't care too much about being so late.

Here are a couple of pictures.

This is everyone after running onto the court after Lanny & I won!

This is our official winner's picture. Do you see the bear sitting with the tennis balls? His name is Chocolate! He belongs to my sister-in-law's 4th grade class. He likes to travel with various people, get his picture made along the way, and document his travels in a journal. Chocolate went with us to New Orleans for the Southern Sectional tournament back in October, and since we won the tournament, everyone said I had to bring Chocolate with me to Orlando! So Chocolate's picture will be in the USTA magazine when they publish the winners! How cool is that?

Fall Family Pictures

I decided that I wanted some fall family photos taken, so I enlisted the help of our friend and professional photographer Chris Bright. We met him at the park last Sunday afternoon for some pictures, and then went to an old cotton mill for some more pictures. The pictures turned out AWESOME!!!! My only problem now is deciding which ones to buy! That'll be a really, really tough decision! I've put a few pictures here for you to see. Click here to go to Chris' website to check out all of the pictures. Once you're on his website, click on "Buy Photos" and then enter in our last name in all small letters followed by 07 (example: doe07). Don't worry, you don't have to actually buy anything to look at the pictures!!!

What a View!

Robert took this picture one day last week looking out from our deck. Isn't it gorgeous? You can see the Smoky Mountains in the distance, with gentle rolling hills full of colored leaves in the foreground.

A Princess Haircut

Last week I took Katelyn to get her haircut. I found a place really close to our house and so far I really, really like it! It's very convenient, reasonably priced, and the ladies there are super nice! (It's called Salon 220 if you're curious!) Anyway, I had asked them about a kid's haircut and whether I should make an appointment or just drop in. They told me just to drop by sometime. So, on Friday I took Katelyn to get her hair cut. It was getting way too long! I've cut it several times, and I've taken her somewhere to have it cut once. Her hair just grows fast! And she's so little that it makes her hair look even longer! The girl there, Holly, did a good job cutting it. Then she asked Katelyn if she wanted her hair to be fixed like a princess! Katelyn just grinned from ear to ear!! Of course she wanted to look like a princess! So Holly spent the next 10 minutes (or more) pinning up Katelyn's hair and then curling it. It turned out so cute! When we got home, she had to dress up in some of our princess dress-up clothes. And of course, when it came time for naptime she didn't want to take a nap because she didn't want to mess her hair up! She wanted to be able to pick Rachel up from school with princess hair! Since she had been so good, I let her skip her nap, and instead told her to "read" some books for a while. Of course, when we went to get Rachel lots of folks at school just oohed and aahed over her hair and how cute she looked!

Here are some pictures of Princess Katelyn:

Action Shot

One of the boys on Katelyn's soccer team gave all of his teammates an 8x10 action photo of them playing soccer. (It helps that his dad is a professional photographer!) Anyway, here's the one of Katelyn. I scanned it in, so the color and quality are a little off. The actual photo is awesome! Thanks Alex (and Chris)!

Basketball Player vs. Cheerleader

Okay. For those of you who know us, you know that Robert & I are big athletes and like pretty much all sports. However, we are not fans of cheerleading. If you are a cheerleader, used to be a cheerleader, dream of being a cheerleader, or have a daughter who is a cheerleader, I am not trying to offend you! This is just a personal opinion! We personally do not want our girls being cheerleaders. We would prefer for them to be athletes and play ball! Before you think we're horrible, we have let them both dress up like cheerleaders for Halloween before!!! Some of you may not be sports fans and not want your kids playing ball. To each their own opinion. However, here at our house, we encourage sports and discourage the cheerleading option.

I have said all that to set the stage for this next paragraph. You see, each fall the local newspaper highlights all the first grade classes in the county with a special section in the paper. It includes pictures and write-ups about each child. This year's first grade class is the Class of 2019! They asked each child what they like about school, what book they like, what they want to be when they grow up, and who their hero is. So here is Rachel's response:

"My name is Rachel. The thing I enjoy most about school is recess. My favorite book is "Miss Nelson is Missing." When I grow up I want to be a cheerleader. My hero is Jessica."

Did I just read that correctly? She wants to be what? I about died!!! My first thought was "oh, all the other girls were probably saying that, so she just said whatever they said." Not that I want her to go along with the crowd, but this time that's what I was actually hoping for. But no. The other girls wanted to be teachers, vets, doctors, etc. A couple actually did say gymnasts, but hey, at least there's a chance for an Olympic medal with that! No other girl said they wanted to be a cheerleader. Just Rachel! I'm not sure what all was going on in her brain that day. For starters, she loves absolutely everything about school. Her favorite special is guidance. She cried when I had to pick her up early for a doctor's appointment one day and she missed like 5 minutes of guidance. So I'm not really sure where recess came from as her favorite part of school.

Anyway, back to the subject of her wanting to be a cheerleader. That just blew our minds! She has said she wants to be several things when she grows up. For the past year or so, if you ask her what she's going to be she'll reply "a princess, barbie, astronaut, mail carrier, teacher!" What a combination!!! I would fully have expected to have seen all or part of that reply in the newspaper article. But no way did I expect to read cheerleader!!!

But before you cheerleading people go and think that you've swayed Rachel to come over to your side, guess what she begged to do this fall/winter? Play basketball!!!! Our church has Upward basketball and cheerleading. A girl asked Rachel at evaluations the other night if Rachel was a basketball player or a cheerleader. I was so proud to hear Rachel say those words, "I'm a basketball player!" YEAH!!!!! She is my daughter!!!! Puddin and Jessica have tried to corrupt her, but she has remained true to her upbringing!!! HaHa!! (By the way, did you see in Rachel's newspaper article where she listed Jessica as her hero? Jessica is her cousin.)

I don't have any pictures from Rachel's Upward evaluations. But I'll include a picture of her from last Halloween when she dressed up as a FUTURE LADY VOL basketball player!

Halloween Day Part 2

For Halloween, the girls decided what they wanted to be (with some help from Daddy and Aunt Wendy). We pretty much had all the stuff here that they needed, except for a couple of small purchases. Katelyn wanted to be a fairy, so we pulled some stuff out of the dress-up box. I did buy her some shiny silver shoes. Rachel wanted to be a kitty cat, so that was pretty easy! I found a cat accessory kit at Party City for like $4 and she was all set! I think they both looked really cute!! We had a good time at the Fall Festival. Right after we got there, they had the first cake walk of the night. Guess who won the cake? Rachel! It's a lemon supreme cake and it's really good!!! A few minutes later, they gave away the first door prize. Guess who won that? Katelyn! She won a t-shirt that just happens to be my size. Thanks Katelyn!!! After playing all the games there and making bracelets, getting faces painted, and jumping on the moonwalk, we left and took the girls trick-or-treating. We stopped by Lloyd & Wendy's to see them, and then we headed home to visit some of our neighbors. After making the loop in our neighborhood, it was time for baths and bed. The girls were worn out! As usual, they have way too much candy! I'll throw some of the stuff away, but I'll keep the "good" stuff (i.e chocolate!). Here's a slideshow from the night.

Halloween Day Part 1

Yesterday was quite a busy and fun day for Rachel & Katelyn. Katelyn had a Halloween party at school, so they were supposed to wear their costume if they wanted to. Well, Katelyn decided she could wear one thing for her school party, and then something else to go trick-or-treating and to the Fall Festival at church. So Katelyn decided to be a ballerina for her school party. Thanks to our friend Corbyn, we have a box full of cool dress up clothes, including this cute tutu that fits Katelyn perfectly!! Isn't she cute?!?!?! We bought some hair & body glitter spray to make her all sparkly and found some cute silver ballet slippers. If you look at the pictures of Katelyn, it looks like she has something on her chin. The best I can figure out is that with all the glitter on her neck, chest, shoulders, hair, etc. it played some tricks with the camera flash! I'm sure she didn't have anything on her face!!!

At Rachel's school she also had a Halloween party. However, instead of dressing in their costumes, the kids are encouraged to dress wacky! Many of the teachers got into the wacky spirit too and came to school dressed in mis-matched clothes, crazy shoes, wacky hair, etc. Rachel had a blast dressing up wacky!!! She was so proud of herself for picking out one boot and one tennis shoe! And how about that hair? I think she's quite a cute wacky girl!

Here's a slideshow of the first part of our Halloween Day. Stay tuned for more pictures later!!!