Tournament Champs!

Here are a couple of pictures from the doubles tournament I played in last week-end.

This first picture is of the women's 7.5 champions and runner-ups. In USTA tennis, you have a rating based on your level. So for 7.5 doubles, it means you have a 4.0 player and a 3.5 player. The higher the number, the better the player. From left to right is Lori (my partner), me, Lucretia, and Beth (my sister-in-law). Lori & I beat Beth & Lucretia for the championship. Can you tell by all the sweat that it was a tough match?!?!?!?

This next picture is of the 8.0 mixed champions and runner-ups. For this division, the players ratings have to add up to no more than 8.0. From left to right are Steve & Sue (the champions), and me & Lanny (the runner-ups). Steve & Sue both have a 4.0 rating, whereas I am a 3.5 and Lanny is a 4.5. This match was a tough match too, and Steve & Sue played great! They're on our mixed team (for the mixed league that started last night), so we represented our team well in the finals!!!

The Toothless Wonder

It's happened again - Rachel has "lost" another tooth! As typical, she just appears out of nowhere and says "I pulled my tooth!" and just stands there grinning and holding her tooth. This is her 5th tooth to lose. The bottom two that she lost have been replaced with the permanent teeth. However, she now has a BIG gap on the top since she's currently missing 3 teeth front & center! It's such a cute smile though!!

Reading with Kayla

I had forgotten I took this picture last week when Kayla was here until I went to download other pictures from my camera. I just thought this picture was cute with Kayla reading to Rachel & Katelyn.

Old-Fashioned Outdoor Fun

Monday evening we went to my parents' house to celebrate my mom's birthday. After dinner, we thought about swimming, but we were all pretty stuffed, the temperature had dropped some, and there was a pretty good breeze blowing. So we just told the girls we'd play outside in the yard. Well let me tell you - the girls had a blast running around and playing with their Uncle Lloyd! They played hide & seek forever, and ran all around the house numerous times! They did stuff like throwing balls over the fence and then running to get them. The funny thing was when Lloyd would sneak around and get the stuff they had just thrown over and he would hide it. You should've seen the looks on their faces when they would run in expecting to see the stuff they had just thrown over the fence and instead it was gone! We all got a good laugh out of that. When it started getting dark, they caught a whole bunch of lightning bugs (which we had to take back to our house to restore the lightning bug population at our house!). Katelyn was so excited because she actually caught one herself! After that we ended up watching a big spider spin its web. I HATE spiders, but it was kind of neat watching it make its web. Robert threw a lightning bug into the web, so we watched the spider wrap the lightning bug all up in a silk cocoon to save for later. The girls stayed up way too late, but they were having such fun just playing outdoors and using their imaginations! Yes - I had my camera there, but no I didn't take any pictures. I totally forgot I even had my camera with me! Oh well!! It was a fun night celebrating Mom's birthday and just playing in the backyard. We had lots of laughs!

Week-end Fun

We had a Sunday School class swimming party yesterday after church at one of our class members' house. It was an awesome setup - pool, trampoline, and moonwalk (inflatable jumping thing). Check out my friend Lisa's blog for a slideshow from the day (be patient - there are lots of pictures!). Here's a picture of me & Robert before I had to head out early for a tennis match. All you Smyrna folks take notice - I have on a tennis skirt!! I'm sure you're surprised!!!



Speaking of tennis - I played in a tournament this week-end and it was a good tournament! This tournament was a doubles only tournament. I prefer singles for several reasons - more exercise, more fun for me, and all the blame or credit rests on my shoulders alone. Anyway, my partner for mixed doubles called and asked me to play in this tournament with him so I did. And then a tennis friend of mine asked me to play in the women's doubles with her so I decided to do that too! So from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon I played 3 women's doubles matches and 3 mixed doubles matches. In women's doubles, we won it all!!! And guess who we beat for the champtionship? My sister-in-law Beth and her partner, Lucretia! It was a tough match, but we pulled it out 6-3, 6-4. Beth & Lucretia play on a women's doubles team where they live and they've asked if I would play with them this year. So it looks like I'll be playing on their team and on a team up here. Should be fun!!! Anyway, back to the tournament. In mixed, we fought hard but ended up falling just short in the championship match 3-6, 5-7, so we came in 2nd. We lost to a really good doubles team that just so happens to be on our mixed doubles team! So even though we lost, it was good that we at least lost to our teammates!! Our mixed season starts this next week-end, and we'll be playing 10 matches over the next 3 week-ends! Lots of tennis going on around here!!!

A Day at the Pool

Today, we took Kayla to Mamaw & Papaw's pool to go swimming for a while. I took my camera with great intentions, but I completely forgot about it until we were finished swimming and drying off! So I just got a couple of pictures. Regardless of the pictures, we had a good time! Rachel & Katelyn try to compete for Kayla's attention - it's quite comical at times! I heard Katelyn say today "Don't watch Rachel - watch me!!!" They had to show off all their tricks to Kayla - I'm sure she was so impressed!!! HaHa!!

Here's a picture of Kayla & Katelyn all wrapped up and drying off:

When we first moved up here, we lived with my parents for a few months while our house was being completed. That was 4 years ago, and Rachel wasn't quite 2 years old. She loved to sweep off the patio, so Papaw cut off an old broom to make it her size. Well now, 4 years later, this broom is a little short, but Rachel still loves to sweep! When I told her I wanted to get her picture, she said "Get a picture of me sweeping!" So here it is!

Fun at the Zoo

As I mentioned in a previous post, our niece Kayla is here visiting for the week. Yesterday, we took her to the zoo. I know my girls had a great time showing off "their" zoo, and I hope Kayla had fun too! We got to see lots of animals, and at the request of Rachel & Katelyn, we got to see the Bird Show. It actually is a really good show! They have a bird named Einstein who talks and does a good job! He's quite famous and has been featured on several national TV shows like Animal Planet, the Today Show, and either David Letterman or the Tonight Show (I can't remember which one). Anyway, it was a good day at the zoo!

Katelyn's New Bed

Well, the time has come to finally put Katelyn in a big girl bed! She has been in her toddler bed until today, and she's over 4 years old! She has an awesome bed! It started out as a baby bed, then we took the front rail off and it became her toddler bed, and then now, we use the front & back pieces, along with the bed rails, to make a full bed! Her room until now has been yellow & light blue, with a sun, moon, and stars theme. I was hoping to find something that would coordinate with those colors so that we wouldn't have to re-paint! Oh, and also her furniture was mine when I was growing up. When we originally set-up her nursery, we painted the furniture white, and I painted the flowers that are carved into it blue & yellow. So imagine how excited I was when I found this adorable bed set! It looks great with her yellow & blue walls, and the flowers on the bedding look great with the flowers on the furniture! The only things I need to do is (1) take down her current border and put up the new coordinating border that I bought last night, and (2) take down her sun, moon, & stars valence and put up the new one. Here are some pictures!

On a side note - we have Kayla here with us this week! Kayla is our niece. Her older sister, Brittany, is gone a lot this summer at various camps, so we told Kayla she could come to our house for "camp!" She decided that might be fun, so we got her yesterday and she'll be here til Friday I think! The girls are so excited to have Kayla here! I hope Kayla doesn't get bored with a 5 year old and a 4 year old! After all, Kayla will be a freshman this fall!

Rachel's Translation

A couple of Sundays ago on our way home from church, Rachel was so excited to tell us about her Bible verse from Upstreet (our version of Sunday School). Anyway, she started out perfectly but added her own translation at the end:

"Philippians 4:11(b) (NIV): I have learned to be content WHEREVER THE CIRCUS STANDS!" (It's supposed to be whatever the circumstance.) Isn't that hilarious!!!!

High School Friends - Part 2

Back in May, I posted about getting together with 3 of my high school friends for dinner. (Click here to read that post.) Anyway, my friend Michelle emailed me this picture so I thought I'd share it with you.

From left to right is Amy, me, Lisa, and Michelle.

Now flash back a few years. Here's a picture from our middle school basketball team our 8th grade year:

From left to right is me, Lisa, Amy, and Michelle. Have we changed any?!?!?!?!?!

Fall Creek Falls Slideshow

Fall Creek Falls Fun

Every year for the week of 4th of July, Robert's parents get a cabin at Fall Creek Falls and invite the family to come up and stay whenever they can. This year, we headed up there Friday afternoon and came back Saturday evening so we'd be here for church on Sunday. Then we headed back up Monday morning and came back Wednesday. The girls love to go to "Puddin's Cabin" as they call it. Last year wasn't very fun since Rachel ended up in the ER the first night we were there with an asthma attack and we left the next day. This year we were a little nervous about going. Rachel even asked if Puddin had a different cabin this year since she was allergic to the cabin last year! As it turned out, we did have a different cabin this year!!! And Rachel did fine with her allergies & asthma!!! However, someone from the cabin did end up in the ER. Robert's sister, Kate, thought she had broken her foot at the bottom of the falls. Turns out it's just a really bad sprain, but it took a couple of hours to get her up from the bottom of the falls. We weren't there for the drama, but we heard all about it!!!

The girls had a blast at Fall Creek Falls!! They love to go hiking through the woods and fishing! Both girls actually hiked down to the bottom of the falls and back up! That's quite a good little hike for them - especially Katelyn with her little short legs! But they did great! We also took some less strenuous hikes through the woods looking for rocks and wildlife. We did catch a little frog (and released it the next morning). We saw a mommy deer and her two babies that still had their spots! We also saw a rooster in the woods! How funny is that?!?!? The cabin we had was on the lake so we could actually fish off the back deck. The girls liked to fish. Rachel was a little impatient at time, but Katelyn loved it! Katelyn actually caught the biggest fish of the week, but it bent the hook and flopped off when we were trying to reel it in. But we all agreed it was the biggest!

We looked for rocks on one of our hikes because Puddin had a craft for us to make. The girls made rock necklaces and bracelets.

Sorry I didn't get a picture of everyone there! For the record, here are the folks who were there for all or part of the time we were there:
Puddin & Papa (Robert's parents)
Charlie & Shannon (Robert's brother and his girlfriend)
Donald, Beth, and Ryan (Robert's sister and her husband and son)
Kate & Jessica (Robert's sister and her daughter)
Steve & Kayla (Robert's brother and his daughter)
Jonathan (Robert's cousin)
and us

I guess that makes for a full cabin!! Connie & Brittany we missed you!!! Hope your mission trip went well!

Rachel's Solo Debut

Last week was worship camp at church, and this year Rachel was old enough to attend! She was so excited about it and loved every minute of it! Music is something she absolutely loves!!! She came home one day early in the week to tell me that Mrs. Kym had signed her up for a solo! I wasn't too sure if Rachel was right or not until Mrs. Kym called me that afternoon about it! She was asking if I thought Rachel would go through with it in front of everyone. You see, on the Sunday evening after Worship Camp, the kids put on a performance from their week at Worship Camp for the entire church. Rachel said she could do it and it wouldn't bother her that it would be in front of everyone. So we worked on making sure we had the words right and everything and she was ready for Sunday night. The video is below. Didn't she do great? The funny part is that Mrs. Kym was sitting on the front row to cue Rachel as to when to start. Well it turns out that Mrs. Kym's child was talking up on stage and she was trying to get him to be quiet by pointing her finger at him. When she pointed her finger, Rachel would start singing. Then Mrs. Kym would realize what she did and shake her head "no" and Rachel would stop. Then Mrs. Kym would point at her son again, which in turn would make Rachel think it was her turn to start. I think there were a couple of false starts before she actually started when she was supposed to, but it didn't seem to upset her or bother her. I know I'm her mother, but I think she did a great job for a 5-year old! How many of you would want to sing a solo in front of a full crowd?