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!!!