Relay Post (finally...)

Relay for Life 2009

This was my second and final year as co-chair. I had a wonderful time but I am ready to go back to being a plain old team captain....and steering committee member. I keep thinking maybe now I can cause the problems instead of having to solve them...hahaha. The above shot is from the Survivor's reception. The committee did a beautiful job and it looked fantastic. Ty's quilt was set up in the corner with plants and lattice work and it made a beautiful picture back drop for all of our Survivors.

Kevin and I at the campsite. I would sneak over to FFL whenever I had a chance. I hated not being on site to help out but I left the team in great hands and everything went smoothly. We boosted our team totals by a few thousand dollars. Not too shabby for one night's work...

Daddy and the cow...enough said :)

a shot of the masses...

I'm the little orange dot on the stage...can you see me?

This is the Survivors lap. Makes me cry every time. I still remember Jen and Ty taking their first lap...that was so long ago. This man in the hat made me cry this year...he was all alone, no one walked with him and it took him twice as long as everyone else. He's actually walking with the kids lap, they had caught up to him. This picture also makes me smile because you can see someone reaching out to pat him on the back...THAT is what Relay is all about!

Rob and Jared are giving a Survivor a lift during the Survivor lap.

Me and my bubby...the kids we SO excited to stay overnight this year.

Me looking official and Ryan waiting for the Mr. & Miss Relay contest. She didn't win but she was a crowd favorite...

This about sums up Relay...We had wiped our schedule clean for the next couple days and had recorded shows to watch in our vegitative states. We all came home and crashed on the couch...some harder then others :)

Chattahoochee Gold Banquet

Thursday night we had our banquet for Gold. The kids had a great time hanging out with their friends. We had no major awards come to the HomerHouse but I think Jared got fired up for next year. He has made some awesome friends this year and that makes me SO happy. Ryan just had a blast, from beginning to end,she is ready for long course to start. It's so funny to watch her with all the "big" girls.Ryan and "her" coach--Coach Falco

We couldn't find Ryan before dinner, well-she was with the big girlies. They are all such sweeties and awesome swimmers too!Ryan with her first year pin. She was sad about no ballet recital this year, but after going to the banquet, all was forgotten.Jared, Aiden and Anthony. These boys are going to make an awesome relay team someday, I wish Jose was pictured, he could take the freestyle leg! I can totally see them going up to get an award in the near future...

Three days until Relay

I loving Memory of Donna Spaulding

October 31st 2005

Some of you know what I do for a living, a volunteer living that is. If you don't know by now we really need to do lunch cause it's been way too long. This is my second year as the Chair of the Cobb County Relay for Life. Yes, I am crazy about it. Yes, I annoy people by always bringing it up in conversation. BUT, I can bet that every one of you wants to find a cure for this awful disease. It put me on this path and though I am grateful, I still hold a grudge. My HOPE is that one day my grandkids will say, "what was Cancer?" and Rob, our kids and I can tell them that it is something they don't have to ever worry about because we helped find a cure.

In Loving Memory of Ty Harvey
April 5th 2007

THIS is your personal invitation to come out to our Relay May 8th and 9th at Jim Miller Park (the Cobb county fair grounds). Granted I may not be able to greet you at the campsite since I may be on the main stage talking to 10,000 of my closest friends, but I will know that you came out to support me and our little team that could. Rob, all three kids, my parents and my brother will be there as team members. So if you haven't seen us in a while this is a great chance to catch us all in one spot! :)In Loving Memory of My Grandma Lou
December 1, 2004

Friends for LIFE started 6 Relays ago with just 10 people. A handful of those originals are still around to witness our groundbreaking year. In that short period of time we will have raised over $200,000.00, just our team, in the fight against cancer! Words could not even come close to what the Relay experience is like, so please try and come out to the track. It is a night like no other with plenty of time to Celebrate (games, food, activities, Survivor reception, survivor lap), Remember (Butterfly release, Luminary Ceremony) and to Fight Back (every dollar counts towards finding a cure).

Here is the Schedule in case you can make it out to the Track:
FRIDAY MAY 8th
5:30 pm Survivors/Caregiver Reception Begins
6:00 pm KidZone activities and fundraising (food, items for sale, face painting, games, etc)
7:00 Opening Ceremonies, Butterfly Release, Survivor Lap, Kids Walk Lap and Team Lap
10:00 pm Luminary/Torch bearer ceremony
SATURDAY MAY 9th
7:00 am Closing Ceremony

Working hard to find a cure for my future and theirs

since 2004

This is my last year as chair, but I will always be the captain of Friends for LIFE. If you cannot make it out this year, please try and come in 2010...I'll be there for sure! I made a comment to my folks that "just a few more weeks and I'll be done with relay (meaning serving as chair)". Jared overheard and with great anticipation he asked, "they've found a cure?!?!" No, not yet, but won't that be a great day! We are making so much progress, every day, every dollar. Did you know that 90 lives a DAY are saved by work that the American Cancer Society is doing? That could be you, a loved one, a child or a friend. If you would like more information please click on the Cobb County Relay for Life link to the right. If you would like to know more about Friends for LIFE please click that link as well. If you have any questions, please email me or give me a call

Happy Birthday Jared!

Happy 10th Birthday Jarebear!!

Can I still call you that? I'm thinking that's probably not very "cool" anymore...too bad ;)
Mikey and his family go to the same Mexican joint every Friday. We join them when our sports schedule allows. Mikey's birthday is in March and for his special dinner they brought out the "big red hat" and sang the birthday song. Since March the boys have been planning on Jared's bithday being here as well. I guess part of the fun is that the guy behind you whacks you on the head through out the entire thing and then at the end they smash your face into your dessert. Funny when you're ten. Wonder if they do the same thing to adults.The BEST part was that it was Cinco de Mayo Friday so the place was jam packed. So many people were clapping and singing, it was really great, very memorable! :) He had a blast...
....and loved getting smooshed into his dessert.The boys (Mikey and Anthony) were spending the night so we headed back home to play, have gifts and dessert for those who did not already wear theirs.
Like Jared's "cookie cake"??...I crack myself up. He actually LOVES these things from Publix. Not my favorite but all the little people love them. Good thing they have them in the bakery all the time, that's what he insisted on for his birthday. I had cupcakes on standby just in case. Ok, they were really for me-Publix vanilla frosting on vanilla cupcakes--my criptonite.

Haley Visit

Happy Haley Day!

We got to go have a visitation with Haley today, we have waited for quite a while to see this little one. I love the look on Ryan's face when Christina brought her out. This picture of her holding Haley is so precious! Can you see the excitement?!
This was the last moment that she stood still. Haley is definitely going to keep us on our toes. She has a ton of spunk and Ramsay will have one energetic playmate :). I think Ryan was a bit upset that she didn't want to sit and cuddle, but for the kittens-it was playtime!
Watching what's going on. One of the few non-blurry pictures.

She is such a beautiful kitten, it will be really neat to watch her grow!

Her eyes are still the Baby color but soon they will turn into a beautiful blue, almost like a Siamese.

Thank you Mama Christina for letting us come visit!
Just a couple more weeks and then she can come home :)

Homer House Sports Update

Wow, what a weekend, I am one tired puppy! This weekend's swim meet had a 5:15 am wake up call. We had high hopes that Ryan would post a time in the 50 fly and make the Iron Man. Pretty cool thing for a 6 year old. We had to deck enter her so we got that all set up and ready to go. We look down to see if she was lined up, and she wasn't there....there was a mess up with the late entry and she was standing down at the other end. Rob RAN down the steps, across the pool deck, grabbed Ryan and ran back across the pool screaming, "whoa! whoa! whoa!" I'm up in the stands yelling, "wait"!...the refs heard us and let her get on the blocks. She swam great the first 25, did a two hand touch and looked like she was in the clear. Apparently she did a breast stoke pull in there somewhere and got a DQ. Oh, well. We tried. :) We had not told her (no pressure) so she had no clue. I did mention it today and she was ok with it. The other highlights were that we had an unprecedented amount of DQ's. All season we had maybe 6 DQ's from both kids...yesterday we had 5 events DQ'ed. Hmmm, Jared accomplished the rare, yet attainable, TRIPLE DQ. Yes folks, he DQ'ed on every turn in his 100 Fly. It was like watching a western movie where the guy got shot and he was "dead", but the just kept shooting him...we think he may have actually had a 4th DQ for a double kick but oh well.

As BAD as yesterday was...today was PHENOMENAL! Jared once again set at Homer House first, he broke 5 out of 5 personal bests...every event he swam he broke his best time today! Yahoo! Not only that, he posted points for every event for a total of 37 points (unheard of from JB!!). For his 50 Free he was head to head with his buddy Anthony. It was SO close, .08 hundreds of a second...Anthony finished 6th (getting a trophy) and Jared finished 7th (no trophy). The difference...Jared coasted in and Anthony touched strong. Another learning experience. I was SO proud of the way he swam today. Pinkie had a great day as well. She broke 3 of 5 personal bests and posted 26 points (are you kidding? 26??--that's REALLY good folks). She was in a head to head against her friend Lauren and again it was within a frogs hair. If her arms were just a bit longer.... :) Her shining moment was when she was doing her 100 free, and was looking pretty tired, then all of a sudden, the last 15 yards, she turned on the juice and ended up taking 5 seconds off her time. A.W.E.S.O.M.E!! She can up to us beaming and said that when she saw the flags she turned on her firecracker power..ok, whatever works! ***Just an FYI, you get 16 points for 1st, 15 for 2nd, 14 for third on down to 1 point for 16th. The points determine which swim TEAM wins the meet. Since swimming is such an individual sport, I like to let the kiddos know when they post points so that they are aware that what they do has an effect on the entire team as well.

Back home and off to soccer with Kevin. I have missed 2 games this year :( so I was very happy to see him play!! The kids were undefeated last season and so far this season. Coach put Kevin in as goalie for the 3rd quarter and he had THREE great saves. Unfortunately I forgot my camera and missed getting it on film. Bad mommy! They played great, but lost. Yes, they lost so they got a taste of reality :)

Soccer still has a few weeks left, swimming Short Course is done until Fall. We will be embarking on Long Course in a few weeks. I will take Jared to Chamblee alone (apparently they judge really hard there..ha, not like this weekend???) and Ryan, Rob and Kevin will be at the soccer fields. Ryan will have her first long course meet in June. Summer swim is here in a couple weeks. SUMMER itself is only 20 school days away!! We are so excited to have some summer fun together....

Spring Break 2009

It's relay season so I am running WAY behind. I wanted to get these up last week but there aren't enough hours in the day sometimes. :) Thank you mom and dad for and AWESOME week. We knew that schedules were going to get hectic, so it was a great week of relaxing, playing outside and Easter fun. After a few months and a pitcher of margaritas, ask me about the "adventure" that Jared and Ryan took on their bikes...3 miles away from home...one way. Enough chit chat-here's some pics from our fantastic week. Oh, BTW, my homework was to read the manual on my camera, I didn't do that-so I am still playing with my camera, settings and editing. Enjoy!

Hi Ryan!
Kevy found the golden egg!
Every shot of Jared has that expression...quite funny!
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this shot...Jared got up on a bench and got the egg for Kevin. The Bunny must have hopped way high up to get it there...This shot was so cute, much better then the one with all of them looking at me. I love this one :)
This is one of my all time favorite pictures EVER...sometimes you know when you have a great shot, this one is one of my fav's!!
So cute! Ryan, Rusty and Ms. Sherry
The Look...
"I love you Rusty!!!"
Ryan caught 2 fishys (Kevin wants y'all to know he caught 4)...but look how happy she is! I haven't even caught a bass yet (in my entire life) and she caught two in one week!
Grandfather had to help hold it. Kevin actually picked it up but his smile was goofy from me taking so many pictures.
Big brother likes to help...
Ryan post basket bliss
Kevin finally found it, that rascally rabbit hid his basket really well!Jared was ecstatic with his Easter basket...

Favorite Photo Friday

I love this picture. It is from the Spring Break 2008 file. Rob, Rick, Jennie, Tom and I went on a cruise last year and we split up the kids. Kevin and Ryan went to my parents and Jared went to Rob's parents. The kids had an awesome time all around. When the dice landed here I found this photo in the file and quit rolling---this is ALL Kevin ever wants to do--FISH! That's my boy! :)Have a safe and wonderful Spring Break!

"I wish I had Haley..."

Ryan's letter to Mama Christina:

I want Haley to come home with me so I can play with her.
Please kiss her for me.
I can't wait to visit her.