The Ocean Is Calling My Name

Hey, friends! Well, on Saturday morning, we'll be hitting the road for Hilton Head Island for a week! I can hardly wait to get away for awhile! Time to bury my toes in the sand and listen to the soothing waves roll in. To me, there's no better place than the beach to kiss all of your worries and troubles away. One thing we have planned is to head to Savannah and go on another ghost tour. The last time we went, Brittany wasn't able to go with us, so it should be lots of fun! I can promise that I'll take plenty of pictures to share with you after we get back. Don't I always?

I had to go to the doctor early this morning. For the past 4 days, I've had strange nodules form underneath the skin on my upper chest. It began with one, then they sort of multiplied. I now have 6 of them. They don't itch, at all, so they're not bug bites. My family doc. said he wasn't sure what they were. All he said was that it's an acute skin condition. He said that it could very likely be the beginnings of a staph infection. So, he wrote out a prescription for antibiotics, but said it would be wise for me to see my dermatologist ASAP. I have made an appt. for later this afternoon. Whatever it is, I'm hoping it's resolved easily before we go on our trip. I tell you, it's always SOMETHING!

One more thing before I forget. I have now joined the Instagram bandwagon and have been enjoying it so much! If you'd like to follow me, just look up my user name...it's awest89. I'll be more than happy to follow back! I love taking pictures and it's always fun to see what everyone else is doing.

Well, looks like that's a wrap for today! As soon as my life gets back to "normal", again, I'll resume my regular routine of blogging nearly every day. In the meanwhile, know that I think of y'all often! Until next time...

All Good Things Must End

Well, my girls head back to school today after being off for the holidays since Dec. 19th. Plus, Chris flies down to New Orleans and won't be back until Thursday evening. He's been on vacation since Dec. 18th. We've had such a great time together and I hate to see it come to an end.

I definitely have a lot to get accomplished today. The house needs a good cleaning, from top to bottom. With Chris and the girls at home, I've done the bear minimum in order to have ample time to spend with them. So, now that the holidays are behind us and the decorations have been put away (actually, most of them came down on Christmas Day!), I really need to get mop the floors, dust, and clean out the bathrooms, to name a few! I hope I'm up for the challenge!

Another thing I need to do is organize the girls' closets. They have some clothes and shoes they no longer wear that I need to donate. Chris and I cleaned our closet out last week and it was so therapeutic! We took a big load to Good Will and I was so happy to get rid of everything! In fact, it was the busiest day of the year for donations, New Year's Eve.

I am definitely going to hop on the treadmill and get back into my running, and I'm going to work out with my free weights. I've not been very consistent about exercising over the holidays because we've been so busy. I'm ready to get back in the swing of things! It always makes me feel so much better!

I have two books to start reading that I got for Christmas..."The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch and "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks. It's been awhile since I've taken the time to get lost in a good book, so I'm looking forward to it!

Of course, truth be known, I'm going to miss having my girls and Chris home with me. It just seems like it's the natural place for them to be. I love it when we're all together! There's no feeling like it in the world! We've had such fun having numerous movie nights and challenging each other in games of Wii bowling and Guitar Hero. We're all competitive and we all like to win! It's been great not having to follow a tight schedule or a set routine. The girls and I have had tons of fun cooking and baking together, as well as going shopping. We've shared lots of laughs and made many new wonderful memories. For me, that's what it's all about...MEMORIES.

As much I as enjoy the opportunity to finally get some things accomplished around here and being able to actually hear myself think for a change without hearing, "Mommmm!" fifty times a day, one thing is for certain. I'm going to miss hearing the voices of those that I love echo throughout our house. The sounds of laughter, silliness, and, yes, even frustation are what make our house a HOME.

No, I've never really been one of those moms who says, "I can't wait for my kids to get back in school!" I know plenty of them who just count the days until their kids are off on their own and OUT OF THE HOUSE. Not me! I love having my girls around and I dread the day when it all comes to a screeching halt.

Sorry for my melancholy tone today, but I'm just trying to keep things REAL. Things are about to get crazy, again, with track season right around the corner, homework piling up, and Chris traveling 3-4 nights out of every week. Seems like we're always going here and there, with very little time to just be. Another opportunity like we've had these past several weeks won't roll back around until early April when the girls are on Spring Break. That's definitely something I'm looking forward to because we'll be taking our ski trip to Colorado! It can't get here soon enough!

I'm going to end this post with a song by Suzy Bogguss called "Letting Go". Oh, it's a "lump in your throat" kind of song, so get ready!





Have a wonderful Monday...thanks for allowing me to share what's on my heart!

Sweet Summertime

I don't know what the weather's like where you live, but here in Georgia, it's cold, gloomy, and rainy. Even though I enjoy all of the changing seasons, I still long for the return of summer this time of year, when you can be out in the warm weather and not be chilled to the bone. So, I thought I'd put a little summer back into your day by sharing the pretty scenery we've seen on some of our family vacations.

These first two photos were taken on the second family cruise we went on, Mariner of the Seas. They're of a place called Labadee, Hispanoila. We visited this picturesque private island. Doesn't it look just like a postcard?
These next series of photos were taken when we went to Sedona, AZ. If you've never been there, you really must go! It is beyond beautiful! The color of the sky and the rock formations were gorgeous! Would you believe that we hiked almost to the very top of this rock, called Bell Rock? It was a long way up...and a LONG way down!! This is a church built into the side of a rock formation. It was so neat inside!We discovered this creek flowing through Sedona. We walked all up and down it and took a dip in the cold water. Brrr!! Just look at that view!!And another one...so serene...Chris and I went on a trip to Vail, CO. a few years back with his former employer. We were there for about four days and I loved it! I'd go back in a heartbeat! Here's what we saw as we left Denver on our way to Vail... Yep, that's me on a horse. We took a horse ride way up into the mountains, through a forest of Aspen trees. It was the neatest thing...check out that view! My horse had a serious case of the "toots", though. It was so funny! Plus, when our ride was over, my horse ran off with me still on his back when he spotted the water trough! I kept yelling, "Whoa, whoa!!" What was my hubby doing, you might ask?...laughing hysterically!! Sorry, but I failed to see the humor. My horse was gorgeous, but he sure had a mind of his own! This photo was taken last spring when we went to the Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee. I can't think of many places prettier than that. Here's the Smokies in all their glory...Here's the girls feeding a flock of hungry seagulls from our balcony on our third family cruise this past summer. We went on Freedom of the Seas. Talk about a grand ship! Wow! I highly recommend it! We were docked in St. Thomas...loved it!!The girls walking along one of the beaches in St. Maarten looking for seashells. The water was a light turquoise color. Just after this picture was taken, we soon realized we had wandered onto a nudist beach!! Chris and I made a quick diversion and got out of there before the girls knew what happened! Whew!! Talk about a close call!Last, but not least, here's Chris on the first cruise we went on, Grandeur of the Seas. We went to the Cayman Islands and swam with those yucky, icky, slimy, blood-thirsty stingrays. Those suckers were everywhere in that water! They'd brush up against your legs AND come to the surface and blow water at you! Normally, I'm not bothered by animals or mammals in the slightest, but this is one creature I do not care to get up close and personal with! However, my "manly" hubby, as he likes to call himself, wanted to act all macho and hold one of those disgusting things! No way, no how, was I going to do that! More power to you, hon! So, I hope my photos of sun and blue skies somehow brightened your day up just a little...wherever you may be!