The Last Night

Tonight is our last night here in Corolla. I am laid up on a sofa listening to the rain & wind outside as a storm passes though. Luckily, the house doesn't sway as the wind blows! The kids are playing video games and with toys or watching tv somewhere in this vast house.

When we arrived Saturday afternoon, I thought I would kill over from walking up and down 4 flights of stairs between my bedroom & the kitchen/living room areas. But now, I don't even blink as I climb the stairs - unless I have to make 3 back to back trips up & down. All the adults have learned to make sure you have what you need the first trip or you have to decide to live without it until your next trip down - or - see if you can con a kid to get what you need.

This week held many an adventure between the Strickland's, Ballew's & Rummage's since there were 18 of us. We walked on the beach together and seperate, did the tourist thing, washed at least 50 loads of dishes, 50 loads of laundry, kept 2 refrigerators full of food, had a fight here & there but all in all, I wouldn't trade this for anything.

We thank everyone for following along with us through our blogs and FaceBook pages and hope each of you enjoyed the posting and pictures.

Words can not express the thankfulness I have for my Mom & Dad who made this Christmas vacation possible. If I could change one thing about this vacation, it would be...nah, I wouldn't change a thing!!!!

OBX Christmas Blog

We have set up a blog that each family can add memories to for friends & family to read. The address is: www.obxchristmas09.blogspot.com

Beach Walk & The Wright Brothers Memorial

This morning, we went with the other 13 family members for a nice walk on the beach.

Then after lunch, we visited the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kill Devil Hill.

Beautiful!

This morning, Emma, Michael and I walked the 2 1/2 blocks to the ocean. This is what we saw!

The water is rough from the wind, but it is beautiful!

Snowing at the Beach!

Last night at 8:48 it began to snow!

Sleep my child...

So, mom says set your alarm for 8 a.m.....I woke at 4:51 WIDE AWAKE! Laid there until 10 after 5 or so then took a 40 minute shower to soak my poor body. I am grateful of finding a hotel with nice accomadations, but I honestly might kick a kid out of a bed just so I don't have to sleep in a double size bed (54x75)with Jamey ever again! The 6 inch width & 5 inch length difference makes a HUGE difference in sleeping comfortably compared to our queen (60x80) size bed at home! Now, just sitting in the dark listening to the boys & Jamey sleep as my daughter gets the extra bed in mom & dad's room....should have traded with her...lol

OBX Bound

We decided to leave a day early to get out of the bad weather in L-town. So, we have stopped in Rocky Mount for the night. Saw a sign before we exited on #466 for Cracker Barrel that said 134 miles to NC Aquarium so that puts OBX closer than yesterday!!!

If you have FaceBook, I will update that more than the blog since I can do that from my phone.

Hope everyone back home is staying warm and enjoying your snow!

Nikki's Blog

Nikki has created a blog...it is quite entertaining...take a read.
http://howtoturnanaveragedayintoanadventure.blogspot.com/

Joey got contacts!

8-25-09

My annual torture of the kids on the first day of school.

Shooting Lessons with Papa

Softball Champs!

Congrats to Churchland Lady Dragons, Emma's softball team! They got 1st place in the regular season & went undefeated in the end of season tourney!

Michael Collar Bone

Thursday night, Michael fell out of a golf cart while playing at Ryan's and has re-broken his collar bone. He broke the callous that had developed over the first break and part of the newly formed bone. I took him to the ER Friday night to make sure there were no sharp points b/c it has swollen so much. (We didn't go Thursday b/c he said it didn't hurt & it wasn't swollen.)
So we now start over.
This is why we call him Crash.

Amish Country

Chocolate World was AWESOME!!!

One day, I will go with the kids. I promise.

The White House!

from the car...

Emma's 12!!!

Happy Birthday

Happy (be-lated) 60th Birthday Nana!!!

Happy 60th Birthday Papa!!!

Perfect Attendance for the Year!

Michael received his certificate for having perfect attendance for his 4th grade year! Yes, he even went to school for several hours the day after he broke his collar bone (on meds) just so he wouldn't mess up his attendance up. We told him he didn't have to go, but he wanted to. We are very proud of him for wanting to do this.

Vader

Vader is an 11 week old Beagle. Please pray for the dog as he enters the ever loud, ever confusing, ever busy home.

Broken Collar Bone

Michael broke his collar bone last night at his soccer pool party playing football. He is in a sling and is going to the ortho doc Monday.

First Place!!!!

Michael's team finished first place in their u-10 divison this season. Wish Michael luck as he goes to try outs in 2 weeks to see if he makes the team again for the fall season!

So Much Going On!

Ok. We have had so much going on, I forgot to post update on what is going on!
Emma finished volleyball season on March 28th with a dreadful game. Not going into detail, except to say it wasn't a good day.

Michael's soccer team won FIRST place in their U-10 Bronze division. With the final game for the season on April 5th. Tomorrow, we travel to Concord to Frank Liske Park for the First Strike Tournment. First game is at 10:30, so Michael needs to go to sleep now (i just heard him bounce around in his room). Then on April 25th, his team will travel to Winston for the Beat the Heat tourney being played at the Sara Lee Fields.

Emma is now playing softball. Their first game was on the 15th and they won 11-1 (against Arcadia) and tonight they beat Welcome 11-2. She played well both nights getting on base, scoring 1 tonight and was left on 3rd Wednesday as the 3rd out came before she could run. She also stole 2nd & 3rd tonight. She is having a blast on the Lady Dragons.

Joey is doing well, he isn't participating in anything other than band at school. Occassionally, he will leave his room for food but not much more than that. We visited TEACCH (www.teacch.com)in GSO to see if they could help us any & at the moment I am filling out papers so he can be put on a waiting list. TEACCH is for kids and adults that fall under the Autism spectrum.

Unfortunately, due to us running so much, I don't check email often enough at the moment, so if you need us, you can call or text me at 336-470-4737 or jamey at 336-240-3455 or emma at 336-240-4283 (Easter Bunny got her a boost mobile cause I was tired of her using mine.)
Time for bed, I will post pics later - or you can visit my Picasa Albums online @ http://picasaweb.google.com/jameymande

The Twilight Saga

So, Edward and the rest of the Cullens have come to visit and Jacob isn't far behind.

Nikki, Angie, Chrislin - will we all fight to be a Bella? or is there enough Edward for all of us?

Emma READ faster!!!!!

Nikki - I finished last night.

2nd Place Overall!!!

Improvement every tourney! The Wolverines played their hearts out yesterday. For a total of 5 games played, they won 4 of them. Beginning at 9am and finishing at 6pm, they worked hard.

#1 in Pool Play!!!!!

WAY TO GO WOLVERINES!!!!! Emma's volleyball team placed #1 in their pool play yesterday. Awesome accomplishment for these girls! Can't wait to see how they improve when we travel to Fayetteville on February 21st.

Placed 2nd in Pool Play!!!

Emma' s team placed 2nd in their pool during the tourney at Barber Park in Greensboro yesterday!!! The beat FC Firecrackers in 3 games (25-23,19-25,15-11) and the Cape Fear Typhoons in 2 games (25-10, 25-23) to get into second place. They were only beat by the Brick City Embers (25-15,25-16)which were the first place team. Unfortunately, they will not get to play the Embers again because the Embers are moving from the Silver level to the Gold level in play.

This is completely awesome do to that these girls have only been playing together since November! They lost in the semi-final to a team from the Durham area. The team had better servers, but that is all. The girls played their hearts out & work well together as a team.

The DCVA Wolverines are 9 middle school girls from 5 middle schools - Tyro, North, Central, Ledford and North Davie.

1st Tourney - Salem College

For being on a team that Emma is the only one who has ever played J.O., they did extremely well yesterday and only one girl on the team is 13 - the rest are 11 & 12 playing other 13 year olds. The played 3 sets. The first set they lost 2-0 (25-17, 25-15), the second set they lost (25-11, 25-9) and the third set the lost 2-1 (26-24, 25-17, 15-8). These girls have nothing to be ashamed about. They played as a team, had fun and learned more about the game. They even had the Brick City Embers cheering for them in their 3rd set!

The picture is of Emma getting ready to serve.
She plays again January 24 at Barber Park in GSO. If you are interested in watching a game, just let us know. We arrive at 8 am to be ready to play by 9 am, but she may not play until 11. Weird schedules!

Joey's 13!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!