Tagged

I've been tagged by Heather T., so here it goes.......
Here are the rules:
1. When tagged, place the name of the person and URL on your blog
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write 7 things about yourself
4. Tag someone else

7 Things About Me:

1. I love God!
2. I am still IN LOVE with my husband after 17 years (4 dating, and almost 13 married).
3. I think my kids are fantastic! (Ask me when they get to middle school. Hopefully, I can still answer the same way.)
4. I love to travel. (We leave for New York in the morning!)
5. I LOVE chocolate! I think it should have its own spot on the food pyramid, preferably the largest spot.
6. I love a great bargain, and I love to tell you about it. (eg. - I got a $128 dress the other day for $12.80.)
7. I cry almost every time I hear the Star Spangled Banner. Not a sob, just a little choked up. Goofy, huh?

I tag all the Cedar Grove gals!

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful, busy Easter weekend. Saturday, we enjoyed beautiful weather for our Cedar Grove egg hunt and cook out. We had a soccer game at 4:30 Saturday afternoon (details below), went to an Easter pageant Saturday evening, and began preparing for Easter lunch until the wee hours Sunday morning. Sunday, Mimi, Poppy, Steve, Julia, Laurel, and Rebecca Huster joined us for lunch at our house. After a monstrous lunch, the girls had a "prize" egg hunt in our back yard. It was loads of fun.

McKenna, Riley, and Reagan

Beautiful girls

Grandma and Aunt Genora joined us at church for lunch.

Reagan had a very eventful game Saturday. She SCORED a goal. Not just a dinky goal either. It was awesome! Pop got it on film, but our copy wouldn't play. Hopefully, I'll be able to upload it later.

The Easter Bunny visits our "babies". They each were excited to find new Webkinz in their baskets.

Laurel and Reagan inspect their loot. (Laurel has make-up on from their pageant at church. I'm sure her mom would want me to clarify.)

Sophie and Rebecca wanted me to count their money to let them know how much they got.

Reagan with the new bunny...NO-not our new bunny! Mimi and Poppy bought this for their house.

Sweet Lily-She loved the egg hunt. She would run with the girls to find the eggs.

My "Easter table"

Sally is supposed to give me a disk of our family in our "Easter frock". Thankfully, she took pictures at church Sunday morning. I was running around like a rooster with my head cut off at home and never thought to snap a picture of the girls in their dresses.

Famous Writers

I have some very special news to report. Schools in Georgia have what's called the Young Georgia Author's Contest. Children in grades K-12 enter writing samples at their school, and one sample is chosen from each grade as the winner. I am so excited to report that BOTH of our girls won for their grade level for our school. After winning at the individual school level, the samples are then sent to the county to be judged against all other elementary schools in our county. I am elated to report that Sophie won for ALL of our county (first graders)!!!!!! Her writing will now be sent to the state level to be judged. We won't know until September what the outcome will be at the state level. I am including their writing samples below (as is- no editing by Mom). Enjoy!

My life as a chello
by: Reagan Brinkley
Hello there. You know being a chello is a wonderful thing. The wonderful times I've had in this grand City hall. Oh yes. Well as for now in a few hours I will be taken out of my home, to a nursing home, sitting there. After 96 years of making harmony. I will sit for decoration. Every once in a while I may get strummed. Probably on the wrong note, or mabey not. Just a thought. Any way, I rember the time I had a huge solo. Nailed it, too. Well as for now the movers are coming. You know I've led a long life. A swell one at that. I love this City Hall. Well, looks like the movers are here. Good bye good friends. Good bye, You Grand City Hall. My grand life as a chello will soon be gone.

My Dog Mage
by: Sophie Brinkley
Ounce I had a dog. Her name was Mage. She was verey very very big. One day she was lost. Two lady's found her. They named her Pechis. It was varey wird. I did not now ware she was for weeks and das. I cold (called) and cold . I said I need Mage. I found her! I shoted with joy. She gave me a slobry kis. I gave her a belly rube. She and I were glad to see eche othr. I was so ecsidid I ran inside spede quik. I played and played with her entil bed time. I even slep with her. The next day I had to go to school. I asked if I cold (could) bring Mage. My mom said "No". I even beged. And she stil said "No"! I said "For show and tell." And she said, "Let me think about it. uh No No and No"! I said "Well ok I gess!" At school I coldet think of eney thing but Mage. Wene Mrs. Coleman asked me a qweshchin I said "Mage." And she said "Icsqus me." "I asked you a qweshchin." I said "Sorry." At the end of school I played with Mage all day

The End!

Woodstock Bar Routine

I finally figured this video thing out.
Here is Sophie's bar routine from this past weekend.

Busy Busy Busy

The last two weekends have been full! The first weekend of March we kicked off the spring soccer season with a 6-1 win. Reagan had a great game. She played for a little while as goalie (pictured below) and didn't allow any goals. She also played as forward and almost scored (just wide of the goal). Thankfully, this past Saturday's game was canceled because of the wet fields, but as it turned out, we woke up to snow Saturday morning.

This past weekend Sophie had a competition in Woodstock. Her team was scheduled to compete at 8:00 Sunday morning, and with the time change we knew it would be difficult to make it, so we went up on Saturday and stayed at a hotel near Town Center Mall. Mimi and Poppy came up too and stayed at the hotel. We shopped for a while and ate dinner out. Coach Fears and Ms. Jackie joined us Sunday morning. The competition was fantastic! It was held at Kell High School which had an incredible gym. The meet was very well run.

Prior to the meet the girls line up to be introduced.

The level three team before awards began

HOORAY!!! Sophie placed! She got fifth on bars this weekend.

She actually made it onto the risers! She was really excited.

She placed ninth all-around. She had a really good meet. Her all-around score was over two points higher than her last two meets. She's really coming along.

Scary Stuff

I have a scary story to share with everyone. Tuesday, Romeo couldn't get into his Hotmail account. Apparently, his password wouldn't work. He tried all day at work to resolve the problem and eventually was locked out altogether. When he got home he logged onto Ebay only to find that his Ebay password wouldn't work either. Long story short...someone hacked into his Ebay and Hotmail accounts and changed the passwords. He or she then listed five Coach handbags under Romeo's Ebay account as "buy it now" auctions. Needless to say, there were no Coach handbags, and the money (had someone purchased the bags) would have gone into the hacker's account, but it would have shown up as Romeo Brinkley. Thankfully, he contacted Ebay before a transaction had gone through and was able to get the auctions pulled. BEWARE!!! Keep a close watch on all your online accounts. There are some rotten folks out in cyberspace!

Happy 9th Birthday Precious Reagan

Thursday, February 28th was our precious Reagan's 9th birthday. It is truly, truly unbelievable that nine years have already passed since the day she graced us with her presence. She has been a pure joy every day of her life.
We started the day off with the door draped in the "birthday curtain" that our girls have come to expect. Reagan literally awakens each day with a smile on her face and a bright "good morning, I love you momma". We surprised Reagan this morning with the news that we would be taking her to a Thrashers game. She is a HUGE fan of Thrashers hockey. She will sit and watch games with Romeo, and she knows all the latest player trades, player names, numbers, etc. I guess in that regard, she's our "boy". So, she was super excited! We went by Chick fil A for breakfast before school. She also got two nice surprises at school. Jason Ray came during her lunch time with chocolate and a gift card, and her Mimi came with her gift and cupcakes for the entire class.

Reagan and Sophie enjoying their chocolate milk in bed.

Today was "Cowboy Day" for the third grade at our school. Our story this week had to do with cowboys, so we had all the kids dress up- us teachers included (yep, that included me.). Also, we served traditional "cowboy" food. In case you don't know what that is...pork and beans, sour dough bread, and black coffee. Anyway...hence, the reason Reagan is dressed like this for school.

This picture positively cracks me up. Let me explain. This is in the parking lot before going in to the hockey game. What is my husband doing you ask? Well, he is stuffing the girls' pockets full of contraband. He doesn't like the price of peanuts in the arena, and adults now get searched before entering, so he fills the girls' pockets with peanuts. Who would search an innocent looking little girl? He would make Clark Howard so proud.

Daddy with his hockey loving girls

We had GREAT seats! "Clark" got them for half price.

Our buddy Richard Bomar, "Uncle Bo", went with us.

Do you think we look alike?

This little jewel is the reason I like hockey. It's the world's greatest pretzel. It's called a Wetzel Pretzel. It's worth an hour drive to Atlanta just for this!

Of course we can't go to Atlanta without coming home with some hot ones. They were so hot we had to let them cool for a few minutes.

The perfect ending to what Reagan called "the best birthday ever"!