The baseball game of her life....

There's so much going on in our lives that I thought I better get back on the ball with this blog, I mean it's only been a year or two since I've last posted...LOL. Our biggest news this summer is Taylor and VJ are engaged! It was a stressful two weeks prior to the big night for VJ and myself trying to get it all planned and not to say anything to Taylor! With the combination of the 2 of them being big baseball fans and I working at The Greenville Drive we knew it had to take place down at the Drive during a game. With the help of Sam Lobosco; our Director of Entertainment and JD; our crowd rouser we had it all laid out before they walked in the park that night. I was working the game, Megan, Josh (her BF), Taylor's 2 best friends, Sam & Beka and Justin, Bek's BF were all taking in a ballgame with Taylor & VJ on a normal Friday night. As they walked in the ballgame they were "randomly" picked to play a game during one of the innings. It wasn't going to take place till end of the 4th inning...poor VJ was SO nervous the first part of the game. Time finally came! Being a mom w/ a camera in my hand Tay wasn't suspicious when I was standing there w/ my video camera. There was also the camera man for the team...normal, and I had arranged for our team photographer to be there to catch the moment.
They were playing Plinko, where she had to look to the big screen on the field & tell if the Bilo item was higher or lower in price. After the 3rd product it came VJs turn. He starts walking towards her w/ an ice cream container. Taylor told me later she was thinking, "What are you doing VJ? You're walking right in front of the camera!!" She looks to the big screen to see what the price of the ice cream is and she sees "WILL YOU MARRY ME?" And with that VJ went down on his knee and asked the big question. The whole stadium goes wild and Taylor is in tears! She finally told him yes after he asked her again!
It was an amazing night! And the story will continue......

Southern Savers and weekly ongoings

Hi all...trying to get back on track with posting at least weekly!
A month or two ago I went to a coupon saving seminar we sponsored at church. I went away with coupons swirling in my head and even dreamed about clipping coupons ALL night long. Well, things got busy and my coupons got put aside. This past weekend I sat down to do my Southern Savers "homework". I chose Walgreen's to be my first store to really work on. I went shopping twice this weekend at WGs and when I tallied my totals of what I SHOULD have spent and look at my checkbook of what I really spent....let me tell you ~ SHOULD have spent $80, what I DID spend $17.81!! Wahhhhooooo!!! I am now on a couponing roll and so excited that I wanted to share with everyone. On my page is a link for you to go to her site and learn all you need to know about smart couponing. Let me tell you at first it may seem kind of daunting, but stick with it and you will be saving a ton of money. I am stocking up on all the toiletries we will ever need and be able to send Taylor off with everything she will possibly need for school.
Speaking of school and Taylor...Saturday her best friend; Becca, Taylor and myself jumped in the Ford to head to Georgia. It was time to registar for classes, get her parking permit and college ID. My baby hasn't even graduated from high school yet and has her college ID!! Her schedule is in place and of course she's not too please about Total Fitness at 8am on MWF and Freshman Seminar on T&T same time...LOL. Told her they were classes she could roll out in her sweats and walk next door to the gym! Her day is pretty spread out, but time for downtime between classes. She's waiting to see what type of work study job she gets, her first choice was an aid in the Psych. dept. She seems pretty excited and seeing a few girls she went to Belize with years ago reg. helped too. I was surprised when I asked her what she was worried about the most and she replied, "Making friends." Those of you who truly know Taylor probably find that surprising also.

The road to Foster Care has come to an end for us...for now. At our first parenting class we were informed of 2 pieces of information that stopped it. One, windows in most houses are fine and dandy for you and our children to live in, but NOT large enough for a foster child! Yep, you heard me...the window or outdoor door in the child's bedroom has to be 5 sq. feet. Ours are not...missed it by an inch. Can't afford to take out the windows, cut a bigger hole in the house and replace the windows right now. Told me couldn't do it we wouldn't pass the Fire Marshall Inspection. Two, at first we were told we could most likely get a boy who's parental rights had been terminated....where the parent could not come back in and take him home...ours for adoption down the road if we wanted.  First thing we hear when we get to class ~ "Foster Care=TEMPORARY". We heard many horror and scary stories about kids being taken from foster parents and back to bio. parents...even after 3 yrs.! We went to our caseworker and she told us she could not gaurentee us a perm. child. We understand that DSSs main concern is the child and trying to keep the family togetehr, but.... So we talked and Eddie said he just could not sit back and watch my heart torn out when they came to take "our little boy".  The hardest part for me was sitting Megan down and explaining to her, she SO wanted a little brother. As the alligator tears were rolling down her sweet precious face I had her think about how upset she was right now and we hadn't even had a boy in our house yet, how would she feel if he came to live with us, she fell in love with him and then he had to leave.  To a 13 yr. old it didn't matter..she was just very mad and upset, can't blame her, I was too!
Well, time to end for right now...go cut your coupons!!
Have a blessed week.

Daily or monthly??

Oh my goodness!! I cannot believe it has been almost 2 months since I've posted anything...can you tell it is softball season??  Well, for a quick run down of what is going on with us right now here goes~hold on!!
1. Megan made the Byrnes High Sschool softball C-Team (middle school). We had a great season with only 3 losses. Unfortunatley Meg didn't see a whole lot of playing time, but as a 7th grader sometimes that's what happens...we saw this with Taylor too. We had a few tears, but a whole lot more laughs with friendships that developed while on the team.  Their season is over right now and she is waiting for D5 softball to start where she has played since she was 4 yrs. old.
2. But right at the moment Megan is on her way to Ground Zero in NY! The 7th graders left Tues. morning at 11:25am to head for NJ. They were to arrive at 1am...at 3am I received a text saying, "We JUST got here, bus broke down!" When I spoke to her this morning she said she got to bed about 4am and they were up at 7am heading to breakfast and Ground Zero. Today they will tour Manhattan, eat dinner in Central Park and go to the top of the Empire State Building tonight. Thurs. they get to sightsee downtown NY and then go to Madison Square Garden to see 101 Dalmations play. Friday head to Liberty Park, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, head for Washington DC and tour the mounuments and leave for Virginia. Sat. they spend the day at Kings Dominion Theme Park and get home about midnight.  I'm sure you know who will be sleeping ALL day Sunday!!
3. Taylor is busy finishing up her SENIOR year...can you believe it? I can go into that one too much or else I will be in tears, again. It's been a year filled with those. Most have received their announcement...it took me days to get them out (hopefully w/o tear drops on them!) She just started her THIRD job!! She is still working the afterschool program at the YMCA, trying to finish out her 2 week notice at Rainbow, a store at the mall and now working at Theo's Greek and Italian Resturant which we frequent quite a bit during softball season. She is loving Theo's! Next Sat. she, Megan and her BF are heading down to Emmanuel College (first time w/o mom in tow) to register for her fall classes!!
4. This Saturday Eddie and I will be attending our first Foster Parenting Class...yes, after raising kids for the past 18 years we get to go and see what all we've done wrong!! LOL About 1 1/2 months ago we decided to go ahead with Foster Parenting. We are wanting to get a little boy (hey, we do live in School District 5 ....gotta have a boy to play Rebel football!!) between the ages of 4-7 yrs. old. It has amazed us the paperwork alone that we have had to fill out. I think the two of us together have gone through a forest. The girls are as excited, if not more, than we are about having a new addition. Will keep everyone updated on that.
5. School is coming to a close soon...7 more Mondays!! This year my class hasn't been to the extremes that it has been in the past. All boys still, but not so aggressive. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go back and work at the Y this summer or try to pick up a few kids to watch at the house.  Eddie is still doing construction, trying to stay close to home till Taylor graduates. Still going back and forth on going back on the road or not.
Well, there is about 2 months update and hopefully it won't be that long again before I get back on here. Have a blessed week!

We'll miss you Friend!! 2-20-10

RIP Chuck McCarter

We lost a dear friend this morning. From the information we have recieved it was a suicide, but if you knew Chuck you couldn't believe that. He ALWAYS had a smile on his face and laughter coming from his smile! I don't know if we will ever know the complete truth. All I do know is we have lost an awesome BBQing angel here on earth and I know they are having a BBQ party in Heaven today. We miss you already friend!

The Sickies are Home Today 2/16/10

Well, a quick note....3 out of the 4 of us are home sick today. After I got up and drove my morning route I just felt horrible and came home to bed. Got home, Eddie is still home ~ tummy troubles. A few hours later we get a call from school and Taylor at school sick. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Megan stays healthy...she's got practice everyday, even in this COLD weather.

Let it Snow 2-12-10

"Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow"

As I left school at 3:30 today (teacher workday) and snow flakes were already flying and on the radio "Let it Snow" was playing! And it never fails that when they call for snow and all the "snow fanatics" as I call them, are rushing to get their milk and bread...it's time for my regular grocery shopping. By the time I got home from shopping and then taking Megan to her bestie's house (Beka) for the night the ground was covered. Taylor got home and her bestie (Becca) came to the house to pick her up for night and there was enough snow on the ground for them to have a snowball fight...even though everyone is afraid to throw a snowball at Taylor after last years snowball fight fiasco-Taylor fell and tore her ACL! It's 4 hours later and I just checked our front porch and we have 2.5" and the snow is still coming down! Of course, it's gonna be 48* tomorrow and will be all melted by Sunday!

"Students, please welcome Miss Watson to our class"

Last week Megan came home, handed me papers on Shadowing a Professional and asked me to check with Mrs. Freeman; her 2nd grade teacher, if she would be able to come shadow her for the day.  Megan has never mentioned anything about even thinking about going into teaching, but I said sure and e-mailed Mrs. Freeman the next day. Mrs. Freeman was brought to tears that one of her former students would want to come to her class and shadow her. She has been one of Megan's favorite teachers and is a wonderful precious lady!! Thursday Megan rode my bus in the morning, got off with all the other Duncan Elem. kids (looking a bit out of place with the size difference) and headed off to work! I only checked in once via e-mail and Mrs. Freeman said "Miss Watson was having a great day, the kids were loving her and they were sitting at Miss Watson's desk with her." When Meg got home that night she gave me minute by minute details and had a blast. She did say she was called Miss Watson all day and it was weird!!

A Team member....or Not?

Wed. Megan went to softball practice/try outs...yes, they had started a 1 1/2 weeks earlier and still did not know who made the team. We had a parent meeting Mon. night where all rules, regulations and ordering was gone over. We were told to order which items the girls needed/wanted and if they were cut we would get our checks back. I thought "Ok, let the girl believe she's a part of a team and then yank the rug out from under her!" I wasn't a happy mom for the next 2 days. Back to Wed., Megan was not too happy that the final list was going to be posted at school Thurs. because she wasn't going to be there...will get to that later. At the end of prac. Coach Christmas gathered all the girls together and passed out small pieces of paper. Meg is looking, realizes it's a receipt...for the sweatsuit we ordered and then it kicked in for all the girls at once because they all started yelling, jumping around & hugging each other....THEY MADE THE TEAM!! Megan is now a Byrnes High Rebel softball player.  So, here we go down this road for a second time!

Another weekly update 2-8 through 2-12-10

An American Idol Family

I'm thinking I may need to change the name of our blog from Daily View to Weekly View. Things are already busy and with spring coming I'm sure it will be getting even more so.  We've been enjoying the new season of American Idol. We used to just watch the first few weeks to see the people who really thought they could sing....but can't! Last year we watched the whole season, even though Danny did not win and we are hooked now and is family time!  We haven't picked out who we each are pulling for yet. Will let you know as soon as we do!!

A weeks worth 2-1-10 thru 2-7-10

Things have been very busy this past week and that is the reason for no "daily" blog updates.  Megan has been working hard at try outs for the Byrnes Rebels Softball C-Team every day last week. She leaves school at 2:50, has to be at the fields by 3:25 and practice till 6-6:30pm.  Last Friday they had 1st cuts and she MADE the cut! We have a parent meeting tonight, so I'm hoping they will let them (us) know who made the team. I believe it's been harder on me than her...LOL!
Thurs. was Eddie's birthday and Friday was mine. We celebrated by picking up Zaxby's, thanks to my secret pal at school leaving me a gift certificate! We LOVE Zax's!! And not having to cook on my b-day was all the present I needed! But, Sat. Becky and Vanoy had the siblings and sibling-in-laws over for an awesome dinner!! We started off with h'orduvers at 4pm, chiling out just spending time together, then salads and the BIGGEST steaks I've ever seen, grilled on the grill by Vanoy...done to perfection! We were so stuffed we had to take dessert; homemade coconut cake and cheesecake, home. What a great way to spend our birthdays. Thank you to all who sent cards!

Sunday was of course, Super Bowl Sunday. For the past few years the Girl Scouts of Spartanburg have gathered at Paradise Lanes for our Souper Bowl.  We collect food for the local food banks and get to bowl a few games. Although only 4 of the girls were able to make it we had a blast...especially watching Ashley trying to bowl! That was worth it all! After bowling Megan and I hit WalMart for her to spend a gift card and boy she found some GREAT clearance items...way to go girl. Came home to fix up fries, chicken strips and buffalo chicken to watch the Super Bowl game. We all lasted till half time and then we started falling off....into bed. All in all it's been a great week & weekend. Hopefully I will be able to get to the blog a bit more frequent this week. Have a great Monday everyone!