Mom's MRI

 Mom has been in a tremendous amount of pain originating in her hip.  After physical therapy and some pain meds not working, they ordered an MRI.  So I took Mom last Friday for the MRI.  Can I just say that while I loved being with my momma, I despised sitting in the waiting room.  It brought back so many memories of sitting with my dad.  I always expect the worst!  (I'm thankful that Momma got some answers and it wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be!)  

Once Mom finished, we went out to breakfast.  It was SO good and I LOVED the time with momma!!

Maggie's Chorus Concert

 Today Maggie had her spring choral concert.  They did a wonderful job!!  It's been a great year and she's done great!  She isn't sure she wants to do it next year but she enjoyed it this year!  We're proud of her for sticking with it...although she didn't have much of a choice!

Pool bag clean out

 I needed to get something out of our pool bag and found 2 severely dehydrated oranges from last season.  Thankfully they never smelled rotten nor did the flies take over...I guess this year I will need to do a better job at cleaning out the pool bag this year!

A Perfect Heart!

 Earlier this month, Caroline had her health physical for sports.  Everything went really well.  Then, without warning, the doctor conducting her physical gathered several other doctors to come into the room.  I was standing outside and had no clue what was going on.  I walked into the room and there are 6 doctors standing around her with their stethoscope in hand and discussing with head doctor exactly what it is that they hear...I'm a few seconds short of a panic...then the doctor looks at me and says "Mom, she's just fine.  I wanted these young doctors to hear a perfect heart!!  Shew, what a relief!

Family Lift

After last nights Bruins Night of Strength, today the weight room was opened for the students and their family.  The students took their families through one of the three routines that they do throughout the week.  I'm definitely a weakling but loved watched C show us what she knew. 

 

Power Clean and welcome to the 400 club!!

 Caroline took weightlifting this year.  When I was in school, weightlifting was an easy, not too difficult class to take.  She has really loved it!!  She was chosen as one of about 30 kids to participate in the Bruins Night of Strength.  She maxed at 115 pounds tonight!!  It was awesome to watch!!  We are so proud of her!

Another great milestone is that she hit the 400 pound club.  That means between the three exercises they do, she can lift a total of 400 pounds. 

AR Weekly Goal

 Last week in Maggie's weekly papers, Mrs. S said that she was 6 points behind on her target goal.  So we sat down and thought about a plan on how to catch up.  We agreed that if she caught up, we could go to Leapy and Crocky's which she has been wanting to try for so long...well she knocked it out of the water and this afternoon we got to celebrate!

And that's a wrap...

 And that's a wrap on soccer season for spring 2024!  It's been a great year!  Caroline has grown so much as a player.  She was an extremely valuable player on the JV team but gained so much experience while playing on the Varsity team.  We are exhausted from the late nights and trips out of town but had so much fun watching our girl do what she loves!!  So glad Aunt Tomi Jean and Uncle Greg came to watch!

Maggie's Nails

Andy took Maggie to Five Below and brought her home with these amazing nails!  She was SO PROUD of them!!

 

More Soccer Pictures

I'm so thankful for the photographers who take pictures during the soccer games!  These are so fun!

 

Maggie's going down!

Maggie loves to sleep on the couch on Saturday nights.  Last night was one of those times.  I came out of the shower this morning to find her on the floor.  She fell and sleep right through it!  Pretty crazy but must be some really good sleep!  
 

Charleston Air Show

Maggie's sweet friends and our neighbors Zoe and Mica's uncle is the #3 thunderbird this year.  So we decided to head to Charleston to watch him.  I've never been a military air show but I'm so glad we went.  It was crazy hot and extremely packed but such a neat thing to watch.  These folks are so precise and incredible talented.  So neat to say we knew the family of one of the Thunderbirds!!

 

Mommy and Mags date night

 Tonight our JV and Varsity boys were playing in Columbia.  Our girls had the night off so of course, Caroline wanted to go to the game.  Andy jumped at the chance to go with her.  So that left Maggie and I to have a mommy/daughter date night.  We had dinner at the Club (Sam's Club that is), then a trip to Barnes and Noble and home to watch a movie.  It was a sweet night with my favorite youngest... :-)

Youth Event

Tonight Caroline went with the youth group to a youth event in Columbia.  They ate bag lunches on the church grounds before the event started.  We got this picture a little bit ago before they started heading home.  Their ETA is 10:35 which is late for this momma...however, it has allowed me to catch up on blogging so there is that...I can't wait to hear what she took from the conference.

 

Emma's softball game

Tonight Emma played about 35 minutes from us  Caroline had stuff to do and Andy had church so Mags and I packed up and headed to her game. We had boiled peanuts for dinner!  What could be better????  Sadly it wasn't a great game and they lost 16-1 in the 3rd inning.  However, it was fun to be there and support Emma and see some of my classmates from school in attendance.

 

Sunsets at the soccer field

Tonight Caroline played JV across town.  It was a tough game and they lost big time.  However, I love watching her talk with the girls during halftime or after the game.  I know she's mine but I do love watching her lead!

We left her game and drove across town to our Bruins stadium to watch Gabe and the Varsity boys play.  As we were getting out, we noticed just how gorgeous the sunset was...what a treat!!

 

Goalie pics

A few weeks ago Caroline was given the opportunity to play goalie when their regular goalie was out.  I was a nervous wreck because they put her in during the over time penalty kicks.  She let one goal come in as she lost the ball in the sun and it took a crazy bounce that got her.  However, she saved the others for them to win the game!!!  It was so exciting to watch!

 

Happy Birthday Jill!

 Jill's friend Alyssa had the wonderful idea to surprise Jill with a birthday lunch today.  The only thing we all have in common is that we LOVE Jill.  Some ladies are co-workers, some are post college roommates and one of those ladies (ME) was her intern and later team teacher.  We all went together to get gift cards to Jill's favorite places to shop.  John and Nori took her on a scavenger hunt before leading her to lunch.  It was such a fun day!!  So thankful for my dear friend!

A sleep over in the den

A few weeks ago we purchased new to us couches for the den.  I was only looking for a sofa but this set included a love seat so we took it.  Maggie loves sleeping on the couch and asked to sleep in the den last night.  Caroline fell asleep on the love seat before dinner and went back after dinner.  I thought she would wake up at some point and go to her room but she never did.  The ironic thing is that she is the longest of the two and slept on the shortest couch.  It must have been good sleep because she slept there for 12 hours!!

 

A new flower bed

 I decided earlier this week that I wanted to create a flower bed around my cherry tree in our front yard.  After edging the other beds last week, I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do.  My friend April helped me think about what I might want to plant as well as how to measure out the bed.  (Tie a string to the base of your tree and use spray paint as you want the string around.)  I went to Lowe's and browsed for quite some time trying to decide what i wanted.  Here's to the finished product and hoping it survives!

Books and baking!

Maggie is an excellent reader!  She reads with such emotion!  She loves reading picture books but chapter books just aren't her thing.  Well earlier this week, Mrs. Smith went to the county library and got a few Amelia Bedilia chapter books along with several others for Maggie and her classmates.  Maggie fell in LOVE with the Amelia Bedilia books.  So we went to the library this morning to pick out a few more plus a few non-fiction books.  She was so excited with her selection.

Then we came home to decorate her lemon cake that she has been talking about all week. She asked Caroline to help her with the finishing touches but I thought she did great!!  It was delicious!!

 

Chick Fil A Friday's

 This morning while I was waiting in line for my Chick Fil A iced coffee, look who I spotted.  They seemed embarrassed that I was there and waiting to talk to them. Too bad they weren't nicer to me because I was about to share some of my CFA points to provide them with free breakfast! HAHA!

Soccer Fun

We are so blessed to have a parent who captures almost every game for our girls!  I love these amazing action shots of our girl in action!!  Oh how I hope I never forget this game brings to our life!

 

Strawberry Cheesecake Crumble Muffins

 McCall's family planted strawberries again this year and invited us to come pick.  Oh my goodness, fresh strawberries are just SO good!  Maggie wanted to bake strawberry muffins.  We found a yummy recipe online and went to work.  Maggie did a great job!  I have to admit, they were delicious!!!!!!! 

100 days!!

 March non scale victory...perseverance.  March was my birthday month and I enjoyed every single celebration!  I only walked 51.1 miles which is about 25 less than what I've done the last 2 months.  However, I started April strong and yesterday marked 100 days of hitting 10,000 plus steps a day.  I also received the results from my semi annual blood work and my labs showed great improvements in many areas.  SO here's to continuing to choose healthy habits over what comes easily!

Solar Eclipse

 Unlike the solar eclipse in 2017, i think, where we were in 100% totality, this time we were only 75% totality.  It was really cool.  While you couldn't really tell a big difference, it was a shade of gray outside and when you put the glasses on and looked at the sun, you could see the eclipse.  It reminded us of a crescent moon...the next eclipse will be in 2078.  I'll either be with Jesus or close to it at the ripe age of 97!!

Slow Saturdays

Caroline has had 3 pet sitting jobs during the second half of spring break.  She was out the house by 7:45 each morning and went back again around 6 in the evenings.  This morning she had to make her rounds and pick up a puppy from doggy daycare at 9 AM.  We surprisingly got everything done and had time to spare so we decided to get coffee.  Of course, someone mentioned KK doughnuts and of course we had to go there as well!  I had a coupon for a free dozen and they just so happened to be warm...there went all my calories and points for the day but they were SO GOOD!!  I love mornings like this with my girls!!
 

Sister Dates

 Maggie and Caroline left this morning to grab coffee together!  I can't begin to describe how good it did my heart to see them enjoying time together!  The last year or so has been so difficult.  Caroline is growing older and doesn't enjoy the same things Maggie does.  Maggie adores her big sister and isn't sure how to handle the changes.  So today when they came home all smiles, my heart was smiling too!

Spring Break part 1

Part one of Spring Break was spent at the beach.  We headed down Sunday after church and stayed until the rain ran us away early Wednesday morning.  We had absolutely gorgeous weather!!  Caroline and Amelia got up early Monday morning to take pictures on the beach at sunrise.  Then I talked them into joining me for a nice, long walk.

Mags opened the pool Monday morning.  She was the only one brave enough to get in at 10 AM in the morning.  It was FREEZING!!!!!!

Lia and Stacey and their girls were also at the beach for a few days.  We met them on the beach Monday for a few hours.  The girls enjoyed their time together as much as the adults enjoyed theirs.

Lia and Stacey came back for dinner Monday night.  We did loaded Nachos and s'mores.  This is what I love about camping...very low key, mostly relaxing...

Tuesday we met Gabe at the outlets.  Poor fella was such a good sport following 3 girls around.  Andy reminded me he (meaning Gabe) wasn't too concerned because all he cared about was spending time with Caroline!

After shopping, we headed back to the campground.  The kids hung out at the pool and such while I saw on the beach.  It was heavenly.  I even took a 30 minute nap!!  I can't think of the last time I did that!!  It was such a gift!!  After my time on the beach, I took Mags to the pool for one more swim!

 Tuesday night we hung around the campsite, the girls went for a beach walk and we packed up as much as we could because we knew the rain was coming Wednesday morning.  What we didn't expect was for the rain to come at 7 AM!!!!  We woke the girls up at 6:35 and told them to get straight.  We broke down camp, emptied the sewer and hooked up.  We cleaned up once we got home.  I am so thankful for this part of spring break.  Now to see what the rest of the week looks like!