My Facebook status the other day was 

2400 miles...expensive

Living out of a suitcase...frustrating

Visiting dear friends and family...priceless!

I took my two youngest..{10 and 16} on a road trip. It wasn't our first, more like our 4th or 5th.... I love being adventurous, packing up the car and listening to music! Or in this case, the Pride and Prejudice audio book....

That would explain why Clay is fast 

asleep in the picture below! lol

Actually, we left early.

My first stop was my sisters house in the 

Northern Neck of Virginia..Beautiful!

We gather once a year at my sisters to celebrate Mothers/Fathers day. {And I have NO pictures of family..oops}

For the second year in a row, my dear friend, Ann, has driven 5 hours to see me. We completely take over my sisters house..but she is gracious..oh, did I mention Ann brings her 4 kids too? Yikes! It's not as bad as it sounds. Her older girls and Mikaela are great friends and they are all very mature teenagers. 

Her 10 year old and Clay are inseparable, and her 7  {very sweet} year old hangs out with Kraig. 

How cute.

Karen and Kraig's sweet puppy, Hogan.

Clay Loves it there..You see his buddy James in the background. They must have fished for HOURS!

The best part is they would flinch like little girls {and this big girl} trying to take the fish off the hook.

This is blurry because it is actually the fish in motion just before it jumped out of my brother in laws hand.

Sorry Karen...She and Kraig had ordered crabs and oysters. Everyone sat out back and just ate until they were sick.

Look at that view..sigh

still fishing

and still

This is not the same fish that I took multiple pictures of..he probably caught around 16 or 17 fish..It was crazy.

Poor kraig...every time he tried to walk away, they would catch another one..Clay finally learned how to take it off the hook.

Size doesn't matter, boys... ;-)

My sister was so sweet and bought all the kids "Sharks Tooth Island" t-shirts. The island is the most AWESOME place! My sister and Kraig take us there by boat, we bring chairs, snacks and other beachy things...then you just walk along the shore and find TONS of sharks teeth. Not kidding....at least 20-30 

EVERY single time..EVERY single person. 

On a side note, my dad always jokes that the man who "owns" the island probably goes over to China every winter and brings millions of teeth over and scatters them along the shore...so funny.

The multiple takes when trying to get 6 kids to smile in one photo.

With no peace signs

and no rock fists...oh well.

Karen and Kraig just did P90X and they look amazing!

These pictures weren't actually taken at Sharks Tooth because it was too choppy on the water.

We did, however, go to their local beach and the kids still had a blast...except for Mikaela and I..they don't have a bathroom at the beach. :-/..enough said.

This is the view off their back porch..So Peaceful!

Besides fishing, the boys spent hours in these kayaks..

I love that they have maintained their friendship after 3 years of us living 1000 miles apart.

At times I worry about her. LOL  Just kidding! This is my dear friend Ann. Agreeably, not at her best, but very symbolic of why I love her so much.

It took about 6-8 tries before we both settled on this shot...

{can't stand myself sometimes}

We had so much fun!

Back Patio fix up..on the cheap

We moved into this house 2 years ago. 

When we first walked in we absolutely loved the sliding 

glass door that 

disappeared into the wall and the tiled back patio.

 What we didn't realize though is that the tile becomes a skating rink when it is wet!

Really, it is dangerous. When my sister was visiting, she suggested indoor/outdoor carpet. I imagined the green plastic stuff and wasn't wild about the idea. Then I went to Home Depot and saw all the different choices! That was the solution!

My kitties love the new floor.

 My sister and my parents gave me a gift card to Home Depot for my birthday...

definitely my favorite store...for real.

Dave and I cleaned and dried the tile and started to lay it out.

 So much better! Now we can walk to and from the pool 

with no worries. 

 I added a table top torch to use at night to ward off mosquitos. I'm also in the process of recovering some pillows to match the red ones I already have. 

 These two adirondack chairs were old, gray and dirty from 2 years ago. Clay and I broke out the s.o.s pads and gave them a major scrubbing. Then I spray painted them this nice bright color. These are 2 of the pillows I've recovered.  I still need to sew up one of them and we need to put the carpet tape down to hold together these seems.

 I absolutely love it back there now! Ive got a few more 

things on my list..

curtains, more plants and perhaps a decorative rug.

 We also painted the deck of the gazebo and added flower boxes. 

Such a relaxing place now...Stop by for a visit!

Family Photo shoot...sort of :-)

The following pictures are proof that there is always a born "organizer" in every family.

My mother, father, Aunt Betty, Uncle Larry, Aunt Katherine, Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Izelle and Uncle Jerry!

Yes, I realize I could have written that in an easier way, but I wanted you to know which names went together.

These are all my mom's sisters. 

The only sibling missing is her brother Lowell.

The Organizer? Aunt Katherine.

I could go on to tell you that the reason for her leadership and organizational skills were due to the fact that she is highly educated { true }...But, I believe the real reason is...she's the youngest. Imagine living in a home with 4 girls and one boy...and being the youngest. She probably had to fight just to be heard!

The sad part? These aren't even all the pictures that went 

with this "photo shoot."

My daughter was also taking pictures with another camera...

Aunt Izelle and Uncle Jimmy are on the far right..and apparently correctly positioned. ;-) 

My Aunt Betty and Uncle Larry are now being set up.

My parents are on the far left. It appears that they've done this before because they needed no realignment.

not quite ready

Now I'm adding my 2 cents...

The final product! I think it looks great! Although,

I wish I had brought our really nice camera..

Very nice picture.

Now we are attempting to get just a sister photo...

My mother taking a shot at the lead.

Seriously? We were all laughing at this point.

Do you think that's a forced smile?

Back at it.. :-)

Both smiling..love it

My parents. :-)

Samaritan's Village

My family is involved with a wonderful ministry here in town. 

It is called Samaritans Village. 

A woman from the church we attend used to be 

a chaplain in a women's prison. 

She was always troubled that when the ladies 

would be released from prison, 

they had no place left to go. 

So she created 

Samaritans village.

It is a ministry designed to teach women that they are special, and in God's eyes, they are worthy of love, respect, dignity etc..

The ministry has two components.  

Ruth's house. 

Four women live in this house and are involved in an 

intensive rehab program.

We've had the privilege of getting to know them and we love them dearly. Clay has a special relationship with them too.

Transitions

This is a resale shop near downtown Orlando. We LOVE this store and work there quite a bit. It is a donation-based store and all the proceeds help fund Ruth's house.

These women are no different from you and I. They need the same love and support as we do. Homelessness, prostitution and even drug addiction affects us all. Do any of us really know what we would be like if we were born into different circumstances?

This event was our 2nd annual 5k. 

It's main purpose, aside from being a fundraiser, 

is community awareness.

Poor Dave, He thought he was just dropping off Clay.

Mikaela and I needed to be there at 6 am to help set up and 

get her ready to sing The National Anthem.

So when Dave arrived, 

he sorta got roped into running with Clay :-)

                 Clay placed 1st in the 14 and under category,
                              not bad considering he's 10!

                                             Love him