Sweet Summertime

I know I have been bad about updating the blog while Ashley has been here. We have been super-busy and having tons of fun. I will say, that this summer we have done less "stuff" than usual. We try to pack in all kinds of fun entertainment when Ashley was here, and this time we just tried to live our normal lives with her as a part of it. It has been great! I have taken off a few days so that we could sew, play games and take a trip to the water park, but all-in-all we have just had fun being a family.

In July we did fireworks, twice. Once in Opelika with MaMa and cousin Courtney and once in Auburn with MeMe and Hoppy. Both were great, but I think Auburn had the edge this year.

We also introduced Ashley to the "bassetball boyz" and since they are all around her age, she actually had "friends" here this year. She has had fun getting to know them and helping dad with basketball practice.

Last week, we took a trip to Alabaster to have our family portraits done by an amazing photographer, Grethel Van Epps. More on that later.

We also coerced Unc into going to the Auburn Waterpark, Surfside, with us. MikeyT gets free tickets through work, so it was a great afternoon. We even ran into some "bassetball boyz!"

Ashley and Mikey T headed to Georgia last weekend for basketball and me and Emma Kate stayed behind. She had a fun-filled night with her best-friend Mary McKinnon and I headed to a "grown-up" party with my friends Allyson and Allen to celebrate another set of friends' upcoming baby! It was great! I met a bunch of new friends and saw some old college pals as well.

So, now we aer winding back down. It is Ashley's last week and EK goes back to school next Monday. MeMe and Hoppy will come visit this weekend and we have the final basketball tourney of the season. Ashley will go home on Sunday and while EK (and Mikey T and ME) will be devastated to see her go, we are excited for her. She is starting a whole new chapter in her life, Middle School. She will return to her life as a dancer and Floridian. We will talk to her on the phone and text message her and facebook her, but we will be counting down the days until she returns to us again.

Re-Connect

Last year, my dear friend Allyson decided that we were going to have an annual reunion for our sorority pledge class. Last year, it was at Allyson's parent's lake house. It was so much fun, although only like 10 of us showed up. It is hard since everyone is scattered across the south east and beyond AND several were having babies!

We decided to do it at the lake house again this year. Although it had great potential, we had a small group of only 6 for the weekend. Out of 52 pledge sisters, that is pretty pitiful, but we don't care. We have a blast anyway.

When you are in college, away from home for the first time, your friends become your family. People can say what they will about sororities, but when you go to a big school like Auburn, you become a small fish in a giant sea. It was simply a way to have an immediate network. Older girls who could help you find your way to class, tell you what professors to avoid, set you up on blind dates, and the like and your pledge sisters who were experiencing the same exact things you were.

This is a small group from last year's tailgate

My years at Auburn were some of my best yet and I owe it to the girls that I laughed and cried with, lived and traveled with, learned and grew with. Over the years since graduation, everyone moved away and got married and drifts further and further away. It is hard to keep in touch and that is why I cherish the XO reunion weekend. I don't care if it is 3 or 30 girls, we always jump right back to September 21, 1996 when we all became linked together (right before the old barn burned down during the LSU game.)

This weekend was no different. We laughed. A LOT. We will do it again next year. Maybe it will be five of us. Maybe it will be all 52 of us. I hope that it is a large group, but either way, I will be there! It does my soul good to reconnect with these girls who were such a special part of my life during such a special time.

I have been sworn to not post pictures of US from the weekend, because lake water and sun burn does not a pretty picture make, so I will post this one inside joke for all my sista's.

Randy and his loving tribute to Sleepy Buddy.

Wow.

It has been one of those weeks. The kind where everything annoying, bad and hard that can happen does. When the only luck you have is bad luck. Where people disappoint you and you disappoint yourself. Yuck. But then, I see this......

..................and I am happy.

ELEVEN

Ashley Fay is eleven today. I met her when she was three years old. Her daddy and grandparents had taken her to Chuck-E-Cheese to celebrate her upcoming 4th birthday. She was cute as a button with an Auburn Cheerleader Outfit on. Right away, we were best friends. We played ski ball and earned a lot of tickets. She was a very shy little girl, but she was never shy with me. It was before Mikey T and I were all that serious and he didn't let any "new" girlfriends around Ashley. He was very protective and I was honored that he "let" me meet her.

My favorite picture of Ashley is from that trip. She was hiding from me under the kitchen table at my then-future-in-laws house and I would just stick the camera under that table and hit the button. The picture is kind of crooked and she is laughing so hard her eyes are squeezed shut. I love it.

When she was just shy of seven she was one of two people in my wedding party. She wore a dress that I wore when I was a young flower girls and she had grown her hair just long enough to put in wrap braids around her head. She wore a flower wreath and she looked beautiful. She was shy and since we had no rehearsal she was a little overwhelmed at the ceremony. I have a large---very large---family and they can be a little intimidating. Mikey T and I had our first dance and then he danced with his little girl to "My girl." It wasn't the conventional "father-daughter" dance at a wedding, but, it was the sweetest moment of the night. By the end of the reception party, she was dancing and singing and having a blast. The next day when we left for the honeymoon, she ran along side the car as we pulled away shouting "I love you!!"

She is the most talented eleven year old I have ever met. I know I talk about it, a lot, but she dances like no 6th grader should. She has poise and grace well beyond her years.

She is the best big sister, period. I remember the day after Christmas when she and her daddy walked in from the airport. She was 8. She walked right in, sat in the chair and wanted to hold her little sister (a month old). Right then my heart melted and I knew Emma Kate would always have a big sister that would protect her and love her and grow with her.

Ashley is resilient. She has had to go through a lot that most children don't have to go through. I understand some of it, because my parents divorced at an early age as well. The world has thrown her a lot of stuff in these eleven years, but she it is like she is protected by a rubber force field. It bounces off of her and she remains the sweet, kind-hearted, spirited, funny, lovable Young lady that she has always been.

Ashley is not my blood. She has a mother and I do not pretend or try to be her mother. But she and I have a special bond. STEPmother may have a negative connotation to it, but I love that title. To me, that tells the world that I CHOSE her. I CHOSE to become a part of her life and I CHOSE to have her in mine. And now, after all these years, I cannot imagine my life without her.

Happy Birthday, Ashley Fay!

Camera issues...

I know it has been forever since I last blogged and I am sorry. I am having camera-charger issues and I hate a blogpost without a picture!

So, the blog has been neglected, but NOT because there hasn't been anything going on.

We returned from the beach and had a GREAT two weeks with Ashley that flew by. We did fireworks in Opelika and Auburn, had a visit from MeMe and Hoppy, had another visit from cousins Joseph and Matthew, and in general, just had a lot of summer fun. Ashley left for Kentucky to visit her mother's family and she will return shortly after her 11th birthday and will stay with us until JUNIOR HIGH school starts in mid-August.

I also had my annual sorority reunion lake-trip and I am already counting the days until next year. It is so refreshing and fun to get together with the girls that were your family during your college years, but more on that later.

So, I have many posts for the near future, we are just waiting on the ol' camera charger to be replaced. Until then, if anyone feels the need to purchase the Nikon D60 and send it to me, feel free.

More to come.....

I shouldn't read blogs at work...

And I shouldn't push play on tempting video clips....espcially when I have a mouthful of water.

Happy Heart

This is my family. All of us-together.

These two sisters are so funny together. It is like they are never apart. I don't have a sister, but I have two brothers so I totally get the sibling-bond thing. What amazes me is that these two see each other for 2 long visits each year and an occasional mini visit when we can work it out. Now that Ashley can fly by herself, I am pretty sure this one is going to be demanding more mini-visits.

This was the day we left Daytona. The car ride was great. Long, but great. The two gals are great riders. Emma Kate didn't complain once...you could often find her staring at Ashley in disbelief that she was really, finally, sitting next to her on our way home.

Last night as Emma Kate, Ash and I were laying in bed working on a craft project (we do a lot of crafting when Ash is here!!) Emma Kate was really quiet and you could tell she was considering something very serious... Emma Kate looked at me and very thoughtfully said....

"Is dat my sissy?" And I said, "Of course."

EK:"She still at my house?"

Me: "Of course."

EK: using words I have never heard her use before...."I so ed-sited."

Me: "You are so what?"

EK: "I jus' so excited."

It was priceless and it made my heart happy.