Hope You Had Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Carswell crew! So what!?! Yeah, I know it's past Christmas, almost New Years, but I'm behind and I'm catching up! We hope yours was great...ours was! We had a festive time hanging out and chilling with family and friends. There were some fun times and events during the holidays that I should have posted and filled everybody in on, but so much else has happened since then that I can hardly keep up and remember it all. All the fun memories are in my heart, hahaha cheesy! "Santa" came and visited everyone in our house! Hope you were nice and not naughty so he stopped at your house too! CC got a electric guitar, so much for peace and quiet around my house! Hahaha. KC, little miss diva, was excited about a new cellphone, and both kiddos loved their new Ipod touches. We all were excited about our gifts, but the most important gift of this season and seasons past is the birth of Jesus...don't forget that!

O Christmas Tree...

It finally happened...the Carswell family, aka Griswold family, found, bought and decorated a tree! Yes, Dec. 12th, later than usual, but nevertheless it was up and finished! Tree #1 shown here out of the 4 that eventually made it into the home before the 25th. Ahhh, one accomplishment down...too many to go!

NYC Girls Only!

At the last minute, I decided to take take a trip to NYC with my Mom, sister, and BFF. I decided to take this little trip while I was out of town racing and had already been gone from home for over 2 weeks between our Mexico trip and the trip to race. So, I got back from the Snowball Derby early Monday morning then flew out Tuesday morning...yeah I'm crazy, just in case you didn't already know! :) We had a fabulous trip! Soooo fun! And yes, I'm glad I decided to "just do it" and not worry that I had no Christmas tree, no presents bought...basically totally unprepared for Christmas, which was only 14 days away by the time I decided to finally come home!

On the Go

So yeah I did come back from Mexico...for 1 day! hahaha. We were off again, this time just me and Jake, to Pensacola, FL for the 41st annual Snowball Derby. This is a huge race among teams and fans. It was our 1st year attempting this feat...long story and long trip short...we qualified in on speed out of 60 cars, started the race on Sunday with 41 cars in the field, finished the Snowball's 300 lap race 15th and all in one piece. The kids did come down and meet us, thanks to Chris and Jen, on Friday. We all enjoyed the weekend festivities together, but we were exhausted at 2:30 Monday morning when we finally pulled the motorhome back into town. School came early on Monday! We are recovering from 5 days of racing, Jake especially, and now on to the next thing. OH WHAT?!? Christmas is soon??? Wow, I don't have the 1st decoration, tree, nothing up at our house! I better get my act together or Christmas will come and leave me behind! Today will not be the day though...I'm heading out of town! See you later!

Hola!

We are back from our Mexican vacation and had a BLAST! Mom and Dad had a relaxing 2 weeks at The Four Seasons Punta Mita, and me, Jake, our kids, Hollie, Pete are their girls all flew in and chilled for 9 days. The weather could not have been more perfect...HOT, sunny, 90 degrees...absolutely wonderful!

There seems to always be celebrities or some one famous on our trips, and this one was the same. Jake saw Lars, the drummer from Metallica, after we had just been been a day or so. He and his family seemed to be right by us everyday at the beach or the pool. They were very nice and friendly. His girlfriend is an actress and in one of Jake's favorite movies, Gladiator. Even though it embarrassed Jake for Mom to do it, she had to get Lars' picture before our trip was over. I'm surprised Jake didn't want one with Lars' girlfriend! hahaha.

If we weren't by the infinity edge pool that overlooked the Pacific, we were out on the beach in one of these "casitas", as Jake called them. I'm not even sure what they were suppose to be called, but Jake named them the 1st day and it stuck with us the whole time. We layed in the sun, admiring the ocean, and looking for whales in between reading or looking through our gossip magazines. We saw whales almost everyday at some point. We had never seen them before, so that was neat. We also watched turtles hatch on the shore. Now that was an experience! Very cool and entertaining watching those little heads pop out of the sand then wiggle out and start making their way toward the water. We even saw a sea lion swimming close to the shore one afternoon.

We had a photographer come to the resort and take our annual Hunt family pictures. Surprisingly, they turned out wonderful! There's so many good ones we can't decide what to use on our Christmas card this year. Good problem to have! I'm sure you'll be seeing some of them soon. For now these are just some snapshots we got...trying to relive those warm days...

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving...now it's on to Christmas...well, we have another trip this week then it'll be time...more later...

Peace out

I'll be gone for the next 9 days. Not just neglecting my blog like I'm known for...instead I'll be chilling on the beach, hanging with the fam, workin' on my tan! OH YEAH!

Happy Thanksgiving (a few days early)! Hope your turkey day is fab. It may be a salsa or pico day for us... we'll have to wait and see.

There are so many things I am thankful for, but a few I can't not mention being the time of year...

• My whole family which is just incredible in so many ways


• My amazing husband who is beyond words


• My awesome, brilliant, beautiful kids


• My "home"


• My "life"


• My BFFs

All these would be non-existant or impossible without our Lord and Savior, Jesus!

Have a happy weekend and a happy holiday week! Don't buy out the malls the day after Thanksgiving...leave something for me when I get back!

Hopefully I'll have some pictures from our trip. I know Hollie will. Mexico here we come!!!

Yep...

We did it. Me, Kim and Jake went at midnight last night and saw the 1st showing of Twilight! I loved it and thought it was great. Of course all the details can't be in a 2 hour movie, but I thought it was a good representation of the book. I get confused with what all happens in which book having read all 4, but the movie is only the 1st book. The story flows from book to book, so in my mind it's just one long story...how long until the next movie???

P.S. Edward is sooooo HOT!!!

Bad Daughter!

I've been bad about updating my blog, which means I was bad and did not give an official shout-out to my wonderful Mom on her birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!!! Yes, in real life I did wish Mom a happy birthday on the actual day...I even had all the fam over for dinner and got her a present! She has another present too, but it hasn't come in the mail yet, so her birthday is really not over yet! Does that mean I'm not really so bad, and not really even late?? Oh well, it doesn't really matter...as long as Mom had a happy day, that's all that counts!

Twilight

I can't wait! The Twilight movie opens Friday. Well, to be exact the 1st showing is at midnight Thursday night. I haven't got tickets yet, but I want to go at midnight! We are leaving for our Thanksgiving trip early Saturday morning, so I must see the movie before I leave! I love to read, especially at the beach, but since I finished the 4th book I haven't read anything! I loved the Twilight books, and now nothing else gets my attention enough to want to read it. I'm so hoping the movie does the book justice. We'll see this week!

Here I Am!

Yes, we've passed Halloween already, but I can't not share some photos from the night. We were on our way to the beach for the weekend and stopped in to see our friends in Peachtree City. These are a few pics from the night. Lots of fun! It was a cold night on Halloween, but then we were on to the beach and warm weather. Definitely more like it...

I wasn't brave enough for the water this time...too cold this time of the year for me. Jake and the kids had a blast in it, and I just enjoyed watching while I worked on my tan! You gotta love the beach in the fall...no crowds, warm weather, unbelievable sunsets...Not that I need more reasons, I LOVE my beach ALL the time!

Happy Halloween

> Sorry, but there will no Flintstone appearance today! We did that at Disney World for the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, but today it's just not happening! Fred and Wilma are out of town, so Barney and Betty just couldn't stand to be all alone! The kids will dress up, so I'm sure I'll have some pics after the festivities tonight.


We made our annual trip this week to the pumpkin patch. It was a quick, short visit because it was cold and windy...at least to me it was! The kids and Jake carved the pumpkin into a vampire pumpkin and it proudly sits on the front porch. We baked the pumpkin seeds afterwards...the kids love that part and we have all been lovin' those seeds this week!

KC and CC wanted to get on this tractor. This is as close to being a "farmer" my kids will probably ever be! Jake and I are not exactly the "farm" type, so the kids' chance is pretty slim. :) Most farmers probably don't spend 3 hours at the hair salon having their hair highlighted and cut just right...Jake! Hey, but it looks good! Plus, I can't say too much since I spend that much time or more at the salon and more fequently than he does. The kids at least enjoyed this "tractor" moment.

I hope you have a fun Halloween and get lots of yummy candy!

SoBo and Atlanta Motor Speedway

The good old 98 raced this past weekend in South Boston, VA. It was cold when we got to the track on Thursday night. Friday was practice and qualifying. Saturday we woke up to rain, which delayed our racing, but it finally cleared and racing was underway. The car was not as good as we had wanted, but we made the race. Unfortunately, on a restart a car (with a 14 yr. old driver) missed a shift (maybe because he doesn't know how to drive) and piled up 4 or 5 cars behind him! We got sandwiched in between 2 cars, which brought our night to an end! I hate when we wreck!!! The car was pretty messed up, but not as bad as it could have been. The radiator got busted, so we couldn't pit and make repairs and get back on the track. Our night was done, and it was the end of our 2008 PASS season. We plan to race a few other extra races still, with some other series besides the PASS series. The 98 is getting fixed as I speak, type, whatever! Hopefully we'll be back at it next weekend, and we'll be outside of ATL, closer than alot of our races!
Friday and Saturday at the track must not have been enough for us...we drove straight to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Nascar Cup Race. We pulled in behind all the traffic about 30 minutes before the green flag. We were in the motor home, so we couldn't park just anywhere. We found a good spot, but it was a good distance from where we would be sitting. Jake had the genius idea to get our golf cart out of the trailer and use it. I wasn't real sure about it...I don't like to get in "trouble" and thought by doing this and trying to park it somewhere near the gate was asking for it!
We all hopped on the cart, drove right to the entrance with no problem, and watched 325 laps of racing. Now it was time to leave and I had a knot in my stomach! Here we are driving along with tons of people, trams, buses...everyone trying to leave at the same time. There were security people directing people across crosswalks and cars. We roll up and they would stop traffic and people to let us through! I don't know what the deal was, but maybe because of the big 98 on the front of our golf cart with Carswell Motorsports written on it the people thought we were "official" or someone who was going somewhere important! All I know is we got right through the mayhem and back to our RV with no problem and no traffic! Just leave it to Jake to always figure something out!

We had a fun day at AMS, and we were glad Mom was with us and able to go racing too! I wanted Jeff Gordon to win, but at least he had a decent day. Carl Edwards is not my favorite, but Mom likes him, so at least her car won. I think my hearing is almost back to normal now. I was hearing roaring noises for days!

It's all so worth it just to hear those motors, smell that fuel and rubber...AHHHHH!!!! Gosh, now I'm already wishing next weekend was here or I was racing somewhere this weekend!!! Oh well, I'm going to get some BEACH in this weekend and count down my days till the next race.

Have a fabulous weekend!

School Projects...Ugghhh

Do you get the impression that I don't like school projects?? I know they are for a reason...I guess some sort of reason! How my school projects I did all those years ago are helping me in life now, I'm not really sure, but maybe in some strange way they are! If nothing else they are helping me, help my kiddos with their projects. There you go.
Needless to say, we have spend the last two evenings working on a project with the C-Man. I am happy to announce it is finished, and he has taken it to school this morning. It is out of my house, I have discarded all project remnants of any sort from my house, I am a free woman!!! For today at least. I already know there's another one coming soon, but I'm trying to block that from my immediate thoughts! I'm going to have a project-free day and night...really, no matter what comes home in the backpacks! Maybe it's because my kids are 11 months apart and 1 grade apart...somehow we have a project or report due at least every other week, and be assured if it's a big assignment both kids will have one due the same week and on the same day! The bright side is...we have gotten them all completed (so far!), on time, and got an "A" on them all (again, so far!). I may have more gray hairs and be cross-eyed but hey, Welcome to My World! or just a small fraction of it ;) Have a wonderful Wednesday...I sure plan to!

Back at the Track

We finally were back at a race track this weekend. Our last scheduled race was canceled due to bad weather in N.C., so it's felt like forever since we've raced! We were in Greenville, SC at Greenville-Pickens Speedway with the PASS series. Friday we had a practice day, and our car just wasn't right all afternoon. After tons of adjustments, a good night's sleep on the motorhome, then more practice time Saturday morning the issues finally got resolved. Qualifying came and we were sitting in the #2 position. Not bad after how we had practiced! Once the race started it wasn't long before the 98 was running 1st. We led most of the laps, and had some hard racing going on side-by side with more than 1 different car. With less than 10 laps to go we got passed on the track, no biggie we could get it back, but then another car tried to squeeze by at the same time and hit our front fender. It tore up the front left side and made Justin think he had a tire going down. End of a long story...we ended up finishing 6th. Not a horrible night or a bad finish, but when you taste Victory Lane nothing else is the same!
We'll try again...sooner than later this time. We have a weekend of racing coming up at South Boston Speedway in South Boston, VA. GO,GO,GO 98!

Time with my man

Last week Jake and I went to the beach together, alone, for 4 nights. We had a great trip hanging out together, sleeping late, laying on the beach until the sunset every day, and doing some good eating too! Our good friends Kim and Jody came down to hang-out a few days, so it was nice to spend time with them. The "excuse" we had to get away was that Jake had an annual homeowners meeting and the condo board meeting he had to attend. That was a good "excuse" to go down early and spend a few days. Not that we really needed an excuse, but it was our reason to be there. Everyone needs to get-away sometimes with their man alone...it's good for you! :) We celebrated Kim's birthday, and grilled some steaks and scallops for dinner. YUM...but the singing before her birthday cake topped it all! Very melodious trio of Jody, Jake and me...glad there's no recording of that! hahaha. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIM!!!

We are back now and ready for the start to this week. We have had alot going on with school and projects due, so I'm hoping for a calmer week. Later this week our schedule involves some RACING, so we're counting down to that! Have a happy Monday!

Can't ever get enough!

The Georgia National Fair was in Perry, GA., so of course we had to find a day to visit. It had been years since we went to this fair, so we had forgotten how MASSIVE it is! We didn't even see everything...almost overwhelming. The rides are always a highlight with the kiddos, so we rode plenty of those.
Jake and CC rode this one alone..... because this is what it did...as each seat spun around! I didn't feel the need to throw-up, so I sat it out!
We ended the night going to the Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean concert. That was fun! Jason Aldean was who I was most excited about seeing, yet Luke Bryan ended up being my favorite. Now we're just waiting around to see where the next fair might be! Hmmm, we have an RV...we could go on the road with the fair and get paid to be there every night??? Noooooo, we have all our teeth still, but at least it's something we can fall back on! HAHAHA Just Kidding!
Just a fall thing you gotta love!

I've Been Tagged!!!

I was tagged by my sister a week or two ago, and today I was tagged by my BFF Kim. Now I guess I better play along. Here's how it works:

1. List the rules of the game
2. Tell 6 random things about yourself that others may or may not know
3. Tag 6 more people at the end of your post
4. If you're tagged...just do it and play along

Here we go, 6 random things you may or may not about me:

1. Before I got married my middle name was Jo...why mom would name me Deanna Jo I'm not sure!
2. I was in beauty pageants as a child. In one all the little girls were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. Most girls were prepped by their parents for the answer and replied with doctor, lawyer, teacher, ect. I, on the other hand, gave an authentic answer...I wanted to be a teenager so I could wear make-up and not have to order off the children's menu! Yes, I was all of 4 years old and I did win that pageant.
3. I know how to clog...I took clogging for years in N.C. and was in a group that traveled and performed.
4. I started dating Jake when I was 15 years old and we never broke up even once...got married when I was 19 years old.
5. I got pregnant with baby #2 when baby #1 was 8 weeks old! (Jake thought it was embarrassing!)
6. I have a belly button piercing...have had it over 9 yrs.!

That's all....Now who will I tag??? I'll pick Lindsey Dorner, Michelle Helms, Annissa Hackney, Devin Lee, Stephanie Sims, and Julie Allen. Come on girls, I did it so you can too! Have fun!

Jubilee 2008

We have just returned from 3 days of Jubilee! That would be our annual Senior Adult Conference in Gatlinburg, TN. We had over 6,000 in attendance this year. We are thankful that everything went well and ran smoothly. We had music from Sandi Patty, Greater Vision, The McKamey's, Squire Parsons, and Ricky Skaggs. We heard some hilarious comedy from Dennis Swanberg, good preaching from Junior Hill, and last but not least some fabulousness from the one and only Johnny Hunt. WooHoo! ( me partial?!? No way! Hahaha) Needless to say it was a great line-up of musicians and speakers. It was all topped off with some beautiful, fall-like weather in the Smoky Mountains. A big thanks goes out to all our staff and volunteers who were a major part in the conference and its success!
Now on to the final stages of planning for Xtreme. It will be here before we know it! Jubilee is a great conference for Mature Adults, but Xtreme one the other hand is XTREME in the real sense of the word! Here we come!

VOTE!

I know you can't get enough right now of the election! Well, this is something you need to vote on, but it's not for President.
Vote for the driver of our 98 racecar, Justin Wakefield, for most popular driver. Click on this link http://www.speed51.com/2008_Stories/MPD/SLM_MPD.html then scroll down to the PASS South list, click on Justin Wakefield, and cast your vote. You can vote once a day. I know me and my peeps are online way more than the rest of these drivers and their fam, so let's show them and win!
I'm all about winning...on the track and off! GO 98!

North Georgia State Fair

We made our annual visit to the fair and it was sooooo fun! Me, Jake, the kids, Mom, Lindsey and Taylor went together, but when we got there everyone was there! Well, it seemed like at least half the crowd was people we knew! We met up with Hollie, Pete and their girls...Kim was there with her kiddos and her family too...Chris, Jen, and Emme met us there...I've not named everyone, but you get the idea. :) Hollie and Pete had 1/2 their church with them! The food was yummy as always, the rides were exciting, if you like the feeling that at any minute the ride might fly apart and break along with you in it...hahaha, :) but most of all the time spent laughing and talking with family and friends was the best! Mom didn't realize what she was getting herself into by going to the fair with us. We picked her up about 6:00pm and didn't leave the fair until all the lights went out after 11:00pm! Considering she doesn't ride any rides and is trying to not eat junk food, she had lots of time to walk around, hang out, and keep giving the grandkids money for this thing they had to do or this game they had to play! Not to mention, she played some mean games of Bingo too! Dad had plans for the night so he couldn't come along...even if he hadn't had plans he wouldn't have "hung in" there half as long as Mom! Dad would have liked the eating part and the hanging out for a while, but then he would have had enough. The kiddos...never enough! Yet again I left my camera at home. Sorry, but I did just get home the day before from Disney World, tried to unpack, getting ready for our next trip, and everything else, so I have an excuse...sort of! You know what the pics would be like...just imagine the lights, food, kids smiling ear to ear, rednecks in the background...you got it! FUN, FUN, FUN!!!

Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party

Just in case you didn't recognize these 2, it's Indiana Jones and the Candy Corn Princess...aka my CC and KC! All dressed up and ready for the PARTY! Who are these crazy peeps on the monorail??? They must be CRAZY!!! They look a little familiar to me!?! I'm still in disbelief that I got talked into dressing up...just representing for the Flintstones!!! Just wait until Halloween actually gets here...this won't be the last you see of the Flintstones yet! Believe it or not, we actually were a "hit" at the party. People kept stopping us and asking if we'd pose for a picture! Too funny...it happened at least 5 or 6 times. The ones who didn't ask to take our picture would just yell out our "Flintstone names" at us or point and stare! Needless to say we didn't go un-noticed. :) CC and KC were embarrassed by us and the scene we were making at first. I guess they finally got use to it! Looking cute at the Magic Kingdom!
The "kiddos" with Pluto at our character dinner!
"Betty" gettin' nuzzled by Dale after dinner! :)
We rode the rides in Magic Kingdom with absolutely NO WAITS! This is a miracle for the Magic Kingdom. You gotta love the special event nights. We stayed until they closed at midnight and we'd had all the fun we could handle! Loved the Halloween Fireworks and the Halloween parade, by the way! (even though I can't count how many times I've seen them) :)
FUN, FUN NIGHT!!!

More Disney Fun

As I told you in a previous post KC has started her own blog. Here she is on our trip taking pictures of her own...yeah, we were all waiting for her, but she got some good pics! Give her a couple of days and I'm sure she'll have a new story to post.
The boys always like to get a boat, so here are my 2 men out on the lake. Too cool!
"Look Mom, no hands!" Hahaha. Lindsey and Taylor taking a turn on the little boat.
As KC informed me, "Getting a hair wrap at Disney is a tradition". So here she is!
We rode tons of rides on our trip. All the good stuff at the Disney parks then we went to the Universal parks for more thrills. Who can get enough roller coasters??? Not my CC...just at Islands of Adventure he rode The Hulk 3 times then Dueling Dragons 2 times! I don't have pictures of all our adventures...mainly due to the fact that I was too busy riding the rides to take pictures!
All I can say is this is what you feel like after a few days with The Carswells...
We are out of control!!! :)