The Carswells

SpringTime

2009-04-16T09:05:00.002-04:00

No, I'm not lost at sea...I'm here still! Normally no updates = nothing going on to update about...not exactly true around our house. I think the truth would actually be too much going on to stop and update my blog!

So what have we been up to? Glad you asked. Spring has finally sprung, so what do I have? Spring Fever! The only problem is it started in February, maybe a little too early.

Spring breakers raided our beach the end of February, but along with the spring breakers came MTV and others for concerts on the beach. Jake and I got to go see Kenny Chesney, up close and personal, at Spinnakers one afternoon. Way fun and way cool! He played for 3 1/2 hours, and I loved every minute of it! The next day we saw Lil' Wayne on the beach, and he performed too. It was fun...total opposite kind of music from the day before!

So that trip down to the condo was suppose to be 2 days...we ended up staying 8!!! Dad brought the kids down to us that weekend and we stayed on more days. LOVED it! School was calling the kid's names, so we eventually came back to GA. Well, I came for a few days.. the beach started calling my name, so I answered the call! A few trips back and forth, some racing mixed in (oh yeah, the season has started!!! GO 98! More about that later...), and the kid's week off for their spring break...needless to say, I have been in Florida more days the last month than I have been in Georgia.

At least you know I'm still alive, I'm still my beach-obsessed person, loving life, and having as much FUN as possible along the way!

Come sail away with me...

2009-02-27T11:17:00.005-05:00

Laying in bed late one night last week, Jake says, "Want to go on a cruise tomorrow?", which I then reply in a sleepy state, "What, no you won't take me anywhere!". I went off to sleep, but woke up the next morning remembering what he had asked me. Was I crazy the night before??? Of course I want to go on a cruise!!! I quickly got online and started looking at some options. Jake already had a few options picked out, so we pondered our decision that afternoon. That night we booked our trip, along with Levi and Leah, and headed toward Miami the next day! WooHoo, warm weather, sunshine, and my sweetie by my side!

We had a fabulous trip! Nice ship, good food (just too much of it), great friends to laugh non-stop with, hot sun, warm sand, dancing...what more can you ask for?!? We spend one of our days at Atlantis on Paradise Island...YES this is paradise!!! I already knew what a paradise it is, but now I've ruined Leah! She won't sleep well again at night until she has her trip back planned, and specifically to be able to spend day after day chilling at the Cain pool! Love, Love, Love it!

For now I'll just lay in bed at night waiting...listening...hoping...for Jake to have another idea pop into his head about some exotic locale he wants to whisk me away to..... :)

Be My Valentine...

2009-02-26T22:24:00.002-05:00

Before February ends I'll reminiscence a bit back to the 14th...Valentine's Day. We had a busy week with work plus the holiday was falling on a weekend this year which screamed out "crowds" to Jake! I decided to throw a dinner party at my house instead of going out for the night. We woke up and had a lazy morning, made some desserts for that night, started on dinner, and even dipped some fresh strawberries in chocolate. We had our own little Valentine's Day dinner with candles, roses, family and friends! We might just have to start a new tradition...

Guess Who???!!!

2009-02-16T20:26:00.003-05:00

It's me! Hello...it's already halfway through February? Where has the time gone?!? It's been busy around the Carswell house. School for one thing, work, conferences, and of course some fun mixed in too.
We enjoyed a trip to the Bahamas to escape the cold, winter weather in January, and had an absolute blast! Jake was busy with the annual Men's Conferences at FBCW for 2 weekends! Wow, never seen so many men all together at one time! The kids have had practices for Kidzplace 2 times a week for the last month, and are excited to have had one of their performances this past Sunday and more this next weekend. Of course we've squeezed in some trips to PCB in the middle of it all...can't stay gone from there too long. Today we have enjoyed a school holiday and really not ready for it to end. Zumba class this morning, yummy lunch, skating and laser tag, hanging out with friends...soooo much fun!
That's a little taste of what's going on around here. I'm going to try to get better about updating more often...if there's anybody out there who even notices!!!??? Some comments from you might help me along....Helloooo are you still there??? Talk to you soon!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-06T09:20:00.002-05:00

We hope you had a happy and festive New Years! We rang in 2009 in Gatlinburg during our Xtreme conferences. Xtreme started Dec. 27th in Gatlinburg, TN. and Branson, MO. and continued in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge through January 2nd. The conferences went fantastic and tons of decisions for the Lord were made! It is a ton of work and long, long hours, but tons of fun at the same time. Needless to say, we were ready to chill and recover after all the Christmas festivities and then going straight into the conferences. As soon as the final conferences ended on the 2nd, we darted straight to the beach! We went over the mountain from Gatlinburg to Cherokee, NC and stopped to play in the snow on the way. Crazy...snow one minute then 70 degrees at night just a few hours later! We enjoyed a long weekend on the beach and by the pool immensely! (and some yummy, fresh seafood...not to mention also getting to see Twilight for the 3rd time!)

Now it's back to "normal routine", whatever that might be! I know for now it's school, getting my house back together and un- Christmasized (new word), and trying to get back to my work-out schedule (ughhhhh, I love to do it once I start, just starting is my problem...any takers on going to the gym with me???). Have a fabulous week!

Hope You Had Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

2008-12-30T08:52:00.003-05:00

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...

2008-12-30T08:41:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-12-30T08:20:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-09T07:22:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-12-02T09:05:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-21T10:22:00.003-05:00

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...

2008-11-21T09:52:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-11-19T10:10:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-19T09:28:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-11-19T08:28:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-31T11:50:00.002-04:00

> 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

2008-10-31T10:57:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-22T09:00:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-20T21:24:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-13T09:56:00.002-04:00

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!

2008-10-13T09:13:00.002-04:00

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!!!

2008-10-06T20:36:00.005-04:00

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:

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

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

Before I got married my middle name was Jo...why mom would name me Deanna Jo I'm not sure!
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.
I know how to clog...I took clogging for years in N.C. and was in a group that traveled and performed.
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.
I got pregnant with baby #2 when baby #1 was 8 weeks old! (Jake thought it was embarrassing!)
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

2008-10-01T20:00:00.000-04:00

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!

2008-09-30T13:01:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-26T09:28:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-24T22:43:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-24T21:53:00.005-04:00

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!!! :)

1st Part of Our Trip and Lindsey's Birthday

2008-09-24T19:13:00.004-04:00

We had a great trip to Orlando and Disney World this past week. We stayed at the Polynesian Hotel, which is nice and convenient to the parks. The kids had a blast, as usual, and are already ready to go back! Below is a picture I took of all my children! Yes I have 4 now. CC loves the volcano slide at the Polynesian...he couldn't do it enough times. KC, on the other hand, wasn't sure about the slide...until she finally got the courage to try it! She gave into the "pressure" and just did it!
Then, she was the one who couldn't get enough! This picture was her 1st time down, so she wasn't real sure about it!
We celebrated Lindsey's 22nd birthday while we were in Disney. We spent the 1st part of the day at Animal Kingdom then had lunch at Rainforest Cafe. "Deb" was our waitress and was sweet and funny. Linds needed her picture taken with Deb to remember our lunch with her! After lunch we were off to Epcot and later to Hollywood Studios. We rounded out the fun with a late dinner back at the hotel. We definitely made a day of it! Happy Birthday to Lindsey!!!

Thursday 13

2008-09-18T23:55:00.000-04:00

Wow, I remembered it was Thursday! I'm home now from the beach, but headed out tomorrow with the kiddos, Jake, Lindsey and Taylor for Disney World! YAY, FUN!!! The kids are excited to see Mickey...again. We have our fall break from school next week, so we are going to take advantage of it. Jake's parents and one of his sisters and her little girl are planning to meet us down there for a few of the days, so we're excited to get to hang out with them too.

So, here's 13 things I'm looking forward to this week and love about Disney.

Hanging out with no school or homework
Spending time with family
Chilling by the pool in the sun
Lindsey's Birthday
Riding Rockin' Rollercoaster
Watching fireworks by the lake
Eating yummy food
Watching the kids frantically run from ride to ride with excitement
Spending way too much money on useless and overpriced things...haha it's Disney, what do I expect??
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party...dressing up!?! Just wait for the pics :)
Trying to get into all the restaurants we like to eat at without a reservation
The magical aura of the entire Disney property
Coming back home so we can go racing!!!

Beach Bunny Fun

2008-09-16T10:38:00.003-04:00

My little diva has decided she wants to have a blog! We started working on it and believe it or not she's been the one updating it. I looked this morning and she'd added stuff I didn't even know about. It's amazing what kids these days know about computers...although mine did start using the computer at the age of 2! Now at 9 and 10 they have notebook computers of their own...one pink and one blue. Who is spoiling these kids like that?!? Ummmm, not only me, they have Daddy wrapped pretty tight too! :) When you get a minute you'll have to check out KC's blog. Leave her a comment!!! She's sooooo excited about this, she'll be thrilled to know someone has looked at her site....it doesn't matter if she knows who you are or not! If you are my friend you are her friend too!

http://www.beachbunnyfun.blogspot.com/

Happy Monday

2008-09-15T01:33:00.002-04:00

I hope you had a great weekend.
We went to PCB Thursday afternoon for a long weekend and to do a Men's Conference with Dad. The conference was at St. Andrews Baptist in Panama City on Friday night and Saturday morning. The conference went great...Dad, Jake and CC said. The girls went out to dinner on Friday night and slept late Saturday before heading onto the beach for the day. CC helped Jake the whole conference and loved it! He was making CD's and running credit cards. Learning to work hard from his Daddy and Papa! Once the conference ended my boys spend the afternoon on the beach, but Dad was back on the plane to Woodstock. Day and night, night and day...he never stops! :) The weather was beautiful all weekend, even with the hurricane in the Gulf. The water was rough and higher than normal, but sunny skies and HOT!
My kids have a different week out of school for fall break than the rest of our county, so we have school this week. The fam headed back to GA. Sunday night, but minus the Mommy. I stayed at the beach! Mom was staying a few more days, so I couldn't resist. I didn't want her to be all alone. Aren't I a sweet, thoughtful daughter?!? I will come back...one of these days! :) No, really I can't stay away from my 3 babies long! Kissy, Kissy Jakey Poo...
There's probably all of maybe 3 people going to even be reading my rambles considering almost everyone is either at the beach or Disney World this week, but I hope all 3 of you have a great Monday and a great start to the week! See you soon.

Wii Fit

2008-09-12T18:56:00.003-04:00

My first love will always be Guitar Hero, but I at least have some other game now that I like. I've been trying to buy Wii Fit since early summer and every time it would be sold out. I finally got one a couple of weeks ago in PCB. When I first got it home we had alot going on so I didn't get to play. I got around to trying it out last week...too fun! Lindsey and Taylor had come over for dinner and to hang out. We got the kids to bed and Taylor and Jake went into our room and started playing Nascar 09 on the PS3. Lindsey was doing something, so I went downstairs to check out the Wii. About an hour or so later here comes Lindsey looking for me...I'm running in place, sweating and laughing the whole time! She thought I'd lost it this time for sure! Well, not for long cause next thing you know she's hoola-hooping and skiing! Next it's on to get the boys...all I got to say is Jake and Yoga??!!...scary. I got about as good of a work-out laughing until I was crying at that sight! So now it's not only Guitar Hero, Wii Fit gets added into the rotation. What more can you ask for...work-out, maybe...fun, tons of it!

Post-Victory

2008-09-04T10:28:00.003-04:00

After the big Victory in N.C. we still had the Labor Day holiday left to hang out. We went over to Myrtle Beach late Saturday night after the race to chill for Sunday and Monday. We arrived dark and early at all of 4:00 in the morning! We went to Ocean Lakes again since we were close by. We would have loved to have headed back to PCB, but 1st of all we would have used up all our time traveling back down there, and 2nd the weather ended up not being great down there because of Gustav being in the Gulf. Anyway, we love to go to Myrtle Beach, so this was a good opportunity.

We did a bunch of nothing except relaxing on the beach and playing. We ate some yummy steaks the boys grilled for us and topped it off with some hot brownies and ice cream too, all while watching the Cup race on television outside with the waves crashing in the distance...ahhh what more can you ask for??? Hmmmm, massage on the beach in the ocean breeze?? hot cabana boy misting you with water in the warm sunshine?? being served fresh fruit and iced water while lounging by the water?? Not me!!?? Nooooo, never! Hahaha. We'll save that for another trip...but for this one we had a wonderful time hanging out with our family and friends!

Jake's best birthday EVER!!!

2008-09-03T11:44:00.002-04:00

On August 30th Jake had a birthday! We'd known since the race schedule had come out that we'd be racing this year on his birthday. He'd rather spend a day at the track than almost anything else, so this was perfect. Little did we really know...this day would be so great and Jake get the best present...Win #2 for the season!!! Back to back wins...woohoo!
As you can tell from the above picture I get a little into the racing and was thrilled about the win! It was just unbelievable! We'd qualified on the pole, which showed we had a good car, then ran 2nd or 3rd most of the night. In my mind, during the race, I was thinking that 2nd or 3rd for the night was going to be good...but the race wasn't over yet! It seemed to be the never-ending race there towards the end. Next thing I know the 1st and 2nd cars wrecked each other. The caution came out, they got the track cleared, and the 98 was in 1st. Green flag, another wreck, caution, green flag, wreck, caution,green flag....We got down to the final green, white, checkered finish and the 98 held on and got it!!!
Our win a few weeks ago was awesome...but 2 in a row, and on Jake's birthday...incredible!!! We now have another trophy to add to our now collection. I'm liking that! I'd already given Jake a present from me and the kids, but after the race I should have taken it back. Hahaha. He'd take a race win over about anything I could buy!
To top things off for the day, we had lots of our friends and family at the track for the day with us. (we missed you Dad and Jody J.) Jake's Mom made a cake, so after the race, close to midnight, we had a little party...celebrated Jake's bday and added on some celebrating for the win! I can't even tell you what a day it was! Definitely a birthday Jake will never forget!
Happy Birthday Jake! Go 98!

Are you feeling neglected??

2008-09-03T10:41:00.002-04:00

I know of one person who is...but I promise it's not intentional! I've been sooo on the go, with sooo many fun things going on that I can not stop long enough to update my blog! I'm on it now though... really soon, like in just a minute, as soon as I let the A/C man in, and he leaves, and I get dressed, and I finish straightening up...get the point? I don't even know what to post. I gotta sit and think about what all I'm going to tell you about. I know of one important thing, so hold on and I'll be right back!

Fay, Fay, GO AWAY!!!

2008-08-23T09:14:00.002-04:00

Jake and I had planned to go to PCB for a few days this week alone, by ourselves, had the kiddos taken care of and what happens...FAY, the never ending tropical storm that keeps dumping rain on the entire state of Florida! We probably could have gone a couple of days ago and had maybe 2 days of nice weather, but who knew the storm would stall out near Daytona and just now be getting to PCB?!? So if Fay ever goes away I'll get back to the beach for a few days with my man.
We have our longtime family friends Dewey and Shirley here at our house for the weekend. They came in town for a wedding. I also had some sort of brain malfunction and agreed for KC to have 2 girls spend the last night and CC to have a friend over too. I have 5 kids here at my house, so it's pretty hoppin' here! Jake is cooking me and the kids breakfast at the moment, so I better get off the computer and try and look helpful! ;) Have a great weekend!

Yee Haw

2008-08-20T09:14:00.010-04:00

Here's some, probably more than anyone besides our family really cares to see, pictures from our adventure-filled weekend at the ranch.
C-man loving every minute of it!
This was all the "horsing" that Dad did! He just watched...too cool to ride!
Alright, I rode, but I wasn't real sure about the whole horse thing! Kind of scared of big animals, especially ones that can buck me! At least I did it, and believe it or not I'd do it again! For some reason the owners and trainers seemed surprised that I rode in flip flops! No biggy to me...I love my flip flops!
KC having fun and waving to all her audience! Drama Queen!!!
I'm not sure which was funnier to me...Mom riding the horse or Mom trying to get on the horse! Hahaha. I do have pictures of the scene, but I'll do Mom a favor and keep those to myself.
Jake riding like the wind. I never knew he had such talent...regular ol' cowboy...with pretty, long, highlighted hair. Haha. He and Pete made a pair. Hollie kept saying...well, more things I should keep to myself! You never know who might be reading this!!! I'm known to be pretty inappropriate! Hahaha. Now here's someone that was fully prepared for our day! Stylin' Miss Priss!
Fishing was next and here's the man with one of the fish he caught! I caught 8 fish.
Jake hooked this one! Yikes..massive snapping turtle!
KC all smiles catching fish after fish! Did I mention I caught 8? Okay.

The 4 cousins...aren't they sweet?
As you can see a FUN weekend was had by all! Mom and Hollie have more of our madness on their blogs that you can check out. I know you want to see even more...like these 2 million pictures weren't enough! Well, it's just some of what we did, yes there was more, all in our quest to make memories!

Thursday 13

2008-08-14T17:02:00.002-04:00

13 things we did this Summer. Here we go...

Left the minute school got out to spend the summer at the BEACH
Raced at Orange County Speedway...where it was HOT as you know what
Had Xtreme Summer at a new venue in PCB and LOVED it
Celebrated CC's 9th birthday and had a PARTY at Shipwreck Island Waterpark
Raced at our favorite track in Greenville, SC, but wrecked BAD with only 2 laps to go
Had a HAPPY 4th of July with tons of fireworks
KC and CC had a BLAST at Summer Camp with the church for a whole week (CC's 1st time)
MARRIED off Lindsey and Taylor...beautiful wedding in NC, fun partying before :)
CHILLED in Myrtle Beach with the fam and the Dorners for a week after the wedding
Went to Hard ROCK Theme Park for the 1st time
CELEBRATED Dad's birthday
KC turned 10, so we PARTAYED it up
We raced at Dillion Motor Speedway and won, WOOHOO...the 98 ROCKS

So that's just 13 of the fun things we did this summer. There was more, but that's all I'm tellin' right now! Summertime is my favorite time of the year. It's always Summertime in my heart (that was just for you Lindsey) and I was born to be barefoot! Haha. Inside joke, but Lindsey kept making fun of everything I would say or do the other day, so I couldn't resist adding that in for her. Hope everyone had a fabulous summer! It's not really over though...it is still like 90 some degrees outside. School might be in, but it's HOT...I'm going to the pool! TATA

And they're off...

2008-08-11T09:00:00.003-04:00

KC and CC are off this morning to their 1st day back to school. KC is starting 5th grade and CC is starting 4th grade. Hard to believe they are getting so BIG! They were pretty excited about today. It was a early morning. We are so use to central time that it felt like we were getting up at 6:00am instead of 7:00 am. The kids have been sleeping until close to 11:00 everyday, so that's a big difference. We'll all be tired early tonight! Above is the kids picture right before Jake took them to school this morning. Below is their picture on the 1st day of school last year. They have grown so much and look so much older this year! What cuties!
So now the house is quiet and I have a mess. We got in from Florida about 1:00 this morning, so I have some unpacking to do. Being in Florida since May, we brought back a ton of stuff...aka mess. If you need me you know where I'll be!

Soaking it up

2008-08-08T13:08:00.002-04:00

That's us, soakin' up the last few days before school starts back! Monday is the big day for the kiddos...they are actually excited about it. We are still enjoying the beach for now! Lazy days of playing in the sand, swimming, watching the sunset on the beach, eating yummy seafood...ooohhh too much fun! Summer is not over though! Lots more days of warm weather and sunshiny days! I'll be spending some time by the pool in GA during the week, but come weekend you know where we'll be, if we're not racing, as much as possible!
So for now, the beach is calling my name...

Too Excited to Post Anything!!!

2008-08-05T12:26:00.002-04:00

I still can't hardly breathe! The 98 won this weekend at Dillon Motor Speedway! We had the fastest car in practice, then qualified on the pole, then won the thing! Unbelievable weekend! We had been wanting a win sooo bad, and finally everything came together for the team.
Here I am in victory lane with the trophy.
And the good, ole 98 in victory lane...Yeah baby!!

Here I Am!

2008-08-02T13:41:00.003-04:00

I'm not lost! I've just been distracted by several things this last week. We had a fun time celebrating KC's 10th birthday. Next came mine and Jake's anniversary! 14 wonderful years married to an unbelievable guy! We spent the day chilling on the beach then went out for a nice dinner while Mom took the kids out. We are planning a trip for the 2 of us coming up soon... just a late celebration! We left the beach for a couple of days and headed to ATL 1st. We had a party at American Girl Bistro for Katie and few of her friends from school. Lots of girlie fun! Then that same night we left for Dillon, SC to race in a PASS series event. Dillon, SC is not only home to a race track, but the spot Mom and Dad eloped to many years ago to get married at age 17! We even saw the courthouse last night. It was dark, so I couldn't get a picture, but believe me if I leave the track today I'll be sure to snap a picture of the "marriage grounds"! We're hoping for a good race today. It's a really hot day here in S.C.! News on that later. Since I joined Facebook, I've been addicted and obsessed! (meaning wasting too much time) I promise to try to not forsake my poor little blog! Also, Happy Anniversary to Hollie and Pete today!
Have a fun weekend!

Happy 10th Birthday!

2008-07-28T11:59:00.003-04:00

We've been having so much fun celebrating KC's 10th birthday that I haven't had time to stop and give her a great big shout-out! Happy, Happy 10th Birthday to our sweet baby girl!!!

We are still in Florida, so KC wanted to get a boat on her birthday and spend the day at Shell Island. It was a beautiful, hot day! We swam, found sand dollars, Lindsey even found a starfish. Me, Jake, Lindsey, Taylor and Eddie had an encounter with a shark! Yikes!! Lindsey and I where outta the water and back on shore before the word shark could get out of your mouth! Later in the afternoon we came back to the condo, and Jake and Taylor decided to fish. They ended up catching some fish, so Mom joined in too. Mom caught 2 fish on one line at the same time. They were even 2 different types of fish. Now that must take talent! I, or maybe I should say Jake :), cooked a late dinner for us, and we had cake and presents for the birthday girl. It was a full, fun day of partying!

I Said I Wouldn't Do It...but I Did

2008-07-26T11:03:00.002-04:00

I gave in and joined Facebook this morning. Why? I'm still not sure, but I guess I'll try it. One more thing to do on my computer to take more of my time. Jake already thinks I'm online way to much, so shhhhh...don't tell him I'm on there! I haven't told him yet. ;) So, If you're on Facebook...BE MY FRIEND!!!

Back Down to 4

2008-07-20T23:59:00.001-04:00

Our 3rd child went back to her "other" parents today. It's pretty quiet around here tonight without her here entertaining us! Jake has used several of her sayings and expressions for us tonight in her absence. I'm sure she's not gone for too long...she'll be back!

98 Finishes 6th

2008-07-20T23:57:00.004-04:00

Not a win yet, but not a wrecked car this week either, thank goodness! It was a great weekend at the racetrack. We brought back the car all in one piece which makes it extra great. Lindsey and Taylor flew back in from their honeymoon and made it for the race. Mom was there as usual and Dad was able to come since he's taken the month of July off. Most races are Saturday nights and hours away from GA, so Dad doesn't get to come to all of them, but all he can work out to get to he does! Taylor's parents came over from Myrtle Beach, and were able to be at their 1st race. Well, at least their 1st time to one of our races. My Uncle Greg came and brought a friend along too. Jen, we missed you again!! No more excused absences for you the rest of the season! :)

6th place, family, tons of FUN!!

Justin getting strapped in for qualifying.
Jake and Taylor pushing the car up waiting our turn to qualify.
Addie, Lisa and Dan during the race .
Pit stop action!
Lindsey and Taylor Dorner asleep the morning after 1st night sleeping together on the motorhome! Finally, they can sleep together!

Almost Caught Up

2008-07-20T23:36:00.005-04:00

I've been so behind with getting all my pictures posted from the wedding weekend. I think that's it for now, though.
Hollie and Pete went away after the wedding for a trip to celebrate their anniversary, so I kept Addie Bug while they were away. I guess having an extra munchkin around kept me busy!
After the wedding we took a trip of our own to Myrtle Beach for the week. We had a crew there. It was me, Jake, our 3 kids (for the week), Mom, Dad, Hopie, Dan, Lisa, 2 of their kids, Greg, Julie, and their 3 kids. We had a blast hanging out on the beach during the day, eating out, and cooking out one of the nights for Dad's birthday. All the kids played until they could barely stand up at night! The ocean was rougher than usual due to the tropical storm off of Bermuda, so that made for some fun waves, for the boys mainly, although the girls enjoyed it some too. One of the nights we headed over to the new Hard Rock Park. Not everyone could hang when it came to the amusement park, so us and the Dorners made a night of it. Well, actually into the morning hours considering we didn't leave the park until it closed at 1:00am! Fun, fun!!

Nothing like hanging out with FAMILY!

"Look Mommy how dirty I am!!"

Fun night out!
Hold on!
KC, Anna Tate, CC, and Trenton
Addie almost rode the kiddie roller coaster, but no it didn't happen!
Yep, the wet monster!

More Wedding Pictures

2008-07-20T23:12:00.004-04:00

Saying their vows. (handsome preacher!)
Lighting the unity candle.
My beautiful children!
KC and her girlfriend Anna Tate.
CC with his buddy Trenton.

KC and Hopie.
My hottie!
The reception venue before all the guests arrived.

Here Comes The Bride

2008-07-20T09:19:00.002-04:00

Here's where it became official!
Doesn't she look pretty? All the girlies!
Lindsey patiently waiting until it's time to do the thang! Somehow she remained cool and calm all day.
Taylor waiting, but a little on the nervous and anxious side!

After the Party It's the After Party....

2008-07-17T23:58:00.002-04:00

Break it down!
Shake what yo momma gave you, Robbie!
It was getting pretty late!
Pete busting a move!
Smile Leanne and BJ!

Where in all this madness was the beautiful Bride?? At home getting her beauty sleep! No sleep for us until the early morning hours! We all had fun dancing, and did I mention it was also Taylor's birthday? Yep, his birthday was the day before his wedding day. Good way to remember his anniversary in years to come. Now, on to the wedding day!

Hold Up, Wait a Minute...

2008-07-17T23:45:00.000-04:00

Before July 17th, 2008 is over I gotta give a big shout out to my Dad on his birthday! Happy, Happy, Birthday Daddy!!!
We've had a fun, relaxing day on the beach today, then ended the day with a birthday cook-out and yummy cake. Don't worry presents were included! :) We all love Dad, hope he had a great day, and many, many more!

Lingerie Party Before the Big Day

2008-07-15T17:22:00.006-04:00

Oh my! What's in these boxes?? This is pretty much what Lindsey was thinking the whole night! We were all pretty nice, so nothing too embarrassing for the blushing bride. :)
Notice the slits??? Nice!
Candy, baby!
Sweet and innocent. Not a gift from me!
The black lace bra was a nice addition to Lindsey's outfit for the rest of the night. The night was still young at this point...next on to dance the night away!

Fun from Last Weekend

2008-07-14T11:07:00.004-04:00

Here's the family and friends! We all went out with some sweet friends on their yacht after church last Sunday.
My "main men" as we approached Crooked Island
CC riding the Jet Ski backwards with Mack and his Dad!
After many dares and contemplation, Taylor jumps from the top of the boat!
Jake couldn't get showed up!!! Here's his big JUMP!
So much fun, can't wait till next time!

Elementary Camp 2008

2008-07-14T10:58:00.002-04:00

The kids made it all week at camp and got back home! KC had a blast and talks about it constantly. CC had a good time, actually a better time than he wants to admit. :) It was his 1st time away from home, so he had some adjusting. It's a long story...but ended up CC moved to a new cabin and his counselor was Dallas White (family friend and staff kid). He had a fun time hanging with Dallas and making some new friends. They took cameras with them. CC said he didn't use his. KC said she did take some, so maybe I'll have some pics of all their fun later. KC can't wait for next years camp and believe it or not CC says he's going back again too!

Greenville Pickens Speedway

2008-07-05T11:20:00.003-04:00

The 98 rolled into the speedway Thursday morning Bad to the Bone! Practice was fair, qualifying was, well, put it this way we won the pole by 2 tenths of a second! That may not sound like anything to you or sound like whoa you barely got it, but no...that's ALOT of time from 1st to 2nd in race qualifying! Our race got going around 9:00 with our 98 up front and leading most of the race. We had 125 laps total this time. Another car got around Justin after around 80 laps, but everything was still ok, there were more laps to get back out front. After several cautions and double-file restarts that make you hold your breath, we found ourselves running 3rd. Not winning , but in a good position for whatever might come from the last few laps. Lap 123, 2 laps to go, green flag drops, go, go, go, no not 3 wide, crap.... another car, ughhh, tried to squeeze in and make it 3 wide where you can't go 3 wide, and ran us up into the wall! Not good. Yep, 2 laps to go to have a good finish to a good day with a HOT race car and what happens...a wrecked race car!! A big bummer, but that's racing, as much as I don't like that part of it! So, on to the next track!

It was a good day for the 98, and a great day for getting to see family and friends. Since we don't race close to home very often, it was a good opportunity for friends to get to come watch a race. I'll tell you who all was there! Mom, Dad, Lindsey and Taylor (like always), Hollie, Pete, the girls, Kim, Jody, the kids, Brian, Tonya, the girls, Derema, Mark, their daughter, Judy and Morgan, Richard and his wife, of course our pit crew :), Harper (Justin's new baby) even made her 1st race. Did I leave anyone out?? I hope not. Jen, WHERE WERE YOU??? I missed you! So, all thoses people made for a great day.

There you have it... your race day recap! Most who read this have absolutely no idea what half of what I said means, but that's okay! My Mom and Lindsey understand!! Who knows, keep reading about all my racing and you might get hooked too!

Happy 4th on the 5th!

2008-07-05T10:58:00.004-04:00

Hope everybody had a fabulous 4th! We had a relaxing afternoon on the beach, a yummy dinner( I cooked, thank you ), then lots of fireworks on the beach. It's hard for me to get shots of the fireworks, I'm too excited to see them and forget, oh yeah I want a picture too! Here's a couple I ended up with that aren't great but decent I guess.
Robin had these long sparklers the kids loved. Made our regular ol' sparklers look weeny, so we opted just to use theirs!

Here's Jake and Taylor lighting their "artillery"! I didn't get too close, especially after they started tying fireworks together and lighting them! One went off then the next had a delay and then shot out in the wrong direction... that would be sideways not upward! Yeah, the boys had a good time playing with fire! :)

It was a fun day, but by midnight we all started fading fast! We had a long day the day before too, which I'll tell about later. For now, have a great Saturday! I'm off to the beach!

Thursday 13

2008-07-03T11:56:00.005-04:00

Ok, I'm trying to participate this week and on the right day! Here it is, 13 random things on my mind right at this moment (these change moment by moment):

i am not on the beach this morning, believe it or not

it's 12:00 noon and both of my kids are still asleep

i have no gel on my nails and this is the first time in over a year that they have not been painted black

i am at a racetrack this morning, next best place to the beach

we arrived at the racetrack, parked, and turned off the rv motor at precisely 3:57 this morning

i'm going to be tired later today, no time to be tired it's race day

my sister is crazy at times, no all the time, but i still LOVE her

i'm excited to get to see kim today since she informed me it's been 5 weeks

excited about fun and fireworks tomorrow night

wondering if cc is really going to go to camp next week

i so hope the race goes good tonight

i can't believe lindsey and taylor are getting married next saturday

i'm glad we're racing today, but i'll be happy to be back on the beach tomorrow

So, what's on your mind today? Come on and share!

Lazy Days

2008-07-01T11:09:00.002-04:00

Yesterday ended up being one of those days. The weather kept acting like it wanted to clear up, but next thing you knew here would come another black cloud and rain. We ran a few errands, went out to lunch and ate way too much, then snuggled up in the condo and took a long nap. Ahhh, that was sooo nice! The weather cleared enough for a beautiful sky at sunset, so we went out for a little walk to admire. We had some steaks marinading, so Jake grilled those up for us for dinner. We should have still be stuffed from lunch, but we can't miss any meals around here! :) Steak, black beans and rice, plantains, salad....I'm getting hungry again! Good food is yummy, but our chilling with the fam, Hollie, and the kiddos is priceless! We love the sunny days at the beach, but who can pass up a few lazy ones too!

Movies

2008-06-30T11:29:00.004-04:00

Has anyone else seen the new movie Wall-E? Me, Hollie, and Jake took the 4 kids last night. I was less than impressed! I thought it was unbelievably boring. There was only like 10 minutes total of actual talking, then it was only those dumb robot sounds. The kids all liked it, but me and Hollie were about to lose it. Kid's movies can be good and most are enjoyable, but personally I didn't get this one. If you haven't seen it yet don't not go just cause I didn't like it. Who knows, you might think it's good! Maybe it just wasn't for me. If you've seen it what did you think?

If the weather doesn't clear up I was thinking of going to the movies again. Jake and the kids already saw Kung Fu Panda, and really liked it. I'll have to see what else is playing.

Happy Monday!

2008-06-30T11:20:00.003-04:00

This will be a busy and fun week with 4th of July being on Friday. We have a race on Thursday in Greenville, SC, so we'll boogie back to the beach after that's over. Jake has been stockpiling fireworks each time he drives past the fireworks store in Alabama. We're ready to "light up the sky"!
For now, I'm watching a morning storm pass by from my balcony and hoping the weather is clearing out so I can get out onto the beach. What's going on with you today?

It's About Time!

2008-06-28T12:50:00.002-04:00

Yes it is. It's about time I did something with my blog! I came across this site that has great backgrounds to "decorate" with. It's a start for me. At least if what I ramble about gets boring to you it will at least look cute!

Hope your weekend is great. Have fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

2008-06-25T23:55:00.000-04:00

It's your birthday, it's your birthday, we gonna party like it's your birthday...

CC turned 9 today! YAY!! I can't believe it's been 9 yrs. already. Time flys by when you are having fun! We had a full day of partying and too much fun. I may have some pictures from the day, but I'm too tired to find them right now. Just had to give a big shout out to CC on his 9th Bday! We love you so much little man!!!

Thursday 13 on Saturday...

2008-06-21T09:43:00.002-04:00

Ok, it took me a couple of days. Why? I don't know, I've been busy! When you see all the important things on my mind you'll see just how busy I am!
Here we go... 13 things on my mind this Saturday morning...

I LOVE the beach!
What a beautiful morning on the beach today.
What time will Chris, Jen, and Emme get here to the beach today?
Should I put my swimsuit on now and get ready for the beach?
Sure am ready for Dad to get back in the country and get here to the beach!
What time will I come in from the beach tonight?
I am obsessed with the beach!!
Seriously, I have issues!
Can't wait for Hollie, Pete, and the girls to come here to the beach tomorrow night!
Xtreme starts Monday, so more friends are coming to the beach!
I gotta get down there to my chair on the beach.
CC's Bday is next week and we're celebrating at the beach!
Did I mention one of the things I LOVE!!!

Church

2008-06-15T23:45:00.004-04:00

Today we attended church at the beach. Well, not literally on the beach, but nearby. I'll refrain from saying the church name, but yes the first family supported a Southern Baptist church. :) Now the more I'm typing I'm having second thoughts. Let's just say this... Sometimes you don't know how good you got it! This can be said about all kinds of things, but right now I'm referring to church. I know sometimes we take our church for granted or don't realize what we really have. FBCW is a unique place and Johnny Hunt is a unique man and communicator. Unique in the most positive form! Today we are so thankful for our church, our Pastor, and the relationships we have built in Woodstock. Sometimes it's nice to have a reality check! It can be very eye-opening.

Happy Birthday To You...

2008-06-15T23:29:00.003-04:00

Happy, Happy Birthday to Jen! We hope you have a wonderful _th??? birthday! I won't tell what number it is, if you don't tell mine! Hope it's great!

Happy, Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T08:59:00.003-04:00

I hope all the dads have a great Father's Day! Especially my "Dads"!

First of all, I have the GREATEST Dad ever! I know you may think yours is, but sorry mine wins! :) Dad has always been wonderful to me and Hollie, and we couldn't ask for more. We love you soooooo much!

Next, there's Jake. Now he's the latest and greatest Dad to KC and CC! From the birth of our babies Jake has been super involved with both kids. He has done more than I could ask for to love and nurture our sweet kiddos. You are my forever love!

I can't leave out my father-in-law Eddie. Gotta be nice to those in-laws, you know! :) We hope he has a great day today too. I have been close to the Carswell family for around 20 years now and can say he is a great Dad to all his kids and to me too.

Happy day to everyone!

Smile

2008-06-12T01:08:00.005-04:00

Here's all the fam in good ole Indy. We missed Hollie and Pete's babies not being there! They were having fun of their own at VBS. Wait! Where's Lindsey?? Maybe the bathroom, or something!
Here's some of us again at the reception/party thrown for Dad

the evening after his election. Of course he had to give a little speech!

Then on with the PAR-TAY!

And then...

2008-06-12T00:14:00.008-04:00

We like to have fun all the time, so it's hard for some of us to stay all serious for too long. By the time the press conference was winding down our serious time was up! Mom had to remain "as serious as possible" for few minutes longer in this picture because she was being interviewed by Fox News! This had to be photographed because this does not happen all that often...actually hardly ever and she prefers it that way!

Hollie and Lindsey realized what was going on and then proceeded to ask if they could pretend they were being interviewed by Fox News! This man totally thought we had all lost it, or maybe that we had never had it! I have no idea what they even were saying!

KC and CC thought everything going on was so cool! They kept saying how they had seen this on TV before and how this had happened on TV, and now they were right there! After things started winding down, the kids went up and sat where Dad had just finished the press conference and "answered questions" from "their media"! It was too cute!

So who says you can't always have fun?? We sure try to!!!

The New President of the Southern Baptist Convention Is...

2008-06-11T22:00:00.001-04:00

In case you haven't already heard the news... MY DAD, Johnny Hunt!!!

Wow, what a day! We arrived bright and early Tuesday in Indianapolis for the convention. The day started with the Minister's Wives luncheon I attended with Mom and my "minister wife" sister. Pretty funny to me still that she's a preacher's wife, but on with the day... The luncheon was nice and Gary Chapman spoke. Then we were on to the afternoon session. It started at 2:00 and the Presidential nominations were scheduled for 2:40. From 2:00 until 2:40 seemed like forever and was so boring that it was almost comical. We got to hear some people make motion to do all kinds of "interesting" things. We were waiting for the motion to change the brand of toilet paper, but I think they ran out of time! :) Jake and Pete are already working on their motions for next year's convention, and man you should hear some of the ideas they came up with so far! Haha The time finally came for the nominations. There were 6 in all. Dad's was last, and Ted Traylor did an excellent job! Then the wait was on for the results...I could not sit there, so we walked around and visited the bookstore. While we were out in the hall someone came by and said the person with the results had just entered back into the convention center. We quickly went back to where Mom and Dad and the rest of our crew was to await the decision. They read out the number of votes per nominee in the order that they were nominated. It didn't take long for me to realize, due to the number of votes they had called out so far, Dad was going to be the man. We were all so excited...but then I couldn't help but think, "oh no, he actually won, now what??" I'm still not really sure what's all in store, but I'm sure Dad will do a phenomenal job! At the end of the afternoon session we were all taken to the press conference. Now that was interesting! I was so glad they weren't asking me the questions they asked Dad...I'd had to have passed on several! Dad did a wonderful job. So that's the day up to there! More to come...

It's Getting HOT in Here...

2008-06-08T11:18:00.002-04:00

Not just getting hot... it's been really HOT! We spend the last 2 days burning up at Orange County Speedway in N.C. Yeah, it's hot at the beach this time of the year, but at least there is water to cool off in. At the race track there's nothing but black asphalt and heat from the car engines, which isn't all that bad normally when it's not 100 degrees. Thankfully me and the kids had the motor home to chill in, and Jake braved the heat all day. Jake was glad to see the sunset, which helped some, but even happier for his shower and bed by the end of the day! The race weekend ended as hot as it started! We had a good car, things were going well, then Justin started "fading" a little. We weren't sure what was going on, he sounded really winded, but we thought it was just from racing. He then started telling us he was really hot and that exhaust fumes were getting to him more than normal. He thought he might pass out! Not good! There were 30 laps to go, he came in during a caution and poured water all on himself, then made it back out onto the track. We ended up finishing the race and coming in 9th, which was good considering how Justin was feeling. The EMT's had to be called when Justin pulled into the pits. They gave him oxygen, and monitored his heart rate and pulse for close to 30 minutes. He started feeling better, thank goodness! It was a rough night for Justin, but thankfully he's all good now! I think there's a few things the guys can do to help out with the heat inside the race car before the next race, but as far as I'm concerned I'm gonna just be HOT!

Today's Fun...

2008-06-04T22:47:00.002-04:00

Here's some of our day today.

The bucket is full of the sea life CC and KC found in the Gulf this afternoon.
JC and CC engaged in an afternoon game of paddle ball, after I finally gave someone else a turn!
The "Daddy" setting a great example to all the children at the pool of how to jump feet first onto the boogie board and try to surf!
The last 2 pictures are kinda hard to see, but it's CC and KC on the "hangy down ride thing" at Shipwreck Island.

Needless to say, if that's just some of what we did today, we are worn out! Good Night Ya'll!

Getting Comfortable

2008-06-04T09:46:00.002-04:00

Yeah, that's what Stephen said he was doing as he proceeded to completely unbutton his shirt at dinner last night! I guess the younger brother always follows the path of his older brother. :)
We had another yummy dinner at Schooner's with the other Carswells and Cameron, but this time no visit to the tattoo shop afterwards. No big excitement last night...besides getting to hang out with Stephen. :)

They Left Us...

2008-06-02T10:22:00.006-04:00

Hollie, Pete, and the girls all left to go back to GA on Saturday afternoon! We hated to see them go. We all had so much fun chillaxin' and more.

On Friday we took an "excursion" to Shell Island. Within the first 15 minutes I just knew we were going to die! We had rented a pontoon boat with our neighbors here, so we let Bob do the driving. Maybe that wasn't the best idea after we started hitting very large wake full speed in this slow butt boat. We then proceeded to dive the nose of the boat into the water, causing practically a tide wave to crash over us, and the boat to fill with over a foot of water. I was planning my survival and how I was going to swim with the kids to the closest land! All the while Bob keeps cutting his eyes at me and grinning. This happened about 3 different times, then I realized it could be avoided if you slow down when the big wakes are coming. Bob had had his fun for the day, and quit torturing us soon after. I wasn't quite as freaked out after the 1st episode, but we were all drenched from head to toe! Once we docked at Shell Island it was all worth it. It was an unbelievably perfect day! Hollie took lots of pictures. She has them posted on her blog, so check them out over there.

Hope the start to every one's week is great. Jake's parents have come down for a few days, so we'll hang with them some.

Have fun!

You're On My Heart...Just Like a Tattoo

2008-05-30T00:04:00.002-04:00

First, dinner at Schooners, then...

Age ain't nothin' but a number

2008-05-27T10:40:00.002-04:00

So Hollie has a question for everyone on her blog, "who's the oldest, me or her?" Maybe I should say if you didn't know how old we were who would you think was older?? There's one of us that people always thinks is the oldest, so we'll see from Hollie's blog what you think. We'll await the results...

Show Some Love

2008-05-26T11:48:00.002-04:00

It's a beautiful Monday morning, well really not so morning to say, but I just got up. Over the weekend I was checking out other blogs and could not believe how many comments people had. We're talking like 50-100 or more! OK, I get some comments but nothing like that. SOOOO....come on, I know peeps are out there...leave me a comment. I'll leave you one if you leave me one! Fair?? I need some more buddies online.
Have a fun day!

School's Out For Summer...

2008-05-23T12:40:00.003-04:00

I'm gonna go play that song on Guitar Hero right now to celebrate!!! YAY!!! We made it through another year of school and we are DONE...for a little while at least. We had a great school year and fabulous teachers for 3rd and 4th grade. I'm not sad too see it end though. A break from early mornings, homework, projects, and a schedule in general sounds wonderful to me. My new schedule will now consist of deciding when to roll out of bed and make my way down to my chair on the beach...well, and some racing in between, and don't forget a wedding too!

Good job KC and CC! Mommy and Daddy love you and think you are the smartest kids ever!!!

Bring on the gifts...

2008-05-23T12:25:00.004-04:00

Last night we threw a bridal shower at my house for Lindsey before her upcoming nuptials (nice word, huh?). The shower was outside, so I was thankful for no rain.

The cake turned out cute, and tasted wonderful.

The bride was lovely and I was smirkin, as usual!

We had a fun night, interesting conversations, and a great group come out to wish Lindsey all the best as she starts a new part of her life with Taylor real soon!

YESSSS!!!

2008-05-22T09:30:00.002-04:00

Did I mention that tomorrow is the last day of school for my children??? I'm just a little bit excited, you can't hardly tell! :)

Portrait Time

2008-05-22T09:09:00.003-04:00

Joy Wilson (joywilsonphotography.com) came over yesterday to take photos of Lindsey in her wedding dress for her bridal portrait. I think they are going to be great...so Lindsey! Not all serious, or formal, just fun, silly, and relaxed. I do have some pictures I snapped with my iPhone, but no one can see yet! They might be seen by the wrong eyes, TAYLOR! Lindsey looked beautiful I must say, even if I did her hair and make-up. She kept saying, "Oh my gosh, I feel like I'm getting married!" Duh, yeah you are getting married! I think reality was setting in having her dress and veil on. I couldn't help but think about when I had my bridal portrait done many years ago. I can't remember a whole lot about that day, but I have pictures to prove it happened! We had a fun and hot day just getting ready for the BIG DAY.

Happy Birthday Emme!

2008-05-21T10:22:00.003-04:00

Today is Emme's 3rd birthday! We have already celebrated, but still want to wish Emme a great birthday!

So Much Going On!

2008-05-21T08:55:00.009-04:00

It was a great, but busy weekend. CC had a race and KC had the final practice for the children's musical at church. Sunday night both kids were in the musical. All the kids involved did a great job!

Monday Lindsey and I went with KC on a field trip to the Yellow River Game Ranch. Animals were walking around loose around you! I wasn't real sure about how this was going to go...I didn't want deer rubbing up against me! It ended up being fun.

Tuesday CC had an end of the year party at Sparkles Skating Rink. I went along for all the fun, although I didn't skate this time. It was tempting, but I just watched. I never took any pictures. Sorry, I'll have to next time.

The week is just getting started! Lots more fun coming up in the next few days...

Happy Birthday Emily

2008-05-15T10:24:00.003-04:00

We want to wish Emily a "Happy Birthday" today.

"Rain, rain, go away come again another day", so we can have Emily's party as planned! But however the weather turns out we are sure it will be a great and happy day, and many more...

Ahhhh Spaaaa....

2008-05-14T09:07:00.002-04:00

I visited Mom and Dad's newest addiction this week, Jivan Wellness in Alpharetta. It was amazing! First I had a massage by a lady from India. She and others had been flown in to train the therapists at Jivan in new techniques. She did some Indian method of massage that was different from what I'm use to, but still felt great. After 1 1/2 hours of that, I had a facial and a peel. My skin felt great afterwards...too good to put make-up on top of it! Lindsey was with me for all the bliss! She even had her eyelashes tinted...whatver that is!?! This was my first visit to Jivan, but definitely not my last! Just put it on Dad's account.... HaHa!

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-12T09:33:00.004-04:00

I've been out of town, so I'm a little late, but I hope everyone had a GREAT Mother's Day!!!
Happy Mother's Day Mom! AND Terrie! AND Hollie! AND all my Mommy Buddies!
Thank you KC, CC, and Jake for making mine GREAT! I have sweet, sweet babies!

The Graduate

2008-05-10T23:19:00.003-04:00

Congratulations Lindsey! She is now a college graduate. This morning was the commencement service at Liberty University. They have one processional of all the graduates and some speakers and speeches in the stadium then split off for each department graduation. Lindsey decided during the first part that she was hungry and didn't want to stay for the next part, which was where they were actually going to call her name and she'd walk across the stage and get her diploma. So, we're assuming she really finished all her classes and passed them all too! HaHa! Everyone is very proud, and Linds is very glad to be done! WooHoo, you did it!!

Bad Hair Day

2008-05-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Hopie!

2008-05-09T20:49:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow my oldest niece turns 7! Wow, time flys when you're having fun! Tonight there's a big ol' party going on at Mimommy and Papa's house...carnival ride, clowns and all! KC is in on the celebration, but the rest of my crew is missing out on all the hoopla. More on where the fam is later, but for now we want to wish Hopie a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Girl Time

2008-05-08T09:37:00.005-04:00

Jake and the kiddos left the beach Sunday night to head back for school and the office. I refused to leave! No, not exactly, but I did stay. 2 of my girls came down Sunday afternoon and we stayed for three more nights. We had a fun time doing alot of nothing during the day but laying on the beach. Now at nighttime that was a different story...partay! Well, not really, but we still had fun. We went to the movies and of course shopped some too. We had to go to The Red Bar for dinner one of the nights. Yummy food and Dread Clampitt was playing, extra bonus. Chris Tomlin was also there having dinner. Last time I had seen him was at Xtreme when he got so sick. He told me that after Xtreme he ended up in the hospital and had to have surgery!

Anyway, The Red Bar was good. We pretty much behaved ourselves...at least I did, well most of the time. The other girls, well that's another story. Right Jen?? HaHaHa
We had a fun few days, and I was excited to see my man and kids when I got back.
Remember....It's About Making Memories!

That Can't Possibly Be Jake

2008-05-07T09:34:00.002-04:00

There he is just catching some rays on the beach! Might I add, looking like a total goober at the same time! Don't worry he was only kidding...KC thought it was pretty funny and had to take his picture!

Still my cutie to me...pink headband and all!! :)

Weekend at the Beach

2008-05-07T09:19:00.002-04:00

After traveling for the spring conferences, a weekend at the beach was wonderful. We did have a reason, beside just we wanted to go, for being at the condo this past weekend! We had new carpet installed. There are tile floors everywhere except the bedrooms, so the bedrooms got some new stuff. The guys were to arrive Saturday around 11 to get started. Well, 9am they were here. It was all good...they got started earlier and finished it up pretty quick. I didn't think about what all would have to be done in each room to lay the new stuff. It looked like we were moving out! I couldn't take all the bedding, furniture, accessories, all over the place, so me and the kids left for a while and went shopping! When we got back it was all finished and looked great. All was good except for my iphone! No, the carpet installers had nothing to do with it...it was all my fault once again!! While me and the kids were out I seemed to drop my phone, not that odd of a thing it always happens, but this time I guess I dropped it just right cause it broke! Yes, Jake now has my 3rd iphone waiting for me! Good grief! At least my carpet looks nice!

Spring Jubilee

2008-04-30T09:16:00.003-04:00

Last week was our Jubilee senior adult conference in Branson. MO. Jake and I, with his staff, headed out to Branson for 3 days. The conference went great. Very smooth and enjoyable for all who attended. Mom kept the kids for us, so they didn't have to miss school. Branson is not really the spot worth missing days of school for, at least not to me. There's no beach there. :)Thanks Mom for keeping the babies! Dad went with us, so we got to hang with him a good bit. He preached several times at the conference.
This week we had Jubilee in Myrtle Beach, SC. The kids did go with us this time and Mom came with Dad too. The conference in Myrtle Beach went good as well. We had a great crowd, great performances(for that kind of thing), and an unbelievable speaker! Who could that be?? Dad of course! We got to eat some good seafood and Krispy Kreme doughnuts, so we were happy. The kids hated that the amusement park wasn't open the days we were in Myrtle Beach, but we're going back after Lindsey and Taylor's wedding so we'll hit it then. All the staff stayed at the hotel that connects to the convention center, but we didn't stay there. We stayed on the motorhome at Ocean Lakes. Ocean Lakes is the coolest RV park around that I know of! It is right on the beach with tons of fun stuff. We have so much fun everytime we visit. Jake didn't get to hang out much since he was really there to work, but me and the kids had some time to chill and play. We'll all look forward to our next visit to Myrtle Beach.
We are so thankful for 2 wonderful conferences. None of it would have been possible without the Lord and His blessing. Now back to the office to get ready for the next event...

Racing Update

2008-04-30T08:50:00.002-04:00

Here's the latest with all our racing...

CC raced his 1st Jr. Honda race! He moved up from the novice class. He was nervous about racing with the more experienced drivers, but he did great! The officials make you start at the rear of the field when you race a new class for the first time, so CC started 5th. He finished 4th. Not bad for his first race. We are so proud of him!

We raced this past Saturday at Watermelon Capital Speedway in Cordele, GA with the big 98 car. We practiced good, top 5 car, then qualified 12th. There were 26 cars, so that was an ok qualifying spot. Once the race started we moved up to 5th pretty quick and the car was strong. But then we had a left front tire go down and had to pit under green to change it! CRAP! That was not good...so that pretty much messed us up for the rest of the night. Oh well, we'll keep waiting for it to be our night!! We all had a fun race day at least! Lindsey didn't get to come because of some dumb test for college! (still getting in our way) Lots of our other "Buds" got to come for the day, Yay, so we all had a fun time.

Next on the racing schedule... May 10th Motor Mile Speedway Radford, VA
May 17th CC races at Quarter Midget track in Braselton, GA

The Soon-To-Be, Mrs. Lindsey Dorner

2008-04-23T09:49:00.003-04:00

That is really scary! MRS.!?!

Lindsey had her 1st bridal shower on Saturday in Marietta. We couldn't miss out on this! She got some really nice things. What she is going to do with it all is the next question. No, I'm sure she'll figure it out! We're all exciting about the Wedding coming up soon...July 12th!

Another Big Night

2008-04-22T13:23:00.003-04:00

If you've looked at Hollie's blog in the last couple of days this is old news...

Friday night the Hunt's all got together and went out for a night at Turner Field. Jake and I have season tickets to the Braves games, so we thought it would be fun for all of us to go to a game together. We started out with dinner at the 755 Club, that was delicious. We then started walking around the club level toward our seats. That ended up taking awhile because there was ice cream, dipping dots, cotton candy, and all sorts of food along the way! We'd make it a few steps then someone would need to stop and get more to eat! Like we didn't already stuff ourselves at dinner! We watched the Braves beat the Dodgers, and watched Chipper hit 2 home runs! They had Friday Night Fireworks, so those were cool. I'm not sure what was better...the fireworks synced to music or Hollie standing up dancing to the music! Both were pretty entertaining! A fun night was had by all!

This Week Flew By

2008-04-18T17:00:00.001-04:00

Gosh, I can't believe it's Friday already. This week has flown by!

The kids had standarized testing at school all week...at least that meant no homework at night.

Jake and I went to Cordele, GA for a day to test the race car. It was a track we've never raced at before. That went good and was fun! We tested all day with another car from our series. The owner of that car happens to be Kyle Busch. He was there all day too working with his driver and his car. He has not been my favorite Nascar driver, but I'm starting to be like him a little bit. It's hard to deny his obvious talent as a driver...He definitely can drive! I couldn't let him leave that afternoon without asking to take his picture. I told him it was for my cousin "who was unable to come practice because of college"(wow, school really gets in the way of our leisure time) . My cousin who "loves" Kyle Busch because he's "SOOO HOT" and because "at a race we were racing and he was racing he actually worked on his car and didn't just stand around like a superstar". Know that these are all Lindsey's thoughts...not mine! But yes Kyle was there all day and was very nice.

Friday night is our "Hunt Family Night" for this month. More to come on that exciting evening!

The PooPoo Girl

2008-04-11T08:49:00.003-04:00

I don't remember how my sweet little niece got that nickname, but that's what it is!

The PooPoo girl had been staying with us for the last 8 nights! Hollie, Pete and Hopie went on a mission trip.

PooPoo is my 3rd child...even she thinks so! We are teaching her to like some of the good things in life like....racing, racing and more racing, Juicy Couture, music you can "shake it" to, ect. ect. HaHa! Hollie loves me for it!! Hollie never knows what her child might be doing when she's off with us or what she might look like. When we're off on the motorhome at races or wherever we might go, there's a lot of playing outside, hanging out, cooking out...for kids that means getting dirty! So PooPoo girl gets dirtier with us than she does with her family! Hollie really likes that part! Things about our lifestyle are far from roughin' it, but also alot different than people think sometimes! I'll chill by the pool at any Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons with you any time, anyday, BUT take me to a racetrack, smell that race fuel burning, rubber grit on my skin from the tires, boys (maybe some girls too) spitting dip on the ground, dirty greasy hands from working on the race car...somehow that's part of our life too! You never know with us!

While we had our 3rd child this week we behaved pretty good. My kids had school all week, so that kept some sort of routine going. We went to the racetrack one afternoon and let Little Man practice. That was fun! The weather was pretty nice, except for all the pollen, this week. The kiddos played outside a ton. We had some friends, oh about 18 to be exact, over and cooked out one night. All the kids played, we ate, and had some good ole' Guitar Hero competition going on! It has been a good week.

Yes Hollie, she had several baths while she stayed with us!!! The picture of the PooPoo Girl above sure doesn't look like it, though! We're going to miss her now that she's not at our house! It won't be long before she's back to entertain us more. I know of at least one more week coming up that Hollie and Pete are going off together and we'll have her again.

Until then...

Guitar Hero

2008-04-07T09:26:00.007-04:00

I have an obsession! Most of the family actually does. I can't believe this is the 1st time I've mentioned this. I am totally obsessed with Guitar Hero...we play for hours! I have played through the levels and beat about 6 or 7 songs on expert as of right now, but that number changes frequently due to how much I play. We mainly play on the Wii, but we have it on PS3 too. The PS3 guitar is not the same...there's a bad lag between the screen and the guitar, so I don't play it much. Although, I do play online with the PS3. That's fun, but there are people out there who are way more "freaks" about it than me. I never tried to play every song perfect, I just try not to fail, but other people online get 100% on everything! How much do they play??? I thought I played alot!
So...when I ramble about what all we've done here and there, one thing you can be sure I've left out is how we've played Guitar Hero until our fingers hurt and we couldn't see straight!

P.S. Anyone else play? If you have a PS3 we can battle online! Come on, I need some more rockers! :)

Rainy Friday and Saturday

2008-04-07T09:11:00.002-04:00

I was beginning to wonder if we were ever gonna see the sun! Rain on Friday, rain on Saturday, then cloudy and foggy most of the day on Sunday... I was so glad to see some sunshine Sunday afternoon!
Since we all of a sudden had no plans for the weekend, all our options were open. We ended up going to a movie Friday night and then out to dinner. We saw Nim's Island. It was really good! Then Saturday we had breakfast/lunch at Cracker Barrel, ran into the mall for a few minutes, then saw another movie. This time it was The Spiderwick Chronicles. The kids had been wanting to see it. It was better than I had expected, although I had pretty low expectations. We ran around and did a few more things and then ended up back at home to chill before church on Sunday.
All in all it was a nice weekend. Racing might have been better, but as Jake told me yesterday, "Another weekend has passed without wrecking our race car!" Better not have got wrecked since it didn't race...oh well, always trying to look at the bright side of things!

Change of Plans

2008-04-04T11:05:00.002-04:00

We were leaving at 2:00 today to go to Dillon, SC to race on Saturday. The weather forecast has not looked good for Dillon all week. As of this morning there was a 100% chance of thunderstorms and wind... so, the PASS officials just postponed the race until the middle of the summer! BUMMER! We were all looking forward to racing this weekend.

Now what am I going to do today and tomorrow??? I guess I'll have to go shopping, or maybe there's some movies we'd like to see. I gotta start making some new plans!