SpringTime

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...

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...

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???!!!

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!

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!

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

O Christmas Tree...

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

NYC Girls Only!

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

On the Go

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

Hola!

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

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

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

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

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

Peace out

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

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

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

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


• My amazing husband who is beyond words


• My awesome, brilliant, beautiful kids


• My "home"


• My "life"


• My BFFs

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

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

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

Yep...

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

P.S. Edward is sooooo HOT!!!

Bad Daughter!

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

Twilight

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

Here I Am!

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

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

Happy Halloween

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


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

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

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

SoBo and Atlanta Motor Speedway

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

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

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

Have a fabulous weekend!

School Projects...Ugghhh

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

Back at the Track

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

Time with my man

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

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