Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Update

We had a great time in Idaho visiting my parents and my aunt & uncle. We went to the hot springs, ice caves, and Sun Valley. It was nice to be with my family and we also got to visit with some old friends. My mom and dad's best friends, Chuck and Barbara, live behind them. I have known them since I was very young. One of their sons, Kevin, who is close to my age came down from Boise to visit. It was nice to see him and his family. We also had a chance to visit the church that has been praying for Gregg ever since he started this deployment. It was a great church and everyone was so friendly, it reminded me of the church I grew up in, First Baptist in Felton, California. Oh yeah, we bought property, an acre.

Things have been busy here trying to tie up school for the summer. We will continue to do a few things during the summer, reading, a typing course a friend sent a link to(thanks Sue), and a scrap booking project we had started.

Faith will be busy with many camps, our son Elliott will be here all of July...very excited.

If you noticed my weight ticker hasn't really moved it is because I have stale mated. I lose and gain the same few pounds. I have started the hard core stuff again trying to get body to move...keeping my fingers crossed.
I moved Griff's graduation video to the bottom.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Griffin's Graduation & Commissioning

We had a great time the last 10 days. We flew to Portland where we were greeted by Griffin & Elliott at the airport. Went to a really cool restaurant at a place called Kennedy School. They renovated the school into a restaurant/multiple mini-bars and rooms to stay the night. Very interesting atmosphere.

(Elliott,Griffin & Faith)
Saturday we attended Griffin's Air force commissioning. He is now a 2d Lt. in the Air force. He will be going to Pensacola, Florida this fall to train as a Navigator. The ceremony was an emotional time to see this young boy turn into a man. Griffin has been goal oriented from day one and I know he will have an amazing career. On Sunday, we went to his graduation ceremony. It was about 3 1/2 hrs long, because of so many graduates and the priests were a little lengthy. I included a picture of Gregg catching a cat nap in the video montage. Gregg's mom, Marcia, was able to attend. How neat it must have been to see her son pinned and then her grandson. The cute little redhead with Griffin at the end is Shannon. We wish her luck in her future endeavors in Med school. We celebrated with a dinner at Ruth's Steak House, the food was wonderful and it was nice to be with family. I only wish Kali & Jesse and Nick could have be there too and that the weather could have been nicer..brr.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Faith's Mock Meet


Today, Faith had her first meet with optional skills. It was very exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time. They put so much time in that you just want them all to do well. All the girls did a fantastic job. We are so proud!

The girls before the meet....Katey & Faith between events

Faith scored 8.90 3rd place- She just got her series backwalk over Tuesday, and we loved her
dismount.
Faith scored a 9.45-4th place.
Faith scored 9.25-3rd place. We were all worried... one of the coaches didn't want to move the bars in for her. She was in tears during warm-up, but like a true athlete she pulled her self
together and had a great bar routine. She didn't do the fly away dismount...maybe next time.
This is part one of her floor routine. I had to cut during her spilts because I couldn't get her
filmed from where we were sitting. She scored 8.80-4th place.

Faith finished 3rd place all-around with a 36.4. Way to go Faith!!!

Awards and the girls celebrating with lunch at Moe's.















Monday, April 20, 2009

Madiera Beach


Yesterday, we decided to explore a new beach we hadn't been to before. It was a beautiful day and not to hot. People had told us at Madeira beach you could find some pretty shells. We lucked out finding a spot. Everything is metered there and I forgot to bring my coin purse, so Gregg had to go get some change. You wouldn't think on a Sunday in the back alley's they wouldn't really check but sure enough, five minutes after he was gone, the meter guy came. I told him my husband was getting change, he was happy to see I had waited until he got back, he said most people don't. The beach was beautiful and Gregg went shell hunting and Faith was tumbling in minutes. It is so funny, she is just having fun but people love to watch and clap. She gets so embarrassed...to funny.
Coming back from shell hunting
There was a group dolphins swimming pretty close to shore. We found out later that at sunset we would see more and that some have babies. The one picture I happened to shoot at the beach just showed a dark hump, but I got lucky later. The one bad thing about this beach is no bathroom. I had to walk almost a mile away to a 7-11 to use theirs. When we has our fill of sand and sun we decided to go to the boardwalk.
The boardwalk had all kinds of touristy shops, places to sign up for a pirate cruise, dolphin sighting and para sailing,but the one reason G wanted to go was because it had a Bubba Gump's restaurant. This is one of my husband's favorite movies and he does a perfect Forest Gump imitation. He met Gary Sinese one time who played Lt. Dan in the movie and impressed him. We had fun shopping and I loved taking pictures of the beautiful birds. I even happened to get a picture of Flipper.
The pirate ship and I think the heron was watching the day's catch.
The pelicans were so neat just floating, this one dolphin was light in color compared to the darker ones we had seen earlier. He was in such swallow water I was tempted to jump in and swim with it.

Posing with the pirate and Gman very happy. I bought him a t-shirt and a green army water canteen that says Bubba Gump. I got a shot glass for my collection. Faith got a free back pack and a glass that lights up with her dinner.
It was a really fun day hanging at the beach and shopping. The dinner was great and yes, for those who know my husband, he was happy because he got to talk like Forest Gump. I can hear the kids laughing now because they know how much it gets on my nerves. LOL


Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Moment of Peace & Family Update

I love IL DIVO and my mom sent me this link. I already bought the song and put it on my IPOD. I just close my eyes and let their music quiet my busy life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zi5Z8NLGUc

Things have been busy as usual. We just had my car shipped up from Oregon, I have been making payments plus insurance on a car I haven't driven in a year. We traded the car and G's truck for an SUV. It is nice to scale down and it saved us about $200. a month.
Faith is still keeping busy with gymnastics and is looking forward to all the camps this summer. We leave at the end of the month to go to Griffin's graduation in Portland, then we will fly to Idaho to see my mom & dad, and my aunt & uncle. It seems like forever since I have seen them.
Gregg and I recently took up golf. This last week we bought Faith a set so we can do this as a family. Gregg has been teased about his stray golf balls and to take cover. This last weekend my number came up. He shanked a ball to the right, coming straight for the cart with Faith inside, so I jumped in front and got nailed in the thigh. I was trying to stay in an upright position because a guy stopped his truck in the middle of the road to see if I was okay. I tried to let him know I was good, but really I just wanted to lay down on the grass and cry. G was totally trying to control his laughter. I can't blame him, if I would have hit him, I would have been cracking up too. Notes to self when golfing with Gregg- 1. Park the cart behind him. 2. Never play in front of him and watch him at all times! My golf size bruise turned in to a softball size...maybe I need to invest in protective gear.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Fun Filled Weekend


Faith had a gymnastic clinic this weekend. All week she has been putting her one leg on the couch and doing the splits...called over splits. She wanted to win the rubber chicken for hardest stretcher. Well, she ended up with the rubber chicken and got the monkey for hardest worker on floor. We also went to the air show at MacDill Airforce Base on Sunday. Faith had her friend Lindsey spend the night and she came with us. It was fun for them to go in the different planes and cockpits. They enjoyed the usual junk food of pretzels, snow cones & cotton candy. The Thunderbirds put on a spectacular show.

Griffin gets destroyed by jerky