A Day In The Life . . .

. . . of 4 friends/moms/wives who managed to "escape" from reality for a week.

Sleep in

Go for a 3 mile walk/run on the beach

Enjoy a morning cup of coffee while gazing at the gorgeous gulf

Park the butt in a beach chair

Laugh, eat, drink, nap

Catch a movie

Have a nightcap

Get ready to do it all over again tomorrow

LOVE IT!! :o)

Some pics from yesterday and today:

Peace, Love & Marco!

Robin, Jen, Heidi, and I head out at the crack of dawn tomorrow ... first Air Tran flight out of BMI ... enroute to our favorite little slice of paradise.

Can't wait!

Football Player

Folks, we have ourselves a football stud!

Now featuring - Running Back Nick Miller #20:

Stats from last weekend's game: 15 carries for 135 yards and 2 touchdowns. Way to go, Nick!

The Cat Princess and . . . The Big Brother All Grown Up

I say "cat princess" because Carly's Halloween costume is Sleeping Beauty. But at a recent Children's Museum party, she chose to have her face painted like a cat. So we affectionately donned her our "cat princess". LOL. Beautiful, isn't she? :o)

And next is Alex. Looking quite dapper in his suit and tie. Special occasion = All School Mass at Central Catholic during homecoming week. He decided to go 'all out' for this one. Quite a handsome guy, huh?!

Have I mentioned lately that in just ONE WEEK I'll be plopping my butt into a beach chair? Heading back to Marco Island for the much anticipated "Great Escape" with my 3 dear friends. Can't wait -- paradise is just around the corner!!!

That's all for now!

Weekend at the Lake

I'm so far behind in my personal life!!! Not sure where the time is going, but the weeks are just FLYING right on by! Here we are, rapidly approaching the middle of October already! What happened to September? LOL.

Since my last post, we've been very busy ... as usual! A couple of weeks ago, we managed to escape for a WONDERFUL weekend of adult-only fun in Missouri. Our dear friends invited us to their condo in Osage Beach, Lake of the Ozarks. What a GREAT place! Their condo was awesome, the area (neither Mike nor I had ever been to the Ozarks!) was beautiful and the weather was PERFECT all weekend. We even managed to take a dip in the lake -- a tad chilly when we first got in, but we quickly acclimated. Hmmmm ... might've been those two very TALL "pain in the ass" (seriously - that's what they were called!) drinks we had before the notion of swimming popped into our heads. We had an awesome time. Thank you Tim and Laura!!! :o)

Aside from our little weekend getaway, we've been hustling and bustling from one activity to another -- if it isn't tennis lessons or swimming lessons or gymnastics (all Carly), it is football, football, or football (Nick). Alex is pretty self sufficient these days, so at least we aren't hauling all 3 kids here, there, and everywhere each night of the week. :o) Basketball tryouts are in another week, so keep your fingers crossed that Nick does well. If he makes the team, we'll have about 2 weeks of dual sports to contend with before his football season is over. He's having a great season, by the way! He's scored a couple of touchdowns, has had several good 'runs' with the ball, and his team currently has a 3-1 record. Winning definitely sweetens the pot a bit, making those long nights of practice a bit more bearable. And as for me, well, I just clench my teeth each time he gets the ball and hope he either goes all the way for a touchdown or that he gets tackled "lightly" (is there such a thing?). Alex was a lineman in his 3 years of high school football .... and let me just say that watching the game as the parent of a lineman is quite different from watching the game as the parent of a running back. Two different kinds of stress/worry. :o)

I'm gearing up for my annual GREAT ESCAPE to Marco with Robin, Jen, and Heidi. CANNOT WAIT -- the countdown is less than 2 weeks ... it will be here before we know it. Just get me on that plane .... and then we'll enjoy a week of paradise, shopping, eating, drinking, lounging, sun worshiping, and just plain old fashioned "girl time". Love it!!! And yes, you can count on our annual shopping trip and the subsequent blog post to show off our loot. :o) Coming soon!

Thought I'd post a few pictures from the Ozarks ...

And, a few weeks ago, Nick's football team played Metamora ... so that enabled a "play date" for Carly and Karli -- aren't they adorable???!!!

Birthday Touchdown!

What a GORGEOUS day! Couldn't ask for better weather - it's just beautiful outside!

In addition to celebrating the 25th anniversary of my 21st birthday (but who's counting? LOL), today was also the opening game for the Cougars (Nick's team) football season. I asked Nick before the game if he thought MAYBE he could score a touchdown for me........being that it is my birthday and all. Well, HE DID IT! He ran for a touchdown early in the game, giving the Cougars their first touchdown of the season! Woo Hoo! A great birthday present! I'm gonna have to get used to seeing Nick at the bottom of the pile-ups ... he's playing running back and linebacker, so he will definitely get some "ball carrying" time this season ... GULP. So far, so good ... no injuries today, thank goodness! The season is off to a great start!

The Reunion!

*GUIPING GIRLS FOREVER*

What a wonderful weekend we've had!!! The 5th "Guiping Girls" reunion was held Saturday / Sunday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This is the group of 10 families we traveled to China with -- we affectionately call it the "Guiping Girls" reunion because all 10 of our precious daughters are from Guiping City, in the Guangxi province of China. The girls had a blast - it was awesome to see them all interacting and re-connecting, and it is quite evident that our girls in fact DO share a very special bond. Some of the girls live closer to one another and get to see each other more often than others, but I have to say that as a group of 10, they didn't miss a beat AT ALL. Once everyone arrived on Saturday evening, the partying began and they didn't slow down until we departed for home on Sunday afternoon. :o) Carly was just beaming from all the excitement. She literally counted down the days to this long awaited event -- she was floating on Cloud 9 the entire weekend. Very heartwarming to say the least. Can't wait till the next one!