The pool is officially up : )

So we put the pool up on Saturday. It was FREEZING!! I had to get in just to straighten the liner, and after the initial numbness to the toes, I was good. Ready to play, lol. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy, putting up a pool in 50 degree weather. But actually, I have a theory. Last year the pool cover we used kept moisture contained when the sun was shining on it, so when we'd uncover it, it'd actually be pretty warm. So even though this year's pool is larger, we're gonna try it out. This week, its supposed to be in the 70's and increasing to 80 degrees on Saturday. So we're gonna keep it covered all week and uncover it on Saturday to see how it feels. If its still cold, we've not lost anything, just saved us from having later work to do. If it does work, I'm gonna be in that thing all day Saturday, while my neighbors are jealous their pools aren't up yet, lol : )

We thought last year's pool cover would fit on the newer pool cause its not that much bigger and it was kinda too big for last years pool. But when we tried covering it, it wasn't big enough. So I ran to Anderson to pick up a cover to fit. When I got back and finished putting the cover on, I was cleaning up only to find a brand new cover in the bottom of the pool box. Ugh! I was so mad that I wasted all that gas to Anderson, but happy I could return the cover for something else we need; a pool light.

We bought this light that shoots different colors and rotating patterns of LED's through the water on all the walls of the pool, plus its a fountain. It's so freakin cool! We uncovered the pool last night just to see how well it'd light up and its awesome!!! Definitely gonna get some good use out of that this year.

What's going on these days...

Caitlyn will be 3 on Monday, gosh time flies!! We're having it at Monkey Joe's. She's never been there but she loves stuff like that, so I'm really excited. It's supposed to rain Sunday evening; maybe it'll hold out until we're done and home. This past weekend was so beautiful; Caitlyn and I went to Atlanta to have her birthday party with her cousins. We went to the park and played; it was sooooo beautiful. Sun was out with a breeze to keep the sweat off (I did sweat just a little, ha). But it was so nice!! Then they were calling for snow flurries on Sunday night. I's like WHAT THE HECK?!!? Anywayz, had a wonderful weekend! Shawn didn't get to go because he was in the last fishing tournament for the fishing year in the category he's in. He found out that he still holds record for BIG FISH. So they're going to present him his award on Saturday night for biggest fish of the year. It was 7 lbs. I believe. He caught it back in October I think. Don't worry, I'll post his trophy. So proud of him.

Caitlyn has her first dentist appt next Thursday. Kinda worried about that. But I asked the dentist what they do, cause you know a 3 yr old is NOT gonna let anyone put their hands in her mouth, lol. They said they play with them and just get to know them, show them the utensils, and what they do with them, and just let them get familiar with everything, which I think is great!! So hopefully it won't be too bad. Maybe they'll get lucky and she'll let them look around in her mouth. We'll see : )

I'm thinking about putting the pool up this weekend. Yeah I know...it's still too cold. But really, we have a pool cover and I swear last year that thing felt like a mild hot tub after coming home from work with the pool covered all day. Then to uncover it and it would be warm. What's the harm? If it doesn't work this early, we'll let it sit until its warm enough. Go run around the neighborhood on a warm Saturday, work up a sweat, and come back to a cold pool. That's the BEST!!!!

2 Great Weekends

Last weekend, we went to Charlotte, NC to be a special guest for the International Community Mass Choir of Charlotte. I think that's what they're called. It was at Spencer United Methodist Church. And that house was packed. Although one of our speakers got blown during the event, we came away with the most we've ever made from our product table sales plus a sweet gift from the choir. They also, out of the blue, presented us with an award (which is on our facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4841888&id=206902524504). An Outstanding Achievement Award. We did a benefit event with them last October as well. And this time, they were raising money for the choir. We've made some outstanding relationships with them; may tour with them in the future; never know. Great loving people!!

This past weekend, we were in Royston, GA at the Broken Wing Conference. This was their first conference, but had an amazing turnout. And let me tell you, it was amazing!! I haven't been in a service like that in a while. The presence of God was so awesome in that room. The speakers were great!! We had an amazing time. We got to show off our new backdrop for our product table. We had some issues last minute with the stands to hold the banner, but we rigged it as we usually do with things that go wrong, lol, but we were real impressed with the final outcome. And don't you know it, I forgot to take a dern picture. So I'll have to wait till we put it up next to take a pic and post. It looks awesome though. We have 2 can lights hanging at the two tops corners shining diagonally down onto the backdrop. So that really adds a lot too.

Finally got to meet Mac Powell!!!

Picture of the Year!!!!!

Hahaha, finally got to meet Mac Powell (lead singer for Third Day) on Saturday night. We went back during one of the other concerts and he had just woke up from a nap. We got to hang out and talk about our families; got to see pics of his family. He just adopted his 2nd little baby, so now he has 5 total. Wow, not me, lol! Anyway, he showed us pics of him at the Alabama championship game. BOOOO!!!! : D ...Then we took some pics. I've had several people mention that in meeting Mac, he wasn't very nice, but he was awesome for us. We just talked and laughed, shared stories. It was a fun 20 minutes : D

Some other bands played on Saturday like NewSong, Newsboys (both rocked the house), and Fireflight (not really impressed), Sidewalk Prophets, Revive (they rocked), and Robert Pierre (not really impressing; trying to be a rockstar). But overall, it was a blast; had a lot of fun!! Got some good pics including the one below of Tait from Newsboys.

All My Shows

So 24 came back on last week. It's been pretty awesome, although last night they didn't show that much progress. Last week it was on Sunday night and Monday night for the premier and it was awesome!! But they always keep ya hanging at the end of the night. I hate that!!

American Idol is same as usual. Retarded people trying to become famous. And some actually do. Freakin Pants on the Ground dude has over 200,000 fans on his facebook. But I did hear that he supposedly has some case up against him now from some band that claims that song wasn't an original; that they wrote a song called Pockets to the Ground or something like that. Don't know what ever became of that. Just heard it on the radio.

And LOST comes on tonight. The final season. Boy, I so can't wait!!!!!! Speaking of tonight, it's 5:00pm. See ya!!!

Vocalists and Vitamin C Drops

So I've been sick in the last week and a half, and usually when I have to sing at any event and I'm having trouble with my throat, I'll inhale some Vitamin C, only because we were told once upon a time that they help your throat. For what reason, I have no idea. If ya really think about the acid that's in Vitamin C, you'd be like, duh, that can't be good for your throat, especially if its hurting. Well, I just took that person's word for it, and for the last several years, that's what we've done. Between the Vitamin C drops and cough drops, we've saved several services from sounding awful, haha

So, I sounded pretty bad last weekend in Albany, in my opinion, cause I just about had no voice at all. Shawn gave me Sunday and Wednesday off this week so that I'd hopefully be back in tune for last night (our event in Royston). So we decided to worship a little bit in the basement on Thursday night (the first time I sang since Albany last weekend). I sang my little heart out and afterwards, it felt like someone had taken fingernails and scratched them down my throat (as I'm sucking on my 15th Vitamin C drop of the day). I told Shawn before we went to bed that I about killed my voice just from a little while of singing. He said, you weren't singing that hard were you? I's like, YES I WAS!! He's like, OH.

So, he decided to inform me on Friday evening that he stopped taking Vitamin C drops about a year ago because he noticed that it makes his voice worse. I's like, YEAH, thanks for telling me now! haha...so I spit my drop out, and I'm tellin ya, I wasn't on my top game last night still, cracked several several times, but it was night and day difference from Thursday night and last night. I's like, OMG!! Them dern Vitamin C drops!!

So my whole point in sharing, is if you are a singer, STAY AWAY from Vitamin C drops!! LOL

Caitlyn's Nose

So I didn't go to church on Sunday cause I was sick, ya know. So Shawn took Caitlyn with him and while she was in the nursery, another kid hit her in the nose with a sippy cup. She's on anti-biotics right now, and from what I'm told, her medicine has blood thinner in it. Which explains why they couldn't get her to stop bleeding. They had to call Shawn out of service as he was about to get on stage to conclude the service. She had blood all over her clothes, all over the nursery workers clothes (as I hear), and they couldn't get it to stop. Once Shawn came in, he got her to calm down and stop bleeding. I'm so glad I was not there, I'd of totally freaked. I always say I could be a nurse (just cause they make tons of money), but I so couldn't handle a bunch of blood at one time. So it was probably better that I wasn't there.

She's doing okay now though. There was no swelling; and she didn't bleed any after the fact. We just had to keep her from picking at it so it wouldn't bleed again.

Albany; This Weekend

So we had a lot of fun this weekend, well, I guess, haha. I was sick the entire time. We went to Albany with the band; I had requested the day off on Friday from work cause we had to drive 5 hours to get down there for Friday nights service. It started snowing on Thursday; I was totally praying for it to quit; 1) because I had to drive 2 hours to Athens and preferred not to slip and slide (which I was able to get off a little early to get there before dark and freezing temps), and 2) I was really looking forward to going to Albany and playing with the band. We've had like almost 2 months off, so I's ready. We got a new temporary (possibly permanent) guitarist. He's not bad. I enjoyed getting to meet him and hearing him play. He's definitely got skills. Picked up our whole song repitoure in a matter of two days; I would say that's pretty impressive : )

Come Friday morning, I had had a sore throat for about 2 days, gradually getting worse. I was hoping it would just go away with some cough medicine. Nope! My voice Friday night was not pretty, haha, but after watching the video, it wasn't as bad as it sounded in my head when it was coming out, lol. But I ended up going to the doctor on Satuday and getting some anti-biotics, and I feel so much better now. After two days of getting those meds in my system, my throat barely hurts, although I'm a little hoarse. But hopefully my voice will be back to its normal self come Saturday nights performance in Royston. If any of you are local, you should come out to Springs Church by the college. We'll be doing praise and worship at 6pm for Hope House (a local healing ministry).

But anyway, this weekend was overall well. We had a new vocal to join our team, and this weekend was her first time singing with us. She was amazing!! She fits right in with our crazy group. Looking forward to all of us being together again this weekend.

And Now We Enter 2010!!

No, I didn't have my greens and peas. I don't think I had them last year and I did rather well for myself. So I think this year will be fine as well, lol. Although, that would've been a very tasty meal, yum. Except I don't like collards, can't say I've tasted them, but being it looks like well-manicured grass, I'll pass : 0

So me and mom went to IKEA on Friday. They were having a sale (so we found out when we arrived), I think 20-60% OFF which is, I guess, good for them? I don't know; they're normal prices are pretty amazing. If you've never been there; it's definitely worth a visit. Its like a contemporary department store; originated in Europe, and have started coming to the US now. I realized after going on Friday that I don't need to wait so long to go back next time. Its in Atlanta, Exit 84 (off I-85) in downtown. Let me just share a little of how good deals are there. I got 2 really cute decorative pillows, a contemporary-styled duvet cover for my futon, 8 new bath towels, 4 washcloths, a lamp for Caitlyn's room, and some other little du-dads all for only $50. I was pleased!

Now after we're done for the holidays and Christmas shopping and sleeping in and eating bad...its time to get back to normal life. Work, work, work!! But I'm excited about these first few weeks and months of this new year. RPM is meeting with a record label at the end of January. We're looking at some new guitarists. And I might be completely remodeling my bathroom and putting in a big jacuzzi tub : ) ...all very exciting things that we're looking forward to. I'm hoping this is the year of fulfilled dreams. We've received several words from different people about those dreams, so we're riding the wave, believing and praying. Hope you all had a blessed New Years!!

Almost that Time...

It's almost Christmas!! Which means 2009 is almost over, yay!!! I've been promised a great year for 2010, so I'm very excited. We went shopping on Saturday for Christmas in Anderson, SC. Boy, was everyone out, as I should've expected. It definitely worked my patience...or the lack of, lol. But I did get all my shopping completed, except for two gifts that I can't get till later this week. But I concluded that when its time to Christmas shop, Christmas is really for Caitlyn, so Shawn and I can get each other things we need, but waiting till Christmas day to posess them is really not necessary. So he bought me a pretty ring, a nice red p-coat(sp?), and...something that he has hidden and won't give me until Christmas. That's okay, I have 3 things I've hidden from him. I'll be making that 4 things as of tomorrow. Hahahaha!!! Of course he's asked for more money; says he has something else in mind for me. Oh well...

I got some really pretty jewelry from Nikki for Christmas. I posted the pic on my facebook. She got me 3 really nice necklaces with matching earrings. They're so pretty!! I love me some jewelry. Then I got to work and one of my coworkers got me a gift...more jewelry. So I am totally stocked for a while; doesn't mean I won't go out for a spree anytime soon. Girls gotta sparkle, lol