About Me
Name: Lauren         Location: Middle Tennessee, USA

Welcome to my blog! I am a Christian, wife, and mother who enjoys reading, running, and all things Disney. Stop by regularly for a glimpse into my life!
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Sunday, June 24, 2012
Video
Just thought I would share this for anyone who reads my blog but is not on Facebook.

I was recently interviewed for cafemom.com.  They are doing a series on birth stories, and they wanted to include mine.  Although I seem a little dorky, I think they did a great job putting it together! Click the link below to watch our story!

I Gave Birth in the Garage

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  posted at 9:53 PM  
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Friday, June 15, 2012
Catching Up: More Baseball and the Softball Grand Finale
I have almost caught up! These pictures are from the first weekend in June. On Friday night, Andrew earned the Impact bat again for his contributions to his team. In this picture, he is standing the way some major league player stands at the plate, but I don't remember who.  Notice he is also wearing long sleeves.  We actually wore sweatshirts to his night game that weekend.  It had been 97 degrees the weekend before--crazy!


On Saturday, Adam went with Andrew to his games, and I went with Emily.  It was really my turn to go with Andrew, but it was Emily's tournament game, and I knew she would get a trophy.  Since I didn't trust Adam to take pictures, I went with Emily.  After the game, the team headed to Sonic for lunch and trophy fun.  Coach Jeremy even bought all the girls ice cream.





On Sunday afternoon, Andrew's team made it to the championship game in their tournament.  For the second tournament in a row, they lost by one run in the championship game.  So, I have two sets of pictures with frowning boys.  By the looks on their faces, this looks like the coach is saying, "I'm sorry your dog died, son."


There are few persistent smilers on the team, but most of the boys are showing their disappointment.


Softball is finished for the season, and Andrew has one more tournament.  After this weekend, we will be done with the ball fields for a while.  For the past two summers, Andrew has played until the end of July, so we are glad his coach wants to end a little earlier this year.  It's been a great spring for Andrew and Emily!

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  posted at 1:34 PM  
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Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Catching Up: Awards Day, Softball, and Last Day of School
After many, many years of blogging, I am going to start using my kids' names--no more Favorite Boy and Best Girl!

On the next-to-last day of school, I attended the awards assembly at the kids' school.  For the most part, only upper grade students can earn awards.  We missed the assembly last year because we skipped the last two days for Disney World (Disney is the reason my kids never get perfect attendance), so Andrew was excited to receive his certificate for all-A's during the assembly rather than picking it up in the office during summer break.

Receiving the award from our principal.

My Favorite Boy and His Fourth Grade Teacher

That night, Emily played in her last regular season softball game.  Afterwards, Coach Jeremy handed out the regular season trophies.



The last day of school is a fun day.  We go in for breakfast/parties and then leave with report cards.  In Emily's class, the students also put on some readers' theatre performances, and Emily won an award for being one of four students who had read the most books in the class for the year. 



Andrew enjoyed goofing off with his buddies before summer break.  He had such a great group of boys in his class this year!


Before leaving, we stopped to say good-bye to Dr. Morris.  Since I am still the PTA president, we will see him many times during the summer, but it won't be the same as being at school every day.


My neighbor took this picture of the neighborhood kids before they boarded the bus.  We are SO blessed to have two amazing families right next to us!


Coming Up...More May Fun!

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  posted at 3:02 PM  
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Catching Up: Baseball, Flat Stanley, and Field Day
In my continued effort to catch up on blog posts, I bring you a collection of May events: One of my Favorite Boy's many tournaments was the weekend of May 4-6.  At some point during the weekend, he was given the IMPACT bat.  This bat is given to a player on his team who makes a significant contribution to the team through performance and effort, and for being a supportive and encouraging teammate.  My Favorite Boy has earned the bat twice this year, and this was his first time.  They also won their division that weekend, but my Best Girl and I missed the championship game because she had dress rehearsal for her play.  I managed to get a picture with the hardware when my Favorite Boy got home.




My Best Girl performed in her first musical in mid-May.  It was The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley.  She was part of the ensemble, which meant participating in several roles throughout the play, and I was so proud of her!  Although she puts on quite a performance in the privacy of her own bathroom, she is very self-conscious, and she gained a great deal of confidence through this experience.  She also had a really good time, and she wants to participate in more productions in the future.  My Best Girl had quite a cheering section at her performances.

She played a bird in one of the scenes.

Flowers from Dad

Grandma and Papa Don came to see the show.

Grammy and Papa came, too!

My Best Girl's first grade teacher attended as well.

Near the end of school, the kids enjoyed Field Day.  Both kids enjoyed participating in the events and having fun with their friends.






Coming Soon...More May Fun!

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  posted at 8:23 AM  
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Monday, June 11, 2012
Catching Up: Our Cruise, Part Two
We spent our third day at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island. Castaway Cay is paradise! The only people who visit the island are guests of the Disney ships, so the island is beautifully maintained and a wonderful place to spend a relaxing day. I tried to talk my husband into parasailing with me, but he's not a risk-taker, and he never gave in to my pleading. My Best Girl has already agreed to try it with me when we go as a family, so I am looking forward to that! We spent the day relaxing in beach chairs and lying in hammocks. Resting and reading all day--a dream way to spend the day for me!






That night was Pirate Night, which included fireworks at sea and a dessert buffet.  We also saw the new movie Chimpanzee, which was very cute. 



Mickey came in on a zip line before the fireworks.

On our fourth day, we spent the day at sea.  I spent much of the time in this chair reading.  Ahhhhh...


Before dinner, we saw the final show and enjoyed the sunset.  My Best Girl's Flat Stanley enjoyed the view as well.


After our dinner, there was a farewell show with the characters.  I managed to snag a picture with Donald (my Favorite Boy is a big fan), and Flat Stanley got one with Mickey.



When we woke up on Friday morning, we were so sad to leave such a relaxing and rejuvenating trip behind, but we were excited to see the kids.  Grammy, Papa, and Grandma took good care of them for us!  We can't wait to take the kids on a cruise in December.  Although we didn't do many of the scheduled activities, there were fun things going on all day long--the kids are going to have a ball! For those of you wondering, there were quite a few couples without kids onboard.  One thing you can count on with Disney is quality service.  No one will force Mickey on you, but knowing that the crew will go above and beyond to be sure that you have a wonderful trip is worth sticking with the Disney brand in our minds.  Our lifestyle is more in line with the family crowd anyway, so the ship's environment was a plus for us.  It was fabulous trip!

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  posted at 7:23 PM  
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Catching Up: Our Cruise, Part One
On Sunday, April 29th, my husband and I left for a four-night Disney cruise (yes, we went on a Disney cruise without children).  It had been a busy weekend with baseball, softball and other activities, and the air conditioner managed to die minutes before we headed to the airport, but we left with Grammy and Papa in control, and we were excited to celebrate our 15th anniversary alone (9 months late).

We arrived in Orlando on Sunday evening at 8:00 and went to the Hilton Garden Inn near the airport for the night.  We woke the next morning and headed back to the airport to board Disney's Magical Express to Port Canaveral.  Mickey was there to welcome us!


After boarding, we enjoyed lunch (I threw all my eating restrictions out the window and enjoyed myself on the cruise--although I am still paying for it in some ways and working to get my digestive system back on track).


After lunch, we relaxed in the adult only area until our room was ready.



We explored the ship, attended the muster drill and sail away party, and then got ready for the evening show and dinner.  Even though my husband is not a musical theater fan, we both thought the nightly productions were very well done and enjoyable.  I can't wait for my Best Girl to see the shows when we go on a cruise as a family!


Dinner on our first evening was at a restaurant called Animator's Palate.  The room started out in black and white, and by the end of the evening, the atmosphere had transformed.  It was neat!


We felt the ship moving a lot the first night, but we had taken Bonine for 24 hours prior to leaving, so we did not get sick.  Once we woke up on Tuesday, we felt very little movement for the rest of the trip.  This was a great relief to me because one of the reasons I have avoided cruising in the past was my fear of motion sickness ruining the vacation. 

On Tuesday, we were in Nassau.  We didn't book any excursions, but we followed an online guide and walked to some of the historic areas.  The picture below is of the Queen's Staircase, built to honor Queen Victoria.  It has 65 steps to recognize her 65 years as queen.  We were glad we got off the ship, but we were glad to get back on and enjoy a leisurely afternoon.


Here's a rare moment: my husband acting goofy.  He's normally a straight-laced guy. :)  After this picture, we headed to the ship's movie theater and watched John Carter.  It was nice to watch a movie, but we both agreed that John Carter was ridiculously bad.


After an afternoon of relaxation, we headed to the show and dinner.  It was another another fabulous evening!



Coming Up..Our Cruise, Part Two!

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  posted at 6:24 PM  
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Previous Posts
  • A Disney December, The Final Chapter
  • A Disney December, Part Five
  • A Disney December, Part Four
  • A Disney December, Part Three
  • A Disney December, Part Two
  • A Disney December, Part One
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