Life in the DR

Whats for DINNER

Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

Friends and Fun in the DR

Strong Boy

Heading to the Dominican Republic

Oh what a TREE

Super Moon

Darkness

Campfire fun...

Enjoying the night

Fire pit

Doug and Mariah

Our hidden CREEK

Collecting Clam

Hard at work

Fun

Mariah in the tree

Oh what fun it is to clear a path in your forest that leads to an amazing quiet, peaceful CREEK.

VBS

Mariah with many friends.

Mariah has spent every night this week at Cresset's Vacation Bible School. She has loved it so much and has not even wanted to leave when the evening is over at 830pm. So happy she has gotten a chance to participate.

Camping

Directions

Helpers

A girls best friend

               Getting ready to camp out. Putting up the tent with some great help. What a fun time.

Lynchburg College

The tour continues 

Drew and I were on the road again today. We headed back to his stomping grounds, this time same city but different school. Lynchburg College. In my opinion this is a wonderful liberal arts school that is small and focuses on helping each of its students achieve. I liked the campus, tour and felt it had really good energy. I think this school is a viable option for Drew. What I LOVED most about today was spending time with Drew. He is truly an amazing kid.

Art work presented by Mariah and her friend.

Summer work

Last week Mariah started her new gym schedule and began the transition into summer break. She will train 4 day a week M-T-Thur-Fri 4 hours each day so of course you can add that is a whopping 16 hours of gym. She was exhausted each day I picked her up from gym and only wanted to come home and chill. I went along with that plan and added a restful low key weekend to that and she seemed good. NOW it is time to kick in a little more work. She must do a book report on one book from a list we received and read as many of the other books that time allows. She must also finish a math packet that seems pretty long. I did my homework and purchased 3 of the books and placed an order for the CD's so that she can listen to the books as well. After gym and lunch today I managed to get her to listen to 6 chapter so her first book A Single Shard. I might add that she is currently reading at a 4th grade level and all the books on the list are higher than this. I know that I am enjoying the book more than she is and I don't want to stop. We did stop so that she can shower and get ready to go to VBS. Happy Monday!

Happy Fathers Day

Love

Sweetness

As I type this post my sweet children are sound asleep, Annie and Dasher are cuddled up in my lap (missing Dougie), and the house is quite.
 Doug is away at a seminar and is probably cross eyed from 2 long days of lectures. He has today and tomorrow to go. We are missing him on this special day.
Can I take a second to tell you why I think Doug is simply the best father and husband a girl could ever dream of....
He is so loving, kind, gentle, fun, driven, spontaneous, funny, helpful, interested, silly, tolerant, giving, and don't forget he's the best doggie daddy ever! I could go on and on but God knew what he was doing when he planned our paths to meet. I am so blessed and thankful that he is the father of my children and my life partner.


Special Fathers Day Poem      (just for you)

Some fathers come and some fathers go,
but you my dear Dougie are the lifelong fixture we are so thankful and blessed to have.
You are always present in our hearts,
When we eat your food there's no remorse,
Always spontaneous to have some fun,
Whether going to World Series, Stanley Cup, or Final 4.
Teaching us life lessons with love and patience,
how to hold on to our cash (making us crazy!),
making sure we are protected everyday
and sharing your life experiences along the way.
So today on your special day, know that your biggest FANS are thinking of you,
 sending lots of love, and warm wishes to you, it's true!
And we promise our love for you will not fall through.

Missy, Drew, Mariah, Dasher, and Annie

College Tour Recap and Missy's MANY Thoughts.....

Happy Saturday! How can it be June 15 already? I always want to push the pause button. I am happy to report that our college tour went off without a hitch and along with all the fun we had we also were able to get a great idea of where Drew will apply to for college in October/November. We have so many colleges/universities to choose from in American and at the end of the day the goal of said desire of obtaining a degrees is granted by all. But what is good for one student is not for another. I have been asked a lot lately of what I am looking for in a college/university for Drew and to tell you the truth my list could be long but what I truly want is for Drew to receive a degree and find a career that he is passionate about. We could go on and on about
small verses large
private verses public
city verses  town
and on and on and on...
I am not sure if we will search other colleges but will see how the process goes. This is a journey and seems to be long and stressful. My goal is to try and be as organized as possible and support Drew in anyway he needs.
Let the FUN continue!

Mariah DOES Survive Her First Gymnastics Choreography Session

Furman University

Me and my boy

Our final stop on our tour was just awesome. I am so impressed with Furman and could see Drew at this university. The campus is amazing, this was the best tour in my opinion on many levels. I found it so informative and complete.

Road trip to Greenville South Carolina

Offek

Missy

After our visit to Guilford we hit the road with all of the other rush our traffic. We were so excited to be able to visit our awesome friends in Greenville and stay at Nicholai house. We made a pit stop on the way in Gaffaney South Carolina at the outlets because Drew forgot his shirt but that was fun to walk around and kill some time before we were to arrive at the studio to go for dinner at 9pm.
Dinner was wonderful and my visit with Nick was full of laughter and fun. Oh how I love that guy. He kept me up past 2am and we made one gas station run at midnight but life with him is never boring.
Here are some pics from our road trip.

Guilford College

Guilford College in Greensboro North Carolina was our second college visit of the day. Located about an  hour from our house. Great option and good information.

Interesting 

Bad boys

Thanks Guilford

Bad to the bone

Elon University

Elon is a wonderful university and we had an awesome visit and tour. This school is definitely at the top of Drew's list for college and he plans to apply in October/November. So many great things to tell you about Elon but the most important piece of the puzzle is admission first and fore most.

Good listeners 

Ready for our info session

Team work

First thing first. The trash bins have to be brought from the curb before our road trip.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

I love Carolina and was excited to visit and show Offek and Drew around. I think of shag when I think of Carolina and souther traditions. Super nice people, beautiful campus, wonderful academics and super fun college town. The sports are amazing and I could definitely see Offek. Can't get the song Carolina Girl off my mind. I learn that UNC Chapel Hill was the 1 first public university in America. Thats and interesting fact.

UNC