Raiders Bigger & Better

Tonight Emma went to Raiders at Briarwood. This is the get together for the 7th and 8th grade guys and girls. The theme tonight was Bigger & Better, we play this for Emma's b'day parties and have a blast.
The Crowd: Cooper Pinson giving the rules to everyone


Groups were formed and a paperclip given to each and we set out on our way.


We drove around neighborhoods for 1 hour trading our paperclip for anything bigger and better that people might want to part with. Raiders has done this for many years and I'm still amazed that people living around Briarwood answer their doors!! We received many small items and finally hit on one big one when we went to Beth Hendrix house. I know her from the nursery. She gave us a huge outdoor umbrella that barely fit in the borrowed minivan I was driving. We also received several cans of soda, a basket, a bag, and a santa. Here is some of the loot that was brought back from all the different groups.

A chest of drawers


A lawnmower


Several bikes of all sizes


A miniscooter


Chairs


A TV, pictures, Kobe poster, basketball goal


An Armoire


A stuffed Bobcat


And a bathroom sink


there were many other smaller items that can't be listed. Fun was had by all!!

It's a Cirque Du Soleil Day!!

After Emma's XC race, see previous post, Camille, Caroline, Emma and I headed out to Atlanta to see Dralion from Cirque Du Soleil.
The race started 20 min late and we were already just at enough time to get dressed and head to Atlanta in time to catch the event.
As we headed down the Interstate to Atlanta, we notice a long line of lime green vans/cars ahead of us. As we approached we were able to see that it was a fleet of ServePro workers, our guess was headed to the Coast due to Irene.

This was the headline on Sunday from Fox news with some pics.

Irene Downgraded to Tropical Storm, Slams New York and East Coast

So we continue our journey to Atlanta and having a great road trip. As we are coming up on the bypass, traffic comes to a halt. I'm not sure how long we sat there stopping and starting until we finally got past the wreck that had all lanes closed at one point. We made it to Philips Arena with literally 10 seconds to spare. We were all running to portal 6 trying to get in before the event started. With 3 seconds left we passed through the "gate". We had great seats down front and settled in for a good show.

I've seen OVO and Mystere from Cirque Du Soleil and this time around it was Dralion ~ the four elements that govern the natural order take on a human form. Thus embodied, each element is represented by its own evocative colour: air is blue; water is green; fire is red; earth is ochre. In the world of Dralion, cultures blend, Man and Nature are one, and balance is achieved. . I love how each show is so different yet all about the acrobatics!

The girls loved the show, Emma said the trampoline act was her fav, it's always mine also!

Emma and Caroline with the Dralion sign.

So after the show we headed to Varsity for some fast, greasy food. (Thanks spence for being our personnel gps device!)

We then headed home to Camille doing the DJ thing taking us down memory lane....

and a beautiful sunset.

GREAT Times!

Emma's first XC Race!

It's Saturday August the 27th and it's time for Emma's first race. We head to Heardmont Park on a sunny day!

Here is Emma with the girls that showed up for the race.

L to R: Bailey, Katie, Elizabeth, Natalie, Jenna Rose, Caroline, and Emma. Now, Emma has only practiced a few times and is usually the girl who doesn't like to sweat, so I'm anxious to see how this turns out.

All the girls are lined up getting ready to start.

And their off....

Here is Emma coming across the finish line. She did great considering she had never run before.

Jenna Rose was the first Briarwood girl to cross the finish line, here she is at the creek.

Ups and Downs - Alert Blood shot

With Diabetes we've had our ups and downs over the years. Very low sugars, once it took us to the hospital via ambulance due to seizures, and some bad highs that also landed us in the ER on iv's. It's been 8 years since Emma was diagnosed and I'll say again, I don't know that you ever truly manage diabetes. She was changing her site one night and came running into the kitchen crying. I turn to see this as she walks through the door.

She had her shirt pressed to her stomach with blood tricking down her leg and onto the floor. I pulled the shirt away to see what was going on and the blood was still pouring out with each heartbeat. Ice wrapped in a wet paper towel pressed to the site seemed to help it stop. She must have hit a blood vessel while pulling out the old site, still not sure how that happened. I walked back through the house cleaning up blood spots that i found while Todd helped her get another site on. Oh well, I think, I hope, I pray, we've covered all things that could happen and now we can just try to "manage" the diabetes.

Return of Cornhole

I'm not sure what the fascination is with the cornhole game. It's a little like gambling, you feel you will do better with the next throw, and it's addicting. However, we aren't betting money so we can still keep our house with this addiction. We had the Atherton's and the White's over for Supper Club this past weekend and out came the boards. We had couples against couples, kids against kids, and then a mix. The sun was going down so all the lights on the outside came on and when those weren't enough, Nolan pulls out his phone and shines it on the board (which actually worked fairly well).

Anyhoo, the pics from that night.

It's Junior High Time!!

We started Friday morning off with a pedicure. NiNi, Emma, and I tried a new place just off of 280. We checked out the art gallery next door and left NiNi talking art and painting classes while Emma and I headed off to Taziki's for lunch with Camille, Caroline, Missie, and Lexie Liddell. We had a great time talking about who got what teacher what period and with which friends. We then headed over to the Jr. High to decorate the lockers and put books away. The lockers are decorated by the 7th grade girls "big sis'". I love this idea. I'm not sure when they started doing it, sometime after my days at Briarwood. The 8th grade girls pick an upcoming 7th grade girl to be a big sis to. They decorate your lockers and are there to answer questions about school, teachers, and whatever. This is what we found when we got to the school.

Emma's Big Sis sure knows her...candy!

We then set about decorating the inside of the locker. This is also a new thing since I was in school. It's cool to adorn your locker with wallpaper, rugs, lights, and such. We bought the leftover off of Caroline when we saw she wasn't going to be using it all. We had thought we would do wrapping paper but this worked out great.

(Not an actual picture of Emma and her locker, she wouldn't pose. This is Camille and Caroline's locker...since we bought her remnants, it looks like hers.)
Emma went about getting all of her things into the locker and then talked and goofed off with friends for a while.

We moms had a good time seeing each other but as time passed close to 3:00 we had to go pick up Nolan from football practice. All in all, a fun day!

Emma had Victoria over this past weekend, a lot of dancing to the new Wii game was going on!