Erin elected me as one of the Nice Matter Award Recipients ...

Isn't Erin the best?!! She thinks I'm nice... How sweet!! Now I get to pick 5 people who I think deserve this award too.

First, I have to pick Lesa. Her blog is here: http://lesasbreastcancer.blogspot.com/ I have never met Lesa in person but we have been stamping buddies for a few years now and were first introduced on the Papercrafts message board before we both went to the Stamp Shack. Lesa is going through a very difficult time right now with breast cancer but I do believe she can beat it and win!!!
2nd I pick Barb. You can find her blog here: http://www.barbscardcreations.blogspot.com/ Barb claims to have only been stamping for a couple of years but I think she is just trying to fool us all. She comes up with the cutest cards!! Barb and I are sharing a room at the Scrapfest in September so I am looking forward to that!!!
3rd I pick Ellie and her blog is here: http://faeriestamper1.blogspot.com/ Ellie lives in Charlotte and I met Ellie through another stamping website Gingerwood. I don't even know if Gingerwood is still a site anymore but we emailed each other when we found out she lives in Charlotte and I live in Concord. We met for lunch one day at Chili's and I introduced her to the Stamp Shack... now you can see her there almost as much as I am on there. She makes cute stuff!!
4th is Christie. Her blog is http://imuststamp.blogspot.com/ One can find Christie in the chat room in the mornings once she is up and awake for the day. Again, we have never met in person but we have talked on the phone once. She is so sweet!!
Last but certainly not least is Suzi at http://suzi-scraps.blogspot.com/ Suzi and I have chatted on the phone a few times and she just cracks me up with some of her posts. She is so funny!!! She taught me how to download a font (even though it took her over an hour to tell me how to do it, we finally mastered it! Right Suzi?) I haven't downloaded any in awhile so I am sure I forgot again.
So those are my 5 picks. Check out their blogs if you have time :).

High School Musical Party at the Thacker's last night ....

At 5 pm, Emily tells me "I'm having a few friends over for a High School Musical Party". So off to the store I go to get chips and sodas. She had 5 friends over to watch the show on tv last night and then they swam in the pool after. Everyone seemed to have fun!! Here are a few photos they took.

I went and spent some time with Robin today ...

She called me yesterday to tell me her doctor told her NOT to go to Gatlinburg this weekend. They have her on new pain medicine as the old pain meds weren't giving her much relief. She is very weak right now and can only walk with a walker. We sat out on her back porch and surprisingly, it wasn't too hot (its been in the 100's the past few days in a row) and it was nice just sitting there rocking in her big swing. All of a sudden, she started talking about going to heaven and she knows the pain will be all over when she gets there. Well, I have been able to hold back the tears all this time until today. I could not help it. I just started crying, then she started crying, we hugged each other and we just cried for awhile. I felt horrible to start her crying but she says she cries alot but goes in her room and cries so the kids don't see her. Her mom is there helping her now and that is great. She waits on her hand and foot and that's what Robin needs at a time like this. Its so hard for her mom too to see her failing this fast. Life just stinks sometimes!! Why is that?

Soccer practice has started with Nicholas ....

Last night was his first soccer practice and it must've been at least 98 degrees. It was sooooo hot but he was enjoying back into the swing of things!! He hasn't played soccer for 2 years (since we've moved to NC) so when he wanted to sign up when registraton came around, I was pretty happy about that!! He will have soccer practice Tues & Thurs nights. 10 boys and 2 girls are on his team. He has a very young coach who loves to joke around all the time. First game is Sat Sept 8th and all games will be on Saturdays. It will run about 9 weeks I think someone said.

Yesterday I had lunch with one of my stamping friends "Michelle". She lives in Lexington which is about 35 minutes from me so it wasn't far at all. We met at Zaxby's Chicken and we each got a grilled chicken salad. Mmmmmm. It was good. For those of you who don't know Michelle, her husband passed away about 2 weeks ago and those of us at the Stamp Shack took up a collection for her. Jan in Alaska had ordered a beautiful peace lilly and asked people to donate some money. Well, we were both so excited to see we had collected $405!!!! Boy was Michelle thrilled to see that!!!! We had a great time at lunch, then it was off to soccer when I returned home. I made Michelle a card with everyone's names on it on the inside who gave money. I decided at the last minute to make something "cute" to put the money in so this is what i "whipped" up yesterday. I think it came out pretty cute!!! She loved it.

My friend Lesa nominated me as a Rockin Girl Blogger. How about that???? Isn't that exciting? :) Thanks so much Lesa!! I now get to nominate someone so I nominate Pam!!! Pam, your cards are truly an inspiration to all of us!! Check out her blog if you haven't done so yet. She sure has some adorable cards on her blog. http://smileycollector.blogspot.com/

Tudi and Ladybug's dog crates

Is this the first sign of fall & its ONLY August 13th?

Look what we saw in our yard. The photo with the yellow leaves is from yesterday. Today its bright orange leaves. WOW!! I can't wait for FALL!!!!