39

I have had the best time celebrating 39 with my family and friends!  I'm one lucky 39 year old!  I just wish I would have remembered to get a photo at each celebration!

Finally...the selfie at the movie!  The best memory!  We seriously laughed so hard at our 'spontaneousness' that we were crying!

FriYAY!

After a super long work week filled with transition meetings and 5 flights (and almost spending the night in the Dallas airport due to spring storms), I ended with a Friday morning meeting in Atlanta!  Then I planned it so I would have time for brunch with Torrey before heading back to Memphis for the orange and white gala.  Super way to spend the day!

Cheers to a selfie with this bestie and day drinking to celebrate being in the same city for a few hours!



Of course we hit the photo booth at the orange and white gala...I wish I had the group pics, but they are on someone else's phone.  We also hit the silent auction!  I'm a sucker for silent auctions that are for great causes and Ray is a sucker for a good deal and a tax deduction, so they are a a win, win!



Ray's work buddy, Colton, went with us and when we got to his house...they were twinning!

I miss my blog

My MacBook has been acting up for about a year.  So Ray decided it was time I upgraded to an iPad! I had been debating one for years, but he surprised me with one for my Birthday!  I'm excited to be able to blog again.  Time flies and my memory is getting worse by the day, so I love having this blog to reference and hold some of my favorite pics in case my phone crashes!

I'm going to spend this week catching up, then planning a lake front renovation update before I get back to my regular scheduled program!  That is once I figure out how to attach pics!

Labor Day at the Lake

We soaked up every last minute of summer.  Countdown to Memorial Day is on!

Sunday Sunday

1976 style to celebrate Kembree's 40th!  Skating was so much fun.  It was just like riding a bike (for one of us!).  

The Most Magical Days of Summer 2016

Were spent at Disney World with some of my favorite people!  We really only decided to go about 45 days before we left, but everything worked out great.  We stayed on property at one of the smallest resorts which worked out perfect as it had only one bus stop.  We got to the parks when they opened and stayed till they closed (with a break in the middle).  The meal plan was a great deal given the 3 character meals we enjoyed.  Fast passes are the way to go!  And I can not wait to go back!

Now for picture overload, because one day I really am going to turn my blog into a book (and these are just a few favorites of the 500+ we took and doesn't include any of the photo pass pictures we had taken with our package).  These loaded backwards, so scroll to the bottom and work your way up.  PS...I really do like roller coaster, but probably not as much at Lily does!  Actually all 3 of these kids LOVE rides and went on everything they were tall enough for!  Oh and when you have 11 people, matching shirts are the only way to go!  

Our Project

We love going to the lake.  We watch lake front living weekly and have been looking for several years at property there.  Really because it is just fun to look and dream of owning a lake home.  The drive up is the closest thing to reminding Ray of home, so he loves the drive.
We love the Greer's Ferry portion because it is so rural...you have the Dollar General, the Hardware store and Large Mouth Pizza.  Hurricane Bay is really one of the only bays in the huge lake and it is one of our favorite areas on the lake, but it also has a lot of large, expensive homes so we had written the bay off.  Well, this spring the realtor we had worked with in the past sent me an email to tell me there is a steal in Hurricane Bay.  Basically the owners hadn't used in 5 years and live in CA, but they were very picky about who they would sell it too. Plus it needs updating (which he knew we were in for a project).  We went in with a crazy low offer and after a counter and an email to the owner later...our dream came true!  It is the perfect little bungalow on El Camino Real!  We are lake front with a boat launch and working on a community boat dock with the corp now!  We have great neighbors and can't believe we actually own a lake house!

We have basically gutted the inside...scrapped the popcorn ceilings, removed wall paper from every room, removed the shag carpet and are now working on repairing and priming the walls for painting. I planned to share the progress, but my computer has its good and bad days so we shall see how often I get to posts.  

Make A Wish & Flying

Last year, I became a trained Make-A-Wish Pre-Flight Captain, after a friend told me of the need in the Mid-South.  Basically I greet wish families that travel at the airport as they leave for their wish.  I help the families easily get through the airport process, wait with them at the gate to help ease their fears and to build excitement for their trip.  Basically, I get to use what comes second nature to me to ease the worry and fear in others.  I LOVE it!  I've had some difficult greets, but mainly they are full of excitement!  Especially this family...Sweet Amber was headed to Hawaii on an early morning flight this week!  Her 10th birthday was Saturday and her goal was to swim with the dolphins.  I'm happy to report that her mom texted me a picture of her doing just that today and it made my day! The pride in her dad's eyes said it all...these trips really are for the whole family!

I went through wish granting training last month so that I would be more informed on my greets, but during the training I decided they needed wish granters and I could easily do that!  So, I have my first family meeting on Tuesday with a fellow wish granter.   Wish me luck!

Speaking of flying...I went up with my favorite pilot the other day!

We had a great flight and got to see this cutie for a bit!