My Lucky Number

I like numbers, even though I'm really not a huge fan of math. But I'm good at memorizing numbers... before the age of speed dial, contact lists, and voice-activated calling, I used to be a walking telephone book. :)

Anyways, I was thinking about my 47th birthday tomorrow and 'cacthing up' to my now already 47 year old husband. Then I remembered that when he turned 47 a few months ago, we realized that his mom was turning 74 this year and thought that was kind-of neat.



I also had this thought that I got married when MY mom was 47, and that was a little freaky to think about. Obviously, back then, she seemed so OLD to me - 47 doesn't seem so old now! ;-)

And while that came to mind, it occurred to me that Mackenzie turned 17 this year... lots of 7's in this list.

OK, I googled "47" in images just to see what visual aid might pop up and this came up. Seriously. "47" on the state of Alabama. So I had to put it in here because it made me laugh! :)

Back to getting married, in a couple of months, Jack and I will celebrate our 23rd anniversary... If you go way, way back, our 'first date' anniversary was on Aug. 23rd... and then Anna turned 13 this year. So that throws a few 3's into the list.

Hmmm... 7's and 3's - generally good numbers from a biblical standpoint. ha "Lucky numbers" - if you want to call them that. Guess I'm hoping that as I hit my 47th birthday tomorrow, that it will be the start of a good year ahead - a little 'good luck' can't hurt! :)

Feeling Nostalgic Today...

So I've been working most of the past couple of days getting my house in order and ready for company this weekend. Jack's mom is coming to town to be here for Mackenzie's "Senior Night" football game tomorrow night, Huntsville vs. Grissom. Funny that she's going to have her senior night playing against my old alma mater. :) I'm looking forward to the night because it will be special for her and for us when we get to 'present' her out on the field at halftime. But I'm also having those moments today of wondering where the years went and thinking back to fun football games and marching competitions that will soon be a thing of the past. And it's kinda sad this year - HHS had an earlier marching competition that got rained out and too many scheduling conflicts with one that would have been this Saturday, so Mackenzie will miss out on getting to do that her senior year. Well, maybe she's not so sad about it, but I've always enjoyed them! Good memories... SO, I'm posting some pictures that I've taken this season - and a couple that were taken by this awesome parent who is a great photographer (you'll probably know which ones are which - ha).

Mackenzie and her fellow flute players.

Makenzie and her best buddy Sarah, who will be taking over Mackenzie's job as section leader next year!

On the field...

In the stands...

Dancing to 'Basket Case' and just having fun. :)

Band buddies: Christine, Renee, Leigh, Mackenzie

I'm really glad that Mackenzie has loved being in the band all these years. It was 'my thing' to do when I was in high school and I have so many good memories from my years in band. I hope that she will always have that, too. And she's so much more talented and accomplished than I ever was! I'm defintely going to miss all this. Just for fun, I thought I'd throw in a geeky band picture of myself, so that Mackenzie isn't alone in sporting the lovely band uniform attire (although, I think she looks beautiful in her uniform!)

Liz Hurley Ribbon Run

This past Saturday was the annual Liz Hurley Ribbon Run for Breast Cancer. This is the first time I have run this race and it was such a treat. It's one thing to go and run a race for yourself, to see how fast you can go - to have some moment where you fantasize that you might actually finish well - at least in your age group. ;-) But the joy in this race was running for friends who have battled with breast cancer - and especially to be out there running with Teri and see her finish strong! :) So here are some Pre and Post-Race pictures

to capture the moment.

Finding each other at the Fleet Feet Tent. (still looking for Kim!)

Now we have Kim! ...and we are laughing at the irony of having our picture made in front of the Purity Ice Cream Truck. :)

After the finish - we all made it and finished within a couple of minutes of each other. I think we make a pretty good team!

Now, where was that ice cream truck...

"I love you, You love me..."

Well, I haven't done as well as I thought I'd do with the "Picture of the Day" idea - too many late nights and children stealing my lap top. ;-) But here's a quick pic from today that I really liked. We spent the day at Universal Studios and at one point came to the kid's area of the park and found a Barney store. Yeah, you know, the big purple dinosaur. :) He was Mackenzie and Anna's favorite when they were little, so I got this picture of them - and well, it just made me happy. :)



Everyone else in the room is trying to go to sleep, so I have to stop typing for now. Going home tomorrow - it's been a great week!

Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt....

One of the nice surprises that we discovered upon arrival here at the Hard Rock Hotel in at Universal Orlando, is that since our room is pretty close to the pool, we are able to access the free wi-fi that's supposed to be only available in common areas IN OUR ROOM! Yay! So that makes my idea of posting a 'picture of the day' much easier. :)

We arrived in Orlando this afternoon around 4:00, after taking a couple of days to drive down here. This hotel is absolutely beautiful and so far the experience here has been fantastic. As we were walking through the "CityWalk" area tonight and taking in all of the sights, I had this thought that the old saying "Larger than life" has taken on a whole new meaning for me. I feel like a little kid. :)

So today's picture (actually picture"s" - because one is better of Mackenzie and one is better of Anna and I didn't want to cause trouble for myself by picking one over the other - ha) is from our dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. What a fun place! We went in and were seated and immediately noticed these two guys walking around on HUGE stilts and doing all sorts of funny things - mostly making ballon animals and hats for people and just being generally silly. Well, we had hardly gotten seated when one of them spotted Mackenzie and Anna and made them come and 'help' him sing the Margaritaville song. It was hilarious. Really. I took a video, but it was really too dark for it to come out - but here are a couple of pictures. Most of the time they were holding the 'salt shakers' over their heads and dancing - and at one point they had to follow him around the restaurant... too funny -- and so embarassing. It was great. ;-)