Shelly's First Choir Recital

So Shelly had her first Choir recital last night and it was wonderful!!!!! I am so proud of her and her fellow choir members for a GREAT performance. As you can see in the above photo, she was front and center (red sweater dress with black leggings and black scarf). It was so nice to be in a warm place with all the holiday decorations and music, especially since it was raining cats and dogs last night and bringing in the cooler air. She was very excited to have all of her brothers (well minus baby brother) in attendance as well as her Daddy Jim, her father and her step-mom.


She also landed a solo this year!! She did a great job and also made mommy cry! I could not have been more proud. They worked real hard for this recital and it paid off. I am looking forward to their Spring Recital now :)

Shelly & Miss Kim (Choir Teacher)

Shelly and one of her best friends Bailey

December and Holiday Fun!

Well I know I have not been doing a good job at keeping this thing up-to-date as much as I would like and I am hoping to get me a better schedule laid out real soon that will keep me on track with my daily chores, my web time (updating our WOW page and this Blog) and other neat projects I like to work on.

So what has been keeping me so busy?? Well work has been extremely busy and I am still trying to play catch up there. About 6 weeks ago, I started reading the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer and was completely sucked into her books! I read the first book Twilight in less than a week. I read the second book New Moon in about a week as well. The third book Eclipse took me roughly 3 weeks to finish because we were so busy even around the house. I am now reading the fourth book Breaking Dawn and I am currently on page 289 of 754.




When I have finished this series, I am hoping to start the Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris. I have been watching the HBO series which is based on these books and it is called True Blood. It was a great first season and I can't wait until it comes on again in the summer of 2009.


Now onto REAL LIFE! lol It seems like after Halloween hit, the days are just flying by! We had a great Thanksgiving Holiday this year. My parents, my two youngest brothers, my other brother, his wife and toddler, and then my aunt, uncle and their toddler were in attendance for the first time at my house. We had the traditional Thanksgiving Feast and watched football on the projector on the wall in the playroom. My mom, my aunt and myself started getting together our game plan for the Black Friday sales.

Black Friday came very early and I left my house at 4:00 am to go and pick up my aunt and then we headed to Walmart. I have not seen that chaotic of a crowd for almost 13 years when the first "Tickle Me Elmo" came out in stores and people were fighting for them. This year, people were fighting over just about anything. I guess we have the economy to blame for that...or people not being raised correctly. lol I found a lot of great deals and once we left Walmart the rest of the day was not so bad. We met up with my mom and my daughter at Cracker Barrel to eat a good hot breakfast and then the 4 of us stayed together going from store to store the rest of the day! We headed for home around 4:00 pm and I took me a quick power nap!

We spent the rest of that weekend getting our Christmas decorations out and I started working on my Advent Calendar scrapbooking project (pictures coming soon!) I also took the kids to see Twilight and my mom met us there for a great time at the movies. We had not done that in a long time and we all enjoyed the movie. Of course, I am the only one that has read the book...and it went pretty much by the book and I am looking forward to the movie based on New Moon.

Last weekend we went to the Germantown Christmas Parade to see Grant march with the Houston Middle School Band. Kyle really enjoyed the parade this year. The photo at the top of this page of Kyle was taken there. When the bands would come by, he would be "drumming" on his legs and his little face just lit up! I can't wait to see how he reacts when we go see the Lights at the Zoo this year. He really loves going by the houses that are all lit up. Houston Middle School Band won 1st place trophies for overall band, auxillary and drum major. They also won 1st place at the Collierville Christmas Parade!


Grant also had his Christmas Concert last week and he had a solo! He did a great job as always and is currently practicing for his All-West tryouts that are coming up this weekend in Jackson.

We are looking forward to the holidays and all the hustle and bustle that it brings and I will be posting more about those upcoming events in the next few days.

Until then...HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

The Signs of Fall and I'm still ALIVE!

I know, I know, it's been FOREVER since I posted but with school starting back, it usually takes a good month for me to get back in the swing of things that I enjoy as well as things around the house.

Not only has my blogging and other computer interests taken a back seat, but seems so has my housework! Boy, my house looks like 5 tornadoes hit it and I have got a lot of work to do! Luckily...it's beginning to get to my favorite time of the year!

F
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This morning Jim got up to get ready for his first big day as the Leader/Sponsor of the Knowledge Bowl Team for Bartlett High School. Munford was hosting a knowledge bowl tournament. At the lunch break they were in Second place and they ended up coming home with the Fourth place trophy out of fourteen teams! I was very proud of him and the students' accomplished.

I got up this morning and got ready and then woke Kyle up to get him ready and then we were out the door not too long after Daddy. Kyle went to my Aunt's house to play with my cousin which I really consider a nephew because my Aunt is only 4 years older than me. Cole and Kyle are only a year apart :) Kyle went there for a few hours while I went to my WOW Circle meeting for our monthly devotional time.

It was great fellowship and devotional time and sometimes, I wish it were longer! We were missing some people that are normally there a lot and hope to see them next week. We are going to have a HUGE scrapbooking day next Saturday at church starting at 2:00 pm and going until we get tired!

type to you soon
luvs
Jenni

School is Back in Session!!!!!

Well today I went and registered Shelly & Ryan for school. Shelly is now in the 5th grade and Ryan is in the 7th grade. They both seem to be real excited and I know I am ready to be back on a normal routine (well as normal as it can be with 5 kids, 2 sports, band and hopefully choir!) LOL

The begin their first full day on Thursday.

I did not get to work until right at lunch time, so when I did I went straight to the kitchen and warmed up my lunch so that I could eat at my desk while getting things accomplished. It was a pretty productive day overall.

I finally got in touch with an old friend of mine to check in with her family and boy it was great to hear her voice and catch up a bit. Hopefully we can keep that up because now I have her blog site saved and she will have mine. Her boys are getting so big, boy does that time fly fast when you have your families!

Got home and worked on our pool, then I got dinner started and now I am here! Jim wont be home until almost 9:00 pm tonight because he had to work Shelby County Schools registration. Well I better go and finish dinner.....

Until then, God Bless and blog to you soon :)
Jenni

Sad News

We found out via a phone call during lunch after church on Sunday that Jim's Uncle Bruce had passed away just an hour before. I recall at about that time we were taking communion and praying for him and his family. Jim was doing pretty well and we were able to talk to his cousin Adressa and left a message for his Aunt Judy. Thankfully we had sent a fruit basket the day before to the hospital for everyone to enjoy to let them know how much we wish we could be there and how much we loved them and that they were in our thoughts and prayers.

I got to talk to Aunt Judy yesterday on my way home from a busy day at work and she sounded good at the time and told me that he took his last breathe holding his wife and kids hands and that it was very peaceful. For that Jim and I will be forever grateful. Thank you so much to all of those that kept them and our family in your prayers.

God Bless, Jenni

Prayers Needed

I know I have not been blogging as much as I hoped, but hoping to get back on track here soon!

Please keep my husband's family in your prayers. His Uncle Bruce (Ed) Wilson has been battling cancer for a few months and we thought he was doing much better but the past couple of weeks have been pretty rough for him and his wife, Judy. He has taken a turn for the worse and the more people we have praying for them, hopefully they will be able to feel the arms of our God wrap around them and hold them tight to give them the strength that they are needing at this time. Uncle Bruce is Jim's mother's brother. Sadly Jim's mom, Shirley, was called to the Lord a few years back and his father, Harry, was called to the Lord when Jim was a freshman in college, so this is hitting very close to home for him.

I just wish they lived closer or that we lived closer to them so that we could do more than just send support via email, phone and prayer chains. They are great people and I know that she has told me numerous times that she is very grateful for the friends that they do have there because they have been a tremendous help in their time of need.

Please pray for them to find the strength that they need and hope that Uncle Bruce gets to go home soon.



God Bless and so long for now
xoxoxo
Jenni

Finally!!!

Well we finally have DSL, so hopefully I will be on here more often and be able to keep this blog going like I had originally planned. We had a great time at Disneyworld and you can view all of our pictures at thecacyfamily.shutterfly.com I also uploaded Kyle's 2nd Birthday pics. Boy am I going to be busy scrapbooking the rest of the year! I am still working on a project that needs to be finished that was supposed to be finished a few months ago, then its work on Kyle's baby book and then our Disney trip!

I have to say its the best investment we ever made and thankfully my wonderful husband agrees! All of the kids were so drawn into the magic, as well as Jim and I. I found myself just staring at all of their faces sometimes and getting lost in the moment. I am so glad that I have that many pictures. We still have about 200 more that I am waiting on from Disney's website where the photographers onsite were taking pictures and loading them onto a cd for us.

Kyle is now Mickey Mouse crazy and its great to watch him still get so excited about the things we got him from there!

I have been swamped at work, which is good because it makes the days go by quickly, but it can also be very tiring! My two older kids just got back from their two week visit with their dad and just 24 hours later my oldest is off to church camp! Shelly and I sat in my bed last night with me sandwiched in between her and my hubby to watch Big Brother 10 and Bridezillas! And we drank hot tea out of our Alice in Wonderland tea cups that we bought while at DW. We finally pooped out around 1 am and then had to get up for work this morning. We are planning more girl time for later this week.

Tonight was BUNKO night with the ladies from our church group and it was LOADS of fun. I picked up Martha on my way home from work and we headed straight there. We had 4 tables tonight, and everyone seemed lucky with the BIG BUNKOS tonight!! I am so glad that I talked Martha into going, I think she needed it! We always have so much fun. It is my one night out a month that I look forward to!

I also started a web page for our WOW (Wings Of Women) group through church. (See my link to join above) I am looking forward to working on that more and getting ready for our upcoming luncheon.

Well I better get done here so I can go watch a show and then head to bed!

Until then....God Bless ...kisses & hugs!

So it's midnight...

And I am sitting by the pool watching all the 4 older kids have a blast swimming. Jim & Kyle are fast asleep. We got to go to Hollywood Studios and were able to get in a ride on the StarWars sim & they loved it. Afterwards we leisurely walked to our dinner destination. We had reservations at the 50's Primetime Cafe. The food was really good and the atmosphere was just too cool.

After we get thru swimming we are going to plan our morning for tomorrow (or shall I say later today)!!!

More later. Have a GREAT day at work!!!

We made it!

So after a rough start we finally made it to Disney World!!!!

Yesterday I started driving at 4 am headed for the KOA in GA. We stopped for gas in New Albany, MS and then Jim started driving (6 am). I had just dozed off when a huge noise told us we had blown a tire!! Not only that, when the tire blew it cut cords to the generator . So we called for roadside service and they changed the tire and fixed most of the wires to have the generator working again. It also ripped a hole in the undercarriage where the hoses are kept (of which we found about a mile back in the middle of the interstate run over). We purchased new hoses and have not had any other problems.

We arrived at the KOA at 11 pm last night at GA/FL line and pretty much just hooked up the electric and hit the beds.

Jim woke me up to breakfast in bed and then he fixed the kids their food. Then we got our showers and hit the road for Mickey's house. We arrived around 2pm and the kids are getting ready to hit the pool!!

The cute thing about our arrival was Kyle would holler daddy or mommy then MEE MOUSE! At checkin we got lots of collectible buttons which he loved as well.

That's all for now and will try to post some pics later tonight.

Wednesday

Well I was majorly busy yesterday at work. We had a good lunch at Bigfoot with Irene's two children and then back to work to struggle through the afternoon! I had to have a caffeine fix around 3pm because I was so darn sleepy!!! Guess with all the stuff I have been doing at home to get ready for our trip is wearing me out. The drive home was long and when I got home I just chilled in front of the tv while dinner was being fixed. I watched Nashville Star, Young and the Restless, The Bachelorette and ate taquitos for dinner. We played with Kyle and then after he went to bed, we watched 3 episodes of Judge Judy and also America's Got Talent. While watching shows, I also folded some laundry before hitting the hay.

We got an update on Jim's Uncle Ed (Bruce), which was good. Always love hearing from Aunt Judy. Just wish we lived closer to them so that we could easily visit. Jim has no family that lives close and that is hard sometimes, as I wish we had his family to visit. Of course our friends that we reenact with are our adopted 2nd family but we have been so busy lately, just doesn't seem like we get to see much of anyone. Going to make sure that we have some time when we return from our trip to just chill out around the house with family and friends. We are planning Kyle's big 2nd birthday for the 4th of July!!!

Have a great day at work and I just hope that my day goes by quickly!!!

The weekend & Monday...oh and why not today too???

Well Friday when I left work I headed out to run my shopping errands to prepare for our upcoming trip. Kyle got to stay at my mom's since I was on my own for the weekend. Jim and the boys had gone to Parker's Crossroads for a Civil War reenactment but were due back early Sunday morning so that we could be together for Father's Day. I went to Shoe Carnival to swap out a pair of shoes for Kyle that were the wrong size. Then I went to Archiver's (scrapbook store) to get things to make us autograph books for Disneyworld. After that, I headed to TJ Max to look for some good bargains on some clothes that we need for the summer and then finally to Walmart. I picked Kyle up around 9:30 pm and headed to the house. I met up with a lady that had made purses for my daughter, my mother (for her birthday) and I and then got things unloaded from the van. Kyle and I did his nightly routine and about the time I got him laid down in the bed, BOOM...the bottom let out of the skies and it stormed for quite some time. I had asked my dad what he was going to be doing on Father's Day and he had told me nothing and that he would probably be home alone. So I offered to come and get him to spend the night with Kyle and I and then he could go to church with us and have breakfast and then after church go out to eat for lunch. He said that sounded good and I told him I would check in with him on Saturday afternoon to figure out when to pick him up. I then began organizing the things I had brought in and watched Young and the Restless before heading to bed for the evening.

Saturday Kyle and I got up and hit the door again to run some more errands and finish getting Jim's Father's Day gifts. When we returned home, two of the girls from across the street came over to lend a hand with the animals and some other house chores since it was just Kyle and I and I really wanted to get the house organized some more while Jim was away with the boys. I then watched some more tv while Kyle was taking his nap and then played a few games with the girls before they had to go back home. When I called my dad to arrange the pickup time, he informed me that he would not be going with me because mom had not gone to my aunts house for the weekend like he thought she was and that he was not sure what the boys were going to be doing for him. This upset me a lot because I had tried to make plans with him and then I got brushed off to the side as if spending time with me was not important. I did not let him know I was upset and quickly got off the phone before bursting into tears. I feel that its always about my brothers and I don't matter. Their plans come before mine. Their pictures are all over the house and the pictures that I gave them for Christmas with my entire family together (which is a really good picture) is still in the gift bag, hanging on the back of the door in the room that they babysit in. Later that evening after I put Kyle down for bed, I watched a movie that Jim had taped for me that was pretty good. When he called to see how we were doing, we talked for a good half hour and then he surprised me by saying ..."are you going to turn the alarm on tonight?" and when I responded "no, so you can get in the house in the morning without waking us", he replied "Good, cause I am in the driveway!" LOL He had surprised me by coming home early!! But then I had to jump up and hide his presents that I had not wrapped yet and put off making his Father's Day card until later!

Sunday we got up and went to church and I did not have to teach Sunday School because they were doing a Father's Day breakfast. Service was great and I tried real hard not to get emotional. They did candle burnings for those that have departed and I had donated money in memory of Jim's dad, Harry Cacy, my dad's dad, Clifton Shelly and my mom's dad, Bill Lawrence. Afterwards we went to our favorite mexican restaurant for lunch and it was YUMMY! When we returned home, I started working on the house again and then later in the afternoon called my father to wish him a Happy Father's Day. Jim opened his gifts and enjoyed those as well as the homemade scrapbooking cards that we had made him. Then I started cooking lasagna to take over to Coach D's house since they had finally made it home with little Brody. We took lasagna, salad and texas toast over for them to enjoy so that they would not have to cook on Father's Day. It was a great feeling to do something for a family that we adore that was in need of help.

Yesterday, I was very busy at work and then after work, quickly headed home to get ready for BUNKO NIGHT!!! Bunko was at my house last night and thankfully I have a GREAT husband and GREAT kids that finished up with the cleaning and he even had made my taquitos for me. So I had minimal setup to do before the ladies started to arrive. We had 12 ladies playing and we had lots of laughter and lots of fun. After I won the consolitation prize of $25 we began the cleanup and then I went to the back to work on finishing my cards for my dad and for my mom's birthday so that we could give them their presents today when I dropped the kids off. I called my mom and wished her a Happy Birthday and then watched the first part of the Bachelorette and then Young and the Restless before I fell asleep during Y & R.

This morning Ryan had a follow-up appointment for his ADHD, which went well and quickly. Then I went to get Kyle and Shelly so that I could take them to my parents home. When we got there, they opened their gifts. Mom seemed ok...did not like her comment about the card we made but I voiced my opinion and then headed to my dad so I could watch him open his gift. He was very appreciative and then I headed to work before I said something I did not need to say to my mother.

Work has been steady. I went to work out at the gym with Irene & Kathy, which was great and when we returned to work I made me a bowl of soup to eat at my desk while I continued to work on more documents. After work, I will go and pick up Ryan & Kyle and head home. We are going to take the long walk today and then have leftovers for dinner. My plan for the evening is to finish up the laundry and then color my hair and take a long hot bath! Shelly is spending the night at my parent's house and tomorrow Kyle & Ryan are staying home with Jim.

Have a great rest of the afternoon at work and enjoy your evenings!!!

All about Thursday

Well it was an extremely busy day at work, Irene and I did not even get to go work out!!! :( Thankfully she picked me up something to eat at my desk because I was not able to even leave to do that. But all in all it was a good day and I finished one of my medical records projects after 4 days and I was thankful for that!

When I left work, I went and picked up Kyle and then headed towards home. I stopped by a yahoo garage sale person's house and picked up a bunch of High School Musical purses and she is going to be so excited when she sees them! Once I got home, I changed into my workout clothes and headed out for our nightly walk. Grant, Austin, Jim and I with Kyle in his wagon. When we got back, I watched Wednesday's Young and the Restless while Jim was loading the truck for his trip this weekend. Then I made ground turkey tacos and refried beans for dinner. After dinner, Kyle got to play some more before he went to bed.

I then watched Thursday's Y & R, So You Think You Can Dance and two episodes of Judge Judy! hehe I then passed out and new nothing until this morning when the alarm went off.

Been busy most of the morning so far...but more about Friday later today! lol

Everyone have a great day and enjoy your lunch!

Do we see a pattern here???

Yesterday I stayed focused at work and got a lot accomplished. Irene and I went to the Peabody Athletic Club for our workouts during lunch and it was so refreshing! I did one mile standard workout on the eliptical while watching Judge Hatchett, then I moved right onto my beloved ab machine and did 75 more reps with 60lbs and then we hit the showers. We had to walk over to the bank and Family Dollar and then came back to the office. I had a weight watchers roasted turkey w/ gravy & garlic potatoes for lunch at my desk and plugged away again with those medical records!

After work, I headed out to Old Navy to look for our annual 4th of July t-shirts to take on our trip and to celebrate Kyle's 2nd birthday but left empty handed. Not a great selection this year and none of the shirts were in Kyle's size! So I will be looking for those elsewhere this year. :(

I then met up with Jim and the boys at the softball fields on Appling for Jim's softball game. It was a great game and we won 14-13! Go St. John's!!!!! Afterwards, the team went to East End Grill in Bartlett for a great dinner. I had a southwestern grilled chicken quesadilla and it was so yummy! The service could have been faster, but we enjoyed the fellowship with friends we have not seen in a while. After we got home and I had picked up Shelly & Ryan from the neighbors, we sat down with the kids about all the places that we have to pick from to eat while at Disneyworld and they each got to pick their top 5 in a "secret ballot". It was a lot of fun and then Jim presented them with the T-shirts that he had made with "Cacy Crew" on the front and pictures of the 7 dwarfs on the back and each of us had our name attached. Grant is Sleepy; Ryan is Sneezy; Austin is Bashful; Shelly is Doc (she wants to be a Vet); Kyle is Dopey (he knew he could not complain or be offended at the age of 2); Jim is Happy (inside joke from co-worker when coming up with this surprise for us) and yes, that leaves me as Grumpy!!!! Everyone knows that is not the case with me, but it did make me chuckle at the irony of it all.

After we got the kids settled, they decided that they wanted to get the leaves out of the pool in hopes of it being ready to swim this weekend and I watched "So You Think You Can Dance" and then I pooped out! (it was after midnight!)

Have a great day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAITLIN!!

Just wanted to wish one of my close friends a very Happy Birthday today....she is a young 24! Hard to believe there is 10 years difference in us, but she is the sweetest, most helpful person you will ever meet. I miss her dearly since she works out East now and I am still downtown. But we both love our jobs and that is a GREAT thing!

Luv ya girlie!

Yet again...

I was too tired to get on the computer last night so I am doing it now!

Yesterday I was super busy at work, but Irene, Kathy and I did go to the Peabody Athletic Club for our workouts during lunch and it was fabulous! I did one mile aerobic workout on the eliptical while watching Judge Hatchett, then I moved to my beloved ab machine and did 75 reps with 60lbs, then it was on to the arms with 25 reps of 40 lbs and I finished up with about 10 minutes on the stationary bike before hitting the showers. Came back to the office and had a weight watchers hamburger steak & mac-n-cheese for lunch at my desk and worked worked worked!

Went to pick up Kyle from my parents home and he watched Yo Gabba Gabba during our 1/2 hour commute. When we got home, daddy was waiting on us and I quickly changed back into my workout clothes and we went for our nightly walk. Boy my legs were feeling the earlier workout, but it sure felt good! We then had deli sandwiches for dinner and we looked over different details from Disneyworld that we need to get with the kids tonight so we can start choosing where we want to eat on our trip in a few weeks.

Kyle went down after our nightly bedtime routine without a hitch and then Jim and I proceeded to watch "Moment of Truth", "Hell's Kitchen" and "The Mole". Ryan and Shelly had been at VBS at the church down the street from us with the girls across the street.

I was completely and utterly exhausted, so I turned in after our shows and slept great till that dang alarm went off this morning!!!!! LOL

Have a great day everyone!

So the first night did not quite go the way I wanted...

Ok, so I had every intention to get on the computer last night and really do this thing right, and ...

We got home and I folded 4 loads of laundry and watched our tv shows after putting Kyle to bed and then I was just too durn lazy to get in the office on the computer and blog away.

I had a great day at work yesterday and learned how to file a Notice of Removal from one court to Federal Court. I kept busy for sure and felt like even though I was busy that I did not get a whole lot accomplished! Of course, we have to remember it was Monday!

After work, I headed out to Munford to meet my family at the Skating Rink for Shelly's Softball party. It was a long hot ride, because my air is acting up again in my van and we really don't have the time to get it fixed before we leave on vacation. They had pizza, sodas (diet for me of course) and yummy yummy CAKE! Kyle had a blast just running around the rink with all the kids that were skating. I got some cute videos and great pics of Shelly, her team and her coach as well as of Ryan and Kyle playing together. (will post pics later)

Jim took Kyle home while I got Shelly, Ryan and her best friend Harley together to head home as well. When we got home I changed clothes and we got ready for our evening walk. Kyle was in his wagon and we tried to take Mudzie, our new little puppy...

...but she was for some reason scared of the noise that the wagon made while on the pavement, so she got left behind at home. We then picked up Jodi (Harley's sister) along the way and she joined Kyle in the wagon. We walked a little over a mile and the breeze was great! Clouds were rolling in and it was getting dark because we got home so late from the skating rink. When we arrived home, Kyle got ready for bed and we had our normal family routine of our night-time prayer: "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, and if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. God Bless Mommy & Daddy & brothers & sister, puppy dogs, kitty cats, the fish and the guinea pigs. AMEN!"(of which Kyle then says: MAA MEN!) Then he gives mommy kisses and daddy kisses, tells mommy "luv you", tells daddy "luv you" and then one more round of kisses before getting into his big boy toddler bed with his blankie, cup of milk and his night-time cd on.

Shelly, Harley, Jodi & Ryan played and got to stay up until midnight. Jim and I watched Gladiators and the Bachelorette while I was folding clothes. The storm finally rolled in and we got a good couple of hours of heavy steady rain. My flowerbeds are very thankful. Then as Jim fell asleep, I watched my Young and the Restless before drifting off myself. Thank goodness for TIVO!

Hope you all have a great day at work and I will post more soon!

Hello Everyone

This is my first real blog besides me trying to do some on myspace. I think its a great way to keep people up to date with our family and to keep up with great friends too. I will try to keep this up nightly as a diary so-to-speak, but at least on the weekends if that fails.

Our family is looking forward to our trip to Disneyworld in a RV soon and I am currently busy at work.