YEAH! Inventor of the Year!

Well, I don't have the award pics downloaded yet, but for those of you who check my VERY unkept blog, I have exciting news!
Lauren entered the Invent America Invention Convention and did great! She was also awarded Inventor of the Year. What an honor! Her invention is called the Fire Alert, and it is an outdoor smoke detector that automatically calls the owner's home and cell phone, and fire department if smoke is in the area.

Okay, I know I've done my fair share of griping about the amount of time we ALL spent helping with this major endeavor, but, again, it was all worth it to see the smile of achievement across her sweet face! I'm so proud!

This is a pic of Lauren interviewing Ed Ramos (EMT and Volunteer Fireman)

I'MMMMM BAAAAAAAACK.

Okay, Shelley, here you go. I've decided to come out of blog slacker-dom. There have been so many happenings since the last post, I'll just take my pick... THE CAKE!

Okay, I know some of you have seen it, but for the rest of you...this was Lauren's Birthday cake. We used some really great stuff called fondant to cut out these circles and place on an iced cake. You can purchase it at Michael's or Hobby Lobby (other places, too, I'm sure). Lauren loved it and enjoyed helping cut out the circles. There have been many years of ugly birthday cakes (of my own making), but apparently year eight was the lucky year! It was fun!

More later...I promise!

Miracle Match Marathon Weekend

Here are the relay team members...Brandon Massingill (the fast one), me, Gina Poe, and Miles Sellers. WE'RE NOT WORTHY, Brandon. I think we could honestly contribute our win to him alone! We sure had a great time, though.

Abbey and Emily Hale and Lauren, our cheerleaders for the day!! They were great motivators for us!! Here they are ....still cheering after the event in the Pei Wei parking lot after we all gorged ourselves on some great Chinese food.

Rockport weekend

We had a great time last weekend in Rockport with our friends, David and Jennifer and their boys, Josh and Matt. First item on the agenda was great seafood at Crab-N! As Rachel Ray says..."YUM-O"! While the guys and kiddos fished Sat morning, the gals garage-saled Rockport and manicured at "Romance Nails". Then, we went to the annual Sea Fair where half of our party rode what we later would refer to as the "Barf-O-Whirl". You understand where this is going.... The rest of the day was spent in the quiet, cool house recovering from heat and nausea. Sunday morning, the kids caught a great lunch! Redfish on the half-shell and grilled shrimp. It took all three kids to get the redfish in the boat, and Lauren did a fine job with the fishing net. That's my girl! It was probably killing the guys not to bring in the fish themselves! Way to go guys with the patience and self-control! We are so fortunate to have great friends and great memories.

New Puppy!

Well, the last two weeks have been spent anticipating the arrival of our new puppy, Josie. She is a black and white Australian Shepherd. We've all been so excited! It's her first day at our house, and NO ACCIDENTS! She's brilliant, I can tell already! Okay, maybe not brilliant, but things are looking up so far.

She has already tried to herd Lauren and the cat named "Mr. C". She is so beautiful and quite the little fuzz-ball. She doesn't know it yet, but she is destined to be a distance runner!

Lauren's first soccer game of 07

Saturday morning was Lauren's first soccer game. She was placed on a team of older children due to a shortage of players in that group, but our girl held her own and played with the best of 'em! We even won 2-0!!! This was our first year to play on the new fields, and also on a full length field. Boy, were the kids tired after that game...but she was not too tired to swim for the rest of the afternoon.

Inks Lake State Park Camp-out

Last weekend started on Friday afternoon with a beautiful day at the lake....camper, sunny skies, calm water, and Frankie's chicken and dumplings! Saturday brought more fun, good friends, and anticipation of the Burnet Tri-Hard Challenge Triathlon on Sunday morning. We paddle-boated, swam a small portion of the race route, and regrettably, we drove the ride route to size up the hills. (Ignorance is truly bliss in this case as the hills were abundant) There were four of us "participating" in this event, and even Lauren made up her very own triathlon on Saturday. She jumped in the lake, swam around, got out, jumped on her bike (with helmet, of course), rode around the camping area, then sprinted around the loop like a mad woman. Then, she looked at me and stated that "It wasn't bad, Mom. You can do it." She always has a way to make us giggle!

My cousin, Eric, and his wife, Cara (most dear friend of mine) and their two kiddos joined us, as well as Cara's Mom and Dad. Her Dad, Roger, was the celebrity of the group with a first place age-group win!!! What a way to spend his 70th birthday!!! Our friends Will and Shelley Hale joined us for Will's first triathlon. I believe he survived, but was incredibly happy to be out of the water!! Cara showed-off her new swim moves she picked up from a few recent swim lessons, and came across the finish line all sweat and smiles! My good 'ol friend Gina "roughed it" with us in the camper as well, and was a GREAT spectator. All of us who participated in the event felt like we had a fan club! YEA, we have GROUPIES!!!