First day as a College Freshman....

As I type, I can still remember when Taylor was born and how much joy she has brought to all of our lives since that day *sniff sniff* but now she's all grown up, moved 12 hours away and got as far away from any parental supervision as she could, just to go to college. She got a full academic scholarship for 2 years to an all girls prep college. She LOVES it which makes me feel a little bit better considering how far away she is now. It's not the old 3 hour drive to visit anymore. I just keep telling myself that it's only 2 years and then we'll get her to Tech back in Lubbock to start Med school and then all will be right with the world. *sniff sniff*

I never went to college much less seen the inside of a dorm room, but I can tell you this would make me clausterphobic (sp?) But, I hear from everyone this is what they are supposed to look like. You'll see what I mean below.

She says that they are going to put the beds up on lifts soon so they will be able to put those little desks underneath the bed, like a bunk bed and that should give them both a LOT more space.

This is her suite mate Emily, whom she just loves. She's all the way from UTAH! They met last year when they went for a visit a couple of times to the college and hit it off so they requested each other to room with and that was that. They are in a Suite with a main living/dining area and all the bedrooms are off of the main room. 4 are doubles and 2 are singles. I would much rather be in a single, but I think that's more money in tuition. But, I am happy they like each other and they all are cute as hell.

This is the whole lot of them on Sunday before Brunch. How fun is that? They are all expected to dress appropriately and attend Brunch every Sunday together. I love that!

She's taking a total of 14 hours. Plus she's decided to play Softball, too. I talked to her this morning after her first practice at 6 am and she was beat and she has more practice this afternoon. I told her to look at the brightside, this will keep her from putting on those "freshman 15"

Frist day in the 3rd grade!

Love these girls!!!

Busy, busy, busy!!!

Oh the fun we've had this Summer....

First Grandpa Bill and Ms. Laura came for a visit...Grandpa Bill always does a scanvenger hunt when he comes. It's a lot of fun and Izabella loves it! This one took a good 15 minutes or so and she had us all running behind her trying to get pictures of the whole thing. Ms. Laura loved the dogs.......but who wouldn't, we've been very lucky with both our dogs...even though Joey has pretty much destroyed our carpet, taken a panel of corner siding off the house, destroyed 3 pine trees in the back yard, and started chewing on the bottom stair slat. We still love him and he's just about over it..but of course now that I say that.....I better go find some wood to knock on. Enjoy these pics..

Then Daddy and Izabella went to New York for a Mingolla family reunion. I wasn't able to go and that was the weekend that I redid Izabella's bedroom for her birthday. While Grandma and Papa were here we went to the GA Aquarium for their 46 th anniversary.

Next was a little get together for Izabella's 8th birthday party. The usual suspects came....Christina, Alex, Reagan, Aidan, Ms. Sandra, Ms. Kerry and of course the little people with fur that live with us, Soxy and Joey. We just did hot dogs and cake and ice cream, always a winner. She had gotten a Nintendo dsi from Grandma and Papa before they left so she got 2 games for it. Thanks ladies for making her birthday so much fun!

Then it was 4th of July. We spent a quiet night at home with the Downings. We got to do a little fireworks of our own...............and I do mean little. But still had a great time!

Next up.........it's been SO hot this Summer. We've been in the upper 90's since June with about 95% humidity mixed in with that. Makes it hard to breathe sometimes. After a good night in the driveway, Robert came home from work just dying from the heat so he decided to shave his head and to let James do it!! Not sure he realized how many cold ones he'd had before the clippers came out, but I think it turned out great and Robert loves it. More importantly.............his father loves it!!

Daddy took the girls with him to Huntsville, AL to do a show up there. There's a NASA Space Center there that he wanted to take them to. I didn't go with them and they told me all about it when they got home. They also had a Star Wars exhibit there, too.................BONUS!

And of course, there was some old sisterly wrastlin while Tay was in town! Oh if you could have heard the laughter! and then someone got hurt! always happens. Izabella fell off the foot stool and landed on the back of her head. If you look closely at the last picture of Steve and Tay you can see when it actually happened :)

Last night we had a camp out in the back yard for the last weekend before school starts on Monday. We had sliders, fries and fruit and I set up a build your own ice cream sundae station set up too! YUMMY!!!

The girls were up till 2 playing and swimming and then up at 6 and in the pool again before 7 this morning. The plan was to get them to sleep well tonight and get a good nights sleep before first day of school! Mission Accomplished!!

Well..........that's it in a nutshell, but I should add that in between all of this were lots of movies, more sleep overs, 2 weeks of YMCA camp and lots and lots of swimming! We tried to make the most of every moment we had!