Graduation Day!

Well, it's official, Casey is now a graduate! Congratulations! It rained off and on all day Friday. The graduation ceremony is usually outside on the football field, but it was touch and go for a minute... Finally the school board (or who even makes the decision) decided to go for it, to keep it outside and pray that the rain holds off. I started drizzling around 6:40 and out came the umbrellas.. But by 6:55 it had stopped raining and the ceremony started. It was really nice, the temp was cool, but at least it wasn't sticky hot, and the rain wasn't great for the hairdo's, but it was still nice.... After graduation everyone went back to Tracy and Robin's house for food. It was really good. We had regular fried shrimp, shrimp wrapped in bacon and fried, boiled shrimp, shrimp alfredo, do I sound like Bubba from Forest Gump??ha.. Vegetable tray with dip, pork loins, baked beans, squash caserole, and I don't know what else, but it was all good! Three weeks left until Tracy, Casey and I head off to Mobile for our cruise. I'm so looking forward to it! Below are a few pics from Friday night.

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Exactly 10 years ago I went through a divorce. That was a very painful time in my life. I live with my sister and family for about 3 months, until I could get back on my feet. Casey and Jake was my lifesaver. Of course, they fought who got to sleep with me, so they had to take turns. At that time I worked at MSU in Starkville and Casey went to Starkville Academy. It was many, many times that I would pick her up from school and take her back to my work until I left to go home (my work was very, very flexible). She had so much fun at my work from being teased by all the graduate students, especially the guys, to sitting at a desk and write me letter. Below are two letters I have saved. You may have to click on them to be able to read them.

The first letter is basically saying that she is sorry for what happened to me and that she was also sorry that I would be sleeping with Jake that night. The second letter was after Christmas, I was already in an apartment, I had let Casey and Jake spend a few nights with me over the holidays. But going back to the divorce, those nights when Casey slept with me, we would snuggle and talk, talk and talk. I never told her the details of when happened, but she had a very, very good clue. She would kind of hint around but I always would change to subject. I just didn't want her to know more than she already knew. Just having her around helped to much. Like I have said before, we always have fun when we're together. I was living with them when Tracy had Buck, so I kept Jake and Casey while Tracy and Robin was at the hospital. The day Buck was born I took Casey and Jake to the hospital to see him and then we went to Applebee's to eat. It was really fun. Those little moments is what makes life so much fun. Living in Starkville was so much fun and working at MSU was more fun! I remember one weekend in particular, Casey stayed with me. We walked all around the campus and then we went bowling. Below are a few pictures of that day.

The shades on her head are mine. To this day, she loved wearing my shades. She says my shades are better, but actually, they just cheap shades....

Today my girl is graduating, still get emotional just thinking about it. Below I just wanted to share a few more of my favorite pictures...

Congratulations honey! Love you so much!

More of Casey

My first two years of community college I was on the dance team. Casey loved watching me practice. While I was in my second year and she was a year older she would memorize my dance moves. I would be in my room practicing and she would be right beside me dancing. It was so cute! During my second year on the dance team we wore these high heeled dance shoes; so I would practice wearing my shoes. One time "we" were practicing and she got a little too close when it was time to do kicks. Yes, I kicked her right on the head. I would almost swear she did a backward flip. After that I paid close attention to her where abouts while I was practicing.

Casey was real good about smiling for the camera when taking the candid pictures. But she WOULD NOT let you take her to Wal Mart to get her portait taken. She would cry, cry and throw a fit. One day I got her all dressed up and was determined to get her pictures taken if it took all day. This photo of she and I took two hours of coaxing before she would let the photographer take her picture. The photographer insisted that we have a picture taken together.

She wanted her hair to grow sooo bad, so she could wear it in pigtails. This was her first pigtails.

I think she's buck naked in this picture, I'm hiding her naked booty!

When brother, Jake, came everything changed. She was no longer the baby! Tomorrow I'll tell you how she helped me through one of my toughest trial.

Casey Faye

My girl, Casey, is graduating Friday night! I can't believe that she has grown up on me. It just seemed like yesterday she was born. She and I have a special bond since she was born. When Casey was little Tracy was going through a bought of health problems and Robin was either going to school or working. So I kept Casey with me as much as possible. There has been many days when I would go straight from school, pick her up from daycare, and spend the night with Tracy and Robin so that I could take her to daycare the next morning and then I go back to school. In the summers when I wasn't going to school or working, Casey was with me. Over the years we had so much fun. Now, we did have our share of fights. And, I think I have spanked those little legs much more than her mom and dad.... But in the end, we always love each other. So the next week or so I'm going to devote my blogging to Casey. Don't get the wrong impression, I love all of my nieces and nephews and when each one of them graduates I will devote blogging time for them, also.

Our first meeting. I swear she's smiling, love at first sight!!

I thought it was fitting that we start with my graduation and end with her graduation.

Tomorrow, more stories and pics...

Happy Birthday Claire!

Yesterday was Claire's 1st birthday! This year has went by fast. It just seemed like yesterday she was born. David and Elizabeth had cake last night. Claire wasn't shy with the cake. She dove right in! She had fun doing it. It's amazing how much a child grows from year to year and how much they learn. Their little brains is like a sponge! Big sister, Kate, was a little jealous b/c of the attention Claire was getting, but hey, this was the first birthday experience... She'll get better. Below are a few pictures of precious Claire!

This Week at the Moore's House

Not much has been going on in the Moore house this week. Monday Jimmy traded his truck for a new truck. It's very nice! Bright red Ford F350 dooley. He is on cloud nine! Every night this week he had told me that he is really, really enjoying his truck. All of you that knows Jimmy knows he is not a flashy or high maintenance person. But while we were looking at different trucks and this red one came along he just fell in love. He doesn't get excited about a lot of things but he got excited about this red truck! So now we both have red vehicles! Tuesday night Jimmy and I both had sinus headaches, so we were good for nothin'! I fixed tuna salad for dinner and we laid around and watched the Biggest Loser finale. I was rooting for either Mike or Tara; but Helen shocked everyone and won it! Last night I had UMW Night Circle meeting (United Methodist for Women). It was really great to have a bible study and just have a fellowship with the women. I really enjoy those meetings. This weekend pray that we don't receive rain until Saturday night. Jimmy's cousin, John Robert Pepper, is getting married Saturday afternoon and it's suppose to be an outside wedding. Saturday we have 50% chance of rain in the forecast. I just pray that it won't start until Saturday night! Hope all have a great weekend, be safe!!

Cleaning House

Do you ever get in those kinds of moods where you need to do things but you just can't seem to get around to it? That was me this weekend. Friday was my day off and I had planned to clean house. But instead of cleaning I did other things like slept late, went walking, cooked lunch, got clothes together to take to the cosignment shop (never got around to taking them yet) before I knew it, it was Friday night. So I put off house cleaning until Saturday. Saturday I woke up, drank a few cups of coffee and ate breakfast. I then got dressed b/c I really needed to go grocery shopping before I started my cleaning. When I got ready to go grocery shopping I called Jimmy just to let him know where I'ld be. He told me if I would wait about 15 minutes he would be finished and would go with me. So, once he came home, took a quick shower, dressed and we were off to the grocery store. We ended up going to Jackson, then Dogwood, then lunch, then grocery store. By the time we got home cleaning house was the last thing I wanted to do, also I had to bake a cake for Sunday. So it was, again, put off until Sunday afternoon (already made plans to go to Philly on Sunday morning). Sunday, we got up, I taught Sunday School, then we headed to Philly. We had a good lunch with my parents, Tracy & Jake, and my Uncle Keith and Aunt Marsha. After that the ladies headed off to a tea for a cousin who's getting married. So we didn't get back home until late Sunday afternoon. By that time I gave Jimmy an ultimatium (is that how you spell it?). "You have the choice of doing floors which means vaccuuming and mopping or dusting and cleaning bathrooms...... But we were too tired on Sunday so I told him that Monday was THE CLEANING DAY! While at work on Monday I called Jimmy to see if he was psyched about cleaning that afternoon and to also tell him we would clean once I got back from the tanning bed.... He had spent a good portion of his day doing little odd jobs to the camper and he was getting ready to wash it. Once I got home Monday afternoon the cleaning began! He had the floors vaccuumed and I was STILL cleaning his shower. I soon realized why he wanted floors... By the time I got our bathroom cleaned and ready to tackle the front bathroom, he was finished with the entire floors. So he thought it was time for him to take a rest, yeah right.... When I got to the front bathroom I noticed that around the toilet area the floor was turning blue. I thought "How odd..." And funny how Jimmy didn't notice while he was mopping the bathroom floor (that's how observant he is when doing house work). Anyway, I called Jimmy to the bathroom the investigate and turned out that the toilet had been leaking quite some time. Because we hardly ever use the front bathroom, it was not noticed. So, Jimmy pulled up some of the floor covering and saw that the floor was beginning to rot. Yuck! Jimmy's job was just beginning.... He, his little brother and dad worked on the bathroom well over two hours. Once they removed the toilet and pulled up the flooring the rottened floor wasn't as much as they thought. They were able to cut the wet floor out, replace the floor and then put another piece of floor covering to pretty much match what we already had. One of Jimmy's Uncle had been remodeling their house and they had everthing we needed to fix the bathroom. Once we put the toilet back on, my magazine rack and waste basket, you really can't tell the floor covering isn't the same. I'm just glad we didn't have to fork out the money for an entire new floor. Or I would be crying as I'm blogging this story... By the time we got finished with everything we were pooped and it was late. We both slept so good Monday night! But I think we both learned a lesson to not procrastinate the house cleaning! I'm just so thankful that I have a hubby who doesn't think house work is a "woman's job"!