HAPPY BIRTHDAY Warren Denefield II May 01 Brenda Pritchett May 01 Richard Atkins May 04 Samantha Lett May 08 Breicia Lett May 10 Leslie Atkins May 12 Wendy Milburn May 16 Johnathon Kersey May 21 Patricia Woods May 22 Donald Davis May 26 Gail Davis May 27 Kevin Battle May 27
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HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Michelle and David Hogan will celebrate their 19 wedding anniversary on May 18, 2010. Congratulations!!!
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY I want to wish all the mother's, grandmother's, and aunt's Happy Mother's Day. I hope you all have a wonderful day. Jordan wants everyone to know that she has the best grandmother's and aunt's in the world. And of course besides my mom she has the best mom in the world!! |
26th Anniversary Trip - by Rick Spencer Frances and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary 25 Mar – 9 Apr spend a week in Tobago followed by a week in St Maarten. We started our trip by leaving Newport News Airport at 7:00 pm to New York’s Laguardia airport. When we got to LaGuardia, we had to take a shuttle to JFK airport. After checking-in passing thru security at JFK (it took 1 1/2 hours!), we took off for Tobago at 1:00, 26 Mar. We had once last connection in Trinidad then finally landed in Tobago at 9:30am. It was a long day of travel but worth every minute! Tobago is part of the island nation on Trinidad & Tobago and is not too far from the coast of Venezuela and was filming location for the Walt Disney movie The Swiss Family Robinson. The island is really laid back and a great place to “get away from it all”. This was our second trip to Tobago once again staying at Sandy Point Beach Club – an old but well maintained property. All the rooms are fully furnished with a full kitchen. It has a little restaurant that serves lunch and dinner, a small grocery store and a bar/recreation area. We did a little site seeing and I did some diving, but the highlight of our stay was Frances taking a scuba diving lesson in the resorts pools. For someone who doesn’t swim and doesn’t even like water in her face, the idea of breathing underwater with scuba equipment had to be terrifying. She conquered her fear and completed the lesson under the watchful eye of Dougie, the instructor and Master Diver. By the end of lesson she was actually under the water by herself (in the shallow end though!). Unfortunately, the lesson came on our last day in Tobago so she was not able to take the “next step” and go into the ocean, but I am confident she will be up for the task with another lesson or two! From Tobago, we traveled to St Maarten. For those that don’t know, St Maarten is a tropical island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 186 miles east of Puerto Rico and is divided into two half, Dutch and French. We stopped there for a day during the 2006 Thanksgiving family Cruise. Most everyone spoke English and everyone accept US dollars. We stayed in the Belair Beach Hotel. Belair is wonderful facility, fully furnish kitchen, 2-bedrooms and right on the beach and a bar that had 2 for 1 Happy Hour specials everyday (I got my drink on!) We had a spectacular view of the ocean and would regularly see cruise ships coming into nearby Philipsburg. We spent time site seeing and spending time lounging on the beach and yes, Frances even got in the water with me (up to her neck!) and I did some more diving. The picture of the plan landing is not fake. Planes on final approach pass right over this beach. All of St Maarten is Duty Free, so we brought back quite a few things that were much cheaper than buying in the states. We also witness a beautiful wedding on the beach. The bride was brought in via boat by the father and he personally delivered her to the groom. We had a great time and I am already planning where we will spend our next anniversary trip
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MS 150 BIKE RIDE & GIRLS WEEKEND
We had 13 people this year for the MS150 bike ride, ranging in age from 14 to 70. The group included Michelle, Sydnee, Dianna (mom), Jenny, Terri (Michelle’s best friend), Brandi (Michelle’s god daughter), Tania, and Brandi’s friends, Tori, Stacy, Wendy, Nicole and Tiffany. We had so much fun. My mom ended up on TV. Mom meet one of our local newscasters Vicente Arenas and it was on the news. She was so excited to see herself on the news that she started calling everyone at 9 in the morning. It was funny because we had just talked about this guy the night before and then she gets to meet him. I think the cutest thing was when mom played the clip for Jaylin, Warren and Jordan. They all keep saying “grandma is on TV”. Jaylin had the cutest smile on her face. They were all so proud of grandma.
Saturday we volunteered at a break point in La Grange, cheering the riders on and helping with traffic. We had to move those big cones around. I didn’t realize how heavy they were. And of course I did the most work for the day. The medic’s for our break point just happened to be Jenny and her friend Tania (who is also a nurse). The MS Society even gave Jenny a car to drive for the week. After a long day we head to Austin to the hotel. That night the hotel had a manager’s reception with free drinks. Boy, the melon balls and rum punch sure were good! Yes I did have a couple of drinks, it was free and a chance for me to try things. We all had a good time just talking and being with each other. After dinner the younger group decided to go to 6th street and hang out. They were nice enough to take the 2 older girls (Jenny & Tania) who think they are still young with them. It sounded like they all had fun.
Sunday it was up for a really nice hot breakfast. Omelets anyway you want them. Then off for the last day of volunteering. We all had different things to do, some did hydration station, others signed the rider’s certificates and the rest making sure that people entering the VIP lunch were suppose to be there. Michelle has special medals made for the people that ride in her honor and after she gave out the first one people started asking were they could get their medals. She had to tell them that she made them for her riders. It seemed like Michelle, mom and Terri knew all the high up people in the MS Society. This was nice because one of the ladies came looking for Michelle so that we could go and have lunch with the VIP’s. They even had Michelle talking to the riders over the PA system, which was cool.
This year I think it meant more to us because Michelle has had a hard time the last couple of months. And the money that is raised will help found a cure for this disease. And make sure that she is healthier longer. We meet a lady that told us thank you for volunteering. She told us that her husband was a rider and one of the top fund raisers. I told her that he rides to help my sister. After talking for a few minutes she told us that her husband also has MS. She and Michelle talked about the different drugs and different things that Michelle could do to make her feel good. When she left she had to give Michelle and mom a hug. It was nice meeting someone that understood what we go through having someone we love deal with this disease.
I just want to say thank you to all the ladies that come out to help for the weekend and hope you all come back next year.
The first picture is mom with Jenny and Michelle wrap in a blanket because the resturant was so cold. The 2nd picture is all 13 of us at breakfast on Saturday, back row:Nicole, Jenny, Brandi, Tori, Terri, Stacy, Michelle, Sydnee and Tania, front row:Mom, Wendy, Tiffany and myself. The 3rd picture is of Apple, Michelle and Russel at the finish line. The last picture is of everyone except Jenny and Tania (they were at a different break point). I wasn't able to get mom's picture with Vicente but here is the link to it. She and Nicole are on pages 8 & 9. Please check it out.
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Well that's it for this month. Talk to you all next month.
Love, Kim
