April and May

As you can see, I am extremely bad about updating this thing.  I really do apologize!  I am going to post a few updates of the last few months.  Lets start with April and May.

April was a pretty normal month for us with me teaching and Lam finishing law school.  I did get Spring Break in there and that was wonderful!  We got to spend Easter at home and attended our first holiday service at Westover Church.  It was wonderful!  We then headed to Burlington for lunch with my family.  Here are a few pictures from that lunch.

My Dad and His Girls!

Lam and I

Me, Nikki and Sarah

Mom and Her Girls!

Now on to May!  We had lots going on throughout the month.  First Lam finished his last semester of law school!  He then took off to the beach for a week without me.  I missed him but he deserved it!  We then spent a weekend celebrating Hinton and Anna's engagement at one of their first parties!  That was a lot of fun.  The second weekend was very busy!  On Saturday, my friend Natalie and I drove down to Wilmington to meet baby Jude!  Nikki and Justin were there for Jill's (Nikki's sister) graduation and we could not resist driving down to see them!  We met them out on the beach and then headed to lunch at Sweet and Savory!  Martha even got to join us for a little while.  Jude is so cute and it was great having 4 of the 5 back together in Wilmington!  We missed you Candice!

The girls and baby Jude!

Me and Baby Jude!

Then on Sunday and Monday we celebrated Lam's graduation!  On Sunday there was the hooding ceremony.  Lam's family and my family got together to celebrate!  We are all so proud of Lam!  On Monday morning we went to graduation for all the Wake Forest University graduates.  The law school then broke off to get their diplomas in Wait Chapel.  I cannot express how proud I am of Lam and his accomplishments!  Here is a picture after the hooding and a video of Lam getting his diploma!

Our last two weekends in May were spent at OIB!  They were a tease and really made us ready for summer!  The first one was spend with friends: Kemp, Lizzie, Jeremy, and Natalie!  Ramses even had a friend named Abby!  We all had a great time.  The next weekend was Memorial Day Weekend!  Even though Lam had already started his bar review course, we were able to make it down there for some relaxing! We spent the weekend with Lamar, Marci, Grandma Jean and Eason.  Ramses enjoyed playing in the ocean and found her a new favorite spot to sleep at the beach house!

Ramses playing with Lam in the water!

Ramses and Jolie on the back of the couch!

When we got back, I got ready for my last two weeks of school and Lam hit the books hard preparing for the bar exam!  Stay tuned for an update on our busy month of June!

I am really bad at this...

I am really bad about keeping this blog updated! I am very sorry to anyone who is really following this!

We have had a very busy start to 2011 with Lam's last semester of law school and my second 

graders!  It has been wonderful to be able to stay home on the weekends and just enjoy some of the beautiful weather we have been having.  Ramses sure has loved the sunny, warm weather as well.  She loves to lay in the sun by the front door.  We also took her to the park for the first time a couple of weeks ago and she LOVED it.  Her are a few recent pictures of her.

In Ramses Heaven!  All her toys and the sun!

Walking with Daddy!

Lam did have Spring Break last week and he was able to go home for a few days.  I of course then spent a few days in Burlington. It was nice to only have a 5 minute drive to work instead of the normal 30! On Thursday, Lam's family came into town for the ACC Tournament. Grandma Jean, Marci, Lamar, Hinton, and Mark all came up but at different times. Lam and Grandma Jean were the only 2 that went to all 11 games! I was able to join them Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. My Dad, sister and her boyfriend also joined us on Sunday.  It was fun to have them along and to experience a Carolina/Duke game. Too bad Carolina didn't play that well, but I still love my Tarheels!  Before the game started I was able to get a picture with one of my students!

Tuesday morning bright and early I got the phone call that one of my best friends had given birth to her baby boy, Jude! I am so excited for Nikki and Justin!! They are all doing well and are home.  I am very sad that they are all the way in Auburn, AL.  I can't wait to get my hands on that sweet baby soon!  Here is a picture of Nikki and Jude.  I took it from her facebook...hope she doesn't mind!

Well, now that March Madness has started the only thing that sees our TV is basketball.   At least The Bachelor was over Monday night before it all started!   I hope everyone has a great weekend!  Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Caribbean Adventure

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

Our adventure began the day after Christmas when it was snowing in most of North Carolina. We joined Lam's family on a cruise after Christmas. His parents gave this to the family as our Christmas present this year. We got up extremely early and left Winston-Salem and headed for Charlotte. We got to the airport in plenty of time for our flight and we were actually on the plane on schedule! Then we had to wait for the plane to get deiced. It took awhile but we got off quicker than we thought when they first mentioned having to wait in line. We would be cutting it close to catch our connecting flight in Orlando but we really thought we were going to make it. Well...we were 20 minutes late and it was gone! They had already booked us on the 7:00pm flight to San Juan. That wasn't going to work because we were supposed to be on the boat at 8:00pm and the flight from Orlando to San Juan is 2 hours and 30 minutes. Lamar talked with the agents and we found a flight with another airline that was supposed to leave at 4:00pm. We raced through the airport to get to the Jet Blue ticket desk. As Lamar, my father-in-law, waited in line to get our new tickets, the 5 kids, Hinton, Anna, Eason, Lam and myself, went to get our luggage at baggage claim. When we got back to the ticket desk they were ready to check our bags and then we were set to go!

We went through security and found our next gate. When we got there we found out that this flight was delayed!! We were crushed. We thought we were going to just make it, had this flight been on time. So we waited and prayed that we would get there on time. Once we finally landed in San Juan things went very smoothly. We went straight to baggage claim, Lamar went to get us a taxi, and our luggage was some of the first off the plane! We met Lamar outside and we were in our taxi probably within 15 minutes of getting off the airplane! The drive said he knew exactly where our ship was and drove extremely fast to get there. We could see 3 cruise ships from a distance as we pulled up and our hope was restored! Our drive then stopped at an empty dock. He said that our ship sat there all day! We had missed the boat.

That night we got rooms at the Sheraton and waited an hour for room service because the restaurant at the hotel closed early and we hadn't had dinner. We went to bed exhausted hoping for better luck the next day!

Monday, December 27th, 2010

We got a phone call from Marci, Lam's mom, at 8:30 and told us to be ready in 30 minutes because we had a flight to St. Thomas. St. Thomas was the first stop on the cruise and we were hoping to get there before the ship left that evening. We rented a small charter plane. I was very nervous because I had never been on a small plane. After we got in the air the ride was very nice. Much smoother than I expected and we had a beautiful view! We did make it to the boat and were on in time for lunch! Our luck had turned around.

After we ate, Eason, Anna, and I got off and went to walk around some of the shops near the ship. It was very pretty and we had fun, but we made sure we were back in plenty of time to get back on the ship! We were there and didn't want to take any chances!

That evening was our first formal night. We were all pretty tired at dinner that night, so I think we all went to bed pretty early!

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

St. Croix
St. Croix is the home of basketball star Tim Duncan. Lamar and Hinton played golf, but the rest of us explored the island some. We took a shuttle to another section of the island and were told that Tim Duncan's family had a restaurant pretty close. We walked around for awhile and then we found it. It was called Harvey's! The people who owned it are family friends of Tim's and they were very nice.

Eason, Lam and I went to find a beach after that. Marci, Anna, and GSpice went shopping. We all had a good day and were glad to get some relaxing in after our crazy first 2 days!

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010
St. Kitts
It was raining when we got up and we were a little nervous as to what the day would hold. We were supposed to go 4-wheeling to explore the jungle and some sugar cane fields. We were hoping the rain wouldn't spoil our day. Our day was actually very fun. We each had our own 4-wheeler (except GSpice, she stayed on the boat this day). It never rained extremely hard on us but it was a little muddy on the paths. A couple of 4-wheelers got stuck but nothing too bad. We saw some very beautiful views from the 2 stops we made on our tour. We also tasted sugar cane fresh from the fields. It was yummy!

Thursday, December 30th, 2010
Antigua
It rained some again here but we were still able to do most everything we had planned. Lamar, Marci, and GSpice took a tour of the town where we docked. Hinton, Anna, Eason, Lam and I went zip lining and snorkeling. I had never zip lined and it was really fun. After we did that, we got on a sail boat and went snorkeling. It did rain some while on the boat but all in all it was fun!

Friday, December 31st, 2010
St. Lucia
Hinton and Lamar played golf again, so the rest of us went to find a beach. We took a taxi to a place called Pigeon Point. This place has a couple of resorts near by and a national park. We paid to go to the national park for the day. It had a couple of beaches, a restaurant, an old fort, and some really pretty views. We hung out at one of the beaches for most of the day. It was very nice and the water felt great after laying out in the hot sun!

That night was our second formal night and of course New Years Eve! After dinner we went out to the pool deck to bring in the new year!

Saturday, January 1st, 2011
At Sea
This was our only day at sea. We spent most of the day on the pool deck reading. I think we also explored the boat a little more but I am not exactly sure. It was nice to just enjoy the boat for the day.

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011
St. Maarten
Our last day was spent on St. Maarten. We rented 2 jeeps and drove around the islands. We ended up at a resort way off the main roads. It had a public beach and a restaurant. It was very quiet and not crowded like some of the other beaches. We all had lunch and then relaxed on the beach either napping or reading. It was beautiful and was a great way to spend our last day!

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

We began our journey home and all of our flights were on time! The only problem we had was at the Orlando airport. Hinton, Anna, Lam and I got stuck on one side of the airport without our boarding passes and passports. Thank goodness Marci was able to bring us our stuff and we were able to get back to our gate! We made it back to Charlotte about 7:00pm. We got to back to Greensboro about 9:20pm. Just in time for bed!

It was a great trip and I really enjoyed the beautiful warm weather!

Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas with our families.  On Christmas Eve we had dinner with Lam's family at his parent's house.  It was great to see everyone!  When everyone left we watched Elf!  On Christmas morning we all got up and opened our stockings. Ramses really enjoyed getting into hers!  Lam and I then went to his grandmother's..also known as G'Spice's...for lunch.  We then drove to Burlington to have Christmas with my family.  After we exchanged presents, Mom, Sarah and I pulled out our old Unto US A Son video.  This is the Christmas Ballet our old dance studio does every other year.  It is something that is very special to me and it wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't get to watch it some how!  That evening, my Dad's side of the family came over for dinner and presents.  It was great to see everyone!  We also have several children in the mix, so it is especially exciting to hear all that got and what Santa brought them!  It can get loud with everyone together but that is how I like it!