10 YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION SEPT 5TH

Lauren, Meredith, Leigh, Liz, and Me at the dinner of 10 yr High School Reunion. It was on Saturday night. I would have attended more of the weekend activities except it was the weekend I had Bronchitis. I pulled myself out of bed to go to the dinner. I was pretty hot and miserable, but I definitely don't regret going. I love you girls!

Me and Clay Brindger. He was my Junior Prom date! His wife used that in conversation when I met her this night. It was so funny.

Meredith Duggan Bechtel and me. Meredith is my upline Consultant in Southern Living at HOME. It's great that I can still keep in touch with her after all these years.

Ashley and Jessica Moore

Michael and Kori Smith and Michelle and Trent Parkerson

Leigh Clary Abdou and Lauren Cooper Pate

Allison Warren Crenshaw and me. Such a genuinely, sweet girl and she hasn't changed a bit!

Justin, Allison's husband is in a band and they had a show that night. So...he ordered his food early! Normally, I wouldn't blog about that except that our dinner "started" at 7:30 and we didn't eat until 10:30. The food at Austin's was great, but they were not prepared to cook and serve a party of 100! We were all coveting his food!

Elizabeth and Max Oliver. Liz and I are definitely the closest out of all the people I went to high school with. I hope and predict that we will truly be friends forever.

Adrienne Wilkerson and me. This girl was crazy in high school, but we all loved her!

Alice, Allison, Roshni, and Elizabeth

Matt and Heather Dorsey

Alice Gung Park and me. Alice is an awesome Photgrapher in ATL. She was always such a smart, sweet girl growing up!

The spouses of our guys and Elizabeth Oliver and me at the end.

Elizabeth Moody Alexander and me. I am not thankful that we have the common bond of losing a Dad, but she has definitely been a blessing to me. I remember all the fun we had as Matgirls together in high school!

Some of the girls started singing...I'm So Glad. It was a song that we sang/danced to at the end of a game when we won.

The Spouses took these pics. There were like 20 flashes going off at the same time.

Our Sweet Fellas...Bryan, Trent (front), Phillip, Kyle, Clay, Ashley, and Matt

The gang saying goodbye...me, Elizabeth, Leigh, Elizabeth, Lauren, and Meredith

UNCLE SCOTT RIGSBY-Friday Sept 11

My Uncle, Scott Rigsby, was the first Double Amputee to complete an Ironman in Kona, Hawaii. He came to Valdosta and shared his incredible story with some people from the Wesley Foundation and his family ofcourse. It was a great night. He has now written a book detailing his struggles, pains, and triumphs. You can go to scottrigsby.com and see a great video about him as well as to purchase a book. After he spoke, the family went back to Aunt Susie's to play Phase 10!

Alicia, Mom, and Aunt Susie

me and Kristy

Kristy and Sam

Jay and Angie

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

The Valdosta family September birthdays...Patsy, Mom, the girls, and me. We have like 7 other birthdays in September on my mom's side of the family. My Grandmother's calendar is quite funy to look at. Thanks to Alicia for the yummy carrot cake and for only putting pecans on half of it for me!!

Emma and Mommy

My Aunt Susie has all this jewelry that the girls play with every week. So cute.

Well, it was as good as it's gonna get. Me and Ella Grace

The girls...you can tell which one loves the camera.

I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for my Pandora charms!

Dinner at Charlie Tripper's with Rose, Melanie, and Amanda. The boys were there too, but I didn't catch their pic.

I love my sister in law and a lot of times just want to say sister because I love her that much!!

Trying to get this pic was a task!!

Me and Ella

On Sunday, I thought my family was having my birthday party, but it wasn't until the following Sunday. So I took pics with my babies just for fun. Me and Emma.

Jessica took me to dinner on Thursday night. We went to Outback and it was also yummy. Maybe I shouldn't celebrate longer than a day. I consumed a lot of food this week.

Allison and I have been best friends for a very long time.

Jeffrey and Allison took me to dinner on Wednesday night after choir practice. Funny story. We went to Applebees, sat down, and somehow got to talking about Japanese and I said I love it!

So we got up before our waitress came over and went to Ichiban! Gottta love Jeffrey's goofiness.

I love their children, Reid and Abi! They were the first kids to call me Aunt Heather and will always have a special place in my heart. They couldnt find the princess crown and I wasnt going to wear Sandra's over the hill crown, so they settled on a lay(sp).

My yummy oreo ice cream cake.

My friends Sandra and Lance cooked me steak for my birthday dinner. She has been a friend for over 15 years and I love her dearly.

My sweet friend Kasey always sends me flowers to make my day special!

My Aunt Susie gave me this oh so cute yellow purse and my Aunt Ann sent me all the cute earrings.

Emily took me to lunch. Unfortunately my cold had sucked the taste buds out of me and all I wanted was some hot soup. So we went to Ruby Tuesday's and I got the soup and salad bar! Yummy. I got two new Pandora charms that I love! Plus an hour massage to make me smile like this!!!

Ashley Moorman sent me this whole carrot cake from "A little piece of Heaven" I took half of it to him at his office. It was so incredibly thoughtful and boy was it yummy.

I started my day at the Salon getting my hair highlighted and styled. I couldn't work it out to get my massage beforehand so I told Jan to do my hair curly so maybe it wouldn't look greasy by the end of the day. Jan got me a big tervis tumbler with lid and straw and my initial on it. So cute. Actually, my day started at 8am with phone calls from friends singing happy birthday! The other funny thing is that my Blackberry would ding everytime someone text me or messaged me on facebook. My phone went off all day...it was such a great feeling to be so loved!

Bronchitis:(

So my blog will be updated soon with some really great pics and festivities. It just so happens that I got bronchitis on Thursday. I don't have a computer at home to upload pics, so this post from my fabulous iPhone will have to do. Even though I have been out of commission for 4 days, I have still been enjoying my birthday week. I still have dinner with my "bestest" this week and my family birthday lunch on Sunday. PS I was not present when my family decided to celebrate all the months birthdays on one Sunday. I mean I think I'm important enough for my own celebration. Just kidding. I love my family. This might just be a birthday month after all! Happy Labor Day!

DAD'S HEADSTONE

So the headstone was finally put into place and even then it took me a month to go out and see it. I sat on the ground and cried for a while and then a peace came over me. I knew he wasn't there, but I wasn't sure if I would somehow feel closer to him by being there. I just thought, this is what it is. A memorial to where his body was laid to rest. But thankfully, I know he is in Heaven with my Savior, singing with the angels. He isn't in pain and doesn't have to deal with any more of the corruptness of this world. Somehow, I feel that he can see the good things that happen to those he loves. (That may be wrong biblically, but that's how I feel.) But he won't ever miss us because there's no sadness in Heaven.

I went to see a counselor. I wasn't going to share this with anyone, but I am better because of it so I thought, why not? I only saw her twice, because my ins wouldn't pay for it, but she helped me realize all the things I was going to miss from my dad's death, I had to grieve over. It also helped that she was a complete outsider to me and my family. She told me the same thing everyone else has said, it will take time, it's okay to be sad, ect. I think just hearing it from her was a final lightbulb experience. So, I'm changing the name of the blog. I'm making steps to heal and going to take the time to do so.