Photos of the Holiday

Mariah & Great-Grandpa Gird after putting the tree up

Gib an unwilling photo partner after Mariah did almost

all the work decorating the tree

Thanksgiving Pass the Spoon Relay Race

The best Thanksgiving photo of Chrissie ever!

Taryn finds room for just one more leg!

This is so cool!

Indy missed out on Pumpkin Carving at Halloween :(
So she did hers for Thanksgiving so we could eat the seeds
Go back up and look at what the flowers are in on the kitchen counter!



Chino sleeping in...gotta love those holidays!











BEWARE....

The following photos are visually disturbing....

Mike's manicure from the Achievement Fathers-Daughters activity with Mariah.

This was a couple weeks ago, but I don't think anyone got to see the results. Mike looks good in that shade of pink, huh?! Mariah giggled and giggled just thinking about painting her dad's nails. She had a great time. I couldn't look at Mike until he took off the nail polish. That kind of surprised me, but I really could not handle it.

Only Selling Trees

Brace yourselves....our guys won't be on-air sensations after all. I'm bummed. Gib, not so much, but there may still be another media opportunity before the Christmas Tree selling season is over. But, all's not lost, there's always the newspaper photo op - maybe they'll get their cute lil' mugs in the paper again and be quoted and everything, just like last year! The guys will be selling trees all day, working three 3 hr shifts back to back, then one more on Saturday and they are done. Each Scout and a parent works 4 shifts in one of the Troop's 3 tree lots around town. It's a big deal and funds the troop for the entire year and sends the Scouts to camp. That's in addition to the wreath sales which Mike and I head up for the troop but for which Mike did 99% of the work on this year.

While the boys are pitching the wonders of a real tree and flashing those big brown puppy dog eyes, making the big sales, roping trees to the tops of cars and practicing all those Boy Scout knots that those city-boys will never get untied when they get home, we'll be at home setting up our FAKE tree. I don't know, there's something wrong with us...first it's no turkey, and now it's a fake tree when my boy is out there shivering in the cold selling real trees for the troop! We need help! Wait, I DID buy 3 wreaths from my puppy-dog eyed boy and they got put up on the door and windows! That cost almost as much as a entire tree! Phew! I'm okay. I had myself scared there for a second. I'll take a photo of the wreath's tomorrow. It's a little dark out right now.

So here's a question, completely off topic, I'm just throwing this one out there...Indy and I noticed something that I think maybe will take some Westerner's to have the final say so on. Is it just us, or are there an awful lot of commercials with a Southern Redneck Twang goin' on? Especially the truck ones. And there's that one Oatmeal/Granola guy, you hear his big ol' voice alot too. Whaddya think?! Maybe they're just playing to the audience. We kinda had to laugh when we admitted we think we've picked up just a bit of an accent from living here. I know I got teased at the Toe Party for having one! And Indy just got teased at the restaurant for how she said something. But I don't hear anyone sayin' Mike or Gib have an accent? So is it just us gals?

Lowkey No-Turkey Thanksgiving

We are having a nice relaxing lowkey Thanksgiving. We watched the Titans beat Detroit, ate wonderful steak & crab for dinner, Mike took pictures (but I look horrible in them so I'm not posting 'em!), then we watched the last half of the Dallas football game, ate pie and now we're going to watch Survivor! TV & Family..what a great day! I'm very thankful for my family!

Phew and P-U!

So the oven was just on fire. Yeah, seriously on fire.

I had turned it on to bake a pie. I was mixing the pumpkin stuff, Pixie wanted in so I let her in, fed her and came back into the kitchen. My mom was chopping walnuts and I smell something hot, so I look at the oven and see FLAMES!!! So, of course I say matter of factly, "the oven is on fire" my mom rushes over and we stare at it as if we can't believe it's happening. I turned it off, and I'm all like, "what's in there?!" thinking it was empty because I had just turned it on. We peer through the flames and see Taryn's little loaf of pumpkin bread above the flames getting quite toasty. But I'm wondering, why is there a fire underneath it?! And my mom goes, the flames will go out without oxygen. And I'm all, no they're not. So she goes, get flour. So I run to the pantry and end up throwing about 3 cups of flour on the flames. Oh, but wait, first let me describe the billowing PUFF BALL OF BLACK SMOKE that erupted when we opened the oven door to put out the fire. All over the kitchen I had just meticiously cleaned today and yesterday. And the smell?!?!? PEEEEEE--EEEEEE--UUUUUUU! That's when it hits me...there used to be a plastic lid on that pumpkin bread!!!!! Argh!!! Now there's probably a plastic blob on the bottom of my stove, covered in 3 cups of flour. I have no idea how to clean that up. I can't even think about it right now. My blood pressure needs to go alot lower before I can go back to the kitchen and pick out the black flecks of soot that was flying all over the kitchen and landed in my pumpkin pie stuff.

I discovered something else. Burnt plastic goes on the list along with burnt socks of things that cause instant migraines. I've got a doozy of an ice pick pounding at the inside of my left eye right now. I'm waiting for the meds to kick in. Taryn and Mariah recognizing the Beast that was about to emerge, quickly soothed things over by cleaning the cupboards and swiffered the 2x mopped and polished floors. Taryn announced that the pumpkin bread was saved and still tastes ok. Phew. What a relief. I'm just glad the smoke alarms didn't go off. I got the windows open just in time. Too bad the whole house that did smell so deliciously clean now smells like a burnt plastic pumpkin.

Kid Update

Gib is SPL! (That looks like text speak for "special" doesn't it?!) Well, he is, but it means that he was elected by his troop to be the Senior Patrol Leader. We are really proud of him. This is his 2nd try to earn the position and he gave a great speech. I heard there was alot of "Gib! Gib! Gib! Gib!" chanting going on. He loved that part. He will lead his troop of over 100 Scouts for the next 6 months, conducting meetings, communicating and coordinating, leading by example, etc. His first opportunity just presented itself today when there was a troop email requesting an immediate volunteer to be a radio talk-show guest to promote the Christmas tree lot on live radio Friday morning. Gib and Mike volunteered to do the show. I don't know yet if anyone else snatched up that golden gem of opportunity, but my guess is they'll be on air this Friday morning!

Indy is serving on her own tonight. Training is now over! She hopes the holidays tips are good! And yes, she is very glad they don't wear the fish shirts anymore! That probably would have been a deal breaker for her. She got super great grades on her progress report, but is annoyed that almost all her teachers gave assignments and major projects to be completed during Thanksgiving break. Since she is working almost every day of it, she doesn't have time for that and writing her scholarship essays too. Ugh. But she should maintain her top 10% ranking no problem which is crucial for her college scholarship opportunities.

Taryn was one of 75 students selected to take some test - ASFAB - I think it is mostly a mathematical aptitude test and the results are supposed to help illuminate careers that you have strengths for. She and her best friend took it to get out of 1-3rd period and were among the very few females in the room. Taryn said she was a little stumped on the mechanical engineering questions but winged it. There was something about how afterwards if you want, the test scores can be sent to the military. I'm not too sure about that, but T thinks blowing stuff up for the Navy would be cool. I keep reminding her the Navy is water, how much stuff can you blow up that will look cool under water?! I don't know about that child. But I bet she did good on the test! Her first run at the ACT was pretty good, and we'll be looking at her college choices after the holidays. Taryn also got good grades. She has one class she'll need to concentrate on, but she'll bring it back up to an A.

Mariah went on a 2 night Girl Scout camp out. They got to ride horses. That was a first for Riah and she loved it. It was super cold though. She has a friend who lives in the neighborhood and they are often talking on the phone or hanging out together. Yesterday she had a dr check up and she's grown 2"! Today, Mariah is into making short videos about the cats and their owners. She just offered to fix my hair so I can be interviewed. What?! Am I that bad?! Yeah, I am. It's a hat day.

We ARE Alive!

It was a close thing for awhile there when we didn't have internet/cable for a few days! But now it's been up and running since last night and I am almost caught up with everything I had to put off - you know, emailing, searching for stuff, Christmas shopping, etc. It is amazing how much of your life you conduct via internet and email.

My Visiting Teaching partner had the unfortunate experience of stopping by mere minutes after I spotted the cable truck down the street. I ran inside, saw my online lights were green and connected to the Internet as fast as I could. It was up and down a couple times that first few minutes and I'm afraid I was a bit like a addict, yelling at the machine, the idiots down the street who weren't fixing it fast enough, because I could see my fix but not quite get to it long enough to take care of the important things...like see if I was beating Mike at Fantasy Football and register for some shopping coupons that I had to do that day or lose out. I think I looked at her for about 30 seconds, maybe twice, said "that's nice" when she suggested we have a get together for the Christmas Devotional at her house with our Visiting Teaching ladies. She wanted to know if we were really disappointed about the Titans loss, as I was all, "whatever, it happens". I think I really need to call her and explain my distractedness.

I still haven't caught up on all ya'll's blogs. Today was the first day of Thanksgiving Break aka sleeping in and dr appt's. I wrapped up some more emails and that was it. But NOW.....I BLOG!!

In Training

Indy is now training to be a server. She'll be on her own soon. We won't be seeing much of her this upcoming week as she will be at the restaurant just about every day. Don't you just love the outfit?! She is getting teased mercilessly because the apron is waaay too long for her. We haven't had time yet to hem the extra pair of work pants we just bought. And I'd like to see if there's a way to hem the apron without it looking like we did because it has to be reversible and it can't be obvious you altered it. Indy doesn't think we can because everyone has to look the same, but c'mon, isn't there something glaringly WRONG when one server's apron is practically floor length and the others aren't?!

I've been waiting forever for Mike to take me out on a date night, and I know just the place I wanna go!!! (Hint! Hint!) Then we'll go again when my Grandpa comes to town, and when Mike has a birthday, and when the company picks up the tab for a Christmas dinner, maybe New Year's Eve...I'm gonna work my way through the new Red Lobster menu with the cutest, smartest, funniest, nicest, most talented server ever!

Mariah's New 'Do

Mariah is blazing new trails in the 5th grade... dark highlights, or lowlights, or whatever you call them. I thought maybe she'd seen someone else's and liked it, but no, turns out she's the first. The one I thought would be a box-blond all her days, embraced her emerging beautiful brunetteness. The only obstacle? Low on funds. The rule here is you have to pay for the 'lights, mom pays for the haircut. I suggested she take over Gib's household chore chart he just finished for his merit badge because it wasn't hard to do and it sure was helpful to me and I'd pay her $5 a week for 6 weeks. Her response? "Can I think about that?" She phoned a friend and came back to me with this great idea to raise money for her highlights instead...."Can I have a carwash?". So, finding this to be very humorous and I can't wait to tell Lori how Mariah planned to pay for her services, I explain that usually people hold car washes to raise money for a good cause, such as a church youth group camp or girl scouts fundraiser....not so much for a single girl to raise money for her own hair! Lori thought it was a hoot and it just might have worked because there's alot of women out there who get how beauty ain't free! In the end, Mariah came to school with me during Fall Break and spent 4 hours helping me sort through the preschool library. We must have found over 100 books to donate to the Good Will that were collecting dust and taking up real estate we just don't have. Because Mariah was there out of the goodness of her heart, as we were leaving, I told her she had been such a good worker and had such a nice attitude that half her highlights were taken care of. Did she want to finish by vacuuming and taking out the trash and litterboxes for the next 3 weeks? No. She didn't. She had some allowance and she was seeing alot of leaves turning colors that would then fall off the trees and need to be raked. She's pretty sure she can make $7 doing that! Anything but cleaning!!!!

Here's the Big Day:

She didn't want me to take pictures until I told her each one I blogged was worth $1 toward her highlights!
Taryn didn't think that was fair.

Mohawk Mariah

(kinda scary that it has a nice ring to it, huh?!)

Public Humiliation Vs. $1.00

TA-DAAAA!!

You can't see it in this photo, but all the hair underneath was highlighted too, so when she has her hair forward over her shoulders, the ends are darker brown.

Yep, she's a cutie! And she makes us laugh!

DUH! (This one's for Indy & Bobbie)

This week at preschool, the kiddo's are counting to 30 and learning about comparisons, similarities, things that are exactly the same and things that are opposite. The funny thing is that they don't seem to get that 30 items can take up alot or a little volume and still be 30 items. So I suggested a "Guess It" jar the teachers can start so the kids can estimate how many objects are in it, and whoever's closest can take it home to refill it with something else and bring it back for the next guessing game.

Until then, I thought it would be fun to pop into the class with two stacks of 30 plastic cups, in 3 oz size and 6 oz size. I had the kids guess which stack had the most. Of course they thought the taller stack. So we counted. Imagine their surprise when my little stack equalled their tall stack. Then we built towers in the block centers with the cups and blew them over when they reached 10 stories high. That is, if we could get them 10 stories high! We experimented with different foundations and found the square to be quite stabilizing for all 10 stories. I think we could have gone higher except for alot of heavy breathers.

Here's the part for Indy & Bobbie. As I changed groups I had a little gal who is a smart cookie, and I figured since I knew she could count by two's, I'd see if she could count by five's to 30 as well. So I did it real fast so she could see how it worked. She frowns at me like how dare I make this a teaching moment...let's build! So I'm all trying to explain how if you want to count something quickly so you can get to the fun part faster, you do it by two's, which she can do, but even faster and cooler is by FIVE's...ooooh!!! Since they just learned about the human body, I referred to the classic how many fingers on one hand, how many on the other, put them together, now go to the feet, 5, 10, 15.....and she goes, "20 phalanges, DUH!!!!" and rolls her eyes at me! I just had to laugh at that. They just had Pre-K Anatomy; they don't need us.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Well, besides the fact that it is taking me days between posts, that is?

So I am looking at my floor and thinking, despite how tired I am and how much I really don't want to do it, I just have to grab the Swiffer and even if it's only for 5 minutes, start tackling the kitchen floor because it is gross. Mariah is chattering away about her Social Studies, slavery and stuff, and I'm kind of thinking to myself, "wow, it's really alot grosser under these chairs than I thought, what did the kids spill under here to make the Swiffer stick like this?!" when Mariah distracts me with this question: "Mom, were YOU alive when they had slavery?". I have to say that despite the smile on my face now, the ick-factor of my floor, the non-working status of my Swiffer, and some general irritability on my part, I was perhaps just a tad sarcastic in my reply, "Oh Yeah, I was alive in the EIGHTEEN HUNDREDS!"

I go around the corner and can't believe my Swiffer still is making that grating noise on the floor, I keep shaking it trying to dislodge whatever humongous thing is on the bottom of it, Mariah is apologizing profusely and laughing about her little error and trying to dig herself out of it by saying she meant when black people had to ride on the back of the bus, when I stop for 2 seconds, actually look down at the Swiffer and realize that the last person who used it didn't replace the pad! See, I ALWAYS put a new one on so when I grab the Swiffer out of the closet it is good to go! Yeah, a plastic rectangle grating against your wood floors with alot of grunge...that can't be good.

A Perennial Favorite

It's the Good News and The Bad News Blog of the Month! Already!!

Taryn's Good News: Her soccer team is still undefeated after today's playoff game! Taryn says she just about scored a goal off her left foot. Last week she got one on a corner kick. She's having a good season. Next weekend they play for the Championship. The girls sounded like they enjoyed playing forwards together the final few minutes of the game and let it rip! How fun to be on the same team.

Indy's Good News: Acceptance letters arrived today from Auburn (War Eagle!!) and University of Alabama in Huntsville. Yahoo! That leaves Elon and Vanderbilt. The application to Elon will be sent off this weekend. We won't hear back from Vanderbilt until April because she's applying Regular Decision. It cuts down her chances by about 30% in an already selective school, but if you need to compare financial/scholarship offers, you don't have a choice. Probably what she will do is choose one of the universities and proceed as if she will go there, and if Vandy accepts her, Indy will have to decide between the two which she wants to attend more.

Gib's Good News: He survived his first bout of Racquetball with dad & Indy today! They decided they like it, much to Mike's delight. And Gib has sold nearly 20 wreaths door to door for his Troop. Each wreath sold equals $5 in his personal Scout account which he uses to fund those great trips he gets to go on. Like the ski trip last February.

Mariah's Good News is also the Bad News of the Month: She is getting closer to avoiding the sleepover in the Man Cave that will be the result if the explosion of furniture, clothing, and stuff with Halloween candy thrown in for special effects is not cleaned up by the time one of her parents gets upstairs this evening!

Let me just say, that when Taryn & Indy warn me (wait, I may have even been physically restrained for my own health, not to mention a future free of bondage in jail) NOT to go up there, it's gotta be BAD-BAD. She and Gib have had five days (waiting for the weekend so I can carry out my threat) in which to work their way through what had to be the Mother of All Messes. I think even Mike saw it and bellowed. They are either making it more work than it has to be, or it's worse than even I can imagine. So, I threatened the Man Cave based on Taryn & Indy's assessment (and trust me, they made some doozies in their day, so if they're appalled, I think I should listen to them and NOT GO UP THERE). And here's the thing people, I WILL carry through. My children know this. They should be recalling the times when bags of toys were given to the needy because they made me clean them up one time too many. And lest you think I am a demonic OCD mom who insists on a perfect house - HA! So far from it. But I draw the line at something that makes my teenagers gasp. And despite the obvious references to his innocence, by virtue of close association and probable assistance in the disaster, plus being the only brother (and who else can I make go down there to protect my baby?) Gib will spend the night in there with Mariah and the mice, spiders, cave crickets and whatever else creeps in the dark. I hear it'll be around 30 tonight too. Good thing he can pitch his Scout pup tent and we have good cold weather backpacking sleeping bags!

But, I expect the bedrooms, tv room, closet and bathroom will be clean. How about you? Then again, they were dumb enough to destroy all that in the first place (and only one day after it had been cleaned after another monumental mess too). I'm so done. Let's hope they are too, or we are all about to learn a painful lesson. I probably won't get any sleep at all because they will be under my bedroom fighting with each other all night long about who's to blame for their misery and crying for mercy as they huddle in fear when things start making noise.

And that begs the question: Will it be bloggable???

Friendzy Friday

It's been a few days without a post, but I'm alive, and everyone around here knows it. Between being sick and too busy to be sick, I haven't blogged in a couple days. For shame! I got on a Z-pack antibiotic and went from a fever and a gurgly cough to no fever and a persistent hacking-up-a-lung-until-you-gag-and-almost-pass-out-cough. I think I'd like to go back to my near-pneumonia please. The little prescription capsules I was so excited about that are supposed to suppress coughing don't seem to be working. Bummer, if it doesn't clear up by Monday I have to go back for chest xrays. Ugh.

Last night was our biggie annual craft event at church. One ward approached us to see if we'd like to combine, and I was like, "uh, yeah!" and then about 5 seconds later I suggested we invite the other ward that we share the building with so it would be a 3 ward event. This was waaaay back in June, and since I just wasn't feeling the love for craft ideas this year, I proposed the idea that if the other wards came up with the majority of the crafts (they have the better craft gurus) I would coordinate and handle the actual event. It turned out GREAT! I really enjoyed the collaborative effort and it's always a thrill to have suggestions that are strokes of brilliance and will go into my little bag of tricks. In one meeting a gal thought it would be nice if we could send photos via email of all the crafts rather than relying on the lobby display since it can be challenging to get there and get signed up for some people. So, thanks to the Bloggers in the family that got me hooked, Mike and I went up and took photos and set up a blog for the 3 wards to view the craft items. If you want to see it, I think you can click on my profile and go to Friendzy Friday.

I have to say, I loved the look on the two older men's faces who came with their wives to help us move the 35 tables and 120 chairs up against the wall that the youth group set out for us after their activity the night before. They saw the hall full of tables everywhere and I think they were imagining us 3 women taking forever to decide how to arrange all these tables, when voila! I whip out my blueprint diagram of the cultural hall with little rectangles and circles showing where the tables would be set up, how many chairs at each, which ones didn't have chairs at all. The tables shaded in blue were the ones that needed table coverings, and everything was labeled so we knew which supplies would go to which table. It was a work of art I tell you. One dude snatched it out of my hands and off to work he went while we did the ardous task of covering the tables. We were finished in 1 hour setting up the whole thing.

The evening went off seamlessly and I only had to run out the doors 3 or 4 times to have asthmatic coughing fits in the parking lot. And I only had to run to the bathroom every hour on the hour after drinking what had to be the equivalent of 3 gallons of liquid during the day trying to keep from coughing. Since half of that was Diet Coke, it was no wonder I had plenty of energy for Friendzy Friday!!!

It Was Nice While It Lasted

I had a normal voice for one day. Then the croaky voice came back. Haven't quite kicked the cough. I am completely frustrated now. I haven't been 100% since the first week of October. I think I will stop by the Minute Clinic on my way to work in the morning and try to finagle some antibiotics and get my lungs listened to. I am starting to feel wheezy. Yuck. And hello, I still need my flu shot! I called my boss and gave her the heads up that if I'm contagious I won't be in, but we are already short-staffed, so I might have to be a behind-the-scenes person, load up on cough syrup, and wear gloves (and maybe a mask). Too bad Halloween is over.

We had a busy day today. No school due to the election. Indy and I went to vote at 9 am and breezed right in and out in under 5 minutes flat. It wasn't as exciting as we hoped. Then we shopped to spiff up her room. That WAS as exciting as we hoped! We didn't get much, but she made some nice changes to her room, rearranged furniture and added some new decorating touches.

The afternoon was devoted to Mariah - she had a Girl Scout activity at a pottery place. She made a gift for a sibling - each Girl Scout had to make something to be given away. Mariah loved painting it and we can't wait to see how it turns out after it's fired in the kiln. We had just enough time to visit some kittens at the Happy Tails shelter on our way to the choir performance at the grocery store. I'm not really sure why they were performing today, but they did, and it was nice, and short (which was nice). I have photos. I'll do a photo blog tomorrow when I'm feeling better.

Where Did the Day Go?

Don't you hate those days when you look at the clock and can't believe what time it is?! Maybe it's the time change, but wow, I feel off. So what did I do today?

• Woke Gib up 5 minutes before he was supposed to be ON the bus (Mike drove him instead)
• Got Mariah out the door for school an hour later
• Checked email, then started making the monthly dinner plan
• Then I made the grocery list for the monthly dinner menu non-perishable items
• Barely had time to throw on my sweats and head to the park to do my 5 mile Monday walk
• Stopped by the eye dr afterwards and am now trying a different brand of old lady contacts (they are much better so far!)
• Went to the grocery store with my giant list, a bazillion coupons and selected a sturdy cart(had to reject the first one because I KNOW I need one with good wheels!) because by the time I'm finished, it will be so heavy, I can barely turn corners, the food piled on top and stuffed below as well. The last thing I do is put my purse on my shoulder and fill the seat with eggs and milk and whatever else on my way to check out. What a system!
• Shopped til I dropped, and let me tell you, I have a hidden talent when it comes to packing food in a cart! Not only can I fit more food in an orderly (Yes, OCD even) manner, I rarely have to backtrack and hit an aisle I've been down. If I do, I am one annoyed chickie. Because that messes up my cart feng shui. I've got it down to a science, and well I should after 18 yrs of this. I get funny looks at check out too. Maybe it's me, but I simply must stack the cans just so on the thingy and I hate it when it moves faster than I do! I have all my cans together, my cold stuff together, my boxes together, my squishables together, you get the picture. It looks quite nice, and that's why people smirk. Because theirs looks like the Tasmanian Devil unloaded their cart.
• After I paid, it took two carts to get out to the car and about 15 trips in & out of the house to unload it. Then the real fun begins of putting it all away. Admittedly, not my favorite part. I was feeling especially OCD today, because I just HAD to organize all the cans in the pantry so A) everything would fit and B) more importantly, it would look pretty. I should photograph it, huh?! Nah. Who wants to see food?!
• 3 of 4 kids are home from school. #4 should be arriving any minute now. Taryn tells me today was the "most random lunch ever packed" and "who made it anyhow?!" Guess who? What wrong with pretzels, peanut butter in a cute little condiment cup, olives, cheese, snack wells vanilla cookies, and pineapple? I thought it showed creative genius myself.
• In the mail today, Indy received the 2nd acceptance letter to a "safety college". We're getting warmed up for the big deal!
• The bus has arrived. Mariah and I need to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread for Girl Scouts tomorrow and Grammy's birthday tonight.

Indy's Entry: Skydiving Essay

So for those of you who aren't sick of skydiving stuff...
you've seen the videos, you've seen the pictures, and now you can see the ESSAY.

Dad wants me to post it. I've sent it to Auburn and Vanderbilt. Wish me luck!

A turning point in a person’s life can be a process over time or one short moment that changes everything. After that metamorphosis occurs, a profound shift of perspective follows, reshaping the individual. The journey and challenges of life are forever altered. My turning point took approximately five minutes; I went skydiving.

I have dreamed of skydiving since I was about eight years old. To see the world from above, to feel the exhilaration of jumping out of a plane, and to return to earth by parachute seemed like one of the biggest challenges a person could undertake, but also one of the most rewarding. I was right.

I went on a Saturday in October, just three days after my eighteenth birthday, to Skydive the Farm. With time to kill I met many future friends, two of which were DZ Chad and Big Steve. They agreed to accompany me on my first jump as videographer and tandem jumping partner. We were the perfect trio; I, the excited risk taker, Big Steve, the man willing to do aerial back flips out of the plane, and DZ Chad, a fantastic cameraman.

Our turn finally came near dusk, which according to the veterans, is the best time to skydive because of the beauty of the sunset and optimum winds. Big Steve instructed me about skydive body positioning before it was time to leave and all three of us gathered together. With my excitement rising, we took off in a small plane packed with about twenty-five other ecstatic people, ready for their own adrenaline filled moment. After flying to 14,000 feet, it was time to prove myself.

Big Steve and I prepared to be the first team out of the plane. The gate opened up and a chilly forty degree wind rushed in. As I looked out, I realized I was eye level with the horizon. The wind whipped across my face and through my hair. I keenly felt the energy of being alive. I knelt in front of the opening with Big Steve as DZ Chad hung onto the side of the plane. I looked over at DZ Chad and gave him a nervous smile. Up until that point, I had no fear of skydiving, but looking out at the expanse below, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of fear. I crossed my hands across my chest and lifted my head up. I gazed upon the beautiful terrain of Georgia nearly two and a half miles below me. As Big Steve counted to three, I took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and let go of all my fears; it was at that moment we jumped into the air.

The view was surreal. I was watching the earth spin before my eyes, the land and sunset trading places. Once we reached free fall at 120 miles per hour, I lifted out my hands in fists and screamed for joy. I felt invincible and strengthened. Every part of my being was invigorated, and looking below me, I felt as if I owned the world. The sight of the moon rising in the east and the sun setting in the west was almost magical. The rippling textures of the green rolling hills and the grassy landing zone beckoned us to return. We pulled the parachute cord and floated our way down to earth, greeted by the cheerful reds and yellows of fall trees. I was part of a panorama that was both beautiful and empowering.

Skydiving taught me that I can accomplish anything, no matter how frightening it seems. I learned to be unwavering in my decisions with confidence in myself and my capabilities. I will reach out with this same boldness to achieve my academic goals while placing my eyes on the horizon of what is yet to come. As I leap into the fulfillment of my dreams, I know the journey is as rewarding as the destination.