Where does the time go?

Well, this week marks the ending of another chapter in the lives of my children. Yesterday, they officially ended their 1st and 2nd grade years. There is such a bitter sweet to the conclusion of each stepping stone in their lives. I know they grow and change but like most Mommy's, I so wish I could make time stand still. It's weeks like this one when I realize how quickly they grow!
Canyon and Dakota with their teachers! Mrs. Moore was Dakota's and Mrs. McCracken was Canyon's. We have been truly blessed so far with such amazing teachers! Thank you Jesus!


Dakota enjoyed a wonderful 7th birthday on the 20th of May. Could she really be 7? I remember the moment I found out I was pregnant with her and I will never forget the sonogram that told the story of a beautiful baby girl growing in my womb. We were so excited that the Lord would be blessing us with a little girl giggle! The day Dakota was born was fast and furious. I had attended a morning MOPS meeting and would be going to my 37th week check up with Dr. Villarreal that afternoon. I remember a sweet friend asking me if I wanted her to take Canyon for the day. I didn't take up that offer but see now why the Lord gave her the prompting. I went to that apt. to find out I was dilated to a 5. Because I was only 37 weeks and not having contractions, I was sent home with strict orders to return should I begin to have any! By the time I was in the parking garage, I was already calling Doug who was at home to tell him "I'm in labor". Over the next hour we got Canyon settled in with Papa and made our way back to the hospital. Once robed and checked in they found that I was dilated to an 8 and my baby girl was coming quickly! A few pushes later, our princess was born. It was an awesome birth. Dr. Villarreal asked me to reach forward and help "Deliver" my angel - a moment I won't ever forget! Placing my hands around my sweet baby, I literally had the opportunity to deliver her from my body and pull her to my chest and place her right on me ... warm, naked and new to this world, I was the first person she saw! She cried like no baby I had ever heard - she had some LUNGS! It wasn't long though before my baby girl found her two favorite fingers and began sucking away. Seven years later, she still loves those fingers and it is still the sweetest site to see her comforting herself. She also still has an amazing set of lungs! Time flies doesn't it! That beautiful girl is now 7, going into the 2nd grade and such a delightful joy in our home!

The Birthday princess!

Dakota enjoyed a special night with 3 special friends and a very special sister!

It takes a lot to blow out 7 candles!

Canyon concluded what could be the most awesome school year he has had yet. He had an amazing 2nd grade teacher whom he adored and adored him! Our Canyon is a child who accepts nothing but the best of himself. This can sometimes be a difficult scenario since he does get so down when he doesn't do something perfect. As one who struggled with and still struggles with "perfection", I am hoping to convey to Canyon that the Lord made him incredible, talented, gifted and bright but not perfect and it's o.k. to sometimes mess up! Canyon received all sorts of awards this year at the awards ceremony. He was the last student that Mrs. McCracken gave awards to. Joking, she said she needed to catch her breathe before listing them all out; A honor roll, Citizenship, AR (accelerated reader) award, PE award and even ... The Music Award. The last award, music, makes me laugh a little. With exception to spanish, Music was Canyon's least favorite subject of the year. For some reason, he has a great aversion to anything musical and has declared that he will not be learning an instrument anytime soon. There sits that piano in the dining room! Let's pray one of the girls sees the musical world differently! I was proud of Canyon that even in the things he didn't like and enjoy .. he still gave his 100%! That's all the Lord asks of us ... to do and give our best!
My sweet boy, Canyon!

Canyon and one of his buddies, Blake

Canyon being Honored with many awards!

Time sure flies! As we enter into a summer chalked full of activities, I am praying that I will stop and smell the roses a little. I have a tendency to put together my "checklist of to do's". I pray that the Lord will continue to show me that time with kids isn't a "to do" but definitely the PRIORITY! The older I get and the older they get .. I realize that!
Blessings my friends! ENJOY!

Beach to Bay 2009

For the third year in a row, we have completed a wonderful and successful family trip to the beach for the annual "Beach to Bay" run. Our team, appropriately named "Family Ties" has also competed in the relay run for the past 3 years. It's always a huge and fun event but this year, it was HUGE! With 2400 teams in the relay (up from 1,725 the year before), there are a LOT of people packed in to Corpus Christi and on to the Island. Each year, we venture on down the Thursday before the Saturday morning race for some good beach play, swimming and family time. This is the first year that my parents and brother couldn't join the fun so that was a big bummer. In the past two previous years, I have had the joy of handing my baton off from my #5 leg to my awesome brother who awaiting to take it to the finish. He always makes our team look great as he runs like a gazelle across the finish line in his well chiseled physique - you'd never know he'll soon hit his 40's. Last year was also a huge treat as our dearest friends, the Foote's joined the fun. Just like family, Cindy joined the running team to bring in leg #4 to me. It was her first time to run in an official race so that was fun! We had intentions to make it a repeat year, however, the Lord had much grander things in store for our sweet friends. They are scheduled to be leaving for Ethiopia in the coming week to bring home their new daughter Aria Lu. I suppose that takes greater precedent over the beach run .. though it is a close running. HAHA SO .. all that to say, Family Ties had an all new look this year! Doug, me, my brother in law, Papa and a friend of my sister in laws and her husband. We switched up legs and set out for a hot and humid run ... more to come on that later!

Anyways, this year was great fun like all the other! I love seeing how the kids have grown year to year. Since we go at the same time of year each time, it is a great way to gauge how much they've all really changed. I was most saddened to see how much my Dakota has matured in a year. My blue eyed blonde will be 7 in 3 days and as I watched her on the beach, it struck me that she is very much coming into her own. I know that I should be thrilled by that but this Mommy just isn't ready for my babies to grow up! Dakota spent every single moment of the trip giggling with her cousin, Andi (also a beautiful girl who will be 9 soon). The two of them are precious together. They played in the sand, swam, and locked themselves in our condo for lots of "littlest pet shop" and "patriot horse" time. We are so blessed they adore each other so! It is always a highlight of the year for Dakota to have 3 solid days with Andi!
Canyon loves playing with his cousins, Ryan and Jared, while Maliah enjoys tormenting and being tormented by Drexel my two year old nephew. It is so humorous how they can push each others buttons - it's about time someone can get under Maliah's skin!! This year, my sister in law and brother in law added a new addition to team Fergason. Brooklin was born in late January. At 3 months old, I'd say she enjoyed her first beach experience and we loved having a baby around to hold and love on!

RACE DAY ....

"Team Family Ties" did great in the race. We finished and no one collapsed so it's a success on our terms! HA. This year was SUPER SUPER HOT! I ran the 4th leg .. across the Navy base (4.69 miles). It was so humid and hot with no breeze. I am not sure I've ever been more miserable in a run actually! It's a good thing I knew someone was awaiting my arrival or I may have walked and that is totally not my forte! I love a good run and I LOVE a good race! This was something awful though .. one I hope next year doesn't model! In the end, everyone did great on their leg. I am not sure what time we came in. Funny thing .. our 6th leg hadn't a clue to look at the huge clock to see our time. Oh well ... we all survived and still had smiles on our faces and little finishing medals on our necks when it was over!

TRAINING FOR 2010. That's right ... let the training begin ... we're all booked for 2010 ... Family Ties Beach to Bay trip #4!

Enjoy pictures from our fun!

Half way there

Well, I'm half way there. I officially have my "new" and improved computer back from my friends at the Apple store. Installed .. an all new and reliable hard drive! And you better believe that this time .. I'm getting back up! I have already subscribed for my "free trial" on Carbonite. I'm thinking that perhaps an external hard drive will also be in the foreseeable future. I'm not taking any chances this time.

SO ... with my new computer came the crashed hard drive. A small little black box that holds so many treasures. I hope to take it to the Data recovery company on Monday. I'm praying for a FULL retrieval on ALL information and pictures! Will you too pray with me?

Today I am getting ready for our family to head to the beach for the weekend. It is our annual "Beach to Bay" trip! I'm so excited to get to sit in the sun, play in the sand and enjoy my family! I am so behind on packing and getting all prepared for our departure this afternoon. I suppose that I am not making very good use of my time on here but I wanted to update to everyone that I indeed have my computer. I have yet to get e-mail to send. It sits in the outgoing box unable to go out. Something with the preferences I'm sure. Need to call my other friends at "Road Runner" but that will have to wait and be put on the list of to do's for my return. I CAN receive e-mail so if your out there ... send me your info .. I've lost it all for now.

Lastly, I took some pictures at Canyon's baseball game this week and on mother's day. I need to try and get some new memories created for 2009. I'm also enjoying learning my Nikon D80 a little at a time. Check out my black and white image of Maliah. I also was able to zoom and crop a few of my pictures on it. I have tapped into very little at what that amazing thing can do. Add to the list ... photography lessons!

Enjoy the pictures ... they are literal treasures!

Houston ... we have a problem!

We're going down ... CRASH!

I write this post for all of my "it won't happen to me, friends". I can say that and not be hypocritical because I too was a "it won't happen to me" person. You see, my Dad has been warning me for the better part of a year to "Back up" my computer. He even went as far as to send me the link of a company to back up those important files but .. well .. I'm stubborn and besides .. I have a MAC, they don't Crash and better yet .. it won't happen to me!

WRONG!!!

Friday morning I returned from a workout to do some work for my sweet hubby and his new business. As I went to my computer that was "sleeping", and woke it up, I found it was busy "thinking". That thing - you know the one - was going around and around and around. Wondering what was going on ... I left it thinking and went and made some lunch. An hour later ..

thinking, thinking and thinking .. that's right .. still thinking.

On that, I decided to manually turn the computer off. Something must be not right and surely, a re-boot would solve the problem. Of course, I don't know if I was legitimately at the time really considering the fact that my computer was crashing ... though I joked about it .. but I assumed that I'd turn it back on and it would do it's thing .. I mean, I have a Mac, and it won't happen to me!

I turned on the computer and there it sat .. a white screen .. nothing .. just a screen. HMMM, I thought, that isn't right either. Praying, I left the room "Lord, just make it all better". I came back a few minutes later just knowing that I'd find my computer with all my applications sitting up and ready for me to work BUT, well, instead, I found a white screen PLUS a file folder icon with a large blinking ? mark inside. Not good. Now, I knew something wasn't right.

I called my honey who had so wonderfully made a reservation for us for dinner. Happy Birthday to him, Happy birthday to me and Happy Mother's day. After a few calls, that hot date had quickly become a date with the Genius Bar at the apple store.

Fast Forward ..

Tears .. they work! As the man casually told me .. yep, it's gone, I simply stared at him. Doug standing next to me with a rational brain said, "so your telling us that after two years, the hard drive has crashed?" "Yep, he said" and then went on to describe the mechanics behind hard drives and the technical information that at the time meant as much as the computer was presently worth .. NOTHING!

I believe in those moments, 2 1/2 years flashed through my head and I realized that pure treasures and every documentation of those years resided on that hard drive. Yes, 2.5 years of pictures, first days of school, first lost teeth, first Daddy daughter dance, beach trips, first time Maliah learned to ride a bike, first time Canyon shot his bow, and more. To add, 7 months of Gala work, every tax return, budgets, Christmas letters, address contacts (yep .. I have NO CLUE where you are!), all of the work I've done for Doug's business and lastly, a book that I had secretly been working on for oh .. a year now. ALL GONE - CRASH!!

My face was as white as a ghost and with those memories and thoughts, alligator tears surfaced and like a little child I began to sob.
Over the Genius bar, the sweet boy helping us said "you didn't back up your files, we always tell people to make sure to back up". Well, sweet man .. that would mean that I believed that things would happen to ME and well, they don't .. they happen to others but not to ME! Yes, in those moments it was clear that I was without a doubt the biggest fool ever! I challenge you to read Proverbs and all the times the Lord warns of the fool and foolish .. I was, now his living warning!

So now, the computer is at the Dr. It's getting an all new hard drive and the latest Mac software. Yep, lucky me, and lucky Doug for some huge Alligator tears and a very soft hearted Genius bar worker .. it's all FREE. Perhaps he felt so bad when he threw in that we could "Possibly" get everything recovered with a typical fee of $800. You should have seen Doug's face!

NOW ... I wait for the computer and yes, I wait for my old hard drive to be removed and handed over to it's foolish owner. I will indeed be sending that all important treasure off to some very savvy techies and I will indeed be praying that they can retrieve all my lost data. And, because I am going to be in confidence that they will, I am also proudly going to admit, that I will be THRILLED to write that check! Won't you pray with me. Surely .. it can happen to me!

Oh and by the way, you better believe this time, I will have back up! I will have an external hard drive and I will indeed heed the warnings of all those who warned. And as my Dad said "I told you so" never hurt so much!

so BACK UP! Don't be foolish ... learn from the fool and remember "It can happen to you"!

**on another note ... I have lost all my e-mail contacts and all calendars. If you are out there, I'd love for you to send me your e-mail address so I can add it to my contacts. If you were awaiting an e-mail from me (sweet Christianne! .. I don't know how to get a hold of you and I SOOOO want you to know that I adore you .. please write) I now don't have my e-mail contacts and will never claim to remember them. I have a mac ...with so many cool applications (until they crash!) so who needs a memory. I'm certain that mine would have crashed long ago! Wait a few days so I can get my computer up and running. They tell me it will be ready next week sometime. I think by Tuesday.

Thanks for praying for great DATA RECOVERY! Happy way to start my 35th year. :-) Unfortunately, I know, that IS the one thing that WILL HAPPEN TO ME .. another year older!