Summertime Activities

Here are some pictures from what we have been doing this summer. We have gone to Atlanta for Daniel and Emma's birthday party. After that, we brought Emma home to spend the week with us to give Mary Kay a break. We went to Discovery Island, which is a neat water park near Greenville. We had a good time being a family of five for the week.

Darrell, Mary Kay and Daniel came in Friday to spend the weekend and take Emma back home. Darrell and Michael played golf at Furman. Saturday night, we all went to Cheeseburger in Paradise. It was an experience that we might go back again sometime.

We are all ready for the beach. We go as a family in three weeks. Once we get back, I have two weeks before both girls will be heading to school. Abigail is going into fourth grade and Rachel will be in kindergarten.

More pictures from other activities will be posted in future blogs.

School's Out...

Yeah!!! School's out for the summer, and now I have to find things to do with the girls while Michael works.
Here is a picture of Abigail with two of her favorite friends from school on their last day of school. They seem to be the three musketeers. I hope they remain good friends forever.

As for things to do, we went on our first adventure this weekend. We went to visit a couple of SC state parks - Jones Gap and Table Rock. Both parks have nature trails that you can hike; however, we didn't hike at Jones Gap. We may go back there later in the summer to see what else they have to do. Table Rock was beautiful and had more to do. We took the girls out on paddleboats and saw a family of geese. They have a beach area similar to Stone Mountain's. I think we will go back there again later this summer. Mom said that she remembers going there for picnics with her family. It would be fun to do that with family and make new memories.



Michael said Table Rock looks like Stone Mountain with hair. We'll need to take a picture and see if he's right.

Accidents will Happen

Just a quick update on what's going on in Spartanburg...

Six weeks ago the weather was nice, and we decided to finally work on our yard. You know how hard it is to get the weather and finances to cooperate. Well, it did and boy did we find out how wonderful God really is. Michael borrowed a friend's four-wheeler and the neighbor's aerator to prepare it for fertilizer and all the other stuff you put on your grass to make it look pretty. The girls had been begging to ride on the four-wheeler, so Michael obliged. While doing our yard, the neighbor two doors down asked for her yard to be done too. My husband told her that would be fine. He had just told the girls to hold on, started backing up, and then heard screaming from the girls. Abigail had flipped off the back of the four-wheeler and her feet went in between the bar attached to the aerator and the aerator itself. He then proceeded to yell for me. I was in our front yard, fixing an area that we were going to concrete later. Long story short, we ended up in the hospital for four days.

God is good - things could have been much worse than they were. Abigail ended up with stitches in both feet, a walking boot on one foot and IV antibiotics for most of her Spring Break. Thank you all that prayed for us during that time. She is doing great! She played in her first ball games this past week; the doctor has released her to run and jump and do all the activities she could not do with her hurt feet. Her coach has her playing first base. He thought it would help her since it doesn't require as much running as other positions. David did say he may move her to shortstop before the season ends. Below are pictures of the aerator that she fell on; you can see how sharp the spikes are when you see the mulch on it.

School is almost over and our summer will begin. We are in the process of planning what we want to do. Some things on our schedule are: going to the beach, halping family get houses updated, and anything else we can think of that will keep Mom, Abigail and Rachel busy while Dad works.

Christmas 2006

Yes, Christmas has come and gone and we have finally finished all of our Christmas celebrations for 2006. This weekend was spent with my family to open the final Christmas presents. The girls were so excited to get their Doodle Animals - Rachel got a horse to write on and Abigail got a bear. Both are also excited about other toys they received as well.

This was a bittersweet Christmas for us in NC. This was our first Christmas without Daddy Rock. We all spent time remembering previous Rock Christmas celebrations. Mama Rock seems to be doing well. She has her moments, but she seems to be adjusting well. When things get a little rough, she goes on trips to visit family. She was able to take some time and help Pamela get settled in her new home. We are so glad to have her and the family close again.



Below are some pictures from the Rock and Brecht Christmas gatherings. We pray that this year will bring all of our friends and family blessings beyond measure.

Christmas is coming...

I love Christmas for may reasons. The main reason is the true reason for it -- our Savior was born! I also enjoy the giving of presents and the expressions on faces of the children all around me. Last week at school, the kids were able to shop at the Holiday Shop and Santa showed up. I refuse to pay for pictures at the mall, so I took pictures myself at the school. I know they aren't the best, but you can tell they're my girls. Someday I might learn how to get a better focused picture of my girls. And for those who are wondering, Snickers is still alive and getting bigger every day. He stays outside on the back deck while we are at school. Soon he will be staying in the garage during the days since it will be too cold for him to stay out there.



Now, if I can get the presents done that I need to before school is out for the holidays, then I will have time to sit back, reflect and relax before we start back for the rest of the school year.

To all, I pray you have time during this season to remember the true meaning of Christmas and spend time with the ones you love. Remember how precious and short life is and give all the love you can. Merry Christmas!

Living in the Country

OK...for those of you who know me well know how much I enjoy the country. I enjoy my conveniences to be convenient. I like having a grocery store within five minutes of my house. We have a church within viewing distance of our house. Who would believe the animals that we have nearby as well. I just thought I would share some recent pictures of my surroundings.

We have pigs that live across the street from us in a pen. A neighbor has caught a coyote that was eating his chickens. Another neighbor has informed us that there is a skunk that visits them every night to eat their cats' food. I guess the girls have decided since we live near rednecks, why not look like them.


Happy Halloween!!! (The animals are real; the teeth are not.)

Football, school and the dog

Here is the latest from us in SC. Our local high school football team, Byrnes Rebels, suffered their first loss in 34 games this past week. They lost to another number one team in the state, the Gaffney Indians, 28-15. It was not a pretty game. We watched it from home. This was the third televised game for them this year. There is a possibility that we could face them again in the state playoffs; hopefully, if this happens, we will beat them. Winning this year's state championship will be the fifth in a row for our team. Needless to say, we are pretty proud of them.

This past Friday, since we did not have a game at home to go to, we traveled to Concord, NC, to watch Michael's nephew play. For those of you who know him, this is Kyle's senior year. This is the first and only time that we have seen him play -- they lost. They played a hard game, but they were not able to pull out a win. Geoffrey plays for the JV team, and they were able to pull out the win the previous night. Even though they lost, we had a good visit with Kevin and Joy.

Report cards came out on Thursday. Abigail had A's in all classes except Social Studies. She received a B; she is like her mother and does not care too much for history. She also got to go on a field trip with the afterschoolers from the day care on Friday. She finally got to ride on a pony. Rachel went on a field trip today and got to bring home a pumpkin. We might just draw a face on it instead of carving it. She enjoyed her trip as well.

For a final note, Snickers is still alive. He is getting bigger by the day and continues to chew on anything, including his toys and the girls. I have threatened to get rid of him because the girls want to spend time with him instead of doing what they need to do. I think they know that it is an idle threat since we have all become attached to him. To be honest with you, I do not know that I would now know what to do if Snickers was not here. As much as he aggravates me, I still love him -- kind of like your own children sometimes. We'll have some updated pictures of all soon.

A New Addition

Yes, the girls and Michael have finally gotten to me. I have given in and we now have a new addition to the family. His name is Snickers. He is a six week old lab mix puppy. A family at our church had a dog that had a litter of 12 puppies. We have been talking about getting one for the girls but have not found one that we liked - until now. Here he is with one of his chew toys (his others are our hands, feet and anything else he can get his teeth in).

We picked him up Friday before heading up to Winston-Salem for a friend's wedding. He traveled well. Michael admitted that he could not believe that I was doing this. For those who do not know me, I am not really a dod person, but I informed him that he was too cute and the girls would never give up on this. Here is a picture of the girls with him at Mam-maw's. I just hope they stay as energetic and enthusiastic about him as they are now. This is supposed to be their responsibility. I know puppies and kids have something in common - they both have to grow up!!

Summer Vacation

We have recently returned home from our family vacation to the beach. This year we went to St. George Island, FL. It's a great place to go if you like staying out in the heat all day. My husband and kids loved it; I prefer a little time in the a/c as well as being out by the pool. We celebrated Abigail's birthday while we were there. We went into Apalachicola for lunch that day. After lunch, we went back and changed for beach time. One of her presents was to ride the wave runner in the ocean.
She LOVED it; Rachel preferred the sand. I think we are going back to Gulf Shores next year so you don't have to drive an hour to the nearest Wal-Mart. Before we left, the girls made friends with so other Atlanta residents.


I think this is the first summer vacation we have come home from without anyone being sunburned. Thank God for sunscreen!!!

Softball Update and Easter Pictures

Here is a picture of the newest softball player in the family. Abigail's team won both of the scrimmage games at the softball camp that she attended. She is definitely following in her father's steps and not her mom's when it comes to sports. Those of you who know me, know that I make a much better spectator than participant.

Michael still plays in the church leagues. He has not gotten too old for that, even though there are times when he feels his age more than other times. This year has been a better year for the men's team and they still have the tournament to play. Who knows? Maybe we will end up with another trophy.



Also, here are pictures of the girls from Easter. They are two peas in a pod. Many people say they look like twins. All I know is that Michael will need to have his shotgun ready in about seven to ten years from now.

Softball Anyone?

Abigail finished softball camp. YEAH!!!! There were no injuries to speak of; I did see a couple of girls on her team get hit hard by the ball. She still wants to play, so we are working on finding out about fall ball with the school district. We were told that they were going to start this the week after the beach and should run about six weeks. (just enough time for her to get bit hard by the softball bug). When I can, I will put some pictures on this website. I have some of her at bat and in the field.

Now that my sister has been successful at this, I thought that I would give it a try. This seems to be the easiest and best way to keep people up to date on what is going on in our lives.

Abigail began a softball camp today at the high school. This should be a lot of fun for her. She seems to be the natural athlete in the houlse. Michael is a great player but admits that he cannot teach anyone how to play. As most of you know, I am a great spectator and not a player by any means.

Rachel is beginning to recognize letters and write them. I hope that by the end of summer she will be able to write her name on her own. If she cannot write it, I pray that she will at least be able to spell it on her own.

Andrew was involved in a wreck last week. If they decide to total his car, he will be getting car number six. He will be turning twenty in November. Can you believe it?