Luis is selling raffle tickets for baseball.

I posted a little while ago that Luis tried out for an independent league out here and made it. Each player has to sell 100, $5 raffle tickets in order to help pay for the fields the teams owns to practice and play on. The league gets no money from the city, so the boys sell raffle tickets to try to help ease the financial burden on the parents a bit. Buying the raffle tickets enters you in for 2 chances to win $1,000 dollars.

Let me know if any of you would like to purchase a raffle ticket ; ) We have to turn them in by October 8th.

Thr Riverdogs thank you : )
This is a really great organization by the way. The partner with the local Exchange club. Through which we volunteer with families with children at Duke Hospital, volunteer with The Miracle League, an amazing Baseball league for Special needs children and do a canned food drive for one of the local missions. The league focuses not only on amazing baseball skills but teaching sportsmanship, leadership, and volunteering for your community.

This is the turtle we rescued during the storm!Poor guys was wondering across our yard completely lost. So we brought him in to our bathtub and will take him down to the creek/wooded area tomorrow. Yes, we figured out he was a box turtle, not a water turtle shortly after this pic was taken. Though he could swim just fine! I'll post more pics of him later.

Mr. Grizzles!

He's not fat, he's just fluffy!

That's what the kids say! But I say he super fat and have put him on a diet LOL

He's always had a bunch of hairballs do to all the fur. Which is so gross to someone who likes things clean.

Then we moved out here and he started barfing and having hairballs literally, almost everyday!!! WHAT THE HECK. He's not more hairy here than at home??? It could be the bugs? That he could be snacking on at night??? I was so sick of breaking out the steam cleaner everyday that I was just leaving it out permanently! BUT ....

Then I found these!!

He's literally had one hair ball since feeding him these! And its been weeks! YAY!!

So I thought I'd share in case anyone has a pukefacekitty

GrizzlyHood

I call this Samurai Homie

He puts up with so much!!! Look at his big ol' eyebrow whiskers sticking down in his face.

They love Sir Grumps Alot

Super yummytastic chocolate!

Trader Joes rocks when it comes to supplying yummy goodness!

Both of these were amazing! I love caramel and sea salt and heath or toffee is one of my fav things. The only down side is they melt supper fast. I thing/hope its because they lack hardeners and preservatives!! That would make me love them even more. I def recommend keeping them in the fridge : )

There dark chocolate peanut butter cups have completely ruined me for Reece's! And they are much smaller and made with healthier ingredients to.

On a side note.... out here they say Ree Sees??? What the crap?

The guilty party!

Our new puppy : )  Cammie Pendleton a mini-beagle. We've been considering adding a dog to our family for a long time now. We've researched a few different dogs and finally came to one we agreed upon. Hector would prefer a bigger dog of course, mean have size issues in general ; ) I found an awesome beagle breeder about 3 hours from here. And luckily it's about an hour away from a Charlotte a city he travels to frequently for work. So one weekend we packed the whole family up and went with him. We were planning on getting either a standard size beagle or a runt(just a little bit smaller) and hopefully a khaki colored one because the least. But the minute Cammie came trotting out in her fancy little lets play run we loved her. She is so playful, chasing and fetching, playing tug of war etc and yet so sweet and cuddly at the same time we had to have her. I knew she'd be a little more work than some of the calmer puppies they had, but you could just see how smart she was when she looked you in the eyes. And even still when she gets in trouble and rolls and her back to say sorry, I forgive her immediately.

I think you can clearly see in this photo how naughty she is...
When she's bad I call her Cammie Pendleton Poopy Puddles

The Dog Ate my Homework............

My kids will legitimately be able to make this claim! Our new puppy literally snatch the book my son was reading from his hands and gabbled up this page in seconds???? What the heck???

You cant tell from this photo just how much tape is covering this page! Luis was just thankful he had already read it : )

I'll post pics of the puppy in question soon............ Well she's not in question. We know darn well it was her!

Maj. Jeremy Graczyk - Arlington National Cemetery

Tracking Base jump from the Eiger Mushroom

This is where Jeremy spent his last moments. He did record the friend that jumped before him. His last view was just amazing........................
This is not Jeremy or anyone he knows, it's just people doing what he was doing, in the exact spot he was doing it. Live Free or Die

Our life long friend and inspiration.................



Left this earth while living his life being the amazing man he was, base jumping in The Eiger Mushroom in Switzerland.



Jeremy Graczyk

He was Hectors Capt several years ago and they served together in Iraq. They brought the town of Anah to peace and made life long friends with each other and the people of Iraq.





This was him in Norway a few days before.

After the month of leave he was on, he was going to be stationed in Virginia. We already had plans for him to come down to visit. I hadn't seen him in a while and was so excited.
And then, I went on his facebook to send him a message..........

A  R.I.P was posted. Hector and I will miss him so much.

Below are the picture of his memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.







This was the procession.... The police were amazing. The freeway was completely shut down for use to travel from the funeral home to Arlington. This was the longest precession I've ever seen, and we weren't even at the very back of the line. It was complete with escorts and a motorcycle motorcade at the back.

You can see Washington monument in the background





Our entrance into Arlington





The police motorcade that had escorted us along the way, giving their respects.



After we reached Arlington the casket was moved to a horse drawn carriage



Hector and Major Graczyk

This is the group of motorcylce guys that followed our percession. There is a whole group that does this for military members when they pass away. They stood there the entire funeral and they hand water handy for guest that got over heated and washclothes with cold water as well, so sweet

Part of the crowd awaiting the arrival of the Marine Corps Band and the Horse drawn carriage

Presenting of the flag

The lovely woman was being escorted by at the end of the ceremony. The group looked like a memory walking through our present.

And our kiddos. They dont remember meeting Jeremy, but they will never forget bidding him farewell

How do we let life get away from us so much..............

When we left D.C. last we went to Georgetown to eat at Johnny Rockets....(There are two places we hit when we are hungry in D.C. Georgetown and Old Town Alexandria. Tons to choose from and nice local run businesses) Which was sooooo yummy. I live on a pretty strict mostly clean diet more of the time so getting to have chili cheese fries its a huge treat. And listening to classic American music you've selected at your little table jukebox cant be beat.

When were walking back to our car we noticed a big sign in one of the shop windows for HGTV, of which, I'm a huge fan. It was Sprinkles cupcake shop, which is owned by one of the woman on The CupCake Wars. My kids and I watched most of last season, its just so fun to see them get cayenne pepper, bananas, cacao beans and brandy and see what they come up with lol. And for some reason we kept right on walking. Said, "Wow, that's cool" but that was it. And when we were driving home, Hector and I were suddenly like, "Why didnt we go there????" Next time..........

Well this weekend we were brought back to D.C. sooner than expected. We recently lost our treasured friend, Jeremy Graczyk. This past weekend was his funeral at Arlington National cemetery. I'll write and post more about that later. But what I will say is that he was the kind of guy that lived life to the fullest! New Years Eve in Switzerland, Racing in Baja, Climbing Dragons nest, rock climbing, sky diving, and last but not least base jumping in Norway. He reminds us all to not let even the smallest opportunity pass us by.......... and that includes cupcakes!!!!

We didnt end up eating at Sprinkles as you can see. By this time the HGTV sign was out of there window and now a new sign was posted in Georgetown cupcakes window. They will be featured in the upcoming season. So we thought it would be fun to eat there and then get to watch how they do in the upcoming competition. Now, I am NOT a cupcake or cake fan!! I'd much rather have a fresh homemade cookie AnyDay! But wow, these were amazing. We had a toffee crunch, mint chocolate, blueberry cheese cake and banana split......... WHO KNEW cup cakes could be awesome!

Luis went to a super awesome christian baseball camp last week. He already cant wait to go back next year. And when we move back home, we might have to work with a church and start something like this back home!!! This is what they did at the end of the last day. Genius!

2011 Trip to DC! We've been to DC on the 4th before but Luis was too young to remember. So we def wanted to make a trip back so our nations capital would make a permanent memory imprint on his mind LOL On our first trip I did tons of research and decided to stay out of the city in Old Town Alexandria! It was def the right decision and we will return to the same place every time we make it back there! So cute! If we ever were stationed in DC this would be one of the places we'd house hunt for sure

The first day there we decided to hit all the museums. In all honesty, I'm not to impressed by them. Since recently being to the USMC museum and Mount Vernon's new museum where we went on this trip as well, it takes alot to impress. We didnt make it to the newest museum, the American Indian Museum and we still have yet to go to the Holocaust museum (we think that might be a bit to much for our tender hearted Luis) I said MUSEUM so many times!! I dont think I want to say it for a week now!

Of course had to get a pic of the elephant!! Where's the most beloved night watchmen ???? He's actually there! I dare you to find him. Here's a hint, we are the nerdy type who watch presentations and informative shows.

The kids were able to see real scientists in action!

I should have brought the bone!! SHOOT

I hate the metro in DC!!! But Luis has never been on one, or at least he doesn't remember it. So it was on his to do list for sure

Do you think the braces inter fear with her reception?

Ghost tour in Old Town Alexandria! So fun and def scared the kids for the night lol! It was a bit boring for adults but a good activity for preteen and under. P.S. we only eat in Old Town the whole time were are there. A great variety of restaurant's!!

I've got to say D.C. was rockin' the floral arrangements! I took more pics of them but I was alternation between disposable and my digital camera. I brought my charge but forgot one of the cords. So instead of using the good camera till it died I switched back and forth so I'd have some good pics of everything. Not good pics at the beginning and bad pics at the end.

This was taken at Mount Vernon, George Washington's Estate. Another choice I made on our first trip and will always repeat. We went there the morning of the 4th. They do a reading of the Declaration of Independence, they have a civil war reenactment, daytime fireworks, an official swearing in of citizens ceremony and all kinds of things to do and see and the museum is awesome they have this like 5-D movie thats Awesome!

CUTENESS

This is where George and Martha rest. And his family vault is behind this. They wanted to bury him at the Capital and there is an empty tomb for him at the top of the Capital building, but in his will, he was very clear that this is where he wanted to rest.

The firework show hear is amazing. But let me tell you, its no quaint American location until the fireworks start, before and after its a very urban, crowded scene. But ya gotta check the box!! There are special tickets to watch the fireworks from the White House Lawn that would prob have rocked!

Jefferson

View from Jefferson, White house and Washinton Monument

USMC Memorial at Arlington. You can see the Capital building, Lincoln memorial and the Washington Monument! Its awesome. We will sadly be returning here in a few weeks to honor a friend.

 During this trip we got a tour of the Capital Building, I would Def recommend it. They do group tours, but you can request a tour from you Senators office and its just you and an intern and much nicer and more info.  We tried for a White House tour but they didnt end up doing any tours over the holiday : (