Sim racing pics by Kdogg74

This is why we race online ;) that #74 car in the air is
my teenager, who also painted this car himself using
computer graphics in Paintshop Pro 8. "Bad wreck in
practice lap he tells me". I post many pictures of the
2 little sisters and this time I wanted to show how
proud I was of the teen that lives here also, my 9th
grade racer "Kdogg74" The #74 was his old football
jersey number and he had kept with that number
racing online and go-karts in the dirt. Funny how
this little boy of mine once learned all his
colors and numbers before kindergarten by race
cars. He could tell me all the Nascar cars, numbers,
colors and the drivers before he was 5. I never
imagined that teaching him at an early age would
lead to this :) By the way, he is not a "little boy"
anymore, he is taller that me, and I have been
about 5'9" since the 6th grade.


SBS racing online, his 2nd sprint car


After a hard 60 lap race in Nascar 2003season,
Kdogg74finished 3rd. The Hardees car was painted
by driver.

Here is # 74 again, Hardees orange and white painted
by Kdogg74.

This car is my favorite, done in Paintshop pro8. You
can see why I bought him his own laptop with a
higher graphics card. I think we have found our niche
and can lean towards computer careers with our
homeschool high school courses. He actually taught
himself how to do all this with some help of some
great guys online via "teamspeak" at various online
sim racing forums and race1online. He has even
created his own website without my help
"Trial by Fire Racing www.tbfr.webs.com/ .


Leslie~~~
aka: Kdogg74's momma

CFM Winterfest pictures

I just have to add the pictures that I digi-scrapped from our

event a couple of Saturday's ago. Winterfest 2009 for CFM http://www.centralfoothillmommies.com/

Hope you enjoy if you just stopped by to see our pictures.

My new found hobby of digi-scrapping and hybrid

scrapbooking.......ohhhh so addictive. I actually used the

Scrapblog pages on Photobucket to do these, so easy!

Leslie~~~

Kicking some "butt" MMA style

When you take an 8 yr old girl who thinks she is

a "cheetah" and mix it with Mixed Martial Arts;

you get a "cheetahgirl" that is learning how to

literally "kick some butt". After trying the usual

girlie girl stuff like dancing and cheerleading, our

middle DD has found her "niche" per say with the

help of her "Sensai" at Superior Martial Arts , L.

is learning a variety of ju-jitsu moves , boxing

and mixed martial arts techniques. She loves it!

Look out boys for the "Cheetah" so she is called.

~~~Leslie~~~

aka: Cheetahmom

"A Blockhouse" gingerbread house

Just what do you get when you add a gingerbread

house kit, some icing, cookies, candy and 2 little girls??

A Blockhouse gingerbread house, thats what. It was

pretty for only a day until their big brother got hungry.

~~~Leslie~~~

Some Christmas caroling 4-H elfs

The Eagles 4-H group met on Friday at a local assisted

living facility to sing some Christmas carols and hand

out treat bags to the residents that lived there.

The group of kids are all homeschooled children that

range in age from 5-12, there

are 32 kids total in the group, but the picture was taken

right before we left.

My 2 divas are on the front row in the

green shirt "smiling "and in the red shirt "pouting". I

reckon the little pouting diva does not remember the

song about "Santa coming to town"

Better not pout!!! Better not cry!!

I am telling you why,

WHY!!

Because Santa Claus is coming to town

and you are driving your mother crazy!

Leslie (miss pouty's mommy)

I am a "blogging slacker"

"Santa Tom" and a friend



Neil ("Santa's" helper and friend)

Seasons greetings to all, boy have I been a blogging slacker.

I have so many things to post and never the time to do it.

So today I will try to better. First of all my father is back

home after another chemoembolization procedure on

December 10. He did fairly well this time, some minor

complications thatresolved themselves. He is still in a lot

of a pain and battling fevers while at home.

We pray that this treatment will dosomething substantial

to the 3 liver tumors that he has.

This is his favorite time of year, he always loved to dress

up in his Santa suit and spend Christmas eve at the local

children's hospital there in Columbia. His health the last

couple of years has just made it impossible to play

"Santa Tom". I posted a couple of pictures above that

I love, these were actually done by a newsreporter a

couple of years ago. The nurses on the Pediatric cancer

floor had the local paper come and do a story on

"Mr Tom" and his yearly visit on Christmas eve to make

sure all of the kids with cancer get something that night

from him. His helper is a great guy named Neil who

volunteered to dress up in that elf suit yearly and go

with Mr Tom to hand out presents.

Leslie

My rFactor racing champ

Bad boys of racing series, my online racer and his
car. My son's passion has always been racing.
Since he was about 1 yr old he has always had
racing on his brain. Online or Sim racing is his
new passion, it takes time, patience and an eye
for detail to create ,paint and then run one of
these "virtual " cars on an online event.
The above graphic is from his first win on rFactor
more info on http://www.race1online.com/, this is the
next big thing in racing cars. Hopefully we
can take this talent and work towards a degree
in IT or computer graphics etc. A homeschool
momma always looks for potential future
endeavors :) right?

"Party Girl" is 5

Cool cake by cake artist Amy Murphy
http://www.cakesbyamym.com/


Such a little diva

Look Mommy what I got!!!!!!Hannah

Love my musical cards "Who let the dogs out!!"

Last Sunday whe had an "Art Birthday Party" at the

Hickory Museum of Art. It was themed a fairyland

party for kings or queens. S was the special bd girl

guest, since she just recently turned 5 yrs old.

Hannah Montana had to adorn that cool cake that

was made by our most special cake lady friend.

Amy of CakesbyamyM http://www.cakesbyamym.com/

does all of our birthday creations. This one looked

just like a mini-wedding cake with a HM theme.

And boy was it good as always, vanilla with purple

buttercream icing (S's fav color and request) Amy

did her best to make just what S wanted.

The party guests got to create a one of a kind banner

for the birthday girl and paint anything they wanted

on it. They also made crowns, fairy /dragon wings,

and magic wands to turn any mommy/daddy into

little green froggies.

S loaded up on the presents, Hannah stuff galore,

(Thank you Teresa !! and Debbie and Karen !!)

in addition to all sorts of other wonderful things

that she is still talking about. My baby is growing up

so fast and getting cuter by the hour.

"Pink Warriors" October 18, 2008

There is me on the far right with my "Cancer sucks" hat

What a beautiful day ! for a 3 mile brisk walk!

Mommies Rock to "Save the Ta Ta's"

"Pink Warriors" was what we were last Saturday

for the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure in

Hickory NC. Our CFM team was among the

many people that ran or walked the streets near

Lenoir Rhyne University that cool and sunny

morning. I walked in memory of my beloved

grandmother, who died from breast cancer, in

honor of my cousin who survived and for the

future of my 2 beautiful daughters, may they

see the cure for breast cancer in the near future.

Together we can find a cure for this terrible

disease called "Cancer"

"Save the Ta TA's " , I want to keep mine :)

"Fire in the hole" or tank

Educational, or just plain crazy?? Well it was actually very
educational for my 3 kids to see just what can happen when you
play around with a propane tank and some fire. As a part of our
daddy's hazmat training for work as a propane truck driver,
he was required to attend this controlled burn exercise with a
local fire department. His boss encouraged them to bring
kids/spouses to watch what can happen to a propane tank
when it is open and comes in contact with fire.
They actually ran the hose from one of the propane trucks they drive
to the actual tank and could control the amount of gas that was going
to the fire. The firemen could then train on how to cut off the gas
and put out the blaze. Don't worry, the kids were far enough back to
watch, but not get in the way or near the flames. Safety first when it
comes to fire. As a part of Fire Safety month in September we went
over some fire safety tips and talked again about what to do when in
a fire.
Cool pictures above taken by my hubby. I was a work while all this
was going on, talk about a nervous Nelly. When he told me he was
taking the kids to see a propane tank explode.....I about flipped. But
all was well and he kept them safe and sound. Er nurses always think
the worst case senario :)

Catawba Wildlife Club: National Hunting/Fishing Day 2008

Today was National Hunting and fishing day at Catawba Wildlife Club,
of which our homeschool warden (daddy-ha ha) is a member of.
So off we went for a day of learning shooting sports skills and safety
when around firearms. Part of homeschooling also includes life skills
that our children will carry throughout their lives. Our house is a house
of gun ownership and respect for any weapon is taught early on. We
as parents are active with prevention of injury education in children
inside and outside our house. I teach gun safety to kids of all ages, as
an ER nurse for 20+ yrs I have seen first hand what guns can do in
the hands of someone who makes a poor choice. Today I vowed to
learn more about the actual shooting side of gun safety. I can talk all
day about being safe, but to actually shoot a gun myself has been a
fear of mine. I grew up with guns, my daddy hunted and we always
had guns in the house, I knew to respect them. But as an adult I have
never had to desire to shoot anything. My husband on the other hand
is a "gun freak" he lives for shooting/hunting/anything to do with a
weapon. He has his concealed permit, has an small arsenal locked up
in our house that includes a custom built cedar chest that is layered
with bullets in alphabetical order and he also reloads his own ammo.
So as the phrase goes " as in Rome, do as the Romans do"....................
or "if you can't beat them join them" I guess I will have to join
them. Do you think I can get him to scrapbook?? NOT!!
No, I don't want a rifle for my birthday!!!

Trip to the big house 9/25

Above slide show is a few pictures of our trip to the Biltmore house
in Asheville, NC. for the fall homeschool festival. Our family and
another homeschooling family visited the estate on Thursday.
I was most impressed that they took time for all of the
homeschool families. The staff were most helpful and
answered dozens of questions about the house ,gardens,
winery, farm and grounds. My youngest was fascinated by
the history of the house and the people that lived there, she
is only 4, I could not believe some of the questions she asked,
and wanted to see inside Mrs Vanderbilt's vanity to see her
makeup. A very nice staff person accommodated her and let
her see inside the furniture that was hundreds of years old, they
did not have to do that. Then out the window
we saw a young bride getting her pictures made for an upcoming
wedding on the Biltmore grounds. S. was sure that was a princess
that lived in the castle. We had to follow her outside to the garden
area after we were done climbing all those stairs inside the house.
We plan to return to Biltmore for Christmas and see the wonderful
decorations. I plan on doing a little unit study and
lapbooking/notebooking about the estate and family, they gave us
wonderful workbooks that are
age specific for each child, even our teen. Check out their website
if you want to know more or visit http://www.biltmore.com/ ,
a wonderful vacation trip for your entire family.

An old fart update- good news

Yes my daddy is an old fart, that is what I have laughingly called him
for several years now. Today's procedure went well, mom called me
while I was at work tonight in the busy ER, taking care of the patients that
Broughton Hospital did not seem to want to accept and a few I wanted to
send there. Daddy's procedure was done within an hour , the doctor was
very skilled and also very good looking per my mother, he also went to
Duke. So daddy was happy that his doctor was a "Duke man" also.
Might have been better I guess if he was a "tarheel" but I guess we will
have to settle with the good looks :)
I wanted to blog as soon as I got home this early am because I know
several readers wanted an update. The chemoembolization hopefully will do
something to those liver tumors. If daddy behaves tonight, he may get to go
home today or tommorrow, just keep him and mom in your prayers,
God is good.......all of the time.


~~~~Leslie~~~~~~~~~~

F. R. O. G. little life lessons

F.R.O.G. : Fully Relying on God !!


Little lesson's come in big and cute packages, thank you Sheri Allison
for our homeschool science lesson. My dear friend and photographer
took these cute little pictures and surprised me one night by posting
them on our "Mommy forum". Tagged "baby frogs aka : Leslie a
homeschool lesson" and "tadpoles, tonight's homeschool lesson".
Sheri, is the photographer that shot my favorite picture of all 3 kids
that adorns the top of this blog page.
I am her biggest fan (as you can tell) and think her talent is God given.
Enjoy them, we have, the kids are making lapbooks to show their
knowledge of frogs and the cycles they go thru from egg to tadpole
to adulthood. We have a pond in our front yard, and enjoy listening
to our frogs every night.







When you fully rely on God, you trust him for all you need.
Whether it be green water to swim in or bugs to eat, just like
these sweet little froggies. You are happy with what God gives
you and trust that your days will be filled with lots of juicy bugs :)
The last picture you see is a water bug/beetle, who seems to
"walk on water" So my kids now call this a 'Jesus bug" ,
a walkin on the water. Please stop by and tell Sheri Allison how
much you love her work, the links to her website and blogs
are to the right. www.sheriallison.com ;)

~~~Leslie~~~