An overwhelming day..a loss and a gain..

Yesterday was an overwhelming day.

At 5:30 am, we got a call from BJ's dad that arrests had been made in the unsolved murder of his aunt, Janie. It has been over a year since the murder and we were honestly surprised.
Here is the link to the story. http://www.wtok.com/home/headlines/44010732.html We are very grateful for these arrests as it adds comfort to all of the family knowing the people behind her death are behind bars. It still gives us even more questions, but hopefully, these will answered in the near future.

We had the Press Conference at 10 yesterday and I was already just stressed from all of the happenings with that. It's definitely a good thing though to find answers.

After we finished eating lunch at a local place, BJ told me that his dad had called him while we were eating and that my precious puppy, Termie (Termite) had gotten ran over. Termie lived with BJ's parents since our other puppy got ran over in December. We had moved her there to be safe and so that she would not mourn. His parents live on a dead end street and BJ's parents took great care of her, but their mail lady accidentedly hit here while she and the other dogs were out playing. I have been so sad about this. The pain from Gracie's loss is not completely gone and to lose our only other pet has been even more heart-breaking. We haven't told Lily yet. She talks about Gracie all of the time, but she knows that she is in Heaven and now we have to tell her that Termie has joined her. This may be silly to some people, but we are major dog lovers, and sad about losing both of her dogs in a matter of months.

Termie had became quite attached to BJ's dad. She slept inside with him and spent most of the day inside with him in his chair watching tv, so I know that he is sad, too.
I wanted to talk about Termie a little bit today. She was the sweetest little dog - a registered Jack Russell. She was so small. I gave her the name Termite because she was like a little "Termite." - crazy I know, but the name stuck. She had the funniest howl that she would do - she almost sang to you, if you talked to her in this high pitched voice. Everyone said she was a little "off" for a dog, definitely not the smartest animal, but Gracie was her smarts. She followed Gracie everywhere and they were best friends. Termie would just stand and stare at you if she wanted attention. We laughed so many times at how Gracie would roll her and play with her as if they were the same size. It's so sad now that both of our beloved pets are gone. I am so glad that she didnt' suffer like Gracie though. Her death was instant.

Here are some of my favorite pics of times with Termie.

My sweet lil pup

Look how pretty!

I always loved this pic of her. She looked like she was smiling to me.

This is way back from when Lily was small, but Termie sneaked in these pics in the background. Termie loved Lily and oh goodness, Lily loved her. Lily loved to ride in her wagon and torment her, chasing her around.

Her is Lily and Termie on a wagon ride.

This is me and Termie back in 2005.

The above pic shows just how different Gracie and Termie were, but they were such great friends.

This pic was mine and BJ's first Christmas as a married couple. We used this pic on our Christmas cards. Rest in Peace Termie and Gracie. It's hard to think you are both gone. We loved you so much!

Rockin' for a Cure..

At work, BJ and I are always a big part of the American Cancer Society Relay for Life team. It's such a good cause. Our team at the bank we work for always puts forth a lot of effort to raise money and have a great booth each year. Every year, we have a different theme and do corresponding t-shirts, fundraisers, and a booth on the night of the Relay.

This year our theme was "Rockin' for a Cure" and we decorated everything from the 50's. The Relay was held this past Friday night.

Here is our booth and a close up of the back wall. We were proud of it!

Our banner and theme decorated baton won 1st prize and our decorated hat won 2nd prize.

One of my co-workers dad's let us borrow his 57 Chevy. I had the best time taking pics of Lily sitting on it! It was the prettiest car, and I have decided I want one just like it. (Check out her outfit! I ordered it really cheap from Ebay just for Friday night.)


Our booth sold Coke Floats and here is Lily enjoying hers.

We were there until 10 pm on Friday night, but we had a great time, but were definitley exhausted! In total, our team raised over $5000 to help with finding a cure for cancer.

(Special note: I have misplaced most of my gardening pics, especially the beautiful ones of my azaleas. I am sad because I never lose pics, but these are gone from my camera, so this post is post-poned.)

Yep, I'm still alive..

Well, I haven't blogged in a week today, so I am still alive..

Things have been so busy lately as usual, but almost worst than usual.

I have a great postI am working to show my "Yard in Bloom" with lots of pics of Azaleas and all of the flowers blooming in our yard.

This will hopefully be up by the weekend.

I have a busy, busy day tomorrow. The bank I work for will be setting up our American Cancer Society Relay for Life booth tomorrow and we will be there until late tomorrow night. It's a 50's theme and I have Lily a cute 50's outfit, so I can't wait to take lots of pics.

I do have a special prayer request. Please pray for my husband's grandfather - Lily's great grandpa "PawPaw Silas. " He has been diagnosed this week with lung cancer and will be hopefully starting radiation soon. He is around 75 so this will be tough on him, so please pray for his strength through this hard time. He has some other health issues with back problems and even gallbladder issues, so say a special prayer for him if you don't mind. Lily has a special love for him as she does all of her grandparents but we want him to be around to watch her grow up for several more years.

What a great surprise...

Check out my surprise that my husband gave me yesterday at lunch.

A new Blackberry Curve! I was so excited. I am still learning how to use everything on it, but I am loving it!

He had gotten one earlier this week, and I was so wanting one, but had decided i would save my money for one later, but he splurged. We may be broke for the next few months, lol, but I will still be loving my phone!

(Lily think it's the greatest toy ever! We have already had a couple of tiffs over it.)

Wow! What a wonderful Easter weekend!

We had a great Easter!

At 11 am on Saturday, Lily and I went to our church children's Easter party. She had a fun time hunting eggs and listening to the Easter story. I actually think her favorite part though was eating the pizza.

Here is Lily finding an egg:

This picture is Lily and her friend Makayla. Makayla's mom and I were great friends in high school, so it's a lot of fun having them be friends, too. After leaving the church, we geared up for the party at our house at 2 pm. Lily had around 15 friends arrive for the Easter egg hunt. All of them had the best time playing and hunting eggs.

Here is a picture of Lily and her friend Jancie. They have the best time playing together. They held hands as we played "The Bunny Hop" while the eggs were being hid.

Just some of the "sweet treats" that we had.
Lily still was not loving the bunny. We convinced her to hug him, but she was still trying to get out of his (or her) lap.
Lily with her cousins. She was too busy loving on "Baby Jayla" to pose for the camera. All of these kids had connections to the bank where I work, so we got a picture for our newsletter there.

On Sunday, we went to Sunrise services for church at 7 am and they were great. We stopped by my parents' for the traditional picture session. My dad had to work this year so we missed him but we got a few good pics.

Here is Lily opening her basket and presents from the Easter Bunny.

Our family picLily with my mom - her maw-mawWe had Easter lunch with some of BJ's family including his parents (Lily loves her nanny and pawpaw) and both of his sisters and their families. We had a great meal and enjoyed watching the kids play. Here is a picture of the Cooley grandchildren. This was the best one we could get. It's hard taking pics of 6 kids, especially those with no naps.

When everything was over at 2:15, Lily and I took a much needed long nap!

Happy Easter!

Easter is a special holiday. I enjoy it so much and love everything about it from bunnies, baskets, and egg hunts to the real reason for this special day: Our Savior arose and we must all remember that He did this for all of us, no matter what awful sinners we are, He loved us and continues to provide for us daily!

I have a busy weekend ahead! Our 2nd annual Easter egg hunt at our house will be tomorrow at 2 for Lily and her friends. We also have a church party tomorrow morning.

On Sunday, we have Sunrise services at church at 7 am! We will definitely have an early morning!! Easter lunch will be at our house this year with BJ's family and most likely an afternoon of egg hunting.

I'm excited, but gearing up to be busy!

Here are some of my fav pics of Lily that I took for Easter. i thought they turned out pretty good. We have been so busy this year that I just took some quick pics of her in our yard.
Enjoy and have a blessed Easter!

almost 1000!

Hi everyone, my blog count is almost to 1000. Check out my hit counter on the right side of the screen below the countdown to Lily's 3rd birthday. If you happen to be the 1000th visitor, send me a screen capture of my hit counter (print screen and copy to a word file) to my email (ecooley@firststatebnk.com) and I will send you a prize!

I'm excited to have 1000 hits! Thanks for all of your support!

G..is for Green..

We had another busy weekend. I am waiting on the next free weekend so we can get away maybe to the beach..and just relax and have no worries..It's coming soon, maybe even in two weeks..we will see...This weekend is Easter, so I'm excited about busy planning for our annual Egg Hunt at our house.

Lily wore this cute dress I got from Children's Place yesterday to church. She doesn't have a lot in this color green and I thought it was really pretty on her.

Check out the gazing ball pics from my mom's yard. I thought they turned out really neat with BJ and I in the background.

Bridge and Bingo

Well, here are pics from what has been keeping me so busy during the past couple of weeks. Our Junior Auxiliary Annual Bridge and Bingo Salad Luncheon. Whew!! It is over and was definitely a lot of hard work. It is hard work every year, but this year I am JA President and I enjoyed planned it and getting everything together, but I was also so nervous about everything going smoothly. Everything went great and I have a wonderful group of girls that helped to make this such a success!

All of our JA members decorate their own tables and we sell tickets for a Salad lunch. We also have a Silent Auction and Bridge or Bingo after lunch. It's a lot of fun!

Here is a picture of one of my tables that I decorated.

Here is Cena's beautiful table. You can visit her blog at Unexpected Necessities.Here are all of the ladies.
During Bingo, you can see my mom and Lily up front. My mom brought Lily and Lily had the best time playing Bingo.