Marleigh had a birthday!

Birthday girl!

I made a trip to Creative Gifts a couple of weeks ago. I love that place! I wrapped my gift, my sister's and Mrs. Courtney's. It's amazing how pretty you can make a package when you have the stuff to do it.

This is my mom helping Marleigh blow out her candles. I think my mom looks incredible! People always assume we are sisters. (She loves that!)

Last Sunday, my niece had her birthday party at "Pump it Up". What a great place to have a party when it's 90 degrees outside! All of the inflated slides and jumping things that you can rent for your yard are now housed inside two huge rooms with a/c. Marleigh was born on September 11th and decided she wanted a "flag birthday". My Dream Cakes friends out did themselves once again on her cake. They have been working all week to get their store ready to open. I stopped by last week and it's going to be great. Shelley's mom is the artist and she's painting some things on the walls. I can't wait to see how it turns out. Ann (my friend and hairdresser) is having a baby shower tomorrow for someone and I ordered the cake for her. I told Shelley that I trusted her judgement, so she was doing a cake that she had wanted to do. I think she said it would be like a gift with something coming out of it. I am doing the flowers for the centerpiece, so I'll take my camera with me when I go over tomorrow morning. They also did a cake for Cindy Emery's son's girlfriend this week. I thought it was sweet when she said that he wanted to get her a cake. Now how many guys think like that??? I know mine would never bring me a cake. Maybe a Y membership, but not a cake! Guess that's the difference in being a teenager and a 41 year old who gains weight by looking at food!

Speaking of weight....my sister looks incredible! She had the lap-band surgery in June and has lost about 50 lbs. I am so proud of her! I'll have to post some before and after pics soon.

Oh, and yes.....our so called "little preppy boys" beat Pearl Friday night 50-0! I think that put an end to all the negative comments about private school sports. ( Pictures later) I was so glad to hear that Prep students and Pearl students were all hanging out together and getting along great. There is a major problem with public school kids stereotyping kids who go to private school--and it's NOT the other way around. I know this from various youth activities and select baseball. I really wish we could find a way to address the problem. I know that Zachary went to church camp last year and said that the kids there were surprised that he wasn't a snob. He made lots of good friends that week, but he did come home aware of the public/private school issue. I think it's a lesson to both sides. Number one--everyone should treat each other as they want to be treated and number two--it's wrong to make judgements about other people. I wish the parents of teenagers would talk to them about their attitudes. It's wrong for a kid to go into a youth activity and feel out of place because they go to a different school. It's wrong for kids to think that they are better than other kids because of their zip code, their school or their last name. When we all stand before God one day, he's certainly not going to care if we went to Prep or Pisgah--nor is he going to give special treatment if we live in a certain zip code or neighborhood. Chip said several years ago during a sermon, that "you can tell a lot about the character of a man by how he treats people who can't do anything for him". (I hope I got it right--but you get the point)

Judge no one and assume nothing. What difference does it make which school you attend? Is that really going to matter 10 years from now? Of course not! Hey... you never know, the guy doing the hiring for a job one day...might be that guy they snubbed, ignored or misjudged years ago.