My chosen family

This blog post is for people who don't necessarily understand us car enthusiasts. When I was a teenager I quickly learned the distinct sound of the mustang, and hearing that sound never gets old. I dreamed of having my own mustang someday.  Little did I know that dream would become a reality not once but twice. I've owned a coupe and a convertible, it's the best of both worlds.

A short time later I learned about the Rocket City Mustang Club. I went for my very first car show at Sears on May 12, 2007 when I was 8.5 months pregnant with my son. I baked in the hot sun all day, and at the end of it all I was rewarded with a sunburn and a first place trophy. There were a few giggles as I waddled up to get my award. That was all it took I was hooked. I met so many good hearted people that day, people who remain to be some of the best friends I could ever ask for. People who have been there for me through thick and thin, just as I have done for them. The following year, my husband dropped my car off at the show, and returned to the hospital to be with me and our newborn daughter Shelby. She was named after Carroll Shelby, and I will own a Shelby mustang someday!

Sure the cars are nice to look at, and always fun to drive, and occasionally turn a few heads. Yes, we can get a bit unruly on the roads from time to time but it's an adrenaline rush most people just can't comprehend. I've driven my car in numerous parades, been to countless shows, and cruise-ins. I participated in the Mustang's 45th anniversary celebration at Barber Motorsports park. I've driven my car at 135mph on the turns of the Talladega Super Speedway. Nothing can compare to that.



BUT it's so much more than all of that!  Being a part of RCMC, MCA, AND MBMC has brought so many new people into my life. Many of which will remain lifelong friends, people who will always be there for me no matter what. People that I've laughed with, cried with, disagreed with, and always make fun of Camaro's with. {it's all in good fun though} Some of these friends I talk to daily, others just occasionally. Yet I still know that no matter how many miles to road puts between us they will never be more than a phone call away. These people have become more than my friends, they are my family and I am so blessed to have met each of them.


Lisa and I at her wedding. She's just as beautiful on the inside as she is out.

My friend Alex at Dauphin Island during his visit with us a few weeks ago.
He's like a brother to me, and I would do anything for him.

My goofy friend William and I at Hooters in Huntsville,AL

My sweet friend Sharon and I at Wintzell's during her visit last month.

So now you know, it's more than just a car: it's a piece of who I am. I've made so many memories with my RCMC family, and I'm looking forward to the new ones I will make with my new MBMC family.

Twice the fun!!!!

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a die hard fan of Ford. Especially the mustang. Back in 2006 I got a 2000 Ford Mustang coupe, V6 that is sunburst gold. We have done so much work on it that it doesn't even look like the same car. We've added decals,new headlights, rims, rear window louvers, a new Cobra R hood, dual exhaust, a GT bumper, custom leather seats and the list goes on and on. My husband and I both enjoy going to car shows and showing our cars. I've won several trophies ranging from Huntsville,  Birmingham, even Savannah,Georgia. My car has been in numerous parades throughout the Tennessee Valley. I'm proud of all the hard work, time and money that my husband and I have poured into that car.

Photo by Olivia Photography

 

Seats by Norm's Upholstery

Photo by me

 My husband decided to get rid of his F350 duley. We wanted something fun to drive around, we rarely even drove the truck. It was just sitting there wasting away. He found a 2000 Ford Mustang GT convertible on Auto Trader online. We called the dealership and told them we would be coming up on Thursday to take a look at it. We dropped our son off at school and headed to Murfreesboro, TN. Two hours later we were in the parking lot and knew we wanted the car. You can pretty much say it was ours from the moment the salesman placed the keys in our hands and said take it for a drive. We drove it, stopped and lowered the top then went back to the dealership and told them we wanted it. I'm looking forward to this being our new project. Can't wait to see the end results!

because sometimes a girl wants to go fast :)

Sitting in the driveway at our friends hows, chatting about mustangs!
 

                                                                      

blah! blah! blah! blah!

I haven't been able to blog in a while, and so much has been going on.  Life seems to be out of control lately.

Between taking little man to school, and our princess to dance classes, going to the gym, being sick for to weeks, being the president of the mustang club, organizing meetings, planning a car show, trying to be a good wife,mother and step-mother I've lost myself lately. I feel like I'm overlooked, overloaded and definitely overwhelmed. It's like I just woke up one day and life  had gone from being normal to crazy.

Tomorrow I start a new job, I'm nervous about finding the right balance between being a good wife & mother, while keeping up with my responsibilities  with the mustang club and working part time. I'm excited about going back to work,  meeting new people, and  getting out of the house.

Friday night I'm going out with my friends Kathleen,Rachael,Rose, & Beatrice! AGH, a girls night out! It's well overdue and is going to be awesome! I'm so excited! It's only for a few hours and then I will be thrown back into reality. lol I will let you know how that turns out!

My daughter Vanessa has Epilepsy & her seizures are becoming more frequent. Her neurologist is sending her to Children's Hospital next Tuesday-Thursday. My husband can't take off work since we just came back from a vacation. So I plan on going to visit her while she is there. I can't not go see her knowing she is going to be there.  She will be hooked up to machines with all sorts of wires. I plan on leaving the munchkins at my parents house mainly because  I don't want them to freak out over seeing their big sister in that environment. Hopefully they will be able to catch it and figure out what is triggering her more frequent seizures. She gets out on Thursday. Then on Friday she goes to another specialist. She's had a sinus infection for three months & they did a scan. They found some sort of mass in her sinuses so that's why she has to go to see a specialist. Hopefully it's something that can be fixed with medication.

I finally finished my book one night last week and then watched the movie the next night. Its sad I don't even have time to hardly even read anymore. Anyways Courageous is a must read and a must see!!!! I think everyone could learn something good from it. It's reminded me that when I'm feeling like I have been lately that instead of stressing out I need to just take a moment to PRAY! I just have to remind myself sometimes that God is in control and everything will work out just as he has planned.

Mardi Gras Parade

As president of RCMC I received an email a few months ago asking our club to participate in a Mardi Gras Parade at a retirement community. I was all for the idea! It was on a Friday so most RCMC members had to be at work.



Four of us participated, and my husband tagged along with his B4C Camaro. {I even put an RCMC flag on his antenna when he wasn't looking}

I was so very happy that I was able to participate in the parade. Not everyone at the retirement community is capable of driving themselves or even taking the bus. So for them to be able to go to a special event/parade is nearly impossible.

We bought Mardi Gras beads to toss out, then we were given more of them twice after we arrived as well as whole boxes of mini moon pies to toss to the crowds. We lined up and then, I moved my daughters car-seat from the back to the front just for the parade. {it was on private grounds and we were doing about 5mph} My husband did the same with our son in his car.

Baby girl absolutely loved tossing the beads, and moon pies to the crowd. She was upset once we reached the end of the parade route, because she ran out of people to throw beads/moon pies to well before she ran out of the beads/moon pies! I was moved to tears over the fact that there were several elderly ladies lined up along the road, sitting in their wheel chairs draped in white sheets because it was a bit chilly out. One little old lady had even fallen asleep in her wheel chair. Bless her heart! It meant so much to me to be a part of something like this, it clearly brought joy to the residents at the community. People who normally don't have the opportunity to participate in such festivities.

The reflection on the bottom left corner is from my windshield.

We had a lovely day, it was beautiful and  sunny, and we spent it together as a family making other people happy. I hope that they make this an annual event & invite us back again!

I took a close up of the beads hanging from my rear-view window. I think it looks pretty neat.

Day 13 {This week}

• Sunday - I spent the entire day at home being lazy with my family. We watched Fast Five, and it was just as good as seeing it the first time.
• Monday - I did a ton of laundry. After my Hubby came home from work we all went to Costco. I got a bunch of stuff we needed. Afterwards the babies and I went out to eat at O'Charley's with some friends. Then we went to Target and I bought one of baby girl's Christmas gifts.
• Tuesday - I stayed at home all day procrastinating even though I had a billion things to do. I did manage to get a few things done at home though. I even caught up on blogging. 
• Wednesday -  Someone knocked at the door in the morning. I opened it to see our neighbor and her daughter. They said ''We have bad news'' I stood there looking at them in shock and said ''What's wrong?'' They didn't say anything they just stared at me. I realized exactly what was wrong. I said ''NO!!'' and they both started crying,I started crying. Their two month old baby girl ''Amaya Faith'' had passed away. She was doing so well,they were even saying she would be home at the end of the month. This was a shock to everyone. Her mom had went for her nightly visit, she changed her diaper and it had blood in it. She got the nurse right away, the nurse took the baby to the doctor on call. He immediately sent her for x-rays. It showed that she had air in her belly. At midnight they took her in for emergency surgery. She had a hole in her intestines due to a bacterial infection. Normally they would be able to repair it. Hers was so bad that there was nothing they could do. They took her off of her machines, and let her family hold her until she passed. She left this world at 4:53 am November 9th, 2011.  This family has become more than just friends, they have become like family to us. The rest of my plans have been cancelled for the week. I can't believe I will be attending a funeral for a two month old baby girl. I never in my life thought this would ever happen. It's heartbreaking. I know that God has a plan for everyone, sometimes it's just hard to understand that plan. This is the third baby they have lost, it just doesn't seem fair. I don't question his plan, I just wish I could understand a little better.
• On a lighter note it was Visitor's Day at ASD. Which meant that I got to take my little girl to her dance class and stay and watch everything she  has been learning. It was nice to be able to go, it was the only time yesterday that I wasn't constantly thinking of the baby. I am so proud of my baby girl. I was reminded yesterday of just how precious life is, and I held my kids even closer.
• Thursday - 
• Friday -
• Saturday -

annual Fall cruise-in

The past several weeks I have been running around like a chicken with i.............(you get the idea) collecting items to stuff the goody bags,working with vendors and local businesses to collect door prizes. I absolutely loved it!


Yesterday has come and gone, I can finally say I did it. My first event as president was a success! We work with a local Ford dealership, to have an annual fall cruise-in. Its basically like a car show, only the cars  aren't  separated into judged classes. Instead we give out specialty awards and sponsor's choice awards. Proceeds benefit the Madison County Veteran's Memorial here in the Rocket City.

Everyone arrived Friday afternoon at 5:30 @ WAF to start stuffing the goody bags and setting up everything for the show. I slept a total of four hours Friday night. I got up at 5am Saturday to get ready to go back to the dealership. I arrived there at 6:30 am along with other members and WAF employee's to start setting up the registration tent, the t-shirt sales table, and the PA system for announcements and music.

Last year was a huge flop because of all the rain, we only had 53 entrants. This year we had a beautiful fall day, it was warm in the upper 70's and thankfully there was no rain. We had 89 registered entrants this year! Which is such a blessing! We had loads of fun. There was really only one thing that went wrong, and that was the fact that our microphone decided to quit shorty before our awards presentation.

There were several vendors on site, one selling lemonade, another selling coke and BBQ sacked lunches, a toy car guy, and several automotive vendors. After the show there was plenty of food leftover so it was donated to the local food bank.

I had a blast meeting new people and making new friends. Last year Sharon {who is our MCA director} brought her niece Karen along with her. Since it rained she decided to get into a water fight with one of the members named Skip. So it was only natural for me to help her keep the tradition alive.

I asked Skip to come over to where I was, luring him into our water fight trap. Karen soaked him, which was followed by a desperate attempt of retaliation. I unexpectedly got a TON of ice cold water poured over my head. It felt nice actually since I was so hot after being up on the roof. {myself and two others went up there to get an aerial photo of the car show, the roof is white and reflected the sun right onto us & goodness it was hot}

Tomorrow I go back to the dealership to hand off the money to be donated to the local Veteran's Memorial. Its still a work in progress. It feels good to be a part of something big, and to know we are making a difference in our community.
You can find out more about the memorial at this link Madison County Veterans Memorial

I can't wait for our annual May car show now! I'm already starting a notebook of ideas!

vertigo

The cake the babies picked out for their Daddy.

                                                                               

• Yesterday was my husbands birthday. I let the kids pick out his birthday cake.
• Today was my mother and father-in-law's wedding anniversary.
• I have a major stress headache! Anyone care to give me a massage?
• My step-daughter is 2cm dilated, she was sent home though. I still think we will have a baby within the next few days! I can't wait to meet him & hold him. Her second baby shower is Sunday, so lets hope he stays in there until at least Monday.
• I went to a meeting today at the Ford dealership about the car show next week. I'm so excited that everything is coming together. T-shirts were designed & ordered, they arrived today! We have plenty of things to stuff the goody-bags with. I order the trophies tomorrow. Dash plaques are finished. I still have door prizes to collect from local businesses. Tomorrow I go get new tires put on the trailer (we use it to store our equipment in) So with all of the club stuff going on I feel like my head is spinning in circles.
• I went to the hospital today to visit my friend. She was getting ready to be released. Since it was an emergency cesarean she was put to sleep, and by the time she was awake her baby was already in another hospital's NICU.  So first thing she was heading over to the other hospital to visit her little miracle.Visitor's aren't allowed unless the parent(s) of the baby are there. So hopefully Saturday I can go visit. I didn't want to go today or tomorrow, because I know she will want to spend time alone with the baby since she hasn't even seen her yet. I can't wait to meet her! I have seen pictures, she is so tiny and beautiful! I'm going to make her lots of pretty pink sparkly things tomorrow. She has a long journey ahead of her, so please continue to pray for her. I made a prayer page for her on Facebook so please ''like'' it and post a message of support to her family.
• Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Prayers-for-Amaya-Faith/257419037631643
• I am extremely sleepy. My husband is still at work. I can't sleep without him. Its 1am and I still have an hour before he will be home.
• I started this blog several hours ago, but because I am bored I keep clicking on ''edit post'' and adding random thoughts to it.

                                                                                   

Mrs.President

• August 16th was the night for the monthly mustang club meeting.
• I was elected as the new president. YAY!
• I have since been very busy working on the next car show. & I enjoy it very much.
• As a SAHM it gives me something to do other than cook,clean, and tend to my sweet angels.
• I'm excited about being the new president.
• It will allow me to meet lots of new & interesting people.
• I'm excited about next months monthly meeting, because it will be my first meeting as president.
• Over the past year I have made many new friends,all of whom are fantastic people who share my love for mustangs.

Date Night! Yeah!

My husband and I had a rare date night. A friend offered to keep the babies. Jerry had already taken off work so that he could stay home with the babies, while I was to attend the monthly Rocket City Mustang Club meeting. So since we had a free sitter we made the most of it and went to a concert.

It was at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. It was to benefit Tools For Schools. {Its a local organization that takes up school supplies and distributes them to the kids who wouldn't normally be able to afford them}

Admission was a donation of school supplies. We each took a bag, each bag had the same items.

We were excited to see The Eli Young Band, The JaneDear Girls, and Steve Holy!
I have always loved the song ''Good morning beautiful'' by Steve Holy. I got a little teary eyed listening to him sing it in person {he was only feet away from us}, while holding my husband's hand.  It was an awesome concert! We even ran into a couple of friends from the mustang club, who also ditched the meeting!

After the concert we went to dinner at T.G.I. Friday's. We have been going there for six years, its always our first choice! So occasionally they will throw in a discount! Its nice to know that being a loyal customer is appreciated! Its rare these days! Our dinner was free! 

The Eli Young Band

                                              The JaneDear Girls

                              Danelle Leverett of The JaneDear Girls

                                 Susie Brown of The JaneDear Girls

Steve Holy

Free concert + free dinner + date night = AWESOME!!!!