NKOTB Baby!

So 20 years later I got go see my 8 year old heart throbs haha! Can you believe we got to see New Kids on the Block?!?!?? WOW! It was an amazing show! They sang for 2 whole hours and I think I (Heather) screamed like a little girl ,and yes my husband got to see me act completely ridiculous haha! It was the best time and yes I did get the $35 T-Shirt and a $5 key chain! Yep call me a groupie but I had the time of my life and I think my hubby had a pretty darn good time too! So as I was sitting there listening to them sing I had to laugh about how different this time was.....let's see....when I was 8:

• 20 years ago I remember sitting in Miss Sanders 3rd grade class anxious as can be about that night and I had to tell Jordan (a boy in my class) that I was getting to go, but I told him he had to keep the secret because I didn't want to get in trouble since I was going to a really strict Baptist school. I knew I could tell little Jordan because he was a NKOTB fan haha! 20 years later I was telling everyone I could and squealed like a girl when I found out I was getting to go, in fact I think I pretty much broadcasted it to the world lol!
  
  
• I had to beg mom and dad to bring me to the concert and 2o years later I'm bringing my husband to the NKOTB concert.
  
• 20 years ago I was this 8 year old dressed up in all the buttons of the boys and wearing a dress dancing in he aisles at the arena, 20 years later I was dancing in the suite at the arena dressed professionally since I just came from work and not elementary school!
  
• Back then I had to drink a "pop" 20 years later my hubby and I are enjoying a beer together hehe!

Yes, when the concert started it was just as magical as it was when I was 8! And the order of my favorite NKOTB is still the same as it was when I was 8 Donnie, Jordan, Joey, Jon, and Danny hehehe!! Yes, I screamed at the top of my lungs when I heard "Hangin' Tough" and "Don't Go Girl"....all I can say is I am one lucky girl to have a husband who enjoyed the concert as well and just laughed at me haha! It was a trip!

Gee wonder if they'll reunite in 20 more years when their in their late 50's and early 60's haha!

Photo's of Taylor's Cheer Competition in Lousiville - February 2009

Here is Miss Cheer!

NY Times article

I know I have shared with some of you my friend Wendy's story about her ongoing sickness and now the loss of her husband. The NY Times did an article on her story about her husband. Here is the link that features the news article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/20device.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=business

Also, if you would like to read more about her battle with her ongoing illness her caringbridge website is:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/wendyturnidge

I know Wendy would appreciate all the extra prayers right now and still is trying to cope with the recent loss of her husband as well as deal with her own health care needs.

Wow...an update is needed!

The time has flown by! It is so hard to believe we will be jumping into March here this week! We have been busy with all good stuff...Taylor had a cheer competition in Louisville, KY this past weekend and her team did great! She had a lot of fun and is really psyched we will be going to Orlando in just one more month! We are going to celebrate her 5th birthday with Mickey and Minnie along with all the Disney Princess! It should be an exciting time!

I have posted a few pics of the MN trip! Miss you all!

Cancer Free

I just returned from a 9 day trip back home to Minnesota! Dad had his surgery on Friday, January 16th. The surgery was only supposed to take 4 hours, but ended up taking 6.5 hours!! They had some complications during the surgery since dad's prostate was larger than they thought so it took some extra work to get it out. The first few days for him were a little rough as he was pretty uncomfortable. He was released from the hospital the following Monday. So over a week has passed since his surgery and he is definitely on the road to recovery. He went in this morning for his 1 week check up and found out he is CANCER FREE! He has to have his catheter and drain tube (attached to an incision) for one more week and he is not happy about it. He still has quite a bit of drainage from surgery, so we hope that he can get it out next Tuesday. Thank you all for your prayers, calls, emails, and texts! We appreciate it very much!

Prayers needed for Wendy and the Turnidge family....

Gee where do we start! My friend Wendy who I have posted about on here has sure had her dealings with her health and now her dear husband. I'm going to be short in detail because there is so much to type about her husband. He went in for a routine surgery on Monday and passed away yesterday. He was only 33. The surgery was to fix a faulty part of the defibrillator and the laser that was used burned a hole into Mark's heart and cut off blood to his brain for 15-20 minutes. The hole was a size of a hand. It's truly a nightmare that has unfortunately come true. They have a precious 3 year old named Lance. They had a great relationship and were childhood sweethearts. Wendy is very much stronger person that anyone I think I have ever met. She is a very devout christian and this will get her through this rough time. Please keep Wendy and their little boy Lance in your prayers throughout the coming days. She will need them to keep her strong. Here is her caringbridge website if you would like to learn more about what has happened:

www.caringbridge.org/visit/wendyturnidge

Even though Mark's passing is very sad he passed away peacefully and is at home with God.

Christmas Weekend

Wow! What a weekend we had! My parents had friend's in town that I haven't seen in forever! We were able to meet Dewayne and Shari downtown Nashville for a beer at The Stage before the Grand Ole Opry! We went to the Opry for one reason only......KEITH URBAN....need I say more haha! It was actually a fun filled show! Keith did 2 songs which one of them was a very meaningful song. He sang first "Sweet Thing" then "Making Memories of Us" which happened to be mine and Richard's first song we danced to as husband and wife! Then Jamey Johnson took the stage he was good, some more of the classic country old timey singers, then Julianne Hough (Julianne was on Dancing With The Stars) she was great! The Opry ended with Chuck Wicks! He was great too! He also sang a meaningful song...."Stealing Cinderella" which was the song my dad and I danced to at the wedding! It was so much fun....and boy do we have photos to remember the night!!

Sunday we got to see our friends Bobby and Jen! They just got back in from Europe! We got to hear all about their fabulous trip to places such as Florence, Tuscany, & Rome, Switzerland, Paris, then off to London! Hearing their stories really made me want to go!! Well the Titans didn't do so well this past weekend, but we won't hold it against them! Cheer for them on Jan. 10th as they play their first home playoff game!!

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!! As we look back we have so much to be thankful for! We are celebrating our very first Christmas as newlyweds! It is definitely a special one! Wow what a year this has been! We hope you are surrounded by friends and family. Have a safe Christmas and cherish every moment you have with your loved ones!

Oh Christmas Tree....Oh Christmas Tree

So I finally figured I should post a photo of our beautifully decorated Christmas tree that Taylor, Richard, and I decorated!! The cat also had to do a pose by the presents...the cat has already been caught trying to open gifts! She also loves the ribbon that I have tied on the presents as well! Sneaky one! Apparently she can't wait until Christmas Day to open her gifts!

It's almost Christmas!

brrrrrr

We hope you are enjoying the season! It has been filled with so many fun things for us from Christmas parties, Cheerleading Competitions, and baking! We have had another fun weekend our little friend Harmony turned 4 yesterday! Taylor has been so anxious to give Richard her gift she made for him....shhhh don't tell Richard! All the gifts are wrapped and under the tree and it is killing Taylor to not be able to open them! She has her countdown going for Christmas! The tree is spilling over gifts a plenty! We are staying right here in Tennessee for Christmas! We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the big day! We hope you are enjoying your weekend! I have included several photos of the season...from Taylor's Christmas party, Gaylord's Christmas party, ICE!, and birthday girl Harmony!

love,

us

Welcome December!

So it's been a few weeks since I've last posted...there has been so much going on around here. Taylor had another cheer competition and they took National Champions title in their division which makes us very happy to know all their hard work has worked in their favor! Between fun parties, competitions, getting the house all together for Christmas it's been pretty busy in the Rawlings household! We are getting ready to hit Gatlinburg this weekend for another cheer competition for Taylor! We are very much looking forward to going! I'll be posting photos later on with all the fun things! Hope you are enjoying this Christmas season!

~Heather

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving! We hope each of you have a great day! Enjoy the day with family and friends! Now go eat a lot and save room for that pumpkin pie or in our case momma Nancy has made pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and German chocolate pie, and we will enjoy all three! YUMMMMM!

Sweet thing

Taylormade cookies :) She decorated these beautiful cookies...almost too pretty to eat, but we did!

TGIF

Hi Friends!
We have had a busy week! Last weekend Taylor had her very first cheerleading competition in Memphis, TN! It was so great to see her team do so well! These little girls rock! We found out her little cheer squad will be advancing to the cheer competition in sunny Orlando, FL in March!! WOOT! That means we get to hop on a flight and go there as well!! The competition takes place at Disney World.....double WOOT WOOT!! I haven't bee to Disney World in 20 years yikes! I know a lot has changed and I've been dying to get back there! We are very excited about this amazing opportunity she has and not to mention very proud of her!

This week was the CMA awards here in Nashvegas....we didn't go this year, but watched it from the comfort of our home! We did however go to a pre-CMA concert on Tuesday night. The one and only Kevin Costner performed...yes you are reading this right it is the actor Kevin Costner! He was really good, although he really isn't country, more Americana style! He did a great job! It was fun to see such a huge Hollywood celeb here in Nashville! Last night we got to go to the Rockettes dress rehearsal performance at the Grand Ole Opry House! What a fun time! Tonight is opening night...and officially kicks off "A Country Christmas" here at Gaylord Opryland! I can't believe it is nearing Christmas time! It seems like it was just December 25th! Hope you have a wonderful weekend! We are looking forward to a restful one!

Happy Voting Day!!!!!

Well today is the day that will in turn effect our lives for the next 4 years....if you haven't already GO VOTE!!!! I think this has got to be one of the most important days in our lives to be able to express our opinions! Happy Election Day!!

Happy November!

Wow can you believe we are already in November! Where has this year gone! It has been such a wonderful weekend and I'm just now getting ready to post photos of Taylor from her very first dress rehearsal....she had so much fun and all the girls are just too cute! Hope you have a great week to come! On a sad note...we have found out my (Heather) dad does have the beginning of prostate cancer....he is going in on Wednesday to find out what the necessary steps are to cure him. We are sure everything will be just fine....

This week will be a fun one though....we have Taylor's very first cheer competition! We are soooo excited to see her get out there and shake her thing lol! She is such a great little cheerleader! We are so proud of what she has accomplished! We get to go walkin' in Memphis!! Enjoy the few photos from her dress rehearsal!

Trick or Treat!!

We hope you all had a spooktacular time for Halloween! We had a blast last night and our Bat Girl turned into Miley Cyrus a.k.a. Hannah Montana! We went Trick or Treating with with Taylor and all her adorable friends! It was such a hoot to watch all these 3 and 4 year olds get so excited about going door to door filling up their buckets! Needless to say we have a ton of Halloween candy! We even went to our friend's Julie and Brad's house and crashed their Halloween party and Taylor got them all to watch Blues Clues and Caillou and did her cheer for them! We had a blast! Hope you all had a wonderful night!

What a week!

Hi Friends!
Sorry we haven't posted anything in over a week! We have had quite the busy week in the Rawlings household. Last Thursday Taylor had her first dress rehearsal for her cheer competition that she is in next weekend in Memphis (yes, we got photos and I will upload them!). She did great and the little girls on her cheer squad are so precious! It really is so fun to watch! We are excited to go over to Memphis because we will get to see Robyn and Dave and hang out with them for the weekend, plus hopefully we'll get to experience some of that fabulous Memphis BBQ and hit my most favorite scrapbook store Archrivers!

We also went to a wedding this past weekend...my friend Danna that I work with got hitched! Of course she was such a beautiful bride! We were both planning our weddings at the same time. She was married at Scarritt Bennett (we stole their idea) and they also used the same photographer we used (we stole that one too!). It definitely brought back a ton of fun memories!

Now for the not so fun news...my dad is awaiting test results to come back. They will be back tomorrow (Friday). He is being tested for prostrate cancer and the Dr. said it didn't look good, but we are being optimistic and praying for the best. The good news is if it is cancer the Dr. thinks it is in the early stages, which means fixable. Please keep my dad in your prayers. I know he'd appreciate it and so would I! Whatever the test results say we're prepared to trust God and know that he has my dad's best interest at hand.

Oh for some fun news...Taylor has decided to be "bat girl" for Halloween! She is the cutest bat girl I have ever seen :) Her mommy took her "trunk or treating" last night at a church with her little friends, so we got an early preview of "bat girl"!

Next week will be a busy week! Go vote on Tuesday (if you haven't already casted your early vote)!

Love,
The Rawlings

Prayers Needed for Friends

Whew this week has been off to a rough start....we have found some not so good news out....I (Heather) have 2 friends currently in the hospital, both pretty serious. My good friends Shawn and Heather's mom is in the hospital and the Dr. has found a large mass on her lung which doesn't sound good, but we are all hopeful that they may be able to treat her. She goes for her biopsy today in just under an hour from now, so if you read this, please say a little prayer for her. My other friend Wendy, who I have known since gee... I was in kindergarten has been battling a pretty serious fight with chronic pancreatitis, which makes her very sick. She has been in and out of the hospital several times this year. She is a very strong and determined woman. She has been fighting this so hard and is back in the hospital. Her Dr. has brought up leukemia and we are praying that isn't what is wrong. She has to have a pretty major surgery on November 4th, so please keep her in your prayers as well! If you would like to follow her story she has a page on http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/wendyturnidge. I know she as well would love all the extra prayers she could get. Thanks!

Sunday, October 19th

It has been such a fun weekend! Yesterday we met up with our friend Raven and she brought Harmony and her nephew, and we decided to eat at Puckett's Grocers in downtown Franklin! It was so good! Then the kids were all excited to go to this new little adorable cupcakery called IveyCake. Her cupcakes were so cute and not to mention the most important, delicious! We took the kids to a park to play and to indulge in the cupcakes! It was a fun day! Tonight we are going to go see the comedian John Pinnette at Zanies! It should be full of laughs! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week!