Brazil Day 1

We have spent our first full day in Aracaju. We had a day of prayer today and stopped at several different locations to pray for very specific things. We went to a children´s home, and that was the highlight of my day because we got to see a bunch of kids that are 0-5 years old. Tomorrow will be our first day of VBS. We will be having 2 sessions of that each day (for two days). Planning VBS was my main role for this trip, so I will be anxious to see if all goes well the next two days. We had an amazing day today, and I am so glad to be here. I miss my family dearly, but I have been able to talk to them everyday thanks to Tim Brumfield (teacher in Lubbock). He has a program on his computer that allows us to talk for 2 cents a minute!!!! Erica - you can email Morgan - just go to www.campdeerrun.com and send an email but put attn. Morgan Taylor. Love all you guys. Mel

I can´t figure out if I can put pictures up from here, but I will try...more to come tomorrow (hopefully). Sometimes I can do blogger, but sometimes I can´t. Until next time...so long.

Brazil

We are in Brazil. We are in Rio de Janeiro right now waiting to get on our plane to Aracaju. More to come later. I am tired! It has been a very long trip.

More Pocahontas and headed to Brazil!

Things went well at Pocahontas Friday night. I don't have time to post any pictures right now. Last night, however, she got sick. When she left with my parents for the program, she said her stomach hurt. I thought she was just nervous. But, she threw up when she got there. She still wanted to dance, so she did. She started feeling bad again, so they went and got my parents (we weren't there). She threw up again in the parking lot. I feel so bad for her. At least she got to dance for Nanny and Papa. She did great at both performances. She is doing better now, so I don't really know what happened. The back stage moms said that 4 girls threw up last night, so I guess it was a stomach bug.

We are leaving today for Brazil - please pray for our trip! Take care. Remember to visit the Aracjau, Brazil 2008 blog I have under "Blogs I Read" for info. from our trip.

Dress Rehearsal - Thursday night

Maybe it's just me, but I think I have the best looking kids ever! Haleigh is just so stinking cute; I just can't stand it. She was so excited for dress rehearsal last night. She was just so giddy with excitement on the way to the rehearsal. Here are a few pictures in full make up and costume. Isn't she so pretty?!



Getting her nose and whiskers - which I don't understand since you can't see them at all. But you can't see her make up either, so go figure.
Okay, we can't record at all tonight during the performance or take flash photography, so here is the best I can give you....dress rehearsal. My camera, when I zoomed on Haleigh, got really choppy, so sorry for that. Again, in the first video, she is in the 2nd group of girls that comes in and she is in the back row. After the move a little she is in the front on the far left. The second video is them practicing the "finale". I didn't record the whole finale, just Haleigh's part. In this video she is the 4th dancer from the left. Enjoy! Can't wait for tonight!

Happy Father's Day and Pocahontas

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers in my life!

Mark is the best daddy ever. He is such a better parent than I am. He has such a big heart and is so patient and understanding. Our children just adore him, and I don't think that I could have picked a better man to be the father of my children! So, Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world. I feel really bad that I will be leaving him on Father's Day for Brazil and Morgan will be going to camp. I guess we will just have to celebrate on Saturday! We really appreciate all he does for us from leading us spiritually to providing for us and taking care of us. He's just the best! Here's a picture of daddy's favorite thing to do - fishing :)

Here is a picture of me and my dad that I love from when I was little. He doesn't have even half of that hair these days (I still have that mop of hair), but he is still a lot of fun. He is a great father too, and I wish him a happy Father's day as well. And, I will get to spend it with him! Him and my mom are coming down to see Haleigh's ballet debut in Pocahontas this weekend. I can't wait to see them and spend some time with them before I set out for Brazil.

Now, to Pocahontas! This week is the week Haleigh has been working so hard for in ballet since January. Haleigh wanted ballet lessons for her birthday, so that is what she got!! She is going to be a rabbit. They had tech rehearsal Tues. night and they will have a full dress rehearsal Thurs. night. Their performances are Friday and Saturday night. Here is a clip from Tech rehearsal on Tues. night (which lasted forever). Haleigh is in the 2nd group of girls to enter the stage. She is in the back with the black leotard and pink skirt. You just kind of have to follow her from there.

I will try to take another clip from dress rehearsal so that you can see her in full costume/makeup. I wish everyone could come and see her. She has worked so hard, and she is doing really well. She really loves it. The whole production is supposed to last 2 hours. So, we are in for a long couple of nights on Thurs., Fri., and Saturday. Hopefully she will still love it after all of this!

Catching Up...Part 2!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to CDR for the 50th anniversary celebration. Here are some pictures from the big event....

The following pictures are our kids taking a swing on the rope. (Morgan)

Haleigh's first attempt!

And her second!

And, finally, Jacob.

Group picture time. This is a picture of people that were campers from 1988-1998. Mark is in the back row.

Campers from 1998-2008. Morgan is in the second row (pink tank top).

Group Leaders throughout the years. Again, Mark is in the back.

Staff in the 90's silly picture - Mark and I are in there somewhere!

CDR weddings - all of these people met at CDR and got married - pretty special. Mark and I are on the far right side.

Our painting from the rec hall. Mark painted this a long time ago before we got married. It has been fun to add to it over the years.

Ty Ford, Mark, and Russell Smith - a remake of an old picture when Ty and Russell were campers.

Time for bed - Haleigh was out first. She was the only one that slept on the bottom bunk. It was too hot for the rest of us, so we moved our bunks together in the center of the cabin so that we could be under the fans.

Mark didn't get a great nights sleep because he ended up sharing his (small) bed with Jacob.
In case you ever wonder why Jacob never takes a serious picture...the apple doesn't fall far from the "Tree".

Well, here's a cute one of him!

Our brick on the wall outside the mess hall.

Here's a picture of what Don Neal called the "Summer of Love Reunion". We all worked together during the summer of 94, and we all go married in 95. Grant and Donna Davis (left), Don and Jane Neal (center), Mark and Melissa Taylor (right).

On June 7, 1999, we lost Mark's mom. It has been a hard 9 years. These next pictures are from "Nana's Pavilion" at Camp Deer Run. The sweet church in Sulphur Springs (where Mark grew up) donated money to build this pavilion in honor of Kay. Here is a picture of Mark, Morgan, Haleigh, Jacob, Popop (Mark's dad), Mandy (Mark's sister), and Lauren (Mandy's daughter) in the pavilion.

These are the bricks that are on the ground in the center of the pavilion. In case you can't read them, the 1st one says - In loving memory of Kay Taylor. The 2nd one says - Be still and know that I am God.

It was a great weekend. We had fun seeing old friends and campers. Jacob had a blast. He was mad when it was time to go to bed because he wanted to play more night games! I can't wait until he gets to go as a camper. Speaking of that, Morgan will be leaving in 5 days for 2nd session! Next year will be Haleigh's first year. It's amazing how time flies! Hail dear ol' Deer Run!

Catching Up...!! (Part 1)

I am going to catch up over the next couple of days on blogging. I still have the CDR 50th reunion to talk about and post pictures from. Anyway...this first picture shows Jacob's new hair cut. I told Mark and Jacob it was time to cut their hair the other night, and Jacob informed me that he wanted a bald head. I told him I would cut it short first and see if he liked it - hoping that he would like it and not want to go bald. Well, I buzzed it with a size "1", he hopped up to look at it in the mirror and said "nope, don't like it - shave it". So, I decided to put on the "blender" attachment which made it a little bit shorter than a size 1. He hopped up to look in the mirror and said "nope, don't like it - shave it"! Well, I didn't shave it because I didn't want him to look too goofy, so after a long argument, I won and it didn't get shorter. He still wants a bald head though!

Haleigh finds monarch caterpillars in the big field behind our house and "raises" them. She brings in milkweed every couple of days and watches their growth process carefully. Here is the one she found this year...

...and the end result a few weeks later!

We had "Battle of the Books" at school last Friday. Haleigh was on the lime green team. Her team didn't do real well. They missed 6 questions, so they didn't place. Haleigh's age did real well and only missed one question, but the "intermediate" level kids missed 5. She had a lot of fun though, and it makes reading all of those books fun! Here is her team coming in to the gym.

Haleigh and her friend were on the same team this year.

Haleigh's team and coach (Deena). She was excited to be on Deena's team this year.

Yesterday was the last day of school for the kids. Haleigh's teacher handed out a variety of awards. Haleigh got perfect attendance (for the 6th 6 weeks), A honor roll (6th 6 weeks and all year), Rigorous Writer award, Brain Buster award, and Most Valuable Classmate award. This last one was sweet because the class got to vote on who they thought deserved it. Isn't that nice? We were really proud of her.

Haleigh, Miss Renfro, and one of Haleigh's best friends and classmate.

Some more classmates...


Morgan got invited to a birthday party last weekend in which they got to ride in a limo to Joe's Crab Shack. Here is a picture of the girls in front of the limo.

Getting in the limo...Morgan is so swift her hair is blowing...she was too excited!
A shot from inside.
I guess that's enough for today. School is out now, so I should be able to post more often. At least until I leave for Brazil! I will get the CDR pictures up soon.