This is how my week went by so quickly...and now we're off to the beach (yes, again; but don't hate me please!)

Life has been incredibly busy this week, as we've been preparing to head down to Panama City Beach, Florida, for Delaney's involvement in the 12-and-under World Series softball tournament. (We always will, of course, find plenty of opportunities to enjoy the beach amidst all the ball!)

To give you a nice little recap of this week's activities since I blogged last, I thought I'd share with you the status updates I've posted on my Facebook since Wednesday (by the way: if you are on Facebok, please come find me as a friend! I'm Cheryl Sloan Wray. :-)

These are the statements I've posted...ahh, my exciting life...

"I'm glad to see the teenagers in my house with smiles on their faces."

"I'm wondering if I can get away with reading all day long (I could throw in some laundry and vacuuming between chapters)?"

"Made blueberry pancakes for breakfast (at, yes, 11 a.m.), had a late lunch, and now I’m thinking Butterfinger Milkshakes for dinner. What do you think?"

"Sydney was just blocking the entranceway to our kitchen and said I had to have the password to get through. My guesses: "I love Scout"? Nope. "Pretty please with sugar on top?" Nope. "Roll Tide Roll?" Nope. Sydney just laughed and shook her head, then I told her I give up. "It's easy, Mom," she said. "Sydney is the queen."

"Dear God: Be with my friends tonight who are hurting and sad and just so danged frustrated that they could scream. We know that things aren't magical and easy and that life sometimes just sucks. But we know that you are there in the midst of the frustration and suckiness. And we know that you give us friends and hugs and all sorts of good things. And that you are always there for us, no matter what. Amen."

"Borrowing from Annie's comment on my status update before this one: "Chocolate does happen." Yes indeed, it does. Thank goodness that blueberries happen as well. I went and picked two HUGE gallon tubs of fresh blueberries today. I'm off to look for blueberry recipes to add to my repertoire (I already make a mean cobbler)."

"Trying to shake the bizarro, "Say what?" dreams I had last night. Among other adventures, I was apparently dating Mike Golic from ESPN's "The Mike and Mike Show" and leading some sort of outside tent revival topless. Sheesh...maybe I don't need to eat two bowls of blueberry cobbler at midnight."

"Sci-Fi Lover Alert: I'm drinking sweet tea from my Star Trek glass!"

"Packing for the beach..."

"A little margarita + time with a good friend = Something I should do more often."

"Zzzzzzzzzzz."

"Gotta finish packing, run some errands, get some work done...and I really want to just lie in bed and read. And yet, there is great reward in the work: The Beach!"

"Wow. I just counted 94 teams as registered for the 12-and-under World Series we'll be playing in this next week. That's a lot of competition! Go Delaney! Go Mustangs!"

"Reading's always a big part of a vacation for us. Mine and Gary's "Take with us" Pile includes: Hunted (House of Night 5), Cappucino Shot (cozy mystery), Books 4 & 5 in Percy Jackson series, Wrapped in Rain by Charles Martin, Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres, and HP and the Half Blood Prince (a reread before the movie). Some heavy, some light. All good (I'm sure!)."

"Made snacks to pack for our trip tomorrow. Homemade oatmeal/chocolate chip cookies and rice krispy treats. Not much better than that!"

And the status I will post tomorrow as we leave for Florida:

"And we’re off..."

I'm really excited about the trip and can't wait to enjoy the beach yet again (and I feel incredibly blessed that we're getting to travel some more). I hope that you all have a wonderful week as well, and I will be eager to come back and "see" you all again soon!

(If you are on Facebook, I'm sure that Gary will post regular game updates from his Blackberry, for anyone who is so inclined to want to know that much detail about our lives. LOL Just go to my page and you can link up to Gary's page. And if I get lucky and inspired, I may try and post some pictures sometime during the week. But I'm not necessarily promising anything! Because, you know, I may be enjoying my books and my softball and my seafood a little too much to turn on the computer. But who knows?)

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL week and I will look forward to "seeing" you all again soon. Love ya!

* I promise that I'll be thinking of you when my little feetsies are doing this again...