Easter Bunny Gifts!

I finally got a video to post! Yeah!

Izzy's 1st Piggys!

Though they are only sprigs, I FINALLY got Izzy's hair up in pig tails! I think the lack of hair makes them all the cuter!

Work it Dada, Work it!

Look at what My Baby Daddy did today...

Aside from the obvious railings, he replaced a board on the step that was sinking in and a board on the deck that had a large chunk of wood missing (Marshall got his foot caught on it and pulled it up last summer *ouch*). He pressure washed it last weekend so the whole thing looks brand new! We are going to put the solar light post caps on the two posts at the step and wooden post caps to match on all the others and seal all the wood when we get a good dry spell. I wish we could afford to put the solar lights on them all, but since it's going to cost us $70 for the two (and those are the cheapest ones) we will be going with plain jane for the rest. Of course I have to mention that Pap helped Clarky, but they finished it all in about 7 hours! I am so proud of them! It looks so good now, I can't wait to see it when it's finished. I'm going to do a little redecorating out there too :) I foresee hours and years of fun on this deck!

P.S. We had to add the railings b/c our sweet baby girl fell off the edge near the step a few weeks ago (with me, Mee-Maw & Papaw sitting right there). That quickly put this at the top of our list of things to do with our income tax return. Therefore sheetrocking the living room has moved to the bottom. *Sigh* When is the 1st stimulus check coming? :0

Good Friday Easter Eggs!

I can't think of anything better to do on a rainy, Good Friday afternoon than dye Easter Eggs; can you? It was all going pretty well too, until Izzy put almost her entire hand into the blue dye. Right about then Daddy took her to watch Noggin and Mommy finished up ;)

6th Annual Father & Daughter Prom

Last Saturday, April 4th, was the Y's Father & Daughter Prom. We again set a record for the most attendees, with 117! I am so happy that even in these economic times, we had such a great turn-out. It really is a very special time to celebrate a very special bond. We had an oriental theme this year, which made it very easy to decorate and come up with giveaways, etc. This year we did t's for the dads & daughters, chopsticks and fortune cookies were attached with ribbon to the daughter's t's. I have to give shout-outs to my staff to making it such a success:

K-My trusty sidekick (that's what everyone at the Y calls her) who helps me do everything! She helped me roll t's and attach goodies until 8pm Friday night, and decorated for 3 hours Saturday afternoon and still really weren't finished, but we had to leave to get dressed! She always knows exactly what to do and when to do it! I would be TOTALLY lost without her.

Felix & Brittany-Fi Fi knows how to work-it and Britt Britt knows how to laugh at it! Even when I was having a total meltdown b/c the music wasn't working; they snapped into action greeting people, giving them their t's and making sure they got their pictures taken. *Shew* a load off-when you've got one major probably to worry about!

*Best of all they all three know how to deal with my temper when things aren't going according to plan! Thanks Guys!

Candi-Not on my staff, but my #1 dawg when it comes to pics! She's been taking photos of the daddy's and lil' ladies for three years now and they love them! This year she had to be a calming influence and give a little technical support in trying to figure out what the music problem was. So if you ever need a photographer/computer guru all rolled into one...you know who to call!

Of course my own personal favorite Daddy & Daughter team was in attendance. Izzy was the center of attention even in the midst of all those other cuties! She was shakin' it and those little girls were lovin' it! They all wanted to dance with her and of course the dad's thought she was hilarious. I attached the 2 pics I was able to catch!

Things are looking-up!

My letter to the editor was printed in the paper Sunday. I was extremely excited it was in Sunday's paper...that is more read than any other day of the week and that obviously, a lot of people read my letter, b/c I get compliments everywhere I go. I appreciate all the compliments, but that's not why I wrote it. I did it in hopes of saving my program. Letters to principals, parents, staff and students also went out this week. Probably most promising, I had a mtg today regarding some alternative funding opportunities and it was very positive. That's really all ask too. If SOS is cut, yes that's tragic, but if the Lord will send another opportunity my way, if I can find another grant, if I can collaborate with other organizations, ANYTHING to make sure these kids have somewhere to go after school, then that is what I will do! As I was going through my past participants paperwork and gathering addresses I could not help but cry thinking of the hundreds of kids and families I have come in contact over the years. More importantly, I don't know what some of them, a lot of them actually, would have done without the SOS program. I made a lot of changes to my letter since it was first posted and I'm posting my letter complete with our legislators info. in case someone reads this and is interested in writing a letter.

March 24, 2009

Dear SOS Parents, Students, Staff, Principals, Volunteers and Supporters,

I write to you all with a heavy heart and a troubled mind. Many of you may have read in Monday’s Courier Tribune that the Support Our Students program is on the chopping block in Governor Perdue’s proposed budget cuts. This program was nominated for deletion because according to Perdue, it is either “inefficient, too expensive or nonessential.”

So far this year, the YMCA SOS program has served over 60 youth by providing them with a safe and supervised environment during those crucial after school hours from 3 to 6 pm when most juvenile crime occurs. These students are provided with positive alternatives such as homework assistance, the NC Cooperative Extension Randolph Co. Center Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) program, community service projects and group activities to occupy this time. This year’s SOS community service project was a can food drive for the Christians United Outreach Center (CUOC). The SOS students at Uwharrie Middle School gathered, organized and boxed almost 3,000 cans of food in just three days! Past projects have included Salvation Army bell ringing for the donation buckets, sending care packages to the troops, a teddy bear drive, making “no sew” fleece blankets for the children at Victory Junction Gang Camp, Red Cross Blood Drives and more.

In 2008, 20 teens were granted scholarships with SOS funding to attend the Y’s Xtreme Teens summer camp where again, they were in a safe environment and supervised by positive role models. These teens spent the summer participating in community service projects for the CUOC thrift store & Salvation Army food pantry, going on field trips, team-building activities, sports, swimming & having splash pad fun, as well as, weekly programming provided by Randolph County 4-H, Partnership for a Drug Free NC and Healthy Minds, Healthy Children. Over the course of the eight years the Randolph-Asheboro YMCA has operated SOS; over 1,000 Randolph County youth have been influenced by this program. In a 2006 evaluation of the program, over 40% of students raised their English/Language Arts grades by half a letter grade or more and 44% did the same with their Math grades. While in the program, 100% said they would not be supervised after school if it wasn’t for SOS and that they felt safe and accepted by their SOS peers and YMCA counselors.

This is just a sampling of how the Randolph-Asheboro YMCA SOS program has impacted the youth of Randolph County. When it comes to children, especially the middle school population that doesn’t have many alternatives after school or during the long days of summer, not one of these details is “inefficient, too expensive or nonessential.” However; if Governor Perdue’s proposed budget is approved by the Legislature, the effects on the juvenile justice system for not having the SOS program available to prevent youth from being involved in dangerous and risky behavior, would be very inefficient and expensive due to the elimination of one very essential youth program.

I am asking each and every one of you to please write letters to our Representatives, Harold Brubaker and Pat Hurley, and our Senator, Jerry Tillman, expressing the impact the Randolph-Asheboro YMCA SOS Program has had on you, your children or your students. Your support could make all the difference. You can send these letters through me or directly to:

Rep. Harold Brubaker
NC House of Representatives
16 W. Jones St, Room 1229
Raleigh, NC 27601-1096

Rep. Pat Hurley
NC House of Representatives
300 N. Salisbury St, Room 607
Raleigh, NC 27603-5925

Senator Jerry Tillman
NC Senate
300 N. Salisbury St, Room 628
Raleigh, NC 27603-5925

Sincerely Yours,


Celena R. Fleming
Community Development & SOS Program Director

18 mo. at 19 mo.

Yesterday was Izzy's 18 mo. check-up, even though she just turned 19 mo. That was the first appt. I could get and I've had it scheduled for two months! I can understand why though, our peditrician's office is the bomb. I've NEVER seen them backed up, I've NEVER had to wait more than a couple of mins, I've NEVER met a Dr. I didn't like, I've NEVER been unable to get an appt-b/c they even have emergency hours until 8pm every weeknight and weekend hours. They're just awesome. Everyone is so nice and helpful. Those are just things you cannot take for granted when you are a parent, especially a first time mommy and especially when its a baby. Anywho, so we get in the room and the nurse asks us all our "goal" questions and Izzy is totally on track, in fact she's doing all the 24 mo. stuff too (yes, I am bragging now)! She weighs 25.7 lbs and is 32 in long. The sad thing is we went to the scale where they weighed her when she was only 5 days old and I was looking at this 25 lb toddler and totally teared up. I couldn't help but think where is my little 7 lb baby? 19 mo. before I had stood in that very spot, a TOTAL NERVOUS WRECK b/c my little tiny baby had LOST yet another ounce since we had come home from the hospital 3 days prior, bringing her total weight loss to 13 ounces; almost a whole lb. *Sigh* and look at her now, happy, healthy, beautiful, insanely smart, talking, running, playing, sweet as sugar, getting ready to potty train and best of all, she has hair-little blonde curls! Dr. Dial, who I love, came in and checked her out and everything's great. Then, the horrid of the horrid, the dreaded shots. As I've warned you mommy's to be b/f to be prepared, here I thought I was, but I wasn't. This was worse, b/c now she understands. I mean you know it's bad when the nurse pats you on the shoulder and says, "Take as much time as you need." Izzy just kept pulling me to her (even though I was only an inch in front of her) and crying, sobbing, "Mommy, mommy...ohhhh." Ugh! But then in true Izzy fashion, she had stopped crying by the time we got to the desk, still had the sniffles and still blotchy red, but waiving and saying "bye-bye" in that sweet little voice of hers. The best news of the visit...NO MORE SHOTS UNTIL SHE IS 5 YEARS OLD! Thank you God!