The Blues Travelers

My sister, Lisa, and I went to see one of my all time favorite bands- The Blues Travelers.

They were playing at Freedom Weekend Aloft (at Heritage Park in Simpsonville) and for $10, we were able to get there early enough to be on the very front row, center stage!!!! AWESOME! :) And they played all of my favorites including "Run Around", "But Anyway", and "The Hook".

And they even through in a Sublime song, "Lovin' is What I Got."

I loved it and I'm so glad my sis got to go with me! We also got to see one of my best friends- Tabitha and her daughters, Mina and Shana. I almost cried when I saw Mina and Shana, those girls are my babies and I just wrapped my arms around them, and managed to answer as many of Shana's questions as I could before I had to go! haha. :) I loved it!

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Remember the reason for the Holiday- Remember the military, and the military families at home. To all of you- Thank you, Thank you for fighting for my freedom. videos and pictures from the concert at www.dropshots.com/pilkentonpearls

4K Graduation & Skills Day

Last Tuesday- Jenna had her final spring program at Our Saviour Lutheran Day School. This year, they put on a play (which was perfectly fitting considering the year she's had), and Jenna played a little girl named Ping Ping!

There are videos on www.dropshots.com/pilkentonpearls

Also, last Wednesday, Jenna had her last Skills Day at the school. Here is a couple pictures of her and her friends. She'll miss this school- but she is so excited about her new school and can't wait to attend Taylors Elementary in the Fall. :) My girl is growing up way too fast!!!!

Mrs. Clough's K4 class

McKain - Fuller Wedding

Congratulations to my little sister Lisa McKain and her new husband (my new brother in law) Keith Fuller!

Grandma Arlene and Grandpa Bob (my mother's parents) have been married 61 years this year- and they had really great advice. Grandma said "We've never once been in a fight." and Grandpa said "that's because I remember the 3 most important things to say: Yes Dear, No Dear, and I'm Sorry." lol- I love them!

You can click on the below link to read about it! Also- here are just some of the pictures from the night.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=CELEBRATIONS0101&announcementID=2179

Jenna Jade was the flower girl= and I am so very proud of her, she was so well behaved and fun and absolutely the best flower girl EVER! I also loved her hair- it turned out soooo pretty! And I did it myself instead of paying to have it done...::dusts off shoulders:: Lisa was given headphones, and just over 20 minutes before she walked down the isle, she heard Keith's voice telling her how happy he was, and how he couldn't wait to marry her.... awwwww! :-)Hadley (my cousin David and his wife Melanie's daughter), Jenna, and myself in the bridal parlor at church. :) These two became such great friends!The Cake

Silly Lexie stole Jenna's flower girl head piece, and danced around in circles for a while, it was the sweetest thing! :)

Me and two of my BESTIES!!! I love these girls - they are AMAZING... From left to right its Amanda Roshto, me, and Twiggy Griffin... Amanda put together the entire wedding- its what she does and she is SOOO good at what she does-thanks Amanda! I'm reccommending your business to everyone! and Twiggy- Twigs has always been there for me, she's been my best friend for years and I'm so glad she was there!
Caroline (my cousin Greg and his wife Melinda's daughter) and Jenna dancing at the reception. They were so cute! :)

The Hellwig Family

My Grandma Arlene, Grandpa Bob, my mother, and my Aunt Donna. Grandma Arlene and Grandpa Bob have the same wedding anniversary as Eric and I, and since this year they celebrate 61 years of marriage, they won the dance for being married the longest.

There was too much Clemson stuff- so the few Gamecocks in the crowd got together to play the Carolina theme song... lolMy beautiful mother, Denise, and her beautiful sister, my Aunt Donna!We found a couple Ohio State Buckeyes--- so we did a few Ohio cheers and posed for this picture. Grandpa Bob will be so proud! :) hahaSo...the Clemson Tiger was there...and he stole my camera...took a picture of himself, and put it down and pointed at the dance floor...he wanted me to stop taking pictures and dance some- so I did LOL.... I danced with the Tiger! :) Go Tigers!Bubbles! more pictures at www.dropshots.com/pilkentonpearls

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Keith and Lisa Fuller!!

Mother's Day

Lisa's Bachelorette party was the night before.... yes. I did get home at 3am... and didn't actually sleep until 4am because of the beautiful card and roses Eric had on my pillow. I spent an hour loving them and putting them in a vase ... lol.. because I'm slightly OCD and wanted to make sure they had fresh water, mixed well with flower food, and no leaves touching the water (FYI - if leaves are in the water, your flowers die faster...someone shared that info with me a few years ago and my flowers now live up to 3 weeks longer!) so... 4am I finally fell asleep...and was awake by 8:30am. Why? Because the two most precious little faces in the entire world crawled in my bed and hugged my face and gave me kisses and cheered "Happy Mother's Day!"... and there's no falling back asleep when you have a big smile on your face!

I am so blessed to be called Mom. Happy Mother's Day to you all- especially my mother Denise McKain and my mother in law Donna McCarter, my grandmother Arlene Hellwig, My Aunt Donna (who is pretty much my other momma! haha!), Mamaw VanHuss, and Mamaw Pilkenton...and the late Grandma Lucille- how I miss you! And of course my sis in law Brandi, and my cousins who are mothers... These "mom's" in my life have taught me everything and I wouldn't be the mom I am today without them. I love you all! Again- A very Happy Mother's Day to you!

SPEAKING OF COUSINS THAT ARE MOM'S..... My cousin Marcia Baker (see list of peeps on the right for the link to her blog!)... had a baby GIRL on Friday, May 7th, and they named her Natalie Scott Baker (Scott is after her daddy)... What a wonderful mother's day present! A new baby girl to hold and love - oh how I wish they didn't grow up so fast! Congrats to Charlie who is now a big brother! :)

Lisa's Entourage

My little sister, Lisa, is getting married on May 15th and I went with her and her friends on her bachelorette party that was downtown Greenville on May 8th. We started the night with dinner at Barley's Taproom & Pizzeria and from there hit some bars ending at The Blue Martini. We absolutely had a blast! (And so did our blow up "mini Keith"...I'm pretty sure he had even more fun than we did haha!)

We all had shirts made with nicknames that Lisa gave us. I was "Jack Daniels" (we were all liquors). On the front, it said "Lisa's Entourage" and below a picture of some girls it said "Tomorrow she wears the gown, Tonight we hit the town!"

Our "mini Keith" had writing all over him from various people throughout the night giving random advice for Lisa. He was a hit with the ladies too! ha ha! :) I love you sis- and I had a great time with you and your friends! :) I'm proud of you!

more pictures at www.dropshots.com/pilkentonpearls

Isle of Palms Getaway

My little sister Lisa is getting married on May 15th and she really wanted a chance to relax on the beach before her big day. Well, she got exactly that! We couldn't have done it with out my Godfather Gerry Porter and his girlfriend Jamie Williams. They got us a really great deal at the Seaside Inn and even helped pay for more than half!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Uncle Gerry and Jamie- ya'll are the best!

On Saturday, after the Duck Derby - I drove Lisa, myself, and two of her friends (Alex and Elise) down to Isle of Palms for a 1 night and 1 day stay at the beach.

And what is a good trip without things happening?

The following things happened:

1. We met a drunk man who said the word "Ladies" in an inappropriate way after every sentence. (We high tailed it out of that place and never went back! ha ha)

2. Lisa terrorized some prom kids sneaking out for fun on the beach. (practically the funniest thing ever)

3. Swimming in the ocean the next day - I get stung by a jelly. YEP. Leave it to me- to now have the perfect red lines of tentacles that bumped into my leg... lol- it didn't hurt bad, I LOVE jellyfish and was more excited that one was close to me to care that it accidentally stung me..yeah, i'm pretty wierd. its ok. God made me that way! :) ha ha and NO- nobody peed on me.

4. my van. oh? what's wrong with the van you ask? um. everything. barely got us home... and cost me a rediculous chunk of change the next day. (let's just say it was over $150.00 and leave it at that)

5. my gps. oh? gps troubles? yeah... gps isn't even getting fixed..it has finally kicked the bucket. It gave its dramatic death scene just before the moment we actually were going to need it to find the hotel. omg. we had to use our brains! ha ha- good thing we were pretty smart, we didn't even need that gps, we figured it out on our own. We even followed road signs!! (I know, primitive right?) ha ha.

6. the drunk man. poor guy... we were on the balcony at the hotel enjoying a drink (or two, for a few of us - three and four, whatev, its all cool)... and this man appeared from the side of the hotel and tripped and stumbled out to the beach. after laughing at him a while, about 2 am we decided to stroll the beach and make sure he didn't drown... well, he didn't, in fact we didn't have to go far- found him passed out in mid snow angel (sand angel i guess) 3 feet off our boardwalk. after our walk on the beach- we notified authority and we hope he survived the night.

7. last...and definitely not the least as it is still bothering me today... we got BURNT... very sunburnt - next time, we are inviting sunscreen to come. :) our bad! haha.

On top of all of that- and above all the rest- We really had a great time and Lisa had a great time and her special day is right around the corner- I'm proud of you lil sis! Love you and cherish every second! oh and Keith--- she's all yours. ha ha. :)

haha- Lisa jumping into the OCEAN! (she's just cool like that.)

Left to Right: Elise, my sis Lisa, and Alex

yep...this is me...hey! who else is going to take a picture of me? I'm the one with the camera!

more pictures at www.dropshots.com/pilkentonpearls

Reedy River Duck Derby 2010

This year, my daughter's school had a duck team and we really had a lot of fun and did pretty well with duck adoptions - over 160 ducks adopted through Our Saviour Lutheran Day School Duck Team!!!

We also had a booth on race day where we sold popcorn, water, and bows made by one of our teachers Meredith Casey (whose bows are absolutely gorgeous - she is truely talented with ribbons!)

Last, but definitely not least, I'm proud to announce that one of the ducks adopted out by OSL Day School won 3rd place!!!!!! Adopted by my boss, David Carson at Plus Inc (http://www.plusinc.net/ ), David won a 2 night stay at Hampton Inn in downtown Greenville! YAY OSL Day School! Congratulations David!

The grand prize was a year of groceries at Bi-Lo ($3,900.00 worth) and 2nd place was $1,500.00 cash -- more info on the race at http://www.reedyriverduckderby.com/

100% of proceeds went to benefit a local program or charity. more pictures at www.dropshots.com/pilkentonpearls (a few here below! =P)

My volunteer responsibilities included helping peel old stickers off and put new stickers on a rough estimate of about 10,000 rubber ducks the Tuesday night before the race... see my napkin of tags I removed all by myself...next to a picture of newly "tagged" ducks in a box ready for race day! Whew! That was fun- haha

Mr. Reedy River Rubber Duck paused at our booth for a photo with our staff! Left to right, One of our 3k teachers (and maker of the fabulous hairbows) Mrs. Meredith Casey, our school Principal and Director Mrs. Mary Glover, and our art teacher Mrs. Terri Vanselow. They are a GREAT school- my daughter has really learned so much from them. Learn more about OSL Day School at www.osldayschool.com

Here are the bows- I wish I could have gotten a better picture - Mrs. Casey hand sculpted ribbon to look like ducks for super cute duck clips (I bought 3, one for me and each of my girls) and to the left of those her personal artistic creations-- she is really very talented! They were most certainly the hottest items at the Duck Derby in 2010!

This darling puppy is owned by Jamie Powell, owner of www.premieryorkie.com She is a sponser of the Reedy River Duck Derby and she had her sweet doggie dressed up in this cute costume for race day at Falls Park! How adorable!!

Join us next year for another great rubber duck race! :-) God Bless!