Night Out With The Guys

(I can't tell you how miffed I am to be re-posting this entry! Somehow this whole thing went into some black hole in the web. Grrrrr.)

Roll Tide Roll!

Please forgive the sometimes-blurred pictures. This amateur photog was doing the best she could in a rushed and dark environment.



Tyrone Prothro


Wallace Gilberry


Simeon Castille


My nephew, Seth :)


Roman Harper


Mark Anderson


Marcus Carter


Justin Britt


John Parker Wilson


Jimmy Johns


Jeremy Schatz



Jamie Christiansen


DJ Hall


Demeco Ryans


Charlie Peprah

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Brodie Croyle


Brandon Brooks


Anthony Madison

Rolling With The Jokes

This is a GREAT week of freedom for publically poking fun at the "other" team...the enemy. Our enemy, is of course, Awbarn. I will gladly take part in some good ol' fashioned, all in good-fun, good-natured ribbing. NOTICE THE REFERENCES TO "GOOD" and please don't take offense. I feel I have to preface the week with that statement or else someone will get their panties in a wad :)

And yes, it's nice to have this kind of fun-making coming off the cuh-rappy football Saturday we just had.

Roll Tide :)


An Awbarn student in an Elementary School in Tuscaloosa.

Giving Them Distance

It's amazing how much more peaceful tired children can be when I'm not around. Don't get me wrong, sometimes my distance from them CAUSES problems and they beckon me with their cries of sibling anguish....but right now, they are all acting TONS better without my presence.

I'm listening to SR and HA practicing their "Ode To Joy" on the keyboard and electric guitar. This is their first combined rehearsal of the song and they are preparing for the school's February talent show. While I was in there hovering, there was a LOT of growling and complaining. As I was giving them attention, the boys (in the tub) were griping and fighting wishing THEY had my attention instead of the girls.

Then the phone rang and as I answered it, all the commotion settled.

Kids are so unpredictable. Sometimes, that phone ringing is a MAGNET for their pestering. But maybe because I was being more of a pest TO THEM this time, the phone call was actually a sigh of relief.

The girls' music is improving as I type. IN FACT (WOW... I wish I could type my surprise) they just went through the verse (or whatever -- I'm no musician) one full time without a mess-up! Goodness. MUCH better than a few minutes ago.

I told them they had to run through the 'whatever' (it's only the first two 'lines' or whatever of the song so far) 50 times before they could quit. They are making tally marks of each time through.

Hud and D are playing peacefully in the tub and laughing.

**************

After getting the girls from school, we're driving out of the parking lot and SR says, "Guess what Caroline named her turtle......" (short pause...no time for true guessing) "Pokey!"

The kids giggle.

HA: "I would have named him Fred."

SR: "I would have named him Bill."

DY: "I would have named him Buck."

Rolling laughter....

Anxiety, Tears, and Rejoicing

The anxiety started yesterday...Sunday evening. I can almost tell you the exact moment it started. I was a little more than a mile from home. I didn't like the familiar feeling and thankfully, I recognized it pretty quickly as being warfare of the non-earthly type.

Things had gone well at church Sunday night. I was heading up a new season of the "dramatic movement" ministry and our first practice was REALLY awesome. I am confident God has very big plans for this group and the work they will do.

I was also mentally working through the events of Friday and Saturday. I had gone to "Mockingbirdville" Alabama to work a Mannatech table and there were many, many things there that God was doing and asking me to do. I knew He was moving and I knew good things were coming.

So the anxiety was pretty painful. I can't say I quite "meditated" on the following scripture while I was driving, but I certainly recalled it during my prayers...

"For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12 NLT

I knew God was using me and I knew Satan had plans to try diverting me.

This morning, the anxiety reached an all-time high. Tears, stress, nausea. I was working through it while trying to remain calm, peaceful, and even joyful with the boys. I was able to hide my tears and fears enough that they didn't ask questions. I wonder if they noticed...

Donnie certainly did. There was one phone call where I could hardly speak. My voice cracked through the tears. His first phone call to me after that was a voice message on my cell that said, "I'm worried about y'all."

But things turned around QUICKLY.

In my anxiety, I knew I had to pray. There really is no power in ANYTHING else. That was my only hope for strength. And during that prayer, words from bible study rang loud and clear.

An abundant life is not dependent on circumstances. It is a bi-product of dependence and focus on Christ. I prayed and asked God to please help me focus on Christ. I took efforts to focus on what Christ has done for me. I thought about the cross. I thought about Christ's undue suffering. I remembered and looked forward to His return and the permanent extinction of anxiety and fear.

I focused as hard as I could. It was imperfect but I was trying. I begged God for His help. I have no power to do these things on my own.

Minutes later, anxiety released. That physical part of it was erased.

Soon after, a difficult load was lightened. Not removed but lightened.

Next, that lightened load was made to look bad again and more efforts had to be put forth to change my focus. Satan wanted my focus on my former pity party. I had to allow the Holy Spirit to move me past it.

Minutes later, that load was totally removed.

Hours later, the biggest mercy was poured out through a phone call from Donnie. Answers to prayers were coming through the cell like crazy. Wow.

A few hours later, I was able to do something that God evidentally had planned to use to bless someone else. I called with some news and was told that this news was a perfect answer to a very detailed prayer concerning this exact situation. I was then able to hear of other answered prayers that had happened for this family earlier in the day. We were able to praise our Lord together! Awesome!

God truly is amazing, y'all. I'm so thankful for days like today. It started out SO bad. And tonight I am here to tell you that His mercy is unending. His grace is unwavering. Regardless of circumstances, abundant life is possible.

"And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus." Phillippians 4:19 NLT

NaNoWriMo

Impressive. I have at least two of my "froggers" who are hooked on the NaNoWriMo event. That's writing a novel of 50,000 words during the month of November folks! Whoa.

Best wishes to:
Max (a guy I've never met but a friend of Jen's that I've been reading for a long time. I did figure out that my sis & brother-in-law go to the same gym Max does, though. Weird how we figure out things like that isn't it?!)
and
Willena (another friend that I've never met in person but a dear friend nonetheless. Bet you didn't know she was Canadian! Did ya, eh?)!

We look forward to hearing how it works out for both of you!

Any others out there?

H A L L E L U J A H !

Hours after not being able to find Sam Catser, we FINALLY did!

Donnie was standing in our bathroom and hearing me near tears about how sad it was that we couldn't find him. Then he said, "I think I heard something." I hopped up and raced in with him. Yep...a soft 'meow'. I thought it was in my closet so I was digging around. "Meow." It was behind me. I opened drawer 1....no....drawer 2....no.....drawer 3.....THERE HE WAS! CRAMMED IN WITH A BAG OF COTTON BALLS AND JUNK!

Sickening: I thought I had heard something earlier in the day when I was in the same spot Donnie was standing when he heard the noise. I searched drawer 1....no....drawer 2.....no....did NOT open drawer 3 because I knew how crammed it was with junk and that the drawer was never opened so 'surely' he wouldn't be in there. I looked under the cabinets, closet, nothing. How SICK that I didn't look there. Harris Anne said SHE had looked in drawers 1 and 2 as well but skipped drawer 3...just like me.

COOL: I was getting really distraught. The darker it got outside, the sadder I was about not being able to find him. I went to the bedroom to read the bible and focus prayer on finding him. I was FOCUSING ON THE FOLLOWING SCRIPTURE:

"Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks." Matthew 7:7-8

When I was reading, I felt 'drawn' to this passage and just claimed it in my prayers. Honestly, it was only a couple of minutes before Donnie heard Sam crying in the bathroom.

PRAISE GOD!!!!!! He answers prayers!

Murphy's Law??

I am REALLY hoping that if I write a blog about our kitten being missing that as soon as it publishes, he will come strutting around the corner.

You know...Murphy's Law...that's what it's called, right?

He's been missing for close to 2 hours. Granted, that's not long for a cat but this is a playful kitten who has NEVER been outside and who normally sleeps where we can find him. We have searched this house inside and out. We have prayed for his safety and appearance. Now we're just waiting.

The big kids have looked around outside the house JUST IN CASE he slipped out somehow.

Surely he will show up soon...especially now that I have written about this...

Picture From P-Paw

Dad took this picture of the kids in the van. We all happened to show up at the same time to check on my folks' new house (still under construction) this past Sunday.

Zorro!

Ahhhh...a wonderful thing is taking deeper roots...

Last year's "Dress-Up Day" with me and the girls expanded to include the boys this year. It was so relaxing and enjoyable and will not affect our blood sugar for days and weeks to come!


D took off from work a little early and met us at the theater for a matinee showing of "The Legend Of Zorro". It was a really great movie. "Fun for the whole family!" The 3 big kids thoroughly enjoyed it and the Hud-man was spellbound during the action scenes. The only sad part was the look on Hudson's face when something bad happened to a train. He loves trains.

Afterwards we ate dinner at our 2nd favorite diner and was surprised to see on our check that ALL kids ate free....instead of just the '1 per adult'! WHOO HOO! A ten dollar meal (plus tax and tip of course!) Mmm...and free ice cream!

What a lovely evening. Donnie said, "I think this would make a great tradition!"

I totally agree.

Two Chinese Students

I bet it would be so fun to hang out with these guys!

Thanks Cheryl (and whomever it was that you thanked!)

Gulp. Here We Go.

Within the next few minutes, I will be sending out an email inviting ALL of the family to a Christmas Eve open house. It will be the first time we've done ANYTHING like this. I hope it all goes well. I also hope that it is not necessarily assumed this will be an annual event. It MIGHT turn out that way but I certainly don't want to claim it without seeing how it goes first.

Basically, this is a somewhat selfish event anyway. We'll be doing the big Disney World thing as our family Christmas gift and I really would like to stay home as much as possible. We need the time here to get the house cleaned for the house-sitter and we need to save miles on the car AND gas money! Plus, there are lots of family members who don't have a CLUE where we live so this will be a good time to show everyone.

It will be a 10-3 kinda thing and a bring-a-dish-to-share kinda thing. Not a meal but a non-stop food buffet for all those hours. You know...an open house!

I really feel a touch of insanity for doing this but I KNOW I can pull it off. I will be making a HUGE to-do list and will TRY to break it down into things I can do day-by-day. The day itself will be WONDERFUL (visiting with family and eating good food is one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving and Christmas) but my house-prep time might make me loopy!

Will let you know!

My Husband, The Artist

Not Quite A Mastercard Commercial But...

It'd pay for our Disney World trip!

My blog is worth $3,951.78.
How much is your blog worth?

Alabama Football Is...

Just after posting my previous post, I checked email to find this. I tell ya, there is just something about TN-game eve that has everyone with that big script 'A' on the mind (a la Arby's goofy cowboy hat!)

There are some Awbs who cringe at stuff like this but...that's because they're jealous :)

Alabama Football Is

It is Wallace Wade, It is Bear Bryant. It is Gene Stallings. It is NOT Bill Curry.

It is definitely NOT Dennis Franchione.

It is the Sugar Bowl.

It is the Rose Bowl.

It is hearing Keith Jackson call an Alabama game.

It is watching George Teague running down Lamar Thomas in the 1993 Sugar Bowl then rewinding it and watching it again.

It is hearing the first notes of Sweet Home Alabama.

It is the desire to beat Auburn at any competitive event that exists.


It is the houndstooth hat.

It is having enough pride to fight for your school but having enough class not to.

It is cheering the same amount for a first down on second and 6 as on fourth and 1.

It is watching Cornelius Bennett give Notre Dame quarterback Steve Beuerlein a concussion on that October day in Birmingham in 1986.

It is determining who you are going to date and marry by which team they swear allegiance to.

It is watching the Bear on the jumbotron before a game in Bryant-Denny Stadium and almost seeing him lean against the goalpost in the end zone.

It is spending a day at The Bryant Museum and still not seeing everything.

It is the crisp autumn Saturdays when you can smell football in the air and feel it whenever there is a slight breeze.

It is watching The Bear get number 315 against Auburn.

It is watching The Bear get number 323 against Illinois.

It is hearing Paul Kennedy do the play by play when Van Tiffin kicked the 52 yard field goal against Auburn in 1985.

It is knowing how many days until the start of a season year round.

It is driving down Colonial Drive to see Bryant-Denny Stadium not the sorority girls.


It is getting chills up and down your entire body when ever you hear anything about the 1993 Sugar Bowl and the pride you feel because that night tradition ruled.

It is hearing the Bear's voice and having all the hair on the back of your neck stand up because you know no matter what he said, it was something special.

It is hearing the Million Dollar Band play "Yea Alabama"and knowing it does just not get any better.

It is imagining hearing Penn State Quaterback Chuck Fusina ask Alabama linebacker Barry Krauss "How close is it"? and hearing Krauss say "About an inch, you'd better pass", right before fourth down during The Goal Line Stand in the 1979 Sugar Bowl.

It is almost coming to tears whenever Alabama loses to Tennessee or Auburn.

It is "The Kick". it is "The Goal Line Stand". It is "The Desperation Block".

It is Joe 'Willie' Namath.

It is purposely not wearing any clothes with the colors orange and blue.

It is the third Saturday in October.

It is not needing an alarm clock on game days, you sit bolt upright in the bed long before the alarm goes off because you know that it is gameday, you can sleep after the bowl game.

It is walking into a stadium and knowing Alabama will win the game no matter who they are playing just because it just the way it is supposed to be.

It is ssaying "Offense wins games, Defense wins national titles.

It is the Bear Bryant 'A'.

It is getting to the stadium hours before the game just to be there.

It is walking into another team's stadium and having those fans hate you because you are from Alabama.

It is the pride that a father has when he brings his children to a game so they may cherish the tradition.

It is beating LSU in Baton Rouge.

It is hearing the crunch as a linebacker dressed in crimson and white hits a running back dressed in orange and blue.

It is the pride you take in being every team's rival.

It is pulling for any team that is playing Auburn.

It is pulling for any team that is playing Tennessee.

It is hoping for the stadium to blow up when Auburn plays Tennessee.

It is knowing that the SEC Championship is a birthright.

It is being respectd and feared at the same time.

It is holding up four fingers at the end of the third quarter.

It is knowing what "Mama Called" means.

It is beating the Gators twice a year.

It is seeing a sea of crimson in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

It is the most bowl appearances and victories in NCAA history.

It is having 21 Southeastern Conference Titles.

It is having 12 National Titles.

It is class.

It is tradition.

It is Alabama Football.

Rolllllllllllll Tide Roll!

Big game day tomorrow! The Tennessee Vols, our 2nd (almost tied with Awbarn for 1st) most hated team, will be played Saturday, October 22 @ 2:30 PM CT.


And while we're talking football, we'll be pulling for the Tigers tomorrow....the LSU Tigers that is...

Yea Alabama!

What Are You Smiling About?

"I made straight A's on my report card!"


"I can go potty ALL by myself and stand up like David!"


"I lost my first tooth!"


"I don't have cavities any more!"

*********************************

The top picture shows how very excited Indie is about her WONDERFUL report card. She really loves school and learning. I hope she will love homeschooling even more next year!

The 2nd picture shows He-Man and his honest-to-goodness THRILL about being able to go tee-tee in the potty all by himself. The child is ultra-independent....which is worrisome and a blessing all at the same time. He does NOT want my help in the bathroom any more. There has been more than one occasion where I will hear him walk into the bathroom and lift the lid, tee-tee, close the lid, flush, and come up pulling on his underwear and pants! When he notices that I see him, he beams with pride!

Thirdly we see Rocky and his FIRST BARE GUM! He loved the fact that it came out without pain :)

And I saved the most exciting story for last. This story is so exciting that it is quite possible many of you won't believe it. However, I have dental records to prove this and I just can't quit being THRILLED about it!

About a year ago, Ray's dental x-rays showed some shadowing on one of her back teeth. The info was presented to us in a very non-worried way saying that it looked like a probable cavity but that since it was on a baby tooth, they'd just watch it and see if it got any worse. Six months later, we were starting to see a new dentist (recommended by our chiropractor for being very accepting of weirdos like us! LOL). Anyway, with those initial x-rays, we were told that she had 2 cavities and that we needed to schedule her for fillings. I had TOTALLY forgotten about those things!

Well, I kinda stammered my way through the conversation saying that I wasn't sure about doing fillings on baby teeth and I was told they wouldn't use mercury fillings if I didn't want them to (I can't believe mercury is even an option! especially for kids!!) but I politely told them that we would think about it and give them a call.

Of course, we never called because I had another idea.

We took a dab of gel, stuck it in some powder so that it would stick, and then packed the powdery gel onto her teeth. She'd go straight to bed without any more talking. She did this religiuosly for at least 4 months and then the practice dwindled a little bit.

And then Tuesday, when we went back for the next 6 month appointment I was greeted with the information that "both girls' teeth look great! No cavities!"

She then proceeded to pull out the x-rays of Ray's teeth and said, "And we noticed that she didn't get fillings from the last time so we x-rayed her again to see how it looked and.....well....I guess the first x-rays just showed a shadow or something."

I said, "Ray...did you hear that!? NO CAVITIES!"

She smiled the biggest smile!

I told the hygienest, "Actually, we have another x-ray from another dentist that shows the same thing and it was also termed a 'possible cavity'. But we chose to do a natural home remedy."

Her smile was polite and her nod was like, "Yeah, whatever" but she walked out of the room to tell the dentist. Just a moment later, she had her pad and pen asking for everything that we had done.

So, we are all THRILLED to report that there are NO CAVITIES in any of the kids' mouths! All 4 were given a big gold star from the dentist this week and we couldn't be happier!

THANK YOU GOD!

Hey Mom, Look At Me!

DY is learning and loving "tumbling" (Donnie doesn't want me calling it "gymnastics") classes.



SR did an AWESOME job with her history monologue as St. Jerome.



I just love that sweet face...



This child is going to make a WONDERFUL Mommy one day!

Wanna Trade? (Actually, do you wanna give?)

I sure hope my kids don't know how to find my blog online...

Because...

I want to talk about one of the things we are doing for Christmas! Our BIG BIG thing is going to Disney World. The kids have fully accepted the idea that we are doing ZERO presents and doing a big Disney trip instead. They are TOTALLY cool with that (I think because we've never been a really BIG gift-giving-focus family anyway.)

But we ARE giving the kids a couple of teeny things for the trip (they just don't know it).

And the thing I'm excited about is getting them started with Disney Pin Trading!



Soooo, if any of you HAPPEN to have a Disney pin you've collected in some way over the years and it doesn't mean a lot to you and you'd like to help some kids get their collections growing, please let me know! It would be SO great!

Interested in shopping for pins? This is where I bought my first ones...

Another neat reference spot is www.DizPins.com

My Inner Child

Your Inner Child Is Happy

You see life as simple, and simple is a very good thing. You're cheerful and upbeat, taking everything as it comes. And you decide not to worry, even when things look bad. You figure there's just so many great things to look forward to.

How Is Your Inner Child?

The POLICE called

Welp, I'm now an official witness to today's accident. I think I was helpful.

Does Friday Cause Wrecks?

Today is a G O R G E O U S day! Blue skies, moderate temperature, FRIDAY! What an awesome day! But what about this kind of day has caused so many wrecks around town? Are people more careless on days like today? Does this TGIF feeling cause people to be daydreaming behind the wheel?

A policeman friend was at the girls' school today because both of our daughters were presenting history monologues in class. He missed his daughter's performance because he was called out to a wreck ("with possible entrapment" -- I heard on the walkie talkie). I saw 3 wrecks with police already on the scene while driving around town today. And then the ultimate, "gasp" came after getting David from school.

We were sitting at the red light just past David's school parking lot. I was behind another school Mom who was first in line. When the light turned green, I was almost like, "ahem....I've got some place to go...let's get a move on." She wasn't THAT long delayed but she wasn't immediately moving forward on the green light either. But as she moved into the intersection, going straight....WHAMMO! A driver from the left TOTALLY ran a red light at full speed and knocked her big ol' Explorer into the oncoming lane that was STOPPED (because it was a red light!)

Ugh.

I saw it in slow motion. It was one of those, "oh no, she's gonna get hit!" kinda things but there was NOTHING we could do but watch. Even Shayne said, "I've never seen a wreck happen before!"

Of course, I kinda pulled my car over to the side a bit and watched to see if anyone is hurt. People from surrounding businesses were coming out to check on everything, too. I told the guy from the barber shop (tall dude but I was able to lok him right in the eye), "hey...I don't think anyone is hurt and I need to move on. Let me tell you what I saw." Then I went on to relay my view. I wanted him to know what I witnessed and THAT I witnessed it. Next I saw another Mom from the school and I told her that I saw everything and to PLEASE let the Mom in the wreck (I had no idea who she was, I just knew I had seen her car in carpool line) that I would be happy to give any help or information to insurance companies if need be.

Since there didn't look to be anything that I could do, and since we had places we needed to go (and mainly since I didn't want to keep my 4 kids cooped up in the van for WHO KNOWS how long before the cops showed up!) I decided to move on. (Is it illegal or just rude for a witness to leave an accident? I hope I don't regret leaving!)

When I got home there was a message from the Mom in the accident. It turns out her daughter is in David's class. I told her, of course, that I would be happy to speak with her insurance person if I needed to. But the biggest "ack" was when she said she was fearing a lawsuit. Oy.

Turns out the 'innocent bystander' car that was hit was throwing beer bottles and cans out of the car AND that the driver scooted over and allowed the woman from the front seat to climb over and pretend she was driving. And of course the car that HIT "Mom" said HIS light was green.

Right.

So, I guess there is a chance I might be speaking to attorneys as well as insurance folks. But maybe not. Maybe the CSI'ing of the scene will keep things straight.

But let me say this. I can't thank God enough for letting us be 2nd in line. I can tell you that if we had been first in line that we would have been in big trouble. I would have gone right away which would have made that dude right into the passenger areas of our van. And our van is lower to the ground than that Explorer was and it would NOT have been good for the kids. Makes me sick to think about it.

And the same goes for the Mom. When I spoke to her she said she had been turned because her son was trying to unbuckle his carseat. If she hadn't been delayed for a second because of that, she would have been hit or the backseat would have been hit with her kids. Thankfully, only the front/driver's side was hit and then pushed so that the front passenger side hit the STOPPED car.

Big sigh.

Thank you, Lord. I truly am thankful for your Hand of Mercy.

That Crazy Sidewalk Chalk Art

OK, I've had these pictures emailed to me SEVERAL times and have been amazed by them every time but FINALLY, I see a teeny tiny bit of how these things work.

I got this link from Max (see list of "Froggers" - friends/bloggers) who got the link from Amy (see his site for her link).

You'll see the familiar chalk drawings at the beginning but FINALLY as you scroll to the end, you see a "rear" view of the drawing. It starts making sense when you see it from that angle...

Right Angle Sidewalk Chalk Art

Absolutely amazing talent and imagination...

Well, a teacher did tell me one time that I could argue with a telephone pole...

And of course I said, "No I couldn't!"

:)

You Should Get a JD (Juris Doctor)

You're logical, driven, and ruthless. You'd make a mighty fine lawyer.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

Yes, I've Lost My Mind

We got a kitten.

Meet Sam Catser.

He's very interested in getting to know the gerbils.

It was a weak moment. I was having a really good day (even found a dollar on the ground!) and my good mood got the best of me. A litter box-trained kitten with a "money back guarantee" was being given away at a Children's Clothing Exchange (consignment sale). It even came with a bag of food! And he was so cute and so gentle with the kids...

I just couldn't resist.

Do you think maybe I'm trying to appease my secret baby fever??? :)

Death Test

I followed a link to a survey site and took the "Death Test" to see when I will die (yeah).

It says I'll die at age 84 in April 2058. It says the probable cause is cancer.

Now I think this is GREAT news because this test doesn't take Mannatech into account :) With all the Advanced Ambrotose and PLUS I am taking, that cancer risk goes waaaaaaaay down. Therefore, my goal of 120 years old looks possible!

It says the average female lifespan is 77.1 years. That's sad.

Let's say if, just IF this thing was right, I would have only lived 38% of my life so far. So if I make it any older than that, I'm basically just a child!

The test is from www.okcupid.com

It's not the greatest site in the world because it is obviously a hook-up site. But I thought the test looked interesting so I tried it.

Vote For Prothro!

This guy is awesome! Give him some lovin'
Vote For Prothro!

S I C K O !

I don't know if you've noticed or not but I have this cool little gadget down in the bottom right-hand corner of this blog and it tells me where people click FROM when they are coming to my site. I can click on their link and see how they found me.

Well, I found this one tonight that TOTALLY grossed me out. I am learning that if there is ANYTHING even slightly open to perversion, I must code it as I write about it.

Why?

I had a link tonight from someone who had SEARCHED for " b /o /y u / n /d / i /e / s " Sorry for it looking like that but it has to be coded or else my blog might pop up again for someone who does a search for it!

I can't believe anyone would!

That's right. Someone did a search for 'b_y u_di_s' and found my blog entry about Hudson and his potty training success. The even stranger thing is that it came up as the 41st result which means the person who was doing the search was really serious about finding links pertaining to it!

To think of that pervert seeing my baby boy's picture makes me cringe!

Y'all we all have to be so careful.

Don't be surprised if I delete this blog and start another in the near future. Y'all know how I am about not having it on hard copy though, so I've got to figure out some way to save it all before I delete it. (Again, I'm open to suggestions for an easy way to do it).

A Really Awesome Field Trip

I was very blessed to have people who were willing to watch the boys today so that I could go on a great field trip with Shayne. David was at a neighbor's house and Hudson was able to stay with his "girlfriend" at her Nanny's house. I really was able to enjoy my time with the school kids because I knew the boys were being well-taken care of.

So here are some pictures from today's trip. Locals will recognize the destination.




This is what happens when you dump Mentos into a 2 liter Coke. Mmmmm, makes you feel good about eating that junk doesn't it?!

Field Day

Yesterday was Olympic Field Day at the girls' school. Thankfully the girls were on the same team because the "Spartans" were as last place as you could be. They both needed to experience instead of just one of them.

I wish I could say that they had fun anyway but the truth is that the losing started so early in the day that the whole team kinda gave up and just had a so-so attempt (and they didn't win the Sportsmanship Award because of it!) Also, both my girls had some pretty big knee-scrape injuries about halfway through the events. I'm keeping a Mannatech blog where I'm posting pictures of the healing process of Shayne's knee but didn't want to post them here. I'm also not linking the two blogs because I don't want creepos who think my kids are cute to be able to find me through my business contact information that is on the other site. If you're curious about seeing the daily progression of pictures, let me know and I can post them here. They are kinda gross so I wasn't sure if everyone wanted to watch them or not.

I will, however, post pictures from other parts of Olympic Field Day.

HA and Ash in the 3-legged race


HA during the relay race


Shayne's 50 yard dash


HA's 50 yard dash


Hudson 50 yard dash (he thought he should be able to compete in each event and he was able to win over most of the field judges enough to let him try each one when the big kids were done. The most adorable to watch was the egg race (on a spoon! HILARIOUS!) but I didn't have my camera ready :( )


Shayne's Tug of War


HA Tug of War

Found A Friend ... and he blogs!

Hey Matt! I'm so glad your family isn't needing to evacuate! It was absolutely W O N D E R F U L to speak to your bride tonight, too. You guys are so awesome and I really miss you all.

To everyone else....I found our good friend Matt's phone number and called to check their status in relation to Hurricane Rita. They're safe and staying home to ride out the rain as Rita turns north away from their part of the state.

Turns out we were able to swap blog URLs and are going to be able to keep up with one another!

Goodness....I'm remembering that I used the word "crappy" in a recent post. Oh no. Matt is my preacher friend. His wife is SO Godly and such a Titus 2/Proverbs 31 kind of lady. She'd never use the word 'crappy' in her blog.

I'm glad to be back in touch with this sweet family. I need more women like Emily in my contact sphere. She encourages me.

Gotta close...tomorrow is going to be an E A R L Y day (and y'all know how much I LOVE early days. Sigh...)

Night, night.

Lots Of New Links

See the new bloggers and links I've posted!

Please comment to let me know if this introduced you to a site you particularly liked, OK?