Email from Mom........

Four Worms and a lesson to be learned......

A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon.Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.

The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.

The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup.

The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.

At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:

The first worm in alcohol - Dead.

The second worm in cigarette smoke - Dead

Third worm in chocolate syrup - Dead

Fourth worm in good clean soil - Alive.

So the Minister asked the congregation - What did you learn from this demonstration?

Maxine was sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said,'As long as you drink, smoke or eat chocolate, you won't have worms!'

That pretty much ended the service --

Good news everyone!!!!!

Well good news for us...not really everyone. After a month of being on the road and me finally getting pics of the truck up Patrick had an interview this morning with a local gas/propane/produce(?) company. (I'm not real sure where produce came in...it was pre-coffee fresh out of bed conversation....but apparently the Company is well......diverse?) And as most of us know- what Patrick interviews for Patrick generally gets. So this is his last week on the road. Come Friday possibly Saturday he will be back home disrupting the peace...I mean playing with the kids at night. Past their normal bedtimes, in spite of school, or other obligations they may have. Until all hours. There will be no peace in my world anymore. No not really!! I am actually, hard as it may be to believe for some of y'all, looking forward to him being back home. He likes to cook.

On another happy note:

It is official!!! I signed the final papers this morning!!!!

Woo Hoo!!! Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine!!!!!!

Sorry.......

I am not going to explain that one.

At least not here. But I had to say it!

Today was a good day. :)

Welcome to our Wild Life....

We just can't get away from it here..lol. Send a kid fishing and what does he bring home??? Fish you may ask....Well of course not silly...not around here anyway. Pie caught this with his bare hands while fishing at the lake the other day...........

He got a video of it on his phone and let me tell you catching this little booger was no small feat.

This has to be the fastest turtle I have ever seen. Really. Not that I spend much time clocking turtles but in my humble opinion....I may have to just zap the video so y'all can see it. I so need a Mini SD card........

Ahhhh the proud hunter with his catch.....He brought it up to the house so we could all see it......

We all got some pics of Deer in the neighbours yard the other day. Of course all on our phones...no camera to be found. But we shall try harder......

New post on Pop Art....

Just a couple of quick shots cause my lazy butt has not been keeping up with the cameras...

Bits and Pieces.........

Thank you Demi and Duane from the bottom of my back. We (read they) had a wonderful time spreading joy and small pieces of plastic all over Grandpa's deck. And Grandpa's pool and subsequently Grandpa's skimmer I am sure. Despite picking up untold numbers ( My back could tell you but I seem to have blocked it out) of bits of Clemson pride they seem to keep coming back in force.....

It is enough to make you psycho -I mean psychic....I mean...Oh wait...I am having a vision...it's... it's...GLITTER...lots of glitter......and it's covering Lil' L and all of your pretty hardwood floors. Hmmm...I wonder if Hillbilly likes to carve wood????

450 of those balloons....and they barely made a dent!!!!!!!!!
I failed with this next picture....it's not that it's yellow which my house is not- or that its blurry which my house sometimes is..lol....It's that it was supposed to have two kids in it. But it doesn't- because they are camouflaged- and wearing a hat- so I could not see them. In the end it turned out to just be a nice picture of the chaise...
This is a view from my back porch:
Hubby finally managed to get close enough to get a shot. I swear it's like life on the Disco*very Channe*l .....lol. I saw three deer in someones yard the other day. This is Alvin- we feed him so he hangs around. He is literally 3 feet from my porch in this pic. Hubby took this for me as I apparently make too much noise when I try to be quiet. Go figure.

Speaking of Hubby....He brought the truck home this weekend....So it was in the drive way while we were waiting for the bus and so I got this....

Lord but she's small next to that truck...

And this....My personal favorite:

Sexy yes, I think so. Macho...with out a doubt.

But don't let the tough guy look fool you......

He stills rocks the Hopscotch board like a champ:

And had a blast throwing rocks across the street with Popstar who thought it was the coolest idea since sliced cheese..

Happy Wednesday folks...hope ya have a good one!!!!!

Memory Lane **UPDATED AGAIN 8/14**

I got an e-mail from my Aunt Kim today...Hi Aunt Kim.....She sent me some pics she found of our mutual munchkins from a weekend we spent at her house....had a great time too...so here they are cause I liked them:

Here is one for the books......The kids you see with Popstar and Smooch are MY cousins...not the kids...lol. Big family. The girl in the pic with Smooch...we'll call her Sporty...is one month younger than Smooch. Aunt Kim and I actually had the exact same due date but Smooch was 5 weeks early. Aunt Kim also has pics somewhere of Popstar's first Popsicle and one in a swing in her back yard that I always loved. They used to be on Aunt Kim's site but I don't know if its still active...I must check and copy if I can...lol.

OK having looked again I think that second one may be at Grandma and Grandpas....not the couch so much but the blanket looks like one Grandma Crocheted. That last word just don't look right........

***UPDATE: I found it..the swing pic not the popsicle:

**OK I just got this tonight..and literally laughed out loud. Am I a bad Mommy or what???**

Well the first week is over....

*** Update...Pie has barely eaten anything all day. Some French toast, soup broth and an English muffin and a fruit cup. And I'm not laying bets as to how much stayed down....He truly is feeling bad...I owe him an apology. I was wrong. Not that he knows it but fair is fair......*******

Sort of. They started last Thurs so today is one full week and we already have a sicko. Pie is home in bed with non-specific stomach ache (6:25) that had become hurts to breath -can't eat (6:35 or 5 minutes to bus time). The can't eat was what got me. I have personally seen the kid eat pizza- throw up- and go back for more of the same pizza within minutes cause now he was hungry again. By 9 am he was fine and eating until I asked him if he wanted to go to school since he felt better. He's back in bed...lol. Whatever. When he has to go to school while the rest of us ditch cause he wasted his sick day for the quarter actually being sick I think he will revisit the illness thing. We'll see. I never could see the reason to stay home from school when your actually sick. I prefer to save sick days for fun things. I mean if your going to feel bad anyway shouldn't you be at school at least long enough to be counted present if you can????
Hubby is in Alabama today...Fort Payne to be exact....home of Alabama one of my favorite groups. He was playing with the horses across the street from his delivery location while drinking his coffee this morning and will be headed to Murfeesborough- Murphiesboro......well TN as soon as he unloads. What a tough life he leads....lol. But should be home this weekend for round three of Kill the Fleas- an ongoing saga. Who knew something so small could be so resilient......By the time it is all said and done our yard will be a toxic dump and the carpet is not much better. How many different kinds of poison can you drop before the EPA notices????? How many bombs can you set off before your carpet unravels???? The answer to these and more if you tune in later to our f'ed up life.

Drum Roll Please........

I finally got pictures of the truck.........It has only taken how many weeks????? But here she is in all her Volvo glory........

1 down....179 to go......

It was the first day of school.....

And while they won't thank me for it..I did not take the on the way to school pic. I took the coming home on the bus pics. But the bus was late leaving a school this afternoon, 24 minutes late, I am not sure which school but when you pick up at four schools there are going to be logistical issues the first day, and so they got home at around 4:50 instead of 4:26. They were not happy....but the driver assures me tomorrow will be better...I can only hope. Popstar and I sidewalk chalked till thay got home.....

Do you sense the relief....

I guess it could be worse.....except that it's day one...179 to go.....

Home the conquering Hero.......

OK Must catch up really quickly...lol. The last two weeks before school have been busy. My baby brother came home for a visit and of course his new wife, Heather.

Here she is with my sisters youngest son:

I say new wife but it has really been over a year since the wedding. It was just an awfully quick year. They are stationed on the West Coast so they don't get home much. But this particular weekend he had just graduated from Ranger school here in GA and so they came home to visit on what little leave he had. And OMG!!! What a guy. They say he has 2% body fat....I never found it.

Chris has been in the Military since he graduated from High School. Literally.....two or three days after he walked he was on a bus to Paris Island, SC. (Boot camp in SC in the summer...can you say GUNG HO!!) And he has always done so well. Went to a Military college. Top of every class, awards and accolades all the way. Did a tour of Iraq and some time in Korea. Ribbons, medals, coins, rank and hard earned privileges all the way. He is truly the perfect Soldier...dedicated, determined, responsible. He is who will keep us safe and sound. He will assure my children a safe place to raise theirs. He will also be remembered for all time by those children as the Dude with the MRE's. I coulda died. Poor guy has been eating MRE's for 3 months. But did he shirk...nope. When the conversation came up he was up and into his car and brought back assorted varieties for the kids to try. Even did an impromptu presentation on how they work for we the civilians who have never cooked food in boxes before:

*****UPDATE: I can not get the video to load and I don't know how to edit it....Sorry guys..It was really good.**********

Note to those at home: Very little that was edible made it past Chris that weekend. It seems they don't feed you nearly as many calories as you burn so I have at least 6 shots of him that look just like this:

But not a single bite of MRE touched his lips.