We Miss You, Caroline!!!

Yesterday, our old babysitter, Caroline, called and said she was coming to town to spend the weekend with friends and go to the game. The kids were all about to kill each other to get to the phone first! And then, best of all, she said she was coming by to see them -- they were soooooo excited!

She's in Atlanta now, living with her parents and looking for a job. She's says Atlanta's not only out of gas, but it's also out of jobs! Poor thing... not such a great time to be graduating from college.

But we loved seeing her again. The kids took turns showing off.... Madison dancing and acting like a teenager, Jacob doing every flip and kick he could think of in his bag of tricks, and Macy, of course, playing the new songs she's learned at guitar lessons... "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Twinkle Twinkle" -- not exactly what she envisioned with the whole guitar thing, but I keep telling her... "You've gotta start somewhere, honey!"

Thanks Caroline for coming by -- we all miss you!!



Sorry about the poor image quality -- my camera battery's dead and I had to borrow Jonathan's awful digital camera. By the way... DO NOT EVER WASTE YOUR MONEY ON AN OLYMPUS STYLUS 740 -- It takes the worst pictures I've ever seen. Jonathan bought it because you can take it something like 200 ft deep into water.... and we all know how often we need a camera when we are 200 ft deep in water! It was a must-have! I think they made a mistake though... I think it just LOOKS like you took the pictures in 200 ft of water -- they're horrible and grainy and unfocused. Buyer Beware!!!

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Jodi's funny email...

My friend, Jodi, sent me this in an email... I loved it and thought she wouldn't mind me stealing it to share with all of you. After you read it MAKE YOUR HUSBAND READ IT!!!


THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of 'pretend' bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.

Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time--no Emailing.

Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment
and a haircut appointment.

He must also make biscuits or cakes for a social function.

Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.

The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himself with jewelery, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed.

During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties.

They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.

They will need to read a book to the kids each night and in the morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair by 8:00 am.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe Size, clothes size and doctor's name.

Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

The kids vote them off the island based on performance.

The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse
at a moment's notice.

If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right to be called Mom!


Thanks Jodi for giving us all a laugh!!!

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Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet.... I know it's early, but grab a seat!

Surprise! Yes, I know, it's a wee bit early to pull out the Halloween stuff, but you know me... I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!! I think it's that creative gene in me, but to me, there's no more fun holiday! Fun for kids, fun for adults... fun for EVERYBODY!! I don't know about you, but in my house, my kids start talking about their Halloween costumes in August!

So I thought I'd go ahead and spruce up the blog a little in honor of my favorite holiday (although, when Christmas comes I usually change my mind and say IT'S my favorite!) And I thought I'd share a few fun photos from our last Halloween. Can't wait to see all the costumes you guys come up with this year! But don't tell me what they are... I want to be surprised!





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Auburn vs. LSU

Some friends of ours, Jodi and Paul, were nice enough to invite lots of families to their tailgate this weekend for the Auburn/LSU game. It's never easy organizing parties with lots of people and their kids -- especially when they all have to get downtown on game day -- so we all really appreciate the work they put into it. It was lots of fun... the weather was amazing and all the kids had a ball. It was laid back and relaxing (well, except for the part where the college kids parked next to us were beyond obnoxious -- cussing, drinking upside down from kegs, partying like they were at a frat house -- and all in front of our 25 or so children!). But despite that, everyone had a great time. Jonathan stayed for the game with some friends, but I brought the kids home, and as of right now a little past half-time... so far so good.... Auburn's winning!!!

I put together a little slideshow on Smilebox... the music may seem a little of an odd choice, but I had a certain someone in mind. The music is dedicated to the leggy blond in the blue short, short dress with the orange high heels with the foul mouth. As Tamara put it so well today, "Get some leggings to cover up that booty, little girl!"

Click to play AU/LSU Tailgate
Create your own scrapbook - Powered by Smilebox
Make a Smilebox scrapbook


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Macy & Jacob's latest loves...

Macy's waited for over a year to take guitar lessons. They say you can't start until your eight but after MANY heartfelt and sometimes annoying pleas from her, I finally called the Guitar Shop and talked them into letting an almost 7 1/2 year old take lessons. She lucked out and got a great teacher.... they have many to choose from... and thank goodness, she got Wade -- a very patient young guy who loves to play guitar. The first week was rough... she whined and cried everyday about having to practice... about having to play with her opposite hand (Wade says that even though she's left-handed, she should play right... go figure!), and about the blisters on her little fingers. She was wearing me out with the fits. So the next week, I stayed around for the lesson, learned a little myself and now I know how to help her practice. And it hasn't hurt that I went ahead and bought her an amp to make the practicing a little more fun. Oh, I forgot to mention, she's playing Electric Guitar... not acoustic... so she's loving all the sound coming from that amp! I found her the other day out in the garage with her amp & her guitar... playing like the little rock-star wanna be that she is....
Jacob has been taking gymnastics at the Auburn Gymnastics gym with his friend Reese. It's a Mommy & me class but the teacher hasn't involved the mommies very much, so it's really just a "Reese & Jacob running around being crazy and swinging on the bar class!" He loves it! And I'm all for wearing that little bundle of energy out on Monday afternoons so he'll sleep a little longer! Here are a few pictures of the two of them....






Macy - Star Student of the Week

Since the first week of school Macy has been DYING to be Star Student of the Week. She talks about it all the time, and even told me that she sits right in front of Ms. Williams on the floor when she reads to them and sits up as tall as she can when her teacher starts looking around for the child she'll choose that week. Poor thing... it's soooo important to her. So, last Friday, she came home with a huge smile on her face and a big poster in her hand........STAR STUDENT OF THE WEEK!!!

Within 20 minutes she had the entire poster filled out...colored.... picture of herself adhered to it.... and then she went around the house rounding up everything she wanted to take to school for her own private show & tell. It's tough to be the middle child!! That little girl needs some extra attention, don't cha think???





Game Day at Elizabeth's

Auburn played away this weekend so Elizabeth decided to have 10 or so families over to watch the game... BRAVE, don't cha think??? The kids were actually great, and I had so much fun watching Jacob actually play with Reese. Up until this point, he's sort of just played on his own. Now that he's 3, he likes to play WITH other kids and I'm loving watching him become a big boy! With 20 or so kids it was pretty wild, and the game was AWFUL!!! But we did win and I guess that's all that really matters, right???

Some of the gang watching Auburn play like they were back in high school!

Heather & Holly

Tamara & Emma Clair

Our wacko children!!!

Macy & me

Reese & Jacob tucking each other into "bed"

My little Transformer!

Girls Night Out

So last night was supposed to be Movie & Dinner night with the girls. I say "supposed to" because our plans went awry when the projector was broken at the movie theater and we had to leave. Disappointed, we soon turned that frown upside down and decided to go to Amsterdam instead. I guess you could say we turned "Thirsty Thursdays" into "Funny Fridays" because we ended up laughing all night. I'll fill you in on a few highlights...

Here are a few of us ready to have a little fun...
The conversation starts out light, discussing the usual...


Then we talked about Jodi's new braces for a while...
We talked about a few upcoming events...

And before you know it, after a few of these...

The conversation becomes a little more lively as we joke on Joe "The Phone Guy" for giving his sweet wife a hard time about being on the phone with us!!!

Joe, you know you really love us!
Which reminds me... we also oooohhhh'd & aaaaahhh'd over Julee's brand new iphone...


Then we move on to Heather's comment that she all of a sudden realizes that the new shirt she's wearing looks like a bridesmaid's dress... big puffy sleeves, light purple and a little shiny!
I loved the shirt, but she had a point... it did sort of resemble those awful dresses we were all forced to wear a least once in our lives...

And then somehow, again, the conversation turns a little racy. I have no idea how that happens, but I'm thinking it might have something to do with the vodka... we ended up discussing the latest exercise craze (pictured below).... and at least one of us (who shall remain nameless on this public forum) demonstrated her technique!

Oh, the fun we always have! And this time, believe it or not, we didn't talk about either of these...

(Inside joke... Joe, why don't you ask Julee about this one?)



I had a great time, and we're glad you joined us, Kim & Molly! We'll do it again soon! And thanks for sober driving me home, Kim. By the way, Heather, I just stole your slide show -- thanks for putting it together. It's obvious from the pictures I DEFINITELY should have told the waitress to send back that third drink that I didn't order!! And hey, could someone please bring an extra-large powder puff next time to soak up all the grease on that enormous forehead of mine!!!