The Big Picture

Yesterday started a little earlier than usual. Alarm..... 5:00am..... buzzzzz.... I stumbled to my feet.... yawning, bleary-eyed and full of mixed emotions about the day ahead. I tried to shower and get dressed before I woke the kids.... life's MUCH easier that way, you know. I rushed to get everything in order for my trip.... car packed, some water, snacks, directions, babysitter notes written, and oh yeah, an extra change of shoes.... very important since I was going be in heels all day. Jonathan had just left a few hours before to catch a flight to Texas.... ever the hunter that man is. I knew the morning would be crazy trying to get all the kids ready and off to their different schools and me on the road not long after without his help.

There were the typical frustrations life brings to all of us with children.... "Mom, you didn't sign this.... where's my shoe?..... I can't stand these shorts, where are my khaki ones?" The normal fights between siblings, the dirty clothes on the floor that no one bothered to pick up..... me saying "Hurry, hurry.... eat, eat.... brush.... we've got to go!" By the time I got all of them off -- and I must say -- ON TIME.... my nerves were admittedly a little shot. Like I said.... typical family stuff that makes us all a little frazzled.... especially in the mornings.

And the 2 1/2 hour drive to Birmingham didn't do much to calm my nerves either. There was traffic, I was in a time-crunch, there were tiny towns with speed traps and lots of police cars lurking in the bushes. But I couldn't be late..... not to a funeral.... rush, rush, rush..... sometimes that's just the way life feels.... rush, rush, rush. But I arrived, finally found a place to park, albeit 3 blocks over and up 8 levels in a parking deck. I ran in my 4 inch heels through the streets of downtown Birmingham until I saw it.... that beautiful, old Episcopalian Church of the Advent. I opened the massive dark, carved oak doors with those same mixed emotions I'd been feeling all morning.... excited to see my dear, old friend and yet, nervous that I wouldn't find the right words to comfort her. I finally found her in that sea of black and even with the first hug, I could literally feel her pain. Lucy's dad, a man she adored, had died at only 66 years old from lung disease. She was devastated.

Funny how life works..... even in the midst of someone's greatest tragedy, someone else can gain such perspective. And that's exactly what yesterday did for me. Have you ever yelled at your child for spilling Cheez-its all over the floor, yet knowing that on a different day, a better day, you probably would have just simply said, "Be more careful next time"..... and then helped them clean it up? Or have you been a little crabby with your husband for not helping bathe the kids or clean the kitchen, but you know deep down it's not really THAT..... it's the tiny, trivial things that have a way of becoming a mountain of, well..... resentment. But again, on a different day, maybe one where he sent you flowers or took the kids to the park to give you some time to yourself, you think he hung the moon! Perspective. Sometimes we all need a little shift in perspective.

As hard as it must have been for Lucy and her brother, Will, they both stood up at the funeral and spoke about their father. It was beyond moving to all of us in the church, and I must say it had a pretty strong effect on me. Their words were full of praise and admiration for the father they loved so much, full of stories of his innate goodness and his love for Jesus. Stories of how he missed his son's first flag football game to help a family with a flat tire...... and how later when Will was upset that his dad wasn't there, his parents explained the whole story. The family they were helping had been poor, they had 4 tread-worn tires on their car, so Lucy's dad decided to load them up in his car and take them to Sam's to buy them a whole other set of tires. Wow. That's a good man.

Lucy and me before our reunion last year

And that kind of man makes for a very good father. One who is attentive and conscientious with the lessons he teaches his children. He instills character in them, not only in the words he says but by the deeds they see him do. He has integrity and authenticity. And believe me, he was loved. Respected. Greatly appreciated.

It's strange to say, but it was truly the best funeral I've ever attended. I think it did for me exactly what a funeral should do..... it celebrated a man's life, spoke of his accomplishments,
reminded us of Jesus' great sacrifice for all of us, and ultimately, it gave us all something to aspire to. The little things truly don't matter. It's the big stuff that counts.

Lucy and her dad a couple of Christmas' ago

I don't think Lucy's dad would have ever thought that he would still be teaching those lessons even after his death, but he certainly taught me. So I go forward, into this next week with a shift in perspective...... a different view of the "bigger picture." Thank you, Mr. Lassiter, for reminding me of the truly important things in life. You will be dearly missed.

What we're up to.....

Sometimes I wonder when I'm posting all these family photos..... "Hmmmm..... doesn't this stuff get a little boring to all the throngs of people visiting my blog?" Throngs (hee, hee). And then I think.... "Well, they do keep coming back -- it must not be soooo bad." So I hope you'll keep coming back to visit and stay in touch. Here it goes...... life as we knew it..... Thursday through Sunday.....

So Thursday, Jonathan's parents came by to visit on their way back home from the beach. Macy is showing Mama Betty the book we made for them of family pictures.
Mama Betty was so excited to get it.



The girls got a little gift, too. Here they are with Papa Scott & Mama Betty with the shirts they brought them from a trip to Cape Cod



And here's Macy..... yep, that's a pretty good representation of life around here.......



And I guess this is, too.....Mama painting a game for the Halloween party after Jonathan's parents left to go home to Decatur.... and yes, instead of tailgating on Saturday



Here's that tailgate..... yes, it's looking a wee bit wet out there don't ya think?
Maybe a bigger reason why we didn't tailgate this Saturday was
THIS MONSOON!
But hey, looks like they had fun anyway.
They were Dye-hard and braved the storm.....
with their soggy, soggy children, too.

And by the way, How About Them Auburn Tigers?????
WAR EAGLE!!
Man, was that a great game or what!!

And now on to the BIG show of the weekend. Sunday after church, I went back out to the garage to work on Halloween games and the rest of the kids (Madison, Macy, Kate & Wheeler) decided to put a little show together for us. And then it started...... the screams of "ACTION!"..... "CUT!!" and a whole lot of banging around (there were times I thought the chandeliers might just drop right out of the ceiling). So I think that little show turned into a golly-whopper of a BIG show...... and then, hours and hours later, we finally were called upstairs to watch, and maybe even more importantly......VIDEO TAPE.



So here they go.... introducing themselves before the dance started....
(and by the way, that is a Halloween costume Macy's wearing.....
left over from her "Boy Phase"...... not Mama's favorite.)



"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.......... The Wet's!!!"
(Yes, this is the name of the "band" they thought of all by themselves.....
appropriate because they will only perform with soaking wet hair.)



And Kate's starts with quite a kick while the other two break danced around her.....
Watch out people, these kids are serious!



Macy helping Kate up off the floor...... she needs it too after falling at the tailgate
and skinning up both her knees



Solo time.......Life is just more fun when you're upside down!



Hanging out after the show



And even better when they're silly



Aren't they cuties.... even with their wet hair??

They wanted me to post the video we took of the show..... but just between you and me, well, I thought I'd grant you a pardon. I thought the dance was great.... but I'm their mama, and it might just be one of those things only a mother would love. What I enjoyed most about the whole project was how well they worked together -- ALL DAY! -- choreographing, singing, practicing, dancing..... they really worked hard and managed to have a great time, too.

It was pretty funny at the end of the show though. They were BEGGING me to go upload the video to You-Tube. I told them, "No.... not tonight.... it's time for everyone to go home now."

To which they all starting screaming and shouting.....
"Pleeeeeasssee..... that's the ONLY reason we did all this!"

Trying to be the voice of reason I said, "C'mon guys..... you did all this to have FUN."

To which my eight year old replies,
"No, mom, we did this
to be FAMOUS on You-Tube."

Aye-yigh-yigh..... these kids! The You-Tube generation....

Random Postings

Random post #1: I almost forgot in my haste to get all these pictures posted from the concert and tailgating to tell you about my surprise when I got home at 2:30am Friday night from Birmingham. After getting the girls in bed, I walked around the corner to the hall where my desk is and THIS is what I saw!!! My sweet husband and my little boy went to Best Buy Friday night while we were gone and surprised me with a new 26" monitor!! Whoo-hoo!!

Did I ever need that!

I've been working in Photoshop and designing blogs, cards, invitations, etc. for over a year with a 17" monitor. If you've ever worked in Photoshop, you know what a pain that is. I have to have so many windows open at the same time, a 17" screen is like working on a Barbie screen. So now I've graduated..... I'm all grown up with my big ole grown up monitor! The next morning when Jonathan woke up, I was sitting at my desk, putting that new monitor to use, and when he came over to me I said, "Ooooooooh, I LOVE it..... but I can feel my butt spreading by the minute!" I'm afraid I'm never gonna want to get up. Thank you, babe.

Random Post #2: Ok, in finding the Taylor Swift video on the internet yesterday, I came across this video on You Tube. You'll be blown away when you watch it. If you've ever wondered if exercising is worth it or if you've ever thought, like me, "oh, just one piece of cake or one stop at McDonald's won't hurt," you might just change your mind after seeing this. It'll definitely make you want to work out every day and stop sneaking those Krispy Kremes (oops! Did I just tell on myself???)......



Isn't that unbelievable??? A few weights, a little running, a few less visits to the Cheesecake Factory and, well, waaa-laahhh.... you, too, can have a body like that. AMAZING. Wouldn't you love to make a video like that of yourself? Talk about motivation to stay that way!

Random Post #3: This doesn't have anything to do with anything else, but I have to write this one down so that one day I'll remember these cute things Jacob does. So we're driving to a restaurant after church on Sunday. Jonathan and I are in the front discussing the sermon, and I hear this little voice in the back singing a tune. I stopped for a minute to listen and I heard Jacob singing...."God is sooooo good"..... "gotta get that BOOM BOOM BOOM..... gotta get that BOOM BOOM BOOM!" Yes, my musical little 4 year old is now making his own mixes..... Sunday School songs with a little Black Eyed Peas thrown in for some back beat.... Jonathan and I couldn't stop laughing.

Hope ya'll have a GREAT day!

Tailgate Saturday

Our friends, Joe & Elizabeth, Jodi & Paul, and Grant & Julie all got tailgating spots next to one another this year which makes it great for a few of us who don't tail gate every weekend. We get the fun without all the work! Thanks Elizabeth for the invite.... it was a great spot, the kids all had a good time together, and although I only got 4 hours of sleep, I sure am glad we came. WAR EAGLE!!!

Taylor Swift....... You Should Have Said...... Yes!

Ohhhhhhhh, we had so much fun last night!! And I took a few too many pictures, too -- probably a bit annoying to the people around me -- oh well..... we were so close I just couldn't help myself. Good seats, although the main part of the stage was to our right which meant we saw her backside a lot, but there were only 4 rows in front of us and then the people standing on the floor in front of the stage. Best of all, the girls and I had a great time together..... from picking out outfits, to driving up together singing all the songs, to eating dinner beforehand. I even got them light sticks, a whole bunch of junk food, and a t-shirt each..... nothing could make them happier!

Macy & I were trying on outfits and dancing to a little "Picture to Burn"before the show

And here we are right before we left, don't the girls look cute?

This is right when we got there in front of her tour bus

The girls waiting to get their tickets scanned

Sitting, listening to Kellie Pickler, waiting for the big moment

And here she is, beautiful as ever..... the girls were so excited when she came out.
I thought she put on a great show..... especially for the kids,
but she is quite the "hair-flipper" that girl!

I took so many pictures I just made a slideshow. If you watch the whole thing it's kind of like being there...... It's a little long, but worth it..... just think..... I saved you $300!!

Got home at 2:30 am......
went to bed at 3:00......
woke up at 7:00.....
I am WAY too old for this!! But it was worth it
to have such a memorable night with my girls.

Happiness is........

Happiness is seeing the smile on your daughters' faces when you tell them you got Taylor Swift tickets for Friday night....... uhhhhhhh, for the SECOND time.

Say what????

Yes, the second time. The first time, my friend, Vickie, was sweet enough to get a whole block of tickets for a lot of us to go to Birmingham this Friday night. That was like 4 months ago. I was so excited because the girls have never been to a concert, and they talk about wanting to all the time. There aren't a whole lot of concerts you can take 8 and 10 year old children to these days, you know. So Taylor Swift was perfect. And for all these months, I've looked forward to September 11th, the night my girls officially become BIG girls and get to do a BIG GIRL thing with Mommy.

Then last week, out of the blue, they both tell me they don't want to go. Madison especially put her foot down and said she just plain wasn't going. WHAT???? "But you were soooooo excited," I said. Nope. Changed their minds...... didn't want to go.

So after thinking about it for a while and knowing I wasn't about to spend hundreds of dollars dragging two girls to a concert kicking and screaming, I decided to tell Vickie that if she had someone who wanted the tickets, I would give them up. So she did exactly what I asked her. She found an eager buyer for those precious tickets. And then I told the girls.

And that's where one of those age-old dilemmas comes in. We humans seem to ALWAYS want the very thing we can't have.

Then the crying started. And lasted. And became quite a show of anger toward Mommy. In their eyes, I had basically ruined their life. "But we REALLY wanted to go. We've already told all of our friends. You promised!"

Completely bewildered.... I sent them to bed with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and a tear or two coming down my face as well. I thought I was doing the right thing. Clearly I wasn't.

So I got on the internet, looked for scalped tickets, and of course found some, albeit for more than twice as much money!! I thought about it for hours, but I just couldn't seem to press that BUY button. I wanted to teach them a lesson, but I also wanted to go and have a great time with them...... they'd remember that concert for years to come.

After sleeping on it, and putting my 8 year old on the bus that morning sobbing (on picture day I might add!), I decided to just go for it..... I worry so much about overindulging my children.... it's very important to me that they earn their way in life and they appreciate all the things given to them...... so this really went against my nature to "do the right thing" and teach that lesson. However, isn't it also "the right thing" to forgive and be understanding and realize that sometimes we just have bad days...... we say things we don't necessarily mean..... we make mistakes.

So that's where that Happiness comes in....... I surprised them yesterday afternoon at the bus stop with the good news....... Mommy found tickets....... WE'RE GOING!! There's been a permanent smile on their faces ever since. So maybe I did the right thing..... maybe I didn't, but I have to say......... I am as excited as they are to go do the "girl thing" with my two big girls. We're picking out outfits, have our cowboy boots shined and ready, and can't wait to sing a little..... "You belong with me-ee-eeee." I'll be posting pictures soon so check back soon.

Take a giggle break.....

Alright, my husband just sent me this email.... thought I'd share since it made me laugh out loud..... and we all a good belly laugh every once in a while....

Traffic Camera

A man was driving when a traffic camera flashed. He thought his picture was taken for exceeding the speed limit, even though he knew he was not speeding. Just to be sure, he went around the block and passed the same spot, driving even more slowly, but again the camera flashed. He thought this was quite funny, so he slowed down even further as he drove past the area, but the traffic camera flashed yet again. He tried a fourth time with the same result. The fifth time he was laughing when the camera flashed as he rolled past at a snail's pace.

Two weeks later, he got five traffic fine letters in the mail for driving without a seat belt.

MEN !!

Let the Games Begin!

So I've been debating whether to have a big Halloween bash for the kids again this year. I love Halloween.... To me, it's the most creative holiday. When else can you make up an excuse to hang ghosts from your ceiling and have candy floating in the air?? (Yes, I do that in my house). I can hardly wait to start decorating. And the Halloween party's been sort of a tradition around here..... all the kids invited seem to have a great time, and I love doing it, and most of all, my own kids love having it..... but I've been torn between that and the big ole budget it requires. I did just buy myself that camera. Macy kind of cinched the deal for me though.... when I told her a week or so ago that I didn't think I could pull off the party this year, she was really sad and said, "Mom, everybody keeps asking about it. They love to come.... we HAVE to do it."

I didn't really have the heart to say no then. Maybe I just didn't want to say no because I wanted to do it, too.

So I do my drill, get on the internet, try to brainstorm for ideas to make the party a little different and even more fun this year..... and that's when I decided to make some more games..... including Plinko, yes.... everyone's favorite game from the Price is Right (minus the $10,000 cash prize, of course). I searched through a few plans and although I didn't use any of them exactly, I did borrow ideas from 3 or so different plans, and then tweaked them a little to make it just like I wanted it. So after church on Sunday, we all went together as a family to Lowe's to load up on plywood, and machine screws, and nuts, and plexiglass..... (yes, me in my high heels and dress carrying 4x8 sheets of plywood.... the guys working there looked at me like I was crazy!).

And, that leads me to my soap box.... Huh-hummmmm.... I'd like to take this moment to gripe a little about certain males, who shall remain nameless, (mainly because I don't know their names), but who aggravate me nonetheless.....

Why is it that if a man & a woman are together at a home improvement store, the guys working there always default to the man when they speak??? HELLO!! I'm the one who wears the tool belt in the family.... HELLO.... Just because I'm wearing a dress does not mean I can't handle a power drill. Don't these men realize that most projects come about because of the desires of women....... women who even if they are not the ones holding the tools, they are certainly the ones giving the orders? If it weren't for women, there would probably be no home improvement stores..... there would just be beer stores and enormous HDTV flat screen stores..... and therefore these men would have no jobs in the first place.

OK, sorry, I'm stepping down now......

Anyway, back to my project....... I asked Jonathan the night before to help me, saying, "C'mon, it'll be fun.... something we can do together." And to my amazement (he usually stays as far away from my projects as possible), he said he would. So we did..... and we only fought a wee little bit..... and it was fun...... well, that is until Jacob came out to help, knocked a full gallon of paint over and stood there helpless with thick, white paint swirling around his toes. Whoops! And in my panic to clean him up and then get the paint off the garage floor before it kept spreading out, I didn't notice that it had gotten all over the extension cord plug to the outside deep freeze and refrigerator. Next thing we knew, we had no power in the garage, which meant no power to the frig & deep freeze, and then later we discovered that the cable was out and heaven forbid, the INTERNET, too. Now people, I can deal without a little cable TV but

don't be messing with my internet!

So after a few conversations with Charter cable, who by the way would not be coming until Tuesday to take a look, we finally figured out that the liquid on the plug had blown out the power to every plug outside the house and unfortunately our house is wired with every high-tech kind of wiring that I do not for the life of me understand, and the hub to all of that wiring is YES, you guessed it, in the garage. Long story short..... no internet.

Thank God for Jonathan's dad, an electrical engineer, who later the next day said, "Jonathan.... go look for the reset button." Yep. The reset button. All of that stress for nothing. Push that green button and Waaaa-lahhhh..... power and cable and internet again! Obviously, you must need an engineering degree to possess that kind of profound knowledge since neither my husband nor I could figure it out ourselves....

So everything's back to normal..... Jacob's feet are clean...... our meats are still frozen..... I can blog again AND we finished the project..... FINALLY..... and, best of all, now we have a Plinko board if anyone gets a hankering to.................

COME ON DOWN!!!

Here's the board after many hours of work.... we had measured for all the holes, drilled them through the plexi and the backboard, screwed it all together (114 screws!), and glued the dowels in place, and then painted..... thank goodness Jonathan helped.... it was quite a project

And the beginnings of paint

Here's mama, the insomniac, on Monday morning (I'd been at it since 5am), painting it to make it look like the real thing..... Please excuse the outfit (I wasn't quite camera-ready)..... but I do LOVE my fuzzy pink booties (notice all the paint on them.... they're a requirement when I work on early-morning projects)

And here's the finished board (well, except for the winning numbers I'll have to put in --
minus the $10,000, of course)...... the kids have loved playing with it, especially Jacob.
I think Jonathan's a little worried about me though....
he just called and asked if I was getting anything done this morning with the kids all off at school or if I was just in my jammies playing Plinko.......

How did he know????

It's here!

I got it! I love it!

I've got lots to learn, too. But I've been playing around with my new camera, fresh out of the box, and taking snapshots for the last couple of days. I haven't had time to read the manual and as of now, I'm just setting the camera to automatic. Even set to automatic, it's pretty amazing. When I really learn all the in's and out's, the image quality will be even more divine. It's unbelieveable when you see the difference in what this camera, and more likely, this lens, can do. I took some shots standing in my kitchen of a piece of art on a shelf in my den, probably 40 ft away, and it was dark in the room..... no lights on whatsoever and it was late afternoon. The picture came out perfectly clear, perfectly lit....... I was shocked. My kids are fussing a little that they feel like I'm "in their face" with a lens all the time now..... I say, "Get used to it! Mommy's got a new love. And one day you'll be sooooo happy I was driving you crazy, taking pictures of your cute little faces."

Jacob's morning routine...... run down the stairs to play legos.....
before he even goes to the bathroom!

Jacob getting crazy on the 4 wheeler

Macy getting crazy going fast downhill on the driveway

She survived to do it all again

Jacob taking Scampy for a ride

Daddy bringing out the little 4 wheeler for Jacob.......

enough with that Fisher Price stuff..... it's time for the REAL thing

Macy, such a great big sister, getting her little brother all ready for
his first time driving the 4 wheeler all by himself

Macy taking a break

Maddie & Hannah in Maddie's room

It's not a spend the night without a few art projects

Pretty good for snapshots, especially if you click on them and see the higher resolution....although I definitely need to learn more about focusing with my new lens...... some of the shots are a little out of focus, but that's me and not the camera. And I did no editing whatsoever in photoshop..... no lightening or removing shadows like I normally do. I'm so excited!