This reminds me of when I was much younger and my sister and I liked the same boy. Of course I shant say which of us got the kiss and which of us had the ugly face.

Do you really know how to drive???

This is a lot of fun, well for some people it is. For me it was ?? well I lost my license. For Jerry and Matt it was fun, and the dang thing is Matt isn't even driving for real yet. So give it a try and let me know what you think. WAY TOO MUCH FUN.... You must park in the parking spot head first . . . drive carefully! You're going to LOVE this game... parking a car!! Give it a try. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to park the car as instructed. Click Here -> Parking Practice is way too much fun. Enjoy!

Lacy had a friend over last night to spend the night. The girl seems really nice. It is funny seeing them though cause this girl has to be one of the tallest in her class and Lacy is one of the shortest in the class. And gee has anyone realized how much girls stay on their cell phones?Anyway we got pizza last night cause my son's girlfriend was over here also and we figured that would just be easier. Today they went swimming and to a Birthday party across the street. They went to the football game Friday night, Adairsville won something like 42-7 YEAAA! Anyway next Friday night Adairsville plays Gordon Central (Matt goes to Gordon Central and Michael graduated there) so we are going to that game. Of course Lacy doesn't want to be seen with her parents so we told her since Matt didn't care we would sit on the Gordon Central side with him and his brother and girlfriend. This ought to be fun. It has been a very lazy day today, not a lot happening. The weather has been pretty nice, not real hot outside or at least it didn't seem as hot as it has been. Well Big Brother is about to start so it is time to go.

Christmas Cards

Yes, Christmas cards. This is coming early (really early) so that you can get ready to include an important address to your list. Read on........ What a GREAT idea! Fun with the ACLU...... Wanna have some fun this CHRISTMAS? Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD this year. As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, CHRISTIAN, card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world. Make sure it says "Merry Christmas" on it Here's the Address, just don't be rude or crude. (It's Not the Christian Way, you know!) ACLU 125 Broad Street 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations because they wouldn't know if any were regular mail containing contributions. So spend 39 cents and tell the ACLU to leave Christmas alone. Also tell them that there is no such thing as a "Holiday Tree". . . . It's a Christmas Tree even in the fields!! And pass this on to your email lists. We really want to communicate with the ACLU! They really DESERVE us!!

A Sad Hard Day

Yesterday was a hard day. I found out a guy I know shot himself. He had suffered from depression for years. His mom is devastated, his sisters are devastated, his ex girlfriend (my good friend) is devastated, his neices are devastated. He was loved but he was in so much pain from the depression he didn't realize how much he was loved. I know a lot of people don't understand those feelings but I do understand them. I understand the pain that can get so bad that the world feels so dark that you just don't know how to make it stop so you choose to get out. I use to feel that way, I use to not care wheather I was alive or dead. Didn't seem to matter to me but with the help of a really good counselor and a really loving husband and family and some very special friends I learned to like, well really love myself and love life. Life became special to me and I have experienced such joy as I watch my kids grow. It took a lot of work for me to come to the place where I value my life, where I am thankful for every day. So I understand what Chris felt, I understand how bad it can get, how dark it can seem. I know a lot of people don't understand that darkness, Jerry my wonderful hubby doesn't. He has never even thought of taking his life or wanting to die. People like that are lucky, people that have never experienced that darkness should fall down on their knees and thank God. I am so glad that I got help before I left my family and friends devastated. My heart goes out to Chris's family, they are wonderful people and I can't even imagine the pain they are going through right now. I look at my kids and I know if I lost even one of them the pain would be so incredible that I don't know if I could even move my body from the very spot I found out about it. Even though I would love the children I had left I would forever grieve the one I lost. Death like this leaves everyone so empty and with so many unanswered questions.

The "I Can't" Funeral

This is really long but I really like it so I am going to put it on my blog. Read it if you have time and want to be touched by what a teacher did to teach kids a lesson to treasure forever.

The "I Can't" Funeral

Donna's fourth-grade classroom looked like many others I had seen in the past. Students sat in five rows of six desks. The teacher's desk was in the front and faced the students. The bulletin board featured student work. In most respects it appeared to be a typically traditional elementary classroom. Yet, something seemed different that day I entered it for the first time. There seemed to be an undercurrent of excitement.
Donna was a veteran small-town Michigan school teacher only two years away from retirement. In addition, she was a volunteer participant in a countywide development project I had organized and facilitated. The training focused on language arts ideas that would empower students to feel good about themselves and take charge of their lives. Donna's job was to attend training sessions and implement the concepts presented. My job was to make classroom visitations and encourage implementation.
I took an empty seat in the back and watched. All the students were working on a task, filling a sheet of notebook paper with thoughts and ideas. The ten-year-old student closest to me was filling her page with "I Can'ts."
"I can't kick the soccer ball pass second base.""I can't do long division with more than three numbers." "I can't get Debbie to like me."
Her page was half full and she showed no signs of letting up. She worked on with determination and persistence.
I walked down the row glancing at students' papers. Everyone was writing sentences, describing things they couldn't do.
"I can't do ten pushups." "I can't hit over the left-field fence." "I can't eat only one cookie."
By this time, the activity engaged my curiosity, so I decided to check with the teacher to see what was going on. As I approached her, I noticed that she too was busy writing. I felt it best not to interrupt.
"I can't get John's mother to come in for a teacher conference." "I can't get my daughter to put gas in the car." "I can't get Alan to use words instead of fists."
Thwarted in my efforts to determine why students and teacher were dwelling on the negative "I can't" statements instead of the positive, I returned to my seat and continued my observations. Students wrote for ten minutes. Most filled their page. Some started another.
"Finish the one you're on and don't start a new one," were the instructions Donna used to signal the end of the activity. Students were then instructed to fold their papers in half and bring them to the front. When students reached the desk, they placed their "I Can't" statements into an empty shoe box.
When all of the students papers were collected, Donna added hers. She put the lid on the box, tucked it under her arm and headed out the door and down the hall. Students followed the teacher. I followed the students.
Halfway down the hall the procession stopped. Donna entered the custodian's room, rummaged around and came out with a shovel. Shovel in one hand, shoebox in the other, Donna marched the students out of the school to the farthest corner of the playground. There they began to dig.
They were going to bury their "I Cant's!" The digging took over ten minutes because most of the fourth graders wanted a turn. When the hole approached three-foot deep, the digging ended. The box of "I Cant's" was placed at the bottom of the hole and quickly covered with dirt.
Thirty-one 10- and 11-year-olds stood around the freshly dug gravesite. Each had at least one page full of "I Cant's" in the shoebox, three-feet under. So did their teacher.
At this point Donna announced, "Boys and girls, please join hands and bow your heads." The students complied. They quickly formed a circle around the grave, creating a bond with their hands. They lowered their heads and waited. Donna delivered the eulogy.
"Friends, we gather today to honor the memory of "I Can't." While he was with us on earth, he touched the lives of everyone, some more than others. His names, unfortunately, has been spoken in every public building - schools, city halls, and state capitols and yes, even The White House.
We have provided "I Can't" with a final resting place and headstone that contains his epitaph. He is survived by his brothers and sisters, "I can, 'I will' and "I'm going to Right Away.' They are not as well known as their famous relative and are certainly not as strong and powerful yet. Perhaps someday, with your help, they will make and even bigger mark on the world. May 'I Can't' rest in peace and may everyone present pick up their lives and move forward in his absence. Amen."
As I listened to the eulogy I realized that these students would never forget this day. The activity was symbolic, a metaphor for life. It was a right-brain experience that would stick in the unconscious and conscious mind forever.
Writing "I Can'ts," burying them and hearing the eulogy. That was a major effort on the part of this teacher. And she wasn't done yet. At the conclusion of the eulogy she turned the students around, marched them back into the classroom and held a wake.
They celebrated the passing of "I Can't" with cookies, popcorn and fruit juices. Donna cut out a tombstone from butcher paper. She wrote the words "I Can't" at the top and put RIP in the middle the date was added at the bottom, "3/28/80."
The paper tombstone hung in Donna's classroom for the remainder of the year. On those rare occasions when a student forgot and said, "I Can't," Donna simply pointed to the RIP sign. The student then remembered that "I Can't" was dead and chose to rephrase the statement.
I wasn't one of Donna's students. She was one of mine. Yet that day I learned an enduring lesson from her.
Now, years later, whenever I hear the phrase, "I Can't," I see images of that fourth-grade funeral. Like the students, I remember that "I Can't" is dead.

~ Phillip B. Childs ~
"I can do all things through Christ who stregthens me." Philippinas 4:13

This is a picture of my son Matt. He was turning his resume in around town today. He is my little baby boy (17) but still my baby boy.

A Night of Storms

Last night we went to the brand new Huddle House to eat dinner. It was lightening and the wind was blowing when we left the house but we got safely in the Huddle House before the clouds burst open with rain. When we were nearly done eating the lights blinked off and on and then went off. Everyone started looking out the window (guess cause that was the only place where there was any light (mostly from the lightening) when all of a sudden we saw lightening hit a transformer and it lit up and then sparks went flying every where. It was totally awsome. The lights came back on at the Huddle House at that time but all the lights across the street at the QT and everywhere else went out. We paid our check and headed home. Home had lights and so we sent the kids to bed and I settled down with my cup of coffee and my computer, an hour and a half later the lightening started back up and boom there went our electricity. So we lit some oil lamps we keep around for just such reasons and sat by our computers just waiting for them to come back on. Thirty minutes go by and nothing happens, it is a little after 11:00 at this point and getting really hot in the house, can't open the windows the rain will come in so I head on to bed. About an hour later just as I am dozing off to sleep I feel the fan above my head come on and it feels so good. I think about going back downstairs and getting on my computer but as I am thinking about it I guess I fall asleep cause when I wake up it is morning and time to get the kids up for school. Ya'll have a good day and watch those rain storms.

Got a couple of pictures of my hummingbirds I want to share. Jerry and I just love watching them out on the deck. We watch them in the morning and in the evening when Jerry gets off work. We have 4 feeders up, two on windows and two hanging off the deck. We are going to probably get 3 more and put in the backyard cause they keep emptying the other 4 way to fast, like every other day. Well I do have another picture with 2 or 3 hummers on it but can't find it tonight, guess it is just to late to find it so good night.

Just a Joke

It is hot enough to cook you outside today if you stay out there to long. I guess I shouldn't be so critical thought it is only 96 here and my sister said it is suppose to be 106 in Texas today. OK got this joke in from my M-I-L and it really made me laugh, I'm not a big fan of Bush. Donald Rumsfeld briefed the President this morning. He told Bush that Three Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq. To everyone's amazement, all of the color ran from Bush's face, then he collapsed onto his desk, head in hands, visibly shaken, almost whimpering. Finally, he composed himself and asked Rumsfeld, "Just exactly how many is a Brazilian?" Hope ya'll enjoyed that one.

Morning Mail

Here is my cat Einstein. He brought a present home for us the other night, a big old mouse and no I didn't get a picture of the mouse I just hollered for Jerry to get it out. Einstein sat it on the carpet right next to Matts computer desk so I guess really he brought it in for him. Then Einstein meowed and meowed until someone paid attention to him and looked to see what he wanted. He had a present for Matt. Matthew was already asleep but for one second I thought about putting it in a box for him for when he woke up in the morning but decided I didn't want the thing in my house. So Jerry threw it out in the woods. Here is a joke I got in the mail this morning, remember it is just a joke but I got a laugh out of it so thought I would share it. Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert have written an impressive new book. It's called "Ministers Do More Than Lay People." See ya later.

The Grocery Store Horror

Yesterday I went to the grocery store. The first mistake I made was that I was really hungry, I hadn't eaten since breakfast and only had a cup of coffee and a slice of toast then. I know better than to go to the grocery store when I am hungry, I will usually stop by Micky D's and at least grab an order of fries if I am hungry before stopping at the grocery but I had given the last of my cash to my boys that morning for lunch so I just went on in the store thinking I would stay strong. Well the minute you walk in Kroger the first thing you smell is all that chicken cooking in the front of the store and that brings your hunger to a degree that you honestly believe you could eat your own children. I started shopping and shopping and finally had to ask Matt to go get me another buggy. I wasn't adding up how much I was spending, I never even got around to taking my list of stuff needed out, I just knew I needed food and it all looked soooooo good. Matt kept saying "mom I think we need to go". He has been shopping with me many times before and he has never seen his mom go crazy in a grocery store. Anyway when it was said and done and I was at the register smiling about all the food we now had and the cashier finished and said "That was $380.00 but you saved $80.00 so the total is $300.00. I know my smile dropped, I though about running out of the store and leaving all that food but they knew who I was, they had my shopping card. As I wrote the check out I considered telling the cashier I need to seriously put some of this food back the chicken put me under a wicked spell and I couldn't control my spending, I need to put about $150.00 dollars worth back. But I finished the check, said thank you and walked out with my two buggies of groceries. As we put the groceries in the van (which took no time in becoming FULL) I was thinking "What have I done"??? There will be no eating out for 3 or 4 weeks, maybe months even. We have no reason to eat out now we have plenty of food. Even though I am a stay at home mom and wife I LOVE to eat out 2 or 3 nights a week. My sweet Jerry never says anything about how much I spend cause I pay the bills and he has no idea how much we spend on groceries anyway. Soooooo we could still eat out but no that would be wrong. If I say anything about eating out for the next 3 weeks ya all need to hollar at me cause the pantry is full, the freezer is full and even the fridge is full but I forgot to get the milk. Think I'll send Jerry to the store for the milk today.

Nail In The Fence

I really like this a lot and thought I would share it with ya'll this morning and then it is off to my day of errends. NAIL IN THE FENCE There once was a little girl who had a bad temper. Her mother gave her a bag of nails and told her that everytime she lost her temper, she must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.The first day the girl had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as she learned to control her anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. She discovered it was easier to hold her temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the girl didn't lose her temper at all. She told her mother about it and the mother suggested that the girl now pull out one nail for each day that she was able to hold her temper. The day passed and the young girl was finally able to tell her mother that all the nails were gone. The mother took her daughter by the hand and led her to the fence. She said, "You have done well, my daughter, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one." You can put a knife in a person and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say "I'm sorry", the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole in your fence.

Here's the recipe for the Watermelon Cookies Sugar Cookie Dough 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup butter or margarine, softened (not melted!) 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 6 drops red food coloring 1 cup miniature semi sweet morsels Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium sized bowl. Set aside. Beat butter or margarine, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and red food coloring in a large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy. Gradually add flour mixture and stir with wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for two hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter or other round object, such as a glass or round plastic container. Place circles on ungreased cookie sheet. With a butter knife, carefully slice circle in half and separate by at least 1/2 inch to allow for expansion during baking. Gently press miniature semi sweet morsels into each semicircle. Bake for 6-8 minutes, checking after 6 minutes. Cookies will be done when edges are lightly browned. Do not allow cookies to get too brown. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets to aluminum foil on a flat surface and allow to cool completely. Glaze 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted 2 tbsp water 15-20 drops green food coloring In a small bowl, mix all ingredients to form a glaze. You may add drops of water to thin glaze if it is too thick. To decorate the cookies, roll the round end of the cookie in the glaze, allow excess to drip off into bowl. Place cookies back on foil until glaze dries. Eat!

Here are the Watermelon Cookies

I think I am going to frost mine red though and then put the little black seeds on them.

The Sun Has Gone Down

Well it is night time already, the day sure did go by quickly. Didn't do a whole lot today, just some laundry, cleaned the kitchen, read blogs, fixed dinner. We had grilled chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, hominey and spinach. Matt and I love mashed potatoes and potato cakes the next morning with the leftover potatoes so I always make a lot of extra potatoes. The association is having a swim party/cook out next Saturday which sounds like it should be a lot of fun. I am thinking about making these watermelon cookies, I have been wanting to make them since I found the recipe. This would be a good reason to. Well if I can figure out how to do a picture I will post a picture of them next. Lacy had a real problem with swimmers ear yesterday and last night so I didn't get a lot of sleep at all, you would think I would be really tired tonight but it is like I am kinda wound up. Later folks!!!

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It's a Beautiful Morning

Well waking up at 6:00 wasn't as bad as I though it would be. It is hot outside already but the sky is beautiful and the birds are singing. I made pancakes, sausage, eggs and opened a can of peaches for breakfast. Got everyone woke up and dressed and then we ate and Matt headed off to school with Michael heading off to work. It is so hard to believe my little boy is starting his last year of high school. He has lots of decisions to make this year about wheather he is going to go to a 4 year college near home or away from home, wheather he is maybe even going to a Technical school instead. He wants to go into computers like his dad and brother that is for sure, the only difference is he wants to go into the gaming industry part of computers and I don't know but that would seem like a risky business. I mean there are a thousand good football players out there but only a few make the pros and it seems the gaming industry would be the same. There are a thousand kids out there wanting to do it but only a few get the job. Jerry does computer stuff for IBM, right now Michael is working for the school board as a computer tech, making sure all the computers are working and fixing them if they aren't and conecting new ones all the time. He will graduate in June from a Technical school with two associate degrees in computers and will then go take 3 different certification test and then look for a better paying job. He started taking classes at the Technical school when he was 16 in the evenings after he would get out of high school for the day so we are very proud of him, he maintained a 3.5 at the high school and a 4.0 at the technical school. To know what computer addicts there are in my house, we have 9 working and running computers. Michael has two in his room, Jerry has 2 in his office plus his work laptop, I have my desktop downstairs in the office and then got Michael's old laptop upstairs in the bedroom that I keep mostly recipes on, Matt's computer and Lacy's computer. And believe me the electric company knows we run them according to our bill every month.

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Well we got rain again tonight, probably more lightening than rain but it wet the ground pretty good anyway. Matt put his application in at 3 more places today, all of them said they needed help so hopefully he will get a job soon. Jerry has to work all night tonight so I will be heading to bed in a little bit here, I never sleep very good when he isn't in the bed with me even thought he is right downstairs. A friend (Barbara actually) sent me a mail today that said "Friends are Angels who lift our feet when our own wings have forgotten how to fly." That is just so true and here lately I have needed my friends to lift my feet. Parenting is so hard some times especially when you have a kid that is very strong willed and doesn't want to mind. It just makes it hard on the whole family to have to deal with the daily stuff that comes up. Plus I have a relative that I love very much that is very ill and my wish would be that I could make him better but I don't have that power. And his wife who is like a mother to me will be alone when he is gone. We live so far from them, to far. I know she has lots of friends, they have lots of friend but I want to be there for her but I just don't know how well my family will get along without me here to manage things and I don't know if she would come to GA for a while but I just don't want her to be alone or lonely. I know that is a part of getting older and a part of life but it is the part I don't have answers for and the part I can't fix and I like to fix things, to make everything right. He is doing better tonight, he is in the hospital but he had a fairly good day today which really makes me happy. But then we had some neighbors come talk to us about our wild child and some things she hasn't been telling us the truth about and here we thought her behavior had really improved in the last few months but what we found out is she is just getting better at hiding what she isn't suppose to be doing and better at not telling the truth. Maybe we expected to much to soon from her, maybe we gave her to much freedom, maybe we just wanted to believe she was acting better, at any rate the doors have tightened and the freedom is gone. And we are left feeling like really terrible parents that are running out of answers. The boys are so easy and even at 17 and 19 mind so well, guess God is giving us a test with this one, I sure hope in the end we can pass it. I sure hope we are good enough parents that this one turns out a good kid with a good life in her future.

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Rainy Days Today we got a good rain so even though it was our water day we didn't have to water which saves us on the water bill. The birds love it when it rains, everytime it stops raining they come out in droves to the feeders. We even had a number of squirrels come out today eating the peanuts I put out for them. We have to keep Red (Lacy's cat) in the house after a rain because he loves to go disrupt the birds and squirrels by chasing them, he has even gotten pretty fast at climbing a tree so the squirrels really have to watch out. I yell at Red but he ignores me so Jerry will chunk a few rocks in his direction and make him run away from the bird area but we have found it is just easier to keep him in the house. School starts back for Matt in 3 days, early hours again uggg. I got this on the internet from a very good friend Barbara and thought I would include it here for you all. A very gentle Southern lady was driving across the Savannah River Bridge in Georgia one day. As she neared the top of the bridge, she noticed a young man fixing to jump. She stopped her car, rolled down the window and said, "Please don't jump, think of your dear mother and father." He replied, "Mom and Dad are both dead; I'm going to jump." She said, "Well, think of your wife and children.. "He replied, "I'm not married and I don't have any kids." She said, "Well, think of Robert E. Lee." He replied, ''Who's Robert E. Lee?'' She replied, ''Well bless your heart, just go ahead and jump, you dumb ass Yankee." Have a good night everyone.

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