Summer Pictures '08

Most of this summer's blogs have been about our trip to England. Before and afterward, so much has happened during that time. Being the person that I am, I have to finish one project before moving onto another. Therefore, all these pictures have been collecting throughout the summer, awaiting their time for post and documentation.

She's so proud but she kicked my butt. (wow, that was almost 10 lbs ago...) Children grow up so fast. One day she may not want to spend the time trying to kill her Mom on wheels. It was so funny. She and her little friend talks me into this. Up the road I go. Up the hill I go...knowing I have to come down this hill as well.
That wasn't dangerous enough, there's this little jump in her friends driveway. "Oh Mom! You gotta come do this! It's so much fun!"
I have no doubt. Not wanting to be an old fuddy duddy....I faced my fears and followed these two invinsible young ladies. Down the slope of the driveway I go, thinking to myself...how long is it going to take me to heal when I fall???
Much to my surprise I made it. They then talk me into races. So here's the boy on his four wheeler racing us girls on roller blades. It was so much fun!

This has to be one of my favorite pictures. The boys and I went walking through the woods one day. He took his butterfly net so that he could catch snakes.

He wasn't disappointed.

This is when I know spring has arrived. May apples remind me of my Grandfather. I took a visit when I was 16 to IN by myself. He took me around the state showing me the different churches he had preached at, where my family was buried and the creek where he was first baptized..later returning to baptize others. At the time that he showed me...the place was covered with May apples.

Pretty flowers.

Doesn't the air carry the most wonderful smell after a rain?
It's so fresh. Young. Unblemished.

This should be framed.
If this could talk, what stories would it tell?
What memories does it hold?

These were actually at the end of the drive. The roses next to it are tequila roses. The open one color but change as they age.

It's funny what my kids do when they get ahold of my phone.
Here's the oldest....

Here's the youngest.

This is my oldest taking pictures of my youngest. What ever possesses him to put that nasty thing on his head? Looks kinda cute doesn't he?

80's Day at work. Tamy doesn't normally come in looking like this. The funny thing is, we both had the bandanna thing going on. It was so much fun.

Miss Jenny went back to her cheerleading days.

Staci had the best outfit. The big hair. The stockings. The makeup. The Madonna gloves. Gunner, on the other hand, pulled out his old fur from the closet.

After that we had Mix-Match day. Please don't mind the quality of the pic, Jacob doesn't normally look like this. It had to go down in history.

When word got out that Shaun was in a dress, I had to see for myself. Apparently, I was the only one to get this picture. (thankfully we had visitors...what if he hadn't worn the clothes underneath?)

Then we had backwards day. How in the world did he get those buttoned?

No kidding, button, buckled and tied.

See ole Blue? Ole Blue got out. We searched and searched. It wasn't till two months later that we found he had crossed the living room, gone down the hall and hidden in the bottom of the girls' closet.

We thought he was just hanging out.

This was such a funny day. This is the day, while standing in my favorite fishing spot, I noticed I was beign watched. My thought was, 'what a neat colored frog. It's copper colored. I don't think I've ever seen....hold on...you don't have legs. GOOD LORD!'
I jumped off the rock with a yelp. Papaw asked what was going on. I yelled out, "It's a water-head copper-moccasin!"
After laughing at me, he fell in the lake.

This summer has been filled with storms. At work, we keep a tornado free day count.

One night I wasn't in a hurry to give up. After a warm breeze was followed by a cold gust and thunder, I looked up to find this quickly coming over the quarry wall.
Hot-footing it out of the quarry, it hit about the same time I hit the woods. It was pitch black. I used the light on my blackberry to find a hint of what looked like a path.

This is my favorite fishing hole.
In one day, the kids and Grandma caught 15 in a matter of hours.

This rib was as big as his mouth. By golly if he didn't eat the whole thing.

How adorable is this face?

Each summer, our church has a ritual that every Wed night is water night. The kids from 6th grade down come in t-shirts and shorts and after lessons get to play in the water. The last week of July, they put up this huge water slide and we have a big pitchin.

The older kids have a goal to go fast enough to make it over the hay bales. This young lad did it. The young lady following managed to so go fast that she not only cleared it, but landed on her feet afterwards.

Everyone had fun. Here's Dink. She wasn't so sure we wanted to go down it when she saw how tall it was. She picks up so much speed she slides atop the water.

We even drug the neighbor boy to come with us.

Doog-boog did so awesome on this. She 'almost' made it over the bales. She took kids out when she can tearing across the water.

Even the parents had a good time. You know each one of us was thinking....if all these adults weren't here......

'NO! Don't take my picture!'
Tooooo late!

She didn't mind so much when she saw I had this one of her.
Tell me that doesn't look fun....

The fellow to the left is Kenny. He and his wife lead a Divorce Care class. I highly recommend it. They do a dynamic job.

This is Pastor Ken. He really enjoys what he does and has a great passion for it.
It's so funny, I came up looking at my pictures and he sits up and poses. he he he....

Even Bubs made some friends and played a little golf.

We have a wonder youth pastor. This is his newest edition. She was only 3 days old here.
Say it...."Awwwwwwwww......"

There are watermelon fields in southern part of the state. Apparently there is sand in the fields of the midwest than we are taught in our school books. Of course the boy is drawn to dirt...