Football Practice Day One

Last year, just about 6 weeks to the end of the season, Jake got hit funny and ended up with a bone chip in his neck. Totally healed, and cleared by the doctor, he went out today for the first day of practice, in the end they did some kind of rolling exercise and he ended up not moving. Five hours, x-rays and an MRI later, he was diagnosed with a Cervical Strain. Thank God, Tim could leave work to get him situated, and thank God for Papa who stayed by his side, and Bootie who stayed with the boys, and Kevin who covered that when Bootie went with Grandma to her appointment. He is now laying comfortably on the couch, with a neck brace, and 3 kinds of drugs.

Berries and Beetles

Along the back of our property we have black berry bushes, they have really grown over the years, and I rarely pick them, as I am the only one to eat them. Today, however, I went out to pick some to take to Mom's because she had been asking about them. Well, I had little green friends(you can see a bunch in the leafy picture) who were none to pleased to see me. The beetles don't do much, but they like to fly in my hair and bzzzzzzzzzzz by my ear, so I went out with a broom, knocked 'em off and then proceeded to look for some good ones to take to Mom's - later in the day, Jake and Jake went out with bats for some beetle hitting fun (I guess) and Jake (my Jake) proceed to hit himself with the bat and then get tangled in the stickers. (Yes, he's my Jake)

Around (2) Town(s)(over) with Zach

What do you do when Mom has a Saturday off? We all go to Home Depot for 2 flippin' hours! Yes, as you can tell in other pictures we are modifing our house to suit the needs of 3 growing boys, this means expanding the kitchen and turning the carport into a 3 season sort of room. Saturday we picked up wiring and I found a ceiling fan that I liked for the 3 season room - now I have pillows and a ceiling fan - moving right along..........

Big Daddy!

Happy Summer!

Anytime they can get in the pool is a good time!

Super!

You never know who will pop up at our house - today it's Superman and Batman. Believe it or not, Max is in a Batman costume that I made for Jake when he was 3 and only 40 inches tall!

Tomorrow at Blockbuster

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A couple decent watches again this week - I actually got a chance to watch Zodiac and Number 23. I enjoyed Zodiac, but then again I enjoy Mark Ruffalo in almost anything and I kinda dig a good serial killer story. It was an interesting -true story, and it's based on the book written by Jake Gyllenhaal's character. Number 23 was a little crazy and it made my mind race for a second, trying to figure out if all the things in my life added up to 23 - and that's very time consumming. Overall it was a good watch - but not for people who have a hard time with Jim Carrey being serious. I missed Perfume - I had to make a decsion on which to watch that or Number 23, so I will catch that later. I missed the Contract but Mike said it was good, and I didn't even bring home Slow Burn. I did however, watch Disc 1 of Season 2 of Weeds! I love that show - and I will use an online rental return to get Disc 2 tomorrow when it's released. That's all for now - next week brings - Hot Fuzz(I love Shawn of the Dead so I am looking forward to this), Disturbia and 300.

Rainbows!

After church today, the kids put on their vbs show about Noah. Here are pictures of the finale, with the boys moving around as "rainbows".

Transformers...........

...........robots in disguise.

Around Town with Zach - Day 2

So, this morning we headed out at 9 am, we hit Blockbuster to take the deposit for Mike who had to be on the phone with computer support to finish fixing the problem we incurred last week when the tree fell, we dropped off the remaining gas money from last week's church trip at the church office, we dropped the deposit at Wachovia, dropped the online dvd's (about 150) and picked up stamps and the new issue of the Shelby Shopper at the post office, a quick trip to Office Max for 1-31 dividers for new memberships at BB, and then headed to Aldi, to fill our freezer with pizzas and other goodies.

Around Town with Zach

We headed out this morning with the sole purpose of getting a library card. I even went back home to get the camera so Zach could take a picture of the library. But a stop at Blockbuster, a stop at Wachovia and a stop at Citgo, meant that by the time we got to the library, we forgot that we wanted to take a picture of the building. So....this is Zach with his very first library card from the Cleveland County Library and the picture on his card is of the Battle of Kings Mountain. Jake picked up one too, his card has a picture of a farm on it. Visit our library at www.ccml.org

Tomorrow at Blockbuster

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Woo Hoo! While the boys were away I actually got to watch movies - I saw The Queen and Standing Still from prior weeks, and watched Premonition and Factory Girl which come out tomorrow. I enjoyed Factory Girl for all it's artsy, druggy, realness. I don't much remember Andy Warhol, but knowing Guy Pearce's acting, and I can't help but believe he did a great job, as Guy Pearce does in his movies (Love!!! Priscilla and Memento). I also enjoyed Sienna Miller as a druggy - poor little rich girl. I am sure it will not be received well in Shelby and I am sure I will have many disappointed customers. Premoniton was good, but I didn't like the end - UNTIL - I talked it out with Michelle at work. Initially there's about 1/2 dozen ways I would've ended it other than how it ended - but........it makes sense and ends the film without question. Yes, the back and forth is crazy (as Kris suggested - another Lake House) but all and all it kept me entertained and it moves quick. Hills have Eyes 2 - I loaned it to Kevin, and I guess that was a good thing - lots of gore, and good effects - 1/2 of my staff says watch, the 1/2 says stick with the first one.

They're Back!

Pastor takes a few more pictures than I do and he sent these to my email, so I thought I would share them. Some of the fun times at the beach as the kids bury each other in the sand. There's my Jake with friends Jacob and Kristen, and Pastor's niece Maddy, and the little guys, my Max and Zach with Pastor Jeff's son Andrew. They're tan, a little sandy, they had a good time, but they are happy to be home.

While the Cats are Away....

I don't want you to think it's all been fun and games. Thursday night around 5:45 we lost power at work. It was out for 4 hours, you can read the article at www.shelbystar.com (feel free to disregard the part where it says Blockbuster's Manager Mark Shope)(they forgot the word delusional in front of manager)Anyway.....power came back on, but fried all of my computers. So we openned back up for business doing things manually, and the following morning I met the computer tech there to get things up and running. I was there till 11:15 pm Thursday, and then 8:30 to 2:30 yesterday -had lunch with Kris, and wandered around Lowes- and went back to work last night till 12:30. Today I will continue to shampoo my carpets while little feet are gone, work 5 to 12:30 - and tonight - I will play...........Midnight pool party at the Nutshell!

Beach Update

From what I hear everyone there is having a good time. The weather has been great and the boys - mainly Zach and Jake, like playing in the ocean. Tim seems very relaxed too, which I think he probably needed. Tonight they go to the Aquarium, and dinner out, and tomorrow they head home. My peace and quiet has ended.

See You Later Alligator!

No pictures for a few days as my camera has left for the beach with my boys. Tim picked up the van at 8 this morning and we loaded it and left for church by 8:40. They left the church parking lot around 9:20 and it's about 5 hours to Kure Beach. It's a Lutheran Retreat center that they are going to and there's about a dozen people going this year, visit the site at www.agapekurebeach.org. I think it's probaby like Walcamp at the beach. (Remember Walcamp?)

VBS

We wrapped up 100% Chance of Rain/The Story of Noah, tonight at VBS, with a water night. The kids had a blast and everyone got wet who wanted to get wet, including Pastor. Tomorrow the boys and Tim leave for Kure Beach and a family retreat. My work schedule keeps me at home for this one. :(

Around Town with Zach

Daddy took the truck to Gastonia this morning for a ball joint recall, and on his way back Jake suggested to him that we all go to breakfast. So Zach and I grabbed the camera and headed out to Shelby Cafe - our favorite place for breakfast. Zach had chicken tenders and Max had a scrambled egg, bacon and a pancake! Afterward we swung by the Farmers Market, Zach picked out a cantaloupe that smells great and Max wanted corn on the cob, so we grabbed a few ears of that, too.

Last Stop- Chimney Rock

On the way home we stopped at Chimney Rock to stretch. It's a cute little town with shops and the rock they call Chimney Rock. Zach bought himself a turquoise arrowhead ring, and Max bought a Cowboy and an Indian on the their horses and a bag of marbles as rememberances of their vacation. We stopped for ice cream at a shop that had 61 flavors - I had cappucino crunch - coffee ice cream with toffee and chocolate chunks, Fifi had cherry vanilla with big bing cherries and my very original young sons settled on chocolate and vanilla.

Cherokee

Ok, so I had never been to Cherokee, and it sits right smack dab in the middle of the mountains as you come out of the Smoky Mountain State Park. There's not much to it, a lot of heritage, a river, and a casino. So we stayed overnight, and we hit Harrah's, the boys played in the arcade and Fifi and I played in the casino. I did much better with her money :) and we walked out ahead. The food was great and the boys had a chance to throw rocks in the river. I would go back and check it out again, and we all agreed that we would plan to stay at Harrah's - they had great facilities.

Gatlinburg

On the way to our next stop (Cherokee) we stopped for the day in Gatlinburg. Fifi hadn't been there since 1976! We walked the strip and checked out some shops, Zach wanted to play mini-golf, so we hit another one! Jake and I tied, but we were 11 strokes over par - woo hoo! Fifi wanted to chair lift to Ober Gatlinburg, but she had no takers on that, so we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, and off to Cherokee we went...........

Wonder Works

Sunday night after a rest from Dollywood - we headed over to Wonder Works. It was like a science museum with some illusions and just all around interesting stuff. Here Max is trying out a space suit, Fifi playing with bubbles(which was totally awesome), and Jake about to get paint dripped on him. We chickened out at the bed of nails, and the boys got a little creeped at the sound lab, but overall, it was a fun and worthwhile adventure.

Cool Down Time

In the Beaver Creek area there is a place for the boys to cool down. Max enjoyed jumping in the puddles, while Zach made friends with another boy named Zachary and they played with the water coming through the fence. If you plugged one hole another would sprout - erupting in giggles and much laughter as you didn't know where you would squirted!

Rides

Max and Fifi clearly win the prize for riding rides. Zach and Jake are poops, and I fall somewhere in between. Here, Fifi and Max ride the carousel - Zach named the horse Jewelly, and the other pic is of Max on the Lemonade ride - which is like the tea cups at Disney or the snowballs at Santa's Village. Max was having a great time, and then he got dizzy and passed out! He snapped right too - but it was a crazy moment. The best ride was the Rampage water ride (that's why there's no pictures) I sat by Jake and we weighted down the one end so we got soaked!

Food!

Bootie said Dollywood has the best fried chicken - so we had to try it, and it was really good. We also tried the flatbread sandwich, icees, popcorn, pretzels (Jake tried the pizza filled pretzel)and various drinks.

Pothead!