Long Weekend!

It's Friday! A beautiful fall day. Last day of midterm exams for Patrick. We checked him out of school at noon today and we all went to Pizza Inn for buffet. It had been a while since we had done that and it was so good! He did great on everything so far. The only one that hasn't been posted was pre-algebra, so we'll find out soon how that went. Report card day is next Thursday and it is a short day. They are out this Monday for Columbus day or fall break, so a nice long weekend for the P-man! He'll probably want to be in the woods trying for that elusive deer! Last Wednesday coming home from church we saw a spike down the road from the house. He just stood there in the middle of the road. Patrick got out of the car and walked toward him and he just stood there. Patrick threw a rock in front of him and he just looked at the road where the rock hit. Finally Patrick ran at him and chased him across the neighbor's yard. It was so funny!

Jon came home today and started back to work at Anel. I haven't heard yet how that went. He gets off at 11:00 tonight. I told him that he better come straight home and go to bed. Better not stay out with his buddies, or it will be really hard to rise in the morning. He and I are going to Birmingham tomorrow to see Dave Ramsey. Can you believe it was his idea to go? Sid and I saw him in Jackson a few years ago and we really enjoyed him, but Jon called one night and told me he wanted to go. I said, good, then go, then he says, I don't want to go by myself. I said, ask a friend. He said, I want you to go with me! ha. If he wants to learn to handle money God's way, then I am all for it, even if we have to spend 8 hours driving there and back! He's pretty smart with money anyway, so we may create a monster~!

Talked to Lizzie this afternoon. She had 4 more puzzles to work for homework. She doesn't like them, so she knew I'd bite. She had a cryptoquote, a jumble, a sudoku and a numbrix. I solved them pretty quick. she had already done the crytoquote, except for a few letters, so I helped her with it. She got caught in a parade going to work this afternoon and was a little late! Cleveland is celebrating Octoberfest, so there is a lot going on this weekend there. I am glad that she seems to be sticking with her schooling this time. Maybe seeing her friends graduating, getting jobs and getting married, has lit a fire under her. Wow, when I was her age, I was expecting her! We had been married 3 years when she arrived!

I made it to the dentist to get my crown glued in permanently yesterday. I spent a stressful week waiting for that thing to show up! Kinda embarrasing, but it fell off Friday night while I was asleep and I found it Tuesday. The dentist said if it made me feel better, I wasn't the first one to have that happen to! Glad I can eat and drink and brush my teeth again painfree!

Sid and Patrick are planning to go to the state fair tomorrow. This is the last weekend for it. We haven't been a couple of years. I told him to bring home some taffy. They like to see the cars and look at all the stuff. Patrick likes to ride, but not as much as Sid does. Nobody, but nobody can outride Liz, though! I don't ride anything that leaves the ground, or spins very fast!

WEll, this weekend is going to be busy and fast! I wish that I had monday off, too!

Ouch!!! Ouch Charlie, that really hurt! And it's still hurting!!
Papa Jimmy is more than a little jealous!!

Jon, snuggling with a baby!

The Puppies will be 8 weeks old this friday. I don't want them to leave!!! They are so sweet and cute. I guess I will put them in the tradewinds for sale and I will worry that who ever gets them will love them as much as we do. Min pins are so much fun. They are fun to watch when they don't know that you are looking. They play tug of war and fight and nip each other on the ear or the tail and run!!! so cute. They make you laugh. They will jump in the air and spin around and fall on the ground. Jimmy and Gator will dance in a circle for a treat! The babies haven't learned that yet.

Happy Birthday Grandmother!!!

Tomorrow is Sid's mother's 80th birthday. We along with his brother surprised her by putting the flowers in her church yesterday. To really surprise her, Sid, Jon, Patrick and I showed up at her church for the 11:00 service. Afterwards we took her to the Crystal Grill for lunch. I baked her a cake and hope that she had a good weekend and an early birthday!

This week is first nine weeks tests for Patrick. Is seems so funny that I only have one child left in school. Well, the others are in college, but Patrick is the only one at home and I fast feel our house becoming an empty nest. I am sure that the next 6 years will fly just like the last 6 did. Patrick has all A's going into the tests, so I feel that he will do fine.

Jon is supposed to start back to work this coming thursday. He first dreaded starting college, wanting to stay at work, because it was comfortable! Now, he loves school and dreads going back to work. This time, however, work will be graded like school!!!

Liz is just doing her thing, working and going to school. She visited her brother last week and I was so surprised! She didn't much like taking a shower in his camper. Too used to a nice big bathroom, I guess!!!

I did a lot of cooking this morning at work. Made 2 batches of bread; one white and one wheat. I made a dozen cinnamon rolls and 2 dozen muffins, a batch of tomato and roasted red pepper soup, and started the baked potato soup. Tomorrow we have a group of "Red Hat" ladies coming. About 18 of them are supposed to come. they want to tour the Merrill museum and see the McCain stuff then come to our place to eat. I think that I will make 2 big chicken pot pies and an extra big bowl of brocolli salad!

Jeanette starts weekly chemo this week. She had been going every 3 weeks, but now they are doing it every week. She says that it is a different drug. She is scared because she doesn't know how this one will affect her. The last one was bad enough. She is tough, though. She hasn't missed much work because of sickness. She will have her surgery in January.

We have been busy, sorry for the lapse in updates! We had a progressive supper at church last night. Well, not just at church. We were one of the host homes. Needless to say, I have been cleaning for a week. I washed windows, swept, dusted, mopped, cleaned out the refrigerator, washed tons of clothes, mainly because of Patrick's room. I cleaned it up finally, since he wouldn't get in there and do it, but I charged him $25 because I had to clean it up. I guess I need to do these things periodically, since the dust bunnies don't normally bother me. The supper was alright. We didn't have as many people to show up as were supposed to, but we had a good time with those who did. We had the Burns and the Collins for appetizers, then we had the Wiltshires for salad. We all ended up at the church for chicken strips and dessert. It was fun, but I felt kinda cheated out of a weekend.

This is homecoming week at school. tomorrow is "Nerd day" Don't you think Patrick is a textbook example of a typical nerd! ha not really. He is not normally nerdy, just for the nerd day. Wednesday is Disney day and Patrick just has to be Little Arliss from Ole Yeller. It is perfect for him. We'll dress him up with overalls and give him a frog and a snake for one pocket and a rock for the other one!! Let's hope that he doesn't really throw it at anybody!! Patrick is doing very well in school. His progress report was very good and first nine weeks tests are next week. He was picked to lead the pledge of allegiance this week. I would love to hear it! He has a great voice! southern drawl to the max, and he is a little sensitive when folks make fun of it, but they can't help it!! He made it to second chair trumpet in the band this week. The jr. high band played at the jr. high ball game last tuesday and I enjoyed listening to them very much. They played so well together.

Jon was in heaven this weekend. He spent the weekend in Memphis watching the NHRA drag races. He even got a "souvenir" !!!! A tire. Yes, a huge 36 inch tall tire. Jon continues to love school and is planning on going back to work this friday.

Liz is hanging in there and checking in every few days with a math problem to solve! she is busy, though with 2 jobs and school. NOt much time for social life.

Sid entered the purple truck in a car show last weekend. He is so proud of her. I am proud of him for working on her and getting her going.

Me, I am tired. Poor baby, yeah, I know. I have no problems compared to so many out there. Life is good and God is awesome!

Where has the time gone? I posted on the first, now it is amost september 11. WE WILL NEVER FORGET. I will never forget that morning, home with Sidney, since I wasn't working at the time, when Sid's cousin called us and told us to turn on the television, something awful had happened. Well, she was right. It was awful, unbelievable, unfathomable that someone could devalue human life like that. Satan was working overtime that day, in those muslim fanatics. Who would have thought that we would have been attacked like that, on our own soil, no mercy. There were fathers on those planes, children, mothers, sisters, brothers, aunts, grandmas. It didn't matter to those men. I wonder if they were surprised that there were not 40 virgins waiting for them when they martyred themselves. I wonder if hell was hot enough. I am glad that our God is a just God, a God of mercy I am no better than those muslim fanatics, but I am FORGIVEN!! YEA!!!!!

Happy Labor Day

It has been a nice day. Very quiet, lazy. It has been cloudy all day and we have been awaiting the storms of the hurricane Gustav. The Lord is good, the storm went way west and we have not had the first drop of rain. Liz's friend has been trying to get his corn crop in and lacks a couple of days to finish, so if the rain would hold off, his crop would be safe. Had a nice visit with Liz and Jon this weekend. Liz went back earlier today, having class, plus working a double shift tomorrow. Jon will go back in a little while, taking his food for the week with him! He had filet mignon for his birthday and there was a little piece of it left. I smoked a boston butt today and it was so good and tender. I marinated some chicken tenders in louisiana hot sauce with some other stuff and they were pretty good! He also has some baked beans, birthday cake, spaghetti and other assorted goodies in his cooler. It is a short week this week. Sid has been working on painting his interior truck doors today. Haven't seen much of him, just when he got hungry.

Happy Birthday to Jon!

This afternoon at 3:37 pm our sweet middle child turned 19 years old. Can't believe it! Seems like he was just a baby, then a little toddler, then a kindergartener with tired hands from all that coloring! Then it was first grade, then fourth grade, new school, peewee football, jr. high, high school and then he was a senior. Then he graduated last may. Boy, the time flies. His little brother just started junior high, so I guess he'll be graduating in a couple of days! We went to church this morning, then came home and cooked steaks with the works and a homemade caramel cake for dessert. Grandmother came and ate with us and Liz came home and ate, too. Jon was tickled to get money from grandmother, new flip flops from Liz and a new tv from his daddy and me.

Tomorrow is Labor day and hurricane Gustav is due to make landfall in New Orleans in the morning. Last year on this particular weekend, we were enjoying a beautiful beach at Pensacola with Margaret and family. The weather on the coast this time is much different. We'll probably get rain by Tuesday, but probably tomorrow. All the hotels and motels in the state are booked with evacuees. Our neighbor has 10 in her house alone. Her family is from the coast and New Orleans.