Hunting Buddies

Zach practicing shooting with his daddy's first BB gun

Deer meat is so good I could eat it raw!
My brother in law is crazy.

 

Family Fun?

As we were sitting down to supper last night, we got a phone call that Spencer's brother had just shot a deer. Zach and Brittany wanted to go and see it right away, but we ate first anyway. When we got done, we went to see the deer and found that Cameron had shot another one. They had one deer skinned and the other one was lying on the truck. I thought Zach and Brittany would be upset seeing a dead deer, but they went up to it and patted it, and Zach kept moving the legs back and forth. Brittany got bored after a while, but Zach stayed to see all the meat cut off.
After all the excitement was over, we went home and had real family fun. We found that the kids just really want us to play with them. Every time we ask them what they want to do, they say they want to play games. It took me a while to get the point. Personally, I would rather get out of the house, but we finally figured out that the kids just want time from us. Hey, that's nice and cheap. We may end up investing in a few more games. 

Brittany's Sayings

Brittany has said some of the funniest stuff lately, and I thought I'd write some of it down while I remembered it.



After a discussion about dating and marriage:
Brittany: "Mom, if Mr. Anthony hadn't growed up so fast, I would have married him."
Mom: "Why?"
Brittany: "Because I like him!"

While watching a sad portion of a movie:
Brittany: "I'm not sad, Mom. My eyes are just pretendin' they're crying."
(Brittany always cries during a sad part of a movie. We won't be watching Where the Red Fern Grows with her.)

We went to a birthday party last night while Spencer went on church visitation.
When asked where her dad was:
"He went on vegetation."

This is one I won't ever forget. Brittany was about three and while I was helping her get dressed she sneezed and passed gas at the same time. She started laughing and said, "I blessed ya, and I blessed ya in my pants!"

Dog Food

At the supper table the other night, Brittany was crying about her elbow hurting because she had fallen on the vacuum cleaner while she and Zach were rough housing. After she was finally done telling her side of the story how Zach had been jumping around and made her fall, Zach raised his hand and said, "May I tell the truth now?" Spencer replied, "What I want to know is why you were eating dog food?" Spencer then told me about what happened while Zach was playing with the neighbor boy. The little boy came up to Spencer and said, Zach won't stop eating dog food. Spencer said, "Zach, stop eating dog food." A few minutes later the little boy came back and said, "Tell Zach to stop eating dog food!" Spencer was busy doing the microwave (hole in the wall) project and was getting irritated that the little boy kept tattling. That was until Spencer went to talk to Zach. When Spencer walked around the corner, Zach had both hands full of dog food and both cheeks stuffed full. Eew! Gross!

After Spencer finished telling me the story, he got up and started reading the ingredients off the dog food bag to Zach. He made them sound really scary and Zach's eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. Spencer kept saying, "I hope you don't get sick, Zach," and all other sorts of things. We were cracking up. Poor guy. I don't think that he'll eat any more dog food.

BTW Zach's reason for eating the dog food..."Because it had good flavor, Dad."

He Did It!

This past Saturday, Spencer was trying to decide what he was going to do. He finally decided to FILL IN MY HOLE IN THE WALL. I about fainted. He wasn't lying when he said he'd do it before Christmas. So, the question remains, what do I want for Christmas. It seems everyone is voting for the digital camera. Spencer jokingly made a deal with me. He said, "I'll get you the professional digial camera and you get me a laptop........they'd cost about the same." Boy would we be in a hole if we did that! I guess it's back to the drawing board.

 

What Do You Want For Christmas?

Do you see that black hole to my left? That's where a in -the- wall oven used to be. We took it out and put a microwave in it's place. The only thing is that the hole has never really been finished off in the four years we've lived here. The other day Spencer asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I knew he would be asking that pretty soon, so I was prepared. I said that I wanted the "microwave area" finished off. Spencer said, " That is not a Christmas present. I am not doing that for Christmas. I'll finish it before then, but you are not getting that for Christmas." I'm not holding my breath about it being finished any time soon, and it's back to the drawing board for what I want for Christmas. Hmmmm Should I ask for the professional digital camera then? :) 

An Adjusted Picture

Last night Spencer was showing me how to use Adobe Photoshop. This picture is comprised of elements from the pictures below. It was fun but kind of hard...especially making up legs for Anthony. He has the top of Spencer's pants, some of Sandra's skirt, and Zach's shoes. Spencer says Anthony looks like he has some medical condition, but I don't think it's too bad for my first time.


 

Teen Activity

This past Saturday we took the teenagers and two of our kids to a corn maze. The maze was cut out in a twenty acre corn field. We had to find ten mailboxes in the maze. Each one had a numbered stamp in it. You would stamp a piece of paper until you had all ten numbers....or you gave up. Spencer and the boys got all ten numbers. The girls and I.......well, we gave up after seven numbers. They also had other activities which Zach and Brittany enjoyed. There was the tricycle "maze", a no left turn maze, a tractor made of hay to jump on, a little park, hay rides, pumpkin picking, and a pumkin launcher.
We almost took Sierra with us, but she ended up staying with Papa and Mema. I think she had a great time there.

Zach and Britt on the trikes.

In the maze

We're so tired

Sierra and Thomas at Papa and Mema's house

 

The Tall and Short of it

Sierra and Sierra are only two months apart.

 

The Devil Coming Out In Our Little Angel

 

Some More of Our Trip

After a short stay in Georgia, we traveled four hours down the road to see my sister Sarah at Pensacola. We spent one gorgeous day at the beach. While we were there, we saw dolphins, a stingray swimming close by, a jellyfish in the water, and a pretty nice sand castle someone had built. We all had a great time.
Later in the evening, we went to the sports center with Sarah, and went bowling. Sierra thought she could bowl just as well as anyone else. Zach did too, and almost proved it when he got a strike on his own. Brittany just gave up on the game altogether.
 

Been Traveling

Anthony and Sandra with their children
Sierra, Savannah, Christian, and Scarlett

Savannah with her cake for her fifth b-day

Our kids and theirs
Zach in back
Sierra, Scarlett, Christian, Savannah, Sierra, and Brittany

Sandra, Sierra, Me, Sierra, Spencer, Christian, Spencer's Dad
Savannah (giving herself rabbit ears), Scarlett, Brittany, and Zach




Spencer's parents decided to go to Georgia to visit some friends and asked us if we would like to go with them. Of course, we said, yes, and we had a great time. The people that we visited used to be in charge of the youth and music at our church. When they first came, the youth group had already decided that they would not like the new youth leaders no matter who they were. Spencer kind of stuck up for them and befriended them. When Spencer and I were dating, they would have us over to their house, and out to places. Of course we became very good friends. Then the babies started coming. They would have a baby, and as soon as the baby was born, we would find out that we were going to have a baby. We alternated back and forth like this for a while until this last time. We both had babies two months apart. Unknowingly, Spencer and I named our baby the same name they had already picked out for their baby. They stuck with their name, so we both have babies named Sierra. It was great to be able to see them again. We miss them so much. More on our trip next time.

 

Which Do You Like Best?

Nissan Pathfinder

Toyota Sequoia

Chevy Tahoe

I Saw It On Mr Rogers

My kids absolutely love watching Mr. Rogers.

The other day Spencer went with other coworkers to make pottery. It was supposed to be a team building exercise. Spencer was telling Zach that he was "going to throw pottery." Zach wanted to know what that was. When Spencer started explaining, Zach said, "Oh ya, ya, ya! I know what you are talking about. He then proceeded to tell his dad exactly how to make pottery. When he finished, he said, "Dad if you do it just like I told you to, it will turn out just fine." Spencer asked Zach how he knew how to make pottery. Zach's answer? "Oh, I just saw it on Mr. Rogers."

Tonight, Zach was telling us different words he had learned in sign language. At first we thought his Sunday school teacher was teaching him the words, but "No, Dad, I saw it on Mr. Rogers."

Stories of our Kids

Our neighborhood does not have city sewer, we have septic tanks..........that need pumped from time to time. The last time a septic pumper truck was here the wind was blowing in the direction of our house, and the house having their tank pumped was the one across the street. Today one showed up in the neighborhood. When Zach saw the truck, he said, "OH NO, there's the stinky, peepee truck." That really made me laugh.

Tonight I took the girls grocery shopping with me. We buy most of our groceries at a little store called ALDI, and only go to Wal-Mart upon necessity. Tonight Wal-Mart was a necessity. We were looking for chalk for school all over the store. We couldn't find it anywhere, but we did get side tracked looking at toys. I noticed that Brittany acted like she needed to go to the bathroom, but she said didn't. Of course, after she got done playing, she needed to go really badly. We ran to the back bathroom only to find the cleaning man waiting to clean the ladies side. We ran to the front bathroom and parked the cart full of groceries. After we finally got out of the bathroom, I went back for my cart, only to find that it was gone. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR. What can you do but start all over?

Here Comes the Competition

Now that I've wasted a whole lot of time looking for pictures to go with this post, I think I will just have to write this with no pictures.
Some time back I wrote about a new shopping center coming to town. We are finally getting some stores that most places have, but we don't. It caused our local mall to get in a tizzy. After it lost a law suit to not let the new shopping center into town, the mall decided to bring a stupid looking theatre into the front parking lot. The outside of the mall is now being repainted, and the inside is getting a complete face lift including new floor tile, lights, paint and whatever else. Now if it can just get some stores in there....
Target is one of the stores in the new shopping center. As of right now, the only similar store we have is good old Wal-Mart. Spencer and I noticed that it now has a new, more modern looking paint job on the outside. The other night we went in there, and they are laying wood floors down, and now have modern looking display racks for the clothes. We started talking about how Target must have Wal-Mart a little scared. Then we started noticing that almost all the existing shopping centers in town are renovating with at least paint on the outside. It's amazing how a little competition can make a whole town straighten up its looks. Hey, maybe we'll even finish painting the outside of our house soon.........just to keep up with the crowd. :)

Family Fun 8

For family fun we went to Spencer's grandparents' house. They are starting to get to the point where they can't do as much as they used to. I think they get kind of lonely sometimes. Their house was full of energy last night though. The kids got hold of a Dirt Devil playset and "mopped" the bathroom. The floor was almost in the flood stage before we stopped them.

So, What Have You Been Up To?

I haven't really written about anything that has been going on lately, so I thought I give you all the exciting details. OK, so they may not be exciting, but it's your choice to read this........or not.

Two weekends ago we went to help distribute information and literature for a new church starting in the Raleigh area. It was a nice, cool morning, and we passed out over 300 pieces of information to that many houses. If you would like to see the website for the new church it is http://sendingthelight.org

This last Friday and Saturday night Spencer's dad, brother Cameron, and Spencer were asked to take admission for a local rodeo. Of course that meant that we went to the rodeo for two days. It was fun though. The second night our group kept getting bigger and bigger. We would run into people we knew, and people would run into us, and we all ended up sitting together. One girl from our youth group was there who had never seen a rodeo. She kept me cracking up. She felt so sorry for the "poor" animals, and wouldn't look at the bareback riding, or bull riding. She said that she would go to another rodeo though.

Sunday we went to eat at Cracker Barrel for lunch. That was a treat since we usually eat at home. They had a 70% off sidewalk sale. :) Spencer's dad said that my mother-in-law and I looked like we were trying to put out a fire while shopping. They had such good deals, we could not decide what to get! Zach also decided to start witnessing to people. He just started asking this man if he was saved. The man said, "Yes", but when Zach said that if you're saved you get to go to heaven, the man said, "I hope so." Brittany chimed in "If your not saved, you go to hell." I think that was a little disconcerting to the man. It's really convicting to have your son witness so boldly.

Sunday night we did the regular Pizza Inn routine except that Sierra's diaper fell down and she left a log on the floor in the playroom. Nasty!!!!! After we got that straight, she got three fingers stuck in the hinged side of the playroom door. It scared everyone, and we thought she would have bruised fingers at best and broken ones at worst. It turned out she has no marks whatsoever.

Monday all of the kids had fevers and runny noses, and some of them are still recovering.

Tuesday I was supposed to take Zach to the allergist for a follow-up visit. I lost my set of keys about a month ago and forgot to get a key from Spencer. He had to drive home from work only to find that the said key was not on his keyring. Since I drove last, I must have had the key last, so I turned the house upside down looking for it. I even thoroughly cleaned and rearranged the kids rooms and still no key. I ended up rescheduling the appointment, and still had no key when Spencer came home at the end of the day. As I was cleaning up the supper dishes, Spencer showed me the key. I HAD given it back to him after church Sunday night. He found it in a pocket of some of his clothes he had folded and put back in his drawer. Boy, was I relieved.

Nothing exciting has happened today, and maybe I can get the rest of my housework done.

This Blog Needed Some Pictures, so I Overloaded

Zach and Brittany at Disney World

Me with Tweedle Dee, Dum, and The White Rabbit

Brittany in Minnie Mouse's House

Zach was so happy to see Mickey

 

Hi, Y'all!

, Mike, Amy, and Kids

Sisters, Lynlee and Courtney and Lynlee's Kids