Congratulations to Dr. Robert Bentley and his family for winning the Republican Runoff for Governor of Alabama! We are prayerfully looking forward to the November election!

I am through with my jury duty. It was NOT a fun 3 days. It was a Rape case involving 2 girls, sisters, who were raped by their mother's boyfriend when they were 9 and 10 years old. Heartwrenching. We found him guilty, after only 10 minutes of deliberating.

It is a busy busy time for me, and the jury duty just added to it! The children are all home for the summer and I have wonderful babysitters who are absolute ANGELS to me!!!! They are super flexible and understanding and GREAT with my children!!! Also, my sister and mother-in-law have helped out alot too, they are also WONDERFUL!!!! I am in the middle of trunk shows with Shrimp and Grits Kids clothes - I am a Rep and it's a 2 week ordeal, of which I am VERY grateful for!!!

It's HOT! Have you noticed? I am a runner and I run at 5:00 in the morning. It's HOT and HUMID even at 5:00 in the morning. So much so that it's been VERY hard to get motivated to just go out and sweat and suck wind, which is all I feel like I do while I'm running - it's not pleasant right now. I'm really looking forward to some cooler, less humid weather, but I think that's still about 3 months away!!!

I'm right in the middle of Beth Moore's Esther Bible study and I cannot say enough good things about it! I have learned SO much, and really been able to apply it to my daily life!!! If I was good with words, I'd share with you some of what I've been learning, but it always ends up a jumbled mess, so I'll just say, if you get the opportunity to do this study, DO IT!!!!!

So, in a nutshell, we are enjoying summer, swimming alot (it's the ONLY thing you can do outside right now) and staying busy. I'm trying to make the most of every moment that God gives me, whether at work or with my children or with friends, because there are less than 4 weeks left of summer!!!! I absolutely cannot believe it!!!!

Vote Today!!!

Vote for true conservative leadership, Bentley for Governor of Alabama. He's been my Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa for the last 8 years. He LIVES what he believes!!!

Also, I'm in jury duty this week - on a criminal trial, that's all I can disclose. Be back with a post next week!!! Go vote!!!

4th of July, part 2

On Sunday night, we had a few friends and family over for desserts and fireworks!!! There was lots of love to go around, both for our country and family and friends!!!

Here was the main dessert table. You may notice, this is our new dining room - it used to be our living room!!!!

We just flip flopped the rooms and made the old smaller dining room a sitting room! It's so cozy and right off the kitchen - I use it ALL the time now!!!

I've ordered a crystal chandelier, because there is no lighting for this room and hopefully it will be up by next week!!!!

I think the children may have gotten the 4th of July and Halloween mixed up because all of a sudden Chandler was getting everyone's attention for the costume parade through the house!!!




Andrea (in the middle) had knee surgery last Wednesday - she's such a trooper! (Melissa was being silly with the crutches)

It was such a fun time of fellowship and yummy food!!!! Look at that angel - aren't her eyes the most beautiful you've ever seen?

THEN it was finally dark outside and the party moved to the fireworks!

Henderson just tickled me - he was so serious holding that sparkler - his shoulders were up at his ears the ENTIRE time!!!! He was so tense, but loving it!!!!

Out on the porch we had a homemade ice cream station - YUMMY!!!!

Have I mentioned I LOVE summertime????

The 4th at the Lake!

We had a great 4th of July! We spent Saturday at the lake enjoying family and friends!!! It was one of the best 4th of July's EVER in terms of weather. It was around 90 degrees, but the humidity was significantly lower than it had been - pure bliss in the South!!!!

I finally had enough of the long hair on Friday night after bath time! I combed Henderson's hair and realized it hung about 6 inches down his back ~shudder~ in fine mullet fashion when combed straight! I knew it had to be cut, regardless of the curls!!! So I took about 6 inches off and guess what!!?? It still curled!!!!! Yes!!!!!

After:

Before: (and this was on a humid day when it was curled up - you can only imagine what it's like when it hangs straight!!)

Wilson got about 4 inches off his and Emma Claire about 1 1/2 inches.

The basketball goal was high, but TALL daddy was there to lend a hand!!!!

The watermelon was tasty

The fellowship was GRAND!!!!!

(Sorry for the swimsuit shot, Ellen and Stan, you look fabulous!!!:)

Matching swimsuits

Will had some good help fishing!!!!

Please ignore the spongebob life jacket. I had no idea it was sponge bob when I bought it, I thought it was just a cute yellow jacket with green polka dots!!!!

See that Island across the water? Well, it is the new "hot spot" for our children to play! They swam across and went on an ADVENTURE and found about 200 golf balls that some neighbor had a great time hitting! They brought them all back in a little boat and thought it was the greatest treasure ever!!!

They also went on a search for all things WILD ~ HUGE leaves, snakes, rabbit poop, muscadines (emma claire ate some and really liked them). My children are very brave and love an adventure!!!!

This was our Saturday ~ 10 hours on the lake and a perfect day! Sunday was filled with fun too, more on that later!!!!

Cheer Camp and Backyard Pools

I mentioned in my precious post that Emma Claire was doing Cheer Camp this week! It was the elementary camp at The University and she LOVED it!!! They did a great job and the parents got to come watch the final "performance" yesterday!!!

BAMA spell out!!!!

We are so fortunate to live in a great college town!!!!

After cheerleading, Emma Claire and I picked up the boys who had been swimming with the babysitter and went to ANOTHER pool - my brother-in-laws parents house! There's just something about a backyard pool that makes my heart sing!!!! Emma Claire perfected her dive off the diving board and began working on her front flip off the diving board!!!!!

The older girls worked on theirs too, and I promise you, they collectively did 16,579 front flips in the matter of 4 hours!!!! To say they slept good last night would be an understatement!!!!

Then they played games like categories and I was taken straight back to the Azalea Swim and Tennis club in Dothan and all the games we would play during summer!!!!

My sissy, Aunt Katie (and Charlie), were there and we all got sunburned and had a great time!!!

Jimmie Ann and Jim (the owners of the pool) had just gotten back from a trip to Alaska, so we got to hear all about that and also how HOT it is in Alabama!!!!

It was 4:00 and Henderson had been swimming since 10, his swimsuit was slightly rubbing his legs and he was walking like he had ridden a horse for 48 hours straight, SO I let him take it off and skinny dip for awhile! He was beyond thrilled!!!! Have I mentioned my boys like to be naked MORE THAN ANYTHING!!!???

Wilson took one look at Henderson's naked bum and asked if he could swim naked, but I used the handy dandy 4-wheeler that he had been BEGGING to ride since we got there as leverage!!! "You can't ride the 4 wheeler if you're naked!!!!"

So, the boys rode the 4-wheeler and gator for a while, which was the highlight of their day, they are such "BOYS" (thank the Lord!!!)

And we will not speak of the hair issues we had going on, I just don't know what to do!!! Sometimes, it falls in glorious ringlets, and I swear I'll never cut it, and sometimes it looks like this:

So I sat under a shade tree and watched my boys in all their splendor just being boys on a summer afternoon!!!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!