BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Where has the week gone? It has flown by! We've thoroughly been enjoying the beautiful weather that has come our way this week. I realize it's almost the weekend again, but here are some highlights from last weekend. 

Trips on the Ranger:

Turbo being silly:

Country Girl making mud pies with the boys:

Which mud pies ultimately led to mud fights:

Of which Sissy was NOT a fan:

Neither was Turbo when he was on the receiving end:

We finally got some much-needed rain:

But without thunder and lightning so we enjoyed swimming in it for what was 

probably our last swim of this year. :(

Somehow this sweet hopeless romantic:

talked me into watching Letters to Juliet. I have one word: CHEESEBALL. :) I hate cheesy romantic movies like that. They make me gag. She thought it was the greatest movie. I think she's great.

THE END.

I won't be posting for a few days as the hubs and I are headed to another Redneck Romp (a/k/a Thunder Beach Bike Rally) in Panama City as soon as we can wrap things up here. We're leaving our boys in the very capable hands of my parents. Bless them. We had a sitter lined up for the weekend, but plans fell through. They stepped up so we could still have our kid-free weekend at the beach along with every other redneck who owns a Harley. Many, many thanks Meems and Granddaddy! I know it's not an easy task. We appreciate it so very much.

I must go now. Time to get in full redneck mode. The weather is supposed to be beautiful but the nights may be a bit cool. Gotta go make sure the leather is packed. :) 

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY SWEET PROFESSOR?

I FEEL THE NEED TO PREFACE THIS POST WITH A FEW STATEMENTS OF FACT: My house may not always be picked up as there are always children (and maybe a husband) pulling out faster than I can pick up. HOWEVER, my house is clean. Not only do I have three very sweet spanish-speaking friends who help with the major cleaning every two weeks, but I do a once-over on bathrooms daily and have to sweep and Swiffer often because I hate a gritty floor.

Carry on...

The other night one of the boys tee-teed in the potty before bedtime and forgot to flush. That made for an unpleasant smell in the bathroom the next morning. So while I had them all in the bathroom brushing teeth and wetting their rat's nests I explained to them the importance of flushing when they use the toilet. I do believe my exact words were, "A toilet full of tee-tee means flush."

Without a moment's hesitation Grant looks at me and says, "A bathroom that smells bad means clean it."

And that comment was ever so directed at me.

So again, I direct you back to the title of this post. :)

Post recapping our weekend coming up. 

MORNING WITH MOM; TURBO HAS HIS OWN DOVE SHOOT

Yesterday at 8:22 a.m. I received a text from my mom.

It was blank.

At 8:29 a.m. I received another text from my mom.

It too was blank.

She's been talking a lot lately about her cell phone being eligible for upgrade and wanting a phone with a full keyboard. Up until now she's had the plain jane flip phone which of course is a bit more time consuming in the texting department. After receiving those two blank texts I had a sneaking suspicion she had gone and gotten herself a new phone and wasn't quite sure how to work it.

And I was correct. :) I replied saying all of her texts had been blank so she called my phone. I answered, and she says, "Will you please come over and show me how to work my new phone?" in that ever-so-sweet tone of hers she gets whenever she wants something. She mentioned she would just come to my house but I thought a change of scenery would be nice so after handling a few things here, I headed her way.

I walked in and this was waiting on me:

And it was as delicious as it looks, if not more so. We drank coffee, talked, laughed, played a little Mexican Train dominoes which is great fun. If you've never played it, Google it. It's so fun and worth getting a set of Dominoes for:

It felt like I blinked my eyes and it was time to go. Time flies when you're having fun. I thoroughly enjoyed our morning, mom! It was perfect. The only thing that could've made it more perfect is if Rachel and Dawnie could've been there too. I hope we do it again soon - real soon. We don't do it nearly enough! I love you!

Oh, and we did have QWERTY Keyboard 101. However, being that I received three additional blank texts throughout the day, I'm not sure she paid attention. Practice makes perfect, Meems.

TURBO'S OWN DOVE SHOOT:
While waiting for Granddaddy to bring Grant and Mac home from church, Reid decided he wanted to "shoot birds." He's gone on several dove shoots with Chris, so he had it down pat.

Grab your shotgun and be on the lookout:

When they fly you shoot:

We have our limit. Head on back to the truck:

Load up the rocks birds:

And one more because he's one of the most handsome little hunters around (in addition to his daddy and two older brothers of course!):

SCHOOL, A PILLOW FIGHT, A BIRD FEEDER, SWIMMING IN SEPTEMBER, & SPIRIT HALLOWEEN

In some way or another all of those fit into our weekend.


Friday Chris was invited to go dove hunting with a friend. All three boys usually want to tag along, and Chris is very sweet about letting them. In fact, he really enjoys sharing things he loves with the boys in hopes they will gain a love for it as well, and it will be something they can enjoy together. This time, though, Grant decided he wanted to stay home with me. To what did I owe this honor you ask? I have no idea, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

In full Professor style, first up on the agenda was playing school. He was well, the professor of course. 

He also had a no cell phone rule in his classroom. He confiscated mine and put it away in "my locker." 

He did walk over and whisper in my ear, "If it really rings I'll get it for you." :)

Grant also loves a good pillow fight. Don't be fooled by his usual kind-hearted nature. He's very strong and very competitive, both which make for a very good pillow-fighter.  Get a look at that face. He's in it to win it.

And win he did. He submitted me. I had to TapOut!

We also played a game or two of Hangman. Only a game or two because we both got a bit frustrated. Do you see my man about to be hung? Do you see those letters he wrote? 

Those were the ones I guessed, none of which he said were in the word he chose. It's been a while since I've been in school but I know he doesn't really know how to spell any words with "y" in it just yet and therefore knew that any word he did choose must contain one of the vowels I guessed. Again, all of which he said were NOT in the word. After me explaining myself, he takes one more look at the blank spaces for his word and goes, "OHHHHHHH." He hates to be wrong. Hates it! So that was the end of Hangman.

We read a little, talked a lot. It's Grant we're talking about so of course he asked a million and one questions about anything and everything. He is very curious and eager at all times to learn about anything. It's something I dearly love about him yet at the same time something that can drive me nuts. I run out of answers a lot sooner than he runs out of questions. :) Then we took it outside to wait on our little hunters to get home. It is my mission to make more one-on-one time with each of my children. I need it as much as they do - probably more.

The official start to Mac and Reid's school was last week. It's when they kick it in gear with their curriculum and get down to business. Mac has a wonderful teacher, Ms. Rita.

Grant had her for Pre-K 4 as well, and hopefully Reid will have her next year. She's very loving but also firm which is exactly what Mackey needs. They have a precious graduation ceremony at the end of the year, and when they "graduate" they are well prepared for Kindergarten. We are very blessed to have found Kiddie Kollge and love everyone there. They're like family.

Mackey's class made bird feeders Friday with peanut butter and bird seed, and he was quite excited to get home and put it out. 

I think he found the perfect spot:

I'm sure I'm of the minority when I say this, but I absolutely love that it's nearing the end of September and we can still enjoy swimming and snow cones:

I love to randomly snap pictures as they're playing then upload the pictures and see what I was able to get. I thought this one was funny. He looks like a fountain:

 

You should know by now Turbo doesn't like clothes. And that means swimsuits.

We also found time this weekend to make it to the Spirit Halloween store in Montgomery. If there is one near you it is a must if you love Halloween like we do. I could've spent hours in that store. I think Chris and I enjoyed it more than the boys. And although Chris and I both had in our minds what we wanted the boys to be this year, we both needed to be reminded Halloween IS for the kids and to let them be what they wanted. :) So while Chris' dream of his three little ghouls scaring all the kids in the neighborhood (and probably each other) has been shattered along with mine of 3 little Harley riders complete with faux-leather vests with patches, fake ponytails, do rags and tattoos, everyone left happy with their choice. And that's what it's all about.

DON'T CHA JUST LOVE SCHOOL PROJECTS (and other randomness)

INSERT. SARCASM. 

School projects make me nauseous. They make me sweat. They make me cringe. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am. When Bethany was Grant's age and had a school project, all I had to do was call Rachel and say the words, "Bethany has a project...," and she knew exactly what that meant. It meant we would be at her house pronto and I would play with Grace and Claire while she helped Umby with her project. Because she was blessed with all the creative genes, and I got none. 

Preesh, Rach! And while we were there I'm sure B and me invited ourselves to stay for dinner. I mean, it IS Martha's cooking. 

Well now that we're an hour and a half away from the Colleys (and since Martha won't uproot her family and move closer - hint hint), I'm left to my own devices to help my children with projects. Oh, the horror! 

However, as opposed to freak-out mode when Grant came home with instructions for a project last week, I went into TOOT TOOT mode (which is my and Martha's code for a good, positive, "I think I can, I think I can" type of optimism/attitude). Picture me patting myself on the back for that one.

He had to do his project on an animal habitat and had to present it to the class along with stating three facts about that animal's habitat. ANY animal. Of course he chose white-tailed deer. B and I were on a mission last weekend to find small, plastic deer for him to glue in his shoebox-white-tailed-deer habitat. It was a mission let me tell you. Believe it or not small, plastic deer figurines are not in abundance around here. I'm not even kidding when I say I thought I could run in Target, Wal-Mart or Academy Sports and find some. We're in Alabama for crying out loud. Thankfully I was finally successful in finding some. Grant worked really hard on it (with my help and the help of two other little boys of course), and we were both quite proud of the finished product. We got a "That's AWESOME" from Mackey. If that's not validation I don't know what is! After all was said and done, we couldn't wait to show daddy. Chris took one look at it and after Grant left the room said with a smart-a** chuckle, "He's doing a project on white-tailed deer and you buy mule-deer."

Seriously? My toot-toot mode turned to another mode which he obviously was made aware of by the look on my face (and maybe by the few colorful words I chose to express certain mode). He redeemed himself quickly by saying, "But hey, at least you found some deer. AND it's more than I did."

Good answer.

Grant practicing his presentation:

If you know the Professor, you know that was torture. Pure torture:)

The white-tailed-deer-with-mule-deer-figurines habitat:

OTHER RANDOMNESS:
I'm happy to report we won our second game of the season this week. Victory is sweet, people. Victory is sweet. Since I got pics of the boys in the outfield last game I wanted to try to get them batting this week. "Try" being the operative word. If you can look past the fence, I like this one of Grant with which he got a double:

Mac had a bit of a dry spell this past week as far as hitting the ball (in the first game and in practice) and wanted to quit all-together. We didn't let him. This is the only picture I have of him because I was a nervous wreck when he got up to bat. 

Coach Jay giving him a pep talk:

I so desperately wanted him to get a hit to build up his confidence. And he did! He got a hit and scored a run! When he got back to the dugout Reid called Mac's name. When Mac looked over at him Reid gave him a big thumbs-up. So sweet!

DRAMA QUEEN:

Or is it drama king? It's the boy version of a drama queen so whatever you want to call it, have I mentioned Reid is one??? Case in point:

When he woke up this morning and I got him out of bed, I saw a big Hulk band-aid on his chin. It wasn't there when I tucked him in bed last night. I said, "Oh, Reid, what happened to your chin?" He said, "I scratched it weal, weal bad and needed a band-aid." I'm still not sure exactly how/when it happened and where he found the band-aid but... Upon further observation, this is what I found - go ahead, click on it so you can see where he put the band-aid as well as where the "weal, weal bad" scratch is:

And take a look at that face. :) DRA-MA!

Here's one more so you can see proof Turbo actually does smile and laugh - a lot!

Here's hoping you have a toot-toot kind of weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDDADDY!

Today is my dad's birthday. I sent him a mushy mushy card in the mail that will probably make him cry (soft-hearted little joker) :) so I'm not going to get too sentimental here. I just want to say Happy Birthday to a true diamond in the rough! You're a wonderful example of what a follower of Christ, husband, father, grandfather and friend should be. Yet you're so humble I don't even think you realize it. 

We love you so much! Thanks for all you do for us!

We celebrated his day this past Saturday. What better way to celebrate than for all three of his girls, plus the six grands, to spend the day together with him and mom (except maybe in his eyes an all-expense-paid hunting trip to Saskatchewan or something of the like). We were WAY overdue for some good quality time together so we had to play catch-up. And that we did. As usual we laughed, ate, played cards, listened to music, laughed some more, ate some more, played dominoes, laughed, ate... You get it. 

Some pictures of our day:

Umby discovered she likes sand tarts and with Meems, what Umby wants, Umby gets. Mom just happened to have all the ingredients. Only now that B's older somehow Mimi roped her in to helping. RaRa slapped an apron on her, Mom shoved the mixer in her hand and started dumping ingredients in the mixing bowl. I think the look on B's face says it all:

But the sand tarts were DELISH! B didn't like to share.

The kids were so good all day and played so well together. Although here it looks as if they're up to no good. Hmmm, wonder if they pulled one over on us. 

Of course RaRa brought the cake. A largemouth bass cake to be exact. Wait, that didn't come out quite right. Gross. A cake with a picture of a largemouth bass. Granddaddy with his grands:

When it was time for Big Jack to blow out the candles, he had a cake covered in spit  lots and lots of help!

See, I told you. Lots of laughs:

Which laughs will continue when we think of why this picture had to be cropped so much:

Two of my most favorite people in the whole world:

Food. Oh, the food. Good. Southern. Food.

Dominoes:

AND yet more laughs:

Just because I like it:

And because it was his day:

It doesn't get much better than that, friends.

I have just one last comment for this post:

I don't have a picture to share unfortunately but I must say Martha, you were rockin' the jeggings! I'm still scared of them but... I bow to you!