My peeps in Nashville!

Last Sunday we skipped church....WHICH ABSOLUTELY KILLS ME.....and headed over to Nashvegas to catch the beloved Titans game. It was a fabulously cool day and felt just like football weather. Here are a few of the pix from the day.

Here we are before we split up as a family. Hubs and oldest had seats on the 5 yard line, 3 rows up. NOT FAIR. Me and the other two had seats on the....not 5 yard line 3 rows up.


If you look closely you can see the super stud himself who didn't play a single minute....
TIM TEBOW!!!!! He is 315 right beside the coach in the khaki pants. He is to the right of him.


This guy totally cracked me up!!! He jumped up no less than 623 times to yell something at someone. He was clean and sober and fine, but totally loving the game and thinking he could be heard. Great entertainment!



How about an upclose picture of a kid drinking hot chocolate. You may thank the 9 year old for this.


This is me and the funniest kid on the planet. He is the infamous 9 year old who thinks he is it on a stick. I love him to pieces. He did have a sweatshirt on. That is why you see the belt that is driving me crazy. ;)


Oh, and here is too cool for school nearly 13 year old. You can see him fighting the smile if you look closely.


And then here is the oldest. He is precious and ever so kind and will be a pastor one day. Maybe. I hope. Or a coach. Or on ESPN.


Crazy kid.


"I can't take it any more mom!"


My fabulous family of 5. I love these guys so much!

Hope y'all are well. Tell me how you are. I really do care.
Hugs and blessings~

Teenage years.....pray a lot and love your hair wizard!

Well, detox is complete. And, I'm referring to the post vacation detox. Trying to get myself and these kiddos back on some kind of track, but I'm realizing they are having "end of the summer blues." Bless 'em. I think I hear a school bell ringing. ;)

I wanted to share a few pix of celebrating my oldest turning 14. Did you hear that? He is 14. Oh geez. How did I manage to have a child at 15? Oh, I kid. I'm 30 and not 29.

A few things to note when you have two teenagers that have really stopped me dead in my tracks...

*Not a shocker on this one, but parents do not parent the same. This gets especially interesting when you hit these teenage years. I'm learning just how conservative I am.

*This world is NUTS and you must know how to parents these teens. If you don't know what you are doing, find a friend or mentor who has walked the road and parents similar to you!

*I'm sick of beer and alcohol being "normal." I don't want my kids growing up in a bubble, but man we are competing against some pretty clever marketers. Movies and tv are just as bad. We gotta stay on top of what our kids are watching.

*GREATEST lesson at this stage....these kids are watching your every move. They are watching IT ALL. They are taking it all in. They want to see if things "line up" like you've been saying all these years.

*Talk, talk, talk, talk to your kids about EVERYTHING...and I mean everything. And not just the one time talk about sex, alcohol, drugs, bullying, mean kids, etc. Keep the conversation going and going and going. Find great resources for your area that can help you. It's a must!

Would you like to see some pix of the birthday celebration? Some are at my inlaws house and their pool. Some pix are here at our house with my mom and dad. Some pix are at Outback because the boy gets to pick the place.

Here is dad and birthday boy Clay and Dylan!

Me and Tyler!

The gang!

Swimming at the inlaws.......someone must be weird and mess up the cute pic. ;)

Playing some made up game that last FOREVAH!

His hair is like a porcupine when wet.

Handsome 14 year old

Oh great mom....this is stupid!

The homemade birthday cake!

Everyone but me and my dad :(

This makes me laugh because they are laughing. Awwwww!

I'll be writing a book on surviving the teen years. I need some distraction because I think all we do is pray every other minute, and sit in the hair wizard chair to cover all the grey that comes in by the day. ;)

Happy August!
Hugs and blessings~

Beach, baseball, and friends!!

Happy and then sad

I'm happy and I'm sad.

I'm happy that we are at Orange Beach for baseball. But I am I sad that the beaches, roads, and restaurants are so empty. I will say that I really am surprised that the beaches look as good as they do. I was expecting A LOT worse so I'm happy that we can still get in the water with only a slight oil application to the skin. ;) It is funny to see people laying out in their just bought for vacation swimsuit and dude in a hazmat suit cleaning up right beside you.

I'm sad with you BP.

I am happy that we are here to watch 2 of my boys play in their annual "lets wrap this baseball season up by heading to the beach with our favorite families and happen to play some baseball too." I like this program. Sign me up all day long. And, the beauty of it is.....We are here for 12 glorious days. As my 9 year old says..."Praise the high heavens."

Aren't they a cute bunch?

This is where you will find me for the next oh several days. I know...woe is me. I do feel sad for my dogs though. They are with a darling college girl, but I'm thinkin' they may be slightly confused on the transition and when are they coming back concept? Oh, funny thing...last night, Sarah, sends me a text that says..."oh, everything is ok...just some cows in your yard and walking down the street." Silly me. I failed to mention the country life we live in. She wasn't freaked out too bad.

See....the gulf coast is still beautiful. Kids were in the water yesterday. But...wow...look at the slim crowd.

Breaks my heart BP. I'm sad over you.

Blessings y'all!! Lots of fun pix to come.

The info in my brain is about to BUST OUT!

My undiagnosed ADD is in HIGH GEAR right now and has been when it comes to this blog so let me spit out some interesting, disturbing, happy info that continues to spin around in my head.

** I had to strategically place myself in front of some magazines at Target the other day. WHY? Because that nutty plastic surgery junkie from Hollywood/LA and I totally can't think of her name right now.....was plastered on the front of this magazine talking about her boob jobs. WHAT IN THE WORLD PEOPLE???? Shoot me now. Poor nearly 14 year old boy. I'm sure he was wondering why mom was standing like a fool and not moving until we absolutely had to.

** To date I have not watched one solid episode of the Bachelorette. This is huge. Could care less about these guys. They seemed so weird from the get go and I think I had some insight into this summer season and said...."no thanks...can't handle the stupidity." But, really...this is not new to this show and I know that.

** I miss serving in a church. Really really really happy with where we have been going, but I'm ready to jump in and serve again.

** I obsessively check my kids facebook pages 627 times a day and am amazed and what is going on out there and there is not one thing I can realistically do about some pictures and words and junk that is happening on THE MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL. Step up to the plate parents and stop some of this mess.

** It's too hot to eat.

** Call me crazy, but Spongebob really does make me laugh.

** I'm jealous of the iphone people out there. No denial.

** I get to go to Orange Beach/Gulf Shores/Black Beach in a few weeks. Lots of documenting to come. And, I'll be ticked about it too. ;) Watch out BP.

** I want to put my kids in a bubble. Oldest will be 14 next month and life is about to drastically change. I'm not sure if I can handle it.


Whew....I feel so much better. Thanks for playing along.
Happy Summer!!! Don't burn up and melt.

Love ya!
Fran

It's all I know thus far!

This is what I'm doing this summer. It might seem a bit monotonous, but I'm totally loving it. It's my favorite people and I'm good with that.

The only thing I'M DONE WITH.....is this crazy, out of control heat!!! I mean we are melting down in the south people. What is up with the heat and humidity in mid June? I'm trying to stay grateful, but it's a huge challenge.

Ok, if you do not know what "Skinny Cow" ice cream is. PLEASE GO FIND SOME NOW!!! I bought these ice cream sandwiches at Target a few weeks ago and I'm in love. They are low fat and absolutely a gift from heaven. You'll be blessed. And, no....this isn't my picture. No way would I lay (lie) these sandwiches on their side and take a picture! ;)


Water of some kind is in order these days. Isn't he cute?

Little guy getting a baseball trophy last weekend. He is so precious. Love him!!!

Dude is saying..."please stop mom. You are so embarrassing."


Bwahahahahaha.....he has no idea I've taken 726 pix of this game!


Love these guys! Hope you are off to a fabulous summer. Please tell me what's your favorite part so far.

Or, feel free to share a favorite ice cream find that I might be missing too! :)

And, one more thing....still ticked at BP and the oil spill. I will be reporting live from Black Beach/Orange Beach in July.

Hugs and blessings~
Fran

We went from mad to glad and fun was eventually had by all

Happy Summer y'all!!! Here is a series of pictures from Memorial Day that make me happy. The boys were playing "throw the ball as you jump off the diving board and try to catch it" game and they could do this for days I tell ya.

Also, notice that one cute little 9 year old is highly ticked off/crying and trying to hide as soon as we were ready to start the fun! He was quite confident that we didn't know he was there. He changed his tune and finally got in.








So, besides swimming, we ate a lot, got ice cream and milkshakes and other fun stuff, and just enjoyed being together.

On another note, I'm irritated with BP and not being able to deal with this horrible oil situation. We have our family beach trip/baseball world series in July down in Orange Beach. I'm thinking it's going to be black beach and no swimming in the ocean. There isn't a whole lot we can do about it because we have to go because of the world series. BOOOOOO BP BOOOOOOO!!!

Ok, happy summer. Have a wonderful day. Do something fun today!

Hugs and blessings,
Fran

I think it was July this weekend.

We celebrated the end of school by heading to Alabama for a baseball tourney. Let me say that we went straight from spring to Hades in less than 24 hrs. Holy cow it was HOT y'all. The humidity caused me to not be able to breathe. I mean really. I swear.

I didn't bring my camera with me because it was clearly too hot to lug that thing around so here are a some pix of complete randomness.

Here we are back home. We have showered for an hour to get rid of the layers of dirt, sweat, and grime and headed straight to momma's bed.

The dogs are back from the kennel and apparently it wore them out too. Bless 'em.

Everyone likes my bed. EVERYONE!

"You are NOT taking this picture for real are you?" (of course not son)

This might be the best piece of randomness you receive all summer....if you followed my pillow situation while in Pigeon Forge a couple of weeks ago, you know this precious pillow case is sure to cure all hotel issues. Feel free to check out their site and create one for yourself or anyone else you might care about. :) Their website is here!

Have a wonderful day! And I hope you are in summer mode now. Or really really close!

Hugs and blessings~