"Tagged"

Well, as of last week I had no idea what "tagged" meant. But Ashley tagged me and here it goes...

What was I doing 10 years ago... I was just about to finish up my college years at Auburn. Shoot, I wish I could go back and do those 4 years all over again, but a whole lot differently! I was interning with my own former 2nd grade teacher (Karen Eiland) in Alex City, AL. I was enjoying the last few days as a college student.

5 things on my to do list today...(tomorrow) since its 9:30 p.m.
1-a little more laundry...got most of it done today
2-clean out RG's closet of clothes that are too small and put them in the attic
3-Riley Grace's dance practice from 4:30-5:15
4-Try to see Matthew and Caleb's baseball games
5-Cook supper!

5 snacks I enjoy...
1-ham w/ cream cheese and olives
2-string cheese
3-cashews
4-beef jerky
5-cool ranch doritios (occasionally)

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire...
1-sponsor as many "Children of the world" as I could
2-I LOVE MY HOUSE but since this is fiction anyway, I would tear it down and build MY house on top of where it is now, because I wouldn't want to change where I live
3-Move my Aunt Doris and Uncle B to Alabama or Destin which ever they would rather
4- Give my family all that they ever needed to live comfortably and never worry about money again
5-NEVER, EVER, EVER balance my check book again...I'd hire somebody to do it!

5 bad habits...
1-drinking too many softdrinks
2-going too long without balancing my checkbook (I just hate it so much)
3-being short and snappy with my parents
4-not keeping up with laundry (and cleaning, and dishes, and...shall I go on)
5-letting my car get completely empty before I fill it up...it goes hand in hand w/ balancing the checkbook...

5 places I've lived...
1-Lindsey Bridge Road (for the first 3 years of my life), Andalusia
2-904 Waterford Rd (the house I grew up in and my parents still live in), Andalusia
3-two dorms at Auburn, Dowdell in the Quad and Hollifield on the Hill
4-Starr Trailer Park in Auburn
5-609 &215 Sanford Rd, 101 Rouseau St., 121 McRainey Loop, 12178 Wiggins Farm Rd. -Andalusia

5 jobs I've had...
1-lifeguard at Andalusia Country Club pool
2-Ansley Place and Town & Country
3-Beverage Cart- RTJ Golf Course in Opelika
4- Beverage Cart-Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort
5- Teacher...K,1st,2nd,6th-12th, Title I, Gifted

I want to more about...(a nice way of saying I'm tagging you)
1-Mendy Clark
2-Mandi Clark
3-Kim
4-Ashely Powell
5-Samantha Russell

Lions and Tigers and Bears...

AND PEOPLE!!!! You would've thought that Maggie Ruth had never left the house until Saturday! Russell and I took the girls to the Montgomery Zoo this past Saturday and I don't believe Maggie cared about one single animal there. She was far too busy trying to figure out how she was going to wave and say "Hi" to every PERSON there! She is a social butterfly if there ever was one. She would walk up to every baby stroller and try to touch the baby's face, put her finger in their mouth, touch their eyeballs, you get the picture. Most of my day was spent on Maggie's coat tails as I pulled her away from most every human, kicking and screaming... Sound like fun? Well, we actually had a blast! The weather was so perfect and it was even better to be with my family. Riley Grace kept saying, "I'm so glad just the 4 of us are going somewhere together!" We hardly ever travel without an entourage.

The train ride was fun and relaxing...

Russell and the girls stopped for a photo at the monkeys...could've just left Maggie Ruth there with her kin folks! (just kidding)

Riley Grace wanted Maggie Ruth to like the animals so bad, but she just wanted to see how high she could climb up on the rails before one of us would snatch her down. Riley Grace on the other hand, was taking it all in. She's an animal lover!

I sort of missed the animal in this picture. There was a Condor a bit higher up in the cage, but apparently I didn't notice he wasn't in the picture.

Spring Break is over, but thank goodness Spring isn't! I plan on enjoying it even more. Riley Grace and I are off to the Gulfarium tomorrow for the 2nd grade field trip. Then we're going to hang out and play with Joy and Conner... can't wait! Gulfarium post coming soon!

You will have to forgive the sad layout of this post but I'm so tired I feel cross-eyed, so I'm not going to take the time to change it!

Open Pond

We have had a blast this past week as we enjoyed Riley Grace being on Spring Break! On Wednesday we went down to Open Pond with some of our church friends/family and their children. We picniced and let the kids enjoy the great outdoors. The big kids rode bikes and went on a walk around the pond while some of the smaller ones rode in their cars and wagons and played in the dirt. Its fun to just fellowship with one another, especially when we can enjoy the wonderful gifts God has given us...friends, family, nature, children, the sunshine, McDonalds Chicken McNuggets (my version of a picnic) and the list goes on! Amy is one of my favorite little friends! She's in my DT Class on Sunday nights and man can she sing!!!

Ashley was busy snapping a picture of Shonna and Beth (I think) while I snapped this one of her!

Shonna and Beth...I told Shonna I was just wanting a picture of the wagon behind her! She'll be proud of me I know!

Well this is the crew (L to R) Matthew, Caroline, Anna, Maggie (headed out of the wagon), Caleb, Alli, Riley Grace, Amy, Rachel, Ty, and Sawyer and John Luke are in the cars. Jacob wasn't exactly wanting his picture taken so he's MIA!

P.S. If you can believe it, I have never been to Open Pond in all my years as a Covington County resident. Kelley and Mendy couldn't believe I had led such a sheltered life. (ha!ha!)

Amarillo by morning...

More literally that we'd expected! Last Saturday afternoon, Russell asked if Maggie and I would like to try to make a trip to Amarillo with he and Mr. Ricky. After some quick internet searches, we booked a flight leaving at 6:15 Sunday (the very next day)! I know y'all know I wear my go britches at all times, but I must say I've never done anything like this at the spur of the moment, but I'm so glad I did. Well, we were expecting to get to Amarillo,TX by about 10:55 that night, but that was if we had actually caught the plane that left us behind in Houston! So, it was Amarillo by "mid-day"! We spent Sunday night in Houston at a hotel with NO luggage, no nothing, just my purse/ diaper bag and a kind departing gift the airport left us with... toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, deo (for your B.O.), etc. Anyway, our flight left Houston at 11:00 and we were in Amarillo by around 12:45. If you're wondering why in the world we went all the way out there, well here's a little taste of what we did...

Maggie Ruth, Russell and me on the airplane. She was an absolute trooper! The altitude didn't bother her and she was soooo good for all of the flights (and the entire trip for that matter)!

This was one of our stops...Hereford, TX. Did you know there was such a place. If you think you've seen farmland, grain bins, irrigation systems, cattle, etc. you just need to mosey on out to the panhandle of TX!!! Russell and I live in a metropolis compared to the rural lands of Texas! This is one of MANY mass storage grain bins we saw along our journey! To put into perspective how huge it really is... the little black square on the bottom left, below the H is the door!!! These things made our grain bins here at home look like a little coffee can!

Wrangler Feedyard Entrance... I just thought it was really "western" looking!

This is in the town of Tulia, TX.

One of our next stops was a feedlot there in Hereford. We have feeder cattle in Wrangler and Southwest Feedlots, of which hold between 40-50 thousand head of cattle! We all enjoyed getting to see how these feedlots operate and how well our cattle are doing in them. Across the road from one of the feedlots where our cattle are is a much larger feedlot called Bar G. It only houses 100 thousand head of cattle! That is cattle as far as you can see in all directions. I stopped and took a picture of it from the road, but it doesn't do it justice for seeing it in real life!

This is the Bar G feedlot. All of the the specks in the distance are cows! The large buildings in the background is the mill where they make the feed for the cattle. Have you ever seen so many cows in all your life?

We (or maybe just it was just me) were also so amazed at how flat the land is out there... if you see a power line, you can't tell where it ends! Its like it just goes on forever.

For those of you who know anything about farming, irrigation systems are not a common thing here in the southeast, but in Texas they're everywhere! This is an irrigation system that was 18 towers long (that's about a half mile in length) which means it can water about a mile of land! That is just amazing to me! When we were flying out of Amarillo I tried to get a few pictures of the land from the airplane. It was a little foggy so they're not really clear but you can atleast see the circular patterns of green where the crops are under the irrigation systems.
The picture is really blurry/foggy, but maybe you can see the half circles. These were (half)crop circles. While riding the panhandle of Texas on Tuesday, we spotted these windmills in the distance. After driving for quite some time, we finally got as close to them as we could. The picture below got a little too close up but you can really see the windmills in the background.

I hope I didn't bore you all with too much detail, but we had a blast and there is a ton more I could go on and on about. Except that its Monday and my house is screaming, "CLEAN ME!!!"

Happy Birthday to Kim!

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Kim, Happy Birthday to you! And Many More!!!!

We love you KiKi! Happy 31st Birthday! Hope you have a great week!

Check out your "Happy Birthday" song I put on my playlist!! New Kids on the Block- your favorite!

Tricia's Transplant Blog

I know I've mentioned it to several of you that check my blog, but I wanted to make sure you all could get to this site. It is www.cfhusband.blogspot.com . This is a young lady who has struggled with CF all of her life and just recieved a double lung transplant last week. She also has a young and very premature baby. Her husband keeps a blog of their journey through CF. Please check it out. They're faith is remarkable! God is so real and he's working absolute miracles in their life everyday! Please pray for this family! I've also created a link on my friends list! I don't think they'd mind (although I don't know them) if it meant just one more prayer lifted up in their honor!

Thanks!!!

P.S. ...Texas Post coming soon!