Last week of June

It's been a nice week, even if it's been unproductive lol. I haven't done much at the house, but I have managed to still get to the gym!

Last weekend was the big pool party for all (or most) of the old gang from high school and college. We had a blast. It was so great seeing everyone again. Our friend Heather had the party at her dad's house here in town. He was a much more gracious host than I would have been! He and his wife provided the food and cooked it for us. We were there from about 3:00 pm til late in the evening. Danny came to town for the party and stayed with us for a few extra days to go relic hunting with his buddy. I think he found some new civil war bullets and stuff - he also found an 1842 dime. But anyway, here are some pics from the party:

The kids left with Mom on Tuesday going back to Alabama. I know they're having fun there for sure. They are getting SO bored around the house here! I've spent the last couple of days being good for nothing pretty much. Watching movies, TV, surfing the net, etc lol. I did get some groceries bought and worked on a few songs, but that's about it. We celebrated Danny's birthday with him before the kids left. I made some cupcakes, and he took us to eat at El Ranchero's on Monday night, which Tyler completely enjoyed. Tanner went to VBS with Connor on Monday night and was gonna spend the night, but about 11:00pm he wanted to come home so Ken brought him home lol.

The band thing just keeps being a big drama, but I think we're almost done with the drama - for real this time! Our bass player moved to Biloxi, so we've had to replace her and now I'm the only girl. Rusty decided he didn't want to keep the other guitar player so he's gone. We found a bass player and guitar player to replace them, but they come with a drummer (our friend). So we've had to find a way to get rid of the terrific drummer that we had JUST added. Then the one who was gonna do guitar is now NOT gonna do it. SO - it's now looking like me, Rusty, the singer, Jonny back on drums, and Tommy on bass. Lord, let this one be IT. We practiced Wednesday and Thursday nights this week since the kids were gone anyway. The playing part is fun, but I'm just dang tired of people coming and going. And they're making me start to sing backup vocals too, which is stressful lol.

Sure do miss my kids this week, but I know they're having fun. Mom has videos of them jumping off the big cliff lol. I guess this weekend we're gonna go see a band play Saturday night. Tonight Rusty is cooking us a steak and we'll probably just sit around here and practice or something. Still have no clue what we're doing for th 4th lol.

Til next week......

Mid-June

I'm finally posting on a Friday again, yay!

Let's see. Last weekend we went to see a band play. There is this group of much younger guys that we know from around town - they're really nice and have come to see us play and stuff. They play really REALLY heavy metal stuff though. But they finally got their first chance to play here in town so we wanted to be sure to be there to support them, even though it's not really our kinda thing. So we went out there Saturday night with Donnie, Terri, and Lysa. It was some racket for sure! But we had a good time lol. Terri had to plug her ears it was so loud, and eventually ended up wadding up napkins and stuffing them in her ears lol.

Sunday was Father's Day. I called Dad and Pat, and had also mailed them a card a few days before. Funny thing though - MOM gave me the wrong address for the lakehouse so I got Pat's card back in the mail yesterday lol. Will have to give it to you whenever I see ya again Pat! We went swimming Sunday with Cheryl and Mike over at the "big house" and cooked out hamburgers. We had a good time.

Tyler left at 5:30 am for the Global Youth Camp in Georgia this year. He took his cell phone, but I didn't hear a single word from him til he was on his way back home today. Not even a text message lol. So I guess he had fun. Tanner missed him VERY BAD. Last year Tyler came home with a purple beard drawn on his face. This year he just came home with a pencil thin curly mustache lol.

Tanner has been bored outta his mind! I did take him to the library on Monday for some movies and he wanted some books with ghost stories. Why he wanted those I don't know, he can't stand scary stuff. But I guess he's growing up. Tuesday afternoon Drew showed up, thank goodness. And he stayed straight through til this afternoon - I was thankful. He and Tanner played navy seals and washed my car and played video games all week long.

I've accomplished very little this week. But I did get back on the diet good and made it to the gym every other day, so I'm at least proud of that. Band continues to be a constant aggravation in dealing with other people, but hopefully that will soon fix itself. Tomorrow is Mom's birthday - Happy Birthday Mom! And also the big pool party for the old gang is tomorrow, so I should have some pics from that next time. I think Tyler and Tanner are gonna go back to the lakehouse for a few days next week, too. They'll enjoy that. They get tired of sitting around here.

And Susan.......I never did get your concert list, any way to email it to me again????

3rd week of June

My poison ivy cleared up pretty good thanks to some benadryl and cortisone cream lol. I've spent most of this week cleaning. I got the den in pretty decent shape. I moved the table and chairs in there that Chris brought me to store and got rid of my tore up chairs and table. I had to compromise and move a bunch of guitar equipment into the front room though. But figured I might as well, that's where we've been doing all our work for band anyway. I still have tons of stuff to clean but I at least feel like I've put a dent in it now!

Tanner has been so bored this week. He got used to the lakehouse and having stuff to do all the time. So finally by Wednesday I let him go spend the night at Connor's house. He ended up staying again on Thursday night also. Friday night we had Dustin and Cody spend the night so Terri and Donnie could go see the Black Crowes at the Jubilee Jam, so that kept him occupied. Tyler came down with a cold this week and ended up not going to football on Thursday. Next week he'll be gone the whole week to church camp. I'm glad he'll at least be doing something besides hanging in his room lol.

Mickey was released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon so I picked him up and took him home. I made it to the gym like I wanted to this week, thank goodness. Friday night Cheryl and Mike came to visit and hang out. We're going to go swimming with them and cookout on Sunday for Fathers' Day. Tonight (Saturday) we're going to see some guys we know play at the Loft for a couple of hours.

There just hasn't been that much going on this week. Nothing exciting anyway. But I wanted to at least post and try to get my posts back on schedule lol.

2nd Week of June

Well, we finished out the week having lots of fun at the lakehouse. Chris, Kyle, Blake, and Brooke were all out there too - it was great to see them. We had some jet ski fun, swimming fun, relaxing fun, and some bubble fun too lol. Tanner decided the easiest way to blow bubbles was to just put the stuff in your mouth and blow them out with your lips - he cracked us up lol. I"m going to try to link to a video of him blowing the bubbles. You'll probably have to copy and paste the url into your browser, but here it is:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2034925307

I'm sooner or later gonna figure out a way to get video on this blog here lol.Anyway, I have several pictures from last week posted at the end of the blog. We went to Lincoln on Friday and Saturday to visit Dad and JOhnnie. As we were leaving the lakehouse I gave Kyle a goodbye hug - he had just come in from work. Well, by Saturday morning I had poison ivy from my right ear all down my neck, chest, and shoulder lol. I thought that was kinda funny actually lol. We had a good time visiting Dad and Johnnie too. Tanner went swimming with James David, then we all watched movies Friday night. On Saturday we left around noon coming home. Rusty was definitely glad to see us lol. We did a partial band practice this weekend that went pretty good. Sunday evening Rusty's brother Mickey came by and he had this terrible swelling in his face. Late Sunday night they put him in the hospital with a staph infection, he looks like somebody beat him up at this point. So today (Monday) we went to visit him and take him some Pepsi, and we visited our neighbor friend who's been in the hospital for a couple of months now. She's doing a lot better than she was, but she's not doing great yet. I've made it back to the gym for 2 days in a row now, I'm hoping I can keep that up all summer.

So now, here we are at home for the first time really since school got out lol. I've got so much housework to catch up on, and Tyler has lots of football training to do this week. I'm so ready to get caught up, it's hard to feel at ease when there is SO much to do. I'm hoping to get back on schedule with the blog now, beginning with this Friday.

This was the scene one night around 2 am. I think there was some "truth or dare" and Tanner ended up with painted fingernails lol. And yes, Kyle had to get up and work the next day.

Making brownies:

Eating brownies lol.....love the milk mustaches:

Volleyball at night:

Volleyball, or cell phone?

Part of the gang, missing a few:

The gang, still missing a few. The girls could have used Ali there to even it out!!!

Computers:

The "big green doughnut with blue sprinkles":

Jumping in:

Summer Begins

Wow, everyone is wondering what happened to the blog last Friday - that's cool lol. Didn't realize that people would notice I hadn't done it but even Rusty is like............when are you doing the blog?????

You would think that school getting out and summer beginning would lead to much relaxation and free time but it only got busier for a bit there. That first week anyway. That first weekend we had that show in Hazelhurst on Saturday night. It went very well, I could not have asked for a better way to get "initiated" into the rock band thing I guess. It was a class reunion in a small bar in a small town and the people there were all like 35-45 year old white folks who were just damn glad we were there to play for them. They were very nice and friendly and made a great evening for us. I was grateful lol. I"m going to put all band pics at the end of this post.

We did not get home til around 5 am that Sunday, so most of Sunday was spent sleeping and recovering. Monday was Memorial Day and I had to work a couple of hours, then I took off to the lakehouse. I had missed the baby shower on Sunday, darnit. I heard all about Emma though, and was jealous. By the time I had made it to the lake I guess I was just so mentally and physically exhausted I just didn't do much of nothing at all. I read a book and slept a good bit. It was just what the doctor ordered. I went home Thursday evening and took Kyle and Tyler home so they could go to football camp at MSU. They said it was boring and they didn't do much of nothing. But surely they got something out of it. I left Tanner in Alabama to wait on Brooke to get there.

This past weekend was a big weekend, and I was unable to post the blog for being so busy. Friday was our anniversary and we spent it playing a show at the Loft in Vicksburg. We played the same place again on Saturday night as well. The Friday night show.......well, I didn't think it went too well but most everyone else said it was ok. I messed up BIG time once - I started a whole song in the wrong key and made a big fat mess of it once everyone else came in, but somehow we all miraculously recovered. I was so embarassed. And I"m still embarassed as I sit here remembering it. But I have a feeling that same mistake won't ever be made by me again. Nothing teaches like humiliation lol. The Saturday night show went MUCH better. We had a better sound mix, and I messed up a lot less myself. WE had a bigger, more energetic crowd. And it just ended up being plain fun - for the first time. It's still hard for me to consider it fun yet until I stop being nervous about it. But anyway........pics are at the end of the post. But at least Rusty and I did get to spend a lot of time together on our anniversary weekend, we even ate out a time or two.

It's now Tuesday and I"m back in Alabama. I hope to get in a boat ride or something this time. And some sunshine and swimming. All the kids are here now, and my brother as well. It's going to be a fun week. We had to leave Rusty at home again to work and we miss him, wish he'd get some time off here soon. The kids are totally enjoying hanging with their Alabama cousins. They sure have a good time with them. I have a few pics from last week's trip:

I bought 2 books based on Brandon's suggestions lol. I'm currently in the middle of "Beach Music" - it's very good if anyone wants it after me I'll leave it at the lakehouse. I couldn't find the exact Jimmy Buffet book he recommended but I bought another one of his that Im reading next.

I know I had to have done much more stuff in the last week and a half but none of it is coming to mind right now lol. I'll probably post again on Sunday this week, and then get back to Fridays after that. I should have lots of lake pics after this week I hope. And I think by Saturday I"m going to declare myself officially caught up on rest, and begin being active again!

Gosh, I could go on forever with these pictures. I had 4 different people shooting pictures for me since I couldn't. I ended up with over 1500 pictures from the weekend to sort through lol. But I'll just include these small highlights. People really get a kick out of the outfits lol. Now, I'm back to the lakehouse "chillaxing" as my kids are saying these days..........