Wild and Crazy June!

It's been a busy 3 week! We took Drew with us to Alabama and visited with Dad and Johnnie for a couple of days. Then we went on to 6 Flags in Georgia the next day. We met up with more family members than I would have ever thought HUMANLY POSSIBLE! But we were still missing several though. We had a great time watching the babies in their triple stroller, watching the teenagers walk around like they were grown, and hanging out with each other as well. Susan and I rode a couple of roller coasters together and I even got Tanner to ride on the Scream Machine. He ended up liking it, but wouldn't get on any others! Drew rode the Superman roller coaster with me. I believe everyone had a total blast. AFterwards we went back to the lakehouse for several days of water fun.......

Check out the rock we found when we stopped somewhere to swim while on a boat ride. Someone had carved it a face. I simply had to have it, so I got Blake to put it in the boat and carry back to the house for me. I loaded it in the car and now it's sitting next to my front door outside!






Tyler stayed in Alabama and I came home with Drew and TAnner. Drew stayed here the next week as well, and we had Cody and Dusty here for a few days that week also. Plus a neighbor kid from down the street visited several days. It was nothing but boys here for a week! One day Tanner and Drew asked me if they could have a marker so they could draw a target to shoot with their BB guns. I gave them a marker and thought nothing of it. Later in the day I went outside and I saw the "target" they had made. I was expecting the circles making the bullseye, ya know. But they had drawn a person's face on a piece of plywood, and the person was shooting them the bird with both fingers. I thought I'd fall out laughing! Check it out...

Rusty and the boys, divying out Starburst candies.........and, NO, I still haven't gotten the bricks painted yet but I have hope for next week lol.

And, making a long story very very short, that brings us to this week. This is the week that I worked at the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation doing the cultural art/music camp. It has been a TRIP. I've enjoyed every minute of it, but it has been an ordeal for me. I think I've stressed over it MUCH more than necessary lol. But it turned out to be somewhat of a "high profile" kind of thing, at least moreso than I am accustomed to. I've had the local cable access channel there filming me 3 days this week. A few of the kids I've had have been, like, the mayor's kid or this person's kid or so-and-so's kid, etc. The kids are so incredibly SMART it's unreal. These are the children that I remember being and knowing when I was growing up. I had come to believe they didn't exist anymore lol. These kids have learned everything I've taught them. And they WANT to learn it. And they LIKE doing it. And they want to know why they can't do MORE. And they all have background knowledge and experiences. I have completely and thoroughly enjoyed it. But it has mentally exhausted me everyday because I've tried really, really hard to do an awesome job. I think I've done well with the time I've had. But I will certainly be needing the week off next week! Here are a few pics from the week......

This POOR little fellow.......what a good sport!

The courtyard at the Cultural Center (formerly St. Francis school)

Here are Brooke and Tanner in front of the stage that was used in the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou"...
The stage again.......
Tanner on the stage......

Here are a few shots of the stage from when they filmed the movie in 1999

Well, I figure I better catch up this blog before another week of fun starts or I'll be WAY backed up for sure! The first week that school was out, we went to Alabama and took Terri, Dusty, and Cody. The kids all had a blast for sure. Even though the boats and jet skis were mostly broken down, they did squeeze in a tubing trip and little jet skiing. Tyler took off on his own on the jet ski and I was a nervous wreck the whole time but he made it back just fine. I was glad though, to see him up and outside and doing stuff! The first day we were there, the boys all took off to the "tunnel" and ended up throwing rocks somehow. You'd think of ALL things, rock throwing would not be something they would do. So, anyway, Tanner ended up throwing a large rock that made contact with Josh's head and he came walking home covered in blood and gave me the closest thing to a heart attack that I've ever had. I thought he was walking up from the road, as the only survivor of some major catastrophic event and the rest of the kids were laying somewhere being even worse off than he was. (I know all of that was terrible English.) But thank goodness it was not as bad as I was thinking. Josh was the only injured person and had to get 8 stitches. Tanner felt guilty for the next several days, feeling sorry for Josh. But everyone knew it was accidental. Even though they ALL should have known NOT to throw the rocks. Tyler got a crew cut while in Alabama. I was shocked. But it looks real good on him.

The terrible rock wound
Tyler's haircut. I told him that he looks like Steve-O in this picture lol, for those of you who know who Steve-O is.....
Two of these kids are supposed to wear glasses........can you tell which?
I came home that Thursday in hopes of getting into my new classroom on Friday. The principals were all out of the office, but I did finally get in touch with one vice principal who had been the one to take over the choir classes in the spring. She had done the auditions for this coming year as well and she wanted to meet with me to turn over the lists of students in each choir, etc. She met me at the school and let me into the choral room to look through things and see what all is there. I have an AWESOME new classroom, with and AWESOME office of my very own. But I have the absolute WORST computer that I've seen in many a year. It's an old Dell that still has Windows 98 on it. It has a ball mouse. And takes a LONG time to boot up. That simply won't do. I guess I'll have to start in pretty quick on getting that problem fixed. I will indeed bring one of my old computers from home to use until they get me one because I'm accustomed to having good equipment. Anyway, here are some pics of my new place!!!! I can't WAIT to get to move in there!

The choral room......that for now is shared with the band sometimes. But I'm hoping that can be changed as well......

My lovely new office of my very own......

Desk and computer......

I decided that if I was going to do anything about my den situation, I needed to get busy on it. I decided to paint the paneling and the bricks. It was a risky move. But so far I am pleased with it. I finished all the walls this week except for the brick wall. I realized what a lengthy project that was going to be so I put it off until after the next Bama trip, and after the cultural workshop I'm doing the last week of June. So, here is the progress so far....

Our den BEFORE.......we painted the paneling once a long time ago but it didn't look like I wanted. I put up some wallpaper border also, and never finished it. The den has needed serious help for a long time now.......

The den AFTER......or should I say, in the middle of being transformed......I used lots of primer, and leftover paint from doing the studio. And it has made a BIG difference in that room. It's a happier place now lol

I started priming the bricks. It's going to be a big job. The only hard thing is getting the paint to go to the mortar in between the bricks. It's a deep space......

We celebrated Cheryl's birthday early this week, on Friday night. Happy Birthday Cheryl!!!!!

Tanner got to go to the "Can't Stop Singing" show choir camp this week. He really had a great time. I had wondered if he would really like it much, but he totally did. They did selections from High School Musical 2 and learned dances to the songs. A couple of his really good friends from school ended up being there with him so that was great. Here are some pics of his performance. Also, at the bottom of this post, I'm going to put two video clips from the show.......

We've had Drew with us all week long. He went to visit with his Dad this weekend, but came back today. He is going to go to Alabama and Six Flags with us next week, too. And boy is he excited! I took him and Tanner to the Bowmar Church Sports Camp every night this past week and they had a great time. Other than that, they've sat around here playing games with Tyler. Tyler and TAnner talked me into letting them move their computers into the front living room because they can't get good internet reception in the back anymore since we moved the routers. I didn't much want to do it. But I'm glad I did now because I get to see them a lot more! Even though it's added junk in the room, I still get to see them and interact with them more this past week that I have in the last several months so I'm glad I let them.

Tanner's baseball team went to the championship game in Thursday night and they won!!!! They are the little league 10 year old champs in Vicksburg rec. ball. Boy were they excited! It was a great game, too. They played 6 whole innings and won 7-2. There was not a lot of scoring. There were several innings that were 3 up/3 down, for both teams. They are supposed to be putting their picture in the paper. All I had was my cell phone camera with me, stupid me! But I got a couple of blurry shots at least......

Found this picture I took of Tanner on my phone. The last day of school, he put on some girl's costume hat lol..........

Band is still going great. Moving along slowly but surely. Still auditioning singers now and then I think, but no developments there. Our good friend Steve got put out of the old band that Rusty used to be in. Kind of a crappy thing for those guys to do if you ask me. But anyway, he's out. We're thinking it would be cool to work him in with us somehow if we can so maybe we will be seeing some more of him.

Our friend Heather was in town this weekend from Georgia. She's got a baby girl on the way so we decided to get together and have an informal baby shower cookout kinda thing here at the house. We all had a great visit, and for once the women outnumbered the men in my house!!! Rusty, Steve, and Clay were scared to come into the kitchen. It was kind of nice for a change!!!





This coming week we are headed to Alabama for more visiting and a 6 Flags trip. Hoping Mom will be up for the trip, after all her latest injuries!!!! I'm also excited to hear about Brandon and Dustin and family making it to 6 Flags also, I'm totally looking forward to that so I hope they can make it!

A couple of videos of the Tan-Man