One Down, Three to Go

These pictures were taken to celebrate the ending of Forrest and Gentry's first year of early morning seminary. Every day for the entire school year, these boys got up and attended an early morning bible study of the New Testament for 50 minutes. Gentry was lucky enough that seminary was held at his home, but unfortunatley, Forrest wasn't tht lucky. He had to get up at 4:45am to get ready and we drove the 20 minutes one way to be at class by 6:15am. This program is designed for the youth to help strengthen them against the challenges they face everyday. Forrest didn't want to miss a day of seminary. even when he was home sick! Not once did Forrest ever complain he didn't want to go. He knew what was expected of him and come to find out, he really did enjoy it! Plus, it was really fun to stop at our country gas station for a sausage bisquit and a Sundrop! I am really proud of Forrest and Gentry to enduring to the end. What a great feeling of accomplishment they felt when it was over! Great job boys! One year down, three to go!

Scrappin' Homework

My online scrapbooking class at Feeling Scrappy just ended and I thought I would share with you my homework assisgnments. The class was called "Get Inked" because the main topic was INK! We learned how to use a variety of inks (pens, ink pads, alcohol inks, etc) It was very informative and as always, I really enjoyed myself!

"Sweet 16"

Yesterday, George and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. It seems like yesterday that George and I eloped to Tennessee and were married. We were married by a lady judge wearing a hot pink windsuit. I know it sounds a little red-neckish, but I didn't care. I only wanted to be George's wife!

After dating for a year and a half and being engaged for a year and George calling off the wedding once, it was time for him to make up his mind. It was time for action! I went to his work on a Tuesday and demanded a date. George wanted to wait until the fall when he had a break from touring with Diamond Rio, but I couldn't wait that long. I looked at his calendar and saw he had the coming weekend open and said to him, "Marry me this weekend or we're done!" Needless to say, he took me up on my offer. On May 21, 1993, we were married. It was the happiest day of my life!

A year later, on our first anniversary, we were sealed in the LDS Atlanta Temple. George has asked me a couple of times over the years if I would do it all over again with him and my answer is "YES!" everytime. Unfortunately for George, he's stuck with me forever! lol

Mustang!

Several months ago, Sadie fell in love with Mustangs and points out every Mustang car she sees. At first, it was very annoying as I wasn't use to the clapping and excitement of joy every 15 seconds in a closed environment of our car. SInce then, we have made a game of counting every Mustang we see. I didn't realize these are extremely popular cars and we see tons everyday! So, it wasn't a surprise when Sadie got all giggly on me when she saw this brand new Mustang out in front of Sams. THe other pictures of the cars are from car show at the mall a couple of weeks ago. She was so excited to see all the Mustangs that she started crying! When she gained her composure, she said, "They're so beautiful!" and started snapping pictures from insde of the car of the Mustangs. She's too funny!

PS-I want to congratulate Sadie on making the top band for next year's school year! She made the Wind Ansemble 1 band, the highest in middle school. Go Sadie!

I'm still Cool!

Sadie has just completed her first year of playing the flute in the middle school band. She really has a talent in the music department and has been first chair for the majority of the school year. She plans on being in the band for the rest of her schooling and hopefully earn a scholarship to college. So to support Sadie in her carreer in band, I was voted in to be the secretary/treasurer for the band next year. Am I a sucker or what? I am just thrilled to be able to spend the time with Sadie and am very thankful she still thinks I'm cool and wants me to be around! I wonder how long that will last? How long will I still be "cool"? Forrest doesn't think I'm cool anymore so I'm going to milk this with Sadie for as long as I can!

Attack of the Wiper Blades

"Would you like to go for a ride?" Forrest asked the Boys (Benny & Carhartt) yesterday as he went outside to sit in his Camaro. Knowing the Boys would follow him, Forrest already knew their answer before asking the question. Btw, I love how Forrest talks to the pups. It's like a mom talking to her sweet baby using her "baby" talk voice. Anyway, I peeked out the window and I knew I needed to capture this moment. We found out a couple of years ago that Carhartt doesn't like the windshield wipers turned on. He goes balistic and pierces our ears with his ferocious barking! He will try to get up on the dashboard to attack the wipers. So, it's not unusual for Forrest or Sadie to "tease" Carhartt every now and then by turning on the wipers. (The teasing only last a minute or two because the eardrum can only take so much!) As you can see in the pictures, Carhartt is very serious about taking out the wipers. Forrest turned the wiper on and then off. When the wipers were turned off, Carhartt waited in anticipation for them to come on and was ready to pounce them! Forrest wanted to see what Carhartt would do if he put him out of the car. Carhartt didn't like it and went to begging to get back inside. Benny on the other hand, is cool with just hanging out. We so much enjoy our pups and every aspect of their personalities. They are truly an important part of our family!

Garden Olympics

I went outside to take a few pictures of Forrest kicking the ball around and as I was walking towards him, I noticed mud on his back legs. When I asked him how did the mud get on him, he said, "I'm doing the running long jump in the garden!"

Since we have recieved so much rain in the last few weeks and haven't planted our garden yet, I thought by letting Forrest continue would help till the garden some more! So, I began taking pictures of as he was doing his running long jump. That lasted a few minutes and next he began doing handstands and before I knew it, he was running and flipping in the mud! Now as he was doing these acrobats, Benny, our standard poodle, was running along side of him through the garden. He is such a playful pup! Carhartt, being the "weenie" he is, stayed in the safe zone away from the garden. Forrest didn't like that much, so to help break the ice for Carhartt, and broke the ice for him! He put a coat of mud on him. And to help Carhartt not to feel like he was being picked on, he also gave Benny a coat of mud!

Sadie soon joined us in the fun, but she wasn't as dareful as Forrest, but she did manage to get just as dirty. After 30 minutes of Garden Olympics, it was time to clean up. You should have seen the tub after I washed the dogs....and the footprints coming from the backyard through the garage.... and the handprints on both the Firebird and Camaro.....and the mud on the sidewalk from Forrest and Sadie cleaning up.... and 140 pictures I took (don't you love digital?), I would definately say we had a blast! I give this experience a perfect score of 10!

Forrest in Action

I absolutely love action shots of my children so I was thrilled to catch Forrest in action as he plays a sport he absolutely loves. The first picture is of him in the "follow-through" position of kicking the ball down field (I still use my physical education terminolgy!) The second picture he had just used his head to hit the ball (ouch!). The third picture is self-explanitory and the last picture he had just kicked and is entering the follow-through. These pictures are priceless and I would love to have one made into a poster for his wall, but which one?