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?

My 12lb Baby

My twelve pound baby needs to find a home! This is over a year and a half pages scrapping and I have been just dumping the pages into a rubbermaid containers. I use to scrap in chronological order (and still wnat to go this way) and cut the half inch off the edge of the page so it would fit in the CM albums. Cutting the edge off the paper got on my nerves so I gave that technique the boot and now I'm paying for it because none of my pages will fit on the CM pages without me cutting off part of a picture or journaling. I have over 13 Creavtive memory albums and I would love to continue with the style, but they are really expensive. I would love to see my options. What albums do you use and why? I've got to take care of this 12 lb baby before it gets any larger!

Static Clinge and Then Some

I just had to share these pictures of Forrest and Nate with you. Nate is my sister's son and he adores Forrest. Even though Forrest is almost 15 and there is an eight year difference in age between the two, they are 100% static clinge when they are together! You can't keep them seperated. Either Nate is hanging all over Forrest or they are on the floor wrestling. A couple of years ago, Mary Kate was worried that Forrest would not want to come to Georgia anymore because he would be a teenager and wouldn't want to hang around with little Nate. Forrest has proven her wrong! They will carry this bond between them forever.

In other news...

Mom is doing fantastic! I brought her home from rehab last Saturday a week earlier than expected. It's been four weeks now since her surgery and her other knee bothers her more than the new knee. Hopefully in the fall, she'll be able to have it replaced. She's such a trooper. Forrest had his last soccer game in Florence today and Mom was able to go with us! She really enjoyed getting out and seeing her grandson play. I am so proud of her and am very thankful for the opportunity to help and Dad.

Forrest's soccer season (JV) ended tonight, but he will play with the varsity in their tournaments next this weekend. He played last week with them and was able to play almost half the game while some varsity players sat the bench. We are very proud of Forrest and all of his hard work he puts in his sport. George will miss the soccer season as he loves to watch Forrest play.

Sadie and I will go to Alabama Adventure this Saturday with the band. It's a miniture SixFlags with a water park in Birmingham, AL. She is vey excited about going. She absolutely loves band. Every morning during Forrest's early morning seminary (6:15-7am), she practices her flute. It's a wonder I haven't gone deaf! She has been first chair for most of the year and is very excited to advance to the wind asemble next year.

I'm really enjoying taking care of mom and dad while mom recovers from knee replacement surgery for the past four weeks. I really appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers during this time. Last week, I put down the paper cutter and picked up my paint brush as I started painting a couple of bedrooms for some dear friends and when I'm done there, I will do some painting for my parents and my sister in the next couple of weeks. I really love to paint (especially the trim) as much as I love to scrapbook. I sub-contracted some of the rolling to Forrest so I won't wear my back out and he's happy to earn the extra money. I am really enjoying working side by side with my son. I cherish these moments with him because it will not be too long before he will leave the nest!

Stress Reliever

Since I have been taking care of mom for the last week with her recovering from her knee replacement surgery and going to rehab for visits along with driving to Athens to take care of Dad, and along with taking care ofm y own family, I have been in dire need to relieve some stress! The only way I know how to relieve stress and be productive at the same time is to do some scrappin'! I was able to scrap two pages and 25 cards in the last week. Since my mom hasn't made cards in months, I picked through her supplies and added them to mine. I felt like a kid in the candy store rummaging through her stamps, ribbons, punches, stamps and papers, etc.

I went for a visit with mom this morning and she looked fantastic! She is doing so well! She's walking as if she hasn't had surgery! She told me her walker was just in the way, but must use it for safety precations. I have an interdisciplinary meeting for her on the 9th and hopefully we can bust her out of rehab and bring her back to Dad where she belongs! When I visit tomorrow, I'll post pictures of how wonderful she looks!

Worth My Efforts

Mom's in rehab and is doing great. I've been traveling back and forth from Rehab in Huntsville to Dad's house in Athens and back to my house in Hazel Green, and that's not including early morning seminary! I'm driving about 300 miles a day and that doesn't leave me much time to myself. I really am enjoying spending this time with my parents. I am thrilled to say mom is doing great in her recovery and Dad is taking good care of himself in her absence and that is well worth my efforts. Right now, I'm taking a break in helping dad vacuum the little dust bunnies and I have a feeling this break will be longer than intended, because my eyes sure are getting sleepy!