Family Friendly?

Joe and I took the kids to the park this afternoon for some free time.  When we got to the park, the older boys took off for the playground equipment while Joe and I headed for a bench swing with Micah.  As soon as I sat down I smelled a rather peculiar odor, but said nothing about it.  Joe sat down next to us, looked down at his feet and said, "Tell me that is not what I think it is." 

I looked down and sure enough the ground all around our feet was covered with dried green herbs that definitely were not oregano or parsley.  Obviously someone had spilled their baggie full of marijuana on the ground and was either in a hurry to escape or was too stoned to realize what had happened.
Joe started kicking at the ground (to try and cover it up with sand) which only intensified the smell and got it all in his work boots and my shoes. Noah of course chose that moment to walk over and ask what we were doing.

I am furious that I even had to come up with an answer to that question.  I mean, we were in the park for crying out loud...a children's park with playgrounds.  What has happened to our society that someone would think it was acceptable to go to a public children's park to smoke their weed?
Or maybe it was someone selling there and dropped their stash.  That makes me even angrier.  What chance do our children have if they are finding drugs on the playground at six years old?

Is there nowhere left that is family friendly?  Do I have to keep my children in the house all the time in order to keep them from being subjected to drugs, alcohol, foul language, and sexual perversion?  I know that at some point in thier lives they will  have to face all of those things, but at six years old they should only be worried about which swing to swing on, not what the green stuff is all over Daddy's shoes.

Walking

Sixteen months of wondering when it was going to happen...

Now we begin wondering when he will slow down!!

Guess this means I have to get him some shoes now?

Pa's Hat

It seems that one of the favorite pastimes for Noah and Jonah this weekend while at the river was trying on Pa's hat and posing for the camera...

...I'm not sure if Pa ever did get his hat back!

July 4th

It is a family tradition to spend July 4th down at Land's End on the river.  We have done this since I was a teenager and this year was no exception.  We got in late Friday night and were all up early Saturday morning in time to enter the kids in the parade.  The theme this year was "Things To Do At Land's End".  We decided to incorporate Land's End church, the ocean, and the beach.  Our entry was titled Salvation, Sand, and Sea.  Mom did most of the decorating since we did not get in until after midnight the night before the parade.

Noah was the salvation part of our entry.  We attached a Bible to his bike along with sign that read "Jesus is my best friend...Come to church when at Land's End!"

Micah was the sea in our entry.  He rode in a wagon covered in blue and he threw out water balloons.  Jonah was the sand.  He rode in a wagon with a sand castle and he was the one that got to throw candy to the crowds.

The "older generation" (Mom, Mr. Jimmie, and Granny Faye) watched from the sidelines.

After the parade, we sat around waiting for the winners to be announced.  The boys won 2nd place this year!

After the parade was  over, Joe and I left the napping boys with my Mom and we headed into Beaufort to do a little car shopping.  It was not until we were in the middle of the dealership that I remembered that we had all worn matching outfits for the parade and had neglected to change before going shopping.  I felt like such a dork!!!

Sunday Morning we all got up and went to church on the water.  It was a beautiful service and they had over 200 in attendance.

The rest of Sunday was spent playing on the beach and in the water waiting on the fireworks to start that night.

Noah, Jonah, Micah, and friend Brianna had a blast playing together.

Now that Micah is FINALLY walking, he too had a blast in the sand and surf!

All in all it was a great weekend.  We had perfect weather, good food, and lots of fellowship.  However, that pesky dark cloud even found us on our mini vacation.  On the way back from fireworks last night, Noah tripped over a tree root (while barefoot) and I think he may have broken a little bone in his foot.  Not only that, but after he went to sleep, he fell off of the top bunk.  He is now sporting a huge bruise across his back from the landing.  Hopefully his foot looks better in the morning and we will not be headed in to get an x-ray.  We have been enjoying the sun shine too much to let that dark cloud come back!

It's Been A While

With the hovering dark cloud and a packed Summer schedule, I have not posted on here in a while. This past week was probably one of the busiest weeks of the year as butter beans, peas, and okra were ready in the garden, my car kept dying (remember that dark cloud?), I worked outside the home two days, Joe had three loads that had to get to Maryland, and I taught VBS at our church. The theme was Saddle Ridge Ranch and could not have suited my kids any better. They all had a blast pretending they were on a dude ranch and learning about Jesus. I did get one picture of the three of them after the closing program Friday evening. Micah would not keep his hat on and Jonah is only wearing one shoe, but hey, you take what you can get...right?


As soon as the VBS closing program was over, we picked up Granny Faye and headed out to Land's End to spend the holiday weekend with Grammy and Pa. Hopefully I will have those pictures from Mom to load on here soon.

The Dark Cloud

This past week has been filled with just about the worst luck ever! It seems as if it could go wrong, it has.

Last weekend, Joe decided that he wanted me to ride to Maryland with him to drop off a load of light poles. He said that we would leave out Sunday after church, go up to MD, drop off our load Monday morning, stop and have lunch on the Chesapeake Bay for my birthday, and be back home in time to tuck the kids into bed Monday night. I rushed around getting everything ready and arrangements made for the kids. They were to spend Sunday with my Dad and Linnie, Sunday night with my Mom and Pa, and Monday with a combination of my Mom, Grandmother, and a sitter.

We left out on Sunday and had a blast up until it got dark. The truck started running hot because something in the something else had sprung a leak and was doing something that was not supposed to happen. Anyway, to make a long story short, the (very expensive) part to fix the truck was only available in Atlanta and at this point we were in DE. We got the load off Monday morning as scheduled, but only made it back to the south side of DC before the truck got so bad that it was impossible to continue. Joe called one of our other truck drivers (Ronnie) and arranged for him to drive up and get us. Unfortunately our truck that he needed to drive was with another of our drivers (Dianne) in Savannah, GA waiting for a load to be unloaded. It took until 8:00 Monday night before Dianne was able to get the truck to Ronnie so he could head out on the nearly five hundred mile trek to get us. He drove through the night and finally got to us Tuesday morning. We loaded the broken truck onto the empty trailer that we had been pulling and hooked it behind the other truck. Then the fun part came. I got to spend the rest of my birthday trip riding home in a two seater truck, perched on a lunch box cooler, sandwiched between two truck drivers. NOT. FUN. AT. ALL!!!

We finally got home sometime Tuesday evening and I was never before so happy to be there! Thanks to great parents and grandparents who took care of my kids while I was away for a full 24 hours longer than planned!

We ordered the part that we needed and it was to come in on Thursday morning. Wednesday, the truck the Dianne was driving broke down and had to be towed home. Luckily it was not too far from home and was a relatively easy fix. Maybe Joe fixed it too well, because her first day back in it she got a speeding ticket.

We had the opportunity to get a great load going back up north with a back haul, (lots of money) but we HAD to load Thursday evening or we would miss our deadline. Since our part was supposed to be in Thursday morning, we figured it would be no problem. Who would have guessed that in an entire truckload of parts being delivered Thursday morning, our part would have been the only one mistakenly left on the loading dock and not put on the truck? Ugh. We had to forfeit the great load and have a truck drive from Atlanta to bring us the part Friday morning.

I went to town Friday morning to do my usual banking and errands. I have to pick up our paychecks from the different suppliers that we haul from. When I went to the Pole Yard to get our check, it was not in the box where it usually is. The office was locked up, but I peeked in the window and saw our check sitting on the desk. Of course, the one check that the secretary had forgotten to put in the box was ours.

The boys and I finished all of the errands that we could complete and went to see how Joe was coming along getting the part on the truck. He got the truck running and things were starting to look up when Noah told me he was not feeling well. He had a temperature over 102 and said his throat was hurting. When I looked in I saw white puss oozing from both side of his throat. YUCK!!! It freaked me out, so I paged the Dr. who called in a prescription. Micah is going for his 15 month checkup on Monday, so I will take Noah in then as well. I started him on the antibiotic last night, and I am hoping he will feel better soon.

The trucks are all running and are getting loaded this morning. Hopefully the dark cloud is departing. We sure are ready for some bright cheerful days around here.

A Chicken Update

I am sure you remember my chicken story. There has been a twist. Something ATE all thirteen babies. I am thinking we have another snake. Ugh. As much as I dislike chickens, I think that I dislike snakes even more.
Stay tuned for more info...