Flash Back Friday Returns....With a new twist.

I haven't done a Flashback Friday in a long time. The reason behind that being: no one has given me any dates to flashback to. So.....I decided to revamp the idea. I've noticed a lot of bloggers have Photo Friday. I didn't want to really copy that, but I'll take it a little further and combine the two.

I will now have Flashback Photo Friday. I promise, to the best of my ability, to have some sort of photo from the past to share with you on Fridays. If you want to participate in this with me, just leave me a comment about it. Here's the rules... You have to have a photo from the past. Can be your past, someone else's past, something you saw, something you think is intersting..etc. but it has to be from the past. Would be nice to have a paragraph to go with it, explaining what it is, or why it has meaning to you.

So...without further ado I give you my first FLASHBACK PHOTO:

This is me in New Orleans, with a beer and a whole big bucket of crawdaddies! Yes, I am in the French Quarter and this was just moments before those little mud bugs were thrown into a big pot of boiling water with some seasoning, corn, and potatoes....tossed onto a plate, and then eaten by ME! Yummy for the tummy!

This was March 2003, hanging out in the Big Easy before leaving on our marriage/honeymoon cruise.....

Oh here's me sucking some head.

Just Stuff...Again

Alright...so not feeling like I have much to say tonight. Brad has gone to Arkansas for his 20th class reunion. I stayed home because I have things to do to get ready for Bible School at church next week. That should be interesting, but I refuse to talk about it here on the grounds that I just don't want to talk about church stuffage here. So there...

Took the girls to Mc D's, known in our household as "Boys", to wear them out so they would go to bed tonight. It seemed to have worked well. They are both passed out cold upstairs and I'm having some nice quiet time. I don't know why they call Mc Donald's "Boys". That is what Kenzie has called it since she could talk....wierd I know. She also thinks Grimace is Henry the Octopus from "The Wiggles"....go figure...she's two.

In my quest to lost the hideous baby fat I put on since having two babies in less than a year...I joined Weight Watchers. This will be my second full week. I go for weigh in tomorrow. I did pretty well the first week and lost a whole pound and a half....I don't know about this week. I didn't do as well..... made cup cakes for the girls and ate one.... *big sigh here*.... sometimes you gotta go for the pink frosting.

I am diligently exercising every day during the week. Doing pretty well, and have a whole routine in the mornings now. I rotate between aerobic and a combo of aerobic/weights. I am determined to get back my pre baby figure!!

One week til we go to New York to see The Police at The Garden. I CAN NOT WAIT!!! This is the summer of concerts for us....here is our list for the summer..ending in September:

1. Rush - Pittsburgh

2. The Police - Cleveland

3. The Police - New York

4. Dave Matthews - Pittsburgh

5. The Wiggles - Colombus *I'm counting them for the girls*

6. Scorpions - somewhere close to Detroit

Pretty good summer...I tried to talk Brad into going to some more but he said no way..besides it's too hard to make sure we have a sitter each time... I can't wait til we can start taking the girls with us to some of these...besides "The Wiggles". Ha!

I don't think I've put up any pics from any of the concerts yet. I have one of Brad and I from the Rush show...I'll leave you with a couple of those.

Things to See in Ohio on Your Way to Scrapbook Camp

I know I put a lot of photos
on this blog, but I like photos. I like to have illustrations for what I'm talking about. And...sometimes, like this time, I like to talk about the photo's themselves.

These are the things I saw on my way to scrapbook camp a few weekends ago. I'm just now getting to
share them with you.

Yes, this is a dinosaur. A scary looking T-

rex type dinosaur. The ferocious looking bear is in the same yard. The teeth on both are HUGE and the expressions on their faces are meant to instill fear and terror into the hearts of any who gaze upon them. At least that's what I think.

There was also a tiger, but I couldn't get close enough to take a good picture of it. I don't know why these people have these creatures in their FRONT yard, perhaps they get a thrill out of scaring old people and children, but since I didn't know their motives, no tiger photo.

This is a very cool old flour mill that was in one of the little towns we drove through. There was also a cute bed n breakfast that I would love to go stay in someday. The whole town was set up for people to stroll around and check out the historical old type stuff. It looked interesting.

This was the restaraunt just outside the cute little old town. We didn't eat there.

These last two photos are of a dam. I don't know when it was built, but it was a beautiful work of engineering skill. It reminded me of some kind of gothic castle. I liked it, so I took a picture.

It also reminded me of how when I was a kid it was always cool to find some excuse to say a "curse" word without getting in trouble. As in: "Hey Mom, Look at that.......*pause for effect*.....DAM! *much giggling*" or how about this one: "Hey Mom, do you believe that if you are bad you will go to HELL?"

Those are my photos for today....I hope you enjoy them and my comments on them.

Spring .....

Today was absolutely beautiful. I think I am going to have to change my favorite season to Spring. I love the Fall, but since I have moved to Ohio I have learned to appreciate Spring so much more. In Arkansas you just don't have a true "Winter". It doesn't get too cold, and it hardly ever snows. You get some ice storms and an occasional snow..but nothing like up here.

Snow on the ground for weeks, temperatures in the single digits for weeks, and the grayness of it all.... I'd never experienced it before.

It was in the upper 60's today for the first time in months! I took the girls to the riverwalk and we strolled the path. They loved being outside again just as much a I did.

To help us all get in the mood for the season here's a little movie I put together today when I got home.

All the photos are taken by Brad and I, they are from our garden and barns in our county of Ohio. The music is Appalachian Spring...appropriately.

Enjoy!

"Build a Little Birdhouse in Your Soul"

Birdhouse In Your Soul
By They Might Be Giants
BestAudioCodes.com

Just when you think your day is the total pits God sends you a bluebird.... or four.







I didn't feel well last night, so I didn't sleep great. The girls were up unusually early today, so that means I was up early as well. I still didn't feel all that great, but I bravely set forth to meet the day.

Number one duty today: pay the bills. That in itself is enough to ruin a day, put on top of that, it is grey, rainy, cold, and bleh outside.

I was looking forward to my college roommate coming up this Sunday and spending about three days with me. We haven't seen each other since around 1996 or so, so this was going to be a big deal for us. PLUS it would be the first time my husband would be meeting any of my friends from my "past life". She had to cancel the last time she had planned on coming... so I was really excited that she was going to make it this time.

She called after lunch and told me she wasn't coming. She works at a hospital in Asheville and they called her in to work. The day was just getting blehier and blehier. The girls were supposed to be taking a nap...they were jumping up and down in their beds, turning the lights on and off, stripping down naked and throwing all the toys and their clothes out of their beds and onto the floor. I had to go up three or four times and try to get them to lay down. After dressing them again...It was just one of those times when I was thinking SHEESH can I just have one thing go right today!!

I was cleaning up lunch and looked out the kitchen window and there on the electrical wire were four bluebirds. They are the cutest little things! I had never seen a real blue bird until I moved up here to Ohio. Just icky old bluejays down south.

I get excited when I see a bluebird here because it's just so rare that it happens. Now here were 4 of them just about 30 feet away from my window. I attempted to get some pictures of them, but they are all pretty much blurred.


I took it as a little reminder from the man upstairs that my day is just as good as I make it. So quit being mopey, put a smile on my face and get over it. Sometimes I need a little smack over the head to remind me just how nice things really are.

Now I want to go out and buy some bird food and some of those cute little blue bird houses....






Here are my blurry pics. If you can't laugh at my horrible photography skills *or at least chuckle* then something surely is wrong with you!

The Deer Slayer

I don't write too much about my husband, Brad. For some unknown reason he doesn't like people "all up in his business". So, to honor his wishes I usually talk about myself and the girls and other things that interest me. Today is different. This post is all about the manly man I have married.

My man went out and got dinner for the family yesterday. He got up at the butt crack of dawn, dressed up in his camo duds, drove out to the farm, sat his ass in a tree in the cold and............shot his first deer. Or as he so quaintly phrases it:

He slew a deer.

That cracks me up...he didn't kill the deer or shoot the deer, he slayed the deer. Pictures of a deer/dragon keep popping up in my head. Too many fantasy novels and games of D & D in my youth I suppose.

Not only did he slay it, he dressed it as well. That in itself is a big deal for him...he is not so good around the site of blood, and the inside of a deer does not smell quite so nice as the outside (and the outside is not that pleasant to begin with).

So...in honor of his huge manly accomplishment (I am so proud of you Baby!) here is Brad with his first deer. I want you all to know that I am truly proud of him, none of this is meant as sarcasm at all. I love venison and can't wait to eat some!

These are for Velvet Girl....

Here are two photos I took today: The first is on the Canon Rebel: very expensive digital camera with all the doo dads and buttons and accessories (sp?). It is a picture of a picture of the girls with Santa. I know...I'm too lazy to try and go and scan it and deal with the freakos at Wally World.

This one is another beautiful sunset at the end of my street. The clouds were just so breathtaking on this day, I couldn't resist taking a shot. I took this one with my digital pocket size canon.

Sunset on my Street

A picture for your viewing pleasure. I took this last night at the end of my street. It was absolutely beautiful.

Monday Night Ain't Nobody Scoring Football

I'm sitting here watching Monday Night Football. This game is going NOWHERE! I can't believe it's 3-0. One good thing: I am kicking much ass in both my fantasy leagues. I am currently the high scorer this week in my "serious" league and second high score in my "funzie" league. I love when I win twice. I also got my new jersey today. Every year my husband and I have played we get the jersey of one of our players. I have L.T., Culpepper, *didn't get one last year for some reason*, and Chris Cooley this year. Chris is not my main man on my team but he's the first Redskin I have had on one of my teams and I have always been a Redskin fan. I got that from my dad. Anyway, I did the happy dance when we came home from eating out and the UPS box was leaning up against the door with my new jersey....my husband loves me. He thinks it's awesome that his wife loves football as much as he does.

We are doing better with the whole allergy thing. The cats are still outside and they hate it, but they are getting used to sleeping in the garage. We went and got a second opinion on the whole asthma thing. The second doc agreed with the first BUT she is open to more options in treatment and I like that. Instead of getting a nebulizer and a small fortune in drugs, we are trying Singulair..or however it's spelled. Zyrtec at night and we now carry the epipen with us wherever we go. It is scary to think that something your child might eat could potentially be fatal, but there are things that could be worse.

We had an really great weekend. Sunday there was a huge airshow at the airport where we have our plane. We went out to the hanger and set up the baby gate for the girls and pulled the plane out of the hanger for the show. Had some of our friends to come out and cooked out on the grill and hung out and watched the crazy pilots do their flips and turns and loop de loops. I don't know how they do it. I thought I might puke just watching them. It was a beautiful day, but kind of hot. The girls had a great time just playing. I think we are going to make it a yearly event.

Not much else going on around here...I might just have to write a story or something....

Oh and I signed up for Netflix tonight....

Here are two new pics of the girls: