Boating Before the DH Flood

Sunday, Doreen and some of her classmates got together for one final day of fun before the crazyness starts. They still had a week left before some preliminary meetings and then the start of the madness that is the 2nd year of Dental Hygiene school.







One of the things they did was to pull a tube behind the boat and they all took a turn - looks like she's having a bunch of fun!

(BTW - Thanks L & S for watching the girls - it's nice she could have a bit of free time to relax before heading back to classes.!)

2 Computer Problems

Sunday, between returning from a Knoxville, TN trip at 7:30a and leaving on a Saginaw, MI run at noon, I stopped at the computer for a second to check e-mail and transfer the old trip off my GPS and put on the new one.

While I was transferring, I tried logging on to the www. No luck - so I tried looking around to see what the problem was. Found it. Computer problem #1 - equipment error. Our cable modem was dead.

So I called our provider and they couldn't do anything until Monday, and we'd just need to bring the old, dead one in and they'd swap it out for a new, working one.

Ok - a project for Doreen since I was going to be in central MI.

Computer problem #2 - Operator error. While I was on the phone, I was transferring and hit the wrong button. Oh My Goodness. I accidentally deleted the file, which I did not have backed up, with ALL the drops, pick-ups and fuel stops I'd been to in the last two years. Over 470 waypoints deleted - forever.

AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

I absolutely HATE it when I do that. So I've started a new one for all the drops I go to now. Which I now am backing up regularly.

Oh well.

On a little side note, Doreen picked up the new modem, got it all hooked up, called and got an idiot customer service rep who asked a BUNCH of nonsense questions - totally unrelated to what she needed to do.

So Doreen called me to get the info, she called our ISP back and got a different CSR who asked one or two questions, then got us connected.

I'm so proud of my girl for gettin' that done all by herself!

Now - for NO more computer problems for a while would be great! :)

Expectations? (joke)

Two girlfriends are on vacation when they see a five-story store advertising men for sale. They go in and see a first-floor sign that reads "All the men on this floor are short and ugly."

The women decide to take the elevator to the next floor. There the sign reads, "All the men here are short and handsome."

This isn't good enough, so the women continue up. On the third floor the sign reads, "All the men here are tall and ugly."

The women want to do better so they keep going. On the fourth floor the sign reads, "All the men here are tall and handsome."

The women get excited but decide to see what's on the fifth floor. There they find a sign that reads, "No men here. This floor was built to prove there's no way to please a woman."

________

--Um hummmm! :)

Summer Sendoff Part 2008

Friday was our official Summer Sendoff Celebration. We started a tradition last year, that the last Friday before school starts, we hit an ice-cream joint.









Well, this year we added a bit more, a stop to Chuck E Cheese. We also added some extra celebrationers, my-inlaws. Here's Joelle hugging that big 'ole rodent! :)


















I was suprised that Natalie was actually willing to give Chuck 'E Cheese a hug. She'd never, to the best of my recollection, never been willing to give him a hug before. It was truly precious!














Here's the 4 of us in front of the mechanical Chuckie.












Natalie's trying to 'Whack a Mole' and wacking them for all she was worth!











Joelle's feeding tickets to the "Muncher" to count the number of tickes we won.

















Then this year, for our Summer Sendoff Ice-cream, we went to a Marble Slab Cremery. YUMMY!

As we take a sec to look back, man was it a good summer. Seemed to short, but I guess that's all perspective!

Now, tomorrow, 'Back to school!'

15 Anniversary Celebration - Finally

19 Days late, Doreen and I were finally able to properly celebrate our 15th anniversary! We 'bartered' some babysitting time with some friends, thank y'all, and took off for Thur and part of Fri.

Thursday, we got up and ate with the kiddos, then dropped them off, hopped in the truck and took off for downtown Chattanooga.

There we jumped on our bikes for a nice ride. The day way cool but sunny in the morning as we rode the trail along the Chattanooga River Park. Man was it beautiful.
At one point we saw a turtle with a shell the size of a hubcap sunning himself on a log. He dove into the water as I neared to snap a pic. It was a fun ride, where we traveled over 14 miles. (Boy where our tushies starting to get sore!)

After the bike ride, we returned back to the pick-up, parked our bikes and hopped on the paddleboat, the Southern Belle, for a sandwhich lunch buffet and 1 1/2 tour up the Tennessee river. What an awesome trip was. The food wasn't too bad either!

When we returned from that trip, we got back on our bikes and rode over the walking bridge and checked out a couple ecclectic shops, just for the fun of it. We did a bit more riding, then headed back.

We loaded up the bikes and hit our downtown hotel, thankfully the room was ready, because it had started to rain and was keeping up a steady pace.

Inside we played a few games of Set (Doreen beat me on all three) - then took short nap. When the alarm rang, we got up and headed out for a Mexican restaurant. After asking for directions, we found this place. Man was it the best food!

Back downtown for a leisurly stroll around some new construction, then back to the walking bridge to watch 3 yachts dock. That was interesting!

Then back down the hill to the Bijou 7 theater to watch "Batman - The Dark Knight." Great movie, a bit long and extremely dark. Pretty good though.

Friday, we got up and ate breakfast, then back to the room for more of the game Set, of the three we played I only won 1. Oh well!

After 10a we arrived at the TN Aquarium to enjoy the sites w/o having to keep track of the kids every 5 secs. The penguins were hilarious. One was swiiming back af fourth so fast while jumping out of the water! Too good!

After that we went to the Northgate mall to wander a bit - then over to Chuck E Cheese to meet up with our girls and my in-laws for a summer sendoff celebration!

What an awesome day!!!

Happy Birthday - Twice!

Just wanted to take a moment and wish my twin sisters, Cindi and Staci and very happy birthday today. They're another year older! Course - they're still my sisters and I love them very much!















I just wish they'd quit having birthdays and forcing me to move forward and have another birthday! :) HE, he, he!

In pic #1 - My sisters are 6 months old. (Staci L and Cindi R)

In Pic #2 - My sisters and I right after they got home from the hospital. (I was 3 then!)

Happy Birthday sisters!!!

Island Hopping

Bet you didn't know we could do 'island' hopping here in Tennessee, did ya?! :) Well we can. Recently we climbed aboard this ferry called the 'Fat Cat' on the Tennessee River and went out to an 18 acre island.








It was a fun little ride. It took less than 5 minutes to get from the dock to the island, but all the while a new experience for Joelle and Natalie.















Joelle was poking her head out this porthole.


















Natalie wanted to practically hang completely out it! :)
















This island is protected by the Audubon Society and it has lots of birds on it. It has 1.5 miles of hiking trails and a campground, canoe racks and a campfire pit. It also has 4 geocaches. Of which we only had time to find two. (The boat comes round every 45 min and we needed to be on the next one!) It truly is a beautiful location though.











Thought my in-laws would appreciate this photo. They just celebrated their 40th anniversary and their kids planned an outing for them, including a nite in this Inn. Now they can see it from the North side.













Their were probably less than 10 other people on the island while we were on it. With all the growth and foliage and sounds, it felt as though we were explorers finding someplace brand new. It was awesome!








Also a plus was the ride on the ferry back to the dock, we circled all the way around the island, so we could see from the water side, where we hiked too all the way to the other end of the island. What a fun day!

New Toy - Underwater Camera Bag

Next month, if all things work out, I'll be going on a day kayak trip with a men's ministry group. I wanted to take the camera and keep it protected, so I ponied up for an underwater camera bag. One day this week we went swimming and I wanted to test it out. Here's Joelle waving at ya underwater.





Natalie smiling - underwater style! It worked great in the fact that it kept our camera completely dry! Yes. However...










...sometimes the screen was hard to see - so you'd just be pointing at where you thought you wanted to shoot and snap a pic - sometimes they didn't come out as well as planned! :)









Got the girls diving off the diving board, of which they both do so well.












In fact, we just went swimming today with some friends of the girls and both my kiddos swam better than their older counter-parts. I'm so extremely proud of them!!!

The Passing of a Generation

Time constantly moves on and waits for no man!

Yesterday on the way home from a trip to Michigan, I was asleep in the bunk of a truck. I'd driven all night then worked the better part of the day - so I was bushed. Dad called about 6ish with the news that my Great Uncle Walt had passed away that morning. I got the basics, then went back to sleep. Later, when it was my turn to drive, I called him back and now that I was awake got the details. It is sad to lose family members!

I remember Uncle Walt being a HUGE fan of Major League Baseball. He was at one time a Pastor and at another time a denominal officer, but I remember going visiting one time, he and I just sitting and watching a game. Nice! Uncle Walt married my Grandma's youngest sister (On my dad's side).

Later, after talking with Dad, I talked with Doreen on the phone for a bit. It was late enough, I put my phone away, not expecting any more calls. How wrong I was.

At 1:30am my phone rang. I was heading south on I-75 at 72 miles per hour, only 30 minutes from the yard. That phone ringing was the last thing I expected and scared me silly.

So I answer it and once again, it's my father. Unfortunatly he had more bad news. My Great Uncle Dave passed away that afternoon. He had a stroke a couple of weeks ago, and just never really bounced back from it and went to rest.

I remember visiting Uncle Dave when he was the caretaker of a camp. He had this home-made potato gun, cannon was more like it, that would shoot tennis balls forever away. On one visit we stood in this huge field and just let those fuzzy green balls fly! What fun that was. Uncle Dave was my Grandfather's brother. (Also on my Dad's side.)

It is so sad to see quality people like this passing. They still have so much to give and share, but because time is so relentless, we have to lay them to rest.

All that is left of that generation on my dad's side of the family now is Aunt Grace & Aunt Lillian. Still got quite a few of that generation left on my mom's side, but time marches on.

It was quite the shock, the news of two of my family passings, within hours of each other. Wow.

So, good-bye Uncle Walt and Uncle Dave - we have fond memories of each of you and you both will be sorely missed! Until Heaven when we all will have a wonderful family reunion, in young bodies, rest well!

When Will I Die???

How will you die? Natural causes You seem to be in no danger, and should live to a ripe old age. Go you. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

Blueberries 2008

So after waiting for more than a month, we were able to go blueberry picking today! Yippeeee!












We picked some blueberries...

















...ok we picked lots of them - about two gallons worth.
















Of course we ate some!






















Here we are all proud of the job we'd done!


















Then we cleaned them, dried them off and bagged 10 quarts to freeze and left out another two quarts for eating this week! Yummy

Tax Free

This year Tennessee set aside this weekend as a 'Tax Free' weekend on all school clothing and supplies.

We originally went to shopping for all the kids stuff yesterday, (Thur July 31) but we saw a sign announcing the Tax Free Day - and decided to hold off.

The only thing was we already picked out the new shoes for the girls - on clearance, so what to do with them so we could get them today? Humm!

We did our own version of layaway - I took the shoes and closed the boxes and stood them on end behind the stacks of boxes on the lowest shelf. They couldn't be seen. Sure enough - first thig this morning, we found them just where we left them.

So we ended up going to 2 different stores to acquire all we needed for J&N to start school a week from Monday. My how this summer has blown by!!!

Needless to say we were extremely happy about not paying any tax on the items we purchased today. We saved enough for 3 more pairs of pants for the girls!

Here's one dad who's very thankfully!!!

My Girls - CD Players OR Firehats

A new thing has begun in our house. My father-in-law had a couple sets of ear-buds laying around he wasn't using. The girls found them and were given them. Well - now they've been listening to music. Each of them have a CD player in their rooms for a Your Story Hour every night, and now they've got a music CD in them listening around the house. I guess an Ipod will be the next step for them. It is extremely cute! 'Cept I sound like my folks - "Turn that down! If I can hear it, it's too loud!" Waaa ha, ha, ha, ha!

By the way, each of them are listening to classical music!


Today we tried a new restaurant, Firehouse Subs. It's very cool with all the 'firehouse' decorations. The sandwiches were OK. It was good to try it once!

But we got the girls 'kids meals' and they were each given a firehat. PRECIOUS! :)

Natalie - Hair OR Bubble

Natalie wanted her hair cut before school. So we took her yesterday. The great thing was that we didn't have to say a thing. Natalie told the stylist exactly what she wanted. It was so cute. The smile on her face as the lady was cutting her hair was priceless!






Here is Natalie's post on her first bubble with bubble gum. It was so funny watching her try to begin with. The gum came out a couple of times, but finally - success!!!

Wack a Toe OR Bang Your Head

Joelle and I have had quite the week! Painful to say the least!

Monday, I was wandering around the house barefoot. I had to go into the restroom before going shopping and as I turned the corner I wacked the pinky toe on my left foot on the door. OH that hurt! That REALLY HURT! I can't believe how black and blue it got! To run my Tuesday trip I had to keep 'Adviled' up so it wouldn't hurt in my work shoe.

Thankfully - it's feeling better now!

Moral of the story: watch out for doors! :)



Then, yesterday on my trip I was talking with Doreen on the phone. She tole me this story. Joelle had gone potty and was in the process of bending over to re-clothe herself when she smacked her head on the corner of the sink. OUCH!

I guess she started crying and Doreen went to get some ice to put on her head. Natalie was two steps ahead of her in getting the ice for her sister. Isn't that sweet??!!!









For the next little while - Natalie was a little nurse to her wounded sister! Aaawwwww!!!


Moral of the story: watch out for sink corners.


Moral of both stories: Inanimante things in a house don't move - so be aware they are always there and just keep toes and foreheads away from them! :)

Chattanooga Nature Center & Coolidge Park Fountain

One day this week, Doreen and the kids went with some friends to the Chattanooga Nature Center to see a 'Creepy Crawly' exibition and walk around in nature.









They saw some really cool creatures. Natalie kept occupied by taking pictures and Joelle was enraptured by all the critters. Doreen said they had a ball.










After the CNC, everyone loaded up and drove over to Coolidge Park to eat lunch there and play in the fountain.
















I just noticed, my Joelle's a little monkey - both the pics of her I chose for this post have her in trees - literally! :)

Election Feelings...

...Yup, this pretty much sums up how I feel about this election!

Burning Little Questions about Life

Just got this from a friend and thought I'd share them with you. These things crack me up!!!

Enjoy!

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Can you cry under water?

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How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

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Why do you have to "put your two cents in"... but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to?

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Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?

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Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

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What disease did cured ham actually have?

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How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

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Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?

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If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

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Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?

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Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

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Why do doctors leave the room while you change?
They're going to see you naked anyway.

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Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural?

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Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

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If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him?

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Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane ?

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If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?

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Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours?
They're both dogs!

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If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn't he just buy dinner?

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If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

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If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

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Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

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Why did you just try singing the two songs above?

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Why do they call it an asteroid when it's outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it's in your butt?

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Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Answered Prayer OR Permant Co-Driver

I'm 3 months away from my 3 year anniversary at the Bakery. I still completely enjoy my job.

Unfortunatly I am still a floater. Some guys get picked up by a partner in a few weeks, some a month or two or more.

For some reason, I haven't gotten 'hooked-up' with anyone. I've got about 6 or 7 guys who already have partners, who want to run with me when their partner is our or on vacation. That's kinda nice - but it's not the same.

Well, a week ago, a guy called me, when I was on a trip, and asked me to run with him. YES!

Last night, when I went in for my trip, I signed on the dotted line. I'm officially partnered up. Starting Aug 16 I'll have a permanent partner, then two weeeks after that we'll get a regular trip.

What a cool answer to prayer!

WOW - I'll have a regular schedule. What will I do?

I'll have an awesome time!

SWEET!