Quote - So fitting!

"Today you are you

That is truer than True

There is no one alive

Who is youer than YOU!"

-Dr. Seuss

Quote challenge for Brandy

Brandy thinks she funny making these little challenges! I kind of enjoy it myself! We get a newsletter type fax every morning from our insurance agent and this was the one for today. I liked it.

"He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much." -Anonymous

PF recap

We had so much fun at Pigeon Forge this past weekend. Mimi and Pappy had been there for over a week. LeeAnn, Buzzy, and I went on Thursday when she was done as work. Grant and Steve came down after the race on Friday night. They didn't get to the room until about 3:00am central time on Saturday morning. LeeAnn and I shopped our little feet off and Buzzy played every putt-putt golf he could get us to play. This picture is from our last round. He got to ride a train to the first hole. He was so excited that he got to ride a roller coaster AND play golf! He just could not believe how lucky he was!

Of course, what would a trip to the mountains be without a trip to the scrapbook store? Mimi has finally decided to give it a try, so I hooked her up with some basic supplies, and as you can see, she was ECSTATIC! Buzzy was too! Such smarty's! She'll see how fun it is, if she'll EVER give it a try!

We were traveling with a pair of Harley-Davidson people, so when LeeAnn went to get their shirts at the HD store, I got us some too. Mine was a special one. It was a regular t-shirt with sewn in panty hose type sleeves. The sleeves were colored up like tattooes and they look real! Dad did a double take and informed me that it was nasty and Buzzy wanted to know how I got them on there. Steve and Grant walked back behind me when we walked the street that night and were almost crying at how funny people reacted to the tattooed girl! They heard a lot of - Did you see that, oh my gosh, i've seen it all - you know, expressions like that! I was pushing Buzzy in his stroller, and he got quite a few sympathetic looks. Poor kid - look at his momma and his name is Buzzy!! Behind my ears hurt when we got to the room from laughing so hard. The shirt was worth every overpriced penny! Dad's reaction alone made it worth the money!

I cannot believe that he is old enough to drive a go-cart by himself. Can't talk about it anymore. I'll tear up.

We got to visit with Uncle Mikey, Sandye and Jana. Buzzy sure likes that Uncle Mikey! I wish he could have seen Buzzy in that go-cart. I know he would have been beaming with pride! Pappy would have too, especially when he passed the 29!!

Weekend Recap

I have SOOOOOO many pictures to share and a challenge from my friend Brandy. I will be working on it all this afternoon! Be patient! I have work stuff to do and I have to go get Buzzard from school, but I am going to get back into the swing of blogging, I promise!

What was I thinking?

Old hair












New Hair - not fixed













New Hair - fixed **Reminds me of the flying nun!!**

Oh, Hoppy Day!

Just call us the Dolittle family! We have another member in the family now. This is Thumper. He is a lionhead bunny and such a sweet little feller! We got him Friday night. Buzzy told me on Thursday that he wanted a bunny. I told him that he would have to talk to Papa Steve about that when he saw him on Friday. So he did and Papa Steve sent Buzzy, Ninnie, Grandmutter and me to the pet store to get a bunny. He bought the bunny and momma got the cage! Poor thing had to hang out in the back of the truck until the race was over and I'm sure that was quite a shock to the little critter!




Yesterday, Buzzy and I had to go and find some different bedding for him. His fur is so long and soft and the stuff I use for the hamster was just matting up in his fur and I could not stand that. While we were out, Buzzy found a bunny leash and just HAD to have it! When we put it on him, he freezes! Take it off and he likes to explore the surroundings! Sissy - the spoiled cat - HATES him! She acts like a spoiled little kid! I must say that I think the bunny is better for Buzzy than the hamster. He is afraid the hamster will bite him, but this bunny is so laid back and friendly, he's not scared of it at all. He just doesn't want to hold him yet. Stevie - on the other hand - says he's "allergic." It's funny how he's "allergic" to any pet he doesn't want to mess with!

First Day of Pre-School

He loves pre-school! This was when I let him out on Wednesday.

This was the "bye momma" wave. He's getting to be too big!

This was when I picked him up. Look at the confindence!! He is walking with his teacher Mrs. Sabrina and that's Mrs. Pam in the background. He was so excited and told me all about going outside and the new friend that he made. Wednesday was our day to take snacks and he was so excited that they had snacktime with his snacks.

Pre-School Orientation

Not much excitement for the orientation. The teacher went over the parent handbook and as she did so, Buzzy tapped my arm and whispered "This is boring." I'm afraid that is going to be the opinion of pre-school. I hope not, but he's more into building and engineering than academics! Takes after his momma and daddy! Maybe tomorrow will be more eventful!

For My Corny Friends

This is what remains of my first garden. Since I was "tagged" with the corn bug, here it is you corny girls!

This is proof that I did grow corn!

John Deere Green

"The orange tastes like oranges, the red tastes like watermelon, and the green tastes like.......John Deere!!!!"

CKUh-oh

Went to CKU (Creating Keepsakes University) this weekend. That's a scrapbook get-together. Had a GREAT time. It was held at Opryland Hotel and Mimi and Buzzy went with me. They left early on Saturday and I rode home with K and her mom and aunt. We took five scrapbook classes that day and got a bunch of stuff done, got a LOT of free stuff, and had a really good time. That is until...

I decided to do a "stupid human trick." You know how it is. Your friend dares you to do something and you just have to do it because, well, they said you wouldn't. Yes, I am 27, closely approaching 28, years old. Yes, I would preach to my own son not to do it. And, yes, I now realize what a STUPID idea it was. But like I said, I was dared, it had to be done.

K, Carol, Susie and I were having an ice cream break in the Delta area of Opryland. When we were finished we were headed back to the convention area and I acted like I was going to go up the down escalator. K said "You won't do it." But, yeah, I did. And after I made it to the TOP!!! I lost a step somewhere and, well, I now look like this.








Those little spots in the center of the bruise are from the little teethy things that interlock when the steps flatten out. I also got my ankle and my wrist. They just don't look quite as bad. Let's just say, I don't think I'll be trying to run up the downward moving escalator again. EVER!!!!




On a happier note, got my koi. They are so cool, just won't come to the surface. They like chilling around the filter and bothering me, because I want them to come to the surface. I am being impatient, as usual, and I know they have to get acclimated, but still, they need to get on with it!! This is five of the six of them. Haven't named all of them. I do have a Pearl. You guessed it! It's the white shiny one! How original, huh?

Redneck Swimming pool #2

My husband is brilliant. From time to time he has to remind me what brilliance he posseses. (Ok when you get done throwing up, you can continue here.)What I mean by brilliant is...he's brilliantly HANDY. I, like most women, always have a long list of of honey-do jobs for him that hardly ever get noticed! But....he told me that if I wanted a fish pond, that he would dig it for me when he rented the machinery to dig stuff at the mill. So, he held true to his word and we now have a fish pond!


I was only posing in the picture. I stood there smiling and asked Mimi if she was done yet, dropped the shovel and sat down to watch! I placed all of the rocks around the outer edges of the pool though. Steve is responsible for the rock work around the waterfall. It was a little more difficult for a simple mind like mine!
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTC21OsfQGPwVe0GHHngkiGIefSAgL8wGuI98Br4baNaBG9G9f4N5AruuG33p0UgpjlpTaPqc8SelZeCMdCcV0jVsgcDV1GkCB1TpbgqAnkmvNo9OhNwFn2mHpme9-4qwHJ-bw2Q/s1600-h/DSC03716.JPG">

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMW8QdGnGAwArai78wzXBzAiez0zGQc72zeURclbrF9Yc3o5WmSPJfS4JlGMFNKuxaLTF7QyUwYyEMlYcbjjht6zOgj0JgBo0cBcqlwRxLSSDIb1DwfyKva_SefdnZH9_5uLMnKQ/s1600-h/DSC03760.JPG">
We are still working on it. Have a little more rock work to do. Then it will be all done. Can you find the froggy in the last picture?




I don't know why, but there is some sort of greek showing up in my post. I have tried to get it off, but I'm making a mess, so it's staying for now!

Watermelon delivery

Papaw brought Buzzy a watermelon today. Papaw and his BFF Jr. had been out doing their thing and ran into some watermelons. Papaw's poor little car was probably having a hard time carrying all of the watermelons in the trunk! Buzzy was so excited and was going to carry the melon by himself, but then he decided that Papaw needed to carry it. K came over and he had to show it to her. It was in the fridge and he told her to "look at this baby!"

Kara asked him what he did today. He answered " oh nothing, just me and my Mimi hangin out!" He comes up with the darndest things! Kiddos are so fun!

Weekend highlights

Racing on Friday night again. Steve's car wasn't too great, but he drove good. He will be working on it this week for sure! Steve has quite a fan club. Every race brings a different group of friends or family. His mom, dad, and brother, Ryan came this Friday. Buzzy hasn't seen his Uncle Ryan since Christmas and he LOVES his Uncle Ryan! I think Ryan would have a sidekick if we lived closer together! Steve always had fun with his Uncle Mikey and I know that Ryan would be just like that to Buzzy! An ali and someone to help get you in trouble!!












I just like this picture of Steve. No story, just like it!


















Buzzy has to have someone hold his ears everytime the car starts. They are loud, but he has always been funny about his ears and loud noises. He's getting better. After the car is started, he's cool. He just don't like that shocking sound of that engine!














Steve, Buzzy and I went on a date Saturday night. We went to Red Lobster and to the mall in Bowling Green. I think we should just move there, since we spend so much time there anyway! We went to Fishy Business to get fishies for the tank. We got two+a baby one that snuck in. As soon as we released them, Buzzy has them named! The baby that stays under the decor is "Hidey", then there is "Black spot tail" and get this, "Pipe Smeller" He came up with those all by himself! Me and Steve cracked up over the Pipe Smeller! When we let it out of the bag, it went over to the filter and stayed and that's how it got the name "Pipe Smeller." The end!

That black spot between the marbles is Hidey!

Can you figure out which is which?

Spare time...finally!

I am so glad to say that I have gotten my house to a clean point that I don't feel guilty for scrapbooking! I have wanted to scrapbook so bad since I got all of my stuff together for the failed retreat, but my house has been in such a mess that I just would not let myself scrapbook until I got my house to a point that I wouldn't be embarressed if unannounced company were to show up! (The flower beds don't count because it's too hot to breath outside, but as soon as it cools a smidget, the guilt will start again.) I cleaned on Buzzy's room all day Monday. I mean ALL day. Started after lunch and K helped me finish up after we all went to eat supper that night. I didn't just hide stuff in the closet and under his bed. The closet got cleaned, K and I pulled his bed out and vacuumed under it and I washed his quilt. I mean it is CLEAN! And it's Friday and it still looks good. That's like a record! I got my bathroom painted before we went to the mountains, my upstairs is still clean and my house looks GOOD, for me, that is!

I did two pages last night. I was So darn excited! I just had to put them on here! I am almost a year behind on his album, but hey, two down, 5000 to go!

Luau

Pappy, Mimi and Buzzy went to the Luau at church last weekend. They had a whole bunch of fun. Pappy got to play some kind of game. He had on a bikini top, huge mens swimming shorts, a straw hat, and I think flippers. When the bigguns got done with their game, the littluns played the same. Pappy helped with them, and from what I hear, he put on quite the show!! Buzzy had on all the same stuff plus goggles and some other things, i think. If anybody has pictures (Mary Ann) let me know. I would love to get copies of my guys!

Bathing Beauties

I took Buzzy and Chandler to the Greevville pool on Monday. Buzzy had his little heart set on swimming lessons, but we waited too late in the summer to try to sign up. We went to the park first and had a picnic. We had ham sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies. Chandler is Buzzy's favorite friend. He loves her! He was so excited when I told him that she was going to go swimming with us!







They played in the big pool most of the time, but I was always with them, so the only good pictures I got of them was when they were in the kiddie pool! They had shark fights and for some reason, those sharks kept getting after my toes!! The pool had a ten minute pool check, 10 minutes before each hour. We used that ten minutes to go get hot at the park, have a cookie break, and then head back to the pool. Chandler had Buzzy floating out away from the ladder and she even talked him into taking his life jacket off! I was so proud. I think she should be a swimming instructor at the age of 6!! I think he really needed a friend around his age to help with the water confidence. He was doing so good by the time we left. He got whiney - the HUGE difference between the 4 and 6 year olds - but promised that he wasn't tired, but......

this was the look before we even got to Chandler's house!! He was beat. She thought it was funny when I reminded her that he wasn't sleepy!! It was such a fun day! I only wish that we had started it sooner. She starts school on Thursday. Buzzy won't have a swimming friend, just Momma. I hope I will do!

Back from the Mountains

We are back from the mountains. We had such a good time and this is the first time, that I can recall, that if Steve didn't have things to do, we all would have wanted to stay longer. The weather was nice. It rained off and on, but it wasn't too hot and our room rocked!!!!! I told Steve I wanted to buy a retirement home there....now!!!

Buzzy was out of control excited. Poor Austin! He's the "big" guy that Buzzy loves, wants to do EVERYTHING with, wants his entire attention, all the time!! I think Austin was thrilled when him and his parents went to do their own thing!!




We played miniature golf EVERYDAY!! We played Hillbilly Golf, Fantasy Golf and Davy Crockett twice. We visited the Nascar speedpark on our way out and found out quickly that we should have went there before we were headed home. There was so much to do and not enough time to do it in!


Buzzy found the #24 parking spot and had to have his picture taken with it! Anytime he sees a Jeff Gordon anything or a "Dearnhardt" anything he squeals for us to look. He gets so darn excited. If he sees a 24 ANYWHERE, he tells us. A price tag, a sign, a billboard...anything! He is so excited about numbers right now and it's so cool! He wants to change stevie's 28 to a 24!




He wanted to do the trampoline thingy at the go cart track. We could not believe it! He never wants to do anything like that, so we figured he would back out before he did it, but no. The girl had him doing front and back flips! He loved it and cracked up the whole time!!

It took us forever to get home. We got stuck in a wreck on I40 and had to take the backroads to I65. Had to stop by the race track in BG to get tires and then onto Russellville for race car parts. I won't be seeing Stevie much between now and Friday. Got to get that car ready.

For those that don't know, he did AWESOME last Friday. Qualified 6th. The field was inverted 6 deep, so he started on the pole. Had about a 4 or 5 car lenghth lead until first caution. On the restart, fell back to about 5 or 6. Made his way back to 2nd with 3 laps to go and was wrecked going across the finish line. Ended up finishing 4th. It was so great and my video ran out with three laps to go. The most exciting of the ENTIRE race. Story of my life!

Let's Just say.....Disaster

After a late start - thanks to me-, a traffic jam, and a shady host at the barn, Kara, Carol, Susie, Diane, and I (and the other 5 women that we didn't know)had a disastrous Scrapbook Retreat. That's not mentioning the building inspector or deputy that came and condemned the building about 30 minutes after we arrived. We weren't complaining! They were definately guardian angels sent to protect us! Driving back home didn't bother me. If we hadn't been so far, I would have went home anyway. We had driven about 3 1/2 or 4 hours. There was a group of 3 that had driven 3 hours, and the other two were from Indianapolis. They said it was about 45 minutes.


Anyway...when we arrived, the man was in a great hurry to get us unloaded and our cars moved. He was taking the cars and parking them at a different location. Of course I had to be hard to get along with, as usual. I told him that I wanted my truck where I could get to my phone charger, which was the truth. THat's the only charger I have for my phone. He was insistent that I keep my truck on the little road directly behind the barn. Of course I didn't listen and I parked beside it. When I came up the porch on the back, through the garbage, to the front door, that was locked, I just felt a little uneasy. I went upstairs to Kara and told her that something wasn't right. We talked a little and she went downstairs to wash her hands and came right back up. She had a funny look on her face and informed me that the police were downstairs.


In just a few minutes, the door opened and in came the deputy, building inspector, and another lady from the county planning something or other. THey informed us that the building was not safe and that we needed to get loaded and out ASAP. I was wanting to dance and sing! Come to find out, this dude's barn had been condemned before and he had opened it back up, without permission, one other time before. He was in deep poopy! He had hid his red paper that said the building was condemned, but he had hung up another red paper saying that the retreat had been moved. We left and went the wrong way, but when we drove back by, they had strung the yellow, Do Not Cross, tape around the front of the building. They told us that the man and his wife had divorced and she was the one that started the retreat. He has it now and he was running it in the ground. That said he was a shady character and if he tried to contact any of us, to have NOTHING to do with him. Is that a guardian angel or what???

I ended up going to Bowling Green and got to the track just a few laps before Stevie went onto the track. Barely made it, but I was sooooo glad to see my boys! We went to the park on Saturday and it was soooo HOT. Buzzy still isn't 100% from his mono. We rested on Sunday. We all needed it. Today is Aunty K's birthday!!! She's FINALLY 27! Old fart!

What did you do on the 4th?

We went to Heavy & Regina's . I'm not sure who Steve went to play with. He played video games with Austin and had water wars with Austin, so I think he went to play with Austin!! It was just a small get together-us, them and the Clardy's. They have a son named Thad and they call him Thad. Buzzy was amazed. He told them that he is Buzzy, but his name is Steven Thad too!

Steve dunked Buzzy as soon as he got in the pool, so he was done playing with Daddy for the Day. He stood on the side and watched the water wars. He liked playing on the ladder and squirtting from the side of the pool. He would swim with me, but he would panick from time to time and have to get back out. By the end of the day, he was sitting on the ladder all by himself. He will get better. He just does not like getting his head wet!!

Firework time brought the silliness out in Stevie. He had to model Austin's hat and sunglasses. We went up to the hill on the other side of the lake. My cousin Carla had invited several of her friends and with our group of heathens, we had quite a crowd! Carla had a campfire and food and sparklers, and glow sticks and the little ones had a blast playing. We felt like we kind of crashed their party, but we tried to stay to ourselves! We had a great view of the fireworks and they were far enough away that the boom wasn't too bad on the ears.

Buzzy is still amazed with fireworks - that is as long as they aren't too loud! He was all about some sparklers. After the "real" fireworks, we all went back to the house for our fireworks. Buzzy was running a little fever and had a runny nose, so he watched about half of the show and decided to retire to SpongeBob. He and Mimi called it a night and headed for the couch! He had some Tylenol and went to bed. Feeling a little grouchy this morning, but he may be hungover from all the excitement from yesterday!
This is the group picture of the male heathens. The women were safe in the back of Tommy's truck. The men headed to the "front row" of the clearing for the firework display. That is (from the left) Austin, Buzzy, Stevie, Heavy, Pap, Grant, and Tommy. The women are in the truck straight behind. What a group and what a time had!!