Another Couple of Cute Carly Pictures

My Bathing Beauty

Aren't these adorable? She's our little cutie pie and we are so head over heals for her.

Darrell's Surgery Report

Well, my cousin Darrell's surgery went really well. They were able to do it with a laparoscope so that will make the recovery a little quicker. They believe it was kidney cancer but won't know for certain until the pathology comes back in a few weeks. They are hopeful they got it all. Thanks so much for all of your prayers. Please keep them coming. I appreciate all of you.

Largest Extreme Home Makeover Lost to Foreclosure

I just read this story and it is so frustrating. So many people gave so much to make a difference in these peoples lives only to have them misuse and then lose all that was given to them. How very sad.

Three years after more than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC's Extreme Makeover team demolish and replace a familiy's decrepit home and make it into a gorgeous mini mansion in Lake City, Georgia the family has lost it to forclosure.

The Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 and it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told a TV reporter they received the loan for a construction business that failed.

The house was built in 2005, after Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” demolished their old home and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the program had built.

The finished product was a four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage that towered over ranch and split-level homes in their neighborhood. The home’s door opened into a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office.

Materials and labor were donated for the home, which would have cost about $450,000 to build. Beazer Homes’ employees and company partners also raised $250,000 in contributions for the family, including scholarships for the couple’s three children and a home maintenance fund.

In a statement, ABC said it advises each family to consult a financial planner after they get their new home.

Some of the volunteers who helped build the home were less than thrilled about the family’s financial decisions.“It’s aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it,” Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt, who helped vault a massive beam into place in the Harper’s living room, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Prayer Request

My cousin Darrell is having surgery in the morning for kidney cancer. Luckily they found his cancer early. He was originally supposed to have this surgery in May but he had a stroke the day before the scheduled surgery. He has recovered from the stroke enough now to have this surgery. We just need every prayer on his behalf we can get. So if you find yourself reading this today, please say a prayer for Darrell. He's such a great guy and needs all the blessings he can get. Thanks so much. Blessings to you too.

My Cute Baby Girl

Carly had her second professional photo shoot today. It wasn't as impressive as her first one but I think we still got some cute photos from it. I'm really spoiled because one of my best friends is a brilliant photographer and really knows how to capture people in her photos. So I am very picky now about my pictures. I had a free sitting coupon for JC Penney Photo Studio plus a free 8x10 so I figured what the heck. Anyway, Carly was really good during the sitting. We get her photos back in a week. I can't wait to show you how cute she was. It's hard to take a bad picture of such an adorable child. NO, I AM NOT THE LEAST BIT PREJUDICED ABOUT MY DAUGHTER. Hee. Hee. Hee.

Neighboring

We had a nice evening at one of our neighbors homes tonight. They just invited neighbors over for dessert and we sat in their backyard and talked and enjoyed a nice evening together. The weather was great and it nice to just get to know people you live by better. We don't take the time to do that much these days. It was fun and low key.

Guess What I Did Today?

I ordered pictures. Yup, I did. Turns out I had taken over 500 pictures with my digital camera that I had never gotten made into pictures. Yikes! So, I have a whole bunch of pictures coming. I'm going to need a lot of albums. Holy cow. What have I done? Well, too late to ask questions now. I have pictures, pictures and more pictures coming. Yeah!

I Love Learning the Easy Way to Do Things

Thanks to those of you who gave me new hope for actually publishing my digital pictures. I'm going to try it! Here's to me having real photos in my albums soon. In the meantime, here are a couple of cute pictures taken while we were in Arizona. My mom found this cute place near where we stayed that was called the City of Bedrock or something like that. Anyway, it was a throwback to the Flintstones Era. We had to go and see. It was kind of fun!

My sister Sarah and her husband Rich pose as Fred and Wilma Flintstone.


My nephew Alex takes off and leaves my daughter Megan behind in jail.


Cousins riding the Bedrock train.


Mommy and Pebbles, er, Carly hanging out with Bam Bam.

Digital Photos-Aren't They Great!?

Arrrrgggghhh!! I do have to say I am much better at taking pictures now that I have a digital camera and I love that I can post pictures online and that I am totally capable of doing it myself. But just ask me if I have ever gotten even one picture made from a digital camera? The answer to that is a big, fat NOPE! Plus, it just seems like too much trouble. I mean I know I can just take the little doo-hickey and have them quickly run off but if I want nice pictures done I have to transfer the to some other doo-hickey or a CD or send them off to some online service and all that just seems so complicated! Someone help! I just want to hold my cute pictures in my hands or put thm in a scrapbook. Why does it have to be so complicated? Am I making it harder than it is? Ye-Gads. I must be doing something wrong. It just seems too darn hard!

Two Straight Days of Headache

make one big HURT! I really didn't do much at all yesterday or today because my head hurt so much. It's a little better now and hopefully will be even better tomorrow. I hate days like this when nothing seems to fix it. Thank goodness for Julie and Rob to help with Carly. She was really good anyway. She took a long nap when I was napping-so that helped, too. Here's to a better tomorrow!

If I'd Known You Were Coming . . .

Julie and I helped a friend of ours bake a birthday cake for a young woman he's been going out with. It was a double layer chocolate cake with homemade white creme filling and chocolate frosting. It actually looked pretty good when we were through with it. I wish I had taken a picture so I could show you. Anyway, we had fun doing it.

I can't believe we are most of the way through summer. I just got Julie registered for her classes. She will be going back to school soon. It seems like the time has just flown by. Where in the world did summer go?

Well, it's late and baby girl wants my attention. She is getting so big. I can't believe it.

Sounds A Bit Odd To Me

Remember that strange story a few weeks ago from Canada where they had five human feet wash up on several different beaches in close proximity to each other? They were supposedly all right feet, all encased in tennis shoes and none seemed to have been severed. All but one of the feet that had washed up were men's feet. Anyway, the police had no idea whose feet they were and no leads. Today's headlines say they have identified one of the feet. It apparently belonged to a man who had been severely depressed and disappeared a year ago. The article is kind of confusing because it says that one of the five feet found has been identified as this man's but then later it says that two of the feet found were found 25 miles apart and both belonged to this man. They have not released this man's name yet so his family can all be notified.

Authorities say it's possible the ocean's currents could have separated the feet from their bodies. But don't you think it's kind of strange that so many feet would show up so close together at one time. And why wouldn't the currents separate other body parts from the bodies--why feet? And if it's so normal why don't we hear more stories like this more often? Just seems a bit odd to me. I think there has to be some foul play involved somewhere for their to be so many feet. I'm just sayin'!

Do You Ever . . .

Have those times in the summer when it's just too hot to cook and nothing really sounds good anyway? I've been having a lot of those days lately. Last night kind of took the cake, though. Rob came home and it really had been too hot to cook so I said can we just go grab something? He was very agreeable but none of us--me, Julie or Rob could decide on a flavor or something that didn't sound too heavy, too greasy, too spicy, too pricey, too far away, . . . you name it -- there was a reason one of us wasn't in the mood. That is until finally Rob said, "Hey, why don't we just go over to Sam's Club and have one of their salad's and drinks." Now as bad as that sounds as I write it, it actually sounded perfect at that moment. And it was something all three of us agreed on. So, off we went to Sam's diner. Totally wierd. Although, we got there and the salad's were all gone so we had to settle for the polish dog specials. But hey, it was still cheap, light, quick and cool! We are crazy aren't we! Even I think so.

Fun at the Pool

On our way to the Grand Canyon we stopped in Page, Arizona for a night. It happened to be my Dad's birthday and so we all met there and celebrated. We got up the next day and went swimming before heading the rest of the way to the GC. Anyway, this was Carly's first time to go swimming. She actually took to the water really well which was especially surprising because the water was freezing cold. Here are a couple of pictures of her at the pool!


Carly just arriving for the pool party! It's gonna be great!


Swimming with my sisters and cousins! Yeah! Alex, Megan, (Me-Carly), Julie and Caitie.

BEE CAREFUL

Today I was determined we were going to get our side yard cleaned up. We waited until after 5 so it was a little cooler and then Julie and I donned our work gloves and began cleaning up weeds and putting away tools and things. There was a box of sticks we asked the girls to cut into smaller pieces and get into the garbage can about a year ago (yep, you read that right) and it was still sitting out on the back side walk. So, that was one of my main goals today was to get that large box of sticks put into the garbage.

I rolled our large garbage can over to it and started reaching my gloved hands into it and emptying loads of sticks into the garbage can from the box. Julie followed my lead--for a while. Then she slowed down and then she stopped. I urged her on but she didn't move. I kept going and going--that is until we started getting attacked by bees. Not a ton of bees--just 3 or 4. But they were very serious and I think they were calling there friends to come help. We tried to fight them off at first when there was just 1 or 2 but then there was 3 and 4. That is when I screamed, "Run, Julie, Run." We barely made it into the house. Seriously, the bees were dive bombing us. I haven't even told you yet about the baby snakeskin I saw in the bottom of the box or the reason Julie stopped picking sticks up. Turns out she had heard a hissing sound and thought there was a snake in the box. Then she actually thought she saw some baby snake eggs.

What's a mom to do? I fixed dinner and we ate. Then we put long sleeves and pants on and went back out armed with BEE and WASP KILLER SPRAY and finished the job! We threw away the snake eggs--if that's what they were. They were some kind of animal eggs. They will now be hatching at the landfill. Yay. This will teach us to leave a box of sticks laying around for a year. We're lucky we didn't have beavers!

DON'T BANK ON IT!

Ye-Gads! I go on a little vacation and come back to a banking crisis! What's going on? Yesterday, I heard on the news a couple of large banks were failing in another state but the FDIC had them covered. Then the news went on the point out that there were over 100 banks on a list of banks the government was concerned about right now. That's a pretty scary thought. Although they followed it again with the statement that the FDIC backed up all your personal accounts to $100K. I just have one question? Who is backing up the FDIC? (Yah, kind of makes you want to bury your money in the back yard, doesn't it?) :}

P.S. WHERE'S RONALD REAGAN WHEN YOU NEED HIM?

Carly Turns Five Months Old on Tuesday

Wow, that went fast. She is getting so big. She loves standing up and walking across the floor with help. If you put her in a sit up position, she can stay sitting. She laughs and giggles and chatters. She's over 26 inches tall and is such a cutie-pie. We think she is going to be the first basketball player in the family since her Dad and Grandpa. Well enough of the brag sheet--not that I can't go on and on--I just won't. She's a beauty just like her big sis, Julie. Here they are together. I'm in love with them!

More Grand Canyon Photo's

We are all so tired still from our trip I am going to just post some photos for now while we recuperate. Enjoy~


The Whole Family


Carly Chillin' in her stroller.



Waiting for the Grand Canyon bus to take us back to our cars.

Sara and Carly

Sara and Carly having a great time!

Happy Birthday Sara!

On our way to the Grand Canyon we made a stop in Cedar City to see Sara and Katie. We weren't able to see Katie but we did take Sara out for her birthday dinner. Then we all went to see a movie together and watched fireworks afterward. We had a great time! It was so fun to just be together. The next day we stopped and had lunch with Sara at her work just before we left for the Canyon. Here's a photo of the girls together. Aren't they cute?

Sorry For the Lull

We have been on a very special vacation. My parents have been married 50 years this year. The actual wedding anniversary is November 7th but we needed a date when all of us could get together and summer worked best. My parents rented a lovely house at the Grand Canyon and our whole family met there and had a great time. It was really nice to be together as a family and just spend time together. The Grand Canyon is amazing. None of us had ever been there before so it was especially moving to see it. We stayed near the South Rim so that is the side we toured. We did some other fun things, too. It was fun to have all the cousins spend time with each other.

Anyway. we are back--so I will get back to my regular blogging. Here are a couple of pictures to begin with. I will post more.

Apparently Carly Has An Opinion

I turned on the tv while I was feeding Carly the other morning and turned it to msnbc. She grabbed the remote flipped the channels until it landed on Fox TV and then stopped and put it down. Pretty funny, eh. I think she's a conservative. I'm just sayin' . . .

Daddy is the Best Piggyback Ride Giver Ever!

Did I Ever Give You A Peak At My Wedding Day?

Isn't he handsome? I sure think so.