Instant Karma's Gonna get You...

And my, how it does! John Lennon was a wise man, indeed. I must've done something really bad recently, because karma got me in the worst way...unexpectedly and out of nowhere. Wednesday night I was cleaning out my My Pictures folder, as I do occasionally. I separate the pics into different sub folders and then copy them onto CD-R disks. Then after I check to make sure they were written to the disks, I erase them off the hard drive. I've been storing my pictures this way for about two years. The last time I did this was in May, and all was well. So Wednesday night, I got Patrick's pictures done, then the ones of the family and both the boys together, then I pulled out Ben's disk. Only this time, when I saved the newest folder, it for some insane, unheard of, unbeknownst-to-man reason wiped out all the previous folders. Gone. All my pictures of Ben. His whole life. Needless to say, I freaked. It has taken me until now to be able to think about it without crying a little bit...for two reasons. The first is that I called my computer whiz friend Chris, who owns his own computer-ish business here in town, and he had me bring in the offending disk and my hard drive first thing in the morning. After extensive discussion about what went down, he assured me that I did not make some bonehead mistake, that you are not supposed to be able to delete off a CD-R even if you wanted to, and that this seemed like one of those freakishly unfortunate things that sometimes happens with computers. He also advised me to store all my pictures ever on both a disk and my hard drive, so if this happened again, they'd at least be in two places. Then he kindly installed a second hard drive for storage that he said would hold 10,000 pictures without breaking a sweat. Thank God, otherwise I would be sweating every time I copied a disk from now on. The second reason I feel better is because I was very proactive about taking inventory of my old photos. I went upstairs and dragged out the actual prints that I occasionally get at Walmart, and there were quite a few in there. Then I looked through all my old files of Patrick and Ben together, which were cataloged differently, and there were plenty of those. And finally, I went through my blog post by post and downloaded all the ones that I had previously uploaded, which was no easy task since I live in the sticks and have to deal with dial-up. But it was worth it because I got about 90 photos back, ones that were obviously favorites or I never would've posted them in the first place. To be truthful, some were lost...but that's life, I suppose. It could've been a lot worse.

I'm not sure why I'm even rattling all this off...a form of therapy, maybe? At any rate, in an effort to make sure Ben doesn't feel unloved later in life, I'm trying to take a few more pics of him now. Here's one I snapped today:

He's just chillin' with the Braves here. Ben is now a die-hard sports junkie, to the point where he gets mad if you turn on cartoons and whatnot. He wants to watch ESPN. His favorites are baseball ("ball-ball"), football ("ball-ball") and I'm thinking he will love basketball ("ball-ball") when it starts up again this fall. Katie, I'm not quite sure how he feels about tennis yet, but I have a feeling that you and he might soon have a date on the couch rooting for Nadal or Roddick or whoever...

Anyway, Luke is eating it up. He gets to check out the game and spend quality time with his sons. Whatever. Hey I'm happy too...they're all out of my hair when ball-ball's on.

Weekend Wrap-up

So this weekend was Luke's "office party", if you can call it that...which you can't. I had met all of the new recruits through various school and graduation activities, but I had never met the veteran firefighters that Luke works with. So this weekend was my chance. And if you think that I was going to take my camera for that, you're crazy. Anyway, it was an interesting experience. Enlightening, I should say. I never realized how different things could be just one county over. Let's just say if here were ever any doubts in my mind about my compatibility with Luke because he might just be a little too good ol' southern boy...well, I now have some perspective. Luke is downright preppy compared to these guys. And if you're thinking denim overalls and a piece of straw between the teeth, that's a little off the mark. Try imagining a different Luke and his cousins Bo and Daisy and their penchant for fast orange cars...and moonshine...and now you're starting to get a clearer picture. Yeah. Wow.

Then on Sunday we caught up with the kiddies again at Luke's parents house. They had been having a party of their own with some friends from school and Rebeckah (aka "the world's coolest girl" to both my boys) had spent the night as well. Other than sleeping, they basically swam non-stop:

Patrick grappling with his nemesis: The Chlorine Mushroom

Pa held the inner tube while the kids attempted to jump through. I have to point out that Patrick would not even put a toe in the water unless he was safe in my arms at the beginning of the summer, so as you can see...he's made great strides.

Rebeckah gets fancy mid-air...

...but ends up like this???

Ben was not partaking in the jumping game, but he is always happy to paddle around by himself and watch the fun. And if you blow bubbles in the water, he'll come up and kiss you. It's a great trick. We're going to teach him to roll over next.

Hope y'all had a great weekend too! Perhaps Patrick will do something outrageous at school and then you might hear from me again before Saturday. One can always hope...

Family Portrait

Today's Pre-K schoolwork:

If you're the sharp type, you may have noticed that there's a new member to our family. No, this isn't an elaborate ploy to announce another baby...just the realization of Patrick's latest obsession. Jeff is one of the guys that works with Luke, and even though Patrick has never met the guy, he has latched onto him like nobody's business. He alternates between pretending that Jeff is his brother and pretending that he actually is Jeff...therefore demanding that I address him so. Not cool. Especially since it looks like I may have been an afterthought in the picture, like maybe his teacher suggested that he may want to add, oh, I don't know...MOMMY into the picture?? On the plus side, he gave us all a great pair of legs.

Weekend Warrior

My past few days have not been for the faint of heart. Let's start with yesterday. Luke and I have known since spring that during the previous winter, we had enjoyed the noise and astronomical prices of our archaic gas furnace for the last time. For once we decided to do the responsible thing and not wait until it became an emergency. So yesterday we had an appointment for the Sears consultant to come take a look at our system and see what they had to offer. And while we were at it, we figured we'd also check out air conditioners too, since ours is the original one that came with the house--which is 17 years old--and they usually only last 15 years or so tops. Let me just say that I was not prepared for the ordeal. I figured the guy would come out here, hitch up his pants, spit, and say "Yeah, that'll run ya about so-and-so...", and then we'd spend the next thirty minutes trying to talk ourselves down to the cheapest possibility while he added in hidden costs every five minutes or so. Well, this is not at all what happened, and I'll take the time right now to go ahead and plug Sears for all your HVAC needs. The guy came out at 11:00 and walked around for an hour and forty-five minutes talking to Luke, inspecting our current system, taking measurements of our house and then writing up quotes for five different systems. Then we proceeded to sit down and discuss those quotes for another hour and a half. In the end, he actually recommended the cheapest option, gave it to us for the employee price and then set up a no-interest account to make it actually doable. I'm telling you, it's hard to find customer service like that these days. So we got a new heat pump, which is a single unit that somehow heats in the winter and cools in the summer using the air outside. And it's electric, and very energy-efficient, so no more breaking the bank over the natural gas bill in January. And even though I dropped a few G's for it, I feel good about the purchase, which is very unusual for me. Usually, I have diarrhea until the balance is paid. Eeek.

And as if that wasn't enough, lately our main TV has been on the fritz in a major way. But it was hard to get mad, because Luke bought it fifteen years ago and it's had a good life. It's like when your very very VERY old dog keeps pooping on the floor, but you don't mind, because he's been so good about not doing it for all these years. Anyway, we decided to say goodbye to the TV and we gave it to the Salvation Army in the hopes that someone even more poverty-stricken than us might get a few weeks of enjoyment out of it, and off we went on Thursday evening to go buy a new TV. I've got to give Luke props for planning this out so well in his evil mind, because heaven knows, if we hadn't gotten it before we signed in blood for the new heat pump, then we wouldn't have gotten it at all. I would've told him to shut up and content himself with watching a blue screen. At any rate, I wasn't prepared for this purchase either. I don't live under a rock, so I know all about plasmas and LCD screens and the like...what I didn't know is that projection TVs are all but extinct. I really thought we'd go in there and buy the same size and shape TV that we had before, the kind I've been watching my whole life, but with a flat screen this time. Oh no. Not at all. The showroom was a plethora of sleek, futuristic looking screens, all perched atop their shapely pedestals and grinning at us with wide wide WIDE screens and pixels galore. Off in the corner were two projection TVs, dragging their massive hind sides around by the hair and modeling the latest in caveman TV animal skins. My first instinct as a cheapskate was to suck it up and adopt one of those awful snaggletooth projection models, but after comparing prices, even I could see that the obvious choice was a more updated model. So we are now the proud owners of a 32-inch flat screen LCD TV, with a price tag that wasn't too bad.

My only concession was that it must fit into my entertainment armoire, which is a beautiful piece of furniture that Luke and I bought just before we were married, and I would never ever buy a TV that wouldn't utilize it. Luke said that this one could actually hang on the wall, but that is the epitome of tackiness, so I'm not even going to go there.

Thus, today was deemed a no-spending day, as are the next seven days or so, with the exception of groceries and gas. So when I went out to get something out of the freezer for dinner tonight, I noticed a formidable trail of ants on the side driveway and, having just in the last week conquered an attempted uprising in my kitchen, I decided to investigate. I followed the trail, which wasn't hard, since there were millions of them, and it led me straight to the garage and into the trash can where we store the dog food. I took the lid off and almost fainted. Then I had to stand there for the next ten minutes and figure out what to do, since Luke had just bought a 50-lb bag of dog chow and by golly after the past two days, there was no way I was throwing all that food away of I could help it. So I analyzed their weaknesses, planned my strategy, and began my attack. It began with a can of Raid for the outside of the trash can and the trail of critters leading down the driveway, and ended with the hose and what has affectionately become known as the "ant sponge"...and I'm happy to say, the huge vat of dog food is now ant-free, chemical-free, and just a slight bit damp. My work here is done.

Fahrenheit 111

No, it's not an adaptation of the Ray Bradbury classic, it's just the temperature the credit union thermometer registered when I drove by at 4:00 today. It's too hot. Everything is feeling it. The boys haven't been outside in ages, my carpet looks like it's made of mohair from the dogs' need to shed every dispensable hair on their body, even the praying mantis that had taken up residence in my begonias for the past month has given up on this God forsaken land and headed for (literally) greener pastures. Or he just dropped dead from the heat. And my plants...my poor plants. At this point, I'm just watering stems with the hope that when the highs drop back to 95 degrees, they might still have the strength to recover. I finally put the poor marigolds around my mailbox out of their misery and just yanked them out of the rock-hard dirt.

So that's it. We sit in the house and wait for the moment when we all spontaneously go up in flames. Or I go to work, where for some insane reason, the thermostat is set at 60 degrees and I spend the day slowly turning blue, only to come outside at 4 p.m. and microwave myself. I'm surprised that I haven't gotten the mother of all colds by now.

You want pictures? Wilson sends his love from the coolest place in the house, the tile floor in the kitchen...

"The heat! My God, the HEAT!"

One hundred blogger bucks if you know where that line came from. Anyway, what else is there to say? It's freakin' HOT. Last night the Atlanta weatherman said that Tuesday night was the hottest night in the history of recorded temps for us. No overnight low has ever been that hot. Our two weeks of fall cannot come fast enough.

Yesterday, Luke's buddy Delmos had an incredible stroke of bad luck and his air conditioning unit broke. But those are only half his woes...his problem was made much much worse by being unfortunate enough to be renting from my former landlord, the one that Mandy and I used in college during a year that involved...let's just say...rats and misplaced rent checks. I'm just sayin', she's not the best to have around when the a/c breaks in 107 degree heat. So Luke invited him to come over for the evening to literally chill out at our house, which we keep at a frosty 80 degrees. They spent the evening parked in front of the X-box playing Halo 2 and sniggering like Beavis and Butthead.

I literally cannot understand this phenomenon, but whatever. They somehow had fun and Delmos didn't melt, so that was good. Anyway, that's it around here! Keep cool, folks!

The First Day

Today was Patrick's first day of school...heaven help us!

Hopefully, they'll be able to do something about his grammar. Look at this, for crying out loud! Who does he think he is, 50 Cent?

Okay, okay...in all honesty, today is one day that I can brag on my kid. He had a great first day and was a great student. On the plus side, he walked down the hall quietly with one hand on his hip and the other on his lip (this is called hip/lip for the uninformed readers), he sat nicely and ate his lunch without goofing off, and he laid down and closed his eyes during rest time. On the plus plus side, he did NOT come running out of the bathroom without his pants asking if he wiped well enough, as he is sometimes inclined to do at home. I really like "School Patrick". I hope he sticks around for a couple of hours after 3:15 each day.

How do I know all this, you might wonder? No, I am not actually his teacher, nor do I want to be. But I do work there and did manage to take a few spy breaks during the day. And I ate lunch with him. And yes, I think I am a lucky duck because I can do this. Today was my best day of work--ever.

No Longer Mommy

Patrick starts Pre-K on Tuesday--the big time--all day every day. And as if on cue, I'm no longer Mommy. I am now Mom. Way to drive a stake into my 30-year-old heart, kiddo!

Tuesday

Do you ever have one of those days where you just want to smack your kids into next week? And the only reason you don't is because you're afraid they might grow up to be famous like Chevy Chase and write a tell-all about how mean you were and excerpts of it would be featured in People magazine? Or is that just me? Luke's been gone a lot this week. It's time for him to come home.

Here are some pictures of my kids at moments today when their cheeks--either set--were not in imminent danger. Note: Mary Kate was not in any position to be threatened. She was lovely today, at least to me.

The Better Pictures

So a few weeks back I posted some proofs that I had bought from a photo session, and I mentioned that the really cute ones were yet to come. After that I got a few earfuls about how I was crazy if I didn't think those two were cute, but whatever. I finally got them and here are the two that I deemed the best...and since I birthed the subjects, only my opinion counts anyway.

Gigi and Grandpa, you'll be getting a 5 x 7 of the one above the next time I see you. :) I love the one below.

So, a little bit about me. As you can see, I got my hair cut, or chopped for that matter. I like it alright, Luke will not admit it, but he doesn't like it. Guys like long hair. I think it's an inate characteristic left over from the caveman days when dudes could just grab a chick by her weave and haul her around. Anyway, I needed a major change--usually around this time of year, the heat gets to me and I have to get rid of ninety or so pounds of hair. So I'm glad of it for that, but I know I won't keep it. It's just a welcome change and now I'll grow it back out again...and my hair grows really fast. I've had similar cuts a few times before...it'll only be a matter of months before I have quite a long ponytail that Luke can grab at when he's not busy discovering fire. Okay, I meant that in the caveman sense, but I just realized how true it actually is. Maybe Luke's new pet name will be "Caveman". Yeah. We'll see if it sticks.

Kisses to all of you from me and me new hair!

Where's my mind been?

I'm not sure but definitely not on blogging. Yes, the few loyal fans I have remaining have commented to me on my lack of posting lately, and I have to admit...the interest is waning. Want proof? I went to my parents' house this weekend and did not even think to bring the camera. I don't know if it's a temporary thing, but I know when school starts in a few weeks, I'll be bizzy bizzy bizzy, so we'll just have to take what we can get, huh? Well, here's a little blogger love for those who still come around...

I snapped this picture of Ben at breakfast the other day. I don't know what kind of "It Boy" he thinks he is, but next thing you know I'll be having to buy him Vote or Die onesies and driving him through Jamba Juice on the way to preschool.

The Name Game (and some kid pics for Gigi)

Because Katie's was funny...

1. REAL NAME: Becky

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus "-izzle"): Becizzle...doesn't really have a great ring to it. I have no street cred.

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color and favorite animal): What???? How does this make me a detective? Is it my favorite color to wear or to look at? I need a detective to figure this one out. Okay...Brown Otter. That was dumb.

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name and current street): I'm not putting my street name on the blog cause I am paranoid like that, but here's what it would've been three years ago before I moved: Leigh Brandon

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name): Mot Be Mag...okay, I wish that one was cooler. I love Star Wars.

6. YOUR SUPER HERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): The Pink Marguerita (I added the The because it makes it better...or it just makes me sound like a cheesy all-you-can-eat Tex Mex joint...)

7. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's middle name and father's middle name - switch if you are male): Virginia Benner

8. YOUR GOTH NAME: ("Black" and the name of one of your pets): Black Wilson...Black Savannah...it's not working.

9. YOUR CALL GIRL NAME (name of your first pet + first street you lived on): Chevy Biscayne (and apparently I'm a call boy in drag...)

So onto more family-oriented things, some pics of the kids...doing nothing in particular. Patrick is getting more and more like his daddy, and now the only time I can snap a photo is when he's asleep:

Ben, on the other hand, is more than happy to accommodate the lens. Here he is hamming it up in all his glory:

His hair is getting so long, but when it's humid it curls up around his ears and is so cute, so I'm leaving it for now. Why mess with a good thing? Anyway, there's my kids and not much else is new, so later!

Good Self-Esteem

Mommy, I'm practicing swimming without floaties!!!

Yes Patrick! And you've done so well, I bet by next summer, you'll have it all figured out!

And then I'll be perfect!!!

Fireworks Galore

We did go to a few fireworks shows, but I'm just now sitting down to post about them. I've got to admit, I am a busy girl now that Luke only works a few days a week. We've been spending some great quality family time together, making up for the past few years I guess!!! So anyway...about the fireworks...

On the actual Fourth, we went to the park to watch the show from there. They did a pretty great show I think, but we had to sit and wait a looooong time. Oh well--I snapped some cute pics while we were waiting. All the red, white and blue makes for a great shot!! As I've said, I *heart* the Fourth of July!

Then on Saturday, we went to the baseball game and they had a Salute to America, which meant fireworks after the game. Gigi and Grandpa came up to go with us, and Grandma and her friend Mrs. Milliman were there. It was a fun night, except that since it had rained earlier in the day, they halted play for an hour to put sand on the infield. It was just wrong to make us sit and wait; I say let the players slip and get dirty--more entertaining!!

Luckily, Grandma brought the M&Ms to keep my kids occupied. Gigi tried to keep them happy very VERY late into the eighth inning. The game didn't end until 11:15, so we had to make the choice to walk to the car during the ninth (we were up six runs, so I didn't think we'd miss anything) and watch the fireworks from there. Not as much fun, but totally necessary at almost midnight. We scooted out with no traffic, so it was a good plan.

The kids were exhausted the next day...no more late nights for us for a while!!!

Let Freedom Ring-a Ding Ding!

As I've said before, today is my favorite holiday because it is so easy and fun. Everything's free and there's no three weeks of prep involved...just grill some chicken, make a fruit salad, serve popsicles and voila! The 4th of July! We celebrated today by returning to Cave Spring for our annual slice of Americana pie by watching the parade. Last year was our first year going to the parade; this year I found out that it was actually started twenty-something years ago by Christa and her little boys on a dreary 4th and has turned into a town spectacle. Everything she touches turns to gold, I swear. And of course it was cute as can be and my kids loved it.

Waiting for it to get started. This picture below is an instant favorite.

The walkers come first, then there are wagons and motorcycles and 4-wheelers and horses and tractors and floats and finally the fire engines bring up the tail end. I didn't want to take a whole lot of pictures, but here's Rebeckah walking with Annmarie and one of my old fourth-grade students from waaaayyyyy back in the day, Ivy. Ivy was the one who told me as I was silently flipping out the Thursday before my wedding that maybe I should just go home. She and her brother were some of my favorite students.

Tom on his motorcycle. This one's for you, Katie. ;)

Then we went over to Tom's house to swim and eat some chicken and other yummy stuff. We have been blessed with really cool overcast weather the past few days, but the sun did start to peek out, so I ventured into the pool. Joan took these pics for me since I have no pictures of Ben swimming because he likes me to get in the pool with him. But he is a great swimmer and he likes to jump off the side and kick by himself, and now I've got pictures to prove it in case he changes his mind next year.

Where there's food, there's Ben.

Tonight we're hitting the fireworks show, so if I take pictures, I'll put them up tomorrow. Luke is working today, which is weird, because even though he used to work all the time, he always got to take the 4th off. Now he hardly works at all, but he's missing today. We're not complaining though...he gets holiday pay, which I think is even better than overtime, and we need it! Plus, I know he's secretly hoping some drunk redneck sets their backyard on fire with bottle rockets tonight so they can see a little bit of action.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Family Portrait

Yesterday the kiddies and I went to Jim's house for a cook-out and to see Scott and Jennifer and their crew, who are in town for a couple of weeks. This was the one and only time (for a least a year or so) that all of Grandma's great-grandchildren were in the same place with her, so naturally we had to take a picture...and naturally, one of my children had to make it difficult...

I'm not exactly sure what Ben's problem was, but as soon as he saw all the cameras, he started high-tailing it down the driveway and was not happy to be caught and brought back. Session #1 (on the steps) did not go so well. Then somebody had to the good idea to give him candy and all was right in the world again. Except for the fact that it was 900 degrees outside and as we stood taking these pictures, we all started melting into little puddles in the pine straw.

Back row: Ashlyn holding Skylar, Haley, Grandma
Front row: Ben, Mary Kate, Owen and Patrick

Yes, this is really the best we could do. Jennifer and Brian and Pam were also snapping pictures, so maybe they got a better one. I'm just happy you can see everyone's face. Anyway, I'm glad we took the picture. Grandma and seven beautiful great-grandkids--she's a lucky lady!

29 in 29

Inspired by Mandy, on my last day of 29:

1. Became friends with my second child.
2. Got bangs.
3. Became a walker.
4. Traded in Dora for Diego.
5. Caught the biggest fish.
6. Discovered the miracle of ceramic flatirons.
7. Potty trained my child...with mixed results.
8. Joined the 21st century and bought something off of eBay.
9. Wore my Christmas clothes at Easter time.
10. Went head-to-head with the Big D...and lost.
11. Gained 7 pounds.
12. Lost them all, plus 8 more.
13. Spent too much money on the dog.
14. Became a fan of beatboxing.
15. Reinforced my suspicions that I don't like Keifer Sutherland, but I will watch him if there's a chance that Ricky Schroder will show up.
16. Updated the flip-flop collection.
17. Honed my green thumb.
18. Learned to cut my kids' hair.
19. Unleashed a newfound love for Mediterranean food.
20. Learned to accept charity without guilt.
21. Woke up one morning next to the man of my dreams.
22. Tried out Kashi, pilates and yoga. Only the Kashi stuck.
23. Read a grown-up book instead of chick-lit. Don't expect that to stick.
24. Enrolled my son in elementary school.
25. Put up my first fake tree.
26. Realized the concept of "Waste not, want not".
27. Embraced sunscreen...and (gasp!) still got a tan.
28. Finally got results from eating black-eyed peas and turnip greens on New Year's Day.
29. Learned to happily accept me for me, and just in the nick of time.

Luke's Day in the Sun

Today Luke graduated from fire fighter rookie school. We started celebrating last night with a surprise party for him at the ball game. A very generous acquaintance of mine gave us her tickets for the night--she has a suite at the ballpark. You know, one of those really nice spots at the top of the stadium where the tickets cost more than my car. Seriously, they do. Anyway, it was great because the kids could run around and we didn't have to worry about watching them too closely or keeping them in their seats, and everybody had a good time.

Patrick hung with his girlfriend/next-door neighbor, Riley. I was glad to have Riley's mom Michelle there with me, since baseball starts to bore me after about five innings. Luke loves it, though...he's very attentive to his beloved team...which lost AGAIN, by the way.

When you're in the suites, you get special attention by the staff because they think you're rich, and that includes Patrick's BFF the mascot. He came to hang out for a while and after the two swapped war stories for a little bit, I was able to get them to pose for a picture. Ben wasn't too sure about the blue fuzzy dude, but we shoved him in anyway because he's cute.

He was much happier hanging out with Rebeckah all night, because she would give him food and was therefore invaluable to his master agenda to eat nonstop. Frozen lemonade? Check. Sprite? Check. Dippin Dots? Check. Luke's celebratory cake? Check. Tummy ache? Check check check!!!

And today we got to the really important stuff--Luke's graduation! As I was driving up this morning, I was thinking that I honestly have not been this excited and thrilled since our wedding day. I feel like we've both been waiting for this day for a long time...much longer than since last year when he decided to pursue this career. I used to wonder when we would get to a point where Luke would be really happy to go to work, and be happy about what he was doing with his talents, and now I know that he's there. This is what he's been working towards all this time, even if we didn't always know it.

The new recruits, all looking very handsome!

Luke and his adoring boys after the ceremony. Patrick was so proud.

I must admit, I was proud too--incredibly proud! It takes a lot of guts to overhaul your life when you're closing in on 30 with a wife and two kids depending on your success. I am so glad Luke didn't balk at the challenge. He faced it with a positive attitude and his hard work and perseverance has paid off. I'm lucky to have a husband like him.

And as long as everyone's reading, I should let you all know that we could not have done it alone. We've had a lot of support since Luke undertook this endeavor. First and foremost are his parents, who really picked up the pieces of our finances since Luke had to quit his weekend job in order to go to school. We'd be living in a box if it wasn't for them! Also to Tom for sharing his office with Luke and giving him a place to unwind during lunches and breaks over the past ten weeks--also to my parents for all their emotional support and encouraging words, and to my boss Stephanie for her encouragement and patience with my seemingly endless unavailablity at work. It was all for a higher purpose, and it became a reality today!!!

Congratulations Luke! You're my hero!

Fathers Day is All Wet

For Fathers Day, we had gotten Luke tickets to the South Atlantic League All-Star game, which was hosted by our team last night. And even though the skies had opened up earlier yesterday afternoon, they were bound and determined to have that game. But I must admit, they pulled out some pretty cool stops. They had F-16 fighter jets for the national anthem, which is pretty standard, but after that, while the players were warming up, the pilots did tricks just above the stadium rooftop, which was amazing. There was such a low layer of clouds that they had to fly really close to the ground, and even then, we would only catch them flying out of a cloud and entering another one. One of the pilots circled the lights around the outfield and I thought my kids were going to die from excitement. It was awesome.

So we sat in the rain--sometimes just drizzling and sometimes a steady shower--for about four innings, and then it pretty much cleared up and we were able to enjoy the game. It was pretty non-eventful, except our pitcher from our team gave up three runs in the third, which ended up costing our division the game. Oh well. For the seventh inning stretch, they brought the F-16 pilots and their families out onto the dugouts and sang "God Bless America". It was neat, but Patrick was royally ticked that we didn't sing "Take me out to the ball game". He was also ticked that this time he got no special attention from the cameras, the girls that pass out free ice cream, or even those inconsiderate players that wouldn't hit a foul ball straight to him. I guess he got spoiled at the last two games we went to.

The post-game "fireworks spectacular" more than made up for it, though. They put on a very good show, as you can see by the look on Patrick's face. All in all, it was a very fun night, even with a little rain. As I sat there getting wet, I thought "This still beats freezing my butt off."

Tribute to Dad

I could wax poetic all day about Luke's daddy skills and it wouldn't even be the tip of the iceberg on how wonderful he is to our family. Since the day Patrick was born, he's done nothing but work hard and play hard to ensure that our kids have gotten all that they need and a good time too. But a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll just shut up already and let you see for yourself.

"Our Father the Hero"

We love you Daddy--
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY 2007!