New blog and beach

Everyone..I have an announcement. Lori is now blogging with a furry. If you'd like to check it out then go over to the left where it says family and click on Lori, A.R. and Libbi Lou. No, Libbi's name is not Libbi Lou but it's got a great ring to it don't you think.

We are still in Rosemary Beach weathering out Fay. It's sunny, it's cloudy, it rains, it's sunny, it's cloudy, it rains... you see a pattern here? We are riding some great waves though on our boogie boards. Having a great time.

And so it begins....

Uncle Ress and Nathan
I caught Pauley eating and I got "the eye"

So this is where A.R. has them all enraptured with,.... well, with I have no idea but enraptured none-the-less. (I'm sure there was a lot of embellishments about sand, the hot desert, black hawk helicopters, heroic acts of bravery... you know, just a day in the life)
and lori's not believing a word he's saying!
neither is pauley
yep, were just having a great time stuffing our faces in refried beans

As promised....

o.k. as you can see we had a "western" themed rehearsal dinner and you know us... we like to dress the part. Above you will see Libbi posing with her daddy and showing off her borrowed six shooters. Jackson willingly let Libbi take his costume for the night but she shared one of the pistols ...so they were happy as clams.


and then we added mom into the picture
and then Jack
and then we stike a pose.....

So, the rehearsal dinner went pretty normal....kill yourself to get ready, hurry up, hurry up, sit down and wait .... start this whole process again in 30 minutes...Nancy and Ress cooked a Mexican Feast for 100 and it was delicious. Lori, Mom and I showed up along with Nancy's sister and brother-in-law and we helped set up. Now this process involved a lot of food tasting to make sure no one would die of food poisoning. We ate cheese dip, homemade salsa and guacamole for 4 hours. Good stuff. We kept waiting to see if one of us would kick over dead but no one did. We proceeded to let everyone else eat. We were all wore out but having the time of our life just getting to be together.

Well, let's start these wedding pictures off. There is a ton so I'll try and weed it down, as not to cause wedding picture overload but no promises. Went to Trussville tonight to worship with Aunt Kim and Uncle Bryan and that's always a pleasure. Jackson took along his new Batman Sword and showed them a few of his new moves in the church parking lot afterwards. They were total impressed! (Hey, their family...it doesn't take much for him to impress them!) Also, took a few pictures of Alex and Jack this week when Alex spent the night. I'll get those off the camera and share later. Have a good night.

Miss Calamity Jane

O.K. I just had to add one more entry today of Miss Libbi Rose. I went early this morning to meet Charles to see if he could put my neck and hip back in place and Arleen had the pictures of the wedding and rehearsal pulled up on her computer and this one came up as I passed by. She and I just looked at each other and just busted out laughing. We both pretty much summed the picture up by "She's a Mess"! Oh, this picture CRACKS ME UP!!! This one is getting blown up. Now you can't see A.R. (her daddy) in the right corner spurring her on and telling her how to pose. He was back from Iraq for 18 days and it was so wonderful to see him. Looking at him was like being able to draw a long breath of relief, after you'd been holding your breath for 9 months. 5 more months and he comes home for good, Lord Willing.

One Bronze Mailbox

(example of what g-daddy is normally doing when I come running for him)

Now before we get to G-daddy, take a note of the new "header" picture I just added above of my two babies. Both a little older now, one extremely furry, and the other with a TON of energy. Now you can figure out which characteristics apply to whom (one is three in human years and one is 14 in dog years - in human years she is 98). Jack and I have had a great week this week. We started off the week trying to recovery from the wedding but by Tuesday we hit the ground running and have done all kinds of industrious stuff:

1. Jackson learned the wonders of spray paint (o.k. you can stop chuckling to yourself). Now let me preface this by saying that once Jack got to the age of being able to help, I decided to let him help me and maybe he'd learn to like to do stuff around the house ( you know, like mow, paint, dig dirt out of your tennis shoes, laundry, you know fun stuff). I've been told that this will all stop around age 13 but I'm hoping that maybe sometime between age 20 and 30 he will pick back up with all the fun stuff he learned to do while hanging out with me. Because, well let's just not beat around the bush here, - I'M FUN! (I know this because my mama told me so!) Now, granted we are working but policy #1 is you can get as dirty and sweaty as you like. And one thing i've learned is that boys like DIRT, A LOT! Boys, on the other hand, maybe don't like spray paint as well as dirt - especially on their hands. We decided to paint our mailbox and I of course let Jackson help. He proceeded to get it all over his hands (and our mail) and let me just tell you we had to march up the hill immediately to Great-Granddaddy's house (while crying hysterically - jackson not me) to get cleaned up with some good Go-Jo and paint thinner. Because, let's face it - Mom can't handle as much as she thought and even mama's need their granddaddy's sometime. I can't tell you how many times something has broken or a dog has gotten hurt and I immediately go running to find granddaddy. That's just standard procedure around here. Found a snake that needs to be killed - go get granddaddy. Got a dog stuck in a pipe under the road - go get granddaddy. Need a tool that even Lowes doesn't have - go get granddaddy. Have homemade chocolate cookies that need to be eaten - go get granddaddy. You get the point. By the way, our mailbox looks great despite the 3 year old handprint on the front of the box.



2. Jackson had his first spend the night party last night with Alex. They slept in Jackson's tent in his room and Luke read ghost stories while they illuminated everything in the room with flashlights. They had a great time. We headed to chick-fil-a for breakfast and they played while I did paperwork. We then proceeded to Best Buy (I now have one a mile from my house - AWESOME!) and picked up a massive external hard drive for all my pictures. This thing is INCREDIBLE. I highly recommend them. Of course, Darby O'Gill and the little People was on sale so we had to pick that up too. This ranks right up there with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Now, my sister is probably the only other person alive who is excited about this but we are definitely taking this to the beach with us week after next. Luke will be THRILLED! We are of course including Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility which we will make our father watch at least twice until he starts to quote them. It's just not a vacation if you haven't driven someone crazy. Might even make him listen to Sabrina in the Suburban on the way up to get things started off right.



Hope everyone has a great weekend. Ress and I are digging up Ivy and Crape Myrtles tommorrow morning from his yard. Better get Luke and Jack in our front yard digging holes pronto.

The Wedding's Over....

this should be a song, if it's not. The wedding's over and halleujah and AMEN. That pretty much sums it up for me. There is not much on my body that doesn't hurt. No pictures yet. They are still in my camera but I'm planning on uploading them all (like 3,500 hundred total) to one site for everyone to see. I'll get on this sometime this week. I'll put the highlights onto the blog. I had to plant roses this morning because we are having AWESOME weather for August and it just feels great outside. 70 degrees in the morning with VERY LOW HUMIDITY. Feels like fall. Makes me want to go buy a pumpkin and some mums. I can't wait. Think I may go break out the Halloween decorations. And you all think I'm kidding.

Well to sum up... It was a great wedding. We all had a blast. Things got a little crazy at the end of the reception and i've got some HILARIOUS pictures. Cracks me up. Love you all.