Get to Drinkin', Folks! (I sure am!)

Now I didn't say what...just get to drinkin' anything with metal bottle caps and save 'em for me! We are making necklaces for next year's Relay for Life out of them (I know, I thought the same thing---what the?), but trust me, they are CUTE! Susan has really done a lot of thinking about this and hopefully, they will sell better and make more profit than the sunflower ones this past year. They are fun to make...no, I am not trying to recruit you to help make them (although you will be hit up to buy one for yourself, any daughter, sister, mother, friend, or dog that you may have)! I had hoped to have a slew of them done by this weekend, but surprise, surprise---I have three.

Why this weekend, you ask? Well, said Susan and her husband, Michael have invited us down again for the annual "Playtime in Pinola" (south MS and actually only about 30 min. from my hometown) that is truly a highlight for our crew. The Akin's have a beautiful old farmhouse that has been in their family forever and have redone and added onto it over the past decade or so. It is huge and rambling, has two stairways (which the kids go up one and down the other at least a million times while we are there), A SLEEPING PORCH WITH TWO FANS (my fave) and a swing, a great kitchen and great room addition. And just down the trail is the creek...crystal clear, cold, and so relaxing. We just take our camp chairs down on the 4-wheeler along with the coolers, maybe a watermelon to chill in the creek, and we park it...for HOURS ON END. AHH, happy place... So, lots of folks come down on Sat. and some stay the night, others head on home. The time goes slowly while there, but the end comes way too soon somehow every time. BUT, this year, the boys and I are going to get to stay FOR A WHOLE WEEK! Can you hear it? "HALLELUIA! HALLELUIA!" Just a few girlfriends and the kids! Susan named it "YAYA week" and it stuck! Have you seen that movie? It's pretty appropriate for our crew! We are seriously close to having to have the oxygen tank for at least one or two of us! How old are we again? Anyway, I digress... Margaritas and pb&j's amd juice pouches in the cooler (along with a roll of TP for the kiddos because we are not getting up to walk back to the house every five seconds!) Yes, G'ma, I've already got a whole case of Propel to combat the heat and kidney stones...wait, beer flushes the kidney's, right? HAHA! I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but I am so stinking excited!!! I am worse than the kids. Poor Mike will have to come back to Memphis on Sunday--he only gets the weekend pass!

YEAH! We got this laptop from Mike's boss that he was going to get rid of because the port where you charge it was messed up. Mike brought it home to fiddled with it, but he couldn't get it to do much of anything. E, MY 9 YEAR OLD, GOT IT TO WORK!!!! I did have to take it in and have the port replaced because it would still turn off while you were in the middle of something, BUT STILL...I can feel the power coming from my fingertips! Ok, not really, but it is really exciting, right?

You know what's even more exciting? Mike and Pat (his brother) went to a seminar last night that was at Semmes-Murphy Neurology Center. It was about nerve stimulation. From what I understand (which isn't much, mind you), they (highly skilled neurologists) implant a device with many electrodes that when activated, zap you good and get rid of nerve pain. Te patient has a button or something to zap himself when he needs to. This has huge potential for both Mike and Pat, I believe, and they are going to talk to their docs about it. Mike's biggest thing is that this procedure is minimally invasive and really isn't dangerous. If it doesn't work, it can be reversed (unlike say, A SPINAL FUSION)! I think it is really good for both of them to be really looking at other possibilities. Please pray for them and the doctors to make wise decisions, and Lord willing, get some relief. I hope that if this is not the answer for one or both, that they would be pointed in the right direction. Chronic pain does funny things to the brain and the psyche...and there has got to be a different approach somewhere!

Monday, Monday...why aren't we friends? All the other days are very nice to me, but you---you wear me out! No matter what time I try to go to sleep on Sunday nite, I always find it hard to fall asleep. So, at 1:45am, I'm doing the "ok, if I fall asleep right now and get up at 6:45 instead of 6:30, and not shave my legs, and dry my hair but don't fix it, I'll get 5 hours of sleep". At 2:45, after beating my pillow into submission for the 36th time, I'm praying that God will give me quality, if not quantity, sleep. DEEP SLEEP for 4 hrs. At 3:15, praying has turned into no bones about it cursing and mental screeeaming!!! What is wrong with me...why can't I turn it off and go to sleep? I mean, look at Mike...he has been asleep for almost 6 hours now and is oblivious to my silent struggle. Wait...look at Mike...Mike is sleeping with his mouth wide open and there is a noise coming from it that just might take the roof off of our house. Now, I've really noticed the snoring and there's no way in hell I'm getting to sleep. Aw, forget it...let's go see who signed in on my blog!

***By the way, he "claims" that I also have on occasion been known to saw some logs...but it just lulls him to sleep! *&^%%*

So Not Technical!

So, I was up way too late and got up early to try to figure out how to get pictures off a disc onto this blog. The only one I could get to work is this one from last summer and there are MUCH cuter and more current ones that I would rather show the world. But when the computer you are using is only a few steps up from a Commadore 64 (seriously, folks, we got this thing in '99 right after Ethan was born!), what can you expect? It moans and groans every time I fire it up to do JUST ONE MORE THING, PLEASE?!! I keep waiting for it to just blow up in a cloud of smoke...poof! Ok, you're right, I keep hoping it will blow up...that's the only way my sweet, frugal husband will even consider another one. Man, what I could do with this haunter of my dreams!
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/
I'm just sayin'...I would not be upset AT ALL if Apple decided to gift me with this beauty! Oh, and you know, Nikon could drop off a Nikon D300, too! Swell, great then! Thanks, big huge corporations! " psst...Mommy, wake up! You're snoring and drooling on the computer!"
Happy Saturday, y'all!

On your mark...get set...GO!

Ok, so, I have wanted to start a blog for a while now. But, honestly, I have been a little intimidated by other blogs. Let's face it...I really am always strong out of the gate, but then before long something else (say, a butterfly or something shiny or a sale sign or a kid's eat free announcement) comes along and on another tangent I go. I REALLY will try to post frequently. So, are you ready for a wild ride? You know there's always something crazy going on over here!