Very long weekend began today. Tomorrow, Chaz, Breezy and I will head to Alabama for Thanksgiving. Friday we will go to my other sister's home for the Iron Bowl.

Things I forgot the other day...

Got a new laptop. It's a Toshiba and it's powerful. I just need to find the last graphic program disk to have all my graphic programs on it.

Work has been incredibly busy. Saw nearly 150 kids total in the last 2 days alone! I think last month set the all time record for visits to the clinic. Over 2000!!!!! Yikes!

Chaz and Breezy are both playing soccer. Last night's game with Chaz was nerve wracking. I cannot believe how poor the sportsmanship was and I wasn't particularly impressed with the ref either. I'm usually all for playing hard. But I'm of the opinion now that every now and again, the head of the referees should come watch a game unannounced so he/she can observe the calls being made on the field.

Spent an hour of Sunday evening at my 4th favorite place.... the ER with Chaz. We thought he broke his right thumb. Fortunately it's only sprained.

Almost time for me to go get the kids from youth. Have a marvelous Thanksgiving.

Today I am grateful for family, friends, my church, a job, a vehicle, a laptop, and the kids' Christmas shopping being done! I am grateful that God loves me no matter what.

It has been crazy busy as always. Between soccer and band practices.

Chaz has been playing varsity soccer at the high school but as of December 1st, he's off the team. His grades are horrendous. The only thing left to take away is soccer. He's not only hurting himself, he's hurting the team. I want to scream in frustration but I know it will do no good.

Breezy is playing with one of the church teams. They have a tournament on Saturday and we'll be finished with that.

We'll gain 2 free days back with the end of soccer. We need days at home. This always on the go is tiring.

This morning, Chaz told me that he had no long pants. He's been wearing shorts to school every day. He has one pair of jeans that fit and two pairs of sweatpants. He wore sweatpants to school today and actually looked good. So this weekend, we'll have to find him at least a couple pairs. I'm so thankful Breezy has as many pairs as she does.

I'm sitting at A's updating facebook and the blog, checking email and just hanging out.

Today I recovered a couple examination books with pretty covers. I may do them all with nice covers and give them away. I know that I want to do several to add to my Christmas stuff to record Christmas memories in. I'll post a picture later this week when I get the camera out.

I discovered an awesome photo web page. Picnik. Wow. What a great page.

I need to start picking up the kids Christmas stuff. No clue what they want but got to find something. Maybe clothes? Game? Watch? Suggestions?

Happy Birthday Chaz

My baby turned 16. He's not so much of a baby anymore! We are going to O'Charleys for dinner.

After trying out for soccer, he has decided that he wants to play basketball instead. It's been a rough two days because of the way this was announced. He made the varsity soccer team and now we need to tell coach he isn't going to play. Chaz thinks he will have better chance at a basketball scholarship than at a soccer scholarship. I don't know. The only person I knew to ask passed away last year. He was a scout for several universitys/colleges.

Anyway, more later. Niters.

I get to go see Sarah Palin when she comes into Pensacola next Tuesday. I called a friend of mine on Wednesday night to tell her that Palin was coming to town and she and several other friends stood in line to get tickets. I got one!

I've been having a lot of fun with Twitter. Yeah, I know. 120 updates on twitter, 2 updates on blogger. I must admit, 140 characters from text messaging is so much easier!

I discovered House. A friend lent me the first season on dvd. Watched 3 episodes on Wednesday night and 5 episodes last night. I'm a third of the way through the season. I should finish them all by Monday at this rate. LOL

Kids are at band practice. I'm sitting at the church reading the news and will probably read a few blogs soon.

Tomorrow, Chaz will referee for soccer and I'll take Breezy to WF to let her tour the campus. Then it's off to Barktoberfest. Breezy really wants to go so we'll go.

Alabama football at 2:30 p.m. Now to find out what channel it is on.

In other things, I stuck my foot in my mouth. Nothing new I know but hey. By the time it was over, I was as red as my shirt. Pretty bad. *sigh* Yes, it was in reference to a man. duh.

Anyway, let me get to blog reading. Later gators and see ya on twitter.

many pictures...

It's been a couple weeks. We've been busy as usual. Missions Conference at church, Missions banquet, soccer, Breezy's trip to Atlanta, Chaz' trip to Panama City, my trip to Fairhope. It's been good though. Lots of pictures.

Roses left over from the missions conference. A little droopy but still beautiful.

After a little work, this is what those roses look like. When they are completely dry, I intend to tie a bow at the top and hang them on a wall. For the time being, they hang over my kitchen table where my light from the 70's would normally hang.

This lovely little bird is called a killdeer. She is guarding her eggs. Can you see them? This is on the soccer fields next to our church. Someone parked their vehicle within 4 feet of her. I felt so bad. Then on Thursday, he parked there again and kids were playing around the back side of the truck. Hopefully no one disturbed them.

One of the flower pots at church. I really like the blue color of the pot in contrast to the greenery.

I've never seen gerber daisies like these but they are gorgeous. I used one of these images as my desktop at work. Last night a friend asked for the file so she can have it enlarged and hang it on her wall at home.

These are pitcher plants. Scientific name: Sarracenia. They are beautiful plants. My friend "A" wants to make a bouquet with them. too bad they are endangered.

A close up of the flowers.

Both this picture and the one below were taken at an antique and relic shop in Fairhope. The pots were awesome. Just the shape and shadows were wonderful to see.

This one reminds me that we are all clay pots that God choses to use for His glory.

This is a flamingo that I spotted on our way back to the car. The contrast between the pink and lime green is great.

I also took pictures inside Serendepity. What an adorable little shop. Beautiful windchimes and an awesome series of angels I've never seen before. When we go back next time I may buy one. The owners were very nice and let me take pictures inside the shop.

All the downtown streets of Fairhope are lined with gorgeous flower boxes and beds on the street corners. A delight to walk on a beautiful day.

A yellow rose from Fairhope. The pier there is gorgeous. They were celebrating Earth Day. I have a lot of pictures of flowers. This would be an awesome place to hold a spring wedding with all the roses in bloom.

We were in Fairhope to help with the Eastern Shores campus outreach. We got to help give away ice cream. How hard can that be? LOL

A shot taken on NAS Pensacola at Lake Frederic. I love how you can stand on the beach and see the lighthouse, the boats coming into the marina and at the same time, see planes flying overhead preparing to land on the airfield.

Alice Limpert, missionary to Tanzania, and myself at the Missionaries Banquet at the New World Landing. Alice is such an awesome lady. She is teaching the widows and orphans skills to support themselves.

I guess that's enough for now. I have to get Breezy and one of Chaz's friends to a birthday party. Chaz is playing soccer. I'll have a couple hours free before I have to pick them all up. Later

interesting....

week. Work was slower than usual. Thank goodness. FCATs are coming up in a few weeks and things will be slower then. While I'm not fond of FCATs, I do enjoy the quiet.

Breezy and I have had our go arounds this week. Hearing her tell me to "shut my mouth" was one of the highlights. It took a lot of restraint not to hit her. She ended up grounded. When she apologized she told me she understood that she still could not go to the birthday party that was being held on Sunday. However, when Sunday rolled around, it got ugly. From "I hate my life" to "you hate me" were things I heard. I tried to talk to her but she wouldn't listen to a lot and finally I gave up and walked out of her room. About an hour later, she came out of her room and apologized. She climbed in my lap and we talked for 20 minutes or so. I talked to her about punishment and how it isn't right for me to let her do everything she wants to. I talked to her about responsibilities and the differences in how I grew up and how she is being raised. The difference between being grounded and being beaten. The differences of growing up with alcoholism and carrying more responsibility than a child should have to carry. I think we made some headway. Time will tell.

Breezy has band practice today.

Chaz has a soccer game in Niceville. I can't say that I'm particularly happy about the soccer season. I've seen more poor sportsmanship and lack of respect than I've ever seen on a playing field. From the player who stood beside Chaz on the field and called him "fag" the entire game to the junior varsity players on a different team sitting in the bleachers yelling "wanker" at the referees. Players from our own team acting like jerks when they ate out while on the road and acting so badly that the school was called and a complaint filed. The results of the complaint is that the boys can no longer eat out when they are on the road. Then there was the player who put plastic in the tail pipe of the bus as he came off the bus. I saw 7 yellow cards fly at the last game. There were actually punches thrown on the field and yellow cards given. The players who were yellow carded played the second half of the game. Hello? What happened to accountability? I'm at a loss as how to handle what I've seen occur this season. Chaz on the other hand is optimistic of the things to come next season. My hope and prayer is for accountability for both the players and coaches, better coaching, and better refereeing.

Anyway, gotta go for now.