All that jazz...hmmm... I mean... all that drama

The girls and I are having fun in the sun and all that jazz.
ok, jazz is not the best description for having ages 1, 3, and 4 at your home but it is kind of jazzy here with "the wheels on the bus" song in the background as we run in and out of the heat making memories in the neighborhood pool, the neighbor's sandbox and feeding the neighborhood horses! Maybe I should say the girls and I are having fun in the sun and all that drama...precious drama...pink drama...little wet kisses drama...fairy tales and dressup drama...nightgown drama...whose turn drama...and lollipop drama!

Have I ever told you how much I love being Lolli? :)

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Sugar and Spice are here with us for a visit while their parents move to a new house! I am very happy to report we had a clean plate club last night.

they ate meatloaf (I think it was their first time...their mama does not like it very much but they loved it!), macaroni n' cheese, fresh green beans from my friends, the Burns' back yard garden, and english peas.

they were both most excited over their mini ice cream cones as their rewards for eatting everything!

and today little Miss "Everything Nice" came to join all the fun of little girls staying at Lolli and Pops' house. :)

Sugar and Spice and Everything nice that is what little girls are made of!

Happy Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day this weekend by
being the special guests of Jeff and Penny on The Harriott II River Boat dinner cruise. Jeff has worked hard over the last several years to get this boat into the city of Montgomery and the staff on the boat clearly respect and admire him openly. (I was looking around for a newscamera the whole time---they follow Jeff around like a puppy dog---but they must have had the night off). We do not get many chances to be with our adult children without children around (we don't mind that either) but it was nice just to catch up with these two and enjoy their company as we viewed the city skyline and nightlights where both our roots go deep.

Finding this card for Jack with the hearts looks like your typical Father's Day card but now, this summer, those hearts are not typical to me anymore. I did not have to look for a better card after I saw this one in the card racks. You can read back in my Costa Rica Mission trip posts to get the full meaning of hearts to me now.

Today we slid into a church pew for 8:00 AM worship (we normally go to 11:00) and got to sit by my friends, Madge and Jim (they always go to 8:00)(Madge and I both went to Costa Rica)and lo and behold, there was a small little red foam heart laying on our pew cushion right by us. What are the chances of a little red heart sitting on a pew by two people that went to Costa Rica after experiencing a theme based week all about hearts? I call it a "God thing".
Thank you God for yet another reminder of how much you love us, how important it is to hide The Truth, God's word, in your heart, and to continue praying for those people we met in Costa Rica.


And this has nothing to do with hearts unless you love to play golf, but some of you guys need to come for a visit soon. Our basket of golf balls is overflowing!

one of my long lost loves

I used to be totally in love with the lake. My parents had 2 different lake houses and they were both the source of many a fun family time together. I loved swimming off the floating dock, skiing, intertubing and tobagganing, riding in the boat, playing card games and board games til the wee hours and eatting junk food at the lake! I think my brothers and sisters would say the same thing. There is always a smile at the mention of our lake days.
So when anyone invites me to the lake now I jump to revisit the place where my heart first leaped over being in and on green water! My good friend, "Mrs. Shiplip" invited me to go with her and we had such a good time.

She took me for a 3 hour boat ride and we saw all the landmarks I remembered; chimney rock, the Martin Dam, rode under the big Kolawgia bridge and we both yelled as we did in our childhood tradition :). drove by Real Island, and saw all the fancy lake homes. She and I love to play card games so later we sat on her pontoon boat at the dock for hours and played Quiddler.
One of the things I do not remember as a child though was the severity of lightening storms on the water. Mercy did we ever see a storm last night at 11pm. It was a show stopper for sure. Trees fell nearby, chairs flew around the porch and we worried if anyone would find us alive. Alas it settled and we awoke to a very calm sunshiney day.
Today as we sat on the dock in 99 degrees after a quick cool dip in the water, we heard the dreaded echo of "snakkkkkkkkkkke" across the slue. A young boy said "Granny, come now, we see a snake". (I knew he was not calling me) We watched from across the water with fear for the 5 children that had just been playing in the lake. But we were not prepared for the real live scene of "Granny get your gun" ! Granny did come running with her pistol and shot that snake in the grass by the edge of the water 12 times (we counted--actually we shivered every time the gun went off and kept waiting for closure---but she just kept on shooting at it). Finally after the 12th shot, we yelled across the slue to see if everyone was ok and she told us it was a water moccasin. Mercy again! She shot the stew out of that snake. That was all we needed to decide NOT to get back into the water no matter how hot it was.
I may not be totally fond of that green water and its' slimey creatures but I still love the lake though!

The Neighborhood

I love our neighborhood cul de sac. One of the things that drew us to our home in the first place was we had heard the neighbors here were so nice (all ages) and that they had frequent street get togethers. This past weekend we had a great time and it is also a very nice way to pool all your favorite appetizer/snacky foods together and just enjoy sitting in front of your houses with no fuss over cleaning a house or cleaning up etc.. We even have a guy who plugs in a couple of fans for our circle of friends visiting time. I snapped a photo just before the fun began. We ended up with around 15 peoples and a bunch of kids (note -the animal print shower curtain tablecloth, the spider man tablecloth and the flamingo tablecloth = anything goes for our decor of the evening spread and we all love the variety!).

Hot Fun in the Summer Sun

We spent a day in BHam this week watching the little girls while J went to a few appointments and ran "new house" errands. We had some hot fun in the summer sun at the park!




Nothing like a cool drink and a change of clothes after playing in the park.
What a special surprise I got today when the florist delivered these flowers from my daughter. Her sweet way of thanking me for being "Mama and Lolli". I would not trade those two names of mine for anything!

Batter up!

Batter Up #14!

My first week back from the trip was one of catching up and seeing a few of our grandkids! Harrison had a t-ball game and we enjoyed seeing him hit 2 great runs as well as his new buzz cut.
His mama sported her team shirt and cheered her son on to a victory! I saw Harrison's daddy checking his messages while watching the game. After all the Mayor's deputy sheriff is always on call for the city, ya know.
Sister Alex showed Lolli her monkey smile!
Sister Sydney did not much want her picture taken:)but I persisted anyway.
Brother Chad, like most teens, had the best of both worlds, his IPod and watching the game at the same time!

Heart ♥ theme

I have no idea who all is following my blog unless I have heard from you personally but for those who don't know me well or have not followed all the posts I have made in June, you might question this picture I post today. You have to read back through all 9 of my posts about Costa Rica to understand why in the world I would take a picture of my paper towels and my husband's coffee mug.
The 1st morning I was home from the mission trip, after a 1 am arrival the night before and a previous long day on flights and in airports, I walked my sleepy self into the kitchen and this is what I saw as I reached for the coffee pot! I don't remember buying those paper towels and Jack's cup is one he uses every week but the message on it was especially ♥heart felt to me that day.

God is a God of themes...a God of love... a God of affirmation and a God of reminders! His love endures forever.

Looking Back...over my time in Costa Rica

parachute fun with the kids
The chicken game in action
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet...and a light unto my path.

Alexis, one of my 3 roomates, brought with her a Costa Rica Survival Kit that her best friend made for her to bring and open a different envelope of encouragement each day while we were gone. What a great idea and what a special friend she has! We all waited in anticipation each day as she read the envelope of the day.
And her friend did not know how much the heart theme ♥ would be a part of our week either:)


These were our teenager team members. Great trio of guys! We could not have done the hard physical work without them and the kids loved their piggy back rides!
Praying together before a meal

Crazy Madge kept duct tape on her bed frame and secretly taped her mouth so her snoring would not bother us! That is a true friend for sure. I never got her picture actually doing it though:)

enjoying the monkeys with Madge


Yall call if you need a helping hand to mud your next wall! I can do it!


This is a team favorite. One of the Costa Rican mothers stuck this ♥ sticker on her baby boy while we were in VBS!


My boots after a week of painting and mudding. I donated them to the work site on our last day:)

Robert was a tender man on our team. The children just flocked to him. On our last night after Caroline and I gave a devotional on thanking God from our heart ♥ for the opportunity to be there, Robert wrote on our leftover craft hearts a letter to God about his grateful heart ♥.


Glen, our other team leader and his wife, Flavin were wonderful role models for all of us as servants for the Lord! This was taken at the rain forest restaurant.


Caroline and I with our Honeyword Bibles on the last night of the trip.