Knox in November

Here is your next pro golfer, folks! Knox loved the golf course and this boy is fascinated with wheels and driving too.




See! He has already made a hole in one at age 15 months!

Yes this boy is all boy! He likes dirt and sand and...
to make noise!

too many photos and not enough time to post all that I would like but here are the highlights of our time with Mr.Knoxie recently. He is just so adorable that I had people standing in line wherever we went to admire his hair and to touch it, that is if he let them get near enough to us. He was not sure at times if I would leave him or not since he is just getting used to staying with us periodically so he was rather opinionated about who could actually hold him. Thankfully he easily went to Pops or me all 4 days and that is all that really counts (ha!)!




I've got a few more pictures that I want to share but they will have to wait til tomorrow-I am still catching up around here!

I miss him so much already that it hurts

Guess whose coming to my house for a few days?

TLC-Veterans Day-AUMC

Our Church, AUMC, has been developing a relationship with a nearby small town community, Loachapoka, for years. I just recently decided to get involved with this ministry and "give back" some of the TLC that I received from my church and working on mission trips in foreign countries. I felt a little tug in my heart to do something nearby this year and I am just now getting my feet wet.
AUMC hosted a mini VBS on Veterans Day for 70 children, ages 5 to 13.






Such precious faces just reminded me that I have so much to give and blessings to share with those that are not as fortunate as me.

My part in this day with Loachapoka was to be in charge of guess what?....GAMES! Of course I had to try my ants in the pants game on these kids.
It was a whole lot easier working with english speaking kids than spanish speaking but they were very lively and kept 2 of us on our feet for 4 hours :)

it was fun to see each one of them get excited to wear the pants after they won that place bu throwing the ant in.
this little cutie was happy to lay on the gorund waiting on her turn. I noted that all these kids really want is a little fun and attention. I made it my intention to do just that with all 70 of them during their game time.
Seth is a very talented unicyclist in our church and community and he was happy to share his talent with the kids during our last few minutes together.
Those that wanted to could try their own legs on it too.
Feeding them lunch was a gift and gave us a chance to fellowship with them over a good balanced meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans and applesauce. I was amazed that many of them asked for seconds on the green beans and applesauce (and defintely the rolls):)
a few of our church member's children helped out with the craft time and experienced what it means to give back on their day off from school.
We had a "Shoebox Ministry Project" for the kids to help with and they too were able to "give back" to children in other countries who have no Christmas.
Each child helped prepare a shoebox filled with gifts for children as well as make a few crafts for themselves.
Lolli's loves just keep on growing!
oh yeah, we tried playing the chicken in the buckett game too. The kids absolutely loved both games and were sad when game time was over.
Me too, I was sad to only have 20 minutes with each group.
The tug on my heart just got stronger this week. I loved being a part of the TLC that was spread today.
After my wonderful day at the church with these kids, I had to make a quick run to the grocery store and lo and behold I ran into one of my dear Potluck friends who had just arrived in town for the big game this weekend. Sarah and I must have stood ther 45 minutes catching up.
I went home so happy and so blessed on this Veterans Day. While I thought about our Veterans who have served and are serving, it gave me much inspiration to keep on serving in ways that I can here at home.

Special needs

This past weekend during our little jaunt to the big warehouse yard sale in Opelika, there was a special memory made. Chad, who is 21, and a special needs guy, usually goes along with whatever we are doing. He may or may not repeat numerous times that he wants to go back to home base and listen to his music or play his games but he never complains or whines or causes any frustration to us. He just repeats :) whatever is on his mind until he thinks he got a satisfactory answer. I personally enjoy him alot and our mutual love for Michael W. Smith music is always fun to share.

On the way over to the yardsale we told the 3 kids they could find something for $5 or spend a total of $5 on whatever they wanted. Harrison busted into the store with definite opinions of the treasure he wanted to find. There was no doubting when he found his bead chain necklace, his scary mask and freaky feet, and one of those whirly tubes that makes a cave sound when you swirl it. He was a happy camper! After he was quite satisfied with his finds, I asked him to assist me in helping Chad find something. I've discovered that he likes the challenge of helping and continue to praise him for that gift in his nature. Meantime, I helped Alex pick out a girl swirly stick that had rainbow streamers and then she wavered back and forth between a dress up outfit to take home and a wooden horse for dolls. She chose the horse :)
There were 5 or 6 rows of numerous booths and it was quite frankly hard to keep up with those 3 wanting to go in all directions. At one point the kids found a treadmill to play on while Pops supervised and I was able to scan the area for SOMETHING Chad might want. There was no cd's of interest and not much else for a special needs guy of age 21. Then suddenly he told me he wanted a radio, ah! So the 5 of us set out again to walk up and down each row looking for any kind of radio of sort. Wouldn't you know that the last row of vendors on the floor under a table, Harrison spotted a boombox. There were several older adults sitting there at this booth and they all jumped up when they saw 5 of us coming to look at their stuff. Chad ran to it and bent down and YELLED "Look, look it is only $5.00!!!!-yeah man, yeah Lolli, yeah Pops, look, Harrison, look Alex--- I got me a radio and a cd player in one!" HE was ecstatic and seeing him like this, so were we and the vendors of this booth, especially since it was the last hour of the sale and they were anxious to clear out their inventory!

Everyone was hugging each other and we did not even know these people.

I am telling you this boy was so happy and we still had to eat lunch before we went home. Let me just tell you, we heard 50 times during our hamburger lunch that he was going to play his music all weekend on HIS boombox and he was still shaking his head that it was only $5. I was a tad bit concerned that it would have a glitch in it but held my breath til we got home and sure enough the boombox did us all proud... Our house rocked this weekend! My soul will always smile back on this memory with Chad. He is a very special guy.

(click on the link here to hear Chad tell about his excitement)http://v13.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id=4e8c58497c762c3e&itag=18&app=blogger&ip=0.0.0.0&ipbits=0&expire=1291571331&sparams=id%2Citag%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Cexpire&signature=4936361D0C1AB1BDEC81A9CD64BCD5D29350AF08.57F18B14C503182BD01D2126948FFBD39A94960&key=ck1

Fun time with Chad, Harrison and Alex

Jeff and Penny had an invitation to enjoy a night away at Calloway Gardens this weekend so we got a fun night with their kids minus one (Sydney had a girl scout campout)!
I told Penny to bring them all in Auburn stuff cause we were going to go celebrate all the hooptola with everyone else downtown.

The kids had never been on the shuttle buses so we ventured there with them.

Alex loved it as we greeted 30 something people all dressed in their proper orange and blue but we had to put our hands over Harrison's mouth for saying "roll tide" when he walked down the bus aisle.


This kid will say he is for Alabama just to get a rise out of you but by the time we arrived downtown, he was convinced he was for AUBURN today.
like balloon shapes and ...
face painting was enough to take that Alabama frown off his face and put Auburn smiles all over it!
Chad was happy to look for "football cards" even though we knew he would not find any. He has always loved collecting baseball and football cards and had high hopes that this would be a good place to find some.
Alex was easy to please also with the Aubie balloon and her cheerleading face paint design. She did ask me several times "when can we go back to your house and play Barbies and dressup?"



Jack wanted to make a quick drive thru the new Auburn Airport area on our way home and we found it very interesting that this is how many private planes were parked for the big AU Homecoming game.

We told the kids we would stop at the gigantic yard warehouse sale in Opelika before going home and they could each buy something for $5. NO problem with that- even though it took Chad 20 minutes to find his treasure, HE FOUND IT ALRIGHT! This boombox was like PERFECT for this special needs very special guy. He loves music and is always listening to his Ipod or cd player. We all were ecstatic with Chad when we saw a $5 price on the boombox. Harrison and Alex were smiling along with Pops and me. And as you can see, the lady who sold it was also happy with us. It was one of those moments that you know is meant to be!

Harrison the ever present charmer, buying 4 things that totaled for $5. One of them was a new Halloween mask of which I feel sure will be played with and destroyed before next Halloween but who cares. It made the boy very happy to find a gross mask, fake funky plastic feet, a beaded chain for guys, and a whirly gig that swirls around in a circle. He was much happier at the yard sale than he was at the Auburn celebrations. Sports is just not his thing but buying toys that he can be creative with sure is!

As soon as we got home, little "David" here ran outside with no shoes on in 47 degree weather to shoot his slingshot that he brought with him from home. I made him promise me he would not shoot at my birds and challenged him to find a "Goliath squirrel" or two!

The kids and I took a nice walk around the neighborhood while Pops watched Alabama get depressed on TV and we visited the two horses that we have not seen in a while.

We had to run home and get in a little dress up time to warm up and the kids enjoyed putting on their usual "clown and princess" skit. Ah, the hero and silly stuff. It was another all around great Lolli and Pops weekend!