New York

Pappy has hit New York and at some point will be crossing into New Jersey.

Pappy made it!

Here are a few pictures Pappy sent me today. He made it to Maine and has stopped in CT again for the night. So he is now on the down side heading back home. He assured me that despite not having a smile on his self portraits he is having a good time. What a fun Pappy!!

A night stop in CT

Pappy called it an early night and stopped in CT around 11pm EST. He will be happily sleeping in the bed behind him and head north in the AM. I found out tonight that little Sturgis had to stay behind with Spam.

A rainy stop in PA

Pappy had to make a stop in PA to put on his rain gear but he pressed on!

Do you remember

Talking with a friend today, I was reminded how fun the kid shows used to be. What a special time it brings me back too. I guess I listened to Kenny Rogers one too many times on our trip. Well here are a few clips that bring a smile to my face with a blast from the past. The last two are mainly for those who grew up in Nashville in the 80's. I am sure I will remember more and search youtube.com! Do you have any suggestions?

Picture Pages




Simon in the land of chalk drawings



Hello Nashville (I still know all the words!)



Music Box Dancer (Channel 2 News)

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

No, not really but it is exciting. Monday, the triplets headed off to fourth grade and my baby waved as he went off into the sunrise in first grade. Fourth grade was my second favorite grade ever in school (second only to sixth) and it seems like only yesterday, 20 years ago. Oh, I am sorry, that is a Kenny Rogers song I veered off too and fourth grade was a little more than 20 years ago. I had Mr. Patterson. I think of him often and really need to send him a letter telling him how positive his class was for me. I remember how exciting it was to pass the three minute times table test for 12's and getting a Twix bar.

I am posting this year's first day picture and will have to look for the previous years' first day pictures to give you a comparison. How time flies!

I will hopefully post more of the trip pictures this weekend.

Guess who is on the road again?

Pappy called me today to inform me he was a little bit out of the WKRP listening area and well on his way on another "quick" motorcycle trip for the long weekend. After this trip, he will be able to cross off 13 more states in which he has rode through on his bike. Last text I got he was somewhere in Ohio. The picture he sent me left me a little puzzled. It looked like he would be calling it a night for sure. But he assured me he was only stopping for a break. I will keep you posted as long as he keeps me posted on this new adventure!

We're back and already missing the food of the south

Yes we are back in town. With Shirley and Jeannie as co-pilots and Pearl (my GPS) as our navigator, home was a puddle jump away from Arkansas. We pulled an all nighter and now can be called super-truckers. The kids and I put about 4600 miles on the van with this trip. We saw all four sets of grandparents and covered four states as far as visiting goes but we drove through a total of 11 states. We toured Jonesboro, GA (GWTW post), we visited and toured the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN, visited a cemetery where a lot of Harpoles are buried in Arkansas, and wrote our name on a Cadillac in Amarillo, Tx. Though the driving was fun with the kids (really it was, we had a good time) the trip was great as we centered it around family, friends and food we can't get at home.

We ate at Cracker Barrel five times in the two and half weeks we were gone. One in Texas, one in Georgia, one in Tennessee twice and one in Oklahoma. And what did I get every time you ask? Grilled chicken tenderloins, fried okra, hash brown casserole and grits with butter and sugar!! Yes, all five times. Unfortunately, we were only able to eat at Waffle House once. But I did get my Chick-fil-A fix three times. I went through Birmingham too late to get a Milo's. I think this was my first time I have had to skip Milo's. In GA, Meme fixed us the best gravy and biscuits and even grilled us fish for dinner one night (our one truly healthy meal). Then we headed to TN and had the best grilled cheeses Pappy has ever made along with being introduced to chocolate covered sunflower seeds by Debbie and Dottie. We enjoyed BBQ in Lynchburg and Debbie and I shared a true BBQ pizza. All my kids enjoyed ordering sweet tea at every restaurant in the South. Other than the Milo's miss and forgetting to get my boiled peanuts down the road from Meme's, and missing out on Bill's fried pork chops and forgetting to get Kristie to make me some baked beans, I had an enjoyable culinary trip. It is a shame a I have to cram all that good food in only once or twice a year. Now as I write this and literally feel my blood sludging through my veins, I have resided myself to do Medifast for a couple of weeks to detox. But don't feel too sorry for me yet, with Jeannie's bacon grease loaded green beans (they are soooo good) and her mashed potatoes and Shirley's chicken enchiladas, my smorgasbord has lingered a few extra days.

Signing off...

Ok, I am leaving for home (minus a few stops on the way) in the early morning. I will not be able to post until the beginning of next week. I know most of you will be able to handle the absence for a few days but for those who are obsessed, you will just have to work through it.

I find it funny because it is somewhat a joke about those obsessing over my blog. Those of you who know me well know what I am talking about. I would love to give you the link of my all time favorite site but then WWW land would cite me for being OCD. But that is what medication is for!!

Anyway... I was reading in one of my magazines, Woman's World I think (I love this magazine because it gives good helpful hints and does not give me quizzes on my sex life or love life or marriage to make me uncertain if I am doing all that can to have society's expectations met. If you have questions on those subjects, I suggest reading the Bible. Now back to my story...) I was reading about "social smarts". One reader wrote in to find a tactful way of telling the reader's friend, who insists on the reader checking out her blog and leaving comments, that her life is boring and the reader has better things to do than to read her friend's blog. My heart sank as I got closer to the end because I felt for sure it was going to say "Sincerely, Stacy's workmates or Stacy's family or the people where Stacy shops". So to those who amuse me by checking me out, Thank you.

The Wedding of the Year!!!

I will tell about the wedding weekend on another post but right now I wanted to share some of the pictures I had ready. Thanks to Kristie and Dottie for making sure they have had the cameras ready because I forgot to even take mine!!

HotLanta

As mentioned in an earlier post, the kids and I got to go to Jonesboro, GA for a history lesson in the Civil War and GWTW the last afternoon we were there. While we were at Meme and Wink's house, the kids had the opportunity to earn more Crack Barrel money by picking up pine cones. Wink took us to Cracker Barrel for dinner and each kid took the money they earned and went on a spending spree! The kids were also treated to a spin around town on Wink's motorcycle. He has helmets with microphones which was the highlight of the ride. Here are some pictures.

Southern ...lesson #1

Being in the South this past week, I realize how little the outside world really knows how a Southern talks. I will give you a quick lesson on two major things.

One being "fixing to." I am fixing to go to bed. I am fixing to leave work. I am fixing to eat supper. It simply means I am about to...(insert chosen action).

Another item is "iced tea". It is not flavored tea or unsweet tea poured in a glass to have sweetener added at will. Iced tea is already made sweet tea.

How do I make it? I personally heat water in a pot until it boils. I take it off the burner and let 5 family size tea bags steep for awhile. I then pour about a cup of sugar in the jug I am using for tea (usually a washed gallon milk jug) then add VERY hot water to the sugar and stir or shake until it is completely dissolved. Then I pour the tea into the jug of sugar water and add cold water until it is filled.

Is my sweet tea the correct most Southern way of making sweet tea. I don't know. This is just the way I was taught. My family loves it. My western raised husband and children love it.

My new brother-in-law...

I have so many pictures to go through of the wedding. I also have many pictures and videos to edit for fear of having something out in WWW land of me that I don't want people to see. LOL

But this YouTube is of my new brother-in-law from a few weeks ago. Since someone was so nice to put it on YouTube for him I feel the need to share it with anyone and everyone.

He is a fun guy and this is just a cute taste of what we have to look forward too at family get togethers for years to come. I sometimes wish I had a little Jessie in my pocket so I could have my own personal comedian.

Gone With the Wind

On our last day in Georgia, we visited the town in which GWTW was based. Jonesboro was a neat small town to visit for history short history lesson. We visited the GWTW museum and did a quick driving tour of Civil War homes and a cemetery. I have seen the movie close to a million times but finally got the book at the museum to read. After dinner at Cracker Barrel (that is two times for those counting in the last week), we headed back to watch GWTW so the kids would have an idea of what we were looking at earlier in the day. Number 3 decided there was too much death in the movie and prefers to read the book. The other kids decided to they liked the movie and were full of questions.

The next day the kids and I packed up and headed north to Tennessee for the BIG wedding of Spam and the Jess Man.

My intention for this entry was to post pictures of the kids at the train depot but alas time is not allowing me to do so. And with this being the BIG day, I will have to wait until tomorrow. Check back for pics!

Food of the South

Since the kids and I had already stopped at a Cracker Barrel a few states back, I opted to take the kids through Krystal. It was so good and #2 and #3 loved the Krystal Chicks and #1 and #4 enjoyed the Krystal Pups. I, of course, enjoyed my regular Krystal burgers and the old fashioned fried apple pies like McDonalds used to have before they tried to go all healthy on us.

After driving for days, I knew were in the south when I saw Krystal. White House has nothing on Krystal! Oh the stories I could tell about a few trips to Krystal in my younger days.

Oh the fun we had at the airport...

Wink is a retired Captain from Northwest Airlines. So flying for most his adult life, when he retired from Northwest he did not give up flying altogether. He has two airplanes, one 6 passenger plane and one one seater acrobat plane. He hangs out at the airport and introduced the kids to the airport last year when we were visiting. Last year, he flew the kids around in the six seater and showed off his skills in the acrobat plane. This year Wink is not feeling up to par for flying but the kids wanted to go to the airport to ride the electric scooter around the hangers. They also want to go so they can drink double fudge YooHoos. Last night, a buddy of Wink's was very kind to take each kid for a once around the airport in his plane "scrappy".

I did not have my camera so I had to this photo shoot with my phone camera, so I apologize for the fuzzy no flash photographs. Run your mouse over the picture and it will tell you who and what it is.

We are here!! update at our 1st stop...

As many of you know, my sister Spam is getting married next week. Yes, Spam is getting married which means she is over the age of consent which means we are all getting older. So the kids and I drove to the South. Yes, I drove it all by myself, with my kids. It was a long trip but a nice trip. We stayed in hotel rooms (which seems to be the high point of any trip for the kids) and we counted down the miles to our first Cracker Barrel. (This link is for a special friend who really does not know about the wonderfulness of this wonderful restuarant.)

Mr. Fixer Guy did a side job the day before we left and made some extra money to purchase me a new working radio for the van. It has its own hook up for my iPod. I had downloaded Kingdom Melodies with the words to listen to (the kids and I will have to give you mini concert of song #209), lots of Kingdom Books, Bible dramas, WT & Awakes and Delta Dawn to name a few things. We had alot of fun on the way out but the kids have requested that I do not bring any more frozen yogurt sticks.

Well I am sure you are waiting to here about more of our trip thus far but you will have to wait to hear about later. Now I have to head out to the Waffle House for dinner!!!

Bragging Time!!

How great are my kids? How awesome are my three 9 year olds and one 6 year old? This great and awesome!!



With little time to spare before our trip, I can take all four into a nail salon, use my gift certificate and feel totaly relaxed!! Yes you read that right. I was relaxed and enjoyed it with all four of my kids there. They didn't complain and were so well behaved. I was so proud. They sat nicely and talked with each other. They got to drink water from the water cooler (I have noticed that if a place where the kids have to sit, i.e., dentist office has a water cooler with cups, the kids are well entertained.) and pick out candy from the dish as we left.

With this post, it may sound like this was a first. But it's not. I just wanted to share my joy for the afternoon with WWW land. They just make me happy.

Let's Party!!

Last Saturday, friends of ours had a kid party with the congregations from their Kingdom Hall and invited us. We enjoyed the whole afternoon eating popsicles and chips and enjoying fellowship with other friends. T had assigned games to different moms and one game the kids played was the three legged race. The moms even did one race and fortunately I did not fall down. My game was a cake walk and the kids seemed to enjoy the brownies, cookies and little cakes I had made. Surprisingly it was not too hot.

Even though the kids played hard for several hours, they were very excited to go to Cracker Barrel for dinner. I was excited to go to Cracker Barrel for dinner. So now, the kids have decided to work hard before our trip to save up money to buy things at Cracker Barrel. We officially have a coin jug named "Cracker Barrel Money". Heaven help me, because next week the kids and I are heading to Cracker Barrel land and I will be expected to stop at every one we see. Happily, Waffle House offers a cheaper fare of food with no toys in sight and it is ranked second on their list of must stop places on our trips.

Pipe Man

CC has taken a keen interest in doing what he dad does lately. CC wants to build things and make things and work on things, with his dad. CC had made plans to do something with his dad this morning. As I was drying off from my shower, CC ran into the bathroom, very hot and sweaty but very excited to show me what he had made. His dad started teaching him how to weld and the end product was "pipe man". Pipe Man is now displayed proudly on his dresser.

As Seen On TV...take two

Ok, as some of you read earlier, I love "as seen on TV" products. They can sell me anything. But as a consumer who thinks about other consumers with who can't help themselves with "as seen on TV" products, I thought I would give you my take on a few other items I have tried.

1. Ped Egg
It works but not as good as I would like it too. I know several other people who use it regularly and they love it. For a buy under $10, I would say ok.

2. Urine Gone
I think it worked ok. The blue light was fun to use! Just don't use it in the bathroom if you have little boys because you will be scrubbing like a mad woman when you see the bathroom start to glow! The glowing stopped when I use the Urine Gone or when I just scrubbed the area that glowed. So if you have pets, I would say try it.

3. Craft Lite Cutter
If you "scrapbook", then this is the product for you! I don't "scrapbook" but I do some crafts and have use this neat cutter to produce fun edges very easy! I have even been known just to sit and cut paper with it because it was fun. The kids enjoy it and it gives a nice neat straight cut. I would say yes to this just for cutting out school pictures!


*Disclaimer* Please note that I do not endorse these products for any type of compensation. They are products I have tried and the opinions I have written are just that, opinions. I do not guarantee any of these products. I have given the link to www.asseenontv.com because it is a website I enjoy browsing. You may be able to find these products on another website or store for a different price. They may have their own website.

This is your first time here? Get out of here!

I can't believe that this could possibly be your first time checking out "the" blog. This means that you may not know who I am talking about when I use the code names because you didn't check out "the" blog when I had the survey. Oh, but you are reading it now. I see. Ok, I will drop the issue because if you are reading this now then you now know how to get to "the" blog and you can put it on your favorites.

Here is the run down of code names.

Child #1 will be called #1 or "runner" because she runs all the time.

Child #2 will be called #2 or "cc" because he HAS to be in charge of the channel changer all the time.

Child #3 will be called #3 or "dexter" (even though she does not like this term but refuses to give me an alternative) because she loves everything about school and reading.

Child #4 will be called #4 or "little poot" because Meme gave him this name and it seem to fit him well.

Now for the head honcho (sp?) of the clan-

If he is going on a road trip I call him "super trucker". He was "super trucker" when I met him because he was an owner/operator of a big rig.

If he is working with concrete (which was his trade for about 9 years of our togetherness)for any reason I call him "Mr. Shotcrete Guy".

If he is riding around or working on his motorcycles (depending on which one) I call him "Mr. Biker Guy" or "Mr. Dirt Biker Guy".

If he has modified something (ask me about the computer)I call him "Mr. Modifier Guy".

Now that he is in the pipe fitter's/plumber's union, I call him "Mr. Plumber Guy".

So I guess you get the picture on the code names for Big Daddy. Oh yeah, that is his general code name. Why? Well I thought is was cute. My aunt called my uncle that for fun and so I passed it on to, well, pick the code name of choice, because right now he is "Mr. Sleeper Guy".

Me, you ask? I don't get a cute code name because I am the one who gets to decide what goes on the blog for the world to read and "me" keeps it simple.