Lily

I was watering our plants and Lily decided to use the hose as a sprinkler. Last summer I ran over the hose, bought a new one and ran over that one as well. We decided to wait until the summer clearance this year to buy a new hose- which means we can't actually hook up a hose until we buy a new one. (Yes I flattened the nozzle both times) The picture of Lily up close is, according to Shawn, "all about perspective" She is not all out of proprtion like in the picture- though her eyes really are that blue.

Lily told me, "Mommy, I'm so baby tired I need a blankie and to watch a little bit of T.V." She choose the "french fries" blanket (click on the picture to see why we call it that) that her Grandma Camp made for her. You can see why eventually I really need to learn to sew....

Camping in September

We will be going camping on Friday September 5th. We had hoped to go camping many more times this summer, but between schedules and bad weather, this will be our only trip. If you are interested in camping with us, please call us and let us know. Anyone who knows us and is reading this is welcome to come as long as you call us no later than August 20th. We will go over the details with you when you call. There is no smoking or alcohol allowed and everyone is responsible for bringing their own equipment and food. We look forward to hearing from you!

Pictures we meant to send... but didn't

Charlie playing her clarinet and E&C in their recital.

These were taken by a friend at our church Memorial Party. We're planning on having her do the girls back to school pictures as well. It's nice to have a friend who is a photographer

Shawn's mom made each of the girls capes. Since I can't sew, I LOVE that she is always making them dresses and capes. Unfortunately, the girls not only love it for themselves but for their future children as well. Charlie and Emily are often on my case asking when I'm going to learn to sew so that I can do this for their kids as well. I told them- some day soon I'll learn.

Traveling (and eating!) in Memphis

From Guest Blogger, Shawn

Getting off the Ground
and underway

As indicated in previous posts to this Blog, my trip to Memphis started out with a bit of excitement. I should have known better than to keep going whn my poor little car chugged the first time. But then I thought, "Who in the world wants to hear from me at this time of day?" So on I went. Then the poor thing died completely after a brief puff of white smoke and all electrical going dead. Just inside an interstate construction zone as well. Well CRAP. I called my wife and the guy I was travelling with called his house. His mother, viziting from Newfoundland, Canada, says she'll come and get us, and my wonderful wife proceeds to take care of getting my car off the interstate before it gets towed.


Flying Down
and boy did my arms get tired!

From here I get on the plane to arrive in Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, continuing on to Atlanta, Georgia. Holy Humidity, Batman! I only thought it was humid at home. Images of parting the Red Sea in order to breathe came to mind . . . but I did come to my first Popeye's Chicken in I don't remember how long. Being in the airport, it was almost twice as expensive as it should have been, but I paid for it anyway. New Orlean's style fried chicken, redbeans and rice and the best biscuits anywhere. Our layover was long enough to enjoy lunch, browse the bookstore, (where I discovered Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card; it is now being turned into a movie!) From Atlanta, we got to fly back to Memphis, arriving in time to start the festivities kicking off a week.

The BIGGEST and LONGEST conference
I've been to, ever!!

We started the week by a trip to the Pink Palace. If you ever get down there, they have - with the recipe published - a genuine shrunken head. There were finger appetizers and drinks aplenty, but the heat and humidity outside and noise and confusion of 600+ people inside (on the heels of travelling all day) tainted my experience a bit. Back to the Hotel. Since my room was on the 12th floor, all I will say is thank goodness for elevators. . .

The conference begins . . .

Why am I here again?

I wasn't feeling too well that first morning, so I skipped breakfast. Even though there were Hogwart's portions of sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, fresh-cut fruit and all kinds of other things . . . I had to skip them. Needing something to else to do to keep me away from the buffet, I happened across just the ticket, (even though it was on an XBox 360 - Microsoft was a key sponsor after all).

After a day of presentations by folks who are using the same system we are, we got the treat of a lifetime:

Graceland!

Okay, so maybe it wasn't the treat of MY lifetime, but enough folks back home would have choked me if I hadn't gone that I felt compelled . . .

It wasn't the vision of magnitude that I expected. Opulent: absolutely. Extravagent: not really. The grounds were beautiful and the house was very richly furnished, but it wasn't the sheer volume that I expected for the reputation that Graceland has about it. What suprised me most was the location is was in. Tough neighborhood. Though, I will also say, I have never seen shag carpet used as a ceiling covering before. Let me know if you want to see more pictures of this event.

After this, we get trucked back to the hotel for night of sleep. Here is what the view from my room looked like.

The Rest of the Week

was all a blur of food, Beale Street and breakout sessions!

I had the opportunity to eat so much southern cooking, it was amazing. I've lived in a lot of places in this country, and there is not a 'category' of food I like better. Bar none. These pictures were originally intended to prove to my poor wife at home that I can eat good for me when I am away from home, but I gotta tell you: That lasted about a day and a half. That's when I met Polly's Chicken, right on Beale Street. Yes, that is a hot, buttered waffle, turnip greens and the best fried chicken you are likely to find in Downtown Memphis.

If you haven't visited any of the other links, you need to see the Gibson Guitar Factory site. The few pictures I took just don't do it justice. And you can't hear it. This tour was absolutely worth the $10 and hour wait to get in. I won't go into detail because their site does a much better job (and I don't type so quickly), so just go there already!

I also got the chance to see a AAA baseball game, the hometown Redbirds agains the Portland Beavers. Couldn't pass up a match like that. The park was awesome, but the home guys were getting spanked. Add to that the ambient air temp was 92 with almost 100% humidity, and my friend and I were just melting. We couldn't take any past the middle of the 6th (4-0) so we took off.

The Trolley system on Main Street was awesome, but slow and loud.

Beale Street was amazing - after 5pm. Prior to that, you could fire a cannon down the street and no one would hear it or care. The Hard Rock is about the southern end, and every

Wednesday is Biker Wednesday. At the north end is the infamous Orpheum. What a place . . . live music in every store and in every alley in between. It was amazing that there was really very little interference from one set to the next.

On the whole, it was a fabulous trip. I have more pics to share if you are interested, just let me know. I am very glad to be home!

Shawn

When it's faster to drive....

Well our crazy week without Shawn is almost to an end. He left last Sunday with a bang (and a puff of smoke from his car) and hopefully will be back home without one. As he was being driven to the airport this morning (at about 4:30 a.m.) and mentioned to his driver that he wouldn't land until about 4:30 p.m. his driver used GPS to figure out how long it would take to drive- about 11 hours. The round about way he's been flown is actually taking longer than if he had driven himself. This is especially disturbing b/c his conference actually ended early- at about 2 instead of 5 p.m.- He could have been home really late last night- or, by noon if they had stopped to sleep. Instead, we're hoping for about 4:30- we won't really know until the airline manages to find them a plane- currently there isn't one for them..............

Odometer Readings

This summer, as gas keeps rising, we're working on walking/biking more and driving less. I have some great friends that are far better at it than me- Lisa bikes everywhere- with upto 5 kids in tow and Vanessa walks every where- with 1 on a bike, 2 in a stroller and one strapped to her chest. so, my walking/biking isn't extreme, but we're saving money on gas and getting more exercise. This week, we managed about 32 miles in the car- not bad when you think of how many miles it will be next week- when we go to the Mall of America

The Best Job in the World

Our fabulous Home Teacher, David, works for a food company and takes part in tastings- where a huge package of food is opened and everyone tries it for quality control. Today, David was involved in trying bacon. Not your run of the mill grocery store bacon, but the fabulous maple pepper bacon you might be lucky enough to get at your favorite breakfast place. Emily, realizing that David often not only tries foods at work but sometimes gets to take home free samples to his family, commented "He has the best job ever! Why can't Daddy work there?" I had no answer to this one, because really, how do you compete with fabulous bacon brought straight to your door?

Swimming Lessons

Charlie and Emily are officially done with swimming lessons this year. Charlie finished at the middle school where she swam almost 2 hours per day and Emily graduated out of our local pool. I find it amusing that the local pool tells you to go to the YMCA when you finish their swimming lessons- even they know that just because you're done at the public pool you still need more lessons!
Lily has another 2 weeks of swimming. She has remained in the preschool level all summer. At 3, they simply won't move you up. Her last 2 sessions she has completed everything but her instructor has each time added that due to her age she should repeat the preschool level. This is fine with us as she is barely 3, but it's funny that really, she's not learning anything. Still, she's having fun and enjoying the water so we have no complaints.

Sunday Morning........

Sunday Mornings should be peaceful and quiet. They should involve church and music and a renewal of your spirit. They should NOT involve your phone ringing at 6:00 a.m. to inform you that one of your vehicles is now on the side of the road 20 miles from your house and it's now your job to get the vehicle to the auto shop because the driver has left it there in order to make their flight.
When your Sundays start out this way they tend to go down hill fast. At least this Sunday was saved by a great potluck for those of us involved in the Relay for Life. Thanks Renee for hosting it and to everyone who gave donations. We raised $5,000.

Memory Tag

This is a fun idea that I liked on Dawn's blog so I thought I'd try it here:

Share a fun memory of us (yes you and me) and post it here and then post this on your blog I'll do the same on your blog if you have one.

Secret Tricks of Walmart

Walmart has just opened in our town. It opened on Wednesday and we have already made 3 trips and will now need to make another one. We are at Walmart's mercy and it's slowly going to drive me crazy I'm sure.

We went on Monday night to a"special sneak preview" since Shawn is on the P&Z board. We thought it would be a great way to get some staples we needed. When we went to purchase some items we were told that no one could buy anything it was just a chance to look around. At least Lily got a piece of cake.
Lily and I went back again on Wednesday to actually buy the items we wanted where Lily again received a free piece of cake. (Walmart is now her favorite place- she was excited to see Spammy- a large can of Spam and a Subwau Sandhich Superhero there- it's now her favorite store).
Shawn, feeling left out of shopping and hearing about all the great deals wanted to go back and stock up on Spam which was going for the bargain price of $1.50 per can. We picked up a case (11 cans- of Spam Light and 1 can Bacon) as well as a few other things and made our way to the check out- secure in the fact that it would be at least 2 weeks before we needed to again go to Walmart. Unfortunately, when we got home and looked over our receipt we noticed that Walmart only charged us for 1 can of each kind of Spam- which means we received 10 free cans and now need to go back and pay for the other 10 cans.

It drives me crazy but atleast they didn't charge us for something we didn't buy.....

Welcome to our blog

As Shawn's mom birthday present- a digital photo key chain sits still unfinished, (her birthday was in January) I thought "hey, if we had a blog I could post pictures and then the family and friends who wanted to know wht we were upto and see pictures of the kids could find them and I could feel less guilty about not getting the pictures out- so here we are.

As for our name? Shawn had a dream about a year and a half ago. I'm sure it was very VERY funny since his really loud laughter woke me up. Trying to figure out what was going on I asked him what was so funny. His answer was "the daughters" when I asked what about the daughters he answered through his laughter, "they're so short!!!!" The next morning I told Shawn all about his dream which he of course never remembers. But, when I told him what he said he just started laughing again. Even now, when we say the daughters, they're so short he starts laughing. We'll always wonder about that dream......