Oops!!!

Evidently I've been gone from the blogging world longer than I thought, I forgot to allow comments on my previous posts.  

So sorry if you had a passionate compliment to share...or even a burning criticism about how inane and ridiculous we are.  (We can take it, I mean it'll still hurt, but we can take it.)

Which brings me to my favorite story of the week:  Jennifer Livingston is my new hero!!

Happy Friday, my friends, commence commenting!


For more Unnecessary Necessities, check out:

Day 1 - Jen

Day 1 - Pam

Day 2 

Day 3

Day 4

Young Us/Now Us

I know it’s been a while.  I know! 

I did move.  I deserve a little slack. 

I also discovered Pinterest.

A bit of a time suck, that.  But a fun one.  If you want to join, you need an invitation.  You can get one here.

But in the midst of all that, I went home to my Mom’s.  Their pool needed repainting.

Anywho.  While at home, my sister and I finally did something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time. 

We recreated a picture of us as kids.  I’m submitting it to YoungMe/NowMe. 

Just.  Fun.

Here’s two of the cutest, smallest girls ever.

    

And here we are now.  Not fitting at all into the toy box.

Fun Fact:  That toy box was my grandfather’s Army locker.  My grandfather that stormed the beaches of Normandy in WWII. 

Well.  That was a fun time, there. 

Do you have some retro photos that you want to recreate for this project?  Believe me, do it.  It was loads of fun.

Hello, my name is Jen and I’m a band nerd.

I came across this video today and it thrilled me.

If you were in marching band, you will appreciate this as much as I did. This is like EXtreme Marching Band. Love it!

Hopefully those of you unlucky enough to have escaped the marching band stigma will enjoy it as well.

I just wish I had been able to march in this video with my flute.

See, I told you I am a nerd. Still pining over the good ole days.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

Maybe I’ll just have to arrange my own marching band extravaganza video. Who’s with me?

45 seconds well spent

Although it’s a little suspect. The ice wouldn’t survive all that fire.

A little video enjoyment for you

This just brought me much needed joy today.

So I felt the need to share it with all of you, my friends.

You can just feel the passion they sing with, especially the second chorus.

I’ll quit talking now & let you watch.

Enjoy!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

A product we can get into (get it?) (heh heh)

Have you seen this? I know it’s making its way around the interweb. Everyone’s making fun, but I think this is absolutely BRILLIANT!!!

Pajama Jeans.

Comfortable like sweats, stylish like jeans.

So comfortable, you’ll want to sleep in them.

Pam and I have been heard. Our desire to stay in our pajamas all day has not fallen on deaf ears.

Now this company has not paid us for this post, but they totally should. They should totally sponsor this blog. I mean, really. What better fit is there for them than PJsTilNoon?

I think that if these live up to their promises, I may have to get about 5 pair and wear them every day.

Just imagine the possibilities.

You’re taking a nap and some pesky delivery person rings the bell. You jump up and nobody is the wiser. He’s thinking, “She’s put together, ready to go out and now that she’s not waiting on this package, she can.” instead of “Wish I could lay around all day, but some people gotta work for a living.”

Now I know what you’re thinking. If we are willing to share with the world wide web that we love staying in our pjs until noon, why would we care what Mr. UPS man thinks? Well, obviously we really don’t care enough to actually transition out of the pjs, but pjs that masquerade as actual clothing… we may have to re-name the blog.

All-PJs-All-The-Time.com has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

A lesson on Thanksgiving

My oldest son is reading books for his History and English parts of school. One of the books he read was The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty. So for a “break” today, I asked him to come up with a lesson from the book for Livy & Gabe. He read a chapter from the book then had them re-enact it. With props. It was great.

I don’t think you can see it, but they are harvesting and shucking paper corn. (Please ignore the vacuum in the other room.)

Davy is explaining the animals and how to kill them with the beads he provided.

“Stay there, bear. Let them kill you.”

He made all of the props himself out of construction paper. He tapped the creative portion of his gene pool.

Livy is aiming and throwing the beads to kill the paper animals.

Look at the rack on that deer. Can you tell the boy loves hunting? I think that’s his dream deer.

“Let us give thanks for our paper meal.”

“Now, dig in!”

They rounded out the lesson by telling things they are thankful for. Family, food and dog were in the top 3.

I’m thankful for 3 things as well. Can you guess what they are?

Sunday Afternoons were made for the river

We have spent the last 2 Sunday afternoons at the river. Same river (I think) but different spots on it. This is at a friend’s river house. They had a wave runner & boat. I didn’t pull the camera out until the day was almost done. We were relaxing up on the bank & the kids were jumping off the pier.

Gabe climbed up on that post and did a flip off of it. It’s blurry, but the best one I got (dang shutter delay on the camera).

Here’s the beautiful sunset. I can almost feel the mosquito bites now.

It really was beautiful, though.

Ok. Here’s part 2. Our church picnic was at a campground on the river. One of our church girls brought her puppy and Livy never let that dog alone. It sure was a cutie.

Gabe got in on the puppy swim lessons.

Poor dog would swim to the shore and they’d drag him back out. He seemed not to mind too much. I hope…

He’s making his getaway. Quick, puppy! They’re right behind you.

This is what Davy was doing while they were “teaching” the pup to swim. This boy loves fishing.

Gabe found a dead crab and had to have a picture of it.

We have been busy going places lately. And I really have not a whole lot to say, so you get pics of what we’re up to.

Maybe next you’ll get to see us at Busch Gardens. I’m just glad nobody got pics of the last trip, where I split the seat of my shorts. Luckily it was the end of the day and dark. I made Liv give me her shirt to tuck in my waistband to cover the gaping hole (she was wearing her swimsuit underneath).

That was the breeziest walk back to the car…ever.

What kinds of things are you doing to round out your summer?

A little about camp, but very little, I'm busy...

Pam and I have been talking a lot about camp lately.

I am realizing that some of you may not be familiar with the church camp world.
We go for a week at a time. The camps are split up by age. High School, Middle School, Junior, Primary.

This week is the last one (primary).

Although I'm happy that camp season is almost over (I'm super dog-tired), I will miss all of the fun that we have working camp. I have some friends that I only see at camp, and I will miss seeing them for another year.

Tony over at Muddied Waters has posted his top 5 things he likes about camp.
This may give you a little insight to what we love about camp.

I call it my happy place.

Well, I'm off for one last week. I'll try to sneak away sometime this week and post. If not, know I'm laughing, goofing off, having great coffee (one perk) and working very very hard.

Hey, someone has to sell the cheap junk and take the little kiddies' money.

The Best Week EVER!!!

Ok, so y'all know that the blog has been feeling a little neglected lately, right? Well, one more week and we should be back to our not-so-regular schedule.
But this is in no way a post about our forsaking all of our bloggy friends.

Ohhhh, no.

This is about the absolute, most definite wonderfullest, funnest, most fabulous laughter filled week of groovy Church Camp in the history of Church Camp.

And who is responsible for this groundbreaking event?

Well, if I have to answer that question for you I'm not sure we can be friends.

Pam and I have made reference to the fact that we would be in the same cabin of girls at camp for a while now, and if you've not been paying attention or just don't know how highly we think of ourselves, I'll give you a refresher.

Our narcissism may be worse now, that we had an entire week of BFF splendor and didn't even lose one child. (Although we may or may not have wanted to.)

*side note: This could very well be full of bird-walking and just jump randomly from one subject to the next with no warning at all. Pam and I still have "campovers" and may seem a little befuddled.

Do I need to start over?

About 3 weeks ago I was headed to camp to do the very important job of running the camp store. Let me tell you that this is the most important, crucial and demanding job on the campground.

Alright, not really. It's a cake walk.

On the way to camp that week, I stopped at Pam's for a quick chat because it was about the halfway point. I told the kids they had about a half-hour to play before we hit the road again.
2 hours later, we were on the couch and talking about the week she would be working camp.

That is when inspiration struck.
The room darkened and there was a glow all around us.
It was divine inspiration.
We could be in the same cabin.
All week.
Us.
Together.
After our involuntary separation.

BRILLIANT!

So that was this past week. It lived up to all of the expectation and more. So much more.
More laughter. More goofiness. More fun.
Very little depth.

I mean it.

Dave asked if we talked about church at all.
I can't remember a single serious conversation.

It was a dream week.

More posts with pictures will come.
I promise you, you will be sick of seeing our mugs.

And the best part, she's coming back to camp again. It won't be the same, though. I'll be doing my store job and she will be in a cabin. But we will steal some BFF time from this camp, I assure you. In Jesus' Name.

Groooovy -- Jesus is a friend of mine

In honor of my month-long sojourn to the 70's here at Va COG Youth Camp, I present you with the following video.
Here is my disclaimer. It could or could not be from the 70's. I don't know. The men's shirt collars definitely fit, but the ladies' hair looks more 80's. So... IDK.
But I found this on the Stuff Christians Like blog.
I laughed and did that awkward "no they aren't serious" face.
Enjoy!

Family Reunion Fun with Fireworks and Freedom

I stood outside tonight listening to fireworks, laughter, screaming, barking and the general hub-bub. It was one of those moments that you tuck away to pull out when you need a pick-me-up. (Cuz you know you will, eventually.)

Today was the start of Hubba-Bubba's family reunion. Lots of family from all over the country are here and we have laughed almost the entire time. My kind'a reunion. The kids all found cousins they don't remember or have not met before and paired up to play. The cousins that Dave grew up with were all sharing memories from childhood (mostly of them getting in trouble for incredibly stupid/funny things). In general just plain ole good times people, good times.

Then tonight after dinner, the boys pulled out their haul from the fireworks run they made earlier. My camera was dying by the time we got to this, so I had to copy the above pic from a cousin's facebook post. But that was right in the front yard. Pretty impressive for a home fireworks display. But we are in TN for the reunion and they have the good stuff here. As Dave so eloquently put it, "Tennessee is the patron state of blowing crap up." He's all mine, folks, so keep off his well-spoken, cultured self.

Well, now we are inside and the kids are watching a movie. Bet you can't guess what it is.


Seriously.


O Brother Where Art Thou?

Too funny. And they are discussing plot lines and quotes like avid fans. Well, good. You have to be a fan to live in this family.

Well, family is all around and I'm secluded here with my laptop. I'm wrapping this up so I can get back to the chatting and laughing.

Hope your 4th is as wonderful as mine has already been. And I get more tomorrow!

Yay Freedom!

The 10 year old Lulu

There seems to be a theme running around blogland. And I'm perpetuating it.

Our kids are getting older, and we don't like it. Not one little bit.

Sunday was my middle child, Olivia's 10th birthday. We were at church in West Point, then lunch and the drive home. Liv requested Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper. We believe in fine dining on your birthday.

So the girl and I took a trip to the local Food Lion to pick up the ingredients (i.e. box & burger). She also picked out her cake and which color pre-made icing letters to put on the cake.

This pic was taken in the car on the way.

That's how we roll in this house. Crunchy icing in the shape of a letter takes the cake! Haha! Just don't get the red/yellow ones. They are awful.

So we have her Birthday meal, which was chock full of healthy goodness, see?

Cake & Hamburger Helper, fine eatin'.

This was the next day. We had a thing this year, instead of the entire family going out for a birthday, one parent and the birthday child go out to dinner, their choice. The boys both chose Sakura, the Japanese cook in front of you place. Liv also wanted to do that and at the last minute switched to the Chinese buffet. She is already exercising her female perogative to change her mind at the last minute. This is her with her plate piled high.

YES! That is sushi on her plate. She loved it.

Who knew that one of my kids would like raw fish? I think she would make a great chef. She loves just about any type of food. It took me about 20 years to develop the same tastes she already has. She likes avacado, hummus, fetta...grown up food.

And all that fruit. I was blessed with kids that love fruits & veggies. They even ate brussel sprouts. I don't think I could get away with that agian, but they did eat them.

Where was I? Oh, Baby Girl's birthday. (She's got like 38 nicknames.)

10. That's double digits. *big ole sigh*

My babies are growing up and there's nothing we can do to stop it. They are the best kids ever and I love watching them grow into people who I would love to just hang out with.

Well, Happy Birthday to my 10 year old stringbean.

ZORB --- boys + giant ball + dads = enourmous fun

This is a zorb. Doesn't that just look like so much fun? I wanted so bad to get in that thing and roll down the hill. But, then all of the stinky boys got in it and defiled the aura. So there goes that...

This is my youngest. Excited as all get out about rolling down a pretty big hill in a big ole ball.

Get all buckled in, there.

This is the oldest. Getting ready.


That's him, ready to go.

These are the dads, getting ready to launch the zorb as it rolls down the hill. Can you say human ramp? There's Hubba-Bubba in the dark shirt. He's all excited about the idea of launching his son into orbit.

See all of those grown men, bowing to the giant ball? That's how you get them in the air...


There is my firstborn. See his head, up there about 6 feet in the air? Yes, that is about 3 feet of air between the ball and the ground. And his father is responsible.

Ok, he's all in one piece. Maybe I'll save the safety lecture... Really, it looked like a TON of fun and were it not for the smelliness I just may have launched myself...

That's what happens when you spent the weekend with about 300 boys.

***UPDATE***

If you want another perspective of Boy's Bash or The Bash of Boys, go here and read my hubs' post on his blog. I'm wondering if I really want to send you over there, but I will. You'll see...