The North and South

The North has Bloomingdale's, the South has Dollar General.
The North has coffee houses, the South has Waffle Houses.
The North has dating services, the South has family reunions.
The North has switchblade knives; the South has Lee Press-on Nails.
The North has double last names; the South has double first names.
The North has Indy car races; The South has stock car races.
The North has Cream of Wheat, the South has grits.
The North has green salads, the South has collard greens.
The North has lobsters, the South has crawfish.
The North has the rust belt, the South has the Bible Belt.

FOR NORTHERNERS MOVING SOUTH . . .
In the South --If you run your car into a ditch, don't panic.
Four men in a four-wheel drive pickup truck with a tow chain will be along shortly.
Don't try to help them, just stay out of their way.
This is what they live for.
Don't be surprised to find movie rentals and bait in the same store....
do not buy food at this store.
Remember, "Y'all" is singular, "all y'all" is plural, and "all y'all's" is plural possessive

Get used to hearing "You ain't from round here, are ya?"
Save all manner of bacon grease. You will be instructed later on how to use it.
Don't be worried at not understanding what people are saying.
They can't understand you either.
The first Southern statement to creep into a transplanted Northerner's vocabulary is the adjective "big'ol," truck or "big'ol" boy.
Most Northerners begin their Southern-influenced dialect this way.
All of them are in denial about it.
The proper pronunciation you learned in school is no longer proper.!
Be advised that "He needed killin." is a valid defense here.
If you hear a Southerner exclaim, "Hey, y'all watch this," you should stay out of the way.
These are likely to be the last words he'll ever say.
If there is the prediction of the slightest chance of even the smallest accumulation of snow, your presence is required at the local grocery store. It doesn't matter whether you need anything or not. You just have to go there.
Do not be surprised to find that 10-year olds own their own shotguns, they are proficient marksmen and their mammas taught them how to aim.
In the South, we have found that the best way to grow a lush green lawn is to pour gravel on it and call it a driveway.

AND REMEMBER: If you do settle in the South and bear children, don't think we will accept them as Southerners. After all, if the cat had kittens in the oven, we wouldn't call 'em biscuits.

Clay Balls

A man was exploring caves by the Seashore.
In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls.
It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake.
They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.
He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock . Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure.
He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!
It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.
We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person. There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.
May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them.
I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have.
Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel.
APPRECIATE EVERY SINGLE THING YOU HAVE, ESPECIALLY YOUR FRIENDS!
LIFE IS TOO SHORT AND FRIENDS ARE TOO FEW!
Pass this on to another Clay Ball!!!

Do not ask the Lord to Guide your Footsteps if you are not willing to MOVE your Feet

Introducing Mr & Mrs Lee Willmon

Follow this link to view My sister's wedding photo's

Introducing Mr & Mrs Lee Willmon

Troop 85 returning home

Click here to view this video

This is a video that a friend of mine shot of the boys returning from Camp Saturday. You have to have your volume on & listen to our horn on the bus we have. So funny to hear them coming & going.

I tried to do a video but my little camera that should have worked did not work. Caroline & I are alot alike. We go to the same church, we have great husbands, our oldest boys are in baseball, we do the Scout thing with the same troop, we are trying to raise two boys the best we can & we love our camera's. Ton's of other things in common. Her family is a really sweet Christian family. Go take a look at her blog of pictures. She does a great job. If I don't get the shot Caroline or another mom Tami M. got it. (The things in common can also describe Tami). We do love us some picture taking. Caroline takes her's a step farther than I do.....She Scrapbooks. She also sells the products. Be sure & take a look at her stuff.

Those who know me can get a peek at me in the video & hear my voice. That we could have done without. The "Let's go find brother" is not my brother. She is talking to her little boy.

Mohawk or Not

I am gonna be holding my breath when I go to pick Chris up tomorrow.
Will he have the Mohawk or not?

That is how my last post left off.

Well Chris has been picked up after arriving back to the church from his Boy Scout Camp Out.

(AFTER)

So far he has no regrets.

As long as my 11 year old did not come back with piercings or tattoos the hair thing does not bother me as much.

This is a picture of some of his friends in the group that also got the famous haircut.

By the way...next Saturday my sister is getting married so guess who will be sporting his Mohawk for the family pics?

Chris at Boy Scout Camp

(Chris is 2nd from left)

Chris has been at Boy Scout camp all this week. We had family night Wednesday. All the boys will be back tomorrow & I imagine will be really tired.

I snapped this picture of him while there Wednesday.

Boy Scout Survival Camp was a couple of weekends back & Summer Camp for both boys is coming up. I do believe they will be camped to death soon. I am so thankful we can give them the opportunities we didn't get growing up. Chris seems to have fun spending time with his friends during the summer. Hopefully he will look back & have fond memories of his time at camp.

I got a phone call today asking if it was ok to give him a mohawk haircut. At first I am sure you have shock but when you know the story it is not all bad. The camp has a spirit award they give. Cub Scout's have a Spirit Stick & the Boy Scout's have the Turtle Totem. Each Troop trys to get the award. You get to carry it around until your time to pass it on. Wednesday when I got there our troop had the totem. You have to personalize it with something. One of our Asst. Scoutmaster's told our troop that if they got the Totem for spirit he would shave his head & face & add the hair to the totem. HE DID IT. We have some really great leaders. Here he is in a photo (before of course). Well with our temps reaching near 100 already outside I am sure he welcomed the coolness.

I am gonna be holding my breath when I go to pick Chris up tomorrow.

Will he have the mohawk or not?

VBS 2009

I am always the one behind the camera so it seems weird when I see a picture of myself. A good friend of mine snapped this one of me when I was doing a mission lesson with the kindergarten class during Vacation Bible School at our church a couple of weeks ago. We had great attendence & it went really great.

We were discussing some of the way's to teach the Aboriginal's about Jesus. They do some of it through pictures. Here is a picture I was using that I found on the internet.

Aboriginal art

No housework

This has been my last 2 days.

Still feeling under the weather with this bronchitis stuff.

I did harvest some crops on my sister's fiance farm on Facebook Farm Town.

Jeff's ride

Jeff (my husband) had to leave for work this morning & had to get over to catch his ride.
Pretty sure he got it since he didn't get back home from missing it.

HOW TO CALL THE POLICE WHEN YOU'RE OLD

This has always been one of my favorite jokes. I probably have it on my blog already but to lazy to look.

George Phillips , an elderly man, from Meridian, Mississippi, was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window.

George opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?"

He said "No," but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me.

Then the police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy.

You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available."

George said, "Okay." He hung up the phone and counted to 30.

Then he phoned the police again."Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now because I just shot them." and he hung up.

Within five minutes, six Police Cars, a SWAT Team, a Helicopter, two Fire Trucks, a Paramedic, and an Ambulance showed up at the Phillips' residence, and caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the Policemen said to George, "I thought you said that you'd shot them!"

George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"

MORAL OF THE STORY: Don't mess with old people

Chris leaving for Camp

It seems all we have been doing is packing for camp. Chris left for Camp Yocona Boy Scout camp after church today. Ususally big thing with all the boys that go. Here are just 6 of our newest Boy Scouts. (Chris last on right)

Outside the chapel waiting to go in as a group. We had Scout Sunday.

Lining up to hear last minute instructions.

Chris with his carry on. Heading to the vans.

The STUFF they can't live without. This was just the trailer
stuff. The truck was full also.

Really quite at home tonight with only one child.

Got the book

After the rain stopped yesterday I got the chance to run to Reed's Bookstore & got the book. No it is not a reflection! Get it..Reflection. A play on words. The Book "Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia". I got an extra one for my sister that writes.

A new book out

CLICK ON PIC FOR LARGER VIEW

I had a lady contact me on Facebook. She is a local author here in Tupelo. She needs help to promote her book. She is my age, same graduating year & best yet, Southern! I have been to her web site & looked around. Once you read though click on the links at the bottom to go to her web site & blog. Here is a short bio on her.

My name is Patricia Neely-Dorsey. I am from Tupelo, Mississippi. I am a 1982 graduate of Tupelo High School. I received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. I lived in Memphis , Tennessee for almost 20 yrs, working in the mental health field, before returning to my hometown in August 2007. I have been married for almost 16 yrs to James Dorsey and we have one child, Henry, age 10.

She has some poems on her web site to tease you with. Well it worked. I want to read more. She just one day woke up & had a "gift" from God. She started writing & hasn't stopped yet. She has enough material for a couple or so more books. She writes alot about Southern culture. Not the kind that puts the south in a bad light as so many do. The really easy, laid back, family oriented.
She describes it this way.

There are so many negative connotations associated with Mississippi and the south in general. I want readers to see that there is a flip side of the coin. There is much to love about the southern way of life. I want people to know Mississippi in a different light and I want to introduce them. My slogan is Meet Mississippi Through Poetry, Prose and The Written Word.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Patricia Neely-Dorsey’s fascinating book of poetry is a true celebration of the south and things southern. Using childhood memories, personal thoughts and dreams, the author offers a positive glimpse into the southern way of life.

She has a BLOG to read some more about her.
Or visit her web site. Be sure & bookmark once there so you could go back.
Find her on Facebook. Patricia Neely-Dorsey is listed as one of my friends.

I will post more about this grand Southern lady later.

The Broken Mower

When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to me
that I should get it fixed.
But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first, the truck,
the car, playing golf -- always something more important to me.
Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.
When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass,
busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors.
I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house.
I was gone only a minute, and when I came out I handed her a toothbrush.
I said, 'When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.'
The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.

Moral of this story:
Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is the husband.

My Facebook status

Katrina Potter Patty is so sad.....I have a Bronchial Infection & I had to send off my baby today to the service center. AKA: My Nikon D300 (camera). Now I am home with my feet kicked up & resting. Yes mother...resting. I promise.
Up at 12:26 am trying to calm a cough. Meds are in with a milk chaser.