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.

Fallen off the earth

No! Not me. I have been asked though.

I am not hiding out!

I have not been sick!

I have not gone in the witness protection program!

I have just been really busy. I wish I could in a couple of lines catch you up on everything.

Here is a taste of our weekend.

China guest

What does a Southern guy do on the day after opening day of deer season for youth's?

Take your son deer hunting of course. After church today my hubby got a call from a friend that said the deer were on the move in the afternoon because of the warm afternoons. Hubby & Chris threw on some hunting stuff grabbed a gun & hit the door running for our land. Chris (11 years old) has been wanting to kill his first deer so bad. No luck last year. Matthew (7 years old) just is not to interested just yet. He & I took the time to stay home & stay warm. I cut labels to use at the collection center tomorrow for OCC. Matthew watched TV & played out in the playroom. Such a peaceful Sunday afternoon.

Hubby called around 5:00pm. They were leaving the land. No deer in site. No deer roast yet. They did however bring home food. They brought home a hot & ready pizza from Little Caesars.

Now for my title of "China Guest".

Jeff has had a few of his Chinese people from China in the past couple of weeks. They come here once every 18 months or so. Jeff is with Ashley Furniture. (NO-He can not get you cheap furniture. NO-He can not get you a job) They wanted to experience some southern culture while they are here. Yesterday we took them to our land just for that. Hubby had gotten a big 4 wheeler from a friend & took both the boys 90cc 4 wheelers. He took a couple of guns for target practice, rubber boots to hike down the trail & fishing rods to catch some bass. They seemed to have had a great time. When we were getting ready to leave we went to a little store up the road on HWY 15 to have BBQ (lunch, 午饭 wǔfàn or zhōngfàn). It is called Pam's Place. Stop by for great BBQ. It is cooked right out front in a barrel & they thought that was really something. Toby & Ken speak pretty good English. Jennifer does not speak any. Her being around me had to be a hoot. I just talked & talked. I had the guys tell her some things but as women we have our communication. I had looked up a 4 page list of things to say or rather have her look at the paper & point to the words.....It did not help.

Jennifer using Chris' little 22 Henry. Our lake in the background.

Jennifer & me/I (Yes-it was dang cold)

Jennifer, Toby & Ken

Toby, Jennifer, Ken & Hubby

Toby & Ken riding on the back of the truck coming out

Loading up to go eat.

Loading up the 4 wheelers to go eat BBQ

Our guest are due to go back at the end of this week. They have been staying in a local hotel. We will be having them as dinner guest Tuesday. I look forward to entertaining such wonderful friends from another culture. You learn so much.

Goodbye (informal)--
拜拜。 Bai-bai (Byebye)

Bless you--

Yi bai sui

Weekend is here

I had a busy week but tomorrow & Sunday will be really nice.
This morning I was thinking that I would never get everything done. Even if I had 5 more hours in the day I would still feel the same.
Before I took the boys to school a lady I do alot of projects with at church called & asked if I had done something I was suppose to 2 weeks ago. Remember my previous post: "I need to write these things down". Well that was one of those moments. I had to pick up some donated cookie dough for a Courthouse Ministry we do through our church. I got home to shower & dress. I had to e-mail my scout parents. We are working on several things from our scout book so I had to get them prepared what to bring for the meeting Monday. check! done!

Our church has a Christmas Traditions Brunch tomorrow. I had signed up to do a table. In other words to decorate it. I am what you could call a procrastinator here lately. I had not gotten my stuff out of the attic. My silk ponsettia looked ragged so I ran to Hobby Lobby to get a different one. Picked up some shiney fabric, new gold rope for the centerpiece wreath & grabbed a few teacher ornament gifts. Ran short on that time thing. Cut my trip short.

Here is a picture of what the table starts as.

A clean slate.

Then you have to come up with something fabulous. I am not a decorator so fabulous is not in my vocabulary. I did pretty good. You have to decorate with something you do in your home at Christmas. I love Nativity scenes so that is what I used. The church provides the china so that will be added tomorrow. Got my table done.

Check! Done!

After the table was done I had to be home for the school bus to run & get my last born off it. Chris gets off the bus next so I had to have his camping bag packed & have hime at the church by 4:30. Thank goodness it was only an overnight trip or I would not have gotten his bag packed. The Webelo 2's have a big day tomorrow so Chris was pretty excited to do all that guy stuff. The scout trailer & leaders pulled out of the parking lot on time & with all scouts accounted for. Matthew & I have been taking it easy tonight. Matthew has been playing with a hunk of play dough & is quite content. Since the time has changed it gets dark early so when my door bell rang tonight it sort of startled me. Jeff is, as I am typing this, driving from the airport in Memphis home. He had been gone on a business trip this week. Well Mormon's were at the door. I had seen them earlier riding their bikes up on Main Street. They really get around. Really good Christian guys but they can't convert a die hard Southern Baptist woman. Sorry! Check! Done!

Practiced for the Operation Christmas Child program at church Wednesday. Our dedication is Sunday night. Both Chris & Matthew will be singing in their choir groups. Both hate to sing. I guess I keep hoping they will just have a light bulb come on inside & fall in love with it. I think I am pushing it. Pray for everything to go great. I have butterflies in my belly. Before the kids come in to sing I will be introduced as the person who lead this years OCC collection. In front of the whole church plus some. I am always the one behind the scenes not right out in front in full view. That seems to make you a target.

Well my husband is expected in a few minutes so I better clear him a path to get through the house. After the brunch tomorrow we are going to be getting some stuff done to the house again. We keep wanting to get it sold but if it is not on the market it isn't going anywhere. Be sure & read my other blog & see what I did yesterday at the land.

Boy what a day

Well another Halloween has come & gone. I say good riddance. I usually get the house all spooked up. We put out some decorations put not many this year. We are the house with fake spider webs on the porch with spooky music playing in the window. We don't get much of a chance to hand out candy. We usually take the boys around the neighborhood to trick or treat & by the time we make it back the biggest crowd has already come. We get some die hards still out late but by the time they come I am in my PJ's & warmed up from being out. The late ones do rack up on candy because to keep from eating it all myself I grab a large handful & dump it in their bags. Not the boys haul though. I don't have a death wish. As a kid I used to be really excited over my take at Halloween because we didn't get alot of candy other than Halloween. My boys are just spoiled from getting it all year. They have gotten into it some but not real bad. It is so weird how when they put it all in a tub together there was lots of little chocolate goodies. But when they go back it seems to have diminished. Weird! Right! wink. wink.
Well the door to door stuff was pretty good BUT....always a but.
Earlier in the day I noticed my toilet & washer acting funny. For treat or treating people in our neighborhood ride 4wheelers, golf carts or mowers around. Saves alot of steps. One year we decorated our mower to look like a train. This year not as elaborate.

Well get on with the night. Hubby came home from work, the boys were dressed up & it was getting dark. I had hitched the wagon to the mower. While in the front yard the boys & I heard a loud POW. we all went & looked toward the garage door. I thought at first someone had egged our garage door. We live on a cul-de-sac. No one had came in & not from the side. We would check the inside when we got back. Hubby driving the mower & the boys & I were in the wagon. We started out of the yard & the tire was flat on the wagon. We turned around went back to the garage to get some air in the tire from my husbands shop. We hit the remote & the door would not go up. (Remember the POW sound.) Well he went around to the side door & tried from inside. It would not go up. Deal with it when we get back.
We made our trip around the "Hood" as we call it. We get back home & pull the mower & trailer to the door. We get inside & put our stuff down & turn the lights on to alert trick or treaters "We Are Back". One the my boys comes to me & says " Why is the cats feet wet". Oh no, Did the little snot turn his bowl over? No, not something simple in this house. The toilet had erupted & had flooded my laundry room. Great! It seems at times all I do is clean messes. I always get stuck with the dirty work. Well the garage door is jammed & so is the toilet. Hubby come in & starts calling garage door places at night. He does talk to someone who promises to come out the next day & look at it. No problem! WRONG! Hubby has to be at work the next day & both the boys have a b'day party to go to. Ok, what is the problem? Both vehicles are stuck inside the garage. Well this great man comes & gets our door up in between jobs. He comes back later & replaces our springs & we are sprung.

While he is here, the plumbing guy is here also running a snake through our drain line outside. Since the half bath is not really used chances are something went through my line from the washer. Still can not be sure. We are always missing a sock here & there so I am convinced that is where they are going. I have a stash of socks that are missing a mate hoping the mate will come back some day but that ship has sailed. But as sure as I throw it away I will find it.

Well I have used the garage door several times, washed a few loads of laundry, ran my dish washer & all seems to be ok. Never gonna get this house back on the market. At this rate we will have all new pieces in this house.

Here is how my granddaughter got from house to house in the "Hood". What a life!

My daughter went for her ultrasound today....All is well & we will have another baby girl soon. Not sure of the date. I know...bad grandma. That will be another story later.

Where does time go

It seems I just did a post. Time is my enemy. I get so tied up with........stuff. I hoped to have did a blog with my everyday stuff but that gets busy. The boys take alot of time so I pick them over my blog. I am sure everyone can say that.

Celebration Village went great. I never heard the final total of how much was sold. I seen people shopping but I think maybe not as much as they normally would. This picture was made on the last day, Saturday. Pictured below are myself (white OCC tee, black slacks, no jacket) & 3 other volunteers for the booth to promote Operation Christmas Child. Our regional Coordinator did a great job getting enough volunteers to come all 4 days. I popped in & out managing to make sure all was going good, everyone showed up that should & snapping a few pictures of the people helping & the things going on around. Most people passing by the booth thought we were selling something until I finally made the yellow sign you see in the picture below. ByTheWay---Do you do a shoebox yourself?

We are starting to see OCC come to an end soon. Yesterday I met our Regional Coordinator at the TV station to go on the noon show. She did a great job. She needed support. She wanted me at her side on camera but she has worked so hard on this on a complete volunteer basis. She puts in alot of hours. She deserved that time. We load ALL the boxes at the warehouse Nov 17th-24th that comes from all the surrounding areas of Tupelo. Last year apx 16,000 shoeboxes went out of Tupelo's Collection Center. Pray for more boxes this year.

Jump back a day!

Well can I actually get two post in one night?

I posted about my day but now the weekend.

We still have Cub Scout popcorn sell going on & had another 3 hour shift at Sam's Club to sell. The boys actually did pretty good which was my two & one of my Tigers from my den. They stalked errr...waited outside the exit door for customers leaving & ask if they would like to help support the cub scouts by buying popcorn. Some people ignored them but some nice people actually stepped over & bought. One guy actually said "he did not recognize the Scouts". Don't even get me started. That's another post in itself. Well we were tired & cold & finally got home about 9:30 that night & we were T-I-R-E-D. The boys want to know can we do it again Saturday............NO NO NO. All my two did was fight & punch each other the whole time & run everywhere not paying attention. One of my sisters has two boys & I ask her ALL the time "please tell me it gets better." I miss baby dolls & doing nails! Boys are not wired that way. Thank God.

Hubby was home all weekend. Before the weather turns to cold we hoped to get the 4 wheelers out & take to the land. Chris' had been acting up for a bit. Hubby got it out early Saturday to do a quick thing to it but nothing here is simple. He was stumped so it is off to the repair people. Here we go again! He gave up, we got the other one loaded & headed to a friends house to pick up his big 4 wheeler. Wait, we need to switch the little one to the back of the truck because both will not fit on the trailer, get gas in a can, air in the tire, the boys are hungry, We are never going to get there. We are trying to find a place in Pontotoc to pull the trailer in safely to get gas & guess what blue lights behind us. Yes, a city cop. We must have attracted attention looking for a station. No my husband was speeding. He didn't argue. He was. Proof of insurance. Guess what not in the truck. It was our leased vehicle we were turning back in so all of it was removed from the glove box. We decided to buy it instead but none of the papers were put back in. I guess the officer thought we looked honest enough & let that part slip. I now have it at my side ready to go back in the truck tomorrow. Well we try to proceed onto the land. We get there & are met by some wild turkey crossing the driveway in. Pic attached. We are now at the spot we will call home hopefully soon. All is well in the Pa'tty World. All three guys got muddy. Chris even had muddy underwear from riding. That is some serious mud riding. I weed eated around some trees, cleaned off my cats grave who I still miss something fierce, played with my toy (Nikon camera), road a 4 wheeler through the woods & back out & took a deep breath because by that time the sun was going down. Turned out to be a good Saturday ticket & all.

At church the next morning with Operation Christmas Child in full swing I have had things I have had to do. We picked that day to give out the empty boxes that Samaritans Purse provides. Only about 250 were passed out. We had a really great time doing it. Pic attached. Hopefully they come back all full to send over seas.

Shelley Farmer (Director of Childhood Education)

(me) Katrina Potter Patty (OCC coordinator for HBC)

Dale Taylor (volunteer for OCC)

Kathryn Walden (volunteer for OCC)

Rev. David Langerfeld (Associate Pastor)

Rev. Tim Alexander (Minister of Education & Single Adults)

Our 2 boys both have b'days this month & their grandparents sent them some money that was burning a hole in their pockets. Sunday after church we went to Wally World to spend that hot money. The boys both got toys since you know they don't have any. The pitiful things. S-P-O-I-L-E-D to the bone. Man time is passing quick. The boys are 7 & 11 this month. Our daughter turned 22 this past summer. Different seasons of our lives. Changes come. We deal. Me not as much. I do deal with it but in some ways I look back & wish for the old times. People are what I miss the most. Father, mothers, sisters & nephews that have passed. Time heals wounds. A blogger friend is having to bury a nephew soon. What I read of him all says he was a great guy & you wonder why was it his time. But it is God's time not ours. God has plans for him & he needed him now. My heart breaks for the family having to say their goodbye's. Patty I will be thinking of you. Please keep this sweet family in your prayers.

Well it is getting late. I have bible study tomorrow. I still need to finish the booth tomorrow. My husband comes back from a quick business trip that he left early this morning on. My oldest son has a b'day & I need to get a fire lit under me to get some painting finished around here. Got to get this house sold. Now I will try to download some pics for you to view. Click on them for a larger view.

Scout Day at Huntsville Space & Rocket

Chris (Webelo 2 rank), Me, & Matthew (Tiger rank)

Pack 85 Tupelo, MS

Alot of our pack went to the Space & Rocket Center this past Saturday. The church vans transported alot of the group & several took their own cars. They left that morning & came back later that afternoon. I took my own vehicle & stayed the weekend back home. I am SOOO tired. I stay busy the whole time I am there. Since Jeff did not get to go my mom & sister went & spent Saturday with us at the Space & Rocket Center.

Later the boys & I ran by & spent some time with Jeff's dad (my in-laws). My baby sister called when I was about to leave from there & wanted to know if I wanted to run to Wally World with her. We went & did the Southern thing of shopping & running into people & talking & catching up. We left there & drove around & waited on my niece to get off work at the pizza place. We made her & her friends take us cruising around "The Square". We lead very pathetic lives to hang out with 19 year olds. We just had to see if it had changed any since we were that age. It has not just to let you know. By the way the only reason they let us go was because I let her drive my vehicle & it was my gas that made the many trips around "The Square" & town. The reason we finally went home.....the old people in the back seat was about to fall asleep (my sister & I). Boy were we tired & it was not even midnight.

Pastor appreciation was the next day at my sister's church & they were honoring their pastor that performed my wedding years & many years ago.

In my hometown they have a Trade Day the "First Sunday" & "First Monday" of each month around "The Square". Not much was going on but it was still fun walking around & remembering a place I walked for as long as I remember. If you go & don't run into someone you know you must not be looking. I seen my husbands neice & her little family I rarely get a chance to see while back home. We tired of walking & went after lunch. Then back to my sisters to pack up & leave town finally around 5:00. Engine light came on so that threw my time off a bit. (My neice did not tighten the gas cap after she put gas in for me)

Got back here to MS finally around 9:00pm.

Now back to real life back here & got to get busy with Operation Christmas Child at church.

Off to cook dinner now.

More later.

Storms moving through Tupelo

The cloud that lingered after the heavy rain passed through.

Got a nice light show from it.

The show that followed.

Another Great weekend!

I had another great weekend. It was fun, sad, needed, & hectic. I volunteered at the Animal Shelter this past Friday & Saturday all day helping with a yard sale. The shelter takes donated items to be used for yard sales. We took in a bit of money but not what we needed. It is so sad to say but we wouldn't get the money needed even if we sold every single item we have/had. The shelter has been having fund raisers to try & get a new shelter built. They are doing really great now since getting a new director for the shelter but having a larger place would help tremendously.
This is my fantasy-----A kazillionaire will read this post & find the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society & write a big FAT check to built the shelter of the director's dream.
Fantasy over.
A bit of money was raised to add to the fund but they are a long way away from the goal. Most people think shelters are just for taking in unwanted & stray pets but they are also in the business of adoptions. If you ever think of adopting please try your local shelter first. It just breaks my heart to walk through to the cage areas. The sad barks just begging for homes.
When we were locking up we checked the 2 pregnant cats & one was delivering while we were there. New baby life making an appearance. Can't wait to get an update tomorrow to see how she did. The sad part is mom & babies do really bad in a shelter. Don't get me wrong they are taken really good care of but having a home & family is so different for them. Before the door was locked someone drove up to drop off a kitten in the cage outside. It couldn't have been but a couple of weeks old. They said the mother cat just left it behind in their yard & they couldn't keep it. The director took it inside to see if another of the mother cats would accept it. It just cried & cried because it was so hungry. Before we left the mother was letting it try & latch on. I hope it got fed. She had 4 kittens already near the same age. Poor little hungry baby.
Get that image in your mind when you refuse to spay or neuter.

What a weekend!

T.G.I.M.-Thank God it's Monday!

Friday was my date night. My church offers one night a month to watch the kids for a small fee while the parents have dinner & a movie or do what they choose. We really look forward to it each month. Both the boys should have had a skate party to go to after school but Chris' school bus was running late. 40 minutes late. It rained ALOT here Friday. I figured she had took the long route & was dropping kids off at the door. Then I got that funny feeling you get & thought something was wrong. I called the bus garage & ask if they knew the location of the bus. I was asked "Are you one of the parents?" gulp, heart starts to pound! Seems like a whole minute went by. Then in a split second she said everything was fine. Someone had side swiped the bus. That didn't seem too minor. The bus was being cleared & should leave from it's location any minute. Within 15 minutes the bus dropped my precious cargo off. The party plans were now off. We talked & decided to skip the party & take them later. Maybe over the weekend. Matthew had gotten new skates to try so he was a bit disappointed. Maybe they will forget & we won't have to fit that in! Yeah, right!

Saturday was baseball practice for Chris. This years team seems to be pretty good. Really good hitters. Came home to do chores but hubby took off fishing at our lake. Rat. I pulled a few weeds but I am still taking it easy. I did jump on the mower & go around the yard. Chris tried to see if he could touch the peddles this year. Almost. Maybe by the end of the summer. I worked outside until it got about dark on me. The boys had rode their bikes to the neighbors a couple of houses over. I yelled & yelled for them to come home. No answer. I rode my bike over there. Jeff had took off in the truck with my keys in the glove box. I either had to walk or ride or a bike. You know they make those seats smaller & smaller now on those things! I pulled up to the neighbors house to ask if they had seen them. Answer: NO. OMG Where are they? I rode up the road to another neighbors house, they were not there. I seen a couple out walking & ask if they had seen 2 boys on bikes. They had seen them the other direction (our subdivision makes a circle). I rode that way & seen Chris walking back by himself toward the house. Where is Matthew? It hit me at that point. Construction was going on in an empty lot. They had both rode their bikes into it & was buried up in mud. Chris had finally given up & was walking back for help. Relief came over me but anger got the best of me. If only they knew the dangers of strangers. Notice no smile on their faces. They couldn't see the grin I was trying to hide. We all laughed later. Their defense----They were told to get outside & play.

After a long soak in the tub I believe the boys are back to being clean for now.

Sunday. The day of rest. We got ready for church & went. After church the boys were still holding us to SKATING. Can we go, Can we go, Can we go? Well, eat lunch & went. That was about the longest 2 and a half hours in all my afternoons. I had woke up with my back hurting from pulling weeds the day before & having a few chest pains from my current stuff. The boys come first. After we got home we tried to finish a couple of projects. I drug the tent out of the attic & glued some Boy Scouts patches on for camping that is coming up soon. Jeff finally took our screen door off the play room door to the outside & cut the side down to finally fit the opening. Of course it didn't go as easy as it should have. Does anything go easy?

Well Monday is here take a breath & start the week. Tonight is scouts. Laundry is piled up. Dishes as well. Baseball practice later. Did I eat yet? Have I gone to the potty?