This makes my heart stop...

My baby is the goalie.

What in the world was the coach thinking? Who would put my precious baby in front of the goal with players coming at her and a ball hurdling towards her head?

Oh wait.

She asked to be goalie.

And Shawn is the coach.

Still...

It worries me. Luckily if she was goalie and Evan was defender, he stayed close enough to protect her.Isn't that sweet? He's just taking care of his future wife.

I must say though, the girl has some skills.Luckily she's only goalie for the first half. Then I can breath and she can show off some of her other skills. It's so good to know that one of the three girls inherited Shawn's soccer abilities. And she returns the whole protection favor when Evan is goalie.At the end of the season the highlight for everyone was the trophies.And I could take deep breaths and sleep in every Saturday.

Well, until indoor season starts.

Help me now.

She is no help:c)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't know if your turkey came in the window of your car as you drove through the church parking lot.I don't know if you avoided turkey Thursday because your pet turkey once saved your life.

I don't know if you were surrounded by family.

But I know that you were thought of with love as I listed the things I was thankful for.

Love you all!

Sigh...

I'm going nuts over here. The Christmas rush has begun and it's not even Thanksgiving! The last week has had 10 things that need to be done each day. I have tried to be sick for almost a week and I'm finally giving in.

Until 10 tomorrow morning. Then the craziness starts again.

How is this right?

I am all about fashion.

Well, not really. I am never on the cusp of fashion. Since I only buy if something is on sale, I am usually a few months behind.

Oh well. I have good intentions.

I just don't have a lot of money.

But while watching tv recently I saw something that will soon be all the rage. I don't mind one little bit now.

Little Boys and Chemical Reactions

I had the absolute pleasure of taking my friends Ted and Beth and their sweet boys out for family pictures two weeks ago. Last year they took a chance on me and liked the results enough to ask me again this year. The boys have grown quite a bit but they still aren't huge fans of having their picture taken. But I did catch them a few times with good results.This one though....this is the view I had of him most of the time we were together.Thankfully my beautiful assistant was all about catching and returning.But mom and dad also took turns returning him. After a while though we had worn him out.When these two boys are placed together a weird chemical reaction happens and they start going at each other. Leaves and dirt were flying. To get them both still and looking at the camera at the same time has yet to happen. It would take a miracle.

This is what I got.My sweet friend Beth is someone I admire more than I could ever tell her. She has lived a life that would make most people bitter and she is kind, loving, and gentle.
After an hour and a half of running, fighting, frowning, and throwing leaves, we did come up with some great shots.

This is my favorite.Speaking of the leaves....When I changed that night I found leaves in places I didn't know they could get to. McKinley thought it would help the boys smile if she threw them at me. I'm still planning my revenge:)

John Griffis

My community, church, and the girls school is in shock. We have all lost a teacher, coach, friend, and fellow Christian.

Please join me in praying for the Griffis family.

Team Griffis

It's like a whole 'nother country

So, I was on statcounter again...sadly it was to see where the person lives that has been leaving mean comments.


I know, I know. I need to get out more.


But stay with me. It's a very interesting site!


I was looking under the 'country' area and found this.

468-United States

6-Canada

5-Romania

5-Australia

4-Spain

2-United Kingdom

2-Ireland

2-China

1-Germany

1-Kenya

1-France

1-Russian Federation

1-Brazil

1-Mexico

Wow! Hello to all of you! I am in awe of the fact that people around the world come read my little blog. Maybe they only stay a few seconds when they realize this isn't what they're looking for, or maybe they stay a while and laugh at me. Either way I'm honored.

And since I'm an Okie....Howdy y'all!!

In What??

My car stereo scrolls the name of the song and artist along the top on certain stations. It's so handy when I need to know the name of a song so I can go home and Napster it.

This one though has me intrigued.
I listened to the whole song and can't figure out how 'In Pee' would fit into the lyrics of a Christian song...maybe I've just missed that part in the Bible.

Race for the Cure

I lost my mom in August of '96 to breast cancer complications.

She was 53 years old.

Her mother also died at 53 of cancer complications.

Because of that I have walked the Race for the Cure several years in their memory. Two years ago I felt led to run the race. I had tried running before. Okay, twice. Now I had a reason and a cause. I followed the Couch to 5k 9-week program and ended the final day by running the race without stopping. A huge personal accomplishment for a truly lazy person like myself.

This year I couldn't find anyone to run it with. (Insert Stephanie's pouty face here.) Our church had the first of what will become a traditional 5k and my running friends were doing that race. I love my church but my loyalties lie with breast cancer research and not wells in Africa. Sorry. Shawn did run it but that hilarious story is going to have to be another post. This is all about me.

My Bible Study leaders are both breast cancer survivors. They, and also sisters of each one, walk it every year as survivors. A group of other family members and friends join them. This year I joined their group.

The morning of the festivities started out at 38 degrees. You can tell by looking at Rhonda that it was down right chilly.

Here's part of our group. We look cold, don't we? As we were standing around waiting to start this man walked up. These three ladies got all misty eyed and started hugging him. He was their oncologist. It was put in perspective when Brenda said, "This is the man who saved our lives." He runs the race every year with his sons. How amazing is that?After some warm up exercises and the National Anthem white doves were released to honor those who had lost the battle. I of course started crying as the flew away into the sunset. I'm crying now as I type this. 13 years later it is still hard.As the gun shot we were off and my feet were itching to run. I really wished I'd had the confidence to run it by myself. Instead I watched the runners set off as I started the walk with my camera ready for whatever may happen.This is such a fun event because of the firefighters,cheerleaders,characters, and a completely different type of characters.As always I love to find fun t-shirts. Someday I'm designing my own. Hold me to that, will you?And the signs. Oh the signs. As a walker I took the time to read as many as I could. Needless to say, I cried the entire one mile walk. As we approached the finish line the finishers of the 5k were heading in. Do you see the thighs on that guy?Even though I hadn't run it I still had done my little tiny part to find a cure. In my little part of So that was the happy side of my day.

Now for the other side.

My Bible Study leader is a wonderful teacher. I look forward to our Tuesday mornings together. But after we leave the church our relationship is different. She is good friends with some of my good friends but we're not close. Does that make sense? I always feel on the outside.

Anyway.

Two of the ladies knew my mom, and know what I've gone through. One of them was one of my mom's best friends.....my mom wasn't mentioned at all. Is that selfish of me? I don't know if they were trying to keep me happy, or if they didn't even think about it.

I struggle every day with questions as to why they were healed and my mom wasn't. That is between God and me though. I felt like the whole reason for me being there was forgotten and instead we focused on the survivors. Don't get me wrong, I celebrate their life. But I also mourn a death.

So, both sides of my day. Think I'm crazy?? It's okay, I can handle the truth:c)

And just for fun...we've discussed before how I am soooo not a crowd person. This was the view around me. I have no idea how I didn't freak out and hyperventilate.

Could someone hand me a paper bag please??