Love Stinks

Reid comes flying in the front door this afternoon singing "Love Stinks". So, I asked "Why are you singing that song?" Reid's flippant reply..."Oh, I got dumped by my girlfriend today at school...", as he is running back out the front door.

I simply thought to myself...What girlfriend at school???

Alone

While watching TV on Sunday evening as a family, a commercial comes on in which a dad is speaking of how embarassing it is to speak to your children about sex.

...Note while reading...words in italics were said with extreme emphasis...

Reid, who is working on a pirate Lego set at the time, chimes in with "Why in the world would you want to talk to your kids about sex?"

I answered (after picking up my jaw off the floor) "Reid, parents have to discuss sex with their kids, things like what sex is, when to have sex..."

Reid: Really, well I already know about sex.

Me: Okay, what do you know about sex?

Reid: I don't want to talk about it.

Me: Okay, so do you know when you are supposed to have sex?

Reid: "DUUUHHH!!!! When you are alone!"

Ryan and I could not help but laugh (hysterically I might add) and Kendall is on the couch rolling her eyes wishing she could crawl under a rock and disappear.

...Once we regained composure...

Me: No, let me rephrase, at what point in your life do you have sex?

Reid: Ummmmm....

Me: Rephrasing again, You can have sex when you get......

Reid: Married?!?!?

Me: Whew, at least you answered that one right! Ryan, you need to speak to your son!

Oh my goodness, I've said it before, and I'm sure I will say it a million times....I am in SOOOO much trouble with this precious 8 year old!!!!

Melissa

Stuck in the "Middle" with You

Today was Tay-Tay's first day of Middle School. How did she get this grown up and ready to enter 6th grade this fast? It seems like only yesterday that Granny Retta was telling me that Baby Rose was not big enough to go to school and she was talking about Sunshine Day School.

Tay-Tay's morning started off with Daddy waking her up, fixing her a blueberry waffle, getting dressed, brushing teeth and then flat-ironing her hair...that's right I said flat-ironing her hair. What's next, a little mascara and eyeliner? Yes, I know it is coming...

And notice I said that Daddy woke her up. Tay-Tay and I butt heads frequently. I'm thinking it is because we are too much alike. On Sunday, I got very frustrated with Kendall because she was being very moody over taking a picture with Mommy and Reid. As Ryan and I are discussing how to handle the situation, it was decided that Ryan would "handle" Tay-Tay and Melissa would "handle" Reid from now on. Of course, this was a conversation that Ryan and I had, and did not realize that Tay-Tay had overheard it. Can't wait for the day that Ryan gives her back over to me when she needs to go to Kr*ger for "girl stuff".

Here is Tay-Tay on her way to school...


If she were to ride the middle school bus, she would have to get on the bus at 6:27 am. School does not start until 7:30 am so, we thought this was a little extreme (for us and for her). So this is her new bus driver...Isn't he the cutest bus driver you've ever laid eyes on?

The first day went fabulously and to quote Tay, her schedule is "awesome", her teachers are "incredible" and middle school is going to be "great". I've heard all about her locker, locker mate, friends in her class, friends she saw in the hallway, and how one of her teachers was on the Wheel of Fortune (one of our favorite shows to watch together) and the he even was a winner of $4500. Woo-Hoo!!!

And now we are off to Tay-Tay's first middle school social event...I mean, football game, the first of many I'm sure!!! Our friend, Nunnar plays on the team so we've gotta go represent!! Go Hornets!!!

Splish Splash

Splishing and Splashing at Nashville Shores is how Reid decided to celebrate his 8th birthday along with Ryan, Mel, Jenny, Gary, Tay-Tay, Griffin, Dane and his buddy, Jackson. To quote the song - they spent the day a-splishin' and a splashin', reelin' with the feelin', movin' and a groovin', rockin' and a rollin', yeah...we all had too much fun, riding the water slides, swimming and lounging...

Here are the kiddos enjoying a little pool action...

The heat index on Saturday was supposed to be 103 and I don't know if the heat index really got up that high but let's just say that I almost titled this blog "This is why I'm hot!". It was hot but amazingly, we did have a nice breeze coming off of the lake for most of the day. When there wasn't a breeze, we cooled off by hanging out in the baby pool and standing under this giant raining mushroom.
Reid and Jackson are enjoying birthday Dipp*n D*ts...the ice cream of the future! They tried to talk me into letting them eat ice cream at 11ish. Of course, my mommy reaction said no and Reid's agrument...."But Mom, it's my birthday"...Okay, you're right, Daddy, give them some cash so they can go get some ice cream.

Here are Mo and Dane enjoying a little lounge chair time...

Pop - this pic is for you...around 2pm in the afternoon, we all decided to refresh ourselves with an ice cold cherry icee. The taste of an ice cold cherry icee reminds me of driving home from church and stopping at that little gas station in Franklin and Pop buying me, Jenny and Beau a cherry icee, us drinking and spilling them on our church clothes, Bebe threatening that if we spilled any more, that we would never be able to stop and get an icee again, as we jumped the railroad tracks in the cream colored Ford station wagon...Good Times, Good Times!!!

Besides all of the swimming and water slide fun you can have at NS, you can go kayaking. I think Tay-Tay went about 4 times but I missed getting a pic of her somehow. Jenny and Griffin did very well and did not flip their kayak.

Reid intentionally flipped his kayak (several times) just 'cause it was so cool!!! He is posing this "flipping" for me because he caught me with the camera and wanted a pic of him "crashing".

Reid and Jackson are "racing" back to the shore...Reid was behind when I took the pic but the finish was pretty close!

To wrap up this incredibly fun day, the big kids decided to take a ride on the Music City Racer. Yes, it is my favorite ride, and not because it is called the racer, all of the NASCAR references or because it involves a black/white checkered finish. It is just plain fun!!! I rode it 3 or 4 times on Saturday. And just so that you get the entire picture...here is the official description of this ride: The six-lane Music City Racer begins atop a towering, five-story platform. Guests then travel at speeds up to 35 mph on a single raft as they descend down the slide. As riders plunge down the track, they “get air” careening down the 350ft slide. After a ride of more than the length of a football field, the riders coast to a stop at the bottom of the slide.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your mats...Gary is in the far right lane and is in the lead, Ryan is in the left yellow lane with a close second, and poor Jenny in the right yellow lane, is hanging in the rear of the field.

The finish line...

And taking the checkered flag....Gary Hathcock driver of the number #1 yellow mat...

After tons of sun and fun, we headed home. On Sunday, Reid rounded out his birthday weekend with a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings (his birthday request) for lunch. Bebe, Pop, Granny, AG, dog walker Will, and Jon-Jon joined us. His birthday lunch was the Cheeseburger Slammer, Fries and a Coke. Reid racked up with Wi* sports resort, new legos and movies.

He has decided that it is great to be 8!!! Happy 8th Birthday Reid!!!

Life in the Fast Lane

Once again, I will not be posting the "Life in the Fast Lane" by (who does it Bebe - this one is yours) the Eagles, song on the playlist, because in the words of Pastor Chip, "one bad word can ruin a really good song". So you will just have to hum the chorus in your head while you read this.

By now, I'm sure that you've read/heard all about our adventure at the Wildhorse and you know that we headed out to Nashville Superspeedway for some NASCAR Camping World Truck Racing thanks to Stacy Compton and our donation to the Monroe Carroll Jr. hospital. Here are some highlights from the day.

We started the day by stopping at the NASCAR credentials trailer at picked up these...our all access, you can go anywhere you want passes.

When we first arrived, we learned that Stacy (see, now that we are BFF's...I can just call him Stacy) had wrecked his primary truck in practice on Friday. Here are Ryan, Jeff S, and Bob M watching the crew work on the back up truck. Once the truck was ready, we "helped" walk it through race inspection and then walked out on to pit road with the truck for qualifying. Have you ever watched qualifying while sitting on the pit wall? I have now - and it was SA-WEET!!!!


Here are the ladies of Team Black enjoying a little lemonade and hot dog snack while sitting at the back of the hauler. You can't see it in the picture but the doors of the hauler have a "Crew and Invited Guests Only" sign posted. Yep, there we are, the invited guests!!! Side note about Team Black - Mel, Big T, Becky M, Jeff S and Bob M all showed up to the race (without planning it) in black shirts and jeans...Ryan shows up in a red shirt and jeans so for the day we became Red Leader and Team Black as our nicknames.

Here are Billy R and I with the sticker that Big T "helped" to put on the truck. Sure hope those stickers have 200 mile per hour sticky backing.

Terry with a Y (who is Stacy's truck hauler driver, hauler chef, hospitality manager, and gas can man) tells Terri with an I all about filling the gas cans, jumping over the wall with them, how to put gas in the truck during a pit stop, how you weigh the can before and after a pit stop so that you can tell how much gas Stacy is using and his gas mileage...Big T was impressed with his knowledge of all things gas!

And then, of course, the photo op for Big T, Mel and the gas can...

This is Tom Buzze. He is Stacy's crew chief. He is an amazing guy. He is the one who worked everything out for our amazing day!! He was so awesome to me and our NASCAR crazed gang!!

On the left is Sgt. Buzze of the US Army. Sgt. Buzze is Tom's son. The coolest part of our whole day was when the crew lined up on the pit box line for the National Anthem and prayer. Team Black and Red Leader all got to stand in the line with the pit crew. I got to stand right next to Sgt. Buzze and during the National Anthem, he was standing at attention and man, if that doesn't give you goose bumps, and make you proud to be an American, I don't know what will. Sgt. Buzze will be headed back to Afghanistan in March of '10. Please pray for safety for him and all of the soldiers that serve this incredible country!

And after the prayer and National Anthem...here was our view for the dropping of the Green Flag...this pic is actually one lap to go for the green flag...but it was the better of the 2 pics.

When the pit crew guys are not preparing for the next pit stop...you can find them taking a quick break...

Billy, I thought you were a country music singer...but you seem to be discussing the next pit strategy in this pic...
This is the NASCAR computer that keeps the pit crew informed of their "looping" (the technical term for position) around the track. It updates lap number, lap times, speed and position. It looks to me like it is written in Excel...I am an Excel whiz...hhhhmmmmm, maybe my next job can be working with the looping computer with NASCAR....

Our only "rule" during the night was that we had to stand behind the yellow line. This picture was taken to prove that for once in my life, I was following the rules and my SS teacher, Jeff S, was breaking them!!!

And the checkered flag goes to...Ron Hornaday...driver of the #33 truck. This was his 5th win in a row.

Stacy ran a great race, and finished in 15th. We had an amazing time at the races and we sincerely appreciate Stacy Compton and the entire #60 racing team. Thank you for your hospitality and for putting up with 2 crazy racing chicks, 2 husbands that tolerate/love us, and the 2 new guys who we spoiled by taking them to their very first race with garage and pit passes. We lived Life in the Fast Lane and we loved it!!!!!!!

Melissa

Crank the Hank

The title of this post started as "All My Rowdy Friends", but my rowdy friends have definitely NOT settled down...so I'm dedicating this blog/song title to my friend Billy Reasons and you might notice that "Crank the Hank" is not playing on the playlist. Trust me...it is a real song and it started playing on country radio today!!! Call your local country radio station and request Billy's new single "Crank the Hank" and then crank your stereo cause it is a rockin' new tune, if that doesn't work, then hop over to www.billyreasons.net, and check out his stuff, that is of course, after you've read my blog... :-)

So, now onto the story...Granny and Alderman G originially asked us to attend the NASH-Car party at the Wildhorse with them but it was the week of VBS and I said sure without really paying attention to the conversation. As it turns out, this was a fundraiser for the Monroe Carroll Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and our friend (and fellow Sunday School member) Billy Reasons was playing the event and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was a sponsor. That's right I said NASCAR...but more on that in a minute...Unfortunately, due to other circumstances, Granny and AG, could not attend the party. This is a few ROWDY friends who did attend. This is Billy....who gave me and Big T a shout out from the stage. This was his response after he asked "Any NASCAR fans out there?" and me and Big T screamed really, really, really loud..."Oh, yeah, they are, I know those two...they're in my Sunday School Class." Whoop - shout out for Mel from center stage at the Wildhorse.

Here are Billy and another fellow band member Mr. Cov...of course, he is also in our SS class...

Then, have you heard of a little show on CMT called "Can you Duet?" Well, the 2 finalists on the show, JB Rocket and Steel Magnolia joined Billy on stage. Which is how I got my second shout out from centerstage of the Wildhorse...Meghan Linsey of Steel Magnolia was singing Dwight Yoakam's "Fast As You" and of course I knew the words and I was standing center stage first row so I'm singing along...and at the end of the song as she's thanking the audience...she points directly at me and says "And Thank You for singing along with us!" Whoop - shout out number 2 for Mel from center stage. Here's me and Ryan and Meghan and Josh from Steel Magnolia.

Of course, I had to be politically correct and also get a pic with Brandon and Jonathan from JB Rocket...
And then my 3rd shout out of the evening was when some little kid from who knows where, comes up to me in the crowd and says "Hey Wonder Woman" and then runs off. Now, my peeps at TSC (and lots of Yo*T*be watchers) know that I played WW in VBS last week, but to get noticed in public in downtown Nashville as Wonder Woman...I thought I had gone to heaven...2 stage shout outs and then one WW recognition...Wow, can life get any better?...Oh, yes, it can...

Remember, I said that this was a fundraiser, and that NASCAR was involved...During Billy's show, there was a silent auction going on on the 3rd floor of the Wildhorse. We were having so much fun on the 1st floor that we never made it up there. But after Billy's show, there was a live auction. Some guy comes out on stage with Billy and starts auctioning off this amazing VIP Daytona weekend...and no one was bidding on it...until Big T and I started bidding...the weekend included tickets, pit passes, infield parking, meeting drivers (Did he just say meeting a driver?) All NASCAR things that we would have loved (and things that are apparently on Big T's bucket list) if they had been for the Sprint Cup series not the Truck series. So we kept bidding and throwing in stuff like "awe, can't you make it for the cup series, can't you promise that she can meet Kasey Kahne and I can meet Jeff Gordon, can't you make sure that we have garage passes...we've had pit passes and they don't get you into the garage..." Notice I said "some guy" was auctioning all of this off and was being a really good sport about Big T and I giving him a hard time while driving up the price/pieces of the package. About midpoint in the bidding process, Billy says something about "guy's" name being Stacy and Big T and I realize that we've been giving Stacy Compton driver of the #60 Camping World Truck series down the road. Oops!! We're sorry...we really are fans of the truck series...we knew who you were...we were just kidding....So the Dream Daytona weekend started getting in the thousands of dollars and JS and Ryan are staring at us from across the dance floor with their arms folded. Apparently they were having a discussion about which children we were going to sell to make the payment on our Dream Daytona package...and Big T and I had to bow out of the bidding gracefully. Weirdest part of the bidding - the couple that won...wanted to meet Kenny Wallace...Kenny Wallace...are you kidding me??? Don't get me wrong, Kenny is a super nice guy but you could probably meet him at his local North Carolina Walmart if you hung out long enough.

We were bummed but we went to our table and were wrapping up the evening, paying the tab, hugging necks, kissing babies, and Stacy Compton walks right by our table. So I decided to throw caution to the wind and say "Hey, Stacy, come over here for a sec."

And the conversation went something like this:

Me: So what would it take to get me and my friends in your pit box for Saturday night's race
Stacy: a donation to the children's hospital
Me: How much?
Stacy: Give me a number.
Me: $500
Stacy: Done
Bob M: (from out of the blue I might add) Make it $750 for the 6 of us and we'll go too.
Stacy: Done...(looks around)...Buzze (Buzze is Stacy's crew chief)...c'mere Buzze...get these guy's names, they are going to make a donation to the hospital and we're going to have them in the pits on Saturday evening...all access...the whole nine yards....

Me and Big T let out a big scream....got out our checkbooks and we are off to the race...Pics and highlights from our awesome race day coming in a day or two...

Melissa