Happy Day

The CrossCamp '09 post is waaaaaaaaayyyyy overdue. I apologize to my readers...it has taken me awhile to recoup. We had a lot of Happiness around camp. We had awesome worship - thanks to Joel Hudson and the Hudson River Experience. We had great camp messages - thanks to Pastor Reagan and Pastor Matt. We played hard - thanks to Infinity Sports. We laughed, we jumped, we danced, we loved, we cried, we slept (a little), we stunk. We had a BLAST!!!

Here are some highlights from the week:

1. You can get to Linden by traveling through Centerville. It is not the most direct route, but eventually, you will get there.

2. Yes, when it is 90+ outside, "the princess" (you know who you are) will sweat.

3. I can save a 6th graders life while kayaking on the Duck River; but I will lose my sunglasses and ankle wrap in the process.

4. Apparently SZ works out - and the 5th grade girls notice.

5. Ghetto style was a new addition to the various types of drama we practiced in the music and drama campers choice.

6. Mr GV's heart actually grew Three & Three times & Three sizes & 3 & 3 times & 3 sizes (just like the Grinch's) when he was supervising the running of the stairs.

7. The Perry Co. ER is the size of the Education Suites at the TSC office. They are very helpful when you have fallen and you can't get up (because you've sprained your ankle and you can't bear weight.)

8. 5 days worth of no green vegetables at a meal equal's a trip to Cracker Barrel for green beans on the way home.

9. Thanks to Reagan, and the Hudson River Experience, I got to experience my life long dream of singing in a real band...and...

10. Thanks to DJ, I experienced the most embarassing moment of my life...we will just leave it at that.

And the Most Happy Day came when 40+ kids gave their lives to Jesus during the week (and the weeks since camp). Praise Him from Whom all blessings flow!!! All of the weeks of prep, all of the nightmares I had about registration morning, and everytime I thought "what in the world have I gotten myself into", was completely worth it, when sweet little faces are standing in front of you saying that they want to ask Jesus into their heart. There were 2 kids in particular that really touched my heart. Thank you, Lord, for letting me be their mom and for allowing me to have the job that I have!!! (You might want to press pause on the music so that you can hear the video.)





Once again, as happens often here on the karaoke confessions blog, the words of the song say it better than I ever could!!!

The greatest day in history, Death is beaten
You have rescued me
Sing it out Jesus is alive

The empty cross, The empty grave
Life eternal You have won the day
Shout it out Jesus is alive
He's alive

Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away
Oh happy day, happy day
I'll never be the same
Forever I am changed

When I stand, in that place
Free at last, meeting face to face
I am Yours Jesus You are mine

Endless joy, perfect peace
Earthly pain finally will cease
Celebrate Jesus is alive
He's alive

Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away
Oh happy day, happy day
I'll never be the same OHH NO
Forever I am changed

Crazy Train

Conversations with Reid:

Ryan: Reid, son, I'm going to need for you to turn down your "crazy" a notch...

Reid: But, Dad, I'm only on notch 3...

Reid's response really surprised Ryan. First, we have never mentioned a "crazy notch" scale before and second, Reid has obviously not only thought about a "crazy notch" scale...he has made one up. I wonder, how far the crazy notch scale goes up? And if this is notch 3 and the scale goes up to say 24 ('cause that's my favorite number), what would a crazy notch of 24 look like?

I think it may be look something just like the words of the song..."I'm going off the rails on a crazy train"!

Happy Anniversary Baby

13 years ago today, June 2nd, I married my best friend. Hon - I love the life that we share together. Happy Anniversary, Baby - Got You on My Mind!!!


I have been so excited for today. I've known since I started a blog that I could use this song today. What's the part we always sing...just the chorus...Happy Anniversay, Baby...Got You on My Mind. So today when I was uploading the song and I realized the song is actually about a love gone wrong and the guy is singing this song to his lost love and remembering how good things were. Oops!!! I guess this is one of those songs that I've heard a million times but never really listened to it. The chorus is just so catchy!!! Obviously, since we are celebrating our 13th anniversary, the verses do not apply to us, so, Ryan, please only listen to the chorus!!!

I love you honey - You are and will forever be the best cabanna boy a girl could have!!! Happy 13th Anniversary!!!

Green Day

What happens to MayBelle when she turns angry? You won't like her when she's angry....

Just kidding...She, Sparky and Monroe were actually having the Time of Their Life in our new fenced in backyard. They were running, and running, and running and chasing, and more running...with no leashes...they were free as a bird (or a dog without a leash in a fenced in area).

But do you know what happens in the brand new fenced in back yard with freshly mowed wet grass? You guessed it...Your white fur turns GREEN!!!

Too funny...she can't figure out why her legs are green. Don't worry sweet girl, Daddy will give you a bath in a little bit.

Pomp and Circumstance

It seems like only yesterday that Sweet Baboo graduated from Sunshine Day School. Here she is at 5 years old in her 1st cap and gown.

On Tuesday of this week, Sweet Baboo graduated from the 5th grade...with Presidential Honors (more about that in a minute)...and here she is in her super cute polka-dot dress made by Bebe. Thankfully, we did not have to rent/purchase a cap and gown for this event.

Sweet Baboo has had a fabulous 6 years at Heritage Elementary School. She's made new friends, stayed close to old ones, learned all kinds of things like reading, math, science and social studies. She has grown butterflies in her classroom, looked at vinegar eels under a microscope, and completed projects that included the lifecycle of a plant and the history of her hometown, Thompson's Station. She has had wonderful teachers. In kindergarten Miss Janet was her teacher, and Miss Janet had also been Mommy's kindergarten teacher - that was ultimately cool!!! Her wonderful teachers have also included: 1st grade-Mrs. Hicklin, 2nd grade-Mrs. Maxwell, 3rd grade-Mrs. Reina, 4th grade-Mrs. Jewell and 5th grade-Mrs. Dreyer. She has gone on totally cool field trips to the Sam B. Davis home, a walking tour of Nashville, Cumberland Caverns where she explored a cave, to Chattanooga - where she and Bebe saw penquins and she touched sharks and stingrays, and to JA Biz Town - see the "Hey Miss DJ put a Record on" post on this blog.

Here she is with Mrs. Jewell -her 4th grade teacher that she loved, loved, loved!!!

And here she is with Mrs. Dreyer - her awesome 5th grade teacher that she loves and had too much fun with!!!
Sweet Baboo has always received excellent grades and has always received comments on her report cards such as "Kendall is such a delightful child. She is such a joy to have in class." She has never "pulled her color" and she has always scored really high on TCAP's and various other tests. Ryan and I have always been so proud of her accomplishments. But on Tuesday, we were surprised with an accomplishment that we did not know about. Even the 5th grade students did not know who would receive the award. SB received a "President's Education Award". To receive this award the student must maintain an A average for the entire year of 4th grade, the first semester of 5th grade and score higher than 85% on reading and math on their 4th grade TCAPS. It was such an honor and surprise for us when Dr. LaChance called Kendall's name. Which by the way was a grueling wait since our last name starts with a W and she called out the names in alphabetical order. Great job, SB, we are so proud of you!!!
We enjoyed the ceremony very much, that is the parts that we could hear...but that is a post for another day. We also enjoyed sitting with Big Nanny, Lawnmower Man, and the Medium Nanny - the Lil Nanny was also a part of the graduation celebration. Congrats Lil Nanny!!! So the girls are off to middle school - 6th grade - here they come!!!

Here are SB, Mommy and Bebe after the ceremony...


And Sweet Baboo with her proud Daddy...
And this picture was just for fun...one of the great things about SB getting older is that her feet are getting bigger...and sometimes if we are lucky, we can find matching mommy/daughter shoes...SB's foot is on the left, Mommy's is on the right.

We celebrated SB's graduation with a dinner out at Logan's - guess what she ordered for her celebratory meal...anyone...anyone...that's right...sweet tea, chicken fingers and fries.

The only sad part about the evening was that because of SB's 5th grade graduation, we had to miss Tenley's High School graduation. Tenley is our beautiful niece who at 5 years old believed that Ryan was her boyfriend. Reid loves Tenley...he calls her his "little lamb". Tenley were are so proud of you! You are a beautiful, smart, funny and "gifted" young lady. We love you very much!

We will be celebrating with Tenley and her family on Saturday. We will also be celebrating with Reid's "Love" on Friday evening. We will be going to PHS's graduation and to the Johnson's for Olivia's celebration party. Congratulations to all of 2009's graduates!

And an update on graduation news, Reid received his report card today and he has been promoted to the 2nd grade. Whew...that was close!!! Not really close, but apparently, Reid was somewhat worried. He told me so this morning as we were walking into school to pick up his report card. We picked up the report card, gave Mrs. Hicklin a hug (yes, Kendall and Reid had the same 1st grade teacher - love it!) and as we were walking to the car..."Well, mom, did I make it?" Make what, son? "To 2nd grade, did I make it?" Yes, son you did. I guess he was really worried that too many checks in the "needs to control talking" box might hold him back. Because trust me, he had plenty of checks in that box. :-) I think his mommy had a few of those in her day...

Birthday, Bad Day, and Lifesong

This post is going to be long...can't you just tell from the title...but I need to catch all 3 of my readers up on what's being going on since my last post.

Let's start with "Birthday"...My 38th birthday was April 25th. For my birthday, Ryan took me, and 38 of our 4th-6th grade buddies to the State Bible Drill competition. The kids did great. They are so amazing. Take 25 Bible verses, all the books of the Bible, key Bible passages,memorized verses and find/recall/recite them in 10 seconds. Over 30 kids passed the State Competition which means they got at least 20 out of 24 answers correct. Sweet Baboo was one of the participants. Last year she was a state participant, this year she was a state winner...and next year...we are going for state superior! After the competition, we loaded up the vans and headed to CiCi's pizza with all the kids. My BFF, Ash, surprised me with a yummy birthday cake with 24's on it...I told the kids I was 24 but I'm not sure that I had them convinced. They all know that I'm a 24 fan, and that I was headed to Talladega on Sunday so that may be what tipped them off.

So, on to "Bad Day"...Big T, J, Ryan and I headed to Talladega on Sunday the 26th for some good ole redneck racing fun. I tried to explain the difference between Atlanta racing and Talladega racing. Big T thought it certainly could not be that much different...Man, was she in for a surprise. First, our cutie-patootie matching driver tank tops.

I tried telling Big T that even with these somewhat revealing tank tops and our walking shorts that we would have on more clothes than 99% of all the men and women there. I'm not sure that she believed me until we saw more cut-off t-shirts, shorts, bikini tops, hairy backs, backs with a sunburned 24 in them, men in full body paint, etc. than she ever wanted to see.

We had a GREAT DAY...filled with awesome tailgating, racing, and laughter, however, our drivers, 24 and 9...had a BAD DAY...on lap 7 they were involved in the BIG ONE...

At this point, Big T looked over at me and said "We just paid a lot of money for 6 laps." Yep, one thing that you never want to hear over your brand new birthday race scanner from Jeff G is "We're done!" That's Kasey in the bottom left (#9) and Jeff G (#24) is just to the right of him head on colliding with the #26. Yeah, you are seeing it correctly, the #26 is going the wrong direction. But eventually, Jeff and Kasey were able to come back out on the track with cars that were basically duct-taped together. However, we did get to hear some really funny radio chatter from Steve Latarte, Kasey, and Jeff. Head over to Big T's blog for some funny race chatter. Of course, the first BIG ONE did not compare to the REALLY BIG ONE from Carl Edwards on the last lap of the race...

And right after his pic was taken...in true Ricky Bobby fasion...Carl ran to and jumped on the start finsh line. This was one the the most amazingly scary crashes I have ever seen and heard. It was crazy bad. But nobody had the best/worst day as the woman on I-20 who gave birth to her child as Talladega race traffic was filing by. In the wise and simple words of JS, "And the minute that you think you've seen it all on race day, you see a baby being born in the backseat of a Buick on the interstate." We wondered - Will his or her name be Walker, Texas Ranger, Dale III, or Talley Dega?

Some other funny comments from our Talladega experience:

Driving down I-20 we see an advertisement for a rib joint called "Butts N Ribs"...Big T wants to know, "Can you really serve ribs at a strip joint?"

An ethnic motorcyle group called the Buffalo Soldiers rode by us...JS and Mel saw one thing, Ryan and Big T saw another, but Big T asked "So, are they considered a gang?"

A man was driving to the race in his 1988 Chevy Silverado pick-up with his window paint (notice I said window paint) proclaiming that Dale Jr was the only driver to consider rooting for...however, this window paint, was used directly on his truck bed and tailgate..."That is wrong on so many levels."

Another lovely display of window paint writing was a Dodge Mini Van with the slogans of "Don't Waste Cold Beer on Gordon" and "Dale Jr. was conceived in Victory Lane". My you just can't hide class when you see it. "Maybe they are just simple people" according to Ryan.

And now, on to Lifesong. The 1st-6th grade choir performed the muscial Lifesong on Sunday, May 3rd. It is amazing to watch kids praise and worship God. They sang their hearts out and the actors pulled out the performance of a lifetime. Ash and I were really worried on Friday and Saturday during and after the practices, things just weren't coming together like we had hoped. We both bathed the kids in prayer and God answered our prayers in a powerful and wonderful way. He is amazing!!!

These words of the song Lifesong (by Casting Crowns) speak the loudest to me:

LORD, I give my life, A living sacrifice, To reach a world in need, To be your hands and feet, So may the words I say, And the things I do, Make my lifesong sing, Bring a smile to You!

I can't say it any better.

Here is a link to Sara H's photobucket pics from the musical: http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l141/sarabhorn/LifeSong%20TSC%20Musical/

There's 248 pics, they are all fabulous, I couldn't decide which ones to post!!! But I had to post this one of my Sweet Baboo doing her "I'm Very High Maintenance!" line.

All of these kids are precious to me...I'm gonna need a copy of every pic!

Let me close by saying this: Lord, I thank you for all of the blessings in my life. I thank you for my precious husband, I thank you for my sweet children, I thank you for parents who took me to church, I thank you for all of the friends and family that wished me a Happy Birthday, I thank you for the gift of friends like Ash, Big T and Jeff that helped me celebrate my birthday, I thank you that Jeff, Kasey and Carl were all kept safe and free from injury from the Big One's at Talladega, I thank you for the 1st-6th graders of TSC that I get the honor and privilege of working with and serving on a daily basis, I thank you for allowing me to have awesome co-workers/partners to share in this ministry with me, I thank you for giving your son, a living sacrifice, to take a strong-willed, hard-headed kid like me and turn my life around!!! Lord, I want my Lifesong sing to You and to bring a smile to You! Amen.

Sweet Home Alabama

There are many reasons that Alabama is Sweet Home Alabama to me....

The first one being that during Spring Break (and other various vacation times of the the year), we get to live here...thanks to the best mother-in-law on the planet who owns condo 616.


And while we are at condo 616, we get to sit on the beach or on the wrap-around balcony and look at this....


And if you ask my friend, Ash, who went with me, she would say that I should also include this as one of my reasons...
Ashley (Ash), Gunnar (NunNa), Lanie (Lay-Lay), Tay-Tay, Reid, BEBE!, Jenny, Griffin (G-dude), Baby Dane, and Aunt Mo spent Spring Break week in Orange Beach, Alabama. And once again, thanks to Baby Dane for everyone's nickname. We had fun!!! Here's a few highlights from the week.

Gunnar: According to my Ip*d calculator, we should have been there 165.3 hours ago.
Mo: Ummm, Gunnar that would have put us there on Tuesday of LAST WEEK!!!

Reid: "I got a hole in one!" on the very first hole at Pirates Island. And according to this BFF (not best friend forever but big fat fibber), he got a hole in one on holes 2-18 also. Geesh! Like we are really gonna fall for that!

Ash: "Golf - It's all about finese."

Everybody (under the age of 25) on hole 3: "There's water in this hole."

While at the go-kart track - Tay-Tay: "Mom, I can't do it, I can not drive a go-kart by myself, I am FREAKING OUT!!!"

Mo: "Will you do it for $20 bucks?"

Tay-Tay: "Yes, but I will not enjoy it!"

During the 4 lap race, we all managed to lap Tay-Tay 6 times. Everytime we passed her, her white knuckles were wrapped around the steering wheel and she was barely touching the gas. When through with the race and headed back to Jenny's van...Tay-Tay says "I'm gonna be scarred for life."

Mo: "Well, at least you will have something to talk to your therapist about....Ash, is the van door wide open?.....Oh no!!!"

While at dinner, our waiter was paying way more attention to a table of teenage lovelies sitting across from us, while we drank our drinks dry, waited forever to place our order and wait forever for our food, we watched those teenage lovelies get an appetizer, meal and dessert and all the sweet tea and diet coke that their glasses could hold. Towards the end of our meal and after the teenage lovelies had left, the waiter says to Ash..."You have beautiful eyes." Ash turns to me and says, "Why did he not notice that an hour ago?"

Ash: Gunnar, please let us know when you are going to turn off your vacation brain and turn your real brain back on.

Mo: Kendall, if you need me call me...
Tay-Tay: But I don't have a cell phone...(while making a fake phone with her fingers)
Mo: Exactly!

Dane thought the Blue Angel airplanes were "WOUD", but it did not stop him from falling asleep as they flew over us. While in the Naval musuem, he loved the "helicops". He also was telling Aunt Mo when to "stop" and "drive" the stroller.

After waiting 2 hours for dinner at Lulu's, NunNa asked Dane what he wanted for dinner and Dane responded "CHEESEBUG" at the top of his lungs. How appropriate that at Lulu Buffets, one of the menu specialities is a "Cheeseburger in Paradise".

Gunnar: My dad spanked me with my own belt once, and the belt had my name on it. He spanked me so hard that I had Gunnar spelled backwards on my butt.

Ash: If we get home and there's a murder of a hitchhiker, in Birmingham, AL, we are at exit 255, and he is being picked up by a dark grey taurus with tinted windows.

Mo: Ash, I was memorizing the license plate and exit numbers too, this is one of the many reasons we get along so well!!!

The funniest line of the week was Jenny: "Ashley can be chewing those kids out but she never raises her voice, HOW DOES SHE DO THAT?"

And one more reason that Alabama is Sweet Home Alabama to me.....


Jeff Gordon, I'm coming to see you in Talladega, AL, this weekend, and I'm bringing my rowdy friends, the Stahly's, and sweet Ryan with me. AND the best birthday present that you could give me.....a Talladega WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!