School's Back In:

Well, it's official now I guess. I met my new munchkins today, they are precious! They will be ready to go on Monday morning for sure! This planning week is always the hard part, yuck! No matter how much you work on it during the summer, actually putting it all together takes a small act of congress! But, that part is done! (And I am so in need of SLEEP that it isn't funny!!) Now we have to endure the first week of "this is how we stand in line", "here is this and don't do that". Then...by September, things get fun again!!

I'll have to take a couple of pictures of my room to share. For now though, here I am. Ms. Tanner in all her glory! Brittany decided that since I was taking pictures of her, she needed a turn to take the pictures. There ya have it!! Welcome back fall, we're waitin' on ya!!

Miracles happen every day!

I had a Sunday School teacher once who really tried to encourage us to look for miracles daily. They happen, they are out there, they just need to be noticed!! Babies are born, the sun shines, the world keeps turning, we remain safe as we travel from place to place, people are healed through medicine and surgery, the list goes on and on!!

We have a little friend, her name is Emmy. She is in the 5th grade and is the daughter of our Associate Pastor and his wife, our Children's Minister. She is a HOOT!! We've gotten to know her pretty well. I worked with GA's for a year, she spent the weekend at our house with about 8 other girls for a children's conference and I see her around church. She is beautiful, full of energy and has a love for Christ! Andy & I have both come to think she's awesome!!

Just a few weeks ago, they found that Emmy had a brain tumor. It was very sudden and was found through an MRI that was done because her hearing wasn't very good anymore in one ear. Just a typical hearing problem, became a huge tumor problem. Within a week she was scheduled for brain surgery.

She had surgery last Monday, they removed 95% of the tumor. It was NOT CANCER and everyone has rejoiced since then! The remaining 5% should began to leave on it's own, not being able to survive without the larger portion. If if doesn't, there will be treatments to get rid of it! God answered prayers that were poured out to him for Emmy during her surgery. Now everyone is confident, he will continue to answer prayers through the rest of her healing process.

While the doctors are super positive about her healing, prayers are still very needed! Pray for her family as they continue to care for and support their daughters. (Not just Emmy, but 2 sisters who are there by her side!) Pray that God will heal Emmy's body and getting rid of the rest of that sucker!! Pray for Doctor's and their abilities to know how to best deal with helping her heal. Pray for her spirit!

The miracle that I saw, just Sunday morning. A little girl, who had brain surgery just 6 days prior...walking down the aisle of church with a big ole' smile on her face! God Bless You Emmy, We Love You!!!

Cricket Salad!!

Want to hear something grosser than gross? Remember that old line from your childhood? Well, bring it back!! Saturday night Andy & I decided to have dinner @ the Applebee's in Hiram. We've only eaten there once since it's opened, we forget it's there. I found three things that I was ready to try and finally chose one. We made plans to come back soon and try the others! We had a great waiter who knew what "extra lemons" meant and was very attentive. We both ordered Caesar salads that arrived speedy quick~ We were chattin' and eatin'... both of us had taken about 2 bites. I was stirring and looked down (thank the Lord!) to find a cricket, belly up and looking back up at me!! Yep, seems I had a cricket salad!

Thankfully there were no words to come, I couldn't speak...much less scream. I showed Andy my bowl and he began to turn green immediately. (He's squimish as it is) He said "we're outta here". We chose to flag down our waiter and point out my little multi-legged friend. He said he was so sorry & couldn't believe it. Before further action could be taken (surely a manager came to find us?) we flew the scene. Andy was ready to RUN out the door.

Needless to say, I wont be getting those dishes that I looked forward to at Applebee's. Andy says that he doesn't know if he'll ever be able to order a salad out again. We went on to Chili's where we had a nice dinner, both of us searching through each and every item brought our way~

At the Beach!

Mom & I have been taking a beach trip since my senior year of high school. Where else is there to go other than Panama City Beach? We've been going there since I was a baby, why stop now? We have our favorite restaraunts and tons of memories to recall while we're there. It's always fun!!


We take a ton of books with us, Mom is the one
that gave me the passion for reading! We both
read John Grisham's "Bleachers". I hadn't read
anything by him in ages & Mom hadn't read
any of his books. I loved it, my favorite book of
his now! Great story!! I read "Hissy Fit" again,
my new favorite book of the summer! (ok, watch the
language if you pick that one up, can't help it) I also
read "Smitten", the new Janet Evanovich book
and "Wyoming Kid" by Debbie Macomber.



We baked ourselves in the
sun from morning 'till late afternoon.
Only taking breaks long enough to
grab a snack. We ate dinner at our
favorites: Angelos, Captain Andersons
and The Treasure Ship twice! YUMMY
You haven't lived until you've had a
steak or ribs from Angelos, messy
shrimp from Captain Andersons (with
any one of the homemade desserts) or
any kind of seafood from the Treasure
Ship!!


We are always amazed at how the place is growing with new huge high rise condos at every step. It sure isn't the same place that it was just 5 or 10 years ago. (which is mostly an improvement) It still makes me sad t o ride by and see Miracle Strip closed, grown up and about to be torn down. Lots of memories down there for sure. Beach trips with friends, taking friends with the parents, trips with Amy's parents, youth camps galore and family trips with Andy too. Those of you who grew up with me should recognize this place!! 'Nuff said about that!


It was the BEST time of the year to
go, wowie!! It was pretty empty and
we loved it!! The beach was deserted
and gorgeous! We walked right in to
eat everywhere, no traffic and the
"crowded" day at the pool there were
10 people there total!! Rates are also
down now that everyone is back in
school, good times~



We saw more dolphins than I'd ever seen
down there before!! They came out in
front of our hotel every day twice: late
morning and early evening. They would
play and feed out there for about an hour,
great to watch. I tried to get pics, but
they weren't still long enough.
Imagine that huh?


Nothing else really to report. We ate more homemade ice cream from "The Ice Cream Shoppe" than I care to report. We didn't see a movie which is rather odd for us, I had "Gilmore Girls" episodes to watch at night and Mom read. We did visit an "Alvin's" store, of course! So, until next time....

Back from the Lake!!

Yeah, you know you missed us! Here we go....things we know to be fact.

#1- 5 Nights is long enough for me to be in the woods!
(even in my nice camper)

#2- Andy turns red in the sun, doesn't matter how much sunscreen he wears.

#3- Not all camping people are friendly, wonderful, down home folk.
(our neighbors this time were the most odd group of folks ever!!)

#4- Not everyone is back in school yet!!
(it was more crowded than I thought it would be, but NOTHING like during the
rest of the summer!)

#5- If you stay for a week at the lake, it will rain at least 2 afternoons for a little while

#6- Naps are a must for those who camp

#7- You can never have too many board games with you!

#8- You are going to need to go to the store at some point for things your forgot!!

#9- When they decide to cut down trees at the neighboring camp spots, you will be woken up by saws, bull dozers and crashing!

#10-You can count on being entertained by critters while your in the woods!!


Now on with the show-

Yes, it's a wimpy fire that night. But... it did the job with marshmallows and really..what other reason is there for a campfire in August?









Here are just one set of the tacky lights that are a must if you own a camper. The other
set is mixed with bugs & flowers. We used those last time, it was time for the fish to return!!



Here is the view from the camper. That's Allatoona Landing across the water, where my parents boat is. (And the cabin that they use to own)







Just one of our furry little friends. HEY- Wait a minute is that Sponge Bob Mac N Cheese he's eating?? Yep, it is!! It was so darn funny. He got in the trash (ok, not funny for Andy) and took out one piece at a time to nibble on beside the camper. I thought he was precious. Andy would try to scare him away and he'd just stare, he wasn't afraid one bit. We also had ants in our sugar container (yikes, oh the joys of camping) and Andy dumped it out in the woods nearby. He got into the sugar and was wired, it was HILARIOUS!! He was flipping around on a limb and jumping back and forth between 2 trees!! He also worked very hard on a nest and was sooo interesting to watch. He would break limbs off of this bushy tree down low (the same spot each time), then run up the same path of branches to a high pine tree and add it to his nest...then repeat the process. We watched it for awhile several nights. Amazing how God's creatures work!!











There were also oodles of deer of course! There always are up there. Of course, this is the only time that a camera was handy. I took it with me on a few of our walks at night and would never see them when I had the camera with me. Now...if I left it back, we'd run up on herds of them! One night we saw 3 babies together, really young with spots still...awesome! Then driving back one night we were so close to 2 by the road that I thought the rear view mirror was going to hit them. They aren't scared of people at all up there!!


It was fun as always. Mom & Dad came up 2 different days for swimming and riding around in the boat. There were not NEAR as many boats up there as during the rest of the summer or on the weekends. But..it was still more people than I expected now that most of the schools around us are back in. We had good old fashion thunderstorms a few afternoons, perfect napping weather! We played in the water so much that my arms & legs are super sore! (Guess that's a good thing) We walked around, alot! We had great food on the grill of course! We played oodles of card & board games, always fun. I took along the personal DVD player and watched more episodes of "Gilmore Girls" than I care to admit!! (almost 2 whole seasons worth) Andy watched "Andy Griffith" when he could get the thing outta my hands. I read books while laying on a float in the water and holding a cup of diet coke. (It's a talent, I tell ya!!) We only battled ants twice in the camper, hey... coulda been worse. We watched them cut down some trees that were eaten by pine beetles and it's was quite amazing how fast they were at it! Andy fished, but only caught little bitty guys! We watched the lake become like a highway on Tuesday night for the 7:00 Bass Tournament!! It got super crowded that night!! We ran to Ingles once and didn't make it to visit Farmer Produce Man at all, strange enough!! It's always great to be away from it all, but 5 nights was away enough!! We both agreed that we were ready for the luxury of home again! So, there ya have it.....that's all I got-

I'll be at the beach with Mom next week....stories & pics to follow!

And hey...yall did good with the survey too!! I stole it from Katie, she used it as a myspace bulletin, I know yall would appreciate a good survey.