Andy's Team in Thailand

Lynne found this picture of Andy and the rest of his team in Thailand. We got it off the Global Expeditions web site. It's small and grainy, but his mommy can see him. He's the one on the floor in the blue shirt.

Then there was one

Will left for camp this morning with our church youth group. He has been packed for two days and was so excited. He was ready and hounding me about when we could leave to go to the church before 715am this morning. He was hanging out with the high school guys when I left him at the church.

Jesse is now the only one at home for a week. I think he is excited about this. It means that he won't have to fight for a turn at the computer or x-box and he has mom and dad to himself. I am hoping that he doesn't get too bored.

Andy's Trip Part 3

Andy called us on Saturday morning to say that they had arrived okay. He said that they had attended a buddhist temple to pray walk that morning (they are 12 hours ahead over there) and it had been a humbling experience. He said that they were having fun and that it was beautiful there. He sounded tired but happy. He said that as soon as they landed they dropped off their stuff and hit the ground for training and prayer. They had left so that sleeping on the plane would help them with the jet lag transition.

Andy called again on Sunday morning to tell Jeff "Happy Father's Day". He said that they had gone to church and the preacher talked about honoring their fathers and they all realized what day it was so the leaders allowed them to call again. He sounded more rested and more excited than the day before. He is having a blast there and loving every minute. We probably won't here from him again until the end of this week. It is hard to believe he has been gone a week. It seems like so much longer.

Goodbye Picture

Thanks for the picture GranPa! He took this just before we left Andy on Sunday.

Andy Part 2

Andy called us tonight to say hi and to let us know that he was getting ready to pull out on Wednesday. He said that he was going to leave DFW, fly into LAX, then on to Hong Kong. From there he would fly to Bangkok for a 10 hour layover. After that they would fly to another town and then on into Chiang Mai. He said that he would call us when they landed there. He sounds like he is having fun and he has made some new friends. AC told me that the phone calls would be the hardest and she was so right. We were at Wendy's when the call came and once I hung up, I cried.

This raising kids thing is so much harder the bigger they get. You have to step back and realize you are no longer the center of their universe and I don't know if I like that. I am sure that as time goes by I will be glad that they grew up and moved on but in my heart they are still my little babies who need their momma.

Andy's Big Trip Part 1

Sunday was an eventful day. We (Grandma, Grandpa, and the five of us) loaded up in the Excursion and headed for Garden Valley, Texas. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there and it was somewhat stressful for me more than anyone other than Andy. He was nervous and excited all at the same time. This was the first time he would venture out without family or known friends traveling with him. We arrived at Garden Valley around 130pm and took Andy into the activity room where he got his name tag, took a picture, and finished up registration for his trip. This all took about 45 minutes. During one of the times that we were waiting for the next step, a lady got on the speakers behind Jeff and started encouraging people to go out and welcome the newcomers. She was really loud. Most of the staffers went out and cheered and clapped as the newcomers came in. It was neat the way they welcomed people in. We then drove Andy over to his hut to put his stuff up. It was males only but Jeff said that it was just a long room with big fans at both ends blowing hot air around and being really loud. After that we took Andy back to the activity center so he could meet people and see who all was going to Thailand with him. It appeared that there were more girls than boys going so......

Andy hugged everyone first and then he hugged me really tight. I had promised him that I would not cry (I had been doing that all week and even now as I write this) when we dropped him off. I kept my promise and did really well. I only had a couple of tears after we left him. As the momma, this is hard to have my first baby leave for so long (a month!). What am I going to do when he goes to college? I may have to chain him to the porch. HAHA!!!

Jeff sent the camera with Andy so we don't have a way to post pictures. You may want to check out grandpa's site for pictures. As we hear from Andy and get updates from Thailand then we will update the blog on his trip.

Will and Jesse say they are glad there is one less but I sure did hear how bored they were today. Will even cleaned his room.

Flare

Lynne, Sue Ellen and Grandpa went to Sonic to take advantage of the free root beer float night. When Lynne got home, she took Jeff to Low Water where they were flaring a well. We were able to several pictures before the security guard drove up and got on to us for being there. Of all the pictures we took this was the best one. Lynne had seen the glow the night before from the bathroom and drove down to see what was going on and then realized they were flaring the well.

Halo Party!

Since Andy is leaving for Thailand on Sunday and Uncle Alan was having Halo withdrawals, we told them they could have a Halo party. A Halo party is defined as several computers being linked together throughout various rooms in the house and as many people as you can have(depending on the number of controllers, x-boxes, and routers). We ended up at one point with 14 guys playing Halo. This party lasts until all have passed out or they have to leave. Above in the gaming nook is Unlce Alan, Andy, and Matt.
This is the linking box that sat in the middle of the hallway connecting 4 televisions, 4 x-boxes, 1 x-box 360, and 14 controllers. There were wires running to four different rooms in our house.
In Will's room there was Will, Lucas, and Dan.
In Jesse's room, Taylor and Juan were on the x-box 360.

Garrett, Nick (the sunburned ears), Yager, and Jesse (laying in the floor) were in the living room. Lynne fixed the guys 32 quesadillas and the boys brought chips, drinks, and dessert. Within the first hour of everyone being here, all the quesadillas, two bags of chips, 4 12-packs of Mountain Dew, and numerous cookies were gone. As the night progressed they downed 2 more bags of chips, 2 12-packs of Dr Pepper, and 2 12-packs of Pepsi. The group made it until 530am the next morning with a couple of guys having to leave at 100am. For breakfast, Lynne made 2 dozen scrambled eggs, a dozen biscuits, a dozen cinnamon rolls, 2 dozen pigs in the blanket, and 30 sausage patties. This was gone in about 20 minutes by the 4 guys who actually got up and ate. It was a lot of fun hearing the guys yelling and having fun.

Attack of the Giant Miniature Dachshund!!!

With forced perspective you can make anything look big! There was no PhotoShop involved. Lynne held up Pipper right in front of me and Jesse stood at the edge of the yard. Luckily they both looked the right direction.
The hog picture below prompted this little experiment. We've decided that the kid in the picture is kneeling 10-15 feet behind the hog making it look much larger than it is. What do you think?

Hogzilla?

In this photo released by Melynne Stone, Jamison Stone, 11, poses with a wild pig he killed near Delta, Ala., May 3, 2007. Stone's father says the hog weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. If claims of the animal's size are true, it would be larger than ``Hogzilla,'' the huge hog killed in Georgia in 2004. (Melynne Stone/AP Photo)

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Talk on the Internet is that the picture is fake. But I saw the kid on the news tonight with his dad and they had the skull with them. It was twice the size of the normal skull next to it. They got over 800lbs of sausage from it! Daddy use to raise sows but I don't remember them getting that big.

Memorial Day 2007

Remember what this holiday is really about.

Memorial Weekend at MiMi & PaPa's House

Well, we are away for the weekend visiting Mimi & Papa. We went to Uncle D's house tonight to see the new baby, Lipton T. We're just spending a relaxing weekend doing alot of nothing. Andy did help Papa change a few light bulbs.

Andy at Bat

Strike one. Ball one. Swing and a hit! Right to the second baseman who threw him out at first. I know it's bad cell phone video, but it's all I got. I'm sure you can hear Lynne screaming in the background. We played Brock Thursday night in Burleson and Friday night in Mansfield. We lost both games so our season is over. But Brock is last years State Champions.

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Prom 2007

This is Connie and Andy outside Connie's house. They were already tired of taking pictures at this time and so this was an endurance for them as they made their way to the car.
In the group of 10 that Andy and Connie went with, these are the girls. Don't they look gorgeous?
The guys were looking down at me because I was on the floor. Then they decided to lean back just as I took the picture.
This is the big group picture. Starting at the left: Andy, Connie, Garrett, Karla, Blake, Courtney, Dan, Jodie, Robbie, and Erin.

This was a picture that had to be taken. Jodie and Andy are so much like a brother and sister and we had to get a picture of the two of them. They have been best buds since the 1st grade so we couldn't resist.

Prom was not what they expected but I think that dinner at Saltgrass Steak House was a high point. They have all said that they hope next year's is better. I think the guys would have preferred to stay home and watch movies. They all looked handsome and beautiful dressed up.

Bi-District Baseball Playoffs

We went to Waco Friday night for the first game of the Bi-District play offs against the McGregor Bulldogs. That's Andy, second on the left. He scored twice during the game. There was a small mishap though. Yeager, one of Andy's friends, was stealing second and slid head first into the shortstops knee. He lay on the ground awhile and then got up and jogged off the field. His arm did not look right. Once in the dugout he complained of chest pains and kept passing out. They called the ambulance to come get him.












It's a bad picture but you can see him on the stretcher being wheeled to the ambulance. He had separated his shoulder and has a bruise covering his entire chest. He was at game 2 the next day.
We won the first game 12-9 and got home about 1am. Game 2 was at 10am the next morning.
That's Andy on third getting ready to go home. This was a close game, but we ended up winning 2-1.
The team mobbed our pitcher. He pitched the entire game and got 8 strike outs. And he's a freshman. Next weekend we will go to the regional playoffs.

Lynne's Field Trip

The 6th grade took a field trip to the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas to view the Body Worlds exhibit. Lynne said she thought it would be gross, but turned out to be really cool. I think she had too much fun though. That's her below dissecting a pig heart. I don't like the evil grin on her face. I have hidden all the knives in the house.

Firey Finale to the Antique Alley

As they rest of the family was closing up the old house from Antique Alley, I heard sirens in the distance. It seems the gas compressors at the pump station caught fire. The Maypearl Volunteer Fire Department responded an let it burn out. They closed 916 to traffic, but luckily there was no explosion.

The building burned pretty good, but it can all be repaired.

Last JV Game of the Season

We finished the JV season in Maypearl Saturday. The Palmer Bulldogs came to play ball with us. Here is Andys first t bat. He got a single.

Nick the Quick pitched the game.

Andy got a double his second at bat.

Here he is playing third base. No more JV games for us.

My Older Sisters Weapon of Choice

Do you recognize this AC? When we were kids growing up I had to play with my older sister (there were no other kids close by). I was playing with this in the yard one day when she came along and gave it a shove. She almost took my thumb off. Of course, all my childhood injuries were her fault. Little Sister drug this out to try to sell at Antique Alley this weekend. It didn't sell.

Easter Cold Snap

Lynne and I went to the old house Thursday night to mow and do a little clean up. The Old Blush rose was blooming nicely.
There was one Iris blooming and all the rest were on the verge of coming out.
And then... Saturday morning it started snowing before 9 o'clock in the morning and snowed all day long. It melted as soon as it hit the warm ground, but stayed for awhile on the grass, trees, and roofs.
It was really pretty. Down between Hillsboro and Waco they had over four inches of the white stuff. I don't think we had that much.

What's Growing In My Front Yard

These are pictures of things I found growing in my front yard. I don't know what the blue flowers are but there are clumps of them all over the yard.

I believe this purple one is Vetch.

And this is a Wine Cup.

Another that I don't know the name of. They are very small though. There were some smaller pink and red ones that I couldn't get a picture of.

And of course these are the Blue Bonnets. The hillside is covered with them and the photos don't do them justice.

And finally, here is a Wiener dog in her natural habitat; a field of flowers.