Ari's Big Game

 

Ari's club volleyball team has received a bid to the National tournament.

It's the first time the team has received a bid to this tournament.

We are so proud of her!

Jerry Garcia is NOT dead

My next door neighbor rolls the same way we do... Lots of kids and lots of chaos.

Since I have house guests and so does she, we planned a couple of "group"activities for our 15 kids.  

Good idea #1

Tie dye t-shirts

It's a motley crew

That's Ari and Harrison on the end.

Indy and Alex in the middle.

Harrison and his Cousin ( she's beautiful)

Mommas

Gators & Wally World

Shelley, her kids and her one-eyed Chihuahua arrived last Friday night.

we've been having lots of fun.

There has been s'mores, home made meals

Sitting outside and listening to the frogs, crickets and wildlife at night. The frogs are very loud.

On Sunday morning I ran out to the grocery store to buy my five newspapers so I could get all my coupons. 

Each child had his/her own set of comics to read over breakfast.

It's the one time of day that we have quiet in the house.

Had to take them to Alligator Alley so they could get the full "Alabama" experience.

They loved it.

This little gator was trying to give Aidan a major hug.

And THEN we happened upon WalMart. I had to run in to get some tomato stakes for my tomato bushes. Shelley announced that she had never been into a walmart. Poor dear... she's lead a sheltered life.

She found a few things that she couldn't live without.

Like a fish tank with an led light that changes color all night long. She thinks our beta fish was bored with his plain bowl.

We also couldn't live without this lovely plastic pool. The wal mart guy was happy to escort us to our car with our purchases.

Thank GAWD I drive a Suburban. That pool almost had to stay at the store. The kids made a sacrifice of comfort so we could get the thing home.

Alex did a bit of complaining but I ignored him.

 Happy Summer.

A Few Things & Happenings

Awoke the other morning to this

Sent a picture of it to my next door neighbor assuming that the culprits were her boys.

She woke them up and handed them each a trash bag and told them to get outside and pick every piece of TP off of the house and bushes. She even added the " Mr. Ted is not happy" line to give them a bit of motivation to get every last piece. 

They were out there for over an hour. They were really bummed when I informed them that the sprinklers had gone off at 5:00 am so everything was soaking wet.

Tyler said " curse your sprinkler system Miss Stephanie" I smiled and went back inside where it was nice and cool.

I especially liked Connor's polar bear pj's. I told the boys that next time they decide to roll some body's house they should choose a house where they won't implicate themselves by living right next door to their victim.

Christine ( mom of boys) asked Harrison if he was involved in the rolling of my house.

His response...

" Are you kidding mom? I'm in Mr Ted's good graces and I want to keep it that way."

The End

Red Snapper BABY!!!!

Red snapper season just opened up a few days ago. Our good friends were gracious enough to invite Ted and I to go out fishing on Sat to catch our daily quota.

We raced motored out about 20 miles into the middle of the Gulf Of Mexico because Steve got some   spam  secret email telling him of the exact spot of where all the Really BIG snapper were hiding.

The ride out was very fast and wet. You could tell Steve was excited... he couldn't get out there fast enough. I was fighting off a sinus infection and a sore back and as luck would have it... started my period that very morning. But my attitude was positive. Steve hooked us all up with our rods and Erin was the first one to catch a snapper.

Erin is an amazing fisher woman. She caught many fish that day. Some had to be thrown back because they weren't big enough but she caught several.

Ted? Well he caught the biggest fish that day. Well actually I caught the biggest fish that day but I'll talk about that in a minute. Teds fish was HUGE!! it only weighed in at 8 lbs but it was enormous and it gave him quite a fight. It was awesome. I was probably 24" long.

And then there was Steve. He was the most excited! He had so many fish on his line that he lost I stopped counting. He did manage to reel a few in but the angst he was feeling every time he lost a BIG one was just a tiny bit funny. He just kept saying " just let this one be 8 1/2 lbs" Just reel  in one a little  bit bigger than Ted's. He is so funny. He was a good sport and is an amazing fisherman.

And then there's me. When we finally got out to the "secret" fishing spot. There were a dozen other boats within eye shot of where we were.

I immediately began to feel a tiny bit sea sick but Steve and Ted got me all set up and within a minute or two I had something on my hook but it wasn't a snapper. It was so big that I had to put on a belt just to keep my pole in my hands. The line began to spin off the reel faster than I could even try too reel it in. I told Steve that I thought it was a shark or something because I couldn't even get the reel to wind back in. It just kept spinning out to sea. FAST.

 My rod bent practically in half. Spinning out.

Then SNAP. My rod snapped in half. Poof! And my fish was gone. Or whatever the Hell it was. It scared the S%$@ out of me!!

From there it was down hill all the way. The adrenaline rush from my shark on my line made me even more sea sick than before and before I knew it I was bent over the side of the boat ( not in a good way) and vomiting my brains out. NOT fun. I also peed my pants because my bladder is a hot mess from birthing my big babies. 

Poor Steve just wanted to catch his quota before we headed back for the harbor so I spent the rest of the day hunched over the side of the boat praying for it to be over. 

This isn't me. BUT if I had allowed Ted to snap my picture, this is what you would have seen. Except NOT in a bikini, and with wet pants from my "other" accident.

Remember Dr Jeff the GYNO?? YEP that one from last week at the beach. I'm gonna have him fix my bladder so I don't wet my pants anymore when I vomit.