Some newer pictures

Adler...in this picture he looks like a troll, but
in reality he is absolutely ADORABLE.














Jon's attempt to get good Christmas pictures,
after 10 tries he got this one.




















Andi, three kids later,
looking totally hot!






















Our beloved red cabin
















Jon and I!















Dad, setting up his side of the Griggswald
family Christmas cul-de-sac.















I asked Maggie to smile for the camera...















Brennah and Maggie were helping their Papa

A very small update, more to come soon

The past week has been insane. We are all kind of waiting on Jeny's baby to make his grand entrance! Grandma and grandpa are here as well as Rita and Tyler, and Aunt Leanne just left:( On Friday, Jon and I went to yoga where the teacher happily tried to kill us. We ate at a mexican place here called Rosa's with my grandparents for lunch and Jon spilled a full glass of tea in mine and Brennah's laps. I carried a sobbing Bren to the bathroom and had to take her pants off and tie grandma's shirt around her waist. By the time we got back to the table, Maggie had spilled her entire water on the floor. When we got home we found out that Stuka(my parents miniature daschund) had been attacked by a stray cat that had run in the house when someone opened the door. Then later, when he started to puke blood, we thought he had gotten parvo and we rushed him to the vet only to turn around and leave when we found out that he couldn't get parvo from a cat. The cat actually was so ill on mom and dad's front porch yesterday that we had to call animal control. Then at mom's bball game that night, two girls from the other team collided and one broke her nose while the other split her forehead, got a concussion and went into shock. It has been lively around here. I am so very excited about Thanksgiving! Grandma and I are making indian costumes for 6 children and I have already begun on placecards and decorations etc. Because we never celebrate halloween, we dress up as either indians os pilgrims for thanksgiving. I am very sorry about the nonposting, we are still having nutty problems with chargers around here. We can't find Jon's cell phone charger, our digital camera charger is missing, the computer one is a joke and for awhile last week we were missing our video camera charger. Is the Lord trying to tell me somthing?

Better day?

So this worked much better! Who knows?
Natalie and I went to Target tonight at 9:30. The girls were still awake because we had our first kinship group and Maggie really begged to go. Usually I can totally resist her sweet little face, but for some reason she seemed especially poignant. Bad idea. The first thing she said in Target (loudly) was, "Mommy are we going to steal these hair things?!!!" "HAHAHA, honey, that's ridiculous" I said, my eyes darting nervously around to make sure that there wasn't a store manager or security guard approaching. We had a little talk about how stealing was wrong and you could go to jail and I thought we were through for the night, but alas it gets 10,000 times worse... Maggie and I waited at the front of the store for Natalie to finish checking out, when Maggie pops her little thumb out of her mouth, looks at it in abject horror and yells, "Mommy, my thumb has PRIVATE on it!!!!" I did not walk, but ran out the door.

Yes I used yeast...

I must love you guys ALOT to trust you with this...this sums up my day yesterday. Out of three years of baking I have never had bread like this. The kicker was when Brennah said "Oooh, TINY bread for lunch"! Enough said.

"Lake front property"

Last month Dad decided he wanted to go swimming in the large hole (he calls it a "lake") that they dug for the oil well drilled next to our neighborhood...we thought he was kidding. Once he had presented the idea though, everyone was game! I guess you can't take the red out of the redneck. We waited until after dark and snuck over the barbwire fence and the "boys" moved the large hose that was filling the hole up so that it created somewhat of a waterslide effect. Jimmy brought the video camera and his board and the fun was on.

Mrs. Ewing

This really touched me, mom and I really wanted to be there...

Picking up the pieces of the dead sea salt man.

Yesterday, mom and I were walking in the mall with the girls and we passed one of those Dead sea
salt scrub places. The man that worked it started trying to get us to come over to try it and we politely refused, so he said to mom, "can I just ask you one question? Do you take care of your hands?" Mom told him that she really didn't and he replied, "I can tell!"
We started to walk away and I shot back over my shoulder, "That wasn't very nice!" About twenty steps later, I realized that my interlude with the sea salt man wasn't over for me. Mom, could you take the children to the car please?
Mom nicely asked me to drop it and I nicely asked her again to take the children to the car.
As she continued onward, I turned around and walked up to the offending person.
"Who is your manager?" I inquired, and after he told me it was him, it was time for the guy to face the music.
I started without mincing words. "That was really rude." "What was?" "What you said to my mom about her not taking care of her hands was really rude and unkind, and I don't think that it is a very good way to do business." "She was really polite to you, we were in a hurry and you were really rude." "But, I looked at her knuckles and I could tell she didn't take care of her hands!"-him
Me- My mom is dealing with Lyme's disease right now.
Him(horrified expression coming over his face) I am so sorry, I didn't know
Me- I know that, but you need to be careful of what you say, because you never know what people are going through.
Him-I feel so bad right now, look at this! (He holds up his arm and has chill bumps all over his body) Please tell her to come back and I will do this for free!
Me- No, we really don't have time, she was telling you the truth, we are really in a rush today. Him-let me give you something!
Me- What? No! I did not come back to talk with you to get free product, I came to tell you to be careful with your words.
Him-(eyes filling with tears and I am thinking, this is not the way I pictured this coming down) Please take this! (he holds up a bottle) If you don't I will fell terrible all day, please take it, it will help me feel better, please, please (more tears coming)
Me-I really don't want your stuff!
Him-Please I beg you take it!
Me-Okay, I will for you, but it was not my intention to get free stuff.
Him-I know it's not medicine, but I think it will help her, I feel so bad right now.
Me-It really is okay, she wasn't mad, just a little hurt.
Him-(coming towards me with arms outstretched) I really need a hug!
So this is how I found myself turn from an angry, protective irate Noellie, into a hugging, patting and consoling a crying, chill bumping, dead sea salt scrub man at the mall yesterday. Very strange. But y'know, I think I would go back to him just because you never ever find humble people anymore.

Blogger woes

OKAY MAYBE I AM NOT MEANT TO BE A BLOGGER!!!! Everytime the wind blows, I lose my mooching internet from dad, and since we are in Texas, the wind blows ALOT!!!! So I literally run into the middle of the cul-de-sac all the time trying to reconnect, computer in hand and usually barefoot. We are also still in the process of getting a new battery cord for the laptop. I totally have SIX awesome stories with pics that I can't post. Right now I am on Natalie's laptop and I was really excited about posting so I hopped onto blogger and realized that Natalie doesn't have any pictures of ME and MY life on her computer, so I am foiled again. I would use Dad's, but he is working on compiling himself a little "radio station" from Rhapsody, that plays 1000 hours of African music...I kid you not. I am listening to it filtering up from downstairs right now. Obviously I am not meant to a blogger.

The stars are bright, the internet is shooting itself from my Dad's house into mine, deep in the heart of Texas!

All right!!!! I am actually posting from MY house! We are totally sucking off of Dad's internet across the street! Good things are to come I promise...After all I have to tell all of you about Dad's surprise Stargate party, redneck swimming in the man made holding pond for the new oil well they just dug next to our houses, our trip to see the dinosaur prints, and pics of the houses. Now that I can hop on the internet highway anytime I want, these stories and more will definitely be short in coming.

The culprits!

So, I am really sorry that this is not pictures of my walls, but I just don't have time this morning and I wanted to mention a few things. I totally racked up the good mommy points yesterday. After spin class, Nina and I took the girls to the mall to play in the kids area and get pretzels.
On our way out, we spotted a kiosk that sold flip flops, and the man that worked it noticed that we were suckers for cute shoes. He told us that he would do a buy on get one free on the kids flops and so we let the girls each pick a pair. Brennah and Maggie went right past the pink, green, white and blue ones and picked out the red and orange. Now some might argue that it could be because of the outrageous colors that I paint my walls, I don't know.
As we walked on I noticed that the girls were slipping everywhere and I remembered that there are often small clear stickers on the bottom of new shoes, so I had the girls sit and I checked. Sure enough, after lifting Maggie's foot, I spotted it and proceeded to take it off, exclaiming, "There's the culprit!" Brennah decided to check her own and twisted her foot up to look as well. When she spotted the offending sticker on her own flip flop, she yelled, "I have culprits too!" Jimmy killed a snake on their front porch last night by cutting it's head off with a shovel and then placed it into a ziploc to look on the internet and identify it. When he showed Maggie this morning, she looked at it and asked, "Why did you cut it's tail off?" Haha...I will post later

Long awaited pics...

Mom and I, so cute!
















Douglas of course...hey is that the dog's cup?!!!!
(hehehe)















My friends, Nina, Samara and her daughter Allie
putting my bed together














I am so thrilled by birthday parties that are not my own...















Brennah, always ready to pose


















My SUWEET bruise that I received after sailing
through the rocks and hills, and then crashing
into the side of a small wooden bridge
















Jon and I, going to see "Oklahoma."
For weeks, Maggie would beg me to sing
"Uncle Homer" to her and Bren before bed.

Back posting

Okay! Half hour at the computer! The problem has been that we do not have internet at our house across the street, so I have to come over to Mom's to post. The issue with that is...Maggie. During my last five second post, she managed to dump dirt on the floor, wash her hands in the toilet and get into Natalie's private supply of razors. So you see my dilemma. Jon's work schedule is nights so I have to stay over at my house with the girls during the quiet time that they are in bed.
So an update... There really has been so much that has happened. I guess I will start with the trip back from Ga, several weeks ago. I had been visiting Washington for a little while and was set to drive back on a Thursday, when I look up on Wednesday night and Jon walks into the kitchen. Everyone totally kept it secret that his parents had flown him to GA to drive back with me! I hadn't seen him in three weeks so it was really awesome.
On Thursday, we headed out to highway 20 which is essentially the only road you are on for 15 hours. We met up with my sister Natalie and our close friend Summer who were each in separate cars all caravaning out to to Texas together. Everything went fine until Alabama. I looked up from my book to see that Summer had pulled off of the highway behind us, so we all pulled off and Jon went to see what was wrong. Basically her car had completely shut down. This occurred at 3:40 p.m.
Her gas gauge didn't work so we hoped that it was just empty and drove to the nearest exit to get gas. Summer and I kept the kids while Jon and Natalie went back to try the gas.
Yep, no results. We then started to brainstorm about what to do, we are still 10 hours from Texas and Jon had to work the next night. We hit upon a truly brilliant idea and called information for a U-Haul. We actually found one open(by this time it was 5:06 p.m.) and we went to investigate.
We pulled up to this completely rundown motel? I think it used to be a movie theater, because it still had the old marquis signs that have the little light bulbs all around and hold the movie posters. There was an old Coke machine and planters on either side of the door with little dead trailing things that used to be flowers. On the bright side we could see the tops of the U-Haul trailers that were sticking up from the weeds, so we figured we were in the right place. In the "foyer" there was a 1970's TV on the counter facing the questionable chairs. The wallpaper was obviously applied by someone inebriated and the parts of the chair rail border that were still on the walls were slanted. We were met by a strange lady that talked really fast and wouldn't look you in the eye. We told her the scenario, and she fired up the old computer in the back room.
The internet was down (big surprise) so she told us that she would call her manager. She attempted to do so while we waited without touching anything, and she came back to tell us that he was out and it would be a little while until she could talk with him. We decided to get a bite to eat and conveniently, there was a Pizza Hut right next door.
We pulled into the parking lot and tried to find some cement to park on. Jon and I unloaded the kids and and the whole crew entered the dining establishment. The good news was that there was no wait...the bad news was that the locals obviously knew something that we didn't yet. The waitress came right over and told us cheerfully that although they carried Pepsi products, they were out of Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and Root beer. I ordered a sweet tea thinking smugly that I sure was glad I didn't like carbonated beverages.
Pride goes before a fall as they say and my sweet tea tasted like the smell of raw sewage. I gagged and as politely as I could, asked for a water. As I gazed into the murky depths I prayed for safety and braved a small sip. Honestly, at this point I was in a terrible mood and remarked loudly that if the Lord had made the Egyptians water turn to this instead of blood, there would only have been one plague needed to free the Israelites. As Jon begged me to be quiet, I realized that the music in the background was the 80's song that goes "Kick em' when they're up, kick em when they're down." After I gathered up the children's water from them I noticed that every third ceiling tile was moldy and the wallpaper was falling off the walls here as well. When "dinner"was finally over, we headed back to the "motel" to see if the manager had arrived.
Natalie and I walked in and were informed that the guy would not be there for another hour and a half, and that he would try to meet us at the truck stop down the road, but there were no guarantees that he could let us take one of his trailers. My husband is usually a mild mannered man, but he informed the woman that she could tell her manager that we would be driving to Mississippi to get a trailer, and we left. All of us went back to the car to retrieve what we could and we had to leave it for a tow truck.
Maggie had woken up in Shreveport and stayed awake talking for three hours. Some of the monologue went something like this... "Mommy, I really need you to bathe me because I went running with Chloe and got all dirty and my hair is GREASY and I need you to wash it and Aunt Nonny has BUGOTS on her car!"(she rambled about "bugots" for two hours before we realized that Summer had told us that she pointed the bug guts out to Maggie earlier) "Mommy what stinks?" Brennah- "I think that it is a skunk!" Maggie- No it's the BUGOTS! They stink really bad!" Brennah-"No, I 'm pretty sure that it's a skunk." Maggie- "Okay, it's a SCARY skunk, and God will protect us, and I will beat it with my shoes and it will die! Okay?" I was laughing so hard at this point I could barely breathe and poor Natalie who had gotten into my car for some well needed sleep didn't even get a catnap. When we finally got toDallas, Brennah piped up in the back seat, "Mommy I hear a voice in my head." I was actually really excited because I have been telling her that when it is time, the Lord will speak to her to come into her heart. I asked her carefully, Is it the Lord honey? I don't know mommy! Well, what is it saying to you? It's saying, BRENNAH EAT THE WHOLE BOX OF CRACKERS!!!!!! Well we finally made it and we are all alive.

I know, I have been so unfaithful with this!

Aaaahhhhh! I promise to post soon! I am so sorry! I will be posting pictures too, we found the missing computer cable! I have also painted many walls in the house and one of our friends donated a REALLY expensive coach light for the front. As Josiah says..."You can't hide money."

Grandfather Faunch

Thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers for the Ewing family. We are still GA but heading home Thursday(more prayers would be appreciated). Jon is so lonely and I am ready to paint! Jon actually drove up to CO last week and ran in a triathlon. He will be doing more of these. I am so proud of him! Maggie has informed me that her name is no longer "watertop" (she has been introducing herself as such for six weeks) but now she has a "Grandfather Faunch." The poor man is in jail, put there by doctors, but he will be out at "2 clocks" and then will be going to "Mexican." Slightly disturbing but generally amusing. Brennah threw a huge fit the other day, and after receiving a talk and a spanking, she blurted out while crying, "That hurt!" "It hurt like the dickens!" So my child is throwing out 19th century expletives. I have just finished reading "Gone with the wind." I found it in one of Gran's old bookcases. It was her copy and there was actually newspaper cutouts of Margaret Mitchell at the time of writing. It made me think of Gran...I miss her so much. After several comments over the phone to Jon this week, he has reminded me that the civil war is over and that the yankees are not still out to get the south. I guess I was really getting caught up in the drama... Natalie, Jen Bailey, Summer and I went to Augusta to get dessert at a unique little restaraunt downtown called The Boll Weevil this week. Summer ordered a piece of "PeeCan" pie. Horrified, I told her, "Summer you just said that like a Yankee!" (like I said I really got caught up in a past era this week) "Oh? How do you say it?" Pecaawwnn, I answered. We proceeded to take a poll on how everyone pronounced the word. When the waitress came again, we asked her. "I say pecaawwnn, I've always thought the other way is like saying pee in a can." After the laughter completely died down, Summer got really quiet and thoughtfully said, "y'know I think I just had this conversation and pronounced and argued the other way." We laughed so hard that the entire restaurant looked over. I just talked to Natalie on the phone. The girls spent the night with Natalie at Grandma's house last night and Maggie told Natalie more on the Grandfather Faunch saga. He has died suddenly, in jail and they have thrown him in the water, but we are not to worry, because she will rescue him. Everybody is Welcome to pray for me tommorrow as I drive the 16 hour trip back to Texas. I will try to post as soon as possible. There have not been any pictures lately because somebody grabbed the wire that hooks up the camera to the computer to transfer pictures off of the camera and threw it in with mom and dad's stuff in their storage unit. Sooo we will be getting it out and posting picture of the house and my walls! Love to all, Noelle

A race well run

I have not had the energy to post. I am heartbroken. A very dear friend was violently killed by an evil man several weeks ago in Atlanta while riding her bike. Her name was Jennifer Ewing as many of you know, and she was an incredible woman. I have known the family for about 13 years and all of the members exemplify Christ. Jennifer (I always called her Mrs. Ewing) loved to laugh, and she was, in terms of strength, an oak. When I got the news, I couldn't even stand. I ache almost physically for what that family is having to endure right now.
I am grieving for the things that will come and go without her. I grew up with her eldest son Jimmy, we constantly bickered throughout high school and college and both enjoyed it immensely. I watched as her daughter Margaret became a beautiful woman, and I might add a formidable opponent on whatever athletic venue she chose. George who is the youngest, is still friends with my precious brother Jimmy even after all the years being away from Atlanta. I prayed continually the day I found out, not ever questioning God's sovereignty but asking, why? Why are we completely protected sometimes and not others? I feel like I received somewhat of an answer in the week to come.
I believe she was assasinated by the enemy.
Mrs. Ewing was a giant in the faith, a general if you will. An example of a life lived to its fullest every day. There was such a passion in her, it really could not be contained. You felt it after meeting her once. She let Christ consume her and it was beautiful to watch. I feel like a leader has been snatched out of our camp in the middle of the night. I also believe that this is a wake up call to all of us who have become complacent. God has a plan, and he will absolutely glorify His name through this. I am praying that her legacy, which involves the children, will spread to others who hear about this. I feel that the man who did this was a pawn in a much larger game than this crime, and we need to get mad.
Jennifer was on a list. The list that targets who is furthering the kingdom. Some of us are definitely not on that list because we are not threatening the enemy's work here at all. We have become complacent. At her funeral, which was a definite celebration service even in the midst of such deep sorrow, I thought-I have thirty years to get to the age she was...thirty years to affect and bless this many people. I love the Lord, passionately, but I am called to do much more than I have been. I want to be even more outspoken, I want to strive for excellence in everything. This is a war, and Satan is not out to just give the occasional bad dream.
I feel like we have come to accept a "G" rated christianity, and it's just not. We will unfortunately, have casualties. In the early church there were many martyrs. I feel like Mrs. Ewing died for Christ. I also feel that her death meant something and will jolt many out of our daily reverie. We need to be on our knees in intercession for each other continually, and I don't mean "Lord let them have a good day," kind of prayers.
There are weapons designed just for us to use in this life, we need to practice with them-get the feel of the sword in our hand, get used to the heaviness of it and slowly develop the callouses and muscles needed to wield it without harm to ourselves. This is a country of baby christians and I am not pointing at everyone else.
I had a dream years ago, and in it there was a large snake, there were actually hundreds of snakes, but this was the leader. In my dream there was a man passing out guns to kill this snake, he said "You must hunt him and kill him, or he will find you and kill you."
The only problem was that each gun had a slightly bent end. The deal was that they would work just fine, but you had to practice with them, to adjust your shot slightly. When I woke up, I knew what this meant. We live in a world that we were never designed for. Sin is a terrible thing to come into contact with constantly, in a way it is death that we experience daily. We do have a means to fight back, but it requires much practice. We cannot just expect to pick up the defense Christ has given and be able to "shoot anything that moves." That would be like letting me play in the world cup- I am neither capable of doing anything but kick people as they run past which although I would enjoy doing, I have not put in the years of dedication to earn that honor. Jenni had put in the years it took to earn that honor. She had the callouses and the muscle that it took. I loved her and miss her, but will see her again. I will also strive to be able to meet her warrior to warrior when I arrive.

It's a Doug eat Dog world...

Things are CRAZY!!!! We are"moved in"which just means that there are boxes up to the ceiling in every room, but 3 of those rooms are already painted! Mom and I were painting twenty minutes after we had our keys. The truly harrowing thing is that mom and dad have to be out of their apartment and in with me by the weekend. Their house is not ready to close yet, but it is right across the street. Jennifer, Nini and Emma Bailey will be here on Friday (WooHoo!!!) which just adds to the massive intirest column that is my daily diet. Doug is here and has been a huge help in moving. The only problem is that like Jon, he also has strange tendencies when it comes to dogs, it just seems to manifest in one particular way. Yesterday, I fed our dog Charlie an end piece of bread because we were out of dog food. She gummed around on it and like three quarters of the children in the US, dropped it onto the floor because she didn't like it. I was one of the one quarter children who had to eat their crusts and whose mother told them their whole lives that it was the most nutritious part. I finally figured out last year that this was a falsehood and I was confused because my parents never did the Santa Claus thing because when I was little and asked if he was real, she said that she couldn't lie to me...
Anyways when Jon saw Doug ten minutes later he was eating a sandwhich...with an end piece. Jon looked at it and asked with a curious voice, "Hey Doug, where'd you find that end piece?" Doug answered, "Dude, I found it on the floor, I think one of the kids dropped it so I made myself a PB and J." Eeeeww!!! But that is not the grossest thing that he did. This morning, when I got back from spinning class, I told Jon (because he still hadn't purchased dog food) that I had fed Charlie the girls left over cereal. Doug piped up "Did the girls bowls happened to be the ones on the kitchen floor? Because I used one for MY cereal this morning after you guys left." I seriously couldn't stop laughing even while poor Doug was running to the bathroom and dry heaving into the toilet. Jon advised him that maybe he should just not eat things on the floor anymore. I couldn't even comment at that point because I was laughing so hard that I was collapsed over the island with tears pouring down my cheeks.

Up to date

We have our closing date! Sometime Monday we will be in our new home! Tonight we are headed off to our new friends the Kellers! We will be celebrating Jon's 28th birthday late, because the first two plans fell through miserably. We were all supposed to go Wednesday on a boat ride with his cousin Alex (while his parents were in town visiting). We had planned dinner at a nice restaraunt across the lake.
I was sick all day with stomach stuff so I figured that if I went on the boat ride, I just might be setting myself up for my most embarrassing moment ever. Since the other ones have been doozies, I figured that this time I would take a proactive role in preventing any more. On top of his wife not going on the boat, his dad got a migraine and ended up in bed for hours, and my dad had a bulging disc in his back and couldn't go on the boat ride either. To top this off, we then learned that the restaraunt was closed for the night. Jon had to work the next day on his birthday, and his parents left two days early to go back to GA and take care of his Nanny. At this point we were supposed to close the house on Friday, so we planned a turnaround trip to CO to see Josiah, Tiff and my brother who is working at a camp up there for the summer. The guys were all going to go downhill mountain biking on Monday and my parents were going to pay for it-score! Until we didn't close on Friday and they set the closing for...Monday. My poor husband. Poor Josiah. Poor Jimmy. Poor Tiffany and I. So we are going to have a birthday cake for him at least.
Oh, our good friend Doug will be here this afternoon, so there is a little good news at least! Random happenings lately: Maggie has renamed herself "Watertop," and we found a mysterious pee spot on top of a chair. I narrowed it down to-mom and dad's weiner dog Stuka. I guess he jumped up on a chair, peed and jumped down. Of course out of the 8 chairs pulled up to the table Brennah happened to sit in it. Drama. Jon has taken to calling Stuka, a fat white maggot, which we all think is pretty rude. It is becoming disturbing. Jon talks to him all the time telling him how strange he is, how mentally unbalanced, how gluttonous, how tiny he is, how weird his habits are...all the while I sit staring at Jon intently-and when he finally looks up from talking to the dog for five minutes, I like to calmly ask him who is the mentally unbalanced one? Stuka takes it rather well and is as friendly as ever.
Brennah starts VBS this Monday and will be in a production next weekend. My friend Jen comes in on the 21st and we will be moving this week, so I will get back with everyone when I can. Oh yes, in my quest to become extreme I went on a mountain bike ride with Jon and our other new friends the Standifers.
Even after years of not really riding I did very well. I did not fall going down the rocky Texas trail and I was actually in shape enough to ride up most of the hills. We completed 8 miles of riding and just as we were almost back to the car, up loomed the innocent looking wooden bridge. Yes I admit I crashed into the side of it and almost went over the rail. I just kept glancing at it and got closer and closer. For my trouble I received an incredible bruise and a not very impressive crash story. I have also joined a gym out here and am going to as many classes as I can. The first one I experienced was "spinning."
This is where you sit on a stationary bike and copy the lady at the front of the room. After five minutes of this, I could literally taste the oat bran I had eaten for breakfast. Then she brightly encouraged us with, "Only 55 more minutes!" My friend Nina (the mountain biker) was beside me and I don't think she listened to the teacher at all, she just stood up on her pedals the entire time going at a furious rate and when everyone else was done, she continued for ten more minutes. Next was yoga. Has anyone ever seen the yoga move, the "Bird of Paradise?" I had not, but while everyone else contorted their bodies into it, I flopped to my mat laughing hysterically. At least I might have burned five calories doing that. Anyway, I hope everyone else has a great weekend and I will talk to ya'll later. P.S. Thanks to everyone for posting to my posts!

I need a long nap

I-AM-SO-TIRED. We aren't in our house yet and everybody who checks this tonight-I am sorry if I was supposed to call you-my cellphone is locked in our new house and the builder has the key. I will catch up with everyone tommorow.

For squirrels in Texas the fear doesn't lie in getting hit by a car...the horror for them is coming to rest on the hot pavement.

When the aforementioned can't be avoided,
they do the best that they can...







I have never seen roadkill like this before. It definitely begged for a double take. The scary thing is, that some of you will not be surprised that I went back, stopped in the middle turn lane and leaned out for this photo op. I ask again, am I the only one? Or are there others out there who are just quieter about certain odd tendencies?

Noelle turns twenty one...

This was all her idea!





















Dad's favorite place, can you tell?















I love my mom, and at least Brennahs nose was clean















Í get two straws!















Celebrating...me!














Maggie is learning about uvulas















So cute!




















Are you documenting my gluttony?















Uhhh what gluttony?





















So in love!















REALLY in love!















Somebody help the girl.















Noelle, in nongluttony















Angelina Brennerina



















I had a great birthday this year! I was very sad because I was away from everybody this year but we went to Fudruckers, got ice cream, and saw "Over the hedge." Here are some pics! Thanks again to all of my family and friends who called, posted on my blog and sent me fun stuff!

A camping we will go!

My two cuties!













S'mores are yummy!














A dog my size!













Water baseball, but maggie just sat at third.














totally focused




















I bought them each a little chair














We couldn't use wood because of a ban















The ants loved Maggies chair!














Bren was sooo excited!




























yum yum!

















Okay so this is way overdue, but life is insane and I am still not in my house. I seriously considered going over to the neighborhood, plopping myself in the the middle of the cul-de-sac(does anybody know where this word comes from? I mean what is with the sac?) with a chair and a bullhorn, but mom vetoed that quickly.
We did go camping. On the way to Possum Kingdom, the mapquest directions took us to a bridge...that was out. There were signs everywhere that said road closed and there were little men working, but usually isn't there a detour? No such thing here! Mom and I were kind of like, what's next? So we turned around and went down the next road that said "Cemetery" on a green sign. It led straight to an old run down residence. No cemetery, but I helpfully mentioned that there might be people buried inside? We turned and went down the next road where a helpful surveyor pointed us a way that would have saved us 45 min. in the first place.
Mom and I were going first, to set up camp and tents and Jon and dad came later. We found a beautiful campsite right on the lake, and set up tents and made dinner. The first night was a bit cramped in the tent with Maggie in between Jon and I and Brennah above my head-we pretty much looked like a winning game of tetris.
The next day dawned bright and beautiful...and 500 degrees (actually the day we got back we went to look for pop-ups, and the people next to us had an air conditioning unit aimed in a hole in their tent haha) we were having a wonderful time, but it definitely got even better when dad announced "I think that we should just drive around in the air conditioned truck for two hours," so we did!
Our meals were awesome, we played in the lake with the dogs, Charlie kept swimming around trying to bite Brennah's toes-I think she thought they were fish? After s'mores that night, it started to lightning a little bit, so I calmly suggested that we go ahead and prepare in case the weather turned sour (it wasn't supposed to, I checked weather.com six million times before leaving). I was concerned because although it LOOKED like heat lightning dad and Jon were planning to kayak the next day. That alone could cause something untoward. We also had dad, the kayaks and the lake all in close proximity, so you all can understand my concern.
Well everyone kind of downplayed my incredibly in tuned female instinct and we all got in the tent. By this time the weather had very much worsened and the wind was picking up by the minute. The side of the tent kept blowing and whacking me in the side and I startd to glance warily at the fan that Jon had managed to affix above us to blow gently at night. What had started out as a great idea, in my mind was becoming dangerous.
After I had scooted as close to Maggie as possible, a huge gust of wind caused the tent to slam into me. I jumped and grabbed Jon's arm who sat straight up and woke dad up on his other side. I very calmly said with a gentle smile on my face and finality in my voice said "I cannot sleep like this tonight." I told dad I just did not have a good feeling about this one. Normally I LOVE the rain and camping in it, but this was feeling weird. So we decided to wait out the storm in the car. By that time it was pouring rain, huge gusts of wind were blowing off of the lake and lightning and thunder were both continual. The girls were transported and never woke up which was a blessing, so we got into our car, mom and dad got in theirs and we tried to settle down.
One problem. Both Jon and I thought about getting more gas earlier that day (turns out we ignored God's little reminders and paid for it) but we didn't and so we were nervous about using the little gas we had and possibly running out on the way if we had to leave. So it became hot almost immediately, but if you rolled the windows down we got wet. I thought a minute about who to call to check the weather, but by this time it was1:00 A.M. in GA and I didn't have anybodys number from the church. So being the brilliant woman that I am, I called Jeny in California to check. After she confirmed that there would be a small lull and it would get REALLY bad after that, we decided to leave. It was either leave now, or leave in the rain in the morning IF we made it through the night.
We ended up breaking camp in the lightning, holding up little metallic lightning rods, I mean tent poles as fast as we could. The lightning was helpful as we could see everything continually in almost what looked like broad daylight at the same time realizing we could be struck at any second. There was actually alot of praying and adrenaline. We finally got all the bikes, clothes, sleeping stuff and both tents down and drove away. The only problem was that we had 46 miles of gas left and it was 50 to Hwy 20 and no telling when we would come to a gas station after that. God is good and we actually went 9 miles past what we should have been able to. Poor Jon had to drive all the way home, because I had taken out my contacts, and they were buried in the huge pile of random stuff in the back of my car. We made it safely and it really was alot of fun, but again, the dad and boat saga continues...