Hometown Visit

Last weekend Ben and a few friends took some neighborhood guys camping. After we packed them up and sent them on their way, the kids and I took a little trip of our own. We headed to my hometown, Florence, AL to visit my parents a.k.a. Gigi & PopPop.

One place that we always seem to find ourselves during our visits is Trowbridge's. They have the best hot dogs & ice cream around!

We also got to visit with my grandparents (great grandparents) a.k.a. Meme & Gran Gran.

The kids always know that Gran Gran has a "ticket" in his pocket for them so they can go spend it at the Dollar Tree. Which they want to do immediately after receiving the money.


Florence is where Ben and I met - The University Of North Alabama. They are one of the few colleges that have live mascots on campus. The UNA Lions. What kid can resist going to see real lions? Although, I think the kids like playing on the lion statues just as much seeing the real lions.


To top off the weekend, since my dad had work on Saturday, he let the boys shoot cans with the BB gun. What a great ending to a great weekend!

The bad guy

The boys were playing in the backyard and making a fort/castle with bricks & sticks. They decided they needed a few more toys, but didn't want to come all the way back inside. So what was the obvious thing for big brothers to do, ask/tell their sister to go inside to get what they wanted. They had all their good action figures - batman, iron man, spider man, etc. So they told Izzy to go get a bad guy. This is who she brought back.


If you aren't sure of just who this bad guy is, he is Swiper the Fox. The "bad guy" from Dora the Explorer. Not really who the boys had in mind, but to Izzy that's the meanest guy around. Love it!

Date Night

Being married to a minister is a 24 hour, 7 day a week job. If he gets a call at 9 pm that needs his attention then he may have to put our family on hold for a moment. If we have plans to all head to the zoo on dad's "off day", but a member of our faith family dies and Ben needs to be there for the family or to participate in the funeral service then plans change accordingly. Two examples just from this past week.
Even though ministry can be demanding, family is really important to Ben and I and therefore we make specific times to spend together. One of the specific things Ben and I do as a couple is at least once a month we have a date night. We try for the same weekend each month, but again that has to be flexible. Some months he picks, some I pick, but most we decide together. This particular weekend I picked and Ben just went along with it. We found a new wonderful little dessert place at Brookwood Village called YOLO. Wonderful Gelato and cupcakes!

I'm all about themes and things going together, but this date didn't even come close to that and that was ok - this time :) So after the nice uppity dessert place these were a little more fitting to where we were headed next.


PBR - Professional Bulling Riding competition at the BJCC! I love to watch bull riding on tv and therefore when I found out it was coming to town I jumped on it.

The goal, stay on for 8 seconds. Most didn't, but what fun watching them try. Then getting to chear them on if they did.

What was the most entertaining you ask? I think Ben would even agree, the bulls! If they didn't want to come out of the gate they would just lay down. If the bulls decided they didn't want to go back inside the gate after the 8 seconds, they would prance around the ring. That's when the cowboy would come after the bull on his horse to lasso him in.

Even though great entertainment (to me anyway) it was a little slow at times. Made me realize why I like watching it on tv, I have a remote. It also made me really want to attend a Rodeo. May have do a little more convincing of getting Ben to attend that one with me.

Not Me Monday

I do not keep post-it notes in my purse for the sole purpose of covering the sensor on the automatic toilets. My 3 yr old tells me it can be scary when that potty flushes before your ready.

Free Books

I absolutely love books - kids books. I wish I had that love for other books as well, but I don't. Those who know me know I don't "enjoy sitting down with a good book" as I so often hear people refer to it, but I do enjoying reading to the kids. I am always flipping through a Scholastic magazine and circling a bunch of different books to order or find myself browsing through a book store in the kids section. I do love the library, but I also don't like to give the books back - I want them on my shelf so we can read them over and over again. My flaw of always wanting to purchase the books has a disadvantage being the cost factor. Which brings me to this find. I had known about this program for awhile, but didn't qualify where we lived before. Now we do ;) Dolly Parton has a program to encourage reading called Dolly Parton's Imagination Library USA that is partnered with the Junior League of Birmingham. You go online to sign-up for your free books according to your kids age then every month you receive your free book. Simple as that. The boys are too old, but Isabel absolutely loves when Mr. Terry (everyone knows there mailman by name...right?) brings her a new book to read. This was our book for March.

Not Me Monday

We did NOT have a totally lazy rainy day Saturday! The kids did NOT love the fact that momma let them get toys out and then get something else out, before putting the first thing up. Then momma did NOT totally regret that decision come bed time.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday today I wanted to share this poem from a friend of mine's blog. She did a wonderful job!

How the Grinch Stole Toomer's Corner

Inspired by recent news on the campus of Auburn University, I wrote this story, adapted from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss:

Every Who down in Auburn liked Toomer's a lot...

But the Grinch, who lived just north of Auburn, did NOT!

The Grinch hated Auburn! The whole football season!

Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, his houndstooth shoes were too tight.
But I think the most likely reason of all
May have been that his brain was two sizes too small.

But,
Whatever the reason,
His brain or his shoes,
He stood there on Toomer's Corner, hating the Whos,
Staring down with a sour, Grinchy frown
At the happy festivities there in their town.
Every Who down in Auburn was celebrating now...
An Iron Bowl win. SEC Championship-bound.

"They roll all these trees!" he snarled with a sneer.
"And their Auburn spirit just grows...it always begins here!"
Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming,
"I MUST find some way to stop that spirit from coming!"

For, soon, he knew...

All the Who girls and boys
Would rush Toomer's Corner,
Oh, the Noise! Noise! Noise! NOISE!

So he loaded some herbicide on his ramshackle truck
And headed for the plains,
Where the Whos were planning roast Duck.

The Toomer's oak trees bore a long-standing mission:
Wearing toilet paper after each victory. A tradition.
A symbol of all that the college holds dear,
A place for rejoicing, a place for good cheer.

But the Grinch slithered and slunk, with a smile most unpleasant,
Around Toomer's oaks
With a chemical "present."

"Pooh-pooh to the Whos!" he was grinch-ish-ly humming.
"They'll find out soon that no spirit is coming!"
"I'll call Paul Finebaum, that's what I'll do!
"I'll brag on the radio! They'll all cry! BOO-HOO!"

"That's a noise..." grinned the Grinch,
"That I simply MUST hear!"
So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear.
And he DID hear a sound rising over the plains.
It started in low...then...loud as steam trains:

Every Who down in Auburn, the tall and the small, was singing!
Without any oak trees at all.

He HADN'T stopped the Auburn spirit from coming. It CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same.

And the Grinch, now in custody with nowhere to go, stood puzzling and puzzling:
"How could it be so?"
"It came without toilet paper! It came without oaks!"
"It came without Bammers and Cam Newton jokes!"
And he puzzled for hours, locked up in a cell, serving time for his crime, as far as we can tell.

A federal offense is crossing the line.
We hope he stays there for a mighty long time.
We may never know if the Grinch in this tale
Changes his heart, sensing his epic fail.
Even if he did...short of a miracle from above,
It's prob'ly too late to save those trees that we love.

BUT...

Though the Whos down in Auburn grieve the trees they once knew, the Auburn spirit lives on --

Fearless and true.

--- by Jennifer Farris